Hua Fei and Raymon Tuskin accepted defeat, giving up their potions.
After healing them, Noah, Xavier, Talia, and Galvaren left, roaming around different places, hoping to find a hidden area or challenge before the deadline.
Meanwhile, Almond and Lily leisurely coursed through the Tempestcall Tengus’ territory. Almond’s spirit wraiths made sure to kill monsters within 200 meters of Almond so he could absorb their spirits.
He made sure to absorb new ones thrice to increase his stats as much as possible while putting rest in the Spirit Forge factory.
They also encountered monsters, but Lily dealt with them as Almond didn’t want to get more EXP and stay at level 40.
They planned to cover as much area filled with monsters as possible and arrive at the floor boss area right after 15 hours. Almond had the route in his mind, and he also included a secret area on the way, which had a lot of monsters gathered, much like White Polan’s Lair.
He also kept the spirits of some monsters who were pure offensive, sending them into Spirit Nuke’s pocket.
As they descended the mountain, they started to encounter various types of Tengus, a mix of ice and lightning elements.
The Tengus had role-based variations like warrior Tengus, mage Tengus, assassin Tengus, and priest Tengus, and there were also more variations depending on the different areas in this large territory, so there was no lack of variety here, not to mention the other beast-type monsters that Tengus tamed.
Almond and others passed through areas one by one at a constant pace.
With his high recovery of Mana and Stamina both, he recovered his Spirit Wraiths since he wasn’t using any energy, not even for walking as he was riding Agramon.
His only job was to focus on collecting spirits, absorbing them, and maintaining production in his Spirit Forge Factory.
Almond needed to sacrifice 5 Legendary items to unlock the guaranteed Legendary forge option, which he was going to do because he wanted to make a Legendary gear set of high quality for himself.
And for that, he’d need a shit ton of Spirit items as a sacrifice—a total of 80 Epic-rank items. Even if they were low-tier, he’d also need 400 Super-rank items of low-tier, which meant he would need 2000 Rare-rank items.
Fortunately, he was only getting Rare-rank items as a result of bulk random crafting from these Gold-rank monsters’ spirits on this floor and also had a 20% chance to get a Super-rank item, so according to his calculation, he would have enough for one Legendary high-quality set after 15 hours.
…
Time passed as seconds turned into minutes, and minutes into hours…
Fifteen hours passed by as Almond and Lily arrived at the Floor Boss area with the Spirit Wraiths.
They were the first ones to arrive, but shortly after half an hour, Party 3 also arrived—Natalia, Kira, Eliara, and Starlight Beast.
And another half an hour later, Xavier, Noah, Talia, and Galvaren also arrived, but they had one more person with them!
“You think I would continue to the next floor after hearing that you were coming here?”
Almond chuckled and walked towards the party as he stretched his hand, “Welcome to the party.”
Julian faintly smiled. “I’ll show you my improvements.”
“You better do,” Almond grinned. “So, you really stayed on this floor for two days? You were close to hitting Gold level 50 and could move on pretty early, no?”
“Well, I was with the GAA party, as you know, and you might not know, but GAA has pretty good secret spots noted down, especially thanks to Admiral Rudra. We planned to complete some of them in all four areas during these two days before moving on to the 6th floor and leveling as much as we could on the third day.”
“But,” Julian wryly smiled as he paused briefly before continuing, “Doman and other bastards played dirty in item distribution. I’m pretty sure it’s because he couldn’t win against me anymore, but he was the party leader, and others sided with him.”
“And I also knew that you would be rushing the floors, so I decided to stay on the floor and wait here in the floor boss area, but on my way here, after I cleared an area of monsters, I encountered Noah’s party, so I joined them after he told me about the Heroic Challenge.”
Noah and Julian had trained together for a while before the Rising Star Tournament began. Julian’s rapid rise began from there, and Noah came to have genuine respect for Julian because of the way he worked so hard.
Since Almond bloomed Julian’s potential at first, Julian’s training session with Noah was a rapid progression in Julian’s skills and techniques.
Julian’s swordplay in his unique style became solid enough to be on par with Noah’s in just a week, which was why Noah gained respect for Julian.
…
Now that all three parties gathered, Almond took out his Magic Tent while others also camped in their tents and created a bonfire.
“When will those two come? According to the deadline, we are going to start the Heroic Challenge after seven hours, right?” Natalia asked before rolling her eyes. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they missed the deadline.”
“It depends on how fast they complete their training in the dimension of their Advanced skill scroll,” Almond said. “Let’s hope they finish it fast, but if they don’t reach here in time, I’ll summon back Sylvia.”
“Of course,” Kira ruefully smiled. “Sylvia’s healing and defense are very important for us. We’d have serious injuries and even fatality if not for her.”
“Yeah,” Jemma nodded.
“It’s great that you can call her back from another floor,” Maya nodded.
Meanwhile, the two people in question were indeed still in the training.
But one of them stirred soon after an hour.
Marcus opened his eyes before a zap of excitement coursed through them and was visible throughout his body. His pupils were dilated, goosebumps rose, and cells trembled.
A faint mechanical hum rang within his chest as though a delicate piece of clockwork sprang into motion. A subtle glow—brass, copper, or even a tempered crimson—appeared beneath Marcus’s skin at the heart’s center, radiating a warm and fervent aura.
It pulsed, mirroring his heartbeat and excitement.
Marcus Venath, a youngster from a humble abode, decided to strive for an adolescent desire that stemmed from heroic tales of a certain individual, all but for one reason—the person he was following and the blaze he radiated.
[Congratulations. You have completed the training of your growth-type toggle skill—Geoprime General’s Halo.]
[Based on your training session, you have achieved commendable results. Training Score: SSS-9483.]
[The training score also shows the starting rank of your skill and the potential you have explored so far. Acquiring a 10,000+ score would have given you an L rank, but better luck next time.]
[Congratulations on awakening your innate talent—Ironheart Engine (L) You have overcome your fear in pursuit of epic greatness, the adolescent desire you suppressed that stemmed from your grandfather’s heroic tales. May you succeed in striving for greatness.]
[Ironheart Engine]
-For you, who ignited your aspiration of achieving greatness that stemmed from your childhood aspiration blooming from heroic legends passed down through family lore. When you finally embraced these dreams with matching efforts during your training, the Ironheart Engine was forged within you—an imperishable wellspring of resilience and vitality.
-Rank: L