“I would like to see you fighting as well,” Liang said as he caressed his beard while looking at Almond with a smile. “Give this old man some face and use your sword to satiate our curiosity.”
“He can fight next time,” Admiral Rudra said with a nod as he glanced at Almond. ‘You can show everything except for your ultimate attacks.’
‘Everything?’ Almond blinked.
‘Show them now, so they may get an idea, which will become a false idea in the near future, given your increasing arsenal of powers. Showing them your actions is not revealing your powers, it’s setting up a visual for them that may turn into an illusion.’ Enjoy new stories from empire
‘Sounds good,’ Almond grinned.
In the end, everyone was curious to see the combat power of this Gold-rank adventurer who was on everyone’s tongue these days.
“It seems we’ll finally see why our daughter admires you so much,” Alexander laughed.
Cassandra chuckled and added, “We heard your heroic actions from Talia’s mouth, but seeing is a different experience after all.”
“Indeed. I am filled with anticipation,” Damina smiled. “Anya praised your sword to the heavens, saying no one is your match in close range.”
“A maiden in love would say that,” Guolan snickered.
“A maiden in love may see things through an enhanced lens,” Sun nodded sagely.
Almond wryly smiled. “Well, I am not that strong as those two said. I still have a lot to learn watching you all fight just now.”
‘And I learned indeed,’ Almond internally grinned.
Then a glint passed through his eyes as he internally thought while lingering his attention on Bianca and Liang. ‘I should check out these old monsters now that I have a chance.’
‘I can at least check one attribute of these two old monsters without feeling any stress. They got above 100 Will, but lower than 150 anyway.’
‘I’ve checked out others, and only those twin siblings are a bit crazy. Valentina is an artist, living her pace life and doesn’t care about others too much regarding what they think about her.’
‘Talia’s parents are chill and good. They have positive character attributes like Guild leader Damian and Vice Guild leader Ray.’
Almond believed the old monsters were good at heart and had broader minds, given their relationship with Admiral Rudra, and Admiral Rudra was a scary judge of character despite not having All-Seeing Eyes like him.
So, he was mainly curious about their Intuition, Ego Strength, and Sense of Justice.
Moreover, the way he saw attributes also completely changed since his Riftveil Eyes became All-Seeing Eyes.
Instead of numbers from 0/100, he would see a scale with three sections and gaps between them.
The needle could point at “Bad” at the left, “Zen” at the middle, and “Extreme” at the right side.
From his understanding, “Zen” was best, as it meant perfect and in harmony with that attribute.
He checked Bianca’s Intuition, and it was at Zen, with one point leaning towards Bad.
‘So her intuition is perfect, but she rejects it sometimes and seeks to confirm it through logical pieces…interesting.’
He checked her Sense of Justice, and it was at the “Zen” but with half a point leaning towards “Extreme.”
‘She is like Admiral Rudra…’
Meanwhile, he saw that Elder Liang’s needlepoint leaned towards “Bad” from “Zen” with one point in Sense of Justice.
‘Maybe there’s something that can affect his sense of justice and make it lower, but it’s proper most of the time.’
Almond could understand. A drastic change in the situation and the influx of negative emotion because of some tragedy could skewer one’s everything.
‘Both of their Ego Strengths are Zen, at perfect, huh? It’s the same as Admiral Rudra,’ Almond blinked.
[Ego Strength: Balance between humility and self-respect, affecting pride, resilience, and interpersonal harmony.]
‘Yeah, this attribute is indeed an important one when it comes to improving oneself. Only this attribute will enhance someone regardless of their mentality towards morality, empathy, and other things.’
Almond noticed that aside from these three old monsters and Damian Silverfang, everyone else had unstable Ego Strength.
The Graves couple were still better off, but the rest were unstable.
“Alright, it’s time to move. We’ve rested enough.”
Almond got up, feeling good after checking out everyone secretly and learning more.
The party moved ahead soon as everyone had recovered during twenty minutes of break.
They soon arrived at a sea of dual-colored molten lava that looked the same as the glittering blue and gold liquid.
But half a kilometer away, they could see a massive palace reaching a kilometer high and just as wide. It sparkled, looking luxurious and majestic.
“It looks like our Trampling King is in that palace,” Guolan said as she opened her hand fan and waved it, conjuring a watery dragon crackling with lightning.
But as it flew and entered the territory of the exotic lava sea, four different monsters, crystalized and looking like exotic fish and snakes, attacked it.
The dragon was destroyed instantly.
“Check the range,” Liang said.
“Right.”
Guolan conjured another dragon, this time, it flew roughly four hundred meters in the sky.
However, everyone suddenly felt tremors as the sea bubbled and surged.
“Woah?” Valentina blinked.
“Something’s coming up from the sea,” Alexander raised his eyebrows.
“A mini-boss, perhaps?” Cassandra guessed, but her revolvers glinted brightly.
*Splash…Splash…Splash…*
Not one, not two, not three, but…seven giant snake heads attached to a single body akin to a turtle with spikes emerged from the ocean.
[Seven-Headed Spikaran]
-Rank: Epic (Boss-type)
-Level: 100
-Stats:
-Physical:
↳[Strength: 1200|Health: 2010|Stamina: 945]
—Mental:
↳[Mana: 2000|Focus: 1030|Perception: 1030]
Its seven heads hung over five hundred meters high due to their long necks, and all of them looked over at the party before opening their mouths as atmospheric pressure increased and a powerful aura gushed out of it.
Everyone’s expression changed.
“One ultimate attack incoming,” Sun said.
“Get behind me,” Rudra grunted as his fists glowed.
Everyone quickly moved, leaving the incoming attack to Admiral Rudra…except for Almond who decided to make a move to make things easier.