Chapter 213: Clora of Crimson Marsh (2)
Chapter 213: Clora of Crimson Marsh (2)
After resting for two hours and recovering to prime condition, everyone continued towards the crimson marsh area.
Forty-eight kilometers to distance until they arrive at their destination.
"Let's resume the fun."
...
The deeper they went into the forest, the stronger the monsters they encountered.
Killing monsters by using their Mystic Path skills and understanding more about them gave them the experience required to level up their Mystic Paths.
[Proficiency of the skill has increased.]
[Skill modification in the process due to your insight.]
[New skill manifesting.]
And such notification greeted them as they continued.
They had to rest regularly and move strategically due to the stronger monsters. Although they were growing, they were not getting stronger in terms of stats and latent power. They never encountered Blood Crystals after the initial ones they got, and the resources they got couldn't be utilized.
Teamwork and synergy increased as they had to work together to kill stronger monsters. After four days, the group finally arrived at the edge of the Crimson Marsh. They left no monster alive and explored the forest for all it was worth.
Everyone's Mystic Path reached level 5 by the time they arrived there. This was utterly important because each level of a Mystic Path increased the capacity of the Chakra pool by 100!
But that was not all, each level-up of their Mystic Path increased their natural recovery of Magilore, Vigor, and Soul energy as well!
They could battle longer and better, ultimately increasing their power output and chance of survival despite not getting an increase in stats.
As the group arrived at the entrance of the Marsh, the red spark and mist that enveloped this large area started flickering strangely, and a structure came into view.
A huge mountain with a ladder and three platforms, with one at the 50th step, the second one at the 500th step, and the last at the 1000th step.
[Defeat the two Crimson Guardians and challenge the Clora of Crimson Marsh at the peak.] "That's one good mountain for fighting," Hua said with a ferocious grin.
The mountain appeared to be cut into three pieces, with only large stairs connecting them.
The platforms looked circular and huge, exceeding the width of the mountain with an array of trees at the border.
"That's cool, alright. Let's march on," Aleron smiled and took the first step on the stairs as the group started moving up.
'I was thinking Stairs might have some trouble attached to it, but that's not the case.'
The group arrived at the 50th step and walked onto the platform. A huge natural ground, approximately 2-kilometer radius with trees at the border.
At the center of the ground, a three-meter tall warrior stood in rusty, full armor while holding
a three-meter-long sword with both of his hands, pointing upward and positioned center.
The eyes behind his helmet shone as the helmet sockets glinted rusty orange color. [Crimson Guardian-Lekaios]
-[Status]
|-Physical:
- [Strength: 820]
[Agility: 867]
- [Health: 803]
[Stamina: 817]
[Vigor Energy: 826/826.]
|-Arcane:
- [Magic Potency: 800]
[Magilore Energy: 800/800]
|-Soul Status:
- [Soul Potency: 700]
[Soul Energy/force: 700/700]
I-Chaos Path:
-Crimson Guardian of Vexation.
|-Skills:
-???
"Let's not step forward yet," Aleron said as he looked at the sub-boss monster at the center.
"It's powerful. Way more powerful than any monster from the forest," Yueha narrowed her
eyes.
"We will have to make adequate formation," Fang thoughtfully said. "Unless we restrain and weaken it, the chance of any one of us getting a fatal injury is high."
"Indeed," Arran'tel nodded.
"Alright, let's try the classic way to defeat the boss," Aleron smiled. "We will make three teams. One that is well synergized to restrain and debuff that monster. The second one will focus on defense and support. And third one that will bring out big guns to damage it."
After a couple of minutes, the group parted into three teams.
-Team Serpent: Arran'tel, Fang, Yueha, Jiang, Ruan.
-Team Paladin: Enorin, Roxen, Liang, Rias, Darzax.
-Team Tiger: Aleron, Riki, Hua, Ying, Lee, Nerathi.
"Team Serpent, make your moves right away once we enter!"
Since the boss didn't do anything while they were outside, it would react the moment they entered.
As such, the first team to enter must be Team Paladin, with preparation for defense. Although Fang and Liang were in different teams, both of them could be Team Serpent or Paladin due to
their skill set specialty.
"Mystic Skill: Dome of Chaotic Order," Fang waved his hand and covered Team Paladin in a unique defensive formation. "This dome is attached to you five and move with you, but don't go too far from each other. This defensive dome will control the flow and movement of attacks that enter and prevent them from targetting you, giving you a chance. I can re- energize this dome as well, so this will be my part in defense."
Fang's eyes whirled with black, purple, and silver-colored formation, "The next one will be to restrain the boss. Once I make it, I won't do anything else other than providing support to both formations to keep them maintained."
Everyone nodded.
"Team Paladin, go," Aleron said.
Team Paladin went inside. The moment they entered, Crimson Guardian Lekaios's hands
moved, and he held the sword as if intending to make a horizontal slash.
Danger bells rang in the heads of Enorin, Roxen, Liang, Rias, and Darzax, but they expected a
swift attack and were prepared.
Mystic Skill: Shield of Muddled Light-Enorin.
Mystic Skill: Barrier of Twilight Lake-Rias.
Mystic Skill: Seal of Unwilling Death-Darzax.
Mystic Skill: Wall of Mountain Iron-Roxen.
Liang didn't use a defensive skill but used a support skill.
Mystic Skill: Isolated Symphony of Chaos.
Everyone's skill suddenly absorbed the power of the atmosphere and became 20% stronger!
The moment Crimson Guardian Lekaios finished swinging its sword and released a bright, thick, and intense crescent slash aimed at Team Paladin, their various defensive skills
manifested.
All of them used 20% of their total Chakra, which was 100 Chakra in their skills.
The barriers, shield, and wall manifested outside the range of Fang's formation, which was
akin to a stretchable bubble covering five of them.
*Swoosh!*
The slash, one by one, destroyed all four defenses while gradually losing their power, and in hand, what was left remaining at the end was dealt with by Fang's formation. Meanwhile, the moment Crimson Guardian Lekaios released the attack, Team Serpent and Team Tiger entered the battlefield and released their skills.
Team Serpent unleashed restraining-type debuff Mystic Skills, while Team Tiger unleashed pure offensive destruction.
With the teamwork synergy, the group defeated the boss without anyone getting injured even
once.
It was also the first time all of them fought at once against a single monster, but it went way better than they expected.
Although they were weaker in terms of stats, the quality of their skills was not weak. Weaker stats just meant the potency of their skills could be resisted by the boss, but their effects would still take place, albeit for a lower time or a bit lower effectiveness than usual, if the
boss resisted using its energies.
But that was enough!
1v16, they were unstoppable. [Congratulations, you have defeated the first crimson guardian-Lekaios]
[You have acquired a Golden Reward Box for killing with flawless-grade performance.]
[The MVP of the battle is Aleron. Reward: 1x Random box (Gold-tier)] [The killing blow to the boss was dealt by Hua. Reward: 1x Random box (Silver-tier)]
"Oh? The dungeons here give such an evaluation and extra rewards?" Aleron raised his
eyebrows.
"They are more advanced than dungeons in the lower cosmos," Rias smiled. "Great. Let's see
what we get as rewards."
Everyone looked at the big golden box, which was two square meters in size. They were anticipating something good since they'd been here for three days and a lot of Random Box that didn't give any immediate useful items or new things.
"I guess this is where we'll get Chaos Breathing Art," Aleron rubbed his palm as he walked
towards the Golden Reward Box and punched the keyhole button at his head's length.
*Whistle...*
The box opened with firecrackers and confetti as it vanished and spewed a bunch of items suspended in the air within transparent, faintly glowing bubbles.
A total of three items.
[Congratulations.]
[You have acquired a random Chaos Breathing Scroll x 2 and a random Item boxx1.]
Both scrolls appeared pitch black, while the item box was also black.
"It seems that the Chaos Breathing Art we get will be determined once we open the scroll,"
Aleron grabbed one of the scrolls from its bubble and opened it.
It sparked and glowed as its black color vanished, replaced by a mixture of yellow, orange,
and dark pink patterned scrolls with strange runic language as its content.
[Chaos Breathing Art: Tsunami of Silent Flow]
-Difficulty: Highest.
-Speed: 100 per second at first stage.
-Refinement: ### (Requirement not met)
[Gachapi: We got a pretty good one, but the difficulty is great, and it's a unique one that's not
practiced mainstream in this Chaosverse.]
Aleron released the scroll from his hand as it floated in the air with his control for others to
inspect while he pulled out the second scroll from its bubble.
[Chaos Breathing Art: Vexed Vortex Art]
-Difficulty: Easyn/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om
-Speed: 14 per second at the first stage.
"This one doesn't have the Refinement option."
[Gachapi: That's not the only difference. The method and requirement to practice both are
different. This Vexed Vortex Art and such Chaos Breathing Art without Refinement are
practiced by the majority.]
[Astral: What's wrong with the refinement one? Is difficulty that high?] [Gachapi: That's not the most important block. The difficulty is high and it may take time, but
the problem is to practice this, you have to make some personal power sacrifices and troubles
that come along with it. We will go this route to gain better progression, but not yet. For now, we will have to stick with orthodox Chaos Breathing Arts] "So, should we practice this Vexed Vortex Art?" Enorin asked.
[Gachapi: It's easy to change Chaos Breathing Art one practice, so yeah. We use what we can
for now.]
"Well then, we should continue and defeat the next boss after checking the rewards me and the boss got," Hua said with a grin.
"Two more bosses means we'll have more Chaos Breathing Arts." [Gachapi: We got one that we can't use and one that's trash. Trash ones are abundant in the
market, so let's hope we get a good one, but...don't keep hopes high.]
"Alright then, let's wrap it up. Hua, open your box."
Aleron took the item box and opened it. "It's a Paragon-rank gun-type weapon. Who wants it?"
Nobody wanted it, so Aleron threw it away in a corner of space storage where he gathered the
bunch of items that were of no use except for selling once they entered a city later.
"Boss, I got a stat booster," Hua said as he took out a potion, his grin big. "It increases soul
power by 100."
[Astral: Gyattdamn! We finally got one.]
"Drink it. It's yours since you got it," Aleron laughed and said, "Now, let's see what I get from
this MVP box."