After throwing some suggestions around, the party decided to go with the name—Grim Breakers.
It was Almond’s suggestion, with the reasoning behind the name being that they were going to defeat this Grimworld’s Tutorial and rise above whatever lay ahead of it.
Afterward, they got access to this leaderboard within their status as a new tab appeared at the end.
[Grimworld Heroic Challenge Leaderboard—Floor 2]
Rank 1— Zioneer Guild Party (20 people) —Planet Korrade.
Rank 2— Lightless Radiance (20 people) —Planet Abvesule.
Rank 3— Rolling Waves (13 people) —Planet Mestsea.
Rank 4— Grim Breakers (5 people) —Planet Earth.
Rank 5— Heavenly Dragons (21 people) —Blue Star.
Rank 6…
The theory of there having no other lifeform in the universe aside from them was completely debunked ten years ago with the appearance of Labyrinth, but seeing the leaderboard that showed other planets still made everyone feel a mix of awe, surprise, and anticipation.
“I think we are the only ones who actually know the official names of other planets out there,” Natalia grinned.
“So our party is at 4th rank on a universal scale? Damn!” Marcus was visibly excited.
Maya blinked, “I wonder if we’ll get any rewards for getting on the leaderboard?”
“True, it would be good if we get some rewards,” Lily nodded.
“Actually, I got something for us,” Almond wryly smiled. “Since I am the party leader, there’s another option for me called Party Mailbox. There’s a reward chest there for getting the 4th rank on this leaderboard.”
Almond took out the reward chest.
“Nice! I’ll open it,” Natalia grinned.
“But you are in average luck period right now,” Lily raised her eyebrows. “You still need two months more to regain the above-average luck.”
“What are you talking about?” Marcus scratched his head.
“You guys are talking as if you can control luck,” Maya raised her eyebrows.
“Well, Natalia can, to a certain extent,” Almond chuckled. “Anyway, let’s roll a dice to decide. The highest number wins.”
Almond used some Mana and controlled it, condensing it to make a mana dice.
After everyone rolled it, Maya and Natalia came to a tie as both rolled six.
They rolled the dice again, and this time, Maya won.
“Well, there you go, your consumed luck showed its effect,” Lily chuckled.
“Humph, but I am still luckier than average peeps.”
Almond pushed the big reward chest towards Maya, who rubbed her hands briefly before pressing the button on the fancy sci-fi magic-themed reward chest.
[Congratulations. All party members are given a random rank of stat-boosting fruit set.]
“Let’s go!” Natalia cheered.
“We get random fruit set despite getting 4th rank on the leaderboard? Tsk,” Lily shook her head. “I was expecting some skills scroll, talent awakening, and such type of reward.”
“Well, this isn’t bad,” Marcus was grinning from ear to ear. “And I got freaking A-rank fruit set.”
“I got a B-rank fruit set,” Maya said, a small pout forming on her face.
“I got C-rank…” Natalia’s face fell as she checked her fruit set’s rank.
“Whatever,” Lily took out her fruits and started eating.
“Damn, you got A-rank fruits. Of course, it’s whatever for you,” Natalia rolled her eyes.
Meanwhile, Almond could only sigh. ‘One of the most important types of reward is kinda useless for me.’
‘But what will happen if I upgrade my Spirit Devour skill further? It’s at SS-rank right now, and once it reaches SSS-rank, surely it’ll do more than just allow me to eat spirits and get stats.’
He had reached Silver level 20, the limit of Floor 2, at once after defeating Kizalor, so he gained two level-up boons.
And both of them had skill options!
He also had one more level-up boon stored, which he wasn’t going to use anytime soon since it didn’t have the skill option.
“Almond, what about your fruits?” Natalia asked as she made a puppy face after eating her fruits. “I got C-rank fruits, so you should take pity and give your fruits to me.”
“Damn,” Marcus muttered while looking at Natalia. “You know these fruits are literally invaluable.”
“Huh?” Almond suddenly exclaimed, his expression flabbergasted. “I got some strange fruits.”
He took out his fruits, six in total, each one a dreamy golden, sparkling with energetic blue and red patterns on its surface.
Everyone was surprised. They didn’t look like normal stat-increasing fruits!
“Share,” Lily said, her eyes sparkling with curiosity.
Almond nodded as he shared the fruits’ status.
[X Factor fruit]
-Rank: Special.
-Effect: Eating the fruit will permanently increase a stat desired by the user by 20 and store 1 Potential codex within the user’s body.
-Potential Codex: This codex will be consumed if the user is on the verge of achieving any kind of breakthrough after hard work, successfully making the user break through their hurdles, whatever those hurdles may be. Note: Once eaten, the user won’t be able to store another Potential Codex for one year. Enjoy more content from empire
“So this is the real reward for the 4th rank, huh?” Natalia rubbed her chin.
“Getting 4th rank may have given us higher chances to get this type of fruit, and well, I got them.”
Almond put them inside and smiled. “I can’t benefit from eating one right now, so I’ll save it for later. And I may give a few away since eating more than one is not beneficial.”
Saving those fruits to eat one each year would be stupid. With the way he was growing, Almond reckoned he would reach the frontlines within a few months.
[The Floor Boss subjugation rewards are generated. Congratulations on acquiring the Heroic Challenge Floor Boss reward chest.]
[Contibution Ranking and additional Rewards]
Rank 1: Almond — MVP Reward Chest.
Rank 2: Lily — 2 x Epic Item Boxes, 2 x Random High-ranking skill scrolls, 2 x Grand Abyss Labyrinth Roulette Tickets.
Rank 3: Natalia — 2 x Epic Item Boxes, 1 x Random high-ranking skill scroll, 1 x Grand Abyss Labyrinth Roulette Ticket.
Rank 4: Maya — 1 x Epic Item Box, 1 x Super-rank item box, 1 x Random high-ranking skill scroll, 1 x Grand Abyss Labyrinth Roulette Ticket.
Rank 5: Marcus — 1 x Epic Item Box, 1 x Random high-ranking skill scroll, 1 x Grand Abyss Labyrinth Roulette Ticket.
[The additional rewards are stored in the temporary storage accessible from your status window, which is shown as the [Storage] tab.]
Everyone was excited as they read the notifications.
They took out their items and started opening them as the temporary storage tab vanished.
Almond also opened his MVP reward chest and got a bunch of notifications.
“Truly worthy of MVP Reward chest,” Almond was grinning from ear to ear as he saw the rewards he got from the chest.
1 x Random Legendary rank Ore type material.
1 x Random Legendary rank herb type resource.
1 x Skill Upgrade card.
2 x High-ranking skill scrolls.
1 x Random Epic Accessory.
1 x Random Epic Weapon.
1 x Random Epic Armor.
1 x Random Epic Item.
5 x Grand Abyss Labyrinth Roulette Tickets.
‘This is crazy! One more skill upgrade card. With that, I have two skill upgrade cards and two skill options,’ Almond’s eyes glinted. ‘I should use skill options first and see how it goes. But whatever the case, I want my Spirit Devour to reach SSS rank and what becomes of it at that rank.’