"Master, they can't hear you." Boo appeared beside Varian and whispered.
Varian looked at the floating little ghost with annoyance. "It was a cinematic moment, okay?"
"...but no one is filming you." Boo's face showed its innocence.
'I just wanted to vent after staying in that damn place for so long.' Varian was about to throw an excuse when Boo said.
"You want to act cool?"
"Fuck!" Varian felt like an arrow pierced his heart as he looked into those innocent black eyes.
"... Of course, that's part of the reason. But it'd be great if you stop being so explicit." He cursed and wielded his new black sword.
It was one of the few functional things in the ghost ship's inventory, which lost almost everything except a few star treasures.
They couldn't be called star treasures since they were manufactured outside the federation, but they were kinda the same thing or at least, he wasn't skilled enough to recognize the differences.
The previous owner was a sword user, and he had plenty of training swords. The ones Varian found, from 3 star to 9 star, were those training swords.
'I won't be ripped off by the trade union at least.' He sighed at his poor wallet and focused on the black building ahead.
There were twenty-four Level 3 Abyssals patrolling. All of them were Body Awakeners, meaning they were from the Demon Abyss.
Varian's body blurred and, in an instant, he appeared behind a group of four Abyssals.
Shuaa!
A thin trail of green appeared on the necks of the Abyssal Commanders, and blood oozed out of the cut.
Varian didn't bother to watch it and targeted the other two patrol teams.
He was almost at the peak of Level 4. So, his speed was anything but ridiculous to Level 3 Abyssals.
Shuaa!
Shuaa!
As the last group had their throats slit, the first group's head rolled to the ground, making the distinct sound of two solid surfaces rubbing each other.
The guards turned to the direction and were about to yell when two arcs of thick lightning stuck and paralyzed their body.
Then they saw a bright white light and two headless bodies standing in front of the door. Those two bodies were their own!
The smell in the air turned rancid and the fountain of green blood was a sight to watch.
Varian didn't feel it before, but watching the Abyssal die, he felt a sense of satisfaction.
Perhaps he was subconsciously holding a grudge.
He shook his head and slowly pushed open the door.
After repeated probing in multiple dungeons, he concluded that the highest abyssal of a hideout was only Level 5.
The Level 6 Sarah's team encountered was probably because he was tasked with assassination and came for them personally.
That meant…
Varian smiled and asked through their mental link. 'Boo, get me in.'
An invisible spaceship appeared behind Varian and he jumped into it. Its size shrunk enough to fit the hallway.
"Scan the building and find the mechanism to enter the bottom floor." Once inside the familiar cabin, Varian ordered.
"With ease." Boo said enthusiastically, almost like it was trying to placate him.
Varian was unamused.
He was initially very excited about Boo's capabilities. A bit too much, in fact. It was a spaceship from a higher civilization and travelled hundreds of light years after all.
But it was utterly damaged and lost most of its functions.
Thanks to the final clone, he also lost the two formations that he'd give up almost everything.
Boo explained later on that the final clone was likely that of Abyss Emperor.
Variant couldn't digest the existence of a being higher than a Sovereign. Especially the fact that Abyssals had such a being.
But regardless, the space sub system was also damaged. The ghost ship thus lost the ability to travel into the Inner space.
There were only two important abilities remaining.
First: Stealth. It could hide from most technologies and even awakeners. But for very strong awakeners, like Level 9s and Sovereigns, he needed to maintain a certain amount of distance.
Boo explained it was because its functional modules were nerfed or it could do a lot more.
It wasn't too bad of an ability. Varian sneaked into the 'Chad Dungeon' with stealth.
Second: Sensors.
It could sense the hidden formations and other stuff within a certain range. That was how he found out the hide outs location without any map.
A bonus ability was Boo's remaining space functions. Even though its space sub system was gone, the remnants were able to fulfill some functions.
It could detect space fluctuations and if the barrier was weak enough, it could even directly enter into one.
That was how Varian entered the hideout without any pass.
"The formation is likely under the basement and needs a manual opening. I can hit a mechanism and take us to the basement. The floor will go off and we can dive straight down." Boo said.
"Do it." Varian nodded.
Last time, he couldn't step into the building and in the end, the explosion blew up the building. So he didn't know what each floor held, but he knew certainly that the Cross Tunnel Formation was at the absolute bottom.
Whoosh!
All the floors below suddenly peeled off and opened the way to the basement.
"Who?!" The thirty Level 4s in the hideout shot towards the basement.
"Boo, search for the Cross Tunnel Formation." He drew out his sword and stepped out of the spaceship.
"Human!"
"How did you enter?"
"Why didn't we notice any instance of key stealing?"
They all held different questions, but Varian wasn't in the mood to answer any.
Even though his opponents were also in Level 4, they were mostly in early and mid-Level 4.
Only a handful were in high level 4.
Varian too was currently a high Level 4, approaching peak Level 4.
But their strengths were vastly different.
His Thunder Path was High Level 3. It meant he could paralyze his enemies, even for a split second, and use his Body Level 4's insane speed to exploit that split second.
His Thunder Path also increased his offensive capabilities.
His Morpher Low Level 3. To him, the rise in strength due to it was barely 1%.
However, his life force was much stronger. He could survive and fight with heavy injuries for much longer.
These advantages put Varian in a league of his own.
"Let the feast begin." He grinned and gripped his sword.
The space around a few Abyssals was blocked. Lightning bolts targeted at a few others.
Varian shot at the Level 4 Abyssals in front. His chi and prana circulated and resonated with each other.
Shuaa!
Zap!
Creak!
A slaughter began.
Varian danced with his sword and lightning.
His space attacks weren't lethal by themselves, but an Abyssal that just broke his space block would be hit by a lightning arc and would then be greeted by a red sword.
Shuaa!
The lightning arcs played a bigger role than he expected.
Abyssals that were injured had lower resistance to lightning and were thus lightning arcs only aggravated their injuries.
Shuaa!
Zap!
Boom!
After a few minutes, Varian punched through the head of the last Abyssal.
Boo replied timely "Boss, 40 meters from you at 40 degrees anti-clock wise."
"Hm." Varian walked to the target location and glanced at the adamantine metal covering the floor.
"Tsk." He smiled in nostalgia and slashed his sword.
Creak!
Shuaa!
The sharp blade of his red sword easily cut through the adamantine and revealed the formation underneath.
It was a circular array of intricate patterns and mysterious runes. Any researcher would be fascinated by it.
But, of course, Varian was fascinated by the piles of little stones all around and on the array.
Aura crystals!
"Boo, take this array. Take the aura crystals too." He said eagerly.
"Master, you are drooling."
"I am not!"
"But at the corner of your mouth…"
"That's probably blood. One of these Abyssals must have had white blood." He said without changing his face and repeated.
"Take this formation. We are going to the next dungeon for the aura crys—, I mean for revenge."