Almond turned around and saw five Bronze-rank level 5 Dire Wolves around him a few meters away.
They launched their attack without hesitation upon materializing.
Almond stood with his arms crossed, leisurely and carefree, as he commanded in his mind, ‘Burn them.’
The Warhorse Agramon stomped on the ground, creating shockwaves laced with flames—a simple use of its flame attribute’s power unrelated to the skills.
The flamed shockwaves instantly incinerated the wolves.
But the Stage 1 wasn’t over yet.
Two Goblin Archers and one Goblin Warrior spawned, initiating their attack soon.
Almond didn’t bother dodging and simply waved his hand, deflecting the arrows physically.
Warhorse Agramon stomped Goblin Warrior to death while Infernal Knight Ashkar released a flame wave with his sword in long range, destroying the Goblin Archers.
Like this, three more different waves of monsters, all being Bronze-rank up to level 10, appeared.
“That was expected. I suppose you don’t need to take a break?”
“Nah. Let’s start Stage 2.”
Stage 2 began with five Silver rank monsters from level 1 to level 5.
This time, Almond made a move—a single move.
His figure visibly blurred as he wielded his sword, crossing past the five monsters within a second as he exerted his physical prowess while using Weapon Enfold.
In another second, all five monsters were sliced as their digital structures flickered and vanished.
A silver level 5 Shadow Eagle spawned and made a surprise attack, but before it could near Almond, it was slashed by Infernal Knight Ashkar.
More and more Silver-rank monsters spawned with gaps as their level got higher and higher, but all of them were killed before they could do anything. Even if they used the skills, none could hit Almond.
Soon, Almond started facing monsters at Silver level 11 and above.
‘What the hell are his stats?’ Julian frowned. ‘They don’t like they belong to a Silver level 10, even if he has used a couple of stat-increasing items.’
“Damn,” Roken muttered, just watching with a daze and a bit of excitement.
‘His stats,’ Marshal Lopol blinked a few times, trying to get a reading on Almond. ‘His aura is properly maintained, and not once has his Mana control wavered…this kid is not even giving me an opportunity to get a proper guess on his stats.’
‘But they are all above 50 for sure. Those movements are impossible without at least that much,’ Marshal Lopol’s eyes glinted as he saw Almond dispatching a Silver level 20 Chainsaw Monkey in a single slash of his sword after leisurely dodging its attack.
“Julian, is he going to get C-10 Combat rank just like that?” Roken muttered.
Julian’s fists were clenched in his cross-armed position, “His profile is real. He is using all Mana techniques with better fineness than us even though we have reached a bit higher level than him in those techniques. He got the C-10 rank in his bag.”
C-10 meant that he had reached the peak of Silver rank in terms of combat power. It also meant he would be allowed to enter C-rank dungeons, up to the black-colored C-rank dungeons, which are the most dangerous.
The last monster of Stage 2 spawned, a mini Boss of level 30.
‘Go, destroy it,’ Almond commanded them with what skills to use for the attack.
Infernal Knight Ashkar and Warhose Agramon unleashed dark red flames that whirled around them and rushed forward, using (S) Blazing Rush skill while both of them were also enhanced with the (A) Infernal Flames skill that boosted their fire-related damage further.
*BOOM*
The mini-boss was obliterated, putting an end to Stage 2.
“Impressive,” Marshal Lopol clapped while smiling.
“Way to go, bro! You better enter that tournament because you might just become the champion of the Silver-rank bracket, hahaha.”
Julian didn’t want to admit it, but he had to…that Almond was skilled and powerful.
“Let’s start Stage 3,” Almond said as he cracked his index finger, a faint smile on his face.
Marshal Lopol thoughtfully nodded, “You might be able to defeat a few waves. Let’s see how far you go in the B-rank.”
Stage 3 spanned longer because the monsters in this stage ranged from Gold level 1 to Gold level 100.
“Do you want to wait a bit to recover your Stamina and Mana?”
“Yeah, give me a few minutes,” Almond nodded and sat down cross-legged, entering meditation.
“You two got a new task, or are you just wandering around instead of training?” Marshal Lopol turned to Roken and Julian.
“We were about to begin our training session, Marshal,” Julian said respectfully.
“Then go.”
“Marshal, can we wait until Almond finishes, please?” Roken asked while putting up puppy eyes.
“Get lost. Just do your training until you get a task. Julian, don’t forget about your goal in the Rising Star Tournament. If you want the rewards, you have to work hard.”
“Yes, sir. Roken, let’s go.”
Julian began walking out along with relucent, long-faced Roken.
After they left, Almond opened his eyes and looked at Marshal Lopol, “Marshal, do you mind if I borrow them to explore the city a bit? I also want to visit League of Firefly.”
“They are in their free time, which is usually used for training. So if they don’t mind showing you around, sure. Also, I sent them away because I wanted to isolate this session,” Marshal Lopol smiled, his eyes flashing a sheen of light. “I’ve turned off cameras as well, so don’t hold back in this stage. I will allow you to set your Combat Power rank if you want to hide your real Combat Power on your profile.”
“And yeah, I got the mail from Admiral Rudra,” he added.
‘But I have no intention of doing that,’ Almond internally chuckled.
Admiral Rudra doesn’t know about all of his Spirit Wraiths, nor the full power of his Specialized class, and Admiral Rudra didn’t even press Almond to reveal them, so Almond wasn’t planning to show all of his cards here.
Continue your adventure with M V L
‘Not like I can show my full power against the 3D projection of monsters. My Divine Divider’s Harvest doesn’t work on them.’
He had tried the skill, and it ended in failure, which he expected since these monsters were not real at all. The Magitech also wasn’t high enough to detect that advanced skill and make a proper result, and even if it could detect and halve the monster’s stats, it couldn’t give Almond the boost as he essentially couldn’t ‘harvest’ stats from these unreal monsters.
“I am ready. Let’s start.”
In the end, Almond fought until his Infernal Knight died. Naturally, it didn’t die due to these fake monsters’ attack, but Almond killed the Infernal Knight and triggered its trait True Knight Agramon to make it stronger until he defeated the 5th wave in Stage 3, reaching B-5 combat power rank.
He also exhausted his Mana and stamina by then because the Gold-rank level 50 monsters were indeed strong enough that he had to exert more of his power.
“Do you want to continue with more summons?” Marshal Lopol asked. “I assume you have more summons.”
‘I do have, but I wonder if I should show more?’ Almond blinked, his expression thoughtful.