A monster lord appeared all of a sudden. The worst was that it wasn't an ordinary monster lord. It was at the top tier in terms of fighting ability. The Underground King was at the level of the Destruction Queen.
'That guy... I remember him causing a combination in this continent thousand years ago. I didn't know that he was sealed here. If he was sealed maybe the other two were also sealed but we have no idea where it is.' Saya said to him. She was also familiar with the Underground King and the other two kings as well.
'We don't need to worry about it for a while. That monster lord will take some time before it broke the chains. Our problem right now is Randolf.' Souta replied to her with a gloomy expression. Although Randolf wasn't at the Red Crystal Empire's Emperor level, he was still out of his league.
The difference between his current strength and S-rank was too large.
Should he use his cards?
He glanced at his system and checked the reward cards that he received in the Ibish village's quest.
Level up card(s): 2
Skill-level up card(s): 2
One-time best feram skill card(s): 1
One-time Dark Dominance skill card(s): 1
300,000 experience card(s): 1
He could use the One-time best ferum skill card to increase his strength. With this, he would be able to use best feram with a limited amount of time. Also, there's no side effect in using cards.
He turned to Randolf and asked, "Are you still going to fight me even though you completed your goal?"
There's no point in fighting Randolf as he wouldn't receive anything. It was better to go down and hunt those members of the Seven Deadly Sins. He would receive a lot of rewards that way.
"I wanted to leave this place too but the extraction isn't complete so I have no choice but to stay here. So I'm going to fight you to pass time." Randolf paused for a moment and said, "Still, you haven't lost your will to fight. It seems that you've still got some ace in your sleeve. Oh? Now that we talked about it, I recalled that every time you fought someone above your level you always drunk monster potion. Don't tell me, you've still got a monster potion."
Souta didn't reply to him. He closed his eyes and heard the cry of the souls.
'There's no need to hold back... Let me use the souls of people that died.' He thought.
'You!! There's a monster lord below you! That level of monster would sense you if you absorb the soul of the dead people here!' Saya said hurriedly. She didn't recommend this choice. It was risky to show this ability in front of a creature that reached that level.
'But that monster lord would focus on breaking the chains...' Souta replied as he opened his eyes and thousands of souls went towards him.
In just a few seconds, he reached the limit of the souls that he could gather.
[Harvester of the Soul] Soul Collected (Left Piece): 1,800/1,800
He used it to increase his intelligence attribute by 10. Then, he saw the souls filling up his earring once again.
[Harvester of the Soul] Soul Collected (Left Piece): 1,900/1,900
Once again, he used it in his intelligence attribute.
He only stopped after increasing his Intelligence by 50. He checked his stats and nodded silently.
Intelligence: 777 » 827
This was just his base stats. The added stats of his equipment wasn't included in this. If he reached 1,000 base intelligence, his spell power and damage would increase by 1% for every 100 base stat of intelligence.
Just a little bit more and he will reach this threshold. Suddenly, he heard Randolf's voice.
"Are you done contemplating whether to run or use your ace?" Randolf asked. He just wanted to fight Souta not kill him. He doesn't want to kill anyone in this school. His order was the reason why the traitors didn't kill any students of the Ladro Institute.
Although he sounded hypocrite he still didn't want to do it. He could accept it even if everyone blamed him for releasing the Underground King.
No, he decided to become hypocrite. Even if he died in the end he would accept it as long as he made a place the other homunculus could call home.
"Yeah..." Souta replied as he checked the souls that he gathered.
[Harvester of the Soul] Soul Collected (Left Piece): 2,300/2,300
This was enough for his left piece. It was the right piece's time to collect the souls.
[Harvester of the Soul] Soul Collected (Right Piece): 251/400
He continued to gather souls until the soul requirements became 1,300. This was equal to 100 attribute points making his intelligence 927 points.
Also, he couldn't gather all the souls in this place. The range of this skill was limited so he couldn't collect everything in this huge city. Plus, he was in the sky. He was lucky that there were souls here.
'You've done it now, Souta. There's no turning back. I could only hope that monster lord wouldn't notice it or there's no other god-level in this place.' Saya said to him.
'It's better than you controlling my body and falling asleep for a few months.' Souta replied to her as he a smile formed on his face. 'I needed your knowledge and skills. You said that you're going to train me right? So why do you want to fall asleep eagerly?'
"Are you done? I'm going to attack you if you wouldn't drink a monster potion." Randolf said as his mana compressed on his body. He was about to attack Souta when he sensed a presence around them.
"Hmm...?" He frowned as he looked around with a wary expression.
Souta was confused when he saw Randolf stopped. He already felt that Randolf was going to attack him but something change.
'Is there other people here aside from the two of us?' He thought as he squinted his eyes.
"Heh~ You people really did a good job hiding from my perception but... my perception was upgraded the moment I've become an S-rank!!" Randolf's chuckled as he waved his hand and a flash of mana flew towards the rocky area fifty meters away from him.
Boom!
The place exploded and several figures revealed themselves.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
The figures landed on the ground as they surrounded Randolf and Souta.
'These people... The seven-circle officers that Teacher Bargan fought.' Souta recognized the figures when he observed them. It was hard as some of their limbs were missing and their body was full of burn marks.
It was clearly the price they had to pay if they wanted to seal Teacher Bargan. Although they succeeded their situation was so bad as they could die at any moment.
"Tsk! I didn't expect that a mere S-rank like you to detect us. I wouldn't want to fight in my current condition but it can't be helped..." Yuvn said as he glanced at Randolf.
"Oi! Don't expect for me to let you go just because of your condition! You dare to sneak on me so I will kill you!" Randolf said in a cold tone.
"You're the one who's sneaking behind us. To think that some nobody would plan to release a sealed monster lord also... that crystal in your forehead." Yuvn said as he narrowed his eyes. "Didn't expect to see a Luminary Crystal here."
Randolf glanced at Souta and said, "Let's postpone our fight. I'll just kill these people before we continue our fight."
'Eh... We're going to continue.' Souta looked at Randolf with a blank expression.
"You're going to kill us? You alone. Despite my condition, I'm still a Hero-rank, you know?" Yuvn laughed as if he heard the funniest joke.
Randolf didn't say anything as he simply charged at them. They were Hero-rank but the damage that Teacher Bargan deal to them was so high that they couldn't even cast a spell or skill. Also, using a sealing ability like that. He knew that they must've paid the price for using that powerful sealing ability.
Despite all that, they still have the power to contend against an S-rank like Randolf.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Randolf didn't hold back as he launched powerful spells and skills at the seven-circle officers.
Souta observed the battle and noticed that one of the seven-circle officers was guarding him.
'One... and Randolf are fighting five heavily injured seven-circle officers so the total is six... Six seven-circle officers are equal to 30 skill points and 90 free attribute points.'
A wide grin formed on his face as he looked at the seven-circle officer. This was once in a lifetime opportunity. He wouldn't find another chance like this to kill them.
"Randolf let's make a deal. Let me deal the finishing blow to them. I wanted to kill them for attacking this city. In exchange, I will fight you later as long as you want."