In a star system of the 29th floor, Reaper who was about to enter a certain region with his subordinates to report the result of the mission, suddenly paused.
"Strange." He didn't speak the normal language everyone did, but the sounds that left him were not meaningless.
"Boss?" The peak rank 5 subordinate, the right hand man of Reaper, leaned closer and asked.
"The spheres…they're gone." Reaper's voice was filled with astonishment that he didn't notice.
How many years had it been?
Other than foes at his own rank, no prey, even if it's peak of rank 5, was able to escape his attack.
But these two…even though the attacks would only push them to verge of death and not actually kill them…they somehow neutralized the attacks.
"I need to go. I thought master was overestimating by sending me, but he still underestimated them." Reaper's black robe glowed with a tinge of red and omnious patterns of sacrifice, slaughter and grief slowly appeared.
"We'll lock the space so that they can't run away like last time!" The right hand man gestured to the rest who took out the treasures and started setting up a formation.
The group hurried and rushed to the 30th floor. If they didn't kill these two here, then their next stop would be in the safe zone. If they reached there, forget Reaper, even if his master came in person, he'd be powerless.
— — — —
"E-Evil human!"
The moon wolves, which were literally the size of earth's moon, now had half of their body missing. Just a few seconds ago, it rotted and turned into dust after they confronted the death spheres.
Varian thought they'd give up after realizing the power of these spheres but he didn't expect they were more prideful than he imagined.
They ended the death sphere and then vowed to take full revenge by inflicting him with horrendous pain.
Varian wasn't into that sort of stuff, so he didn't agree. But otherwise, he was very grateful to these two for getting rid of the biggest immediate danger.
"I heard when I kill you, you don't really die. That the tower stores your soul and you'll reincarnate soon." Varian unsheathed the demon sword and raised it with his right hand.
The sword hummed and began to suck out all the blood leaking out from the wolves. Like a primordial beast emptying an ocean, the sword emptied the small sea of blood.
Its power spiked and pushed Varian's output into the boundaries of rank 5.
"W-What are you?" The moon wolf would've scoffed at his measly strength any other time. But it was too injured, too weakened to remain that aloof.
Moreover,
"Hyaa! Fucking die! Die you stupid wolf! Die, die, die!" Maria was punching the daylights out of the other moon wolf.
As if venting her frustration for all the hardships she went through, the tree lady didn't hold back in her strength, causing innumerable cracks on the wolf's body.
But the thing that did the actual damage was the green spirals that emerged from her palms every time she touched the wolf.
'Famine' —> 'Assimilator'.
As an experienced Assimilator, she was literally devouring huge chunks of the wolf's physical body as well as its life force.
Maria was able to digest some of the devoured energy and improve her strength while most of it was either wasted or used for a stronger attack.
That left the moon wolf he was facing. Honestly, Varian didn't want to kill it quickly. He wanted to fight it long and improve his rank.
Since he had no bottleneck, he could easily reach the peak of rank 3. At that time, even without the artifacts, he'd be able to destroy a peak rank 4, unlike his current strength where he could only fight against a peak rank 4.
But with a rank 6 bone-warrior chasing them, he knew he had no such luxury.
"Maria, make it quick!" He yelled and swung his sword.
Before the sword slash reached the wolf, other artifacts acted.
The Aether pendant messed with the wolf's soul and nature's seed threw its power off balance. Their help was unexpected by the wolf and the impact was significant.
The moon wolf, despite all its injuries, would be able to crush any low rank 5s and even some mid rank 5s.
Varian's current strength, even at the highest, barely reached the range of rank 5. He had no chance of beating the moon wolf even if it was heavily injured.
But the artifacts made the impossible possible.
A thin red line gleamed on the giant moon wolf's body. The creature's eyes, which were as large as a city, dilated and quivered.
Then, its body began to slice apart, spluttering blood enough to fill all the oceans of earth.
The moon wolf's stubborn regeneration spurred into motion, quickly closing the gaps and replenishing the lost blood.
The moon wolf's thunder howl nearly ruptured Varian's eardrums. The creature's killing intent seemed to fill the entire space.
His best blow failed to kill it.
And now, the wolf was prepared to prevent any such attacks. But Varian wasn't a very predictable opponent.
Using the chaos unfurling inside the wolf, he teleported to the wound he cut open and jumped right in.
The wolf panicked. Normally, it could've detected him teleporting in its vicinity and attacked in advance.
But in that injured state, it was heavily focused on defense and didn't pay enough attention to the weak space fluctuations.
"Die."
Thin beams of light, brighter than even the sun, broke out of the wolf's body.
The creature's body struggled violently and its aura which was directed outwards for defense against Varian's attacks scrambled to its insides.
The tsunami of aura was enough to drown Varian and kill him in seconds.
But it was two seconds late.
"Woooooffff!"
The light beams expanded and grew brighter, turning from appearing as thin sticks piercing out of the wolf into logs demolishing it.
The light beams brightened to the point of blinding for a moment and even Maria had to turn away to shield her eyes.
Then, a star-blasting explosion shook the space, resulting in tremendous shockwaves and bright flashes of light that'd travel to star systems many light years away.
In the darkness left behind by the light, Varian stood still, with a satisfied expression.
"I killed a peak rank 5? Woah! I think I'm pretty strong now!"
[Host, have some shame. You killed a badly injured moon wolf. If it's at its peak, it could sneeze you to death.]
Varian ignored the mood dampener and glanced at the two vortices that appeared in the distance.
Instead of walking in, Maria was looking at him with a pale expression and wide eyes. Her jaw was reaching the floor and her shivering body was definitely not helping hide her feelings.
"M-Monster…w-who the fuck are you?" Her trembling lips barely managed to utter.
Until now, Maria didn't get a chance to observe Varian properly. Every time he fought strong enemies, she was also in a battle. So, even if she saw some absurd things, she told herself that it was because of the artifact or something else.
But since she killed the moon wolf quicker than him, she keenly observed the battle.
The final attack by Varian was enough to destroy a low rank 5. Even though the power he emitted during that final attack seemed to have reached rank 4, Maria also felt that Varian didn't actually advance to rank 4.
In the battle, his rank seemed like rank 3 sometimes, but other times, it was rank 4. She had no idea what the hell was going on.
But her intuition told her one thing.
She had been wrong about him. She thought he was someone like her, a disciple of a powerhouse. A genius.
As she ascended more floors, her opinion solidified.
He wasn't just a normal genius. He's a peerless genius. But she soon decided even that wasn't enough.
This guy was destined to be a divine ranker. A realm of strength that even her master took centuries to touch.
But now, she was beginning to feel even that evaluation was an underestimation.
This guy wasn't a genius at all. He couldn't come under any of those classifications.
He's…
'His aura…I can't feel it properly, but his strength…I had my suspicions since the start, but now, I am certain of it.' Maria's heart palpitated. 'With every battle, his strength is touching new heights.
He said he's breaking seals like me, but it doesn't feel like that at all. It's as if…he's actually growing that strong and advancing.'
It was such an absurd conclusion that even Maria couldn't believe it.
Her rationale told her that she was being delusional. But her intuition...it screamed that she was right.
If so, then he wasn't in the realm of genius anymore.
He's a pure monster. Someone that didn't conform to common sense.
That monster grinned as it checked a screen visible only to him.
[Mystic Rank 3: 100/500 [+50]
Famine Rank 3: 100/500 [+40]
Spirit Rank 3: 150/500 [+30]
Matter Rank 3: 10/500
Energy Rank 3: 10/500
Space Rank 3: 10/500 [+10]
Time Rank 3: 10/500 [+10]
PS: Minor improvements. The battle was short and without much struggle. No pain, no gain.]
Varian pursed his lips but didn't argue with the commentary.
As he was about to step into the vortex, a window popped in front of him.
It was from the tower.
[] Congratulations on defeating a +2 monster. Since it's a rare feat, you can pick three items as rewards:
