The group continued deeper after the seven Immortal Kings successfully killed the King-rank Abyssal Sea Monsters.
It wasn’t long before they encountered three more.
Almond and Lily took one each, improving themselves while one Immortal King of the party clashed with the third.
Almond and Lily showed modified versions of their Regalon Spirit Armaments, with lower than usual boost, deciding to show it as them activating their bloodline power.
Since they were fighting against Immortal King Abyss Sea Monsters and didn’t want to look fake, they purposefully restricted their power level to give themselves a challenge.
Limiting themselves could provide them with insights in new ways to grasp more power. And since they were in exploration-phase to improve themselves, doing this was perfect.
They couldn’t one-shot Immortal King monsters with restrictions, but their combat ability and style still impressed Lyna and others.
Almond explored new ways to use bullets, imbuing different Arcane non-elemental assets to bend his Spiral Edge intent and other elements while keeping his Space element hidden.
Lily also did the same as she hid her first ability tree, and explored new ways to use her chakrams in tandem with Axiom of Hollow Splendor.
Hours passed by as the party continued their hunt with occasional breaks.
With them efficiently killing Immortal King Monsters for eight hours, they earned enough to buy one more token for themselves.
Lyna also stopped the party at this time.
“Alright, everyone. We will continue more and the aim is to get five kills to each of us if we want to profit and explore further where the danger will be higher,” Lyna said, her eyes on Almond and Lily. “Once we cross five kilometers more, we will officially arrive in abyss waters. There will be only Immortal Emperor monsters there and also the strongest of parties.”
“If we want to keep ourselves safe and also earn a good profit, we have to kill Immortal Emperor Monsters, for they give ten times to a hundred times more profit than Immortal King Monsters.”
‘Ten to a hundred? Damn,’ Almond was surprised. ‘That’s going to be so much money.’
‘Which means the fellows of the third layer must be spending a lot for them and for what? To eat while watching fights and entertainment? Tsk,’ Lily mentally clicked her tongue. ‘I can’t wait to go up there.’
‘Indeed.’
“That’s all. So if we want to continue for more profit, we will surely encounter danger and we will have to use the token quickly and in a timely manner lest we die before using it, either from Immortal Emperor Monsters or other parties,” Lyna’s expression was somber. “Make sure to stay cautious because sensing range is also severely reduced for everyone in the abyss waters.”
“Let’s go.”
And so, the party continued for five kilometers more, and each one of them killed at least five Immortal-King Monsters, netted towards profit this time because everything they killed before would be spent on buying another token to instantly return to the ship.
It took them two hours to cross five kilometers while killing monsters and the restriction of speed in deeper waters.
But they eventually entered the abyss waters, feeling a clear increase in pressure and power. Strong water currents would suddenly shoot towards them.
“You two holding up good, right?” Garnol asked. “Abyss waters is not really a place for average Immortals.”
However, Almond and Lily were perfectly fine. Not because they were using any energy to keep themselves stable, but because of the passive resistance they had from their strong will.
It was actually more perceivable to them here because the Abyss water felt like it had some kind of unique will or similar to it and it was helpless against them as if it knew their true power and avoided affecting them.
“Yeah, we are fine,” Lily nodded.
“They look stable. That hazy current that swept through us didn’t affect them much,” Devon chuckled.
“Indeed, I feel like you two still have more to show,” Lyna smiled.
“We have a certain specialty,” Almond blinked, a faint smile on his face. “But we’ll show it at an appropriate time.”
“Fine,” Lyna lightly laughed and looked up. “Alright, we are going to the real dangers now and we’ll be going slower due to having my sensing range limited. We’ll only encounter early-stage Immortal Emperor Monsters at first five kilometers of distance, and we will coordinate the battle together.”
“There won’t be any more solo battles,” Lyna waved her hand as she took out a watermelon-sized circular seal with symbols. “We will be using this formation-type artifact.”
The artifact shone and suddenly expanded into a 100-meter radius circle with eccentric and complicated shining patterns with ten circular slots.
“Take your positions. Mister Raicanor, can you take that position, please?”
Raicanor nodded and stood in a circle.
Aside from Almond, Lily, and one Immortal-King of their party.
Almond and Lily became curious.
‘Raicanor’s stats increased by 20%,’ Almond relayed in surprise as he sensed the boost.
“This Artifact is the crux of this party,” Lyna smiled as she looked at Almond and Lily. “It can synergize ten people and increase their stats by 10%. On top of that, we can switch our positions instantly and this circle can stretch up to five kilometers, making it suitable for a coordinated group combat.”
“Interesting,” Almond blinked. ‘It’s a powerful artifact. Feels like it does more than what she said.’
‘Nice, I bet you can scan it and learn something new.’
‘Yep.’
“You three just need to stand in the circle’s range and make your moves accordingly. From now on, we will proceed to kill Immortal Emperors as a group and split the profit according to the contribution.”
“Let’s go.”
As the group continued moving with a glowing circular platform of blue and dark silver lights of different hues, they soon encountered their first Immortal Emperor Monster.
It was a massive and unique Monster with two giant pincers and a tail with thousands of spikes vibrating behind it, on top of stiff four wings coming out of its exoskeleton-like body structure.
Its eight menacing eyes spotted the group and they turned red in unison.
Just its length alone was six hundred meters long!
“Let’s begin,” Lyna said, but didn’t move. Instead, she moved back beside Almond and Lily.
Devon and Galnor shot forward first. Devon held a longsword and Galnor held a giant hammer.
“The vitality of Abyss Sea Monsters is exceptional,” Lyna spoke as the group began the battle ahead.
Almond and Lily nodded as they could feel the intense vitality and also the support they were getting from the Abyss water.
“As you can see, they heal fast, and the debuffs on them are also removed fast. Although their attack and their effects are the same as Griminion-type Monsters, their vitality and support from Abyss Water make them more annoying.”
“So the best way to deal with them is swift, combo, joint attacks.”