“You did well, Lux,” Randolph said as he looked at the corpse of the Red-Eyed Terror Mantis that was strewn across the ground of his warehouse. “Can you tell me the current situation in the Figaro Gardens?”
Lux nodded his head and explained how the battle of Mosquitoes and the insects played out. He also told him about how they interfered with the battle and how he backstabbed the Mosquitoes when they least expected it.
Randolph listened as he rubbed his beard. After Lux finished his tale, the Dwarf sighed before he patted his Disciple’s back.
“You’re one god damn backstabber.” Randolph chuckled. “Are you going back to the Figaro Gardens?”
Lux nodded. “The night is still young and there are still many corpses to be collected. It will be a waste if I leave them behind.”
Randolph understood that Lux was right. Even so, he was concerned about his safety, so he reminded him to not do anything reckless, and just let his Skeletons do the fighting.
After bidding his Master goodbye, Lux once again slipped into the Figaro Gardens and headed towards the location of the Ant Nest.
However, along the way, he heard the buzzing sounds of Mosquitoes, so he hurriedly took cover in order to hide from them.
Diablo and the rest were with him, so he wasn’t too worried about his safety. His only concern was that the number of the mosquitoes would be too much for him and his small team to handle. All the Skeletons each held a torch in their right hand, which served as a distraction that prevented the mosquitoes from sensing Lux’s warm blood.
Fortunately, after glancing in their direction, the mosquitoes didn’t bother to take a closer look. They just focused on their mission which was to look for the Insects that were currently grouping with each other to resist their overwhelming numbers.
Even after the Mosquitoes had left the scene, Lux didn’t move from where he was hiding. He sent four Skeletal Fighters to scout in different directions to ensure that there was nothing that could threaten his life within the radius of five hundred meters.
Only after making sure that it was indeed safe to move did the Half-Elf hurry towards the nearest entrance to the Ant Nest in order to seek shelter.
Just like usual, the Ants happily welcomed him after he shared the location of where the latest battle had been fought. Lux’s skeletons had already taken the Beast Cores that he could take from them, so he didn’t mind sharing the dead bodies with the Ants, who always made sure to keep him safe while he was inside their colony.
The Mosquitoes were not too keen to fight the Ants in their underground tunnels. The lack of maneuverability as well as the cramped space prevented them from being able to use their advantage in numbers. One could even say that, among the Insects in the Figaro Gardens, it was the Ants which were least affected by the one-sided slaughter that was happening on the surface.
After arriving to safety, Lux didn’t hurry to send out his Skeletons. The first thing he was going to do was upgrade them in order to make them stronger.
Lux had a dozen Rank 3 Beast Cores, as well as the Red-Eyed Terror Mantis’ Alpha Core which glowed crimson red.
He also managed to acquire a total of fifty Rank 2 Beast Cores and two hundred twenty-two Rank 1 Beast Cores, which was more than enough to strengthen his skeleton army by a few grades.
Lux still had several Beast Cores in his collection, which he still hadn’t used. After taking a quick look in his inventory, to see just how many beast cores he had, he saw three hundred seventy Rank 1 Beast Cores, Sixty Six Rank 2 Beast Cores, twelve Rank 3 Beast Cores, and 1 Alpha Beast Core.
This was a staggering number. If his Grandma Vera were to know how her grandson was faring inside the Beginner’s Village, she would definitely be surprised and would question him about how he had managed to acquire so many Beast Cores on his own.
No matter how one looked at it, Lux was simply a cheat-like character who was abusing the mechanics of the rules inside the Beginner’s Village. Although his rank was still below the Apostle Grade, his summons had long exceeded the limit of the rank of anyone that could stay in the Beginner’s Zone.
Lux was like one of those gamers who liked to over-level themselves before taking on the first boss of the game. This would ensure that the enemy wouldn’t pose any threat to him, and he would be able to gain the upper hand in any of the battles that would take place within the different zones of the Beginner’s Village.
The Half-Elf used forty-three Rank 2 Beast Cores in order to upgrade Diablo twice. He knew that the one who would decide the success of this mission would be none other than his First Named Creature, whose combined stats had reached five hundred and sixty, making him a Rank 2 Monster in the middle stages.
Diablo also learned the skill Expert Trainer, which allowed him to successfully train any kind of Monster which rank didn’t surpass his by two tiers.
For example, Diablo was currently a Rank 2 Monster. He could tame monsters that he could use as his mount as long as they were Rank 4 and below. Of course, for higher-leveled monsters, he would have to weaken them first before he could make them submit to become his Beast Mount.
For higher ranked monsters, even if they were near-death, Diablo wouldn’t be able to tame them because his rank would prevent him from doing so.
Ishtar was the next one that Lux upgraded. As the dedicated long-range damage dealer, it was only natural for him to buff up the former who would also play a vital role in the upcoming battle.
Just like Diablo, Lux upgraded Ishtar twice, which brought up her combined stat points to five hundred and ninety five. She also learned the skill Siege Stance, that rendered her immobile with the tradeoff of increasing her attack by 100%
—–
< Siege Stance >
Increases damage output by 100% and has a high chance of dealing critical damage for ten seconds. While in siege stance, the user is unable to move from their spot, and can only shoot at their enemies like a siege tower.
Moving away, jumping, or breaking this stance will cancel the effect of the skill. This Skill stacks with any other long-ranged skills.
—–
Lux also upgraded his Skeletal Fighters once and his Skeleton Grand Archers twice, greatly reducing his stockpile of Beast Cores, but Lux had no regrets. After all those upgrades, he no longer had any Rank 1 Beast Cores remaining and only eight Rank 2 Beast Core was left in his inventory.
He didn’t touch the Rank 3 Beast Cores, as well as the Alpha Cores, because he planned to use those for himself after he left Leaf Village.
His Skeletal Fighters learned the skill Whirlwind Slash, which allowed them to deal AOE damage, while the Skeleton Grand Archers learned Poison Arrow, which made their attacks very deadly.
“This is what you call investment,” Lux muttered as he gazed at his Skeleton Team that had become stronger. Although his way of doing things burned more resources when compared to Colette and the others, the payback was very satisfying.
Right now, aside from Diablo and Ishtar, Lux’s army was only wearing the basic weapons and armor that he had bought from his Master at a very cheap price. If only he could arm them all to the teeth, then forget about forming a party for the dungeon.
He could go solo and kill the Boss all by himself, as long as his Skeletons had the right equipment for the job.
“Now, let’s address the main goal of this trip. Diablo, lead everyone towards the North of the Figaro Gardens,” Lux ordered. “It’s time to raid the Mosquito Nest and see what is causing this massive outbreak.”
Lux and Randolph both agreed that what was happening inside the Figaro Garden was a bit abnormal. He wanted to get into the bottom of things, and in order to do that, his forces would first need to travel to the North, and investigate the source of the problem.
—-
North Region of the Figaro Gardens…
Someone, who was wearing a dark robe, frowned upon hearing the report of the Scaled Torment Mosquito (Rank 2 Monster) that he had tasked to supervise the attack on the other regions of the garden.
He needed the Beast Core of the Red-Eyed Terror Mantis for the ritual he was planning to make, but its corpse was nowhere to be found. Also, the Ruthless Venom Mosquitoes that led the attack had been all wiped out, which made the frown on his face deepen.
He didn’t believe that the Alpha Beast was the one that killed them all, so he conducted a thorough investigation and interrogated the scouting parties that he had assigned to patrol the garden on a regular basis.
“Did any of you see anything unusual?” the dark-robed figure asked. “It could be anything that you don’t always see in this territory.
“Bzzzt.” one of the Red-Striped Mosquitoes flew towards him and spoke about the Skeletons that it saw when it was patrolling the area.
After hearing his subordinate’s report, the person wearing the dark-robed smashed his fist on his make-shift table, breaking it in half. After panting for half a minute, he regained his composure as he stared at the giant cocoon that was pulsing beside him like a beating heart.
“So, we have a rat in our midst,” the dark-robed figure gnashed his teeth. “All of you, find the location of those Skeletons. Do not alert them, just simply encircle the area where they are located. Find any Dwarf that you see and bring them to me alive. I would like to have a nice… long talk with the person that is getting on my way.”
The dark-robed person assumed that the one that was getting on his way was a Dwarf. He could not be blamed for thinking that way because the Gweliven Kingdom was a Dwarf Kingdom.
No other races could be seen within its lands, so he deemed that only a Dwarf could pose a threat to his plans. Now that he was only one step away from realizing his goals, he would ensure that no more mishaps happened. ᴡ ᴏᴠʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛʀs ᴀʀ ᴘᴜʙʟsʜᴅ ᴏ Noᴠꜰre.nt
Although losing the Beast Core of the Alpha Beast was troublesome, he had other substitutes that he could use in order to take its place. However, what concerned him was the identity of his enemy.
Right now, he was increasing the pace of his experiment because he had heard that the Riders of Norria had just dealt with the Kobold Bandits that were terrorizing the lands. He thought that he still had a few more days before his experiment was complete, but it seemed that Fate had other plans for him.
Since that was the case, he had no choice but to find the perpetrator, and offer their blood to the new breed of Monster that would make him and his organization the overlords.
An organization that wished to control the Dwarf Kingdom of Gweliven from the shadows.