At the top of the giant tree, the leaves were strangely shaped to make it like the ground, with natural leaf patterns that crackled with lightning.
The Final Boss was a powerful monster—Blitzerking Thunder Eagle.
With all of its stats above 200+, it was a formidable boss monster of sizable body mass and physique attuned to Golden Haze Lightning.
Almond fought with it defensively, his focus not on attacking it but taking on its pure Golden Haze Lightning and understanding it through the fight.
The Thunderbird group obediently sat cross-legged at the corner as they watched Almond making the Blitzerking Thunder Eagle dance around him.
He took on the pure lightning attacks of the boss as per wish with his Fortification and Body Enfold activated while avoiding the rest like its claw and wing-swooping attack.
A few minutes into the battle, the fight became even more on Almond’s factor as if he understood its attacking patterns and completely dominated the boss monster without hurting it too much.
“I got an idea,” Zaia, the orange-haired girl, suddenly said. “How about we bet all our money on him in the Rising Star Tournament right when it starts when the odds are low for unknown adventurers?”
“Yeah, we can bet on him taking the first rank in the silver bracket right off the bat when the tournament starts. We’ll become rich.”
“We gotta start farming in dungeons and gather more gold coins then.”
“That aside, I think our guild hit a solid steel plate this time,” Krag said with a weak smile. “Zoren is over. His father will snap seeing him in that condition, and the matter will become big, but nothing’s gonna happen to Almond.”
“To be honest,” Zaia pursed her lips. “I think Zoren had it coming, and he deserves it. Several junior girls in the guild complained to me about him, but what could I do? Tell on his father? Both are cut from the same cloth, damn it.”
“Someone here might not think the same,” Krag said as he turned to Luke, who was silent all the while, only watching Almond fighting against the boss alone with ease, the same boss monster that could give them big trouble if they weren’t careful.
“Hey, Luke. I saw you using your wristwatch before we entered the dungeon. Tell me, did you tell Zoren about him?”
The other three also looked at Luke.
“Yeah, I did, “Luke resigned and partly raised both of his hands before putting them on his knees, his head down. “And I don’t think what I did was wrong. I’m just using opportunities to get some support and little favors from those in power at the place we work.”
“And fuck Zoren,” he added as he looked ahead and continued to watch Almond. “It’s not like I support him or anything. He’s just good at getting used by someone like me, so I fawn over him and got good stuff from the guild. Anyway, it seems Almond is done, so we are up.”
The others turned to Almond and saw him looking at him as he walked towards them.
The Blitzerking Thunder Eagle swooped at him from behind after flapping its wing and releasing golden lightning arcs, but Almond smoothly side-stepped to dodge one and jumped high to dodge another.
His high jump also took into consideration its swoop attack, so he dodged it easily as well before he kicked the air after using lightning currents to form an electromagnetic field, pushing his speed as he swiftly crossed thirty meters and appeared shortly away from the Thunderbird group.
“Finish it off,” Almond said as he turned around and sat down cross-legged.
“…”
*Shrill!*
The giant eagle angrily shrilled, intending to attack Almond again, who so disrespectfully ignored it and sat down with his eyes closed.
But the Thunderbird group quickly scrambled together as they launched their skills and began fighting it.
Tank and fighter attracted its attention while the support buffed them. One mage used a control-type skill to bind the Eagle’s wings as its flight was disturbed, while the other Mage swiftly attacked with a pure offense-type skill.
Meanwhile, Almond was closing in on his goal of acquiring Golden Haze Lightning.
By the time Thunderbird group finished off the boss, Almond had reached his goal.
[Congratulations. You have acquired a lightning elemental variant—Golden Haze Lightning.]
[Golden Haze Lightning]
-This variant’s potency will be affected by your lightning elemental mastery.
-Variant effects:
—> 30% stronger Lightning potency.
—> Golden Haze attribute: purifies harmful effects, destroys negative effects, and increases the potency of healing processes.
‘So my lightning power is 30% stronger,’ Almond’s eyes flickered with lightning, but this time, it was a hazy golden lightning. ‘On top of that, it now has purifying effects, so I guess it should be able to remove status effects like bleed, burn, and other stuff.
‘Power to destroy negative effects…sounds similar to purifying harmful effects, but I guess the word play changes things. Maybe it destroys anything considered ‘negative’? I’ll have to experiment with this lightning a lot,’ Almond grinned, excited.
‘The last is pretty much self-explanatory. Damn, this lightning variant is awesome.’
Almond saw that the Thunderbird group had also killed the boss and was looking at the items they had gotten from its treasure chest.
After taking the boss’s Spirit, he said, “You all can take your time. We are leaving.”
The group quickly turned to him, but Almond was already gone.
Arriving in the middle battlefield of the tree, Almond looked at Thamus and Romez as he icily smiled, “We are leaving now, but you will leave after an hour, got it?”
The duo quickly nodded.
“And I have a message for Zoren’s father. Make sure he gets it properly—If he has a problem with me beating his son senseless, then he can complain to Admiral Rudra. I’m sure he will be pleased to launch a full investigation and find all the dark dirt you’ve gathered.”
After saying that, Almond waved his hands as his Spirit Wraiths turned into flickering lights and vanished.
“Let’s go,” Almond nodded at Nikki and Anton.
…
After Almond, Nikki, and Anton left, Thamus spoke, “Did you record everything, Romez?”
“Yeah, but are we really going to add on trouble?” Romez was clearly hesitant.
“What are you two talking about?” Henry frowned. “Don’t make things worse, please. Almond has the backing of Admiral Rudra, and Zoren isn’t exactly in the right. The guild will suffer.”
“We aren’t doing anything, Henry,” Thamus shook his head. “We’ll just hand over this recording to the vice-guild leader. It’s up to him to decide what to do.”
He looked at the fainted Zoren and added, “Anyway, we are supposed to wait for an hour, so let’s try to wake this idiot up.”
…
[A/N: This is a bonus chapter for reaching 100 powerstones this week. The second weekly bonus chapter’s requirement is reaching 100 golden tickets, and the third weekly bonus chapter’s requirement is one big gift (only one big gift = one chapter, no more chaps even if more gifts come. Tbh, I am not expecting big gifts, nor do I want to pressure cuz I feel it’s a waste of money in my view, but whatever, multiple views exist, so here is the chart of weekly bonus chapters requirement]