《Cosmic Peak》 Chapter 1 - Myriad Mountain [ Note: The Earth mentioned in this story is not the same Earth we are living in. It is only called Earth but the world, poption, structures, and other things are different. ] --------- Earth 2022 Everyone on the is doing something. Students are studying, Workers are working, and CEOs are...seducing and being seduced? But suddenly... ''Gong'' ''Gong'' ''Gong'' Everyone in the world could hear this sound, and it passed through all obstacles and was directly transmitted to everyone''s ears. Because it felt like sound came from the sky, people looked up. A golden brilliance was descending all over the earth. Whatever it was, It rmed all the countries across the world. At this time, a man was standing in the sky; yes, he was floating in the sky. He had white hair and seemed to be in his forties. The man had a troubled look on his face as he mumbled," Looks like it still happened" after that, he sighed and disappeared. All countries tried to probe the golden brilliance, but they could not make any heads or tails about it. Three days passed, but the golden brilliance was still there. Humans are good at adaption. All people returned to their everyday life after three days. Of course, the talk about golden brilliance did not end, and higher-ups of all countries were still trying to find out more about it. Country A, slum area, 12 PM. *cough, cough* In one of the dpidated houses, constant coughing sounds could be heard. On the street, A boy aged 17-18 could be seen running towards this house with a school bag on his back. His appearance was above average, with a height of 6 ft. and a skinny body. He entered the dpidated house and hurried towards his mother as he saw her violently coughing. "Mom, I bought the medicines, and you will feel better after taking them," The boy spoke, His voice filled with worry. He took out the medicines he bought today on his way home and helped her get up before giving her medicine. "Aren, you don''t need to buy medicines. After resting for a few days, I will get better, so just buy your study materials, okay?" Even though she was sick, her voice was stillced with gentleness as she spoke to her son. Aren was silent for a few seconds before speaking, His voice filled with determination, "Mom, don''t worry about me. The final exam results were out today, with me getting the 1st rank, and I got a lot of money as a schrship. I will take you to the hospital and fix your problem." Aren''s mom, whose name is Lorain spoke in a joking manner as she spoke, "What are you saying? We don''t have to go to the hospital for such a minor problem. I will get better in few days, so no need to spend the money there instead.....*cough cough...instead, you should use the money for your future studies, you will need more money in university." Aren shook his head and spoke with a reassured smile, "Mom, I got enough money for the hospital and for my studies both, so we will go to the hospital tomorrow, and that''s decided." He then fed his mom a porridge which he made and came out of the house after making sure she fell asleep. Aren lifted his shirt where there were sterile pads and other things, indicating that he had recently gone through an operation. The thing is, Aren''s mom doesn''t have simple lung problems but lung cancer. After they checked up at a government hospital a few days ago, The doctor there told him about it, but he did not tell his mom about cancer. Even though it is possible to cure it since it''s only stage 1 currently, Aren''s schrship is actually not that much and is far from enough to cover the cost. So he decided to sell one of his kidneys. Thankfully, the doctor was kind enough to help him and even created a false report of a kidney transnt to his mother because she had kidney failure. His father left them six years ago, and since then, his mother worked every day to the bone to raise him and meet his all needs, and now it is his turn to take care of his mother. Aren then walked to a restaurant that was 1 mile away from the slum area. He has been working in this restaurant as a waiter for two years now, which somewhat supported his daily necessities and some little things rted to his studies. His mother paid for his school fees, essential study materials, Uniform, and clothes. As he entered the restaurant, the old security guard, whose age was around 60, spoke in a kind voice, "Lil Aren, how was your result ? since you took leave for a week, you must have studied hard." Aren smiled and said, "Uncle Ben, I got 1st rank, and I even got a schrship for it." Uncle Benughed heartily and said, "Really? That sounds good. Your future is in studies, so work hard and be a great man. This uncle will keep giving you his blessings." "Yes, uncle, Thank you for the blessings," After talking for one more minute, He walked towards the backdoor of the restaurant and entered. His work shift is from 1 PM to 8 PM. Aren left the restaurant at 8 PM, and after arriving at home, he fed his mom some healthy food he brought from the restaurant. After that, both of them fell asleep. Lorain woke up the next day in the morning hearing the siren of the ambnce. Aren helped his mom get into the ambnce as he also sat inside right next to her. Seeing all these, Lorain creased her brows and said to Aren anxiously, "Why did you call the ambnce for such a little problem?... *cough, cough*...T-this will also cost some money, right? since it is an ambnce of a private hospital." Aren reassured his mom with a smile and spoke, "Don''t worry about it, mom, it doesn''t cost much money. I got it all covered." Steller Tree Hospital. After they arrived at the hospital, Lorain was given anesthesia, and the operation started right after that. Aren had already talked with the doctor Erica who is in charge of the operation, about all the details. He anxiously waited outside the operation room. After 3 hours, the operation room opened as Dr. Erica exited and spoke to Aren with a smile, "The operation was sessful. Your mother ispletely cured of lung cancer. Nowe to the office as I have to prescribe some medicine." Aren bought all medicines and went to the room where his mother was resting. Right as he entered, Lorain spoke agitatedly, "Aren!, Mind telling me about what is going on?" Aren had an awkward smile on his face as he said, "Rx, mom, It was nothing major, You had just a bit of lung cancer, and it''s cured now." "You...," Lorain was speechless. Before she could say something, Aren went to her side and sat down on the bed before speaking with a smile, "If you are worried about the cost, then you don''t have to worry. Lung cancer doesn''t cost much, and my schrship money covers it. if you don''t believe me, then look." saying this he took out the phone and opened the banking app. After he entered the password, he showed the screen to his mom so that she could check the bnce. Indeed, Lorain was surprised, "You still have so much left. It looks like I was worried for nothing." "Yep, So just rest for today. They will discharge you tomorrow." Aren said. Suddenly, There was a lot of noise from outside. Aren looked outside from the window and saw that all the people were looking at the sky. Seeing this, he also looked at the sky and was instantly stupefied. The golden brilliance from all over the world was gathering above the sky. After five or so minutes, There was a dense mass of golden particles in the sky. And after that, it started to transform. The mass of golden brilliance started to solidify. Soon it turned into a mountain, A Mountain that was hovering in the sky, The mountain was sparkling with a golden brilliance, but it also had greenery as there were big trees and also ponds of water. ''Gong'' ''Gong'' ''Gong'' "Mortals! Your trial hase. After three years, You will fight against despair, and if you win, you all together with your little world will prosper like never before, and if you lose, you die, together with your tiny world." The voice sounded very grand as if a king''s decree. Everyone on the Earth heard it. "Enter the Myriad Mountain to get stronger and to fight against the uing despair, for that is the only choice you all have." Aren was shocked by the events that happened as he murmured, "Myriad Mountain?" < Do you wish to enter the Myriad Mountain? If you want to enter, then reply as YES in your head or NO if you don''t want to enter > Aren was shocked once again as he hurriedly replied as '' No '' in his head. Aren then turned back only to get shocked once again, Because Lorain disappeared. ''Don''t tell me?'' Aren thought as he spoke, "Myriad Mountain." < Do you wish to enter the Myriad Mountain? If you want to, then reply as YES in your head or NO if you don''t want to enter > This time Aren replied as YES. As soon as he said YES in his head, He experienced nkness for a moment and the scenery in front of him changed as he appeared in an unfamiliar ce. Chapter 2 - Wild Expanse What shocked him was that there were many people in front of him, and more people appeared like they were being teleported from earth to here. From his estimate, there should be millions of people currently gathered here, But it didn''t feel crowded, indicating that this mountain is simply too big. ''Damn, it Looks like finding mom is going to be very hard,'' Aren cursed. < Do you wish to make spiritual contact with Lorain Azrael? Note that your target ofmunication can reject the Spiritual call. > Aren hurriedly replied, '' Yes, I wish to contact Lorain Azrael.'' After two seconds. "Aren?" Hearing the familiar voice of his mother, Aren instantly asked about his mother''s well-being, "Mom, are you okay?" "Don''t worry, I already left that ce, a strange voice appeared when I thought of leaving, and it said that if you want to leave just say " yes " in your head, Anyway I am already back at the hospital...phew, I didn''t know something like would happen, anyways, you can stay there and check things out if you want." Aren heaved a clear sigh of relief, hearing that she was already back at the hospital. ''I want to leave,'' Aren thought and indeed the strange voice once again. < Do you wish to leave the Myriad Mountain? Please reply as "Yes" if you want to leave > "First, I need to go back to check up on mom," murmuring, he replied, "YES, I wish to leave." After that, Aren was back at the hospital, standing at the same ce where he left. "Aren, You''re already back!" Aren turned around, hearing the voice, and replied with a smile, "I am here to check up on you. Maybe something happened while you were there but didn''t notice it; all those things are so strange, it''s a straight-out fantasy." Lorain shook her head as she replied, "Nothing happened to me negatively, and somehow I felt better in that ce; the air was so pure, and staying there only for a few moments invigorated my body a bit like all of my exhaustion was swept away." Aren was skeptical, "Really? I didn''t feel anything, though. Anyway, since you are okay, then I''m going to check things out. Meanwhile, you can watch TV here as the media worldwide should be talking about the strange thing that is happening currently. " ''Hmmm, can I make a spiritual call here?'' Thinking about it, he tried, "I want to contact Lorain Azrael." Aren waited for some time, but no strange voice greeted him this time. ''Looks like this spiritual call thing only works on the myriad mountain.'' "Aren? Hey Aren, are you listening?" Aren snapped out of his thought and replied, "Oh, sorry, I was thinking about something. Anyway, I will be returning to that ce to check it out. It''s really mysterious. I wonder how governments of the world will handle this?" "You should stay alert during your stay at that strange ce and don''t put yourself in danger," Lorain said while worriedly shaking her head, " Promise me that you will not put yourself in danger. This is all so strange and weird. The voice also said that there will be fatal danger so...please Aren, Be careful there. " Aren smiled and reassured his mom that he will be extremely careful there before speaking with sparkling eyes, "Mom, the world is going to change because of this and...if the voice is telling the truth that we will fight despair after 3 years, then...I don''t want to waste time here. I don''t want anything to happen to you in the future so I will fight and survive there and be a strong man." Lorain was extremely worried and didn''t really want Aren to go there but Aren convinced her after some talk and she finally agreed after warning him to stay extremely cautious there. "You watch the TV and see what all governments think about it." After that, Aren passed the remote of the TV to his mom and entered the myriad mountain the same way as the first time he entered. The scenery changed in front of him as he sessfully teleported to the myriad mountain. This time he was teleported to the border because he could see many big trees. If he had to guess, the area where he and other people are standing should be surrounded by trees. He also wanted to check if staying here makes the body feel better or not, but... Suddenly... <2 Billion People have already entered the myriad mountain which fulfills the requirement to open the Wild Expanse and start everyone''s journey, A journey to make you stronger, A Journey which will help you to face the despair that ising after three years, But also a Journey filled with mortal danger.> The voice this time was different, It sounded like a woman''s voice, and you could feel the emotions in it, unlike the strange voice. Aren looked at the mark, which was nothingplicated but a simple square, Half of the square''s border was already filled up with red color. After two minutes, Just as the border turned entirely red, Aren felt dizzy, and his eyes blurred and the scenery changed in front of him; He appeared in a dark ce with three boxes hovering in front of him that looked the same appearance-wise. The strange stiff, monotone voice sounded inside his head. ''Hmm...'' Aren started contemting out of his habit as he likes to think outside of the box. "What if I don''t choose any of the boxes? Will I still get something?" Aren spoke after thinking for a few seconds. The answer didn''te immediately, as one whole minute passed before the reply came. < If you choose not to pick any of the boxes, then you will be given a Pandora''s Box, The Pandora''s box may contain good things whose value might surpass the previous three boxes, but it may also include bad things which might bring trouble upon you or both at the same time. > ''Those three boxes are beginner boxes, which means that their use will be limited and won''t be useful in the long run. But I have a chance to get something of higher value in pandora''s box. Although it might also contain bad things but...instead of choosing the beginner box, I might as well choose the pandora''s box with the chance to get something good,'' He thought. Aren thought for two seconds before replying, "I choose to select the pandora''s box." After that, The scenery changed and he arrived in a city which didn''t seem to be modern as the houses and shops seemed like they were from middle age. There were already lots of people, from the young to the elderly. Many people were looking nkly in front as if there was something. Indeed something appeared in front of him as well. -Name: Aren Azrael -Level: 1 -Body Health: 150/150----- [ 50x3 constitution, 0 in Health results in death. ] -Soul Health: 100/100 ( Soul damage hurts the soul, and 0 in the soul results in death. ) -Life Stage: Mortal-1 -Spirit Energy: 100/100 -Soul Energy: [Locked] -Mystic Field: 0/50 points -[Stats] [Locked] -Stat points: 0 -Abilities: none -Skills: none -Inventory: 1xPandora''s Box (Bronze) Aren was shocked seeing this, '' Is this some kind of game? But...I guess we won''t be reviving continuously like in-game. We might die for real here since everyone came here with their actual body. No wonder that female voice said that this world is full of both dangers and opportunities '' Suddenly, The female voice once again announced. Aren looked around and thought while wondering, ''Who can do something like this? This whole world is inside a mountain? Only the so-called gods can do something like this, but obviously, there are many things at works considering what that female said about facing despair after three years.'' Aren took a deep breath to calm down, after which he murmured, "Since this looks like a game, then we should be able to ept quests from natives of this world just like the games on earth where we could get the quests from NPC, But the female voice said that natives are all-natural, living beings like us, so it would not be that easy." ''This small town seems like beginners vige, so there should be a town chief. Talking to him might give me a good quest,'' Aren thought as he started walking deeper into the town. After walking for a few minutes, he quickly found the town chief''s house, but instead of being happy, he could only frown and shake his head. Because there were already many people, mostly around his age, gathered at the chief''s house, apparently all having the same idea of getting a quest from the chief. Suddenly he heard two men talking to each other, as they seemed to be acquainted, which is very rare. Because from what he can see, there should be around ten thousand people in the town, which is very low considering the 2 billion people who came to this world. And If all people started at the same point, then there should be a shocking amount of beginners towns, and considering that this is just the start, This world should be way bigger than earth as there seem to be many races here and each race might have their vast territories. Back to those two people''s conversations. "What did you get from the box you picked? I got two skills and a long sword, but damn those skill books seem to be headache-inducing, I used one called , and I had such an intense headache for a few seconds." "Oh? I opened my box, but I did not learn any skills yet, but value-wise, I also got two skills books, and instead of a long-sword like you, I got a spear." Aren listened and thought,'' looks like the starter box is not that impressive, and its only use is for us to get started in this beginner town until we get better things. '' ''Let''s see what I get from this so-called pandora''s box.'' Aren pondered as he opened the pandora''s box. (Bronze) ''Yes.'' Chapter 3 - Quest & Cursed Item [Cursed Shofar]> -Cost: 10% HP and 2% HP per second to maintain the state of this ability. -Effect: all your attacks deal 30% more damage & 10% life steal. -Cursed trait: When attacking enemies using , The pain felt by your opponent will also be felt by you, but in your case, the pain will magnify by ten times. Reading the cursed ability , Aren could not help but frown; The cost is already insane considering that we can die for real in this world, and on top of it, the cursed trait is like rubbing salt in the wound....quite literally. And the life steal is not bad, but 10% is not that useful unless my damage is high, and high damagees with high pain...Aren cursed in this head, '' damn, such a vicious cursed ability, looks like I can only use it on special circumstances.'' After that, Aren looked at . -Skill Level: 1 (MAX: 5) -Skill Rank: C -Cost: 30 Spirit Energy. -Duration: 1 minute. -Effect: Increases movement speed and attack speed by 30%. -Note: Skill points can increase skill Rank & Skill Level can be increased by using the skill constantly. "This skill is somewhat normal, and it seems to have room for progression," Aren nodded, reading the description of the skill, . After reading this skill, He moved on to another cursed item which he got from the pandora''s box, [Cursed Shofar]. [Cursed Shofar] -Requirement: Soul Energy. -Blow the shofar to stun everyone in a 100-meter radius, including the user, for 3 seconds. -Deals 30 soul damage to everyone in a 100-meter radius, though the user will not take any soul damage. -Beings who have Soul Energy can use it to recover from the stun effect faster by expanding soul energy. Aren was speechless seeing this item, '' So the only thing I can use right now is The skill , It looks like I have to find a weapon to use since I didn''t get it from the box. '' After sighing, he learned the skill . Right as he used the skill book, an intense headache greeted him in the head, along with some information. He got information on how works. After some time, the headache subsided as Aren gained rity. ''So that''s how it is, By expending a certain amount of Spirit Energy and then guiding it along these paths inside my body will increase my hands and legs speed, but there seems to be some limitation...hmm I should not move spirit energy inside my body too recklessly lest some mishap happens.'' After thinking about it for some time, he concluded, "So If I still have the so-called spirit energy after I return to earth, then I can use without much difficulty." Aren then used ording to the information. Since the guiding path to activate was already inside his head, it took 2 seconds to aplish it. He then started running towards the exit of the town, his speed visibly increased, and he could feel the spirit energy inside the guided path slowly decreasing. After a minute, the spirit energy disappeared along with his increased speed. Aren stood at the corner of the exit gate and murmured, " It''s just like how fuel is to the vehicle. After guiding the spirit energy from my energy pool to those paths, it will increase my movement speed until my body uses it up." Aren pondered for a moment before replying in his head, ''Manual.'' The reason being that he wanted to be proficient in the use of Spirit Energy. Aren then checked his status. -Name: Aren Azrael -Level: 1 -Health: 150/150 -Soul: 100/100 -Life Stage: Mortal-1 -Spirit Energy Pool: 70/100 -Soul Energy: [Locked] -Mystic Field: 0/50 points -[Stats] [Locked] -Stat points: 0 -Abilities: Painful Glory[cursed]. -Skills: Haste. Aren looked at the new stat meridian, '' looks like those paths inside my body are meridians and 0.2% is the path which unlocked after I learned and manually used it...interesting. '' Aren then used again, but this time he took a bit less than 2 seconds to guide spirit energy through meridians. '' First, I need to look for a cksmith as I don''t have a proper weapon, hopeful I can get some quest from the cksmith, '' Aren thought as he started looking for a cksmith in the town. The town was not that big but not small either, and it had many streets and a big town square too. After a while, he found the cksmith in one of the streets, He wanted to ask the address of the cksmith from the natives of this town, but he refrained from it and used repeatedly a few times and started searching in every street until he found him. While searching for the cksmith, he calcted that it takes roughly 10 minutes to recover 30 Spirit Energy, And by now, it takes him 1 second to activate Manually. Aren currently stood outside the cksmith''s ce. There was a board outside which was written in anguage he could not understand at first, but after a while, the strange voice appeared and asked him if he wanted to learn the nativenguage, and he said yes. Quite convenient, although he had to suffer another headache. [The Fergon''s Smithy] Aren then went inside the smithy. *ng* *ng* He could see a man hammering a sword on the anvil, so absorbed that he did not notice Arening in. "Wait for a while. I will be done in a few minutes." Aren was startled. He thought the man did not notice him. He then watched the cksmith at work while waiting. *ng* *ng* .... *ssssss.....* after finishing quenching the sword in water, the cksmith turned around and spoke, "So what business do you have with me?" Aren was quite embarrassed because he was penniless, and he was here to get a quest, not for business. "This...I am not here for business, but I would like to provide my help if you need it. I can do something for you while you give me an appropriate reward," Aren carefully spoke after thinking for a bit, as they are not NPCs but real people. The cksmith frowned for a few seconds, and then his face changed as it seemed like he remembered something before saying, "There is something you can do for me " nodding the cksmith continued while pointing at a corner, "Take that pickaxe and bring me a piece of red ore, You can find it in the east after exiting the town, Just head straight to the east for a while, and you will be able to recognize the ce where you dig out the red ore." Pausing here, the cksmith spoke after taking a breath, "As for the reward, you can choose any one of the weapons in this ce, and if you can bring me another piece of red ore, then I will show my better-forged weapons in another room, and you can select a weapon from there, BUT It will be hard to acquire 2nd piece of red ore without sufficient strength, don''t forget this warning." Aren was silent for a while before asking, "What will happen if I try to acquire 2nd piece of red ore?" cksmith Fergon spoke with a rather heavy voice, "The red ore is not naturally made. The iron ore deposit at that ce was mutated by the blood of some powerful beast and turned into red ore, and my father has made an agreement with a being who owns thends around that ce that we can take a piece of red ore from there every month, and if I want one more piece then I have to pass that being''s test, each additional piece increases the difficulty of the next test." Aren nodded while thinking, ''Like hell, I can pass a test when I just arrived in this world.'' He then asked a crucial question, " since it''s an agreement between you and him, how will that person recognize that you were the one who sent me?" cksmith Fergon smiled and said, " That pickaxe is what that person recognized, so you don''t need to worry, " Aren then said, "Alright, I ept this quest, but don''t expect me to bring 2nd piece of red ore. " cksmith nodded with a in face, "No problem, just bring me one piece, and you can pick any of the weapons in this room." -Bring a piece of red ore to Fergon''s smithy. -Rewards: 100 EXP and a Bronze Tier weapon of your choice from Fergon. -Additional rewards: Each additional piece of red ore will increase exp two times the previous amount ( limit: 5 pieces ), and a Silver Tier weapon of your choice from Fergon. Looking at the quest panel in front of him, Aren was startled, '' indeed, just like an MMO game, it appeared. '' He then left the smithy after picking up the pickaxe. After that, he once again used and started running. This time he reached the gate in one use of . In front of him were a few paths, and he chose the path which went towards the east and started his journey. .... .... *huff, huff* After traveling for 30 minutes, Aren''s legs were starting to ache, and his breathing was also heavy as he extended quite a bit of stamina. Even after using up , he continued running with average speed. "How good would it be if I could see my stamina bar just like my spirit energy pool bar," Aren murmured as he finally stopped to take some rest near a big tree. "The environment here is excellent, greenery is everywhere, and the air is also pure. I feel invigorated each time I breathe in the air." After taking a rest for some time and recovering 60 Spirit Energy, He used and started running. But just after he used , a surprising thing urred. in manual mode, the efficiency of is increased, thus bringing the skill to level 2.> -Skill Level: 2 -Skill Rank: C -Cost: 30 Energy. -Duration: 1 minute and 30 seconds. -Effect: Increases movement speed and attack speed by 40%. "Not bad considering that increasing the level of the skill cost nothing except some spirit energy." Aren mused, reading the increased effects of the skill. He then continued on his way towards the east. On the way, He felt some difficulty in using the skill because it seems that he required better control of spirit energy to use the skill. ''It looks like increasing the level of the skill increases its difficulty to use in manual mode. Maye that''s why the skill cost remains the same. Hmm...So it''s about control and efficiency of using spirit energy.'' ... ... ... After traveling to the east for 40 minutes more, he finally arrived at the ce. Chapter 4 - Descendents Of The Red Dragon Emperor After traveling to the east for 40 minutes more, he finally arrived at the ce; He was shocked seeing this particr piece ofnd because, Be it Trees, nts, or Rocks, everything was painted with red luster. He pulled out a pickaxe from his inventory and started walking forward slowly towards the red ore deposits in front of him. He cautiously started digging, and it didn''t take him long to dig out a piece of red ore, But all of a sudden, a kind of oppressive pressure descended upon him as he could feel someone or something was behind him, and as he turned around, he received the shock of his life. Fear crept inside him as he lost strength in his body because in front of him was a dragon, A Red Dragon about ten meters long. The dragon opened its mouth, and a rumbling voice came out. "Human, you are different, your body is so much weaker than average humans, you... don''t seem to be from this world, correct?" The pressure on Aren was increasing, and he could not answer even if he wanted to. The dragon seems to realize the situation and suppressed its pressure. Aren immediately slumped to the ground and started breathing heavily. After calming down, he spoke with someposure, as it is no use running away from a dangerous creature such as this dragon. "Y-yes, I am from another world." The dragon''s eyes & face had rich expressions, and on top of the ability to speak, Its intelligence didn''t seem to be inferior to humans. "Interesting, You are so weak. Your bones don''t evenpare to that of bones of human infants. That''s how weak your bones are. " The dragon was very talkative afterward as it asked about the world Aren came from, and Aren also told him all kinds of things. The dragon seemed to be interested in something he mentioned like TV, Mobile Phones, and Videos Games, etc. The conversation between both of themsted for one hour before the dragon asked, "Human, Do you possess any of those things like mobile or TV with your right now?" Aren was silent for a few seconds before taking out his mobile phone from his pocket. Just as he took it out, the Mobile phone flew out of his grip and floated in front of the dragon. *Poof* Then Aren got another shock, as some kind of sparkling smoke enveloped the dragon, and after a few seconds... . . The dragon transformed into a human, more precisely a boy around the age of 10-11. The boy dragon, whose transformation was notplete as indicated by the two horns on his head. He curiously held the phone in his hand, and after a while, the boy dragon looked at Aren and spoke in a childish voice, "Human, Come here and start the so-called video game. I want to see it." Aren finally snapped out of his shocked self as he walked forward while thinking, ''It doesn''t seem to be scary after transforming into a human. I should count my lucky stars that this is a young dragon which makes it curious just like human kids, no wonder it talked so much.'' Aren stood before the dragon kid as he handed over the mobile to Aren, which Aren took and opened a mobile game known as The Dragon''s quest. After exining to the young dragon about controls and other things, The young dragon started ying with gusto. ''Didn''t expect this offline game I downloaded a few months ago woulde in handy. This dragon should like it because it''s also about a dragon who goes on various quests to get stronger and fight the evil deity in the end,'' Aren mused as he saw the young dragon enjoying the game. Suddenly, Strong winds started blowing all around, And the young dragon that was ying on mobile looked up in the sky. Aren was already feeling pressure even greater than what he felt before, and all of a sudden, The wind and pressure grew a few notches stronger as Aren was directly smacked to the ground. The young dragon spoke hurriedly at this time, "Father, stop, this is my new friend." after that, the pressure on Aren disappeared, and A Giant Red Dragon descended from the sky, way bigger than the young dragon. This giant Red Dragon was approx 100 meters long. Aren slowly stood up while cursing in his mind, ''Damn dragons, can''t they see that a weak human like me can''t withstand their pressures? They are such bullies.'' The giant dragon spoke, "Rosflin, What do you mean by a new friend?" Rosflin, The Young red dragon, spoke excitedly, "Yes, father, didn''t you say that beings from another world wille into our world? This human seems to be one of those beings, and his world is so much different than ours. They have things like this" saying this. He held up the mobile phone towards the giant dragon. Then the Father and son dragon talked with each other, with Rosflim speaking most of the time. In the end, he said to his father with sparkling eyes, "Father, I want this mobile phone." Father Dragon replied with sharp words, "We are the descendents of the Red Dragon Emperor, Don''t think about stealing other people''s things. If you want it, then ask if your new friend wants to sell it or not, and what is your new friend''s name?" Rosflin was embarrassed hearing thest part his father said as he hurriedly asked Aren, "What is your name, human? I was so into this mobile phone thing that I forgot to ask." Aren shrugged internally as, by now, these two dragons don''t seem to be that scary, especially after hearing what that father dragon said since he always thought that dragons would steal things if they wanted something. Still, this giant red dragon actually has rules and principles. "My Name is Aren, Aren Azrael." Hearing this, Rosflin said, "Alright, Aren, I want to buy this mobile phone, give me a price." The Giant Dragon spoke at this time before Aren could answer, "Aren, You are not allowed to change the price that you speak from your own mouth, so think carefully before answering." Aren''s gears moved as he started thinking, ''What should I ask for? Money like golds? or more pieces of red ores? Or...should I raise the bar and ask for the entire red ore deposit? because maybe, these red ores are useless to this dragon?...or should I ask for life-saving grace?'' After thinking for a moment, Aren finally decided and spoke, "I would dly give this mobile phone to Rosflin with the price being a favor from you, sir dragon." The Giant Dragon spoke with some amusement in its voice, "What favor?" Aren took a deep breath and said, "Would you help me in the future if I fall into mortal danger? of course, if sir dragon feels that you wouldn''t be able to save me when the timees, I wouldn''t mind, but if it is within your capabilities and if you feel right about saving me, then I hope you can save me when the timees." The Giant Red Dragon narrowed his eyes and spoke with amusement in its voice, "Do you think that mobile phone is worth granting me this favor to you?" Aren sweating smiled because if onepares the worth of both things, then obviously, a mobile phone is not worth the favor. But he still spoke while shaking his head, " Honestly, they are iparable. This favor I''m asking is far more worth than that mobile phone thing. But...I need this favor to secure my future. I am in this unknown world and I won''t hesitate to ask something that increases my safety. " "Well then, human boy. Do you think I will grant you this favor?" Aren weakly chuckled and shook his head, "I don''t know. That''s up to you to decide. This mobile is not rare in our world. Many people have it and if you meet other humans from my world, I am sure they will also have it. Oh, they might not have the game Rosflin wants to y on the mobile but it can be downloaded easily too. You just need to...find another human...and ask for a mobile phone. Some might give it to you for free due to fear while others might ask something excessive. " The father Red Dragon looked at Aren deeply before speaking, "What if I give you a chance to change your price?" Aren smiled and shook his head, "I surely said that the mobile and your favor are not worth the same but...what I asked for that favor is not excessive at all. You are not obligated to save me when the timees, It''s just a choice for you. You are not oath-bound by that. In that favor, I only ask that if I fall into mortal danger, I hope sir dragon can save me...IF it is within your capabilities and if you feel right about it." "Hahaha. Interesting...," The giant Red Dragonughed loudly before speaking," Human boy from another world. I like your honesty and wits about it. Hahaha, Granted. The favor you asked for this mobile...is granted." Afterward, something shot out from the giant red dragon in Aren''s direction, stopping just in front of Aren''s arm''s length. Aren reached out his hand and grabbed the thing which seemed like A Dragon''s Scale. [Red Dragon''s Scale] -Your position will be revealed to the owner of this scale if you pour spirit energy into it. -This Scale can be used to create a Fire Attribute Magic Item. At this time, The father Red Dragon spoke seriously, "Although I am not among the most powerful in this world, I am not too far behind that line. But if you venture into forbidden zones or provoke some mythical beings, then I wouldn''t be able to save you, so keep that in mind." Aren bowed a bit and thanked the Giant Dragon. After that, he carefully asked, "Can you tell me about the test which I have to take if I want to mine additional pieces of Red ore?" Before the Giant Dragon could say something, the young dragon Rosflin spoke carelessly while ying the game, "Those red ores? They are worthless. Just take however many you want..." *Snort* Hearing this, The Giant Dragon gave out a loud snort which scared Aren a bit as he felt pressure, ''Phew...The dragons. hmm...Will I be able to be as powerful as them in this world?'' "Rosflin, Even if he is your friend, He has to take the tests to acquire additional pieces of Red Ore...But Since Rosflin has spoken this time, then you may take three pieces without any tests, but next time you will have to take tests if you want to mine additional pieces of red ores." Aren was overjoyed as he hurriedly thanked the giant Dragon once again before starting to mine the additional two red ores. After that, He bid farewell to the pair of dragons and returned to the town. Chapter 5 - Level Up, Going Outside, And Current Situation. Aren returned to the Fergon''s smithy, but he was stunned to see many people around the smithy. "GET OUT!" Suddenly, A mighty roar sounded from the smithy, and the annoyed Fergon threw out several people who went inside the smithy. Aren''s clothes and hair also fluttered as a powerful wind blew out, ''Which idiot annoyed Fergon? This is not a damn MMO, and they are no NPC. One wrong move and you can kiss goodbye to life. I have to be careful here.'' There were mostly young people around the smithy ranging from 14 to 30 years old. After that roar from Fergon, they scattered, and the five people who were thrown out from the smithyid on the ground with a painful expression. The boy around the age of 16 looked at the middle-aged man with an annoyed expression, "Hey man, Why you pick up other people''s things without asking? Are you a thief in real life? We were nicely talking with Fergon, and you ruined everything." The middle-aged man got angry as he stood up and took out a pole from his inventory before moving towards the boy. The boy panicked as he hurriedly stood up and took out his weapon, A saber. But he was toote as the middle-aged man swung his pole towards the boy. *Tung!..* A barrier formed around the boy before everyone who came from earth heard a warning in their heads, and a disy of that warning also appeared in front of them. [You are not allowed to attack a fellow being from your. You are here to get stronger to fight against the despair thates after three years.] Everyone was surprised at this and also d. ''Will this rule apply in the outside world as well? I hope it does. Maybe...when the golden brilliance traveled around the whole for three days, It also set up something like this in the outside world?'' Thought Aren. He then entered the Fergon''s smithy. Seeing Aren entering there, some people who didn''t leave were stunned and thought he would have the same result as those lying on the ground. But...the scene was different inside. ... "Here are the pieces of red ores, A total of three pieces," Aren spoke with a grin and took out the three pieces of red ores. Fergon''s eyes went wide as he looked at Aren with a shocked expression, "How?" "Trade secret. Hehe." Aren smiled. Fergon nodded with a broad smile andughed out loud, "Hahaha, no problem. Anyway, You did great. Come, let''s go to my 2nd weapon storage. You can choose any weapon of your liking there." Fergon first moved the red ores to the side before both of them went into the second weapon storage room. While moving, Aren looked at the quest panel that appeared before him when Fergon touched the red ores. [ Quest: Mining Red Ore ] -->Completed. [ Rewards ] --> 400 exp. --> A silver-tier weapon. [ Leveled up! ] [ Acquired 5 stat points. ] -Name: Aren Azrael -Level: 2 [ 300/500 exp.] -Health: 150/150 -Soul: 100/100 -Life Stage: Mortal-1 -Spirit Energy Pool: 100/100 -Soul Energy: [Locked] -Mystic Field: 0/50 points -[Stats] [Locked] -Stat points: 5 -Abilities: Painful Glory[cursed]. -Skills: Haste. -Inventory: Cursed Shofar ... Aren hurriedly looked at everything but didn''t assign the stat points now since they reached the weapon storage room. "This room is filled with Silver-tier weapons. They are my best creations, hahaha. Go ahead, pick any weapon you want." Fergon spoke as he pointed at all the weapons properly arranged in this tiny room. There were approx fifty weapons. Aren was a bit excited as he walked deeper into the room and started looking at various weapons. There were swords, spears, hammers, sabers, chakrams, daggers,nces, scimitars, bows, etc. All the weapons here were made from ck steel, and there were red patterns on them. But as Aren looked at the weapons, His eyes instantly shined as he looked at a weapon. It was a heavy broad sword. Its width was 24 centimeters, and its length was the same as his height, 6ft. and looked very domineering. He always had a thing for heavy broad swords. When they were living a somewhat decent life as a middle-grade family before his father left them, He used to watch animated tv shows, and the character he liked in the show used a heavy broad sword simr to one in front of him. Seeing that Aren was looking at the broad sword, Fergon smiled and spoke, "That weapon is mighty, and its quality is top tier among the weapons here. Since you brought more pieces of red ore, I''ll give you some advice." Fergon then pointed at nine weapons along with the broad sword chosen by Aren before saying, " These ten weapons are among the best here. You can select your pick now. " "I''ve decided. I will choose this heavy broad sword," Aren beamed as he pointed at the heavy broad sword. "Alright. You can add it to your inventory. Hahaha, kid from another world, good luck in mastering that weapon." Fergon nodded with a smile and wished him luck. "I will master it." Aren then touched the heavy broad sword and put it inside the inventory with a thought. Afterward, He left the Fergon''s smithy and walked for a while before sitting on a bench under a tree. But just then, someone approached him. "Hello, Little brother. I saw youing out from Fergon''s smithy. Can you give me some advice?" Aren saw a middle-aged man in a suit smiling at him and was slightly speechless, ''So everyone will nowe here, huh? No office, no work, or things like that. Maybe the president will also enter here? After all, the warning about fighting despair after three years can''t be fake considering the appearance of this strange mountain and magical powers.'' "Sure. You can enter smithy and say like this...," Aren told the middle-aged man how to get the quest. He just told the man what he spoke to Fergon after entering the smithy. The man left after thanking Aren. Aren thought about something smiled, ''I guess Rosflin will not appear anymore since he would be busy ying games on the phone. Hehe, It''s good that I didn''t get any weapon from the pandora''s box and had to find smithy to get one which led me to get the epic item. Wait...will Rosflin find me after the mobile''s battery bes dead?'' He became a bit worried about it but decided to focus on his present situation. ''First, I need to add 4 stat points to strength because the required strength to wield that heavy broad sword is 8.'' [ Heavy Broad Sword ] -Tier: Silver-tier Weapon. -Requirements: 8 Strength. - A heavy broad sword made from ck iron and some essence of red ore. After adding 4 stat points in strength, he thought for a moment and decided to add the remaining 1 point in the constitution. Right after that, Aren suddenly felt hot inside every inch of his body. It was not a painful process, but he was a bit startled. It onlysted for three seconds before Aren felt apparent changes to his body. He could clearly feel that he had be strong¡ªhis bones, blood, muscles, tissues, etc. In short, his body was strengthenedprehensively. He then took out the heavy broad sword, and he could finally grab it with his two hands and swing it properly. Albeit, he was still slow at swinging it. "Now I should go back and show mom that im perfectly fine. I also have to see what changes appeared in the outside world after Myriad Mountain formed." Atham muttered before he thought about leaving. Right after that, A window screen appeared in front of him. [You can add items from your inventory to your mystic field by touching that item with your right hand, which has the mark. You just need to think about storing that item and it will be done. Once you go to your world, You can take out the things from the mystic field. ] Aren was surprised and took out cursed shofar from his inventory touched it with his right hand before thinking about adding it to the mystic field. And...poof. The cursed shofar didn''t disappear. [ The cursed shofar''s mystic value is 150, so you can''t store it inside your mystic field. ] Aren frowned and remembered his status window. There was something like Mystic Field: 0/50 points. ''So I can only add items with a mystic value of 50 or lower. Maybe, I can add the sword?'' He put away the cursed shofar and tried to add the sword into the mystic field and... [ Heavy Broad Sword has been stored inside the mystic field. ] Aren smiled and then tried to take out the sword from the mystic field. *Tunkh...* The heavy broad sword appeared just like how he took it out from the inventory. But it didn''t work when he tried to put it inside the mystic field with only his thought, like how he does with inventory. He again had to touch the sword and think about adding it before it worked. ''Anyway, it''s time to return and check outside. I have to reassure mom that I''m safe.'' He then thought about leaving, and this time, He instantly appeared in the hospital room. ''Oh? I thought I would first appear in Myriad Mountain. Hmm...Guess it was only a one-time thing before one enters inside Wild Expanse. Maybe for the printing of square Mark on one''s hand? Feels like registration of sort.'' Thought Aren. He then started reading the screen window that appeared in front of him. [ You can enter inside Wild Expanse for 16 hours daily. You can still enter the Wild Expanse for 13 hours more today. ] [ If you hold hands with other people before entering the Wild Expanse again, You can appear together at the optional locations that will show up once you think about entering Wild Expanse. ] ''16 hours daily, huh?'' "Aren? I''m d you are safe." Lorain spoke with relief on her face. Aren nodded towards her mom with a smile and walked towards the bed before sitting to her side, "I''m safe. I am even stronger right now." He then looked at the news channel and asked, "Did anything happen here, mom?" "Yes, of course. A very joyous thing happened. Now, none willmit crime anymore because you can''t hurt a fellow human from now on." Lorain had a kind smile on her face as she spoke. "Also, It seems that many people bought out weapons from inside. You can see those people in the news. Oh, You also entered, so did you bring out a weapon too?" Lorain asked curiously at the end. "Yep," Aren nodded with a smile as he brought out the heavy broad sword. *Crack...* The marble floor cracked a bit as Aren thought about summoning it downward with the handle in his hand. Seeing the weapon, Lorain gasped, "That looks dangerous." Aren nodded before he put the weapon away and creased his brows in thinking, ''But why are we allowed to bring out weapons when we can''t hurt fellow humans? No point in killing innocent animals too. So, what''s the deal? The despair is after three years and at that time, we should be able to use everything at our disposal, but for now, since we can''t even hurt fellow humans, there''s no point in bringing out things from outside or....could it be that something more will happen here and we might need the weapons for that situation?'' "Aren, Aren!" Lorain called out to Aren who seemed to be dazed into thinking. Aren snapped out of his thoughts and suddenly spoke something with determination, "Mom. Next time, you also enter the Wild expanse with me. I think that you should also get strong for the so-called uing despair." Lorain smiled and patted Aren''s head, "Even if you didn''t say that I would have entered. Do you see how quiet this hospital became? Only one nurse came to check on me in the past three hours. Anyway, I feel that I am fine except for slight exhaustion, but I felt good in that ce when I went there and felt energized, so I''ll also go with you when you enter next time." "Aren, Auntie." Suddenly, Aren and his mom heard a slightly high pitch and cute voice of a girl at the door. Both of them instantly recognized her since she was Aren''s former school friend, Quinn. "Quinn, where were you for the past week? Hehe, I thought you finally settled with your new family." Aren spoke with a wry smile. "Humph, what are you saying? I will never forget the kindness of auntie and...umm, the help you provided us all these years." Quinn spoke as she entered the room and sat at the other side of the bed before asking about the well-being of auntie. Aren looked at her and thought, ''Her appearance indeed gradually changed after finding her new family.'' Quinn had long ck hair and was beautiful. Naturally, not as beautiful as top models. The unique thing about her was her blue eyes with a green hue. Her skin tone was peach-colored, and she had a perfectly developed body. "Hey, Aren. How is my dress?" Quinn asked with smiling eyes. Aren raised his eyebrows and moved his eyes up to down in the act of checking her out before putting his hands on his chin, "Hmmm, Not bad. You look good." She wore a beautiful skirt dress with a ck top and a red skirt that reached her knees. "Anyway, did you enter the Wild Expanse?" Aren questioned. Quinn shook her head and said, "Nope. Grandpa strictly prohibited me and other family members from entering before the whole situation clears up. " Aren shook his head and spoke with a serious expression, "You should not waste even a single day. My mom and I will enter there because I think it''s crucial to go there. I don''t want to take this thing about facing despair as a joke, so I will be working hard for it. I went there already and found out that it''s really very mysterious. You can get strong there and get magical powers." "Oh...Hmmm. I also think that you are right. but My grandpa won''t let me go unless the situation clears up." Quinn smiled weakly before continuing, "Grandpa finally found his runaway daughter, my mom, and me after years. So naturally, he doesn''t want to lose us." Lorain patted Quinn''s hat and spoke gently, "The concerns of your grandpa are valid. But considering the current situation of our world, he himself will enter there and tell you to enter there because the situation is as clear as day. We only have three years." Aren nodded before he suddenly remembered something, "Since you are here, You and mom should first finish the registration of sort. After that, you should return right away, and then we three will enter together." He showed the mark on his hand and then told them about everything he experienced there. Chapter 6 - Emergancy Quest, Deaths. "Alright, now both of you go andplete the same process and return here. I will wait," Aren concluded after exining to them everything he experienced there. He didn''t tell them about the pandora box because it was too unreliable. It won''t give them helpful starting items like him since he can''t use [ Cursed Shofar ] because of not meeting the requirement while the ability of can only be used in dire situations. He could only use for now and it was not an offensive skill. Lorain and Quinn nodded before they said ''Myriad Mountain'' in their head and got the option to enter, and both of them said ''Yes'' in their heads. They appeared in Myriad Mountain at different locations, but the usual process started as the voice told them to wait until the square border on their hand filled up. After it was filled up, the scenery changed in front of them as they appeared in a dark ce with three boxes in front of them. Quinn thought for a moment and decided to choose the box in the middle while Lorain just casually chose the 1st box. After they did that, Both of them appeared in different towns inside Wild Expanse. But ording to Aren, they were supposed to leave after entering here, and they did just that. They thought about leaving and got a window panel exining the use of Mystic Field and how they could bring items outside. After that, they thought about leaving again and left the Wild Expanse before returning to the hospital room. Seeing them, Aren directly asked, "Did you open your beginner boxes?" "Nope," Quinn stated. Lorain shook her head, "I didn''t open it." "No problem," Aren spoke before he walked to the other side of the bed. The three of them held their hands before Aren thought about entering the Wild Expanse. [ You are entering the Wild Expanse with a party. Please select your destination. ] Red Bell Town. Fluorescent Town. Square Mord town. "Which destination should we choose, Aren?" Lorain asked. "I have already got a connection with a person in Red Bell Town and know more about it than you know about your towns, so we will select Red Bell Town," Aren said. Lorain and Quinn nodded before all three of them said ''Red Bell Town'' in their mind and felt a bit dizzy as the scenery changed in front of them and they appeared in the Red Bell Town. They appeared at the spot where Aren left the Town. But right as they appeared, all three of them got a quest panel in front of them. [Emergency Quest: Wolf Raid.] -->The Hunchback wolves are currently attacking this Town. The wolves are being held back by the town guards, but town guards are not enough to hold back all the wolves from entering the Town and kill them. Help the guards and kill wolves before the guards lose their formation and wolves floods the town. --> 500 exp. --> A random beginner Ability. "Mom, Quinn, open your boxes and learn the skills. We can''t miss this quest." Quinn and Lorain took out their boxes and opened them as golden sparks flew out from the boxes before the box disappeared. The two skill books and a weapon were automatically stored inside their inventory. Both of them then took out a scroll and learned their skills. "Ouch...," Quinn winced slightly while Lorain frowned in pain as some information appeared in their head and muscle memory. Aren waited as they took out their second scroll and before epting the option to learn the skills as they went through another round of pain. Afterward, Aren told them to take out their weapons and started running towards the Town''s gates. On the way, Aren asked them about their skills and weapons. Quinn got a boomerang while Lorain got a Longsword. As for the skills, Quinn got and while Lorain got and . ---- -Name: Quinn Tenkai. -Level: 1 [ 0/100 exp.] -Health: 250/250 [ 50x5 constitution, 0 in Health results in death. ] -Soul: 100/100 -Life Stage: Mortal-1 -Spirit Energy Pool: 100/100 -Soul Energy: [Locked] -Mystic Field: 0/50 points -[Stats] [Locked] -Stat points: 0 -Abilities:-- -Skills: , -Inventory: Boomerang. . -Skill level: 1 (Max: 5) -Skill Rank: C -Cost: 30 spirit energy. -Effect: Infuse spirit energy in your hands or legs to increase the damage of the next attack by 30%. . -Skill level: 1 (Max: 5) -Skill Rank: C -Cost: 20 spirit energy. -Effect: infuse spirit energy in your soles to increase your jump ability significantly for the next jump. ---- -Name: Lorain Azrael. -Level: 1 [ 0/100 exp.] -Health: 250/250 [ 50x5 constitution, 0 in Health results in death. ] -Soul: 100/100 -Life Stage: Mortal-1 -Spirit Energy Pool: 100/100 -Soul Energy: [Locked] -Mystic Field: 0/50 points -[Stats] [Locked] -Stat points: 0 -Abilities:-- -Skills: , -Inventory: Longsword. . ( Weapon skill ) -Skill level: 1 (Max: 5) -Skill rank: C -Cost: 30 spirit energy. -Effect: infuse spirit energy in your hand and the weapon to increase stabbing motion and the strength of the attack. . -Skill level: 1 (Max: 5) -Skill rank: C -Cost: 20 spirit energy. -Effect: Infuse spirit energy in your legs to get the burst of speed to increase your running speed by 70% for 5 seconds. ---- Aren, Quinn, and Lorain reached the Town''s Gate and were shocked to see a few dead bodies being put aside inside the Town by other people. "A-Aren...They look like they are from our world." Quinn spoke with a slight tremble in her voice. She felt like puking when she saw their limbs missing. A total of four people were lying on the pool of their blood while other people looked fearfully at the wolves outside the gate that were barely held back by the guards. Aren also saw Fergon among the guards as he held a hammer in his hand to attack the wolves. Suddenly, one of the four people lying supposedly dead on the side opened his eyes and spoke with pain in his faint voice, "H-help..help me." Aren was also nk for a moment seeing the whole situation before he took a deep breath and dashed towards the half-dead middle-aged man asking for help, "Go back! Return to earth and tell your family to call an ambnce. Hurry up! You are already losing too much blood." The man''s eyes opened wide as sadness appeared in his eyes, "C-can''t.." After that, his breath stopped, and he died. Chapter 7 - FIGHT! Aren looked at the dead man with disbelief before he hurriedly thought, ''I want to leave.'' [ You can not return while a quest is ongoing. ] ''Damn!'' Aren cursed as he returned to Quinn and Lorain''s side. Both of them had scared expressions seeing the ferocious wolves. Aren looked at the guards and a few people who were fighting the wolves. At the same time, most other people were not attacking due to fearing for their lives. "Everyone! The guards have armor, and they can push back wolves. Use hit and run tactics. Attack the wolves one time and hide behind the guards, do it repeatedly to kill the wolves. If the voice is right, What we will face after three years will be even worse than this. We have to fight and get strong!" Hearing the shout, Everyone looked at Aren, and one of the women spoke with fear on her face, "Why don''t you go first?" Aren looked at Quinn and Mom and calmed them down before speaking seriously, "Mom, Quinn. What wille after three years will be even worse than this, I...believe it will be way worse than this. So, we have to get used to this and get strong." Both of them looked at Aren, who nodded seriously and continued, "This is the perfect chance. Come with me; we will work together with a n and work with the guards to kill wolves." "THAT YOUNG MAN IS RIGHT. HELP US, YOU FOOLS. *groan..*," One of the guards shouted before he was pushed back by a wolve, but he re-arranged his shield and swung his sword to cut the belly of the wolf. The number of wolves far outnumbered the guards, and that''s why they were more focused on pushing back the wolves from entering the Town instead of actively attacking them. They had made a formation to block the wolves while some people of the earth, Fergon, and other powerful natives were attacking the wolves. "Mom, Quinn. Let''s go." Quinn and Lorain took deep breaths before nodding their heads as they followed Aren towards the guards. "Thanks, young man. Let''s hope other people also join so that we can focus on perfecting our defense while you all kill the wolves. This is the only way to kill those two hundred or so wolves." Aren nodded, "It''s good that town''s walls are high, otherwise...," He shook his head and didn''t continue. The guard nodded weakly without looking back as he focused on defense. "Quinn, Mom. The wolves are not dying with only one normal attack, and we can''t use our skills continuously. So, use the skills to kill the wolves first. For now, use your skills in auto mode and when you get the hang of it, start using it in manual mode. After using skills, target the same wolf with me: with three of our normal attacks, the targetted wolf will definitely die." Quinn nodded as he felt the boomerang in her hand as if checking it out, "Got it. It seems that they or whatever it is that created this ce knew that I yed with boomerang a lot. It''s just...this boomerang is dy, so I have to throw it in such a way that it doesn''t get stuck in the wolves." Aren looked in her eyes and smiled, "I believe you can do it." He then looked at Lorain and spoke, "Mom, you have a longsword, so stay beside me and attack the same wolf that I attack." "Guards. We will be trusting you for the defense." Aren spoke solemnly. "Hahaha, Young man. Freely attack; we will not let a single wolf get past us. But still, be careful of their leaps, We can push back their leaps with our shields, but some might still reach you. That''s the only thing you have to worry about." Aren frowned slightly and changed his ns. He told Lorain and Quinn to only use their skills on wolves who might leap past the guards. Afterward, Three of them started attacking in sync as Aren instructed them to target the wolves. But after the first attack, Aren was startled because he managed to kill a single wolf in one swing. "Haha, young man, A good sword you got there," the guard spoke as he shouted and pushed the wolves back with his shield and attacked with his sword. Aren looked at Fergon, who was also killing one wolf with one smack of his hammer. ''It''s been just a few hours since everyone entered, sigh...Most people are not used to this yet, while some people like me who got silver-tier weapons are already attacking. They also need to level up at least one time and get stat points because the requirement to use silver-tier weapons is high.'' Aren then told Quinn and his mom to work together to take down other single wolves since he could kill one wolf with one swing of his sword. He didn''t use his skill and saved it for an emergency. Five minutes passed, and Lorain and Quinn managed to do well with the hit-and-run tactic while hiding behind the guards. Aren also missed some wolves and didn''t manage to one-shot all the wolves he attacked because they also managed to dodge his attacks. One wolf also managed to get past the guards with a leap and seeing that, all other people behind who were watching felt their heart dropped, but Aren narrowed his eyes and spoke, "Mom, use Stab." Lorain gritted her teeth as she pointed at the wolf whose head was directly aiming at her. Aren also used his skill , but when he saw the angle of his mom''s attack, he frowned, ''She will miss it. It will only graze the wolf, damn.'' Aren dropped the heavy broad sword to increase his movement speed and punched the wolf. ''Phew. It''s good that I put 4 stat points in strength.'' His punch pushed the wolf to the side, and Lorain''s skill perfectly hit the wolf as it pierced its belly. "Yeahhhhh!" An old man in the group shouted seeing that. He then moved forward towards the guards with his pole weapon. Aren saw that and once again shouted as he picked up his heavy broad sword and pointed it upward, "YOU SAW HOW WE FOUGHT? Follow the same pattern and attack. If the wolves get past us, no one will survive. You also can''t leave this ce unless this quest is over." The people were finally moved as they also positioned themselves behind the guards and started attacking. Seeing this, The guards also became determined and motivated as they shouted loudly at the same time, "HAAAAAAAAAAAA! DON''T LET A SINGLE WOLF GET PAST US." ... After three hours, all wolves finally died as everyone could be seen resting on the ground. Lorain took deep breaths as she smiled while looking at Aren, "Hehe, I didn''t know my son was this capable. " "*giggles*...You don''t know, auntie, but Aren had always been the one managing everything in our ss. Teachers also let him manage the school work sometimes, and despite that, he always gets 1st rank. Hehehe, You don''t know how many girls proposed to him already, but he always rejects them, saying that he doesn''t have time for them. " Quinn took some deep breaths before she spoke with a giggle. Aren touched his nose and grinned as he looked in the sky of this world with a fire of determination and excitement in his eyes. [ Emergency Questpleted ] At this time, Every single person from the otherworld leveled up. Chapter 8 - Training After the emergency quest waspleted, Everyone leveled up and received a beginner level ability. Those who were injured returned to earth since they could leave now while others stayed to do various things. Aren looked at his status and decided to add 3 points in the constitution and 2 points in agility. Instantly, He felt his body getting hot before feeling his strength and body physique improving tremendously. -Name: Aren Azrael -Level: 3 [ 300/1000 exp.] -Health: 350/350 -Soul: 100/100 -Life Stage: Mortal-1 -Spirit Energy Pool: 16/100 -Soul Energy: [Locked] -Mystic Field: 48/50 points -[Stats] [Locked] -Stat points: 0 -Abilities: -Skills: -Inventory: Cursed Shofar, A random beginner ability chest. Aren turned to his mom and Quinn before saying, "Did you two add the stat points? I think you should add them evenly for now. All three of them are essential for our survival here." "Yep. I added them. I had 3 in strength, 5 in the constitution, and 5 in agility, so I added 3 in strength and 1 each in constitution and agility," Quinn spoke as she had already done that. -Name: Quinn Tenkai. -Level: 2 [ 400/500 exp.] -Health: 350/350 [ 50x7 constitution, 0 in Health results in death. ] -Soul: 100/100 -Life Stage: Mortal-1 -Spirit Energy Pool: 17/100 -Soul Energy: [Locked] -Mystic Field: 0/50 points -[Stats] [Locked] -Stat points: 0 -Abilities:-- -Skills: , -Inventory: Boomerang, A random beginner ability chest. On the other hand, Lorain added her stat points after hearing Aren''s words, " After evenly distributing them, I added an extra in the constitution since it represents our health here. I wonder if there are any health potions or such things here? " Lorain asked curiosity at the end because even she knew that there are health potions or such items in video games. -Name: Lorain Azrael. -Level: 2 [ 400/500 exp.] -Health: 350/350 [ 50x7 constitution, 0 in Health results in death. ] -Soul: 100/100 -Life Stage: Mortal-1 -Spirit Energy Pool: 6/100 -Soul Energy: [Locked] -Mystic Field: 0/50 points -[Stats] [Locked] -Stat points: 0 -Abilities:-- -Skills: , -Inventory: Longsword. "Aren, do you know a way to increase the spirit energy pool''s limit? It seems that leveling up doesn''t increase it," Quinn asked with doubt. "I am also wondering about that," Aren spoke with a thoughtful expression. He fell into thought for a moment and looked at the status window before speaking out his thoughts, "This is not MMO video games where our mana increases as we level up. After all, our actual bodies are here, and some kind of force is making us stronger with mystical power in a video game manner. Hmmm...I have an idea that we could try but for now, let''s open our reward." Quinn and Lorain nodded as they opened their beginner ability boxes, and Aren also did the same. Aren saw a small screen window appearing in front of him after he opened the box and heard the voice in his head. [ Congrattions! You have received an ability: Icy Enchant ( Common ). ] < Icy Enchant > -Rank: Common. -Cost: 3 spirit energy per second upon activation. -Effect: Slows the movements and actions of beings hit by any of your attacks by 7%. On the other hand, Quinn received an ability called Air Glidation ( Common ). -Rank: Common. -Cost: 6 spirit energy per second upon activation. -Effect: Your descending speed will decrease considerably while falling down. Lorain also opened the box and got an ability called Goodwill Aura ( Common ). < Goodwill Aura > -Rank:mon. -Cost: 1 Soul Point per second. -Effect: Your good speech and good manner will be enhanced with them bringing more goodwill from others than usual. Seeing this, Lorain was a bit confused and asked, " Aren, This ability costs me one soul point per second, but I don''t see any stat called soul points here. " Hearing that, Aren and Quinn were surprised, but Lorain raised her eyebrows right after she finished speaking because a new window appeared in front of her and said to Aren and Quinn, " Nevermind. I already know the answer. It seems that a stat called Soul Point Pool will unlock once we reach level 10. " [ Soul Point Pool will unlock once you unlock the shackles from your soul at level 10. ] At this moment, Fergon approached Aren with a big smile andughed with gusto, "Hahaha, Thanks a lot,d." Aren turned in the voice''s direction and stood up before speaking with a modest smile, "I didn''t do much. Anyway, I want to ask about something. Do you know how to increase the spirit energy pool? If you know about it, then I hope you can tell us." Aren had seen Fergon using a skill of sort with his hammer and felt that he might know something about it. Hearing Aren, Fergon smiled and shook his head, "The answer is very easy. I think you should find it yourself. Anyway, If you want to buy weapons or armor, thene to the smithy; I''ll give you a 50% discount on your first purchase." After saying that, He walked into the town. Aren smiled because he already had an idea, a guess, regarding that. He just needs to try and see if it was true or not. "Mom, Quinn, let''s go. We have a lot to do," Aren grinned. The three of them left the town as Aren led them towards an area in the east of the town, where he didn''t encounter any beasts the previous time he went to take red ore. "Mom, Quinn, now we will practice. We will use our skills continuously but manually and after we expend our spirit energy, we will train and spar each other with our weapons. We have to continue this cycle until we are mentally exhausted." Quinn nodded as she spoke with a chuckle, "I already told at home that I will return in the evening since I was going to spend the whole day at your home with auntie. Hehe, It was morning when I arrived, and three hours had passed, so it should be almost noon right now. Well, We still have a lot of time until I have to return home." Lorain kindly smiled while Aren nodded with a grin and spoke, "Then let''s start." ... ... As they started practice, Their proficiency increased and their skills leveled up. ... [ Your proficiency of has increased, skill leveled up. ] ... [ Your proficiency of has increased, skill leveled up. ] ... [ Your proficiency of has increased, skill leveled up. ] "Woohoo, Aren. Thebination of my skill and this ability is awesome," Quinn spoke as she jumped 4 meters above the ground with before activating her ability as her falling speed decreased considerably. "Hehe, I can feel air cushioning around me and decreasing my falling speed." Aren and Lorain were surprised as it was almost like flying. "Hahaha, If you can increase that Leap skills power more and jump higher, you can glide for a higher and longer time in the air with that ability," Aren spoke with augh while watching Quinn gliding. "Be careful,ss. Don''t hit the tree," Lorain shook her head with a smile after seeing Quinn failing to control her movement in the air. "Let''s continue our training." .... Chapter 9 - Returning, Shock! They trained and practiced for five hours before finally feeling exhausted. All of the skills of Lorain and Quinn leveled up to level 3 at the end. On the other hand, Aren only had one skill, and he brought it up to max level, at level 5. Most importantly, Aren''s guess was right as he found a way to increase the spirit energy pool. As their skill levels increased, A state on their status window also increased [ Meridians ]. Both Quinn and Lorain''s [ Meridians ] stat increased to 1%, and when that happened, both of them heard a voice inside their heads and a small screen of text in front of them. [ Since your Meridians stat has reached 1%, your spirit energy pool''s limit has been increased by 100. ] They told Aren about it, and he grinned hearing that. " So my guess was correct. We have to increase our Meridiance stat by practicing skills manually to increase our spirit energy pool. " After saying that, He looked at his status but smiled wryly since his meridians state was at 0.9%. " It looks like we need more skills and level them up if we want to increase our spirit energy pool. " For now, They reviewed their leveled-up skills. -Skill Level: 2->5 (MAX: 5) -Skill Rank: C -Cost: 30 Spirit Energy. -Duration: 1 minute and 40 seconds-->2 minutes and 30 seconds. -Effect: Increases movement speed and action speed by 40%-->55%. . -Skill level: 1->3 (Max: 5) -Skill Rank: C -Cost: 30 spirit energy. -Effect: Infuse spirit energy in your hands or legs to increase the damage of the next attack by 30%-->40%. . < Leap > -Skill level: 1->3(Max:5) -Skill Rank: C -Cost: 20-->15 spirit energy. -Effect: Infuse spirit energy in your soles to increase your jump ability significantly for the next jump, up to 5 meters off the ground. . -Skill level: 3 (Max: 5) -Skill rank: C -Cost: 30 spirit energy. -Effect: infuse spirit energy in your hand and the weapon to increase stabbing motion and the strength of the attack by 40%. . -Skill level: 1->3 (Max: 5) -Skill rank: C -Cost: 20 spirit energy. -Effect: Infuse spirit energy in your legs to get the burst of speed to increase your running speed by 70%->76% for 8 seconds. --- " Let''s return now. We need to sleep to recover oursel-" *Shasha...shasha...* *Grrrrrrrr...* Suddenly, A tiger came out from their right side of the bush, and right after that, another tiger came out from behind them. One attacked Quinn, and another leaped towards Aren because they were near them. " Mom! Help Quinn. " Lorain was already on her way since she knew that Quinn didn''t have any spirit energy to use skills just like her. On the other, Aren narrowed his eyes at the leaping tiger as he took a step to the side before swinging his heavy broad sword towards the tiger. *sh...* The tiger was cut into two pieces. [ A normal wild beast killed, 10 Exp gained. ] On the other hand, Lorain swung her sword towards the tiger, and Quinn also threw her boomerang. Lorain''s sword pierced into the tiger''s hind legs while Quinn''s Boomerang pierced into its belly. The tiger didn''t die instantly, but it was incapacitated, so Lorain finished it off. Lorain gained 7 Exp while Quinn gained 3 Exp. " Phew...That was out of nowhere. " Quinn heaved a sigh. Aren nodded as he looked around, " Indeed. When I came here previously, I saw some of those tigers on the way but not in this area. Anyway, Let''s return and take some rest. " ... The three of them returned to the hospital room. " Quinn, Your grandpa might not let youe here tomorrow, so just make an excuse like today. We can''t waste time. " Aren said to Quinn with a serious expression. " I know. I will try to convince him, but if it fails then...hehe, I will stille here to meet the auntie since her health is bad. " Quinn spoke with a chuckle. Lorain got off from the bed as she felt even better than in her younger days. Looking at Quinn, She beamed, " Well, I am perfectly fine now. But...Your grandpa doesn''t know that. " " Exactly! Alright. See you tomorrow, Auntie, Aren. " After Quinn left, Aren said to his mom, " Mom, I''ll go visit the doctor. I think she will still be here. " " Why? If you are worried about me, then there''s no need. I am in the best condition of my life right now. " Lorain spoke with a gentle smile. Aren scratched his nose with a weak smile as he couldn''t bring himself to tell the truth to her right now. He turned his brain gears up and thought of a reason, " Oh. I just wanted to see if they will take back the medicine we brought for you. " " Mhmm Mhmm...You are right, son. " Lorain nodded in understanding before she continued with a smile, " I don''t need the medicines anymore, so better give them back. " Aren nodded with a grin as he told her to wait here before leaving the room and went to the doctor''s office. He saw that doctor Erica was still there as she was leaning back on the chair and looking at the ceiling with a dazed expression. The TV was on, but she was not looking at it. " Doctor Erica, Did something happen? " Aren asked as he entered the office. He wondered why doctor Erica had a nk expression on her face. Hearing Aren''s voice, Doctor Erica snapped out of her daze and looked at Aren with a sad smile, " Look at the news. " Aren turned around to look at the walled TV. After he read the headlines, His expression changed into a shock. [ The governments of all countries had joined their hands together and just finished the first intensive rough search. The rough estimation is that approx 3 million people died. ] " I think more people died than the number stated...sigh. " Doctor Erica shook her head with a sigh. Aren turned around and looked at Doctor Erica before speaking thoughtfully, " I believe that the deaths will decrease and won''t increase anymore. The initial phase is rough, and people don''t know anything about this strange phenomenon, which caused this many deaths. I have gone there and with my mother nheless. That ce is a paradise but a nightmare too. We just have to be careful there. My mother and I both are now stronger than average humans. " Aren walked towards the wall and punched with full power. *Booom...* After punching, A frown appeared on Aren''s face due to pain, but the wall had web cracks on it as if someone hit it with a hammer. He then turned towards Doctor Erica before speaking with a serious expression, " I believe we need to get even stronger for the future. " Doctor Erica sighed as she remembered the first voice as she muttered, " Despair after three years, huh? I wonder what is happening and why? " She then looked at Aren and asked, " Anyway, Do you want something from me? " Aren nodded before taking off his T-shirt and removed the sterile pads. He also didn''t know, so he was checking, and indeed, All traces of the operation disappeared. He then looked at doctor Erica and spoke with a faint smile, " I have not been feeling any difort since entering that ce, and my body obviously got stronger in every way. So....I want to check if I got my kidney back or not. " Chapter 10 - Situation, Global Union Government. " Wow...Your kidney and everything in your body are perfect right now," Doctor Erica gasped. "So I got my kidney back?" Aren spoke as he got up from the scanner machine''s bed. "Yep. You got your kidney back. Truly a miracle," Erica still couldn''t believe that something like this was possible. Aren smiled and nodded, "I guess you didn''t enter the Wild Expanse inside that Myriad Mountain yet?" "I didn''t. But my husband is in there, and he told me to wait until he finds more about it," Erina said as she turned off the scanner machine. "Mhmm. Understandable, But You should go in there as soon as possible to not miss a single day of possible growth. After all, our time is limited. Anyway, Thank you for everything, Doctor. I wish you good luck in your...future endeavor. Hahaha," Arenughed as he imitated what he heard from the mysterious voice when he was on the myriad mountain. Afterward, Aren went back to his mother''s room, and both of them left the hospital. Since they didn''t have any vehicles, they started walking towards their home while looking for any taxi passing by. There were not many people on the road, and they saw a group of people taking out their weapons and showing it to each other. Suddenly, Aren had a thought, ''Can we use our skills here?'' Aren tried to sense the spirit energy inside his body after closing his eyes and...after a few seconds; he opened his eyes with a surprise, ''I can sense spirit energy. If I can sense it, then I just need to move it like how I moved when using the skill < Haste> manually.'' He tried and seeded as his movement speed suddenly increased, Startling Lorain. "Aren? What was that? Did you just use your skill?" Lorain asked with a pleasantly surprised expression. Aren grinned and nodded, "Yep. You should try it too, Mom. Just do the same thing we do when using our skills manually." Lorain nodded as she closed her eyes to sense the spirit energy and manually used her skill . *swoosh..* Her speed increased by double that of Aren''s, but she could only use it for 8 seconds, unlike Aren, who could use his skill for 2 minutes and 30 seconds. But they didn''t use their skills because a taxi had just passed by and they took a ride home. After all, They were already mentally exhausted from training in the Wild Expanse. After returning to their dpidated home, Lorain cooked something real quick and had an early dinner before both of them went to sleep. ... They woke up in the morning at 7 Am which means they slept for around twelve hours. But after waking up, they had a very refreshing feeling and felt veryfortable, especially their body. It was as if their body perfectly adapted to the new strength. Aren guessed that many things must have happened in these past twelve hours, and he wanted to know, but unfortunately, there was no TV in their home. But since he had money, He ordered a TV online. He didn''t know if it would arrive on time or not, but it was not like the world''s end or some kind of immediate apocalypse, so it would probably arrive. After all, every day, one can only enter inside the Wild Expanse for 16 hours. "Aren, call Quinn and ask about her situation," Lorain spoke as she put away their breakfast dishes since they just finished having breakfast. Aren nodded as he called Quinn using his mother''s phone. "Hello, Quinn." After a few rings, Quinn picked up the call and spoke, "Aren! I was just going to call you. Did you watch the news?" "Of course, I did...not watch the news," Aren said with a jokingly exasperated tone. "Opsie...My bad. Anyway, It seems that all countries had joined their hands together and formed a single government body called GUG: Global Union Government. They also announced a shocking thing that every single person above the age of 15 must enter the Wild Expanse for 16 hours a day." Hearing that, Aren was confused, "Must? They sound forceful in that tone and will garner hate." "Eh...You are right. But after saying that, they announced another thing, saying that, It is notpulsory and they can stay home if they want to. But they exined this phenomenon in a more dire tone and how the world''s economy will stop gradually. Saying that, we will have to face despair catastrophes like monsters, devils, and giant demons after three years, and if we are not strong, we will be wiped out. So for their own safety, they should enter Myriad Mountain and get stronger." Quinn told Aren about some more things. In the end, Aren asked, "What about your grandfather? Did his mind change?" "Yep. My grandpa has sent his ten bodyguards, and he himself went there yesterday and told everyone that they would all be entering the Wild Expanse every day for 16 hours." Aren raised his eyebrows at that and asked, " So...are youing here or go with your family?" "Hehe...We are alling there, A total of fifteen people. Just wait." *beep...* "What? Wait...what do you mean by that?" Aren asked, but Quinn had already hung up her phone. "What happened, Aren? What did she say?" Aren''s mother asked with doubt. Aren put away the phone and wryly smiled as he shook his head and told her about everything. After hearing thest part, Lorain was also startled, "So she ising here with her family and ten bodyguards? It looks like she convinced her grandfather by showing her progress." She then chuckled and continued, "Sweet girl, She also convinced them toe here since we don''t have a vehicle to go there. It looks like her grandpa is a down-to-earth and not arrogant type of person." Aren just inly smiled as he was not one to judge people quickly and easily. He and his mother were already fooled by their father, who ran away after making them miserable and taking away the small inheritance property that mother got from her parents when they were at their death''s bed. After that incident, He and his mother had learned the hard way to rely on themselves to survive, just like many people in this slum. He never pitied himself and med the world about his condition like why me, why me, why they are rich, why we are poor, etc. Because he knew that...There are people here who lived worse life than them and are still living. ... After half an hour, Aren got a call from Quinn. "Aren, We are waiting just outside of the slum area. The cars can''t go inside so could you and auntie pleasee outside? We are at the west road that leads to the urban area." Aren was silent for a second before he answered, "Alright. We areing there." He then turned to his mother and said, "Let''s go, Mom. They are waiting at the West road just outside the slum." Aren decided to go with them and see how things go for today. Chapter 11 - Silly Farce, Arens Plan. Aren and his mother arrived at the address and saw a few cars parked to the side and not fifteen but sixteen people standing in a group. Ten bulky men wore the ck suit as they surrounded six people in a guard formation. The six people consisted of Quinn, her mother, an older man who had white hair and beard but looked tough and stood straight. The other three were a middle-aged man, a woman, and a boy around the same age as Quinn and Aren. Seeing Aren and Lorain, Quinn shouted with a smile and called them. Aren and Lorain walked towards them as they greeted the old man Tenkai, Quinn''s mother, and others. But the middle-aged man, the son of old man Tenkai and his wife, didn''t have a good attitude towards Aren and his mother. They were originally opposed to the idea of bringing Aren and his mother with them, and at first, even the old man Tenkai himself didn''t want outsiders to join, but Quinn insisted, and her mother also requested, so he agreed. Aren looked at his mom and Quinn''s mom standing together and smiled internally. This was one of the reason decided toe here. Quinn''s mother and his mother were good friends, and they had helped each other many times. When one of them was ill and was not in a condition to work in other people''s homes like washing dishes and cleaning in the area beside slum, they would help the other one by working in their stead. " Form a circle and grab hands. " Old man Tenkai spoke with an indifferent face. Everyone formed a circle in this order: Old man Tenkai-Quinn-Aren-Lorain-Hem( Quinn''s mom )-Jason( Old man Tenkai''s son )- Feris ( Jason''s wife)- Julian( Jason''s son. )-ten bodyguards-Old men Tenkai. After that, they all thought about entering the Wild Expanse. [ Please select the destination. ] Red Bell Town. Fluorescent Town. Square Mord town. Masqi-Lu Town. Honken Town. Lucan Fire Town. ... There were a total of fourteen town names, and seeing that, Aren looked at Old man Tenkai. " We will go to Honken Town. " Old man Tenkai spoke in a voice that didn''t ept any objection. Quinn was going to speak something, but Aren tightened the grip on his hand to get her attention and shook his head before whispering, " Let''s see what your grandpa has in store for us. " " They are all level 2, just like your mom and me. They didn''t even know about the method to increase the spirit energy pool until I told them. " Quinn whispered as she smiled helplessly. " It''s ok. Let''s see if your grandpa has any ns. " Afterward, ording to Old man Tenkai, Everyone thought about entering Honken Town as the scenery blurred in front of them, and they appeared inside the Town''s square. After entering here, The old man Tenkai spoke, " First, We will train and practice our skills to increase our proficiency and get our meridian stat to 1% so we can increase our spirit energy pool''s limit by 100. " Hearing that, Aren frowned and shook his head before speaking, " That''s impractical. " Hearing him, Old man Tenkai frowned while Julian spoke in a berating tone towards Aren, " Humph, you don''t need to use your brain. Grandpa will handle things here. " " Shut up, Julian. You don''t need to speak if you can only spew out the crap from your mouth. " Quinn snorted and spoke towards Julian. Hearing that, Feris got angry, " Mind yournguage, Quinn. This is not your slum area. " " Shut up! " Old man Tenkai spoke as he swept his nce at Julian and Feris, " She is not in the slum anymore. " " Father, We are also your family. Also, Feris is right; Quinn should not speak the filthynguage. " Jason said in defense of her wife and son. " Well, If you want to continue your family drama, then my mom and I will leave. Honestly don''t have time for this...crap. " Aren spoke inly. " It started because of you! Don''t butt in when grandpa has already decided for us. " Julian spoke with anger. Lorain squeezed Aren''s hand in worry and whispered, " Aren..." But Aren didn''t let her finish as he looked at old man Tenkai before speaking, " There''s no need to waste time on just training skills. I thought you had a better n, but..." Aren wryly shook his head. " Let''s go, mom. We can''t stay with this bunch to waste today''s time and halt our growth. " Aren spoke before turning around. " Wait! You also did the same thing yesterday. " Old man Tenkai spoke with a grim face. " Yeah. Quinn told us about it. If you did that, then why can''t we do that? " Jason followed up with a smirk. " Pffff...Hahaha. " Aren turned around andughed before speaking, " That was for the sake of experiment. We continuously practiced skills to increase proficiency since meridians stat increased when our skill level increased. And our spirit energy pool should be rted to meridians since we consume spirit energy to use our skills. These things are connected, so I thought that increasing meridians stat might expand our spirit energy pool''s limit. " After Aren finished speaking, Quinn directly said to her grandpa with puppy eyes, " Grandpa, Let''s hear Aren''s n. " Old man Tenkai looked deeply at Aren before speaking indifferently, " Alright, speak. " Aren smiled faintly before saying, " It''s not exactly a n, and I am just guessing since I am also as clueless as you all. " " Humph, Why ar-" " Shut up! " Aren red at Julian before he formed his smile once again and continued, " There should be guards in this town too, right? Let''s go there. " All of them walked towards the Town''s gates with Jason, his wife, and son walking with reluctant expressions. Old man Tenkai didn''t have any expression as he remained indifferent. Aren got this idea after yesterday''s fight and talking with some guards. He already had nned about today after entering Red Bell Town, but Quinn''s call about going together caused him to change his thoughts as he decided to go with them to see if they found any n or way for today''s adventure. But it turned out that they had such a silly n of wasting time on increasing the proficiency of their skills after hearing Quinn. Naturally, it was not their fault because training skills seemed practice to them to increase their power and then go outside. But Aren didn''t want to waste time since he already knew how to get stronger fast and also train skills in the process. '' Since Red Bell Town''s guards knew about those locations around their area, then this town''s guards should know too. Hehe, It''s time for some rapid development.. '' Thought Aren as they finally arrived at the Town''s gate and saw guards. Chapter 12 - A Way To Get The Quests. At this moment, Aren was asking something to the guards while others listened carefully. After hearing Aren''s question, The guard nodded with a helpless smile, " Little brother. There are several spots like that around the town. The nearest one is 4 kilometers away from it, and it''s a small spot where Blood Deers gather at a pond. They are very blood-thirsty, unlike normal deers. We want to exterminate them because they can be a threat to us anytime, but we also can''t leave the town because an unknown threat can descend here anytime." Another guard nodded with a sigh, " Indeed. We are only fourteen guards here, and if we send half of our force there, we can''t exterminate all of them, and we would suffer casualties instead. " Aren nodded thoughtfully and smiled at the guard, " How about we do that for you? We will exterminate that threat for the town. " The guards looked doubtfully at Aren before speaking, " Are you sure? They are not weak like normal deer and are stronger than normal wild beasts like lions and tigers. " Aren thumped his chest with a smile, " Of course, I am sure. leave it to us. " [ A Quest Received: Exterminate the Blood Deers. ] --> Kill the Blood Deers that gather at the pond. --> 1000 Exp --> A random skill. ( Grade C to Grade A ). Aren saw the quest panel and then looked at the guard who spoke, " Then we will leave them to you. " After that, The guard told Aren about the path leading to the Blood deer''s gathering spot. " Hey, Boy! What are you doing? " At this time, old man Tenkai came here with anger on his face. The Quest panel also appeared in front of others too. Old man Tenkai was angry at Aren because of his move to ept this quest. After ring at Aren, He looked at the guard and spoke in a heavy voice, " Please take back this quest. We don''t want to ept it. " Hearing that, the guard became displeased, " Humph, It''s your decision whether you want to do it or not. It''s not like we are forcing you to kill those blood deers. " Aren chuckled while looking at Old man Tenkai, " Old Mister, This is not a video game. The quest is already received, and we can''t remove it. We also can''t return home beforepleting it. Though, I don''t know if we will be automatically kicked out once the 16 hours pass. " At this time, others also walked towards them as old man Tenkai spoke with anger, " You have just put our life in danger. What if one of us dies there? " Aren was getting tired of this old man, " If you want to stay here and waste time by just practicing skills, then do so. " After that, he turned to his mother and spoke, " Let''s go, Mom. You don''t have to worry; we will first check the situation and make a n on how to kill blood deers. " saying that, he nced at the old man Tenkai before continuing, " After all, no one should be stupid enough to think about attacking unknown creatures head-on. " " Old mister, I will give you one minute of time to think. You should be able to think about the benefits of this quest. Also, with more people, we can n more carefully to kill the blood deers and move on to the next spot. " " Grandpa, Aren is right. Trust him for one time, please. " Quinn pleaded with a voice that showed her confidence in Aren. Meanwhile, Julian was getting jealous of Aren, and his father and mother tried to convince old man Tenkai not to follow Aren in this dangerous quest. '' Sigh. We can easily kill wild animals with our current strength, and even if blood deers are stronger, we can still make quick work of them with enough nning considering that we are going in the jungle and at the pond area, which can let us n things. If they are already scared of fighting, then what will happen in the future? '' Thought Aren as he sighed while looking at them. The one minute was going to be up soon, but old man Tenkai had closed his eyes after hearing Aren. Before the one minute was up, Old man Tenkai opened his eyes and spoke seriously, " Let''s go. We willplete this quest. " '' So the old man has not gone senile after all. '' Aren nodded internally. ... After thirty minutes of traveling, they finally found the pond. Seven Blood Deers were drinking the pond water while eight Blood Deers were resting around the pond at various spots. The pond was pretty big, and the area around it was also wide. Aren had told everyone to quiet down and move very slowly so as not to make any noise. After observing the Blood Deers for two full minutes, Aren made a n. He asked the group about their skills, and they told him after he exined his n. First, He wanted to check the Blood Deer''s movement speed. He was sure that their speed couldn''t surpass their Movement type skills, but he still wanted to make sure. " You all wait here and just watch without making any noise. " After saying this, Aren moved towards east since he wanted to enter the pond area from that direction. Lorain whispered worriedly, " Be careful, Aren. " Aren turned around nodded with a smile before continuing. He reached the bushes in the outer area of the pond and saw two Blood Deers resting. Now he needed to do something that could attract only these two Blood Deers or just one of them and...He already had a n about that. There was an apple in his right hand, which he plucked from the nearby apple tree, '' Let''s see if they eat an apple first. '' Aren carefully aimed and threw the apple beside a Blood Deer. The noise attracted one of the two, and it nced at Apple. But...after ncing at the apple, It returned to its resting posture. '' It looks like I have to do it the rough way. Guess they are Blood Deers because they are only out for blood. '' Thought Aren as he picked up a stone from the ground. He threw the stone right beside the apple. The two deers nced back at the stone for a second before turning their neck in the front and continued to rest. '' Dang, They are more stupid than I expected. '' Aren weakly smiled before he picked up one more stone, and just as he was about to hit one of the deer with it, he got a different idea, '' A little bit pain...I can endure it. '' He picked up a rtively sharp-edged stone and created a cut on his finger with it. After that, He nced at the deer to see if their sense of smell was monstrous or not, and he sighed relief to them not detecting the scent of blood from his finger this far, '' Good. '' He then put some blood on the stone and then threw it. This time, He threw it to the left of the left Blood Deer. The left Blood Deer''s ears instantly perked up, and Right Blood Deer''s ears also perked up as they obviously smelled blood that was near to them. Aren narrowed his eyes and waved his finger in front strongly as a few drops of blood fell on the ground. Both Blood Deers stood up and smelled the blood on the stone when they sensed another blood scent and followed it. Seeing theming, Aren moved back a little and threw a few more drops on the ground. The Blood Deers followed it and finally saw Aren, who grinned at them. " Come on! " Aren spoke as he activated his skill < Haste > and started running. The Blood Deers'' eyes turned red as they ran after Aren. Aren saw that their speed was very fast and almost caught up to him, '' So their speed is faster than when I use Hmmm...guess I will have to ask for seven people with their < Dash > skill to do this work. '' After running for a minute, Aren nced back as he narrowed his eyes and took out his Heavy Broad Sword, and swung it backward. The Blood Deers didn''t expect to greet this big sword right when they were about to plunge their bloody giant fangs on this human. [ One Blood Deer Killed, 50 Exp gained. ] One deer got decimated while the other got aggressive and attacked Aren as it dashed towards Aren. Aren smirked as he observed its movement and ducked down at the right timing while just moving his sword''s angle a bit before bringing it upward. [ One Blood Deer Killed, 50 exp gained. ] ... Aren returned to the group and created a n to lure the Blood Deers in a pair of twos or threes. They can even handle more since their numbers are higher. He told them how to lure the Blood Deers before leading everyone 500 meters back. Aren pointed at six bodyguards and Julian, " You seven will go one by one and bring the Blood Deers here. Don''t use skill right off the bat and let the Blood Deer think that you are their prey. Once they almoste close to you, use your skill. With that timing, you can reach here, and we can kill the Blood Deers. " " M-me too? " Julian stuttered. " Of course....Wait, " Aren narrowed his eyes and continued, " You think you can get free lunch by doing nothing? You got the required skill, so you have to use it. " These people don''t have Silver-Tier weapons like him, so they can''t one-shot Blood Deers. They will likely require two to three solid hits to kill them. " He will gost. " Old man Tenkai spoke with indifference. Aren nced at him and assumed a bored face, " Fine. " After that, One bodyguard slowly moved towards the pond area and followed Aren''s method to lure Blood Deers. He wanted to lure two but came three Blood Deers instead. '' Shit '' The bodyguard almost peed his pants, seeing those long and sharp fangs and red eyes of blood deers. But he still remembered the n and didn''t use his skill right off the bat. Their normal speed wasparable to athletes because of the agility stat. After all, they were all level 2 and got five stats points to distribute, in which they also added some in agility. When the deers almost closed onto him, He used as his movement speed increased by 72% for six seconds. ... Seeing three Blood Deersing, Everyone prepared to use their skills while hiding behind the trees. At this time, Aren spoke, " Long-range attackers, Attack first and make them angry to attract their attention here. After that, finish them off with your skills. " *shuaa..* *Swooosh...* ... There were four long-range attackers, including Quinn, so they all attacked, and afterward, everyone easily finished off the Blood Deers. The Exp was distributed ording to their contribution. They continued this pattern to bring more Blood Deers and killed them. Julian''s turned didn''te because all Blood Deers were decimated before his turn. [ Quest: Exterminate the Blood Deers,pleted ] Everyone leveled up and received the rewards. They also opened the random skill box and received a skill. Aren got , Lorain got , and Quinn got After they learned the skills, The headache they got was way worse than the previous time as they got information on how to use their skills. -Skill Level:1 (MAX: 5) -Skill Rank: A -Cost: 80 Spirit Energy. -Effect: Releases a powerful Wind sh by waving your hand or ded weapon in a direction. . -Skill level:1 (Max: 5) -Skill Rank: A -Cost: 80 Spirit energy. -Effect: Releases a sharp and powerful condensed spirit energy beam from the sword towards a target. Current range: 4 meters. -Note: The damage of the beam also increases propositional to the sword in hand. . -Skill level: 1 (Max: 5) -Skill rank: A -Cost: 90 Spirit energy. -Effect: Conjures powerful, condensed water bullets with spirit energy and shoots towards the target. ... Aren asked them to tell him about their newly acquired skills since they still need to clear more spots like this, and now that their strength has increased, they can kill more. After everyone told their skills to Aren, He was surprised to find that only He, his mother, and Quinn got A-rank skills while others got either B or C. Since it was random, nobody voiced their dissatisfaction and returned to the town. There, Aren asked guards about more of such spots of vicious beasts that can be a threat to the town anytime. This time, They asked several spots at once and went out. After this experience, The Old man Tenkai softened and started listening more to Aren as he was not stupid and could recognize Aren''s ability. The next spot they decided to go on was the Den of Long-horned Red Bulls. [ Quest: Menace of Forest ] -->Kill Thirty Long-Horned Bulls. --> 1800 Exp. --> One Skill point. ... It took them two hours to finish this quest as they had to tread carefully near their Den. But fortunately, no one was injured. After finish that quest, they moved to another spot where they had to kill a bunch of Firefox. [ Quest: Cinders to Dust. ] -->Kill Twenty FireFox. -->2000 Exp. ... When they arrived at the spot to kill Firefox, Everyone suddenly trembled as they felt terrifying weight boring on them. They were horrified as they saw the terrifying beast flying towards them and felt death. Unfortunately, They also couldn''t leave this ce and return because a quest was ongoing. Chapter 13 - Growth And Unexpected Disaster. " D-d-d-dragon...Wh-what should do now? " Jason spoke with trembling. Old man Tenkai was also sweating buckets as she whispered, " Shut up and stay still. " Indeed. In front of them was a red dragon. Itnded on the ground and looked at fifteen people frozen in fear. Aren frowned as he looked at the dragon, and suddenly, his eyes turned wide in surprise. " Rosflin? " Aren spoke as he looked at the dragon that was walking towards them. Hearing Aren, all others almost fainted and shot angry res at him. " Pipe down, boy. Don''t try to be smart in front of that beast. " Old man Tenkai whispered. *Pooooof....* Suddenly, A mass of sparkling smoke sprouted from the dragon''s body and covered it before it turned into a young boy that looked 10 or 11 years old. " Aren! This mobile phone thing is not working anymore. " Rosflin dashed towards Aren with a pout on his face before he took out the mobile phone from his pocket and gave it to Aren. Others watched everything with dumbfounded expressions and looked at each other in doubt. The pressure on them also disappeared so they could move normally now, but they stay stayed cautious while looking at the young boy with two red horns on his head and Aren. Aren took the phone and checked before he smiled wryly at Rosflin, " The battery is dead. " " Battery is dead? What is it? If it''s dead, then I won''t be able to y the game anymore? But...I didn''t kill anything except for the angles and monsters inside the game. I don''t know how that so-called battery died. " Rosflin spoke with a sad expression. Aren facepalmed as he smiled weakly and exined everything about the mobile phone to Rosflin. " So, can you please charge the battery? " Rosflin asked with puppy eyes. Other people who were standing behind could not believe their eyes. What''s going on? Why is Aren casually talking with that dragon boy? Wait...not why, but HOW? How is he able to speak casually with that dragon boy? What the f---. They had many questions but no answer, and for now, they could only silently watch. They knew the general gist of the situation from hearing them: It seems that Aren gave that dragon his mobile phone to y games, and the dragon took a liking to it. But now the battery was dead, and Aren needed to charge it. Aren said something to Rosflin before giving back the mobile phone to him. " Ok, Aren. I will wait until you are finished. " After saying that, Two dragon wings materialized from Rosflin''s back as he flew up in the sky. Afterward, He turned around and said to the group, " Let''s go. We will continue with the quests first. We still have two more after this. " ... After killing Firefox and reducing the threat level, They went to two more spots and killed the vicious beasts there. Same with the reward of the Firefox quest, the next two also gave them only Exp as a reward. -Name: Aren Azrael -Level: 8 [ 460/3500 exp.] -Health: 674/700 [ 50x14 constitution, 0 in Health results in death. ] -Soul: 100/100 -Life Stage: Mortal-1 -Spirit Energy Pool: 98/200 -Soul Energy: [Locked] -Mystic Field: 48/50 points [ Heavy Great Sword ] -[Stats] [Locked] -Stat points: 0 -Skill points: 1 -Abilities: , . -Skills: , . -Inventory: Cursed Shofar. By now, Aren had increased his proficiency of Wind sh by one level, which caused his meridian stat to be 1%. Thus, expanding the limit of his spirit energy pool. In thest fight against Green Fang Wolves, he was slightly injured when he saved his mother from a sudden wolf attack. -Name: Lorain Azrael. -Level: 7 [ 1840/3000 exp.] -Health: 700/700 -Soul: 100/100 -Life Stage: Mortal-1 -Spirit Energy Pool: 74/200 -Soul Energy: [Locked] -Mystic Field: 34/50 points [ LongSword ]. -[Stats] [Locked] -Stat points: 0 -Skill points: 1 -Abilities: -Skills: , , . -Inventory:~~ Lorain''s first two skills reached level 5, while thetest skills < Sword Beam > also reached level 2. Aren also told his mother and Quinn to save the skill point just like him as they shouldn''t rush in using it. -Name: Quinn Tenkai. -Level: 7 [ 1970/3000 exp.] -Health: 700/700 -Soul: 100/100 -Life Stage: Mortal-1 -Spirit Energy Pool: 200/200 -Soul Energy: [Locked] -Mystic Field: 34/50 points [ Boomerang ]. -[Stats] [Locked] -Stat points: 0 -Skill points: 1 -Abilities: -Skills: , , -Inventory: ~~ Currently, Everyone wasing out from the cave of the Green Fang wolves. They were all happy as they got a lot stronger and felt good about it. After all, who would not like having more strength? " Hehe, I am sure my punch can cave in metal te easily. " Julian spoke with excitement. " Humph, It''s thanks to Aren that we were able to progress this much in just one day. " Quinn snorted as he threw a disdainful nce at Julian. " It''s everyone''s efforts. " Aren smiled modestly as he looked at Old man Tenkai and the trio. Old man Tenkai hadpletely changed his opinion as he smiled, " No need to be modest, Aren. " Jason and his wife didn''t like it, but they could only smile awkwardly. '' Damn, damn, damn! Why don''t you die, you slum filth. '' Julian cursed inside his head as he looked at Aren. *Crack.....Booom....* Aren''s face suddenly changed as the ground beneath him caved in. The hole was not that wide, so he tried to grab the edge, but when he grabbed it, that part broke as he fell inside. A scream involuntarily left his mouth as he fell down. " AREN!! " Lorain was going to jump inside, but Quinn stopped her by pushing her to the side before she could jump in. Aren was walking at the forefront of the ground with others behind him. His mother was closest to him, so the hole was just two steps away from her when it formed. " Stay calm, Auntie. Don''t rush in like that! " Quinn spoke with tears in her eyes as she was also worried. Old man Tenkai walked near the hole with a frown and looked inside, but he could not see its end since it was dark. '' Aren''s scream was not short, so the hole is at least 40 ft. deep. But it''s definitely deeper than 40 ft. '' Julian felt strange happiness, but he didn''t show it on his face while Jason and his wife frowned. Even though they didn''t like Aren, they could recognize his ability. Old man Tenkai looked at his bodyguards and ordered five of them to go the town and bring a long rope. "Go. The longer, the better. " Spoke Old man Tenkai. He brought up these bodyguards since they were small kids, so their loyalty was max. Once he properly trained these bodyguards for years, he kicked outpany bodyguards and put them in charge of his and his family''s safety. Quinn and Lorain were extremely worried, but Lorain suddenly remembered around how Aren could talk to her telepathy and tried. [ The target of your spiritual contact is currently unconscious. ] Hearing that, Lorain was overjoyed that Aren was alive and was just unconscious, " Aren is alive! But he has fainted. Quick...We need to save him quickly. " Quinn was startled and asked, " How do you know auntie? " Lorain told her about the spiritual contact thing, and everyone was surprised that such a thing existed. Actually, many people knew about it, but Old-man Tenkai and his group didn''t know since they didn''t enter in a rush and waited for proper news and other things before entering. Those who entered early and separated from their family, like how Aren went after his mother to find her, would know about this spiritual contact thing since it only appears first when you want to find someone intensely. But after that, you know about this function so you can think about contacting the other party and it will appear. While things slightly calmed down on top and everyone waited for the rope...Aren opened his eyes with intense pain throughout his body and head. [ Health ]: 164/700. *Arghh....* Aren groaned in pain as tears also appeared in his eyes due because his body was severely injured, and his bones were also broken. He remained dizzy in pain and couldn''t gain rity for a few minutes. He didn''t even dare to move as it increased his pain even more. After five minutes, He slowly calmed down and tried to make sense of the situation by looking around. '' T-this...an underground cave? '' Aren thought as he looked around. Fortunately, his neck and head were fine, but his legs and left hand were broken while his waist had also given in along with some spine injuries, '' Sigh...we should have exited from the same way we entered the wolve''s cave. '' When they entered the cave and killed the wolves, they saw another exit and were leaving from there but didn''t expect that he would fall like this. " It looks like I can only wait for someone to save me or...wait for 16 hours to time up. " Aren muttered before he started counting the hours they spent here today. '' First one hour used for Blood Deers. After that, thirty minutes of town moving in and out and two hours on defeating Long-horned Red Bulls. After that, a total of eight hours was spent on finishing the next three quests and traveling and plus thirty or so minutes...Hmmm, A total of approx twelve hours and some minutes passed, so I still need to wait for less than four hours but more than three hours before I can return. '' *Grrrr...* Suddenly, Aren heard a sound as his heart dropped into the abyss. He slowly turned his neck to the left side and saw....a green fanged wolf that was bigger than normal green fanged wolves he saw on the surface. Chapter 14 - Painful Glory After hearing the sound, this bigger Green Fanged wolf came from the deeper part of the underground cave and soon smelled blood as it eyed Aren that was lying in a pool of blood 20 meters away. This green fanged wolf had a dark blue gemstone on its forehead and also faint blue patterns on its body. Seeing the wolf slowly approaching, Aren panicked internally and started thinking about measures, '' Hmmm...Even though this wolf looks bigger and a bit unique, It shouldn''t be able to block my A rank skill ...But I need to n. '' The wolf was slowlying to Aren while eyeing him as his prey. 19 meters. 18 meters. Aren observed the green fanged wolf at the corner of his eyes, '' What''s that gemstone? This wolf indeed looks different than those on the surface. '' He then observed as much surrounding as possible and noticed stctites on the ceiling, '' My right hand is fine, and those stctites are 9 meters away from my position on the ceiling. Hmmm...'' Aren started nning and soon thought of a n to kill the wolf. 11 meters. 10 meters. Seeing that the wolf almost arrived in range, Aren released the move which he was preparing with his right hand. *Swoosh...* A de of wind shot towards the ceiling of his target. The wolf paused due to its cautious nature, but its ear twitched as it saw stctites falling onto it. *Awooo....* It jumped back in panic as only a single shallow wound appeared on its front leg. *Grrrr....* The wolf walked over the pieces of scattered rocks from stctites and growled at Aren. Aren frowned in pain because that movement of his hand caused pain to shot through his injured body due to movement. But he grinned internally as he waited for the wolf toe towards him because even though this wolf looked giant, its defense was not enough to block his . After all, Rank A skills are no joke as he already knew his wind sh''s sharpness and prative power. '' For insurance, I will also use that...But I only have one chance and have to kill it one move. I can''t let it dodge the . '' Aren saw the wolf finally making a dash towards him as it felt that Aren was now truly defenseless, and since Aren used first ceiling instead of attacking it, It threw caution to the wind and dashed forward ording to its animal instinct. Aren doesn''t even need to feign weakness since he was truly injured with pain visible in his tear-filled eyes and face. Seeing the wolf dashing towards, He prepared his Skill. When the wolf was five meters away from Aren, It jumped up to pounce on him. Seeing that, Aren''s eyes shined, '' Perfect. '' *shuaaaaa...* He released intending to cut off its head. But he misjudged a bit as the hit a bit below the neck area. "Arrghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...." Aren''s eyes turned red, and veins protruded on its head and face as the pain he never felt before passed through directly to his brain. The wolf also howled in pain as the part below the neck was cut, and its neck hung by just a little flesh. A fountain of blood sprouted as it was also pushed back due to andnded on the ground with blood continuously pouring out like a river from its body. It was still alive, but in no more than 3 seconds, it died. [ Minor-Mutated Green Fanged Wolf killed, 500 exp gained. ] -Health: 514/700 Aren''s health also instantly shot up, and his injuries started to heal as golden sparks appeared on his body''s injured part. "Arghhhhhhhhhhhhh..." But his scream didn''t stop even after his injuries healed, and He started to thrash around in pain while grabbing his head. Tears fell from his eyes non-stop, with his eyespletely red and veins producing all over his head and face. " Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahrhhhhhh...." Hoarsely he continued to scream in pain, and after 10 seconds of thrashing around, the pain finally disappeared, and he fainted. The reason for his health suddenly increasing and this pain was due to the ability he used for one second right before releasing the . While this ability is activated, Any damage he deals with is increased by 30%, and he also heals by 10% of the damage dealt. ... After ten minutes, Aren slowly opened his eyes that were still slightly red. He remembered that pain, but he could not feel it anymore. After all, that pain was no injury but something that was transmitted to his brain because of . But...Those ten seconds felt like Hell to him. He still trembled just thinking about that pain even though none of that pain''s trace remained in him, '' Damn! Such vicious ability. I don''t want to use it again but...sigh, situations in the future might force it.'' After taking several deep breaths, he calmed himself and looked at the dead wolf. '' First, I have to tell Mom that I am fine. '' Thought Aren as he spiritually contacted Lorain. As soon as he contacted, He heard Lorain''s worried voice, " AREN! Are you fine? We will save you soon. " " I am fine, mom. I was injured, but I am healed now, except for some minor injuries. " Aren spoke in a reassuring tone. He then looked at the path from which that Minor-Mutated Green Fanged wolf came and spoke to his mother, " Mom. Since I am fine, then nobody needs toe down here. I will find a way out since there''s a path here. " Lorain was unwilling to ept that, and Quinn also joined the spiritual call as she said they were going to save him and told him that the bodyguards went to bring a rope. But Aren finally convinced them that he was fine and told them not to waste time and move towards the Town. " I am not going to wait until you all find the long and robust enough rope to reach here. Also, we only have one quest left, so hurry up and finish. If you can do it fast enough, then I can also directly leave this ce and go outside to our world. Mom, Quinn, we will meet outside. Bye, take care. " Aren finally convinced them as he cut off the call and stood up before moving towards the shining gemstones that fell off from the wolf''s head after it died. As soon as Aren picked it up, He heard a voice, and some text appeared in front of him. [ A rare item found, Deep Blue Gemstone ] -Rank: Rare -Requirements: Spirit Core. -Effects: locked. '' So it''s useless for now. But what is Spirit core? How do I get it? '' Thought Aren. Since it was useless for now, He put it inside his inventory and moved towards the only path inside this underground cave. Chapter 15 - Spirit Water After Aren walked through the path, he arrived in a spacious ce with a small pond in the middle. Many glowing stones inside the cave caused the cave to have light, just like the ce where he fell down. While walking, He had already touched one of the stone and touching it gave him the information about them. [ Luminous Stones ] -Effect: Glows in the dark. He then looked at the pond with doubt because the water didn''t look like regr water. The pond was not that big, just 2 meters radius big and 50 centimeters deep. He walked towards the pond and took some of it in his hand, but at that time, he heard a voice, and some texts appeared in front of him. [ Spirit Water ] -Effect: Able to restore some spirit energy. Hearing that, Aren''s eyes went wide in surprise, " This...is too useful. I need to check its effects. " Aren had just used , so his spirit energy pool was not full. -Spirit energy pool: 123/200. He formed a bowl with his hand and took some spirit water before drinking it. After he drank it, He felt spirit energy coursing through his body for two seconds before hearing a sound and seeing some texts. [ 10 spirit energy recovered. ] " Hmmm...If that amount of spirit water recovered ten spirit energy, then 1 liter of bottle can recover approx 280-300 spirit energy. " Aren at the pond with shine in his eyes and thought, '' I need to store this water. '' He tried to leave but found that the remaining quest was still unfinished. '' Since the quest is about killing 10 BloodThirsty Elephants, It will take some time. Guess I will explore this ce in the meantime. '' Thought Aren as he looked at the surroundings. There were two more paths in this ce; one was at the north side while another was to his left side. He decided to go towards the path in front of him in the north direction and started walking. After walking at the entrance of that passage, He paused in his footsteps and narrowed his eyes, '' What...are those? '' Deep into this passage, approx fifteen meters away from him, He saw several red lights in the air within the pitch-ck darkness of this passage. '' Twelve red lights...What are they? '' Aren observed the red lights with focus, and after a few moments, he noticed that there was a fixed distance between two red lights. '' Fixed distance...each pair. Wait...Are they some kind of beasts? Hmm...If those red lights are their eyes, then why can''t they see me? Or is their eyesight bad? '' Aren fell into thought for a few moments before he decided to test them out. He picked up a rock from the ground, went to the side of the entrance, and hid at the corner right beside the passage''s entrance. Now he couldn''t see anything since he was at the side, but he stretched his hand and threw the rock inside the passage before taking his hand back. The sound reverberated in the cave as Aren heard strange sharp cries. He wanted for a few seconds and saw the giant bats the size of adult pigeonsing out from the passage and directly flying in the front. They couldn''t see him since he hid at the corner right beside the entrance of the passage. Aren saw that these bats hadrge and sharp fangs outside of their mouth. Those bats were flying around in the cave, right above the pond. But suddenly, one of them bat saw Aren and flew towards him. " So they are simr to bats but more powerful. " Aren muttered as he took out his Heavy Great Sword and swung it towards the iing bat. [ Blood Fang Bat killed, 50 exp gained. ] The other five bats also flew towards Aren after that. Aren increased his movement and attack speed because handling five bats with his slow attack speed and movement due to wielding a great heavy sword was disadvantageous. But provided a perfect solution to that problem. He narrowed his eyes and swung his sword in a horizontal arc such that two bats died with a swing. Right after that, He rolled to the side to dodge the iing bats and swung his sword again. Soon, He killed the remaining bats and earned 250 exp. -Level: 8 [ 1260/3500 ] Exp. He then moved into the dark passage, but he reached a dead end. Shaking his head, He walked out and moved towards the second passage that was in the east direction inside the cave. He didn''t see any beasts'' eyes inside his passage, and after walking for three meters, he saw sunlight but seeing that he realized that this passage was going upward. He walked to the end of the passage and reached a dead end, but the sunlight wasing out from six meters above him from the hole that led to the surface. '' Hmmm...I think I can climb this; even if I fall from 6 meters in height, I won''t be too injured. '' Naturally, He wouldn''t be saying this if he was the same normal human of two days ago. But right now, His body had be tougher and stronger. Just as he was going to start climbing, He heard some words and instantly hid in the passage while perking up his ears. " So who is willing to go down? I''m sure some of you know rock-climbing and rock-descending, right? " Aren heard a girl''s voice; from the voice, he guessed that she was around his age. " Ehh...Rock-descending? Are you serious, Luna? Anyway, I don''t think we can go down without falling and suffering injuries. It''s just a hole; why do you want to suffer pain? " This time, Aren heard the voice of the boy. " Luna, It''s just a deep hole; I don''t think it leads to anywhere. Anyway, We shouldn''t waste time here and gather some people after going outside because we need more people to go to the next patch ofnd to get barriers. " Aren heard another voice that resembled that of a deep voice of a male. Chapter 16 - Inviting Luna, Red Berries. '' It looks like the people on the surface are arguing about descending in this hole. '' Thought Aren. Aren frowned and thought, '' If theye down, they will definitely take spirit water. It looks like I can only block this passage. '' He hurriedly walked back, drank some spirit water, and rushed towards the near of the passage again. But then, he heard the angry voice of Luna, " Humph, You dimwits. Go away. I will go down on my own. " " Sigh...Alright, We are going outside since we have finished our quest. But be careful, Luna. We will be waiting for you. " The girl named Sophia spoke with a sigh. Luna gritted her teeth in anger and sadness before taking out her daggers and started to descend using them, '' Finally, good riddance. Humph, we won''t meet again. '' ....Half a minute ago. On the surface... Two girls and two boys are standing a meter away from the hall. The two girls are Sophia and Luna. Sophia is very beautiful and gorgeous; She has short blonde hair, white skin, and light green eyes. On the other hand, Luna had messy ck hair and wore a full-body, thick dress. Her face was notpletely visible due to her hair. She also wore sses beforeing here, but her eyesight got better after adding points on the constitution, so she threw them away. The other two boys were Jacob and Yuhan. They looked 18-19 years old, and Yuhan had a naturally deep voice that didn''t match his age. Four of them were ssmates, but Sophia was the leader of the group. The two boys were head over heels for her since she was very beautiful, unlike Luna. The other two boys with her also left and disappeared, leaving Luna in anger as she stomped her foot. Some tears appeared in her eyes, but she held back. She knew that they were using her because of her skills but now no more, '' I will not meet you three again¡ªyou selfish scums. '' She has decided not to team up with them anymore. At first, she was happy because they epted an orphan like her in the team, but today, she was almost close to dying, and they even hesitated to save her from a vicious tiger boss monster. Fortunately, She was saved because of the unique skill she got from pandora''s box called and managed to scare the giant tiger away. At first, she thought that such skill would not work on the vicious giant tiger because it didn''t work on the ordinary vicious beast, but she gambled, and it worked. She then took out two daggers from her inventory, and using them, she started to descend. Aren was going to release < Wind sh > to block the passage but hearing their conversation, He walked a bit front before looking upward and saw that a girl was descending using her daggers. But just then, he saw that the girl lost control as one of her daggers lost the grip on the wall. "Aaa..." A short scream was released from her before she shut her mouth and gritted her teeth. She tried to use her left hand''s dagger to stuck on the wall again, but before she could do that, her right hand''s dagger also lost grip, and she fell down while screaming. *Thud...* *ouch...* Luna cried in pain as he left leg was injured, and she also heard a crack in her left hand. While falling, She had closed her eyes instinctively, but when she opened her eyes, She was startled to see someone standing in front of her. " Hi. " Aren waved his right hand and grinned. He nced at her daggers and was surprised because they didn''t look like normal daggers. Luna appeared a bit nervous and smiled, " H-hi. I am Luna. " After saying this, she nced behind Aren and appeared a bit excited to see the passage, '' I knew that there was something in this hole. '' " You can call me Aren. Umm...It looks like you had some rough experiences with your team. " Luna appeared angry at the thought of them and gritted her teeth, " Don''t mention them. I will not meet them again. " Internally, she self-deprecatingly smiled and thought, '' After using me to clear path and get that stock of berries. Why would they need me? Sigh. But...I won''t let them have all benefits.'' Aren raised his eyebrows and smiled, " Then how about joining my team? Anyway, you can take your time to think about it, for now, you should do something about your injuries. " Luna nodded as she looked at her injured right leg and left hand before speaking, " This level of injury will heal if I consume two red berries. " She took out two red berries from her inventory and ate them while ncing at Aren. Aren was surprised to see her injuries healing as the flesh wound patched up visible to the naked eye. He looked at Luna, who grinned at him and spoke, " Do you want these berries? I know where you can find them. " Aren nodded and beamed before saying, " Before that, let''s go inside. There''s also something useful here, but I can''t leave right now because I still have an unfinished quest. " Luna stood up and dusted off her dress before asking in a curious voice, " Something useful? " Aren nodded as both of them entered the cave by walking through the passage. " That pond has spirit water, and it can recover our spirit energy. Since you can go outside, then bring here some bottles or barrels to store them. " Said Aren as he pointed at the pond. He then looked at her and asked with a faint smile, " As for the berries..." " Don''t worry. After going to the surface, we will take berries; Humph, I won''t let them have all the red berries. " Luna spoke with anger towards Sophia, Jacob, and Yuhan. Aren nodded with a smile, " Fine. " Luna nodded as she disappeared and appeared outside. She appeared in the backyard right behind the school. After looking around she saw no one and snorted, " Waiting for me my ass. Sophia, Jacob, Yuhan....Those red berries are what I found and even worked hard to clear the path, I won''t let you have all of them. " Chapter 17 - Source Of Spirit Water? Onward Towards Red Berries. Luna went to the school storehouse sneakily and touched four barrels before thinking about Wild Expanse. At that thought, She got the option to enter or not, and she thought " Yes " as she disappeared with the two stic barrels. ... Inside the cave, Aren saw Luna appearing four barrels and smiled, " That was fast. " " Well, I was at my school grounds, and I knew that there were barrels in the storehouse. Anyway, Let''s hurry up and fill up the barrels. " Luna said as she took two barrels towards the pond and started working. The barrels were not big, as it was clearly written [ 30 Lt. ] on them, which means that they could store 30 liters of water each. Both of them filled up the barrels with spirit water, and the pond''s water considerably decreased such that they couldn''t store more water in other barrels without any tool. Aren put the barrels aside but was surprised to see that Luna''s barrels disappeared. But something clicked in his mind at that moment as he tried to store the barrel inside his inventory by thinking about it. *Poof..* And the barrels disappeared. " So we can indeed store items from our world too. " Aren muttered. Luna heard it and was surprised, " You didn''t know? " " Well, I never tried it before. Anyway, let''s go out from that passage now. It shouldn''t be that hard to climb, and since it''s just 6 meters long, we won''t die even if we fall. " Aren said before moving towards the passage. Luna nodded as she also turned to her left before moving, but she stopped after a second as she frowned in doubt and looked back at the pond. She narrowed her eyes to take a closer look before her eyes turned wide in shock, " Wait, Aren! Look at the pond. " Hearing her, Aren turned around in doubt before looking at the pond as well, and shortly after that, He was also shocked. But along with shock, they were pleasantly surprised. Inside the pond, If one looked closely, they would see some bubbles asionally sprouting. Luna''s eyes caught that moment, and she turned around to confirm if she did not imagine things. " Aren. Those asional bubbles sprouting means...hehe, It looks like we can harvest this spirit water forever. " Luna spoke with a chuckle. But Aren narrowed his eyes with a smile andughed, " I think if we dig that pond, we can find the true source of spirit water and the reason it''s forming, or maybe there is a big underground source of spirit water? " Luna made a fist with her right hand and punched it vertically on her left palm before speaking his surprise, " You are right! But how about we gather some more spirit water and store it before deciding to dig it? " Aren nodded as he agreed with her, " Yep. since the spirit water will continue to fill the pond, then we should fill some more barrels. Come on, help me. I think we should also bury this pond and hide it. Even though chances of people stumbling here shouldn''t be high, but it''s not impossible. " " Alright. " Said Luna before she and Aren gathered rocks and stones beforepletely burying the pond. Aren looking at the buried pond and thought for a moment before speaking, " Hmmm...Let''s arrange some more stones in the surroundings to make it look natural, like the other parts of the cave. " ... After arranging everything, They started climbing out of that hole. Luna easily managed to do with her two daggers, and this time, she did it fast because if she paused, then her dagger''s sharpness would crumble the internal soil and lose grim like how when she fell while descending. Aren managed to climb easily after Luna as he used the ce where Luna used her daggers as his foothold. Aftering out, He looked at Luna with a grin, " Now shall we go get some berries? " Luna looked in a particr direction before nodding while gritting her teeth, " Mhmm...Let''s go. " Both of them moved in a particr direction in this forest as Luna knew the way perfectly since it was not far from here, and they also put the mark on trees for insurance. After twenty minutes of slow running, Luna and Aren arrived at a mountain. Luna pointed at the mountain and said, " The Red berries are inside that mountain. " " Ohh? " Aren looked at the mountain and frowned a bit before looking at the ground position of the mountain and noticed something strange. Seeing that, Heughed, " So this is a hollow ground mountain with a mountain cave. Hahaha, that set-up is not bad, but some people can see through it. " He started walking towards the covered-up mountain cave entrance as Luna became speechless but followed after shaking her head with a wry smile. Aren waved his great heavy sword and pushed away the woods and bushes set up that covered the small cave entrance before going inside. Luna also entered, and after that, both of them shabbily covered the cave entrance once again before moving deeper inside the mountain. As they walked, Luna spoke, " You see those nts at the right side? They contained those strange red barriers that heal our health. " " After harvesting them, we moved into that path and arrived at another cave that had many patches of those red berries nts. But...There are six giant strange-looking beasts. They look like goris but with four hands, and they also have bloody fangs that stay outside of their mouth. " Luna spoke as she and Aren walked inside the passage that led to another cave, " When we went inside, They all rushed after us to kill us but strangely, they didn''te out through this passage and return back so luring them out while one person harvest berries also wouldn''t work. " As they neared another cave from the passage, Luna whispered to Aren to walk silently. Both of them sneakily nced outside to the cave from the passage and saw six 3-meter tall beasts. Aren nodded with a thoughtful expression before whispering, " Let''s make a n to defeat them. First, do you mind telling me about your skills and abilities? Don''t worry; I will go first. " Aren knew that if one wants to gain the trust of others, then he will have to trust them first. The first step of a trustworthy rtion started from that. But before Aren could say anything, Luna shook her head with a smile, " I will go first. As for why... Well, Aren. I was raised in an orphanage, so I don''t know who my parents are or if they are still alive or not. No rtives visited me, so I guess I don''t have them too. Anyway, I have alreadye to terms with my life, and I have made one mistake of trusting those three. But even so, I am going to trust you, a stranger I met just today. I have seen many types of people, and I trust my instinct too...but hearing that, you would ask me that if that was the case, then why I got together with those three, right?...Heh " Pausing there, Luna self-deprecatingly smiled before continuing, " I got together with them because...I got kind of happy that someone invited me. You see...I hide my face with my hair because I look ugly. I also have an ugly birthmark on my forehead, which makes it worse. So...well, I was kind of happy to discard the solitude that was with me. Anyway, let''s end it there. So what I was saying is that I will trust you and join your team, so you better trust me too and don''t betray me, or I will be a vengeful ghost and hunt you down. " Aren smiled faintly before stretching his hand, " I will trust you and will not betray you. As for the ghost thing...hehe, It could actually be true now because we are already experiencing a phenomenon that''s even more unbelievable than something like a ghost. I truly wonder what kind of power can create something like this vast world inside a mystical floating mountain. " " Indeed.. " Luna nodded in agreement with a grin as she shook hands with Aren before proceeding to tell him about her information. Chapter 18 - Execution Of The Plan. -Name: Luna -Level: 6 [ 1840/2500 ] Exp. -Health: 500/500 [ 50x10 constitution, 0 in Health results in death. ] -Soul: 100/100 -Life Stage: Mortal-1 -Spirit Energy Pool: 200/200 -Soul Energy: [Locked] -Mystic Field: 0/50 points. -[Stats] [Locked] -Stat points: 0 -Skill points: 0 -Abilities: -Skills: , . -Inventory: Blight Tooth Daggers, Red Barries [ 18 ], Spirit Water Barrels[2]. < Scare > -Rank: ?? -Effect: ?? . -Note: Weapon Bound Skill:- Only works with Blight Tooth Daggers. -Skill Level: 3 -Skill Rank: AA -Cost: 80 spirit energy. -Effect: Infusing spirit energy into your dagger will increase the range of your dagger by 1 meter with the special blight ofsers. With your will, you can release the extendedser parts of your two daggers towards any target. Range limit: 7 meters. . -Skill level: 1 (Max: 5) -Skill rank: C -Cost: 20 spirit energy. -Effect: Infuse spirit energy in your legs to get the burst of speed to increase your running speed by 76% for 8 seconds. . Luna told Aren about all of her information. Hearing about the unique dagger and the skill, Aren asked in surprise, " Did you also open Pandora''s box? " Luna nodded with a wry smile, " Yep. The government already mentioned about it but warned everyone not to open it because many people got horrible things that they couldn''t afford to use, while some directly received limited-time curses. Naturally, some people also do good things too, but not many people want to gamble. " Pausing there, Luna chuckled as she pointed at herself, " As for me...hehe, I couldn''t be careless about it, so I opened pandora''s box. But fortunately, I got good things. However, That ability is annoying. There''s nothing written on it, and I don''t know how it works. " " Hmmm..." Aren nodded before he fell into thought for a moment before asking, " Try using that ability on me. " " Ok..." Luna nodded before she used the ability with her will. Aren was looking at her with focus and waited for the ability to take effect. But after waiting for two seconds, nothing happened. " See? Nothing happened. Sigh...I simply don''t know how it works or the condition it needs to take effect. " Luna spoke while shaking her head. Aren nodded as he also felt nothing, " That''s ok. We will find about itter. But from now on, don''t forget to use it. Try to use it in every and all kind of situation. " " Alright. So what do we do about those beasts guarding those fields of red barries? " Luna asked. " For that, Let''s see..." ... After talking for a while, They went near the end of the passage once again to see the cave and the beasts inside. " You said they wille out through the passage, right? Can you rify it? " Aren whispered. Luna nodded as she whispered back, " They will follow us inside this passage but won''te out from the passage at the other side. Once we go past that point, they will return here. " " Hmm...Okay. Let''s first try to use brute force with a simple n. We can follow through with this n only because we have spirit water with us, and we both have potent skills. " After saying that, Aren continued, " Did you try to use your Double Rend on those beasts? If so, how did it fare against them? " " Their defense is their main forte, I think. Their faint crystalized skin is tough to break. My broke through it and injured it seriously, but it''s not enough to kill them. It''s a single-target skill since it only works if I swing and activate the release effect on both of my daggers using spirit energy at the same time. Also..." Pausing there, Luna curled her lips in disdain before speaking, " Those other three werepletely useless. They don''t even have powerful skills, and their levels are two below mine, so their pitiful C rank skills have even more pitiful damage against those beasts. " After saying that, she continued with the main topic, " So the thing is, If we can''t kill one of them in one shot, they will recover even from severe injuries by eating those barries. I tried to aim their heads, but since I use my from far, they can easily block it with their hands. " " And you can''t get close because it would put your life in danger...Hmmm, That''s indeed tricky. " Said Aren before he paused and grinned, " But...hehehe, Let''s follow through with the brute force n first. If webine our skills, we can take one of them out. " " Ok, Let''s do it. " Luna nodded. ... After talking about how to move and the n, Aren went to the cave entrance, picked up a rock, and threw it at one of the nearest beasts. The beast roared like an ape before it, and the other five beasts rushed towards Aren with red eyes. Seeing that, Aren started running back. He looked back and saw that their speed was not exceptionally fast. He gauged their speed and distance between them before predicting the timing of his n''s execution. On the other hand, Luna was waiting at a particr location inside the passage. This passage was not straight as it also curved, and Aren decided to take advantage of the curved part of the passage. With the curved passage, The beasts who are running are Aren can''t see Luna, who is standing past the curved part of the passage. As Aren rushed towards Luna''s side while letting the beasts chase him, Luna also waited for Aren to appear. Aren saw that he reached the curved part of the passage and started preparing his skill < Wind sh > with his hand. After two seconds, He saw Luna at the passage and showed her two fingers. 2 second. After 1 second, His finger turned into one finger. 1 second. After another second, He balled his hand into a fist and rolled forward, and appeared just 50 centimeters from Luna. On the other hand, The moment Luna saw Aren reaching a countdown of 0 with the signal of his hand, She released < Double Rend > with her Blight Tooth Daggers. Right at the moment, The first beast following behind Aren saw < Double Red > right in front of it and panicked but failed to dodge in such a short time frame as blood gushed out. But right after , Aren also released his at the same spot. *Screeeeeeeeee...* The beast screamed loudly for a second before dying. The other beasts got angry, but Aren and Luna had already started running after releasing their skills. [ A Crysario Fang Beast killed, 130 exp ]-Luna [ A Crysatio Fang Beast killed, 70 exp ]- Aren. Both of them received the sound notification in their heads and text in front of them as they left the passage. Aren and Luna looked at each other andughed before they turned around and looked at the passage. The other beasts were following them, but they stopped at the passage entrance and didn''te out. After roaring with red eyes for a few seconds, They went back. " Aren!! Your n was sessful. Hahaha, Now we can kill those beasts one by one like this. " Luna was overjoyed. " Yep.. " Aren also grinned as he couldn''t wait to get his hands on those very useful red barries. Chapter 19 - Dangerous Emergency Quest- Wipe Out? Aren and Luna killed four more beasts with the same method. They only took short breaks to recover their spirit energy by drinking spirit after each kill. Right when they were about to kill the fifth beast, Aren paused as he heard a sound inside his head and also a notification in front of him. [ Quest: Kill Ten BloodThirsty Elephant ]- Completed. ... ... Aren received the exp of 2000 as the reward. In addition to getting 290 exp for killing four beasts, He was close to leveling up. -Level: 8 [ 3250/3500 ] Exp. He justcked 250 exp before he levels up again. " What happened, Aren? " Luna asked as she saw Aren suddenly pausing. Aren also received a spiritual call from his mother as he looked at Luna, " Wait a minute. " After saying that, he epted the spiritual call. Lorain--" Aren, Are you fine now? We finished the quest, so you cane out now. " Aren--" I am fine, Mom. I have left that cave, and now I am at another ce. Also, I will leave after a while because I am in the middle of doing something very important. " Lorain--" Becareful, Aren. Don''t put yourself in unnecessary danger. " Aren--" Don''t worry. I wille out soon. " ... After talking with his mother, Aren nodded at Luna, " Let''s go. " They both ran into the passage, but this time, They didn''t pause at the end but directly entered the cave and attacked the beast. After all, There was only a single beast left. After killing it, Aren and Luna looked at each other with excitement. " Fifty-Fifty. " Aren said with a grin. " Yep. " Luna nodded. Both of them then started plucking out the red barries and created two small mountains of it as they were counting. It took them forty minutes to pluck out all barries, and Lorain''s call came once again, but Aren told her that he woulde out in twenty minutes since he was still working. After finishing, Luna pointed at the berries she gathered and said, " Four hundred twenty-eight barries. " " Four hundred six barries. " Aren replied as he pointed at the barries he gathered. Hearing that, Luna nodded and gave eleven barries to Aren before smiling, " Done. Now it''s fifty-fifty. " " How do you n to leave now? There are two ways: First, leave together with me. Second, Tell me your address so I can pick you up there? " Aren asked. Luna thought for a few moments before speaking, " I''ll just leave together with you. I was living in government dorm quarters, and it sucks there. If there was no 16 hours limit here, I would just live in this world since it''s free of disgust. " " Wait...You want to live in my house? " Aren was shocked. But Aren found out that Luna''s face had a shock as she looked in front of her. But her gaze was looking at something else. Seeing that, Aren asked, " What notification did you get? " Luna looked at Aren and smiled brightly before speaking, " Just speak about living inside this world, and you will get the same notification. " " Oh?.." Aren was surprised before trying it out as he muttered in a low voice, " Wish I could live in this world. " Right after that, He heard a voice inside his head along with the notification in front of him. [ Once you reach level 10 and pass the Life Stage evolution, You can stay inside Wild Expanse for however long you want. But, when the despair arrives, you will be kicked out from the Wild Expanse to face the despair. ] Aren was shocked, " This...is good. " " Yeah! Let''s reach level 10 fast. I still have 1 hour before 16 hours of time-up. What about you? Anyway, I will not leave before spending that one hour and getting as much exp as I can. " Luna said with determination. " I have two hours left. But it''s fine. We will leave before your time is up. " Aren said with a grin. But suddenly... *Dhadan dhadan...Crackkk* The cave started to tremble along with the whole mountain and... [ Emergency Quest: Kill the Slumbering Ancient Blood Python before it wakes up. ] --> An Ancient Blood Python is slumbering below in the underground of the mountain, You have to kill it while it''s slumbering, or once it wakes up, you and the nearby Town will be wiped out. --> 5000 Exp. --> A random skill box( Rank A to Rank C ) The trembling of the mountain stopped as everything returned to a calm state. Aren and Luna looked at each other with serious expressions because this quest looked very dangerous. " We can''t waste time! We have to find a way towards the python before it wakes up, or the first ones to die will be us. " Aren said with a frown. " Yep. I think we can''t even run because the quest objective mentioned that the first ones to die would be us. This can also mean that the python will directly wake up if we run away instead of attempting the quest. " Luna spected. " Yep. The trigger could likely be us leaving from this mountain cave. " Aren nodded before he looked around and said, " You go search that another cave while I search here. The quest objective mentioned that the python is underground, so there should be a way to go there. " Luna ran towards the passage without wasting time while Aren also started searching for a way underground inside this cave. Both of them were sweating with nervousness while searching resolutely. Five minutes passed, but they found nothing, and at that time, both of them received a notification. [ 3 minutes until the Slumbering Python Wakes up ] [ 2:59 ] [ 2:58 ] They both saw the countdown and started sweating buckets. Aren took a deep breath as he swept his gaze around the cave once again. After three seconds of thinking hard, He contacted Luna with a spiritual call and told her to follow his instructions. " This is ourst bet, do it! " Chapter 20 - Nerve-Wreaking. *Boooom....* *crackk....* *Booom...* At this moment, Both Aren and Luna were releasing their strongest skills on the ground. They could release two skills in one round, and after that, they would drink spirit water from the barrel to refill their spirit energy. Aren attacked the walled sides of this cave''s ground because the quest described that the python was sleeping underground. Since it''s underground, the corners of the grounds should be hollow in this cave, while the other cave where Luna is attacking should be more hollow because there is not a spec of nt or greenery in that cave. Aren himself felt that the chances of breaking the ground and reaching underground were in that cave. Still, he couldn''t abandon that possibility in this cave because the red barries nts were everywhere except for the walled 1-meter area around this cave''s borders. *Boooom....* *crackk....* *Booom...* *crackk....* [ 1:49 ] [ 1:48 ] Time passed as Aren and Luna continued the cycle of releasing two skills before drinking spirit water. *Boooom....* *crackk....* *Booom...* *crackk....* [ 1:19 ] [ 1:18 ] Suddenly, Aren received a notification about receiving spiritual contact from Luna, and he hurridly epted it. Luna--" Found it! Come here, fast! " Aren didn''t even answer as he just put the barren in his inventory and directly ran towards the first cave and saw that the left side of the cave had a hole and Luna was standing there. " Aren. I can see a creature''s body from the gaps. " Luna shouted hurridly before drinking spirit water from the barrel. Aren nodded with a serious face as he waved his hand and released < Wind sh > to widen the gap and moved towards it. Luna finished drinking enough to release one < Double Rend > and again attacked that ground part as the ground broke to make a wider hole. [ 1:05 ] [ 1:04 ] Both of them jumped down andnded on the python''s body that was 3 meters thick and who knew how long. This underground cave had four thick pirs, and it led deeper on two sides as the giant python was wrapped around pirs, and they couldn''t see its head or tail. " How are we supposed to kill this monster? " Luna mumbled hopelessly. Aren looked around and saw the two paths before saying, " Since the quest told us to kill it before it wakes up from the slumber, then we can definitely kill it before it wakes up. Hurry up and go to that side. " Luna nodded as she ran towards that path, while Aren ran towards the other path. [ 0:55 ] [ 0:54 ] The moment Aren exited from that short passage, He gulped and saw the giant python''s head. A blood-red orb was floating on top of its head. The python''s eyes were closed, but it looked super terrifying. Its height was 2 meters, and its width was 3 meters. As for the length, It was unknown. Aren gritted his teeth as this was not time to be scared, '' That father red dragon is more terrifying. '' He called Luna and asked if she found something strange like the blood-red orb here, but Luna said no, and hearing that Aren called her here. After that, He took out the spirit water barrel and started drinking it. [ 0:42 ] Luna arrived, and Aren also finished drinking as he released < Wind sh > Towards the blood-red floating orb on top of python''s head. Luna also arrived and started drinking spirit water. But right after Aren''s < Wind sh > hit the blood-red orb, It burst like a balloon as the red energy came out violently. But after a second, That red energy released steam and vaporized in the air. The python opened its eyes and screamed loudly for a second before dropping dead. Aren and Luna stayed petrified when they saw the python opening its eyes because they felt unbearable pressure on them that made their breathing heavier for a few seconds. The python then slowly started to turn faint and disappeared after a few seconds. [ Emergency Quest: Kill the Ancient Python, Completed ] ... ... -5000 exp. -A random skill box ( Rank A to Rank C ). *thud....* Luna directly sat down and thenid on her back while heavily breathing, " That was damn nerve wreaking. " Aren also sat down as he took a deep breath and nodded with a wry smile, " Indeed it was. " While resting, Both of them saw the notification as they leveled up. Aren-Level: 9 [ 4820/5000 ] Exp. Luna-Level: 8 [ 1980/3500 ] Exp. Luna leveled up twice. But Aren was surprised to see that the required exp to level up from 9 to 10 increased by 1500 exp instead of the usual 500 increments. '' Anyway, I only need 180 exp to level up...Huuu, I can''t wait. '' Aren thought excitedly. He knows that something big will happen at level ten because of few things he had noticed. Both Aren and Luna rested for thirty minutes inside this cold cave before finally standing up. Luna gave her hand to Aren and spoke with a tired smile, " Let''s go out. I really want to have some good sleep now. " Aren nodded with a simr tired expression as he grabbed her hand, and both of them thought about leaving the wild expanse and disappeared after a second. Chapter 21 - Arens Plan-1 The location they chose to leave was Aren''s ce as both of them appeared on the ground near the highway. Naturally, Everyone has left by now, and Aren also took Luna to his home. On the way, Aren remembered something asked Luna if she had her phone with her. But unfortunately, She didn''t have her mobile phone with her anymore because it broke while she was in Wild Expanse, and she didn''t have money to buy a new one. Aren thought for a moment " Nevermind...I was going to order something since I still have money and it has value but forget it...I will level up to 10 tomorrow, so I will just buy a house in Wild Expanse or find some safe ce to live¡ªno need to stay here. There should be necessary things like beds and such things since the townspeople had it in their houses. " " Mhmm... " Luna nodded in agreement. " Anyway, I have a n for tomorrow so we will focus on that since It''s very important." Both of them reached home and saw that Quinn was actually there with his mother. Seeing Aren arriving, they sighed a relief, but behind Aren, they saw a girl walking home with half of her face covered in hair and were startled. " Quinn, Mom, this is our new friend and teammate, Luna. Thanks to her, we will be safer and can temper ourselves to be better fighters. Quinn, What I am about to say now is a secret, so I hope you also keep it a secret and don''t tell anyone about it, not even your family. " Aren spoke with a serious expression. Aren then told her and his mother about the spirit water and Red barries. Naturally, He didn''t tell them where did he get them because there was no need to. " Aren, what if someone from our team got seriously injured and you had the red barries? Would you give that person red berries to heal from it? " Quinn asked with a serious expression. Aren smiled faintly and answered, " I will. But...From tomorrow onward, Everyone will have to move ording to my n. If anyone disagrees, then they can leave. If what I think is right and my n seeds, then everyone can have red barries and spirit water. " Quinn casually waved her hand and spoke, " It''s fine. Everyone will follow you after seeing how you led us to level up so fast yesterday. " " Let''s hope so..." Aren nodded before he changed the topic to the main one and said, " Anyway, after we reach level 10, we can stay in that world without limit, so I am nning to make my base there and live there. Mom, we don''t need to live in this shabby ce anymore. " Pausing there, A sharp gleam shed across Aren''s eyes as he grinned, " I will be as strong as I can and be someone that stands at the top in that world. That...is my aim. " Lorain gently smiled and said, " You will, Aren. I believe in you. " Quinn also got excited, " Yeah, everything is useless in our world now, fame, money, everything. If we want to make our ce in the new world and defeat the despair after three years, we have to get as strong as we can inside the wild expanse. " Luna was silent as she was a bit nervous, but Lorain and Quinn started talking to her for a while and found out about her situation. While they were talking, Aren went to Wild expanse once again to do something and returned and gave some things to Quinn and his mother before once again entering the wild expanse and returned shortly after. After that, Quinn left her home on her scooter while Aren, Lorain, and Luna fell asleep. ... Everyone slept for 10 hours before waking up and gathered together after making phone calls. After everyone gathered, Aren greeted Borus Tenkai, the grandfather of Quinn, and said with a serious expression while looking at everyone, " Before we go in, I want to say something. Today, we will move ording to my n; this n is very important to the future I have envisioned. The benefit we will gain will be immense if we seed. So...I hope none of you make rash moves and just follow the n. " Borus Tenkaiughed out loud and patted his chest, " Aren, this old man has seen your capabilities and trusts you. But I will also be supervising, and if you are about to make a mistake or If I see something wrong, I will point it out. " Aren nodded with a smile, " Of course. I don''t believe myself to be super-genius or an invincible person with no faults. As long as you feel that I did something wrong or made the wrong call, then you can point it out. Now let''s go. We shouldn''t waste more time. " Everyone made a circle while holding hands and thought about entering the wild expanse. The options of town names appeared, and Aren told everyone to enter Red Bell Town. After entering, Aren went towards the guards and asked them about the locations of various beast gatherings that might be a danger to the town and epted three quests. [ Quest: Kill 30 Venomous Fang Rabbits. ] -1500 Exp. ---- [ Quest: Kill 10 Morasic Tigers. ] -1800 exp. ---- [ Quest: Kill five Rage Goliaths. ] -2000 exp. " Aren, this is the same as yesterday. What about your new n? " Quinn''s grandfather, Borus asked with confusion. Others were also confused. But Aren just smiled and said, " I will have to check something and see if that n is executable or not. That''s why Luna and I will not join you and search for it. This is very urgent because other people can also think simr to me if they found the [ ce ] and go for it. " " Why are you so vague? Can''t you tell us the n with more rity? " Julian spoke with frown and jealousy in his eyes. Aren shook his head and turned his face indifferent before speaking, " I can''t tell you more about it now because it''s just my hypothesis. But if what I guessed is true and the n turned out to be executable, then I will tell you all about it. " " Mom, Quinn, everyone, be careful and don''t move recklessly. Although you have all be powerful now, don''t let your guard down and don''t fight head-on blindly. Guage enemy''s strength first and then move ording to it; I am sure I can leave that to you, Mr. Borus. " Said Aren with a serious face before looking at Borus Tenkai. Borus nodded with a solemn expression, " Don''t worry, this old man hasn''t gone senile yet. You go with your n while we level up. " Aren looked at Quinn and his mother as he nodded without saying anything. They both nodded back as they got the message. Aren had told them to move especially carefully and use red barriers and spirit water only when necessary. He had given a barrel to Quinn and red barries to his mother. He gave those things to them in real life. Yesterday night before Quinn left, he went to the wild expanse alone. He removed his Heavy Broad sword from the mystic field to make space so he could add the barrel and 30 red barries. He then returned to the outside gave his mother and Quinn a barrel and 30 red barriers respectively. Their mystic field could hold one thing each without having to remove their weapon. Afterward, He entered the wild expanse once again to store his heavy broad sword back into the mystic field. ... After nodding to Quinn and his mom, Aren said to Luna, " Let''s go, Luna. " Both Luna and Aren used their skills to move fast and left the town. " Luna, we don''t need to hold back on spirit water; use skills to move fast and search the ces before others find them. Time is of utmost importance. " Aren spoke with a serious voice. Luna also nodded seriously as both of them separated and went in different directions. They had also opened the skill box they got as a reward yesterday. Aren got a B rank skill while Luna also got a B rank skill . Chapter 22 - Life Stage Elevation, Choose A Path? The n of Aren was to find simr ces that might have spirit water and red barries. They found those ces in the surrounding ces of Honken Town, so Aren guessed that other towns might also have simr ces. Aren and Luna were furiously searching for simr ces that might have underground caves and mountain caves. Just like that...One and a half hours passed. While running, Aren spotted a mountain cave and entered inside, but right after that, he got a notification. [ Quest: Kill 30 Venomous Fang rabbits,pleted. ] [ Gained 1500 exp ] [ Leveled up to 10 ] [ Life stage elevation process starting in 3 seconds. ] [ 3 ] [ 2 ] [ 1 ] Aren looked at the whole thing, and right after the countdown hit 1, He disappeared. The scenery changed in front of him as he appeared in apletely dark ce with nothing in sight except for darkness. But after a second, Aren saw a golden brilliance appeared in front of him before it shot towards his head and entered inside his brain. Right after that, He fainted. Aren was having a strange dream while he fainted. In that dream, he was forced to take many trials filled with life & death situations. After that, he had a second dream in which he gained strange powers and fought with alien creatures. After an unknown amount of time, He woke up groggily and looked around, " What is this ce? " Aren tried to remember the events, and thest thing he remembered was appearing in this dark ce and the appearance of golden brilliance in front of him. As for dreams, Apprentienly, He had no recollection of the dreams he saw. [ Life Stage elevation process finished. Choose your path. Or, in your world''s terms, choose a Job ss. ] -1st: Emporio Armalist. -2nd: Runic Mage. -3rd: Heavilist Weaver. [ Trust your instinct to choose the path. ] Aren was startled, '' Job ss? Seriously? Also, what''s with these job sses? They are so strange. '' He then looked at the names and thought, '' I can''t understand what''s Emporio Armalist and Heavilist Weaver is, but Runic Mage sounds like the mages in normal MMO games but with a different way of using magic. However...'' Aren looked at thest notification, '' Trust my instincts, huh? '' If he trusted his instinct and feelings, He felt like choosing Emporio Armalist and Heavilist Weaver more than Runic Mage. After thinking for a minute, He decided, " I choose Emporio Armalist. ] Right after he finished speaking, Golden brilliance appeared in front of him once again and shot into his head through his forehead before he fainted. After an unknown amount of time, Aren opened his eyes and saw that he was inside the mountain cave that he entered. He also saw a barrier around him and heard a few notifications right after he opened his eyes. [ Life Stage elevation haspleted: Your soul has been unshackled. Soul Energy unlocked. ] [ Mystic Field upgraded to 150 points. ] [ You can now form a spirit core inside your body. The required knowledge has been already entered inside your brain. ] [ The protection barrier will be removed in one minute. ] Aren first checked his status by thinking about it as his status window appeared in front of him. And he was surprised by the massive changes and an additional thing called Tree of Path. He also gained 3 stat points in all attributes, and he also added the 5 stat points since he leveled up. -Name: Aren Azrael -Level: 10 [ 1320/10000 ] Exp. -Path: Emporio Armalist [ Level: 0 ] -Health: [ 1000/1000 ] -Soul: [ 100/100 ] -Life Stage: Mortal-2 -Spirit Energy Pool: [ 200/200 ] -Soul Energy: [ 100/100 ] -Mystic Field: 48/150 points [ Heavy Great Sword ] -[Stats] -Stat points: 0 -Skill points: 1 -Abilities: , . -Skills: , , -Inventory: Cursed Shofar, Deep Blue Gemstone. In addition to that, There was another thing besides his status window. [ Tree of Path- Emporio Armalist ] -Level: 0 -Armalist Force: 100/100 -Talent points: 1 -Skills: -Articule Gears: 0 [ Slots: 2 ] Right below this window, There was a whole tree with grayed-out bubbles with strange images. At the root of the tree, the lower-most single bubble was blinking with a white glow, and when Aren focused on it, He heard a sound and got a notification. [ Do you want to add 1 talent point to Armalist Drive? ] " Yes. " Aren replied as there was no other choice. Only that bubble was blinking, and the notification only appeared when he focused on it. Right after he said yes, the bubble turned dreamy blue as Aren suddenly felt a sharp pain throughout his body and mind. This painsted for brief 2 seconds before Aren cursed internally and took a deep breath. But he could also feel a strange thing inside his body. [ Armalist Drive has been formed inside your body; now you can control Armalist force. ] [ Beginner Emoporio Armalist Skills unlocked: Hyper Charge, Gear Enchantment. ] [ You have started walking on the path of Emporio Armalist, In this path, You can transform and modify gears and even create them. You can also enhance your gears and use the unique skills of Emporio Armalist to make them more powerful. But this is just a surface of what an Emporio Armalist can do! Progress in this path as you unlock the true mysteries of Emporio Armalist. ] Aren was dumbfounded seeing so many things and notifications, '' This world is way more mystical than I thought. '' He saw that this level of this path also turned to 1 from 0 and an exp bar appeared beside it. Suddenly, He received a spiritual call from Luna. Aren epted it and directly heard the excited voice of Luna. Luna--" Aren! Your guess was correct; I found a ce with spirit water. Also, I saw a bunch of knights marching along with a giant carriage that was hovering over the ground. Those knights felt very powerful, and they covered the carriage and themselves in a mobile barrier. They definitely didn''t look like they came from a town. " Aren--" Oh? That''s interesting. The voice told us that this world is far vaster than our earth, so there should definitely be big cities and things like countries too. Anyway, about the spirit water, since we have confirmed that there are more sources of spirit water, then you can go ahead and dig that ce to see what is below the spirit water''s pond. " Luna--" Alright. This spirit water''s pond is smaller, so I''ll just go ahead and dig it. " Aren--" By the way, how much time has passed since we arrived here? " Luna--" ehh? You don''t know? Anyway, It''s been approx one and a half hours. " Hearing that, Aren was startled, '' Strange...'' But he didn''t want to waste time thinking about it and hung up the spiritual call after telling Luna to inform him once she digs out the spirit water''s pond. He then also didn''t waste time and decided to look through Emporio Armalistter because the current first priority was finding the ces containing red barries and spirit water. Chapter 23 - Articule Gear While Aren was searching the mountain caves, Luna was digging out the small pond in the underground cave. She used her dagger as she started to stab the bottom of the tiny pond. *ting..* After five minutes of digging, A lot more water spurted out from the hole, and her dagger also hit solid things as she heard a ting sound. " More water came out means there''s an underground water vein, but what about that solid thing?" Luna muttered as she put her hand inside the hold to take the thing out. As soon as she touched the thing, she heard a voice and a notification appeared in front of her. [ Amon-rank spirit stone found. ] [ Spirit Stone. ] -Rank: Common. -Effect: Contains 2000 points of spirit energy. You can''t directly absorb spirit energy from it if you haven''t formed a spirit core yet. -Note: Even if it bes empty, as long as it''s left alone in an open atmosphere, it will gradually fill up with spirit energy from the atmosphere. Luna was surprised at this finding and called Aren to tell him about the discovery of this spirit stone. --Aren, " What did you find? " --Luna, " It''s a thing called spirit stone. From the description, It contains 2000 points of energy, and... Luna told everything she found to Aren before saying, " Alright. I will hang up now and search for another ce here while waiting for 3rd quest to bepleted. After it''spleted, I will go to a different town to officially start the n. " --Aren, " Alright. " After cutting the spiritual call, Luna stored the spirit stone inside her inventory before leaving the underground cave. ... On the other hand, Aren went deeper into the mountain cave he was searching. But suddenly, He heard some strange sounds of some kind of beast from the second passage inside this cave and slowed down his footsteps. He entered the passage that was curved like "C" but only 3 meters long. After walking 3 meters, he went to the end of the passage and saw another cave but what startled him was a giant 4 meters tall bear sleeping near the field of red barries. The bear looked super scary with its sharp w and teeth. Aren frowned and started thinking, '' I can''t take the risk of taking the barries while it''s sleeping since it might wake up anytime. It looks like I can only try to kill it. '' Aren took out his heavy broad sword, but right after it appeared in his hand, He trembled as he felt the new power he gained coursing through his body and brain. '' W-what''s going on? '' Aren was startled and confused at this sudden strangeness, but he calmed down and tried to make sense of the things. He first looked at the Tree of Path. [ Tree of Path- Emporio Armalist ] -Level: 1 [ 0/100 Exp ] -Armalist Force: 100/100 -Talent points: 0 -Skills: , -->Armalist Drive ( Core of the Path, Merged with the soul ). -Articule Gears: 0 [ Slots: 2 ] '' So the thing I am feeling in control is Armalist force...let''s see. '' Aren first went back into the passage and stretched his hand to let out the Armalist Force. He could control this power with his mind, so he thought about bringing it out from his hand, and it appeared over his hand. Aren looked at the strange dark blue floating force that sparkled with dreamy blue sparks. He thought about moving it to his left side, and the dark blue force with dreamy blue sparks in it flew to his left side. '' I can totally control it, but...what does it do? Hmmm...Let''s look at the skills first. '' Aren thought as he focused on the skills. -Cost: Min: 10 Armalist Force. Max: ?? -Effect: Infuse Armalist force into your Articule Gears to charge for a powerful effect of attuned nature. '' So I can only use this skill on Articule gears, which I don''t have...yet. '' Aren thought as he looked at the second skill. He felt that the second skill might contain the secret of getting Articule Gears. -Cost: Depends on the target. -Effect: Transform any equipment into an Articule Gear. '' Indeed. '' Aren nodded after looking at the skill. He walked out of the passage and returned to the previous cave before using the Skill on his Heavy broad sword. Right after he thought about using the skill, He felt a headache as the information appeared inside his mind that rified him about more things regarding this " Job ss " of a sort. '' So the Armalist Force is produced from Armalist Drive that is inside my body, or more like..., it''s connected to my soul. I guess it''s something to do with that notification that said that my soul is now unshackled. That should be the reason why we get to choose a path after we reach level ten. '' Aren wondered before finally getting onto the main thing. He put his heavy broad sword on the ground before touching it with his right hand and followed the steps ording to information on how to use the skill because it seems that there is no option of auto-activating skills for this path. Not that he would want it anyway. He gathered some Armalist force on his hand and thought hard about condensing into a tiny perfect square. He failed the first time as the square couldn''t hold together and scattered, but after a few tries, he seeded in making the square of Armalist force ording to the information. -Armalist Force: 70/100. '' So the first step itself consumes 30 Armalist Force. '' Aren thought before moving on to the second andst step. He put the Armalist cube on his sword before it naturally melted into the sword and disappeared as mystical veins-like patterns appeared on the great broad sword. But now was the final step; he controlled the Armalist force and started infusing it inside his sword. '' ording to the information, I need to continue infusing the Armalist Force until all the vein-like patterns on the sword are filled up. '' Thought Aren he started infusing Armalist Force in the sword. After 3 seconds of infusing, all the patterns on the sword were filled up as it shined briefly and disappeared. Aren was startled...but only for a moment. Because after a moment, He felt the existence of the sword...inside him. " W-what the hell...." Aren muttered because he could really feel the sword''s existence inside him but couldn''t figure out where it went. This was not like storing things inside inventory because when he stores things inside the inventory, he couldn''t feel those things. But for the sword, he could actually feel it clearly that it was inside him. There were many questions such as how did that happen? WHERE in the hell was it stored in his body? , etc...But well, He figured that he would get his answers in the future, so for now, he took out the sword from inside of his body as it appeared on his hand with a single thought. The sword''s appearance haspletely changed. Its size was the same, but it became a silver sword with a red design and dark blue patterns. [ Name your Articule Gear. ] But at the same time, Aren made a weird face because he could actually feel some sort of connection with the sword. '' No way...This...'' Aren was getting excited because of some information that he got after he summoned his sword. He let go of the sword from his hand''s grip, but... It didn''t fall to the ground, It just floated. He thought about moving the sword with his thought, and...it really moved. He could control the sword with his mind!! '' T-this...is damn cool. '' Aren thought with excitement, but he also didn''t forget about his priorities and first named the sword. " Hmmm..." Aren thought for two seconds before deciding on its name, " Ikaros. " [ Ikaros, Heavy Broad Sword ]-Soul Bound -Type: Articule Gear -Rank: High-Grade Silver-tier Weapon. -Requirement: Armalist Drive. -Damage: 800-1000. -Durability: 100/100. -Note:- Upgradable. Aren was surprised to see such detailed information, '' Well, since it shows damage and such things, wish I could also see the stats of those beasts. '' Shaking his head, He then grinned as he walked into the passage once again. It was time to hunt that bear! Chapter 24 - , Arens Plan-2 Aren entered inside the passage with Ikaros floating along with him in front of him. After seeing the giant sleeping beer, Aren slowly moved inside and hit behind a small boulder while peeking at the sleeping bear. He controlled the sword with his thoughts and used the skill, as the Aren felt his Armalist force draining. He only had 20 Armalist forces left, so he used all of it in to empower his sword. -Level: No level. -Rank: No rank. -Cost: Min: 10 Armalist Force. Max: ?? -Effect: Infuse Armalist force into your Articule Gears to charge for a powerful effect of attuned nature. Aren once again looked at skill''s effect and confirmed his thoughts before grinning. Powerful effect of attuned nature... '' That means...wait; I just should just try it out. '' Aren thought as he tried to use with his sword that was 8 meters away from him. After a second, He opened his eyes in excitement, '' So the mysterious connection between me and the sword...it''s should be due to Armalist Drive. Anyway, So I can also use skills since I drained my spirit energy when I used and the spirit energy entered into the sword. Great! '' Without hesitation, Aren released from his sword towards the sleeping bear''s neck. *Swooosh...* Aren looked at and clenched his fist as he finally confirmed...that skill can enhance other skills released through his gears. The wind sh he released was far more potent, with enhanced sharpness oozing out of it. Its size was also a bit bigger than normal skill''s sh. *Puchi...* The hit the bear''s neck before a fountain of blood gushed out. Its neck was still attached, but half of it was cut. The bear woke up in pain but couldn''t roar or anything because its neck was cut. Its red eyes looked around in pain before seeing a sword floating in front of it and raised its paw to attack it. But the sword easily dodged the attack and flew towards its cut-off neck before releasing another which finally cut of the bear''s head. The second was not as powerful as the first one, but it was enough to separate the head and kill it. [ Earth Bear killed, 450 Exp gained. ] [ You reached level 2 in Emporio Armalist Path. ] [ 1 talent point gained. ] Aren decided to look through thister as he had to set his n in motion as soon as he can after gathering barriers. " That bear had superb tenacity. " Aren muttered as he walked towards the field of red barries and started plucking the berries. This field was not asrge as the one they found in the previous town; at best, It was a bit more than half the size of the field found by Luna. Aren counted a total of five hundred sixty-four barries. After he put the barries inside his inventory, He informed Luna about it and left the cave. After leaving the cave, He started moving towards the 2nd quest''s location to start the real n. Since his agility increased, his speed also increased, and after thirty minutes, he reached the location of the second quest and saw Quinn killing thest Morasic Tiger. [ Quest: Kill 10 Morasic Tigers. ] -1800 exp. Aren dashed towards them. After hearing the sound of loud footsteps, everyone looked in his direction. " Everyone! Carefully listen. " After saying this, Aren took out a barrel and a few barries. " This barrel contains spirit water, and it can recover our spirit energy. " Aren spoke while pointing at the barrel. Hearing him, everyone became shocked. " Is that true? If we can recover our spirit energy, then we will progress tremendously. " Jason spoke with a startled voice. Aren nodded before pointing at the red barries, " And these red barries...hehe, they can heal our injuries rapidly. " Hearing that, they were even more shocked; Borus Tenkai asked with a serious face, " How effective they are? " Aren looked at him and grinned, " Very effective. Cracks on bones and sh wounds can be cured in a minute with two red barriers. " " Fuck! That''s awesome. " One of the bodyguards cursed before he stepped forward and said with a weak smile, " Umm...Can I get a berry? I think I have a slight crack on my left leg''s bone, and it''s really annoying and painful to walk with that. " Aren walked towards Borus Tenkai before he let out 500 barries from his inventory and created a tiny hill of red barries in front of him. Everyone was shocked to see these many barriers. " Mr. Borus. Take these 500 barries and use them well. " After saying that, Aren walked back and put his barrel inside the inventory, " I can''t share spirit water because It''s not enough for everyone. But we will get more spirit water and red barries today. " Before they could ask him how Aren continued, " The n is, you will separate into groups of three people and enter into different towns after leaving Wild expanse and search for Mountain caves and underground caves. Those two ces contain Red barries and spirit water ponds. Not all caves have them, so we have to search extensively. Also, if you find a spirit water pond, then don''t store the water but dig out the pond and find a spirit stone beneath it. The spirit stone is the main thing that can create spirit water. " After saying this, He looked at the quest panel and said, " But first, we will have to finish thest quest so we can leave Wild expanse. The ce is not too far, so let''s go finish the quest before executing the n. " ... Everyone started to move towards the quest location. On the way, Aren also told everyone that once they reach level 10, they will have an evolution of some kind and will receive a job ss of sort. " After selecting your path, you will return to your location in the wild expanse. Mom, Quinn, you two will level up to 10 after this quest, so look through your path as it will increase yourbat power greatly. " Quinn curiously asked, " What power did you get? " Aren smiled and shook his head, " I think everyone will be given unique options of paths. From the three options I got, I chose Emporio Armalist. Weird name, right? Anyway, you will understand when the timees.. For now, let''s finish thest quest. " Chapter 25 - Selection Of Paths [ Congrattions! Quest: Kill five Rage Goliaths,pleted. ] -2000 exp. [ You have leveled up. ] [ You have leveled up. ] [ You have leveled up. ] [ You have leveled up. ] ... Everyone in the team leveled up. Quinn and Lorain reached level 10, and Luna, who was also in another ce in the wilds, got the notification of thepleted quest and looked at her exp. -Name: Luna -Level: 9 [ 4480/5000 ] Exp. Looking at it, Luna thought, '' Although I killed some beasts here, I still need 520 exp more to level up to 10. Hmm.... I''ll just do that while searching for caves in another town. '' Thinking of that, She called Aren said, " I am going to Ludona town that was on the options list. " Aren--" Got it. " Luna then left the wild expanse before entering once again, but this time, in Ludona town. ... On the other hand, After Quinn and Lorain reached level 10, they disappeared in front of others and appeared in a dark ce. They experienced the same thing as Aren, and in the end, they were given three options. Quinn looked at her three options curiously. [ Seibaes Whisperer ] [ Spirit Invoker ] [ Brutus Zontheos ] [ Trust your instinct and choose your path ] ... On the other hand, Aren''s mom, Lorain, also got three unique options of paths. [ Wave Compeller ] [ Vita Denzanity ] [ Animo Weaver ] [ Trust your instinct and choose your path ] .... Outside... When Lorain and Quinn disappeared, others panicked, but Aren told them to calm down and said, " No need to worry. They have gone to a special ce and will re-" Before Aren could finish his sentence, They appeared once again with their eyes closed and a barrier covering them. Shortly after that, They opened their eyes, but their attention was directly focused on the multiple notifications they received and their status window. Lorain looked at the notification and added one talent point into the single blinking bubble among many other bubbles that were grayed out. Right after she did that, She felt unknown pain through her body for a brief second before she felt rity like never before. Her perception became pure and her senses also became sharp. She felt that she was in the best condition of her life and felt powerful like never before. [ Your soul has transformed due to the initiation of your path. Animo Core has been conjured and merged into your soul. Soul attribute increased by 10. ] [ Beginner Skills unlocked: Strengthening Threads, ckout. ] [ You have started walking on the path of Animo Weaver, In this path, you can strengthen allies, weaken enemies, and exert your influence over others. But that is just a surface and initial thing that an Animo Weaver can do! Progress in this path as you unlock the true mystical way of Animo Weaver. ] Lorain received knowledge regarding her skills and how to use her skills by using Animo Threads as she quickly understood it and then looked at her status. -Name: Lorain Azrael. -Level: 10 [ 440/10000 ] Exp. -Path: [ Animo Weaver ] -Health: [1000/1000] [ 50x20 constitution, 0 in Health results in death. ] -Soul: [100/100 ] -Life Stage: Mortal-1 -Spirit Energy Pool: [200/200] -Soul Energy: [200/200] -Mystic Field: 34/50 points [ Long Sword ]. -[Stats] -Stat points: 0 -Skill points: 1 -Abilities: -Skills: , , . -Inventory: Red berries [200]. . ''It looks like I will be able to use now since I have unlocked my soul. But I wonder about its effectiveness,'' Lorain thought before she looked at her Path status. <-Lorain-> [ Path- Animo Weaver ] -Level:1 [ 0/100 Exp ] -Animo Threads: 100/100. -Talent Points: 0 -Skills: Strengthening Threads, ckout. -Animo Core ( Core of the path, Merged with the soul. ) . -Cost: Min: 10 Animo Threads, Max: No limit. -Effect: You can conjure Three types of threads from your Animo Threads and infuse them into yourself or allies to strengthen them. Types of Threads: Red Threads, Blue Threads, and White Threads. ---->Red Threads: Increase their physical attributes by 30%. ---->Blue Threads: Increase their spirit energy potency by 30%. ---->White Threads: Increase their soul power by 30%. . -Cost: Min: 30, Max: no limit. -Effect: Seal all senses of the enemy for 10 seconds. ( Target with higher soul power can remove ckout earlier than 10 seconds. ) .... On the other hand, Quinn had done something different than Aren and Lorain. She didn''t choose her path by trusting her instinct. [ Seibaes Whisperer ] [ Spirit Invoker ] [ Brutus Zontheos ] ording to her instinct, She felt like choosing Seibaes Whisperer. This path rang more bells to her that she should choose this. Of course, the path [ Brutus Zontheos ] was also ringing bells but not as much as [ Seibaes Whisperer ] path. ording to the instruction shown and her instinct, she should choose [ Seibaes Whisperer ] But...she didn''t choose that. Instead, she chose [ Brutus Theorus ] path. '' This sounds more powerful and cool.. '' Is what Quinn thought when she looked at [ Brutus Zontheos ], and she chose that without hesitation. Chapter 26 - Plan In Motion. Quinn looked at the single blinking bubble among many other grayed-out bubbles and focused on it as she added 1 talent point. Right after that, she felt changes in her body and felt pain all over for a brief second before everything returned to normal. After that, She felt power coursing through her body and felt very strong. She also got several notifications and heard the voice. [ Zontheos Prism has been formed and merged into your soul. Your soul has unlocked shackles. Your body has received a boost due to Zontheos Prism; Your Strength, Constitution, and Agility stat increased by five points each. ] [ Beginner skills unlocked: Unbound Strike, Unbound Enchant. ] [ This path is one that you have chosen through your choice and not by following your instinct. But it matters not as you were only given suitable paths after everything about you taking into calctions. This path is also suitable for you but will not be as easy to walk through as the other two paths. ] [ This path is of extreme offense and requires a fearless and tough mentality. Throw away your fears now that you have started walking this path and forge forward bravely. ] Quinn was surprised, but she didn''t regret her choice and instead became determined, '' Extreme offense? I like it! " She then looked at her status. -Name: Quinn Tenkai. -Level: 10 [ 630/10,000 ] Exp. -Path: [ Brutus Zontheos ] -Health: [1200/1200] [ 50x24 constitution, 0 in Health results in death. ] -Soul: [100/100] -Life Stage: Mortal-2 -Spirit Energy Pool: [200/200] -Soul Energy: [100/100] -Mystic Field: 34/50 points [ Boomerang ]. -[Stats] -Stat points: 0 -Skill points: 1 -Abilities: -Skills: , , -Inventory: Spirit Water Barrel [1] '' I should be the strongest in terms of pure offense in the team now. '' Quinn smiled as she looked at this status. She then looked at her Path status. <-Quinn-> [ Path- Brutus Zontheos ] -Level:1 [ 0/100 Exp ] -Power Motes: 100/100. -Talent Points: 0 -Skills: Unbound Strike, Unbound Enchant. -Zontheos Prism( Core of the path, Merged with the soul. ) -Cost: Min: 10 power motes, Max: no limit. -Effect: A strike that can take the form of anything. This strike will convert all existing forms of power from the user ( including damage suffered ) into a purely physical attack and deliver to a target through any physical medium such as any body parts of the user or a weapon. The conversion of power will depend on the consumed power motes. . -Cost: Min: 50 power motes, Max: no limit. -Effect: Enchant the body of the user for five seconds. In these five seconds, All attacks received will damage the user as usual but also increase all physical attributes of the user ording to the damage suffered. Quinn received knowledge on how to use skills by using power motes already, so she couldn''t wait to test out those skills. ... After a minute, Lorain and Quinn were done with their things. Seeing that, Aren nodded and said, " Mom, Quinn, and Auntie (Quinn''s mother) you three will form a team and go to Fluorescent Town. Let''s not waste time and leave now. " The three of them nodded as they left the wild expanse. After that, Aren looked at the remaining fourteen people and told them to make teams of three. Bodyguard A, B, C. ( Team 1 ) Jason, Jason''s wife, and his son, Julian. ( Team 2 ) Borus, Bodyguard D, Bodyguard E ( Team 3 ) Bodyguard F, Bodyguard G, Bodyguard H ( Team 4 ) Bodyguard I, Bodyguard J ( Team 5 ) " Once someone finds red barries or spirit stones and if there are beasts in that cave, then don''t engage directly and call for teammates. " " Mr. Borus, you can distribute the barries to others, 25 berries to each person would be nice, but it''s your call on that. " After saying all that, Aren looked at everyone and nodded before speaking with a smile, " Choose different towns and start searching. I will be going first. " After that, Borus and others saw Aren disappearing. After he left, Julian said hurriedly, " Grandfather! after getting those barries and spirit stones, we don''t need to stick with Aren anymore, right? I think we all understood the general gist of things here, so it''s fine if we separate, right? " He really didn''t like Aren telling them what to do and what not. Now he also understood things and felt that he could do the same as Aren. Hearing him, Borus shook his head in disappointment and said, " Julia, don''t be blinded by ugly emotions. If Aren took us as strangers, then he could keep this thing a secret and hoard all benefits to himself. Do you know why he didn''t do that? " Julian shrank his neck before asking, " Why? " " You idiot, because he knows the bigger picture! Sigh...He has put his trust in us; He has taken this step first. And you are saying we should betray this trust? We should stick together in such times because no one knows what the future hold for us, but you...sigh." Borus shook his head and sighed as he looked at Julian. '' Why is there such a difference when they are almost of the same age?...sigh, I guess that''s how humans are. Not everyone is the same. '' Thought Borus in disappointment. He looked at Jason and said, " Jason, Let''s select the towns and be on our way. As Aren said, we shouldn''t waste time. " After that, all teams decided on which town they should go to and Borus also distributed 25 berries to everyone before they left the wild expanse. Chapter 27 - Flying Method, Gear Box. After Aren left the wild expanse, he decided to take a small break to know the world''s situation. He guessed that some people should have reached level 10, and some people are bound to show off. He went to the highway hotel, which didn''t have any customers, but an old man in his eighties was watching the tv with his mouth wide open. Aren was intrigued as he looked in the TV and saw also slightly shocked. The news reporter had an excited face as he spoke, " As you can that people are getting various mystical powers after reaching level 10 and choosing a so-called path. This man here is known as Lucious ck, and the path he has is known as Mystic Ravenforce. Just look; he is freely flying in the sky with his ck wings. ording to him, He can also shoot feather des from his wings, and with some mystical energy he possesses, he can create a forcefield of darkness. " After saying that, the report called out to Lucious, " Mr. Lucious ck, can you give a disy of those mystical powers you mentioned? " Lucious descended beside the reporter with a smile and said, " Of course. " He then looked around and pointed at the metal board attached to a building. " That metal board is quite sturdy, but I think my skill can easily break it apart. " After saying that, Lucious flew towards it and used his skill . The camera was zoomed at the ce as everyone saw Lucious releasing a barrage of feathers that shredded the metal boardpletely. Aren was also startled at that offense and the ability to fly, '' That''s...quite awesome. Wait..how could I forget that? Damn...'' Aren suddenly got an idea as he summoned his Articule Gear, Ikaros( Heavy Broad Sword ) and causing a shock to the old man watching the TV. " Young man. T-that s-sword... Hais, It looks like you got some mysterious powers as well. " The old man spoke as he looked at the sword floating in front of Aren and sighed, " But this bag of bones is old now, so I doubt I will be able to do anything even If I go there. " " Grandpa, don''t you have any family members? " Grandpa shook his head, " Nope, My wife died two years ago. I wanted to leave this world with her, but I guess God didn''t allow that. Now there''s just this small hotel and me. People have also stoppeding here after that government announcement as everyone seems to be entering that ce. " Aren smiled and said, " Grandpa, You should visit the Myriad Mountain because once you enter Wild Expanse, your age won''t matter as long as you get attribute points after leveling up. You will feel young and even more powerful than your prime after that. " Aren told grandpa what to do after arriving in the town. He told him to follow through some basic things and if he managed to get an easy quest, then do it. He also exined the risk that if he can''t finish the quest, he won''t be able to return here. " Hahaha. Alright, young man. I don''t have many years to live, so I might as well try so as not to feel any lingering regret that I didn''t even try. " After saying that, The grandpa thanked Aren for the tips and advice and disappeared. Aren wished good luck to the grandpa before he looked at his sword and grinned, " Let''s see if I can fly with this. " He controlled the sword and brought it to ground level before stood on it. Seeing that his weight didn''t affect the sword at all, He became excited and slowly controlled the sword as he brought it up five meters in the air from the ground. After that, he slowly started moving the sword with his thought with excitement in his eyes, '' Hahaha, I can really fly with this method. '' He increased the speed of moving the sword, but he felt that he would fall at fast speed and when turning to sides and flying curvy since there was no grip of his foot on the sword, '' I need to practice a bit to get the hang of body bnce while flying on the sword, but I''ll do that while searching for the caves in the Wild expanse. I guess people who mastered skateboard would be able to get the hang of flying on the sword instantly. '' ... Aren entered Ludona town because Luna was alone, and she was not level 10 yet. So in case, she encounters the same situation as those crysario beasts in the mountain cave, then she can''t defeat them alone. After entering the town, The first thing Aren did was to use his talent point. He looked at the two blinking gray bubbles, and when he focused on them, He got notifications and heard a voice. [ Armalist Drive+ ]-: Upgrade your Armalist Drive. Increases Armalist force capacity by 100 and Articule Gear slot by 1. [ Emporio Zone ]-: A crafting zone for Emporio Armalist. [ Unable to unlock this talent due to user''s insufficient soul power. ] -->Requires 50 points in soul stat. Since there was only one thing he could use his talent point on, He used it on [ Armalist Drive+ ]. <-Aren-> [ Path- Emporio Armalist ] -Level: 1 [ 350/1000 Exp ] -Armalist Force: 200/200 -Talent points: 0 -Skills: , -Articule Gears: [ Ikaros ]. --Slots: 3 ( 2 left ). < Talents > --> Armalist Drive+ ( core of the path, merged with the soul. ) Right after he used up his talent point, He got a notification. [ As the starting of this path is not as powerful as general paths, A Gear box has been added to your inventory as a reward for upgrading Armalist Drive. Choose one Articule Gear out of three. ] Aren was surprised and took out the box from the inventory. The box was silver with dreamy blue patterns and looked sci-fi. He opened the box, and three projections appeared in front of him. [ Arduex Boots ]-easy to use, easy to implement. [ Astral-X Eyeballs ]-easy to use, hard to implement if the user doesn''t possess tough will. [ Fauwin Coat ]-easy to use, easy to implement. " There are only names and images? No description of what the gear does? " Aren muttered with a frown, " Also, what''s with those eyeballs? Looks cool but creepy at the same time. " Chapter 28 - Enhanced Eyes, Rosflin. [ Astral-X Eyeballs ]-easy to use, hard to implement if the user doesn''t possess tough will. Aren looked at this description and thought with a grin, ''Well, I would like to believe that I possess tough will. So I choose it.'' Right after Aren selected [ Astral-X Eyeballs ], a barrier covered him, and he also couldn''t see anything as if someone had removed his eyes. Just a moment after that, He felt intense pain shooting through his brain; he felt hot liquid on his face as a scream left his mouth due to severe pain. "W-what....My eyes..Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa..." Aren writhed in pain as he rolled on the ground with a barrier covering three meters radius with him as the center. He suffered in pain for fifty seconds before the pain finally disappeared. *phant...phant...phant...* Aren took heavy breaths while his whole body was covered in sweat. He justid on the with his eyes closed and didn''t move for the whole five minutes. "So this is what it meant by one must have a tough will to implement that gear? fuck..." A curse finally left his mouth as he finally opened his eyes. He stood up and looked around as, from the situation of the things, Those Astral-X eyeballs should have been implemented in his eyes. ''Hmmm, My eyesight has gotten better. Wait...I can zoom in and zoom out? what the f-'' Aren was dumbfounded as when he focused on a faraway person, His eyes actually zoomed in, and he could clearly see him. But the next second, He got a bigger surprise. He actually saw the basic status of that person. Lifestage: [ Mortal-1 ] Health: [ 850/850 ] Soul: [ 100/100 ] Spirit Energy: [ 200/200 ] Strength: 17 Constitution: 17 Agility: 18 Soul: 0 Meridians: 1.2% Aren was shocked and wondered, ''If I can see the status of people, then surely I should be able to see the status of beasts and monsters too, right?'' Thinking of that, Aren didn''t waste time and left the town gates before summoning his sword, Ikaros. ''Oh yeah, I have to ask Luna which direction she went after leaving town.'' Aren thought as he spiritually contacted Luna. --Aren, " Which direction did you go after leaving the town? " --Luna, " East. " --Aren, " Got it. " After that, Aren stood on his sword and started flying in the west direction. At first, he moved slowly and tried a few turns and curves to adjust his body bnce on the broad de of the sword. ''It looks like I won''t take much longer to master my body bnce on the sword while flying. Hmmm...I guess the agility stat is at its works in this department of the body too. The reflexes of my body and body bnce have been increased considerably due to that stat,'' Aren thought as he slowly raised the flying speed of the sword. But after ten seconds, He felt pressure on top of him and looked up only to smile weakly,'' Ipletely forgot about him.'' "Aren! Waaaa, when will you recharge this mobile? I had already waited for more than a day, but you disappeared. You were at another ce just a while ago, but you disappeared from there and suddenly appeared here." The small red dragon, Rosflin, flew down before transforming into his little boy form and flew alongside Aren with his dragon wings. Aren smiled helplessly and said, "Sorry, Rosflin. On that day, I fell into the cave, and after that, I was utterly absorbed in my n of finding the spirit stones and red barriers." [ Red Dragon ( young ) ] Lifestage: [ ??? ] Health: [???/???] Soul: [???/???] Spirit Energy: ? Strength: ? Constitution: ? Agility: ? Soul: ? Magic Force: ? ''All question marks? Hmm...It looks like I am not powerful enough to sense Rosflin''s stats. '' Aren thought before he paused and jumped down from his sword. " You are going to charge this mobile phone?" Rosflin also paused with an excited expression as he gave his mobile phone to Aren. Aren smiled and nodded as he took the mobile phone, "It will take an hour to charge it, so you have to wait for that much." "It''s okay, it''s okay. I can wait for that much." Rosflin repeatedly nodded. After that, Aren disappeared and appeared at the hotel since he entered Wild Expanse from that position. "There should be a simr charger here," Aren muttered as he entered inside the hotel and found the board with several charges on it. He found the cable that could charge his phone in there among other chargers'' cables and put his phone on charging before he entered Wild Expanse again. He saw Rosflin still there and grinned, "I put the phone in charge. It will be done after an hour." "Yey! Then let''s go. I will stay with you for an hour. What were you finding again?" Rosflin cheered excitedly before asking with a happy smile. Aren first mounted on the sword and started flying before taking out a red Barrie from his inventory, " I am finding these red barries and a stone known as spirit stone. " "Oh...I don''t know about those red barries, but I know about spirit stones." Rosflin raised his eyebrows while saying that as he took out a spirit stone from thin air and gave it to Aren before asking, ''Is this the same thing you are finding?'' Aren looked at the stone, and without touching it, He got the information. [ Spirit stone V ] -Rank: Epic -Effect: Contains Force level 5 spirit energy-[100,000/100,000]. [ Note:- A mortal can''t use this level of spirit stone. ] Aren smiled weakly and said, "I am indeed finding spirit stones, but this is much too high a level for me. I am finding spirit stones that people of my level can use." "Oh...That I don''t know. I only know this type of spirit stones as they are mined by workers at the mountain behind my home." Rosflin said before he put away the spirit stone. Aren smiled and said, "It''s okay. It''s useless to me anyway." Suddenly, He paused as he saw a mountain cave and entered inside. Rosflin also followed. First, he checked the mountain caves and saw that there were no beasts inside. But there were also no red barries. After that, he checked the ground of the cave to see if there was any underground path. After all, spirit stones seem to be in underground caves. He felt the ground thumping it with his leg and put his ears on the ground to check before finally concluding that there was an underground cave below this. ''Let''s hope I find a spirit stone below. ''Thinking of that, He was just going to use skill to destroy the ground but remembered that there was no need to. He turned to rosflin and grinned, "Rosflin, can you destroy this ground? I want to go below since there''s an underground cave." "Oh...Alright." Rosflin nodded before he put his right leg up and smacked it down. *BOOOOOOM.....* Chapter 29 - Arens Thinking. Luna Levels Up. After Rosflin created a giant hole leading to the underground cave by stomping his feet on the ground, Aren and Rosflin descended. But unfortunately, Aren didn''t find any spirit stone here. He flew out from the underground cave by mounting on his sword while Rosflic simply flew out with his wings. "What now, Aren?" Aren grinned, "Continue searching. I think whoever set everything up expected people to find at least one spirit stone and a field of Red berries near each beginner town." ... Both of them continued flying in search, and after fifty minutes, they finally found another underground cave that contained a spirit water pond. Aren dug it out to get the spirit stone buried beneath it before leaving the underground cave. An hour had also passed since he put the mobile on charging, so Aren looked at the puppy-eyed Rosflin, who was also thinking of the same thing. "The mobile phone should be fully charged by now. I''ll go and bring it here," Aren smiled. "Yey!" Rosflin cheered and saw Aren disappearing. Before a minute passed, Rosflin saw Aren appearing again. ''It looks like the little dragon has gotten addicted to the video game,'' Thought Aren as he looked at the excited Rosflin. "Alright, here you go," Aren smiled and gave the mobile phone to Rosflin, who took it with excitement in his eyes. "Thank you, Aren. Hehehe, I will now return ande back when I need to charge it again," Rosflic said as he prepared to fly away. "Wait. Here, take this charger." Aren said as he stretched his hand and threw the charger at Rosflin, who caught it with confusion on his face. "How do I use this?" Rosflin asked as he curiously looked at the charger. Aren first exined the basics of using the charger before going to the main point, "After plugging that cable in mobile, you need to connect the other end of that cable to a source of electricity. I''m sure there are many sources of electricity here, right? " "Yes, there are thunder pools behind the mountain where my home is located," Rosflin nodded, "So I just need to put the other end of the cable into thunder pool, and it will charge the mobile phone?" Aren hollowlyughed as he shook his head, "Don''t do that. Otherwise, it will likely blow up the mobile phone. If you can control the flow of electricity, then flow it with minimum power into the other end of the charger. That way, you might be able to charge the mobile phone without blowing it up." "Okay. I will try that," Rosflin nodded with a serious expression before he bowed, "Thank you again, Aren." Aren faintly smiled and nodded, "Go have fun." *swoosh...* Rosflin transformed into dragon form and flew away as he couldn''t wait to y the game after returning to his home. Others might think that Aren did a stupid thing by giving Rosflin the charger and telling him how to charge the mobile. But he didn''t think like that. He saw the future and how Rosflin''s father would think when Aren did something like that. After all, Aren guessed that...Rosflin''s father is always keeping an eye on Rosflin. He was not sure, and it was just his guess, but he decided to believe that guess as a fact. Aren is bound to receive appreciation from Rosflin''s father, even if it''s minuscule from this action. That big dragon is quite intelligent, and there was no way that he wouldn''t be able to find a way to charge the mobile phone. So Aren thought that it''s better to be straightforward and honest about it. ... After Rosflin left, Aren continued to search, but he received a spiritual call from Luna shortly after that. Luna--"Aren! I found a field of Red berries, but two dangerous beasts were guarding it, and I couldn''t beat them on my own. They are like rhinos but tougher, so I can''t one-shot them." Aren--"Let''s meet up at town." Luna--"I am already on the way to the town." ... Aren turned around as he flew back to the town while riding on Ikaros. He had gotten quite a hang of flying on the sword, and simple maneuvers were already no problem to him. ''Let''s see if I can use spirit energy to increase my grip on the sword,'' Aren thought as he tried to controlled spirit energy towards the soles of his feet. "Ouch!.." *thud...* Aren suddenly lost bnce and fell to the ground. He felt a sharp pain on the soles of his feet before the pain slowly subsided after a minute. "Phew...," Aren dusted off his clothes as he stood up before muttering, "I guess I need to unlock more meridians on my leg and feet to freely control the spirit energy in that part. Hmm...Ultimately, I need to unlock all meridians to freely control the spirit energy throughout my body. " After resting for a minute, the painpletely subsided before he started moving again and flew towards the town. After meeting up with Luna, they both reached the mountain cave that contained Red berries. Both stood outside of the mountain cave''s entrance as Luna told Aren about the situation. "So the Red berries are right in the first cave? It looks like we have no choice but to fight head-on," Aren said before he thought about something and asked Luna," How much exp do you need before you hit level 10?" Luna wryly smiled as she said, "I just need 18 exp. Should I find a beast and kill it to get exp and level up first?" " No need. Let''s just finish off those rhino-beasts first, " Aren said as he started walking towards the cave entrance. After telling Luna about what to do, Aren used before entering the cave entrance. After he entered the cave, He nced at one of the rhino-beast and instantly received its information through his new eyes. [ Brown-stone Rhino ] -Grade: Common-4. -Health: [ 1300/1300 ] -Defense: Physical [ 400/400 ] Soul [ 100/100 ] -Attack: [ 700 ] -Skill: Rocket Horn. '' So I can indeed see the status of beasts. Awesome,'' Thought Aren with a grin as he released powered up towards one of the rhinos. *Roarr...* On the other hand, Luna released towards the 2nd Brown-stone Rhino. Aren''s powered up hit Brown-Stone Rhino and instantly killed it by cutting it to two from the middle. [ A Brown-stone Rhino killed, 450 exp gained. ] But Aren received another pleasant surprise when his hit the Brown-stone Rhino. [ -1780 damage ] This number floated right on top of Brown-stone Rhino when his hit the beast. ''So I can see the damage I deal too? This is very convenient,'' Thought Aren before he looked at Luna''s battle. "Luna, be careful of its ability to shoot its horn like a rocket," Aren warned Luna. "Got it." After hitting Brown-stone Rhino with , Luna used to increase her movement speed by 80% for 10 seconds. She dashed towards the injured Brown-stone Rhino and hit it with her daggers one time before she focused on the Rhino''s horn. Seeing it glowing, Luna instantly dodged to the side before the horn could attack her and then dashed towards the Brown-stone Rhino before finally killing it by repeatedly stabbing at the head wound she created by using earlier. [ A Brown-stone Rhino killed, 450 exp gained. ] [ Congrattions! You have leveled up to 10. ] [ The process of Lifestage elevation will start in 3 seconds. ] Hearing the notifications, Luna looked at Aren with an excited smile, "It''s time for me to choose my path." "Good luck," Aren faintly smiled as Luna disappeared. Chapter 30 - Lunas Path, Inexplicable Phenomenon. Luna experienced the same thing as Aren, Quinn, and Lorain and got three options. [ Deux Shi Maestro ] [ Primal Avatarist ] [ Sogek High-Reaper ] [ Trust your instinct and choose your path. ] ... Aren saw Luna appearing once again after a second of her disappearance. He let Luna look at her path and adjust things while he started gathering berries. At this time, Luna stood up and saw several notifications. She also saw a new status window about her path. She first added the talent point into the single blinking bubble. Right after that, she saw several notifications once again. [ Your soul has transformed due to the initiation of your path. Your soul has been unshackled. Deux Shi Orb has been conjured and merged with your soul. ] [ Your strength, constitution, agility, and soul attributes increased by 2 points. ] [ Beginner Skill unlocked: Death Spirit Invocation, Shi Transmutation. ] [ You have started walking on the path of Deux Shi Maestro. This path is a path of death, spirit, ghost, and such things. But what lies at the end of this path is a mystery. To find out that, walk on this path fearlessly and boldly, for you can not ovee death otherwise. ] Luna received knowledge regarding the beginner skills and how to use them by using the power of Deux Shi Orb that is merged with her soul. Luna distributed her stat points and then looked at her status. -Name: Luna -Level: 10 [ 432/10000 ] Exp. -Path: Deux Shi Maestro. -Health: [1050/1050] -Life Stage: Mortal-2 -Spirit Energy Pool: [200/200] -Soul Energy: [100/100] -Mystic Field: 0/50 points. -[Stats] -Stat points: 0 -Skill points: 0 -Abilities: -Skills: , , -Inventory: Blight Tooth Daggers, Red Berries[424], Spirit Water Barrels[2], Spirit Stone[2]. After looking at her status, she looked at the new status that appeared beside this one. <-Luna-> [Path- Deux Shi Maestro ] -Level:1 [ 0/100 Exp ] -Deux Particles: 100/100. -Talent Points: 0 -Skills: Death Spirit Invocation, Shi Transmutation. -Deux Shi Orb ( Core of the path, Merged with the soul. ) . -Cost: 10 Deux Particles to invoke and unknown Deux Particles to bind( depends on target). -Effect: Invokes a dead spirit from surroundings and starts a process to bind it after the user has chosen the target. . -Cost: Depends on target. -Effect: Combine two spirits and transmute them to create a new spirit. [ As your path has a weak startling line, You will be given a random high-grade spirit. Check your inventory. ] Luna saw thest line of notification and was surprised as she thought, '' This path...feels creepy, but how strange that I feelfortable with it. '' She then took out a glowing ck egg that was 1 meter tall with skull imprints on it from her inventory. Aren suddenly felt chilly and looked at Luna, only receive a shock, "What is that...creepy thing?" Luna chuckled and said, "It''s supposed to be a death spirit. It seems that I need to give it some of my Deux particles to hatch it." With a curious gaze, Luna put her hand on the creepy egg and infused the Deux particles inside the egg. But just as she infused a bit of her Deux particles inside the egg, the egg moved and vibrated as cracks appeared all over its surface. Aren also looked at it with a curious expression as the egg slowly cracked. *crackk....* After two seconds, Luna and Aren saw a hand breaking out of the cage before the egg started to melt into ck energy. "Wh-what!" Aren and Luna both were startled to see the spirit and immediately recognized it as one of the mythical creatures of folk tales. Tengu. The head of a beaked man with crow-like wings behind his back and sharp, deadly talons. As Aren''s gazended on it, He also received its status information. [ Undead Tengu ] -Grade: High Undead. -Growth: 1st phase. -Health: [2000/2000] -Defense: Physical [600/600], Soul [800/800] -Attack: Physical [700], Soul [700] -Skills: , "What the...this tengu quite powerful," Aren spoke with a surprised expression after seeing its status. Hearing him, Luna was startled, "You can also see its status?" Aren wryly smiled and nodded, "Well, I couldn''t before, but now I can because of my eyes. Didn''t I tell you that my eyes are enhanced in more than one way? Well, one of the benefits is that I can see the status of things more clearly and can also see the status of creatures and other people." "Ohh...That''s certainly very useful." Luna nodded before she looked at Tengu, "Hello. can you speak?" Tengu''s eyes were closed all the time, and hearing Luna''s voice, he opened his eyes and looked at Luna before bowing, "Yes, master. I can speak." "Cool...Hehehe. Then let''s go and find more of such ces." Luna spoke before she looked at Aren. But Aren shook his head and said, "Nope. We are done searching for things. Now it''s time to progress. It''s enough if each of our team can find two spirit stones and two fields of red berries each. These things are indeed mystical and valuable, but their value is limited and corrting to our strength. As we get more powerful, the effect of those things will wear down, and...we should get out from this newbie area now that we have chosen our paths. " Luna realized something and said, "Are you talking about the small army of knights with a carriage that I saw?" Aren grinned and nodded, "Yep. We are in a small pond right now. But it''s time that we leave this pond and see the world. We will explore and move far away to search a bigger town, city, or something like that of a sort but before that-" Aren paused there as he sat down crossed-legged, "-It''s time that we finish our task of forming spirit core. This cave is a safe ce now that there are no creatures here." Luna nodded as she also sat down crossed-legged and started forming the spirit core ording to their knowledge after they reached level 10. [ A/N: There was a mistake in chapter 22 (which I have already fixed) where I mentioned a quest about forming the spirit core. But it was not a quest but a simple task. That''s why they could leave the wild expanse. A quest is something where you finish a mission and get a reward for it, but the thing about spirit core was just telling them to form a spirit core and nothing else. ] ... While Aren, Luna, and other millions of people were adventuring in the Wild Expanse, something terrifying was happening on Earth. Because suddenly, patches of dark clouds appeared in several ces on Earth and upied several gound areas. The government described them as clouds, but they were actually gaseous dark energy covering several areas in various ces on Earth. People who were at those spots hurriedly left, and the government started investigating those ces. But soon....they would know that something terrifying was brewing inside those areas filled with dark energy patches. Chapter 31 - Forming Spirit Core, Mass Panic-1 Aren and Luna were sitting crossed-legged as they gathered the spirit energy from their body towards the abdomen area and followed the instruction ording to the knowledge they received. They superimposed and condensed the spirit energy by feeling it and created a small ball of spirit energy. ''ording to the information, once we finish this step, we have to infuse the energy of our paths into the condensed ball of spirit energy,'' Thought Aren and Luna as they formed their spirit cores. Aren controlled his Armalist force as he infused it inside the condensed orb of spirit energy, while Luna did the same as she infused her Deux Shi Particles into the orb of spirit energy. Right after the infusion, both of them trembled for a moment as they felt strength coursing through their body and heard a voice inside their heads. [ Congrattions! You have sessfully formed your spirit core. The spirit core will be your secondary source of strength. ] [ With the formation of spirit core, Your physical body has received a slight boost. Your strength, agility, and constitution increased by 2 points. Your spirit energy pool has been increased by 100.] These two notifications were simr for both of them, but the next ones were different. Luna saw the notification and was surprised. [ The empowerment and formation of your spirit core are from the source of your path. Thus, you have awakened your affinity with the death and darkness element. ] [ As you walk on your path, you will gradually raise the affinity of those elements. But you will have toprehend them to increase them at that time. ] Luna then saw another type of status popping up. [Affinity] ->Death:- Level 1 affinity. ---->Understanding of element: 0% ->Darkness:- Level 1 affinity. ---->Understanding of element: 0% She also saw additional things on her main status window. " Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.....," On the other hand, Aren started convulsing due to sudden pain. "What happened, Aren?" Luna panicked as she turned towards Aren after hearing his scream. "This....what should I do? What is happening to him?" Luna muttered as she watched Aren and didn''t know what to do. But after a few seconds, Aren stopped screaming, and as he stood up and wiped away the sweat from his face before sighing. It seems that pain is going to be his best friend from now on. First, he got that ability that inflicts pain on him if he uses it, then he suffered intense pain because of Astral-X Eyeballs gear and now this. "What happened to you, Aren? You looked like you were in a lot of pain," Luna asked with worry and curiosity in her voice. Aren weakly smiled and shook his head before saying, "It''s probably because of forming my spirit core." After saying that, he looked at the notification and knew why he felt pain and felt stronger after that pain. [ The empowerment and formation of your spirit core are from the source of your path. But since your path doesn''t provide affinity with any element, you will have to acquire them by other means. ] [ Although your spirit core doesn''t provide any affinity, your spirit core provides another kind of benefit due to your path. This benefit is Armalist Force Enhancement. ] [ Armalist Force Enhancement will upgrade as your make progress in your path. ] -Level: 1 -Initial Effect: All meridians in your body are unlocked, and your control of spirit energy has increased. -General Effect: Level 2 spirit energy control, All your stats increases by +2. Afterward, Aren looked at his status and sucked in a cold breath with a pleasant surprise in his eyes. -Name: Aren Azrael -Level: 10 [ 6010/10000 ] Exp. -Path: Emporio Armalist [ Level: 2 ] -Health: [ 1100/1100 ] -Soul: [ 100/100 ] -Life Stage: Mortal-2 [ Basic Spirit Core formed. ] -Spirit Energy Pool: [ 10200/10200 ] -Soul Energy: [ 100/100 ] -Mystic Field: 0/150 points -[Stats] -Stat points: 0 -Skill points: 1 -Abilities: , . -Skills: , , -Inventory: Cursed Shofar, Deep Blue Gemstone, Red Berries [ 1487 ], Spirit Water Barrel [1], Spirit stone [1]. Aren also saw that the cost of his skills that uses spirit energy decreased by half, ''Probably due to that effect about increased spirit control. I do indeed feel that my control of spirit energy increased significantly.'' Seeing Aren''s expression, Luna''s curiosity increased as she asked, "What happened? What kind of affinity did you get?" Aren shook his head and grinned towards Luna, "Unfortunately, I didn''t get any affinity, but my meridians stat reached 100%." " 100%...," Luna muttered before her eyes turned wide, "So your current spirit energy pool is ten thousand two hundred?" "Hehehe, yep. I am going to use this initial advantage fully while it''s relevant." Aren said with a wide smile. "While It''s relevant? Ohh...I see." Luna understood the meaning of Aren and nodded, "Indeed. Everyone will unlock their meridians anyway, but you unlocked early. You can spam your skills to kill powerful beasts and progress faster." "Yep. But I suspect that there are other ways to unlock meridians because it seems unrealistic just to unlock all meridians by practicing skills. After all, many skills use simr meridians, and it will take a lot of time to get sufficient skills that use every meridian in our body," Aren said with a thoughtful expression. Luna thought about it and nodded, "You are right. And I think that the way to unlock our meridians lies in finding advanced ces...for instance, that small army of knights I saw seem to be from such advanced ce." Aren nodded in agreement, and just as he opened his mouth to speak, both of them heard a voice in their heads. Not just two of them but every single person in Wild Expanse who was from earth heard a voice. [ You will be sent out from Wild Expanse in three seconds to face the Destruction Giants on the Earth. Fight wisely, and don''t die. ] [3] [2] [1] ... *GRRRRRR....* At this time, all those patches of dark energy on earth had changed as many ten-meter-tall dark brown giants appeared with big clubs in their hands and started attacking wildly. Mass panic ensued.... Chapter 32 - Destruction Giants, Mass Panic-2 At thest second, Luna remembered something and grabbed Aren''s hand before both of them disappeared. In the darkness, they got two options to appear at two ces, and both of them selected the ce of Aren as they appeared near the hotel on the highway. *HRRRRRRRRRRR...* Right after they appeared at the hotel, They were shocked to see a giant ten meters tall dark brown giant with a giant club in his hand. Aren''s eyes gleamed as he got the information about it and gulped. [ Destruction Giant V1 ] -Rank: Common -Health: 23,000/23,000 -Defense: Physical [500], Soul [ 100 ]. -Attack: 5000 -Skill: , "Luna! One hit of that giant, and we will die instantly, so be careful. Spread out and attack from sides. Tell your Tengu to attack it with soul attacks!" Aren hurridly spoke as he jumped on his sword and flew towards the giant''s head to attract its attention. At this time, many people were on the ground in front of them, and they were panicking. All of them were from the slum. After all, all people were forced to leave the Wild Expanse. Aren also saw his mother, Quinn, and the Tenkai family at another ground where their cars were park but he didn''t have time to there because if that giant reached those other people, they would be ughtered. There was another giant five hundred meters away from this ce on the highway, and it wasing here too. Aren flew in front of the giant''s head, and seeing an ant appearing in front of him, the giant growled before using his hand to swat at Aren. But Aren nimbly dodged before he released his skill by waving his right hand at the giant while thinking, ''I have to destroy its eyes, first.'' The wind sh hit the left eye of the giant as a [-978] number floated near the eye, indicating the damage of Wind sh. *Roar....* But that was not enough to destroy its eye; expecting this, Aren already released another at the same eye while dodging another swat of the giant who roared loudly. At this time, Tengu also flew at the giant''s back and swiped its w on its head as ck w projections released from Tengu''s hand and attacked the giant. [-678] [-241] Aren was surprised to see two numbers floating, but the color of [-678] was different than the usual numbers he had seen before as this number was colored pale grey. '' It must be soul damage. '' Thinking of this, Aren didn''t waste time on other things and attacked the giant. At this time, Quinn, Lorain, and others also noticed a person flying on the sword in front of the giant. " That''s Aren! " Quinn shouted before turning to Lorain, " Auntie, let''s attack. " Lorain nodded as they dashed towards the giant but not too close since they released their long-range skills first. Lorain released while Quinn released and also used on her boomerang before throwing it towards the giant''s legs. They attacked the giant''s legs to make it incapacitated. Aren asionally nced down and saw that many other people had started attacking the giant with long-range attacks as he upied the giant''s attention. [-947]-Sword Beam. [-969]-Water Bullets. [-1012]-Double Rend. [-478] [-674] [-347] ... [9745/23,000] Numbers floated, and Aren also destroyed the left eye of the giant with three wind shes before he proceeded to attack the giant''s right eye while dodging his attacks. *Roarrrrrr....* The giant roared in pain as it was attacked by all around him and raised the club in his hand. The club also started to shine in dark light. Seeing this, Aren panicked and looked down as he shouted with everything he had, " DODGE! MOVE AWAY! " The giant didn''t take an hour to smack the club down but only took two seconds, and in those two seconds...not many people could get away due to panic. Lorain, Quinn, Borus, and other family members and bodyguards of the Tenkai family used their movement skills to get away from the giant once they saw him raising the club while also shouting for other people to run, but...unfortunately, not all people could run away from its range, and in panic, some didn''t even use their movement skills. *BOOM...* The club brought a shockwave, and those near the shockwave instantly died while some were slightly injured. Those who used their skills to run away instantly were safe but seeing the mess of blood in front of them; many couldn''t hold back and puke. Aren closed his eyes and turned his face towards the giant before opening his eyes again. He didn''t want to look at the mess below, but his eyes showed grief and slight fear. Fear for others because he could see its another skill < Berserk Rush > and from the name, he guessed that it would bring nothing else but carnage. At this time, Another giant also arrived, and seeing it, Aren didn''t waste time as he gritted his teeth and waved both of his hands towards the giant''s right eye as two wind shes released, but he didn''t stop and released third wind sh right after that andpletely destroyed the right eye of the giant as well. Another barrage of the attack came from Quinn, Lorain, and others before the giant''s whole body started glowing. [4890/23,000] At this time, The other giant raised its club before attacking the group of people attacking it from the side. But that group of eight people dodged the attack. Aren noticed that the group who wore military uniforms and two other military vehicles followed this second giant here before several people left the vehicle and joined in the attack by releasing various skills. ''There are two big guns on those vehicles; why aren''t they using it? Two people who can use long-range attacks should also use those guns. '' Aren thought with a frown. He then looked at the giant in front of him that was glowing in a red aura, ''It''s going to use its damn...'' He waved his hands to release two more wind shes and hoped that everyone could kill it before it finished activating the skills. At this time, The giant roared and threw the club in front of him. Aren''s face changed as he dodged the club that flew towards him. *Roarrrrrr* On the ground below, Lorain closed her eyes for a moment before she opened them and used her skill towards Aren to increase her son''s physical strength. But she didn''t stop and released another skill on the giant. Aren, who was floating in the sky, suddenly felt his strength increasing. He looked at his attributes and was surprised. He didn''t notice, but a second ago, several red threads entered inside his body. But he noticed a ck fog with dark threads moving towards the giant and entering inside its head, which caused a panicked and distressed growl to leave the giant''s mouth. He noticed that something about the giant''s status had changed. [ Destruction Giant ]-Status debuff: ckout. -Health: [1978/23,000] He focused on that thing and managed to get information about ckout. ckout: All senses of the giant are sealed for ten seconds. But Aren and others didn''t waste time as they attacked the giant with precious two seconds brought to them by ckout which distressed the giant and stopped its rush. If the giant''s senses were not sealed, then it wouldn''t have reacted that way and should have started rushing forward. [ 0/23,000 ] The giant fell to the ground and turned into dark motes before disappearing. But people at no time to rejoice because... *ROAR.....* Aren looked at the second giant that started glowing in red, and he instantly grimaced because this giant still had a considerable amount of health. [10,674/23,000] " ATTACK THE GIANT''S RIGHT EYE. " Aren shouted with all of his strength after he flew towards the military group. If they didn''t destroy the giant''s eyes, the might bring considerable carnage. He just had this bad feeling looking at that skill. The leader, who looked like a middle-aged man, frowned hearing the shout but seeing the panicked expression on Aren and the seriousness in his voice, he spoke, " Attack its right eye. " " Butmander, our attacks seem to have more effect on its neck and heart part. " " Just do as I say. " On the other hand, Aren also started attacking it, but after two seconds, He could only destroy the left eye of the giant. But he sighed a relief seeing that the other group managed to destroy its right eye. Right after the two seconds were over, The giant once again roared loudly and threw the club away before rushing towards the group with a red aura surrounding its body. The speed of the giant seemed to have suddenly increased as it dashed in the direction of the military group. " Damn! " The military group cursed, but not all of them could escape this fast dash of the giant as two people were mashed into a meat patty. [4102/23,000] But since the giant was blinded, It continued to rush towards the empty highway. Seeing that, The military group and all other people started sweating buckets. If the giant didn''t lose its eyesight...then the giant would''ve killed a lot more people with that dangerous fast dash before they managed to kill it. But Aren didn''t rest and followed the giant as he just thought of a superb idea. Chapter 33 - Carnage Vs. Courage. At the headquarter of the union government, a meeting was being held where various presidents andmanders discussed. "Commander Gothwell, It''s of no use. We tried all kinds of weapons, but none of them managed to injure those giants. Whenever we try to attack those giants with our missiles or guns, a golden barrier appears around them and protect them." "Sigh...so whatever power that is behind this phenomenon wants us to kill those monsters by using the power we gained in Wild Expanse? What exactly is their goal?" "I think it will be very far-fetched for us to guess their goal. With the appearance of these giants, it''s certain that we will really face the so-called ''Despair'' which has the chance to make us extinct." "Should we try to see if we can nuke the monsters? The golden barrier might not be able to handle the power of a nuke." "No! Although our weapons can''t hurt those monsters, they are still being killed by people with the power they gained in the wild expanse. We also can''t nuke them because all those dark clouds were at the human-popted ces, and the giant spawned from there. If we want to nuke, we will have to evacuate public, and we don''t have such luxury since everyone is attacking the giants." "I am sure more of such monsters will spawn in the future, and we can try out nukes on them at that time to see if that golden barrier can defend against it or not. But, for now, let''s focus on the current situation." "Yes, apparently, no one is able to enter the wild expanse right now." "Hmm...I think we need to kill all giants to thest one before we can enter." ... Lorain and Quinn were worried, so they decided to follow Aren, and Luna also joined as the three of them started running on the highway towards the urban area. On the other hand, Aren''s situation was different, He was not chasing the giant anymore, but the giant was chasing him. The giant couldn''t see Aren since it was blind, but Aren would attack it often, and because of that, the giant would know the direction of Aren and follow him. That''s how Aren led it towards the urban area. Aren was flying at almost full speed, and the giant was also chasing him with a fast running speed with a red aura covering its body. "There it is...," Aren muttered as he entered the urban area and directly saw one giant fighting with a group of people. There were other people, but most of them were busy panicking. "MOVE AWAY!" Aren shouted as he increased his flying speed to the max. People also noticed loud sounds due to the running giant behind Aren and were shocked to see them moving towards them. Everyone hurriedly scrambled away as Aren once again attacked the giant so that it follows him. The giant that followed Aren was blind, so that giant didn''t know that it was going to crash into a fellow giant. Aren knew that the red aura covering the giant made it extremely strong. On the way here, The giant broke through all obstacles while chasing Aren. The other giant that was attacking people noticed it and roared loudly to activate its berserk rush but s... It was toote. Aren whizzed past the giant while flying on his sword, but the giant that was following him crashed into the roaring giant and... *BOOOM...* Aren turned back and was surprised to see the floating number of damage. [-11,700] [-5800] Both giants instantly died after the crash as they turned into dark motes. ''No wonder those militiamen died like that right after that giant crashed them with its body. The force and shockwave behind that hit instantly sted their bodies apart.'' Thought while flying deeper into the city. But the next scene he saw in the city instantly made him puke. Aren''s breathing turned ragged witnessing the scene. Carnage! Two giants were running around with a red aura covering them. People had already given up attacking them due to extreme fear as they were just running for their life. But a man who seemed to be in histe twenties dashed towards one of the giants with red eyes," Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa....." He had a halberd in his hand, and he had lost his mind after seeing his wife and mother die in front of him. Unfortunately...One touch from the fast-running giant sted his body, and he died. Seeing the streets and demolished buildings painted in blood, Aren''s mind had turned nk, and his breathing became very rugged. This scene looked like it was hell. *Roarrr....* ''C-calm down. I have to calm down first, '' Aren evened out his breath as he tried to maintain his rationale. The first thing was to calm himself. Taking a few deep breaths while closing his eyes, He calmed down before...he opened his eyes filled with resolve and flew towards one of the giants. His current expression was inly...it was inly filled with anger and determination. His brain''s gears worked fast as he overtook one of the giants and stood on the intact building. He jumped down from the sword and used on his sword before releasing towards the iing giant. The empowered wind sh impably hit the weak spot of the giant, which was its neck. [-2874] [847/20,000] The giant was still alive as it dashed towards Aren. But Aren didn''t move from his position as he knew about the giant''s health and released another towards the giant. [-978] This wind sh finished off the giant as it turned into dark motes. On the other hand, Aren once again jumped on his sword before flying towards the second giant that was rampaging. [6148/20,000] This giant had more health, but Aren nned to use this giant to kill another one whose roar he just heard as it came from deeper into the city. The fire in him about getting stronger burned even brighter than before as he didn''t want to see this happening to his mother and friends. ''Even if this giant is not blind; It''s still just mindlessly rushing after me. Hmm...There shouldn''t be any problem to use it to do mutual destruction of two giants...especially if both are doing berserk rush.'' Thought Aren as he nced at another giant in front of him that was rampaging with a red aura coating around its body. Aren waved his hand while flying forward, and when he was in the proper range, he waved his hand and released towards the second rampaging giant in front of him to attract its attention. *Roarrrrrrr.....* Provoked, The giant changed direction and rushed towards Aren while roaring. Aren continued flying towards it as one giant was rushing behind him while another wasing in front of him. ''Come on!'' Aren thought as he waited for the right moment before flying upward. *BOOOOOM....* Both giants crashed into each other... [-11,700] [-11,700] And turned into dark motes before disappearing. He then continued flying forward in the search for more giants, and if some of them were still rampaging, he would put them down. But as he went deeper, He saw many people resting and crying with the blood-filled ground around them. At this time, most of the giants were killed all around the world. Aren also didn''t see any giants rampaging, but...scenery he saw while flying was akin to hell. They also saw Aren flying, but they didn''t have any other feelings except for depression due to this event. Naturally, many people will rise from this experience and will be more determined to be stronger, just like Aren. ... On the other hand, Quinn, Lorain, and Luna also arrived in the city, and their face lost all blood seeing the situation that was like hell. Seeing so much blood and flesh scattered with demolished buildings, nobody could resist puking. After five minutes, everyone in the world heard a sound in their heads. [ Congrattion! You have passed a glimpse of despair, but this is not even 1% of what you are going to face after three years, so work hard and progress faster. ] [ There were quite a lot of people who performed exceptionally amidst this chaos, so you will receive a special gift upon entering the Wild Expanse.. It''s fine if you can''t understand the gift for now since it''s outside of the dimension of your knowledge, and its use will be known when the timees. ] Chapter 34 - Back To Wild Expanse. Onwards To Find More Prominent Place. In the same cave where Aren and Luna were forming their spirit core, Aren appeared there right after the voice told them that Wild Expanse was now open. He closed his eyes after arriving here and took some deep breaths before opening his eyes again. He didn''t want to waste time being pessimistic about the whole situation. That''s why he arrived here instantly. A form of desperation had manifested in his mind, and...he wanted him and those with him to get stronger so the same fate wouldn''t befall them. At this time, Luna also appeared beside Aren, and she had a slightly pale face just like Aren. "Sigh, that was...hellish. I wonder how many people died?" Luna muttered after sighing. She then turned to Aren and said with a stern expression, "Let''s go, Aren. I also told Auntie and others to enter inside since we must not waste time." Aren was surprised at Luna''s situation as she seemed much finer than him. Luna was more apathetic than Aren, but that was understandable because of the environment she grew in. Aren felt bad for people who lost their family members. When he put himself in their situation, he couldn''t bear it. That''s why he will move forward with the goal of not letting such a thing happening to those around him. "By the way, Aren. Did you receive the so-called special gift?" Hearing Luna''s question, Aren remembered it and looked inside his inventory. ''What''s this?'' Thought Aren as he took out a thumb-sized stone with unique patterns carved on it. [ Mortal Realm Fragment ] -Authority: 4%. The information was short and simple, but Aren couldn''t understand it. There are other people who received the same thing, but they also obviously couldn''t understand anything about it. Luna looked at the stone and raised her eyebrows, "Is that the special gift? Doesn''t look anything special. So? What does it do?" Aren shook his head before saying, "Nothing. It''s something called Realm Fragment, and it''s not responding to anything, even spirit energy." "I see. Well, screw it then." Saying this, Luna moved towards the exit of the cave while saying, "Let''s go, we will move and find a bigger poption structure of this world just as we decided." Aren nodded as he put away the thing and moved out of the cave. "Luna, we will prioritize killing any beast we encounter because that''s the only way we can level up our path since the quest reward''s exp is not filling up the exp gauge of our path." Pausing there, Aren noticed something and asked with a raised brow, "Where is tengu?" Luna chuckled and snapped her finger as darkness appeared from Luna''s body and gathered in front of her before materializing into Tengu. "Do you have to snap your finger to summon it or...," Aren asked with doubt. Luna almost fell to the ground hearing that and giggled, "Of course not. I just did that cause it''s cool, hehehe. I think you are a bit stressed right now. Let''s go kill some bloodthirsty beasts." Aren felt speechless and shook his head with a wry smile. Afterward, both of them moved in the opposite direction of the town. After moving for twenty minutes, they encountered a pack of hunchback wolves consisting of ten wolves. [ Hunchback Wolf ] -Rank: Common -Health: [800/800] -Defense: Physical [200], Soul [50] -Attack: Physical [500] -Skills: . "Wait, I want to try something," Aren said as he stopped Luna. *Growl....* The wolves growled at Aren and Luna as they spread out. Luna tightly held the daggers as she asked, "What do you want to try?" Aren took out [Cursed Shofar] item from his inventory. With his new eyes, He could see the information in more detail. [Cursed Shofar] -Rank: Tier-1 Cursed item. -Cost: 30 soul energy. -Effect: Deal 30 soul damage to everyone in a 100-meter radius and stun them for three seconds. -Note: The user won''t take soul damage but will be stunned along with others. The user and others can reduce the stun effect by consuming soul energy. ( The damage is unblockable unless someone can use soul defensive skill. ) "Luna, ask your Undead Tengu if he can protect you from soul-based damage and effects. If he can, then tell him to protect you." Luna nodded and asked the Tengu about it. After getting the answer, Luna turned to Aren and said, "He says he can." "Alright, then I will use it," Aren said before blowing the shofar. *HOOOOONNNNNN...* A soul wave was released from the shofar that dealt damage to wolves and stunned them. Even Aren was stunned, but he consumed the soul energy to recover in one second. On the other hand, Luna also didn''t receive soul damage thanks to Tengu and recovered from the stun effect in a second. Seeing that wolves became dazed, Luna dashed forward with her daggers while alsomanding Tengu to attack the wolves. Aren also controlled his sword and attacked the wolves with skill. -Skill Level:1 (Max: 5) -Skill Rank: B -Cost: 20 Spirit Energy. -Effect: Superimpose spirit energy and condense it to release a powerful strike from either your body part or a weapon. -Note: The damage will increase more ording to the weapon. He didn''t use this skill much because it was a melee skill and was more powerful. This skill was also not bad as it packed a simr power of punch as but not in a prative way. It was, as its name suggested, A heavy strike. The drawback was that it was melee skill, which means that his body part or the weapon needs to be connected to the target. But since his sword became Articule gear, it became a bit more powerful, and he could now use it as a ranged weapon, so Aren decided to master this skill as well fully. Ikaros, the heavy broad sword, flew in front of a wolf as it glowed with spirit energy before heavily striking the wolf. [-1742] The wolf was mashed because after the sword hit the wolf, the power behind the heavy strike didn''t just slice it but also sted it as it exploded with condensed spirit energy. That was skill. [ A hunchback wolf killed, 50 exp gained. ] The wolves were very weak as they all died in one shot. Aren killed three wolves, while Luna and Undead Tengu killed the rest. Luna''s path finally leveled up as the first level just needs 100 exp. [ You have reached level 2 in Deux Shi Maestro Path. ] [ 1 talent point gained. ] [ Deux Shi Orb+]:- Upgrade your Deux Shi orb to increase the capacity of Deux Particles by 100 and add one slot to Bounds. [ Agent of Death ]:- Increase affinity of Death to level 2 and gains a connection to the firstyer of the undead realm. ( Unable to learn this talent as the user hasn''tprehended level 1 Death to 100%, and the user''s soul power is also insufficient. ) --->Requires 50 points in soul stat and Level 1 Death power to 100%. "This is so bull!" Luna said with a frown. Aren looked at her and asked in surprise, "What happened?" Luna sighed and said, "I got Death Affinity and Darkness Affinity level 1. I don''t know what they are, but most importantly, I am supposed to learn Death to 100%," Luna rolled her eyes before pouting, " How ridiculous. How do I learn Death in the first ce? By dying?" Hearing that, Aren hollowlyughed as he also didn''t know, "This is all new to us, but I think we will know more about it as we progress. This world is mystical, and there might be more information about it in more prominent ces." "Yeah. Let''s go, let''s go.. I want to know how people learn Death, humph." Chapter 35 - Quinn & Lorain "Aren, isn''t it strange that we haven''t encountered any beasts since killing those wolves? We''ve already walked for an hour now." Aren and Luna got out from the forest and arrived at normalnd with less greenery. "We were already at the edge of the forest when we killed those wolves, and there are no beasts roaming here. Hmmm...You see that hill range?" Aren said before he pointed at the hill range to their left side. Luna looked at it and asked with doubt, "What about it?" "Nothing. I am just saying that we should move in that direction. Because there''s nothing in the other three directions exceptnd, I can see the forest outline with my eyes, so we might just be getting back into the forest area. But that hill range appears different," Aren said with a thoughtful expression before he flew up while standing on his sword. With high in the sky, he could observe more and confirmed, "Indeed, there''s nothing except forest in other three directions after this emptynd part ends." Luna nodded, "I see, then let''s move towards hill range." Afterward, Luna and Aren started moving towards the hill range. On the other hand, Lorain and Quinn also seeded in their search. They found two spirit stones, and right now, they were going inside a mountain cave that contained a big field of red berries. "Auntie, there are four beasts, and they look powerful. But we should be able to handle them with the n we decided," Quinn whispered as she and Lorain looked at three giant ck-iron goris from the passage. Lorain and nodded and whispered back, "Are you sure you want to go with that n? Will you be able to bear it?" Quinn''s eyes were burning with the fire of resolve as she muttered, "I will bear anything to get strong. My path requires me to be fearless and bold. And after seeing that hellish scene outside, we have to get stronger faster, or we will have the same fate as them." Hearing that, Lorain sighed before she also steeled her expression," Let''s go." After saying that, Lorain released red threads as all physical attributes of Quinn were increased by 30%. -[Quinn] -Health: [ 1550 ] Quinn felt her body getting stronger and tougher overall as she used and jumped 7 meters ahead before directlynding among the ck Iron Goris and was surrounded by them. *Roar...**Roar...**Roar...**Roar...* The four beasts roared and threw their iron fist towards Quinn. But before those fists could hit her, Quinn used as her body glowed with a red aura, and she took a defensive stance by crossing her arms in front of her and dropping her head down. The four powerful iron fists hit Quinn and... *crack....* "Nghhh...," Quinn felt cracks in her bone, but she endured the pain while gritting her teeth. Naturally, she could endure this better because of the buff from red threads, but nheless, Quinn disyed exceptional endurance. With her agility, she could easily dodge their attacks, but she wanted to try out , and that''s why she took their hits head-on. After those four attacks hit her, Quinn felt overwhelming physical strength filling up her body. -Health: 660/1550 "Haaaaaaaa!" Quinn shouted as she spread her hand out and punched the beast in front of her. The adrenaline rush made her ignore the pain as she moved without a hitch. *Smack! Boom!* The ck Iron Gori flew like a bullet with its internal organs turned into a mess and hit the cave''s wall. Dead. [ An Iron ck Gori killed, 210 Exp gained. ] [ An Iron ck Gori killed, 90 Exp gained. ] Both Quinn and Lorain got exp from one kill. Quinn didn''t stop as she dodged the next attacks of the other three goris and rapidly finished them with one punch each. [ You have reached level 2 in Brutus Zontheos Path. ] [ 1 talent point gained. ] [ You have reached level 2 in Animo Weaver Path. ] [ 1 talent point gained. ] Both of their paths leveled up, but... After finishing them off, The adrenaline rush died down, and Quinn fell to the ground directly before tears filled her eyes, and a scream left her mouth due to pain filling her body. After all, the Iron fists of those goris hit hard enough to make cracks on her powerful body that had 27 points in the constitution attribute. Those goris were geared towards offense instead of defense, so their attack power was quite high. Lorain rushed towards her and immediately fed her three red berries. After a minute, Quinn slowly stood up and sat down as she took some deep breaths. "Are you fine now, Quinn?" Lorain asked with a worried expression. Quinn smiled and nodded, "I am fine. Anyway, I think both of our paths leveled up, so let''s take a look at it first and use the talent point." Lorain nodded as she looked at the two blinking grey orbs. [ Animo Core+]: You will unlock a skill: Animo Brand and your core will be upgraded. Upgrade-> Anime Threads limit increased by 100. [ Animo Witchcraft ]: You will be able to conjure new types of threads called Hex threads from your Animo core, and your affinity of Hex will increase to level 2. ( Unable to learn this talent as youck soul power and Level 1 Hex power to 100%. ) ----> Soul stat required at 50 points. With no other choice, Lorain used one talent point on [ Anime Core+] Right after that, stinging pain shot through her head for a few seconds as she got knowledge on how to use the new skill using her Animo threads. On the other hand... Quinn''s case was different as she had only one grey bubble blinking. Thus, she had no choice but to use her talent point in that. [ Indomitable Life Orb ]:- Forms a Life orb in your body which will contain all of your life force. After forming the life orb, you will lose ten attributes points of strength, agility, and constitution for three days before they return back to normal. After three days, The Indomitable Life orb will start to show its work as from then on, all the damage to your body, such as breaking bones or cutting limbs, will not ur. You will feel the same pain, and your Health will also decrease, but those injuries will not reflect on your body but will reflect on the Life orb inside your body. Once your health reaches 0, your life orb will also be destroyed, and you will die. But as long as you can endure the pain and be indomitable, you can fight till yourst breath. Quinn sucked in a sharp breath as she read the information about her talent. With a resolute expression, She added one talent point into [ Indomitable Life Orb ]. Right after that, she started to feel weak as she lost ten attributes of Strength, Constitution, and Agility. [ It is rmended that you form your spirit core as soon as possible. ] At this time, Lorain also said, "Quinn, we should form our spirit core now since I got a notification that I should form it as soon as possible." Quinn nodded as she also got the same notification and told Lorain about her condition. "Auntie, I will be weakened for three days, but we shouldn''t have a problem fighting with each other''s support." Lorain smiled as she patted Quinn''s head and said, "Oh? But no worry, I got a powerful skill that will help us a lot in the future." Quinn smiled and nodded, "Then I will be relying on you." Afterward, both of them started to form their spirit core. Chapter 36 - Duke Heigan, Rewards. "T-this...hahaha, we finally found it, Aren!" Luna said with an excited expression. Both Aren and Luna were currently at the very top of one of the hills on this hill range. The most surprising thing was that after climbing the top of the hill, the ground became the same level as the whole hill range. ''Could it be that we were actually below all this time while thend from here is the real surface ground? So the forest in the other three directions should also end at simr hill ranges with high ground on their other sides. Oh well, who cares about such things. Instead, the town in front of us looks advanced indeed.'' One kilometer in front of them, they saw high walls and a big entrance that likely belonged to a big town. Aren and Luna could see that this town was more advanced from those high and tough walls with proper construction and the big entrance gates. After they put their sight on the big town and shortly after Luna finished speaking, they heard a voice and got notifications. [Congrattions on moving on to the bigger stage. The real adventure will start from now on.] [You have arrived at Dusalmeir Duchy, the territory of Duke Heigan of Focrent Kingdom.] [The hidden condition of killing the slumbering Ancient Blood Python activated. Duke Heigan has been notified about you two killing the Ancient Blood Python, and he will reward you for that. The proof is the ancient python''s tooth.] Aren and Luna were shocked to see a giant python tooth in front of them that was blood red and was curvy. ... Not just Aren and Luna, but many other people had a simr quest when searching for spirit stone and red berries. [The hidden condition of killing the slumbering Ancient Blood Liger activated. Marquis Carhose...] ... [The hidden condition of killing the slumbering Ancient Thunder Wildcat activated. Town lord Hoken has been notified...] ... [The hidden condition of killing the slumbering Ancient Earth Alligator activated. Duke Yzi...] ... Some already managed to find those bigger towns and activated the hidden condition before Aren and Luna, while many others who killed simr slumbering ancient creatures had yet to find the bigger towns and activate this hidden condition. Unfortunately...some also failed to kill the ancient creatures and were wiped out along with the nearby small beginner town, causing thousands of deaths. ... Aren stored the tooth inside his inventory before both he and Luna started moving towards the big town. After a while, they arrived at the town entrance and saw people going in and out with several roads parting outside of the entrance. Aren and Luna entered the town with a curious expression. They were constantly surprised by its magically advanced structure but still retained buildings that resembled that of the medieval period. The paths were wide, the house and buildings were exquisite, and they could feel that most of the people here were actually very strong. Aren instantly had thought about buying a house here as he thought, ''Hmm...But the price will certainly be high. The currency used here are bronze, silver, and gold since the people in beginner-town used them, so we need to earn money too.'' They could see knights were standing guard at every parting path in the town. They also saw beast carriages of merchants and other stores that sold various kinds of things while walking. After walking for a while, Aren and Luna approached a stall filled with fruits and vegetables. They asked the owner of that stall the address of Duke Heigan''s ce before moving deeper into the town. After walking for half an hour, They saw a magnificent pce that was fifteen meters tall with twenty meters wide front. They went to the entrance, where two knights that exuded powerful aura stood guard. "Halt!" "What business do you have here?" Aren smiled and said, "We were called here by Duke to receive our rewards for killing the ancient blood python." They couldn''t see the faces of the two knights because they were fully armored from head to toe, but Aren and Luna could feel their gaze on them. After being silent for two seconds, one of the knights spoke, "You may go inside but remember that if you couldn''t produce the proof after going inside, you will have to leave your life behind." After saying that, the knights moved aside and put aside their heavy swords. Aren and Luna nodded at the knights before they went inside thewn garden with a path leading to the big doors of the pce. Before they could reach the door, A person opened the door and approached them with a polite smile, "I am one of the servants of this pce, and I will be leading you to the duke. Please follow me." Aren and Luna entered inside the pce and were in awe of its exquisite structure and magical motes that floated near the ceiling to light up the corridor. After leaving the corridor, they arrived at a hill and saw a person with sses reading a book while sitting on a big chair made from exquisite red and brown wood. The chair lookedfortable to sit on with some kind of soft material on it which acted as a cushion. In front of him were two couches on both sides and a table in the middle. After Aren and Luna entered the hall, The duke let go of the book from his hands as it slowly flew towards the bookshelf on the left side of the hall before the two books on the shelf were pushed away to create a space in which the flying book positioned itself. The duke looked like a middle-aged man with ck hair and no beard. His build was slim, but experts could tell at a nce that he was very powerful. "I heard you two killed the ancient creature, blood python? We were trying to find it for the past few years to kill it since it was a hidden danger, and if it awakes from its slumber, the duchy would be in a bit of trouble," The duke spoke with a gentle smile, and from his words, it didn''t seem like he was scared of the blood python. Aren was intrigued and asked, "If that blood python awakened and attacked here, would you be able to kill it single-handedly?" Luna also looked at duke with curiosity. She wanted to know the answer to Aren''s question as well. "Impudent!" The servant who led them here with a polite smile frowned as he exuded pressure from his body and shouted at Aren. "Hahaha," The dukeughed out loud before he waved his hand towards the servant, "Leave it, Jeralt. It''s just curiosity of an aspiring warrior." The duke smiled and gestured Aren and Luna to sit on the couch before he spoke, "I can indeed single-handedly kill it, but if that blood python reached here, then it wouldn''te here alone but with a beast tide. If that happened, even if we won in the end, many people would''ve died." "I see...," Aren and Luna nodded as they sat on the couch before Aren waved his hand on the floor as arge tooth appeared. The duke looked at the tooth with interest for two seconds before he nodded with satisfaction, "The aura on this tooth is Indeed that of blood python. Jeralt, bring the rewards." "Yes, duke." Jeralt nodded as he went into another corridor in the hall before entering a room. "Sir Duke, have you heard of Red Dragon Emperor?" Aren asked as he thought about the two father and son red dragons who called themselves the descendants of the Red Dragon Emperor. The duke raised his eyebrows before he chuckled and said, "Naturally, everyone knows about the Red Dragon Emperor, for he is a mythical being whose tales have spread far and wide." ''it looks like the duke is easy-going nature of the person and doesn''t mind satiating our curiosity,'' Aren thought. "Can we ask about other things to you, sir duke?" Aren asked politely. Duke smiled and nodded, "Go ahead." "Is there any ce here where we can gain some knowledge about this world? Like...how to get strong and things regarding supernatural powers," Aren asked. "Doesn''t your world have simr concepts?" Duke asked with doubt. He knew that the two people in front of him were otherworlders but didn''t know much about them and their world. Now hearing such a question, he was surprised. Luna smiled wryly and shook her head, "Nope. Our world is in and boring. The powerful people are those who have more money, authority, politics, and such things, not in one''s strength because even the most powerful person in our world cannot break a rock." "Oh?... So everyone in your world is basically a level 1 mortal, I see." Duke was surprised and could understand the gist of their world in that brief description because this world is slightly simr as it also has politics and money power with a different concept, but if one''s might is high enough, then one can change the situation to one''s will. Afterward, the duke looked at Aren and smiled, "The answer to your question is simple. After getting the reward, you should go towards Guild Venue and register and test yourself there. After that, you will slowly understand everything." Right after he finished speaking, the server, Jeralt, also arrived with a pouch in his hand. He walked to the duke and bowed slightly as he gave the duke pouch before speaking, "I have added the rewards in this storage pouch." Duke Heigan nodded before he waved his hand towards the table as rewards appeared on the table: Three tokens and two glowing spirit stones. "A total of three rewards: First, those tokens will allow you to select a gold-tier weapon and two silver-tier armors at Red leaves Armory Shop." "Second, two umon rank spirit stones, and third is 5000 gold coins that are inside this pouch." After saying that, he put the pouch on the table as well. Chapter 37 - The Guild-1 After getting the rewards from Duke Heigan, Aren and Luna left the Duke''s Pce. "The rewards are really good. Hehe, I didn''t expect that we would get umon rank spirit stones," Luna spoke with a smile. [Spirit Stone I] -Rank: Umon -Requirement: Requires at least Mortal spirit core to absorb spirit energy from spirit stone. -Effect: Contains Force level 1 spirit energy, 10,000/10,000. "Now that we formed our spirit core, we can use the spirit stones to recover our spirit energy quickly," Aren said with a smile. "Yep. Anyway, where do we go now? To the guild venue or Red Leaves Armory Shop?" Luna asked. Aren thought for a moment and said, "Let''s go to Guild Venue and register ourselves first. I think it''s a certain form of identity here, and it''s better to get it before doing anything else." "Alright." Afterward, both Luna and Aren asked about the direction of Guild Venue to the Knights and started walking towards it. After a while, they arrived at the guild venue, which was like an area that had buildings rted to the Guild. A 13 or 14 years old looking boy was bored as he sat under a small tree near a building. He was looking at the path leading to the guild venue as many people wereing in and going out. But when he saw Aren and Luna, his eyes shined, ''Strange clothes, curious and surprised expression, and most importantly, I have never seen them here before. Could it be they are from otherworld? Hmm...It looks like I found some customers. Guess I will earn some money while Zoltan and his gang are not here yet.'' The kid approached Aren and Luna as they walked inside the guild venue area and said with a smile, "Hello, big brother and sister. It seems that you are new here, hehe. If you want to, I can be your guide. As for money, you can give me any amount you want." Aren looked at the boy, who looked around 13 or 14 years with a slight surprise before he nodded, "Guide? Sure. First, we want to register ourselves at the Guild." The boy thumped his chest with a grin and said, "Leave it to me." He then turned around before pointing at one of the biggest buildings in this area, "That''s the ce where you can register yourselves. Let''s go." Aren and Luna followed the boy as they went inside. After going inside, he whispered, "I''ve known the staff here for a long time, so we don''t have to wait in line, hehehe. Just wait for a minute." Aren and Luna looked at the boy who went meet a person behind the desk while they looked around in this hall as many people with various weapons and tough-looking armors were gathered. Both Aren and Luna attracted curious gazes due to their unique attire. After a minute, the boy returned with a grin on his face and said, "Let''s go. First, you will be tested and given basic knowledge before the registration process since it needs to input your power level and rank." The boy told them about the procedure about fees, but since he talked with the staff, Aren and Luna can give the fees for the general guidance and testing after their assessment is over instead of paying the fees before. Aren and Luna nodded with a smile as they followed the boy and walked into a corridor before arriving at a hall. The hall had several one-meter tall dreamy white crystals, and a staff member of the Guild was standing beside each one of them. "Heya, brother Donnie." the boy waved his hands as he led Aren and Luna towards one of the crystals where a man in his twenties seemed to be sitting on a stool beside that crystal. "Little Gin, you are still here?" the young man said as he looked at the boy. Gin nodded with a smile, "Yep, Zoltan is not here, so I thought about earning some money by being a guide to these big brother and sister behind me. "So, brother Donnie, can you give them basic guidance and test them? They have yet to give the fees, but I have talked with big brother Rufus about it, and they will pay the fees after their assessment is over." At this time, Aren took out a gold coin and said with a faint smile, "Gin, here''s your fees. I am giving it to you in advance." Seeing the gold coin, Donnie and Gin were shocked and looked at each other. Gin gulped before he looked at Aren and asked with hesitation, "T-this...are you sure you want to give me one gold coin?" Aren knew that the value of was gold coin was high. In the beginner town, He didn''t see anything that was worth in gold. Most of the things cost bronze, while the costliest items were silver-tier weapons, which cost silver coins. Although their price sometimes surpassed one gold coin equivalent, they were still sold in silver. One gold coin is equal to hundred silver coins, and Forgon''s best-forged weapons cost 130 to 150 silver coins. "Yep, take it," Aren smiled as he was making a minor investment. Gin became excited as he took the gold coin and thanked Aren and Luna with a cheerful smile. "Ahem, so let''s start the testing process. I will give you the basic guide while exining test results," Donnie said with a smile as he looked at Aren and Luna. After saying that, Donnie took out a box from his inventory and opened it, which revealed several small red and ck crystals. Donnie smiled at Aren and Luna and exined, "The red crystal will assess your lifeform level while the ck crystal will assess your divine path''s grade and your power level." After saying that, Donnie touched the big dreamy white crystal with his hand and infused his spirit energy into it, which activated the white crystal as it started glowing. He then picked up the red crystal brought it to the white crystal. The moment the red crystal touched the white crystal, the red crystal was absorbed into the white crystal, and the entire white crystal turned red. "Now, please put your hand on it," Donnie said as he gestured Aren to put his hand on the crystal. Aren nodded as he walked in front of the crystal and put his hand over it. ''Feels warm...,'' Aren thought as he felt a warm sensation when his hand touched the red crystal. After a few seconds, several words appeared on the red crystal. -Lifeform stage: [Grade-2 Mortal] -Spirit core: Mortal Spirit core, Rating: [7.5/10] -Meridians: Medium-grade. -Affinity: Zero. Donnie started exining after seeing the result, "First, these test results are just for information, and it does not show your potential. After all, you may have fortuitous encounters in the future, which will increase these qualities. "So first, we will talk about spirit core. It is very easy to increase the quality of the spirit core. Seeing that your spirit core''s rate is 7.5, you must have unlocked all your meridians, but you must have yet to practice in any Spinergy method, right?" "Spinergy method? Well, we are hearing about it for the first time, so yeah. We have yet to practice in it," Aren answered with a nod. Donnie nodded with a grin, "Then once you start training in it, you can bring up the spirit core''s rating to 10. After all, the basic requirement to break through to the next life stage is to have spirit core with a rating of 10." After saying that, He pointed at the Meridian tab in the red crystal, "There are five grades of meridians. Poor-grade, low-grade, medium-grade, high-grade, and super-grade. In terms of fighting and using skills, the grades of meridians will not matter. The only thing that matters about meridian grades is that they will affect the training speed of your Spinergy method. " Donnie tapped his fingers on his fist out of habit before he continued with a smile, "People with low-grade meridians will train faster than people with poor-grade meridians and so on...In the end, people with super-grade meridians will train at godspeed, but that''s all. Faster speed doesn''t mean faster progress in one''s strength. Hahaha, If a stupid person has super-grade meridians, then they are useless on that person." After augh, Donnie pointed at the affinity tab on the red crystal and said, " There are all kinds of powers in this world, and if you have an affinity with some of them, then you can work hard andprehend those power so you can make use of it. " Donnie looked at Aren as he beamed and said, " You currently don''t have any affinity, but who knows? You might manage to acquire one or two in your adventure in the future?" He then pointed at the Lifeform stage and said, "Now the most important thing: Lifeform stage. This is your fundamental existence level and your strength capacity. To get stronger, you will have to break through to the next Lifeform stage. If you can''t advance in your lifeform stage, you will remain weak regardless of how many affinities you possess or however excellent your meridians are." Donnie looked at Aren and Luna as he said with a grin, "There are a total of seven major Lifeforms stages. From weakest to strongest, they are Mortal, Supreme, Exceed, Epic, Legendary, Mythical, and Cmity. Although I mentioned seven, Cmity is just a myth of sort as there are no such beings. At least, none of them have been noticed yet." Aren raised his eyebrows and thought, ''That father red dragon should be either Epic or Legendary...Hmm, I wonder when I will reach that level of Lifeform?'' He unknowingly balled his hand into a fist as he didn''t know how powerful the despair after three years would be and how much people of earth could progress in these three years. ''The people of this world seem to take us, who came from otherworld as a minor surprise. It''s as if they are used to seeing people from otherworlds. Hmmm....,'' Aren thought as he was always in doubt regarding this thing and decided to ask Donnie about it after their assessment is over. Chapter 38 - The Guild-2, Guidance...and A Shocking Fact. After testing with the red crystal, Donnie picked up the ck crystal and infused it inside the big white crystal. Aren knew what to do as he put his hand on the white crystal, and he felt a cold sensation this time. His mind also nked out for a half-second as he was surprised. "Don''t worry. That''s just a brief shock to your soul and mind as the crystal tested your divine path and power level," Donnie said with a grin before he looked at the now ck crystal, which revealed white words. [ Divine Path ] -Type: All-rounder. -Grade: Mystic. [ Powers ] -Power level: [ 10 ]-Wanderer. -Bloodline: Human. -Stats: "Nobody will know about your Divine Path''s details unless you tell them. This crystal just reveals the type of Divine path and its grade," Donnie said as he pointed at the ck stone. "Now for the grades. There are just four grades of mystic paths, and they are just initial assessments. After all, as you walk on your path, it will bend ording to your hard work and effort. So nobody can tell if a path is strong or weak based on its grade. After all, who knows how powerful one bes in the future? The potential of your path is in your hands." After saying that, Donnie smiled mysteriously and said, "In the future, you will reach a point where you will reach a dead-end in your path and will have to carve the future road of that path with your effort, thinking, and hard work." He then pointed at the grade and said, " The paths are divided into four grades ording to this crystal, and there is no such thing as weak to strong in the grading of Divine paths. " After saying that, Donnie pointed his finger and started writing in thin air as the actual golden words floated in the air. He wrote the four grades before saying, " As I have written, four grades are Mystic, Optimum, Extreme, and Discursive. " "First, Discursive-grade. Each divine path of this grade has many growth possibilities and is not set on a single type. So those who possess Discursive-grade Paths are strong initially because of varieties, but if they can''t carve their path in the future due to many possibilities, then it would slow down their progress by arge margin." "Second, Extreme-grade. Each divine path of this grade focuses on one aspect of power and is very powerful. It is said that If the people on such paths can stay mentally strong and develop their future pathprehensively while surviving the odds, they can open a new door that would let them reach a brand new height." "Third, Optimum-grade. People who have this grade of Divine paths have the easiest time and can also quickly be stronger because the divine paths of this grade are very well constructed and perfected. Even when people walking on these divine paths reach the dead-end, they can usually carve out their path more easily than people who walk on paths of other three grades." Donnie grinned and said, "People whose Divine path are of Optimum-grade are more favored everywhere, but that doesn''t mean that paths of this grade are more powerful. In the end, everything depends on individual capabilities and how they can use and further carve their paths with their hard work and intelligence." He then pointed at thest path and said with a faint smile, "I decided to reveal mystic-gradest since it''s the grade of your divine path." Aren wryly smiled and said, "From the name, I feel like it should be simr to Discursive-grade." Donnie nodded and then shook his head, "You are correct but wrong at the same time. Mystic grade divine paths are, as their name suggests, mystical. The divine paths of this grade are rarest, and they are actually the toughest paths to walk on. Naturally, even tougher than Discursive paths. All I can say is good luck to you and hope you can go far in whatever Divine path you have." Aren nodded with a smile, "Well, I am not backing down, and since you said that, I am even more fired up about it, hehe." Donnie also nodded as he said with a grin, "All in all, the grades are not meant to check if your path is strong or not since all paths are strong as long as you know what to do. In the end, everything depends on the person and his will." "Enough talking. Now it''s my turn," Luna said as she walked over to the white crystal. Donnie wryly smiled as he took out a red crystal from the box and infused it inside the big white crystal. Luna put her hand on it, and after a few seconds, the result appeared. -Lifeform stage: [Grade-2 Mortal] -Spirit core: Mortal Spirit core, Rating: [4.5/10] -Meridians: Medium-grade. -Affinity: Death, Darkness. "Ohh...Death and Darkness affinities? Quite rare," Donniemented with a surprised expression. "As for your spirit core rating, It''s 4.5, which means you must have barely unlocked a few of your meridians. Actually, I was surprised to see this little brother having a 7.5 rating in spirit core because he shouldn''t have unlocked all of his meridians this early ording to his power level." Donnie said as he raised his eyebrows before looking at Aren. Aren said with a faint smile, "It''s due to my path." " I see...," Donnie nodded before he took out a scroll from his inventory and said with a grin, "This scroll is known as Meridians unlocking scroll. It cost five hundred silver coins or five gold coins, and if you practice daily ording to the scroll, you can unlock all of your meridians in one month." Luna''s eyes shined as she readily bought the scroll by paying five gold coins. As it should be, Luna and Aren divided gold coins they got in reward evenly. "1 month, huh? Well, more than I expected," Aren muttered. Donnie waved his hand and nonchntly said, "Anyway, your body structure will change once you elevate to a higher Lifeform stage. For instance, once your lifeform stage reaches Supreme, your body will transform and there will be major changes to meridians as well as some new features." He then took out the ck crystal and said, "Those things are a bit far from your current level so let''s focus on the present right now." Afterward, Luna tested her Divine path''s grade and power level. [ Divine Path ] -Type: All-rounder. -Grade: Optimum. [ Powers ] -Power level: [ 10 ]-Wanderer. -Bloodline: Human. -Stats: "Optimum!...," Donnie was surprised before he looked at Luna and Aren and said with a smile, "Unless you are nning to make your ownpany, this little sister will receive many invitations from otherpanies once she reaches Supreme stage Lifeform." "Company?" Luna and Aren''s attention went to the new term they heard. Donnie realized that they were new and exined, "Apany is a sort of organization, party, or whatever you want to call it. But its official term ispany. If you want to establish yourpany and get ess to various benefits, channels, and other information, you will have to register it at the Guild in any town." Donnie remembered something and said, "Before you ask, let me tell you that the Guild is one massive entity...like an organization that manages many things. The Guild, short and simple." Pausing, Donnie sighed and said, "Some people from otherworld I met several years ago were confused and asked me which Guild is this and what is this Guild''s name, but there''s no such thing. Guild is Guild, that''s all. In every single town of this duchy''s level or higher, there is a Guild branch." Shaking his head, Donnie continued, "What those people from otherworld were saying felt simr topanies, so...If you want to be with your friends and party together by epting some quests to go on an adventure, then form and register yourpany to the Guild or join one." Aren and Luna looked at each other with shock and thought the same thing, ''So there were indeed people from another world here before, and we are not the first ones.'' After learning of such fact, many questions popped up in their minds, but one question was the most important, and both Aren and Luna wanted to know the answer to that question. Aren looked at Donnie as his face turned slightly solemn and asked that question. Chapter 39 - The Guild-3 "Do you know what happened to those people from otherworld you met several years ago?" Hearing the question of Aren, Donnie wryly shook his head and said, "One day, they all suddenly disappeared, never to be seen again." Aren and Luna turned silent before Aren asked one more question with a solemn expression, "Do you know how many years they spent here? rough estimate is fine." Donnie nodded before speaking with a thoughtful expression, "As far as I remember, approximately three years." Aren and Luna looked at each other in shock. "Anyway, now that assessment is over, you can directly pay the fees at the desk," Donnie said with a smile before he took out two white crystal cards and closed his eyes for a moment as several words appeared on the card along with golden patterns. Donnie gave Aren and Luna a card each before saying, "These are your Guild ID cards. You will need this ID card in all matters rted to Guild. You can get more information after paying the fees at the desk." "Let''s go, big brother and sister. Today, I will show you around everywhere and introduce to you everything this town has to offer," Gin spoke with a cheerful smile. After all, one gold coin was his several days worth of work. ... After a while, Aren and Luna paid the fees of fifty silver each for their assessment and ID card before they got to know more about Guild ID cards. Their current rank within the Guild was Wanderer. Once they reach level 50 and be Warrior-rank, they will need to go to a Guild branch and upgrade their ID card by paying five hundred gold coins. Of course, there are also benefits after they upgrade their Guild ID, but since it was a bit far from their current situation, they put it in the back of their mind. Aren also asked about the requirements to register apany at the Guild since there are some quests that onlypanies can ept from the Guild. He wanted to register apany now, but the requirement was to gather at least five members in a Guild branch before registering thepany and add their names to the saidpany. Another thing was that they got two tier-1 red berry health potions as a mandatory gift for registering in the Guild. "Say Gin, these tier-1 red berry health potions'' main ingredients are these berries, right?" Aren asked as he took out a red berry from his inventory. Gin looked back and saw the red berry in Aren''s hand and nodded with a smile, "That''s indeed true. You can sell those berries at a high price in the market, or you can go to Alchemy store to create potions from those berries." "I see," Aren nodded before he thought for a moment and said, "Well, we can do thatter. For now, we want to go to Red Leaves Armory shop." Gin was surprised, "That VIP shop? It''s the best armory shop in this town and sells high-quality armors and weapons." Aren smiled and nodded, "Yep. Let''s go there." If anyone was wondering about Luna, then she was actually sitting on the heavy broad sword of Aren while reading the scroll. She said she wanted to read the scroll of Meridians opening and told Aren to carry her on his sword. Fortunately, the heavy broad sword had a broad de that allowed her to sit on it. And since they were just walking, the sword was just slowly floating along, so there was no chance of Luna falling down. It was a bit strange sight as it attracted people''s attention, but Aren could only smile wryly at that while Luna didn''t care about it in the slightest. While walking, Aren contacted his mother with a spiritual call and added Quinn to the call as well. Aren--"Mom, Quinn. How much have you progressed? Did you find one spirit stone each and two fields of red berries?" Lorain--"Oh...Actually, we met our goals but forgot to contact you about it since we started forming our spirit core." Quinn--"Yeah. And we are still in the middle of that process. Once we are done, we will contact you and meet up." Aren--"Alright. By the way, I mainly called to tell you that Luna and I found a bigger town which is where our real adventure about getting strong will start. So once you are done, we will leave Wild Expanse to meet together in our world before entering this bigger town together." Quinn--"That''s great! We will immediately meet up once we finish forming our spirit core." Lorain--"Mhmm. Be careful and take care." ... While walking on the street, following Gin as he took them to their destination, Aren thought, ''Grandpa Borus and other teams also didn''t contact me yet as well. Did they forget about it or...?'' Aren shook his head as he stopped thinking about it. The decision was up to them. He just gave them the information that was not that valuable in the bigger picture. In the first ce, he was not going to waste his time going around in all beginner towns to find spirit stones and red berries since he knew that this was just a low-level area, A beginner town. Just small benefits like one spirit stone and a field of red berries to each person are enough of a head-start to make their journey smoother. After all, once the person goes to a bigger ce, like this duchy, they are bound to progress faster. For instance, Just ess to the Guild gave them a plethora of benefits like quests, information about ces, and they also found out about magical ces called dungeons where they can progress faster with higher risk. But the risk can be avoided as long as they are sufficiently prepared beforehand. Aren and Luna didn''t ept any quests because they first needed to meet up with others outside and enter this duchy town together. ... After walking for fifteen minutes, Gin, Aren, and Luna finally arrived at their destination. Its size was three storeys tall building with six meters wide front, and a giant board with the shop''s name was written on the center of the building with mystical redwood material with leaf patterns. Chapter 40 - Red Leaves Armory Shop. Aren and Luna entered the shop, and right after that, a staff member of the shop greeted them with a polite smile, "Hello, dear customers. If you are looking for any specific things, then I can assist you in that." Aren took out three tokens and showed them to staff. Seeing the tokens, The staff member was surprised, and his smile became even more polite as he said, "Take your time looking at the items. If you want to ask something, you can reach out to me." Aren and Luna nodded before the staff member left. The shop was quite big, and there were blocks for different tiers of items. Aren and Luna first went to the silver tier section to choose two armors. "I want to choose light armor. The heavy armors are not suitable for me," Luna said as she pointed at the bunch of light armors disyed on the vertical wall tables where the armors were hanged. Aren nodded before saying, "I am also choosing a light armor. Those two leather armors are nice." With his eyes, Aren could see the detailed properties of the armor. [ Ironbark Leather Armor ] -Rank: High-grade silver-tier. -Requirement: 12 constitution. -Defense: Physical [410], Soul [54]. -Perk: Increases STR, CON, & AGI by 2 points. -A leather armor crafted from Ironbark wolf''s skin. . [ Spirit Faux Leather Armor ] -Rank High-grade silver-Tier. -Requirement: 12 constitution. -Defense: Physical [260], Soul [98]. -Perk: +3 STR, +3 AGI. -A leather armor crafted from Melias Fox''s skin. Aren found these two armors to be better amongst others on this wall table because they provided the most stat points as the benefit of wearing them. Other armors at most provided five and four points maximum while these two provided six points. "What about that armor, Aren?" Luna pointed at another wall table with several other light armors and pointed at the light armor with white fur coating on top of the leatherwork. Aren looked at the armor to get its details. [ Canta Leather Armor ] -Rank: High-grade silver-tier. -Requirement: 12 constitution. -Defense: Physical [280], Soul [90]. -Perk: +2 STR, +2 AGI, +2 CON. -A leather armor crafted from Canta Tiger beast''s skin. "That''s good," Aren nodded with a smile, "With my eyes, I can see more details, and that armor is also one of the best ones here." "Then I''ll choose that," Luna grinned. Aren nodded as he also decided to select [Spirit Faux Leather Armor]. The previous staff member was also paying attention to Aren and Luna, and seeing that they decided on their armors, he went to them and finished their purchase at one of the desks nearby. They gave two silver-armor tokens at the desk in exchange for the two armors. After getting them, both of them wore their armors as they felt their strength slightly increase along with having an additional sense of protection. "Now, let''s choose a weapon for you," Luna said with a grin as she looked at Aren, "Your path can transform an item into something more powerful, and instead of transforming that silver-tier armor, you should transform a gold-tier weapon." Luna paused before taking out her daggers, "Take a look at these daggers, and you will know that I probably won''t require any weapons for a long time." Aren wryly smiled because he already knew that Luna''s daggers were powerful and mysterious. [ Blight Tooth Daggers ]-Soul Bound to Luna. -Rank: Special-rank (Growth-type). -Damage: 1160-1210. -Durability: 1880/2000. -Bound Skills: , (locked). -Note: Between light and darkness, a pool of blood is angry, a shadow of the dead, and the spirit of life remains. "As you might be able to see with your eyes, these daggers get stronger as I level up. There''s also a note at the end which sounds like the name of a ce," Luna said. Aren nodded as he had already read the details about her daggers when she was fighting against the wolves in the forest before they arrived here. "Maybe your daggers can be upgraded, or it might be a trigger of something if we find that ce? Anyway, we won''t specifically look for it since we have limited time to get strong." Luna nodded with a chuckle, "Of course, we won''t go looking for such ce specifically, hehe. Let''s just hope we encounter it in our journey in the future." Aren nodded with a smile, "Hope so." Afterward, they asked about the direction of gold-tier weapon sections since this store was pretty big. After walking for a minute and going upstairs, they arrived at the gold-tier weapon section and were surprised to see so many kinds of weapons. Luna and Aren discussed about which type of weapon would suit Aren most since he could manipte weapons without touching them. "Something that can bring out the full potential of my ability to manipte my weapons...," Aren muttered as he looked at the various weapons around him on the wall tables. Luna was also looking at the weapons, and...after thinking about Aren''s power and imagining the scenarios with weapons, both of their sights fell onto one type of weapon but at a different ce. "That weapon..." "That weapon..." Both Aren and Luna looked at each other''s choices and chuckled. Chakrams! Aren grinned and said, "Let me see which one is better." In this section of gold-tier weapons, there were only two chakram-type weapons. It seems that they were a bit of a rarity as not many people preferred them as their weapons. [ Star-Cross me Chakram ] -Rank: High-grade Gold-tier. -Requirement: 27 Strength, 25 Agility. -Perk: +7 STR, +6 AGI, Increases me-element skill''s damage by 300. -Damage: Physical [2370-2740] Fire [300]. -Trait: By infusing additional spirit energy, the chakram will be covered in hot mes to deal additional me damage to whoever hit by it. -Durability: [750/750] This chakram was six centimeters radius big with orange patterns on its brown body, and its edges had shuriken-like des with an orange hue on them. "me-based, huh?" Aren muttered before he looked at the other chakram. [ Glory of Moon Chakram ] -Rank: High-grade Gold-tier. -Requirement: 28 Strength, 25 Agility. -Perk: +7 STR, +7 AGI, Increases the prative aspect of skills released through this chakram by 15% of the skill''s own prative aspect. -Damage: Physical [2480-2990]. -Trait: Taint of Moon-Makes it harder to heal injuries caused by this chakram. -Durability: [750/750]. This chakram had a clear-cut and smooth round de structure instead of shuriken-like des on the other chakram. It looked like a moon but with no blemish on it and very bright as it exuded sharpness. Chapter 41 - Tarrox, The Gentle Terror. "Luna, I''ll buy both chakrams. Both of them have the same price tag, but I''ll just get one for free using the token while buying the other with gold coins," Aren spoke as he looked at the price tags. 480 Gold coins. Luna nodded and said, "If you can transform both chakrams, then it''s worth getting two of them. Early investment to get better and faster progress is always a good thing since we are time-bound." Aren nodded as he wanted both chakrams for simr reasons. He then called staff and finished the procedure at the desk as he paid the golden token and 480 golds to get both chakrams. Afterward, the three of them left the shop. "Big brother and sister, where do you want to go now? If you are looking for a specific ce, then I will guide you there," Gin patted his chest as he said with a grin. "A ce to stay. Inn, hotel, or something like that," Aren said after thinking for a moment. "Alright, let''s go; I''ll show you some good Inns." Gin walked towards the left side path as Aren and Luna followed him. Luna once again tells Aren to take out his sword so she can sit on it and read the scroll. While walking, Aren asked, "Do you know the prices of houses here? House with at least three rooms." "House with at least three rooms...Hmmm, they would cost around 4000 or more gold coins. Do you want to buy a house here, big brother?" "Yep, but that''s not urgent. Since there are Inns, we will stay there for a day or two. It''s just a start, and we still have a whole day ahead before we get exhausted and require rest." ... Afterward, Aren, Luna, and Gin spent an hour looking around the town for various Inns and other things. On the way, Aren noticed an interesting thing when he came across an exquisite-looking house and saw a listless old man sitting on a rocking chair on thewn of his house. ''I''ll visit thereter since it looks like a quest triggering situation,'' Aren thought. ... On the other hand, Lorain and Quinn had finished forming their spirit core. [ Congrattions! You have sessfully formed your spirit core. ] [ With the formation of the spirit core, your physical body has received a slight boost. Your strength, agility, and constitution increased by 2 points, and your spirit energy pool is increased by 100. ] These two notifications were simr for both of them, but the next ones were different. Lorain and Quinn were surprised and confirmed with each other about the benefits. "It seems like I awakened an affinity called Aunivit. But I have no clue what that is," Lorain said with confusion. She then looked at the new status window and said, "Although I don''t know what it is, Its benefits are apparent." [ Aunivit is an Ethereal-type element. As such, awakening its affinity provides you with a passive ability: Saxa Vitusa. This ability will grow stronger as youprehend the Aunivit element. ] [Affinity] ->Aunivit: Level 1 affinity. ---->Understanding of element: 0% -Name: Lorain Azrael. -Level: 10 [ 440/10000 ] Exp. -Path: [ Animo Weaver. ] -Health: [1100/1100] -Soul: [100/100 ] -Life Stage: Mortal-2 -Spirit Energy Pool: [300/300] -Soul Energy: [200/200] -Mystic Field: 34/50 points [ Long Sword ]. -[Stats] -Stat points: 0 -Skill points: 1 -Abilities: , . -Skills: , , . -Inventory: Red barriers [195]. Lorain got the knowledge about and found out that this passive ability protects her soul and reduces the fatigue felt by her soul. -Level 1 effect: Protects the soul with a thinyer of Aunivit element and reduces the fatigue felt by your soul. Note: Additional effects will unlock as you progress in the understanding of the element. Hearing about all that, Quinn was surprised and said with a smile, "I didn''t get any affinity but something called Vital Motes. It..." Quinn''s spirit core had an additional thing called Vital motes. From the information she got, she can consume vital motes to increase the damage of her skills. The vital motes can only be used in attacking-type skills as their sole purpose is to increase the damage. Also, due to the existence of vital motes, she got a passive +5 increase in strength and constitution which may increase as she upgrades her spirit core further. -Name: Quinn Tenkai. -Level: 10 [ 630/10,000 ] Exp. -Path: [ Brutus Zontheos ] -Health: [1600/1600] -Soul: [100/100] -Life Stage: Mortal-2 -Spirit Energy Pool: [300/300] -Vital motes: [100/100] ( 5/min while resting.) -Soul Energy: [100/100] -Mystic Field: 34/50 points [ Boomerang ]. -[Stats] -Stat points: 0 -Skill points: 1 -Abilities: -Skills: , , -Inventory: Spirit Water Barrel [1]. ... After sharing this new discovery with each other, Lorain said, "Let''s gather the berries first and then contact Aren." Quinn nodded as she and Lorain started picking up berries from the field. . . At a faraway mountain range, where giant pces were situated, Rosflin was sitting on a couch and gaming on the mobile inside one of the pces. "There is still forty percent charging in the mobile, but...I really want to see if I can charge it or not." After thinking for a few moments, Rosflin gave in to his curiosity and flew out of the pce before flying behind the mountain range where dark clouds were hovering in the air. Below the clouds were pools of water, but strangely, it crackled with dark blue lightning. "Where are you going, Rosflin?" Before rosflin could enter the thunder pools area, A robust middle-aged man with long red hair and a bare upper body that showed natural muscles appeared. His upper body had faint glittering red patterns that looked simr to scales of dragons but in smaller magnitude such that it perfectly blended with his body. He was none other than the father of Rosflin and the brother of the current Red Dragon King, Tarrox, The Gentle Terror. Rosflin giggled and showed the mobile phone and charger to his father, "Father, I want to try charging the phone. Aren told me the method on how to charge it. I have to..." Rosflin told everything to his father, who just kept a gentle smile on his face. After Rosflin was done speaking, Tarrox said, " Give me the phone; I''ll tell you how to charge it." Tarrox plugged the pin into mobile and then pointed his index finger at the thunder pool as a tiny wisp of lightning flew towards him. "When you charge it in the future, just take a very small amount of lightning, just like this tiny wisp. Afterward, extract a miniature particle from it and let it touch those two metal fangs of the charger. "You can extract such tiny particle one by one and let it touch the charger''s fangs depending on the battery percentage disyed in the mobile until it reaches 100%." Seeing battery going up by 10% with that single lightning particle touching the charger''s fangs, Rosflin''s mouth wide opened as he looked at his father, "Father, How did you do it?! It seems as if you already knew about it." Tarrox ruffled rosflin hair as he smiled, "Because I indeed knew about it beforehand. Alright, now try it yourself and enjoy." Rosflin giggled with excitement as he also started doing the same. "By the way, Rosflin. Did you eat today and finish your daily training yet? Or were you gaming all the time?" Tarrox asked as he raised his red eyebrows. "Eh, I already did that. I ate my fill and even finished training." "Good." Tarrox nodded with a smile before he left towards mountain pces on the mountain range. When Tarrox arrived on top of the pce, he stopped before seeing a burning portal conjuring in front of him. "Hey Tarrox, did you choose a person yet? We have selected one, only you are left," A miniature phoenix with radiant icy-blue burning feathers appeared out of a burning portal and asked. "Not yet, but I was going to observe the person I have in mind. Come along if you want to." "Sure." Chapter 42 - Suspicious Aren, Quest. After Lorain told Aren that they were done with their things, four of them met outside. Quinn''s mother, Hem, didn''t want to enter the Wild expanse right after the invasion of the giants as she didn''t feel well and had decided to rest. But once Quinn, Aren, Lorain, and Luna met outside and checked up on Quinn''s mother, she also buckled up and said that she had enough rest as five of them entered the Duchy of Heigan together. The first thing they did was to register Lorain, Hem, and Quinn at the Guild and do their assessment. Hem had yet to reach level 10, so they couldn''t do her assessment. The result of the ck crystal''s assessment had a surprising result as it turned out that none of them had a simr grade of divine path. Lorain''s Divine path grade turned out to be Discursive, while Quinn''s Divine path grade turned out to be Extreme. But, as Donnie said, the grades of the Divine path really didn''t matter in the long term. After they finished registering, five of them also registered theirpany in the Guild with Aren as the leader. Aren decided thepany''s name as Luminous de. He thought of this name since he wanted to cut through the iing darkness and despair. Hence, thepany name, Luminous de. They are the de that will cut through darkness and despair. ... "Aren, what about Quinn''s grandfather and her other family members? Did any of them contact you yet?" Lorain spoke as her eyebrows creased slightly. Quinn and Hem flinched slightly, but Hem said with a hesitating expression, "Father would definitely contact Aren once they found two spirit stones and two fields of red berries ording to the n, but I can''t say the same for my brother and his family." Quinn nodded and said, "The bodyguards should have contacted grandpa if they met the quota and must have met up with him." Hearing them, Aren smiled wryly and said, "Alright, I''ll contact them myself and see what situation they are facing. You all also send him a request of spiritual, so he can ept all calls, and you can directly hear about the situation as well." ... Somewhere in the Wild expanse, near a pond... Borus, Jason, Jason''s wife, and all other bodyguards were standing with a serious and worried expressions. All of them were present except Julian. Suddenly, Borus received consecutive spiritual call requests. ... Borus frowned and sighed before epting all of their calls. Hemia--"Father, did you meet the quota yet or not? Or did you encounter some trouble?" Quinn--"Grandpa..." Borus released a deep sigh that Aren and others heard and they instantly concluded that something was wrong on their side. Indeed... Borus--"There is trouble. Julian suddenly separated from Jason and also called us, saying that...he also knows what to do now and how to survive and get strong. So...sigh, we are trying to find him now." Aren and others became silent before Quinn cursed, "That idiot!" Aren--"Did he bring spirit stone and red berries with him?" Borus sighed and said in a tone that revealed slight pleading, "I know it was your idea and-" Before Borus could finish, Aren interrupted with a speechless expression and tone, "Please stop. I didn''t ask that with such an intention, and I told you about that thing to benefit everyone in the first ce. Aren then spoke in a thoughtful tone, "I asked if he brought red berries and a spirit stone with him to confirm his survivability rate. After all, If he has red berries and spirit stone, his chance of survival will increase and also your chance of finding him." Borus--"Only if he could see the big picture like you...sigh. Anyway, since you called me, then I''ll speak the decision that Jason and I were thinking about." Hem--"Father? What decision? Although I can''t ask Aren, Lorain, Luna but Quinn, and I cane there to search for Julian." Her tone worried. Borus--"No!" His voice was resolute, "Daughter, after leaving, You have stayed with them more time, and my little Quinn...anyway, because of Julian''s reckless decision, I will not allow you to waste your time and halt your growth." Quinn--"Grandpa..." Borus--"From now on, you five will move together while we will search for Julian and move on our own until we find him. After all, regardless of his recklessness, he is still my grandson." Aren sighed and said, "Grandpa Borus, you must have a rough idea on how to move and get strong. Don''t let go of any chance to get strong while you search for Julian." Borus--"I understand." Aren--"Good luck. I hope Julian is fine and you find him as soon as possible." After saying that, Aren left the spiritual call while Hem and Quinn talked for a bit more before they also hanged up. "So, what do we do now, Aren?" Aren smiled and said, "I found a ce where we could trigger a quest. Let''s see if it works or not. If not, then we will go to the Guild and ept some quests there. Although they are more like chore quests since we have to start ourpany as Newbie rank and can only such low-rank quests." There were ranks of thepany, and as they increase their rank bypleting the quest and proving their power, their rank will increase, and they can ept better quests. ... Aren remembered the path as they walked for a while and arrived at the pavilion-like house. The elder was still sitting on the rocking chair with a listless expression. "I''ll go and talk to him," Aren said as he walked towards the gates of the house. "Grandpa, can Ie in?" Aren asked as he stood outside. A man in histe twenties walking by stopped seeing Aren''s action and said, "Hey, little brother. Don''t bother that elder." Aren looked at him as he raised his eyebrows and asked, "Why? What happened to him?" The man sighed and said, "His two sons haven''t returned yet, and even after posting a quest to find them four days ago, there''s no news of them." "How many days passed since his sons went out?" Aren asked. "Ten days. They would usually return after four-five days, but since ten days passed, there''s a high chance that-" "SHUT UP! My sons are not dead. They will return for sure." The elder burst out as he spoke angrily. Aren looked at the elder and said with a serious expression, "Where did they go, elder? If we can, then we will definitely help you." The elder looked at Aren before he sighed, "They went to Blood-Spring Valley to get some Viter Blood Ginger for me, and even though it''s a bit far from here, they should have returned by now. Also...sigh, I went to check the quest I posted, but no one had epted the quest yet." The man in histe-twenties thought with disdain, ''With such low quest rewards, why would they go to Blood-Spring valley?'' Pausing there, the elder looked at Aren with a pleading expression, "Can you please go and search for them? Today, I was going to increase the quest reward, so I might as well tell you the reward. If you can bring my sons back, then I''ll give you all of my gold coin savings, which is 10,000 gold coins, and our family heirloom, which is a pendent with exotic crystal." Hearing the new reward, the man gulped and said, "Elder, that''s quite a long jump from your previous reward." But Aren actually frowned after hearing the reward as he deeply looked at the elder. ''The quest will trigger as soon as I nod my head and say that we will help you find your son. But...'' "Do we ept the quest or not?" Lorain asked. Aren thought for one whole minute of many possibilities before he smiled and nodded, " Alright, we ept your quest." [Quest, Find the lost sons has been epted.] -->Fine the elder''s two sons who didn''t return home after going to Blood-Spring valley. -->5000 exp. -->10,000 gold. -->Family heirloom of Fs family. Seeing thest reward, Aren thought of something and asked, "Grandpa, what are your son''s names? oh, and your family name as well." The elder sighed, but before he could speak, the man said, "His two sons are called Tojis or Lojis. This family of three arrived in this town two years ago. As for their family name..." The man looked at the elder with a clueless expression, "If I remember correctly, Your family name is Hedarth, right?" The elder sighed and nodded. Aren raised his eyebrows at that before he looked at his mother, Quinn, and others and moved his eyes left and right as if he was signaling them something. They understood and stayed silent since they also received the quest. "Alright, we will move right away and try our best to find your sons," Aren said with a smile, "In turn, don''t go to the Guild since if you raise your quest''s reward, there will bepetition." The elder thought for a moment and went inside the house as he took out two posters that had his son''s face drawn. He gave the posters to Aren before saying, "If I get no news from you after three days, then I will go and raise the rewards at the Guild." "Haha, sure," Aren said with augh as he took the posters before he turned around, "Let''s go." ... "But Aren, exit is there," Quinn said as she pointed at the gates of the town. "Not yet. We will first buy a map and then visit the Alchemy area of this town," Aren said as he led them to another ce in town. Gin had already shown them the majority of the stores and areas of the town.. He also wanted to ask about the information on blood spring valley. Chapter 43 - Oberon After buying the map, which had a very life-like painting, they went to the Alchemy area. After going to the Alchemy area, they entered one of the Alchemy shops and negotiated the price of selling red berries. Aren wanted a health potion in exchange for red berries. "Little brother, I can''t go more than 4% extra potions in exchange, You must know that red berries will also expire, and I don''t think you can finish those four thousand plus red berries before they start to lose their effectiveness," The shop owner said with a wry smile. " 4%..." Aren thought for a moment before he smiled and said, "Then just make a round figure and give us 1800 health potions. Come on, that''s just ten plus some extra health potions." The shop owner thought for a moment before he sighed, "Alright. I am going to initiate the trade." Right after that, Aren heard a voice and words in front of him. [Merchant Lufos wants to initiate a trade with you, ept or not?] ''ept,'' Aren said with a speechless expression, ''If I knew this was possible, we wouldn''t have gone through that trouble...'' Once he epted the trade, two windows appeared in front of him, and beside the left window, there were items from his inventory disyed. The other window had nothing, nor there was anything beside it. But after a second, Health potion [1800] appeared with an icon of health potion in the window. Seeing that, Aren understood as he also put up all the berries from his storage ring, Red Berries [4118]. Afterward, They all went to an armory shop and bought silver-tier armor for Lorain, Quinn, and Hem. ... After they exchanged all of their red berries for health potions with more effectiveness, they finally left the town. After leaving the town''s gate, Aren and others stopped under a tree before he gave each one of the 360 Health potions by initiating trading. It seems that even if the other person didn''t put anything, Aren could still send them his things once they locked their trade bar. Afterward, Aren looked at everyone and said with a serious expression, "As you know, the quest we just received is a fake one." Luna and others nodded before Lorain said with a frown, "What is that old man''s intention?" Nobody had any idea about it. "I don''t know, but it doesn''t matter since we will not go there right away. Let''s first get strong. But before anything else, let''s go towards a cave where Highleg wolves are staying and let auntie Hem kill them to get exp so she can level up to 10." ... The map that Aren bought epassed five hundred square kilometers of area. This was the smallest map, and it still cost them 280 gold coins. Maps are expensive! Aren didn''t buy arger map since what he wanted to find; the Blood-Spring valley was already on the map. After a few minutes of traveling, they arrived at the nearby Highleg wolves cave. Highleg wolves were weak, even weaker than hunchback wolves, which is why Aren picked up this location. Luna and others will be going inside for protection and just block the wolves while Aunt Hem can practice and kill them. She was already level 9 but just at the start as she needed around six thousand plus exp to level up to 10. Meanwhile, Aren stayed outside as he took out one of his chakrams [ Glory of Moon Chakram ] and used his skill on it. After five seconds, the process was done as all the vein-like patterns on the chakrams were filled up. -Armalist Force [18/200] ''So It took 182 Armarlist force toplete the transformation. Quite a lotpared to the force consumed by Ikaros. It looks like this transformation will be more powerful.'' The chakram disappeared after the vein-like patterns were filled, but Aren knew that it went inside his body or...more likely, the Armalist Drive. He was not sure, but he felt that it was rted to it since that was his path''s power. He took out his now transformed chakram that had additional dreamy blue patterns on the original silver body of the chakram. [Name your Articule gear] The original name of this chakram was good and suited the chakram, but Aren decided to give it a name, albeit a short one, just like his heavy broad sword, Ikaros. ''Hmmm...Since chakram is moon-like with smooth round de structure full of sharp aura, then...Oberon, it is.'' [ Oberon, Chakram ]-Soul Bound. -Type: Articule Gear. -Rank: Low-grade tinum-tier. -Requirement: Armalist Drive+. -Perk: +11 STR, +11 AGI, Increases the prative aspect of skills released through this chakram by 20% of the skill''s own prative aspect. -Damage: Physical [3480-3990]. -Trait: Taint of Moon-Makes it harder to heal injuries caused by this chakram. -Durability: [1000/1000]. -Note: Upgradable. *gulp....* Seeing the transformed chakram, Aren gulped as he just confirmed his spection. When he transformed his Heavy Broad Sword, the previous requirement disappeared, and the new requirement appeared, Armalist Drive, which he had already met since it''s his power. Although the requirement became Armalist Drive+, he also met this, and most importantly, He could now wield this chakram. Previously, He couldn''t wield and throw it since he didn''t meet the requirement of 28 Strength, 25 Agility. But now, he was not going to throw it but...manipte it without touching it. ''This path...It seems that it''s very powerful despiting being Mystic-grade and not having some other benefits like Affinity and such things that other paths provide...'' Aren thought since all the things regarding chakram upgraded. Its rank went up to low-grade tinum-tier, and with that, all stats of the chakram also upgraded. Its perk''s bonus stat points increased to +11 from +7, Its damage increased by a whopping 1000, and its perk''s ability that increased the prative power of skills released through chakram also increased from 15% to 20%. He looked at his state, which also increased because now that he made this chakram into his Articule gear, the bonus stat it gave always remained active even if he didn''t wield it all the time. The other +3 bonus on Strength and Agility were from his [Spirit Faux Leather Armor] Aren was excited as he wanted to try his power and took out a map to decide where they should go next. As he looked at the map, he saw a demon face icon at one ce on the map. Frowning, he focused hard on it and got information as he heard a voice. [ Clear the dungeon, Grotto of Demon Ants ] -->Enter the Grotto and kill the queen of Demon Ants. -->5000 exp, A random mystery box(Bronze). "Five thousand exp? Hmm, then it shouldn''t be too difficult. Alright, since it''s already epted, then we might as well do it," Aren muttered after looking at the quest before he started practicing the chakram maniption while waiting for others toe out. First, he manipted the chakram to spin like a fan. *Zzz...* *zzzzz....* *zzzzzzzzz.....* The chakram was floating in the air while spinning rapidly as it produced a sound. Aren looked at it, speechless. After all, it is definitely impossible to spin this chakram like this with a hand, and one can only throw it by grabbing the handle inside its center belly part. With great throwing mastery, they can spin the chakram by throwing it, but it would never spin as fast as spun by Aren''s...thought. Afterward, Aren moved the chakram while it spun rapidly. He then exerted all of his thought to move the chakram at the fastest speed while it spun terrifyingly. He moved it near a boulder and...hit it. *Creeeeeeeeeeee...* The chakram went through the boulder as if a knife through butter. He felt slight resistance when it was cutting the boulder, but only slightly. After some testing, Aren confirmed, ''So I indeed can''t surpass that threshold of speed. It should be around 380-420 mph.'' Aren had tested his fastest flying speed on the sword and in straight-line; once he reached a point, He couldn''t increase the moving speed anymore. Now, he just checked the same with the chakram, and the moving speed of the chakram also didn''t increase after reaching a certain point. From his spection, the maximum moving speed he can achieve with manipting his Articule gear is around 380 to 420 mph. He also can''t say exact without a measurement tool. But this speed was already faster than the fastest car. He then started to practice double maniption by flying on Ikaros and also moving Oberon chakram. ... After an hour, Luna, Quinn, and others left the cave as they saw Aren flying around while moving his chakram. Aren noticed as he descended with a smile and said, "You also got the dungeon quest, right?" "Yep." "Then let''s go!" Chapter 44 - Trouble Aren and others started moving towards the Grotto of Demon Ants dungeon location that was fourteen kilometers away from their location. Once Aren recovered his Armalist Force, he also used on his second chakram. After the process was finished, He took out the transformed chakram from his body and named it [Novas]. [ Novas ]-Soul Bound. -Type: Articule Gear-Chakram. -Rank: Low-grade tinum-tier. -Requirement: Armalist Drive+. -Perk: +11 STR, +10 AGI, Increase me-element skill''s damage by 600. -Damage: Physical [3340-3780] me [600]. -Trait: By infusing spirit energy into the chakram, It will be covered in hot mes to deal additional me damage. -Durability: [1000/1000]. -Note: Upgradable. ... After an hour of moving constantly, they encountered two metail Lions. Aren looked at them and told others, "Leave them to me. I want to check how good these chakrams are." [ metail Lion ] -Rank: Umon-1 -Health: [2900/2900] -Defense: Physical [200], Soul [200] -Attack: Physical [1400], me [600]. -Skill: . This was the first umon beast they encountered. Before the Lions coulde there, Aren jumped on his sword and flew towards them while controlling his chakram [ Oberon ] that shot towards the first metail Lion. *shreeeeeeee...* *Roarr...* The Lion saw that it wouldn''t be able to dodge the chakram and used its powerful paws to hit it. But chakram''s changed its path slightly as it dodged the paw narrowly before shing at the metail Lion''s belly and...cut it into two. [-3990] [ metail Lion killed, 600 exp gained.] [ Your path leveled up to 3. ] [ You gained 1 talent point. ] Aren saw a high damage number floating and was surprised, ''Could it be...the chakram''s damage increased since it was spinning, which increased its prative power? Hmmm, that must be the case.'' Afterward, Aren released from the chakram towards the second Lion and was surprised to see low damage. But he didn''t pause and released another to finish it off. [ -1608] [ -1621 ] [ metail Lion killed, 600 exp gained.] But its damage was still greater than when he released the skill from his sword. That should be because the chakram''s perk effect applied, which increased the skill''s prative aspect by 20%. Aren understood that was a wind energy-based attack and that the chakram''s damage doesn''t get added to it. Since it consumed spirit energy, the trick to increase skill''s damage must be in spirit energy. ''I guess the people with affinity may have an advantage in such things and should have greater damage on such skills. On the other hand, My path is reliant on gears. Hmmm...at least, that seems to be the case for now.'' Afterward, Aren looked at his path status and saw that only one grey bubble was blinking and consumed his talent point on that. [ Armalist Drive+1 ]: Increase your Armalist Force by 50, Soul stat by 5, and increase gear slot by 1, A skill unlocked . <-Aren-> [ Path- Emporio Armalist ] -Level: 3 [ 500/2000 Exp ] -Armalist Force: [ 250/250 ] -Talent points: 0 -Skills: , , . -Articule Gears: [ Ikaros ], [Oberon], [Novas].---Slots: 4 ( 1 left ). -Innate Gears: [ Astral-X Eyes ]. < Talents > --> Armalist Drive+1: (core of the path, merged with the soul.) Aren felt a headache for five seconds as the information about the skill entered inside his brain. But after that, he felt more energized, and his spirit lifted as well, which was due to an increase of 5 points in soul stat. He then looked at the new skill. -Cost: Depends on the gear. -Effect: Upgrade the overall performance of the gear permanently. -Requirement: Only upgradable gears can be upgraded, and there are some other restrictions as well. After looking at the skill, Aren used the skill on [Oberon] by following the steps ording to the skill''s information he got. He put his hand on the chakram and focused, but he failed before he could initiate the process. [Unable to upgrade due to insufficient Armalist Force.] ''Hmmm...since the cost depends on gears. Let''s try to upgrade Ikaros.'' Aren then used the skill on Ikaros as he put his hand on the sword and focused. This time, the process was started as he saw five points connected to each other in a zig-zag manner. It was like a constetion of stars in the sky. He then infused his Armalist Force from the first point and slowly started filling up the constetion pattern. Soon, he spent a total of 230 Armalist forces as all fives points and the line connected to it began to glow, and the process of gear upgrade finished. [ Ikaros ]-Soul Bound -Type: Articule Gear, Heavy Broad Sword. -Rank: Medium-grade Gold-tier. -Requirement: Armalist Drive+1 -Perk: Strength +3, Agility +3. -Damage: [1950-2150] -Durability: [500/500] -Note: Not upgradable anymore unless $#@%. After the upgrade process, Aren saw a new thing, "perk," added along with the weapon''s rank, requirement, damage, and durability increasing considerably. It seems that he can''t upgrade it anymore unless...Well, he can''t read the words after that, ''Anyway, I''ll find out when the timees. No point in wasting time thinking about it when there are more important things to do.'' ... After Aren was done with his work, the group continued moving towards the Grotto of Demon Ants dungeon''s location. After twenty minutes, they were finally near the location but unexpectedly and coincidently met a group of humans. The thing was, this group of eight people, that consisted of two families, were from the earth. Two boys around Aren''s age, two girls around Quinn''s age, Two middle-aged men and two middle-aged women. ...Are they are on a pic? Both groups was stunned seeing each other for a moment before a middle-aged man with ck hair on their groupughed and said, "Since you here, then you must be here for the dungeon, right? well, let''s do it together." Aren saw a map in a young man with ck hair''s hand and concluded that they came here from another town. After all, On the map, there was another town some ten kilometers away from this ce. "Alright. I guess this is also your first time in the dungeon, right? If so, then it''s better to be safe than sorry by working together," Aren said with a faint smile. ''Anyway, fellow humans can''t hurt each other, and everyone is in the same boat about facing despair after three years. Even though there is a loophole in which we can hurt each other, but there''s no merit in that since we are supposed to work together in the end.'' Thought the young man with ck hair, Yashil in the other group. After both groups agreed to move together, They started moving towards the Grotto of Demon Ants location that was just one kilometer away. While walking, the group got to know each other, and it seemed that four people in their group had reached level ten. But as they neared the dungeon and finally arrived at the cave''s entrance, they saw another group of humans that consisted of three people. The three people turned back and looked at the two groups before they frowned. One of them shouted as he waved his hand towards them, "We are here for some business. If you bunch of otherworlders don''t want to die, then fuck off." Hearing that, Yashil''s sister frowned and said, "Why are you so foul-mounted? In the first ce, we outnumber you greatly, so if you don''t want to get hurt, then you should leave." Hearing that, Aren looked at the girl with a speechless expression, ''Dumb girl, if they are being arrogant, then it means that they have the strength to back it up.'' Yashil also frowned while his father red at his daughter, but others felt that her words were sound since they really outnumbered us. "Yeah, you should lea-" Before that other boy in that group could finish speaking, Aren interrupted loudly, "We will leave right away, enjoy your stay here." "Hahaha, A bunch of weak otherworlders telling us to leave? What a joke." The man who had ming red hair looked at Aren''s and Yashil''s group as a mischievous smile formed on his face. The man with red hair looked at Aren and said, "It seems that you two are differentpanies and not together, hehehe. Alright, I''ve decided. You will stay here and watch as I ughter the other group in front of you. If you moved even a bit, then I will kill you as well." "Aren...," Luna clenched her fist while Lorain and others looked at Aren. Aren''s face had turned expressionless as he nodded, "Alright." Yashil looked at Aren as he frowned while others in his group red at Aren before looking at the red-haired man walking towards them. "Y-you. Don''te here, or you will really get hurt." On the other hand, Aren spiritually contacted Luna and others even though they were together and told them not to move and just stand obediently. He was also helpless in this situation because...the people in front of them were too powerful. With his eyes, he could see their stats. [ ??? ] -Lifestage: Supreme-2 -??? -Health: [19,000/19,000] -??? -??? -Strength: 390 -Constitution: 380 -Agility: 310 -Soul: 150 -??? -??? -??? .... Aren knew that...they wouldn''t be able to escape even if they tried to run. These were not beasts but humans who possed tons of skills and supernatural powers. ''What should I do?'' Aren thought as he fell into a deep dilemma. One wrong move, and...things could take a turn for the worse. Aren''s mother, Quinn, and others were also unstable, but Aren kept reminding them to stay their ground and don''t move because those three people are way way way more powerful than them. ''Should I save them by using my red dragon''s scale?...No! I can''t waste it when It''s not our life that''s in danger. T-this...,'' Aren took a deep breath and felt very conflicted inside as he looked at the red-haired man approaching the other group. The red-haired man pointed his hand towards the girl who spoke as his hand got covered in blue me, "I''ve decided once again. I will let four of you live, so decide who will die and who will live, hahaha." The other people with him were another middle-aged man with brown hair and a woman with long emerald hair. "Reto, we are going inside first. You alsoe inside fast after finishing your stupid game." "Alright." Reto said as he looked at Yashil''s group, "What are you waiting for? Start deciding who will live or die so I can kill you." The other middle-aged man couldn''t hold his anger anymore as he pointed his finger at Reto and said, "You''re the one who will die! Air cannon, double boost!" A gust of wind blew around him as a rapid spinning wind ball started forming in front of his finger''s tip. "Hahaha, An optimal path, heh? Well, but you are too weak, " Reto sneered as he thumped his chest, " Come on! hit me with that; I''ll just stand here." "H-how does he know that dad''s path is optimum?" The young boy with brown hair spoke. Reto heard that clearly and grinned, "Because most of the basic-elemental based paths like that wind are Optimum path. Hehe, say, which type of wind is that? give me some details, and I''ll not kill you and recruit you instead." "Die!" The middle-aged man released the cannon, but Reto really didn''t move, let it hit it. The wind cannon hit Reto, but that didn''t even make his armor scratch. After the wind st, several wind des conjured from the remnant and attacked Reto again, but that still didn''t scratch him. "This wind...From its aura and ck hue, it''s Dobos wind, right? Hahaha. Too bad you are still at just the start of your path. Anyway, since you didn''t listen to me then....you can die." Chapter 45 - Anger And Helplessness Reto pointed his hand at the middle-aged man and grinned, "Bam!" A blue fireball instantly materialized and shot forward as it hit the middle-aged man right in his chest. Aren and others watched with shocked eyes as the blue fireball disappeared after hitting the man''s chest. "Surprised, right? Hahaha," Retoughed before he snapped his finger, "Well, the surprise is over." *Booom!...* The middle-aged man was sted into pieces. *shriek....* "...F-father," The girl shrieked as blood covered her face. "Noooooooooooo...I''ll kill you!" Jenril, the other young man, also screamed as he dashed towards Reto with a spear in his hand as he saw his father sted to death. Yashil also gritted his teeth as he shouted, "Everyone, attack him at once!" After saying that, Yashil took out a giant brush before he waved it forward, which released ck ink towards Reto. While the ck ink was in the air, It turned into two ckbirds that flew towards Reto. He then waved his brush again, but this time, red ink shot forward as they turned into blood-red swords. Reto just grinned seeing the attacksing at him as he didn''t even move. He just stretched both of his hands forwards as two blue ming whips appeared in his hands before he waved them. *Patakk..!* First whip wrapped around Jenril before he could reach Reto and turned him into ash, while the second whip destroyed the ckbirds and two blood-red swords one by one as Reto waved his hand and wielded the whips with great mastery. *Booom....* The ckbirds exploded once they were hit by the whip caused Reto to have an interesting expression on his face, "That''s a power of path I''ve never seen before, Interesting. But...my bloodlust is more important than my curiosity, Hahaha." Reto opened his mouth as one could see his throat turning blue before condensed bullets of blue fire rapidly shot forward towards Yashil. Yashil''s face changed as despair appeared in his eyes. Only his mind could see it and react, but his body couldn''t since the bullets'' speed was the same as bullets releasing from an actual machine gun. But he still waved his giant brush as a blue ink shield appeared in front of him, but some bullets already hit him and....he didn''t feel anything? It was the same as what happened to the middle-aged man. Yashil could feel his body turning hot while his heart cold. He knew...that he was done for. The blue ink shield was also destroyed shortly before bullets hit him and disappeared into his body. "Hahaha,e on! Dance some more before dying; why do you think I left you alive?" "P-please spare us..." One of the middle-aged women broke down into crying. While Yashil''s sister gritted her teeth as she also attacked by taking out a bow. As she pulled the string, an orange ming arrow automatically materialized before she released the string. *Shuaaaa...* The arrow hit the smiling arrow in his chest, but...it didn''t even scratch his armor. At this time, Yashil''s sister was filled with regret. If she didn''t speak anything, then uncle and Jenril wouldn''t have died, nor...her brother, who was already sentenced to death by Reto since his strange blue fire bullets entered Yashil''s body. ''Aren...,'' Lorain grabbed Aren''s shoulder as she squeezed it. Aren could feel their fear and the trembling of his mother''s hand. They were still connected with spiritual contact. Luna and Quinn looked at Aren before Luna said, ''Aren...are we really helpless against him?'' Aren was having an internal conflict for thest few minutes, but he had finally made up his mind, ''We...can''t do anything.'' He had decided...to put a cold stone in his heart. He can''t take risks by helping them and getting killed in return. He could use the threat method by showing the red dragon''s scale but...that would expose this trump card and even if everyone safely returned due to Reto and others being scared of threat, then Aren''s trump card wouldn''t be a trump card against them. After leaving, Reto and others might bait other people here or some other way to expose Aren and the party to danger to use up their trump and kill themter as revenge. In the end, after thinking long and hard, he had made this decision. ''What if hees to kill us after killing them?'' Quinn asked as she gritted her teeth. Aren shook his head, ''If he does that, then I have a way to save ourselves. But, I...don''t want to waste this lifesaving method to help them when it''s not us that are in 100% death situation right now,''-He took a deep breath before saying in a stern voice, ''Since there is a chance of us getting alive, then we will see if that works. I am sorry, but...we are not heroes or anything, at least...not right now.'' ''But-'' ''No Buts! Thousands of people died due to those giants! We saw people getting killed in front of us too! What did we feel at that time? Just because that Reto looks human doesn''t mean he is any different from those giants! He is much more powerful than those giants! WE CAN''T KILL HIM! None of our skills would even hit or affect him!'' Hem, Lorain, Quinn, and Luna looked at each other as they felt firsthand helplessness. Reto yed with a group as none of the attacks worked on him. Yashil was still alive but filled with despair as he just desperately attacked. Aren looked on with a cold and indifferent expression. But inside, he was also feeling angry and helpless. One by one, Reto killed everyone in the other group as only their ash remained, and they spread away with blowing wind. Aren looked at Reto, who stood with his eyes closed and head facing the sky with a satisfied smile on his face, ''Fucking psychopath...'' After a while, Reto opened his eyes and looked at Aren and others with a grin stretched across his face. Chapter 46 - Hidden Agenda? Aren and others saw Reto looking at them with a sick grin on his face and became worried. "Hahaha, no need to worry. Just rx," Reto said as he yed with a blue fireball on his hands, "I am not going to kill you right now butter. For now, I''ve satiated my bloodlust, hehehe." ''Later?'' Aren thought with doubt, but he understood his meaning by the next thing that Reto said. "For now, you all will follow me inside," Reto licked his lips before saying, "Or...would you prefer dying right now? Hehehe,e forward one step if you want to follow me in three seconds. Those who don''te forward will die right now." Aren hurridly informed others through his spiritual link to move forward one step. "Hahaha, good." Reto said as he turned around, "Now follow me and don''t try to be smart. If you tried to run then...well, you can''t run from me, so you will just die earlier." Reto paused as he looked back and grinned, "But if you follow me inside the dungeon, then you might get a chance to survive and escape from me, Hahaha." He then turned around and started walking towards the dungeon entrance that looked like a cave. Aren--''Just follow him for now. If pushes to shove, I can use my life-saving method.'' Lorain and others nodded as the only reason they were not feeling hopeless was Aren''s guarantee. As Aren and others followed Reto inside, Aren thought with doubt and confusion, ''From the quest, this dungeon is not that tough and seems to be low-leveled. But then...why such high-level people like Reto who are at Supreme-stage lifeform doing here?'' This was a truly unexpected disaster. Aren didn''t think that the dungeon that only gave 5000 exp and a bronze mystery box would attract people at the level of Reto. Aren then started thinking about all the things till now while following Reto inside the dungeon. ''The three of them were standing outside when we arrived here...ording to everything until now, them standing outside while we arrived here shouldn''t be a coincidence. If so, then... Aren looked at Reto''s back and concluded, ''Then they were waiting for us. Not specifically us but...some people. On top of that, Reto''s behavior at the end, this...'' "Move fast!" Reto spoke as he looked back and started running. Some demon ants that were the size of sheep attacked them, but Reto was killing them quickly and easily by controlling a wisp of blue fire. They also dead bodies of other demon ants on the way killed by Reto''spanions. While running, Aren was beginning to put together the pieces, and ording to him, Reto and others were going to use them for something inside this dungeon. That''s why he brought them inside. ''He first scared us into submission by killing the other group; he targetted the other group because that girl gave him the reason and left us alive. In the end, he gave us hope that we might be able to survive and escape from him if we followed him... ''Hmmm, something is wrong in this dungeon, and they are going to use us for something. This...can also mean that we have some value, for now,'' Shaking his head, Aren thought, ''No, it would be foolish to try to run right now based on my guesses so far.'' After a while, they reached the end of the dungeon where the dead body of the Queen Demon Ant was lying on the ground. But a few meters away, at the corner of the cave, was a meter and half radius-sized hole. Reto went to the hole and said to Aren and others with a grin, "Jump down. Hehehe, don''t worry because you won''t die by jumping down. But...if you didn''t jump, then you will definitely die." Saying that, Reto conjured a blue fireball on his hand and showed a ruthless expression. Aren hurriedly nodded as he said with a scared expression, "W-we will jump down." He also told others to jump down while they also showed scared expressions. ... After Aren and others jumped down into the tunnel that was not that long, they arrived in another cave where the other twopanions of Reto were waiting. Reto also arrived at the end. "Why did you bring them here?" Lam said with a frown as she crossed her arms below her melons. "Hahaha, It''s fine. I brought them here, so they are our pathfinder. As you know, there are traps ahead, and it''s better to use them to clear the path for us." Hearing that, the otherpanion of Reto named Kozark said with disdain, "We can easily clear the traps and don''t forget that the path also contains benefits and blessings other than traps. If we use them, then they might get it and also escape. Wouldn''t you feel bad then?" Lorain and others were surprised, but Aren coldly smiled, ''Nice acting.'' His guess was correct, as they are really going to use them as cannon fodder to clear the path ahead. He didn''t believe in that bull shit blessings and benefits because that would be absurd, ''They are likely saying that because we feel that we still have a chance to live and escape and don''t give in to despair. After all, if we feel that we don''t have any chance to live at all, then what;''s the point of helping them before dying?'' "Shut up, you two! Since I have decided, then it''s decided. You two can also clear the path along with them, but I am not going to risk it, humph!" Lam and Kozark looked at each other with helplessness before Lam said, "You psychopath, always doing whatever you wish. Fine, we''ll do it your way." Kozark also nodded before he looked at Aren and others with a sneer, "You ants, you are lucky that this psychopath brought you here and gave you a chance to be strong, humph. If he were not more powerful than me, then I would''ve killed you right here!" Chapter 47 - Hidden Dungeon-1 "The path in front of us is riddled with traps and blessings both. So...who among you will go first?" Lam said as she looked at Aren and others. At this time, Aren''s group and Reto''s group were standing in front of a five steps wide path inside this underground cave. "I will go first," Aren spoke with a grimace as if he had just gathered some courage and spoke out. Reto grinned as he looked at Aren, "Boy, you are the only man in their group, hehehe. Did you bang any of them yet or not? Hahaha, don''t die early or they''ll be lonely." Luna, Quinn, Aren''s mother, and Hem clenched their fist while Aren also frowned but didn''t say anything and just walked forward. Aren looked at the broad path in front of him and focused hard, ''Please work.'' Right after a second, He started to see hazy glowing sparks on some ces in front of him. ''Rocks...wouldn''t work on such mystical traps, right?'' Aren thought as he picked up a rock. Seeing that, Kozark sneered while Reto and Lam shook their heads. Indeed, Aren threw a rock at one of the sparky ces, and nothing happened. "Boy, just move forward. This is the first section, and it will end at that grey rocky ground at the end of this path which is a safe zone. Come on, move, move." Lam said as she urged Aren to move forward, "Also, don''t go straight ahead and move while changing positions if you don''t want to die early, hehe." Aren took the first step and then the second as he slowly started walking, ''I have to make a n to escape from them, but first, let''s cross this hurdle.'' He avoided the sparky areas that were half a meter radius size and safely walked to the t ground at the other side that is a supposed safe area, ording to Reto and others. When Aren turned back after reaching the safe area, he was shocked! The sparky things moved from their spots and changed positions. Aren greatly held himself back from changing his expression as he contacted Lorain and others spiritually. Aren--''Everyone, do not be surprised and act naturally while I am speaking to you. Got it? Do not be surprised! Now listen, I can actually see the traps with my Astral-X eyes, and once I crossed to the other side, the traps changed their ces. So remember to follow my instruction since they will likely tell you to move forward if they know of this mechanism.'' Lorain and others were surprised, but they didn''t show it since they were prepared. "One of you! Come forward and start moving to the other side. Hurry up." Kozark spoke in a raspy tone. "I-I''ll go," Lorain spoke with a slight stammer as she moved forward and started walking. Aren kept giving her instructions on how to move and safely cross to the other side. Aren also noticed that Reto had turned silent with a serious expression on his face as he kept his gaze focused on the path, ''Why is he so focused? Does he want to remember the pattern of moving? But...that''s useless.'' Once Lorain arrived beside Aren, the traps once again changed their position. "Wow, hahaha. You two sure are lucky," Lam sneered while Reto was still in his focused state. Kozark once again told someone to move forward, and this time, Quinn and Luna volunteered at the same time. Hem also said, but she was a bitte. But Kozark tsked as he pointed at Hem and said, "You! Start moving." "Y-yes...," Hem nodded with some fear as she started walking. After a while, she also safely crossed the trap path. But this time, Aren was surprised to see that the traps didn''t change their positions. What''s more, the traps greatly decreased in number as only three traps remained in the whole path on which people likely wouldn''t step since they were at the corners. At this time, Reto grinned and said, "Follow me." Lam and Kozark smiled as they followed Reto. Lamia turned to Luna and Quinn and said, "What are you waiting for? do I have to give an invitation to follow us?" ''Bitch...,'' Luna and Quinn both cursed her inside their mind while outside; they nodded and acted naturally as they followed Lamina, Kozark, and Reto. Once all of them arrived at the safe zone, Reto looked at Aren, Lorain, and Lamina with a wicked grin on his face, "You three sure are lucky and unlucky both. You didn''t encounter any trap nor any blessings, hahaha. Keep it up, keep it up." Aren found something strange, ''Reto seems to know that the traps will decrease after three people pass, but then why was he so focused?'' The safe zone stretched for ten meters as they walked forward in this sizeable underground cave. At the end of the safe zone, the second trap area started. Lam told Aren, Lorain, and Hem to move since she felt that these three were very lucky. Aren went first as he avoided all traps and then led his mother and auntie Helima to the safe zone as well. After Lorain and Hem passed safely, the number of traps again decreased greatly as Reto told others to follow him. "Reto, did you sense any blessings?" Lam asked while walking towards the safe zone. Reto shook his head, "Nope. Let''s continue. ording to information, we will definitely get some blessings since we need them to clear this hidden dungeon." They spoke in a low voice such that others couldn''t hear them. Once everyone arrived at the safe zone, Reto couldn''t help but look at Aren, Lorain, and Hem as he asked in a surprised tone, "Do the three of you have luck-rted abilities or special luck traits? Because you sure are lucky, hahaha." "Anyway, let''s continue moving," Reto said afterughing. After walking for ten meters, they saw another trap area path. As usual, Aren walked forward, but this time, he was surprised to see an unusual area where hazy golden sparks hovered, ''What is that? The other sparks are dark blue while this one is golden? is it a more powerful trap?'' He had removed the notion of blessings since he felt that it was just a lie to give them hope. Aren moved forward as he avoided the traps and reached the other side. After Lorain and Hem crossed the trap path, Aren saw that the traps decreased greatly as usual, but the hazy golden sparks at the ce remained. Reto once again told others to follow him, but when he neared the golden sparky area, he paused as a slight gleam of golden passed through his eyes. He turned to his left and walked three steps before touching the hazy golden sparks. Aren was surprised, but he kept it to himself, ''What''s going on? It felt like he was purposefully walking towards it...Could it be that he was searching it when he focused the previous time?'' On the other hand, Reto was enveloped in a golden brilliance that none of the people could see except Aren. But Reto didn''t stop moving as after taking the blessing, he continued moving forward towards the safe zone while others followed him. ''Hmmm, as expected, these blessings are temporarily granted to us to clear the dungeon. But this one suits me since it is an offensive me-based blessing, hehehe. Though that brat and other two are strange...howe they didn''t encounter any trap and die yet?'' Kozark and Lam looked at each other with excited expressions as since Reto moving like that means that he found a blessing. After reaching the safe zone, Reto looked at Aren and grinned, "Boy, could it be that....you can actually see the traps?" Chapter 48 - Hidden Dungeon-2, Exposed? Aren looked at Reto as his brain''s gears turned fast. "Hahaha, well, that''s impossible. How could someone of his level see the traps?" Kozarkughed out loud as he spoke with disdain. Lam also nodded and thought, ''Indeed, Reto also can''t see the traps, but due to one of his abilities that is fortune-type, he is able to sense those blessings.'' "Right," Reto nodded as he grinned with narrowed eyes while looking at Aren, "It seems you three are quite lucky and unlucky both, hehehe. Let''s see if you manage to get any blessing in the next trap paths. Nowe one, start moving!" "Al-alright..." Aren spoke with a stammer as he turned around and started walking. With his Astral-X eyes, he saw traps and saw two golden sparky areas this time. ''Since Reto wasn''t hurt and even purposefully moved there, it shouldn''t be a trap. So...is it really a blessing?'' Aren thought as he slowly moved towards the area with blessing but walked in zig-zag and random form. After walking for a few more steps, he neared the golden sparky area and...finally put one of his legs on it. Right as he put his leg on it, Aren heard a voice and saw notifications, but he acted as nothing had happened and continued moving as he reached the safe zone. He looked at Reto, who was still focused on the trap path, ''It seems that he can''t sense those golden sparky areas from afar. But...interestingly, the thing about blessing was true.'' [ You have received a temporary blessing: Sunfire Burst.] -Type: Blessing. -Effect 1: All of your attacks will be included with scorching hot Sunfire and will deal tremendous damage and unheble injuries to the target. -Effect 2: Additionally, your attacks will deal t 10,000 fire damage that will ignore all forms of defense of the opponent. -Note 1: You can activate this blessing by thinking about it, and once activated, it will onlyst for one minute. -Note 2: This blessing will only work while you are inside the hidden dungeon: Demon Yakum''s Underground Temple. ''Should I let Mom or auntie get the second blessing? Never mind, it''s toote for now. Also, Reto might get suspicious if he didn''t sense any blessings in this pathter,'' Aren thought as he focused on guiding his mother through the path to the safe zone. Aren then let his mother and auntie Hem pass the trap path before the traps decreased considerably. "Follow me!" Reto said as he started moving ahead as always. But after walking several steps and nearing the second blessing, he stopped and said something to Lam. Although Aren and others saw that they were talking, they couldn''t hear it. Lam then moved towards the left side and received the blessing. But while they wereing to the safe zone, Aren was not idle as he told his mom and others about the blessing and told them that he would guide them towards blessing. Aren--''Keep in mind to not act surprised and stay naturally when you hear the voice and see the notification.'' It was unfortunate that Quinn and Luna wouldn''t be able to get one since the first three to move are set to Aren, Lorain, and Hem because apparently, "They are very lucky." But Aren felt that Reto was not buying that lucky bull shit from how Reto looked at him. After everyone got to the safe zone, they continued moving. This time, Aren didn''t see any blessings in this trap path. Nheless, he moved and avoided the traps before reaching the safe zone and led his mother and auntie Hem to the safe zone as well. "Hehehe, I guess we don''t need two of you," Reto said wickedly as he looked at Quinn and Luna before looking at Aren, "Say boy, you can really see the traps, right?" Reto conjured a blue fireball in his hand before pointing it towards Quinn. "N-Noo....Don''t!" Hem shouted. "Hahaha, answer me truthfully, or I will kill both of them right now! Anyway, we don''t need them since you three are sufficiently ''lucky'' hahaha." Luna and Quinn looked at Aren with helpless and angered expressions. What a suffocating situation they''vended themselves in...sigh. "I can see the traps," Aren answered truthfully as he nodded with a grimace, "Let them go, and I will lead you ahead safely." "Humph, otherwise what?" Kozark spoke with a snort. Aren gritted his teeth as he said with a maddening expression, "Otherwise, we will all die here!" "Y-you...Stop blowing false horn, rascal!" Kozark said angrily. "Hahaha, what good news! Since you can see the traps, then it makes things easier," Reto licked his lips with a grin, "I will not kill them, don''t worry. But you will lead us to the end without using any tricks. Although your acting is not bad, It''s not perfect either, hehehe." Aren took a deep breath as he said with a dark expression, "Your acting as well." "Hahaha, true, true," Retoughed out loud before he said with a grin, "Alright, now follow me!" He started walking forward while others followed him. But when he was nearing the safe zone, he frowned and looked at Aren, "Can you also see blessing areas?" Aren frowned and said, "Isn''t that something you made up to give us hope of surviving?" Lam looked at Reto before she looked at Aren and snorted, "Of course not. There are really blessings in these wide paths full of traps." Reto looked deeply at Aren while Aren shook his head with confusion, "My ability is not that special, I can only see white sparks littered on these paths, and I just avoid them while moving. I don''t know which among those white sparks are traps or blessings." Reto narrowed his eyes before grinning, "Alright. It''s enough that you can see the traps and lead us. I promise you that once we clear this dungeon, I''ll let you all go." ''Like hell I would believe that...'' Aren thought internally while showing surprising expressions outside, "Really? Alright, I''ll lead the way." He then turned around as he started moving to the next trap path area while others also started walking. While walking, Aren started thinking something with a sharp glint passing through his eyes. Chapter 49 - Hidden Dungeon-3, First Challenge, And...Bad News. In the next trap path, Aren saw two blessings and got one for himself. [ You have received a temporary blessing: Umbra Thunder Cloud. ] -Once activated, a dark cloud will be conjured and follow you for one minute. -Effect 1: The cloud will release a bolt of ck lightning to whoever you hit with your own attack or skill, dealing dark damage. The enemies damaged by these bolts of lightning will have their movement and attack speed decreasing along with a slight reduction of their overall defense. -Effect 2: The cloud will constantly empower you with its ck lightning, increasing your movement speed, attack speed, and power of all senses drastically. -Note 1: You can activate this blessing by thinking about it, and once activated, it will onlyst for one minute. -Note 2: This blessing will only work while you are inside the hidden dungeon: Demon Yakum''s Underground Temple. ... After reaching the safe zone, Aren decided to give his mother the second blessing and told her his n. Aren--, "Mom, when you get the blessing, pause and make it evident that you received the blessing." Lorain--, "Got it." Afterward, Aren led his mother to the blessing while avoiding the traps and led her to the safe zone. When Lorain''s foot touched the golden sparky area, she heard the voice and got a notification, but she turned stiff for a moment and acted ording to Aren''s instruction. Seeing that, Reto, who was focusing on the trap path, noticed it instantly shouted, "Stop!" Lorain turned around with panicking expression and hurriedly said, "I-I received a blessing called Birds of Frosty Doom." "Tsk..." Kozark grunted and tsked with displeasure but didn''t say anything. On the other hand, Reto looked at Lorain and asked with a serious expression, "Tell me the details of that blessing." Lorain nodded as she told Reto the details of the blessing she got. [ You have received a temporary blessing: Herald Bird of Frosty Doom. ] -Upon activation, summons a Herald Bird of Frosty Doom. -Effect 1: The bird will attack the enemy you tell it to with its mystical icy attacks. Skills: Frost Shards, Icy Gaze, Dome of Frost. -Effect 2: Upon dying, the Herald Bird will turn into one hundred smaller birds and chaotically attack the enemy by self-destructing. -Note 1: You can activate this blessing by thinking about it, and once activated, it will onlyst for one minute. -Note 2: This blessing will only work while you are inside the hidden dungeon: Demon Yakum''s Underground Temple. ... "Since you received the blessing, then I might as well tell you that you can use that to attack us, but don''t make that foolish decision. After all, without that blessing, we can''t clear this hidden dungeon and return to the surface." After saying that, Reto nced at Quinn and Luna before speaking with a sneer, "Also, if you try to be smart and use that blessing to attack us then, I also have a blessing, and I will kill these two first before killing you. So...hehe, it''s better to co-operate rather than mutual self-destruction." "No! We will co-operate," Lorain said as she worriedly looked at Luna and Quinn. Aren nodded and also agreed to co-operate before he continued to lead his mother to the safe zone. Afterward, He led auntie Hem to the safe zone while thinking, ''It''s clear that blessings are necessary to clear this dungeon from Reto''s words. Then next, I''ll let auntie Hem take a blessing and make her seem important in the eyes of Reto and the group.'' ''If only I could find a way to let Luna and Quinn get a blessing each...Also, Reto said that we wouldn''t be able to return to the surface without beating the hidden dungeon, but...this sounds bull shit. If that was the case, then how did theye to know about this dungeon? Hmmm...Maybe they got some clues from outside? Anyway, I have to find a way to make Quinn and Luna safe as well.'' "Alright, follow me," Reto said as he started moving after Hem reached the other side. Others also followed him as they reached the safe zone. As they walked in this zone and continued forward, they encountered a different scenery than usual. In front of them was arge demonic gate, but the gate entrance was covered in thick mist, and they couldn''t see anything except for the border and outline of the gate. "Stop!" Reto said with a frown as he took out a scroll from his inventory and looked at its content. After a minute, he put back the scroll in his inventory as he looked at the demonic gates and said with a grimace, "Our first challenge is here." "You five, stay behind us and don''t try to be a smartass while we are fighting," Reto then looked at Kozark and Lam before saying, " I will keep an eye on them while you two fight. ording to the scroll, the first challenge is not that hard and doesn''t require the use of blessing." Lam and Reto nodded, "Alright, leave it to us." Afterward, Lam and Kozark entered the gate first while Reto told Aren and others to go next. Reto himself stayed at the back and enteredst. ... Once everyone passed through the gate, they saw arge round hall with bright purple firenterns hanging on the ceiling that was six meters above the floor. Once Reto entered the gate, The gate disappeared from behind them, making Reto frown a bit. He also didn''t know everything about this since not all details about this hidden dungeon were mentioned in the scroll. "It looks like we will only be able to move forward if we clear this." Right after he finished speaking and the remaining mist of the gatepletely disappeared, several roars sounded as the bright purple fireball appeared in front of them. The bright purple fireball expanded before its shape started to change. After five seconds, it became a four-meter tall monster with its upper body looking like a cobra snake burning in a purple fire while its lower body was that of a giant human. Aren''s eyes looked at the monster and got its rough information. [ Samrin Snake Demon ] -Type: Demon Monster. -Rank: Supreme-1 -Health: [200,000] -Attack: Physical [1250] Fire [3540]. -??? -??? -??? Lam and Kozark started attacking the monster as per the n, while Reto told Aren and others to turn around and face him. Aren felt unfortunate since he wouldn''t be able to watch the fight this way. On the other hand, Reto also didn''t look at the fight but looked at Aren and others with absolute focus and severe expression on his face. After ten minutes, the fight seemed to be over as Aren and others didn''t hear any more sounds of sts and strange cries of that purple fire snake demon. "Turn around and continue moving," Reto said. Aren and others turned around and saw a misty gate appearing at the center of thisrge round hall. Once everyone passed through the gate, they arrived at the safe zone and saw a trap path ahead of them. But...Aren''s face turned exceptionally dark because...he couldn''t see the traps anymore. He couldn''t see those dark blue sparks of traps anymore! Well, he could still see the blessing as there were two on this trap path, but...he couldn''t see blue sparks of traps. "What are you waiting for? Start moving already," Reto said as he frowned. "I....can''t see the traps anymore," Aren uttered as he turned around with a grimace on his face. Chapter 50 - Hidden Dungeon-4, Schemes. "What! Boy, you better not be lying!" Reto said with a dark face. Aren looked at him as he wiped away the sweat from his forehead and said with a grimace, "Why would I lie about such an important thing? I can''t really see the damn traps anymore!" Kozark and Lam looked at Reto and asked, "What now, Reto? Anyway, we didn''t expect them to see the traps in the first ce." Reto nodded as he looked at Aren, Lorain, and Hem deeply before saying, "But we need those with the blessing and...I am fucking sure that this little bastard also got a blessing, right?" Aren frowned as he shook his head, "I didn''t." "Screw it! I don''t care whether you are lying or not about this. But when we reach the end of the dungeon, you will realize that we can''t clear this hidden dungeon without blessings, and you will have to use them when the timees." Reto snapped before saying and looked at Luna and Quinn. "You two, go forward and start moving," Reto said. Aren was startled and said, "What!? No, I will go first!" Reto looked at Aren as he stretched both of his hands forward and created two whips of blue fire before saying, "Boy, you better stay there and don''t move!"-He then looked at Lorain and Hem, "You two as well." Lam snorted as she looked at Aren and Hem, "We can''t be sure if you two have received the blessing as well or not, and that''s why you will stay alive, tsk..." Aren was internally thinking about the n, which he thought of when he realized that he couldn''t see the traps anymore, ''Let''s hope this n works. Otherwise...'' Aren used on his Astral-X eyes, and the process was already happening. But to buy time until his Astral-X eyes can finish the upgrade, he asked Reto, "Wait, can you tell us more about the traps? How dangerous are they? Will they kill you in one shot if you get caught in the trap, or some other things will happen?" "Humph, why should we tell you that?" Kozark spoke with a snort. Hearing that, Aren''s face turned dark, "If I understand things correctly, we are in the same boat right now. You need blessings to clear the dungeon, and I might tell you that I also have one blessing, and auntie Hem also has one. So, If you don''t co-operate, then we are done here!" With a maddening expression, Aren shouted, "I am fucking done with you and your suppression! We can all just die!" Aren was not totally acting because he was indeed fed up with them. With how controlling and annoyingly they behaved as they threatened them every once in a while, anyone would be fed up. Reto looked at Aren deeply for a few seconds before speaking, "Fine; I''ll tell you since there''s no harm. But remember, we need blessings to clear the dungeon." "The traps have varieties; They will usually damage you like the moment you touch the traps, it will blow up like a bomb, or freeze you, etcetera. Some traps will directly cut one of your body parts like limbs or such things with invisible des, while some traps...will directly kill you. Anyway, no matter which traps you hit, you won''t survive because of your low level." Reto said truthfully because he didn''t entirely believe that Aren couldn''t see the traps. That''s why he said that traps would kill them due to their low level. Aren nodded, and just as he opened his mouth to speak, his eyes throbbed as he felt intense pain and a scream left his mouth. He fell to the ground with his head towards the trap path as he continued to scream painfully. ''Damn...this pain! But...this is a chance!'' "Aren! What happened?" Lorain shouted worriedly as he moved towards Aren. "Don''t move! or I will kill him!" Reto spoke as he conjured a blue fireball and aimed it at the screaming Aren. Aren was kneeling with his head buried down so no one could see his eyes, but they were pulsing with blue pixels and patterns. Lorain stopped in her tracks while Quinn, Luna, and Hem also worriedly looked at Aren. But after twenty seconds, Aren stopped screaming and started taking a deep breath in the same position while looking at the trap path. ''Yes! I can see the traps again. Time to start the n. Quinn, three steps forward, one step left, then one forward, one step right, and two steps forward. Luna, four steps forward, two steps left, one step forward, and three steps right. RUN!'' Suddenly, Luna and Quinn started running in the trap path while everyone was focused on Aren and took one blessing each. "What are you doing?!" Lam shouted while Kozark pointed his spear at Lorain as it cracked with lighting along with his whole body. On the other hand, Reto had an exceptionally grim face as he looked at Aren''s back, "Bastard..." Aren turned around as he smiled at Reto, "I don''t need to tell you what happened, right?" Lam and Kozark soon understood as Kozark uttered with anger on his face, "Both of them got blessings as well?" Aren smiled as he nodded, "Naturally, they got it. Now the five of us each have one blessing, and...we need them to clear this hidden dungeon, right?" Reto looked at Aren coldly before he spoke with an ugly smile, "Hehe, well done, boy. Now...,"- Reto waved his hands as the blue fireball disappeared,-"Now go and fucking lead the way since you can see the traps and...blessings as well, right? bastard!" "I was not joking when I said I couldn''t see the traps at first. But now I can. Don''t worry, From now on, I will leave one blessing for your group if we get two blessings in the next area." Aren said inly before he turned around and started walking while also leading Quinn and Luna to the safe side. Quinn--"Aren! We are safe now, right? Since we all have blessings, then they can''t kill us." Aren--"Don''t let your guard down. We can''t blindly trust whatever they say." Aren internally shook his head as he didn''t think that things were that simple. Reto still had the upper hand because he had the knowledge of this hidden dungeon and who knows what else there in this mysterious dungeon? He was ready to pull the life-saving trigger but he also didn''t want to waste it when there was a chance of theming out alive and even getting benefits in this ce. Lam and Kozark looked at Reto, but Reto just told them to be silent and continue. Reto was thest one to cross the path, and as he reached safe and looked at Aren, he thought maliciously, ''Bastard, trying to over smart me, huh? Hehe, too bad that you will fail. We indeed need blessings to clear this dungeon, but ording to the scroll, those with blessings who die here will have their blessings transferred to me, who possess this scroll! Hehehe. you were all going to die in the first ce!'' That was the reason why he brought along cannon fodders to clear the trap path until they died. After all, even if they get blessings, they will die while passing the traps, and their blessings will transfer to him. It''s just he didn''t expect that Aren would be able to see the traps, ''But if traps do not kill you, I will kill you in the end while you live in the illusion that we can''t kill you anymore since we need blessings you possess, hehehe.'' Chapter 51 - Hidden Dungeon-5, MAKING MOVES?!! In the following trap path, Aren saw three blessings. He took one for himself and then finally gave one to Hem while leaving one to Reto and his groups. "There are two blessings in here, and I have left one for you," Aren said after he, his mother, and Hem reached the safe zone. "Where is it?" Kozark spoke with an ugly expression. Aren pointed at a ce, and Kozark immediately dashed there. "Wait!" "Stop, fool!" Reto and Lam called out at the same time. "Rx, since you said that we can''t clear this dungeon without all blessings, I won''t plot to harm you," Aren spoke indifferently, ''As if...humph.'' Indeed, nothing happened to Kozark, and he received a blessing. Kozark looked embarrassed as he knew his own mistake, "S-sorry...I acted in the heat of the moment." "Humph, start moving." Reto snorted as he, Lam, Quinn, and Luna started walking through the trap path that was now almost empty. Now everyone has at least one blessing on them, while some had more than one. Aren has three blessings. Reto has two blessings, and he believes that Aren also has two blessings. Lam also has two blessings, but only she, Kozark, and Reto know of this. She got this second blessing after defeating the monster in the first challenge. On the other hand, Kozark, Lorain, Quinn, Luna, and Hem have one blessing each. As they walked forward in the safe zone, they encountered another misty gate. Seeing it, Reto spoke with a grimace, "We need a pure offensive-type blessing to clear this challenge ording to the scroll." Kozark pointed his spear at Aren and said with a grimace, "Boy, you will use your blessing in the challenge. After all, you got two blessings." Aren snorted and said, "What if I don''t? Anyway...,"-He nced at Reto and continued-, "Reto also has two blessings." "Bastard! Don''t think that we are equal because you all got blessings!" Kozark shouted. "It''s fine; I will use my blessing. We are in the same boat right now, and there''s no use fighting against each other," Reto said before he looked at Aren and continued with narrowed eyes, "You already know that I was acting outside, and I only wanted cannon fodders for this. But since you can lead the way, we three won''t need to get injured by traps and can clear this dungeon without the trouble of traps. So let''s honestly work together." Lorain and others looked at each other with surprise while still feeling suspicious of Reto''s words and looked at Aren, who revealed a thoughtful expression. ''Whatever, I''ll just nod and go along with his words right now because he is likely doing the same,'' Aren thought as he nodded towards Reto and said with a in expression, "I won''tpletely trust you but...fine. We can work together for this one goal. Anyway, If I see any suspicious activity or malicious intents towards us, then I''ll immediately use blessings and attack you." "Alright," Reto nodded indifferently while frowning inside,'' Is he really willing? Hmmm...This damn brat is annoyingly cautious and sharp, so I can only take his words with a grain of salt.'' He then entered the misty gate first this time while Kozark and Lam followed after him. Seeing that, Luna and others were surprised. Quinn frowned and said, "They went first. Are they not worried that we will run away?" Aren frowned as he felt tricky, ''Should we try running back?'' "What do we do, Aren? should we try running back?" Luna asked. After thinking for a moment, Aren shook his head and said, "No. Let''s enter inside. The gate is still open, and they cane out. If we try to run away, they might attack us. Moreover, even though we can''t trust their words entirely, we can''tpletely ignore them. There might not be a way back even if we run away." "Yeah, do you remember the first challenge? It only started after we all entered inside. So..." Lorain said but didn''t continue as everyone understood. "Either it will start after we all enter inside or after we all die," Luna uttered with a grim voice. ''Wait...,'' Aren suddenly thought of something, ''I am missing something major.'' "Hey! What are you dilly-dallying for? Enter inside so we can start the damn challenge!" Kozark came out of the misty gate and shouted. Quinn snorted and said, "Fine, fine. Let''s go, everyone." Aren and others then entered inside as they watched Reto using a blessing to defeat a beastly monster that was seven meters tall with three heads of three different animals: Tiger, Lion, and Horse. Its lower body was that of an element with scales on it. The monster looked extremely deadly and scary, with a red, blue, and green me-like aura covering its body. Aren couldn''t even see any of its stat, even with his upgraded eye. ''Hmmm, Its presence is stronger than Rosflin but weaker than his father,'' Aren thought while looking at the monster. At this time, Reto''s body was covered with ck and green lightning. There were also two cannons floating on top of him with ck and dark green material that bombarded the monster. The monster also attacked Reto with its deadly breath attacks, but Reto dodged its attack with his fast speed as lightning cracked whenever he moved. Within one minute, he defeated the monster as golden light shone on him. This time, Aren and others watched the fight because Reto didn''t say anything about them turning around. ''What was that golden light?'' Aren thought, ''Is it some kind of reward?'' "Let''s go. In the next challenge, we will have to use three blessings," Reto said as he turned to look at Aren. Aren narrowed his eyes as he nodded and said, "Alright, I will use one blessing." Reto nodded as he turned around and started walking towards the misty gate that appeared after the monster was killed. But before leaving through the misty gate, he chuckled and said, "Also, I know that the next trap path will have at least four blessings, so leave two blessings for us." Internally, he was nning something different, ''Humph, It looks like I''ll have to close this game earlier.'' ... After everyone left through the misty gate and arrived at the following trap path, Aren was surprised. ''Five blessings! So he was right about this path having at least four blessings. But...,'' Aren frowned as found something amiss, ''If there are so many blessings here, the cannon fodders of their n would likely take some blessings before dying. However...Reto said that we need all blessings to clear the hidden dungeon. What''s going on?'' While thinking, he started moving and took three blessings for himself before he arrived at the safe zone. He then led his mother and auntie Hem to the safe zone before Reto moved and took two blessings for himself. Once everyone reached the safe zone and started moving forward before encountering a misty gate, the sign of a challenge. But Aren had already caught the tail of Reto, ''Oh Reto...hehehe, you shouldn''t have said that we need all blessings to clear this hidden dungeon.'' Even though he was unsure if his conclusion was right or wrong, it didn''t matter anymore because even if he was wrong, they would remain safe if he used the life-saving item. "Let''s go, Reto. Since you took both blessings, I suppose you will use two concurrently, right?" Aren asked. Reto nodded indifferently, "You also took two, but it''s fine. I will use two blessings while you use one. And since I got both offensive blessings, then you should have gotten one defensive, right? Use the defensive one because it is necessary to save ourselves." "Alright," Aren nodded. Among the three blessings he got, two of them were defensive-type blessings. Aren--"Who among you has offensive type blessing?" Quinn--"I have one." Lorain--"I also have one, Aren." Luna--"I have some sort of devouring whale, and its effects are all defensive." Hem--"Hmm...The blessing I have is arge field type blessing in which enemies are suppressed while we receive buffs." Aren started walking towards the misty gate after Reto entered while talking with others through spiritual call and told them of his n and next move. Aren--"Got it? Don''t hesitate and be decisive." Quinn and Lorain looked at each other, and both of them were determined. Lorain--"Son, even if we haven''t killed people before, we have seen deaths and hell. After all that, we have to kill if we must!" Quinn--"That bastard Reto killed those people brutally! He is like a beast, and his partners ought with same! I won''t hesitate to kill them. Human or beasts, both are living and for our survival...I will kill them!" Aren smiled as he had long resolved to kill if he must. Since he was small, he had seen all life as equal, despite knowing the brutal nature of the world. It was also not like he would stand up for chicken ughter since the whole world was eating them, nope. He just thought of them as unfortunate for being weak, just like how many humans and other animals were killed for various reasons and murder...just like how...weak ones were suppressed in the slum. He and his mother had lived the life of suppression, but...the appearance of this new world was a chance for him. He also felt sad for many humans being killed by giants. But he only felt sad, not depressed. After all, they were not his rtives. That brutal sight only made him determined to get strong so that such a thing doesn''t happen to him and the ones close to him. Even before that giant cmity, when everything was normal, people were dying every day. Everyone, every single human, knew that deaths were urring. They would see them in newspapers or on TV channels. Every day, there would be cases of murder, ****, arson, unfortunate idents, etc. What did you feel about it? Did you spend days mourning for those strangers? No! You only spoke someforting words to yourself like "may they rest in peace" or felt sad like "How sad..." You felt anger for those rapes and murder, "How dare they!?" but...that''s all. You changed the channel, you turned the page, and you moved on. "Justice will be served!" "They will rot in hell." " God will punish them." etc... Barely a minute or two would one use for them and then move on....which is very normal. Well, there might be someone who considers the whole world as his family...wait, really? Who knows. But Aren was not one of them. He had long learned to care only for himself and his family in the slum. If someone helped him, he would help in return due to his conscience, and if some tried to kill him, he would kill them. He had seen a murder in the slum and learned to remain silent about it as well. To him, whether killing a chicken or a wolf beast, or a human, it was all the same for him as long as it helped him and his close ones survive. As such, Aren had decided to make his move first. He couldn''t wait to let Reto make his move first, if he was making one at all. Even if Reto was not nning anything, Aren didn''t know and he didn''t want to wait for it. ording to him, the statement of Reto saying that they need all blessings to clear the dungeon didn''t match with his n of bringing fodders to clear the path. Aren felt that either they didn''t need all blessings to clear the dungeon, or there was a way to get blessings of the dead; maybe they will be transferred to those who are alive? Whatever of the two it may be, Aren felt that he and thepany would benefit. In the end, If he failed to clear the dungeon because He, Quinn, and Luna used their blessings to kill Kozark, Reto, and Lam, he will call it quits and use the life-saving item. Now, If Aren had to guess why Reto didn''t make his move yet, it is likely because Aren and others got blessings to fight back and also because Reto wanted Aren to clear the path ahead. As everyone finally entered the misty gate, they were shocked because it was unlike the other two challenge venue. Instead, They arrived in a vast barren in with a bright sky and no end in sight. Suddenly, ten portals appeared as monsters started to spawn from them. ''Kozark and Lam, you two know what to do! Once we clear this challenge, make your move and kill them. Better yet, once they are absorbed in watching the fight, sneak attack and kill them. Don''t give them a chance to use their blessings! As for this brat Aren, I will handle him.'' Lam and Kozark nodded as they turned around and looked at Quinn, Luna, Lorain, and Hem. Chapter 52 - Hidden Dungeon-6, Intense Battle! Aren and Reto were fighting against a bunch of terrifying beasts like silver wing wolves, Demon Fire Foxes, and other such powerful beasts. Well, Reto was the one doing fighting as he was using two offensive blessings at the same time. One of them was summoning ifrit, and another one was him having dark orange wings with two long and sharp dark orange swords and armor on him. On the other hand, a holy Angel was floating on top of Aren. The Angel conjured defensive, crystalized big golden flowers everywhere and saved Aren and Reto from the monsters'' attacks. Aren also gained white wings, but they were not as fast as Reto''s wings. The wings only provided a passive defense to him that scaled of his constitution, but since his constitution was lowpared to Reto and against these monsters, it was not of much use. The fight just started five seconds ago when the monsters started attacking Aren and Reto instantly, and both of them used their blessings hurridly. Meanwhile, Kozark and Lam were looking at Lorain, Luna, Quinn, and Hem, and both groups were having....staring contest. ''Why are they not watching the fight?'' Kozark thought. ''Why are they staring at us?'' Lam thought with a frown. Lorain, Luna, Quinn, and Hem wanted to find a chance to sneak attack just like Kozark and Lam, but...both of them were staring at each other. Lorain and others were getting nervous while Lam was feeling suspicious. Suddenly, she realized something as sweat appeared on her forehead but...she didn''t hesitate and directly used a wide area skill A wide sh four meters long with a crescent shape released towards Lorain, Luna, Quinn, and Hem. The sh was fast, and although Lorain and others saw it, they were not fast enough to dodge it. In a panic, All of them activated their blessings as it only requires a thought. Luna was the first one and with her defensive blessings, a beautiful and mystical whale with dark patterns on its blue body appeared on top of her. Naturally, with the appearance of a whale, a whirlpool materialized in front of Luna, which absorbed the sh by forcefully bending it. Kozark and Lam were not slow as they also activated their blessings. Lam used both of her blessings, one of them was defensive, while the other one was offensive and started attacking. On the other hand, Kozark''s blessing was bnced as he was covered in full green dragon armor with arge and thick dragon tail, wings, and a mighty spear. Meanwhile, Aren was cursing Reto because he lied about this challenge. The monster''s attacks were intense, and Aren also had to use an offensive blessing to attack them. The blessing that Aren activated was Umbra Thunder Cloud because it was good against multiple enemies. "Bastard! You-" Reto was also angry as he looked at his group that was fighting against Aren''s group. But both of them were busy killing and defending against the monsters. Aren didn''t want to protect Reto, but this damn Angel''s effect 3 provided automatic universal defense, and he couldn''t control it. Reto was skilled, and he rarely needed defense because of his wings as he dodged attacks, but he was too busy fighting the horde. While Aren and Reto were busy against the horde...Lorain and Quinn were in full-on offense mode as they attacked Lam and Kozark. "Die!" Quinn flew with her razor-sharp metal wings and futuristicser pistols in both her hands as she attacked Lam. At the same time, Lam fought back with a book in her hand that summoned chaotic elemental flying beasts that aggressively attacked Quinn. Lam internally frowned, ''Little girl! You can''t even properly fly, humph. Your senses can''t keep up with this high level of power. But these damn element beasts can''t keep up with your wing''s speed. Whatever...I just need to hold back for one minute for their blessings to run out of time; then I can kill them easily.'' Naturally, she was also using her skills to attack others, but Luna''s defensive whirlpools were absorbing all attacks. Kozark was hell-bent on attacking Luna to kill her because of her defensive blessing while Lorain was attacking Kozark. Still, because Lorain''s blessing requiredplete control of her, she had a hard time aiming at Kozark, who was flying fast with the dragon-humanoid transformation of his offensive blessing. Lorain''s blessing was full offense, but her blessing provided her with Demonic nt artilleries that require hermand and input to attack and aim and use skills. It was overwhelming for her. In the first ce, these blessings were not here to fight against each other but to fight monsters in this hidden dungeon. So mismatch was expected, and Lam and Kozark were more experienced and were also using their powerful personal strength. "Quinn! Be careful! My whirlpools can''t keep up with your speed! If one of that bitchs'' attack hit you, you will be in trouble." Quinn knew that, but she was having a bit hard time controlling herself in this blessing. Hem couldn''t do anything because her blessing was mostly automatic. First, she provided buffs to four of them, and second, she could target others and empower them of various kinds like increased speed, agility, increased health recovery, etc. Thirty seconds passed, as both groups were still in a stalemate. "We have to kill them before our blessings'' time runs out!" Lorain said as she was beginning to learn the control of her blessing. "Aaaaaaaaaaa....," Quinn loudly screamed as her entire left hand was burned to a crisp and destroyed along with a small part of her belly. She fell to the ground rapidly ahead, where Aren and Reto were fighting. ''Got you!'' Lam sneered as she hurridly told her summons to follow Quinn to kill her. "Argh....." Kozark shouted as his left leg was injured because Lorain managed to aim one of her skills of the demonic nt artillery at him. Lorain frowned and aimed another time, ''That dragon armor is a bit tough, but his head only has a crown; I need to aim at his head.'' But Hem panicked seeing her daughter''s state and rushed forward to get into the range to use her health recovery empowerment on her. "Wait, auntie!" Luna shouted because Kozark decided to aim for rushing Hem. "Die!" Kozark shouted as he flew rapidly with a sonic boom, his spear aimed at Hem''s neck. Luna gritted her teeth, ''I have no choice.'' She used the one-time skill of her blessing, which provided an absolute defense to one person by covering them in a mystic water bubble. The flying whale cried as a bubble appeared around Hem that blocked Kozark''s attack. "FUCK!" Kozark cursed but soon; he realized something. "FOOL! DODGE!" Lam shouted on top of her lungs. But...it was toote. *BOOOOOM....* A dark green spike shot forward with the circr glowing wood pattern on it and hit Kozark''s head before....sting it apart. Lorain''s body trembled as tears appeared in her eyes, ''This...When didn''t I think of her?'' The reason for this behavior was because...when Kozark was going for Hem, the only thing in her mind was to kill Kozark when he...reaches near Hem. That''s how she aimed her predicted attack. But she realized that when Hem was in danger, she didn''t think about her at all. "Auntie Lorain, attack!" Luna shouted as she continued to conjure whirlpools and provide defense against Lam''s attack. Lorain took a deep breath before she focused on battle. Aren noticed Quinn injured and flying towards monster attacks like a rocket and gritted his teeth as he flew towards her. Those other monsters from the portal also followed behind him, but he got an idea to deal with them and save Quinn at the same time. Fortunately, the blessing of angle provided him with white pair of wings to fly. The silver wing wolves flew after him while other monsters chased him through the ground. Naturally, they were bombarded to death by dark umbra cloud as well, and Aren was releasing his and using his chakrams to attack them while flying towards Quinn. Because of the Umbra Thunder Cloud, his attacks were powerful enough to injure the monster and kill them with three-four attacks. But unlike Aren, Reto was killing them with one shot. As he neared Quinn, he grabbed her and flew straight into the horde of elemental beasts that were chasing after Quinn. The monsters from the portal were brainless, one could say, as they indiscriminately attacked whoever was close to them. So, when they encountered elemental beasts who were part of the blessing while chasing Aren, the monsters started attacking the elements beasts as well and the fight between started with them killing each other. Aren then made the turn as he flew towards iing Hem, who hurriedly used her empowerment heath recovery on fainted Quinn. ''Fifteen seconds to twenty seconds until everyone''s blessings disappear,'' Aren thought as he hurriedly looked around him to assess the situation. Looking at Lam, who was defending and attacked against Luna and his mother, he frowned. ''Only mom can attack but she can''t take down Lam since she is focusing on keeping herself alive for now. Hmm...I need to finish her off while Reto is busy,'' Aren thought with a frown,'' It looks like I have no choice but to use one more blessing as well.'' But after that, he will still have two more blessings left while Reto will have one. ''No! Reto is more dangerous...screw it, I can''t waste time. Only twelve seconds to fifteen seconds left,'' Aren thought as he turned around and used his pure offensive blessing while looking at Reto, who was nimbly fighting against monstersing out from the portal and killing them with one shot with his two offensive blessingsbined with his Bluefire and his path skills rted to it. [ Longinus Spear of Mugen Death ] Three golden spears appeared around Aren as he directly aimed one at Reto. *Swoooooosh...* The spear flew towards Reto at breakneck speed as it broke the sound barrier easily. Reto sensed danger and hurriedly tried to dodge. *Crrrrrrrrach..* Reto barely dodged, but one of his silver wings was destroyed. But...A bright burning Bluefire wing appeared as it took the ce of the destroyed silver wing and continued dodging the attacks of seven powerful monsters around him that looked like thest bosses from the portals. Reto cranked his neck towards Aren, who threw another spear at him and said malevolently, "BRAT! You think you could kill me with blessings?!" When he saw the iing spear, he grinned and hit himself by a whirling Darkwind st from a chimera monster. A trail of blood left his mouth, but he dodged the spear due to that and hurriedly took out a glowing red-green potion bottle and drank it, ''Fucking hell! If not for my silver wing''s blessings slight defensive properties, I would''ve been dead by that chimera attack.'' *BOOM BOOM....* The Ifrit he summoned sted that chimera to death after it was done charging with a powerful attack on themand of Reto. Aren frowned as he made a decision and turned around before throwing hisst spear towards Lam, who was busy defending against his mother''s demonic nts artillery strikes, and Quinn, who started attacking her three seconds ago after regaining her consciousness. Her left hand was still gone, but she was determined and started attacking without wasting time. Her mother also supported her with the empowerment of attack increase. Lam was not expecting a spear strike from Aren and didn''t notice until she...was killed. But two seconds after that, Lorain and others lost their blessings and Reto as well, but... There were no monsters around Reto. The challenge was..pleted. A golden light shone on Reto as he looked at Aren coldly. Aren still didn''t know that the golden light represented blessing. So...Reto actually still had two more blessings like Aren. One more golden spear appeared at Aren''s side since he managed to kill Lam with it. That was the effect of this blessing. If you kill a monster or something with the spear, It will not be consumed and appear by his side again. The only note was that this spear will not work on dungeon bosses and won''t kill them with one shot like other monsters. ''I have to kill him in forty seconds. The only chance is likely the spear since it can ignore defense and one-shot kill. Reto is not a boss of this dungeon, so he will die with one shot.'' Aren thought he used Sunfire Burst blessing and Aurora Fish blessing both. Aurora Fish was a supportive blessing. This way, He used all of his blessings. Reto also didn''t hold back and used both of his blessings. One of them was offensive, and the other one was supportive, just like Aren''s Sunfire burst and Aurora Fish. ''Damn brat! Since you ruined my ns, then prepare to taste despair!'' Reto cursed as he dashed towards Aren as Bluefire wings appeared behind his back since his silver wings disappeared. Chapter 53 - Despair, Hope And...Tarrox. At this time, Two beings were floating high in the sky and sat on the cloud with a table in-between them. One of them was Rosflin''s father, Tarrox! The Gentle Terror. While the other person sitting across from him had a turquoise blue icy crown and feathered robe of the same color with many colorful gems that enhanced the turquoise blue robe even more. His appearance looked like a young man in thiste twenties. Both of them were looking down at the clouds in the same direction. With his gaze still down, Tarrox spoke, "Pherizel, Did you select a human for your bloodline?" Pherizel smiled and nodded, "Yep. She is quite good." After saying that, he waved his hand as a hazy bubble appeared, which showed a middle-aged woman with a magical fan weapon in her hand. Tarrox looked at the man and nodded, "Not bad. It seems that only I am left in our group." "Hahaha, we all selected some talented individuals in the first two days and gave them the chance to get our bloodline. Only you Red Dragons have yet to choose one individual. But...it seems that you already have a target." Tarrox nodded. Both of them have been observing Aren and the group since they entered the hidden dungeon. "He is not bad," Pherizel said with a smile. Tarrox nodded again before he frowned, "He is not bad, but...he has a weakness that I don''t like." Pherizel raised his eyebrows and said, "What you call his weakness is currently his strength as well." "I know, but...he is constrained by them," Tarrox spoke unhurriedly, "If he is alone, he will progress even faster, and he has yet to realize that." Pherizel agreed with a nod," He instinctively wants to stay with his group because he thinks they can progress faster that way, but...if he moves alone, he can bring out his full potential indeed.." Pausing, Pherizel chuckled and said, "Well, then you should not help him when his mother uses your dragon scale. Don''t let your scale activate its ability. Reto ns to kill others in Aren''s group first with his trump card, putting Aren in despair. Once that happens, Reto will kill Aren as well, but before Aren is killed, you can make your appearance and save him." "That idea is good, but...," Tarrox shook his head, "I can''t predict Aren''s decision and his mentality once his close ones die. He already did two things out of my expectations since I started observing him." "Well, whatever you want to do, do it fast because that Reto is going to kill them soon," Pherizel spoke in a nonchnt voice. Tarrox nodded and spoke unhurriedly, "I''ve decided to iste him and give him hope with despair. Hopefully, he won''t disappoint me and be one of the pirs of his world after three years." ... "BRAT!" Reto shouted as he took out the scroll and cut his finger before dripping some of his blood on the scroll. Aren frowned seeing that, and without wasting time, he threw his chakrams towards Reto. His chakrams were imbued with powerful Sunfire due to his blessing while he was flying on his sword Articule gear since he didn''t have wings like Reto. Unfortunately, even though his chakrams became powerful due to blessing, they were not fast enough, and Reto easily dodged them. Aurora Fish blessing only provided defense and attack buffs. His attacks could partially ignore all defenses, and his defense would reduce iing damage by absolute half. ''My chance to kill him is only one, and that''s with Longinus spear. '' Aren thought, and he was d that he got this blessing as it was different than other blessings. Longinus spear blessing is different as it doesn''t have deactivation time. Instead, It simply disappears after all three spears are thrown. If a spear hits and kills the monster, the spear will reappear by Aren''s side, but it will disappear if the target dodges the spear or he tries to strike a boss with it since the spear won''t hit a boss monster.'' He had already told his mother, Quinn, and others to get away from him and Reto as far as possible, but if he went close to Reto, he wouldn''t be able to protect them in case Reto suddenly attacked them. There was an exit portal, but it was at Reto''s side, so Lorain and others couldn''t go there and leave this barrennd. Aren continued to attack Reto with his two chakrams while controlling them from afar, but Reto was easily dodging them while dripping his blood on the scroll. Aren had an ominous feeling seeing that, ''I don''t know what he is doing but...I have to stop him.'' He had already activated all of the skills and was attacking with as well, but Reto was dodging them easily. Reto dodged many such attacks due to his support blessing that provided him with enchanting agility that increased his senses and all types of speeds. Though even if he didn''t have this support blessing, he could dodge Aren''s attack. But with this blessing, it became a breeze for him to dodge Aren''s attack. "Hehehe, you thought you could match someone far more powerful than you with the blessings?" Reto sneered as he was finally done with his thing. At this moment, the scroll in Reto''s hand was oozing out a mystical red aura. The red aura was moving towards Reto andpletely covered him. "Hahaha, brat! Try to stop me if you can!" Right after saying that, a loud sonic boom resounded as Reto dashed towards Lorain and others. "Nooooo!" Aren shouted as he flew towards his mother''s group as well. Aren--"Mom! use the dragon scale! Fast!" Reto was behind Aren two seconds ago, but after two seconds, he overtook Aren and even looked at him with a sneer while passing by with his fast senses and speed. Suddenly, Aren saw Reto blocking his path and looked at him with a grin, "Watch them die, brat!" Right after he finished speaking, a ten-meter radius giant blue fireball with red sparks appeared on top of him before it shot towards Lorain and others with breakneck speed. Aren wanted to rush towards his mother and others, but Reto waved his hand as a red burst aura released towards Aren in arge sh shape that threw him a kilometer away in this barrennd. Lorain hurriedly took out the dragon scale and infused her spirit energy in the scale since Aren told her, but nothing was happening. "It''s not working! Aren, It''s not..." At this time, Lorain, Quinn, Luna, and Hem revealed despair in their eyes seeing a giant fireballing towards them. *BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM.....* A giant st urred as a fifty meters radius crate appeared at the impact point, leaving absolutely nothing behind. Aren coughed blood as he stood up before calling his sword back and once again flew forward to check on his mother and others, ''They should be safe. Yes, with the dragon scale, thatrge fireball can''t do anything do them.'' Aren was contacting his mother right as he stood up, but she was not epting the spiritual call, ''She...must be shocked because of the st. It was really loud.'' At this time, he finally arrived there as dust and smoke settled. "HAHAHAHAHA! Brat, how was my gift? Good, right? hahaha." Reto''s maniacugh resounded. On the other hand, Aren''s mind nked out seeing no one at the giant crate. ''Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?...'' ''Why the scale didn''t work? Why didn''t he help? Was I wrong? Did I do wrong to rely on that life-saving item? But I could see all its effects after getting my Astral-x eyes, and it should have protected them. And this much shouldn''t trouble that dragon considering that he is such a powerful being..then why? WHY?'' "WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY??!!!!!!" Aren shouted with bloodshot eyes. "Brat! I would love to see you in despair more, but...I am fucking itching to kill you! So...DIE!" "Arghhhhhhhhhhhh....I"LL KILL YOU!" Aren started attacking Reto with bloodshot eyes. His battle instinct peaked as he attacked Reto with both of his chakrams and his wind shes while perfectly predicting his movement on where he would dodge. He had captured Reto''s dodging pattern when he was attacking with all of his attacks previously, and he used them as a basis to create a to one-shot Reto with Longinus spear. All of this, he was doing with anger and despair inside him while his brain was in overdrive mode. Reto sneered as he quickly dodged the attacks and also the chakrams that arrived at him and started attacking him from all angles while moving around him. "Your attack''s can''t hit-" Suddenly, Reto''s eyes popped out as he saw Longinus spear right at the ce where he was going to dodge the next chakram attack. The spear appeared right..at the left side of his head, ''Why I didn''t see it? Wait..low-alt ground, he was using his chakrams around me to block my sight of it while attacking as well? Fu-.'' He thought he was a goner, but the spear...didn''t hit him. It stopped before touching the red aura that was covering his whole body. The Longinus-spear trembled for a moment before it went poof...destroyed. "Haha..hahaha...HAHAHAHAH, brat! You scared me for a moment! Hahaha," Retoughed while internally wiping the sweat. He didn''t know why that spear didn''t hit him. But Aren knew as his eyes revealed despair, ''Boss-status...the spear considered him as b-boss. Why? T-that red aura? that scroll?'' ''Is this the end?'' Aren kneeled before he despaired while thinking about the scale. ''Why didn''t the scale work? With my Astral-X eyes, I could see more of its ability, and the moment one infuse their spirit energy in it...it should conjure arge dome with absolute defense. WHY DIDN''T IT WORK? WHYYYYYYYYY?'' "Time to die, brat!" Reto appeared in front of Aren with a grin as he conjured a red-blue ming sword. But suddenly, Reto stopped as his whole body trembled. His eyes popped out, seeing a person that stood in front of Athan. Intense fear and dread welled up inside him, and then...He directly kneeled down and started begging! "Pl-please spare me! Please don''t kill me..." Reto started begging with his head down and in a kneeling position. He didn''t even dare to look up. Hearing the begging of Reto, Aren looked up and saw the back of Tarrox with his majestic wings spread out. Between the gap of Tarrox''s legs, he saw Reto begging for his life, but...a tiny red wisp dropped on his head before he was lit up in me. Reto turned into ash in just two seconds, but the ash was still on mystical red wisp fire as not even his ash remained by the end. Aren had no expression on his face except for despair in his eyes and no will to live. He was living and working hard to get his and his mother''s life better, to be powerful so that he could protect those around him, but...there''s no one around him right now. He knew he couldn''t survive against Reto and gave up...but a strange man who looked like a dragon-man appeared and killed Reto. Why? to save him? Aren saw the man turning around and looked at his face that wasced with a smile and surprise. "Aren! Stand up and continue with your journey! Be powerful and survive the despair after three years. If you can do that...then all your wishes will be fulfilled. Even your mother and others who died cane back to life if you wish to..." Hearing those words, Aren felt as if he had returned from the abyss. A fire burned inside him while his fist was clenched so tight that blood dripped out. He looked straight into Tarrox''s eyes and spoke in a voice filled with longing hope, "Is that true? Will theye back to life if I be strong and survive the despair after three years? IS THAT TRUE?!!" Tarrox revealed a solemn face as he nodded, "It is true!" ''Well, they are not dead in the first ce as I just sent them to a faraway ce to be trained under a stubborn human empress. Let''s just hope that they do not die there...'' Tarrox waved his hands as he lifted up Aren before stretching his hand towards Aren and giving him a glowing red orb with crimson and dark orange sparks. "Aren...this orb is a chance, so don''t waste it. It will help you in your journey to bing stronger at a faster speed," Tarrox said with a smile before he floated upward before disappearing with smoky red sparks. But his words reverberated, "I have created a portal here that will take you out of this dungeon. Go and start your true journey!" Aren looked at the portal and then at the red orb that had already entered inside his inventory. Aren stayed silent for one whole minute before a gleam passed through his now cold eyes. ... Will everything go ording to how Tarrox thought or....something entirely out of his expectation will happen? Chapter 54 - Arens Decision At the time when the red-blue fireball sted, a red aura appeared from the scale before it instantly enveloped Lorain and others and transported them away. ... At a faraway Akarinsya Empire. Empress Renisia was at the back garden in meditation. It was calm and peaceful, with mystical energy permeating the atmosphere. But suddenly, she opened her eyes and saw four people appearing out of a hazy red portal. "Renisia, these humans are from the otherworld, and I want you to train them. You owe me two favors, and I am using one of the favors for this. Also, when they ask for a person named Aren, tell them that if they want to see him, then work hard and be stronger." Renisia raised her eyebrows as she stood up. She looked tall and was beautiful with long crimson hair. She wore a light dress that looked like a robe with red and blue designs. She walked over to Lorain and others and saw that they had lost their consciousness. Suddenly, she heard Tarrox''s voice again, "Also, If they die while doing some quests, then store their soul. I don''t want the person I choose to waste his wish on reviving his close ones." Renisia was surprised, "Do you think these otherworlders will win this time?" "I don''t know, but they have a better chance than the previous otherworlders." Renisia sighed and said, "I hope they win because I am tired of staying here." "Well, you can always breakthrough to be Cmity lifeform and leave." Renisia snorted and said, "If it was as easy as you sounded, then I would have long done it." ... Presently, Aren was sitting inside the dungeon with the orb in his hand. But his thoughts were wandering elsewhere... ''Why didn''t the scale activate its ability?'' ''Why did Rosflin''s father appear after my mother and others died? Why not before?'' Generally, people would rejoice at the news that they have a chance to revive their family members and work hard. But Aren had gnawing questions in his mind because of the scale that didn''t activate its ability when it was supposed to do it. With that doubt adding to thete appearance of Tarrox made Aren feel suspicious. ''And this orb...,'' Aren thought as he looked at the orb and saw its information. Naturally, with his Astral-X eyes, he saw more details than what general people ought to know. [ Orb of Bloodline]-Soul bound to Aren. -Type: Burning Crimson Red Dragon Bloodline. -Effect: Once you push it through your chest, you will be transported to Burning Crimson Red Dragon Bloodline Zone to receive the bloodline and start your evolution. These things were what general people could see, but Aren saw more. -Note: Depending on your willpower and the result of the transformation, your species will evolve from human to one of these five. -Evolution: Dracowit, Half-Dragon, Full Dragon, Overdrive Dragon. But Aren didn''t use the orb right away. He put the orb back into the inventory and stood up. ''Mom...,'' Aren thought as he closed his eyes and tried to contact her spiritually. [Unable to spiritually contact the target.] He then tried the same with Quinn, Luna, and auntie Hem, but...he couldn''t contact them, ''For now, I can only focus on getting stronger.'' Aren clenched his fist, but he took a deep breath and calmed himself down before walking...deeper in the dungeon. That was because after Reto died, he suddenly received a notification and a quest. [Since the holder of the Yakun scroll has died and the Yakum scroll has been destroyed, the hidden dungeon will change ordingly.] [Quest: Demon Temple] -->Clear the Demon Yakum''s underground temple alone. -->The difficulty and rewards have been adjusted to your level, but It''s still hard, and chances of dying are very high, so stay cautious. -->The blessings have been removed, but you will have temporary buffs while you are in the dungeon so you canplete the dungeon as long as you use those buffs cleverly and appropriately. -->30,000 exp. -->Demon Yakum''s Spinergy Method. -->A random skill of Demon Yakum. -->A random ability of Demon Yakum. -->One skill point. The quest about Demon Ant was reced with this new one after Reto died. Aren started walking towards the trap path, and with his eyes, he easily avoided the traps and arrived at the safe zone before entering the mystic gate. He arrived in a lush jungle and heard several roars. [Toplete this challenge, please get out from the forest and destroy a statue at the mountain peak.] Aren could see arge mountain from the gaps of the forest, but he had no time to look. He instantly jumped on his sword and flew towards the mountain with chakrams flying around him. But his chakrams and sword were on the dark orange me while Aren''s body was covered with a cloudly coat. Those were the effects of the two buffs he got. [ Armament Buff] -All of your weapons have been enhanced while you are in this dungeon. -You can use three types of power to imbue in your weapon: Underworld me, Ivy Aura, and Vibrant Echo. -Only one type of power can be activated at a time. [Physique Buff] -Your body has been enhanced while you are in this dungeon. -You can use three types of power on your body to power up yourself: Nimbus Force, Aurora re, Aegis Scales. -Only one type of power can be activated at a time. ... ''So the Nimbus force increases my senses and all types speed,'' Aren thought while flying but suddenly saw a two-meter tall gori demoning towards him from the front. Aren narrowed his eyes as he controlled his chakrams while flying and quickly killed the Gori as his chakrams enhanced with Underworld me cut it into four. [ Demon Gori killed, 500 exp gained.] But that was just the start. Suddenly, Aren heard a loud screeching sound and dodged without looking back. *Booom....* Aren saw a demon bird with a sharp beak shooting forward like a rocket and wiped the sweat on his forehead. ''Phew, thankfully, I used Nimbus Force power first, which enhanced my senes and speed. The other two powers might not give me the same buffs.'' Aren thought as he looked at the bird and moved his chakram-Oberon towards it before releasing from it to kill the bird after predicting its trajectory of flying. [Demon Worc bird killed, 800 exp gained] *Roarrrr....* *Screeeeeeeee...* Aren heard sounds of monsters crying, but he just narrowed his cold eyes and flew towards the mountain at a fast speed. His eyes disyed full focus as he started killing all monstersing his way with his chakrams very cleverly and using skills asionally. "BRING IT ON!" Aren shouted with resolve burning in his eyes. He was fully focused on flying and sensing things around as he cleverly killed monsters using his chakrams with great mastery of flying on his sword. [Your path has leveled up.] Chapter 55 - Last Three Challenges-1 [You have leveled up] [Your path has leveled up] Before Aren reached the mountain''s peak, His main level increased by one while his path level increased by two. <-Aren-> [ Path- Emporio Armalist ] -Level: 5 [ 1490/16,000 Exp ] -Armalist Force: [ 400/400 ] -Talent points: 0 -Skills: , , . -Articule Gears: [ Ikaros ], [Oberon], [ Novas ].--Slots: 5 ( 2 left ). -Innate Gears: [ Astral-X Eyes ]. < Talents > --> Armalist Drive+2: ( core of the path, merged with the soul. ) --> Armalist Cloak. With the two talent points, his Armalist Drive upgraded, which increased his Armalist Force capacity to 400 and also added one more slot to his Articule Gears. With the second talent point, He learned Armalist Cloak. After learning it, He could activate the Armalist Cloak anytime. This was his talent, and it doesn''t require any Armalist Force to activate it. Once he activates Armalist Cloak, A dreamy blue cloak with ck patterns appears behind his back and gives him benefits with its effect. [Armalist Cloak.] -Effect 1: While the cloak is activated, Your natural control of Articule gears will be increased. -Effect 2: You will gain a portion of your Articule Gears that will be converted to stats and some special buffs. With his two Articule gear-chakrams [Oberon] and [Novas], he got an increase of 16 in strength, 18 in Agility, and 8 in Constitution once he activated Armalist Cloak. Additionally, he got two buffs as well. [ Oberon-Buff ]: All of your attacks will decrease the target''s physical defense by 250. [ Novas-Buff ]: All of your attacks will deal additional 100 fire damage. Because of Armalist Cloak, Aren could now control gears more easily, and he also broke through the speed limit he had experienced before. At his top speed controlling his chakrams, He actually managed to break the sound barrier. -Name: Aren Azrael -Level: 11 [ 8560/12000 ] Exp. -Path: Emporio Armalist [ Level: 5 ] -Health: [ 1500/1500 ] -Soul: [ 100/100 ] -Life Stage: Mortal-2 -Spirit Energy Pool: [ 4540/10200 ] -Soul Energy: [ 100/100 ] -Mystic Field: 0/150 points -[Stats] -Stat points: 0 -Skill points: 1 -Abilities: , . -Skills: , , -Inventory: Cursed Shofar, Deep Blue Gemstone, Spirit Water Barrel [1], Spirit stone [2], Health potion [360]. "My stats increased quite a lot due to the buff stats of my gears," Aren muttered. At this time, Aren had alreadypleted the challenge and returned to the safe zone as a portal appeared on the mountain peak after he destroyed the core. ... Aren then waited for a while to recover his spirit energy before continuing to the next trap path. ''Reto said that there were only two more challenges, but...let''s see if there are any changes since the voice said that the dungeon changed its structure after the destruction of the Yakum scroll.,'' Aren thought as he started walking in the trap path while avoiding the traps. Suddenly, His eyes turned straight, and he paused on his step, ''What the...'' Narrowing his eyes, he looked all over the path and saw that the traps were changing the ce, ''The blue sparks changed their positions...Did the dungeon just adjust because I could literally see them with my eyes? Whatever...'' With cold eyes, he muttered, "I won''t let anything or anyone obstruct my path." As such, he continued in the trap path with full focus as the speed of the trap changing their position increased. But since he could still see them with his eyes, he easily crossed the trap path before reaching the safe zone because he fully focused on the trap path. After reaching the misty gate, He entered without hesitation and arrived on a stone path filled with blood. In front of the path was a pond of blood and in the middle of the pond was a demonic temple. [The first of yourst three challenges have started! Enter the demonic temple and defeat the first demonic envoy, Arangu.] [Only after killing Arangu will the path to the next challenge be revealed.] Aren didn''t hesitate as he started walking in the demonic as the Armalis Cloak appeared behind his back. Two chakrams floated on his sides as they glowed with burning dark orange but with their own shin on them as one shined silver like a moon while the other produced light orange sparks. A majestic giant broad sword floated behind his back as it burned with the underground me. Aren walked towards the temple with eyes full of resolve and determination and opened its giant doors. *crack...* He arrived in arge temple hall as he saw a man in priest clothes kneeling in front of a demonic statue that had ten heads and six hands. Right after Aren put his gaze on that man, the man''s body started burning in ck me with a bright orange hue as he turned did one hundred and eighty-degree turn before looking at Aren with his empty burning demonic eyes. Seeing that me, Aren''s body turned stout as he instantly changed his buffs, ''The underworld me will likely not work on him.'' *shuaaaa....* Aren''s face changed, but he didn''t panic seeing the demonic envoy, Arangu dashing towards him. Aren activated and narrowly dodged the charge dash before he narrowed his eyes and muttered, "Let''s start the demon hunt, shall we?" Chapter 56 - Last Three Challenges-2, Testing. [Arangu] -Type: Demonic Being -Rank: Supreme-4 (Weakened) -Health: [56,500/56,000] -Defense: Physical [1000] Soul [300] Energy [600]. -Attack: Physical [1100] Fire [2500]. -Speed: 80 meters per second normally. -Skills: , , . -Abilities: , -Note 1: Strong against negative, me-type energies. Weak against positive, ice-rted, nature-rted energies. -Note 2: Highly offensive being but not much to his defense. Seeing such details, Aren nodded, ''It looks like my eyes are giving more details now that they upgraded.'' He then activated Ivy Aura buff and attacked Arangu with . ''Its speed is high, but I am faster if I fly on my sword. However, its offense is a bit of trouble. If I got hit by any of his skills, I''m dead meat,'' Aren thought as he stood his sword while his two enhanced with Icy Aura hit [Arangu] before two numbers floated. [-1990] [-2070] Right after the hit Arangu, green roots produced Arangu''s body, where the wind sh hit and bound him to the ground. But only for one second. ''So this Ivy Aura buff can create vines to bind the target, and his defense is indeed weak if even can do this much damage. Hmm...I just need to be careful not to get hit by his skills or ability, and I can kill him slowly, '' Aren thought as he dodged another charge of Aurangu while flying on his sword. He wished he could get details of those skills, but that would be asking for too much. ''Ouch...'' Aren felt pain as his skin started to burn. [-50] [You have received a debuff: Heal Reduction. Your health recovery from various factors will decrease by a certain amount] Aren looked at his health and was shocked. Health: [1450/1500] ''But I was not hit by anything...Wait, that [Unseen Hellfire] ability could be the culprit behind this damage,'' Aren thought with a dark face as he continued attacking Arangu with his chakram. While flying on the sword, he controlled the chakram to attack Arangu physically. [-3590] [-3740] His Articule gears dealt more damage than his skills for obvious reasons. [-50] [ Heal Reduction II ] Every five seconds, Aren felt a burning sensation on his skin that irritated him and caused him burning pain. But in those five seconds, he was fully focused on battling and didn''t let himself get hit by any of Arangu''s skills. Both of them battled for a while as both of their health continued to decrease. ''I have to finish him off as soon as possible since it''s gradually decreasing my health recovery from potions.'' Aren thought as he drank a [Health Potion] that recovered 150 of his health. [Arangu] -Health: [23,750/56,000] Arangu had two me whips on his hand, and he also sometimes conjured my ws and attacked Aren. Aren narrowly dodged all attacks, but the invisible Hellfire still damaged him. ''FASTER!'' Aren internally screamed as he dodged various attacks of Arangu while feeling burning on his skin. Arangu-Health-[12,390/56,000] *shuaaaa...* Both chakrams flew towards the Arangu, who was floating in the sky while activating something, but Aren was determined to kill him before that happened as Aren activated on both chakrams, consuming 50 Armalist Force. [-5890]-Oberon [-5380]-Novas But right after attacking with his chakrams, he had jumped from his sword and sent it to attack Arangu as well, with skill. Because he noticed that his sword dealt more damage with skill. The heavy broad sword arrived in front of Arangu''s head before shing down vertically with great power. [-2130] This damage can be considered high since Ikaros was not as strong as Oberon and Novas. [Demonic Envoy, Arangu killed. 4000 EXP gained. ] [You have leveled up.] [Five stat points gained.] Aren drank one more [Heath potion] and healed himself fully, ''Phew...It''s good that I already experience hellish pain thrice which made this burning pain pale inparison and I could focus on battle.'' First time when he used his cursed ability one time [Painful Glory], the second time when he implemented Astral-X eyes, and the third when he upgraded his eyes. He then distributed all stat points to his constitution and agility because he realized that putting them in his strength was useless right now. He tried adding stat points to his soul but it didn''t work and he didn''t know why, for now. But he nned to find out about it after going out. As for why strength was useless right now...Well, those stats reflected the status of his body. Strength reflected his physical body''s strength, and he was not using his physical body to attack during battle. Agility was beneficial since it increased his senses and reaction speed as well as his physical body''s speed. All damage came from his skills that required spirit energy, and the damage of those skills was scaled off from the potency of his spirit energy and how well he used it. At least, this was the case with energy-based long-range skills like . All damage from his gears came from the gears'' stats, not his body. Increasing his body strength didn''t increase the damage of those weapons, especially because he was not wielding them with his hands but controlling them mentally. Still, he felt that even if he wielded those weapons with his hands, their damage wouldn''t increase that much unless he used a skill that scaled off from his body''s physical strength. ''I need to check...,'' Aren thought as he arrived in front of a wall in this temple. He focused on the wall and got its information. [Temple Wall] -Defense: Physical [200]. -Durability: [5000/5000]. He first grabbed his Ikaros and hit the wall while exerting his physical strength to full. [-3290] The wall was destroyed as a hole appeared in it. He then went to another wall part. [Temple Wall] -Defense: Physical [200]. -Durability: [5000/5000]. He again swung the sword with his hand towards the wall, but he also used skill this time. *Booom...* [-4230] -Skill Level: 2 (Max: 5) -Skill Rank: B -Cost: 20 Spirit Energy. -Effect: Superimpose spirit energy and condense it to release a powerful strike from either your body part or a weapon. Aren had noticed some time ago that this skill would increase in strength when released through his body, ording to his STR stat. ''An increase of 940 damage. Hmmm...,'' Aren thought before he went to another wall part. [Temple Wall] -Defense: Physical [200]. -Durability: [5000/5000]. This time, he controlled the sword mentally and kept it one meter away from the wall before hitting the wall. [-1920] Afterward, he once again attacked the wall by controlling his sword, and this time, he used skill. [-2380] ''An increase of only 460 damage if I use while controlling the sword. Anyway, this makes it clear that my STR stat only works if I attack with my body and wield weapons with my hand,'' Aren thought before he went to another wall since he wanted to try one more thing. ''The speed of my gears is very fast at max, and hitting the wall with the sword at fast speed might surpass the damage of my physical strength due to the kic energy.'' As for chakrams? They were not ideal for this kic transfer method. The chakrams would deal more damage since Aren would let them fly around the target while spinning their dy edges for greater damage. With chakrams, he could deal continuous damage to the target. The sword was also not an ideal weapon for this method either, but he still wanted to try. Thinking of that, Aren controlled his sword and let it go three hundred meters outside of the temple through the hole he had just created in the first wall. ''Hmmm, so my current control range is three hundred meters. Once the gears go out of three hundred meters from me, I can''t control them. Anyway, it should reach Mach 1 and break the sound barrier after traveling for two hundred meters.'' Thinking of that, Aren controlled his sword toe towards the temple and hit the wall in front of the destroyed wall inside the temple. ''Since it''s a sword and flying with its point head, It will not gather the ideal kic that its mass should possess with that speed. Still, its damage might surpass my physical strength.'' The sword started flying, and after flying for two hundred meters, it indeed broke the sound barrier with a boom. The sword flew into the hole of the wall before entering the temple and hitting the wall on the front side. *Booom...* [-4340] After testing, Aren narrowed his eyes and thought, ''It dealt this much damage even though it was a sword, and I didn''t even use ...huuu, If I can get a very heavy and blunt weapon, then it''s damage...I can''t let this benefit go to waste. I need a weapon that can transfer maximum kic energy.'' Aren couldn''t help but get slightly excited over this prospect that will prove to be very useful in his journey. ''However, I can''t find such a weapon right now. I also need to work on that Idea I got while roaming the city and custom-order a piece of equipment after going out since that equipment will let me fly better after making it into my Articule Gear,'' Aren thought as he left the temple. After leaving the temple, a blood path appeared over the pond that led to the other side of his dark ce. He walked on it without hesitation and saw a misty gate before entering through it. At the side, He directly arrived in a huge garden with bloody flowers everywhere and a statue of Yakun at the end. [ Defeat the Yakun''s disciple, Unrakka.] "A human? hehe, it looks like I''ll get to eat something delicious after a long time." Chapter 57 - Last Three Challenges-3, Unrakka. [Unrakka] -Type: Demonic Being -Rank: Supreme-5 (Weakened). -Health: [97,500/97,500] -Defense: Physical [1300] Soul [500] Energy [500]. -Attack: Physical [1500] Fire [3400] -Speed: 90 meters per second. -Skills: ??? -Abilities: ??? [Defeat Unrakka before dying. A hint to clear this challenge: A core unseen can crack the seen.] Aren heard this voice as he looked at Urankka. Unrakka wore tight monk-like clothes with two demonic red burning horns on his head and a staff in his hand. Aren didn''t bother to think about why he couldn''t see Unrakka''s skills or abilities and started his offense as he controlled his chakram and attacked. It''s better to attack first in this situation where the enemy is much stronger than him as one skill hit from Unrakka can kill him. Unrakkaughed loudly, and without caring for the iing chakrams, he spun the staff in his hand magically as it started burning before waving it towards Aren. Several burning staff shadows shot towards Aren while the chakrams also hit Unrakka''s chest and neck. [-3574]-Novas. [-7684!!]-Oberon. Aren was surprised to see Unrakka not even bothering to defend. His Oberon chakram sliced his neck and did critical damage since the neck is a vital part. But he had no time to specte on that as he focused on dodging the seven burning staff shadowsing towards him. He quickly found the best safe point and dodged the iing seven me staff shadows, but his face turned dark when he looked at Unrakka''s status after dodging the attack. Unrakka-Health: [97,500/97,500] His health turned full! "Hahaha, you can''t kill me, puny human," Unrakkaughed loudly before dashing towards Athan as two burning red wings appeared from his back. Aren hurriedly dodged the iing Unrakka before attacking him with his chakrams again. "Quite fast, hahaha. But you can''t kill me." Suddenly, Aren felt a burning sensation over his body''s skin and got a notification with a voice. [-70] [You have received a debuff: Heal Reduction.] ''Damn!'' Aren cursed. He also saw Unrakka healing himself again after his chakram injured him. Unrakka opened his mouth as a vortex of red me left his mouth and shot towards Aren. Aren dodged the attack, but his expression was grim, ''A core unseen can crack the seen...what does this mean? I have to solve this mystery to kill him.'' "Hahaha, how long will you be able to dodge my attacks?" Unrakkaughed loudly as he once again dashed towards Aren while also releasing his skills. Aren focused on the attacks as he decided to use his chakrams to impair Unrakka''s eyesight while thinking about the solution to kill him. He first dodged the iing attacks before controlling his chakrams to fly around Unrakka and hinder his eyesight. While doing that, Aren was constantly flying in the garden, thinking about the hint. [-70] [You have received a debuff: Heal Reduction II.] Aren frowned, ''I have to do something about this unseen damage first. Maybe I should try changing body buff since I should be able to dodge his attacks even without increasing my senses and reaction speed due to the Nimbus Force.'' Aren changed to Aegis Scales and felt the strength of his senses and his reaction speed decreasing, but in turn, he felt his body getting robust and white scales appeared all over his body. The leather armor he wore also shined as white scales appeared over it. The main effects of the Nimbus Force buff was an increase in his attack speed and movement speed, but he was not using those advantages since he was flying on his sword and not running or attacking with his hands. But he still liked the slight increase in his senses and reaction because he felt that he was in a dominant position while fighting. Though despite losing the increase in sense and reaction, he could still dodge Unrakka''s attacks. The Nimbus Force buff can be more useful against many enemies as when he finished the first challenge alone about reaching the mountain peak. ''All that aside, I have to crack this mystery first. A core unseen can crack the seen...Hmm, first, let''s use the Vibrant echo armament buff on chakram and attack him,'' Aren thought as he changed buffs. He then controlled the chakrams to attack Unrakka''s head and wings. *Boom...* Right as his chakram hit Unrakka''s head, the point where his chakram hit exploded before an echo passed through inside Unrakka''s head and damaged him. [-8420!!] A critical hit! The second chakram hit Unrakka''s wings as the same effect urred, and Unrakka fell to the ground. But Unrakka stood up andughed loudly as all of his injuries healed quickly, "Hahaha, stop your futile efforts and obediently be my meal." Aren frowned as he continued with this strategy about running while obstructing Unrakka and dodging his attacks. ''[A core unseen] means there is a core somewhere that is invisible to the naked eyes. [ can crack the seen.] The thing I can see is Unrakka and how he annoyingly heals himself. So to crack his annoying healing and kill him, I need to find the unseen core, is that it? Hmmm...but I have to find the so-called unseen core first.'' While flying and dodging, he asionally nced around the garden. The unseen fire damage has also stopped after he used Aegis scales body buff. ''Wait, that statue,'' Aren suddenly remembered the statue that was a far end in the garden and moved towards it. Unrakka followed behind, but Aren did his best to obstruct him. Once he was in a range where his could hit the statue, he released two towards the statue of Yakun made of rocks. *Crack..boom* The statue was sted to pieces. "Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! HOW DARE YOU DESTROY MY MASTER''S STATUE? YOU DAMN HUMAN!" Aren had a bad feeling as he continued flying before looking at enraged Unrakka. At this time, Unrakka''s body brightly burned with ck and red fire, and he powerfully pped his wings as they produced a demonic me tornado that flung away both chakrams. The tornado then turned into a vertical vortex before shooting towards Aren. Aren narrowed his eyes as he fully focused and dodged the vortex before controlling his chakrams again and attacking Unrakka. "DIE! Human!" Unrakka dashed towards Aren with his body brightly burning in red demonic me. Aren was constantly flying, but the speed of current Unrakka became on par with his speed. While Unrakka was dashing towards Aren, his horns suddenly shined as they released a super-fast beam towards Aren. Aren''s face changed as he maneuvered his sword to dodge the beam aimed at his heart. *Zwooooom...* "Urghh..." Aren groaned in pain. Although he managed to save his heart from being pierced by the beam, his shoulder was still hit as a hole appeared in it with blood oozing out. [-330] [Unheble wound] But Aren endured this pain as adrenaline was in full swing. He gritted his teeth and narrowed his eyes while looking at the enraged Unrakka, ''So that''s where his weakness is. The unseen core...that should be the unseen core, but I can see it, so it''s no longer unseen. However, that''s where the second part should apply. Crack the seen. I couldn''t see it before, but now I can see it, so I have to crack it.'' Aren didn''t know if his guess was right, but since a red spot was constantly moving around in enrage Unrakka''s body, he deemed that the so-called unseen core that became "seen" after Unrakka was enraged. The hint is tricky in a way because if someone believed that the core was unseen till the end, they wouldn''t be able to find it. Most of the people would also think about destroying the statue, and seeing the powered Unrakka would send them into disarray. They would desperately find an "unseen core" that literally became "seen" once Unrakka started to rage. The red spot was very small, and if Aren didn''t have his Astral-X eyes that magnified distances, he would have taken more time to find that red spot as well. By the time he finds the spot without his Astral-X eyes, he would have lost a limb or two. But fortunately, he was focusing on enraged Unrakka and managed to notice the moving red spot on Unrakk''s body. ''It''s time to wrap this up,'' Aren thought as he focused and controlled his chakram to attack Unrakka. He waited for a chance and kept the Vibrant Echo buff since it would make it easier for him to hit the red spot. Aren dodged one more attack barely and noticed something, ''The red spot slows down when Unrakka attacks, and that''s my chance.'' Chapter 58 - Difficulty Spikes Up! [ Demonic Being, Unrakka killed. 10,000 EXP Gained.] Aren had waited for Unrakka''s attack, and when the red spot slowed down, he made two-pronged attacks with his chakrams, one being a feint, and hit the red spot. Since the Vibrant Echo buff was activated, the chakram''s attack hit the red spot even though he missed it by a bit due to Unrakka noticing that he was in danger. ... After killing Unrakka, Aren sat down on the ground as he took deep breaths. As the adrenaline died on, he started to feel immense pain due to the hole in his shoulder. "Urgh...." A groan left Aren''s mouth due to pain before he drank [Health potion] with some hope but...the hole injury on his shoulder didn''t heal in the slightest. He sucked in a breath from his teeth before being d about choosing this path that let him control weapons without touching them. If he had to fight normally by grabbing his sword and chakrams...he wouldn''t survive with this hole in his shoulder. ''There were blessings that could heal cutting of limbs as well since auntie Hem recovered Quinn''s entire hand. However, Aurora re buff doesn''t sound like healing. Never mind, It''s better to try it and see what kind of body buff is that,'' Aren thought before activating Aurora re buff. The scales on his body and leather armor disappeared before a colorful me covered his body. "T-this...," Aren was surprised as he started to feel itchy andfortable both at his wounds. The hole in his shoulder was ring out colorful mes even more, and he could see it healing as new tissues, blood, bones, and skin patching up the hole. "So this buff is about healing and increasing my recovery speed of all types of fatigues," Aren muttered as he decided to rest andy on the ground. After the wound on his shoulder healed, he rested for five minutes andpletely recovered himself. -Name: Aren Azrael -Level: 12 [ 10,560/14000 ] Exp. -Path: Emporio Armalist [ Level: 5 ] -Health: [ 1650/1650 ] -Soul: [ 100/100 ] -Life Stage: Mortal-2 -Spirit Energy Pool: [ 9410/10200 ] His spirit energy was not full, but he didn''t wait until it was full and started moving to the next challenge. He walked towards the destroyed statue since a misty gate appeared at that ce after he killed Unrakka. After walking through the gate, He arrived in what one would call a hellscape. Hot ground with cracks oozing outva, many volcanoes several kilometers away from him, dark and smoky clouds constantly raining ashes. [Survive for five minutes to clear this challenge. You have five seconds to be prepared for what ising.] [5] [4] Aren became dead serious seeing such challenge and switched his body buff to Nimbus Force before mounting the sword and spinning the chakrams around him. [3] He didn''t wait for the countdown to hit 0 and started flying at full speed in a random direction. [2] [1] *BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM...* *ROARRRR....* *SCREEEEEEE...* Seeing a burning dino-bird covered in red fire appearing in front of him, Aren loudly shouted as he used all of his mental strength to dodge the nasty surprise that appeared before him but failed as his left leg was gone. "Arghhhhhhhhh..," While shouting in pain, he maneuvered and gradually flew up by controlling his sword, ''Damn it!'' Thankfully, all of his meridians were unlocked, which allowed him to have a better grip on mounting his sword by using spirit energy in his feet''s soles to stick with the sword better. He changed to Aurora re buff to recover his leg while controlling his chakrams to attack the burning-dino bird that was a meter long with six meters of wingspan. Both chakrams ruthlessly attacked the same spot one by one to cut off the bird''s head. [Hellfire Bird killed, 1000 EXP gained.] He kept Vibrant Echo buff since it slightly helped ignore the defense of enemies with its unique type of attack that was in the form of the buff''s name, A vibrant echo. But before he had time to rest, Aren saw a giant fireball hurtling towards him from the ground. Aren slowed down his speed and sharply moved down to dodge the giant fireball but...something he didn''t expect happened. The fireball exploded right after he dodged it as many mini fireballs hit him. "Arghhhhh....." Six mini-fireballs hit his body''s various parts, and one even hit his head. ''GOD DAMNIT!'' He felt as if difficulty increased by a few notches. ording to the cooldown in front of him, only ten seconds passed. [4:50] [4:49] Soon he noticed that his speed was not as fast as he wanted it to be. He was feeling some kind of resistance in the atmosphere that didn''t let him fly at full speed or rather didn''t let him control his gears to full speed. ''It looks like I will have to keep Aurora re buff on to heal these damn wounds,'' Aren thought as he looked around and remained in full focus for any unexpected attacks while going a bit down to kill that damn creature that released the giant fireball from its mouth. He could see it gathering another giant fireball, and before he did that, he wanted to kill it or at least prevent it from shooting that fireball. "GOOO!" Aren shouted as his chakrams flew towards the giant burning bear with an unnaturally big mouth. While flying towards the giant bear, chakrams released towards the fireball. Aren hoped that the gathering fireball would have a reaction because of the wind and explode there. *Swooooosh..* The two wind shes hit the fireball and... *BOOOOOM...* Indeed, the fireball exploded before it could bepleted, throwing the giant bear a few meters away with it bleeding all over his body, especially its mouth. Aren didn''t let this chance go as he attacked the bear''s wide-opened mouth as both chakrams entered inside and started wreaking havoc with their fast-spinning des. In two seconds, he got the notification as well as another nasty surprise. *Screeeeeeeeeeee...**Screeeeeeeeeeee...**Screeeeeeeeeeee...* [Hell-Maw Bear killed. 1000 EXP gained.] Aren looked at three iing Hellfire birds as his eyes turned cold and focused. He activated his before attacking all birds with his chakrams and slowed their movement and action speed. After doing that, he barely dodged their me wing shes and prepared for his counterattack while looking out on any other threat on the ground. ''Bring it on!'' Chapter 59 - Unforeseen Interruption, Path Test. [Hellfire Bird killed, 1000 EXP gained.] [Hellfire Bird killed, 1000 EXP gained.] [Hellfire Bird killed, 1000 EXP gained.] Aren killed three Hellfire birds using his chakrams one by one after dodging their attacks but suddenly, his head felt heavy, and his eyes blurred for a brief moment. He hurriedly shook his head and pped himself, ''What''s going on?'' He looked around and saw three nt-like monsters that looked like Lily flower but scary and in red and ck tone spewing sparkling red waves towards him from the ground. The sparking red waves were only visible for a short time before they left those monsters'' mouths and became invisible afterward. Without wasting time, he flew lower until he reached within 300 meters of them and controlled his chakrams to attack them. He flew in a zig-zag pattern to avoid getting hit by invisible red waves while he also kept his eyes around him for any other unexpected attacks. [Nightmare Lily killed. 700 EXP gained.] [Nightmare Lily killed. 700 EXP gained.] [Nightmare Lily killed. 700 EXP gained.] His chakram made quick work of those Lily monsters quickly with their speed, and he also finally leveled up. [ You have leveled up. Reached level 13.] [ Your path has leveled up. Reached level 6.] [ As you havepleted 5 levels of your path, the first test of your path will start.] [ All activities paused.] Suddenly, everything became still. Aren saw two Hellfire birds appearing right on top of him out of nowhere. He also saw a giant one hundred-meter long and five-meter thickva snake with ck patterns appearing on the ground, but everything paused as if time had just stopped. [3] [2] ... Aren saw cooldown appearing, and once it reached 0, he appeared in a ck space with nothing but darkness. [Test 1: You will be shown three items, choose one of them and use on it. Transform it into an Armalist Gear in the quickest way possible. ] [For passable result: Finish the transformation in one minute.] [For B-grade result: Finish the transformation in forty seconds.] [For A-grade result: Finish the transformation in twenty-five seconds.] [You will get different rewards based on results.] [If you managed to achieve an A-grade result, You could keep the gear.] [If you are dissatisfied with the result, you can try again. You will get a maximum of three tries.] After the voice finished speaking and he finished reading, Three items appeared in front of him in a digitalized frame. [Pick one item, and you will not be able to change the itemter.] [During this test, you have ess to 2500 Armalist Force. Use it wisely without making mistakes while using on the item.] While looking at the three items, Aren was in thought, ''One minute for the passable result? How difficult is it going to be? After all, transforming that gold-tier chakram took me only five seconds, not including creating the cube, which took me ten seconds. Even so, the total time it took me to transform the chakram was fifteen seconds...'' He looked at the items with narrowed eyes, ''I have to pick the item carefully. Unfortunately, I can''t see any of their information with my Astral-X eyes.'' The first item looked like an umbre, and it was a ck umbre with silver patterns on it. The second item looked like a sci-fi sniper rifle. Its material body was dreamy blue metal with grey and red patterns. The third item was a sci-fi-looking hammer, and its material body was metallic ck with shining grey and silver patterns. However, he was a bit speechless at its shape and size. In terms of size, it looked the smallest in the digitized framepared to the other two items. If one wants to imagine it, they can take thor''s hammer for reference as they looked simr in size and shape-wise. ''Hmmm...will all three items have the same level of difficulty when using on them or different difficulty? I hope it''s former,'' Aren thought before he decided to pick the hammer. He picked the hammer since it would be almost a perfect weapon for the kic attack method. Sure there was a risk since this hammer didn''t look like a normal hammer, but this choice still looked best to him. [The test will start the moment you use on the item] [Hint: Focus and Observe.] ''Focus and observe? Hmm...'' Seeing the hint, he decided to revise the information about skill. ''First, a certain amount of Armalist force consumes when I touch the item and create a cube of Armalist force ording to the skill. The sword took less Armalist force to create the cube while the chakrams took more. After creating the cube, I infuse it in the item, and doing that would create vein-like patterns on the item. ''Afterward, I simply have to infuse Armalist force until all the vein-like patterns are filled, and the item disappears into the mysterious space inside my body..or soul? Whatever that ce is, but once I summon the gear from that ce, it has finished its transformation.'' After revising the skill information and process in his mind, he used on the hammer. He touched the hammer with his hand before executing the skill. In this process, he infused Armalist Force in the hammer as it scanned its body structure before the Armalist force returned on his hand in the form of a cube. [00:01] [00:02] The timer started, but Aren didn''t hurry. He was going to waste this try on thoroughly experimenting with the usage of skill on this hammer. He sometimes increased the flow of Armalist force to increase the scanning speed and creation of cube and sometimes decreased the speed to see the formation and stabilization of cube creation. He still remembered how he failed to create the cube the first time when he used the skill on Heavy Broad Sword. ''Hmmm...Speeding up can destabilize the cube creation, but I have to achieve a perfect bnce of speeding up this process and stabilize the cube''s creation while doing that.'' He took thirty seconds just to create the cube. Afterward, he infused the cube inside the hammer, and right after doing that, he was shocked. ''T-this...What is this?'' Aren confusedly thought because something appeared in his mind as he saw several hundred starry dots, big and small, bright and dim. However, there was a singlerge dot in the middle of this river of starry dots. This was quite different than when he used this skill on his chakrams. ''Hmm....do I have to fill up these starry dots with Armalist force?'' Aren thought before he controlled his Armalist force and willed it to fill up the giant first since it seemed to be the target. Indeed, Aren could feel the dot filling up with Armalist force in less than a second before it released five wiggly rays and connected to five dots around it. ''Hmm...guess I have to fill up those dots now.'' Thinking of that, he filled up those five dots as they also released wiggly rays from their two sides connected to ten other dots. He then filled up those ten dots as they released wiggly rays and connected to twenty dots. Aren continued this process before all dots connected with wiggly rays as the whole thing looked likeplex vein structures. The hammer also shined, but instead of disappearing, he heard a voice. [Do you want to submit this result or try again? Two tries left.] Before answering, Aren looked at the timer and was speechless. [3:07] ''Three minutes? What the hell...'' Aren thought as his expression turned serious, ''for A-grade result, I have to finish all that in twenty-five friggin seconds?'' He took a deep breath and remembered the hint, "Focus and Observe? Hmmm, let''s do one more try seriously and see how it goes," muttering that, Aren answered the voice in his head with his thought. ''I want to try again.'' Right after that, the hammer shined before it returned to how it was before, and his temporary Armalist force that returned to 0 also became 2500. [The test will start the moment you use on the item] [00:00] Aren looked at the timer that was stopped to 0 before he took a deep breath and touched the hammer, "Let''s do this." Chapter 60 - Results. Test 2, GATE. [00:57] "Are you kidding me?" Aren mumbled as he looked at the timer. It took him 57 seconds to finish making this hammer into Articule in this try! ''Hmmm, I did try my best and was in full speed. The moment the rays touched other dots, I started filling them with Armalist Force. But...how do Iplete it in 25 seconds?'' Aren thought with confusion. Aren decided to remember all of his actions and reactions to the dots and rays when he was infusing his Armalist force on them. Closing his eyes, he fell into deep thought to revise the full process. A frown lingered on his face for five straight minutes before his eyes shot open, ''Focus and Observe...It looks like the hint really pointed one to observe their whole process after it''s finished and not while doing the process. So the speed of rays moving increases if I infuse my Armalist Force on the dots with...more pressure.'' Aren started to make scenarios in his mind on how the process would work out. After a while... ''The start should be fast as well. I will infuse the Armalist force with higher intensity in the giant dot. Afterward, I will have to keep up with speed and continue infusing in that intensity and speed by focusing fully,'' Aren thought after he ran several scenarios. He then answered the voice, ''I want to try again.'' [This is yourst chance. Once the result is out, it will be submitted, and test 1 will be over.] [00:00] Aren took a deep breath before touching the hammer and executed as he hurridly created the cube in 3 seconds. Without wasting even a half-second, He pushed the cube inside the hammer as it melted into the hammer before a vast starry river appeared in his mind, and he started the process. He pped Armalist force in the giant dot with a higher intensity as it shot out rays at the same speed and hit two dots. Aren was ready as he pped Armalist Force on those two dots right as the rays hit them. The difficulty increased with more dots, but he was focused and managed to hit all dots simultaneously by partitioning Armalist forces into round balls and pping them on the dots speedily. *shua...* Aren hit thest dots before he realized that he had finished the process. His gaze went to the timer and... "FUCKKKKKKKK!" [00:26] Aren frustratedly shouted as he punched the hammer away, but it disappeared instead. "Damnn...just fucking 1 second?" Aren cursed. If there were arge difference, he wouldn''t feel that frustrated but...fucking 1 second? Hell! [Test 1 has been concluded, you will get the B-grade rewards after you finish the following two tests.] Aren looked at the notification as he took a deep breath and calmed himself, "No point in wasting time rambling about something that can''t be changed." [Test 2: Trial of Armalist. Choose one out of three gates. All three gates have different types of rewards, and based on your performance; you will get a higher reward of that particr type.] [In simple terms, if one gate has defense-type rewards, then you will get a defense-type thing, but how good that thing will be rted to your performance.] Aren saw three giant gates appear in the darkness in front of him. The first gate looked sci-fi with white and blue patterns, and its shape was perfectly square. The doors of that gate were slightly opened with a five-centimeter visible gap from which Aren couldn''t see anything as he was a bit far from those gates. The second gate''s shape was a rectangle, more height-less wide. It was burning with purple sparky me while its material stood out due to its high contrast ck radians. One could see pulsing purple and ck patterns on the gate''s door as well. The third gate looked like a triangle gate with a gothic-demonic design and patterns with mixed ck, red, and green colors. But this gate also had a hint of sci-fi to hit due to its silver-white border around the gate that released blue sparks. However, the most surprising thing was that...he could see small information on the gates. He didn''t know if it was due to his eyes or was supposed to see the information without eyes. But judging from the information he got, he felt that it waster. The first gate''s name was [Aurelion Ravitas Gate] [Aurelion Ravitas Gate] -Rank: Mythical -Type: Trial Gate -Difficulty: SSS -Note: Not about surviving but killing. -Reward hint: Obliterate, Annihte, Ruin. The second gate''s name was [Divine Asunder Gate] [Divine Asunder Gate] -Rank: Mythical -Type: Trial Gate -Difficulty: SSS -Note: Bnce is everything. -Reward hint: Order from Chaos. The third gate''s name was [Magia Adepta Gate] [Magia Adepta Gate] -Rank: Mythical -Type: Trial Gate -Difficulty: SSS -Note: Conquer all, absorb all, own all. -Reward hint: Leash not unleashed. After looking at all information, Aren fell into thought, ''What is the reward hint implying? I will get reward with key points of those words?'' ''Hmmm...If I take those reward hints literally, It means that the first gate will give me a powerful thing with very high offensive capabilities. The second gate will give me something all-rounder and control-rted thing because of the hint ''Order from Chaos'', or is it something else? Hmm...Anyway, thest gate''s reward hint is vague; however, it can also mean leashing the unleashed? this sounds like control thingy as well.'' Aren fell into deep thought as he started thinking about which gate he should pick. [A/N: Hello, dear readers! I am the author, and it''s time for our first event! Choose A Gate For Aren! :D I have created a poll and its link in thement section. Vote for the gate you want Aren to go in, and Aren will enter into the most voted gate. As you know, the rewards are different, and which gate Aren enters will decide how Aren will move in the story. ] I POSTED THIS LINK IN THE COMMENT SECTION AS WELL. LINK---> https://strawpoll/bxf8wbkaa Chapter 61 - Magia Adepta Gate After thinking for some time, Aren decided to enter Magia Adepta gate. The reason for deciding that gate was because he was curious about its Note: Conquer all, Absorb all, Own All. He didn''t know what was not about, but he guessed that it was rted to the content inside the gate. Another main reason for choosing this gate was because he couldn''t understand the reward hint of this gate as solidly as he guessed about the two other gates. "Magia Adepta...let''s see what do you have for me," Aren muttered as he walked towards the Magia Adepta gate. He stretched his hand to push the doors, but right when he touched those doors, he felt dizzy before the scenery changed and he arrived at a strange ce. The closest words to describe this ce were...a scenery after magic and science-rted apocalypse. [Here, you are only allowed to use things rted to your path and nothing else. You have toplete three tasks in twenty-four hours.] [First task: Conquer a random settlement of any mutated species.] [Second task: Find or snatch an item with a power level of 1000 or more. Make it yours by bing its owner through blood bond. A measurement device is added to your inventory that can gauge the power level of items in this ce.] [Third task: Absorb any type of mutated-magic ability of A-grade or above. There is more than one way of absorbing such ability. So, find those methods and absorb one ability. Note: you can only absorb one ability.] [Passable result: Finish one task] [B-grade result: Finish two tasks.] [A-grade result: Finish three tasks.] [If you die inside, the test will be over, and you won''t get any rewards even if you havepleted the task. Surviving for 24 hours here is a must.] [23:59] After hearing the voice and reading thest notification, Aren became aware of the fact that if he dies here, he won''t really die but just be kicked outside to that dark ce. He looked around in this barrennd with ground filled with cracks and oozing out the glowing green liquid. The sky was dark with sparkling, colorful stars, and the atmosphere was heavy and dark. There was no one in sight, so Aren first hopped on his sword and started flying in a random direction. There were nts on the ground, but they looked grotesque and alive. Thus, dangerous. After flying for five minutes at his full speed, Aren saw a cyber-punk type gate with metal walls that were covered in green vines with spikes. Two humanoid creatures with fish heads stood as guards at the gate. Aren didn''t go there and stopped one kilometer away from the settlement and hid behind a boulder. After observing gates for a minute, he put away his sword and chakrams in his body before bingpletely unarmed except for the leather armor on his body that was already damaged to an extent. He then took out the measurement device that looked like one eye goggle and wore it on before he started walking towards the settlement at a fast speed. Yes, he started WALKING at a fast speed. Soon, he arrived at the gate and slowed down while observing the fish-head men. He thought they would stop him, so he slowed down, but all they did was to nce at him and then look away. Seeing that, he also didn''t care and entered inside the settlement where he saw different kinds of alien-like beings walking the streets¡ªFish-head, octopus-head, grotesque head with tentacle-like limbs, de limbs, etc. He just observed everything and continued walking deeper into the settlement. But his eyes caught one a shop with a glowing name "Mutant-Magic Ability shop." The name-board had green glowing worms moving on them that highlighted the name. Aren decided to check it out as he walked towards it and entered the shop. The shop was two stories big, and its room size was four hundred square feet. The shop seemed empty, with only the shop owner sitting on the chair while reading a newspaper. The shop owner had a pig-head that looked dangerous with piecing essories on its ears and nose. sh marks on his dark pink skin, and one of its eyes was covered with an eyepatch. The shop had several ss showcases on walls and two big tables that disyed ss vials with different colored liquids that glowed with different colors sparks in them. After Aren entered the shop, the pig-owner put away the newspaper and spoke, "Yo, human. What do you want to buy?" Aren looked at the owner and spoke inly, "I want A-grade or above grade Mutant-magic ability." Hearing his words, the pig-owner released a piggy sound from his nose before pping the table, "Hon hon hon...are you kidding me? You won''t be able to find A-grade or higher grade mutant-magic ability in this settlement. The most I have are B-grade vials. If you want one of them, then you can take it for the price disyed." Aren frowned as he looked at those magical vials with strange liquids on them, ''I want to try one, but...I am only allowed to absorb one. The task mentioned me of finding a method to absorb one, but there''s this shop as well...Hmm, I need to find more information about this thing.'' Thinking of that, he thought of something and asked the pig-man, "I have never absorbed mutant-magic ability from vials. Do you know how would one absorb them?" Hearing him, The pig-man revealed a surprised expression, "So you are a wild absorber? Hmmm, if that''s the case, then I can give you a location of Magia-deviant spot where you can absorb A-grade mutant-magic ability,"-Pig-man revealed a sly smile as he rubbed his hand, "However since that location is a secret and only I know about it, It will cost some money." Hearing all that, Aren internally grinned, ''Bingo. I thought I could get information if I asked that question since the task told me to find methods and absorb it even though there''s a shop like this here.'' Aren looked at the shop owner as he narrowed his eyes on his in expression and asked, "How much?" Pig-man rubbed his hand as he spoke with his eyes forming a smile, "Ahem...I have been holding on to this information and waiting for a Wild absorber to appear to get some good price for it, hehehe." Aren frowned and spoke sharply, "Don''t waste my time and speak up the price." There was also this currency problem since the price disyed on the showcase was not in gold coins but something like crista-shards. He had seen these crista-shards while walking the streets and seeing people buying things with them. But he hoped that he could exchange his gold coins with them. Chapter 62 - Magia-Deviant Spot. The Pig-man rubbed his hands as he pointed three fingers, "Three thousand crista-shards, hehehe. I was literally waiting for a Wild absorber to appear, so this price is only fair. Also," The pig-man looked around before speaking in a low voice, "You might be able to get a Mutated-magic ability even higher than A-grade there because the device I used to search it could only detect up to A-grade." Aren nodded before he took out a gold coin and asked indifferently, "How many crista-coin can I get with this gold coin?" Seeing the shining gold coin, the Pig man''s eyes also shined as he stuttered, "T-this...where did you get this? It''s a luxury currency among Magia-elites here. S-sir, you can get 100 crista-shards for that one coin." Hearing that, Athan frowned slightly, ''Such high value? This means that the price of A-grade is low in a way. Hmmm...there should be way higher-grade mutated-magic abilities as well.'' Aren first took out additional twenty-nine coins before giving them to Pig-man, who took them all with gusto. "Alright, now lead the way," Aren spoke indifferently. "R-right away, sir," Pig-man hurriedly nodded as he put away the gold coins in a chest and then came out from behind the counter. "Let''s go, sir. The ce is thirty kilometers away from here, where an eruption zone is located, and the Magia-deviant spot is in that eruption zone." Aren nodded as both of them walked out of the town on the Pig-man''s two-seat bike that released green gas from its strange silencer. The bike''s speed increased aftering out of the town as they zoomed towards the west direction. After ten minutes, they arrived at the so-called Eruption zone. It was called an eruption zone due to the ground that constantly erupted with green, orange, and such colored liquid. Pig-man led Aren inside this zone as they walked for ten minutes while being careful of erupting liquids. Aren was curious, but he didn''t ask the Pig-man about it since it would make him suspicious. "Here it is, sir. Now I will leave because I don''t want to be exposed to Magia-deviant spot since I am not a wild absorber yet." "Wait," Aren called out right before the Pig-man turned around. Pig-man turned around with doubt and asked, "Any problem, sir?" Aren took out hundred gold coins before saying with a smile, "How about you apany me for twenty-four hours? For each hour you assist me, I will give you five gold coins. I might give you extra if you serve me better." Pig-man''s hands trembled in excitement, "Hon..hon!! R-really, sir? You are not joking, right?" Aren smiled and gave him twenty gold coins, "Here, take advance payment." Pig-man was overjoyed as he opened his mouth wide and ate those gold coins before saying with enthusiasm in his voice, "I am ready, sir. you can order me to do anything as long as it doesn''t hurt me or put my life in danger." ''This human sir is really loaded. Hmm, he might take me with him if I perform better! This is my chance!'' "Good," Aren nodded with a smile, not bothering about how Pig-man ate those gold coins. Maybe it was his way of storing things? He then looked at the Magia-Deviant spot in front of them. This spot was a one square meter mystical ce in front of them. In that one square meter area, liquids were floating around with sparks in them. The majority of liquids were different shades of orange liquid with different shades of orange and red sparks in them. The sight was truly magical. Without turning back to look at Pig-man, Aren asked in a calm tone, "As you know, there are several methods to absorb mutated-magic abilities." "Yes, sir." "You also said that you''ve yet to be a wild absorber, right?" Pig-man was startled and asked agitatedly, "T-this...sir. Will you be helping me in that process? I know some D and C-grade Magia deviant spots. Will you help me train if I lead you there?" "That depends on your performance," Aren answered while absorbing the words of Pig-man. Aren thought of something and asked, "I have several ways of training, but what is your way of training to be a wild-absorber?" "S-sir, I am not rich, so I can only use the general method of absorbing energies from C or D-grade Magia-deviant spots and refine my body gradually. My body is currently F-grade, so I can absorb F-grade abilities, but to be considered a Wild absorber, one must have the strength to absorb energy from Magia-deviant spots of B-grade or higher grade and gain aplete ability from them." "I see," Aren nodded while internally frowning, ''So is it impossible for me to absorb A-grade mutated-magic ability directly? No! There should be a way to do that. Otherwise, these tasks are impossible toplete in twenty-four hours. Also, the task mentioned that I can only absorb one ability.'' He focused on the Magia-deviant spot to get its information if possible. After two seconds, a window finally appeared in his head with information. [Amber of Eturnia] -Type: Magia-Deviant spot. -Grade: S -->Amber burst.--70% chance.--A grade -->Amber Crust Body.--25% chance.--A+ grade -->Amber Core of Eturnia.--5% chance.--S grade. -Note:- Chances to get higher grade ability increases with proper and better absorption. ''It looks like It takes time for my eyes to get information in this world, and I need to focus hard for it. Well, at least I can get information.'' "What''s your name?" Aren asked the Pig-man. "S-sir, My name is Perambol," Pig-man, now Perambol answered immediately. "So, Perambol, tell me in detail about your crude absorption method because I have always used an advanced method, and I want to try this crude method so I can help you in progresster." At first, Perambol was startled, but when he heard about how Aren would help him in progress, he released his usual strange sound from his nose in excitement, "Hon...Hon!! Sure, sir. The way I absorb is to use the core in my body to attract the energy and then let it refine my body. I usually intake a small amount first since I am very sensitive to pain. This is also the reason that my progress is slow." ''Core?'' Aren thought, ''Hmm, I also have a core, but it''s spirit core. Well, let''s try and see if it works.'' Aren thought, but right after that, he remembered something and almost pped his own face. ''Damn...how could I forget that? sigh....'' Chapter 63 - [Bonus ]Unorthodox Way ''The voice mentioned that I am not allowed to use anything besides the powers of my path. This itself has a hint in it, or maybe not? Maybe I am allowed to use the methods of this world as well? Hmmm...Anyway, I will not find if my path''s powers work or not until I try,'' Aren thought as he stretched his hand forward but didn''t let it enter into the magia-deviant spot. He then released Armalist force from his hand as it entered inside the magia-deviant spot. *siiiiiiiiiiiii....* Right as the Armalist force entered into the spot, the amber liquid of different shades of orange with sparks in them became restless. "T-this...what kind of power is that, sir?" Perambol asked in a shocked voice. He had never heard of the energy of magia-deviant spot bing like this, and usually, they would just get attracted by anything and attack whoever entered the spot. But right now, those amber liquids were restless and moving away from Aren''s Armalist force. Aren was surprised and curious as he muttered, "Interesting..." The amber liquid and sparks were restless, but they didn''t go out of their 1 square meter spot. On the other hand, Aren continued to pour in his Armalist force, and after he released all of his Armalist force, he started controlling it to interact with those amber liquids. Until now, the liquids were running away from Armalist force, but now Aren controlled his Armalist force and forcefully touched amber liquid. The liquid that touched Armalist force disappeared immediately after the interaction happened, and Aren felt strange hotness inside deep within him. This hotness was not at the physical level but spiritual level, and it felt like his soul felt the hotness. ''It looks like I have to try and focus on this ce that is inside my body on a spiritual level. Hmm...This is a chance to find and see the so-called Armalist Drive and my soul by focusing on this sense of hotness.'' Aren focused as he continued to interact with the amber liquids in the magia-deviant spot. He focused and concentrated hard enough to lose the sense of time as he finally saw three bright things in the darkness. He first saw a dreamy blue cube with six sections in a honeb shape, ''So that''s my Armalist drive. Hmm...'' A small amount of sparkling blue aura surrounded the cube, and Aren instantly knew that the sparkling blue aura was Armalist force. Inside the center hexagon section of that dreamy blue cube was a white orb with a slight golden hue that exuded a sense of oneself, ''That...looks like my soul.'' He tried to use soul energy, and instantly, white energy released from the orb, confirming his guess that he was sure of. Aside from all that, his Armalist gears were also inside that dreamy blue cube''s other three hexagonal sections while the remaining two sections were empty. The second thing he saw was a dark blue orb filled with spirit energy. The orb had vein-like patterns all over its surface, ''That looks like my spirit core as I can feel spirit energy inside it.'' However, the sense of hotness he felt was some distance away from his spirit core. At that ce in darkness, A sparkling orange energy was gathering, and by now, it had gathered in great amount. Aren thought about opening his eyes which he opened, and the scenery he previously saw disappeared as his eyes looked at the magia-deviant spot that...was half empty. Without turning back, Aren spoke, "Perambol!" "Yes, sir?" "How much time passed?" "Ten minutes, sir." Aren nodded as he focused on the activity in front of him and absorbed all the amber liquid with sparks in them. ''For now, I''ll call that dark ce where my Armalist drive, spirit core, and this amber energy situated as Inner space,'' Aren thought while absorbing the amber liquids. After absorbing all of it, he took back his Armalist force and waited for a minute, but nothing happened, ''I guess that would be too easy. But since I absorbed the amber energy, I should be able to do something with it.'' He then closed his eyes and tried to see his inner space with his consciousness again and seeded. At this time, there was arge amount of sparking amber energy gathered. ''Since Armalist force had an effect on its physique outside, then it should have an effect here as well,'' Aren thought as he controlled his Armalist force that was surrounding his Armalist drive and moved it towards the amber energy. When both of them interacted, something strange happened. The small amount of armalist force that touched the small amount of amber energybined before bing a sparkling orange crystal. ''T-this...,'' Aren was surprised at this reaction between them. Outside, his Armalist force was not consumed at all, and it just acted as some kind of portal to transport the amber energy here. But now that it was here and both of them interacted, this happened. Seeing such a thing happening, Aren enveloped all amber energy with his Armalist force as both of thembined, and crystal started to produce. However, the moment more crystal produced, they vibrated before getting attracted to each other. After a while, Aren finished the entire process of turning amber energy into crystals using his Armalist force. In the end, all crystals stuck together as they shined before bing a perfectly round solid ball with different shades of orange color patterns on its surface. Aren also felt a strange connection with that crystalized ball, just like his connection with Armalist Drive, his soul, and his spirit core. [You have gained S-grade ability: Amber core of Eturnia] [Task 3pleted.] [Due topleting task 3 in an unorthodox way, you will be allowed to keep the Mutated-magic ability even after the test ends. But you will have to learn how to use it yourself.] ''So if Ipleted task 3 in a normal method like using the methods of this world, then I wouldn''t have kept the gained Mutated-magic ability. Well, I guess my overthinking or out of box thinking helped me get an advantage,'' Aren smiled as he felt slightly happy. He didn''t think about learning how to use the ability gained right now and decided to focus onpleting the other two tasks. He thought about checking the core of that Amber of Eturnia while moving. "Perambol, do you know a location of any small settlement with minimal numbers of mutated species living in it?" Aren turned around as he asked with a smile. Perambol was shocked at how easily Aren absorbed the energy from that magia-deviant spot before he snapped out of his thoughts and answered, "I know one such settlement, sir. It''s not very far from here." "Alright, then lead the way." ... The settlement that Perambol mentioned was ten kilometers away from the eruption zone. On the way, Aren used the connection he gained with that amber crystalized ball and tried to control it. In the Inner space, he could observe the crystalized ball shining, and suddenly, his body started to turn hot. "Why it''s so hot?" Perambol muttered as he nced behind while driving the bike but was startled to see Aren turning orange colored and oozing out hotness. However, Aren was not feeling anything. But something about his status changed as a new tab appeared. [Mutated-magic Ability]:- Amber core of Eturnia. ---Skills:- none. "S-sir...can you please stop using that ability? I can''t handle it if you exude even more heat," Perambol spoke as he was sweating like a bucket and his skin turned red. Aren wryly smiled as he deactivated the ability. ''It looks like I have to create a skill, but to do that, I have to learn to control this ability properly,'' Aren thought, ''Well, guess I''ll justplete the two tasks first. Hopefully, they are not too much of a pain in the ass, especially the conquering one.'' ... After a while, Perambol and Aren arrived at the small settlement that was really small, like a tiny vige. Dark green glowing wooden fences two meters tall surrounded the vige with approx twenty houses in them. "Sir, do not touch those wooden fences or don''t cause any conflict. The people in this settlement are small but ruthless, and they have expertise in deadly magic poisons," Perambol said as he and Aren looked at the entry gate of the settlement where two guards sat on the chairs. The guards were mutated species with the upper body of the snake. Their skin was shining red and dark green, and they had a spear in their hands that was alsoced with poison, just like on the fences. Aren narrowed his eyes while thinking, ''Pig...this ce looks dangerous even though the settlement is small.'' He decided first to check their information as he focused and looked at the two leisurely sitting snake-head guards. Chapter 64 - Deal [Serpantenuma] -Type: Mutant -Health: [5000/5000] -Defense: Physical [500], Soul [300] -Attack: Physical [1100], Poison [2200] -Skills: , , -Abilities: , , . Aren looked at their stats, and both guards had almost the same stats except that the other guard had instead of skill. "Let''s go," Aren said to Perambol as both of them started walking towards the settlement. Once they got close to the gate, the snake guards stood up and stopped both of them. "Stop! What business do you have here?" Aren smiled and said, "I heard your settlement is pretty famous for its poison? Well, I wanted to buy some." "Humph, prove your strength to us first. We don''t sell that to random strangers." "Alright," Aren said as he activated his Amber core of Eturnia, ''It''s a good chance to see how this ability works.'' His body started releasing heat before his skin started to be orange. Seeing this, The two snake-guards looked at each other beforeughing out loud, "Human! Are you making a fool of us? That measly heat is nothing powerful." Aren nced at them and smiled, "I am just activating it slowly lest I mistakenly harm you." After saying that, he increased the output more before his body released bright orange amber sparks. ''Oh...,'' Aren was surprised seeing amber sparks releasing and could even control them. ''Well now, how do I use them? Maybe I can use them directly?'' Aren thought as he looked around and found a meter-tall rock to his left side, fifteen meters away. He waved his right hand towards the rock as those orange amber sparks flew towards it and hit the rock. *siiiiii....* They stuck to the rock as a sizzling sound produced, and the rock started to turn orange as well before... *Boom..* The rock exploded. "Exploding mutant-magic ability? That''s quite powerful." The snake guard spoke in surprise. Aren deactivated the ability as he smiled, "Well, that was not my full strength at all. I just barely even used it." Actually, he was right. The magia-deviant spot had many shades of orange-colored liquid along with colorful sparks, and so far, he only managed to produce bright orange amber sparks. ''I''ll have to do a long activation and observe that core carefully after returning.'' "Alright,e in. However, you must follow me and meet the chief of our settlement to buy poison." One of the snake guards spoke before he started walking inside the settlement. Aren and Perambol followed after him as they entered the settlement. On the way, they noticed that the settlement was full of snakes of different kinds, and they were everywhere. They saw other snake people taking care of them, and their kids even yed with snakes. After a bit of walking, they arrived at the most prominent house of this settlement, the chief''s house. Aren and Perambol entered inside the chief''s house as they sat across a table. The chief snake man even had a frigging beard, a green beard! Aren was surprised. The chief smiled as he gestured for them to drink the...green tea. ''Green tea...well, I know about green tea in my world, but this green...looks unsettling,'' Aren thought as he looked at the cup of green tea. However, He saw Perambol picking up the cup and drinking the tea happily, "Thanks for the tea, chief." Aren looked at Perambol speechlessly, but his eyes turned wide when he saw the pig''s skin turning GREEN! ''What the hell?'' Aren became alert as he stood up. Seeing him like that, Perambol hurridly spoke, "S-sir, it''s okay. I forgot to tell you that aside from poison, they also specialize in removing impurities from the body and concocting antidote of various poisons." Aren looked at Perambol with a deadpan expression as he calmly sat down and focused on the teacup to get its information. [Corelian Tea] -Grade: Common -Effect: Remove impurities from the body and grant some resistance to normal poisons. Aren then picked up the teacup and drank it in one go before cursing, ''Damn pig.'' [You have drunk detoxifying impurity removal tea. After five hours, the process will be done, and your body will excrete impurities.] [You have acquired ability, ] Aren''s skin started turning green as well, and he could feel vibrations of his organs, ''I wonder what''s happening inside my body?'' Seeing Aren drinking the tea, the chief smiled and said, "The process will take four to five hours. Anyway, you want to buy poison, right? What kind of poison, and what is your budget? However, I must remind you that we have a policy that if you buy poisons, then you also have to buy corresponding antidotes for those poisons." Aren looked at the chief and nodded with a smile, "I am fine with that. Could you show me some of your poisons and their effects? I mainly want lethal poisons and poisons that interfere with a person''s cognitive process." The chief looked at the guard, who nodded and went deeper into the house. On the other hand, Aren started thinking about how to conquer this settlement, ''Conquer...Hmmm. Basically, I have to make them obey me, is that right? I don''t want to do this violently since it is dangerous. I still don''t know much about this world and how many magical things people use here.'' Aren saw the guard bring in seven vials with different kinds of poisons in them. The chief started introducing those poisons, but Aren was still thinking about how to conquer, ''I still have a bit more than twenty-two hours to finish the two tasks. ording to MMO video games, I should do good deeds, win their affection, help this settlement grow big, etc., things, and finally be their leader...however, that will take too much time, and I am not even going to stay here...'' Aren nodded as the chief exined while his thoughts drifted. However, suddenly, something clicked in him, ''Wait...I am not even going to stay here! YES! Why should I follow the normal path when I am not even going to stay here and receive the benefits of this settlement after I conquer them?'' "Chief, I need to talk to you. Alone," Aren said with a serious expression,'' This old snake man seems wise, and he will think calm-headedly about what I want to say. But that guard might not." The chief deeply looked at Aren before saying with a smile, "I am noticing that you are not that interested in poison, and your thoughts are drifting elsewhere. You are not here for poison, right?" Aren weakly smiled and nodded, "I am not here for poison, but I have been listening to your information, and I will definitely buy them before leaving." After saying that, he took out a handful of gold coins and put them on the table. "Human! How dare you lie to us?" The guard pointed his spear at Aren before speaking angrily. "Calm down, Terul. He said he would buy poison before leaving, didn''t he?" The chief spoke with a frown. "But..." Terul hesitated before finally putting down the spear after seeing the chief''s gaze turn sharp. Aren looked at the chief and smiled, "I need to talk to you alone. Trust me; I mean no harm." "Humph, human. You can''t harm chief even if you use your full power." "Alright, Terul. Go out." The chief spoke calmly. Aren also told Perambol to go out as both the guard and Perambol went out. "So? What do you want to say?" Chief asked with a faint smile. "I''ll be straightforward," Aren said with a smile, "I want to conquer this settlement." Hearing that, The chief raised his eyebrows, "Ohh? Well, you did the right thing by sending out Terul because he would definitely attack you the moment you uttered those words." "But I knew you wouldn''t, and that''s why I decided to be upfront about it after you decided to talk to me alone," Aren said with a faint smile. Chief nodded as he picked up the teacup and took a sip, "Go on." Aren nodded and said, "I am not going to stay here for a long time, just several hours at most. But I have a task to conquer a settlement within a limited time." "Interesting," The chief spoke with a nod. Aren took a deep breath before he continued, " Since you are chief, everyone listens to your orders in this settlement, right? So if you be my underling, for a few seconds, then it can be considered that I have conquered this settlement, at least that''s how it should work." The chief nodded, "Indeed. When you invade a kingdom, you conquer the royal pce, kill the king, and be the kingdom''s conquerer. You be the new ruler of that kingdom, whether the public of that kingdom agrees or not." Aren nodded with a smile, "So how about we make a deal?" "What kind of deal?" The chief asked with interest in his eyes. "A straightforward deal where only you will benefit. I will order you to walk towards that door, and you will obey. In return, I will give you one hundred gold coins." *tink tink...* Aren took out more gold coins and put them on the table. The chief looked weirdly at Aren and asked, "Are you sure your so-called conquering a settlement task can bepleted with such a simple thing?" Hearing that, Aren shrugged, "I don''t know. But I want to try and see if it works." "Hahaha, you''re a weird one, human," The chief loudlyughed before he waved his hand towards the table; the sleeve of his robe went past the gold coins as they disappeared. "Alright, let''s start." The chief said with a grin, "What''s your name,d?" "Aren." "Alright," The chief nodded with a smile, "From here on, you are the chief of this settlement. What orders do you have for me, chief Aren?" Aren stood up, and just as he was going to order the chief, he heard something and was startled. ''I was not expecting the chief to verbally say that and didn''t think that it would work either. Well, since it worked then it made things easier for him and me.'' Seeing Aren''s startled expression, the chief asked, "What happened?" Aren shook his head while smiling and sat down as he looked at the notifications, "Thanks, chief. My task ispleted." [Task 1: Conquer a random settlement of any mutated species,pleted.] "Hehe, now let''s talk about the poisons. They look like they will be useful to me in my adventure," Aren said with a grin, ''Maybe the chief here might have some items with the power level of 1000 or above as well.. Hmmm, I should ask about it after buying the poisons.'' Chapter 65 - Test 2, Completed. Aren bought eighty vials of poisons and paid 80 gold coins for them. Four types of poisons, twenty vials of each type. "Also, chief. Do you have any items? like a weapon or something?" Aren asked after putting away the vials in his inventory. "Well, we also sell poison needles and poison bombs," Chief said as he took out a needle and a poison bomb to show Aren. Aren looked at the needle, and instantly, the one-eye google disyed its power level. [Poison Needle] Power level- [200] He then looked at the poison bomb. [Poison Bomb] Power level-[340] "I want something more powerful," Aren said as he thought of something," "I want an item that requires one to do blood bond to use." "Oh...so you want Magia items," Chief said as he waved his hand, and an orb with green and ck mist inside it appeared on the table. "I only have this one magia item, and it''s useful to me, so I can''t sell it to you," Chief said with a smile. Aren looked at the orb and clicked his tongue. [Skyfang Toxic Orb] Power-level- [1240] "How much does it cost to buy a Magia item that''s as powerful as this?" Aren asked. Chief stroked his green beard and thought for a moment before saying, "I haven''t bought this magia item but acquired it while adventuring. However, from my estimation...Its price should be around 30,000 to 40,000 Crista-shards." Aren nodded, ''So that''s around 300 to 400 gold coins. Whew, it''s good, Luna, and I got gold coins as the reward. Without these golds, it would have madepleting this task a bit tricker. Luna..., If she didn''t meet me, she would''ve been alive.'' Aren fell into a daze as he remembered his mom and others, but he snapped out of his thoughts soon with determination in his eyes, ''Rosflin''s father...did he really let them die? Since he appeared to save me...at thest moment at that, which makes it suspicious, but a mighty being like him could have saved mom and others as well.'' Shaking his head, He stood up and looked at the chief before saying with a smile, "Thank you very much, chief. If fate allows, then we will meet again." "Sure thing. It was good doing business with you, hahaha." Chiefughed as he and Aren came out of the house. The guard, Terul, and Perambol looked back and saw Aren and chiefing out of the house. Terul squinted his eyes and asked, "How many things did he buy, chief?" Chief smiled and said, "He bought things worth eight thousand Crista-shards and also donated a hundred gold coins for our settlement." "WHAT! R-really, chief? Y-you are not pulling my legs, right? How can this human be so generous?" Terul spoke while sturring. On the other hand, Perambol was also dumbfounded, ''Wow, this human sure is generous.'' ... Afterward, Perambol and Aren left the settlement. "Perambol, do you know a ce where I can buy magia items?" Aren asked as he decided to buy one instead of wasting time searching for it or snatching from someone. "I know, sir." "Then lead the way." "Right away, sir." ... After thirty minutes of traveling, They entered inside a settlement, and Perambol led Aren to a store that sells magia-items. The store was big and luxurious, with many mutant people in it. However, Aren was startled to see that every single item in this shop had the same color, dark grey metal. Well, those items had different patterns carved on them as if some sort of magic carvings, but their material...looked exactly the same. ''Strange...however, it should be the thing of this world. Guess I''ll find out after I buy one,'' Aren thought before moving towards a staff member. Aren then told that staff member in therge hall of the store that he is looking to buy a magia item worth between 30,000 to 40,000 crista-shards. The staff led Aren to a section where different kinds of items, from small to big, were disyed on different stool stands. "Esteemed guest, these magia items in front of you have a price ranging from 30,000 to 50,000 crista-shards, and theye into Duke-category, from low to high grade." The staffdy said. She looked like ady with bunny ears, tails but other than that, all human. Aren nodded and didn''t even have to look much as he pointed at the giant hammer, "I''ll buy that one." The hammer''s handle was six feet long, while its head was one meter in width and fifty centimeters tall¡ªa very big battle hammer. ''Perfect,'' Aren thought as he looked at the staffdy picking up the hammer and then leading Aren to a counter. There was a price tag on the items, so he knew the price and brought out 460 gold coins before paying them at the counter. ''Now I only have one thousand and forty gold coins left. Well, the money was worth spent in this world than Wild Expanse since its value is higher here. Hmmm...should I buy one more Magia-item? But I am not sure if I can keep it. I can only know after I do blood bond with it and the task notification tells me ab-'' Suddenly, his thoughts were cut off as the staff behind the counter said, "Esteemed guest. Can you please activate your magia item? We require you to activate it in front of us so that you won''t resell it at a different ce." Hearing that, Aren was startled, but he quickly responded with a smile, "Sure." He wasn''t sure about its activation, but he decided to just drop his blood on it since the task mentioned the blood bond. He bit his thumb before putting on the giant hammer. A drop of blood fell onto the hammer before it was absorbed. [Task 2pleted. You will be transported back to the test area in one minute.] The hammer absorbed the blood, but...Aren saw the staff member looking at him with a gaze that said, "continue." ''So it''s not over yet? However, I don''t know how to continue sigh...'' Aren thought for a moment before deciding to use his mutant magic ability since that was the only thing he had from this world. ''Anyway, It''s better to try it before making a fool of myself.'' He activated the Amber core of Eturnia as his body changed color, but his eyes became a bit wide as he realized that the hammer was clearly absorbing the power of his ability. The carvings on the hammer shined as the hammer started to transform but not literally. "Sir, why don''t you use the full power of your ability at one go and make this hammer reach its full strength?" Perambol asked with doubt. Aren''s lips twitched before he spoke with a smile, "Ehh...I was just checking the process. Of course, I am going to use full power." Under tension, his brain''s gears turned fast before suddenly a light bulb appeared on Aren''s head, not literally. ''Soul energy! I should try to bring out its full power through soul energy. Maybe it might work? No harm in trying.'' Thinking of that, Aren controlled his soul energy inside the inner space and brought it towards the Amber core of Eturnia. He tried to infuse soul energy in the core and was shocked by the reaction as the core brightly shined as it released red, dark red, dark orange, and such different shades of red and orange energy. His body also changed with different shades of red and orange while the hammer absorbed all of his ability''s energy released from him. The carvings on the hammer also had different shades of red and orange. The staff member frowned, ''This human has no control over his ability; how stupid.'' However, Aren looked at the cooldown and hurriedly took out fifty gold coins and gave it Perambol. Right after that, Aren disappeared along with a hammer. Perambol and the staff were stunned, ''This human also grasped teleportation ability? How powerful!'' ... On the other hand, Aren appeared in the dark area with the hammer still absorbing his ability''s power. [Test 2 finished. You havepleted all three tasks in 24 hours so you will be given A-grade reward at the end.] [You will get one hour break before we start test 3.] [ Test 3 is a test of battle. You will be sent to fight a boss monster and you will have to defeat it by only using your Path powers.] [59:59] [59:58] Aren looked at the cooldown before focusing on the hammer, ''I can feel it''s nearing the end of the process. Let''s hope I can transform this hammer into Articule gear because it''s the thing I wanted.'' His eyes had slight excitement as he looked at the info of hammer. [Desta-Infa Giant Hammer] Chapter 66 - An Appreciated Mistake. [ Desta-Infa Giant Hammer ]-Amber Core of Eturnia. -Type: Magia Item. -Rank: Duke-High grade. -Affiliated Magic: Amber core of Eturnia. -Magic Skill: Impact Burst (Amber core of Eturnia). -Damage: Physical [6990-7380], Magic [10-10,000]. -Durability: ~ ( As a magia item, unless its magia core is destroyed, it can be repaired with its affiliated magic''s energy, Amber core of Eturnia.) Aren looked at the hammer with a satisfied expression, "Now let''s see its weight," Aren picked it up to feel its weight, "Great! It''s heavy indeed." However, Aren was startled as a new tab appeared before durability on the hammer''s info window after he spoke after weight. -Weight: 1448 KG. He then looked at the skill. [Impact Burst] -Cost: Amber core of Eturnia''s energy. -Effect: Condense energy into the hammer ording to your control and release it upon impact of the hammer for a devastating burst of magic damage. -Note: The damage will scale ording to the magic energy of the Amber core of Eturnia infused into the hammer. After looking at it, he decided to try on it. ''If it worked, then this hammer will...allow me to kill anyone way more powerful than me. 1248 kilogram of hammer will produce monstrous kic energy attack at the speed of Mach 1 upon contact...damn, I can''t wait to see it,'' Aren excitedly put his hand on the hammer. He managed to infuse Armalist force into it and also started scanning it, "It worked...hahaha, let''s go!" A cube was created before Aren pushed into the hammer before vein-like patterns appeared on the hammer. However, the starry chart didn''t appear in his mind, and this process turned out to be the same one as the one that happened when he used on his sword and chakrams. He finished the process as the hammer disappeared and entered inside one of the slots in the Armalist Drive in his inner space. ''That hammer ought to be very powerful if arge starry chart appeared; oh yeah, it also required me to use 2500 Armalist force while this hammer...only required 355,'' Aren thought as he took out his new Armalist Gear. He decided to name this hammer Destructo. [ Destructo ] -Type: Armalist Gear, Magia Item. -Rank: tinum tier-peak grade. -Requirement: Armalist Drive+1 -Affiliated Magic: Amber core of Eturnia. -Magic Skill: Impact Burst (Amber core of Eturnia). -Damage: Physical [7990-8380], Magic [10-15,000]. -Perk: +20 STR, +20 VIT. -Trait: None. -Durability: ~ ( As a magia item, unless its magia core is destroyed, it can be repaired with its affiliated magic''s energy, Amber core of Eturnia.) -Note: Not upgradable. Aren started controlling the hammer to get used to it while waiting for the countdown to hit 0. Meanwhile, He also took a look at this current status. -Name: Aren Azrael -Level: 13 [ 1160/16000 ] Exp. -Path: Emporio Armalist [ Level: 6 ] -Mutant Magic: [Amber Core of Eturnia] -Body Health: [ 2650/2650 ] -Soul Health: [ 100/100 ] -Life Stage: Mortal-2 -Spirit Energy Pool: [ 10200/10200 ] -Soul Energy: [ 100/100 ] -Mystic Field: 0/150 points -[Stats] -Stat points: 0 -Skill points: 1 -Abilities: , . -Skills: , , -Inventory: Cursed Shofar, Deep Blue Gemstone, Spirit Water Barrel [1], Spirit stone [2], Health potion [356]. Because of hammer''s perk, his Strength and Consitution increased by 20. Seeing how his path granted him more physical stats than his level through Articule gears, he was a bit speechless. ''Oh yeah, that gemstone,'' Aren thought as he took out the deep blue gemstone that he got a few days ago. But at that time, he couldn''t use it since it required a spirit core, and he hadn''t formed a spirit core at that time. Taking out the deep blue gemstone, he took a close look at it. [Deep Blue Gemstome] -Rank: Rare -Requirement: Spirit core. -Effect: It can be used as a forged material when forging an item to give it water element enhancement and water element trait. ''Hmmm...It''s better to sell this to someone who has water affinity and get a good price out of it,'' Aren nodded as he made his decision and practiced with his hammer. ... [00:01] The count down finally hit 0 after that, and the voice appeared along with a portal. [Test 3: Defeat the boss monster.] [Passable result: Defeat it in five minutes.] [B-grade result: Defeat it in three minutes.] [A-grade result: Defeat it in one minute.] Aren stood up as he looked at the giant demonic portal ten meters away from him. He looked at the darkness around him and grinned, '' Since the test clearly tells me to defeat the boss monster, then let''s start the preparation from here. Even if it doesn''t work after going through the portal, it doesn''t matter.'' After thinking that, he activated his talent and controlled his hammer as he sent it three hundred meters behind him. After that, he jumped on his sword and took out both of his chakrams as they started flying around him while spinning rapidly. "Let''s go," Aren muttered as he controlled all of his Articule gears and dashed towards the portal. The hammer zoomed forward as it was thest one the enter the portal, but its speed had already reached Mach 1. On the other side of the portal, A humanoid ten meters tall giant with four hands holding burning clubs was standing fifty meters away from him. It had a single eye and a single horn on his forehead that also burned with red mes. *ROARRRRRRRRRRR...* The giant roared, but Aren continued dashing towards the giant with his full speed; he lost connection with Articule gears for a brief millisecond when he passed through the portal but regained it instantly aftering out of the portal to the other side. ''Kic force, show me your power,'' Aren thought as he slowed down his speed ten meters away from the giant, but his buzzing giant hammer flying at Mach 1 speed made a straight line towards the giant''s head. Aren also used impact burst by consuming his soul energy and pouring inrge power of Amber core of Eturnia into the hammer. Due to the flight speed and high control, Aren made a bit of a mistake in control, and all power of exploded from behind the hammer''s head. However, that caused the hammer''s speed to increase to approximately 6000 meters per second in a split second before it hit the giant''s head. *BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM....* [-124874] The giant''s head sted, but Aren''s head also buzzed as he felt a bit dizzy. [T-test 3pleted.] Aren shook his head as he removed the dizzy spell, and when he looked at the damage numbers, he was dumbfounded, "W-what the hell!!?" Chapter 67 - Rewards. Return To Hellscape. Aren was shocked. However, his gazended on a few bright pieces of some material flying out, and his heart almost leaped out. He hurriedly tried to control his hammer, and it worked as the hammer with only a few pieces of its head attached to it came back to him. "It broke...," Aren muttered as he looked at his broken hammer. 70% of the hammer''s head was gone, and its handle had slight cracks. "It''s core...it should be fine, right?" Aren questioned in doubt before he tried to infuse his mutant-magic ability''s power into it and see if it would recover. After all, it was noted that as long as the hammer''s core is intact, it can be fixed using its affiliated magic. [ You have passed Test 3 with an A-grade result. As such, you will get an A-grade reward.] [You will be transported to the test zone for your reward bestowment in one minute.] [00:59] Aren heard the voice, but he focused on the hammer. As he infused his mutant-magic energy in the hammer from the Amber core of Eturnia, the hammer glowed and started to recover slowly. Seeing that, he sighed a relief, "Phew..." However, its recovery speed was painfully slow, so he decided to put the hammer in his inventory. One minute passed before he appeared in the dark ce called the Test zone by the voice. [The first reward is the standard reward that everyone gets after they pass their respective path''s tests: Soul Awakening.] Suddenly, Aren felt light-headed before feeling extremefort. He felt fresh and in high spirits like never before. [Soul Awakeningpleted.] [ +30 points to soul stat.] [Your soul is now awakened, so it will get robust with more points in Soul attribute, just like how your body health increases when you add stat points to Constitution stat.] [1 point of soul stat = +1 in soul health and +10 soul energy.] [You can now add one stat point to soul every time you level up.] Aren looked at his status and saw that his soul health and energy indeed increased ording to his current soul stat. Soul Health: [138/138] Soul energy: [480/480] [Your first test''s result was B-grade. As such, you will get one talent point of your path, two skills points, and 30,000 stored Exp.] [Your EXP will be stored from now on, and you can use it whenever you want. Leveling up will recover you to perfect conditions.] [Your second test''s reward is A-grade. Choose one out of the three rewards.] Athan saw three digitized frames again, but this time, they disyed interesting things. [Pyrit Kidneys]-Innate gear: easy to implement. -These kidneys regrly purify your blood. Your health recovery and injuries regeneration will increase, your sex drive will be more powerful, and your bones will gradually strengthen. [Lexus Spine]-Innate gear: easy to implement. -This spine is supremely flexible and will never be broken. It will also rebound the damage directed to your back, so you will not suffer any injuries to your back unless the attacker uses an attack that can bypass or break the Lexus Spine''s protective functions. [Armalist Box] -If you choose this reward, you will get a random thing rted to your path. Aren thought for a few moments and picked up the third reward because he was not interested in those two innate gears and hoped that he could get something good from the Armalist Box since it would give something rted to his path anyway. After he picked the third reward, a box appeared in front of him with entric light blue and silver patterns. Since the box didn''t open directly, Aren decided to put it away as he didn''t want to open it right now. [Your third test''s reward is A-grade: Soul enhancement and 50,000 stored EXP.] Aren felt high-spirited, fresh, and powerful for a few moments during the Soul enhancement process. [Soul Enhancementpleted: 10 points to soul stat.] -Name: Aren Azrael -Level: 13 [ 1160/16000 ] ( Stored Exp: 80,000). -Path: Emporio Armalist [ Level: 6 ] -Body Health: [ 2650/2650 ] -Soul Health: [ 148/148 ] -Life Stage: Mortal-2 -Spirit Energy Pool: [ 10200/10200 ] -Soul Energy: [ 580/580 ] -Mystic Field: 0/150 points -[Stats] Aren looked at the stored Exp and thought about adding one thousand to his Exp bar. -Level: 13 [ 2160/16000 ] ( Stored Exp: 79,000). "Oh, this is great. Since I still have to fight in the hidden dungeon, I can level when I am injured to recover my health fully," Aren nodded with satisfaction as he liked this function. [As you have finished your test, you will be transported to your location in Wild Expanse.] [3] [2] [1] ... Aren appeared in the hellscape, and right when he appeared, he saw a giant hellish minotaurs monster with ava-burning axe in its hand ten meters away from him. Aren stayed calm as he waved his hand in an arc motion as the chakrams appeared from his Inner space and zoomed towards the monster. He also jumped on his sword and flew up while looking around since he remembered the monsters in this challenge appeared out of nowhere to surprise attack him. Aren empowered the chakrams with and sliced the minotaur into pieces. [Hellish Minotaur killed, 1200 exp gained.] *Screeeeeee....* Aren''s eyes twitched as he dashed downward without turning back as a hellish bird and a fireball zoomed past him. "Let''s finish this challenge," Aren muttered as he looked at the countdown and felt that he could survive 4 min without suffering many injuries as long as he remained careful and cautious. ... While Aren was in a difficult challenge, his mother, Quinn, Luna, and Hem, were also enduring some hardships at the empress''s hands. Four of them were in a bizarre cave whose atmosphere would change every five minutes, and new monsters would spawn, which they had to kill. Empress was looking at them from a giant orb mirror and muttered, "I was not supposed to choose any people in this batch to train, but since you fournded on myp, then I might as well train you." Suddenly, her eyebrows raised as she waved her hand as verdant motes released from her hand and entered the globe before healing Quinn, who was always getting the most injured from the group due to her path, but she was also dealing most damage killing most monsters. "I can heal you after each round, so be careful not to die while fighting," The empress muttered as she continued to watch. Chapter 68 - The Mirage Of Yakum! [00:02] Aren floated on his sword while observing his surroundings. He had already killed many monsters in thest four minutes. At this time, when only two seconds were left, a giant sunflower conjured ten meters away from him. The flower looked dark yellow with hellish petals as they released beams towards Aren. Aren focused as he tried his best to dodge, but the beams were too fast, and the distance between him and the sunflower was just ten meters, so he was still injured as oneser hit him on his arm above the elbow part. "Arghhhhh...," A short scream left Aren''s mouth as intense burning pain assaulted him but he endured it. His arm was cut off from the part where theser hit him, but the blood didn''t gush out that much because theser beam''s attack was burning the wound. Aren had Aurora re activated already, so his body started to heal, and the pain also slowly subsided. [Challenge 3pleted.] [Enter into the misty gate to fight thest boss of this hidden dungeon, Mirage of Yakum.] [If you don''t enter in five minutes, you will be forcefully transported in the boss zone.] [04:59] [04:58] Seeing the countdown, Aren frowned, ''It looks like I won''t be able to use my hammer in the boss battle. However, My arm will be healed in three minutes, so that''s a relief.'' From how slowly that hammer recovered, Aren expected that it would take one whole day to repair it fully. After three minutes, his arm was recovered as he stretched and then started recovering his spirit energy from the spirit stone since he consumed a considerable amount in this challenge. The speed of recovering spirit energy was very fast, so he recovered four thousand spirit energy in just one minute, making his spirit energy pool fully filled. "One minute left...," Aren muttered as he hesitated on whether to open that Armalist box right now or not. However, after thinking for a few moments, he became determined and decided not to open it right now. He wanted to believe in himself that he could defeat the final boss. He will have to! ''I can...I must defeat thest boss,e out alive, and continue my journey to be stronger!'' Aren thought with resolve. Also, Aren didn''t want to open the box right away because he wanted to maximize the value of that box. He figured that there should be an ability, magic, skill, or something like that to increase luck. He wanted to find such a thing, increase his luck and then open the Armalist box to get the most out of it. Aren looked at the countdown as only five seconds were left and seeing that, he entered into the misty gate while changing his body buff to Nimbus Force and armament buff to Ivy Aura. On the other side of the misty gate, The ce was an endless sea of purple water with a shrine in the middle, and on top of that shrine was a vortex of dark orange and purple me. Aren frowned because there was no ce tond here, and if he didn''t have the flying ability, he wouldn''t have been able to fight here at all. *Gong...Gong...* A giant bell inside the shrine automatically started to ring before it released white energy towards the vortex of purple and dark orange mes on top of the shrine. Aren was in full focus mode, and his nerves stretched. He had decided to go all out in thisst battle. His eyes gleamed with faint blue luster as he observed every single detail in front of him through his Astral-X eyes and was ready with his chakrams flying around him. The vortex of mes slowly subsided as a five-meter tall humanoid entity started to manifest. The monster had two long curving horns, four hands, ten heads, and a pair of wings that burned with purple and dark orange mes. [Mirage of Yakum] -Rank: special-entity, mirage form. -Health: [30,000]x10. (Ten heads). -Attack: Physical [2500], Fire [5000] -Defense: Physical [1500], Soul [500], Energy [1800]. -Skills: ??? -Abilities: ??? Aren remained focused and decided to attack first, but before he could do that, he saw the mirage of Yakum speaking, "Hmm...So you are the challenger, human? Interesting." The mirage of Yakum formed a smile before he continued, "The scroll is destroyed, and this dungeon has been weakened ording to your level. No wonder my mirage''s power decreased drastically. However, you alone..." The mirage of Yakum shook his head in disappointment, "It''s a surprise that you managed to get this far alone, but you won''t be able to defeat my mirage alone. You need the support of at least two more people of the same level as you to defeat my mirage." "Why are you saying all of this?" Aren asked with a frown. The mirage of Yakun grinned as he showed burning teeth and said, "I am kind of impressed that you managed to get here alone, so I''ll give you two options: 1st, you can give up right now, and I will open an exit to this hidden dungeon. Naturally, you will not get any rewards except for EXP." Hearing that, Aren''s face turned deadpan, "So you are telling me that my previous efforts of clearing those challenges will be for naught? No thanks." "Hahaha, true. Well, then I assume you chose the second option," The mirage of Yakum said with a smile, "However, there is a 97% chance that you will die here if you fight my mirage and since you were supposed to enter this dungeon with your team but got this far alone, then if you manage to defeat me alone as well, you will get better rewards." Right after that, Aren heard some voices and saw notifications. [The rewards of the quest have been changed.] -->50,000 exp. -->Demon Yakum''s Spinergy Method (Complete). -->One SSS rank skill of Demon Yakum. -->One SSS rank ability of Demon Yakum. -->Three skill points. -->Mark of Yakum. Seeing the new rewards, Aren was not happy, but instead, his face turned grave because this means that what Yakum was saying was probably right. "Human, from what I can see, you are in your worst and best condition right now. The 3% chance of winning is only valid if you manage to show me your peak battle senses and ability," The mirage of Yakum said with a grin before heughed, "I will be leaving from this mirage and let it fight you. Good luck, human. Hahaha." ''97% chance of dying?'' Aren thought while gritting teeth,'' There is damn 3% chance to win, and I will fucking grasp it!'' *Shuaaaaaaaa....* The two chakrams zoomed towards the demonic entity that had ten heads and Aren also started flying as he activated his skills and started releasing from his sword while flying on it. On the other hand, the gleam in the eyes of the mirage of Yakum turned lifeless before the demonic entity waved his four hands towards Aren and released four fireballs, two dark orange and two purple. However, that was just the start! Chapter 69 - FUCK THIS SHIT! *Shuaaaaaa....* The two chakrams damaged the first head of the monster while Aren dodged the iing demonic fireballs and demonic whips. His concentration and focus were at their peak as his eyes captured everything. [-100 ] [Heal Reduction I] ''Here ites,'' Aren thought as invisible mes burned him after five seconds into the battle. [11,400/30,000] However, his chakrams were continuously dealing damage to the first head. He was not sparring spirit energy and constantly used from chakrams for more damage as well. [-2540] Oberon [-2370] Novas [-1140] Wind sh from Oberon [-990] Wind sh from Novas *Booom...* [4390/30,000] (First head) Aren attacked with veins popping up overhead due to intense focus and concentration on dodging the various fast attacks of the demon with four hands and ten heads in front of him. [-100 ] [Heal Reduction II] The invisible mes burned him every five seconds. Aren-Body Health-[2450/2650] He could prevent this damage by using Aegis Scales body buff, but he needed Nimbus Force buff to dodge the demon''s attacks. If he had teammates, they could support him and share the burden of attacks. However, since he is fighting alone, he has to fight in a way that can let him win alone. Aren destroyed the first head and was not moving to attack the second head. [Demonic Wisps] [Demonic Fireballs] [Demonic Whips] [Blood Burn shes] [Evil Eye] Among those attacks, [Evil eyes] was hardest to dodge since it releases a super fast dark brownser from one the head. Aren''s left leg was hit by first [Evil Eye], which caused it to get petrified. However, Aren had entered an entirely focused mode that he didn''t even know of. As he was observing all details, he saw one of the head''s eyes changing and immediately dodged the next [ Evil Eye] attack. Aren''s eyes were turning red, and his brain was in hyperdrive mode as he attacked with ultimate uracy and dodged attacks with utmost precision without wasting excess movements. Under tremendous pressure, he attained peak battle senses and used every bit of this thought power to attack. Each second, four would release, two from his hands and two from chakrams while the chakrams themselves attacked physically as well for more damage. Only one thing was running deep in Aren''s head, and that was to win this battle. Aren didn''t know that this intense fight was observed by a small hazy eye in the sky. ''Hahaha, great! Human, you are indeed worthy of receiving this Yakum''s legacy. However, you must survive and win before that. Let''s see if you can defeat my mirage first, or you die first.'' The battle was moving very quickly! Aren was destroying one head every ten seconds while dodging every skill released by the mirage of Yakum. However, the trouble increased after Aren destroyed its 7th head. Currently, Aren''s health was [1250/2650], and he hadn''t drunk any health potions since only three heads were left, and at most, he would suffer 600 more damage. The only good thing about this invisible me damage was that he only felt burnt and didn''t receive actual physical disabilities that hindered his fight. He could also endure this level of burning pain after going through even higher hellish pain of his eyes and directly to his soul four times in total. He had also felt this burning pain in previous challenges, which made him more adept at enduring it. However, after he destroyed the 7th head, the Mirage of Yakum, which only had three heads left, was enveloped in a purple and dark orange me vortex. Aren attacked, but the vortex deflected his chakrams. Seeing that, he didn''t hesitate and changed to his Aurora re buff and took out a bunch of health potions and opened them together before emptying them on his body. He also drank some. While doing all that, his bloodshot eyes were still focusing on the vortex to observe every minute detail. He didn''t know how many potions he used, but his health was recovered to full after three seconds. Due to Heal Reduction, his healing from potions was small, but the Aurora re buff ignored the heal reduction and healed him, so most healing came from it. The petrified left leg was half cured in three seconds, so Aren continued to use Aurora re buff while observing the vortex. However, after two seconds, He saw the vortex expanding before it...exploded. He hurriedly changed his body buff to Aegis Scales since there was no way to dodge this area attack. [-560] His body felt intense burning, but Aegis scales buff minimized the iing damage. ''Change!'' After suffering that attack, Aren instantly changed the body buff to Nimbus Force since he knew that the intense battle would resume...with more intensity. The mirage of Yakum appeared different after that vortex enveloped him. He now had three heads in total and in the middle. His hands had changed into deadly burning ws, and his wings were also pulsing with power more than before. The mirage of Yakum roared as he waved his four hands simultaneously in wing motions. [Demonic Fest ws] Aren''s blue mystic eyes, which were still bloodshot, were in full focus as he dodged iing w projection attacks while his chakrams in Vibrant echo buff went towards the head and started attacking. It was good that with his Armalist Cloak, the maniption speed of his Armalist gear increased, which allowed him to attack the mirage of Yakum constantly. As Aren dodged the ws and other attacks, the burning wings of the mirage of Yakum suddenly pped as it created arge me vortex that shot towards Aren. However, along with that vortex, the mirage of Yakum also released [Demonic Fest ws]. In the first ce, there is no way to dodge this iing vortex that Aren was highly sure would explode before it reached him and released an area attack without a gap to dodge. On top of that, those Demonic Fest ws were alsoing for him. However, his eyes turned desperate with a hint of despair when he saw the mirage of Yakum pping his wings one more time and releasing another vortex. However, giving up was not an option like in video games. He changed his buff to Aegis Scales, which decreased his senses, so he was sure to get hit by a w or two. But he had no choice. With still in full focus and concentration, he prepared for the explosion and dodging of the ws. *BOOOOOOOOOOM...* The vortex indeed exploded before it released a wide wave of purple and dark orange mes towards Aren with no hope of dodging it as it arrived at breakneck speed like a tsunami with high and wide waves. The ws were fast at first, but the waves overtook the ws and hit Aren first. [-680] "Urghhh...," Aren grunted, but he still remained in focus to dodge iing ws. *Shuaaa...shuaaa...shuaaaaa...* "Siiiii...Arghhhhhh..." [-310] [-350] Even though he tried his best, two ws still hit him. One directly created a sh in his stomach as his guts spilled out, and another took his left leg away, whose foot was still petrified. [750/2650] If he didn''t use Aegis Scales buff, the damage from the vortex st would injure him more, even if he managed to dodge the w attacks. Aren had no time to care for pain as he saw another vortexing. However, despite the iing attacks, he didn''t stop his chakrams from attacking the demon''s head and destroyed one of three heads. ''Amber core of Eturnia.'' He poured 100 soul energy into the Amber core of Eturnia as his body released intense heat as bright orange, red and such patterns appeared. ''I have no choice...,'' Aren thought as his eyes burned with determination and he used his...ability along with on both of his chakrams. -Rank: Special, Cursed Ability. -Cost: 10% HP and 2% HP per second to maintain the state of this ability. -Effect: all your attacks deal 30% more damage & 10% life steal. -Cursed trait: When attacking enemies using , The pain felt by your opponent will also be felt by you, but in your case, the pain will magnify by ten times. was a skill that increased the effect of attuned nature in his gears. This also means that the vibrant echo buff and the traits of chakrams would also increase their effectiveness. Before the vortex could explode and the next batch of Demonic Fest ws that the mirage of Yakum just released arrived near him, his chakrams ruthlessly attacked the 2nd head of the mirage Yakum. [-7120] [-6980] [-1610] Wind sh from Oberon. [-1384] Wind sh from Novas. Those high damages were due to , and on top of that, the ability''s effect of 30% increased damage. Aren''s body instantly healed to full health. His cut of leg instantly materialized and recovered, and all wounds on his body were gone. However, intense beads of sweat were releasing from his body as he waited for the ten times pain rebound from his ability. The vortex also sted at this time, and the ws wereing to, so he focused on the iing attacks with Aegis scales buff on and dodging the ws. After getting burnt from the st of the vortex, Aren stunningly managed to dodge most of the attacks of the ws as only one w hit him, and that too on his shoulder. ''Why isn''t the paining?'' Aren thought with doubt, but he didn''t stop attacking. His ability was still on, and his chakrams were still attacking the mirage of Yakum, so he healed himself once again. He destroyed the 2nd head and moved to thest head of the mirage of Yakum as another vortex and more demonic ws arrived. Aren didn''t waste his brainpower thinking of why he didn''t suffer from the intense pain while using and focused on attacking thest head. Although he had already somewhat guessed the reason for not feeling any pain rebound from ability. After 5 seconds, he destroyed thest head as well with a somewhat crude attack using the magic energy of Amber core of Eturnia. [Mirage of Yakum destroyed. 20,000 exp gained.] [Quest: Demon Temple,pleted.] After that, he got notification of getting the various rewards, but Aren''s eyes looked at the hazy image of a handsome man with demonic horns and purple and orange hair. He also had bat-like wings of the same color behind his back. "Hahaha. Congrats, human. It seems that you used some kind of ability at the end. But why didn''t you use it from the start? Even though it was consuming your health, you were recovering it constantly as you continuously attacked the mirage." Aren had a speechless expression, and he took a sigh before asking, "By any chance, that mirage or whatever it was, does it feel any pain?" The handsome demonic man was taken aback for a moment before answering, "Of course, it doesn''t. It''s a lifeless mirage created by an object, and it has no emotions, no feelings, no pain." "No wonder...," Aren muttered as he shook his head, "Sigh...can I say something?" "Sure." "FUCK THIS SHIT!" Chapter 70 - Exhaustion Hearing Aren''s outburst, the handsome manughed loudly and said, "Anyway, I see some potential in you, so good luck in fighting against that despair that wille to your world. Ahh, yes. you have to stay alive before fighting that despair, so...hahaha, try your best to survive and get stronger in Wild Expanse." After saying that, the hazy image of that handsome man disappeared. [As you havepleted the quest, your buffs will be removed, and you will be transported outside in five seconds.] [5] [4] [3] [2] [1] ... Aren felt dizzy as the scenery changed in front of him, and he arrived right outside of the cave where they met Reto and his twopanions. However, Aren suddenly felt intense fatigue and heaviness and fell to the ground. He could barely keep his eye open and was having intense headaches and exhaustion. ''T-this...,'' Aren was confused for a moment before he realized his situation. All of those nerve-wracking battles where he remained fully focused and concentrated had umted fatigue. When the buffs from the dungeons were gone, he experienced all of them, resulting in his current situation. He urgently needed a good and deep sleep, but he couldn''t afford to sleep here, so he hurridly thought of leaving the Wild Expanse. But he remembered that he still had a quest about finding the two sons of that old man, which would not allow him to go outside. [Do you want to go outside? As you havepleted the hidden dungeon alone, you will be allowed to go outside one time while still having your quest.] Seeing this, Aren was surprised, and hurridly responded with his thoughts that he wanted to go outside. Thest time Aren went out with Luna to meet up with his mother, Quinn, and Quinn''s mother. They met up at the hotel beside the highway near the slum area, so Aren appeared outside the hotel at this time. His condition was bad, and he failed to stand up and even go inside the hotel as his eyes just closed and he lost his consciousness outside the hotel, on the ground. Other cities and the part of the highway was still bloody because It''s only been barely a day since the attacks of those giants. After the giants'' attack, Aren and Luna returned to Wild Expanse and spent two hours traveling and fighting some beasts before finally finding the duchy and spending three hours there. Afterward, both of them went outside as they got Lorain''s call that they formed their spirit core and were ready to get together. So Aren and Luna met up with Lorain, Quinn, and Hem before they entered the duchy together and spent another two hours there and also epted the suspicious quest from that old man. Another hour passed as they bought some things and exchanged their red berries with health potions. Afterward, they went out and spent two hours roaming and killing some monsters on the way before they arrived at the location of Demon Ant''s dungeon but met Reto and hispanion. They then spent six hours inside the hidden dungeon before the intense fight between Reto''s and Aren''s groups started. After that incident, Aren spent another hour in the first two challenges before being transported to the dark Test zone since hepleted five levels of his path and reached level 6. The time apparently stops while inside that test, so they don''t count even though he spent many hours in that ce. He then re-appeared in the dungeon and resumed his 3rd challenge,pleting it in a four-minute time limit before finally arriving at the final boss fight. Before the fight, Aren talked with Yakum for a few minutes. After that, the fight started, which barelysted for a minute and some seconds since it was a high-speed battle where Aren had to defeat the mirage of Yakum as soon as possible. Aren disyed his talent twice in this hidden dungeon, as his battle senses peaked and he fought skillfully. First time when he almost killed Reto and the second time in thest boss fight. Naturally, his eyes helped him realize his natural talent, but to process many thoughts and multi-task at that level was not something anyone could do. All in all, so many drastic things happened in thest twenty-four hours, and here was Aren, lying on the dusty ground outside the hotel. .... There was a glorious throne in a mysterious ce filled with starry sparkles all around in the dark atmosphere. All those sparkles disyed a moving scenery focusing on a person or multiple people, and there were countless of those sparkles here. There was a giant round entity with countless mini eyes on it that was hovering in this space as it looked creepy and mysterious at the same time. Suddenly, a woman with otherworldly beauty appeared and sat down on the throne. She had long mysterious violet hair, a cleavage that could make any stick hard as the red dress she wore looked short and long-sleeved but extremely gorgeous, and her dreamy eyes where one would get sucked into just by looking at her. "Hahaha, this batch indeed has some promising people," the woman muttered with a smile as she watched Aren''s all performances, even in the tests of the path. "He is the fourth one who showed the potential to change the tides and save his world against the despair after three years as long as he continues to survive and get stronger." The woman then waved her hand as sparkles bubble with Tarrox in it appeared and muttered, "However, I have to warn this little red dragon not to interfere too much." After muttering that, she disappeared... ... Tarrox was at his territory and was sitting in meditation amidst the terrifying lightning zone. The mysterious beautiful woman appeared here with her throne as she leaned on it and snapped her finger. With that snap, time literally stopped as the lightning zone stilled. However, Tarrox opened his eyes as his body trembled a bit seeing the person in front of him. He hurriedly bowed and spoke, "Lord...." Chapter 71 - Spinergy Method When Aren opened his eyes, he saw an unfamiliar ceiling and found himself on a bed. He stood up feeling refreshed and in great shape like never before, but the incident regarding his mother, Quinn, Luna, and Hem caused him some depression. However, he also believes that he can revive them if he works hard and gets stronger in the wild expanse before defeating the so-called despair. He then got off the bed and noticed that his tattered leather armor was on the floor. "Oh, you woke up, young man? hahaha, you sure slept for a long time." Suddenly an elder appeared out of nowhere, it seems that he left the wild expanse and arrived in this room since he must have entered there from this room. Aren instantly recognized the old man since he was the hotel owner, and he talked to him a few days ago. "I saw you wereying outside, so I brought you inside. It seems that you worked a bit too hard inside," The old man said with a smile. "Thank you for help." Aren nodded and thanked the old man. The old manughed out loud with energy and said, "Well, thanks to you, I''ve be quite stronger and energetic. Even more than my prime days." A small smile appeared on Aren''s face hearing that, "That''s good. So how long have I been sleeping?" "Hmmm, I picked you up twenty-two hours, so you''ve slept for at least twenty-two hours. Anyway, why don''t you get a shower and change your clothes? After that, you can return to Wild Expanse." Aren looked through the window and saw that it was evening, ''I guess I slept for one day since when I returned, it was also evening.'' ... Aren then took up the offer to use the hotel''s bathroom as he took a good shower. The old man gave his son''s clothes to Aren, and although they were a bit bigger, he wore them for now. Afterward, the old man even cooked dinner for him as both of them ate. The old man talked about his adventure in Wild Expanse and It seems that he made groups with some people and was doing small tasks in the vige''s surroundings and gaining exp. The old man had noticed that Aren was missing his earlier spirit and seemed to be different than before. He guessed that Aren must have experienced something drastic. After eating, Aren decided to leave as he bid farewell to the old man. In response, the old man said with a kind smile, "Young man, I don''t know what you experienced, but I sure hope and wish that you get sess in whatever you do from now on." Hearing that, Aren nodded with a small smile and thanked the elder before he told the old man to be careful inside the wild expanse and disappeared as he went inside the wild expanse. ... Aren entered inside as he appeared outside of the cave at the same spot. The first thing he did was to check the rewards he got. He took out a scroll which seemed to be the Demon Yakum''s spinergy method, and as soon as he opened it, the scroll shined and disappeared before a flood of memories entered inside him on how to train in the spinergy method and its details as well. Spinergy Method seems to be a form of training where one would use their spirit energy and circte it inside their body in some kind of pattern through all of their meridians. The pattern seems to be the key as it is some sort of mystical power. Once one finishes one cirction of that pattern in their meridians, a symbol is supposed to form in their spirit core. The symbol has some special effects as it gives extraordinary powers to his spirit energy, and thus, his spirit energy-based skills also have additional effects. The strength of that symbol increases with each cirction of pattern, and doing this also refines their spirit core and increases their spirit core''s rating, which is one of the conditions to advance their lifeform stage. [Demon Yakum''s Spinergy Method(Complete)] -Rank: unspecified. (Depends on the user on how much he can bring out the potential of this method.) -Limit: Mythical Lifeform stage. -Effect 1: While training in this Spinergy Method, one can unlock all meridians and also nine hidden meridians. -Effect 2: Adds additional powers to their spirit energy. (Purple Spectrum, ck Haze, and Hell ze). Aren also got the information regarding these three types of energies and also got a new window for Spinergy Method. [Spinergy Method: Demon Yakum''s Spinergy Method] -Current stage: 1 (Progress: 0%) -Purple Spectrum: stage 1 (0%) -ck Haze: stage 1 (0%) -Hell ze: stage 1 (0%) Aren tried to do one cirction real quick since he had already unlocked all of his meridians except for the so-called hidden meridians. He took two hundred spirit energy first and started doing one cirction with it. One can use however much spirit energy they want in one cirction of the pattern, and if they use more spirit energy, then their progress will also be huge in one cirction of the pattern. However, with more spirit energy, they also need better control. If they mess up while circting that huge amount of spirit energy in their meridians, they will be severely injured or even die. It took Athan one hour to circte 200 spirit energy in all of his meridians by following the certain pattern of this spinergy method. After he was done, He indeed felt a mysterious power inside him. Since he could see his inner-space by focusing, he saw a round symbol with entric ck, purple, and dark orange patterns in his spirit core. The status in the spinergy method window also changed. [Spinergy Method: Demon Yakum''s Spinergy Method] -Current stage: 1 (Progress: 0.1%) -Purple Spectrum: stage 1 (0.1%) -ck Haze: stage 1 (0.1%) -Hell ze: stage 1 (0.1%) Level 1 Purple Spectrum (0.01%): Level 1 Purple Spectrum: Increase heaviness or lightness of user''s spirit energy applications on anything like on oneself, on skills, ability, etc by 10% (ording to user''s will.) Level 1 ck haze (0.01%): Decrease all types of defense of enemies by 10%. Level 1 Hell ze (0.01%): Inflict injuries with 10% heal reduction debuff. Looking at the additional information, Aren was surprised and thought, ''So basically, All of my skills will have these additional effects on them as long as I use spirit energy to execute those skills.'' Afterward, Aren checked his other rewards. One scroll of SSS rank skill, one scroll of SSS rank ability. And there was also Mark of Yakum. "Let''s see....," Aren muttered as he first opened the scroll of SSS rank skill. Chapter 72 - New Skill And Ability. Mark Of Yakum. Aren opened the scroll, and right after opening it, the scrolls shined and disappeared before he received a flood of memories in his brain on how to use it and information about the skill along with headache and pain. -Skill level: 1 (Max: 5) -Skill rank: SSS -Cost: 95 spirit energy per seed. -Effect: Using this skill, you can create a seed that you can control. Once it hits an enemy, it will explode to deal damage and release two demonic vines to impair the enemy. Impaired enemies will have difficulty controlling their spirit energy. -Note: You can use multiple seeds for more damage and better impairment. You can either form vines around the target or connect the vines to the ground to make the enemy trapped in one spot. -As the vines are of the demonic element, their attack power will increase if the user has the demonic affinity. Aren looked at the skill information and felt that this skill would enhance hisbat power by not small but arge margin considering his battle style. "That 95 spirit energy cost...It should be 190 spirit energy cost. However, due to Armalist Force Enhancement on my spirit core, all skill''s costs are halved," Aren muttered before he remembered that his control of spirit energy is also level 2 due to that, and that might help him do more cirction of pattern in all his meridians so that he can progress faster in Demon Yakum''s spinergy method. Afterward, Athan took out another scroll and opened it. The same thing happened as the scroll shined and disappeared before Athan received an ability that he could use by consuming spirit energy and also an intense headache. Skills require maniption of spirit energy through their meridians to release them. However, abilities are like their body parts. Like how Athan can move his hands, walk, etc. He can use abilities that easily as well. The application of this ability seems to be infused in his brain, so he just needs to think about it to use it by consuming spirit energy. -Demonic me, Zarkhel: A dark blue me that can cause freeze externally but causes burns after freezing to inflict damage. Lowers physical and energy defense by a certain margin. Weak against Angelic energy. -Rank: SSS -Cost: 10 spirit energy per second. -Effect: Once activated, all of your attacks will beced with Demonic me: Zarkhel. -Current level: 1 ( lowers physical and energy defense by 360.) -Note: To increase the level of this ability, the user needs to have Demonic Affinity. -Note 2: You can increase spirit energy consumption per second to inflict more burning damage. However, that will not increase the effect of freezing and lowering the enemy''s physical and energy defense. "Hmmm... I can use both skills to full potential only if I have the so-called demonic affinity, which I don''t have," Aren muttered before he looked around and walked towards a boulder. After arriving in front of the boulder, he activated and touched the boulder. Right as he touched the boulder, a dark blue me materialized from his hand as well and attacked the boulder before freezing it. Aren could see blue my sparks inside the frozen surface of the boulder as they burned the boulder before melting and destroying it in two seconds. "Not bad...," Aren nodded before he took out thest reward. Mark of Yakum. This item looked baffling because it was a ck card with "Yakum" written on it in golden fonts. [Mark of Yakum] -Showing this card to any active demonic post or any demonic temple will allow you to go through a demonic trial from which you can acquire Demonic affinity and other rewards upon passing the trial. -You will get a discount of 20% on all items you buy from any stores of demon factions. "So I have a chance to get Demonic Affinity. Hmmm...it looks like my next destination afterpleting that fraud quest is to find a demonic post or a demonic temple," Aren thought with narrowed eyes. To be stronger, he will do anything as long as his conscience allows it. He then took out the map before hopping on his sword and started flying towards the Blood-spring valley. Quest, Find the lost sons has been epted.] -->Fine the elder''s two sons who didn''t return home after going to Blood-Spring valley. -->5000 exp. -->10,000 gold. -->Family heirloom of Fs family. The old man who gave this quest said that he would post this updated quest if he didn''t get any news from Aren after three days, and Aren still had one and a half-day before that deadline. Aren knows that the quest is suspicious, and that''s why he is nning just sneakily to check out the Blood-spring valley. While flying, he took out the broken hammer and started repairing it as well. Chapter 73 - Blood Spring Valleys Abnormality. Aren was flying high in the sky to get a better view of everything around him. He also didn''t bother with ground beasts and continued flying straight towards the blood-springs valley. He didn''t fly at his full speed, so it took him one hour to reach the blood-spiring valley. The valley was quite big and broad between two mountain ranges with a thick jungle. It is called blood spring valley because in the center area of this broad valley is a mystical blood water spring. Because of this blood water spring, beasts have randomly spawned in this whole valley with simr types of power that are mostly rted to blood and corrosive attributes. In the town, Aren had asked about the blood spring valley in the Alchemy area and knew that there was once a rumor that deep inside the blood water spring was a mystical treasure, and because of that rumor, many people went inside the spring, but none came back. So people stopped going there for a while, butter it was discovered that the danger is only to those that dive into the spring, and nothing happens to those who stay outside except for getting attacked by beasts. However, after that discovery, this area became a hotspot to kill beasts and find unique nts and flowers that grow near the blood water spring. The closer one is to the spring, the more powerful beast they encounter, and the highest recorded beast is the supreme-1 lifeform stage beasts that stay around the spring. *Screeeeeeeee....* Aren could see red-feathered vultures flying and flew down to hide from their sight since he didn''t want to make a scene here. [Scarlet Blood Vulture] -Level: 24 -Grade: Umon -Lifeform stage: Mortal-3 -Health: [3120/3120] -Defense: Physical [420], Energy [195] -Attack: Physical [1200] -Speed: 20 meters per second top speed. -Skills: , . -Ability: ''It works...,'' Aren thought as he looked at the vulture''s information. When he thought about seeing its level and lifeform stage, they also appeared. ''Oh yeah, how about its bloodline?'' Aren thought, and indeed, an additional tab appeared in the information in his mind. -Bloodline: Scarlet Blood Altar. ''Scarlet Blood Altar? Hmmm...interesting,'' Aren thought as he guessed a reason behind the mystical spawning of beasts here. He then put his hammer into the inventory and slowly moved deeper into the valley towards the blood spring while being careful of his surroundings. He was not afraid because, with the Armalist cloak, the flying speed of his armalist gears has increased a lot, and he could escape if he wanted to. He felt that his top speed rivals that of supreme-5 beasts based on his fighting experience in the hidden dungeon of the Demon Yakum''s underground temple. So running away from supreme-1 beasts ought to be easy for him. At first, He, his mother, Quinn, Luna, and auntie Hem were going to clear Demon Ant''s dungeon and then make rapid progress by gaining experience while moving towards this valley, but Reto destroyed that n. *Roar....* Aren stopped and floated in one ce as he saw a Crimson Mane Lion. [Crimson Mane Lion] -Umon -Level: 31 -Lifeform stage: Mortal-5 -Health: [5220/5220] -Defense: Physical [620], Energy [360] -Attack: Physical [2410] -Speed: 3 meters per second top speed. -Skills: , , . -Ability: , . Aren waved his hands as two chakrams flew forward and attacked once before the lion dropped dead as it turned into red sparks and disappeared. [A Crimson Mane Lion killed, 520 exp gained.] Aren looked at his stored experience and was kind of speechless. This was also his valuable saving which can he expend to recoverpletely. Level: 13 [ 2160/16000 ] ( Stored Exp: 150,720) All exp now always gets stored, and it''s up to him on when to use it and level up. [ Path- Emporio Armalist ] -Level: 6 [ 21,110/32,000 Exp ] He got 20,000 exp by killing that mirage of Yakun helped him progress quite a lot in his Path. Unfortunately, the quest rewards exp don''t go to the Path. He then continued moving slowly for ten minutes before encountering two nt-based beasts that couldn''t move from their spot. They looked like an oval dark yellow organic pipe with bloody teeth in them and two vines connected to its two sides that were quite long. Their lifeform stage was Mortal-7. Aren didn''t waste time and easily killed them with his chakrams with a few attacks. Their vines attacked him, but he easily dodged them while floating on his sword. [ A Blood Humong killed, 670 exp gained.] [ A Blood Humong killed, 670 exp gained.] He then continued moving for ten more but didn''t encounter any beasts, ''Strange...This area should have of those types of beasts.'' After slowly moving for five more minutes, he knew that he was nearing the blood spring, and he didn''t encounter any beasts at all. Suddenly, he smelled a strong odor of blood and frowned. ''Am I close to blood spring now?'' Aren wondered because he couldn''t see clearly in this thick jungle. However, since he found an absence of beasts, he flew up and found the tallest tree before hiding in it and tried to observe the rumored blood water spring with his Astral-X eyes. He focused as his eyesight zoomed deeper, and he finally saw the rumored blood water spring. However, what he saw shocked him. ''This...doesn''t look same as what I heard in the town,'' Aren thought with a frown because at the location of blood spring was a two-meter tall altar with mystical blood threads circting around it. ''Whose skull is that?'' Aren thought as he looked at the fifty-meter wide and tall skull in the middle of that altar''s stand. The skull had a humanoid shape with two pointy horns on it. Suddenly, Aren saw a face appearing in his eyesight and was shocked even more, ''That looks like one of the two sons of that old man.'' ''He is alive and well, but there is a significant absence of beasts here. Most importantly, there is an altar here that nobody in the Alchemy area did mention when I asked about the blood-spring valley''s information. ''On top of that, the old man who gave me this quest will post it in the Guild tomorrow with an enticing reward of 10,000 gold and a valuable family heirloom that is not of his family,'' Aren thought with narrowed eyes. His blue eyes gleamed a bit as he muttered, "I smell a grand schemeid with a bloody trap." Chapter 74 - Wait. After seeing that something was way wrong than his initial expectation, Aren just sat down on the branch of the tree and took out his hammer as he started repairing it while checking out his other things like normal status and path status. He would wait until that old man posted the quest in the Guild hall and more people flocked here after a day. Suddenly, Aren heard a voice inside his head and saw the notification. [As five billion people have officially entered the wild expanse, the World Leaderboard has been unlocked.] Hearing that, Aren raised his brows, ''Five billion? The recent data indicated that the total poption is six billion if I remember correctly. Hmmm...So only toddlers didn''t enter yet, I guess.'' He then thought about World Leaderboard, and it appeared along with another notification. [ Do you want to enter the Leaderboard with your real name or nickname?] Aren thought for a moment and said, "Nickname, Ruine." [World Leaderboard] -DarkOne: level 20, Path level 7. -Dragon God: level 20, Path level 7. -AshEater: level 20, Path level 7. -Kou King: level 20, Path level 7. ... The list went on to 100, and all hundred people had reached level 20. There were only a few people who had used their real name, while others used fancy nicknames. "Are they stuck at level 20 because of some condition? Hmm, that must be the case," Aren guessed as he looked at the leaderboard. He didn''t feel any sense of hurry or such thing because he had made his ns on how to move. He would waste one more day while sitting here, but he felt that it would be worth it. While repairing the hammer, Aren looked at his status to check some things. -Name: Aren Azrael -Level: 13 [ 2160/16000 ] ( Stored Exp: 152,060). -Path: Emporio Armalist [ Level: 6 ] -Spinergy Method: Demon Yakum''s Spinergy Method. -Body Health: [ 2900/2900 ] -Soul Health: [ 148/148 ] -Life Stage: Mortal-2 -Spirit Energy Pool: [ 10200/10200 ] -Soul Energy: [ 580/580 ] -Mystic Field: 0/150 points -[Stats] -Stat points: 0 -Skill points: 3 -Abilities: , , . -Skills: , , , -Inventory: Cursed Shofar, Deep Blue Gemstone, Spirit Water Barrel [1], Spirit stone [2], Health potion [360], Bloodline Orb, Armalist Box. "Bloodline Orb...," Aren muttered looking at it, but then he shook his head as he didn''t want to use it. He knows that it can make him powerful and give him other advantages, but he just doesn''t feel like using it because of his suspicion of Rosflin''s father. The scale he gave didn''t activate its effect, and he didn''t even save Aren''s mother and others in time even though Aren was sure that Rosflin''s father could do it considering his strength and how he appeared to save him at the end. Aren felt expectations from Rosflin''s father, and he also knew that he didn''t have bad intentions, but Aren couldn''t bring himself to use the Bloodline Orb. Another reason was that he felt that the Bloodline Orb would somehow change his race...well, obviously, it would, since it was a bloodline orb. But Aren didn''t want to rush in those types of things. He then looked at his path status. . <-Aren-> [ Path- Emporio Armalist ] -Level: 6 [ 22,450/32,000 Exp ] -Armalist Force: [ 400/400 ] -Talent points: 2 -Skills: , , . -Articule Gears: [ Ikaros ], [Oberon], [Novas], [Destructo]--Slots: 5 ( 1 left ). -Innate Gears: [ Astral-X Eyes ]. < Talents > --> Armalist Drive+2: ( core of the path, merged with the soul. ) --> Armalist Cloak. "Oh yeah, I got additional talent points from the test, and I still haven''t used one I got after I leveled up the path to 6," Aren muttered before he looked at the grey bubbles. One of them was Armalist Drive +3, and another was Emporio Zone. [Armalist Drive +3]:- Upgrade your Armalist Drive: Increase your Articule gear slots to 7, Increase your Armalist Force capacity to 600, A new skill of Emporio Armalist unlocked: . Aren first put one talent point on Armalist Drive +3, and right after that, he saw a notification, heard a voice, and felt stronger. [Since your soul has awakened, you will get five points added to your soul stat every time you upgrade your Armalist Drive.] "Ohh...," Aren was kind of happy because that means that he can finally unlock his Emporio Zone talent. [Emporio Zone]: A Crafting Zone for Emporio Armalist. At first, he couldn''t unlock this talent because it required fifty points in soul stat, but with the upgrade of Armalist Drive just now, He got five soul stat points, bringing his soul stat to 53. "Let''s see what this Emporio Zone is...," Aren muttered with high hopes as he used his remaining talent point to unlock Emporio Zone. ----- [A/N: I have a request to all my dear readers. I hope and wish that youment in chapters you read from now on and more importantly, give me your power stones. If you do that, I will publish more chapters :). However, I will still start publishing two chaps a day for one week starting tomorrow so I just hope and wish that you also ept my request.. Have a good day and stay safe.] Chapter 75 - Emporio Zone Aren unlocked the Emporio Zone talent, and right after he did that, an intense headache greeted me before he felt dizzy. A dreamy white-blue aura started to release from his body and enveloped him. After five minutes of feeling dizzy, the blue aura started moving and gathered on his forehead before bing a solid crystal. [Congrattions on unlocking one of the core talents of your path, Emporio Zone. As a starter gift, you will be given a Blueprint box that contains a random blueprint from which you can craft a gear.] [However, to learn the crafting process, you will have to gain its knowledge which you can gain after entering inside the Emporio Zone and reading the books on the shelf.] The crystal hadpis blue color with light blue sparks in it and looked mystical. Aren felt dizziness going away and felt something on his forehead. He first read the notification in mind before putting put his hand over his forehead ''what the...am I an alien now?'' He could feel that there was a nail-sized crystal on the center of his forehead. However, he could feel a mysterious connection with crystal, and he used that connection to activate whatever it entailed. *shuaa....* Aren disappeared along with the sword he was sitting on while hiding amidst the branches of the tree. But in his position, a head-sized dreamy blue orb appeared. After disappearing, Aren found himself in a strange ce. He was in a football-sized ground with grass on it and nothing else except for a round blue orb from which he was seeing 360-degree view of outside from where he was previously hiding in the tree. [If someone attacks the Blue orb outside, you will be immediately transported out to your previous position and will take damage to your soul.] "I see...," Aren didn''t see any blue orb outside, but he guessed that there must be a simr blue orb outside in ce of his position, which allowed him to get the view of the outside. He could also feel that he could go outside with just thought to his previous position, so he should be safe as long as he kept on the lookout for any attacks. However, this ce is supposed to be for crafting, so he won''t be able to pay attention to the blue orb all time, which means that he will have to find a safe y before entering this Emporio zone. ''But it''s fine for now since I''m just looking around, and the blue orb outside is even more hidden inside the tree since it''s smaller than me,'' Aren thought with a nod as he looked around and saw that aside from this football-field-sized grassynd and a red-wood bookshelf on the field, everything else was darkness. He went to the border of the field and stretched his hand towards darkness only to feel an invisible barrier. Afterward, Aren walked in front of the bookshelf that only had five books on the entire two meters tall and three-meter-wide bookshelf. He stretched his hand towards one of the books, but right at the moment he touched the book, it disappeared, and a ton of information flooded in his mind, causing him a headache. After a minute, the headache subsided as Aren sighed, "Although a bit painful but I like this fast method of injecting knowledge directly into the brain instead of having to read it for hours of time which I don''t want to waste." He then touched the other four books as well and gained the knowledge. [Congratualtions on gaining the basic knowledge know how to craft gears. From now on, you will have to improve yourself.] [Blueprint designing/creation device unlocked.] [Gear design device unlocked.] [Gear Printing device unlocked.] Aren saw three thumb-sized silver-blue cubes floating in front of him and grabbed the first one before he infused Armalist force in it and threw it five meters away from him. Right as that cube touched the ground, it shined and expanded before bing a three-meter tall,plicated metal device with a digital screen, a table with various types of pointed tools looking simr to brushes and pens on it, and another table with a mystical blue te as its entire surface board. It was Blueprint designing/creating device. Aren did the same with the other two cubes as they expanded after they touched the ground. The gear design device looked even bigger, and it had a simr digital screen, threeplicated metal tables with each of them having a square hole in the bottom, which Aren knew were for adding materials inside and shape them their design on the table''s unique blue surface with the gloves hanging on the hook of the small shelf beside the threeplicated metal tables. Lastly, the gear printing device. It looked simple with arge rectangle box with silver-blue metal and blue vein-like patterns. Its top was open and had some space with a dreamy blue sparky aura while its side facing Aren had some buttons and the other side an oven-like thing as if you are supposed to put something in it. Aren knew how these devices worked since he got the knowledge of it, but he wascking core things to craft his gears, and that was...materials. Without materials like various kinds of ore, metal, and such things, he can''t start designing gears in the Gear design device even if he created a blueprint. Aren wanted to try it out and also wanted to open the blueprint box, but he held himself back and focused on the current task at hand, which was about the strange situation at this Blood spring valley. ''My first priority right now is to repair the Destructo hammer with my mutant magic, Amber core of Eturnia,'' Aren took out the hammer and started repairing it while looking at the orb to see the situation outside. He could manipte this blue orb, like rotating it or moving it with his thought, so this gives him a better view of the outside while staying here. Since he was using the Amber core of Eturnia to repair the hammer by infusing the magic energy into it, he decided to do some practice and learn more about that mutant magic with his soul sense while keeping the lookout of outside with his eyes. Chapter 76 - Bad Vibes. Aren spent an entire day repairing his hammer and learning more about the Amber core of Eturnia. During this time, he actually managed to find another way to use this mutant magic. He actually managed to use this magic energy in his skills! "Mutant magic....is that why it''s called mutant magic ability?" Aren muttered as he waved his hand and released , but this wind sh looked unique! This wind sh had amber sparks in it, and it actually increased the damage of skill and it also got an additional powerful effect! Aren could use the Amber Core of Eturnia crudely like once he uses its power, his body bes more powerful and releases heat and the amber sparks of different shades of orange and red. He had tried to gather that energy and attacked a boulder with it as well in the test world. So in thest twenty-four hours of continuously using the amber of eturnia to repair his hammer, he did some experiments and found great use of this power. As his body can handle that power, which means that his body can basically house that mutant magic''s energy, he tried to infuse that magic energy while executing his skills and seeded after some tries. Spirit energy and the magic energy of Amber core of eturnia didn''t sh butbined! Now his became more powerful, and additionally, once it hits someone or something, it will explode due to the effect of magic energy of Amber core of Eturnia! Not just but he can infuse that mutant magic''s power in all of his skills. Because of this achievement, he heard a voice and got a notification that he had taken a correct step towards learning this mutant magic ability, and more info was unlocked about it in the tab. [Mutant-magic ability]: Amber core of Eturnia. -Grade: S -Mutant Magic level: 1 (11% mastery). -Magic energy: [210/1,000] (18/per min). -Primary trait: As a mutant magic ability: It canbine and adapt with anything as long as the user can handle the power and has sufficient control. -Effect: Extreme melting, Extreme heat, Reactive Explosion, Extreme burn, Crystalized Fire. -Skills: None. "It seems like I have to create skills rted to this power myself...," Aren muttered before he looked at the 11% mastery and guessed, "Since this power reacted more to my soul energy, then I guess I can only make progress in it by using my soul energy." But Aren felt that there was more about this mutant magic ability than shown in the information panel. ''I want to confirm another thing, but I need a target for it which I don''t have right now,'' Aren thought as he looked at the blue orb to see the outside situation. ''It''s been a day, so people should be on the way to here. I guess it''s time to go outside as my hammer is fixed as well.'' Aren put the hammer in his inner space and left the Emporio Zone with a single thought as he appeared on the branch while the blue orb disappeared. He focused through gaps to get the view of the bloody altar and saw that it was still there while the blood aura around it had increased along. However, Aren was surprised because the intense, bloody smell that he smelled yesterday disappeared entirely. .... On the other hand, many people were indeed flocking to this ce. The old man posted his upgraded quest in the guild hall, but the rewards had increased even more. From 10,000 gold, he raised them to 15,000 gold. Ten thousand gold coins was already an overwhelming sum of money for the majority, but fifteen thousand gold coins increased the number of people who took the quest through the roof. However, there was another thing, and it was that several more quests rted to Blood Spring valley with enticing rewards appeared in the guild hall, causing mayhem as all adventurers went to the Blood Spring Valley. Duke Heigan was notified of this, and he actually became suspicious of this phenomenon. Inside his pce, duke Heigan was sitting on the chair with a serious expression, "something is wrong..." After thinking for a few moments, he shouted, "Jugarth!" After a few seconds, a man arrived in the room, and the aura he exuded felt more powerful than Reto. He wore solid full-body armor and a mace in his hand. Arriving in front of the duke, he bowed. Duke Heigan looked at Jugarth and spoke in a serious tone, "Although we don''t need to interfere in the affairs of adventurers and guild, we have a duty to protect this duchy. I feel that something is wrong with this situation, so I want you and two other peers of your choice to go to the Blood Spring Valley and check the situation out." Jugarth''s eyes turned sharp as he saluted by making a fist on his chest and said, "Understood, Lord. I will be taking Hafina and Godan with me." Duke Heigan nodded severally, "If you find any abnormality, immediately return and notify me about it. Go" After Jugarth left, he called Jeralt and said, "Keep an eye on that old man and try to find others who posted the quest about the Blood Spring Valley." Jeralt nodded and left. ... He was still focusing on the bloody altar, but when he saw the first person arriving, the bloody altar suddenly disappeared. Afterward, more and more people started to arrive and went deeper towards the blood spring valley while he just stayed in his position, hidden in the tree. After an hour, Aren counted two hundred people entering, and it was at this moment that something big happened. From the center of that blood spring valley, where the mysterious bloody altar disappeared from Aren''s eyes, A pir of blood-red light shot up in the sky. Everyone saw this pr of blood-red light, including Jogarth and the other two with him. Jogarth frowned as he spoke in this thick voice, "lord Heigan told us to return as soon as any abnormality urs. Let''s go!" He and the other two with him didn''t waste any time as they started running back with their full speed. *Bong...!* However, after running for a few minutes, they crashed into an invisible barrier that flickered with a blood-red glow when they hit it. A thick smell of blood also permeated the whole atmosphere, and Aren saw the blood altar once again appearing with the two sons of that old man. Other people tried to run, but nobody could escape. After a few minutes, loud cries of various beasts suddenly started reverberating, and the blood pir slowly subsided. However...in ce of the blood pir, everyone could now see a bloody cocoon with blood threads whirling around it. "W-what is going on here! WHAT IS GOING ON?!" "Calm down! Everyone, we should gather together first to increase our safety! We don''t know what''s going to happen, but we have to work together!!" "Anyone knows any deep history about this ce? Like any rumor or other old information?" "I-I have a very b-bad feeling about this..." People started panicking while Aren''s face also turned grave. Seeing how everyone was getting bad vibes and that dark cocoon, they somehow felt that they....fucked up bying here. Chapter 77 - Emergency Quest. Two men were standing beside the altar in the center of the blood spring while arge bloody cocoon floated above them. Both of them looked like they were in their thirties. The big brother is called Hakel, and the other one is called Bakel. "Brother, the fishes are trapped. Now the only thing we need to do is to...pull them out and use them as food to revive the Kronj Monster," Hakel said as he looked at the cocoon. Bakel nodded as he cut his finger and put some drops of his blood on the altar. The altar strangely released cries of different beasts, but it stopped after Bakel dropped some of his blood on it. Specifically, he dropped the blood on the skull on the altar. The people who were trapped in this area numbered 204, and they were surprised that the cries of beasts suddenly stopped. [Emergancy Quest: Wave of Corruption.] --> The neighboring kingdom had found a Blood Hexa crystal, which turned out to be connected to this Blood Spring valley in Focrent kingdom after much research and finding. They decided to use this power to bring havoc here and gather the kingdom''s attention in this ce while they would use this chance to attack the Focrent kingdom''s capital from other directions in a hidden manner. -->Task 1: Stop the resurrection of Corrupted Orc Lord or Defeat it after it is resurrected. --> Task 2: finish task 1 first... --> Depends on the taskpletion. --> 30,000 exp. Aren was not surprised because he was expecting an emergency quest in this situation. However, after a few seconds of silence, everyone heard a loud roar that shook the whole forest trapped in the blood barrier. Aren was looking at the altar, and his heart started to beat faster as a palpitating aura started to emerge from the altar. After two seconds, he saw a thick bloody aura emerging and forming an outline of a ten-meter tall monster. "L-look! What is that?" Everyone soon noticed the outline of the monster. Aren saw the giant skull from the altar flying up and fit in the head position of the faint image of the monster and the monster of bing more vivid slowly as if it was resurrecting. Jugarth''s face turned grave as he loudly shouted by imbuing spirit energy, which reverberated his voice everywhere, "everyone! I don''t know what is going on right now, BUT! We have to attack that monster in-making before it fullyes into existence!" Right after saying that, He shouted loudly and jumped high. Godan, the teammate of Jugarth, had a staff in his hand, which he stretched up before mming it on the ground. *crackk...Bububu...* The earth extended upward to create a fifteen-meter tall earthly pir on which the Jugarth who jumped stood with his mace in his hand. "That''s Jugarth from Duke''s pce! What is he doing here?" "What matters right now is that the thing he said makes sense! Attack!" Jugarth seemed to have activated his power as his body shined in a dark brown hue while his chained-mace was covered in the same color aura as he became veryrge! Therge chained-mace now had a five-meter big metal spiked ball covered in the dark brown aura, and it looked overwhelmingpared to Jugarth''s body size, but he spun it like it was nothing. Jugarth spun the mace, and every time it faced the monster-in-making''s direction, arge dark brown energy bomb would release from the mace and hit the monster. Other people soon started attacking the monster as well. However, Aren didn''t attack and just observed. He was having a bad feeling and didn''t want to reveal himself to this mess. ''It looks like Inded in trouble preceding my current capability again, -_-'' Aren thought. He looked at the monster-in-making and got its information. [Corrupted Orc Lord] -Status: In corrupted resurrection. -Progress: 43% Aren saw that the attack of all those people was indeed obstructing the corrupted resurrection but not enough to decrease or half its progress. -Progress: 44% "It increased...," Aren muttered with a frown because the progress was still increasing, albeit slowly. He then focused on the altar but saw that the two brothers had disappeared. Aren hurriedly looked around, trying to find them. "Aarghhhhhhhh...." Suddenly, some people, including Aren, heard a scream amidst this chaotic situation where everyone was doing their best to stop the corrupted resurrection. Aren saw a person just ten meters away from the tree he was hiding in, dying at the hands of those two brothers! The few people who saw them shouted loudly, "those two brothers from that old man quest!! FUCK, they are behind this trap! Everyone, they are trying to kill us." The two brother''sughed loudly as Hakel took out a blood crystal of sort and activated it as both of them disappeared. Aren''s eyes became wide, ''they disappeared...'' He looked around before looking back at the altar and saw them standing there, ''Hmmm....so they can teleport back to the altar with that blood crystal? Wait, is that blood crystal the main thing that started all this? Is it the Blood Hexa crystal?'' Aren didn''t know as he could only guess it for now. However, things looked bad because the people already realized that their attacks were working on the monster but not enough to stop its resurrection. -Progress: 61% Aren didn''t know what to do. However, he was definitely not making any move to reveal himself. That''s for sure. "Jugarth! What about that blood cocoon?" Hafina shouted as she waved tworge sabers in her hand towards the monster, which released two dark purple shes. Hafina was another teammate of Jugarth. Jugarth''s gaze was grave as he analyzed the situation with his big brain and said, "the cocoon is something important, but the immediate danger is this quickly resurrecting monster! The aura it''s releasing is dangerous, and I don''t think we can stand much chance after it''s fully resurrected. We have to do something to stop its resurrection!" Aren agreed with him, but....that seemed difficult. Chapter 78 - Creating The First Articule Gear. The two brothers once again sneak attacked two people and killed them. Aren didn''t observe it the previous time, and other people also didn''t notice, but the dead bodies slowly melted and turned into red threads as they flew rapidly towards the cocoon. Other people were turning more desperate as they attacked without holding anything back to stop the resurrection, so they didn''t pay attention to those who died. To them, the resurrecting monster was more dangerous. "Everyone! Gather together into a formation so that those two bastards can''t sneak attack us! I will make an earthly structure around us, and if those two bastards arrive here, I will sense them," Godan shouted loudly as he gathered people together and created an earthly formation with small pirs and paths. However, Aren felt an urgent need to stop those two brothers from seeing how the dead bodies melted and turned into blood threads before getting absorbed by the cocoon. Those two brothers would surely have the means to kill more people as this is their advantage ground, so he had to do something. ''I have to stop the two brothers but...I also have to do it sneakily,'' Aren frowned as he closed his eyes, ''think....think Aren...there should be a way.'' ''Sneak attack...one shot..., without being discovered.'' After thinking for a minute, Aren decided to do something and disappeared from the tree. In his position, a dreamy blue orb appeared. Inside the Emporio Zone, Aren took out his chakram Novas and looked at it for a few seconds before he sighed and muttered, "goodbye." After saying that, he put his right hand on the chakram and used his new skill on it. -Cost: Depends on the target. -Effect: Break down the target into materials. After using the skill, the chakram shined for a brief moment as Aren consumed 80 armalist force. *tink...tink...tink....* The chakram shined and disappeared, but a few things appeared and fell on the ground in its ce. Aren picked up those three things, walked towards the Gear Design device set up, and put them on a table. The first thing was the basic material of chakram. Its shape turned into a square after skill on chakram. [Orchul Star Metal] -Grade: Gold-grade material. -Trait note: Very durable, and this metal is mostly used to make sharp weapons. Afterward, Aren looked at the second thing that was a red-orange gemstone. [Fire Gemstone] -Grade: umon. -Effect: used to add in forging process of a weapon to give it a fire-rted trait. The third thing was strange as it was a tiny dreamy blue cube, and it was rted to his path. [Armalist Essence] -Value: 43. -Effect: You can use Armalist Essence while creating your gear to give it some special trait. "so this is how I get Armalist essence," Aren muttered because he knew about this Armalist essence from the knowledge he got from the books but didn''t know how to get it. He then went to the Blueprint design device. He picked up the pen-like devices and started creating the blueprint of the gear he nned to develop. The thing he is going to create is actually simple and has a bit ofplicated inner structure, so it took him only five minutes to create its blueprint. He nced at the blue orb to see the outside situation and saw after people became fully desperate and started attacking the monster in the making, its progress slowed down. Everyone also gathered together into tight formation to defend against sneak attacks of those two brothers. He then brought out the blueprint from the blue surface of the table and put it inside the scanner of the Gear design device. After that, he put the Orchul Star metal and fire gemstone in the material slot of the gear design device set up. Afterward, the surface of the gear design table flickered as blue liquid appeared on it and started solidifying. Seeing it, Aren wore the gloves and started designing the gear while looking at the digital screen floating in front of him, disying every detail about the materials he put inside and the shape he was giving it. The digital screen showed a round ball with aplicated inner structure that had weaved threaded structure, which Aren had designed. He had created that structure to add and condense as much as spirit magia energy into it as possible. ( Aren named the resulting energy thates after abination of spirit energy and mutant magic energy as spirit magia energy.) After five minutes, he was done with the gear design and went in front of the third table''s slot and opened it. The three tables were connected, so Aren took out the final product of gear design from this slot, which was the ball. However, there was still one more step and also the most important step, Gear printing. From the knowledge of books, he knew that the main magical forging process of gears is done in the Gear Printing device. The gear he creates in this ce will arguably be more powerful than the articule gears he gets by his using his skill on other items. He put the ball in the magical hollow space on the silver-blue square gear printing device. After that, he went to the side of the device and put the Armalist essence inside the oven-like slot. He then arrived in front of the control panel of the gear printing device, which had nine buttons, and pressed the 1st and 4th button. Those buttons were for the mode of enchantment using his Armalist force on the Articule gear that is in the making. After pressing buttons, Aren closed his eyes and started infusing his Armalist force into the magical space where he put the ball. ''Folding space...so this device can do that as well? damn...'' Aren was impressed as this wasn''t within the knowledge of the book. ''Since that''s the case, then I will shrink it to the maximum and expand its inner threaded pipes,'' Aren thought as he started working on it. After two minutes, he ran out of the Armalist force, causing him to frown. ''The recovery of my Armalist force is twenty points per minute...and judging from the amount of work left, I may need around a hundred Armalist force...'' Aren thought as he opened his eyes and looked at the blue orb. "Five more minutes...From the current situation outside, I guess they can hold out for twenty minutes at most....," Aren muttered. Chapter 79 - [One Shot] Aren continued to watch the blue orb to see the outside situation while his Armalist force recovered. After nearly five minutes, he started working on his gear again. He enchanted the ball''s inner structure to be bigger but shrunk the ball in size with the space expanding and folding space maniption he could do with the gear printing device. However, there was a limit, so he couldn''t go past that limit. ''As for the special trait using Armalist essence...I''ll make it reinforced structure, so it doesn''t break after I use it to full power,'' Aren thought as he did the final touches and finished the gear in the next minute. ... Outside, Aren appeared on the tree with a thumbed-sized ball floating in front of him. He had the name of the gear as well. [One shot] -Type: Articule Gear. -Rank: Unranked. -Requirement: Armalist Drive +3. -Perks: None. -Damage: 4510-Untested limit. -Trait: Reinforced Structure. -Durability: [10,000/10,000] -Note: Not upgradable. Looking at his new Articule gear, Aren muttered, "let''s start buffing it." He first infused all mutant magic energy into it, all 1000 points, and then infused spirit energy. Anyway, both willbine inside because of the mutant magic''s energy and turn into more powerful Spirit magia energy. -Spirit Energy Pool: [ 9782/10200 ] [9640/10200] [9570/10200] [9430/10200] Aren''s spirit energy started to decrease as he continuously infused spirit energy into the [One shot] gear. This was making it powerful every second, and with how he created its inner structure, he also didn''t know how powerful it would be once he reached the limit. He finally stopped infusing after a minute as he felt the limit. Looking at the status of his spirit energy pool, Aren wiped off some sweat. [5540/10,200] ''Damn! 4660 spirit energy...on top of 1000 mutant magic energy. Both wille to be more powerful as well,'' Aren thought as he looked at the [One shot] gear that was glowing with a dark orange aura. He slowly put it on his hand to feel its weight, but after less than a second, he hurriedly controlled it because it was too heavy even for his current physical strength. ''I wonder how much damage it will cause once it breaks past the sonic barrier, gathers kic energy, and hits someone?'' Aren wondered as he quickly manipted the ball to go three hundred meters away from him. But afterward, he fell into thought as he looked at the two brothers who were standing beside the altar. They had killed four more people even though there was an early barrier because they could teleport there. He then nced at the resurrecting orc lord, which was also close topleting its corrupted resurrection. -Progress: 94% And then, he looked at the blood cocoon. [Blood Hexa Corrupted Entity] -Progress: 4% ''Should I target it instead?'' Aren questioned himself and fell into thought. Frankly speaking, he didn''t know how the damage of this new gear would turn out after seeing how much energy it was possessing and condensing into it. He even felt that the gear would be destroyed after he used it for obvious reasons, and once that happened, he wouldn''t be able to repair it like [Destructo] hammer gear. He could make another one, but he needs to use skill on gear to get materials and armalist essence. After thinking for a few moments, Aren focused on the altar to get its information. [Blood Hexa Altar] -Grade: Legendary. -Effect: Can do a corrupted resurrection of a being but needs its core body part, many sacrifices, and a lot of spirit energy. The resurrected being will be out of control and will just ensure destruction. -Note 1: The resurrected being will be attracted to ces with abundant blood and flesh. -Note 2: The resurrected being will slowly run out of its energy even if no one destroys it and die. The duration of resurrection depends on the sacrifice. -Defense: Physical [7000] Energy [7000] -Durability: [50,000/50,000] ''So the altar is the main thing that is resurrecting the orc lord. Is it also resurrecting the blood cocoon?'' Aren wondered, and after a moment, he decided to attack the altar with his full-powered [One shot] gear. He used on it, activated and also activated ability because an altar is a lifeless object, so he won''t feel pain. And even though he will not leech life from it since it doesn''t have life, the 30% increased damage might still apply, so he used it as well. The 30% damage increase is actually very powerful. Suppose the damage he deals with an attack is 100,000, then if he uses this ability, it will turn into 130,000. An increase of whooping 30,000. He then started his attack as the gear started flying towards the altar with its full speed, and after two seconds, a loud sonic boom resounded. *Booooom....* "Brother! Defend the alt-" *BOOOOOOOOM...* [-88,740] [You havepleted a bonus task by destroying the legendary altar] [Rewards]: 35,000 exp. A random skill box (A rank to SS rank). Aren got the voice message and notification while everyone heard a loud boom twice rapidly along with a sudden blood-red energy re because the altar was utterly destroyed. The orc lord that was almostplete opened its blood-red eyes and roared. Even though the altar broke, it was still resurrecting, so it resurrected at 97% progress. [Corrupted Orc Lord] -Rank: Special-entity, Corrupted being. -Health: [434,594/500,000]. -Defense: Physical [6680], Energy [6490], Soul[¡Þ]. -Attack: Physical [11,000], Corrupted Energy [17,000]. -Speed: Slow, but at least 5 meters per its giant steps. -Skills: ??? -Abilities: ??? *Roar!!!* Aren was shocked at the info of the orc lord, ''A single wave of his hand and I am dead. Fuck, I have to get out from here.'' He looked at the bloody cocoon surrounded by blood aura and blood thread as it was stillpletely fine, ''I guess this process can''t be stopped without the full information from those two brothers regarding this whole fiasco.'' He tried to sense his gear, but there was no response; he hurriedly looked at this path status and found the sad truth that the gear was destroyed. [ Path- Emporio Armalist ] -Level: 6 [ 22,450/32,000 Exp ] -Armalist Force: [ 600/600 ] -Talent points: 0 -Skills: , , , . -Articule Gears: [ Ikaros ], [Oberon], [Destructo]--Slots: 7 ( 4 left ).-Innate Gears: [ Astral-X Eyes ]. < Talents > --> Armalist Drive+3: ( core of the path, merged with the soul. ) --> Armalist Cloak. --> Emporio Zone. Only three Articule gears remained. Aren had attacked the altar from another direction to hide his position, but now, he was going to hide at a different ce. He squatted on his sword and cut some branches filled with leaves before he grabbed them around him and descended on the ground. Afterward, he started flying at ground levels towards the very end of the invisible barrier. However, he soon noticed that the invisible barrier had disappeared because he got out of the range limit he perceived while he was at the top of the tree. "This...is great," Aren muttered as he gathered some spirit energy into his throat''s meridians and loudly shouted, "THE BARRIER IS NO MORE! RUN!!" Right after shouting, Aren threw away the branches and escaped with his full speed on the sword. Chapter 80 - [Bonus ] Situation ''If that cocoon doesn''t get the sacrifices, the entity inside it will not take birth,'' Aren thought with a sharp light in his eyes while flying. He had effectively destroyed the entire n because those brothers trapped people here and resurrected that Orc lord to kill the two hundred people and sacrifice them to feed that cocoon. But now that the barrier was no more, those people would escape. Thus, cutting off the supply to feed that cocoon. The barrier was invisible and would only flicker with a blood glow if someone hit it, so nobody noticed when it disappeared. So, Aren''s one shout changed the game...for now. Aren took out the map and looked at it. ording to information on the altar, that Orc Lord will surely move towards that town. Unfortunately, Aren could see from the map that it was a small town. From the map, the only big town in this area was the Dusalmeir town of Dusalmeir duchy, the territory of Duke Heigan. He paused on his flight and looked back with focus to zoom it as he muttered, "that orc lord had changed his direction already...but what will those two brothers do now? That cocoon shouldn''t be able to move as well because if it was possible, they wouldn''t have to stage this entire trap." He located a nearby mountain and decided to stay on its peak while observing the cocoon since it was floating in the sky and glowing blood red. ... Jogarth, Godan, and Hafina rode on a strange whirlwind mattress that Hafina was controlling and flew towards the Dusalmeir town at full speed. "We have to inform the Duke about this matter! Only he can stop that monster," Jogarth spoke with a grave expression. "We don''t even know what is going on with that cocoon, damn!!" Godan said with frustration. Unknown thing is always more terrifying, and that cocoon was such a thing because, on top of being unknown, it also gave them a very bad feeling. Hafina frowned and said, "that giant monster stopped following people after they ran away, and now it had changed its direction! It seems to be moving towards Kogr Town." Jugadth clenched his fist before he spoke with determination, "full speed, Hafina! We have to inform lord Heigan as soon as possible so he can stop that monster." ... On the other hand, the two brothers stood near the altar with dark expressions on their faces. "Who the fuck was that?" Bakel growled with anger. Hakel also had a frown as he looked at the cocoon and took out the blood Hexa crystal before saying, "It doesn''t matter because we have more important tasks toplete at hand. The cocoon won''t move from its position due to this blood spring valley, but we still need to gather 200 powerful sacrifices." "Damn, damn, damn!" Bakel was angry as he punched the air, "how can we trap 200 powerful sacrifices here right now and kill them? It''s fucking impossible! We need people with mortal-5 and up lifeform stage, and they won''t just present themselves here." "Shut the fuck up, and let me think!" Hakel shouted coldly. Suddenly, both brothers sensed something and looked in the sky in the east direction. ... After thirty minutes, Jogarth, Godan, and Hafina arrived at the town and hurried towards the pce, but the Duke was not there. "I was keeping a lookout in the town, and several people returned here saying that they were blocked because an invisible barrier suddenly appeared and couldn''t enter the blood spring valley''s area," Jeralt said as with a grave expression, "so I ryed this information to lord Heigan, and he went there to see the situation himself." Hearing that, Jogarth, Godan, and Hefina were stunned as they looked at each other. "So we missed each other on the way? However, lord Heigan''s speed is faster, so he must have reached there shortly after we all escaped," Hafina spected. "Let''s hope that lord Heigam met someone on the way, but we still have to return there right now! Let''s go," Jogarth spoke. "Give me a new force level 2 spirit stone because both my spirit stones are out of energy, and it will take time to recover, which we don''t have," Hafina hurridly said to Jeralt. jeralt nodded as he hurridly went deeper into the pce to get a spirit stone. ... *Boooooooooom...* *Shuaaaaa....* "Hahaha, stop wasting your time, Heigan! You can''t do anything to that cocoon!" At this time, the two brothers were tied up by magical vines and couldn''t do anything as the vine constantly sucked their spirit energy. Heigan indeed didn''t encounter anyone on the way because he was flying high in the sky, and not all people had the capability to fly. He was also flying at full speed towards this location and rushed here after seeing the brightly glowing bloody cocoon in the sky. After arriving here, he first took care of the two brothers and then focused on the cocoon. By now, he had been attacking the cocoon for nearly thirty minutes, but there wasn''t even a scratch after he tried all types of methods. He looked at Haken and Baken with a grimace and said, "tell me how to destroy this thing, or I will make you wish death but will not grant you!" Haken and Baken had a maddening gleam in their eyes as theyughed loudly. "No matter what you do to us, no beans will spill from our mouths!" "Hahaha, however, an Exceed like you can''t destroy that cocoon, that''s for sure." ... On the other hand, after Arennded on the mountain, he found a small ore lump attached to the rock on the mountain and was trying to harvest it was by hammering it with his [Destructo] hammer gear. After thirty minutes, he finally mined the small ore deposits. Well, in a sense, he didn''t mine it properly but destroyed it and took its pieces. [Fizart Iron Ore] -Type: raw material. -Grade: tinum-grade material. -Trait note: this ore has a high maic field and is mostly used for blunt weapons because of its solid condensed structure. ''Hmmm...this ore is not processed into a proper metal material for weapon forging, but...my gear crafting is a bit different, so I should try to create gear with raw material. Who knows, it might work,'' Aren thought as he put thest bit of Fizart Iron ore into his inventory. Afterward, he looked at the blood cocoon in the sky and saw some light flicking around it. "Hmmm? Is someone attacking it?" Aren was surprised as he hurridly jumped on his sword and started flying in there. After getting near the area, he slowed down and moved sneakily among the trees that were intact because that giant orc lord had destroyed many trees in the area. He hid behind a boulder and moved a bit more from behind it towards the intact tree that was a bit further to get a clear view of the blood spring, and the scene he saw surprised him. ''Duke Heigan?....Those two brothers are also tied up by him.'' Duke Heigan, who was talking, paused and looked in Aren''s direction. Aren hurridly went into hiding, but immediately after that, he revealed himself and said, "It''s me." Heigan was going to shout, e out" but before he could, he saw Arening out and was surprised. Chapter 81 - Blood Hexa Entity "What are you doing here?" Heigan asked with a light suspicious in his eyes. Aren raised his hands and said, "I was here for a simr reason as all those adventurers. In fact, I was the one who foiled their schemes by destroying the altar and barrier. Otherwise, those two hundred people would''ve been killed and fed to that cocoon." "So it was you! You fucking bastard!" Baken roared with anger. Aren smiled at him and nodded, "thanks for the testimony," turning to duke Heigan, he said, "as you can see, I am not with them." "Mhmm," duke Heigan nodded to Aren before he turned to the cocoon, "however, the problem remains." Aren nodded, but he looked at the two brothers and said, "I believe they have an object that can change this situation. It looks like a blood-red crystal, and I think it''s important and rted to this situation." "You!!..." Both brothers became livid as they looked at Athan with a gaze as if he had just killed their parents. Seeing their expression, Heigan''s face became stern as he said coldly, "Take it out, and I will spare your life." The two brothers turned silent, but the maddening expression on their faces intensified. "Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!" Suddenly, both brothers cried loudly as a red blood crystal flew out and absorbed both brothers in a second. Everything happened fast as Heigan and Aren didn''t expect that something like this would happen. "Contain the crystal!" Aren shouted hurriedly. Duke Heigan waved his hands as he created a dome of vines around the crystal and superimposed it with a redwood barrier that had a magical emerald pattern. "The crystal won''t do the same thing to us...If it was possible, they would have done it," Heigan said. Aren nodded, "They must have some sort of contract or connection with crystal. But what now?" "This is my strongest defensive skill, and from what I see, the crystal is not moving," Heigan said with a frown. He doesn''t know what is going to happen with that crystal since it''s not moving. However, after three seconds, the crystal moved...and it moved like a bullet, easily breaking out of the defense of Heigan before going straight towards the cocoon. The crystal disappeared in the cocoon, and right after that, Aren got a quest update. [Emergancy Quest: Wave of Corruption.] --> The neighboring kingdom had found a Blood Hexa crystal... -->Task 1: Stop the resurrection of Currepted Orc Lord or Defeat it after it is resurrected. --> Task 2: Survive and contribute to the defeat of the Blood Hexa Entity before this whole area gets corrupted by its corrupted evil energy. --> Depends on the taskpletion. --> 30,000 exp. Aren hurriedly focused on the cocoon and got its information. [Blood Hexa Entity] -Progress: 46% ''Hmm? It''s not finished? then why did the task mentioned to defeat it?'' Aren thought with confusion. However, the blood threads surrounding the cocoons started to converge rapidly and were absorbed into the cocoon soon after that. A pulsing invisible wave released from the cocoon, making Aren a bit dizzy before he puked as he felt sick. *blerhhh....* Heigan felt the same, but he resisted this sickly evil pulsing waveing from the cocoon and looked at Aren before waving his right hand towards him. The barrier blocked the pulsing wave but not entirely. "Do you have any spinergy method?" Heigan asked Aren. Aren nodded with a churning stomach and while feeling dizzy. "Sit crossed-legged and start circting spirit energy ording to that method; it will help you a bit. If the spinergy method is Exeed grade or higher, this pulsing wave won''t do anything to you." Aren nodded as he sat down crossed-legged and started circting the Yakum''s Spinergy Method. He took one hundred spirit energy to do the first cirction faster and indeed. After one cirction, the dizziness along with the sick feeling stopped. Aren then looked at the cocoon as it was changing shapes as if something inside it was moving around. Suddenly, his face changed, ''It changed...'' [Blood Hexa Entity]-Iplete. -Rank: Special, Corrupted Entity. -Health: [1,458,010/1,458,010]. -Defense: Physical [42,140] Energy [42,140] Soul [¡Þ]. -Attack: Physical [21,204] Corruption Energy [ 42,100 ]. -Speed: Floating, 10 meters per second. -Skills:??? -Abilities:??? -Note: Weak against powers with purifying nature. "I think...I should run," Aren said with a weak smile as he jumped on his sword and floated. The cocoon was still moving, and the entity inside it hadn''te out, but Aren didn''t want to wait for it toe out. "Wait, can you pass this token to Jeralt and tell him to contact the kingdom? Tell him about the dire situation here," Heigan spoke with a dignified expression, "I will try to stop this thing as long as I can." After saying that, duke Heigan threw a token towards Aren. Aren caught the token as he nodded with a solemn expression and looked at duke Heigan before saying, "I will go with my full speed, so....be careful." Chapter 82 - Arens Plan. Aren left with full speed towards the town while Heigan looked at them constantly moving cocoon as if something woulde out from it anytime. "My duty...I have to stop this thing as long as I can," Heigan muttered as he wiped the sweat from his face as five minutes passed tensely. *Chriiiiiii....* A sh appeared in the cocoon before a tentacle with a dy tip came out. After that, several more tentacles came out as the entire cocoon was shredded to pieces and devoured by the strange creature. The creature had a single giant eye on its messy and bloody unnatural round body while there were approximately twenty tentacles with dy tips exuding from its body. The entire creature''s length was ten meters in size, excluding its tentacles which seemed to reach fifteen meters in length. Its eye was blood red with a dark pattern, and right aftering out, its eye locked on to Heigan. *crackle!* Two light brown lightning spears appeared in Heigan''s hands as he floated in the sky. A pair of wings also appeared behind his back while his eyes were shining golden sparks. *Shuaa....* The Blood Hexa entity attacked Heigan with its dy tentacles as a high-speed battle between the two started. Several lightning marks appear on the Blood Hexa Entity, and each time Heigan swings his spears to parry the tentacles, lightning bolts strike the Blood Hexa Entity out of nowhere. *screeeeeee....* A strange cry was released from the Blood Hexa Entity even though it didn''t have any mouth. A dark red aura released from its body as all lightning marks disappeared. Its eyes started glowing before it released a dark-redser beam towards Heigan. Heigan tried to dodge, but in doing that, one of the tentacles hit him in the left side of his abdomen. Seeing that his injuries were strange and it seemed to be corrupting his blood, he hurridly used ability which had the power of purification and healing. However, another tentacle hit right at that spot when he used the ability. Heigan''s face turned grave because one more hit at his left side of the abdomen would seriously injure him. However, when the tentacle came into contact with emerald energy of that ability releasing from the ethereal flower, It retreated. He hurriedly waved his spears to parry other tentacles as he felt that the intensity of the attack increased, ''However, what was that?'' He decided to stay fully defensive to survive as long as he could and expand more on the reaction of the tentacle that he noticed. ... On the other hand, Aren was flying at full speed towards the town, ''That Blood Hexa Entity is only 43% strong of its full strength if I''m not wrong, and it''s still so powerful. If it was 100%...'' Aren shook his head as he didn''t want to think about it and muttered, "Let''s hope he survives until the reinforcement arrives." The quest mentioned that he must contribute towards defeating the Blood Hexa Entity and he believed that if the duke Heigan managed to survive until the end, his contribution would be better, and he would get better rewards. After arriving at the town, Aren hurridly informs Jeralt about everything and the trouble of duke. "Thank you, young man. I will immediately contact kingdom," Jeralt thanked Aren with a serious face before he turned around and went inside the pce. "Wait," Aren called out as Jeralt stopped and turned around to look at Aren. "There''s another trouble of a giant Orc lord. It''s currently heading towards the town near Blood Spring Valley. That giant seems to be attracted to blood and flesh lifeforce. If no one stopped him, that giant would bring considerable destruction," Aren said with a grave expression. "Which one is more dangerous?" Jeralt asked with doubt. "The one that duke Heigan is stopping. I don''t know the kind of power it has, but it''s definitely way more powerful than that giant," Aren said with a serious expression. From the information, Blood Hexa Entity was nightmarishpared to that giant. The only fortunate thing was that it was only at its 43% of full strength. Aren suddenly had an idea, but he decided to wait and said, "first, you should inform the kingdom about the situation here so they can send reinforcement fast and save the life of duke Heigan." "Alright," Jeralt nodded, "you wait here. I''ll be back in a minute." Jeralt went inside and contacted the kingdom with some magical device before returning in two minutes. After Jeralt arrived outside, Aren hurridly asked, "Do you have anything that contains a high amount of lifeforce? or any item that exudes a high amount of lifeforce? That life force should be simr to oneing from our blood and flesh." "Lifeforce...," Jeralt frowned for a moment before he went inside and came out with an adult''s arm-length jade box that was twenty centimeters in width. The jade case looked exquisite. Jeralt opened it and revealed a blood-red nt with a small flower on it. "This spirit nt is known as Carvhous Lily. It can even heal serious wounds of epic lifeform stage beings with its power. Go take it and lead that giant away," Jeralt said as he closed the jade case and handed it over to Aren before patting his shoulder, "you asked because you wanted to help, right? I saw your flying speed which is really fastpared to your current lifeform stage and general strength." Aren took the jade case before speaking straightforwardly with an indifferent face, "I will try, but my safety is my top priority. If that giant had long-range attacks and is capable of hitting me, I will put this nt in my inventory and run back here." "You will not steal it?" Jeralt questioned with a raised eyebrow. Aren smiled and said, "If I was stronger than this kingdom, then I would''ve stolen it. I don''t know if you have any means to track this nt or me, so I wouldn''t take a risk like that." Jeralt nodded with a smile, "good thinking because I have already put something on you that can let me track you. Anyway, you go now and try to lead that monster away. "If possible, lead it back to the Blood Spring Valley where the duke is after thirty minutes because the reinforcement will arrive at Blood Spring valley after thirty minutes. The kingdom is sending three epic lifeform stage powerhouses, and they will be able to easily deal with the situation here." Hearing that, Aren frowned and thought, ''wait, I actually got crucial information through this quest: a neighbor kingdom has plotted this to attack this kingdom.'' "What are you thinking?" Jeralt asked seeing Aren falling into thought, "you should hurry up now." Aren nodded and left as he flew with his full speed towards the town where the giant was heading. ''I probably shouldn''t reveal this information. First, there''s a question of how I got it, and second, the kingdom would obviously prioritize its own capital town''s safety instead of stopping this Blood Hexa Entity if they learned of this information.'' ''Anyway, the quest I got is about contributing to stopping and killing this Blood Hexa Entity and not about saving this kingdom,'' Aren thought while flying, ''Hmm, well, I have an idea to reveal this information, but I will act on it after they take care of this Blood Hexa Entity so I can finish my quest.'' Aren nodded internally after nning everything out. Chapter 83 - Little Help & Reinforcement. *Roarrr* *Dhoom**Dhoom**Dhoom**Dhoom**Dhoom*... "Its speed is way slower than mine, but its range of sensing the lifeforce is quite long. Perfect," Aren muttered as he flew towards the blood spring valley while the giant corrupted orc lord was following behind him. The nt in his hand was attracting that orc lord. When he found the orc lord, it had already caused a bit of destruction at the town after arriving there, but fortunately, it was not total destruction as Aren came and led the giant orc lord away. When he arrived at that town, he saw many people dead, and among them also included people of the Earth. They must have gotten an emergency quest regarding the corrupted orc lord so they couldn''t leave the Wild Expanse and died because of the devastating area attacks of Orc lord. Aren took out the map and looked at it before turning behind to see the Orc lord, "With that orc lord''s speed, it will take twenty-five more minutes to arrive at blood spring valley." After thinking for a moment, Aren decided to speed up towards blood spring valley. The orc lord could even sense the town from blood spring valley, so it could surely follow the nt in Aren''s hand even if Aren sped up and arrived there early. *Swooooooosh...* After five minutes of flying, Aren slowed down as he looked at the devastating sight in the blood spring valley and involuntarily trembled. He stayed five kilometers away and just observed the blood spring valley since his eyes could see that far away clearly. The range of his Astral-X eyes was six kilometers. "Duke Heigan," Aren muttered as he saw duke Heigan flying around as he dodged and parried the attacks. The battle was so fast that even he had trouble following up with their movement despite having Astral-X eyes. The Blood Hexa Entity was stationed in the air without moving, but itsrge and dy tentacles were attacking duke Heigan at super fast speed. The most troublesome attacks were thosesers from itsrge eye. It was so fast and blinding, very hard to dodge. He could see that duke Heigan was umting more and more injuries. "Hold on, duke. Reinforcement is arriving soon," Aren muttered as he continued to watch without moving. He had no intention of getting close to that battlefield, or he wouldn''t even know how he died. But he didn''t just want to stand, so he decided to attack from here. He stretched his hand forward and consumed 950 spirit energy to conjure ten seeds of skill. He also used mutant magic energy to increase the exploding power of the seeds. -Skill level: 1 (Max: 5) -Skill rank: SSS -Cost: 95 spirit energy per seed. -Effect: Using this skill, you can create a seed that you can control. Once it hits an enemy, it will explode to deal damage and release two demonic vines to impair the enemy. Impaired enemies will have difficulty controlling their spirit energy. "It looks like my physical body strength will finallye in handy," Aren self-deprecatinglyughed as he put five seeds in his right hand and pulled his hand back before taking a stance of throwing with that hand. After exerting his full strength, he threw the seeds towards the Blood Hexa Entity. The seeds broke the sound barrier as they zoomed forward. They slowed down after a while due to air resistance, but the throw was powerful enough such that the five seeds hit the Blood Hexa Entity. Duke Heigan saw something hitting the monster in front of him as he heard five explosions before the ten vines sprouted from those explosions and bound some tentacles of the Blood Hexa Entity. However, they only bound it for only a second before the vines were destroyed entirely by the corrupted energy body of the monster. The spirit energy Aren could use right now was only force level 1 spirit energy, which can''t do anything to that monster. To use higher force level spirit energy, he needs to ascend his lifeform stage and spirit core. However, that one second of bound tentacles clearly relieved Duke Heigan and gave him time to further dodge and defend against the next attacks of the Blood Hexa Entity. "KEEP THEM COMING!" Duke Heigan shouted as he infused spirit energy in his voice to spread it towards the direction from which he saw the attacking. Right after he finished shouting, five more seeds hit the Blood Hexa Entity. Aren had already thrown those five seeds before duke Heigan shouted, so after hearing his shout, Aren got affirmation that his little bit of interference helped duke Heigan. "Let''s go this...," Aren muttered as he conjured ten more seeds. [Your skill has leveled up] ''Nice, twenty seeds to level up once, then forty seeds to level up once again if im not wrong,'' Aren thought as he threw five seeds again. [-500] The seeds dealt some damage to the monster, but he knew that those seeds could only damage it because of his mutant magic energy. His spirit energy doesn''t seem to do anything to the monster, but his mutant magic energy bypassed the level difference and damaged the monster, albeit very low damage. After fifteen minutes, he exhausted all of his spirit energy and mutant magic energy. The skill also reached level 5. But he didn''t stop as he started absorbing spirit energy from the umon spirit he got from duke Heigan as a reward. [Spirit Stone I] -Rank: Umon -Requirement: Requires at least Mortal spirit core to absorb spirit energy from this spirit stone. -Effect: Contains Force level 1 spirit energy, 10,000/10,000. He also had another spirit stone withmon rank, and it contained 2000 spirit energy as well. After a few minutes, he filled up his spirit energy pool and started attacking with skill again. After five minutes, he felt a tremble of the earth, indicating that the giant orc lord was nearing. Aren looked at his left side and saw it. "shit...where is the reinforcement? It should have arrived by now," Aren cursed as duke Heigan was really at the end of his rope. *SWOOOOOOOOOOOOSH...* Suddenly, a loud thunderp resounded across the whole area as dark clouds gathered and a thick dark blue lightning stuck the Blood Hexa Entity, making it cry in pain for the first time. Aren saw three people with terrific aura around them zooming towards the Blood Hexa entity. The dark clouds in the sky above Blood Hexa Entity seemed to be the power of one of those people. Among those three, two of them were men while the third one was a woman who wore a dark blue robe with light blue patterns. She was the one who attacked with that thick destructive lightning bolt. "Ketu, there''s another monstering here but it''s way weaker than this. Handle it fast before joining us," The woman in dark blue robe instructed as she focused on the Blood Hexa Entity. She seemed to be the leader of the trio as Ketu, the man with tworge scimitars in his hands flew towards the Orc lord after he got the order from her. The other man dashed towards Heigan and provided protection to him and used some kind of ability as arge green dreamy tree appeared out of nowhere in front of him and provided healing and defense aura in an area. Blood Hexa Entity seemed to be provoked as all of its tentacles glowed with a dark red aura before a wave of corruptive energy released from it, creating arge dome covering the blood spring valley. Aren had a bad feeling seeing this move of Blood Hexa entity but he felt that those three could probably handle this monster. Suddenly, he heard a voice in his ear, as if someone whispered it, "Boy,e here. You don''t have to worry as we will not let that monster do anything to you." Aren was startled and saw that the woman was looking at him. He already knew that they sensed him when they arrived here. Biting his lips, Aren became determined and flew towards them, he also needed to tell them some information regarding this Blood Hexa entity to finish it faster. "Cerity, It''s recovering from its injuries!" The man who helped duke Heigan spoke. He had created a light brown barrier around the tree and it was defending from the monster''s attack. But the barrier was constantly cracking while the man constantly recovered it. Cerity, the woman with the dark blue robe saw Aren flying towards her before she turned to the Blood Hexa Entity and waved her hand as the dark clouds in the sky released another thick lightning bolt towards the monster. "Klen, conjure a barrier around the person behind me," Cerity spoke as she took out a scepter and pointed it towards the Blood Hexa Entity. Klen turned around and saw Aren one kilometer behind Cerity before he conjured a light brown orb in his hand and threw it towards Aren. Aren was startled but the orb stopped one meter away from him before expanding and covering him inside a barrier. Seeing it, he flew towards Cerity and hurriedly said, "that monster is weaker to purifying powers. Use to stop its recovery." Hearing that, Cerity and Klen were dumbfounded, "purifying power to stop its recovery? what the hell?" Generally, skills and abilities with purifying power were supposed to be used on allies to remove poison, curses, and such status alignments. Using it in monsters and beasts would be stupid as it would instead help them. "Do it!" Aren spoke with a serious expression. His solemn expression clearly indicated that he was not joking! Chapter 84 - Near Death Experience, Rewards. "Boy, we can''t just follow up with whatever you say," Klen said with a frown. *kreeeeeeeeeee...* "Focus on defending, Klen!" Cerity said as he waved her hand and again attacked the Blood Hexa Entity as a thick lightning bolt struck it. However, the current Blood Hexa Entity was recovering its injuries quickly, and it seems that the more injured it was, the higher its recovery speed became. "How troublesome...It seems that we need to wait for Ketu to finish this monster in one go with a powerfulbo attack," Cerity said with a frown. She then turned to Aren and asked, "on what basis did you suggest about using purifying type powers on that monster?" Aren looked at her as he pointed his own eyes with his hands with two-finger and said, "my path gives me the power to see through weakness of enemy and ording to that, this monster is weak against purification type powers." Cerity looked at Aren deeply before she nodded, "I''ve judged that you are not lying. Alright, let''s try it." After saying that, she pointed her scepter towards the dark clouds in the sky before a white and azure aura covered her entire body. "Cerity, are you really going to use your Lightning of Purification on it? It''s supposed to be the most powerful purification power on record!" Klen shouted with a deep frown while defending against the torrent ofsers and other attacks from Blood Hexa Entity. "Argh, this monster seems to be getting stronger. What the hell is going on? Its attacks...they converting my energy into its strange power," Klen said as he had no choice but to start using his full power to defend against the strange energy attacks of this monster. Hearing that, Aren remembered something and hurriedly said, "from what I can see with my path''s vision, this monster utilizes corrupt power. I think it must be able to corrupt your barriers and other powers as well for its own benefits." ''Holy shit,'' Aren cursed internally, ''and this Blood Hexa Entity was not even born with its full power.'' At this time, the dark clouds in the sky turned into white clouds as they cracked with white and azure shes of lightning. Cerity pointed her scepter at the Blood Hexa Entity as two thick bolts of azure-white lightning struck it. *screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.....* *screeeeeeeee...**screeeeeeeee...* "W-what!" Klen shouted in disbelief. Cerity and Aren were also dumbfounded as those two bolts of azure-white lightning shredded the troublesome monster. Its size became just one meter big, and from the painful cries it released, they could infer that it was severely injured and on the verge of dying. Suddenly, the Blood Hexa Entity released a loud strange cry as if using all of its strength and...exploded. *Boooooooooooooom...* This happened unexpectedly as the strange corrupting wave of intense energy released, destroying all barriers of Klen and even the healing tree he conjured. Aren had turned to side before the intense corrupting energy wave struck him, so one side of his body was more injured than the other side. "Arghhhh....." Aren screamed as the corrupting energy wave struck half of his body, ''FUCKKK! I''m not dying!'' After one scream, he had already lost his consciousness and was on the verge of dying before Cerity hurridly struck Aren with a bolt of purification lightning. Cerity was also struck by the attack, but nothing happened to her as she was covered in the white and azure aura. She then also covered Aren in a barrier of purification lightning before calling Klen, "Klen, hurry up and heal this guy." "Strike me with that purification lightning first! This damn corrupting energy is annoying," Klen shouted while moving towards Cerity and Aren. *Crackle* Klen arrived and started healing Aren while checking his condition, "his heart had already stopped beating. Cerity, strike him with another bolt of purification lightning. There seems to be some of that corrupting energy still inside him." *Crackle* Another tiny lightning bolt of purification lightning struck Aren before the little bit of corrupting energy in him was destroyed. After five minutes, Ketu returned to them after killing the corrupted orc lord and was surprised, "you guys already finished? That was unexpectedly fast. And who is this little guy?" "Well, we finished off that monster faster thanks to his suggestion," Klen spoke as he continued to heal Aren. After three minutes, Aren regained consciousness and saw many notifications in his head. [Quest: Wave of corruption,pleted] :- stop the resurrection of orc lord or defeat it after it is resurrected. --> 40%pletion rate as you only contributed to the defeat of ord lord but didn''t defeat it by yourself. :- survive and contribute to the defeat of the Blood Hexa Entity before the whole area gets corrupted by its energy. -->70%pletion rate as you informed the duke pce to call reinforcement early, saved duke''s life, and helped defeat it early by giving a suggestion. Bonus 5% for 0 casualties and 0 corruption in the area. Totalpletion rate: 75%. :- destroy the Blood Hexa Altar. -->100%pleted. [Reward] --> 30,000 exp. --> 9000 path exp. --> 1 Ability point. --> 1 Skill point. -->70,000 exp. -->20,000 path exp. -->2x skill fusion sage stones. -->1x random spirit beast''s egg (grade B to grade SSS) (Rewards already received) -->35,000 exp. -->A random skill box ( rank A to rank SS). [Congrattions! your path leveled up to level 7.] [ Path- Emporio Armalist ] -Level: 7 [ 19,450/64,000 Exp ] -Armalist Force: [ 600/600 ] -Talent points: 1 ''Nice...however, before checking out the rewards, I have to finish one more task,'' Aren thought as he opened his eyes. He found himself covered in a barrier and was floating in the sky; his sword was also in the barrier. Aren saw that Ketu, Cerity, and Klen were talking to duke Heigan, who seemed to have recovered. Duke Heigan was facing Aren, so he was surprised andughed, "so you woke up, Aren? good good, hahaha." Cerity, Ketu, and Klen turned towards Aren as well. "How are you feeling now, tough little guy?" Cerity asked with a smile. Aren smiled as he mounted his sword before saying, "better than ever." He was really feeling good, and he also knew the reason as he had seen notifications regarding that. However, he didn''t waste time and wiped the smile from his face before saying with a serious expression, "there''s a more dire matter at hand right now. While I was spying on those two people who created this mess, I heard some little bits of information and connected the dots." "Oh? What did you hear?" Ketu asked as he felt that it was bad news judging from Aren''s expression. "From what I inferred, they actually created this mess to attract some powerhouses here while the neighbor kingdom would prepare to attack the capital town of Focrent Kingdom," Aren said with a dire expression, "I think you three should hurry and return to the capital town." "What!" The three of them were shocked. "If that''s the case, then I''m afraid we will have to leave right away," Cerity spoke as she turned to duke Heigan and said, "Heigan, finish the matter here ande to the capital town as soon as possible." "We have no reason to doubt you this time as you have proved your trustworthiness," Klen said as he looked at Aren. "Can Ie with you to the capital town as well?" Aren suddenly asked, "my path''s power to see through weakness can provide some help, and I might be able to help by staying in the backline." Aren knew that there were certain risks involved, but he wouldn''t put his life at stake in the front line after going there. ''Only by participating in battles high above my level and getting their quests can let me progress faster, I might be able to get quest after going to the capital city as well,'' Aren thought as he looked at Cerity and others with a determined expression. The quest that hepleted just now was so dangerous that he would have a chance of dying ten out of ten times if a single attack hit him. Naturally, he almost died, but he survived because of these high-level powerhouses at the Epic Lifeform stage. But in this dangerous quest, he received so much EXP and some juicy rewards. And now that there was the opportunity of another quest at the capital town, he would get it as well. Cerity, Klen, and Ketu looked at each other after hearing Aren''s request. "Alright. However, if what you said is true and that the neighbor kingdom really attacked the capital, we won''t be able to protect you," Cerity said straightforwardly. "No problem. I am not going to risk myself for the capital town as well. I will move sneakily, and at first sight of danger, I will run," Aren said with a grin. Everyone was speechless, but they liked that Aren was honest about his thoughts. "Hahaha, interesting guy." Ketuughed before waving his hand and conjuring a dark green mattress below Aren, "sit on the mattress." Aren was still covered in a protective barrier, but when he sat on the mattress, it also went inside therge bubble barrier. "Let''s go!" Ceritymanded as thunderp reverberated, and the three of them zoomed in a certain direction. Aren was dumbfounded at flying speed. He couldn''t even see anything properly! Fortunately, the barrier protected him from the intense wind pressure that would otherwise hit him at this speed. On the other hand, duke Heigan smiled in the direction where Aren and others left and muttered, "Aren....It will be interesting to see how far you go up in this world." Chapter 85 - Skill, Egg, Stones. [A/N:- Amber core of Eturnia is now changed to Aember core of Eturnia. Reason: this mutant magic power has different shades of orange and red, so "Amber" is unsuitable. Thus, I took A of Amber and E of Ember and named it "Aember."] .... While being carried to the capital town, Aren sorted out his rewards. First, he looked at his current status and Inventory. -Name: Aren Azrael -Level: 13 [ 2160/16000 ] ( Stored Exp: 287,060). -Path: Emporio Armalist [ Level: 7 ] -Mutant Magic: [Aember core of Eturnia] -Spinergy Method: Demon Yakum''s Spinergy Method. -Body Health: [ 2650/2650 ] -Soul Health: [ 148/148 ] -Life Stage: Mortal-2 "Damn, that''s a lot of Exp," Aren said with a wry smile. However, he is not going to spend it willy-nilly. Still, he decided to level up one time since there was a lot of exp. [You have leveled up to level 14.] [5 stat point gained.] Aren added one stat point to the soul, two into the constitution, and thest two into agility. He then looked at this Inventory, which had many things. First, he threw away the spirit water barrel as it was useless to him now. [Inventory] --> Cursed shofar. --> Deep blue gemstone. --> Spirit stones x [2]. --> Health potions x [344]. --> Bloodline Orb. --> Armalist box. --> Blueprint box. --> A random skill box (Rank A to SS). --> Skill fusion sage stones x [2]. --> Random spirit beast''s egg box [Grade B to Grade SSS]. Aren took out skill fusion sage stones and checked out its details. [Skill Fusion sage stones] -Grade: S -Use: you can infuse one skill ( S rank or below ) into one sage stone and put it beside another sage stone that also contains one skill ( S rank or below ). Once the two sage stonese into contact, they willbine to be a single stone with a new skill. -Note: Use them wisely and infuse skills that arepatible with each other into stones for a powerful skill. If the affinity of two skills is good, the created skill will be one grade higher. But if it''s bad, then the new skill''s rank may be lower than the parent skills. "Interesting...however, I''ll hold it off for now," Aren muttered before he put the sage stones back into the Inventory and took out a random skill box (Rank A to SS), and opened it. [Congrattions! You got an S rank skill from the skill box.] -Skill level: 1 (Max: 5) -Skill Rank: S -Cost: 125 spirit energy. -Duration: 5 minutes. -Effect: Reduce your presence and mask the energy readings of spirit energy from your body. -Note: If you use any other skill that uses spirit energy while skill is active, the skill will be automatically deactivated. "Ohh, this skill is good," Aren nodded as he liked this one, "next, I should buy another S rank skill of simr effect from a storeter andbine them to create a better camouge skill." If there was no war in the capital town, he could buy a skill from the store there. But that would be impossible for now. ''I also need money to buy since skills ought to to be very expensive. Let''s hope the capital town quest would give me gold as a reward since it''s rted to the kingdom,'' Aren thought before he took out random spirit beast''s egg box. "The probability is too much...B grade to SSS grade," Aren muttered before he opened the box, wishing to get at least S grade spirit beast''s egg. [Congrattions! You have received an egg of Tundra Malferius Ice Fox''s egg [Grade S]. A one-meter tall egg appeared in front of him. It looked white with ice blue and dark blue patterns on it. [Tundra Malferius Ice Fox''s egg] -Hatching progress: 0% -Grade: S -Bloodline: Divine Malferius ze Fox. -Bloodline concentration: 24% -Note: Infuse 5000 spirit energy into the egg daily to increase its hatching progress. You can also ask a beast tamer to tremendously speed up its hatching progress. -Warning: don''t add more than 5000 spirit energy every day. Aren infused 5000 spirit energy right away and checked its progress. [Tundra Malferius Ice Fox''s egg] -Hatching progress: 2% "Damn, 2% only?" Aren muttered with a frown, "It will take fifty days to hatch itpletely this way. It looks like I have no choice but to find a beast tamer." Afterward, Aren took out the umon spirit stone I and let it recover spirit energy from the atmosphere while he himself started to train in Yakum''s Spinergy Method by circting spirit energy in his body. This time, he used 300 spirit energy and started circting it inside his body ording to the pattern. Since he knew the patterns and paths properly this time, he sped up the cirction and finished it in five minutes. "I didn''t feel any difort with this amount of spirit energy. Hmm, I guess I can increase it more," Aren muttered as he used 400 spirit energy this time. As such, Aren started training while being carried towards the capital town. Chapter 86 - Fillatent Capital Town In the end, Aren decided to use 500 spirit energy per five-minute-long cirction. However, he only managed to do five circtions before stopping as Cerity and others slowed down because they reached the capital town. Aren looked at his spirit energy pool and spirit stone. -Spirit Energy Pool: [ 4848/10,200 ]. [Spirit stone I] -Grade: umon. -Storage: Force level 1 spirit energy [5120/10,000]. "It looks like my spirit core''s recovery speed is slower than this spirit stone," Aren muttered before he put the spirit stone inside his pocket instead of putting it inside the inventory to let it continue recovery spirit energy. He then looked at the front and saw arge, brightly lit area. The capital town was bigger than what Aren expected. However, he saw that the extreme right of the town was wreathed in mes, and several lights were moving around. There were three giant me pirs in that area, and a burning cloud was moving around, being chased by a purple light. Cerity, Ketu, and Klen became solemn as they judged that the situation was severe. *BOOOOOOOM...* A loud boom resounded as Aren saw a giant st at the left-most area of the capital town. "Aren, we will have separate from here," Cerity said as she took out a token and handed it to Aren, "outer barrier of the capital town is already destroyed, but the central one is still intact, go straight to the center of the town and show this token to enter there." Ketu and Klen already started flying towards the left gate of the capital town, and Cerity also flew away after handing the token to Aren. Aren mounted his sword as the barrier around him disappeared and descended on the ground. He didn''t want to fly high in the sky and attract some powerhouse''s attention. He started running but still kept his sword out as it hovered vertically behind his back. He also took out Oberon chakram and let it hover on top of his head. After running for five minutes at full speed, he saw the town walls and a gate that led to the central area of the town. There were two guards and ten knights stationed at the gate. The knights were outside the gate and saw Arening towards them. "Halt!" Aren stopped and took out the token before pointing it towards the knights. The head knight saw the token and then looked at Aren before saying with a frown, "who gave you this special guest token?" "Someone calleddy Cerity gave me this token," Aren answered inly. "Impossible, they went out to finish a troubling task at Dusalmeir duchy, which was most probably set up by Gordril kingdom," the head knight said while shaking his head, "we have already contacted the duchy''s pce and told them to inform the three of them to return immediately." "Did you send someone to inform them? What if the Dusalmeir duchy''s pce was destroyed, upied by the enemy, and they received your contact instead?" Aren questioned. The head knight was dumbfounded to be questioned by Aren and snorted, "we have also sent a person there as well." "Ohh..," Aren nodded before he smiled, "then call that person back becausedy Cerity and the other two with her are already here. After dropping me, giving me this token, and telling me toe here, they directly went to the left gate of the town to fight against the enemies." At this moment, another knight arrived from the inside and spoke with excitement, "head knight, good news! Lightning maiden Cerity, shadow Ketu, and aegis Klen have returned! They are already fighting against the enemies at the left gate." "I was spying around the blood-spiring valley and heard that this was a plot by the enemy kingdom. So I bought them here right after they finished the troubling task at the Dusalmeir duchy," Aren said with a smile, "now do you believe that this token was given to me bydy Cerity?" The head knight half bowed and said, "I apologize for doubting you, but I have to do that at this dire time," the head knight then smiled and gestured Aren to enter, "wee to the Fitent Capital town of the Forcrent kingdom." After he entered inside, he was surprised by the level of cleanliness and exquisiteness of this ce. A person donned in guard armor arrived in front of him and greeted with a smile, "hello, special guest. My name is Trion, and I will be guiding you to the guest pce." Aren shook his head before saying, "I want to know some things first. Can you tell me how many powerhouses are there in the kingdom? And what about the enemy kingdom that''s attacking right now? Do you know about their strength?" Trion smiled pridefully and said, "our kingdom has ten epic stage powerhouses, and our king is a legendary powerhouse. On the other hand, the enemy kingdom has eight epic stage powerhouses, and their king is a legendary powerhouse. However, it was rumored that their queen would soon be a legendary powerhouse some time ago. "However, our archduke Melzar is also close to bing a legendary powerhouse," Trion clenched his fist and said, "we will definitely defend ourselves andunch a counter-attack towards those bastards!" "I see...," Aren nodded before he looked in front and asked, "these stores are still open in this situation. So, do you know if a skill store is open as well? If so, can you lead me there?" "Sure, follow me," Trion nodded and said as he turned around and started walking. "The stores must be kept open precisely for some emergency supply," Trion said while walking. After two minutes of walking, they arrived at the skill store and entered inside. However, Aren was surprised as he looked at a person standing at the counter as if finishing his purchase, ''he is from the earth.'' -Name: Makren Vroy -Level: 20 [Stored Exp: 117,850] -Path: Elzardic Asunder [ Level: 8 ] -Spinergy Method: Kronan Wisp Spinergy Method -Body Health: [ 3200/3200 ] -Soul Health: [ 170/170 ] -Life Stage: Mortal-3 -Spirit Energy Pool: [ 12,200/12,200] -Soul Energy: [ 700/700 ] -Mystic Field: 0/150 points -[Stats] -Abilities:??? -Skills:??? ''Dang, he got more spirit energy than me...and he is also stuck at level 20.. What is the block at level 20?'' Aren wondered as he walked towards the counter with the guard. Chapter 87 - Mackren "Asura". Expensive Skill Stones. "Hey, Aalgur. This guest wants to buy some skills. He is a special guest, so be sure to give him some discount," Trion said to the store manager. Makren looked at Aren and was also surprised to see Aren, "Hey bro, you are from our world, right?" "Yeah," Aren nodded and said before thinking, ''this guy looks like he is in histe twenties. Hmm, he should be on the world leaderboard considering his status. His path also sounds powerful but don''t know what it can do from its name alone.'' "Oh, so you are an otherworlder?" Trion said in surprise while looking at Aren, "we have no problem with otherworlder, but some people don''t like them, so be careful. Anyway, you can tell the manager about what rank of skill you want. I''ll be waiting outside now since I have no business here." "Sure," Aren nodded as he saw Trion leaving. He then turned to the manager and said with a cough, "Ahem, I might not be able to afford the skill right now, but I still want to look at S-rank skills. More specifically, I want concealment-type skills." The manager nodded with a smile as he went inside the store to get S rank skill stones. "Hey bro, wh-" "Aren," Aren smiled and said, "you can call me Aren." "Aren, hahaha. You can call me Makren," Makren said with augh before he grinned, "by the way, my nickname is Asura, and I am currently ranked 9th on the World leaderboard. What about you?" Aren shook his head with a weak smile and said, "I am not that strong. My name is not in the top 100 of the world leaderboard." "By the way, is your path power about controlling things?" Makren said as he pointed at the sword and chakram, "they look different than normal weapons. They are more like sci-fi weapons, hahaha." "Yeah, what about your path''s power? If you don''t mind telling me," Aren nodded and asked with curiosity. Makren said with a confident smile, "my path is called Elzardic Asunder. Hehe, watch me." After he finished speaking, Makren transformed as a red and ck aura covered him. His entire body was filled with red and ck vein-like patterns. A secondter, Aren saw a devilish pair of ck-red wings appearing behind Makren''s back, two curved ck-red horns grew on his head, and demonic armor with ck and red patterns coated his body. There were also demonic shoulder tes with two holes that lit up ck-red mes along with the patterns on his armor. "This is the first form, Darkin Elzard. I get different skills in this form, and my normal skills are also enhanced with Darkin Elzard''s power. I get ess to unique energy as well. Recently when I leveled up my path to level 8, I unlocked my second form with talent point as well, and it''s called Qeutza Elzard, " Makren spoke with a grin. Looking at that, Aren couldn''t help but envy him because he looked so DAMN COOL and powerful as well. "That''s...some powerful path you got right there," Aren said as his lips twitched a bit. Internally, he thought, ''my path is powerful as well. Mhmm, it is. I can make gears, and I can make a cool full body armor gear in the future.'' "By the way, If you want to earn gold fast, you should go to the Guildhall here and ept some quests. I grind out for gold here to buy skills, and now I am going to a dungeon that''s twenty kilometers from here," Makren said as he patted Aren''s shoulder. "Hahaha, I am a solo-type of guy, and that dungeon is really dangerous, so I can''t carry you there; otherwise I would," Makren said with augh before he spoke with confidence, "anyway, we can definitely save our world from despair, so let''s work hard. Alright, see youter if there''s a chance." Aren nodded as he saw Makren leaving the store. "Optimistic guy. Well, that''s good as long as he remains cautious as well," Aren muttered and waited for two more minutes before the store manager arrived with three boxes. He put the box on the table and said, "I have only three S rank concealment-type skills." "This first one is skill, and it''s the most expensive one, at 15,600 gold. It will make you invisible to the naked eye, but it only works in the day and ces with bright lights. " the store manager pointed at the first box. He then pointed at the second box and said, "the second one is skill. It can conceal your presence and change the pigments of your skin to blend in with the surroundings. It only works in the jungle and ces filled with nature like mountains, caves, rivers, etc. Naturally, you can''t move while this is active, or it will have a weird effect. So this skill is best used when you want to spy while staying at one ce or hunt preys in the jungle. This skill cost 13,200 gold coins." Afterward, the store manager pointed at the third box and said, "the third skill is . Its price is 12,400 gold coins. It doesn''t make you invisible to the naked eye but entirely erases your presence and any kind of energy readings from your body. However, if you use skills with spirit energy, the effect will be deactivated." Aren smiled with a bit of helplessness and said, "Well, I only have 1000 gold coins right now, but I want to book that skill if possible. After I collect enough gold coins, I wille to buy it." The store manager thought for a moment and nodded with a smile, "I don''t want gold coins in advance, but I will book it for ten days. Today is Axel 11th date, so the deadline will be Axel 22th. If someonees to buy that skill stone, I will tell them about the deadline as well." "Thanks. I will definitely buy it before the deadline," Aren said with a smile before he left the shop. After leaving the shop, he approached Trion and said, "can you give me ess to that tower over there? I want to watch the battle happening at the corners of this capital town." Trion looked at the tower before he spoke with some speechlessness, "no offense, but from your aura, you are a mortal lifeform, and I doubt you can observe the corners from the town with your current eyesight." Aren looked at the Trion and smiled as his eyes pulsed with a blue glow, "my eyes are a bit special. All corners from this central tower are approx 6 kilometers long, which is also the limit of my eyesight." As long as it was within 6 kilometers, Aren could see everything clearly and even zoom in on specific parts by focusing. "Alright, follow me," Trion said as he led Aren towards the central tower, which was also the tallest tower in this town. While walking, Aren sighed in disappointment at not receiving any quest about the ongoing war, ''maybe it didn''t appear since I am not involved in it, or not near the front-line? However, I can''t risk going to the front lines. I almost died just recently, and it was a terrible feeling.'' ''Anyway, I can do other things while observing the battle.. Also, since I informed Cerity and others about this war, then if the kingdom sessfully defended itself, I might get some kind of reward as well.'' Chapter 88 - Progress. Warrior-rank. Aren was at the top of the tower, and there were two more people here with a telescope in their hands and were looking around in all directions. Naturally, the telescope in their hands was far better than Aren''s eyesight since it was an item powered by spirit energy and a crystal material that could zoom into things. The three didn''t bother with Aren since they were doing their job and just told him not to bother them in these dire times. A while ago, when he was climbing the tower with Trion, he erased one of Aren''s worries saying that since this central district in the town is an area of Guildhall and even if the enemy kingdom wants to destroy and conquer this capital town and kill the king to conquer the kingdom, they wouldn''t harm the Guild''s property. The Guild is a giant entity with a presence in every single power in this world, be it organizations, kingdoms, empires, etc. And otherworlders can remain safe if they go into Guildhall on a condition that they did not officially affiliate them with any individual power like a kingdom, organization, or empire, etc. Every branch of the Guild had a teleportation formation that connects to each Guild branch and headquarters, so if someone messed with the Guild''s property, they would be entirely erased from the map. Hearing that, Aren had an idea of officially joining the Guild as its staff member, but...Trion shook his head with a weak smile and said that....to be the staff member of any guild branch in any town is easy and risky both. For instance, if Aren wanted to be a staff member in the Guildhall of this town, he...would have to affiliate himself with the Forcrent Kingdom. So if by chance Forcrent kingdom lost, then the head of the Guild branch here would kick them out and give them a chance to escape. If the enemy decided to chase this kicked-out staff and they couldn''t run away, they might die. All of that is already written in the agreement before anyone decides to join the guild branch. However, to be a true member of the Guild, one needed to be at least a Legendary Lifeform and pass the test at the headquarter of the Guild in the mysterious Trichrone region. First and foremost, finding the Trichrone region and the Guild headquarter was the first test in itself. Aren shook his head as he didn''t have time to do all that since he was still a Mortal lifeform. He was training in the Demon Yakum''s spinergy method while observing the battle. Naturally, he was using 400 spirit energy per five minutes instead of 500 spirit energy, fearing that he might make a mistake with a load of 500 spirit energy roaming in his meridians since he was also observing the battles. He saw Cerity bringing out red, ck, and green lightning as well, and she was actually doing so many things at once. He didn''t observe Ketu since he was speedily roaming and exchanging blows with the enemy at a fast pace. After an hour, he turned to the right side and observed the battle there, which was even more dynamic. Giant me pirs, dark red and orange energy manifestation of various birds as they exploded in the face of other people who were defending with their skills and attack as well. A giant round water wheel was spinning in the sky, spreading out dark blue crystals as they releasedser beams. It was a chaotic battle as twelve people were fighting each other. None of them had fixed opponents as they brutally rotated to take down and try to injure each other severely. Three hours passed, but the battles were still ongoing as it seemed that none of them had run out of energy yet, ''guess they must have high-grade spirit stones with a high stock of spirit energy in them.'' Aren counted people, and ording to that, he judged that the Legendary powerhouses from both sides hadn''t fought yet. Or maybe they''re fighting but at another ce? He didn''t know. [Congratualtion! You have reached 5% progress in your Spinergy Method''s 1st stage, your spirit core has been slightly refined, and your spirit energy pool''s capacity has increased by 150.] Aren saw this before he continued training while observing the battle. Another hour passed, and it was a dead night right now, but everyone was still awake. "Sigh...if only I got some kind of quest, "Aren muttered as he had spent all of his spirit energy from his spirit energy pool and even both spirit stones. [Spinergy Method: Demon Yakum''s Spinergy Method] -Current stage: 1 (Progress: 5.18%) -->[+150 Spirit energy capacity] -Purple Spectrum: stage 1 (2.4%) -ck Haze: stage 1 (2.4%) -Hell ze: stage 1 (2.4%) Level 1 Purple Spectrum: Increase heaviness or lightness of user''s spirit energy applications on things like skills, ability, etc., by 12.4% (ording to user''s will.) Level 1 ck haze: Decrease all types of defense of enemies by 12.4%. Level 1 Hell ze: Inflict injuries with 12.4% heal reduction debuff. Aren was bored of observing the battle as he felt that there was no use observing it anymore. This war was not going in a way as he expected. He descended the town and started walking towards the Guildhall to ept some quests. After showing his id card, the staff there put his guild id card on a crystal te and assessed Aren''s rank was surprised. "Huh? howe your guild ID card''s rank is warrior-rank even though you are still mortal lifeform?" The staff strangely looked at him before he asked, "did you participate in a high-level dungeon and fought high-grade monsters?" Aren was a bit confused about getting the warrior-rank part. Still, he nodded in agreement with other things, "Indeed, I was dragged into a hidden dungeon and also participated in high-level battles." "But how do you know about it?" Aren asked with confusion. The staff man said with a smile, "this guild id card has such a mysterious function to assess that and turn it into experience points. ording to the experience points stored in your card right now, It just upgraded to warrior-rank after I put it on this crystal te." "I see, then It means I can ept higher-level quests, right?" Aren asked with a grin. "Eh...sure, It''s not strange to pick them if you are powerful enough. This id card is proof of that," the staff man nodded as he gave back the guild id card to Aren. "Great," Aren nodded with a smile before he went to the quest board. This Guildhall was far vaster than the Guildhall in Dusalmeir town and had a lot more quests. After spending thirty-minute, he epted a total of twelve quests that each gave him 500 to 600 gold coins and some potions with different effects. There was a striking simrity between some of those quests and it was that all of them required one to kill a specific powerful beast in different locations while some required Aren to gather body parts as materials. For that, he also had to buy a map that cost him 800 gold coins, and three tools that cost him 150 gold coins. Chapter 89 - Legendary Mountain After making preparations about quests, he asked a stranger if there was any beast tamer here and found there was indeed a beast tamer hall in this town. After going to the beast tamer hall and asking the price to hatch the S-grade Egg he got, he smiled weakly and left. ''damn...twenty thousand gold coins to hatch the egg in one day?'' Aren thought while shaking his head, ''It looks like I will have to collect more golds for this as well. But I''ll do it at a different ce as I will move ording to the n I made.'' After leaving the Beast tamer hall, he left the town and started flying in the north direction. The nearest quest was located in Furjin''s mountain that was fifteen kilometers away ording to the marks he made on the map by reading the details in the quests. [Quest: Crystal Feathers.] --> Kill Crystal Feathered Hares in Furjin''s mountain and collect their crystal feathers. -->Collect a total of 20 intact crystal feathers. -->580 gold coins. -->Two umon Agility boost potions. ording to information, the crystal feathered hares were not dangerous, but...they lived in a hazardous environment filled with other powerful beasts and monsters. The Furjin mountain was such a ce, a hazardous one. Aren had put both of his spirit stones in his pocket as they gradually recovered their energy. His spirit energy pool was also recovering its energy as he flew among the clouds on his sword. ''If I can create a full-body Articule gear of armor-type, then my flying maneuverability will increase by a few notches. After all, if I wear an armor that I can fully control myself, I can move my body with extreme precision,'' Aren thought with a bit of excitement as he was looking forward to making such armor. Although he would need a lot of materials for that, Aren had decided that his next goal is to make a full body armor-type Articule gear. ''Should I open that blueprint box now or wait for a luck-increasing chance to open it together with Armalist box?'' Aren fell into thought for a moment before he decided to be patient with it. "I''ll wait...There''s bound to be some luck-increasing aspects in this magical world," Aren muttered while flying. He was not going at full speed right now since he wanted to recovery spirit energy in his spirit stone. One thing that Aren liked was that aftering back from his near-death experience, he was healed by Klen and purified by Cerity''s mystical purifying lightning, which ended up increasing his mental strength slightly and removing all of the fatigue that he had umted by staying hidden at Blood spring valley. He had almost spent two days with high-tension, especially when he was creating his first articule gear. But Klen''s healing and Cerity''s purifying lightning benefited him, so he didn''t need to sleep now and could continue with his adventure to get powerful. With his current mental strength, Aren felt that he could go without sleeping for 3-4 days, so he wanted to finish these twelve quests before leaving the Wild Expanse and having a good sleep in the highway hotel of that elder. ... After an hour, he finally reached the Furjin mountain. The mountain was huge and also very tall, approximately eight thousand meters tall. Snow and frost filled this mountain and the whole area surrounding the mountain as well. "Legendary mountain? So even some mountains have grades," Aren muttered because when he focused on the mountain, he got some information because of his Astral-X eyes. [Frost Devil Furjin Mountain] -Grade: Legendary. -Note: Many years ago, this whole mountain was contaminated by a legendary frost devil who died here. His residue power mutated many spirit beasts and other lifeforms as well. He descended on the mountain but not at the very top since he saw some flying beasts there and didn''t want to attract their attention. So, he descended to the middle of the mountain, specifically three thousand meters altitude from the base of the mountain. While descending, he activated the skill and sneakily flew at the ground-level on his sword while muttering, "it''s really cold here, but not the same cold as I felt on Earth. It''s like the clothes I wore have no effect of blocking this cold from affecting my body." [Your movement speed and flying speed is decreased by 10% while you are in the range of this mountain. Your frost resistance is reduced by 10%.] [Note: you have -10% frost resistance. You will take 10% more frost damage and will be more prone to cold and frostbites.] "Great," Aren muttered, but he was determined to finish the task here as quickly as possible and without wasting time on taking other needless risks. After three minutes of sneaking forward in the mountain, he saw a deadly frost bear with frost armor covering its body and deadly frost ws. [Frost ted Bear] -level: 41 -grade: B -lifeform: Supreme-2 -bloodline: Frost Devil Earth Bear. -Health: [11,200/11,200] -Defense: Physical [2300] Energy [2100]. -Attack: Physical [7400] Frost [7900]. -Note: Weak against fire,va, and hot powers. Because of the < Chemo Mask> skill, the bear hadn''t noticed Aren yet. So Aren continued moving behind the bear''s back. The bear was standing and looking in the other direction. There was also a cave beside the bear, probably its home. However, Aren suddenly paused because he saw a Crystal feathered hareing out from the cave that was right beside the bear. "Nice," Aren muttered as he took out his chakram before making a n in his mind about executing the bear as fast as possible. ''Aember magic energy using soul energy will give significant damage boost to the chakram. On top of that, I will use the ability and also use the skill which will increase the damage of the chakram even more since it would enhance both Demonic me and Aember magic energy. On top of chakram''s own damage and its perk, which will increase the pration aspect of all powers on it by 20%, I should be able to one-shot that bear,'' Aren rapidly thought before he made the decision and attacked. *Swizzzzzzzz...* The chakram wrathed in dark-purple mes along with magical red and orange sparks flew towards the bear''s neck while spinning rapidly. The bear sensed danger and even turned around, but the chakram had already hit its neck, and after a second of resistance, its neck flew away. [-13,570] "Great," Aren grinned as he finished the task wlessly. The bear couldn''t even let out a single sound before it died. He consumed 100 soul energy and 100 Aember mutant magic energy. He had already found that if he invoked mutant magic energy using his soul energy, It bes very potent. "Time to harvest the feathers." Chapter 90 - Dreadful Encounter. /N: I made a mistake on the creatures'' grades, From now on, the grades will be changed. The bear''s grade has been changed from Rare to B in the previous chapter. The grades of creatures are based on their inborn talent and bloodline. Higher grade creatures are more powerful even if they are lower level. The lowest grade is D.] -------- [Frost ted Bear killed. 850 Exp gained.] After killing the bear, Aren threw a seed of the skill towards the Hare. Since he had mastered the skill by manually executing it many times when he attacked that Blood Hexa Entity and also reached max level in the skill, he had pretty high control over it. So he skipped some steps and removed the st effect when he executed the skill and only kept the vine effect. The seed flew towards the Hare, but before hitting the Hare, it released a vine, which rapidly snared the Hare. The Hare looks exquisite because of the four crystal feathers behind its back and a single frost horn on its forehead. Those four crystal feathers shone with beautiful dark blue luster and blue ocean patterns on them. The Hare was weak and couldn''t do anything while trapped by the vine. Aren took out a sickle-like tool and cut off its four crystal feathered carefully before sending them inside his inventory. After doing that, he went inside the cave, and to his pleasant surprise, he found three more Hares there. Aren hurridly trapped them before they could run away and collected their feathers as well. "Now, I only need to collect feathers from one Hare. Well, this went faster than I expected," Aren muttered as he left the cave and used his skill, the before moving up on the mountain again while wondering if that Bear and Hares lived together in that cave. Aren continued to move carefully and bypassed some beasts because they couldn''t sense his presence. After ten minutes, he found another cave and decided to go in there. "There might be Hares inside," Aren muttered as he slowly made his way towards the cave from the side and peeked inside the cave. The cave was spacious, and it had an additional path to the left inside. Seeing that there was no one inside the cave, Aren entered the cave without making any sound since he wasn''t sure if there was anyone deeper in the cave. When he arrived at the point where the new path inside the cave began, he stopped and peeked inside again, only getting startled. There was a pond inside, and four Hares were moving around the pond and eating some flowers and nts beside the pond. However, the thing that startled Aren was a creature swimming in the pond. It was a two-headed snake. It was quite big and had dark blue icy scales on its body. Its thickness was at least forty centimeters, and its length was seven to eight meters long. It was swimming in the pond while raising its head, so Aren instantly saw it when he peeked there. [Frezard Friggid Scaled Serpent] -level: 37 -grade: S -lifeform: Supreme-1 -bloodline: Frozen Lagoon Devil Hydra. -health: [21,200/21,200] -defense: physical [4100] energy [3850] soul [350]. -attack: physical [9400] Ice [10,200] -skills: ?? -abilities: ?? -note: weak against fire,va, and hot powers. ''Its level is lower than that bear, but it''s more powerful than the bear. I guess it''s rted to their grades.'' Aren thought as he looked at the creature''s information. Aren didn''t know what those grades were based off, but ording to his guess, It should be rted to their bloodline and their innate powers. These creatures might also experience fortuitous encounters, making them stronger. The prime example is this mountain. All of these creatures'' ancestors received a powerful boost and mutated because of the Legendary Frost Devil that died here. Looking at the dangerous attack power of this creature, Aren really didn''t want to mess with it. ''If even one of its attacks hit me, I am dead,'' Aren thought with a frown as he went back as he didn''t want to continue looking at the snake lest he attracts its attention by mistake. ''Its defense is not much, but I can''t kill it in one shot even if I attack it byyering multiple powers on one attack, just like how I killed the bear. Hmmm...'' After thinking for a few moments, Aren decided to leave the cave and search for a Hare in other ces. He didn''t want to take unnecessary risks here since there were be sure Hares in other ces on this mountain. He continued using the skill every five minutes and spent twenty minutes searching the mountain while being cautious before he finally found a pair of Hares. ''Phew...finally,'' Aren thought as he hurridly released a seed of and trapped the Hare. He was feeling unknown pressure since ten minutes ago and just wanted to leave this ce as soon as possible. So he hurriedly collected the crystal feathers of the Hare before controlling his sword and flew up with full speed. *boom..* A sonic boom resounded as he broke the sound barrier, but he said fuck it in his mind as he just wanted to leave. After flying at his full speed and leaving the range of the legendary mountain, he looked back and instantly felt cold sweat trickling down on his back. ''What the fuck...,'' Aren thought as he saw that a hazy dark blue fog surrounded the top of the mountain, and he could see an outline of a strange giant creature in that fog. Two big brightnterns burning with grey-blue mes were clearly visible to Aren from the outline of that creature...which he guessed were the eyes of the strange creature. He focused a bit and found its information, but it was most of the ???. [Nether Reaper Ghost] -Grade: ??? -Lifeform: Legendary-2 -??? -??? -??? ... ''Damn...A legendary being?'' Aren was speechless to have encountered such a strange creature, a Ghost no less, on this mountain. The ghost was hovering on the mountain and wasn''t seem to be attacking anyone. It just hovered there. ''I wonder what it is doing there?'' Aren wondered but didn''t waste time thinking about it since it was none of his business. He just turned his head to the front and continued flying at full speed for two minutes before stopping on a giant tall tree. He took out the map to look at the location of the 2nd quest before he resumed his flight in a specific direction. Chapter 91 - Three Days. [ Destructo ] [Quest: Kill Royal me Lion and collect its crown. Completed.] ... [Quest: Harvest Lapis Mist Pearls from Flodua ms in Flodua Pond. Completed.] ... [Quest: Collect two Eldric Rhino''s horns. Completed] ... [Quest: Harvest Moonfire Flowers at the top of Arankoid teau. Completed.] ... ... ... Aren spent the next three days running around andpleting quests. All quests he epted were about collecting and harvesting some sort of item. Now only one quest was left, and he was currentlypleting it. Thisst quest also proved to be the most troubling quest. [Quest: collect the entire skeleton of Silverme wolf in Ashenmoon Valley.] He had to collect the entire skeleton of a Silverme wolf. The Silverme wolf was a rare wolf that would only be born once in a while in Ashenmoon valley. He had to spend three hours searching for it carefully in that valley before he finally found it, and to his bad luck, the Silverme wolf was as powerful as the serpent he encountered on the Legendary mountain. However, this valley was not as dangerous as the legendary mountain, which was a plus point. *growl...* [Silverme Wolf] -level: 35 -grade: S -lifeform: Supreme-1 -bloodline: Mercury Wolf Lord. -health: [23,120/23,120] -defense: physical [3940] energy [2990] soul [350]. -attack: physical [8,100] me [10,740] -speed: 70 meters per second at full speed. -skills: ?? -abilities: ?? -note: Weak against sharp water powers and other powers with high pration characteristics. Aren was just running around right now and was not attacking the wolf. However, the wolf was releasing condensed silver me bullets by waving its tail that was on silver fire. Aren was having a bit of trouble with those bullets because they were fast, and he was already hit by two bullets, causing a hole in his left shoulder and a part above the ankle on his right leg. He barely suppressed himself from involuntarily crying out in pain and gritted his teeth as he drank health potions to relieve himself from the injury and pain. ''How to kill it without hurting its skeleton?'' Aren was in a bit of a dilemma while he continued flying around, and the wolf continued to release those annoying bullets from its tail. ''Screw it, I will just find a person with healing power and give him some money to heal its skeleton,'' Aren thought as he couldn''t continue to dodge the bullets and started attacking. He used 100 points of Aember magic energy into the [Destructo] hammer and activated the hammer''s skill before attacking the wolf. After he infused Aember magic energy and used the skill, the hammer got covered in Aember magic energy, and all of its patterns pulsed with a red-orange aura. Seeing the hammering towards it, the wolf''s legs burned with silver me, and its speed increased drastically as it speedily dashed to a side and dodged the attack. ''It must be one of its skills,'' Aren thought with surprise, but then he snorted and attacked again as he controlled the hammer and changed its direction. *Smack!* [-18,440] "Hmm? That''s more than I expected," Aren muttered with surprise at the power of [Destructo]. He had only used it once, and after that, it was broken. In the previous quest, since he didn''t fight with creatures as strong as this Silverwolf, he didn''t bother using the hammer as he could one-shot them with his chakram byyering it with multiple powers to buff its damage. The wolf was half dead by that attack. Its bones were broken, Its skin burned to crisp. Seeing that, Aren waved his hand and threw a seed of the skill. The seed flew straight towards the heart of the downed wolf, and before hitting it, a straight demonic vine released from the seed as Aren pierced the wolf''s heart. [Silverme Wolf killed. 4500 Exp gained.] "That''s a lot of exp for level 35. However, this wolf rarely appears here, and its grade is high, which might contribute to this high exp from killing it," Aren guessed as he moved towards the dead wolf touched to put it inside his inventory. He then once again took a look at his [Destructo] hammer''s information. [ Destructo ] -Type: Armalist Gear, Magia Item. -Rank: tinum tier-peak grade. -Requirement: Armalist Drive+1 -Affiliated Magic: Aember core of Eturnia. -Magic Skill: Impact Burst (Aember core of Eturnia). -Damage: Physical [7990-8380], Magic [10-15,000]. -Perk: +20 STR, +20 VIT. -Trait: None. -Durability: ~ ( As a magia item, unless its magia core is destroyed, it can be repaired with its affiliated magic''s energy, Aember core of Eturnia.) -Note: Not upgradable. "It''s physical damage, plus I activated its skill by consuming 100 Aember mutant magic energy that must have caused very high damage," Aren wanted to calcte how that damage came to be. The wolf had 3940 physical defenses, so the physical damage of the hammer was 4440. But most of the hammer''s damage was from its skill which dealt magic damage as Aren used 100 Aember magic energy to activate the skill. "I need to check how much magic damage the hammer can do with 100 Aember magic energy without using skill," Aren muttered as he controlled the damage and infused another 100 Aember magic energy in it, and attacked arge boulder ten meters to his left. [-7500] *Booom...* "Wait, 7500 magic damage?" Aren raised his brows before muttering, "then I guess that wolf had 0 resistance against my mutant magic energy. Yeah, most of the creatures must have 0 resistance against this magic energy since this power could even damage that Blood Hexa Entity despite the high difference between it and me." Aren then remembered that test and wondered what kind of rewards were inside the other two Mythical gates. ''Well, no use thinking about it.'' Shaking his head, Aren focused on the current situation and attacked another boulder. But this time, he activated the hammer''s skill when infusing it with 100 magic energy. [-14,500] *Booom...* "Perfect," Aren said with a smile. 14,500+4440=18440 damage. "100 Aember magic energy is 7500 magic damage in the hammer, so 200 Aember magic energy is 15,000. That should be limited if I only attack without using the hammer''s skill and other buffs on the hammer." Aren decided to test as he infused 300 Aember magic energy in the hammer and attacked a giant tree. [-15,000] *Booom...* "Indeed. Its normal magic attack is capped at 15,000," Aren muttered before he infused thest 400 Aember magic energy in the hammer, but this time, he used that energy to execute the skill and attacked another giant tree. [-58,000] *Booom...* However, Aren got notification after this attack. [The magic core of the hammer has entered overpressure mode. Unable to use for one hour.] "Eh...? is it because I continuously used its skill?" Aren was startled, but then it made sense. The hammer''s core would surely take some burden since he continuously used its skill. [If you infuse 1000 Aember magic energy in the hammer within a five-minute time-frame, It will enter overpressure mode.] Seeing this notification in his head, Aren was surprised. That just basically answered the question he muttered to himself! "Who are you?" Aren softly spoke, "do you have a name?" "Hello? you there?" "Idiot." "You are stinky." Hearing no response, Aren shook his head with a wry smile and hopped on his sword as he flew high in the sky and moved in the direction of Forcrent kingdom''s capital town. It was time to submit the quest materials and get the juicy gold coins from the Guildhall! He also needed a good sleep since he felt mental exhaustion kicking in. ... After an hour, he reached the capital town and saw that all traces of battle were gone. ''Did they sessfully defend themselves?'' Aren thought as he zoomed in on the top of the Royal Pce and saw that the g...hadn''t changed. That means that they seeded in driving back the enemies. "Will I get something once they find out I am back to the kingdom or not?" Aren muttered as he entered through the south gate of the capital town. As he walked towards the Guildhall, he heard people talking about Cerity. After listening to a bit more talk while walking, he was surprised to know that Cerity actually.....reached the Legendary Lifeform stage. Chapter 92 - Chain Reaction Of Arens One Suggestion. "Lady Cerity, that person has returned." "Where is he?" "Guildhall." "Alright, we''ll call him after he finishes his business in the Guildhall." ... Aren had just submitted all of his quest materials except one and got the rewards of those quests. He got 6350 gold coins and... 2x umon grade Agility boost potions. 2x umon grade Strength boost potions. 2x umon grade Physical defense boost potions. 1x umon grade refined bloodstone. 1xmon grade gale gemstone. Naturally, he had yet to submit one reward, and it was the Silverme wolf''s skeleton. After leaving the Guildhall, he first went to the Apocrathy area and healed the entire dead wolf to recover its bone structure. He had to pay 70 gold coins for that. Afterward, he went to a skinning workshop and paid 20 gold coins to cut the wolf''s skeleton from its skin perfectly. "Finally done," Aren said as he left the workshop and started walking towards the Guildhall. However, two knights donned in full body armor suddenly approached him before one of the knights said in a monotone voice, "please follow us to the royal pce." Aren was surprised and asked, "are you allowed to tell the reason?" "No. But I am sure it''s a good thing," the other Knight answered Aren in a reassuring voice. "Fine, let''s go," Aren said as he rubbed his temples a bit. "You look a bit exhausted." Hearing the knight''s words, Aren nodded with a weak smile, "Yep. I was fine until two hours ago, but now, the mental exhaustion is slowly increasing since I haven''t slept for a bit more than three days." "Haha, If you got some stored life-essence, then you can use it to level up and remove your fatigue," the knight said with augh. "Stored life-essence?" Aren asked with a bit of confusion, "what''s that?" "Eh...don''t you get life-essence as a reward and some other essences after killing a living being?" Suddenly, Aren thought of something, ''wait...are they talking about Exp? Well, there is essentially no difference between the people of this world and us who came from Earth so I guess they might have Exp but in different form and name, But what about other essences he talked about?'' Aren turned to the knight and asked, "are you talking about Exp? I am from the otherworld, so...ahem, you know." "Oh, so you are an otherworlder? Well, they do have some advantage over us. However, they always disappear after three years of arriving here. ording to rumors, their worlds and they are in danger, so they get strong here to fight against the despair thrown upon them." Aren nodded with a wry smile and said, "yeah, we also have to fight unknown despair to survive. If we don''t, then we will be wiped out. This is what that voice said after it descended on our world." The knights looked at Aren with a bit of pity, but helmets covered their faces so Aren couldn''t see it. "Well...good luck. That''s all we can say." ... Inside therge royal hall of Royal Pce, Lady Cerity was sitting on one of the exquisite-looking seats. There were ten such seats, five on the left side and five on the right side. In the middle of two sections of seats was a path with a red carpet material, and at the end of the path were two thrones on a bit higher ground in this hall. Currently, four people were sitting in different seats, and a regal-looking middle-aged man was sitting on the left throne. "Cerity, are sure you became a Legendary lifeform because of the essences you got for defeating that so-called Blood Hexa Entity?" King Forcrent asked as he looked at Cerity. Cerity nodded with certainty, "I also didn''t expect to get such reward after defeating it. I didn''t check out those essences at the time after defeating that monster, but I properly absorbed them while fighting and broke through." "Cerity dealt the most damage since it was very weak against her Lightning of Purification, and that''s why she got a higher amount of reward than me, which allowed her to break the barriers to the Legendary lifeform stage and allowed us that victory in the battle," Klen said with a smile. "Strange, if you got such reward after defeating it, that creature must be quite powerful. At least, it should have Legendary lifeform potential for you to get such essence reward after defeating it," King Forcrent said. "That creature was indeed very strange. Its power was even more bizarre than its weakness. Anyway, who would''ve thought that my Lightning of Purification would damage it that much? It''s good that Aren gave us the suggestion or we might have to spend more time and energy to defeat. I might not have gotten that much essence as well in that case and I wouldn''t have broken through," Cerity said while shaking her head with a wry smile. At this time, Aren entered with the two knights and also heard Cerity''s sentence, ''uhh...of course. That strange monster was only at 43% of its full strength. I doubt even the neighbor kingdom knew what they were messing with.'' Aren felt that there was a deep history behind that Blood Hexa Entity. He felt that from the quest''s name: Wave of Corruption. ''I wonder what would''ve happened if that creature birthed with its full strength and started truly corrupting everything with its strange power?'' Aren thought, but then he internally shook his head and focused on the current situation. ''That must be the king,'' Aren thought as he looked at the middle-aged man sitting on the throne. "You may leave," the king said as he gestured the knights to leave. The knights bowed and left. "Aren," Cerity smiled at Aren before saying, "our king wishes to reward you for your contribution. Your ability to get the enemy''s weakness allowed me to defeat that monster, which directly allowed me to be a Legendary lifeform and helped us achieve victory in the battle." King Focrent nodded and said with a smile, "since you are an otherworlder, you must be in a hurry to get strong. How about I reward you with a Protective Amulet that can defend you against two attacks of Legendary lifeform beings?" "Thank you very much," Aren''s eyes shined as he nodded without any reserve before thinking, ''I wonder what''s it upper-limit? After all, there seem to be different levels in the Legendary lifeform stage as well. Let''s hope It''s higher cause I already encountered one Legendary ghost but was fortunate enough not to catch its attention.'' "Hahaha," King Focrentughed and nodded as he waved his hand, and an Amulet flew towards Aren. Chapter 93 - Leaving Town Again, Bath. Aren didn''t check the amulet right away and left the royal pce. After leaving, he started walking towards the Guildhall to turn over thest quest''s material. While walking, he took out the amulet and looked at it to get its details. [Feyron Protective Amulet] -Grade: Legendary. -Effect: Block two attacks of being at Legendary-2 and below. -Auto Protection: The amulet will automatically create a barrier around the user upon sensing the attack of Legendary power level. ''Legendary-2 and below? Hmmm...the higher grades should haverger power gaps even in mini-stages. Well, it''s just my guess. Anyway, I like the auto protection function,'' Aren thought while walking. After a while, he reached the Guildhall and turned over thest quest''s material, the Silverme wolf''s skeleton, and got 570 gold and one umon grade Pyro Bomb. [Pyro Bomb] -grade: umon -use: throw it after infusing ten spirit energy, and it will explode after five seconds. -effect: deals 20,000 fire damage and covers the ground on fire for five seconds. Aren was not impressed with this bomb because he could deal greater damage. But he still kept it instead of selling it for testing purposes. Afterward, Aren went to the quest board to select more quests because he still needed more gold to buy the skill stone he wanted. This time, Aren picked up fifteen quests that were simr to the ones hepleted. After doing that, he wanted to sleep, but he then thought of something and paused. -Level: 14 [ 0/18,000 ] ( Stored Exp: 273,220 ) "Hmmm, I guess it''s okay to level up. I really don''t want to sleep right now and just be done with this kingdom and move towards North for what I nned," Aren muttered. [You have leveled up to 15.] [Mortal ascension triggered. Prepare to receive the world''s essence to upgrade your lifeform from Mortal-2 to Mortal-3.] "Eh?" Aren was surprised to hear that, and right after that, a strange power entered his body out of nowhere. *groan...* A small groan of pain left Aren''s mouth because it felt like his whole body had millions of ants crawling over it, and he was feeling burning internally in the entire body. "Young man, are you okay?" A passerby middle-aged man asked seeing Aren''s slight painful expression. Aren forced a smile and nodded, "I am fine. Just a bit of stomachache." "Don''t eat things without properly checking them. They might taste good but prove to be bad for health. Youngster these days...," the middle-aged man left while shaking his head. "Sure, sure...," Aren nodded with a wry smile as he felt the pain starting to subside. This whole process onlysted a minute, and after that, Aren felt stronger. [Your Strength, Constitution, Agility, and Soul stat are increased by 5 points each. You will recover your health by five points every one minute unless you have received serious injuries or deep internal injuries.] Aren added four stat points to Agility and one to the soul because his Agility was the mostcking since he destroyed [Novas] gear. -Name: Aren Azrael -Level: 15 [ 0/20,000 ] ( Stored Exp: 255,220 ). -Path: Emporio Armalist [ Level: 7 ] -Mutant Magic: [Aember core of Eturnia] -Spinergy Method: Demon Yakum''s Spinergy Method. -Body Health: [ 3800/3800 ] -Soul Health: [ 158/158 ] -Life Stage: Mortal-3 -Spirit Energy Pool: [ 10350/10350 ] -Soul Energy: [ 590/590 ] -Mystic Field: 0/150 points -[Stats] "Destroying Novas surely hit me a bit hard since that gear provided me with 10 Strength and 11 Agility and with Armalist cloak activated, It gave me 8 in Strength and 9 in Agility too," Aren muttered as he looked at his stats. His leather armor was destroyed on this trip, and that also decreased his STR and AGI by 3 points. However, after getting [Destructo], He got +20 in STR and +20 in CONT. On top of that, because of the Armalist cloak, he got an additional +13 in STR and +13 in CONT. [Armalist Cloak.] -Effect 1: While the cloak is activated, Your natural control of Articule gears will be increased. -Effect 2: You will gain a portion of your Articule Gears that will be converted to stats and some special buffs. [ Ikaros: +1 STR +2 CONT], [ Destructo: +13 STR +13 CONT], [ Oberon: +8 STR +9 AGI]. The buff from [Destructo] was quite strange. [Destructo buff]: $#@%&#$#$#$ Yep, he couldn''tprehend this buff at all, so he ignored it the entire time. Maybe it didn''t activate yet? He didn''t know, but he didn''t bother with it as he felt that it would reveal itself sooner orter. ''Oh well, I don''t need Strength that much, but Agility is as useful as Constitution to save my life,'' Aren thought before he decided to buy a single armor and turn it into an Articule gear. He decided to buy one armor with a major agility perk because his Agility was reallycking. ... After thirty minutes, Aren bought a light leather armor from the Armory shop that provided a major Agility boost as a perk. It cost him 560 gold coins. [Wind Rider Leather Armor] -Rank: High-grade Gold-tier. -Perk: +15 Agility +5 Constitution. Increase wind attribute damage by 300 and grant 500 wind resistance. -Defense: Physical [420] Energy [510] Soul [20] ( Wind Resistance: 500 from the perk.) -Trait: Blend with the Wind: Lower Air resistance by 5% and gain a windshield of 1000 hit points with 0 defenses while you are flying in the sky. (Shield cool-down: 5 minutes.) Aren wore it for now and decided to use on it after leaving the capital town. "Let''s do it," Aren murmured as he left the town and started flying on his sword towards the direction of the first quest. After flying for twenty minutes, he descended near a waterfall amidst a jungle to take a bath and also upgrade his new armor afterward. He removed his clothes, put away his armor inside the inventory, and jumped into the water body under the waterfall. "Nice...," Aren feltfy and fresh even more because he hadn''t taken bath for many days now. Naturally, his sword, hammer, and chakram were floating around him and he was also cautious while bathing. Chapter 94 - Departing & Using Sage Stones It had been twenty-one days since this mysterious phenomenon descended on the Earth. By now, except for toddlers, everyone had entered the world of Myriad Mountain, Wild Expanse, at least once. People inside the Wild expanse were adventuring to get strong, and one of them was Aren, who had just returned to Focrent Kingdom''s capital with an exhausted expression. The armor he bought was destroyed on this adventure, so he was with tattered clothes right now. "Sigh...," Aren sighed as he looked at the protective amulet. The amulet had two glowing lights in it before, but now, there was only one. ... While he waspleting thest quest, which was about finding gem-crown crabs in Myriad aurora pools, he encountered a damn aquatic creature of Legendary lifeform. It was just one-meter-long squid, but it was burning in purple mes underwater, and when Aren looked at its information, he found to his shock that it was a Legendary-1 lifeform. Thankfully, he was five kilometers away from this creature and just noticed it because of its strange appearance while he was collecting the gem-crown crabs under one of the water pools in the Myriad aurora pools area. But Aren still ran away after discovering that it was a Legendary creature. He left the water by riding on his sword and just flew away with his full speed. However, a second after he left therge water pool, a dark brown barrier with golden patterns formed around him, and he heard a loud boom before he was thrown away several kilometers due to the powerful impact on the barrier that still remained intact after he was attacked by an unknown attack of that Legendary-1 creature. However, he still needed one more gem-crown crab, so he wasted one day observing the pools while being hidden before hurriedly scooping up a gem-crown crab and leaving. ... After submitting the quest materials and getting the rewards, he directly went to the skill store and bought the skill stone of the skill. After buying that, he looked at his status a bit and fell into a thinking daze. -Name: Aren Azrael -Level: 15 [ 0/20,000 ] ( Stored Exp: 290,060). ---- <-Aren-> [ Path- Emporio Armalist ] -Level: 7 [ 55,010/64,000 Exp ] -Armalist Force: [ 600/600 ] ... During this adventure, Aren had to kill creatures as well with no choice to avoid them, so he gained a total of 34,840 Exp. Right now, he was done with his business in this kingdom and wanted to start traveling north towards the Demon continent. After thinking for a while, he decided to level up instead of resting. [You have leveled up to level 16. Five stat points gained.] Aren decided to put 4 stat points in Constitution and 1 stat point in the soul. Athan felt instantly refreshed and energized. All of his exhaustion was swept away. "Wooh...," Aren took a short breath before he started walking towards the Armory shop and rebought the same armor before leaving the town. Right now, he only had 1390 gold coins after buying the skill stone and another leather armor. After leaving the capital town, he paused at the same waterfall spot to take a bath, upgrade his armor, and learn the skill from the skill stone. [Wind Rider Leather Armor] -Rank: High-grade Gold-tier. -Type: Articule Gear. -Requirement: Armalist Drive+2 -Perk: +28 AGI +9 CONT. Increase wind attribute damage by 600 and grant 1000 wind resistance. -Defense: Physical [630] Energy [770] Soul [45] ( Wind Resistance: 1000 from the perk.) -Trait: Blend with the Wind: Lower Air resistance by 9% and gain a windshield of 2100 hit points with 0 defenses while you are flying in the sky. (Shield cool-down: 3 minutes 15 seconds.) -Note: Upgradable. Afterward, Aren took out the skill stone and infused his spirit energy into it. After he did that, the knowledge regarding the skill rapidly entered his head. -Skill Level: 1 (max: 5) -Skill Rank: S -Cost: 95 spirit energy. -Effect: Make yourself blend into the surrounding nature to turn you invisible to the naked eyes and diffuse your presence a bit. The effect will be perfect if you remain stationary in one ce. Aren didn''t waste time and took out the two sage stones before grabbing each in his hands. He then closed his eyes and executed the skill and the skill before infusing their spirit energy flow into left and right sage stones, respectively. After doing that, Aren joined his hands as the two sage stones touched each other and shined before bing a single sage stone. [Due to highpatibility between two S rank skills, an SS rank skill has been created from thebination.] -Skill Level: 1 (Max: 5) -Skill Rank: SS -Cost: 125 spirit energy. -Duration: 5 min. -Effect: Invoke world essence to blend you into the surroundings, making you invisible to the naked eyes for a short duration. Your presence and spirit energy readings will also be entirely masked while the skill is active. -Note: If you do anything that uses spirit energy while the skill is active, the skill will lose its effect immediately. "Nice, let''s see how it is," Aren muttered as he learned the skill from sage stone. Two sage stones arebined into a single stone, bing the same thing as a skill stone since one can only learn the skill from it as one does from a skill stone. After all, one couldn''t use thisbined sage stone to make furtherbinations with other sage stones. Aren used the skill right away after learning it. He failed to execute it correctly the first time, making his whole body ache painfully for a few moments. However, he seeded in the next try as he felt that a mysterious coat covered his whole body from outside and inside both. Aren could see that he was blending into the surroundings, and as he moved, his body was constantly changing its aura and coating to continue his blending. However, if he moved too fast, the coating couldn''t keep up with the constant change and would disy a weird, colorful Aren. But Aren felt that this skill was perfect for now for adventuring in the wilds. Chapter 95 - Voltron Cave. Day 21 after the descent of Myriad mountain. Aren has been traveling for one day high above clouds on his sword, looking at the beautiful scenery below through his Astral-X eyes. He also trained using Spinergy Method a bit as well while travelling. *Cruuu....* Suddenly, Aren heard a loud screech and looked in the front only to see arge bird flying directly towards him as if it was taking Aren as its prey. Aren grinned as he took out his [Destucto] hammer gear and flew at the speed of 700 meters per second while controlling the hammer. He activated the hammer''s skill, consuming 100 mutant magic energy and infusing spirit energy to use his Spinergy method''s Purple Spectrum effect as well. The hammer''s weight increased to 1620 KG from 1448 KG due to purple spectrum effect as he intended to increase the weight. Naturally, the other two effects were activated the moment he used spirit energy in his hammer. Both Aren and the hammer flew side by side at the speed of 700 meters per second, heading straight to meet the flying bird monster that looked like a giant vulture but with two horns on its head , and with brown-red patterns and feathers on its body. He didn''t want to use his full speed of 1321 meters per second to attack because it would definitely break his hammer again. After two seconds, Aren stopped before three hundred meters from the monster while the hammer continued at the same speed towards the bird monster, who screeched loudly again as its beak shined as well, disying confidence that its beak could break the hammering at it. *BOOOOOOM....* [-69,490] ....The bird was sted into pieces upon meeting the hammer. [Geocron Vulture killed, 850 EXP gained.] Aren was was not surprised. After all, even though the speed was 700 meters per second, the power the hammer produced upon hitting was still 396 million joules of energy. There was no way that this supreme-2 lifeform Geocron Vulture of B grade at level 41 could survive such an attack. After killing it, Aren continued flying at full speed of 1320 meters per second in the north direction; his target, Demon Continent. After turning the new armor into an Articule gear, he feltfortable flying at his full speed because of lower air resistance. Aren took out the map and looked at it for a few moments before he changed his direction a bit. After flying for ten minutes, he stopped and descended downward. He stopped here to enter a dungeon called Voltron Cave. [Dungeon Quest: Voltron Cave] -Kill at least ten Boltron foxes creatures in the Voltron cave. -Kill the Voltron Cave boss, Boltron Foxking. -10,000 Exp. -A random lightning-type skill (Rank C to Rank A) -Umon Thunder-gem stone. "Thunder gemstone?" Aren was a bit surprised, "interesting." Aren entered the cave without hesitation, and right after that, he got a notification. [Lightning zone debuff: Lightning resistance -500. You will take 10% more lightning damage.] [Due to your lightning resistance going into negative, you will be more prone to paralyze by lightning attacks and take additional lightning damage.] Aren was not bothered by it because he had confidence in his dodging skills. His current Agility stat was 106, and with the armor on his body, he could move his body anywhere quickly. After he walked into the cave, he encountered two Boltrone Foxes. They had a light purple coat and purple tail as their body cracked with lightning. One of them directly pounced on Aren while the other opened its mouth and released a purple lightning ball towards Aren. Aren''s brain gears worked fast as he instantly dodged at the perfect spot before using the skill as two seeds wreathed in demonic me, Zarkhel hit the two foxes. His ability, the was also activated, which made the actions of the foxes slow. [-4930] [-4930] The foxes were trapped, and before they could get away, Aren controlled the chakram wreathed in the demonic me as it cleanly cut the necks of two foxes, killing them. [Two Boltron Foxes killed. 1460 exp gained.] Aren continued moving deeper into the cave and encountered Boltron foxes every now and then. However, after killing a total of ten boltron foxes, he didn''t encounter any other creature for five minutes. Nheless, he continued moving deeper into the cave, searching for the boss. After moving for three more minutes, he found another cave entrance inside this cave and felt that this was the boss cave because dark blue crystals were cracking with lightning on the cave''s wall and its surrounding. Aren didn''t directly enter but decided to upgrade himself first. Right now, he has two talent points of his path. One he gained from leveling up his path in this cave and another he had saved when he leveled up his path to 7 because he didn''t want to use it on the talent node he unlocked at that time, which was [Armalist Cloak+]. Aren was currently looking at three blinking talent nodes and could unlock only two of them. [Armalist Drive +4]: Increase the cap of your Armalist Force by 200. Gear slots increased to 10 slots total. Your control range of gears is increased to a 1-kilometer radius with you as the center.] [Emporio Portal]: A portal is formed inside the Emporio Zone, which will produce an exotic material every ten days. [Armalist Cloak+]: Your natural control of Articule gears is increased even more. Armalist Cloak skill unlocks. (You can use the skill by infusing Armalist Force in the Armalist Cloak.) Aren first looked at the EXP bar of the path, [6404/128,000], and frowned a bit, ''So the next level will require double of 128,000 exp? From the look it, that seems to be the case.'' Aren felt that he made the right decision by not using the talent point on Armalist Cloak+ when he leveled up his path to 7. He really wanted to upgrade his Armalist Drive further and not the Armalist Cloak. Well, he could unlock Armalist Cloak+ as well since he had two talent points, but the Emporio Portal seemed more enticing to him. ''The Emporio Portal is day-based talent, and the sooner I unlock it, the better because I can get more of the so-called exotic materials that way,'' Aren thought as he decided to unlock [Emporio Portal] and [Armalist Drive+4] talent. After unlocking them, his soul stat increased by 5 points as well, making Aren feel stronger. After getting ready, Aren entered the boss cave with anticipation and slight excitement. He didn''t know why but he...craved for a difficult challenge deep within him. Aren himself didn''t know the reason for this feeling, but he knew to control himself better and steer away from something that was way out of his league. As he entered the cave, he saw a two-meter tall and two-point five-meter long, slender fox with purple and dark blue patterns on its body. Lightning produced from its body, and its fluffy tail and mane constantly cracked with lightning. *sniiiiii.....crack....* The fox produced a strange whistling sound from its mouth and also the slight sound of lightning cracking before it attacked Aren directly by waving its fluffy tail, which seemed like ten lightning needles shooting towards Aren. Aren fell into a dazed state as a strange sound from the Boltron foxking entered his mind and made him dizzy. ''W-what the...'' *crackle....* [-1340] [-1340] -Health: [1529/4200] The first two lightning needles hit Aren, and that caused him to snap out of the stunned state. However, right after that, he was paralyzed. But instead of panicking, Aren controlled his hammer and sword as they arrived before him, taking the brunt of the remaining eight lightning needles. While he was stunned, he couldn''t control his gears since it requires clear thoughtmands. However, paralyze effect only affects his body and not mind, so he quickly used his gears to block the attacks instead of panicking. *Puchi....* Aren spurted a mouthful of blood as his internal organs were badly damaged, and he was seriously injured. He was feeling a lot of pain as well, and if not for a lot of pain he felt in the past that increased his pain feeling threshold, he would have most likely lost consciousness and fallen prey to this Boltron foxking. ''Damn...I guess I can''t dodge the sound attacks that affect my mind directly through my ears. Next time, I''ll have to use soul energy, even if crudely, to defend my mind from getting stunned like that,'' Aren cursed as he forced himself to stay awake while attacking the Boltron Foxking with his three gears. [You have leveled up to 17.] [5 stat points gained.] After using his exp to level up, Aren became perfectly fine and energized with full health. Looking coldly at the Boltron foxking, he released the skill by leading it by its nose using his gears so that the demonic seeds would hit it perfectly. Afterward, he finished off the Foxking with 30,000 HP easily by using 300 mutant magic energy to use of his [Destructo] hammer gear. [Boltron Foxking killed. 4000 Exp Gained.] [Dungeon quests: Voltron Cave,pleted] "It''s indeed worth saving exp to recover to perfect condition in case of serious injuries. However, I do indeed have a lot of exp," Aren muttered. -Name: Aren Azrael -Level: 17 [ 0/24,000 ] ( Stored Exp: 277,510). He saw the Thunder gemstone in his inventory and took out it to take a look. [Thunder Gemstone] -Grade: umon. -Effect: Gives a Thunder-trait to an item. Thunder trait is a sound-rted trait. This gemstone has captured the essence of thunder, which is a loud rumbling sound of expansion of rapidly heated air due to a powerful lightning sh. "I guess sound attack does bypass physical defense as long as it''s not airtight," Aren muttered as he put away the gemstone. He can use this gemstone in his creation of certain gear. Aren then looked at the world leader and saw that the top 25 had reached level thirty. That Mackren guy has also reached level 30. ''I''ll move ording to my n,'' Aren thought as he left the cave and continued towards the Demon Continent''s direction. He added four stat points to Constitution and one stat point to the soul. After flying for an hour, he found a safe-looking hidden ce and descended to upgrade his gears. Previously, he couldn''t upgrade his chakram because apparently, hecked Armalist force that needs to infuse into the gear in one go while using the skill. However, now that his Armalist force cap increased to 800, he should be able to upgrade his chakram and also his new armor gear [Wind Rider Leather Armor] which he named, [Vyrmend] as well. He descended and went inside the cave that was just ten meters wide and empty before taking out his chakram. Chapter 96 - [Precious Claws], Troubles. After upgrading his chakram and armor, Aren took out a random lightning-based skill box but didn''t open it and put it back in his inventory. He kept the random lightning-based skill box for a simr reason as he kept the Armalist Box and Blueprint box. Anyway, he was notcking in any skills, especially elemental-type skills. Since he didn''t have an affinity with lightning-element, he wouldn''t be able to use the full power of whatever skill he would get from the box. Days passed as Aren continued traveling... Day 25 after the descent of Myriad mountain. After traveling for four days, he stopped at the Star-River Kingdom. His map ended here, and he needed to buy a better map that also included the area of the Demon continent. He only knew that the direction of the Demon Continent was in the north after asking in the Focrent Kingdom but didn''t know its exact entry border. So he had decided to stop at another Kingdom in the north and buy arge map from there. On the way, he took some small breaks and had to kill some monsters. Hence, he gathered 24,600 Exp as well, but he didn''t encounter life-threatening trouble, so he didn''t level up, nor his protective amulet''s remaining protection was used. Well, he mostly yed it safe by moving high above the ground and flying carefully as he could see danger from afar with his Astral-X eyes. So after finally arriving at therge town of this Star-River kingdom, he went straight to the Guildhall. Here, he actually saw some people from Earth who had formed apany. They were four people, two men, two women. All four of them were in theirte twenties. After seeing that Aren was alone, they offered him to join theirpany, but Aren declined as his goal was Demon Continent. However, they still invited him to do a dungeon quest. "You can check the details of the dungeon quest from this map. Take a look," Granger said as he handed the map to Aren. Aren looked at the map and saw that the map covered a rtivelyrge area and included a part of the Demon Continent as well. He then looked at the ce pointed by Granger. He got the notification about whether he wanted to ept the dungeon quest or not. [Dungeon quest: Sirenel''s Aqua pce.] -Kill ten shark-warriors. (20%) -Destroy Water-Moon stone. (30%) -Kill Nadoiren Aqua King(40%) -Steal Aqua King''s eggs (if possible) (10%) -20,000 exp. -A random water-based skill ( B rank to S rank) -Based onpletion % and individual contribution. "What do you think? Do you want to do this dungeon quest with us?" asked L cheery smile. She was a vivacious woman with long wavy brown hair. Aren looked at L, who was also the most powerful among the four in their group ording to his Astral-X eyes. -Name: L -Level: 30 [stored exp: 56,003 Exp] -Path: Arcedus Rexam. -Spinergy Method: Chroma Mungenity ... ... ''She must be on the leaderboard, for sure,'' thought Aren as he gave back the map and said, "thanks for the offer, but I don''t want to do this dungeon quest." "Eh, fine. Anyway, good luck and be careful in your journey, little bro," L said with a grin. Aren smiled a little and nodded, "thanks, you all too. By the way, I want to buy a simr map as yours. Can you tell me how much it cost you?" "2500 gold coins," said Rakil. The second man in their group. "Thanks for the info," Aren said with a nod before leaving them and going towards the quest board to ept some quests to gather gold coins and buy the map. However, he was surprised by a quest and decided to do it right away. [Precious ws] -->collect ws of Dirt-bound Gophers at Grokul Meadow. --> 500 gold coins for every two pairs of ws. -->The quest owner needs 50 pairs of ws. -->Current collection: 12/50. "This is quite good," Aren murmured with a smile, ''with my eyes, it''s a piece of cake to find these things underground.'' After epting the quest, he left the town without wasting any time and flew towards the quest''s location marked on the small map he bought for 300 gold coins. He had to buy this small map for the quest because the map he purchased from the Focrent Kingdom ended at the borders of this Star-River Kingdom. After a while of flying, Aren arrived at the quest location, Grokul Meadow. Aftering here, he saw many people digging the ground, possibly wanting to dig out Gophers like him. Aren didn''t bother with them and focused on his work. He flew up again to ten meters in height before thinking while focusing his eyes on the ground, ''find Gophers...Dirt-bound Gophers,'' After a few moments, Aren saw his eyes highlighting two parts of the hundred-meter ground he was seeing. However, he acted as if he was still looking around. After a while, he descended and did some fake digging at different spots for five minutes before finally digging at the highlighted part. *Zzzzzzz....* He spun the chakram fast before manipting it to touch the ground. *kreeeeeeeee....* The chakram started shredding the ground with its sharp edges and fast spinning speed. That was how he rapidly dug the ground. *chichi..chichi...* Suddenly, Aren heard some sound and stopped digging. *shuaaaa...* [-360] With a fast speed, a creature left the soil and injured his shoulder as Aren felt a sharp pain there. Aren disregarded the pain and hurriedly threw a seed of the skill to trap the fast little gophers the size of twenty centimeters, who had shiningrge dirt-brown ws that were actually the same size as its body. After trapping the Gopher, Aren cut off its ws and let it go. "Hahaha, nice work there, kid. Now obediently, give me that pair of ws if you don''t want to get hurt." Hearing the words, Aren frowned as he turned around and saw three peopleing towards him. He saw their information judged that none of them were from each before they were supreme lifeform people. The three people were all male who looked to be in their early thirties. Aren turned cautious and looked around as he saw people shooting him, gazes filled with pity and sympathy. The three people arrived in front of him as a man in the middle spoke with a grin, "If you don''t want to give up on those ws, then, hehehe, pay 200 gold coins to us, just like all those people. You get the ws to get 500 gold coins, and we also get 200 gold coins. Hahaha, isn''t it win-win for both of us?" "So...I am supposed to give you 200 gold coins every time I find a pair of ws?" Aren asked without emotions in his voice and expression. "Yep. Our entirepany of fifty people cleared this Grokul Meadow so you low-level adventurers can peacefully dig out Gophers. So...better pay 200 gold coins every time you collect a pair of ws." "Oh, and don''t think about leaving this ce and going to another area in this Grokul Meadow because our wholepany is scattered in the entire Grokul Meadow to keep an eye on everyone and collect protection fees from them." Hearing that, Aren frowned internally, ''What the fuck...this is cutting 40% of our original quest reward.'' However, he didn''t want a frontal confrontation with them, which would result in him losing his life, so he nodded and gave them 200 gold coins. Seeing them leaving, a cold light flickered in Aren''s eyes as he had already made a n to deal with them. ''The n is good, but I need to buy the map before executing it. Sigh, it looks like I''ll have to waste more time since those bastards are taking 40% of the cut my reward.'' After twenty minutes of fake digging, he finally went to the highlighted spot. There, he dug out another Gopher before taking its ws. "Hahaha, kid. You sure are lucky. Some people have been here for over an hour but didn''t find anything." The three people arrived again for an obvious reason. Aren gave them 200 gold coins without wasting time. ''Welp. I can only give them 400 gold coins more before I have to return and submit the ws to get more gold coins beforeing here.. Sigh, what a hassle,'' Aren thought with a sigh as his eyes turned cold, and he decided that he would take revenge and get even more benefit for the trouble these bastard caused him. Chapter 97 - Kill? After getting two more pairs of ws and giving 400 gold coins ''protection fees'', he left the Grokul Meadow and flew towards the Star-river kingdom''s town. There, he submitted six ws and got 1500 gold coins. Afterward, he left the town again, but this time, he went around the meadow where there was a mountain and climbed it from behind. From the top of that mountain, he watched the meadow where people were digging the ground. "The leader of thispany should have the highest wealth. However, I don''t know if he is in this area," Aren murmured while watching. The area he was watching right now was also not the one where he first came to the meadow to dig because this mountain was not in that area. This mountain was a part of a small mountain range that bordered this Grokul meadow. ''Well, let''s observe them for a while,'' Aren thought as he positioned himself inside some bushes and also used the skill, making himself invisible and diffusing his presence as he became a part of the bush itself. ... Twenty minutester... Aren observed everything he could observe with his Astral-X eyes and decided to target one of the people who was collecting gold coins. ''I wonder if I can take his loot after killing him like in a game? Hmm...I can only know after trying it once,'' Aren thought as he went out of the bush and flew on his sword as he activated his skill for the 5th time. Aftering out of the bush, he flew up on a tree and positioned himself for the attack. There was a seven hundred meters distance between him and his target. He waited for two more minutes for his target to separate from his otherpanion before flying towards his target with full speed. His hammer was also flying beside him. *swoosh....boom.* Everyone heard a loud boom as the Aren broke the sound barrier. Aren''s target, a middle-aged man, turned back and saw a giant hammering straight towards him. But before he could defend himself with a skill, the hammer hit him and... *BOOOOOOOOOOOM...* Arge crate formed and Aren''s target was dead. *swoooooosh...* Suddenly, Aren felt burning pain before a scream left his mouth. Without thinking twice, he flew in the north direction with his full speed. ''LEVEL UP!'' Aren thought fanatically, adding 4 points to his constitution and 1 point to his soul. -Body Health: [ 4,600/4,600 ] Ignoring the notifications, Aren saw his right hand regrowing instantly. However, another sharp pain shot to his left leg. "Arghh...Kreee," Aren''s eyes became bloodshot as he suppressed his scream and gritted his teeth. He looked back and saw a woman with a glowing red and grey bow in her hand. He also saw two more arrows approaching him after his left leg was gone. Their speed was way faster than his flying speed. However, Aren hurridly maneuvered as he barely dodged those arrows and continued flying north. ... "He escaped. His aura indicated that he was just a mortal, but his speed was faster than any of us. Did your tracker arrow hit him?" A man who seemed to be the leader of thispany spoke. He had a wolf belt and wore wild clothes. The bow-woman nodded and then shook her head, "I hit him with my tracker arrow in his left leg, but...he was too weak." "Uhh...I see. So even though the mark was imprinted, it was imprinted on his left leg, which...blew up." "Yep. He also dodged my next two arrows nimbly...so we lost him for good now," the woman said with a nod. "Boss! That bastard killed my brother! I want to take revenge!" A middle-aged man spoke while gritting his teeth, "not even my brother''s corpse remained!" "The power of his attack was really high for a mortal," the leader said with a frown. He then patted the middle-aged man whose brother died before saying, "I want to take revenge as well, but...we lost track of him. None of us are faster than him." "Sigh, if only brother Junail was here," said the woman as she released a sigh. "If my big brother was here, he could have caught that rat easily," the leader nodded. "Leader, I-I want to go look for him," the middle-aged man said with an angry and hesitating expression, "he seems to be an otherworlder, and he is sure to grow faster. Once he reaches supreme or Exceed lifeform, we won''t be able to take revenge." "Fine," the leader nodded. "Thank you, leader," the middle-aged man excitedly nodded as he started dashing in the same direction as Aren. ... After flying for ten minutes straight, Aren descended at a waterfall and went behind it. The waterfall was raging, so nobody could see through the thick waterfall if he hid behind it with naked eyes. After taking a deep breath, he started sorting out his recent experience and seeing the notifications. [ "Shatter" effect of Ikaros activated.] [Supreme-2 human killed. 10,000 exp gained.] [Inventory chest gained.] [7450 gold coins gained. (50% of the gold coins in the inventory of the person you killed. ] "First, the supreme-2 human gave me 10,000 Exp. This was way above a normal supreme-2 creature." "Also, the "shatter" effect activated for the first time...well, even without it, that supreme-2 human wouldn''t have survived my 300 mutant magic energy attack of the skill," Aren muttered as he looked at his Armalist Cloak''s details. [Armalist Cloak.] -Effect 1: While the cloak is activated, Your natural control of Articule gears will be increased. -Effect 2: You will gain a portion of your Articule Gears'' power that will be converted to stats and some special buffs. [ Ikaros: +1 STR +2 CONT], [ Destructo: +13 STR +13 CONT], [ Oberon: +8 STR +9 AGI], [Vyrmend: +22 AGI, +4 CONT]. -->Ikaros: Heavy weapons will have a chance to proc shatter effect, 0.01% chance ofpletely ignoring the enemy''s physical defense. -->Oberon: All your attacks will decrease your target''s physical defense by 250. -->Destructo: #[emailprotected]&#%#$& -->Vyrmend: Wind-based attacks will deal 10% less damage to you. Your attacks speed and movement speed increase by 10%. ''Well, most of the damage I dealt with the hammer was magic damage, so the "shatter" effect was not that useful,'' Aren thought before he moved to the next thing, Gold coins. He got 7540 gold coins, and in theter notification, he found out that he gained 50% of the gold coins possessed by the person he killed. "Now, let''s see what this Inventory chest is." Aren took out the Inventory chest. [Inventory Chest] -Note 1: open it to get a random thing from the inventory of the person you killed. -Note 2: Chance to get higher rarity things depends on the level gap between you and the person you killed. If you are higher level than the person you killed, you will get the least valuable thing. -Note 3: 0 level difference-[ 0.01% chance to get the best thing.], 1-3 level difference-[1%-2% chance to get the best thing.], 4-9 level difference-[5% chance to get the best thing.], 10 level difference-[10% chance to get the best thing.], 11-100 level difference-[ 20% chance to get the best thing.], 111-999 level difference [50% chance to get the best thing. After reading the details, Aren opened the inventory chest with anticipation. "W-what the f...." Aren was dumbfounded at the item he got from the inventory. Chapter 98 - Target: Demonic Temple Aren was speechless at the thing he got from the inventory chest. "Seriously...?" He muttered as he looked at a book in his hand with the title of [ Raaji''s bizarre journey of five continents ], [ Latest edition ]. On the front page of that book was a drawing of a...naked sexydy holding a royal fan in her hand. Out of PURE curiosity, Aren opened the book and saw that it was a drawing storybook filled with ''you know what'' content. "The drawings are so lifelike," Aren muttered as he turned pages one by one hurridly and read the whole book of 108 pages in ten minutes. Taking a deep breath, Aren threw the book behind him before he jumped into the river and took a bath while keeping his clothes on. There was a bump on his middle section of the pants, and...well, after reading that book, he had to release the load, so he quickly finished with that before flying up as he continued moving towards the north. He still stood on his Ikaros sword for support even though he could now fly without it due to his armor also being an Articule gear. "I need to find another town...," Aren muttered as kept his eyes in the surroundings and constantly observed far distances with his Astral-X eyes. He needed gold to buy a map, but now that he killed that person, he can''t go back to Star-river kingdom''s capital town or any surrounding town near it to buy a map even though he had enough gold coins. So, the only choice was to find another town while moving in the North direction. After flying for thirty minutes while avoiding all obstacles, an outline of town finally entered his Astral-X eyes as Aren sped up. Aren didn''t want to waste any time here, so after entering the town, he directly went towards the store that sold maps and bought a map that cost him 3500 gold coins. This map covered the way to the Aeris Dyzen kingdom, which was situated in the Demonic continent. After buying the map, Aren left the town and flew towards the Aeris Dyzen kingdom. After flying for ten minutes, he saw a herd of [Torfire Seagul] flying in the front. Aren didn''t want to waste his time on anything and just wanted to reach the Demonic continent as soon as possible and invest his time there to get stronger. So, he decided to fly even higher and passed the herd of those monsters. On the way, whenever he saw trouble from afar with his Astral-X eyes, he would avoid them and continue flying with the only goal of reaching his destination. After flying for two days without taking any breaks, he finally entered the territory of the Demonic continent. [Notice: As you are training in a demonic spinergy method, your speed of Spinergy training will be increased by 10% in Demonic Continent.] ''Yes! I half-expected to receive some benefits, and I guess I was right,'' Aren thought with a grin, ''now the next goal is to find an active demonic post or an active demonic temple. Hmm, I should ask about them after entering a town on this continent.'' As such, Aren decided to continue flying by following the map as he chose to enter the capital town of the Aeris Dyzen kingdom, whose location was disyed on the map. After flying for ten minutes, Aren noticed that his recovery speed of spirit energy had increased a bit. ''Hmmm...It should also be rted to this demonic continent since I am training in a demonic-rted spinergy method,'' guessed Aren. He had started using after entering here because he saw some demonic birds four kilometers away. So he noticed that his current spirit energy recovery speed was 22/minpared to 18/min. Naturally, that was auto-recovery speed. He could also speed up the recovery by entering meditation to absorb the spirit energy from the atmosphere, just like how spirit stone absorbs spirit energy from the atmosphere. These stones have such function due to their nature, however. On the other hand, Aren has to meditate and focus to actively absorb spirit energy from the atmosphere to fill his spirit energy pool. The speed of actively recovering spirit energy was 180 per min. ... Aren still avoided most of the monsters and beasts as he reached the Aeris Dyzen kingdom''s capital town after six hours. When he entered the town and entered inside, he saw some humans, but they were fewpared to demonic beings. Most people here had horns, tails, and other such body additions. The first thing he did was to find Guildhall. After finding it, he entered inside and directly went to the front desk before asking the staff member behind the desk, "can you tell me about the location of any near demonic temple or demonic post?" "Do you have a map?" said the staff member, who was a short humanoid with goat horns and red skin. Aren took out the map he had from the inventory and gave it to the staff member. "Hmm, you are pretty lucky. Do you see that mountain in the extreme corner of the map? There is a demonic temple right behind that mountain. From here, it''s thirty kilometers." "Thank you so much," Aren said with a smile as he took back the map and directly left the Guildhall. After he left the town, he directly started flying towards the location of the demonic temple. The good thing was that it was not too far from this capital town, and there were no monsters around here because the area around here is kept clean by the capital town. There was no jungle or natural habitat around twenty kilometers surrounding the capital town. After steadily flying for thirty minutes while avoiding all troubles, Aren finally reached the mountain and flew over it. "This is a demonic temple?" Aren muttered with a surprised expression. Behind the mountain was a valley, and therge temple was situated in it. It...looked beautiful with its exquisite wooden structure surrounded by a neatly arranged formation of trees with pink and sun-set orange leaves. It looked nothing like the underground demonic temple that was bloody and scary. "Stop!" Two tengus with spears and scaled armor flew towards Aren and stopped him while pointing their spears at him. Chapter 99 - Demonic Temple One of the Tengus asked in a stern voice, "what is your purpose here?" Aren hurriedly took out the [Mark of Yakun] from his inventory and showed it to the Tengus. Seeing the ck card with golden patterns, the Tengus hurriedly retracted their spears and bowed towards Aren, "so it''s a bearer of great Yakum''s mark. Please forgive us for our disrespect." ... Aren was invited to tour around the demonic temple for a while, and after that, they even let him use the hot spring, which swept away his exhaustion of traveling. An hourter, Aren wasfortably sitting on a fluffy mattress wearing a kimono-like robe and eating delicious food at the low wooden table in front of him. As soon as Aren finished eating, the temple head entered the room as if he knew that Aren had finished eating. The temple head of this demonic temple turned out to be a middle-aged human with lush ck hair that reached his shoulder. "How was the food?" The temple head asked with a gentle smile. "Great. The food was really delicious. Honestly, I''ve never eaten something that delicious before." Aren said with a smile. "I have a question, however..." Aren asked as he looked around, checking the temple, "the underground temple I saw was..." Aren contemted before continuing, "really dark, evil, and filled with bad vibes. I thought this temple would be the same, but..." Aren shook his head with a wry smile. This looked more like a buddha temple but without the strict rules. "Well, there is a history behind such demonic temples. Those temples were turned that way by corrupt energy. The monsters you killed in that temple are the creations from the corrupt energy extracted by Yakum. Instead of destroying corrupted demonic temples, he made them as trials for people. You must have seen Yakum''s disciple as well, right?" "Uhh¡­ Yeah, I particrly remember him since he wanted to eat me." Aren said with a bleak smile. "Cough...Well, that was just the corrupted energy that Yakum extracted from him and turned it that way for the dungeon." The temple head said with a cough, "Also, that disciple is currently one of the Demon Lords of the demonic continent." "Demon Lords?!" Aren was surprised, "How powerful is a Demon Lord?" "Demon Lords are only inferior to the Demon King in this world." The temple head said with a smile. "What about Yakum? Is he a Demon King?" Aren asked with curiosity. "Yakum..." the temple head muttered with a mncholic expression before smiling, "Yakum is not here anymore. He was the one who unified the whole demonic continent a hundred years ago and expelled all corrupted forces." Aren was startled and frowned a bit, "I spoke to him a bit when I fought his mirage, so he shouldn''t be dead...I think." "Of course, he isn''t dead. He had just left this Wild Expanse after bing a Cmity lifeform." The temple head said with a smile, "You are from the otherworld that was recently dragged here, right?" "Indeed. You seem to know more about this matter, so...," paused Aren for a bit before he continued with a somber expression, "do you know what we will have to face in the so-called despair after two years and eleven months?" "Nope, we don''t know such things because the despair would be different for each mortal realm," said the temple head while shaking his head, "We are allowed to watch you all fight. However, no one from the wild expanse will participate in aiding either you or the despair." "Then, can you tell me how much strength do I need to get to drive back that unknown despair? What lifeform stage do I need to reach to win against that despair?" Aren asked with a determined expression. "I have observed thest battle, and I can tell that your mortal realm needs tens of Legendary lifeform beings to win. It''s possible but hard. It''s...really hard to be a Legendary lifeform in just three years. Even if one or two did seed in bing a Legendary lifeform, it wouldn''t be of much help." The temple head said with a sigh as he shook his head. "You need three factors. Luck, wits, and strength." Aren nodded with a serious expression as he stood up and took out the Mark of Yakum, "I have rested enough. Now, let''s get into the main thing." The temple head stood up and nodded before saying, "do you want to make some preparations first? Because the higher you score in the trial and the higher your performance, the better the rewards you will get. You other-worlders will have to work hard and grasp every opportunity thates your way." "Every opportunity?" Aren muttered as he remembered the bloodline orb in the inventory. He looked at temple head and asked, "This world is magical and filled with wonders, so I suppose there should be a power that can help an individual increase his luck, right?" "There are indeed such powers that can increase your luck," the temple head nodded with a smile, "Mythical Lucky gems, Sacrificial Altars in which you can exchange your lifespan for luck, a rumored fortune Mystical Cat that brings fortune to you, and many other things. Oh, actually, you can collect a demonic artifact that can increase your luck if you score high in the trial." "Really?!" Aren''s eyes shone, "What kind of artifact is that?" "Eh...actually," the temple head wiped some sweat from his forehead before saying with a weak smile, "It''s a dangerous demonic artifact because it increases not only your luck but also your bad luck. It''s random." "Anyway, you should first focus on the trial and get as high a score as you can. After the trial ends, your score will be converted into demonic points with which you can buy things from a special shop. That demonic artifact is one of the items in that special shop, and you will know more about it at that time." The temple head said with a wry smile. Aren bowed and cupped his fist before saying, "I hope to receive your aid in the preparation that I want to do. If you ca-" "Hahaha. As long as it''s within my limits, I will help you." The temple headughed and said as he patted Aren''s shoulder before saying, "What kind of help do you need?" A sharp gleam shed across Aren''s eyes, ''It''s time to make use of that exotic material.'' Chapter 100 - Elevation & Power Up. "Here are the two Rare-grade [Force Lv.1 Spirit Stone] and the other materials you asked for." The temple head gave the two spirit stones to Aren before taking out ten ores of two different types from his inventory and piling them in front of Aren. "But why do you need them? Do you know how to forge and craft items?" Aren smiled and nodded, "I know, but my method of crafting is a bit different." After saying this, Aren touched the pile of ores and stored them in his inventory. "Now, I have onest request; I want a private room where no one can disturb me." Aren spoke with a serious expression, "No one cane inside before I am done." "Haha, that''s simple. Follow me." The temple head said with augh as he led Aren to another room inside the temple, which had a secret passage that led to an underground cave. Inside the cave, six abodes were lined up on the shore of an underground river. "You can enter this abode and lock it from the inside. No one besides you can enter once it''s locked," the temple head said with a smile, "this is where other people in the temple and I meditate sometimes." "Thank you very much." Aren bowed with a grateful expression before he entered the abode. ... Aren locked the abode with a strange key after entering inside. The key looked like a silver metal card with carvings on it, and once he put it on a stone tablet, it briefly shined before he saw a magic circle of a sort on the door. Aren looked at the walls of this round abode and was surprised at their durability. ----- -Defense: Physical [10,000] / Energy [10,000]. -Durability: [30,000]. ----- After looking at the tough structure of the abode, Aren sat down on a fluffy mattress and...disappeared. Naturally, Aren entered inside his Emporio Zone. There wasn''t much of a change in this mystical dimension of Emporio Zone except for a 2-meter tall portal in the corner. That portal was none other than histest talent, Emporio Portal. A countdown was disyed on top of the portal in a holographic manner. [4 days, 12 hours, and 32 minutes until a random exotic material is produced from the portal.] "Four days...," Aren muttered while falling into his thoughts. ''At first, everyone was stuck at level 20 for a while before they progressed. So, there should be a block at that point, and...it should be rted to the [Spirit Core] and the spinergy method if my guess is right since that guide in the Guild-hall also said that we need to refine our core and increase its rating before we can breakthrough. Hmmm¡­'' After thinking for a moment, Aren left his Emporio Zone and came outside as he decided on his next course of action. "Let''s start." ----- -Level: 18 [0/26,000] (Stored Exp: 267,410). ----- Aren used his stored exp to fill his experience pool and leveled up twice in rapid session. [You have leveled up to 20] [10 stat points gained] [Leveling to 21 will require your mortal spirit core''s rating to be 10] [Your spirit core needs more refinement and enhancement through your spinergy method. Train more in your spinergy method to increase the spirit core''s rating. Current rating: 4] "My previous spirit core rating was 7.5, and I increased it to 10 by training in Demon Yakum''s spinergy method, allowing me to be Mortal-3. It''s also rted to the quality of the spinergy method, which helped me readily reach a rating of 10 on my [Spirit Core] of the Mortal-2 stage," Aren thought. Aren''s spinergy method was Mythical-grade, which must also have its own influence on the speed of getting a 10-rating spirit core in each stage. Before he started training in his spinergy method, Aren distributed 8 stat points to his Constitution and 2 stat points to his Soul. "Let''s start..." Aren muttered as he closed his eyes and started meditating. He started using not 200, not 400, but 600 spirit energy in each cycle to train in the Demon Yakum''s spinergy method. Feeling that he could handle the usage of more spirit energy after finishing a cycle, he increased his spirit energy usage to 700 in each cycle. He felt some difficulty with the load of 700 spirit energy in each cycle, but afterpleting one cycle, he felt he could manage it somehow and decided to go with this flow. Time passed as Aren solely focused on training in his spinergy method. He lost track of time but he didn''t pause his training. He had taken out all the spirit stones, so he didn''t think he would be short of spirit energy in this training session. Especially with the two Rare-grade spirit stones. ----- [Spirit stone I] -Grade: Rare -Effect: Contains Force Lv.1 spirit energy [30,000/30,000]. ----- ... After training for who knows how long, Aren received a notification. [Your spirit core can not handle any more refinement & enhancement from your spinergy method. Level up to 21 as soon as possible and upgrade your spirit core before it bes unstable and breaks] Aren shot open his eyes and leveled up quickly using some of his stored exp points. "Urgh...," Aren suddenly felt pain coursing through his whole body while also getting rity like never before. His body was feeling pain, while his soul was feeling warm and fuzzy. [Congrattions! You have leveled up 21!] [5 stat points gained] [Your Mortal spirit core has upgraded. Your spirit energy pool''s capacity increased by 1000. +5 points to all of your stats] [Your Lifeform stage has elevated to Mortal-4. +10 points added to all stats] [Your Mystic field''s limit increased to 300 points] "Huu....," Aren took a deep breath before he saw another notification. [Armalist Force Enhancement upgraded to level 2] "So this trait also leveled up this time...oh so it increased my stats as well. Uhh...so many stat points gained at once, no wonder I was feeling constant pain," Aren muttered as he looked at the details of [Armalist Force Enhancement]. When other people first formed their spirit core after level 10, their paths affected their core and gave them certain advantages. While most people awakened affinities rted to their paths, Aren got [Armalist Force Enhancement]. Quinn was also like Aren as she received a simr advantage instead of awakening any affinity. ----- -Level: 2 -Effect: ¡ú1) All meridians in your body are unlocked, and your control of spirit energy has increased. Easier to unlock hidden meridians. ¡ú2) Lv.3 spirit energy control, all your stats +10. ----- "Previously, I was already receiving a +2 overall stat bonus from this, so...I received a total of 23 stat points in all of my stats after reaching level 21. Hahaha, what a nice upgrade before the trial," Aren spoke with augh. ''However, there is still one more thing left to do which will boost my battle power more,'' Aren thought with a grin as he entered the Emporio Zone. [12 days, 0 hours, and 46 minutes until a random exotic material is produced from the portal] Seeing the countdown, Aren was surprised, "so my training sessionsted for almost four days? dang..." ''Anyway, I should start creating the blueprint of the full-body articule gear I have in mind first,'' Aren thought as he took out all of the materials and ores he had. ----- 5x Trojan Rigid ore pieces. 5x Orahe Flexi ore pieces. 3x Fizzart Iron ore pieces. 1x Common Gale gemstone. 1x Deep Blue gemstone. 1x Umon Thunder-Gemstone. ----- Chapter 101 - Weimbus, Mobile Armored Suit Ten hours in, Aren had finished creating a blueprint after lots of brainstorming and spent another 2 hours preparing and nning on how he would create the gear. After doing everything except for creating the gear, Aren looked at the countdown on top of the Emporio portal. Looking at the holographic countdown on top of the [Emporio Portal], Arren muttered, "Five seconds, huh¡­, what will I get?" Three .. One Right as the countdown hit 0, a blinding light shot out from the portal. Aren narrowed his eyes as he saw a fifty-centimeter metal boxing out of the portal. After arriving in front of the metal box, he bent down and touched it. *Siiiii...* The metal box opened right after Aren touched it and revealed a fist-sized material. The material was a dark blue rectangr object with golden carvings on it that kept jiggling like a slime as if it were alive. Aren arrived near the object to check its information. ----- [Wolven Sun Piece] -An exotic piece of material synthesized from Wolven Sun''s domain. -Rank: Epic ----- ''Epic Rank? I wonder how it will affect my gear? Hehe, time to find out,'' Aren thought with a grin as he cracked his neck and stretched his hands before heading towards the gear crafting machines. ... Day 32 since the Myriad Mountain was formed. "Temple head, it''s been six days since Aren entered inside the abode. What is he doing?" Asked Kaler, one of the two Tengus that stopped Aren when he arrived here six days ago. "He must be training to refine his mortal core," said the other Tengu. The temple head just sipped his tea with a gentle smile and closed eyes listening to the conversation of the two Tengus. "Hmm¡­ Interesting." Suddenly opening his eyes, the temple head muttered with a smile. Standing up, the temple head spoke, "Let''s go." "Where to, temple head?" The two Tengus inquired. "Aren had just left the abode and will likely want to enter the trial as soon as possible," the temple head said with a smile. "What was that ''interesting'' for, temple head?" "You will know when you meet him." The temple head said with a grin. ... Aren left the abode with a brand new get-up. His current outlook was entirely different than before. "Huuu...This looks better than I expected," Aren said with an excited smile. A full-body, dreamy blue armor with a light golden design and dark blue patterns that constantly pulsed with a bluish hue covered Aren''s body. The full-body armor, with five detachable sections, gave the feels of a futuristic mechanical civilization due to its modern-looking design and the bluish-hued lines that kept pulsing constantly. On Aren''s head was a white helmet with dark-blue patterns, and a light-blue ss face-shield that covered his face from his forehead to his nose. On his shoulders were two crescent-shaped shoulder-tes that curved upwards. The armor parts covering his hands, legs, and chest were a tripleyered solid structure, the outermostyer being the one with the golden and light-blue design, while the inneryers were a mixture of ck and dark blue. After creating his full-body armor, he still had some leftover materials, so he used them to create a simple gauntlet that was integrated into his right hand. Naturally, he is able to detach the gauntlet as well. The gauntlet was more of a projectile shooter-type of gear that he specifically designed to release projectile skills like . A ten-centimeter-long barrel would emerge from the back of the gauntlet from which he can throw the seed of the skill. This gauntlet worked better than when he used his hand to throw the seeds of since all he had to do was just point his hand and aim instead of swinging his hand to throw like before. Aren also retained the buff of the [Vyrmyd - Leather-armor] since he wore his new armor over his leather one. "That piece of Epic-grade material entirely changed the armor''s structure. No wonder it''s Epic-grade¡­" Aren muttered as he swung his arms and moved his legs before naming it. "Hmm¡­ I will name it [Weimbus]." ----- [Weimbus - Mobile Armored Suit] -Type: Articule Gear -Rank: Diamond Tier / High-grade -Requirement: Armalist Drive +4 -Perks: Increase Phys. DEF. by an additional 1000 and Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, and Lightning resistance by 500 -Defense: Physical [3350(+1000)=4350], Energy [3650], Soul [500] -Resistance: Wind, Fire, Earth, Water, Lightning [500] -Trait: 1) Wolven Authority: The gear''s weight will be capped at 1 KG. Comfortable to wear and will gradually restore the user''s injury. 50HP/min. 2) Modded Modr: The user can retract the whole gear into a bangle in his left hand. The armor is divided into five sections that can be manipted individually and separated by the user. 3) Sun''s blessing: All your attacks will have half of their damage turned into fire damage. This is intent-based, so it will only work if the user intends to convert half of his damage into fire energy damage. 4) Wolven Sun barrier: The user can activate a barrier around him by consuming 1000 spirit energy that will absorb 5000 damage. The barrier shares half of the defensive and resistance values of the gear. (Cooldown: 30 minutes) ----- Aren didn''t like that Wolven Authority because it actually limited the potential of this gear. Considering the solid metal materials he used, like the [Fizart Iron ore] and the ore pieces given to him by the temple head, this armor should have a rtively good amount of weight, but...the entire mobile armor suit weighed only a frigging 1 KG. Aren wanted it to weigh more so that he could use it as a weapon as well. Still, his wish was not fulfilled because one of the effects of the [Wolven Sun] material was that it nullified the weight of armors. In most of his previous gears, he would get bonus stats from the perks of the gear, but he didn''t receive any bonus stats from this gear. Aren felt that it could be rted to the [Wolven Authority], but he wasn''t sure as it was just his guess. Aren, however, was overall satisfied with his new gear, even though it didn''t give him any bonus stats. The armor would increase his flying maneuverability by more than a fold since it had five detachable parts. Helmet, vambraces, shoulder tes, chausses, and chest armor. This way, Aren''s ability to fly and dodge increased tremendously. Second, he didn''t have any defense-type skills, but this armor provided him sufficient defense, so he was good now. Naturally, he still wanted to buy a defense-type skill or get it by any chance. ''It should have some more benefits if I used those gemstones, but I''ll save them for weapons,'' Aren thought. He didn''t use those gemstones after thinking about it. He then named his right hand''s Gauntlet as well and checked it out. ----- [Slinger - Gauntlet] -Type: Articule Gear -Rank: Gold Tier / Low-grade -Perk: None -Attack: Physical [800] -Defense: Physical [1300], Energy [500]. -Trait: Sling Barrel: The user can use it to release throwing-type projection skills from the barrel on the gauntlet as long as it fits inside the barrel. ----- "Its defense is good since I used solid materials, but It has no perks. Hmmm...whatever, I just wanted this to release the skill," Aren muttered as he looked at the Gauntlet gear''s status. "Your outlook changed drastically, hahaha." Aren looked at his left side and saw the temple head along two Tengus approaching him. "Yeah, quite cool, right?" Aren spoke with a grin. "Very cool!" The Tengus nodded their heads with shining eyes. "So? Are you ready for the trial or want to rest for a bit?" The temple head asked with a gentle smile. "Hehe¡­ No more waiting. Let''s go!" Chapter 102 - Demonic Trial-1 "The trial domain''s door is under the ground; follow me." The temple head said as he started walking deeper into the underground cave''s tunnel. The two Tengus returned to the surface while Aren followed the temple head. After walking for five minutes through winding paths, they arrived in front of arge demonic gate; on the gate''s left and right side were two demonic skulls spewing purple mes. "Let me tell you a bit of the trial. All stages will be about killing multiple powerful foes, as this trial tests how powerful and ferocious you are. There are 12 stages with difficulty that correspond to your battle power, hence making it more difficult for you to pass. "The surrounding scenery will change following each stage, but there won''t be any changes to thendscape that would allow you to use it to your advantage. Instead, it will be the opposite, so don''t think about relying on your surroundings. Use your own power and ability to win." "Got it. Thanks for the heads up," Aren nodded towards the temple head. The temple head then waved his hands towards the gate, causing them to open, revealing a sunny atmosphere with a grassynd. Although surprised about how the field inside looked, Aren knew not to judge the book by its cover. "Good luck." Aren nodded as he walked towards the gates entering them. Hearing a whooshing sound, Aren turned around only to see that the gate from which he came had disappeared. Suddenly, arge golden bell with dark and red carvings materialized in the sky as it released a tolling sound. The bell rang three times before a magisterial voice resounded from it. [The trial will start after three seconds, prepare yourself] The magisterial voice resembled that of an old man in his eighties, unhurried and calm. Aren took out his chakram, hammer, and sword. His Armalist Cloak was always active ever since he got it, and with the addition of two new gears, he got 2 buffs as well. ----- --->Weimbus: An energy barrier materializes around you after sessfully attacking 10 consecutive times in a row without missing. (Energy Barrier: Durability [2000], Phy. Def [1000] Energy Def [1000]. Cooldown: 10 minutes) --->Slinger: Your projectiles receive 10% air and atmospheric resistance, and movement speed increases by 5% ----- Three seconds passed as Aren saw five Cryo Blood Vultures appearing out of arge portal in the sky while two Earth Demons who were over 2-meters tall and had spiky hands emerged from the grass around him. *screeeeeeeeeee....* *Grrrrr* Aren didn''t move from his ce as he kept floating in the sky by manipting his armor. His chakram [Oberon], however, flew towards the five vultures while being buffed by two of his abilities; and . The chakram was releasing an icy aura while being covered in demonic mes. *Swooooooosh...* The chakram''s speed was faster than vultures'' as Aren manipted it to cut the necks of all five vultures in rapid session. He felt no resistance whatsoever as their heads were cut off; they had a negligible defense. [Killed a Cryo Blood Vulture. 500 exp gained] x5 *Roar!!* The two Earth Demons pointed their sharp pointy arms towards Aren before their spear-like hands literally separated and flew towards Aren like a rocket. Aren, however, dodged them easily with minimum movement and pointed his right hand towards them before releasing five seeds of the skill. *Shuaaaaaa...* Following the seeds at high speed was the hammer [Destructo]. However, the two Earth Demons suddenly dived underground as if the ground was like water for them. "Interesting...," Aren muttered as his attacks failed to connect. This caused the consecutive hits to count to reset as he could not connect ten attacks in a row. Aren observed the ground below him with full focus as his eyes could not prate the ground to see the movements of those two Earth Demons. *Swooosh...* Suddenly, Aren heard something as his face showed a little frown and hurriedly dodged the iing spear-arm. He turned around but saw nothing except for a small hole, enough to fit the spear-arm that attacked him. *Swoooooooosh....* Aren heard the sound and dodged again as another spear-arm flew past him. "They can directly release their spear-arm from the ground...I guess I have to make arge AOE attack," Aren muttered as he flew upward. Two more spears came, but he dodged them even easier this time as he was floating in the sky a kilometer above the ground. Aren manipted his hammer and ced it on standby beside him while observing the ground with his Astral-X eyes. "Their area of movement is not too wide. I think 300 mutant magic energy will be enough," Aren said to himself while thinking. He didn''t want to waste his energy because who knows if the next stage had a time limit? After a minute of observing, he decided to go with 350 mutant magic energy, and using that much energy, he activated the hammer''s skill, . *zooooooom....* *BOOOOOOOOOOM...* He didn''t let the hammer fly at its full speed because then, it would break. However, even with half the speed, the damage from skill using 350 mutant energy was already insane. [You have cleared Stage one. Stage two will start after ten minutes] "Ten minutes? Enough to recover my spirit energy and mutant magic energy to full since I didn''t consume that much," Aren muttered as he sat crossed-legged on his sword while being in the air. Ten minutes passed, and Aren recovered all of his energy. [Stage 2 will start in three seconds.] Aren was ready with all of his gears. After three seconds passed, a giant portal that was 10 meters tall appeared right below therge bell. *ROARRRR...* A 10-meter tall minotaur with arge double-ax in both hands came out of the portal. "So this stage is the boss monster stage?" Aren muttered as a grin surfaced on his face, "seems easy enough." Chapter 103 - Demonic Trial-2 *Roarrrrrr....* Aren looked at the roaring Minotaur that started dashing towards him, but Aren simply flew up. However, the Minotaur''s eyes sparked as twoser beams shot from its eyes. "Slow...," Aren muttered as he easily dodged thesers since its eyes said it all. ''I can''t use my mutant magic energy since I already spent 350 previously, and its recovery speed is 18 merely per minute,'' Aren thought as he manipted his chakram and started attacking the Minotaur with it. Aren wanted to recover his mutant magic energypletely, and since this stage 2 seemed easy, he decided to shave away Minotour''s 60,000 HP using normal attacks. After all, there was no time limit in this stage as well. While attacking with the chakram, Aren manipted the hammer as well and released kic energy attacks with it. *BOOOOOOOOM...* [-23,004] *ROARRRRRRR.....* Aren aimed the hammer at the head, but the monster sensed the threat and blocked it using his hand, which caused its arm to st apart cause of the power of kic energy shockwaves. "You won''tst long," Aren muttered as he looked at the angry Minotaur that was annoying them by constantly flying chakram and heavy sword around its head. It couldn''t even sweep those weapons away cause of their fast speed. Just like that, Aren easily killed the Minotaur with one more hammer attack and other damage that chakrams dealt each second by sharply spinning and attacking. [Giant Minotaur killed. 4000 Exp gained.] [Stage 2 cleared. Stage 3 will start in 10 minutes.] Aren sat down crossed-legged mid-air and entered meditation. ... Ten minutester, 3rd stage started. [Kill 100 Dark Crawlers in 10 minutes.] Suddenly, the entire world around him changed into that a night with a blood-red moon in the sky. Aren was mmed down from the sky but stopped right before he hit the ground by a mystical force. [You can not go higher than 3 meters off the ground.] [The dark crawlers will start attacking after 3 seconds.] Aren was surprised and turned serious. "Kill 100 in ten minutes...," Aren muttered as he took a deep breath and entered into battle focus mode since this stage seemed hard. *crack...* Suddenly, Aren dodged before he manipted the hammer and hit the dark creature with spikes on its body and red eyes, which suddenly came out from the ground. *crack...**crack...**crack...**crack...**crack...**crack...**crack...**crack...**crack...**crack...**crack...**crack...**crack...**crack...**crack...**crack...**crack...**crack...**crack...*... Aren face changed as he hurriedly started flying around without pausing. While flying around, Aren didn''t hold back and started attacking with everything he had. He continuously released through chakram while the chakram also shredded the beasts. Used using his heavy broad sword while releasing the skill''s seed through the gauntlet. ''This stage was definitely about testing one''s defense and fortitude....humph, but I am going to clear it without letting any of those beasts touch me,'' Aren thought as he was in full focus mode and continued flying while the dark creatures chased him while getting killed by him. [27/100] [28/100] Aren was killing one to two dark crawlers every second since these creatures had no defense, which also caused the energy barrier of Armalist Cloak''s buff to activate. Despite the low defense, the dark crawlers'' speed was rtively high and seemed to have a powerful attack power as well from theirrge sharp ws, not that Aren had received any damage yet for him to know how powerful they were. Speed was Aren''s forte, and he was dishing out damage through that speed. Aren got an idea as he manipted his hammer to create a five hundred-meter distance between it and him. Aren used those two powers on the hammer while continuing to dodge and run away from dark crawlers. After flying for ten seconds in a way that gathered a considerable amount of Dark crawlers behind him, Aren manipted his hammer to attack the bunch. *BOOOOOOOOM....* Suddenly, a dark crawling appeared right in front of him as Aren failed to notice it. Its sharp three ws hit the energy barrier that was activated due to Armalist Cloak''s buff of Weimbus and dealt 1396 damage to it. Energy Barrier: [604/2000] It barely held, but Aren didn''t give it another chance to attack as he kicked it hard by manipting his legs gear section with his thoughts while flying. Afterward, he waved his hand and released to finish it off. [67/100] Therge attack of his hammer killed quite a lot since Aren had grouped them up. He decided to kite them again and kill with one morerge attack. *BOOOOOOOOM...* [84/100] After another minute of kiting, Aren gathered many dark crawlers again. From their numbers, it didn''t like this stage had limited the numbers of dark crawlers to just 100. *BOOOOOOOOM...* [114/100] Suddenly, all other dark crawlers disappeared, and the bell rang loudly as the same old man''s voice resounded. [Stage 3pleted. 34,200 exp gained. Stage 4 will start in ten minutes.] Aren hurriedly sat down crossed-legged and started recovering his spirit energy. He spent a lot of spirit energy in this stage, but he can bring it back to 9145 in ten minutes with meditation. As for mutant magic energy, he didn''t use any. He used his Armalist force, but the recovery of his Armalist force was fastest, and it would easily reach from 400 to 800 max in ten minutes. He noticed that his Armalist force could recover faster than regr by simply doing meditation of spirit energy recovering. With so much exp, the exp bar of Aren''s path also reached halfway to the next level. [Path- Emporio Armalist] -Level: 8 [72,904/128,000 Exp] Ten minutes soon passed as Aren heard the tolling sound of the giant bell and the voice of the old man. [Stage 4 will start in 3 seconds.] [Kill ten Hazard Quill Birds in five minutes.] The world of this trial domain changed again as wind currents started to produce from the ground and a bright day descended. The entire ground was releasing powerful wind currents that could let someone float even if one didn''t have the ability to fly. *Screeeeeeeeeee...**Screeeeeeeeeee...**Screeeeeeeeeee...*... Ten portals appeared at different locations in the sky from which ten two meters long birds with four-meter-long wingspan came out. Aren floated amidst the wind currents as the ten birds surrounded him from all directions. "Come on!" Chapter 104 - Demonic Trial-3 (not Edited Yet) All birds opened their mouths simultaneously and...a released a strange wind+sound type attack in waves. The waves wererge and spread towards Aren and also upward to cover everything. Aren was startled and tried to descend to avoid those waves; however, the wind currents suddenly got a whole lot stronger when he tried to descend and forcefully pushed him upward. ''Screw it!'' Aren cursed as he swooped towards one of the birds instead of running and attacked it by manipting his hammer and chakram. [A Hazard Quill bird killed. 700 exp gained.] *CRRRR....boom...* The 604 durability energy barrier around him was destroyed as the waves actually converged in his direction, seemingly controlled by the birds. "Arghh..." -1265 Aren suffered some internal damage as his organs were jolted and raptured before the sound wave attack was finished. He hurriedly drank health potions in rapid sessions a light bulb lit up in his head, ''wind...Hmm, that should work,'' Aren thought as he flew upward instead of attacking the birds who still didn''t chase him but opened their mouths again, seemingly to release another sound+wind wave attack towards him. He was going to try this for the first time but felt that it might just work. ''Since this power canbine with anything and cause a mutation, it should spread to this entire area filled with wind current filled wind energy...and since I used soul energy to power it up, let''s see what happens,'' Aren thought. After flying up, he hurridly infused 200 soul energy into Amber core of Eturnia to power it up. He then consumed 200 mutant magic energy and released a wave of his amber power from his palm towards the wind currents. He also consumed 1000 spirit energy and activated his Mobile Armored Suit''s trait, Wolven Sun Barrier. *DHOOOOOOOOOOOM....* As if a chain reaction, when the mutant magic energy sparkling with red and orange sparks came into contact with sound+wind attack and the wind currents, it spread like wildfire. The sound+wind waves attack from the birds started burning and spread to the entire area of wind currents... *swooooooooooo....* Everything started burning, and even though Aren was far ahead in the sky, the st that happened because of the reaction also reached him. -7485 The Wolven Sun Barrier was destroyed, but nothing happened to Aren as he was flung up in the sky even more. [A Hazard Quinn bird killed. 700 exp gained.]x9 After adjusting himself by manipting his armor, he saw a hellish scenery downward as everything was burning; As for the birds? He couldn''t even see their remains. If he could control those wind currents, then he could manipte them after they were mutated by Amber core of Eturnia''s magic power, but since they were not in his control, he would also be damaged by them if they hit him. It was a so-called berserk mutation because wind and fire naturally have a close affinity with each other, and with mutant magic energy''s property tobine/mutate with anything, the current scene resulted. [Stage 4pleted. Stage 5 will start in ten minutes.] The entire area turned silent as everything was swept away by a mysterious force once the tolling of the bell resounded. The scenery turned into grassynd in a few seconds. ''This Amber core of Eturnia is really powerful. I need to make more progress in it,'' Aren thought as he sat down crossed-legged and started meditating. ----- -Grade: S -Mutant Magic level: 1 (12% mastery). -Magic energy: [1,000/1,000] (18/min). -Primary trait: As a mutant magic ability: It canbine and adapt with anything as long as the user can handle the power and has sufficient control. -Effect: Extreme melting, Extreme heat, Reactive Explosion, Extreme burn, Crystalized Fire. -Skills: None. ----- Ten minutes soon passed as Aren recovered his spirit energy to full while his mutant magic energy to [980/1000]. However, his soul energy only recovered to 800 from 700 in ten minutes. ''100 soul energy recovery in ten minutes? Then I should use 100 at least 100 soul energy every stage with my mutant magic energy to gradually make progress in its mastery.'' After ten minutes, Aren also heard the voice as the bell tolling sounded. ----- [Stage 5 will start in 3 seconds.] [Kill the Demonic Lion General in five minutes.] ----- "Singe boss again? Great...," Aren said to himself with a grin as he really didn''t fear the single boss stages due to his fast speed. *Roar...* A giant humanoid with the head of the lion, furred body donned by armor, and dual swords in its hand came out from a portal below the floating bell. Aren hurridly started attacking it with his chakram and hammer by manipting them while easily dodging all the long-range attacks of the Demonic Lion General as they were not fast enough to hit Aren. They were mostly sword waves released from his swords and roar attacks that he could predict and get out of the range with his speed. With his hammer''s kic energy attacks and chakram attacks, he easily defeated the boss in two minutes. [Demonic Lion General killed. 5000 Exp gained.] He only used enough spirit energy that he could recover in the next ten minutes of break. However...something unexpected happened after the bell tolling. ----- [Stage 5pleted. Stage 6 will start in ten seconds.] [Kill three hundred Voracious Demonic nts in twenty-five minutes.] ----- "Uhh...No ten minutes break?" Aren mumbled with a frown as he saw the entire trial-domain transforming into a thick jungle. He couldn''t see anything because of the thick jungle while the demonic nts were inside the jungle. So, if he wanted to destroy them, he would have to descend and move through the jungle. ''Three hundred in twenty-five minutes?... Gotta hurry up,'' Aren thought as he first manipted his hammer and descended it downward to use a kic energy attack. *BOOOOOOOOOOOOM...* [Two Voracious Demonic nts killed. 400 exp gained.] A five-square-meterrge crate was formed amidst the thick jungle as Aren descended there and floated on top of the clear ground he created. "It looks like the nts are quite weak considering that I only gained 200 exp for killing one. Hmmm...idea!" Aren suddenly got an idea as he manipted his chakram and hammer before....going on a rampage with them. Chapter 105 - Troubling End-1 (Not Edited Yet) *Burn!* The entire jungle was on fire! Aren had used the ability on his chakram and hammer as he started attacking everything in his sight around him. Trees were cut, and voracious demonic nts were destroyed indiscriminately as Aren just went on a rampage with them. It was a waste of time to find those voracious demonic nts in this thick jungle and eliminate them one by one. Instead, he would just destroy everything fast since he had the ability to do it. After clearing the one-kilometer area around him, Aren changed his position and started his rampage again. The notification of eliminating those nts came one by one. ''Easy,'' Aren thought as a faint smile surfaced on his face. He had whole 25 minutes to kill just 300 Voracious Demonic nts. However, he only took fifteen minutes to kill 300 Voracious Demonic nts with his speed and indiscriminate rampaging. ----- [60,000 Exp gained.] [Stage 6pleted.] [Due to your excellent performance, you can start thest stage right away while still gaining the total clear score of stage 7 to stage 11. However, stage 12, which is thest stage, will have its difficulty increased by 50%.] [Additionally, the score will also increase by 50%, and better items will also be unlocked in the special shop that you can buy with points when your total score is converted into points.] [If you want to choose this offer, then enter into the dark red portal. You have one minute to make your decision.] ----- Aren was surprised and then frowned as he fell into thought while looking at his current status. ''Will it answer if I ask something?'' Aren wondered before he decided to try it out. Looking at the giant bell, he asked, "will I get some resting time to recover my various energies to the full after entering that dark red portal?" [You will get twenty minutes of preparation time after entering the dark red portal.] "50% increase in difficulty?... Hmmm," Aren muttered and fell into thought. ''If thest stage is a single boss battle, I should be able to manage it. However, nothing is certain.'' ''Should I take the risk for more gains? The temple head didn''t tell me anything about this, but who knows if the luck-increasing item I want is in the additional items that I get by choosing this offer instead Hmmm...better items and higher score.'' When only ten seconds were left, Aren''s face became determined as he made his decision and flew towards the dark red portal before entering through it. The scenery changed as Aren arrived in surroundings filled with blood-red sea and floating boulders that were burning in crimson me. There was no giant bell in the sky here, but he still heard an old man''s voice after arriving here. [Whether your choice is a foolish one or a rewarding one depends on your ability.] [You have 20 minutes of resting time.] [19:59] Aren had a serious expression on his face as he directly sat down in meditation mid-air. He didn''t mind breaking his hammer again to pass this stage as he had decided not to hold back anything after taking this risk. After eighteen minutes, Aren recovered all of his energies. He only used spirit energy in thest stage, but he nearly emptied it by constantly using the , so he had to refill his spirit energy pool by absorbing spirit energy from amon grade spirit stone. Soon thest two minutes passed as Aren heard the old man''s voice again. [Eliminate the Four Acoplytical Demons...before getting killed by them. The first two demons will be spawned after five seconds while thest two demons will be spawned after five minutes] Aren floated mid-air as the hammer, chakram, and sword around him. He also consumed 1000 spirit energy and activated the Wolven Sun Barrier. He also drank an umon grade agility boost potion, strength boost potion, and physical defense boost potion. Five seconds also passed, but Aren didn''t see any spawning portals this time. However, he suddenly looked below as he noticed movement in the blood sea. *BOOOM....* One of the biggest burning boulders that floated a hundred meters away from Aren sted apart before revealing a four-meter tall demon with scythe-like hands burning in crimson mes. This demon also had four pairs of thin crimson wings with ruby eyes and burning horns. The demon roared at Athan before... *Swoooooooooosh....* ''Fast!'' Aren was shocked as the demon made a flying dash towards him that almost reached his peak speed. However, thanks to his Astral-X eyes, he barely dodged the sharp scythe-hand sh of this demon. Aren didn''t waste time as he manipted his chakram, hammer, and sword to attack this Swift Scythe Blood Demon. [Swift Scythe Blood Demon] -Lifeform: Supreme-5 -Bloodline: Crimson me Aerial Demon. -Health: [50,400/50,400] -Attack: Phy. [7400], me [8500] -Defense: Phy. [2000], Energy [2340], Soul [500] -Note: Weak against yin me, ice, water. Aren attacked by coating all of his weapon gears into the because this demonic me was unique. This dark blue me would freeze externally but cause burning damage internally, so Aren guessed that this was Yin me. But right as Aren''s gears chased after the Scythe Demon, a blood water beam shot out from the water directly towards Aren. Aren was paying attention there since he knew that there was something in the blood sea. So, as soon as he saw a blood water beam shooting with glowing red particles, Aren dodged it. ''First, I have to deal with this Scythe Demon since it can threaten me with its speed,'' Aren thought with a solemn expression as he manipted his gear weapons to keep chasing and attacking the scythe demon. However, an even faster blood water beam shot out from the water again, directly hitting the Wolven Sun Barrier. [-8540] The barrier shattered as Aren was flung upward. *RUOOOOOOOOOOOOO....* A rising blood water pir shot out from the blood sea on which a bloody shark-headed humanoid demon with crab-like hands stood. This demon points his crab-like hands towards Aren as two blood water beams released from them, attacking Aren again. However, Aren had started flying at his full speed in a chaotic manner to avoid the beam attacks while his attacks also connected the Scythe Demon and injured it. [-7380]--Hammer attack. [-1890]--chakram attack. [-980]--sword attack. However, after those attacks connected, the dark blue demonic mesced on the gears took effect and froze the flesh of Scythe demon before inflicting burning injuries as the demon lost additional 6000 health. Since Aren had also activated the the demon''s speed was lowered a bit as well, which sessfully helped him connect another round of attack. However, Aren had consumed 100 armalist forces to use on the hammer in the second attack and inflicted major damage to the demon. After all, the skill also boosted the effectiveness of the demonic me along with the hammer''s attack. The Sea Ouki demon was releasing Blood water beams continuously, but none of them hit Aren as he was flying with his full speed and dodging them. *ROARRRRRRRRRRR...* The health of Scythe Demon was brought to half, and when that happened, the demon roared as it grew an additional pair of wings that wasrger than any other and was wreathed in crimson me. Aren''s expression turned to utmost seriousness seeing that transformation. Chapter 106 - Troubling End-2 *Zooooooooooom...* The Scythe demon that got berserk zoomed towards Aren at the speed which Aren...could not entirely dodge. "Arghhhh...Kriiii...," Aren involuntarily let out a scream before gritting his teeth. [Your left leg is inflicted with cursed demonic mes. The cut-off part of the leg will not heal using normal means.] Aren''s leg from his knee was cut off as he failed to dodge the dash attack of the Scythe demon. ''FUCK, IT HURTS! But...I have to...calm...calm.'' Aren focused on the battle as he endured the pain. He could endure this because of his previous encounter with hellish pain because of his ability. His brain was going into overdrive mode as he knew that the situation was extremely dire. He was currently flying at his full speed and manipted his gears to attack the Scythe demon. However, his attack couldn''t connect to the scythe demon as the demon became significantly better at dodging his attacks. Aren nced at the crab-hands shark-head demon who was releasing blood water beams while standing on arge blood water pir. His brain was moving at unprecedented speed in this crisis; it was just like when he fought Rotel. His dodging and flying ability became extremely precise as he made calctions in his brain about the trajectory of the iing attacks. He was also using the blood water beams aiming at him to keep a short distance from the scythe demon along with using his gears. Otherwise, that berserk scythe demon would easily kill him. *badam...badam...badam...badam...badam...badam...badam...badam...badam...badam...badam...badam...badam...* Aren''s heart was beating fast like never before in this intense fight because... One mistake...and he is doomed. [3:34] Three minutes and thirty-four seconds until another two apocalyptic demons are spawned. While flying, Aren suddenly turned around his body and flew downward. *ssh!* Hended on the blood sea with his back on, and the scythe demon followed him as well. However, the flying speed of the Scythe demon slowed down because the water resistance impacted the demon''s wings. ''It worked,'' Aren thought as he took this chance to attack the Scythe demon with hammer, chakram, and sword. on the hammer. 100 Mutant magic energy consumed to activate the hammer''s skill as well. The still coated his gears as all three attacks connected to the back of Scythe Demon. Before flying upward to get out of the water at the timing that he calcted, Aren pointed his right hand towards the Scythe Demon and released ten seeds of the skill. *Swroooooooooooooo...* Suddenly like a rocket, the second demon dashed towards Aren, its speed unbelievably fast in the blood sea. However, Aren was aware that something like that would happen, so he was already going upward while manipting his gears to attack the Scythe demon. The moment his attacks connected to the Scythe Demon, he also flew out of the Blood Sea. *BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM.....* [Swift Scythe Blood Demon killed. 10,000 Exp gained.] *RUOOOOOOOOOO...* Once again, the second demon came out of the blood sea while standing on arge water pir. Aren coldly looked at as he manipted his gears to attack the demon while flying rapidly to dodge its water-bloodsers. He guessed that once this demon''s health dropped to half, it would also transform into something more trouble. So he wanted to finish it in one shot after decreasing its health a bit. Just as his gears reached near the second demon, the demon roared as more blood water shot out of the giant water pir before turning into a blood water barrier that spun around it. His chakram and sword were deflected away when they touched the water barrier. At the same time, the hammer also only budged it a bit before getting deflected. *Zaaaaaaaaaap....* Two blood watersers shot out from the barrier as the barrier didn''t affect the attacking ability of the demon. While flying rapidly, Aren decided to use a powerful attack using his hammer by consuming 100 mutant magic energy to activate the skill. He also decided to consume some spirit energy and use the skill using the hammer to increase the damage even more. The hammer flew towards the demon once again with the chakram and sword following it. *BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM...SPLAAAT!* The burning hammer blew away the blood water barrier before the hammer hit the demon. -11,443 The damage was low since most of it was negated by the blood water barrier. However, the chakram empowered by the and wreathed in demonic me hit the demon directly in its neck as Aren manipted it like that after gaining vision, followed by an attack with the sword at its chest. -7482! critical strike. -1145 Aren took back the hammer and chakram after the attack was finished. Still, he manipted his sword to pierce the demon''s chest before forcefully bringing it higher in the sky. *RUOOOOOOOOOOOOO....* The demon roared while forcefully being dragged into the sky as he grabbed the sword and tried to pull it out, but Aren''s was doing his best to keep the sword stabbed into its chest. The resistance from the demon trying to pull Aren''s sword was impacting Aren heavily as his brain started to hurt immensely. However, Aren gritted his teeth as he endured and tried his best to keep the demon away from the blood water while bringing it upward in the sky. Meanwhile, Aren readied his hammer for the final attack to kill the demon. He only boosted the hammer with buffs as he calcted that it was enough to kill the demon based on his defense numbers stat. 100 Armalist force. 150 mutant magic energy. 20 spirit energy. He also increased the intensity of the by bringing its consumption to 30 spirit energy per second instead of the usual 10 spirit energy per second. After a second, his nned attack nearly approached the demon who was in the sky. Sensing the threat, the demon roared even louder as its crab hands glowed with crimson. The demon ignored the sword in its chest and brought its hand forward to defend against therge iing hammer that threatened his life. ''Die,'' Aren thought as the hammer buffed with several skills hit the demon with just enough speed that wouldn''t break the hammer due to the kic force gathered around it. *BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM.....* [ Hybrid Ocean Demon killed. 10,000 Exp gained.] Aren looked at the timer and saw that two minutes and twenty seconds were still left until the next two demons spawned. He looked at his right leg, which had disappeared from his knees, and frowned. He then looked at his current status. -Spirit energy pool: [8842/11,350] -Armalist Force: [530/800] -M.M Energy: [650/1000] ''If the next two apocalyptic demons are more powerful...,'' Aren shook his head and became determined, ''I have to beat them, that''s all.'' ''Level up!'' [You have leveled up to 22.] At least, his spirit energy pool and health recovered. However, his cut-off leg was still not cured. Aren looked at the Heavy Broad Sword before activating Emporio Zone talent and entering inside. After entering, he hurriedly used the skill on [Ikaros]. Afterward, he used the blueprint of [One shot] gear to directly create another [One shot] gear using the materials he got after breaking down [Ikaros]. Only 10 seconds were left after Aren finished creating the [One shot] gear as he came out of his Emporio Zone. ''This will be my trump.. If it hits with my full power, one demon will likely get killed instantly,'' Aren thought as a heavy metal ball with red patterns on it floated beside Aren along with the giant hammer and chakram. Chapter 107 - Cold And Intense! Aren saw as the countdown hit zero, and suddenly, lots of small inds started to produce from the blood sea and the burning boulders floating in the sky sted and turned into smaller boulders. Aren flew higher in the sky as he looked at the dark red sun in the sky before looking down at the inds and debris. *CREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE....* Suddenly, a dark red beam released from the ind towards Aren along with a loud screech as Athan saw a blood feathered demoning out of nowhere towards him. ''Where did that feathered demone from?'' Aren thought with a frown while dodging the iing attacks. The blood feathered demon chased Aren as its dark red wings seemed to be powered up by the floating debris in the sky. The burning debris would be doused as if losing some kind of energy in it and fall down into the blood sea whenever the demon passed by the debris. ''Fast!'' Aren was flying backward so he could observe the demon. Seeing its speed increase, Aren attacked it with the skill while rapidly changing his hand movement by controlling the gauntlet gear with his thought. He fired the ten seeds in such a way that the demon wouldn''t be able to dodge them. *CREEEEEEEEEEE....* Several demonic vines bound the demon, and taking this chance, Aren recalled his [one shot] gear that he had kept a kilometer away from him when the countdown turned 0. (powered up to 30 spirit energy per second) Aren also increased the weight of the gear by 12.9% using his spirit energy''s purple spectrum effect due to Demon Yakum''s Spinergy Method. The [One shot] gear came wreathed in dark blue me and shining with blue sparks as it hit the feathered demon at the speed of 1372 meters per second while bearing the weight of 1289 kilogram. The weight was this heavy because Aren used the armalist essence he got after breaking down the sword to give [Increased Weight] buff to the [one shot] gear. -59,999 Not even a tiny bit of flesh remained of that feathered demon. However, Aren was somewhat surprised by the damage number. The demon''s health was 60,000, but he was sure that his [one shot] gear could deal 100k damage with its gathered kic power and buffs. Suddenly, aser beam came from a different ind. However, Aren kept flying in a chaotic manner, so theser beam didn''t hit him as whatever demon attacking Aren failed to predict Aren''s flying course to get a sessful hit on him. *CREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.....* The feathered demon suddenly revived at the ce it died, and...it seems to be getting berserk as well. *swooooooooooosh....* Aren''s eyes popped out of the socket seeing the speed of the demoning towards him as all he could do was to bring the hammer in front of him while also trying to dodge. However, a dark red dy feather shot out of the feathered demon after the demon hit the hammer with its ws-hands. *puchiiiii....* -1345 [cursed cut: your cut-off arm will not recover with normal means.] The dy feather cleanly cut Aren''s right arm from the shoulder while Aren was flung away like a bullet as the overwhelming force of his own hammer hit him. -1145 Aren''s organs were jolted and a bit raptured as he was flung back five-six kilometers away. However, Aren didn''t let out even a tiny squeak as he knew the situation had be far dire than he expected. The adrenaline was working, but his endurance of pain due to past experience kept him sane. ''Why the feathered demon didn''t die?'' He focused with his Astral-X eyes as he saw the feathered demon flying towards him. It was clearly oozing out with more power than ever as its size had be double and was clearly twice as powerful. ''I have 3 seconds...,'' Aren thought coldly as he didn''t even bother healing himself with the health potion due to no time and manipted his hammer with his thought. He calcted the distance of the feathered demon reaching him and put his hammer 759 meters away from him. He waited for one second before manipting his hammer to shoot towards his direction, albeit a meter in front of him. Aren just stood there while his attention was on the feathered demon as well as on therge rising water behind it as all inds started to gather together to be a giant rocky demon with nts all over its body. The feathered demon zoomed towards Aren with its giant ws pointing towards Aren. But just when it reached one meter from Aren, the [Destructo] hammer without any buffs hit it. [-0] A mystical barrier appeared around the demon when the hammer hit it,pletely negating all damage. However, even though the feathered demon didn''t die, It was flung away at least eight kilometers away. Aren figured this would happen since the demon stopped at 1 HP and had an immortal status beside its health bar when he checked its information with his Astral-X eyes. On the other hand, therge 10-meter tall demon roared loudly as ten blood-redsers shot towards Aren from random ces on its body. However, Aren easily dodged them while manipting hammer and chakram to attack the demon. He flew towards the giant demon before stopping one kilometer away from it. ''5 seconds until that feathered demones back. Before that, I will have to finish this giant demon,'' Aren thought coldly as he poured whole 400 mutant magic energy into the hammer and activated the skill. *ZOOOOOOOOOOOOM....* The hammer flew towards the giant demon''s head, who could not dodge. But a massive demonic flower bloomed in front of the demon as some sort of shield against the hammer. However...it was of no use against the powerful attack of the [Destructo] as the hammer easily broke the barrier before hitting right in the head of the giant demon. *BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM.....* [Collosus Isle Demon killed. 12,000 Exp gained.] "Two seconds," Aren muttered as he turned to his left side and saw the feathered demoning at a speed that surpassed Aren''s speed. However, he observed every detail of the demon with his Astral-X eyes. He also saw that the immortal status beside its health bar had disappeared. ''As expected,'' Aren thought as he waved his hand as he manipted his hammer and chakram while flying backward at his full speed to create some distance for a sure hit. He knew that if he attacked the demon first, the demon could easily dodge it with its flying ability and speed. So the only choice to get a sure-fire hit on the demon was to make himself as bait. While flying backward at full speed and observing the demon, Aren made calctions while observing with his Astral-X eyes. He got two more seconds by running back, and it was enough. He stopped mid-air, waited for the demon toe at him, and when the demon was just a meter from him, the hammer and chakram both hit it. [-1] [Indomitable Feathered Demon killed. 10,000 Exp gained.] The first thing that Aren did was to take out health potions and pour them into his mouth. *gulp...gulp...gulp...gulp....* Chapter 108 - Shop And Ceremony [Your path has leveled up to 9.] [ Two talent points gained.] After healing himself to not full health because his arm and right leg were still cut off, Aren looked at the notification of his path leveling up. He was surprised that he got two talent points. [Armalist Drive +5]: Increase the cap of your Armalist force by 500. Gears slots increased to 12 slots in total. ''Hmmm, this time, I am gaining more Armalist force capacity while in the previous upgrade, I got my control range of gears increased to one kilometer. Anyway, the more Armalist force I have, the better.'' There were two more blinking talent nodes. [Armalist Cloak+]: Your natural control of gear maniption is increased even more. The skill of the Armalist Cloak will unlock as its information will be infused in your brain on how to use it. [Emporio Heart]: Innate gear, first form: Throne. As an Emporio Armalist, you can also take on the whole battlefield without moving a finger. Sit on the Emporio Heart''s first form: Emporio Throne, and control the battlefield. This throne provides no current benefits except that this throne will act as a usual Articule gear (However, it will unlock its trait as you progress). The next forms of Emporio Heart are not fixed, and they will take shape based on your mentality, your experience, and how you walk on this path. "Huh...," Aren was a bit speechless at the third talent. It sounded interesting, but since it provided no current benefits to him, he decided to select [Armalist Drive+5] and [Armalist Cloak+] talents. Suddenly, Aren heard loud sounds of bell tolling as the scenery around him changed, and he appeared in grassynd domain with a giant bell in the sky. [Congratualtion! You have sessfully cleared the demonic trial and acquired a total of 14,600 Demonic Points.] [Enter into the portal, which will lead you to the special shop. After you finish spending 14,600 Demonic points, you will go through an awakening ceremony to awaken your Demonic Affinity.] After Aren finished hearing the old man''s voice, a white portal appeared in front of him. He actually wanted to treat his cut-off arm and leg first. Even though his pain endurance had increased, the pain still constantly stings him. However, he could only continue to endure it now as he entered the portal. However, he had stored the cut-off armored left leg from the knee and his entire armored right arm into his inventory in the hope that they could be re-attached perfectly by some magical means in this world. After going through the portal, Aren was surprised to arrive in a vast hall filled with showcases of various items of varying sizes. All of them were covered in ss showcases and had a price tag on them. Aren didn''t go to look around as he wanted to be done here early and treat himself. As such, he decided to try out a thing, "If you are there, then can you show me the best luck increasing item in this ce?" "Ho-ho! Sure. Follow the dark red wisp." Aren heard an old man''s voice before a dark red wisp appeared in front of him and started moving. Aren followed the wisp as he passed by two rows of items showcases before the wisp finally stopped in front of a showcase. The item inside the showcase looked like a revolver with gold and red patterns. [Miss-Fortune Demonic Revolver] -Cost: 1000 spirit energy per shot. -Effect: Aim the revolver at your temple and shoot! Don''t worry, it won''t kill you but randomly put your luck between -100 to +100. This status will stay until something lucky or unlucky things happen to you. Aren looked at the price and saw that it cost 13,000 Demonic Points. Without a second thought, he bought the item. "I want this item." After Aren finished speaking, the ss showcase disappeared, and the old man''s voice rang out. [You can now take the revolver. Also, put a drop of your blood on it to activate it and bind it to you.] Aren nodded as he took out the revolver with his left hand and put it near his right shoulder as he rxed his shoulder muscles, which caused the cut-off part to rapture a bit as drops of blood fell onto the revolver. [Innovative. I thought you would bite your lips a bit and draw blood from there, ho ho.] Aren was speechless as he shook his head with a wry smile and stored the revolver inside the inventory. "Is there anything I can buy with my remaining demonic points?" Aren asked. [You can buy a Demonic Gemstone box for 1000 demonic points. Once you open it, you will get a gemstone with random demonic power.] [And with the remaining 600 demonic points...I guess I can remove that cursed cut on your shoulder and leg. However, leveling up will still not regenerate them. You either have to be a supreme lifeform or visit a witch doctor to recover them.] "I''ll go with those two options," Aren nodded. ... After getting the Demonic Gemstone box and removing the curses on his shoulder and leg, Aren had to enter another portal for the ceremony. After Aren came out of the portal, he was startled as he directly fell into a bubbling dark red water pool. [The ceremony will start after ten seconds. Just endure staying in this pool for one minute, and you will acquire the demonic affinity with a random ability.] "One minute?" Aren asked with raised eyebrows, "If I stay longer, will I get a better random demonic ability?" [Ho ho, I told you one minute after properly assessing you. The minimum time one needs to stay in the pool to acquire demonic affinity is just twenty-five seconds. However, I have observed that you have quite a high endurance and figured you could stay for a minute] Aren grinned before speaking, "then I will stay longer than a minute.] [Ho ho, alright.. Good luck with that, as it is indeed the case that the longer you stay, the better demonic ability you get.] Chapter 109 - Indomitable! (Not Edited Yet.) After ten seconds, the dark red water pool started to bubble and produced mystical glowings motes that went inside Aren''s body. Aren didn''t feel anything for five seconds. However, at the 6th second and onward, Aren started to feel ufortable. After twenty seconds, biting pain started to course through his entire body and deep inside him. "Twenty-one...Twenty-two...," Aren muttered with a slight frown on his face. The pain increased every three seconds. After ten seconds, he started to feel a strange, suffocating feeling even though he could breathe properly. However, he ignored it and endured while counting. "Forty-seven...Forty-eight..." At fifty seconds, the pain increased by a notch, and he felt his soul burning a bit. The thing suffocating was his soul as it was being pressured and infused with demonic power. After fifty-five seconds, Aren was constantly trembling, and his eyes had turned red. The pain coursing through his body had increased by several notches, and he couldn''t help but let out a painful groan. However, he was not going to give up. ''Endure!'' Aren screamed internally. He wouldn''t miss any opportunity to get strong! If he can get a better and more powerful ability by enduring more, then he would endure by breaking his limits! A minute passed, but Aren didn''t give up. [Boy, just say you give up, and I will stop the process.] "Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...NO!" Aren screamed in pain before he denied with red eyes and a constantly trembling body. He brought up that scene where everyone died in front of him and fueled his anger and stubbornness to endure through this hell. ''I can endure more! I will bring them back! Mom, you definitely will live a happy life after struggling for so many years for my sack...definitely!'' He had reached his limit, but he forced himself to stay awake through pure willpower. One minute and twenty seconds passed. [Boy, you...sigh. Now you are standing on a thin thread between life and thread. If you fail to reach the two-minute milestone, you will die. Whatever that is propelling you to go this far, use it more because if you stop now, you will die.] ''Fine by me!'' Aren''s body was trembling more, but he still stretched a grin on his face. "I...better...get...something...powerful...after...going...through...this...hell..." ''STAND STILL!'' "Arghhhhhhhhhhh..." Aren screamed more, but he forced his body to a standstill as it stopped trembling. He hoped that whatever ability he got could also aid him in getting a higher chance of luck in Miss-Fortune Revolver. Aren stood still while crossing his hands. His eyes were fully bloodshot, and his lips asionally trembled. The painful expression on his face turned emotionless. However, his soul was screaming in pain as the pain increased more. The dark red motes were still infusing in his body and then into his soul as after the umtion, they would conjure into a demonic ability and brand itself into Aren''s existence. Abilities were like that. They are branded into body and soul like something they were born with, so it''s easy to use them but hard to improve and make them powerful. One needs drastic things to improve them. One minute and forty seconds. The pain, suffocation, heaviness, was increasing...his soul was being pressured. His sight blurred as he swayed a little but snapped out forcefully through his will; he once again stood still and continued to endure. Aren had stopped counting after one minute and twenty seconds, and right now, he didn''t even know how much time had passed. However, he felt like he was in this hell for a long time. And now...two minutes passed. The dark red pool stopped bubbling and producing mystical motes when two minutes passed and when that happened, Aren directly passed out. He passed out while standing still, and his arm crossed on his chest. [Great! Hahaha] ... Day 35... Aren woke up and found himself under a familiar ceiling. He first checked some notifications in his mind while still lying on the long fluffy mattress. [You have acquired the Demonic Affinity.] [You have acquired a special ability, ] Aren first checked the affinity panel. [Affinity] -Demonic: Level 1 affinity. -Understanding:- 0%. ''What is the benefit of having affinity? I don''t sense anything different except for feeling morefortable in this atmosphere. Or will I get benefit as I make progress in understanding and level up the affinity?'' Aren wondered. He then looked at the new ability got, and...was surprised. -Special Ability: It will grow with your Demonic Affinity. -Effect 1: You can use your will to pressurize your opponents. -Effect 2: +300 soul defense. -Effect 3: Demonic Descent. --->[Demonic Descent]: Consume 5000 spirit energy to gain a boost in your overall power for 2 minutes. Your attacks will be converted to demonic damage that can weaken your opponent''s mind and decrease their overall defense. Temporary gains stats boost: +30 STR, +30 CONT, +30 AGI, +200 Soul energy, +200 soul defense. -Note: The ability will unlock more effects and upgrade existing effects as you level up your Demonic Affinity. Seeing this ability, a smile appeared on Aren''s face. It was worth going through that hell for this special ability. "How do you feel?" The temple head entered the room as if he knew that Aren just woked up. "Good. But I need to regrow my hand and leg," Aren said as he nodded with a smile. "Well, congrattions for getting the item you wanted and your excellent performance," the temple head said with a gentle smile. Aren didn''t know how he arrived here from the demonic trial domain, but he didn''t bother to ask such a useless thing and took out the Miss-Fortune Revolver] from his inventory. "I am going to try this now," Aren said with a grin as he aimed the gun at his temple. "Good luck, hahaha." Aren closed his eyes and pulled the trigger as 1000 spirit energy was consumed. The revolver glowed before a wisp released from the barrel and hit Aren. However, after hitting Aren, it expanded and covered him in a multi-colored glow for a second before disappearing. [Your current luck: +57] Seeing this, Aren sighed a huge relief as excitement shed in his eyes. It was finally time to open those boxes. Chapter 110 - Boxes & Swamp (Not Edited Yet.) "It looks like you got positive results," the Temple Head spoke looking at Aren''s happy expression. "Yep. However, ording to the effect, this luck status will only stay until something lucky happens to me. But...," Aren paused as he smiled wryly before continuing, "It''s not certain when this lucky thing will happen while I need this luck to get better items from the boxes." "That''s indeed a bit tricky," the Temple Head nodded with a smile. Aren thought for a moment before he took out all three boxes he had to open and spoke, "I''ve decided to open all boxes at the same time." "Well, what if opening a box will trigger your increased luck to be spent in that?" the Temple Head asked with a smile before he caressed his beard and spoke, "even if you are going to open these three boxes at once, I suggest you open the most valuable box first." Aren nodded as he agreed with the Temple Head and looked at the three boxes in front of him. [Armalist Box]- This box would give him any random item rted to his path. [Blueprint Box]- This box would give him a random gear blueprint. [Lightning Based Skill box]- This box would give him a random lightning-based skill. Aren felt that [Armalist Box] was the most valuable. After all, it will give him ANY item rted to his path. [Blueprint Box] was also valuable since getting a blueprint of a powerful gear would help him, but...getting a powerful blueprint doesn''t mean he would be able to create the gear using that blueprint right away. That''s why he decided to open [Armalist Box] first and then opened the other two boxes. [Congratualtions! You got the Celestial Ichor Prototype EZ-111.] [Congrattions! You got the blueprint of Duality Cannon Pistol.] [Congratualtions! You got the skill stone.] All three things didn''t appear outside but automatically entered inside his inventory. "Did you luck out on what you wanted or not?" asked the Temple Head. "I don''t know," Aren shook his head, "I need to check." Aren opened the inventory and took out [Celestial Ichor Prototype EZ-111] that looked like a dreamy cube filled with mystical blue, red, and green energy with entric patterns. "How strange...," said the Temple Head as he looked at the cube. Aren looked at the cube and got its information. [Celestial Ichor Prototype EZ-111] -Type: ??? -Rank: ??? -Effect: Reconstruct the entire body structure and add two empty Celestial Ichor Gene slots into the body. -Note: You have to put a drop of your blood, 100 Armalist force, and 100 soul energy into the cube to activate this cube. Once activated, it will enter inside you and start the process. Chance of dying: 50%-100%. If you are weak-willed, then don''t court death by using this. "What is this thing, Aren?" "Uhh...It looks like I got something that I can''t use right now," Aren spoke with a wry smile while shaking his head. "Oh? Is it dangerous?" asked the Temple said with curiosity. "From the information, this thing will reconstruct my body into something I don''t know and add Celestial Ichor Gene slots in me, but I don''t know what they do. Most importantly..., "pausing there, Aren smiled helplessly, "the chances of dying are 50% to 100% if I use this thing." "Well then...I suggest you use this when you get +100 luck after using your Miss-Fortune Revolver, hahaha." "Yep, that''s what I thought as well." ... Afterward, Aren left the Demonic Temple as he had rested enough and wanted to get back on getting stronger. Before leaving, he asked the location of a good Witch Doctor who could recover his limbs from the Temple Head and got a map from him as a gift. Aren knew that he got this good treatment because of the [Mark of Yakum] card in his possession. "Yakum...will I meet him in the future?" Aren muttered while flying in a particr direction using the map. However, he shook his head after muttering, ''since he is no more here, then I can''t meet him unless the humans in my world defeat the despair.'' Aren''s destination was a ce known as Swamp of DeeQueen. It was arge area, and the Witch Doctor was staying there. After Temple Head marked that location on the map, Aren also got a notification about a dungeon in that area known as [Burrow of Ghost Swamp] dungeon. So, he also decided to clear that dungeon after recovering his limbs. After half a day of traveling, Aren reached the area, but as soon as he entered this thick swampy-jungle area, he came across a horde of 20 demonic flying birds. [Twin-headed Acid Spitters.] These birds had colorful heads, and after spotting Aren, they aggressively flew towards him. Aren didn''t intend to avoid them as he grinned. ''Oh yeah, I should try my new ability,'' Aren thought as he looked at the horde two hundred meters in front of him before flying towards them. Aren focused on the horde and used the ability to pressurize them. Right after intending to use that ability, Aren felt his soul energy-depleting a bit while an unseen force descended on the horde of birds. All the birds lost their consciousness and started falling down. "Awesome!" Aren spoke as he manipted his chakram and hammer to farm those falling birds for their Exp. [A Twin-headed Acid Spitter killed. 600 Exp gained.] [A Twin-headed Acid Spitter killed. 600 Exp gained.] [A Twin-headed... .. .. After killing all twenty Twin-headed Acid Spitters, Aren continued on his way. "A long way before I reach level 10 in the path...," Aren muttered while flying as he looked at his Path Status. ----- <-Aren-> [ Path- Emporio Armalist ] -Level: 9 [ 12,904/256,000 Exp ] -Armalist Force: [ 1300/1300 ] ----- While flying, Aren arrived at arge 100 square meter swamp. He was surprised to see this because it was so big and silent. The water inside was light green and thick. Suddenly, a ripple spread across the entire swamp as arge mouth with sharp teeth shot towards Aren at blinding speed. Its speed was unbelievably fast despite itsrge size, so even though Aren sped up at thest moment, he was still....eaten whole and raw. Chapter 111 - Strange Happenings "Temple head, why did you send him to that Witch?" one of the Tenju asked with a curious expression. "Indeed. That Witch Queen is dangerous," said the other Tengu. "Hahaha, it''s fine. I am sure Aren will benefit there," the Temple Head said with augh. "How can you say that for sure?" asked the Tengu one. Temple head smiled as he sipped the tea before speaking, "If you saw his performance in the trial, you would be sure as well." ... "What the hell...," Aren muttered as he looked around inside the giant mouth. "Why it''s not pushing me down or digesting me?" Aren wondered as he saw several fleers inside the mouth that surrounded him. Aren floated towards the teeth, and thoughts of attacking this creature urred to him, but he held back. ''Since I am not in danger, I shouldn''t provoke this creature,'' Aren thought as he just floated inside the mouth using his gear armor. He focused on the creature with his eyes to get its information, and...seeing the information caused him to start sweating. ----- [King of The Swamp] -Lifeform: Legendary-5 -??? -??? -??? -??? ... ----- "Fuck...," Aren cursed and got super nervous. His heartbeat increased, and he couldn''t calm down because this was an extremely dire situation. HE COULD DIE ANYTIME! However, he held the hope of surviving because this legendary creature had not eaten him yet and he had not died yet. After all, if this being wanted to kill him, he would''ve died by now. ''What should I do? Just wait? but...,'' Aren was in a mess of thoughts as he couldn''t figure out his next course of actions. This was a damn Legendary lifeform, and he was sure that his attack wouldn''t even scratch it. Suddenly, Aren saw a tiny fish materializing in front of him, which seemed to be smiling at him? Aren was dumbfounded. "Boy...I am not going to eat you, so don''t worry." Aren rubbed his ears, but he was sure that the voice came from this tiny emerald fish in front of him. Aren took a deep breath and asked, "why won''t you eat me?" "What? would you rather want that I eat you?" "No! No...of course not," Aren shook his head hurridly with some panic on his face. "Hahaha, I am not going to eat you, but...you will be put on a little test if you want to meet the Witch Doctor," the Fish roamed around Athan while speaking. "What test? How do you know that I am here to visit the Witch Doctor?" Aren was surprised and asked. "Because Witch Doctor told me that you were going toe here and told me to put you on her little test," the Fish spoke while smiling. "Alright, now get ready," said the Fish before it vanished. "Ready? for wh-" Aren suddenly felt dizzy and couldn''t see anything. He also failed to manipte his gear armor and fell down on the sticky liquid before losing consciousness. ... At an unknown ce in the Swamp of DeeQeen area... This ce was hidden from all, and only a handful of people knew about it. There was a big open-air pavilion in this area, a flowing river that was a hundred meters in front of the pavilion. Additionally, there were three people on the ground outside of the pavilion. These three people were sleeping on the ground. Among them, there was a boy who wore a silky white suit with sparkling gold patterns. He had a wand in his hand. The second person was a girl who wore a leather ranger outfit, and there was a beautiful bow beside her, covered in three colored glowing patterns that pulsed every few seconds. However, there wasn''t any quiver around her. The third person was none other than Aren. After a few minutes, ady wearing arge emerald dress, a crown on her head, and a staff in her hand came out of the pavilion. "Let''s see how is the new guy doing," thedy muttered with a smile as he pointed her staff at Aren, which released a thread towards him before it connected to Aren''s forehead. After five minutes, thedy took back the thread and nodded with satisfaction, "That old man indeed sent a good one to me this time." Suddenly, a tiny emerald fish jumped out from the river and started flying towards thedy. After arriving near her, the Fish asked, "Lady Dee, how is that Starking''s son doing?" "Humph, that idiot has been in there for three days, but he is not as good as Starking described," Lady Dee snorted with dissatisfaction, "the new guy''s willpower is way better." Suddenly, the sleeping girl woke up and shot to her feet with a wary and shocked expression on her face. She noticed Lady Dee and pointed her bow towards her before speaking warily, "W-who are you? How did I arrive here?" "Calm down, girl," Lady Dee smiled gently, "I didn''t expect you to finish today. Even you are better than that good for nothing beside you." Hearing that, the girl looked at Aren to her left side and then the guy in a glittering suit to her right side. She didn''t know who out of the two was good for nothing, but she didn''t want to know as she took a deep breath and looked at Lady Dee before speaking, "can I leave? I need to get strong and take revenge." "So it was revenge indeed...," Lady Dee nodded before she sighed and gestured towards the girl toe inside the pavilion, e inside. Since you stumbled upon my abode and passed the test, you won''t leave empty-handed." ... On the other hand, Aren didn''t know what the heck was going on with him. However, a voice told him to climb thisrge stair of 100 steps, and he had to defeat a monster every ten steps in a unique game that is proposed by the monster. With no other choice or way to leave this mystical ce as he couldn''t even use his gears or any power, he started climbing the stair. And when he met the first monster, he was pleasantly surprised. Chapter 112 - WTF Is Going On? "Are you ready to y the game of [Truth & Lies]? Yeah, you are," said a humanoid goat monster caressing its goatee, "If you win, you will get 10,000 exp." *poof....* A smock covered the area in front of Aren before three monsters appeared that looked the same as the humanoid goat monster that spoke to Aren a few moments ago. The three same humanoid goat monsters looked at Athan and grinned while caressing their beards, "you have ten seconds to say who among the three of us is real." Hearing that, Aren raised his eyebrows and smirked as he pointed at the middle humanoid goat, "you are the real." Aren saw 10,000 exp added to his stored exp. However, he was pleasantly surprised that his path exp was also filled up by 10,000. *poof...* The clones disappeared as the real goat monster spoke with a surprised expression, "how did you figure it out that quickly? You didn''t even look at the other two beside me." Aren and spoke, "you got the answer. I trusted my eyes, and I saw that the middle you was exactly the same as the one I saw before the smokescreen. I did not capture any abnormality when Ipared you before the smoke and after the smoke. So, why would I confuse myself by looking at the other two when I already got the answer?" "Hahaha, you got some powerful mental muscles, kid. Alright, here''s your reward," the humanoid goat monsterughed and said before he took out a bubble filled with golden sparks out of nowhere and passed it to Aren. "What is this?" Aren asked as he saw the bubble floating towards him. "It''s a life," the humanoid goat monster spoke as his smile slowly turned a bit dark, "by chance you receive a death penalty in any further tests, this bubble will burst instead of your life." Aren''s expression turned somber as he asked, "will I get more of such bubbles after passing the next tests?" "I don''t know. I gave you one because I was impressed," the goat humanoid monster said with a grin, "now off you go to the next test. All the best." *poof...* Aren frowned and started walking the stairs while thinking, ''how can I die here? From what I guess, this is surely a dream, but someone is forcefully showing me this dream. However, I can''t just erase the possibility of dying while dreaming. After all, the one responsible for putting me here must be outside.'' Soon he reached the 20th step as a smokescreen appeared, from which a tiny monster came out. This tiny monster was like a baby devil with red skin and horns and a spike in his tiny hands. "Go and die, bahahaha," the baby-devilughed, pointed the spike towards Aren''s head at a shocking speed, and pierced into Aren''s head. Suddenly, Aren felt nk and dizzy as the scenery practically changed, and he appeared on a tiny ind surrounded by water. "Aren, did you catch fish to eat for today?" Aren was shocked to hear the voice as he turned around and saw his mother. "M-mom?" Aren''s lips trembled as he uttered the word in a shaking voice. Lorain smiled and nodded, "yes? Why are you suddenly behaving like that?" Aren closed his eyes and took a deep breath as he knew that this was not true. His mother died, and he was on the quest to get strong to survive the despair so he could revive his mother. "What''s gotten into your Aren?" Lorain asked as she approached Aren and checked his forehead, "you seem to have a slight fever. Get some rest before trying to catch fish." However, Aren opened his eyes that had turned cold as he spoke while looking around, "whatever bullshit you are ying, close it right now." "Aren? What are you talking about?" Lorain asked with a worried expression. "Gigigigi..." A giggle resounded as the devil-baby appeared beside Aren floated while giggling. "Kill your mother, and you pass this test," the baby devil said while giggling. "K-kill? Why would my Aren kill me?" Lorain spoke with fear as she looked at the scary devil baby, "Who are you?" Aren frowned as he looked at the extremely realistic Lorain. However, he knew that she was not real. "What if I don''t kill her?" Aren spoke coldly as he looked at the baby devil. "Then you will die, bhahaha," the baby-devilughed wickedly. "Then make it fast," Aren spoke as he closed his eyes. "Huh? You will fail this test and won''t be allowed to participate in further tests as well. That bubble you received from the goatee won''t work here because you are not going to die but will be removed from this test by the Witch Doctor altogether." ''Witch Doctor? So this is indeed her doing. But why? Hmmm, could the temple head have some hand in this?'' Aren thought before he shook his head. He didn''t want to think about it. "Kill me. Make it fast," Aren said indifferently while his eyes still closed, ''I can recover my limbs with other methods even if this Witch Doctor doesn''t help.'' "Why don''t you want to kill her? It''s not like she is real," the baby devil was dumbfounded. He had never met someone like this. It''s frigging clear that his mom is fake, and he also knows that. But he is still not willing to kill her. "Aren? What is going on? Why do you want to die? Please tell me what is going on?" Lorain spoke as tears appeared in her eyes. She then angrily looked at the baby devil as her previous fear facing the devil disappeared, "why are you doing this? Get away from my son." Aren opened his eyes as a smile appeared on his face. Looking at his mother, he spoke gently, "mom. We will be together again for sure. For sure..." After saying that, Aren grabbed the pike from the dumbfounded devil baby''s hand and pierced it into his heart without any hesitation. "Aren!" Lorain loudly cried. However, Aren felt nk as darkness appeared around him before he actually opened his eyes in reality and saw a clear sky. "Boy, I thought you would perform well after seeing your first test, but you...," Lady Dee spoke as she looked at Aren while shaking her head in disappointment. Aren stood up and transformed his Mobile Armored suit into a bangle in his left hand. "She was clearly fake, so why didn''t you kill her?" Lady Dee asked with some curiosity, along with disappointment in her voice, "I checked your mental prowess and willpower. Both are very powerful, and I had hopes that you would clear this whole test rather easily, unlike the wuss beside you." Hearing her, Aren looked at his side and saw a map in a sparkling suit sleeping like a log. Afterward, Aren looked at the woman in front of him and said, "do you have a son?" Hearing him, Lady Dee was surprised and nodded, "I have a son and a daughter." "Good. Did you test them with the same thing before or not?" Aren questioned with a in tone. "I didn''t," said Lady Dee as she shook her head. However, she then snorted and said, "However, they would definitely pass the test." "By killing the extremely realistic you, right?" Aren said with a scoff, "but I am not willing. I am not willing to taint my conscience by killing my own mother, even if she was fake and...already dead. Anyway, since I wouldn''t die, then why should I try to pass the test by doing something like that?" ''I guess I fooled around enough, hehe. Cute young man,'' Lady Dee thought as a smile slowly crept on her face, "Your mother was very realistic, right?" Aren frowned and nodded, "yes." "That was because she was real, not fake," Lady Dee grinned. "W-what? No way. I was dreaming and woke up here. How could she be real inside that dreamy test? Also, she...is not alive anymore," Aren asked with confusion. "She is real. The test I invoked brought her real soul into your dream, and she also must have the same dream as you, but she will just take it as a literal dream as I knocked her unconscious. I checked her location and she is at a pretty safe ce. I don''t know why you said she is dead, but she is clearly alive," Lady Dee spoke. "What the fuck is going on?" Aren cursed with confusion, "I-I clearly saw her getting killed with the others...and...and..." However, Lady Dee suddenly looked in the sky and smiled, "it seems that we have a guest here." Suddenly, Aren''s mind went nk and lost his consciousness as a draconic burly man with a powerful aura appeared behind him. Tarrox. ¡­ On the other hand, Luna, Quinn, and Quinn''s mother, Hem, worriedly looked at Lorain sleeping on the bed. Two maids entered the room and arrived at the bed as they asked what had happened. "We have just finished our training, but while we wereing back, she suddenly fainted," Luna said. Suddenly, the empress appeared in the room, right at the other side of the bed, as she looked at Lorain with a frown. ''That Witch¡­what is she doing with her soul? Hmmm, It has returned and hasn''t been harmed, but why did she do that?'' ¡­ "To what do I owe this pleasure, O mighty dragon?" The Witch Doctor spoke sarcastically to the uninvited guest. Chapter 113 - Plans "Why did you do that, Lady Dee? Couldn''t you just proceed normally with your test with him like others?" Tarrox said with a sigh. Lady Dee smiled and waved her index finger left and right, "Tch, tch...How could I do that after seeing his memories?" Tarrox looked at fainted Aren and shook his head, "he is suspicious of me. He might be thinking that I deliberately didn''t save hispanions, and that''s why he still hasn''t used the bloodline orb I gave him." "Yep," Lady Dee nodded. "However, I believe that he will eventually use the bloodline orb. The power he can get from it will not be small, and he will need it to achieve his goals," Tarrox said. After saying that, Tarrox bowed towards Lady Dee and spoke, "I hope you can erase his memories of the truth. I want him to continue thinking that hispanions are dead, and he needs to survive and win against the despair to bring them back. "Naturally, when everyone is forced out of Wild Expanse after three years to face despair, they will reunite. However, until that moment arrives, he should progress alone." "did Lord say anything to you after you interfered like this?" Lady Dee asked as she squinted her eyes. "Err..yeah," Tarrox nodded with a wry smile. "Then I guess I shouldn''t waste the price you paid," Lady Dee said with a smile, "I''ll remove his memories about the truth." "Thank you very much," Tarrox said with a solemn expression and bowed before asking, "what are you nning to do with him? Put him in the test again?" "No need. I''ll just regrow his limbs and then send him on a journey. That priest of Northen Ward Demonic Temple sent him here for that," Lady Dee said with a faint smile. "Journey?" Tarrox narrowed his eyes, "are you going to send him to the Underworld?" "Yep. That priest decided that based on this young man''s result in a demonic trial. He will progress faster there," Lady Dee said. "Sigh...I can''t stop you, I guess," Tarrox said with a sigh, "Since he is going there, I hope he uses the Bloodline Orb soon to increase his chance of survival there." Lady Dee chuckled and spoke, "It''s up to him." Tarrox nodded with a weak smile before bid farewell to Lady Dee and left. "Now, let''s get you fixed while you are sleeping," Lady Dee said with a grin as she looked at Aren. ... Aren woke up after an unknown time and found himself under an unfamiliar roof. ''My hand and leg!'' Aren was surprised as he could feel his missing leg and hand again. He stood up and moved his limbs to check them, "perfect!" He then looked into the inventory and saw that the missing leg and hand he had saved were still there, "so the Witch Doctor literally regrew my limbs?" ''Oh, I have to re-attach the Mobile Armored Suit,'' Aren thought as he entered inside the Emporio Zone and started fixing the Mobile Armored Suit. As for his cut-off leg and hand, he burned them with the . Seeing them melting like ice, Aren muttered, "this me is really interesting. Since I got demonic affinity, I might be able to level it up." The limbs were frozen externally, but internally, they burned and disappeared shortly after. He then started fixing his gear, and after ten minutes, he was done as he came out of the Emporio Zone. "Young man, it is not wise to leave yourself vulnerable like that." Aren saw Lady Dee standing in front of him as he came out of the Emporio Zone. "Well, this is the safest ce for me right now, so it''s fine," Aren said with a small smile. Thedy in front of him was clearly more powerful than a legendary being because he couldn''t see her status. He was in her residence and was healed by her, so he was really in the safest ce right now. "What is thest thing you remember?" Lady Dee asked with a smile. "After arriving here, you said I will have to defeat five monsters one by one, and if I do that, you will recover my limbs. I remember fainting after defeating the 5th monster due to exhaustion," Aren spoke with a wry smile. Lady Dee nodded with a smile. However, no such things that Aren described happened. She had just put such memories into him. The chains of events in Aren''s head went like this. A legendary giant fish ate him, and after losing consciousness inside that fish''s mouth, he arrived at this strange ce and met this unfathomable person called Lady Dee, the Witch Doctor that he was supposed to meet. She told him toplete the challenge of defeating five monsters, which he did, and after fainting again due to exhaustion after defeating the 5th monster, he woke just now with a pleasant surprise as his limbs had recovered. "Since you are fine now, then off you go on your new journey," said Lady Dee with a smile as she tapped the staff on the ground twice. Aren was surprised to hear that. However, the ground beneath his feet suddenly disappeared right after that, and he fell. Lady Dee walked a few steps forward and peeked into the boundless dark hole in which Aren fell, "All the best, young man." Aren was dumbfounded as he looked around and down only to see total darkness. The only thing he was sure that he was falling amidst this darkness. He stayed silent and waited as he didn''t believe he would fall to death like this. He had worn his Mobile Armor Suit, but he couldn''t stop this strange fall by manipting his gear. He was just falling down at the same constant speed. A minute passed...two minutes passed...three minutes passed... After falling for ten minutes, Aren finally saw the light and ground beneath him and sighed a relief, "finally." The scenery beneath him that was nearing every second was in a round frame, and seeing that, Aren guessed that he was falling down in a pipe. "How strange...," Aren muttered as his falling speed slowed down before he got out of the strange pipe and his feet finally touched the ground. Looking around him, he saw that he was in a cave, and the exit of this cave seemed to be just a hundred meters in front of him. [Wee to the Underworld] Chapter 114 - Duel (Not Edited Yet.) "Underworld?" Aren muttered as he heard the voice, "so I was literally falling all this time and reached the Underworld?" "But...I feel morefortable here." Aren took a deep breath as he felt refreshed and quickly energized here. Suddenly, a notification window popped up along with a voice. ----- [Emergency Quest: Run for your life.] -->Run out of the cave and find an Underworld City. -->1000 Exp. ----- *Crack...* "huh?" Aren was surprised as the whole cave started trembling. Aren activated his bangle and wore his Mobile Armored Suit, Weimbus, before flying out of the cave without thinking twice. The cave was lit with Luminous Crystals, but outside was perpetual night. *ROARRR!!!...* *BOOOM....* Aren looked behind only to see arge hand with glowing silver patterns on iting out of the mountain cave he had just left. Slowly, the entire mountain crumbled as a ck giant with silver glowing patterns on its body revealed itself. "Fuck...," Aren cursed with a shocked expression seeing its details, and continued running away with his full speed. He activated the skill to erase his presence and mesh his appearance with the barrennd around him as he continued flying. "Another legendary lifeform," Aren muttered while flying, "hope it doesn''t notice and bother with an ant like me." He looked back again but saw that the Giant was not following him or anything. Seeing that, he sighed a relief before focusing on the front. "Underground City, huh?" Aren looked at the quest and decided to continue flying to find a city. Thisnd was barren with very few nts. The nts he saw were strange because none of them were green. They were either purple, ck, dark yellow, and such myriad colored nts. *Roar....* Suddenly, Aren noticed six monsters three kilometers in front of him surrounding a young man in his teens. Aren slowed down as he neared them and stopped a hundred meters away behind a boulder. The young man was holding a katana-like sword, and his expression was calm despite being surrounded by six dark brown monsters standing on two legs with spiky hands. [Earth Demonling] -Level: 43 -Grade: A -Lifeform: Supreme-2 -Bloodline: Terra Consumer Demonic Spawn. These Earth Demonlings looked cautious as they surrounded the young man and didn''t directly attack. Aren looked at the young man with his Astral-X eyes and got his information. ----- [???] -Level: 24 -Path: Meastro of Myriad des -Lifeform: Mortal-3 -Spinergy Method: Quoralian Saint Sword Energy. ... ... ----- "Oh...he is just two levels above me," Aren muttered with surprise and adopted a curious expression. He wanted to see how other people dealt with monsters high above their levels. The young man had his hand on the sword, still in the sheath, and didn''t move. He just stood calmly and observed the monsters. Suddenly, one monster pounced on the young from the front. Right after that, four other monsters pounced from behind the young man while thest monster pointed its spiky hands at the young man''s legs and released a dark brown glowing spike. However, the young man closed his eyes when the first monster pounced him and then rapidly took out his sword from the sheath. Aren was tongue-tied as he watched the next events with his Astral-X eyes, "Clean...," He saw the young man waving his sword a total of four times in rapid session. The first sh cut the monster''s head in front of him, while the second and third sh was performed as the young moved 360 degrees twice. The fourth sh was strange as the young man just waved his sword towards thest demon, which released a sh projectile that cut off the spike along with the demon in two from head to toe. Five heads rolled down while thest monster was cut into two. Seeing that the battle was over, Aren flew towards him. "Hello, there. Do you know a location of any Underground Cities nearby?" Aren asked while floating five meters away from the young man. "Are you otherworlder?" the young man asked as he squinted his eyes. Aren nodded unhurriedly. He was in his Mobile Armored Suit, so his face was hidden due to the headgear. "My name is Tyrance Bell," the young man spoke as he unsheathed his sword and pointed at Aren, "I want to challenge you to a duel." [Do you want to ept the duel request from Tyrance Bell?] ''Woah...so there was this type of function as well?'' Aren was surprised to receive this notification. "How does this duel work?" Aren asked with curiosity. "If you are afraid of losing your life, then don''t worry, this is a normal duel where the duel will automatically end before one of us is about to get killed," said the young man calmly, "once we leave the duel zone, all our injuries will be recovered as well." "Interesting...," Aren muttered before he nodded, "alright, I ept the duel." Right after Aren finished speaking, both of them disappeared and appeared on a floating ind surrounded by clouds. [The duel will start in 10 seconds.] Aren saw Tyrance Bell standing just a hundred meters away from him with his hand touching the sheath. Both of them were bound by an unknown force and couldn''t move. "Don''t hold back because I will not," Tyrance spoke with a solemn expression. Aren nodded as he became serious as well. When he arrived here, the chakram and hammer had automatically entered his inventory, and now he couldn''t move, ''I should be able to take them out when the countdown reaches zero.'' [4] [3] ... [0] *Zooooooom...* A sh came towards Aren breaking the sound barrier right after the countdown hit zero. Aren was also ready as he flew up with his full speed before taking his chakram and hammer. Tyrance saw Aren flying up speedily, but he remained calm and waved his swords rapidly a few more times as several sword sh projectiles flew towards Aren. However, Aren had also started attacking with his chakram as it flew towards Tyrance. As for his hammer, he manipted it as well but didn''t attack directly. Tyrance saw the chakraming towards him and focused. Just when chakram was going to hit him, he waved his sword that glowed sharply with silver light shed. Aren was dumbfounded as he felt his connection to the chakram cutting off. "What the...I am going to destroy your sword!" Aren snorted as he waved his hand and started releasing while manipting his hammer and attacking. "Heh, my sword is unbreakable," Tyrance spoke with a smirk as he waved his sword in a circting motion, which created a mystic transparent barrier that nullified all those Wind shes. "Really? Then try blocking this hammer with it," Aren spoke as he activated all of his skills and also consumed 200 mutant magic energy to activate the impact burst skill. Tyrance''s expression turned serious as he saw a giant burning hammer hurling towards him at a breakneck speed and hurriedly waved his sword in front of him three times. He only had one second as he used the most powerful attack towards the hammer. However, Aren had also started flying towards Tyrance with his hammer. But Tyrance didn''t care, ''heh, if youe near me, I will automatically win with this move.'' *POOOOOOOOOOO.....* Right when Tyrance was about to make his most powerful move with his sword that was intensely glowing with silver and gold hue to hit the hammer that was just a meter away from him, something happened that decided the duel. Both Aren and Tyrance were literally stunned because Aren used [Cursed Shofar] item by consuming 30 soul energy after he arrived within 100 meters of Tyrance. Cursed Shofar would stun everyone within 100 meters radius and deal 30 soul damage. Although Aren and Tyrance recovered within 1 second by expending their soul energy toe out of the stunning status, that one-second cost dearly to Tyrance as he couldn''t use his move. [The winner is Aren. 10 Honor points gained.] The hammer didn''t hit Tyrance but hit his sword and broke it into pieces. However, the hammer stopped after that as the attack was considered a life-ending move. So after that, the duel ended in Aren''s victory. Both of them disappeared from the duel zone and arrived back to the barrennd. Aren looked at Tyrance and spoke with a smile hidden behind the headgear, "your sword is breakable after all." Chapter 115 - Underworld City [Note: Mortal-1 -> Lv. 1 ~ 9 Mortal-2 -> Lv. 10 ~ 14 Mortal-3 -> Lv. 15 ~ 19 Mortal-4 -> Lv. 20 ~ 24 Mortal-5 -> Lv. 25 ~ 29 Supreme-1 -> Lv.30 ~ 39 Supreme-2 -> Lv.40 ~ 44 Supreme-3 -> Lv.45 ~ 49 Supreme-4 -> Lv.50 ~ 54 Supreme-5 -> Lv.55 ~ ??] -------- Hearing Aren''s words, Tyrance grinned and put the handle of his broken sword into the sheath before slowly taking out the handle again. Aren''s eyes went wide like saucers as he saw a new swording out of the sheath, yet it gave the same feels like the previous one. "Hehe, my sword is unbreakable," Tyrance spoke with a grin as he showed off his perfect sword again. "Tsk...," Aren clicked his tongue, "I guess that sheath is the main item." He then looked at his status and saw that he lost a total of 19 STR as well as 20 AGI. He wasn''t bothered about the loss of STR since he wasn''t overdependent on it, the AGI however, bothered him a lot. He was already feeling a bit slower than before. ----- -[Stats:] ----- ''The first thing I will do after entering the city is to buy a total of 8 items. I have 8 Articule gear slots right now, and I need to take full advantage of them to get as powerful as possible,'' Aren thought. "You don''t need to feel sad about losing that cheap gold-tier chakram. Since you won against me, you must have gotten 8 to 10 honor points, right?" Tyrance asked. "Oh yeah, I also unlocked something called an Honor shop," Aren muttered as he heard Tyrance''s question and nodded, "I got ten honor points." "I knew you never had dueled someone before when I first challenged you. Anyway, you can buy a tinum-tier item with ten honor points, so you didn''t suffer loss," Tyrance said. "The items in the Honor shop refresh every day and...whatever, you will know when you open the shop," Tyrance half-assedly said before he turned around, "you want to go to an Underworld city, right? Follow me." After he finished speaking, Tyrance activated some kind of movement ability as he started running at a fast speed. His feet didn''t make any sort of sound as he ran. Aren decided to check the shopter as he first followed Tyrance and caught up with him. Seeing Aren catching up to him easily, Tyrance spoke enviously, "your path gives you the ability to fly already. Once I be a Supreme lifeform and get my path to level 10, I will also be able to fly." "Your speed and reflexes are quite powerful, though. I guess your Maestro of Myriad de path is good," Aren then asked some questions one by one, "is your sheath the part of your path? Is it an optimum-grade path?" However, Tyrance suddenly stopped and looked at Aren with a frown, "how do you know about my path? I never told you its name." "Ahem, I have a special pair of eyes, so I found out about your path''s name," Aren said with a cough, "anyway, continue moving. I only know the name of your path, not about its details." Tyrance looked at Aren for a moment before he nodded and continued running. "My path is not optimum but mystic. It''s not about swords, but des, myriad des! I am restricted right now because I need to be a Supreme lifeform to even use my two des: [de of Moon Thread] and [de of Omni Tyr]," Tyrance said with an annoyed expression, "so even though I have unlocked two of my talents, I can''t use them right now." He then looked at Aren and spoke with a bitter expression, "we will have one more duel after I be a supreme lifeform." "Eh...fine," Aren nodded with a smile. ... After ten minutes of constant traveling, they finally arrived at an Underworld city. On the way, both of them encountered several monsters and even had apetition to see who killed more. Naturally, Aren won as he killed six monsters, gaining 5440 exp, while Tyrance killed four. Both of them entered the city after paying ten gold coins at the entrance gate as entry fees. Aren also deactivated his Weimbus gear and turned it into the bangle form in his left hand. "Now that we''ve arrived, I will be taking my leave," Tyrance said before he took out a crystal from his inventory and gave it to Aren, "take thismunication crystal. I will contact you once I reach Supreme lifeform, and we will have our duel again." "Yea. Sure," Aren took themunication crystal and put it into his inventory. Seeing that, Tyrance nodded and left. "Now, let''s first find a store that would ept buying this skill stone," Aren murmured as he took out the skill stone and looked at its information. ----- -Skill Rank: A -Cost: 100 Spirit Energy -Effect: Conjures a lightning sparrow that deals lightning damage and a chance to cause paralysis to the target. Reduces their lightning resistance by 100. ----- ''This should get me a good amount of gold coins if I sell it,'' Aren thought before he put the skill stone back into the inventory and asked a passerby about the location of a skill store. The people in this Underground City were of mixed races. Aren saw a variety of them, ranging from Humans, Elves, Dwarves, and even Demons. Aren started walking in the city after asking for the skill store''s location from a dwarf young man. After five minutes, he arrived at the skill store. ----- {-Ajax''s Skill Store-} ----- The store was bigger than the one he saw in the Kingdom. After entering inside, a staff member approached him and asked, "Esteemed Customer, what can I help you with?" However, suddenly, the whole shop started to tremble. Not just the shop but the entire city. Aren was startled, but the staff member spoke with a polite smile, "It seems that you are new in the Underworld. You don''t need to worry about these earthquakes as it''s just some Epic lifeform beasts wreaking havoc outside. The city lord''s knights will take care of them." Hearing that, Aren was a bit speechless. Epic lifeform is something like that Blood Hexa Entity, and it was really hard to deal with. So he didn''t want to go out and meet with multiple Epic lifeform beasts outside. "I am not here to buy but to sell," Aren said as he adjusted his bearing before taking out the skill stone. "Please go to the second floor if you want to sell a skill stone," said the staff member politely before pointing at the stairs leading to the second floor. Aren nodded as he went to the second floor and met a staff member there who led me toward arge desk after he said that he wanted to sell a skill stone. Behind the desk was a man looking in histe twenties. "Please give me your skill stone for inspection," the staff man behind the desk spoke. Aren took out the skill stone and gave it to the man who looked at it for a few moments before nodding his head. "Lightning-based A rank skill, ," the man said as he put the skill stone on the table before looking at Aren, "We have the same skill stone and its price is 9450 gold coins here. We will take this skill stone for 9400 gold coins with 50 gold coins as our profit." "Deal," said Aren with nod. Chapter 116 - Shopping After selling the skill stone, Aren left the store. His next target was to buy weapons and turn them into gears. After all, he had 8 whole empty slots in his Armalist Drive. After asking for the shop''s direction, he started walking while thinking about what to buy and arrived at the shop after five minutes. {-Moonshine Armory shop-} Aren entered inside, a staff approached him asked him what he was looking for, and Aren answered, "shields." He had 18240 gold coins and 8 gear slots. So, he had decided to buy some shields and turned them into gear so he could manipte them to defend himself. Naturally, he had decided to buy some other items as well, but first, shields. "What rank of items are you looking for?" "tinum-tier," Aren answered. "Please follow me to the 2nd floor." ... After arriving at the second floor and going to the [Defense] section, Aren saw many types of shields on disy. After looking at a few shields, he decided to buy the best one that caught his eyes. ----- [Crystal Hexa Shield] -Rank: tinum-tier / High-grade. -Requirement: 100 CONT, 100 STR. -Perks: +15 CONT, +10 STR. Fire, Water, Earth, and Wind resistance increased by 100. -Defense: Phy. [1010], Energy [1800]. -Trait: 1) Aura of Resistance: Have a certain chance to negate the status conditions like stun, paralyze, burn, etc., from the user. Have 5 minutes cooldown once this passive trait triggers. 2) Crystal Barrier: Infuse 1500 spirit energy into the shield to conjure a barrier with 2000 Durability within a 3-meter radius around the shield. Barrier''s defense values are half of the shield''s value. [10 min cooldown.] ----- Aren liked this shield and felt that it would turn out really good after transforming it into an Articule Gear. Although he didn''t meet the STR requirement, it wouldn''t matter after he uses the skill on it. The price was a bit high. Aren noticed that the gold-tier items had their prices set between 400-800 while tinum-tier items had their prices ranging from 1000-4000. A big jump despite being just a one-tier difference. However, the shield was really powerful and useful despite having a price tag of 3910 gold coins. So, Aren didn''t hesitate to buy it. Afterpleting the purchase and putting the shield into the inventory, Aren said to the staff man, "next, I want a chain-type weapon. Show me the heaviest chain-type weapon you got." "Rank?" "tinum-tier," Aren said. "Alright, follow me, please," the staff man said as he led Aren to a different section on the same floor. The shop was quite big¡ªat least 3000 square feet. It also had five floors on top of that. ... "This is the heaviest chain-type weapon we got, a chain whip. Please take a look," said the staff man as he pointed at dark-silver chains with golden patterns. "The other chain weapon is chain-sickle, but its importance is on the sickle-part and is not as heavy as this one." Aren nodded as he looked at the chain in front of him. ----- [Legumeta Chain Whip] -Rank: tinum-tier / High-grade -Requirement: +120 AGI, +100 STR. -Perk: +20 AGI, +10 STR. -Attack: Phy. [3000-4000] -Trait: 1) Sound sh: Breaking the sound barrier with the chain whip''s attack will release a sound sh. The sound sh will consume 1000 spirit energy when the user manages to execute it. Sound sh Damage: 8000-15,000 sound damage that will pass through the normal physical defense. Effective sound sh''s range: 50 meters. ----- "Have you taken a look at its status?" the staff man asked after a minute. "Yes," Aren nodded as he liked the chain whip. "Then allow me to show you its use. After that, you can decide whether you want to buy it or not," the staff man said with a polite smile as he took out the chain whip from its showcase. Afterward, he led Aren to the 1st floor and then to the training ground that was behind the shop. Aren was surprised that they had something like this too, ''It looks like the shop is bigger than I imagined since they have such arge training ground behind the shop.'' There were many people here testing out items on dummies. The staff man led Aren towards a dummy and stood 10 meters away from the dummy as he held the chain whip''s handle. The chain whip was six meters long in length. "I''m sure you know how to crackle whips since you are buying one, right? Anyway, you just have to crackle it correctly in front of your target. The sound sh''s range is 50 meters so keep that in mind." After saying that, the staff man circted the chain whip around him for a round before whipping it in the dummy''s direction and crackling it. *Crackle!!...* The sound barrier broke as a loud crackling sound reverberated akin to thunder. A sound sh generated at the spot where the whip''s tail cracked and broke the sound barrier, which flew towards the metal dummy before hitting it. -15,000 Aren saw the sound sh deal exact 15,000 damage to the dummy, indicating that this staff man executed it perfectly. "That was the trait of this weapon. Naturally, you can also use the chain whip normally by whipping your opponents. You can use it to bind your enemies as well," the staff man said with a smile before he asked, "So...would you like to buy this?" "Yep." ... Aren paid 3780 gold coins for the [Legumeta Chain Whip] and then told the staff man that he wanted to buy some gold-tier weapons now. Aren only had 10,550 gold coins left, while he still had 6 gear slots. So, there was no other choice but to buy gold-tier items. Suddenly, he thought of something and asked the staff man, "are there any weapons that can work better the more they are in numbers?" "Hmmm, there are indeed weapons like that. However, to use them, you need to have an innate ability or any path-rted talent that can let you manipte items without touching them," the staff man. "Perfect! Please show me those weapons," Aren said with a smile. Chapter 117 - Rings "Here they are," the staff member said as he pointed at a showcase that had five rings disyed in it. Each ring was made from the same dark-silver material and had a radius of 50-centimeters. The only difference between them was the patterns carved on the rings. The first ring had red me-like patterns, the second ring had light-blue wavy patterns, the third ring had brown rock-like patterns, the fourth ring had light-green windy patterns, and the fifth ring had dark-blue lightning patterns. ----- [Ring of Fire] [Ring of Water] [Ring of Wind] [Ring of Earth] [Ring of Lightning] ----- "If you can manipte these five rings, then you can do a lot of things with them," the staff member said with a smile. "Wait," Aren spoke as he nced at the price tag and wryly smiled, "I can''t afford them." The price of the total set was 30,000 gold coins. "If you have these rings in gold-tier, then I will buy them," Aren said. "Unfortunately, these rings need special materials because of how these rings are used, and these materials are quite valuable, so it''s impossible to find this set of rings in gold-tier," said the staff member while shaking his head. "However, because you can manipte things despite still being in the Mortal lifeform, I can guarantee that these rings will make your life easier," the staff member remarked, patting his chest with a smile. "Let me show you how to use them first. If you like them, you can save and collect more gold coins before purchasing this set of rings rather than wasting gold coins on gold-tier gears." Aren was curious about their uses, so he nodded, "alright." ... The staff member took the set of rings to the training ground and called one of his colleagues, who turned out to be an elf woman. "She will be showing you their uses since I can''t manipte things without touching them," the staff member said with a wry smile, "only people at the Epic lifeform stage can do that." The elven staff member waved her hand as the five rings floated around her. "You must know about their basic stats by looking at them, right?" the elven woman asked as she looked at Aren. "Yes," Aren nodded as he could the ring''s stats. "I will show you thebination attacks that can be made through the rings one by one," the elven woman said as she manipted the rings. First, she released a fireball from the [Ring of Fire] by consuming her spirit energy. Right after that, a swirling wind orb was released from the [Ring of Wind], which hit the fireball going towards the dummy. When the swirling wind orb hit the fireball, the fireball suddenly powered up and became bigger and more potent as it hit the dummy, causing a st to ur. "Next is the [Ring of Fire] plus [Ring of Water]," the elven woman said as she released a fireball and then hit it with a water bubble from the [Ring of Water]. *Siiiiiiiii....* Instantly, boiling energy got conjured from the mix of fireball and water bubble that was searing hot and even melted the dummy''s structure a bit. "Thisbination can be used to lower the enemy''s defenses as well upon damaging them," the elven woman said. Afterward, the elven womanbined a fireball from the [Ring of Fire] with a lightning bolt from the [Ring of Lightning], causing a smic orb to form that dealt destructive damage to the dummy. "This is the most powerfulbination. You can do quick and devastating damage with this," the elven woman said. Afterward, she manipted [Ring of Fire] and [Ring of Earth] before sticking them together, "for this, you will have to join these two rings together and infuse your spirit energy in them simultaneously to attack." Aren saw a trail of zingva released from the joined rings as it hit the metal dummy and superheated it before slowly melting it. "If you continue to pour your spirit energy like this, theva trail will continuously release from these joined rings," said the elven woman said before she separated the rings. Aren was a bit fascinated by thebination usage of the rings even though he had guessed about it when reading the status of the rings. "You can adjust the potency of the energy released from the rings and change thebination form. For example, if you release a water bubble filled with more water energy and then hit it with a fireball from the ring of fire, it will instead create mist that can obscure the vision of your opponent. You can create a misty area," the elven woman said with a smile. "Interesting," Aren said as he looked at the five rings floating beside the elven woman. ----- [Ring of Fire] -Rank: tinum tier (High-grade) -Perks: +15 AGI. Fire Elemental Mastery +10 -Attack: Fire Energy [3,000] -Trait: 1) Primal Conjuring: (Ring of) Fire+Wind=Greater fire st Fire+Water=Boiling energy Fire+Earth=Lava Fire+Lightning=sma energy [Ring of Water] -Rank: tinum tier (High-grade) -Perks: +15 VIT. Water Elemental Mastery +10 -Attack: Water Energy [3,000] -Trait: 1) Primal Conjuring: (Ring of) Water+Wind=Ice attack Water+Fire=Misty area Water+Lightning=Acid substance attack [Ring of Wind] -Rank: tinum tier (High-grade) -Perks: +15 AGI. Wind Elemental Mastery +10 -Attack: Wind Energy [3,000] -Trait: 1) Primal Conjuring: (Ring of) Wind+Lightning=Blinding attack {Impairs enemy''s vision} [Ring of Earth] -Rank: tinum-tier (High-grade) -Perks: +15 CONT. Earth Elemental Mastery +10 -Attack: Earth Energy [3,000] -Trait: 1) Primal Conjuring: (Ring of) Earth+Wind=Sand shard attack with high pration power. Earth+Lightning=Instant potent st Earth+Water=Produces wooden vines, once earth energyes into contact with the water bubble, that can bind enemies. [Ring of Lightning] -Rank: tinum-tier (High-grade) -Perks: +15 AGI. Lightning Elemental Mastery +10 -Attack: Lightning Energy [3,000] -Trait: 1) Primal Conjuring: (Ring of) Lightning+Wind=Shockwave attack Lightning+Water=Produces a storm cloud that can rain down sharp water drops filled with electricity to deal damage and a chance to paralyze opponents. [Ed/N: There are different oues based on how much essence is used in the variousbinations, as more of lightning and less of water is different from more of water and less of lightning.] ----- The elven woman showed all thebinations to Aren one by one. After finishing, she put the rings back into the showcase. "These rings are currently under my ownership since they are branded with my blood. However, if you want to buy it, I can remove my blood brand, and you can add yours by dropping a drop of your blood on each of the rings," the elven woman said to Aren. "Ahem, I only wanted this gentleman to show the uses of the rings. He won''t be buying the rings right now," the staff member said with a wry smile. Hearing that, the elven woman nced at the man before she nodded inly and left. One could see slight annoyance and disdain on the woman''s face as she left. "As you can see, the rings are very useful and can be used ording to the situation. Their damage is great, but it''s even higher with variousbinations," said the staff member with a polite smile. "These rings provide the user ten default elemental mastery of these five elements once you brand the rings with your soul, which can let you manipte the output of those elemental energies from the rings. However, if you have an affinity for these elements....hehe, then you can do a lot of things with these rings," the staff member said with a light chuckle. Chapter 118 - Ghost Demon Ship-1 (not Edited Yet) Aren felt that those rings could be really helpful in various situations. They could be even more powerful after turning them into his Articule gears and upgrading them. Anyway, he could continuously rain down many powerful attacks from the rings as long as he had spirit energy. So he decided to save 10,550 gold coins instead of buying gold tier items to fill in his articule gear slots. Before Aren left the shop, he took out the Mark of Yakum to the staff and asked, "I forgot to ask before but is this card usable here?" Seeing the card, the staff member was stunned, "this...this is Mark of Yakum! Of course, this is usable here." "Oh...then can I get 20% back from the chain whip and shield''s purchase?" Aren asked with a wry smile before saying with a cough, "anyway, I am going to buy those rings after quickly gathering gold coins." "Naturally, naturally! Come with me, please," the staff member said with a smile as he led Athan to one of the sales counters. The staff member scanned Aren''s card in some sort of stone te before saying, "can you tell me your name?" "Ruine," Aren replied. "Mr. Ruine. From now you, you are a VIP member of all shops in the Underworld with this symbol on their name board," the staff member said as he showed a symbol to Athan on a te. The symbol looked like a dark tree with wavy ck and purple branches going upward. "Ohh," Aren nodded as he remembered seeing this symbol on this shop''s board outside. "You just need to show this mark of Yakum after entering the shops with this symbol," the staff member said with a smile before he initiated the trade with Aren to give him back the 20% discount gold coins. "Here, you can take these 1538 gold coins back," the staff member said as he traded them back to Aren. Aren nodded before he grinned, "then I guess the set of rings will also cost 24,000 gold coins to me instead of 30,000 gold coins." "Indeed," the staff member nodded. "Alright, then I wille back after gathering sufficient gold coins," Aren said before he left the shop. "We will be expecting your arrival soon," the staff said with a small bow. ... While walking towards the Guildhall, Aren thought, ''I now have 12,088 gold coins, so I merely need 12,000 gold coins. Nice, I guess it''s time to get back to grinding and ept some quests.'' Soon, Aren arrived at the Guildhall, but after he looked at the quest board and the requirements, he smiled wryly and left. The Guildhall''s staff member clearly told him that he is not strong enough to take on any quests right now. His guild card indicated that he was at High warrior rank but the minimum requirement to take on the quest was Master-rank. Generally, people at Supreme-3 to Supreme-5 lifeform can achieve Master-rank. After thinking for a moment, Aren realized the reason. Right after he arrived at the Underworld, he encountered a legendary monster. Afterward, he only encountered level 40+ wild monsters, and after arriving at this city, a horde of epic monsters attacked. This Underworld was truly dangerous. ''Hmmm...I guess it''s time to invoke quests instead of taking them at the Guildhall,'' Aren thought as he started roaming the city. After roaming for ten minutes, he realized that not many residencies were in the city. Instead, there were many inns, hotels, and such things here but not houses. Since he had no fruitful quest invokes even after talking with some people here, Aren decided to stay in an inn and finish his work of transforming his items into gears and then upgrading them. He decided to go with a mid-tier inn where the price was 10 gold coins a day and started transforming his two newly bought items into gears. ... [Crystal Hexa Shield] -Rank: tinum-tier (High-grade) -Requirements: Armalist Drive+5 -Perks: +25 CONT, +20 STR. Fire, Water, Earth, and Wind resistance increased by 200. -Defense: Phy. [1510], Energy [2600] -Traits: 1) Aura of Resistance: Have a 50% certain chance to negate status conditions like stun, paralyze, burn, etc., from the user. Have a 2 minutes cooldown once this passive trait triggers. 2) Crystal Barrier: Infuse 1500 spirit energy and 100 Armalist Force into the shield to conjure a barrier with 4000 durability within a 5-meter radius around the shield. Barrier''s defense values are half of the shield''s value. [5 min cooldown]. ----- After Aren finished transforming Crystal Hexa Shield, the stats from the perk instantly applied, and he felt slight pain coursing through his body before feeling newfound strength and solidity in his body. He was also somewhat surprised by how the traits evolved. ''My chances of survival really increased by a somewhat good margin,'' Aren thought as he looked at the upgraded traits. He then started transforming [Legumeta Chain Whip] weapon as well. ----- [Legumeta Chain Whip] -Rank: tinum-tier (High-grade) -Requirements: Armalist Drive+5 -Perks: +35 AGI, +15 STR -Attack: Phy. [4,000~5,000] -Trait: 1) Sound sh: Breaking the sound barrier with the chain whip''s attack will release a sound sh. The sound sh will consume 1200 spirit energy when the user manages to execute it. Sound sh Damage: 10,000~20,000 sound damage that will pass through the normal physical defense. Effective sound sh''s range: 100 meters. ----- Aren nodded as he looked at the upgrades, ''I wonder if using this whip in tandem with kic energy method will increase its soul sh damage?'' ''Hmmm...the sound sh is supposed to be released when its tail breaks the sound barrier, but...,'' Aren shook his head as he stopped thinking about it for now. He will just try it out when fighting outside. *Thrrrrr.....DHOOOOM....* Suddenly, the entire city started quacking again as an intense earthquake reverberated. Aren hurriedly left the inn and was shocked as his eyes captured a massive floating ship in the sky. "IT''S A GHOST DEMON SHIP! WHAT LUCK." "Luck?" Aren was confused as he looked at the man in histe twenties looking in the sky with sparkling eyes. He then looked at the floating gothic-looking ship that looked simr to a pirate ship but way scarier with the glowing skulls floating around it and muttered, "how is it lucky to find this shit on top of our heads?" However, soon, Aren knew the answer. Chapter 119 - Ghost Demon Ship-2, Magia Skill. (Not Edited Yet) "Aren!" Tyrance arrived beside Aren as well, and he also had an excited expression at the appearance of this floating Ghost Demon Ship. "What''s going on? Why is everyone excited?" Aren asked with a confused expression. "Because we can be stronger and get treasures," Tyrance answered while looking at Aren before his gaze returned to the floating Ghost Demon Ship. "After a while, ghosts will start to appear from the ship and approach us. When that happens, just stand still and don''t do anything," Tyrance spoke, "since we are still mortal lifeform, we will definitely get a chance to enter the treasure hunt, so just wait." "Treasure hunt?" Aren muttered as he looked at the floating ship. All people of the time had eager expressions on their faces as they stood still. After two minutes, the ghost shop started to wreath in white mes before countless one-meter tall white ghosts came out of the ship and descended. Aren was kind of speechless at this creepy sight, ''If this happened in Eath world before the appearance of Myriad Mountain phenomenon, people would really lose their...'' A few secondster, Aren saw two ghostsing towards him and Tyrance, who was standing beside him. "Stand still and let them touch you," Tyrance whispered to Aren. Aren''s eyes saw their details and were surprised. [ Entry Ticket Ghost ] -Special lifeform. Note: These ghosts can mark people and turn into their tickets for entry into one of the Underworld''s phenomenons, Ghost Demon Ship''s the Treasure Hunt. Aren saw a ghost approaching and hovered around him for one round before stretching its ghost hand towards his left hand. He almost moved his hand mistakenly. However, he stood still in the end as the ghost''s hand touched his left hand before... *poof...* The ghost turned into a white smoke before it infused into his arm and turned into a white skull mark. The same thing happened with Tyrance and many other people in the town. [You have been selected for the uing Treasure Hunt of the Ghost Demon Ship. You will be transported to the Treasure Hunt''s zone after one hour.] "Tyrance, since there will be higher lifeform people in this event, then won''t we mortal lifeform have a great disadvantage?" Aren asked with doubt. "Nope," Tyrance answered with a grin, "once we enter into the zone, we can''t use any of our original powers, and everyone''s stats will be fixed to be the same. However, we will get to select new skills to be used while we are in the Treasure hunt''s zone. In the end, how we build our skillset determines how far we can go in this Treasure Hunt." After saying that, Tyrance appeared thought as he looked at Aren before asking, "All that aside, the one hour time we got is to make a team of two. Do you see those people? They have started forming their team." Aren turned his gaze around saw before nodding his head. He saw two people bumping their hands that had skull marks etched on and guessed that it was the process of forming or registering the team. "So...how about we team up?" Tyrance asked. "Alright," Aren nodded with a smile as he stretched his hand towards Tyrance. Tyrance also did the same as they bumped the back of their hands. [You have formed a team with Tyrance.] "Good. Now we won''t hurt each other when using the temporary skills we acquire in the Treasure Hunt''s zone," Tyrance said. ... Since there was an hour of time before the Treasure Hunt started, Aren decided to sit in meditation and train in his Spinergy Method to increase the rating of his core and get more benefits of the Spinergy Method''s effects. He also decided to consume his soul energy and pour it into Aember Core of Eturnia in his inner space to make progress in it as well. Since he couldn''t do both things together, he took turns to do them. After finishing one cycle of the Spinergy Method, he would slowly consume 100 soul energy and pour it into the Aember Core of Eutrnia to activate its core power to gain more understanding of it, which would increase his mastery of this power. Soon an hour passed as Aren made little progress in both things. However, since he was in the Underworld and also acquired Demonic Affinity, his training speed in Demon Yakum''s Spinergy Method increased tremendously. It practically more than doubled with those two things. [Spinergy Method: Demon Yakum''s Spinergy Method] -Current stage: 1 (Progress: 12.5%) -+150 Spirit energy capacity. -Purple Spectrum: stage 1 (9.7%) -ck Haze: stage 1 (9.7%) -Hell ze: stage 1 (9.7%) Level 1 Purple Spectrum: Increase heaviness or lightness of user''s spirit energy applications like skills, ability, etc by 13.1% (ording to user''s will.) Level 1 ck haze: Decrease all types of defense of enemies by 13.1%. Level 1 Hell ze: Inflict injuries with 13.1% heal reduction debuff. Looking at the progress, Aren nodded and was satisfied, ''with this much progress in just 30 minutes and 6000 spirit energy; I can see the benefits of Demonic Affinity and the Underworld.'' He then eagerly looked at his Aember core of Eturnia''s progress because while he was training in it, he gained an epiphany rted to it and created a skill using that epiphany. [Mutant-magic ability]: Aember core of Eturnia. -Grade: S -Mutant Magic level: 1 (15% mastery). -Magic energy: [1,000/1,000] (20/min). -Primary trait: As a mutant magic ability: It canbine and adapt with anything as long as the user can handle the power and has sufficient control. -Effect: Extreme melting, Extreme heat, Reactive Explosion, Extreme burn, Crystalized Fire. -Skills: [Please name your Magia skill.] Hearing the notification, Aren thought for a moment and decided on a name, ''Bullet Storm.'' -Type: Magia Skill -skill level: 1 (MAX: ??) -skill rank: Undefined. ( A rank based on itsplexity of control.) -cost: Minimum:( 100 soul energy, 100 mutant magic energy, 100 spirit energy) Maximum: (??? Depends on User''s control.) -Effect: Creates a storm filled with tiny sharp shards whirling in it. The storm can release shards in bullet-like form to deal damage ording to the energies spent. It also deals soul damage and can make opponents dizzy. -Note: Must use this skill carefully and with sustainable energies control. Otherwise, the backfire of the skill will result in serious injuries. "Aren! It''s time to go.. Our skull marks are glowing." Chapter 120 - Treasure Hunt-1 (not Edited Yet.) Aren opened his eyes hearing Tyrance''s voice, but he felt dizzy right as he opened his eyes. The scenery changed in front of him as he arrived near a riverbank of a raging flowing river. Tyrance also arrived beside him. Aren tried to activate his powers, but it didn''t work. He couldn''t even take anything out of his inventory. He checked his status window, but it was in a red frame, and instead, a new status window had appeared. [Ruine] -Hunt Level: 1 [0/100] exp -Body Health: [10,000/10,000] (BH) -Soul Health: [~] -Spirit Energy: [10,000/10,000] (SE) -Strength: 200 -Constitution: 200 -Agility: 200 -Soul: ~ --> Sprint: Cost= 100 SE || Increase movement speed by 20% for 5 min. --> Meditation: Sit in meditation to recover BH and SE by 100 per ten seconds. Suddenly, Aren and Tyrance heard a deep, cracky voice and saw notification and rules. [The Grand Treasure Hunt Starts now!] [Rule 1: Your skill options will be determined by your first big action and thoughts. This will also apply every time after you level up your hunt level.] [Rule 2: Only supportive buff skills will work on your teammate. Your damage dealing skills won''t hurt your teammate even if it hits.] [Rule 3: After your BH turns to 0, you won''t die. But will be disqualified from the Treasure Hunt.] [Rule 4: Collect Treasure points by submitting treasures. You must touch the treasure with your palm to submit it. You can use treasure points to buy things from Treasure shop after you are disqualified or after the Hunt ends.] [Rule 5: Every 10 minutes,rge beams will produce from the ground for three seconds, indicating the locations of the treasure.] [Rule 6: You can level up your Hunt Level by killing beasts and defeating other hunters.] [Rule 7: Enjoy the Treasure hunt, it willst for five days, and the grand rewards will be announced once it''s over.] "Aren, our first action will determine our skill options...hmmm, but what kind of action?" Tyrance spoke with a thoughtful expression. Both of them also didn''t move and stayed in one ce because moving was also considered an action. "Big action," Aren said as he looked in the surrounding, "we have four different ces in our surroundings. A raging river, a forest, a mountainous path, and...those dark clouds in the sky to our left side." *Awooooooo....* Suddenly, they heard a howl from the forest. "Hunt!" Aren and Tyrance spoke at the same time. "Killing a beast is considered a big action. Maybe our first skill options will be based on the beast we hunt?" Aren asked. "True," Tyrance nodded, "let''s go and hunt the wolf." "Wait," Aren stopped Tyrance. "What?" "Do you know how powerful the beasts would be inside the forest? Also, wolves are usually in their packs, and we don''t have any offensive skills. So...it is rather dangerous to go into that thick forest without preparation," Aren said as he adopted a thoughtful expression. "Hmmm, you are right," Tyrance nodded, "Then what do we do?" "Killing wolves might give us skill options, but they will be rted to wolves: either sound-type or physical melee-type. However, I am not used to fighting melee as much as you so...," Aren paused before his gaze turned to the raging river. "So I will acquire my skill options first to increase our battle power before going into the forest," Aren said before moving towards the river and jumping into it while thinking, ''jumping into this river with strong thought might also give me skill options.'' *Ssh...Dhroooo...* Although the river was raging, Aren stood his stance. After all, he had 200 points all body stats while soul had 100 points. After a second, Aren heard a voice and saw three skills options in his head. "Got it!" Tyrance was surprised before he grinned, "great." Aren looked at the three skill options and fell into thought. [Select one skill out of three] --> --> --> -Cost: 1000 spirit energy. -Duration: 1 minute. -Effect: Cover your fists with strong water power gloves that can deal powerful water damage to the opponent. You can release a water bomb bybing your palms together but doing this will end the skill''s duration. -Note: attacking your targets with Water Flowing Fist will shred their physical defense by 100 and water resistance by 150. It can stack up to five times. "Not bad, but..let''s see the next one," Aren murmured as he looked at the second skill. -Cost: 1000 spirit energy. -Effect: Conjures three 2 meters long aqua serpents. You can use them to attack opponents and deal sharp water damage by releasing condensed water spit from them or deal powerful blunt damage by exploding them after wrapping around the target. -Attack: Spit [1500 water damage], explosion [4000 water damage]. -Note: the effective control range is five meters. Each serpent can release two water spits at most before dissolving itself. Water spits decrease the target''s physical defense by 200 and water resistance by 300. Aren decided to choose this one, but he still looked at the third skill before choosing that. -Cost: 1500 spirit energy. -Effect: Releases a hydro beam from your mouth after one and a half-second of preparation to deal 10,000 water damage. -Note: The beam has powerful prative, ignore 1000 physical and energy defense of the target. "Hydro Beam is pretty good. However...," Aren muttered before he still decided to choose and got out of the raging river. "Let''s go," Aren said to Tyrance. "What kind of skill did you choose?" Tyrance asked with curiosity. Aren told him the details of his skills as it was crucial for working together. *Awooooo...* As they neared the forest, they heard multiple howls. Once they went inside the thick forest, they instantly found their targets. Four wolves. "I will trap three wolves with my serpents while you finish off one wolf. You can do that, right?" Aren said. "I can. I have learned martial arts as well," Tyrance nodded as he dashed forward while activating sprint. On the other hand, Aren conjured three 2 meters long aqua serpents and used manipted them to move towards the wolves. He was good at manipting things due to his path, which was one reason he selected this skill. The four wolves dashed towards Tyrance, but Aren used three serpents to snare three wolve''s legs and also exploded the serpents to deal damage to them. *St!!* [-2300]x3. *Awoooooooooo!...Awooo...* The wolves cried in pain and anger as their back legs were severely injured, which impaired their movement. [High Forest Wolf] -Body Health: [7,700/10,000] -Attack: Physical [4000] -Defense: Physical [1700] Energy [1700]. --> Wolf w: deals 200% of the attack to target. --> Berserk: attack and movement speed increases by 50% once their health falls below 30%. "Tyrance! Once the wolf''s health falls below 30%, its movement speed and attack will increase by 50%, so be careful!" "Got it!" Tyrance shouted as he fought with the wolf by punching and kicking it while nimbly dodging its w attacks. On the other hand, Aren conjured three more serpents by expending 1000 spirit energy again. He manipted the three serpents, and this time, he attacked their front legs to cripple their movementpletely. Afterward, he dashed towards the three wolves and beat them to death. [ A High Forest Wolf killed. 500 hunt exp gained.] x3 [Your hunt level reached 2. Your next big action will determine your skill options.] Tyrance was also finished beating the wolf to death. He was attacking its neck the whole time and finished it off in one move at the end before it got berserk. "I go skill options!" Tyrance spoke with a grin and then looked at Aren only to be speechless, "you beat them? and...leveled up?" "Well, yeah," Aren nodded with a grin, "I had the help of my skill." Tyrance nodded before he turned to look at the skill options window that only he could see, and after a minute of thinking, he chose a skill, Tyrance made chopping motions and moved his hands like he was shing swords. "Haha, I got a skill suitable to me," Tyrance guffawed happily before turning to Aren, "let''s go and continue moving in the forest." "No," Aren shook his head before smiling, "let''s head back and move towards the mountainous path." "Why?" "Juste, I got an idea," Aren said with a grin, "however, I am not sure if we will seed or not, but it is worth trying." Tyrance looked at Aren for two moments before nodding his head, "tell me about your idea first." Chapter 121 - Treasure Hunt-2 (Not Yet Edited.) "Interesting...I want to acquire such a skill as well. Let''s go," Tyrance said with a bit of excitement when he heard of Aren''s idea. "How did you even think of this few steps ahead, haha. Your brain is fast," Tyrance said with augh. As such, both Aren and Tyrance left the forest area and started running towards the mountainous area. After five minutes of running at full speed, they arrived at the foot of the first mountain of this mountain range and started climbing it. The mountain was not t tall but had a slow curve going upward, so they basically ran and reached the top of the mountain. "Hey, Aren, I think this is enough. The taller mountain connected to this one is steep, and we have to climb it. So let''s not waste time doing that," said Tyrance. "Yeah, this is enough," Aren nodded as he looked at the scenery from the top of the mountain. He then turned to Tyrance and asked while raising his eyebrows, "we didn''t encounter any monster on the way, so you couldn''t level up like me, and without leveling up, you can''t do this." However, at this moment, everyone in the Treasure Hunt heard a voice, and the beams started to produce from the ground, rising to the sky. [The first Hunt has started! Go and Submit the treasure.] [The next Treasure Lights will produce after one hour.] Aren and Tyrance were startled as they looked at the tall mountain that was connected to the mountain they were currently standing on. A beam of light was produced from there. The beams stayed for 3 seconds before they disappeared. "I guess we are pretty lucky," Tyrance said with a grin. "I will first try my idea," Aren said with a nod before he jumped off the mountain peak. After seeing the mountains and how he got the skill options by jumping into the raging river, he had gotten this idea. This idea was also one of the reasons why he selected skill from the skill options. ''Please work,'' Aren thought as he fell down. He had spread his legs and hands to slightly reduce the fall and also to trigger the skill options. However, he was not worried about seriously injuring himself by smashing into the ground because he had already conjured three aqua serpents around him, and he was manipting them as well. If he fails to trigger the skill options, he can stop himself from falling using the serpents. Just as Aren was halfway to the ground, the skill option triggered. [Please select one skill out of three] --> --> --> He didn''t even have to look at all three skills'' descriptions and chose the third skill with amazement written his fast, ''so the thinking part does take effect. This third skill is almost the same as one of the skills I strongly thought about and imagined.'' The skill''s knowledge went into his brain on how to execute it while he was falling and when he was 10 meters from the ground, he executed the skill as he changed his falling position and... *swoosh...* He stopped falling down and instead started walking in the air. -Cost: 100 spirit energy per step. -Effect: You can now step into the air and get a boost to jump upward from the soles of your feet. The boost jump will depend on how much strength you exert on your leg before jumping on the air space. Aren stepped into the air and jumped by exerting his full strength, and just like that, he reached back to the top of the mountain with seven steps. "Awesome! Now let''s hurridly go towards the treasure. There should be beasts there as well, which will allow me to increase my hunt level," Tyrance said with a bit of excitement as Aren''s idea seeded. Aren nodded, "let''s go." Both of them activated and started moving towards the second mountain. After arriving at the mountain''s foot, they started climbing it. Aren also started climbing it instead of using his because he didn''t want to waste spirit energy. Anyway, they could easily prate their fingers into the mountain wall and climb up fast with their strength that had 200 points. After five minutes of fast climbing, they arrived at the top of this mountain and saw that it was reallyrge up here with more mountains connected to it. Basically, one could build mountainous towns in this extensive mountain range. "This mountain range is bigger than I expected," Tyrance said with surprise. "Yeah, many monsters must be living ahead in such arge mountain range," Aren nodded and said, "we will continue on this until we reach the end or encounter a valley on the way." "Yeah, now let''s go to that cave. Though, that two-headed bear standing outside is mine, " Tyrance said as he rushed forward to meet the bear. Aren also followed while looking around carefully. He didn''t believe that nobody beside them was here, especially after seeing such arge mountain range. ''There should be some people that transported in this mountain range once arriving in this Treasure Zone since it''s thisrge,'' Aren spected as he used and jumped into the air three times to observe from high-ground. His Astral-X eyes were working here so he could observe everything around him with more details and with zoom-in and out. ''Hmmm...'' Aren narrowed his eyes as he saw two shadows approaching them from two kilometers away. They were currently on another mountain that was connected to this one. Naturally, those two shadows also noticed Aren since he was high in the sky. "Tyrance, kill that bear quickly," Aren said as he descended since he could not actually float in the air. "Almost done," Tyrance shouted as he dodged the bear''s attack easily with his footwork and chopped its neck off. He had to attack its neck four times before it was finally chopped off. The bear was really thick with high defense. Aren entered inside the cave while Tyrance also followed him. Chapter 122 - Treasure Hunt-3, Chase And Tricks. (not Edited Yet) [Ruine] -Hunt Level: 2 [1000/4000] exp -Body Health: [10,000/10,000] (BH) -Soul Health: [~] -Spirit Energy: [4600/10,000] (SE) -Strength: 200 -Constitution: 200 -Agility: 200 -Soul: ~ --> Sprint: Cost= 100 SE || Increase movement speed by 25% for 5 min. --> Meditation: Sit in meditation to recover BH and SE by 120 per ten seconds. --> Aqua Serpents: Cost= 1000 SE. --> Flight Steps: Cost= 100 SE per step. Leveling their hunt level to 2 automatically upgraded their first two basic skills. Aren looked at his status while moving inside the cave. "What the...," Tyrnace said with a surprised expression, "It''s going downwards." "Yeah, let''s go," Aren nodded as both of them went deeper into the cave. After running in the path, they encountered two paths and stopped. "What do we do? The treasure could be in either path," Tyrance asked, "Also, I likely won''t be able to get the flight-type skill if we encounter a fight." "yeah, but it''s fine. Treasure points are more important," Aren said before he looked at the two paths. "Let''s go to the left path," Aren said before he started moving, "those two should have entered the cave by now as well." "Should we ambush them?" Tyrance asked while following Aren. "Not worth it. It''s better to move first," Aren said. After they entered the dark passage and walked for a minute, they arrived in a spacious cave with two sabertooth tigers with ming patterns on their body resting beside a red skull pierced by a sword. "That''s the treasure!" Tyrance said. *Roar....* The two tigers woke up as they eyed Aren and Tyrance. "Submit the treasure! I will hold off the tigers. We have to do this before those two arrive here," Aren said as he noticed another passage leading to this cave as well, so those two people would arrive here regardless of any passage they choose to enter. *swoosh...* Tyrance dashed towards the sword while three aqua serpents also flew towards the tigers. Aren also moved since the effective control range of five meters. On the other hand, those two people stopped at the two paths. Both of them were men in theirte twenties and wore luxurious clothes. "What should we do?" said the man with emerald long hair. "It''s not wise to separate ourselves. Let''s enter the right passage," said the man with short brown hair and brown beard. Both of them hurried into the passage and, after a minute, arrived at the same spacious cave as Aren and Tyrance. However, right as they arrived, Tyrance had touched the treasure with his hand, sessfully submitting it. [One treasure Submitted, 1000 treasure points gained.] On the other hand, Aren had injured the tigers and impaired their movements by using twice. "Let''s go," Aren said, "we run now. I only have 5600 spirit energy left, so it''s not clever to fight those two right now." "Yeah." Both Aren and Tyrance moved started running towards the passage they came from. "Attack them!" said the man with a brown beard as he pointed his palms towards Aren and released a ming bird. The man with emerald hair also executed his skill as sharp rocky shards flew towards Aren and Tyrance. Aren nced backward while running and waved his hand as he conjured the to destroy the ming bird while telling Tyrance to dodge the sharp rocky shards. "Bruh, those rocky shards felt more dangerous and fast; I almost failed to dodge one because of the suddenness of their attacks," Tyrance spoke with a wry smile as sweat appeared on his face as he and Aren entered inside the passage and continued running with their full speed towards the entrance. "Destroy the passage, hit the ceiling, and block their path," Aren hurridly spoke, "you must have gotten skill rted to tigers since you fought them with them." "Right away," Tyrance nodded as he wed towards the passage''s ceiling as arge burning w materialized over his hands, which he released towards the ceiling while running. "Although this won''t block them, it''s better than nothing," Aren said, "let''s hurry and leave the cave so we can copse the cave''s entrance." *Boom...* Both of them heard a sound right as they left the passage, indicating that those two after them must have destroyed the rocky blockage created by Tyrance. "Fast! Continue using skill," Aren said. Both of them hurriedly left the cave, and Aren used his one more time beforeing out for a surprise to his followers. Aftering out, both of them started moving ording to the n. Tyrance used his new skill to attack the cave''s entrance while Aren went on top of the cave''s entrance and used two before smashing down with a powerful stomp. *BOOOM...* "HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" They heard a loud shout from the cave before the entire entrance caved in. "I have another surprise from them," Aren said as he snapped his finger. *BOOOM....* He had left three snakes near the cave''s entrance inside the cave at the corner and rolled them to make them inconspicuous, and since he was still within five meters range, he exploded the snakes. [You have defeated a Treasure hunter, 500 treasure points gained. 500 exp gained.] "Hahaha," Tyranceughed as he also gained the same notification as Aren, "now even if that one guy sts off this caved-in entrance ande out, we can defeat him." Aren nodded with a smile before speaking, "let''s meditate and recover our spirit energy here. That guy has toe out because there''s no other path inside the spacious cave." Tyrance nodded before he and Aren sat down crossed-legged and started meditating. However, before starting, Tyrance asked, "By the way, why didn''t you nullify those sharp rocky shards and instead nullify ming birds? Those shard spikes were more dangerous." Aren smiled wryly and shook his head, "I judged that we could dodge those shard spikes, which we did. They were fast and straight projection attacks. However, that me bird should be controble like my serpents. Although I am not sure, it''s better not to take the risk. After all, if it was controble, then we wouldn''t be able to dodge it." "Hmmm, yeah. Since you can control your serpents, that person might be able to control that ming bird as well," Tyrance nodded before he started his meditating. ''It that person inside the cave is smart, he would first kill those two tigers to level up, acquire a skill, and meditate to recover himself beforeing out,'' Aren spected before he threw out useless thoughts and also started meditating. Anyway, they were not nning to wait here and would leave after they were done recovering. ... On the other hand, the emerald hair man trapped inside the cave indeed moved ording to Aren''s spection. "Damn, what bad luck," the man muttered as he remembered how hispanion was sted and disappeared. Due to their hurry, they didn''t pay attention to the ground, causing that brown-beard man to get a very direct and close hit by the explosion of those three rolled-up serpents. Basically, his luck was just too bad that he moved there. If he was a bit far, then he wouldn''t have gotten a direct hit from those three deadly water explosions and might have survived, albeit with severe injuries. ''Those two might be waiting outside, hmmm...I need to kill those tigers and see if they can level up my hunt level.. Otherwise, I will have to wait here for an hour since I can''t risk going outside,'' thought the emerald hair man as he headed deeper into the cave again, ''after an hour, they will surely leave because of Treasure Lights.'' Chapter 123 - Treasure Hunt-4, Pre-Ambush. (Not Edited Yet) Aren and Tyrance recovered after thirty minutes and left the ce as they headed deeper onto the mountainous-hilly region. They didn''t wait for the guy toe out and waste time here because the next Treasure Light might not appear near this ce. While moving, Aren asked, "since the rewards will be based on rankings after five day period, then there should be a leaderboard, right?" "Yeah," Tyrance said, "just touch the skull mark on your hand, and you can see the leaderboard. After saying that, Tyrance also did the same, and the leaderboard''s information appeared in his head. Aren nodded as he touched the skull mark on his hand. [Hunt Leaderboard] Rank 1: Ulqu & Pero- 4000 Treasure Points Rank 2: Jogarth & Shi-chi-4000 Treasure Points. Rank 3: Zhin & Ren- 4000 Treasure Points. Rank 4: Tyrance & Ruine-3000 Treasure Points. ... "We are rank 4, hahaha," Tyranceughed after seeing the leaderboard, "if we had defeated that other guy trapped in the cave, then we would have 4000 total points as well." "Look out!" *chiiiiiiii....* Suddenly, arge two-meter-long eagle with a five-meter wingspan swooped towards them from the giant thick tree to their left side while they were moving atop the hilly area. Aren noticed the eagle and used to jump a great distance up before while using as he manipted the snakes to bind the eagle wings as fast as possible. *chiiiiiil...* The eagle''s direction changed, and it slowed down as Tyrance hurridly dodged to the side before using his skill to attack the eagle. Aren also triggered the serpents as they sted. *Booom...sh* The eagle got killed as it turned into white motes. Both Aren and Tyrance received 700 Hunt exp. As they moved deeper into the hilly region, which had many trees and caves on it, they encountered more monsters in the next twenty minutes and killed six of them. Tyrance''s only consumed 500 spirit energy, but Aren''s cost 1000 spirit energy, so Aren used it sparingly. He would only use two serpents to attack and keep one since Tyrance''s and his basic punch could usually kill the monster as both would only aim for their vital parts. ----- [Ruine] -Hunt Level: 3 (800/10,000) [Tyrance] -Hunt Level: 3 (600/10,000) ---- "Only ten minutes are left until the Treasure Light. Let''s recover our spirit energy as much as we can," Aren said as he sat down and started meditating. Tyrance nodded as he did the same. In ten minutes, they can recover a total of 7,200 spirit energy. But they didn''t spend that much in the first ce, so they stood up after six-seven minutes and started moving again. After a few more minutes, the Treasure lights shot in the sky from various ces. "Let''s go; I''ll get the flight skill on the way by jumping off some cliff thates in our way. That treasure light seems to be approx two kilometers away from here," Tyrance said. "Alright, I''ll get one by fighting since I want an offensive skill with low cost now," Aren said while nodding, ''depends on big action and thoughts. I must vision and imagine the type of skill I want that matches the big action I am going to do.'' ... On the way, they encountered some monsters but didn''t intend to fight them as they wanted to go to the Treasure Light area and also didn''t want to trigger the skill options by taking fighting actions. So, they just escaped from them. After a kilometer and a half, they encountered a ravine in the middle of their path that led towards another mountain. "I''ll cross this distance with my skill while you also jump off and trigger the skill like me; you can do it, right?" Aren asked as he looked at Tyrance. "Of course, I can!" Tyrance said with a sharp tone before he ran forward and jumped off. Aren also followed, but after jumping off the cliff, he activated his and started moving to the other side while looking down to see Tyrance''s status. After two seconds, Aren saw Tyrance flying up rapidly like a jet. His legs were pipes releasing powerful wind to propel him up. "Wooooo, this is good," Tyrance shouted as he rapidly overtook Aren and reached the other side. Seeing that, Aren grinned as he bent his body a bit and stepped horizontally in the air as he shot forward and reached the other side as well. Seeing that, Tyranceughed loudly, "so you can do that as well. Awesome." "How is that skill? Cost and utility wise," Aren asked as hended beside Tyrance. "Per second based. I can release wind jet streams from my legs for 100 spirit energy per second. However, It''s hard to maneuver in the air like you since you can like...step in the air and go in any direction. However, the speed this provides me is fast," Tyrance said. Aren nodded with a smile, "that''s good. You can use it to close in between enemies faster and use your skills better with it." "Yep," Tyrance nodded with a grin, "now let''s go take the second treasure as well." ... Both Aren and Tyrance sped up and moved forward. Aren was focusing ahead with his Astral-X eyes and capturing every detail. After running for a while, Aren suddenly spoke softly but deeply, "stop!" Narrowing his eyes, Aren saw through the gaps of the trees and captured silhouettes. "Move slowly from now on, our target is just three hundred meters ahead, and I faintly saw some silhouettes through the gaps. We can ambush them," Aren said. "Alright," Tyrance nodded as he and Aren moved slowly instead of hurrying and soon heard the sound of battle. Both of them hid behind the tree and saw four people fighting against each other while there was a glowing tree in the middle with two palm-sized fruits dangling. The fruits had emerald and orange patterns on them. "Those fruits must be the treasure, and there are two this time," Aren said as he spected, "either each one gives 500 Treasure points or 1000 Treasure points." "1000 treasure points because as more treasure appears, the monsters also be stronger and so the treasures'' values," Tyrance said as he had some knowledge about this event. "Anyway, let''s wait for a good chance and then ambush them. We''ll observe which side is winning and who is more troublesome before attacking," Aren said. ''I guess vampires here can stay just fine under sunlight,'' Aren thought as he observed the four people. Among them was a vampire with bat-like wings and was attacking while flying. ... After two minutes, Aren and Tyrance had discussed their n and decided to ambush them. Out of four of them, one group consisted of two elves, while the other group had a dwarf and a vampire. "You got the n, now let''s execute it perfectly," Aren said as he went out first and flew upward with his while also activating his skill. Tyrance nodded but didn''t move as he stayed hidden ording to Aren''s n and waited for the right timing. Chapter 124 - [Bonus ]Treasure Hunt-5, Post-Ambush. (Not Edited Yet) He flew towards the Vampire while shouting to attract their attention, "DIE!" The Vampire was startled as he saw Aren flying towards him by stepping on the air and jumping. The other three people became cautious and stopped the battle. All of them had varying degrees of injuries, and most of all, they werecking in spirit energy. So the addition of a new enemy was terrible news for that. The first thought of Vampire was to distance himself from the iing Aren as he didn''t know what kind of other skills Aren had. However, Aren suddenly grinned as he rolled down mid-air and stepped in the air from top to bottom as he shot downward towards the dwarf with three aqua serpents in front of him, spitting out sharp water spits. The dwarf was startled as the feint of Aren worked while the Vampire cursed himself and dashed towards Aren. s, it was toote as Aren sessfully defeated the dwarf as his BH (Body Health) hit 0 and disappeared due to three spits from the snake and a punch from Aren. [A Treasure Hunter defeated, 500 treasure points gained.] Both Aren and Tyrance got that score since they were in a team. Apparently, the scores are divided, but the experience from killing monsters is not. *Swooosh...* The elves were happy but not for too long as they heard a whooshing sound and saw another person approaching them like a rocket. "Bye-bye," Tyrance grinned as he waved both of his hands and released two towards the elves. Seeing that, one of the elves had the defensive skill, and he used it as dodging was not an option against the two fast pyro ws that were two metersrge. However, that was also feint as Tyrance''s real target was the Vampire that was swooping back after running away from Aren. Tyrance hard paused and changed his direction towards Aren to intercept the Vampire as he attacked with his as both of his hands were covered with sharp red energy. However, even if Tyrance didn''t arrive in time, Aren could easily dodge as he had already started moving backward with his skill. His target, the elves. The elves, who had just defended against the , saw three aqua serpentsing towards them. However, before the serpents, the sharp water spit from the serpents'' mouths arrived there. Aren aimed two spits at one elf''s chest that disqualified that person as he disappeared while the 3rd spit hit the elf girl''s feet, causing her to be impaired as a painful groan left her mouth. [A treasure hunter defeated, 500 treasure points gained.] At that moment, Aren also saw skill options triggering and directly selected the first skill-based on its name alone. The skill''s knowledge entered into Aren''s head as he stretched his hand while moving towards the elf girl. *shaaaaaaaaa....* A vine shot out from his palm that rapidly trapped the elf woman as it bound her. *Pattt!!...* The second round of water spit released from the serpents as they hit the woman, causing her to be disqualified as well. [A treasure hunter defeated. 500 treasure points gained.] The serpents also disappeared as they only had a limit of two water spit attacks. After finishing that, Aren turned around to see Tyrance''s battle and smiled. Tyrance had just finished beheading the Vampire with a chop when Aren turned to see. [A treasure hunter defeated. 500 treasure points gained.] The entire battle went ording to Aren''s n as those four of them were not even given time to breathe. "Two feints, taking advantage of their unpreparedness against ambush and their exhaustion. Perfect, hahaha," Tyranceughed as he moved towards the tree, "anyway, those two feint n was really good. We would have won even if we fought elves first and then the other pair, but the two-feint n was good. we saved a lot of our energy." Aren nodded with a smile as he also moved towards the tree and submitted one fruit along with Tyrance. [Two treasures submitted. 2000 points gained.] "That''s four thousand total. Plus, we defeated four treasure hunters, so another four thousand." Tyrance said with a grin, "let''s see who is at the top now." ----- [Hunt Leaderboard] Rank 1: Tyrance & Ruine-11000 Treasure Points. Rank 2: Jogarth & Shi-chi-9500 Treasure Points. Rank 3: Zhin & Ren- 9500 Treasure Points. Rank 4: Ulqu & Pero- 9000 Treasure Points ... ----- "Let''s goo! We continue snow bowling like that and gather our power," Tyrance said with some excitement in his eyes. "I have yet to select my skills from the options I got. However, two of those skills are too good, so I can''t decide," Tyrance said with a slight frown. "For better teamwork, I chose a control-type skill, so you should choose a skill that either give you more utility or attack," Aren said with a thoughtful expression, "your skill is powerful since you know martial arts so..." "I got it!" Tyrance said as he chose a skill and showed it to Aren, "I chose the skill. It allows me to release fire explosion from my palm. Also, I can use it to maneuver in the air and change my attack direction as well." "That''s great. You canbine it with your as well," Aren nodded with a smile. "Yeah. Now let''s continue forward and kill monsters to level up. The next Treasure Light is after five hours." "We should look out for treasures as well. It''s not like those treasures only appear with Treasure Lights. They should be hidden, but we can find them. I''ll be on the lookout for them with my eyes," Aren said. "Alright, let''s go. I want to take the first rank, and with you, I feel like we can take it," Tyrance said with a grin. "Even though we didn''t consume much of our spirit energy, we should recover to full before moving," Aren said as he sat down and started meditating. ----- -Cost: 500 spirit energy per vine released from the palms. -Effect: Releases six meters long vines that the user can manipte. It deals no damage but can be used in various ways as they have significant resistance against all types of damage. -Note: the vinesst for twenty seconds before disappearing. [Ruine] -Hunt Level: 3 (800/10,000 Exp.) -BH: (10,000/10,000) -Soul Health: (~) -SE: (10,00/10,000) -Strength: 200 -Constitution: 200 -Agility: 200 -Soul: ~ --> Sprint: Cost= 100 SE || Increase movement speed by 30% for 5 minutes. --> Meditation: Meditate to recover BH and SE by 140 every ten seconds. --> Aqua Serpents: Cost= 1000 SE --> Flight Steps: Cost= 100 SE per step --> Abura Vines: Cost= 500 per vine release from palm. ----- After five minutes of meditating, both of them stood up and started moving again. For the next three hours, they killed all monsters they encountered with their teamwork and also defeated a pair of treasure hunters. "It looks like we are finally out of this mountainous, hilly region," Tyrance said. Both of them stood at the cliff, and in front of them was a vast icynd.. The scenery change was very abrupt as this division was just five hundred meters in front of them. Chapter 125 - Lorain And Others (Not Edited Yet.) The snowynd was full of snow due to constant snowfall, and there were also many snowy hills and forests. "Let''s go!" Tyrance said with a grin as he jumped off the and descended rapidly. Athan also followed and jumped off. Both of them rapidly descended as they didn''t use their skills at first but only used them tond on the ground slowly. "We only need to kill one monster to level up our hunt level," Aren said, "we will do that in that snowynd region." "Yeah, let''s go." ... They entered the snowynd after running for a while as the atmosphere literally changed. It was just one line difference. On one side, the atmosphere was normal, and the temperature was hot. But on the other side, the atmosphere turned cold, and the bright day turned into a day where not much brightness was present. It wasn''t exactly night but like an hour before evening. So, it was still a bit sunny. "How mystical," Aren muttered as he entered the snowynd. "Indeed, the regions in this Treasure Hunt Zone are like that," Tyrance nodded. Both of them moved forward entered the snowy forest before encountering a three-meter tall bear with crystal ice ws. Tyrance dashed forward while releasing two as the two ming ws shot towards the bear. *Roarrr...* The bear roared and used its own icy ws to nullify the before dashing towards Tyrance. However, Aren carefully aimed his palm and released two from his palm that shot towards the bear''s legs and snared him as it fell hard on the ground. Taking this chance, Tyrance used his jet boost from his legs and closed in quickly before rapidly attacking the bear with his and on the downed bear''s neck. [Frost w Bear killed. 1000 exp gained.] Both Aren and Tyrance''s hunt level went up by one. "Hehe, now let''s go and get a cool skill that ispatible with us," Tyrance said with a sneakyugh. "We are gonna a cool skill quite literally here," Aren said with a smile as he nodded. Both of them moved deeper into the snowynd for their new adventure and treasure hunting. ... While Aren was Treasure Hunting, his mother-Lorain, Luna, Quinn, and aunt Hem were going through a harrowing ordeal. "I finished creating its soul Aunivit doll; you can start now," Lorain said as she held a mystical glowing doll in her hand that was made of strange glowing white energy with ck sparks in it. Lorain and others were currently facing a ten-meter tall giant with two heads. It was night sky filled with sparkling stars while the ground around them was burning. Quinn was facing the giant head-on with her mighty get-up. Her arms and she as a whole were covered in solid red-ck armor while her hands worerge gauntlets. The gauntlets were trulyrge as they extended her reach to one full meter from her hand while their thickness was 70 centimeters. She used those gauntlets and her extreme physical prowess to defend and attack the giant. Lorain''s red, blue, and ck threads were whirling around Quinn and entering inside her as they empowered her. -Cost: Min: 10 Animo threads, Max: No limit. -Effect: You can conjure Three types of threads and infuse them into yourself or allies to strengthen them. Red Threads, Blue Threads, and White Threads. ---->Red Threads: Increase their physical attributes by 30%. ---->Blue Threads: Increase their spirit energy potency by 30%. ---->White Threads: Increase their soul power by 30%. Luna was sneaking behind the giant with her two daggers. Additionally, a Tengu and a ghostly Wraith flew around the giant as they attacked and annoyed it. Quinn was taking damage, but her external body was perfectly fine with no injuries. However, a frown was constantly on her face as she was feeling pain and her body health also decreased when the giant''s attack hit her. Suddenly, the giant roared and kicked Quinn, throwing her several meters away. Naturally, Quinn blocked the impact with her hands. However, she was still thrown several meters away because of the force behind the attack. At that moment, Luna jumped high in the sky with some sort of skill and climbed on the back of the giant as she stabbed her glowing dagger into the neck of the giant. *Swooooooooosh...* At that moment, Lorain created another nail with her Animo Threads and stabbed it into the head of the doll in her hand while muttering, "Hex Bind, ck Out and Soul Stab." *Roarrrrrrrr....* The giant roared painfully before it lost all of its senses and became dizzy. "Now is the chance, Hem," Lorain said to Hem, who was standing beside her with a bow in her hand. There was already an arrow in her bow, but the arrow was not physical but a red and blue mixed energy arrow. "I have powered it up to the max," Hem said as she nodded and released the arrow. *Swoooooosh....* The arrow flew towards the giant and hit it in the head as it pieced the head of the undefended giant who was unable to do anything because of Lorain''s Hex attack using her Aunivit elemental power. "Haaaaaa!" Quinn also came running back as she activated her path skill with 500 power motes. -Cost: Min: 10 power motes, Max: no limit. -Effect: A strike that can take the form of anything. This strike will convert all existing forms of power from the user ( including damage suffered ) into a purely physical attack and deliver to a target through any physical medius such as any body parts of the user or a weapon. The conversion of power will depend on the consumed power motes. . Quinn''s movement also suddenly increased as she activated some sort of skill as her whole body was covered in a red aura. Her jumping power increased as she jumped ten meters high, arriving in front of the giant''s head, and smashed her gauntlet into the giant as the tremendous power of struck the giant''s head. The giant''s skull broke as blood gushed out from one of its heads. On the other hand, Luna executed her most potent attack, , which was her path-rted skill, and beheaded the left head of the giant with a ck sh that she released from her daggers. [Twin-headed Gore Giant killed. 20,000 exp gained.] "Come on, let''s recover ourselves and continue," Lorain said as she took out a potion and started drinking. "Aunt Lorain, That Hex Doll skill is really powerful. It weakened the giant''s defense so much. You can also use your skills on the doll to take effect on the giant itself," Quinn said with a smile as she also took out a potion and started drinking it. "Yeah, you are the first one who made progress in your affinity, Aunivit, was it? What kind of element is that?" Luna asked with curiosity. "It''s strange. Just like the Fire element has burn, explosion, etc., properties, this Aunivit element has ethereal properties rted to the soul. It can enhance the soul, can defend against enemy soul attacks, bind our soul together to do various things, deal greater damage to enemies'' souls, and more. This element is mixed with my soul, and I can covert my soul energy into this Aunivit energy, which can enhance my soul-skills as well," Lorain said with a smile. "I also want to make progress in my Death affinity, hehe. Once that happens, I will be more powerful as well," Luna said with a grin. At this moment, Hem pointed her bow at Quinn and conjured a green arrow before releasing it. The glowing green arrow hit Quinn, but it disappeared into her body. "Mom, it''s ok. I want to get used to pain," Quinn said with a wry smile, "If you use that arrow on me and recover me quickly, I won''t get used to it." "No! you take the most damage out of us every time. So, once we finish a battle, you must take my Verdant spirit arrow. Just because your body doesn''t show injuries like us doesn''t mean you are not getting hurt and feeling pain," Hem said with a stubborn expression with a hint of worry in her eyes. "Give up, Quinn. Listen to your mother and let her do it. You are already enduring pain during the fights, so once the battle is over, you must rx," Lorain said with a gentle smile. Suddenly, a faint image of the human empress appeared in front of them and spoke to them, "your adventure here ends. Return to the Empire as I have some other task for yourpany." The faint image swept her nces across everyone''s body before she nodded, "It''s time that you all ascend to Supreme-lifeform stage." Chapter 126 - End Of The Treasure Hunt-1 (Not Edited Yet) Day 45... Minutes turned into hours and hours into days as Aren and Tyrance continued with their Treasure Hunt for five days. Today was thest day, and the duo had kept that first rank since then. Now it was time for thest Treasure Hunt as only an hour was left before the Treasure hunt was finished. The Treasure Lights reached the sky, and the due started running towards the nearest light. They were currently in avatic region. The strange thing was that this region had a ck forest filled with ashen-ck trees. These trees released smoke asionally, and their internal structure hadva flowing in them. "We have to take this. The second rank pair is only one thousand points less than us," Tyrance said with a determined expression, "even though they are epic lifeform powerhouses in reality. But here, we have a fair chance to beat them. Let''s do it!" Aren nodded as he was also fired up. There was no way he would be satisfied with 2nd rank after wreaking his brain and doing so much in the past days. "It would be awesome If we encounter those pair at the location we are heading," Tyrance said with a grin, "you seriously built one heck of a skillset, Aren. As long the enemy was hit by one of your snares, it''s game over for them." "Control is most important when the ying field is even," Aren said with a faint smile, "that''s why I mostly triggered control-type skills." "But how did you think of getting that stun skill? That was seriously...," Tyrance shook his head with a wry smile, "didn''t know something like that was possible." "Hahaha, I also didn''t know but thought that I would try it, and it worked," Aren said with a loudugh. He remembered banging his head on the stone powerfully and getting himself a concussion after leveling up one time. Once he did that, he really triggered stun-rted skill options. He chose from the three. This skill is executed with a shout to stun the enemy. Aren would always do it at the perfect time and stun the opponent for one to two seconds depending on the distance from him and his opponent while using the skill. "Also, what about the skill you gained after level ten in this region? You said it''s a surprise but isn''t it time you tell me about it?" Tyrance asked while running. "Nah," Aren shook his head with a grin, "just wait for it. You will know. I took full advantage of the rules where our skills won''t affect ourselves with myst skill." "Haha, fine. Can''t wait to see what new thing you cooked," Tyrance said with augh. Aren had mostly low damage skills, but all of them had high-control effects, so he could defeat him once he caught an opponent in any of his skills. The max hunt level was 10, and they had reached it ten hours ago. At levels 5 and 10, they received a boost in their spirit energy pool as well, which made Aren''s skillset even more potent. ----- [Ruine] -Hunt Level: 10 -BH: [20,000/20,000] -SE: [20,000/20,000] --> Sprint: Cost= 100 SE || Increase movement speed by 65% for 5 minutes. --> Meditation: Meditate to recover BH and SE by 300 every ten seconds. --> Aqua Serpents: Cost= 1000 Spirit Energy. --> Flight Steps: Cost= 100 Spirit Energy per step. --> Abura Vines: Cost= 500 Spirit Energy per vine release from palm. --> Frost Coffin: Cost= 2000 Spirit Energy per coffin lock. --> Water Bubble: Cost= 500 Spirit Energy per bubble. --> Water Mirage: Cost= 300 Spirit Energy per mirage. sting mirage near opp slow them down. --> Stun-lock Shout: 1500 Spirit Energy. --> Blitz Strike: Cost= 1000 Spirit Energy. --> Dizzy Eye Beam: Cost= 1000 Spirit Energy. --> Ashen Smoke: Cost= 100 Spirit Energy per second. ----- "It looks like we have apany," Aren said as he saw two people running towards a giant glowing boulder with a two-meter tall flower on it. The flower had dark orange and red sparks flying around it. "Let''s do this!" Tyrance said as he dashed forward. The due had perfect teamwork now and knew how to support each other. "Got your back," Aren said as he also dashed forward and used as a trail of smoke released from his body. Aren and Tyrance first reached the boulder. Tyrance went ahead to meet enemies as he had an all-rounder skillset with defense and attack. At the same time, Aren would support him by controlling enemies. Aren first released smoke everywhere around the boulder and went to Tyrance, who narrowly dodged one of the enemy''s skills while blocking one with a solid Ice barrier. Soon, the ck smoke covered the whole area, which impaired the enemy''s vision. However, Aren and Tyrance could see everything because friendly-fire off in this ce, lol. "So this was the surprise skill that you acquired in thisvatic region? Fucking awesome, hahaha," Tyranceughed as he could see everything while enemies were blinded. The enemy consisted of a man and a human. The woman seemed to be a demon as she had a single horn on her forehead while the man was furry with wolf ears and fangs. "My smell is impacted in this smoke," said the wolfman with a frown, "we have to locate them through sound. Stay near me." However, Aren''s water mirage appeared in front of them that looked exactly like Aren. Seeing that, both the wolfman and demon woman were startled and released their skill. s, they failed to realize that it was a mirage in a hurry and slowed down when the mirage sted, taking some damage. Both of them conjured defense around them as they had defense skills, but Tyrance had a powerful defense breaking skill just for this situation as a red-metal spinning drill materialized that broke their shield. Right after that, two vines shot towards them and snared them along with a loud shout that stunned them for a second. And then another shout that increased their stun duration. After that, two ice coffins materialized around them and trapped them inside. "Finish them off, Tyrance," Aren said with a grin as he snapped his finger that dissolved the ice coffin. Still, the two people were frozen inside for two seconds, which was the effect of the skill Aren acquired in the snowynd. Tyrance nodded as he jumped up in the sky with jet legs before rapidlying down covered in bright fire. *BOOOOOOOM...* Two notifications sounded as both of them received five thousand treasure points. On day 1, they received 500 treasure points for defeating each treasure hunter. On day 2, they received 1000 treasure points for defeating each treasure hunter. On day 3, they received 2000 treasure points for defeating each treasure hunter. On day 4, they received 4000 treasure points for defeating each treasure hunter. And today, on day 5, they received 5000 treasure points for defeating each treasure hunter. After defeating them, Aren submitted the treasure and gained 10,000 treasure points. "Shit! The 2nd rank took us over by 5,000 points. They must have defeated an additional treasure hunter," Tyrance cursed as he checked the leaderboard. [Hunt Leaderboard] Rank 1: Onel & ChenKi-139,000 Treasure Points Rank 2: Tyrance & Ruine-134,500 Treasure Points. Rank 3: Zhin & Ren- 117,000 Treasure Points. ... "Today, we are getting ten thousand points per Treasure and five thousand points per defeating a treasure hunter; we have to find either treasure hunters or a treasure," Aren said with a solemn expression, "let''s start moving without wasting time." Both of them started moving while Tyrance muttered, "we found treasure without the help of Treasure Lights, and they also did that. There is someone in their group with good eyes like you, it seems. It''s a close battle." Aren nodded as he went on full fucus mode and started observing. He jumped in the sky with two to observe more area with his Astral-X eyes. Sweeping his head in three sides, Aren captured everything, and a secondter, a gleam passed through his eyes as he spoke, "two o''clock, fast!" Aren descended and continued running at a fast speed as both of them had activated the skill since they started running. "I captured a faint spark there before it disappeared," Aren said, "hopefully, it''s a treasure." "Distance?" "Three kilometers." "Let''s do it! I want 1st rank," Tyrance said with a determined expression. "Well, me too." Chapter 127 - End Of The Treasure Hunt-2 "It''s a treasure!" Tyrance said with augh as he submitted the treasure that looked like a meter tall gemstone that asionally glowed on top of a boulder. "Let''s continue moving and find more treasures or hunters. We can''t rest until it''s over," Aren said. "Yeah, those two should be desperately moving as well now that we have the lead," Tyrance said with a grin. ... Time passed quickly as Aren and Tyrance rapidly moved to find treasures or encounter hunters. They were also keeping an eye on the leaderboard to see if those two people at the 2nd rank got some points or not. [10 minutes until the Treasure Hunt is over.] "THEY ENCOUNTERED A HUNTER!" Tyrance eximed as he saw the score, "but we are still 5000 points ahead." "Hopefully, that was a solo hunter. We also encountered some who had their teammate disqualified, but they still moved alone," Aren said before he jumped high using his twice and observed everything far and wide with his eyes. He had been doing this asionally to look out for treasures or hunters. After five minutes, Tyrance sighed a relief, "we are still 5000 points ahead, and only five minutes are left." Aren didn''t say anything and jumped again to observe the vast distances. Suddenly, he caught something shining on top of a volcano. "DAMN! They got a treasure, A TREASURE!" Tyrance shouted with shock, "they are 14,500 points ahead of us now!" "Get ready, I am going to throw you," Aren said as he appeared behind Tyrance and grabbed his legs before jumping higher in the sky with his skill. "W-what are you doing?" Tyrance was startled as he was hanged upside down in the air as Aren grabbed his feet. *Swoosh.....Swoosh..* Tyrance knew that Aren wouldn''t do anything without reason, so he stayed silent while being lifted upward by Aren. Aren went ten steps higher while moving forward as much as he could before pulling Tyrance''s legs backward, intending to throw him towards the volcano, "There is a treasure on top of that volcano. Go!" Tyrance nodded as he got ready, ''so that''s why he grabbed my legs. That way, he can swing me towards the volcano with my head in that direction, and I can release my skill from my legs. Awesome.'' With 200 points in Strength, Aren threw Tyrance with the maximum strength he could gather. *Swooosh...* Tyrance flew straight towards the mountain, and while flying, he activated his skill and released jet streams from his legs. *Pwoosh...* His speed increased as he flew straight towards the top of the volcano, where a beautiful burning flower with red sparks was floating. However, it would only be asionally visible to the eyes because the smokeing out of the volcano would conceal it. Naturally, Aren zoomed in towards it when he saw some bright sparks and discovered the flower when he jumped previously. While Tyrance flew towards the top of the volcano, Aren looked at the count down. [3:43] [3:42] ... "Easy," Aren muttered before checking out the leaderboard. ----- [Hunt Leaderboard] Rank 1: Onel & ChenKi-169,000 Treasure Points Rank 2: Tyrance & Ruine-154,500 Treasure Points. Rank 3: Zhin & Ren- 137,000 Treasure Points. ----- Once Tyrance touches the treasure and submits it, they will get 10,000 points each, which means a total of 20,000 points would be added to the leaderboard beside their names. However, Aren didn''t rest and started moving again after checking the leaderboard. ''Anything can happen. If they defeated a single treasure hunter, then we still would have a 5000 points lead, but if they got another treasure, then they will win,'' Aren thought as he jumped again and kept look-out with his Astral-X eyes. ''We can''t rest yet,'' Aren thought as he focused with his eyes. [You have submitted a treasure. 10,000 points gained] Both Aren and Tyrance received this notification and retook their 1st rank lead. ----- [Hunt Leaderboard] Rank 1: Tyrance & Ruine-174,500 Treasure Points. Rank 2: Onel & ChenKi-169,000 Treasure Points Rank 3: Zhin & Ren- 137,000 Treasure Points. ----- ... After submitting the flower, Tyrancended, but instead of meeting up with Aren, he decided to look out for treasures or hunters on his own. [2:02] [2:01] "Time is tight," Tyrance muttered as he continued running with the skill activated. On the other hand, Aren was also running at full speed while looking out for people or treasures. Suddenly, Aren saw a glimpse of a person one kilometer away and dashed there with his full speed, ''I only have 5600 spirit energy left; I have to perfectly time my skills to kill the person in one shot.'' [1:43] [1:42] ... The hunter was a middle-aged man wearing a wizard-type robe and seemed to be alone. When he heard the sound of someoneing towards him rapidly, he became cautious and turned to his left. However, Aren sent his forward while he flew up in the sky using . -600 Spirit energy, two -300 Spirit energy, three The middle-aged man saw two people looking exactly the sameing towards him and opened his mouth before releasing a horizontal me tornado from it. In the sky, Aren curved his body downward with his head down towards the middle-aged man before descending at fast speed by pushing the air with his feet using the skill. -100 spirit energy, one The middle-aged man noticed Aren and looked up as he stretched his hand towards Athan, intending to use some skill. However... "HAAAAAAAAAAH!" -1500 spirit energy, A loud shout resounded in the middle-aged man''s ears as he was stunned. *Smash....* Arennded right beside the man before releasing two vines from his palms that bound the man''s hands and legs. -1000 spirit energy, two Afterward, he used his second offensive skill as a lighting bolt released from the wave of his hand, right towards the middle-aged man''s neck. -1000 spirit energy, one However, the man didn''t die and was only seriously injured. Aren expected that, so he had already executed one more skill right after the Blitz Strike. A water bubble released from his mouth that shot towards the man''s head. When the bubble touched the man''s head right after the Blitz Strike hit him, it sted. *Booom* -1000 spirit energy, one The middle-aged man turned into white motes and disappeared. [A treasure hunter defeated. 5000 points gained.] Still running and searching, Tyrance also received a notification and cheered, "Hahaha, awesome!" On the other hand... "Huu..," Aren then sat down and took a deep breath. He only had 100 spirit energy left, so he started meditating after looking at the countdown and leaderboard. [1:02] [1:01] ... ----- [Hunt Leaderboard] Rank 1: Tyrance & Ruine-184,500 Treasure Points. Rank 2: Onel & ChenKi-179,000 Treasure Points Rank 3: Zhin & Ren- 137,000 Treasure Points. ----- However, suddenly, the points changed as Onel & ChenKi got an additional 10,000 points. "Damn! However, we are still 5,500 points ahead," Aren muttered as he stood up instead of meditating and started moving again. He couldn''t do anything with 100 spirit energy, but he still decided to move instead of meditating for thest minute. Chapter 128 - Juicy Rewards!-1 (not Edited Yet) [0:34] [0:33] There was not much time left as Aren started to move, and Tyrance also started running in other directions to find the hunters or treasures. Time slowly passed, and it was nearing the end. However, both of them were still on the edge as anything could happen at any time. After all, there is a chance that the duo at the second rank would find a treasure or defeat a hunter. Naturally, they wished nothing like that would happen in thest seconds. [0:20] Tyrance and Aren were in a different ce and running while observing. Suddenly, Tyrance saw a red-skin colored Hobgoblin, and the Hobgoblin also noticed Tyrnace. "HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" "GHAAAAAAAAAA!" Both of them shouted and dashed towards each other with their full power while releasing skills. The Hobgoblin waved both of his hands in a w motion towards Tyrance, and suddenly, the ground around Tyrance broke, protruded upward, and closed in towards Tyrance. However, Tyrance had skill, which he used to fly up before the ground walls could p him. While flying up, he also threw his skills one by one as arge and shot towards the Hobgoblin. The water bullets were adult-thumb-sized thick condensed bullets of water with hit prative power and breakneck speed. Even though the speed of the water bullets and fire w was fast, the Hobgoblin noticed that both had a slight curve and wouldnd at different ces depending on where he decided to dodge one of the skills, ''Humph, I''m not falling for that.'' The Hobgoblin dodged the water bullets that arrived first but felt that the w might hit him after he dodged because its direction could be controlled by the human kid in front of him, so he was ready with his defense-type skill as a water barrier formed around him. The pyro w hit the water barrier as it was nullified with only slight damage on the barrier. However, Tyrance didn''t waste time as he used his and bination to change his direction and descended at a fast speed before hitting the water barrier with his and also opening his mouth to release the skill. *BOOM...* The Hobgoblin inside the barrier could see everything, but the close-ranged got him as the water barrier sted along with him shooting backward with injuries. However, he still had more than half of his bodily health. He hurriedly stood up before pointing his right palm towards iing Tyrance as several earth spikes shot towards him. But instead of dodging, Tyrance released as it destroyed the earth spikes before going towards the Hobgoblin. ''I only have 2500 spirit energy left...,'' Tyrnace thought while chasing the Hobgoblin who had started running after dodging his . [Treasure Hunt is over! Congrattions, everyone!] Suddenly, everyone lost their acquired skills and was unable to use their powers. But afterward, everyone disappeared from the Treasure zone and appeared inside therge ghost demon ship that was hovering above the city. Tyrance and Aren appeared in a small room with creepy feelings, but arge treasure chest was in front of them. However, both of them were also flooded with notifications. "Hahaha, I knew that we would get essence after finishing the trial. Dang, now I can easily level up several times," Tyranceughed joyfully. On the other hand, Aren was also pleasantly surprised. [Your five days of total experienced collected is 343,490.] [Your path levels up to level 10, you can initiate the 2nd path trial anytime in the next ten days.] [One talent point gained.] Aren saw that his stored experience went from 277,550 to 621,040. As for his path... <-Aren-> [ Path- Emporio Armalist ] -Level: 10 [ 115,934/512,000 Exp ] -Armalist Force: [ 1300/1300 ] -Talent points: 1 ''So spending five days in this event didn''t halt my lifeform and path level progress, phew,'' Aren sighed relief and felt worthwhile. He was actually a bit disappointed when he didn''t get any exp to his path or lifeform level after killing the monsters. However, it seems that they were sort ofpensated. "By the way, did you check the leaderboard?" Tyrance asked, "I couldn''t check it before arriving here, and now I can''t check it." Hearing that, Aren sighed and shook his head, "It was close..." "What?!" Tyrance jumped in shock, "don''t tell me we came 2nd rank?" Aren looked at Tyrance before saying slowly, "It was close...," pausing, Aren suddenly grinned and spoke, "but we retained our first rank." Tyrance was speechless before he sighed a relief, "I really couldn''t tell because I heard that top 3 gets separate rooms for rewards." After saying that, Tyrance moved towards the shining wooden treasure chest with golden patterns on it. But suddenly, a skeleton wearing a fancy demonic coat appeared in front of the treasure chest. Its eyes had a blue me burning in them, and there were two horns on its skull as well. Tyrance jumped backward out of caution. The Skeleton grinned and spoke, "congrattions on getting the first rank. The treasure chest behind me is your reward for the first rank, and these two cards contain the treasure points for you to spend on our special treasure shop." The Skeleton conjured two ck cards with a golden skull on them as they flew towards Tyrance and Aren. "You can ess the special treasure shop after opening the treasure chest behind me. Enjoy," the Skeleton said with a grin before disappearing in a puff of blue me. "Infuse your soul energy in the card to get information about it inside our heads," Tyrance said. Aren nodded as he did the same and saw. [Ghost Demon Card] -Treasure points: 92,250 "It looks like the treasure points are evenly divided between us," Aren said. "Yep. Now let''s open the treasure chest and see what we get," Tyrance said as he approached the treasure chest. Aren also walked in front of the treasure chest. Tyrance opened the treasure chest slowly as a golden glow released from the gaps. For one second, after Tyrancepletely opened the one square meter treasure chest, they couldn''t see anything because of the bright golden glow releasing from it. However, Aren and Tyrance got notification as they received gold coins. [ 50,000 gold coins added into the inventory.] "Geez, I hope these measly gold coins are not the only reward," Tyrance spoke with slight annoyance while seeing the golden glow slowly subsiding. Aren was a bit speechless hearing that, but he also felt that 50,000 gold coins were really not that much. Those A-rank skills cost more than 10,000 gold coins each, and Aren knew that he could get skill stones in dungeons and sell them for gold coins as well. He then looked at the opened treasure chest, which finally revealed its content. "Hahaha, awesome! These are all valuable materials and items," Tyrance said with a loudugh. However, Aren was a bit surprised because inside the treasure chest were mystical ssy cards with a magical image of things printed on them. Athan looked at them with his eyes and soon knew their deal. ''So it''s like that...those crystal cards are like storage containing the things printed on them in image form. Interesting.'' "Aren, let''s divide these items like this: You pick one, and then I pick one.. You go first," Tyrance said with a grin. Chapter 129 - Juicy Rewards-2! (not Edited Yet) Aren nodded as he looked at the storage cards in the chest containing items and picked the best one he needed right now. [Beast Evolution Drop] -Rank: Special -Effect: Evolve a beast and increase its bloodline concentration. -Note 1: Put the drop from the vial on an unhatched egg to make this work. This will also hatch an egg instantly after its evolution process is finished. Aren''s eyes jumped when he saw the card that had a print of a vial and saw this information, ''It looks like the egg I got can finally be hatched and into a more powerful species at that, great!'' "I choose this as my first item," Aren picked the storage card containing [Beast Evolution Drop] before turning to Tyrance with a smile, "your turn." "Do you have a beast egg?" Tyrance asked with a bit of curiosity. "Yep," Aren nodded with a faint smile, "I will show itter. For now, let''s finish our matter here." "Alright," Tyrance nodded as he picked a storage card that had an image of a cool-looking sword that had mystical patterns on its de and sheath. Aren knew that Tyrance would choose that for sure. "Your turn," Tyrance said. Now there were five more storage cards left. Aren looked at the storage cards and picked one. [Beast Growth Pill] -Rank: Special -Effect: Feeding this pill to your beast will increase its growth. The pill also contains potent life essence, which can quickly make it stronger every day. Tyrance knew that Aren would pick this storage card for obvious reason. He then also picked a storage card with an image of an umbre. Afterward, Aren picked another card. [Frofaar Nugget] -Rank: Epic rank -Effect: A powerful metal that can change its density from mud-like water to solid as steel. The card had three pieces of gold-water-colored rectangle nuggets printed on it, which likely meant that there were three pieces of this material inside the storage card. Thest two items were unusual weapons. One of them had a chainsaw printed on it, while the other storage card had a rifleser gun printed on it. Tyrance thought for a moment before picking up theser gun printed storage card. "What about thest item?" Aren asked, "I got three; you got three. So, who takes thest item?" "You take it," Tyrance said with a grin, "I am not going to use that chainsaw anyway." "Alright," Aren nodded with a smile and took the chainsaw storage card. [Bone Scrapper Chainsaw] -Rank: Special. -Important Note: This chainsaw will only work on the bones of the target. It will deal no damage to the skin. You must let its edges touch the bone. -Damage: Bone Breaker. It will definitely break and scrap the bones of the target hit by it. The damage depends on the target''s size and how much bone damage you did that it affected its health. -Note: It can readily break the bones of anyone below Legendary lifeform. However, this chainsaw will affect Legendary-being. However, it requires three seconds of contact to scrap the bones of the legendary-1 lifeform, and the second increases by one, with each stage higher than Legendary-1. ''After turning this into an Articule gear, I should be able to make good use of it,'' Aren thought with a grin. "Hey, Aren! The card is shining. Take out the Ghost Demon Card; we got ess to the treasure shop." Aren looked at Tyrance and saw that there was a hologram on top of the card that disyed items. Tyrance was scrolling down by touching the hologram to see more items. Tyrance spoke while looking through the items, "there are a total of 100 items. Thest ten items are the most expensive, but we will choose from them since we got the highest score, hehe." Aren also took out the card, and the hologram was automatically activated. He then directly went to thest section and saw that the 19th and 20th rows were filled with things that each cost 30,000 to 50,000 treasure points. ... After ten minutes, Aren and Tyrance finished buying their things, and both of them spent 90,000 treasure points. Aren bought two items: one cost 40,000 while the other cost 50,000. On the other hand, Tyrance bought three items, and each cost him 30,000 treasure points. However, both of them still had 2250 treasure points, and since some items in the first section cost 1000, Aren bought two of them. Both of them were potions that gave temporary special effects. [ck Tiger Potion] [Shrink Potion] "It looks like we can''t buy anything with the remaining 250 treasure points," Tyrance said with a wry smile. Suddenly, the skeleton appeared once again in front of them and spoke cooly, "I can let you spin a roulette with those 250 points. Naturally, the chances of getting a good thing will be lowered as it''s based on your points. Since they are just 250 points, the chance to get the best item would be 0.00250%." After saying that, A fifty square centimeter round roulette appeared in front of the skeleton. The roulette had a total of fifteen sections. Some were small; some were big. The smallest was very small, and it had 1 printed on it. While the other sections also had numbers between 15 to 1. After that, fifteen treasure chests also appeared around them as they made a circle with Aren, Tyrance, and the skeleton in the middle. Each treasure chest had a number printed on it, from 1 to 15. "I''m sure you already know how this will work. So? Who is going first?" The skeleton asked with a grin, "you just need to form a punch with your spirit energy and hit the roulette to make its needle start spinning." "Why don''t you go first, Aren?" Tyrance asked. "Wait, let me try something first," Aren said with a faint smile as he took out the [ Miss-Fortune Revolver ] from his inventory and pointed at his temple. "What are you doing?!" Tyrance asked with a speechless expression, "are you killing yourself?" "Of course not!" Aren smiled helplessly before telling Tyrance about the revolver. After hearing the function of the revolver, Tyrance was interested, "try it, try it! let''s see how much good luck or bad luck you get, hahaha." Chapter 130 - Egg Hatches (not Edited Yet) [Note: Please reread chapter 85 because I had to edit some stuff and also add more details that are important in the story plot.] ----- Aren pointed the [Miss-Fortune Revolver] at his temple and pulled the trigger as 1000 of his spirit energy was consumed. The same phenomenon happened as Aren''s whole body was covered in a multi-colored glow after the bullet wisp hit him. [Your current luck: -12] "Ouch...," Aren smiled wryly after seeing the number. "How much it is? From your expression, it looks like the result is bad," Tyrance said with doubt. "I got -12 luck. Which means It''s a bit of bad luck," Aren said. "Can you use that revolver on me?" Tyrance asked. "Alright, I have never tried if this works on other people, so let''s see," Aren said as he pointed the Revolver at Tyrance''s temple and pulled the trigger. Naturally, 1000 spirit energy was consumed again. A bullet wisp released from the barrel and hit Tyrance as he was covered in a multi-colored glow for a brief second. "I got it! Hahaha, I got +24 luck," Tyrance said with an excited grin. "So it works," Aren muttered with a raised eyebrow, ''I''ll also have to make this revolver into Articule gear and see how it transforms.'' "Alright, I am going to spin the roulette now," Tyrance said as he turned to the Roulette and spun it. The needle started spinning, and after three seconds, it stopped on the 4th number, which means that Tyrance got the fourth most valuable item. "Not bad," said the Skeleton while nodding his head, "you can open the chest no.4 and get your prize." Afterward, the Skeleton turned to Aren spoke with a grin, "your turn." Aren walked in front of the Roulette and spun it. The needle started spinning, and after three seconds, he stopped on the 15th number. "Well, I expected that," Aren said with a wry smile. He then walked in front of the treasure chest that had 15 printed on it and opened it. He saw a card in it with a spirit stone printed on it. "It''s a force level 2 spirit stone of rare-grade. You can use it when you be a Supreme-lifeform," the Skeleton said with a smile. Aren nodded as he picked up the card and put it inside his inventory. "Alright, good performance, both of you. See you next time if you encounter my ship again, hahaha." the Skeletonughed with gusto before he waved his hand as both Aren and Tyrance disappeared and appeared in the city at their previous location. Before leaving, Aren had taken a good look at the Skeleton but didn''t manage to get any information. Everything was ??? in the status panel. ''If it''s ??? then it''s like above Legendary lifeform,'' Aren thought. "Let''s hatch the egg first. I want to see it," said Tyrance with a grin. "Me too. I''ve wanted to find a beast tamer after arriving here anyway, but d that I got into this Ghost Demon Ship event first," Aren said with a smile. Afterward, both of them went inside the inn''s outside ground filled with ten small open-air pavilions and a pond in the middle. Aren and Tyrance went inside one of the empty pavilions as Aren took out the egg and put it on the floor. "Ohh, I know about this! I have seen an egg of a Divine Maleferius ze Fox, and this egg is a bit simr to it," Tyrance said with a surprised expression, "It''s not the same, but I am sure this egg has the bloodline of Divine Maleferius ze Fox." "Yeah, It''s a lesser species of that Legendary creature, and it''s called Tundra Maleferius Ice Fox with 24% bloodline concentration of Divine Maleferius ze fox," Aren said with a nod. "Hehe, It looks like your eyes can see more details about all the things. That''s very useful," Tyrance said with a chuckle, "let''s see what it bes after using that Beast Evolution droplet on it." Aren nodded as he took out a vial from his inventory that he took out from the storage card. He opened the vial''s mouth before pouring a golden droplet with a dreamy white hue in it on the egg. Tyrance suddenly remembered something and hurriedly asked, "you have bound this egg to you already, right? Because if not, then we will freeze to death here." "Oh?" Aren was surprised, but he nodded, "I had already bound it to me when I got it. No worries." "Then it''s good. Because the egg itself contains more power than the fox inside at first, and if the fox doesn''t sense its master, then it will release that power for its self-protection." "Interesting," Aren nodded with a surprised expression, "however, it''s fine because it''s bound to my soul. I could already sense the connection between it and me when I got it." The egg started glowing, and strange vein-like patterns all over it. They glowed with a dreamy blue, light gold, and crimson red. The egg glowed for five minutes before it trembled a bit, and... the first crack appeared on it. *Crack...* The cracks on the egg slowly increased before finally, a mouth came out while eating the egg. It was the head of an adorable fox with soft, thick fur and golden-blue eyes. It curiously looked at Aren with sparkling eyes while eating the eggshell. Aren was surprised to see its information because a mutation had happened with its bloodline as it evolved and the fox became a new species known as Aurelian Maleferius ze Fox. "Shii...shiii..." The fox let out a strange whistling-like sound towards Aren before it rapidly started eating the eggshell. The fox bared its head on the eggshell and rotated as it ate the whole eggshell in ten seconds. "Hahaha, It looks like this fox got a lively personality," Tyrance said with augh. *Shii...Shii....* After eating the egg entirely, the fox jumped onto the Athan''s shoulder and rubbed its furry head on Aren''s cheeks. Aren smiled as it patted its head. After a second, however, Aren suddenly got a thought message from the fox. "You can put it inside your inner space. It probably needs to rest there for a few days after eating the eggshell," Tyrance said with a grin as he knew all information about the spirit beast. Aren nodded as he got the same thought message from the fox. After Aren gave permission of sort, the fox disappeared from his shoulder. Chapter 131 - Farewell, Extreme Limit Of Mortal. (not Edited Yet) Currently, Tyrance and Aren were sitting inside the Pavilion as Tyrance told Aren about his origins. "So you are a prince?" Aren asked with raised eyebrows, indicating his surprise. "Yep, I am from the Tyr Kingdom in the Marion Continent. It''s the continent that is connected to Demon Continent and Human Continent," Tyrance said with a grin, "Marion continent is versatile as it''s filled with many Kingdoms and four Empires with mixed races." "I will soon leave because my pick-up ride wille anytime now," Tyrance said with a smile as he took out a token and gave it to Aren, "If there is a chance in the future, thene visit the Tyr Kingdom. All in all, It''s the 2nd most powerful Kingdom in the Marion continent, hehe." "Oh? Do you have any existences at the Mythical lifeform in your Kingdom?" Aren asked with curiosity, "also, how powerful are those four Empires?" "My great-grandmother is a mythical being, hehe," Tyrance said with a chuckle, "as for the Empires, they each have at least two Mythical lifeforms and more than ten Legendary lifeforms." "I see...," Aren nodded and wondered, "I wonder how powerful are those beings? I also need to be one in three years to fight against the despair." "Mythical lifeform in three years?" Tyrance was speechless as he shook his head, "very difficult. However, many people have done it. Also, since you are an otherworlder, you ought to get the opportunity to progress faster for sure." Tyrance showed three fingers and spoke, "three things are of utmost importance if you want to progress faster and be a Mythical lifeform." "What?!" Aren asked in an eager voice with thirst in his eyes. "First is bloodline. If you got a powerful bloodline of Mythical or Cmity-grade, then your training speed and power will increase." "Second is Spinergy Method. If you managed to acquire a powerful Mythical-grade spinergy managed, you can progress faster and won''t take much time to evolve into the higher lifeforms." Pausing there, Tyranceughed and spoke, "third is determination and tough will. Never think about giving up and bing weak-minded." *breeze~* A slight breezing spread through the ground before an old man in his forties appeared outside of the pavilion, wearing a tuxedo suit andbed white hair. Aren looked at him and was surprised as he involuntarily gulped while thinking, ''A Legendary being.'' "Prince Tyrance, it''s time to go," said the middle-aged man as he put his palm on his chest and bent his head a bit. "Uncle Gen, you are already here," Tyrance said with a wry smile as he stood up while looking at the middle-aged man. Uncle Gen nodded with a smile before turning his head to Aren as a gleam passed through his eyes, ''Otherworlder...'' "Uncle Gen, meet my friend, Aren," Tyrance said with a smile as he pointed at Aren and then grinned, "he is going to be a Mythical being in three years." Uncle Gen''s lips twitched a bit before he looked at Aren and smiled, "are you sure you can be one in three years?" Aren shrugged his shoulders before speaking, "I don''t know. However...," pausing there, Aren smiled with a fire of determination burning in his eyes, "I don''t have any other choice other than to be one in three years." After saying that, Aren turned to Tyrance and smiled, "It was a good short journey together. But now it''s time to say farewell. I wille to visit Tyr kingdom if the opportunity presents itself." "Hahaha, definitely! I will also race with you and try to be a Mythical lifeform in three years!" Tyranceughed and said before pointing at the token in Aren''s hand, "be sure to hold on to that token so I can find you if you are near in the future." "Alright," Aren said with a smile before he left the pavilion, "now I must continue with my journey. See youter if the opportunity presents." ... The first thing that Aren did after leaving the Inn was to buy the five elemental rings from the {-Moonshine Armory Shop-}. [Ring of Fire] [Ring of Water] [Ring of Wind] [Ring of Earth] [Ring of Lightning] After buying the five rings that cost him a total of 24,000 gold coins, Aren still had 38,088 gold coins. ''I still haven''t used my two new gears in the battle yet, and got a lot of things to do already,'' Aren wryly smiled while thinking as he returned to the Inn. [Crystal Hexa Shield, Hexshira.] [Legumeta Chain Whip, Lech.] After returning to the Inn, the first ring that Aren decided to transform into Articule gear was [Ring of Fire]. He didn''t need to do soul branding or anything like that since transforming the gears would be the same or even better as they truly be a part of him. However, right after he finished transforming the [ Ring of Fire ], which took him 800 Armalist force, he was surprised by a voice and notification. [Your Agility has reached 200 points, which is the extreme limit that a mortal can go. Your agility won''t go above 200 points until you evolve to be a Supreme-lifeform.] "My agility was already had 199 after I got the Legumeta Chain Whip and turned it into an Articule gear," Aren muttered as he looked at his stat. ----- -[Stats] ----- He then started turning the Rings into his Articule Gears one by one. However, each ring was going to take 800 Armalist force to transform while the recovery speed of his Armalist force was 100 Armalist forces per five minutes, which means that it would take him more than two hours to finish transforming the next four rings. ''Oh well, I wanted to level up and be supreme-life form since I really have a lot of stored exp right now,'' Aren thought while looking at his status and decided to level up. -Name: Aren Azrael -Level: 22 [ 0 /35,000 ] ( Stored Exp: 621,040). Aren decided to level up to 25 first and see how it goes Chapter 132 - Elevation, Dungeon-1 (Not Edited Yet) [Important section, getting up to date with Aren''s status before the grindfest adventures.] The stats of Aren''s are now in this format: [ Natural stat points/stat points from gears/stat points from Armalist Cloak bonus= total stat points.] [Destructo], [Vyrmend], [Weimbus], [Slinger], [Hexhira], [Lech], [Ring of Fire, Pyrin] ->Destructo: No stat points perk. ->Vyrmend: +28 AGI +9 CONT. ->Weimbus: No stat points perk. ->Slinger: No stat points perk. ->Hexshira: +25 CONT, +20 STR. ->Lech: +35 AGI, +15 STR ->Pyrin: +20 AGI. :[Armalist Cloak.] -Effect 1: While the cloak is activated, Your natural control of Articule gears will be increased. -Effect 2: You will gain a portion of your Articule Gears'' power that will be converted to stats and some special buffs. -Effect 3: Skill unlocked . [The buff stats gained from gears through Armalist Cloak]: ->[Destructo: +13 STR +13 CONT] ->[Vyrmend: +22 AGI, +4 CONT] ->[Hexhira: +23 CONT, +18 STR] ->[Lech: +32 AGI, +12 STR]. ->[Slinger: +11 AGI] ->[Weimbus: +19 CONT, 14 STR] ->[Pyrin: +13 AGI] [Current stats of Aren] -[Stats] Since Aren had reached the extreme limit of Mortal in AGI, he can''t go above 200. So two stat points were nulled from the gear bonus. ----- ->Destructo: #[emailprotected]&#%#$& ->Vyrmend: Wind-based attacks will deal 10% less damage to you. Your attacks speed and movement speed increase by 10%. ->Weimbus: An energy barrier materializes around you after sessfully attacking ten consecutive times in a row without missing. (Energy Barrier: Durability [2000], Phy. Def [1000] Energy Def [1000]. Cooldown: 10 minutes) ->Slinger: Your projectiles receive 10% air and atmospheric resistance, and movement speed increases by 5% ->Hexhira: When your health drops to 50%, You will gain a 5-meter radius big Supra Aegis Barrier with you as the center. [ Supra Aegis Barrier: Durability [10,000], Phy. Def [3000], Energy Def[3000], All basic elements resistance [1000], Soul Def [1000] (Only activates once per 24 hours. ] ->Lech: Your attacks have a 1% chance to release a sound sh using the atmosphere''s and wind''s friction that deals 10,000 sound damage. ->Pyrin: Fire Elemental Mastery +15. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Aren leveled up 25 at first before deciding on his next steps. [You have leveled up to 23. Five stat points gained.] [You have leveled up to 24. Five stat points gained.] [You have leveled up to 25. Five stat points gained.] [To level up further and breakthrough to be Mortal-5, please refine your mortal-4 spirit core and make its rating to 10. Current rating 6.7/10] "Hmmm, I also have to enter the Path test again, but..." Aren muttered as he fell into thought, ''It''s better that I be a supreme lifeform before doing the path test.'' After deciding that, Aren set crossed-legged and started meditating and training to get his spirit core''s rating to 10 using his Spinergy Method. His training speed had received a significant boostpared to before after getting Demonic Affinity, and that speed continued to increase in this underworld. Time passed as Aren continued using the spinergy method to gather the spirit energy from the spirit stone and then refine his spirit core. After 1 day and 16 hours, he got a notification. [Your mortal-4 spirit core''s rating has reached 10. You can initiate the breakthrough any time by slightly infusing a bit of spirit energy in your spirit core.] Aren opened his eyes, and without wasting any time, he initiated the breakthrough. Suddenly, powerful energy gushed out from his spirit energy and spread throughout his body, strengthening everything. A strange force also entered inside his body from the atmosphere that strengthened his body and then went into his spirit core. *groan...* Aren felt pain all over his body and mind as his body continuously twitched. He felt his body getting stronger overall, and after a few seconds, his mind also gained rity. The pain also subsided slowly. [Congrauions, Your mortal-4 spirit core has been upgraded to Mortal-5. +7 points to all stats.] [Your spirit energy pool''s capacity has increased by 2000.] [Congrautations, you have reached Mortal-5 lifeform. +10 points to all stats. Additional 5 stat points to the soul.] Aren stood up and moved his body, his agility didn''t change, but he felt tougher and stronger. His senses heightened, and his perception of things and intuition also increased as his soul received a boost of 22 stat points. "Let''s continue," Aren muttered as he decided to level up again.\\\\ However, something unexpected happened. [Leveling up again and receiving more boost is not rmended. You should also not use your 15 stat points today.] [It is rmended that you do some exercise and go on a hunt to use your skills and abilities for a day before leveling up again.] [However, you can distribute 3 points from those 15 stat points to your soul.] Aren was surprised to hear the voice telling him this and receiving such notifications. He then added 3 points to his soul as he felt lightened and stronger again. "Since it''s not rmended, then I better not do it," Aren murmured before walking towards the door, "I also feeling too active and a bit unsettled after receiving this boost in power." Aren needed to do some activity and settle his body. As such, he decided to go out and visit a nearby dungeon that he found when he was on the way to this Underworld City. Anyway, Aren had yet to grind with his full speed and gather experience like others. He didn''t do many dungeons or kill monsters to gather mass experience because he had made some goals. His main goal was to arrive in Demonic Continent to enable his advantages, so he didn''t pause in the way to do that. However, now that he was here, his Demonic affinity and other aspects that he gained so far would help him progress faster like those people on the leaderboard. ... ''I should try that new skill that I haven''t used yet. It should let me reach the dungeon fast,'' Aren thought as he walked towards the city gates. ''As for my current status...'' Aren nodded after looking at it. He had enough experience to level 30, and today, he will also gain more. -Name: Aren Azrael -Level: 25 [ 0/43,000 ] ( Stored Exp: 509,040). -Path: Emporio Armalist: Level: 10 [115,934/512,000 Exp.] -Mutant Magic: [Aember core of Eturnia] -Spinergy Method: Demon Yakum''s Spinergy Method. -Body Health: [9000/9000] -Soul Health: [216/216] -Life Stage: Mortal-5 -Spirit Energy Pool: [13,350/13,350] -Soul Energy: [1160/1160] -Mutant Magic Energy: [1000/1000] (18/min). -Mystic Field: [0/300] points -[Stats] -Stat points: 12 -Skill points: 4 -Ability points: 1 ----- After leaving the city gates, Aren wore his [Weimbus] full armored suit before flying very high in the sky and activating the skill as his Armalist Cloak glowed slightly. -Cost: Min: 100 Armalist Force. Max: ?? -Effect: The user can create a hyper path spanning across his vision and design a path between two points. One is the starting point, and one is the destination point. The cost of Armalist force depends on the length of the hyper path. After the hyper path is finalized, the user can go from starting point to the destination point in a second. -Note: the hyper path will only materialize for 2 seconds, so hurridly touch it before it disappears. Aren''s eyes glowed a bit as the Armalist Cloak enchanted him of the sort with power when he used his Armalist Drive and executed this skill through his brain ording to the instruction. "Woah...," Aren was surprised as his vision was digitized. One could see Aren''s eyes showing dreamy blue patterns as they pulsed slightly. Currently, Aren could see a panel of the sort that allowed him to decide starting and destination point in front of his vision with his finger; it was as if there was a hologram that only he could see. When Aren looked far in the sky ahead and pointed his finger at the sky, a red mark appeared with [-10452 Armalist force] beside it, indicating that he needed that much armalist force to travel that far. Even Aren didn''t know how long that distance was since he simply looked at the sky. Later, Aren looked at the ground below and tried to remember the dungeon spot. After a few seconds, he remembered it, and with his finger, he created a zig-zag path from his current location to that dungeon. Once he decided the endpoint, a green mark appeared with [-741 Armalist]. Aren felt that he could finalize this path with a single thought, and it would materialize. However, he didn''t do that and, this time, made a straight line from his location towards that dungeon''s location. Green Mark [-475 Armalist force] Seeing this, Aren got the hang of this skill and finalized this path. *Zzzzzz.....* 475 Armalist force was consumed, and a dreamy blue path pulsing with a faint blue and white sparks materialized in front of him. The path was very thin, just 3 centimeters thin. Inparison, its width was 1 meter. Many people saw this mystical path, but Aren didn''t waste time and touched the path because it would only stay in materialization for 2 seconds before disappearing. As soon as Aren touched the path, he disappeared and arrived at the dungeon''s location, which was an ancient temple covered with vines. *Blerhh....* "Urghh....." Aren felt sick in the stomach and had some vertigo in his brain. "Damn...that was...ufortable," Aren muttered with a frown. [Next time, cover yourself with Armalist Force before touching the hyper path.] Aren heard a voice in his head and smiled wryly. As he arrived at the dungeon, he once again got the notification if he wanted to ept this dungeon quest, and this time, he epted it. Chapter 133 - Lost Ancient-1 [Dungeon Quest, Lost Ancient epted.] [As you are mortal-5 Lifeform, the dungeon difficulty has been adjusted.] [You can choose the dungeon''s difficulty to be increased as well. Higher difficulties will produce stronger monsters and better rewards.] [Please choose the difficulty.] ->Walk in the park (Even Mortal-4 Lifeform canplete.) ->Little Struggles (Any Mortal-5 Lifeform canplete with a bit of struggle.) ->Deadly Steps (A Mortal-5 canplete but will be very hard and full of high struggles. A wrong step can cause death.) ->Futile Struggle (A mortal-5 can only die with this difficulty except for some exceptional individuals with full-proof preparation. Only choose this if you are confident in yourself and have trust in your power. If you don''t have any equipments and support items, then you may leave now; even if you have reached the extreme mortal limit with 200 in CONT, you will die with two hits from any monster without support from equipments and items.) Aren was surprised as he got this panel once he touched the door of the temple. However, he didn''t need to think much to choose the difficulty level. Naturally, he chose Futile Struggle difficulty level because he had enough support of items, and with his flexible flying method, he was capable of easily evading attacks or defending with his newfound defensive capabilities from armor and shield. Most importantly, he had the support of two powerful Artifacts that he bought from Ghost Demon Ship. After he picked up the difficulty, the door of the ancient temple opened, and Aren got another panel regarding quest details. [Lost Ancient]-Futile Strugger Difficulty ->1. Kill ten Ancient Monsters. ->2. Find and destroy four power nucleus. ->3. Destroy the Ruin Bringer Weapon. ->100,000 path and normal exp. ->A skill box containing a random skill rted to the dungeon. (A-SS) ->An ancient key with unknown use. ->A Skill Fusion Stone. ->A box containing a random grade force level 2 spirit stone. ->You will get a chance to leave the dungeon afterpleting each objective. ->However, you will not receive any rewards if you fail toplete even one objective. You must achieve all three objectives to get the rewards. "Oh...," Aren was surprised when he read the part, "I guess it should be the thing of Futile-Struggle difficulty. Hmm...even if I struggled toplete two objectives but decided to leave after that, my struggles toplete those two objectives would be nulled as I wouldn''t receive any rewards." Futile struggle indeed. ... After entering the temple, Aren arrived at arge hall with a giant statue at the end. There was a path leading further right below the statue. The giant statue depicted a humanoid being with a wooden mask and a spear in his hand, sitting on a stone tform. The statue was very lifelike and colorful, so Aren almost thought it was real and got cautious until he got its information through his Astral-X eyes that it was just a statue. "No monster spawning here?" Aren murmured as he waited for a few seconds and didn''t move further. However, since no one spawned, Aren moved towards the statue as the path to the next ce below the statue. *DHOOM...DHOOM* Suddenly, A loud drum sound reverberated out of nowhere, and the path below the statue was blocked with a stone tablet. *Roar!!...Roar!!...* The ground trembled as three creepy monsters with dark green hide, sharp teeth, and glowing red eyes appeared in front of Aren. Those creatures walked on four legs, but its front two legs had deadly ws that glowed with a dark green sheen. They were 3 meters long and 1.5 meters tall. *Swoooosh...* A powerful gust of wind exploded from the three monsters as ck wind power surrounded them, and they dashed towards Aren at a fast speed. However, Aren narrowed his eyes as he dodged them by flying upward, and without wasting any time, he took out all of his gears. [Ancient Creature, Pranturm.] -Lifeform: Special -Health: [45,000/45,000] -Attack: Phy. [6,900], Cursed Wind [7500] -Defense: Phy. [2000], Energy [1340], Soul [300] -Skills: , -Abilities: , *Roar!!...* Two creatures flew towards Aren despite not having wings as some kind of ck wind surrounded them, while the third creature roared and swiped its ws towards Aren, releasing two ck wind ws the size of two meters long. Aren first dodged the w attacks and started flying around in a chaotic manner while keeping an eye on the battlefield and manipting his weapons to attack. He activated his abilities, and before attacking the two monsters with seeds through [Slinger] gear from his hand. The seeds shot towards the two creatures following him and trapped them for a moment. However, they still flew and didn''t fall down. Although their speed was slowed down because of [Icy Enchant] and their flying speed reduced cause of vines. They also received damage from [Demonic me: Zarkhel] that burned on the vines. Naturally, Aren followed with his [Destruto] and [Lech] attacks right after that. *Crackle!...BOOM...* [-7740]-Destructo basic attack [-13,000]-Sound wave attack of Lech. *Crackle!...BOOM...* Aren continued using basic attacks while flying around. He didn''t forget about the monster that was staying on the ground and releasing long-range attacks. For it, he used [Ring of Fire, Pyrin] and released fireballs towards the monster below. Each fireball consumed 250 spirit energy. -5410 Aren released three fireballs, but the creature dodged two of them. However, Aren was surprised by the damage of the fireball. ''Could it be because of the increased Fire Elemental Mastery?'' Aren spected. Currently, he has a total of 30 Fire Elemental Mastery. 15 from the gear itself and another 15 from Armalist Cloak buff. While flying and attacking the two creatures following him with [Destruco] and [Lech], Aren also asionally attacked the creature staying below with fireballs from [Pyrin] gear. Their health slowly decreased while Aren was perfectly fine. He focused on the battle and easily dodged their attacks with his extremely flexible flying by manipting his [Weimbus] gear. Suddenly, he got an idea as he consumed 100 soul energy and 100 Mutant Magic energy. Since he used 100 soul energy to invoke the mutant magic, its potency naturally increased by many folds. Afterward, he used that power through [Pyrin] and then released fireball. *Swooooosh...* This new fireball was red with orange sparks, and its speed was extremely fast as well. However, Aren was surprised that this fireball consumed 500 spirit energy rather than 250, ''maybe to increase its potential capacity?'' It flew even faster than a bullet and hit the creature''s head. *BOOOOOOOM...* -21,740 Arge explosion urred while the creature''s head was sted in a mesh. However, the creature''s body was still moving, and it continued to attack randomly. ''Nice...'' Afterward, Aren also slowly finished off the two monsters. [An Ancient creature killed, 7400 exp gained.]x3 "Hmmm, not too difficult," Aren spoke softly as he didn''t feel too much challenge and started walking towards the path. After he walked through the short passage, he arrived in another hall that had four paths on four sides and there was a statue in the middle of therge hall. This time, four creatures spawned around the statue. However, these creatures were different. Seeing their stats, Aren raised his eyebrows as they were more powerful than the three creatures in the previous hall. Chapter 134 - Lost Ancient-2, Near Death. [Ancient Creature, Ulkamesh] -Lifeform: Special -Health: [65,000/65,000] -Attack: Phy. [8,900], Shatter Sound [9000] -Defense: Phy. [2500], Energy [1540], Soul [500] -Skills: , , -Abilities: -Note: It has shatter sound power which can easily break defense and deal great damage, try to avoid being hit by their skills. Once hit, it will deal internal damage as well, even if you have powerful armor or shield outside. These four creatures looked slightly humanoid with bent backs, their hands were their biggest part of the body, and their palms were the size of a watermelon. They wore wild clothes, and their bodies had dark green patterns. Noticing Aren, all four of them screamed weirdly as their red eyes glowed. Two of them dashed towards Aren while the other two pushed their palm towards Athan before releasing an almost invisible palm projection. Aren became serious right after seeing their status, so he was ready for their attacks. *Swooosh....* He flew up and dodged the palm attacks before flying around chaotically at full speed to avoid being hit by their skills. Those two Ulkamesh creatures produced dark green wings and started flying as they chased Aren while trying to attack him while the other two Ulkamesh creatures stayed on the ground and released their long-range skills. ''I have to finish this fast,'' Aren thought with seriousness as their attacks were no joke. While flying around, he turned around and looked at the two Ulkamesh creatures following him, their speed slower than Aren, so they couldn''t catch up, but since they were unable to catch, they started using palm projection attacks while chasing. While dodging their palm projectile attacks, Aren started preparing his n to take all of them out in one attack. He first tried to use on the two following behind him to see if it would work. He didn''t have much hope because Demonic Overlord would suppress their wills while these ancient creatures didn''t look like they had wills at all. As he tried to suppress them by using this skill, those two creatures also screamed while grabbing their heads for a second. However, they seemed to have be angrier after that. ''Since this didn''t work much, then the Cursed Shofar would work better on them instead as I expected,'' Aren thought as he started preparing. Aren started powering up his hammer and started buffing it. -300 Mutant Magic energy ready to activate the skill; he even used 200 soul energy to invoke powerful mutant magic energy instead of the normal one. Actually, the mutant magic energy invoked using soul energy was the true one he felt. activated as it coated the hammer. also activated. activated as well, which will give a boost to the entire power of the hammer. Everything was ready, but Aren decided to make some defensive measures as he attacked the Ulkamesh creatures following him using [Lech] in close range. -4870 He shed them with this chain whip without missing ten times to activate the buff of [Weimbus] gear through Armalist Cloak. He attacked those two creatures randomly because they were trying to dodge as well, so he had to make it unpredictable for them. ->Weimbus: An energy barrier materializes around you after sessfully attacking 10 consecutive times in a row without missing. (Energy Barrier: Durability [2000], Phy. Def [1000] Energy Def [1000]. Cooldown: 10 minutes) A transparent barrier appeared around Aren. However, he didn''t stop there and also activated the Wolven Sun Barrier of [Weimbus] by consuming 1000 spirit energy, which created another barrier around him with 5000 Durability. Aren decided to make these defensive measures because those Ulkamesh creatures had more skills, and so far, they only used one type of skill against him. So, since he was going near them, he decided to be cautious and prepare defenses if they released their other skills, which he didn''t know the details of. After preparing two barriers, Aren manipted [Destruco] and stationed it at the very far end of the hall, at the top corner. The hammer was wreathen in Zarkhel me that appeared dark blue while pulsing with deep orange and red patterns on its structure. Aren was still flying at a fast speed to avoid being hit while preparing, and once the hammer was stationed, he flew around before descending towards the two Ulkamesh creatures with [Cursed Shofar] in his hand. Right when he passed by those two Ulkamesh on the ground, and the other two following behind him arrived near those two on the ground, Aren blew the [Cursed Shofar] as a loud sound reverberated. However...those two Ulkamesh on the ground also released another skill at the same time when Aren came near them, which was an area-wide skill as waves of destructive sound energy vibrating at fast speed hit Aren. *POOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO....* After the [Cursed Shofar] released its sound and stunned everyone, Aren was hit by the [Thun-shatter p] skill. Both of his barriers were shattered in an instant while Aren was thrown away, spewing blood from his mouth. -4170 His internal organs were jumbled and raptured. However, Aren also came out of the stunned state 0.5 earlier than he nned. While enduring the pain, Aren called down his hammer of devastation towards the four Ulkamesh creatures that were now close to each other and were in a stunned state. *Zwooooooooooom....BOOOOOOOOOOM....* -78,407 -78,407 -78,407 -78,407 [An Ancient creature, Ulkamesh Killed, 9000 Exp gained.]x4 *Puchi...* Aren spewed more blood as he fell to the ground and was dragged for a few meters before stopping. ''Damn...,'' Aren cursed as he wiped the blood from his mouth and started drinking the [Health Potions] to recover his body health. ''Without those two barriers, I would have died...,'' Aren thought with a shudder and was d that he remained cautious. He looked at the [Hexshira] gear floating beside him; it was the shield he brought. However, it proved to be useless against that strange skill that hit him. Even his armor couldn''t block it, and his internal organs were damaged directly. [Hexshira]''s buff through Armalist cloak was that it would produce a powerful barrier with 10,000 Durability once his Body Health dropped to 50%. However, that wouldn''t work if he was dealt fatal damage that could instantly kill him. After recovering his health to full by drinking several [Health Potion], Aren sat in meditation and started recovering his spirit energy, mutant, magic energy, and soul energy. Now he had four paths to travel, and he likely had to go to all of them one by one because of the quest objectives. After twenty minutes, Aren finished recovering his energies through meditation and flew towards the east path. The passage was short and after going through it, Aren arrived in a natural ce with a waterfall to his left side. The river flowing from the waterfall went deep into the jungle ahead but Aren''s destination was just two hundred meters ahead of him. There was arge five meters tall and four meters wide crystal floating on a rectangle pedestal that was ten meters tall. The crystal was dark green with white patterns on it. *thud...* However, there was also a giant five meters tall creature with a burly body, four hands, and held four giant swords in its four hands. The creature stood up after Aren arrived here and roared towards him. [Ancient Creature, Huyon] Chapter 135 - Lost Ancient-3 (not Edited Yet) [Ancient Creature, Huyon] -Lifeform: Special -Health: [90,000/90,000] -Attack: Phy. [10,900], Crystal Earth[8,450] -Defense: Phy. [4000], Energy [2540], Soul [500] -Skills: , , -Abilities: , [Crysite Fort]. Seeing the creature''s stats, Aren became serious, ''It''s big, which I usually have an advantage against. However, I need to see the speed of its attacks.'' Aren also saw the target of his second objective, the floating crystal on the pedestal. He has to destroy it as well. The crystalized giant with dark green and bright orange patterns on its body roared and opened his mouth towards Aren as several small crystalized beam shards released from its mouth. Seeing their speed, Aren''s expression changed as he hurriedly tried to dodge and barely seeded. ''That was fast!'' Aren thought in surprise, and he couldn''t afford to fly chaotically this time because the area of this attack was very wide. He had to dodge that attack skill of the giant with precision. Otherwise, he could get hit by one of the crystallized shard beams. activated. also activated. Aren''s gears were already around him, so without further ado, he manipted his [Lech] and [Pyrin] to attack the giant and distract it. He most used fireball towards its eyes to block its vision. As for [Destructo], he started preparing for its powerful attack by buffing it. He consumed 300 mutant magic energy 200 soul energy and activated and both as the hammer seethed with power. *Shaa..shaa...* Aren dodged the iing shard beam rain towards him as he was focused on it. -1890 (fireball) -3840 (sound sh) Aren was surprised at the low damage caused by his weapon attacks, and he could only guess that it was rted to its ability. *TONG...TONG...* Before Aren could unleash his hammer attack, the giant pped his hand as a loud bell-like sound reverberated everywhere. A strange energy wave shot towards Aren that was undodgeable. Aren hurridly used [Hexira] in front of him as he hid by the shield while also activating Wolven Sun Barrier. As the waves hit the wolven sun barrier first, it broke. After that, the wave hit the Hexhira shield, and it started to get pushed back. However, Aren felt dizzy as the strange wave went into his ears when those waves first hit the Wolven Sun barrier and broke it. [Aura of Resistance triggers.] Aren was snapped out of the daze as he started sweating, ''damn!'' Without wasting any time, he manipted his hammer and attacked. The hammer went straight for the giant''s crystal head. However, the giant seemed to have sensed threat as it roared, and a crystalized wall appeared around it right before the hammer hit it. *BOOOOOOOOOM....* The crystal shards flew everywhere as the giant''s defense was broken, and the hammer hit the giant''s head with lower intensity as the crystalized wall did its job. -43,780 *Roarrrrr!!!....* The giant roared and dashed towards Aren as both its giant crystal fists glowed with intense energy. Aren flew higher and higher as he went 900 meters high in the sky. He didn''t want to take any risk going close to that giant. Seeing Aren escaping in the sky, the giant roared in anger while Aren prepared another powerful Hammer attack with the same amount of energies spent as previously. After roaring in anger, the giant punched in the sky using both fists towards Athan. *BOOOOOOOOOOOOM...* Two ten meters wide and thirty meters long giant punch projection filled with intense offensive power shot towards Aren at a breakneck speed. However, Aren quickly positioned himself between those two punches and dodged the attack before manipting his hammer to attack the giant''s head again. The giant didn''t conjure another crystal wall around it, or rather, it couldn''t as the hammer hit its head even faster than a bullet and... *BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM....* [An ancient creature Hyron killed, 10,000 exp gained.] The crystalized giant broke into pieces, but as Aren was looking at it, he caught something shining brightly with his eyes and descended. A fist-sized dark green crystal with bright orange patterns. [Huyon Gemstone] -Rank: rare. -Effect: Use it in the process of forging a gold-tier or higher-grade item to grant additional effects rted to Huyon. Aren put it inside the inventory, ''guess I''ll use it when I craft my next gear.'' Afterward, he flew towards the giant crystal and started attacking it. [Power Nucleus] -Durability: [100,000/100,000] Aren started attacking with basic attacks of his [Destruco] and [Lech] to save his spirit energy. After a few seconds, Aren produced an idea, ''It would be good if I could make a gear with artificial intelligence in it, and it should also be able to use my gears. Then I would just need tomand it, and it would attack using my gears.'' ''Or...,'' Aren suddenly narrowed his eyes as he thought of the concept that was clear in this world, ''A soul...hmmm, a soul bes an AI.'' But he then shook his head, ''however, I don''t know how I can incorporate it in my gear crafting. I would need more knowledge on gear crafting for that.'' Aren couldn''t do it now, but he believed that something like that was definitely possible. Actually, after arriving in this world and experiencing such magical phenomenons, Aren felt that anything, literally anything imagined, was possible. After a while, Aren destroyed the crystal and then started meditating to recover the energies that he spent. He consumed a lot of energy this time, so it took him a bit than half an hour to get into his peak condition. Afterward, he left through the same way he arrived here and returned to the vast hall. This time, he went to the west-direction door. However, he was surprised that the scene here was the same. There was the same ancient creature, Huyon, with the same scenery. Since he was familiar with it now, Aren defeated it the same way as before and came out after 40 minutes in his peak condition. Next, he went to the north door, and this time, he encountered a vastly different scenery. ''Not big space, limited height, and...that powerful-ass creature,'' Aren thought as an unprecedented, serious look surfaced on his face. *Screeeeeeeeeeee!!!!* Without wasting a single second, Aren activated 2nd effect of his most powerful skill . Chapter 136 - Lost Ancient-4, Dead? (not Edited Yet) The ce behind the door that Aren went to was like a big cave. The ceiling was just 40 meters from the ground, and the whole cave was only 200 meters wide and 250 meters long. Such a low ceiling limited Aren''s ability to fly high and avoid damage, so he would have to be fully focused on dodging while fighting because this creature in front of him...too powerful. [Ancient Creature, Lorn] -Lifeform: Special -Health: [1,20,000/1,20,000] -Attack: Phy. [12,900], Umbra Wind [10,450] -Defense: Phy. [3200], Energy [3140], Soul [600] -Skills:?? -Abilities:?? The creature looked like a harpy but with ck wings and a body with creepy dark-green patterns. It was three meters tall creature with a wingspan of 7 meters. Its legs had sharp talons while its arms were connected to its wings like a harpy. *Screeeeeeeeeee.....* Lorn released an inhuman screech as it attacked Aren by pping its wing and releasing dark wing des. On the other hand, Aren was in his most powerful form with his skill activated. Without wasting a single second, Aren unleashed his gears and started attacking after dodging the fast dark-wind des. ''Impairment..., I don''t know its skills or ability, so I have to make sure it gets as few as possible chances to attack me properly,'' Aren thought while attacking as he shot ten seeds of from his gear [Slinger] on his hand. The Ring of Fire was releasing fireballs towards the creature''s eyes as intended by Athan while his hammer was at the corner of the cave as he prepared to make a big bang with it like usual. Aren manipted the Legumeta Chainwhip [Lech] to attack the creature continuously at a fast speed. He was not releasing Sound sh as he had to be careful of his spirit energy limitation this time. He had already consumed 5000 spirit energy by using , and each sound sh would consume 1200 spirit energy as well. *screeeee...* After two seconds, Aren was surprised as the ancient creature, Lorn, seemed to be confused. There were dark purple spots on its body wherever the fireball or chain whip attacked. ''It''s working! Well, it should,'' Aren thought. He was also feeling more powerful, and a strange kind of energy that felt very familiar and simr to him was overflowing inside him, which felt like the Demonic power he felt when he obtained Demonic Affinity. All of this was the effect of skill. -Special Ability: It will grow as your Demonic affinity grows -Effect 1: You can use your will to pressure your opponents -Effect 2: +300 soul defense -Effect 3: Demonic Descent [Demonic Descent]: Consume 5000 spirit energy to gain a boost in your overall power for 2 minutes. Your attacks will be converted to demonic damage that can weaken your opponent''s mind and decrease their overall defense. Temporary gains stats boost: +30 STR, +30 CONT, +30 AGI, +200 Soul energy, +200 soul defense. -Note: The ability will unlock more effects and upgrade existing effects as you level up your Demonic affinity. All of his attacks were now converted to demonic damage that weakened Lorn''s mind and decreased its overall defense, causing his damage to increase. -6789 (chain whip) -5764 (fireball) -6945 (chain whip) -5978 (fireball) *Screeeeee....* A burst of dark wind released from the Lorn, and a whirling barrier formed around. The creature roared at Aren before dashing towards him with several des of dark wind forming around it. Aren turned somber as he focused and dodged the des. But the creature was after him, and its speed was almost as fast as him. By now, Aren had finished buffing his hammer as well, and this time, he went all out because the longer he dragged on, the more he would be in danger. He didn''t want to experience all skills and abilities of this creature. Since Lorn was now mind weakened due to his demonic attacks and had lowered defense, it was wise to kill it as soon as possible. After all, who knows if how long those debuffs willst on it? Thankfully, being in gave him a boost in his overall state. His perception had increased a notch higher along with his various speed because his Agility was at...249. Yes, it was not at 225 but 249. Normally, it should be at 225 because his Agility was capped at 200 while having 219 points. However, being in mode seemed to have broken that limit for 2 minutes. So it was 219+30=249 Agility, which increased his thought process, body moment, and such actions'' speed, allowing him to be safe from the ancient creature''s attacks by dodging at better pace. *Zooooooooom..* The burning hammer seethed with power as its skill was activated through 600 Mutant magic energy, boosted by 500 soul energy. All of Aren''s abilities were activated like and as well, which helped lower the speed of the ancient creature. Before finally unleashing the power of his hammer, Aren activated onest skill by consuming 200 Armalist energy. *Zoooooooom...* The ancient creature screeched in anger while following Aren with utter madness in its eyes as if it had lost its mind. Since the creature produced that barrier around it, the attacks of [Lech] and [Pyrin] were not hitting the creature at all. However, it was time for the grand attack as Aren led the creature in a such way that the hammer would linearly hit its head. *zoooooooooom....* As the hammer zoomed towards the creature from behind it, the creature also loudly screeched as the patterns on its body glowed. *Screeeeeeeeee....* Aren had a bad feeling seeing this and hurriedly absorbed spirit energy from a spirit stone by taking it out from the inventory in his hand in a second with thought and infused spirit energies in [Hexhira] to activate the Crystal barrier. {-Crystal Barrier: Infuse 1500 spirit energy and 100 Armalist Force into the shield to conjure a barrier with 4000 durability within a 5-meter radius around the shield. Barrier''s defense values are half of the shield''s value. [5 min cooldown].-} Since Aren was flying backward all the time while facing the creature to observe its attacks, these strange glowing patterns felt bad news to him. The hammer was just one second away from hitting its head as well when Aren finished activating two barriers. Crystal Barrier and Wolven Sun Barrier. There was also an energy barrier around him that he triggered by attacking ten times consecutively. *SHROOOOOOOOOOOOO....* The creature released several dark wing tornadoes that continuously released dark-wind des in all directions, along with arge dark green orb from its mouth towards Aren. These attacks were utterly undodgeable by Aren, and right after the creature released those attacks, the hammer also hit its head. *BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM.....* Aren braced for the impacts with his [Hexhira] shield that was in front of him. *Pop...Pop...Booom..* The three barriers were utterly broken one by one; the first two barriers were broken by the dark-wind tornadoes that released dark-wind des in all directions, while thest barrier was hit by therge iing orb filled with potent energy as arge st urred. An overwhelming energy with intense wind pressure released from the orb as it sted the barrier into oblivion before the potent energy st hit [Heshira] gear and Aren. *BOOOOOOOOOM.....* Along with [Hexhira], Aren was flung back like a bullet; some sh marks appeared on his [Weimbus] armor and the shield while he spewed out blood trails before hitting the wall of the cave and coughed blood. The strange dark energy in the st entered inside him through his eyes, nose, and ears as they started damaging his internals. [Ancient creature, Lorn, killed. 18,000 Exp gained.] Amidst his dizzy mind and painful body, Aren heard the notification. However, he was in no shape to pay attention to it. His mind was a mess right now, with intense headaches, and he was bleeding all over and internally. His life was literally hanging by a few threads right now because if he didn''t do anything to stop the energy inside his body from wreaking havoc, he would die within 30 seconds. His body twitched continuously as he tried to move but failed. ''Level up...'' Aren feebly thought as he couldn''t find any other way to get out of this predicament. [Unable to level due to your current status. Remove the umbra wind energy from your body before leveling up. If you level up right now, the essence entering inside you to level you up will fuel the umbra wind and make it stronger, resulting in instant death.] ''Wtf?'' Chapter 137 - Death Reminder, Crippled? (Not Edited Yet.) [First Objective: Kill ten ancient creatures has beenpleted. You can leave the dungeon by returning to the hall and entering through a portal.] Aren had no time to focus on notification as he was seriously panicking right now. He was about to drink a Health potion as he summoned it in his hand from inventory but stopped before it reached his mouth. Amidst the pain and panic, Aren also tried to stay calm as he believed that calmness was required in any situation or mental state a person experiences. He didn''t drink the potion in the end because he felt that it might also fuel the umbra wind. ''What do I do? I need to destroy this energy inside me before it reaches my core or my heart...'' "Arghhhhhhhhh......" A scream left Aren''s mouth as he suddenly felt very painful. [Your meridians are getting destroyed by the Umbra wind. You have 25 seconds until you die.] ''I DON''T NEED YOUR REMINDER!...calm...calm down.'' ''Should I use that Celestial Ichor Prototype thing?...No! I-I shouldn''t use it in my current state. It already disys a 50% chance of survival, but with my current state that is near death, the chances of survival might decrease if I use it.'' ''Spirit energy....can I use my spirit energ-NOO! The spirit energy might fuel it.'' Aren was rapidly thinking while feeling pain. He has to think of a way to survive. HE HAS TO. ''I need something more powerful...to destroy this umbra wind,'' Aren thought as he suddenly got an idea, but an intense pain once again assaulted him as he screamed painfully. After a second, he tried to focus and calmed down as he worked on his idea. ''Combine...I need tobine both spirit energy and Armalist force with my Aember of Eturnia''s mutant magic energy,'' while thinking this, Aren started to work on it as he consumed all of his soul energy to invoke the strongest mutant magic energy he could produce from the Aember core and also used his Armalist force from Armalist Driver and spirit energy beforebing two of them with the main force, Aember mutant magic energy that has the nature of mutating with any energy. He started circting this energy in his body. He first surrounded his heart with this energy before circting them towards the areas where Umbra wind energy was wreaking havoc. Umbra wind was in his meridian channels as well and had already destroyed quite a lot of meridians. The pain was immense, but it still didn''t reach the pain level he had felt four times before. Two times while using ability and two other times when he implemented his eyes and upgraded his eyes. ''It''s...it''s working,'' Aren thought with joy amidst pain as he managed to destroy the Umbra Wind from his body by using thebined energy he created. The death was avoided, at least. Aren hurriedly started eliminating the umbra wind energy in his body and finallypletely erased them after a minute. Afterward, he started drinking health potions to increase his health. [Your meridians are damaged, and some meridian paths are broken. You won''t be able to circte spirit energy in them until they are fixed. This means that you won''t be able to refine your spirit core anymore and won''t be able to break through. You also won''t be able to level up.] [You won''t be able to use your normal skills. However, you will be able to use your abilities. Naturally, you can crudely use your spirit energy but don''t circte it through your meridian for the risk of further damage. But you won''t be able to recover your spirit energy through any means. ] [Your path powers will still work, and your Armalist force will still recover. Your gears and their trait abilities will work as well. Same with your Aember Core of Eturnia power as it will continue to work without trouble.] "What?!" Aren was shocked hearing this bad news, "no way, right?" He then sighed before thinking, ''Hmm...since the voice said this status will continue until meridians are fixed, then there should be a way to fix them.'' The two minutes duration of was gone a short while ago as his bonus body health decreased as well. "However...unable to use spirit energy." Aren looked at his status and shook his head. ----- -Name: Aren Azrael -Level: 25 [ 0/43,000 ] ( Stored Exp: 595,240). -Path: Emporio Armalist: Level: 10 [202,134/512,000 Exp.] -Mutant Magic: [Aember core of Eturnia] -Spinergy Method: Demon Yakum''s Spinergy Method. -Body Health: [7412/9000] -Soul Health: [216/216] -Life Stage: Mortal-5 -Spirit Energy Pool: [7,350/13,350] -Soul Energy: [0/1160] -Mutant Magic Energy: [0/1000] (18/min). ----- ''For now, I will wait until my Armalist force fully recovers and then return to the hall,'' Aren thought as he closed his eyes to rest. ... "Oh my, how reckless..., hahaha." A chuckle resounded behind Tarrox, who was sitting amidst the red clouds in the sky somewhere in the Wild Expanse. The red clouds were crackling with red lightning, but Tarrox was unbothered. Instead, his bare upper body was perfectly fine even after getting hit by those powerful lightning bolts. Tarrox shot opened his eyes and stood up before he turned around and bowed, "Lord, what brings you here?" "aren''t you curious about the one you chose?" Lord asked. An amusing smile was stretched across her face. Tarrox smiled helplessly and nodded, "Indeed I am; however, I dare not observe him anymore since you have banned me from doing that because I went to that Witch and interfered more by requesting to erase the truth from Aren''s mind." The Lord smiled as she waved her hand and spoke, "I allow you to watch him from now on for the next two months. Let''s see what decision he makes. He might use your dragon n''s bloodline orb soon, hehe." "Thank you very much," Tarrox bowed with a smile. However, his face changed after a second, and he frowned while speaking, "this...he is severally injured. Wait, he is crippled!" "Indeed," the Lord nodded with a smile, "and whenever he goes to ask for the treatment, he will receive the same answer as there are only two ways to restore and rebuild the meridians." "Bloodline orb...," Tarrox muttered as his frown eased, "however, will he use it?" "By using it, he will waste a greater opportunity," the Lord suddenly spoke, her words confusing Tarrox. Chapter 138 - Fortuna-Infortunium (Not Edited Yet) "A greater opportunity? How?" Tarrox asked with a confused expression. "You will not understand," Lord shook her head, "It''s rted to his path. However, he can''t use that thing recklessly, or he will die for sure. Let''s just observe for now and see what decisions he makes." Tarrox scratched the back of his head and asked with a smile, "I am really curious now. Can you please tell me about it? Cough...It''s fine if Lord doesn''t want to tell me, but I was just curious after hearing how our n''s Bloodline orb would instead cause Aren to lose a bigger opportunity by using it." Lord nced at Tarros, causing him to sweat a bit. However, after a second, she spoke, "he acquired an Innate gear of his path from his path ascendency reward. That item...it''s very powerful if he managed to use it. One trait of the main trait of that item is that, if Aren seeded, then he can have two bloodlines and that too at highest transfusion level." "Two bloodlines in him at highest transfusion level!!" Tarrox was startled, "A hybrid?" Lord shook her head, "natural Hybrids with top-tier bloodlines in them are still superior even if Athan used that item; however...his path is a tricky one. I can''t say what he can do in the future if the mortal realm he lives in managed to survive and ascend to our ce." "I see...," Tarrox nodded with curiosity in his eyes. He really wanted to know what would happen in the future. However, for now, he focused on Aren''s current situation. ... Aren rested and slept for five hours before waking up. Now that he was fully recovered except for his spirit energy and meridians. After that, he first destroyed the Nucleus at the end of the cave. [Power Nucleus destroyed.] Afterward, He left the cave and arrived back in the hall. Entering the hall, he Indeed saw a portal near the statue at the hall''s center. "Sigh...I wanted toplete this dungeon fully," Aren muttered while walking towards the portal. Looking at the portal, he walked towards it with a depressed expression and hesitation. After arriving at the portal, he...suddenly stopped and didn''t enter as he remembered something and opened the quest panel. ----- ->1) Kill ten Ancient Monsters. (Completed) ->2) Find and destroy four power nucleus. (3/4) ->3) Destroy the Ruin Bringer Weapon. (0/1) ----- ->100,000 path and normal exp. ->A skill box containing a random skill rted to the dungeon. (A-SS) ->An ancient key with unknown use. ->A Skill Fusion Stone. ->A box containing a random grade force level 2 spirit stone. ----- "I have already killed ten Ancient Monsters," Aren muttered as he looked at the only door left in the hall, "the quest mentioned that I will have two opportunities to leave midway afterpleting each objective." Aren looked at the Note in the quest panel to confirm. ->You will get a chance to leave the dungeon afterpleting each objective. ->However, you will not receive any rewards if you fail toplete even one objective. You must achieve all three objectives to get the rewards. "Sigh...leaving now means no rewards," Aren sighed, but then he focused on the first Note, "afterpleting each objective. Hmm..." Looking at thest door, Aren thought, ''there should be only one thing behind that door: Either it''s thest power nucleus or the Ruin Bringer Weapon.'' But then Aren shook his head wryly, ''even if there is a power nucleus behind that door and I leave afterpleting it, I won''t get any rewards.'' Aren sat down and fell into thought, ''However, destroying that Ruin Bringer Weapon might not require me to fight as well. It might be a puzzle, a certain type of mechanic, or doing something else to destroy that Ruin Bringer Weapon...it might be this kind of thing as well...'' "Urgh...what should I should?" Aren muttered. He didn''t want to leave empty-handed after doing this much in this dungeon. "Oh yeah, my talent point!" Aren suddenly remembered that he had yet to use histest talent point from when he leveled up his path aftering out of the Ghost Demon Ship''s Hunt event. He looked at his path tree panel and saw three blinking grey orbs. One of them was that [Emporio Heart] talent. The second one was obviously [Armalist Drive+6], and after reading the third talent, he shook his head. "Since this upgrade of Armalist Drive also gives me a lot of Armalist Force capacity, I should be able to finally transform that Revolver," Aren muttered as he used the talent point on the [Armalist Drive+6] talent. [Armalist Force capacity increased by 700. Gear slots increased to a total of 14. The recovery speed of your Armalist Force has risen to 0.5 Armalist force per second. path skill levels up to be .] The path skill was actually the same as the first one, but now, he should be able to upgrade the gears that he couldn''t before, like that hammer [Destructo], his Armor [Weimbus], and other items that are above gold-grade. Naturally, there was also written that the upgrade boost that gears get would increase. "Let''s see now..." Aren took out the [Miss-Fortune Revolver] and first tried to use on it. Previously, he failed, but now that he has 2000 Armalist force total, he might seed. He went through the process, and after a while, the inner process started as his Armalist drive started to consume. He then connected the dots and filled up its inner vein structure as the [Miss-Fortune Revolver] finally transformed into an Articule Gear. "It''s not exactly an item to attack or defend, so how would it have transformed?" Aren muttered as he took out the revolver from his inner space. Naturally, now he could manipte it without touching. "Eh? It got name change automatically?" Aren was surprised because the information panel of the item had a different name. ----- [Fortuna-Infortunium] -Cost: 1000 Armalist force per shot. -Generates a Dream Infortunium bullet by consuming 1000 Armalist force. -The Dream Infortunium bullet has the effect of increasing or decreasing your luck randomly. -Using the Dream Infortunium bullet on another person will give you two options. Option 1: The usual effect of randomly increasing or decreasing that target''s luck. Option 2: You can randomly steal that person''s luck, whether good luck or bad luck. -Consume two years of your lifespan to produce a Neo Fortuna bullet that increases your luck by a random amount between 5-100 for ten seconds. (The lifespan cost multiplies by two after every use of Dream Fortuna Bullet.) -Pointing the revolver at your target or yourself will show the current luck stat of that person in your mind. However, luck is an ethereal thing. It changes constantly. You can also see your lifespan or target''s lifespan. ----- "Holy...," Aren was shocked at the drastic changes of the revolver, "no wonder it took whole 1900 Armalist force to enchant this item and turn it into an Armalist gear." However, this made Aren very happy. "Let''s see my current luck and lifespan." This time, Aren didn''t hold the revolver but manipted it and pointed it at himself. After two seconds, the info appeared in his mind. ----- [Aren] -Current Luck: 43+ -Lifespan: 150 years. ----- Aren turned silent after looking at it and started recovering his Armalist force. While meditating, he could slightly increase his recovery speed, so he entered meditation. After a bit more than half an hour, he finished recovering his Armalist force to the full and opened his eyes. Without hesitation, he consumed 1000 Armalist force to produce Dream Infortinum bullet and shot himself. Chapter 139 - BAM!...CRACK!....BOOOOM!...(not Edited Yet) Once the colorful bullet wisp with a sparkling white border hit Athan, he was covered in a multi glow before a notification suddenly appeared and he heard a massage. [Your current luck: 41+] "Wait...," Aren opened his eyes and once again checked his status through the effect of the revolver. [Aren] -Current Luck: 41+ -Lifespan: 150 years. "Indeed...So I had better luck before using the revolver. It didn''t add to my current luck but just changed it," Aren muttered and nodded before sitting down crossed-legged and starting to recover his Armalist while putting his brain in hyper mode to think about the next steps. ... "Do you think he will enter deeper into the temple, and if he does, will he be able to defeat that weapon?" Tarrox asked as he looked at Lord. Lord grinned and nodded, "of course, he can. He still has his path, soul power, and mutant magic. He can one-shot that thing with a small n. However, he had lost a bit of his confidence in thest fight, especially cause he lost his meridians and ability to recover spirit energy." "But I guess he is going to do it," Tarrox said as he observed Aren. "Indeed." ... After recovering his Armalist forcefully, Aren took out Ring of Water and transformed it into Articule gear. ----- [Miren]-Ring of Water -Rank: tinum tier (High-grade) -Perks: +20 CONT. Fire Elemental Mastery +15 -Attack: Water Energy [4,000] -Trait: 1) Primal Conjuring ----- After transforming this ring into an Articule gear, Aren checked out its buff in Armalist Cloak. ->[Miren: +13 CONT]-->buff: Water Elemental Mastery +15. "So it''s same as the ring of fire," Aren muttered before he sat down once again and closed his eyes in meditation to recover his Armalist force to full again. After a while, he stood up as he had recovered his Armalist force to full and was going to take out Ring of Earth and transform it into Articule gear as well. However, a notification appeared that stopped him. [Countdown initiated. Either leave or Finish the dungeon in 30 minutes.] Hearing that, Aren frowned, but then he eased his face and took a deep breath. A determined expression appeared on his face as he started walking towards thest door. His gears were floating around him as he entered the door. The honeb-patterned shield [Hexhira] was floating in front of him; the hammer [Destructo] was floating behind him. The ring of fire and water, [Pyrin] and [Miren] were floating on his left and right side. The whip chain gear [Lech] was held by Aren''s hand as he decided to use his physical strength rather than manipte it. "Either way, I can''t drag things. Whatever the thing I have to fight, I have to finish it off in one shot," Aren muttered as he finally walked the passage and arrived at a ce of clear sky with a gentle breeze. He was on top of a cliff. Behind him was vast mountainnd, while in front of him was a strange thing. It was a ten-meter-tall sword with...wings. The sword was golden-white but had dark green patterns on it, giving it a creepy look. Its wings were also dark green with purple designs. There was a shining blue crystal embedded on the sword''s hilt as well, and it pulsed with the same color as those Power Nucleus. "Scammer dungeon quest," Aren muttered when he saw that crystal. ----- [Ruin Bringer] -Lifeform: Special -Health: [160,000/160,000] -Attack: Physical [15,000], Ruin Energy [20,000] -Defense: Phy. def [3000], Energy def [3000], Soul def [~] -Skills: ??? -Abilities:??? -Note: It goes berserk after 1 minute, releasing Ruin shock waves that will destroy your items and then you. ----- *badam*badam*badam*badam*badam*badam*badam*badam*badam...* Aren''s heartbeat increased to an unprecedented level, and his breathing became uneven as well. *nk...Click...Shuaaa* The sword with the wings was embedded on the ground, but it soon came out and glowed sharply. ''Calm...calm...calm...,'' Aren took a deep breath and calmed down when he saw the swording out from the ground and floated by controlling his mobile armored suit [Weimbus]. ''I guess I have to break this hammer again...'' *DROOOOOOOM...* "HAAAAAAAAAAA!!" Intense and powerful aura released from [Destructo] hammer as Aren released a loud battle cry and poured his everything in the hammer. 1000 soul energy. of 1000 Mutant magic energy. skill used with 2000 Armalist force. This was the biggest use of the skill by far since he reached 2000 Armalist force capacity just several hours ago in the hall. skill was also most powerful in Aren''s opinion because it could empower all effects of any other skills or attack he used through his gears. Now that he reached 2000 capacity and used all of it to empower this attack, he didn''t know how powerful of a boost it would provide to the overall attack. The [Destructo] hammer pulsed with overpoweredness as Aren manipted it to bring it 900 meters away from the Ruin Bringer. At this time, the sword glowed powerful before it flew towards Aren with fast speed. Aren''s expression became somber as he hurridly flew in the sky and dodged its rapid thurst attack. He didn''t stop after flying high in the sky and flew to the left side direction from his floating hammer. At this time, he had no articule gears around him except for his shield [Hexshira] and the Mobile Armored Suit [Weimbus] he wore. After all, he only had one shot, which he had to make very fast. Otherwise, he will definitely die here. ''Distance is errored cause of the sword''s speed. The only chance I will have to get a perfect shot on it would be when it attacks me,'' Aren thought after looking at the sword''s speed. *Shuaaaaaa....* Suddenly, the sword released several de shes as they tore through the air and attacked Aren. However, Aren was fully focused on dodging as he sessfully dodged the attack. Right after that, the Ruin Bringer glowed once again. After seeing that glow, which looked simr to when it dashed towards him the first time, Aren started manipting [Destructo] hammer as it was raring to go with its seething power. ''The longer I wait, the less chance of survival,'' Aren thought as he grit his teeth. The Ruin Bringer glowed, releasing an AOE dome wave with sharp energy before shooting towards Aren. The dome wave was all-epassing and fast, so there was no way to dodge it. And since he had also taken this chance to attack, he had to survive this dome wave. ''One shot, It must work!'' Aren thought as he stood behind the shield *BOOOM.....ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM...* The hammer broke the sound barrier just like the Ruin Bringer as both of them approached Aren at breakneck speed. With the small amount of spirit energy he had left, he activated traits of [Hexhira] and [Weimbis] as two barriers around him. The dome-shock wave arrived at first, and it readily destroyed both barriers and even cracked his shield. The shield''s durability decreased by 93%, and it was on the verge of getting destroyed. However, at this time, when the Ruin Bringer was just 15 meters away from Aren, the [Destructo] hammer hit it as it came from the side. *BAM!...CRACK!....BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!...* -340,069 Chapter 140 - Brushed Past The Disaster (not Edited Yet) After the Ruin Bringer was destroyed, a loud st urred that sent Aren flying because he was just 15 meters away from the impact. [Ruin Bringer Weapon destroyed. 30,000 Exp gained.] *Puchi...* -4358 Aren''s health decreased his this st was an energy wave st that raptured his organs and caused internal bleeding. After spurting blood, Aren halted himself from shooting backward by controlling [Weimbus] and saw that the power nucleus was surrounded by a barrier and was perfectly fine. It was glowing brightly and rapidly descended. [Two objectivespleted. A portal gate as opened near your location.] Aren saw a portal appearing on the ground right below him. However, right after that notification and voice, he heard another. [Destroy the power nucleus within two minutes. If you fail, then you will die.] "so that''s how it rolls? Cough...," Athan muttered before spurting some more blood. A few [Health Potion] tubes appeared in his hand as he drank them to heal his body before taking all the gears from his Armalist Drive''s inner space. He started making basic attacks with [Destruco] and [Lech] while he approached the Power Nucleus and started punching it. [Pyrin] and [Miren] were out of the question because he didn''t want to waste the little spirit energy he had left, and attacking with those two rings consumed a bit of his spirit energy with each attack. -6784 (Destructo) -3404 (Lech) -1874 (Aren''s punch) The power nucleus had tough physical defense as well, which reduced the physical damage dealt by his weapons and his punch. After fifteen seconds, Aren''s punch damage started to get lower since he was using his full strength and punching was about using his body''s energy, aka stamina. Since his stamina started to decrease, his punching strength started lower as well. Naturally, it was not a deep decrease but a small one of 100-150 damage difference. After another thirty seconds, the durability of Power Nucleus finally decreased to 0, and it was destroyed. Right after that, he got several notifications with voice. ----- [Congratualtions! You havepleted all three objectives and havepleted the dungeon.] [100,000 path and normal exp gained.] [A skill box containing a random skill (A-SS) rted to the dungeon added into your inventory] [An ancient key with unknown use added into your inventory] [A Skill Fusion Stone added into your inventory] [A box containing a random grade force level 2 spirit stone added into your inventory] ----- Aren looked at the rewards and wondered if they were really worth the loss he suffered. Shaking his head, Aren didn''t leave the dungeon right away but sat down at the edge of the cliff to get some fresh air and a gentle breeze. He took out [Fortuna-Infortunium] gear and pointed it at himself to check the stats. [Aren] -Current Luck: 3 -Lifespan: 150 years. ''Since it''s only 9, then I should use the Dream Infortunium bullet. Depending on the result, I will open the boxes,'' Aren thought before he closed his eyes and started meditating. After a bit over half an hour, Aren recovered his Armalist force to full and opened his eyes. He consumed 1000 Armalist force to produce a Dream Infortunium bullet in the revolver and shot himself. A gentle sound of an object traveling in water with buffed bass sounded from the revolver as a colorful wisp released from its barrel and hit Aren in the middle of his forehead. After a second, Aren heard the notification about his luck and sighed. [Your current luck: -54] He wanted to curse his luck, but he was tired, so he just stood up and floated by manipting [Weimbus] and entered inside the exit portal that spawned after he destroyed the Power Nucleus. ... Lord and Tarrox were sweating bullets for Aren when they saw -54 luck of Aren. "Don''t tell me he forgot about its effects?" Lord frowned, "if he doesn''t do anything, then he will die." "Lord! Please, you must save him," Tarrox looked at Lord and spoke pleadingly. "I can''t do anything. Just watch," Lord said indifferently and coldly. Tarrox clenched his fist and hoped Aren would realize his situation before the disaster-hit him. "Oh?" Lord was surprised and smiled, "looking at his ugly expression, I think he realized his situation." ... Indeed. After Aren arrived outside from the portal, a certain realization dawned on him, and his expression turned ugly. He hurriedly took out the random box of spirit stone and opened it. After he opened the box, it disappeared, and a notification appeared with his voice. [congrattions! You have received amon-rank force level 2 spirit stone] [Error! The spirit stone shed with the transferring process into your inventory due to a faint space fluctuation, causing it to be destroyed before it could enter inside the inventory allocated to you.] Even though speechless about this incident, Aren sighed relief and checked his luck with the revolver. [Aren] -Current luck: 4 -Lifespan: 150 "What would have happened if I continued traveling while carrying that -54?" Aren muttered and slightly shivered as he didn''t want to think about it. Shaking his head, Aren put away all of his gears except for the shield on which he decided to stand while flying. He controlled the shield [Hexshira] and his armor [Weimbus] both. On the other hand, Tarrox sighed relief as well while the Lord nodded with a smile, "It looks like he didn''t disappoint us. However, he will soon be disappointed when confronted with his meridian''s situation." ... Aren arrived back into the Underworld city, and without wasting his time, he directly went to the Apocrathy District. In that district, he entered inside Rusai''s All-epassing Apocrathy Center. After entering, he went to the registration desk. However, before he could speak, the woman behind the desk shook her head with pity while looking at Aren, "young man, It will not be easy to heal and recover your lost meridians channels." "You can tell?" Aren was surprised, but his expression turned determined after a second as he spoke, "please tell me the ways to fix my situation." "The damaged meridians can still be healed, but some of your meridians channels are totally destroyed," the woman who looked to be in her thirties spoke with a helpless smile, "there are only two ways to fix your problem. One is the Meridian-Mystic Flower, but you will never be able to get your hands on this flower. I will tell you reasonster." Aren interrupted as he asked hurriedly, "what''s the second way?" "The second way is also very hard but still easier than the first one," the woman said, "you need a bloodline orb of epic-grade and above." "Epic-grade means bloodline orb of an Epic lifeform person, right?" Aren asked with doubt, "but lower lifeform than Epic like Exceed or Supreme would also work, no?" "Nope," the woman wryly smiled and shook her head, "Only when one reaches an Epic lifeform can they create a Bloodline orb to pass to other people and add them to their ancestry line. If a mortal was born with a bloodline, then it means that that mortal''s ancestor was at least Epic or above. The strength of that bloodline depends on its concentration in that mortal." "I see...," Aren nodded slowly with a disappointed expression. "There are two ns in this city with Epic lifeform ancestors. However, creating a Bloodline orb is a very exhausting process, and after creating it, that ancestor gets weakened for a year. Another thing is that if you receive a certain bloodline orb, you naturally be a part of that n," the woman exined patiently. "However, getting a Bloodline orb by asking a powerful n who already have one stored or begging for it is still easier than getting that flower," the woman continued as she exined the difficulty of getting that flower, "that flower grows randomly, and by using it, you get four affinities depending on that flower''s colors on top of reconstructing your meridians into the highest grade ones." "Oh?" Aren was surprised, but he was disappointed as he understood the difficulty of getting that flower, ''I can''t waste time searching for that flower when the despair is imminent in less than two years and ten months.'' "Thank you for the information," Aren thanked thedy before he left the clinic with weighted shoulders. "He only had three years to get as strong as he can, but he lost his meridians early," the woman muttered with a pitiful expression and shook her head, "saddening indeed...sigh." ... On the other hand, Aren returned to the inn where he had stayed before and entered the room before lying on the bed. He first wanted a good sleep before anything else right now. Chapter 141 - Arens Idea (not Edited Yet) Chapter 141 ¨C Aren¡¯s Idea (not Edited Yet) Day 47 Aren slept for a day. After he woke up, the first thing he did was get a shower and freshen himself up before sitting down on the mattress and taking a deep breath as he took out the bloodline orb and the mystical cube known as Celestial Icho Prototype EZ-111. Aren first looked at the bloodline orb. [ Orb of Bloodline]-Soul bound to Aren. -Type: Burning Crimson Red Dragon Bloodline. -Effect: Once you push it through your chest, you will be transported to Burning Crimson Red Dragon Bloodline Zone to receive the bloodline and start your evolution. These things were what general people could see, but Aren saw more. -Note: Depending on your willpower and the result of the transformation, your species will evolve from human to one of these five. -Evolution: Dracowit, Half-Dragon, Full Dragon, Overdrive Dragon. ''This can fix my problem, but¡­sigh, I really don''t want to be bound to red dragons. Significantly with my suspicion on that situation,'' Aren thought and sighed, ''Rosflin''s father should have been able to save others, but he didn''t. Why?'' Aren shook his head and put that question aside because it was of no use contemting over it with the limited time he got. He then looked at the Celestial Ichor Prototype EZ-111. [Celestial Ichor Prototype EZ-111] -Type: ??? -Rank: ??? -Effect: Reconstructs the entire body structure and adds two empty Celestial Ichor Gene slots into the body. -Note: You have to put a drop of your blood, 100 Armalist force, and 100 soul energy into the cube to activate this cube. Once activated, it will enter inside you and start the process. Chance of dying: 50%-100%. If you are weak-willed, then don''t court death by using this. ''Reconstruct the entire body¡­,'' Aren thought and nodded, ''It should be able to fix my meridians or even make them better since the Type and Rank got questions marks, which usually means this item is above Legendary. However¡­'' Aren looked at the chances of dying and wryly smiled, ''fifty to hundred perfect chance of dying. If I consider that gap due to willpower, then I should have enough willpower to take that chance to exact 50%. But that''s it. The minimum is still a 50% chance of dying¡­sigh.'' "Lower the chances," Aren muttered before he fell into thought for a few moments and suddenly jumped onto his feet. "T-that¡­that should work," Aren mumbled, "If I can get 100 points in my luck, then I should be able to have a 0% chance of dying." Aren got a superb idea, and as such, he put both items back into his inventory and left the inn before going deeper into the underworld city. ¡­ "What? How is he going to do that?" Tarrox asked with doubt, "don''t tell me he is going to use that revolver to decrease his lifespan? But that would only be able to use that a few times given his current lifespan, and it wouldn''t guarantee 100 point luck. Sigh¡­he should just use the bloodline orb." "I don''t know, but let''s see," Lord shook her head and thought for a few seconds before her eyes lit up, ''I think I know what he is going to do to get 100 points in luck. If he is really going to do what I thought, then he should have a chance to get 100 points in luck.'' ¡­ Aren walked deeper into the underworld city while keep looking for a certain ce. ''There should be one here, definitely,'' Aren thought with determination as he continued walking all streets and big roads for thirty minutes before finally finding the ce. [Star Stealer Gambling Den] He entered inside and saw that the ce was very big with three floors, and there was a nk board at the entrance and all corners with a list of all gambling games. "Wee, dear guest. Before going on gambling, you must register yourself and get the Star Stealer card. The card will have the bnce of your gold, and you must use the bnce in that card to y here," a staff member approached Athan and spoke politely. "Alright," Aren nodded as he went to the registration desk and registered himself. "1 bnce equal to 1 gold coin. How much bnce would you like to deposit on the card?" the staff member behind the desk asked. "20,000 gold coins," Aren said before he waited for the person to initiate the trade between the two. Aren soon got a trade request, and he epted it before a screen appeared in front of him with two panels. One panel had a card with 20,000 numbers card on it as they glowed mystically. The other panel was empty, and Aren knew what he had to do as he added the gold coins from his inventory into that panel with a thought. A pouch of gold coins was disyed in the panel with 20,000 gold coins written it. Once that happened, the staff member smiled and epted the trade. Aren did the same as two lights at the top of the panel turned green, and the trade was sessful as Aren received the Star Stealer card inside his inventory. "Happy gambling," said the staff member politely and smiled. "Thanks," Aren nodded with a wry smile and left, ''I am not here to win gold though, sigh.'' Aren checked out all the gambling games and settled on thest game that he checked on the third floor. It was a stone-cutting gambling game. However, the one thing that shocked him was the third floor. When he passed through the third floor''s door, or rather a big gate, he actually arrived at an open world! He felt some strange sensation when he passed through the gate but didn''t pay any attention at that time since he was in a hurry, but that could likely be a portal gate or something. He arrived in the middle of the stone-cutting gambling spot on this vast grassynd. There were four big stands on four sides withrge distances between them, while the middle section was the biggest and it was for stone cutting. There were many people cutting stones onrge tables. Aren felt that they had to make this gambling tform thisrgely due to its poprity. There were many people here and lots of stones after all. Chapter 142 - Gamble-1 (not Edited Yet) Chapter 142 ¨C Gamble-1 (not Edited Yet) ck stones cost 100 gold coins to open, white stones cost 500 gold coins to open, while blue stones cost 1000 gold coins to open each. Aren started walking left and arrived at the big stall before speaking, "give me ten ck stones." One of the staff members handing out the stones turned to Aren spoke, "Right away, dear customer. By the way, would you like to open them yourself or have a stone cutter open it for you?" "I will cut them myself," Aren replied after thinking for a bit. ''The luck status might not change right away if I don''t cut the stones myself. To use my luck, whether good or bad, I might need to do things myself,'' Aren thought and felt that he had to cut open the stones himself after using the revolver. Afterward, the staff member asked for the card and deducted 1050 points from the Star Stealer card before giving Aren ten adult palm-sized ck stones. "I have deducted additional 50 gold coins for the stone cutter tool," the staff member said as he gave the tool to Aren after giving the stones. "So expensive?" Aren spoke as he looked at the tool that looked like a knife, but its de was crude and not sharp at all. The staff member was a woman who looked to be in herte twenties with a beautiful face and long pale blue hair. Hearing Aren''s words, she wryly smiled before speaking, "these stones are expensive to create as they are space folding stones. Naturally, the tool used to cut them is also from a material that doesn''t affect the items inside the space, which is why it''s expensive." "Alright," Aren nodded before he went to the middle section where people were cutting the stones. He went to the empty spot and took out one ck stone from his inventory before putting it on the table and then took out the revolver. He manipted that revolver and pointed its barrel at him. "Yo, are you trying to kill yourself or what?" A man in his early twenties with short topaz spikey hair spoke. He was also cutting the stones a meter away from Aren on another table. Aren helplessly smiled hearing that and shook his head, "This revolver will only produce a useless colorful bullet that will not hurt me. But I am still using it to see if it increases my luck or not." "Lol, are you kidding me? Hahaha," the young manughed hearing that, "that''s the dumbest thing I''ve ever seen this month. Well, keep it up." Shaking his head, Aren returned his attention to his work, not bothered by the man. Aren took a deep breath and consumed 1000 Armalist Force to produce the bullet before thinking, ''let''s hope I don''t need to waste all fifty thousand plus gold coins on this to get 100 points of luck.'' "First shot," Aren muttered as he pulled the trigger while manipting the revolver. The young man was watching Aren, so when he saw a colorful, mystical bullet hitting Aren, he was surprised, "That''s cool! But does it hurt or not? Hmmm, hey, I think that revolver does have some uses, right? What does it do?" [Your current luck: -13] Aren sighed before he turned to look at the young man, "It doesn''t do anything. I am just using it as my good luck charm." After saying that, Aren cut open the stone using the stone-cutter tool. The use was simple; he had to cut it like a knife but had to put the pressure slowly while cutting the stone. The process took ten seconds before the stone was cut open, and a small light glowed from it, and Aren got a notification and heard a voice. [me your bad luck for this trash: You have gotten rotten fish bones.] "Say, say, what did you get?" the young man asked curiously. "Uhh¡­," Aren shook his head and took out the fish bones before presenting them to the young man, "here, for you." "Damn, so smelly!" the young man pinched his nose and pped away the fish bones from Aren''s hands. "Is that thing really your good luck charm? Hahaha," the young manughed, "It literally gave you trash after using it." Aren shrugged, "happens." "Well, use it on me. Let''s see if that so-called good luck charm works on me or not, hehe," the young man said while showing his white teeth with a grin. Aren was going to say, but he changed his mind as he remembered the effect of this revolver. ¡ª¨C -Using the Dream Infortunium bullet on another person will give you two options. Option 1: The usual effect of randomly increasing or decreasing that target''s luck. Option 2: You can randomly steal that person''s luck, whether good luck or bad luck. Note: You can use option 2 after using option 1 as well. ¡ª¨C ''Since this revolver upgraded, and it has not that stealing option, this person shouldn''t be able to see his luck like Tyrance could see with a normal revolver after I used the revolver on him,'' Aren spected before deciding to do it. "Alright, let''s see¡­," Aren said as he pointed the revolver at the young man to check his status. [Unkown] -Current Luck: 29 -Lifespan: 300 ''So the supreme-1 lifeform has 300 years of lifespan, that''s the double of mortal-5,'' Aren thought as he looked at the status before focusing on the important thing. "Alright, I am going to pull the trigger," Aren said as he consumed another 1000 Armalist force to produce the bullet. "Wait! First, tell me if it hurts or not," the young man suddenly asked as he showed his palms towards Aren to indicate stop. Aren was speechless and shook his head, "it doesn''t hurt. Instead, you will actually have afortable, dreamy feeling in your mind." "Oh? Then good," the young man nodded with a grin and crossed his arms, "I am ready. You can shoot!" Aren nodded as he pulled the trigger, and a colorful wisp shot out from the barrel and hit the young man in the middle of his forehead. ''WHAT!'' Chapter 143 - Gamble-2 (not Edited Yet) Chapter 143 ¨C Gamble-2 (not Edited Yet) ''No way!'' Aren''s mind almost went nk seeing the number of luck, but he knew the direness of the situation and hurriedly spoke with intense panic on his face, "OPEN THE STONE!" "What?" the young man was startled hearing the shout of the Aren, "Can you first tell me what is my luck?" *crack¡­.* *DHOOOOOOOOOOOOM..* Suddenly, the ground started trembling. *p!* Aren pped the young man''s head and spoke with the most severe expression he had ever put on his face, "CUT OPEN A DAMN STONE OR YOU WILL DIE AND ALL OTHERS TOO!" "What the¡­," the young man was dumbfounded at getting pped, but he nodded and felt that something was wrong. The earthquake was happening as well, and people were worrying. "Fine, fine," the young man picked up a silver stone and started cutting it. *Crack¡­BOOOOOOOOM¡­* Suddenly, the ground cracked near the young man, and he almost fell down, but Aren hurriedly pulled him up and spoke, "cut open the stone! FAST!" "O-ok¡­ok, I got it," the young man sweated buckets and spoke as he continued cutting stone and finished cutting it in the next three seconds. The earthquake stopped with a loud st sound. However, the surroundingnd had turned into ruins. Aren looked at one of the crevises and gulped, seeing how deep it looked. "Damn, and I almost fell into this one," the young man arrived beside Aren and spoke while shaking his head. He looked at Aren with gratefulness and said with a smile, "thanks for saving me, man." Aren looked at him, but what he wanted to look at was his luck status. ¡ª¨C [Unknown] -Current Luck: 74 -Lifespan: 300 ¡ª¨C Seeing the status, Aren internally sighed a relief. After all, that young man''s previous luck was -100, and even Aren didn''t know what kind of disaster would -100 luck bring. ''It''s better that I keep silent about this gear,'' Aren thought, ''I better distract him before he gathers his thoughts from this earthquake.'' "Why don''t you open a blue stone? I am sure that something good wille out of it," Aren said to the young man who was looking around at the disaster. "Blue stone?" the young man said as he looked at Aren with a frown, "I have only bought one, and I want to open it carefully. After all, it''s expensive." Aren smiled and patted the young man''s shoulder before saying, "trust me and open it. If you get trash, then I will buy you ten blue stones." "Huh¡­, alright. If you say it like that, then I can''t deny it. But you can''t go back on your words," the young man said as he narrowed his eyes, "you are weaker than me, so if you go back on your words, I will beat you to a pulp." Aren wryly smiled and nodded, "you will definitely get something good. My gut instincts are telling me that after I used my charm revolver on you." "EVERYONE! WE ARE CHANGING THE SIGHT!" A manager of a sort loudly spoke as he attracted everyone''s attention. "Due to some unknown circumstances, the area around here has be very dangerous. If you fall into any one of those hundreds of crevices in this area, then you will likely die. We just checked, and if you fall in inside it, a powerful suction pull will activate and forcefully pull you inside." "Manager! How did something like this happen?" "Yeah, yeah! If thisnd is dangerous, then you should organize this somewhere else right now!" The manager shook his head and spoke, "you all must know that this area is one of the clear and safe ces in the underworld and the gate at our gambling house is a teleportation gate that leads everyone here. At least, it''s better than our cities and other ces where monsters pop out of nowhere. "However, this type of earthquake is very rare. We are still in the underworld, and something must have happened at the core area below us that caused this earthquake¡ªfor instance, a spiritual imbnce or some interference caused by a powerful being''s energy. "But we all can agree that this is one of the safest ces in the underworld where no monsters pop out of nowhere. So let''s just move out of this ruined area." Everyone agreed as they started moving. The manager had already stored the teleportation gate inside his inventory when the earthquake started, and all other staff had also put the things inside lest they fall into crevices. Naturally, some amount of stones still fell down, and they suffered a small loss. Aren and the young man listened to everything, but the young man decided to finish opening his blue stone first. Right as he finished cutting it, a golden brilliance released from the stone and attracted everyone''s attention. The young man checked the item in his inventory and was dumbfounded, "NO WAY!" Other people knew what that golden brilliance meant and started asking what did he get from it. They wanted toe there, but this area was littered with crevices and didn''t want to cross them lest some mishaps happened. "Everyone! Let''s first move out from this area!" the manager spoke before he eyed the young man and thought, ''don''t tell me he got a legendary item? The Guild indeed mentioned that there were eight legendary items in this batch. I wonder which one did he get.'' ¡­ After half an hour, everyone moved to a new area, and the manager also put up the teleportation gate to return to the gambling den. People had already surrounded that young man and were asking about the item. The manager created a stage for him since he wanted to sell the item and arranged an immediate auction for it. "Be patient, everyone! I am actually nning the sell this legendary Gaia Pheonix''s feather. Those who bid the highest for it gets it!" The young man spoke as he held the five-meter long feather in his hand and showed it to everyone while standing on the stage. The feather had mysterious shining bright brown sparks whirling around it, while the feather itself looked red-brown and exuded mysterious energy. The people started bidding while the young man looked for Aren while thinking, ''I gotta thank that brother, hehehe.'' He looked for a while but didn''t find Aren around him or anywhere from the stage, ''where did he go? Don''t tell me fell into a crevice? No way, right? Yeah, he came with me here, so obviously, he didn''t fall.'' ''Well, whatever. If I meet him again, then I must offer him a meal and a drink,'' the young man thought with a happy smile as he saw people bidding higher and higher for the legendary feather. ¡­ "There should be another gambling den in this city. Gotta look for it," Aren muttered as he started walking the streets of this Underworld city again. He had converted points back into gold coins and gave back the card before leaving the den. He still had the uncut stones with him and the tool as well since he had already bought those things. After roaming for twenty minutes, he finally found another gambling den deeper in the city, and this one was actually bigger. After finishing all procedures and adding 20,000 points into this gambling den''s card, Aren went to the stone-cutting gambling, where he was transported to another ce after passing through the 4th floor''s gate and started cutting two stones every thirty minutes. He would use [Fortuna Infortunium] revolver on him twice every thirty minutes and open two stones. His n was to do this until he got 100 in luck. ¡­ Day 48. Aren spent neen hours on stone-cutting gambling and opened 38 ck stones, which means he used revolver 38 times but never got 100. The most he got was 83, but he was not satisfied. He also sold all good items he got from ck stones and converted them into points. Day 49. Aren continued this for one whole day and spent a total of 4,800 gold coins plus 3,800 gold coins of yesterday. His current bnce on the card was 12,872 points since he had converted gold coins he got after selling the things into points. Day 50. At the start of today, Aren decided that he would stop at 90 if he got it because that should be high luck and would guarantee his survival in 50/50 odds. After recovering his Armalist force to 2000 in perfect 30 minutes after meditating, Aren produced the bullet and pulled the trigger while muttering, "first bullet of the day, bring me good luck, please." ''Huh?!'' Aren was startled seeing the number of his luck. Chapter 144 - Power Up-1 (not Edited Yet) Chapter 144 ¨C Power Up-1 (not Edited Yet) "I am not dreaming, right?" Aren muttered as he looked at his current luck status. [Aren] Current Luck: 99 Lifespan: 150 *thud..* "Sorry¡­," Aren said as he mistakenly hit someone''s shoulder in a hurry as he arrived at the teleportation gate. The person he hit was someone that knew Aren. She was none other than the girl with the tri-colored mystical bow. She was at the DeeQueen''s swamp. "Wait, you¡­" the girl spoke, but Aren had already left through the teleportation gate. "His body''s aura was in disorder, and his body''s spirit energy was not flowing correctly. It seemed like he lost his meridians," the girl muttered and shook her head, "pity." Her eyes then turned indifferent as she looked at the manager of this stone-cutting gamble, ''you better tell me what I want to know.'' As she continued on her path to get revenge, Aren left the gambling den and hurried towards the inn with his full speed. However, he suddenly stopped on the way as he saw a board¡­ [Private Meditation House] [250 gold coins per hour, increase your spinergy method''s training speed while practicing inside.] "Private¡­," Aren muttered as he rushed towards that giant building and entered inside. He finished the procedure hurridly and added ten hours to the meditation card by paying 2500 gold coins. Afterward, he was led to another ce through a teleportation gate and arrived at an open-air grassynd with many small houses in star positions and a small pond in the center in each of those star plots. Aren saw no.14 on his card, entered the no.14 house, and locked it before taking out the cube [Celestial Ichor Prototype EZ-111], and without hesitation, he infused 100 armalist force, 100 soul energy in the cube and dropped a drop of his blood on it. The cube started shining with a dreamy blue glow withpis blue sparks before the cube automatically flew towards Aren''s forehead and entered inside his body. Aren felt nothing for a second before his eyes rolled backward, and he lost his consciousness. After two seconds, countless tiny vein-like patterns appeared on Aren''s body. These patterns were not veins but something else because they were very tiny, way tinier than veins, and covered Aren''s entire body. Aren''s body twitched continuously for the next five seconds before ck matter oozed out from his pores. Afterward, a shining dreamy liquid with blood red and blue sparks in it came out from Aren''s pores, eyes, nose, ears before entirely covering him. A strange thing happened after this unknown liquid covered Aren''s entire body into something like a cocoon. The body mass of Aren, who was not visible from outside, started thinning. The cocoon automatically moved, and it took weird shapes not possible by Aren as if his body had turned liquid. Aren was not conscious at this moment. His mind''s switch has been forcefully turned off, and his soul has been put into hibernate state by the cube. Unfortunately, the entire process wouldn''t finish while Aren is unconscious as he will have to suffer pain and ovee it with his will to seed. The cocoon took weird shapes for an hour before finally it stopped and adopted a simple shape of Aren sleeping on the mattress. At this moment, Aren also regained his consciousness¡­ "Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh¡­¡­.." The cocoon trembled as a painful howl reverberated inside the small house. But this voice didn''t go outside as the structure of this house was built that way. It was private and safe both. ''Arghhh¡­T-this pain, fuck!'' Aren cursed as he was feeling only one thing. Pain. He couldn''t even feel his body, but he was feeling pain in his mind and soul. After screaming to relive this strange pain, Aren finally calmed down after five minutes as the pain slowly subsided, and he started feeling his body again. [35% of the whole process has beenpleted.] [As you have regained your consciousness, you will have to choose some options.] [Your existence is lower, and you have no bloodline of your own. So, you will have to select another bloodline to finish the rest of the process after ten minutes once you start to feel your new bodypletely.] [As your existence is lower, only the first Gene lock will be opened for now, and that too once you breakthrough and be a supreme-existence] Aren still couldn''t move his body, but at least he could feel it. After five minutes, he started to feel the internals of his body clearly and could even see his inner space by focusing again. Once ten minutes passed, he could move his body again and finally opened his eyes as he saw a beautiful dreamy sky full of red and blue stars. ''Stars? What''s going on?'' Aren was confused. He tried to move his hands and legs but failed. However, after a second, a disy appeared inside his head. Naturally, it was the status detail of this sky full of red and blue stars that his Astral-X eyes collected. [Celestial Ichor Transformation Cocoon] -??? -??? ''Cocoon? So I am inside a cocoon. It should be the work of that cube,'' Aren thought. After five seconds, the cocoon slowly started melting and entered inside Aren''s body. [Please select a bloodline catalyst for the 2nd process within 1 hour, or your body will disintegrate, and you will die as it will be unable to maintain its form without a powerful bloodline as a base.] [You can either add this bloodline catalyst in your 1st Gene slot or make it your main base bloodline.] [Once the 2nd process ispleted. The final process will start, which will require you to break through.] Aren first checked his body status. Everything was the same except for his stats. [Stats] Strength: ~ Constitution: ~ Agility: ~ Soul: 116 Of course, his meridians had healed, and his spirit energy pool was full. He could even feel very energized right now and wished that this process ends here, but..that shitty message left no choice for him. "Maybe the stats are like that because this process is not finished yet," Aren muttered before a helpless expression appeared on his face, and he took out a mystical orb from his inventory. It was the Bloodline Orb. "In the end, I will have to use it," Aren muttered, but then he shook his head, "even if I use it, It will not be my main thing.. I will simply add it into whatever that gene slot is." Chapter 145 - Power Up-2, Mutate Bloodline??!! (not Edited Yet) Chapter 145 ¨C Power Up-2, Mutate Bloodline??!! (not Edited Yet) "Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Aren was rolling on the floor, screaming as his body exuded unimaginable heat. He had just used that bloodline orb and added it inside his 1st gene slot before he started producing heat and then¡­pain. Inside Aren''s inner space, a figure that looked simr to Aren was standing with his eyes closed. This figure looked dreamy blue with mystical silver-blue patterns all over and inside his body. There were two dreamy silver-blue orbs and nine tiny prism symbols floating around this figure. One of those two orbs was being filled up with dark red power and started to change. That dreamy silver-blue figure was a blueprint of Aren''s current body, and it was created by that cube, Celestial Ichor Prototype EZ-111. This figure was known as Celestial Emporio Physique, and it was connected to Aren''s body and reflected Aren''s real body in a different form. After one minute, that one orb changed as it became dark red with mystical patterns and orange sparks inside it. However, it was not over because the orb then channeled the bloodline power into Celestial Emporio Physique as the dreamy silver-blue physique started to turn red, and mystical dark red and orange patterns appeared all over and inside that body. The same thing happened to Aren''s body outside, and the pain that Aren was feeling intensified. Aren didn''t stop screaming because it would make the pain less painful. However, one minute passed, and the pain continued. At this moment, Aren decided to stop screaming despite the pain. He gritted his teeth, resolved his eyes, and got himself up before properly sitting crossed-legged. His body was constantly trembling as it was not under his control. It was just involuntarily trembling because of the process happening with it. "Huuuuu¡­," Aren took a deep breath while trembling as he endured the pain with utter silence while thinking, ''It''s better that I get used to pain more often so that I can make use of that ability any time I want.'' Aren had put away his armors inside his inventory because of the notification that he should put it inside. Otherwise, they might melt during thest step of this bloodline thing. Aren could feel that something additional was inside his inner space; he could clearly feel it as it was a part of his body. He closed his eyes, and without doing anything, he actually managed to see his inner space. ''Strange. I had to focus previously, but now I can see this inner space easily,'' Aren thought as he observed the mystical figure that was standing on the right side of Armalist Drive and the left side of Aember core of Eturnia. Basically, those three things were now in a triangle position. ''That figure, it looks like me,'' Aren thought and then observed the two orbs and nine prisms floating around that figure. ''Those two orbs should be two gene slots. One of them is already filled with Burning Crimson Red Dragon Bloodline and is now transfusing it to my body.'' ¡ª¨C [Emporio Celestial Physique] -A physique model structure of the user''s body that is made from Celestial Ichor Prototype EZ-111. -The user can affect his real body by affecting this physique model. -First One, Ruthless Gene Star: Closed. -Second to Nine Gene locks arepletely obscured for now. ¡ª¨C ''Hmmm¡­wait, I can do that¡­but should I do that?'' Aren thought as his gaze went towards the Aember Core of Eturnia after he read the information about the Emporio Celestial Physique. He still didn''t understand the true power of Aember core of Eturnia but knew that it would only disy its true power when he infused his soul energy inside it to take out Aember mutant magic energy. ''The Aember mutant magic energy. It can mutate with anything, so it should do with this bloodline and mutate it as well. Both are fire-rted as well¡­'' Aren fell into thought, ''even though both fire attributed things are different; it should be easier for a mutation to happen since they at least share something simr¡­'' ''Hmmmm¡­'' After thinking for a few moments, Aren made his decision. ''I am doing it! It''s better that this bloodlinepletely goes under my control,'' Aren thought as he poured his soul energy inside the Aember Core of Eturnia, which then started producing true Aember mutant magic energy. Aren controlled that energy and infused it inside that orb floating around his Emporio Celestial Physique. Both the bloodline and the power of Aember started to mesh together. [Bloodline Mutatation happening in 1st Gene slot. The bloodline Transfusion process will be forcefully halted until the mutation finishes.] A sharp pain assaulted Aren''s body as well, but he endured while gritting his teeth and didn''t lose focus. After two seconds, the pain disappeared. On the other hand, the Burning Crimson Red Dragon Bloodline and Aember mutant magic energy were mutating. ¡­ "He is really doing it," the Lorddy said with a wry smile. "What?" Tarrox looked at the Lord with a confused expression. Unlike Lord, he couldn''t sense the inner space of Aren anymore after Aren''s transformation. However, he was happy when Aren took out the Bloodline orb and used it. "Well, the Burning Crimson Red Dragon Bloodline in him is mutating. He caused it himself," the Lord said. "Mutation?!" Tarrox was startled, but then he shook his head with a smile, "it''s fine as long as he bes more powerful. It''s not like I want him to be bound to my n. We are doing this for thest event before the despair hits them and get some benefits." He then looked at the Lord and asked respectfully, "what are the rewards for this time''sst event?" "That''s a secret for now. But they are better than the previous one because we are returning after this mortal realm''s recruitment. There will be a break of a hundred years, and a new Lord will be assigned here after three years." "Oh? You are leaving in three years?" Tarrox was startled, and then he shook his head, "I am a bit envious of some of those mortal realms who seeded in driving their despair because all of them get to enter the Ond High Realm while we natives are stuck here until bing catastrophe lifeform." "Hahaha.. well, that''s how it works," the Lord chuckled with a smile, "so focus on bing a Catastrophe lifeform." Chapter 146 - Power Up-3, Breakthrough! (not Edited Yet) Chapter 146 ¨C Power Up-3, Breakthrough! (not Edited Yet) [The Burning Crimson Red Dragon Bloodline has sessfully mutated into Meteoric Aember Crimson Dragon Bloodline]. [The transfusion of the process of this mutated bloodline will not continue.] Inside the inner space¡­ The first gene slot had turned crimson red with aember sparks inside it. The Aember mutant magic energy had mutated the bloodline source inside that gene slot, and now, the bloodline transfusion process started again as the orb (first gene slot) was transfusing its power into the Celestial Emporio Physique, causing Aren''s body to begin its transformation. *Creeee¡­.* *Scratchhhhhhh¡­.* Aren''s body was currently different. His hands had turned into ws but not exactly those dragon ws. They were five fingers, but they had sharp draconic nails and scales. He was scratching the floor with it due to pain while his eyes were tightly shut. His entire body had tiny glistering scales as they glowed with crimson red and aember glow. His body produced immense heat, making the room''s atmosphere more than 300¡ãC hot, and it was increasing every second. His body was burning with a me that was a mix of crimson red and aember. His entire body was on me, but that me was not doing any harm to him. Instead, the internal process of his body was causing him a lot of pain. [Your meridians have upgraded due to this mutated bloodline transfusion and reached Super-grade.] *Chreeeeee¡­* Aren''s back was currently making cracking sounds as his bones were transforming while his skin cracked. After a second¡­ *Swooosh¡­* Two majestic wings appeared from his back. Those wings looked draconic with crimson aember patterns on them, and they were also on the me as they burned intensely. The temperature increased even more. "Arghhhh¡­.." *Swoooooosh..* A tail also emerged from a spot right above his¡­cough spot. The tail slowly came out as it became thicker, and scales emerged from it. [Bloodline transfusion 45% sess. Continuing the transfusion process¡­] ''Endure!'' Aren thought as he gritted his teeth and endured the pain. His internal body was in immense pain as his organs, veins, cells; everything was enhancing and evolving. [Please infuse the energy to your spirit core and make it rating to 10 and Breakthrough. Otherwise, your body will not be able to continue this process and explode.] Aren heard the notification and knew the direness of the situation as he hurriedly started refining his spirit core by practicing his spinergy method. He did circtions and sent the circted spirit energy into the core, refining it more and more as the spirit core started glowing. He realized that his speed of cirction had increased tremendously. His meridians had be tougher and expanded to have more space in them, so the spirit energy he could use in each cirction increased. Rather than water, it was like he was passing air through his meridians; that''s how smooth it was. He increased spirit energy intake slowly with each cirction and reached 1600 spirit energy per cirction after ten minutes. He emptied his spirit energy from the spirit energy pool, so he took out spirit stones and absorbed energy from them before continuing. In the end, he reached 2100 spirit energy per cirction after another six minutes. Next, he went for 2150 spirit energy per cirction and finished it. But at that moment, Aren stopped as he saw a crack in his spirit core. He also felt innately full and stopped training. He felt that he just needed to trigger the Breakthrough, and it would start. [Spirit core rating has reached 10. You can trigger the Breakthrough anytime.] The trigger was basically adding a tiny bit of soul energy into the spirit energy. Aren knew what he had to do as he added a tiny bit of soul energy into the spirit core as the final push. *Crack¡­* Countless cracks appeared on the spirit core before it literally¡­sted. Powerful energy burst out from the spirit core and started roaming his entire body. This energy also went towards his soul and surrounded it. ''Here we go again,'' Aren thought as he sat down and gritted his teeth, weing another wave of pain. His body was breaking its limit with this energy from the explosion of the spirit core. With the wave of intense pain came a lightness that Aren had never felt before. The pain slowly subsided as he started to feelfortable. His bones, meridians, organs, everything enhanced to a higher lifeform. His heart, brain, blood, etc., everything evolved as they became stronger with greater capabilities. His entire body system, blood, veins, etc., were filled with powerful lifeforce as they became more powerful. In the ce of his spirit core, a whirlpool started to form and below that whirlpool gathered sparks of white before turning into a seed. [Breakthroughpleted. You have ascended to Supreme lifeform. Your Spirit-seed has been established.] [Your body has broken through the previous limits as now you can continue getting stronger.] [Your Strength, Agility, and Constitution''s stats to power conversion have been enhanced.] [The current stat power conversation are 1 point in Constitution = 70 health. 1 point in Agility = 2.5 action speed and flexibility. 1 point in strength = 40 damage of a regr physical attack and 50 stamina.] [As your soul has ascended to a higher lifeform with your body, its stat to power conversation has been enhanced to 1 point in soul = 20 souls health, and 200 soul energy.] [More detailed but simpler state panel will be avable from now on.] [The bloodline transfusion process continues¡­] The scales on Aren''s body became finer, and two bumps appeared on Aren''s forehead as well. The wings were still changing as they were bing bigger from their initial smaller size. The scales on his body and wings also started to change a bit as they started to take more aember hue with dreamy orange glitters on them. [Bloodline transfusion 75% sess. Continuing the transfusion process¡­] The ws on his hands and legs also became finer and better shaped that didn''t look too draconic. Their size propositioned to Aren''s humanoid body. [Bloodline transfusion 90% sess. Continuing the transfusion process¡­] ''It''s almost finished,'' Aren thought as he sighed relief. The pain was also subsidizing, but he was already used to it. However, onest thing came that sent him into a dilemma. [Do you want to make a source connection of this mutated bloodline with Aember core of Eturnia? Agreeing to this means that you will not be able to gain four Destro-rank innate powerful bloodline skills and one Legendary-rank bloodline ability from the bloodline dimension of Burning Crimson Red Dragon bloodline.] [However, by choosing to establish the source connection of your mutated bloodline with Aember core of Eturnia, you will be sent to an enlightenment space for three days where your senses, perception,prehension, and thought process will be increased tremendously, and you will have insights and enlightenment to create your own skills.] [You will also be able to gain an ability or two depending on your progress in that enlightenment space.] "Four Destro skills and two legendary abilities?" Aren muttered. After thinking for a moment, he spoke, "whoever you are, can you tell the grades of skills and abilities?" There was a silence for a second before a voice and notification appeared in his head. Aren saw the panel and fell into thought. Skill ranks: ->E->D->C->B->A->AA->S->SS->SSS->Epic->Destro>Cataclysm>Broken>Arch. Ability ranks: ->Common->Umon->Rare->Supra->Epic->Legendary->Mythical->Disaster. ''So if I do not agree to this, I will get four Legend-grade skills and Legendary-grade abilities¡­but,'' Aren thought as he thought about the second option. The second option enticed him more because he could create skills in his way, his style! Chapter 147 - Power Up-4! (not Edited Yet) Chapter 147 ¨C Power Up-4! (not Edited Yet) Aren agreed to make a source connection of his mutated bloodline with the Aember Core of Eturnia. [Acknoledged. Once the entire transformation process of Celestial Ichor finishes, you will be transported to the Enlightenment space.] [Bloodline transfusion 95% sess. Continuing the transfusion process¡­] After half a minute¡­ [Bloodline transfusion 100% sess. Continuing the transfusion process¡­] Aren felt the pain slowly going away and looked at his hands and body that had transformed. The scales on his body and wings looked like shining glistering metal pieces. The two buds on his head had turned into majestic draconic horns. He could feel two clear organs in his body: the pair of wings and the draconic tail. *wooosh..* Aren pped his draconic wings as a gust of wind was produced inside the room and also controlled his tail and looked at it by bringing it in front of him. The tail was four meters long, and it got thicker from its start to the end point. The start point is the spot from where his tail is produced. Aren saw a mirror in the room and went towards it to look at his face and body. The scales on his body were not just put literally but had a cool design on them as they got a different level of scale patterns on his body. The scales patterns on his chest were wider, and they had entric vein-like designs on them. The scales patterns on his hands and legs were tighter and narrower. His forehead had a tiny reserve scale with deep red and orange color. It was dimmer than the rest of the scales. After the pain entirely went away. Aren heard another notification. [The purification process of the transfused bloodline will now begin.] [The higher the purification level, the higher the bloodline power. So try your best to remain strong in front of the pressure. The longer you endure the pressure with your will, the longer the purification process will start, and your purification level will be higher.] [This purification level will determine what kind of dragon form you can take.] [The process will start in 3 seconds.] Aren sat down crossed-legged and waited for three seconds to pass while looking inside his inner space. He saw that his entire Emporio Celestial physique had be draconic like his body as well. Its internallyplicated vein system and organs as the body looked entirely aember red in color and pulsed with the same color glow. The 1st Gene slot now looked empty, but it was white-colored. On the other hand, the 2nd Gene slot looked dreamy blue. Three second''s passed, and Aren''s consciousness was yanked out from his inner space before arriving in a crimson red burning world. A pair of giant dragon eyes bore down on him with intense pressure, and there was also a sphere of glittering aember on top of those eyes, putting pressure on him. [The purification process has started. Since your mutated bloodline has a source connection with Aember Core of Eturnia instead of Burning Crimson Red Dragon''s bloodline realm, and for both of them to purify your bloodline since it''s a mutation of two powers, you will have to bear both power''s pressure.] Aren didn''t back down from the pressure as he remained solid like a statue, with his will not wavering a bit in front of the pressure. The pressure slowly got bigger and bigger, but Aren remained like an unmovable mountain in front of it. [Purification process 33%pleted.] [Purification process 47%pleted.] [Purification process 59%pleted.] The pressure increased each second, and outside, Aren''s body was producing intense heat from it. It was way more than when the bloodline transfusion was happening. His body was on fire with crimson aember sparks producing from mes. [Purification process 83%pleted.] The pressure was increasing even more, and Aren''s will was weakening as well. However, he didn''t give up. He continued bearing the pressure in hopes of achieving the best result possible. ''My will¡­.is not weaker than anyone!'' Aren internally screamed while feeling intense pain and pressure. [Purification process 91%pleted.] [Purification process 95%pleted.] [Purification process 98%pleted.] The pressure increased intensely, and his soul was shaking non-stop, the pain and heaviness increased, and he was on the verge of losing his consciousness. However¡­Aren believed in himself. He endured it. Only by enduring through it BY A LARGE MARGIN can he get the best result. He didn''t want to let it end like that freaking 1 second short of getting the A-grade result in the Path test. NOT AGAIN! AND NEVER AGAIN IN THE FUTURE! The dragon eyes and the shining sphere shook as Aren''s will got stronger! It reignited, not backing down against the pressure in the slightest! He will go beyond and break his limits! [Purification process 100%pleted.] [Congrattions! You can now take on the highest level of dragon form through your mutated bloodline. An Overdrive dragon form of Meteoric Aember Crimson-dragon bloodline! You have your mutated bloodline at the full potential!] [Your current Bloodline strength is at Supreme-stage. Since you achieved 100% purification in your mutated bloodline, your bloodline strength will increase directly to the next stage when you ascend your lifeform to the next stage. You won''t have to specifically increase the strength of your bloodline after ascending to the next lifeform.] "Huuu¡­" The mes on Aren retreated into his body as he took a deep breath and exhaled before opening his eyes. His eyes werepletely bloodshot right now, but they slowly returned to normal. The exhaustion that was umted in his mind, body, and soul because of fighting against that pressure also slowly reduces as he feltpletely reborn. [The 2nd process of Celestial Ichor has beenpleted. Now that you have a strong bloodline base in your body, thest transformation of Celestial Ichor Prototype EZ-111 will start.] [You have endured what needed to be endured in the first two processes. Now take a good rest.] Right after hearing that, Aren''s eyes lost focus as he fainted, drifting off to a sweet dream where he reunited with his mother and others. Chapter 148 - Entire Process Completed! Ruthless Gene Star! (not Edited Yet) Chapter 148 ¨C Entire Process Completed! Ruthless Gene Star! (not Edited Yet) While Aren had fainted and his soul was put to slumber, a dreamy silver-blue liquid was spreading throughout his body and changing the quality of his body to a higher level. This liquid was mystical and even thinner than the thinnest liquid, but it held mysterious gic power. In the first process, the base power of Celestial Ichor was already inside the body, and it had done initial transformation. However, that power(dreamy silver-blue liquid) was not activated because Aren''s body was fundamentally weak to bear it and needed a higher bloodline and higher lifeform stage toplete the final process. ¡­ "Well, it seems that everything went well in the end, I think. Right, Lord Kylie?" Tarrox sighed a relief as he looked at the beautifuldy wearing a mystical purple long-sleeved dress. Lord Kylie chuckled and nodded, "It did indeed go very well. At least, by having a legendary bloodline, its purification at 100%, super-grade meridians, and mythical-grade Spinergy method, he had satisfied the same conditions as seven other individuals who can potentially be main pirs in their world to fight their despair." "Who is strongest among them right now?" Lord Tarrox asked with curiosity. "It''s thatss who got Tyranni Mayhem Bloodline and Mythical-grade spinergy method in Alokka ruins. She is already a tier-two supreme lifeform." Tarrox was startled, "I have read about Tyranni Mayhem Bloodline. It''s an ancient demonic bloodline." "Hahaha, she was a tiny second away from death while getting that bloodline inheritance in ruins. I was tempted to save her but held myself back." Tarrox wryly smiled, but he knew that Lord Kylie would never interfere like that. He then shook his head and spoke, " Also, I thought Aren was an exception for having a Mythical-grade spinergy method, but it seems I was wrong. How many other individuals have Mythical-grade spinergy method?" "Total three, including Aren." "The chances of this mortal realm surviving is getting close to the previous mortal realm in a shorter time," Tarrox said with a grin. "Well, these bloodlines, spinergy methods, powerful physiques, etc., will be for naught if they die before bing Legendary lifeform," Lord Kylie spoke as an indifferent smile stretched across her face. She then turned to Tarrox as a slight pressure exuded from her body, "Tarrox." Tarrox gulped, "y-yes?" "It''s time to stop. I will randomly transport Aren''s mother and those three with her to different locations far away. They will survive on their own and get their own chance or die trying to get strong." "B-but Aren-" "Of course, they still won''t be able to contract Aren and won''t be able to return to their mortal realm since you have already isted them with your power. So Aren won''t find out as per for your n." Lord Kylie continued, "You didn''t lie to him about reviving them if they managed to survive against despair. The souls of all those people who died after we arrived here are stored, and as long as they survive, they can be revived." "What if Aren somehow met them before the despair event?" Lord Kylie shook her head with a smile, "Don''t worry; I will not let that happen. Although I don''t think Aren will be lethargic after reuniting with them, they will definitely hold back Aren''s progress." "Current potential main pirs individuals are eight. Out of them, only Aren was with the group, but you changed that, and now he has satisfied the conditions." "Indeed. These exceptional individuals can only progress faster without baggage with them," Tarrox said with a smile. After saying that, Lord Kylie''s eyes shed as they revealed a dark abyss with a tiny white glow, and there was an outline of another eye inside them. Tarrox sighed as he knew that Lorain, Quinn, Luna, and Hem would''ve separated and been sent to different locations by now. Indeed, four of them were currently fighting in a dungeon, but they disappeared from there. The Empress, who was in meditation, also got the news from people who were sent to observe them that those four people suddenly disappeared. However, she heard Lord Kylie''s voice the next second and understood the situation. "Heh, Tarrox. I will not refund my favor to you because of this," the Empress snorted with a smile. ¡­ Day 51¡­ Aren opened his eyes and was flooded with notification. [Celestial Ichor Prototype EZ-111''s process of transforming your body has been fullypleted.] [Your meridians have upgraded from Super-grade to Ultra-grade] [Your body''s potential has been enhanced. You will consume less stamina recover your health faster.] [Your acuteness and physical fitness have increased. Your Innate gear, Astral-X eyes, have been improved as well.] [First Gene lock, Ruthless Gene star, is now opened. Effect of Ruthless Gene star: From now on, if you survive fatal poisons, hexes, and other such attacks, you will gain resistance to them.] [You are now eligible for receiving ???, which you can only gain in Ond High realm. To reach Ond High realm, you must defeat the despair in your mortal realm.] [Good luck and do your best.] When Aren opened his eyes and saw his body, he was surprised to see that it had returned to his normal human body but¡­he was nowpletely naked. He hurriedly summoned [Vyrmend] the leather armor as it appeared over his body before summoning [Weimbus], the mobile armored suit that covered his entire body. Afterward, he sat down crossed-legged and closed his eyes and saw in his inner space that the Emporio Celestial Physique had turned return its normal human form. From the two Gene slots floating around him, the 1st Gene slot had turned into Aember-red in color as it pulsed with the same color glow. [Emporio Celestial Physique] -A physique model structure of the user''s body that is made from Celestial Ichor Prototype EZ-111. -The user can affect his real body by affecting this physique model. -1st gene lock, Ruthless Gene Star: Activated. -2nd to 9th gene locks arepletely obscured for now. -Ruthless Gene Star: Your body will gain resistance to poison, hexes, burns, frostbites, curses, etc., ruthless effects as long as you bear and endure them and survive fatal encounters. Be a Ruthless Star! "Awesome," Aren spoke with a bright smile. All that pain was worth it. However, it seems that he will have to endure more for that Ruthless Gene Star. "Even higher grade-meridians than super-grade? Wheew¡­even that person at the Guild only told me that super-grade was highest. I guess he also didn''t know there existed higher grades," Aren muttered before he captured the keyword. "Ond High realm¡­," Aren muttered as he narrowed his eyes, "the Earth, my world, is considered mortal realm while there is this Ond High Realm. Huuu, I wonder what kind of ce is that?" Shaking his head, Aren wryly smiled, "whatever that ce is, I need to survive here and beat that despair before going there." [After ten minutes, you will be sent to the enlightenment space. Before that, you can check your newfound strength and organize your thoughts.] Aren first looked at his status window, which has now changed a bit. ¡ª¨C -Name: Aren Azrael~Life Stage: Supreme-1 -Level: 26 [0/50,000] ( Stored Exp: 682,240). -Path Level: 10 [332,134/512,000 Exp.] -Body Health: [16,300/16,300], Soul Health: [580/580] -Bloodline: Meteoric Aember Crimson-Dragon Bloodline -Spirit Energy Pool: [13,350/13,350], -Soul Energy: [2900/2900], Aember MME (mutant magic energy): [1000/1000] (23/min). -Mystic Field: [0/500] points -| Stats | , , , , -Stat points: 12 -Skill points: 4 -Ability points: 1 -Abilities: , , , . -Skills: , , , , . Afterward, Aren looked at the entire new panel, which was for his bloodline. Chapter 149 - Meteoric Aember Crimson-Dragon Bloodline Chapter 149 ¨C Meteoric Aember Crimson-Dragon Bloodline [Bloodline] ¨C>Current Rank: Supreme, ¨C>Type: Mutated,¨C>Purity: 100% ¨C>Blood essence: [10,000/10,000] ¨C>Skills: not acquired yet. ¨C>Abilities: not acquired yet. ¨C>Bloodline Talent: Outrious Crimson Fire Lord. < Bloodline Expansion form> ¨C>Overdrive Dragon: Meteoric Amber Crimson Dragon. ¨C>Cost: 10,000 blood essence.¨C> Duration: 10 minutes. ¨C>All stats increases by 100%, bing a giant fifty meters long dragon and gaining other dragon powers. ¨C>Can only activate Overdrive dragon form once every two days so as to not put pressure on your body''s foundation. Aren looked at the special talent in detail since its name seemed very grand. -Intro: A special talent born from reaching 100% purity in this mutated Bloodline. ->Gained Fire affinity and a special me: Outrious Aember me. ->??? (Requires to be a mythical lifeform to learn and use this.) ->??? (Requires to be a mythical lifeform to learn and use this.) "Fire affinity and a special me¡­," Aren was surprised before hurriedly checking his affinity panel. [Affinity] -Level 1 (0.1% understanding.) -1st Effect: Increase effects of fire-rted skills and abilities by 0.1% -2nd Effect: You are now able to manipte fire and produce natural mes. (In your case, you can produce a unique me: Outrious Aember me.) Right after Aren read that, he tried to do it by thinking about it but failed and got a notification. [Please create a Fire Affinity Core using your spirit energy and soul energy to produce natural mes. (in your case, Outrious Aember me)] "Huh? But I don''t know how to do that," Aren mumbled and waited to get an answer or help of sort, but nothing happened despite waiting for one minute. However, he got another notification about a reminder. [Please finish thest step of your Lifeform elevation. Absorb some spirit energy and pour on in your spirit seed.) Aren nodded as he knew about it since there was a notification about it in the list of notifications in his head. Since he had elevated to be a Supreme lifeform, those force level 1 spirit stones were useless to him. The natural spirit energy he produces became force level 2, and it was more pure and powerful than the force level 1 spirit that mortal lifeform could use. Aren closed his eyes and entered meditation to absorb spirit energy from the atmosphere. The atmosphere had neutral spirit energy, but people can turn it into their respective force level spirit energy through their lifeform specialty. For instance, Mortal can use their spirit core while Supremes can use the whirlpool above their spirit seed. Inside Aren''s inner space¡­ Aren absorbed the spirit energy from the atmosphere. It was much purer since he was inside the training room, and it provided concentrated spirit energy so he could absorb it faster. After elevation, his spirit core had shattered before spreading its energy to his body for elevation. Afterward, he evolved, and in ce of the spirit core, there was now a spirit seed. Above the spirit seed was a whirlpool, and it was called spirit whirlpool. Spirit whirlpool would refine his spirit energy into force level 2 before turning it into a mystic liquid form. The liquid would fall from the whirlpool below part into the spirit seed, thus growing the spirit seed. Naturally, even if Aren directly absorbs force level 2 spirit energy from force level 2 spirit stones, they have to go through the spirit whirlpool to turn into mystic liquid form before dropping on the spirit seed. The spirit seed was also the spirit energy pool of Aren. Once Aren refined the first bits of spirit energy in spirit whirlpool and the first drop of force level 2 spirit energy fell on the spirit seed, it glowed, and a tiny crack appeared on the seed before a tinier dreamy white vine-like thing came out from the seed. [You have sessfully started your path in Supreme-lifeform. The spirit seed had received its first growth spurt, increasing your spirit energy pool''s capacity by 5,000 spirit energy.] [Current Spirit seed''s rating is 4/10. To elevate to Supreme-2 lifeform, reach level 40, spirit seed''s rating to 10, and finally,prehend the way of supreme to turn your spirit seed into a spirit nt.] "Well, that''s a bit far away," Aren muttered before he waited for a few minutes to pass so he could go into the enlightenment space and start creating his skills. "I still have to initiate the path test after that," Aren spoke while shaking his head. He had an intense urge to go out and fight to his heart''s content, gather exp, and level up lots with his newfound powers. However, he must keep patience for now. While three minutes were left before the time, Aren consumed a bit of his soul energy to produce Aember mutant magic on his hand. He looked at the mysterious energy sparkling with red and orange sparks and focused. ''Fire¡­this magic energy is fire-rted, and when I use it, it turns into a kind of fire as well. However, the fire Affinity I got should be rted to the original Bloodline and not due to this Aember Mutant magic,'' Aren thought. ''I''ll have to visit a library or the Guild to learn how to make fire affinity core,'' Aren thought. ¡­ "Interesting, hahaha. He actually got a stronger quality of me than you red dragons," Lord Kylie chuckled, "that mutation indeed went well. Since his bloodline source is also different than yours, It''s unknown how far he can bring his Bloodline to." "It should be rted to that mutant magic, but how did he get it?" Tarrox asked with doubt, "I''ve never seen an energy like that." "Yep, that''s mutant magic energy. It''s from a different realm. Aren was not supposed to learn it and bring it here, but the way he passed his path test allowed him that," Lord Kylie said with a smile, "I am impressed by these four individuals who each managed to get something powerful from another realm through their path test." "Cough¡­wish I could do that too," Tarrox said with a wry smile. "You are sufficiently powerful with your path," Lord Kylie nced at Tarrox, "just continue training and cultivate to be mythical and then Disaster lifeform so you can work under me in Ond High Realm with your ancestor." Tarrox nodded with a smile, "I am just a short push away from bing Mythical. it''s a matter of a few months now." "It''s time," Lord Kylie muttered as her eyes glowed and Aren disappeared from the room before appearing in the Enlightenment Space. "Let''s see what kind of skills he creates," Tarrox said with a grin, "I have high hopes regarding that." "I am sure he will create skills thatplement each other and make his life easier to progress fast.. He already showed his knowledge on skills in Demon Ghost Ship dimension''s treasure hunt," Lord Kylie said with a smile. Chapter 150 - Sagely Phenomenon (not Edited Yet) Chapter 150 ¨C Sagely Phenomenon (not Edited Yet) The scenery changed in front of Aren''s eyes as he suddenly appeared in a heavenly ce. Just appearing here caused all of Athan''s pores to open as they absorbed the pure air in the atmosphere. The environment was peaceful, and the shade of a tree on him was giving him a strange feeling. [Sit down under the tree, close your eyes and enter into meditation. After five minutes, you will enter into the Sage state and will have your senses, perception,prehension, and such aspects heightened to a very high level.] [You will also be branded with a temporary bloodline skill so you can understand the execution process of bloodline skills.] Aren sat down under the tree and looked around in this greenerydy. Despite their usual appearance, the nts, flowers, and everything felt mysterious to him. Every de of grass, every twig, every chirp of a bird, every slight flowing breeze, the sound of flowing water in the river behind, the hollow sound of mountains, everything felt mysterious and seemed to have something deep within them. After taking a breath of mysterious fresh air of this atmosphere, Aren closed his eyes and entered into meditation. Aren forgot the passage of time as he felt a mysterious aura covering him and entering inside his body, mind, and soul. *Shuaaaa¡­* A golden aura appeared around him after five minutes as Aren opened his eyes. His eyes were nowpletely indifferent and clean with a tiny golden sheen in them. After a second, Aren activated his bloodline as his body transformed into a humanoid draconic form with wings and tail behind his back and two horns on his forehead. Scales of different patterns sizes appeared over his body as red aember sparks glossed over his entire body. Aren first used the temporary bloodline skill that he could feel and executed it. ¡ª¨C -Type: Bloodline skill -Rank: S,-Level: 1 -Cost: 50% of Blood essence. -Duration: 20 minutes. -1st Effect: Increase all of your physical stats by 50%. -2nd Effect: Fire-rted skills'' effectiveness and damage increased by 20%, and all of your attacks deal true fire damage that ignores 500 fire resistance of your target. Your attacks reduce your targets'' fire resistance, wood resistance, dark resistance, and ice resistance by 500. -Note: This additional resistance ignoring and resistance reducing effects are only possible due to your mutated bloodline''s power. ¡ª¡ª Just as Aren activated this bloodline skill, Aren felt the amount of blood essence stored in his body reduced by 50% with full rity and observed the entire process of the bloodline essence spread to his entire body and boosted his physical strength. ''I can see every single minuscule process of my body, blood essence, the condensation of bloodline power in every fiber of my body¡­'' Aren stood with his eyes closed, but his senses were capturing every single process happening within his body. After five minutes, Aren opened his eyes and thought of an idea. ''I should try to use all other skills and abilities I have since I will be able to understand them better in this state. Based on their execution process, I should be able to understand the skill creation process as well,'' Aren thought as he unhurriedly executed each skill and ability in his possession. Aren felt that this insight would be useful in creating his bloodline skills as well. ¡­ Time passed as seconds turned into minutes, minutes into hours, hours into days¡­ Each second was like an hour to Aren because of how much information he processed in his brain to understand all things and to structurize his skill creation ording to his imagination and visualization. Aren wanted to create impactful bloodline skills with extra impactful effects. In the blinking of an eye¡­(blink your eyes) Two days passed! After two days, Aren was standing with his eyes closed, and his body was hot and sweaty¡­literally. There were still craters around him that were scorched, but those damaged ground and other things started to return to normal in seconds after a few seconds. Naturally, in this atmosphere or due to this sage state, he could recover his soul energy, Armalist force, mutant magic energy, spirit energy in a matter of seconds. After five minutes of standing still with his eyes closed, Aren sat down crossed-legged. Hisprehension speed had reached a certain profound level, and so far, he created three bloodline skills. However, he wanted to spend the rest of the day visualizing, constructing, and branding a bloodline ability. But he didn''t know how to create bloodline ability. Even in the notification, he was told that he might be granted a bloodline ability by CHANCE. He didn''t want it by chance but wanted it for SURE. As such, he decided to tackle this problem himself while he could still be in this sage-state. First, he used the abilities in his possession and tried to understand their activation process. After five minutes, Aren fell into deep thought for ten minutes. ''Hmmm¡­I can use Armalist force as well. It''s the power that I am mostfortable with and can manipte it better than any other powers inside me,'' Aren thought before taking out the [Ring of Lightning] weapon. He then used on the Ring of Lightning and started the process. ''Woah¡­.'' This time, he was shocked to see so manyplicated processes in this transformation. For instance, how those dots and linings came out in the ethereal space when he used that skill. He could understand before as well since the knowledge of that skill was entered inside his brain. But this time, he could actually see a deeper structure within it. ''Fascinating¡­so this Armalist force had such a mysterious effect of invoking a potential of an item. Items¡­even though they are dead objects, they are not dead. Hmmm..'' ''Trees are alive in away, but if we cut them and turn them into furniture, they are dead objects¡­in our world. However, they are actually still alive, in a profound way, but we couldn''t see them.'' ''The rocks, mountains, water¡­everything have profound meanings in them that can be invoked, and this Armalist force¡­.or better, this skill usage process of enchant the item to show its potential, and then I can work on it to realize that potential, baptize it with additional Armalist force, which is basically the dot-connecting process and finally transform it after connecting those dots to the core perfectly.'' ''So that''s why it''s called and not or anything literal like that¡­,'' Aren was amazed as he observed the entire process of in a deeper perceptive in this sage-state. ¡­ Next, Aren spent half a day absorbing the knowledge anding up with an idea to create an ability before finallying up with a solution. To create a bloodline ability or any ability, he needs to have a full-proof understanding of a certain effect or multiple effects that were surely to activate once he thought about it by consuming his blood essence or any energy. To understand those effects, create them, brand them, and activate them when the timees, he had to interwind the blood essence''s structure or any other energy''s structure ording to them. As such, he came up with a "rune" of a sort. This "rune" thing was what Aren came up with after understanding his Armalist force and process in a more profound way. This sage-state, where hisprehension, understanding, perception, and everything were very high, yed a big role, and Aren felt that he wouldn''t get this chance again in the next three years, so he decided to take extra steps right now. Currently, his eyes were slightly red, and exhaustion oozed out from him because he was working beyond his limit even in this sage-state. However, he finally perfected and created "Runes" after working over-hard for twelve hours straight in peak performance. The rune was actually created by a mixture of his Armalist force and soul energy. He could manipte Armalist energy way better than any energy in his posses, and he also had a profound understanding of transforming his gear, which was aplicated process. ''Now, the final step. However, since I managed to create one rune, then I should create a few more and then start structuring the bloodline ability. With this experience, I can do more experiments with those runester¡­,'' Afterward, Aren created five more runes in the next hour before finally visualizing and constructing his bloodline ability. Naturally, he firstprehended the effects and visualized them from his bloodline power, which had powerful fire elemental effects and the power of his unique me borne from this mutation. Even though he could manipte and naturally produce those mes since he didn''t have fire affinity core, the me''s profound powers were branded in his bloodline, and he could clearly see and sense them in this sage state. As such, Aren lost passage of time once again as he went into full dive to create his bloodline ability. His idea was to PRINT the entire construct of this ability, which included the activation of effects and how they would appear inside the RUNE. This rune was created to absorb a particr set of instructions and activate it when he thought about it. So if he thought about activating an ability printed in the rune, it would activate, absorb the required energy, and disy it instantly like other abilities he has in his arsenal. Naturally, he needed to build an ability with functioning and proper effects first before printing the entire thing in the rune, and he was doing that right now. ¡­ "Geez¡­this Aren, he just went a step ahead of my expectation. I never thought that he would create that rune system based on Armalist force''s nature and his skill, hahaha, very interesting," Lord Kylie chuckled. "What happened, Lord Kylie? You told me about the three bloodline skills he createdst two days, but what about today? Did he do anything today?" Tarrox asked with curiosity. "Well, he did," Lord Kylie said with a faint smile, "and he exceeded my expectation. It''s good that he thought bigger picture and decided to use his Armalist force and skills in that sage state, which allowed him to realize a few percentages of a profound use of his path." Tarrox was started hearing such praise as he got a bit excited, "what did he exactly do?" "Well, he decided to create and brand an ability of his choice inside him but in a different way," Lord Kylie said with a grin, "you will see when hees out of the Enlightenment Space." Chapter 151 - Path Trial-1 Chapter 151 ¨C Path Trial-1 [You will be sent out of Enlightenment space in three seconds.] Aren opened his eyes with a faint smile on his face, ''three skills and one ability finished. I still have four runes, and I can try to create ability or do something else with themter.'' Three seconds passed as Aren arrived back into the room. "So three days passed in here as well or only in enlightenment space?" Aren muttered, hoping to get an answer. After all, when he did the path trial previously, the time passed during the trial was long, but only a few seconds had passed when he came back. [Three minutes passed here] A monotone voice greeted Aren in his head, answering his question. "Phew, that''s good," Aren sighed a relief because if he really spent three days here as well, he would have to pay additional 18,000 gold coins to the Private Meditation House. Aren stood up and left the room. However, since he stayed in the room for 23 hours, he still had to pay additional 3520 gold coins. So he spent a total of 6020 gold coins to use the service of this Private Meditation House. Afterward, he returned to his inn and entered his room before checking out bloodline skills to test some things. ->Type: Bloodline skill. ->Rank: SSS ->Level: 1/3 ->Cost: 2000-??? Blood essence. ->1st Effect: A pair of ws materializes that does a four-hitbo in quick session to the target, dealing damage ording to Blood essence consumption. The attack also decreases their physical and energy defense by 500 and reduces their fire, ice, and wood resistance by 500. ->2nd Effect: The attack inflicts a Vital Burn debuff for 30 seconds, dealing 0.5% of the target''s health damage per second since this me burns the vital life essence of the target. (This debuff can be removed by the target that possesses countermeasure against it.) Aren tried to add a skill point in the skill with his thought since he had four skill points total. [You can not use skill points in Bloodline skills. You can only improve the rank of your bloodline skill by your hard work.] Aren had two more skills, and but they were a rank higher than SSS. Epic Rank! His first Epic rank skills turned out to be bloodline skills. Aren didn''t know what would be the rank of skills he creates, but he felt that the rank had something to do with his bloodline as well. The source, which was his bloodline power, was already high. So even if he made fireball bloodline skill, it would be at least A rank, he felt. Of course, theplexity, effectiveness, and potential were the majority factors that decided the rank of skills the further they went up in rank. All in all, and were overall better than skill. As for the ability¡­ -Rank: Epic -Cost: 100 Blood Essence per second. -1st Effect: The Aemberic sparks will surround you, aiding you in your flight. Your flying and movement speed will increase from this ability''s boost. (Current increase in speed would be 37% faster than your usual flight speed if you use this ability.) -2nd Effect: You also gain +100 Fire elemental mastery while using this ability. Your attacks have a 1% chance to inflict Vital Burn debuff for 5 seconds. -3rd Effect: While using this ability, you will naturally cut away a certain level of wind resistance in the atmosphere to improve your flying speed and maneuverability. Your physical attack speed will also increase by 30%. ¡­ "The cost is a bit higher, but it''s fine. I can use it as my surprising measure to suddenly increase my speed," Aren muttered. Afterward, Aren fell into thought on what to do next. First, he could start his path trial right away. Second, he could go out to the library or something and find how to create a Fire affinity core in him so that he can produce his unique me and then start the path trial. After thinking for a few moments, Aren decided to start his path trial first. He didn''t want to waste any more time on that, and who knows when he will find a method to create fire affinity core and finally create it? So it''s better to start path trial first. However, before that, he also decided to transform the remaining two rings into Armalist gears. ¡­ After an hour, Aren finished turning [Ring of Earth] and [Ring of Wind] into Armalist gears [Georno]-Ring of Earth, and [Fein]-Ring of Wind. Afterward, Aren meditated to recover his Armalist force before closing his eyes and thinking, ''ording to that, I just need to think about starting path trial.'' Aren thought about initiating his path trial, and right after that, he heard the voice. [Path Trial starts in 3 seconds.] Three seconds passed by before Aren appeared in a ck space with nothing in it. [This is your 2nd path trial, and there are two tests for you toplete.] [The first test is "Do or Die"] [Do or Die] -You will have to fight for ten hours non-stop in a ce where monsters will continue to attack you. Naturally, if you fail, you will die. -However, those monsters are special, and you need to kill them to gather Mystic Essence. This mystic essence will be used to upgrade your Armalist Drive. -You are only allowed to use Articule Gears and Path skills to kill monsters. [You have five minutes to prepare before the test starts] [4:59] [4:58] "Hmm? But I should be able to use my bloodline power as well. I can activate 1st gene slot and transform myself into dragon humanoid form," Aren muttered. [Naturally, you can.] Aren sighed a relief since this was important. He didn''t know how much, but if he is in dragon humanoid form, his stats increase by a certain amount, and he gains physical and energy defense on his body as well. When he transformed during the process, he couldn''t check it. But he will check it once the first test starts. He then took a deep breath and quickly checked his stats. -| Stats | , , , "My Agility is off the charts, which is a good thing and just what I wanted when I picked those items. Constitution is good enough, and I don''t need Strength, but I might need higher Strength as I get stronger if I want to create that gear that I visualized in enlightenment space," Aren muttered. Afterward, Aren just waited for the countdown to hit 0 with his eyes closed. Chapter 152 - Path Trial-2 Chapter 152 ¨C Path Trial-2 [00:01] [00:00] [Good luck and all the best] Aren saw scenery changing in front of him as he arrived on top of a cloudly space. He was standing on fluffy-cloud-like things. Around him was clear air with seven different portals of different sizes. All of those portals were dreamy blue with patterns in different shades of blue in their border, while the middle of the portals was a dreamy blue wormhole with golden sparks. Aren activated 1st Geneslot and transformed himself into a humanoid-dragon body. Instantly, he felt stronger and additional stats appeared. [Dragonoid Form]-Supreme -Body Health: +18,000 -Phy. Def: +5000, -Energy Def: +5000 -Strength: +50 -Agility: +50 "Nice," Aren muttered as he tried to fly using his wings instead of controlling the [Weimbus] armored mobile suit. *Roarrr!* From the portals, different kinds of monsters started to appear. However, there was one thingmon in them. All of them had dreamy blue patterns on their body. Aren quickly counted a total of 6 monsters and, for starter, activated his two abilities and before summoning his Articules gears to attack the monsters. Aren stood there with his arms crossed as he was five hundred meters away from those six monsters, and he wanted to kill them using his gears. [Destructo] and [Lech] went furthest while he separated [Slinger] from his arm and manipted it to go forward before releasing twenty seeds to trap those monsters. The five rings, [Pyrin], [Miren], [Reikin], [Georno], [Fein] positioned themselves in the middle as Aren manipted them. Once those six monsters were trapped, [Destructo] hammer instantly killed one with its power + kic energy explosion. -45,671 [Raidance Fanged Tiger killed. 300 Path exp gained.] Along with exp, Aren also felt some strange force entering inside him or, rather, inside the Armalist drive before turning dormant. "Aftering out of enlightenment space, I can easily see my inner space and sense it better than before¡­," Aren muttered as he waved his hands and released primal conjuring attacks from his rings. He also saw two more monsters spawned from two different portals out of those seven. As for the attacks, He went with [Pyrin] as the main ring and used other rings'' energies as a mixture because he had way higher Fire elemental mastery than other elemental mastery. He also had fire affinity, making it easier for him to manipte those attacks and have them better integrity. Fire+Wind=Greater firest Fire+Water=Boiling energy Fire+Earth=Lava Fire+Lightning=sma energy As those monsters were trapped except for the new ones, Aren released attacks from the rings. -12,457 Greater fire st Afterward, he released a boiling mist orb on the same monster who took Greater Firest, which literally disintegrated the monster and killed it. [Loka Bear killed. 300 path exp gained.] Same with Lava beam and sma shot, as those two attacks also killed one monster. [Quetal Winged Snake killed. 300 path exp gained.] The [Destructo] hammer killed another beast as Aren manipted it to gather 700 meters of distance at almost sonic speed for another kic energy st on the newly arrived monsters. Four more monsters spawned from the portals as Aren continued killing them. One monster arrived in front of him as it looked like a two-headed fox with burning mes on its body and five tails. Aren let this one arrive since he wanted to fight it physically. *Wistleeeeee¡­.* The fox let out a strange sound as when it was just fifty meters away from Aren; it released two fire beams from its mouths. Aren could stand on this strange cloudlynd, but he floated by controlling his armor [Weimbus], and seeing the attack, he brought his giant wings forward to defend. The wings were also scaled like his body, and he wanted to check his defense, so he decided to use the wings as his shield since he could fly without it. -589 -589 -567 -598 Aren grunted as his wings suffered some damage. However, it was very minuscule. Moreover, the attack was fire-attributed, so it would hurt him less in the first ce. The fox arrived in front of Aren as its five tails started burning with higher intensity and then swung it in front of Aren. Seeing that, Aren dodged easily by manipting his armor and swung his thick and powerful tail towards the fox. But he didn''t do a normal swing of his tail. Instead, he executed a skill through it. But since he had gained some knowledge on skills, he decided to consume more spirit energy and condensed more power in his tail during the attack. He basically reformed the path of the skill execution since his body could now handle more power. *Smack!!* The fox went flying as its body raptured. -10,357 [Your skill has been reformed into , skill rank increased from B to AA] -Skill Level: 5 (Max: 5) -Skill Rank: AA -Cost: 250 Spirit Energy. -Effect: Superimpose spirit energy and condense it to release a powerful strike from either your body part or a weapon. It deals 300% of your normal attack damage. (Intensity of spirit energy condensed and your physical strengthbined.) Aren was surprised, ''the cost increased from 20 to 250, which means the initial cost of the skill was 500 spirit energy. And¡­300% of my normal attack? But I don''t know what my normal attack damage is¡­'' He then focused on the fox since it was still alive and released another Heavy Strike through his tail after rapidly flying behind the fox monster, but this time, he used by consuming 100 Armalist force to check how much it would increase the attack damage. -16,470 [Twin-headed Pyrofox killed. 300 path exp gained.] -Spirit Energy Pool: [16,340/18,350], ''That did indeed decrease my stamina a bit,'' Aren checked his new stat stamina. It always existed, but he couldn''t see it before in digital form.'' While he was thinking, his eyes were still on the battlefield since more and more monsters were pouring out from the portals. ''I have to hold back on spirit energy since I have to survive and kill for ten hours. The rings consume 50 to 100 spirit energy in each attack, while [Destructo] doesn''t consume any. [Lech] consume if I make shockwave attack, but it''s a waste of spirit energy,'' Aren thought as he manipted his gears to attack. He trapped new monsters with seeds and killed them with his weapon gears. [¡­300 path exp gained.] [¡­300 path exp gained.] [¡­300 path exp gained.] [¡­300 path exp gained.] [¡­300 path exp gained.] ¡­ Time passed as Aren focused on managing his resources and efficiently killed the beast for five hours before a change happened. Those seven portals turned red, and more powerful monsters came out. ''Hmmm¡­It looks like I''ll have to take a bit of risk of injuring myself to wipe them out more efficiently,'' Aren thought as he dashed forward and started kiting monsters. If monsters gathered more, he would be showered with more attacks, but he had to dodge them and block them while kiting them before gathering a bunch of them together and killing them with onerge attack from [Destructo] hammer. Chapter 153 - Path Trial-3 (not Edited Yet) Chapter 153 ¨C Path Trial-3 (not Edited Yet) When Aren reached 6 hours mark, his mind suddenly felt intense fatigue, and it increased each second. He had a difficult time manipting his gears to attack the monsters. As such, he leveled up one time and recovered himself fully. But he didn''t add stat points. He still had 12 stat points that he didn''t spend and saved the 5 stat points he got from reaching level 27 as well. Time passed as Aren continued fighting with full focus, killing monsters efficiently and with calctions. He could kite monsters and be in full focus mode to dodge their various attacks. He was injured many times as well, but as his pain resistance had gone up, his performance didn''t drop due to injuries, and he gradually healed them with his potions. [¡­1550 path exp gained.] [¡­1550 path exp gained.] [¡­1550 path exp gained.] [¡­1550 path exp gained.] [¡­1550 path exp gained.] ¡­ Only 10 minutes were left, and Aren was not seeing any more monsters spawn in thest five minutes. He quickly kited the remaining 12 monsters on the battlefield and finished them off with a powerful attack from [Destructo] hammer. [¡­1550 path exp gained.] [¡­1550 path exp gained.] [¡­1550 path exp gained.] [¡­1550 path exp gained.] [¡­1550 path exp gained.] ¡­ After he killed all monsters, all portals disappeared before a single portal remained. The thing to note was that all of this path exp was stored in another window that was beside the countdown of 10 hours. [Path exp umted: 547,480] *Roarrrrrrrr* Suddenly, A loud roar resounded from a giant monster that came out from a single portal that remained in this ce. It had two lizard legs, two frog-like hands, two pairs of giant bat-like wings, and a lizard mouth with sharp teeth. Its whole body wasyered with thick-rocky skin and dark green, dreamy blue, and red patterns. [Eiber Wound Beast] -Health: [250,000/250,000] -Phy. Def: 5000, -Energy Def: 5000, Soul Def: 1000 -Physical Attack: 15,000, Energy Attack: 15,000 Seeing the giant beast, Aren smiled, e on!" *RRRRRROARRR* The beast roared and released a barrage of colorful fireballs from its mouth at sonic speed. Aren''s eyes turned focused, and his expression somber as he entered his battle mode. From that moment when he desperately fought Reto, he faintly felt that he had a kind of knack for fighting. More situations like that urredter, and when he focused, his brain would go into overdrive mode as he calcted all possibilities to make the best attack patterns, dodging probabilities and blocking chances. Naturally, fighting in this way would drain his mind power, and he would get exhausted faster. *BOOOOOOOOM¡­* The beast released circting shes towards Aren at a face speed along with tiny condensed orbs filled with potent destructive power by waving its tail. Aren flew forward unhesitatingly as he manipted all of his gear with absolute focus. The [Hexhisra] shield worked to block attacks, [Destruco] hammer was used to prepare a big attack while he manipted the five rings and [Lech] the chain whip to attack the monster, more specifically, its eyes so as to block its vision. The ability was also working superbly since it slowed down the monster a bit. A bit of movement and action speed decreasing in a fight was impactful since the enemy needs to adjust to its slowed speed. He blocked some attacks with the shield, but he dodged the majority of attacks with perfect precision that he captured with his eyes. *Roarrrrrrr!!* The monster dashed towards Aren, its speed not as fast as Aren but still very fast. Aren stopped in the air seeing the monstering towards him. The monster wiped its froggy hand-ws towards Aren when it was five meters away from Aren. But Aren dodged it narrowly before using with his dragon tail, which was right now the most powerful and solid body part of his body in terms of raw strength. He hit the dragon tail towards the monster''s one-side wings, making it unstable before releasing 30 seeds rapidly and snaring the monster. *Swooooooooooosh¡­* At this moment, the [Destructo] hammer arrived. He invoked the most potent mutant magic energy he could invoke by consuming 1000 soul energy and then used 700 mutant magic energy to use the hammer''s skill. He also used skill to enhance the effect of even further by consuming whooping 1000 Armalist force, and the effect of also enhanced the damage as the hammer was wreathed in aember and demonic blue mes both. With these buffs, the hammer directly hit the head of this abomination monster that had 74% of its HP left. It wanted to dodge, but it was slowed, and those vinespletely entangled it. It burst with its power and destroyed all vines, but it couldn''t dodge since the destructive hammer hit it right after that. Although it missed its head a by bit, half of its head was still hit by the hammer. *BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM¡­.* [-169,810] *EAKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK* The monster let out a strange cry as it was seriously injured. Aren''s eyes were focused as he continued raining down normal attacks using his gears towards the monster. He didn''t hold back anything anymore since this was thest monster ording to the countdown, which only had a minute left. He didn''t use any bloodline skills but decided to one to finish off the monster, who was now incapacitated and was just waiting for Aren to kill it. Aren''s eyes gleamed with aember me before his entire body burned with the same that invoked from his mutated bloodline. He couldn''t control it specifically, but since he used his blood essence and executed the skill , the me invoked from his bloodline power. Countless Tendrils appeared in Aren''s body before powerful energy started gathering over both of his hands in a unique formation. After a second, the gathered energy in unique formation turned into spinning disks. He consumed a total of 4600 blood essence to execute this skill. Those disks possed overwhelming power with a potent, destructive aura as Aren threw those two disks towards the monster by wavings his hands. *SWOOOOOOOOOSH¡­SWOOOOOOOOOOSH¡­.* The disks shed with the monster''s head and belly since Aren aimed there. After a brief sh, they suddenly glowed intensely, cutting the monster before exploding with a loud st. *BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM¡­* [-22,474] [-22,474] [Eiber Wound Beast killed. 20,000 path exp gained.] [Congrattions! You have sessfully passed the first test. The stored path essence will be given to you after the whole path trial is over.] Aren arrived in the dark space once again. After that, a mysterious power rapidly entered his body, recovering his health, spirit energy, soul energy, Armalist force, mutant magic energy, and stamina to full. [The second test will start after five minutes.] Chapter 154 - Path Trial End-1 Chapter 154 ¨C Path Trial End-1 Aren looked at the countdown before simply waiting with his eyes closed. All of his energies were recovered, so he didn''t need to do anything. "Oh wait¡­I had that force level 2 spirit stone I got from Ghost Demon Ship''s treasure box opening," Aren suddenly remembered and checked his Inventory, "I also should be able to use that item since I am supreme lifeform now." ¡ª¨C [Inventory] -Cursed Shofar, Spirit stone [5], Health potion [197], Umon Thunder-Gemstone, Forfar Nugget, Bone Scrapper-Chainsaw, Raikis Flying Boat, Mirror of Mystic Seals, Ancient Key, Skill Fusion Stone. -A skill box containing a random skill rted to the Lost Ancient dungeon. (A-SS) -A box containing a random grade force level 2 Spirit stone. -1x Umon grade Agility boost potions,-1x Umon grade Strength boost potions. -1x Umon grade Physical defense boost potions, -1x Umon grade refined bloodstone. -1x Common grade gale gemstone, -1x Umon Pyro Bomb. 32,068x Gold coins. ¡ª¨C Out of those five spirit stones, four were of force level 1, which were useless to him. But one of them was force level 2 spirit stone. ¡ª¨C [Spirit stone II] -Rank: Rare. -Effect: Contains 25,000 force level 2 spirit energy. ¡ª¨C "I should''ve used this, sigh," Aren sighed with a wry smile, "would''ve made the ten-hour battle a bit easier. As for those boxes, I''ll open them with preparation after increasing my luck." "That chainsaw, I can''t transform it right now. But I might be able to use on it once I level up my path and upgrade my Armalist Drive," Athan muttered as he looked at the chainsaw. As for the item that required him to be a Supreme lifeform¡­ ¡ª¨C [Raikir Flying Boat] -Rank: Epic -Requirement: Supreme-Lifeform. -Details: A flying boat made from Raikir beast''s hide and lightning pule ore mixed together for a powerful material. -The boat is 7 meters long and 4 meters wide. The boat''s flying speed is 450 meters per second at full speed. Full speed is achieved after five seconds of flying. -1st Effect: The ring around the boat is a powerful mystic weapon. You can consume 5000 spirit energy to shoot lightning currents from the ring that can paralyze beings up to one whole lifeform higher than you for up to 3 seconds. But the duration of paralyzing debuff is shorted if the target is more powerful than you. It doesn''t deal any damage and only causes paralyze. -2nd Effect: Consume 1000 spirit energy to boost the boat''s speed by 50% for two minutes. It can be used once every 30 minutes. -3rd Effect: Consume 100 soul energy to activate auto-pilot mode and scanning of map inputted by the user in inscription tablet. ¡ª¨C Aren''s max flying speed was 759 meters per second, but he preferred this boat since it had an autopilot mode and powerful debuff attack. He could input a map inside the inscription tablet and could make a destination mark for auto-pilot after infusing 100 soul energy. A set of spirit ghost instructions were inscribed in the ship for auto-pilot mode''s activation. Aren didn''t know much about this, but it was rted to the inscription upation in this world. And soul energy was used to run that auto-pilot mode and make appropriate scanning of geographic location for the ship to reach the destination. 100 soul energy can run the boat in auto-pilot mode for ten hours. He bought this boat along with Mirror of Mystic Seals from the Treasure Hunt Event''s Treasure Shop. However, the Mirror of Mystic Seals required him to be at the Exceed lifeform to use it. ¡­ Soon, five minutes passed, and the details of the 2nd test were revealed. [Test 2: Duel of the Self] [Defeat your doppelganger. Only allowed to use path skills and gears. Your doppelganger will have exactly the same stats as you and can also use the same gears and path skills.] [Rewards] -Defeat in 10 minutes for A-grade rewards. -Defeat in 15 minutes for B-grade rewards. -Defeat in 18 minutes for C-grade rewards. [5] [4] ¡­ [0] When the countdown reached 0, Aren saw the scenery changing in front of his eyes as he appeared in the same ce filled with clouds instead of solid ground. But there was another Aren in front of him, looking exactly the same as him. He also wore [Weimbus] mobile armored suit, and the gears were floating around him. *Swooooooosh¡­.* The [Destructo] hammer flew towards Aren at a supersonic speed from his counterpart. "My doppelganger? Heh, let''s see if he can also battle like me," Aren grinned as he dodged the iing hammer and started flying chaotically. He spread his rings in four directions around his doppelganger as both Arens started shing against each other physically and with their gears. Their hands, tails, and wings shed as they dodged the rings, chain whip, and hammer attacks. In the middle of the fight, Aren realized that it was incredibly hard to hit the enemy Aren, just like how he dodged iing attacks as well. When he separated his [Slinger] gear from his Mobile armored suit, the doppelganger also did the same and started releasing seeds like him. After three minutes, Aren decided to go all-out as he focused entirely on the fight to both micro and macro level. His eyes narrowed, and his mind went into overdrive mode. *nk¡­* *BOOOM¡­* *sh!!* *Swooooooooooosh¡­.* The sh was intense, but Aren was slowly cornering his counterpart, trying to trap him to get a one-shot or incapacitate his fighting power. After a minute of intense fighting, Aren managed to hit two seeds on his counterpart. Still, the enemy Aren felt that since he would be trapped, he appeared to be prepared for it, and right when the seeds sted and produced vines, they were burned and destroyed. The doppelganger actually released two linear fire whips from [Pyrin], the fire ring, towards the vines before they could fully expand and destroy them. *Swoosh¡­swoosh¡­* Aren predicted that his counterpart might do that based on its intelligence since he would also do that and had prepared a counter for it. He attacked the [Pyrin] ring and destroyed it with the hammer while dodging his doppelganger''s hammer that came for him using this opportunity, which was one of the possibilities Aren had thought and was ready to dodge it. ''But¡­I got you now,'' Aren thought with a gleam in his eyes as he sessfully destroyed [Pyrin] ring of the counterpart. The fire ring was the most powerful gear after the hammer because both Aren''s had fire affinity and had a 130 Fire elemental mastery. The fireballs and other fire attacks from the ring were fast, so they proved to be troublesome as well. So destroying the [Pryin] ring of his counterpart was very important.. This caused Aren''s doppelganger''s firepower to decrease, and Aren rapidly thought of many other possibilities by continuously observing the battle with full focus to corner enemy Aren even more. Chapter 155 - Path Trial End-2, Rewards! Chapter 155 ¨C Path Trial End-2, Rewards! Suddenly, Aren felt something in his mind for a brief moment, but he ignored it since he was in the middle of the fight. The doppelganger only lost one gear, and if Aren loses his focus, he might get injured, which would worsen this situation, so he focused on the battle. *BOOM¡­* *Crackkk¡­.* *Swoooooooosh¡­Swooshhhhhh¡­* In the next three minutes, Aren slowly but surely destroyed the remaining gears one by one except for the hammer. That [Hexshira] shield was annoying since it was tough. But against constant attacks from Aren''s gears, he also destroyed it at the end. Both hammers were shing against each other since Aren used his hammer to block his counterpart''s hammer, and now, without the rings, shield, and chain whip, the doppelganger was of no threat to Aren. In the next seven seconds, Aren dropped his doppelganger''s Health to 0 and defeated him as it turned into white motes and disappeared. He then looked at the thing that appeared in the middle of the fight. [An exceptional innate talent called has been sessfully recognized in you.] ''Higher Mind Instincts? Is it rted to that overdrive mind mode I enter during fights?'' Aren thought as he raised his eyebrows in surprise. A secondter, the test conclusion voices also appeared, and the scenery changed as he appeared in the dark space. ¡ª¨C [You have passed the 2nd test within 8 minutes and 29 seconds.] [Congrattions on achieving A-grade results. You can choose one of three rewards from the options.] [A-grade reward options] -1st: A random Innate Articule gear chest (Rare or higher rank, up to Legendary.) -2nd: A random Armalist skill and one talent point. -3rd: Armalist Skill selection chest (five skills options, you can choose one.) ¡ª¨C Aren didn''t think much and chose the 2nd option. [Congrattions, you have gotten an Armalist Skill, and one talent point.] A sting of pain shot in Aren''s head as a slight frown appeared on his face. The knowledge of the new path skill flooded into his mind. ¡ª¨C -Cost: 100-??? depending on the gear and the permanent loss of that gear. -Effect: Invoke the full potential of the gear and cause a hyper st by tapping into the potential to release a pure destructive pulse attack. This pulse attack is more effective on barriers, weapons, items, etc., and can decrease their durability significantly or destroy them or render them useless for a certain period of time. ¡ª¨C "Interesting. It looks like I''ll have to craft spare gears in my Emporio Zone," Aren muttered as he got an idea. ''However, will I be able to manipte the 15th gear despite 14 gears stored in my Armalist Drive?'' Aren wondered before he decided that he would try itter. He still had three gear slots left, and he could get more soon once he upgrades his Armalist Drive after leveling up. [Prepare to receive the umted path exp.] Suddenly, Aren heard a voice before a flood of mysterious force entered inside him, into his Armalist drive and soul. [Congrattions! You have leveled up in your path, from 10 to 11.] [You have gained one talent point.] <-Aren-> [Path- Emporio Armalist] -Level: 11 [378,614/900,000 Exp] -Armalist Force: [2000/2000] (0.5 per second) -Talent points: 2 -Skills: , , , , -Articule Gears: [Destructo], [Vyrmend], [Weimbus], [Slinger], [Hexshira], [Lech], [Pyrin], [Miren], [Reikin], [Georno], [Fein]¨CSlots: 14 ( 3 left ). -Innate Gears: [Astral-X Eyes]. -Emporio Celestial Physique < Talents > ¨C> Armalist Drive+6: (core of the path, merged with the soul.) ¨C> Armalist Cloak+. ¨C> Emporio Zone. ¨C> Emporio Portal. In his path tree, Aren saw three grey bubbles. One of them was for Armalist Drive +7, another was for Armalist Cloak +1, and the third one was of Emporio Heart Innate gear manifestation, which has been there for a long time, but Aren didn''t activate it since he felt it was useless in early stages. However, now that he got an additional talent point from the reward, he decided to add his two talent points into Armalist Drive +7 and Emporio Heart. But before he could do that, the scenery changed in front of him as he arrived back at the Inn''s room since the path trial was over. He added 1 talent into the Armalist Drive +7 as he felt a burst of mysterious energy flowing in his Armalist Drive and upgrading it. [Armalist Force capacity increased by 1000. Increase recovery of your Amarlist force to 0.7 per second. Your gear maniption speed increases to 800 meters per second at max speed. Five points added to soul stat.] Aren suddenly felt light-headed but very refreshed as his soul got a boost along with his Armalist drive. Well, both of them were connected, and this feeling of them getting stronger was extremelyforting, unlike when his body gets strong. ''Well, I didn''t get any gear slots, but I think it''s good. Since I start to feel mental stress once I manipte 11 gears simultaneously,'' Aren thought before he added thest talent point into the Emporio Heart. Right after Aren added the point with his thought, the grey bubble lit to be golden-blue with glittering ethereal sparks. A flood of Armalist force left his Armalist Drive as they started circting in his entire body and brain. Aren started to feel dizzy because of this. However, he focused and observed as he saw that the Amarlist force went into every nook and cranny of his body, to the depth of his foundation at a cellr level where even he could not observe anything. This processsted for five minutes before Aren saw a pulsing prism cube forming in his soul. The soul looked like a white mass that resembled a humanoid but had no facial features and smoky body parts. The prism cube pulsing with luminescent blue and golden light clearly appeared at the heart part of his soul. "Ouch¡­," Aren suddenly started feeling a series of sharp pains in his chest. He took a deep breath as he endured the pain, focused his senses, and after a few seconds, he observed that luminescent blue and golden patterns were being inscribed on his heart. He felt as if he had gained a new organ, as if he could activate something just by thinking about it. As he thought of activating this new power, Aren saw blue and golden energy sparks oozing out from him and lifting him before a throne was created. Aren looked at the throne and was impressed, "That''s one cool throne, damn." The throne was like a majestic king''s throne with exquisitepis blue and golden design. It was one meter wide and two meters tall.. The seat and st of the throne were also veryfortable and soft. Chapter 156 - [Bonus Chapter]Underworld Beast Tide, Competition Chapter 156 ¨C [Bonus Chapter]Underworld Beast Tide, Competition Aren leaned back on the throne and manipted it to fly around in the room. "There should be some kind of benefit from this throne since I feel some mysteriousness from it that I am sure of but can''t observe for now," Aren murmured as he felt extremefort on the throne. He felt that this was the mostfortable thing ever. ¡ª¨C [Emporio Heart]: Innate Core gear -First Form: Throne As an Emporio Armalist, you can also take on the whole battlefield without moving a finger. Sit on the [Emporio Heart''s First Form: Emporio Throne] and control the battlefield. This throne provides no current benefits except that it will act as a usual Articule gear. However, it will unlock its trait as you progress. -The following forms of Emporio Heart are not fixed, and they will take shape based on your mentality, experience, and how you will traverse on this path. ¡ª¨C *Crack¡­..BOOM..* Suddenly, the Inn started trembling as a high magnitude earthquake urred. Aren hurriedly went out of his room before leaving the Inn as he saw people gathering. "A beast tide ising this way! Let''s go! It''s time to harvest essence and get stronger!" "LET''S GOOOOOOOO!" Aren was surprised but went along with them outside of the city. The city practically became empty since everyone here was a fighter and was here to get stronger in the underworld. *dhroom¡­*dhroom¡­*dhroom¡­*dhroom¡­*dhroom¡­*dhroom¡­*dhroom¡­*dhroom¡­* "Holy¡­," Aren muttered as he saw shadows of giant beasts and many other countless beasts. "Hey, little brother, you''ve just be a Supreme lifeform. You better stay behind the front line, or you won''t even know how you died, hahaha," A fat man with a bear jug in his hand spoke whileughing. His aura was way more powerful than Aren''s and reached the same level as those protectors of Empire who were at the Epic lifeform. The fat man drank all of the bears in his giant jug before throwing it away and speaking loudly, "Let''s go, you all idiots! Make a barricade two hundred meters at the front." Aren saw many people going to the front but saw that approximately a quarter of the people stayed behind. They were all Supreme lifeforms like Aren; there were no Mortal lifeforms. Some people at the Exceed lifeform also stayed behind. *ROARRRRRR¡­* The monsters were getting close, and they would reach the frontline in the next ten seconds. "It looks like I have no choice but to ept the description of the throne half-assedly," Aren murmured before a grin formed on his face as he snapped his finger. Scintiting blue and golden sparks oozed out from his body before a throne formed beneath him as he sat down and leaned his back on the throne while putting his arms on the armrest. He flew high in the sky by manipting the throne to observe everything through his Astral-X eyes. Right after Aren flew up, five other people flew up in the sky while riding a chariot, a flying beast, a manta-ray like a beast, a flying carpet, and an open airboat. Each of those things had two to four people on them. Two young men on the chariot looked at Aren enviously and spoke, "that throne, are you willing to sell it to us?" Aren shook his head with a smile, "it''s not an artifact. This throne manifested from the innate path power from my body." "Sad. However, after returning to the kingdom, I am going to craft a throne like this, hehe." "It seems that we are both Supreme lifeforms, but you are an otherworlder. Hehe, how about wepete on who gathers the most essence?" "How?" Aren was surprised, "can we see each other''s essence gathered?" [Jin Seth wants to arrange apetition with you on who gathers the most essence in the next six hours, do you agree?] "It''s simr to how you want to duel and trade. You just have to initiate apetition like that," Jin Seth spoke with a grin. "Alright," Aren nodded as he epted thepetition. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¨C [Aren] || [Jin] -0 -0 ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¨C ''Nice¡­,'' Aren thought as a digital disy appeared in his mind. "Haha, let''s start," Jin spoke as he waved both of his hands, and ten penguins were conjured in front of him. Those ten penguins were different, and all of them had different weapons stuck to their hands. Their armors were different, and all of them had different kinds of stars floating around them. "Master! It seems that our foes this time are huge in number; we request you give us some of your blood essence injection," the penguin with a regal sword stuck in its right hand and a shield in its left hand spoke. "Hahaha, of course! I am going to give your best treat this time, so work hard," Jin spoke with augh as ten glittering red needles materialized before they were stuck to ten penguins and disappeared. The ten penguins'' aura changed along with their eyes that glowed red and ck, "PENGOS! Let''s goo!" "EHYYYYYYY!" All penguins shouted excitedly. Jinughed as he looked at Aren with a grin, "what about your powers?" But suddenly, his face changed as he remembered something and shouted to his penguins, "don''t forget your limits! After dying six times, obediently activate your recall!" "ROGER, MASTER!" "Are those penguins rted to your path power?" Aren asked with a surprised expression because he felt that the energy from penguins was unique. "Indeed," Jin nodded with a grin, "my path is called Pengos Khaos." After saying that, Jin waved his hand and summoned two giant gs in his hand, "these are Khaos gs, hahaha. Let''s go!!!" Aren nodded with a grin, "alright." *Swoooosh¡­Swoooosh..* Aren summoned his Articule gears from his inner space as they floated in front of him. "Cool, hahaha," Jinughed before speaking, "the beast tide is here; let''s start." Aren manipted his gears as they flew towards the battlefield while he observed everything through his Astral-X eyes and started attacking. The war started full-on as colorful energies flowed everywhere and loud sts and lights began dancing on the ground and sky. *ROARRRRR¡­.*RRRRRRAWRR¡­*SCREEEEEEEEE¡­* *AWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO¡­.* *BOOOOOOOOOOM¡­.* Aren manipted [Destructo] to only makerge-scale attacks at the ces with the most gathered beasts while he focused on the eyes of giant beasts through the five rings. activated. activated. "Demonic me? Hahaha, that''s some good shit you got there," thepanion of Jin spoke as he saw Aren''s gears wrapped up in dark-icy blue mes. "But it seems that your demonic affinity is still at level 1 with little progress." "Koshin, you can speak with himter. For now, let us focus on ourpetition, hahaha," Jin spoke with his eyes on the battle as he waved his gs and released different shaped waves towards the battlefield. Some hit his penguins, while others hit the beasts that penguins were fighting to aid them. Chapter 157 - Beast Tide Over! Tournament? Chapter 157 ¨C Beast Tide Over! Tournament? *SWOOOOOH¡­.* Suddenly, a flowing beam shot towards Jin from one of the flying beasts that looked like a turtle with wings. Jin grinned as he opened his mouth and blew outwards strongly, causing a pink balloon-like thing to conjure in front of him that deflected theser right back at the turtle before pointing both of his Khaos gs towards the turtle monsters. Aren also received an attack from a flying wolf with three heads as some of the monsters at Supreme and Exceed rank were deliberately allowed to go behind the lines by those big shots at the front line since they focused on big preys and held them back. Aren manipted his [Hexhisra] shield to block the attack before manipting his hammer to one-shot the wolf with his usual buffed attack. This time, he had gained someprehensive idea on how much energies to use to kill a beast in one shot with his hammer without wasting valuable energies like Soul, Armalist force, and Mutant Magic as they take time to recover, unlike Spirit energy which he can recover through Spirit stones and absorb from the atmosphere to recover it faster. *BOOOOM¡­* [-63,700] "Close," Aren muttered. The wolf''s health was 60,000, and he had adjusted the energy ording to its defenses, but he still wasted a bit since he dealt 3,700 damage more than necessary. "Hahaha, that''s some powerful attack," Jin spoke with augh as he also shredded the turtle beast into uneven pieces as if it was sted from inside out. "Your attack was more powerful," Aren said with a grin as he saw the turtle''s stats and saw the damage, "however, it seems that you are behind me in thepetition." ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª- [Aren] -27,580 [Jin] -21,910 ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª- "Jin, this guy''s hammer is no joke. You were focused on your battle, but a minute ago, I saw his hammer releasing an even more powerful attack at that Exceed rank beast in the front line and gave a finishing blow to it." "It looks like I have to focus more, hahaha," Jin said with augh. Aren was focusing as he asionally waved his hands to release skills while manipting his gears the entire time to attack continuously. He only used fire primal conjuring attacks from the rings for the highest power, such as fire and water or fire and lightning. Since he could see his target''s health, he also gave finishing blows even though the exp. he would get would be less since the experience was distributed through contribution, unlike that emergency quest in the beginner vige where he didn''t get experience by killing the wolves. Aren focused the rings and the chain whip on attacking the stronger monster to get more contribution. He focused on their eyes and legs most of the time so that other powerhouses could have an easier time dealing with them. As for the [Destructo] hammer, he focused it on both parts since some monsters would also attack him in the sky, and he had to attack them or trap them so that they could be finished off. He used from [Slinger] gear for trapping because he could only affect Supreme-rank monsters with it. At the frontlines, it was not effective at all against those Exceed and higher lifeforms. Time passed as seconds turned into minutes and minutes into hours¡­ The beast tide was almost over by now. After five minutes, all of the beasts were cleared up. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª [Aren] -217,450 [Jin] -249,485 ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª- "Geez, you really shocked me there," Jin spoke with a wry smile, "You were struggling with Spirit energy recovery as your attacks had decreased halfway." Konish nodded, "he only had one force-level spirit stone, unlike us." "You should be able to buy some force-level spirit stone after earning from quests in the Guild; they cost like 20,000 gold coins formon-grade," said Jin before grinning, "honestly, I would have lost if you were not struggling with Spirit energy." "Well, I could get one more force level 2 spirit stone from a chest, but I had to prepare something before using it," Aren said with a wry smile, "anyway, your penguins were really ferocious, and those gs¡­I saw their effects, very powerful." Jin nodded before ncing at Konish, ''let''s invite him to the tournament.'' Konish nodded before he smiled at Aren and said, "since you are an otherworlder, you must be in a hurry to get stronger, right?" "Yep," Aren nodded, "I also would like to get information on how to initiate demonic affinity and how to form a fire affinity core. Also, I will have to form demonic affinity core as well after initiating it." "Initiating? You mean you have 0% understanding of the Demonic element and want to awaken that dormant affinity, right?" "Yeah," Aren smiled wryly as he just used the term in his way since he didn''t have information about such things. "But from your question, you seem to have awakened the fire affinity, so why don''t you awaken your demonic affinity as well unless¡­" "Well, I gained both affinities in different ways. Got demonic affinity from a Demonic temple by sessfully passing the trial and got fire affinity through the bloodline transfusion." "Wait, wait, wait¡­," Jin spoke hurridly with a slight shock on his face, "Demonic trial? how did you get a quota for that? They are super fucking hard to get since each of those Demonic temples can start their demonic trial only using certain items that are hard to get or after a certain period of time when their mystical pools can recover." "You got your affinity by staying in a strange pool, right?" Aren nodded before he showed the Mark of Yakum, "got this Mark of Yakum, and by using it, I was allowed to take the trial." "Holy shit!" "Damn!" Jin and Konish were dumbfounded seeing the ck card with golden patterns before looking at Aren with respect, "this thing, you can only get it with your hard work, talent, and wits; there''s no shortcut to it. Bro, I am sure you will rise high if you don''t die midway." "Man, you should awaken your demonic affinity as soon as possible. You also must have gained some powerful ability along with this, right? Damn, I''m a bit envious," Jin spoke enviously with a wry smile. "But I don''t know how to," Aren said with a speechless expression. "Oh yeah, you asked us about it. Anyway, we will give you your question''s answers and the opportunity to do it on the way," Konish said with a smile. "On the way?" Aren raised his eyebrows, ''are they gonna invite me somewhere?'' "Yep," Konish nodded, "we are going for a tournament in the Nether region in this Underworld. It''s for Supreme lifeforms only, and on top of bing stronger during the tournament due to various events, the final reward is simply awesome." "What is the final reward?" Aren asked with curiosity. Chapter 158 - On The Way Chapter 158 ¨C On The Way Hearing the question, Jin and Konish coughed embarrassedly. "Ahem¡­well, we don''t know what the rewards are, but they are going to be awesome for sure since Mythical city lords hold thesepetitions to make the younger generation who dares toe to the Underworld stronger." Jin nodded, "Of course, not everyone gets entry into the tournament because, before the entry, there will be entrance tests." "You have to pass the tests before being able to participate in the tournament." "Interesting¡­," Aren nodded before saying with determination, "as long as it helps me get stronger at fast speed, I am in. Let''s go." "Come on, hop on this chariot since it''s better that way," Jin said with a grin. Aren nodded as he dispersed the throne and flew into the chariot. Konish controlled the chariot as they started flying in the north-east direction. Aren was d to have found this tournament opportunity and a ride to the location. "How long until we reach our destination?" Aren asked. "We will stop in the middle for affinity awakening and form both affinity''s cores," Jin said, "Hmmm, taking that into ount, we might reach our destination in 14 to 17 hours depending on how fast we finish with your matter." "Thank you for the help," said Aren as he nodded with a smile. "Hahaha, no problem. It''s more fun this way, and making connections with people is one of the reasons why we are here. Here is the crest of the Kingdom we came from. We are from an Archduke family in the El Nochas Kingdom in Marion continent." After saying that, Jin took out a token and gave it to Athan. [El Nochas Crest] -Guest token of El Nochas Kingdom. -Authority: Archduke. Aren nodded as he took the token and put it inside the inventory after reading its details, ''now I got two tokens.'' ¡­ After two hours of continuously flying, theynded at a dark valley with concentrated demonic energy in the atmosphere. "I assume this is where I will awaken my demonic affinity," Aren spoke while looking at the dark valley. "Indeed," Konish spoke as he descended the chariot in the valley. The three of them got down and started walking in the valley before stopping under a giant tree. "Aren, now you have to spread your senses and feel the demonic power in the atmosphere. You have to make a resonance with it and understand a bit of it to awaken your dormant Demonic affinity," Jin said before he and Konish stood at both sides of Aren. Aren nodded as he closed his eyes and started feeling demonic power in the sky and trying toprehend its power. "We are not too deep into the valley, so we are safe, but you have to awaken your demonic affinity as soon as possible," Konish said as he and Jin started looking around for the presence of any beasts. However, right after he finished speaking, Aren opened his eyes with surprise and spoke, "done." "What? You mean you awakened it?" Jin was surprised, "that was fast." Konish had a thoughtful expression before saying with a nod, "I think I understand. I saw him using demonic skills, and he was constantly using that Demonic me. I assume he had been using these skills for days already, which made it easier for him to awaken the demonic affinity." "Oh yeah," Jin nodded before smiling, "well, that''s good. But now, you have to create an affinity core for your demonic affinity and fire affinity core to further progress in demonic and fire elements." "Yep. Once you make those affinity cores, you will create a mystical foundation for your elemental connection to your soul and body. After forming those cores, yourprehension and understanding of those elements will be infused in your affinity cores, making your elemental mastery stronger." "For instance, I have 28% understanding of ice element," Konish said as he showed his palm to Aren and conjured ice kes over his palm as they floated. The ice kes were mostly white with a faint blue hue to them. "Currently, I am trying toprehend a profound ice elemental power called Morphit Star ice," said Konish. He snapped his finger to create a transparent barrier with a blue hue before taking out an icy b from his inventory. It floated on top of his palm. It was a palm-sized icy b with mystical deep blue andpis blue patterns. ¡ª¨C [Morphit Star Ice Elemental b] -Rank: Legendary -Type: Profound Elemental power -Requirement: Ice Affinity -Effect: One can infuse their soul sense into the b, experience the Morphit Star Ice profound element, and try toprehend it. ¡ª¨C Aren was startled as he saw the first legendary rank item, and it was so close to him that he could literally take it with a snap of his finger. Naturally, he was not going to do so. Konish put it away after two seconds and dispersed the barrier he created to block the aura of the Icy b since it was like a hot potato. Its aura was easily recognizable as something valuable, so it''s better to block the aura from spreading out. "Oh yeah, you said that you have fire affinity through a bloodline. If you achieved that affinity through bloodline, then it shouldn''t be a normal me profound power," Jin said as he remembered that Aren got fire affinity through a bloodline. "Yea, the profound me power I have called Outrious Aember me," Aren said with a smile, "but I can''t produce it since I don''t have affinity core." "Outrious Aember me? I don''t remember there being a profound me power of that name in the records we have," Jin was surprised before he looked at Konish, "right?" Konish nodded before he took out a book and pointed his finger at it before a light pink thread released from his finger and entered into the book. He then closed his eyes for two seconds before opening them, "Nope, there is no bloodline that can grant a seed of profound me power, Outrious Aember me. At least, not in our records." "It''s fine," Aren waved his hand and shook his head, "you probably won''t find it since I got that profound me power from a mutated bloodline. Anyway, I''ll show you that me power once I form my fire affinity core." "Alright, since you are done here, then let''s continue. The next stop is Gaar Underworld City, where you can form your affinity cores more quickly," Konish said as he summoned the chariot. The three of them hopped onto the chariot as they flew away. Aren then looked at the notifications regarding affinity and finally found the nature of demonic power. Chapter 159 - Demonic Element Chapter 159 ¨C Demonic Element [You have sessfully awakened your Demonic affinity. Current progression at 0.1%] [Demonic element is an advanced element, and since you are the 9th person to awaken an advanced Element from your mortal realm, you will get an Ennea Surprise Chest.] [Affinity] -Level 1 (0.1% understanding) -1st Effect: Increase effects of fire-rted skills and abilities by 0.1% -2nd Effect: You can manipte fire element particles in the atmosphere and produce natural fire (In your case, you have a unique me: Outrious Aember me.) . -Level 1 (0.1% understanding) -1st Effect: Increase effects of demonic skills and abilities by 0.1% -2nd Effect: You can manipte demonic elemental particles in the atmosphere and produce demonic energy. ¡ª¨C After getting a 0.1% understanding of the Demonic element, Aren also knew about the basic effects of demonic energy. The nature of demonic energy was truly befitting of an advanced element. It can affect the mind and body both, and it was only used on those two things both negatively and positively. Negatively on enemies and positively on self, on both soul and body aspects. On the soul aspect, Aren can infuse demonic energy in his soul and invoke Will Force. He can use this force to suppress others and dominate them. Even if it can''t dominate the target entirely, it can disturb and reduce theirbat ability since suppressing willpower negatively affects targets. The second nature is physical. Aren can enhance his physical aspects by infusing demonic energy into his body. This infusion of demonic energy brings out temporary versatile enhancement in his body as long as demonic energy is provided to that physical aspect of his body. For instance, if he infuses the demonic energy in his dragon tail, he can physically make it stronger, and on top of that, it would provide a random but not totally random enhancement in his tail. ording to what Aren felt, the enhancement is rted to the atmosphere around him. For better information, Aren will have to use itter after forming the Demonic affinity core. ¡­ After traveling for another hour, they arrived at arge underworld city that was bigger than the previous city. "We are finally at the Gaar Underworld City, "Konish said as he descended the chariot before the three of them started walking towards the entrance gates. "Aren, you can literally get most of the things special to the underworld and more in this city since it''s one of the top five cities in the underworld," Jin said with a beaming smile, "Although it''s ranked fifth, it''s still a great thing." "And the City Lord of this city is our rtive, so¡­you know, many things are easier to do here," Konish said with a faint smile. The three of them reached the gate, and Konish showed a token to the guards before letting them go inside with respect in their eyes. However, their respect was directed towards the token. "One of the top five cities¡­then I guess your rtive must be a Legendary powerhouse, right?" Aren asked. "Indeed," Jin nodded. "Well, the rtive is actually our uncle, blood-rted uncle. However, he has severed ties with our main family," Jin said with a sigh before he smiled, "but we are his dear nephews, so he still helps us in need and cares for us." "Aren, we will first go visit our uncle. You can also form your affinity cores in the pce since it has specialized facilities there," Konish said. The three of them were walking towards thergest pce in the city. Aren was listening to them and also looking at the people, stores, and buildings. They were all made up of tough materials like silver-ck wood and Staron metal. "What kind of facilities is needed to form affinity cores?" Aren asked with doubt because he felt that it shouldn''t require that much preparation since its a natural andprehensive thing. "Well, for starters, you need to be in a ce with a concentrated amount of elemental particles of your affinity," Jin paused a little bit before continuing, "in such ces, you canprehend your elements faster and reach 1% progress in your level 1 element power, after which, the process to form an affinity core will semi-automatically start. "Semi-automatically because you have to continuously pour Spirit energy and Soul energy into the ongoing process while the affinity core is forming in your inner space." After Jin finished speaking, Konish chimed in with a hint of proudness in his, "our uncle''s pce has a facility that can provide you such contracted environment for your fire and demonic element. Naturally, you can also use such facilities in the city by paying gold coins, but they are not as good as the ones in our uncle''s pce." "Oh?" Aren was surprised before his eyebrows creased a bit, "but¡­I just met you several hours ago, and I am a stranger to your uncle. I don''t know why you want to help me for free." "Eh¡­It''s not free, of course. Hahaha," Jinughed before he patted Aren''s shoulder, "An event or two in the tournament requires us to team up. So we are just investing in you for a better chance at winning more points." "We don''t know the exact events. But every time, there are at least one or two events that require participants to team up," Konish said with a smile. "Anyway," said Jin as he grinned, "such facilities in the city are not that expensive either, and requesting our uncle to use the facility in the pce is not that big of a deal." "Alright," Aren nodded before a determined smile formed on his face, "However, since I am participating in the tournament, I will aim for the top." "Cough¡­, well, there will be hidden dragons and crouching tigers in the tournament. Even we are not sure that we can get the first rank," Konish said with a wry smile. "It''s all about mindset," Aren said with a grin, showing his white teeth, "since I am going to participate in the tournament, then I am going for the top rank! It will be a goal with a progress bar, and I will give my entire focus and work to fill that progress bar towards the goal." Konish and Jin looked at each other beforeughing loudly, "hahaha, I guess you are right! We shouldn''t assume our loss or underestimate ourselves! All right, let''s see who reaches the top!" The three of them talked and walked before arriving at their destination after a while and entered inside the majestic pce. Chapter 160 - Affinity Cores Chapter 160 ¨C Affinity Cores After entering the pce, Aren met with their uncle and looked at him for a few seconds as a sh of surprise flickered in his eyes. The two brothers, Jin and Konish, requested their uncle to let Aren use the Elemental Zones, the facility they spoke about. Afterward, Aren was led by a butler towards another hall in the pce. This hall was mostly empty as it only had six doors in it and two sets of tables with four chairs at each of those tables. Each of those six doors had a different name-te on top of them. [Demonic] [Fire] [Water] [Darkness] [Blood] [Metal] Aren first entered the [Fire] door and arrived in a thirty square meter room but¡­the room was wreathed with zing mes flowing everywhere. However, he was not feeling any heat or anything but could feel how hot it was. Basically, he was not negatively affected by the heat and mes since he had fire affinity. He could be hurt by untamed fire energy or from enemy fire attacks, obviously. It was not like he gained fire immunity just because he has an affinity with the fire element. Instead, this room was filled with pure fire elemental particles, and they don''t hurt anyone as long as you have awakened the fire affinity. Aren heard from Jin and Konish that facilities like these Elemental zones that are semi-artificial could only help one get a 1% understanding of level 1 affinity. To upgrade affinity to level 2, one needs to have a natural opportunity, epiphany, enlightenment, or such chances. Then after achieving level 2 affinity, they need to make progress on their own by finding natural elemental spots or natural treasures. ''Well, I should hurry up and form the affinity core first,'' thought Aren before sitting cross-legged and entering meditation while using his senses to sense andprehend the fire element power. ¡­ On the other hand, Jin, Konish, and their uncle, Loushin, sat at a table in a not too big room. "Where did you meet this new friend of yours?" Loushin asked with curiosity, "he seems to have a connection with those red dragons in the Beastar Continent." "What?!.. Uncle, you mean those Burning Crimson red dragons? That''s a Mythical n of red dragons. How does Aren have a connection with them?" Jin was shocked. "I just felt a simr aura from his body, but it was not entirely simr," Loushin spoke with a slight frown as he tried to remember if he had seemed something simr but failed as he shook his head. "His bloodline aura felt simr to those dragons but not simr at the same time," Loushin concluded while shaking his head. "Oh yeah. Aren said that he had a mutated bloodline," Konish spoke as he pped his hand on hisp before speaking with a shocked expression, "so he got a mutated bloodline, but it''s rted to the Burning Crimson Red-Dragon Bloodline?" "Hmmm, if the mutation got him a more powerful bloodline instead of degrading it, he has a better future as long as he continues getting stronger," Loushin said. "We will just ask Aren about it if he doesn''t mind answering. He also has a profound me power known as Outrious Aember me. Uncle, have you ever heard of it?" Konish asked. "Nope," Loushin shook his head, "Never heard of it. Anyway, I have arranged your items for this journey. Come with me." The three of them stood up and left the room. On the other hand, Aren had entered deeply focused mode right now as he was feeling the profoundness of the fire element and trying toprehend it. His understanding of the level 1 fire element was increasing every few minutes. 0.6% 0.4% 0.9% 0.11% 0.16% After fifty-seven minutes, he reached 1% understanding of fire element and suddenly felt pure fire elemental particles entering his body and whirling together like a tornado. Aren felt something instinctively and knew what he had to do now. It was a thought from his own being that he told him to start infusing spirit energy into the fire element tornado. He didn''t hold back and infused a total of 20,000 spirit energy into the tornado. Afterward, he started infusing soul energy into it as an instinctive reaction invoked from his fire affinity. As he started infusing the soul energy, the now lively fire element tornado that was mixed with spirit energy started getting smaller and smaller. After a minute, the tornado became thumb-sized before it stopped spinning and dispersed before revealing a round sparkling red fire affinity core. ¡ª¨C [Fire Affinity Core] -Profound me power: Outrious Aember me -Fire energy: [1,000/1,000] (20 per second) ¡ª¨C [Congrattions on forming your first affinity core. Now for your information, as yourprehension of Fire Element increases, the fire affinity core will increase its fire energy capacity so you can produce more of your Outrious Aemer me.] "Finally," Aren spoke as he stretched his hand in the front and thought about conjuring the Outrious Aember me. Suddenly, all fire element particles in the room turned frenzied as a beautiful wisp of me appeared on Aren''s palm. This me looked aember with dark red and orange sparks. Aren hurridly put it away seeing the hectic situation in the room. He then stood up since the next was about forming a Demonic affinity core. After leaving the [Fire] room, he entered inside the [Demonic] room under the supervision of a butler. This room was filled with Demonic particles, and Aren startedprehending the Demonic element with full focus. After an hour, he also reached 1% in the Demonic element as the process of affinity core-forming started. Aren had to use the spirit stone to recover his spirit energy since he consumed 20,000 of it to form the fire affinity core. As for the soul energy? Well, only 1000 soul energy was consumed in that process, so he still had 2050 soul energy. After five minutes, he also finished forming his Demonic affinity core. ¡ª¨C [Demonic Affinity Core] -Demonic energy: [1,000/1,000] (30 per second) -Profound Demonic power: none. ¡ª¨C He then heard the voice about forming a Demonic affinity core, but it was shorter than the one he got after forming Fire Affinity Core since he didn''t have any Profound Demonic power. After he was done, Aren stood up despite feeling the temptation to stay in the room and continue to understand this Demonic Element and increase its progress deeply. However, he had to leave because once he reached 1% of both elements'' understanding, the difficulty ofprehending them increased by a bit. As Aren left the room, he saw Konish and Jin sitting at a table in the hall. "Done?" Jin asked with a grin. "Done," Aren nodded as he snapped his finger, and a wisp of Outrious Aember me appeared on his hand. "We got some questions, but you can only answer if you want.. However, we will ask them on the way so let''s continue our journey," Konish said as he and Jin stood up. Chapter 161 - Nether Region, Nether City Chapter 161 ¨C Nether Region, Nether City [A/N: okay so¡­I fked up. But I already fixed it. The thing is¡­when Aren broke through to Supreme-lifeform. He also HAD to level up four times¡­from 26 to reach 30 before breaking up and making his spirit core rating to 10. I have now edited that chapter and fixed it. I also reduced necessary Exp from his stored exp and edited in the chapters as well. He also got 20 stat points from leveling up, which I added in reserve with his current 17 stat points. Aren is now level 31.] ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª -Name: Aren Azrael ~Life Stage: Supreme-1 (Seed Stage) -Level:31 [0/65,000] (Stored Exp: 634,690) -Path Level: 11 [596,064/900,000 Exp] -Body Health: [24,600/24,600](cont*100), Soul Health: [605/605](soul stat*5) -Bloodline: Meteoric Aember Crimson-Dragon Bloodline -Spirit Energy Pool: [18,350/18,350], -Soul Energy: [3025/3025] (soul stat*25) -Aember MME: [1000/1000] (23/min). -Mystic Field: [0/500] points -| Stats | , , , , -Stat points: 37 -Skill points: 4 -Ability points: 1 -Abilities: , , , . -Skills: , , , , . ¡ª¡ª¨C Ten minutester, Aren, Konish, and Jin left the pce and went together to buy the materials in the city. Aren took an hour purchasing the materials and spent over 25 thousand gold coins. Afterward, the three of them left the city and continued towards their destination, the Nether Region. Once they got out of the city and started flying, Konish looked at Aren. "So, Aren, if you don''t mind, can you show us your profound me power?" Konish said as he took out a transparent white stone. Aren looked at the stone and got its information. ¡ª¨C [Profound Scale Stone] -Rank: Special -Effect: can check the potential of profound elemental powers. ¡ª¨C After reading that, Aren stretched his hand and consumed a bit of fire energy to produce the Outrious Aember me. A wisp of Aember me sparkling with crimson motes appeared on top of Aren''s palm. "We''ll check the potential of your Outrious Aember me using this stone," Jin said with a smile. Aren smiled and nodded, "go ahead, I also want to know." He already got details about his Outrious Aember me through his Astral-X eyes, but he still wanted to know what this Profound Scale stone disys. Konish then moved the Profound Scale stone towards the me and spoke, "manipte that wisp of me and infuse it inside this stone." Aren did that as he manipted that tiny wisp of Outrious Aember me and infused it inside the stone. The transparent stone turned faintly red right after that, and zing numbers started to form in the stone. 17 49 74 89 After five seconds, the number finally stopped at 96. "Damn! That''s almost reaching the potential of Low-grade level 4, but it''s currently at high-grade level 3," Jin enviously said with a wry smile. Konish was speechless, "and I thought that I was lucky to have Morphit Star Ice, being one of the best profound elemental power in this generation, reaching Medium-grade level 3." Jin punched Konish''s shoulder andughed, "unlike Aren, you have yet to make that profound elemental power your own. Stop bragging." "What do you mean by potential?" Aren asked with curiosity. His Astral-X eyes didn''t say anything about potential. It only had core information rted to the me, like its effects. "Basically, you can easily increase your understanding of Fire element to level 3, achieving a Level 3 fire affinity," Jin said with a grin. "Oh? level 3 easily?" Aren was startled and excited, "how?" "Hahaha, don''t take him seriously. It''s not that easy to achieve level 3 affinity in any element," Konish said with a chuckle and shook his head, "but certainly, your progress in understanding fire element will be faster with a profound elemental power." "Ahem, It''s like this. When you are trying toprehend fire elements, you should produce your Outrious Aember me and diffuse it in the atmosphere. That way, yourprehension speed of the fire element will increase," Jin said with a smile. "Yep, when you do find a natural spot with a high amount of fire elements or train in the artificial elemental zones in any city, you should do that from now on," Konish said, "you can increase the potential level of your profound elemental power, but you can only do that when your affinity level reaches the same level as the potential level of your elemental power." "So I need to reach level 3 in fire affinity before trying to increase the potential level of my profound elemental power? Got it," Aren nodded. ¡­ They continued their journey as time passed, from seconds into minutes and minutes into hours. After fourteen hours, they finally arrived at the Nether region. They went to the heart of the Nether Region, which was the only city in this region, also called Nether Underworld City. A lot of people, especially young people, flooded the city. Aren, Jin, and Konish entered a restaurant in this city and ordered some dishes to eat. "So, there''s still one day and thirteen hours before thepetition starts. What''s the n?" Jin asked as he ate the grilled fish. "Of course, I n to amass as much strength as possible," Aren said with a smile as he took a bite from a food dish with meat on a stick and spicy herbs. "Wow, this is good," Aren said with sparkling eyes. Konish nodded as he smiled, "the food here is good." "Anyway, I need to enter a private training room or something like that to prepare some things to increase my strength," Aren said before he thought of something and spoke, "I have an item bound to my path which can increase my good luck or bad luck. But it''s random. You want to try it?" "Oh?" Konish was started before heughed, "I also have an ability rted to my path that increases my luck. Because of that ability, I managed to get that profound b of Morphit Star Ice." Aren was surprised, ''It only increases his luck? Maybe it''s not random like my revolver. That b was a Legendary-rank item. No wonder Konish managed to get it despite his strength.'' ¡­ While Aren, Jin, and Konish were eating in the restaurant, "It looks like Aren is in the city. Hahaha, I was going to look for him, but since he is here, then it''s good. Let''s go, Alfred, Vini; I''ll introduce you to my friend," Tyrance said with a broad smile as he looked at a pulsing token in his hand. "Let''s see if he is as good as you said," Vini said with narrowed eyes. Vini was a charming young girl with sunset-red twin ponytails and a cute round face with blue eyes. She wore a white frock dress with red-colored designs. "He is nearby," Tyrance said as he checked Aren''s location after infusing his spirit energy in the token. Chapter 162 - Meet-up Chapter 162 ¨C Meet-up Tyrance entered the restaurant and spoke loudly, "Aren!" "Oof, brother, you don''t need to shout," Vini entered inside and frowned before she looked at everyone in the restaurant. People in the restaurant looked at Tyrance after hearing his shout, and Aren was also startled hearing the familiar voice as he turned around. "Tyrance?" "Haha, my good brother, we met again sooner than expected," Tyranceughed as he approached Aren and sat down at the table. The table was rectangr and was single-seat couch-oriented with a total of four couches. Vini and Alfred also arrived, and after seeing that, the waiter nearby extended the table by pressing a switch at the corner of a table. A faint pattern appeared on the left side of the table before it was extended by one and a half meters. Afterward, the waiter took out two couches from his inventory and put them on both sides of the table. Vini sat beside Tyrance while Alfred sat beside Jin. Aren introduced Jin and Konish to Tyrance, while Tyrnace introduced Vini to Aren. Vini turned out to be Tyrance''s fianc¨¦. "So, weren''t you going back to the kingdom?" Aren asked. "Eh, yeah. First, I went to breakthrough to be Supreme lifeform and then was going to return, but Alfred got the news of this tournament, so I decided to arrive here and participate. I was also going to find you using that token and bring you here today, but when I checked the token, I found that you were nearby, hahaha," Tyrance said. "I see," Aren nodded before smiling, "well, congrats, now you can finally use the full power of your path." "Hehe, yep," Tyrance said with a beaming smile. "So, Tyrnace, which kingdom are you from?" Konish asked with a smile. "I am from the Tyr Kingdom in Marion Continent," Tyrance said with a grin. "Tyr Kingdom? The one that rapidly rose to prominence 18 years ago?" Jin and Konish were startled, "do you know about Grand Elder Spiralfrost? Have you met her?" Hearing that, Tyrance and Vini looked at each other and grinned. "Ahem, actually, Tyrance is the prince of that kingdom," Aren said with a wry smile. Alfred smiled as he took a sip from the teacup, "Grand Elder Spiralfrost is Prince Tyrance and Princess Vini''s grandmother. So obviously, they would have met her." Konish and Jin were shocked. Aren didn''t know why they asked about Grand Elder Spiralfrost, but if she was Tyrance''s grandmother, she should be a Mythical lifeform since Tyrance told him that his grandmother was one. "Grand Elder Spiralfrost¡­," Konish muttered before he sighed, "19 years ago, she appeared out of nowhere and wreaked havoc. Previously unranked, she directly rose to 8th rank in Mythical rankings and even founded the Tyr Kingdom." "Yep," Tyrance said with a proud voice, "that''s my grandmother." "What about you two? Where are you from?" Vini asked. ¡­ Afterward, Aren and others talked for a while, and after they finished eating, they left the restaurant. "Tyrance, you three are staying in an Inn?" Jin asked. "Yep," Tyrance nodded, "we are going to reserve our rooms in an Inn. Aren, did you reserve yours yet?" Before Aren could answer, Konish said with a smile, "no need to book that. We have a three-story big house with seven rooms, two halls, and one training ground; let''s just go there." "If that''s the case, then let''s go there," Aren nodded. A private residence was the best choice for him to do his things. "Alright, are you fine with that, Vini?" Tyrance nodded before asking his fianc¨¦, Vini. "I am fine with that," Vini nodded with a smile, "I also want to spar with them, hehe." ¡­ After five minutes of walking, they arrived at the residence of Konish and Jin. "I''ll have to excuse myself since I want to finish some training alone," Aren said with a smile before looking at Konish, "can you show me my room?" "It''s fine. As for the room, you can just pick any room you like; all of them have more than necessary furniture," Jin said with a grin. "Alright," Aren nodded. "Once you are finished,e to the training ground," Tyrance said, "hehe, we can have one more duel. This time, let''s see who wins." ¡­ Aren just entered a random room on the first floor and took out two boxes. A skill box containing a random skill rted to the Lost Ancient dungeon. (A-SS) A box containing a random grade force level 2 Spirit stone. Afterward, he took out [Fortuna Infortunium] revolver and shot a wisp bullet in his head after infusing 1000 Armalist force into the revolver. ¡ª¨C [Aren] -Lifespan: 300 -Luck: 39 ¡ª¨C "Thirty-nine¡­," Aren muttered before opening the skill box. Thirty-nine was above average luck, so he decided to open the skill box with it. After opening the box, Aren saw a skill stone sparkling with dark-green patterns inside it. He looked at it and got information about it through Astral-X eyes. ¡ª¨C [Spirit Poison Totem] -Skill rank: AA -Skill level: 1 (max 5) -Cost: 3000-5000 spirit energy -Duration: 1 to 3 minutes -Effect: Summons a totem that spreads poison in a ten-meter surrounding area with the totem as the center. -Poison Effect: Deals rotting damage once touched or inhaled and reduce the recovery of spirit energy. Damage of the poison increases if one has the Advanced element, poison. ¡ª¨C "Useless to me. Guess I can only sell it," Aren spoke as he sighed before shooting his head with another wisp bullet. He then looked at his luck stats, and it had turned to 0. Afterward, he shot another wisp bullet at his head. -Luck: -19 "Minus¡­," Aren wryly smiled as he took out a ck stone and stone cutter tool before opening it. *piiiiiiich¡­* A ck ink released from the stone right after he cut it, turning his face into pitch ck. "Damn¡­," Aren muttered before standing up, entering the bathroom, and cleaning his face. He also cleaned his leather armor since it was stained a bit. However, when he looked in the mirror, he found out that his face had stayed ck even though he had cleaned off the ink. "No way!" Aren was startled and rubbed his face strongly, but the color of his face didn''t change one bit. "Fuck¡­." Chapter 163 - Sacrificial Bomb Chapter 163 ¨C Sacrificial Bomb "I''ll ask Jin and others to see if they can turn my face to normalter," Aren muttered before he sighed and sat down and used the revolver again to put a wisp bullet in his head. -Luck: 21 "Alright, good enough," Aren nodded as he opened the box of spirit stones. After opening it, he heard a voice as the spirit stone directly appeared in his inventory. ¡ª¨C [Congrattions, you have acquired an Umon grade force level 2 spirit stone.] [Spirit Stone II] -Rank: Umon -Effect: Contains 15,000 force level 2 Spirit energy. -Note: It takes two hours to refill this spirit stone fully when exposed to the atmosphere. ¡ª¨C "The Rare grade had 25,000 Spirit energy, and it took one hour and forty minutes to refill it fully," Aren muttered before nodding, "so the spirit stone''s refilling speed is better at higher grades as well, not just their capacity." For now, Aren had two spirit stones of force level 2, but he wanted more. However, they were very expensive. Amon force level 2 spirit stone was priced at 43,000 gold coins, which blew his mind. But he understood the reasoning behind it as well. These spirit stones were not found in masses, and they can recover Spirit energy by themselves when exposed to the atmosphere. They were not "use and throw" type of things. As such, Aren decided to sell his force level 1 spirit stonester and get some gold coins since they were also not cheap despite being force level 1 spirit stones. "It''s been twenty-five days since I got the wolven sun piece," Aren muttered with a smile, "the Emporio portal should have produced two more exotic material." After checking the new spirit stone, he ced it back inside his inventory and entered inside the Emporio Zone. ''Time to make some bomb gears,'' Aren thought with a grin as he had already bought materials and necessary things using 25,000 gold coins. He found gunpowder-like material in this world that would react to Spirit energy and explode. He also got some metal with high sharpness to it as he nned to turn it into tiny shards and add it into the bomb. Now all he had to do was to create a blueprint of the bomb and then craft them. After he entered inside, the first thing he saw was two materials floating inside two different bubbles in the air. The first bubble had a gold bar the size of a fist with dark-blue patterns on it. ¡ª¨C [Golden Deep Blue Bar] -Rank: Rare -An extremely tough metal with a condensed inner structure. Resistance to shockwaves and pration both. -It also may provide a random water-rted trait. ¡ª¨C Afterward, Aren looked at another golden bubble with a ck powder inside it. The powder was sparkling with a light grey sheen. ¡ª¨C [Orchulum Metal Powder] -Rank: Supra -This powder can be used in thest process to add ayer of toughness to any item. -It has the power to channel physical force with greater intensity in it, so it''s rmended to use it on gloves, poles, or other such melee blunt weapons where users channel their physical strength in battle. ¡ª¨C "Interesting," Aren nodded before he decided to save both of these materials. He manipted his Armalist force towards those bubbles as both items in the bubble disappeared before appearing in his inventory. After that, the bubbles burst and disappeared. He then looked at the time bar on top of the Emporio Portal. [5 days, 18 hours, and 48 minutes until spawning of next material] ''Time to work,'' Aren thought as he wore his gloves and moved towards the Blueprint device before he started creating the blueprint of a bomb. He had to design a bomb mechanism that could explode in a certain time frame after he infused Armalist force in it. This way, he could explode the bomb and also use at the same time for greater damage. ¡­ Time passed as Aren was lost in the process of designing his new gear. It took him one hour just to create the blueprint. Afterward, he input the blueprint in the Gear designing device and started designing the gear ording to the blueprint. [Error. Your current knowledge and the Design and Crafting devices are not at sufficient level to design the mechanism of this blueprint and craft this bomb gear.] [Please read the additional books you have gotten after passing the 2nd path test to increase your knowledge further, which would also initiate the upgrade of your three devices.] "No wonder¡­" Aren wryly smiled as he couldn''t create that reactive mechanism of one of the metal chips inside the bomb when he was designing. He just couldn''t find any option in the device to make that happen, and he also didn''t know how he would implement it inside the bomb. He looked at the bookshelf and saw that there were indeed two more books on the shelf. After moving towards the shelf, he infused Armalist force in the books as their knowledge was transferred in his mind, along with a chain of stinging headaches. At the same time, the three devices shined as they upgraded. They became bigger with more facilities and options in them. He spent an hour absorbing the knowledge and properly understanding it before looking at the three upgraded devices. The most significant change was in the Crafting Device as another section appeared right beside it; a box of a mysterious blue field with a silver frame. The silver frame was connected to a table below it by a pulsing blue string. The bomb was not a sword or armor that he had needed to forge by smashing and meshing together materials and then inscribing them. So, the bomb he was designing was not possible to craft on the previous version of the gear Crafting device. However, he will be able to craft this bomb in that 2nd section of the gear Crafting device. After craftings its materials, shells, and mechanisms, he had to put together the bomb with his own hands. Aren spent 39 minutes revamping the blueprint he created in the new blueprint device and spent four hours sessfully creating the design model of the bomb. He had removed all the mistakes and designed the bomb gear to his satisfaction. Now he had to craft it, so he put that data in the gear Crafting device and started crafting the bomb. ¡­ After seven hours, Aren created a total of eight bombs with the materials he had gathered. He also named it Sacrificial Bomb. ¡ª¨C [Sacrifical Bomb] -Type: Articule Gear -Rank: Gold-Tier / High-grade -Perk: none. -Attack: 5000 (burning sharp metal shards) -Note: Requires to infuse 100 Spirit energy to activate the bomb. It would explode after 3 seconds. -Trait: None. -Upgradable: yes ¡ª¨C The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!