The group crossed 100 kilometers in twenty minutes as Almond commanded Chimera Frank to fly at full speed while he also charged its body with his Golden Haze lightning’s attribute buff that charged its cells and body properly, increasing its overall stats.
Even normal lightning was good in this regard as it was not only a power of destruction, but handling at high realm, it could charge life and empower it. Golden Haze Lightning had extra attributes due to being variant, so it buffed more.
“There they are,” Lily said as she saw a group of people standing at the floor boss spawning circle in a 200-meter-diameter open ground surrounded by thick trees.
Everyone looked up as the Chimera Frank slowed down and descended.
All the super rookies were gathered below along with their party members.
Xavier the Piercing Light
Kayla the Beast Spirit
Emma the Toxic Mist
Amir the Tempest Gale
Jian the Warring Berserker
Ron the Geocrusher Fighter
Adrian the Blazing Ravager
Finn the Thundering Might
Jemma the Waterloom Haze
Anya the Silverbolt Whip
Mira the Silent Shadow
Talia the Spellbound Gunslinger
Kira the Crescent Stormblade
Noah the Dreadsteel Swordsman
Eliara the Steel Fortress
They were grouped into two parts. One wanted to spawn the floor boss and finish it, while the other part wanted to wait for Almond and others.
Almond and the others expected Kira would be alone, but they were surprised to see Xavier, Kayla, Noah, Mira, Anya, and Amir standing beside Kira.
“You’re finally here!” Kira said with a wry smile.
“Sorry, we are late,” Almond faintly smiled.
“But when you find out why we were late, you all are going to piss your pants!” Natalia shouted with a huge snort.
“…”
“…”
“Humph, I can’t believe we really waited, tsk,” Jian clicked his tongue.
However, a few others curiously noticed their equipment and inspected it. They got its name and rank beside the names, making their eyes widen.
A few of them rubbed their eyes and checked again.
“Why the heck do you all have Epic-rank items?! And how can you equip them here?” Amir asked with a dumbfounded expression.
Kira blinked as she inspected their items and got shocked, “What the fuck?”
“Holy shit, you all have Epic-rank items….”
“But how?” Anya blinked as she asked curiously. “I can’t wrap my head around this.”
Almond, Lily, and others walked towards them before Almond directly took out the Heroic Challenge Reward Chest in the middle of both groups.
Seeing the big reward chest, everyone inspected it, further confused by its name.
“Heroic Challenge?”
“The fuck’s a Heroic Challenge?” Jian muttered. “What did you all stumble upon?”
“We didn’t stumble upon it, kid,” Natalia snorted. “We qualified for it, and earned it.”
“Not us, but Almond,” Marcus jabbed at her.
“We are in the same team right now!” Natalia kicked Marcus. “And that team is everyone who hates the fake guts of that Jian kid.”
“You…” Jian’s face turned red.
“Alright, stop,” Lily calmly said. “Let’s focus on the matter at hand.”
“So, what’s the deal with this?” Kira asked as she looked at Almond.
“In short words, it’s a reward you get in a life and death battle,” Almond smiled. “And a party has to qualify for this battle, only then will it appear.”
“Though the only one qualified in our party was Almond, so it appeared for us in the second floor’s Floor Boss zone,” Maya said.
“Floor Boss zone?” Finn raised his eyebrows.
“So this challenge appears here?” Noah blinked, his eyes on Almond.
Noah had a different bearing than the last time everyone saw him. He had been training with Julian in his clan, and he had heard about Almond from Julian’s mouth.
‘I improved with Julian, who improved thanks to Almond. And now, he even discovered something like a Heroic challenge…’ Noah thought, feeling oppression and discomfort, but also an acceptance that Almond was better than him and if he wanted to improve further, he had to keep his mindset right.
“For now, only we can initiate this Heroic Challenge,” Lily said as she glanced at everyone. “We are planning to add some members, but not every one of you will get that chance, you will have to qualify for it.”
“But before doing that, let’s open the reward chest,” Almond smiled. “This reward chest is from the third floor’s Heroic Challenge Boss we defeated.”
But just as he was about to open it, he paused, “One second. Did you all kill monsters on this island?”
“Nope,” Kira shook her head. “We killed in other islands and reached a maxed level, so everyone directly arrived here with their party one by one.”
Each super rookie was with a party of four or five, so the number here was high, though it was expected since they were going to fight the Floor Boss.
Unlike Almond and his summons, who were uber-powerful and could solo clear normal Floor Bosses, they needed a bigger number.
“So you didn’t clear monsters on this island?” Almond’s eyes shone. “Good.”
Waving his hand, he summoned Viperfiend, Benedict, Sylvia, Crystalist, Starlight, Ashkar, Nyssara, and Galvaren.
They appeared in front of Almond, their aura imposing.
The super rookies all sucked a breath of cold air one way or another as they watched Almond’s summons again, finally seeing the ones they hadn’t seen before.
Especially at the sight of Galvaren, who looked the most menacing and dominating with a broken heavy sword and a pair of folded draconic wings.
“Damn. He has so many summons?!”
“That broken sword dude is freaking gold-rank?Wtf”
“That’s cheating….he can use gold-rank summon on lower floors.”
“Fuck.”
While the super rookies and other people muttered to themselves, Almond commanded his spirit wraiths, “I have a task for you all.”
Galvaren knelt on one knee and said, “Please command us, master.”
“I want you all to capture monsters on this island. Don’t kill them just bring them here. Galvaren and Frank will focus on bringing them here since they can fly while the rest of you will pack them up.”
“Sounds fun,” Infernal Knight Ashkar nodded as his horse Agramon loudly neighed. “I wished to refine my sword, so this is a good opportunity to fight while limiting myself. Thank you, Master.”
“Master, there’s a mysterious phenomenon of nature on this island,” Sylvia said as her eyes sparkled. “I can sense it. It’s underground.”