*Swoosh*
*Boom!*
Meliora threw five potions, which exploded into a burst of mist covering a 500-meter-diameter area of lavatic ground on which a group of over two hundred Hopping Blaze Alligators was situated.
Meliora’s potion effect caused the alligators’ senses to become chaotic, making everything spin for their vision.
With all of them becoming confused, Almond executed Arbitrary Viper: Erasure Edge thrice as the three snakes turned into a flashing light and sliced all alligators into pieces.
Almond consumed Prana to create Spirits of all those monsters and stored them.
“The next herd isn’t too far, boss. It’s in that third dormant volcano, seven kilometers away.”
Malin said this as he finished scouting the lavatic mountain range with his scout-type ability. His job had elevated, as, in addition to being Prana battery, he was also in charge of scouting. He had made a breakthrough in his scout-type ability and could scout areas up to seven kilometers away by sending his Galewing Drones.
“Let’s go.” Almond nodded and expanded his domain before teleporting Malin, Meliora, and himself a few times before arriving at the volcano.
“Master, I am out of Prana and Soul Energy. I can’t make any more potions.”
“Boss, I am also out of Prana and soul energy now,” Malin wryly smiled.
“Sit down and recover. I’ll handle this horde.”
After saying that, Almond jumped into the volcano where strange monsters, a mix of butterfly and scorpion, having wings and sting, roamed, their numbers reaching almost three hundred—Winged Lavacrust Stingorin.
But numbers didn’t matter to Almond.
Looking at his Prana Sea, Almond knew what he had to do to finish off these monsters fast with the remaining 4218 Prana.
Almond opened his domain and used his newest ability series—Gravity Creation: Attraction Nexus.
A hazy dome appeared inside his domain, covering all monsters, and at the center, the space seemed to be cutting and connecting within itself countless times in a second, forming a pitch-black bead. A silvery halo also appeared around it, and the moment this bead formed, the area within the hazy dome had a major shift in gravity.
Everything from all sides was suddenly pulled towards the pitch-black bead forcefully. Almond spent 3000 Prana in that, and the attraction force was enough to cluster all three monsters in a single place.
‘Spirit Nuke.’
A large dark green mushroom with a goey liquid of glowing green burst over the monsters, destroying them and melting them.
The Spirit Nuke was the result of 100 Puddling Corrosion Slime spirits, which were designed to burst out with their potent corrosive power in case they were used as Spirit Explosion.
So, using those 100 Spirits as Spirit Nuke obliterated the Winged Lavacrust Stingorins.
‘Give me Prana. You must have recovered a bit.’
Malin had 780 Prana and recovered 1540 Prana, so he sent it all, which was just enough for Almond to create roughly three hundred spirits.
The cost of creating Spirits had reduced after he became efficient in it and figured a way to create them with less Prana, allowing him to create a Spirit out of a dead being with just 5 Prana.
After storing the new spirits, Almond returned to the top beside Malin and Meliora before looking at his wristband.
[Almond Crowshade]
-Points: 12,538
-Rank: 11th
– Tabs –
<Leaderboard>
<Item box>
‘Just eight hundred points more, and I’ll hit the 10th spot.’
“Boss, the third day is going to end in half an hour. Should we find a place to rest?”
“Not yet. “Almond narrowed his eyes as he looked at the other mountain. “Recover your energies fast because I’m sure there’s a special monster somewhere here. I want to kill it before the day ends and enter the top 10.”
Malin wryly smiled. “How are you not tired yet?”
“Because I haven’t hit the top 10 yet.” Almond sat down cross-legged and closed his eyes. “Stop talking and start recovering now. Fast.”
Meanwhile, the audience outside was in uproar now and then because of Almond and his feats of clearing monsters and special monsters faster than everyone else and rapidly rising through the ranks.
“Let’s fucking go! I am winning the bet.”
“Holy shit, he just needs to kill a special monster or another horde, and he is in the top 10.”
“His abilities are getting better and better, what the fuck?”
“Not to mention the bunch of one-time use items and explosions he does…”
“He reminds me of Captain Bomby. The cosmic pirate who could blast even stars with his explosive-type abilities.”
“Bomby is a legend. He boasted the highest mastery in explosion-type abilities.”
“This guy’s explosions are no less scary like damn, he unleashes specific powers of monsters he kills in explosions, and that too in a condensed and refined manner.”
“And his summon makes strange potions…”
“I think they are cooked, and by that, I mean the favorite winners because I don’t think this Mad Nut Almond is going to stay at 10th rank.”
“Hell yeah, I am betting all my money on him taking the first rank.”
“Me too!”
“People are getting mad. There’s a difference of ten thousand points between the top 3 and those at 10th rank and below. With this pace, Almond won’t catch up to the top three, let alone reach the first rank.”
“I suppose I will place bets on him ending this event at top 5 or higher. The odds aren’t as good as other higher options, but this is guaranteed win.”
The people were fired up regarding the event while the participants were working hard to survive.
The third day was about to end in ten minutes, and the number of participants that remained was 2493.
…
“Ten minutes left. Let’s go,” Almond said as he teleported himself and the other two while expanding his domain to the maximum, which had increased 1.7 kilometers radius while having the same cost of 100 Prana per second.
Almond only needed a second look at everything, decide where to go next, and finish teleporting.
Malin also sent his Galewing Drones to scout while Almond teleported constantly, but the searching speed and quality of Almond were obviously higher as he found the special monster after seven seconds.
[Fushin Berserk Cyclops]
-Lifeform Rank: Mortal
-Ability Power: SS
-Prana Sea: 112
-Soul Sea: 108
-Stats:
— Body Constitution: 180
— Mental Constitution: 104
— Soul Constitution: 108
— Arcane Constitution: 78
‘A tough bastard, huh?’
The cyclops had light green rough skin with blood-red and blue patterns and held a giant brown-stone club with strange markings of red and black.
The monster was sitting in the strange stone-crystal valley formed from the constant lava flow from the mountain, mixing with elements and other things to result in stones and crystals after cooling down.
‘Its body is tough and has layered armors in its body structure?’ Almond raised his eyebrows while his eyes continued to scan the monster.
‘Well…I need to create something for this.’
Almond’s eyes glinted as he began designing and sorting assets before creating a magic sequence within a minute.
“What’s the plan, boss?”
“I am killing it with a new ability.”
“Oh? What’s new this time?”
“Master, I also want to create new abilities. Can you teach me, please?”
“Later.”
Almond took a deep breath and conjoined his hands before pulling them apart as a magnificent golden crystal bow with a hazy green and silvery pattern manifested.
Its string was a spatial thread with solidified lightning thread, given the property of rubber with a technical asset.
Almond pulled the string and closed his eyes, creating another sequence for the arrow.
Soon, an arrow began manifesting, but a strange one. It had nanoblades whirling around it in sections, forming a sort of DNA pattern around the arrow while the arrow that was made from all of his elements’ properties adjusted and mixed to achieve the highest penetration power and began vibrating in synch with the nanoblades’ formation.
And after that, the arrow began spinning as the final touch, and it spun at the speed of frigging 140,200 kilometers per second.
‘Encased.’
A strange calm descended around Almond in stark contrast to the terrifying arrow that Almond was barely able to hold.
Almond had used all of his Prana and needed more. “Give Prana.”
Malin quickly complied and asked, “Why use bow and arrow now?”
Almond’s hand stabilized as he empowered himself with some Prana and said, “This monster got tough defense and very high Body Constitution. It’d be able to react to my Voidblade Catastroph,e, and it might also have some strange close-range abilities given its constitution and powers I saw.”
Narrowing his eyes, Almond pulled the string a bit more and added, “It’s better that I don’t get close to it. My body is too weak. Even if I got hit by residual power, I’d get fatally wounded, so…”
“I’ll kill it from afar.” Almond aimed the bow toward the sky and released the string.
*Shss….*
The arrow that shot into the sky struck something akin to a spark of light and instantly dived down into Cyclops’ head, right in the center. Discover more stories at My Virtual Library Empire
The arrow was specifically designed for the highest penetration power by achieving maximum speed, a suitable penetrative attack pattern utilizing all of his elements and core assets, and an impact sequence. It tore through the monster’s thick layered skull and tough defenses quickly, one by one at microseconds, while the nanoblades spread into its body.
When the arrow emerged from the middle of its legs and struck the ground, it looked pale and turned into dust.
However…
“Grr…”
The monster could only utter that before its body burst into thin blades, skewering from within.
Malin’s jaw dropped. “Fucking hell, why can you create abilities this fast and so powerful?!”
“Wonderful attack, master,” Meliora smiled.
Almond nodded in satisfaction. “I’ll name this ability…Piercing Doom Bow.”
[Congratulations. You have acquired 1500 points for defeating the Fushin Berserk Cyclops.]
And with over five minutes left till the end of the third day, Almond hit the top 10.
But…this was just the beginning and also the start of the hunt.
“We’ll wait here and kill the new special monster if it spawns here,” Almond said and sat down cross-legged.
The third day ended, and every participant heard a notification.
[Section one of the event is over. The stage and survival conditions will change in five seconds.]
[Five]
[Four]
[Three]
[Two]
[One]
…
Earth, January 31st.
Eight days ago, Grim Breakers completed the Seventh Floor’s Heroic Challenge, and the boons they selected in Heroic Shop on the previous floor helped them survive and win since those boons drastically boosted one of their skills or attributes. However, their party rank on the Seventh Floor Heroic Leaderboard could only hit 19th without Almond.
And today, on the last day of this month’s Labyrinth activation period, Grim Breakers emerged from the GAA Headquarters’ Labyrinth Gate as they completed the 8th Floor’s Heroic Challenge.
They won, but alas, it wasn’t without any price as Grim Breakers experienced a loss for the first time, and it wasn’t just a single loss.
All of them were injured to a certain extent, but Marcus, Eliara, and a few others were severely injured and on the brink of death as GAA’s staff quickly provided care.
But the two lifeless, cold bodies that Amir and Finn carried out made everyone’s heart heavy.
Jemma the Waterloom Haze, and Xavier the Piercing Light… died.
“A-Admiral…” Anya stammered, her face tear-strained. “They died…Xavier h-he died protecting me.”
Everyone was crying, silently or muffled, as they stood or sat in sadness and blankness.
Anya was most devastated because she and Xavier were hitting it off, and they had become an official couple as well just ten days ago, but now she lost Xavier, and Xavier lost his life.
Admiral Rudra hugged Anya and caressed her back, his eyes red. “You did great. You all did great.”
He knew the young ones would experience loss just like every adventurer, and it would never be easy.
“Don’t forget this loss!” Admiral Rudra uttered, his eyes sweeping at them. “Get stronger and make sure this doesn’t happen again!”