"What just happened?"
n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om
He wore a puzzled expression beneath his mask, unsure of what had just urred. He contemted using his chaos energy, but before he could even act, it suddenly vanished.
While he pondered the reasons, he decided not to pursue it. As long as it remained within thebyrinth, he was bound to encounter it again.
Thus, he refocused on his primary goal: farming experience points and leveling up his remaining skills. Having experienced the strength of Epic-grade skills, he felt even more excited to advance his skills and armaments.
Still, with each encounter against stronger opponents, he realized how weak he was.
"I’ll definitely get you the next time we meet!" he vowed, gazing toward where the primal creature had disappeared.
He then looked at the wrecked surroundings. Unfortunately, none of the summons he had killed dropped any items.
"It seems those summons don’t count as living creatures of Origin World… Sigh… Forget about it. This is just my first day; I still have plenty of time!"
Now that he had no distractions, he could focus solely on farming.
He didn’t follow the path the Mutated ckbite Rat Leader took; instead, he went in another direction to continue hunting, dismissing any thoughts of Jokyr and the others.
On the second underground level of the ckbite Rat Labyrinth, Jokyr and Ana’s group stared silently at the entrance to the third underground level, each showing different emotions.
Several minutes had passed, yet Vincent, known to them as Shroud, was still nowhere to be seen.
uny could no longer keep silent.
"He wille back, right?"
Her question was met with silence.
"He’s going to be safe, right?"
Again, no response. Unable to contain her emotions, she turned fiercely, taking off her mask and revealing her youthful, wless face. Her brown hair flowed free as her hair tie came loose, revealing a beautiful maiden who could rival Ana in appearance.
While Ana was a cold beauty, uny had an innocent charm that could stir any man’s protective instincts—especially now, as her beautiful brown eyes shimmered with tears.
Ana’s two malepanions, whom uny had healed earlier, were captivated by her beauty.
However, Jokyr and his group were stunned.
"uny?!" Jokyr eximed. Yet, there was nothing he could do now. They had already seen her face, and he felt he had no right to stop her anymore.
The guilt gnawed at him; if Shroud truly died because of their actions, he would never forgive himself. But he believed he had made the right choice, choosing hispanions over a stranger.
"What?! Isn’t it your responsibility to care for your party? Shroud is ourpanion too, even if only temporarily."
She red at Jokyr before shifting her fierce gaze to Ana.
"And you—you said to trust him. So why didn’t you do anything? Shroud saved your lives! You’re all so ungrateful!"
The typicallyposed Ana could only avert her gaze, clenching her fists while herpanions hung their heads in shame.
She couldn’t respond, having also been the one to trust Vincent’s idea.
As tears continued streaming down uny’s face, Jokyr gently took her by the shoulders tofort her.
"uny, I know you’re worried about him, but this was also Shroud’s idea. We have to respect his decision and trust him."
"Stop crying. We don’t know what happened in there, but we also don’t know what other resources he might have. There’s a good chance Shroud left in another direction or used an escape scroll. Remember how he didn’t even bother with low-level items? A rich guy like him must have at least one escape scroll, right?"
With Jokyr’s reasoning, uny’s eyes showed a hint of rity. It did make sense. Although she was still worried, she held firmly to the thought that Shroud was safe.
"Shroud…" she murmured, ncing toward the entrance of the third underground level.
Elsewhere, deep within the ckbite Rat Labyrinth, a dark humanoid figure sat on a massive stone throne. A ck, serpent-like shadow coiled around his right arm, which he yed with idly.
Hiss~
A faint tremor emanated from the dark entrance to the throne room. Soon, the familiar figure of the ckbite Rat Leader appeared, immediately prostrating itself before the throne like a subservient servant.
The figure on the throne revealed a pair of blood-red eyes.
A deep, raspy voice broke the silence as the dark figure spoke.
"My servant, tell me what happened…"
The ckbite Rat Leader slowly raised its head and spoke in an audible tone, drawing a series of amused exmations from the dark figure.
"Hoo… interesting, for one of such a low tier to possess such abnormal abilities. Interesting… quite interesting indeed."
The dark figure muttered repeatedly, unable to contain hisughter.
As hisughter faded, his eyes gleamed with a sharp intensity.
"I want you to find him for me. Report to me immediately once you do. Now, go."
The ckbite Rat Leader voiced its affirmation and hastily left, leaving the dark figure alone on his throne.
Meanwhile, on the third underground level…
Several massive primals copsed to the ground as the venomous purple energy faded. After a tremor, their corpses dissolved into bright digital lights, leaving materials and items scattered on the ground.
You have sessfully killed a Digged Leader Tier 1 (5 stars)
You have sessfully killed a Digging Servant Tier 1 (4 stars)
You have sessfully killed a…
Notifications rang continuously in his ears as he swung his Duskedge de, flicking off the remaining blood.
With this wave alone, he managed to fill his experience barpletely.
One million experience points. Now, he had the opportunity to upgrade his skills or armaments to a higher quality.
Although he had several options, his choice was already clear in his mind.
With Abyssal Venosh as his AOE skill, his farming speed could increase.
With One-Step Shift, he didn’t need to worry about movement abilities. But what he had foundcking in his fight with the Mutated ckbite Leader was firepower.
He needed more firepower, so he wouldn’t have to rely on his chaos energy.
Without hesitation, he chose to upgrade his Duskedge de.
Name: Nightre de
Power: Tier 2 Armament
Quality: Epic
Description: The Nightre de is masterfully crafted from obsidian dusksteel and reinforced with shadowme alloys, giving it a lustrous midnight-gray finish with shimmering veins of crimson and silver. Lightweight yet incredibly resilient, it’s enchanted to deal increased damage with each strike, inflicting deep,sting bleed effects on enemies.
The de seems to capture and refract even the faintest light, creating an almost otherworldly gleam that instills fear.
Visual: The Nightre de has an elegant hilt wrapped in deep crimson leather. Its polished de is ented by vibrant silver and crimson veins that pulse gently when wielded, emitting a faint red-ck aura that intensifies with each strike. When activating skills, the de ignites with a dark, fiery glow that illuminates every sh with a brilliant radiance.
Skill 1: Umbra sh
Effect: A single-target sh that channels shadow energy, dealing amplified damage and inflicting a bleed thatsts 15 seconds, progressively reducing the target’s physical and magical defenses.
Bleed Duration: 15 seconds
Defense Reduction: 2% per tick, stacking up to 4%
Skill 2: Shadowme Wave
Effect: Releases a shadowme-infused, ranged sh that travels 12 meters, damaging all enemies in its path with a chance to stagger, and inflicting both a burn and bleed effect.
Range: 12 meters
Bleed Duration: 10 seconds
Burn Duration: 10 seconds
Stagger Chance: 25%
Skill 3: Emberstrike
Effect: Channels fire energy, delivering a powerful single-target strike that inflicts a burn for 12 seconds, briefly lowering the target’s resistance to fire-based attacks.
Burn Duration: 12 seconds
Fire Vulnerability: Reduces target’s fire resistance by 10% for 6 seconds
"It’s now Tier 2?"