“They should be on the mountain peak by now. Since this is a golden-bordered dungeon, there will be two or more side bosses aside from the final boss,” Nikki said as she looked up.
“I also want to try lightning at the peak of this mountain, so let’s go,” Almond grinned. He put away all of his other summons in his spirit pocket except for Starlight Beast and jumped on it.
“Starlight, I am going to do some lightning infusion in you to increase your physical body’s prowess,” Almond grinned as he patted its back. “We’ll move like lightning. Are you ready?”
“Rawr!”
Almond used lighting to rile up Starlight Beast’s physiology, increasing its speed and power according to the amount of Mana he consumed.
*Zoom!*
The Starlight Beast’s mind and body both sped up literally as it ran up on the mountain, crackling with lightning.
Nikki and Anton followed up, barely keeping up with Starlight Beast’s speed despite them having higher stats.
“Reaching S-rank, now he can use lightning in more magical ways,” Nikki wryly smiled as she relayed to Anton using Magic Whisper.
“There’s not much we know about him, but it doesn’t feel overboard anymore that he’s getting special treatment with the backing of Admiral Rudra,” Anton replied as he watched the duo moving. “He is something.”
…
When they arrived at the peak of the mountain, the Thunderbird Group was in the middle of fighting against the side boss of the dungeon. It was a giant Thunder Panther—fast and deadly.
Henry didn’t meddle in the battle as usual, but the five Thunderbird members were having slight trouble with the boss because of its speed.
The Panther could move quickly and also turn into a lightning zap to inflict attack and move. Their tank was almost severely injured, saved only thanks to the buff and timely healing, or he would’ve been severely wounded.
The party was more on a defensive move while trying to hit Panther with their skills and proper strategy.
Using feints and pincer attacks, the party continued their clash for three minutes before the Lightning Panther was finally slayed.
“So-so…their teamwork isn’t that good,” Nikki muttered. “Their skills are sloppy. They need a more rigorous training.”
Anton nodded in agreement while Henry could only smile wryly as he knew Nikki was right.
“Can you call your party to rest here?” Almond said as he watched towards the center of the peak where the party and panther had fought a battle. “I need to do something there.”
Almond looked up and saw that the dark clouds were thicker in there. They were dropping lightning strikes on the ground at the center for some unknown reason, but Almond wanted the golden lightning that streaked through that patch of cloud.
Henry called the party members to his side before they sat down to rest and recover.
“What’s up with him, Henry?” Krag asked he saw Almond looking up at the clouds after standing in the center.
But right as he asked, thunder rumbled greatly, and a lightning strike struck Almond, startling the heck out of Thunderbird’s party.
“What the fuck?!”
“He’s dead, right?”
The dusk and smoke were overshadowed by flickering lightning that prevented them from seeing Almond, but a few seconds later, they saw he was unscathed, including his outfit.
And then, they saw him sit down cross-legged as lightning strikes hit him every other second before defusing into sparks and dancing around him for a short time before dispersing.
Even Henry was dumbfounded.
After a short discussion of Almond’s current activity with Nikki and Anton, the Thunderbird people realized what a monster Almond was.
‘H-How powerful is he? I hope Zoren brought a Platinum rank adventurer with him just to be safe…’ thought Luke, who had informed Zoren about Almond and was likely almost reaching the Dungeon with Thunderbird guild members for revenge.
‘But he is a silver-rank level 10 in the end, right? Not even the strongest of Super Rookies in silver-rank can do much against peak Gold-rank Adventurers.’
The party was numb after minutes of watching Almond. They simply recovered and rested for twenty minutes before finally getting up to move again.
The next area was a highland with big giant trees and small water bodies scattered amidst trees. It was also the final area of the dungeon, roughly four kilometers away from this mountain’s base.
They had ascended the mountain from the south, so they moved to descend in the north in the direction of the next area.
Ten minutes after the Thunderbird group left, Almond also stood up.
[Golden Haze Lightning: 43%/100%]
‘I guess this is the most I can progress here,’ Almond looked in the north to see the giant trees and stronger lightning in the sky in the next area. ‘That’s where I’ll reach 100%.’
“Are you done?”
Nikki and Anton walked towards him with Starlight Beast.
“We have to hurry,” Almond turned to the duo and jumped on Starlight Beast. “I forgot to tell them not to fight the dungeon boss.”
“No worries, they’d need an hour more before finally engaging the boss,” Anton smiled.
“We can catch up with them,” Nikki said as her aura surged and purple lightning crackled around her before forming into a pair of wings.
“Woah, you can fly?” Almond’s eyes sparkled. ‘I gotta create a lightning wing skill!’
“I can fly, but actively flying consumes more Mana,” Nikki smiled. “But this place is abundant with lightning elements, so It won’t be a problem.”
Anton also crackled up a pair of blue-lightning wings as he said with a faint smile, “See you in the next area.”
Both of them flew off the mountain’s edge.
Almond wanted to try creating wings, but he had no time to waste time.
“Let’s go, buddy, full throttle,” Almond grinned as he buffed Starlight Beast with lighting.
*Roarr!*
…
After catching up with the Thunderbird Guild group, Almond relayed to them about his plan to fight the Dungeon Boss alone.
Naturally, they didn’t mind it.
In their mind, if Almond wanted to court death, they wouldn’t stop him.
After telling them this, Almond, Nikki, and Anton separated from the Thunderbird group to fight monsters in this area.
Almond wanted to try out new things with Mana Techniques since he had reached S-rank in Lightning Elemental Mastery.
The first of which was enhancing his Body Enfold technique.
Body Enfold increased one’s every stat at the cost of constant mana consumption.
Almond gave lightning’s attribute—its aspect of speed, clarity, and intensity to his Body Enfold and empowered himself further. It was hard to maintain a Lightning-style Body Enfold at first, but he did it successfully after a few tries.
Having acquired Lighting Psychophysiology due to reaching S-rank in lightning mastery, Almond could use lightning not just in an attacking way but to figure out how it affected and interacted with his mind and body, which would allow him to create buff-type skills as well.
Almond also used Electromagnetism, and it was easier than he thought. He could control his sword without touching it, though it consumed Mana per second.
All in all, Almond explored and killed the monsters in this area while exploring his newfound power. Only two types of monsters were found in this area—Thunder Scaled Hogs in the woods and Lightning Thorn Fish from the multitude of ponds.
Lightning Horn Fish appeared to be able to observe a certain range outside of their ponds, likely due to the lightning elements infused in this area.
Passing by any pond at five meters or less distance would prompt attacks from the lightning Horn Fish—a fast and deadly lightning attack from their horn.
Almond found this place to be a good practice spot to try various things, and it was big, so there was no lack of monsters.
Starlight Beast and Chimera Crystalist just followed and ate magic crystals that Almond’s killings dropped.
“Almond, what’s up with your recovery? You drank a very low amount of Mana potions during the past hour, while we’ve drank doubled at least, even though we are more efficient with our Mana,” Anton curiously asked.
“Yeah, I have a kind of high recovery,” Almond answered with a chuckle without turning back to look at them. “It seems that we are finally at the end of this area.”
At the end of this island was a single huge tree with thick greenery. It was one kilometer tall with big branches and thick foliage.
Lightning crackled dangerously at the very top, though they couldn’t observe what was above from the bottom.
In the middle, they could see a point where the branches interacted strangely, creating a sort of wooden ground.
[You have entered Gyrogia’s Thunder Tree Nest.]
Not too far from them, Thunderbird guild’s group also stood there, looking up.
“Well, let’s start climbing,” Almond crouched and stretched his legs one by one before his body crackled with lightning as he used a Lightning-style Body Enfold.
He sent Starlight Beast and Chimera Crystalist inside the pocket.
“See you in that middle area. That’s where the second side boss is likely located,” Nikki waved her hand with a smile before she flew up.
Anton nodded at him and also followed up.
The Thunderbird group was envious to see them with the wings and easily going up.
“Urgh, this tree is conducting lightning strongly,” the yellow-haired support role girl in the group cried out as she was shocked upon touching the trunk. “We have to spend more mana than we thought to climb this.”
Meanwhile, they saw Almond suddenly turning into a lightning stream as he began streaking over the tree’s flat trunk, leaving the Thunderbird group in a dumbfounded state.
…
Meanwhile, two peak Gold-ranked adventurers entered with a silver-rank level 10, Zoren. Zoren had left when he was level 5, but he had entered the 2nd cycle with a big party to reach level 10.
“Brother Thamus, take out your Thunder Sparrow, and let’s go!” Zoren said with an angry grin. “I want to see him beat up as soon as possible!”