《THE STRONGEST NEXULYTE》


 Chapter 1: A Dream

    Inside a base located in the dreamscape."Where is he?!" Ivan grabbed the collar of the middle-aged man''s uniform and asked in an icy tone. The man shivered and slowly pointed in a direction from which sounds of explosions could be heard.


    Tossing the man away, Ivan began to walk in that direction as five cards formed around him; Clint and Ralph followed behind him.


    "Calm down Ivan, nothing will happen to him" Ralph called out in an attempt to calm Ivan but his words fell on deaf ears, Ivan continued to walk forward with a murderous look in his eyes.


    Two men in black uniforms suddenly appeared in front of Ivan, one had lightning cracking all around his body while the other one was sitting on a white tiger with a ring of fire around its neck.


    "Halt, Ivan! This is the order from your superior, you are not to involve yourself in this matter; go back and wait for more orders" the man with lightning running around his body spoke in a threatening tone while glaring at Ivan.


    Ivan paused his steps and looked at the two, his expression unchanged.


    A lot of Nexulytes in black uniforms were gathered around the place, they all stood at a distance and looked at Ivan as if he had gone crazy; only Clint and Ralph followed behind Ivan.


    "Get out of my way!" Ivan muttered softly but his voice carried killing intent.


    The eyes of the two men narrowed.


    " You''re just a kid who hasn''t seen the world, even if you have some abilities, do you think you can face everyone here? Don''t force us" The man sitting on the white tiger sneered disdainfully.


    Ivan didn''t respond anymore, two of the cards floating around him suddenly burst into light particles and the expressions on the men''s faces turned grim but before they could react.


    BOOM!


    The two of them exploded into blood mists that splattered all over the place.


    Gasp!


    Everyone was shocked, Ivan actually dared to kill two senior members of the tower!


    Ivan gazed at the blood mist that the two men had turned into, his expression didn''t change even after killing them.


    "No one hurts my friends" Ivan muttered before he resumed walking in the direction the explosions were coming from.


    Ralph looked at this scene with a bewildered expression on his face as his mind traveled to how all this started, it all dated years back when they were nobodies¡­..


    .....


    A couple of years back


    "Do you know who we are, huh?" A man spat at Ivan as he punched Ivan in the face, causing Ivan to fall back and his nose instantly bled.


    BAM!


    "We are Nexulytes, you hear that?" Another person voiced out and kicked him hard.


    BAM!


    " Without us, the dreamscape would have long swallowed the whole world and the earth would be ruined. Where do you think trash people like you will live?!" Another kick.


    BAM!


    " And you dare to resist us? You should be glad we bother to send you on errands!"


    BAM! BAM! BAM!


    Kicks and punches rained down on Ivan as the four men surrounded him and beat him up, they hit him ruthlessly all over his body without holding back.


    Ivan did not dare cry out or retaliate, he gritted his teeth and endured the pain while covering his head with his arms. sea??h th§× n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    This had been his lifestyle for as long as he could remember and he was already getting numb to their harsh words, only their hits served as a constant reminder for him that not all Nexulytes were heroes. In fact, Nexulytes were no heroes; they were just filthy humans with abilities.


    After five minutes.


    " We should stop, I think he''s had enough. He''s not moving anymore, we won''t want to kill him since he can still be of use to us" One of the men said after seeing that Ivan wasn''t moving anymore no matter how hard they hit him, he seemed to have lost consciousness.


    The other three stared at the motionless Ivan and realised that it was indeed the case, so they stopped beating him and stood up.


    One of them spat at Ivan and kicked him one last time,


    "We''ll let you off with this light beating for today, make sure you get your acts right next time" they said scornfully before they left Ivan alone on the cold floor.


    Another two hours flew by. It was already getting dark outside and pretty dark inside the uncompleted warehouse. Ivan''s body moved slightly and a painful hiss sounded the next moment before Ivan''s body grew still.


    Five more minutes later, Ivan resumed movement as he forced himself to sit up and rested his back on the cold wall of the warehouse. A dull look in his eyes as he stared at the empty space in front of him.


    Ivan slowly raised his hand and touched his face with his fingers before quickly retracting them after a sharp pain assaulted his senses, his face was bruised and swollen resulting in the pain when he tried to feel his face.


    Dressed in ragged clothes that barely covered his body from the cold, Ivan looked even more miserable than beggars on the streets. His chest rose and fell at a slow pace as he forced his hurting lungs to take in air.


    His dull eyes flashed with hatred when he remembered the faces of the bastards who beat him up, he clenched his fists despite the pain as he cursed under his breath.


    Those four men were Nexulytes who were tasked with protecting this part of the city, they had been assigned here for years now and this had become a sort of entertainment for them; torturing the homeless Ivan.


    They turned Ivan into their errand boy over the years and found an excuse to beat him up whenever they were in a bad mood or just felt like it.


    Ivan''s stomach growled while he shivered at the same time. He was hungry and cold, but most importantly, he was tired and his body was aching all over. With one last sorrowful sigh, Ivan rested his head on the cold wall and¡­fell asleep.


    That cold night, inside the uncompleted warehouse, Ivan had a very strange dream.


    ...


    Ivan, a 19 years old boy lived in a world that could be described in two words: dying mirror.


    Yes, earth was currently a dying mirror that was being eaten up by its reflection; the dreamscape.


    Many years ago after the birth of Nexulytes; people who awaken magical abilities at a certain age, the dreamscape appeared. The dreamscape, which was also called the reflection of the earth, was a strange place that looked just like earth.


    Everything about these two worlds were the same with even the slightest change of earth affecting the dreamscape in unexpected ways, their only difference was that earth was a world fit for humans and filled with life while the dreamscape was the opposite of it.


    No, it wasn''t a place of the dead or like some underworld. The dreamscape was a world of horrors, a place that only Nexulytes could go to and where even the strongest Nexulyte could face the risk of dying without knowing how.


    Along with the birth of the dreamscape came the ''link'' also known as the bridge that connected both worlds.


    Habitants of the dreamscape could invade the real world, earth, through the ''link''. The same was for the people in the real world who would try to conquer places in the dreamscape.


    Of course, going to the dreamscape or even getting close to the link was dangerous but humans were greedy beings who would die for anything of value, the case of the dreamscape was no different. After discovering the value of the resources inside the dreamscape, humans had been ambitious enough to force their ways into this world of death and create strongholds for themselves.


    Of course, only the Nexulytes could achieve this feat since they were the only ones who could pass through the link.


    But things were not always as easy as they were now as despite humanity''s success in creating habitable and safe places in the dreamscape, they had suffered a disastrous defeat to the dreamscape; losing more than half of the planet to the habitants of the dreamscape, only less than twenty percent of humanity was left by the time humans were finally able to fight back.


    What was left was now being protected by the Nexulytes who were now regarded as heroes of humanity by ordinary people.


    But to Ivan who had no family or a place to call home and had wandered the streets for as long as he could remember¡­ Nexulytes were no heroes, they were despicable scums who took advantage of the weak instead of going to die obediently inside the dreamscape.


    ¡­..


    Morning came sooner than expected as the chilling breeze of the morning woke him up from his dream only to meet the wave of dizziness caused by hunger and aching all over his body due to sleeping on the hard floor and the beating from yesterday.


    Ivan opened his eyes and stared into space, his eyes filled with confusion as he stared at the empty uncompleted warehouse that seemed familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. Though the combined feedback of hunger and pain quickly woke him up from his confusion.


    "So it was a dream, huh?" Ivan mumbled to himself. His voice gave a faint feel of disappointment and relief.


    He had dreamed of being a powerful Nexulyte and had brought the destruction of the real world which the dreamscape had been unable to do for a long time.


    Ivan shook his head and forced himself to stand up, his legs felt weak and trembled under his weight while his whole body felt sour.


    "Those heartless bastards, I hope that they die gruesome deaths" Ivan said with a cold flash in his eyes as he stumbled toward the exit of the warehouse.


    The sun wasn''t up yet, leaving the sky as blue and beautiful as a blue blanket that covered the world; Ivan could not comprehend the beauty of this as he slowly made his way through the desolated street, he had to look for something to fill his stomach with so it could stop annoying him.


    Ivan lived in the rundown part of the city which housed a few poor and managing families who could not afford to live in better parts of the city, a few old houses with washed paints and cracked walls were what one could see everywhere in this side of town. Ivan had once heard kids saying that their roofs used to rain along with the sky during rainy days.


    But none of these actually concerned Ivan who used the ground as his bed and the sky as his blanket. He would sleep wherever the night met him and walk until he felt tired but he always had a limit to his movement and did not go places that he shouldn''t.


    A link had also appeared close to the city once and a lot of horrors were reportedly still roaming about beyond the borders of the city, it would be bad if he wandered into one of them.


    Not a lot of people could be seen on the street as Ivan walked through, most of them had gone to work in the upper part of the city which housed all the best things in the city; Ivan had never been there before so he did not know what it looked like.


    Ivan walked until he saw a trash bin on the side of the road, a somewhat relieved and satisfied smile appeared on his face as he stared at the trash bin with fleas and cockroaches crawling all over it. The sight of the insects did not disgust him in the slightest as he was used to it already.


    After all, most of his meals had come from here until he met Ralph and Glen.


    He stood rotten in place with his eyes fixed on the trash bin but his mind had wandered off, he was thinking about the strange dream he had last night after being beaten up.


    He only came back to his senses when he suddenly heard someone call out his name.


    "Ivan!"


    A voice pulled Ivan out of his daze, he turned to the side and saw Glen standing about ten metres away while staring at him with wide eyes like someone who had seen a ghost.


    To be precise, Glen was staring at¡­Ivan''s hand?


    Ivan was confused and turned to look at his hand only for his eyes to widen in shock as well when he saw that he had unknowingly raised his right hand at some point and dazzling strings of red energy was currently swirling above his palm.


    "Nexus!?" Ivan almost yelled.


    How could he not, after all, Nexus was the special energy attributed to Nexulytes!

 Chapter 2: Awakened

    CHAPTER TWO"Glen told me that he caught you staring at the trash bin again, is that true?" A 19 year old looking Ralph asked in a low voice as he passed a nylon containing steamed buns to Ivan before taking a seat on the old bench, Ivan was sitting quietly in the middle while Glen sat on the other side of the bench.


    The three of them were the only ones who could be seen on the abandoned looking playground with damaged slides, broken swings, and other equipment that kids used to play. They were all equally damaged leaving only the bench intact; the place looked like where beasts fought.


    Ivan only grunted in response as he picked a steamed bun and placed it in his mouth and quickly devoured it before picking another one, he had eaten more than three steamed buns within ten seconds and he showed no sign of slowing down.


    Ralph did not mind Ivan''s eating manner, he knew very well about Ivan''s condition so he could understand why the boy was eating like he had been starving for days.


    "You are missing the point here, Ivan has Nexus energy! I swear I saw it" Glen clamoured from the side seeing as Ralph wasn''t bringing up the matter he had reported.


    Ralph raised his sight above Ivan''s head and stared at Glen while shifting his glasses with his fingers.


    " I heard you the first time," he responded.


    " Then why aren''t you talking about it?" Glen blurted out again, his voice thundering.


    " What''s there to talk about?" Ralph asked as he shot Glen a sharp glare.


    " It''s Nexus energy!" Glen spat once more.


    Ralph "...."


    While the two of them bickered, Ivan was already down to the last steamed bun before he finally slowed down, suddenly realising that he had been too much in a rush just now and was feeling stuffy in his neck.


    Ralph noticed this and quickly passed a bottle of water that was beside him to Ivan.


    Ivan drank the water greedily and wiped the side of his lips with the back of his hand . A satisfied sigh escaped his lips after finally filling his empty stomach.


    Only after letting Ivan rest for a few seconds did Ralph continue to speak.


    "They took everything again?" He asked.


    Ivan knew who the "they" in Ralph''s words were referring to and simply nodded in response.


    Ralph had always been smart and assertive of situations, after all, his family had once lived in San Pluto before moving down here. When he saw Ivan''s expressionless face, he decided not to mention the people who beat Ivan last night. After all, this was not the first time that such was happening.


    "Glen said you were looking at the trash bin again" Ralph went back to his first question.


    " I was hungry," Ivan said shortly without looking at Ralph.


    " Then why didn''t you look for us?" Ralph asked back and Ivan fell silent.


    It wasn''t that he didn''t know what to answer with, he just couldn''t say it. After all, they had been friends for over five years but he still was not comfortable with asking them for help even though they would voluntarily do it every time.


    Seeing Ivan become quiet again, a frown formed on Ralph''s face.


    "I don''t really get you at times, why do you like keeping things to yourself? Although there are not a lot of things we can help you with, at least let us know about the ones we can help with. Even though we live in the outskirts of the city with a lot of bad people we should try to look after each other" Ralph said as he placed one hand on Ivan''s shoulder, his action caused Ivan to flinch.


    Ralph quickly withdrew his hand upon realising his mistake.


    "Sorry" he said.


    " Those bastards! I''ll deal with them one day for touching my friend!" Glen stomped on the ground and roared into the air, he was pissed by what those Nexulytes were doing to Ivan but neither of them could do anything, for now.


    Glen was from a family of normal people, his parents did menial jobs to feed him and his little sister so they dared not go against the Nexulytes who were tasked with protecting this side of the outskirts. Ralph,on the other hand, had a better background but experienced setbacks.


    His mother was a Nexulyte  who earned thousands while his father was an ordinary person, they used to live in San Pluto which was a capital city that was filled with a lot of wonders and people. But things quickly changed after his mother got seriously injured during one of her missions to the dreamscape and wasn''t able to move anymore.


    They had to move down to the outskirts when Ralph was just 13 since they could no longer afford the lifestyle in the city, Ralph''s father had been struggling to take care of his injured wife and their only son. This was why they could not go against the Nexulytes for maltreating Ivan neither could they take him in for fear of angering them either.


    The other people in the outskirts were not any better than the families of these two, they could be said to be worse even as a lot of them even slept on the streets and sold scraps to feed. This was what Ivan and his friends also did to support themselves and their families, though most of the money was given to Ivan which would sometimes get taken from him by those despicable Nexulytes.


    "Lower your voice you idiot! What if they hear you or someone reports you to them?!" Ralph shushed Glen seeing the boy was spewing things out of his mouth without thinking.


    "So what? Can they do more than they are already doing?" Glen clicked his tongue stubbornly but still followed Ralph''s words and kept quiet. He really did not want to know if those wicked people could do even worse things.


    "Sigh! If only my mom was still fine, she could have dealt with them" Ralph said with a sigh.


    " Hmm, true. She would have thrown them out long ago. These pigs only hide here and bully others instead of going to conquer the dreamscape" Glen blurted out in anger.


    " Anyway, when did you awaken your Nexus energy? Why didn''t you say so earlier? Things would have changed a lot if you said something about it earlier" Ralph turned to look at Ivan with confused eyes. Had he revealed his Nexus energy sooner, those people would not have had the chance to bully him.


    Ivan raised his hands and stared at his palm for a few seconds, still finding it difficult to believe. He now had Nexus energy, he could awaken his talent anytime and become a Nexulyte!


    " Yes, why didn''t you tell us earlier? Ralph had awakened his Nexus energy two weeks ago and told us about it, I awakened last week and told you guys too. Why did you hide yours when we have been purposely holding back from awakening even when our parents keep pressuring us. You can even manifest your energy, that means you have awakened longer then why did you hide it?


    I know you hate Nexulytes because of those three bastards but you can stop their bullying if you awaken your talent. Don''t you want to get recruited by a Tower and start making money? You can leave the outskirts, go wherever you want, do anything you want, and get anything you want. Don''t you want that?" Glen ranted nonstop and Ralph had to tell him to shut up so Ivan could get the chance to speak.


    "I think I awakened¡­last night? This is my first time using Nexus energy" Ivan said truthfully after Glen finally kept quiet.


    Ralph "..."


    Glen "...."


    You awakened last night and can already manifest Nexus energy? Ivan, when did you learn to joke like that?


    Feeling the stare of his friends on his face, Ivan looked up at the two of them with an honest look on his face.


    "I''m telling the truth," he muttered.


    Ralph "...."


    Glen "...."


    "What! Are you serious?! Just last night and you can already materialise it?" Glen shouted in disbelief.


    Ralph only continued to stare at Ivan in silence but his glance showed that he was finding it difficult to believe as well. S§×ar?h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Ivan only shrugged, it was their choice to believe him or not.


    Ralph finally spoke after a short moment of silence.


    "It doesn''t matter, what matter is that you are now ready to awaken. We will inform our parents and decide when to leave for San pluto"


    Ralph had just finished speaking when¡­


    Swoosh!!!


    A strong gust of wind blew past the playground, the sky darkened as loud thunder claps echoed through the air. It was as if chaos had suddenly descended and the world was about to end.


    The sudden change of the weather startled Ivan so much that he jumped off the old bench in fright, the broken swings and pieces of other playing equipment were being swept around in the air and could hit someone at anytime; the entire place was a mess that Ivan could not even see properly due to the sand and other things that blocked his vision.


    "Hey, you guys should go home now. This place isn''t safe" Ivan hurriedly warned Glen and Ralph as he was about to run and look for a place to take cover but he got no response which prompted him to look back.


    His eyes widened when he looked back and saw Glen and Ralph still sitting on the old bench, seemingly frozen and unaware of what was happening around them. They did not even bulge when logs of wood flew right past their faces.


    "What the¡­" Ivan''s mouth hung open as he stumbled back while still looking at his only friends who had been frozen while sitting in the middle of what seemed like a thunderstorm, only that it wasn''t raining yet.


    Ivan was still racking his mind, trying to decide between fleeing or saving these two when another shocking thing finally made Ivan''s mind fall into despair.


    Right in the middle of the ruined playground, space cracked and twisted as a ten metre tall grey portal with edges made from broken golden mirrors came into existence.


    It¡­was a mirror gate! A link to the dreamscape had appeared!

 Chapter 3: Eaten, Memories

    Ivan stared at the mirror gate that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere in horror, his heart was beating so fast inside his ribcage that he could hear it clearly.He had been hesitant about running away or finding a way to help Glen and Ralph who looked like they were not part of this world anymore but was there still a point in doing so now? Could he still choose with a mirror gate right in front of him? Even most Nexulytes would be terrified if a mirror gate spawned in front of them, much less someone like Ivan.


    Just a second after the mirror gate appeared, Ivan saw a mass of yellow mist flow out from it. The yellow my mist moved like an entity with vision as it surged toward Ivan, accompanied by ghastly sounds of babies and anguished screams of women.


    Ivan watched with horrified eyes as the eerie mist that covered his entire field of vision slowly moved closer to him while the strange sounds accompanying it echoed in his ears, he felt like he was standing in front of a massive wave with no way to run.


    Surely, the mist finally got in front of Ivan and swallowed him.


    "Am I¡­finally going to die?"


    Was the last thing that Ivan thought of before closing his eyes as the yellow mist swallowed him and everything around him, he did not even think of his two friends; there was nothing he could do to save himself, much less save them.


    Splash!!


    After the yellow mist swallowed Ivan, everything went silent. The ghastly screams and anguished cries, the sounds of strong wind and destruction, and the sound of the thunderclap above the playground. All around Ivan was quiet and¡­peaceful.


    Aside from that, Ivan also felt¡­cold. As if he was soaking in water.


    ''Didn''t the yellow mist swallow me? Why am I still alive?'' Ivan thought to himself as he slowly opened his eyes, what greeted him left him stunned for a good couple of seconds.


    Ivan saw that he was not inside the yellow mist that had appeared from the mirror gate, at least his environment did not look anything as expected of such a monster.


    Currently, Ivan found himself inside a vast clear sea. He estimated that the sea should be as huge as the outskirts that he lived in and the water of the sea was so clean that he could see clearly as if he was on land.


    Rays of sunlight pierced through the surface of the sea all the way down to the bottom that was over two thousand feet deep while the top of the sea flowed gently in one direction as if being carried by a calm wave.


    Ivan watched in amazement as he had never seen a sight as beautiful as this before, the sea was so huge and water so clear with not a single being to taint its glory; well, except for Ivan himself who was slowly drifting to the bottom of the sea.


    It was then that Ivan realized that he wasn''t drifting, he was drowning!


    Immediately, the clear sea did not seem as beautiful as it had been earlier as Ivan was suddenly filled with dread. He began to move his limbs in panic, trying to make his body go upward but it was proving futile; he did not even know how to swim in the first place, he soon got tired from struggling too much.


    ''Why am I even struggling to survive? Isn''t it better to just die this way? It should be less painful, right?'' Ivan suddenly thought to himself. Realizing that there was no reason for him to try so hard to survive this place.


    If it was truly inside the yellow mist, then getting out of this sea was impossible and even if he managed to leave; the outside world must have already been overflowing with monsters from the dreamscape. San pluto might not be able to send help in time before the outskirt was destroyed; they might not even bother to send help.


    Why waste the life of important Nexulytes for a few bumkins living in the outskirts?


    Ivan thought of those Nexulytes who had been in charge of guarding the outskirts for years now, a slight smile formed at the end of his lips as he imagined them getting shredded by monsters; the scene would be satisfying to watch. Sadly, he won''t be able to see it but knowing that reality wasn''t going to be much different still made him feel better.


    ''At least they will finally get to die horribly'' Ivan thought within him as he stopped struggling and allowed himself to sink deeper into the sea with a peaceful smile on his face.


    One minute¡­


    Five minutes¡­


    Ten minutes¡­.


    Ivan''s eyes flashed open, a frown etched between his eyebrows as he stared around himself in confusion.


    He was still inside the water, he was still slowly sinking deeper; so much time had passed before Ivan realized that he was not suffocating! He realized two things after opening his eyes.


    First was that he could still breathe which he did not realize earlier because he had panicked, second was that¡­even after ten minutes of constantly sinking, the bottom of the sea remained as distant as ever!


    ''Why, why?! I have already given up, why can''t I just die?! This place isn''t meant to trap me forever, right?'' Ivan thought as a newfound fear grew within him. A fear worse than the fear of death¡­


    Being alone for eternity!


    Although at this point, a new change occurred in the sea.


    Ivan heard a thunderclap above the sea as the sunlight disappeared instantly, the calm sea suddenly began to rage fiercely and the clear sea water turned murky and dark that Ivan could barely see two meters around him.


    Sounds of the water getting slapped rang in Ivan''s ears, it was as if thousands of sea creatures were rushing all around him but he couldn''t see them; only once did Ivan catch a glimpse of an enormous shadow that almost made his heart jump out of his chest.


    Strong waves began to splash on the sea and Ivan found himself getting tossed around in the water without being able to react.


    A thunderstorm had appeared so suddenly without a sign.


    Ivan, getting thrown around inside the enormous sea with an unknown number of sea creatures surrounding him, could feel his heart grow cold with terror; all he wanted was to die a better death than those scumbag Nexulytes, why was he in a horror house¡­or sea?


    Ivan had just been thrown away by another wave when he suddenly heard what gave him goosebumps.


    "Hey"


    A low voice of an old man that sounded like a whisper almost sent Ivan into shock, he would have fallen if not that he was currently floating in water.


    Ivan hastily turned around to see who else was in this place but found nothing but murky water when he turned around, though he could have sworn that the voice just now was right behind him.


    Ivan was still staring at the murky water when he saw a shadow from the corner of his eyes, he quickly turned to face it but came face to face with an old woman instead.


    Ivan¡­passed out from shock.


    "Huh? He fainted just like that, big brother is no fun anymore" A young girlish voice said with dissatisfaction as the face of the old woman peeled off, it was a mask.


    ....


    Ivan did not know how long had passed, he felt like he had been asleep for years when his consciousness finally started to return to him. His body felt terribly weak and heavy, he also had this strong urge to cry for some reason but held himself back.


    Ivan struggled a bit to move his heavy eyelids which took him some seconds to do and when he finally opened them, what he saw stunned him.


    His sight was moving up and down at a fast speed as if someone was running while carrying him while a few meters behind them was a woman who was terribly wounded.


    One of her arms was missing, part of her face was covered in blood, and a huge hole in her chest. But that didn''t stop her from running after Ivan and his carrier at an inhumane speed while screaming


    "Give me back my child!"


    Ivan did not know who this woman was but he could feel the great sense of sorrow swelling within him and the urge to cry grew louder when he saw the woman finally losing speed, her body was probably succumbing to her injuries after she had pushed her body too much.


    His vision went blank.


    Another unknown amount of time passed when Ivan regained vision.


    He found himself in a room full of babies, he estimated that there were around three hundred children who were most likely only a few months old in this place and almost all of them were crying.


    ''Where¡­is this?'' Ivan thought to himself as he tried to look around but found out that he could not. He was also currently¡­a baby.


    ''What''s going on?'' he wondered.


    The door of the room was pushed open at this point, startling the babies and causing a few to start crying even louder; they were most likely calling for their mothers.


    ''Where am I? Who was that woman? Wasn''t I in the sea just then?''


    A lot of questions ran through Ivan''s mind which to his surprise made him more tired, it seemed that he had truly become a baby. S§×arch* The ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Ivan looked up and saw a man in a brown trench coat walk into the room with a glowing stone in his hand, he walked up to a baby and picked the baby up by holding his little hand and placed the stone in front of the baby.


    The stone shone bright and the baby cried louder. Ivan heard the man click his tongue and casually threw the baby to the side before picking up another baby.


    This continued until it got to Ivan''s turn. The man stared down at Ivan and Ivan stared back at him. He saw the look of surprise in the man''s face as he held Ivan''s baby hand and¡­


    Snap!!


    He broke it.


    A wave of pain rushed through Ivan''s body , his mouth opened up involuntarily and a piercing cry rang out. But the man did not stop there, he released Ivan''s now broken arm and held his little leg before also breaking it as well; Ivan cried more, the pain was heart shattering.


    "Tks! This one isn''t very useful. Take him to the newly discovered domain" the man in a trench coat said with contempt before moving on to another kid. The last thing that the crying Ivan saw before passing out was another man who appeared from nowhere and carried him away.


    Ivan once again woke up after an unknown amount of time.


    '' Again?'' Ivan sighed inwardly, mentally tired.


    He opened his eyes to see what it was this time and was surprised to see that he was back in the sea.


    Ivan had never been so happy to be in a place before, he felt like he had returned home after suffering all day outside.


    But before he could rejoice too much, a soft voice whispered from behind him.


    "Welcome back, big brother"

 Chapter 4: Worst birthday ever

    "Welcome back, big brother"A soft voice sounded behind Ivan, he speculated that the voice belonged to a teenage girl but did not dare to be too certain considering what he had experienced before.


    "Don''t you want to turn around and see me, big brother?"


    The voice said once more, a bit upset this time.


    Ivan''s heart felt cold when he heard this, now he was sure that whoever the owner of that voice might be, they were definitely not a young teenage girl. He felt mentally exhausted and stressed. Why was dying so stressful?


    He had already given up on living when the mirror gate appeared at the playground but not only did he not die when the yellow mist swallowed him, he kept getting toyed with by¡­things that he could not explain.


    First, he found himself in this vast clear sea that was originally calm and he could breathe in it without a problem, then he heard the voice of an old man but got frightened by the appearance of an old woman instead which caused him to pass out due to him being unable to handle the shock.


    When he woke up, he had witnessed the weird scene of an injured mother chasing after someone who stole her child. After which he experienced being a baby in a hall with a lot of other babies, that was where the man in a brown trench coat made him experience a world of pain. Sear?h the N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Ivan''s body jolted when he recalled his experience as a baby, the pain of having one''s limbs snap was not pleasing at all. And the pain that he felt made him feel that it was impossible for everything he had experienced to be an illusion, everything felt just too realistic.


    ''Did I experience a different lifetime? Or¡­was I really hallucinating?''


    "Was it because I startled you with the face of an old woman just then? Is that why Big Brother doesn''t want to look at me? Fine, I''m sorry. It was a mask, now please look at me"


    Ivan''s mind was pulled out from his thoughts by the voice once more, the owner of the voice sounded very desperate this time around.


    ''Oh, yeah. And there''s this voice behind me too, let''s see what it is'' Ivan thought to himself as he moved himself around in the water. He had lost count of how many times he had been stunned that he did not care if he would be shocked by what was behind him.


    Ivan turned around and his eyes widened in surprise when he finally saw what had been calling him big brother¡­it was actually a sixteen-year-old-looking girl!


    Ivan was surprised that it was actually a young girl who was behind him and not some old monster waiting to scare the living daylight out of him.


    In front of Ivan was a girl who looked to be only fifteen or sixteen years old, she had large blue eyes that blinked cutely at Ivan. Her eyes looked so bright and pure as if she was ignorant of everything unholy but Ivan knew that it was fake, it was his gut feeling.


    The girl had long black hair that was tied up into two ponytails that reached her back and wore a pretty blue dress.


    She was standing right in front of Ivan inside the water too but a strange energy that Ivan could not see kept the water away from her, the energy created an invisible barrier around her that prevented the water from coming around a meter near her; unlike her, Ivan was completely soaked.


    "Yay! Big brother finally looked at me, I''m so happy"


    The girl clapped her hands together with a happy expression on her face while Ivan''s face showed more confusion. But before he could ask why she kept calling him big brother the girl moved closer to him.


    "I would really love to spend some time and chat with Big Brother but I don''t have enough time right now, you can look for me in the future if you have any questions. Please remember my face or I''ll be very upset with Big Brother.


    For now, happy birthday!" The girl exclaimed excitedly as she pushed out her hands, sending a red orb of light flying toward Ivan.


    Ivan had subconsciously tried to move out of the way thinking that the red orb was an attack but his expression froze when he saw what was within the red orb. There was a stack of blue cards inside the red orb and Ivan recognized those cards. After all, it was his ability in the strange dream that he had last night!


    The red orb sailed slowly towards Ivan and entered his body without Ivan feeling anything, the girl smiled upon seeing this and winked at Ivan while waving her hands.


    "Bye now, big brother. Remember to come look for me and happy birthday once more!" She said before disappearing into thin air.


    Ivan had yet to recover from the subsequent change of events before the girl vanished, next was him slowly losing consciousness.


    Ivan tried his best to stay awake but the cold sea suddenly became so warm and comfortable that he could not resist the urge to sleep, and so he slept off.


    .....


    Somewhere far away from the outskirts where Ivan lived, a middle-aged woman could be seen walking through a garden with colourful flowers, butterflies with weird wing patterns flew all over the place and gentle rays of sunlight bathed the garden in its radiance.


    However, there was something odd about this garden, and that was the garden itself. If one looked up, the sky above the garden could be seen to be normal with a bright blue sky and a huge sun hanging above the sky but that was only above the garden.


    Outside the garden, the sky was blood red and the world outside the garden was not as colourful in the slightest; one could easily smell the dangers just from looking outside the garden.


    Vroooosh!!!


    The air cracked like a mirror above the garden and a grey portal appeared. Two figures fell from the portal and landed in front of the middle-aged woman. One was a little girl with two ponytails while the other was a huge dog with yellow fur and pitch black eyes.


    The two landed carefully in front of the middle-aged woman and avoided stepping on any of the flowers that were planted in the garden.


    "Oh, hello mother! I''m back"


    The young girl called out cheerfully to the middle-aged woman, the yellow dog wagged its tail and its tongue hung out of its mouth. It was just as happy as the little girl to see the middle-aged woman.


    The face of the middle-aged woman shone a bright smile when she saw the two, she paused her steps while staring at the two gently.


    "Did you find him?" She asked.


    "Mm, I met my big brother. I think I scared him too hard though, he passed out for a bit" the little girl replied with a pout.


    The middle-aged woman giggled softly upon hearing this.


    "Silly child, it''s normal that he passed out if you were the one who startled him. Your big brother has had it rough for a while now" the middle-aged woman said with a sigh and the little girl made a face like she understood what the woman was saying.


    "Did you give him the thing I gave you though? The orb?" The middle-aged woman added after a brief pause.


    "Yes yes! I gave it to him myself and told Big Brother to come find me in the future" The little girl nodded her head vigorously.


    The middle-aged woman nodded, satisfied with her response.


    "Good child, you both did well. Some pests came to steal from my garden, you two can have them as rewards" The middle-aged woman waved one hand at the entrance of the garden where six people in tattered clothes could be seen. They were all bound by strings of red energy and looked quite battered.


    " Yay! You''re the best, mother!" The little girl jumped up excitedly.


    The six people who had been tortured by the middle-aged woman already almost fainted from fright when they saw the little girl transform into a terrifying-looking beast while the dog turned into a massive body of yellow mist before surging towards them.


    The middle-aged woman just watched from a distance as the beast that the little girl had turned into and the yellow mist attacked the six people, screams of anguish filled the air, and blood splattered all over the place.


    She looked for a couple more minutes before turning away and continued to tend to the flowers in her garden while murmuring something to herself.


    "Be careful what you wish for, son".


    ...¡­


    " Ivan!"


    " Hey, Ivan! Wake up, how can you suddenly fall asleep?"


    Ivan faintly heard these words as his consciousness slowly returned to him, one last yell in his ears completely woke Ivan up from his daze.


    His eyes flashed open with a jolt and he sprang up to his feet the next instant, he began to look around like someone in a strange place.


    "I''m¡­back?" Ivan muttered to himself in confusion.

 Chapter 5: Going to San Pluto

    "I''m¡­back?" Ivan muttered to himself in confusion." Holy hell! Don''t just jump so suddenly like that, you almost gave me a heart attack!" Glen exclaimed as he jumped off of the old bench as well.


    Ivan''s sudden jump had startled him so much that his heart almost went up his throat. Ralph was also equally startled but did not react as strongly as Glen, they both stared at Ivan with questioning eyes waiting for him to explain himself.


    It took Ivan more than a minute to finally wake up from his shock. He turned and started at his surrounding, the playground, his friends, everything was back to normal and it appeared like nothing had happened but Ivan was dead sure that everything he had experienced was real.


    The yellow mist monster, the little girl, the strange sea, and the experience of being a little child who was subdued to torture, he was certain that everything was real but could not understand how it all suddenly looked like a dream.


    Before Ivan could speak, Ralph positioned his glasses and stood up while saying.


    "I don''t usually talk a lot but you should try not to sleep off when someone is talking to you next time. I thought you were listening to what we were saying, who knew that you slept off? Seems like you had a nightmare, that''s good " Ralph''s tone expressed how offended he was that Ivan had slept off while he was talking earlier.


    Ralph stared at the boy who still had a look of confusion on his face and shook his head, deciding not to hold it against Ivan for sleeping off; he might not have gotten enough sleep last night which caused him to suddenly doze off.


    "Anyway, Glen and I are going to inform our parents about this and make plans to leave for San Pluto as soon as possible so we can awaken. We''ll look for you once we have prepared, alright?" Ralph said with a sigh before turning to leave the playground.


    Ivan wordlessly stared at Ralph''s back before turning to look at Glen who shook his head at him in response. S§×arch* The n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "It''s alright, although he hates being ignored I''m sure that he won''t hold it against you; he''s not that petty. Anyway, you should cheer up. You''ll soon awaken and be able to live a more comfortable life. Ah! I can''t wait to start making thousands and moving out of this place, just the thought of it alone makes me excited.


    I''m going to inform my parents too, see you later!"


    Glen gave a wide grin and waved at Ivan before speeding away into the distance, leaving Ivan alone.


    Ivan watched Glen disappear from his line of sight in a flash, his mind still filled with bothering thoughts that would haunt him for the rest of the day as questions after questions constantly spawned in his head.


    ...


    Glen and Ralph came looking for Ivan later that evening, the matter of the two boys finally agreeing to awaken their talents were of great importance to their parents that they did not want even a moment of delay. Ralph''s father was especially the most excited upon hearing that his son was finally ready to awaken since he had been pestering him for weeks now.


    Both families had learned that the reason for this news was Ivan showing sign of awakening as well and were happy for the la. They were aware of the suffering Ivan had been going through all these years but did not dare to step up for him since the Nexulytes who were supposed to protect them were instead suppressing them.


    But with Ivan now being able to become a Nexulyte like them, his life was bound to change for the better.


    That evening, the two families had decided to have a meal together to celebrate the news. Of course, Ivan was also invited. Since he was going to awaken soon, they no longer had nothing to fear because even if he would not be able to fight these despicable bastards immediately, he would at least be able to get the backing of a tower that would protect him.


    The dinner was held at Ralph''s home with Glen and his parents attending, as well as Ivan of course. Since Ralph''s mother was unable to move, Glen''s mother had taken it upon herself to do justice to the ingredients which Ralph''s father had provided.


    The meal that evening was especially grand and the taste memorable, Glen''s mother had really went all out considering that this was considered a celebration for the future success of their children.


    For the first time in Ivan''s life, he was able to eat such a delicious meal till he was full. Most times he had very tasty dishes, they were always in small quantities because he couldn''t get his hands on a lot of them.


    After the dinner, Ivan was asked to sleep over for the night as they would be leaving for San Pluto the next day. The adults took some minutes to give the young ones some words of advice before finally allowing them to go get some sleep.


    That night could be said to be the best night in all of Ivan''s life as not only was his stomach filled with such an amazing dish, he also did not need to brace the cold of the night and the had floor like he usually did.


    ...


    Morning came with a wave of refreshing feeling for Ivan, he was very reluctant to get up from the bed he had spent the night but knew that he had to since there was much to be done.


    The three boys had their baths and changed into the best clothes that they could find, Ralph offered Ivan some clothes to wear since the boy had none except for some tattered old rags.


    Breakfast was set by Glen''s mother and they all ate with smiling faces; with Ivan being the only exception since he did not interact much and only spoke when spoken to.


    After breakfast, Ivan, Glen, and Ralph left Ralph''s home in the company of Glen''s parents who would see them to the light train station before going home.


    "We used to live in San Pluto so you don''t have to worry too much about how they will fare there, Ralph can take care of that" Ralph''s father said to Glen''s parents while he stood at the entrance of their house.


    Glen''s father replied with a nod before turning to leave with the boys and his wife.


    They attracted a lot of attention as they made their way toward the location of the light train station where the boys were to board a light train to San Pluto. After all, it wasn''t everyday that you saw people dressed up so nicely in the outskirt. This was especially true for those who recognized Ivan.


    The boy who was usually always dirty and dressed in rags looked nothing like his usual self. Ivan had almost changed after taking a proper bath and changing into a set of nice clothes.


    Dressed in a neat white polo shirt, short brown pants, and black sandles, Ivan looked almost like a stranger in his own neighborhood. Only his sickly appearance that was a result of years of malnourishment, long white hair, and cold sky blue eyes gave out his identity.


    Glen and Ralph were also nicely dressed but their appearance was not as baffling as that of Ivan because the boy had almost transformed.


    They arrived at the light train station a couple of minutes later and found a few people were already there and were waiting to board the light train, some people gave the new arrivals odd stares before looking away. Their stares only lingered when they fell on Ivan as most of them expressed how shocked they were to see Ivan.


    They wondered what he would be looking for at the light train station since this place led to San Pluto, one of the remaining three major cities on earth. What business could Ivan have in such a place?


    They only refrained from asking, seeing that he wasn''t alone.


    "I can''t find the Nexulytes in charge here, where did they go?" Glen''s mother muttered in a low voice which only those around her could hear.


    "I don''t know, they should have come to request payment to get on the light train already. Maybe they are not around, that''s good for us too" Glen''s father grunted in response as he looked around with a sharp glint in his eyes.


    The light train soon arrived and everyone began to get on, Ivan and his friends also stepped forward to get on the light train too.


    "We''ve given Ralph two hundred, it should be enough for your expenses as long as you don''t spend over a week there. That''s all we can afford, I don''t expect you all to go laze around for a week there though. Remember that we are waiting for you to successfully get recruited into a tower as soon as possible or we might starve" Glen''s father said with all seriousness.


    " Ouch!" He exclaimed the next moment because his wife had pinched him all of a sudden.


    " Don''t scare the kids like that" Glen''s mother reprimanded her husband before facing the boys "Don''t take his words seriously, just remember to do well and we will be waiting for you good news " she said to them with a smile as the doors of the light train slid shut.


    Glen and Ralph waved at the husband and wife duo through the glass of the light train while Ivan stared at the people sitting in the same section of the train, a strange glint flashed past his eyes.


    ''San Pluto, huh? Will things really change there?'' Was the thought on Ivan''s mind as the light train began to move.

 Chapter 6: San Pluto

    The light train arrived at one of the stations in San Pluto after a short three minute drive, they had crossed hundreds of kilometers within these short three minutes.San Pluto, one of the remaining three cities that had managed to survive the bloody battle between humanity and the habitants of the dreamscape that has dragged on for years in which humanity had almost been wiped out, now housed almost a quarter of what was left of humanity''s population. S§×arch* The ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The first thing that the boys noticed the instant they got off of the light train was how populated and prosperous San Pluto was compared to their small outskirt where they were from.


    People of various heights, skin colors, languages, and dressing styles could be seen all over the place. Moving machines that Ivan could not recognize alongside the ones he was familiar with swept through the streets as residents of San Pluto carried on with their daily lives, unaware of the three visitors who had just entered their city.


    Ralph stared at all of these with a neutral expression on his face but his dark green eyes could not hide how nostalgic he felt upon returning to the place he had once lived in.


    Glen was almost shaking from excitement as he stared at the tall magnificent buildings of San Pluto with a gleeful glint in his eyes, he could not wait to explore this new place.


    Ivan, on the other hand, felt that this place¡­had too many people!


    The sight of so many people made him so uncomfortable, he even saw a family of three who were smiling at each other while holding hands. The sight of this public display was like an eyesore to Ivan who never had a family and he felt suffocated.


    "Ralph, this was where you used to live, right? Where are we? What is this place called? Where is your old house?" Glen launched a wave of questions at Ralph as his eyes sparkled with excitement.


    Ralph stared at him with a bit of annoyance before pushing away the boy''s face as he was getting too close.


    "Can you behave? You are already a grown up so act like one instead of behaving so childish. Besides it''s been years since I left San Pluto and can''t possibly remember everywhere, who knew if changes had been made?


    Also, for your information, San Pluto is larger than you can imagine and this is only a small part of it" Ralph said as his eyes flashed with intelligence while fixing his glasses; this seemed like an old habit he had developed because he would do it whenever he made long sentences even if his glasses were well placed.


    Ivan glanced at the two before redirecting his gaze to the bustling street in front of them, a particular machine caught his eyes and for the first time Ivan felt a longing for something that wasn''t food.


    It was a strange looking machine that didn''t have a cover, it was over three meters long but the rider only had a space of one meter to sit while holding onto two handle like objects that poked out from the side of the machine''s head.


    The machine made a loud vroom sound that Ivan found pleasing to the ears as it sped off at high speed, it was so fast that Ivan saw its tires as a blur.


    "Ivan!"


    Ivan was pulled out of his trance by Ralph''s loud voice, he reluctantly pulled his gaze away from the direction that the strange machine had disappeared into to look at Ralph who was calling out to him only to see the boy staring at him with a sharp glint in his eyes.


    Turned out that Ralph had stopped a cab and had been calling out to Ivan for more than five seconds while he stood beside the open door of the car.


    Ivan , realizing what must have happened, gazes at Ralph blankly for a while before quietly entering the car and sitting beside Glen at the back. Ralph glared at the white haired fellow for a few seconds before entering the car as well.


    "Oi, and were y''all heading to, Young sirs?" The driver, who happened to be a man who seemed to be in his sixties voiced out from the front as he began to move the steering of the car.


    " The closest awakening center, " Ralph responded.


    He noticed the expression of the driver suddenly turn into one of shock as he stared at the three young men through the rearview mirror of his car.


    "Y''all going to awaken!?" The old man could not help but ask, his voice expressed his delightful surprise.


    "Yeah, we are all going to awaken!" Glen was the one who replied, his excitement was so evident that it might even be contagious.


    "That''s awesome! How about I offer you three a free ride to the awakening center but in return, y''all must have dinner at my place; what ya think?" The driver proposed as he flashed his full set of teeth in a wide smile.


    Ralph''s face immediately turned serious as his eyes and the eyes of the driver made contact through the rearview mirror, his gaze seemed to question why the driver would want to give them a free ride and also invite them to his home.


    "Oi, calm down now boy. No need to be so suspicious, I mean no harm" the driver gave a reassuring smile before proceeding to explain himself.


    Turned out that he had a daughter who was around their age and had awakened her Nexus energy but refused to awaken her talent  because she was nervous.


    According to the driver, his daughter was so introverted that she didn''t have any friends and only talked with him and his wife. She had already awakened her Nexus energy for over a month now but had locked herself in her room and only came out occasionally, the young lady even refused to go to school anymore.


    So he was hoping to invite Ralph and friends over after they had awakened and see if they would manage to motivate his daughter and disperse her nervousness by sharing their awakening experience.


    After hearing that this was the case, Ralph calmed down and accepted the offer, they had nowhere to go after their awakening anyway so such a deal wasn''t necessarily a bad deal.


    The car continued to drive as the driver hummed happily to himself while the three boys sat quietly at the back.


    Glen was busy staring at the place through the window of the car, Ralph had his eyes fixed in front as if trying to store the routes they were driving through to memory, while Ivan¡­Ivan had his eyes closed as the image of the machine and its rider played in his mind repeatedly.


    They arrived at their destination after a five minute drive and came down from the car after the driver found a spot to park.


    "Oi, I''ll wait for you boys here so get back here after you''re done, alright?" The driver called out to them from inside the car with half of his body poking out through the car window.


    Ralph turned and nodded at the driver before continuing to walk.


    It took them two minutes to leave the parking space where countless types of vehicles were packed, there were so many that they were unable to count.


    Standing at the entrance of the awakening center, Ivan and Glen were finally able to take a close up look at the enormous building that they had seen from afar even before the car arrived here. The building was so tall that they had to bend their necks fully just to look at the top.


    Numerous people could be seen going in and out of the building in an endless stream that one might think that an event was being held here.


    Ivan saw a lot of young people around their age too, some had excited faces while some had sad expressions on their faces.


    "I thought Nexulytes were rare? Why are there so many people here? Are all of them here to awaken? Is it like this everyday or is there something going on today?" Ivan could not help but mutter absentmindedly seeing the large number of people here.


    There were only four Nexulytes in the entire outskirt that they came from but the number of people at the awakening center made him start to think that Nexulytes were not as rare as he had thought, he was also starting to feel uncomfortable with so many people around.


    "If judging by the entire population of San Pluto, the number of people here can''t even be considered as many. Also, they are not all Nexulytes because while there is a larger population of Nexulytes in San Pluto, they are only about twenty percent of the entire population" Ralph explained as pushed his glasses with his fingers.


    Even Glen, who had been distracted all the way due to excitement, had started to listen carefully to Ralph''s explanation because he had been shocked to see so many people at the place where they had come to awaken.


    ''If all of these people were here to awaken, wouldn''t that mean that my awakening isn''t anything special? So vexing!''


    "Then why are all these people here?" Ivan asked after listening to Ralph''s explanation. He was glad that not all these people were Nexulytes or about-to-be-Nexulytes but seeing so many people still wasn''t alright with him.


    "Well, a lot of people come everyday to try their luck. Even people who had failed to awaken their talents after countless trials would still come back as long as they had the money for it.


    That''s enough about them, let''s go in" Ralph said and led the two who has looks of realizations on their faces through the wide door of the awakening cente

 Chapter 7: An Army of Bones

    A domain obscured from light and looked like it could only be found in an underground dome, dozens of blue flames scattered all across the place and provided eerie light to the domain.One could see thousands of tombstones that were the graves of thousands of souls situated in a circular formation around a small temple that was in the center of this formation of tombstones, a single footpath cut through this formation of tombstones toward the entrance of the underground dome.


    The place was eerily quiet that one would shiver just from standing at the entrance of the dome and not dare to take a step forward, the blue flames gave off no warmth but instead radiated bone chilling coldness while a strong smell of decay covered the entire domain to the point of turning into visible gray mist.


    The whole domain would have remained silent like a scary painting if not for the sudden sounds of footsteps that echoed from the entrance of the dome.


    A figure dressed in a long flowing golden royal robe that was decorated with precious gems and filled with beautiful patterns, a red royal cape hanging over her shoulder, her neck beautified with dazzling jewelries, a golden crown on her head, and a one meter long staff in her hand.


    Her face was covered with a veil but could not hide her world shattering beauty in the slightest, her sky blue eyes stared right at the small temple in the distance as she took casual steps towards it.


    Rumble!! Rumble!! Rumble!!!


    Creeeck!!! S~ea??h the ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The entire domain suddenly began to tremble violently as if an underground earthquake was about to occur, but the woman remained unfazed by this and continued her casual stroll.


    The rumbling continued as the grave in front of every tombstone began to crack open and out of those cracks came huge fearsome skeleton warriors clad in heavy armor and each carrying menacing huge swords in knightly manner.


    Each skeleton released a terrifying pressure and strong bloodlust as their red glowing eyes landed on the woman who was still casually walking past them, their bodies made clicking noises as they all raised their huge swords before dashing towards the woman.


    Their speed was so fast that these skeletons in huge armors left afterimages in their wake!


    Yet, despite the sight of thousands of fearsome skeletons that were dozens of times her size rushing towards her with huge swords that were bigger than her body, the woman remained calm as she slowly raised her staff that had a blood red crystal attached to its top.


    "Ten thousand tombstones, ten thousand immortal warriors, yet I still receive the same treatment every time I come here. Do the residents of the temple of ten thousand graves have no regard for the mother of your emperor?" The woman voiced out slowly as she gently waved down her staff.


    Time seemed to have stopped the instance she had lifted her staff as all the skeleton warriors were frozen in place until she lowered her staff, time began to flow normally once more.


    Crash!! Pop!!!! Clack!!!


    As if an invisible force had hit these huge skeleton warriors, every single one of them crashed heavily into the ground and their bodies exploded into piles of bones. The entire place became a sea of bone in just less than five seconds.


    The woman paused for a moment to admire these clusters of whiteness, her sky blue eyes revealed a hint of familiarity to the sight before her before turning blank once more.


    *They never change" was all she said before she resumed walking toward the temple.


    She had walked for over a hundred meters and just had a few more meters to cross before she could reach the temple when¡­


    "Why¡­have you¡­come here¡­mother?"


    A low but thundering voice came from within the temple, the voice seemed like a whisper but had reached every corner of the domain as even the tongues of blue flames flickered violently when the voice spoke. The owner of this voice was most without a doubt the emperor of these immortal skeleton warriors and the son of this woman who has destroyed them.


    The woman, who referred to herself as the mother of the emperor, came to a halt at the words of the voice. For the first time since she stepped into this domain, her sky blue eyes flashed with emotional expression as she stared at the small temple with¡­sorrowful and pained expression in her eyes.


    "What? Can''t I come visit anymore?" The woman asked back but did not take another step forward.


    The voice stayed silent for a while as if it was thinking of the best answer to give, it finally spoke after ten seconds.


    "We all¡­have¡­our own¡­domains. My¡­warriors¡­you destroyed them" the voice said once more, its voice shook the walls of the domain with each word it said.


    " It''s their fault for not recognizing strength, they deserve it. Besides, you made them immortal, they''ll come back in a while " the woman said in response.


    The voice turned quiet as if silently agreeing with the woman''s words.


    " Then¡­why have you¡­come?"


    "I believe you should know already, he''s the reason I came" the woman replied. Her eyes changed from having a sorrowful expression to a sharp glare.


    "So¡­you came¡­for his sake¡­mother?" The voice asked, a hint of amusement could be heard from its voice.


    "I just hope that you do not interfere," the woman said in a serious voice.


    This time, the voice stayed silent for a whole minute before suddenly letting out a chuckle that shook the whole place even more than when the skeleton warriors had come out of their graves. It chuckled for half a minute before saying


    "Of course, of course. It¡­was the same¡­back then too. Anything¡­for you my¡­dearest¡­mother "


    The eyes of the woman reverted to that of pained expression after hearing the words of the voice, she did not stay any longer and simply turned around and left.


    Five minutes after the woman left, the sea of bones began to move as the skeleton warriors began to resemble themselves. Ten minutes passed in a flash and ten thousand skeleton warriors were once again standing gallantly with their huge swords.


    " So¡­it finally started¡­huh? How¡­long¡­has¡­it¡­been? The words of the voice became more faint with each word before completely disappearing. The ten thousand skeleton warriors also returned to their graves. The domain became just as it had been previously before the woman in royal regalia arrived, only the constantly flickering blue flames told of what had transpired.


    ...¡­


    At the awakening center.


    Ralph, Ivan, and Glen had entered the awakening center and one of the staff had immediately approached them after observing the young boys and realizing that they were new to the place.


    The staff had previously thought that they were here to try their luck too just like the majority of the people here but was shocked to find out that all three of them had awakened their Nexus energy and we''re here to awaken their talents.


    The staff had immediately proceeded to call someone over before handing the three over to the new person who took them to the upper floor through the elevator. The person tried to ask a couple of questions about them but Ralph was on the defensive and did not say more than what he considered necessary.


    They arrived at the upper floor and were led to a counter where they were asked to fill in some forms and answer some questions such as their age, when they awakened their Nexus energy, and if they had ties with any tower.


    "Ah, I see you young lads don''t have any background. But don''t worry, it''s fortunate for you that you are able to awaken, while this place is under the Owen tower, their requirements are strict and difficult to enter but other towers will surely extend their invitations towards you as long as you do well enough.


    Your futures will be limitless!" The person at the registration encouraged them before asking them to pay the awakening fee which was fifty bucks per person.


    (A/N: so, I''ve been conflicted about which currency to use in this book but could not come to a firm decision so I''ve decided to use ''bucks'' instead. The value will be equivalent to a dollar so fifty bucks is equivalent to fifty dollars in this book. Damn! I wished  I could withdraw all the money in this book to my account!)


    Of course, Ralph had exclaimed at how expensive this was. Their parents had only managed to give them a few hundreds which could last an ordinary family for a month or two but they were about to spend half of it on awakening?


    "I can see you don''t really know the importance and benefit of awakening here, if you did, you won''t complain about fifty bucks being expensive. Let me explain


    While it is possible for some people to awaken on their own, there are a lot of risks involved.


    A person might awaken their Nexus energy but might never be able to trigger the talent awakening on their own no matter how much they try and if a person does manage to trigger the talent awakening and enter the awakening state, there are risks of them hurting themselves after waking up or hurting the people around them with their new found power because they might not know the difference between the real world and the awakening state after waking up.


    But awakening in an awakening center has none of those. Firstly, some people might even awaken their talent without awakening their Nexus energy first! While having awakened your Nexus energy is a guarantee to awaken a talent, people who have yet to awaken their Nexus energy still stand a thirty percent chance of awakening a talent if they use our pod!

 Chapter 8: Awakening center

    ''So that''s why there were so many people here, throwing away so much money just to try their luck'' Ivan thought to himself and continued to listen to the man''s explanation."Also, by awakening here, you can use the pod which is filled with special liquid that has a slight chance of increasing the level of your talents and at the same time disabling them for a few minutes so that you do not hurt yourself. And the most exciting part¡­this place isn''t only an awakening center, it is also a place for towers to scout talented Nexulytes!


    As long as your talent is good enough, there are dozens of Tower representatives here who will try to recruit you and train you, your life can only get better after that!


    What more glory is there than being a Nexulyte? Power, fame, money? You''ll get them all!


    So, what do you think? Is it too expensive or worth it?"


    The man grinned cheekily at Ralph as if he had successfully swayed the boy into paying an over price.


    Ralph just stared at the man quietly for a couple of seconds before opening his mouth and slowly said.


    "The price is still too much" Ralph had an adamant expression on his face as he stared hard at the man, it was clear that this young man wasn''t planning to pay that absurd amount for the awakening.


    "Tks! Why are you so stubborn? Most people would pay the same amount without even needing me to explain, is it that you don''t actually have money to pay, huh, four eyes?" The man spat at Ralph in annoyance while pointing his finger at Ralph''s face.


    One of the man''s coworkers quickly pulled the man back and whispered to him.


    "Hey, watch how you speak to the kid. He''s a future Nexulyte, you won''t have an easy life if he holds a grudge against you"


    Similarly, Glen also pulled Ralph back and whispered to him.


    " Don''t argue with the worker, what if he refuses to allow us to awaken or do something bad to us? That might be the true price, isn''t it natural for things like this to be expensive?"


    Ralph gazed blankly at Glen like he was looking at an idiot before shaking his head and pulling away from the boy.


    " Like you said, most people would pay without asking, so the price must be lower than that, right?" Ralph resumed his bargaining with the man who had also pulled away from his coworker.


    The man gritted his teeth, he had seen the other boy pull back this troublesome four eyes and said something to him. Who would have thought that the boy would still continue to argue after coming back!?


    They continued to bargain for a couple minutes more before finally agreeing on a twenty bucks price for each person.


    "Follow me" the man said with a scoff as he led the three boys to another room but he could not stop glaring at Ralph who was right behind him.


    ''You better pray you do well or else¡­''


    "Wow! He actually lowered the price, from fifty bucks to twenty! You''re awesome Ralph!" Glen exclaimed with sparkling eyes and gave Ralph two thumbs ups from behind.


    Hearing the words of the other boy made the man become even more embarrassed and he started to walk faster.


    They finally arrived at an enormous room that was as huge as two basketball courts combined, numerous sleeping pods were arranged in neat columns and one could see people entering and climbing out of the pods. Circular screens could be seen hanging above every pod, these screens displayed different information whenever a pod opened for the person inside to come out.


    Different people in suits would then immediately approach some of the people who came out of the pods to talk to them.


    "You see those people? They have successfully awakened their talents and are now being scouted by representatives of different towers, you can only imagine how bright their future will be. Compared to brats like you!" The man said as he shot a side glance at Ralph.


    Not waiting for the boy to reply, he called a few people over and asked them to lead the three boys to a sleeping pod.


    Ralph, Ivan, and Glen, were escorted to a roll of sleeping pods and assigned sleeping pods right beside each other. Ralph got the first one, Glen took the pod in the middle and Ivan took the last one; the pod after Ivan''s was being used by someone.


    "We are¡­we''re finally going to awaken" Glen muttered, his voice and body trembling slightly as he touched the sleeping pod gently.


    Ralph and Ivan looked at the trembling boy and was about to comfort him when the matured woman that was amongst the people who led them here patted Glen''s head.


    "Don''t be nervous, kid. Even if you don''t awaken now, you can always try another time" she said with a professional smile.


    Glen shook his head before saying.


    "I''m not nervous, I''m excited!" He exclaimed.


    The woman was taken aback by Glen''s response, she wore a startled expression on her face for a few seconds before reverting to a smile.


    " If that''s the case, good luck"


    She said to Glen as the sleeping pod opened with a shuooo sound.


    Glen, Ivan, and Ralph exchanged eye contacts and nodded at each other before climbing into the sleeping pod.


    (The liquid inside the sleeping pod was a special liquid that beside the disabling and calming properties, it won''t get their clothes wet so they were not asked to remove them)


    The three of them entered the sleeping pods and the lid closed up.


    They realized that the liquid inside the sleeping pod did not submerge them completely and only reached up to their ears, their face was well above the level of the liquid.


    After staying inside the sleeping pod for just five seconds, the three boys were hit by the effect of the liquid and began to feel drowsy. They knew that this was because of the liquid in the sleeping pod so they did not resist, all three of them soon fell asleep inside their respective sleeping pods.


    "Aren''t you going to go back?" Someone asked the man who had brought Ivan and his friends to this place after seeing that he was still standing there.


    "No, I''m waiting to see the result of a stinking beat" the man said with irritation as he fixed his eyes on the round screen that was above Ralph''s pod.


    ...¡­


    For as long as Glen could remember, he had found it difficult to understand anything related to studying. There were no schools in the outskirt but his parents had tried to teach him some basic knowledge like alphabets and simple spellings, yet, the young Glen had found it difficult to understand whatever they tried to teach him.


    Though his parents did not blame him for this and still treated him normally, no elder brother would remain happy about the fact that even their junior was becoming better than them in such a simple aspect.


    Shouldn''t he be the big brother whom his little sister would run to for help in such regards? How come his little sister was then the one who was offering to teach him?


    Glen did not hate his little sister for this, of course. He blamed himself and got depressed occasionally, this was until he met Ralph and Ivan.


    He has since then lost interest in trying to improve and focused on helping his friends, parents, and playing with his little sister.


    Of course, these were not the only thing that helped Glen out of his depression. The secret was¡­his sudden love and understanding for animals!


    Glen had realized that he was naturally attracted to animals and could somewhat understand that even the most dangerous looking dog would become like a cute pet after Glen made contact with it. He was able to know the right thing to do to get any animal to become friendly towards him.


    He had found solace in this because he had finally found his perk as an elder brother. He would take his little sister around the outskirt and let her play with whichever animal she found appealing to her!!


    Currently¡­..


    Glen found himself walking on a footpath that cut through bushes, he did not know where he was going but just kept going while humming a tune along the way.


    Rustle!!


    The sound of something moving in the bush to his side caught Glen''s attention and he went to take a look. Upon getting there, Glen saw a small white snake that seemed to have gotten caught in a trap. The tail of the snake was locked in iron strings and was bleeding.


    "Ugh, who dared hurt such a cute snake? Don''t worry buddy, I''ll help you" Glen grumbled in anger and proceeded to set the snake out of the trap. S§×arch* The nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The snake showed resistance toward Glen and bared its small fangs at him, it thought Glen was the one who had set the trap.


    "Calm down, I won''t hurt you. Calm down" Glen said softly and slowly as he slowly moved his hand toward the head of the snake and gently rubbed it.


    The snake finally stopped resisting and allowed Glen to release it from the trap.


    (Don''t try this in real life, you''re not Glen. The snake would bite the hell outta you, hehe)


    Click!!

 Chapter 9: Beast companion

    The strings trapping the tail of the snake were finally removed and the snake instantly dashed into the bush without a moment of hesitation, leaving Glen alone with a stunned expression on his face.It took Glen a few seconds to recover and he burst into laughter.


    "It ran away just like that, must still be afraid or must have returned back to its mother" Glen said with a smile on his face after he stopped laughing. His eyes stared in the direction the snake had escaped to for a while before turning to leave.


    Glen returned to the footpath and had only taken a few steps when¡­


    "Hey boy, stop there!" Someone shouted from behind him.


    Glen turned to look at who it was and saw two men standing behind him, along with four other boys who were around the same age as him; 17 to 19.


    "Umm, can I help you?" Glen asked in confusion since he could not recognize any of them.


    They did not answer Glen immediately, one of the men signaled to one of the boys. The latter nodded and went into the bush, it was where the trap was located. He could out a few seconds later and whispered something to the man who in turn glared murderously at Glen.


    "So it was you who stole our catch, huh? Do you want to die?" One of the men shouted at Glen as he pointed his matchet at him.


    Glen was instantly frightened and raised both hands in surrender.


    "I don''t know what you''re talking about, what catch!?" Glen questioned fearfully as he stared at the five people before him. He wasn''t confident in defeating even one, much less five and they were even carrying cutlasses!


    " Are you still planning to lie? Our trap had been undone and there''s trace of blood, who do you think took it?" The man questioned sternly.


    " You guys were the ones who hurt the white snak¡­" Glen instantly covered his mouth with one hand upon realizing that he had misspoken, his eyes trembled in fear when he saw the menacing look in their eyes.


    " Ah, so it was a white snake? Tell me more, where is it?" One of the men gripped his cutlass firmly and began to walk toward Glen.


    " I-i don''t¡­know" Glen replied weakly while taking small steps back.


    "Are you still planning to lie? Looks like I''ll have to teach you a lesson first!" The man spat out, clearly enraged. He raised his cutlass and charged toward Glen.


    Seeing the ferocious man charging at him, Glen was scared out of his skin and he shut his eyes tightly while he raised both hands in front of himself in an attempt to defend.


    Rustle!!


    Hissss!!!


    "Ahhhhh!!"


    With his eyes still closed, Glen heard the rustling of bushes and hissing sounds which was followed by a painful scream.


    He opened his eyes to see what had happened and was stunned by what he saw.


    A white snake, much bigger than the one he had saved had appeared out of nowhere and was currently fighting with the man who was about to cut him.


    "It''s a white snake, run!"


    "What do you mean, run? Can''t you see that (name omitted) is in danger? Everyone attack together!"


    " Kill the damned snake!"


    " Ahhh!"


    Glen watched in shock as the five people all attacked the big white snake together, hacking down at its white scales with their weapons.


    The white snake, in turn, would swipe around with its tail and send one or two people flying before lashing out with its enormous mouth.


    " What¡­what''s going on?" Glen mumbled absentmindedly as he watched the fight.


    The five people were soon getting tired and injured as the snake kept sending them flying; similarly, cut marks had also begun to appear all over the body of the white snake and a part of its body was soon covered in blood.


    Glen suddenly felt a wriggling sensation on his left leg, startled, he jumped back but discovered that he could not shake the feeling away. He looked and saw a small white snake climbing up his leg, it rounded his waist upward before finally reaching his head.


    Glen recognized the small white snake after seeing the injury on its tail, it was the snake he had saved not too long ago.


    The small snake coiled its body on top of Glen''s head before raising its head proudly, its posture was akin to sitting on top of Glen''s head while watching its mother wreck some bad guys.


    Glen looked at the tail of the small snake that was dangling in front of his face before looking at the big snake that was still fighting the five people, he raised his hand and pointed out a finger.


    "Is that¡­your mother?" He asked, uncertain if the snake would understand him.


    Surprisingly, the snake bent its body so Glen could see its face before bubbling its head up and down while making a hissing sound; it had understood Glen''s words and even responded!


    "You¡­you can understand me!" Glen exclaimed in a loud voice, clearly shocked.


    The next thing that the snake did shocked Glen even more, it made a human-like expression that Glen could swear that he saw the small snake smile! Its smile was so cute!


    Glen did not know what happened next as it seemed as if they skipped time, the five people were no longer anywhere to be seen and the big white snake was now covered in numerous large gashes and was fully covered in blood.


    It appeared to Glen that the fight must have ended with the five people fleeing.


    Glen looked at the big white snake that was easily five times his size and was probably over ten meters long, just how were those five people able to fight this thing?!


    "You''re injured heavily, follow me home so I can help you" Glen said to the big snake. Since the small one was capable of understanding him, the big one should be able to do the same as well, right? Sear?h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The big white snake stared at Glen with its pitch black eyes for a few seconds before opening its mouth.


    "It''s alright, young human. My injuries are severe and I won''t be able to survive. I can tell that you''re not like any other human, it''s no wonder my daughter took an interest in you.


    I came to thank you for saving her but it seems like I''ll have to trouble you to take care of her more, in return, she will be of great help to you on your journey" the white snake said, its voice was nothing as Glen would have imagined if he even thought of a snake talking. Its voice was akin to a top celebrity singer! Soothing and pleasing to the ears!


    But that''s not the main issue right now!


    "What do you mean you won''t survive? What do you mean I''ll have to look after her? What¡­" Glen threw a bunch of questions but was cut short when the small snake suddenly leaped off his head toward its mother, its eyes had small tears in them.


    " I''m sorry, human. But you''re the only one I can trust to keep my daughter safe " the big white snake said once more and opened its mouth, a red beam suddenly shot toward Glen.


    Glen was unable to react before everything went blank.


    ....


    Glen woke up after an unknown amount of time had passed, he found himself in a dark space with not a single ray of light. He could not even see his own body.


    Suddenly, texts began to appear in this black space.


    CONGRATULATION, NEXULYTE!


    YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY AWAKENED YOUR TALENT AND CAN NOW TREAD ON THE PATH OF YOUR ANCESTORS.


    NAME: Glen Frigret.               TALENT GROUP: Beast companion.


    TALENT TYPE: Combat.        TALENT: White serpent!


    TALENT LEVEL: A.         ASSIMILATION PROGRESS: 0%


    RANK: Null!


    Glen stared at the bold texts in front of him, even though he wasn''t that good at reading, he was able to understand what those words meant.


    He had awakened! He was now a Nexulyte!


    Wave of emotions surged within Glen, he could feel tears gathering in his eyes.


    Though he had yet to celebrate his successful awakening when he became drowsy again and lost consciousness, the next time he woke up, he was back inside the sleeping pond.


    At the same time when Glen was having that experience in his awakening state, Ralph was going through the same thing; only that his experience was different.


    He had found himself in a graveyard, dressed in black suit and a lot of people who he could not recognize dressed in similar ways. The atmosphere was heavy as everyone stood in front of a grave in silence, they were apparently holding a funeral for someone.


    But things quickly changed as monsters appeared out of nowhere and started to attack people, the whole place was soon thrown into chaos as people ran for their lives.


    Ralph, had somehow been separated from the others and found himself surrounded by countless monsters. He also appeared to be injured and his glasses were broken.


    Ralph sat in front of a grave with his back leaning on the tombstone while the monster slowly moved closer to him.


    Not knowing why, Ralph suddenly became filled with emotions of hate and anger.


    "Why! Just why? We were finally able to lay him to rest after all he had gone through, why did you all have to interrupt?!" Ralph let out a shout in an outburst of emotions.


    Of course, the monsters would not care about his little whining and continued to approach him. One of the monsters to the side suddenly leaped at Ralph and the others followed its action and leaped at him as well.


    But Ralph wasn''t afraid, he was blinded by rage that he did not care what happened and just shouted.


    "Get away from me!"


    Boom!!

 Chapter 10: Necromancer

    "Get away from me!"Boom!!


    The ground trembled right after Ralph''s outburst as the grave behind him exploded, sending dirt and grass into the air. A black shadow flashed from inside the now open grave and began to flash all over the place at a breakneck speed, moving from one monster to another in quick succession.


    Whenever it flashed past a monster, a huge gaping wound would appear on either its head or chest before dropping dead. In less than a minute, all the monsters around Ralph had been effortlessly killed off by this shadow which after finally killing every monster that had tried to attack Ralph now stood in one place, letting Ralph get a closer look at what had come out of the grave and had saved him.


    The black shadow turned out to be an old man who was in his seventies but displayed the vigor of someone in his prime as he stood straight like an arrow. His head was completely covered in white hair and a line of mustache connected his dirty long beard that must have been white once upon a time.


    The skin of this old man was gray which was different from that of normal humans and cracks covered the parts of his body that weren''t covered by his black robe, his face included.


    This old man showed no expression as he stood silently beside Ralph, his eyes were blood red that it was difficult to tell where he was looking unless he moved his head; slightly transparent red smoke flowed from his red eyes constantly, giving him a dangerous vibe all together with his appearance.


    Ralph did not allow himself to be shocked by the sudden appearance of this strange old man who had suddenly surfaced from a grave, he was completely blinded by rage and hate towards these monsters and did not have time to care about anything else.


    The only things that his clouded mind was able to register were that this old man was strong, he somehow knew that the old man would not harm him and that he could feel a faint connection with the old man.


    With those points registered in mind, Ralph stood up from the ground, a dangerous look on his face as he looked at the other monsters that were still attacking people who were trying to escape.


    "You all¡­should just DIE!!!" Shouted at the top of his lungs and began to run toward every monster in sight, the gray-skinned old man following closely behind him.


    Whenever Ralph got close to a monster, it would immediately sense him and turn to attack him but before their limbs could even reach a meter close to Ralph, the old man would disappear into a black shadow and the next scene was that of the monster getting shredded into pieces in a matter of seconds.


    This kept on for a good one hour until Ralph was finally able to kill the last monster with the help of the old man whose expression had not changed in the slightest even after engaging in battle with more than a hundred monsters.


    Seeing that every monster in sight had been reduced to lifeless bodies or chunks of meat and the people who had managed to survive until now were now safe, Ralph fell on his butt and began to breathe heavily.


    He turned to look at the old man who was still standing next to him like a trained bodyguard, despite all the fights the old man had fought, he still managed to keep his back robe clean and his breathing was steady.


    "I don''t know who you are or why you decided to help¡­but thank you, thank you for helping me save all these people, " Ralph said to the old man in honest gratitude, his thanks were replied with silence from the old man which Ralph had expected but what the old man did next shocked him.


    After not responding to Ralph''s words of gratitude, the old man suddenly spread his arms and opened his black robe to reveal what was underneath its cover.


    Shocking as it may be, Ralph did not see the body of the old man as he had expected, what he saw instead was a mass of darkness so dark that Ralph felt himself being pulled into it, and before he could react he found himself in a boundless black space without a shred of light.


    Similarly to Glen''s experience, words soon began to appear in this space which Ralph could see and understand even without looking at the words; it was as if the words were being imprinted directly into his mind.


    CONGRATULATION, NEXULYTE!


    YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY AWAKENED YOUR TALENT AND CAN NOW TREAD ON THE PATH OF YOUR ANCESTORS!


    NAME: RALPH LUCIAN              TALENT GROUP: NECROMANCER


    TALENT TYPE: COMBAT TALENT       TALENT: UNDEAD GENERAL


    TALENT LEVEL: S     A/P: 0%       RANK: NULL


    (A/P=assimilation progress)


    Ralph stared at the words in front of him with a calm expression while his hands were tightly clenched into fists. No matter how calm he usually was, Ralph could barely contain the emotions swelling inside of him upon reading the words that had appeared in front of him.


    His mother had explained about level of talents to him once while he was still a kid before her injury so he was very aware of what his talent level meant, he could join whichever tower he desired and receive VIP treatment as a Nexulyte with such a high talent!


    But before he could get too emotional about his awakening, Ralph felt a wave of dizziness which he was not able to resist, and slowly fell asleep. When he opened his eyes again, he was inside the sleeping pod.


    Ralph saw the lid of the pod slide open, giving him a chance to sit up. The first thing that he did was to look at Glen''s and Ivan''s pod to see if they had woken up too.


    He saw that Glen had already woken and it seemed like it had been a while as there were a lot of people standing around him and trying to talk to him but they all stopped after Ralph woke up and were now staring at him; to be specific, they were staring at the round screen above his pod on which the content of his awakening was being displayed.


    On the screen were the same words that Ralph had seen after he found himself in the dark space, details including his talent and the rest.


    They were all about to rush over to Ralph''s position when all of them suddenly stopped and stared at a different screen, the expressions of everyone present aside from Glen who really didn''t know what level of talent meant, were of deep shock. S§×ar?h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The entire place fell into deep silence that was pierced by the sound of a lid being opened over a pod and a boy with white hair slowly sat up with a face of determination.


    But what had attracted the attention of all these people was not the appearance of this young man but the words on the screen above his pod as even Ralph who had thought that he had done well couldn''t help but widen his eyes in disbelief.


    A particular line was what had sent everyone into a state of deep shock.


    TALENT LEVEL: SS


    ...¡­.


    The man who had entered a brief bargaining war with Ralph stood in place like a statue, his expression was a mixture of disbelief and terror.


    "All of them¡­All of them are monsters!" The man muttered in a quivering voice as his mind fell into chaos for a few seconds.


    "I argued with them, what if they take it out on me in the future? No, I have to inform the headquarters about this!" Said the man to himself the moment he managed to recover and without answering any of his colleagues, he left the hall.


    Similarly, a lot of people were also taking out their phones and making phone calls; their voices were filled with urgency.


    ...¡­..


    A few minutes before Ivan caused the present commotion.


    After entering the sleeping pod and succumbing to the drowsiness, Ivan found himself in an unfamiliar room when he woke up.


    The room was one he had not seen before but at the same time recognized it as his room. He was lying on his bed in sleeping pajamas while staring at the familiar yet unfamiliar ceiling of ''his'' room.


    Without giving him time to form thoughts in his head, Ivan heard a knock on his door before a voice came from outside.


    "Big brother, are you up? Hurry, everyone''s waiting for you outside!" The voice called out from outside the room before sounds of footsteps leaving were heard from outside.


    Ivan, still in bed, widened his eyes in surprise; he had recognized that voice.


    It was the voice of the little girl he had met after getting swallowed by that yellow mist!

 Chapter 11: The wisher appears

    Without a second thought, Ivan jumped out of bed and dashed toward the door before swinging it open as fast as he could but he found no one. A few meters away was a path of stairs that led to the bottom floor, Ivan quickly ran toward it and descended the flight of stairs in a rush.Ivan soon arrived at what seemed to be an enormous living room but he did not bother stopping to admire it as his gaze was attracted to a dining room where a few people were sitting, amongst which was the little girl who Ivan had seen before. As for the other three, he wasn''t able to see their faces because they were blurred for some reason.


    "Oh, Ivan. You''re here already. Are you so excited that it''s your birthday and you didn''t bother to change? Come, Mom baked a nice cake personally for you" the voice of a woman entered Ivan''s ears, causing a type of shock to run through his body.


    He looked at the figure that was the only one that resembled a mature woman, the others were a young teenage boy who seemed to be around the same age as the girl, the figure of a grown man, and finally the girl who was the only one Ivan could see her face; the others had their faces blurred.


    Seeing that Ivan was still standing in place, the woman approached him and grabbed his hand before pulling him towards the dining table.


    "What are you still standing there for, come and cut the cake!" She said, her voice radiating with a kind of warmth and love that Ivan wasn''t used to. After all, he had lived all his life alone and never interacted with anyone in such a manner.


    He did not know what to respond with and could only follow the woman in silence to the dining table.


    Ivan was offered a seat while the woman stood behind him with a hand on his shoulder, unsure of what to do or say, he could only allow her to do what she wanted.


    In front of Ivan was a lovely-looking cake with the number "19" written on its surface with blue icing and two small candles burning gently on both sides of the number.


    "Happy birthday to you" ¡Á4


    All four of them began to sing a birthday song for him, including the woman behind him. Ivan saw the little girl smiling cheerfully at him, as for the others¡­he wasn''t able to read their expressions since he could not see their faces but he could somehow tell that they were all wearing happy faces as they sang for him.


    Immediately after they stopped singing, Ivan was asked to make a wish and blow the candles.


    Ivan, new to such treatment, sat there in a daze for a good couple of minutes without doing anything. All he could do was stare at the cake like it was a strange and new sight.


    Well, it was a new sight to him.


    "What''s wrong honey, why won''t you blow out the candles and make a wish?" The woman moved her blurry face to Ivan''s side as if looking at his expression while she asked in a worried tone.


    "Why don''t we give him his present first? Maybe it will help him calm down"


    For the first time, the figure of the man spoke up as a small present appeared in his hand which he passed over to the woman standing beside Ivan.


    Ivan looked at the figure of the man as a question rang in his mind.


    ''Calm down? Calm down from what?''


    "Here honey, we got you this for your nineteenth birthday" The woman placed the present in front of Ivan while the little girl pulled the cake to create space.


    "Open it, big brother, let''s see what it is!" The figure of the teenage boy spoke up, excitement was evident in his tone.


    Ivan took one more look at all of them before reaching for the present and tearing off the wrapper on it. What was revealed was a small box that was only as big as a perfume box with a small lock on its side.


    Ivan flipped the lock open and moved the top of the box to reveal what was inside.


    The moment Ivan''s eyes landed on the object that was inside the box, his eyes widened and his pupils shook. He lost control of his fingers for a few moments, causing the small box to fall from his grasp to the table, causing a low thud sound.


    Ivan had been shocked beyond measure when he saw the item inside the small box and that was because he had recognized the item, this was the second time he was seeing it¡­it was the same item that had served as his ability in the strange dream he had a few days ago.


    Inside the small box was actually a card, a card like any normal game card with only a few differences.


    These differences were the intricate designs on it, the blue cover with golden edges that covered almost to its center, and seven planet-like diagrams that were arranged on it. Adding to this was the constantly blue smoke-like substance that kept swirling beneath the blue cover and would leak out occasionally.


    Ivan turned his gaze away from the card and the box on the table and looked towards the others in hopes of getting an explanation but his words got stuck down his throat when he realized that the little girl along with the teenage boy had disappeared, leaving him with the man and the woman who was still beside him.


    Before he could speak, everything except for the two of them and the box that contained the card disappeared as well. All three of them along with the box now floated in a dark space.


    Ivan looked around himself with wide-open eyes and fingers trembling, his attention was pulled back by the man and the woman who suddenly spoke in unison.


    "Be careful what you wish for!" S§×arch* The novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Be careful what you wish for!"


    Their voices were serious and stern like they were talking to a stranger, their words sent a shiver down Ivan''s spine because this was also not his first time hearing those words as well.


    The instant after they finished saying those words, both of them vanished. Leaving only Ivan and the box containing the card floating in the black space.


    Ivan, now alone, was suddenly hit by a wave of sadness that he had never felt in his many years of living without a family. He felt the sadness of being alone.


    Suddenly, text began to appear in front of him.


    CONGRATULATION, NEXULYTE!


    YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY AWAKENED YOUR TALENT AND CAN NOW TREAD ON THE PATH OF YOUR ANCESTORS.


    NAME: IVAN VON CHARLES           TALENT GROUP: PRIMAL


    TALENT TYPE: WISHER   TALENT: WISH CARD


    TALENT LV: SS         A/P: 0%          RANK: NULL.


    Ivan stared at the words in front of him with a startled face which soon turned to one of conviction and determination. All his life he had only known that his name was Ivan, this was the first time seeing other names which he assumed was his family name. As for the other things, Ivan paid them no attention because he did not know what they truly meant aside from the fact that he had awakened.


    Ivan''s hands clenched into tight fists. He once hated Nexulytes and wished for all of them to die but he had now become one himself, along with realizing a few other things.


    Ivan immediately set a goal for himself right at that moment, since he had been given the opportunity to grow stronger, he was going to gather enough strength and look for his family¡­if they were still alive and also look for that little girl; he wanted answers to a lot of questions that he did not get the chance to ask.


    Without him noticing, the small box had floated in front of him. Ivan stared at it for a while, accepting that this card in the box was now his talent, his strength, his way to find answers to all the questions that were buried deep in his mind.


    Ivan stretched his hand and picked up the card from inside the box, he wanted to see what was on the other side. He turned it after picking it up but the other side of the card was empty except for a single line of words which Ivan was now more familiar with than his own name.


    "Be careful what you wish for!"


    The next thing was a wave of dizziness which did not even give Ivan a chance to blink before passing out.


    When he woke up, he was inside the pod.


    He used the few seconds it took for the lid of the pod to open to calm himself and go through everything that had happened in his mind, a determined expression still laced on his face even as he sat upright after the pod opened.


    Ivan saw a large group of people with Glen in their midst, staring at him with shocked eyes; except Glen, the boy was just looking at him with a neutral expression on his face.


    Ivan saw that Ralph was also up but had yet to leave his pod, similarly, Ralph was also staring at him with a surprised look in his eyes.


    In the next instance, the large group of people swarmed toward the two of them like a horde of hungry beasts, completely ignoring Glen who now has a dumbfounded look on his face.

 Chapter 12: People from the Tower

    In another part of San Pluto. A huge skyscraper that counted over two hundred floors stood tall in the middle of what seemed to be a training facility. It marked a borderline between the facility and a thick forest that stretched far into the distance that one could not see the end of it even from on top of this building.On the floor of the very top of this building, a large office room could be seen that was decorated with normal office equipment. An executive chair was placed close to the huge glass panel that allowed one to see the view of the forest and in front of this executive chair was a large office desk, two other office chairs were placed on the other side of the desk.


    Two people could be seen sitting on these chairs with serious looks on their faces, another man stood in front of the large glass panel, looking at the view of the forest while turning his back to the rest of the office room.


    "What is the report on the mission to the soulless graveyard?" A calm voice sounded from the man who was staring at the outside view, both hands folded behind his waist, completing his straight posture.


    The eyes of the two men who were sitting trembled slightly as they stared at the back of the man who just asked a question, not daring to keep him waiting, one of the two stood up and said.


    " Our tower sent three Domain lords along with two half supremes for the mission¡­we lost contact with all of them a few days ago " The man added after a brief pause.


    The palm of the man clenched behind his back upon hearing this news, clearly shaken but managed to not react too strongly as a sign of great steeze. The loss of Domain lords and half-supremes was no small matter but he could not lose his composure in front of his subordinates.


    "What about the other towers, any news from them?" The man asked once more, his tone even calmer than before, that it made the two men straighten their backs as beads of sweat began to form on their faces.


    Gulp!


    The man standing swallowed hard before proceeding to speak up.


    "They received similar damage along with the loss of a few True lords," the man said carefully.


    Silence reigned for a few seconds after the man made his report, he did not dare to sit and waited for his superior to act.


    A whole minute passed in silence before finally, the man stopped staring at the view of the forest and turned around.


    His appearance was that of a man in his late fifties, his facial features were well-defined which made one think of how handsome he must have been during his prime. His head was covered in black hair with a few strands of white hair mixed within, an almost unnoticeable wrinkle at the edges of both eyes spoke of his age.


    This man had sharp green eyes that looked like they could pierce through a person whenever he looked at them, his wide shoulders and straight posture gave the feeling of a vicious emperor.


    He wore a suit without a tie and the first few buttons of his inner white shirt were left open, exposing his upper chest. S§×arch* The N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    With quiet steps, the man slowly walked over to the executive chair and sat on it, placing an elbow on the armrest while resting his chin on his knuckles, his other hand was placed on the desk as his fingers taped on it repeatedly.


    "So, the mission was a failure?" The man asked after staring daggers at the two nervous men in front of him for a good couple of seconds.


    The bodies of the two men were slightly trembling and their palms were sweaty but they still forced themselves to nod in response.


    Ding!


    The sound of a phone notification interrupted what the green-eyed man was about to say next, his eyes flashed with annoyance as he picked up his phone from his desk and looked at the screen.


    The two men quickly saw the expression on the man''s face shift from one of annoyance to a dubious one when he saw what had caused his phone''s alarm to go off.


    Wordlessly raising his eyes to the two of them, he said.


    "Leave"


    The two men immediately got up, bowed, and walked out of the office in quick steps.


    After he was left all alone in his office, the face of the middle-aged man finally shifted, becoming one of disbelief in the next moment. An expression that he would usually not show outside casually.


    Without a moment of hesitation, he unlocked his phone and dialed a number. The phone rang for just three seconds before the other side connected and without waiting for the other party to talk, the green-eyed man spoke first.


    "Is the information in your message true? You better have not interrupted me over a silly mistake" his voice was so deep and menacing that the sound of the other party gulping could be heard over the phone.


    "Y-yes, tower master. The information is true, I witnessed it myself. They are still here at the moment and a lot of representatives from different towers are trying to recruit them as we speak!" The voice on the other side of the phone spoke hurriedly.


    The eyes of the man flashed with a glint before replying.


    "I''ll be there soon," he said before disconnecting the call.


    He looked around his office for a couple of seconds as the message he had read a while ago kept appearing in his mind.


    " A SS, S, and A level talent appearing at the same time, huh?" He muttered to himself before suddenly disappearing from the office.


    ...¡­..


    Back at the awakening center.


    Large groups of people surrounded Ralph and Ivan who had yet to step out of their pods, of course, the crowd around Ivan had more people compared to Ralph''s.


    "Hello young man, I''m a representative of the Golden Hawk Tower, I would like to invite you to join our tower as a recruit. There are a lot of benefits in joining our tower¡­"


    " Hi, I''m the vice tower master of the Federation assembly tower, I happily invite¡­."


    " Hi, I''m from the Green dragons tower, we¡­."


    One after the other numerous people spoke to Ivan at the same time, all of them trying to get his attention and invite him to join their tower; Ralph was also going through the same thing.


    "You maggots should get out of my way, can''t you let the young men get down from their pods at least?" A powerful voice sounded from behind the crowd of people, causing all of them to turn silent and turn to look at the owner of the voice who dared to scold so many people.


    When they turned around, the majority of people immediately froze for a moment before moving to the side and creating a path for someone at the back. Ivan and Ralph looked at the owner of the voice who was standing at the entrance of the hall and looked to be a middle-aged man in his forties. He had a huge build and was in a blue suit.


    Neither Ralph nor Ivan knew who this man was but their curiosity did not last for long as the crowd began to whisper.


    "Just because he''s a tower master of one of the Lance towers, he thinks he has the right to scold us?" Someone muttered in displeasure.


    "Shhh, don''t let him hear you. Even if he is a tower master of a branch tower, his strength isn''t weaker than those smaller main tower masters. And don''t forget that the Lance tower is one of the biggest five towers in the world, do you want to anger a Lance?" Another person immediately cautioned the person who had expressed his displeasure.


    A few more whispered already around the crowd of people which Ivan and Ralph could hear, the man who was the main topic also heard these words but didn''t react to them.


    From what Ivan had heard, this man was a tower master of a branch tower that was under a certain Lance tower. This tower was one of the biggest and strongest towers in the world and was owned by the Lance family.


    And seeing how cautious and afraid most of these people were toward this man, it could be said as well that he had a certain level of strength.


    The man in question casually strolled through the path that had been created by the crowd and approached Ivan and Ralph, stopping after reaching Ralph''s pod which was close to Ivan''s.


    "First of all, congratulations on awakening successfully and attaining a remarkable result at that. Your families must be very proud to have such talents as yourselves, now why don''t you both step down from the pods first so we can talk?"


    The man said to them with a kind smile on his face.


    Ivan and Ralph looked at each other before climbing down from the pod, the liquid in the pod was a special type so they did not get wet despite spending a few minutes in it.


    Glen forced his way through the crowd of people and went to stand beside Ralph and Ivan. Though he wasn''t jealous of them getting all the attention, he didn''t feel happy with being ignored.


    The man looked at Glen with a raised eyebrow but did not say anything immediately since Ivan or Ralph did not say anything about Glen''s appearance.


    " And who might this young man be?" He asked in a gentle tone despite his menacing appearance, trying to appeal as friendly as possible.


    "They are my friends, I also just awakened!" Glen said while pointing at the screen above the pod he had used, the information of his awakening was still displayed on it

 Chapter 13: Offers from the Towers

    " And who might this young man be?" He asked in a gentle tone despite his menacing appearance, trying to appeal as friendly as possible."They are my friends, I also just awakened!" Glen said while pointing at the screen above the pod he had used, the information of his awakening was still displayed on it


    The Tower master turned to look at the screen that Glen was pointing at, he silently read all the details on the screen within a second.


    ''Oh, he''s an A-level talent? That''s a result to be proud about, just his luck to have two prodigies awaken at the same time as him" the Tower master of the Lance branch Tower thought to himself. He felt that Glen was just unlucky to have his spotlight stolen by his two friends but that did not mean that he was any less valuable.


    " Oh, an impressive result as well. Birds of the same feathers flock together indeed. Allow me to introduce myself," the man stood up straight while placing one of his hands in front of his chest " My name is Adam Lance, the current Tower master of the seventh branch under the Lance family.


    I want to formally invite you three to join our Tower so that you can get adequate training that is befitting of your talents as germs like yourselves would need the perfect refinement to glow.


    Priorities would be given to your every needs for the duration of your training and a high-paying position in the Tower upon your graduation from training, along with these benefits will be land properties which are personal villas in the middle of San Pluto which will be given to each of you¡­of course, the cost of all these will be covered by the tower.


    All we require is that you join the Lance Tower and sign a contract to work for the tower, don''t worry about the Tower trying to take advantage of you because you will be provided with a copy of the contract each to study and negotiation is very well welcomed.


    The Tower will only require you to go on a few missions each year which you can as well reject for other missions" The man who had now addressed himself as Adam Lance said with a genuine smile on his face, his words sounding so sincere that they left no room for people to doubt them.


    Ivan and Ralph stared at Adam with stunned looks on their faces which soon turned into a frown. From everything Adam had said, everything seemed to benefit them while they only needed to do just one mission every year for the tower, the offer was just too good to be as simple as he had presented it.


    Glen, on the other hand, was trembling from excitement upon hearing everything that Adam had said. He could not stop imagining all the wealth and fame he could get with such an offer, there was also a personal villa! He could bring his family over and they would never have to worry about anything ever again!


    He would have rushed to accept the offer if not that Ralph was secretly holding his shirt from behind.


    Adam looked at the three young men in front of him, he felt confident about recruiting these three future powerhouses before the representatives of the other big towers arrived. Glen''s expression greatly boosted his confidence but Ralph''s and Ivan''s serious expressions did the exact opposite which made Adam want to say more.


    ''What are you thinking about so seriously? Everything I said is sincere, hurry up and accept before others arrive!'' Adam urged inwardly while maintaining a calm expression to make the two believe that he wasn''t nervous about rejection.


    Unfortunately for him, a loud voice sounded from behind him which made him feel like someone had downed a bucket of cold water on him.


    "Adam Lance, do you think it''s funny to try tricking children just because they are inexperienced?" The voice said scornfully. Sear?h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Adam froze for a bit before his face turned to one of annoyance as he turned back to face the person he had spoken to from behind him, Ivan and the rest also looked at the newcomer who had suddenly appeared without anyone noticing.


    "James" Adam muttered in a low voice that was laced with fighting intent while his eyes looked like they would tear their newcomer to shreds.


    This newcomer was a tall man in a suit, he looked like someone in his fifties but stood straight like an arrow with piercing green eyes which stared back at Adam as he confidently stepped toward him. He wasn''t as buffed as Adam was but his appearance and presence weren''t less intimidating.


    The crowd of people immediately stepped back as it had turned into a competition between the top bosses, only people of similar standing as them would be able to compete with them.


    The man who Adam had addressed as James stopped after reaching in front of Adam and stared at him right in the eyes.


    "Adam" he called back in a low but contemptuous tone which made Adam grit his teeth in suppressed rage.


    "What do you mean by tricking? Everything I said was sincere!" Adam retorted as veins bulged on his neck.


    "Sincere you say? Oh please spare me that crap, priorities during training? Isn''t that harming their level of talent?" James said with an amused expression before walking past Adam and approaching Ivan and the other two. Before he could take more than three steps, Adam''s voice sounded from behind.


    "Tks! Saying it like I was doing something wrong, aren''t you here to compete for them on behalf of your Tower as well?"


    These words made James stop on his track, his eyes slit till they were half closed and his green eyes seemed to be glowing with a dangerous light that made many amongst the crowd retreat even more when they saw it.


    With his head half turned to the back, he gazed at Adam through the corner of his eyes.


    " Compete? Do you think you are worthy of competing with me? Let me remind you," James'' voice became cold suddenly" I am the Tower master of the headquarters of the Owen tower, which is located right here in San Pluto. The Lance Tower''s headquarters on the other hand is NOT in this city and you, Adam, are just a Tower master of a side branch.


    We aren''t on the same level, know your place!" James'' words were so piercing that a lot of people were already shivering from his aura. Adam''s hands were tightly clenched as he stared at James with a murderous gaze. It took him a while to calm himself before saying


    "Even if that is true, you can''t force your idea on them too. The final decision is theirs to make so I''ll wait for them to decide!" His words were firm, Indicating that he wasn''t going to leave just because of James.


    James did not respond and simply let out a small smirk that disappeared immediately after before turning to the three boys.


    Ivan watched as James approached them, his actions just now would definitely serve as a bad point if he wanted to recruit them but for some reason, Ivan wanted to know what James had to say. Not like he could simply walk away anyway.


    James stopped in front of them and looked down at them, he did not know who amongst them was the SS, S, or A-level talent. But he did not need to know as he was planning to take them all in.


    Silently clearing his voice, James opened his mouth and said.


    "You might already know this but I''ll still take my time to introduce myself.


    My name is James Owen, the Tower master of the headquarters of the Owen Tower. One of the strongest five towers in the world and our headquarters is located right here in San Pluto.


    I want to invite you three to join the Owen Tower as trainees to undergo training, and unlike a certain someone he doesn''t know how to nurture talents" James gave Adam a side glance as he said those words which made the man glare back at him.


    " I believe that true germs can only shine through perfect tempering so do not expect any special treatment from the Tower during your training.


    You will join other recruits and undergo similar training with them without any specific help from us, you will have to rise with your strength and only then will you be able to truly achieve your true potential; by competing against others who are as talented as you.


    As I said earlier, our Tower is one of the strongest five left. We got that title for a reason so do not think that you are special just because you managed to get such impressive results. There are many like you in the Tower and even some who are more monstrous.


    As for the benefits of joining, after you finish training, you''ll have to start from the lowest level of the Towerand work your way up with your strength along with other people. So it doesn''t look like we are not appreciative of your talents, the Tower can offer personal villas to each of you as well. These villas are located on the western side of San Pluto "

 Chapter 14: Choices

    The crowd that had been silent all these while erupted in an uproar when they heard James''s words, even Adam could not help but stare at James in shock.While his previous offer of giving them villas in the center of San Pluto could be counted as generous, James'' offer was outright startling.


    One had to know that the center of San Pluto was the most flourishing part of the city with all the big companies and wealthy people living in it, affording a simple apartment in this location was as hard as shaving one''s hair with their toes.


    When compared to the western side of San Pluto on the other hand, everyone had to admit that that location held a significant importance to the people of San Pluto. The western side wasn''t as bustling or as populated as the center of San Pluto, it rather had few people and was mostly a quiet neighborhood. The reason for this was that¡­


    Getting a place on the western side of San Pluto was close to impossible! Only those at the Pinnacle of Power were able to afford to stay in that part of San Pluto, people spent billions upon billions but still got turned down at times even when their request was a simple duplex or bungalow.


    Yet, James was promising these three young men three villas in that place? Even Adam did not have the right to stay there!


    Ralph and Ivan carefully observed everyone''s expressions and could easily figure out that the location of the villas that James was offering was of a higher status compared to Adam''s, but that wasn''t what attracted them the most about everything that the man had said.


    To Ivan, all he could hear was having the chance to train with others who were as talented or even more talented than himself. Getting the chance to compete against such geniuses was the most attractive offer for someone who had sworn to gain strength. Why would he want to receive special treatment when he could fight and increase his strength against other prodigies?


    "I accept" Ivan''s voice broke through the sea of murmurs, causing everyone to temporarily turn quiet and look at him.


    James'' eyes flashed over as he gazed at the white-haired kid, nothing looked special about this young man at first glance but who would imagine that he was actually an SS-level talent Nexulyte?


    Ralph and Glen turned to look at Ivan in surprise as this was the first time Ivan had decided to make a decision for himself, he would usually leave the decision-making to Ralph and just follow with it as long as it was alright.


    Seeing that Ivan had decided to join the Owen Tower, Ralph knew that he must have thought it through before accepting because he had done the same. So without wasting anyone''s time, he accepted James'' offer as well.


    James wore a slight smile on his face as he looked at the two future powerhouses of his Tower. He really did not care much about what Glen decided to do as he was as valuable as these two.


    Though slightly reluctant, Glen still decided to accept James'' offer. After all, his two friends were going there, why should he be the one to go another way?


    Having secured what he came here for, James turned to look at Adam and shot him a provocative smile.


    "There, you have their answers. Are you still planning to follow them to our Tower?" He asked.


    Adam did not respond and only gave all of them hateful glares before leaving, the rest of the crowd also began to disperse slowly in search of other newly awakened Nexulytes.


    James turned back to look at the three of them, he waved his hand and three tokens appeared above his hand which he passed to each of them.


    "These are the tower''s tokens which will show that you are a trainee when you come to the tower. I''ll like to bring you with me but I know that you all might have a few things to take care of before coming since the training will last for six months and you will not be allowed to leave until graduation.


    Luckily for you three, the training will start in a week from now so make sure you find your way to the tower by then. Someone will be waiting to receive you once you arrive" James explained to the three who were observing their tokens.


    Before he left, he added.


    "Just so you know, there are people who will join the training as well who failed to graduate last year and also people who have received special training from their families. So do not think it will be easy and put your all into your training" Only after this reminder did James leave the three alone.


    They stayed there for a few more seconds, taking in the new feeling and everything that had happened since they exited the pod.


    "Yes!! We are now Nexulytes!" Glen could not help but jump in excitement while waving his token in the air. Ralph had a smile on his face, equally happy about everything. Only Ivan kept a serious face, he was thinking how the training would go and how long it would take him to start carrying out his plans.


    The people who were in the hall turned to look at the trio since Glen''s shout of excitement had been heard by them but no one tried to caution them over their behaviors, more like no one dared to.


    Their celebration was called short by Ralph who suggested for them to leave and return to meet the cab driver who was still waiting at the parking space.


    On their way out, however, they ran into four men at the entrance of the awakening center. The face of Ralph and Glen turned stern and hateful upon seeing these four men while Ivan''s face became cold and murderous.


    These four people were the Nexulytes in charge of guarding the outskirt that the three of them were from. They were also the freaks who had tormented Ivan for years.


    "Well well well, what do we have here?" One of the four men said with a surprised voice upon seeing the three boys, they quickly moved toward them and surrounded the three.


    "We only left our post for a day and you dared to sneak out? You want to try and awaken, right? Then why leave so soon, can''t pay the fee?" Another one asked with a dirty grin on his face but his eyes shone with a dangerous glint.


    The one who seemed to be their leader stared at Ivan intently, seeing the clean clothes that Ivan was in left a bad taste in his mouth.


    "Who gave you the permission to leave the outskirt? How dare you come to San Pluto? Tell me!" He demanded with his eyes still fixed on Ivan.


    Ivan, as if getting hit by an old trauma, seemed to have forgotten how to speak or move and could only stare at the ground obediently with his hands clenched.


    "Oh, I see you''ve grown some balls after we left you for just one day. You even dare to ball your fist in front of me" the man asked in a threatening voice.


    Many of the people who were close by had gathered to watch the show, some of these people were amongst the crowd who had experienced the battle between the Owen Tower and the Lance Tower over these three but decided not to speak up.


    They wanted to see what those four men would do and try to step in at the last moment, in hopes of forming a good impression on Ivan and Ralph which would lead to a good connection with powerhouses in the future.


    Seeing the many people watching them, Glen became tense and angered. Unable to hold himself back anymore, he glared back at the leader of these men.


    "You better let us be if you know what''s good for you, we''ve now awakened and have been recruited by a powerful Tower!" He let out in an attempt to scare these men away but his action seemed to now have achieved its intended effect.


    "Hahaha, did he just say awakened? How funny? Can you afford to pay by even selling your family? And even if you do, what can trash like you from the outskirts possibly achieve?"


    The four men laughed in unison.


    "Don''t you dare talk about my family!" Glen shouted back in rage.


    "Hmm, you dare to raise your voice at me? Looks like I''ll have to teach you a lesson before we go back" the leader of the men said and approached Glen with one of his hands raised high, he was going to slap Glen.


    Grab!


    His arm was caught in midair by a powerful grip. The man turned back to see who it was that had grabbed his arm and was met by a pair of sharp green eyes.


    It was James!


    Glen''s face showed one of excitement upon seeing James, Ralph equally sighed in relief.


    "Now now, who might you be trying to harm a trainee of the Owen Tower?" James asked with a cold smile that sent shivers down the spines of the four men.


    " T-tower master?" The man whose arm was grabbed by James stuttered fearfully. Sear?h the nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Hmm, you know me?" James asked with raised eyebrows while releasing the man''s arm from his grip.


    The four of them quickly moved to the side and bowed to James while introducing themselves.


    "We are Nexulytes of the Owen Tower, I and my squad have been tasked with guarding one of the outskirts around San Pluto for years now," The leader said.


    " Yet you choose to bully those weaker than you? Looks like the discipline of the Tower is lacking, the four of you are coming with me" James said before strolling past them while the faces of the four men turned pale. They looked at Glen''s group one last time with disbelieving gazes before hastily following James.


    Ralph saw that Ivan was still standing with his head lowered even after James had left with the four men, he approached him and placed a hand on his shoulder.


    "It''s alright now, they will most likely never bother you again, let''s go," He said as they left for the parking space.

 Chapter 15: Unknown talent

    Later that day, at 9:43 pm. San Pluto, western sector (also the western side of San Pluto)Inside a massive villa that stretched for over a hundred meters, a wide living room that was decorated lavishly could be seen through a window.


    An old man sat inside this living room on a couch while reading a file, a massive chandelier hung from the ceiling and perfectly lit up the living room.


    This old man looked like he was in his nineties and had a very long white beard, his face had turned skinny with age and his head was fully covered in gray hair but his eyes were as sharp as those of fierce predators.


    He wore a one-piece robe that covered almost every part of his body, leaving only his skinny hands that were holding onto the file as he read in silence.


    The peaceful silence of the living room was interrupted by the sudden sound of the door being opened, followed by hurried footsteps and a voice filled with urgency.


    "Father, father! I have something to report!" James Owen, the Tower master of the Owen Tower rushed to the side of the old man with a small pile of files in his hand. His present demeanor was vastly different from his bearing earlier today as he appeared to be almost panicking.


    The old man who turned out to be James'' father slowly raised his head and gazed at his son with a pair of calm yet scary green eyes, he did not appear bothered by his son''s lack of composure in the slightest.


    "What is it that makes you behave so out of character and why do you need to inform me? Is it about the failed mission to the soulless garden? Don''t worry about it since I had expected such an outcome, whatever it is that happens in the tower should be regulated by the tower master. Now leave and stop bothering me" The old man calmly said before returning his attention to the files in his hands.


    James was temporarily stunned by his father''s words, the old man had learned of the failed mission so fast yet he claimed to have left James in charge of everything! But that did not mean he was going to leave as that wasn''t what had brought him here.


    Without sitting, James impatiently said¡­


    "It''s not about that, I came to report about a recruit I recruited into the tower today, " James said and stretched his hand that was holding the files toward his father.


    The old man once again raised his head to look at his son, a slight frown could be seen on his old face this time.


    " You, the tower master of the Owen Tower main Branch, personally recruited a newly awakened Nexulyte. Not only did you make such a degrading act, you even dare to come to inform me about it?" The old man questioned coldly.


    Still not shaken, James waved the files in front of the old man and added


    "You will understand once you read these"


    The old man stared at James intently for a few seconds, observing his confident expression before taking the files and opening them.


    Just a few seconds after he started to read it, the eyes of the old man widened after reading the first page. He quickly began to flip through the rest pages as he read faster, he had finished reading everything in less than thirty seconds.


    The information contained in these files were details about Ivan''s ability, talent level, and background, as well as similar details about Ralph and Glen. Not only did James have someone compile a file about the results of their awakening, but he also investigated their backgrounds in less than 10 hours.


    Ivan was an orphan who had been living badly for years, Glen was from a family that grew up in the outskirts and his parents worked hard to take care of him and his sister, Ralph had been more fortunate at the start. His mother was a Nexulyte under a small Tower but was discarded with a little money after she got gravely wounded, they had lived in the outskirts since then.


    " A talent that has no record of it and such a high level at that, I suspect that you''re the only one who might know about it" James voiced out from the side, his voice pulling the old man who had suddenly fallen into a daze from his thoughts.


    The old man handed the files back to James before standing up, his back was slightly hunched and both hands were placed above his waist.


    "Indeed, his talent has no record of it throughout the long history of Nexulytes. Even I have not heard of such a talent or talent group before" the old man said in a low voice and began to move towards a door on the side of the living room, James followed behind him.


    "Does that mean this is a first?" James asked as his eyes widened in realization.


    The old man replied without turning around.


    "Don''t get me wrong. I did say that his ability has no records of it, I didn''t say he was the first"


    James'' face contorted in confusion "What do you mean" he asked.


    "What I mean, is that¡­he isn''t the only one with an unrecorded talent in the long history of humanity.  A long time ago, there was someone who also had a talent that held no record. He was a monster amongst men, a prodigy to look up to. Sadly, he disappeared without anyone finding out what his talent was; his talent remains a mystery to date" explained the old man.


    " Who is that person that even you praise so much?" James could not help but ask. His father, the head and founder of the Owen Tower, was a very picky person. And throughout his long years, the number of people he had acknowledged could be counted on one hand.


    The old man stopped in front of an iron door, he responded to his son while placing a hand on the door.


    "You said that you had investigated their backgrounds and found out he was an orphan who did not even know his family and had lived in misery for many years, but you know that the awakening is able to bring out the truth about such matters"


    James showed a thoughtful expression at his father''s words while nodding "Of course, I know that. But what does it have to do with this?"


    The old man paused and turned to look at his son with a meaningful gaze before asking.


    "What did his name show?


    James stared back at his father with looks of confusion as to why his father would ask him that, but he still answered regardless.


    " According to his awakening, his full name is Ivan Von¡­Charles"


    James'' eyes widened as he mentioned the last part of Ivan''s name, realization hitting him like a truck of cold water.


    At the same time, the old man opened the iron door, and a grand room was revealed with a single statue inside. sea??h th§× n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    This statue was that of a middle-aged man in plate armor and a long cloak on his back, at the foot of the statue where the words


    ''Charles Von Ethan, savior of humanity''


    James stared at the statue with wide eyes, as if unable to believe what he was thinking.


    His father looked at his expression and shook his head before approaching the statue and standing in front of it.


    "I believe you should have figured it out by now," he said, pulling James from his state of shock.


    James looked at his father as he slowly calmed down.


    "But how is that possible? Ethan disappeared over eight hundred years ago and you all could not find traces of him even after trying for years!" He argued.


    The old man shook his head gently.


    "I do not know how either, but their names are too similar to be a mistake. The results of one''s awakening don''t lie. These two are the only two in history to possess two family names along with theirs, others who had tried to imitate this act had all died mysteriously.


    In addition to that¡­Ethan is the other person who possessed a talent that had no record " the old man said with a sigh and a hint of unknown emotion in his voice.


    "Then, if this kid really is Ethan''s descendant¡­then" James mumbled, cut short by his father''s voice.


    " It''s a good thing that you managed to recruit the kid into our tower, I wasn''t able to help Ethan back then when his family was murdered. If he really did have descendants after disappearing, the least that I can do as an old comrade is to take care of them when I find one" the old man said emotionally.


    It might not look like it but this old man, Karl Owen, the head and founder of the Owen Tower, was a powerful Nexulyte who was over 800 years old and he had been present when Ethan saved humanity from annihilating itself with his strange and unknown talent.


    "Did you send someone to watch over them?" The old man asked and James nodded in response.


    The old man, Karl Owen, smiled with both eyes closed.


    " That''s good, keep watching over him till he arrives at the tower where we can fully protect him and let him grow. The others must have already reported to the leaders of their respective towers and this news is bound to cause a ripple for those of our time. Ethan might have saved humanity but he still made enemies who would do anything to get back at him.


    The chance of Ivan being his descendant despite not being verified yet puts him in grave danger, so be sure to protect him at all costs" the old man said.


    " Understood, Father, " James nodded and left the room.


    The old man, also known as Karl Owen, was now left alone in the room. He stared at the statue for a while more before turning to leave the room while saying.


    "You were a shining star during your time and shadowed us all, now someone who might be related to you has also appeared and his talent and potential are bound to cause a ripple in the world¡­are you watching from wherever you are?"


    The door was closed as his words fell.

 Chapter 16: Chaos

    At the same time when James had gone to report to his father, similar actions had been carried out by other representatives of the other towers who had been present in the awakening center that day.Members of various Towers would report the news to their Tower masters who would then proceed to inform the founders and heads of the Towers about the matter.


    The many small Towers had ordered their people to only observe Ivan and the rest and not get in contact with them to avoid angering the Owen Tower, but the same was not so for the other four biggest towers that were on par with the Owen Tower.


    At the residence of the head of the Lance Tower, Gareth Lance, the founder of the Lance Tower and ancestor of the Lance family stared at the Tower masters of the seven branches of the Lance Tower with a serious face. He was an old man who looked no younger than Karl Owen.


    "It would be a disaster to leave that kid with the Owens if my speculations are true. Adam, you''ve met this kid before. Lead the others and be sure to bring back the kid at all costs!" Gareth Lance ordered.


    At the residence of the founder and ancestor of the Christopher family, an old man who was of similar age to Gareth and Karl stood backing a group of people.


    "I don''t have any hatred with him nor do I have a favorable impression of him, even if the kid isn''t related to him, his talent level and unrecorded ability are too much of a big news to leave to the Owens alone. Who knows how much the Owens will grow if they can gain the trust of a potential Demigod rank Nexulyte?


    Go, get the boy at all costs!" He ordered in a plain voice.


    The group of people behind him bowed in unison before disappearing.


    On the opposite side of earth, the dreamscape. The Current Tower master of the Dominion Tower had come to report to the heads of the Dominion Tower who were currently residing at their base in the dreamscape.


    Unlike other Towers, the Dominion Tower wasn''t founded by a single person and was rather the collective of five old and powerful Nexulytes.


    These five were a group of three females and two males who were of similar age to Karl and the rest.


    The five of them immediately held a meeting after receiving the news.


    "That dude really did not disappear huh? He actually created a monster like himself!" One of the five mumbled in a heavy tone.


    "Shouldn''t we do something about him in case he is related to him?" Another asked with a ferocious expression.


    "We should observe the situation for now and see how the other Towers will react, everything should be under control since he was taken in by the Owen Tower but we should still keep an eye on him and his friends. After all, San Pluto is ruled by our Tower and the Owen Tower"


    The third, last, and smallest major city on earth, this city was where the Ethan Tower was located. The Ethan Tower was a tower created by a group of old Nexulytes who claimed to have been helpers of the Savior of humanity during his mission to save the world back then.


    Four people sat cross-legged inside a Nexus chamber, visible Nexus energy swirled around them which they absorbed at a crazy pace.


    These four were the founders of the Ethan Tower.


    "If the kid is truly " his" descendant, then it is only right that he comes to us!" Someone voiced out righteously.


    "I agree, the Owen Tower recruiting him is clearly suspicious. That old man is not a trusted person" another person added.


    "They are clearly after the talent of the kid, we should send people to San Pluto and get him"


    "Agreed"


    "Agreed"


    "Agreed"


    ...


    Over the following days, Ivan, Glen, and Ralph had been provided with shelter in the home of the old driver who lived with his wife and kids. His kids included the girl he had talked about and a little boy who was around fourteen years old.


    On the first day of their arrival, the girl had locked herself in her room for the whole day and refused to come out no matter who tried to get her out. Only on the second day did she agree to join them for breakfast due to her little brother''s persuasion.


    Glen and the rest had been stunned by the beauty of the girl after finally getting to see her. She was a young woman who was about 18 or 19 years old like themselves, she was a peerless beauty with blue eyes and long blonde hair which wasn''t a common sight in the outskirts.


    Glen had immediately tried to get friendly with her but the girl would not respond to him no matter what or how much he chatted on and on.


    Regardless of her silence, Ralph still kept part of his deal and shared their experience at the awakening center during their breakfast.


    He had noticed the eyes of the girl show interest before becoming dull after hearing how a lot of people gathered around them and tried to recruit them.


    ''She must really dislike people '' Ralph thought to himself.


    After a good two days of persuasion, the girl finally agreed to awaken.


    She had ended up awakening the singer''s Talent and had been shown to have a B-level talent at that. While this was not a useful ability for the towers when conquering the dreamscape, it was big news for entertainment industries and a lot of them tried to scout her.


    Unsurprisingly, she had ignored all of them and came straight home with her father.


    "Such a talent for a person with her personality, how unlucky?"


    Glen had exclaimed after hearing the news, this had earned him a glare from the girl who later went to her room right after. S§×arch* The N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Sigh, I also think she''s quite unlucky. We''ll have to give her time to get used to the change, now about the books you guys asked me to get for you" the old driver said before opening a big bag he had brought with them.


    Ralph had asked him to get them books about the different towers, Nexulytes, as well as books about the dreamscape.


    Unknown to them was that, during these few days of peaceful living, a lot of battles had actually been happening around them.


    The battles were of course between members of various Towers who were either sent to kidnap¡­ahem, sorry¡­rescue Ivan or keep watch over them.


    After five days had passed with all sides suffering losses, the various heads who took Ivan very seriously had decided to make a move themselves as it would be near impossible to get him once he left for the Owen Tower training facility.


    On the sixth day of Ivan and his friends staying at the home of the driver who they now knew as old man Yamato, it was currently 10:33 pm and the world was covered in a veil of darkness with countless stars gleaming in the night sky.


    At the borders of San Pluto, various figures appeared one after the other and remained floating in the air with their abilities or external support.


    At the same time as these figures appeared, a group of other people opened their eyes in their respective residences before flashing out and reappearing in the air in front of these figures.


    "Gareth"


    "Karl"


    "Myles¡­"


    Names were mentioned for a few seconds as the people confirmed each other''s identity.


    On one side were the heads of the Dominion Tower and the head of the Owen Tower, while the intruders were the heads of the Ethan Tower, the head of the Christopher Tower, and the head of the Lance Tower.


    Everyone numbered in a Total of twelve, six on each side.


    "What have you come to our city for?" Karl Owen asked in a not-so-friendly tone as his eyes moved from one person to another, the heads of the Dominion Tower standing behind him with serious expressions as well.


    "We heard the news of his descendant''s appearance, we demand custody of him as his place is with us," said one of the heads of the Ethan Tower. This person was an old lady who still managed to make herself look like she was in her sixties despite being the same age as the other people present, her name was Sylvia Scott.


    Karl looked at her for a brief moment before moving his eyes over to the head of the Lance family.


    "Your tower failed to recruit him, he chose to join us instead so why are you here?" Karl asked Gareth Lance.


    "I and "he" were on good terms and I admired him. I can''t let you take advantage of his descendant!" Gareth voiced out in a serious and righteous tone.


    Karl still did not answer and moved his gaze to the last person present, his eyes turned murderous as they landed on the head of the Christopher family, Myles Christopher.


    The old man who was known as Myles Christopher let out a smile when he saw the gaze of Karl.


    "Hehe, don''t look at me like that. I only heard there was a super genius here, I only came to verify and maybe invite him if possible" he said with a short cold laugh.


    Karl glared at all of them one last time before turning to look at the bright San Pluto that was well-illuminated by street lights and shining billboards despite the time being night. The city looked so successful and peaceful and he wasn''t able to see the end of it despite his ability.


    "We should discuss this somewhere else" Karl spoke up as a menacing wave of Nexus energy began to rise from his body.


    "Oh, definitely. A nice location would be needed for this matter" Myles Christopher responded with a grin as red lightning cracked around his body.


    The others also began to enter combat mode as well, hell was about to be unleashed!

 Chapter 17: Proper conversation

    Five minutes later, a total of twelve figures appeared at a distance of over five hundred kilometers away from San Pluto.The place that they appeared at was like a barren wasteland that stretched as far as the eyes could see, signs of destruction and battles scarred this place. Rubbles that were once parts of buildings and old tree stumps were all that was left in this place.


    When one looked down, one would be able to see quite the number of mirror gates of various sizes with countless monsters crawling out of them; the entire wasteland was now home to monsters from the dreamscape!


    These twelve people who had appeared above this place were the heads of the five biggest towers and had come here to settle the issue about Ivan, of course they had come here knowing what to expect.


    A flying monster that was as huge as fifty meters but had butterfly-like wings immediately spotted them after they appeared, the monster let out a loud roar before flying towards them. Despite its size and small Wings, the monster''s flight speed was surprisingly very fast as it covered the distance between the ground and the group of twelve oldies in a second!


    Sadly for it, these old people were no ordinary people as the instant it got close enough to them, a single red lightning bolt flashed towards it at an even faster speed and pierced its head before exploding it into a rain of blood and burnt flesh.


    "Quite the location for a discussion, these old bones of mine haven''t had the chance to stretch in a long time after taking up responsibilities" Christopher Myles said with a smirk as red lightning continued to crack around his body.


    Without much being said, they quickly separated into smaller groups as they were about to engage into the fight.


    Christopher Myles and Gareth Lance were facing Karl Owen and Wayne Adam, one of the heads of the Dominion Tower.


    The other four members of the Dominion Tower were facing off against the four people from the Ethan Tower.


    "You could have taken an easy way out if you had just minded your business, looks like the Christopher family will have to continue without their ancestor" Karl Owen muttered in a cold tone, the thick Nexus energy rising from his body formed into a five meter tall dark red panther. This panther was known as the shadow panther and it was Karl''s beast companion.


    The face of Gareth Lance turned serious when he saw Karl summoning his shadow panther and merging with it, he also began to morph as well.


    In less than ten seconds, the two of them had changed from how they looked when they had come here earlier.


    Karl was now clad in dark red mecha like suit with the helmet of a panther covering his head, his hands had sharp pointy steels that acted as claws and a metal tail attached at the back of his waist.


    This was one of the abilities of a high ranked beast companion Nexulyte, the ability to merge with their beasts and use the beast''s abilities and features like theirs.


    Gareth, on the other hand, was now in a bright red nano tech suit with red and black patterns. His head was covered in a smooth helmet that only showed two glowing red eyes and on his chest was a small glowing red circle.


    The only ones who did not have any transformations were Christopher Myles and the one of the heads of the Dominion Tower, who''s name was Wayne Adam.


    The reasons were that Myles had the elemental gods talent while Wayne was a necromancer and had already summoned his undead keeper that now floated by his side, it was a large being that was completely wrapped in white bandages with only two pitch black eyes showing. sea??h th§× N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    All hell was let loose the next second when Karl suddenly disappeared from where he was and appeared right above Gareth, his claw like Mecha hand slamming down on his head.


    Clang!!


    Although his speed was fast, Gareth was able to react and created a large red blade with a long handle and used it to defend himself but the force of the strike was still enough to blow him away as he was sent flying away into the distance and tearing through a good numbers of monsters that had tried to swallow him.


    Seeing that his surprise attack had been blocked, Karl was about to go after Gareth but suddenly stopped and crossed his arms in front of himself.


    Zap! Bang!


    A bright red lightning bolt struck his crossed arm so fiercely that the sound of a small explosion was generated, this attack equally pushed him back but not as far as he had sent Gareth flying.


    "Wayne!" Karl shouted while using Nexus energy to mend the damaged part of his transformed suit.


    "Here!" Wayne shouted in respect and his eyes glowed red.


    The Large undead beside him seemed to have come alive as it suddenly roared loudly before transforming into a white blurry figure that rushed toward Myles, Karl also took this moment to attack from behind the undead keeper as well.


    Myles wasn''t phased by their joint attack, instead, countless red lightning began to run across his body and gathered in front of his chest at a fast speed. The lightning streaks soon formed into the size of a human head, just in time for the undead keeper to arrive in front of Myles.


    With a smirk, Myles softly said¡­


    "Rampage!"


    What happened next was a gigantic explosion of red lightning bolts as lightning ran rampant through an area of three hundred meters, turning the night skies red for a moment.


    Some monsters were unfortunate to have been hit by a small amount of these lightning and immediately exploded into pieces, the whole place was immediately covered in corpse, blood, and pieces of flesh.


    Karl and the undead keeper who had been the main targets of this strike had only been pushed back for about twenty meters due to the undead keeper tanking the full force of the attack. It was currently seriously scorched with a good patch of its white bandages missing, it released the smell of burnt rotten flesh.


    Yet, this level of injury did not bother it at all since undeads were unable to feel pain. It immediately charged forward again immediately after stabilizing itself in the air. As for Karl, he had jumped  away immediately after the undead keeper helped him block the attack and had dashed at Myles at a crazy speed with his claws aimed at his face.


    Myles eyes widened slightly upon seeing Karl''s claw so close to his face but his surprise lasted for less than a second, he disappeared into a streak of lightning before appearing a few meters away from Karl''s line of attack.


    Seeing that his target had escaped, Karl did not have time to react as his face was suddenly lit up by the red color of a red beam that had been fired towards him. But before the beam could reach him, a huge figure in white appeared in front of him and once again tanked the damage for him.


    Looking into the distance, one could see Gareth who had risen back into the air and was now holding a miniature cannon launcher, he had switched his sword for a cannon launcher!


    This was the ability of a battle mechanic, they were able to create nano weapons from Nexus energy as long as they had enough energy to sustain it.


    While all of these might have taken long to describe, these actions had actually all been carried out in Just five seconds! Had an ordinary person been present, they would not be able to catch the movements of these people and would only witness the destruction that they unleashed upon the earth and the unfortunate invader from the dreamscape.


    Because far in the distance, the four heads of the Ethan Tower and the remaining heads of the Dominion Tower were causing their own fair share of damage.

 Chapter 18: The strange monster

    Their fight continued for a long time with no side gaining any notable advantage, both sides seemed to have entered a game of tag.Myles was always fast to escape as lightning while dealing out deadly lightning strikes which the undead keeper would always block for him before attacking with its white bandages like octopus tentacles, Karl would always try to use this chance to corner Myles with his speed but he would always be forced to evade and retreat to avoid getting pierced by Gareth''s deadly beams.


    This continued for hours as white and black blurry figures danced around a red streak of light and super fast red light beams.


    The ground below them had been turned into a bloody mess as the amount of dead monsters had formed a large field of corpses and rivers of blood that flowed back into the mirrored gates in the surroundings.


    Another hour passed and both sides decided to pull from each other to keep their breaths, although their fights hadn''t made any notable progress, they had managed to land some hits and exhaust one another.


    Karl stood in the air with an exhausted Wayne and the undead keeper beside him. Karl''s helmet was currently gone and one could see that his hair was standing straight as if he had suffered an electric shock.


    Wayne was bathed in sweat as he had been expanding a large amount of energy to sustain the presence of the undead keeper and to continuously heal it from the damages that it received, the undead keeper appeared to have lost a few of its bandages and it had multiple burnt marks on its body which were closing up at a very slow pace.


    On the other hand, Myles had a few cuts on his body where blood flowed from and dyed his clothes but his expression didn''t show that he was in pain and his body was still covered in lightning.


    As for Gareth, his nano suit had begun to lose color and the type of weapons that he could create had become smaller.


    Both sides stared at each other in silence while trying to assert the condition of the other party.


    "This is just stupid and irrational, we won''t get anything with this. Don''t you old farts have anything else better to do with your time?" Karl hissed in anger and annoyance.


    "Looks like you don''t understand, old man. It''s either you hand over the kids or we can continue this all day" Myles replied plainly like he was requesting vegetables and not a person.


    Karl''s eyes narrowed, his claw-like hands clenched together in suppressed anger.


    "Christopher Myles, you have no connection to Ethan nor do you have any relationship to him, why would you want the boy?" Karl asked in honest curiosity.


    Myles shrugged in response before saying.


    "You don''t understand, their talents aren''t something that I can simply ignore. So even if I can''t have both, I''m determined to take one with me"


    Karl''s teeth gritted in anger but before he could speak, a low voice that sent all of them quiet sounded from the ground.


    " What''s all this ruckus about? I can hear your noises from miles away on the other side" Said an irritated voice.


    The voice wasn''t loud but had reached the ears of everyone in the area and for some reason, they all felt a chill run through their bodies.


    Karl, Myles, and everyone who had come here for the "discussion" stopped whatever they were doing and turned to look in the direction of the voice.


    Not far away, in front of a mirrored gate that was surrounded by flowing rivers of blood and corpses of monsters, stood a humanoid creature but its appearance was nothing similar to humans.


    Bright red skin, two huge birdlike wings, a face that was akin to the skeleton of a horse''s head, and on top of its head were small red horns with flames on their tips. The monster stood at a height of six meters and had smokey purple eyes on its horse face.


    It quietly stood in front of the mirrored gate that it had just walked out from and stared at the mess of corpses that littered the place, both of its arms folded behind its back.


    Karl and the rest looked at the monster with wide eyes, they all had a single thought on their minds the instant they laid their eyes on it.


    They were no match for it!


    The monster observed for a while more before raising its head to look at the people in the sky, they immediately felt cold in their hearts whenever the eyes of the monster swept past them.


    Myles was the only one who dared to show a disgusted expression toward the monster despite being shaken by the strength of the monster.


    "You twelve are responsible for this mess?" The monster questioned as it slowly rose into the air.


    Karl wanted to speak but found his words stuck in his throat.


    "As expected, humans are always troublesome creatures. These monsters have given up on hunting humans and chosen to stay here but you just can''t let them stay in peace and have to kill them. Is killing fun? Maybe I should try it too"


    The voice of the monster was so eerie and cold that it made one shiver.


    Without waiting for the monster to do anything else, Karl turned around and shouted.


    "Wayne!"


    As if able to read Karl''s mind, Wayne immediately reacted and controlled his undead keeper which turned into a white blur and flashed toward the red-skinned monster.


    At the same time, everyone including Wayne turned around and fled; they did not want to know what would happen to the undead keeper, all that they knew was that it would not be able to defeat the monster and at most only buy them time to run.


    Immediately, they had covered dozens of kilometers as they fled from the place. At the same time, the undead keeper arrived in front of the monster with its huge arm raised high.


    The monster''s smokey eyes glared at the undead keeper before looking away.


    "Ignorant" it muttered while waving one of its hands in front of it lazily.


    Boom!!!


    The undead keeper didn''t even have the time to react before it exploded into a bloody mist from the casual wave of the monster''s hand.


    Wayne, who was running with the others, suddenly clenched his chest and almost fell from the sky after being hit by a soul-crushing pain.


    This was the after-effect of the death of his undead keeper, the necromancer would feel excruciating pain; this was a sort of measurement to make sure that necromancers did not abuse or mistreat their undead(s)


    (An undead creature dying, LMAO)


    Despite the pain, Wayne did not dare to stop. This was not due to him not caring about the death of his undead but that he could not afford the price of stopping. After all, he could regrow his undead later on as it did not really die in its entirety.


    After killing the undead keeper, the monster spread its wings and was about to go after the humans but suddenly stopped and turned it ahead to look down in the direction of the mirrored gate it had come out from. In front of it stood a young human male who seemed to be in his teens.


    No matter how one would look at him, he looked like an ordinary human child in his teens but the monster who had scared Karl and other heads of famous Towers away did not dare act arrogantly in front of this teenager. S§×ar?h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Why?" It asked in confusion.


    The teen stared at it with a lack of interest before opening his mouth.


    "Don''t just go after them and come back immediately" he said before going back into the mirrored gate and disappearing into it, he did not even wait to confirm if the monster would make any unpleasant remarks or disobey.


    Seeing the teen act so arrogant, the monster was not displeased in the slightest. It bowed while saying "understood" before descending to the ground.


    Only after crossing the mirrored gate and arriving in the dreamscape did the teenager reply.


    "Mother''s order"

 Chapter 19: Arrival at the tower

    The one-week time limit given to Ivan and the rest was finally over and it was time for them to leave for the tower where their training was to be held, the three of them had gotten ready to leave as early as five in the morning.After seven days of staying with the old driver and his family, Ralph had requested various books to fill them in on general knowledge about Towers and Nexulytes. Of course, the informal they were able to get were only those the Towers allowed to let out and were considered more or less useful.


    After spending some time in their home, the young woman who had awakened a singing talent had found it convenient enough to wave them goodbye; the old driver had offered to help them get to where they were going.


    After driving for five minutes, they arrived at a place with quite a few people in high-quality clothes. They all came down from their cars before entering a huge cabin-like structure.


    The old man found a place that wasn''t far from the cabin and parked before coming out, Ivan and his friends came down as well.


    "Alright, if I remember right, the Owen Tower headquarters is located in the southern sector of San Pluto, occupying more than half of the sector. This teleportation vault will take you directly to the Tower''s region and you can easily find your way from there " the old driver explained.


    " Why do we need a teleportation vault? Can''t you just take us there in your car?" Glen asked in confusion.


    The old driver laughed in response.


    " As much as I would like to go there, I can''t. The southern sector isn''t that close to the northern sector where we are and it would take me hours if not an entire day to get there by driving " explained the old driver after laughing.


    " What?! It''s so huge?" Glen exclaimed in shock.


    " Maybe you don''t know but each sector of San Pluto covers hundreds of kilometers, exploring the entire northern sector can''t be done in a few hours " The old driver added before urging them to go enter the teleportation vault so they would not be late from chatting with him.


    "Goodbye old man, see you another time!" Glen called out as they entered the vault, Ivan nodded at the old man while Ralph gave a slight bow before the doors of the vault closed up and a white light enveloped them inside.


    The old man watched with a smile as the white light flashed around the teleportation vault, he felt a bit emotional like he was sending his kids away.


    "Good luck, boys" he muttered to himself before entering his car, he still had to carry on with his driving job.


    ...¡­.


    The white light enveloped them inside the vault and the three of them felt a strange sensation that made their insides turn and they felt light-headed, it took everything in them to prevent themselves from throwing up; Glen was less unreserved and fell on his knees the next moment after the feeling disappeared and the white light retracted.


    The other people in the vault stared at Glen with curious expressions but said nothing and simply left the vault to carry on with their business.


    "You alright?" Ralph asked while extending a hand to help Glen up.


    "Of course not, I wouldn''t be like this if I were," Glen said, irritated that he was the only one who was in such a condition.


    "Must be because of first time experience with teleportation" Ralph said to console him but that did not help, it instead angered Glen even more.


    "Then what about you two? Isn''t this your first time as well?"


    Before they could carry on with their banter, a huge man in a neat uniform appeared at the entrance of the vault with a few others behind him.


    " Are you brats going to stay here all day? Others need to use it" the man said with annoyance.


    All three of them looked at the people who had suddenly appeared in front of them with blank faces, they were all dressed in similar uniforms like they were some special force.


    " Sorry, we''ll get out now" Ralph apologized before dragging Glen out, Ivan silently followed from behind.


    " Looks like just anyone can come here these days, even brats are allowed to come here to play around " one of the people behind the huge man snickered when they passed the three.


    All three of them turned to look at the person who seemed to be just around their age but gave off a dangerous vibe, it was a young man with blue hair that fell at the side of his face.


    Glen was pissed that someone their age would talk to them in such a manner and wanted to vent but before he could, Ralph covered his mouth with his hand and continued pulling him.


    Only after they had gone a good distance from the place did he release the struggling Glen.


    "Puah! Why did you stop me? That guy was acting like a d?*K!" Glen complained.


    Ralph stared at him, annoyance visible in his eyes which were directed at Glen.


    "Are you stupid? Don''t just go around challenging everyone like you do in the outskirt, this is the territory of the Owen Tower, and judging by their dress, they must be members of the tower!" Ralph retorted while shifting his glasses.


    " So what? We are recruits of the tower and will be joining soon, what gives him the right to talk to us like that?" Glen still wasn''t satisfied.


    This time, it was Ivan who replied to Glen.


    "That''s the difference. We are recruits but not members yet and have to go through training, there''s a possible chance of things going wrong for us.


    They, on the other hand, are already members of the tower and have the right to look down on unknown people like us" Ivan said slowly, his eyes help blank look that barely shielded the hatred that was burning within while he looked in the direction of the vault.


    He did not need to be told before he knew that those people were all Nexulytes and the attitude of that blue-haired dude reminded him of those four who tormented him for years.


    Glen stared at Ivan, his lips quivered as he forced himself from saying another word. Ivan rarely took time to explain anything so the few times he did, they had to listen.


    "Come, let''s go find someone to ask for directions," Ralph said before leading the way.


    They soon came across two men in similar uniforms to those people they had met earlier. They approached them respectfully with Ralph handling the conversation, they were asked a few questions including asking them to show their tokens.


    After the brief discussion, they were led by the two to the front of an enormous gate before being handed to someone else who took them to another place.


    "You three wait here, someone will come to get you," said the woman whom they had been placed under at the huge gate before leaving.


    They had been brought to a tall building that the top of it they were unable to see and taken into a room its walls were reinforced with metal and a small door on the other side.


    The room looked like a small court for a kind of sport but had no decorations or distinguishing features, it was just a plain large room with metal walls. S~ea??h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Immediately after the lady left, a loud voice sounded in the room.


    "Welcome to the Owen Tower, to prove your worth of belonging to the tower, you''ll have to pass a little test before you can process through the door in front of you," The voice said.


    The three of them were startled by the sound that seemed to come out from every side of the room but before they could recover, a small space on the ground opened from which came a small platform on which a few objects were placed.


    "Pick a weapon of your choice, you have six seconds to do so"


    Sounded the voice once more.

 Chapter 20: The monster is out of control!

    "Pick a weapon of your choice, you have six seconds!"Ralph, Ivan, and Glen all turned to look at the platform upon hearing the voice starting a countdown from six.


    On the platform were different types of weapons ranging from street tools, delicate weapons, classic weapons, and those that they had never seen before. Immediately after the voice called out 3, all three of them rushed towards the platform and grabbed whatever their hands could reach.


    Ralph picked up a thin long sword, Glen''s choice of weapon was a small shovel with sharp sides, as for Ivan¡­Ivan picked a strange-looking brick as his choice of weapon.


    Immediately after they finished picking their weapons, the platform lowered back into the ground which then closed up when the voice reached zero.


    The three of them stared at each other and the weapon they had picked, it went without saying that Ralph and Glen gave Ivan odd stares when they saw him firmly holding the brick in his right hand.


    Was he planning to fight with that?


    They both wondered but didn''t say it out loud, Glen loosened his grip around the handle of his shovel before changing to a firm grip; he repeated this action as he got a good feel of his weapon.


    Ralph gave a few swings with a long sword as if getting used to its weight, he nodded in satisfaction after five swings.


    As for Ivan, he just stood there with his brick.


    "Now that you have picked your weapons, the test will now begin. Good luck" the voice sounded once more before going silent.


    Three seconds later, the door on the other side of the room opened, and on the other side was a metal cage that was pushed inside; they were unable to see what had pushed the cage inside the room before the door closed.


    The metal cage was not too big and was just the size of three wardrobes combined, they could hear the faint growling sounds that came from whatever was inside the cage.


    All three of them immediately got serious and entered a fighting pose, all their faces had serious expressions as they stared at the cage that began to fall apart.


    Bang!!


    All four sides of the cage fell to the ground with a loud noise and sitting in the middle of the fallen cage was a huge monster that the three of them did not recognize.


    The monster had a buffed body that was covered in black hair, two extremely long arms that ended with large paws and long claws, thick legs that were as big as two people combined, and a round head with only one eye on it; they could not tell how the monster was able to make the sounds that it was making.


    But that did not matter at the moment because immediately after the cage fell apart and the monster looked at them with its single eye, it stood up on its two legs and began to move toward them, step by step.


    One thing was that the monster looked incredibly intimidating and scary, the good thing was that it was very slow when compared to human movements.


    "Ar-are we supposed to fight that thing!" Glen stuttered as he stared at the big monster with wide eyes, his legs were shaking and his fingers trembled around the shovel he was holding.


    "Keep calm and don''t let yourself panic! It''s moving slowly so we should be able to deal with it if we work together!" Ralph quickly called out upon seeing how Glen was reacting to the presence of a monster.


    "B-but it''s s-s-so big!" Glen responded without thinking.


    "Listen here, you idiot! Get yourself together and don''t mess up! Didn''t you dislike how you were looked down on earlier? This is your chance to change that, now get a grip on yourself and stop acting like you have never seen a monster before!" Ralph yelled at Glen, his outburst successfully pulled Glen from the verge of despair.


    .....


    In another room that looked like a control room, Two people sat in front of a small screen that displayed the scene in the room where the three boys and the monster were facing off.


    "Hmm, nice reaction. This kid has a good talent for leading, he would make a good team leader" one of them said while nodding.


    "Indeed, a befitting character for an S-level talent Nexulyte. The other two look rather ordinary" Replied the second person.


    "True, I wonder what''s so special about him that we were not given information about him nor allowed to ask him ourselves, just look at his weapon choice"


    " Let''s just wait and see what they can do"


    ...


    Back in the testing room, following Ralph''s orders, Glen and Ivan had moved to both sides of the monster while Ralph remained standing in front to attract the monster''s attention himself so that they could attack it from the sides.


    Immediately the monster shortened the distance between itself and Ralph to three meters, it swiped toward him with one of its long hairy hands.


    Swoosh!


    The sound of the hand flying through the wind was so piercing that it made Ralph freeze for a moment but he quickly regained his calm and swung out with his sword.


    Clang!!


    The sound of his sword hitting the claws of the monster resounded inside the room and Ralph felt a small shock run through his arms as he was sent flying backwards.


    While still in midair, Ralph shouted for Ivan and Glen to attack it.


    "Now!!"


    Without saying anything, Glen charged at the monster with his shovel.


    He reached and hacked at its leg with the side of the shovel.


    Ting!


    The sound was as if Glen had struck a piece of iron, not even a scratch could be left on the body of the monster.


    "What the!" Glen muttered in shock.


    "Watch out!" Ivan''s voice pulled him from his daze, he looked up and saw the other hand of the monster coming toward him.


    Luckily, the attacks of the monster were slow which gave Glen enough time to bend down and dodge the powerful strike before quickly running away.


    Ivan, who was the last to attack, kept his distance from the monster.


    It wasn''t due to fear, he was timing the monster, and the instant he found it in the position he was waiting for, he launched his brick at its head. S§×ar?h the N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Thud!


    The brick hit the head of the monster heavily and immediately caused a small injury on it. Despite being very small, it was the only successful attack from the three of them and it also appeared to have hurt the monster as it let out an ear-piercing roar the next moment before swiping down at Ivan.


    Ivan quickly moved and tried to retrieve his brick but was forced to stop and run in the other direction to avoid the leg of the monster that was coming in the form of a kick.


    "It doesn''t attack with just its hands!" Ralph said to inform Glen.


    Ralph ran forward and picked up Ivan''s brick before throwing it to him.


    " Its head must be the weakest, let''s try to attack it there," Ralph said before running forward.


    It became a game of tag as the three of them ran around in between the monster''s legs while attacking and avoiding its attacks.


    But all their strikes were unable to leave even a wound on its tough body.


    "Ivan, go throw your brick at its face, Glen, prepare to toss me as high as possible!" Ralph called out and the two instantly understood what he had in mind.


    Ivan quickly ran to the front of the monster and sent his brick toward its only eye, the brick obviously missed but still landed on its face.


    The monster was enraged and attacked Ivan with its two long hands while changing after him, this caused it to bend its body slightly.


    "Glen!"


    Ralph shouted, he was already running toward Glen who immediately dropped his shovel and balanced himself before putting both hands together for Ralph to step on before launching him up with all his might.


    Ralph was only able to reach slightly above the monster''s back but it was enough. He stretched out both legs and gave a heavy stomp on the back of the monster''s neck, putting all his weight into it.


    BAM!!!


    The monster was unable to balance itself and fell heavily to the ground.


    Glen immediately jumped on its back and ran toward its head before bringing down his shovel in full swing.


    Whack!!


    Glen''s shovel dug deep into the back of the monster''s head, and a huge amount of blood gushed out.


    The monster let out a painful roar, its head was immediately bathed in blood.


    Glen pulled out his shovel and was about to hack down again when the monster suddenly stopped moving and its body began to tremble, the next instance¡­.


    Boom!!


    A powerful burst of red energy exploded from the monster''s body sending Glen who was standing on it flying away without restraint.


    Bang!


    Glen slammed into the side of the wall, his head cracked and he immediately lost consciousness. He left a trail of blood on the wall as he slid down on it and fell to the floor.


    "Glen!" Ralph shouted when he saw Glen''s condition. He was about to go check on him when he suddenly saw the monster move, it pressed its hands on the ground and lunged at Ralph.


    Ralph''s eyes widened when he saw this, the monster''s speed had increased!


    He was barely able to fully raise his sword before the huge paw of the monster slammed into his body and sent him flying toward the wall.


    BAM!!


    Ralph''s back slammed against the wall heavily and he immediately spat out blood before passing out as well.


    Only Ivan and the monster were now left in the room.


    ...


    In the control room.


    "Damn! Why didn''t we know that that monster was about to evolve??" One of the people exclaimed in panic and rose from his seat in a hurry and rushed out of the room.


    "This won''t be considered a test if the higher-ups found out, it''s a death sentence!" The last person who was still staring at the screen muttered in worry.


    ...


    Ivan stared at his two unconscious friends before turning back to look at the monster but all he saw was a blur before a huge hairy leg filled his vision.


    Bang!


    Pain spread all across Ivan''s face, his eyes immediately blurred and the last thing he felt before passing out was his head slamming into the wall.


    Now left alone in the room, the monster turned and started working toward Ralph who happened to be the closest to it. But before it could move too far, it suddenly stopped and turned back and saw Ivan standing with his head lowered and covered in blood; he was still unconscious and was still holding the brick that was now covered in Nexus energy.


    Roar!!


    The monster let out another sound and was about to move in Ivan''s direction when the brick in Ivan''s hand suddenly shot out at a blinding speed with Nexus energy still covering it.


    Swoosh!!


    Bang!!


    The brick flew at high speed and pierced the face of the monster, shattering its head into pieces in one strike!


    Thud!


    The monster stood motionless for a few seconds before falling to the ground, Ivan remained standing with his head lowered.


    One of the two people who had left the control room in a hurry arrived at this moment and was shocked by the sight in front of him, the monster had been killed before he arrived.


    Back in the control room, the other person stared at the screen in shock and disbelief.


    "He''s unconscious, how''s that possible?!"

 Chapter 21: Passed

    Ivan slowly opened his eyes which he immediately squinted due to the bright light that shone from above, he blinked a couple of times to adjust his sights before fully opening them.He did not know how much time had passed since he was out and his mind was currently muddled by a light throbbing, it took him a few seconds to realize what had happened.


    ''Last thing I remembered was getting kicked in the face by that monster, how did I get here?'' Ivan asked onward as he rolled his eyes to see where he was. He was currently lying down on a hospital bed in a large room with white light fixed to its ceiling, multiple other similar beds could also be found in this place as well and a few people in white coats could be seen moving up and down.


    '' I''m in a hospital?'' Ivan wondered before pushing himself and to sit.


    He touched his head and felt the bandages wrapped around it, it was clear that he had been brought here from treatment after getting knocked out by that monster.


    Strange, he clearly remembered getting kicked but aside from the bandage on his head and the throbbing pain that could be ignored, Ivan felt very energetic.


    "Ah, you''re up! About time, was starting to worry that my powers were becoming useless"


    A gentle feminine voice sounded from beside Ivan. He turned his head and saw a beautiful woman in a similar white coat walking toward him with a kind smile on her face, her hands tucked away in the coat pockets.


    She stopped right beside Ivan''s bed and looked at him curiously for a few seconds.


    "You look alright to me, how do you feel? Do you hurt anywhere?" The woman asked after finishing her checkup.


    Ivan shook his head.


    " I''m fine. Where are my friends?" Ivan responded with a question of his own.


    The face of the woman beamed with a smile.


    "You don''t have to worry about your friends, they are in perfect shape and woke up a while ago. You''ve been unconscious for three hours.


    Your friends are waiting for you outside" the woman responded before gesturing for Ivan to get off the bed and follow her.


    While they moved through the lines of the hospital bed, the woman couldn''t help but ask.


    "What were you three doing that got you all into such a state? Had the three of you not been brought here sooner, chances of permanent damage were very high"


    Ivan continued staring at his surroundings even when answering.


    "I¡­ I can''t remember " he lied. He didn''t know if it was right to tell about the test since the people who saved them didn''t mention it to the person who treated them.


    The woman stared at Ivan for a while with a pout on her face, she sighed and said.


    "I understand if you do not want to talk about it, but I advise you not to engage in such again even if it is training. It''s not worth it to risk your life if you can''t reap the reward"


    By now they had arrived at the entrance of whatever this room was, there, Ivan saw Glen and Ralph standing at the entrance with serious looks on their faces.


    From what Ivan could see, the both of them seemed to be perfectly fine which once again surprised him once more. He clearly remembered the amount of damage that the two of them had received from the monster but they had been treated to full health in Just three hours that he had been unconscious.


    The two of them arrived where Glen and Ralph were waiting, Ivan moved over to stand next to them.


    "There should not be any future troubles with your bodies since I''ve personally healed you with my healing talent, just promise not to put yourself in such conditions again, alright?" The woman uttered while staring at their faces.


    "Thank you for healing us, we promise to avoid such situations again," Ralph said and gave a polite bow.


    "You can wait here, someone will come get you," the woman said and left after giving them one last long look.


    After the woman left them alone, Ivan turned to look at his friends with eyes demanding answers.


    "What?" Ralph could not stand Ivan''s gaze and hissed at him.


    "Why are you two looking so serious?" Ivan asked in return.


    It was alright for Ralph to look serious once in a while for no reason but it was rare for Glen to do the same.


    Ralph sighed before expressing his worry about whether they had failed the test since they did not know what happened after they failed to kill the monster.


    Ivan realized that it might really be the case and his face also became serious as well, they could do nothing but wait for whatever was going to happen next.


    The person who was sent to get them arrived a few minutes later and they left with him to meet the people who would decide what would happen to them next.


    ...


    Back in the control room, the two people who had been watching their test looked at the three of them being led away from the front of the infirmary through a different screen.


    "Do you think we should apologize to them when they come? We almost got them killed" one of them asked, clearly nervous.


    "Better not let yourself slip, it wasn''t our fault either. It will be best to make it look like we are allowing them to pass because of their effort and tell them that others managed to pass without messing up. That way, they will feel grateful and not talk about it with others; we will be able to avoid letting the higher-ups know and also gain their trust" the other person explained.


    The eyes of the first person lit up upon hearing his colleagues'' explanation.


    "Brilliant! You really are the most intelligent in our group " he exclaimed, his nervousness reducing significantly.


    The three were brought to the control room a while later and faced the two men who had been waiting for them.


    Ivan, Ralph, and Glen still held serious looks on their faces which masked the nervousness that they felt.


    "Ahem, do you remember anything that happened after the mishap in your test?" One of the men cleared his throat and asked, his gaze was fixed on Ivan since he was the one who had surprised them the most.


    The three of them shook their heads in response, they had only woken up to meet the white light on the ceiling of the infirmary after getting knocked out.


    "It''s fine, although we had to save you in the end, we''ll give you credit for managing to force the monster into using its full strength," The man said before proceeding to explain to them.


    According to him, Ivan and his friends had only managed to force the monster to get serious after injuring it after which they were unable to even defend against it. They learned that this was supposed to be a failure since other trainees had passed the same test without having to get saved.


    "So, although you guys did not succeed in the test, you still passed. Welcome to the Owen Tower"


    Glen''s fist clenched in excitement as a bright smile spread across his face, his nervousness totally vanished after hearing that they had passed. S§×arch* The n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Ralph gave a sigh of relief while Ivan''s eyes burned with even more determination. It seemed like all he heard was the part about other trainees passing the same test that they had almost failed.


    Didn''t that mean that the other trainees were very talented people? What more could a person who longed for strength hope for than to be able to train with such people?!


    "Here are your things and necessities that you will need during your training, anything else can be settled later," one of the men said and passed three bags to the three of them along with their original bags.


    They didn''t have the time to open their new bags to see what was inside before someone else came inside the control room. This new person was a young-looking woman with long green hair and a pretty face. She had a busty figure that made her cold face even more alluring.


    She was a cold beauty!


    She entered the room and stared at the two men in the control room with visible annoyance in her cold gaze.


    "What is it?" She questioned, her voice soothing but toneless.


    "Hehe, sorry if we disturbed you. We were hoping you would give these new trainees a tour around the place before their training in the morning" The two men laughed awkwardly as one of them said in an almost apologizing manner.


    The woman who looked like she was in her mid-twenties glared at them for a few more seconds without saying a word, the two men were clearly starting to get uncomfortable under her piercing gaze.


    "Follow me" The woman voiced out as she turned around and walked away, not even slowing down for Ivan and the others to react; they had to run after her when they came to their senses.


    Now the only ones left in the control room, both men fell flat on their chairs with exhausted looks.


    " Phew, that went surprisingly well," One of them said while taking deep breaths.


    " True, let''s never let something like this happen again "


    " Agreed "

 Chapter 22: A new begining

    Ivan, Glen, and Ralph followed the young lady as they navigated through maze-like corridors, the atmosphere was hushed as nobody said a word.They soon arrived at a huge clearing that looked like it was in the outside world and not inside a building, the space was so huge that one could not see the end from one point; it was curved, and big trees that were planted scantily blocked one''s vision. They also found a way to make the ceiling mimic the actual sky to near perfection with the only difference being the absence of clouds and a sun.


    Iron benches could be seen positioned close to some trees on which some people sat while chatting, they were also able to spot a few passages from where they stood.


    A lot of people could be seen around this space, some were in uniforms similar to the people who Ralph''s group had encountered at the teleportation vault while the rest were in purple tracksuits, the age of those in uniforms ranged from the mid-twenties to mid-forties as far as they had seen while those in tracksuits were mostly in their teens, the oldest they had seen was at the early twenties.


    "This is the lobby, you can come here to waste time if you feel that you have nothing useful to do with your life"


    The soothing yet cold voice of the young woman finally broke the silence that had been ruling over their stroll but her words were not friendly in the least and made the three boys tongue-tied.


    The lady turned and pierced the three with a sharp gaze which lingered for a few seconds before she turned around and resumed walking, the three followed.


    "Over there is the cafeteria, be sure to be there by 7 in the morning, you can decide to skip during the afternoon but don''t forget to come by 7 in the evening unless you want to miss dinner as well"


    "This place leads to the classes where you will be taught various things, ranging from physical training to theories "


    " Behind this, you will find the field where all trainees will undergo morning warm-ups every day. Make sure not to forget "


    " Going through here will lead you to the weapon rooms "


    " Here you will find the arenas "


    " This leads¡­"


    For a good couple of minutes, the lady showed Ivan, Ralph, and Glen different paths that led to different sections of the Tower that were accessible to trainees, this even included a library.


    Although they did notice that everywhere she showed them was limited to the third floor, trainees had no business above the third floor.


    It didn''t bother them though, they were already excited about the new things they were learning.


    Finally, after fifteen minutes, they arrived in front of a large door that was wide open. Inside was an even wider corridor that stretched deeper inside and on both sides of the corridors were doors that had numbers on them. Sear?h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Here are the boys'' dormitories, you can find your access card which also holds your room numbers in your bags'' '' the lady said while standing at the entrance of the boys'' dormitories. Throughout their tour, she spoke only words that were necessary and never made a personal remark which made it impossible to try to understand her.


    What Ralph did notice were the gazes directed at them by those in uniforms and tracksuits, some of them showed envy, curiosity, and surprise, and some extreme ones even showed pity. This made him even more curious about this woman''s identity, she didn''t seem to be older than them by much but those men in the control room seemed to be wary of her.


    This did not stop them from searching the bags they had received at the control room and quickly pulled out a small gold card that looked like a credit card, it had some inscriptions on it as well as some numbers which were most likely their room numbers.


    Ivan''s card had the number 305, Glen''s card had the number 321, and Glen''s card had the number 209, Ivan and Glen''s room happened to be fairly close while Ralph found himself separated from his friends.


    "Now, go settle down and get comfortable because you won''t get a lot of opportunities to do so starting tomorrow," the lady said and was about to leave when she remembered something and turned around "Training starts by 4 in the morning, so be sure to sleep early" she finally disappeared from their sight after saying this.


    Now left alone at the entrance of the dormitories, Ivan and his friends stared at each other''s faces. They could all read the expressions each one had and the burning determination in their eyes.


    This would mark the beginning of a new chapter in their lives, they had failed but were given a chance to go ahead, and they swore to make good use of this second chance!


    Stepping into the dormitories with the confidence of a new beginning, the three set out to find their rooms. They met a few people on their way and exchanged simple greetings, they only parted after finding Ralph''s room.


    They agreed to meet at the entrance of the dormitory in thirty minutes as it should be enough for them to settle down in their new rooms.


    Ivan soon found his room after they parted with Ralph and it was left for Glen to go look for his room and give a reminder to Ivan about their meet-up as if worried that the white-haired boy would forget.


    Ivan gave a forced smile since he wasn''t fluent with the act before pressing the card on the scan that was on the door, he had seen Ralph do the same and the door opened.


    Entering his room, Ivan was welcomed by a small but big enough space for a single person. The room was a simple room with white walls, a bed, chair, desk, a closet, and a door which Ivan discovered led to a private bathroom.


    Ivan dropped his bags on the ground and approached the bed, gently touching it. The thought of having his own bed was a strange feeling for Ivan who never even had a home and caused a wave of strange emotions to wash through him.


    He stayed like that for a good ten minutes before getting up, he began by taking out the things in his bags and keeping them in his closet.


    His bag contained clothes that they had brought with them from the outskirt or bought while staying with the old driver and his family.


    The bag handed to them in the control room however, contained five sets of purple tracksuits and five gray T-shirts, three pairs of black sneakers, some notes, and a trainee badge with his age, gender, and face on it.


    Ivan had no idea when this information was collected but he knew that the tower would definitely have its way of obtaining information.


    After arranging his things, Ivan went into the bathroom to take a quick shower before changing into a different set of clothes.


    "Time to head out"


    Ivan mumbled to himself.


    Ivan quickly arrived at the entrance of the dormitory where Glen and Ralph had been waiting for him, he was the last to arrive.


    Since there was still quite some time before it was time for dinner, the three decided to tour the place on their own before 7 pm.


    They visited the places they had been to earlier to get better looks and to familiarize the different paths and corridors, they went back to the lobby and sat under one of the trees after a few minutes of touring.


    " Damn! This place is big!" Glen exclaimed while looking at the people walking by, none of them were paying attention to them.


    " I can''t help but feel excited about tomorrow, this is really it" Ralph took off his glasses and said with a small smile on his face.


    Ivan looked at the boy who rarely showed such expression and was about to express himself when the sound of commotion caught their attention.


    They looked in that direction and saw a group of young boys and girls, a total of three girls and four boys surrounding another boy who looked quite battered. His cheeks were red with palm prints, his hair messy, and his tracksuit was covered in dirt as he knelt in front of a red-haired young man who seemed to be the leader of this group of young adults.


    They were all wearing the same thing, by the way, purple tracksuits which showed that they were all trainees.


    "You think you''re something just because your family has a few powerful Nexulytes? You think you can mess with me?" The red-haired boy asked coldly before landing another slap on the already red face of the boy.


    The other six laughed at this while the boy being hit did not dare to move or shield himself.


    Everyone who was walking by seemed to not be able to see anything as they simply ignored the act of bullying.


    This sight caused a frown to appear on the faces of Ivan, Ralph, and Glen. Especially Ivan who''s eyes flashed with a dangerous glint. He knew more than anyone how awful it was to be bullied and it appeared to him that the same thing was happening right in front of him¡­a Nexulyte bullying a weakling!


    (He didn''t care if the one being bullied was a Nexulyte or not)


    They decided to wait for a while in hopes that one of the people in uniform would come by but they caught sight of none even after a minute of watching the boy get bullied, unable to take it anymore Ivan rose up and walked toward them in heavy steps.


    "Ivan!" Glen tried to call out but Ivan acted to not hear him, Ralph silently stood up and followed behind Ivan.


    "Huh? Do you think you can disrespect my girl like that? I''ll teach you a lesson!" The red-haired boy snickered and was about to hit the kneeling boy again when suddenly¡­


    "Enough!"

 Chapter 23: Repeaters

    "Enough!"A loud voice suddenly sounded, halting the actions of everyone who heard it and causing them to look in Ivan''s direction, they all saw him standing just a few steps away from where the bullying was taking place.


    After realizing what had happened, a few people quickly gathered around in hopes of watching a good show while some carried on with what they were doing and were clearly not interested in whatever drama was going on.


    The red-haired boy and his group all stared at Ivan in confusion, they saw that he wasn''t wearing a uniform or tracksuit like them so they couldn''t tell his identity in the tower.


    "What is it?" The red-haired boy questioned while staring at Ivan with vigilant eyes.


    Ivan glared back at him with hateful eyes before spitting out "I do not like how you are treating this person" His words were laced with fighting intent that stunned the red-haired boy for a moment.


    "And what does that have to do with you? Do you know his offense? Who the heck are you even?" The red-haired boy retorted at Ivan, clearly annoyed by Ivan''s presence.


    Before Ivan could respond, one of the girls standing with the red-haired boy clapped her in realization and pointed at Ivan while saying.


    "Luke, that''s them. They are the ones I told you were walking with Miss Elora earlier today!" The girl blurted out.


    Ivan raised an eyebrow, he looked behind him and saw Ralph and Glen behind him; he gave him supportive smiles when their eyes crossed.


    " So you''re a new trainee and you dare to act big in front of me?" The red-haired boy who was now known as Luke said with a disdainful grin on his face.


    Immediately after saying that, he walked toward Ivan as red energy began to swirl around his two hands.


    This action startled Ivan, he didn''t know that other trainees would be able to effectively summon their Nexus energy at will.


    "The same as always, you''re only good at oppressing the weak. How pathetic" a scornful voice sounded from the side. Luke stopped walking as his face turned into one mixed with anger and shame when he heard those words.


    They all looked at the source of the voice and saw a young woman with brown skin and long black hair that was braided into a single line and left hanging from her right shoulder. She had a pair of gleaming brown eyes and a very beautiful face. She stood at the same height as Ralph, causing her to be taller than Ivan.


    She wore a similar purple tracksuit with the zipper undone revealing her gray T-shirt underneath that was sticking to her skin due to how sweaty she was, perfectly showing the outline of her moderate-sized breasts and flat belly.


    She was a stunning black queen figure!


    Her brown eyes gazed at Luke with a hint of contempt for a few seconds before moving to Ivan.


    "And you, mind your business and stop poking your nose in people''s business when you are so weak," she said before proceeding to walk away.


    Ivan was once again left stunned by the girl''s words, didn''t she come to help him?


    "Hold it right there Sommy! Don''t you dare talk to me in such a manner when you''re just a failure yourself, what gives you the right to act so arrogantly to me? Think I don''t dare to fight you?" Luke raged, veins bulging on his neck and arms as the amount of Nexus energy around his palms multiplied instantly and started giving off an oppressive feeling.


    The girl whose name turned out to be Sommy paused her steps and turned her head to look at Luke over her shoulder, a faint smile formed on her lips as Nexus energy slowly appeared around her body.


    "Do you dare? Don''t compare me to failures like yourself, unlike you who failed pitifully, I have a reason for still being here" She replied, her voice teasing and daring at the same time.


    "Tch!" Luke clicked his tongue, he felt humiliated by Sommy''s reaction. He was about to rush toward her when they suddenly noticed someone stroll into the lobby.


    Despite being just one person, her presence was instantly noticed. Sommy and Luke immediately retracted their Nexus energy and acted as if they were not just about to rip each other to pieces.


    This person was of course the green-haired lady who had given Ivan and his friends a tour around the tower; they had learnt that her name was Elora from one of Luke''s minions.


    Elora gazed at Luke and then Sommy for a few seconds before moving her gaze away.


    "No fights allowed in the lobby, go place a challenge in the arena if you feel your hands are itchy," she said before walking away.


    After Elora left, a lot of other trainees quickly left the lobby while some still stayed to see if anything would play out.


    "See you at the arena then," Sommy said and shot Luke a provocative wink before leaving the lobby, Luke trembled with anger and immediately walked away in heavy steps.


    "Come, let''s go" Ralph whispered to Ivan, everyone was slowly leaving the lobby so they left too.


    Time for dinner soon reached and they all gathered at the cafeteria to get their dinner, they were served a bowl of soup, vegetables, meat, and bread.


    The meal was delicious and Ivan felt satisfied after getting full with just one serving, they left for the dormitory immediately after.


    While going toward their rooms, they bumped into a boy who approached them immediately after he spotted them.


    "Hey, good job with what you did earlier, you''re very courageous. But I''ll advise you to be careful of Luke, he''s a very petty person and strong too" the boy said in a hushed tone while constantly looking left and right.


    "Do we know you?" Ralph asked with a frown, he felt this boy was too suspicious.


    "Don''t worry about it, who I am doesn''t matter because I don''t want to be associated with you now that you''re probably on Luke''s target list. You''re lucky that Sommy helped you this time and Miss Elora''s presence made them back away but they might not be there next time.


    Just make sure to run away whenever you see him" the boy whispered back.


    The frown on Ivan''s and Ralph''s faces deepened while Glen''s face was covered in fear.


    This was their first day and they already made an enemy out of a strong troublemaker?! Sear?h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Why are you so scared of Luke but Sommy isn''t? Who are they?" Ivan asked after some thoughts.


    The boy stared at him for a few seconds as if he was looking at an idiot, his face suddenly lit up in realization as he remembered something.


    "Sorry, I forgot that you guys only came today. Let me tell you, Sommy and Luke were actually part of the previous batch that came here for training but didn''t meet the passing mark so they have to repeat the training with us, There are actually a total of five of them but I heard that Sommy is the strongest of them while Luke is the opposite!" The boy informed them.


    Ivan''s eyes widened in surprise, Ralph frowned even harder, and Glen was terrified.


    Before they could say anything else, the boy suddenly jumped like a startled kid.


    " Oh shoot, he''s coming. Bye, you never met me!" The boy rushed his words before running away.


    Ivan and his friends stared at the fleeing boy wordlessly before turning around and spotting Luke walking over with arrogant steps, he stopped briefly to look at them before clicking his tongue in disgust and resumed walking.


    "Seems like we will have to get stronger faster than we can pray for" Ralph mumbled as they kept staring at Luke.


    ...¡­..


    Northern sector of San Pluto, inside an underground study with a few bookshelves. Karl sat on a wooden chair with a book in his hands, each page of the book showed a kind of monster and an explanation underneath.


    On the current page was a red monster with angel wings and flaming horns, Karl was currently reading the descriptions under this image with a deadpan face.


    He currently looked ten times older than he usually did, he looked like an old man who would kick the bucket at any time.


    Another man walked into the study, this person was James.


    "Father, they have arrived at the tower and have settled in. We encountered five assassination attacks and three kidnapping attempts, all culprits files after failing; we were unable to get their identities" James reported.


    Karl raised his head from the book and stared at his son with hollow eyes.


    " It''s alright, as long as he''s safe¡­in our tower" Karl voiced out.


    "There''s another thing, father" James spoke once more, he continued after Karl said nothing in response.


    "The kid had entered conflict with Luke on his first day, Elora and Sommy helped him this time but I''m afraid of later" James showed his concern. He might be the Tower master but he couldn''t just control the lives of the people in it, of course, this was him being civil.


    "Don''t worry too much about it, Sommy is there for a reason, let them be" Karl said before returning his gaze to the book.


    James bowed and left.


    ...


    4 am the next morning¡­

 Chapter 24: Start training

    Ivan''s eyes flipped wide open the instant his consciousness woke up a bit and he threw a quick look toward the wall clock in his room.It was exactly four in the morning!


    Ivan did not have the chance to enjoy the feeling of waking up in a comfortable bed nor grumpy about waking up so early as he sprang up from his bed and hastily took out his trainee uniform, sliding the pants on his waist and quickly putting on the gray T-shirt, he held the top of the tracksuit as he dashed out of the room.


    The instant Ivan got out of the room, he noticed a lot of other trainees also making their way toward the entrance of the dormitory. He spotted Glen running over from behind and he began to run too.


    ''Being late on the first day of training, such luck!''


    Ivan thought to himself as he ran, he had almost overslept due to how warm it was under his blanket; good thing he still managed to wake up on time.


    They arrived at Ralph''s door and took a second of their time to knock on it, Ralph quickly came out and he was already dressed up.


    "What were you still doing in there since you woke up earlier?" Glen could not help but ask as the three of them headed out together.


    Ralph stared at him with a poker face before saying calmly.


    "Mental preparation"


    Glen "..."


    Mental what! Are you kidding me?


    Glen immediately began to question Ralph nonstop but the latter simply ignored him.


    They arrived at the field along with other trainees after a few minutes, they had run the whole time just to avoid arriving too late.


    They discovered that several people had already arrived at the field for morning warm-ups.


    There were over a hundred people in purple tracksuits standing like a small crowd but maintained an orderly line, ahead of them were two middle-aged men in the regular black uniform and white belt.


    One of them had curly blond hair and a handsome face with a beard while the other had shoulder-length black hair with a menacing look.


    They silently stood in front of the crowd of trainees and watched as more and more people arrived. After another five minutes of waiting the number of trainees had already exceeded five hundred; one had to know that even with this number, the field still had enough space to accommodate ten times the amount of people present


    But it seemed like the men had had enough as the man with a menacing look raised his right hand immediately after the five-minute mark, the man with curly hair nodded softly before disappearing from where he was standing and appearing behind the group of trainees.


    Thick red Nexus energy began to sip out from his body as his uniform fluttered as if he were in the middle of a storm.


    Swoosh!!!


    With a push of his hands, the Nexus energy around him surged forward before moving up like an upside-down waterfall. In less than five seconds, the man had built a tall wall of Nexus energy between the trainees who had arrived on time and the path that led to the lobby; by separating the field from it and preventing anyone who wasn''t already inside from coming in.


    A lot of trainees who arrived at this time saw the tall wall of Nexus energy and stared at it in confusion; they wondered what it was for; their answer came a while later after the menacing-looking man began to talk.


    The man with curly hair had reappeared beside him before he started talking.


    I welcome you all to the new session of training and I will be your instructor for the next six months as far as morning training is involved.


    You can address me as Instructor Logan and my colleague here as Instructor Nathan, both of us will be in charge of your morning training until you successfully surpass your limits and leave as true prodigies of the Owen Tower.


    Know this, every one of you is here because you are seen as geniuses and talented Nexulytes but talent alone will not be enough to reach greater heights.


    So for the next six months, we will make sure to push you to your limit and if possible¡­breaking point; both physically and mentally" Instructor Logan''s voice was loud enough for everyone to hear, even those who were blocked out by instructor Nathan''s wall of Nexus energy could hear him clearly.


    They all felt a rush of excitement and nervousness just from listening to his speech, the words filled them with so much adrenaline that they felt that they could soar at any moment.


    But instructor Logan''s next words filled the trainees who were outside the wall of Nexus energy with dread and they began to lament while some girls started crying right away.


    "Now, we will start our traditional morning run. A ten-kilometer run. As for those who arrived late¡­you''ll have to do it while wearing three times gravity bracelets, that''s your punishment for being late"


    Ivan immediately felt grateful that he had woken up on time, he didn''t know how heavy three times gravity was but he did not wish to test it out.


    After instructor Logan''s words, instructor Nathan disappeared once more, he flashed constantly between the trainees outside the wall of Nexus energy. Whenever he appeared and disappeared near a group of trainees, they would realize that they now had a bracelet attached to their wrists and Instructor Nathan was already gone


    This went on for twenty seconds and it was all it took for instructor Nathan to place a bracelet on the trainees who numbered up to six hundred.


    After placing the bracelets, the Nexus wall slowly disappeared and the trainees were allowed to join the rest. Ivan could not help but notice that the movements of these people were heavy and strained, some of them were already gasping for air.


    "Now we will add talent-blocking bracelets to those who arrived early, this will prevent those who already have some training with Nexus energy from using their talents or enhancing their bodies with Nexus energy, " instructor Logan said and Nathan flashed away once more.


    Ivan felt something brush against his skin and saw that he already had a bracelet on his wrist.


    He immediately felt¡­weaker. The feeling wasn''t extreme but it was enough to tell that something had changed within him.


    He hadn''t noticed that he had gotten stronger after awakening because of how subtle the increase in strength had been along with the liquid in the pod helping him to adapt but now that he had his ability blocked, Ivan was able to tell that he wasn''t the same as before.


    After Nathan was done, he returned to Logan''s side and the both of them rose into the air.


    "Don''t worry about getting lost, just keep going forward and you''ll end up here. Just be sure to look out for traps, now go!" Instructor Logan said and a large number of trainees immediately set out, it was like a free-for-all marathon as they all sped off along the path that led into a forest.


    "Traps?" Ivan muttered in confusion.


    "Come on, let''s go together," Glen said and pulled Ivan and Ralph along with him, they started running along the other trainees.


    The field had a wide footpath that led into the forest that was behind the Tower, tall trees with thick branches and wide leaves were all one could see at a glance. The sun wasn''t out yet as it was still very early in the morning, causing low visibility as they navigated through the forest path.


    Just three minutes after they started running, a lot of people had already started panting and sweating heavily as they dragged their bodies to keep going forward; these people were those who had been given gravity bracelets.


    While running, Ivan, Glen, and Ralph had maintained moderate speed which helped them to be among people at the front.


    "Instructor Logan told us to look out for traps, so far, we haven''t encountered anything yet" Ralph voiced out as they kept running, his voice had to t fade when a trainee who was a few meters in front of them suddenly got sent flying all the way back by a tree that had appeared out of nowhere.


    The tree had a metal string attached to it which allowed it to swing back and forth, more of similar trees appeared and sent a few more trainees back to the field. S§×ar?h the ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

 Chapter 25: The top

    Thirty minutes after the start of the morning run, the trainees arrived at the base of a mountain that was about seventy meters tall and had a slippery surface with very little rough edges to hold on to; they had to climb over this mountain to continue with their run.Some trainees immediately began to climb, gripping the barely pointy rocks that stuck out on the surface of the mountain to carry their weight.


    A few more stood at the base of this mountain, catching their breaths while thinking of how to cross this mountain.


    Amongst these people were Ivan, Glen, and Ralph.


    Thirty minutes into the morning run, they had not only navigated through a forest filled with traps, they had come across a mud puddle that was over fifty meters long and they had to drag their feet through the sticky puddle of mudd. They had also come across a long iron net barricade which they had to climb over.


    All of these obstacles had joined in tiring out the trainees and a lot of them had given up halfway to rest while those who had managed to drag themselves to this spot were currently sprawled on the ground while breathing heavily; of course these were trainees who were completely out of energy.


    A few like Ivan and his friends still had some steam left in them. sea??h th§× N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    But what baffled all the trainees was the so called repeaters, the five who were said to be part of the previous group of trainees from last year. No matter how difficult the trainees saw the obstacles during their run, these people scaled through everything with stunning ease as if it was a walk in the park.


    Three of these five had already climbed over the seventy meter tall mountain and were already out of sight, as for the other two¡­they kept with the pace of the other trainees despite how obviously easy the obstacles were for them.


    While others might not know this, Ivan was very well aware that Luke had been following him the entire time and had refused to leave his side. Ivan had noticed how on numerous occasions during their run when Luke tried to sneakily approach him but Sommy would always come to bother him at such a point which irritated Luke to no end and stopped him from doing whatever he had in mind.


    Although Ivan was bothered, he had chosen to ignore this as it wasn''t new to him; wasn''t this the same as those bastards in the outskirt? Luke couldn''t possibly do more than those scums.


    After a few minutes of resting, Ivan looked toward Glen and Ralph before saying with a smirk.


    "Wanna race to the top?"


    Ralph positions his glasses before saying with a confident tone.


    " I''ll be waiting for you there, don''t make me wait for long "


    Immediately after he finished saying that, both of them began to climb the mountain, leaving a dumbfounded Glen behind.


    " Hey, no fair! Aren''t we supposed to start at the same time?!" Glen called out to them in displeasure before starting to climb as well.


    Three minutes later, Ivan had only managed to climb for only twenty meters up the mountain. The surface was so slippery and his fingers hurt from gripping onto whatever they could find, it was almost as if he was climbing while pinching needles with his fingers to carry his weight.


    Dead tired and fully covered in sweat, Ivan gritted his teeth as he reached out to grab onto a small pointy stone above his head.


    "Nnghh!"


    Ivan groaned painfully as he pulled himself up while finding proper footing for his foot. He was already starting to feel pain in his joints and fingertips but he wasn''t still at the top yet.


    "Huff, Huff!"


    Ivan stopped climbing for a while and took a couple deep breaths, he looked to his sides but couldn''t find Ralph or Glen; he had been so focused on climbing earlier that he lost sight of the two of them and didn''t know if they were already ahead or had fallen back to the ground like the cases with many other trainees.


    They had slipped and crashed to the ground where they would have to start over, some had even taken others who were unfortunate to be right below them along with them on their falls.


    "A bit more, a bit more and I''ll be there" Ivan muttered to himself. His eyes blazing with determined shine, the level of pain he was feeling was nothing compared to what those scums in the outskirt had put him through for so many years.


    If this was the price to pay for strength, then Ivan would pay ten times the price!


    Ivan immediately began to rush upwards, passing a lot of trainees in swift movements that left the trainees aghast and they looked at Ivan as if he was a monster.


    Although his speed was nothing compared to those of the five repeaters, it wasn''t something that the other normal trainees could keep up with.


    In another five minutes, Ivan had crossed another fifteen meters distance and was getting closer to the top. He could already see the top of the mountain, victory was within reach!


    Ignoring the pain he was feeling and his bleeding fingers, Ivan continued on his ascension.


    Just then, Ivan grabbed onto a particularly large rock and pulled himself up but before he could balance his body.


    Check!!


    The rock broke off and Ivan found himself waving backwards after his other hand slipped off the body of the mountain.


    ''Noooo! Not now!'' Ivan cried out in his mind while gritting his teeth in reluctance as he fell backwards, he was almost there!!


    But before he could fall for even a meter distance, Ivan''s foot landed on a solid surface that suspended him for just a second before disappearing but that one second was like a ray of sunlight in Ivan''s darkest times.


    He immediately reacted, using the opportunity to dig his fingers into a small hole on the surface of the mountain before hugging the mountain like a starfish.


    Along with Ivan''s relief sigh was a loud angry voice that came from below and continued to fade away to the foot of the mountain.


    "You bastard!!!!!" The voice yelled as the owner fell off after being used as a stepping stone by Ivan.


    Ivan closed his eyes when he heard the voice and muttered.


    "Sorry"


    " Hehe, that trainee must be very upset by that. Why don''t you go and apologize to him? I can send you to him right now"


    A mocking voice suddenly sounded from Ivan''s side, he opened his eyes and looked over only to find Luke who had unknowingly climbed to his side and was now just an arm length away from Ivan.


    He was holding onto a small crack on the body of the mountain so loosely like he wasn''t afraid of falling or slipping off.


    Ivan''s face formed a frown, this was a bad time to meet Luke. He possibly could not outrun Luke in this situation and it seemed that Luke was serious about sending him down.


    What should he do?


    Luckily for him, Luke''s nemesis appeared a second after. The beautiful brown skinned Sommy in her gray T-shirt and tracksuit jacket tied around her waist appeared right next to Luke.


    She didn''t say anything and just smiled at the both of them but this smile seemed to anger Luke to no end.


    "Tch! I''m done playing here, I''ll definitely have a chance another time " Luke clicked his tongue and said before climbing up the mountain, his movements were agile and precise like he knew where to hold and where not to.


    Ivan could only stare in awe as Luke quickly reached the top before disappearing.


    He looked at Sommy who was still at his level curiously, the latter looked back at him and winked before ascending as well; her speed wasn''t slower than Luke''s.


    Ivan immediately tried to follow behind Sommy in hopes that imitating her movements would help him but he learnt that he was dreaming too big as not only did his speed not increase than it before, he even almost slipped and fell a few times.


    Only after a painful twenty something minute did Ivan arrive at the top of the mountain.


    The top of the mountain was a well leveled hundred meters round plateau where one could lay down and rest if they wanted. Seeing that he was the only one here, Ivan simply laid down on his back while looking into the night sky, his chest rising and falling as he took in air while at the same time savoring the pain he was feeling.


    He wasn''t the first to arrive since there were already those five who had probably left but Ivan was still satisfied with the result, he was the first amongst the batch of normal trainees.


    He lifted one of his hands and made a grabbing motion in the air, a thought registered in his mind as he suddenly clenched his hand into a fist; no one knew what his thought was.

 Chapter 26: First training complete

    Ivan had waited at the top of the mountain for over ten minutes before other people began to appear. They had managed to climb to the top after so much struggle but all had their excitement from being the fastest squashed when they saw that there was someone resting at the finish line.Some decided to rest while others left in stubborn denial to continue the race. Since Ivan had beaten them to the top of the mountain, they were determined to finish the morning run before him.


    Ivan simply ignored all of these while shaking his head in pity for them, they seemed to have forgotten the five repeaters after seeing only Ivan here and were bent on getting back before him; Ivan on the other hand was waiting for Ralph and Glen who showed up a while later and were among the five ten people people to arrive after Ivan and the repeaters.


    They rested for a while more before resuming.


    On the other side of the plateau were twenty ropes that were attached to the mountain and stretched into the forest behind it.


    The trainees looked down and all they found see were the short trees that cover to half of the mountain from where they stood, the base of the mountain from behind was definitely not fit for walking on as there was simply no way to climb it without using specific tools; who knew what will happen if someone fell off the rope?


    "Scared?" Ivan asked Glen and Ralph with a teasing smile on his face.


    Glen reacted in a way that showed that he was clearly nervous about climbing on these ropes while Ralph had an unreadable look on his face, he simply walked over to one of the ropes.


    "Try to keep up" Ralph said to Ivan before stepping on the rope which shook a bit from the sudden disturbance.


    Step by step, Ralph walked calmly on the rope with his hands spread out to balance himself with the weak current of the night breeze, he quickly disappeared into the darkness of the retreating night and the shadows of the tall trees, only the constant shaking of the rope showed that he hadn''t fallen off.


    Seeing this, some trainees stilled their minds and moved toward other ropes and began to advance as well.


    Ivan also didn''t want to be left behind and moved as well.


    The journey back after climbing the mountain was much smoother and relaxing, after they entered the forest by walking on the rope they had to climb down on those ropes as well before navigating through a forest once again.


    They arrived back at the field where five people in trainee uniforms and the two instructors were waiting, the night sky was already starting to brighten up a bit and they were now able to see further than before now.


    Ivan speculated that it must have taken them over one hour to finish the morning run.


    The instructors allowed them to rest as more trainees arrived at the field before falling on their back, dead tired and out of breath. S~ea??h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    After finally waiting for almost another hour and some of the trainees had yet to return, instructor Logan turned to instructor Nathan before nodding at him.


    Instructor Nathan received the meaning of Logan''s nod and disappeared from where he was standing, when he reappeared, he was carrying two unconscious trainees in his arms.


    He roughly dropped them to the ground before disappearing again, this process went on for quite some time and Ivan had lost counts of how many trainees the instructor had brought back in Just a few seconds; some were unconscious while others were simply too exhausted to even move a finger, they numbered almost a hundred in less than twenty seconds!


    "Now that everyone is here, we will move to the next part of the morning training" instructor Logan''s loud voice rang in the ears of all the trainees, with the exception of those who were unconscious of course.


    "You all have wasted too much time with just the morning run and that leaves us with little time before breakfast. As a special first day treatment, I''ll let you all off this time by only using thirty minutes for the second part of the morning training.


    Mind you, those who failed to complete the morning run will all have to do two sets of exercises tomorrow morning as punishment!" Instructor Logan said authoritatively.


    " Umm, doesn''t that mean that they will be late for breakfast and might miss it?" A trainee raised her hand and asked weakly.


    Instructor Logan shifted his eyes in her direction before responding while staring right at her face.


    " That''s right, you''re here to train and not get fed fat. You won''t always have the chance to eat breakfast when in the dreamscape, so you''ll have to get used to it!"


    The girl''s neck shrank in fear, instructor Logan''s words and gaze scared her.


    "Now take your forms! Legs wide apart! Hands on your toes! Bend this way! Stay steady! Up!


    Push it!"


    For the next thirty minutes, Ivan and the other trainees received instructions from instructor Logan who made them do a lot of uncomfortable stretches and even push ups.


    By the end of the thirty minutes mark, Ivan''s body was screaming in protest to the strain it was being put under but one glance at some of the other trainees showed him that he was fairing better than most of them; Ralph and Glen included, they were in terrible shapes after the thirty minutes of exercise.


    ''''Looks like my endurance is better than others because of those scums, should I feel grateful for it?'' Ivan mused to himself while looking at the completely drained trainees.


    "You can now leave, you have thirty minutes before breakfast time so make sure to wash up and get enough rest. I don''t want no dead fish showing up during my breakfast, and prepare yourselves for the combat training after breakfast" instructor Logan spat out before leaving the trainees on the field.


    "Damn! That was inhumane, I almost died!"


    "He keeps calling out orders like it''s easy to follow them, my body hurts, boohoo"


    "Double set of training? I would rather quit!"


    Many of the trainees immediately began to vent after Logan and Nathan left, they spewed a lot of rubbish about the difficult training and the instructor''s lack of sympathy.


    Ivan stared at these trainees with a weird look, he did not think that the training was extreme at all since the instructor already told them that they were going to surpass their limits in six months.


    It was hard but not difficult, some of these trainees were just lazy and too used to comfortable living that they found this new routine as a threat to their lives; Ivan was even thinking about arriving late on purpose so he could get a gravity bracelets but erased the thought the moment it formed, he didn''t think that he would be able to climb that slippery mountain under such conditions.


    Ivan left the field with Ralph and Glen after the two got control over their aching bodies, they went back to the dormitory where they had their baths and changed into new sets of tracksuits before going out to the cafeteria.

 Chapter 27: The strength of an instructor

    After having their breakfast, Ivan and his friends immediately left for their next training that was to be held in the class section.They entered the section and began to look for the place, every door that they passed had a plaque on it which had the name of what that class was used for on it.


    Finally, after two minutes, they came across the first door with the words "combat training" written on it and they entered.


    What appeared in front of their eyes was a large room that was the size of two basketball courts combined and it was completely empty without a single piece of furniture, only the people inside showed they this room was actually in use.


    Currently, aside from Ivan, Glen, and Ralph, there were the five repeaters who were Luke, Sommy, another girl who they did not know and two other boys.


    Also standing with her back resting on the wall of the room was the cold faced Miss Elora in her well fitting black uniform, the skirt of her uniform stopped above her knees while a pair of black hose ran from under her skirt into her long black boot; she looked incredibly compelling that Ivan couldn''t help but stare at her without restraint.


    As if feeling his gaze, Miss Elora raised her head and shot a cold glare at Ivan which caused him to quickly look away. The three of them moved to the side to wait just like everyone else since they did not know what else to do.


    While they waited, Ralph and Ivan took the chance to observe the five repeaters. For one thing, the five of them didn''t look like they were familiar with each other as they stood separately from one another.


    They were already familiar with the red haired Luke and the somewhat friendly Sommy, who left three repeaters.


    Standing opposite them on the other side of the large room was a petite girl with shoulder length brown hair and a short bang covering her forehead. She had a small round face that was somewhat cute but her eyes were half closed yet Ivan and Ralph could see those sharp yellow pupils gazing back at them.


    They gulped and quickly looked towards the next person, standing ten meters away from the petite girl was a dude who was more than two meters tall and had a very buffed figure with wide shoulders on which he hung the jacket of his tracksuit.


    His gray T-shirt glued tightly to his body and perfectly outlined his bulging muscles and well defined abs, he had a serious look on his face with two sharp eyebrows resting above two closed eyes. Also, he was bold.


    Ivan could not help but stare at this guy in amazement as he had never seen anyone with such a figure before, he looked like a small giant while his bald head added a bit of innocence to his scary look.


    Moving their eyes to look at the last of the repeaters, they saw a boy with normal height yet he looked abnormal to them; for some reason, they found this boy more scary than the previous dude.


    First was how his black hair fell all over his face and acted as a shade for his eyes. They wondered if he was able to see like that. Another reason was the ominous aura that they were feeling from this boy. He had the height of a normal person, standing at a 1.70 meter height but he gave people the feeling that he was staring down on them; like literally looking down at someone tiny.


    ''So these are the repeaters? They all look extraordinary in their own ways. I wonder how those who passed would look like by now and how did they fail to pass? They all look strong'' Ivan wondered, he tried to imagine how he would be at the end of the six months training. Would he look as impressive as them? Would he pass or repeat?


    ''No! I can''t think of that, no matter what, I have to pass! If it means increasing my training then I''ll train more than anyone else!'' Ivan thought to himself while clenching his fist, his fighting spirit blazed within him.


    This small action of Ivan''s caught Miss Elora''s attention and she glanced at him through the side of her eyes before looking away the next moment.


    They waited for a while as more and more trainees entered the room, the room soon had about a hundred trainees who still looked dead tired from the morning training. S§×ar?h the N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    At this point, Miss Elora finally lifted herself from the wall and walked toward the door. She opened it and came face to face with a trainee who was about to open the door. Behind the trainee were many other trainees who were chatting with one another.


    "This place is filled up, find another place" she said bluntly before slamming the door shot on the trainee''s face.


    After telling the trainees to go look for the other combat training classrooms, Miss Elora walked to the front of the many trainees in the room and she immediately got their attention as they all turned to look toward her.


    After a quick scan of the trainees with her eyes, Elora slowly opened her mouth and said.


    "For the next months that you''ll be here, this will be your classroom for learning hand to hand combat from me. Lateness will not be tolerated so make sure to be here by 7:30 every morning, we will now begin"


    Miss Elora''s explanation was short and straight to the point, she did not elaborate more than needed as she immediately got the trainees to distance themselves from one another to avoid any incidents during the training.


    The trainees followed her instructions and were now standing in neat rows while facing her, excluding the five repeaters, they were all still standing in their previous positions and acted like whatever was going on did not concern them.


    Elora''s face showed a frown when she saw this, she looked at all five of them before saying.


    "What is the meaning of this? Why aren''t you doing as instructed?" Her voice was laced with slight irritation.


    "Why do we have to join? We already went through this and are far better than these bunch of newbies. Besides, you are only a few years older than us, do you think that you''re qualified to teach us?"


    Luke replied to Elora''s questions, he was visibly annoyed to be here.


    Elora stared at him upon hearing his words, her eyes piercing cold like a glint on a sharp knife.


    "You think you are better than them? Why didn''t you pass with your bunch then? And if I''m unqualified to teach you? Why don''t you come try me?" Elora muttered back in anger.


    Luke was a hot tempered guy so when Elora hit his sour spot with her words, he was already starting to tremble from anger. Getting the invitation to show his skill was like an opportunity to vent his anger, he immediately matched forward and faced Elora.


    Luke took a fighting stance while Elora remained standing calmly as before, she didn''t seem to take Luke seriously despite how close they looked in age.


    Luke raised an eyebrow seeing how calm Elora seemed to be taking this challenge, his anger erupted like a volcano as he dashed toward her while shouting.


    "You''ll regret this!"


    Luke shouted as he arrived in front of Elora in a matter of seconds, his fist tore through the wind and headed for her face.


    Elora calmly stepped to the side, dodging Luke''s punch. Luke immediately reacted after missing his attack and losing balance, he used the force to launch himself into a spiral spin and sent a flying kick toward Elora who once again stepped out of range of Luke''s leg.


    Immediately after landing on the ground, Luke rushed at Elora again and sent another attack. Strike after strike were aimed at Elora but she easily dodged them all no matter how fast or how close Luke was, she was always faster and able to calmly dodge it without changing her expression or moving an arm.


    This went on for a whole minute as Elora danced around Luke, easily dodging all of his attacks. Luke was on the verge of erupting, he felt that Elora was purposely making fun of him in front of the new trainees.


    "Are you just going to keep running away? Fight back if you dare!" Luke growled angrily after failing to hit Elora once more.


    Elora raised an eyebrow at Luke''s words and replied with a faint "Alright"


    Luke came at her again with a rotating elbow slam, this time she did not dodge. She blocked his elbow with her palm while at the same time slamming her other palm into Luke''s rib.


    "Kikh!"


    Luke made a painful sound but refused to give up after getting hit, he pulled back slightly before sending a swipe with the side of his fingers but before his hand could touch Elora, she poked his shoulder, arm, and rib once more in fast and fluent movements.


    Luke only felt a wave of pain and paralysis before his vision suddenly turned.


    BAM!!


    His back slammed heavily into the ground and he was currently looking at the bewildered trainees upside down.


    He felt shameful and wished to disappear but the pain he was feeling currently made him temporarily unable to move.


    Elora stood beside Luke and stared right at the remaining four repeaters.


    "You were asked to repeat the training because you were not good enough, that means you have to go through everything again. Now stand in line unless you want to know if I''m qualified to teach you or not" she said to them in a cold voice.


    Aside from Sommy, the other three stared at her for a few seconds before sluggishly moving to stand with the other trainees. Luke was helped up by some trainees after the paralyzing effect wore out.


    At the side of the room, Ivan looked at everything that had happened with sparkling eyes. He had guessed that Elora was strong enough to be able to wear the black uniform despite being around their age but he did not expect her to be so impressive. She had easily subdued the arrogant Luke in a few moves!


    This was strength, this was what he wanted!


    Wave of excitement rushed through Ivan''s body, he could not wait for the training to start!

 Chapter 28: Quick path to strength

    For the next one hour, following Elora''s demonstration and constant repetition, the trainees were made to practice a set of four moves which included a move for, approaching, blocking, dodging/retreat, and striking.It went in a sequence of:


    Approach


    Attack


    Block


    And then dodge or retreat.


    For one hour, the trainee tirelessly repeated these actions while Elora patrolled the place and corrected those who were doing unknown actions.


    "Hah! Hah! Hah!"


    Step step step!


    At one side of the room, Ivan could be seen swinging his hands while moving his legs in a coordinated movement set as he went forth and back. His tracksuit was once again soaked and he had optioned to go Sommy''s style by tying the jacket around his waist and revealing his slim figure that exhibited the unfamiliar movements.


    Since his awakening, unknown to Ivan. His body had been slowly repairing itself in ways that he would not notice such as fixing his malnourished structure. He no longer looked sickly and skinny like he used to, he now looked a lot more healthier and his skinny frame was now replaced with a slim one.


    "Ha!"


    Ivan voiced out as he through a full powered strike before moving his legs again like he had been doing for the past one hour, his white hair stuck to his scalp due to all the sweating and his body was feeling sore but Ivan did not slow down or stop to rest; he made sure to put as much force into every move he made.


    Thirty minutes passed slowly for the trainees, they had been repeating these movements for over one hour thirty minutes and some were already so tired that their movements had become very sluggish and strained as they gasped for air.


    They had not fully recovered from the results of the morning run, adding this amount of stress made them feel like giving up.


    "Stop, that''s enough for now" Elora''s soft voice was like the sweetest of melodies at this moment as a few trainees directly slumped to the ground while others supported their upper bodies by placing their hands on their knees.


    Elora looked at them with expressionless faces before returning to stand in front of the trainees.


    "Now that you have at least familiarized yourselves with these basic movements, it''s time you try it out against others. Everyone pair up into a group of two, you can pick anyone to be your partner" Elora said.


    The eyes of a certain someone flashed immediately after hearing this and he sneaked away from where he was standing previously.


    " Hey, want to team up?" A voice sounded from behind Ivan, almost startling him. He turned around and saw that Luke was standing behind him with a faint smile on his face but one could easily see the evil grin that smile was hiding.


    He was definitely targeting Ivan but did Ivan care?


    " Alright " Ivan simply said in response and Luke''s smile widened.


    Sommy appeared at this moment.


    "Sorry but I already planned to pair up with Luke. Why don''t you find another trainee?" She said to Ivan with a small smile.


    Luke stared at her with his lips bent to one side in irritation.


    "Who wants to pair up with you? Go away!" He spat at her.


    "You can''t force him to pair up with you, you just want to bully him* Sommy shot back with a small but the looks in her eyes were cold.


    "Don''t slander me! I didn''t force him, he agreed willingly" Luke retorted angrily, Elora beating him had been disgraceful enough but now Sommy was coming to bother him again.


    Sommy''s face changed into one of surprise confusion upon hearing this, he looked at Ivan with a doubtful look.


    "Is that true?" She asked and Ivan nodded, she stared at him in disbelief like she was looking at an idiot.


    "Are you crazy? He''s clearly targeting you. Why don''t you pair with me? I''m stronger than him" she proposed but Ivan responded with a shake of his head.


    He knew that unlike Luke, Sommy would go easy on him which he did not want. He wanted to get stronger quickly, getting special treatment wouldn''t help much.


    (Just to be clear, Ivan isn''t a masochist! He just isn''t scared of pain like other people after what he went through)


    Sommy stared at him, clearly unable to understand why Ivan was doing this. She didn''t know him but she knew Luke and was aware of what he was capable of doing, Ivan was just going to get wrecked by pairing with Luke.


    "You heard him, now get lost!" Luke chimed in before Sommy could say anything else to dissuade Ivan.


    Sommy was still unwilling to give up but before she could say anything else, Miss Elora''s voice sounded through the air. She was asking every duo to make distance from the others as they were about to start.


    Sommy could only walk away after shooting Luke a "don''t you try anything stupid" glare.


    Ivan saw Ralph and Glen looking at him worriedly while standing with their duo, he gave them a reassuring nod before turning away to look at Miss Elora.


    "Since everyone has paired up, you all will have to fight your partners using only the four moves you''ve learned today. Any other moves aside those four and two won''t like the consequence, now start" Miss Elora ordered.


    The trainees immediately began to attack each other.


    "Ha!"


    "Yaa"


    "Uhaa"


    They advanced, hit, and pulled away from each other using the set of movements that they had been training for the past one hour and thirty minutes.


    At one glance, one could tell that these trainees were still not very familiar with the movements. Their steps were clumsy and their strikes were funny to look at despite how serious they tried to make it look.


    Same could not be said for the repeaters though, their sparing was on a whole other level as they moved with efficiency and precision. Sommy was facing off against the petite girl while the bald guy and the scary looking boy danced around each other with these sets of movements.


    One would think that they were doing something entirely different if they didn''t pay close attention.


    Glen and Ralph were training with other trainees and their exchanges were no different from the other trainees, clumsy and slow.


    Ivan, on the other hand, was currently getting a fine beating.


    Elora could not help but frown upon seeing this but she didn''t say anything. S~ea??h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Ivan raised both hands in front of his face with his fingers balled into fists, his face had a few bruises and the same on his arms too. Standing opposite him was Luke in a similar stance and a devious smirk on his face.


    "Get ready" he said with a slight chuckle before approaching Ivan quickly.


    Ivan immediately tried to use the dodge movement to distance himself from Luke but the red haired boy was faster and was already right in front of him with his fist coming for Ivan''s face.


    Ivan immediately gave up on dodging and tried to block but Luke seemed to have expected this, he stopped his punch midway before sending his other fist towards Ivan''s stomach.


    Bang!!


    A powerful force landed on Ivan''s stomach, sending a wave of pain across his body and knocking the air out of his lungs.


    It took all of Ivan''s mental defense toward bullying to prevent himself from passing out, he gritted his teeth and used the chance to send a punch toward Luke''s head.


    Sadly, Luke was more proficient in fighting than Ivan and he had pulled away by the time Ivan''s punch arrived.


    "Huff, Huff" Ivan huffed and puffed while staring at Luke who was smirking at him. The latter felt very pleased being able to use Ivan as a punching bag, what was even better was that Ivan wasn''t giving up.


    He waited for a few seconds for Ivan to steady himself before attacking him again. For the next minute, Ivan was constantly being beaten up by Luke while he tried to keep up with Luke''s movements.


    Many minutes later, Ivan was now covered in many more bruises and was panting more heavily. He felt pain all over his body but he still held himself up, prepared to fight Luke for another round.


    "Everyone stop, that''s enough for today!" Miss Elora''s voice echoed in the room.


    Ivan immediately fell on his butt upon hearing her voice, he supported his weight with his arms while gasping for air. He felt sour all over but his face showed a slight smile while dripping with sweat.


    He was very satisfied with the level of practice with Luke even though he had been receiving hits the whole time, he believed that he would be able to improve faster this way.


    The trainees were left to rest for a bit in the combat classroom before leaving for the rest of their next lesson. It was a theory class where they thought about Nexus energy for the next hour.


    They learned the history of Nexus energy, uses and phenomenons brought about by the appearance of Nexus energy. They were also thought about level of strength that one could attain by training their Nexus energy and increasing their A/P(assimilation progress)


    They learned that those who were able to raise their A/p to 10% were known as Known as Mortal kings and they were the weakest among the ranks of Nexulytes, above the Mortal king rank was the True king rank which would require a Nexulyte to had an A/P of at least 20%; trainees would have to reach the Mortal king rank to successfully pass the six months training which meant that they had to reach an A/P of 10% and above within six months!

 Chapter 29: Profile

    The trainees were also taught what a Nexus chamber was and how to locate it in their bodies, they did a practical session right there in class and only after successfully locating their Nexus chamber were they allowed to leave.The Nexus chamber was a special space inside their bodies where they could store Nexus energy and also refine it to increase their A/P to get stronger.


    Following that were classes about other things such as talents, level of talents, introduction of the dreamscape, and lastly, how to handle weapons; after all, one could not always rely on their talents when in battle. What if they ran out of Nexus energy in unforeseen circumstances?


    The trainees were only allowed to rest for the day at 7 in the evening since it was time for dinner, they dragged their tired bodies to the cafeteria while some went straight to bed. This was only the first day of training yet some of them were already exhausted both mentally and physically.


    At 10 o''clock in the evening, Ivan could be seen sitting crossed legged on his bed. He had changed out of the purple tracksuit and was currently wearing a simple sleeveless shirt and a pair of shorts. One could see the bruises on his arms, legs, and face which were the results of his training with Luke. His palms also had a few cuts on them too.


    Ivan clenched and opened his right palm, his blue eyes gazing at it with intent. This was just the first day but Ivan could already feel it, he could feel that he had gotten stronger than he was a day ago.


    He closed his eyes and focused his mind, this was a practice that they had been taught during one of their lessons to check their progress.


    And as expected, a window appeared in front of Ivan.


    NAME: Ivan Von Charles


    Talent group: Primal         Talent type: Wisher   Talent: Wish card


    Talent lv: SS          AP: 0%      Rank: NULL


    Ivan opened his eyes and stared at the information on the window with a serious expression on his face. According to the instructor who had taught them on this topic, this window was called a Nexulyte''s profile and would display their progress and information about their talent. They could keep it invisible or reveal a part of it to anyone as long as they wished for it.


    After staring at his profile for a while Ivan made the window disappear, his chest rose and fell as he took a deep breath.


    "Let''s see how far we can go in one night" Ivan muttered to himself. He closed his eyes and began to sense the air around him, they had already gone through the first step during class hours so it did not take long for him to sense the Nexus energy around him and absorb it into his Nexus chamber.


    Minutes slowly ticked by and soon Ivan had lost himself to the flow of time, he soon fell asleep.


    Strangely, his body did not stop absorbing the Nexus energy around him even while he was asleep; he continued absorbing!


    4:00 am.


    Like an inbuilt alarm clock in his head, Ivan sprang up from his bed with a jolt. His head instinctively turned toward the wall clock and he rushed to change his clothes immediately after seeing what time it was.


    He immediately dashed out of his room immediately after changing, the first thing he did was to go check on Glen''s room when he didn''t spot him outside. Turned out that Glen was still sleeping and it had taken almost two minutes for Ivan to force him to wake up by constantly banging on his door, waking some other trainees in the process.


    Glen had slept in his gray T-shirt and purple pants so he only had the chance to grab his jacket before Ivan dragged him out and they headed toward Ralph''s room. They happened to meet Ralph coming toward them on their way so they all headed toward the field together.


    Upon arriving, they found the five repeaters were already there, instructor Nathan was checking his wrist watch while instructor Logan sat on the ground with folded arms. What surprised Ivan was that there was a group of other trainees who had arrived before then!


    This group consisted of four girls and two boys who were around their age as well. They only threw a glance at the three who arrived before closing their eyes again; Ivan didn''t know if they were sleeping or not.


    Time slowly passed as few tired and sleepy trainees swaggered into the field, after what seemed like thirty minutes had passed. Instructor Nathan moved just like the previous day and erected a tall wall of Nexus energy, barricading entrance into the field.


    "Alright, anyone who arrives after now will have to do their morning training with gravity bracelets and do double sets of stretches later. As for the fortune few of you¡­


    Start running!" Instructor Logan yelled.


    The trainees who had arrived could not help but pity those who had yet to come, some people were about to miss breakfast.


    The trainees that were present quickly realized that they all already had a talent blocking bracelet on their wrists, they immediately sprinted forward under the dim shine of the night sky.


    Scaling through the forest, dragging their feet through the heavy mud, climbing over the iron net, and climbing up the slippery mountain. Each session was as laborious and tiring as the previous day but the trainees managed to keep up without collapsing halfway, it was to be expected since none of them had gravity bracelets on today; those who would get a bracelet were still at the back.


    Ivan stood at the base of the mountain, his head bent backwards as his eyes ran along the body of the mountain but he couldn''t see too far up from where he stood due to how dark it was.


    "Let''s do this"


    Glen said spiritedly from the side and immediately began to climb, this was a payback for the two of them leaving him behind yesterday!


    Ralph and Ivan smirked when they saw this, they didn''t waste time and started climbing as well.


    Just like yesterday, not more than twenty minutes had passed since they started climbing but three of the five repeaters were already out of sight.


    Ivan had crossed thirty meters up the mountain and Ralph and Glen were a few meters behind him, other trainees were either ahead of Ivan or busy falling.


    "Why are you going so fast? I suspect that you cheated so you have to start again" A sinister voice sounded above Ivan. He looked up and saw Luke smirking at him from above, before Ivan could say anything.


    Thud!


    Luke stepped on his hand that was grabbing onto a rock, Ivan temporarily released his grip on the rock due to pain but that was a very wrong decision because he found himself falling without restraint the moment.


    "Ivan!" Glen shouted.


    Luke watched as Ivan fell further away and smirked in satisfaction.


    " Loser" he snorted before continuing to climb, ignoring the hateful glares from Ralph and Glen.


    While climbing, he came to Sommy''s height and saw the girl staring at him with contempt.


    "What?" Luke scoffed. S§×arch* The N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Sommy stared at him for a while before looking down as if trying to look for Ivan, she shook her head and continued to climb.


    "Don''t ignore me!" Luke yelled and climbed after Sommy, they both disappeared up the mountain.


    As for Ivan, he was currently at the foot of the mountain with a blank expression on his face, a small smile slowly grew on the side of his lips as he gently touched the surface of the mountain.

 Chapter 30: 6%

    Following the end of the morning run, the trainees carried out sets of exercises which included stretches and pushups.Time went by quickly and it was soon time for breakfast, they all headed to the cafeteria after changing their uniforms into clean ones and washing up. The cafeteria was less populated today compared to yesterday, a lot of unfortunate trainees who had woken up late were still suffering in the field and would be missing breakfast.


    After eating, they headed for their various combat classrooms where they once again repeated yesterday''s lesson. For another one hour thirty minutes, Ivan received another round of beating from Luke since they had once again paired up with Ivan taking the initiative to look for the red haired boy.


    With a bruised face, black eyes, and aching body, Ivan headed for his theory class after the combat class had ended.


    "Are you sure you''re alright? You don''t look fine to me" Ralph asked worriedly while looking at the almost limping Ivan.


    "I''m fine," Ivan replied shortly.


    "Why do you keep pairing with that bastard? He''s hitting you so hard on purpose, do you like getting hit?" Glen questioned while running his chin in thought.


    Ivan shot him a glare that shut him up and made the boy look away.


    Inside the classroom, the instructor who was in charge of their teaching them about Nexus energy stood in front of the row of trainees.


    It was a stout man in black uniform, his big belly appeared to want to burst out from his uniform.


    "As I taught yesterday, I assume that some of you must have studied on your own after class so I''d like everyone to show me their profile and see how much progress you made during your self experiment" the man said as his eyes roamed the faces of the trainees before settling on Ivan''s.


    Of course, the news about Ivan had been a big one and almost everyone with a bit of influence had heard about him including this instructor. He could not help but see what the result of an SS level talent would be.


    ''Ah, the profile! I completely forgot to check it this morning!'' Ivan exclaimed inwardly and focused his mind, the window soon appeared in front of him but he willed it to be invisible so only he could see it.


    NAME: Ivan Von Charles


    Talent group: Primal         Talent type: Wisher   Talent: Wish card


    Talent lv: SS          AP: 0.11%      Rank: NULL


    Ivan stared at the words displayed on the window with dead fish eyes.


    ''Noooo! Only 0.11? I didn''t even get 1%? Why is it so slow? After my hard work all night, I only made so little progress? wouldn''t it take me days to get just 1% at this rate?'' Ivan lamented inwardly but managed to prevent it from showing on his face.


    He looked around and saw a lot of trainees shifting nervously, they must have made slow progress too. Ivan became a little relieved upon this thought and waited for the instructor to start asking the trainees about their progress.


    But before they could start, a person appeared at the door of the classroom. This person turned out to be Miss Elora.


    "Excuse, Mr Barnes. The tower master would like to see you" she said to the instructor and immediately turned and left.


    The instructor stared at the opened door with a strange expression on his face for a while before turning to look at the trainees.


    "Excuse me, I''ll be back soon" he said and walked out of the room.


    Immediately after going out, the trainees became noisy as they began to talk about their progress.


    Turned out that some people had been too tired to try increasing their AP yesterday while some nervously showed their progress. All in all, Ivan discovered that the highest AP among the trainees was 0.05%


    And the person with this AP was Ralph!


    The rest were lower than 0.05%! This discovery has shocked Ivan who had thought that his 0.11% was a failure, but it turned out that his result was more than twice the others!


    ''Is it supposed to be this slow?'' he wondered.


    "Hey, Ivan. What about you? What''s your result?" Glen came to Ivan''s side and asked excitedly, he had a result of 0.03% but wasn''t nervous like the others.


    Ivan stared at him for a while before answering, he decided to hide his true result since it might sound like he was bluffing or in case or these people were joking.


    "6?" Ivan responded in a doubtful tone.


    The entire room immediately became quiet, Ivan discovered that everyone was staring at him with wide eyes.


    Crack!!


    A loud crashing sound disrupted the silence in the room, they all looked and saw that Luke had destroyed a chair with his fist that was covered in Nexus energy. He slowly turned to Ivan and gazed at him with a menacing look.


    "Did you just say you got 6% in one night? Are you asking for a beating?" He mumbled coldly, his voice filled with fighting intent.


    Ivan stared at him with confused eyes, he wasn''t the least scared even when Luke looked like he was about to punch him to death.


    Ivan also saw that Sommy and the other repeaters were also staring at him with unbelievable expressions.


    "6%? I don''t remember saying so?" Ivan responded calmly.


    His response seemed to have angered Luke even more as the Nexus energy around him exploded with force and sent strong gusts of wind blowing everywhere.


    "Are you insulting my intelligence? We all heard you saying it loud and clear!" Luke bellowed in anger.


    Ivan remained calm despite his outburst, he slowly said.


    "What I meant was 0.06, which is a bit higher than Ralph''s"


    Luke was clearly more provoked upon hearing this and was about to explode in rage, Sommy suddenly appeared behind him and placed a palm on his shoulder.


    "Calm down," she then turned to Ivan " and you, be more specific next time" she added with a playful smile on her face.


    The other three repeaters also stopped paying attention to Ivan, the other trainees also burst out in laughter when they heard Ivan''s explanation.


    "Man, you almost gave us all a heart attack just now. Really thought that you were at 6% hahaha" Glen laughed hard while playfully slapping Ivan''s shoulder.


    Meanwhile, instructor Barnes arrived at the office of the tower master. The large office with a huge glass window that showed the view of the forest behind the field.


    "Tower master wanted to see me?" Mr Barnes asked politely as he walked into the office. S§×ar?h the ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    James could be seen seated  on his chair, he looked quite exhausted.


    "Yes, I wanted to see you. It''s about Ivan, I believe you are already aware of his situation?" James scanned Barnes with his green eyes to catch his every expression.


    "Indeed, I know about him," Barnes responded after a brief pause.


    "Good, then that saves time. I want you to avoid revealing his progress to the other trainees, unless he decides to show them on his own accord which I believe he won''t do if he''s sensible enough" James said.


    Barnes stared at the tower master with a neutral expression on his face, he knew about Ivan''s talent level and unrecorded ability and was aware of how much chaos it had caused among the many towers and the level of danger Ivan would be in if he went outside but was there a need to hide it inside the tower?


    But it wasn''t in his place to question the tower master.


    "Understood," Barnes said with an affirmative nod.


    "That''s all, you can leave" James said and waved his hand as he rested his back on his chair.


    Barnes turned around and walked toward the door but before he could go through.


    "One more thing, the ranking for the trainees¡­inform the other instructors that I want the kid to be in first place," James said.


    Barnes had been maintaining a calm expression since the beginning but he could not stop his eyes from widening in disbelief, he hastily turned around to look at James.


    " But tower master, the repeaters will not accept this!" He said, almost shouting.


    "I don''t care, if they do not accept it, they can simply challenge him for the spot but I won''t allow any challenges till the third month" James said calmly, a sly smirk could be seen on his face.


    Barnes stared at him wordlessly for a while before sighing.


    "If that''s the case, I''ll do as Tower master says" he added before leaving.


    Left alone, James turned around on his chair and gazed down on the forest, his eyes piercing through the trees and landing on the dead tired trainees that were laying at the foot of the mountain.


    "I''m definitely not giving special treatment, I''m just showing support" James muttered slyly.


    "Show me the strength of an SS level talent kid, don''t disappoint me"

 Chapter 31: The Ranking

    Ivan opened his eyes and his head instinctively turned in the direction of the wall clock since this had been the first thing he did whenever he woke up and had become something he did without realizing it.The time showed that it was just 3 in the morning which was an hour before morning training started.


    Ivan focused and made his profile appear in front of him.


    NAME: Ivan Von Charles


    Talent group: Primal         Talent type: Wisher   Talent: Wish card


    Talent lv: SS          AP: 3.11%      Rank: NULL


    Ivan''s eyes lingered on his AP for a long time, a serious expression on his face. It had been a month since they came to the tower and had undergone rigorous training for the past month, a lot had changed during this one month with Ivan undergoing the most shocking change amongst the trainees.


    Compared to last month when they just arrived, Ivan had undergone stunning physical changes. His build was now as tall as Ralph''s and other people his age and his lean body now had well defined muscles.


    He no longer looked sickly and his hair had also grown so much that they now fell over his eyes, almost covering it.


    His cold demeanor only grew colder since he mostly kept a blank face that made it difficult for one to guess what he was thinking about.


    Aside from that, Ivan had also grown much stronger compared to other Nexulytes. Not only did his AP increase at a terrifying speed, his comprehension in hand to hand combat had shocked all the other trainees and even Luke who was his training partner for the past month.


    He had even been given the nickname ''''Monster" by the other trainees.


    Ivan slowly got off his bed and changed into his purple tracksuit before heading out. During the past one month, one of the many changes that had happened was that Ivan no longer waited for Ralph and Glen when going out for morning training.


    This was because he had started getting up very early and also because those two would always arrive on time so there was no need to wait for them.


    Arriving at the field, Ivan met only the two instructors there; not even the five repeaters were here yet.


    "As early as usual I see" instructor Logan voiced out immediately after seeing Ivan, he wasn''t surprised as this had been Ivan''s daily routine for the past few weeks since coming to the tower.


    Ivan greeted both of them with a simple bow before walking over.


    "Sadly, there won''t be any morning training today. All trainees will be asked to gather in the lobby in a while, there will be important announcements to pass to you all" instructor Logan added after a brief pause.


    His words didn''t seem to move Ivan as he remained standing there while staring at instructor Nathan. Sear?h the N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    " What? Don''t tell me you still want to go through it regardless?" Instructor Nathan asked with a raised eyebrow, Ivan responded with a nod of his head.


    "What a freak" instructor Nathan mumbled with a helpless sigh before walking toward Ivan and attaching a gravity bracelet as well as a talent blocking bracelet to the boy''s wrist.


    The gravity bracelet on Ivan''s wrist was a three times gravity bracelet which would increase the pressure on the wearer by three times! This used to be the punishment for late comers but as the trainees got stronger, it had been changed to a daily use for them.


    Those who still came late got a different gravity bracelet with increased gravity pressure.


    Immediately after getting the bracelets, Ivan sprinted off Into the distance.


    He left footprints on the ground as he quickly disappeared into the forest as if he wasn''t wearing any gravity bracelet!


    "This kid sure is a monster" Logan said with a bewildered look on his face as he watched Ivan disappear in between the big trees.


    "That''s an SS level talent for you, so stunning and annoying at the same time. Now I know why the Tower master wanted to put him in first place on the trainees ranking, he just might be able to hold onto that spot till the end" Nathan voiced out with a helpless expression, he felt glad for Ivan''s quick growth but couldn''t help feeling jealous of his talent.


    If he had the type of Ivan''s talent, his life would have been much better.


    Meanwhile, Ivan had just arrived in front of the mud puddle. During the first week of their training, it would take Ivan and the rest of the trainees over twenty minutes to drag their feet through this sticky puddle.


    But recently¡­


    Tap! Ttap! Tap! Tap!


    Ivan stepped into the mud puddle but before his leg could enter fully, he pulled it out and launched himself forward; Ivan started sprinting on the surface of the mud puddle like he was walking on solid ground, he wasn''t moving like someone who had a gravity bracelet on.


    He crossed the fifty meter sticky puddle in a matter of seconds!


    After a few more minutes of running, Ivan arrived in front of the wall made of iron net. Ivan slowly bent down and jumped.


    Btzzzzzz!


    Ivan made the whole net tremble from his force when he grabbed onto a line, he had crossed half of the net with that one jump!


    After crossing the net, Ivan ran a while more before arriving in front of the slippery mountain. Not stopping to rest like before, Ivan once again jumped. Crossing a height of twenty meters with that single jump.


    After reaching the peak of his jump and was about to start descending, Ivan arched his right elbow backward before thrusting it forward.


    Thick!!


    A low sound resounded as Ivan''s fingers stabbed into the body of the mountain and held him in place long enough for Ivan to grab onto something else and began climbing with shocking speed.


    It took him twenty minutes to climb to the top of the mountain!


    Still not stopping, Ivan continued to run until he arrived at the field.


    "Impressive, a record of 40 minutes" instructor Logan commended while nodding his head.


    Instructor Nathan proceeded to take off the talent blocking bracelet and gravity bracelet but Ivan stepped back, he refused to take them off and began carrying out the morning stretches while still under their effect.


    This action had stunned the two instructors but they said nothing and just him be.


    A few minutes later, at exactly 4 am.


    Five people showed up in the field one after another, they were Sommy and the other repeaters. They all threw Ivan confused looks when they saw him sweating profusely while doing push ups before turning to look at the instructor.


    Instructor Logan told them to ignore Ivan before proceeding to pass the news to them that there won''t be training, the repeaters were not surprised by this news; they had in fact expected this to happen.


    After all, it was the same during their first time of training.


    A while later, more trainees began to arrive one after the other and after five minutes everyone had arrived.


    Of course, they all did not fail to give Ivan questioning stares when they saw him doing sets of stretches. Only when everyone had arrived did Ivan stop.


    "Alright, everyone''s here now. Let''s go to the lobby, there are important announcements I want all of you to hear and see"


    Instructor Logan said and led the trainees back to the lobby.


    Arriving at the lobby, the trainees formed orderly lines in front of the two instructors who were standing before a huge screen that no one had noticed this morning or most likely wasn''t there a while ago.


    "Alright, listen up. You all have been privileged to be accepted into the Owen Tower because we saw the potential in you and after a month of watching you all grow. I must say that you have all managed to meet our expectations with a few of you being rather exceptional and impressive.


    Today marking it one month of training, I will now reveal more privileges of being a member of this great tower to you all and that privilege can only be accessed by getting a good place on the ranking"


    Instructor Logan said in a loud and powerful voice, he paused for a while as he watched the trainees begin to murmur to one another, quickly filling the lobby with the buzzing of their murmurs.


    " Quiet! I''ll explain the ranking to you. The ranking is a list compiled by all the instructors who have been in charge of training you all for the past one month, only the top fifty on the ranking will be able to enjoy the benefits of the tower.


    These benefits include being able to skip any class of your choice and being able to use the training room, as well as getting access to the Nexus chamber of the tower.


    I know you must be confused but yes, just like the Nexus chamber inside of you, the tower has a Nexus chamber with a large amount of Nexus energy.


    Not only will training there increase the speed in which you absorb Nexus energy and provide you with an abundant supply of Nexus energy, it also makes your AP increase faster!" Instructor Logan added and the lines of trainees immediately exploded into an uproar, the news of such a place was just too shocking!


    Even the repeaters, except for Sommy, the other four all silently gripped their fists when they heard of the Nexus chamber in the tower.


    "But¡­" instructor Logan''s loud voice made the trainees shut up as they did not want to miss anything he was about to say.


    "Only the top five will have access to the Nexus chamber and the higher your rank, the better the Nexus chamber you will get. Now look at the screen before you and rejoice over the outcome of your hard work or rage with determination to do better!"


    Immediately after instructor Logan''s voice fell, the large screen flashed with a bright light that made the trainees close their eyes for a brief moment and when they opened their eyes, they saw that the screen now had five long rows of names displayed on it.


    None of them thought of looking for their names immediately after seeing the ranking list, every single trainee including the repeaters all looked at the name that was number one.


    The entire lobby immediately fell into dead silence the next second, they were shocked speechless when they saw the name at the top.


    NO. 1: IVAN.


    "I do not accept this!"


    Boom!!

 Chapter 32: Unacceptable

    " I do not accept this!"Boom!!


    A loud and enraged voice echoed through the entire lobby, accompanied by the explosion of Nexus energy that sent the trainees who were close to the source flying like pieces of paper.


    Everyone turned to look at the source of this voice and saw that it was the petite girl among the repeaters, her body was currently fully coated by Nexus energy that made her hair and uniform to float in the air.


    She was currently standing on a small crater and on her face was an expression of dissatisfaction and rage, her small face stared at the screen with eyes flashing with ruthlessness.


    The trainees stared at her in shock and fear, those who had been blown away by her had either slammed their bodies into one of the huge trees in the lobby or crashed onto other trainees and had sustained injuries all looked at the petite girl in terror.


    They all knew that the repeaters were strong but they did not expect the usually weak looking girl to have such monstrous strength, her current appearance was a great contrast to her normal self and some of the trainees were now terrified of her.


    Only a few people kept a calm face even after this sudden outburst, they were the instructors, the remaining four repeaters, Ivan, Ralph and a few other trainees; but all of them except Ivan and the instructors were staring at the screen with serious expressions on their faces.


    "Mind your manners! The positions on the ranking are a recognition of a trainee''s abilities and potential, you know what to do if you are unwilling to accept the result. So do the needful and stop causing a scene, else you will have to face me" instructor Logan said in a chilling voice while glaring at the petite girl.


    The words of the instructor seemed to have had some effects on the girl, she gradually calmed down and the threatening Nexus energy around her gradually retracted into her body.


    But before instructor Logan could continue with his speech, the Nexus energy that had just retracted into the body of the girl burst out once more but this time, it wasn''t as malicious as it had been just then. The Nexus energy this time was more concentrated and dense as it gathered above her palm before stretching out.


    Thang!!


    A dull sound resounded, the Nexus energy scattered and what was left in the girl''s hand was a long katana. Its blade had a red aura rising from it and one could guess how sharp it was just from staring at it.


    Dangerous!


    Was what came to everyone''s mind immediately after seeing the katana in the girl''s hand.


    ''So she''s a weapon master with a katana talent '' Ivan thought to himself while staring at the katana, he wanted to touch it.


    Meanwhile, the girl grabbed her katana and gave it a few swings, producing air slashing sounds.


    She turned in the direction of Ivan and slowly stepped forward but before her foot could touch the ground, she moved forward as fast as a shadow.


    Swoosh!!


    Like a gust of wind, she arrived in front of Ivan like a phantom; her speed was so fast that most of the trainees were unable to see her movements clearly.


    Because of the physical changes that had happened to Ivan, he was now very tall and was like an adult standing close to a child as he looked down at the petite girl in front of him.


    "I challenge you to a duel!" The girl muttered while staring at Ivan straight in the eyes, she didn''t look intimidated by their height difference in the slightest.


    Ivan did not say anything and only stared at her with a calm look on his face, it was instructor Logan who came to his rescue.


    "I know I said you should do the needful but I didn''t ask you to create a scene when doing that. Besides, there is a new rule¡­the first position isn''t allowed to accept any challenges until the third month" instructor Logan said.


    These words once again caused a ripple in the hearts of the trainees, especially the repeaters.


    They were well aware of how fast Ivan was progressing and were also aware of how much resources the first position on the ranking would receive. If Ivan was allowed to train like that for another two months¡­would they still be able to easily beat him?


    They could only wonder just what level of talent Ivan had to be so monstrous.


    The hand of the petite girl holding the katana trembled violently when she heard the words of instructor Logan, she kept standing for a while before making her katana disappear in a puff of Nexus energy.


    She snorted and left, directly leaving the lobby.


    Instructor Logan acted like he did not care about her absence and continued with his announcement, he explained the process of issuing challenges and the effect of the training rooms.


    While he was explaining, the trainees had begun checking on the ranking list once more.


    Following Ivan, the next nine in the top ten were.


    NO.2: Sommy


    NO.3: Miko


    NO.4: Malcolm


    NO.5: Damian


    NO.6: Luke


    NO.7: Mark


    NO.8: Elysia Sear?h the N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    NO.9: Liora


    NO.10: Ralph


    The trainees were not surprised to find the repeaters in the top ten, only the appearance of Ivan at the first spot shocked them.


    "Is the tower doing this on purpose? There''s no way Ivan is stronger than the repeaters"


    "That must be the case, didn''t you hear that he can''t be challenged until the third month? They''re giving him time to prepare"


    "This is unfair, we all worked hard. Why is he the one getting special treatment?"


    "You think it''s special treatment? He will be targeted by the repeaters once his period of grace is over, you want to switch places with him?"


    The trainees began to whisper to one another.


    Ivan was not too surprised to find Ralph in top ten, Glen was ranked 105; the total number of trainees on the ranking was 832 so Glen getting a ranking of 105 wasn''t really too bad.


    Though the boy still lamented about being left behind by his friends.


    "Now that you all have been informed, go and prepare for your new training routine. Ivan, come with me" instructor Logan said and left with Ivan under the curious stares of the trainees.

 Chapter 33: Cant use talent

    (Announcement: so I''ve received a message from a reader that the current training arc is becoming too boring and long so I''ll be speeding things up a bit and skipping some stuff that I was supposed to write, be sure to ask anything that you''re confused about in the comment section and I''ll reply with an explanation)After Ivan left the lobby with instructor Logan, the trainees were dispersed by instructor Nathan while Ivan followed instructor Logan to an elevator that took them up. sea??h th§× N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    They traveled for a minute on the elevator until finally reaching the highest floor of the tower, Ivan was led to one of the rooms which turned out to be the office of the tower master.


    They entered without knocking and Ivan saw James sitting behind a large office table, an enormous glass window behind him that displayed the view of a forest.


    "I''ve passed the information as instructed by tower master" instructor Logan said respectfully while giving a slight bow.


    "Good morning tower master" Ivan greeted while bowing his head as well.


    James raised his head to locate the two, he nodded at Logan for him to excuse them. Only after the buffed instructor had left them did he turn to Ivan.


    "Hello Ivan, it''s been a while since I saw you. You''ve changed¡­in a good way" James said to Ivan, a warm smile glued to his face.


    " It''s all thanks to the training I have received " Ivan replied calmly, his voice wasn''t as warm as James had hoped for.


    James stared at the white haired youth for a few seconds as the warm smile slowly vanished from his face and was replaced with serious expression.


    " I don''t want to waste your time so I''ll go straight to the point, you''ve heard what your instructor announced this morning. You should already know that your training routine will be different from now on compared to last month. This is what I want to discuss with you¡­


    Your talent " James muttered and Ivan''s face immediately turned stern at the mention of his talent. For the past one month he had kept his talent hidden even when other trainees were already able to use theirs.


    And the reason for this was¡­quite embarrassing. It was because he did not know how to use his talent.


    "Your talent¡­is a special type without any information about its specialty. So for the following month when you have talent training, you''ll come to me so I can help study it with you.


    You can also check the library in case you notice certain things that you do not wish to reveal, but know that I''m trying to help you so telling me everything about your talent will help a lot"


    " I understand " was all Ivan responded with.


    His casual response left James stunned for a while but he quickly recovered and added.


    "And about the Nexus chamber, you can go there as long as you complete combat training and combat training. You can skip everything else but I advise you not to get too engrossed in it because it can affect your absorbing speed outside the Nexus chamber. Going to the training room will help you prepare for after the three months grace I gave you "


    Ivan still said nothing and continued to stare at James as he spoke.


    " That''s all, you may leave now" James said while letting out a sigh, he could see that Ivan wasn''t interested in chatting.


    Ivan bowed and left the office, after he left a figure silently appeared in a corner of the office.


    James immediately stood up from his chair and stood to the side respectfully, this figure was none other than Karl Owen, the founder of the Owen Tower.


    " Interesting, after seeing him in person, I must admit that he does resemble him a bit. He did not even ask why he was given first place which shows that he is confident of being able to hold his position when the time comes.


    Confident, talented, and a calm demeanor, fitting for a genius. Getting to the Saint rank should not be too difficult for him" Karl said while stroking his long white beard.


    " Did you find anything about his talent, father?" James asked.


    Karl stopped stroking his beard, he placed both hands behind his back and walked to stand in front of the huge glass window.


    "None of the books mentioned anything about a wisher talent or Primal Talent, I did find a few talents related to cards but they were either under the support type or combat type. We''ll need to see him use his talent to know more" Karl said, he thought for a while before continuing.


    " I''ll be going now, a strange monster had appeared near our tower in the dreamscape so I want to go take a look "


    " Is it that monster you have been researching about? " James asked solemnly.


    Karl''s face instantly turned tense and his eyes shook with nervousness.


    " Hopefully it isn''t that monster, it might be the end if such a monster decides to cause trouble " he managed to say after a while of silence. He didn''t wait for what James had to say next before disappearing from the office.


    Meanwhile, Ivan had returned to his room. There was still some time before 7 am, he had nothing to do before then.


    Ivan took his bath to wash off the sweats and changed into a new set of purple tracksuit, he climbed onto his bed and laid on his back with one of his hands behind his head and his other hand raised high enough for him to see it above his stomach.


    Nexus energy slowly began to gather above his palm before condensing into a single blue card with golden edges, the card remained suspended in the air for a brief moment before Ivan grabbed it.


    He stared at the card, observing its back and front but he could see nothing different from what he had already seen before.


    "Be careful what you wish for" Ivan mumbled the words on the front of the card.


    "Just how the hell do I use this thing?" He hissed in exasperation, this was a side of his that Ivan never showed to anyone; not even his only friends have seen him like this.


    Others might think that Ivan was a monster and was progressing quickly, but no one knew just how frustrated he was over not being able to use his talent!


    No matter what he tried, the damned card would remain a card!

 Chapter 34: A way, Challenge

    Out of frustration, Ivan threw the card away while cursing. The card flew for only a few meters away after Ivan threw it before disappearing into a puff of red energy wisp.Ivan stared at the red wisps and gritted his teeth in extreme anger, for some reason Ivan''s mind wandered to a time over a month ago. To the day he had awakened, the experience he had gone through during the awakening process replayed in his mind.


    "It''s your birthday Ivan, make a wish"


    The words of the female figure sounded in his mind and Ivan''s eyes flashed with realization, it was as if he had just woken up from a long dream.


    " Of course! Why didn''t I think of that, it might just work!" Ivan exclaimed, he smacked his forehead and jumped off his bed in enthusiasm.


    Now he felt like it did make sense after staring at his profile once more.


    NAME: Ivan Von Charles


    Talent group: Primal         Talent type: Wisher   Talent: Wish card


    Talent lv: SS          AP: 3.11%      Rank: NULL


    His talent type was a wisher and his talent was a wish card! He was told to make a wish during his awakening which he didn''t get the chance to make!


    "It just might work!" Ivan said to himself as he summoned another blue card and pinched it with two fingers.


    Feeling a bit nervous and excited, Ivan took severe deep breaths before slowly saying.


    "I wish¡­" he paused and suddenly burst into laughter.


    After a good one minute of laughing like a maniac, Ivan''s face turned serious as he stared at the card in his hand.


    " What should I even wish for?" He muttered in a self mocking voice.


    He contemplated for a while before continuing to carry on with his experiment anyway.


    " I wish¡­for my AP to increase" Ivan slowly said, his voice held expectancy and doubt.


    Immediately after Ivan''s words fell, the card in his hand trembled violently while releasing a burst of blinding blue and golden light that made Ivan squint his eyes.


    Btzzz!!!


    Like a flash of electricity, the card made buzzing sounds before exploding in the air. It turned fine particles to blue and golden light before¡­vanishing.


    Ivan hurriedly checked his profile, his AP was still at 3.11%.


    Nothing changed.


    "Looks like I hoped for too much, there possibly can''t be any talent that could be so overpowered" Ivan said to himself. He felt sad that his talent wasn''t able to increase his AP but he was delighted that he finally got the damned card to react!


    "So that''s how to use them but what can I use them for then? I obviously can''t wish for anything" Ivan pinched his chin in thought.


    "I''ll try again" he came to a conclusion and summoned another card which he held between his fingers.


    "I wish¡­ "


    Although this time, Ivan wasn''t able to finish making his wish before everywhere suddenly turned dead quiet and a low whisper sounded in Ivan''s head.


    "BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR¡­WISHER"


    The voice was like a mixture of a whisper and a scream as it echoed in Ivan''s head like a loud thunderclap, Ivan held his head in pain. His vision was already turning dark and he could barely see.


    " What''s¡­happening?" Was all Ivan managed to say before passing out.


    ...¡­..


    After an unknown amount of time had passed, Ivan who was currently laying on the floor beside his bed slowly began to regain consciousness; he had fallen off the bed after passing out.


    His fingers twitched slightly and then his whole body, he made a groaning sound after a few seconds before proceeding to pick himself from the ground.


    "Damn, my head hurts," Ivan cursed after getting up. His head was throbbing seriously and he felt like he was hit by a big hammer on the head.


    It took him a while for his mind to fully recover and he was able to think straight.


    " I passed out? How long was I out?" Ivan mumbled while looking toward the wall clock.


    The time was only 7:45 am.


    " Huh, I''ve been out for over 2 hours?" Ivan said before his eyes widened in realization.


    Over two hours! He had missed breakfast and would be late for combat training!


    Without thinking, Ivan rushed out of his room and began running towards the lobby. Ignoring the curious gazes people threw at him, he raced in the direction of their combat classroom.


    Though he was in a hurry, Ivan did not forget to observe himself if he could find out the reason he had passed out and he discovered that it was because he had run out of Nexus energy; his Nexus chamber was as empty as an abandoned house without the slightest bit of energy in it.


    ''Looks like three cards is my current limit before I run out of energy'' Ivan concluded. He would continue his experiment after he replenished his Nexus energy later.


    Ivan arrived in front of a door and pushed it open without knocking.


    Inside was the combat classroom where everyone had gathered, he was the only one who had arrived late since it seemed like they were about to start training.


    "This is only the first day of being the first place on the ranking and you think you are already too big to come to class early?" Miss Elora''s icy voice drifted into Ivan''s ears. He could clearly feel the contempt from her words.


    "I''m sorry, it won''t happen again" Ivan gave an honest apology.


    Miss Elora glared coldly at him for a while more before moving her gaze away, her impression of Ivan had dropped a bit due to this so she didn''t feel the need of saying anything more to him.


    " If everyone is done pairing, then you can start " Miss Elora''s voice echoed through the air as Ivan quietly walked over under the piercing stares of the trainees.


    " Hehe, first place on the ranking and you want to skip classes already. People like you can only be trash. Why don''t you come show me why you were placed in first place? " A taunting voice halted Ivan''s movements as a figure appeared in front of him.


    It was a red haired youth who had a twisted smirk on his face. Luke had been very pissed about the ranking list, he could be said to be the angriest amongst the repeaters even. After all, he had already planned it all out and would use the fifth spot privilege to get a Nexus chamber in the tower; even if it was the trashiest one, it would still be able to increase his growth speed a bit.


    But because of Ivan suddenly appearing in first place, he was pushed to the sixth position! How could he accept? If not for the petite girl acting up first, he might have rushed up to give Ivan a beating in the lobby.


    So how could he not use this chance to teach Ivan a lesson? Although Ivan had improved a lot and had been giving him a hard time lately, he still believed that he would be able to beat Ivan if he got serious.


    "What do you say? Dare to pair with me or are you too scared?" Luke taunted again with a wicked grin on his face seeing that Ivan wasn''t replying and was just staring at him.


    "Won''t dare? What''s there to be afraid of? It''s just you and not a monster" Ivan replied calmly after silently staring at Luke for more than ten seconds.


    His gaze was so calm as he stared at Luke that it felt like he was staring at a little kid and not an opponent. Luke felt that Ivan was looking down on him.


    "Good, that''s how a first place on the ranking should be like" Luke laughed wildly but his mind was raging.


    ''Damned bastard! You dare stare at me with such an expression, see as I wipe that cocky look off your face!''


    The both of them got into a fighting stance, the other trainees stopped what they were doing and were watching these two instead; Elora didn''t say anything about this, she was also watching with interest as she was also curious as to why Ivan was put in first place instead of Sommy.


    "Come on, I''ll let you attack first. Let''s say it''s my gift to you for getting first place" Luke beckoned to Ivan with a mischievous smile.


    Ivan''s expression didn''t change, he still looked calm like someone who was quietly fishing.


    " If you say so, then I won''t reject,'''' Ivan replied before suddenly lunging forward.


    sea??h th§× Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

 Chapter 35: Humiliating Luke

    During the past one month of combat training, the trainees had been taught various sets of fighting techniques which they could now compile into fighting styles and choose a fighting style of their own form.After a whole month of constant combat training, a few trainees had managed to grasp a bit of the essence of hand to hand combat with Ivan obviously being one of these few.


    They were the only ones who had managed to grasp the meaning of fighting and had managed to create their own fighting styles from what they were taught, the only thing that they now needed was constant practice to become true masters.


    Back to Ivan''s and Luke''s fight.


    Ivan arrived in front of Luke in a blink of an eye, his hand swept through the air in the form of a punch toward Luke''s face.


    His sudden speed surprised Luke a bit but he was ready for whatever Ivan had to dish out.


    With a tilt of his neck, Luke let Ivan''s punch pass by the side of his head before immediately delivering a powerful punch toward Ivan''s side which could potentially break a rib or two if it hit.


    But of course it would be too early for their exchange to end if Ivan allowed himself to be hit. Bringing down his left elbow, Ivan knocked Luke''s punch away before attacking with a side chop with his other hand that was beside Luke''s neck.


    Luke didn''t block this time as he bent his body fully, letting Ivan''s hand pass just a few centimeters above his head while he sent a kick toward Ivan''s leg.


    Ivan easily blocked the kick and attacked immediately after.


    For the next minute, the two of them locked each other in a ferocious close range combat with neither of them backing off or getting thrown off by the other''s attack.


    Kicks, punches, chops, palm strikes, elbow slams, knew strikes¡­for the next minute, every form of attack that could be performed by the body were used by the two of them yet none of them managed to land a clean hit or get the advantage.


    Bam! Bam! Bam! Clap!


    Loud sounds of flesh hitting flesh filled the room as Luke and Ivan danced around each other while throwing life-threatening attacks at one another.


    Ivan''s face was still as calm as ever but his eyes had changed completely that one might even think that he was possessed, his blue eyes were now looking as sharp as those of eagles and seems to be glowing faintly as he followed Luke''s every move; his current gaze was similar to those of powerful experts who had been through countless battles, some trainees could help but feel cold when they saw Ivan''s eyes while he fought.


    As for Luke, his face no longer had the smirk from before as a deep frown now etched on his forehead while gritting his teeth.


    He had been fighting for over a minute and could tell that his movements were faster than Ivan''s but no matter how he attacked, the latter was always able to block his attacks! It was almost as if Ivan could predict his attacks.


    He wasn''t the only one with this thought, Sommy, Miko, Malcolm, and Damian, the rest of the repeaters were also watching the fight between the two with serious expressions on their faces. This was because they had realized the same thing as Luke, Ivan seemed to be predicting Luke''s movements!


    As for the rest of the trainees, the movements of Ivan and Luke were just too rapid for them to follow, talk less of noticing anything. They could only stare at the two in awe.


    Compared to how their own training went, Ivan and Luke seemed to be in a death battle. The trainees concluded that they would not even last for five seconds if they had to face either of those two!


    "Since when was Ivan this strong? He wasn''t this powerful yesterday, how did he change overnight?!" Glen muttered absentmindedly as he watched one of his friends go toe-to-toe against a repeater. He felt both shocked and proud at the same time.


    Ralph did not respond to Glen, he continued watching the fight between Luke and Ivan with a serious expression. Unlike others who were amazed by Ivan''s combat strength, Ralph was more concerned about Ivan''s current expression. S§×ar?h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    To him, Ivan''s eyes appeared¡­empty. This was the same look that Ivan always had in his eyes when they first met in the outskirt, he has slowly changed over the years and Ralph had seen him show anger, hatred, dislike, happiness, relief, every other possible emotion but Ralph could not remember this emptiness among them.


    Miss Elora, who was watching from a distance, was having the same thoughts as Ralph. But since she wasn''t familiar with Ivan, she ticked it off that he must have been into fights a lot to be able to make such fast progress and possess such a focused gaze when fighting.


    If only she knew that Ivan hadn''t been into fights but had been used as a punching bag instead.


    Pam!!


    Ivan threw a punch but his fist was grabbed by Luke who refused to let go, taking advantage of this, he pulled Ivan over and launched a knee strike toward his waist.


    Ivan was caught off guard by this action, he tried to pull away but Luke held onto him tightly.


    BAM!!


    Luke''s knee slammed into Ivan''s side with so much force that it sent a great wave of pain to Ivan''s brain and made his whole body tremble. Ivan''s expression finally changed into one of pain; he gritted his teeth to prevent himself from making a sound.


    Finally landing a hit, Luke revealed a satisfied grin while at the same time letting go of Ivan and doing a spin.


    Ivan had barely regained his senses from the pain when he saw Luke''s leg coming down on him in a spinning kick, he quickly raised his arms to block it.


    Paw!!


    The kick landed heavily and Ivan stumbled backwards while enduring the new pain in his arms.


    Silence! The place became dead silent as everyone stared at the two.


    "Hehe, not so cocky anymore huh?" Luke landed and laughed when he saw Ivan''s twisted expression. He felt proud upon finally landing a clean hit on Ivan, this showed that they were not on the same level!


    Before Ivan could speak, Luke dashed toward him again. Ivan ignored the pain in his waist and arms as he once again locked Luke into a ferocious exchange of blows.


    They fought for another two minutes without anyone landing a hit but they could see that Ivan was being pushed into defending, Luke was slowly getting the upper hand.


    While dodging a blow from Luke, Ivan saw a chance and suddenly hugged Luke tightly.


    "What is this!?"


    Luke roared in confusion but before he could try to free himself, Ivan threw his head backwards and brought it forward with as much force as he could.


    Crack!!!


    "Ahhhhhhhh"


    The clear sound of Luke''s nose breaking rang through the room and what followed it was the agonizing screaming of Luke, Ivan had given him a full powered nod on his nose.


    "How dare you?! I will kill you!" Luke shouted in a crazed manner as red energy started rising from his body.


    Boom!!!

 Chapter 36: Dream. Is that your wish?

    "Ahhhhhhhh"The clear sound of Luke''s nose breaking rang through the room and what followed it was the agonizing screaming of Luke, Ivan had given him a full powered nod to his nose.


    "How dare you?! I will kill you!" Luke shouted in a crazed manner as red energy started rising from his body.


    Boom!!!


    The Nexus energy coming from Luke''s body exploded like a bomb and sent Ivan flying away like a broken kite.


    Ivan slammed onto the ground and rolled a few times before coming to a stop, his body was in pain but he didn''t make a sound and kept staring at Luke while forcing his legs to keep him standing.


    Luke currently had his nose bent and half was his face was covered in blood that kept rushing out from his bent nose, his eyes were bloodshot as he stared at Ivan with deep resentment.


    "You''re just a nobody, how dare you hit me in the face!" Luke bellowed as the Nexus energy around him quickly began to gather and soon formed a nano suit on Luke''s body as well as a helmet with glowing red eyes.


    Turned out that Luke had the battle mechanic talent!


    His current appearance was very similar to Gareth''s! A big laser gun formed in Luke''s hand which he aimed at Ivan and was preparing to fire!


    Ivan, despite his aching body, forced himself to rise to his feet after being sent flying by Luke''s Nexus outburst. No matter how much he had improved, Ivan realized that he still was not able to handle the amount of energy the repeaters possessed. But that did not mean that he was going to back away.


    With blood flowing from the side of his head and covering a part of his face, Ivan stood firm while gazing at Luke with a calm look in his eyes. His calmness further infuriated Luke.


    "You bastard! I''ll kill you!" He roared but before he could fire a shot at Ivan, a beauty with long green hair appeared in front of him.


    "That''s enough, the training session for today is over" Miss Elora casually said while staring at the two glowing eyes on Luke''s helmet.


    One could hear Luke click his tongue in dissatisfaction from under his helmet before retracting his Nexus energy, his nano suit vanished and with his bloodied face stormed out of the class.


    Bang!


    Luke slammed the door shut behind him, Miss Elora stared at the closed door with a frown; she had the impulse to go hit Luke a few times but decided to let him be in the end.


    Just before she could turn around.


    Thud!


    "Ivan!"


    The sound of something hitting the ground followed by the screams of Ralph and Glen rang from behind her, she hurriedly turned around to see what had happened. What she found was an unconscious Ivan on the floor, Ralph and Glen were rushing to his side.


    "Tks, senseless idiots" Elora cursed under her breath while staring at Ivan.


    His condition didn''t look that bad from the outside but she knew that Luke''s Nexus burst must have done something to his organs but the boy had pretended like he was alright until Luke left the room.


    Elora took the unconscious Ivan from Ralph and dismissed training, she then carried him to the infirmary like a bag of potatoes. A lot of people were surprised to see Elora carrying a body but quickly went back to minding their business when they saw it was a bloodied trainee.


    ...¡­..


    Ivan found himself standing in the middle of a ruined city, collapsed streets, destroyed buildings, wrecked vehicles, and bloody corpses scattered all over the place. The entire place was in such a mess that Ivan found it difficult to recognize this place as San Pluto but the truth was right before his very eyes.


    The destroyed building he was standing on was the home of the old driver who had sheltered them during their one week stay and in front of him were the corpse of the old man, his wife, and introverted daughter; their son was nowhere to be seen.


    What freaked Ivan out the most was how gruesome their corpses were, they looked like the remains of a beast''s meal!


    Ivan stood rooted to the ground, countless emotions running through him at a fast speed that made his body unable to react for a long time as he could only stare at the sight in front of him with wide eyes.


    Boom!!!


    Roar!!


    Suddenly, a huge explosion rang out behind Ivan followed by howling of beasts.


    Ivan stiffly turned around and what he saw sent terror drilling into his bones, his hands trembled and he forced himself from falling.


    Up in the sky was an enormous mirror gate! Yes, a link to the dreamscape!


    This mirror gate was much larger than the one Ivan had seen in the playground back in the outskirt with countless monsters flooding out from it. Different kinds of monsters filled the sky while large and enormous hideous looking ones roamed the ground.


    It was a mess as hundreds of humans that Ivan realized were Nexulytes charged at these monsters in an all out battle.


    Explosions rang out constantly and monsters and humans were killed every second! Screams of pain, anger, and fear filled the air as battle between humans and monsters raged on.


    Amidst this chaos, Ivan sighted a few familiar figures.


    First one was Glen who was facing off against a swarm of bee-like monstera while standing on the head of an enormous white snake that was the size of a skyscraper with over a hundred floors.


    These bee monsters only had the bodies of bees but no more similar features, their sizes were similar to that of an elephant and they had humanoid skeleton heads! Their wings were pitch black and bone-like  with blood flowing from them constantly.


    Glen was soon completely surrounded by these monsters that Ivan wasn''t able to see him or his white snake despite its enormous size, the only thing that made Ivan know that he was still alive were the frequent flash of red light which were signs that Glen was using Nexus energy!


    The second person was Ralph, Ralph was currently wearing a black battle suit with two small guns in both hands. His face was dirty, hair covered in blood and blood dripping from the side of his mouth. His battle suit was a mess with many tears on it through which one could see the wounds he had sustained.


    Around Ralph was a small army of undead beings in black robes, they all had red aura rising from their bodies while they stared at the rocky monsters approaching with blood red eyes.


    Surrounding the small army of undead that were protecting Ralph were over a thousand rock monsters, each carrying an axe made of rock.


    Another person Ivan was able to spot was Miss Elora.


    Clad in a dark blue combat suit, she wielded two blood red gauntlets that were clearly too big for her fists as she went up against a demon-like monster in hand to hand combat.


    Every strike they exchanged was deadly and fast and each collision of their fists generated explosive sounds along with strong gusts of wind that threatened to destroy the ground.


    While still watching, Ivan saw the monster suddenly find a chance and sent a powerful punch toward Miss Elora''s chest.


    BAM!!


    The sound of the collision was deafening as Miss Elora was sent flying like a broken kite while smashing into everything in her way.


    Aside from that, a lot of other fights were going on around him but Ivan wasn''t able to move from where he was and everything seemed to be ignoring him.


    His friends were in the face of death, his instructor was facing danger, a lot of humans were being killed every second but Ivan wasn''t doing anything.


    A thought suddenly came to him.


    ''What can you do? You''re just one person, what can you change? Isn''t this what you always wanted? For Nexulytes to die obediently? They are Nexulytes and they are just fulfilling your wish, why should you bother?!''


    The thought was like a brainwashing whisper in Ivan''s mind that made his whole body tremble, he felt a strong sense of pleasure from watching people die trying to take over his mind. Just in time, another thought countered the first one.


    "They may be Nexulytes but they were your friends before gaining that identity, they stayed by you for years and looked out for you. Remember your promise of brotherhood, shouldn''t you at least consider their kindness? Is it really alright to let them die?"


    " Shut up! Nexulytes are bad people, they deserve death no matter who they are. The world will be a better place without them!"


    " Aren''t you a Nexulyte too? Do you wish to die then?"


    Ivan''s mind seemed to have become two different people as they argued nonstop while giving Ivan a reason to help or just keep watching.


    But could he really do anything? He was just one person and even if he wanted to help, how could he change things by himself?


    Ivan was on the verge of breakdown, his mind was about to explode. Unable to decide, he opened his mouth and screamed.


    "Shut up!"


    Like a powerful sound wave, his shout spread out across the whole place, freezing time and silencing everything; not even the wind was moving.


    In this frozen world, only Ivan could move and speak.


    Ivan fell to his knees, unaware of what his shout had caused. He was only glad that he finally got a moment of quietness. S§×ar?h the nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Looking at his hands that were now holding two cards each, Ivan wondered when he had used his talent but couldn''t remember summoning them. But it didn''t matter, what mattered was that Ivan had suddenly come to a decision.


    He had given up on dying after becoming a Nexulyte but that didn''t mean he didn''t hate Nexulytes. His new principle was¡­


    "Whoever hurt my friends¡­must die! Human or monster "


    " Is that what you wished for, Wisher?"


    A voice suddenly spoke up from above Ivan, a voice that made Ivan''s body jolt for some reason.


    Ivan hurriedly looked up and above him was a man floating in the air, clad in golden armor with a cape hanging over his shoulders. The man gave Ivan a familiar feeling yet he could not remember knowing him.


    "Is that your deepest desire, wisher?" The man once again asked, seeing that Ivan wasn''t responding.


    "I¡­"

 Chapter 37: Way of a wisher.

    "Is that your deepest desire, wisher?" The man once again asked, seeing that Ivan wasn''t responding."I¡­"


    Ivan tried to speak but no words would come out of his mouth, he could only stare at the man with his mouth hung open while the man stared back at him. The man had a rather handsome face with eyes similar to Ivan''s and white hair just like Ivan''s hair as well but Ivan still could not recognize this person.


    Heck, he didn''t know a lot of people to begin with!


    Seeing Ivan unable to say what was in his mind, the man decided to continue. While still floating in the air, Nexus energy began to leak out from his body before condensing into blue cards with golden edges.


    These cards were just like Ivan''s wish cards!


    The man made the cards he had summoned to float around him like a lightless sun.


    "If that is what you want, then wish for it!" The man said to Ivan in a commanding tone.


    He stretched out one of his hands and a card flew out from the ring of cards and landed on his hand. He held the card in front of his chest and said something that Ivan wasn''t able to hear.


    Soon after¡­


    Wooosh!!


    The card shattered into tiny red, blue, and golden particles that drifted in the air and went in the direction of Glen and the bee-like monsters.


    While still frozen and unable to react, the tiny particles swept through the swarm of monsters and shredded them into pieces!


    Ivan was shocked at this sight, he looked at the frozen decimated monster parts that floated around Glen with wide eyes.


    Before he could recover, the man''s voice pulled his attention again.


    "Wish for it if it''s what you desire, make it happen if that''s what you want!" The man voiced out, his voice now high enough to pass as a shout.


    At the same time, three cards flew out consecutively and shattered into light particles which spread and attacked various monsters. The tough bodies of the monsters were light paper and easily shredded by the light particles.


    "Wish for it!" The man yelled again as another card flew out and shattered.


    Boom!!!


    This time it did not attack a monster but scattered into the air as countless red energy barriers formed around every human in sight, protecting them from the monsters.


    "TURN IT TO REALITY!" The voice of the man boomed once more as he turned his head and stared right at Ivan in the eyes.


    Suddenly able to find his speech, he sprang up to his feet with a determined face. The man''s demonstration of his ability had moved him and he wanted to learn.


    "But how, how do I turn it into reality!?" Ivan called out in a desperate voice. He had been trying to understand his talent for a whole month now but had only managed to get a response from it once.


    "How?" The man repeated Ivan''s words as he stared at him with a raised eyebrow, he maintained the stare for a few seconds before stretching out a hand and taking another card.


    "Watch closely" the man ordered as his eyes suddenly started glowing with red light.


    "REVERSE!" He calmly said but for some reason, his voice sounded like a thunderclap in Ivan''s eyes but what happened next was what brought Ivan the real shock.


    Immediately after the man said the word, Ivan saw the world around him begin to flow back in reverse.


    Pieces of collapsed buildings rose into the air, destroyed vehicles reformed in slow motion; everything was repaired to its original state after the man said those words and within just a minute, the place had turned back to how Ivan remembered it. Ivan the dead people came back to life with only the exemption of the monsters and that everything was still frozen in place.


    Ivan saw the bodies of the old driver and his family coming back to life and the city returning to its original state.


    "Wish for it, envision it, want it, make it your desire¡­make it a reality!"


    The man''s thunderous voice rang in Ivan''s ears after the whole place was restored, he was giving Ivan a lecture on how to use his ability!


    Ivan stared at the cards in his hands, thinking to himself if he could do the same thing.


    "Can I¡­really do this?"


    He wasn''t able to get an answer to his question before time began to flow freely again but this time. Every single monster turned their eyes on him, and they charged towards him.


    Ivan was spooked by the sudden change and didn''t know what to do as he was swarmed by the monster as he wasn''t able to even see the sky anymore, he frantically held the cards in front of him but nothing happened and the monsters were getting closer.


    "Desire it, don''t just think about it!"


    That was the last thing that Ivan heard the man say before the demon-like monster that had been fighting Miss Elora previously appeared in front of him and punched him in the face, everything went blank.


    .....


    Gasp!!!


    Ivan suddenly woke up and jumped to his feet in a swift moment, his breathing was rigid and he was covered in sweat. It took him a few seconds to realize what was happening.


    He was currently in the infirmary and what he had just gone through was most likely a dream¡­no, it was a nightmare!


    "Oh, you''re up? Why are you out of bed and how are you covered in so much sweat?" A soft voice drifted into Ivan''s ears. He looked over and saw that it was the same woman who had healed them when they came here the last time.


    The woman stared at Ivan''s erratic breathing and the sweat all over his body "Hmm, you had a bad dream while unconscious? Not like it''s my business anyway" she said before moving to check his condition.


    "You''re perfectly fine now, although this time wasn''t as bad as last time. I thought I remembered some people promising to stay away from dangerous situations. Seems like you have a talent for creating them" she said with a serious expression to which Ivan could only mutter a weak "sorry" while slightly lowering his head.


    The woman stared at him for a few seconds before shaking her head "Come with me, you have visitors waiting for you outside" She said and led Ivan to the entrance of the infirmary. There, Glen, Ralph, and surprisingly Miss Elora were waiting for him.


    Ivan could not resist staring at this young instructor of his with a confused gaze.


    Noticing Ivan''s gaze, Elora glanced at him with cold eyes before saying.


    "Don''t look at me, the tower master wants to meet you," she said briefly.


    They left the infirmary and returned to the lobby where Glen and Ralph left to continue their own things.


    Glen didn''t make it into the top fifty so he still had to follow the normal training routine and attend classes while Ralph was planning to go check out the library and see what he could find there, they agreed to go look at the training room later after Ivan was back from seeing the tower master.


    Agreeing on this, Ivan and Miss Elora took an elevator to the top of the tower where the office of the tower master was.


    Arriving at the familiar office, they met James who immediately went straight to the point which would be Ivan''s new training.


    He also commended Ivan for managing to stand his ground against a new Mortal king Nexulyte, it turned out that the tower master was aware that Luke had reached an AP of over 10% and was now at the Mortal king rank.


    This information left Ivan stunned for a while, he knew that the repeaters were strong but he didn''t expect Luke who was ranked the lowest amongst them to be so strong. Then what about the others who were ranked higher?


    Was he going to be able to have a peaceful life after his months of grace?


    "I know what you''re thinking, don''t worry too much about it. With the new training routine I''ve prepared for you, I guarantee that you''ll not be helpless when facing them after the third month" James said, pulling Ivan from his sea of worrisome thoughts.


    His new training program was¡­


    After morning training, he was to go straight to the Nexus chamber every day and spend the next three hours there. After which he would come to him for talent training, next would be weapon/combat training where his partner would be none other than Miss Elora.


    "But tower master¡­ " Elora tried to object but was stopped by a hand gesture from James.


    " I''m not requesting this as the tower master, I''m asking for your help in this as your father, " James said to her with a gentle smile on his face.


    Elora stared at the man in front of her, stunned by the sudden words for a good number of seconds before eventually turning with a faint blush on her face.


    "I''ll listen to Father," she muttered softly.


    This revelation shocked Ivan, so these two were father and daughter?


    Following this addition to his training, Ivan was to go to the training room where he would spend a good part of whatever was left of the day.


    He was informed that the training room had one hundred levels and the further one went, the harder each level would get. Currently, the highest any trainee had climbed was the 30th level and that was accomplished by a trainee who had held first place on the ranking during the training last year.


    This discovery came as a pleasant surprise to Ivan, fighting intent blazed within his eyes; he couldn''t wait to go to the training room.


    "And that''s all for now. Elora, you can carry on with whatever you have been doing. Ivan, come with me. I''ll take you to the Nexus chamber" James said as he rose from his chair.


    (Hello!! Author here, I want to ask for your help. What''s the best tool to use on someone you want to kill but don''t want them to die quickly, so they can feel as much pain as possible? Fantasy weapons of course, for Ivan''s use)


    S~ea??h the n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

 Chapter 38: Fusion

    James and Ivan took the elevator and began to go down after closing its door. They reached the lobby but the elevator did not stop as Ivan had expected; it continued to descend underground!They kept going for a minute more under the ground before the elevator finally stopped and the door opened, revealing a long stone corridor. Two people in black uniforms stood at the entrance of the corridor and bowed to James immediately after they spotted him.


    " We greet the Tower master!" They both said in unison while bowing their heads.


    James waved one of his hands in response before walking through, Ivan walked right behind him under the curious gaze of the two people in uniform.


    The corridor was like an ancient tunnel made of bricks with a few torches hanging on its sides to lighten the path; the discovery of such a place in the Tower had surprised Ivan greatly. He still remembered how tall the building of the tower was from outside, it almost pierced the clouds!


    Since their arrival, he had only been to so few floors and even this underground; what other secrets could those many floors hold?


    They walked for about five minutes before finally exiting the corridor and came to an empty chamber with nothing but surging Nexus energy, the place looked like a typical cave that one could find anywhere with untempered walls and flat ground. To the side of this chamber was a stairway that led further down.


    James explained that this was the first level of the Nexus chamber where the fifth position on the ranking could train, he also said that it has the worst quality compared to the other four chambers.


    Ivan found this statement difficult to believe, he could very well feel the surging Nexus inside this chamber; it was so strong that he could faintly feel it brushing against his skin! He believed that he would be able to progress very quickly if he trained here.


    At least an additional 0.03% to his normal speed outside!


    It was only after they visited the other four chambers did Ivan understood why James had said that the first chamber had the worst quality!


    In the fourth chamber, the Nexus there was so abundant that Ivan could clearly feel it in his skin. In the third chamber, the Nexus was so thick that Ivan felt that he could taste it if he tried hard enough.


    In the second chamber, he felt he would be able to grab the Nexus energy; of course, this was only a feeling of how much he felt the presence of the energy and for a fact that he could faintly see it mixed with the oxygen in the chamber.


    The last chamber and the one meant for first place was what had given Ivan the greatest shock. This chamber looked even more ancient than the previous four, the walls of this chamber were a mixture of red and brown which spoke of their age, and in the center of the chamber was a small pond filled with pristine sparkling water that filled the chamber with a soothing scent.


    The Nexus energy in this chamber was so thick that Ivan could see them, literally! They formed small red clouds and drifted about in the air while releasing red wisps constantly.


    Ivan could not even dare to imagine how much progress he could make if he trained her for only one day!


    "This¡­" Ivan stuttered while still standing in the middle of the stairway. He was too shocked to speak as he struggled to control his expression.


    " Hehe, I like that expression on your face. I heard it''s very difficult to make you change your blank expression, I know this would work" James chuckled when he saw Ivan''s expression, he was pleased with it.


    Ivan quickly calmed himself upon hearing James'' words and walked down the stairway, James revealed a small smirk when he saw the boy quickly adjust his demeanor.


    "Let me not take much of your time, this is your chamber and you can come here to absorb Nexus energy whenever you want. Of course, that''s as long as you can keep holding onto the first place on the ranking" James said and patted Ivan''s shoulder lightly.


    "The two people we met in the corridor just then will help you return to the lobby when you''re done, you can come see me when you come out. Good luck kid" James added before leaving Ivan alone.


    Now alone in the chamber, Ivan approached the pond and deeper his fingers into it. The water was cold and spread a cooling sensation into Ivan''s hand.


    "It''s not dangerous," Ivan said to himself.


    Taking off his tracksuit and gray T-shirt, Ivan was left with only his boxers.


    Splash! Splash!


    He slowly walked into the lake till it reached his waist, he took one last look at his surroundings before going down.


    Blup!


    Ivan sat with his legs crossed underwater, he closed his eyes and immediately began to absorb Nexus from around him.


    He had exhausted all the Nexus in his Nexus chamber during his experiment earlier so he first had to refill the now empty Nexus chamber. This took only a few minutes which was way faster than usual!


    After filling his Nexus chamber to the brim, Ivan started to refine the Nexus to increase his AP; he was once again startled by the result.


    +0.01%


    +0.01%


    +0.01%


    ¡­.


    He would gain an additional 0.01 increase in AP every few seconds! This increase in speed shocked Ivan so greatly that he momentarily stopped defining Nexus to be sure that he wasn''t dreaming.


    ''Such speed!'' Ivan exclaimed in his mind before he resumed absorbing and refining.


    With enough Nexus energy to circulate in his body, he did not have to worry about breathing for a few hours.


    ...


    James had by now reached the corridor, he approached the elevator in calm steps but his face had an expectant smile on it.


    "Even if his talent hasn''t been figured out yet, his progress with an SS talent level should still be of great use to the tower in the future. Work hard kid, let''s see how terrifying an SS-level talent is" James mumbled to himself as he entered the elevator and tapped on the ascend button.


    ¡­..


    While Ivan was busy increasing his AP in the Nexus chamber of the tower, Ralph was buried in a pile of books in the library.


    Five long rows of books created a miniature wall of books on the table with Ralph behind it sitting on a chair with another book in his hands which he read with a very serious expression.


    The back of the book was a title which read: The fuse of both worlds.


    In this book was information about the fusion of the dreamscape and the real world which happened once every ten years, the number of times and dates that such had happened were all written in this book and according to the date of the last fuse, the next one was just a few months away! To be more precise, it was expected to happen in the third or fourth month of the following year!


    "Such a coincidence! That will be just a few months after we finish training!" Ralph could not help but exclaim at this discovery.


    He had heard about the fusion of the dreamscape and real-world once when he was a kid but could not clearly remember what it was.


    Now that he was reading this book, he realized that it was around that time that his mother got her injury which later led them to move to the outskirt. It was said in the book that when the fuse happened, all Nexulytes regardless of rank would be pulled into the dreamscape forcefully and unprepared.


    Their locations in the real world would be mirrored in the dreamscape and it was advised for every Nexulyte to be close to a tower branch during this period so they could team with other Nexulytes when required. S§×arch* The N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    There had also been cases of Nexulytes appearing a few distances from their supposed locations but the gap would not be too exaggerated, there had also been unlucky people who directly appeared in the midst of monsters and forbidden zones.


    During this period, no Nexulyte would be able to return to the real world and the fusion usually lasted for days with the longest being a month!


    If one were to be at a place that was far from a tower, one should try to locate one in the dreamscape as fast as possible because terrifying monsters and forbidden zones in the dreamscape are usually very active during those periods; encountering one would be a Nexulyte''s unluckiest moment or a Nexulyte''s most horrifying experience if they survived.


    "Hmm, only three to four months after our training" Ralph mumbled as he fell into thoughts. He decided to inform Glen and Ivan about this so they could prepare more, he had also decided to train harder as he intended to challenge the top five on the ranking soon; he wanted to get his hand on one of the Nexus chambers.

 Chapter 40: Training room

    " I know it wasn''t on purpose, I couldn''t feel any killing intent from you or the sword which shouldn''t have been the case if you were trying to harm me; that would have been impossible even if that was the case, at least for the current you. But¡­how did you do it?" James assured Ivan he was bothered about what just happened before asking what he was curious about."I¡­don''t know, I just thought of a sword attack and this happened, " Ivan said half truthfully, he didn''t want to disclose everything to James. After all, no matter how kind James seemed, ivans still could not easily get over the fact that he was also a¡­Nexulyte.


    "Hmm, it''s alright. Elora Will come get you soon, we''ll continue trying tomorrow" James said after giving some thought and decided not to press Ivan further.


    Elora soon came and Ivan followed her out of the office, after Ivan left.


    James'' face immediately turned into one of shock that he had been suppressing for a few minutes now, he lifted his left hand and looked at his palm.


    On it was a small shallow cut which was a result of him blocking Ivan''s sword, his body trembled.


    "How terrifying, if I didn''t react as fast as I did then the result could have been severe! He''s not even a Mortal king yet and he was able to wound me with a sneak attack!" James exclaimed, barely containing his excitement and disbelief.


    Such miraculous talent, if the Owen Tower could gain the full trust of such a person then there might be the hope of restoring the world and the heroes of it would be them!


    "He thought of a sword attack¡­hmm, thought, wisher, wish" James eyes suddenly widened in realization.


    " I get it now! He just has to wish for something to make it happen, of course! That''s what a wish should be! I have to inform father about this!" James said to himself as he hurriedly grabbed the book he had dropped unknowingly and vanished from the office.


    ....


    Meanwhile, Elora had brought Ivan away to another place.


    This place was just as huge as the usual combat classroom with reinforced walls and weapon racks with different types of weapons on all sides of the room, various training types of equipment like dummies, automatic firing machines, and the like could be found in this room.


    A stage was set in the middle of the room that acted as a small arena for people to practice against each other, Elora walked toward one of the numerous weapon racks before turning to Ivan.


    "What weapon would you like to train with?" She asked.


    Ivan looked at the numerous weapons in the room, there were so many of them that he didn''t even recognize some thus making him unable to choose quickly.


    "Don''t just pick a weapon because of how cool it will look when wielded, your weapon will become an instrument of killing, saving, and also protecting your life in the future so make sure to choose after really considering it" Elora advised when she saw Ivan staring at the various fancy weapons on the weapon racks.


    Ivan''s face turned serious when he heard this and after minutes of thought, he made a choice.


    His choice of weapon was¡­a sword, this didn''t come as too much of a surprise to Elora. But Ivan had different thoughts.


    One was that the sword was like a short stick which he was familiar with; he usually used sticks and bars to defend himself in the outskirt when there was nothing to throw, the sword was just like a short stick to him.


    Another reason was its sharpness, being able to cut and stab made it a nice choice. Lastly, using a sword would make him look¡­cool.


    "Hmm, a sword it is then" Elora nodded, turned to the weapon rack close to her, and grabbed two swords before passing one to Ivan.


    "I''m not an expert in using the sword and it''s not my strongest forte, but I have enough experience to teach a newbie like you the basics. Don''t think I''ll go easy on you just because my fa¡­the Tower master thinks favorably of you " Elora said before getting into a stance, Ivan followed her movements as they began training.


    ¡­..


    A few hours later.


    Ivan could be seen walking out of the infirmary with an apologetic smile on his face, behind him was the woman who had treated him the two times he had been brought here; she had her arms folded in front of her chest and a pout on her face as she glared at Ivan''s back.


    Elora had been serious when she said that she wasn''t planning on holding back against Ivan even when he was a beginner, they had even used real swords instead of practice swords and Elora had been ruthless and harsh with her training that Ivan had ended up sustaining some injuries and had to come for treatment.


    "Better look after yourself, you hear me? I don''t want to see you anywhere close to this place for the next two weeks!" The woman in a white coat said sternly to the departing Ivan. Ivan''s rate of pulling up to the infirmary was too frequent compared to other trainees and she was starting to get concerned.


    Although the infirmary was able to bring people to peak health in no time, such a mentality wasn''t fit for young people.


    "Sorry, I''ll try not to" Ivan replied awkwardly as he hurriedly left the place.


    Ivan left for the lobby after leaving the infirmary, he found Ralph was already waiting there as planned.


    "Hey, Ivan. You finally came" Ralph called out when he spotted Ivan approaching him and Ivan responded with a silent nod before sitting beside Ralph while they waited for Glen.


    For some reason, Ivan felt strange sitting like this with Ralph. Not that he disliked it or anything. It was just that, for the past month, he had taken training so seriously that they had not been hanging around as much as they used to and Ivan felt bad about this.


    Ralph seemed to notice Ivan''s strange emotions and stared at the white-haired young man while shifting his glasses.


    "Are you alright? Something bothering you?" Ralph asked.


    Ivan was a little startled by the question, he looked at Ralph who was staring back at him before looking away with a guilty look on his face.


    "It''s nothing, I''m fine" Ivan replied after a few seconds of silence. Sear?h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Ralph stared at the side of Ivan''s face for a few seconds before sighing, he suddenly noticed that Ivan had grown a bit different after one month although the changes were almost unnoticeable since they saw each other every day during training.


    "You don''t have to feel guilty about anything Ivan, we understand perfectly. Everyone is trying to get stronger as quickly as possible and we shouldn''t be held back by unnecessary things, we''ll have all the chance to hang out and fool around like before after leaving here; everything will be different by then and it will be a good experience.


    So don''t think that you''re distancing yourself from us, you didn''t get first place by luck if you really think about it. Glen thinks the same too, so don''t dare slack off because of this or stop training seriously; you never know when I''ll come for your first place " Ralph said with a small smirk on his face.


    Ivan was taken by surprise by these words, he stared at Ralph for a long time with his mouth hung open. When he finally recovered, his lips curved into a big smile as he quietly muttered ''''I understand, thanks "


    Ralph smiled back at this and struck up a conversation while they waited for Glen.


    Glen arrived a while later and looked as tired as an old man.


    "Damnit! The class today was so boring, I almost fell asleep" he lamented as he landed his butt heavily on the bench beside Ivan.


    "There''s something I want to tell you guys," Ralph said immediately after Glen sat down, the boy obviously stared at him with resentment; would he kill him to let Glen take some breath first?


    While Ivan stared at Ralph with a curious expression, he didn''t seem to have anything important to say before.


    "Don''t look at me like that, I was waiting for everyone before saying it because I don''t want to repeat myself" Ralph said in his defense and proceeded to tell the two of them about what he had read in the library¡­the fusion of the dreamscape and the real world.


    After explaining everything that he had learned in the library, Ralph turned silent and allowed the information to sink into the two.


    A few seconds later Glen finally broke the silence.


    "Damn, seems like going to the library is better than attending classes. The fusion was also mentioned to us in today''s class but it wasn''t as detailed as what you''ve explained, we have to make enough preparations before then! From now on, I''ll train harder and try to enter the top fifty" Glen voiced out with determination, Ivan only nodded.


    The three friends spent some time together before going their separate ways, while Glen returned for more classes, Ralph and Ivan went to the training room; Glen wouldn''t be able to use the training room as it was only available for those in the top fifty.


    Ralph and Ivan arrived at the training room and found a few trainees were there as well. They were staring at something on the roof.


    The two of them looked up and saw that it was a list of names similar to the ranking list.


    This one only counted up to a hundred and out of it, thirty were lit up while the rest were dim. On the thirtieth row was a single name which showed that only that person had managed to reach that place.


    " Alaric Vladimir" Ivan called out the name on the thirtieth spot, every other name was placed on the twentieth row and downward, none could be found above the twentieth row until the thirtieth except this Alaric Vladimir.


    Not paying any more attention to the list, Ivan immediately entered one of the training rooms with determination to surpass this person.


    Ivan entered the place and he found a pod which he immediately entered, he was transported to another place that looked like a VR world.


    [Welcome to the training hall]


    [Initializing trail, level one]


    [Pain, senses, movements, trainees data has been set to reflect real life]


    [Begin training!]


    A set of prompts popped up in front of Ivan before vanishing and in front of Ivan was a monster he was ever so familiar with¡­the one-eyed monster that had almost killed them during their test.


    "Let''s do this!" Ivan muttered to himself as a card appeared in his hand.


    Roar!!


    At the same time, the monster lunged at Ivan with remarkable speed while swiping its long hands at him.

 Chapter 41: Level 25

    Two months later, three months since the beginning of the training program in Owen Tower.Grrrrrrrrrrgh!


    Roar!!!!!


    Screeeeee!


    Hisssss!!


    In the middle of the virtual space of the training room, Ivan could be seen standing leisurely with an expressionless look on his face.


    Surrounding him were over twenty different monsters with menacing sizes and ferocious appearances, they were all prepared to shred Ivan to pieces at any moment but Ivan did not seem to care; he wasn''t even paying them any attention.


    "Sigh"


    A low sound escaped Ivan''s mouth as one of his hands conjured Nexus energy which then turned into a card.


    "Kill" Ivan mumbled softly as the scene of these monsters getting shredded into minced meat formed in his mind.


    Wooosh!!


    The card floated into the air before scattering into light particles and at the same time, all the monsters lunged at Ivan with their mouths wide open and their claws swiping toward him.


    SHING!! SHING!! SHING!!


    Sounds of flesh being cut through resounded across the whole space as the light particles of the card intercepted the monsters midair and shredded them all into pieces in an instant.


    Showers of flesh and blood rained from the air as the whole place around Ivan turned into a bloody mess of minced corpses.


    Ivan only watched this scene with a neutral expression, he was now very used to such a scene so it didn''t bother him. He waited for a few seconds before the blood and flesh of the monsters turned into holographs before disappearing, the place was now neat and spotless with only Ivan standing there.


    [Level 24 cleared successfully, the trainee may proceed to the next level!]


    [Trainee id: Ivan Von Charles, would you like to continue or stop?]


    A prompt appeared in front of Ivan as an electronic voice read out the words to Ivan.


    Ivan looked at the prompt in front of him and then looked at his hands and folded them, Ivan was actually exhausted despite appearing calm.


    "I have used up six cards to climb up to the 24th level and I can only use my talent one more time before completely running out of Nexus, should I continue or stop for now?" Ivan asked himself, contemplating what to do next. For the past months, the monster on the twenty-fifth level was a boss that Ivan had found difficult to defeat because he was always left with few cards when facing it.


    Every five levels of the training room would hold a boss-level monster for the trainees to face and the monster on the 25th level was one that Ivan found particularly annoying to deal with, causing his progress in climbing the levels of the training room to come to a halt.


    After a minute of consideration, Ivan finally came to a decision.


    " Continue" Ivan voiced out.


    Receiving the command, the prompt in front of Ivan vanished and a hologram appeared opposite Ivan which slowly became lifelike before finally turning into a green-skinned monster.


    The monster had the shape of a human with four arms, a third eye in the middle of its forehead along with wings that seemed to be made of rocks. This was the boss of the 25th training level that had prevented Ivan from climbing higher for an entire month.


    The monster came to life after a few seconds and its eyes immediately landed on Ivan, a look of recognition flashed in its three eyes as a devious smirk formed on its green face.


    Ivan equally smirked upon seeing the monster, a card appeared in his hand before turning into a long red-bladed sword.


    "Hello, old friend. Did you miss me? I''ve come to kill you for good this time" Ivan whispered to the monster before both of them charged at each other.


    Outside Ivan''s training room. A lot of trainees could be seen gathered outside, they were all looking at the list of names beside the 100 levels of the training room.


    "He''s in! He''s in! Ivan has completed the 24th level again!"


    "Damn, we all started together but why do I feel like he''s an expert in disguise?!"


    "True, he''s already as strong as the repeaters, if not stronger!"


    "He''s a monster! A monster! Just three months and he''s already about to break a record!"


    "Say, do you think he''ll clear the 25th level this time?"


    "It''s hard to say, he hasn''t been able to make the 25th level light up since his ascension. What would make today different?"


    " Don''t be a sore loser, you know well that he has a talent for surprising people "


    " Let''s just keep watching, it''s either he comes out soon or clears the 25th level. Either will only prove how much of a monster he is, even the strongest repeater is still at level 21!"


    A lot of trainees said to one another as they stared at the list of training levels in astonishment. Two months ago after Ivan started challenging the training hall, he had managed to leave the trainees in shock every single day because of his unimaginable achievements. One had to know that the average level a normal trainee in the top fifty has managed to reach in these two months was level seven!


    The most impressive ones reached ten and even the repeaters were still below the twentieth level; after all, a trainee might have to challenge a single level multiple times before finally clearing it, Just like how Ivan had been struggling with the monster on level 25.


    But still, Ivan as a new trainee had left them behind in the dust! Be it his weapon training with Miss Elora, talent training with Tower Master James, his AP training, or even the training rooms, Ivan had proven to be an absolute monster in all aspects; the title of genius was not worthy of him anymore! S~ea??h the ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    In a corner of the training room, two girls could be seen standing close to each other. One was a brown-skinned beautiful young lady with sexy curves, the other was a petite girl with yellow hair tied up in a ponytail.


    These two were Sommy and Miko, ranked second and third on the ranking.


    "Wow, he keeps surprising everyone. To think Luke was picking on such a monster, he must be regretting it" Sommy exclaimed.


    "Hmph! It''s only because he got the best Nexus chamber that his progress is so fast" Miko snorted, unwilling to accept that Ivan was a genius amongst geniuses.


    "Come on, don''t be like that. What''s the use of a Nexus chamber to us at this point? We''ll still pass the training this time successfully anyway, so why not give the chance to others?" Sommy suggested with a soft giggle.


    Miko only snorted in response without saying a word, Sommy shook her head at Miko''s action as she went silent as well.


    Not far away, Glen and Ralph could be seen staring at the list as well.


    "He''s the one who hated Nexulytes the most, but he''s becoming a terrifying one himself," Glen said with a teasing voice.


    Seeing that Ralph did not respond to him, he made a serious face before speaking again.


    "Seriously, his speed of getting stronger scares me at times. Is our talent level so big?" Glen asked in a somewhat dispirited tone.


    "It''s also because of the Nexus chamber in the tower, it''s why he can get so strong in a short time" Ralph stared at Glen and said.


    "If that''s so, then why don''t we ask him to share with us? You know, we can challenge him and he''ll lose on purpose, and then repeat the circle between ourselves so everyone can get a share that way" Glen proposed seriously.


    Ralph looked at him with a look of surprise in his eyes, this was actually his first time hearing Glen propose something that made sense without anyone having to tell him first.


    But he shook his head after a few seconds. That idea might be great but Ralph felt it was too much to ask for even from a brother, they knew very well how Ivan craved strength and how much he had suffered. So asking him to give up his way of accomplishing his dream felt just too cruel.


    In the end, Glen still brought up useless ideas.


    Glen could very well guess what Ralph was thinking and made an angry face.


    " You don''t even know if it will work yet and you''re already insulting me in your mind!" He hissed at Ralph.


    Ralph didn''t deny it and simply told the boy not to bring up this topic ever again especially not in front of Ivan. No matter how close they were, trying to take advantage of one''s friend wasn''t noble.


    "Look!"


    "Oh my God!"


    "He did it! The monster finally did it!"


    "Damnit, why am I feeling happy and angry at the same time?!"


    Loud shouts of the other trainees suddenly exploded through the whole area of the training room. Ralph quickly looked up and saw that the number "25" was currently lit up which meant that someone had just defeated the monster there!

 Chapter 42: Three months recap

    Inside the training room, Ivan could be seen sitting in a corner of the virtual space. Signs of battles could be seen around him, the walls were littered with cracks and holes and so was the ground.Blood painted a side of the wall and reached the ground, pieces of rocks could be seen scattered all over the place. On one side was the corpse of the monster that was the boss of this level, one of its three eyes had been damaged and one of its rocky wings was missing.


    A red sword could be seen stabbing from the side of its neck which had been the reason for its death. Ivan sat opposite the corpse of the monster and wasn''t in that much of a better shape than the monster, the only difference was that he was alive and the monster was dead.


    Countless claw marks could be seen all over Ivan''s body and the most glaring ones were the three long gashes on his chest through which blood flowed out from, the wounds were so deep that Ivan''s lungs and rib bones could be seen.


    Cough! Spit!


    Ivan coughed and spat out a mouthful of blood, his breathing was getting difficult and he knew that he wouldn''t last much longer.


    "Damn realistic feeling of the training room, feels like I''m in the real world" Ivan cursed, the amount of pain he was in was truly unimaginable and he felt like crying, the feedback of the training room was just too realistic!


    Raising his head to look at the corpse of the monster that had always defeated him for an entire month, Ivan temporarily forgot about the pain as  he felt a sense of achievement. He had finally won, he had defeated the monster; although it had been a close one, it was still a win regardless.


    [Trainee has cleared level 25 of the training room, proceed to the next level or end here?] A prompt appeared as a systematic voice said to Ivan.


    "End here" Ivan replied without hesitation. He was in no condition to fight right now because even a monster from level one might threaten him due to his injuries so it was best to not push himself and suffer unnecessarily pain, he wasn''t a masochist!


    [Command received, exiting the training now] the prompt changed after Ivan gave his response.


    He watched as the corpse of the monster turned into a holographic image and then disappeared. Ivan saw his body doing the same and closed his eyes with a sigh. S§×ar?h the N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    When Ivan opened his eyes again, he was back inside the pod in the training room. The pain he felt previously was gone and he wasn''t injured.


    Of course, everything that happened in the virtual space of the training room ended there and would never cross to the real world.


    Ivan calmly came down from the pod and headed for the door, he did not try to go a second time since he had other things to do and because he could not afford entering again with an empty Nexus chamber.


    Opening the door of the training room, Ivan met a large crowd of trainees outside; this wasn''t a new sight so he simply ignored them and proceeded to leave but he suddenly felt a burning gaze on his back.


    Ivan turned and his eyes crossed with Miko''s, the girl was glaring at him like he had stolen her boyfriend.


    Ivan understood this gaze from Miko, she was reminding him to prepare himself. After all, today was the last day of the third month; his period of grace ended today.


    Beside Miko was Sommy who gave Ivan a helpless smile, they had kind of gotten friendlier with each other during the past months and could be regarded as friends to some extent.


    Not changing his expression, Ivan turned away and walked out. Ralph and Glen caught up with him before he could reach the lobby, Ivan''s face immediately turned into a less colder one when he saw his friends and they began to chat.


    It was already getting late and there were no more classes or training for the day, so they headed to the cafeteria to eat. Ignoring the stares of trainees and even officials since they were now used to it, they returned back to the lobby after eating.


    "Seriously man, I would have sworn that you were an official Nexulyte of the tower who was here to mess with us if I didn''t know you. Just how strong are you?" Glen exclaimed suddenly, causing Ivan to pause briefly before releasing a small smile.


    "Stop it, you idiot! Ivan has an SS level talent, it''s only natural for him to be so strong after training" Ralph said to Glen who snorted in response.


    They chatted for a while more, talking about what had happened during the previous months. Ralph had managed to enter the 8th position but had been stuck there since, the people in the top 10 were the best of all the trainees. Not a single one of them had been defeated despite the many challenges issued by other trainees, they only kept switching positions between themselves.


    Glen had managed to enter the top 50 after two months and was currently ranked 45, one had to acknowledge Glen''s strength too because holding even the top 100 position wasn''t easy when one looked at the list of 800 plus trainees.


    Regarding the training room, Ralph had only been able to reach level 5 while Glen was at level 3; this was the normal level for most trainees and only a few had reached level 7 and 8.


    Ivan''s and Sommy''s interaction had also improved and they had become training buddies during morning runs as they would race each other to the finish line, beating everyone except three people.


    These three were Miko, Malcolm, and Damian. Not even Sommy who was ranked second and was probably the strongest of the repeaters could compete with these three during the morning runs.


    Another interesting thing that had happened during the previous months was Ivan''s talent training with Tower Master James; he was now able to proficiently use his talent after what had happened that time in James'' office. Ivan discovered that he could wish for any weapon or form of attack as long as he could visualize it, he did not also need to control them to attack!


    That wasn''t all, Ivan had also discovered that he could wish for other things aside from attacks and weapons. Examples were shields or protective barriers, containers, and restriction materials.


    Of course, Ivan would not show all his abilities to anyone as he still found it difficult to trust others and made this aspect of his talent hidden. James, being the only one who had seen Ivan''s talent in action only knew that Ivan could create attacks; he wasn''t aware of the other things that Ivan could do like creating protective objects or blinding equipment.


    James had concluded that Ivan''s talent was an attacking talent type and Ivan wanted to keep it that way. Ivan was aware that this wasn''t all there was to his talent after his dream back when he had fainted but this was all he could do for now.


    Another interesting thing that Ivan had learnt was that others would not be able to force him to use his talent, he has to do it willingly.


    If someone asks Ivan to create a sword but Ivan did not want to make a sword, he could take out a card and use the card but it won''t work no matter how many times Ivan said the words to make a sword (he could still think of a wish but he still kept this a secret)


    "But seriously man, why don''t you share with us? The people in the top five are all monsters, I doubt I''ll be able to reach the 10% AP needed to pass the training. It''s already three months and I''ve barely managed to get 5.65% AP! Now I know why the repeaters are so pissed about you being in first place" Glen lamented suddenly.


    Ralph immediately smacked the back of his head.


    "What do you mean to share with us? Do you think it''s possible to share a Nexus chamber?" Ralph berated.


    Glen rubbed the back of his head with a wronged expression but wasn''t willing to give up.


    "Ivan will be able to start accepting challenges from tomorrow, we can both send challenge invitations to him and he''ll lose to us on purpose. Since there''s a two days cooldown to every challenge, we can take turns challenging each other" Glen explained.


    Ralph looked at him with a look of disbelief, he remembered telling this idiot not to bring up this matter in front of Ivan but the big mouth just won''t shut up. Ralph was about to scold Glen when Ivan said.


    " That''s really doable, let''s do that. Your progress will be faster if you use the best Nexus chamber" Ivan said seriously. He didn''t feel good with the thought of his two friends becoming repeaters and staying here while he was away.


    Ralph looked at him in shock, he thought Ivan would be annoyed and not actually agree to it.


    "But what about you? That will affect your progress" Ralph protested. He didn''t want to get stronger at the cost of pulling down others.


    Ivan only smiled slightly at this.


    " You don''t have to worry about that, someone will bring me their Nexus chamber tomorrow "


    '' Besides, I have enough AP to pass the training already'' Ivan thought to himself as he made the window of his profile appear in his mind.


    NAME: Ivan Von Charles


    Talent group: Primal         Talent type: Wisher   Talent: Wish card


    Talent lv: SS          AP: 29.05%      Rank: TRUE KING.

 Chapter 43: Challenge accepted

    NAME: Ivan Von CharlesTalent Group: Primal         Talent type: Wisher   Talent: Wish card


    Talent lv: SS          AP: 29.05%      Rank: TRUE KING


    Ivan had already crossed the Mortal King rank and was now a True King Nexulyte; the majority of rogue Nexulytes were still in this rank despite years of struggling; this showed the importance of joining a tower and having good talent.


    .....


    The next morning, Ivan woke up to the sound of a static voice in his room. He was sitting cross-legged as usual, he slept in this position.


    [Notifying trainee No.1 that you have received 7 challenges, please decide on which of the challenges you will accept and the other trainee receive the notification immediately.


    You can pick more than one challenge to accept but can not ignore all]


    Said the static voice, a list of names appeared in midair the next instance.


    These were the people who had challenged Ivan and wanted to take his spot, on the list were their names and current rank.


    NO.3 Miko


    NO.5 Damian


    NO.6 Luke


    NO.8 Ralph


    NO. 10 Elysia


    NO.7 Mark


    NO.43 Glen


    Ivan stared at the list of people who had challenged him. Aside from his two friends who had their own agenda for issuing a challenge, Ivan saw that there were only five people who had challenged him.


    He felt¡­disappointed; the numbers were too small!


    "Not like I can fight all of them today anyway" Ivan sighed while deciding on the ones that he would accept.


    He picked Luke first; that dude had targeted him before for no reason. Ivan wasn''t the one to let go of a grudge easily. Next, he picked Damian who was ranked in fifth place.


    That bald, gigantic young man always gave off a powerful feeling, and Ivan wanted to fight him. Besides, they had not interacted much so Ivan had not expected the bald guy to challenge him immediately when his period of grace was over.


    The last challenge that he accepted was from Ralph, although he was already planning on losing in their fight, Ivan still wanted to see how much his friend had grown.


    After accepting three challenges, the list vanished.


    [The challengers have been notified and will meet with you in the arena. Failure to show up will be seen as forfeiting the match.


    You may pick a trainee to challenge] sea??h th§× N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The static voice said once more, and another list appeared in front of Ivan; this list was much longer than the previous one since it contained all the trainees in the tower. Challenging others was not a must but since someone wanted to challenge him so badly, Ivan would give them a taste of their medicine.


    He tapped on the screen.


    [You have challenged trainee NO.3, Miko. The other party will be notified of your challenge request shortly]


    [Trainee NO.3 Miko has accepted your challenge, please proceed to the arena later for the battle]


    The static voice finally disappeared completely after saying this, and Ivan''s room regained its initial silence.


    Ivan looked at the time; it was already past three in the morning, and there were only a few minutes left before the morning training started.


    Summoning his profile, Ivan looked at his AP.


    29.56%


    He was now at the True King rank, and although he was still improving quickly, his speed had decreased slightly since he got stronger.


    "The Nexus chamber is still very useful to me but the training room is even better since I can gather a lot of combat experience there so I guess I''ll only be visiting the Nexus chamber less frequently, staying like this for the next few months won''t cause any harm," Ivan said to himself as he got up to put on his trainee uniform.


    The trainees now had two more months in the tower, and Ivan planned to go as far as he could in the levels of the training room; he wanted to beat the record of that Alaric Vladimir guy as soon as possible.


    This decision would undeniably affect his AP greatly but Ivan believed it was all for the better.


    .....


    In another room, a young girl with long yellow hair could be seen sitting at the edge of her bed in a blue cropped top and short pants. This person was Miko and she was currently staring at the list of challenges issued to her with a frown on her face.


    She had already accepted Ivan''s challenge but was still confused as to why he had challenged her instead of just accepting her challenge; he would not get anything from challenging someone below him even if he won.


    "Humph! Doesn''t matter, I''ll be taking first place today!" Miko snorted before getting dressed and tying up her hair before strolling out with both hands in her sweater pocket.


    Damian, Luke, and Ralph also received the notification of Ivan accepting their challenges and quickly changed before going out of their rooms. They were not the only ones who were in anticipation for today''s matches as even people who were not challenging anyone were itching to go to the arena to have a look.


    After all, today was finally the day that they would be able to see the first spot on the trainees ranking in action!


    The trainees even talked about it during the morning training, it was a heated discussion.


    While scaling up the slippery mountain, a figure moved closer to Ivan''s position. Although it was still dark, he was able to see just fine with his current level of strength.


    The person approaching him was Sommy.


    "Yo, Ivan. Xup!" Sommy called out after getting close to Ivan, Ivan was aware that this was her way of greeting.


    "Good morning" he greeted back.


    "So wassup with you? How are you feeling about today? Got challenged already?" Sommy asked as they climbed up with speed.


    "Yeah, but why didn''t I see your challenge though? Aren''t you interested in the first position?" Ivan asked, turning to look at Sommy with raised eyebrows.


    "Nah, why bother fighting you? Second place is already good enough. I''m more concerned about what to do after leaving here" Sommy responded with an easy tone.


    Ivan looked at her without a change of expression, he didn''t say anything and simply continued to climb.


    After their morning training, the trainees went to the cafeteria before going back to their rooms to wash up.


    They had a few classes and training to attend before they could go to the arena; a lot of trainees felt their blood boiling, and they could barely stay put during their training.

 Chapter 44: Talent reveal

    After attending their various classes, it was soon 2 o''clock in the afternoon. The trainees, who had been impatiently waiting for this moment and were barely able to focus during training, immediately bolted toward the direction of the arena that was on the second floor.Ivan had just finished his training with Miss Elora and also headed for the arena; their training today wasn''t as intense because Ivan had three matches right after, so he was still full of energy after their training.


    Arriving at the arena, Ivan saw that the place was already packed with trainees who had come to spectate the long-anticipated match. Sear?h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Some trainees immediately spotted him and caused a ruckus.


    "There he is! Ivan is here!"


    "It''s really him! He never bothered coming here all these months, but he showed up today; I wonder who his opponent is?"


    " I suspect it must be Sommy or that scary girl, Miko. Anyway, only a repeater will dare to challenge him "


    " What are you saying? Do you think those in the top 10 are jokes?"


    The place immediately became noisy as the trainees debated on who would fight Ivan, Ivan ignored all of this and calmly walked toward the stage.


    The arena was like a small stadium built inside the tower, it was the size of two basketball courts combined with a spectator''s seating area built around it. The fighting stage was like a ditch at the bottom of a pit.


    Around the fighting stage was a faint yellow barrier which Ivan speculated was supposed to block the attacks of trainees inside from going out.


    At the side of the barrier was a middle-aged man in a black uniform; he stood straight like an arrow with a serious face and sharp eyes; he was an expert in the tower.


    "Trainee number 1 and trainee number 6, proceed to the arena for your match!" The middle-aged man voiced out in a powerful tone, his voice spreading throughout the whole arena.


    The words of the man left the huge crowd of trainees in shock, they fell into silence for a while before breaking out in an uproar.


    The person who challenged Ivan was Luke.


    They were expecting either Sommy or Miko since they were the closest to Ivan''s position on the ranking, but it turned out to be Luke.


    One had to know although Luke was one of the repeaters, he was known to be the weakest among them. He had not managed to move up from sixth place since the ranking was made!


    Ivan ignored the buzzing of the trainees and approached the man with calm steps after hearing his number being called and stopping only a meter away from the man, the feeling that Ivan got from the man was similar to that of instructor Logan.


    ''Strong'' was the only thing that Ivan could think of.


    The man turned to look at Ivan; his eyes showed a slight amazement, but his facial expression didn''t change as he carried on with the challenge procedures professionally.


    "Name and number on the ranking?" The man asked in an expressionless voice as if he didn''t recognize Ivan.


    "Ivan, first place on the ranking"


    Ivan responded casually.


    The man nodded and placed one of his hands on the yellow barrier, causing a part of it to split open like a door.


    "Go in, your opponent will arrive shortly," the man said, and Ivan responded with a nod before walking onto the stage.


    After Ivan entered, the split on the barrier didn''t close.


    A few seconds later, Luke appeared before the middle-aged man as well; he was allowed to enter after answering the same questions Ivan was asked.


    Only after Luke entered the stage did the split close; the middle-aged man had entered the stage with them but kept himself suspended in the air above the stage.


    Luke and Ivan stood opposite each other with a gap of over twenty meters between them; the middle-aged man in black uniform who would act as the referee for their match was in the air above them.


    "Trainee number 1 and trainee number 6, the rules of the arena are as follows:


    Killing your opponent is not allowed.


    Attacking your opponent after they surrender is not allowed.


    Any form of cheating is forbidden.


    Violating any of these rules will result in immediate disqualification and be punishable by the Tower, a restriction could be placed on you or you might even get kicked out from the tower "


    The voice of the middle-aged man rang through the arena as he told the two young men below him the rules; he stared at the two for a few seconds before flying higher and slowly opening his mouth.


    "Begin!"


    Immediately after the man gave the command to start the match¡­


    BOOM!!!


    Luke exploded with so much Nexus energy that the ground three meters around him directly shattered into a small crater.


    Wooosh!!


    The Nexus energy swirled around Luke''s body and started to change into pieces of a red nano suit; his eyes did not leave Ivan during this period as he stared at the white-haired youth with a wicked smirk on his face.


    Luke maintained eye contact until his whole body was fully covered in an inspiring nano suit, a small portion of Nexus energy moved to his head and formed a helmet with two glowing red eyes on it.


    Luke had gone into full battle mode immediately after the start of their match, displaying his ability as a battle mechanic!


    Seeing Luke, who was now looking like a cyborg, brought a wave of excitement from the trainees who were spectating; they could not wait to see him in action!


    After summoning his talent, Luke pointed a finger at Ivan who was on the other side of the stage.


    "Hehe, you were really stupid to accept my challenge. Unlike before when I had to go easy on you during training, there are no rules that we should go easy on our opponents here; your first place is mine!" Luke voiced out with a burst of confident laughter.


    Ivan''s face remained unchanged as he stared at Luke''s Mecha face, he sighed slightly and then raised his left hand.


    The whole place immediately became dead silent when the trainees saw Ivan''s action, they wanted to see what he was going to see; after all, not many people were aware of what his talent was or what it could do.


    Swoosh!!


    Nexus energy appeared above Ivan''s palm, it swirled around for a few seconds before condensing into¡­a blue card with golden edges.


    Trainees "A card?!"


    Middle-aged man referee: "A card?!"


    Luke "...."


    ''A card?!''


    Thousands of question marks appeared in everyone''s mind at the sight of the card in Ivan''s hand. The first place on the ranking was¡­a card.


    Only a few people who were already aware of this managed to remain calm at the sight of the card, although they were curious as to what the card could do as unlike James Owen, no one else had seen Ivan''s talent in action.


    "Are you kidding me? Ivan''s talent is a card?!"


    *Seems I''m not the only one, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me!"


    " How is he supposed to fight and keep his first place with that card? It looks useless!"


    " A freaking card? Is he going to play his opponent to death?"


    " Just keep quiet and watch, don''t forget he reached the 25th level of the training room with that talent "


    The arena was drowned in the loud voices of the trainees; the appearance of Ivan''s talent had shocked them, but Ivan did not react to this despite being able to hear everything.


    In a corner, Glen and Ralph sat next to each other quietly.


    Ralph had a serious expression on his face while Glen was looking down at the stage with a worried expression.


    "Ralph, do you think Ivan can win? What does his talent do? Can he cut people with that card? Or does it explode in people''s faces? Have you seen him use his talent before? Are you aware of what his talent can do?


    Did¡­"


    " Shut up!"


    Ralph was unable to take it anymore and yelled at the fidgeting Glen who was about to kill him with questions.


    " We both know as much as each other does regarding Ivan''s talent, how do you expect me to know the answers to all those questions?" Ralph spat at Glen angrily before turning back to focus on the stage.


    He was currently trying to get a good look at the card in Ivan''s hand to see if he could recognize it from any of the card talent books he had read about in the library.


    ''Although most card talents aren''t that strong compared to battle mechanic talent, Ivan should be able to cover the gap with his superior rank'' Ralph thought inwardly while shifting his glasses.


    In another corner of the seating area, a young, beautiful woman with long green hair and a well-fitting black uniform could be seen staring down at the stage below with a cold and expressionless face.


    This person was Miss Elora, who had come to watch the fight between Ivan and Luke; she had picked a place where no one could see her to watch.


    "A card talent? How unexpected," Elora thought to herself after seeing Ivan''s talent; she was as surprised as the trainees.

 Chapter 45: Ivan vs Luke

    Luke stood rooted in place like a rock, luckily his face was covered by the helmet which made his expression unreadable.But it went without saying that he was greatly shocked by the appearance of the card in Ivan''s hand.


    "Are you messing with me? Do you think you can fight me with that?" Luke shouted out in anger while pointing a finger at Ivan aggressively.


    "You talk too much" Ivan responded casually and with the card still in his hand, he quietly muttered something.


    Wooosh!!


    The card suddenly flew from Ivan''s hand and trembled in the air in front of him before bursting into light particles which then transformed into a red sword with blue hilt and a golden cross guard.


    The blade of the red sword gave a fine silver glint that made everyone who saw it believe in how sharp it was. The sword fell from the sky but didn''t touch the ground and just kept floating at the level of Ivan''s elbow.


    The appearance of the sword caused another wave of murmuring amongst the trainees who were watching, they were surprised to see the small card turning into such a big sword.


    Amongst the trainees in the seating area, Sommy and Miko could be seen sitting next to each other at the very back of the sitting area but because of the way the seating area was created they had no problem seeing what was going on in the stage. S§×arch* The Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "That''s even more surprising, so he''s a weapon user just like you" Sommy said with a surprised smile on her face as she glanced at Miko teasingly.


    The petite girl had a cold expression on her face as she stared down at the stage, her eyes fixed on the red sword floating beside Ivan.


    "That''s not a weapon mastery talent" Miko said plainly in response to Sommy''s teasing. As a Nexulyte with the talent of a weapon master, she was able to tell instantly that Ivan''s sword wasn''t made from the weapon master talent but she could not tell.


    She wasn''t the only one, others with weapon Master talents and those with enough knowledge were able to see this was well.


    " Hmm, but he summoned a sword. If he isn''t a weapon user like you, what is he?" Sommy asked in confusion.


    Miko turned to look at her, annoyance visible in her eyes.


    " Shouldn''t you be worried more about Luke? That duck might hurt himself " Miko questioned.


    Sommy gave a helpless smile, she didn''t react to Miko calling Luke a duck; his character was not an honorable one to begin with.


    " I''m sure Ivan won''t go too far¡­hopefully" Sommy responded.


    Back on the stage¡­


    Luke stared at the sword beside Ivan, a surprised expression hidden underneath his helmet.


    "So you''re a weapon user, good. Now let''s see what the first place on the ranking is made of" Luke laughed but his laugh was cut short as he had to jump from where he was standing.


    Boom!!


    Luke created a small explosion as he launched himself into the air with force.


    At the same time, a red blur slashed at the place he had been standing just a while ago.


    The speed at which everything happened was so fast that not everyone was able to see what had happened, only a few had seen what had transpired between the two on stage.


    While Luke was still busy laughing, the red sword that Ivan had created had been sent out and slashed at Luke''s waist at a fast speed. Had he been any slower, he would have been slashed in two by the sword if he didn''t protect himself.


    Luckily, he had reacted in time.


    Luke landed over five meters away from where he was before, the sword was now floating in his previous location.


    "Tks! Trying to sneak attack me? Is that all you can do? Such a cowardly first place" Luke snorted and charged at Ivan like a bullet.


    Swoosh!!!


    He left a trail of red light behind him as he arrived in front of Ivan like a ghost, in his hand was a huge hammer created from Nexus energy.


    "Ahhh!!"Luke screamed as he brought down his hammer with so much force that the sound of the air exploding could be heard.


    BOOM!!


    The hammer landed heavily on the ground, creating a large crater and sending pieces of rocks into the air. But there was no sign Ivan, he had simply disappeared.


    "What the¡­" Luke stared at the space in front of him in shock, Ivan had simply vanished from his sight at the last moment before his hammer could reach him.


    " Looking for me?"


    Luke felt a chill run down his spine when he heard the voice whisper into his ears, his soul almost left his body from fright; he did not know when Ivan got behind him.


    Before Luke could turn around, he felt a sharp pain in the side of his head.


    BAM!!


    A heavy hit landed on the side of his head and sent him flying away, Luke smashed into the ground repeatedly on his flight path.


    Before he could come to a stop, Ivan appeared next to him again with his sword in hand.


    BAM!!


    He smashed Luke''s face again with the hilt of his sword, sending him flying in the opposite direction.


    BAM!!


    BAM!!


    BAM!!


    Ivan repeated this process and kept smashing Luke around the place like a broken doll, the boy was unable to resist and could only fly around helplessly.


    His whole body was in pain and his helmet was already deformed from getting hit repeatedly by the hilt of Ivan''s sword.


    "Now go to sleep"


    Ivan''s voice drifted into Luke''s ears while he was mid air, he suddenly felt a great sense of dread but before he could surrender¡­


    Bang!!


    The last thing he saw was a foot coming at his face at a terrifying speed, Ivan kicked him hard in his face.


    The kick caused Luke''s helmet to shatter on the spot and the nano suit on his body to vanish; he left a trail of blood in the air as he flew away and hit his head on the yellow barrier.


    Luke''s vision immediately went blank and he lost consciousness.


    Silence!


    The entire arena was in dead silence as the scene unfolded in front of them.


    Most of the trainees were unable to properly keep up with the speed at which the two were moving but for those who were able to keep up with their speed¡­they could only watch in shock as Ivan smacked Luke around like a doll

 Chapter 46: Ivan vs Damian

    (I added a few words in the "author''s thought" at the end of the chapter, remember to read it!)Ivan turned his neck and stared at the referee in the air. He had already won the match, but the result had yet to be announced.


    The middle-aged man immediately came back to his senses when he saw Ivan looking at him and landed on the stage; he looked at the unconscious Luke with a swollen face and then at the calm Ivan.


    The result was shocking that he had not expected this, Luke was a repeater but was unable to hold out against Ivan at all!


    "The winner of this match is trainee number one!" The man said in a loud voice that reached every corner of the arena; his voice managed to wake the stunned spectators, and they immediately went into an uproar.


    At the side, Glen was jumping and howling happily like a crazy fan whose football team scored; Ralph only stared on with a smile that said he had expected such.


    Sommy had a helpless smile as she watched two people in black uniforms carry Luke away.


    "Thankfully, he only trashed him a bit and didn''t go extremely to mentally torture him," Sommy said with a sigh.


    She had expected that Ivan might want to crush Luke''s ego completely by keeping him awake for a long while overwhelming him with his strength; the prideful Luke would never be able to recover from such a blow. Sear?h the N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "With his level of strength, I don''t dare to imagine what he''ll become by the end of the training. He will be able to climb ranks quickly immediately after joining the tower officially" Sommy said with a serious expression. Miko, who was beside her, did not respond; she was glaring fiercely at Ivan with both of her hands clenched.


    Over where Elora was watching from, one could see a strange glint in her eyes as her gaze lingered on Ivan''s handsome face. An ever-so-rare smile hooked the side of her lips up before disappearing the next moment.


    Back on stage, the referee turned to Ivan after Luke had been brought away.


    "Would you like to continue with your other matches or take a break?" He asked.


    In the arena, one could take a pause to recover used Nexus and let others fight their own matches in the meantime.


    Ivan shook his head, he wanted to continue. After reaching the True King rank, his Nexus chamber was now able to store enough Nexus for him to use over twenty cards.


    Their fight just now could not even be considered as him using a card since the sword was still with him.


    The referee nodded before turning to the side and walking over, he placed his hands on the yellow barrier and began to pour red energy into it.


    Ivan showed a look of surprise when he saw the stage being repaired; the many craters that had formed as a result of their fight were soon covered up, and the stage was as good as new.


    After repairing the stage, the referee turned around and flew up.


    "Trainee number 5 please head to the stage for your battle!" The referee called out in mid-air as a split appeared on the barrier.


    It took only five seconds for Damian to appear in front of the split, the repeater who was ranked fifth on the trainees ranking.


    Damian was a young man with a huge build and massive muscles that threatened to tear through his trainee uniform. His bald head added a funny innocence to his masculine face, he was like a giant when standing near other people.


    Damian walked onto the stage with the split closing behind him, his massive arms crossed in front of his huge chest.


    His eyes locked with Ivan''s as they stared at each other as if trying to read what the other party was thinking.


    Seconds ticked by and Damian finally dropped his crossed arms.


    "Let''s have a good fight!" Damian voiced out; his tone holding nothing but fighting intent.


    Ivan, seeing that his opponent simply wished for a full-out battle, decided not to hold back as he did with Luke; he would go a little more serious against this big guy.


    "Hmm," Ivan nodded in response.


    Seeing that the two were ready, the referee gave the command for them to begin.


    The whole place immediately became quiet as the spectators watched the stage carefully to make sure they did not miss anything.


    "Begin!"


    Immediately, the voice of the referee faded, and both sides immediately exploded with Nexus energy.


    BOOM!! BOOM!!


    Mini explosions rang out as the places that they were standing on shattered from the pressure of their fierce energies.


    Damian was a weapon user, his talent allowed him to create a weapon fit for his build. After using his talent, two mini shields appeared on both of his wrists and covered up to his elbow.


    Both shields had pointed tips that allowed Damian to use them to attack as well.


    The shields were pitch black and blood red; they were made out of pure Nexus energy, so one could feel the concentrated amount of Nexus in them.


    As for Ivan, he directly took out three cards. The appearance of the cards once again brought questions to people''s minds; his sword was still with him, so why did he bring out three more cards?


    And besides, some had already speculated that he was a weapon user so why not just take out the weapons directly?


    " Does he perhaps have some kind of vault-type talent? Maybe the cards are for taking out random weapons?"


    One of the trainees spectating said in deep thought. His words actually made a lot of sense, and a lot of people agreed with him; those words were soon spread amongst the spectators, and they all concluded that Ivan''s talent allowed him to take out random weapons from the cards.


    Seeing that Ivan had taken out his card, Damian did not wait any longer and charged at Ivan.


    BOOM!!!


    Swoosh!!


    The sound of an explosion rang in the air as Damian vanished from his position and dashed toward Ivan, leaving a huge footprint on the ground.


    Similarly, the three cards shattered and changed into three more swords. Including the first one, there were now four swords.


    With a thought, Ivan made all four swords fly toward the incoming Damian while he retreated from his position.


    Cling!!!


    A loud sound of metal clashing was heard as sparks flew in the air above Damian.


    One of the swords had hacked down at him but he had been able to knock it away with his shield. He turned to look at where Ivan had moved to and was about to charge when another sword came right up to his face.


    Damian had to put both arms in front of himself and allow the sword to clash with his shields.


    Ding!!


    Damian used the chance to jump back, avoiding the remaining three three swords that would have skewered his guts had he been a second late.


    Boom!


    A small explosion as Damian landed heavily on the ground a few meters away, all four swords turned to face him after missing their target once; it was almost as if they had a mind of their own.


    Damian looked at Ivan, who was looking back at him seriously. He knew that Ivan was the one controlling these swords, and he needed to deal with Ivan if he wanted these swords to stop assaulting him.


    But that was not the most pressing issue, Damian took a quick glance at his shields. His eyes trembled slightly when he saw the small crack on the shield which quickly closed up after Nexus energy gathered around it.


    ''His swords can cut my shields?!'' Damian asked inwardly in disbelief. He knew just how tough these shields were, and even the attacks of some officials were unable to do anything to them, but Ivan had managed to leave a crack on them. Wouldn''t he be cut clean if any of the swords touched him then?


    But this thought didn''t make Damian cower in fear, his eyes shone brighter with fighting intent.


    He suddenly waved both hands, causing both shields to vanish.


    His action puzzled everyone in the arena including Ivan.


    Was he going to forfeit?


    But they were thinking too much at the next second.


    Wooosh!!


    Damian vanished like a gust of wind, his footsteps not making a sound.


    Ivan''s eyes widened, and he quickly bent his neck to the side.


    POW!!


    The sound of wind exploding sounded beside Ivan''s head, a huge hand had suddenly appeared there; had Ivan not moved his head, he would have been punched in the face by Damian.


    ''He became faster?'' Ivan thought as he pulled away.


    Of course, Damian wasn''t going to let him; he immediately moved after Ivan and sent another punch.


    Ivan was more prepared this time, he had already recalled his swords.


    Shuuu!!


    The swords sliced through the air and hacked at Damian, halting his pursuit.


    Ding! Ding! Ding!!!


    In the nick of time, Damian summoned his shields and knocked away all four swords before chasing after Ivan again; of course, he made his shields vanish since his speed would increase if he wasn''t carrying them.


    Wooosh!!


    He appeared in front of Ivan again and sent a ferocious kick to Ivan''s side, his leg was like an axe cutting through the air.


    Clap!!!

 Chapter 47: An undead General

    CLAP!!!Ivan did not dodge this time, he had instead used his arm to block Damian''s kick!


    Ckreeeeee!!!


    Ivan''s foot created two long trenches on the ground as he was sent sliding away due to the force of the kick.


    The whole arena: Gasp!


    Ivan was currently raising his left arm to protect the side of his head; his entire left arm was covered in a thick layer of red energy, which had helped him to take the full force of Damian''s kick.


    Damian, with his leg still hanging in the air, looked at Ivan in shock.


    Ivan had actually taken his kick head-on without sustaining any damage, and the reason for that was¡­


    "He''s already at the True King rank!" Miko squeezed out through gritted teeth; she stood up because she did not feel comfortable sitting anymore. This new discovery shocked everybody.


    "He''s already at the True King rank? So fast," Elora gasped from where she was hidden; she did not expect Ivan to be so strong.


    "Hehe, good job buddy! It''s another win for us!" Glen cheered loudly.


    ''He is already a True King Nexulyte at such a young age; what a terrifying talent,'' the referee thought within himself as he stared at Ivan from above.


    He was already in his thirties and was still at the Partial Lord rank, he was only a rank higher than Ivan! Although the gap between these two ranks was huge, he believed that it would not be a problem for Ivan to reach the same rank in a few years or even surpass him if he worked hard enough.


    All the other trainees were in a state of absolute disbelief as well, they were finding it difficult to understand how Ivan could grow so strong within such a short time.


    "With this level of strength, you are more than qualified to graduate from training. Why still keep the resources to yourself?" Damian asked while dropping his leg, he had recovered from his shock of finding out that Ivan was a True king rank Nexulyte and was now angry that he was still unwilling to let others get the resources of the first place on the ranking.


    Ivan dropped his arm and retracted his energy, his eyes gazed at Damian calmly for a few seconds before casually saying.


    "Having more strength isn''t a bad thing. Besides, I already have plans for the resources given to first place" S~ea??h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Wooosh!!! Wooosh!! Wooosh!!


    Immediately after saying that, Ivan disappeared from where he was standing previously and reappeared in front of Damian; one of his swords in his hand and the other three around him as they attacked together.


    Ding! Ding! Ding!¡Á99


    The speed of the swords attacking became faster and faster with Ivan attacking as well. Damian could only retreat continuously while desperately blocking the attack with his shields.


    Numerous cracks kept appearing on both shields, which Damian would quickly fix up, only for Ivan to cut it open again.


    This dragged on for a minute, Ivan kept advancing with his swords while Damian kept getting pushed back till his back hit the yellow barrier.


    His bald head was now covered in sweat, which made it shine from the lights of their clash; Damian was beginning to get exhausted; he was expending too much energy to fix the cuts on his shields.


    Finally¡­


    Clap!!


    Ivan landed a clear hit! He used the blunt side of his sword and slapped Damian''s bald head heavily.


    The hit was so strong that a red print of a sword was instantly left on Damian''s head as his face smashed into the ground.


    BOOM!!


    The ground collapsed from the force of Damian''s fall, and everything stopped.


    Damian felt dizzy for a few seconds and only regained clarity after a fierce head shaking; he could have sworn that he had seen seven stars when his face smashed into the ground.


    "You lose"


    An emotionless voice rang in Damian''s ears, it was then that he realized that he was lying on the ground and a pair of legs were standing in front of him.


    Damian''s eyes traveled up the pair of legs to see the owner and saw Ivan standing above him while gazing down at him with a blank look in his eyes.


    He was pointing a sword at Damian''s bald head while the remaining three swords circled above Damian, ready to stab him at any moment.


    He had undeniably lost.


    He did not even get the chance to avenge the shame of getting his head smacked by his opponent''s sword and was already at his mercy.


    The referee landed at this time.


    " Trainee number one wins the match!" He announced.


    Only then did Ivan withdraw his swords and walk to the other side of the stage.


    The referee turned to look at Damian, who was still lying on the ground; thankfully, he didn''t have dull eyes, so his fighting spirit wasn''t crushed yet.


    "Trainee number five, you may leave the stage now," the referee said softly to avoid embarrassing Damian any further.


    Damian immediately stood up but didn''t leave right away; he stared at Ivan, who was looking back at him from the other side of the stage with an intense gaze for a while before raising his hand and giving a thumbs up.


    "I acknowledge your strength!" Damian said and immediately walked off.


    Ivan looked at his departing back for a while before turning his gaze away.


    ''A failure who could not pass during his time, are you worthy of acknowledging me?'' Ivan thought. He would have preferred hearing those words from that Alaric Vladimir guy instead.


    The referee turned to Ivan and once again asked if he would like to continue or take a break; Ivan obviously chose to continue; he only had one challenge invitation left, and he would have enough break before it was his turn to request a challenge.


    "Alright then," the referee said before placing one of his hands on the barrier and fixing the stage.


    "Trainee number 8, proceed to the stage for your match!" The referee called out after fixing the stage.


    "Ehh? Who''s this number 8? I don''t pay attention to anyone below the fifth rank"


    "Bah! You trash at rank 200 dare to say nonsense, are you worth paying attention to?"


    "Someone still dares to face Ivan after finding out he''s at the True King rank? I bet they will forfeit"


    "Forfeit? I''ll eat shit if they even dare to show up!"


    "Then be prepared to eat a bucket of shit, my friend, you might not know this but that number 8 is a very good friend of Ivan"


    " That''s right, Ivan has only two friends and that number 8 guy is one. I heard that they came to the tower together "


    " What?! Is that true?"


    " Yes, very true. They were scouted together and came together, I remember seeing Miss Elora showing them around the tower on the day they came"


    " How lucky, I wish I was his friend too "


    " You can wish for that later, for now, wish for how you will eat that bucket of shit you promised "


    " What? I was just joking, can''t you take a joke?!"


    " Sure, sure. You''ll jokingly eat it too "


    " Get lost!"


    " Fight me!"


    While the trainees were chattering, Ralph had already made his way down to the stage and was already inside the barrier.


    The referee flew back up into the air to give them space.


    "I don''t think there''s even a need for this fight; you''re already at the True King rank; I''m not even at the Mortal King rank yet." Ralph took off his glasses and wiped them with his shirt while saying this.


    "Don''t worry too much, I just want to see how much progress you''ve made. I''ll still stick to the original plan" Ivan responded with a small smile.


    Ralph paused and glared at him. Although Ivan doing so would help him and Glen, it would be too shameless and many would criticize Ivan. Before he could speak though, Ivan raised his sword and pointed the tip at Ralph.


    "I know what you''re going to say, and I don''t care about all that; they were not there with us in the outskirt," Ivan said coldly as if threatening Ralph not to dare forfeit.


    Ralph froze, the words just now were like an electric current that struck him unexpectedly. It took him a few seconds to come back to his senses, a faint chuckle left his lungs.


    "Indeed, then please provide pointers for me, my friend," Ralph said amidst his chuckling, but he was already getting serious.


    His eyes turned blood red as a large amount of Nexus energy flowed out of him like a cloud of smoke; the oppressive aura within the stage was impossible to overlook.


    Anyone with weaker strength than Ralph would immediately find it difficult to breathe under this oppression aura.


    ''He is not as powerful as this white-haired kid, but his potential isn''t to be underestimated either,r, '' the referee commended inwardly while nodding his head.


    The mist continued to expand and covered a distance of ten meters around Ralph; only after this did it stop and slowly begin to vanish, only to reveal the appearance of an old man in a big black robe.


    This was the same old man during Ralph''s awakening.


    It was an Undead General, a General of the undead legion in the underworld!

 Chapter 48: Ivan vs Ralph

    The whole arena was silent as the spectators patiently waited to see how this fight would turn out, the undead General looked strong and it was common knowledge that under beings were difficult to deal with.Ivan and Ralph stared at each other, both having a serious expression on their faces as they waited for the referee to announce the start of the fight. Sear?h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Seeing that both sides were ready, the referee took to the sky before saying.


    "Begin!"


    Immediately after the voice of the referee sounded, the three swords around Ivan shot out at a stunning speed.


    Swoosh!!


    Sounds of the wind being split through could be heard as the three swords tore through the air toward Ralph, Ivan remained standing in his place and did not attack along with the swords.


    Peng! Peng! Peng!


    But before the swords could reach Ralph, the undead General made its move.


    Turning into a black blur on the stage, it flashed over to the three swords at an even greater speed and slapped them away before they could reach Ralph; it returned to Ralph''s side immediately after blocking the attacks successfully.


    Ivan raised an eyebrow at the sight of his swords being slapped away, a hint of surprise flashed past his eyes as he stared at the old man in black robe.


    Those red eyes that gave off nothing but chills like staring into a bottomless abyss stares back at Ivan before suddenly disappearing.


    Ralph had gone on the offense!


    Ivan''s face did not change expression even when the undead General suddenly disappeared, its speed might be fast but not so fast that a True king Nexulyte like himself would not be able to keep up.


    With a fluid movement of his legs, Ivan jumped into the air and did a backflip while landing over ten meters away from his previous location.


    At the same time¡­


    BOOM!!!


    A sound of a loud explosion rang out on the stage as a huge wave of broken concrete was sent flying everywhere ten meters away from Ivan, a huge crater of over five meters could be seen and in the middle of the crater was the under General who was standing like a statue while looking in Ivan''s direction.


    Swoosh! Swoosh!! Swoosh!!!


    A second later after the explosion, three swords suddenly arrived around the undead General in the middle of the crater and stabbed at it viciously, one stabbing at its head, another at its chest and the last one pointed at its waist.


    Wooosh!!


    The undead General was still shockingly quick to react to these sudden attacks, immediately flipping its big black robe and blowing away the sword that was going for its head before sending a punch toward the one coming for its chest. A slight shift of its body allowed in to prevent its waist from being split in two.


    All this time took only as little as two seconds but the undead General was able to avoid the attacks. Just when it had successfully evaded all strikes, it suddenly looked to the side and its red eyes exploded into a dazzling shine of red light as if an explosion had gone off behind its eye sockets.


    The direction that the undead General was looking at with such intense stare was where Ralph was standing and the reason for such a reaction was because Ivan had suddenly lunged at Ralph while it was distracted.


    It hadn''t expected Ivan to go for Ralph so soon. After all, to deal with a summoned being, one would need to take care of the summoner.


    Disregarding the three swords that were coming back for it, the undead General disappeared again with another explosion and creating an even wider crater.


    It turned into a black shadow that flickered across the stage at a breakneck speed and chased after Ivan, it crossed a distance of over a hundred meters in just a second and caught up to Ivan.


    Ivan smirked secretly when he saw the black shadow that had arrived near him, he suddenly stopped his advancement toward Ralph and made a sharp turn to face the undead General with the sword in his hand stabbing out.


    The shine in the eyes of the undead General intensified upon seeing Ivan''s sudden action, so the attempt on Ralph was a faint!


    But it was too late to stop or dodge, it could only cross its pale arms in front of itself to block Ivan''s sword.


    Ting!!


    The sound of Ivan''s sword hitting something hard echoed throughout the arena upon their collision, the force had generated a strong shockwave that caused the ground under their feet to shatter and sent concrete flying around them. Yet¡­


    ''Just how hard is this thing?'' Ivan thought to himself while gritting his teeth, he knew just how sharp his sword was yet it was unable to stab through the arms of this old man in black robe.


    They came to a stand still with Ivan trying to force his sword forward while the undead General tried to push him back with its arms, it was an undead after all so it could not feel pain.


    ''An ordinary sword user would have been helpless against this thing, unfortunately I''m its opponent'' Ivan thought and suddenly gripped the handle of his sword tightly and poured Nexus into it, causing the blade of the sword to light up!


    Shink!!!!


    After engulfing his sword in Nexus energy, he only had to apply a bit of force and the sword easily pierced through the crossed arms of the undead General and into its chest.


    At the same time.


    Shink! Shink! Shink!!


    The other three swords arrived behind it and stabbed ruthlessly into its back, red smoke immediately began to rise from its body; this was a sign that it was bleeding.


    Even at this, the face of the undead General remained expressionless as it balled its hands into fists and sent a double punch toward Ivan.


    Ivan immediately let go of his swords and made them disappear while at the same time jumping back to avoid the punch from the old man, he did not jump too far though.


    He landed just half a meter away from the old man before charging forward again and giving it a hard punch to the face.


    Bang!!


    The sound of the punch was loud and clear as the undead General was sent flying away like a broken doll and crashed into the barrier surrounding the stage.


    ''Such hard skin'' Ivan thought to himself while staring at the undead General that had fallen to the ground after hitting the barrier, it had immediately jumped back to its feet the next moment but suddenly stopped when it wanted to attack Ivan.


    It turned its head in Ralph''s direction as its body suddenly started to scatter into Nexus energy, it was being recalled.


    Ivan was confused and turned to look at Ralph only to see him panting heavily while bending over, his face was covered in sweat and his tracksuit was almost soaked in it.


    It was obvious that keeping the undead General for so long had taken a heavy toll on him, he had expanded too much energy.


    Ivan did not use any more cards and slowly walked over to Ralph''s position and supported him up.


    "You really have an issue with going easy unless told to do so, don''t you?" Ralph said with a helpless smile. He was the one who had wanted to fight seriously but this dense friend of his had trashed his undead General all around like a punching bag, of course he would have to use more energy to keep it around.


    "You did great" Ivan replied shortly but Ralph could feel how honest he was with those words, he only chuckled softly in response while adjusting his glasses.


    The referee landed beside them at this point, ready to announce the results and also check up on the trainees.


    ''As expected of a True king rank Nexulyte, even an undead General can barely face him.


    But if they had been on the same rank, the match might have ended differently'' The referee analyzed inwardly, he was only thinking this because he was unaware that Ivan had over a hundred ways to defeat the undead General and Ralph had he wanted to; but Ivan wasn''t planning to reveal his true strength and definitely not on his friends.


    The referee inspected Ralph''s condition and nodded after seeing that he was only exhausted and did not have any injuries or things to worry about, he stood straight and was about to announce the winner when Ivan''s voice suddenly sounded from behind him.


    "I surrender"


    His voice wasn''t loud but it had traveled across the entire arena and everyone had heard him clearly.


    Referee "..."


    Trainees "..."


    Elora who was secretly watching "..."


    Silence.

 Chapter 49: Forfeiting

    A deafening silence suppressed the whole arena for a few seconds after Ivan''s sudden forfeit, not even the wind dared to make a sound.Ten seconds¡­


    Twenty seconds¡­


    Thirty seconds later¡­


    "What!!!! What the hell!"


    "What do you mean surrender? You already won!"


    "Is this some classic joke? Was he planning to surrender on his third fight? Why didn''t I challenge him instead? First place would have been mine just like that!"


    "Don''t beat your luck, I''m sure he would have smacked you unconscious"


    " Is this what they mean by hugging a golden thigh? That dude got first place just for being his friend?"


    " They clearly aren''t on the same level, why surrender?"


    " Ugh, my heart!"


    " Help, help! He''s not breathing!"


    The spectators were thrown into chaos after 30 seconds of silence as they shouted like little children, some people even passed out from shock and were carried away by their friends.


    It couldn''t be helped, Ivan''s sudden surrender had been too much of a shock for the trainees to handle. Those who were even more affected were the repeaters who longed for resources of the first place, they were prepared to battle hard for it but Ivan was giving it away just like that?


    Miko gritted her teeth to an almost shattering point while her fingers almost dug into her palm in a tight grip as she forcefully controlled herself and resisted the urge to go down there to beat Ivan to death; that was if she could.


    While the trainees kept making a ruckus, the referee, who had woken up from his shock, looked at Ivan with a speechless expression.


    "Are you sure you want to surrender? Your spot as the first place will be transferred to your opponent, and you will fall down in the ranking; you will also lose all your privilege as the first place," he stated in an attempt to make Ivan understand that surrendering was as simple as just saying it.


    But it was obvious that Ivan was already aware of this and had prepared to surrender a long time ago because his face didn''t change expression even after the referee''s warning, he only nodded to confirm that he was indeed surrendering the match.


    The referee, unable to understand why Ivan would do such a thing, turned his gaze to Ralph.


    From every perspective one would look at it, Ralph was in no condition to fight anymore and he didn''t even stand a chance considering their current gap in rank.


    ''Was it simply because of their friendship?'' The referee thought to himself. He had seen how Ivan dealt with all of his opponents and had to admit that Ralph had been treated far better than the previous two.


    Shaking his head to clear away those thoughts, the referee sighed while saying.


    "This is your choice, don''t blame me in the future"


    "I won''t" Ivan responded seriously.


    Referee "..."


    "Ahem. Trainee number one has decided to surrender the match, the winner of this match is trainee number eight!"


    The referee announced, causing the spectators to go into another wave of chattering.


    "You may now leave the stage," The referee said to the two after making the announcement.


    Both boys nodded and turned to leave, Ivan continued to support Ralph as they walked out of the barrier.


    "Although I feel this isn''t right, it is for our own good¡­thank you" Ralph mumbled.


    "No worries, " Ivan replied.


    They met Glen outside after leaving the stage, the boy immediately ran towards them.


    " Ralph! Are you alright?" He asked worriedly while helping Ivan to support Ralph.


    Not waiting for Ralph to answer, Glen immediately turned on Ivan.


    " You rascal! You''re already so strong but still out, Ralph, in this state. Don''t you know that damaging a summon too much will affect the summoner? And you''ll say I''m the dumb one!" Glen scolded Ivan who looked back at him with blank eyes. S§×ar?h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Indeed, he had not been to the arena before and wasn''t aware of this information. He would not have attacked the undead General too much if he knew otherwise.


    " Stop it, it''s not his fault. I forced him to fight seriously " Ralph said in Ivan''s defense. Glen only grunted and didn''t say anything else; after all, Ralph wasn''t hurt and was just exhausted; getting enough rest would fix everything.


    "Let''s take him to his room," Glen said to Ivan, but Ivan suddenly passed Ralph to him completely.


    "What are you doing?" Glen asked. Was he angry that I scolded him and now wants to ignore me?


    "I can''t; I still have one more match," Ivan said when he saw the expression on Glen''s face.


    "Oh, so it''s that. No problem, you can go back. I''ll take him to his room myself" Glen said, secretly relieved that Ivan wasn''t angry at him.


    "Come, let''s go back," Glen said to Ralph.


    Ivan watched the two of them leave the arena before returning to the spectators section, he had to wait for his turn since others were currently on the stage and about to fight.


    Ivan found a place to sit, ignoring the fierce and questioning glares of the trainees.


    Miss Elora looked at Ivan from above for a few seconds before leaving the arena.


    On the stage after the place had been repaired, three people could be seen standing inside the barrier. These three were the referee and two young women in purple tracksuits.


    One of the women had a tall figure with a rather explosive chest that bulged her tracksuit despite the zippers reaching her neck, long legs, short red hair that barely touched her ears, and sharp yellow eyes that gazed at her opponent with all seriousness.


    Her opponent was a girl with average height, a plain shape, and blue hair that stood out easily. Both parties stood a few tens of meters away from each other with the referee standing in between them.


    After confirming that they were ready, the referee flew up into the air before giving the command for both parties to start their fight.


    Immediately after hearing the command, both sides began their assaults.


    It turned out that they were both Nexulytes with elemental talents; the tall woman had the water element while her opponent had the earth element.


    They began hurling water slashes and chunks of concrete at each other while running across the stage.


    Their fight was rather boring compared to Ivan''s battles but was nonetheless entertaining for the other trainees and they cheered for the two.


    Ivan silently watched with an indifferent expression; he was not in the slightest interested in the fight between these two as, in his eyes, they were just playing.


    It couldn''t be helped; these two were not even at the Mortal King rank yet!


    The fight between the two women went on for a few minutes more before finally coming to an end with the tall woman emerging as the victor.


    Both sides had ended up expanding their Nexus sea and had resorted to hand combat which ended up in favor of the tall woman due to her size advantage.


    The referee came down and announced the results before asking both parties to clear the stage, after which he placed his hand on the barrier and repaired the stage again before the next fight could take place.


    Ivan had to wait another three fights before it was finally his turn again to fight, Miko was already standing on the stage when Ivan arrived.


    "Begin!"


    The referee shouted as he watched with anticipation, the whole arena was quiet as well as the trainees were paying great attention to Ivan''s fight.


    After receiving the command to start, Miko immediately summoned Nexus energy before condensing it into a long katana with an extremely sharp blade; one could tell just how sharp the blade was by the chilling silver glint that it emitted.


    Miko''s expression was cold, and her eyes were as sharp as her blade; she was well aware of Ivan''s strength now and knew that she had to give it her all if she wanted to have a chance at winning.


    Swoosh!!


    Not waiting for Ivan to take out a card, she immediately bent her body before disappearing and appearing in the air right above Ivan with her katana slashing down toward his head.


    Gasp!


    Her speed was so shocking that she had already appeared in front of Ivan before most of the trainees even realized that she had moved!


    But the same was not so for Ivan, who was already a True king Nexulyte; he had seen her movements clearly; although he had to admit that her speed had caught him by surprise, it wasn''t to the point that he could not follow her movements.


    Huaa!


    Ivan swiftly leaped backward and left the range of Miko''s katana slash and, at the same time, took out a card before throwing it at Miko.


    The card scattered into light particles in midair and formed a sword that stabbed at the girl.


    Miko''s expression didn''t change, she did a twist midair and met Ivan''s sword with her katana.


    Swooop!!!


    A clean cut as two halves of a blade were sent flying!


    ''Impossible!''

 Chapter 50: Engaged

    Ivan stared at the blades of his sword that were sent flying away after being cut by Miko''s katana, his eyes flashed with utter disbelief.He knew how sturdy his swords were, yet the same sword had been cut cleanly by Miko''s weapon.


    It was no secret that weapon users would awaken an additional trait or skill after stepping into every new rank; it seems like the trait that Miko had gotten after entering the Mortal King rank was her katana becoming incredibly sharp; sharp to the point it had been able to slice through Ivan''s sword!


    Clank!!!


    The two halves of the sword landed over ten meters away, creating dull sounds.


    Miko''s expression didn''t change after missing Ivan; she turned to look at him before charging again, not planning to give him a chance to attack.


    Swish! Swish! Swish!!


    Miko arrived in front of Ivan and sent dozens of katana slashes in a matter of seconds, Ivan had to make quick turns and even step back continuously just to avoid getting cut.


    It appeared for a second like Miko was pushing Ivan back with the latter not being able to retaliate, but all of that was just for a moment.


    Boom!!


    Ivan suddenly exploded with Nexus energy, a great shockwave from the sudden energy burst sent Miko flying away; she had to release her own energy to protect herself.


    The ground beneath Ivan''s feet had a web-like crack that was over two meters wide, which was a result of his Nexus outburst; he was currently covered in a thick, fiery bubble of Nexus energy.


    (Imagine might guy opening gates)


    Miko, who had landed several meters away, also had a wave of Nexus energy surrounding her, but one could tell at a glance that their Nexus were not on the same level.


    Gritting her teeth, she dashed forward once more.


    "That''s enough," Ivan muttered softly as five cards appeared on both of his hands at the same time, and he tossed everything into the air.


    Five swords immediately appeared in front of Ivan and shot towards the incoming Miko.


    Swoop!


    Swoop!


    Swoop!¡Á3


    All five swords were neatly cut through by Miko''s katana as she continued her charge, Ivan had expected this after all and wasn''t hoping to defeat her with the swords.


    After cutting through the fifth sword, Miko realized that Ivan was gone from his previous location; she didn''t see him move!


    Suddenly, Miko''s expression turned grave; her senses were screaming for her to turn left.


    Without giving it a thought, she hurriedly placed her katana to her left side, and at the same time, Ivan appeared with his right hand bent backward and his fist coated in Nexus.


    BAM!!


    His fist landed on the flat side of the katana before crashing into Miko''s temple, she felt a wave of pain accompanied by dizziness before her body was sent flying away uncontrollably.


    BOOM!!!


    Her body crashed into the barrier with a loud sound.


    "Hirck!"


    Miko made a painful sound as she spat out a mouthful of blood before falling to the ground. Her vision became more blurred, and she could hear ringing in her ears.


    The first thing that she heard after coming back to her senses was Ivan''s voice telling her that she had lost.


    Ivan was currently standing above Miko with an indifferent expression on his face, a sword in his grade which he rested its blade on her nape.


    "Trainee number 8 wins the match!"


    The referee announced as he flew to the ground, only after then did Ivan recall his sword and move from where Miko was.


    He could see that the girl had forced herself to get up after struggling a bit, a look of unwillingness was etched on her face as she glared at him with fierce eyes.


    But Ivan didn''t care; he had won and was now ranked third. Miko''s Nexus chamber was his now, and there was nothing that she could do about it.


    The barrier was opened and Ivan walked out of it, not caring about anything that happened on the stage anymore.


    Of course, others were going to continue their matches, but Ivan had no interest in watching.


    But one thing was certain, Ivan had shown everyone on his first day of stepping into the arena that he was worthy of being in first place.


    The trainees had now officially given him the title "demon Ivan"


    Who else aside demon Ivan could surpass everyone and even trash repeaters after only three months?


    ...


    After leaving the arena, Ivan decided to go check up on Ralph first before anything else.


    Glen was with Ralph in Ralph''s room, they opened the door for Ivan after hearing his voice.


    "Your fight is over?" Glen asked while sitting on Ralph''s bed, not caring if the latter was comfortable.


    "Mm" Ivan nodded and turned to look at Ralph. He looked perfectly normal aside from his slightly pale skin.


    "Who was your last opponent?" Ralph asked when he saw Ivan looking at him.


    "Miko," Ivan replied casually.


    "A repeater! Did you win?!" Glen''s eyes light up with eagerness for answers.


    "Of course, I am now ranked 3rd" Ivan replied with a small smile.


    " Awesome! Now we can all continue getting stronger together. I''ll be challenging Ralph in two days, and then we''ll take turns like that," Glen said with excitement; he could not wait to test the effect of a Nexus chamber. S§×ar?h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "So noisy, lower your voice" Ralph hissed at Glen while covering his ears.


    They chatted for a while more before Ivan and Glen left Ralph''s room. Ivan was going to the cafeteria while Glen was going to the training room. Ivan was to show Ralph to the Nexus chamber used by the first place after he was done eating.


    ...¡­


    Not a lot of people were in the cafeteria since most of the trainees were still in the arena, so Ivan had fewer people looking at him when he entered.


    He got his serving and went to an empty table in a corner to eat. He had just taken a few mouthfuls when a figure appeared opposite him and dropped a tray of food in front of him before taking the seat opposite Ivan.


    Ivan raised his eyes and came face to face with a smiling Sommy; the uninvited guest turned out to be Sommy, who was ranked 2nd on the ranking.


    "Hi, hope you don''t mind me joining you," Sommy said with a smile, even though she was already seated and had no intentions of leaving.


    Ivan swallowed before saying it was fine; they were, after all, acquainted, so he didn''t mind.


    "Good match today, I was honestly surprised by your display. You''re stronger than we all thought" Sommy said approvingly.


    "Thanks" Ivan responded and continued chewing.


    They are in silence for a few seconds before Ivan asks why Sommy did not challenge him. Was she not interested in the first place?


    "Honestly, I''m not a big fan of fighting; why fight when I already have enough AP to pass the training? I have no interest in your Nexus chamber" Sommy replied truthfully.


    Ivan stared at her in silence for a while and Sommy only returned his gaze with a smile.


    "Ok" was all he said in the end, and he continued eating.


    "Thanks" Sommy suddenly said, causing Ivan to pause.


    He looked up and saw that Sommy now had a helpless smile on her face while she played with her food; she seemed to have lost her appetite due to helplessness.


    " For what?" He asked.


    " For going easy on Luke " Sommy replied with a sigh.


    Ivan raised an eyebrow; he had noticed that although Sommy usually confronted Luke a lot, it was mostly when he was doing something stupid, and she was, in fact, looking out for him. He had ignored this before since it had nothing to do with him but now he was very curious since Sommy came to thank him for going easy on that guy.


    "Why do you care about him so much?"


    Sommy paused; a look of hesitation could be seen on her face, which stayed for a while before vanishing.


    "It can''t be helped; he''s my fiance even though I wished it wasn''t so," Sommy answered helplessly.


    Ivan froze, his eyes widened in shock as he stared at Sommy.


    What she had just said was like a bomb that was dropped in his mind.


    ''These two¡­are engaged!?''


    Ivan thought to himself as a thousand WTF ran through his mind in an instant.


    He could not even begin to imagine Luke getting someone like Sommy, these two were simply not meant for each other!


    Sommy giggled when she saw Ivan''s expression; it was very rare to see Ivan with such an expression, and she found it amusing.


    "I know you must be shocked but that''s the truth. I was raised by his family and engaged to him since we were kids; that''s why I can''t just leave him despite his awful personality." Sommy sighed after a while.


    Ivan had to agree with this, Luke was a dick. He flirted with a lot of girls even when Sommy was around and didn''t treat her like someone who was engaged was supposed to, it was just impossible to guess that they shared such a relationship.


    "Why don''t you call off the engagement?" Ivan asked.

 Chapter 51: Outside world

    "Why don''t you call off the engagement?" Ivan asked.Sommy replied that she would have done so a long time ago if she could, but it wasn''t her decision to make; she had no parents and was taken in by Luke''s family, who had taken care of her all these years.


    This was a kind of payment for all their care and the reason she bothered looking out for Luke at times.


    Ivan could only feel sorry for Sommy after learning all this; she was tied to that jerk for life. Luke''s family was just taking advantage of the helpless girl; it was a mystery how she still managed to stay so cheerful most of the time.


    "Anyway, let''s forget about my problems. I can''t imagine how strong you''ll become by the end of our training; I wonder who would be stronger by then, you or Vlad," Sommy said with a thoughtful look.


    " Who''s Vlad?" Ivan asked.


    " Oh, that''s an abbreviation for Vladimir. Alaric Vladimir" Sommy stated.


    A glint flashed past Ivan''s eyes, he immediately asked Sommy to tell him about this Alaric Vladimir guy.


    According to Sommy, Alaric Vladimir had entered the training program together with their set and had quickly started to dominate in every aspect of the training.


    He easily defeated the repeaters of that time and got the title of the strongest before the ranking was even created, it went without saying that he became even more monstrous after the ranking and Nexus chamber were introduced.


    It was said that Alaric Vladimir even matched up with some of the officials of the tower.


    He had a few circles of followers who were all also up in the ranking but none of them got close to Vlad''s level.


    Ivan''s eyes blazed as he listened to Sommy talk about this Alaric Vladimir guy, he wished he had met him and was able to fight him.


    ''It doesn''t matter, I can find him after leaving here'' Ivan thought to himself.


    "As for his personality, he''s just like you. Rarely talks, always wearing a deadpan expression, and cold" Sommy suddenly said with a teasing expression on her face.


    Ivan "..."


    "You don''t know me," he said bluntly.


    "Exactly, you''re too cold and won''t allow others to get close enough to know you," Sommy added while giggling.


    Ivan made a poker face, unable to find a response to Sommy''s claim.


    "Anyway, I''ll be off now. See you around," Sommy said; her food had finished at some point, and she got up to leave.


    Ivan also got up as well, but his mind was occupied with thoughts of that Alaric dude and what Sommy had said; he shook his head fiercely to clear his thoughts.


    "Training first, everything else comes after," Ivan said to himself before leaving for Ralph''s room. He''ll take Ralph to the Nexus chamber before going to the training room to fight more monsters and bosses.


    ...¡­


    While the trainees in the tower were taking their training seriously and trying to increase their strength as much as possible, the outside world was experiencing its own crisis.


    After the appearance of links and the discovery of the dreamscape, the earth was left with only three major cities and nine outskirts, with three outskirts anchoring to a major city.


    These major cities were San Pluto, which was the biggest and had over five million people living in it; Motuni, which had over two million people living there; and Orcuno, which was the smallest major city of humans and had a bit over a million citizens.


    Of course, there was still a vast population of humans inside the dreamscape, but the total number of humans currently did not even count up to fifteen million in total, with limited space for them to occupy.


    After regaining stability and forming strong forces, humans had begun their quest of reclaiming what was theirs; the lost lands and seas that were lost to the habitants of the dreamscape!


    Swoooooo!!


    An enormous air carrier flew above the surface of an eerily quiet sea, its humongous shadow that was cast by the blazing sun moved over the sea surface like the silhouette of a behemoth.


    Strange gigantic creatures would leap into the air from the sea from time to time in an attempt to snap at the air carrier with their enormous maws.


    Inside the air carrier, in what looked like a meeting room, over fifty people could be seen seated around what looked like a holographic image of an island while holding a meeting.


    Each one of these people had fearsome and bloody auras revolving around them and they all had serious looks on their faces. All of them were dressed in fine black uniforms with eye-catching white belts over their regalia, their ages ranging from those in their twenties to those who were in their forties.


    A man who appeared to be in his thirties stood in the middle of this gathering with the hologram right before him, he made gestures while saying something.


    "This area used to be a continent occupied by the Africans, and two thousand kilometers behind it is the vast Death Sea; on the other side of the Death Sea is the camp of people from the Dominion Tower who can act as reinforcements if the need arises. Sear?h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    You will be deployed around here," he made a gesture and made the hologram zoom in and show an area that looked like a forest region with tall-looking trees. "Your mission is to sweep through this area all the way here, which should be an area of 800 meters of detours.


    Arrive at the location of the link that gives these monsters entrance to our world and secure the place, report back immediately after completing the objective!" The man stated and the hologram vanished, causing the room to fall into darkness briefly before light was restored.


    "Is that understood?" The man asked while looking towards a young man who seemed to be in his early twenties. He had short black hair and black eyes that gleamed, he was also extremely handsome and looked like a main character from some anime.


    The young man looked back at him with expressionless eyes before nodding.


    "Good, do well. You''ve been making remarkable progress since you came out of training. Continue, and you''ll climb ranks faster than most of us," the middle-aged man commented, but the young man paid no attention to him, immediately walking out of the room.


    Had Sommy or any of the repeaters been here, they would have definitely recognized this young man; he was no other but Alaric Vladimir!


    "Hey, Vlad! Wait up"


    Alaric Vladimir paused his steps when he heard someone call his name, he turned around and saw that it was a youth with blue hair covering a side of his face.


    Ivan would have definitely recognized this youth, they had met at the teleportation vault back at the tower four months ago.


    This young man with blue hair was called Jack and he was already a True King rank Nexulyte.


    Jack reached where Vlad was before passing a piece of paper to him, Vlad took the paper and read through it quietly for a couple of seconds before lifting his head without a change in expression.


    "Inform Bella and the others; you all should assemble your team and meet me at the facility vault in five minutes," Vlad said to Jack and immediately turned to leave. Jack gave his back a long stare before turning over to carry out his assignment.


    Vlad, still holding the piece of paper in his hand, walked through the lobbies of the air carrier. The paper was a permit to claim a land carrier and since his team had quite several people, he had been permitted to claim ten land carriers.


    A single land carrier was usually able to carry seven people along with a month''s worth of supplies.


    "Seems like it''s going to be another long mission" Vlad muttered to himself, his eyes narrowing into a slit.


    This was his third mission since he left the training camp; as a Partial Lord ranked Nexulyte, Vlad had a team of ten True King Nexulytes under him, and those True Kings had four Mortal King subordinates; this made his team reach a total of 51 people for every mission.


    Of course, it was also because the missions assigned to him always required a large number of people to be able to share the workload; he could decide to take fewer people if he wanted.


    Vlad arrived at the facility vault shortly, this was a huge workshop in the air carrier where hundreds of Nexulytes with mechanic talents did their work. Of course, these ones were not battle mechanics; they were seen to be even more valuable than battle mechanics at the time since they were in charge of creating everything related to machinery.


    Weapons, carriers, communication devices, spatial storage devices, just name it.


    A young man in his early twenties spotted Vlad immediately after he stepped into the facility vault, this young man was in a nano suit that was probably the manifestation of his talent as he jumped from on top of a tall piece of metal.

 Chapter 52: An A-22G3 land carrier

    A young man in his early twenties spotted Vlad immediately after he stepped into the facility vault, this young man was in a nano suit that was probably the manifestation of his talent as he jumped from on top of a tall piece of metal.Clang!!


    The young man made a loud sound upon landing but no one paid any attention to this since the facility vault was always filled with similar noises.


    "Hey, Eric" Vlad called out in a toneless voice.


    This Eric was also one of the trainees from their batch.


    "What are you here for?" Eric asked with a smile, already used to Vlad''s talking style.


    Vlad didn''t say anything and simply handed him the piece of paper. Eric read through it, and his eyes lit up.


    "Wow, you guys are going on another mission? Do you need a mechanic to come with you? I''ve been here for months, and I''m bored," Eric complained.


    "Sure"


    Eric was surprised that Vlad agreed, he jumped in excitement before saying.


    "Come come, there''s a new batch of A-22G3 that we just made and ready for take out. Their functions are the best, let''s pick them!"


    Vlad raised an eyebrow upon hearing Eric''s suggestions; he honestly didn''t know of any land carrier called A-22G3 and was interested since a support mechanic recommended it.


    " Let''s go then"


    Following Eric''s lead, they moved through the spaces where other mechanics were working and arrived in another room inside the facility vault.


    In this room, Vlad saw the A-22G3 that Eric talked about. Unlike the usual land carriers that he was familiar with, these ones were different.


    Having long metal legs like those of crabs instead of wheels, the A-22G3 was able to maintain a distance of five meters from the ground while depending on its metal legs for balance and movements.


    It was suitable for climbing uneven terrains and mountains as well, those legs could also be controlled to attack as well!


    And this one even had more space and people wouldn''t need to cramp up together inside.


    " This land carrier is indeed more useful than a normal land carrier, it''s really nice to have them. Are you sure we''ll be able to take them out since they were just made?" Vlad asked. He was clearly impressed by the usefulness of the A-22G3 but he spoke casually.


    " Ehh, actually. There are already a lot of them in the dreamscape, just that they aren''t used in the real world. We just assembled these after some were brought for repairs " Eric scratched his nose in embarrassment.


    Vlad only stared at him for a few seconds before turning away, he continued to inspect the A-22G3.


    Its metal legs were over three meters thick and were very sturdy as well, he doubted that he would be able to damage them without at least attacking five times with all his might.


    One had to know that the A-22G3 was already incredible enough to last so long against an abnormal Partial Lord Nexulyte like Vlad.


    As for the cabin on top of these metal legs, looking at the size from the outside, Vlad estimated that the inside should have a space of over fifteen meters at least, which was twice the space of a normal land carrier.


    "Vlad, I''ve brought everyone"


    Vlad''s inspection was cut short by Jack''s voice; he turned toward the direction of the voice and saw that Jack had brought everyone else to the facility vault; there were over fifty people in total, with Vlad and Eric included.


    "Ok, we''ll be taking these," Vlad said while tapping an A-22G3 that was close to him.


    "What''s that?"


    "It''s like a land carrier but strange, what model is this?"


    "Incredible, I''ve never seen a land carrier like this before"


    Some of the people who were to go on the mission with Vlad immediately began to examine the carrier, they were unable to hide their amazement and left pleasing comments that made Eric grin with a long nose.


    Of course, most of the people who let out these remarks were new Nexulytes who were either from Vlad''s batch or had never been to the dreamscape so it was natural that they had never seen a land carrier like this before.


    "Eh? Isn''t this a land carrier only used for special parts of the dreamscape? Are we allowed to take it out?" A voice suddenly sounded.


    Clear disapproval could be heard from the voice of this person, it was obvious that he was dissatisfied with Vlad''s arrangements and was opposing him.


    Vlad''s eyes narrowed; those around him could feel the temperature suddenly drop to a chilling level, and they all shivered silently.


    His narrowed eyes landed on the figure of a middle-aged man who looked to be in his late thirties; he had a gigantic figure with ripping muscles that stretched his uniform, a thick bushy beard, and a pair of sharp eyes with a ghastly scar running over one.


    Despite this man''s fearsome appearance, he was only at the Mortal King rank. He was probably one of those people who were against Vlad being in charge of missions just because they were stronger, they believed that experience and age should be the basis for leading.


    Vlad has encountered quite a few such people; they always appeared whenever he was to set out on a mission and never learned.


    Seeing that Vlad was looking at him, the man didn''t shriek back and glared back at Vlad with a fearless look.


    "I don''t mean to oppose you since you might be inexperienced and unaware of this, but these types of land carriers are only allowed inside the dreamscape; you should pick another one," the man said haughtily.


    " Did I ask you for an explanation?" Vlad voiced out coldly.


    The man''s expression changed, seeing that Vlad was clearly pissed, this Vlad brat might be young, but he was still a Partial Lord Nexulyte.


    " I was just stating a fact; I didn''t intend to offend you," the man explained, but his tone was far from his words.


    "Didn''t intend to offend me huh?" Vlad wore a wicked smirk before asking for the man''s name.


    "Koblack, my name is Koblack," the man answered.


    "Koblack¡­I''ll remember that. As for your information, this is what we are taking" Vlad scoffed before walking away.


    Eric moved over to Koblack after Vlad left.


    "That was probably the worst decision you might have made," he said to him before walking away.


    The piece of paper had shown that Vlad had clearance to take any land carrier of his choice, who was this Mortal King nobody to butt in?


    ....


    A few minutes later, at the exit of the air carrier, ten A-22G3 could be seen standing orderly and preparing to move out.


    Each land carrier had five people riding in their cabins, except the one in front which was carrying seven people; the additions were Vlad and Eric.


    Standing on the ground in front of the ten A-22G3s was the man who had given them a briefing on the mission earlier. S§×arch* The nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "You''ll be deployed at your starting location in a few minutes, remember to watch out for hidden dangers and keep in touch with us if you encounter anything strange!" He bellowed in a loud voice and all the Nexulytes could be seen saluting from the windows of their cabins.


    The man said nothing else and walked away.


    Three minutes later, the cover of the air carrier slowly rose, revealing the scene of a forest to Vlad and his team.


    They had arrived!


    Thwoop! Thwoop! Thwoop!


    The metal legs of all the A-22G3 made robotic noises as they were controlled and began to move out of the air carrier; the air carrier had stopped twenty meters above the ground, so they had to jump.


    This event once again glorified how useful an A-22G3 was, jumping such height was a piece of cake with those legs.


    All ten land carriers made loud sounds upon landing on the ground, their legs dug into the ground and allowed them to withstand the impact of the jump before they started moving forward again.


    "Hahahah!! This is what a land carrier should be like; cool, right!" Eric was laughing like a maniac inside the A-22G3 cabin he was in; since he was the one driving this A-22G3, his maneuvering skills were far better than the others, and he was already making their land carrier run all around the place.


    "Can you stop? I''m feeling dizzy!" Jack screamed as he held onto his seatbelt to avoid crashing around inside the cabin due to Eric''s maneuver.


    The other members in the cabin were also sitting tight in their seats with fearful expressions, only Vlad had an indifferent expression and wasn''t affected by Eric''s rough driving.


    "Focus!"


    But he couldn''t allow the whole team to suffer because he was simply unaffected, so with a single word, he made Eric stop terrorizing the rest of the team.


    " Hehehe, this baby''s awesome!" Eric laughed while sensually touching the surface of the control system. His behavior was very befitting for his talent as a support mechanic, he was a machine fanatic!


    " Open a communication line to the others" Vlad instructed again.


    "Hai hai, captain!" Eric chuckled before opening the public communication system.


    Vlad passed out his order to the rest of the team; they were to form into pairs of two and only move a distance of 200 meters in a single direction; they were to report immediately if they found anything strange¡­monsters not included.


    "Understood!" ¡Á9


    The rest replied after receiving the command.


    Vlad turned to Eric before nodding for them to start exploring too.

 Chapter 53: Gene banshees

    Bang!!Thwoop!


    Bang!!


    Thwoop!


    Controlling the A-22G3, Eric stabbed the long metal legs into the bodies of several behemoth worm monsters.


    These giant worm creatures that were no smaller than the land carrier itself and had wide mouths filled with razor-sharp teeth were immediately covered in gaping holes under the assault of Eric''s driving.


    Loud screeching sounds filled the air while the green slimy liquid, which was these monsters'' blood, gushed all over the place.


    They had stumbled upon these monsters on their search and realized that this was the territory of these giant worms, the members of the group remained in the cabin and just watched as Eric massacred the entire swarm of monsters using the land carrier alone.


    These monsters had green skins which made them capable of hiding in forest areas and their bodies were as tough as steel that one would need to be at least at the True King rank to be able to deal damage to them, adding to their size and insane abilities; it would have been a tough battle for the team considering that they had ran not into just one of these monsters but a whole swarm of them.


    Luckily, they just happened to have a special land carrier that could be used as a war mecha! None of the members had to do anything, and they just watched from the cabin; the fight was over in just five minutes!


    "Hehe, feel the might of a super land carrier!" Eric laughed crazily while controlling the A-22G3 to stomp over the dead bodies of the worms, creating more holes in them and causing loud noises.


    Pah!


    "Focus"


    Vlad smacked his head and snorted, Eric muttered a sorry while chuckling.


    Ignoring him, Vlad opened the communication link with other land carriers.


    "What''s the situation?" he asked.


    Vlad could hear sounds of fighting from the links of the various land carriers, so it was apparent that they had run into some monsters as well; since none of them were close to Eric''s level of controlling the land carrier, they would need to fight whatever monster that they encountered themselves.


    "All clear, we ran into some monsters but the other members are currently dealing with it and should be done soon"


    "We just finished with some rock golems and will be reaching the 100 meters mark shortly"


    "We have yet to encounter anything, our location isn''t far from the 200 meters mark"


    ¡­.


    Each group gave reports of their situation; some had needed to fight or were still fighting, while some had yet to encounter any troubles; in conclusion, everything was going smoothly, and they would all meet up soon if nothing changed.


    " Alright, keep advancing," Vlad replied before cutting off the link. "Forward," he turned to Eric and said.


    Thwoop!


    Thwoop!


    Eric resumed control and the land carrier began walking forward once more, but they had barely moved for over fifty meters through the forest when a strange scene suddenly unfolded before them.


    From behind huge trees, large groups of people suddenly began to appear. These people looked like ordinary citizens and were not Nexulytes; they were dressed in ordinary clothing but looked miserable in them.


    Blood stains, tears, and dried mud made their clothes unbearable to look at; the people were also equally dirty and looked like they had not taken a bath for years.


    They ranged from children at the age of nine to elderly at the age of seventy, men and women; they all looked like refugees, and their numbers quickly crossed a hundred as they formed a large crowd in front of the two land carriers.


    The two land carriers immediately came to a stop upon seeing these people who had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, every member had a frown on their face as they stared at the pitiful faces of these people from their cabins.


    This continent was abandoned during the early years of the appearance of the dreamscape, which was over four hundred years ago. The entire continent had been overtaken by monsters so how could so many people appear here?


    Could there really have been survivors?


    "Vlad¡­" Jack called out, turning to look at him.


    Vlad was staring at the people from inside the cabin with expressionless eyes, he thought for a few seconds before opening a communication link to the other land carrier that was following along with them.


    The ten land carriers had been divided into groups of five, with two land carriers in each group, so naturally, Vlad''s group also had two land carriers, and the True King in charge of the other land carriers was someone who Vlad was familiar with.


    "Bella put Koblack through," Vlad said coldly through the communication link.


    There was brief silence from the other side; those who were familiar with Vlad already knew what would happen next. Jack and Eric also turned to look at him with helpless eyes.


    Sounds of footsteps came from the other side after a moment of silence before the voice of Koblack came through.


    "What''s the matter, kid?" Koblack asked through the communication link.


    The entire team heard this and Eric could not help but click his tongue while Jack facepalmed.


    ''This Koblack was just asking for it, calling your superior, kid? Could one be more disrespectful?''


    Vlad acted like he didn''t hear what Koblack just said; he took one more glance at the crowd below before turning to the communication link.


    "Go down and check out what''s wrong with those people" Vlad voiced out coldly.


    "W-what do you mean, go down alone?" Koblack''s voice immediately became flustered and he stuttered through the communication link.


    "What? Don''t you understand human language? You''re older and have more experience, so go check it out" Vlad scoffed in response.


    The sound of Koblack grinding his teeth hard came through the communication link for a moment before he suddenly called Vlad''s full name in a heavy voice.


    " Alaric¡­Vladimir, don''t let leadership get to your head!" Koblack said through gritted teeth.


    Vlad didn''t even get to respond before the sound of collision came from the other side.


    BAM!


    Crash!


    It sounded as if someone got kicked hard and crashed into a sturdy wall.


    Next was the cold voice of Bella.


    "A mere Mortal King dares to be so arrogant to a Partial Lord, are you asking for death? Go down immediately or I''ll throw you out" sea??h th§× nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    It was followed by the distant voice of Koblack cursing before the communication link was cut off.


    Thwoooooo! BOOM!!


    The other land carrier suddenly had all of its legs folded before its cabin landed on the ground with a loud sound; an opening was created, and from it came Koblack, who had blood on the corner of his mouth.


    He threw a glare at the land carrier that Vlad was in before turning to look at the crowd of refugees in front; his huge figure trembled slightly, and one could see the unwillingness and fear in his eyes.


    The place was dead silent as only the passing wind dared to make a sound while Koblack slowly approached the crowd.


    He reached a ten-meter distance away from them before stopping; his sharp, scary eyes scanned the faces of the people.


    "Who are you people?" Mustering enough courage, Koblack asked while watching them vigilantly.


    But the people did not respond to him and just kept staring at him, their expressions were those of grief, fear, pain, and anxiety.


    "We are people from the Owen Tower; we''re here to help." Seeing that they showed similar behaviors to traumatized people, Koblack gained more courage and took a step towards them, but the moment he took a step, the mood of the crowd immediately changed.


    Their expressions turned vicious and fierce, they all opened their mouths and screamed.


    "Help us!"


    " Help us!"


    " Save us!"


    "Someone save us!"


    ¡­.


    The entire crowd of over a hundred people screaming similar words at the top of their lungs was a very frightening and ghastly sight that made one''s skin crawl, the hair on Koblack''s body stood straight as a sudden chill watched over his body.


    " What the..!!


    He cursed and immediately tried to run back, but it was too late; the whole crowd of people surged toward him like a fierce wave of hungry zombies.


    "The fuck! Get away from me!" Koblack screamed and immediately covered himself in Nexus energy and punched the closest person who was about to grab him.


    BAM!!


    It was a powerful punch to the face of a person who looked like a middle-aged lady with dirty blonde hair.


    Shockingly, the woman let out a loud shriek that a human would never make before transforming into a completely different thing; it was not a human!


    The monster that the woman turned into was a very fat and robust monster with pale skin and had the head of a pig, it was three times the height of a normal human and had the tail of a reptile.


    The mere sight of the monster alone was so repulsive that everyone who saw it had the urge to throw up. The Koblack who had punched it had it worse since he was right in front of it and more of what they suspected were similar creatures were rushing towards him!


    "It''s a gene banshee!"

 Chapter 54: Nexulytes vs Gene banshees

    "It''s a gene banshee!"Someone inside the land carrier that Vlad was in screamed in horror; that person wasn''t the only one who had realized this, as a few people were familiar with this monster as well.


    Gene banshees were a type of monsters from the dreamscape that would strike fear in the hearts of people, running into one can be considered having terrible luck unless one was specialized in dealing with them.


    The Gene banshees were monsters that could assume the form and perfectly take up the behavior and habits of whatever they consumed. If they are the corps of a powerful monster, it goes without saying that they will be able to assume the appearance of that monster and use its strength and abilities!


    Not only that, gene banshees were very glutinous in nature and never stopped eating no matter how many things they consumed; one can not even begin to imagine what type of monsters or how many a gene banshee has consumed!


    Another horrifying thing about them was that in their base form, despite their repulsive and humongous appearance, they were incredibly fast! Their speed could easily match up with a Nexulyte at the True King rank!


    The only good thing about them was that they had incredibly fragile bodies as long as they were in their base form; a single punch would be enough to blast them into pieces but then again, that wasn''t good news at all because making contact with a gene banshee would make one get their body fluid on them.


    The body fluid of a gene banshee was so toxic that it would make anything it touched rot in a matters of seconds and worms would start to crawl all over it, the body fluid of a gene banshee was also able to eat through Nexus energy so trying to cover oneself with Nexus energy would not work as well!


    To put it simply, a gene banshee was an incredibly weak but troublesome monster as long as it was in its base form and could become a nightmare by assuming the form of anything it had consumed.


    One gene banshee could cause hell or die easily, but meeting a crowd of it¡­ was a nightmare!


    Over 100 gene banshee¡­


    Vlad stared at the scene in front of him with indifference before saying "Contact the rest team, call everyone back"


    Eric nodded and immediately sent the message along with their location.


    As for Koblack, who had come in contact with one of the gene banshees, the Nexus covering his arm immediately retracted despite how much he tried to stop it, and right in front of his eyes, worms began to eat through his skin while his arm dried up at an alarming speed.


    "Ahhhh!!! Help me!!" Koblack screamed like a pig being slaughtered as he hurriedly retreated while throwing chunks of earth at the people rushing towards him but it still wasn''t enough as the wave of people swallowed him up.


    Only his anguished screaming could be heard as the crowd of people tore him to shreds and in a matter of seconds, nothing was left of the huge koblack anymore; he was dead!


    After dealing with the koblack, the crowd returned their sight to the two land carriers. They stared for a few seconds before they began advancing towards the land carrier, they changed back to their base form as they moved.


    Soon, there were over a hundred gross-looking masses of flesh with pig heads crawling toward the land carriers.


    "Vlad¡­what should we do?" Jack asked while staring at the large group of gene banshees that were approaching them.


    Vlad did not respond to Jack as he fell into thought for a few seconds before suddenly saying.


    " Eric, how many of them can you take out with the A-22G3?"


    Eric was surprised by this question; his eyes widened in delight as a wide smile formed on his face.


    "Half, at least half of them!" Eric answered excitedly.


    Vlad nodded upon hearing that before walking towards the back of the cabin where their supplies were kept.


    "Everyone else, prepare for battle!" Vlad said while moving.


    "Yes!"


    They answered and followed him, including Vlad himself; they were six in total.


    They all equipped themselves with protective suits and helmets, Vlad also instructed Eric to inform Bella and her team to come out for battle while leaving one person to look after the land carrier.


    A minute later, a total of nine people could be seen standing in front of the two land carriers. They were Vlad, Jack, Eric, Bella, and the others in their black protective suits.


    Vlad tapped on the chip in his ears while staring at the approaching gene banshees with eyes that looked like they were soulless, the trees did a good job in making them split into groups; this should help them take care of these monsters easily.


    A beep sound rang in everyone''s ears and they could all hear Eric''s voice.


    "I''m ready" Eric voiced out, his voice telling them how excited he was.


    "Then move out!" Vlad answered and the next moment, the land carrier that Eric was driving jumped from the back and landed amid the Gene banshees.


    Boom!!


    A loud sound followed as a few gene banshees were crushed under the legs of the A-22G3 instantly, the rest made loud shrieks before throwing themselves at the legs of the land carrier.


    But Eric was just too good at maneuvering it, he skillfully controlled the legs of the A-22G3 and made it crash the gene banshees into nearby trees.


    Bang!


    Boom!!


    Creeaakk!


    The whole place was in chaos as Eric destroyed the gene banshees and trees in his wake, he was unstoppable!


    Of course, Vlad and the rest were not going to keep watching, while Eric dealt with a bigger number of the gene banshees, they attacked the others.


    Jack, the youth with blue hair, turned out to be a Nexulyte with an elemental talent and his element was the ice element!


    Sliding across over an ice track that he had created, Jack landed in the middle of five gene banshees and immediately slammed both hands into the ground. Sear?h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Pow!


    Pow!!


    Pow!!


    The area of ten meters around them was immediately covered in huge icicles that skewed the gene banshees, killing them on the spot.


    Jack immediately turned around after dealing with those gene banshees; he created another icicle before throwing it forward and nailing another one to a tree about ten meters away.


    Jack suddenly looked up and his expression changed as he rolled on the ground while creating an ice slide that pulled him further away, just in time for a gene banshee to drop on the spot he was standing on previously.


    Had he been a second late, that disgusting gene banshee would have fallen on him and it would be over!


    "You piece of crap!" Jack cursed angrily before rushing towards the gene banshee while forming ice with his hands.


    On another side, Bella, who turned out to be a weapon user, was nailing gene banshees to trees with her arrows. She did not use a bow since her arrows hovered around her and would fly in whichever direction she pointed them to; she had already nailed four gene banshees with her arrows as she moved through their ranks.


    Vlad was still the most ferocious, after becoming a Partial Lord, a weapon user would awaken another attribute or skill to their weapon. Vlad, being a sword user, had awakened the flaming river sword technique!


    (Weapon users are like martial artists so be ready for names like this, hehe)


    Such a powerful technique allowed Vlad to create sword attacks that would launch addictional flame attacks, and these attacks were even more ferocious than his normal attacks.


    Imagine someone slashing at you with a sword but after managing to dodge or block, a wave of blazing flames would suddenly appear out of nowhere and rush towards you!


    That was exactly what Vlad was doing right now! With every slash he made, not only would a gene banshee be split in two because of their weak skin, but both sides of their bodies would suddenly burst into ferocious flames, and that flame might even spread to another gene banshee!


    The other True Kings were still doing their best in defeating the gene banshees, but sadly, the same could not be said for those at the Mortal king rank; they were struggling to fend off even one gene banshee and would immediately fall into a disadvantage when faced with two.


    Things got worse after the gene banshees realized that they were dying too quickly to a group of humans and that giant piece of metal, they immediately abandoned their base form and began to change into other creatures; things got really difficult after this because they instantly lost the advantage of the gene having weak bodies.


    Even though the number of the gene banshees had dropped significantly, they still outnumbered Vlad''s group by a lot.


    "Ahhh!"


    A scream of anguish suddenly echoed through the air, the others looked over and saw that a man in his early thirties had been pierced by the tail of one of the gene banshees that had turned into a strange monster that they could not identify. After piercing the man, the creature immediately turned back into a gene banshee before swallowing the man in one bite.


    "Damnit!" Jack cursed and launched a huge icicle at the gene banshee that had just eaten the man, but the creature dodged. Let''s not forget that gene banshees are also fast in their base form.


    At this time.


    Thwoorp!


    Thwoop!


    Thwoorp!


    Thwoop


    Thwoorp!


    Thwoop


    The sounds of numerous A-22G3s approaching were heard.


    Reinforcement had arrived!

 Chapter 55: unexpected encounter

    While Vlad and his group members were fighting for their lives somewhere on an abandoned continent, the situation in Motuni was different; it was rather peaceful just like San Pluto.Motuni was the second largest human city amongst the three that were left, it had a large number of people residing in it which included Nexulytes as well as ordinary people. With such a population, it was only natural that the security around it would be top-notch as well.


    There were dozens of towers located in Motuni, the headquarters of the Lance Tower and Christopher Tower were located here in Motuni as well as branches of the other big towers.


    It was late at night and like any other prosperous city, night in Motuni was always like a carnival as many people who had returned from their busy activities of the day would choose the night to relax and catch up with friends.


    In a public park with quite a few people sitting quietly to enjoy the night view, a man could be seen sitting alone on a bench while scrolling through his phone; he would occasionally mutter something to himself.


    He had short blond hair and long side beard that connected with his mustache, and wore a pair of white glasses.


    This man looked ordinary just like anyone else in the park, there was nothing worth noticeable about him aside from his calm demeanor.


    But what people didn''t know was that this man was in fact James Owen in disguise!


    James Owen, the Tower master of the Owen HQ in San Pluto, was in Motuni in disguise!


    And he was secretly having a conversation with another ordinary looking young lady that was sitting just a seat away from him to his left side and looked like she was browsing through a magazine.


    "What''s the situation with him?" James asked discretely as if he was commenting on what he saw on his phone.


    " He''s progressing well despite our actions to slow him down, he''s currently in third place and has just entered the Mortal king rank" the lady replied without drawing attention.


    " What about the item? Found anything about it? Or did he carry it with him?" James asked again.


    " That¡­I don''t know, he hasn''t made any strange actions since the start of the training and I suspect that he didn''t bring it with him" the lady responded.


    " Very well, find a way to slow down his progress. I don''t want him causing any troubles for me like his father, not until I''m done with my plan" James said instructed before abruptly standing up and raising his phone to his ears as if he was on a call, he began to converse while walking away.


    The woman didn''t turn and continued browsing through the magazine for another five minutes before closing it and leaving the park as well.


    They had been so discreet during their meeting that no one would suspect a thing¡­or so they thought.


    Shortly after they left, an old man who had been sleeping on a bench suddenly woke up and tapped on his ears.


    "They''ve left" the old man said, his eyes didn''t look like what have seen memories befitting for his age but had the vigilance  of someone in his prime instead.


    "Alright, return to the tower at once"


    A voice said into the ears of the old man before the connection was cut off.


    ...


    Back in the abandoned continent.


    Thwoop!


    Thwoop!


    Thwoop!!


    Ten land carriers made their way through a forest with tall trees at a slow pace, signs of battles and blood stains of various colors could be found on the bodies of the land carriers.


    Inside one of these land carriers, Vlad could be seen sitting on his seat quietly with both eyes closed and a peaceful expression on his face.


    In his mind, an image appeared.


    NAME: Alaric Vladimir


    Talent group: Combat    Talent type: Weapon master  Talent: Sword(Flaming river sword technique) S~ea??h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Talent lv: S          AP: 47.05%      Rank: PARTIAL LORD


    Vlad looked at his profile for a few seconds in his mind before opening his eyes.


    ''Just a little more till 50% AP, I''ll finally become a True Lord when that happens'' Vlad thought to himself.


    It had been three weeks after their battle with the gene banshees, aside from that Mortal King who was pierced during the beginning of the fight and koblack, they didn''t lose anyone else after the arrival of the others.


    They had finally killed off the remaining gene banshees after two hours of fighting, the reason why the fight had dragged on for so long was because of the troublesome creatures that the gene banshees were turning into; one could not really predict what a gene banshee had consumed.


    One would be in serious trouble if they ran into a gene banshee that had eaten the remains of a zone guardian. An example of a zone guardian was that red skinned monster with the head of a skeleton that the various heads of the big towers had fled from when they were fighting over Ivan''s custody.


    The good thing was that after the fight, they had gotten a few Nexus crystals from a few corpses; a total of five.


    This was already a lot since Nexus crystals were extremely hard to find and one might not even find one after killing a zone guardian but they had managed to get five after killing almost a hundred and fifty gene banshees, it wasn''t a bad gain at all.


    A Nexus crystal was an incredibly valuable item that were only found inside creatures of the dreamscape and could be used to increase a Nexulyte''s AP or be used as a power source for carries and even teleportation vaults.


    One Nexus crystal would add up to 0.50% AP to a Nexulyte''s total amount of AP no matter what rank they were, its value would never diminish! This was what made it very valuable and one could easily be sold for millions of bucks!


    One had to know that the stronger a Nexulyte got, the harder it would become for them to increase their AP, but the Nexus crystal did not have this restriction!


    Even if a Domain Lord with 69% AP and would need two months to gather an additional 0.10 AP were to absorb two Nexus crystals, that Domain Lord would immediately get 1% AP to cross to the next rank!


    This was to show just how valuable a Nexus crystal was to Nexulytes.


    Of course, after getting five Nexus crystals, Vlad could not keep all of them simply because he was the leader and the strongest; well he could if he wanted to but he didn''t, he decided to share it instead.


    Since there were ten squads under him, Vlad kept one for himself and they agreed to sell the remaining four which the money would be divided amongst the members of the team since everyone did their fair share of work in killing the gene banshees.


    During the last three weeks, they had all decided to move together from fear of running into another large group of gene banshees or any other type of annoying monster; and they did!


    Just that they were more prepared at that time, they did not lose another person but they did not acquire any more Nexus crystals either.


    During those three weeks, they had been forced to retreat after engaging with certain monsters due to some of their members getting injured and needing to use healing gel or due to unfavorable conditions that could have led to the death of the whole team.


    But nonetheless, they still managed to clear their way through to their destination within three weeks while maintaining their losses to the minimum of the two people who had died on the first day.


    "Vlad, we''ve arrived!" The voice of a tired Jack pulled Vlad from his thoughts.


    The latter looked in the direction and through the window of the air carrier he could see it outside, over twenty meters in front of them was a mirror gate, the link to the dreamscape.


    The gate was over twenty meters tall and stood in between the trunks of two enormous trees.


    "A mirror gate" Vlad mumbled to himself, a flash of light flashing past his eyes for a split second.


    The mirror gate was like something that came from a dream, very unrealistic with edges made of what seemed like countless broken mirrors yet perfectly reflected whatever stood before it. Inside this circle of broken mirrors was a constantly squirming mass of gray fog and sitting in front of this mirror gate was a stone monster that remained just motionless like a statue.


    This stone monster was the size of a normal person and had the features of humans as well, the only difference was the third closer eyeball on its forehead. It wore a stone samurai attire and two stone swords with thin blades rested on the ground on both sides of the monster.


    Without being told, everyone knew that this motionless monster would immediately come to life once they approached the mirror gate to a certain distance.


    "Let''s leave the land carriers here, Eric and a few will remain inside while the rest will follow me down" Vlad said before standing up.


    Eric nodded and immediately passed the message to the rest of the land carriers, in less than a minute all the air carriers had their legs folded and were turned off.


    Vlad and thirty nine people were standing on the ground in their black uniforms, each of them having a serious look on their faces as they stared at the mirror gate and the monster sitting in front of it.


    But before they could make a move.


    Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap!


    Sounds of clapping suddenly came from a distance followed by the sound of multiple approaching footsteps, it was clear that a large group of people or whatever was coming.


    The others immediately had an anxious look on their faces while Vlad looked over with a dull look in his eyes. Soon, people began to appear from within the forest one after the other and their numbers quickly caught up to the size of Vlad''s team.


    "Well well well, if it isn''t the star from the Owen Tower" A malicious voice laughed out after seeing Vlad and the rest

 Chapter 56: Thieves

    "Well well well, if it isn''t the star from the Owen Tower" a malicious voice rang out.Vlad looked at the source of the voice and saw that it was a middle aged man with handsome features but having a ruthless glint in his eyes as he looked toward their group.


    These people who had suddenly appeared were all dressed in purple uniforms and blue belts, they were from the Christopher Tower which was one of the five biggest Towers in the world.


    It wasn''t a secret that some of the five biggest Towers had hostile relationships with each other, the relationship between the Owen Tower and the Christopher Tower just happened to be one of the hostile ones.


    "I was wondering which thief was trying to steal the mirror gate that we had secured. It turned out that it''s the little rats from the Owen Tower. Don''t you all have any sense of shame trying to rob us in broad daylight?" The man spat out with a vicious look on his face, the people behind him went into a feat of laughter after hearing this.


    "Tks!"


    Jack clicked his tongue in irritation, Bella and the others also had enraged looks on their faces.


    ''Secured your father! With the number of monsters we had to fight to get here, how dare you say we are stealing from you? You should feel ashamed as a Nexulyte!''


    Vlad was the only one who still had an expressionless look on his face even at this time as he stared at the man who was spouting nonsense.


    "What do you mean?" Vlad asked, his voice extremely cold and menacing that a few people of the Christopher Tower had a grim look on their faces for a moment.


    ''Just who was that brat to be scaring them with just his words!?''


    The man who had been talking since settled his eyes on Vlad, a wicked smirk formed on his lips before he opened his mouth. S§×ar?h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Ah, Alaric Vladimir. I''ve heard of you and I must say that it''s impressive that you managed to bring so many weaklings this far, but that doesn''t mean that you have to go around stealing other people''s things.


    We got here first and have already occupied this mirror gate, so naturally this mirror gate is now a property of the Christopher Tower. Thief''s from the Owen Tower should go look somewhere else, don''t force us if we decide to protect what belongs to us" The man sneered while rubbing his knuckles and releasing Nexus energy from his body.


    He was a Partial Lord ranked Nexulyte! Just like Vlad.


    The look in Vlad''s eyes finally changed, his eyes had an amused look as he stared back at the man.


    "And what if we want to rob you? You think you can defend ''your property'' from me?" Vlad asked as a cold grin crept up the corner of his mouth.


    " Huh? Are you planning to force us to give up on what belongs to us? I''m afraid that won''t be easy. Ah, I know why. As the star of the Owen training camp, you must have been cared for and think everything is easy as long as you are stubborn. Hehe, we heard how you dominated the training and no one was able to reach your level.


    Those old dogs of the Owen Tower really doted on you a lot, didn''t they?


    Your talent was so good that they had to give all their resources to nurture you, but do you know what? You''re old news now!


    Back then, you were an outstanding talent but that was it. Do you know what''s going on now in San Pluto? I heard that another talent appeared in this training, he''s so talented that the various founders of the big Towers even fought over him and your tower master offered him a personal villa just to get him. What, feeling jealous yet? They clearly value this new guy more than you!


    What''s his name again¡­ah yes, Ivan!"


    The man ranted non-stop, clearly trying to piss off Vlad. Saddle, Vlad''s face remained as cold as an ice sculpture and didn''t react but the same wasn''t so for Jack and the others, they were ticked off by the man''s ranting.


    But before they could respond, Vlad calmly said.


    "Even at that, he''ll still be under me and remain under the same tower as myself. The Owen Tower would have two geniuses but what of you? Who are you even? Some unknown person is trying to provoke me?"


    Vlad''s tone was calm but his words were piercing, the face of the man who had been ranting since immediately took a change as his mood went for a dive. Those behind him were also affected too.


    " Arrogant brat, what makes you think you can talk to our leader like that?"


    Someone in purple uniform suddenly burst out in fury and rushed at Vlad while summoning a huge hammer with his talent.


    The face of his group members changed and they tried to stop him but it was too late as he was already in front of Vlad with his hammer raised high in the air.


    But before they could even blink.


    BAM!!


    Vlad delivered a fierce kick to the man''s ribs and sent him flying in the direction of the mirror gate, in other words, in the direction of the stone monster with three eyes.


    What happened next, none of them except for Vlad and the leader of the people from the Christopher Tower were able to see clearly.


    Within a fraction of milliseconds, the stone monster got up, picked up its two stone swords and slashed the man with a hammer dozens of times.


    He didn''t even get to feel the pain or understand what had happened before he was cut into countless pieces.


    Gasp!


    The others gasped in horror. All they saw was Vlad kicking the man away and the next thing was a rain of blood and flesh with the stone monster already standing.


    What the hell happened and when?!


    Everyone''s expression immediately turned grim, this monster¡­was not something that they could deal with.


    Looking at the pieces of flesh that the man had been reduced to, Vlad directed his gaze to the people from the Christopher Tower and said.


    "Since it''s you who got here first, we''ll respectfully leave it to you to finish what you started" Vlad said and took a step back.


    The leader of the other people stared at him, did this brat take him for a fool?


    Leave it to us to finish what? Even a fool would know that you''re trying to use us as cannon folders!


    "Hump! It''s good that you know your place, we just lost a member and will need to reorganize first" suppressing his frustration from having just lost a subordinate, the man replied before proceeding to withdraw with his people.


    But how could Vlad allow this? A wicked smirk formed on his face when he saw the people of the Christopher Tower retreating.


    "Are you sure? Don''t blame me if I take your property in your absence" he voiced out.


    The leader of the other group turned and scoffed at Vlad''s claim.


    ''Take it if you can, let''s see if you can kill that thing with just these group of yours''


    Seeing that the other party did not stop, Vlad tapped on the chip in his ears and connected with Eric.


    "Contact people of the Dominion Tower, tell them we have completed our objective" He said before cutting off the connection. Immediately after doing that, he instructed Jack and the rest to retreat.


    They did not dare to question him and immediately retreated into the land carriers behind them.


    The people from the Christopher Tower sneered at this.


    ''You just claimed that you''ll take the mirror gate, why are you retreating instead?''


    But never in their wildest dreams would they imagine what happened next.


    Vlad released a burst of red energy that condensed into a fine sword before suddenly shooting forward like an arrow.


    BOOM!!


    The place that he was standing on previously exploded with a spiderweb crack under the force of his dash, Vlad appeared in front of the rock monster in a second before slashing with his sword.


    Clang!!!


    Boom!!!


    A loud ring echoed through the forest upon the clash of the two swords, followed by a wave of fierce flames that was swallowed by the mirror gate behind the beast.


    Immediately after the attack was blocked, Vlad moved back, dodging a slash to his waist before running away.


    "The hell!!"


    The people from the Christopher Tower cursed as their eyes widened in terror. Vlad, with his expressionless face was running towards them; the fearsome stone monster that had yet to open its third eye was right behind him!!


    The damned bastard was leading the beast to them!


    "Run!!!"


    The group of Nexulytes from the Christopher Tower immediately fell into chaos as they tried to get away from the two sword monsters, they were only at the True King rank and Mortal king rank and did not have the ability to face any of them.


    Only their leader stood a chance and winning wasn''t even guaranteed for him!


    Meanwhile, Eric had already opened a communication link to the base of the people stationed by the Dominion Tower.


    Eric quickly explained the situation and gave a detailed description of the stone monster.


    On the other side of the Death Sea, a camp with over five hundred Nexulytes could be seen at the base of a huge mountain.


    Inside the communication room, an extremely cold faced beautiful woman with long white hair listened to the report through a transmitter.


    She wore a white military uniform with a black belt around her waist.


    "Understood, you all retreat for now and maintain a steady line; we''ll send help soon" she said before ending the connection.


    Immediately after she did that, she turned to the young man standing stationary at the side.


    "Gather a team of fifteen Partial Lords immediately and prepare a G99B7 Carrier to cross the Death Sea! It''s a three eyes monarch"


    She instructed and the man immediately left to carry out her orders.

 Chapter 57: The training center

    Back in San Pluto, three weeks had passed quickly since the display of Ivan''s strength.After getting third place from Miko during their due, Ivan abandoned everything related to the arena since he had no interest in fighting anyone; he only came every two days to battle because he has to accept at least one challenge every once in a while, his opponent always being the stubborn Miko who would not give up on trying to defeat him.


    It was as if Ivan had left an unsettling knot in her heart that she was unwilling to let go of until she defeated him, she was almost at the point of obsession with challenging Ivan.


    Of course, Ivan always won every single time that they dueled. It became easier after he discovered Miko''s abilities and their fight would always end within minutes after it had just started.


    During the past three weeks, aside from attending usual training routines and occasionally going to the Nexus chamber, Ivan had poured most of his time into challenging the training room and climbing levels.


    But despite his numerous attempts to climb higher up the levels of the training room, he was still stuck at level 27!


    He had only managed to clear two levels after level 25 the last time and was currently unable to clear through the 28th level.


    Ivan had discovered a harsh truth after clearing the 25th level of the training room and that truth was that all the monster(s) on every single floor above the 25th level were as strong as bosses that usually appeared every five floors before.


    What''s worse was that these monsters were now unreasonably strong and very strange, some would refuse to die even after he chopped or blasted them into pieces; they just kept regenerating!


    But this little setback wasn''t enough to stop Ivan, who craved strength so much; he finally found a reason to push his ability to the extreme and discover new ways to use his cards. This had caused him to almost abandon everything else aside from compulsory training just to spend more time inside the training room.


    And this has affected his growth to some point because, for the past three weeks, this was what Ivan''s profile looked like.


    ¡­..


    NAME: Ivan Von Charles


    Talent Group: Primal         Talent type: Wisher   Talent: Wish card


    Talent lv: SS          AP: 29.65%      Rank: TRUE KING


    ¡­.


    He only managed to move from an AP of 29.05% to 29.65%, this showed just how much he had neglected his AP training for clearing levels.


    "Eishh! Doesn''t matter, battle experience is equally experienced" Ivan consoled himself while staring at his AP that hadn''t improved much for three weeks.


    Other Nexulytes might trash him to death if they heard this; others were taking months to increase just this much, but Ivan was this slow because he had been neglecting this part of his training.


    Pushing the thoughts out of his mind, Ivan left his room and headed for where he would undergo weapon training with Miss Elora.


    Due to his frequent visits to the training room, his use of weapons and battle styles had become so refined that he was now able to match against Miss Elora during their training¡­as long as she didn''t use her rank abilities or fight with the intention to kill, of course.


    Ivan passed the lobby and ran into Glen who was returning from the cafeteria. The boy now had changed very much compared to three weeks ago; one had to praise the effects of the Nexus chamber.


    Ivan had once bothered to watch a duel between Glen and one of the top 10 trainees; he was surprised by the battle prowess of his friend, who always acted¡­silly.


    Although he wasn''t at Ivan''s or Ralph''s level yet after the latter had used the Nexus chamber for first place for three weeks, Glen should now be able to hold his own against Ralph from three weeks ago.


    His coordination with his white snake had reached a scary level that they were able to fight as if they were a single entity, this was something that not every trainee could deal with. What''s more, was that the white snake, which was now the size of a long bus, had the strength of a Mortal King when it fought alone!


    Adding Glen, who wasn''t too weaker than the snake, was just a nightmare for other trainees.


    *Hey, Ivan! What a coincidence to meet you; you''ve been disappearing a lot in the past weeks. Tell me, are you sneaking out to get me a sister-in-law?" Glen immediately called out to Ivan upon seeing him, he wrapped his arms around Ivan''s neck and whispered into his ears in a mischievous tone.


    Ivan''s face did not change despite Glen''s teasing, the boy was just speaking beautiful nonsense. Was it possible to go out of the training center unless one was done with training?


    " What sister-in-law? I''m busy in the training room" Ivan replied indifferently.


    "Hey hey, don''t lie to me like that even if you don''t want to tell the truth. What training room? You''ve only been able to climb two levels higher for three weeks, and you say you aren''t hatching a love affair behind your brother''s back? Even if you are not sneaking out, she must be in the training center too, right? Is it a trainee or an official?" Glen said with bright eyes, looking very thoughtful.


    Ivan only looked back at him without saying a word, but his expressionless eyes made Glen realize that Ivan wasn''t kidding, and he staggered back.


    "Are¡­are you trying to say that even you can''t climb higher in three weeks? Are the monsters above level 25 so strong?" Glen gasped in shock, he suddenly looked lifeless and exhausted.


    Ivan did not know why the boy would have such a reaction, but he decided not to comment; it wasn''t like Glen could even reach the 25th level, to begin with, so why was he worrying about the monsters at higher levels?


    "Where''s Ralph?" Ivan asked after a while.


    "He''s in the Nexus chamber; I think he''ll stay there all day," Glen responded after calming down.


    Ivan only nodded before excusing himself and saying that he had training; Glen didn''t hold him up since he had things to do as well.


    Arriving at the place where he held his training with Miss Elora, Ivan was surprised to find James there as well.


    "What are you doing here?" He asked after greeting him; the latter was the tower master, after all.


    James smiled gently at Ivan after hearing the question before replying.


    Turned out that he wanted to inform Ivan about a change in his training routine personally. According to him, Elora was to go on a special mission assigned from the Tower and would not be able to stay here and continue teaching him anymore since she would have to leave and would most likely not return to this tower anytime soon.


    "So¡­what''s going to happen to my training?" Ivan asked as a disappointed frown settled on his face.


    " That''s why I''m here; I will be in charge of your weapon training," James replied, an expectant look on his face. This way, not only will he be able to monitor this young man''s talent training, but he''ll be able to follow with his weapon training as well; this will help him gain a better understanding of this monster.


    "Then about our usual training?"


    "We''ll be mixing both"


    "Oh, I see" was all Ivan replied before turning to Miss Elora.


    "What?" Miss Elora asked when she saw Ivan staring at her, a faint blush shading her face.


    "Nothing" Ivan answered before moving towards the weapon rack on the side and picking up two laser guns.


    Miss Elora watched him go over to the weapon rack, her cold face flashed with a helpless and unwilling expression for a second.


    After teaching this student of hers who wasn''t much younger than herself, Elora was unaware of the feelings she had been developing and was now suddenly feeling so empty that she had to leave.


    ''I don''t even understand why I''m feeling this way'' She thought to herself while staring at Ivan''s back.


    Shaking her head, she turned to look at her father, James.


    "I''ll be leaving now," she said before moving towards the door.


    James nodded with a small smile, he muttered to her as she walked past him.


    "You''ll see him again"


    Elora paused but only for a second and resumed walking without looking back.


    James turned to look at Ivan after Elora left. S§×arch* The nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Now that we are alone, why don''t we start?" James said and suddenly disappeared.


    Ivan''s face turned serious immediately, he turned to the left and fired two rapid shots of lasers while jumping back.


    Dong! Dong!


    James appeared exactly where Ivan had fired at, he summoned Nexus energy and easily blocked the two beams that had been fired at him.


    "Not bad; I didn''t use even 10% of my strength, but it seems like I''ll have to do more if I want to be of use." James grinned before disappearing once again.


    The entire room was soon covered in rays of laser beams as Ivan tried to aim at James'' figure.


    Meanwhile, in the Nexus chamber underground.


    ¡­.


    NAME: Ralph Lucian


    Talent Group: Necromancer       Talent type: Combat   Talent: Undead General


    Talent lv: S          AP: 11.00%      Rank: MORTAL KING


    ...


    "Finally!"


    An excited voice burst out as two pairs of shining brown eyes opened behind a pair of glasses.


    He was finally a Mortal King rank Nexulyte!

 Chapter 58: Undead knight

    Although it had taken him a long time and it was already the end of the fifth month of training, Ralph had finally pushed his AP to 10% and reached the Mortal King rank!Immediately after reaching the Mortal King rank, Ralph was able to feel the changes inside of him. His Nexus chamber had grown bigger, and the amount of Nexus energy it could hold had increased as well; this meant that he could keep his summon much longer.


    Not only that, Ralph had felt a change in his talent and decided to try it.


    Summoning a must of Nexus energy that filled the Nexus chamber and even covered the small pond, the mist of Nexus energy slowly solidified into undead.


    Ralph''s eyes revealed a look of surprise, the mist had transformed as usual but it wasn''t the undead General that appeared this time.


    Standing beside it was another being that would strike fear into the hearts of people.


    It was a fearsome underknight sitting on a ghastly-looking horse.


    The knight was clad in decayed leather armor and wore a helmet that revealed only two red glowing eyes; in its hand was a large great sword that emitted a thick black aura.


    The horse looked equally as fearsome as the rider, it was like a being born from darkness and had blurry features; only its smokey red eyes were vivid.


    "This¡­an undead knight!" Ralph stuttered in amazement as he observed the new creature that had appeared along with the undead General.


    The undead knight gave a strong feeling that he wasn''t any weaker than the undead General.


    Ralph looked at his profile again to see if he had missed something; he found out after taking a second that his talent now had an additional ''s'' after the ''General.''


    "So I got another undead General after advancing a rank, will I get another one from reaching the True King rank as well?" Ralph said with a thoughtful look while walking around the new member of his team.


    Ralph wanted to see how strong this undead knight was and wanted it to attack the old man in the black robe, but the undead knight only turned to look at the old man before turning back to look at Ralph; it didn''t attack the other party.


    "It won''t attack its ally? Then I know just where to test it" Ralph smiled before turning to the stairs that led up to the fourth Nexus chamber.


    He kept climbing through the other Nexus chambers before arriving at the long corridor where two officials of the tower were guarding, Ralph took the elevator and went up.


    Arriving at the lobby, he didn''t stop to look for Ivan or Glen and immediately headed for the training room.


    Upon getting there, he looked at the top and saw that the 27th level was lit up with Ivan''s name beside it.


    "He''s here already" Ralph shook his head before entering one of the rooms where sleeping pods were placed.


    Ralph entered the pod and soon arrived on the first level of training.


    Welcome trainee¡­.


    The usual systematic voice made the usual announcements before commencing the training. Ralph''s highest level cleared was level 9, but one had to start from level one every time they came to training.


    Monsters were generated randomly at every level, so it wasn''t a surprise to meet different monsters whenever someone came to the training room; only their strength would be the same.


    This time, the monster that Ralph had to face on the first level was the one-eyed monster that had almost killed them five months ago when they had just arrived at the tower.


    It was a one-eyed monster with very long arms.


    Immediately after the system announced that Ralph could start, the monster that was towering over 12 meters long came to life and gazed at Ralph with its big eyes. Letting out a loud roar, it dashed toward him with both hands aiming at Ralph; its speed was comparable to that of a normal human.


    "It was just this strong back then and almost killed us had it not been for those officials who arrived on time, but now isn''t like back then" Ralph muttered to himself as he stared at the monster that was swiftly approaching him, a nostalgic smile formed on his face as the scene of the monster terrorizing three of them but now he was facing the same monster alone.


    "I don''t need to summon my undead Generals for such a monster; I can handle it myself." Ralph flashed a rare arrogant smirk as he prepared himself to meet the swinging hands of the monster head-on.


    BANG!!


    An explosive sound echoed through the whole space, the ground under Ralph''s feet cracked and his arms and leg muscles bulged under the weight of the monster''s arms.


    Despite this, the smirk remained on Ralph''s face.


    "Easy"


    He suddenly said before throwing himself up, he sent the hands of the monster flying into the air easily. Sear?h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The monster roared but before it could move its hands back, the human before it had already moved.


    Swoosh!!


    Ralph dashed forward and jumped, easily reaching the level of the monster''s head.


    "See ya" Ralph grinned at it before punching out at the only eye of the monster.


    BAM!!!


    Splash!!!


    Ralph delivered a powerful punch to the monster''s face and immediately turned its head into a ball with a massive hole in it, the monster''s enter face was gone!


    A monster like the one-eyed monster was just this weak in the face of a Mortal King Nexulyte.


    The body of the monster swayed before falling down with a loud bang, a large pool of blood quickly formed before turning into light fragments that disappeared a second later.


    [Successfully cleared the first level, do you wish to proceed to level two?]


    [Yes/No]


    "Yes," Ralph answered, and another monster appeared in the space he was in.


    This monster was a bull monster with the hands of a human; it stood on its bull legs and carried two large blades in both hands.


    It was only a four-meter-tall monster with two long black horns and big red eyes.


    Although this monster was not as huge or fearsome as the one-eyed monster, it was still taller than Ralph, and it was clear why it was a monster on the second level; it gave a much stronger aura compared to the one-eyed monster.


    Ralph''s face became more serious, but he still did not summon his undead Generals; he was planning to deal with this bull monster on his own as well.


    [Trainee may begin!]


    After the system''s command, the bull''s red eyes flashed with life before settling on Ralph''s figure. Its eyes burned with fury immediately as if it had found a life enemy, it immediately charged at Ralph while swinging its large blades.


    Ralph did not dare to meet the blade of this monster with his bare hands, he kept dodging until he got a chance to deal a strike to the monster''s chest and sent it flying back while spitting out a mouthful of blood.


    He repeated similar movements for almost a minute before he managed to punch a hole through the monster and finally cleared the second level.


    At the third level, a moth monster appeared, but Ralph was still able to handle it on his own. The fight lasted for five minutes and ended with Ralph sweating and gasping for air, this moth monster had incredible defense and had given him a tough time.


    At the fourth level, a skeleton warrior appeared and carried a thin blade with it.


    This skeleton warrior wore worn-out bronze armor and its blade was equally rusty, but one should not underestimate it based on these factors; the skeleton warrior was an incredibly fast monster and its speed surpassed what Ralph could handle so he needed to summon his undead Generals, but Ralph instructed the undead knight to not move; the old man in black robe could easily handle things for now.


    With a swift movement across the space, the undead in a black robe turned into a shadow and flashed away before returning the next moment.


    Clank!!


    The skeleton warrior stood frozen in place for a while before falling to the ground and scattering into a pile of bones; the undead in black robe killed it with a single move!


    At level five, the undead old man was still able to kill the monster in a single move. Level six, a swarm of monsters appeared but the undead old man still handled things swiftly and didn''t need the help of the undead knight.


    At level seven, a behemoth worm creature appeared and had given the undead old man a tough time but the latter still managed to tear it into shreds after a few seconds of struggling with it.


    Level eight, three of the monsters appeared! The old man finally got hit and Ralph had to spend Nexus energy to treat it.


    Even then, he did not let the undead knight intervene.


    The old man took a minute this time, moving around and attacking, before finally defeating the three monsters.


    Finally!


    [Successfully cleared the 8th level, proceed to level 9?]


    [Yes/No]


    "Yes," Ralph responded earnestly.


    The remains of the three worm monsters vanished before another monster appeared in front of Ralph.


    This monster was like a giant Orc wearing plate armor all over its body and carrying a large cudgel. The old man always had issues with this monster because of its tough skin and armor, the monster was also very fast.


    Upon seeing it, Ralph immediately called the old man to withdraw before sending out the undead knight. He was hoping to see how they would battle it out but his eyes opened wide in shock and disbelief the next moment.


    The undead knight moved forward with its horse at a blurry speed and with a single swing, sent the head of the Orc flying into the air!

 Chapter 59: Forbidden zones

    Ralph was left stunned by the sight of the giant Orc being killed in an instant by the undead knight. This was a monster that the other under General was unable to defeat before Ralph eventually ran out of Nexus energy, but the undead knight had killed it in an instant with a single strike!Feeling a wave of excitement rushing within him, Ralph quickly started the next level of training, and the monster appeared. Again, the undead knight killed it with a single sword strike!


    Level 10, cleared!


    Level 11, cleared!


    Level 12, cleared!


    Level 13, cleared!!


    This continued all the way till level 15 when Ralph ran out of Nexus energy, and he was unable to sustain the two undead Generals anymore and had to recall them to his Nexus sea; only then did he leave the training room, extremely satisfied with the results of his training.


    He had gone from level 9 to level 15 in one go! Very few people have reached this level, even amongst the top 10, and all of this was due to the addition of the undead knight.


    Ralph had discovered while the undead knight traveled that not only was its sword incredibly sharp, but the black aura around the sword had a corroding effect that would eat away at whatever it touched.


    The horse was also strange, just like a real shadow; it was unable to receive damage, and its speed was not slower than that of the undead in a black robe, even while it was carrying the knight.


    Ralph was very satisfied with all of this, he left the training room with a pleased smile on his face and headed for the cafeteria to replenish himself; he would head to the Nexus chamber after eating.


    ...


    The day passed just like that, with every trainee in the Tower doing their best to increase their AP as much as they could, the end of the training session was coming to an end, and they had less than six weeks left to make progress.


    Of course, there were a few people who were taking things easy; these were people with already enough AP to pass the training and were not feeling pressured even as the end of the training approached.


    Morning training was the same as usual; under the guidance of Instructor Logan and Instructor Nathan, the trainees finished their morning runs and stretches while wearing gravity bracelets before heading to wash up and then to the cafeteria.


    Ivan never failed to attract a lot of gaze, even in the cafeteria; everyone would also take a look at the tyrant eating to see if he had a different way of chewing his food that made him stronger than them.


    After leaving the cafeteria, they all left for their compulsory classes.


    During class today, a special topic was introduced to the trainees.


    Forbidden zones in the dreamscape!


    "As you all are already aware, the dreamscape, also the reflection of the real world, holds a striking resemblance to our world. It mirrors the climate, terrains, location of places, and even structures at times.


    Of course, it also has its differences from the real world, which is why it''s not called a second earth. These differences are the habitats of the dreamscape and the unusual color of the sky.


    But those are not the only factors that make the dreamscape different from the real world because, since the appearance of the mirror gates, some territories on earth have adopted characteristics of the dreamscape.


    So what really makes Earth different from the dreamscape? They are forbidden zones!" The instructor explained as various images appeared on the screen behind him.


    " Forbidden zones are extremely dangerous territories in the dreamscape with features that seem almost impossible but are very possible. These are places that one must avoid at all costs unless under extreme measures with a purpose valid enough to take the risks.


    Some forbidden zones might not hold horrors on their own but the appearance of a living being can vastly alter them. For instance, concept zones.


    These are zones that do not pose threats by themselves, and ordinary people can actually live there, but of course, ordinary people can''t go to the dreamscape, so that''s not something to even consider.


    The reason why concept zones are the safest and at the same time the most dangerous of all zones is because one would not be able to tell what type of danger they would face inside, a concept zone would only react according to whatever creature intrudes into its space and most times, the weaker the creature that entered, the weaker the horror that they will face but that will only be in the perspective of a stronger observer.


    If a stronger creature were to enter a concept zone that was previously empty, it will suddenly have to face a being of equal strength and in cases that it defeats it, the zone will manifest stronger beings as a form of retaliation.


    As for other forbidden zones, they are relatively simpler to understand since you''ll know what you are facing and know what to do in order to survive, but this doesn''t mean that they are safe; no forbidden zones are safe, not even for Nexulytes at the Demigod rank!"


    The instructor went on to explain more about forbidden zones. They learned about concept zones that would create beings to retaliate to intrusion, zones that did not hold any monster but had different ways of killing Nexulytes, such as mental attacks, or even zones that attacked one''s shadow or drove a person mad with amplified desires and emotions.


    Other zones had strict methods of dealing such as having a particular number of monsters or levels to pass through, while some zones actually had the ability to move and actively search for prey!


    To crown it all, the trainees realized that forbidden zones were territories in the dreamscape that they must avoid at all costs! Unless one was tired of living or did not mind dying for a particular resource that could only be found in it.


    The trainees were given room for questions and after another thirty minutes of interaction, the instructor informed them that he had an announcement to pass.


    "Since the training session is coming to an end with just a bit over a month''s time left, the tower has decided to introduce a special training mode with promising rewards as a final push to aid all of you in your training. This is going to be a team mode where all of you will face different opponents in a simulation with realistic features.


    Each team member will be evaluated by an instructor, and rewards will be distributed to those with high evaluations alone. So do not think that you can just join a good team and get free rewards, everyone has to work for it.


    To make sure fairness is ensured, purposely making your teammates look bad or causing them to fail one way or another will result in your own disqualification. This is to ensure team spirit and cooperation.


    Also, to make sure that all teams are balanced and everyone gets a chance to make a move, all teams will be picked by instructors. Teams and their members will be announced later in the lobby, so pay attention to changes on board," The instructor said before leaving the classroom.


    The trainees immediately went into an uproar after the instructor left.


    A team mode special training? Who''s team would they be on? How was the team going to be set? Most importantly¡­who were going to be Demon Ivan''s teammates?!


    Ignoring all their chattering, Ivan stood up and left the classroom. He wasn''t interested in whatever thoughts or ideas these people had to bring up since the board would reveal everything later; he would go focus on his other training for now.


    ¡­


    Later on that day, the system for the new training was finally released, and everyone was rushing out to the lobby to see what team they were in.


    The trainees realized that the teams were made up of four combat-type talent Nexulytes and two support-type talent Nexulytes.


    Ivan wasn''t here at the moment; he was still in his training with James, so Ralph decided to check for him.


    He discovered that Ivan was in a team with five unknown people.


    Group 16: Ivan, Camellia, Joseph, Rose, Mari, Susan.


    Ralph was stunned by the sight of this. He did not recognize any of the people on Ivan''s team so he looked them up on the ranking and was shocked to see that all five of Ivan''s team were below 500th place on the ranking!


    "They are really trying to balance teams huh? Putting such work on one person" Ralph said with a helpless sigh before checking his own team.


    Group 44: Ralph, David, Joa, Noel, Kate, Sophia. sea??h th§× N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Turning to look for his teammate''s name on the ranking, Ralph saw that one of them was in the top hundred while the rest were below the 200th place.


    "Not too bad" he nodded and then proceeded to check Glen''s name.


    Group 8: Glen, Lily, Hana, Benson, Doris, Lilian.


    Ralph''s face held a strange expression, Glen''s group was almost a team of girls!

 Chapter 60: Monster in the outskirt

    It was a normal day on the outskirts of San Pluto; the sky was bright, and the weather was warm. A gentle breeze blows past occasionally, cooling the skins of the residents of the outskirts.Old house structures, abandoned playgrounds, and damaged vehicles were the normal sights in the outskirts, and no one bothered about these as everyone went about their daily lives. Sear?h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Some people could be seen gathering scraps on the streets while others walked about doing one thing or the other, some kids could be seen running around playing while others fought over food on the streets; it was just like any other day with nothing out of the ordinary.


    This was until the sky suddenly turned dark as if it had become night in the middle of the day, accompanied by a loud sound that was as loud as an explosion and the whole outskirt shaking vigorously as if an earthquake had occurred.


    Grrrr!!


    A thunderous growling rang in everyone''s ears as slimy liquid splattered from above and landed on some people.


    Everyone froze, their eyes trembling from terror as they prayed desperately to be hallucinating, but was it possible for so many people to hallucinate about the same thing at the same time?


    A young boy around the age of seven in tattered clothes stiffly turned around and looked up, he was one of the people who had received a drop of the strange liquid from the sky.


    Looking up, the boy''s eyes shrank to the size of a needle; his face drained of all color and became as pale as white paper.


    It had not turned night in the middle of the day, it was a huge shadow that had been cast by the sun. It was the shadow of a behemoth!


    Towering above the residents of the outskirts was a creature the size of a battleship; it was so large that one could not even measure its length with their eyes.


    The creature had an enormous head with frightening features that could be seen clearly despite being over a hundred meters in the air, its size was just that traumatizing.


    Green humanoid face with skin looking as hard as bones, large blood-red eyes that rolled uncontrollably in their sockets like they would drop out at any time, three ghastly large noses that opened and closed in the middle of its face, and a large mouth with huge teeth with large beads of saliva dripping down from it constantly.


    The slimy liquid that had touched them was its spit!


    The creature had four long insect-like legs that connected its enormous body to the ground; it was like a giant beetle with a ghost''s face!


    Unable to hold himself back anymore, the boy opened his mouth which trembled for a few seconds before letting out a piercing scream.


    At the same time, one of the monster''s gigantic legs rose from the ground before moving forward; its location just happened to be above the screaming child.


    The giant insect''s leg towered above the boy for a few seconds as the latter''s eyes became wider and wider while watching the leg that was the size of a building dropping down on him.


    BOOM!!


    With an abrupt sound, the screaming stopped as the leg fell down hard, and blood splattered across the place from under the monster''s leg; the boy had left the world just like that!


    Immediately after the death of the boy, all hell broke loose!


    "Ahhhh!!"


    People screamed in terror and began to run for their lives, trying to get as far away from the monster that had suddenly appeared and blocked the sky.


    The entire place immediately became a mess as people ran without caring for anything else but themselves; the crying of children and yelling of adults immediately filled the whole outskirt.


    Amidst the chaos, the monster continued to shake the earth with each step as it slowly moved deeper into the outskirts, covering dozens of meters with every movement of its legs.


    BANG!


    Bang!


    Explosions rang out constantly as the legs of the monster crashed every building in its path and crushed people under its weight, the whole place was soon covered in blood and destruction.


    Shortly after, four people appear before the monster.


    These four were all in black protective body suits and carried laser guns in their hands, they were the Nexulytes in charge of guarding the outskirts as well as the four people who Ivan hated the most.


    "Such a huge monster, where did it come from?" One of them voices out with mouth wide open in horror.


    "The outskirt hasn''t been attacked by monsters in a long time; a lot of people had died within just a few minutes of its appearance," another added.


    "Should we run away? We can''t defeat such a monster"


    Three of the men began to panic and had thoughts of fleeing for their lives, as Nexulytes they would surely be able to at least escape from this monster; fighting It was no different from suicide!


    " Shut up! Do you think we can run? What will the superiors do to us if they find out? Let''s try to stall it, you go send a message and ask for reinforcement!"


    The one who was the leader of the group, the only True king amongst them yelled at the other three. Although his legs were shaking and he had a terrified look on his face, he would not dare to run away.


    The rest immediately came down under the bellowe of their leader and gritted their teeth.


    "I''ll go send the message!" One of the men said before quickly running away.


    The others turned to face the monster; its front legs were less than twenty meters away, and it would reach them in at most three steps.


    " Shoot at its legs! Try to slow it down!" The leader shouted before opening fire.


    Tatatatatata!!!


    Beans of light flew through the air and smashed into the legs of the monster as the three men fired like mad dogs while screaming at the top of their lungs.


    The light beans fired by the Nexulytes smashed into the legs of the behemoth monster and caused a series of explosions; the two front legs were covered in the explosion.


    Roarrrr!!


    A loud roar echoed through the air as the monster came to a stop.


    " Don''t stop, keep shooting!" The leader yelled as they kept shooting with their laser guns.


    He knew that these attacks were nowhere close enough to harm the monster and did not know why it stopped, but he was still glad by the outcome; stopping the monster was their objective anyway.


    Suddenly, the monster moved one of its legs back slowly.


    Seeing this move, the eyes of the leader showed confusion for a second before quickly changing to a dreadful look.


    "Get away!" He screamed like a little girl before covering himself in Nexus energy and jumping away.


    The other two were a bit slow but still reacted upon seeing their leader run away so frightened.


    A second letter, the leg of the monster came down with a devastating force while crashing into the ground.


    Rumble!


    The earth shook as the leg of the monster created a long wide trench in the ground with its kick and sent huge chunks of hard earth and everything in its path flying forward.


    Multiple loud bangs round out as those boulders and objects smash Into other buildings.


    "Gahhh!!"


    An anguished scream resounded as a huge piece of earth smashed into the covering of one of the men in protective body suits; the force sent the man flying while spurting blood mid-air.


    BOOM!


    The Nexulyte smashed into a building a far distance away, instantly bringing down half of the house in a collapse.


    "Falco!!"


    The leader and the other man shouted and immediately went to look at the condition of Falco who had been sent flying.


    Despite being a Nexulyte at the Mortal King rank and having been protecting his body with Nexus energy, Falco suffered multiple injuries with many of his bones breaking due to the collision. He was currently spurting out mouthfuls of blood with white eyes, he would have died had he been an ordinary person.


    BAM! BAM! BAM!


    The monster, after finally dealing with the annoying pests, resumed moving.


    .....


    In San Pluto, after receiving the news from the outskirts concerning the attack of a behemoth monster that suddenly appeared from the border, the tower immediately began to organize a team to provide backup.


    Watching the group of Nexulytes dressed in black protective body suits and carrying laser guns rushing in the direction of the teleportation vault from his office, James wore a neutral expression as he turned to look at Nathan; Nathan was one of the instructors in charge of the trainees morning training.


    "According to the report of the people stationed there, the monster should be on par with a Partial Lord Nexulyte or even stronger. Adding to its size, I''m afraid that those people will be unable to hold it off long enough for help to arrive," James said to Nathan, who stared back at him without a change of expression.


    Pausing for a few seconds, James continued.


    "That outskirts is where Ivan is from, not just him, two other promising trainees also have families there. It would be bad if something happened to them. I''ll need you to go ahead of them, with your talent, you should be able to get there faster. Get things under control before the rest arrive" James said seriously.


    " Understood" Nathan resounded before disappearing from the office.


    James turned back to look in the direction of the teleportation vault.


    " The border huh¡­Should have expected it"

 Chapter 61: Titan Beetle

    BAM!BAM! S§×arch* The Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Slowly but steadily, the monster continued to march forward despite the constant shooting of the pesky humans.


    It would occasionally kick one of its legs into the ground, creating mass destruction.


    Burning houses and corpses could be seen all over the place, loud screams and piercing voices of crying children filled the air amidst the loud sounds caused by the moment of the monster.


    Click!


    The leader suddenly stopped and took out a small tub from the pocket on his belt before inserting it into the laser guns and shooting again.


    Dan! Dan! Dan!


    White laser beams flew toward the monster''s leg before exploding into a mist of cold air that quickly spread across the leg of the monster, freezing it in place.


    Dan! Dan! Dan!


    The other two followed the actions of their leader and quickly switched the tubs in their guns before shooting similar laser beams that formed into ice wherever they touched.


    Soon, the two front legs of the monster were covered in a thick layer of ice and it came to a stop once more.


    But it was only for a second.


    Craaaacckkkk!


    With a loud sound, the ice around the legs shattered into tiny fragments and the legs of the monster kicked into the ground again.


    The three of them quickly took cover from the wave of destruction; screams of unfortunate people could be heard; the destruction from the kick could travel for hundreds of meters, so it was inevitable for some unlucky people to suffer.


    "Damnit! How long do we have to face this thing? We''ll die sooner or later at this rate!" One of the men cursed while trembling.


    They were simply enjoying a quiet afternoon at their post and reminiscing about life; who would have thought that such a horror would suddenly pop out from nowhere?


    "We don''t know, just keep shooting at it!" Their leader yelled back through gritted teeth.


    They suddenly heard the monster letting out a furious roar before coming to a stop.


    They all peeked out their heads to look, and their eyes immediately lit up; in the air, in front of the enormous head of the monster, was a person in a black uniform. He wasn''t wearing a protective suit like them, which was usually the case when going into battle, but they did not dare to underestimate this person.


    To be able to stand in the air and in front of such a fearsome monster like that took just more than courage.


    This person was, of course, Nathan, who had rushed here after leaving the tower. As a Nexulyte with a teleportation talent, he was able to cross dozens of kilometers within seconds; this enabled him to arrive here in less than five minutes after leaving the tower.


    "A Titan beetle, how rare" Nathan muttered as a strange light flashed through his eyes.


    The monster suddenly opened its mouth, and a small energy bomb quickly began to form before growing into the side of an elephant; it aimed the energy bomb at Nathan, who was in the air.


    Nathan looked at this without a change of expression, he glanced behind him through the corner of his eyes.


    Avoiding this energy bomb was not a problem for him since he could just teleport away but everything behind him would be done for.


    "Tch, so stressful" Nathan sighed before suddenly launching himself towards the mouth of the monster before the latter could release its energy bomb.


    He arrived before the monster like a phantom before sending a full-powered punch to the side of its mouth.


    A scene that left the three men who were standing on the ground to freeze in place like statues unfolded.


    Upon receiving the punch¡­the monster could be mistaken for a small mountain if it rested on the ground, rose into the air, and was sent flying away, causing a series of deafening sounds and creating a huge crack in the ground.


    "Such touch skin, killing it won''t be easy," Nathan said casually while rubbing his wrist.


    The three men "..."


    They knew that this person was strong but to be able to send the huge monster flying with just one punch¡­just how strong was the person sent by the Tower?


    Not bothering with whatever else was going on around him, Nathan focused all of his attention on the monster that had landed over two hundred meters back and had successfully left the area of residents.


    A huge explosive sound rang out when it landed on the ground, and a huge cloud of dust and dirt was sent flying into the air.


    Upon making contact with the face of the monster just now, Nathan had already concluded that he would be unable to kill it on his own; he wasn''t a combat-type Nexulyte, to begin with, and didn''t possess the destructive powers equivalent to deal with such a monster. The skin on its face felt like hard reinforced steel when he punched it just now.


    He would expand his Nexus sea if he wanted to tear through it with brute force, and that wasn''t even guaranteed to work.


    "But holding it back before the others arrive should not be a problem," Nathan mumbled; this was what the tower master had sent him to do anyway.


    The monster landed right outside the border, a vast space with signs of battles. Huge craters and trenches marked the border, only a few kilometers away could one see the tall trees of a forest.


    "With such a large open space, how did this thing get here without being spotted?" Nathan could not help but wonder as he glanced at the three men on the ground with narrowed eyes.


    These people were definitely not taking this work seriously.


    Buzz! Buzz!!


    Nathan quickly turned around as a strange noise attracted his attention to the direction the monster had landed, a look of disbelief appeared on his face the next second.


    After getting sent flying away, the monster landed on its long legs and lowered itself as if a bug preparing to make a jump, but this wasn''t what turned Nathan''s expression ghastly.


    The back of the monster spread open and four large transparent wings appeared before starting to make buzzing noises, flapping at a speed that Nathan could not even follow.


    But the main concern was¡­this thing was able to fly!


    "Titan beetles might have features of bugs but they do not possess flight abilities due to their size!" Nathan voiced out with a perplexed expression on his face, his confusion was cleared in the next second.


    Wang!!!


    Like an arrow, the enormous monster that rivaled the size of an air carrier shot through the air at a crazy speed toward Nathan.


    The latter''s eyes widened, and he immediately tried to teleport away.


    BOOM!!


    The speed of the Titan beetle surpassed Nathan''s speculation and it still ended up crashing into him with its large head before he could teleport away.


    Wang! BOOM!!


    Nathan vanished a moment later but due to getting hit by the monster, he ended up flying away on controllably when he reappeared. A series of explosions resounded as Nathan was sent crashing into a building like a cannonball.


    The three Nexulytes who were watching from the ground "..."


    New horror unlocked! Not only was this damned monster so huge and tough, it could fly and at such a diabolic speed at that!


    "It''s over" one of the men gasped and fell like a deflated balloon.

 Chapter 62: Might of a True Lord

    "Cough! Cough!"Coughing sounds were heard as a person pushed huge debris of a collapsed building away, a person appeared from the ruins of the building after finally pushing away all the huge broken walls.


    This person was, of course, Nathan, who had been sent flying by the Titan beetle.


    He was covered in dust, and his uniform had multiple tears on it; he had only managed to remain unharmed due to having a high rank and protecting himself with his Nexus energy.


    "Damn crazy bug" Nathan cursed under his breath before jumping out from the debris into the air.


    The clash just now had sent him flying for over two hundred meters and he had crashed into more than fifteen buildings with people in them.


    "Hopefully, no damage was caused," Nathan said while observing around him; he only saw a little girl crying in one of the buildings that he had collapsed into; luckily, she didn''t look like she was hurt.


    Nathan returned his gaze to the Titan beetle that was still floating in the air with its wings looking almost invisible while generating deafening buzzing noises.


    The speed and flight ability of this monster was something that Nathan had not expected, but that did not mean that Nathan was now helpless against it; he had only been stunned by the unexpected discovery; containing the monster until help arrived was still very possible.


    Wooosh!!!


    Still in the air, thick ferocious Nexus energy rose from Nathan''s body like a fierce wave and covered him completely.


    Seeing this, the Titan beetle immediately beat its wing before shooting forward again; its speed was just as terrifying as the first time and it even left afterimages in the air! But Nathan was prepared this time.


    Immediately after the monster flew forward, Nathan disappeared as well and appeared right in front of the huge head of the Titan beetle the next instant.


    The eyes of the Titan beetle rolled fiercely in their sockets upon seeing the human appear in front of it, it immediately lowered its face and prepared to smash Nathan with its head.


    BANG! Sear?h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Nathan''s fist collided with the head of the Titan beetle and resulted in a loud sound. A pained roar left the mouth of the monster as it was sent flying away once again while Nathan was pushed back fifty meters in the air.


    Their collision had created a strong shockwave that blew away everything below them.


    Nathan took a while to stabilize himself in mid-air before looking in the direction of the monster. His punch had sent the monster flying away outside the border once more, and to avoid it from coming back and causing more destruction, Nathan teleported after it.


    BOOM!!


    The Titan beetle landed on its back with a loud sound as it sank into the ground due to its weight, it roared ferociously as it used its legs to turn itself around before facing Nathan.


    The latter appeared in front of the monster and was about to throw another punch when the Titan beetle suddenly opened its enormous mouth and snapped at Nathan, trying to eat him in one bite.


    Of course, Nathan dodges it by teleporting away.


    Like a thunderclap, the huge teeth in the mouth of the monster smashed down but they caught nothing as Nathan had teleported. The two large eyes wandered around before falling on Nathan''s figure, the Titan beetle immediately began to create another energy bomb.


    But Nathan wasn''t obviously just going to stand by and watch; he ambushed the monster again amidst its attack and landed another punch in its face.


    Paw!!


    The head of the Titan beetle moved to the side forcefully before its body followed and it was once again blown away.


    The monster had yet to regain itself when Nathan appeared before it again and gave it another punch, smashing it deeper into the ground.


    BAM! BAM! BAM!


    Punch after punch landed on the monster, blasting it deeper into the ground as Nathan constantly teleported around its enormous body and hit everywhere.


    The Titan beetle roared ferociously and waved its legs frantically in an attempt to drive the annoying human away but it was futile as it was knocked deeper into the huge pit that had formed due to its body getting hit constantly.


    From within the residence area of the outskirts, the three men watched the fight going on in the distance with astonished looks on their faces. Despite how far the two were away from them, they were still able to clearly see the body of the monster digging into the ground with each thunderous blast; even the shockwave of their fight reached all the way here!


    They were filled with nothing but worship towards Nathan, to be able to beat such a monster to such a state that it could only roar and do nothing else; they could not imagine it.


    While watching in awe, they suddenly heard the sounds of fast-approaching footsteps from behind them. Looking back, they saw a group of people in black protective suits and carrying laser guns running towards them.


    The faces of the three men immediately lit up, more reinforcements from the tower!


    The group of people did not even stop to look at the three of them, upon seeing Nathan battling with an enormous monster, they picked up speed and rushed over.


    Upon getting to a distance of twenty meters from the pit that Nathan and the Titan beetle had created, they stopped, and a woman came forward. It was a tall woman with slightly tanned skin and a beautiful face, she had black hair with a mix of yellow in front; she was the leader of this group of people and was a Nexulyte at the Partial Lord rank.


    "Instructor Nathan, we''re here to help!" The woman shouted at the top of her lungs so Nathan could hear her. After all, the latter was teleporting around constantly, and the blasts from his attacks were really loud; even the shockwave generated from those attacks was strong enough to blow an ordinary person and weaker Nexulytes away.


    This was the strength of a True Lord Nexulyte!


    A person suddenly appeared in front of her, it was Nathan!


    "This monster has extremely tough skin, and my talent isn''t suitable to damage it enough; those with support talent should try to keep it down with me while the rest try to kill it," Nathan explained hurriedly before disappearing again.


    Despite being stronger than them, Nathan did not possess the ability to finish off the Titan beetle quickly. This was the difference between the two types of talents and why they should never be compared.


    When facing different monsters, combat-type talents were the best choice, but it didn''t mean that support type was useless since it could render a monster helpless even if it was unable to kill it.


    "Understood!" The woman responded before turning to the rest. They all immediately abandoned their laser guns and began to use their talents.


    Those with restricted talents used their abilities to restrain the monster.


    Some of the people possessed ice/water and earth elemental talent, they created large chunks of ice to freeze the legs of the monster and pointy earths to restrict the movements of the Titan beetle.


    The others immediately went into an all-out attack after the monster was locked in place.


    Different kinds of attacks rained down on the Titan beetle and multiple deep wounds soon began to appear all over its body as blood flowed like a river.


    The Titan beetle roared loudly but was unable to do anything under the coordinated assault of Nathan and the others, its roar gradually became weaker and weaker as time went on.

 Chapter 63: The last month

    Back at the towerAfter the information about each team was released and everyone now knew who their teammates were going to be, the trainees immediately began to link up with their team members so as to get to know each other before the training started.


    They had been informed that it would begin in the first week of the coming month which was only a few days away. Also, the training would only be held once every three days and rewards would be given after every session.


    In the lobby, groups of young men and women gathered together and chatted. These were the trainees who were conversing with their teammates and getting to know each other''s talents better.


    At a corner, five people could be seen sitting under a tree, with each of them having either a nervous look or an ecstatic look on their faces; these were the people on Ivan''s team, and they were all placed below 500th on the ranking.


    They were excited about being on the same team with the number one place on the ranking and, at the same time, nervous because they were on the same team with the number one place on the ranking!


    After finding out which team they were in, they had immediately tried to gather themselves just like everyone else; but who would go look for Ivan? None of them dared to go look for him, what if he got angry that they were disturbing him?


    "Ahh, this is so frustrating. Why didn''t they just put us in a team with normal trainees instead" a lady in the group pulled at her hair in frustration.


    "Don''t say that, being in that same group with Ivan will increase our chances of winning," another girl replied to her with a nervous smile.


    "Sigh, even though that is true, who would want to be on the same team with someone who doesn''t even think of others?" A boy voiced out from the side. S~ea??h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "I don''t mind, as long as we win; I can just stay at the side like a background character. You know, most main characters are like that" Another girl said casually while showing a carefree expression.


    The group had two boys and three girls, adding Ivan would make it three boys but he was not here currently.


    Since each team was to have two support-type talents and four combat-type talents, they had found out after chatting for a while that the girl who had said she didn''t mind getting carried just now and the boy who had yet to speak were the ones with the support-type talent.


    The girl, whose name was Camellia and she was a beauty with a slender figure and long golden hair, possessed the Nature welder talent and could control plants.


    The other support in the group was the boy whose name was Mari, he had an ordinary appearance and black hair. The only thing that stood out about him was the black scar on the side of his face that looked like a birthmark. Mari possessed the beast companion support type talent, and his summon was a sharp-eyed wind parrot.


    While this type of talent was useless in a one-on-one fight, it was an extremely useful talent when it came to scouting. The sharp-eyed wind parrot was said to be able to see as far as ten miles in a straight line and could switch its sight with its summoner, allowing the Nexulyte to see what the parrot sees.


    Also, it was able to fly very fast and silently as well which made it difficult to detect. Also, after getting to a certain level, the sharp-eyed wind parrot could slightly change itself into a gust of wind. Further enhancing its camouflaging ability and escaping skills.


    Everyone else had a combat-type talent.


    Susan had the necromancer talent. Rose was a swordswoman. And Joseph had the fire element.


    The last person in the group was Ivan and everyone was already aware of his ability to summon multiple swords.


    The group chatted for a while before Susan suddenly looked ahead with a face mixed with excitement and nervousness.


    The others were confused by her actions and looked over.


    What they saw¡­or who they saw, to be precise, was Iva,n, who had just returned from his training with James. He had seen the information of the teams on the board and was currently looking for his teammates. He didn''t know what any of them looked like, but that wasn''t the same for the others as they immediately recognized him.


    "Over here!" Camellia called out to Ivan while smiling sweetly.


    Ivan raised an eyebrow when he saw the pretty girl with golden hair waving at him but still walked over.


    "Are you¡­" Ivan wanted to ask upon reaching them but was cut off by Susan who earnestly answered amidst his speech.


    " I see," Ivan muttered while scanning them with his eyes.


    He proceeded to ask them several questions such as their AP, talent, and battle styles.


    The strongest among the five was Camellia, who had 7.08% AP, and the weakest was Joseph, with 5.77% AP; the others were somewhere in between.


    Ivan realized that the group was not too weak and the reason why they were so low on the ranking was either because of their talents that weren''t suitable for one-on-one fights or because they were staying indoors to increase their AP as much as they could.


    They chatted for a bit before Ivan decided to leave but not before saying in a cold tone.


    " I have no issues carrying you all, just don''t be a dead weight and listen to orders"


    Watching Ivan walk away, Camellia giggled while Rose stomped her feet in frustration. She was annoyed by Ivan''s attitude towards them.


    "Well, he has the right to be arrogant," Joseph said with a sigh.


    "Un, and he''s not too cold either. He''s actually easy to communicate with; you just need to be careful what you say." Susan nodded.


    "Whatever, I''m going to my room. I''m just a bit short from 6% AP" Rose said before leaving.


    The others talked for a while before leaving to do their own things.


    After leaving the lobby, Ivan left straight for the Nexus chambers.


    He arrived at the third chamber and immediately sat in a cross-legged posture.


    ...


    NAME: Ivan Von Charles


    Talent Group: Primal         Talent type: Wisher   Talent: Wish card


    Talent lv: SS          AP: 29.69%      Rank: TRUE KING


    ....


    Looking at his AP, which was at 29.69%, a look of determination flashed through his eyes.


    "Let''s get to 30% first" Ivan mumbled softly before closing his eyes.


    Fwoosh!!


    The Nexus energy in the room immediately began to gather toward Ivan before entering his body and into his Nexus chamber.


    Shortly after, his AP began to rise slowly.


    ¡­..


    Days passed quickly, and before one even realized it, a new week had arrived, and it was the start of the sixth month, their last month of training!


    The special training that was announced last week and was to be held every three days was also starting today.


    After the morning training, Instructor Logan asked all the trainees to go gather in the lobby and wait for further instructions.

 Chapter 64: Dryads

    Upon arriving in the lobby, the trainees saw a lot of instructors and officials in black uniforms waiting in line. Instructor Logan and instructor Nathan came to join them shortly."Since the special training will be starting today, each one of these people will be in charge of evaluating one team. They will call out your team''s number, and everyone on that team is to follow them to the simulation room. Is that understood?" Instructor Logan explained, and the trainees responded, ''Yes sir!'' in unison.


    Nodding his head, he turned to the officials in line before asking them to begin.


    The officials stepped forward one after the other and called out the numbers of the team that they would be evaluating.


    Surprisingly, Instructor Nathan was the one who called Ivan''s group.


    The six of them immediately found their way through the crowd and approached their morning training instructor who led them out of the lobby and toward one of the elevators.


    They arrived at the fifth floor, and instructor Nathan led them to a white room with sleeping pods, which he asked them to enter after giving them a briefing on how things were going to be.


    They would be taken to a random location or even zone where they would have to face different creatures that would require the work of a team. Their objective was to defeat the monster while making sure everyone got a fair share of action, trying to go solo was not allowed.


    After Ivan and the others entered the sleeping pods, instructor Nathan went to stand in front of a large screen that came out from the ceiling of the room. It displayed footage of Ivan''s group in a forest region.


    The training has begun!


    ...


    Ivan and his teammates appeared in what appeared to be a forest with tall trees and a mountain range. The fresh wind brushed against their skin, and the smell of nature filled their noses.


    Butterflies flew from flowers to flowers while birds soared in the air.


    "This¡­is where we''ll be holding our training?" Someone muttered as they all looked around them, observing the area.


    The place where they had appeared was a clearing in the middle of the forest with tall trees surrounding them on all sides. They were confused as to what to do next since this place didn''t look anything out of the ordinary at all; it looked just like a peaceful scene from a movie.


    ''The instructor should be watching us somehow since he''ll be evaluating our performance; I will have to avoid showing too much then; luckily, it''s a team mode training,'' Ivan thought to himself while observing his surroundings with sharp eyes.


    "Since we were not told exactly what to do next when coming, we should go look for clues," Rose, the swordswoman, suggested.


    The others nodded in agreement.


    " Should we split up then? We''ll be able to cover more ground that way" Susan asked.


    "No, we should stay together. We don''t have any means of contacting each other from a long distance here; it''ll be troublesome if we run into dangers while separated," Joseph said while shaking his head.


    Ivan, who had yet to say anything nodded in agreement with Joseph.


    ''Not bad, they can at least use their heads'' Ivan thought before looking to the side with narrowed eyes.


    Unlike Joseph and the rest, who were yet to even enter the Mortal King rank, Ivan was a True King Nexulyte, thus allowing him to sense better than them.


    "Prepare to fight!" Ivan suddenly said and at the same time, he summoned a card before turning it into a sword that floated beside him.


    The others were confused by his words and actions, they could not see a reason why they should get ready for a fight when there were clearly no enemies around; but considering the reputation of the other party and his level of strength, they obeyed regardless and each of them prepared to use their abilities at any moment.


    Seconds slowly ticked by, ten seconds passed ever so slowly and it felt like hours to Joseph and the others. Was Ivan perhaps mistaken and there wasn''t any danger?


    Just when their doubts were about to settle deeper, countless glowing green eyes began to appear from behind the shades of the trees.


    These pairs of glowing eyes were so many that they counted over twenty at a glance, and there were still more!


    Coming from under the shades of the trees, they realized that those glowing green eyes belonged to Dryads.


    With bodies of trees, long branches for hands, and legs like many roots that moved like countless snakes, these Dryads stood at heights of over seven meters.


    "Dryads should have expected such monsters in such a place" Camellia flashed a wry smile.


    The faces of the others turned serious as well; Dryads were troublesome monsters, especially when they were on their turf.


    "It''s no use thinking about it, try to kill them as fast as possible. We''ll need to find a place that''s not surrounded by trees" Ivan said solemnly.


    As long as they remained here, the Dryads would be able to slowly recover and more Dryads would come join the fight as time went on.


    Creeeee!!


    One of the Dryads let out a piercing sound before rushing forward with its many roots, it raised its arm and swiped its many branches at Mari.


    "Look out!" Camellia reacted.


    Throwing her hands forward, thick vines burst out from the ground before wrapping around the arm of the Dryad, and then a wave of Camellia''s slender arms, the vines tossed the seven-meter-tall Dryad away.


    The rest of the Dryads also charged at them; soon, the clearing was completely surrounded by Dryads.


    Ivan jumped forward, his sword slashed before him, and he chopped a Dryad into two halves.


    Upon landing, Ivan sent out a punch.


    BOOM!


    A Dryad was sent flying back and slammed into another Dryad behind it, but they quickly got up after a few seconds.


    Seeing that it was impossible to punch these creatures to death, Ivan summoned another card and turned it into a sword before welding it; he went into a chopping spree as he cut down one Dryad after another.


    The rest were equally doing their best too to kill the Dryads.


    Susan had summoned a group of skeleton warriors, only that these were low-level skeleton warriors. They were nothing compared to the ones in the tomb of ten thousand graves.


    These skeleton warriors wore no armor and carried bone swords, their eyes flickered with darkness as they charged out toward the Dryads.


    Crash!!


    With a wave of their branches, the Dryads would send one or two skeleton warriors flying away and crashing into other Dryads or skeleton warriors.


    The skeleton warriors would shatter into clusters of bone but would quickly reassemble before picking up their swords and charging out again.


    Pak! Pak! Pak!


    Sounds of their bone swords cutting at the bodies of the Dryads filled a part of the clearing.


    A skeleton warrior suddenly jumped on the head of a Dryad and stabbed its bone swords into its face.


    Creeeee!! sea??h th§× N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The Dryad let out a piercing screech, it grabbed the skeleton warrior from its face and threw it away in anger.


    Crash!!


    The skeleton warrior was thrown for over twenty meters and only stopped after smashing into a tree. It met the tree head first, causing its shiny skeleton head to shatter upon impact.


    The darkness in its eyes immediately died out and the skeleton warrior was unable to stand up again, remaining just a cluster of white bones on the ground.


    "Tch!"


    Susan clicked her tongue and gritted her teeth in pain, she waved her hands again and summoned another group of skeleton warriors to join the fight.

 Chapter 65: Run away

    BOOM!Raging flames surged forward and engulfed a group of three Dryads; their root limbs and branches immediately caught on fire and burned into ashes within seconds, although they immediately began to grow back within seconds after just burning.


    " Oh no you don''t!" Joseph shouted and launched another ball of flames that exploded in the faces of the Dryads.


    Pieces of charred wood flew into the air after the fire exploded in the faces of the Dryads as they fell back heavily.


    Joseph had just finished dealing with these three when another four Dryads came running toward him while screeching.


    Multiple branches shot toward him at the same time.


    Joseph threw flames at one, burning it instantly before jumping away but one still caught up to him and wiped him hard on the back.


    Joseph forced himself from screaming as he rolled on the ground, he had barely come to a stop when he saw the roots of another Dryad wriggling in his direction.


    "Shit!" Joseph caused and was about to use his flames again when something suddenly wrapped around his leg and pulled him back. At the same time, he saw the figure of Rose rushing up to the Dryads and swiftly chopped off multiple roots from one before slashing it around the waist area.


    The Dryad roared as its upper half fell to the ground. It was unable to move for the time being, but they could already see its wound growing back.


    Joseph soon came to a stop as whatever was pulling him let go of his leg, he looked and realized that it was Camellia who had dragged him away. She was controlling multiple vines to assist the others in battle.


    Mari, who didn''t possess a talent that would be helpful in this situation, hid behind Camellia and shot at the Dryads with a laser gun; no one knew where he got the laser gun.


    Minutes into the fight over thirty Dryads could be seen scattered across the clearing but more kept coming out from deep within the forest.


    Seeing that the others would be unable to last much longer due to their low Nexus storage, Ivan jumped in front of them before sending his swords out. Chopping five Dryads in half instantly but his swords scattered into light particles after carrying out the action, Ivan did not mind.


    Turning to the group, he said.


    "We won''t be able to fight them all, we don''t even know how many they are. Start moving towards the mountain range, I''ll cover the rear; try to avoid confrontations since it will slow you down"


    Listening to Ivan''s words, the rest nodded and immediately turned toward the direction of the mountain range. Jumping over a few Dryads, they immediately sprinted into the forest.


    Ivan kicked at a few Dryads that were about to attack the others from behind before following them.


    With the twenty-plus skeleton warriors in front under the control of Susan, the group was able to avoid facing any Dryads and focused more on running.


    Their faces turned pale due to the amount of Dryads they met during their escape, they realized that they would have been overwhelmed by their sheer numbers had they continued to stay in the clearing; the Dryads numbered over a hundred!


    After twenty minutes of running, the group finally came out from the forest and came to the base of a rocky mountain. Without pausing, they immediately began to climb with speed as if they were running on normal ground.


    Susan recalled her skeleton warriors after climbing. After recalling them, she received a bit of Nexus energy which she used to enhance her body to increase her climbing speed.


    After they climbed as high as fifty meters, they came to a small cliff on the side of the mountain, where they all paused to look back. They could not be more glad that the Dryads did not follow them and just stopped at the edge of the forest.


    They could see dozens of glowing green eyes staring at them from behind the shadows of the trees.


    Breathing in relief, some of the group fell on their backs and gazed at the sky as they panted heavily. Only now did they realize that all of them except Ivan were sweating profusely and their clothes were already sticking to their bodies.


    "Let''s rest here; it looks like they can''t leave the forest, so we should be safe here,e," Ivan said to the group before falling on his butt. He wasn''t as exhausted as them, but the long fight had made him use a bit of energy; it wasn''t a bad idea to try to refill himself.


    Seeing Ivan closing his eyes in a meditative state, the rest looked at each other before sitting up and assuming similar postures as well; they began to gather Nexus energy into their bodies.


    Ivan could not help but open his eyes after minutes of absorption, the Nexus energy in the air was so thin that it felt like he wasn''t doing anything.


    If he were to absorb Nexus energy in a place like this, it would take him a whole day just to fill up his Nexus chamber. Trying to refine the Nexus he absorbed to increase his AP could take days!


    ''The tower is really a heaven for Nexulytes'' Ivan thought to himself before closing his eyes and resumed absorbing Nexus.


    After about five hours passed, the group had absorbed a satisfactory amount of Nexus energy and had become energetic once more; of course, Ivan had filled his Nexus chamber long ago but did not dare to refine it into AP because he would be left with an empty Nexus chamber.


    Now that they were all well rested, it was time to think of their next course of action but before that.


    Ivan turned his gaze to Mari, the boy with a support-type beast companion talent.


    "How did you get a laser gun?" He asked seriously.


    The others also turned to look at Mari as well, they were confused as to how he got a laser gun but didn''t ask before because the time wasn''t right.


    Mari looked at everyone, and his lips quivered from the pressure; he shut his eyes before hurriedly saying.


    "I¡­I don''t know either. I just found it on me after the Dryads started to attack us"


    Listening to his explanation, the group lifted their eyebrows and stared at the uncomfortable expression of the boy.


    "Could it be that the instructor provided a laser gun for him because his talent wouldn''t be helpful in a fight at all? After all, most officials carried laser guns around with them" Camellia said thoughtfully.


    The rest fell into contemplation upon hearing her words, what she said was reasonable and was the only logical explanation.


    "We''ll ask the instructor about it after we are out, for now, let''s think of how to deal with these Dryads. Everyone should already realize that they are our objective to pass today''s training," Ivan said, and the others turned their focus to him.


    "Any suggestions?" Ivan asked when he saw all of them looking at him; this was team training, so he wanted to hear their opinions.


    "Dryads are creatures that usually live in clans and have a wood spirit as their leader who possesses the life core of all Dryads to prevent rebellion. We could search for their base and locate the wood spirit leader


    And kill it" Sear?h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

 Chapter 66: Searching for the leader

    "And kill it"Everyone nodded, that was the best thing to do and most likely the only thing that they could do.


    "Mari, you should be able to look for where the leader is, right?" Ivan asked.


    Mari nodded and asked for a moment, he proceeded to summon his sharp eyed wind parrot.


    It was a small parrot with beautiful blue feathers and pitch black eyes, the parrot immediately flew into the air after it appeared.


    It didn''t make any sound as it disappeared into the distance.


    They saw Mari''s eyes turning pitch black as he suddenly turned motionless and would not react to anything they said.


    Minutes slowly passed as the group waited for Mari to wake up, ten minutes later.


    "Found it!"


    Mari said as his eyes returned to normal, he turned to the ground and told them what he had found.


    Three kilometers to the north from where they were resting was a small village built on top of trees with countless Dryads roaming around the area, the number of houses were few since most of the Dryads simply slept out in the open but Mari was able to see the house that was most likely to be the leaders residence through his shared eyesight with his parrot.


    In the heart of this small village was an extremely enormous tree, the tree was just as tall as every other tree but its size was about three times the size of the rest and its leaves were as wide as canopies.


    On top of this tree was a small hut made from fresh green vines and radiant flowers, it had to belong to none other than the leader.


    While he explained, a gust of wind blew towards them as the parrot landed on Mari''s shoulder. It has returned quickly after completing its objective, it had only spent so much time outside previously since it was searching for something.


    After listening to what Mari had to say, the group concluded that he had indeed found the location of the Dryads leader.


    The problem now was how to get there.


    The small village was three kilometers away from them and everywhere in front of them was part of the forest which meant that hundreds of Dryads were waiting for them down there, it was plain suicide to go down.


    Also trying to slowly hunt down the Dryads till their numbers reached a critical point was doable since that would take them days if not weeks.


    "I have a suggestion" Mari suddenly said while the others were thinking.


    "Let''s hear it"


    "While my parrot was searching, it came across a canyon that followed the base of the mountain and stretched between the mountain and the forest. Following it will take us as close as five hundred meters to the village and we can enter from the back" explained Mari.


    "Good job! Your talent is so useful, we would have had to give up if not for this" Camellia patted Mari on the shoulder and said while smiling.


    The rest agreed with her. Mari''s discovery had just saved the team a great deal of worry.


    "Since everyone has no objective, Mari can lead the way," Ivan said after a while.


    They also stood up and resumed climbing up the mountain, they reached the top after a while and started walking in the direction of the canyon under Mari''s lead.


    With the parrot flying ahead of them, Mari was able to lead the group through the canyon without encountering any monsters that lived in it.


    They finally reached their destination after over an hour of walking.


    "This part of the forest will lead us straight to the backyard or the village. I checked before and saw that very few Dryads roam these parts so we should be able to deal with them swiftly without drawing attention" Mari said to Ivan and the rest.


    Ivan nodded before turning to rose.


    "You and I will be at the front, Camellia will stay behind us to support us if needed, the rest will follow quietly behind her" Ivan instructed and everyone nodded.


    They then climbed up from the canyon and slowly entered the forest.


    "Two Dryads are fifty meters in front of us, one is resting on a tree two hundred meters to our left while five are currently heading this way but are still a hundred meters away at the moment"


    Hiding behind a huge tree, the group surrounded Mari whose eyes changed from pitch black to normal before giving his report.


    " Ok, we''ll deal with the two in front before those five get here. We''ll not bother the one resting on a tree. Rose, let''s go" Ivan said before summoning a card and turning it into a sword.


    Rose followed behind him as they jumped from tree branch to tree branch in stealth, the others followed while maintaining a good distance.


    Few seconds later, Ivan saw the two Dryads.


    The two monsters were resting on tall trees five meters away from each other and it looked like they were sleeping.


    Turning to look at Rose, the two nodded at each other before slowly approaching the two sleeping Dryads.


    After getting as close as six meters from the Dryads, the two of them stopped before looking at each other again and making sure that both of them were ready to strike.


    ''Now'' Ivan muttered and immediately dashed toward the sleeping Dryads.


    Rose did the same as well.


    The two Dryads immediately sensed the movements of the two with their root limbs and opened their eyes to see who the intruders were.


    Swoosh!!


    Shrink!!


    Before the Dryad could react, Ivan had already appeared above it and swung his sword at its face. Instantly cutting its head in half, the Dryad died immediately.


    Unlike Ivan, Rose wasn''t as fast. Immediately after she arrived near the Dryad, the monster immediately raised its branches and used it to block her sword.


    Keg!!


    The sword cut through the branches and sank a few centimeters into the neck of the Dryad but got stuck, she wasn''t able to finish it off instantly.


    After blocking the attack, the Dryad raised its other branch like hands and was about to hit Rose when a red sword suddenly came flying in its direction and pierced its head.


    Its movements immediately stopped and it fell, dead.


    Rose looked over to Ivan and saw the latter walking toward her, she gritted her teeth, thinking that he was coming to scold or mock her. S§×ar?h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    But contrary to her expectations, Ivan simply picked up his words before quietly telling her to follow him.


    Rose''s eyes widened in surprise. She has always seen Ivan like a cold hearted and seemingly mean person who didn''t like people. She has expected him to at least complain about her failure if not directly scolding her.


    But not only did he help her, he did not even talk about it.


    Ivan paused and turned back to look at her when he saw that the lady wasn''t following him, his gaze asking what she was still standing there for.


    Rose blushed and looked away for a second before following behind him.


    They met up with the rest of the team and had Mari scout ahead again.


    They found their next target and safest route quickly, Rose and Ivan moved out together with Camellia this time around to deal with the Dryads.


    There were three Dryads this time and they were not sleeping. Ivan had Camellia sneak up on them with her Vines and bound them while he would take care of two and Rose would finish the last one.


    Following Ivan''s instructions, the three of them swiftly killed the three Dryads without Ivan needing to assist Rose this time. Everyone carried out their parts perfectly and the three Dryads did not even get the time to screech before their wooden necks were cut through.


    After a slow thirty minutes of sneaking up on Dryads, the group finally killed over twenty Dryads and reached the village.


    Just like Mari had said, the place was crawling with Dryads but very few of them reached the back.


    Fine huts made from trees and vines could be spotted on various trees and Dryads of various sizes could be seen moving around the place.


    In the middle of the village was an enormous tree. Mari had tried describing it for them before but seeing it in person still left the group in awe, the tree was easily the same size as a building!


    Its branches and leaves were equally just as big to fit such a tree, huge roots spread from the base of the tree and disappeared into the ground.


    On top of this tree was a beautiful hut just as Mari had described, it was more beautiful and pleasing to the eyes than the rest.


    While the group hid on top of a tree a few meters from the village and were contemplating their next course of action, a figure came out from the hut.


    The eyes of everyone in the group flashed with disbelief upon seeing this figure that looked like a human. Stay tuned to m-v l|e''-NovelFire.net


    This figure has the body of a human being, a woman to be precise. She had slender arms and long legs, her skin was so smooth that one could tell how soft it was just by looking at it and her skin color was fair with a bit of green. She had long flowing green hair  that reached all the way to her lower back and on her head were two little cute wooden horns.


    She wore a majestic green evening dress that seemed to be made from fresh leaves, the dress clinging to her body and perfectly outlined her seductive shape and sizes.


    This spirit has such a body that would make men go crazy with burning desires and make any woman grit their teeth with jealousy, even top models and superstars would be jealous of her body.


    The only thing that made one realize that she wasn''t human and at the same time frown in disgust was¡­

 Chapter 67: Very wrong combination

    The only thing that made one realize that she wasn''t human and at the same time frown in disgust was¡­The diabolic face of hers.


    The face of this figure with such a body looked so hideous and didn''t resemble that of a pretty woman at all, not even an ugly woman!


    This realization shocked the group and, at the same time, made them so infuriated that their eyes were almost spitting out flames from anger.


    Why would such a figure have a face that was like that of a demon from hell? It was like rubbing shit on a piece of fine painting, ruining it completely!


    "Damnit!" Joseph cursed under his breath while gritting his teeth. Susan and the others closed their eyes, unable to accept the truth before them. Only Ivan kept watching with a serious look on his face, although he had a slight frown that one might not notice if they didn''t pay close attention.


    He was thinking of a way to finish off the leader as fast as possible before she could call for reinforcement or escape.


    "Camellia, what more can your vines do?" Ivan turned to the girl and asked.


    Camellia raised an eyebrow, not first understanding why Ivan was asking her.


    "I can grab objects with it and use it as a form of attack as well, although the force is weak. I can also use it to protect myself by covering my¡­ohhhh! I get it now" Camellia suddenly exclaimed mid explanation. She just realized why Ivan had such a look in his eyes while asking her what her Vines could do.


    He wanted to push the leader into an enclosed space.


    Seeing that the girl had caught on to his idea, Ivan nodded before saying.


    " Yes, I want you to create a type of cage around her and block her path of escape or any other Dryads coming to help"


    "I can do that but I won''t be able to do anything else while the cage is up, so someone will have to protect me while we''re inside. I can only hold it up for five minutes before running out of Nexus energy. Also, it will immediately crumble if a very powerful attack touches it," Camellia explained.


    Ivan asked her to describe how the cage she could create was, his eyes lit up after the girl was done with her explanation.


    Turned out that she could create a literal cocoon with her Vines and it would be impossible for anyone to see what was going on inside.


    This was just perfect.


    " If that''s the case, then five minutes is too much; half a minute should be more than enough," Ivan breathed and directed his gaze to the Dryads leader. He had been holding back because he didn''t want to reveal his full abilities but if he was to fight in a place where no one would be able to watch, Ivan did not even need to say what the outcome would be.


    " Half a minute? Do you think we can defeat that thing in half a minute? It must be stronger than the other Dryads since it''s the leader; its regeneration ability must also be stronger," Joseph said with doubt. He knew Ivan was strong but would he be able to chop the leader to pieces within thirty seconds? They might not have even killed it in that time together if the leader just stayed motionless.


    "We?" Ivan voiced and turned to look at Joseph with dull eyes.


    "I am going to face it alone inside the cage; the rest of you will prevent any Dryads from approaching within those thirty seconds," Ivan added.


    "What?"


    This caused the entire group to be stunned and they looked at Ivan as if he had gone crazy.


    "I know that you''re strong and could possibly face the leader on your own but what about us? What will happen if it turns out to be stronger than you expected? And besides, this is supposed to be team training. What would our evaluation be if you ended up doing all the work?" Joseph spoke up in dissatisfaction.


    "You don''t have to worry about that, if we fail, feel free to hold me responsible for our failure.


    Also, you guys won''t be idling around while I kill it. You''ll set the place on fire and cause as much chaos as you can; Mari will stay close to Camellia while she maintains the cage, and Susan will summon her skeletons to assist Rose in pushing back any Dryads that manage to get close. You all have to hold out for thirty seconds, I promise I won''t take longer"


    Ivan said in all seriousness.


    Joseph gritted his teeth, holding back his words. In the end, he only spat out, "Better don''t fail," before looking away.


    Rose stared at Ivan from the side, a strange look in her eyes.


    After a few minutes more of observing the movement of the village and sorting out their plans, it was time for them to move.


    At this moment, the hideous-looking leader was standing in the middle of the village with three small Dryads playing around her. A hideous smile formed on her face as she giggled with a pleasing voice; the sound of her voice infuriated the team even more, and they were determined to remove such an abomination from existence!


    "Now!" Ivan''s voice suddenly rang out as he dashed out from behind a tree and rushed to the leader and three small Dryads.


    The others followed behind him.


    The leader, noticing the sudden appearance of humans, was stunned for a brief moment before suddenly displaying a ghastly expression and trying to create distance.


    But large Vines suddenly burst out from the ground all around her and enclosed her, the three small Dryads, and Ivan who had already reached her.


    They were all trapped together inside the vine cocoon with very tiny spaces where light could pass through.


    Immediately after creating the cocoon, Camellia stopped moving with both of her hands stretched toward the cocoon as she focused on maintaining it.


    Mari stood next to her with his laser guns in hand, he looked around with vigilant eyes and was ready to shoot at any Dryads to approach them.


    Joseph immediately also swung into action.


    Summoning large balls of fierce flames, he hurled them out without aiming.


    The flames landed on the grass and tried tree branches on the ground before quickly spreading out. Some trees soon caught on fire, and the fire kept spreading out to the huts in the village.


    Loud screeching sounds filled the place as the Dryads fell into chaos. They tried to charge through the flames, but their bodies would immediately light up upon making contact.


    They ran around in disordered manner, trying to get over to the other side where the five humans were and also to assist their leader.


    Standing behind the raging flames was Rose with her sword, and around her were twenty-five short skeleton warriors, each holding a bone sword and ready to attack whatever dared to cross the fire.


    Meanwhile, inside the vine cocoon.


    Seeing that it had been trapped without a path to retreat, the Dryad leader turned to look at Ivan.


    "Foolish human, you think you can face me by yourself? I am the head of the tree spirits for a reason!" She shrieked in her sweet voice.


    Hearing her words, Ivan''s eyebrows twitched fiercely; hearing such a pleasing sound from such a face was not nice at all and felt very wrong.


    "You talk too much," Ivan replied before bringing out a card that turned into a sword.


    "Got behind me!" The leader said to the three small Dryads before stepping in front of them.


    This action of hers surprised Ivan greatly, and he froze for a second. Despite being in the face of danger, she was still trying to protect her little ones.


    ''Even then, I still have to kill her to pass the training and I promised the others to finish this within thirty seconds. I can''t afford to be considerate,'' Ivan thought to himself as his expression hardened, and he slashed forward.


    The leader immediately summoned her own Vines out of nowhere to counter Ivan''s sword but she had underestimated the sharpness of the sword.


    Slash!!


    With a single swing, the sword cut through the vines of the leader like butter before and even chopped away one of her arms.


    "Ahhhh!!!"


    The leader let out an ear-piercing shriek that spread out to over a hundred kilometers, reaching all the Dryads in the area.


    Even Susan and the rest were shocked by the sound and could not help but turn to look at the cocoon, wondering what was going on inside.


    "All Dryads, attack with everything or we''ll lose our home! Sacrifice yourselves for our younglings and village!"


    From within the cocoon, the loud shriek from of the leader spread to all the Dryads in desperation.


    As if they had been placed under a spell, the Dryads in the area immediately charged into the flames, disregarding their lives and throwing themselves at Rose and the skeleton warriors.


    A fight immediately broke out outside as Mari struggled to keep the Dryads away from Camelia while the rest engaged the Dryads in close combat.


    Back inside the cocoon, the leader looked at Ivan with a crazy expression while her hand, which had just been cut off, grew back with a shocking speed. Find exclusive stories on m_v l|e-NovelFire.net


    "Even if you''re able to fight me, defeating me is impossible. In this forest, I have infinite regeneration!" She laughed like a maniac but did not move from the front of the three little Dryads that were hiding behind her.


    Seeing the speed at which she regenerated, Ivan shook his head before letting his sword scatter into light particles; it was useless since she would simply regrow after getting cut.


    Fifteen seconds had already passed, and he could not hold back anymore.


    "Sorry, I have no intentions of failing," Ivan said coldly before bringing out another card. At the same time, the image of a dark sword with rising black smoke formed in his mind. S§×arch* The ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The sword was two meters in length and was pitch black, thick black aura rose from the sword like black fire.


    It was a Death sword!

 Chapter 68: The words of a monster

    The Death sword was the weapon of the monster on the 28th level of the training room that Ivan was currently stuck at.This sword possessed the dark aura which was capable of corrupting a person upon contact, preventing self healing and messing up the use of Nexus energy in them!


    This sword was the perfect fit for this occasion!


    Immediately after the sword formed into existence, it went flying towards the Dryad leader.


    In a single second, the sword sliced through the slender body of the leader multiple times.


    "Ahhhh!!"


    The leader let out a heart piercing scream, she only registered the pain from the sword a second later.


    Marks suddenly began to appear all over her body as green blood gushed out like erupting volcanoes, her body began to fall apart.


    It took just a moment for the leader to realize that her body wasn''t healing and the strange dark smoke was wreaking havoc in her body, thus preventing her from using her ability.


    "What did you do to me!" She bellowed at Ivan with a beastly expression on her ugly face, her voice piercing through the cocoon and spreading through the forest.


    Ivan did not respond, he gripped the handle of the sword and dashed toward the miserable looking monster.


    Seeing Ivan approaching it with a cold expression, the leader of the Dryads knew that it was impossible for her to escape; her fate was sealed.


    Her expression suddenly turned calm as she gave up on resisting, she closed her eyes before saying softly.


    "We didn''t do anything wrong"


    Those words caused a wave of emotions in Ivan and his movements slowed for a bit. Images  of those scums bullying him in the outskirt for years surfaced in his mind but all of this was only for a second; he gritted his teeth and cleared his mind of every thought.


    "It''s only a simulation" Ivan muttered to himself before slashing down, cutting from her shoulder to her waist.


    Even till the end, the Dryad leader did not stop blocking the three little Dryads with her body. They immediately started to screech loudly upon seeing her body being cut in two.


    But their screeching suddenly stopped after three seconds, the leader had finally died completely and the life core within her had been extinguished.


    This caused a chain reaction in every single Dryads, they all started to drop dead on after the other.


    This left the exhausted team shocked but they soon realized why, it was because the life core within the leader had stopped working.


    In other words, Ivan had successfully killed the wood spirit!


    "Yes!! We did it, we passed the training!" Susan immediately jumped and shouted joyfully. The rest dropped to the ground, panting heavily but on their faces were gleeful looks.


    They had completed the objective for the training!


    Camellia realized her control over the vines and the cocoon began to fall apart, revealing Ivan who was standing in front of four dead Dryads.


    They could not help but gasp in surprise when they saw the state of the leader''s body. She was cut in multiple pieces and her wounds were covered in black lines.


    Your next chapter is on mvl


    Just what did Ivan do to it?


    Ivan had already recalled the Death sword so they didn''t see it when the cocoon fell apart.


    "Good job man, you really defeated it alone. No wonder you''re in first place" Joseph walked up to Ivan and patted him on the shoulder while laughing heartily.


    Ivan did not mind this and only smiled faintly in return. The words of the Dryads leader and her actions were still causing a turmoil inside him.


    ''You didn''t do anything? Being a creature of the dreamscape is already enough reason. I''m sure you would not have let me live if our roles were switched'' Ivan said inwardly in an attempt to console himself but it only worked a little since the words of the leader kept repeating in his mind that he didn''t even hear what the others were saying.


    The thought kept bothering him until a sudden drowsiness hit him and his vision turned dark, he found himself in the capsule when he woke up; they had returned to the simulation room and instructor Nathan was standing in the middle of the room.


    After they all climbed down from the sleeping pods, they gathered in front of instructor Nathan who addressed them.


    "Good job all of you, you all performed well. Knowing how to utilize the strength of each member of your team to complete a mission effectively is a trait of a good commander and all of you have contributed to the success of this training.


    My evaluation is¡­ all of you passed"


    Instructor Nathan said with a smile and the trainees beamed with bright smiles, their bodies trembled with excitement and expectations.


    Instructor Nathan didn''t make them wait long and handed each one of them a Nexus crystal. The trainees asked about the laser gun with Mari and instructor Nathan admitted that he was the one who sent it to him.


    He told them a few more words before letting them return.


    "Ivan, please wait a moment" Nathan suddenly called out as they were about to walk through the door.


    All of the trainees paused and turned to look back at instructor Nathan.


    "Only Ivan should stay, the rest of you can return," Instructor Nathan said once more.


    Joseph and the others looked at Ivan briefly before leaving.


    The two of them were now left alone in the simulation room, Ivan looked at the instructor with questioning eyes.


    "The tree spirit is a special forest creature with the ability to regenerate no matter the degree of damage it receives, its life core is also constantly changing locations and difficult to destroy without killing the tree spirit.


    Because you were fighting it in the cocoon, I was unable to see what happened during your fight. Care to explain how you were able to kill it and what are those black lines on its wounds?" Instructor Nathan questioned with a sharp look in his eyes as if  telling Ivan not to dare lie to him.


    Ivan looked back at instructor Nathan with a blank face for a while before responding.


    "I cut it," Ivan paused before adding "many times"


    Instructor Nathan could not help but raise and eyebrow as a helpless smile formed on his face. Ivan''s tone was casual and didn''t give a hint of nervousness, he could not tell if he was lying or not but it was obvious that he didn''t just ''cut'' the tree spirit ''many times''


    "Is that so?" He asked but Ivan did not respond and just kept staring at him.


    Seeing that Ivan was planning to reply, instructor Nathan shook his head before asking him to return as well.


    After Ivan left, instructor Nathan looked at the screen again. He clicked on a few icons before pulling out a chip.


    "I''ll have to show this to the Tower master" he said before walking out of the simulation room. S§×arch* The Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    ...


    Ivan returned to the lobby and met up with the rest of his group.


    "Hey man, you''re back. What did the instructor say?" Joseph said after Ivan reached them.


    "Nothing" He replied shortly.


    " Anyway, we have successfully completed our first training. Ivan did most of the work and we only did little, let''s train hard before the next training and be more useful!" Camellia said energetically and the rest nodded in agreement.


    "I''ll go back first," Mari said before quietly leaving.


    Next one Susan who thanked everyone for carrying her, Camille and Joseph left together after and only Ivan was left with Rose.


    Ivan turned to look at Rose, his eyes asking why she wasn''t leaving yet.


    Rose blushed upon noticing Ivan''s gaze and looked away.


    "Good job back there, see you in the next training" She muttered softly before running off.


    Ivan looked at her back with a confused look.


    *What''s wrong with her?" He mumbled.


    " Ayooo! Looks like we weren''t the fastest to finish our training after all, as expected of you"


    A cheerful voice suddenly sounded from behind Ivan.


    Ivan didn''t need to turn around to know who it was, he recognized the voice immediately.


    "Hello, Sommy" Ivan greeted while turning around.


    " Tks tks tks, what''s with that stiff greeting? Or are you acting modest because your girlfriend just left?" Sommy clicked her tongue playfully and looked at Ivan with teasing eyes.


    " What¡­girlfriend?" Ivan''s face displayed deep confusion that made Sommy shake her head in amusement.


    "I won''t force you if you don''t want to talk, want to head to the cafeteria?" She asked.


    "Ok"


    "How was your training though? You guys even finished before us and I thought our training was the easiest"


    They chatted on their way to the cafeteria.


    Under Sommy''s persistence, Ivan had to narrate the details of their training to her. He omitted many things and concluded that he had been lucky to have struck the wood spirit''s life core.


    By now, they had arrived at the cafeteria and had received their servings.


    *What about you?" Ivan asked as they found a place to sit.


    " Oh, my team didn''t face any major issues. We only met a single warrior from the reverse godhood clan"

 Chapter 69: Sword technique

    "Reversed godhood clan?" Ivan repeated in a questioning tone.Sommy looked up from her food to stare at Ivan and realized that the young man was giving her a clueless stare.


    Just say you don''t know it, honestly asking about something won''t kill you!


    "Reversed godhood warriors are special creatures from the dreamscape with corrupted godhood bloodline, making them the degraded version of gods. But even though they are degraded versions, they are still a very fearsome clan.


    Being skilled in different forms of combat and possessing terrifying martial arts and techniques, they are part of the strongest species in the dreamscape" Sommy explained before proceeding to share her experiences during the training.


    ...


    Sommy''s team included two other girls and three boys. One of the girls was a battle mechanic, the other was an elemental user like Sommy. As for the three boys, two were support type talent. One had the Analyst talent that could read the moves they saw and find their weakness, while the other one possessed the perfect copy talent and was able to mimic the appearance of anything.


    The last boy was a weapon user and wielded dual blades.


    Aside from Sommy who was already at the Mortal King rank, the other five were still below 7% AP.


    After entering the simulation, they found themselves inside an underground chamber.


    Walls of cold ancient rocks and spider webs covering most corners, the place looked like an abandoned cave that hadn''t been visited in a very long time.


    They were still wondering what they were supposed to do when they suddenly heard footsteps echoing from deep inside the chamber, the footsteps were slowly approaching as the owner wasn''t in any form of hurry.


    Soon, the source of the footsteps appeared in front of them.


    It was a single woman in silver armor, and on her waist was a sword scabbard.


    Her armor was shining silver as if brand new and had smooth surfaces with rough edges on every joint section. It was full body armor so it covered all her body and even her feet were hidden in metal boots.


    She wore a silver helmet that covered half of her face, below her nose was exposed and they could see the thin cherry lips of the woman; but one side of her face seemed to have rotten as the skin that was supposed to cover that side of her mouth was nowhere to be seen, making it possible to see her set of white teeth.


    On top of her helmet was a line of white feathers that stood straight and two sharp yellow eyes gazed at them through the two holes on the helmet. sea??h th§× N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    It was a warrior from the Reverse godhood clan!


    Sommy and the others immediately panicked when they realized this and hurriedly retreated.


    These creatures were masters of combat and possessed scary martial arts and techniques, facing one without a sufficient level of strength was plain suicide!


    They retreated for dozens of meters before stopping and realized that the woman in silver armor wasn''t following them, that was strange.


    Warriors of the Reverse godhood clan were very territorial and would stop at nothing to destroy whatever entered their ground, unless¡­this was a weaker warrior and didn''t have the right to own her own territory yet; she wasn''t expected to fight for what didn''t belong to her, was she? Discover more stories at mvl


    "That makes sense, the Tower won''t give us an impossible mission in the form of training. We would be dead in an instant if it was a stronger warrior" Sommy explained, the group breathed in relief.


    But still, even if she was a weaker warrior, it did not mean that the training was going to be easy.


    She might be weak but to them at their current level, she was strong.


    "Alright, this is what we''ll do¡­" Sommy, being the person she was, had already made contact with her teammates days ago after the list of teams were released and was already familiar with each of their abilities, so she immediately went straight to making plans and instructing each of them on how to act during the fight.


    After two minutes of planning, they finally came up with a plan to face the woman.


    They returned to where the woman had been standing and found out that she was gone.


    Surprised, they began to search for her.


    It was then that they realized how enormous the underground chamber was, they traveled for more than two hours down an old stairway before arriving at another chamber.


    Some of the group members were already panting and feeling dizzy just from climbing down such a long stairway, they had to use another hour to rest and return to perfect condition in case they ran into the warrior at any moment.


    After resting, they resumed their search which took over another three hours!


    They had almost decided to give up on looking for the warrior when they suddenly heard sounds of collision, their eyes lit up and they all rushed over.


    Following the direction the sound was coming from, they found themselves at the entrance of what looked like a training room.


    A dummy was placed in the middle of the room and weapon racks could be found resting on all four sides of the room and containing different kinds of weapons.


    They saw the warrior standing in front of the dummy with her sword out of its scabbard and pointed at the dummy, numerous cuts could be seen on the body of the dummy which were most likely the result of the collision they had heard from outside.


    The warrior¡­she was training?


    Upon noticing the arrival of Sommy and the rest at the entrance of the room, the warrior stopped her training and turned to face them.


    Without saying a word, she suddenly dashed toward them.


    "Everyone go!" Sommy immediately shouted before jumping away from where she was standing previously, the others reacted swiftly as well and quickly jumped away.


    The speed of the warrior was very fast, one second she was in front of the dummy and the next second she was already upon them.


    BOOM!!


    An explosive sound rang out as the sword of the warrior slammed into the ground, a ten meters long gash immediately appeared on the ground where the group were standing before.


    "Get in positions!" Sommy shouted as visible wind blades began to rotate around here, ready to fly out on her command.


    The other girl in the group who also possessed an elemental talent like Sommy stretched out her hands and sent a wave of flames towards the warrior.


    BOOM!!


    The flames fell on the warrior like a crashing wave and exploded, the blast sent the warrior flying back.


    But aside from that, she didn''t seem to sustain any other damage as silver armor gleamed.


    "Her armor is fireproof!" The girl exclaimed seeing that her attack was ineffective.


    The warrior moved again, she charged forward and with a flick of her wrist sliced through the wall of flame in front of her before attacking the girl with the fire element.


    "Look out!"


    Sommy called out and shot forward like a gust of wind, she threw her hands and sent two wind blades towards the warrior.


    The latter gave up on attacking the girl and used her sword to perry the wind blades, the force of the wind blades pushed her a few meters away and gave the girl time to retreat.


    The boy with the dual blades moved at this moment, swinging both blades at the back of the warrior.


    But as if she had predicted it, the warrior turned and blocked both blades before sending a strong kick to his chest.


    The boy was sent flying away with a painful grunt.


    Immediately after sending the boy flying with a kick, the warrior turned to face Sommy as she gripped her sword before suddenly opening her mouth.


    "Nine heaven devouring sword streams!"

 Chapter 70: Thats how we passed the train

    "Nine heaven devouring sword streams!"She suddenly called out the name of a sword technique in a crisp voice before swinging her sword at Sommy.


    The entire room suddenly began to shake as countless sword shadows appeared in the air before setting into sword formations and charging at Sommy with great momentum.


    Sommy fell into a split second daze but quickly woke up, large beads of sweat forming on her face instantly. The pressure of this sword technique was so oppressive and Sommy had seen an illusion of her entire field of vision getting filled with the sword formations.


    Only after waking up did she realize that it was an illusion but she had less than three seconds to act before she was drowned under these sword formations.


    Wrapping herself in a ball of wind, Sommy gained a great boost in speed instantly.


    Dan! Dan! Dan!


    The sword formations immediately crashed on the place that she was standing on previously, raising a cloud of dust and destroying a part of the building.


    "Cough, cough. Luckily, I was able to react on time"


    On the opposite side of the room, Sommy coughed as she looked at the damage done by the sword formations with shocked eyes; there was no way she was surviving that if she got hit!


    "Sommy! I found it!" A voice suddenly called out from a distance, it was the boy with the Analyst talent. He was standing at the back with both eyes glowing with red light.


    " Its movements slow down after releasing a technique and its armor becomes brittle for three seconds!" He reported.


    After observing the movements of the warrior with his talent, he has received this feedback thanks to his ability and immediately shared it with the team.


    "Good! Everyone prepare to take it out. Cici, blast it with another round of flames. Drex, fire your cannons at it!" Sommy instructed.


    The fire elemental user acted immediately and launched another wave of flames at the warrior, throwing it back again.


    Of course, the warrior''s armor blocked the flames and she didn''t get hurt. She had barely managed to stabilize herself when a person in a red nano suit suddenly appeared in front of her, his right hand transformed into the nuzzle of a cannon and glowed with red light.


    BOOM!!


    A great force came crashing toward the warrior, destroying the ground in its wake. She quickly brought her sword forward to block it.


    A strong impact crashed into her sword, her knees caving in as she was pushed for several meters back, creating two long trenches on the hard ground.


    Swoop!


    BOOM!


    Forcefully swinging her sword, she sent the remaining force from the cannon to the side; It landed on another side of the wall and immediately crashed it.


    Before the warrior could even breathe, the boy with he perfect copy talent suddenly transformed into a silver armored warrior with a sword as well and dashed toward her.


    His talent allowed him to turn into anything he sees and can replicate their functions, just that it could only last for a short time¡­a very short time.


    The warrior was stunned upon seeing a mirror of herself charging at her but this did not stop her from facing this duplicate with her sword.


    The both of them clashed and it became a struggle of speed and strength as they flashed all over the place like streaks of light.


    Boom! A white figure was suddenly sent flying away toward the wall and created a cloud of dust.


    Only after the dust settled did they realize that it was the boy with the perfect copy talent, his talent had worn off and he had been thrown away by the real warrior.


    Facing the boy she had sent flying, the warrior opened her mouth for the second time.


    "Formless sword slash!"


    She called out before waving her sword at the boy but before she could make a full swing, a strong force cashed into her from the side and caused her to miss her mark.


    It was the boy with the battle mechanic talent!


    "Now!!"


    Seeing that she had just cast a technique, Sommy shouted before sending multiple wind blades over.


    Pang! Pang! Pang!


    The wind blades accurately struck the armor of the warrior, she was unable to react fast enough due to her brief reduction in speed.


    The silver armor that has become brittle for some reason finally broke! Exposing a smooth patch of hair skin.


    Immediately after the armor broke, the boy with the dual blades appeared behind the warrior. Ignoring the pain from his chest, he forcefully slashed at her back with both swords.


    Sound of blades sinking into flesh was heard as a long line of red blood drew in the air.


    Three seconds was up!


    The warrior instantly regained her full speed, she turned around and kicked the dual sword user again and sent him flying toward a wall.


    Thud!


    "Ngggrr!"


    The boy grunted from pain, he didn''t try to get up immediately.


    As for the warrior, after getting cut on the back, her body swayed as blood flowed down like streams.


    Another cannon shot was fired at her and she was sent flying, she crashed into the hard wall and was unable to get up as she rested in a sitting position with her sword still held tightly in her hand.


    ...


    "That''s how we passed out training" Sommy said after narrating what had transpired during their training.


    "I see" was all Ivan responded with.


    "Well, I''ll be going now. Have some other things to do, see you around" Sommy stood up and said to Ivan with a smile before leaving.


    Ivan stayed in the cafeteria for a while more before leaving as well, he met Ralph and Glen in the lobby.


    Unexpectedly, both of them had finished around the same time. They immediately dragged Ivan to chat.


    Ivan had to recount what he told Sommy, the two opened their mouths in amazement before telling their own experiences.


    Ralph and his group had been sent to a swamp area where they faced a group of crochunteres. Literally crocodiles that could stand on two legs and used weapons, they had impressive jump force but lacked speed. They had been able complete the training but it was mostly due to Ralph and a few others.


    One person in their group had been so scared that he passed out before the fight even started, he wasn''t given a Nexus crystal after the end of the evaluation even though their team had completed the mission.


    As for Glen, along with his team of girls had been sent to a desert where they fought a sand serpent.


    Throughout the story, Ralph and Ivan could tell that Glen''s snake had done most of the work but the idiot would not stop talking about how impressive the girls were during the training.


    He especially talked about a certain blue haired beautiful who had the same talent as himself, her summoned beast was a giant white cat that could use its fur as knives.


    After listening to Glen''s story, the two of them conclude that Glen¡­had a crush on this girl! Sear?h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "I''m going to the Nexus chamber, see you two later" Ivan said while rising to his feet.


    "Ok, we''ll be going to the arena. It''s my turn to use the Nexus chamber" Glen jumped up and pulled Ralph away.


    Ivan looked at the two of them and shook his head with a faint smile before heading for the elevator.


    Time to level up his AP.

 Chapter 71: Negative

    Weeks later.Dreamscape.


    In one of the bases of the Owen Tower located in the dreamscape, a fortress built around an enormous mirror gate and had hundreds of Nexulytes patrolling around it at all times.


    In the control room of this base, a group of people in black protective body suits could be seen. Some were operating the systems in the control room while others stood at the back and watched.


    Among the people standing at the back and observing quietly was Elora, clad in a similar body suit that wrapped around her body tightly.


    Her long hair was firmly tied up behind her in a ponytail and had dirt on it, stains of dried blood could be found on her body suit as she stood at the back with narrowed eyes.


    After leaving the Tower in the real world, Elora had come to the dreamscape for a special mission that was to be carried out by a team of Domain Lords.


    One had to know that Domain Lords were a fearful existence that could destroy an entire neighborhood with a single punch, to require a team of them for a single mission should tell how dangerous and important the mission was.


    Elora just happened to be one of those Domain Lords and had been out for days now, only returning to the base today.


    They had been separated into groups of ten Domain Lords in each team, Elora and her team had just returned after days of facing near death situations in the dreamscape but she realized that a team was still out there.


    It wasn''t rare for an entire team to go missing in the dreamscape considering the amounts of horrors in it. But this was a team of Domain Lords, as long as they didn''t barge into a forbidden zone or encounter a guardian they should be at least able to run.


    That wasn''t all the reason why Elora was trying to reach out to them so badly, it was because she knew someone from the missing team. Someone who had been like an elder brother to her for years was a part of the missing team.


    "Still no connection yet?" Elora asked, her tone impatient.


    The person sitting in front of the system was sweating seriously under the invisible pressure from Elora.


    "N-no, nothing yet" He replied forcefully.


    Suddenly, the screen in front of him released a static noise as a signal was picked up.


    "It''s on! I''ve gained a connection to them!" The man hurriedly said in high spirit.


    Elora was barely able to stop herself from snatching the control seat from him, she went to his side and stared intently at the system.


    "Hello? Can you hear me? Reply if you can hear me. Hello?"


    The man in front of the system said repeatedly into his headphone mic but only a static sound came from the other side. It took over ten seconds before a dull voice was heard after the signal stabilized a little bit.


    "I¡­can¡­hear you" A voice filled with grief and fatigue came from the other side.


    Elora''s eyes flashed with a glint and a worried expression formed on her face, she wasn''t able to stop herself anymore and snatched the headphone from the man in front of her.


    " Hello, this is Elora speaking," she said hastily.


    " Miss Elora? I¡­we¡­" the voice from the other side sounded surprised for a moment before starting to stutter.


    The expression on Elora''s face collapsed further upon hearing the other party stutter, she gritted her teeth before asking. S~ea??h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "What is your status?"


    "We¡­I am trapped in the land carrier, location unidentified" The other party responded in a low tone.


    "What about your teammates?" Elora asked as a dreadful feeling rose in her heart.


    There was silence from the other side for a couple of seconds before the voice replied heavily.


    "Dead"


    Elora staggered, her heart emotions plummeting instantly but she still forced herself to maintain her steeze.


    "Your captain?"


    "Dead"


    "What about Sam?"


    "...Dead too"


    Elora stopped talking for a while as she breathed heavily, trying to call herself down. After a whole minute, she spoke up.


    "Understood, retreat to base as soon as possible" she ordered and was about to return the headphone when the other party suddenly said what shocked her.


    "Negative" The voice from the other side said with all seriousness.


    Elora paused, wondering if he had misheard her and decided to repeat the order.


    "I said retreat to base"


    "Negative ma''am, I can''t do that" The voice from the other side responded which meant that he did not mishear her the first time.


    Elora''s eyes narrowed.


    "What do you mean negative!" She said through gritted teeth.


    "It was all my fault. I''m the controller of the land carrier, I wasn''t fast enough. I wasn''t good enough, I caused my teammates death!" A voice filled with guilt and self blame came from the other side.


    Elora''s eyes reddened and she tightened her fist so much that her knuckles popped.


    "It doesn''t matter, return at once" She said once more.


    "I can''t, I won''t be able to live with myself. Sam treated me like a brother, the team was kind to me even though I wasn''t useful in battle; I''m going to avenge them!" The voice said with so much anger that Elora could feel it from his words.


    " Listen to me. Your whole team didn''t survive it, what makes you think you can avenge them alone?" Unable to hold back anymore, Elora yelled into the mic.


    " I''m sorry ma''am. Even if I can''t even them, I would like to go join them" the other side responded before cutting off the connection.


    " Hello? Hello? Shit!"


    BAM!!


    Elora cursed and punched the table in front of her after realizing that the connection was cut off.


    Everyone else in the control room stared at her with startled eyes, seeing the usual calm and composed Young miss act so aggressively made them not even dare to breathe.


    Dropping the headphone on the system desk, Elora walked out quietly as if nothing had happened.


    Immediately after she came out of the control room, she saw a young woman in a similar black body suit walking towards her with a smile on her face.


    "Your request for a one week leave has been approved but you must return after a week, so I don''t get blamed for your absence" the lady reported with a sweet smile, unaware of what was going on in Elora''s head or what had transpired in the control room.


    "Alright" Elora said shortly before walking away.


    Looking at Elora''s back, the lady scratched her cheeks in confusion.


    "What did I say wrong?" She muttered to herself.


    ¡­.


    Finding her way through the base, Elora arrived at her room which wasn''t less furnished than a six stars hotel room.


    She went straight to the shower and just stood under the fall of cold water that washed over her skin and hair, colored liquid flowed down her skin; the bloodstains she had accumulated over the days.


    A sigh suddenly escaped her lips as the face of a person appeared in her mind.


    "You should be done with your training in a few days, wonder if you would be excited to see me" she muttered to herself as a sad smile formed on her lips.


    The water from the shower perfectly camouflaged the tears streaming down her eyes.

 Chapter 72: A step away from the next rank

    Three weeks had passed swiftly, one had to say that it was the most intense weeks in the training center; far more intense than the first week that the trainees started training.And this was because it was their last month of training! Sear?h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The trainees had just a week left and their training would be over!


    During the last three weeks, the instructors were surprised to see all the training working harder than they ever did in the last five months of their training.


    Some even skipped theory classes for physical class and training rooms even at the cost of getting punished and there was a bizarre outbreak of challenges in the arena, trainees of different levels challenges the top five as if they had been possessed; they wanted to try their lucks with the Nexus chamber even though it was logically impossible.


    Ivan wasn''t spared either as even with his fearsome reputation, he still received tons of challenges every two days.


    Of course he would ignore all of them, he only had to accept one and that was his favorite opponent¡­Miko; the girl''s hate was so strong that she didn''t give up on challenging Ivan despite her numerous defeats against him.


    As for the special team training that was held every three days, the trainees had participated in seven of such training and a lot of trainees had received the rewards for their hard work.


    This had boosted the strength of a lot of trainees who previously did not have hope of passing the training by themselves and at the same time gaining more friends as well as improving their combat experience.


    This was especially true for Ivan''s teammates, all of them had managed to reach the minimum 10% AP within those three weeks and entered the Mortal King rank!


    Ralph and Glen had progressed well during those three weeks as well, under the effect of the Nexus chamber and Nexus crystals, the two were slowly approaching the True King rank.


    As for Ivan.


    Currently, inside the third Nexus chamber underground.


    Ivan slowly opened his eyes while at the same time summoning his profile in front of him.


    ¡­.


    NAME: Ivan Von Charles


    Talent group: Primal         Talent type: Wisher   Talent: Wish card


    Talent lv: SS          AP: 38.55%      Rank: TRUE KING


    ¡­..


    "Just a little bit more" Ivan muttered softly, his blue eyes flickering with a strange light as he felt the Nexus energy rushing through his body.


    He was just a small step away from becoming a Partial Lord ranked Nexulyte!


    His speed was nothing that any Nexulyte would compare to in the entire tower, unless one was using Nexus crystals of course; but to get enough Nexus crystals to match Ivan''s speed was harder than looking for bottled water in an ocean.


    After reaching 30% AP, Ivan was able to tell that he had become stronger than before. Although he was still in the True King rank, he knew that his strength was almost twice what it used to be when he was still below 30%.


    "There truly are differences between Nexulytes of the same rank" Ivan said to himself as he unfolded and folded his fingers repeatedly.


    After reaching 30% in his AP, not only did his Nexus chamber increase and his Nexus energy becoming more potent, Ivan felt that his talent could be used in more ways now.


    "I''ll see what else it can do" Ivan stood up and left, his destination was the training room.


    ¡­..


    Arriving at the training room, Ivan immediately found a room and entered a pod.


    Appearing at the virtual space of the training room, the familiar notifications appeared in front of him along with the options to begin.


    [Training level one, trainee may begin]


    With a monster in front of him, the system gave the notification for the fight to commence; the monster immediately charged at Ivan.


    Ivan stared at it with carefree look in his eyes as a card appeared in his hand, he wanted to create a sword to chop the monster into pieces but paused when he remembered why he had come here.


    "No swords" Ivan said to himself before forming another image in his mind.


    ¡­..


    Thirty minutes later.


    [Level 27 completed, proceed to level 28?]


    [Yes/No]


    After defeating the monster on the 27th level, the notification to continue or quit.


    Ivan checked his Nexus chamber and saw that he still had a lot of Nexus energy left. From the 1st level to the 27th level, Ivan had defeated all the monsters with a single attack so he had not spent a lot of energy.


    He had really become stronger than when he was below 30% and the gap in strength wasn''t small!


    "Yes"


    Ivan answered and the corpse of the monster in front of him vanished into light particles before a new monster appeared in the virtual space.


    This was the level that Ivan had been stuck in for so long now, me matter what he did he was just unable to defeat the monsters on this level.


    This time, it was a monster with scales like that of a dragon.


    The monster stood on two large legs that ended with three large claws, it was seven meters tall and had two large red horns.


    A wide mouth filled with razor sharp teeth took half of its face, two small yellow eyes glowed above its mouth.


    A tail that was over a meter thick and three meters long was attached to the back of its waist.


    It was a fearsome monster which Ivan didn''t know its name but had met it before, what he could say about this monster was that it has a very high defense and a speed that wasn''t inferior to that of a True King Nexulyte.


    [Level 28, begin]


    The system announced the start of the fight and the yellow eyes of the monster immediately came to life and turned to Ivan.


    It opened its fearsome mouth and let out a loud roar before dashing toward Ivan.


    The ground cracked from the force of the monster''s steps, over a dozen small craters appeared on the ground almost instantly aa the monster seemed to be teleporting around the place; it''s speed was just that fast.


    But its opponent wasn''t some random True King or any other trainee, Ivan was capable of following its movements with his eyes.


    Just when the monster thought that it had caught Ivan, the human in front of it suddenly vanished. No! He didn''t vanish, his speed was just so fast that the monster hadn''t seen anything.


    Before it could react, a giant icicle suddenly appeared out of nowhere and the sharp tip crashed into the back of the monster.


    BOOM!!


    A loud sound rang out as a cloud of dust rose into the air after the monster crashed fiercely into the ground.


    A large hole immediately formed on the ground with half of the icicle buried inside it.


    "Roar!"


    An enraged roar came from under the icicle before cracks started to run through its body.


    Kacha!


    It only took a second before the giant icicle shattered into ice fragments and the monster jumped out from the hole.


    It turned to face Ivan and roared again.


    Ivan stared back at it with a slight smile on his face.


    "As expected, it''s unharmed," Ivan said. It turned out he had expected that the scales of the monster would be able to block his attack.


    "Well, if ice doesn''t work, let''s try something else"  a cold smile that would make others shiver formed on Ivan''s face as another card appeared in his hand.

 Chapter 73: Clearing the 28th level

    Upon seeing the card in Ivan''s hand, the monster went into a frenzy and smashed the ground with its arms.Pierces of hard earth burst out from the ground as the ground cracked open, it punched them toward Ivan.


    Like a shadow, Ivan''s figure faded away while leaving afterimages behind him as he dodged everything and appeared ten meters away. Sear?h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The card in his hand jumped into the air and scattered into light particles of blue, red, and gold.


    Rumble!


    A moment after the card turned into light particles, the sound of the sky rumbling rang out as a thick lightning bolt of similar colors appeared out of nowhere and struck at the monster.


    Roar!


    The monster roared and prepared to meet the lightning bolt head-on; it was too fast for it to dodge.


    Bang!!


    An explosive sound echoed as the lightning bolt exploded on the chest of the monster, sending the latter flying away like a broken kite.


    It smashed into the ground fifty meters away from its previous location and continued crashing for another twenty meters before coming to a stop.


    The impact of the lightning bolt had been so strong that the monster wasn''t able to stand its ground.


    BOOM!


    With a deafening sound, the monster jumped back to its feet and landed heavily on the ground; creating another deep crater with its weight.


    Ivan took a close look at it, on the chest of the monster was a clear burned mark with a few of its scales having cracks that spread for inches.


    He had almost broken through the defense of the monster with a single lightning bolt!


    Pleased with the outcome of his attack, more cards appeared around Ivan and floated around him in circles.


    The monster, having been sent flying by Ivan''s attack, roared angrily. Its scales had cracked and it could still feel the stinging pain around the area that was hit.


    The ground trembled as the monster moved like a gust of wind again and approached Ivan.


    Ivan was prepared and immediately sent out five cards that turned into lightning bolts and struck at the monster but the latter had prepared this time.


    With a sonic boom, its speed doubled.


    Hundreds of craters appeared on the ground almost at the same time as the monster crossed the distance between it and Ivan in an instant.


    The five multicolored lightning bolts missed their target and struck the ground, creating five holes in it and causing the space to tremble; the monster had already appeared in front of Ivan.


    It immediately sent its large claws swiping at Ivan''s face.


    Swish!


    The sound of the wind being sliced through by the sharp claws of the monster rang in Ivan''s ears when he tilted his head to dodge the swipe, there was no doubt that his head would be cleanly cut off if those claws had landed.


    After dodging the swipe of the monster''s claws, Ivan quickly moved back to gain distance but the monster was not going to let him and moved along with him while at the same time sending another swipe at Ivan.


    Ivan dodged again but barely this time, the movements of the monster were becoming faster!


    Bending his body after dodging the swipe, a large mass of oppressive red energy burst out from Ivan''s body and gathered around his right fist which he sent toward the side of the monster''s body.


    POW!


    A punch smashed into the body of the monster with great impact and sent a shockwave out through the other side of the monster''s body, a painful roar left its hideous mouth.


    The force of the punch caused the body of the monster to curve, but it wasn''t strong enough to push it back or break its scales; Ivan even felt a slight sting in his knuckles after executing that punch.


    Ignoring the pain, the monster sent a knee strike to Ivan''s face.


    The knees of the monster had scales that stuck out like a knife, it would definitely pierce Ivan''s face if he took the hit.


    Still, in the half-kneeling posture, Ivan had to push flexibility to the extreme and made an insane twist in that position.


    He slammed his palm on the ground and did a side flip while at the same time pulling back his head.


    Ivan managed to successfully avoid the knee strike and landed two meters away from the monster on all fours, he did another backflip before standing on his two feet.


    The monster was surprised that Ivan was able to dodge that attack; after all, there was only a fraction of o.3 seconds before its knee smashed into Ivan''s face.


    It turned to Ivan and opened its large mouth, a red energy ball immediately shot out at a speed that made Ivan''s eyes widen.


    BOOM!!¡Á9


    One energy ball after another was shot toward Ivan in quick succession that he would not have time to dodge; all energy balls landed on the place Ivan was standing, and a huge explosion engulfed him.


    Smoke and dust screen covered the place, a massive hole had been formed and Ivan was presumably inside it.


    The monster waited for the smoke and dust to clear. Although it had not seen what happened after the first energy ball, it was sure that Ivan hadn''t been able to dodge; he would have appeared at another location by now if he had.


    The monster waited for a few whole minutes as the smoke screen and cloud of dust slowly dissipated; it finally caught sight of Something after the place cleared a bit, but before it could take a proper look.


    Wooosh!


    A red light suddenly shot toward it from behind the dissipating cloud of dust and smoke. Experience tales at mvl


    The monster was stunned for a moment before recovering and immediately moving away, but the red light followed it as if it had eyes; the speed of the red light wasn''t slower than that of the monster either.


    In just a fraction of a second, the red light caught up with the monster and jumped on its body.


    The monster''s retreat immediately came to a stop as it came crashing into the ground forcefully.


    Taking a closer look, it realized that the red light was, in fact, a fire snake.


    The snake was only four meters long and wasn''t as huge as the monster; it had a large head, and its entire body was made of scorching fire.


    The fire snake wrapped itself around the body of the monster before squeezing and biting at the monster.


    Every scale that the snake made contact with would immediately begin to melt under the strong temperature of its body.


    Roar!


    The monster roared furiously upon seeing its scales beginning to melt. It tried to cut the snake''s body with its claws, but the body of the snake would simply reattach after separating for a few seconds. It was made of flames, after all, and was intangible.


    What''s more, the claws of the monster instantly began to melt after making contact with the fire snake.


    The monster began to roar in pain as it thrashed about, creating loud noises and causing the ground to tremble from its movements.


    Meanwhile, while the monster was struggling with the fire snake.


    Ivan was standing inside a faint blue barrier inside the hole that was created by the energy balls shot by the monster.


    He had been caught off guard by the sudden energy ball as the monster had never used it before, thus he didn''t have time to evade. But that did not mean that he didn''t have other ways to deal with it.


    He had turned one of his cards into this barrier and it had successfully blocked all the energy balls without receiving a single crack.


    It was even sturdier than the scales of the monster!


    Returning his gaze to the red monster that had almost all of its scales melted by the fire snake and was still thrashing around, Ivan removed the barrier and began walking over in calm steps.


    He stopped a few meters away from the monster that seemed to have gone mad from pain, a look of satisfaction appeared on his face.


    "End it" Ivan muttered.


    Reacting to Ivan''s order, the fire snake unwrapped itself from the body of the monster and moved to its head before exploding.


    The explosion of the fire snake caused the head of the monster to explode as well, its body immediately became motionless after its head exploded.


    Clang!


    One of its red horns flew over to where Ivan was and landed before his feet. Ivan looked down at the scorched horn, the notification from the system appeared in front of him at the same time.


    [Level 28 cleared, proceed to level 29?]


    [Yes/No]

 Chapter 74: Level 29

    [Level 28 cleared, proceed to level 29?][Yes/No]


    Ivan stared at the notification with a liberated gaze, a good feeling swelling within him.


    He had been stuck in the previous level for more than a month, unable to move further notice matter how much he tried; he was helpless against the monsters of that level.


    This realization had made him very displeased and caused him to take a long break from training rooms at the start of this month; he had only returned after he had crossed into the upper level of his rank.


    And the result of his short break? It was worth it!


    Not only had he managed to defeat the monster and finally pass the 28th level, but he had done so easily without breaking a sweat and still had enough energy to continue.


    The fight would have been over very quickly if he had gone all out and used the fire snake from the start.


    Now, he was just two levels away from reaching the highest level a trainee had ever reached. Level 30, and the trainee who had reached this level was none other than Alaric Vladimir.


    "Yes!" Ivan replied to the notification, a wave of excitement rushing through his body.


    After receiving Ivan''s response, the body of the red monster vanished into light particles and a new monster appeared in the virtual space.


    Ivan''s eyes twitched when he saw the monster, a word appeared in his mind.


    ''Huge''


    The monster that appeared in level 29 was a behemoth creature with spider legs and the body of a turtle, its head was a giant mass of flesh with a single eye taking the whole space on its face.


    The creature was so huge that Ivan had to bend his neck fully just to see its head.


    [Level 29, begin]


    The notification of the system rang in Ivan''s ears, and his expression immediately turned serious as he repeated several meters back from the monster.


    At the same time, the one eye of the monster rotated disgustingly inside as it came to life.


    It looked around for a couple of seconds before gazing down at Ivan.


    Its eye suddenly glowed with a bright flash and the next instant.


    Woom!!


    A huge beam of light was shot out and toward Ivan.


    "Crap!" Ivan cursed and quickly brought out a card and shattered it in front of him as the light beam arrived in front of him at the same time.


    BOOM!!!!!!


    The light beam fell on Ivan, covering him completely as it brought a wave of destruction along.


    This lasted for over 30 seconds straight as the light beam from the eye of the monster washed over Ivan.


    After 30 seconds, the light beam stopped and the huge eye of the monster blinked.


    It looked at the result of its attack.


    Its eye beam had destroyed the ground and created a canyon that was over ten meters deep, and hundreds of kilometers long; scorched earth and a huge cloud of dust covered the canyon.


    As the dust slowly settled, at the very start of the canyon was Ivan who was standing inside a radiant blue barrier, perfectly unharmed.


    He had created the barrier just in time before the light beam reached him.


    Looking at the deep canyon that he was now standing in, Ivan''s eyes could not help but widen in shock; nothing would be left of him if he got hit by that thing!


    Crack! Crack!


    While Ivan was busy being stunned by the level of destruction caused by the light beam, the sound of breaking glass suddenly entered his eyes.


    Ivan''s eyes immediately zoomed in on the source of the sound and his face showed disbelief while his mouth hung open.


    Right in front of his eyes, more cracks appeared on the blue barrier and quickly spread like webs before the entire barrier shattered.


    The attack from the monster had¡­destroyed his barrier?


    One had to know that the items Ivan created with his cards were at the extreme of their purposes. If it was a blade, it would be sharpest amongst blades of its level. The same was true for items that acted as shields; they were the sturdiest on their level.


    While Ivan was still in shock, the eyes of the monster glowed again; it wasn''t done attacking yet!


    "Oh no you don''t!" Ivan scoffed before bringing out another card and throwing it into the air.


    The card shattered into light particles before transforming into a huge fire snake that was the size of a long bus, its searing heat scorched the ground even further as it slithered toward the monster at a breakneck speed.


    It coiled around the legs of the monster and used them to climb up its large body, its intense flame scorching the shell of the monster.


    But unlike the previous red monster, this turtle-like monster was more resilient and its body only gained burnt marks from the flames of the fire snake.


    Although the fire snake didn''t manage to melt or burn the shell of the monster, it was still painful to have something so hot on one''s body regardless.


    A piercing screech resounded through the air, Ivan was stumped as to how the monster was able to make such a sound when it didn''t even have a mouth.


    It couldn''t be that it could talk through it asshole, right? Continue your adventure at mvl


    But that wasn''t something Ivan should be worried about right now, controlling the fire snake to move to the head of the monster, he made it explode right in the monster''s face.


    BOOM!


    The fire snake exploded in the face of the monster, forcing it to close its one eye. The monster''s body swayed as it staggered on its spider legs, causing the space to shake violently.


    It stabilized itself after a few seconds. Aside from its blackened face and scorched skin, it wasn''t unharmed!


    Its eyes glowed again, about to fire another light beam.


    But Ivan wouldn''t allow it, its attacks were too dangerous to let them out; he had to prevent it from attacking.


    Taking out another card, a bizarre image appeared in his mind as the card shattered into the air.


    A massive earth golem suddenly appeared in front of the monster.


    The earth golem was almost as big as the monster and in its large rock arm was a massive black axe.


    Woom!!


    The light beam shot out from the eyes of the monster and toward the earth golem; at the same time, the axe in the hand of the golem came down on the monster like a meteor.


    Boom!


    The light beam touched the chest of the earth golem and immediately pierced through it before bursting a five-meter-wide hole in the middle of the golem''s body, sending pieces of rocks flying everywhere.


    Likewise, the axe of the earth golem hacked into the head of the monster and almost chopped it off in one strike but it stopped after traveling just a few meters into the flesh of the monster.


    One more strike and the head of the monster would fall off; sadly, the light beam from the monster had destroyed the golem.


    "If one is not enough, then take two" Ivan let out a cold chuckle before bringing out another card and tossing it into the air.


    Another earth golem carrying a black axe was formed!


    The new earth golem attacked with its axe immediately after it was formed, not giving the already wounded monster time to react.


    BANG! Sear?h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The massive head of the monster fell to the ground with a loud sound, raising a cloud of dust and creating a crater.


    Its massive body swayed a bit before falling over as well.


    [Level 29 cleared, proceed to level 30?]


    [Yes/No?]


    The notification from the system appeared in front of Ivan.


    Ignoring the notification, Ivan opened his mouth and exhaled deeply.


    "I''ve used quite a lot of energy just now; creating massive attacks consumes too much energy," Ivan muttered to himself while sensing his Nexus chamber that had been halved after the fight just now.


    "But I still have enough energy to face another monster like this, so¡­Yes, proceed to level 30," Ivan said.


    After receiving Ivan''s response, the body of the monster vanished while another appeared in the virtual space.


    While Ivan moved to level 30 of the training room, outside¡­

 Chapter 75: Level 30

    Unbeknownst to Ivan, clearing the 29th level and moving to the 30th level had caused a commotion outside the training room.Although the trainees were training like crazy since it was the last week they had to spend inside the tower before they graduated from training, they still kept track of what was going on in various parts of the tower such as the arena and the training room.


    Currently, hundreds of trainees were gathered outside the training room and staring at the level list with wide eyes. Stay updated via mvl


    Currently, besides level 29 was Ivan''s name, which meant that he had successfully cleared that level, and level 30, which had Alaric''s name, was currently lit up, which meant that someone was currently challenging that level.


    Who else could it be aside from Ivan? He was about to beat the long-lasting record in the history of the training center!


    "Wow! He really is a monster"


    "He really caught up to the highest record, do you think he''ll be able to succeed?"


    "Are you asking me? Do I look like Ivan?!"


    "Goodness, just how strong must one be to catch up to them? I''ve been stuck at level 10 for months"


    "You tried, brother. I keep dying on level eight, the monsters on that level are just too brutal"


    At a corner, Rose, Mari, Susan, Joseph, and Camellia, who were the members of Ivan''s team, looked at the glowing level list with glowing eyes.


    " Do you think he''ll be able to beat that person''s record?" Susan asked, her expression was a mix of nervousness and astonishment.


    "Can''t say; none of us knows how strong the monsters on the higher levels are, so it''s not in our place to judge.e," Joseph shrugged.


    "But considering his strength during our previous training, I can tell that he''s at least twice as strong as he used to be. It''s like he advanced to a new rank, such a freak" Camellia added, a small prideful look glued to her face.


    Rose, who was staring at the list with a faint blush on her face, was startled out of her daze by Camellia, who suddenly hugged her from behind.


    " Hehe, what''s our lover girl dreaming about again? Can''t be that you''re planning to do something to him once he comes out, right?" Camellia teased.


    Rose''s face immediately turned bright red from embarrassment and she moved away from Camellia.


    " W-what are you talking about? I wasn''t thinking of anything. Hmph!" Rose said hurriedly before leaving the training room in hasty steps.


    Camellia giggled at the girl''s reaction.


    After three weeks of being on the same team with them, all the members of the group were aware that Rose was harboring feelings for Ivan.


    Sadly, Ivan was the only one who wasn''t aware of this; he didn''t even notice the girl''s change of attitude toward him.


    As for Rose, she didn''t look like she planned on revealing her feelings to Ivan anytime soon.


    According to Camellia ''The both of them were a lost cause''


    On another side of the training room behind the crowd of trainees, Sommy and Miko could be seen staring at the list as well.


    "He''s really just like Alaric back then; I''m sure they would have been best buddies had they been in the same batch. You really picked the wrong person to target this time," Sommy said to Miko with a pitiful look on her face.


    The petite girl clenched her fists upon hearing Sommy''s words, her small face twisted in frustration.


    "It''s alright; you most likely won''t see him again after our training," Sommy rubbed Miko''s hair while comforting her.


    "Hmph! I don''t need to hear that; he should be the one praying not to run into me outside the tower," Miko snorted and stormed off.


    " Sadly, you might never be able to catch up to him even outside the tower" Sommy looked at Miko''s retreating figure and shook her head.


    ...


    Back in the virtual space of the training room.


    After accepting to proceed to level 30, a new monster appeared in the virtual space.


    The appearance of this monster left Ivan stunned for a while, and even after the system notified them to start, it did not attack him as other monsters would usually do, or it would be more appropriate for him to address this new monster as a ''she.''


    This was because it looked nothing like a monster and looked like an ordinary little girl instead.


    She looked to be around ten to twelve years old, wearing a beautiful yellow sunflower dress, and had her black hair styled in a twin ponytail. The girl had big, round, blue eyes that stared at Ivan with innocence as she hugged a green zither with her little arms.


    This¡­monster, looked too¡­strange to be considered a monster. She reminded him of the little girl who kept calling him big brother when he had been swallowed by that mist creature.


    This caused Ivan to frown deeply, unsure of what to do.


    After battling in the virtual space so many times, Ivan had gotten a kind of understanding about the monsters that appeared in it and that was.


    Every monster that appeared had been encountered by a member of the tower or appeared from a mirror gate. To sum it up, every monster in the system of the training room existed.


    Still unsure of what to do next, Ivan just stayed standing in place, but he had raised his guard to the maximum.


    Something he had learned was that looks could be deceiving at times.


    Ting!


    Suddenly, a soft melody played out and was followed by another.


    The little girl started playing the zither in her hand, producing a soft and pleasing melody that made one''s mind calm down.


    Ivan immediately went on high alert and made distance, the little girl didn''t seem to mind; she started reciting a poem.


    "Lighting casts shadows, too much light drives away shadows.


    Creating and eradicating, is the source still there?


    Which is real, and which is fake?


    Dreams birthing revelation or misleading, illusions producing hallucinations or painting a picture of the truth.


    Tell me, Wisher¡­what is real and what is not. What is the truth and what is not!"


    The little girl sang in a sweet voice, causing Ivan''s mind to enter an extreme state of calmness despite his struggle.


    With a sudden hard pull on the zither, the string created a loud tone that shook the virtual space. At the same time, something that looked like a small door appeared in front of the girl before shooting toward Ivan at a shocking speed; it expanded as it got closer to Ivan.


    Ivan was unable to react before the door swallowed him, next thing he knew was that he was in a white space.


    Ivan looked around the white space that was definitely not the virtual space of the training room. He could not find the little girl anymore, and neither could he hear the sound of the zither.


    Just to be sure that he hadn''t been teleported out of the tower, Ivan tried to communicate with the system of the training room.


    [Forcefully exit the training? Will be counted as failing]


    [Yes/No?]


    Ivan exhaled in relief. Good, he was still inside the virtual space and this was most likely the effect of the little girl''s power.


    "No" Ivan responded to the message of the system before he started to look around the white space.


    "Just what sort of ability is this?" Ivan thought he had been walking for minutes, but all he could see was the white space.


    Remembering the song of the little girl, Ivan speculated that he would have to figure out an illusion or something similar.


    At this moment, Ivan finally caught sight of something that was hundreds of meters ahead of him; the thing was too far, so he wasn''t able to see it properly, so he decided to approach it.


    Upon getting close enough to take a proper look, Ivan''s face twisted in a weird expression upon realizing what it was.


    It was a little boy dressed in rags. The boy looked like he was 13 or 14 years old, he had dirty white hair and was shivering as if he was suffering a cold.


    Eyes tightly shut, hugging his body, lying on the hard ground, tattered clothes, unkempt white hair, and a skinny body.


    This was Ivan when he was still in the outskirts; this was before he met Glen and Ralph.


    The image lasted for a few seconds before changing, next was the scene of the four Nexulytes who were in charge of looking over the borders of the outskirt beating Ivan.


    They were laughing and chatting as they hit him one after the other, clearly enjoying themselves.


    This lasted for a few minutes until the child Ivan passed out and they threw him out in the rain.


    Ivan''s fists tightened while he watched this, he tried to rush up to those scums but his body simply passed through them; he could only grit his teeth and watch.


    The scenes kept changing and showed years of Ivan suffering in the hands of the four Nexulytes; he watched as the young Ivan developed a deep hatred for Nexulytes because of these four and how he had tried to escape many times.


    The scenes kept changing until Glen and Ralph appeared, it continued until their journey to San Pluto and then to the Owen Tower.


    After all of these, a new scene appeared. This scene was one that made Ivan''s mouth hang wide open and his face showed a vicious expression.


    It was a scene of Ivan belonging to a loving family; his family was killed, and he left for the outskirts, where he ran into those four Nexulytes.


    But this time, they did not bully him. They took him in and showed him unconditional love and care, giving him everything Ivan never had while growing up.


    In exchange, it was Ralph and Glen who made life miserable for him on the outskirts.


    Ralph''s mother wasn''t injured during these scenes so the four Nexulytes were unable to do anything.


    "This¡­this isn''t real!" sea??h th§× NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Ivan muttered.


    The scenes played out in such a way that it was almost as if that was what would have happened if Ralph and Glen had come from powerful families and were not poor.


    Finally, the scenes ended with Ralph''s mother bringing people from her tower to kill the four Nexulytes who took care of Ivan before chasing Ivan out into the border where monsters hunted him.


    Everywhere turned white again.


    The gentle voice of a young girl sounded through the air.


    "You have seen that illusions are mirrors of reality. What should have been might not be but could be, what shouldn''t be might be but could not be. Seek Truth in deceit, differentiate real from fake, find the source of the shadow, and ignore the light casting it¡­


    Wisher, what is your judgment on this?"


    The girl''s voice said a bunch of words that Ivan could not find meaning to at all, but one thing he was sure of¡­

 Chapter 76: A moving forbidden zone

    "I don''t care if their attitude toward me would change under different circumstances or if everything was a lie, all I care about¡­is the present.Nothing else matters"


    Ivan mumbled while looking at his palms, which had suddenly turned bloody at some point.


    " Really? Is that your judgment?" A calm voice whispered to Ivan. Ivan looked up, and his gaze met with a pair of dull blue eyes; it was a second Ivan; it was like Ivan was looking at himself in the mirror, but at the same time, it seemed like the person in front of him wasn''t him.


    " Yes, that is my decision," Ivan replied firmly.


    " Then prove it,," The second Ivan said and calmly gestured to the side. Following the direction the latter pointed, Ivan saw the four Nexulytes looking at Ivan with tenderness.


    This was clearly the version of them that had taken care of the young Ivan. While on the other side were Ralph, Glen, and their parents. They were all looking at Ivan with hateful eyes and were even cursing at him, the sight of this made Ivan''s eyes twitch slightly.


    "The choice is yours, pick a side"


    The second Ivan whispered before disappearing into a drifting wind, leaving Ivan alone with these two sets of people. S§×arch* The N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Ivan took a minute to observe both sides, their actions and expressions were so real that Ivan almost doubted his memories.


    "My choice?" Ivan snickered as a card appeared in his hand.


    " This is my choice!"


    Tossing the card into the air, Ivan immediately felt all the Nexus energy inside him being drained out. The card scattered into dazzling particles of red, blue, and gold that danced in the air like a life dragon before gathering together into a small back dot.


    " Hellfire, detonate"


    Ivan muttered softly and the next second¡­


    BOOM!!


    The small black dot enlarged into a ball of black flame before erupting into a massive explosion that engulfed the white space.


    A flash of white light forced Ivan to close his eyes as a fierce shockwave sent him flying like a pebble.


    Crack!!


    Like a glass hit with a rock, the white space development cracks due to the impact of the explosion and begins to fall apart.


    Unsure of how much time had passed, Ivan opened his eyes to see that he was back in the virtual space of the training room. His purple tracksuit was a mess, and his hair was smoking; he had at least survived the explosion.


    Looking up, Ivan saw the little girl with the zither staring at him with a deadpan face; her expression was unbefitting for a girl of her age, causing her to look like a ghost instead.


    Seeing that the girl was still around, Ivan forced himself to get up; he had expended all of his energy and was currently under great fatigue but tried not to show it.


    "You¡­didn''t fail, neither did you win. You are undecided, wisher" the little girl said while staring straight into Ivan''s eyes.


    Ivan was confused by her statement. In fact, most of the statements of this girl didn''t make sense at all, but Ivan realized one thing after leaving the white space. He was about to speak when he suddenly saw a crack appear on the green zither before quickly spreading to the girl''s body.


    Shatter!!


    She crumbled like an ice sculpture.


    Ivan stared at this with his mouth hung open. It took a few seconds for him to recover, and he shook his head.


    "It wasn''t an ordinary monster," Ivan said to himself while staring at the pieces of the little girl.


    What Ivan had realized was that the little girl wasn''t a monster, she was a mobile aspect forbidden zone!


    A forbidden zone that was able to move, take the form of creatures, and could communicate!


    Scary.


    [Level 30 cleared, proceed to level 31?]


    [Yes/No?]


    Seeing that he had apparently cleared the level, Ivan fell on his butt and began panting heavily. He was completely drained, how was he supposed to continue?


    But it wasn''t a must that he had to win, he could just take a peek at what was in level 31.


    "Yes," Ivan said softly.


    The pieces of the girl vanished, and another monster appeared; Ivan turned to look, but he didn''t see anything.


    A sudden chill washed over his body and his vision suddenly turned dark.


    [Level 31, failed. Exiting the training room]


    The notification suddenly appeared in front of Ivan, he blinked once and saw that he was back inside the pod in the training room.


    "I died so quickly?" Ivan muttered in astonishment, he didn''t even see what type of monster had appeared in level 31.


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    Looks like he would have to reach the next rank before coming here again, else with his current strength, he won''t even know how he died.


    Ivan shook his head before climbing out of the pod and heading for the door, he would worry about level 31 later.


    Upon opening the door, what welcomed Ivan was a sea of trainees crowding the training room.


    Immediately they saw Ivan come out, the place immediately exploded into an uproar.


    "He''s out! Demon Ivan is out!"


    "Really, thought he was going to clear level 31 as well"


    "Even if he didn''t clear it, he already reached the highest record; it won''t be long before he sets a new one"


    "Indeed, he''s so strong¡­"


    ¡­.


    Ivan was stumped by the massive crowd outside, and they were all talking about him; all eyes were on him.


    Although he had expected that something like this would happen, he didn''t think it would be on such a scale as this.


    His expression hardened and he walked forward with calm steps.


    It was a good thing that the trainees didn''t dare to gather around him too much, and they all made way when Ivan walked toward them, creating a path for him to walk through.


    "Troublesome," Ivan sighed after finally leaving the training room. Did they have nothing better to do with their time?


    Thinking that everything was over, Ivan was about to head to the Nexus chamber underground when a figure suddenly appeared in front of him.


    It was instructor Nathan.


    "The tower master wants to see you," instructor Nathan said.


    Ivan gazed at him motionless for a few seconds before nodding, the other party turned to lead the way to James'' office.


    They soon arrived at the office where they found James reading through a file.


    "Take a seat," he said without looking at them.


    Nathan gestured to Ivan, indicating that he was the one James was talking to. He didn''t tag around any longer and left right after.


    Now with the two of them left alone in the room, James lowered the file and turned his gaze towards Ivan.


    "You cleared level 30" He voiced out.


    "Yes," Ivan nodded.


    Giving Ivan a contemplating look for a while, James asked him to tell him what happened inside the virtual space and what sort of monster he encountered.


    Ivan immediately became suspicious when he heard this question, he thought for a while before saying.


    "I met a strange monster with a zither¡­and I killed it, barely," Ivan said seriously, hiding everything about the white space.


    "How did you kill it?" James pressed on. Ivan might not know, but the officials of the tower were aware that there was only a single monster on level 30, and to clear it, one needed to pass its test.


    James was trying to know the content of Ivan''s encounter with the little girl.


    "I simply killed it" Ivan responded, not saying a single word in addition to what he had said before.


    James'' eyes twitched, and seeing how Ivan wasn''t willing to speak up, he gave up. In the end, he didn''t want to force the young man since that might leave a bad impression.


    "I see, you can return them. Your training will be complete in a few days; try to make the best use of your time left; outside isn''t this peaceful," James said after a moment of silence before returning to read the files he was reading before Ivan came in.


    Ivan nodded and stood up to leave.


    Nathan came in after Ivan left.


    "Did he say anything?" He asked.


    "No," James muttered in response.


    "Sigh, the boy is too secretive; he doesn''t trust others easily," Nathan said while rubbing his cheek.


    He had reported the matter of Ivan''s first team training to James. As an instructor, he was well aware of how frightening wood spirits were; especially the ones that took the roles of leaders. Their regeneration abilities were unmatched in their territories.


    But Ivan had been able to kill one within half a minute''s time, this had stumped Nathan. He wasn''t able to see what happened because of the cocoon and Ivan had refused to disclose anything.


    He reported to James in hopes that the latter could get Ivan to talk, considering their teacher-and-student relationship, but James had returned empty-handed as well.


    "It''s alright, we have plenty of ways to make him speak. For now, let him be and hope he opens up willingly" James said with a cold smile.


    Nathan stared at him for a while before turning to leave.


    After Nathan left, James raised the file and the smile on his face widened.


    The files were actually paper works of Ivan''s first mission after graduating.


    Details¡­


    Dreamscape, coordinate 2G12.


    Mission: Scout and intelligence gathering.


    Mission regulator: Ala¡­


    ¡­.

 Chapter 77: The last week of the training program

    After leaving James'' office, Ivan went straight to the Nexus chamber, where he refilled his depleted energy before starting to raise his AP.The day passed quickly and it was morning before anyone could realize it.


    The trainees gathered outside the lobby and did their morning training as usual before heading for the simulation rooms; another round of training was held, with some trainees getting Nexus crystals at the end; not everyone still passed the evaluation, so it was natural that they did not get anything.


    Ivan did not stay to chat with his Camellia and the others, immediately going to the Nexus chamber after receiving his Nexus crystal.


    His AP rose another 0.50% after absorbing the Nexus contained within the Nexus crystal, Increasing his strength further.


    He stayed for a few hours before coming out and heading for his weapon and talent training with James, Ivan left for his room to wash up before going to the cafeteria. S§×arch* The NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    He ran into Camellia and the others who tried to converse with him, but Ivan didn''t say much and mostly nodded or shook his head whenever someone talked to him.


    After leaving the cafeteria, Ivan met up with Ralph and Glen.


    Ivan did not let what he had seen in the white space affect his relationship with his friends; he acted completely normal and they talked about random things.


    From their chat, Ivan learned that his friends were progressing in strength as well. Glen did not fail to bring up the topic of his female teammates and how he was planning to ask one of them out.


    Aside from that, they also talked about the training program that was coming to an end and what they were going to do next; it had to be said that a lot of trainees were already shaking from excitement as the end of the training drew closer while some who had yet to make enough progress were having sleepless nights due to nervousness and worry.


    The day passed uneventfully and a new day quickly came, the third day of the week and four days to the end of their training.


    Trainees gathered for morning training as usual, morning training was different today; the trainees didn''t have any restrictions and were even allowed to use Nexus energy and their talents.


    Morning training ended quickly, and trainees left for their rooms before going to get breakfast; they all went to their respective classes afterward.


    Ivan had to attend three compulsory classes today, which lasted till noon, before going for weapon and talent training.


    Later during the day, he met with Ralph and Glen. Glen was like a salted fish when Ivan saw him, the boy looked soulless and would have been mistaken for a ghost.


    When Ivan inquired why, Ralph told him that Glen had asked out the girl in his team that he always talked about but the girl had turned him down.


    They tried their best to cheer Glen up, but nothing they did seemed to work on the lifeless-looking Glen; Ivan had then volunteered to drag him to the arena and beat him up a bit if it would help, and Ralph immediately agreed to the suggestion.


    Glen was helplessly taken to the arena by Ivan and Ralph, where he faced a round of trashing from Ivan; the latter only let him off after the boy promised that he wasn''t sad over being rejected anymore.


    On their way from the arena, they ran into someone whom Ivan had not seen in a long time; he even almost forgot that this person existed.


    It was the red-haired Luke!


    The boy had been dodging Ivan since their last match and had been doing it so perfectly that Ivan had completely forgotten about him; he had even managed to stay out of Ivan''s sight during morning training. Explore stories on mvl


    Today, the three happened to see Luke bickering with Sommy on their way out of the arena, and the red-haired youth immediately bolted when he saw Ivan''s face.


    "What''s wrong with him?" Ivan asked when he reached Sommy.


    "Ugh, it''s nothing important. He''s just pissed that I told off one of his chicks" Sommy replied with a frustrated look on her face.


    "He still does that?" Ivan asked with a raised eyebrow.


    Not many were aware of the engagement between Sommy and Luke, so Ivan did not mention it; he was just shocked that Luke was still able to flirt with other girls in front of Sommy.


    "Seriously, I wonder why those girls still fall for trash like him," Sommy hissed.


    They exchanged words for a while before going their separate ways, after making sure that they were far enough, Glen immediately attacked Ivan with questions.


    "Hey, since when did you become so chatty?"


    "Your relationship with her is almost as good as us brothers, you don''t even gossip with us!"


    "I know she''s a ten but when did you guys get this far?


    You didn''t even bother to inform us, brothers; how long has this been?"


    "Is this one of the secrets to getting stronger quickly? Now my rejection is hurting me again"


    Glen spoke nonstop that Ivan and Ralph were on the verge of having a headache.


    Ralph immediately turned to Glen.


    "Shut up! If you''re hurting, I''ll drag you back to the arena!" He snapped at Glen.


    "Ah, no no. I was just kidding, I''m perfectly fine now. But¡­"


    " I said shut up!"


    " Ahh"


    While Ralph dealt with Glen, Ivan turned to look in the direction that Sommy had walked in.


    ''True, a scum like him doesn''t deserve her. It''s a pity'' Ivan thought while shaking his head.


    Another day passed, and it was the fourth day; nothing special happened for the trainees.


    Morning training, classes, training, and more training until the whole day passed.


    On the fifth day, the same thing happened.


    On the sixth day, the last team training was held, another distribution of Nexus crystals, and then more training.


    Finally, it was the seventh day. The day that all the trainees were anticipating or dreading its approach.


    The last day of their training.


    ¡­.


    In his room, sitting cross-legged on his bed, Ivan opened his eyes, and a streak of red light swept past his glowing blue eyes.


    ''Profile'' Ivan said in his thoughts.


    ¡­..


    NAME: Ivan Von Charles


    Talent Group: Primal         Talent type: Wisher   Talent: Wish card


    Talent lv: SS          AP: 43.75%      Rank: Partial Lord


    ¡­..


    Ivan stared at his profile, a small smile slowly crept up the corner of his lips.


    He came here six months ago as a nobody, a newly awakened Nexulyte with no strength, and had even nearly died to a one-eyed weak monster.


    But today, he was leaving as a new person; a Nexulyte that had stepped into the upper circle of strength!


    Not just him, his friends as well well leaving as new people.


    For many, being a Mortal King was already enough to be worshipped because they possessed strengths that were outside of human comprehension.


    Getting to the True King rank was where 60 percent of Nexulytes ended their journey of strength due to low talent levels. Many Nexulytes at this rank would build families and facilities to foster future generations and make names for themselves in safe cities.


    Entering the Partial Lord rank, one could be said to have completely left the realm of human limitations and stepped into a whole new world; Partial Lords were the benchmark for true strength!


    Only 40 percent of awakened Nexulytes were able to cross to this rank.


    Ivan had gone from being a homeless poor orphan to a powerhouse in six months! He could feel the excitement rushing through his body.


    Now, he could put his plans of looking for that little girl into motion and searching more about his talent.

 Chapter 78: Graduation

    Ivan got up from his bed and entered the bathroom to wash up before changing into new clothes, they did not have to attend morning training today as they were to attend a gathering.After changing, Ivan took one last look at his room. He had spent countless nights in this place, and it was starting to feel like ''home'' to him, but it wasn''t his home; it was time for him to leave.


    Going outside, Ivan saw Ralph and Glen waiting for him; other trainees were already heading for the gathering so the place was a bit crowded.


    "Ready to go?" Ralph asked while shifting his glasses.


    "Un" Ivan nodded and the three of them mixed with the large crowd of trainees and headed for the gathering.


    The gathering was held in a hall on the tenth floor, the hall was so wide that it could contain a thousand people and still leave space for each person to do a spin.


    Rows of chairs were arranged neatly inside the hall while a podium with over fifty chairs stood opposite the rows of chairs.


    Trainees began to pour in after a while and quietly took a seat; not more than thirty minutes later, all the trainees were seated quietly in the hall and were facing the podium.


    Shortly after, a new set of people walked into the hall. Some were in their twenties, while some were in their thirties and early forties.


    Men and women with serious expressions each of them wearing the ceremonial black uniform of the Owen Tower with their beautiful white belt around their lower stomachs, they walked in an orderly manner and some of them took the fifty seats on the podium; the others who seemed to be of lower status went and stood at the back.


    Amongst these people were James Owen, their instructors, and some high-level officials of the tower.


    After the group had settled, a middle-aged woman stood up and walked to the pillar in front; the trainees immediately stopped murmuring when they saw her.


    " Good day everyone. You all might not know me so I''ll start by introducing myself.


    My name is Lana, and I''m the vice tower master of this great tower.


    Six months ago, you all were picked, scouted, or recommended to come under this tower for training. During these six months, you all have undergone intense training and nurturing from this tower and have all transformed into who you are today, becoming valuable Nexulytes not only to this tower and your families but also to society.


    As your vice tower master and on behalf of the Owen Tower, congratulations on completing your training.


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    Of course, this is only for those who have met the mark of graduating. Some of you will be repeating the training, while some of you will¡­be expelled" the woman said in a calm voice that held no emotions as she said words that made some of the trainees wear expressions of despair.


    Going on, she continued to address the trainees, mostly glorifying the reputation of the tower that they had graduated from and what bright future awaits them outside the tower as well as their expected responsibilities to the tower and society as a Nexulyte.


    She didn''t fail to raise the reputation of the Owen Tower over the other four big Towers to the trainees, building a sense of superiority in them.


    After twenty minutes, the vice tower master returned to her seat and James came up.


    "Hello everyone. As your tower master, I feel pride in having watched all of you grow stronger during your time here; I felt like a parent who watched his child learn how to say their first word. So once again, congratulations.


    In addition to what my partner has said already, I want to inform you all to remember to keep everything that you have learned in mind. Our planet has almost been taken over by habitants of the dreamscape, it is your duty to reclaim our lost territories and drive those creatures back.


    The dreamscape isn''t any safer than you have been taught by your honorable instructors; dangers lurk in every corner. Some of you might never see each other after leaving here, some might die out there; only those who remember their training and knowledge that they have been taught will have the chance of living long enough to enjoy the glory of a Nexulyte.


    It will be hard outside, but remember your training, why you worked so hard for these six months, and what you want to achieve at the end¡­"


    James went on for another twenty minutes, filling the trainees with what might await them outside the tower.


    After saying all of this, it was finally time for the big moment.


    "The list that''s about to appear will contain the names of those who have passed the training program successfully and those who are going to retake it.


    As for those who will be expelled, do not feel dejected. Failing here isn''t the end. You should go out, experience life, and work on yourself. After reaching the Mortal King rank, you can come back, and the tower will always have a place for you," James said to the crowd of trainees before a large holographic board appeared in the air.


    The trainees immediately focused their eyes and began to look for their names with beating hearts.


    A while later. Sear?h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Yes, I made it!"


    "I found my name, I did it!"


    "Oh God! I''m just at 9%, I''m repeating"


    "You should be happy, I can''t find my name"


    "How many APs do you have?"


    "4%"


    "What? Get lost, what are you doing here?"


    "Sob! Brother, don''t be like that; we were friends"


    "Alright alright, I''ll look after you in the future"


    The trainees were unable to contain themselves any longer, they went into an uproar as some cheered after finding their names while some sighed that they were repeating; quite a number of people were being expelled.


    Ivan and his friends quickly found their names, as well as some other noticeable names (their teammates during the special team training)


    "We did it" Glen pumped his fist while seated, his face beaming with a bright smile that almost blinded Ralph.


    "Yeah, we did," Ivan muttered while staring at the list with a faint smile. Even though he was already certain that he would pass with the amount of AP he had, seeing his name on the list still made him feel ticklish inside.


    In the end, only 450 trainees passed, there were 10 repeaters, and over 400 hundred were to be expelled; the numbers were shocking.


    "Alright, everyone, calm down." A loud voice sounded, causing a ringing in the ears of the trainees.


    They turned to look and saw that it was instructor Logan, James had returned to his seat.


    "All those who passed should come up one at a time to receive a storage device. This will contain your identity as a Nexulyte, your uniforms, contract, and other paperwork, as well as a small present from the tower.


    Now in an orderly manner, starting from the first row"


    A trainee in the first row stood up and walked up to the podium while shaking from excitement.


    " Congratulations," instructor Logan said while passing a small cube device to the trainees. The trainee bowed before walking off in shaking steps.


    The next trainee came up, and then another¡­

 Chapter 79: Rose likes me?

    After the gathering, the trainees had all left the hall.The lobby was currently packed with excited trainees and gloomy-looking trainees; those who passed and those who failed were given two days to leave or report to the tower as official members. S~ea??h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Sitting in a corner of the lobby were Ivan, Ralph, and Glen. The three of them gazed at the trainees'' purple tracksuit moving around chaotically; this had been their everyday sight for months, leaving everything now just felt wrong.


    Ivan returned his focus to the storage device that he had been given during the gathering.


    Inside it was a complete set of three ceremonial black uniforms of the Owen Tower, three sets of black combat uniforms, and three sets of black body suits.


    Aside from the uniforms, Ivan saw the contract that James had presented to them back then in the awakening center. Documents of the Villa he had promised them, as well as a black card that contained some money; as for how much, Ivan had no idea.


    "What should we do next? Should we go check out our new home or return to the outskirts first?"


    Glen''s voice pulled Ivan''s attention from the storage device.


    "The place promised by the tower master would need some work before we can settle in; we should deal with all these first before bringing them over," Ralph said. By ''them'' he was talking about their families.


    " Oh! We have a week''s time off before we resume duties in the tower; we can finish everything before that time," Glen added.


    " What do you think?" Ralph turned to Ivan and asked seeing that the latter wasn''t saying anything. After all, Ivan didn''t have anyone in the outskirts so it would be reasonable if he didn''t want to return with them.


    Contrary to Ralph''s speculation, Ivan nodded in agreement that they should finish setting up their new homes before going to the outskirts together.


    " But before that, I have something to take care of,"  Ivan suddenly added before standing up.


    " What''s that?" Glen and Ralph asked at the same time and stood up as well.


    " The training room," Ivan said seriously.


    Ralph "..."


    Glen "..."


    The what now?!


    "We''re already done with training, what''s the deal with the training room?" Glen could not help it and snapped at Ivan. What was this freak''s problem?


    Ivan did not respond and started heading in the direction of the elevator; he had only moved a couple of steps when a group of people appeared in front of him.


    They were Camellia, Joseph, Rose, and Susan; Mari wasn''t with them.


    "Hello, Ivan," Camellia waved with a sweet smile on her face.


    Ivan looked at them and nodded in response, not saying a word; his eyes fell on Rose, who was staring at him so passionately; the girl immediately looked away with a red face when their eyes met.


    "I¡­I..want" Rose tried to speak but couldn''t stop herself from stuttering. After fumbling with her words for a few seconds, she became so embarrassed that escaped with a face so red that her head was almost letting out steam.


    Ivan stared at her back with an expression that asked "What''s wrong with her?"


    "Don''t mind her, she''s just too shy when you''re involved," Joseph said with a chuckle as he wrapped an arm around Ivan''s shoulder before saying again.


    "What she was trying to say is that you should try to visit us when we leave the tower. Since we were all on the same team during our final training, we should bond more. Rose is from the Weston family located in the northern side, Camellia is from the Stalin family and they''re in the same area with Rose''s family¡­"


    Joseph went on to inform Ivan about their backgrounds and how to find them after they left the tower, Ivan just stood there and silently listened.


    " We''ll be meeting at Rose''s place in five days'' time; try to come if you have time," Joseph said before suddenly moving his head close to Ivan''s ear and whispering, " In case you haven''t realized it yet, Rose likes you¡­a lot. Better put up a good behavior before her family." Joseph finally let go of Ivan and winked; he waved goodbye before leaving with the others.


    " Rose likes me?" Ivan muttered to himself, a bizarre expression on his face.


    How come he didn''t notice? The girl never showed any behavior that hinted at her liking him.


    Ivan "too dumb to notice a girl''s feelings" Von Charles.


    After Joseph and the others left, Glen immediately rained Ivan with questions. Unlike Ivan who was too blunt to notice Rose''s actions, Glen and Ralph were fast to realize what was going on.


    "My goodness, you''re a true player. Not just Sommy and that petite katana demon, you even got a cold beauty to fall for you. You''re my idol from now on, bro," Glen said with a peaceful face after raining Ivan with questions that the latter didn''t bother to answer.


    "Shut up," Ivan mumbled and resumed moving toward the elevator; the two followed him.


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    A few seconds later, the eyes of the two almost popped out when they found themselves in front of James'' office.


    This was the office of the tower master, how could anyone visit it so casually? Was this allowed?


    Of course, they were not aware of how often Ivan had come to this place during the past months; they wouldn''t be so shocked if they did.


    Ivan ignored their piercing gazes and knocked on the door.


    "Come in," James'' voice came from inside; Ivan pushed the door and walked in; Glen and Ralph followed him after a moment of hesitation.


    Inside, they found James standing in front of the large glass panel at the back of his office and staring into the distance.


    "Take a seat"


    James said to the trio without turning back. The three of them sat on the seats in front of the desk.


    "Six months ago, you boys were newly awakened Nexulytes. It''s amazing how much you''ve changed after six months, most Nexulytes don''t manage to reach this level in their lifetime; I hope you all remember the goodwill of the tower and hold up to the agreement" James said and turned around, staring at the trio with a faint smile while taking the seat on the other side of the desk.


    Ralph and Glen looked at each other before turning to stare at Ivan, they felt that it wasn''t in their place to speak.


    "Understood," Ivan said calmly.


    Staring at the calmed-faced Ivan, James nodded before saying.


    " Is there a problem with the items in your storage devices? What could you be here for instead of going to your families?" James said as his gaze swept over the faces of the three.


    " Today is the last day of our training and still counts as part of the training program, right?" Ivan asked.


    " Technically, you''re right," James nodded.


    " Then I can still enter the training room, right?"


    " You want to go back to the training room?!" James was stunned by Ivan''s question for a moment but quickly recovered.


    " If that is all you want, you can enter the training room," James said after a while.


    Ivan stood up and bowed in gratitude before turning to leave, Glen and Ralph followed behind him.


    "Mind if I ask, is there a reason for this?"


    They had just reached the door when they heard James'' voice from behind, causing their steps to pause.


    "No, it''s nothing serious" Ivan turned and said.


    "I see. Then you don''t mind if I come along, right?" James pressed on.


    Ivan looked at him with a dull look in his eyes for a few seconds before shaking his head.


    " Good, let''s go," James smiled and rose from his seat.

 Chapter 80: Challenging the training room again

    Ivan felt like he had grown twice as strong as he was after crossing 30% AP, then entering the Partial Lord rank had increased his strength by five times!It was like jumping out of a cramped room and into an open garden; he felt like he could reach the sky in a single leap; of course, this was just a feeling, and Ivan knew that he would not be able to do so yet.


    [Trainee ID: Ivan Von Charles, starting training. Level 1]


    [Begin]


    A monster appeared in the virtual space and immediately charged at Ivan, bearing its ugly mouth filled with long teeth at him.


    Ivan stood in place and waited for the monster to get close, he immediately sent a punch when the monster entered the range of his arm.


    Pow!


    The head of the monster smashed into a bloody pulp, its body fell and scattered into light particles.


    [Level 1 cleared. Proceed to level 2]


    [Yes/No]


    "Yes"


    [Level 2, begin]


    BANG!


    [Level 2 cleared. Proceed to level 3]


    [Yes/No]


    " Yes"


    [Level 3, begin]


    ...


    [Level 27 cleared. Proceed to level 28]


    [Yes/No]


    In a short time of five minutes, Ivan had moved from level 1 to level 27. He had killed every monster in a single blow and had yet to even use his Nexus energy, depending solely on his physical strength; this was the might of a Partial Lord!


    " Yes," Ivan answered for the training to continue.


    A new monster appeared shortly; surprisingly, it was the same red-scaled monster that Ivan had encountered on this same level the last time he was here.


    " A familiar opponent, let''s see how well you fare this time" Ivan flashed a cold smile before dashing toward the monster.


    Back then, due to the tough scales of this monster, Ivan had been unable to hurt it no matter what and had used a fire snake to melt its scales before killing it; he wanted to check if the monster''s scale would still be hard enough to resist his punch now that he had broken through to the Partial Lord rank.


    The monster opened its mouth and roared when it saw Ivan heading toward it with the speed of a bullet, it threw out a punch with its claws as well.


    BAM!


    Crack!!


    Ivan ignored the monster''s punch as his fist made contact with the body of the monster, a clear sound of something breaking rang out as the monster was sent flying away like a broken kite.


    It left a trail of red broken scales in its wake, Ivan''s punch had destroyed the scales on the side of its body.


    "Hmm, it survived?" Ivan voiced out in surprise, the monster was tougher than he thought.


    Although Ivan did not use all of his strength in that punch just now, it would have been enough to collapse a building upon contact.


    Flashing forward, Ivan arrived above the monster. The latter was sprawled on the ground; a good number of scales were missing from its rib area, from which cracks spread to the rest of its body. Its mouth opened wide as blood poured out continuously.


    Seeing this, a look of realization appeared on Ivan''s face.


    "It only survived barely," He said while rubbing his chin.


    Placing his foot on the head of the monster, Ivan applied some force, and a popping sound was heard.


    Under his foot was a mixture of blood, meat paste, broken scales, and two horns.


    [Level 28 cleared. Proceed to level 29] Discover exclusive tales on §Þ??


    [Yes/No]


    "Yes"


    The corpse of the monster vanished as another one appeared. It was a corrupted knight.


    Wearing rusty chainmail armor and carrying a severely damaged greatsword, the monster that looked like a human but had two mouths on its face stood opposite Ivan.


    Seeing this monster, Ivan knew that he would have to use his talent if he wanted to finish things quickly; he could still defeat this monster easily without using his talent but it would take time. S§×ar?h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Corrupted knights possessed a corrupted aura that was similar to the fluid of the Gene banshees; it could eat through Nexus energy and corrode anything it touched; Ivan would rather not want to deal with such troublesome things.


    [Level 29, begin]


    The corrupted knight waved his great sword in Ivan''s direction immediately after the system announced for the fight to start, sending a black sword wave toward him.


    The sword wave grew wider as it approached Ivan, it soon reached a width of five meters.


    Ivan didn''t try to dodge this sword wave, he took out a card and tossed it into the air.


    The card turned into a sword that slashed at the sword wave.


    Fwoosh!!!


    The sword wave was successfully cut in two and each half flew by Ivan''s side, though his sword didn''t survive either; it rusted and turned into scrap metal in a matter of seconds.


    After blocking the sword wave, Ivan made another sword.


    He grabbed it before flashing over to the monster.


    Swoosh!


    In a single swing Ivan''s sword cut through the chainmail like butter, splitting the corrupted knight in half.


    Plop!


    The body of the monster fell to the ground, it was dead.


    [Level 29 cleared. Proceed to level 30]


    [Yes/No]


    "Yes"


    Ivan watched as the body of the corrupted knight disappeared while a new monster appeared.


    He was expecting a random monster this time but was stunned when he saw that it was the same little girl with the green zither.


    [Level 30, begin]


    Immediately after the announcement, the girl pulled on the strings of her zither and began to recite her poem; Ivan soon found himself in the familiar white space.


    "This again?" Ivan said with a frown.


    Unlike last time, he knew what would happen next but he had no plans of waiting for it.


    He brought out a card and tossed it into the air while visualizing the image of a small black flame.


    "Hellfire, detonate!"


    Ivan called out, and just like the last time, the small tiny flame in the air started to grow bigger before suddenly turning into a huge explosion, engulfing the white space and destroying it.


    Ivan returned to the virtual space and watched the little girl shatter like broken glass, she didn''t say anything to him this time.


    [Level 30 cleared. Proceed to level 31]


    [Yes/No]


    Ivan looked at the notification and checked his Nexus chamber first; he still had more than half left. The majority of the Nexus he had used up was consumed by the hellfire destination.


    "Yes"


    Ivan replied a serious expression forming on his face as he set his gaze on the new appearing figure while the broken pieces of the little girl disappeared.


    When the monster that he was going to face on level 31 appeared, a name immediately came to Ivan''s mind.


    Warrior of the Reverse godhood clan!


    Indeed, standing opposite Ivan was a female knight in full body armor.


    A pair of cold blue eyes stared at him through the visor of the helmet; only her upper face was covered, just like the one Sommy and her team had encountered.


    A pair of gauntlets held onto a slim sword that pointed at the ground.


    The only difference between this one and the one that Sommy''s team met was the color of their armor.


    This one was in silver armor, while the one Sommy had encountered was in bronze armor, and since this one was what he was supposed to face for level 31, Ivan concluded that it was of a higher rank than the one in bronze armor.


    While Ivan was still in thought, the notification from the system for them to start was announced.


    The female knight took a step forward and bent her knee, her mouth opened as a crisp voice rang out.


    "One sword separates the heavens"

 Chapter 81: Facing a silver armored knight

    "One sword separates the heavens"The female knight called out the name of a sword technique before stabbing her slim sword into the air. S~ea??h the ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Ivan suddenly felt the sky turn dark, an oppressive pressure pressed down on him from the sky and caused his knees to bend a little.


    Looking up, Ivan saw the image of a massive sword splitting the clouds as it fell down toward him; the lard sword brought along with it a cry of countless swords.


    This scene was enough to have a strong impact on one''s mind.


    Ivan''s eyes narrowed and his body immediately exploded with Nexus energy, instantly shaking off the pressure that was pressing down on him.


    Taking out a card, the card exploded into a dazzling light before spreading out around Ivan and began to connect like lines of a net; they soon formed a barrier of three colors around Ivan.


    Shortly after the barrier formed, the large sword fell down on it.


    A thunderous sound akin to a thunderclap echoed throughout the virtual space; the ground trembled and split open under the impact of the clash.


    A huge crater that was over fifty meters wide appeared after the large sword disappeared; Ivan was standing in the middle of the crater, unharmed.


    His barrier was still there as well, the sword didn''t manage to destroy it.


    The blue eyes behind the helmet gleamed with surprise upon seeing that the barrier was still there.


    She bent over and¡­


    BOOM!!


    She shot toward Ivan, forming a silver comet that left a long line of destruction behind her.


    She appeared in front of Ivan''s barrier within a split second, one of her arms arced backward as her gullets clenched into a fist.


    She threw the punch at the barrier.


    BAM!


    The punch landed on the barrier, and a loud sound followed; the ground between the female knight and the barrier split open from the strong shockwave as the female knight was pushed several meters back from the impact.


    On Ivan''s side, small cracks began to appear from the point where the punch had landed before spreading all over.


    Crack!


    The barrier collapsed.


    Ivan''s face didn''t change even after this, he continued to stare at the female knight with narrowed eyes.


    The latter, seeing that the barrier protecting Ivan had collapsed, gripped her sword and dashed toward him again.


    Ivan also created a sword and met the female knights head-on; they locked each other in a sword fight.


    The ground was split open whenever they clashed and space shook from their speed as they moved around as if they were teleporting.


    This kept on for a few minutes without any of them finding a gap in the other party''s attacks. They could only try to create an opening, but it was proving difficult.


    The female knight suddenly pulled back after clashing swords with Ivan and using Ivan''s sword as a springboard to jump back.


    While still in mid-air, the female knight made a strange movement with a sword.


    "Thousand swords formation!"


    She called out. Hundreds of sword shadows immediately filled the sky in front of her before raining down on Ivan like bullets.


    Ivan immediately flashed away and dodged the falling sword shadows.


    Each sword''s shadow created a small pit in the ground whenever it struck down. While this might not hurt Ivan, he was sure that it would be painful; a thousand such attacks landing on one person would not be pleasant.


    While Ivan was focused on dodging, the figure of the female knight suddenly appeared in front of him.


    "Never forget about your opponent in a fight" she snorted coldly before she attacked Ivan with her sword.


    Ivan, who had been focused on dodging the sword shadows all this time, suddenly revealed a smirk and a card suddenly appeared in his hand.


    "And don''t fall for a bait so easily" he scoffed back before suddenly grabbing onto the sword of the female knight and slamming the card on her chest.


    Spurt!


    The card transformed into a long black spear that stabbed through her chest and came out from her back.


    All of the sword shadows that had been chasing Ivan immediately disappeared, and the sky was clear again.


    Letting go of the Knight''s sword, Ivan watched as her body staggered with the spear still stabbing through her body; fresh blood dripping down the body of the spear.


    Thud!


    She fell on one knee and stabbed her sword into the ground to support herself, her other hand trembled as she tried to reach for the spear.


    "...I tr¡­"


    She tried to speak but suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood before her hands fell down and her head hung low.


    She died in that kneeling position.


    [Level 31 cleared. Proceed to level 32]


    [Yes/No]


    Ivan stared at the kneeling corpse of the female knight with an expressionless face, but his eyes revealed a look of acknowledgment; even in death, she still looked honorable.


    " Yes," he said after a while.


    Two seconds later a new monster appeared in the virtual space.


    [Level 32, begin]


    Roar!


    " Hellfire, detonate!"


    BOOM!


    Roaaar~


    " Lightning wrath!"


    Kaboom!!


    ...


    Outside in the training room, Ralph and Glen stared at the glowing level list with shocked faces.


    Ivan''s name was currently under level 33 and level 34 was glowing, meaning that he was currently attempting to clear level 34.


    He had beaten Alaric Vladimir''s record and set a new one!


    "Wow, so cool! That''s my bro!" Glen placed both hands on his waist and laughed proudly, his nose pointing tilted upward.


    James looked at the boy with a glint in his eyes.


    This brat was the least talented of the group but he liked to show off the most. Had it not been because of Ivan and Ralph, James would not have bothered recruiting someone like him personally even if he had an A-level talent.


    ''Sigh, he can still be of use, so I''ll tolerate him,'' James said to himself before turning his gaze to look at the list; his expression immediately turned to one of satisfaction.


    A while later and a door opened, Ivan walked out of it. In the end, he failed to clear level 34; he had to face a group of strange monsters that were able to reflect attacks!


    Ivan had managed to kill just five of them at a great cost before eventually running out of Nexus energy. Enjoy more content from §Þ??


    "Satisfied now?" James asked while staring at Ivan.


    "Hmm, I want to use the Nexus chamber one last time," Ivan said after nodding to his question. He wanted to refill his empty Nexus chamber before leaving the tower.


    "Of course, you can even use the Nexus chamber for first place," James said with a smile and gestured for Ivan to go on.


    "Can we use it too?" Glen immediately asked, seeing how James had easily allowed Ivan to use the Nexus chamber.


    James turned and stared back at him with a forced smile, the veins on his neck were threatening to explode.


    He would have outright rejected Glen and even scolded him sternly, but he couldn''t do so in front of Ivan as he didn''t want to leave a bad impression on him.


    "Of course, you can," James squeezed out through the gaps of his teeth.


    "Great!" Glen clapped his palms and caught up to Ivan, ignoring James'' weird expression.


    Only Ralph seemed to notice the look on James'' face; his eyes narrowed as he looked at James with judgmental eyes.


    The three of them headed for the Nexus chamber together.

 Chapter 82: Furious Glen

    With a sudden flash of light, the doors of the teleportation vault opened and three young men dressed in simple outfits walked out.These three were Ralph, Ivan, and Glen who had finally left the southern sector of San Pluto where the Owen Tower was located and returned to the northern sector. This was where they had arrived after leaving the outskirts back then.


    Looking around, they saw that it had very few people as it did back then, and everyone here was dressed in high-quality outfits; they probably had businesses to attend to in the southern sector of San Pluto.


    "Move! You''re blocking our path to the teleportation vault" A loud voice filled with arrogance suddenly came from ahead of the trio, bringing back their attention to what was in front of them.


    Turning to the source of the voice that dared to speak so arrogantly to them, the trio saw a group of five young people being led by an elderly man with a slightly hunched back.


    The group had three young women and two young men, each of them wearing an arrogant look on their faces.


    The one who had talked to them was the elderly man in front of the group of young men and women.


    "Are you talking to us?" Glen asked with a raised eyebrow.


    The old man and the people behind him stopped in front of the trio, they all gazed at Ivan''s group from their heads to their toes. After getting their storage devices, the trio had stored their stuff inside them; causing them to walk out barehanded.


    Coupled with how plainly they were dressed, it would not be a surprise if they were mistaken for jobless people who went to play in the teleportation vault.


    "Humph! Kids these days have no respect for elders nor the will to work. Instead of doing something more productive with your time, you three are out here playing with an important teleportation vault. Do you have any idea where this teleportation vault leads to?" The elderly man scoffed at the trio.


    The young men and women behind him looked at them with disdainful eyes as well.


    Ralph and Ivan were stumped by the sudden turn of events. They had just returned from a long period of training and had taken a moment to process the feeling of coming back, yet they had ended up getting insulted instead.


    Glen, on the other hand, was on the verge of exploding from rage.


    " What did you just say, old man? I dare you to say it again" he voiced out angrily and stepped toward the old man.


    " Kid, what are you trying to do, do you know who I am?" The old man looked up and met Glen''s fierce gaze with a look of contempt, angering Glen even more.


    "Who the hell are you? Do you believe I don''t dare to beat you all up?" Glen spat out in fury.


    "Humph, truly an ignorant person. He is the butler of the Thamuz family and a True King Nexulyte, do you think you can beat him?" One of the young women scoffed from behind the old man and the rest laughed at Glen.


    Glen was about to go mad.


    "What the hell? Just a True King and he dares to be so arrogant? My snake can easily squeeze him to death, Ralph''s ''zombie'' can kill him, and Ivan can punch him to death before he can blink!" Glen yelled at them furiously.


    ''Zombie'' is what he calls Ralph''s undead General.


    The faces of the youngsters behind the old man turned into one of amusement, they were on the verge of bursting into laughter.


    "What''s this clown saying? Snake? Zombie? Where did you hear any of those, such a comedian? How could any of you be stronger than a True King Nexulyte?" One of the young men said while laughing.


    Glen had finally had enough. Your journey continues with M V L


    "You''re the clown, your entire family are clowns!" He yelled and was about to summon his snake when a pair of arms suddenly came from behind him, covered his mouth, and hugged his body before dragging him to the side.


    It was Ralph.


    "Sorry about my friend''s behavior, you can pass," Ralph said while staring at the old man.


    The old man waved his hand dismissively and proceeded to walk into the teleportation vault; the youngsters followed behind while throwing provocative and disdainful looks at Glen, who was being held tightly by Ralph and couldn''t struggle free.


    "I would have taught this little one a lesson for delaying my time. I''m taking these young masters and misses to the Owen Tower, where they will undergo training beyond your understanding; he should have been punished for wasting my time. But considering the two of you are mannered enough, I''ll let it slide" the old man said, his tone as arrogant as ever.


    The doors of the teleportation vault closed, and a bright flash of light beamed inside; they were gone. Only then did Ralph let go of Glen.


    "Puah! What was that for? You should have let me deal with them!" Glen shouted; his chest was burning, and he was extremely angry.


    Ralph just looked at him and pushed his glasses before saying.


    "You shouldn''t go around looking for trouble because you are now strong, just let it be"


    Glen stared at Ralph, his expression blank as if someone had stolen his brain. It took him a while before he recovered; an aggrieved expression formed on his face, and he was on the verge of crying.


    Brother, when we came here six months ago. Someone had looked down on us, you stopped me from fighting back because he was stronger. Now, six months later, after we''ve gotten stronger, someone looked down on us again, but you still stopped me from getting revenge.


    Are you really my brother? Why do you always side with others, why?


    Glen felt depressed and victimized by Ralph''s attitude during these two occasions.


    Ralph completely ignored Glen''s lamentation, and so did Ivan; the two of them didn''t even put the group that just passed in their eyes; only Glen was free enough to banter words with them.


    "Let''s go look for a taxi," Ralph said, Ivan nodded, and the two began walking away from the teleportation vault without waiting for Glen. The latter was forced to Chase after them after realizing that they were really not planning to wait for him.


    While they walked, Ivan and Ralph were discussing where they should go first; the western sector where their Villas were located or whether they should visit the old driver who lived in the northern sector that they were currently in.


    They hadn''t seen the other party for six months, so it wouldn''t be a bad idea to pay him and his family a visit, considering how he had helped them back then; they also wondered what had happened with Elisa.


    Elisa is the daughter of the old driver who had awakened her singing talent back then. S~ea??h the nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Since we''re currently in the same sector, we should go visit them first before going to check out our villas," Glen voiced out; he had caught up to the two a while ago and heard what they were saying.


    Glen had just finished his words when they suddenly heard the sound of a motorbike. Looking ahead, they saw a black motorbike speeding in their direction. They were able to tell even from this distance that the rider was a woman, a sexy woman at that. But they were unable to tell if she was a beauty since she was wearing a helmet


    Ivan, on the other hand, stood motionless as he stared at the approaching motorbike; it was the same motorbike that he had seen back then!


    They watched as the motorbike got closer before stopping in front of them after doing a beautiful drift; the driver placed both legs on the ground before pulling off her helmet; her beautiful long green hair danced around with a shake of her head.


    They were finally able to see the face of the rider and all their eyes widened in shock while their mouths opened wide enough to fit an egg.


    "Miss Elora?!"


    They all said in unison.

 Chapter 83: Miss Elora is acting strange

    Turned out that the rider was instructor Elora.Elora turned to stare at the shocked trio, a small frown settled on her face.


    "What?" She asked while placing her helmet on the tank of her motorbike and getting off.


    "Nothing, sorry; we were just surprised to see you," Glen explained while scratching his neck awkwardly.


    "I thought you were on a mission?" Ivan asked from the side.


    Elora moved her eyes over to him before nodding and saying that she was on a one-week leave since it was the New Year celebration in a bit.


    "I was thinking I would meet you all in the tower; I didn''t expect you to leave so quickly; I almost missed you guys," Miss Elora said to them. S~ea??h the N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    " You¡­were looking for us?" Ralph asked in confusion. Why was their cold-faced instructor looking for them after they''d already graduated?


    " No," Miss Elora responded with a straight face.


    Ralph''s face twitched while Ivan and Glen stared at her with raised eyebrows.


    You just said you hoped to meet us at the tower, but you''re changing your words so fast and with such a straight face; what do you really want?


    "Umm, ok" Ralph added after a brief pause.


    "Anyway, congratulations on passing the training. Where are you all going now?" Miss Elora inquired.


    The trio exchanged glances before telling her their plans to go see someone before going to check out their villas.


    "You all have personal villas in the western sector?" Elora asked, her tone showed how surprised she was.


    The trio were first surprised by her reaction but quickly realized why, their surprise turned to disbelief.


    Back then when James had offered them the villas, the reactions of the people present had hinted that getting a place in that sector was probably not easy; their speculations were further confirmed when Elora said that she wasn''t even allowed to live there.


    "Who decides this?" Ivan asked.


    Elora replied and told them that it was decided by her grandfather, who was the founder of the Owen Tower, as well as the founders of the Dominion Tower, one of the five biggest Towers that was as old as the Owen Tower.


    "I see," Ralph mumbled to himself.


    Elora was about to say something but paused; she caught Ivan staring at her motorbike so intently that she could not help but ask him why he was staring so much.


    Ivan turned to her and simply replied that he wanted one. Elora was silent for a while before telling him that he could not afford it at present, maybe after he completed a few missions.


    " Okay," Ivan nodded in response while still looking at the motorbike.


    " Since you all are leaving now, would you want a ride?" Elora asked. The trio turned to look at her before turning to look at her motorbike.


    Stay connected via M V L


    This thing clearly has enough space for two people at most, how was she going to carry three of them in addition to herself?


    Noticing their gaze and the reason behind them, Elora calmly turned to her motorbike and pressed a button on it.


    Right in front of the trio''s shocked eyes, the motorbike started to expand as new components appeared from within it and moved into place while creating sounds of metals hitting each other.


    The front and back tires lengthened before splitting into new pairs of tires as the body of the motorbike changed into something else entirely, it was as if an invisible force was pulling and reassembling the motorbike on the spot.


    The three watched with wide eyes, the process took a minute to complete.


    After a minute, what was in front of them was no longer the beautiful black motorbike that Elora arrived with.


    It was now a sleek, low-slung sports car; its body was a glossy metallic black that gleamed under the sunlight, with sharp aerodynamic lines running along its length.


    The outside of the car gave off a mysterious and menacing allure.


    Inside the car was a blend of luxury and advanced technology, a large digital display dominated the dashboard through which every movement of the car could be controlled; the interior of the car was nothing like what the trio had seen before.


    All they could tell was that it must be very expensive, no wonder Miss Elora said that Ivan would not be able to afford it yet.


    The car had enough space for four people; Elora casually opened the door and entered the driver''s seat before turning to look at the three young men, who still had dumbfounded looks on their faces.


    "Come on in" she called out to them. The trio woke up from their dumbfounded states and quickly went over, Ralph and Ivan sat at the back; Glen had quickly entered the front seat beside Miss Elora.


    With nothing else said, the car''s engine roared to life before shooting forward.


    ...


    During their ride in Elora''s car, the trio could not help but stare at the sight outside through the window of the car.


    It was as if it was their first time in San Pluto, the scenery was marvelous.


    They soon arrived at their destination, the home of the old driver, Mr Alonso.


    Getting out of the car, the four of them walked toward the house of the old driver.


    Ralph knocked on the door, and a voice asking them to hold on came from inside; a while later, and sounds of quick footsteps could be heard from inside the house; with a clicking sound, the door was opened.


    The one who opened the door was Mr Alonso''s wife, Mrs Florence.


    "Hello, how may I help you?" She asked upon seeing the four young people in front of her house, she clearly did not recognize Ivan and the others; they had changed so much within just six months.


    " Hello, Auntie, it''s us." Glen stepped forward and greeted cheerfully with a wide smile.


    Mrs Florence stared at him with a confused look on her face, she was still unable to recognize Glen''s face immediately. But when she remembered a certain youngster who had the same cheerful attitude, she began to see the resemblance between that youngster and this young man.


    Looking at the others, their images in her mind began to match with their current looks; only the girl in their group remained a mystery to her.


    "Glen?" Mrs Florence called out in disbelief.


    "Yes, it''s me," Glen responded with bright eyes.


    "Then, these two are¡­" Mrs Florence turned to look at the white-haired young man who now looked a lot like Ivan and the one wearing glasses who resembled Ralph.


    "Hello, aunty(ma''am)," Ivan and Ralph greeted in unison.


    " Oh my goodness, it''s really you. You have all changed, I didn''t recognize you just now" Mrs Florence covered her mouth, overwhelmed by surprise.


    She quickly ushered them into the house and asked them if they would like to eat anything; the rest wanted to refuse politely so as not to stress her, but Glen¡­Glen didn''t want to skip a meal.


    Mrs Florence happily prepared a quick meal for them, they chatted while they ate. She asked how their training had been and if it had been difficult for them, she acted like a considerate aunt.


    After the three assured her that they didn''t have a hard time, they asked how things had been with them in San Pluto.


    Mrs Florence was happy to indulge them. Mr Alonso was still working, driving his taxi as usual, but was planning to stop soon because Elisa said she would give him some money to start up something.


    After awakening her talent back then, Elisa had spent two months rejecting offers from various entertainment companies and had only agreed in the end because of her little brother''s wish to see his sister on stage.


    Still, she had only accepted to join the entertainment industry on the basis that she would perform all her shows alone and behind curtains; they could use a projector to air her person to the audience.


    Elisa had made quite a sum of money since then and had been saving up to give to her father.


    As for the little boy, he was still at school which left Mrs Florence to be the only one at home.


    "Wow, Elisa actually agreed to join a company? I thought she hated people?" Glen said with a stuffed mouth.


    Mrs Florence only laughed in response to this and said that Elisa would most likely stab him to death with her eyes if she heard what he said.


    "Ah, I almost forgot. Elisa''s company will be hosting a big event for the new year and Elisa will be performing. You all must come and cheer for her, though that will be after the performance" Mrs Florence informed the group.


    "When is it?" Ralph asked.


    Mrs Florence informed them that it was going to be held later in the evening and also told them the location, so the trio agreed to be there.


    "I have a question though, when are you all planning to introduce me to this pretty lady?" Mrs Florence asked while throwing a side glance at Elora.


    The body of the trio froze for a second when they heard how Mrs Florence addressed Miss Elora, Glen was just about to explain and apologize to Miss Elora when the latter spoke up.


    "Hi Auntie, I''m Elora. A friend of theirs" Elora said, putting on a rare smile on her face.


    Glen and Ralph''s eyes almost popped out of their sockets when they heard her; even Ivan was shocked and speechless.


    Since when were they friends with an instructor?


    You''ve been acting strange since you came back, are you really our instructor?

 Chapter 84: Labor channel

    They chatted with Mrs Florence for a while more before leaving and heading for the western sector where their villas were located.Along the ride to the western sector, no one said anything about how Elora had acted in front of Mrs Florence; they all came to a silent agreement to pretend like it never happened.


    Thanks to the speed of Elora''s car, it took them three hours to leave the southern sector and arrive at the western sector of San Pluto; they did not use a teleportation vault.


    Arriving at the western sector of San Pluto, the trio was stunned to see that the entire sector was fenced and had a massive gate at its entrance; they could only imagine how long the fence was and the amount of time it took to build it.


    Another thing that shocked them was that the person watching over the gate was a Nexulyte at the Partial Lord rank!


    Using a Partial Lord Nexulyte as a guard, how exaggerated; no wonder not just anyone could get a place on this part of San Pluto.


    Driving through the gate, it was like they had entered a whole brand-new world. Beautiful villas and lush gardens filled the place, expensive-looking vehicles and even air carriers could be found there; it was a great contrast to the southern sector of San Pluto.


    After driving for minutes at high speed, Elora asked them to bring out their housing papers and check their address.


    They did and were delighted to see that their villas were right next to each other, they would be neighbors.


    After getting the address, it took Elora another five minutes to drive at full speed to get there; she packed in front of the first Villa.


    Nexulytes in combat vests and carrying laser guns could be seen patrolling the place, all of them wearing the bearing of experts.


    Entering the gate of the first Villa that was Ivan''s place, they found themselves in an enormous compound that was at least five hundred meters wide. A driveway that was twenty meters wide cut through a large lush garden with pretty flowers and well-trimmed bushes stretched for three hundred meters before stopping at a fountain that was in front of the villa.


    Entering the Villa, they found themselves in an enormous hall with a huge chandelier hanging from the roof. A flight of stairs with a red carpet led up.


    They spent a long time touring the villa, and they all agreed that the place was really huge.


    It had five master bedrooms, five guest rooms, three bathrooms, a study, a kitchen that was several meters wide, a dining that was too large, in Ivan''s opinion, and even a training room with reinforced steel walls that could hold the blow from a Nexulyte at the Domain Lord rank!


    The Villa also contained many other rooms that Ivan didn''t even know what they were for and needed Elora to tell him. As someone who never lived in a proper house in his whole life, it wasn''t surprising that he lacked knowledge of such things.


    After touring Ivan''s villa, they moved to Ralph''s Villa and then to Glen''s.


    All three villas were the same, be it in design or space.


    After touring the villas, the four of them returned to where Elora''s car was; they admired the villas from there; this was going to be their new home from now on.


    It was especially more heart-touching in Ivan''s case; he finally had a place to call home, only that it was still empty.


    "I like this place a lot. I never dared to imagine that I''ll be able to live in such a place in my whole life" Glen said from the side while producing a sniffing sound as if he was going to cry.


    "But it still needs a lot of work to set it up; the place is too empty and too large for a few people to live in," Ralph voiced out with a thoughtful look. He threw a sneak glance at Ivan after saying this; Ivan''s place would look even more deserted, considering that he didn''t have any family.


    " That''s easy; you can hire workers to do the work for you," Elora butted in. All three of them immediately turned their gazes over to her, their eyes asking how.


    "Your communicator," She said and brought out what looked like a phone.


    "None of us own a communicator," Glen declared right away.


    Elora stared at the three of them strangely before recalling that they were all from the outskirts.


    Shaking her head, she asked them to get into the car before driving off.


    They returned to the southern sector and Elora drove to a shopping center where they were to get a communicator.


    The three of them nearly screamed when they heard that a communicator cost five hundred bucks; that was a sum that they could never have imagined back then.


    Elora glared at them before forcing them to take the black cards from their storage devices.


    Glen felt his heart bleed as he paid for the communicator with his card, the joy of owning a communicator was snuffed out by the pain of losing five hundred bucks; it was too much!


    After Elora forced them to get a communicator, she helped them to start with them before setting up the basics and installing a few necessary things; of course, she didn''t forget to add them to her own communicator.


    "Now go to your profiles" Elora instructed.


    The three of them obeyed and searched for the ''profile'' she was talking about, they quickly found it on their respective communicators and clicked on it.


    A page opened where they were asked to input their names, which they did; another page opened right after.


    This page held details such as their names, profession, current location of residence, as well as their total net worth.


    The three of them were stunned to see that each of them had 499,500 bucks as their balance, it would have been 500k had they not gotten their communicators from it.


    "So much money!" Glen said in a daze, his eyes sparkling as he stared at the communicator.


    He has never seen so much money in his entire life.


    " That''s the gift from the tower; you will be able to earn even more in the future because you''ll have to spend more; being a Nexulyte isn''t cheap," Elora commented before telling them what to do next.


    Which was to go to the Labor channel. It was a network where information on different workers could be found, ranging from normal humans to Nexulytes. One could find people fit for all kinds of jobs, jobs went from finding a normal person for a cleaning job to finding a rogue Nexulyte for a bodyguard job.


    One could also hire workers for part-time jobs or permanent jobs on the labor channel as well; information about the workers was displayed under their pictures so as to prevent employers from being scammed; it was the same for employers as well, so no one used it for kidnapping or other bad things.


    The prices for employment were also listed below, ranging from 50 bucks for part-time to 1000 bucks yearly for permanent; this was the price for normal people who did simple jobs and the prices were negotiable.


    For rogue Nexulytes, part-time started at 200 bucks to 1,000,000 bucks for permanent; the price was negotiable as well and depended on the strength of the Nexulyte.


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    "Waw!" Glen exclaimed as he scrolled through the list of workers; there were thousands of people on the list.


    "You can set a category for what you''re looking for; only workers belonging to that category will then show up," Elora announced to the three.


    They immediately started to browse for the type of workers that they needed.


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 Chapter 85: Charming trio

    In the end, Ralph got five workers who would do cleaning and set the duration to permanent; he would have to pay each of them 1500 bucks every year. He got two workers who would handle the kitchen; they would be working permanently as well, and the price was 1000 bucks.He planned to hire more if needed in the future. Glen copied him and got the same number of workers, but he didn''t set a permanent working duration for the workers in the kitchen; his mom might kill him if she found out that he spent so much on people who would cook.


    As for Ivan, he only got seven cleaners to clean the Villa and has set their work duration at part-time.


    The other three looked at him, confused by his choice but didn''t say anything about it in the end.


    Next was buying what they wanted to place inside their place; places such as the study and training rooms were empty, and they could also change the interior decorations if they wished.


    By the time they finished dealing with everything they had to buy, it was already getting close to the evening. Entering Elora''s car, they drove back to the western sector to wait for what they had requested.


    On their way back to the western sector, Ivan looked up the price for vehicles; he specifically searched for motorbikes, and his eyes narrowed when he saw what he was looking for.


    The price for the cheapest motorbike was already at 2 million bucks! It was not even as nice as Elora''s motorbike, which could change into a car, yet it was so expensive; now he knew why Elora said he would not be able to afford it in his current state.


    Getting to the western sector and informing the Partial Lord, who was at the gate, about the arrival of what they had ordered, they drove in and stopped in front of Ivan''s villa.


    Shortly after, huge vans began to appear from the distance and drive toward them, stopping in front of Ivan''s villa since it was the location they had set for delivery.


    "Good evening, honorable Nexulytes," a middle-aged man came down from the first van and greeted the four of them while bowing respectfully. He didn''t mind that they were far younger than he was. Nexulytes were the most respected beings on the planet, and he wouldn''t dare to disrespect them.


    They sorted a few paperwork with the delivery vans, a total of 15 vans carrying items that the three of them had ordered were lined up outside the villa.


    The workers also arrived at the same time and paid their greetings to the four just like the middle-aged man had done earlier.


    Elora dealt with giving them instructions on what to do with the items and how to place them, the workers were to assist them in doing it.


    "Alright, ma''am," the middle-aged man nodded to Elora before turning to the long line of vans and waving his hands.


    Tall men with bulging muscles began to climb down from each van and moved to the back of the vans, they started to offload the items carefully.


    After dealing with the matters with the vans and workers, Elora turned to the three young men behind her.


    "Your friend''s show will be held in a bit, are you all planning to show up to her performance dressed like that?" She inquired while looking at them up and down.


    "What about them?" Glen asked while pointing at the items being brought out from the vans.


    "You can leave them to do their jobs; everything will be set by tomorrow morning," Elora stated.


    Left without a choice, the trio got into her car again, and she drove them back to the shopping center, where they got new clothes to wear for the event later.


    Elora waited outside for them to change, she read a magazine on her communicator in the meantime.


    " We''re done!" Glen''s voice rang out and Elora raised her head to take a look.


    Her eyes flashed with a glint that was hard to notice if one didn''t pay attention, she had to force her expression from not changing.


    The three of them looked¡­stunning.


    Ralph was in a black tuxedo and a bowtie around his neck; the white he wore inside had neat ironed lines that looked like a piece of art, and he wasn''t wearing his glasses, which further added to his charm.


    Glen wasn''t bad either, wearing a midnight blue tuxedo with the first two buttons of his inner white shirt left undone, he wore a wide grin that made him look like he was glowing. S~ea??h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    As for Ivan, Elora had to force herself from losing her composure as a faint blush crept up her face; the young man was too charming in his silver white tuxedo that perfectly complimented his white hair.


    Similar to Glen, he didn''t wear a bowtie and left the first two buttons of his undershirt hanging free, allowing others to see a part of his chest.


    "This should do, right?" Glen asked when he saw that Miss Elora was just staring at them with a blank face, he wondered if they would have to change again; he didn''t want to.


    Luckily, his worry was uncalled for because Miss Elora said it was alright after a while.


    "Let''s go," she muttered while standing up from the waiting seat.


    "You aren''t going to change too?" Ralph asked, Miss Elora was still in her leather jacket and jeans; this wasn''t an outfit that was fit for a part.


    " Why should I? I''m not going; I have somewhere else to be," Elora replied without turning back and kept walking.


    " Not going?"


    The trio were surprised and wondered what she had to do, they honestly thought that she would be going with them.


    "Stop standing around and hurry up; I''ll leave after dropping you three off," Elora called out from ahead.


    "Ah, coming, coming!" Glen answered and walked over swiftly, Ivan and Ralph followed closely behind.


    On their way to the car, the trio noticed how a lot of people were staring at them; especially women.


    They stared at the three with almost sparkling eyes as if looking at a delicacy, the three had to increase their walking pace.


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    They reached the car and quickly jumped in as if they were being chased. With a gentle roar of the engine, the car shot into the distance.


    ...


    They reached the venue for the show in a few minutes and just as she had said, Elora drove off immediately after they came down from the car; she didn''t even say if she would see them later or not.


    Staring at the car that soon disappeared, an enlightened expression appeared on Glen''s face.


    "I didn''t notice back then, but Miss Elora isn''t as cold as I had imagined. Maybe it was because of fear of how she trashed Luke or was it how fierce she looked in her uniform? She''s surprisingly easy to talk to, easier than a certain someone" Glen remarked while stealing a glance at Ivan.


    The latter turned and glared at him with sharp eyes, Glen immediately looked away while chuckling; Ralph looked at the two of them and laughed as well.


    "Let''s go look for some to wait for the show to end," Ralph said to the two.

 Chapter 86: At the event

    (A/N: I''m not a songwriter, so take what''s below and love it even if it''s bad, I command you!!)...


    "Kiss me before you go, tell me you''ll be back~


    Don''t let the dreamscape separate us, hug every second more~


    I''ll be wherever you go, please don''t leave me behind ~ Experience exclusive tales on M V L


    Tell me what you want to do, I''ll go with you all the way~


    If the world wants you gone for the greater good ~


    I will let the world burn~"


    A gentle voice drifted across the entire hall, filling people''s hearts with touching emotions; a few young girls were even crying as they listened to the song.


    "My goodness, Elisa is so good at singing. Her voice is so beautiful, I think I''m in love" Glen muttered softly from where he was seated.


    The three of them were currently sitting together around a table, hundreds of similar sitting arrangements were placed all over the hall; there were over a thousand people who had come to watch the performance this evening.


    "I admit she''s good, but her talent is what''s making people so emotional," Ralph said to Glen, who was looking at the huge projection of Elisa on stage.


    Just like Mrs Florence had told them, Elisa refused to perform live on stage and sang from behind the big red curtain while a projection of hers would be displayed to the audience.


    From the protection, they could see the girl wearing a red evening dress with gleaming stones on it. She wore two red hand gloves that covered up to her elbow and her blonde hair was styled in a traditional Chinese style and had a golden hairpin holding it.


    She looked so beautiful even from afar, it was no surprise that she was able to gain many fans despite her eccentric character of always performing behind the curtains.


    Everyone quietly listened to Elisa''s beautiful voice as she sang a heart-touching song of two lovers who were to be separated because one had to be sacrificed to the dreamscape. This song moved many young ladies to tears.


    The performance lasted for three hours straight as Elisa sang one heart-touching song after another; she was only able to last so long without taking a break thanks to her being a Nexulyte herself.


    Finally, around 10 pm, the performance ended and Elisa''s projection disappeared.


    The entire hall was filled with thunderous applause as the people gave their appreciation to the singer.


    Soon later, refreshments were being served. People with servant uniforms carried trays of drinks and moved around the place.


    Of course, they were not real servants; this was a part-time job.


    Glen found himself holding a glass of wine as the three of them moved upstairs, where there were fewer people.


    "Wow, this thing is amazing!" Glen smacked his lips with a flushed face. He had never had wine before, the taste of it blew his mind away.


    Reaching upstairs, they started to move around aimlessly.


    A lot of ladies approached the three in an attempt to have a conversation but left due to the trio''s unresponsive attitude, still, it didn''t stop the ladies from following them around.


    After roaming aimlessly for a while, they happened to bump into Mr Alonso, his wife, and son.


    "Look, there they are!" Mrs Florence announced to her husband when she saw them approaching.


    " My wife said you lads came to visit; I was so surprised and thought she was joking," Mr Alonso, the old driver, said with a laugh.


    " Good lads, you all remembered me after finishing your training; this old man is really happy" Mr Alonso chuckled while patting Glen''s shoulder. sea??h th§× N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    They talked for a bit before Glen asked about Elisa, she was done with her performance and should be with her family.


    "She should be at the back of the stage; let''s go meet her; I''m sure she''ll be happy to see you guys," Mrs Florence declared, and they all moved to the back of the stage.


    The back of the stage was packed with people who were in charge of organizing the events and other performers, as well as people in charge of refreshments; racks of clothes were being pushed all around.


    Making their way through the busy hallway, they asked some people about where the singer Elisa was staying.


    They were pointed in a direction and immediately moved over.


    After a while, they came to a less crowded hallway; people moving through were not up to ten.


    They soon found the room that was Elisa''s place for the duration of the event, performers like Elisa usually had their own private changing room where they could rest.


    But strangely, they found two huge men standing in front of the door and blocking anyone from approaching.


    This caused a frown on everyone''s face, the Elisa that they all knew disliked the company of strangers; no way would she get bodyguards to accompany her.


    "Maybe they were provided by her company?" Mrs Florence voiced out.


    " But it''s strange, I don''t think Elisa would agree to it. Don''t forget that she''s a Nexulyte, even if she''s a weak one; it will be difficult for anything to pose a threat to her inside the city" Ralph said with a serious look on his face.


    They gave up on guessing and approached the door, they would ask Elisa when they saw her.


    But just as expected, the two huge men stopped them from approaching when they got within a meter of the door.


    " What are you doing?" Me Alonso asked.


    " No one is allowed to come in for now, go back," One of the two men declared dismissively; he clearly didn''t think much of this group.


    "What do you mean? The person inside is my daughter; she''ll surely not have any problem seeing us," Mr Alonso responded strongly, unwilling to leave.


    "Leave, don''t make me use force" The man scoffed while giving the old driver a menacing glare.


    Mr Alonso flinched and took a step back, the man''s eyes just now frightened him.


    From the back, Ivan was analyzing the two men with narrowed eyes. They seemed to be Nexulytes, but he couldn''t tell their ranks; he guessed that they should at least be at the True King rank since they were doing guarding duty.


    "Sorry about my husband but could you at least let her know that her parents are here to see her?" Mrs Florence stepped forward and said to them with an apologetic smile on her face.


    The two men stared down at her before looking away, ignoring her.


    "Excuse me," Ralph''s voice sounded from behind the couple as he walked in front of them and faced the two men; they were only a few inches taller than him, so Ralph didn''t need to lift his gaze to look them in the eyes.


    "They are the parents of the person that you''re guarding, how can you be so rude to the parents of your employer?" Ralph stated coldly.


    The expressions on the faces of the two men changed slightly as they gazed at Ralph, a fierce glint flashed past their eyes.


    "Are you looking for a beating, boy? I said scram!" One of them barked at Ralph.


    While Ralph exchanged words with the two, Ivan focused his hearing and tried to listen to what was going on behind the door; he immediately caught someone''s voice, it was a man''s voice!

 Chapter 87: Angry Ivan

    "Why are you playing so hard? You''re just an ordinary singer, my father''s company owns you!Do you think you can continue acting as you wish? How long do you think he''ll tolerate your eccentric behavior? You''ll sooner or later lose value to him after your followers stop listening to you, and you''ll be tossed aside; what next?


    Do you think another company will accept a singer who refuses to perform on stage? No fan service at all?


    I''m clearly giving you a chance but you''re acting stubborn, just be my woman and I''ll promise you that you''ll never have to worry about anything ever again; I can even help you grow stronger, I can get you Nexus crystals" Sear?h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The man''s voice said with so much maliciousness that Ivan''s eyes twitched, this person definitely had bad intentions.


    He waited for a bit but no response was given to the man''s words as the room turned silent for a bit.


    Crash!


    The sound of something breaking suddenly entered Ivan''s ears and the man''s angry voice rang out.


    "You''re always acting like this, ignoring me. I''m so sincere in wanting you, but you keep ignoring me. Do you think I''m that easy? Who do you even think you are? You have no idea how many women would willingly crawl into my bed if I gave them a chance; even top celebrities will fight for the chance.


    But here I am, giving a new singer like you that chance but you dare to ignore me? Do you think I don''t dare do anything to you? Do you believe you can''t lose everything within a day if I want to?" The man''s voice said irritably but the room still fell into silence after Elisa didn''t respond.


    ''Another bastard'' Ivan thought to himself before walking forward to Ralph''s side.


    All eyes immediately turned to him as he stood side by side with Ralph.


    "Another brat? You want to end up in the hospital with your friend?" One of the two guards said as Nexus energy began to rise from his body.


    The sudden appearance of Nexus energy immediately scared Mrs. Alonso, his wife, and his son while the faces of Ralph and Glen turned serious; they were both at the Mortal rank and would cause a lot of destruction if a fight were to break out.


    Just as Ivan had guessed, the guard was a True King but his Nexus energy was weaker than when Ivan was in that rank; he must be below 30% AP.


    "Scram, don''t make me use force," Ivan said softly, but his voice was so chilly that the guard felt cold for a moment.


    " Kid, you''re looking for death!" He spat out and suddenly threw a punch.


    "Ivan!" Mrs Florence and her husband called out anxiously upon seeing the guard attacking Ivan.


    They were ordinary people and obviously could not tell what rank the guard was or how strong Ivan was, only Ralph and Glen remained calm in the situation.


    PAM!


    The sound of flesh slapping each other was suddenly heard as Ivan caught the man''s fist with his palm; the punch didn''t even manage to push his hand an inch backward.


    The eyes of the two guards widened upon seeing how Ivan easily caught the punch, they immediately realized that this kid was a Nexulyte as well.


    "What¡­" The man was about to say something when a sharp pain suddenly assaulted his fist as all of his fingers were crushed by the sudden grip of Ivan''s palm.


    But before the man could even scream from the pain, Ivan''s other hand moved like a shadow and slammed into the side of the man''s head, sending his body flying to the side.


    No one saw Ivan''s movements and before they knew it, the huge guard was lying on the ground a few meters away, unconscious.


    Everyone except Ralph and Glen was shocked by the sudden turn of events; they all stared at him with wide-open mouths.


    "Get out of my way, or you''ll experience the same thing." Ivan turned to the other guard and said to him while pointing at the unconscious guard.


    The guard was shaken by Ivan''s sudden voice, and he took several steps back while looking at Ivan vigilantly; he immediately realized that this young man wasn''t a weak Nexulyte.


    "Damn you!" The guard gathered courage and snapped at Ivan before materializing a nine-ringed saber from Nexus energy; he gripped the saber and charged at Ivan.


    The sudden appearance of a weapon sent the old driver and his family into another wave of shock while Ralph and Glen prepared to act in case Ivan destroyed the place accidentally; they were not worried about the guard hurting Ivan; that was impossible.


    The guard arrived in front of Ivan and swung his saber at Ivan''s body, a nasty expression on his face; he was clearly ready to kill.


    "Don''t blame me then," Ivan mumbled and calmly stepped backward and allowed the blade of the saber to cut the air in front of him; he stretched out one of his hands and grabbed the handle of the saber before sending a palm strike to the chest of the guard with his other hand.


    The sound of bones breaking rang out as the guard was sent flying back, he smashed into a wall on the other side of the hallway and started vomiting blood before passing out as well.


    The sound of him crashing into the wall was quite loud, and a few people came to see what was going on; they all showed dismayed expressions when they saw the two unconscious guards.


    Ignoring everything, Ivan walked toward the door and kicked it open.


    BANG!


    The door was sent flying by the kick, revealing the inside.


    "What the hell? Didn''t I tell you I didn''t want to be disturbed? How dare you barge in?" The man inside the room yelled angrily but stopped when he saw the bunch of unfamiliar faces, these were not the guards that he had left outside.


    " Who the fuck are you all?" The man asked in an irritated voice.


    No one answered him as they stared at the mess in the room. Broken flower vases, mirrors, and pieces of painting were scattered all over the floor. The man was standing in front of Elisa, who was sitting on a single-person couch in her red gown; her hands were clenched together, and on her pretty face was an awful expression.


    Mrs. Florence''s eyes immediately turned red when she saw this; Mr. Alonso was enraged as well; they quickly moved to Elisa''s side while leaving their son to Glen.


    "I asked who are you lots, and don''t come close to her when I haven''t allowed you!" The man bellowed at the couple and began calling for his guards.


    Mr. Alonso and his wife didn''t listen and still rushed to Elisa''s side; Mrs. Florence touched her daughter''s face and began to ask if she was alright. Mr Alonso just stood beside his wife and looked at his daughter with red eyes.


    Being ignored by the two, the man was pissed off. He raised his hand and wanted to hit Mrs Florence who was closer to him.


    "I said don''t come close to her!" He yelled while bringing down his hand toward Mrs Florence but another hand suddenly caught him in midair in a firm grip.


    Looking over, he saw it was a dashing young man with white hair; the gaze of this young man was so chilling that it made the man who was about to hit Mrs Florence gulp nervously.


    "What-what are you doing? Do you have any idea who I am?" The man managed to speak after a while and tried to break from Ivan''s grasp but it was impossible as the grip on his wrist was as strong as concrete.


    Ivan ignored him and turned to look at the couple who were trying to console their daughter.


    "Is she hurt?" Ivan asked calmly.


    Mr Alonso answered that she wasn''t hurt anyway, ivan nodded before turning back to the man.


    Krack!


    He applied a little force and immediately broke the man''s wrist before letting go, the man fell to the ground and started screaming like a pig that was being slaughtered.


    "Let''s leave," Ralph came up and announced.


    They had caused a ruckus, and a lot of people had gathered by now; this man must have some background to be able to have two True King Nexulytes as guards; it might become troublesome if his backers were to come and meet them.


    Ignoring the screaming man, all of them quickly left the room.


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    They had just returned to the hallway when the sound of multiple footsteps was heard, and a lot of people suddenly appeared in front and blocked their path; almost all of them were in similar uniforms as the two guards that Ivan had knocked out.


    In front of the new group was an old man with white hair and a white beard; he wore a white suit with a white trench coat hanging around his shoulders; this old man stood straight like an arrow; his eyes were as sharp as the eyes of predators.


    The old man''s eyes moved from Ivan''s face to Elisa, goen6, Ralph, the two unconscious guards, and then Elisa''s parents before looking in the direction of the room. Since the door was broken, he was instantly able to see the state of the room and the screaming man on the floor.


    His eyes immediately narrowed upon seeing the twisted wrist of the man, his body exploded with Nexus energy.


    BOOM!!


    Like a small explosion, the Nexus energy from the old man cracked the ground below the old man as the trench coat on his shoulders swayed violently behind him.


    "How dare you!" He bellowed.

 Chapter 88: Uno reverse

    "How dare you!" The old man bellowed and exploded with Nexus energy.Ivan''s face immediately changed, this old man was a Domain Lord!


    This was the strength of the majority of the instructors back at the tower.


    Even at that, Ivan wasn''t scared as he prepared to fight.


    The man who was screaming on the ground immediately stopped when he heard the voice of the old man, he got up and ran out of the room.


    "Father, this person is causing trouble. He came here and started harassing us! He''s a strong Nexulyte and even knocked out my guards" The man cried out to the old man the instant he saw the latter.


    The face of the old man contorted in rage hearing his son''s claims, he stared at Ivan with murderous intent.


    "As a highly ranked Nexulyte capable of defeating two True Kings simultaneously, you should be ashamed of yourself for using your powers on an ordinary person!" The old man said through gritted teeth.


    A huge amount of Nexus energy rose from his body and splashed on the ground before forming into a huge black scorpion that was as tall as a human and six meters long.


    The scorpion landed on the ground with a bang.


    "Ivan, be careful!"


    Ralph suddenly called out from behind as he and Glen came to stand beside Ivan with serious faces.


    "We''ll help you deal with this old man," Glen stated.


    The three of them faced the old man and his Scorpion, ready to fight at any moment.


    Contrary to their readiness, the old man had a doubtful look on his face as if he had heard something wrong; he looked at the three young men before suddenly asking.


    "Did you just say¡­Ivan?"


    His sudden question left the three speechless, they glanced at each other before turning to the old man.


    " Yes, I said Ivan; what does it have to do with you?" Ralph replied.


    The doubtful look on the old man''s face grew and he asked again.


    " Are you perhaps the new recruit of the Owen Tower from six months ago?"


    This question once again stumped the three of them, they could feel that the man''s tone wasn''t as energetic as before and there was even a slight hint of panic.


    Thinking of something, Ivan brought out his storage device instead of answering and took out his ID before showing it to the old man.


    The eyes of the old man immediately shrank upon seeing this, he turned to his son before bellowing. S~ea??h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    " How dare you!"


    The shout was backed up with a slap that sent the man flying back into the room while screaming. Everyone in the hallway was shocked by the sudden twist, they all looked at the old man as if he had gone crazy.


    After sending his son flying, the old man turned to Ivan and his friends and suddenly bowed his head slightly.


    "I apologize for my son''s misconduct, I''ve neglected teaching him the right way. Please pardon him this once, I''ll make sure I find out what he did and compensate you if necessary" the old man mouthed words of apologize to Ivan''s group and without waiting for the three to digest what was going on, he turned around and ordered the people behind him to make room for them to pass.


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    Still confused, Ivan led his friends and Elisa''s family through; they left the place easily which wasn''t what they had expected when the old man had arrived.


    After finally sending Ivan and his group off, the old man sighed in relief before rushing into the room that he had sent his son flying to.


    "Son, son! Are you alright?" The old man called out worriedly  as he rushed to the man on the floor, the side of his face was bruised and a few of his teeth were missing.


    "Why" the man muttered with so much difficulty as he looked at the old man with a wronged expression in his eyes, his face was currently unable to form an expression.


    He had been delighted that his father had shown up, as a Nexulyte himself and a strong in at that, he believed that his father would be able to avenge him. But not only did his father not do as expected, he had sent him flying with a slap after asking a few meaningless questions.


    ''Sniff, I feel so wronged. Are you really my father? Are you being biased because he''s a Nexulyte and I''m not?'' the man lamented in his mind as hot tears streamed down his eyes.


    The old man shook his head when he saw his son crying silently, he felt a tightening feeling in his heart but there was nothing he could do.


    "You messed with the wrong person this time son, you should be careful who you cross paths with; not every Nexulyte will be scared off by me easily.


    That young man is a talented recruit of the Owen Tower, he was scouted by James Owen himself six months ago; I don''t need to tell you who James Owen is, do I?


    What is more frightening about him is that the heads of all the big towers fought over him. Do you know what it means for those old monsters to make a move personally? I do not even have enough worth to make them move.


    Do you have any idea what would happen to our family if we offended him or as much as to hurt him? The entire Owen Tower might come for us or James might come knocking on our door the very day he learns of it, our heads might not be enough for compensation; he will definitely sweep our entire family clean!" The old man patiently explained to his son before sighing again.


    Imagining the consequences that might have befallen him had he attacked irrationally caused his body to tremble, he was extremely lucky to have waited a bit.


    Looking at his son who was still shedding tears silently, the old man picked him up from the ground.


    " It''s alright, he shouldn''t hold a grudge after seeing what I did to you. Just make sure to stay as far away from him or anyone related to him in the future" said the old man as he walked out of the room.


    ¡­.


    After reaching outside, everyone turned to look at Ivan.


    "What?" Ivan asked with a frown.


    "What was that about?" Glen shot back with another question.


    Ivan shrugged, he honestly didn''t know.


    "It''s alright, we were able to avoid trouble thanks to whatever just happened" Ralph mentioned and everyone nodded.


    " Thank you so much Ivan, thank you all for helping our daughter" Mrs Florence suddenly began to thank them, tears gathering in her eyes.


    " It''s nothing Auntie, Elisa is like a sister to us too" Glen quickly stopped Mrs Florence with a honest smile on his face.


    " Who''s your sister?!" Elisa snorted coldly from the side.


    Glen looked at her with a confused face.


    ''What did I do wrong?!''


    "Come, let''s return home first. I''ll prepare a nice meal for everyone!" Mrs Florence announced.


    " Sorry Aunt but that will be next time, we have something else to deal with. We''ll come tomorrow" Ralph mentioned.


    " Oh" a look of disappointment appeared on Mrs Florence''s face but she didn''t force them, they waved goodbye before going their separate ways.

 Chapter 89: Return to the outskirt

    After Separating with Mr Alonso and his family, the three of them found themselves stranded in the middle of nowhere without a means of returning to their villas.Glen shamelessly proposed contacting Miss Elora but was stopped by Ralph, they should not bother their former instructor just because she was being unexpectedly nice to them.


    In the end, they had taken a taxi to the nearest teleportation vault that would take them to the western sector. After reaching the western, they took another taxi to their place.


    The taxi cars that worked in the western sector were far more luxurious than the ones in the southern sector, their charges were just as equally expensive.


    They arrived in front of their villas and separated, each of them going to check out their new homes after the setup.


    Click!


    The front door opened and Ivan stepped in. Unlike Ralph and Glen who had hired permanent workers, the workers Ivan had gotten had left after completing their jobs.


    The place has been cleaned up nicely, and a refreshing scent drifted in the air; the workers really knew how to do their jobs.


    Using a few hours to go take a look in every room, Ivan returned to the training room.


    The training room inside the villa was as big as the one back at the tower.


    Inside the training room was a small platform that could be used for sparring, a sleeping pod was placed on another side.


    Ivan approached the sleeping pod and entered, he immediately found himself in a dark space after entering the sleeping pod.


    A list of options appeared in front of him.


    Fist training


    Weapon training.


    Combat mode.


    These three options appeared in front of Ivan and Ivan immediately tapped on the second one, weapon training.


    The list disappeared and another list appeared in front of Ivan. This list was a large board with the image of various weapons on it, weapons that Ivan didn''t even know existed.


    Ivan randomly tapped on one of the images and a scythe with a long metal handle appeared in his hand, after which another interface appeared in front of him.


    Scythe weapon training: select level.


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    Novice


    Master


    Expert


    Ivan tapped on the first one since he had never since he had never used a scythe before, it wasn''t amongst the list of weapons he trained with back in the tower.


    The interface vanished after Ivan made his choice, and an illusionary silhouette appeared in the dark space; it was holding an illusionary scythe as well.


    Without saying anything, the silhouette began to wave the scythe it was holding in divergent patterns that managed to link with each other in ways that Ivan could not understand.


    He immediately understood what was going on, the silhouette was showing him how to use this weapon!


    Ivan immediately began to follow the movements of the silhouette and began to wave his scythe as well while copying its footwork, time flew by as they continued training.


    ...


    The gentle rays of sunlight pierced through the windows and bathed the inside of the villa, morning had arrived.


    Ivan had spent the entire night inside the training room yesterday and he only came out after receiving a notification from the pod system that it was morning.


    Surprisingly, Ivan didn''t feel fatigued or sleepy; it was as if he had slept during the night; he felt very refreshed.


    Walking out of the training room, Ivan went to one of the bathrooms in the Villa to clean up and change into a new set of clothes.


    Since the entire place was empty and no one side Ivan lived there, the place was very quiet, and not a single sound could be heard.


    Ivan went to the kitchen and got something from the fridge to fill his stomach with before going out, he met Ralph and Glen at the front of his gate; the two were also dressed up and ready to go out.


    The three of them arrived at the teleportation vault a few minutes later before taking a taxi that took them straight to a station where they would get a light train back to the outskirt.


    The light train took three minutes to cross the thousands of kilometers distance that separated San Pluto and the outskirt they were from and stopped at the familiar old train station.


    Stepping out of the light train, the three could not help but stare in a daze at the familiar sight of the outskirt. The old buildings and destroyed roads were still the same as when they left, nothing changed.


    They had left as three young adults who had never seen the world six months ago but were returning as changed men. They were now Nexulytes, people who stood at the top of the world, and ordinary people could only look up to them.


    "Sniff, I feel like crying. We''re really back" Glen choked out while rubbing his eyes. Ralph only stared with a passive look in his eyes while Ivan had an expressionless face as the images of a few people formed in his mind.


    "You guys go ahead, I''ll catch up later," Ivan said to the two.


    Ralph immediately turned to look at him, his eyes narrowing.


    "Where are you going?" He questioned.


    Ivan only replied that he had something to take care of before running off, not giving the two a chance to ask any more questions.


    Ralph and Glen watched Ivan disappear into the distance, they exchanged glances before turning away; they had things to take care of as well.


    Their families!


    The eyes of the two brightened as they left the train station.


    The two immediately attracted a lot of gazes when they started to see other people; many stared at them in shock, while some looked with pity while shaking their heads.


    This confused the two of them, why the pity?


    But they soon came to realize why after reaching Glen''s house, the sight that they met with was¡­devastating.


    The whole place was a mess as if a bomb had been dropped on it, almost every single building within a two hundred meters radius was completely destructive; Glen''s house as well was also destroyed.


    "Big brother!" The voice of a little girl suddenly came from the side of the collapsed buildings as a small figure dashed out and ran toward Glen.


    Glen immediately recognized her, it was his little sister. He went down on one knee with his arms spread open to catch her.


    "Big brother, you came back!" The little girl cried out in Glen''s embrace.


    Looking at the miserable state of his little sister was worse than when he left; Glen felt a sharp pain in his heart. He hugged her tightly and softly told her not to cry.


    While comforting his little sister, Glen''s eyes fell on another figure from where his little sister had come from; his face immediately collapsed, and his eyes reddened; the always cheerful Glen looked like someone who had lost everything at this point.


    "M-mom?" Glen called out in disbelief.


    The person he was seeing looked so much like his mother but she looked so different at the same time. She had huge eye bags, tattered clothes, messy hair, and was very skinny; Glen almost thought she was a ghost.


    Carrying his little sister, Glen moved over to his mother and hugged her as well.


    "What happened?" Glen''s voice was almost inaudible and he almost choked with tears.


    Ralph stood at the side quietly, but an overwhelmed expression could be seen on his face; the state of Glen''s family was too unexpected.


    Glen''s mother slowly opened her mouth to speak.


    "You father¡­" Experience more on M V L


    Glen''s and Ralph''s eyes widened in shock as they listened to her.

 Chapter 90: Do you bleed?

    Meanwhile, after leaving Ralph and Glen at the train station, he went to another side of the outskirt.After searching for a few minutes, he finally found what he was looking for.


    The four scums who had made life miserable for him in the past!


    Inside an old structure, four middle-aged men could be seen sitting around a table and enjoying a meal that was definitely not made in the outskirts; they must have brought it back with them from San Pluto.


    What Ivan found odd was that one of the men had a bandage around his head, but this wasn''t a problem he had to worry about.


    Leisurely walking over, the four men immediately spotted him.


    "Who are you?!" One of them shouted at Ivan and immediately reached for his laser gun; the others also became alert seeing a white-haired young man walking toward them.


    Ivan didn''t respond; his face was as hard as a rock, and his eyes were colder than winter as he continued to walk over in casual steps with both hands in his pants pockets.


    "Hold on, he looks kind of familiar," The man with a bandage around his head said to the others as he stared at Ivan with squinted eyes, his eyes lit up after five seconds of carefully looking at Ivan''s face.


    "Ah! It''s that Ivan kid, he came back" The man announced. A malicious smile immediately formed on his face as he jumped up happily, ignoring his head injury.


    The others also took a closer look before their eyes brightened in the realization that their friend was right; it really was Ivan. S~ea??h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Haha, to think he''ll come back after managing to run away. Looks like he missed us" One of the men laughed and tossed his laser gun to the side as he started to rub his palms together.


    "Hehehe, of course, he would miss us. I knew that this kid was a masochist a long time ago; he came back since he missed getting hit by us," another man said while licking his lips, and the others laughed.


    "I was so furious after getting punished because of this brat back then, who would have imagined that the tower master was there that day? He was so lucky. I thought I would never get a chance to get my revenge; to this, he would come to me himself.


    Come, come, you''ll explain how you got the guts to escape in my absence and even dared to let the tower master punish me because of you." The leader amongst the four men laughed with a cold glint in his eyes.


    Back then, at the awakening center, they had encountered Ivan, Ralph, and Glen, but the tower master had been there and had even punished him for bullying a potential Nexulyte of the tower. Continue reading at M V L


    The man had been enraged after returning, he had undergone physical punishment and his pay had been halved. He thought he would never be able to resolve this knot in his heart since the tower master seemed to think highly of Ivan and he would never see the brat again.


    As Nexulyte, he has obviously gone to the tower for training as well. His talent was just so bad, and he had barely passed; he had been assigned here since then to watch over a stupid outskirt instead of living a good life in the city.


    ''Looks like his talent is bad as well and he has been thrown away just like me! Good, I''ll show you the consequence of trying to escape me''


    The leader thought to himself as he stared at Ivan with sharp eyes, his gaze would have cut Ivan into a thousand pieces if possible.


    Ivan ignored their taunts and kept walking over; he stopped after reaching a five-meter mark away from them.


    "What are you doing? Who told you to stop? Get over here right now!" One of the men yelled impatiently.


    "What walk? Crawl on all four you lowlife, better obey because no one will be able to save you this time"


    Another laughed.


    Ivan scanned their faces with his eyes. Their current location was still relatively close to people, and they would hear if a commotion broke out; he couldn''t start yet.


    Bending down slowly, the four men grinned widely thinking he was really going to crawl. But even suddenly grabbed a handful of dirt and threw it at their faces and bolted in a direction away from the living area.


    "You bastard, how dare you run after throwing dirt at me? Come back here and take a beating!"


    One of the men was unlucky, and a small part of dirt had entered his mouth; he immediately chased after Ivan.


    " He''s a Nexulyte now, so he can take more beating; catch him!" The leader shouted and gave chase as well.


    "Kekeke, he''s running in the wrong way; I would go to where a lot of people are if I were him" one of them laughed as they pursued Ivan.


    "It doesn''t matter; no one can save him even if he runs into a market," The leader sneered.


    They chased Ivan for a good five minutes before the latter finally stopped, and the four men stopped as well.


    Their current location could only be described in two words.


    Ancient ruins.


    It was like a long abandoned city with very old buildings, cracked ground, and large skeletons of monsters. It looked like a piece of land that escaped an apocalypse; it was a small settlement outside the border and no one actually came here.


    "He stopped? Did he think he intentionally led us out of the outskirt to deal with us? How naive"


    "He''s only been away for six months and since he came back, he must be a Mortal King at most. We are all Mortal Kings as well, and our leader is a True king. Does he think he can face us alone?"


    " You made a bad choice, Ivan; you even came outside the border. If anything happens to you here, we can easily blame it on a stray monster; you''re trapped here with us" The leader choked out with a cold laugh.


    Ivan slowly turned around and faced them, his face extremely cold and his eyes were narrowed and sharp like that of an intelligent monster.


    "You got it wrong¡­you''re the ones trapped here with me"


    Ivan mumbled softly but his voice reached the ears of the four men and sent a cold shiver through their bodies.


    Their faces paled, and they took a step back subconsciously; Ivan''s expression just now frightened them for a moment.


    "What bullshit are you spitting out? What nonsense are you saying? Do you think you can fight all of us?" The leader snapped through gritted teeth, embarrassed of being scared by a young boy who had just become a Nexulyte not long ago.


    But before he could say anything else, Ivan suddenly stepped forward and disappeared from their sight only to reappear in front of the leader.


    "Tell me¡­do you bleed?"

 Chapter 91: Payback

    "Tell me¡­do you bleed?"Ivan''s cold voice sounded in the ears of the leader, and the latter''s eyes shrank to the size of a needle; he didn''t know when and how Ivan appeared in front of him so quickly.


    Alerted, he immediately wanted to let out his Nexus energy when a sharp pain shot up his left knee.


    Ivan had kicked his knee so strongly that the bone split and pierced out from his flesh, causing a bloody sight of shattered bones, ripped flesh, and dripping blood.


    The pain was so strong that the leader wanted to let out a heart-wrenching scream, but before he could open his mouth, the back of Ivan''s hand met his face; a swift and heavy slap that sent broken teeth, blood and saliva flying out of the man''s mouth landed on his cheek.


    The force of the slap was so strong that it lifted the man off his two feet and sent him flying to the side like a broken kite.


    BOOM!


    The man crashed into the remains of the old structures and came out through the other side, smashing into the ground heavily like a ragged doll.


    The man lay motionless on the ground as if he was dead; they could only tell that he was still alive because of the mouth full of blood that he was constantly coughing out.


    The leader stared at the sky, his expression was unreadable because of the blood covering his face. Many of his bones were broken, and some of his ribs stabbed into his lungs, making breathing unbearably painful and difficult; his entire body was screaming in pain, and he couldn''t move a finger.


    ''How'' he choked inwardly, unable to understand what had happened.


    Back at where Ivan and the other three men were standing, Ivan slowly lowered the arm that he had used to slap the leader before turning to the next person with a cold glint in his eyes.


    The three men were still standing there, their eyes wide open in shock. It took them time to wrap their minds around what had just happened, and it was as if their brains were not working for a moment; everything that had happened had taken only two seconds; they had not been able to see Ivan''s movements clearly!


    The first thing they saw was him vanishing from their sight and then appearing in front of their leader. Before they knew what was going on, the left knee of their leader suddenly exploded into a bloody mess before he was sent flying and was now constantly coughing out blood while lying on the ground like a dead person.


    Just what in the world had happened?!


    They all stared at Ivan, who was now facing them; a look of terror appeared on their faces.


    "M-monster!" One of the men stuttered as he took several steps back, his knees trembling as a yellow patch appeared on his pants.


    This kid had put their leader in such a state within two seconds, how could they possibly face such a demon?


    "Just like you said, this is outside the border. If anything happens, it can be blamed on monsters." Ivan''s voice sounded in the ears of the three, and they immediately felt cold hands wrapping their hearts; they felt a huge lump in their throats.


    It turns out that Ivan has really tricked them; they were the ones who had misunderstood¡­no, they had underestimated him; they did not trap a weak kid, they were trapped with a monster!


    A thought immediately formed in the minds of all three men.


    Run!


    Instantly abandoning any sense of shame and reasoning, the three middle-aged men turned tails and bolted into the distance, trying to get as far away from this white haired  monster.


    Ivan only watched this as a cold smile crept up his lips unknowingly, he looked just like a villain who enjoyed torture.


    These three were only at the Mortal King rank; how could they possibly escape Ivan, who was at the Partial Lord rank?


    Swoosh!


    Ivan vanished from where he was standing, creating a gust of wind as he chased after them.


    The first man had crossed five hundred meters by this time and was just a few kilometers away from reaching the open space that separated the outskirt and the border, a look of horror could be seen on his face as he ran with everything he had while praying like his life depended on it; his life did depend on it though.


    "No one can answer your prayers, no one can save you from me"


    A calm voice that sent shivers down the man''s body sounded from the side; he slowly turned his head to look with desperate eyes, hoping everything would be his mind playing tricks, but what he saw made him almost go mad on the spot, and he immediately tripped.


    Running beside him was Ivan with an expression that resembled that of a demon, it was a smile that only psychopathic killers would have.


    Ivan also stopped running when the man tripped over and walked over to him.


    " No, no! Please stop! Don''t come here! I''m sorry, I didn''t want to do it, I didn''t want to hurt you. I won''t do it again, please!"


    The man begged while crying profusely like a child, tears, and snort covering his face.


    Ivan ignored all of this and calmly approached him, standing in front of the man, Ivan opened his mouth and mumbled.


    "It''s too late to apologize"


    Immediately after saying those words, Ivan slapped the man''s chest.


    Sounds of bones popping rang out as Ivan destroyed the man''s rib cage in a single slap.


    The man cried out in agony as a fountain of blood gushed out from his mouth. Ivan did not intend to kill him quickly so he left him there and went after the other two.


    It only took Ivan a couple of seconds to catch up to the other two men, he directly shattered one''s pelvis with a kick rendered the man unable to move anymore, and blew off the legs of the other one before dragging him with his open wounds running the ground; Ivan completely ignored the man''s screaming and pleading.


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    A while later, Ivan had carried all three of them back to where their leader was; the four of them were now together.


    None of them were dead yet, but only two were still able to talk; the other two just kept vomiting blood.


    Ivan looked at the sight with a wide smile that made the men tremble, wondering what sort of demon Ivan had become.


    "Don''t you feel nostalgic about this? This was how it has always been, just the five of us; only that the roles are reversed this time," Ivan said with a devilish smile on his face


    "You guys usually laughed a lot and looked happy, must have been fun," Ivan voiced out again as he stepped on the leader''s already shattered leg and slowly applied force, letting out the sound of bones being crushed.


    The leader, who was unable to make a sound, could only throw up more blood as the pain was driving him crazy.


    Ivan watched this with a wider smile while the other three men looked at him fearfully.


    He was a demon, a true demon from hell!


    "Come on, laugh like you used to!" Ivan ordered as he pressed down with more force until the leg was completely destroyed.


    Ivan wasn''t done yet, moving to the other leg, he did the same thing.


    The amount of blood that the leader vomited was already forming a small pond under him; the other three men fell into despair, knowing it would be their turn soon.


    Ivan stopped after three minutes of walking the leader through a garden of agony, he did not kill the latter and left him after destroying all of his bones.


    Ivan turned to the next person, it was the one who had his pelvis destroyed with a single kick.


    "Congratulations, it''s your turn," Ivan said to him with a smile.


    The man was spooked. Ignoring his shattered pelvis and the excruciating pain he was feeling, the man fell on his front and began crawling away by pulling his body with his hands while screaming for Ivan not to get close.


    "Where do you think you''re going?"


    Stomp!


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    Ivan asked before stepping on the man''s fingers, shattering them along with the ground.


    "Ahhh!"


    The man screamed like a pig being slaughtered but Ivan wasn''t done yet.


    Stomp!¡Á99


    "Ahh!" ¡Á99


    The other two men watched in horror as Ivan stomped on the man''s limbs and even his already shattered pelvis, they could only imagine the world of pain that their companion was experiencing and shivered.


    Ivan continued for five minutes, he had been carried away and didn''t know when he stomped on the man''s body. In the end, the man was reduced to a bloody pulp of flesh and blood; not a single part of his body was left whole.


    "Ah! That was unfortunate; I''ll be more gentle with you two." Ivan shook his head with a sigh before turning to the last two.


    "No! No! Please, ahhh!!!"


    Screams that would make even the bravest of soldiers shake in terror filled the air as Ivan carried out multiple ways of torturing the three men, from breaking bones, tearing their flesh, and even inserting objects into them; it was a sight that would leave other traumatized for life!

 Chapter 92: The new year

    Looking at the sight of the four dead men, Ivan did not feel any discomfort over killing a human for the first time. Instead, he felt a huge burden leave his chest, and his shoulders strangely felt lighter; it was as if he had thrown away a heavy load that had been pressing down on him; it was refreshing.After that, he used his card and produced droplets of water which he used to wash himself and clean the bloodstains from his clothes before creating a gust of wind to dry himself.


    After he was done cleaning himself, Ivan took out another card and turned it into a fire snake.


    He ordered the fire snake to wreak destruction all over the place and to attack their corpses as well, making it look like a beast had killed them.


    With this, Ivan could report to the tower after returning and the tower will send people to investigate. As long as there was no evidence that showed that it was a human who killed them, they would drop the matter and send other people to take the place of these scumbags.


    Ivan finished his set up and returned to the outskirts to look for his friends but what he met wasn''t what he was expecting.


    Ralph filled him in after he rejoined. According to Glen''s mother, a monster had attacked the outskirt a month ago and was causing destruction at the edge that was relatively far away from where Glen''s family lived.


    The Nexulytes in charge of the outskirt had held off while the people ran in the opposite direction for safety. Reinforcement soon arrived, and everyone thought that the issue would be resolved quickly.


    But the monster suddenly sent the person that was fighting it flying and crashing into many buildings, destroying them.


    One of these buildings just happened to be Glen''s home. The house had collapsed, and a part of it had crushed his father right in front of his mother and little sister.


    Ever since then, Glen''s mother had been barely trying to take care of Glen''s little sister as they had lost everything and didn''t even have a place to stay; they were still living in the ruins of their destroyed home.


    Ivan looked at Glen who was trying to console his sister and mother. The boy had a small smile on his face, but Ivan could see something in his eyes, something that he was very familiar with.


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    Hate!


    Ivan didn''t need Glen to confirm it himself; he could already tell that his friend now had so much hate for the dreamscape and its inhabitants, just like Ivan had for Nexulytes back then.


    After a long while, they left the outskirt and returned to San Pluto.


    Glen''s mother recovered a bit after listening to her son talk about how well he had been doing, a mother''s greatest joy was always her child''s happiness so listening to Glen cheered her up a bit; it obviously could not make him forget about her deceased husband so soon but it at least helped her smile a bit and realize that she needed to be strong for her son and daughter.


    Arriving at San Pluto, they contacted Mr. Alonso, who gladly came to pick them up from the station and personally drove them to the western sector, which took almost the whole day; this made them realize how far the western sector was and why it needed a teleportation vault.


    Mr Alonso drove them to their villas, the old driver was stunned by the sight of the three villas and could only exclaim how it was befitting of Nexulytes.


    They also introduced him to their families and told them how the old driver had assisted them even though he didn''t know them back then.


    "I''m really thankful to you for looking out for our boys; good people like you are rare," Ralph''s father thanked Mr Alonso while standing behind his wife''s wheelchair.


    " Haha, it''s nothing. They''re good boys and have helped my family as well" Mr Alonso laughed before telling them what happened last night.


    The old man had personally visited their home after they separated; he came along with his son, who tried to take advantage of Elisa to apologize.


    Not only did they apologize, but the old man extended Elisa''s contract, increased her monthly pay, and told her that she could even decide to refuse to have her projection on stage if she wanted!


    Mr Alonso and his wife were not stupid; they immediately connected the dots and figured out that it was because of Ivan, so they planned to pay their gratitude next time.


    They all chatted a bit before going to their villas; Mr Alonso was asked to stay since it was late; although San Pluto had Nexulytes guarding almost everywhere, crime was something inevitable in human society, so Mr Alonso took one of the many bedrooms at Ivan''s place.


    The night went by swiftly with Ivan once again spending the entire night in the training room.


    The morning quickly came, and Mr. Alonso returned home to his family after bidding everyone farewell.


    Ivan had no plans for the day and remained in his villa, in the training room to be specific.


    Glen spent time with his mother and sister, he bought his mother a communicator and showed her how to run it.


    After which he directly sent her half of his entire balance and told her she could get whatever she wanted and it would be brought over, he went to the training room after.


    As for Ralph, he contacted Miss Elora and explained his mother''s situation to her and asked if there was a treatment.


    "Wait a moment, I''ll get back to you." Miss Elora replied because she wasn''t too knowledgeable about medical conditions and had to ask others; she replied a few minutes more.


    The good news was that there was a cure for it but the ingredients for making the cure were highly classified items found in the dreamscape and not just anyone knew about them much less get their hands on them, their prices were also astronomic with the cheapest in selling for over 50 million bucks and the most expensive one had a price of over 500 million bucks.


    As for the location of the ingredients, Miss Elora said that she wasn''t qualified to know about it yet and would have to ask her father or grandfather.


    Ralph thanked her before disconnecting the call and turning to his parents.


    "I promise I''ll find a cure for Mom," He said seriously.


    His parents told him not to stress over the issue and to focus more on improving himself; they would be happy as long as he was safe and had a good life.


    After all, his mother was a Nexulyte and knew just how scary the dreamscape was; she couldn''t help worrying about her only child going there.


    Being a Nexulyte can be both a blessing and a misfortune.


    After the discussion with his parents, Ralph went to the training room as well while his parents packed some food that was prepared by the hired chefs to go visit Glen''s mom and little sister and spend some time with her.


    Over the following days, Mr Alonso and his family had interacted more with the families of Glen and Ralph; they had gotten friendlier and friendlier and frequently came to visit them.


    Days flew by quickly and it was the new year!


    Everyone gathered at Ivan''s villa, they had all agreed to this without informing Ivan.


    The boy has no family, so they used this opportunity to show him that he wasn''t alone and that he could consider them as family; Ivan was touched.


    Miss Elora also stopped by to wish them a happy new year and also introduced herself to the couple. She saw Glen''s sister and suggested that she be sent to a school at the start of the upcoming term; the kid was smart, and she would definitely shine more after receiving guidance from respectable teachers.


    The meal of the New Year evening was exceptionally memorable, and everyone had fun; everyone returned home by midnight, though. S§×arch* The ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    What Ivan found strange was that the screen of his communicator was open when he picked it from where he left it, this had puzzled him; he could not guess who might have touched it.


    He dropped the matter after searching and seeing that nothing was wrong with his communicator, he returned to the training room after.


    This was the last day of their time off, and they would need to return to the tower tomorrow; he had forgotten to visit Camellia and the others.


    "I''ll do that next time when I''m free," Ivan whispered as he made his way to the training room.


    Looking at his AP, which was still at 43.75%, Ivan decided to try increasing it tonight instead of doing weapon training like he had been doing the whole week.


    He sat with his legs folded together as he began to sense the Nexus energy in the air, it wasn''t too bad compared to the tower; Ivan immediately began to absorb it.


    Many hours later.


    +0.01


    +0.01


    ¡­.


    Ivan soon lost track of time.

 Chapter 93: Setting out

    When Ivan woke up, it was already morning. He summoned his profile to check.¡­


    NAME: Ivan Von Charles


    Talent Group: Primal         Talent type: Wisher   Talent: Wish card


    Talent lv: SS          AP: 43.81%      Rank: TRUE KING


    ¡­.


    A frown settled on Ivan''s face when he saw his AP; the thing had only increased by 0.06% after an entire night; this was far less than what he usually got from refining Nexus energy in his room back at the tower.


    "The speed of increasing AP is getting slower the stronger I get, looks like I would need to find another Nexus chamber or a Nexus crystal if I want to improve quickly." Asserted Ivan before standing up.


    He went to the bathroom, took a shower, and then proceeded to put on his uniform since they would be going back to the tower today.


    Ivan checked himself in a mirror after putting on his black uniform and black boots, he looked just like a seasoned officer.


    He was on his way to get something from the fridge when Ralph contacted him, inviting him over to have breakfast together.


    Ivan stared at the message for a bit before turning around and heading for the door.


    He reached Ralph''s place soon, Glen with his mother and sister were there as well.


    Ivan noticed a slight change in Glen''s disposition, the boy was still chatty with everyone but would suddenly zoom out at times.


    "You alright?" Ivan asked as he took the seat beside Glen.


    "Ah, yes. I''m good." Glen was stunned to hear Ivan taking the initiative to talk to him since the latter rarely did so; he gave a casual smile and answered.


    "Good," Ivan mouthed before facing his food.


    They finished breakfast quickly before heading out and waving their families goodbye.


    Miss Elora was already waiting for them outside the gate of Ralph''s Villa, she was in a similar black uniform as the three.


    "You all ready to go?" She asked when she saw the three coming out and the trio nodded.


    "Get in then," added Miss Elora before entering her black sports car. The trio entered after her, and they drove off.


    On their way to the tower, Ivan suddenly received a notification of a message.


    Opening it, it was a text from an unknown sender.


    ¡­


    Hi! Good morning, did you sleep well?


    ¡­.


    The content of the message was a single line with a simple sentence, but it made Ivan frown; he didn''t know who had sent it.


    And he wasn''t able to guess either judging by the way the sentence seemed, very few people had his contact and only one of them would talk like this; that person was Glen, but Glen was currently not even holding his communicator and he doubted that the boy would bother saying such words through a message.


    He would just say it to Ivan''s face!


    Ivan tried to check the information of the sender, but it was anonymous,s, and he was unable to find anything useful.


    ''A scammer?'' Ivan thought to himself and decided to ignore the message, he didn''t send a response.


    ¡­.


    Less than two hours later, they arrived at the northern sector where the Owen Tower was located.


    Miss Elora dropped them off in front of the tall massive structure of the tower that they were ever so familiar with.


    "I''ll leave you all here, good luck on your first mission." Miss Elora wished them before driving off.


    The three of them turned to look at the building of the tower after Miss Elora drove off. They had been away for just a week,  yet it suddenly left like a very long time.


    "Let''s go" Ivan muttered to the two as he took the lead.


    They walked into the building and passed through twisting corridors before arriving at the ever-so-familiar lobby.


    Young men and women in purple tracksuits could be seen walking around the place; they were the new batch of trainees.


    The three could not help but feel¡­strange, they had really graduated and were now officials of the tower; they were no longer rookie trainees.


    "It''s you?!"


    A startled voice sounded from behind the three, they turned back and saw a group of trainees walking behind a youth with a mop of yellow hair. The youth was staring at the three of them with trembling eyes, the trainees behind the youth also stared at the three with looks of confusion.


    They felt that the three were too young to be wearing black uniforms which was a sign that they were their seniors.


    "Who are you?" Ivan asked with an expressionless face, the youth with yellow hair gulped and jumped back from hearing Ivan''s voice.


    "Ah! I remember him; he''s one of the repeaters from our batch." Glen''s eyes lit up, and he announced.


    Ralph and Ivan revealed looks of realization while the trainees behind the youth showed enlightened expressions, they quickly connected the words of this person in black uniform.


    So they were people from the previous batch of trainees before them!


    Realizing that this person was only a repeater, Ivan paid no more attention and turned around to leave; they ignored the many eyes and whispers as they made their way to the elevator before going to James'' office.


    They reached James'' office, and a voice announced for them to come in before they could knock.


    Entering the room, they saw James and another person; it was the woman who addressed herself as the vice tower master of the tower during their graduation.


    "You arrived just in time; we were just discussing you guys. This is the vice tower master, and I''m sure you already know her; you''ll all be under her care from now on; do a good job," James said to them while gesturing at the woman sitting opposite him.


    The trio turned to look at the woman who stood up from her seat and approached them.


    "Are you done with your preparations?" She asked, her voice crisp as she stood in front of them.


    "Yes," Ralph answered for the trio.


    The woman looked at them for a while, "Follow me." She instructed before taking the lead toward the door.


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    The trio exchanged brief glances in silence before falling in line behind her.


    James watched with an expectant smile as they left the office.


    ¡­.


    Following the lead of the vice tower master, they quickly came out of the tower building.


    They found an armored jeep waiting for them outside, which they entered after the vice tower master climbed on, and they drove off.


    During the ride, the three could feel a sort of pressure building up in them; it was as if they were about to step into a whole new different world.


    After more than two hours of driving, they finally reached their destination.


    A sleek towering structure that looked like a fort stood loomed ahead. Its black metallic walls gleamed under the sunlight, and a huge strange devil that kept spinning buzzed with energy on top of it; the structure looked like a fortress built to withstand anything!


    "This is our northern defense base," the voice of the vice tower master rang in their ears as the armored jeep drove past a checkpoint before entering the huge structure; her voice was calm but carried a hint of pride as she introduced the place to the three.


    "You''ll be embarking on your first mission from here." She added after the jeep stopped and they came down.


    Ivan, Ralph, and Glen stared in awe, this place was nothing like the simple tower building where they trained.


    Nexulytes in black uniforms and black protective body suits marched, each carrying advanced weaponry or controlling robot-like machinery, while air carriers of various sizes zipped in and out of the airspace of the base.


    The sheer scale of this place made the trio realize just now how small the part of San Pluto they had seen was! sea??h th§× ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "This way," the vice tower master continued and led them toward an air carrier that was resting on a landing pad nearby; this aircraft wasn''t too large and could mostly only fit twenty people.


    "This is the KY17; it will be taking us to our destination, where you will undergo your first mission." The vice tower master said to them as the ramp of the air carrier lowered with a low hissing noise revealing the inside had a stark, high-tech interior.


    "The KY17 has an impressive speed, so we''ll arrive at our destination quickly; that will only leave me with enough time to brief you about your mission. Before we board, I want to let you know that this is no longer training.


    You all are now officials, and your every action will have consequences; hesitating or disobedience to senior officials can result in the death of many, do you understand?" The vice tower master uttered with a serious look on her face.


    Ivan, Ralph, and Glen nodded, determination etched on their faces.


    "Understood!" They voiced out in unison.


    "Good, then get on board!" She ordered.


    Without hesitation, they climbed into the KY17, the ramp closing behind them with a sharp ''clang''

 Chapter 94: The start of a new chapter, the dreamscape

    Above the Death Sea, the KY17 flew past like a meteor, creating a whistling sound.They had left San Pluto and arrived here within just five minutes of flying, the speed of the air carrier was unlike anything that Ivan, Glen, and Ralph had ever seen before; it was even faster than a bullet and broke the sound barrier!


    The trio looked down at the Death Sea, which was thousands of kilometers long through the windows of the air carrier; it separated the base of the Dominion Tower from the abandoned continent.


    They had been briefed on what their mission was going to be by the vice tower master during their ride to the abandoned continent, it was a newly discovered mirror gate that had been claimed by the Owen Tower and needed more hands with exploring.


    Their first mission was to the dreamscape!


    After flying for another minute, the sight of a small island finally came into view. The KY17 began to slow down and the island grew bigger as they approached it.


    Flying past the shore of the island, the trio could see signs of battles. Shattered trees and deep craters littered the island. Stay tuned to M-V-L


    Flying for another five hundred meters, they started to see small moving black dots and structures; these were people and structures that had been used to construct a base on this part of the island.


    The KY17 lowered and found a place to drop, the ramp lowered after. S§×ar?h the N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Alright, let''s go out!" The vice tower master voiced out before walking out, and the trio followed behind her.


    "Welcome back, vice tower master!"


    Two groups of Nexulytes in black uniforms lined up in front of the lowered ramp and saluted immediately. They saw the vice tower master coming out, responding with a nod of her head; the vice tower master turned to one of the Nexulytes in front and asked.


    "What''s the current situation!" Her voice was loud and authoritative, unlike how she had been talking to the trio during their flight; she had assumed her role as a leader now.


    While the vice leader was receiving the reports from the man, Ivan, Glen, and Ralph were marveling at the sight of the base that had been built in the middle of the forest.


    A space of over 1000 meters had been cleared of all trees, and tall and spacious structures of gleaming, sturdy black materials had been constructed in the cleared space.


    People wearing protective body suits and metal body pieces patrolled the perimeters of the space constantly while carrying laser guns and other advanced weapons.


    Small land carriers could be seen transporting huge pieces of equipment from one structure to another and voices could be heard from all directions.


    This place looked just like a miniature-sized fortress of the northern defense base!


    Well, aside from what was in the middle of this fort.


    With a thick metal ring that has flickering devices that radiate with energy built around it, a tall squirming mirror gate could be seen. The sight of it was awe-inspiring and frightening at the same time.


    It was a mirrored gate after all.


    "You three, come with me!"


    The loud voice of the vice leader sounded, pulling the three from their trance state.


    They quickly came back to their senses before following behind her as she led them to the third largest structure in this base.


    It turns out that this structure was a sort of office quarter where groups could meet up for planning and preparation making.


    Following the lead of the vice tower master, the four of them came to a spacious room with just a chair and a table in it; the room didn''t have a window and a digital display projected the image of a blue sky on the wall.


    Taking the only chair in the room, the vice tower master placed a file on the table before turning to look at the trio.


    "You are currently at the Partial Lord rank, right?" The vice tower master asked while staring at Ivan, the latter nodded in response.


    " According to normal protocols, you should be entitled to a team of six to ten True King subordinates who will each have four Mortal King subordinates. But for your first mission, the number of your subordinates will be reduced to see how you manage them." The vice tower master informed, she paused and took a look at her file before adding.


    "Your party for this mission will include a team of five members including yourself. Your teammates should be randomly selected for better judgment on your leading ability but under the special requests of the tower master, you three will be on the same team and will be paired up with other two rookies who just finished training"


    After saying all this, the vice tower master took out her communicator and said into it.


    " Bring them in,"


    A while later, the door of the room opened, and two youngsters who were in similar black uniforms as Ivan and the rest were led in by two officials in black body suits.


    The two officials saluted and left after leading the youngsters in.


    Ivan, Glen, and Ralph turned to look at the two people who were most likely the two rookies that the vice tower master talked about.


    One was a 19 years old looking handsome young man with dashing features, he had red wavy hair that fell below his ears and his eyes were almost narrowed to a slit; Ivan wondered if he was able to see with his eyes closed.


    The other party was a tall young girl who seemed to be in her early twenties. She had a cute round face, large blue eyes, a small nose, and pink lips that formed a cheerful smile.


    She had long blue hair that was styled up in a single ponytail and held by a black metal hair clip that kept hair in place, preventing it from moving unnecessarily or scattering.


    She could only be described by the word ''cute'' as everything about her screamed of innocence.


    She gave the ''next door cute junior sister'' vibe despite being around Miss Elora''s age.


    "These two will be the rest of your team, go out and try to get familiar with each other; you have two minutes before you enter the mirror gate." The vice tower master ordered.


    They all saluted before walking out in a single file.


    Immediately after exiting the room, the five of them found an empty room.


    It took them only a couple of seconds and they immediately went down to business.


    "Clint, Elemental God talent, dark element, True King rank." The boy with the red hair said with his eyes still closed, his voice was void of emotions and made Ralph and Glen turn to stare at Ivan. Their eyes say, ''A second you!''


    After Clint introduced himself, the girl with the ponytail immediately stepped forward and introduced herself.


    Her name was Karin, she was at the True King rank as well and had a weapon master talent.


    Everyone''s impression of the girl immediately after she introduced herself was that she was a very chatty and easygoing person; she was just like Glen.


    But the odd thing about her was her weapon¡­her weapon was a mallet!


    How could a cute girl like her own a mallet?! The sight of Karin swinging a huge mallet that was almost three times her size left them with their eyes twitching.


    After the two introduced themselves, Ivan, Ralph, and Glen took turns introducing themselves as well.


    In the end, they had concluded that their team was a team with one Partial Lord, Ivan, two True Kings, Clint and Karin, and two Mortal Kings, Ralph and Glen.


    Soon, their two minutes'' time was up and the vice tower master came looking for them and led them to the mirror gate.


    Tapping on a few spots on the metal ring surrounding the mirror gate, the ring broke into three pieces that floated a meter around the mirror gate and created a path for them to pass through.


    "After getting to the other side, someone will provide you with a land carrier and supplies and then give you further instructions on how to proceed. Remember, hesitation might lead to death" the vice tower master reminded before asking them to go in if they were ready.


    Ivan and his team stood in front of the mirror gate, a heavy feeling settling in his heart. After stepping through this gate, he would enter a new world, this was no longer a simulation; everything that happened from now on was real.


    Stepping closer to the mirror gate, it made a weird sound and like a wormhole, sucked all of them in.


    The dreamscape.

 Chapter 95: In the dreamscape

    Woom!!With a strong pull from the mirror gate, the five of them we sucked in and appeared on the other side instantaneously; the feeling of crossing over was like getting pushed through a thick layer of jelly at a bullet speed.


    Immediately after they arrived on the other side, the first thing that they noticed was the strong aura of death and decay that was almost suffocating; an ordinary human would die immediately from the pressure if they were to come here as their organs would be too weak to breathe.


    The next thing that they noticed was that they were inside a similar metal ring that was identical to the one around the mirror gate in the real world; tiny devices flashing with light could be seen all over the metal ring, and ahead of them was a middle-aged man who seemed to be in his forties. Explore more at M-V-L


    He had rough dark hair that fell backward and a large scar on his face running from his lower jaw to the side of his forehead, with eyes sharp as those of a hawk staring intently at the five of them.


    The man proceeded to press a few buttons on the metal ring, allowing it to break into three pieces and creating a passage for Ivan and his group members.


    Coming out, the five of them took a brief moment to take a better look at the place. Just like on the other side in the real world, the base here was also located in a forest with huge towering trees; a space of over 2000 meters was cleared and turned into a base fortress that was twice the size of the one in the real world. S§×arch* The ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Not only was the base bigger, but the number of people here was also twice the amount of people on the other side of the mirror gate: more people were in charge of patrolling the perimeters, and they all had hard expressions that showed that they were ready to swing into action at any moment.


    Clearly, the situation here was more intense than it was in the real world; they were, after all, inside the dreamscape.


    Another thing to take note of is that no one here was in black uniform as the five of them that just arrived; everyone was in their black protective body suits, and some who had mechanic talents were already in their half-cyborg forms!


    The entire base was giving the feeling that they were expecting to fight the next moment.


    "You must be Ivan," The man with the scar grunted, pulling the attention of the five to himself. Ralph, Glen, Clint, and Karin immediately stood straight as a senior official addressed them; only Ivan remained at ease and casually nodded.


    The man shot him a glare, clearly displeased by his lack of respect for him. He snorted before turning his back to them and started walking.


    "You can address me as Sir Peter, as I am in charge of this operation, and you''ll all be under my command; follow me," Sir Peter commanded; the five of them immediately filed up behind him and followed.


    They followed Sir Peter to a small tent built with sturdy black materials and stood in front of the small table. While Sir Peter took a seat behind the table, he opened the drawer under the table and brought out a piece of paper before passing it to Ivan.


    "Here''s your mission: you can go to the equipment chamber and request a land carrier for your team; you are expected to be back within a month at least; make sure to report back to the base in case of any unexpected changes." Sir Peter said dismissively.


    Ivan took the paper and took a glance at its content.


    ...


    Clear region 17 and leave a marker at six sectors.


    Eliminate all habitats in Region 17.


    ...


    The content on the paper was just two sentences and was quite easy to understand, but Ivan doubted that the mission would have been as easy as it looked. Turning to look at Sir Peter, Ivan asked what a marker was and an explanation of sectors and regions.


    "You''ll receive the markers along with your supplies, and as for the regions, you''ll understand after going through the first 16," Sir Peter replied impatiently.


    Ivan nodded and left with his team; Sir Peter looked at them with a mad look in his eyes.


    "Arrogant rookies, let''s see if you can stay arrogant for long."


    ...


    After leaving the tent, they asked a few people before finding their way to the equipment chamber.


    It turned out to be the biggest structure in the base with a lot of people in half cyborg forms working on various machineries, these were all Nexulytes with support mechanic talents!


    Immediately after getting there, someone approached them. It was a young woman with a rose of blonde hair and a pretty face; she was in a half-cyborg form as well and was holding a massive wrench formed by Nexus energy; she was a support-type mechanic Nexulyte.


    "What are you looking for?" The woman asked while staring at their faces, a skeptical look on her face.


    It couldn''t be helped, the five of them were the only ones in black uniforms in the entire base.


    "We''re here to get a land carrier and our supplies for a mission," Ivan replied and handed the paper over to her.


    "A mission?" The lady repeated, and she took the paper; her eyes immediately showed understanding after reading the content.


    "So you''re the ones in charge of Region 17; where are the rest of your crew?" The lady nodded her head before asking.


    "This is all of us," Ivan replied with a straight face.


    "What? This is all of your team? It will take weeks for just a few of you to clear a region!" The lady exclaimed, she stared at them as if they were crazy.


    "We are already aware of this; we were given a month to finish the mission," Ivan informed her.


    " Oh, I see. Is there a reason for that?" The lady asked further and Ivan told her that it was their first mission.


    " So that''s why, follow me then," She uttered, not asking them any more questions as she led them to a section of the chamber and stopped in front of a land carrier.


    It was another A-22G3!


    *This will be your land carrier, an A-22G3. Wait a moment," the lady said before quickly disappearing.


    While she was gone, Ivan and his team took the chance to observe the land carrier.


    It was a tank-like vehicle with very long metal legs instead of wheels; it was an impressive sight.


    The lady returned soon and passed a storage device to Ivan.


    "Inside this storage device are the six markers, your supplies that should last for a month if used wisely, and two extra markers in case you lose any of the other six or they get destroyed, so be sure to handle them with care." The lady advised them.


    "How do we use the markers?" Ralph asked from behind Ivan. Neither of them had seen a marker before so they had no idea how to use it.


    "Just insert it into the ground after clearing the place; it will send us a signal and visual footage of the area of a hundred meters around the marker." The lady explained.


    They all fell silent and stared at each other as seconds ticked by, looking at Ivan and his team, who were still looking at her even after a minute had passed; the Lady wore a confused expression.


    "What? Aren''t you going to head out?" She voiced out in confusion.


    Ivan, Ralph, Glen, Karin, and Clint all looked at her before turning to look at the A-22G3 before looking back at her.


    The lady wore an astonished face as she thought of something and asked in a low tone.


    "It can''t be that¡­ none of you know how to run a land carrier?"


    ¡­..


    In the end, they were assigned a person who would help them control the A-22G3, but the person wasn''t considered a part of their group, so he had no obligation to follow Ivan''s orders and help them with their missions.


    It was a young man in his late twenties named Elliot. He had spiky black hair, and he had the mechanic talent; he was at the True King rank.


    They quickly set out for their mission.


    Exiting the base, what welcomed them was a world of huge trees with enormous branches. The sky was blood red like a blood curtain had been drawn over the world; the suffocating aura of death and decay made the place look gloomy.


    "So, which training center did you all come from? I graduated from the Owen branch in Motuni." Karin suddenly said.


    "A branch of the tower is there too? The three of us are from the Headquarters!" Glen immediately engaged her, trying to distract himself from the bothering thoughts in his mind.


    "Really? I heard that the training center there is very intense, tell me about it!" Karin burst out with excitement, the land carrier was soon filled with the voices of the two as they chatted away.

 Chapter 96: Region 17

    "No way! You mean Ivan is the strongest from your batch?"Karin gasped.


    "Not just the strongest, he totally dominated the ranking; no one stood a chance," Glen added proudly.


    "How lucky we are to be on his team, trainees from the headquarters are always stronger than trainees from other branches. Do you know that the person who secured this mirror gate for the tower was a guy from the headquarters as well? His name was Alaric Vladimir. The instructors from our branch talked about him a lot," Karin expressed.


    "Oh, Alaric? We heard of him too, but he''s just so so; Ivan beat his record in the training room!" Glen mentioned with a straight nose.


    "Unbelievable, he''s so good?" Karin uttered.


    "Of course, he''s that good"


    "Hey, Clint. What about you? Which tower branch did you come from?" Karin turned to the red-haired Clint, who still looked like he was closing his eyes, and asked, trying to drag him into the conversation.


    "Leave me alone." Clint turned to her and mumbled softly before turning the other way, he wasn''t interested in chatting.


    Karin had an awkward look on her face for a moment before shaking it off and turning back to Glen and they resumed chatting. She asked Ivan and Ralph some questions as well; the two were more responsive than Clint was, although Ivan only gave one-word replies each time.


    Ivan took a side glance at Glen, and a faint smile hung to the side of his lips; the boy was behaving just as before and wasn''t as gloomy as one would have thought, considering what happened to his father; he would be able to heal faster if he kept the grief off his mind.


    They got to know more about Karin while she chatted with Glen. The girl was 25 years old and came from a family of Nexulytes in Motuni. Their family specialized in weapon talents; a high percentage of the family possessed the weapon talent and trained in martial arts from a young; weapon talents were highly viewed by her family.


    Being the granddaughter of the family head, she had been sent to the Owen Tower to join as this would strengthen the connection that her family had with one of the five biggest towers.


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    She was a very chatty person but knew when to get serious as well, Ivan even started to find her presence not bothering.


    While they chatted, Eliot had controlled the A-22G3 and covered a distance of a kilometer away from the base.


    They had come across other parties of Nexulytes and land carriers as they crossed different regions that had already been cleared, these regions were currently being turned into smaller bases.


    They did not encounter any monsters on their way, and they reached Region 17 after a three-hour journey.


    Region 17 was a mountain range where over ten tall mountains connected and stretched far into the distance, cutting through the forest.


    In front of the first mountain was an enormous opening, its inside was pitch black that they were unable to see anything inside; the darkness of the cave was so formidable that it felt almost tangible.


    The land carrier stopped right in front of the entrance.


    "This entrance should be a tunnel that cuts through the entire mountain range; this should be our starting point," Ralph voiced out as he stared at the opening on the mountain.


    Nodding his head, Ivan told Eliot to advance. S§×arch* The novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Eliot tapped a button on the control panel, and an opening appeared on top of the A-22G3 from which a small object rose.


    Woom!!


    The object burst out with a blinding light that immediately lit up the entrance of the cave, driving the darkness a couple of meters back.


    With thwoooping sounds, the A-22G3 began to advance into the tunnel.


    "Hehe, I can''t help getting nervous now," Karin said with a nervous look on her face.


    "Don''t be nervous, we''ll protect you," Glen said to her with an honest smile, and Karin smiled in return, a Mortal King saying he would protect a True King.


    ¡­..


    The land carrier traveled for tens of meters into the tunnel as the tunnel continued to stretch before them, the walls of the tunnel narrowing and widening intermittently as the A-22G3 moved forward with its metal legs; climbing over small risings occasionally as the light of the land carrier reached further into the darkness.


    Ivan and his group began to make out twisted shapes scattered across the floor of the tunnel.


    Massive rocks were scattered all over the ground, some protruding like jagged teeth while others had tumbled from the ceiling, leaving gaping holes above.


    "I''m not sure I like this place." Glen suddenly blurted out, Karin looked at him and covered her mouth to suppress a laugh.


    Karin suddenly stopped laughing as her eyes caught something in front and she pointed.


    "What is that?"


    The light of the land carrier illuminated a cluster of skeletal remains scattered on the ground ahead. Some looked humanoid, while others were more monstrous, with long jaws and elongated limbs. Some looked like they had been here for a while, the bones brittle and withered and half buried under layers of dust and debris; others looked like they had been recently added to the collection of bones.


    Clearly, they were not the first to get here.


    "Looks like we found the whereabouts of the missing people," Eliot said grimly from the control seat. Apparently, there had been cases of people going missing during the past months.


    Ivan remained silent but his eyes lingered on the bones from inside the cabin. Some of the skeletons were entwined and cracked as if their owners had died in a desperate struggle, others laid apart as if they had tried to flee from whatever had claimed them.


    "Look," Ralph called out and pointed in a direction.


    Ivan looked over, and his eyes narrowed; on the tunnel walls were long claw marks scratching deep into the rocks.


    Just then the walls of the tunnel began to tremble slightly, causing the light of the land carrier to become unstable. All of them immediately sat straight and sharpened their gazes, they soon caught the source of the trembling as the ground ahead of them began to twist and shift slowly.


    From below the rock surface, massive snake forms began to emerge. Their bodies were covered in jagged, stone-like scales that blended perfectly with the tunnel floor and made them almost impossible to notice until they moved; their heads were flat and broad, their eyes glowing with eerie light.


    "Rock snakes!" Karin yelled in a low voice, the tension in his voice was clear.


    There were at least five of these rock snakes, each as thick as a tree trunk and long enough to coil around the huge rocks on the ground twice. Their movements were slow and deliberate until the light from the land carrier shone on them, they reacted with sudden aggression.


    One of them lunged at the land carrier with lightning speed, its mouth wide open, revealing sharp stone-like teeth.


    "Hold on tight!" Eliot shouted as he gripped the controls of the land carrier and turned back with a lightning-speed maneuver.


    Sadly, the walls of the tunnel were too chaotic for a fast maneuver.


    Ivan, who had been observing for a while, slowly stood up.


    "Prepare for battle" His voice rang out calmly.


    Glen, Ralph, Karin, and Clint turned to him before getting up with serious expressions. They prepared to face the rock snakes head-on.

 Chapter 97: 5v5

    While they were changing into their protective body suits, the entire cabin kept shaking vigorously as Eliot controlled the legs of the A-22G3 to defend against the rock snake; his control was not inferior to Eric''s in the slightest!BAM! BAM! BAM!


    Huge explosive sounds echoed through the tunnel as the metal legs of the land carrier and the body of the snake clashed repeatedly.


    Eliot controlled the legs of the land carrier and stabbed at the body of the rock snake, knocking it to the ground.


    Tang!


    It was like hitting a hard rock with a sword, the sound was deafening and scratch marks appeared on the body of the snake; but it didn''t do any more than that.


    The snake hissed in fury, it wriggled its body and went around the legs of the land carrier before diving at its back leg with its mouth wide open like an abyss.


    Tang!


    A loud sound resounded as the stone teeth of the snake bite at the leg of the A-22G3, it shook its big head side to side aggressively in an attempt to rip the metal leg off but it was futile; it only managed to leave scratches on the leg of the land carrier as well.


    With a specialized maneuver, Eliot tossed the rock snake away and slammed it into the wall of the tunnel.


    BOOM!


    With a thunderous sound, the entire place shook and pieces of rocks fell from the ceiling.


    The snake let out a hissing sound and beared its stone fangs at the tall land carrier.


    By then, Ivan and his group had finished changing.


    The ramp of the land carrier opened and they jumped out and landed in front of the land carrier.


    The rock snake regrouped with its kind and the five of them slithered toward Ivan''s group together; they were like moving trains charging at a group of humans; their disparity in size was frightening.


    But Ivan and the others were not scared by their size, they immediately got ready to fight.


    Each one of them exploded with ferocious red energy that covered their body like glowing bubbles, they manifested their talents afterwards.


    Pouring out a massive amount of Nexus energy that turned into mist in front of him, two fearsome undead creatures appeared before Ralph.


    The latter was currently in his black protective body suits with red lines running through the joints of the suit, a black metallic line extended from the neck of the protective suit to the back of his head before circling the side of his head and turning into a green glass frame around Ralph''s eyes.


    (Don''t ask why he still needs glasses)


    In front of Ralph were the undead General, the old man in black robe, and the undead knight sitting on its shadow horse and carrying a great sword that let out black aura.


    On Glen''s side, an enormous white snake that was not inferior to the rock snakes in size coiled up behind him; its red eyes stared straight at the rock snakes, its huge tongue appeared and disappeared as it hissed.


    Clint was casually standing on the side in a bubble of red energy, he wasn''t holding anything or was there a sign that he was using his talent; one would only notice the difference if they looked carefully, the area around Clint had become darker and the shadows seemed to bend to his movements.


    This was his ability as a shadow element user, he had the ability of utilizing shadows around him.


    Ivan had two cards in hand, ready to toss them out at any moment.


    As for Karin¡­the girl was carrying a blood red mallet that was three times her size, she was resting the handle of the mallet on her shoulder while holding it in one hand.


    The size was baffling, Glen could not help but wonder how she carries such a huge thing with one hand.


    By now, the rock snakes were already upon them; each of them attacked a snake monster, turning it into a 5v5 brawl.


    The first to attack was Ralph.


    A rock snake lunged at him with its mouth wide open, wanting to swallow him in one bite.


    Swoosh!!


    Turning into a black shadow, the undead General flashed and appeared in front of the snake before it could reach Ralph.


    Its fist shot out and smashed into the snort of the rock snake.


    A sound akin to that of a thunder clap rang out in the tunnel and traveled for who knew how far, the rock snake let out a pained hiss as it was sent flying back and crashing into a huge rock that was resting at the side peacefully.


    The boulder exploded under the pressure of the rock snake, swallowing the snake in a rubble of stones and dust.


    Ralph led his two undead to attack the snake before it could come out.


    ¡­..


    Meanwhile, Glen''s snake and a rock snake had locked each other in a battle of strength.


    A huge snake with pure white scales was tangled with a snake with jagged rocky scales as they slammed each other on the ground and into the walls of the tunnel, causing rumbling sound and making the whole place shake.


    Glen kept providing his snake with Nexus energy to mend its scratched scales while maintaining a safe distance, there was really nothing else he could do in a fight of this level.


    The white snake suddenly broke free from the entanglement with the rock snake, it locked the latter with its tail before biting at its neck.


    Tang!


    Hiss!!


    The fangs of the white snake hit the hard scales of the rock snake and produced a metallic sound, the fang was unable to penetrate instantly. But the white snake didn''t give up, it applied so much force as its red eyes shone brightly.


    Crack!!


    A loud sound of something breaking echoed as pieces of rocks flew into the air. The fangs of the white snake had broken through the jagged scale of the rock snake.


    The rock snake hissed in pain and began to thrash around, trying to shake off the white snake from its body.


    It managed to break free from the jaws of the white snake at the expense of damaging itself even further, it immediately slapped at the body of the white snake with its tail that was like the surface of a broken rock. Find adventures at M-V-L


    Because of the pain caused by the bite of the white snake, the rock snake had put all of its fury into that slap. The body of the white snake immediately burst open immediately after the tail of the rock monster slammed into its body. S§×ar?h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Fountain of blood gushed out and the white snake hissed in pain.


    Glen''s eyes widened in shock and anger, he immediately channeled a large amount of Nexus energy to his snake to fix its wound; Glen immediately fell to his knees after sending out so much Nexus energy, sweat covering his face.


    The white snake looked at its wound close up at a speed visible to the eyes, it could feel the exhaustion of its master after healing it; this infuriated the white snake even further as it turned to face the rock snake, its eyes shining with a dangerous light.


    Unlike the white snake, the rock snake wasn''t able to heal and would need time to rest; that wasn''t something that the white snake would allow, it immediately charged at the rock snake again and was targeting the already opened injury on its neck.


    ¡­..


    On Karin''s side.


    BOOM!


    Karin jumped out of the way, dodging the huge head of the rock snake that crashed into the wall behind her.


    She immediately turned toward its body after dodging the attack, she raised her red mallet up in the air before bringing it down on the body of the snake with full force.


    "Ahhh!"


    Karin shouted as she brought down the mallet on the body of the monster.


    BAM!


    A thunderous sound followed by a painful hissing from the snake sounded as Karin slammed it into the ground, the force of the hit caused the body of the snake to sink five meters into the ground; she had destroyed the ground with the body of the snake.


    This was Karin''s weapon''s special awakened attribute after reaching the True King rank, she could increase the force behind her attacks by many times, letting her deal a lot of damage with little effort.

 Chapter 98: A classic prank

    Karin suddenly turned her head to look to the side, the huge tail of the snake was coming toward her like a drill!She hurriedly carried her mallet and placed it in front of her body while she bent her knee to resist the incoming impact, but she had overestimated herself.


    Bang!


    The stone tail crashed into the mallet, a strong force traveled through the mallet and into Karin''s arms. Her eyes widened in shock as her legs left the ground and she was sent flying back.


    She flew for several meters before crashing into a boulder.


    Thud!


    She fell to the ground while her mallet flew three meters away from her position; a pained expression appeared on her face as she bit her lips; she felt her wrist had fractured.


    Raising her head, she saw the rock snake pull itself from the small pit. A wide web-like crack could be seen on its back which was a result of Karin''s attack just now; she had almost broken through the snake''s defense in one strike.


    But almost wasn''t enough in this case. S~ea??h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The snake immediately shot at her with great speed after pulling its body from the pit, it opened its mouth wide open as it approached Karin.


    Gritting her teeth, Karin got up and ran toward her mallet with a face mixed with pain and desperation. She did not dare to look back but could feel the ground tearing up as the snake got closer.


    She reached the mallet in just two seconds, she did a flip over it while picking it up.


    Her fingers wrapped around the handle of the mallet at the same time her feet touched the ground, she hastily raised it in front to clock herself once more.


    At the same time, Karin got into a stance to defend herself, the snake was already in front of her with its mouth wide open.


    Everything seemed to slow down at this moment; the mouth of the snake was like a huge gate that led to hell that suddenly spawned in front of her, its stone teeth like the ruthless claws of the abyss, ready to rip her life.


    Karin''s eyes widened; she felt extreme fear at this moment; she wasn''t confident of surviving this one-way ticket to the underworld at all.


    It would have been better if all she needed to do was to block against a strike, what could she do when a wide hole that was dozens of times bigger than her was crashing down on her?


    ''I¡­I don''t want to die!''


    With eyes wide open, Karin watched as milliseconds ticked by and the mouth of the snake inched closer to her and¡­


    ...


    Snap!


    Karin was bitten in half and blood gushed everywhere!


    (Sike! Got you, didn''t I? Haha)


    ¡­..


    With eyes wide open, Karin watched as milliseconds ticked by and the mouth of the snake inched closer to her.


    BOOM!!


    Just when the snake''s mouth was about to swallow her up, a sudden huge mass of red energy crashed into the side of the snake''s mouth, pushing its huge head to the side and away from Karin.


    A strong gust of wind blew against Karin''s face as the huge body of the snake flew past her, just a few inches away from her.


    Bang!


    Another explosive sound followed as the snake crashed into a boulder some distance away.


    Karin, unable to process what had happened immediately, could only stare at the space in front of her with a blank face.


    In front of her was Ivan who was still in the posture in which he had punched the snake.


    His legs were wide apart with his upper body bent forward slightly, his left elbow was pulled back a bit and his right arm stretched forward like a straight arrow; a massive amount of thick red energy gathered around the gauntlet on his right fist, pieces of broken rock like scales laid at his feet.


    Ivan stood up straight after a few seconds and took a glance at Karin, his gaze was dull and expressionless. Without saying anything, he turned away before dashing toward the snake.


    BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!


    Thunderous sounds followed.


    It took a few more seconds after Ivan left before Karin''s brain turned back on and she understood what had just happened, she had almost died and Ivan had saved her; she did not mind the kind of look he gave her just now as it was irrelevant, what was relevant was that he had saved her.


    Her knees trembled, and she fell to the ground; she looked up and¡­burst into tears.


    ¡­..


    A while ago after they had clashed with the rock snakes, Ivan had used one card and turned it into a sword before hacking at the body of the snake that had rushed up to him. Strangely enough, Ivan''s sword wasn''t able to cut through the hard scale of the snake!


    This had surprised him greatly, even reaching the point of almost shocking him.


    One has to know that Ivan''s sword was already so sharp that it had been able to leave a mark on James''s transformed state when he had just learned how to use it; it began to get sharper as he increased in strength. He understood that there were a lot of creatures out there with abnormal defenses that could block his sword, Miko''s sword, for example, and that turtle monster with one eye.


    This had made him realize that his sword would not be able to solve every situation for him, and he had expected much later on, but who would have thought that he would meet such a creature on his very first mission to the dreamscape?


    Immediately after realizing this, Ivan throws away the thought of using a sword and decides to get physical.


    The rock snake was fast, but Ivan, a Partial Lord, his strength and speed were faster. He has created a gauntlet with his remaining card and pummeled the snake to pieces. Find more to read on M-V-L


    The snake was completely helpless against Ivan and could only get hit repeatedly until it crumbled into a rock pile.


    After dealing with the rock snake, Ivan just happened to catch the scene of Karin getting slapped away by the tail of the snake she was fighting.


    He took a quick glance around and realized that she was the only one who was struggling despite being one of the two True Kings on the team; he hesitated for a moment if he should help her.


    ''We don''t know her, why should we help her?'' a voice rang in his head.


    ''She is part of our group, she follows your order without complaints. Why not help her? She isn''t an enemy!'' a second voice countered.


    ''So what? She''s a Nexulyte!'' the first voice reported.


    ''And the snake is a creature from the dreamscape, which one is our enemy?''


    All of these happened within a second as the two voices argued in his head, only after the last words of the second voice did Ivan decide to act.


    Yes, the snake was the greater enemy!


    His moment of hesitation had allowed the snake to arrive in front of Karin, Ivan had expended a huge amount of Nexus energy to boost his speed, letting him arrive on time.


    This was why he had given Karin a dull look just now, his eyes were saying.


    '' I''m wasting energy because of you


    ¡­.


    Back to the present.


    While Karin was crying, everyone else was rounding up with their fights.


    Ralph''s undead has bullied the rock snake all throughout the fight.


    The undead General tossed it around like a punching bag while the undead knight stabbed at it with its great sword. Although the great sword wasn''t able to pierce its stone scales, the black aura rising from it passed through the small gaps on the scales and wreaked havoc inside the snake''s body; its stone body was slowly turning into dust due to this.


    On Glen''s side, after finally creating an opening, it didn''t take long for the white snake to expand the wound and destroy the neck of the rock snake, easily winning the fight.

 Chapter 99: Gratitude

    Clint has the second easiest fight after Ivan, his shadow element allowed him to blend in with the shadows of the surrounding rocks and even hide in the shadow of the rock snake!In this state, he was immune to physical attacks to a certain extent,  and only elemental attacks would be able to deal real damage to him which the rock snake wasn''t capable of.


    Clint had blended with the shadows in the tunnel and used the shadows of the boulders and even that of the rock snake to attack it! Tearing at its stone scales like an invisible claw. The shadows were able to slip through the cracks of the snake''s scales before pulling them out.


    The snake had been very miserable, wriggling its body like a worm that got salt sprinkled on it as it searched for what was pulling its scales and the human it was planning to attack.


    After ripping off the majority of the snake''s scales, Clint rolled the shadow of a pointed rock from the ceiling and stabbed it into the body of the monster, killing it instantly.


    As for the snake that had almost eaten Karin, it was reduced to rubbles under the rain of Ivan''s gauntlet; it wasn''t able to retaliate and could only hiss continuously as it was beaten up.


    From the control seat in the cabin of the land carrier, Eliot watched the fight between Ivan''s group and the five rock snakes with an astonished face; he was greatly shocked by the display of strength of these five new Nexulytes, a thought formed in his mind.


    ''Monsters! They were all monsters!''


    He had never seen True King ranked Nexulytes easily deal with rock snakes of this size in his entire life; there would not have been so many skeletons in this place if they were easy to deal with.


    After the five finished fights all returned to the land carrier; the fight seemed to have been easy, but almost all of them had used more than half of the Nexus in their bodies; they needed to rest before they could continue.


    Ivan asked Eliot not to move the land carrier any further for now; they would stay here and rest. Eliot happily agreed.


    The group took their seats and began to absorb Nexus energy from the surroundings. The quantity of Nexus energy inside the dreamscape was a little better than in the real world but it was basic knowledge not to try raising one''s AP inside the dreamscape unless in a very safe location like a guarded base.


    Since it was easy to lose oneself when trying to increase AP, one would not know when a monster crept up on them and claimed their lives.


    While the rest of the group rested, Karin was sitting quietly on her seat and hugging her knees; her eyes stared at the ground of the cabin with eyes like those of a dead fish.


    Glen noticed this after a while and went over to ask what the issue was, they had talked a lot on their way here and had become relatively close.


    Karin turned to look at Glen with a tearful face; her eyes were red and watery,  and her lips were trembling.


    Her expression had stunned Glen greatly, he immediately asked what the problem was.


    With so much effort and stammering, Karin had managed to tell him that she had failed to kill the rock snake that attacked her and that she had almost died had it not been for Ivan,  who came to help her.


    "I-i¡­don''t want to die!"


    She muffled after reporting to Glen before bursting into tears again.


    Glen looked at her trembling body for a couple of seconds before gently rubbing her hair and softly said to her.


    "It''s alright, you were just unlucky that your opponent was a snake that was several times bigger than you. I''m sure Ivan didn''t blame you¡­he wouldn''t have helped you if he did."


    " Sob¡­really" Karin looked up at Glen''s face and asked while cleaning the tears on her face with her palm.


    "Yeah, really." Glen smiled back, he couldn''t help thinking how soft this girl was.


    Your journey continues with M-V-L


    "Ok," Karin voiced out while sobbing softly before suddenly hugging Glen''s waist "thank you." She muttered with her face buried in his lower belly.


    She hugged him for a few seconds before releasing her grasp on him and stood up, she walked over to where Ivan was.


    Standing beside Ivan''s seat, the latter opened his eyes and looked at her.


    Karin didn''t waste time before bending forward in a deep bow toward Ivan.


    "Thank you for saving me, I promise to do better next time!" She voiced out loudly before raising herself to see Ivan''s reaction.


    "Ok" Ivan uttered a casual word before closing his eyes again, no longer paying any attention to the girl.


    Clint, Ralph, and Eliot turned to look at this as well before returning to what they were doing.


    Karin''s eyes brightened when she heard Ivan''s response, a relieved smile stretched her lips as she turned to look at Glen while returning to her seat.


    "Told you he wouldn''t blame you" Glen whispered to her and winked before returning to his seat. Karin smiled at him before sitting down as well.


    The cabin fell silent again as they all gathered Nexus into their Nexus chambers, they spent the following hours like this.


    ¡­..


    Six hours later, the group was done with what they were doing and they resumed exploring the tunnel.


    Leaving the place where they had battled with the rock snakes, the land carrier traveled deeper into the tunnel. Passing twisted paths and even climbing cliffs in the tunnel.


    They traveled for another kilometer before they encountered another group of monsters.


    The A-22G3 stabbed its metal legs into the rocks of the tunnel walls as it proceeded down a long sliding path to prevent the land carrier from falling forward too quickly, an opening that was fifty meters wide could be seen at the bottom.


    Thwoop! Bang!


    With a last maneuver, Eliot controlled the land carrier in the direction of the opening before jumping through; the A-22G3 landed on the other side with a loud sound as its metal legs stabbed into the ground.


    The group immediately looked at their new surroundings.


    It was a wide clearing that looked like an underground hall, roughly carved pillars connecting the ground and the ceiling, and in the center of this hall was a strange tree monster.


    This monster looked just like a tree stump, its limbs were like those of humans, and its head was a cluster of leaves that stuck together.


    Its body was green and brown and it was as huge as seven meters. The monster was standing in the middle of the hall with a small object in its hand and a dead monster that was identical to it was held in its other hand.


    The group immediately recognized the small object in its hand, it was a Nexus crystal! sea??h th§× ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The monster turned around and looked straight at the front glass panel on the cabin, staring directly at Ivan and the others inside.


    "Humans?"


    A loud chaotic voice that sounded like a lot of people were shouting at the same time sounded from the head of the monster as a dazzling red light glowed in its eyes.


    Ivan and the others were stunned when they heard the monster''s words, it could talk!

 Chapter 100: Red tree demon

    The monster could talk!They were all shocked at this discovery; any monster that was capable of speech was no ordinary monster; they had a high probability of becoming guardians in the future and usually possessed strange abilities that were difficult to deal with at times.


    The monster looked at them with a red glow in its eyes for a few seconds more before tossing the dead monster that was of its kind away to the side; the dead monster crashed heavily into the ground from the casual toss and created a crater on the ground.


    Continue your adventure with M-V-L


    The eyes of the group widened; so much damage from a casual toss; this monster certainly possessed strength that rivaled a Partial Lord or even higher!


    After tossing away the dead kindred, the monster turned around and faced them while still holding the Nexus crystal in its hand.


    "It''s a red tree demon!" Eliot suddenly shouted after taking a few looks at the monster. He had seen one before, but it was a long time ago, and he almost didn''t recognize it.


    " You know what that thing is?" Ralph looked at him and asked with a serious face.


    Eliot did not dare to take his eyes off the monster so he answered Eliot without looking at him.


    "I have only encountered one once in the past,"


    "How strong are they?" Ralph asked again.


    "Very strong. Even if I join you guys, we might not be able to defeat it." Eliot replied and the looks on everyone''s face changed.


    Even if he joined them, they would not be able to win. How exaggerated!


    "I advise we retreat for now; let''s observe it first before acting again," Eliot suggested.


    "What do you mean retreat? You''re just afraid because you almost got trashed back then? Remember that you were not as strong as you are now, how will you know without trying?" Glen voiced out from the side while looking at the monster outside.


    Ralph turned to look at Glen, his eyes screaming ''Are you stupid? Didn''t you see that toss just now?''


    "What?" Glen stared at Ralph with a confused face.


    Ralph only shook his head in the end and decided not to bother with Glen, his friend was used to talking without thinking properly.


    Elliot''s face showed an embarrassed expression when he heard Glen''s words. Indeed, he had been shaken by fear of his past experience with the red tree demon.


    "Tell us what you know about it," Ivan suddenly said after a few seconds of observation, the monster also didn''t approach them and just stared from a distance.


    "I¡­I don''t really know. We were just a team of Mortal Kings back then and barely escaped thanks to the arrival of a Partial Lord who held it back. We were unable to find anything aside from the fact that it had incredible speed and strength¡­it can also use magic attacks!" Elliot voiced out after giving it some thought.


    A look of shock appeared on everyone''s face again. That thing could use magic attacks?


    " What magic attacks does it possess?" Ivan asked again, and Elliot said that he wasn''t sure of the numbers; he recounted that he had seen the monster use earth magic and fire magic before.


    Ivan fell silent, a look of contemplation appeared on his face.


    "Everyone gets ready, we''re going to meet it," Ivan suddenly announced after a few seconds, and everyone turned to look at him as if he had gone mad.


    "What? We''ll have to face it sooner or later, better to find out as much as we can so we can make plans on how to fight it. I''ll be in front; you all attack from behind me," Ivan said to them, seeing their conflicted faces.


    ¡­.


    A minute later, all five of them were standing on top of the land carrier and gazing down at the monster. S§×arch* The n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Swoosh!!


    With a gush of Nexus, Ivan summoned a card before turning it into a pitch-black sword. He gripped the sword and turned to look at Ralph and the rest.


    "Stay out of its attack path, I''ll face it head-on," he instructed once more before jumping down; the rest followed him, with each of them bringing out their abilities.


    The red tree demon stared at the group that was rushing towards it. Five humans in bodysuits, a white snake, and two undead creatures.


    "Another wave of pests"


    Its chaotic voice rang out again as the red glow in its eyes intensified and it suddenly grew in size, reaching an impressive size of 14 meters!


    It brought the Nexus crystal that it was holding in front of its chest, its body opened like a wormhole and swallowed the Nexus crystal.


    The look on Ivan''s face didn''t change as he continued to charge forward, running zigzag between the pillars.


    Ivan soon appeared in front of the monster in a flash and slashed at it.


    "Pesky humans!" The monster growled and sent a punch at Ivan.


    Ivan tilted his body to the side, his hand that was holding the black sword moved with lightning speed and created afterimages.


    Swish, swish, swish!


    He executed dozens of sword strikes instantaneously before moving to the side.


    Wooosh!


    The monster''s punch missed Ivan but before it could withdraw its hand, lines suddenly began to appear all over its hand before suddenly exploding into pieces.


    "Impossible!" The monster shouted upon seeing that its entire hand had been cut into pieces by Ivan.


    The other four were shocked as well, they had not seen Ivan''s move at all.


    Ivan''s face remained calm; he jumped to the side and stepped hard on the ground before shooting forward; he saw that the hand of the monster was starting to grow back at a bothering speed, and he had to make sure the monster didn''t get the chance to heal.


    Seeing that Ivan was coming back for it, the red glow in its eyes glowed brighter and it stomped on the ground hard.


    Rumble!


    The ground between it and Ivan suddenly exploded and broke into countless pieces, pieces of rocks flew into the air and shot toward Ivan like bullets.


    Ivan''s eyes narrowed, and he moved from side to side as if he were teleporting while dodging the rocks that were flying at him. Glen and the other who were behind him were not as fast, so they had to pull back while dodging and destroying the pieces of rocks that they were unable to dodge.


    Ivan arrived in front of the monster again; its hand was almost recovered completely, but Ivan was here to chop it off again.


    Swish, swish, swish!


    Ivan slashed out again.


    "Die!"


    The monster shouted at the same time as a huge mouth made of stone burst out from the ground right under Ivan''s feet, it opened wide and snapped at Ivan.


    In the face of the sudden attack, Ivan gave up on attacking the monster and changed his attack path and slashed at the mouth instead.


    The rock mouth shattered into multiple pieces of stones under Ivan''s rampage but this had given the monster the chance to heal completely.


    It immediately punched at Ivan with its other hand.


    Ivan saw that he would not be fast enough to use his sword for this punch, then immediately let go of his sword and met the monster''s fist with a punch of his own.


    BAM!


    Both fists clashed, and a strong shockwave exploded out, destroying the ground around them and creating a crater below their feet; none of them retreated even a single step.


    They were evenly matched in strength!

 Chapter 101: Escape

    The monster let out a roar and threw out another punch with its other hand, a small explosion bursting out right behind its elbow and increasing the speed of the punch.Ivan didn''t back down, his body exploded with Nexus energy and he met the monster''s punch with a fierce fist of his own.


    Ckraak!!!


    Their fists collided, and it sounded like thunder had struck; the ground around them collapsed even more, and Ivan was pushed back for three meters with his legs, creating two long trenches on the ground.


    The strength of the monster had increased!


    Just that, Ivan wasn''t the monster''s only opponent as immediately after it pushed Ivan back, the massive head of a white snake appeared in front of it with its mouth wide open.


    Glen''s snake attacked with speed and bit down at the location of the monster with strength that would be enough to smash a boulder into pieces.


    The snake did get the monster but it suddenly started to struggle after a few seconds, letting out hissing sounds while slamming its tail around.


    Upon taking a closer look, they saw that the red tree demon had grabbed the upper and lower jaws of the snake; preventing it from closing over it.


    "Haa!" With a low shout, the monster lifted the snake''s entire body, which was the size of a train, off the ground and sent it flying away.


    BOOM!!!


    The snake crashed into one of the pillars some meters away and instantly broke through it, it only came to a stop after crashing into the wall.


    "No!"


    Glen shouted as blood trickled down the corner of his mouth, he quickly ran over to where his snake was.


    At this moment, Ivan had already reached the monster once more; five swords rotating around him like birds.


    The monster saw this, and the glow in its eyes changed; Ivan''s swords came down on it at the same time.


    Fwoosh!!


    Suddenly, a strong gust of wind burst out around the monster and created an almost invisible barrier of sharp winds that spun at a crazy speed and made whistling sounds.


    Clang! Clang! Clang!!


    All of Ivan''s swords were immediately sent flying immediately after making contact with the ball of wind that was protecting the monster, they were unable to pass through.


    At the same moment that Ivan''s sword was sent flying, the blue-haired Karin jumped out from behind him with her mallet raised high above her head.


    "Take this!" She screamed before bringing the mallet down on the windshield of the monster.


    BOOM!


    The mallet smashed into the wind barrier, and the strong rebound force sent Karin flying away in the air while the monster was tossed back as well; Karin''s attack had been unable to break through its barrier but ended up sending it flying with the monster inside of it.


    The red tree demon crashed into a pillar that was behind it, shattering it and causing it to collapse and creating a cloud of dust; three shadows immediately shot into the cloud of dust.


    They were Clint, the undead General, and the undead knight.


    But before they could reach the monster, a loud bellow that shook the entire space that they were in resounded. S§×arch* The N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Enough!" Discover exclusive tales at M-V-L


    Right after, a massive explosion took place as the area around the monster burst out with ferocious flames that poured out like a raging wave.


    The shadow that Clint was hiding in immediately disappeared, and he became visible; the wave of flames knocked him and the two undead creatures back.


    From the flame came the red tree demon, still inside its wind barrier. It now had an even more fearsome appearance as the flames solidified into numerous hands behind it; these hands were just as huge as the 14-meter monster and stayed behind it like wings; their excruciating heat caused the ground to melt and turn into magma.


    Ivan''s eyes flashed upon the sight of the monster''s new appearance.


    "Everyone retreat," He ordered while he stood to face the monster, he would hold it back until everyone else had returned to the land carrier.


    Ralph and the others nodded, not daring to delay a minute later; they could already tell that it was no longer in their place to fight this monster, not when it was in such form.


    Glen had already recalled his snake back to his Nexus chamber; Ralph didn''t waste time to recall his undead General and undead knight as the four of them dashed toward the land carrier.


    "Who asked you to leave?" The red tree demon bellowed before dashing forward, wanting to chase after Ralph and the rest.


    Its speed had also increased than before, and it looked like it had faded out of existence, but it was simply because it was too fast.


    "I did," a calm voice rang out as Ivan, with an expressionless look in his eye appeared in front of the monster.


    The glow in the monster''s eyes flickered, Ivan''s speed that had suddenly become on par with its had stunned it.


    "You die first!" The monster growled as the fire hands behind it all punched down at Ivan.


    The heat of these hands was so intense that Ivan felt a light sting on his face but it was still bearable for him as he covered himself with his Nexus energy.


    Performing complicated footwork, Ivan evaded every single punch thrown by the fire hands with a gap of at least half a meter. Although the ground behind him didn''t, it exploded into craters and burning rocks under the rampage of the firehands.


    Iven looked back from the corner of his eyes; Ralph and the rest had already reached the land carrier and were now waiting for him.


    "Not yet," Ivan mumbled under his breath before suddenly twisting his body and executing a rotating leg slam; his foot slammed into the barrier of the monster and created a strong shockwave that split the ground open.


    The monster was shocked as its body lifted off the ground and flew back for dozens of meters like a comet. Ivan wasn''t any better, he allowed himself to be lifted into the air as well as the force from the collision just now sent him flying in the direction of the land carrier.


    While he flew in the air, Ivan stared at the monster with narrowed eyes.


    ''I will deal with you later,'' Ivan thought before suddenly twisting his body and landing gracefully by stepping on a pillar; he then jumped to the ground and ran in the direction of the land carrier.


    The ramp was already lowered, so Ivan jumped in with a fluid movement, and the ramp immediately closed up; Elliot didn''t waste time controlling the land carrier.


    Its metal legs dug into the ground and made an unrealistic jump toward the opening that they passed to come here, the slope that they had passed through to come here was not a slanted hill that they had to climb.


    "Come back here!"


    An enraged shout sounded from behind them, the monster was coming at them like a furious demon!


    (It was a demon after all)


    Elliot did not delay any further and jumped into the opening, the legs of the land carrier stabbed into the walls of the passage and began to climb like a spider; they escaped with such professionalism.


    Luckily, the monster didn''t chase them past the opening of its territory. It stood at the entrance and watched the huge land carrier escape like a frightened spider.

 Chapter 102: Night chat

    The land carrier climbed out and moved for five hundred meters away from where the red tree demon was before finally coming to a stop."Told you it wasn''t a good idea to attack it first, are you guys okay?" Elliot turned around and asked, He had not gotten a chance to talk to them after they returned because he was focused on running, and the thought of the red tree demon suddenly appearing behind them made him flustered; creatures of the dreamscape were unpredictable.


    Turning back, he saw that Glen was helping Karin with treatment. The girl had been hurt by the rock snake in their previous fight, the rebound force from attacking the red tree demon''s windshield had worsened her wound a bit.


    While it wasn''t serious yet, it could affect her battle efficiency seriously when needed.


    After helping her, Glen returned to his seat and sat quietly as he absorbed Nexus energy. His snake had been hurt, and thus, hurting him, he would need a lot of energy for the both of them to recover.


    Ralph and the red-haired Clint were perfectly fine as they had not made contact with the monster; they didn''t get the chance to. Ralph''s undead were thrown back by the monster''s explosion and the flames had driven away all the shadows around it, rendering his shadow element useless.


    It had to be said that Clint''s ability had a very fatal flaw.


    As for Ivan, who had faced the monster head-on on multiple occasions, Elliot could not help but feel astonishment. Ivan''s strength shocked him every time, the young man was just too overpowered!


    "We''ll rest here tonight and continue with anything else in the morning," Ivan announced to them. There should not be any dangers since they had cleared from the entrance of the tunnel to this very spot but there was still a chance of something coming in from outside the tunnel, so Ivan volunteered to keep watch the whole night.


    He came out from the land carrier after they shared their evening rations from the supplies. It was a standard outdoor canned ration used by the towers for Nexulytes on missions to the dreamscape; these kinds of foods could last months without getting spoiled.


    Ivan ate his share expressionlessly while sitting on a large boulder and gazing into the darkness; the food wasn''t too tasty, but it wasn''t bad either.


    At night, the tunnel had become so dark that it felt like a fog; one could barely see two meters around him, and the light from the land carrier only helped to see twenty meters around their current location.


    ...


    As the night grew deeper into darkness, Ivan could be seen lying on his back on the huge boulder just a few meters away from the land carrier.


    Everywhere was silent, the others were either sleeping or gathering Nexus energy.


    It was just the first day and they had already started getting busy.


    Remembering the scale of the mountain range they had seen outside, Ivan could not help but think just how much work they had to do to clear Region 17.


    "But this is what we have been training for for months, isn''t it?" Ivan mumbled to himself before looking to the side and smiling into the darkness.


    A few seconds of silence followed before a person walked out from it, it was Ralph.


    "Yeah, this was what we have been training for. I wonder how the others are doing now," Ralph said softly; he walked over and sat beside Ivan.


    The both of them stared at the land carrier in silence for a while before Ralph spoke up.


    "You¡­are still hiding things, aren''t you?" He squeezed out in a low tone without looking at Ivan.


    Ivan turned to look at him, he blinked once before looking away. Sear?h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    " Sorry,"


    Ralph smiled lightly, seeing that Ivan didn''t deny it; at least the boy was planning to deceive him as well.


    " It wasn''t hard to notice, I know just how strong you are. Well, not exactly sure but I know you''re stronger than this. So why?" Ralph stated, his voice carrying curiosity.


    Ivan lifted his body and sat up straight, he looked at the design of the land carrier meticulously. His thoughts flashed back to when he would curse at every living Nexulytes each night; he was cold, broken, hungry, and stranded; all of this suffering stacked together on him made him disgust the existence of Nexulytes.


    But now, he had become the very thing he prayed death for every day. Not just him, his friends who had been with him for so long were in similar situations as well; does this title now mean they deserve to die as he had wanted previously?


    Suddenly taking out a card, Ralph stared at Ivan with deeper confusion when the boy suddenly summoned a card and began looking at it instead of answering his question.


    To Ralph, the card was just a blank blue card with golden edges but to Ivan¡­it was a present. A birthday gift from the family he never had and on the back of this card were words which no one else other than him could see.


    ''Be careful what you wish for''


    Rubbing his fingers on the words that only he was capable of reading, Ivan turned to Ralph before answering his question.


    "It''s not time yet; I have too many things that need answers and things I have to look for¡­also, I feel they''re pretending, and we''re being monitored," Ivan said, his tone soft but serious.


    Ralph raised an eyebrow.


    "Who are they? The¡­" he trailed off as a word appeared in his mind, causing him to turn and look at the A-22G3.


    He sighed after and looked back at Ivan.


    " I understand, but remember this¡­we''re your friends, no, brothers, and we''ll stay on your side no matter what," Ralph declared.


    Ivan''s blue eyes shook slightly as he stared at his friend, a sad smile forming on his lips as a bizarre idea that he hoped wasn''t true formed in his mind.


    " Hmm, I hope you keep your promise," Ivan said before standing up and started walking, his direction was where the red tree demon was located.


    Ralph stared at his back until the latter disappeared into the thick fog of darkness.


    "I will, no matter what," Ralph uttered before resting his back where Ivan was resting previously.


    Inside the land carrier, a red-haired figure with closed eyes turned his face and gazed outside through the window before looking away.


    ¡­..


    Ivan walked for several minutes, one quiet step after another as he moved through the fog of darkness. He finally stopped in front of a large slope path that cut through a side of the wall, at the end of the slope was a wide opening through which light reflected.


    Without wasting time, Ivan stepped on the slope.


    Driiiiii!


    His foot made a scraping sound as he slid down; he jumped when he was about to reach the opening and scaled across before landing on the ground gracefully.


    He was back in the enormous hall where the red tree demon lived.


    Signs of their fight could be seen everywhere, craters, broken pillars, and destroyed boulders.


    Ivan''s eyes scanned the place before finally landing on the figure of the red tree demon that was devouring the body of the dead monster that they had seen earlier.


    Continue your saga on M-V-L


    Its face, which was made of leaves, opened, revealing a ghastly mouth filled with razor-sharp teeth that bit down on the body of the death-tree demon.


    The monster made slurping sounds as it chewed.


    It turned its head suddenly as if noticing something. The glow in its eyes flickered violently when they fell on Ivan''s figure and the monster immediately tossed its meal to the side and stood up.


    "Human, why did you come alone? Where are your friends? Did you come here to feed yourself to me?" The tree demon said in its chaotic voice that it was as if a crowd was shouting in unison.


    Ivan calmly shook his head before staring back at the glow in the face of the tree demon, his expression was as calm as if he wasn''t facing a monster that could go against a Partial Lord rank Nexulyte.


    "No, I came here," Ivan calmly muttered as a card appeared in his grasp.


    " To kill you."

 Chapter 103: Rematch

    "Eh? To kill me? Just you?" The monster tilted its head upward and laughed crazily, it laughed for a whole minute before stopping and looking at Ivan."Foolish human, I know you''re strong but you overestimate yourself. Come, I''ll make you regret it in your death" The monster growled as its eye settled on Ivan.


    Dum!


    Ivan looked back, his eyes calm and his face void of all emotions; his expression was as if he was looking at a joke that wasn''t funny.


    The laugh of the monster ceased, and it took a step back; Ivan''s expression was like that of a ruthless monster! sea??h th§× n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    (A monster calling a human a monster, Ivan what have you done?!)


    Without saying another word, Ivan tossed the card in his hand into the air.


    Swoosh!


    With a low ringing sound, the card shattered and turned into three colored lights that swirled around Ivan before taking form.


    A dazzling golden bow that stood as tall as Ivan appeared in front of him, a blue arrow bursting with luminance gradually forming on the red string of the arrow before pulling back under an invisible force and facing the red tree demon.


    The colors of the bow and arrow were so dazzling that they illuminated the entire hall with their colors.


    The light in the eyes of the monster changed from red to pitch black as it saw the attack that Ivan was preparing to shoot at it.


    With a sudden burst, the monster slammed its hands into the ground and mounted several defenses on itself.


    It summoned a cloak of fire around itself, then made an armor of hardened rock; it proceeded to create a wall of thick vines in front of itself before finally creating its windshield.


    It had stacked up every defense it could create to welcome Ivan''s attack, the sight of the arrow filled the red tree demon with dread.


    Ivan stared at the scene in front of him, his expression unchanging; with a thought, the arrow flew out.


    Kacha!


    It was like the entire world fell into darkness for a moment, a dazzling white light cut through this darkness, painting the whole world in black and white.


    The arrow flew at a speed that broke through the sound barrier and appeared in front of the red tree demon. It left a long line of destruction as shattered earth froze in the air; unaware that their previous positions had changed.


    With blinding speed, the fast-rotated windshield was as if it wasn''t there.


    Pierced through the wall of vines without leaving a mark.


    Pierced through the armor of hardened rocks around the monster.


    Passed through the cloak of flames without stopping.


    Before finally piercing through the red tree demon, dragging the monster along with it and nailing it to a pillar behind it.


    BOOM!


    The entire hall shook and many pillars cracked, threatening to collapse at any moment.


    Time resumed to flow normal again, but the scene in front of Ivan was like that of an apocalypse; the flight of the arrow had taken less than 0.0001 seconds!


    The monster didn''t even see what happened; it only realized that its defenses had been breached when it was already pinned to the wall, the three-colored arrows stuck in its chest.


    "H-how"


    Spurt!


    The monster choked before a mass of green blood gushed out from the spaces between its leaves.


    It proceeded to grab the body of the arrow in an attempt to pull it out.


    Swiiisss!


    Like sword intent, the luminance around the arrow rushed at its hand and shredded it into pieces.


    The monster let out a pained howl, the luminance of the arrow had also started wrecking his insides.


    *What is this? What did you do, you filthy human!" The monster shouted at Ivan who was currently walking over slowly with a carefree gaze.


    "Don''t talk; die now," Ivan mumbled in response as another card appeared in front of him, which he threw out.


    Wam!


    The card burst into light particles before gathering into a Small Golden flame in front of Ivan. The flame looked small and harmless, but its heat was not something to be taken lightly, as even when it was in the air, the ground around Ivan was already melting because of it.


    Without another word of command, the flame flickered in the air and floated over to the monster that was nailed to the pillar.


    "No! No, stop! I refuse this! Stop and fight me!"


    The monster shouted relentlessly as it watched the flame getting closer and closer, the colors of its eyes changing rapidly as it attempted to push the flame in the other direction by sending gales of wind, vines, and even throwing earth at it; the small tongue of golden flame that looked like it could be easily extinguished simply melted through all of the monster''s attempt and finally reached it.


    The monster watched in horror as the golden flame calmly landed on its body and¡­


    Voom!!


    Like a matchstick that was tossed on a flammable object, the golden flame quickly spread across the monster''s body and swallowed it.


    "Ghraaaahhhhh!"


    A loud anguished bellow came from the monster and spread far into the tunnel for over a hundred meters, echoing through the night.


    But the voice quickly stopped because just after three seconds, the golden flame had reduced the red tree demon to nothing; not its ashes were left as the golden flame had burned it up as well.


    The monster was gone!


    Clang! Clang! Clang!!


    After the monster was eaten up by the golden flame, several objects fell to the ground at the place where the monster had been pinned before, creating small metal-like sounds.


    Ivan turned to look over and a glint flashed past his expressionless eyes, widening them for a moment.


    The objects that had fallen from the remains of the tree demon were¡­Nexus crystals!


    Ivan got closer and counted 8 of them, he was stunned.


    "8 Nexus crystals from a single monster, I wonder how many other monsters it had devoured." Ivan thought while picking up the Nexus crystals and storing them. Discover hidden tales at M-V-L


    Ivan had finished storing away his spoils of war and was about to leave when he suddenly heard heavy footsteps approaching, the ground shook under the pressure of these footsteps.


    He turned over, the sounds coming from the direction of the other opening at the end of this space that led deeper into the tunnel; something was approaching from the deeper side of the tunnel.


    Ivan''s eyes narrowed, he waited to see what was causing the ground to shake from its weight.


    "You withered tree, prepare to die by my hands this time!"


    A loud beastly voice suddenly sounded from the opening.


    ''Another monster that was capable of speech?'' Ivan raised an eyebrow.


    The source of the voice and footsteps finally appeared at this moment.


    It was a nine-meter tall reptile monster that stood on its two legs; it had massive webbed feet with three large claws poking out of them.


    Its entire body was made of bulging muscles that made it as wide as three grown men joined together side by side, its long snout had jagged teeth poking from the side; its vertical yellow eyes rolled in their sockets as they scanned the place.


    This new monster looked massive and powerful!

 Chapter 104: Then die

    "Hmm? What happened here?" The reptile monster was surprised by the sight of that red tree demon''s territory.Signs of fightings cough be seen everywhere, it almost thought that it was in the wrong place.


    The eyes of the monster soon landed on Ivan, it immediately turned over; a human!


    "Hey, human. Where''s that old withered tree, tell me were it is and I''ll kill you painlessly after killing it" The reptile ordered Ivan while licking its teeth with its huge tongue.


    Ivan just stared back expressionlessly, he took a few seconds to observe the reptile.


    While Ivan was doing this, the monster thought that he had become mute from fear for it and began to stride toward him.


    "All these punny humans, immediately loosing their minds to fear. I''ll just eat you then and come for the old tree another time," the monster growled.


    " Dead"


    A calm voice suddenly sounded in the monster''s head, it stopped and looked at Ivan who was the source of the voice.


    " What did you just say, human?" It asked in its beastly voice.


    " I said it''s dead, I killed it" Ivan looked at it right in the eyes and uttered.


    "Hahaha, humans sure know how to tell a joke. You''re telling me that you killed the old tree demon? Do I look like a fool to you? Since you killed it, why don''t you come kill me too?" The monster laughed hard, stomping its leg on the ground repeatedly; it found Ivan''s words to be very ridiculous.


    Forget how a human managed to sneak into the territory of the red tree demon, the old tree was in par with it. Their only flaws being that it was slower than the red tree demon while the latter was weaker than it in terms of raw strength.


    But this little human was saying that he killed the old tree demon? A monster reptile had fought against for years without any side winning? He even looked unharmed, then he killed the tree demon in one strike? How hilarious!


    "Ok, if you want to die too, I''ll kill you" Ivan replied casually, a card appeared in his hand before transforming into a dazzling golden sword with animated golden luminance; this was a weapon that Ivan had never used before, a sword that he had never shown anyone.


    Gripping the sword handle, Ivan took a stance before lifting the sword.


    The expression of the reptile monster instantly changed, it felt a dreadful feeling from the the sword in the hands of the human before it.


    The monster immediately tried to charge at Ivan but it was already too late because Ivan disappeared from its sights suddenly and reappeared in the air front of it the next moment with his golden sword swinging down on the monster.


    "Now, die" Ivan''s calmly said as he slashed down.


    A burst of golden sword wave flew from the blade of the golden sword and shot at the monster, growing larger by the second.


    The monster opened its long snout to say something but the sword wave was faster.


    BOOM!!!


    Like a bomb, the sword wave crashed down on the monster. The later was immediately pushed down to the ground, the monster had crossed its enormous arms in front of its body at the last moment before the golden sword wave had touched it.


    "Grheeee!" It made a thunderous growing sound as the Sword wave pushed it deeper and deeper into the ground, busting craters that were larger than the previous at each push; the monster was soon five meters deep I to the ground and the sword wave was slowly inching deeper into its flesh, blood began to gush out. Sear?h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Ivan had already landed on the ground by then and was watching the scene with a poker face, his eyes lowered as he gazed at the golden sword wave that seemed to be getting brighter by the second; it was as if the sword wave was charging. Read new chapters at M-V-L


    "Should be about time," Ivan mumbled to himself as the golden sword he was holding scattered into light particles.


    At the same time, the golden sword wave that was pressing down on the monster suddenly burst out even brighter, it was like a small sun had appeared in the pit that the monster was pressed into.


    And like a meteor.


    BOOM!!


    An even louder explosion rang out, the sword wave created a ten meter long sword mark on the ground.


    The ground was split open and the reptile that had been struggling previously was slashed in two without being able to resist; its body parts laid in the tower as fountains of blood pumped out and quickly covered the crater, turning it into a small pool of blood.


    Blinking once, Ivan''s expression remained unchanged as his eyes fell on a glistening object that had floated to the surface of the blood pool.


    He bent over and deepd two fingers into the blood pool, his finger tips were smeared with blood as he pulled out the object.


    It was a Nexus crystal!


    Another Nexus crystal, adding to this to the ones that he got from the red tree demon, he had found nine Nexus crystals from killing two monsters!


    "Tch, poor thing. The other one has given me 8 and you only give one" Ivan scoffed after looking at the Nexus crystal for a while but still stored it after; he was only disappointed that this monster hadn''t devoured other monsters with Nexus crystals like the tree demon did, he wasn''t going to reject it even if it was on.


    At this moment, Ivan suddenly heard sounds of footsteps approaching rapidly; the owners of these footsteps seemed to be in a rush.


    Thinking it was about set of monsters, Ivan turned around and prepped to fight. His expression turned into confusion when he realized that the footsteps were coming from the direction that led to where he came from.


    This meant that whatever was coming should have passed through Ralph and the rest.


    "Or could it be them?" Ivan wondered.


    Soon enough, multiple faces appeared in Ivan''s line of sight and he haved a sigh; they were Ralph and the rest of the team.


    Ralph had summoned his two undeads, Glen was riding on top of his snake that was still in the process of recovering, Karin waa dragging her huge mallet behind her, and Clint just stood there; the area around him visibly darker than other places.


    They had all arrived battle ready.


    They immediately spotted Ivan when they arrived, they saw the pool of blood beside him next and their expressions turned serious.


    "Ivan, are you alright? We heard a huge explosion come from this side and trembling even reached our position, we were unable to find you so we came here as fast as we could" Glen


    cried out while jumping down from the back of the snake.


    " I''m fine," Ivan calmly said.


    "What happened here? So much damage" Karin mumbled aloud as she looked around the place.


    Her eyes roaming where Ivan had pinned the tree monster, the new craters, the large split on the ground, and the pool of blood.


    Everyone immediately turned to Ivan for explanation, he was here before then after all.


    Ivan went mute for a few seconds before casually making up a story.


    He explained that the red tree demon had been attacked by another monster and they had fought, causing all of the destructions that they were seeing.


    "The other monster managed to kill the tree demon but was left on the brink of death"


    "Them where is it?" Glen yelped and looked around vigilantly.


    "I finished it off" Ivan added with a straight face

 Chapter 105: Petty

    They all looked at Ivan in surprise when they heard that he finished up the surviving monster that was able to kill the red tree demon, that monster must have been strong too; but it wasn''t too shocking considering how Ivan had been able to match the demon during their previous clash."Where''s the monster''s corpse? What type of monster was it?" Karin asked, her eyes blinked with curiosity.


    Ivan pointed at the pool of blood beside him without saying anything, they all immediately understood what he meant.


    "Where''s Elliot?" Ivan asked after a while.


    "He stayed back in the land carrier," Ralph reported.


    Ivan''s eyes narrowed slightly, he knew that Elliot wasn''t obliged to do anything during the mission since he just had to drive the land carrier for them but the lack of reaction from him when the rest came to look for Ivan cleared Ivan of a few doubts.


    "Alright, let''s go back" Ivan voiced out.


    They returned to where the land carrier was and Elliott opened the ramp for them to enter.


    "You good?" Elliot asked with a concerned look on his face.


    Ivan gave him a long look and ignored him, Karin was the one who filled him in with what Ivan had told them.


    "Well, at least the tree demon is dead now, we can continue moving," Elliot muttered with a relieved sigh.


    ¡­.


    A few minutes later after everything was settled, Ivan took out a few Nexus crystals from his storage and threw one each to Ralph, Glen, Clint, and Karin.


    The four of them caught the objects and took a look, their expressions immediately changed after seeing that it was a Nexus crystal.


    "I got them from the two monsters," Ivan informed them before they could ask.


    Their mouths hung open, Ivan had read their minds and answered the question they wanted to ask.


    "I see, they must have consumed other monsters with Nexus crystals as well. But why give it to us? You found them yourself, we didn''t do anything" Ralph looked at Ivan and said.


    The price and value of a Nexus crystal wasn''t a secret as even ordinary people were aware of its immense value to a Nexulytes growth and its use in creating powerful machines.


    It was a fortune to find one during a person''s lifetime yet Ivan has found quite a few, he would definitely make a fortune if he sold them instead of giving it to them.


    "I still have some, use them to increase your strength; the stronger you are, the more you can do during the mission," Ivan said casually and showed them two more Nexus crystals.


    Added with the four that he had given it, they thought that he had a total of six of these! Who knew how they would react if they knew that Ivan had actually gotten nine Nexus crystals.


    Listening to Ivan''s words that sounded harsh, they knew that it was true. They accepted the Nexus crystals and thanked Ivan.


    Well, all except for one person.


    Clint suddenly threw something towards Ivan and he caught it in midair, it was the Nexus crystal that he had given the red haired young man.


    Ivan looked at the crystal in his hand and lifted his gaze to look at Clint with a raised eyebrow.


    "I don''t accept what I don''t work for, keep it to yourself" Clint said to Ivan before looking away. S§×arch* The Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Ivan''s expression didn''t change and he kept the Nexus crystal with fluid movements.


    He had decided to give Karin and Clint a Nexus crystal each because they had joined his friends to look for him when they thought that he was in danger, it simply be because they were a team and had to look after each other but Ivan still decided to give them just for coming along.


    But since Clint seemed to not care about the value of his gift, who was Ivan to force others to accept things from him? He would gladly keep it.


    Karin stared at Ivan as he kept the Nexus crystal, her mouth wide open as her words stuck down her throat. She turned her gaze to Clint  who was looking outside through the glass of the land carrier while screaming in her mind.


    ''Are you crazy? Why would you reject such a thing? At least pretend to accept it and give it to me!''


    "Hey, what about me?" Elliot called out at this moment, he saw that Ivan was about to start gathering Nexus energy after sharing crystals among the others but ignored him.


    " Are you part of our team?" Ivan gazed at him and said with a cold tone.


    Elliot shrank his neck and shut up.


    ''Petty'' He thought to himself, knowing that Ivan was definitely holding a grudge.


    Ivan returned to what he was about to do after Elliot dropped the matter.


    Glen, Ralph, and Karin stared at the two with a weird expression; they could only sympathize with Elliot, he just lost a chance to get stronger or richer depending on what he would have done with the Nexus crystal.


    The night passed quietly without any more sudden events happening.


    The next day, they continued back to the hall of the red tree demon.


    The place was now empty after the death of the tree demon, they stopped the land carrier there.


    Considering that they had covered quite a distance into the tunnel, they decided to drop a marker here as the first section.


    The marker was a small metal pill-like object that was the size of a thumb, it had a button on top which Ivan pressed after placing it on the ground.


    Vwooom!!


    The marker let out a low buzz before releasing a wave of bright blue light that spread through the place, covering the entire territory of the tree demon and even moving toward the other opening that led deeper into the tunnel.


    ...¡­


    "Don''t hold back, fight seriously!" Karin voiced out with a serious tone as she gripped the handle of her mallet tightly.


    Opposite her, Ivan looked at her with a casual look.


    He slowly stepped forward and vanished, disappearing from Karin''s like of sigh.


    Before Karin knew what was going on, Ivan was already in front of her with one of his hands on her shoulder.


    A gust of wind followed a second later, brushing against her face and blowing her hair up.


    "You sure want me to fight seriously?" Ivan asked calmly and looked her in the eyes.


    Karin jumped, she froze for a few seconds before suddenly stepping back. She dropped her mallet to the ground with a loud bang while still looking at Ivan. Stay updated via M-V-L


    " Hehehe, don''t mind my previous words. Please go easy on me" Karin laughed in embarrassment while rubbing her neck with her other hand.


    Ivan nodded and they started training.


    Ralph and Glen were watching from on top the land carrier while commenting on their attacks from time to time.


    It''s been two days since they started using the territory of the red tree demon as a base, they had trained and recovered during the last two days.


    After their fight last time, Ivan knew that Glen''s snake wasn''t fully recovered yet, same as Karin as well.


    Since this might affect them later on, he suggested that they stayed here for a few days before they continued with the clearing.


    Aside from that, after distributing the Nexus crystals the first time, Ivan had later given his two friends another two Nexus crystals each; increasing the number of their crystals to three each while Ivan only kept two for himself.


    Ralph had expressed his concern about Ivan giving them so many Nexus crystals.


    "Don''t you have to get stronger as well?" Ralph had asked when he received the other two Nexus crystals.


    Ivan had simply said it was fine and told them that he had actually gotten nine crystals.


    As for Glen¡­he even asked if Ivan could sell one more to him.


    "You''re already a Partial Lord, you can easily get more in future" Glen had said but was scolded by Ralph.


    Ivan didn''t find a problem with Glen''s words and even smiled at it, he didn''t find anything wrong with what Glen had said.


    After getting the Nexus crystals, the two had immediately gone to absorb them and during the course of two days, their strength improved.


    Ralph happened to be lacking just a few points of AP and with the three Nexus crystals, he finally stepped into the True King rank!


    Unlike last time when he got a new undead being after entering the Mortal King rank, Ralph didn''t get a new addition to his Undead.


    The change that occurred after reaching the True King was the advancement of his undead General.


    The old man in black robe had been Ralph''s first undead after awakening the necromancer talent, its strength had increased after Ralph entered the True King rank; the color of its robe also changed from black to blood red.


    As for Glen, he had entered the upper rank of the Mortal King rank, reaching an amount of 18.03% AP; he was just two more points away from reaching the True King rank.

 Chapter 106: Metal mosquitoes

    After resting for two days in the territory of the red tree demon, they continued their journey deeper into the tunnel.They passed through the territory of the reptile monster that Ivan had slashed in half a few days ago, the territory of the monster was just next after that of the red tree demon; they could even be considered as neighbors.


    Here, they found a bunch of old skeletons belonging to strange monsters that the reptile had devoured and claw marks painting the walls.


    They didn''t stop and continued on their journey, the land carrier climbing uneven terrains and paths that made no sense.


    They traveled for another kilometer before stopping, they could hear sounds of loud buzzing coming from ahead of them like a swamp of bees.


    To avoid alerting whatever was producing the buzzing sounds, the group came down from the land carrier and proceeded on foot to take a look.


    After passing through a five-meter-wide stone path, they arrived at an opening on the wall of the tunnel.


    It was as if they were standing at the entrance of a hole that was dug in the middle of the tunnel wall without a clear path of reaching it unless one was capable of flight.


    Looking down, they saw that the ground was over a hundred meters away from the opening that they were in and a long river of blood cut the ground in two as it flowed from one crack into another crack at the other end smoothly without splashing around.


    As for the buzzing sounds that they had heard¡­


    Hanging from the ceiling was a gigantic beehive castle with hundreds of openings on it.


    Countless metal mosquitoes with two-meter-long silver needles flew around it; they were the ones making the buzzing sounds.


    These metal mosquitoes were creatures that were three meters huge; they had the body of mosquito and bee wings and long silver needles that were almost as long as their bodies stuck out from their heads.


    "So¡­so many of them!" Glen gasped with wide-open eyes; the number of metal mosquitoes was easily over a hundred of them, and more were still inside the castle.


    "Metal mosquitoes are not particularly hard to deal with; what makes them is their large numbers¡­ Besides, we are not in a favorable terrain to fight them," Ralph voiced out from the side as he stared down at the ground and river that was very far away.


    Everyone silently agreed to what Ralph said; the metal mosquitoes were weak creatures individually, but having a swarm of them come after you was a different matter.


    "Let''s go back first," Ivan gave the order after staying silent for a while, all of them returned to where the land carrier was.


    "Back so soon? What''s with the noise, should we continue?" Elliot rained out questions after they entered the land carrier.


    "No, there''s a giant beehive occupied by hundreds of metal mosquitoes ahead, and the place is a gaping hole with no place to step on," Karin explained to him.


    Elliot clicked his tongue upon hearing this, he knew just as much as they did about how difficult it would be after finding out what was ahead; it could even be labeled as impossible.


    " Unless we can create an attack that can wipe all of them out in one go, we might not be able to kill them all even if we could fly," Elliot shook his head while letting out a sigh.


    They all agreed with him that this mission might come to a stop because of these troublesome creatures.


    " What are we going to do now? Return?" Ralph turned to Ivan and asked, everyone else also turned to look at him.


    Ivan seemed to be in thought for a few seconds, he lifted his gaze shortly after before responding.


    " We wait till we think of something."


    His tone was strong, indicating that he wasn''t planning to fail his first mission as a Nexulyte.


    "What can we even think of? It''s best if we go back and ask for reinforcement and electric cannons," Elliot protested, but Ivan paid no attention to him.


    "What are you so worked up about? It''s not like you''ll have to do anything even if we were to fight those things, your job is just to drive!" Glen looked at Elliot and scoffed after Ivan ignored him.


    Veins on Elliot''s face popped up in anger at Glen''s words.


    " So what if my job is to drive? Will the metal mosquitoes ignore me because of that?!" He yelled at Glen.


    " How is that my business? You''ll have to take care of yourself then or do you want us to protect you as well?!" Glen yelled back.


    " You!!!"


    " Shut it!"


    " Hey, hey, hey! Both of you calm down; you''ll attract the attention of the metal mosquitoes at this rate; we shouldn''t be fighting amongst ourselves!"


    Karin hurriedly stepped in between the two who looked like they were about to charge at each other at any moment given.


    " Fighting? He''s just a Mortal King, can he fight me?" Elliot sneered. S§×arch* The N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    " Oh yeah? How about saying that to my snake''s face?!" Glen retorted, and they began to argue again; Karin was trying her best to prevent them from starting a fight while Clint simply watched from his seat.


    At this moment, Ivan and Ralph completely ignored the scene going on inside the cabin and were discussing silently.


    "What are we going to do now?" Ralph asked in a low tone.


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    "I¡­don''t know yet," Ivan mumbled in response while gazing at his palms.


    "Then don''t you think we should head back? I can''t think of a way that we can pass without facing those mosquitoes, and that itself looks like a bad idea," a brief pause followed before Ralph continued. " Unless you''re going to¡­" he trailed off because Ivan turned to stare at him at this moment.


    They looked at each other for two seconds before Ivan looked away, not saying anything.


    "I see, be careful" Ralph patted Ivan''s shoulder before going to his seat. He wasn''t bothered about Ivan still refusing to speak, the boy had always been like that; in Ralph''s opinion, Ivan just needed time.


    He always opened up in the end anyway.


    Time slowly ticked by as the members of the group did their own thing while waiting for Ivan''s next order, which didn''t seem to be forthcoming.


    Since they had nothing to do, Karin decided to drag Elliot out to train with her since Ivan declined her request this time and Ralph didn''t seem to be interested.


    Glen came out to watch but his main goal was to taunt Elliot.


    While this was going on, no one except Ralph noticed that Ivan wasn''t present anymore.


    The boy had sneaked away without them noticing.


    Currently, Ivan was standing in front of the opening, a card in his right hand and a calm look in his eyes.

 Chapter 107: Coming back with a swarm of metal mosquitoes

    Ivan''s gaze settled on the gigantic beehive castle hanging from the ceiling, numerous metal mosquitoes flew from one opening on it to another.Some transported eggs that had metallic shells, while others just flew around aimlessly and made loud noises with their wings.


    "How disgusting," Ivan mumbled after a while before tossing the card and a familiar scene played out.


    Multicolored light particles formed into a long bow and arrow of three different colors, their luminance immediately attracting the attention of the metal mosquitoes nearby.


    BIZZ! BIZZ!! S§×arch* The n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The mosquitos immediately became noisy upon discovering the existence of a human; a group of them separated from the rest and flew toward Ivan, their long needles pointing straight at him.


    Without a change in his expression, Ivan watched as the string of the arrow pulled back before bouncing forward.


    Once again, the place turned black and white as the arrow shot out.


    Passing through the metal mosquitoes that were approaching Ivan and then piercing through the beehive castle within a time frame of countless military seconds.


    The metal mosquitoes that were first to make contact with the arrow didn''t even realize that they had been pierced by it until three seconds later, they were still buzzing toward Ivan when suddenly.


    Puff!!!


    Their bodies exploded holes and blood gushed out like a broken pipe, falling down and mixing with the stream of blood below.


    The metal mosquitoes swayed in the air, confused as to what happened before their bodies plummeted down to the ground as they lost strength in their wings.


    At the same time, the arrow had made contact with the beehive castle, and its ferocious luminance spread through the entire castle.


    All of the metal mosquitoes were startled by the sudden appearance of the sudden light but better they could even understand what it was.


    BOOM!!!


    A thunderous explosion burst out, and the gigantic beehive castle lit up like fireworks and scattered into the air. Pieces of it, as well as corpses of hundreds of metal mosquitoes, rained down from the sky; it was like a painting, a beautiful work of art that all Nexulytes would want to have in their homes.


    Ivan looked at the scene with a pleased expression, he had annihilated more than half of the population of the metal mosquitoes with a single attack.


    BIZZ!!!¡Á99


    The remaining metal mosquitoes watched the scene of their home and kins falling down to the stream of blood like rain drops, they immediately flew into a frenzy and began to buzz crazily.


    They all turned in the direction that the strange light that destroyed their home had come from, and their pitch-black eyes all landed on Ivan''s figure, which was already retreating.


    Like arrows released from an iron bow, they all dove down and went after Ivan. Read the latest on M-V-L


    ¡­..


    Back where the others were minding their business, doing their own stuff, and staying out of trouble.


    They suddenly heard a thunderous explosion that sent their skins jumping, the explosion was so loud and the impact rocked the ground; broken pieces of jagged stones even fell from the ceiling.


    "What the hell? What''s that!" Elliot immediately stopped his charge toward Karin and asked in shock"


    " It''s an explosion, it came from over there!" Glen replied while pointing in the direction of the five-meter wide stone path that led to the opening; he was equally shocked and had responded instinctively.


    But Elliot thought that Glen was trying to mock him for asking something that was so obvious.


    "Of course I know that, I was asking what caused it!" He retorted in his defense.


    "Guys look!" Karin suddenly shouted from behind them while pointing ahead.


    Everyone turned to look and what they saw caused their eyes to almost pop out of their sockets.


    Ivan was running toward them, leading a wave of metal mosquitoes behind him!


    The mosquitos, though not as many as the ones they had seen, still numbered over a hundred; they assumed that more would be appearing soon.


    What the hell did that guy do? Why is he leading a swamp of those things over here?!


    Ivan had yet to reach them when his voice rang in the air.


    "Prepare to fight, these are all the metal mosquitoes left!"


    Everyone "..."


    Ehh? Are you joking with us? We saw their castle ourselves, and there were over a thousand of them; how can these few be everything?!


    But they didn''t have time to think too much about this; Ivan had almost reached them, and the mosquitos were closely behind him.


    All of them immediately got into combat mode.


    Elliot swiftly slipped into the A-22G3 while Clint came out of it.


    He immediately started the A-22G3 and made it stand on its metal legs.


    Glen immediately summoned his snake, the snake appeared and immediately circled itself around Glen while hissing at the incoming Ivan and the metal mosquitoes behind him.


    The undead General, who was now clad in a red robe, stood quietly to Ralph''s right side while the undead knight and its shadow horse stood to his left.


    Karin stood not far from them, both her hands gripping her mallet tightly.


    Clint was right under the A-22G3 and had summoned six shadow tentacles that wriggled around him like the limbs of an octopus.


    They were all prepared to welcome Ivan and the metal mosquitoes.


    Ivan reached them at this moment and came to an abrupt stop, turning around at the same time and reaching out.


    He grabbed the silver needle of the metal mosquito that was close to him before slamming it into another metal mosquito.


    BAM!


    Both metal mosquitoes were sent flying through the air, spinning and crashing into the hard wall a distance away.


    The two immediately turned into bloody pulps after making contact with the wall.


    At the same time, he threw those metal mosquitoes away, another one appeared right in front of Ivan with its silver needle stabbing at his face; the distance between his face was just the gap of a nail but before it could touch Ivan''s face, a massive mallet appeared out of nowhere and crashed into the side of the metal mosquito.


    The metal mosquito immediately exploded into a bloody mess and was sent flying away.


    Immediately after Karin''s entrance, a massive white snake dropped in front of her and swiped its tail at the incoming metal mosquitoes, slapping a few of them into blood mists.


    Large shadow tentacles shot from behind the snake and stabbed into three metal mosquitoes each, skewering them.


    The mass of metal mosquitoes swallowed them at this moment, it was as if they were covered by a black wriggling cloud; only the cabin area of the land carrier and the head of the white snake could be seen, the others were battling the metal mosquitoes inside this black could as flashes of red light could be seen occasionally.

 Chapter 108: Fighting the metal mosquitoes

    Within the cloud of metal mosquitoes, Ivan and his team were fighting the monsters with everything they got; making sure that they didn''t get stabbed by the silver needles.A portion of the mosquitoes attacked the land carrier relentlessly, trying to break through the windows of the cabin.


    Elliot controlled the metal legs of the land carrier professionally, knocking the mosquitos away from the land carrier or pinning them to the ground.


    A few meters away from the land carrier, Glen was standing within the circled body of the white snake as the snake bit down one metal mosquito after the other and slapped more of them from the air; every metal mosquito that tried to dive at Glen would either get crushed in the large mouth of the white snake or sent flying by the swipe of the snakes tail.


    Crash!


    Glen tilted his body, dodging the half-crushed body of a metal mosquito that was bitten in half by the white snake; the silver needle of the mosquito stabbed into the ground right beside Glen and caused pieces of rocks to fly at him.


    Glen waved his hands and knocked away the pieces of rocks before quickly placing his palms on the body of his snake and pouring Nexus energy into the body of the snake to mend its scales that had gotten damaged by some of the metal mosquitoes that managed to land their silver needles on its body.


    Wooosh!!!


    A large amount of Nexus energy gushed out from Glen''s palms and sank into the body of the snake; the torn scales on its body immediately began mending themselves at a crazy speed.


    Glen huffed slightly, small sweat dripping down his face.


    He suddenly heard a peculiar swooshing sound and turned his head, his eyes widened as he saw a metal mosquito shooting right at him with its silver needle stretched forth like the top of an arrow; it had managed to slip past the protection of the white snake and was now coming for Glen.


    Large beads of sweat immediately began to pour out from Glen''s body as he hastily covered himself with Nexus energy and prepared to meet the mosquito head-on.


    Just then, a large red mallet suddenly appeared out of nowhere and smashed into the side of the metal mosquito, shattering it into pieces on the spot.


    The shattered remains of the metal mosquito flew past the face of the stunned Glen, some of its blood even splashing on his face.


    "You all right?"


    Karin''s voice jolted Glen awake as the girl landed beside him and began to smash the metal mosquitoes that managed to pass the white snake into pieces.


    Shattered bodies of metal mosquitoes would fly in the air with every movement of her mallet that was already covered in the blood of these pests.


    "Looks like Ivan didn''t lie. The mosquitos are really reducing in numbers, and more don''t seem to be coming to join them!" Karin shouted out to Glen without looking back, she focused on smashing every single metal mosquito that approached them to a bloody pulp.


    Glen was awed by Karin''s show of strength, not a single metal mosquito managed to survive a strike from her.


    The metal mosquitoes were fast yet the girl was able to follow up with their movements, swinging her huge mallet with a speed that Glen found shocking.


    Not far from where Karin was destroying metal mosquitoes, Clint was causing an unrealistic scene with his shadow tentacles.


    With both eyes closed, Clint stood still in one place as he controlled the movements of the shadow tentacles with hand gestures.


    Suddenly, waving one of his hands to the side, two shadow tentacles lashed out and skewed two metal mosquitoes; he twisted his wrist, and the two shadow tentacles spun around him before skewering another two metal mosquitoes that were coming from that direction.


    Two of the shadow tentacles were constantly swaying above him, acting like propellers that lashed at any metal mosquitoes that came from the air.


    The remaining two shadow tentacles remained at his sides and would suddenly stab at any mosquito that managed to survive the propeller tentacles, some had only gotten their wings snapped off and would try to rush toward Clint with their skinny legs only to get stabbed by the two tentacles staying by his side.


    Around Clint was a small hip of shredded metal mosquitoes; not a single one of them was in one piece as they had been torn into two or more pieces, while others had gaping holes punctured through their bodies.


    It was as if Clint was standing in an encirclement of black corpses of the metal mosquitoes, almost reaching up to his waist.


    Just in front of where Clint was dominating, Ralph wasn''t any less ferocious than the red-haired youth.


    Despite being a newly promoted True king, Ralph''s battle prowess with his undead had reached a whole new level!


    Before, he was only able to instruct the two undead by instinct, giving them a hint of what to do which luckily worked all the time; the two undead didn''t need to make coordinated attacks; they would also attack on their own whenever they felt he was in danger.


    But after reaching the True King rank¡­Ralph was now able to communicate with his undead! Although their communication was weak, he could pass orders and roughly receive what the two were thinking through a slight link with their emotions.


    He had already guessed that his undead were capable of feeling emotions after the undead knight refused to attack the undead General when it was first summoned.


    This had finally been proven after Ralph reached the True King rank! The undead knight would always have a feeling of kinship whenever it was around the undead General and Ralph would feel its desire to assist whenever the undead General was fighting an opponent.


    This was the same for the undead General.


    And at this moment, both of them were giving Ralph a special feeling¡­.


    ''Protect at all costs!''


    Both undead, one in front and one behind him collaborated and protected Ralph in this storm of metal mosquitoes, quickly building two small hills with their corpses.


    They were now able to carry out collaborated attacks; Ralph was stunned to see the undead General gripping the silver needle of a metal mosquito and tossing it back, only for the mosquito to get split in two by the sword of the undead knight.


    Another shocking scene was the undead General stepping on the Shadow horse of the undead knight and using it as a springboard to launch itself into the air while the undead knight momentarily took its position in front of protection Ralph.


    Aside from all of this, the most ferocious of them all was still none other than Ivan himself.


    Swish! Swish! Swish!!


    Gripping two three colored swords in both hands, Ivan was like a fish in the water as he waved through the cloud of metal mosquitoes, cutting them down like grass.


    His movement speed was blinding, and not a single metal mosquito was able to even touch him with their silver needle. Ivan seemed to teleport from place to place within the storm of mosquitos, and more than three mosquitoes would suddenly burst into multiple tiny pieces after getting slashed multiple times by Ivan''s sword.


    Ivan suddenly stomped on the ground hard and launched himself into the air before doing a tornado spin with both swords stretched out.


    Sharp wind blades were sent out under the immense speed of his spin, cutting dozens of metal mosquitoes in the air into pieces.


    Immediately, Ivan landed on the ground; more of them dove at him madly, but Ivan was already gone once again.


    Swoosh!!


    The next thing they saw was a flash of sword light before all of them burst out with fountains of blood and rained down.


    Ivan alone had created multiple hills with their corpses and their blood was already flowing slowly.


    The fight continued for minutes before the last metal mosquito was finally smashed into the ground by Karin''s mallet.


    BOOM!!


    The ground exploded into a crater as blood gushed out from under Karin''s mallet, the fight was finally over.


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 Chapter 109: Decision

    Glen fell down on his butt, panting heavily."What the hell was that? Why did you end up getting chased by them?!" Glen looked at Ivan and asked in a loud voice.


    The place now was littered with the corpses of the metal mosquitoes, and their blood was like a small pond that reached above their ankles.


    Everyone else also turned to look at Ivan, waiting for an explanation.


    " I went to take a look at the beehive castle when a strange monster suddenly attacked them and self exploded, destroying their castle and killing the majority of them; the remaining mosquitoes came at me after that" Ivan explained calmly, causing everyone to put on strange expressions.


    The heck? Who would believe such a story?


    "It''s your choice to believe me or not," Ivan added after seeing the looks on their faces as he turned the two swords into light particles and allowed them to disappear.


    Unable to find a response to Ivan''s words, the group could only click their tongues before releasing their abilities and finding clear spots to rest.


    The fight had gone well unexpectedly, and nobody was injured; one should not underestimate the defense of their protective body suits.


    After a while, they checked the corpses of the metal mosquitoes and couldn''t find a single Nexus crystal.


    Well, it wasn''t too surprising though. Finding Nexus crystals depended greatly on luck.


    "So what''s next now?" Elliot turned to Ivan and asked.


    "We continue moving," Ivan stated.


    Soon, everyone was ready inside the land carrier and they resumed their journey.


    Arriving at the opening, the group was awed by the sight of what was left of the beehive castle; its remains looked like a bomb had exploded in its center, and a part of the ceiling had been destroyed as well; blood painted the remaining part of the ceiling.


    Looking down, they saw particles of what must have been the other part of the castle as well as charred corpses of countless metal mosquitoes.


    "Just what sort of monster came to attack these metal mosquitoes? Good thing we didn''t run into it, I doubt that the land carrier could resist such an explosive attack!" Elliot remarked when he saw the amount of damage caused by the so-called monster that Ivan claimed had attacked the metal mosquitoes.


    Karin and Glen nodded in agreement while Ralph took a side glance at Ivan, neither of them saying a word.


    Thoowp!


    Thwoop!


    After taking a while to observe the ghastly sight, Elliot controlled the A-22G3 and came out from the opening.


    Stabbing one metal leg after another into the side of the wall, the land carrier started to climb down the wall of the tunnel like a robotic spider.


    It took over five minutes for the land carrier to reach the ground, it almost slipped off a couple of times.


    After reaching the ground, they took a closer look at the stream of blood.


    It made a sound that was similar to that of a running stream and let out a pungent stench that penetrated the cabin through the tightly closed window, making them flinch their noses.


    Quickly locating the next exit, they finally left the space where the stream of blood was located, entering a large long stone corridor with strangely shaped rocks.


    The land carrier moved deeper into the stone corridor, taking several turns before finally arriving at a small opening that led into another smaller stone corridor.


    A problem arrived at this moment, the path ahead was too small for the land carrier to move through.


    "What do we do?" Karin asked while moving her gaze from the path ahead and Ivan''s face.


    Ralph turned to look at Ivan as well, waiting for his decision.


    There were only two options at this point anyway, either they abandoned the land carrier or gave up on the mission here.


    After thinking for a few seconds, Ivan raised his gaze and stared at them seriously.


    Everyone''s shoulders subconsciously tensed as they awaited what Ivan was about to say.


    "We''ll continue on foot," Ivan announced. " Everyone, pack up."He added before rising to his feet and moving to the back of the land carrier.


    " I guess this is where I stop then" Elliot suddenly voiced out at this moment, causing everyone except Ivan to turn and look at him.


    " What?" Elliot questioned when he saw all of them staring at him.


    " What do you mean ''what''? You just said you are stopping here?" Glen spat at him.


    " And so? Is it too difficult for you to understand?" Elliot shot back.


    "You said you are stopping here, aren''t you coming with us?" Karin joined from behind Glen.


    " Seems you guys are forgetting something here; my job is to handle the land carrier," Elliot stated slowly.


    " So you are going to stay here until we come back?" Clint, who had not said a word unless spoken to since the start of their mission spoke up at this point, stunning everyone.


    Elliot chuckled lightly before saying that he would wait for them as this would not be the first time that he had been out alone on missions.


    " I''ll wait for you for a month and leave if you haven''t returned by then"


    Elliot informed them.


    " Don''t waste time on him, let''s go" Ivan called out to them after giving Elliott a long look.


    They took a bigger portion of the supplies into their storage before exiting the land carrier.


    Without looking back, they advanced into the smaller stone path on foot; leaving Elliot behind with the land carrier.


    ...¡­


    Days flew by in a flash and a week had passed in the dreamscape. S~ea??h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Inside the tunnel, Ivan and his group had made great progress during their missions. They had placed another two markers, setting up another two sectors.


    During the week, the group cleared out numerous monsters, improving their teamwork with each other as well as their individual strength.


    Glen had successfully entered the True King rank while the rest of them had increased their AP as well.


    As for Ivan.


    ...


    NAME: Ivan Von Charles


    Talent Group: Primal Talent type: Wisher Talent: Wish card


    Talent lv: SS AP: 46.23% Rank: TRUE KING


    ....


    He was getting closer to the True Lord rank and was just four AP points short.


    Currently, they were resting in the territory of a group of yuukis that they had cleared up three days ago; all of them looking visibly different from how they looked a week ago.


    Their hairs had grown longer and were covered in dirt, their gazes sharper and they gave off auras of seasoned veterans.


    "Everyone gathered, we''re moving forward now."

 Chapter 110: The village head is very demure

    BOOM!!Ivan jumped off a high point and landed on the ground with a loud sound, four more similar sounds rang out as Ralph, Karin, Glen, and Clint jumped and landed behind him.


    "Where is this place?" Karin muttered while looking around.


    They seemed to have landed in the middle of a giant crater that looked like it was dug by humans, a small village with ten to fifteen ancient stone houses could be seen in the middle of the crater.


    The houses looked very ancient and abandoned; parts of them were missing as well as if a battle had occurred here in the distant past; the village was eerily silent, but a faint glow of a bonfire lit up the place, burning silently.


    "Fire? Are there people here? That''s impossible!" Glen voiced out.


    "Let''s take a look around first, stay close," Ivan ordered before taking the lead and stepping into the small village; the rest followed behind him.


    The walls of the houses in the village were made from ash-colored stones, and their rooftops were made from straws tied together, open square windows with torn pieces of clothes dangling over as coverage were the only thing that allowed light to enter these structures aside from the open entrance that had wooden doors.


    Many of the buildings had long collapsed, and pieces of the collapsed buildings littered the streets; craters and broken items could be found at a few places in the village.


    Moving through the quiet roads, the ground was constantly on the alert in case of any sudden monster that might appear but none showed up; they only found something after reaching the center of the village where the bonfire was.


    The group stood about ten meters away from the bonfire, with looks of surprise on their faces as they stared ahead.


    Sitting around the bonfire were the figures of what looked like two men who had their backs facing them. These two figures wore old, tattered cloaks that rubbed the ground behind them, and their heads lowered as they chewed on something in their grasps without making a sound.


    One of them suddenly stopped as if it had sensed something; it turned its neck and looked at Ivan''s crew; it looked just like an average middle-aged man.


    A look of surprise appeared on his face upon seeing the five of them; he blinked before suddenly flashing a wide smile and waving at them, his lips stained in red liquid, making him look almost like a certain villain with white makeup.


    The expressions on the faces of Glen and Karin turned grim, they gasped and took a step back while covering their mouths with one of their hands. Ralph had a serious expression on his face as he stared at the smiling man who was waving at them with narrow eyes, Ivan and Clint remained expressionless.


    The reason for their various reactions was that the man who was waving at them was too pale to be a human, and his smile was creepy. What''s more, it was waving at them with the severed arm of a person that was half chewed! The bone poked out from the elbow joint, and severe bitemarks riddled the arm.


    And the red liquid on the man''s face was¡­blood! The damned thing was waving at them with the arm of another person!


    The second figure in a tattered cloak also turned at this point, just like the first, it was a pale-faced old man with blood stains on his face and holding onto a half-eaten leg; a huge chunk of the leg muscles had been bitten off which this figure was currently chewing while waving the leg at Ivan and the rest as if inviting the five to come join them in their meal.


    "Gross!" Glen exclaimed, feeling his insides turn at the carnivorous sight.


    Karin wasn''t able to hold it in anymore, she bent over and started retching hard.


    "Human limbs, where did they get them?" Ralph mumbled.


    "Those can''t be Elliot''s, right? Please tell me it''s not" Glen voiced out with wide eyes.


    Although he argued with the guy a lot, they needed him to control the land carrier for them and take them back to the base so he didn''t want anything to happen to Elliot.


    "No, it can''t be. They would have crossed us to reach where Elliot is" Ralph replied with a thoughtful expression.


    " Ah, that''s a relief," Glen sighed while patting his chest.


    " Stay focused!"


    Ivan''s voice rang out at this point and Glen immediately returned his attention to the bonfire and the two figures sitting in front of it. S§×ar?h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The two had stood up at some point and were not facing the five, tossing the limbs in their grasps away; the limbs landed near a few more that were in front of the bonfire.


    With the two figures now facing them, the irritated looks on Glen and Ralph''s faces became more vivid; even Ralph couldn''t keep a straight face anymore, and his face showed clear disgust while Clint frowned.


    They were now able to see clearly what the two figures looked like, and it wasn''t friendly in the slightest; their features were mind-troubling.


    Firstly, they stood at a height of 7 ''0 feet; their ash skin looked like they were molded from remains of burned wood, which stopped at their necks while their faces were as white as paper.


    Their bodies were like pieces of dried skin wrapped around twisted bones, creating a disgusting sight as some of the bones poked the surface of their skin from time to time.


    Their legs were a large mass of twisted flesh dripping with slimy substance and constantly swelling and bursting blisters, they strangely didn''t make any sound while popping.


    "Hello travelers, welcome to our village. Would you like to check into a place to rest?" The figure with the face of an old man said with the voice of a cute young woman, his lips not moving as the wide creepy smile remained plastered on his face.


    *Or would you like something to eat first? We have varieties of dishes." The other one that had the face of a middle-aged man joined. His voice was like that of a young teenage boy; his lips also did move and it seemed like their words were welcoming right from their necks.


    The sight of this made Karin''s skin crawl and she shivered slightly.


    "How about you die?" Ivan uttered calmly, his eyes dull and his face expressionless.


    The two figures turned their gaze to Ivan; their eyes rolled disgustingly in their sockets as if trying to force themselves out, and their smiles reached right under their eyes.


    "Sorry, we don''t offer such services in our village. Maybe you should ask our village head?"


    The both of them announced in unison with their childish and girly voices.


    "Your village head? Who is your village head?" Ivan asked them.


    The body of the two figures began to twist, their necks elongating and their mouths tearing wide as they began to laugh like crazy psychopaths.


    "Hahahaha, our village head is the most generous"


    "The most caring"


    "The most mindful"


    "The most courtesy"


    "The most demure!"


    "He is the protector of our village, all hail the village head!"


    As if reciting a memorized poem, the two creatures that now looked nothing like humans sang with great joy in their voices.


    Immediately after they recited the last lines¡­


    BOOM!!!


    The ground right beneath the bonfire exploded and sent a cloud of dust into the air, Ivan and his cohort could see the vague outline of a huge creature within the cloud of dust before an extremely cute voice rang out.


    "Misters, are you going to hurt us?"

 Chapter 111: Glens partial transformation

    Ivan frowned deeply when he heard the voice; it was like that of a four-year-old little girl who had just become fluent in speech, very eager to say as many words as possible.His eyes narrowed as he fixed his gaze on the cloud of dust, waiting for it to settle; two bright red glowing eyes gazed back at him from within the cloud of dust.


    "Misters, do you not like my Village?"


    "Are you bad people? We promise to be good, so please don''t hurt us"


    " You can''t leave without eating, Mother will be offended. She said to feed all visitors"


    "Misters please be kind and not hurt us?"


    The cute voice kept shouting as the cloud of dust gradually settled, revealing the horror that was making such a noise.


    The eyes of the group shrank, and every single one of them took a step back; even Ivan wasn''t able to maintain steeze this time.


    The so-called village head was an embodiment of abominations!


    Body made from twisted bones and tangled flesh in a very mind-troubling manner, a face featuring that of three people screaming at the same time but their screams couldn''t be heard, limbs made from folding rotting flesh with gigantic blisters that would pour out tiny worms upon popping, and chest that wriggled continuously as if snakes were struggling to come out.


    This so-called village head was the most disgusting-looking monster that the five of them had ever seen in their lives!


    On top of its head, the bonfire was still burning ever so quietly and a stick with the head of a little girl attached to it was standing in the middle of the bonfire with two glowing red eyes and a twisted smile on her bloody face.


    "I understand now! The words that these monsters are saying are recorded words of people they devoured!" Ralph suddenly exclaimed at this moment, a look of rage formed on his face as he gazed at the village head who was speaking in a little girl''s voice.


    Ivan''s eyes flashed with a mad glint.


    If what Ralph said was true, doesn''t that mean that everything the village head has said was said to it by a certain little girl in the distant past? Then, that little girl¡­


    "Clint and Ralph, take on the old man. Glen and Karin, the other one is yours; I''ll handle the village head myself" Ivan ordered, his voice low but chilly. Ralph and Glen, who had known Ivan for a long were able to tell that he was angry right now.


    " Yes!"


    They all answered before splitting into two groups, Ralph and Clint moved toward the figure with the face of an old man while Karin and Glen went for the other one. S§×arch* The n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Travelers, what are you doing with my son? You-you killed him!"


    The figure with the face of an old man screamed, its elongated neck twitched violently before tearing open, and countless black spiders landed on the ground before increasing in size, each of the spiders easily reaching the size of a baby hippo.


    Their black eyes scattered over their eyes, their long legs pierced the ground with ease, and their bodies were dripping with green liquid that was similar to what came out from the blisters on the monster''s legs.


    The spiders immediately rushed at Clint and Ralph after they finished growing in size, turning into a small black tide on the ground.


    Both of them instantly prepared, Ralph summoned his undead General first.


    The old man in a red robe moved in front of Ralph. The spiders immediately jumped on his robe and tried to tear it to pieces, but their legs were unable to penetrate.


    Pah!


    Pah!


    Pah!


    With swift movements, the undead General threw out his hands and punched all of the spiders and they exploded into blood mist.


    Sizzling sounds came from the undead General''s fists after eliminating the first wave of spiders, its skin corroded slightly.


    "Careful! The green substance of the spiders has a corrosive effect!" Ralph called out and informed everyone before releasing Nexus energy to heal the undead General''s fists.


    Just beside Ralph, Clint placed both of his palms on the ground after hearing Ralph''s warning, a large mass of shadow rose from the ground like a riding wave and washed toward the spiders.


    The shadow reached the spiders and crashed on them before fussing with their own shadows; this didn''t have any effect until suddenly, the shadows of every spider that was rushing at the Clint rose from the ground and pounced on the spiders before tearing them to shreds.


    All of the little spiders were soon dealt with, leaving just the monster itself to face the two.


    "Help, help! The travelers are killing people, why doesn''t anyone believe me?!" A shriek rang from the monster with the face of an old man as its arms began to twist violently as well and started stretching to abnormal lengths! Its arms soon grew like vines, coiling on the ground beside it.


    Swoosh!


    Its body palm suddenly came flying at Ralph like a sudden hook, its speed like that of an arrow released from a crossbow.


    Clap!


    Just before the palm could touch Ralph, the undead General appeared in front of him and knocked the palm away with a slap.


    Clint created a huge shadow spear and hurled it at the monster only for the body of the monster to create a huge mouth of flesh and bones to catch the shadow spear before it dissolved.


    Ralph and Clint frowned, this was bound to be an intense fight but they were ready for it!


    On Glen''s side.


    After splitting up, Glen summoned his white snake and used the ability that he had gained after reaching the True King rank.


    Partial transformation!


    Just like Karl Owen, who was able to fuse with his shadow panther to assume a different form, letting man and summoned beast fight as one, Glen was now capable of such transformation after reaching the True King rank too!


    Although his transformation was only partial and he wasn''t able to fully use the skill like Karl did back then.


    Right now, Glen''s head was covered with a white snake mouth. The size was modified just right enough to fit the shape of his head. In front were two horizontal snake eyes that acted as visors for him and allowed him to see.


    The snake helmet had an open mouth with two long fangs stretching down, Glen''s lips could be seen through this open mouth.


    He had white scales protecting a few parts of his body, such as his chest, stomach, and back. On both hands were white gloves covered in scales, and his fingers were covered by incredibly sharp-looking claws!


    A big white snake tail stretched out from the back of his waist, and Glen was able to control it just the way he instructed his snake!


    This was Glen''s partial transformation form!


    In this form, Glen''s speed increased greatly and he became as nimble as a snake, carrying out maneuvers that he wouldn''t dare before in his body.


    The scales were hard enough to resist the attack of a True King as well; he just had to avoid getting hit in an area that was not protected by scales.


    Just like the other monster, the one that Glen and Karin were facing was also capable of summoning minions to help it.


    But instead of spiders, its body started to bulge and swell before suddenly splitting open and four humanoid monsters with faceless features climbed out from the split.


    "No, no! Travelers ate my husband and kids, the old man isn''t crazy!" The voice of the woman cried out from within the monster while the split on its body closed up.


    At this time, the four faceless humanoids charged at Glen and Karin, their speed blinding, and they left afterimages everywhere.


    But Glen and Karin were not to be outdone.


    In his half-transformed form, Glen bent his body forward before shooting out like a bullet.


    Zip! Zip! Zip!


    Sounds of claws slicing through the air resounded as Glen appeared behind one of the faceless humanoids the next second.


    The faceless humanoid froze in place.


    One second¡­


    Two seconds¡­


    Three seconds¡­


    Multiple white lines suddenly began to appear on the body of the faceless humanoid before it suddenly exploded into pieces with a low ring.


    Glen had sliced it with his claws without the faceless humanoid realizing it!

 Chapter 112: Glen x Karin, teamwork

    The other faceless humanoids saw that one of their kind had been killed; they all immediately rushed at Glen in a frenzy, but before they could even reach him.BOOM!


    A red mallet suddenly appeared in the air in front of them and struck down, ground in front of them exploded, sending the three faceless humanoids into the air along with shattered stones.


    While still in midair, Karin jumped and smashed one of the faceless humanoids with her mallet like a baseball, sending it flying in Glen''s direction.


    Glen instantly zipped past it, and the faceless humanoid turned into multiple pieces; it had been shredded by Glen as well.


    The remaining two humanoids landed a few meters away before running toward the two again, one jumping at Glen while the other jumped at Karin.


    Karin moved to the side and dodged, letting the faceless humanoid land on the ground before swinging her mallet at its legs.


    BAM!!


    Karin''s mallet smashed into the right leg of the faceless humanoid ruthlessly, instantly breaking it as it bent in an unnatural position with its flesh raptured through which a bloody bone stuck out.


    The faceless humanoid was sent flying after by the force of the hit and crashed into the ground, creating small craters on its way before smashing into the side of the wall and making a wide crack in it.


    It was yet to recover from the hit when Karin appeared in front of the crack, her mallet raised high above her head which she brought down with speed.


    BOOM!!


    The crack on the wall deepened, and blood splattered out from under the mallet; the faceless humanoid had died tragically.


    While Karin was finishing up, Glen wasn''t any slower.


    When the two faceless humanoids had jumped at them, Glen had flashed toward the one that aimed for him instead.


    Like an agile Snake, Glen used the body of the faceless humanoid to maneuver in the air before slamming his tail on its back like a piece of log.


    Bang!


    The hit was brutal as the skin on the back of the faceless humanoid instantly burst open after taking a whipping from Glen''s tail.


    It fell toward the ground at an even faster speed and crashed face-first; Glen dove down and landed on the back of the faceless humanoid, causing more damage.


    A split appeared on the blank face of the monster through which blood gushed out. It tried to turn, but a white claw suddenly gripped its neck from behind.


    With a low grunt, Glen ripped off the head of the monster from its shoulders before tossing it to the side like garbage.


    His lips formed into a vicious smile under his helmet as he turned to face the monster that had closed up by now only to find out that its four minions that it had summoned were really dead.


    It let out a scream before suddenly bending forward; its arms suddenly stretched out like ropes that shot toward Glen and Karin; the speed of its arms was incredible.


    Glen reacted on time thanks to his new form, he was able to twist his body and dodge the palm of the monster before rolling away.


    Karin wasn''t able to move so fast but it didn''t mean that she had no means of defending herself.


    Stomping her feet and causing a small crack in the ground, she brought her mallet in front of her, and Nexus energy burst out from her arms, enhancing her grip on the mallet.


    BAM!!


    The palm of the monster smashed into the mallet with a loud sound; Karin gritted her teeth as her knees buckled, and she was pushed back but stopped after just moving three meters back.


    She had successfully blocked the monster''s attack.


    Seeing that its attacks had failed, the monster recalled its arms, which began to retreat like vines, but how would Karin and Glen just allow that to happen?


    With a speed so fast that he turned into a white shadow, Glen flashed to the side of the monster before hacking at its arm with his claw.


    Multiple white claw marks appeared in the air as Glen clawed at it madly, sending pieces of rotten flesh and green liquid flying into the air.


    "Ahhh!" The monster let out a high-pitched cry from having its arm shredded by Glen; it tried to attack him with its other hand when¡­


    Bang! Crack!!


    A sudden force smashed into its other shoulder, it turned its head over and saw that Karin had appeared beside it while it was distracted by Glen and had blasted its shoulders off with her mallet.


    Leaving a bloody mess there and its entire arm lying on the ground.


    Enraged, the neck of the monster twisted like that of a snake before suddenly snapping at Glen but Glen dodged it and caused the monster to bite nothing but air.


    It became more furious; its entire body suddenly began to swell, and its skin made bubbling sounds as if water was boiling; it was about to explode.


    "Get away from it!"


    Glen shouted and instantly moved away from the monster, Karin didn''t need Glen''s reminders and had already jumped away the instant she saw the monster''s body double in size.


    Uncaring if the two were still there, the monster''s body continued to swell as countless blisters appeared all over its body. It was a very troubling sight to see, they could even see the liquid jumping inside the blisters; they were literally boiling!


    This continued for 10 seconds as the monster soon reached an enormous size, a massive body of folding rotten flesh covered in large blisters; and like a balloon that was popped by a needle, it exploded.


    Paow!!


    Pieces of flesh and corrosive green liquid spattered, covering a distance of twenty meters around the monster and causing every rock in the area to melt after it was touched by the green liquid; even the ground wasn''t spared, the green liquid melted craters all over the ground.


    Karin''s eyes widened while Glen''s eyes narrowed as they stared at the center of the explosion where the monster was standing before.


    A totally different kind of monster was currently standing there.


    It looked just like a faceless humanoid made from hardened bones. It was the height of a human and stood on two slender but athletic legs and long arms that ended with five long and sharp fingers.


    It looked just like a robot with the face of a middle-aged man!


    "Grheeee!"


    The monster opened its mouth, and steam came out as it made a low growling sound before lifting its arms and making a gripping motion with both fingers; it turned its gaze and stared at Glen and Karin.


    It suddenly shot forward, disappearing from their sight.


    "What the¡­!" Karin exclaimed in shock, she wasn''t able to follow the movement of the monster with her eyes.


    Swoosh!!


    A gust of wind suddenly blew against her face from the side, and she quickly turned around; her eyes widened when she saw that the monster had appeared beside her and was about to attack her.


    She quickly brought her mallet in front of her even when she knew that it wasn''t going to be fast enough to block the monster''s attack, which was a powered-packed punch.


    With eyes still widened from shock, Karin saw Glen in his partial transformation form suddenly appear in front of her and send out a punch of his own to meet the monster''s fist.


    Clap!!!


    A thunderous sound echoed when both fists collided.


    The ground below Glen''s fist shattered as he struggled to hold his ground, but he was only able to do so for two seconds before he was sent flying; he flew past Karin, who was in the process of swinging her mallet.


    Since Glen had appeared on time to help her block the monster''s punch, Karin had changed her mallet swinging pattern from blocking into a slam; she was surprised to see Glen fly past her in the middle of her attack, this angered her and she increased the force behind her slam.


    BOOM!!


    The mallet crashed into the body of the monster like a nuke, its body bent backward, and its feet left the ground; the monster flew away like a loose arrow, creating five air blasts midair.


    It smashed into the village, crashing through multiple buildings before crashing into the wall on the other side of the village and causing a massive crack to form on the wall.


    Ignoring the monster, Karin turned to where Glen had flown to and wanted to go help him only to see that the young man was already up on his feet.


    Some of the scales on his right knuckles had cracked, and Glen was currently fixing them with Nexus energy, but this didn''t prevent him from witnessing the scene of Karin smashing the monster away like a ball.


    "Damn, that''s one crazy swing!" Glen remarked after reaching Karin.


    The girl ignored his remark and asked if he was ok first; after all, he had been sent flying like a broken kite as well and had even created a human-shaped crack in the wall. S~ea??h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Yeah, I''m good. My transformation is stronger than you think" Glen said easily.


    The both of them quickly went to the other side of the village to look for the monster, they had to finish it first before anything else.

 Chapter 113: Smashing the monster to bits

    Upon getting there, they just happened to catch the scene of the monster pulling itself out of the crack that it had made on the wall with its body.The monster landed lightly on the ground, its gaze fixed on Karin''s mallet.


    "Wow, a few more hits like that, and it will definitely not be able to get back up," Glen exclaimed while staring at the monster.


    The side of its body that Karin''s mallet had touched had bent out of shape, the shoulder had shifted backward, and a part of its ribs sank into its body, causing the other side of its body to look very wrong.


    Karin''s attack had totally ruined half of its body.


    "Here''s the plan; since I''m faster than you and you''re stronger, I''ll try to hold it in place, and you will finish it off," Glen suggested, and Karin nodded readily.


    She had realized this as well, and what Glen had proposed was the best plan that she could think of as well; without Glen holding it in place, there was no way for her to land a hit on the monster; she couldn''t even see its movements!


    The same was for Glen as well, while he was able to keep up with the speed of the monster and was even a bit faster, he wasn''t its match in terms of strength; it would only be a matter of time for him to run out of Nexus energy and his transformation would be undone, the monster would finish him off easily by then.


    "You ready?" Glen asked Karin as his body burst out with ferocious red energy that shattered the ground around him, all of the Nexus energy rushed toward his legs.


    "Un!" Karin nodded, and she also exploded with Nexus energy that gathered in her arms as she held her mallet up.


    Glen dashed out the next moment after Karin nodded, appearing in front of the monster like a ghost.


    He sent out a punch the moment he arrived, his fist tearing the wind and creating explosive sounds.


    The monster didn''t hesitate, as if it was incapable of feeling pain, it met Glen''s punch with its own.


    BAM!


    Both fists collided and the ground suffered, neither of them taking a step back.


    BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!


    After the first clash, Glen and the monster rained blows on each other at lightning speed.


    Destructing the ground even more and causing the wall behind the monster to cave in, the speed at which they threw their punches was so fast that all Karin was able to see were afterimages; this didn''t mean she was going to hesitate on their plan, her mallet was ready to swing into action at any given notice.


    They exchanged hundreds of blows within seconds; the loud sounds of their fists hitting each other were ear-piercing.


    Glen suddenly exploded with another wave of Nexus energy that rushed toward his arms, the speed of his punching instantly doubled!


    They had just exchanged a round of blows, and the monster was yet to pull back its limb when Glen''s fists suddenly appeared in front of its face again; it was as if Glen suddenly had four hands!


    A punch landed on the face of the monster, another one on its chest, an uppercut, a side punch that forced its head to sway to the side, and another elbow jab that forced its head back into place.


    Glen''s assault had suddenly become more ferocious, and the monster was unable to keep up; it could only watch as its body was knocked around without being able to react.


    If it tried to punch back or move, a fist would always appear to knock it off balance.


    BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!


    Glen rained the punches on the monster like a hail storm, causing the monster''s body to rise into the air and its back to crack deeper into the wall; yet, despite all of this, Glen was unable to cause significant damage to the hard body of the monster.


    But of course, he was aware of this, and he wasn''t planning on finishing up the monster in the first place.


    "Karin, now!"


    Karin, who was staring with a bewildered expression on her face as punches that she wasn''t able to see nailed the monster into the wall, was pulled back to her senses when Glen suddenly shouted her name.


    " Here!" She yelled back before dashing toward the two, arriving behind Glen within a second.


    Glen felt Karin''s arrival and immediately moved to the side, giving the monster a moment to catch its breath.


    But this short moment of liberation came at a very deadly price because the round side of a red mallet suddenly filled the vision of the monster immediately after Glen left it.


    Bang!


    The mallet smashed into its head, instantly deforming its face and pressing its head.


    The mallet lifted off its body before coming down again.


    Bang! Bang! Bang!


    Hit after hit landed on the body of the monster, Karin kept pounding the monster into the wall with her mallet.


    Only stopping after the mallet smashed the monster into a bloody pulp, its body had turned into multiple pieces that stuck into the wall.


    "Phew!" Karin dropped to the ground, breathing heavily.


    "Good job." Glen looked at her, breathing hard as well as his half-transformed form deactivated, and a small white snake appeared on his shoulder.


    (Let''s not forget that his snake can change its size at will)


    "Let''s go help the others!" Karin adjusted her breathing for a while before standing up; the duo turned to look at the aftermath of their fight with the monster; they had destroyed a large part of the village and its surroundings.


    "Who do you intend to help?" A voice suddenly sounded from the side.


    The two of them turned to look and were stunned to see Ralph, Clint, and Ivan looking at them; the three were done with their fights as well!


    ¡­..


    A few minutes ago, while Karin and Glen were dealing with the monster with the face of a middle-aged man.


    After Ralph and Clint finished killing all the small spiders, they turned to face the monster that still had a split in its neck.


    "Traveler, do you not like the food my mother prepared? Why do you look angry? Don''t hurt me, please!" The voice of the young children rang from within the body of the monster as it began to change its form.


    Its neck twisted like a snake wrapping its body before suddenly tightening, turning as firm as though made from steel.


    Another two splits burst open in its shoulders and another pair of hands came out from.


    "Attack it!"


    Ralph had no intentions of letting the monster transform fully and immediately sent the undead General to attack, Clint also attacked with an enormous shadow spike as well.


    But before any of them could reach the monster, the blisters on its disgusting legs grew several times in size before exploding with slimy sizzling liquid and pieces of rotten flesh.


    Glen immediately called back the undead General from the range of the monster''s explosion, the slimy liquid instantly caused the ground to melt, and the shadow spike dissolved upon contact. S§×ar?h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The monster had finished transforming!

 Chapter 114: Undead knight, rage

    The monster looked completely different after it was done with its transformation.Its neck looked like a compressed spring made from flesh and its pale face had a wide split that threw from both sides of its mouth.


    Its body became more muscular and tall as well, with bone sticking out from its sides; it now had four arms that were over three meters long and ended with bone sickles that had blood dripping from them.


    Its legs, which were previously a large mass of folding flesh, were now replaced by clusters of bone that seemed to be twisted together; one could tell just how much damage those legs could cause if they landed on a person.


    "It''s stronger now," Ralph mumbled as he stared at the four sickles that were each one meter long; they looked sharp enough to cut through metal.


    "You go right, I''ll go left" Ralph turned to Clint and said before summoning the undead knight.


    The fearsome knight in rusty armor appeared with its shadow horse, its eyes scanned Clint before moving toward the monster.


    ''Kill''


    Ralph immediately got feedback from what the undead knight was feeling after seeing the monster.


    "Go!" He ordered and the shadow horse flickered before dashing forward, the undead General right behind them.


    Clint wasn''t staying idle either; placing his hands on the ground, he summoned a thick blanket of shadows before sinking into it, vanishing without a trace.


    Ralph was stunned by this but suddenly got a feeling from the undead knight that pointed its sword in a direction.


    ''There''


    Ralph looked but saw nothing, only after focusing his eyes was he able to notice that the shadow in that place was abnormal and seemed to be moving slightly.


    ''It can even see through Clint''s ability!?'' Ralph was shocked at this discovery, it was a pleasant shock; he wouldn''t be too worried now if he was to face someone with similar talent as Clint.


    Back to the fight, the undead General was first to reach the monster and a sickle was immediately sent at it.


    Clang!


    A metallic sound echoed and the sickle made contact with the red robe of the undead General, unable to penetrate.


    The undead General immediately attacked as well after blocking the first sickle, it stepped on it and used it as a springboard to launch itself into the air and toward the monster''s neck. S§×arch* The ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Bang!


    It landed a fist on the neck of the monster, the neck of the monster rippled like a water surface, absorbing the damage from the punch of the undead General.


    A sickle appeared right behind the undead General as it was dropping to the ground.


    Swoosh!


    At this moment, three large shadow hands appeared from the ground and grabbed the sickle that was about to hack at the undead General.


    The latter was able to land thanks to the shadow hands and went in for an attack again.


    The undead knight also joined this time. Arriving close to the legs of the monster, the undead knight lashed out with its sword.


    Sparks flew out as the sword and the leg of the monster made contact; only a small cut appeared on the leg, but it was enough for the dark aura on the sword to slip into the body of the monster.


    At the same time, multiple shadow spikes shot from the darkness around them, stabbing into the body of the monster and causing it to bleed.


    The monster was furious, letting out a piercing screech, it stepped forward and suddenly vanished.


    When it appeared again, it was behind Ralph with one of its sickles coming down on Ralph like a meteor.


    It was so fast that Ralph did not even get enough time to react before the sickle reached him, he closed his eyes in anticipation for the pain.


    Swoosh!!


    Ralph suddenly felt a gentle push on his shoulder, and he went flying a few meters away; he realized what had happened and quickly opened his eyes to see who had saved him, only to catch the scene of the monster''s sickle slamming into the undead General.


    BOOM!


    The undead General was sent flying away like a bullet after taking Ralph''s spot; it crashed into a half-collapsed building, finally finishing up what was left of it.


    Ralph did a flip midair and landed lightly on his feet after witnessing this, a sweet taste rising up his throat, but he forced it down; the impact wasn''t too strong and had only affected the undead General lightly, so Ralph was able to resist the backlash.


    Seeing that it had missed its primary target, the monster turned to face Ralph again, blood flowing out from the wounds that the shadow spikes created on its body.


    It let out another shriek and was about to vanish again when another pair of shadow hands rose from its shadow and confined it in a firm grip, pulling it backward.


    Bang!


    The monster let out a shriek as its black landed heavily on the ground, it slammed its sickles into the ground in an attempt to force whatever was controlling the shadow hands out. It even tried slashing the shadow hands but they would simply mend themselves after it cut them.


    The undead knight appeared beside it at this moment, its eyes flickering with black smoke.


    Ralph was able to feel its emotion and it was¡­rage.


    It lifted its sword, which burst out with an even darker aura that made the shadows in the area grow darker; the shadow hands that were the doings of Clint were also enhanced under the sudden burst of dark aura, and their grip became tighter around the monster.


    Like a streak of black lightning, the undead knight and its horse began to flicker around the body of the monster; its current speed wasn''t any slower than Glen''s in his half-transformed form!


    Wherever the undead knight reached, it would deliver multiple sword strikes to the body of the monster; making sure to leave a large wound with dark aura pouring into the wound.


    Soon, the entire body of the monster was covered in sword wounds created by the undead knight, the black aura from the sword wreaking destruction within its body.


    The monster began shrieking in pain and struggled aggressively, trying to free itself but the enhanced shadow hands were like thick metal chains that wouldn''t bulge.


    Seconds passed slowly, and the body of the monster began to fall apart under the effect of the death aura that had burst out from the sword of the undead knight; its sickles fell off, its limbs collapsed, and its body began to turn into dust.


    In less than a minute, the monster that had nearly ended Ralph was no more.


    The undead knight finally lowered its sword this time, and the intensity of the dark aura reduced; it lingered for a little while before returning to Ralph''s Nexus chamber; it had used too much energy.


    Same was for the undead General as well, Ralph had recalled it after the monster had died.


    Clint finally rose from the shadow that he was hiding in, a complicated expression on his face as he faced Ralph.


    Ralph didn''t know if the boy was staring at him since the latter''s eyes were closed so he just stared back.


    Clint finally looked away for a few seconds, not saying a word as to why he was staring at Ralph. Only he knew that he had been shaken by the might of the undead knight.


    "Took you guys long enough" A calm voice suddenly sounded from their side.


    The two of them turned to look and saw Ivan sitting on top of the monster that was addressed as the Village head while holding a Nexus crystal in his hand.


    He had finished a while ago.


    They then turned in the direction of Glen and Karin.


    "Looks like they''ll be finishing soon as well," Ralph voiced out but couldn''t help turning to look at Ivan again; he was wondering how Ivan had killed that monster faster than them.

 Chapter 115: White flames

    A while ago, after Glen, Ralph, Clint, and Karin went to deal with the other monsters. Ivan was left alone to face the leader.The massive calamity glared at Ivan with its three faves and the red glows in the eyes of the little girl above the bonfire was fixed on him as her smile became more twisted, the light from the bonfire reflecting on the crude injury under her head; Ivan was able to tell at a glance that her head had been ripped off crudely.


    His face was calm, but he felt a great sense of rage in his chest that caused a burning sensation; his eyes gazed at the monster with killing intent, causing the temperature of the surroundings to drop.


    A card instantly appeared in his hand, and he disappeared.


    The monster was slightly stunned to see Ivan suddenly vanish. It was about to start looking for him when Ivan appeared in front of it with a pitch-black sword.


    "Let me lay you to rest." Ivan''s voice was gentle as if he was whispering to a little girl, trying to put her to sleep.


    The sight of the girl''s head hanging on the stick above the bonfire angered him so much for a reason that he didn''t know or wasn''t sure of, it was as if he had experienced such pain before.


    Gripping the sword with his right hand, a wave of red energy burst out as Ivan madly slashed out.


    "Travelers, is the food nice?"


    The voice of the little girl sounded from within the monster in a hurry as the twisted smile on the little girl''s face vanished and the mouth that revealed a pitch-black hole replaced it.


    All the mouths of the faces on the monster opened as well, each of them suddenly launching rings of blazing flames toward Ivan who was still in the air.


    The three faces that made up the face of the monster, and the face of the little girl that was hanging on a stick spat out the rings of fire in unison.


    The heat from these rings of flames was so intense that it caused the Nexus energy surrounding Ivan''s sword to waver, but Ivan didn''t back down; he wasn''t going to back down.


    Gripping his sword, he slashed at the incoming rings of fire and sent a wave of dark and red energy at them.


    BOOM!!


    The dark and red energy wave from Ivan collided with the rings of flames from the monster, causing a miniature explosion in the air, and a cloud of smoke was instantly formed.


    But before the monster could even understand what had happened, Ivan sure burst out behind the cloud of smoke like an arrow and shot past the monster''s head, a streak of sword light following him.


    Ivan landed behind the monster in light steps, he was holding something in his hands along with his sword.


    It was the head of the little girl!


    Ivan had cut the stick that the head was attached to and had taken it away when he shot past the monster just now!


    Above the head of the monster, the bonfire quickly stopped burning and died out after the head of the girl was removed.


    The monster shrieked loudly in fury and stomped on the ground but Ivan ignored all of it.


    Still holding the head of the girl, he ran his fingers across her face and closed her two eyes that had long stopped glowing red light.


    "You can rest now," Ivan mumbled as another card appeared in his hand before bursting out with white flames that consumed the head of the little girl, turning it into sparkling ashes that disappeared into the air.


    Just after Ivan made the white flame that had consumed the head of the little girl disappear, he stepped to the side before slashing a hundred times with his black sword.


    At the same time that he moved, a large arm that was made of twisted flesh, bones, and blisters brushed past him; the arm just happened to enter the wave of Ivan''s slashes, and it naturally suffered the consequence.


    Shin! Shin! Shin!


    Like a tornado of blades, the arm instantly exploded into hundreds of pieces after Ivan withdrew his sword. S~ea??h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Pieces of rotten flesh and chopped bones scattered in the air as blood rained down like a broken dam.


    The monster let out a thunderous shriek that shook the ground, countless blood tendrils suddenly shot out from the wound in its shoulder and stabbed at the countless tiny pieces of flesh and bones, pulling everything back into their original place.


    "So that''s how it is? I see" Ivan muttered under his breath before taking out another card that changed into a long white spear with its top blazing with white fire.


    Taking a step forward, Ivan vanished again.


    "Uu?" The monster made a low groaning sound, it got cautious when Ivan vanished again.


    Zam!


    A flash of white light suddenly shot past the monster''s body and a long gash appeared on its body, blood gushing out of the split and the opening of the wound burning with white flames. Blood tendrils appeared again and tried to open the open split only for the white flames to burn them to ashes.


    The monster shrieked from pain and fury, but this was only the start.


    Zam! Zam! Zam!


    Ivan, in the form of a white light, flashed around the body of the monster with his spear, leaving deep splits on the body of the monster every time he flashed across it.


    The body of the monster was soon covered in countless gash and thousands of blood tendrils had been burnt up, preventing the monster from healing.


    Unable to hold it in anymore, the monster suddenly roared instead of shrieking and its body started to swell while the blisters on its body boiled with high intensity as if they could explode at any moment; it was about to transform!


    Of course, Ivan didn''t know that this was what these creatures did when they were about to transform and thought that it was going to be a large-scale attack, but it didn''t really matter because¡­


    Whatever the monster was about to do, Ivan had no plans to just stand there and watch.


    Gripping his spear, Ivan bent his knees and made a big jump.


    BOOM!!


    The ground exploded as Ivan''s feet left the ground, he reached the height of the monster''s head in a single leap before poking out with his spear numerous times.


    Sounds of the spear piercing into flesh rang out as Ivan made several holes in the next of the monster before dropping to the ground.


    Puff!!


    The monster froze, a fountain of blood pumped out through the numerous holes created by Ivan''s spear; the eyes on its three faces rolled and stared at Ivan, who was still falling after executing the spear attack before its head suddenly tilted to the side.


    With a bang, the head of the monster rolled down its shoulder. The body of the monster remained standing for a few more seconds before falling forward as well, the empty space in its neck landing right in front of Ivan.


    Ivan slowly bent down and picked up the little shining crystal that had rolled out from the neck of the monster.


    "Now you can rest!" Ivan said in a low tone while gazing down at the corpse of the monster.

 Chapter 116: A human village?

    After finishing the monster, Ivan and his cohort explored the small village.There wasn''t much to explore about the village since it was very small and one could easily see everywhere at a glance from a high point, though they did find something interesting in the village.


    In a small structure that was slightly more spacious than the others and looked like a hall, a single half-statue stood straight at the forefront of the hall.


    The statue appeared to be a statue of a warrior in medieval armor and carrying a shield beside its leg; the statue only has up to its waist remaining; its upper body seemed to have been smashed off by something, considering the jagged edges on top.


    Dust and cracks riddled the statue and spoke of its age, in front of the statue were stone slabs that looked just as old as the statue itself. One the stone slabs were delicately carved letters that seemed to have been carved by humans, the carved letters were too neat and exquisite to have been the work of a clawed creature.


    Was this really a village of humans? Were there humans from the dreamscape, or had they escaped here after the mirror gates appeared in their homes?


    These questions rose in their minds as they tried to guess what might have been the case.


    Staring at the words on the stone slabs, none of them were able to make sense of what whoever had carved them was trying to communicate; they were unable to read the language on the stone slabs. S~ea??h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "What language is this? I''ve never seen such characters before," Ralph mumbled with a frown on his face; he had spent much time in the library back at the training center, but he had never come across such letters before.


    "It''s no use thinking; we''ll return it to the tower after we get back; they can decide what to do next." Ivan stared at the stone slabs and said, for some reason, he felt that the characters were familiar, as if he had seen them before but was unable to recall.


    After storing the stone slabs, they checked the remaining part of the village. They found nothing worth noticeable so they returned to the hall to rest and chatted on how their fights with the monsters had gone.


    "She was incredible! We wouldn''t have been able to kill it if not for her, her strength was frightening!" Glen stated as he explained how his fight and Karin against the monster had gone.


    "You must be joking, it almost had me if not for you. You''re so fast in that form, now I envy not having a beast companion talent like you; I won''t mind being a black sheep in a family that prioritized weapon talents" Karin laughed before adding "Even if you were unable to defeat it, escaping back it would not have been a problem for you."


    And that was true, with the kind of speed Glen had when he assumed his transformed form, escaping from anything below the true Lord rank would not be a problem at all.


    "What about you guys? We thought we were pretty fast with our fight, we didn''t expect you guys to be even faster; how did you guys do it?" Karin turned to look at Ivan, Ralph, and Clint; Glen also turned to them as well.


    "Clint held it down while my undead knight finished it off; it was pretty easy, to be honest," Ralph stated while smiling lightly.


    " Dang, it seems like I have the least cool talent in the team; you all have cheat talents." Karin faked a tear.


    Glen laughed at her reaction while Ralph let out a slight chuckle, the girl joked too much.


    " How about you, Ivan? How did your fight go?" Karin turned to look at Ivan, everyone turned to stare at him as well.


    " I stabbed its neck till it fell off"


    Ivan''s answer was straight and simple, not adding any other details.


    "I just knew you would say something like that, boring!" Glen said with a chuckle, and everyone laughed; what Glen said was funny but also true.


    Ivan always gave straightforward answers wherever he was asked such questions, they were not surprised when he said he stabbed the monster''s neck till it fell off.


    They chatted for a bit more before resting for the night, Ralph was on night duty today and would wake them in case something happened.


    Morning came quickly and the group resumed their mission, clearing deeper into the tunnel.


    They encountered a nest of red-eyed rabbits after just moving five hundred meters from the small village.


    The red-eyed rabbits were monsters with bodies of rabbits but were as tall as children between the ages of ten and eleven; they had masculine builds and strong legs that were about to jump up to five meters into the air.


    In their mouths were rows of razor-sharp teeth and two large fangs that poked out from their lower lips; these fangs had paralyzing effects if they bit a target.


    The rabbits built their nest on the wall like bees, and the most funny and, at the same time, scary aspect about these rabbits was that they were able to use weapons; each and every single red-eyed rabbit had a stone battle axe, which they used to hack at their opponents.


    Imagine a group of tall muscular rabbits running toward you with red eyes and each of them waving a stone axe in the air. The scene was comical and frightening at the same time.


    During their fight with the rabbits, Glen''s snake had gone on a rampage. It did not fuse with Glen but kept its original form; it went about swallowing and biting one red-eyed rabbit after the other.


    Karin had also displayed the greatness of her mallet once more. Every time her mallet landed on the ground, a number of red-eyed rabbits would be sent into the air, making them easy targets for Clint''s shadow spikes.


    Ivan wasn''t staying idle either; he danced through the ranks of the red-eyed rabbits and cut them down like grass.


    The battle was exciting for them, and as soon as they finished all the red-eyed rabbits within half an hour, the ground was littered with their corpses and blood at the end of the fight.


    "What''s that?" Karin suddenly shouted and pointed at something ahead of them.


    Everyone looked over and saw a single red flower with white petals lying in one of the rabbit''s nests; they moved closer to take a good look.


    "Impossible!" Ralph was unable to hold himself and exclaimed after getting a close look at the strange plant.

 Chapter 117: Blood labyrinth

    "What is it?" Karin asked, her gaze moving from Ralph''s shocked face to the strange flower.As if still unable to believe his eyes, Ralph moved closer to the plant and picked it up, his movements careful as if he was holding something very fragile.


    After thorough observation, his shocked face turned into one of excitement.


    "It''s really it, it''s a nightmare flower!" Ralph exclaimed.


    Everyone stared at the plant in Ralph''s hand, their minds wondering what a nightmare flower was.


    "Wait, it can''t be that nightmare flower, right?" Karin suddenly voiced out and looked at Ralph with eyes that hoped they were dreaming but Ralph''s nod made her eyes widen.


    *Can someone speak in a language I understand? What''s a nightmare flower?!" Glen snapped at the two who were acting like animated characters, his face filled with annoyance.


    Their reactions showed that this strange flower was something important, so why were they leaving the rest of them hanging with curiosity?


    "I''ve heard my grandfather mention it before, although I have never seen one. The nightmare flower is an incredibly rare plant that is only found in the dreamscape and in forbidden zones ; they are always guarded by powerful guardians!


    Who would have thought that we would find one here, these rabbits must have obtained it by luck!" Karin explained while staring at the flower in Ralph''s hand with sparkling eyes.


    "I get it that it''s only found in such places and bla bla bla, what''s it used for?" Glen yelled, even more annoyed by Karin''s explanation.


    " Oh, about that. I don''t know, I only know that it''s very expensive. One can be sold for over a hundred million bucks!" Karin replied.


    Glen''s eyes widened and glowed, a money sign appeared in his eyes; he was yet to calm down when Ralph joined.


    " It''s not its price that''s shocking, nightmare flowers are part of the main materials for making Nexus chambers"


    Everyone moved their heads to look at him in shock.


    " You mean like the Nexus chamber at the tower?" Ivan asked.


    " Yes, those Nexus chambers. The nightmare flower contains a vast amount of Nexus energy and is capable of generating Nexus energy, which makes it reusable; the more of them in a place, the more abundant the energy in the place will be," Ralph enlightened the group.


    " No wonder it''s so expensive," Karin exclaimed.


    " If it contains so much energy, isn''t it just like a Nexus crystal then?" Ivan muttered.


    " Yes, isn''t it like a Nexus crystal? What if someone tries to absorb it?" Glen remarked.


    " That''s why it had the name ''nightmare'' in it" Clint suddenly voiced out in a low tone.


    Ralph nodded. "He''s right. The energy in the nightmare flower is very useful to Nexulytes, but it''s not a good idea to absorb it directly. This is because the nightmare flower is corrupted and absorbing the energy directly with corrupt the person, causing their Nexus flow to be disorganized and causing them to hallucinate about terrifying things that can make anyone go crazy"


    Their eyes lit up after Ralph''s explanation; now, the nightmare flower in Ralph''s hand didn''t look so beautiful anymore to Glen and Karin, but its price value still made their eyes shine.


    "We can sell it and split the money after returning," Ivan said to Ralph, who passed the nightmare flower to him, and he kept it in his storage device.


    "Wait, I thought you three are from the same training center? How come Ralph seems to know more than you two?" Karin suddenly moved closer to Glen and whispered.


    "Oh, it''s because he spent so much time in the library during our training; he must have read all the books in the library within the first three months" Glen replied casually.


    "I see them. Ivan must have been to the training room a lot since he''s so good at fighting and is the strongest, right!" Karin continued with a look of realization in her eyes.


    "Correct" Glen nodded.


    "Then¡­what about you? What were you doing when they were reading and fighting? To be honest, you look ordinary compared to them" Karin suddenly said with a poker face.


    Glen froze, he felt a slight sting in his cheeks but didn''t react.


    "Umm, I don''t feel fine talking about this," He said after a while.


    "Are you sure? Or you''re just embarrassed to admit it?"


    "Are you looking for a beating!"


    "Would you hit a girl? I''m pretty!" sea??h th§× novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "True, you''re pretty, and I¡­no! That''s not the main issue, leave me alone or I''ll spank you"


    "Pervert"


    "You!!"


    ¡­.


    After storing the nightmare flower, they continued moving forward.


    Moving for another hundreds of meters in a narrow path, they arrived crag that poked above a cavern.


    The cavern was hundreds of meters deep under crag and it stretched so far that they suspected that this was the last part of the mountain range that was region 17.


    But knowing that they had almost reached the end of their objective didn''t make them feel relieved, instead, an uncomfortable feeling formed in their hearts.


    "At least now we know where the stream of blood stopped," Glen said with a nervous and uneasy chuckle.


    This was because, below the crag, the entire cavern was a labyrinth made from solidified blood!


    The unpleasant stench of the blood even reached all the way to the top of the crag where they were standing, causing their noses to twitch.


    The blood labyrinth had red mist hovering above, preventing them from seeing what kind of creatures could be hiding inside; they were also unable to draw out a route because of the red mist.


    Suddenly, they heard a loud rumbling sound and the place began to shake violently.


    Grrrrr! Clang! Bwishhhh!


    Different strange sounds thundered before coming to an abrupt stop, silence fell over the cavern after.


    The five of them stared down in shock, unable to believe what they had just witnessed.


    The blood labyrinth¡­just shifted spaces!


    "A labyrinth that can shift space within it, there goes the idea of drawing a route" Ralph mumbled with a serious expression on his face.


    With such a labyrinth, it was definitely going to take them weeks to find their way out in the worst-case scenario; if they were lucky and the monsters inside were not powerful, their coming out in a few days should be possible.


    "This is going to take forever, what if we get lost?" Karin remarked with a fearful look. Getting lost in such a labyrinth would be horrible.


    " That''s not necessarily the case; labyrinths that can shift space often have guardians guarding them, and they are mostly found in the heart of the labyrinth. We simply have to find the labyrinth, kill it, and the labyrinth will create a straight path for us" Ralph replied to her.


    "What do we do now?" Glen asked, and everyone looked at Ivan; he was in charge after all.


    "What else is there to do? We go down" Ivan simply said.

 Chapter 118: A strange face

    Currently, the group had climbed down from the crag and were standing in front of the labyrinth.In front of them, blood pumped out from the ground before fussing with the walls of the labyrinth. The ground of the labyrinth was also made from blood and blood coral stretched through the floor, extending deeper into the labyrinth.


    The blood walls were over twenty meters high, with the blood mist hovering above like a red curtain; growls of monsters could be heard deep within the labyrinth.


    From time to time, a chunk of solidified blood would break from the walls of the labyrinth and smash into the ground like jelly.


    The scene was just as disturbing as its stench.


    Ivan and his group sat on the only rocky part of the cavern that was just two meters away from the entrance of the labyrinth, as for why they were sitting here¡­


    They were measuring the time intervals that the labyrinth used to shift so that they could make preparations.


    After waiting for three hours, they realized that they were wasting their time because the labyrinth had shifted six good times within the three hours that they had spent waiting outside.


    The first one was just thirty minutes after they came down, the second shift occurred a few minutes later, the third shift only happened after a full hour, the fourth and fifth were just two minutes apart after the third one, the sixth shift happened at the end of the second hour; there had not been any more shifts within the last one hour.


    All six shifts had occurred during the first two hours that they spent waiting and not a single shift had happened during the third hour.


    The shifting period was just unpredictable, and it seemed that whatever was causing it to shift simply did it on a whim.


    "Guess there''s no point waiting here then, let''s just go in and stick together," Glen suggested, but Ivan didn''t move; they continued waiting.


    After nine hours of waiting and doing nothing but hearing the troubling sound of the labyrinth shifting, they finally found a rhythm to it!


    Every two hours, the shift of the labyrinth would occur randomly without warning, but for the following one hour, it wouldn''t shift even once.


    This meant they would have to be very cautious during the first two hours and could move however they liked during the third hour.


    "All right, let''s rest here. We move in the morning" Ivan ordered.


    (Although they were unable to see the sky since they were inside of a tunnel, they had time measuring devices with them)


    No one gave a complaint, and they all found a spot to rest; Glen was asked to watch and would switch with Ivan later.


    ...


    Hours flew by while Glen was still keeping watch; the red mist above the labyrinth suddenly began to let out a strange scent that could easily be ignored because of the stench of the blood.


    Glen suddenly found himself getting very sleepy and his eyelids became incredibly difficult to hold up.


    "What''s¡­happening?" Glen voiced out amidst a yawn as he tried to keep his consciousness awake; he soon realized that it was as simple as falling asleep.


    He immediately thought of waking the others, but before he could even get up, his head tilted over, and he fell to the ground; his breathing was calm and silent; he had fallen asleep!


    He wasn''t the only one, Ivan and the others were also fast asleep.


    Wooowoooowooo!


    Like the howling of the night wind, a low sound spread through the cavern as a large shadow drifted over the five like a blanket.


    The shadow was wide like a cloud and its edges wriggled like countless worms.


    After covering the five, it suddenly stopped all movements before slowly retreating into the labyrinth; the place returned to normal as time ticked by.


    A few hours later it was already morning.


    Glen''s eyelids twitched, and his consciousness was slowly waking up.


    His eyes slowly opened after twitching for a few seconds, his sight was blurry but Glen could see that something was in front of him.


    He blinked several times, and his sight slowly recovered; Glen could not see what was in front of him. It was a face, a face with two large white eyes, and these eyes were staring at him.


    The face seemed a bit transparent, and Glen could vaguely see through it; it had the texture of water trapped in a plastic bag but was murkier than dirty water.


    On the face were bloody lines and a wide mouth that had a creepy smile on it.


    The eyes blinked as if it was able to tell that Glen could now see it clearly.


    "Good morning"


    The mouth opened and the voice of a man rang out in a formal tone as if greeting a coworker.


    Glen "...." S§×ar?h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    He paused, staring at the face, his mind stopped working.


    "Eh? Can you not understand me? Is my speech weird?" The voice said once more seeing as Glen didn''t respond.


    Now Glen was one hundred percent sure that he wasn''t dreaming or seeing things; there was really a strange face talking to him; he instantly freaked out; the distance between this face and his was not even up to five inches!


    Slowly opening his mouth, Glen quietly sucked in air before¡­


    "Aaaaahhh!!!!"


    He let out a scream at the top of his lungs, even a woman who was in labor would stop mid-push just to look at Glen at this point.


    The body of the face immediately reacted to Glen''s scream and turned jagged like the fur of a startled kitten; it was definitely stunned by Glen''s scream.


    Glen suddenly saw it fly into the air before dashing in the direction of the labyrinth and disappearing into it. Its flying speed was very impressive, and it was already gone within a second.


    Still, Glen didn''t stop screaming. He only stopped when Ivan and the others woke up and rushed to his side.


    "What? Why are you screaming?!" Ralph grabbed Glen''s shoulders and asked.


    Glen tried to speak, but his lips kept shaking, and he wasn''t able to make out anything meaningful.


    "Calm down, something strange must have happened last night," Ivan said from the side. He didn''t know what happened, but he was certain that something happened; he was supposed to switch with Glen last night to keep watch but had only woken up this morning!


    Twenty minutes later, Glen had managed to calm down and told them why he was screaming earlier.


    "That must have been terrifying; I would get a trauma if I saw such a thing." Karin shivered as she sympathized with Glenn.


    Imagine experiencing such a thing immediately after waking up. The first thing you see is not the face of a pretty girl or handsome dude, but the face of a strange monster, and it even dared to greet you good morning; some people would simply die from the shock alone.


    But that wasn''t the bigger issue here, the most disturbing thing they realized was that¡­they had all slept without anyone keeping watch!


    "Geeze, thank goodness no monster came to eat us; we would have died in our sleep" Karin shivered again.


    The five of them had slept like dead fishes inside the dreamscape without any protective measures! What could be crazier than that?


    (Maybe waking up to see a big face blinking at you)


    "Everyone check if there''s anything strange with your body"

 Chapter 119 Inside the blood labyrinth

    After making sure that there was nothing wrong with their bodies, the group breathed out in relief before waiting a bit.They waited for four hours, following the time that the labyrinth carried out its shifting before entering it. They had exactly one hour to explore before they would experience the shifting of the labyrinth firsthand.


    Entering the labyrinth, ahead of them was a long twisty corridor with blood walls on both sides; it was a very unsettling feeling, like a knot in their stomachs as they walked through the corridor.


    As they moved, they began to notice a few things about the inside of the labyrinth.


    One was that the deeper they went, the darker the blood that had solidified into walls became; it got to the point that they started to find spots of pitch-black jagged corners on the walls.


    The blood corals that stretched from outside the labyrinth would mysteriously disappear at times before appearing on the other end of the blood walls, leaving gaps that were of similar sizes to large doors.


    Behind the blood walls, they would occasionally spot silhouettes of creatures with various shapes and sizes as if moving behind a large curtain with a spotlight on them; this planted seeds of uneasiness in the hearts of some of the group members.


    Luckily, the labyrinth didn''t seem to possess any hidden traps that needed to be activated so they were able to move freely but this did not mean that they were no longer cautious; the lack of hidden traps made them even more cautious because a labyrinth without traps would definitely hold greater dangers that would prevent others from easily clearing it, a good example was its space shifting ability.


    For the first ten minutes that the group moved together, they did not encounter a single creature or anything dangerous but they had made several cuts where the part ahead of them took sharp turns. sea??h th§× N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Looks like we have been here before" Ralph suddenly said when they came to a particular spot. The area was like a cross-section with only a single part ahead and blood corals stretched on only three sides that were dead ends.


    "I know that this place looks familiar, but the previous ones that looked like this had slight differences; for example, the four sides are not always equal, or the path with a clear way ahead are on different sides," Glen corrected while rubbing his nose.


    Ralph glared at him before saying.


    " That''s why we didn''t notice at first and have been here more than six times already, we''ve been going in circles and that''s why we haven''t found anything yet"


    " Do you have proof?" Karin joined, her tone wasn''t questioning Ralph''s claims but of pure curiosity.


    " I''m not too sure but I''m at least seventy percent sure that we''ve been going in circles. Those blood corals are always shaped the same and are always pointing in the direction with the clear path out of the crossed section" Ralph uttered seriously.


    " That''s it? It could simply be a coincidence, or every single coral in all crossed sections is shaped like that." Glen shook his head and looked at his friend as if saying he was being too paranoid.


    Ralph had a frustrated expression and turned to face Ivan; arguing with Glen wouldn''t change a thing. Ivan called the shots within the team, so his decision would determine what they did next.


    Seeing Ralph turn to face him, Ivan''s eyes flashed with thoughtfulness for a few seconds before he opened his mouth.


    "We have been wondering for a long time without any progress, considering your speculation isn''t a bad idea," Ivan voiced out before giving instructions.


    They had noticed that there was a gap of two hundred meters between each crossed section that they had come across so far so it shouldn''t take them more than three minutes to return here if they were really moving in a loop.


    "Karin and I will continue ahead, the three of you wait here. If we don''t come back here after three minutes, then it''s not a loop, and we''ll wait for you three at exactly two hundred meters from here." Ivan explained the plan to Ralph, Clint, and Glen.


    " Just¡­the two of us?" Karin''s anxious voice rang out weakly.


    Ivan turned to look at her with an expressionless gaze and casually said.


    "Don''t be scared, I won''t do anything to you"


    Karin froze for a second as she took a while to process Ivan''s words. Her face immediately turned red from anger, and she stomped her feet on the ground.


    "Humph! What do you mean by that? Are you looking down on my ''big sister'' charm? Do you have any idea how many young boys are crushing on me? Besides, that''s not what I was worried about!" Karin snapped at Ivan angrily.


    Any girl would definitely be offended if they received such a remark from the opposite sex, not to mention that Karin was actually an exceptional beauty with the charm to sway a crowd; Ivan''s words hit her pride like a truck of middle fingers.


    "Then what were you worried about?" Ivan''s expression didn''t change even in the face of Karin''s rage.


    " I was worried that we might run into a horde of monsters; we would need everyone''s strength to deal with the problem," Karin replied while pouting.


    " Oh, it''s about that. Don''t worry, I can protect you from anything we run into" Ivan stated plainly before looking away.


    "You!!"


    Karin was left speechless, she wondered how come she hadn''t noticed this annoying side of him ever since.


    A palm suddenly landed on her shoulder from behind, she turned and saw that it was Glen.


    "It''s best not to argue with him; you''ll only get more pissed; not everyone is as understanding as I am," Glen whispered to her before winking.


    Karin''s face blushed slightly and she nodded, agreeing with Glen''s advice.


    The group parted ways, Clint, Ralph, and Glen waited at the crossed section while Karin and Ivan continued on the path ahead.


    ¡­.


    Ivan and Karin continued walking forward, only the sounds of their footsteps could be heard through the corridor.


    Pieces of jelly-like blood would break out from the blood wall occasionally and fall in front of the blood corals would then stretch to the broken part before mending it.


    Throughout their walk, Karin kept glaring intensely at Ivan''s back like a resentful girlfriend whose boyfriend had annoyed her.


    Ivan ignored her at first but paused after a minute into their walk.


    "What?" He turned to her and asked.


    "Nothing," Karin snorted before looking away, her arms folding below her breasts and lifting them slightly.


    Ivan raised an eyebrow at the girl''s attitude, something was definitely wrong.


    "Why are you staring at my back?" Ivan asked again.


    "Well, maybe because you''re in front of me duh?!" Karin said sarcastically.


    " I see, then you can be in front if you want" Ivan nodded before moving to stand behind her.


    " Hey, what are you doing? I didn''t mean it like that!" Karin immediately became flustered and ran to hide behind Ivan, a frustrated expression on her face.


    Staring at the girl with both eyes closed tightly, Ivan shook his head; he couldn''t tell what was wrong with her.


    He proceeded to keep moving but a tug on his protective suit made him stop.


    He looked back and saw Karin who was holding onto him with her head lowered.


    "What is it this time?" Ivan inquired.


    Karin didn''t respond for a while and just kept staring down, she only spoke when Ivan was about to say something.


    " Do you¡­think I''m ugly?" She asked.


    Ivan was surprised by her sudden question, it took him a few seconds to give a response.


    "No, you are not ugly" Ivan answered.


    "Then do you think I''m pretty?"


    "Yes," Ivan gave a casual response.


    "Was that why you asked me to come with you?"


    "No"


    Silence¡­.


    After a while, Karin broke the silence.


    "Do you perhaps think¡­I''m useless and won''t be able to do anything if there''s no one to protect me?" Karin asked, her tone dark.


    "Why would I ask you to come if you were useless? Those three can work together to handle most situations; Glen and Ralph understand each other''s fighting style and can face me in a duel if they cooperate; adding Clint would make them even stronger since his ability is quite useful," Ivan explained.


    " Then how about me?"


    " Your talent is kind of like a cannon launcher; you can simply create chaos by smashing everywhere while I pick out the targets," Ivan said after a brief thought; he was distracted by Karin''s sudden giggling.


    " Fufufu, you shouldn''t tell a girl like that next time; it doesn''t make them feel like a lady. Come on, let''s go," Karin said with a smile.


    Ivan shrugged and started moving, Karin following behind him.


    They walked for another two minutes before arriving at another crossed section.


    "Guess Ralph was wrong then," Karin voiced out; the crossed section that they had arrived at looked similar to the previous one where the three boys should have been waiting for them but also different at the same time. Stay connected via empire


    More importantly, Clint, Ralph, and Glen were not there.


    " Hold on, look" Ivan suddenly said and pointed at a side of the blood wall.


    The silhouette of three humans could be seen standing there, the three silhouettes seemed to be frozen inside the blood wall and were gazing at the two of them.


    " Huh? Are those¡­Glen and the others?" Karin''s voice trembled as she stared at the three silhouettes with wide eyes.


    At the same time, Ralph''s voice sounded through the blood wall.


    "Ivan, Karin, is that you?"


    Ivan''s pupil shrank and a card immediately appeared in his hand.

 Chapter 120 Trapped?

    A card appeared in Ivan''s hand, his gaze narrowed as he stared at the three silhouettes in the blood wall which he assumed were Clint, Glen, and Ralph."What are you guys doing inside the wall? How did you get in?" Karin asked fearfully, she also summoned her mallet when she saw Ivan bringing out a card.


    "How did we get inside the wall? We should be asking two of you that question!" Glen''s voice rang out from the wall.


    " How do we know that you''re really Glen and not some monster pretending to be you?" Karin asked back.


    "Yo, Ivan. Ask me anything!" Glen''s voice came from the wall again.


    After a session of questions and answers between both sides, they came to a realization.


    The silhouettes on the wall were really Ralph and the others, another thing was that on their side, they were also seeing Ivan and Karin as silhouettes on the blood wall.


    "Then, if nobody is actually stuck inside the wall¡­what is this that we are looking at?" Ralph''s voice reached Karin''s and Ivan''s ears.


    Ivan looked at the wall with narrowed eyes for a few seconds before turning to Karin and asking her to stand back, which Karin immediately obeyed, after which Ivan turned the card in hand into a sword before slashing at the wall with force.


    Clang!


    A clear sound of collision rang out when the sword clashed with the blood wall, sparks flew out and Ivan felt a numb feeling in his fingers.


    His eyes narrowed, surprised; he felt like he had hacked at a metal barrier instead of a wall made from solidified blood.


    " It''s no use attacking it," Ivan mumbled to himself before lowering his sword.


    He then asked Ralph, Clint, and Glen to come to meet them since breaking through the wall looked impossible.


    "Ok!"


    The three silhouettes slowly vanished as Ralph and the other two left to meet with them a few minutes later, but they had not arrived yet. Instead, another three silhouettes appeared on the wall on the other end of the crossed section.


    "Huh? We are already at the next crossed section, where did you guys go?" Glen''s voice sounded from the wall.


    "Look at the wall," Ivan called out.


    "Oh shit! Did you guys move? How are you in the wall again?"


    Glen exclaimed.


    "Idiot, they are not in the wall; they''re in another crossed section" Ralph''s scolding voice echoed.


    " Oh, makes sense"


    The group fell into thought again as they stared at each other''s silhouettes on the wall. Your adventure continues at empire


    If the group had not taken another route and just followed the path ahead of them, how did they miss each other?


    Ivan was lost in thought when he suddenly noticed something from the corner of his eyes, he immediately turned his gaze fully to see.


    The blood corals on the side of the walls moved slightly for a split second just now; he was sure of it.


    He walked over and squatted in front of the blood coral that he had seen move.


    " What are you looking at?" Karin asked and moved closer to Ivan.


    " What''s he looking at?" Ralph''s voice came from the bloodwall.


    " Oh, he''s looking at the blood coral on the wall," Karin responded.


    Meanwhile, Ivan stared at the blood coral with a serious expression on his face.


    Right in front of his eyes, he saw the coral move again. The thing stretched and seemed to disappear into the curved part of the crossed section, it was as if it was passing through an invisible curtain since there were no holes. S§×ar?h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Out of curiosity, Ivan poked at the wall with his sword. He was stunned to see his sword pass through it without resistance; it was as if he simply stabbed his sword through empty air, and there was not a blood wall right in front of him.


    "Hey look! A sword is poking through that side of the wall!"


    Glen''s loud shout suddenly rang out from the wall, followed by Ralph''s voice of affirmation.


    "A sword?" Karin turned around and faced the fall with the three silhouettes.


    "I see," Ivan mumbled softly. He stood up and walked into the wall, his body passed through it as if walking into a bubble.


    The bubble was only two meters thick, so Ivan was able to cross through within three seconds; he arrived at another crossed section and found the three boys staring at the wall on the other side that now had a single silhouette on it.


    "Hey," Ivan called out softly to get their attention.


    The three turned around swiftly when they suddenly heard someone''s voice behind them, Ralph summoning his undeads, Clint creating a wave of shadows around him, and a small white snake appearing on Glen''s head; three of them immediately went into combat mode as they turned.


    "It''s a monster that looks like Ivan! It probably took Ivan''s form to make us lower our guards!" Glen shouted as he took a fighting stance.


    Ivan gazed at Glen with an expressionless face before shaking his head.


    "You''re the monster, do you believe I won''t throw a card at you?" Ivan voiced out with a slightly annoyed tone and summoned another card in his left hand since he had a sword in his right hand.


    "Ugh! This monster''s pretending ability is too strong; it''s acting just like Ivan and can even mimic his talent!" Glen cried out, and his expression turned more serious as if he was facing the greatest enemy of his life.


    ''I would never attack you, Ivan, but understand me, since this monster is pretending to be you, I''ll take justice for you as your friend,'' Glen thought grimly to himself.


    Ivan''s eyes twitched, he ignored Glen and turned to Ralph and Clint. He was about to speak when Karin''s voice came from the silhouette on the wall.


    "Ivan? Kyaa! Ivan''s gone, he''s no longer here with me!" Her voice sounded terrified and shocked.


    Ralph frowned, he stared at Ivan before looking back at the wall.


    "What do you mean Ivan isn''t there? Didn''t you say he was staring at a coral just now?" Ralph asked.


    "Yes, he was; that was before Glen said that he could see a sword passing through a wall. I turned around and the next moment I turned again, he was gone!" Karin explained they could hear the fear in her voice, the girl was clearly shaken.


    After all, if something could take Ivan without causing a commotion, then she might not even notice if the thing came for her.


    "Karin, go through the wall that I was looking at just then." Ivan ignored Glen, who was still glaring at him with cautious eyes, and said to the silhouette on the wall.


    "Huh? Isn''t that Ivan''s voice? How did you get there? Come to think of it, there are now four silhouettes on the wall" Karin''s voice came through the wall.


    "Don''t ask, just walk into the wall" Ivan replied strongly.


    "Umm, ok," Karin''s voice sounded doubtful, but she still obeyed and walked toward the wall before touching it with her hand.


    Surprisingly, her hand passed through like the wall wasn''t there.


    Not hesitating anymore, Karin immediately walked into the wall. Just like Ivan, she felt like she entered a bubble and soon came out and entered another crossed section.


    Here, Ivan was in front of her while Glen, Clint, and Ralph, who looked like they were about to fight, were standing some distance away.


    "Wow! The wall is fake!" Karin remarked as she dropped her mallet to the ground.


    Clint, Ralph, and Glen made a strange face as they stared at the girl.


    ''Yeah, that was Karin for sure!'' they all thought before looking at Ivan, an apologetic look appeared on Glen''s face.

 Chapter 121 The labyrinth shift

    "Hehe, of course, I know it was you. I was just, you know¡­" Glen chuckled nervously while trying to find words to explain but was unable to make up a meaningful excuse." Get lost," Ivan glared at him before looking elsewhere.


    " Come on, you can''t blame him. This is the dreamscape; anything can happen," Ralph said to Ivan.


    Ivan knew this as well but couldn''t help feeling slightly annoyed; he didn''t hold it against Glen for long, though; he wasn''t such a petty person after all.


    After dropping the matter, they returned their focus to the wall.


    "So this thing is like a sort of illusion? A trap?" Karin mumbled as she walked toward a random side of the wall, expecting to pass through it as well.


    BAM!


    She walked into a solid blood wall and hit her face on it.


    "Ouch! This one isn''t a fake " she shouted in a low voice and turned to the boys while rubbing her forehead.


    ''We can tell as much already'' Ivan and the others thought inwardly without voicing it out.


    "It seems like only the part where the blood corals disappear into are illusionary walls," Ivan said since he was the one who had discovered this aspect of the walls; it strange that only the crossed sections were like this.


    They began to carefully study the cross-sections and even moved back to the previous cross-sections that they had been to before; their speculations were finally complete after studying the walls of each cross-section carefully.


    The colors of the blood walls where the blood corals disappeared in each of the crossed sections were lighter than the color of the usual blood corridors or the solid part of the walls, all of them were illusions!


    After finding out this secret, the group started going through the walls whenever they reached a crossed section instead of moving along the clear path ahead; they would appear in other crossed sections immediately after passing the illusionary blood wall.


    Without them realizing it, several minutes had passed and they had gone through tens of crossed sections.


    After a long time of going through the walls, they finally came out from the maze of crossed sections.


    This was after passing through a crossed section without any blood corals to tell them which wall was fake, they had to manually find it themselves.


    The space that they found themselves after coming out was an extremely large opening, it was so large that one would never have guessed that such an open space could be found inside a labyrinth.


    The space was as wide as a football court, and in the middle of it was a straight, long corridor that cut through the middle of this space, multiple crossed sections made from blood walls linked like a network to this corridor with blood corals acting like threads that held the illusionary walls and the real walls together.


    It was like a labyrinth inside a labyrinth! S§×arch* The n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Umm, I think we should worry about the crossed sections later; we''ve got company!" Karin said with a shaky voice.


    Ivan and the others turned around to see why the girl sounded frightened; they soon found out why after turning around.


    The ground in this large space was starting to rise and mini graves before bursting open silently and from each grave, a monster that looked like a mixture of a human and a scorpion would crawl out.


    These creatures had bodies of scorpions, heads of scorpions, and even stingers as well. Their resemblance to humans, however, was their arms and legs, which were like those of a bulky bodybuilder.


    They stood on both legs and cracked their knuckles like humans who were preparing to fight while their scorpion heads looked at the five of them; their bodies were covered in sturdy-looking red shells, and their tails let out red smoke occasionally.


    "What are those?" Glen''s voice sounded; these creatures didn''t look as scary as some of the monsters that they had encountered since they came to the dreamscape. If anything, they looked weird instead for having human limbs.


    "I have no idea, just prepared to fight," Ralph said seriously, his two undead standing on both sides of him.


    The numbers of these scorpions were slowly increasing and they soon reached a hundred, covering half of this space and leaving a little free space and the network of crossed sections as the only escape route for the five; that was if they were planning to escape.


    One of the Scorpions that was closest to the five suddenly dashed toward them with speed, its target was Karin.


    Startled, Karin didn''t think before carelessly swinging her mallet at it; she forgot to control the force of the swing, causing it to look like a casual wave of her mallet.


    Surprisingly, immediately the mallet touched the body of the scorpion.


    BAM!


    It smashed into the body of the scorpion, cracking its shell before sending it flying away like a kite with a broken string.


    Karin "..."


    Eh? It was so weak?


    Everyone thought. They watched as the monster was sent flying into the distance before smashing into another one of its kind, the two of them shattered into a bloody mess of shells, limbs, and blood.


    It turned out that the bodies of these creatures were quite deceiving, and they were actually very weak.


    "Goodness, they might be as weak or even weaker than the one-eyed monster!" Glen exclaimed as a look of relief appeared on his face.


    It didn''t matter if their numbers were much, it would just be like cutting grass.


    ''Sob, I''ve not had such an easy fight in a long time, all the monsters I came across in the dreamscape were bullies. Huhu'' Glen clenched his fists and wept silently, letting out invisible tears.


    "What is a one-eyed monster?" Karin looked at Glen before turning to ask Ralph.


    Ralph explained that it was a weak monster found on level one of the training room of the Tower center that they came from.


    "Oh, I see. Then it must be the same as the silver worm from our tower; it''s very soft and slow; it can only attack dead creatures," Karin recalled.


    "Talk later, let''s deal with these things first," Ivan said to the two while staring at the approaching scorpions.


    But just before they could swing into action, a loud rumbling sound shook the entire labyrinth; they looked up and saw the red mist above the labyrinth turning.


    Their expressions changed.


    "The labyrinth, it''s shifting already?!" Glen exclaimed in shock.


    Without them realizing it, an hour had passed?!


    Before any of them could react, the ground below them suddenly split and blood walls burst out from the ground all around them while some parts withdrew.


    The entire place was collapsing!


    "Stay together!" Ralph noticed something and called out, his voice filled with panic but it was too late.


    A tall blood wall suddenly appeared in front of him, and the ground below him collapsed; he was unable to see or hear from Ivan and the others.


    He wasn''t the only one, everyone found themselves enclosed by blood walls before getting relocated as everywhere seemed to be reshuffling.


    They had been separated!

 Chapter 122 Alone

    Ivan found the space around him rotating, and the motion kept pushing him around. His head was spinning from all this, and he had to use the blood wall to keep himself from falling over.This lasted for a couple of seconds before finally coming to a stop, and everywhere went silent again; the labyrinth had completed its first shift!


    Placing a hand on his forehead, Ivan felt slightly muddle-headed! It was as if he had experienced a rollercoaster while riding on a carriage without anything to hold him in place.


    With his head still feeling disoriented, Ivan heard sounds of growling and stomps that were getting closer to him. Without looking, he brought out a card and tossed it into the air while creating the image of what he wanted in his mind.


    Swoosh!!


    The card scattered into light particles before transforming into an enormous fire snake; its heat caused the blood wall and the ground to boil, but it still wasn''t enough to melt it.


    The fire snake landed in front of Ivan and hissed at something ahead of him; without waiting for Ivan''s orders, it launched itself forward with ferocious speed, and its maw wide open.


    The next thing Ivan heard were sounds of fighting that lasted only 30 seconds, but this was enough time for his mind to clear up, and he was back to normal.


    Ivan finally turned to look at what was going on and just happened to catch the sight of the fire snake sinking its fire fangs into the neck of a monster that looked like a man with the head of a bear. Half of its body was covered in rusty armor while its other body parts were covered in animal fur.


    It was over five meters tall and had a buffed figure; it stood on both legs and carried a huge metal bludgeon in its large hand.


    The fire snake wrapped itself around the monster, scorching its skin and causing the monster to roar in pain; it slapped itself in an attempt to knock the fire off but its hand simply passed through the body of the fire snake and got scorched instead.


    With a sizzling sound and the smell of burnt meat, the fire snake ripped off the throat of the monster as smoke rose from its burnt flesh; cooking it in an instant with the heat from its body.


    A fountain of blood gushed out from the throat of the monster; it opened its bear mouth and revealed a mouth filled with sharp teeth as blood flooded.


    The fire snake finally released it and returned to Ivan''s side, letting the bear monster fall to the ground with a loud bang.


    Ivan looked at the bear monster that the fire snake had just killed only to see another two of such monsters lying on the ground with scorched bodies and puddles of blood under their bodies, the fire snake had killed the three bear monsters within thirty seconds!


    Turning his eyes from the corpses, Ivan began to look at his surroundings. S~ea??h the n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    He was in a small square cornered by blood walls, and two openings led out of this place; one was in front of him while the other was behind him.


    "I don''t even know where I am right now; getting lost would be easier than sleeping," Ivan mumbled as he debated if he should use the front passage or the one behind him.


    Letting the fire snake keep watch, Ivan closed his eyes and focused his mind to sense his surroundings. He could hear growls and shrieks all around the square but was unable to pick up any human sounds.


    The shifting of the labyrinth must have thrown them far from each other.


    After a while of contemplating, Ivan gave up on thinking about which side he should go.


    Casually getting up, Ivan and the fire snake moved forward and left the square.


    They found themselves in a much bigger space in the labyrinth.


    Here, a monster was sleeping but it immediately opened its eyes upon Ivan''s arrival. The monster stretched its head and easily reached a height of twelve meters.


    It was a venomthorn Hydra!


    Ivan''s face turned cold, and his eyes narrowed at the sight of the three-headed snake. The venomthorn Hydra was a giant snake monster with three heads. Its body was covered in hard black scales, and its tail was as sharp as the blade of a sword.


    That wasn''t the only annoying thing about this monster; the venomthorn Hydra was also known for its regeneration ability; if one managed to cut off one of its heads, it would simply regenerate the lost head within seconds.


    On top of that, its speed that wouldn''t lose to a Nexulyte at the True King rank made it a very scary monster to fight against.


    The three heads of the venomthorn Hydra also had their own abilities as well which made many fear them. One of its heads could cause a paralyzing effect if one got bitten by it, another would make one fall into a state of hallucination and mess up their mind, and the third head had the necrosis effect.


    Its sharp tail also seemed to be laced with poison as one would immediately start to lose control over their Nexus energy and their innards would begin to rot if they got scratched by the monster''s tail.


    "Well, just my luck" Ivan mumbled in an expressionless voice before commanding the fire snake beside him to attack the venomthorn Hydra.


    Upon receiving the orders from its masters, the fire snake turned into a streak of red light as it slithered across the ground at a stunning speed toward the venomthorn Hydra that was dozens of times its size.


    Swoosh!!


    The tail of the venomthorn Hydra flashed with an even greater speed and sliced through the fire snake after the latter reached its striking range.


    The fire snake was slashed in half by the tail of the venomthorn Hydra but as a creature made from flames, the fire snake''s body stretched and connected after it was cut in half before throwing itself at the monster.


    It slithered across the body of the venomthorn Hydra with nimble movements, leaving scorch marks on its scales.


    The venomthorn Hydra roared with its three heads into the air and began thrashing around in an attempt to throw the fire snake off but it was useless as the latter quickly reached one of its heads before wrapping its body around it and exploding.


    BOOM!


    The explosion caused by the fire snake threw the other two heads to the side as a smoke cloud shrouded the area of the explosion, broken scales and blood flew out from within the smoke.


    The other two heads of the venomthorn Hydra roared in pain and slammed its tail on the ground repeatedly while rolling on the ground.


    The head that the fire snake had wrapped before exploding currently looked nothing like the head of a serpent.


    The head was bloody, missing scales; its flesh had been blasted by the explosion, and some pieces were barely hanging together by a small thread of skin.


    The eyes of the monster glared at Ivan with resentment and hatred, a loud roar sounded as the monster darted toward Ivan.

 Chapter 123 Venomthorn Hydra

    Ivan''s expression remained unchanged at the sight of the monster charging at him, its other two heads opening their mouths wide like the gate of a black hole, flashing their long fangs and sharp teeth that they wanted to shred him with.As for the other head that had suffered from the explosion of the fire snake, blood tendrils slowly stretched from the body of the venomthorn Hydra before wrapping the head like a cocoon of tendrils as it began to heal.


    "Oh no you don''t!" Ivan scoffed before bringing out another card and tossing it at the incoming monster, the card flew at the healing head of the serpent like a throwing knife while Ivan jumped away at the same time.


    BANG!


    The body of the venomthorn Hydra crashed into the ground where Ivan was standing previously, pieces of solidified blood flew into the air like rock particles upon impact.


    At the same time, the card that Ivan had thrown out turned into dazzling light particles before transforming into a three-colored lightning bolt.


    The lightning bolt flashes in the air one moment and strikes the healing head of the venomthornHydra the next moment.


    BAM!


    After getting hit by the three-colored lightning bolt, the blood tendrils wrapped around the third head burst into tiny parts while the head that had yet to heal fully and had barely recovered all of its scales was blasted into pieces.


    Unlike the explosion caused by the fire snake, the lightning completely shattered the head of the monster and turned it into a rain of blood and flesh that flew everywhere.


    The monster roared again and whipped its tail at Ivan, the latter easily dodged the sharp tail of the monster by jumping backward.


    Unwilling to give up, the venomthorn Hydra chased after Ivan, its two heads biting at the air whenever it thought it had Ivan, only for the latter to escape its maw.


    Seeing that the human was too fast for it to catch by just chasing, the venomthorn Hydra came to an abrupt stop.


    It opened one of its remaining two mouths wide enough to fit in a car.


    Black liquid immediately began to gather inside its open mouth and soon filled every space, it turned its head toward the sky before spitting the black liquid into the air.


    Ivan glanced at the black liquid that was about to fall to the ground like rain after they were spat into the air, he didn''t know which head possessed which ability; he didn''t want to find out either.


    Taking out a card, it shattered in Ivan''s hand before rising into the air, and a burst of three colored lights covered Ivan before turning into a transparent energy barrier.


    Since Ivan was alone now, he had no plans of holding back his abilities anymore and was going to use every aspect of his talent that he had discovered.


    The barrier appeared just in time for the rain of black liquids to drop from the air.


    Tap! Tap! Tap! Tap!


    Like raindrops, the black liquid made similar sounds as they dropped to the ground, on the surface of the barrier, and on the body of the venomthorn Hydra.


    The black liquid simply fell on the scales of the monster before dripping down its body as if the snake was bathing in the rain, they had no effect on its scales.


    But it was different for the ground and the barrier that Ivan had put up; cracking sounds reached his ears, and Ivan immediately turned to look at the source of the sounds.


    It was his barrier! The black liquid was causing his barrier to lose its radiance, covering it with dark spots before making cracks appear in the barrier. S§×arch* The ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Ivan quickly released Nexus energy from his body and infused it into the barrier; the dark spots vanished, and the cracks disappeared.


    As for the ground, the blood that made the walls and floor of the labyrinth immediately lost their red color after the black liquid dropped on them; they turned gray like ashes before crumbling into smelly dust. Discover more content at empire


    The rain of black liquid lasted for five seconds before stopping and Ivan came out of his barrier.


    Swoosh!


    A large tail immediately appeared in front of him the moment he stepped out from the barrier, but Ivan was ready; his fist was already coated with Nexus energy, and he punched out.


    Bang!


    Fist and tail collided and both sides were pushed back by the shockwave.


    Ivan skidded backward for three meters while the venomthorn Hydra was pushed back for six meters, it was clear who had won the exchange of strength.


    Not giving the monster the time to stabilize itself, Ivan took out another card and was about to toss them out when.


    Rumble!


    The labyrinth was shifting again!


    The ground cracked around Ivan and the venomthorn Hydra and blood walls rose from the ground like pillars, separating Ivan and the monster.


    Just like before, the space began to spin again as Ivan''s location changed once again.


    Unlike the last time, Ivan was quick to take a stance and find something to support himself so he doesn''t become disoriented like last time.


    After a while, the spinning stopped, and everywhere became silent; the labyrinth had stopped shifting, and the venomthornHydra wasn''t here.


    Ivan found himself on a small hill that was also made from blood, below him was a spacious opening with numerous short pillars scattered around the place.


    White monsters with wings walked around the space below the hill and made shrieking sounds.


    These monsters had snow-white bodies and bat bodies. They walked with their feet and large joints of their wings were pressed in the ground for support.


    Their heads were long lumps of white bone; they had no facial features except for the cracks on their faces that acted as mouths, which they used to produce sounds.


    They numbered over two hundred and moved about like worms; the sight of them would cause people to feel their skins crawl.


    Looking further ahead, Ivan saw the exit from this place at the very end of the opening; he would need to pass through these creatures if he wanted to leave.


    Another passage could be seen on the blood wall, but it was over fifty meters high; Ivan would need to know how to fly if he wanted to use that one.


    One of the creatures soon noticed Ivan on top of the small hill, it pointed one of its wings in his direction before shrieking loudly to attract the attention of the others.


    All of the monsters looked at the shrieking monster before turning their faceless heads in his direction.


    Ivan wondered if they could see him when they had no eyes, how did the first one even find him?


    "Doesn''t matter anyway," Ivan aired softly, and a card appeared in his hand before floating into the air and turning into a small flickering black flame that fell to the bottom of the hill.


    "Hellfire, detonate!"

 Chapter 124 Gargoyles

    The black flame dropped to the ground slowly and landed on the head of one of the monsters rushing at him, next thing that followed was a thunderous explosion that shook the place.The small hill that Ivan was standing on shook as if under the effect of an earthquake, the explosion covered the whole space and swallowed everything below the small hill.


    The monsters did not have the time to react before they were swallowed by the wave of the explosion, their brief shrieks of agony sounded before quickly disappearing within the roar of the explosion.


    Ivan''s hair fluttered violently from the shockwave caused by the explosion as he gazed below calmly, the flames of the explosion reflecting on his face and eyes.


    The flame burned for half a minute before gradually disappearing, leaving the space pitch black.


    Not a single monster could be seen after the flames disappeared, not even their ashes were left behind; the explosion had burned up everything.


    Ivan glanced at the space after the fire disappeared completely colored smoke rose from the ground; the explosion of the hellfire wasn''t even able to damage the blood wall. Ivan wondered just how strong the blood wall was and what sort of attack would be able to break through it.


    But more importantly¡­his eyes flashed with disappointment after taking a look at the burnt space.


    "Not a single Nexus crystal," he muttered before letting out a breath.


    Now that he was alone, Ivan didn''t continue to move immediately. The first shift had just taken place, and there were still two more hours of unpredictable shifting; moving now would be meaningless.


    So Ivan sat cross-legged and started absorbing Nexus energy in the air. The hellfire just now had consumed a third of his energy storage, and he would only be able to use it two more times before he expanded his storage.


    The space fell into silence and only the sounds of wind howled around Ivan as he drew the Nexus energy in the air toward himself while paying extreme attention to his surroundings. S~ea??h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    ...


    After the first shift, where they were separated in the hall with the scorpions, Ralph found himself in a corridor with only one way out; behind him was a dead end.


    Just like Ivan, Ralph''s head was spinning as well and he needed a minute to relax his mind. It was a good thing that his undead were shifted along with him; they kept watch while Ralph dealt with the after-effects of the shift.


    After a minute, Ralph was back to normal and took a look at his current location. The corridor wasn''t wide and had just enough space for three people to move side by side, about ten meters ahead of him was a curve that bent the corridor to the left side.


    "No use thinking when there''s just a single option" Ralph sighed and sent the undead General to scout ahead.


    Without a word, the undead General turned into a rad flicker of light and vanished into the distance, quickly reaching the end of the corridor and taking the turn to the left.


    Ralph recalled the undead knight so as to save energy before following behind the undead General, he maintained a safe distance and only moved after getting feedback from the undead General.


    After a few minutes of waking, he got a message through the emotional connection that he shared with the undead General.


    ''Room. Statues. Safe''


    Those were the words transferred from the undead General to Ralph''s mind, Ralph immediately increased his walking pace to meet the undead General that was a few tens of meters ahead.


    After making five turns through the corridor, Ralph finally left the twisty corridor and entered a hall-like space.


    This space was at least fifty meters wide and five red statues were placed side by side in the middle of the space.


    These statues seemed to be structured in human shape, but they had vertical eyes and large bat wings that unfolded behind them; each of their wings was three meters wide and had pointed tips.


    The statues were all in half kneeling postures with one of their hands on the ground and the other hands placed on their chests.


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    Ralph stared at the five statues with an awed expression, they were crafted so skillfully that they looked so lifelike.


    Moving his gaze away from the statues, Ralph looked around and soon spotted an exit at the end of the room: a door-shaped opening on the blood wall that was four meters high and two meters wide.


    "I should rest here for a bit and think of what to do next" Ralph mumbled and dropped to his butt, resting his back against one of the statues as he fell into thought.


    He already knew that trying to look for Ivan and the others might be a waste of time in a situation like this where space was constantly shifting, the best option would be to look for the guardian of the labyrinth and kill it; the labyrinth would stop functioning by then and it would be easier locate the others.


    "Sigh, would I even be able to kill it if I found it? Just how strong would a guardian be?... I wished Ivan was here; I''m sure he would be able to handle a guardian." Ralph sighed to himself as his head fell down and stared at the ground; he was mentally exhausted.


    Ckreeee!


    Ralph suddenly heard the sound of rock moving, the sound was dull and could easily be missed if one wasn''t paying attention.


    At the same time, he got a feeling from the undead General beside him.


    ''Danger. Run''


    Swoosh!!


    Immediately after the undead General passed these feelings to Ralph and before the latter could raise his head, the undead General turned into a red shadow before moving toward Ivan and pushing him to the side; the undead General proceeded to shield Ralph with its body after pushing him.


    "What the¡­?"


    Bang!!


    A Stony Wing suddenly swiped through the air like a bullet and smashed the red robe of the undead General.


    The force of the hit sent the undead General and Ralph, whom it was protecting, flying away into the distance.


    They flew for twenty meters before crashing into the ground and tumbling multiple times, they only came to a stop when the undead General finally managed to throw itself off the ground.


    Ralph, still late to react to what was happening, found himself in the embrace of the undead General; they were currently meters away from where he was resting before.


    Ralph''s eyes widened when he saw what had caused the undead General to relay those feelings and send them flying.


    One of the statues was currently staring at him, one of its wings lowered and the pointed tip hovered where Ralph was sitting just a while ago; it had slapped them away with that wing.


    The other four statues had also risen from their half-kneeling postures as well and were all currently standing tall like demons with back wings; horns had unknowingly grown out of their foreheads.


    "Thought as much, how could statues be lying around in the dreamscape" Ralph mumbled with a smile that showed he had expected this to happen.


    These statues were no ordinary statues, they were Gargoyles!

 Chapter 125 Nexus crystals

    The five Gargoyles stood side by side, their wings stretched to their full lengths. They looked menacing as their vertical eyes opened and revealed pitch-black eyeballs that gazed at Ralph and the undead General as if they were trying to look into the souls of the two.Ralph''s smile slowly disappeared, and his expression became serious; he immediately summoned the undead knight.


    The knight and its shadow horse appeared in front of him and the five Gargoyles immediately reacted to the appearance of the shadow horse.


    They opened their mouths and spoke in strange languages that Ralph was unable to understand, it was as if they were arguing about something.


    They continued for a few seconds before suddenly stopping, one of the Gargoyles suddenly flew into the air with its arms stretched wide open and its head facing the red mist that covered the surface of the labyrinth, it opened its mouth and mumbled words that Ralph found incomprehensible; it was as if it was praying.


    Not intending to wait for whatever it was going to do, Ralph gave orders for the undead General to attack while the undead knight stayed beside him.


    Swoosh!!


    Like a red streak of light, the undead General faded from its position as it rushed toward the Gargoyles.


    The Gargoyles that had flown into the air just happened to have finished its prayers at this moment and its gaze returned to the ground, falling on the red light that was shooting toward them. S~ea??h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Like the sound of swords cutting through the wind, the gargoyle made a turn in the air and dived down at the undead General like a comet.


    BOOM!


    Both of them met and threw a punch; a loud sound rang out, and both parties were pushed several steps back. Continue your adventure with empire


    A strong shockwave spread out due to their clash and Ralph had to block the shockwave by putting his hands in front of his face.


    The gargoyle and the undead General stared at each other; a pair of pitch-black eyes and a pair of red misty eyes exchanged intents.


    The undead General suddenly flashed forward again, appearing in front of the gargoyle like a ghost; its hand formed a palm and struck at the chest of the gargoyle.


    BAM!


    The palm landed on the chest of the gargoyle before the monster could react, the force lifted it off its feet and sent it flying back as a loud cracking sound followed.


    The gargoyle flew several meters back before flapping its wings and controlling its flight, soaring into the air and hovering ten meters above the ground.


    On its chest was a palm-sized crack, which was the result of the undead General''s attack.


    The Gargoyle opened its mouth and spoke in their strange language again, the remaining four gargoyles on the ground reacted after it said whatever those sounds meant.


    Their wings flapped as their legs hovered above the ground, and with another flap of their wings, all four of them shot toward the undead General.


    Ralph''s expression hardened and he was ready to send out the undead knight if he saw that the undead General was unable to handle things by itself.


    The undead knight shifted beside Ralph, its eyes following the movements of the gargoyles.


    The first gargoyle reached the undead General and immediately attacked with its wings, sending it swiping toward the face of the undead General like a blade.


    With a wind-splitting sound, the undead General faded into red light and dodged the wing of the gargoyle. It appeared on the other side of the wing and grabbed it before launching the gargoyle to the side with a powerful throw; it had easily dealt with that one but the remaining three were already upon it.


    One sent a swipe of its hand that looked like a claw from above at the head of the undead General, another one sent out a flying kick as it inched closer to the undead General, and the last one had its mouth wide open as if it was planning to munch on the undead General.


    Their speed was incredible and they were already too close for the undead General to carry out excess maneuvers.


    Still, that didn''t mean it was just going to stand there and get hit.


    Just when the claw was about to land in its head, the undead General sidestepped before reaching out and knocking the claw away with one hand while its other hand landed a solid slap in the face of the gargoyle that was trying to bite it; the strong slap sent the Gargoyle flying to the side while spinning along the way.


    BAM!


    With the undead General dealing with the other two Gargoyles, the last one had no obstructions and its punch landed squarely on the chest of the undead General.


    The latter was sent flying and crashed into the ground, coming to a stop in front of Ralph and the undead knight. It immediately jumped up to its feet and faced the gargoyles again.


    The undead knight turned to look at Ralph at this moment, and Ralph felt the emotion of the undead knight; it wanted to fight with the undead General.


    "Go!" Ralph gave the command; he wasn''t a fan of watching his undead getting bullied, to begin with, so he wasn''t going to let the undead General get ganged up on.


    Upon receiving the order, the shadow horse neighed into the air before stepping forward, the undead knight on its back stretching out its sword.


    BOOM!


    The shadow horse suddenly charged forward with a loud sound, its speed was even faster than that of the undead General!


    A black-light shot across the distance between Ralph and the gargoyles, which stopped right in front of one and transformed into the undead knight who already had its sword raised high and a dark aura gushing from its blade.


    The undead knight swung down.


    Swoosh!!


    A wave of dark aura flew out like a wind blade and slammed into a gargoyle, the dark sword wave was ferocious as it sliced through the gargoyle and continued flying until it crashed into the blood wall and finally collapsed.


    Ralph''s eyes lit up at the sight of this; his expression became even brighter when the gargoyle that was cut by the sword wave fell apart, and a small shiny crystal fell down.


    It was a Nexus crystal!


    Immediately giving another command, both the undead General and the undead General attacked the remaining gargoyles with ferociousness, pushing them back.


    Ralph took the chance and ran toward the Nexus crystal before picking it up.


    At this moment, Ralph suddenly felt a shadow loom above him.


    He turned his gaze upward and saw the gargoyle that had exchanged punches with the undead General before was currently flying above him; it had one of its hands stretched toward Ralph, and red energy was currently gathering in front of its palm.


    Swoosh!!


    A black-light suddenly flashed as a sword even flew past.


    Pfff!


    The hand of the gargoyle was cut clean at the elbow and fell from the air, the energy attack that it was preparing to launch at Ralph also vanished as well.


    They had yet to react when the undead knight appeared in front of Ralph and slashed out again, sending another dark sword wave that split the gargoyle in half from the waist.


    The sword wave sent it flying backward. As its body separated mid-air, a shining crystal flew out.


    Another Nexus crystal!


    Ralph was stunned at the sight but before he could make a move.


    Rumble!


    The ground shook violently as blood walls burst out from the ground, the labyrinth was shifting again!

 Chapter 126 Glens situation

    The space in front of Ralph changed rapidly as the ground under him moved in a zigzag pattern, he was thrown off balance and found himself spinning in the air; luckily, the undead General appeared beside him and caught him.After a few seconds of switching views, the shifting came to an end, and the surroundings stopped spinning.


    Ralph looked around himself, it was an empty ten meters wide circular space with not a single monster in sight; the gargoyles were not brought along with him. S§×ar?h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Damnit, my Nexus crystal!" Ralph cursed while gritting his teeth, he had just lost something so valuable because of the shifting.


    Looking at the other Nexus crystal in his hand, a sigh escaped his mouth. Well, at least he got one.


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    Ralph sat on the ground after making sure that nothing suspicious was around him this time, not even a boulder could be seen.


    He recalled the undead General and the undead knight back into his Nexus chamber as he had spent a lot of energy to sustain them during the fight with the gargoyles, after sending them back and taking one last look around, Ralph began to absorb the energy in the Nexus crystal as he waited for the next shift that should be happening in a few minutes.


    ¡­..


    Bang! Bang! Bang!


    Loud sounds rang out continuously in the open area, a white snake could be seen slamming its tail around the place and sending dozens of scorpions flying with each swipe of its tail.


    Some of the scorpions were smashed into pulp by the tail of the white snake while some flew and crashed into others that were behind them.


    Behind the white snake, Glen could be seen sweating profusely and he had a tired look on his face.


    A while ago after the first shift, Glen was so unfortunate that he was shifted along with all of the scorpions!


    They immediately began to jump at him after the shifting stopped; Glen had tried to run away, only for all the scorpions to chase after him.


    He ended up running into this open space with no other way out except for where he came from, it was a dead end!


    Left with no choice, Glen summoned his snake to fight.


    He also covered himself with Nexus energy and joined to help the white snake. The Scorpions were weak monsters, and Glen was able to kill one with a single punch.


    Along with his snake, they soon created a sea of blood and corpses of these monsters, but their numbers seemed endless; Glen was already getting exhausted, yet the number of the scorpions had only reduced by a bit!


    He stopped using Nexus energy and hid behind the white snake, letting the latter do all the work while he supplied it with Nexus energy when needed.


    It would be terrible if he kept fighting and ran out of energy, he would be unable to keep the snake in the real world and that would leave him to face the scorpions by himself.


    Even as a True King rank Nexulyte, Glen would end up getting exhausted if he fought so many opponents for too long.


    BAM!


    A scorpion suddenly jumped past the tail of the white snake and charged at Glen, who was hiding behind it; its human arms opened wide as if it was going to hug Glen.


    "Fuck!" Glen cursed in fright as he watched the scorpion get close.


    A massive white head suddenly appeared between them, and a huge mouth filled with long white teeth opened and snapped at the scorpion, tearing it in two.


    The snake had saved Glen just before the scorpion reached him but this had caused it to neglect the others for a moment.


    Dozens of scorpions used this chance and jumped on the body of the white snake, they started clawing with their human-like fingers and stabbing at its scales with their stingers.


    Cracks immediately began to appear on the scales of the snake, it raised its head into the air and roared.


    Noticing this, Glen gritted his teeth before pressing his palms on the body of the snake and sending streams of Nexus energy into it; the cracks on its scales quickly vanished as if they were never there.


    It resumed smashing the scorpions with its tail.


    Glen''s face turned grim; his energy was running low, but there was still no end to these scorpions.


    At this moment, Glen saw a scene that caused his body to shiver.


    On the other side of this opening, a being walked out from the blood wall as if it were a bubble.


    Glen knew just how strong the walls were, but this monster walked through it as if it were liquid.


    That wasn''t what shocked Glen the most, it was the appearance of the monster that sent fear into his soul.


    The monster was shaped like a beast, it was as tall as a minivan and had large paws. Its skin was that of a human but pale like a corpse; its body was bloated, and horrible-looking wounds with decaying surfaces riddled its body.


    Bones poked out from the wounds, and black, slimy blood flowed down from them; tiny creatures that looked like flies buzzed around the monster, thus making it look more disgusting.


    It was a Blightbeast!


    Glen knew about this monster, they had learned about it back in the tower.


    Blightbeasts were monsters that were rarely seen in the dreamscape, they were known for their decaying ability that affected their surroundings and their poisonous blood.


    Another disturbing thing about them was their crazy sense of smell and their photographic memory, they were able to remember faces and trace smells for up to three kilometers!


    The Blightbeast slowly placed a paw in front as it stepped toward the scorpions. Some of them immediately jumped at it, but they withered into dust immediately after they made contact with the body of the beast!


    Glen''s eyes widened.


    Wherever the Blightbeast passed through, all the scorpions within two meters of it would instantly turn into dust.


    In just a few seconds, it had crossed half of the space and more than half of the scorpions had turned to dust because of it.


    Good news for Glen, he was now able to rest since most of the scorpions went to attack the Blightbeast but Glen wasn''t happy about this at all because an even more terrifying being was now in front of him.


    Wouldn''t he be next after the Blightbeast was done with Scorpions?


    Glen was lamenting over his bad luck when a thunderous rumbling sound echoed through the labyrinth and the ground shook.


    Another shift was about to start!


    Glen''s eyes lit up, he was so happy about the shift that a drop of tears dropped down his face.


    "Thank you, labyrinth," Glen sobbed as tall blood walls rose around him, and his location changed.

 Chapter 127 Clints profile

    A couple of minutes ago after the first shift where the group got separated, Karin found herself spinning in between blood walls.She ended up hitting her head and blacking out for a few seconds, she only regained consciousness after a minute.


    When Karin woke up, her head was fussy, and she wasn''t able to think properly; it took her a while to come to her senses, and she was able to take a good look at where she had ended up.


    It was a small square that was only five meters, and all four sides were blocked off; the only path that could be used to go out was up; how was she supposed to climb the blood wall that was over two hundred meters high?


    Thankfully, there were no monsters in this space so Karin was able to rest easily.


    She sat in a corner and rested her back on a side of the wall, her mallet resting on the ground beside her just in case.


    "I''ll wait for the labyrinth to shift again, then I can go look for the others" Karin mumbled softly and waited patiently while staring at the blood wall.


    The next few minutes were boring as hell, all Karin had to do was stare from one side of the blood wall to another side; she got so bored that she almost slept off.


    After an excruciating couple of minutes, a sound that made Karin''s eyes light up sounded.


    Rumble!


    The ground shook, and the four walls surrounding her began to shift; Karin found herself spinning rapidly again, but this time, she stayed close to the ground and didn''t end up flying around like last time.


    After a short while, the shifting stopped and everywhere fell silent.


    Karin got up with an expectant look in her eyes but her gaze turned dark the next moment.


    She was in another small space with all sides blocked off.


    Karin blinked, her expression slowly changed before turning into a furious one.


    "Ahhh!"


    She screamed at the top of her lungs. Out of anger, she grabbed her mallet and jumped at the wall.


    BAM! BAM! BAM!


    She began slamming her mallet on the blood wall, she didn''t stop even when she saw that she was not dealing any damage; she just wanted to vent her frustration.


    After going at it for who knows how long, Karin finally stopped.


    She was tired, and her breathing was ragged; small drops of sweat fell from her chin.


    She slowly stepped back from the blood wall and fell to her butt.


    "Stupid labyrinth!" She yelled angrily.


    She suddenly saw something from the corner of her eyes after calming down, and she turned to take a better look.


    Her eyes widened.


    Laying on the ground about three meters to her side was a small shiny crystal, it was a Nexus crystal! S§×ar?h the N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Beside the Nexus crystal was the corpse of a monster that had been split in half around the waist.


    "The Nexus crystal must have come from this monster, but where did they come from?" Karin wondered as she crawled over and picked up the crystal to take a better look.


    "It''s really a Nexus crystal, awesome!"


    Ignoring her frustration from being trapped twice, Karin sat down and began to absorb the energy inside the Nexus crystal.


    Ralph would definitely vomit blood if he knew about this.


    ¡­..


    Unlike the others who had gotten into relatively safe situations after the first shift, Clint''s case was a bit¡­special.


    Currently, Clint was sitting on the back of a pitch-black snake.


    Although the snake was dead, its body wriggled like constantly moving black worms. It was dozens of meters long and was as thick as a tree; on its head were four cross-shaped eyes that gleamed with green light.


    It was a Nightmaw!


    Above it, Clint was dressed in a cloak made from darkness and wriggled like caged smoke; on his back were a pair of almost invisible shadow wings, although his shadow wings were torn after the fight with the Nightmaw.


    "Cough!"


    Spit!


    Clint coughed once and spat out a mouthful of blood. His face was bruised, and blood covered a part of his face, and one of his eyes was covered as swollen skin surrounded it.


    "Damned labyrinth" Clint mumbled softly before coughing again.


    His mind drifted to a few minutes after they got separated by the first shift.


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    ...


    Rumble!


    Blood wall burst out from the ground, and Clint found himself cut off from the rest of the ground, and the scorpions were no longer in view; next thing was the space around him spinning.


    Immediately, Clint formed shadow hands that held him to the ground and prevented him from getting tossed around.


    Everything came to an abrupt stop after a short while and Clint released his control over the shadow hands, letting them return to being shadows.


    He looked around and saw that he was in a wall light ball with jagged shining rocks covering most of the space.


    A couple of scorpions happen to be in this place, too, and Clint easily disposed of them.


    After looking around for a while, Clint saw that there was only one way out of this place, which was a window-like opening ten meters up in the wall.


    Due to the light coming from the shining rocks, there were very few shadows in the place for Clint to make use of, but that wasn''t a really big issue for Clint.


    Since no one was with him, Clint had no need to restrict his abilities.


    His eyes turned pitch black as the Nexus energy within him boiled and started to gush out from his body in the form of dark mist, in less than a minute, Clint had surrounded himself with a wave of true darkness.


    This was the true essence of his talent, the dark element: the ability to manipulate darkness.


    For various reasons which mostly concerned his background and childhood, Clint was a very distrusting person and didn''t have any friends. He was used to dealing with things by himself and didn''t trust anyone to do anything for him.


    Naturally, such a person would also develop the habit of hiding things as well. This was exactly what Clint had done all these years, making everyone believe that his talent was just to control shadows; but the truth was that¡­


    NAME: Clint Owen


    Talent Group: Combat Talent type: Elemental God Talent: Dark element (Emperor of darkness)


    Talent lv: S AP: 33.23% Rank: TRUE KING


    ¡­..


    His talent did more than just controlling shadows but this was only known to him.


    With the wave of darkness surrounding him, Clint''s perception naturally increases as well and his senses become sharper.


    He was planning to use the darkness he had summoned to get to the opening that was up on the wall but now that his senses had heightened, Clint felt that the surroundings weren''t exactly as it seemed.


    His eyes narrowed as he moved the darkness around him, sending them in all directions; his eyes suddenly widened; he sensed something.


    Hurriedly calling back the darkness he had sent out, Clint controlled them to form a tall wall of wriggling darkness in front of him. A second after he formed the darkness.


    BAM!


    An enormous mouth that was twice the size of Clint appeared out of nowhere and crashed into the wall of darkness.


    It was the Nightmaw!

 Chapter 128 Emperor of darkness

    The Nightmaw was a creature that was born from darkness and had the ability to bend shadows to form illusions which it uses to trap its prey before attacking them out of nowhere."Sadly, you picked the wrong target," Clint scoffed before controlling the wall of darkness in between himself and the enormous mouth of the Nightmaw; the wall turned into a large chain that wrapped around the head of the monster before tossing it to the side.


    BAM!


    The Nightmaw flew away and disappeared suddenly into space before the sound of it hitting something rang out.


    At the same time, the space around Clint suddenly developed cracks before shattering like a broken mirror; the illusion of the Nightmaw had collapsed.


    Clint was now able to see where he was properly; it was still the space with shiny jagged rocks, but now, the ground was overflowing with blood, and corpses of different monsters littered the place; each monster looked like their soul had been sucked out of their bodies, and they looked incredibly pale.


    A few meters away, the Nightmaw had smashed into a column of corals and had broken them. It let out an inaudible strange sound that seemed like a roar before stretching its body into the air and gazing down at Clint with its four eyes.


    After stretching, it got over fifteen meters tall; it was colossal as it looked down at him, its body kept wriggling like constantly running black worms.


    It was frightening.


    Clint''s expression became serious as well. Unlike most monsters, the Nightmaw was an intelligent monster and knew how to think.


    It was most likely observing Clint after the latter managed to discover that he was inside an illusion and had even pinpointed the exact location that it had attacked from.


    Clint wasn''t going to underestimate such an opponent, it would be his biggest regret if he didn''t go all out.


    Taking a deep breath, Clint''s eyes burst out with black light that seemed to even flow out from his eyeballs, the darkness around him beginning to squirm restlessly.


    Like a volcano, they surged into the air like a wave of black waters had crashed into the surface of a gigantic rock and fell over Clint''s figure.


    Swallowing him completely and hiding him from view. The four crossed-shaped eyes of the Nightmaw gleamed as it gazed into the wave of darkness, trying to see Clint''s figure, but all it could see was the darkness squirming within.


    As if having minds of their own, the darkness began to sip into Clint''s body before bursting out again.


    Clint''s face remained calm, but his eyes flickered with a painful glint; it was clear that whatever he was doing caused him pain, but he didn''t stop.


    This continued for a few more seconds before all the darkness around Clint had disappeared into his body, even his shadow and the shadow of the objects around him were not left.


    By now, Clint had taken a new form.


    A long flowing cloak made out of darkness, its helms like a constantly flowing black waterfall wrapped around Clint''s body.


    On his back were two large wings made from darkness also, they moved up and down without making a sound; waves of black smoke gushed out from them with each movement.


    In Clint''s hand was a long black staff with two red shining gemstones on top.


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    This was the true form of his talent, emperor of darkness!


    Clint''s black eyes moved like mist and gazed at the head of the Nightmaw; his mouth slightly opened, and a sound came out.


    "Come and die"


    Swoosh!!


    Immediately after Clint said those words, his wings flapped once and he suddenly disappeared from the ground.


    Like a ghost born from the void, Clint appeared in front of the monster''s head almost immediately and struck out with his staff.


    Wooosh!!


    As if sensing the danger, the Nightmaw suddenly scattered into countless dark particles that flew past Clint. They flew in the air like fish in water and moved to another side of the space before forming the body of the Nightmaw again.


    Clint turned around in midair, his eyes landed on the monster and he disappeared again with a flap of his wings.


    His speed was astonishing and he left an afterimage at his previous location when he was already in front of the monster.


    BOOM!


    This time, the Nightmaw was unable to react in time and the staff ruthlessly smashed on its head.


    A strong shockwave resulted and launched Clint into the air while the body of the Nightmaw crashed into the ground. Pieces of shining stones were instantly sent flying into the air after the creature crashed into them.


    Still not planning to let it go, Clint vanished again and appeared in front of the snake, his staff swinging down.


    His head suddenly turned sideways just before his staff could land on the snake, immediately, his wings moved like shields to his side.


    A split second after Clint covered his side with his wings, a large drill appeared out of nowhere and crashed into his wing.


    BAM!


    The force of the drill was unimaginable, and Clint was unable to stop himself from flying away; he flew for a couple of meters and smashed into layers of blood corals and shining stones, destroying everything in his path.


    He only came to a stop after slamming into the blood wall and causing the ever-so-sturdy wall to generate ripples.


    "Gah!" Clint''s mouth opened involuntarily, and a sound escaped his lungs; small drops of blood flew out of his mouth in the process.


    Clint was yet to recover from the hit when countless dark particles crashed into him and began to hit him all over his body, pinning him against the blood wall; it was as if he was being hit by high water pressure.


    His body screamed in pain, his limbs were finding it difficult to move.


    "Ahhh!"


    Clint opened his mouth and let out an inhumane scream, his voice almost generating a sound wave.


    In response to his scream, the red gemstones on top of his staff blazed; bursting out with a dazzling shine that illuminated the entire place.


    As if moths had made contact with the sun, the dark particles crashing into Clint''s body immediately burnt into a puff of smoke before disappearing into the air.


    The rest of the dark particles immediately retreated, moving away from Clint and letting him fall to the ground. His face was bodies and he was breathing heavily.


    A few meters ahead of him, the Nightmaw had formed into its snake form and was currently thrashing around, smashing itself into anything around it.


    On its body, a large chunk of dark particles was missing, leaving a huge gaping wound on the monster; that was most likely the place where the dark particles that the gemstones had destroyed used to be.


    Forcing himself to stand up, Clint gazed at the creature that had obviously reduced in size after taking damage. He cleaned the blood from the corner of his lips as a small grin formed on his face.


    However, at this moment¡­


    Rumble!!!


    The ground trembled, blood walls burst out from the ground; the labyrinth was shifting again! S§×arch* The nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

 Chapter 129 Killing the Nightmaw

    Clint sighed, thinking that he was going to be separated from the Nightmaw.But boy was he mistaken!


    The Nightmaw was a resentful creature, it naturally held grudges.


    Even though it had been thrashing around after a part of its body went missing, it wasn''t planning on letting Clint leave just like that.


    Immediately after the blood walls started popping up, the Nightmaw scattered into dark particles again and swarmed toward Clint and forming a ball of wriggling darkness around him.


    The two fought throughout the duration of the shift and continued after the shift had already stopped.


    The Nightmaw had reverted to its snake form and suddenly whipped out with its tail.


    BAM!


    The tail smashed into Clint''s face and he was sent flying back, crashing into the blood wall.


    Clint knew that he didn''t have time to think about his aching body because the Nightmaw won''t give him that time, he immediately rose to his feet after dropping to the ground only to see the huge mouth of a bottomless abyss in front of him.


    The Nightmaw had reduced in size, so its mouth wasn''t as enormous as it was previously, but it was still enough to swallow Clint in one bite.


    Clint forced his body to move to the side while his left-wing slashed at the Nightmaw.


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    Arrchgg!!


    The Nightmaw snapped at Clint but caught his wing instead.


    With Clint''s Wing in its mouth, it lifted its head before thrashing around again.


    Clint found himself getting lifted into the air and the next thing he knew was his body smashing into things that he couldn''t see clearly as the Nightmaw pulled him around like a toy. S~ea??h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    It kept slamming Clint into things for a few seconds before tossing him to the side with force.


    Clint landed on the ground heavily and bounced a few times; his body was screaming in protest, and his innards were churning.


    He lay motionless on the ground, his dark cloak and wings slowly dimming into they looked like shadows instead of things that were made from darkness; Clint was reaching his endpoint.


    The Nightmawslowly slithered on the ground toward where Clint was lying, its four eyes gleaming with the ferociousness of a beast as its body faded in and out of reality.


    ''Just a bit¡­closer''


    Clint looked at the Nightmaw approaching, one of his eyes swollen while the other was back to normal; the black light had faded, and his blood-red pupil could be seen, albeit it was smeared with blood.


    Clint patiently waited as the Nightmaw got closer, his body was too weak for any excessive movements anyway.


    Immediately after the Nightmaw got into the range of 5 meters near Clint, his one eye that had gone back to normal suddenly burst out with black light again.


    The Nightmawinstantly noticed that something was wrong, but it was too late.


    Clang!


    Fwoosh!!


    A colossal wave of shadows suddenly surged into the air around them, locking the two of them inside it.


    From around the shadow cage, countless shadow spikes and chains shot out from all directions and stabbed into the body of the Nightmaw.


    They stabbed its body messily before letting out small layers of darkness that ran across the surface of the monster''s body and fully circled it like a shell.


    The Nightmawroared and tried to scatter into dark particles in order to escape, but the shell of darkness that had been formed around its body would knock back every dark particle that tried to separate from the monster''s body, causing it to be unable to escape.


    This created a scene of the Nightmaw exploding and forming together over and over again.


    It repeated this routine several times before realizing that it was trapped, this shell of darkness around it was keeping it in one piece; it was like a sealed pack that prevented any parts of it from leaking out!


    At this point, Clint slowly stood up and approached the struggling monster. He stood two meters away, just out of the monster''s reach.


    "Hehehe, cough! You didn''t expect this, did you?" Clint laughed and coughed a mouthful of blood.


    The monster kept snapping its mouth at him, but it wasn''t able to move a single step further than the shadow chains and spikes allowed.


    Clint stared at its eyes that were glaring back at him with hatred, a smirk appeared on his bloody face.


    "I told you at the start, come and die" Clint chuckled with difficulty before throwing his staff into the mouth of the monster like a spear.


    The spear entered its mouth and traveled down its body, the light of the red gemstones on the staff gleamed through the darkness that made up the monster''s body, allowing its movements to be followed from outside.


    The staff flew till it reached the middle of the Nightmaw''s body, a soft mumble escaped Clint''s mouth at this moment.


    The light from the gemstones suddenly stopped moving within the monster''s body, its light started to glow brighter and brighter.


    The monster also began to struggle even more violently, breaking some of the chains and shadow spikes in a few seconds.


    Clint fell on his knees and spat out blood but the smirk didn''t leave his face as he continued to stare at the monster''s eyes.


    "It''s too late to struggle"


    He whispered.


    BOOM!!


    A thunderous explosion bloomed inside the body of the Nightmaw, the explosion causing the numerous shadow spikes, shadow chains, and the shell of darkness around its body to shatter.


    A strong shockwave burst out and crashed into Clint, sending him back a few steps.


    The monster that had suffered the full brute of the explosion naturally suffered worse. Like blowing on a speck of dust on a table, the darkness that made up the body of the Nightmaw evaporated light ashes.


    What was left was a couple of meters long black snake with the thickness of a tree, its body looked like it was made of wriggling black worms.


    On top of it was a small shining crystal, it was a Nexus crystal!


    The eyes of the snake were still open and gleaming with green light, but Clint was certain that it was already dead.


    Forcing his lungs to breathe, Clint slowly rose to his feet and climbed on top of the snake to claim his prize; he didn''t forget to curse at the labyrinth in the process for letting this damned thing chase him mid-shift.

 Chapter 130 Dreadclaws

    After staying on top of the hill for over 30 minutes, Ivan''s eyes slowly opened as the familiar rumbling sound reached his eyes and walls rose from the ground.The third shift!


    Just like before, the space around him moved and Ivan found himself in another part of the labyrinth after the shifting stopped.


    His eyes picked up screeching sounds behind him, Ivan''s eyes flashed and he instinctively bent his head down.


    Swoosh!!


    A green light flashed above his head, cutting off a few strands of white hair.


    Ivan didn''t hesitate and jumped away after dodging whatever had cut his hair; dozens of green lights flashed in his previous location the moment he jumped away.


    Turning around after landing several meters away, he was finally able to see what had ambushed him from behind.


    Facing Ivan were seven Dreadclaws that stood at a height of four meters.


    The Dreadclaws were huge mantis creatures with metal hands that were so sharp that they could slice through steel, they were known for their speed and ability to coordinate with each other.


    The seven Dreadclaws looked at Ivan with their black eyes before letting out low screeches.


    Three of the monsters immediately moved to the right while another three flanked his left side, the last one charged at Ivan in a straight line.


    They left afterimages all over the place as they moved with speed, it made it seem like there were dozens of them for a moment.


    Ivan bent his knees slightly and launched himself into the air, numerous green lights that were the glint from the metal hands of the monsters slashed at the afterimage that Ivan had created.


    They looked at Ivan after missing their target and their wings immediately expanded from their backs before making buzzing sounds.


    Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!!


    One after the other, the seven Dreadclaws flew into the air to attack Ivan.


    Ivan burst out with Nexus energy and stepped on a Dreadclaw that had reached him, he moved his foot as he dodged the sharp hand of the monster before stomping on it and using it as a footing to launch himself back to the ground.


    Ivan landed on the ground with a loud bang sound and brought out a card. He tossed the card into the air, and it burst into particles of red, gold, and blue light.


    The light particles swirled in the air before turning into seven ice spears that hovered in front of Ivan.


    With a thought from him, the seven ice spears shot at the monsters in the air like bullets.


    The ice spears left trails of white light in the air as they flew toward the seven monsters in the air, the other parties immediately reacted.


    Each of them slashed at the ice spears with their metal hands.


    Ptui!


    The ice spears stabbed through the hands of five of the monsters, severing them in one move; green blood gushed out as their severed hands fell to the ground.


    The other two had somehow managed to knock away the ice spears, but they still ended up getting injured, and blood was flowing to the ground.


    Screeching loudly, the Dreadclaws all charged at Ivan in fury, their wings almost turning invisible from the speed at which they were moving.


    Ivan calmly stepped to the side and vanished just in time for one of the monsters to crash on the ground where he was standing just a while ago.


    Ivan appeared above it the next moment, with a card in hand. He thrust the card at the monster on the ground, and the card turned into a silver spear mid-thrust.


    Ptui!!


    Ivan stabbed the spear into the body of the Dreadclaws ruthlessly and green blood immediately gushed out and fell on his protective suit. S§×arch* The nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Sizzling sounds rang out as the part of the protective suit where the blood of the monster touched began to let out smoke and the black color of that area turned even darker.


    Ivan''s eyes flashed, he pulled out his spear and moved back.


    ''I forgot that their blood was toxic'' Ivan thought to himself.


    His foot suddenly got stuck and he wasn''t able to move anymore. Looking down, Ivan saw that the monster that he had just stabbed and was on the verge of death had grabbed his foot with its curved metal hand.


    Ivan was slightly confused as to why it would make such a move since it was going to die in a few seconds but his answer soon came when the remaining six monsters appeared around him and slashed at his body with their hands; streaks of green light flashed around Ivan as the six Dreadclaws tried to rip him to shreds.


    Ivan found himself under the onslaught of six sharp metal hands that were as fast as the propellers of a helicopter.


    ''It is still trying to give an assist even when it''s about to die, what troublesome creature''


    Ivan''s grip on his silver spear tightened, and his muscles bulged under the protective suit; his body exploded with Nexus energy that sent a powerful shockwave all around him and slowed down the approach of the monsters for a bit.


    His spear moved, flashing around the monsters; it was as if Ivan''s spear was teleporting as his arms almost turned invisible from the speed at which he was swinging the spear.


    Sounds of the wind getting slashed rang out as white light formed a wide net around Ivan and the Dreadclaws, strong sharp wind waves flew out from the tip of the spear.


    Ptui! Ptui!!


    A fountain of green blood gushed out the next moment as multiple tears appeared on the bodies of the monsters; the green blood flew into the air before falling down with Ivan in the center of its rain.


    BOOM!!


    With another explosion of Nexus energy, Ivan pushed the green toxic blood and the severely wounded monsters away in all directions.


    He swung his spear and slashed down with the spearhead, severing the limb of the monster that had held onto his foot even in death.


    He kicked his leg and sent the severed limb flying.


    Turning his gaze to the other Dreadclaws that were bleeding profusely, Ivan slowly approached them one after the other and slashed at their necks. Their heads rolled forward as more blood gushed out.


    From the open neck of one of the Dreadclaws, a Nexus crystal rolled out and stopped in the puddle of green blood that had formed in front of the monster''s corpse; the crystal was also covered in green blood.


    "Only one dropped a crystal; well, it''s still better than those white creatures," Ivan said softly before walking over with his spear in hand; he dipped the spearhead under the Nexus crystal and used it to toss the crystal into the air.


    Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!!


    He waved the spear around the crystal multiple times while it was in the air before catching it, the crystal was now sparkling clean; Ivan had removed all the blood on it by hitting it all over with his spear. Find exclusive stories on empire


    With the spear in hand, Ivan looked for a clean spot to sit. He would not start absorbing the Nexus crystal yet since there were still about two hours of unpredictable shifts in the labyrinth.


    Just when he was about to rest his butt on some blood corals, Ivan''s gaze hardened and his eyes narrowed.


    Turning his head to the side, he caught the scene of a giant silhouette moving within the blood wall.


    No, not a giant silhouette; there were two silhouettes, and they seemed to be coming closer as their features became more distinctive.


    At this moment, something suddenly came flying out from the blood wall and crashed into the ground.


    Ivan couldn''t stop his eyes from widening due to surprise, it was the Venomthorn Hydra that he had encountered before; the monster was severely wonderful with two of its heads missing!


    ''Since when could this thing go through the walls?!''


    Raising his gaze to meet the other silhouette, Ivan saw a massive beastly creature walk out from the blood wall.


    In its mouth was a serpent head, it was one of the three heads of the Venomthorn Hydra!

 Chapter 131 USING THE GOLDEN SWORD AGAIN

    It was the Blightbeast that Glen had escaped from!Of course, Ivan didn''t know that Glen had also met the Blightbeast but was saved by the shifting labyrinth.


    The Blightbeast walked out from the blood wall as if the wall was invisible and not as sturdy as a fortress, it was munching on the severed head of the Venomthorn Hydra while gazing at it.


    Ivan "..."


    What the hell was going on? Are these two fighting?


    Ivan glanced at the two. The Blightbeast had a few scratches and some chunks of flesh missing from its body; it was covered in black liquid that caused the sores on its body to rot faster, but its injuries were nowhere close to the condition that the Venomthorn Hydra was in.


    It only had one head left, its other two heads were missing and blood tendrils were forming in their place, and on its body were multiple claw wounds and bite marks.


    Ivan silently moved backward and found a remote corner to watch what was going to unfold. He had no desire to get ganged up on by these monsters, so it was best to hide for now and be a spectator.


    The Venomthorn Hydra slithered on the ground and lifted its remaining head, it hissed at the Blightbeast and shot a wave of purple mist at its face.


    The mist crashed into the face of the Blightbeast and some seeped into its eyes and nose.


    Roar!


    The Blightbeast tossed the half-eaten serpent head in its mouth away and roared, seemingly in pain. Its eyes closed tightly as small drops of blood flowed from the corner, and yellowish glue-like liquid gushed out from its nose.


    The Venomthorn Hydra immediately took advantage of the beast''s short moment of blindness to attack.


    Wriggling across the ground with impressive speed, it shot toward the Blightbeast before wrapping its body around the beast.


    It opened its mouth and spat out another wave of purple mist before biting at the neck of the Blightbeast with the mouth of its remaining head.


    The beast roared as blood gushed out from its neck, it temporarily ignored the pain on its face and slapped the head of the snake that was biting its neck with its large paw.


    BAM!


    The paw landed on the head of the snake heavily and another claw wound immediately appeared on the remaining head.


    But the Venomthorn Hydra was persistent and kept biting regardless.


    The beast landed another slap, and a loud sound of bones cracking echoed this time. Blood burst out from the head of the snake, but It kept biting.


    Left without a choice, the Blightbeast turned around and ran toward the blood wall.


    It passed through it easily, but the same was not so for the snake as its body crashed into the wall with a strong impact; its body flew off the beast''s body due to this as the latter disappeared into the blood wall and loomed within it in the form of a massive silhouette.


    The snake wriggled in pain on the ground, more blood flowing out from its injuries as the blood tendrils tried to amend them.


    Just when Ivan thought that the Blightbeast had fled, it suddenly came out from the wall and jumped at the snake.


    It pinned it to the ground, pressing down on its remaining head with its paw, and started ruthlessly tearing at it with its massive teeth.


    Blood and pieces of flesh were sent flying everywhere as the Blightbeast shredded the Venomthorn Hydra, blood quickly covering its beastly face.


    The Venomthorn Hydra constantly hissed in pain as it thrashed its body under the weight of the Blightbeast, but it was useless as the letter wouldn''t bulge; it began spewing out purple mist as a last form of struggle.


    Ivan watched the two monsters battling from a distance, a serious expression on his face as he stared at the ghastly scene in front of him.


    After watching the fight between the two, Ivan realized that the Blightbeast had the ability to move through the blood wall; this would be. It is a very troublesome ability if it decides to run away from a fight because no one would probably be able to chase it into the wall.


    Another thing that he had realized when they arrived was that the beast could take anything along with it into the wall as long as it wanted; that was how it was able to bring the Venomthorn Hydra here.


    ''I will need to make sure to kill it in one strike so it doesn''t escape, it would be troublesome to have such a beast stalking me through the labyrinth; though I''ll have to wait to see which of them will survive till the end'' Ivan thought inwardly as a card discretely appeared in his hand.


    Although it looked very obvious that the Blightbeast was going to win, considering how severely damaged the Venomthorn Hydra was, nothing was certain inside the dreamscape, so Ivan needed to be sure of things before acting.


    The fight continued for a few more minutes as the two monsters struggled. Without anything unexpected happening, the Blightbeast finally ripped off the remaining head of the Venomthorn Hydra.


    The body of the snake immediately stopped moving and a Nexus crystal was pushed out by a blood spurt.


    The Blightbeast caught the crystal with its paw. Even as a creature that had decay and poisoning abilities, the purple mist that the snake kept spitting out had done a lot to it. Its face was currently disfigured and half melted with one eye dangling from its socket like molten steel.


    The injuries on its bodies were covered in purple spots with yellow liquid dripping from them and causing the ground to make sizzling sounds upon contact.


    It moved to a corner and lay down on its stomach while breathing heavily and letting out soft growls, it was exhausted and in pain.


    ''This is my chance''


    Ivan thought before tossing the card in his hand into the air; the card burst into dazzling three-colored lights before changing into a shiny golden sword.


    Half of the energy in Ivan''s Nexus chamber was instantly used up when he formed this sword.


    Gripping the sword, Ivan dashed from his hiding spot and appeared in front of the Blightbeast like a ghost; his size was like a three-year-old child standing in front of an adult when he stood in front of the beast.


    Ignoring the disparity in their sizes, Ivan slashed down with his golden sword with full strength.


    A powerful Golden sword wave that shone like a small sun shot out from the sword and sliced through the wind as it flew toward the Blightbeast.


    The beast was startled by the sudden appearance of the human and the powerful Golden wave that was flying toward it, it felt a great sense of danger from the golden light.


    It immediately thought of escaping; it got up and wanted to run into the blood wall, but it was too late.


    Shing!!!


    Like a hot knife cutting through tofu, the Golden sword wave sliced through the Blightbeast without any resistance.


    It passed through its body, continued to fly forward, and crashed into the blood wall. Sear?h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    BOOM!!


    A thunderous explosion that shook the space rang out after the golden sword light crashed into the wall. Ivan''s eyes widened, not at the sight of the beast that had been cut in two but at the damage that his attack had caused.


    The blood wall that Ivan believed that nothing would be able to damage¡­had a large sword gash that was over five meters deep in it!

 Chapter 132 Three days

    Hours flew by in a flash, it''s been 3 days since the group got separated in the labyrinth and found themselves roaming from one space to another.They had all lost count of how many monsters they had faced within the past three days, the shifting of the labyrinth was becoming more and more unpredictable as monsters with weird abilities began to appear; they even feared resting their heads to take short naps, a mouth could casually come out from the blood wall and snap your head off your neck.


    The group currently looked battered and messy with body appearances; their faces looked almost lifeless, and dark circles could be seen under their eyes, but their gazes remained as vigilant as ever; as Nexulytes above the Mortal King rank, it wasn''t too much to go a few days without sleep.


    Luckily, they didn''t have to worry about starving to death since all of them each had a storage device with enough supplies to last them a week if consumed gradually.


    During the past three days, aside from facing tons of monsters inside the labyrinth, there had been many occasions when the members of the group had to escape and hide after encountering some monsters.


    This scene was even more frequent with Clint who was still healing from the injuries that he received from the Nightmaw.


    Although Nexulytes had self-healing abilities that were far superior to that of normal humans, it would still take a while for them to heal from serious injuries if they didn''t get treatment from medical personnel or someone with healing-type talent.


    At times when Clint encountered a large group of powerful monsters or a single strong one and there was no route to escape to, he would create a veil of darkness to cover himself and stay quietly in a corner.


    The veil of darkness was perfectly able to mask his presence and hide his scent, making it impossible for the monsters to detect him even when they walked right in front of him.


    He would only attack when he ran into weaker monsters.


    It was better to deal with them using shadow spikes or shadow tentacles than covering himself with a veil of darkness as the latter ability required more Nexus energy to be spent, and the longer he sustained the veil, the more energy he spent; this would only end up exhausting him even more.


    One thing that he was thankful for though, was that he didn''t encounter any other Nightmaw or a creature with darkness/shadow elements; he would have been done for.


    After three days in the labyrinth, Clint had gotten four Nexus crystals. He had gotten three from a group of weak pig-like monsters, the monsters were so weak that he had killed them by just pressuring them with Nexus energy.


    This was why the saying that ''Finding Nexus crystal was purely based on luck'' was a very popular saying amongst Nexulytes.


    Who would have expected him to acquire such valuable items from such monsters? Even an ordinary person might be able to kill them if they make enough preparations.


    As for the crystals that he had collected, Clint stored all of them; he would know whether to absorb them or sell them after leaving the dreamscape, that was if he could make it out alive because¡­.


    Currently, it was the last shift after three hours, and according to their understanding of the labyrinth, there should not be any more shifts for the next hour.


    Clint, who was hiding behind a veil of darkness that he had created, sighed helplessly.


    He was currently inside an enormous space that was about a hundred meters wide, and a large red eyeball that was as huge as a land carrier floated around the place.


    Clint had been unfortunate and found himself here after the last shifting of the labyrinth.


    The huge eyeball had spotted him before he was able to create his veil of darkness, which was why it was currently floating around the place with a ray of yellow light shining from its enormous pupil; it was looking for Clint!


    "Damned labyrinth" Clint mumbled under his breath, sweat gathering on his forehead.


    The veil of darkness was consuming his Nexus storage at a fast rate, he might be left with little to nothing by the time the one hour was over; what would he do if he encountered another of such monsters after the labyrinth shifted again? Sear?h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    ''I should worry about that after surviving this first, not like I have another choice; things might be different if the team was still together but I wonder if those people are still alive, Ivan probably should, and maybe that dude called Ralph''


    Clint thought to himself as he tried to distract himself by thinking of the others.


    What he didn''t know was that he wasn''t the only one in a tight spot.


    A certain girl with a ponytail who had been experiencing special treatment from the dreamscape during the first day in the labyrinth had finally used up her lucky free trial and had begun to face the horrors of the labyrinth.


    Bang!!


    A huge rock fist smashed into the ground immediately after Karin moved away from the place.


    She appeared beside the owner of the fist the next moment with her mallet swinging behind her.


    BOOM!!


    Karin''s mallet smashed into a pair of huge rocky arms before sending their owner flying backward.


    Karin dropped to her knees after sending whatever she had just hit flying back, her face covered in sweat and her lips stained with blood.


    Opposite her stood a tall golem that was about 6 meters tall and had an armored body; the rock limbs of the golem were longer than usual, which helped it to make nimble movements, and its head had just a single square-shaped eye that glowed with red light.


    It was a Gavelorn!


    The Gavelorn was a golem covered in sand armor, despite its size, it was known for its ability to move silently on the ground and was able to create quake sand!


    The golem flew back for twenty meters after receiving the hit from Karin''s mallet; it landed lightly on the ground before dashing at Karin again, its legs lightly tapping on the ground as it crossed the distance between them in less than five seconds.


    Immediately after reaching Karin, the girl swung her mallet at it while the golem smashed down with its hand.


    BOOM!


    Both the mallet and the hand of the golem collided, filling the space with a deafening sound.


    Immediately after the collision, Karin suddenly felt the ground below her turn soft and her leg sank into it.


    She looked down in shock and the golem took the chance to attack her again. Sensing the feeling of death approaching, Karin lifted her mallet and placed it in front of her without looking.


    With a bang, a powerful force crashed into her mallet and sent her flying away like a broken kite. Karin crashed into the blood wall on the other side and a pained scream escaped her lips as more blood flew out.


    Landing weakly on the ground, Karin watched the golem approaching with slightly dizzy eyes.


    "Not¡­yet" she mumbled to herself as her hand that was holding the mallet trembled.

 Chapter 133 Rage

    The red light that served as the eye of the golem locked on Karin''s figure as it dashed toward her again without making a single sound, one might even think that it was an illusion because of how it moved like a shadow.Karin gritted her teeth and prepared herself; immediately, the golem reached her, and it punched out with both hands.


    Karin rolled on the ground and dodged to the side as two large rock fists smashed into the blood wall behind her with great momentum.


    Karin didn''t roll far and immediately jumped to her feet before swinging her mallet at the body of the golem with all her might.


    BAM!


    The mallet smashed into the side of the Gavelorn ruthlessly, cracking its sand armor and causing sand and pieces of rocks to fly out.


    A roar rang out as the golem was pushed to the side, its feet creating a trench of quake sand on the ground.


    "One¡­more," Karin mumbled; she was having difficulty breathing, but her focused eyes remained locked on the figure of the golem that was already charging at her again.


    Its huge hand punched at her face; Karin bent her waist and lowered her upper body backward, letting the hand of the golem pass above her.


    Still in that form, she used her mallet as a hook to pull herself by throwing it to the side while still holding onto it.


    The instant her feet touched the ground, she rotated and sent her mallet smashing down on the head of the golem from above, but a cold, stony grip suddenly enclosed her neck and harm that was holding the mallet.


    The Gavelorn gripped Karin by the neck while holding her arm up in the air before slamming her on the blood wall.


    "Gahhh"


    Karin screamed in pain; blood gushed out from her mouth and nose, and her eyes widened; her entire body was in pain, and she felt like she might have injured her lungs.


    Her eyes glared at the golem that was staring back at her with its red eye, its grip around her neck slowly tightened.


    Karin spat another mouthful of blood that fell on the arm of the golem, she was feeling suffocated as she wasn''t able to breathe anymore; despite this, a small smirk slowly crept up her trembling lips.


    "Cheek¡­mate"


    She managed to squeeze out those words before sending the last amount of Nexus energy into her mallet before letting go.


    The mallet suddenly burst out with a fiery wave of Nexus energy and grew bigger in size, easily turning five times bigger than before; it was now bigger than the Gavelorn!


    The head of the golem swiftly turned to look up at the sudden burst of Nexus energy that attracted its attention but it was too late as the mallet fell on its head the very next moment.


    BOOM!!!


    As if a meteorite had landed on the golem, it was squashed to the ground by the enormous mallet, and a strong shockwave spread out and knocked Karin flying away.


    She landed several meters away from where the mallet and the golem were and hit her back on the ground; with uneasiness still hugging her heart, she got up on all fours and crawled toward her mallet.


    Only after seeing the pieces of rocks and sand lying motionless under her mallet did she finally let out a sigh of relief and dropped to the ground on her back.


    Her face stared at the red mist above the labyrinth as she breathed heavily, her well-sized chest rising and falling with each breath she took.


    She didn''t care about anything else at the moment, all she wanted to do was to breathe. Her Nexus chamber was completely empty, and the labyrinth would shift in a bit more than half an hour; she might not survive if she got shifted to where another monster was as her body was too battered to go another round.


    "I''ll just stay like this for a while. Hopefully, I won''t die from the next shift," Karin said while staring at the red mist, tears silently rolling down the corner of her eyes while blood covered the lower part of her face. Stay updated with empire


    ¡­.


    At the same time on another side of the labyrinth.


    Glen could be seen battling a monster that was just as tall as he was.


    This monster had the body of a lion but its skin was pitch black, its lion head had a ring of fire circling around it, and on its back were large bird wings. S§×ar?h the nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    It was a Chimera of dread!


    It had this name because it was about to inflict fear on its target; it would make the target think of their biggest fear, which would often get them distracted.


    Unfortunately for it, its opponent was Glen.


    When it had used this ability on Glen, what Glen had seen wasn''t something that would cause it to feel fearful or distracted.


    What Glen had seen was a massive beast stepping on his father, killing him in a single stomp. This was what he had imagined from what his mother and little sister had told him, although they had said that it was the human who crashed into their house, Glen understood that it was the monster that had sent him flying when he was trying to save the people of the outskirts.


    For this reason, Glen had transferred all of the blame for his father''s death to the monster, filling him with hatred for creatures from the dreamscape and thus the reason he had seen such a scene after the Chimera of dread used its ability on him.


    But the scene didn''t end there, in the scene, Glen saw the giant monster turning to his mother and sister before jumping towards them.


    This was where Glen had gone mad with rage. Instead of being terrified by fear as the monster had hoped for, he had instead exploded with fury.


    Glen immediately summoned his snake and assumed his half-transformation before going on a rampage.


    "Damned brat! What the hell is wrong with you!" A thunderous beastly voice roared angrily.


    Ah, yes. Another thing, the Chimera of dread was capable of speech.


    "Shut up!" Glen shouted back before disappearing into a white flicker and appearing right in front of the monster, his fist that was covered in white snake scales already stretched out.


    BOOM!


    The punch landed on the face of the beast mercilessly and sent it stumbling back by dozens of steps, sadly, he didn''t manage to deal any damage.


    The body of the beast was just too tough.


    "You can''t hurt me, give up; let''s make a truce!" The beast roared again. It was angry and helpless.


    What sort of Human demon was this? It had only used its ability on the fellow but the human had turned into a mad dog instead of trembling from fear.


    Although the human was unable to hurt it even after attacking countless times, it was just too fast for the beast to keep up with; the current scene looked like it was being bullied by a human who was purposely beating it up.


    How vexing!


    "I said, shut up!" Glen roared back and vanished into a white line again that shot at the beast.


    BAM!


    BAM!


    BAM!


    BAM!


    Disappearing like a ghost, Glen appeared around the beast at the same time while punching it all over.


    His speed was so fast that it looked like there were multiple Glen.


    Despite this, Glen was feeling desperate. He knew that the monster would certainly get revenge after he stopped attacking it but he was unable to hurt the beast.


    As if feeling his distress, Glen got a feeling in his mind.


    It wasn''t from him, the feeling was from his white snake!


    Suddenly, a large pointy scale poked out from his knuckles just when he was about to punch the beast again.


    Ptui!!


    The sharp scale stabbed into the body of the monster and drew out a line of blood.


    The beast roared in pain and shock, Glen was equally shocked.


    "I can do that?"

 Chapter 134 Ghoulshade

    Glen stared at the scale that was covered in blood, surprised at how effective it was.He looked at the beast and grinned.


    "Didn''t you say I can''t hurt you? Well, guess what?" Glen said with a sinister voice.


    The beast roared.


    "What sort of freak are you? Stay away from me!"


    The ring of flames around its neck rotated before sending out balls of flames at Glen.


    "Never!" Glen shouted in fury before disappearing.


    Swoosh!


    He appeared in front of the beast''s face like a phantom with his fist punching out.


    BAM!


    The punch landed on the beast''s face and the scale instantly stabbed into its skull before sending it flying.


    It slammed into the blood wall and was yet to stand up when Glen appeared in front of it again, his hands turning into a white whirlwind as he rained down his fists on the monster''s body.


    Blood flew everywhere, and cuts began to appear all over the monster''s body; it was soon bathed in blood and covered in cuts in Just a minute.


    The fire around its neck had long died out and disappeared, and its breathing was faint; Glen had beaten it to the verge of death.


    "You¡­despicable¡­human" it cursed while looking at Glen hatefully.


    The latter stumbled back and fell on his back, his transformation undone and a small white snake coiled up on his stomach; Glen had unknowingly used up all of his Nexus storage and didn''t have enough to sustain his transformation anymore.


    Although the beast''s ability had affected him in a different way than he had expected, the rage that Glen felt had clouded his mind and made him ignore things that he shouldn''t have.


    Now, he was out of Nexus energy and totally exhausted; he could even barely move.


    The good thing was that the beast was in even worse shape than him, it could not even move its tail.


    So he was safe for the time being, he would just stay like this till he recovered a bit of energy; his snake would keep watch until then.


    "Stupid beast, you just had to use the wrong kind of ability on me; now see what you''ve caused; I''ll make sure to finish you off once I get up," Glen voiced out while staring at the red mist above the labyrinth.


    The Chimera of dread heard this, and tears almost burst out from its eyes; it was unable to move unless it would have walked over and slapped this detestable human to death.


    ''You dare to complain when I''m the one who''s on death''s doors? How shameless can you be? I used the wrong ability, what else do you expect me to use besides what I have?''


    It lamented inwardly while cursing its bad luck for running into someone like Glen.


    But there was nothing either of them could do, they could only lie on the ground and patiently wait for either of them to regain their mobility or if the labyrinth would shift first and have something else kill them.


    ...


    On Ralph''s side.


    He was battling against a Ghoulshade.


    Ghoulshades were skeleton creatures with bits of flesh hanging on their bodies, they wore black tattered robes and were able to fly in the air.


    Their means of attacking were just like necromancers, they could summon undead creatures to fight for them.


    That wasn''t the only scary thing about them, what was even scarier was their ability to use dark magic.


    They could form black patterns in the air and fire all sorts of dark spells at their targets.


    Currently, the Undead General and the undead knight were facing a bunch of tall skeletons and a single abyss worm.


    The abyss worm was a gigantic worm with a death aura.


    Bang!!


    The undead General flashed, turning into red light, and crashed through the sea of skeletons, knocking them away.


    The skeletons flew in the air and slammed into the blood walls, they dropped to the ground before quickly standing back up again and rushing at the undead General; their speed was equal to that of an average human being.


    The undead General turned and waved its hand at the head of a skeleton, slapping the head off its neck bone.


    With a crack sound, the skull of the skeleton flew off and fell dozens of meters away.


    Strangely, the body of the skeleton didn''t drop to the ground after its skull was sent flying. Instead, a dark aura appeared around it and formed another skull that turned to face the undead General instead.


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    As for the skull that was sent flying, dark around shrouded it as well began constructing a whole new body for it!


    The single skeleton that the undead General had killed became two!


    This was why the number of skeletons kept increasing the longer the fight dragged on; these skeletons would multiply when killed!


    As for the undead knight, it was having a face-off against the abyss worm.


    Swoosh!!


    The undead knight rode on its shadow horse like an illusionary being and flickered around the huge worm, its sword slashing out at the body of the worm.


    Puff! Puff! Puff!!


    Black blood sprayed out as cuts appeared all over the soft body of the worm, the worm made a large screeching sound before suddenly turning on a nearby skeleton.


    It dove toward the skeleton and swallowed it in one bite.


    Immediately after swallowing the skeleton, dark smoke began to rise out of the numerous wounds on its body before closing up.


    It instantly turned to the undead knight after healing, the abyss worm opened its mouth that was filled with jagged black teeth, and spat a jet of black liquid at the undead knight.


    The latter simply flashed away from the place on its horse, the black liquid landed on the ground and the ground immediately melted into a black puddle.


    Swoosh! Swish! Swish! Swish!


    The undead knight flashed again, and a fountain of black blood gushed into the sky as it covered the worm in cuts again, but the monster simply swallowed another skeleton before healing.


    The battle entered a statement: the undead General was unable to kill the skeletons as they simply multiplied no matter what they did, while the skeletons were unable to catch the undead General, much less leave a scratch on it.


    It was the same for the undead knight and the abyss worm.


    The undead knight would always dodge the black water jet that the worm shot at it while the other party would swallow a skeleton and heal up whenever it got injured.


    The fight was going nowhere.


    The reason for this statement was the Ghoulshade that kept casting black magic patterns on the ground; these magic patterns covered the ground and acted as an energy source for the skeletons and abyss worms.


    Ralph, who covered his body with Nexus energy, was currently battling with the Ghoulshade. S§×ar?h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    BAM!!


    Ralph''s fist landed on the ground after the monster flew away and dodged his attack.


    The Ghoulshade turned to Ralph after dodging his punch; it stretched its palm, which was a mixture of bones and little pieces of flesh, at Ralph.


    A small black magic circle suddenly appeared on the creature''s palm before flickering with black light.


    Ralph''s gaze hardened and he immediately jumped away from the place.


    A split second after he left, a black bolt of lightning shot out from the small black magic circle and ruthlessly struck the place.


    BOOM!!


    The sound of the lightning bolt was thunderous; Ralph had not gone too far from the place, so the force from the lightning explosion sent him flying away.


    He crashed into the ground and rolled, coming to a stop after hitting his back on the legs of a skeleton.


    The skeleton immediately turned to look at Ralph before stabbing at him with its bone hand that acted as a dagger.


    But before the hand could reach Ralph, a red light shot past and the skeleton suddenly exploded into pieces of bones that flew to the side along with the wind.


    Ralph was stunned but didn''t waste time lying down there, he immediately got up to his feet just in time to see another three skeletons jumping towards him.


    He hurriedly grabbed one of them and used it to hit the other two like a baseball bat.


    The three skeletons flew away while scattering into pieces in mid-air.


    Ralph didn''t get a chance to rest before he was forced to roll away from the place again as a bolt of black lightning flew above his head immediately after he went to the ground.


    The Ghoulshade was after him again.


    "This isn''t working; I''ll end up exhausting my energy if this goes on," Ralph mumbled to himself as he went after the Ghoulshade again.


    His speed was pretty fast as he ran on the blood wall before jumping toward the creature in the air. The Ghoulshade immediately flew away, but Ralph was ready for this; his Nexus energy gushed out from his body and took the form of an enormous arrow that flew after the monster.


    BAM!!


    The red energy arrow hit the monster before it could fly too far away and pinned it to the wall on the other side.


    A thunderous scream that resembled that of a human rang out from the Ghoulshade as it tried to pull the energy arrow from its body.


    "Knight, finish that damned thing off; you have five seconds, I''ll hold this worm till then!" Ralph shouted desperately before the Ghoulshade could break free from the energy arrow.

 Chapter 135 Targeted by the labyrinthsolo shift

    "Knight, finish that damned thing off; you have five seconds, I''ll hold this worm till then!" Ralph shouted desperately before the Ghoulshade could break free from the energy arrow...


    He usually didn''t need to voice out his commands to his undead, but the situation didn''t allow Ralph to think much about his; he subconsciously thought it would be better this way.


    Immediately after hearing Ralph''s words, the undead knight turned its head and gazed at the Ghoulshade pinned to the wall as its eyes blazed with light.


    As if sharing the same mind with its rider, the shadow horse turned around and shot toward the Ghoulshade.


    The monster saw this and let out a scream while stretching both hands toward the incoming knight and horse, small magic circles formed on both palms and flickered with black light.


    Bzzz!


    Swoosh!!


    Black lightning and black flames shot out from both palms and flew toward the undead knight.


    The latter dodge the black lightning swiftly by turning its body on top of its horse before slashing the black fireball with its sword.


    BOOM!


    The black fireball exploded into a black cloud that fell on the undead knight and swallowed it along with its shadow horse but this was only for a brief moment as a sword slashed through the black cloud and the undead knight emerged without a scratch, its sword blazing with a large wave of dark aura as it continue toward the Ghoulshade.


    While this happened, the minions of the Ghoulshade were not playing around. The previous scream of the monster seemed to have been a command for help as the skeletons and abyss worm immediately abandoned their opponents and chased after the undead knight like crazy zombies that smelled fresh blood.


    But of course, Ralph wasn''t going to allow this; he only had five seconds before the energy arrow that was pinning the Ghoulshade to the wall disappeared.


    Immediately sending a mental order to the undead General, he turned and faced the abyss worm.


    4 seconds!


    The undead General flung his robe open, and a wave of red energy gushed out and pushed the skeletons back; it instantly turned into a red shadow that shot through the center of the skeletons like an arrow.


    Dozens of skeletons flew into the air and exploded into pieces.


    3 seconds!


    The abyss worm had just reached in front of Ralph, his body was already coated with ferocious red energy. He immediately bent his body before punching out with every single strength that he could muster.


    BOOM!


    A huge hole exploded on the body of the abyss worm from which the view behind it could be seen; black blood immediately poured out as parts of its body fell like chopped meat. It was pushed back by a few meters and crashed into tens of skeletons. sea??h th§× n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    2 seconds!


    The undead knight reached the wall that the Ghoulshade was pinned to; its sword exploded with even more black aura, with some of it fusing into the body of the shadow horse.


    It tapped its front hooves on the ground and leaped into the air with the undead knight still on its back.


    1 second!


    They reached the same height as the Ghoulshade and the undead knight slashed out with its sword, leaving a large wave of dark aura in the air.


    Clang!!


    The sword smashed into a large pentagon-shaped black pattern right beside the monster''s neck, blocking the sword from touching the monster''s neck.


    0!


    The energy arrow began to disappear and the Ghoulshade was about to fly away again.


    The eyes of the undead knight suddenly burst out with bloody red light that pierced through the body of the Ghoulshade, the light was just so dazzling; it had no attacking effect.


    But with the sudden burst of energy, the dark aura on its sword changed and became a wave of red and black aura.


    Crack!


    Immediately, the sword slashed through, breaking the magic pattern that was blocking it and passing through the monster''s neck at a blurry speed.


    Immediately after the sword flashed past, the undead knight and the undead General disappeared from the space, returning to Ralph''s Nexus chamber; that last attack of the undead knight that turned its sword into a wave of red and black aura had used up what was left of Ralph''s Nexus storage so they were unable to stay any longer.


    As for the Ghoulshade. The energy arrow finally disappeared completely, and it flew into the air while letting out a mocking scream; all of the skeletons and the abyss worm immediately turned on Ralph.


    The Ghoulshade also stretched his skeleton hand toward Ralph, and a black magic circle formed on it, but it suddenly broke; the skeletons and abyss worm also stopped moving.


    Confused, the Ghoulshade tried to create another magic circle, it suddenly felt its vision turn upside down and saw its minions scattering into red dust.


    In Ralph''s POV, the head of the Ghoulshade, along with the top of its robe, had suddenly tilted to the side before falling off.


    Only now did the effect of Knight''s sword slash take place.


    Thud!


    Ralph fell to his butt, breathing heavily.


    "I got scared there for a second," Ralph mumbled to himself while watching the body of the Ghoulshade fall to the ground; he suddenly noticed a small shiny object gleaming within it.


    "It was a Nexulyte crystal!"


    Ralph''s expression brightened a bit, at least he had gotten something in return for using up all of his Nexus storage.


    BAM!!


    The body of the Ghoulshade crashed into the ground with a loud sound, Ralph stood up and staggered over to retrieve the Nexus crystal.


    He held it in his hand and began to draw out the energy within it while waiting for the next shift of the labyrinth which was still minutes away.


    .....


    On Ivan''s side, several minutes ago.


    Shin!!


    Ivan stabbed his sword into the body of a turtle monster on the ground before pulling it out.


    Blood sprayed out of the wound and the monster immediately stopped moving.


    He retreated a few steps and slashed his sword to the side to get rid of the blood on it.


    Looking ahead, one could see that Ivan was in a spacious section of the labyrinth, and over fifty corpses of similar monsters were scattered across the place.


    Some had been stabbed to death, had wide gashes on their bodies, signs of being crushed with brute force, or had been split in half. Their bodies littered the place and their blood formed a small stream in the place.


    These creatures were earth turtle dwellers; they had turtle bodies and huge shells, which they usually hid in. They were each over five meters tall and had webbed feet which were unusually very sharp.


    They had fast movements and sturdy bodies and were very troublesome creatures to deal with for low-ranked Nexulytes.


    Unfortunately for them, their opponent was Ivan.


    Ivan had easily massacred the entire group within five minutes, and he had done so without breaking a sweat; none of them were able to resist him.


    "Not a single Nexus crystal again" Ivan sighed and walked to a corner to sit on the shell of a dead earth turtle dweller.


    Ivan felt that he had been very unfortunate during the past 3 days. He had lost count of the number of monsters he had killed, but he didn''t find a single Nexus crystal!


    Well, nobody ever said one could find Nexus crystals by simply killing a million monsters anyway; those things were really hard to find.


    Rumble!


    Ivan''s eyes widened slightly, startled at the sound that he just heard.


    The ground shook and blood walls suddenly burst out from the ground around him.


    ''Another shift? But there shouldn''t be another shift for the next one hour'' he thought to himself, feeling suspicious.


    He only realized that only the spot he was standing on was experiencing the shift; there were fewer blood walls this time, and the trembling wasn''t as intense as usual.


    "What the¡­" Ivan was about to speak when the space around him changed and started spinning, he immediately shut his mouth and stabilized himself.


    While spinning, Ivan had confirmed that the blood wall seemed to have targeted him as even the monster corpse that he had been sitting on wasn''t taken with him.


    Rumble!


    With another rumbling, the walls stopped spinning around Ivan and everywhere went silent.


    The silence was immediately pierced by the sound of gentle footsteps that echoed in the place.


    Ivan''s head snapped in the direction of the sound.


    He saw that he was in a hall-like part of the labyrinth and a few meters ahead of him was an alter, the altar had the statue of an angel in a long garment and six pairs of bird wings folded behind it; one of the wings were broken and the broken piece was lying on the ground in front of it.


    The sounds of footsteps were coming from there!


    In front of the altar was a petite figure that resembled that of a young girl. She was dressed in a white garment, and a white piece of silk material covered her head, her back facing Ivan as she walked about on the altar around the statue.


    "Welcome to my place, descendant of Von"

 Chapter 136 Priestess of a fallen Angel

    "Welcome to my place, descendant of Von"An elegant female voice rang out from the figure of the girl who was walking around the altar.


    Her long multicolored hair fell from underneath the silk covering her head and dragged on the ground as she moved.


    Ivan froze, staring at the figure without saying a word; for some reason, he felt uneasy even when this person appeared to be minding her business.


    After a few seconds of doing what seemed like drawing inscriptions around the statue of the angel, the figure finally stopped and turned around to face Ivan.


    Ivan was finally able to see her face: a straight pair of pink lips that poked out beautifully under a straight, elegant nose. Her cheeks were full, and she looked cute with slight reddish blush makeup; her skin was pale as that of a corpse that had been lost in water for weeks but radiated with beauty.


    The large crack with golden eyelashes that took up the rest of her face till her forehead didn''t hinder her beauty in the slightest.


    She was the prettiest one-eyed female that Ivan had ever seen in his life, not like he had been any before her, but this girl¡­ if she could be called as such, was prettier than most females that he had encountered in his entire existence.


    But this didn''t distract Ivan from the main matter, she had one eye and was in the dreamscape!


    Ivan looked at her, his eyes narrowed and his expression asking everything that his mouth intended to say.


    "Not the chatty type, I see; Vons do have different traits," The girl muttered in her cute voice as she brought her slender white hands together and pressed both palms against each other; she looked like a nun sister.


    Ivan''s eyebrows raised when he heard this, an intense feeling of curiosity exploding within him.


    "You don''t have to worry about what I meant by that¡­or why I called you a descendant of Von; you have it in your name, don''t you? But what I can tell you is why I have brought you here" The girl said with a smile as her golden eyelashes fluttered gently before her eyelid slowly raised.


    A dazzling golden shine burst out immediately after she opened her single eyes, forcing Ivan to cover his face with his palm and bring out a card in his other hand; he thought that she was attacking.


    Strangely, he didn''t feel anything from the golden light that had burst out from her eyes, it seemed to be just harmless light.


    Ivan lowered his hand but still kept holding the card in his other hand after the eyes of the girl stopped glowing; he was now able to see what was behind her closed eyelid.


    On the upper half of her face was a large oval-shaped eyeball with multicolored pupils jumping around; there were red pupils, golden pupils, blue, green, indigo, yellow, every color that Ivan was familiar with, and even some unfamiliar colors of pupils were present in her eye.


    Underneath these jumping pupils was a small layer of a labyrinth made out of blood. Despite the small size of it, Ivan was able to tell how large it must be in real-time; he was able to recognize it as the labyrinth that they were currently lost in!


    His eyes sparked with realization at this moment as he stared into her eyes.


    "You''ve guessed correctly, I am the guardian of this labyrinth. You may call me priestess of the fallen Angel." The girl smiled brightly, held the sides of her garment, and gave Ivan a courtesy bow while lowering her head slightly.


    "And I brought you here because I need your help" She added after standing up straight again.


    "Help with what?" Ivan asked in confusion.


    The girl smiled as the pupils in her eyes slowly calmed down and stopped jumping around.


    "I''ve been watching you and your group annihilate residents of the labyrinth for the past few days, even killing some of my champions. I''ve taken notice of a few of you and watched with close attention but discovered that they were only average with the only exception of you.


    Even when I send you a champion after killing one champion on purpose, you still manage to end it easily since you stopped holding back; your talent isn''t of this realm" She said with a look of reverence on her face.


    "What¡­do you mean?" Ivan was only getting more confused by her words. The only thing that he had was that she was the guardian of the labyrinth and killing her would stop the labyrinth from functioning and let them out.


    "You do not have to be flustered¡­well, you should, but it will be of no use, so I will advise you to be calm. Since you don''t seem to know, it is not in my position to tell you as that might affect my Master; you see, sharing knowledge might be a high form of treason" The priestess smiled before slowly walking toward Ivan.


    " Why I brought you here after noticing how peculiar you are is that¡­I need your help," She said while approaching him in slow steps.


    Ivan''s expression turned even more perplexed by her words.


    Without hesitation, the card in his hand flew into the air and burst out with light before transforming into a small white flame; more than half of his Nexus storage was used up immediately after this white flame appeared; it consumed even more Nexus than the golden sword that he had used to kill the Blightbeast.


    The white flame floated in the air quietly, a small seven-colored halo surrounding it as it made space around it to crack.


    The lips of the priestess shaped into a small smile at the appearance of the white flame, she suddenly moved forward before Ivan could send the white flame out.


    Swoosh!!


    It was as if time had stopped moving; the priestess moved as if she had teleported and appeared right in front of Ivan before stretching out one of her hands and¡­grabbing the white flame.


    Ivan''s eyes widened, and the feeling that was very unfamiliar to him formed in his heart immediately.


    Fear! S§×arch* The n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    A feeling that Ivan could count how many times he had felt it.


    His eyes moved and stared at the priestess that was standing right in front of him, her eyes staring right into his eyes and a small smile on her lips.


    She vanished again and appeared in front of the altar the next moment, Ivan wasn''t even able to see her movements!


    Her palm that had grabbed the white flame opened, the flame had died out and there was not a single scratch on her smooth palm.


    "Now, now, at least listen before you try to kill me; you are very different from the others I''ve heard of." The priestess giggled softly at Ivan''s expression.


    Unable to say a word, Ivan could only stare at the girl with wide eyes.


    "Don''t look at me like that, it''s not like I''m going to kill you¡­you won''t be living here alive, but I''m not going to kill you; you are going to help with the resurrection of my Master," She said in an apologetic voice.


    "But you are currently out of shape for the ritual, I''ll have to feed you so you''ll be able to fulfill destiny. When my Master is awakened and rules the dreamscape into the real world, your brave act will be recorded throughout history!" She added in a low shout as her face blushed harder.


    Ivan heard this and a strange feeling suddenly mixed with the feeling of fear within him, as if a screw had been driven into his head. His face suddenly turned cold and expressionless, and his eyes turned dull as if they had lost all meaning to life, fading all colors instantly.


    "And why do you think I will help with that?" Ivan uttered in an empty tone that lacked any emotions.


    The priestess paused and stared at Ivan, the smile on her face fading and being replaced by a sinister smirk.


    Suddenly, the image of the labyrinth in her eyes shifted and Ivan felt a rumble under his feet as the space shook.


    The next thing he saw was blood walls suddenly bursting out of the wall around the hall he was in, and a monster was brought to the place.


    It was a large red-scaled monster with bulging muscles and two large twisted horns; it had the face of a bull and stood on both legs like a man. In its hand was a large blood axe that was several meters long.


    The monster looked around in confusion before suddenly settling its red eyes on Ivan, it roared into the air before dashing toward him.


    Another card appeared in Ivan''s hand before flying out into the air, with a burst of light, it formed a transparent golden barrier around him.


    BAM!


    The axe of the bull smashed on the barrier, and a loud sound rang out as the ground trembled. The axe of the bull flew back from the rebound force and the monster was pulled along with it.


    "This won''t work. Kill it and absorb its Nexus crystal; only then will you be in shape for the ritual," The priestess shook her head and said to Ivan from behind the monster.


    The monster seemed to ignore her existence and attacked Ivan''s barrier again.


    "I refuse" Ivan stated coldly and continued to stand still inside the barrier.

 Chapter 137 Projections

    Minutes later.Bang! Bang! Bang!!


    Explosive sounds echoed, and powerful shockwaves swept in all directions; the monster kept slamming its axe on Ivan''s barrier.


    But the barrier refused to crumble under the onslaught of the monster''s attack; ripples appeared on the surface of the barrier, but that was all; the ground around the barrier had long shattered and turned into dozens of meters wide craters.


    The priestess watched from a distance, her single eye and Ivan''s blue eyes locked in a staring competition as they both ignored the bull monster.


    "You really aren''t going to kill it? I don''t think you can keep up that barrier forever" The priestess blinked at Ivan before walking toward him from behind the monster with slow steps.


    " There are a lot of things that you don''t know about me," Ivan replied tonelessly.


    " I understand, your talent is one, for instance, but¡­are you sure you won''t change your mind?" She stood right behind the monster and smirked.


    Ivan''s face darkened; he didn''t know what she was planning, but it definitely wasn''t anything good.


    His guess was soon confirmed when the eye of the priestess suddenly moved and several of her pupils flew out into the air.


    Ivan raised his head and gazed at the pupils in the air; they spun around each other but burst out with light.


    Woom!


    The light shot at each other before expanding and turning into a projection. There were a total of four split projections, and each split showed a scene of the rest of Ivan''s group.


    Ivan''s expression darkened even more and his eyes narrowed to almost a slit.


    In one of the splits, he saw the red-haired Clint looking all battered and wretched; only his protective body suit was still intact and showed that he wasn''t a crazy person.


    Clint was currently lying behind a tall veil of darkness in a large space while an enormous eyeball that let out a ray of light scanned the place. Ivan could tell as much that the eyeball was looking for Clint who was hiding behind the veil of darkness.


    In another split, he saw Glen.


    The boy was in a better state than Clint. Although he still looked miserable after all he had been through in the labyrinth, he wasn''t as bad as Clint.


    Glen was lying on the ground with his front facing up and his snake on top of him, his chest raising up and down as he gathered Nexus energy in the air.


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    Not far from him was a terribly beaten beast with cuts all over; the beast was breathing faintly, and only its eyes could move.


    The three were the only ones in the space that they were in and Ivan could guess as much what had transpired.


    In another projection, Ralph could be seen sitting cross-legged on the ground beside the headless body of the Ghoulshade. A small, faintly glowing crystal was in his hands, and the energy from the crystal was slowly being pulled into Ralph''s body.


    Around Ralph and the headless monster was a sea of red dust; Ivan had no idea what the sea of dust was, but he was relieved that Ralph was in a good state as well.


    On the last projection, he saw Karin lying motionless on the ground. She looked bloody as she lay beside her mallet, which had grown in size and was resting on top of sand and shattered rocks.


    One thing was that each one of Ivan''s teammates seemed to have experienced a terrible encounter but the good thing was that they had managed to survive.


    "What is the meaning of this?"


    Ivan returned her gaze to the priestess and asked coldly.


    "Oh, this? Nothing much, just wanted to find out if you really intend not to help me" She grinned and suddenly snapped her fingers.


    Ivan''s gaze immediately swept up to look at the projections, a change had occurred in each of the splits.


    His eyes widened.


    In Clint''s projection, the giant eyeball that had been roaming the place suddenly stopped moving and froze in the air for five seconds before suddenly turning around; the ray of light coming from its giant pupil landed right on the spot where Clint was hiding. sea??h th§× nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The light ray from the eyeball pierced through the veil of darkness that was covering Clint, exposing him.


    Ivan saw Clint''s expression change into one of shock as his closed eyelids trembled.


    The boy hurriedly forced himself up to his feet while groaning from his injuries as he tried to move away but the giant eyeball delayed a level of speed that shocked Ivan.


    With a swooshing sound that he was able to hear through the projection, Ivan saw the eyeball dart across the air and arrive above Clint before the latter could move.


    Woom!!


    A burst of light ray shot out from the eyeball and crashed down on Clint, pressing the guy against the ground.


    Ivan heard Clint let out a pained scream, and blood flew out from his mouth as he was pressed against the ground; the light ray from the eyeball kept pressing on him as the ground under Clint started to crack.


    One could imagine just how strong the pressure the light ray was pressing on him was.


    At the same time, a yellowish aura began to rise from Clint''s body and entered the eyeball.


    "That''s a soul drinker; I think your friend has about thirty minutes before his soul is completely drawn out and he turns into an empty husk," the priestess explained with a smile on her face as if she was doing Ivan a favor.


    Ivan didn''t respond as his eyes drifted to another split.


    Karin, who was lying on the ground, was suddenly sent flying into the air as the ground under her broke, and a large pitch-black tentacle burst out from it.


    The girl let out a startled and pained scream as her body flew into the air.


    The tentacle wiggled about for a brief moment before shooting toward Karin and wrapping around her.


    "Ahhhh!"


    Karin let out an ear-piercing scream, and blood flew out of her mouth as the tentacle tightened around her body and squeezed her; her limbs immediately bent in the opposite directions, and many of her bones shattered.


    Ok, Glen''s part, a monster that looked like a man with pale white skin and scars all over his body, suddenly walked out of the blood wall. Its eyes were hollow, and his lips were dry and cracked; both hands were bound by cuffs that were connected by chains that were dozens of inches thick.


    It was a howling banshee!


    The feet of the monster drifted just a few centimeters from the ground as it floated toward Glen.


    Its hollow eyes gazed down at Glen, who was lying on the ground; it totally ignored the almost-dead beast.


    Ivan saw Glen''s eyes widen in shock and horror before the monster suddenly bent down and grabbed his neck before lifting him into the air. Glen grabbed the monster''s fingers that were around his neck and began to struggle, but the monster didn''t budge an inch.


    It suddenly opened its cracked lips and let out a piercing howling sound that came out like a sonic wave.


    The wave smashed into Glen''s face and he instantly gritted his teeth as his eyes rolled up, threatening to disappear into his skull.


    The white snake shot at the monster with its mouth wide open and its fang poking out but it wasn''t able to do anything damage after biting the hard skin of the monster, its fang even broke before it was sent flying by the sound wave as well and began to wriggle on the ground like a worm that made contact with salt.


    This was the ability of the howling banshee; its howls were able to drive one crazy, and they were painful to the ears.


    On Ralph''s side, the boy was still absorbing the energy from the Nexus crystal when a pair of shadow arms suddenly rose from the ground on his side and grabbed him.


    The arm grabbed Ralph and immediately lifted him into the air before slamming him into the wall.


    Ralph groaned as blood burst out from his nose, but it was only the beginning; the arm lifted him again and slammed him into the ground.


    Sounds of bone breaking rang out as Ralph almost passed out.


    He immediately used the little bit of energy that his head absorbed and summoned the undead knight and the undead General.


    Both creatures appeared and found their master suffering; their eyes immediately blazed, and they attacked the shadow arms, but all their attacks went through them without causing them any harm.


    "What¡­is this?" Ivan muttered in a disbelieving time.


    "Nothing much; I just sent my strongest champions to keep them¡­safe," the priestess replied with a malicious tone.


    " No, this isn''t real, they are all fake! You''re trying to trick me" Ivan closed his eyes and shook his head.


    " Your choice, I won''t force you to believe me. We can just watch them die together" She laughed loudly.


    Ivan''s expression turned complicated. He suspected that this was the girl''s scheme to force him to comply with her demands, but again, she was the guardian of the labyrinth and was able to control everything in it; the screams from Karin and the others sounded too real to be an illusion.


    What if they were really in danger and about to die because of him?


    "Gah!!"


    Ralph''s scream echoed in Ivan''s ears at this time as he was smashed into the wall again by the shadow arms face first.


    Ivan looked, and his eyes trembled; Ralph''s face was a bloody mess, and blood was rushing out of his head like a loose tap.


    Clank!

 Chapter 138 Five more crystals

    Clank!A dull sound suddenly rang out in the space, and the banging of the monster''s axe on Ivan''s barrier instantly came to a stop; the next thing that followed was the dripping sound of something hitting the ground before a loud bang of another crashing into the ground.


    Looking over, one could see Ivan, who had come out of his barrier, standing three meters behind the monster with one of his hands stretched out and his fingers straightened like a spear while being covered in Nexus energy that constantly swirled around it.


    The priestess immediately beamed a smile, she had seen what had happened just now clearly.


    Immediately after the anguished scream from Ralph, Ivan''s eyes had turned bloodshot, and his Nexus energy had exploded out of his body like a fountain; he flashed from inside his barrier and stabbed his fingers through the hard scale of the monster, creating a hand-sized hole in the monster''s chest and killing it instantly.


    Ivan lowered his arm and turned to look at the priestess.


    "I don''t care if they''re fake or not; I''ll do it, so stop!" He snorted coldly at her.


    The girl''s smile grew bigger at Ivan''s words and she clapped her palms together.


    "Splendid! I knew you only looked cold-hearted on the surface, but actually soft inside; you descendants of Von are always the strange ones," She happily said before snapping her fingers.


    Immediately after the snap of her fingers, the shadow arms that were slamming Ralph around the place stopped moving and held the boy suspended in the air. Ralph was a bloody mess with a lot of cuts on his face.


    The soul drinker also stopped pushing Clint into the ground but had already created a ten-meter-deep crater with Clint''s body. Blood stained every corner of the crater as Clint lay at the bottom motionlessly.


    The howling banshee also stopped screaming at Glen and released his grip around Glen''s neck, letting the boy fall to the ground; he was unconscious and blood was flowing out from his ears and nostrils.


    Karin was the same; her limbs had been terribly twisted in the wrong way, and her bones were sticking out of her flesh; she had also lost consciousness from the pain and was now hanging on the tentacle after it loosened its grip around her body.


    Ivan stared at the projections with great fury in his eyes, but his face still managed to remain calm; he called his profile in his mind. S§×arch* The N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    NAME: Ivan Von Charles


    Talent Group: Primal Talent type: Wisher Talent: Wish card


    Talent lv: SS AP: 46.23% Rank: Partial Lord


    Ivan took a look at the amount of AP he had; he was just four points short of reaching the next rank.


    ''You want to use me as a sacrifice and kill my friends? Just wait till I reach the True Lord rank, I''ll make you go through hell'' Ivan thought to himself as he turned his gaze from the projections to the priestess.


    The priestess didn''t know what Ivan was thinking but was able to see the anger in his eyes, she smiled softly before giving a polite bow.


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    "Don''t worry, I''ll release them and let them go out of here safely after you help me with what I want. Your great contribution will be recorded throughout history and spread to every part of the world as the one who released my master and brought salvation to this cursed world" She said with an honest voice.


    Ivan completely ignored her and walked over to the monster on the ground that now had a small pool of blood under its corpse, his eyes immediately landing on the small crystal in it.


    Ivan picked up the crystal and sat beside the corpse of the monster, he began to absorb the energy within.


    He didn''t have to worry about the priestess trying something funny while he absorbed the energy of the crystal. She was stronger than he was and could easily get rid of him if she wanted, she wanted his help so he could absorb Nexus freely.


    The girl''s single eye blinked at Ivan once before turning around and walking toward the statue; she resumed drawing symbols around it; the symbols would soon disappear into the statue, and she would draw another one.


    Ten minutes passed in the blink of an eye, Ivan was already done with absorbing the energy from the Nexus crystal and was currently standing on his feet with both eyes gazing at the priestess with a cold glint.


    "Done, I see; here''s your second meal," the girl giggled before the mini-map of the labyrinth in her eye shifted.


    A low rumbling sound followed before another creature was brought into the hall by blood walls.


    This new creature floated a few centimeters above the ground.


    It looked like a zombie in metal armor with tentacles for limbs, its eyes were dangling out of their sockets and were held by a red vein that stretched from its brain. Its mouth opened and revealed a rotten maw with brown large teeth.


    It made growling sounds that were similar to that of zombies, and it looked a bit transparent as if it was an illusion.


    It was a Void wraith!


    Ivan''s eyes immediately narrowed, he knew about this monster.


    Void wraiths were ghost monsters that were capable of going through obstacles and were partially immune to physical attack. Every physical attack that landed on them would have 90 percent of its damage deflected, and only 2 percent of it would affect the void wraith.


    Void wraiths were also capable of sound attacks just like the howling banshees, just that their sound attacks were different from that of the howling banshee.


    The dangling eyes of the void wraith moved while still connected to the red veins; they rolled disgustingly, and the two pitch-black eyeballs gazed at Ivan.


    The monster floated forward a bit before opening its mouth and opening a low growl.


    Ivan flashed before he suddenly disappeared into a gust of wind.


    He didn''t actually disappear, his speed was just so fast that it looked like he had disappeared to the void wraith.


    Immediately after Ivan left the place, space around that place formed obviously cracks before the ground exploded as many invisible spikes shot out from the void behind the cracks in the air and stabbed into the ground.


    One could only see the invisible spikes if they were far stronger than the void wraith or only feel their presence with their senses.


    This was the difference between the sound attacks of the two creatures. While the howling banshee drove people to insanity with its screams, the sound attack of a void wraith was to summon invisible spikes from the void.


    Ivan appeared behind the void wraith the next second after the invisible spikes had stabbed into his previous location. A card in his hand changed into a streak of red lightning that flashed toward the monster.


    This was the weakness of the void wraith; they might be partially immune to physical attacks, but magic attacks had an over two hundred percent damage rate toward them.


    Crack! BOOM!!


    The red lightning shot through the air and slammed into the chest plate of the monster''s armor, the lightning easily pierced through the armor before exploding within the monster''s body.


    The body of the void wraith immediately blasted into pieces and parts of it flew everywhere in the air while bringing out smoke.


    Ivan had killed it easily.


    Without waiting for the priestess''s irritating compliments, Ivan walked over to the Nexus crystal lying on the ground a few meters away and picked it up.


    The thing was really one of the most sturdy objects in existence; the explosion just now didn''t even leave a dent in it.


    With the crystal in hand, Ivan walked to a corner and quickly started drawing the energy from the crystal.


    AP +0.01


    AP +0.01


    AP +0.01


    ¡­.


    Similar notifications immediately started to appear in his mind for the next ten minutes as Ivan absorbed the energy within the crystal and refined them into AP.


    He opened his profile again, he was already at 46.90% and would reach 47.23% AP after he finished with this crystal.


    ''A little more'' Ivan thought to himself as he crazily absorbed the energy from the crystal.


    Ten minutes quickly passed, and Ivan had finally reached 47%; he could already feel his strength growing significantly, but he felt that it would still not be enough; he would only act after reaching the True Lord rank.


    "Good, you''ve finished that one, here''s the next meal"


    The mini-map shifted within her eye again, and another monster was brought over by the blood walls.


    This monster was a humanoid-shaped monster with its entire body covered in bandages, and it carried a scythe on its shoulder.


    Two yellow lights that Ivan assumed were its eyes gleamed through the bandages around its face.


    Ivan didn''t know what sort of monster this was, but he didn''t care; a card appeared in his hand before turning into a long silver sword with a thin blade and a long handle.


    "Five more crystals" Ivan mumbled under his breath before disappearing from where he was standing, leaving an afterimage behind.


    Clang!

 Chapter 139 last crystal

    NAME: Ivan Von CharlesTalent Group: Primal Talent type: Wisher Talent: Wish card Read exclusive content at empire


    Talent lv: SS AP: 49.73% Rank: PARTIAL LORD


    ¡­..


    Leon glanced at the profile in his mind as he stood up from the ground, visible Nexus energy swirling around his body.


    Around him were the corpses of five different monsters he had killed, including the void wraith.


    He had absorbed the energy of five nervous crystals under the watch of the priestess who kept bringing one creature after another; he was currently waiting for the sixth monster to be delivered.


    While the situation wasn''t one to be happy about, Ivan was fine with growing stronger quickly; he had gotten the four points that he was missing in a single day, wish he couldn''t have done without the help of the priestess, not even if he roamed the entire labyrinth for days or even weeks.


    After all, the labyrinth was dozens of kilometers huge, and his chances of encountering these monsters separately were slim and entirely up to luck. He had only been able to accomplish what might have taken him months in a single day, people with lesser talent levels would even take years for this.


    ''After this last one, I''ll enter the True Lord rank. Then I can handle the situation'''' Ivan thought to himself with narrowed eyes. He was just a step away from the rank and could only feel how much his strength had increased, he was confident of beating the Blightbeast to death with his bare hands with his current strength.


    While this would not be enough to deal with this one-eyed girl who was able to snuff out his white flame with her bare hand, Ivan didn''t think that the situation would still be the same after he entered the next rank as he could already feel the level of power awaiting him; it was like coming out of a small village and entering a flourishing city with hundreds of opportunities.


    "You''re done, good. I can feel it, yes! You''re almost ready to carry out the ritual, hahaha!" The priestess stared at Ivan and laughed like a lunatic into the air, her entire body shaking from her laughter and her pupils jumping around her eye.


    With a familiar rumbling sound, the monster that would provide Ivan with his last crystal was delivered into the hall.


    It was a creature that looked just like a human, everything about it was so human-like that Ivan would have mistaken it for a human had he met it somewhere else.


    This creature looked like a middle-aged man with a bushy beard and unkept gray hair wrinkled on top of his head; he wore a dirty black cloak that looked tattered and told of years of suffering with the amount of tears and holes in it.


    The man stared at Ivan with calm eyes that held faintly glowing yellow irises and red pupils; his nose twitched above a pair of thin, cracked lips that seemed to have not seen water for a very long time.


    His hands had long, pointy fingernails stretched out from the sleeves of his cloak just a bit, and Ivan could see the dirt that was probably a mixture of dried blood and pieces of flesh on them.


    "A human? Been a while since I''ve seen one, he looked better than this one that I''m wearing right now"


    The cracked lips of the man opened and a disembodied voice rang out.


    Ivan''s eyes narrowed even more when he heard those words, he instantly understood what was happening.


    '' So it didn''t have a human form but was wearing one instead, and it can talk'' Ivan thought to himself as a card appeared in his hand.


    The yellow eyes of the man moved to the card in Ivan''s hand, and he raised an eyebrow.


    "What''s that? Poker?" He asked with a hint of amusement.


    "Never knew that Gene Banshees had such a sense of humor once they gained the ability of speech, or are you just different?"


    The priestess joined at this moment, a small smile on her face as she blinked at the middle-aged man.


    The two turned to stare at the girl with different expressions.


    "Oh, it''s the guardian. I haven''t seen you in a while; why did you bring me here to this kid?" The man asked with a wicked smile on his face.


    "Nothing really, I just need his help in killing you?" The priestess replied with a smile.


    "Hahaha, how amusing. You think he''s capable of that?" The man''s shoulders trembled slightly as he let out a loud laugh.


    " Well, there might have been a small accident, but I don''t think so now that he knows what you are," She responded with a small giggle.


    And she was right, Ivan, who was about to turn his card into a sword and dash toward the man, had been stunned to learn that he was a Gene banshee in a human form!


    This revelation had honestly shocked Ivan, he was aware of what Gene banshees were and their Characteristics. S§×ar?h the N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    They were capable of assuming the forms of anything that they had consumed and perfectly mimicked their abilities and level of strength; their true forms were also terrifying because of their absurd speed and the fluid on their bodies that could eat up Nexus energy and corrode anything.


    But he had never heard of a Gene banshee that could perfectly communicate like a real person, he might have been fooled completely if he encountered such a Gene banshee elsewhere.


    ''Its power level must be very high by now; I will have to take it out with one strike to avoid uncertainties,'' Ivan said in his thoughts as he observed the man who was conversing with the priestess.


    "So you think his chances of surviving have increased now that he knows what I am? Why don''t we find out then?" The man, whom Ivan had now confirmed was a Gene banshee, turned to face him before suddenly exploding with Nexus energy like a Nexulyte.


    BOOM!!


    The overbearing Nexus energy gushed out from his body and produced a powerful shockwave that shattered the ground around him, a small crater of four meters instantly formed as the Nexus crystal swirled around him like a red whirlwind and caused his cloak to flutter in the air.


    Ivan''s eyes widened immediately after sensing the Nexus energy that the Gene banshee was letting out.


    " A Domain Lord energy level," Ivan mumbled seriously; this meant that the person that this Gene banshee had consumed was at the Domain Lord rank and was currently two ranks above him.


    While this was not good news for Ivan, it wasn''t something that he was bothered about either.


    The card in his hand flew into the air and scattered into light particles before forming a small white flame that floated in front of him.


    The Gene banshee also moved at this time.


    BOOM!!


    It bent its knees slightly before shooting forward like a comet and leaving an even bigger crater on the ground as he made a beeline for Ivan, his dirty fingernails stretching out like daggers that would rip Ivan to shreds.


    At the same time that he moved, the white flame shot forward.


    The priestess smirked as she watched the white flame and the Gene banshee make contact.


    The Gene banshee underestimated Ivan greatly because of their difference in ranks and didn''t bother to dodge the attack of someone who was two ranks below it.


    It stretched forth one of its hands and attempted to slap the white flame away, but that was the greatest mistake of its life because the instant it made contact with the white flame.


    BOOM!!


    A strong explosion shook the entire place like the shifting of the labyrinth occurred; a violent shockwave followed and sent the Gene banshee flying away and crashing into the blood wall before making a huge crack in it.


    Its entire arm that had made contact with the white flame had disintegrated completely and its shoulder was left with a bloody mess.


    But that wasn''t all, the white flame stuck on the bloody shoulder before spreading to the rest of its body; the Gene banshee was soon covered completely by the white flame and began to burn!


    "What is this? Stop it!" It screamed in its disembodied voice as it ran around the place in pain. It even transformed to its original form in hopes of using the slimy liquid on its body that could eat Nexus energy to stop the flame. After all, every attack that a Nexulyte produced was fueled with Nexus energy.


    But it soon realized that it was pointless. Its true form was just as disgusting as the ones that Vladimir and his group had encountered back then, just that this one was several times bigger; it was as big as the abyss worm!


    It kept screaming for a long time as it switched between forms of various creatures that it had devoured, changing size and shape in desperation but it was all pointless as the white flame was unquenchable.


    Everything went silent after a few minutes. The Gene banshee had burnt to a crisp, and even its ashes weren''t spared.


    The only thing left on the ground after the white flame disappeared was the small Nexus crystal which was the reason it had been brought by the priestess.


    "The last one, take it, and let''s amend history!"

 Chapter 140 Partial Lord rank reached

    Ivan stared at the crystal in his hand before turning to look at the priestess who was smiling at him; his expression was cold, and his eyes dull."Don''t worry about me playing any tricks on you while you absorb it; you can''t be any safer than you are here; I have no use for using tricks anyway," She uttered calmly when she noticed Ivan''s hesitant and suspicious look.


    The pupils in her eyes danced around as if reacting to her words.


    Ivan''s expression didn''t change but he sat down cross-legged right after. What she said was true, she had no need to sneak up on him or do anything funny while he refined Nexus energy into AP; he might as well advance to the next rank under her


    watch since no monster would bother him.


    The red energy contained within the crystal soon started to rise and enter Ivan''s body at a fast pace, his AP immediately began to rise.


    +0.01 AP


    +0.01 AP


    +0.01 AP Stay updated with empire


    ¡­.


    Ten minutes passed swiftly as Ivan absorbed all of the energy within the crystal.


    BOOM!


    A small explosion took place inside his body at this moment, the energy inside the Nexus crystal had been completely drained and had now become a transparent crystal.


    A powerful shockwave rocked Ivan''s Nexus chamber and spread outside his body, flying in all directions.


    Ivan''s eyes opened, and his pupils flashed with a red streak of light that looked like passing lightning; he felt himself and the surroundings change.


    His Nexus chamber had increased in size again, and his energy had become dozens of times more potent than before; he felt his strength soar to a new height and filled him with the feeling of invincibility.


    Ivan called in his profile in his mind, and it immediately appeared; he carefully read through the changes on his profile.


    NAME: Ivan Von Charles


    Talent Group: Primal Talent type: Wisher Talent: Wish card


    Talent lv: SS AP: 50.23% Rank: TRUE LORD


    ...


    Ivan''s eyebrows eased as a small smile unknowingly crept up his face.


    He had finally reached the True Lord rank, now he could be considered a top powerhouse in the world of Nexulytes.


    But that wasn''t what Ivan was most concerned about; his eyes slowly moved and locked on the figure of the priestess in the distance.


    After reaching the True Lord rank, Ivan could feel that his strength was more than five times what he used to be; it shouldn''t be difficult to get rid of this one-eyed girl now.


    "Splendid! You finally reached a new level; you''re now fully ready to commence the ritual; now, let''s do the needful," the priestess clapped her hands and exclaimed happily like a little girl.


    But Ivan''s next words caused her to go silent and her face turned serious.


    "What about we do something else?"


    The girl stared at Ivan with confusion while tilting her head to the side.


    "Something like what? Don''t tell me you don''t want to keep the original agreement anymore. I detest people who go back on their words the most" she responded with a hint of threatening in her voice.


    Ivan wasn''t faced by her tone nor moved by her words. A card appeared in his hand, and he suddenly finished into a flicker of white and black light.


    The priestess saw this and shook her head, a hint of sadness appearing in her one eye.


    "I knew that your Vons were the stubborn type, to think I expected you to be different," She said with a sad tone before taking a step forward.


    Peng!


    Immediately, space froze in place as time stopped flowing.


    Ivan could be seen just a few steps away from the priestess, frozen in place as well; his hand was slightly raised, and the card was in the process of bursting into light particles.


    The pupils in the eye of the girl jumped crazily in her large iris, it was as if they were going to burst out at any moment.


    Tap! Tap! Tap!


    She took slow steps toward Ivan and soon reached him. After a while, she stretched forth her right arm and covered Ivan''s face with her palm, her fingers locked around his face.


    Time started flowing again at this moment and Ivan''s eyes immediately widened at the realization of what had happened.


    He wasn''t aware that time had stopped; he only saw the priestess suddenly vanish when he tried to attack her, and the next thing he saw was her fingers on his face; he wasn''t able to move a single step forward after she clutched his face.


    The priestess brought her face closer to Ivan''s and her lips moved next to his ear.


    "Why don''t you¡­take a long sleep and let me deal with everything else?" She whispered before suddenly dashing forward with Ivan''s face still clutched in her grasp. Sear?h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Ivan suddenly felt a strong wind against his back and his vision shifted before.


    BAM!!


    A mind-blowing pain assaulted his entire body as he was slammed into the blood wall by the priestess.


    His head immediately split open, and blood gushed out like a lava spurt; Ivan wasn''t able to react before he blanked out from the pain.


    "Sigh, just had to get the sacrifice bloodied; I hope my lord understands" the priestess sighed before tossing Ivan''s body toward the statue of the angel that was dozens of meters away.


    His body flew in the air and left a long trail of blood in the air before crashing into the hard ground, his body bounced a few times and only came to a stop right at the foot of the statue.


    The girl didn''t turn to look at the sight immediately as she kept admiring the large crack that had appeared on the blood wall after she smashed it with Ivan, a large net of blood painted the crack.


    "At least he didn''t explode into meat paste; he''s quite resilient," she mumbled before turning around in the direction of Ivan and the statue, only for her eye to flash with surprise.


    "Ah, I forgot that there''s still ''That'' to deal with; it was surprising that he would go down so easily." The girl nodded as if she had expected this.


    Standing opposite her in front of the statue was a bloodied Ivan, who was standing like a zombie. His protective body suit was covered in blood, and blood was still gushing out from the back of his head.


    He looked just the same way as when the one-eyed monster had knocked all of them unconscious during their test at the tower; Ivan was unconscious as well when he killed the monster at that time.


    His white hair was drenched in blood and covered his face so the priestess was unable to see his expression, not that she cared though.


    She watched as two cards appeared in both of Ivan''s hands and burst into light particles.


    One changed into a green light that covered Ivan''s body and slowly melted into his body.


    Immediately after the green light entered Ivan''s body, the blood gushing out from the back of his head stopped and his injuries closed up.


    The green light particles were healing essence!


    As for the other card, it turned into particles of silver light that stuck to Ivan''s body. Unlike the green light, this silver light didn''t enter his body and instead remained on the surface of his skin.


    Making him look like he had many silver insects walking around his body.


    "Should be¡­about now?" The girl placed a finger on her lower lip and muttered softly.


    Immediately after her voice fell, Ivan disappeared from where he was standing and appeared in front of her with his fist flying at her face.


    A grin formed on the girl''s face, Ivan''s punch passed through her face the next second; it was an afterimage!


    Ivan''s head suddenly turned to a part of the hall, there, the girl could be seen floating a few centimeters above the ground. A pair of black bird wings had appeared on her back at some point.


    "You aren''t the only one with a second form." She smiled, and the two of them vanished the next second.


    BOOM!


    A powerful shockwave erupted as the ground collapsed, pieces of solidified blood walls flew into the air like rain, and a crater that was twenty meters wide appeared on the ground.


    Ivan and the priestess could be seen in the center of the crater with their fists joined together, they had destroyed the place with the shockwave from their clash!


    "It''s not enough," The girl muttered before suddenly disappearing and appearing behind Ivan; a short pitch-black staff had unknowingly appeared in her hand.


    Ivan quickly turned around to face her but he was a bit too slow.


    Swoosh!


    Bang!!


    The pitch-black staff flew through the air and smashed into Ivan''s chest; his body back instantly caved from the force, and his body was sent flying.


    The priestess wasn''t done yet, she shot toward his body like a bullet.


    Bang! Bang! Bang!


    One hit after another landed on Ivan''s body as the girl smashed him around the place like a tennis ball, only stopping when she was sure that she had really knocked him out for good.


    She grabbed him by the hair while holding her bloodied staff with her other hand.


    "Now let''s start the ritual"

 Chapter 141 Teenager, A dream?

    The priestess dragged Ivan''s body and threw him at the foot of the statue.She returned her staff to where it had appeared, and her wings also disappeared back into her body; she placed both palms together and began to mutter chants under her breath.


    Peng!


    With a burst of soft light, a large glowing sigil appeared on the ground around Ivan and the statue. The sigil had two points, Ivan and the statue were on both points.


    She continued her chant even after the sigil appeared, soon, layers upon layers of runes began to appear on the surface of the statue while black tattoos crept up from the sigil on the ground and entered Ivan''s body before spreading over his skin; his body was soon covered completely by these tattoos.


    After the tattoos and the runes appeared on Ivan and the statue, they began to stretch out like limbs in each other''s direction.


    The runes on the body of the statue and the tattoos on Ivan''s body stretched and connected in mid-air.


    Woom!!


    A low sound rang out immediately after the two made contact, a mysterious black energy began to rise from Ivan''s body and enter the body of the statue through the tattoos and the runes.


    Slowly but noticeably, the stone body of the statue began to change.


    Starting from its wings, they started to change from their rock-like form to snow-white feathers.


    The speed was very slow but apparent.


    "Yes! Yes! Finally, the world will be saved by the only one worthy!" The priestess pressed her hands together like a devoted worshiper as she screamed at the top of her voice with an excited look on her face.


    She suddenly paused and turned to look at the projections that displayed the situation of Ivan''s cohorts, they were still being held in place by her champions.


    "Kill them!" She said in a low tone.


    But nothing happened, none of her champions reacted to her command.


    The single eye of the priestess narrowed when this happened; she was about to issue another command when she suddenly felt a presence, and her head swiftly turned to look up.


    There, she saw the reason why her champions, who had been under her command for years, were refusing to listen to her orders.


    Sitting on the 200-meter-tall blood wall of the labyrinth and the red mist just a few meters above his head was a teenager with similar features to Ivan, just that his hair was of a different color and his eyes were purple.


    "Oh, it''s another of the Vons. Didn''t think I would see any of you so quickly." The priestess voiced out with a small laugh that was mixed with nervousness as she stared at the teenager.


    The latter glanced bad at her before moving his eyes to Ivan, he stared at him for a few seconds before shifting his gaze to the projections.


    "You promised to let his friends go if he helped, why do you want to kill them right after he''s unconscious? Thought you detested those who go back on their words?" The purple-eyed teenager''s tone was soft, his voice reaching every part of the labyrinth.


    The body of the priestess trembled slightly.


    She knew that she wasn''t a match for the teenager so she didn''t dare to argue with him and could only stay silent.


    "A monster of equal strength with a True Supreme, picking on those weaker than you should be very fun," The teenager added after the priestess didn''t respond to his previous words.


    "It can''t be that you''re going to interfere, right?" Her head snapped straight and she immediately got into a defensive stance while moving in front of the statue.


    The teenager stayed down at her expressionlessly.


    "You should be glad that ''She'' didn''t come here personally and no¡­I don''t plan to interfere; he can take care of things himself," he said as his eyes landed on the unconscious Ivan.


    The eyes of the priestess showed confusion at the words of the teenager, her nervousness increasing as she continued to lock her eyes on him.


    While the two continued to stare at each other, in another space¡­or state.


    ...


    "..An!"


    "..N!"


    "IVAN!"


    A loud angry voice thundered, followed by the bang of someone hitting a table violently rang in Ivan''s ears.


    Immediately waking up his drowsy consciousness.


    Ivan sprang to his feet with a jolt as his eyes swept around the place with great vigilance; a strong sense of danger filled his mind, but he was unable to recall what had made him feel in such a way.


    Clang! Clang! Find your next adventure on empire


    A chair and a study desk were knocked to the ground because of Ivan''s sudden movement, his eyes showed great confusion the next moment after he calmed down and realized where he was.


    He wasn''t in some dangerous place or anything of such, rather, he was inside a classroom. Dozens of students his age stared at him with weird eyes as if he had gone crazy, while in front of the classroom was a big-bellied man who seemed to be the teacher of the class.


    He was glaring angrily at Ivan with both palms placed on the desk in front of him.


    Ivan was really confused at the change of events. Although he wasn''t able to remember what had caused him to react so desperately or filled him with a sense of urgency, he was able to recall a few things such as his friends, the dreamscape, and his time at the training tower.


    "Hmm?" Ivan''s eyes flashed, the memories he just recalled were turning blurry and he could barely recall any of the things he just thought about. Soon, new memories soon appeared in his mind as if they had always been there.


    "Gate? Dreamscape? Was it all a dream?" Ivan mumbled to himself, temporarily forgetting the situation he was in.


    As for the new memories that had formed in his mind and seemed to be there all along¡­


    "Mr Ivan, I presume you have a reasonable explanation for this?!"


    The angry voice of the big-bellied teacher woke Ivan from his thinking; he turned to look up.


    The face of the man was red and his face trembled from anger. Ivan''s classmates were also looking at him with various expressions. Contempt, ridicule, pity, various gazes were thrown at him.


    Ivan ignored all of this for the time being and faced the teacher.


    "I''m sorry, Mr. Dredo, I slept off," Ivan voiced out a word of apology; he was surprised that he even knew the teacher''s name.


    The teacher shook even more after hearing Ivan''s words of apology, it looked like those words had pissed him off instead.


    "Not only did you fail your Ki examination, you even dared to sleep off in my class; I can see you have no regard for your future and intend to turn into a scoundrel for society instead of trying to study hard to get a good life as an ordinary person, off to the principal''s office!" Teacher Dredo barked furiously, spit flying out of his mouth.


    "Just look at that, truly a disgrace to us normal people"


    "It''s embarrassing enough that we have to be in the same class as someone who dared to take the Ki examination but failed, but he even dares to sleep off; does he think he''s better than us because he took the examination?" sea??h th§× n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "He''s the reason why Ki users have no regard for ordinary people"


    "He should just get kicked out, I hate seeing his face!"


    "Don''t worry, we''ll teach him a lesson later"


    Ivan could hear the whispers of his fellow classmates as he walked to the door of the classroom which was in front.


    ''Seems like I''m not welcome here'' Ivan thought to himself as he left the class.


    Later that day, Ivan''s parents had come to get him after receiving a call from the principal of the school.


    ''Parents¡­why does this concept feel strange?'' Ivan mulled his thoughts as he stared at the middle-aged couple sitting in front of the car that he was riding in.


    A serious-faced man who looked like he was in his forties with a neat beard and short brown hair controlled the car in silence while a beautiful woman with long white hair like Ivan''s sat next to him in front and mumbled soft words to the man in an attempt to calm him down.


    For all Ivan had concluded, this serious-faced man was his father, and this beautiful woman was his mother.


    For some reason, he felt like he had seen his mother before¡­somewhere else and she had looked different.


    ''Maybe it was in that strange dream that I had in class?'' He wasn''t sure either, as he could barely remember anything about the dream; everything had flown out of his mind immediately after he remembered his new memories.


    "We''re home,"


    His mother''s gentle voice announced as the car came to a stop. Ivan was pulled out of his thoughts as he realized that they had arrived inside a huge compound.


    His father silently opened the door of the car and came out before walking off while his mother stared at him worriedly from her seat.


    " Are you ok, honey? You''ve been spacing out a lot recently; you were even barely focused during the meeting with the principal," she asked, her tone filled with a familiar yet unfamiliar love and concern.


    Ivan stared for a while with his mouth open before responding softly that he was fine.


    His mother didn''t nag him anymore and came down before going to open the door for him even though he could open it himself.


    Ivan came out and saw a huge, magnificent house that looked like it had popped out of a sci-fi movie. His father stood in front of the metallic black door without any handle or frame to hold onto.


    A static voice rang out at this moment.


    [Identity verified, homeowner. Welcome, defense protocols turning off]


    The static voice announced before the black door made clanging sounds before lifting.


    Right behind the door was a young, beautiful girl who looked so much like his mother. She had long white hair and blue eyes, just like Ivan but was sitting in a wheelchair; she was crippled.


    But her condition didn''t stop her from flashing the brightest smile immediately after her blue eyes landed on Ivan.


    "Welcome home, Junior brother. Did you miss me?"

 Chapter 142 A dream? family

    Currently, Ivan was lying on a big bed with white clean sheets inside ''his'' room. He was gazing at the ceiling that had an animated image of a solar system with multiple planets revolving around a bright sun and countless tiny sparkling stars in the background.Many thoughts were flowing through his mind at this moment.


    After returning from school with his parents and a short moment with his elder sister, Ivan left for his room to rest and organize his thoughts.


    His room was a wide spacious room with many cool advanced gadgets, a private bathroom and changing room, and even an errand robot and a gaming capsule.


    Apparently, Ivan''s family was quite well off.


    The current earth he was in was one that had undergone years of evolution and had advanced greatly in technology, they now even explored outside the planet and conquered other solar systems for resources.


    This was where Ki energy came in.


    Ki energy was something attributed to people known as warriors, they were the ones who were responsible for exploring the galaxy and protecting the planet from foreign invaders.


    His father turned out to be one of these people.


    This earth wasn''t like the one in his dream that was on the verge of decline; it was instead flourishing with life, and there were even many people living on other conquered planets with alien beings.


    Everyone wanted to be a warrior and explore the galaxy as not only were warriors extremely powerful and important to the world government, they enjoyed a lot of privileges that normal humans would not start to imagine; a single warrior was equivalent to a thousand ordinary citizens in the eyes of the world government and they were given priorities in everything.


    But the success rate of becoming one was very low; it was so low that out of the billions of people who populated the Earth, only 20 percent were warriors.


    This meant that only 1 in every one million people would become warriors.


    This was the situation with Ivan. His father had taken him to awaken but he had failed the test to become a warrior.


    This had obviously come as a great disappointment to his father, who had high hopes for him; after all, it was known that having parents who were warriors would increase the chance of one succeeding their awakening.


    But it appeared that Ivan had failed to take this part of his father''s gene.


    Having come to terms that his son had no hopes of being a warrior, his father had optioned to let him continue living as a normal person and send him to school so he could at least get a high position after graduating from school.


    But he had been called for a meeting with the principal and told how Ivan disregarded the students and teachers, and even slept during classes.


    "Was I always such a jerk?" Ivan mumbled to himself, unable to believe his memories where he saw himself disobeying teachers and acting rudely to classmates.


    [Homeowner Nora is waiting for you outside]


    The static voice of the home supervisor rang in Ivan''s ears, pulling him from his thoughts.


    The home supervisor was an AI that acted like a butler in the house and controlled most of the robots to do chores, any of the family members were able to command it.


    And Nora was the name of Ivan''s white-haired elder sister.


    She was four years older than him and had been crippled due to an accident that happened when they were young. Ivan remembered that the incident had been his fault but he could not recall what had happened.


    Ivan got up from his bed in his casual clothes and walked to the door. He placed his palm on it, and a light beep sound rang out as the door scanned his palm before opening.


    Right outside the door was the beautiful young girl sitting in a wheelchair; she wore a long dress and a sweatshirt made from wool. She beamed a smile at Ivan immediately after seeing him.


    "Bother, Mother and I have made dinner; come eat," she said with a warm tone.


    Ivan stared at her smiling face; seeing the sincere feelings in her eyes filled him with so many rioting emotions that he was unable to speak; he only came back to his senses when he felt a wet sensation on his face; Nora''s voice rang out at the same time.


    "Why are you crying, did I do something wrong?" She panicked while frantically waving her arms in the air, unsure of what to do.


    Ivan touched his cheeks, he realized that tears had started to come out of his eyes without him knowing.


    ''Just how messed up are my emotions? What did I even dream about? Doesn''t matter, I''m awake now'' Ivan thought to himself as his gaze moved back to his panicking elder sister.


    He rushed through his memories and realized how unfriendly he had been to her in the past, especially since she was a cripple; he would ignore her in public and pretend not to know her.


    He would also play pranks on her like hiding her wheelchair or framing her, he would always be caught by the home supervisor who would report to their parents but Ivan would not change; what baffled him was how his sister would still continue to love and tolerate him even after everything he did, she would always say that they only had each other in this world so she could not stay angry at him.


    Remembering this made the tears run faster from his eyes and began to drip down, but a bright smile formed on his lips amidst the tears.


    "No, you didn''t do anything wrong. I''m sorry¡­for everything"


    Ivan knelt down to her level and hugged her before whispering those words to her.


    Nora froze for a few seconds before hugging him back and began to cry like a baby as if a strange emotion hit her as well.


    Her brother finally accepted her!


    The two siblings cried for a few minutes in each other''s arms before separating, they wiped their faces and smiled at each other before going downstairs.


    Nora''s wheelchair was able to hover a few centimeters above solid surfaces so it was easy for her to use the stairs.


    They returned to the dining room and met their parents there, his father was serious as always and only glanced at them before turning his attention to his plate and started eating.


    His mother, on the other hand, smiled at them and invited them to come eat.


    They ate their meals in silence; the food was very tasty, and Ivan even complimented his mother and sister.


    Everyone in the dining was stunned by this action; the Ivan they knew would never compliment anyone no matter how hard they tried to impress him.


    They finished eating, and Ivan''s father asked his wife and daughter to excuse the men; they needed to talk.


    Ivan''s heart skipped a beat, but he remained seated; his mother gently patted his head before leaving, and his sister winked at him while taking the dishes away.


    Now, it was just the two of them left in the dining room.


    "What do you want me to do, Ivan?" His father started, his voice heavy with anger and exhaustion.


    Ivan didn''t say anything and continued to stare at the table.


    "Why, I just don''t understand. I do everything, everything for you. I even paid a lot to let you take the Ki examination, but not only did you embarrass me in front of my superiors and colleagues, but you still had to make me come to your school to get an earful from your principal. Do you know how humiliating that is to a warrior?


    What is your problem?! Your rude behavior, you go around causing trouble, you don''t have any plans of making a person out of yourself, you even make your mom worry all the time, just what do you want us to do?


    I''ve tried everything, everything in my power to try to make you something, but you keep ruining my plans with your behavior. Just how did you end up like this? We didn''t neglect you or ignore your attitude during your childhood; we were always there to guide and correct you; just where did things go wrong?


    If one day¡­I''m no longer here, who will protect your mom and your sister? Who will shield them from the¡­"


    His father paused when he realized that his words were getting too serious.


    "I''m sorry"


    A low whisper sounded from Ivan''s lips. His father stared at him for a few seconds, and he was surprised; this was the boy''s first time apologizing during a lecture; he would usually even argue or try to justify his actions.


    "Leave, go to your room" his father voiced out after a few seconds.


    Ivan quietly stood up and walked in the direction of the stairs, he paused just before he could take the first step.


    "I''m sorry for all the wrongs I''ve done, I''ll do better from now on" Sear?h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Ivan said without looking back before climbing up.


    His father continued to stare at the empty space where Ivan had been standing with wide eyes.


    In Ivan''s room, Ivan rested his back on the door with both eyes closed. Discover more content at empire


    "I''ll do better, I promise" Ivan mumbled repeatedly.

 Chapter 143 A dream? Noras first time at school

    Back in the labyrinth, the priestess was still watching the teenager sitting high up on the wall with wariness. The latter, on the other hand, was attentively observing the changes between Ivan''s unconscious body and the statue of the angel.The tattoos and runes that connected the two and transferred the energies from Ivan to the statue seemed to grow thicker with each passing hour and were already half a meter thick by now.


    The statue''s body had reverted back to that of a normal living being just to its forehead.


    Half of its wings had fully reverted to fluffy white beautiful feathers that shone like the sunlight and fluttered softly, the skin of the angel''s forehead was smooth and pristine like that of a baby, and it had beautiful golden hair that had only reverted back to their original color while the rest was yet to change. Explore more stories at empire


    The change was still ongoing and the statue was slowly turning into a real angel. As for Ivan, half of his body had lost all colors and became as pale as ashes and hard as a rock.


    "What sort of dream did you put him in?" The teenager voiced out after hours of silently observing.


    The priestess flinched the instant she heard him speak but quickly calmed down after realizing that he only asked a question and wasn''t intending to make a move.


    "I made him dream about his deepest desire that he always wanted but probably didn''t realize himself, something that his soul turned for but he refused to admit it. This is a form of payment for his sacrifice, living the way he always wanted"


    She explained with a nervous look.


    The teenager stared at her before looking back at Ivan, his eyes zoomed in on the teardrops running down the side of his face.


    "Then why is he crying? Shouldn''t he be happy to finally live the way he always wanted?" He asked.


    " That¡­I don''t know; I can''t tell what he''s dreaming about.," Thee priestess shifted uncomfortably.


    Neither of them said anything afterward and returned to monitoring Ivan and the statue.


    ¡­..


    Meanwhile, Ivan woke up the next day after a good night''s sleep; he felt this was the best sleep he had ever had.


    He quickly washed up before heading down.


    His father had already left very early while he was still asleep, he had work to attend to. Warriors were barely free to roam around unless they were retired or granted time off after coming back from an important mission.


    "Ivan, your sister will be starting school today. Your father finally managed to work out her admission, and she will be going to the analyst school that''s not far from yours; make sure to go pick her up after school," His mother informed him during breakfast.


    There have been different types of schools since the discovery of foreign life forms and since humans started to explore them. Analysts are trained scholars who focus on studying other planets, their behaviors, and their characteristics.


    It was a rather well-paying job and didn''t require much labor; one only needed to be insanely intelligent and smart. Nora just happened to meet these requirements.


    "Yes, brother, remember to come over after you close from school." Nora smiled at him; she looked incredibly beautiful in her long white skirt and blue blouse with a blazer; this was the uniform of her school.


    "Sure" Ivan smiled back while stuffing his mouth with food.


    They were both taken to their respectful schools after eating; their mother dropped Ivan in front of his school before taking Nora to hers; she also had to go to work after.


    Ivan entered his school compound and instantly attracted the eyes of almost everyone, they all had hostile looks as they looked at him. S§×arch* The N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "They must really hate my guts" Ivan mumbled as he walked through casually, not bothered by whatever they thought of him.


    Time flew by quickly as Ivan went through one lesson after the other; he found everything boring and almost ended up falling asleep but managed to pull through because Mr. Dredo was constantly watching him.


    School hours were finally over, and it was finally time to leave; Ivan could not be happier; he packed his things and quickly left the classroom.


    He heard some of his classmates saying that they wanted to teach him a lesson, but he had no intention of playing with them; going to get his sister was more important.


    The analyst school was only a few hundred meters away from his school and it didn''t take long for Ivan to walk over.


    On getting there, he saw a scene that made his eyes narrow.


    In front of the analyst school, a group of young boys and girls surrounded his sister and made fun of her. Some of them even pushed her wheelchair at times while laughing.


    Ivan saw his sister putting on a fake smile as she tried to play along with them; she was trying not to show that she was scared, as that would make her bullies feel more powerful.


    Ivan immediately quickened his steps and dashed toward them, his eyes turning cold.


    Just before he could reach them, one of the girls pushed Nora hard, and she ended up falling off her wheelchair and landing heavily on the ground.


    A pained scream escaped Nora''s lips, she immediately got light scratches on her hands.


    Ivan''s heart immediately went cold at the sight of this and killing intent spilled out of his eyes.


    "Haha, my bad. Sorry, my hands slipped; you don''t mind, right?"


    The girl who just pushed Nora looked at her scornfully while covering her giggle with her fingers.


    Swoosh!!.


    She had barely finished her words when a figure suddenly appeared in front of her like a ghost and huge knuckles covered her vision.


    "Ehh?!"


    BAM!


    She only had a moment to express her surprise before the fist smashed into her face ruthlessly.


    Ivan''s punch sank into the girl''s face, her nose immediately cracked and her body was sent flying backward like a broken doll.


    Gasp!


    Everyone was shocked by what just happened, they all stared at Ivan with wide eyes before turning to look at the girl he had punched.


    She was now lying on the ground unconscious and her face was bloodied because of the blood from her nose.


    Nora sat up and looked at Ivan''s back, she didn''t know when he arrived.


    "Brother?" She called out softly, but Ivan didn''t turn immediately; he kept staring at the young boys and girls with his fingers clenched.


    "You! How dare you hit my sister?" A girl who looked similar to the girl whom Ivan punched pointed a finger at Ivan and shouted angrily.


    His head moved in her direction, she flinched and immediately took a step back in fright.


    Only then did Ivan turn around and attend to Nora.


    She squatted and gently held her hands before helping her back into her wheelchair.


    "Are you all right?" He asked with concern.


    Nora nodded.


    " I''m fine, it wasn''t serious¡­you shouldn''t have hit her," Nora muttered as she stared at the unconscious girl in the distance; she was secretly shocked.


    Was her brother always so strong?


    "She deserved it for laying her hands on you first," Ivan said dismissively.


    He stood up and was about to push Nora''s wheelchair away when the other youngsters stopped him.


    "Who do you think you are? Coming here and ruining our fun? You even hurt someone and you think you can leave?"


    A young man with striking red hair sneered while rubbing his knuckles.


    They had been stunned by Ivan''s sudden appearance and aggressiveness, which had caused them to become mute for a while; they only came to their senses when the siblings were about to leave.


    Even though Ivan was strong, he was only one person; there was no chance that he could take all of them unless he was a warrior, which was not the case as no warrior would be wearing a normal school uniform.


    Ivan paused his steps and looked at the young man with red hair. He was previously planning not to overdo it since it might get his parents involved but the young man''s words made something inside him crack.


    "What did you say?" Ivan gave him a death stare and asked coldly.


    The boy was stunned by Ivan''s expression but shook it off as Ivan trying to scare them away.


    "I said what I said, what are you going to do about it?"


    He chuckled.


    "So¡­you think my sister is a way of having fun?" Ivan asked again.


    "Brother, don''t bother with them. Let''s just go" Nora touched Ivan''s hand and whispered to him. She could feel that Ivan was becoming strange, and his attitude was turning very unfamiliar; well, he had been acting unfamiliar since he came back from school yesterday, but this time was different.


    She gave her the feeling of a warrior.


    "Yes, that''s right! She''s a cripple, after all; what else will she be good for other than letting us have fun?" The red-haired young man snickered, but his smile froze in his face the very next instant as Ivan suddenly vanished from his sight.


    Bang!


    Before he could react, Ivan appeared in front of him and landed a solid kick on the side of his face.


    The boy''s skull immediately cracked and blood gushed out of his face as he was blown to the side by the kick.


    Everyone present was left in a stupor once more; even Nora could not help but open her mouth in shock.


    ''Fast, brother is too fast and ruthless!''

 Chapter 144 A dream? Fight

    Ivan attacked the youngsters one after the other, landing kicks and punches on their bodies and causing them to scream in pain while falling to the ground.His speed was too fast for the young people to follow. It wasn''t excessive like some superhuman or anything since Ivan was just a normal person like them and not a warrior but he moved like a professional fighter who had gone through years of training.


    His movements were swift and agile; the young boys and girls were only able to follow him with their eyes, but their bodies could not keep up with his speed as Ivan moved from one person to another.


    Soon, all of them were lying on the ground and trembling in pain; it was as if an adult had rampaged amid kids.


    A few distance away, other students of the analyst school had gathered and were watching the scene of Ivan beating up all the youngsters.


    They whispered to one another in hushed voices while pointing at Ivan who was standing in the middle of the young people.


    Nora stared at the scene with wide eyes, a look of worry in her eyes as she covered her mouth with her slender fingers.


    This was definitely going to get them in trouble.


    Ivan stared at his hands in surprise, his surprise was different from the others. For all he knew, he had never gotten any fighting training or done any exercises before, but for some reason, all of these movements seemed so natural to him, as if he had trained them countless times.


    He even had a strong urge to end these people, which was very strange for a person his age, It was a good thing that he had managed to hold back.


    "Brother, you shouldn''t have¡­" Nora said from behind him but suddenly stopped; she shook her head before continuing, "Come, let''s leave quickly!" She called out in a tone of urgency.


    She moved her wheelchair forward and grabbed Ivan''s hand. She was about to pull him so they could leave when another group of people arrived.


    "Hold it!"


    A loud masculine voice rang in the air from behind the surrounding students of the analyst school, the siblings turned to look when they heard the voice.


    The students moved apart and created an opening through which a group of four people walked out.


    Three of them were adults in white uniforms and wore strange gears on their fingers and chests; these gears looked like tiny components of robots.


    The last person was a young man around their age, he had long black hair that reached his lower back and was wearing a red hoodie and black baggy pants; he looked like someone from a rather wealthy family.


    The eyes of the youth in the red hoodie narrowed when he saw one of the youngsters lying on the ground and shaking from pain.


    "What happened here?"


    One of the adults asked as he took a few steps toward the group Ivan had beaten up to examine them.


    Nora looked at them with fear in her eyes.


    "Oh no!" She exclaimed in a low tone.


    These people were warriors! Except for the young man with long black hair, she didn''t know who he was but he must be someone very important to be escorted by three warriors.


    Ivan had also realized this as well, his expression was serious as he looked at them; it was impossible to avoid trouble now that warriors were involved.


    Ivan looked to the side and saw that the young man who came with the warriors was squatting beside one of the youngsters he had beaten up.


    "Who did this to you!" The youth asked the boy and the latter pointed his trembling finger at Ivan while muttering something through gritted teeth.


    The youth looked at Ivan with a cold look in his eyes as he stood up.


    " How dare you hit my little brother?" His voice was filled with hostility as he questioned Ivan.


    Ivan wanted to retort but was stopped by Nora, who pulled on his fingers. He looked at her, and the latter shook her head at him before moving in front of him with her wheelchair.


    " I''m very sorry, it was a misunderstanding. Your brother and his friends were teasing me, and my little brother didn''t like it, so they got into a fight; it was all because of me; please forgive him," she said while lowering her head so that her forehead almost touched her knees.


    She was trying to fulfill her role as an elder sister and protect Ivan; he had already protected her once, but she couldn''t let it happen a second time.


    The youth stared at Nora expressionlessly, not moved by her words of apology even a bit.


    "Is it a misunderstanding? Look how much pain he put my brother and his friends in, how can this be a misunderstanding?" He sneered with a ferocious glint in his eyes as he took a step forward.


    A large hand suddenly landed on his shoulder, it was one of the warriors. It was a middle-aged man with red hair and a red beard; he had sharp red eyes and a small scar on his forehead.


    The man shook his head at the youth before looking at Ivan.


    "Kid, you did all of this?"


    Ivan nodded, he wasn''t going to deny it since it was meaningless with all the witnesses around.


    The warriors stared at each other with strange looks in their eyes before turning back to Ivan.


    "Are you a warrior? Did you awaken your Ki?" The red-haired man asked again, and Ivan shook his head before saying that he failed the awakening examination.


    A look of disappointment and pity flashed in the eyes of the man as he let out a sigh. He didn''t know if Ivan had received special training or not, but for him to be able to take out so many people of his age without the aid of Ki, meant that he was a prodigy; it was a pity that he failed the awakening examination.


    "It''s all right; we''ve noticed that you didn''t do any real damage to them and only caused them light wounds. It shouldn''t be difficult to resolve it; apologies to them, and we''ll all be on our way," the warrior who had checked the conditions of the group lying on the ground stood up and said.


    "Sir!" The youth in the red hoodie shouted with unwillingness but immediately shut his mouth when the red-haired warrior glared at him.


    "Silence, you already awakened your Ki and will soon become a warrior. Do you wish to throw hands with an ordinary person who''s willing to acknowledge their mistakes?" The man barked at the youth.


    The latter gritted his teeth, clearly unwilling to let go but there was nothing he could do.


    The warriors shook their heads before turning to Ivan and waiting for him to apologize, Nora also let out a sigh of relief and turned to Ivan as well; at least they wouldn''t have to disturb their father if this ended like this.


    " No, they were wrong and deserve what happened to them, I won''t apologize"


    Contrary to everyone''s expectations, Ivan opened his mouth and said strongly.


    Everyone was stunned by his words, they stared at Ivan as if he was insane.


    "Kid, we are giving you a way out.


    One of the kids you beat up had a brother who''s a warrior, although normal people are protected by state law so warriors don''t abuse their superiority over them, offending a warrior isn''t something a normal people should do" The red-haired warrior said with a serious tone in hopes to make Ivan change his decision but the latter was adamant and stood on his words that he would not apologize because he did nothing wrong.


    "Ivan, just apologize; it won''t cost anything, and we can just end everything." Nora pulled Ivan and whispered to him.


    Ivan looked back at her and smiled.


    "It''s all right, they bullied you first and deserved what I did to them"


    Nora''s eyes trembled and tears immediately gathered in her eyes. She didn''t know whether to be happy about the fact that her brother was strongly defending her or to be worried that he was getting himself into trouble.


    "Since he refuses to admit it, then it should be fine for me to get revenge for my brother, right?" the youth in a red hoodie shouted out from the side. He was internally glad that Ivan was refusing to apologize, this was giving him a chance to vent his fury.


    The warriors had a complicated look on their faces, Ivan''s refusal to apologize was making this difficult for them.


    "Well, he''s still just an ordinary person, and you''re a warrior; even as the weakest warrior, it isn''t appropriate to fight a normal person," The third warrior, who was a woman with short brown hair, said with a tired sigh. Continue reading at empire


    "This isn''t as a warrior, I''m facing him as the brother of the person he abused!" The youth argued.


    " You, do you dare to fight me?!" S§×arch* The N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    He suddenly turned to Ivan and shouted before the warriors could say anything else.


    Everyone now turned to look at Ivan; his next words would determine what would happen next, as not even warriors could interfere at this point anymore.


    The youth was a newly awakened warrior and was, to some extent, still a normal person; they would not stop the fight if Ivan accepted, as that would be them abusing their privilege.


    Ivan stared back at the youth with expressionless eyes; his lips slowly opened, and he said the words.


    "Do I look like I''m scared of you?"

 Chapter 145 A dream? Beating a warrior

    The haired youth beamed with a smile when he heard Ivan''s response while the warriors sighed, this kid didn''t know what was good for him."He said he isn''t afraid, then I can fight him, right?" The youth looked at the warriors and asked with eagerness.


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    The warriors stared at each other before silently nodding their heads. Fighting was encouraged between the younger generations as this would awaken their competitive spirit, but that was usually between people of equal standing and strength.


    A warrior and a normal human was plain bullying!


    Immediately after getting the confirmation from the warriors, the youth dashed toward Ivan, his speed was so fast that he almost looked like a blur. Although he was a newly awakened warrior, he had still awakened his Ki regardless, and his body had been strengthened beyond that of a normal person.


    Ivan''s expression didn''t change as he watched the boy approach him; for some reason, he felt incredibly calm, as if he wasn''t facing a threatening opponent.


    The youth arrived in front of Ivan and immediately threw out his hand in a fist, Ivan threw his hand as well.


    Pah!!


    Both fists collided, and both parties stumbled back by several steps, with Ivan taking five more steps than the youth.


    A look of shock appeared on the faces of the warriors when they saw this, Ivan had actually traded blows with a warrior!


    Nora stared at Ivan with worried eyes. She wanted to ask him to stop, but she realized that he would not listen as long as he wasn''t in the wrong.


    Ivan stared at the youth calmly. He could feel pain in his right fist, but it didn''t show in his face; his pain tolerance was incredibly high for some reason, and this amount of pain was negligible.


    "I see you have some skills, no wonder you are so arrogant; I''ll make sure to beat that arrogance out of you today!" The youth shouted before sprinting toward Ivan again.


    "You talk too much," Ivan mumbled before dashing forward as well.


    Both of them quickly reduced the gap between them to three meters and the youth suddenly jumped, his right leg stretched out as he continued toward Ivan with a flying kick.


    Nora closed her eyes in horror; the gap was too small, and she thought that Ivan would be unable to dodge; she was unable to watch the scene of her brother getting hurt, but her ears readied to hear his scream so she could rush up to apologize in his place.


    But contrary to her expectations, Ivan''s scream didn''t come; instead, it was the loud groan of the youth that entered her eyes. She opened her eyes and was stunned to see that the youth was lying on the ground with his face glued to the hard ground and blood flowing from his nose.


    A few moments ago, when the youth jumped at Ivan with the flying kick, the latter had calmly sidestepped to the side before grabbing the leg of the youth and using the momentum from his jump to turn him in midair and slam him into the ground.


    Ivan released his leg and took a step back to analyze the situation and prepare for the youth''s next attack.


    The youth quickly stood up after recovering from the pain that had blinded him for a split second.


    Aside from the pain from getting slammed into the ground, he felt the stinging burn of embarrassment and shame on his face from the eyes of the onlookers; he was the warrior here but he was the one eating dirt.


    His eyes quickly scanned the place and landed on Ivan, he rushed toward him again.


    "You bastard!" He roared as he ran toward Ivan.


    Ivan welcomed him calmly, he didn''t take a single step from where he was.


    "This kid isn''t bad, he looks like he has undergone years of training or months of special training, but his physique doesn''t seem like one," The red-haired warrior said with a serious expression on his face.


    "He might be a natural born fighter; even without awakening Ki, he might be able to become a warrior if injected with an awakening fluid," The woman amongst them said.


    " What do you think we should do then? We can''t such talent go to waste"


    " Let''s keep watching first"


    Meanwhile, Ivan and the youth exchanged dozens of blows. The sounds of their clash were deafening, and the speed of their hands was beyond what an average person could compare to.


    Nora stared at this with wide eyes, unable to believe that this was her brother who was never serious with anything and only knew how to play tricks and cause trouble.


    " Was he pretending the whole time?" She couldn''t help but wonder. The current Ivan, who was going toe-to-toe against a warrior, was very different from the one in her memories; he was almost like another person!


    Ivan''s face was serious and his eyes were calm as he moved his hands, slapping and punching out as he knocked away or clashed with the youth''s attacks.


    His hands felt pain whenever they clashed with the fists of the youth who had his body already enhanced but he didn''t let out a single sound and continued to move with speed.


    The latter had an ugly expression on his face as he cursed nonstop, he was very embarrassed and furious the longer the fight lasted.


    He could tell that Ivan was now lying about being an ordinary person because his movements were a bit slower than his, but the white-haired bastard was someone able to keep up with every one of his movements by taking advantage of the youth''s excessive movements and lack of control over his strength.


    After fighting for so many minutes, Ivan was getting bored and wanted to end things.


    At this moment, the youth''s face had become twisted from rage, and he suddenly threw a punch at Ivan''s face while his knee went for the side of Ivan''s waist.


    Ivan suddenly moved at this moment, his neck tilted and his legs moved. He backed the youth and allowed his punch to pass the top of his shoulder while Ivan''s back slammed into the front of the youth''s body, he proceeded to grab the arm that was stretched above his shoulder before throwing the youth''s foot with the back of his leg.


    The youth''s eyes widened as he suddenly found himself flying in the air over Ivan''s body and his vision rotating.


    BAM!


    The next thing was a wave of pain that rushed through his body as he was slammed into the ground heavily, his ribs almost cracking.


    "Gah!"


    The youth let out a pained scream as saliva flew out from his mouth; he lay on the ground and curled his body in pain.


    "Stop!"


    The voice of the red-haired warrior sounded at this moment as he walked over.


    He took a short glance at Ivan before checking on the youth on the ground, he stood up after a while and sighed.


    "Nothing aside from his confidence has been damaged, luckily." He said and suddenly looked at Ivan with sharp eyes.


    "You are coming with me, kid; I need to talk to you," he said strongly.


    "No, wait! Please don''t take my brother, he didn''t do anything wrong, it was all my fault" Nora''s panicking voice rang out from the side as she rushed over in her wheelchair, her face filled with nothing but worry. S~ea??h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    She reached them and positioned herself between the man and Ivan as she looked at him with seriousness as if ready to shoulder all the blame.


    The warrior stared at Nora in surprise for a while before suddenly letting out a laugh, he laughed for a few seconds before calming down and patting Nora''s hair gently.


    "It''s all right little girl, nothing will happen to your brother. He''s not in trouble or anything; I actually wanted to talk to him about an opportunity," He said with a smile.


    "Opportunity?" Nora repeated as she and Ivan looked at the man for an explanation.


    "Yes, an opportunity. Ever heard of the awakening fluid?"


    The man wasn''t the one who replied, it was the woman amongst them as she approached with their other colleague while carrying the youth like a sack of potatoes.


    Ivan frowned in confusion when he heard the awakening fluid, but Nora''s eyes widened; she seemed to be aware of what it was.


    "This¡­we''ll have to inform our parents first" Nora hesitated for a few seconds before saying.


    "That''s fine too, where are your parents? Let''s go to them now; the sooner, the better," the red-haired man said in high spirits.


    "That¡­our father is a warrior and left very early; he won''t be back in a few days," Nora replied.


    The eyes of the three warriors lit up when they heard this. So, their father was a warrior, which might explain Ivan''s talent, although partially.


    "Then that''s even better, tell me his name," the red-haired man demanded, and Nora told him their father''s name.


    The man raised his wrist and touched the gear in it; he tapped a few times, and a voice suddenly sounded from the gear that looked like a bracelet.


    "Hello sir, any orders?" A male voice sounded from the other side.


    "Get me in line with¡­warrior Von"

 Chapter 146 A dream? A genius

    In a conference room with a lot of advanced equipment and gadgets attached to the walls and the ceiling, a large transparent square-shaped table was placed in the center, and sitting on opposite sides of the table were Ivan''s father and the red-haired warrior who had chatted with Ivan and Nora previously.The man had a slight smile on his face as he tapped on his side of the table before flickering it gently with his finger, something moved within the table and shot toward Ivan''s father''s side before stopping right in front of him.


    Ivan''s father stared at the smiling man with a serious look on his face before looking down; his eyes flashed when he saw what was on the table; it was a sort of holographic file with Ivan''s details on it; the file rapidly moved and changed contents at a fast speed.


    It was showing information about Ivan, from the moment he was born till this very second.


    The eyes of Ivan''s father moved with speed and he was able to read everything on the files before it flew back to the man''s side.


    "What is the meaning of this, sir?" Ivan''s father asked; his tone was respectful, but the red-haired man was able to sense the worry in his voice; he thought Ivan had caused trouble again, and it must have been very serious for the warrior base to compile an investigation about him.


    "Be at ease, man. It''s not what you are thinking, though I do need to confirm some things with you," the red-haired warrior said before proceeding to ask a few questions, such as if Von had ever introduced Ivan to any training program or given him fighting lessons in private.


    Von answered all of these questions truthfully, afraid that a wrong answer might cause issues.


    "I see, then your son is really a born prodigy; you should be happy," the man said with a burst of excited laughter.


    Von''s eyebrows rose. "What do you mean?"


    He asked.


    The red-haired man didn''t respond; he instead tapped on the table again before sending a clip to Von. Von lowered his gaze and watched, it was a video.


    The video showed Ivan beating up the group of youngsters after they bullied Nora and then showed how Ivan trashed the youth who had just awakened.


    Von''s eyebrows twitched as he watched the clip, he could feel his superior smirking at him.


    He was honestly shocked while watching the clip, he found it difficult to recognize Ivan as the one who was moving like a member of a special force.


    He didn''t know if he should feel the pride and happiness that Ivan was facing so many people and even coming out victorious or if he should get a headache because this was the same as causing trouble.


    Before he could say anything, the red-haired man voiced out.


    "The youth whom your son beat up at the end is a warrior who just awakened his Ki"


    Von''s eyes widened when he heard this.


    ''Impossible''


    He thought to himself as he raised his gaze to meet those of the red-haired man. S~ea??h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "You should know what this means, right? That lad was a promising seedling and is related to those at the upper level; it won''t end well for your son because even you will find it difficult to protect him." The man placed both hands together and smiled.


    Von''s expression turned cold ''That brat!'' he cursed in his heart.


    " But that is not why we''re here, I have a way out for your son"


    Von''s expression eased up a bit when he heard this and he stared at the man with hopeful eyes.


    " Your son failed the awakening examination, right?" He asked and Von nodded before the other party continued " My solution is¡­the awakening fluid"


    Silence.


    Von''s face turned extremely cold when he heard this, his eyes turned into a sharp glare.


    "The process of using that is too low and painful, chances of succeeding are low and dying isn''t impossible. Also, it''s a high-level treasure of the planet; the higher-ups won''t allow it to be used on him," Von said with a grave tone.


    " I know that, but it''s different if I support him" the other party kept smiling.


    Von frowned, what the man said was true. It would be different if he supported Ivan for the awakening fluid but¡­


    "It''s too dangerous; I can''t risk it," Von breathed.


    "You talk about risk? Not doing it is a risk in itself; this is the only way out for your son. Do you think they''ll let him be if he continues with the status of an ordinary human? And just take a look at the clip, do you think someone like him will be unable to withstand the effects of the awakening fluid?"


    The man stated with an obvious tone, causing Von''s frown to deepen.


    Indeed, Ivan looked very different from what he remembered in the clip. His eyes were like those of someone who had seen a lot in life, and his movements were sharp and deadly but under control; his eyes didn''t even flinch when he faced others; he was like a seasoned fighter with a strong mental fortitude.


    "I think you should talk with him about this as well; this concerns his safety; you shouldn''t make a decision all by yourself," the red-haired man suggested before dismissing Von.


    The latter stood up and saluted before walking out of the room.


    Immediately after he left, the red-haired man tapped on the table, and a door opened on the wall through which a young woman in white uniform stepped out.


    "Prepare the capsule," the red-haired man didn''t wait for the young woman to speak and ordered her without turning to look at her.


    The woman didn''t mind this, her eyes widened slightly before she saluted and left as well.


    ¡­.


    Later that day, Von returned home and discussed the matter with his family; they came to a decision after a long hour of debate.


    The next day, Ivan didn''t go to school.


    He was brought by his father to the enormous base of the warrior camp in their city, they took an elevator that sent them hundreds of meters underground to a huge laboratory with many people in white coats moving around.


    "Haha, I knew you would come!"


    A loud voice sounded from the side; Ivan and his father turned to look and recognized the red-haired man.


    "Come, I have everything sorted out already" he called out to them while gesturing with his hands.


    Ivan followed behind his father as they approached the man, both of them were serious expressions while Ivan scanned the place with his eyes.


    "You managed to get approval to use it?" Von saluted before asking.


    "At ease, I told you it would be different if I asked," the man said with a grin; his personality was very jovial.


    They exchanged a few more words before immediately moving to serious business.


    Ivan was asked to take off his clothes except for his underwear; Ivan already knew the importance of what he was about to do, so he wasn''t shy and swiftly took off his clothes.


    He and his father were led by the red-haired man and a group of people in lab coats through a wide metal corridor; they arrived at another wide lab with a circular platform, and a huge glass-like sleeping capsule was placed in the center.


    "Get in," one of the people in lab coats said to Ivan as they pressed a button that made the capsule lower and its lid open.


    Ivan looked at his father once before stepping toward the capsule and climbing in, the lid closed back after he got in.


    Ivan could still see everyone and everything from inside the capsule but he wasn''t able to hear anything aside from beeping sounds that were caused by the capsule.


    He saw one of the people in lab coats take out a pad and tap on it. The capsule suddenly made a brief tremor before tilting, and Ivan was now slanted and was partly facing the metal ceiling of the lab.


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    Another beeping sound rang within the capsule and holes suddenly formed in the roof of the capsule through which green liquid began to flow out from and fill the capsule.


    Ivan didn''t panic as he had already learned of this before, he patiently waited until the level of the green liquid rose and filled up the capsule, swallowing him completely.


    Strangely, he was still able to breathe despite the green liquid covering his face.


    Soon, Ivan suddenly began to feel the liquid turning warmer. After just a minute of this change, his eyes widened.


    Pain!


    A great sense of pain assaulted his brain and made Ivan gasp subconsciously, he immediately swallowed a mouthful of green liquid.


    He hurriedly calmed down upon realizing that he would end up choking himself if he kept panicking.


    Still, the pain was overbearing. Ivan felt like his body was being cooked and thousands of hot needles were stabbing his flesh. It was unbearable, and Ivan was on the verge of losing consciousness.


    But he gritted his teeth and held on as he remembered what his father had said yesterday during their meeting at home.


    "You will die if you can''t withstand it"


    Ivan gritted his teeth so hard that his teeth were on the verge of shattering.


    ''I¡­can''t¡­fail!''


    Ivan roared in his thought as he endured, he tightened his fists so hard that his fingers dug into his palm.


    Without him realizing it, the level of the green liquid slowly began to decrease.


    Outside the capsule, the people in lab coats and his father stared at Ivan struggling in the capsule with wide eyes while the red-haired man laughed with an excited expression.


    "A genius! A true genius!"

 Chapter 147 A dream? 100 percent

    Ivan didn''t know how much time had passed since he entered the capsule; it felt like he had suffered unbearable torture for years and was almost starting to feel like an eternity.Luckily, just when he felt that he was reaching his end and would no longer be able to hold on, the pain abruptly vanished from his body.


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    He no longer felt the burns or the pain from his flesh being stabbed by thousands of needles, Ivan''s body trembled as he breathed heavily.


    He slowly opened his eyes, and a red streak flashed past his eyes like red lightning; his body was numb, but he could feel the difference within him.


    Suddenly, he heard a beep sound, and the capsule began to move. Before the lid opened, large smoke suddenly poured out from the capsule and let out a gust of hot air.


    Ivan raised his head and met with his father''s serious gaze that hid his worry for him, a warm feeling formed in his head as he took a step out of the capsule.


    His knee suddenly trembled immediately after his foot made contact with the ground, and his leg lost strength, Ivan found himself falling over, but he was caught by his father and the red-haired warrior before he could reach the ground.


    "Haha, you well brat. Very good," the man laughed heartily as he supported the powerless Ivan; Von didn''t let go of his son as well and kept his hold on Ivan''s shoulder.


    "Come, come, there''s no time to waste!" The man said with urgency. They supported Ivan and followed the people in lab coats back to the previous laboratory before sitting him on a chair.


    "You said he failed the examination before, right?" The red-haired man turned to look at Von and asked with a grin; the latter nodded without saying anything.


    "Okay then, let''s try again," he said before turning to the others.


    A woman in a long lab coat walked toward Ivan on the chair that he was sitting before taking out a thin cable and plugging it into Ivan''s vein on his arm, Ivan didn''t make a sound because his body was still numb; he simply stared at the woman who plugged a few more cables into his body, blood flooded through the cables and enter a strange looking device with a screen.


    This was the device that showed the result of the awakening; if a person had any talent with Ki at all, the device would show the amount of talent they had with it, and the result would determine that warrior''s standing.


    Mind you, the lowest a person could get was 20% and even that would allow someone to achieve great things; just that warriors with higher talents would achieve even greater things.


    Ivan watched as the woman pressed the various buttons on the device with an expectant look on his face.


    The last time he did this test, his result had been a shocking but not so surprising 0 percent.


    It was only shocking because his father was a warrior, and he should have inherited his father''s genetics; at the very least, he should have managed to have a bit of talent with Ki.


    This time, Ivan hoped to at least get the basic 20 percent after going through that degree of pain for so long.


    Soon, the screen on the device began to fluctuate as readings flashed across the screen. It took a minute before the readings stabilized and the result of Ivan''s re-examination appeared.


    [Ki aptitude: 100%]


    Silence!


    It was a single line of words, but it sent everyone present into deep shock; Ivan was also equally shocked as he never expected such a result on his second try when he failed the first time.


    "Impossible! M-maybe there was an error, I''ll run it again!"


    The woman who was standing in front of the device said with a trembling voice as her hands ran across the buttons of the device; she was obviously shocked and senseless.


    A hand suddenly grabbed her fingers, her body jumped and she turned to look at the owner of the hand in shock.


    It was the red-haired man.


    The latter shook his head at the woman before letting go of her hands.


    "The device is never wrong; it simply shows that he''s a prodigy who needed a little push," he said seriously before suddenly placing both hands on his waist and laughing into the air.


    All the people in lab coats trembled under the sound of his laugh, their faces turning pale and ghastly for some reason.


    The man laughed for a whole minute before looking at Von.


    "What do you think? Still scared of risk? With such talent, you don''t have to worry about protecting him anymore. The camp will take full responsibility for him and no one will be allowed to touch him, didn''t I say it?!" The man said to Von with a wide cheeky grin.


    Von smiled slightly, he felt that the character of this superior was too strange; those who didn''t know him well might think that he was a good person.


    "Thank you for your help"


    Nevertheless, Von still bowed and thanked him. After all, it was all thanks to him that Ivan was able to gain access to such a top national treasure.


    "It''s nothing. The two of you can return first; I''ll contact you for further instructions." The man waved his hands with a kind smile that reached his eyes.


    Just before the two could leave, the red-haired man suddenly moved toward them and bent his body slightly to whisper into Ivan''s ears.


    "Never, do not ever tell anyone about your hundred percent aptitude score, okay?" He had a strange smile on his face that made Ivan''s body tremble for some reason. Von''s body also tensed but he managed to hide it. The two left shortly after.


    After the two of them left the underground laboratory, the smile on the man''s face faded like a passing spring and a cold expression appeared on his face as he turned to look at the people in lab coats behind him.


    "Now, now, why don''t we make sure no one runs their mouth?" He said with a chilling smile that caused the people to shudder.


    "S-sir, please. We swear not to say a word, please, we can sign whatever agreement you have!"


    The woman who had been in charge of the device during Ivan''s examination fell to her knees and begged; her face was already covered with tears, and her eyes were red. The other also went down on their knees and cried like kids as well.


    The face of the man grew even colder at the sight of this; he raised his left hand, and red energy condensed on it.


    "Sigh, I promise to take care of your families," he said before taking a step forward, and the eyes of everyone widened in horror.


    Soon, anguished screams and begging voices filled the underground laboratory; no one witnessed what had happened except for the red-haired man.


    ¡­..


    Outside, Ivan and his father entered their car. Von suddenly did something that puzzled Ivan; he issued a command to lock everything in the car, turn on the anti-sound function, and then shut down all working functions that would allow anything from outside to know what was going on inside the car.


    After doing all of this, Von looked at Ivan. His eyes were now filled with dread and worry.


    Ivan was beyond confused as he couldn''t understand why his father was reacting this way.


    "Ivan, no matter how kind he acts or how well he treats you, be careful of him! Do you understand? Do not trust anything he says without evidence" Von said in a grave tone.


    Ivan wanted to frown but maintained his expression, this didn''t mean that he wasn''t confused.


    For all he knew, the red-haired warrior had been a very nice and helpful fellow since they met; he could not understand why his father suddenly wanted him to not trust the man.


    Still, one was his father, who would never harm him; at least, he didn''t during all these years when he had been acting like a jerk. As for the other party, he was just a stranger to him. sea??h th§× n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Ivan would naturally decide to listen to his father.


    "I understand," Ivan mumbled after a short while.


    Von nodded; he didn''t say anything else, and they drove home in silence.


    The news of Ivan becoming a warrior was announced to the rest of the family, his mother and Nora were very happy to hear the news.


    The two ladies worked together that night to set up a feast to celebrate Ivan''s successful awakening.


    The next day, a strange order came. Ivan''s father was suddenly drafted for a galactic expedition, they were going to explore a newly discovered planet!


    "Ivan, make sure you take care of your mom and sister in my absence. I know this mission might take years, but I expect to see a greater man when I return"


    Where Von''s last words to Ivan before he left the house.


    As for Ivan, he was taken away for special training with other new warriors. The training was going to be held on a different planet under Earth and would last for 3 years.

 Chapter 148 A dream? Monster

    Days flew by quickly and Ivan was finally taken away from earth after spending just a week with his family and brought to a different planet for the training.The travel through space was a first time for Ivan and he felt a mix of excitement and nervousness as he stared at the huge meteorites and stars in the distance as their spaceship shuttled through the black space, the enormous size of the earth was so mind boggling that Ivan felt his head spinning.


    They traveled at an incredible speed that the gigantic earth got smaller and smaller at a visible speed, soon, it was out of sight and all that surrounded them were black space and stars.


    They traveled for days in space before finally arriving at the planet where the special training was to take place, it was a desolated planet with red rock surface and a single enormous structure which belonged to the human civilization. The structure was millions of kilometers tall and had floors that Ivan could not even count, inside the structure were the millions of living beings from different planets that had come to this planet for one reason or another; the structure was like a standing continent!


    Ivan learned that aside from the structure, everywhere else on this planet was nothing but red rocks; no other living being resided outside the structure, it was also going to be where his training would be taking place for the next three years.


    After a week of familiarizing himself with places that were accessible to him, training soon started.


    Ivan realized that there were hundreds of other humans who were also participating in the training as well as youngsters from other life forms, aliens!


    Coincidentally, the youth who Ivan had beaten up back on earth was here as well; the youth swear to get back at Ivan.


    Training started soon, it was hell.


    The trainees complained about the torturous training but the warriors only increased the difficulty but this also helped them improved quickly.


    Time flowed quickly as the training continued everyday, Ivan was making fast progress and had already gotten the title of "demon" from the other trainees.


    The youth wasn''t able to keep up and could only despair wherever he encountered Ivan, Ivan wasn''t bothered to pay any attention to him and just let him be.


    He had gotten so strong that he was even competing with official warriors.


    Ivan also made friends during the period of training, two boys and a girl who were from earth and an alien kid from a different planet. His alien friend had a single eye and purple skin but that didn''t hide his handsomeness; he was good looking even in human standard.


    A lot of other people also tried to become friends with him but Ivan wouldn''t let them as he was able to tell that they were only approaching him for benefits unlike his four friends who genuinely liked him and had similar mindset with him.


    Things progress further and Ivan even got into a relationship with the girl in their circle, her name was kira and she had long green hair and was a cold beauty. For some reason, Ivan always thought that he had seen her from somewhere else but knew it was just his mind playing tricks on him.


    After all, all of his human friends were from far away countries on earth and there was no chance that they had met before.


    Training continued and Ivan''s speed of getting stronger continued to shock everyone, he was so monstrous that he graduated early.


    After only a year and six months, Ivan was already stronger than many of the warriors in charge of their training and was able to face up to ten of them in a fight and even won a few times.


    The higher ups were puzzled about this and invited Ivan a lot of time for questioning about his Ki examination but Ivan remembered the words of the red haired man and would always lie about the actual number that had shown that day.


    As for the red haired warrior, Ivan had not heard from him since he came to this planet.


    Since the higher-ups were unable to force him to say the truth, they could only let him be and make him graduate ahead of the others.


    As this would cause the courage of the others to shatter and Ivan would not be able to make any more progress from continuing the training, it was best to leave this child''s play and enter the real battlefield.


    Before Ivan left, he promised his friends that he would come find them after a year and six months during their graduation so they could catch up. His girlfriend proposed that he took her to see his family and told him her desire to get married as well.


    Ivan didn''t refuse her and accepted her suggestions before leaving.


    Ivan was brought back to earth a few weeks later after passing through a lot of paperworks and formalities. He got his warrior identity and a lot of benefits like an entire estate, citizenship upgrade certificate, cash rewards, and many more.


    He really became a changed person after just a year and six months away from earth.


    Ivan was finally reunited with his family after returning to earth, his mother and sister welcomed him with tears of joy.


    Later that day, he found out that a report came shortly after he left for training; the planet that his father had been sent to for exploration turned out to have its own civilization and the creatures were not weak either.


    As the first batch of warriors to make close contact with the planet, dispute resulted from an argument and it escalated into a brutal battle. His father was reported to have died in the battle and the entire team was wiped out, they were unable to retrieve their corpses so Ivan''s mother wasn''t able to do a proper burial for her husband.


    Ivan felt that this report was extremely suspicious and couldn''t help remembering when his father warned him to be careful of the red haired warrior.


    He decided to think about this later as there was no evidence to anything yet, comforting his mother was priority for now.


    Ivan spend two months with his mother and sister, enjoying the feeling of having a family after going through a year and six months of extreme training.


    His sister was doing well in school and his mother has been asked to retire as the mother of a warrior, she was being paid a huge amount of money every month and it was not difficult to just sit back and enjoy life.


    Ivan suggested them moving to his estate but his mother refused, she wanted to live in her late husband''s house until she joined him in the afterlife.


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    Ivan could not force her, he could understand her; the couple were still in their prime after all.


    He told them about his experience during the training as well, obviously filtering the hardship he had passed through so as not to cause them worry. He also told his mother about his girlfriend and their plan to get married in a year and half after she graduated.


    His mother was in full support and was eager to meet kira.


    After two months of spending time with his mother and sister, it was time for Ivan to resume his duty as a warrior.


    His first mission just happened to be the planet where his father had died, Ivan happily accepted the mission.


    He was equipped with gears and his personal mecha which could only be controlled by fusing Ki into it.


    He was sent along with a squad of older warriors to the planet, they boarded a spaceship and were soon on their way.


    They reached the planet after two months of travelling through space and came in contact with the creatures living in it.


    It was a massacre!


    Ivan showed how much of a monster he was and shocked even his teammates.


    It was as if he had an unlimited storage of Ki and was able to keep his mecha running for days straight without taking a rest!


    Mechas were gigantic machine in human shape, they had various attacking methods and can cause a mountain to collapse with enough energy poured into it.


    Ivan''s mecha was special, it wasn''t as huge as the normal mecha that other warriors used and was only seven meters tall, its body was smoother had had less edges compared to normal mechas; it was like a veey tall human with metal bodies.


    It''s speed and power output what countless of times more than that of other mechas, it also had more attacking methods!


    In just a week of landing on the planet, Ivan singlehandedly massacred half of the planet''s population; laying waste to half of the planet and turning it into an apocalypse.


    It was devastating, his teammates even began to fear him. He didn''t fight like someone on a mission but instead like someone who had a personal grudge against this planet. sea??h th§× N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

 Chapter 149 A dream? Rush of time

    He was like a beast on a rampage, Ivan unleashed a bloodbath whenever he went; leaving mountain of corpses and rivers of blood everywhere.The planet gathered all their resources and fought back with everything they had, focusing everything on Ivan but it was pointless. Ivan was like a true devil to the native of the planet; unstoppable and undying!


    After two months of total annihilation, Ivan had driven the native of the planet to near extinction with only a fraction of their population left.


    The native of the planet decided to surrender and sent envoys to relay their intention to Ivan but Ivan showed just how ruthless he was, he directly killed all the envoys.


    He continued with his massacre, killing every native came across.


    After another two months of battling the last line of defense of the planet, Ivan singlehandedly claimed the planet and all of its resources for earth, the base camp on earth soon sent warriors and other specialists to setup branches and research facilities on the planet; they began searching for resources on the planet after they finished building the base.


    Ivan and his team returned to earth after completing their missions, they were rewarded greatly and Ivan''s name quickly spread through the entire organization after his first mission; his strength was recognized by even the higher-ups and old monster in the organization and humans on other planets.


    Returning to earth, Ivan resumed living a normal life and spent more time with his family.


    In a blink of an eye, months flew by and it was already a year and six months since he graduated early from training.


    His friends and girlfriends were graduating this month as well!


    As promised, Ivan went to see them on the planet where the training was taking place. He had rose up in rank after his first mission and was allowed to attend the graduation ceremony, he reunited with his friends after the graduation.


    Ivan learnt that his friends had heard of his monstrous deeds and that everyone on this planet had talked about it for months.


    Ivan only laughed it off without saying anything meaningful about this.


    They returned back to earth after a week.


    As promised, Ivan took his girlfriend, kira, to go see his mother and sister.


    Nora and Ivan''s mother welcomed her warmly and she received good treatment from them.


    After spending a month in Ivan''s city, they went to see kira''s family and talked about their intentions to get married.


    Kira''s family was a family of warriors, so naturally they had heard of Ivan''s monstrosity; it would be a honor for anyone to have someone as powerful as Ivan as a son-in-law. So kira''s family naturally had no issues with this and readily agreed, they even urged them to hurry with the wedding.


    The wedding was set for the coming month, news about Ivan''s wedding quickly spread throughout the planet and even reached other planets that were under the control of human civilization.


    Invitations were sent out to various people while kira''s family and Ivan''s mother prepared for the wedding.


    Time flew by quickly and the day of the wedding soon arrived.


    It was a huge event that shook the whole planet, it was recorded as one of the biggest events in history!


    Almost every single warrior on the planet and people of great influence attended the wedding to show their goodwill to Ivan, people from other planets as well as natives from other planets that were on good terms with earth also attended the wedding as well to show their sincerity.


    Ivan didn''t know this but he had gotten the title of "the sword of the earthlings" in various planets and everyone from those planets feared him. It wasn''t easy for a whole regiment of warriors to take control of a planet within a decade, it was natural to feel fear toward a single person who could do this in a span of a few months.


    The wedding was finally concluded, it was a beautiful thing. Kira was all smiles when she saw the many well-wishers and the jealous looks on the faces of many girls, their fellow trainees had come to give their blessings as well.


    As for Ivan, he was all smiles and looked nothing like his reputation; people might even mistake him as a harmless young man if they didn''t know his identity.


    Meanwhile, Ivan was secretly searching for someone amongst the sea of well-wishers.


    The red haired warrior!


    But no matter how hard he searched, he wasn''t able to find the other party.


    The wedding was concluded and everyone returned after the banquet, Ivan and his wife also returned to his estate which was now their new home.


    That might was a blissful night as roses were thrown and soft voices made the night beautiful.


    Seven months passed swiftly after Ivan''s wedding and a part of the planet was still talking about the event.


    Ivan and kira were given seven months to enjoy the sweetness of marriage and indulge themselves in all the sinful deeds that they wanted to do, they returned to service after those seven months.


    Ivan requested to form a team after returning to the field, his request was instantly approved by the higher-ups.


    Ivan''s team was made up of himself, his wife, and his three friends (including the alien with one eye)


    After forming his team, they accepted a mission from the warriors organization. The mission was to aid in a war between earth and a newly discovered civilization.


    The group immediately set off.


    Wars between civilizations with great achievements in technology was usually held in the empty space since a lot of battleships would be involved, this was to avoid damaging the planet and all the potential resources within.


    As expected, when Ivan''s party reached the battlefield, it wasn''t much of a war anymore.


    With his special mecha, Ivan decimated the army of the other force and laid waste to majority of their warships.


    In less than three months, with the help of Ivan and his team, the human army ended the war that had dragged on for five months before their arrival.


    They defeated the army of the other civilization before taking control of their planet.


    Ivan''s team returned after the mission and were rewarded handsomely, their ranks soared as well for being the main contributors during the war.


    On the third year after their wedding, kira got pregnant and retired early; this was Ivan''s request as well so that she could take care of the child they were expecting personally.


    The news of the Von family expecting a new blood caused a great wave in the planet, people anticipated what monstrous talent the child of the strongest warrior would have upon entering the world.


    Ivan''s mother, Nora, and kira''s parents came to the estate to personally take care of kira and the pregnancy before delivery.


    After nine months, kira face birth to a beautiful baby girl with white hair and multicolored eyes.


    The news shook the world, another piece of news that came along with the birth of Ivan''s daughter was that she was born with innate KI! Her Ki was no less powerful than that of a warrior who had trained for decades!


    She was already destined to be a powerful figure just like her father!


    Time passed quickly and in a flash, fifteen years had passed.


    Ivan was now in his forties and his daughter was fifteen this year, she had grown into a beauty with long white hair and pretty eyes. sea??h th§× n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    At fifteen, she was already asleep powerful as her mother and was able to train with kira who was using her full strength.


    Only Ivan was about to subdue her when they trained.


    As for Ivan, his name had shaken the entire universe during these fifteen years.


    Every single planet will advance civilization had heard about him.


    The devil of humanity!


    This was a title that Ivan had been granted by the countless planets in the universe because of his monstrosity and ruthlessness when dealing with enemies, he had also officially become the strongest warrior in existence but still listened to his superior; he didn''t become arrogant because of his strength.


    All these years, Ivan had still not seen or heard of the red haired warrior who had helped him become a warrior years ago.


    On this year however, the universe faced a great threat; an invasion from another universe that came through a black hole!


    The shocking thing was that this invaders had reached a higher achievement in technology than earth and they had someone who was in per with Ivan!


    The whole universe were shocked out of their wits. The battle between Ivan and this person lasted for days but neither of the two sides managed to gain the upper hand before withdrawing.


    A week after Ivan''s fight, he received an unexpected visitor; it was the red haired man who Ivan hadn''t seen in more than 18 years!


    Both of them sat in the living room of Ivan''s mansion and faced each other.


    "I haven''t seen you in more than a decade, you''ve really grown; your father would be very proud" the red haired man said with a smile as looked at Ivan.


    His red hair and beard had bits of white hair that told of his age but his face still looked like someone in his fifties, he didn''t look like someone who was dozens of years older than Ivan; they looked like friends of the same generation.


    Ivan stared at him with casual eyes before saying.


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    "You''ve been away for years, I thought you were dead" Ivan muttered, he tried to crack a joke.


    "Hahaha, you wish. I can''t die yet, too busy for that"

 Chapter 150 A dream? Father of Ki

    Ivan chatted with the red-haired man for a bit before getting down to business."I haven''t heard from you for more than 18 years, but you suddenly appear right after my fight with the invaders. Don''t you think it''s a little suspicious?" Ivan asked with narrowed eyes.


    The red-haired warrior didn''t become offended by his tone as he maintained his casual smile.


    "You see, I''ve been away¡­far away. Looking for ways to keep human civilization safe from foreign and internal threats. You might think that I haven''t been around all these years but the truth is that I''ve been watching, Ivan. Every passing second, I''ve had my eyes on everything" he stated with a smile that reached his eyes.


    Ivan became even more suspicious, this meant that the man knew everything that had been happening all these years.


    " Who exactly are you? I tried searching for information about you but found nothing other than you being an influential warrior who suddenly went missing, even the higher-ups claimed to know nothing else"


    Ivan didn''t hide the fact that he had investigated the man while he was away and directly told him.


    "I know this, I was aware"


    To Ivan''s surprise, the man was aware!


    "Then do you mind telling me yourself?" Ivan raised an eyebrow and sat with his body bent forward.


    "Of course, I feel a bit guilty about what has happened¡­and what''s about to happen, but it''s all for the best, so I don''t mind revealing a bit to you." The man smiled, but this made Ivan frown.


    "Do you know why I warned you not to let anyone know about your 100 percent Ki result? It''s because you would be viewed as a threat by ''them'' and would be eliminated or controlled, this was something I did not want because¡­I wanted to be the one to control you" the man said slowly, his smile slowly disappearing and being replaced by a cold face.


    Ivan''s eyes narrowed even further, and his frown deepened, but he didn''t say anything and waited for the man to continue.


    "All these years, I''ve watched you make great contributions to human civilization but all of these were actually my arrangements. Your wife, Kira¡­was my arrangement as well"


    He stated and paused to wait for Ivan''s reaction.


    And as expected.


    BOOM!


    Ivan''s body exploded with terrifying energy and the chair he was sitting on instantly collapsed into pieces.


    " Lies!" He bellowed with unwillingness.


    The other party shook his head.


    " I won''t bother explaining, you can ask her yourself. As I was saying, everything was my arrangement and I had great plans for you¡­this was until the invaders arrived and caused a change in my plans.


    You see, there''s this small gathering of special species outside our visible universe. In a dark space that crosses between space and time and can''t be reached by ordinary means, there''s a small group of beings who can bring a universe to its knees if they want.


    I''m part of that group, so you can imagine how strong I am; you aren''t far from there but that''s not the point now. Everyone in this group is from different universes, and we''re not supposed to interfere with each other''s territories, but someone has defaulted and brought their people here.


    They are the invaders" the man ended with a helpless sigh.


    " But that doesn''t explain who you are," Ivan voiced out; his voice was incredibly chilling and wasn''t as friendly as before.


    " Oh, right. You might not have found anything with my current identity but I believe you must have heard of this name¡­Hercules Blaze" the man mumbled with a mysterious grin.


    Ivan''s eyes widened upon hearing that name.


    " You mean¡­the father of Ki?!" He exclaimed in uncontrollable shock.


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    "Ah, I was indeed called that as well. Just like you, I was the first person to possess a 100 percent score on my awakening examination¡­that makes just the two of us. I planned on making you the second father of Ki but it seems we won''t have the chance since I''ll be needing something from you to stop the invaders, the person in our group that''s from their universe to be precise"


    " And what''s that? How will that prevent me from becoming a second father of Ki?" Ivan questioned.


    " Sorry I didn''t specify, the reason you won''t be able to do so I because¡­you''ll die and the thing I need from you is your daughter"


    BOOM!


    A more violent wave of Ki surged from Ivan''s body, and the house they were in completely collapsed. It caused a huge commotion that alerted the entire estate, and a lot of people rushed over.


    " I know you won''t agree, and that''s why I apologized earlier, but don''t worry, I won''t be sending your daughter to you; I only need her eyes," The man said as the grin on his face widened.


    Ivan''s eyes widened, and his body trembled; he staggered backward.


    " Y-you know?" His voice was trembling from disbelief.


    No one else knew this, but Ivan had long realized that his daughter''s multicolored eyes were special; they could absorb and store other people''s Ki! Even his daughter wasn''t aware that she had this ability yet because he was still hiding it from her, he didn''t expect this person to know.


    "Come on, let''s not act so surprised now. I already told you that I kept my eyes on


    everything,


    and I meant ''everything''.


    Still, I will keep my promise and not kill her; taking her eyes will only turn her into a vegetable, and she''ll be in a bit¡­a lot of pain for the rest of her life, but that''s better than dying, right?"


    The other party said while shrugging.


    Ivan''s eyes widened.


    "You bastard!" He cursed in a low tone.


    At this moment, a few people arrived at the ruined building. They were Ivan''s wife, daughter, and friends.


    "Dad!"


    His daughter called out when she saw her father wearing a murderous face and was standing with a strange man.


    Ivan and the red-haired man immediately turned in her direction at the same time. Ivan''s eyes widened in horror while the eyes of the red-haired man lit up with pleasant surprise.


    "She''s really a beauty even at such a young age, sad that this has to happen to her" He sighed before suddenly stepping toward her.


    "Don''t you dare!"


    Ivan roared before disappearing and appearing in front of his daughter, shielding her with his body.


    Woom!


    But the red-haired man didn''t stop; he suddenly vanished and appeared in front of Ivan, his right hand shot out.


    Bang!


    Ivan moved with speed and brought his palm forward. The man''s hand smashed into his palm, and a thunderous sound rang out.


    "This force!"


    Ivan''s eyes widened as he stared at the red-haired man with horror; the force just now felt like it could easily crush Ivan; the other person was still holding back!


    The red-haired man suddenly lowered his hand and sighed. S§×arch* The N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Considering our past relationship and a few things I''m guilty of, I''ll let you have one more month with your daughter before I come back again; be prepared to meet your father by then," he said before disappearing into thin air, Ivan wasn''t able to sense him at all.


    He stared at the space in front of him for a long while, lost in thought. He only came back to his senses when he heard his daughter''s voice.


    "Dad, who''s that strange man?" Her gentle voice sounded from behind him, he could sense the nervousness in her words. After all, this was the first time she had seen someone facing her father so arrogantly; he didn''t see the battle with the invaders and only heard of it.


    Ivan suddenly turned and hugged her, he hugged her tightly and whispered to her.


    "Dad will protect you, always!"


    Those words sounded more like Ivan trying to assure himself instead of his daughter.


    Later that day, Ivan confronted his wife about what the red-haired man said, but Kira didn''t have any idea of what was going on.


    He instantly understood that the red-haired man must have gotten the instructors at the planet where they trained to pull a few strings; he now suddenly remembered how odd it felt when he was always paired up with Kira in almost everything that involved partnering.


    In the end, Ivan decided that it didn''t matter anymore as what was done could not be undone; he was sure that he would still do the same thing if faced with the situation again.


    As for Hercules Blaze''s one-month period of grace, Ivan didn''t use it to spend quality time with his family as the man had suggested. Instead, he searched for a secular place to hide his family; he was sure that the red-haired man would never find them there.


    A month later.


    Ivan flew across space with his mecha at full speed, he shot past planets, and the Earth was quickly getting bigger and bigger at a visible rate.


    He suddenly came to a stop just when he was a few million kilometers away from Earth; his eyes narrowed coldly as he stared at the person in front of him.


    "I''ve always hated his race, though I have to say that you do have some loyal friends; this bastard''s lips were sealed to the end" A playful voice chuckled.

 Chapter 151 A dream? Ill let the world burn

    Ivan stared with cold eyes; in front of him was the red-haired man in a mecha. The mecha of the man was different from those of ordinary warriors and was even different from Ivan''s, it was like a body suit instead of a mecha and perfectly fitted the man''s body.In the hands of the red-haired man, he held a bloodied blade in his left hand, and in his right hand was the lifeless body of Ivan''s friend; it was his alien friend with one eye.


    The face of his friend was bloody and badly bruised, multiple injuries could be seen on his body, and his single eye had a large hole which was in place of where his Iris was supposed to be; there was a clear sign of torture on him, and an anguished expression froze on his face in his death.


    The red-haired man shook his hand and tossed away the lifeless body, allowing it to float aimlessly in space as he turned his gaze to Ivan.


    Ivan''s body trembled, but he held himself back; he could feel his great anger boiling within him. He had to keep his rationality; it would be horrible if he got blinded by rage.


    "You see, I came to get your daughter as promised, but I wasn''t able to find her, neither was I able to find you. I decided to look for your family, but even your parents and sister didn''t know. I thought they were lying, so¡­I held a special interrogation with them; they seemed to really not know because they didn''t tell me anything useful until their death.


    I went to look for your friends instead but only found this guy. He showed a reaction after I interviewed him, but he refused to say, such a stubborn guy," the red-haired man said with a helpless sigh as if he was reporting something casually.


    Ivan''s eyes widened when he heard the man''s words; his body trembled violently when he was told that his mother and sister had been killed in search of his family.


    Ivan suspected that the man might be lying but he wasn''t able to hold himself back at the thought of his mother and sister suffering in the hands of the person.


    BOOM!


    His body exploded with Ki energy and his mecha roared to life, Ivan immediately shot toward the man like a comet. His speed was so fast that he caused a crack in space and made the universe shake.


    The man''s face formed a grin when he saw Ivan rushing toward him with a mad look in his eyes, red energy began to leak out from his body. This energy looked exactly like Ki but was far more vibrant than Ki energy.


    Ivan reached him in less than 0.001 seconds as he seemed to have teleported through space.


    But just before his hand could touch the man, the man vanished into thin air and what Ivan''s hand reached was only an afterimage!


    Ivan''s eyes widened. No, the man didn''t vanish, his speed was just so terrifying that Ivan wasn''t even able to follow up.


    Just how strong was he?!


    Sadly, Ivan wasn''t given the chance to think about this as a large palm appeared in the corner of his eyes and grabbed his face.


    Ivan felt his vision blur and a strong wind pressure slamming into the other side of his face as he was moved at a very fast speed that he wasn''t able to follow.


    Like a shooting comet, the red-haired man grabbed Ivan''s face, and the two of them shot through the empty universe and flew past planets, smashing through meteorites along the way and even empty planets.


    Ivan felt pain as he was smashed through meteorites and planets at a terrifying speed. S§×arch* The Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Hahaha! Do you feel it?! Do you feel it? This is true power, this is what a father of Ki is like. Do you know I no longer use Ki? This is Nexus, a power far stronger than Ki!"


    The voice of the red-haired man echoed through the universe, spreading to millions of planets that were close by as they continued to shoot through the universe; Ivan was completely helpless and unable to resist.


    ¡­.


    In the blood labyrinth, the single eye of the priestess stared at Ivan''s body with a horrified look as she screamed in despair.


    "How is this possible? It can''t be; I made sure to put him in a good dream; what''s this reaction?!"


    She stared at Ivan''s body on the ground. His body had turned half-stone, and his body to his chest had lost all color; that part of his body looked just like the statue. More and more energy passed through the tattoos and runes.


    As for the statue, it had almost reverted back to looking like a true living being. Only its head was still stone, every other part of its body was now very lifelike and refined.


    The priestess was panicking. For some reason, Ivan''s expression had suddenly turned into one of viciousness and the part of his body that had not turned into was trembling.


    The energy that had been moving from his body into the statue had also stopped and was slowly flowing back instead, the sacrifice was reversing!


    The priestess was getting anxious and wanted to do something but didn''t dare to move because of the teenager who was still sitting on top of the blood wall and was looking at Ivan''s body with expressionless eyes.


    She was afraid that he would interfere if she tried to take action.


    "Good, I would have been disappointed if he wasn''t able to do this by himself" the voice of the teenager sounded through the entire labyrinth as he nodded.


    The priestess bit her fingers when she heard this but still didn''t do anything and could only pray to her master.


    ...


    Meanwhile, standing on top of an enormous meteorite that was as huge as a planet was the red-haired man. His body was spotless and he didn''t look like someone who had engaged in battle not too long ago.


    But it wasn''t the same for Ivan.


    He was currently kneeling in front of the red-haired man and looked more like a kneeling corpse than a human.


    He was bloodied, his white hair was drenched in blood that it had turned crimson. His mecha had been shattered and only had a few pieces of it left on Ivan''s body, blood rushed down his body like a running stream and stained the place around him.


    He looked horrible!


    "Just tell me, Ivan. It''s to use trying to hide them anymore since I''ll find them sooner or later but I won''t be able to guarantee their safety if I''m in an angry state when I find them. You already know the power I possess, Ki is useless before it. Why not save yourself the suffering and end all of this?"


    The red-haired man said with a smile on his face as if he hadn''t just beaten Ivan to near death.


    Ivan didn''t respond for a while; his entire body was screaming in pain, and he felt like dying, but something strange was happening to him.


    Memories, memories that he had forgotten after so many years were resurfacing in his mind.


    He now remembered why Nexus sounded familiar to him, it was in that dream that he had years back when he was still just an ordinary person.


    Nexus energy is a form of energy that is hundreds of times more powerful than Ki.


    Along with the memories of Nexus, strange images that Ivan found difficult to believe also began to resurface.


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    At this moment, a click sound sounded within Ivan as he felt a strange heat suddenly rush through his body and make all the pain that he was feeling disappear. He still looked bloody on the outside but he felt so much strength within him, a level of strength that he didn''t dare to imagine.


    The red-haired man didn''t notice this and continued to speak.


    "The universe is in danger, without her eyes, I won''t be able to save it. Come on, you''re a hero of humanity. Would you rather let the world burn or let me get your daughter''s eyes and let her live?" He asked.


    Ivan finally reacted, and he slowly raised his head. His eyes now had hints of red in them, but because of his blood-drenched hair falling over his face, the man wasn''t able to see this.


    "Just¡­answer me this once. Years ago, my father''s death," Ivan trailed off; he believed the man already knew what he wanted to ask.


    The face of the man didn''t change when he heard Ivan''s words, the smile remained on his face as he answered.


    "Ah, about your father. True, I planned the mission to kill him. He knew my real identity, I don''t know who he found out but I previously let him be because he was useful. I killed him because I couldn''t let anyone else know about your secret, not even your father"


    " I¡­see" Ivan mumbled under his breath as if finally getting a heavy burden from his shoulders.


    The man looked at him strangely before asking.


    " I''ve answered, so what''s your reply?"


    " I will.." Ivan muttered softly.


    The eyes of the red-haired man lit up, and he bent his body to Ivan''s level.


    " I didn''t catch that, you would what?"


    He thought that Ivan was about to tell the location where he hid his daughter.


    Ivan paused for a few seconds before muttering again.


    " I will¡­let the world burn!"


    BOOM!

 Chapter 152 A dream? Back to reality

    Ivan''s body suddenly exploded with a terrifying wave of red energy; the explosion was so strong that it sent the red-haired man flying, and the gigantic meteor that they were standing on shot downward into space like a bullet while particles of it scattered around space.Ivan was currently in red energy like a blazing tongue of flame, his hair fluttering widely and the blood on his body quickly dried up. His eyes were glowing white and blue as he gazed at the red-haired man who had flown hundreds of kilometers away in space.


    Hercules Blaze stared at Ivan. For the first time, he did not have a casual smile on his face but a serious expression stuck to his eyebrows; the energy that was surrounding Ivan was blazing red, much more violent than Ki.


    It was Nexus energy, the same energy that Hercules was using!


    He didn''t expect Ivan to suddenly awaken Nexus energy just when he had already defeated him, this shocked him greatly.


    "It''s really surprising but wasn''t unexpected. After all, you got 100 percent on Ki just like me. I know it was only a matter of time before you discovered the hidden energy within you.


    Since that''s the case, let''s see who''s energy is stronger." The man said in a deep tone before equally exploding with Nexus energy and a gigantic beast with the body of a beast and a fish head appeared behind him.


    The monster was so enormous and was as huge as a small planet. Ivan and Hercules were like fireflies in front of it.


    With a roar, the beast suddenly shot toward Hercules before exploding into particles of light that drilled into his body.


    In an instant, Hercules began to grow in size and quickly reached a height of hundreds of meters tall. His body was huge and covered in features of the beast that had just fused with his body.


    "Now, let me see the might of the strongest warrior." Hercules''s voice thundered like rolling lightning and echoed through space like a ripple.


    Ivan was expressionless as he slowly raised his left hand as three cards appeared around him, the cards burst into multicolored light particles before spinning around him.


    Two streams of light particles drilled into Ivan''s body.


    Woosh!!


    With a deafening windy sound, two wings suddenly spurt out of his back.


    A red wing on one side and a blue wing on the other side. Both wings were two meters long and were shaped like crystals and had pointy tips. Tiny particles of light fell from them like stardust and disappeared into space.


    The last swirling light particle around Ivan had mysteriously vanished without a trace while his wings were forming.


    Hercules stared at Ivan from behind his fish helmet, a confused and wary expression twisted his face. But he didn''t retreat.


    BOOM!!


    Despite his huge size, he suddenly shot forward with an impressive speed that caused ripples to spread through space and sent hundreds of meteorites flying as he sped toward Ivan.


    He was so fast that he covered the gap of hundreds of kilometers within a split second, and his large fist appeared in front of Ivan''s body; the latter was like a small chick in front of Hercules''s large fist.


    Ivan suddenly moved at this moment; his red and blue wings flapped once, and he vanished; his speed was even more exaggerated, and cracks formed in space because of his speed.


    With a boom, Hercules''s fist pierced through the crack that Ivan had created because of his speed. His large fist immediately tore the crack wider and entered the empty void.


    Fear gripped Hercules for a moment as he sensed the dangers in the void; he hurriedly pulled back his fist. Even with his level of strength, venturing into the void was a death sentence for him.


    Woosh!


    With a silent sound, Ivan appeared behind Hercules, another crack that led to the void tore through space again because of his speed.


    This time, Ivan was holding a black ball in his right palm as he gazed at Hercules''s large body with his glowing eyes. It was a small black hole!


    Without waiting for Hercules to turn around, he threw the black ball at him with a casual movement of his hand. S~ea??h the nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The black ball flew with a frightening speed, it was like a bullet that broke through space and landed on Hercules''s back.


    Immediately, Hercules''s eyes widened in horror from under his helmet. He felt a strong suction force suddenly envelop his entire body and a sharp cutting pain spreading from his back, slowly shredding his tough body that could resist the full force of a planet destroyer!


    Dangerous!


    His eyes turned red from fear for his life, and he immediately focused all of his energy on moving away from the black ball; he only managed to escape, but he had lost an arm to the black ball.


    The ball was only the size of a human head but had managed to swallow one of his arms that was as huge as an airship!


    "W-what is this power?!" Hercules trembled in despair as he stared at Ivan after making a good distance between them. He no longer had the air of a powerful Senior as he usually did when he met Ivan, he could currently feel death''s cold fingers gripping his throat just from staring at Ivan''s eyes.


    The strength of the once young boy terrified him.


    "This¡­is the might of a wisher," Ivan mumbled softly, but his voice spread through thousands of kilometers in space. His memory of the strange dream that he had years ago was slowly coming back and he could not remember a lot of things that had happened in the dream, and the more he remembered, the more he felt like it had not been a dream.


    Another card suddenly appeared in his hand before changing into a black ball, which he threw at Hercules; the latter was shocked out of his skill and ran into the distance.


    But how could Ivan let him go? The black ball flew after him while Ivan flapped his wings again and vanished, another crack leading to the void was formed in his previous location.


    Meanwhile, inside the labyrinth.


    A wave of Nexus energy suddenly gushed out from Ivan''s body and moved toward the connected tattoos and runes. Immediately after, the black aura began to move out of the statue''s body and return to Ivan''s body at a stunning speed.


    At the same time, the change in them began to reverse. Ivan''s body started to return to normal at a speed visible to the naked eye while the statue''s body reverted to being a statue.


    "What? No, no! This can''t be, I have to do something!" The priestess screamed and rushed toward the two but before she could reach them, she suddenly felt cold. Her eyes widened and she came to an abrupt stop.


    The teenager had suddenly appeared beside Ivan and was now standing next to him while looking down at the other.


    The priestess''s body trembled as she stared at the teenager, not daring to take another step.


    ¡­


    Back in space, Ivan stood above the bloodied Hercules who had now returned to his original human appearance.


    His mecha had been turned off and he was a complete bloody mess.


    He coughed and spat out a mouthful of blood, his eyes gazing at Ivan resentfully.


    "You¡­you are you? Cough!"


    He asked as he coughed out another mouthful of blood.


    Ivan gave no resources as he floated in the air above Hercules; his face was expressionless, and he held a card in his hand.


    The card suddenly burst into light particles that disappeared into space, next thing was a sudden scream from Hercules as his body was torn into multiple people.


    His screams came to an abrupt stop, he had died swiftly¡­painfully but swiftly.


    "No one¡­hurts my family," Ivan mumbled while staring down at the disembodied corpse on the ground.


    Right after saying this, a crack suddenly appeared in the air in front of Ivan. Ivan looked up at it, thinking that someone or something was coming.


    But another crack suddenly appeared beside the first crack, then another, and another. In less than a minute, the cracks covered a large portion of the sky and Ivan felt the world crumbling; yes, the world was crumbling as those cracks began to connect and spread even wider before collapsing!


    "What''s happening?" Ivan asked in confusion. He flew into the air but a crack suddenly appeared in front of him and swallowed him.


    Darkness followed.


    At the same time, in the labyrinth.


    The teenager suddenly took a step back before saying.


    " I''m done playing, I''ll be going back now; you can continue."


    He vanished immediately after saying this, the priestess wasn''t able to sense him in the entire labyrinth.


    A look of hate appeared in her eyes as she remembered the face of the teenager and she gritted her teeth in anger.


    "Just wait; my Master will make you pay for this." She growled like a beast before rushing to where Ivan and the statue were.


    Only for her to discover that Ivan wasn''t there anymore, the statue was the only thing left inside the large formation on the ground.


    "Where did he go?" She questioned as she looked around.


    "Looking for me?"

 Chapter 153 Return to the labyrinth

    "Looking for me?" A cold expressionless voice sounded behind the priestess.Her body froze and she swiftly turned around, only to see Ivan standing in the air with red and blue wings poking out from his back. His eyes were glowing and he almost felt like a different person.


    "No, he''s not conscious; his body is moving instinctively, it''s like that form!" The priestess exclaimed in a low voice upon realizing that Ivan was actually unconscious.


    Her staff immediately appeared in her hand as she prepared to attack again, the multiple pupils in her eyes jumped around crazily.


    She suddenly dashed forward, she left afterimages in the hall as she arrived in front of Ivan and swung her staff at his face.


    But unlike last time when Ivan had been unable to keep up with her movements, she suddenly saw Ivan turn his neck and stare at her face just before her staff could reach him. Her body trembled, and she felt cold all of a sudden; she immediately retracted her staff and pulled away, distancing herself from Ivan and stopping on the other side of the hall.


    "Hmm?" Ivan made a sound before his wings suddenly shook.


    He disappeared from the girl''s field of vision and appeared right in front of her face the next moment, he was so close that their noses were almost touching.


    The eye of the priestess widened as her multiple pupils shrank to needle sizes, she didn''t see Ivan''s movement at all; he was too fast for her, who was three ranks higher than him!


    She immediately tried to retreat but Ivan''s hand suddenly flashed as a card appeared in it before disappearing.


    "Ahhhh!"


    The priestess suddenly let out a piercing scream as her body was blown away with force and she crashed into the blood wall, making a large crack on it.


    A part of her stomach was missing, and blood poured out from the ghastly wound; it was as if a beast had bitten off a chunk of her flesh.


    Ivan slowly drifted over and gazed down at the girl, ignoring her condition or the large amount of blood that was gushing out from her body.


    "I¡­ remember you," he mumbled softly as strong killing intent spread from his body and formed a visible dark wisp in the air.


    He stretched forth his right palm and another card appeared in between his fingers.


    Immediately when the priestess saw this, she gritted her teeth and forced her pupils to move. The mini-map of the labyrinth in her eye shifted as a loud rumble shook the labyrinth.


    Blood walls suddenly began to appear from different locations in the space, each bringing along a strange monster with it.


    Soon, the hall was filled with monsters that released terrifying pressures.


    There was the howling banshee, a huge eyeball, a huge shadow giant that faded in and out of existence, an enormous octopus monster with multiple tentacles, and many other monsters that were not weaker than the previous ones.


    They were all champions of the priestess!


    "Kill him!" The priestess roared like a mad beast while pointing her staff at Ivan.


    Immediately after giving the order, all of the monsters turned their attraction to Ivan who was floating in front of her. A mixed sound of roars, screeches, and growling filled the hall for a moment before all of the monsters charged toward Ivan.


    Ivan didn''t turn around to look at them and scoffed in a low tone.


    "Noisy."


    Swoosh!!


    The card in his hand burst out with light before disappearing, the next moment, the single eye of the priestess widened in horror.


    Right in front of her eye, she saw the monsters suddenly bursting into blood mists. Some were shredded into pieces by an invisible force, and a rain of flesh and blood fell to the ground behind Ivan.


    Her lips trembled.


    "I-impossible! You''re only a True Lord, how can you be so strong?!" She screamed crazily, it was as if she was about to go mad. Nothing made sense to her anymore; nothing about Ivan made sense!


    Ivan only stared at her with his glowing eyes; his hand was still stretched out, and another card appeared in his fingers at this moment. This caused the body of the priestess to tremble again, the appearance of the cards had left her with a sort of trauma.


    " I won''t die without a fight!" She shouted before suddenly dashing toward Ivan with her staff raised high in the air.


    The card in Ivan''s hand also burst out with light at the same time and a small multicolored bead appeared in front of him before shooting forward. S~ea??h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Ptui!!


    The bead flew out at a shocking speed and pierced the forehead of the priestess, blood immediately gushed out and ran down her single eye as her body came to a stop.


    She looked at Ivan with an open mouth and trembling lips for a few seconds. It looked like she wanted to say something but her words were stuck down her throat.


    Thud!


    She fell to her face, her body became motionless; she was dead!


    After killing the priestess, Ivan turned around and his gaze locked on the statue that had now turned back to being a Statue. Its body was made of finely molded stone and looked smooth.


    He floated over and stopped a few centimeters away from the statue, he raised his right hand before reaching out with his fingers.


    The instance his fingers made contain with the statue, a loud boom resounded and shook the entire labyrinth. Ivan was pushed back a few meters as he lost balance in the air, it took him a few seconds to stabilize himself.


    "Strange¡­statue" Ivan mumbled before flying back to the statue. This time, he didn''t touch it with his bare hand. He took out a card and turned it into a small black ball that was only the size of a tennis ball before slamming it on the surface of the statue.


    Woom!!


    A Strong shock wave spread out as an invisible forcefield suddenly appeared around the statue and blocked the black ball. Ivan frowned slightly before pressing down with more force.


    After many seconds, cracks finally started to form on the forcefield, and the black ball pushed through and reached the statue.


    BOOM!!


    A thunderous explosion spread out through the labyrinth immediately after the black ball made contact with the statue; the shockwave of the explosion was so strong that Ivan was sent flying like a broken kite, and many blood walls were destroyed.


    After everything settled, Ivan flew back to the location of the statue and saw that it had been shattered by the black ball and only its legs below the knees were left.


    Ivan stared for a whole minute before moving his gaze away and turning to look at his surroundings, a sad expression formed on his face.


    His eyes suddenly stopped glowing at this moment, and the wings on his back gradually vanished like dust particles that drifted into the air; Ivan''s body slowly drifted to the ground.


    Thud!


    Immediately his feet made contact with the ground, Ivan''s body fell to the ground and he passed out.


    While he was unconscious, the labyrinth was going through a shocking change.


    The ground rumbled, spreading through the entire labyrinth. The blood walls slowly started to sink into the ground and the red mist in the air gradually vanished.


    After twenty minutes, the two-hundred-meter-tall blood walls of the labyrinth completely vanished into the ground, and the red mist was nowhere to be seen.


    What was left was an enormous empty space with a red floor that stretched for kilometers in all directions, hundreds of monsters could be seen scattered around different points in their large space and so were the unconscious bodies of Ivan and his friends; they were all lying on the ground a few hundred meters away from one another.


    These monsters obviously saw them but for some reason, none dared to approach the unconscious five. Instead, they turned in the other direction of the space and dashed toward it, they quickly disappeared and left only the five of them in this empty space that used to be the labyrinth.


    Millions of miles away from the mountain range where the labyrinth was located, an eerie-looking temple that was surrounded by thousands of tombstones and had blue cold light flickering in the air could be seen.


    A grunt was suddenly heard from within the temple and caused the blue flames to flicker violently as if reflecting the emotions of the being that just grunted.


    "You¡­are¡­helping him¡­mother, that''s¡­against¡­the rule." a hoarse voice sounded from the temple; minutes passed, but no response came from anywhere.


    "I¡­see, I¡­see." The owner of the voice didn''t seem to be awkward after being ignored, he voiced out once more before turning silent as well.


    In a garden with blue skies and beautiful butterflies flying from one flower to another, a small hut could be seen in the middle of the garden; no one would imagine that such a place could exist in the dreamscape since everywhere else had red skies.


    A woman in a simple dress sat on a chair in the hut, she opened her eyes when she heard the voice before closing them again; time froze because of this casual action of hers.

 Chapter 154 Returning

    An unknown amount of time passed in the dreamscape. In what seemed like an enormous cavern with a blood-red floor that stretched for kilometers, five figures could be seen lying on the floor without moving.All of them looked badly bruised and messy as if they had suffered for months or even years with blood stains on various parts of their bodies.


    After a few seconds, one of the figures with white hair moved. His body trembled slightly before a low groan was heard.


    This person was obviously Ivan who had just woken up. S§×arch* The n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Ivan felt his entire body screaming in exhaustion as he pushed his body from the ground, his eyes looking around the place in confusion as he reorganized his thoughts.


    He felt a terrible headache that made him frown his eyebrows and he touched his head with one of his hands.


    "What¡­happened?"


    Ivan mumbled as he tried to remember what led to him getting on the ground, he forced his mind to ignore the headache as he dove into his memories.


    Soon, Ivan''s eyes widened as he began to remember. He remembered encountering a one-eyed girl who claimed to be the priestess of a fallen Angel. He remembered how the girl had fed him till the True Lord rank and then completely overpowered him and knocked him out.


    Then, he lived a completely different life from his life here.


    In that life, he had a family and lived as a normal person. He had a wife and a daughter after many years, as well as close friends¡­very close friends.


    At the thought of his wife in that life, Ivan''s wide eyes flashed with a strange light. This was because he was able to match Kira''s face with someone''s face after waking up.


    It was Elora!


    Miss Elora, who was his instructor during training, was the same person as his wife and the mother of his daughter, Kira.


    Their looks, personality, and character were the same.


    "Was that a dream?" Ivan thought to himself. He guessed that it was a sort of dream or illusion that he was placed under by the priestess.


    But even after this thought, Ivan could not help but feel an inexplicable feeling in his heart. This feeling made him feel suffocated and hot at the same time.


    Aside from Elora and Kira, no one else whom Ivan had encountered in that life matched with anyone in this life, not even his daughter.


    Continuing with the memories, Ivan recalled how Hercules had suddenly appeared and asked for his daughter''s eyes. He also remembered how Hercules killed his alien friend and then trashed him terribly after he refused to reveal his daughter''s location.


    Aside from that¡­


    "Argh!" Ivan suddenly held his head and let out a painful scream.


    He screamed for a minute straight, and his screaming woke up Glen and the others, who wore dazed expressions on their faces after waking up; they only came to their senses after a while and realized that Ivan was screaming.


    Ralph and Glen quickly rushed to his side, they stared at Ivan without knowing what to do.


    Ivan soon stopped and began to breathe heavily; he didn''t answer any of the questions thrown at him as his thoughts wandered.


    He wasn''t able to remember what had happened after Hercules almost killed him or how he came back here, he wasn''t able to remember anything.


    It was as if that part of his memory was hidden within a thick fog that would bite him if he tried to recall those memories forcefully.


    After seeing that Ivan had stopped screaming and was now breathing, they concluded that he was already and would talk when he felt like it.


    Glen suddenly fell to the ground on his back, he wasn''t unconscious and was just staring at the ceiling of the cavern.


    "Damn, my entire body is in pain and my ears as well; I feel like I suffered from a monstrous sonic sound attack," Glen grumbled as his body twitched.


    He wasn''t the only one, Kira also complained that she felt like he had been beaten up by three hefty men.


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    Ralph and Clint were the same as well; they all had similar experiences, and their bodies were screaming in pain.


    But no matter how hard they tried, they were unable to recall what had placed them in such states.


    "Hold on, I thought we were inside the blood labyrinth, what''s this place?" Karin suddenly asked as she tapped her fingers on the ground that was blood red and stinking awfully, but for some reason, they were not too bothered by the stench.


    "Now that you mentioned it, it''s indeed the case. What''s this place and how did we get here?" Glen added as he sat up and looked around.


    The space was so huge that they could see it stretching into the distance and everywhere was covered by this stinking red floor that had the same stench as the labyrinth.


    "Don''t tell me¡­could it be that the labyrinth moved?" Ralph said after a while. They had also noticed that the red mist that was in the air was not there anymore which meant that this was not just another corner of the labyrinth.


    "Shouldn''t that only happen if the guardian of the labyrinth was killed? Did anyone kill it?" Ivan muttered.


    "That might be related to our missing memories and why we all feel like we''ve been beaten up, it could be that we had a serious fight with the guardian and won," Ralph said with a thoughtful face.


    "Then shouldn''t its corpse be here? Or how did our memories vanish if we won?"


    Karin asked and Ralph immediately shrugged his shoulders.


    " How would I know?" He answered.


    While Karin''s question made sense, they felt that Ralph''s words were the only logical explanation as to why the labyrinth was no longer there; there were strange creatures in the dreamscape, after all, and those who were known to use curses and magic were not rare. Besides, there were still a large number of creatures that were yet to be discovered even after hundreds of years of humans roaming the dreamscape.


    Ivan watched them debate in silence, he remembered that the priestess had sent some of her champions to capture Ralph and the others. She had used them to force him to consume the Nexus crystals that he used to reach the True Lord rank.


    He felt that Ralph''s analysis might not be true, how did they escape the hands of the various champions when some of them were already unconscious before Ivan accepted the girl''s demand?


    But he didn''t say this as it would cause too much confusion, it was best to leave mysterious matters that they didn''t know how to resolve alone.


    Without realizing it, Ivan was being influenced by the life he had lived after he was knocked unconscious by the priestess. After all, he had lived a normal life and interacted with people during his early years in that life, unlike in this life where he had suffered and was alone for the first half of his life.


    After a long time of resting and recovering, the ground resumed scouting the place. They walked the full length of the place and finally burst out at the end of the mountain; they found themselves at the top of a cliff, and before then was a large river that was surrounded by other mountains; a waterfall could be seen on the other side of the river.


    "Guess this is the end of Region 17; we finally completed the mission!" Karin could not help but let out a low shout of happiness.


    The others were also emotional, they had finally completed the mission after spending weeks in this place.


    They returned to the space that used to be the labyrinth to rest for a bit before they returned. They took out some healing gels to relieve their pain and also ate some of their supplies.


    The group finally left after three hours of resting.


    They followed the route in their memories and finally returned to the space where they had separated from Elliot.


    The young man and the land carrier were nowhere to be seen when the group returned.


    "The heck? Didn''t he say he would wait for a week? Why did he leave without us?" Glen said furiously while stomping his feet.


    This place was the last place that the A-22G3 could reach which was why they had left Elliot behind and continued themselves. How could they not be furious to find out that their ride to return to the base had left without them?


    " What if a week had passed? He was following the agreement." Ralph said with a sigh.


    " What rubbish agreement, why didn''t he use his consciousness? The only way out of this place is that damned tunnel that''s hundreds of meters up the wall, how does he expect us to leave?" Glen asked.


    He had always been on the wrong foot with Elliot so he naturally wasn''t going to see things from Elliot''s pov.


    "No need to be so angry, I can take us out of here"

 Chapter 155 strong

    Everyone looked at Ivan, puzzled by his words. How did he plan to get everyone out of here?But immediately after, their questions reviewed the answer as Ivan''s body suddenly exploded with terrifying Nexus energy.


    The ground under his feet exploded as a strong shockwave spread in all directions around him.


    The shockwave blew against everyone''s faces and caused them to close their eyes, and their hairs fluttered widely.


    After the shockwave subsided, they all looked at Ivan in shock, they were moved.


    "How, when?!" Glen walked toward Ivan and began to walk around him with wide eyes.


    Ralph was also observing Ivan, everyone felt like their eyes were playing tricks on them.


    The last time they saw Ivan was before the blood labyrinth separated them, and he was only at the Partial Lord rank at that time; how did he suddenly become a True Lord?!


    Ivan only smiled slightly and didn''t respond, the Nexus energy around him took form and shaped into four large arms that grabbed Karin, Glen, Ralph, and Clint.


    After grabbing them, Ivan lowered himself slightly as he gathered strength. After a few seconds, he suddenly leaped into the air.


    BOOM!


    The ground exploded and a huge crater that was over ten meters wide and three meters deep appeared in the ground after Ivan shot into the air. Ivan shot through the air while carrying the four of them, he easily reached hundreds of meters in the air and came to the level of the tunnel that was on the wall.


    BAM!


    Ivan''s feet landed on the ground of the tunnel with a loud sound while still holding the four with his arms made from Nexus.


    "WOW! That was crazy, the distance you just jumped was more than the walls of the labyrinth; the True Lord rank sure is something else." Glen exclaimed as he stared at Ivan with eyes filled with reverence and excitement.


    Ivan smiled back without saying anything.


    Ralph glanced at him from the side and didn''t comment, the five continued their journey back.


    Meanwhile, back at the base.


    Elliot could be seen standing in front of a small table in an empty office building with sturdy black materials, and on the other side of the table was a middle-aged woman with an extremely cold expression on her face as she stared at Elliot with eyes filled with killing intent.


    It was the vice tower master!


    "You were sent to control the land carrier for them, but you''re telling me that you left them behind because the time limit you agreed upon had elapsed?" The vice tower master asked softly, her voice was low but carried strong killing intent that made Elliot''s body shiver.


    He didn''t dare to say anything or even raise his head to look at the woman in front of him; his entire body was shaking, and he was sweating seriously.


    BAM!


    The vice tower master suddenly slammed her palm on the table and shattered the table that was made of the same material as the walls of the base.


    Elliot was startled and jumped back in fear, he immediately went on his knees.


    "I''m terribly sorry, I didn''t know what came over me!" Elliot cried out while sobbing in his heart.


    The vice tower master gazed down at him with extremely cold eyes.


    "You didn''t know what came over you? You better pray to your stars that nothing happens to them. Get out this instant and go back there, the tower master will have your head if you come back without them!" She hissed.


    Elliot stood up with trembling legs and immediately ran out of the office, he hurried toward where he parked the land carrier and immediately left the base. He headed toward Region 17 while sobbing. He felt great injustice, but there was nothing he could do about it; he could only pray that Ivan and the others were not dead yet.


    Meanwhile, Ivan and his cohort were climbing the tunnel of Region 17; they were getting closer and closer to the exit.


    They had passed many familiar places and reached one of the sections where they had placed a marker.


    While the distance that they had to cross was very far, it was still faster than when they were clearing the place. They did not have to kill any monster this time and directly ran past the various halls and nests of monsters, they would rest occasionally but only for a brief moment.


    In a blink of an eye, five days passed.


    The group finally reached the last section where they had dropped the first marker.


    "Just a little more and we''ll be out of here," Ivan mumbled to the group.


    "I can''t wait to get out of here, the air is so oppressive and uncomfortable," Glen said with an exhausted sigh.


    "I miss the fresh air of earth," Karin murmured with a lifeless tone. Stay connected via empire


    " Let''s rest here for a bit; we don''t know if we''ll encounter anything ahead of us," Ralph suggested, and Ivan agreed.


    Everyone immediately found a place to sit and recuperate.


    While everyone was resting, Ralph quietly moved toward Ivan''s position. The latter turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow.


    " Hey," Ralph said softly after reaching Ivan.


    " Hey," Ivan mumbled back.


    Ralph immediately went straight to the point.


    " I don''t know if you noticed but you''ve become¡­warmer during the past few days. No, it should be since we woke up in the labyrinth. You seem different."Ralph said softly while looking Ivan in the eyes.


    Ivan showed a stunned expression for a few seconds as he exchanged eye contact with Ralph for a few seconds. He suddenly let out a silent chuckle after a few seconds, and he broke off the eye contact.


    " As expected of you, I should have expected you to notice immediately," Ivan said in between his chuckles.


    Ralph didn''t find it funny and kept looking at Ivan with a serious face, Ivan sighed and patted the boy''s shoulder.


    " You shouldn''t be bothered. Let''s just say something inside me changed, but I''m good; thanks for worrying about me." He said with a sincere smile on his face.


    Ralph looked at him for a few seconds before sighing and moving his gaze away.


    "If you say so, just remember you can always tell us anything. I and Glen, we are your friends and will always support you." Ralph said before walking back to sit elsewhere.


    Ivan had a smile on his face as he watched Ralph walk away; he called out his profile after.


    ¡­.


    NAME: Ivan Von Charles


    Talent Group: Primal Talent type: Wisher Talent: Wish card


    Talent lv: SS AP: 50.23% Rank: TRUE LORD.


    ...


    "It''s really been a while, huh?" Ivan mumbled to himself as he recalled when he used to be just a nobody back in the outskirts.


    In less than two years, so many things had changed and he was now a powerhouse in the world of ordinary humans and even Nexulytes.


    Time passed quickly, and two more days passed swiftly; the group finally arrived at the entrance of the mountain range that was the entrance of Region 17; this was where they had battled the rock snakes.


    Just like Ralph had guessed, some monsters had started residing in the cave after the rock snake monsters were cleared out by the group.


    The group found a pack of barbarian bulls staying in the cave. The barbarian bulls were bull monsters with a height of seven to thirteen meters and had buffed shapes. They had extremely black bodies, and their skins were as tough as wood. They used blunt weapons as a means of attacking other creatures.


    There were over fifty of them residing inside the cave where the rock snake monsters used to stay.


    "The hell? Where did these things come from?!" Glen exclaimed when he saw the barbarian bulls.


    "Shut up you idiot! You''ll alert them!" Karin covered Glen''s mouth and hissed at him.


    Ralph facepalmed from the side. This girl''s voice was even louder than Glen''s, yet she dared to scold him.


    As expected, some of the barbarian bulls immediately looked in their direction when they heard Karin''s voice. They immediately raised their voices and made low, growling sounds; it sounded more like they were calling for help. S§×ar?h the ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    A few seconds later, heavy footsteps could be heard as more barbarian bulls rushed over. In the blink of an eye, there were more than seventy barbarian bulls gathered in the cave, and each of them was carrying huge tree branches in their hands.


    "Damnit, now see what you caused." Karin glared at Glen as if it was his fault.


    Ralph stared at the two and shook his head helplessly, he didn''t have the energy to lecture them at all.


    "Prepare to fight," Ralph said and immediately let out Nexus energy from his body but a palm suddenly landed on his shoulder.


    He looked and saw Ivan looking back at him.


    "Let me," Ivan said as he stepped forward. A card appeared in his hand before changing into a long sword.

 Chapter 156 base

    Ivan gripped the sword and stepped forward; at the same time, the barbarian bulls charged at them while raising loud growling sounds and lifting their weapons into the air.Swoosh!!


    Ivan suddenly vanished from where he was standing and sped toward the barbarian bulls, Ralph and the others were shocked. They were not able to see him as his speed was too fast.


    It was worse for the barbarian bulls, they had barely moved a single meter before Ivan flashed past the ones in front.


    Puff!!


    Heads and limbs suddenly flew into the air, accompanied by showers of blood as the lifeless bodies of the barbarian bulls were sent flying to the side. It was as if a speed train had pierced through the group of barbarian bulls as many of them were sent flying with parts of their bodies cut cleanly off.


    In less than five seconds, Ivan had flashed through the ranks of the barbarian bulls and appeared behind them, striking a cool pose. The barbarian bulls that were over 70 in number didn''t even know how they had died as their corpses flew everywhere.


    Ralph, Glen, Clint, and Karin stared at Ivan with wide eyes; they were greatly shocked by his display of strength.


    The True Lord rank was really something else.


    "That was awesome, bro. I wished I was that strong," Glen voiced out while walking over; a clean path was created in the middle of the bloody mess that had been created by the corpses of the monster me.


    "With time," Ivan responded while letting the sword in his hand disappear into light particles that vanished into thin air.


    "That was really amazing, you saved us a lot of stress. I''m honestly tired of fighting." Karin joined as she walked behind Glen.


    They checked the corpses and left after they found nothing; not a single Nexus crystal was found in the many corpses of the monsters.


    They were disappointed but knew that Nexus crystals were not guaranteed whenever they killed monsters.


    The group finally came out of the cave and stood in front of it, staring at the vast mountain range that stretched into the distance.


    Region 17 was a long mountain with unimaginable horror under its cover.


    "Ah, finally! Feels like I''ve spent years inside this damned mountain." Glen let out a loud sigh while staring at the cave.


    Although they were still inside the dreamscape and were yet to return to the real world, the group could not help but feel a sense of relaxation after finally coming out; it suddenly felt as if they had been suffocating for the past weeks.


    They had yet to move when they suddenly heard thwooping sounds approaching quickly, it was a land carrier!


    The group quickly turned around to take a look, and their faces showed strange expressions when they saw the A-22G3 rushing over from a distance; they could see Elliot through the glass of the land carrier.


    Similarly, Elliot was shocked when he saw Ivan and the others outside. He quickly stopped the land carrier and came out, a restless expression could be seen on his face.


    "Y-you guys¡­you are all right!" Elliot exclaimed as he slowly walked toward the group with trembling hands and eyes that looked like he was about to cry.


    This made the group look at him even more strangely, wondering what was wrong with him.


    "Thank God, thank God you are all right." Elliot closed his eyes as invisible tears streamed down his face.


    Someone suddenly rushed toward Elliot, it was Glen.


    The boy had a furious expression as he rushed toward Elliot, he immediately pushed Elliot in the face after reaching him.


    The punch landed heavily, and Elliot stumbled backward while holding his cheek; his eyes stared at Glen with a confused expression.


    "What was that for?" He asked.


    Glen''s chest rose and fell asleep he breathed heavily, both of his hands were balled into fists.


    "You dare to ask why I punched you? How dare you leave us behind and dare to act like you were worried about us, do you want us to beat you to death?!" Glen snapped angrily.


    " But we agreed that I would wait for a week; I thought you died in there, so I went back intending to ask for help." Elliot defended himself but didn''t dare to be too aggressive; he had realized that the tower master seemed to value this group of new Nexulytes through the words of the vice tower master.


    "And so what if we had agreed on a week? Why didn''t you come to check for yourself?" Karin joined from the side and also began to attack Elliot with questions.


    "Why would I do that? If something managed to kill all of you and even Ivan, what chance would I have to survive?" Elliot shot back, his tone sounding more aggrieved.


    "How dare you say such things about us, you want us to die, don''t you? Come, I beat you to death?!" Glen raged and charged toward Elliot but the young man was prepared this time and dodged.


    "Don''t run, fight me if you dare!" Glen shouted and was about to attack again.


    "That''s enough, stop it."


    Ivan''s calm voice sounded from behind, the two of them immediately stopped what they were doing and turned to look at him.


    Ivan stared at them before shaking his head.


    "What matters is that he came back, at least we won''t have to walk back to the base," Ivan said while walking toward the land carrier.


    Glen and Karin turned and shot one final glare at Elliot before following Ivan. Clint, and Ralph followed right after.


    Elliot watched them enter the land carrier and sighed, he didn''t waste time standing there and went in as well.


    The A-22G3 resumed moving as Elliot controlled it and headed back to the base.


    Along the way, Elliot tried to converse with the group about their experience after they separated but no one replied to him. Only when he asked how they had crossed the place with the flowing blood river did Glen speak to him.


    "Hmph! You must have left because you wanted us to stay there forever, too bad for you. Ivan is now a True Lord and easily got us out!" Glen snorted at Elliot before looking away.


    Elliot''s eyes widened, and he turned to look at Ivan with a disbelieving gaze. He found it difficult to believe that Ivan was from the same batch as Glen and the rest; the boy had only been a Nexulyte for less than a year, after all.


    ''What a monster!'' S§×ar?h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Elliot exclaimed inwardly before looking away, he didn''t say another word and focused on controlling the land carrier.


    They encountered other Nexulytes as they passed through the various regions on the way back to the base, the group felt a strange feeling upon seeing other people after a month of only seeing monsters.


    Soon, they arrived at the base and were allowed entry by the Nexulytes patrolling the perimeters of the base after verifying their identities.


    The group saw that the base was still as serious as ever, with lots of Nexulytes in protective body suits patrolling; it appears that not a lot changed while they were away; the experience of people here would obviously be different from theirs.


    After entering the base, Elliot drove the land carrier to an empty spot before lowering its metal legs and opening the rim for everyone to come out.


    "You should report to the vice tower master, I have something else to attend to," Elliot said before bolting off, he quickly disappeared into one of the large structures.


    The group didn''t bother with him and allowed him to leave.


    "Let''s go," Ivan uttered before leading the way. They had reached the office of the vice tower master before so they did not need anyone to guide them.


    After a few minutes of walking, Ivan and his cohort stood in front of the vice tower Master''s office door.


    "Come in."


    Your adventure continues at empire


    The familiar voice of the vice tower master sounded from inside the office before Ivan could knock on the door.


    Ivan''s hand stopped just before he knocked on the door and gently pushed it open, he entered the office with the others behind him.


    They saw the vice tower master sitting behind her table, another person was sitting opposite her; it was an aged man who seemed to be in his 60s and had sharp eyes. The stranger and the vice tower master were both staring at the five of them as they walked into the office.


    The five of them were not bothered by their stares and calmly walked into the office, they formed a straight line in front of the two before saluting and greeting the vice tower master.


    The latter waved her hand dismissively before speaking with an expressionless face.


    "Your mission took longer than the time given, I believe the report on your mission gives enough explanation for this."


    She paused and brought out a file from under her table before stretching it toward Ivan and asking him to fill in all the details of what happened during their mission.


    Ivan stepped forward and accepted the file before stepping back.


    He suddenly looked through the corner of his eyes, a frown formed on his face; he was sure that he had seen the eyes of the man sitting opposite the vice tower master glowing just now.

 Chapter 157 Carl Barry

    Ivan was suspicious as to why the man did whatever he just did but didn''t ask, this person must be of high status to be sitting with the vice tower master.Ivan collected the file, and he left with his group; they were told to report back after filling out the form with details of their mission, and after cleaning up, they were allowed to pick any empty room in the dorms.


    After the five left, the man turned to look at the vice tower master, a stunned expression could be seen on his face.


    "What do you think?" The vice tower master asked with a serious tone. Ivan and his group didn''t know but this man was one of the founders of the Dominion Tower that was on very good terms with the Owen Tower.


    This old man''s name was Carl Barry, and he was a powerful Nexulyte with analyst talent; this allowed him to see the flaws of others. In short, his talent allowed him to decipher the errors and weak points of anyone and anything!


    While this talent was not really powerful in some sense, it was a very vital ability that could end a fight if used wisely along with well-planned opportunities; this was because everyone and everything had weak points; even the hardest substance would possess a weak link that could destroy it.


    This was why he had used his talent on Ivan just now. He had heard James and Karl talk about this kid nonstop and he was also present during the fight for who would keep Ivan after his talent was discovered.


    He had never met this special kid before despite having engaged in a bloody battle because of him; this was why he decided to take a look at Ivan after finally meeting him, and he was shocked.


    His talent was able to work on even the likes of Karl, Gareth, and Myles, showing their weak points. But he wasn''t able to see anything when he looked at Ivan. When he looked at Ivan with his glowing eyes just now, all he saw was a bubble of three-colored light surrounding his body like a small invisible cocoon; there was no gap or gray spot!


    This had shocked him greatly, but he had managed to control his expression; he had decided to check on the rest of Ivan''s group out of curiosity. Ralph, Glen, and Karin were normal, and he was able to see their weaknesses, but Clint gave him another shock.


    Just like Ivan, this red-haired kid had a veil of darkness surrounding him. Just that his veil was weaker than Ivan''s three-colored cocoon.


    Carl looked at the vice tower master for a while before speaking.


    "Impressive, I wasn''t able to see anything. That kid is hiding a lot of things."


    The vice tower master frowned when she heard this and couldn''t help looking toward the door of the office.


    "The tower master suspected the same; that''s why he purposely assigned this mission to them; he''s aware of a powerful monster in Region 17 and hopes to use it to force out some of his secrets," the vice tower master stated.


    Carl raised an eyebrow.


    "And he didn''t send a secret backup? What if the kid wasn''t hiding anything and died in there?"


    The vice tower master shook her head slowly.


    "I had similar thoughts but apparently, the kid is like that other kid¡­or even better. He defeated a mobile forbidden zone twice back at the training center and his speed wasn''t slow during both times." She informed. Carl''s eyes widened.


    " You mean, he''s better than that Vlad kid? Defeating a mobile forbidden zone? That''s preposterous! Even Domain Lords can''t do so easily." Carl said with agitation.


    "You saw it for yourself, now it has been confirmed that he''s hiding things about his talent; we still haven''t found anything on it." The vice tower master sighed.


    Experience more on empire


    They were still searching for information on Ivan''s talent since his awakening but haven''t found anything, James hoped to use this mission to get a better understanding of him.


    "The new generation sure is bringing us more pleasant surprises. I almost forgot, he wasn''t the only one," Carl suddenly said and the other party looked at him with a raised eyebrow.


    "That red-haired kid, Clint, was his name if I recall correctly. I wasn''t able to see anything on him either; he''s just like that Ivan kid but weaker. I presume it''s their difference in ranks." Carl ended.


    The vice tower master wore a serious look on her face and didn''t say anything else.


    ¡­..


    After Ivan, Clint, Ralph, Glen, and Karin left the office, they easily found the dorm in the base; it was one of the biggest structures in the base and was located on the west side with countless rooms.


    The group went in and picked five rooms for themselves, they agreed to come out after twenty minutes and meet outside the dorm.


    Ivan entered his room, and the door slowly closed behind him. The room was a small space with just a bed, and a door that led to the bathroom could be seen on the left wall; this room was even smaller than his room back at the training center.


    But Ivan didn''t mind this, he took off his protective suit and storage device before walking toward the bathroom; he hadn''t taken a bath for so long, none of them had.


    Splash!!


    The cold water burst from the holes in the shower head and fell on Ivan''s head and shoulders before washing down his body. sea??h th§× N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The coldness of the water cooled him down as water droplets ran down his skin; Ivan''s mind could not help but wonder while he washed.


    The life of a Nexulyte was really different from what he had imagined. He had only gotten a glimpse of it after entering the training with his two friends, but he only felt the seriousness of his new identity after coming here.


    He had spent more than a month away from human settlement and had wondered inside what could have been their grave with just four people to rely on. They had faced many life-and-death situations together and gained knowledge of things he never could have imagined.


    Aside from that, he had also gotten stronger, far stronger than he would have imagined, and this was all thanks to that one-eyed priestess.


    Ivan raised his right arm, his fingers clenched and opened repeatedly.


    "With this level of strength, I should be able to start with my plans," Ivan mumbled to himself as the water continued to fall on him.


    He still remembered the little girl who had appeared a day before he awakened. He still couldn''t tell if that was a dream, but it felt so real.


    But the thought of more beings like the priestess made him hesitant, he was totally helpless against her; would he be able to survive if he encountered another monster like her?


    Ivan suddenly clenched his fist hard with a determined look in his eyes; no one knew what he was thinking.


    After a few minutes, the five of them gathered outside the dorm. They had all washed up and changed from the miserable states that they were in when they arrived earlier, though they currently had overgrown hair; that was something that they could take care of after returning to the real world.


    They went back to the structure that acted as the office building and found an empty room before filling the forms with details of their mission.


    They only wrote important details as they couldn''t write every single thing that they encountered during the mission; it took them a while to finish filling in everything that needed to be written.


    After which they returned to the office to give their reports.


    Upon getting there, they found Sir Peter instead of the vice tower master. The group was slightly stunned but not too much; this was originally Sir Peter''s office, after all.


    Sir Peter stared at the five with a look of astonishment in his eyes before quickly changing it to a calm look.


    "You came back quickly, the vice tower master tasked me to take care of your report." He said to them from where he was sitting.


    Ivan''s expression was calm as he walked over and dropped the file on the table. He also brought out the stone slab that had strange inscriptions on it and the nightmare flower and gave them to Sir Peter as well.


    "We found these during our mission," Ivan said.


    Sir Peter stared at the nightmare flower with a shocked face, he wasn''t able to maintain his expression this time as his eyes widened and his mouth opened wide enough to fit in an egg.


    "This...this is a nightmare flower! How did you get it?" He looked at Ivan''s face and asked.


    " The details are in the file," Ivan replied calmly without a change in expression.


    Sir Peter took a while to calm down, he cleared his throat before saying.


    "The nightmare flower is a very valuable item and rare to find, it will be of great use to the tower''s general development. Naturally, the tower won''t rob you of what you found while on a mission, you''ll be rewarded for it. The money for the nightmare flower will be deposited into your account along with the payment for completing the mission."


    "What about this?" Ivan tapped his finger on the stone slab.

 Chapter 158 Ruthless karl

    "This looks like it was written in an ancient language, or it might not even be from Earth; I''ll hand it over to the vice tower master and allow her to deal with it. You''ll be informed if it can be translated and is relevant to you." Sir people said while looking at the stone slab.Ivan nodded while Ralph and the others glanced at each other at the back.


    Sir Peter looked at the stone slab a little longer before turning to look at the five of them.


    "The markers that you placed within Region 17 have been activated, and we''ve received visual footage. Groups will be sent out to set up stations around the markers after we look into your report. It will be another win for humanity; good job, all of you." Sir Peter said with a small smile; his words almost sounded forced, considering how he had viewed the group as arrogant back then.


    The five saluted and left after they were told that they could leave if they wanted to or stay a little longer; he told them to come look for him whenever they wanted to leave, and he would open the mirror gate for them.


    "I can''t stand it anymore, we have to go back now so I can return home and get a good sleep!" Karin voiced out immediately after they came out of the office.


    "Then why didn''t you say it just now before we came out?" Glen glared at her.


    Karin pouted and looked away, not saying anything.


    Ralph shook his head and looked toward Ivan, who shrugged in response; they had nothing else to do here, so they might as well leave.


    "Why don''t we go get something to eat first, we can still tell Elliot that we''re leaving as well," Ralph suggested.


    "Why should we tell him? It''s not like he''s part of the group." Glen immediately disagreed. S§×arch* The N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Yes, he''s not, why should we tell him what we want to do?" Karin supported.


    Ralph pinched the bridge of his nose, he felt a headache from the two of them.


    Ivan and Clint watched them in silence.


    ¡­..


    Meanwhile, inside one of the structures in the base.


    In a large room with a single long black table, seven people could be seen around the table.


    One of the seven people was standing alone on one side with a nervous look on his face, while the other six were opposite him on the other side of the long table; five of them sat while the last was standing behind them.


    If any of Ivan''s group was present, they would immediately recognize some of the people there. These people were Elliot, who had been their driver during their mission, James Owen, Karl Owen, the vice tower master, Carl Barry, a beautiful middle-aged woman, and a young woman who was around their age; the last woman was the one who introduced Elliot to Ivan''s group after finding out that none of them knew how to operate a land carrier, she was the one standing behind James and the others.


    "He''s the one you recommended to operate the land carrier for the group, right?" James asked the woman standing behind them, his eyes fixed on Elliot, which made him even more nervous.


    Enjoy new adventures from empire


    "Yes, he''s the driver." The woman quickly answered.


    "All right, you can leave." Karl looked at the woman with a cold look in his eyes.


    The woman was spooked and hurriedly left the room as if she was being chased by ghosts.


    After the woman left, Elliot was left alone in the room with these oldies; he knew they were hundreds of years old even though they all looked relatively younger. After all, he recognized everyone sitting there.


    Karl Owen, the head of the Owen family and founder of the Owen Tower. James Owen, Karl''s son and the current tower master of the Owen Tower. Freda Alex, the vice tower master of the Owen Tower. Carl Barry, one of the founders of the Dominion Tower. And lastly, Susan Riddick, another founder of the Dominion Tower.


    All of them were powerful Nexulytes who had shaken the world during the battle against the dreamscape many years ago.


    All of them stared at him with sharp eyes that made Elliot feel fear and caused his legs to shake.


    "You followed Ivan''s group for their mission, right?" James asked in a deep voice.


    Elliot gulped and nodded while saying yes.


    "Then you have seen him in battle and using his talent, correct?" James continued.


    Elliot suddenly felt a bad feeling rising in his heart, he hesitated before saying yes again.


    " Then can you tell me about his talent, what can it do?" Karl was the one who asked this time.


    Elliot''s eyes subconsciously moved over in Karl''s direction and met with a pair of aged, sharp eyes that made him sweat buckets.


    " H-he can make¡­swords with his talent," Elliot stated, his lips trembling.


    "No, aside from the sword, can he do anything else?" The vice tower master asked this time.


    Elliot had a fearful expression as the bad feeling in his heart intensified, he swallowed a mouthful of saliva before shaking his head.


    There was silence for a while as everyone stared at Elliot with puzzled expressions.


    After a full minute of unbearable silence, James finally spoke up.


    "What do you mean just his sword? How did he kill the champions of the labyrinth and the guardian then?"


    It was now Elliot''s turn to be puzzled.


    ''Guardian? Champions? Labyrinth? Where did those come from?'' Elliot thought to himself before his eyes suddenly widened in realization.


    Seeing how the boy''s expressions changed so quickly, James and the others immediately understood what was going on.


    "How do you not know about the existence of the labyrinth if you followed them?" Karl asked.


    Elliot turned to look at Freda, the vice tower master. He realized that she hadn''t told them that he had abandoned Ivan and the others halfway into the tunnel.


    "I-I-I didn''t follow them all the way in," Elliot said and proceeded to explain what had happened after they crossed the flowing blood river.


    BOOM!


    Immediately after Elliot finished his explanation, James exploded with Nexus energy, and the long table crumbled.


    A furious expression could be seen on his face as he stared at Elliot coldly, Karl and the rest also showed cold expressions as well.


    "So you are saying you were ordered by your superior to follow a team of new Nexulytes for their first mission and control the land carrier for them, but you left them to go further by themselves because of some stupid agreement? As someone who has been to the dreamscape more, what do you make of your decision?" James asked with a heavy tone.


    Elliot''s heart fell when he heard James'' words, he fell to his knees and began to beg.


    But no one seemed to care about him as everyone looked at him with sharp glints in their eyes.


    "I took my time to scout for a perfect place and purposely prevented him from having anyone capable of controlling a land carrier on his team so that an outsider could be added but you are telling me this!" James said with strong killing intent.


    Elliot''s body trembled; he couldn''t understand what James was talking about, but he knew that he was in trouble and could only beg for forgiveness.


    "Enough!" Karl suddenly said, his tone was low but everyone immediately shut up. He stared at Elliot for a while before looking at Freda. "he left a group of junior Nexulytes to their deaths without thoughts for their safety; this is a grave crime since it''s forbidden to leave a fellow Nexulyte behind; dispose of him." Karl voiced out before disappearing from where he was sitting, he directly vanished from the room and could no longer be seen.


    Elliot''s eyes widened when he heard Karl''s words, his heart was drowned in despair.


    "No, please. I know my mistake, It''ll never repeat itself!" Elliot cried out.


    "Sigh, sorry kid." Freda looked at him and sighed before pointing a finger at Elliot.


    A small wind bullet shot out from her finger and sped toward Elliot.


    Ptui!


    It pierced through his forehead and came back from the back of his head.


    Elliot''s body froze, his mouth was wide open as blood flowed out from the small hole in his forehead, his eyes slowly lost color and his body fell over.


    James, Carl, Susan, and Freda looked at Elliot''s lifeless body with expressionless faces. They were not surprised by Karl''s ruthless decision, they were used to it.


    "Get someone to clean this up, I''ll go back first," James said before leaving the room as well.


    "I understand," Freda said from behind him.


    ¡­..


    Meanwhile, Ivan and his group had already finished everything that they wanted to do here and were ready to go back. They went to Sir Peter''s office to let him know that the man had yet to submit the file that Ivan had submitted because the vice tower master had yet to return to the base.


    "I''ll just send you back first." He breathed and got up.


    The group walked out of the office and soon came in front of the mirror gate that was surrounded by thick metal rings.


    Just before Sir Peter could press the buttons on the metal rings, a voice called out from behind them.

 Chapter 159 Ralphs request. Messages

    "You''re going back already, why don''t you come with me then?"A familiar jovial voice sounded from behind them. Sir Peter''s hand paused before he could touch the button while Ivan and his group members hated their steps as well, all of them turned around to look at the same time to confirm the voice that they just heard.


    "Tower Master?!" Sir Peter''s eyes widened when he saw James walking toward them; he immediately stood straight and saluted.


    Ivan, Ralph, Glen, and Karin were surprised to see James, they also saluted. Clint, on the other hand, wore a cold expression while saluting as well.


    James was the Tower master of the Owen Tower HQ after all so Karin and Clint knew him too.


    James had a kind smile on his face as he walked over with both hands behind his waist, his eyes roaming their faces.


    "I heard you finished your mission; I was told that you did well; Well done, everyone," James said to them, his tone was very gentle.


    Glen, Ralph, and Karin showed confident expressions as they were praised by the Tower master. Meanwhile, Ivan''s face was calm, and Clint''s face turned colder.


    James turned to look at Sir Peter.


    "You can return to what you were doing, I''ll take them back myself since I was planning on returning as well." He said.


    Sir Peter straightened up and accepted the order while saluting, he quickly escaped right after.


    After Sir Peter left, James turned back to look at Ivan''s group as he stepped toward the Meta ring.


    " So how was the mission?" He asked while pressing the buttons on the metal rings.


    " It was all right," Ivan responded plainly.


    The metal ring opened with a hissing sound and created a part for them to approach the squirming mirror gate.


    James stepped toward it and the rest followed behind him.


    " You didn''t encounter any difficulty during your first mission, right? I made sure to try and help you get an easy mission for your first time in the dreamscape." James smiled at them. S~ea??h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    " It was fine, we didn''t face any difficulty." Stated Ivan.


    James nodded before asking about the other''s well-being and how they fared during the mission. Glen and Karin were excited to receive the concern of the tower master and answered energetically with sparkling eyes.


    Ralph''s response was calm and he wasn''t overly excited as the other two. Clint was the most shocking, he directly ignored James'' question.


    The others were surprised by this action but didn''t ask, at least not in front of the Tower master.


    James didn''t seem to mind this and walked into the mirror gate, he immediately vanished into it. The group also approached and walked into it as well; it was their second experience using a mirror gate, and they could not help but marvel at the surreal feeling when they passed through it.


    They appeared on the other side instantaneously, and a wave of fresh air crashed into them. When they appeared outside the mirror gate inside the base of the real world, they all felt alive and free; the five of them couldn''t help but breathe in deeply.


    "Ah, it''s so good to be back; I''ve missed the real world so badly," Glen said while making sobbing sounds.


    "Same here, same here. I feel like I''ve been locked in a cave for years." Karin nodded her head in agreement with Glen''s words as the two of them sucked in the oxygen hungrily.


    Ivan looked at the two of them with a small smile on his face, he felt the same way as the two but did not think it was enough to overreact like them. Ralph facepalmed at the two and let out a sigh.


    "Once again, welcome to the real world from your first mission." James, who was standing a few meters ahead of them and had already opened the metal ring said to them.


    The group looked toward him and immediately walked over, leaving the area of the mirror gate.


    It was daytime in the real world when they returned and the bright sun was hanging high in the sky, bathing the base with harsh sunlight.


    The group looked around, they saw many Nexulytes moving around in protective body suits and black uniforms; the situation here was more peaceful and wasn''t as intense as the situation on the other side of the mirror gate.


    They could see that the base had been expanded and more structures had been built in the base. They could also hear loud explosive sounds in the distance, it sounded as if there was a fight going on.


    "Don''t bother about that. It must be a group of monsters attacking, but there are already people dealing with it." James said when he saw them looking into the distance.


    The eyes of the group flashed in realization and they nodded in understanding.


    "I presume that you''ll want to return immediately instead of staying here in the base. After you, all have families to return to. I''ll arrange for someone to take you back, you can walk around the base in the meantime." James said to them.


    " Ummm, Tower master. Is there perhaps a place where we can get equipment in the base?" Ralph suddenly asked. Everyone immediately turned to look at him, surprised by his request.


    James paused for a few seconds before saying.


    " Yes, of course. You can go to the equipment vault to take a look, but you''ll have to pay as the tower can''t give out the equipment there for free; there won''t be enough resources to make it for every person in the tower if that''s the case." James explained before walking off.


    Ralph saluted and turned around only to see Glen and Karin staring at him.


    " What?" He raised an eyebrow.


    " What equipment do you want to buy?" Glen asked.


    " Something to defend myself," Ralph said casually.


    Glen was confused and asked why he didn''t just summon his undead to do the fighting; Ralph only smiled and shook his head without saying anything.


    He had similar thoughts before they entered the dreamscape, but his experience insisted Region 17 opened his eyes to a whole new world. He realized that depending on his talent wasn''t enough.


    In a situation where his undead were being occupied by strong opponents and were temporarily unable to protect him, wouldn''t it be easy for him to die if a monster that he couldn''t handle with his physical strength attacked him? Besides, it wasn''t every time that he would spend Nexus to summon his undead for every opponent; he didn''t go through so much training for nothing.


    For this reason, Ralph decided that he needed something that he could use to fight whenever the enemy was something beyond his power.


    Ivan looked at his friend in silence; he seemed to have figured out Ralph''s thoughts but didn''t say it out loud; he silently supported it, though.


    "Has anyone checked their balance yet? How much did you receive?" They suddenly heard Karin''s voice. Everyone''s attention was immediately drawn to this matter and they all took out their communicators from the storage devices to check their balance in their profiles.


    Ivan also took out his communicator to take a look, the instant he turned it on¡­the screen of Ivan''s communicator was flooded with message notifications.


    He was stunned as he saw the hundreds of messages flashing on the screen, many of them were from a long time ago. Precisely from the time they came here for their mission.


    Ivan felt strange when he saw the notifications. He didn''t know a lot of people, and very few people had his contact so who could have spammed him with so many messages?


    He curiously opened his communicator to see, and his eyes flashed; next to a small bubble profile was a number tag that displayed +99.


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    It was from the anonymous person who had messaged him the morning after the New Year evening, the one whom Ivan regarded as a scam and didn''t reply.


    ''Why is this person messaging so much? Don''t you have anything better to do with your time?'' Ivan thought to himself with a frown.


    "Ivan, is everything all right?"


    He suddenly heard Ralph''s voice and raised his head, he saw that everyone was staring at him after hearing Ralph''s question. Ralph had apparently seen him frown all of a sudden and couldn''t help but ask.


    "Yes, I''m good. Don''t worry about me." Ivan waved his hand and returned his gaze to the communicator before opening the anonymous person''s message. Ivan''s expression turned strange again when he saw the long line of messages.


    He started scrolling with his thumb and his expression turned even more strange.


    Most of the messages were asking about his well-being, like: "How are you?" "Good day," "Good morning (afternoon, evening)," "Good night, sweet dreams," "Are you in the dreamscape yet?" "Stay safe," "Please respond when you get back," "Not back yet?"...


    Ivan felt weird reading the messages; there was nothing important in any of the messages, and everything was this person asking about his well-being and wishing him to be safe.


    ''Who is this person? So persistent'' Ivan wondered inwardly as he thought of the people who had his contact. Of everyone he knew, only Glen would be crazy enough to do such a thing, and that was even a guess, as he wasn''t entirely sure.


    As for their families, they had no reason to send him so many messages.


    ''It can''t be Miss Elora either, she''s not so free.'' Ivan thought.


    At the mention of Miss Elora in his mind, Ivan''s heart skipped a beat, and memories with Kira flashed appeared in his mind.

 Chapter 160 Nano watch

    The person sent a message this morning as well.Whoever this person was had been very persistent and sent Ivan a message every single day.


    After staring blankly at the messages for a while, Ivan finally typed.


    "Who are you?"


    Ivan sent the message and pushed the matter of the anonymous person to the back of his mind, he opened his profile and checked his balance.


    A surprised look crossed his face as the figures displaying on the screen of his communicator reflected in his eyes.


    "So many," Ivan mumbled softly. He had never seen so much money before in his life and never dreamt of owning so much.


    He previously still had over 400k bucks after all the expenses spent on his Villa and payment for the workers before coming to the dreamscape; his current balance, however, nearly sent him into shock.


    ?20,400,300!


    He now had an additional twenty million bucks in his profile!


    "Damn, no wonder Nexulytes are so wealthy. I got ten million bucks!" Glen suddenly exclaimed from the side.


    He wasn''t the only one, Ralph and Karin got the same amount as well. Clint didn''t say it, but they could more or less guess that he got the same amount from his indifferent expression.


    Ivan decided not to say that he got twice the amount of the other, it might ruin their mood. He guessed that it was probably because he had been in charge of the mission, that was why he got paid more.


    After checking their balance, the group headed for the equipment vault to take a look.


    The equipment vault was the biggest structure in the base, so it was very easy to find; they approached and could hear the sounds of heavy machinery within the building that was as large as a stadium; it could even be larger, considering how far it stretched into the distance.


    The place was just like last time when they came to get their land carrier; many people with mechanic talents and carrying different tools could be seen moving around the place while large mechanical arms carried heavy pieces of metal around.


    "What might you guys be looking for?"


    Someone approached them and asked after they stood in one place for just a few seconds; Ralph relayed his intentions about wanting to get a piece of equipment.


    "Oh, this way then." The person with a half-transformed arm said and beckoned for them to follow him; he had a mechanic talent as well.


    The group followed him and walked deeper into the equipment vault, only now did they realize just how huge the equipment vault was on the inside; it was bigger than it looked on the outside.


    They walked for a few minutes before arriving in a large square-shaped room that had a space of at least 50 meters. Not many people could be seen in this place as there was no active work going on here. Many long transparent tables that shone with white light filled the place, and inside these tables were different kinds of equipment.


    More of these tables were lined on the wall of the room as well and more equipment was being displayed inside them.


    A man with a short, screw cut hairstyle immediately approached them after they entered the place.


    "What do you want to buy?" The man asked, his tone wasn''t overly polite but wasn''t rude either.


    "Not me, these young people are the ones who want to buy something." The person who brought them here said before turning to leave, saying that he had other things to do.


    Ralph thanked him before facing the man in screw cut.


    Ralph proceeded to tell him the type of equipment he was looking for. Since he had no specific thing in mind, he could only ask for suggestions about weapons.


    "That''s not a problem, I''ll show you a few of our best weapons. What price range might you be looking for? The higher your budget, the better the equipment I''ll be able to recommend." The man stated.


    Ralph hesitated before asking the man what the price range was, the five of them were startled when they heard the man''s response.


    "You can get any low-grade equipment for 2 million bucks, but these are not very useful and can get damaged easily since they are not made with durable materials. If you want a nice equipment that will serve you well, a budget of 10 to 50 million bucks will be fine; anything below this is basically trash if you plan on going out more often and don''t have a combat type talent. Of course, you can still go higher; you can get more powerful equipment for 100 million bucks and above." The man explained while making hand gestures.


    " I only have a budget of¡­ 5 million," Ralph said in a low tone after listening to the man''s explanation. He was shocked to realize that he might not even be able to get a decent weapon with his entire payment!


    ''No wonder Miss Elora said that the journey of a Nexulyte isn''t cheap.'' he exclaimed inwardly.


    The man''s face immediately turned awkward when he heard Ralph''s words but he quickly relaxed and let out a few coughs to clear his throat.


    "5 million, 5 million isn''t too bad. You can still get a good weapon for that, too; it won''t be too bad." He said, conveniently ignoring the fact that he calls everything below 10 million ''trash.''


    Ralph nodded and asked the man to lead the way. Before they started looking for the equipment for Ralph, the man asked if Ivan and the others wanted to get something as well. They immediately shook their heads, unlike Ralph, they had no strong desire to get a weapon. Why would they spend half or all of their earnings when they just got rich?


    "All right, you can look around in the meantime, then." He said before asking Ralph to follow him.


    They moved from one table to another as the man showed Ralph the various equipment that he could buy with 5 million bucks. They ranged from swords to shooting equipment and even energy throwers. But Ralph wasn''t satisfied with any of these, so they kept looking; he had spotted some good-looking equipment at times, like the dual crystal daggers and a plasma pistol, but the price that the man called immediately made Ralph give up on them.


    The dual crystal daggers were two short transparent daggers that were only a few centimeters long and could turn invisible; the man said that the user could make it turn invisible with their Nexus energy and even control it from a ten-meter distance with their energy.


    Ralph was fascinated by the attributes of the daggers and wanted to buy them but learned that the pair of daggers cost 60 million bucks!


    The plasma pistol was still a nice piece of equipment that could shoot lasers that could travel for up to 5 kilometers and could easily take down a monster that was as strong as a Domain Lord. Ralph didn''t need to know more to know that this five-inch pistol was god-killing equipment, but its price was even more monstrous than the Duggars.


    The words "300 million bucks" had almost deafened him.


    Ralph was starting to get disappointed; none of the equipment that was within the five million bucks range was satisfactory enough. None of them would have been helpful in some of the scenarios that they had experienced during their mission.


    At this moment, Leon suddenly sighted something. Resting peacefully inside a small round table was a small nano watch that looked exactly like a wristband. It looked plain without any form of designs on it but for some reason, Ralph felt it was special.


    " What''s that?" He pointed at the small watch and asked.


    The man looked over, and his eyes landed on the watch; he walked over with a casual expression and explained.


    " You sure have good eyes, lad, sadly, this thing is above 5 million. This is the Nano watch, but it''s not your typical watch for checking time; the only similarities it has with our usual watch are the three modes that reflect the hour, minute, and second sticks in watches." The man said before explaining further.


    Just like the three moving hands of a clock, the Nano watch has three modes that it could change into once activated.


    One was becoming a laser shooter that could shoot a target from a distance of five hundred meters; the second mode was a sword that could cut through the hardest steel, and its sharpness could be further enhanced by coating it with Nexus energy; the last mode was the Nano shield. In the Nano shield mode, the Nano watch would release a five-meter tall and two-meter wide transparent shield that was capable of blocking the attack of a Domain Lord.


    Ralph was awed when he heard the explanation, the Nano watch was an amazing piece of equipment! sea??h th§× n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "How much is it?" He could not help but ask. The use of the Nano watch was so great that Ralph was willing to spend all of his 10 million bucks on it; he still had over 300k from the previous and could manage with that for the time being.


    The man hesitated before saying.


    " It costs 15 million,"

 Chapter 161 Going back

    Ralph "..."The amount for the Nano watch was still more than everything he currently had. Was he really going to be unable to afford good equipment?


    "Let''s go on, we might find something that you''ll like." The man said with a sigh and proceeded forward. He could see the reluctant look on Ralph''s face and could tell that he fancied the Nano watch, sadly, its price was more than he could afford.


    ''He is probably a new Nexulyte of the tower and hasn''t made enough money yet, he just needs to go on a few more missions and will be able to afford it.'' the man thought while shaking his head.


    "We''ll take it,"


    A voice suddenly sounded from behind the two. Ralph and the man turned to look in surprise; behind them was a handsome young man with overgrown, long white hair and sharp blue eyes who stared at them calmly, a small smile on his face.


    It was Ivan.


    "What did you say?" The man asked, he felt that he didn''t hear properly just now.


    "I said we''ll take it, the Nano watch," Ivan repeated.


    Ralph looked at Ivan with a frown, he could already guess what Ivan was trying to do; he wasn''t in support.


    In his opinion, Ivan also got the same amount as them. He didn''t want Ivan to spend his earnings to help him get a piece of equipment.


    Ivan noticed his gaze and patted his shoulder.


    "Don''t worry, take it as me loaning you; you can pay me back later if you want," Ivan said and took out his communicator before directly transferring five million bucks to Ralph''s account.


    The money arrived in Ralph''s attack almost instantly, the boy was stunned and stared at Ivan, speechless.


    It took him a while to wake up from his daze, he promised to pay Ivan back before turning to face the man on screw cut.


    "I''ll take it," Ralph stated seriously.


    "All right then!" The man exclaimed and immediately opened the cover of the round table, he brought out the Nano watch and invited Ralph to his counter.


    Ivan watched with a smile as Ralph and the man walked away.


    While they waited for Ralph to finish the payment for the equipment, the rest checked the place to fill their eyes.


    While they checked, Ivan spotted something that piqued his interest.


    "Not bad," he mumbled.


    After a few minutes, Ralph and the man came back. Ralph now has the Nano watch on his wrist; it looks like an ordinary metal wristband.


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    "Thanks," Ralph mumbled to Ivan after returning. The man beside him was smiling widely after doing the same.


    "No problem," Ivan replied before looking at the man and pointing at a nearby table, "what''s this?" He asked.


    The man and Ralph looked over, it was a small table holding a pair of glasses with black frames. Ralph showed a confused expression when he saw the equipment that Ivan was asking about, what might he need a pair of glasses for?


    The man''s expression was natural as he walked closer to the table and explained.


    "This is an ex-ray glass, it''s really nothing special other than being able to see through a thin layer of obstacles and its sturdiness when compared to ordinary glasses. Do you want to get it? It''s cheap and can be used for fashion." The man explained.


    Ivan thought for a while before asking for the price of the ex-ray glasses, he was told that it only cost five hundred thousand bucks; it was only expensive because of its ability to see through objects that were not thicker than one meter.


    "All right, I''ll take it," Ivan said.


    The man gladly invited him to his counter with the glasses. They finalized the transaction, and Ivan paid for it before returning to his group.


    Everyone gathered around Ivan and looked at the black framed glasses in his hand; the thing looked like it was made from special materials and was very sturdy, while the glasses were transparent.


    "Why did you buy a pair of glasses? What do you need it for?" Glen raised an eyebrow and asked.


    "Did you get injured in your eyes? Or is it just for fashion? Glasses won''t look good on you," Karin added from the side.


    Ivan didn''t answer and turned to face Ralph before stretching out his hand that was holding the glasses toward him.


    "Here," he said softly.


    Ralph was stunned and didn''t react for at least five seconds, he just stared at Ivan''s hand.


    "Why?" He asked. After five seconds; he didn''t accept the glasses yet.


    Glen and the others were also stunned by Ivan''s sudden action and looked at him for his explanation.


    "I noticed that you don''t have your glasses anymore; you must have broken them in the labyrinth. So I got you another pair, take it." Ivan shrugged and shoved the glasses into Ralph''s hand before walking away.


    "And you aren''t allowed to refuse it!" He voiced out without looking back.


    Ralph looked at the glasses in his hand with a strange expression, after a short while, a small smile formed on his face.


    "Fine, I''ll take it; thanks," Ralph said before putting on the glasses.


    Clang!


    Immediately after the frames of the glasses rested on his ears, a metallic sound rang out as the frames stretched and connected behind his head; firmly bounding to his head, Ralph was sure that he wouldn''t be able to lose it with how firm it was. S~ea??h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Strangely enough, he didn''t feel discomfort even after the frames connected; he didn''t feel a thing.


    Glen and Karin walked around Ralph, they inspected his new glasses.


    "Can you really see through things?" Glen asked while rubbing his jaw.


    Ralph didn''t respond immediately and looked around while letting out Nexus energy into his glasses. Soon, his expression changed; a stunned look appeared on his face.


    "So you can really see through things now!" Glen exclaimed with wide eyes.


    Karin suddenly covered her chest with her arms and bent down slightly, she was glaring at Ralph with a blushed face.


    "D- Doesn''t that mean you can see through clothes as well? Pervert!" She barked at Ralph.


    Ralph turned to look at her and clicked his tongue in annoyance.


    "You idiot, I can only see a vague outline of things behind walls; I can''t see through clothes! Even if I could, why would I look at someone like you?" Ralph snapped.


    Karin''s face turned ugly and she glared at him even harder.


    " What do you mean by that? Say it again: if I would punch you to death, do you think I''m not good-looking enough to be spied on?" She asked with an angry expression. Ralph didn''t respond, he stopped releasing Nexus energy into his glasses and walked after Ivan.


    Glen laughed at Karin mockingly before running after Ivan as well, the girl was pissed and stomped her foot on the ground with a frustrated expression on her face.


    These airheads do not understand true beauty!


    Glen caught up with Ivan shortly and began to question why he only got something for Ralph and not him as well.


    "Are you playing favoritism? Did the two of you form a secret friend group without me?" Glen asked with a sad face.


    Ivan looked at him expressionlessly and asked if he lost anything in the dreamscape.


    "That isn''t the point, you only got something for Ralph!" Glen argued.


    Ivan shook his head.


    "You still have ten million bucks, why don''t you get yourself something? Ralph already spent everything on his Nano watch so I was just helping him." He stated.


    Glen was speechless, he wanted to retort but Ivan''s words made sense. Additionally, the things here were too expensive! How could he bear to spend so much on things he wasn''t in urgent need of?


    " I''ll let it slide this time, remember not to do the same thing again; buy for one and buy for all." Glen raised his head and said with a generous tone.


    Ivan grinned and softly muttered loud enough for Glen to hear.


    " Sure, I''ll use your money next time and buy for everyone."


    Glen''s eyes opened wide and he looked at Ivan in horror.


    " Ermm, forget what I just said." He voiced out before distancing himself from Ivan. Ivan''s words just now almost scared the hell out of him, why would he use his money to buy stuff for everyone? So outrageous!


    Ivan and Ralph chuckled at Glen''s reaction as they left the equipment vault.


    They met someone just after they left the place; it was a middle-aged man with a serious face. He said that he was the person who the tower master had arranged to take them back to San Pluto.


    "We will set out whenever you''re ready," the man said.


    The group was already done with everything they wanted to do so they decided to leave immediately.


    "Follow me,"


    The man led them to a large open space where a few air carriers were parked up, they followed him into an air carrier that was many times bigger than the one they came here in.


    They were finally heading back home!

 Chapter 162 What next

    The air carrier that took them back to San Pluto was dozens of times larger than the KY17 which they came in. It had plenty of room, bathrooms, and even a reinforced training room, so the group was not idle on their way back.After three days of flying over the Dead Sea, the air carrier finally entered the perimeters of San Pluto.


    After a few more hours of journey, they arrived at the northern defense base of the Owen Tower, which was close to the training center.


    The group came down after the air carrier dropped and entered the building of the northern defense base. The place was just as they remembered, with hundreds of Nexulytes carrying out different tasks. Vehicles drove around the place constantly like an expressway, and loud sounds could be heard.


    They Ralph, Ivan, and Glen looked at the place, they felt emotional.


    The last time that they were here was only a bit over a month ago, they were only newbie Nexulytes then who had just finished training and were yet to see the real deal.


    But coming back now, they felt like they had been away for years. They were no longer newbie Nexulytes but experienced experts who had come face to face with death multiple times.


    "Let''s go to the tower building; we can use the transportation vault to return," Glen said with excitement bubbling in his voice. S§×arch* The N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    He had been away for so long and couldn''t wait to see his mother and sister. He had already sent them a message and informed them of their coming. His mother had promised to set up a feast for them.


    Ralph and Karin were the same and were eager to meet their families after being away for so long, the two had also sent messages to their families after returning and were expecting warm welcomes once they returned home.


    Only Ivan and Clint did not seem to miss anyone and didn''t send out messages about their return.


    Ivan''s reason was that he didn''t have any family waiting for him, and he already met with James,s, who seemed to think favorably of him even though Ivan suspected he had other reasons for his kindness. As for Miss Elora, Ivan planned to contact her after reaching his place.


    As for Clint, no one knew. The boy didn''t seem particularly excited about coming back.


    "You and Clint aren''t from San Pluto, right? How about spending a few days at our place before going back? Let''s celebrate the success of our first mission!" Glen looked at Clint and Karin, he asked with expectancy.


    Karin thought for a while before nodding but said that she could only stay for one day and would need to return.


    Clint didn''t answer and seemed to be in thought about the matter, Glen didn''t pester him.


    They walked around the defense base for a few seconds and quickly reached the place that they were looking for. It was where the vice tower master had parked the armored jeep that she drove from the tower building to this place the last time.


    They saw six similar jeeps in the place.


    "Does anyone here know how to drive?" Ralph asked.


    All of them looked at each other in silence before Clint suddenly walked out and moved toward the driver''s seat. He entered the vehicle, and its engine roared to life after a few seconds.


    The rest of the group were stunned, they never expected someone like Clint to know how to drive. The boy was so distant and never tried to interact, he almost looked like he was pissed with everyone even though his expression was always calm; who was bold enough to teach such a person?!


    Clint poked his head through the open window of the jeep and faced the group at the back, his eyes still half closed and his pupils couldn''t be seen.


    "What are you waiting for, or should I leave without you?" He asked them with an annoyed tone, his overdue red hair swaying slightly.


    The others immediately reacted and rushed to get in, afraid that Clint might really leave without them.


    The engine of the jeep roared before moving forward. Clint was surprisingly very skilled, and the ride was smooth.


    On their way, the group chatted in the vehicle.


    It was mostly what they intended to do when they returned.


    Ralph revealed that he had no specific plans other than training and trying to increase his strength as much as possible before the next time they would go to the dreamscape. The boy wanted to get enough money for the things needed to cure his mother or at kind the ingredients himself. Stay updated via empire


    "That''s so boring. It''s no fun to train all the time, we still have many free months before we accept another mission. Why don''t you guys come over to Motuni for a few days? There are many exciting places that we could visit together, it will be fun!" Karin declared.


    She had no plans of training too hard and wanted to enjoy a long vacation instead after returning from the dreamscape. She wanted to play around and eat all types of dishes during this period.


    "Aren''t you afraid of growing fat if you do that?" Glen asked; he immediately received a glare from Karin, who told him that Nexulytes didn''t have to worry about getting fat since their bodies consumed lots of energy; she would need to eat a full truck of food daily if she wanted to get fat.


    Glen just shrugged his shoulders. As for him, what he wanted to do after returning was spend more time with his family. He wanted to take his little sister and mother out more often and allowed them to enjoy life while visiting a few of their old friends from the time of their training. He accepted Karin''s invitation and said he might visit her in Motuni with his sister and mother when he had the chance.


    As for Clint, the boy didn''t say anything. He instead called them childish and focused on his driving.


    Ivan wasn''t as cold as Clint and said he wanted to train a bit while trying to pay some promised visits whenever he was free.


    With all this said, the group had agreed to keep this team as it was for now. They had all gotten familiar with each other and had some understanding of each other''s abilities and fighting styles; it was better to keep a team like this than mix with strangers.


    The group continued to chat until they reached the tower building and met a few Nexulytes patrolling, they were immediately allowed entry into the tower ground since they were coming from the northern defense base; the Nexulytes on patrol didn''t dare to stop them.


    Clint found a place to park the jeep, and they all got off; they didn''t enter the tall tower building and immediately headed for the teleportation vault.


    Clint''s face was expressionless when he saw the massive tower building, but the same could not be said for Karin, who stared with a wide open mouth.


    "It''s so huge! The tower building where I went for training was huge as well, but it was nowhere close to this; just how big is the space inside?" She exclaimed.


    Glen was more than willing to indulge her, the two immediately began to discuss as Glen recounted details about the inside of the tower to Karin. The eyes of the girl widened more and more as she listened; they only stopped when Clint snapped at them; they were about to enter the teleportation vault, but these two were still yapping.


    "Tch! Don''t be a sore thumb, you don''t have to share your gloominess with others." Karin pouted.


    " What did you say?" Clint asked in an icy tone as he turned his face to Karin. His eyes were closed, but Karin felt like he was going to stab her with his eyes.


    She was spooked and immediately hid behind Glen.


    " Forget it, let''s go," Ralph said to Clint as the door of the teleportation vault closed up. A burst of white light flashed within and they felt space bending.


    They appeared in the teleportation vault in the southern sector of San Pluto instantaneously.


    When they came out, the place was still as the trio remembered; not a lot of people came here after all.


    " Let''s wait for a bit; I already messaged Mr. Alonso; he will be here shortly," Ralph said to the group.


    Immediately after Ralph said this.


    Doom!


    A heavy sound rang in everyone''s ears as a strange feeling washed past them, everyone froze as they looked at each other with shock on their faces.


    Ivan and Clint were no different, and the shock on their faces was evident.


    The feeling just now¡­was similar to when they passed through the mirror gate.


    Their necks stiffly turned, and they looked around themselves; they realized that they were no longer in front of the teleportation vault; the teleportation had vanished.


    Instead, around them were tall-looking buildings with cracked walls and washed paint; it was as if they were in the middle of a city that had experienced an apocalypse!


    While Clint and Karin didn''t recognize this place, Ralph, Ivan, and Glen recognized it¡­this was the area where the New Year event had been held.


    With a heavy feeling in his heart, Ralph tilted his head and looked up; his eyes widened in horror after seeing what he dreaded.


    "How¡­how is this possible?!"

 Chapter 163 The fusion

    The sky above them¡­was blood red instead of the usual blue sky.The five of them didn''t need anyone to tell them before a world came to their minds.


    The fusion!


    The fusion was something that they had learned about back during their training; it was an event where the real world fused with the dreamscape, and both became one, but only for Nexulytes. Every single Nexulyte would be unexpectedly thrown into the dangerous dreamscape during this period and left to defend themselves against the horrors of the dreamscape.


    Humans had managed to study the nature of this event and had long prepared defense measures awaiting it, and that was informing every Nexulyte to gather at the closest tower which would correspond to their territories in the dreamscape; giving them a safe haven to stay in during the duration of which the dreamscape would last instead of them wandering aimlessly in the dreamscape and potentially stumbling into something that would kill them.


    The group had expected to experience the same thing after becoming Nexulytes and had long made preparations, but¡­wasn''t the next fusion supposed to be two or three months from now? Why was it happening now that they just returned from a mission?


    "How is this possible? Why is it happening now?" Ralph mumbled with wide eyes while looking at the blood-red sky.


    Ivan''s eyes were narrowed as he looked around. He could feel the presence of many creatures, but they seemed to fade in and out of existence around him.


    "Everyone calm down, we shouldn''t panic in this situation," Ivan muttered to the group in a low voice, barely managing to calm the group that was on the verge of trepidation.


    All of them immediately calmed down and focused on Ivan, waiting for what he was going to say.


    Ivan paused for a while before looking toward Ralph and asking him what he thought of the situation.


    Ralph fell into thought for a while before saying.


    "I think¡­the fusion this time is different,"


    Everyone except Ivan looked at him in surprise and confusion as to why he would make such a statement, Ralph naturally gave his reason for saying such words when he was asked.


    According to the previous records and other information that he had read about the fusion, space inside the dreamscape was supposed to be the same in the real world at the time that the fusion occurred; they were not supposed to move from their former location to a new one just because the fusion arrived unexpectedly.


    He then went on to give an example of the blood labyrinth.


    " I suspect that this fusion did the same thing as the blood labyrinth, locations have been shifted; that''s the only explanation for why we are here instead of being in front of the teleportation vault."


    Everyone nodded, feeling that Ralph''s words were very logical. But knowing this didn''t help them feel any better at all, didn''t that mean it would be difficult now to locate the nearest tower base?


    " What do we do now?" Karin asked while rubbing her arms together in nervousness.


    " What''s there to do? Let''s turn around and head toward the tower!" Glen spat out and pointed in where should be the direction of the Owen Tower HQ, where they had undergone training.


    Ivan shook his head at the boy.


    " Did you not hear what Ralph said? If space really shifted, then the tower base is most likely not in that direction anymore," Ivan said.


    " But we should at least check, we have no other choice unless we want to roam the dreamscape until the fusion ends; that would be too dangerous." Glen retorted.


    Ivan fell into silence for a few seconds before saying.


    " Even at that, we can''t go in that direction; at least not now,"


    " Why?" Glen, Karin, and Clint looked at him with confused faces.


    Ivan didn''t respond and turned to look at Ralph instead. The three followed his gaze and stared at Ralph; they still did not understand what Ivan said. They couldn''t go in that direction yet. Only when Ralph raised his head to look at them did Glen understand what Ivan meant?


    " Your¡­your Mom!" He exclaimed. Ralph and Ivan let out a sigh at the same time. It took Glen long enough to catch up.


    "What about his Mom?" Karin asked and looked at Glen for an explanation.


    Glen told them about Ralph''s mother''s situation, he only needed to say it once for the two to realize the seriousness of the matter.


    Ralph''s mother might be injured and unable to move but she was still a Nexulyte nevertheless. Now that they were inside the dreamscape because of the fusion, she would obviously get pulled in as well!


    "Damn, Aunty is in the dreamscape as well! We have to hurry over there." Glen almost screamed. Ivan immediately reacted, he moved toward him with blinding speed and covered his mouth with one of his hands.


    " Don''t raise your voice, you might attract monsters," Ivan said.


    If they wanted to go save Ralph''s mother, getting chased around by monsters inside the dreamscape was the last thing that they wanted.


    He might be stronger, but that didn''t mean he was allowed to be overconfident; there were many horrors that were dreamscape that were stronger than him; the priestess of the fallen Angel was a good example.


    "Mmf, mmmf." Glen made muffled sounds while nodding.


    Ivan finally released him.


    "Huff, what should we do now?" Glen breathed and asked in a low voice.


    "We hurry to the villas as quickly as possible," Ivan said.


    Ralph was silent all through; his face was calm, but despair could be seen in his eyes. The Villas were many kilometers away from where they were currently, and it would take them days to get there if they tried to avoid fighting; he could only imagine how his disabled mother would be able to survive long enough for them to come to save her.


    ''Being a Nexulyte can indeed be a curse,'' Ralph lamented inwardly while hoping for some sort of miracle to happen since there were other Nexulytes living in that part of San Pluto, he hoped that they wouldn''t mind looking after her.


    After making out their next cause of action, the group faced the direction that should lead them to the villa and began moving.


    Firstly, they needed to leave this strange neighborhood that kept making Ivan''s senses tingle in alarm.


    They walked along the corner of the streets, taking covers and not daring to be too open.


    "Wait, I see something!" Ralph suddenly called out in a low voice, making everyone stop.


    Ivan looked back at the boy behind him and saw Ralph looking ahead with his glasses glowing, he was using the ex-ray ability of the glasses.


    Ivan looked ahead of him; in front of him was the corner of a broken building that led to a sharp turn; he wasn''t able to see what was behind it.


    "What do you see?" Ivan asked, but Ralph didn''t reply. Instead, he stood in place with his lips trembling and his eyes opened wide.


    "Hey, get a grip man!" Glen grabbed Ralph''s arm and shook him, forcefully waking him up from his terrified state.


    "We should hide, hurry!" Ralph urged, his expression was as if a dog was trying to bite his balls.


    Ivan was puzzled but trusted Ralph''s judgment, he immediately led the group to hide. They found a spot and Ivan pushed a large piece of a broken structure to act as a coverage for them.


    Seconds slowly ticked by as the group waited with tensed air surrounding them, each of them ready to swing into combat.


    After many minutes, nothing seemed to pass by this place. Glen was about to ask what Ralph had seen or if he had even seen anything. But the boy had just opened his mouth when Ralph moved like lightning and covered it, he gave Glen a piercing cold glare that sent shivers down his soul.


    At the same time.


    Thud! S§×arch* The Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Thud!


    Thud!


    The sound of something hitting the ground could be heard from a distance away from them, and all of them froze.


    "I.SEE.YOU¡­.I.CAN.NOT.HEAR.YOU¡­I.SEE.YOU¡­I.CAN.NOT.HEAR.YOU¡­"


    A voice that sounded like countless terrified people talking at the same time drifted into their ears, and the group immediately felt fear spurt in the depths of their souls.


    What a terrifying voice!


    Unable to hide their curiosity, they peaked from behind their coverage. What they saw filled them with dread.


    A few meters away from where they had been standing just before Ralph suggested for them to hide was a lonely figure.


    This figure had long, dirty hair that had almost turned black, but it was still possible to tell the original color; the hair was so long that it touched the ground and dragged along with the figure.


    Its back was hunched and it wore a shit white robe that was covered in blood stains and what seemed like burnt marks.


    Below the robe was a single bloody lump of flesh that acted as a foot, the thudding sounds were made by the figure hopping on that single lump. A large smoking chain was attached to the stump and dragged another stump along with it; one could interpret that the figure once had two feet that were chained but had ripped one off to hop on the remaining one.


    It was a mind-troubling scene.


    The head of the figure suddenly moved and looked in their direction, their eyes locked.

 Chapter 164 Silence

    Everyone froze when they suddenly saw the figure look in their direction. Its two eyeballs were pitch black, darker than night and two streams of blood flowed down from them, staining her pale face that had pulsating veins showing under its skin.The figure tilted its head at a very unnatural angle while still looking at them.


    "I.SEE¡­YOU,"


    Swoosh!!


    Immediately after saying this in its voice that was similar to that of multiple people, it vanished, only to appear right in front of the group; it was standing on the half structure that Ivan had used as coverage for them with its single bloody lump, its pitch black eyes gazed down on them.


    "I.CAN.NOT.HEAR.YOU,"


    It said again while tilting its head from side to side. Ivan, Ralph, Glen, Clint, and Karin were as frozen as sculptures, they didn''t even dare to breathe too loud.


    They could all feel it, this creature¡­was not something that they could deal with. This was especially true for Ivan, who had met with the one-eyed priestess before; he could tell that the priestess would die a miserable death if she were to face whatever this creature was.


    They stared still for several minutes before someone finally moved, it was Clint!


    He suddenly took a step to the side. The moment he took that step, the creature vanished from on top of the structure and appeared in front of him. Its head stretched forward, and its face was right in front of Clint''s face; those pitch-black eyes seemed to be piercing through his soul.


    Ivan and the others were confused and startled by their careless action. Clint wasn''t someone who did things irrationally, and they had confirmed this during their first mission to the dreamscape, so why would he suddenly make such a suicidal attempt at such a critical moment?


    Clint also froze; his red eyelashes connected so no one could see his eyes, but they could read the expression on his face.


    It was an expression of relieved realization.


    He paused for a few seconds before he resumed moving again, the head of the creature moved along with him as it continued to repeat its previous lines. Strangely enough, it didn''t do anything to Clint and just followed him.


    Thud!


    Thud!


    It hopped on its single bloody lump and followed Clint while staring at him intently, dragging the chain and another lump along.


    One of the most troubling things about this creature was that the chains didn''t make any noise even when it dragged them, one would not be able to tell when it was approaching them from behind if the creature decided to dash; its speed was already so ridiculous that it looked like it was vanishing even to Ivan who was the strongest amongst them.


    Ivan, Ralph, Glen, and Karin all stared at Clint with wide eyes when they saw that the creature wasn''t attacking him and just followed behind him.


    The red-haired boy made a shushing gesture when he saw them, signaling for them not to speak.


    He walked over and bent down before scribbling something on the ground, the creature was right behind him and was staring at the back of his head while saying its favorite lines.


    The feeling was very uncomfortable, but Clint had to bear with it unless he was confident of defeating the monster.


    After a few seconds of writing something on the ground with his fingers, Clint gestured for the group to take a look.


    With curious and cautious expressions, the four of them bent their bodies to take a look; their eyes narrowed when they saw what Clint had written on the ground.


    "Don''t make a sound, stay as quiet as possible. I know this monster.


    I read about it in an old book that used to belong to my father, it''s called The Herald of Silence,"


    The four finished reading it and then turned to look at Clint, they wanted to ask who his father was but couldn''t speak.


    After seeing that they had finished reading it, he wiped the writings off and wrote something else on it. This time, it took him longer than before to finish writing everything.


    He looked at them after he was done. The four took a look, and their expressions changed.


    What Clint had written down was information about the herald of silence that he had gotten from his father''s book.


    It said that the herald of silence was a very powerful creature that could go against three Half supreme-ranked Nexulytes without falling into a disadvantage and was very aggressive.


    But one thing about it was that it only attacked things that made sounds. The instant you made a sound, the herald of silence would attack you relentlessly and wouldn''t stop until it made sure you were dead; the thing would chase you across the world just to finish you off!


    (The sounds that he was referring to were vocal sounds.)


    But this did not mean that it only had a sense of hearing; it could also see perfectly; in fact, even better than most powerful creatures, but it wouldn''t attack you just after seeing you.


    Another troubling thing about it was that it would tail any moving creature without attacking and just observe the creature until the other party made a sound, it was like a vengeful assassin spirit that stalked whatever it saw and could move!


    The group had strange expressions on their faces as they understood what this meant, they would have to continue from here on with this herald of silence unless they could find a way to get rid of it.


    Ivan bent down and wrote something on the ground, it read.


    "It would be unpleasant to have it follow us around, but we don''t have a choice; it''s fine as long as it doesn''t attack us; its presence might also scare away other creatures."


    The others read this and nodded, Ivan then wrote that they should avoid talking for now and use sign language to communicate. They were not professionals at sign language but they knew enough to hold basic conversations as there was no need for irrelevant words.


    The others nodded, and just like that. The group started to move on to their original part, but this time, they had a new member in their group, the herald of silence that hopped behind them while staring at the back of the five with its black eyes.


    As expected, the feeling of being followed by such a creature was very uncomfortable and the group could not help turning to look back every few seconds. Thankfully, what Clint had written seemed to be true as the herald of silence only followed and didn''t attack.


    They passed through several buildings and crossed several streets within half an hour. Then, trouble finally found them. sea??h th§× ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    BOOM!


    A loud noise that shook the ground was heard as a gigantic monster landed on one of the tall structures around the group.


    It was a huge four-legged monster with the body of a lion and the head of a snake. It had two little bat-like wings that were almost easily overlooked because of how small they were, but they could surprisingly carry the weight of the monster.


    Hisss!!


    The monster was several meters tall, and the tall structure looked like a small tree stump under its body; it twisted its snake head and hissed at the group.


    All of them stopped and looked at the monster on top of the building; they then turned and looked at the herald of silence behind them; the creature still did not move, so it was safe to say it didn''t consider the hissing of the monster as a ''sound''.


    "I.SEE.YOU¡­.I.CAN.NOT.HEAR.YOU,"


    The herald of silence was still reciting its lines even while it followed behind them.


    Glen and Karin were already sweating profusely from the nature of the situation they were in, Ralph and Clint had frowns on their faces. Only Ivan had a calm expression when he looked at the monster on top of the building.


    While the others felt that it was strong, Ivan could feel that it was only as strong as the champions of the one-eyed priestess, which he was already capable of killing while he was still a partial Lord.


    Without waiting for the monster to attack them first, Ivan moved his hand and a card appeared in it.


    He tossed the card and it changed into a burst of light particles that condensed into a long golden sword.


    Ivan grabbed the sword in the air before looking back at the gigantic monster.


    He inhaled softly before suddenly slashing out.


    BOOM!


    Swish!


    Air exploded as a dazzling golden sword wave shot out toward the monster.


    Space seemed to distort around the wave and ripples appeared wherever it passed as it approached the monster on top of the building.


    The monster hissed at the incoming golden sword wave and tried to fly away; its small bat wings flapped forcefully and caused the air around it to explode as it rose into the air, but it was too slow compared to the golden sword wave.


    Swish!


    Spurt!

 Chapter 165 Fleeing

    The sword wave shot through the air and sliced through the body of the monster and a part of the building, cutting them cleanly off.The monster hissed in pain as blood spurted into the air and rained down, it came spinning to the ground as it wasn''t able to keep itself in the air anymore while the severed part of the building fell along with it.


    Bang!


    The beast smashed into the ground violently, along with pieces of concrete and metal rods, and a large crater immediately formed on the ground. The crater was several meters deep and many meters wide, blood soon gathered inside the crater and almost submerged the body of the monster.


    The four were stunned, and they all looked at Ivan''s back with wide eyes; they were shocked by his strength; he had killed the monster with a single sword slash!


    Of course, their astonishment didn''t make them forget about the bigger issue that was behind them, the herald of silence.


    They only stared in shock and didn''t make a single sound.


    Ivan released his grip on the sword hilt and let it scatter into light particles that vanished with the wind, he then turned back and gestured for them to follow him.


    He looked past them and saw that the herald of silence was still watching them attentively while reciting its phrase; it showed no reaction to the ruckus that he and the monster had caused just now.


    Just when they were about to continue moving, they heard the sounds of monsters roaring and explosions in the distance.


    The ground trembled, and it seemed like some of the monsters were coming in their direction; the expressions of the group immediately changed.


    Ivan quickly scanned his around them before pointing in one direction, it was an opening in a nearby building.


    The group immediately rushed toward the opening and entered the building, prepared to face whatever was inside.


    Of course, the herald of silence hopped after them as well and followed them inside.


    Ivan and Ralph led the others as they moved into the building and climbed a flight of stairs to go to the top floor.


    They encountered some monsters on the way but Ivan easily dealt with them.


    After reaching the second floor of the building, the group moved toward one of the large windows and looked down.


    Monsters were gathering from all directions to the place that they were standing just a while ago outside, more than a hundred monsters of various sizes and weird shapes soon surrounded the crater where the corpse of the monster that Ivan had killed was.


    ''So many!''


    The members of the group thought to themselves. The monsters gathered around the crater were not only many but they were also powerful. Each of them having a power level that started at the True King rank to the Domain Lord rank!


    There was no way they would have been able to fight them had they remained outside.


    This was obviously Glen''s, Ralph''s, Clint''s, and Karin''s thought. To Ivan, those monsters on the ground would only take him a few minutes to get rid of, but there was no need for that.


    Accidents might happen, he couldn''t take the risk with the herald of silence following them.


    Moving his gaze away from the window, Ivan gestured for them to follow him. He used hand signs to tell them that they should leave through the back.


    Just when they were about to leave.


    "So this is weird you rats were hiding. It''s finally the fusion, and you''re all hiding instead of celebrating with us?" A beastly disembodied voice rang in their ears from behind.


    Their eyes widened when they heard the voice, and they felt the cold wind brush against their necks; the head of the herald of silence also snapped in the direction of the voice.


    "I.CAN.SEE.YOU¡­I.CAN.HEAR.YOU!"


    It shrieked in its voice of multiple people.


    The five of them were spooked and turned to look in the direction of the voice.


    Right in front of them, a transparent figure clamored into existence in front of the window and took form. It was a tall skeleton in heavy bronze armor; it carried a huge halberd, and its eye sockets burned with red flames.


    The skeleton was six meters tall and a torn cape was attached to the back of his armor.


    Immediately after appearing, it slashed its halberd toward the group; its attack was very fast.


    Ivan''s eyes flashed, and he rushed forward while a card appeared in his hand. At the same time, the card quickly changed into a golden great sword which clashed with the halberd of the skeleton.


    BAM!


    A strong shockwave spread out in all directions the moment their weapons met, the window behind the skeleton shattered and glass fragments were sent flying to the ground outside while Ivan and his group were pushed back several meters.


    " You blocked that?" The voice of the skeleton sounded surprised, the red flames that acted as its eyes suddenly flickered as it looked toward the herald of silence.


    " Eh? What''s this annoying bitch doing here? What tricks are you playing here, humans?" The skeleton grumbled, it sounded extremely annoyed by the presence of the herald of silence.


    But it was only given a short moment to express its feelings as the herald of silence hopped into the air and vanished the next instant; it appeared in front of the skeleton, and its hair rose into the air like long needles before stabbing at the skeleton.


    " Tch!" The skeleton made a sound before lifting its halberd and spinning it in front of him with lightning speed.


    Ting! Ting! Ting!


    Sounds of the hairs stabbing at the halberd filled the place as the skeleton was pushed back constantly and was on the verge of falling outside from the window, the herald of silence stood in front of it and attacked aggressively with its long hair.


    Meanwhile, Ivan and his group members had already rushed out of the place after the herald of silence attacked the skeleton.


    Ivan was able to tell that either of the two were powerful beings that were stronger than the one-eyed priestess, and he would need to go all out if he wanted to stand a chance against any of them; that was something he was unwilling to do.


    He felt his blood surge after he exchanged that clash with the skeleton, and he almost coughed up blood; he forced himself to swallow the sweetness in his throat while using the great sword to support himself.


    "Let''s leave quickly while those two fight each other!" Ivan urged as he charged out of the place, the others followed behind him.


    "Is it all right to speak now? Won''t that scary herald of silence hunt us down after killing the skeleton?" Glen asked in fear, the image of the herald of silence had become a nightmare in his heart.


    "That shouldn''t be the case, that skeleton isn''t necessarily weaker than it. And from its words, this isn''t their first time meeting each other." Ivan explained.


    " Don''t worry, as long as we get very far away from it before it finishes fighting that skeleton, we''ll be fine; the herald of silence usually doesn''t focus on anything else after finding a target," Clint added as they ran.


    They reached the stairs but found a bunch of monsters climbing up, the group immediately abandoned the idea of using the stairs; they rushed to another room before bursting its window open and jumping out.


    Most of the monsters that had gathered outside had rushed into the building after the skeleton found them, the few that were still outside were very weak monsters that they did not need to bother with.


    Loud explosive sounds rang behind them from the top of the building where the skeleton and the herald of silence were fighting, the group didn''t look back and dashed into the distance.


    They jumped over the remaining monsters and quickly disappeared into the streets.


    "Where are we going now?" Glen asked while they ran.


    "Our original destination," Ivan responded.


    After running for a long time, the group finally decided to stop. This wasn''t because they were tired, it was because they had found under people.


    In front of them, a group of ten to twelve people were fighting some monsters that seemed to be able to fuse with the ground and appeared at random places.


    The group was made up of adults, and they all seemed to be in their 30s to 40s; there were only four men in the group; the rest were women, and they were all in clothes that were not fit for combat.


    The fusion had caught them off guard as well.


    As for the monsters that the group was fighting, they were some sort of green slime that drilled into the ground and shot out from random locations; they could also shift their bodies into various forms.


    "Should we help them?" Karin asked.


    The people were outnumbered but were holding fine, but that was only for now.


    They could already see that only one of them was at the Partial Lord rank; it was only a matter of time before the rest ran out of Nexus energy and were killed, and then the Partial Lord would have to face all the monsters alone. S§×ar?h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    They would definitely die if they didn''t get help.


    Ivan looked for a while before saying.


    "No,"

 Chapter 166 clash

    The power of Rules.Unlike spells, the power of Rules was different and depended on his will. He had to understand the detail behind a command to make a Rule for it.


    This also made him the only mage with two abilities as it was a general knowledge that a mage could only use one element, all the mages who had been fortunate or unfortunate to awaken two had died from their soul exploding due to the star patterns of both elements fighting for sovereign over their soul.


    "You monster! What do you want from me!" The beast growled at Vee after he walked to stand in front of it, it was still trembling which meant that it was still trying to break free from Vee''s command which was impossible because the will of the beast was nowhere close to that of this abnormal Divine mage.


    "Hehehe, a monster calling a human a monster. Aren''t you a special kind?" Vee chuckled loudly as his fingers ran across the rough surface of the beast''s head. He was not at all surprised that the beast was able to speak and its speech was as fluent as that of a human, that was because it was not a surprising thing to see. After all, beasts at the transformed rank already knew how to speak so it would be weird if a calamity rank magic beast did not know how to since some could already turn into human form.


    "Just let me go, I did nothing to you or any human. I have been slumbering all my life and I don''t even know where I am" The beast begged as the intensity of its body trembling from trying to break free increased.


    Vee stared at the beast for a while, not saying anything. His fingers pinched his chin as he fell into thought but his eyes remained on the beast.


    The beast was getting nervous from the stare of the human in front of it and its body slowly stopped trembling after minutes of trying to break free from the invisible pressure that was holding it in place, it now realized that there was no way for it to escape unless this white-haired human wanted it to.


    Minutes passed by quickly and Vee finally woke up from his thoughts and locked eyes with the beast, causing the whole body of the beast to shiver from fear.


    It was a very strange sight to behold especially if the size of the two were put into consideration, Vee was like a little cat as he stood in front of the humongous beast. But who could really blame it? Vee was a monster among humans, the beast had not lied when it called him a monster even without knowing it was actually on point.


    "Alright, I have a proposal. If you do well, I''ll let you follow me. What do you think, deal?" Vee voiced out in an excited tone.


    The beast instantly became uneasy upon hearing Vee''s words, it realized that this despicable human had no thoughts of letting it go easily.


    ''Damnit, who wants to follow you? I just want to stay far away from you and hope to never see you again in my life. You are even asking me what I think like I have a choice, would you let me go if I said no? Waah! Why did I have to wake up today of all days? Someone save me!!'' The beast lamented inwardly but did not dare to voice anything out and could only sorrowfully agree to whatever proposal Vee had even without hearing it first.


    "Great!" Vee could not hold himself back this time and clapped his hands together from excitement, due to his casual action, a fierce wind burst from in between his palms and slammed into the face of the beast, thereby slamming its head into the ground.


    Good thing that Vee was not a wind mage so the effect of the wind just now did not cause any damage to the beast but that did not stop the beast from becoming resentful.


    ''So his proposal was to freely beat me up? How despicable'' it cried in its beastly heart.


    Vee realized that he might have acted too much and quickly regained his composure.


    "Ahem, sorry about that just now. I got carried away" Vee did not know why but he decided to apologize to the beast for the injustice just now, after all, this was the only beast that had allowed him to use his second ability so he was a bit grateful.


    The huge eyes of the beast rolled and looked upon Vee in surprise.


    ''Looks like I misunderstood him then'' it thought but Vee''s next words almost made it throw up blood from rage.


    "Let''s exchange attacks, you will attack me with your full strength and I''ll attack you as well. We''ll do it twice each and if you pass, I''ll let you follow me so we can keep doing so in the future" Vee said with a look of expectation on his face.


    The beast felt like cursing at him but did not dare to as it was purely terrified by this white-haired human, it could only grumble inwardly.


    ''And here I was thinking I misunderstood him, he still wants to bully me. Follow you in the future so we can do it again. Isn''t that the same as asking to get beaten up by you many times in the future? Fvck you!!!!''


    Still not daring to say it out, the beast could only accept Vee''s proposal and was finally freed from the force holding it in place.


    "Alright, you attack first. Do not hold back at all" Vee distanced himself a bit and stretched his neck to prepare himself.


    The beast stood on all fours and looked at itself, feeling its freedom of movement return simply after the words of the human. The thought of fleeing came to mind but disappeared quickly as it came. Trying to escape was not only an impossible thing to do at this point but also a very foolish decision.


    It could only prepare itself to blast the hateful human to pieces with its strongest attack.


    ''Such arrogance, your pride will be the end of you today'' the beast snickered at Vee. It had initially refrained from fighting this human because it had been spooked by the pressure that the white-haired human was emitting when it woke up from its slumber and knew it would be hard for it to land a successful attack on him, but who would have thought that the foolish human would provide himself for it to attack? It must be the heavens hearing its prayers.


    Not even warning Vee to get ready, the beast raised its head as its chest began to glow with blue light while a house-sized blueish sphere formed above its open mouth.


    It did not release the sphere even after charging it for over twenty seconds, the power of the sphere was increasing by the second and Vee could feel it too.


    "Hahaha, good, good!! Keep charging!" He laughed in approval of the beast''s action as he spread out his arms in anticipation of the attack.


    Calamity rank magic beasts might be equal to Divine mages in strength but Vee was not afraid of the beast''s fully charged attack at all.


    The beast finally stopped charging after two minutes, the size of the sphere was now almost as big as itself and the ferocious pressure from the sphere was already shattering the earth around them when it had yet to release the attack which did not take long as the beast lowered its head and launched the sphere towards Vee the next moment.


    Vrooom!! Boom!!!


    The sphere tore through space and destroyed the ground as it sped towards Vee at a speed faster than sound, a long mini canyon was created on the ground where the sphere flew past before hitting Vee and a huge explosion followed.


    An enormous blue cloud rose into the air as the destruction of the beast''s attack covered an area of five hundred meters, turning everything within this five hundred meters into ashes not even the ground was spared because a properly scorched canyon that was more than five hundred meters long appeared after the effect of the explosion cleared. S§×arch* The N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "What the!!!"


    Find more chapters on empire


    The beast exclaimed as its already huge eyes widened further due to shock as the image of the familiar white-haired human reflected on its pupils.


    "Hmm, it was not even powerful enough to damage my clothes. Makes sense though, I made these clothes myself after all" Vee muttered to himself while inspecting himself. He was not even scratched by the attack just now nor was his clothes wrinkled, his hair had returned to normal after fluttering a bit; he was perfectly fine.


    He looked at the disastrous scene behind him before turning back to stare at the shocked beast, he was literally standing on the edge of the newly formed canyon.

 Chapter 167 clash

    "Hey, Alex. Take this back to the warehouse and bring a water sack when coming back" a woman with long red hair tied up with a hair band called out."Alright, mom!" A scrawny-looking kid with dirty red hair shouted out in response as he began to jog over to the woman. These two were Alex and his mother who were in dirty clothes.


    Alex arrived in front of his mother and she helped him lift a basket filled with tomatoes on his head, he then proceeded to walk behind other kids who were carrying different farm products to the warehouse. Of course, his basket was small compared to others considering how small he was and no one complained about it since he was still helping regardless of how little it was.


    "Hey, don''t run with those on your heads. You''ll get hurt and also get them crushed!" Alex''s mother called out when she saw Alex and other kids around the same age started running with the things they were carrying but the kids did not listen to her, she could only hope that they didn''t trip on their way.


    They were currently working on the field close to the village, the same field that old man Vee had returned from back then and had met the bald old man telling the kids stories.


    This field had been the villagers'' main source of food for as long as he could remember, which was fifteen years ago when he came here, he got interested in their farm work and naturally joined them as a resident of the village.


    Years passed but Vee became more and more engrossed in the work that was tedious for the villagers, the process of working on the dirty field and slowly growing plants was a sort of entertainment for him and he spent most of his time on the field tending to the crops.


    Of course, he was not the only one who worked in the field. All the villagers would come once in a while to work on it too but unlike them, Vee literally spent half of every day in the field while the rest of the days were spent drinking and interacting with other villagers.


    On harvest day of every year like today, all the villagers would leave whatever they were doing and come together to harvest the crops that were on the field and store everything in the warehouse of the village. The warehouse was literally the only well-secured building in the entire village. Although it was still made of wood, it was in better condition than the houses of the villagers.


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    After storing the products safely, the head of the village who happened to be the other mage apprentice in the village beside Vee (he hid his strength and only showed the power level of a mage apprentice) would distribute the food to each household, separately some to be sold in the next city that would take days of travel and keep the rest in case of emergency celebrations like marriage or childbirth.


    This was the reason that made Vee like the village and its villagers even more, despite their limited resources, they were able to make anything seem enough and would always look out for one another.


    "Old Vee. You have been picking tomatoes for a long time now, why don''t you take a rest? The kids would be back shortly with water and food" Alex''s mother came over to Vee''s side and took the basket from him with a sweet smile on her face. She was baffled how the old man was still able to work so hard despite already picking more than seven baskets of tomatoes and was still going, he was already sweating profusely but refused to stop. She had to personally come over to take the basket from him. S§×arch* The N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    ''Being a mage really makes one stronger than ordinary people. A lot of people already rested once or twice but this old man had not stopped to take a break even once'' Alex''s mother praised in her thought before proceeding to pick the line of tomatoes old Vee had been picking.


    " Ah, you don''t have to help me. I can still go a few minutes more before getting tired. Don''t underestimate me, I''m a mage too, you know?" Vee tried to refuse with a short laugh.


    " No, I insist. Take a rest before the kids come back, they won''t take long" Alex''s mother refused to bulge, a helpless smile on her face as she stared at the sweaty old man.


    Vee was about to say something when his best buddy suddenly chipped in. Vee regarded them as best buddies because he liked messing with the other party a lot.


    "Ptui, trying to act all strong. You are only a weak mage apprentice, keep working and you will pass out soon" an annoyed scoff sounded from under a tree not far away, this person was none other than the old storyteller who was currently lying on the grass under the shade of a tree that protected him from the sun. He had only picked two baskets of vegetables before almost losing consciousness and hurriedly searched for a spot to rest his old bones.


    He glared at Vee who was sweating like a pig under the hot sun and sneered.


    "You imposter, if it was truly Vee of the northern continent, he would have harvested everything within a few seconds and would not even break a sweat!"


    "Well, I don''t want to show off to my best friend. What if you get jealous or too excited and die?" Vee shrugged and said nonchalantly causing the face of the old man to tremble and he began to stutter without saying anything meaningful.


    Old man Vee, Alex''s mother, and the other villagers close by laughed at his angered expression, he looked like he was about to explode from rage.


    "Even if you are Vee of the northern continent, you''ll still need to rest from how much you are sweating. We can''t let the elderly do too much work" A newcomer walked over and patted Vee''s shoulder lightly.


    This newcomer was also an old man but compared to Vee and the storyteller, he looked like a seventy years old man still full of energy and vigor. He wore a long trench coat under the sun and a wand hanging on his belt.


    He was the head of the village and the other mage apprentice in the village. Unlike Vee who was busy with farm labor as he was not seen to be suitable for combat, the village head patrolled the corners of the field and protected the villagers who were busy with work from wild beasts.


    The beasts in this area were all of the lowest rank of magic beasts and most were not even magic beasts so it wasn''t difficult for a mage apprentice to protect this small village.


    Vee did not argue after the village head had come to persuade him personally, he walked off to sit beside his buddy.


    "Humph!" The old storyteller snorted and turned away, backing Vee.


    Vee only chuckled at this before resting his back on the cold ground. Maybe because this place was covered by the branches of the tree, it was cooling, unlike the burning ground of the field.


    ''Sigh! I wish I was actually as tired as I look, it would have been more fun'' Vee sighed in his heart while staring at a butterfly circling above his face. It went without saying that all these sweats on his body were fake and he had created them himself since it would be suspicious for an old man to keep working without showing any sign of fatigue. Even the village head who was only patrolling was still sweating.


    ''Anyway, it''s not that bad to sit and just do nothing either'' he added before closing his eyes.


    ....


    Back in the village, the kids had all kept what they brought back with them in the warehouse and left to get what they had been told to carry, which were food and water.


    Alex was one of the kids told to carry water back to the field along with other kids. They knew where to get the water because they had already been prepared by the villagers.


    In another house, numerous water flasks made from the beast''s skins could be found. The children entered and grabbed as many as they could before going out.


    It finally got to Alex''s turn but something strange and shocking happened.


    The instant Alex grabbed a water flask, his hands would release a cooling sensation and the next thing he knew was the water flask getting covered in frost and the water inside frozen solid.


    He was aghast by this strange occurrence and those waiting behind him were also stunned by what they saw and could only stare at Alex with wide eyes as the same thing happened over and over again when he tried picking other water flasks.


    "What''s¡­what''s happening to me!!" Alex screamed in fear as he stared at his hands thinking he was turning into some sort of beast; he somehow refused to think of magic and mages for some reason and all he could imagine were bad things.

 Chapter 1 - 1: A Dream

    Inside a base located in the dreamscape.


    "Where is he?!" Ivan grabbed the collar of the middle-aged man''s uniform and asked in an icy tone. The man shivered and slowly pointed in a direction from which sounds of explosions could be heard.


    Tossing the man away, Ivan began to walk in that direction as five cards formed around him; Clint and Ralph followed behind him.


    "Calm down Ivan, nothing will happen to him" Ralph called out in an attempt to calm Ivan but his words fell on deaf ears, Ivan continued to walk forward with a murderous look in his eyes.


    Two men in black uniforms suddenly appeared in front of Ivan, one had lightning cracking all around his body while the other one was sitting on a white tiger with a ring of fire around its neck.


    "Halt, Ivan! This is the order from your superior, you are not to involve yourself in this matter; go back and wait for more orders" the man with lightning running around his body spoke in a threatening tone while glaring at Ivan.


    Ivan paused his steps and looked at the two, his expression unchanged.


    A lot of Nexulytes in black uniforms were gathered around the place, they all stood at a distance and looked at Ivan as if he had gone crazy; only Clint and Ralph followed behind Ivan.


    "Get out of my way!" Ivan muttered softly but his voice carried killing intent.


    The eyes of the two men narrowed.


    " You''re just a kid who hasn''t seen the world, even if you have some abilities, do you think you can face everyone here? Don''t force us" The man sitting on the white tiger sneered disdainfully.


    Ivan didn''t respond anymore, two of the cards floating around him suddenly burst into light particles and the expressions on the men''s faces turned grim but before they could react.


    BOOM!


    The two of them exploded into blood mists that splattered all over the place.


    Gasp!


    Everyone was shocked, Ivan actually dared to kill two senior members of the tower!


    Ivan gazed at the blood mist that the two men had turned into, his expression didn''t change even after killing them.


    "No one hurts my friends" Ivan muttered before he resumed walking in the direction the explosions were coming from.


    Ralph looked at this scene with a bewildered expression on his face as his mind traveled to how all this started, it all dated years back when they were nobodies¡­..


    .....


    A couple of years back


    "Do you know who we are, huh?" A man spat at Ivan as he punched Ivan in the face, causing Ivan to fall back and his nose instantly bled.


    BAM!


    "We are Nexulytes, you hear that?" Another person voiced out and kicked him hard.


    BAM!


    " Without us, the dreamscape would have long swallowed the whole world and the earth would be ruined. Where do you think trash people like you will live?!" Another kick.


    BAM!


    " And you dare to resist us? You should be glad we bother to send you on errands!"


    BAM! BAM! BAM!


    Kicks and punches rained down on Ivan as the four men surrounded him and beat him up, they hit him ruthlessly all over his body without holding back.


    Ivan did not dare cry out or retaliate, he gritted his teeth and endured the pain while covering his head with his arms.


    This had been his lifestyle for as long as he could remember and he was already getting numb to their harsh words, only their hits served as a constant reminder for him that not all Nexulytes were heroes. In fact, Nexulytes were no heroes; they were just filthy humans with abilities.


    After five minutes.


    " We should stop, I think he''s had enough. He''s not moving anymore, we won''t want to kill him since he can still be of use to us" One of the men said after seeing that Ivan wasn''t moving anymore no matter how hard they hit him, he seemed to have lost consciousness.


    The other three stared at the motionless Ivan and realised that it was indeed the case, so they stopped beating him and stood up.


    One of them spat at Ivan and kicked him one last time,


    "We''ll let you off with this light beating for today, make sure you get your acts right next time" they said scornfully before they left Ivan alone on the cold floor.


    Another two hours flew by. It was already getting dark outside and pretty dark inside the uncompleted warehouse. Ivan''s body moved slightly and a painful hiss sounded the next moment before Ivan''s body grew still.


    Five more minutes later, Ivan resumed movement as he forced himself to sit up and rested his back on the cold wall of the warehouse. A dull look in his eyes as he stared at the empty space in front of him.


    Ivan slowly raised his hand and touched his face with his fingers before quickly retracting them after a sharp pain assaulted his senses, his face was bruised and swollen resulting in the pain when he tried to feel his face.


    Dressed in ragged clothes that barely covered his body from the cold, Ivan looked even more miserable than beggars on the streets. His chest rose and fell at a slow pace as he forced his hurting lungs to take in air.


    His dull eyes flashed with hatred when he remembered the faces of the bastards who beat him up, he clenched his fists despite the pain as he cursed under his breath.


    Those four men were Nexulytes who were tasked with protecting this part of the city, they had been assigned here for years now and this had become a sort of entertainment for them; torturing the homeless Ivan.


    They turned Ivan into their errand boy over the years and found an excuse to beat him up whenever they were in a bad mood or just felt like it.


    Ivan''s stomach growled while he shivered at the same time. He was hungry and cold, but most importantly, he was tired and his body was aching all over. With one last sorrowful sigh, Ivan rested his head on the cold wall and¡­fell asleep.


    That cold night, inside the uncompleted warehouse, Ivan had a very strange dream.


    ...


    Ivan, a 19 years old boy lived in a world that could be described in two words: dying mirror.


    Yes, earth was currently a dying mirror that was being eaten up by its reflection; the dreamscape.


    Many years ago after the birth of Nexulytes; people who awaken magical abilities at a certain age, the dreamscape appeared. The dreamscape, which was also called the reflection of the earth, was a strange place that looked just like earth.


    Everything about these two worlds were the same with even the slightest change of earth affecting the dreamscape in unexpected ways, their only difference was that earth was a world fit for humans and filled with life while the dreamscape was the opposite of it.


    No, it wasn''t a place of the dead or like some underworld. The dreamscape was a world of horrors, a place that only Nexulytes could go to and where even the strongest Nexulyte could face the risk of dying without knowing how.


    Along with the birth of the dreamscape came the ''link'' also known as the bridge that connected both worlds.


    Habitants of the dreamscape could invade the real world, earth, through the ''link''. The same was for the people in the real world who would try to conquer places in the dreamscape.


    Of course, going to the dreamscape or even getting close to the link was dangerous but humans were greedy beings who would die for anything of value, the case of the dreamscape was no different. After discovering the value of the resources inside the dreamscape, humans had been ambitious enough to force their ways into this world of death and create strongholds for themselves.


    Of course, only the Nexulytes could achieve this feat since they were the only ones who could pass through the link.


    But things were not always as easy as they were now as despite humanity''s success in creating habitable and safe places in the dreamscape, they had suffered a disastrous defeat to the dreamscape; losing more than half of the planet to the habitants of the dreamscape, only less than twenty percent of humanity was left by the time humans were finally able to fight back.


    What was left was now being protected by the Nexulytes who were now regarded as heroes of humanity by ordinary people.


    But to Ivan who had no family or a place to call home and had wandered the streets for as long as he could remember¡­ Nexulytes were no heroes, they were despicable scums who took advantage of the weak instead of going to die obediently inside the dreamscape.


    ¡­..


    Morning came sooner than expected as the chilling breeze of the morning woke him up from his dream only to meet the wave of dizziness caused by hunger and aching all over his body due to sleeping on the hard floor and the beating from yesterday.


    Ivan opened his eyes and stared into space, his eyes filled with confusion as he stared at the empty uncompleted warehouse that seemed familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. Though the combined feedback of hunger and pain quickly woke him up from his confusion.


    "So it was a dream, huh?" Ivan mumbled to himself. His voice gave a faint feel of disappointment and relief.


    He had dreamed of being a powerful Nexulyte and had brought the destruction of the real world which the dreamscape had been unable to do for a long time.


    Ivan shook his head and forced himself to stand up, his legs felt weak and trembled under his weight while his whole body felt sour.


    "Those heartless bastards, I hope that they die gruesome deaths" Ivan said with a cold flash in his eyes as he stumbled toward the exit of the warehouse.


    The sun wasn''t up yet, leaving the sky as blue and beautiful as a blue blanket that covered the world; Ivan could not comprehend the beauty of this as he slowly made his way through the desolated street, he had to look for something to fill his stomach with so it could stop annoying him.


    Ivan lived in the rundown part of the city which housed a few poor and managing families who could not afford to live in better parts of the city, a few old houses with washed paints and cracked walls were what one could see everywhere in this side of town. Ivan had once heard kids saying that their roofs used to rain along with the sky during rainy days.


    But none of these actually concerned Ivan who used the ground as his bed and the sky as his blanket. He would sleep wherever the night met him and walk until he felt tired but he always had a limit to his movement and did not go places that he shouldn''t.


    A link had also appeared close to the city once and a lot of horrors were reportedly still roaming about beyond the borders of the city, it would be bad if he wandered into one of them.


    Not a lot of people could be seen on the street as Ivan walked through, most of them had gone to work in the upper part of the city which housed all the best things in the city; Ivan had never been there before so he did not know what it looked like.


    Ivan walked until he saw a trash bin on the side of the road, a somewhat relieved and satisfied smile appeared on his face as he stared at the trash bin with fleas and cockroaches crawling all over it. The sight of the insects did not disgust him in the slightest as he was used to it already.


    After all, most of his meals had come from here until he met Ralph and Glen.


    He stood rotten in place with his eyes fixed on the trash bin but his mind had wandered off, he was thinking about the strange dream he had last night after being beaten up. S~ea??h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    He only came back to his senses when he suddenly heard someone call out his name.


    "Ivan!"


    A voice pulled Ivan out of his daze, he turned to the side and saw Glen standing about ten metres away while staring at him with wide eyes like someone who had seen a ghost.


    To be precise, Glen was staring at¡­Ivan''s hand?


    Ivan was confused and turned to look at his hand only for his eyes to widen in shock as well when he saw that he had unknowingly raised his right hand at some point and dazzling strings of red energy was currently swirling above his palm.


    "Nexus!?" Ivan almost yelled.


    How could he not, after all, Nexus was the special energy attributed to Nexulytes!

 Chapter 2 - 2: Awakened

    CHAPTER TWO


    "Glen told me that he caught you staring at the trash bin again, is that true?" A 19 year old looking Ralph asked in a low voice as he passed a nylon containing steamed buns to Ivan before taking a seat on the old bench, Ivan was sitting quietly in the middle while Glen sat on the other side of the bench.


    The three of them were the only ones who could be seen on the abandoned looking playground with damaged slides, broken swings, and other equipment that kids used to play. They were all equally damaged leaving only the bench intact; the place looked like where beasts fought.


    Ivan only grunted in response as he picked a steamed bun and placed it in his mouth and quickly devoured it before picking another one, he had eaten more than three steamed buns within ten seconds and he showed no sign of slowing down. sea??h th§× ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Ralph did not mind Ivan''s eating manner, he knew very well about Ivan''s condition so he could understand why the boy was eating like he had been starving for days.


    "You are missing the point here, Ivan has Nexus energy! I swear I saw it" Glen clamoured from the side seeing as Ralph wasn''t bringing up the matter he had reported.


    Ralph raised his sight above Ivan''s head and stared at Glen while shifting his glasses with his fingers.


    " I heard you the first time," he responded.


    " Then why aren''t you talking about it?" Glen blurted out again, his voice thundering.


    " What''s there to talk about?" Ralph asked as he shot Glen a sharp glare.


    " It''s Nexus energy!" Glen spat once more.


    Ralph "...."


    While the two of them bickered, Ivan was already down to the last steamed bun before he finally slowed down, suddenly realising that he had been too much in a rush just now and was feeling stuffy in his neck.


    Ralph noticed this and quickly passed a bottle of water that was beside him to Ivan.


    Ivan drank the water greedily and wiped the side of his lips with the back of his hand . A satisfied sigh escaped his lips after finally filling his empty stomach.


    Only after letting Ivan rest for a few seconds did Ralph continue to speak.


    "They took everything again?" He asked.


    Ivan knew who the "they" in Ralph''s words were referring to and simply nodded in response.


    Ralph had always been smart and assertive of situations, after all, his family had once lived in San Pluto before moving down here. When he saw Ivan''s expressionless face, he decided not to mention the people who beat Ivan last night. After all, this was not the first time that such was happening.


    "Glen said you were looking at the trash bin again" Ralph went back to his first question.


    " I was hungry," Ivan said shortly without looking at Ralph.


    " Then why didn''t you look for us?" Ralph asked back and Ivan fell silent.


    It wasn''t that he didn''t know what to answer with, he just couldn''t say it. After all, they had been friends for over five years but he still was not comfortable with asking them for help even though they would voluntarily do it every time.


    Seeing Ivan become quiet again, a frown formed on Ralph''s face.


    "I don''t really get you at times, why do you like keeping things to yourself? Although there are not a lot of things we can help you with, at least let us know about the ones we can help with. Even though we live in the outskirts of the city with a lot of bad people we should try to look after each other" Ralph said as he placed one hand on Ivan''s shoulder, his action caused Ivan to flinch.


    Ralph quickly withdrew his hand upon realising his mistake.


    "Sorry" he said.


    " Those bastards! I''ll deal with them one day for touching my friend!" Glen stomped on the ground and roared into the air, he was pissed by what those Nexulytes were doing to Ivan but neither of them could do anything, for now.


    Glen was from a family of normal people, his parents did menial jobs to feed him and his little sister so they dared not go against the Nexulytes who were tasked with protecting this side of the outskirts. Ralph,on the other hand, had a better background but experienced setbacks.


    His mother was a Nexulyte who earned thousands while his father was an ordinary person, they used to live in San Pluto which was a capital city that was filled with a lot of wonders and people. But things quickly changed after his mother got seriously injured during one of her missions to the dreamscape and wasn''t able to move anymore.


    They had to move down to the outskirts when Ralph was just 13 since they could no longer afford the lifestyle in the city, Ralph''s father had been struggling to take care of his injured wife and their only son. This was why they could not go against the Nexulytes for maltreating Ivan neither could they take him in for fear of angering them either.


    The other people in the outskirts were not any better than the families of these two, they could be said to be worse even as a lot of them even slept on the streets and sold scraps to feed. This was what Ivan and his friends also did to support themselves and their families, though most of the money was given to Ivan which would sometimes get taken from him by those despicable Nexulytes.


    "Lower your voice you idiot! What if they hear you or someone reports you to them?!" Ralph shushed Glen seeing the boy was spewing things out of his mouth without thinking.


    "So what? Can they do more than they are already doing?" Glen clicked his tongue stubbornly but still followed Ralph''s words and kept quiet. He really did not want to know if those wicked people could do even worse things.


    "Sigh! If only my mom was still fine, she could have dealt with them" Ralph said with a sigh.


    " Hmm, true. She would have thrown them out long ago. These pigs only hide here and bully others instead of going to conquer the dreamscape" Glen blurted out in anger.


    " Anyway, when did you awaken your Nexus energy? Why didn''t you say so earlier? Things would have changed a lot if you said something about it earlier" Ralph turned to look at Ivan with confused eyes. Had he revealed his Nexus energy sooner, those people would not have had the chance to bully him.


    Ivan raised his hands and stared at his palm for a few seconds, still finding it difficult to believe. He now had Nexus energy, he could awaken his talent anytime and become a Nexulyte!


    " Yes, why didn''t you tell us earlier? Ralph had awakened his Nexus energy two weeks ago and told us about it, I awakened last week and told you guys too. Why did you hide yours when we have been purposely holding back from awakening even when our parents keep pressuring us. You can even manifest your energy, that means you have awakened longer then why did you hide it?


    I know you hate Nexulytes because of those three bastards but you can stop their bullying if you awaken your talent. Don''t you want to get recruited by a Tower and start making money? You can leave the outskirts, go wherever you want, do anything you want, and get anything you want. Don''t you want that?" Glen ranted nonstop and Ralph had to tell him to shut up so Ivan could get the chance to speak.


    "I think I awakened¡­last night? This is my first time using Nexus energy" Ivan said truthfully after Glen finally kept quiet.


    Ralph "..."


    Glen "...."


    You awakened last night and can already manifest Nexus energy? Ivan, when did you learn to joke like that?


    Feeling the stare of his friends on his face, Ivan looked up at the two of them with an honest look on his face.


    "I''m telling the truth," he muttered.


    Ralph "...."


    Glen "...."


    "What! Are you serious?! Just last night and you can already materialise it?" Glen shouted in disbelief.


    Ralph only continued to stare at Ivan in silence but his glance showed that he was finding it difficult to believe as well.


    Ivan only shrugged, it was their choice to believe him or not.


    Ralph finally spoke after a short moment of silence.


    "It doesn''t matter, what matter is that you are now ready to awaken. We will inform our parents and decide when to leave for San pluto"


    Ralph had just finished speaking when¡­


    Swoosh!!!


    A strong gust of wind blew past the playground, the sky darkened as loud thunder claps echoed through the air. It was as if chaos had suddenly descended and the world was about to end.


    The sudden change of the weather startled Ivan so much that he jumped off the old bench in fright, the broken swings and pieces of other playing equipment were being swept around in the air and could hit someone at anytime; the entire place was a mess that Ivan could not even see properly due to the sand and other things that blocked his vision.


    "Hey, you guys should go home now. This place isn''t safe" Ivan hurriedly warned Glen and Ralph as he was about to run and look for a place to take cover but he got no response which prompted him to look back.


    His eyes widened when he looked back and saw Glen and Ralph still sitting on the old bench, seemingly frozen and unaware of what was happening around them. They did not even bulge when logs of wood flew right past their faces.


    "What the¡­" Ivan''s mouth hung open as he stumbled back while still looking at his only friends who had been frozen while sitting in the middle of what seemed like a thunderstorm, only that it wasn''t raining yet.


    Ivan was still racking his mind, trying to decide between fleeing or saving these two when another shocking thing finally made Ivan''s mind fall into despair.


    Right in the middle of the ruined playground, space cracked and twisted as a ten metre tall grey portal with edges made from broken golden mirrors came into existence.


    It¡­was a mirror gate! A link to the dreamscape had appeared!

 Chapter 3 - 3: Eaten, Memories

    Ivan stared at the mirror gate that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere in horror, his heart was beating so fast inside his ribcage that he could hear it clearly.


    He had been hesitant about running away or finding a way to help Glen and Ralph who looked like they were not part of this world anymore but was there still a point in doing so now? Could he still choose with a mirror gate right in front of him? Even most Nexulytes would be terrified if a mirror gate spawned in front of them, much less someone like Ivan.


    Just a second after the mirror gate appeared, Ivan saw a mass of yellow mist flow out from it. The yellow my mist moved like an entity with vision as it surged toward Ivan, accompanied by ghastly sounds of babies and anguished screams of women.


    Ivan watched with horrified eyes as the eerie mist that covered his entire field of vision slowly moved closer to him while the strange sounds accompanying it echoed in his ears, he felt like he was standing in front of a massive wave with no way to run.


    Surely, the mist finally got in front of Ivan and swallowed him.


    "Am I¡­finally going to die?"


    Was the last thing that Ivan thought of before closing his eyes as the yellow mist swallowed him and everything around him, he did not even think of his two friends; there was nothing he could do to save himself, much less save them.


    Splash!!


    After the yellow mist swallowed Ivan, everything went silent. The ghastly screams and anguished cries, the sounds of strong wind and destruction, and the sound of the thunderclap above the playground. All around Ivan was quiet and¡­peaceful.


    Aside from that, Ivan also felt¡­cold. As if he was soaking in water.


    ''Didn''t the yellow mist swallow me? Why am I still alive?'' Ivan thought to himself as he slowly opened his eyes, what greeted him left him stunned for a good couple of seconds.


    Ivan saw that he was not inside the yellow mist that had appeared from the mirror gate, at least his environment did not look anything as expected of such a monster.


    Currently, Ivan found himself inside a vast clear sea. He estimated that the sea should be as huge as the outskirts that he lived in and the water of the sea was so clean that he could see clearly as if he was on land.


    Rays of sunlight pierced through the surface of the sea all the way down to the bottom that was over two thousand feet deep while the top of the sea flowed gently in one direction as if being carried by a calm wave.


    Ivan watched in amazement as he had never seen a sight as beautiful as this before, the sea was so huge and water so clear with not a single being to taint its glory; well, except for Ivan himself who was slowly drifting to the bottom of the sea.


    It was then that Ivan realized that he wasn''t drifting, he was drowning! Sear?h the ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Immediately, the clear sea did not seem as beautiful as it had been earlier as Ivan was suddenly filled with dread. He began to move his limbs in panic, trying to make his body go upward but it was proving futile; he did not even know how to swim in the first place, he soon got tired from struggling too much.


    ''Why am I even struggling to survive? Isn''t it better to just die this way? It should be less painful, right?'' Ivan suddenly thought to himself. Realizing that there was no reason for him to try so hard to survive this place.


    If it was truly inside the yellow mist, then getting out of this sea was impossible and even if he managed to leave; the outside world must have already been overflowing with monsters from the dreamscape. San pluto might not be able to send help in time before the outskirt was destroyed; they might not even bother to send help.


    Why waste the life of important Nexulytes for a few bumkins living in the outskirts?


    Ivan thought of those Nexulytes who had been in charge of guarding the outskirts for years now, a slight smile formed at the end of his lips as he imagined them getting shredded by monsters; the scene would be satisfying to watch. Sadly, he won''t be able to see it but knowing that reality wasn''t going to be much different still made him feel better.


    ''At least they will finally get to die horribly'' Ivan thought within him as he stopped struggling and allowed himself to sink deeper into the sea with a peaceful smile on his face.


    One minute¡­


    Five minutes¡­


    Ten minutes¡­.


    Ivan''s eyes flashed open, a frown etched between his eyebrows as he stared around himself in confusion.


    He was still inside the water, he was still slowly sinking deeper; so much time had passed before Ivan realized that he was not suffocating! He realized two things after opening his eyes.


    First was that he could still breathe which he did not realize earlier because he had panicked, second was that¡­even after ten minutes of constantly sinking, the bottom of the sea remained as distant as ever!


    ''Why, why?! I have already given up, why can''t I just die?! This place isn''t meant to trap me forever, right?'' Ivan thought as a newfound fear grew within him. A fear worse than the fear of death¡­


    Being alone for eternity!


    Although at this point, a new change occurred in the sea.


    Ivan heard a thunderclap above the sea as the sunlight disappeared instantly, the calm sea suddenly began to rage fiercely and the clear sea water turned murky and dark that Ivan could barely see two meters around him.


    Sounds of the water getting slapped rang in Ivan''s ears, it was as if thousands of sea creatures were rushing all around him but he couldn''t see them; only once did Ivan catch a glimpse of an enormous shadow that almost made his heart jump out of his chest.


    Strong waves began to splash on the sea and Ivan found himself getting tossed around in the water without being able to react.


    A thunderstorm had appeared so suddenly without a sign.


    Ivan, getting thrown around inside the enormous sea with an unknown number of sea creatures surrounding him, could feel his heart grow cold with terror; all he wanted was to die a better death than those scumbag Nexulytes, why was he in a horror house¡­or sea?


    Ivan had just been thrown away by another wave when he suddenly heard what gave him goosebumps.


    "Hey"


    A low voice of an old man that sounded like a whisper almost sent Ivan into shock, he would have fallen if not that he was currently floating in water.


    Ivan hastily turned around to see who else was in this place but found nothing but murky water when he turned around, though he could have sworn that the voice just now was right behind him.


    Ivan was still staring at the murky water when he saw a shadow from the corner of his eyes, he quickly turned to face it but came face to face with an old woman instead.


    Ivan¡­passed out from shock.


    "Huh? He fainted just like that, big brother is no fun anymore" A young girlish voice said with dissatisfaction as the face of the old woman peeled off, it was a mask.


    ....


    Ivan did not know how long had passed, he felt like he had been asleep for years when his consciousness finally started to return to him. His body felt terribly weak and heavy, he also had this strong urge to cry for some reason but held himself back.


    Ivan struggled a bit to move his heavy eyelids which took him some seconds to do and when he finally opened them, what he saw stunned him.


    His sight was moving up and down at a fast speed as if someone was running while carrying him while a few meters behind them was a woman who was terribly wounded.


    One of her arms was missing, part of her face was covered in blood, and a huge hole in her chest. But that didn''t stop her from running after Ivan and his carrier at an inhumane speed while screaming


    "Give me back my child!"


    Ivan did not know who this woman was but he could feel the great sense of sorrow swelling within him and the urge to cry grew louder when he saw the woman finally losing speed, her body was probably succumbing to her injuries after she had pushed her body too much.


    His vision went blank.


    Another unknown amount of time passed when Ivan regained vision.


    He found himself in a room full of babies, he estimated that there were around three hundred children who were most likely only a few months old in this place and almost all of them were crying.


    ''Where¡­is this?'' Ivan thought to himself as he tried to look around but found out that he could not. He was also currently¡­a baby.


    ''What''s going on?'' he wondered.


    The door of the room was pushed open at this point, startling the babies and causing a few to start crying even louder; they were most likely calling for their mothers.


    ''Where am I? Who was that woman? Wasn''t I in the sea just then?''


    A lot of questions ran through Ivan''s mind which to his surprise made him more tired, it seemed that he had truly become a baby.


    Ivan looked up and saw a man in a brown trench coat walk into the room with a glowing stone in his hand, he walked up to a baby and picked the baby up by holding his little hand and placed the stone in front of the baby.


    The stone shone bright and the baby cried louder. Ivan heard the man click his tongue and casually threw the baby to the side before picking up another baby.


    This continued until it got to Ivan''s turn. The man stared down at Ivan and Ivan stared back at him. He saw the look of surprise in the man''s face as he held Ivan''s baby hand and¡­


    Snap!!


    He broke it.


    A wave of pain rushed through Ivan''s body , his mouth opened up involuntarily and a piercing cry rang out. But the man did not stop there, he released Ivan''s now broken arm and held his little leg before also breaking it as well; Ivan cried more, the pain was heart shattering.


    "Tks! This one isn''t very useful. Take him to the newly discovered domain" the man in a trench coat said with contempt before moving on to another kid. The last thing that the crying Ivan saw before passing out was another man who appeared from nowhere and carried him away.


    Ivan once again woke up after an unknown amount of time.


    '' Again?'' Ivan sighed inwardly, mentally tired.


    He opened his eyes to see what it was this time and was surprised to see that he was back in the sea.


    Ivan had never been so happy to be in a place before, he felt like he had returned home after suffering all day outside.


    But before he could rejoice too much, a soft voice whispered from behind him.


    "Welcome back, big brother"

 Chapter 4 - 4: Worst birthday ever

    "Welcome back, big brother"


    A soft voice sounded behind Ivan, he speculated that the voice belonged to a teenage girl but did not dare to be too certain considering what he had experienced before.


    "Don''t you want to turn around and see me, big brother?"


    The voice said once more, a bit upset this time.


    Ivan''s heart felt cold when he heard this, now he was sure that whoever the owner of that voice might be, they were definitely not a young teenage girl. He felt mentally exhausted and stressed. Why was dying so stressful?


    He had already given up on living when the mirror gate appeared at the playground but not only did he not die when the yellow mist swallowed him, he kept getting toyed with by¡­things that he could not explain.


    First, he found himself in this vast clear sea that was originally calm and he could breathe in it without a problem, then he heard the voice of an old man but got frightened by the appearance of an old woman instead which caused him to pass out due to him being unable to handle the shock.


    When he woke up, he had witnessed the weird scene of an injured mother chasing after someone who stole her child. After which he experienced being a baby in a hall with a lot of other babies, that was where the man in a brown trench coat made him experience a world of pain.


    Ivan''s body jolted when he recalled his experience as a baby, the pain of having one''s limbs snap was not pleasing at all. And the pain that he felt made him feel that it was impossible for everything he had experienced to be an illusion, everything felt just too realistic.


    ''Did I experience a different lifetime? Or¡­was I really hallucinating?''


    "Was it because I startled you with the face of an old woman just then? Is that why Big Brother doesn''t want to look at me? Fine, I''m sorry. It was a mask, now please look at me" sea??h th§× N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Ivan''s mind was pulled out from his thoughts by the voice once more, the owner of the voice sounded very desperate this time around.


    ''Oh, yeah. And there''s this voice behind me too, let''s see what it is'' Ivan thought to himself as he moved himself around in the water. He had lost count of how many times he had been stunned that he did not care if he would be shocked by what was behind him.


    Ivan turned around and his eyes widened in surprise when he finally saw what had been calling him big brother¡­it was actually a sixteen-year-old-looking girl!


    Ivan was surprised that it was actually a young girl who was behind him and not some old monster waiting to scare the living daylight out of him.


    In front of Ivan was a girl who looked to be only fifteen or sixteen years old, she had large blue eyes that blinked cutely at Ivan. Her eyes looked so bright and pure as if she was ignorant of everything unholy but Ivan knew that it was fake, it was his gut feeling.


    The girl had long black hair that was tied up into two ponytails that reached her back and wore a pretty blue dress.


    She was standing right in front of Ivan inside the water too but a strange energy that Ivan could not see kept the water away from her, the energy created an invisible barrier around her that prevented the water from coming around a meter near her; unlike her, Ivan was completely soaked.


    "Yay! Big brother finally looked at me, I''m so happy"


    The girl clapped her hands together with a happy expression on her face while Ivan''s face showed more confusion. But before he could ask why she kept calling him big brother the girl moved closer to him.


    "I would really love to spend some time and chat with Big Brother but I don''t have enough time right now, you can look for me in the future if you have any questions. Please remember my face or I''ll be very upset with Big Brother.


    For now, happy birthday!" The girl exclaimed excitedly as she pushed out her hands, sending a red orb of light flying toward Ivan.


    Ivan had subconsciously tried to move out of the way thinking that the red orb was an attack but his expression froze when he saw what was within the red orb. There was a stack of blue cards inside the red orb and Ivan recognized those cards. After all, it was his ability in the strange dream that he had last night!


    The red orb sailed slowly towards Ivan and entered his body without Ivan feeling anything, the girl smiled upon seeing this and winked at Ivan while waving her hands.


    "Bye now, big brother. Remember to come look for me and happy birthday once more!" She said before disappearing into thin air.


    Ivan had yet to recover from the subsequent change of events before the girl vanished, next was him slowly losing consciousness.


    Ivan tried his best to stay awake but the cold sea suddenly became so warm and comfortable that he could not resist the urge to sleep, and so he slept off.


    .....


    Somewhere far away from the outskirts where Ivan lived, a middle-aged woman could be seen walking through a garden with colourful flowers, butterflies with weird wing patterns flew all over the place and gentle rays of sunlight bathed the garden in its radiance.


    However, there was something odd about this garden, and that was the garden itself. If one looked up, the sky above the garden could be seen to be normal with a bright blue sky and a huge sun hanging above the sky but that was only above the garden.


    Outside the garden, the sky was blood red and the world outside the garden was not as colourful in the slightest; one could easily smell the dangers just from looking outside the garden.


    Vroooosh!!!


    The air cracked like a mirror above the garden and a grey portal appeared. Two figures fell from the portal and landed in front of the middle-aged woman. One was a little girl with two ponytails while the other was a huge dog with yellow fur and pitch black eyes.


    The two landed carefully in front of the middle-aged woman and avoided stepping on any of the flowers that were planted in the garden.


    "Oh, hello mother! I''m back"


    The young girl called out cheerfully to the middle-aged woman, the yellow dog wagged its tail and its tongue hung out of its mouth. It was just as happy as the little girl to see the middle-aged woman.


    The face of the middle-aged woman shone a bright smile when she saw the two, she paused her steps while staring at the two gently.


    "Did you find him?" She asked.


    "Mm, I met my big brother. I think I scared him too hard though, he passed out for a bit" the little girl replied with a pout.


    The middle-aged woman giggled softly upon hearing this.


    "Silly child, it''s normal that he passed out if you were the one who startled him. Your big brother has had it rough for a while now" the middle-aged woman said with a sigh and the little girl made a face like she understood what the woman was saying.


    "Did you give him the thing I gave you though? The orb?" The middle-aged woman added after a brief pause.


    "Yes yes! I gave it to him myself and told Big Brother to come find me in the future" The little girl nodded her head vigorously.


    The middle-aged woman nodded, satisfied with her response.


    "Good child, you both did well. Some pests came to steal from my garden, you two can have them as rewards" The middle-aged woman waved one hand at the entrance of the garden where six people in tattered clothes could be seen. They were all bound by strings of red energy and looked quite battered.


    " Yay! You''re the best, mother!" The little girl jumped up excitedly.


    The six people who had been tortured by the middle-aged woman already almost fainted from fright when they saw the little girl transform into a terrifying-looking beast while the dog turned into a massive body of yellow mist before surging towards them.


    The middle-aged woman just watched from a distance as the beast that the little girl had turned into and the yellow mist attacked the six people, screams of anguish filled the air, and blood splattered all over the place.


    She looked for a couple more minutes before turning away and continued to tend to the flowers in her garden while murmuring something to herself.


    "Be careful what you wish for, son".


    ...¡­


    " Ivan!"


    " Hey, Ivan! Wake up, how can you suddenly fall asleep?"


    Ivan faintly heard these words as his consciousness slowly returned to him, one last yell in his ears completely woke Ivan up from his daze.


    His eyes flashed open with a jolt and he sprang up to his feet the next instant, he began to look around like someone in a strange place.


    "I''m¡­back?" Ivan muttered to himself in confusion.

 Chapter 5 - 5: Going to San Pluto

    "I''m¡­back?" Ivan muttered to himself in confusion.


    " Holy hell! Don''t just jump so suddenly like that, you almost gave me a heart attack!" Glen exclaimed as he jumped off of the old bench as well.


    Ivan''s sudden jump had startled him so much that his heart almost went up his throat. Ralph was also equally startled but did not react as strongly as Glen, they both stared at Ivan with questioning eyes waiting for him to explain himself.


    It took Ivan more than a minute to finally wake up from his shock. He turned and started at his surrounding, the playground, his friends, everything was back to normal and it appeared like nothing had happened but Ivan was dead sure that everything he had experienced was real.


    The yellow mist monster, the little girl, the strange sea, and the experience of being a little child who was subdued to torture, he was certain that everything was real but could not understand how it all suddenly looked like a dream. S§×arch* The novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Before Ivan could speak, Ralph positioned his glasses and stood up while saying.


    "I don''t usually talk a lot but you should try not to sleep off when someone is talking to you next time. I thought you were listening to what we were saying, who knew that you slept off? Seems like you had a nightmare, that''s good " Ralph''s tone expressed how offended he was that Ivan had slept off while he was talking earlier.


    Ralph stared at the boy who still had a look of confusion on his face and shook his head, deciding not to hold it against Ivan for sleeping off; he might not have gotten enough sleep last night which caused him to suddenly doze off.


    "Anyway, Glen and I are going to inform our parents about this and make plans to leave for San Pluto as soon as possible so we can awaken. We''ll look for you once we have prepared, alright?" Ralph said with a sigh before turning to leave the playground.


    Ivan wordlessly stared at Ralph''s back before turning to look at Glen who shook his head at him in response.


    "It''s alright, although he hates being ignored I''m sure that he won''t hold it against you; he''s not that petty. Anyway, you should cheer up. You''ll soon awaken and be able to live a more comfortable life. Ah! I can''t wait to start making thousands and moving out of this place, just the thought of it alone makes me excited.


    I''m going to inform my parents too, see you later!"


    Glen gave a wide grin and waved at Ivan before speeding away into the distance, leaving Ivan alone.


    Ivan watched Glen disappear from his line of sight in a flash, his mind still filled with bothering thoughts that would haunt him for the rest of the day as questions after questions constantly spawned in his head.


    ...


    Glen and Ralph came looking for Ivan later that evening, the matter of the two boys finally agreeing to awaken their talents were of great importance to their parents that they did not want even a moment of delay. Ralph''s father was especially the most excited upon hearing that his son was finally ready to awaken since he had been pestering him for weeks now.


    Both families had learned that the reason for this news was Ivan showing sign of awakening as well and were happy for the la. They were aware of the suffering Ivan had been going through all these years but did not dare to step up for him since the Nexulytes who were supposed to protect them were instead suppressing them.


    But with Ivan now being able to become a Nexulyte like them, his life was bound to change for the better.


    That evening, the two families had decided to have a meal together to celebrate the news. Of course, Ivan was also invited. Since he was going to awaken soon, they no longer had nothing to fear because even if he would not be able to fight these despicable bastards immediately, he would at least be able to get the backing of a tower that would protect him.


    The dinner was held at Ralph''s home with Glen and his parents attending, as well as Ivan of course. Since Ralph''s mother was unable to move, Glen''s mother had taken it upon herself to do justice to the ingredients which Ralph''s father had provided.


    The meal that evening was especially grand and the taste memorable, Glen''s mother had really went all out considering that this was considered a celebration for the future success of their children.


    For the first time in Ivan''s life, he was able to eat such a delicious meal till he was full. Most times he had very tasty dishes, they were always in small quantities because he couldn''t get his hands on a lot of them.


    After the dinner, Ivan was asked to sleep over for the night as they would be leaving for San Pluto the next day. The adults took some minutes to give the young ones some words of advice before finally allowing them to go get some sleep.


    That night could be said to be the best night in all of Ivan''s life as not only was his stomach filled with such an amazing dish, he also did not need to brace the cold of the night and the had floor like he usually did.


    ...


    Morning came with a wave of refreshing feeling for Ivan, he was very reluctant to get up from the bed he had spent the night but knew that he had to since there was much to be done.


    The three boys had their baths and changed into the best clothes that they could find, Ralph offered Ivan some clothes to wear since the boy had none except for some tattered old rags.


    Breakfast was set by Glen''s mother and they all ate with smiling faces; with Ivan being the only exception since he did not interact much and only spoke when spoken to.


    After breakfast, Ivan, Glen, and Ralph left Ralph''s home in the company of Glen''s parents who would see them to the light train station before going home.


    "We used to live in San Pluto so you don''t have to worry too much about how they will fare there, Ralph can take care of that" Ralph''s father said to Glen''s parents while he stood at the entrance of their house.


    Glen''s father replied with a nod before turning to leave with the boys and his wife.


    They attracted a lot of attention as they made their way toward the location of the light train station where the boys were to board a light train to San Pluto. After all, it wasn''t everyday that you saw people dressed up so nicely in the outskirt. This was especially true for those who recognized Ivan.


    The boy who was usually always dirty and dressed in rags looked nothing like his usual self. Ivan had almost changed after taking a proper bath and changing into a set of nice clothes.


    Dressed in a neat white polo shirt, short brown pants, and black sandles, Ivan looked almost like a stranger in his own neighborhood. Only his sickly appearance that was a result of years of malnourishment, long white hair, and cold sky blue eyes gave out his identity.


    Glen and Ralph were also nicely dressed but their appearance was not as baffling as that of Ivan because the boy had almost transformed.


    They arrived at the light train station a couple of minutes later and found a few people were already there and were waiting to board the light train, some people gave the new arrivals odd stares before looking away. Their stares only lingered when they fell on Ivan as most of them expressed how shocked they were to see Ivan.


    They wondered what he would be looking for at the light train station since this place led to San Pluto, one of the remaining three major cities on earth. What business could Ivan have in such a place?


    They only refrained from asking, seeing that he wasn''t alone.


    "I can''t find the Nexulytes in charge here, where did they go?" Glen''s mother muttered in a low voice which only those around her could hear.


    "I don''t know, they should have come to request payment to get on the light train already. Maybe they are not around, that''s good for us too" Glen''s father grunted in response as he looked around with a sharp glint in his eyes.


    The light train soon arrived and everyone began to get on, Ivan and his friends also stepped forward to get on the light train too.


    "We''ve given Ralph two hundred, it should be enough for your expenses as long as you don''t spend over a week there. That''s all we can afford, I don''t expect you all to go laze around for a week there though. Remember that we are waiting for you to successfully get recruited into a tower as soon as possible or we might starve" Glen''s father said with all seriousness.


    " Ouch!" He exclaimed the next moment because his wife had pinched him all of a sudden.


    " Don''t scare the kids like that" Glen''s mother reprimanded her husband before facing the boys "Don''t take his words seriously, just remember to do well and we will be waiting for you good news " she said to them with a smile as the doors of the light train slid shut.


    Glen and Ralph waved at the husband and wife duo through the glass of the light train while Ivan stared at the people sitting in the same section of the train, a strange glint flashed past his eyes.


    ''San Pluto, huh? Will things really change there?'' Was the thought on Ivan''s mind as the light train began to move.

 Chapter 6 - 6: San Pluto

    The light train arrived at one of the stations in San Pluto after a short three minute drive, they had crossed hundreds of kilometers within these short three minutes.


    San Pluto, one of the remaining three cities that had managed to survive the bloody battle between humanity and the habitants of the dreamscape that has dragged on for years in which humanity had almost been wiped out, now housed almost a quarter of what was left of humanity''s population.


    The first thing that the boys noticed the instant they got off of the light train was how populated and prosperous San Pluto was compared to their small outskirt where they were from.


    People of various heights, skin colors, languages, and dressing styles could be seen all over the place. Moving machines that Ivan could not recognize alongside the ones he was familiar with swept through the streets as residents of San Pluto carried on with their daily lives, unaware of the three visitors who had just entered their city.


    Ralph stared at all of these with a neutral expression on his face but his dark green eyes could not hide how nostalgic he felt upon returning to the place he had once lived in.


    Glen was almost shaking from excitement as he stared at the tall magnificent buildings of San Pluto with a gleeful glint in his eyes, he could not wait to explore this new place.


    Ivan, on the other hand, felt that this place¡­had too many people!


    The sight of so many people made him so uncomfortable, he even saw a family of three who were smiling at each other while holding hands. The sight of this public display was like an eyesore to Ivan who never had a family and he felt suffocated.


    "Ralph, this was where you used to live, right? Where are we? What is this place called? Where is your old house?" Glen launched a wave of questions at Ralph as his eyes sparkled with excitement.


    Ralph stared at him with a bit of annoyance before pushing away the boy''s face as he was getting too close.


    "Can you behave? You are already a grown up so act like one instead of behaving so childish. Besides it''s been years since I left San Pluto and can''t possibly remember everywhere, who knew if changes had been made?


    Also, for your information, San Pluto is larger than you can imagine and this is only a small part of it" Ralph said as his eyes flashed with intelligence while fixing his glasses; this seemed like an old habit he had developed because he would do it whenever he made long sentences even if his glasses were well placed.


    Ivan glanced at the two before redirecting his gaze to the bustling street in front of them, a particular machine caught his eyes and for the first time Ivan felt a longing for something that wasn''t food.


    It was a strange looking machine that didn''t have a cover, it was over three meters long but the rider only had a space of one meter to sit while holding onto two handle like objects that poked out from the side of the machine''s head.


    The machine made a loud vroom sound that Ivan found pleasing to the ears as it sped off at high speed, it was so fast that Ivan saw its tires as a blur.


    "Ivan!"


    Ivan was pulled out of his trance by Ralph''s loud voice, he reluctantly pulled his gaze away from the direction that the strange machine had disappeared into to look at Ralph who was calling out to him only to see the boy staring at him with a sharp glint in his eyes.


    Turned out that Ralph had stopped a cab and had been calling out to Ivan for more than five seconds while he stood beside the open door of the car.


    Ivan , realizing what must have happened, gazes at Ralph blankly for a while before quietly entering the car and sitting beside Glen at the back. Ralph glared at the white haired fellow for a few seconds before entering the car as well.


    "Oi, and were y''all heading to, Young sirs?" The driver, who happened to be a man who seemed to be in his sixties voiced out from the front as he began to move the steering of the car.


    " The closest awakening center, " Ralph responded.


    He noticed the expression of the driver suddenly turn into one of shock as he stared at the three young men through the rearview mirror of his car.


    "Y''all going to awaken!?" The old man could not help but ask, his voice expressed his delightful surprise.


    "Yeah, we are all going to awaken!" Glen was the one who replied, his excitement was so evident that it might even be contagious.


    "That''s awesome! How about I offer you three a free ride to the awakening center but in return, y''all must have dinner at my place; what ya think?" The driver proposed as he flashed his full set of teeth in a wide smile.


    Ralph''s face immediately turned serious as his eyes and the eyes of the driver made contact through the rearview mirror, his gaze seemed to question why the driver would want to give them a free ride and also invite them to his home.


    "Oi, calm down now boy. No need to be so suspicious, I mean no harm" the driver gave a reassuring smile before proceeding to explain himself.


    Turned out that he had a daughter who was around their age and had awakened her Nexus energy but refused to awaken her talent because she was nervous.


    According to the driver, his daughter was so introverted that she didn''t have any friends and only talked with him and his wife. She had already awakened her Nexus energy for over a month now but had locked herself in her room and only came out occasionally, the young lady even refused to go to school anymore.


    So he was hoping to invite Ralph and friends over after they had awakened and see if they would manage to motivate his daughter and disperse her nervousness by sharing their awakening experience.


    After hearing that this was the case, Ralph calmed down and accepted the offer, they had nowhere to go after their awakening anyway so such a deal wasn''t necessarily a bad deal.


    The car continued to drive as the driver hummed happily to himself while the three boys sat quietly at the back.


    Glen was busy staring at the place through the window of the car, Ralph had his eyes fixed in front as if trying to store the routes they were driving through to memory, while Ivan¡­Ivan had his eyes closed as the image of the machine and its rider played in his mind repeatedly.


    They arrived at their destination after a five minute drive and came down from the car after the driver found a spot to park.


    "Oi, I''ll wait for you boys here so get back here after you''re done, alright?" The driver called out to them from inside the car with half of his body poking out through the car window.


    Ralph turned and nodded at the driver before continuing to walk.


    It took them two minutes to leave the parking space where countless types of vehicles were packed, there were so many that they were unable to count.


    Standing at the entrance of the awakening center, Ivan and Glen were finally able to take a close up look at the enormous building that they had seen from afar even before the car arrived here. The building was so tall that they had to bend their necks fully just to look at the top.


    Numerous people could be seen going in and out of the building in an endless stream that one might think that an event was being held here.


    Ivan saw a lot of young people around their age too, some had excited faces while some had sad expressions on their faces.


    "I thought Nexulytes were rare? Why are there so many people here? Are all of them here to awaken? Is it like this everyday or is there something going on today?" Ivan could not help but mutter absentmindedly seeing the large number of people here.


    There were only four Nexulytes in the entire outskirt that they came from but the number of people at the awakening center made him start to think that Nexulytes were not as rare as he had thought, he was also starting to feel uncomfortable with so many people around.


    "If judging by the entire population of San Pluto, the number of people here can''t even be considered as many. Also, they are not all Nexulytes because while there is a larger population of Nexulytes in San Pluto, they are only about twenty percent of the entire population" Ralph explained as pushed his glasses with his fingers.


    Even Glen, who had been distracted all the way due to excitement, had started to listen carefully to Ralph''s explanation because he had been shocked to see so many people at the place where they had come to awaken.


    ''If all of these people were here to awaken, wouldn''t that mean that my awakening isn''t anything special? So vexing!'' Sear?h the n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Then why are all these people here?" Ivan asked after listening to Ralph''s explanation. He was glad that not all these people were Nexulytes or about-to-be-Nexulytes but seeing so many people still wasn''t alright with him.


    "Well, a lot of people come everyday to try their luck. Even people who had failed to awaken their talents after countless trials would still come back as long as they had the money for it.


    That''s enough about them, let''s go in" Ralph said and led the two who has looks of realizations on their faces through the wide door of the awakening cente

 Chapter 7 - 7: An Army of Bones

    A domain obscured from light and looked like it could only be found in an underground dome, dozens of blue flames scattered all across the place and provided eerie light to the domain.


    One could see thousands of tombstones that were the graves of thousands of souls situated in a circular formation around a small temple that was in the center of this formation of tombstones, a single footpath cut through this formation of tombstones toward the entrance of the underground dome.


    The place was eerily quiet that one would shiver just from standing at the entrance of the dome and not dare to take a step forward, the blue flames gave off no warmth but instead radiated bone chilling coldness while a strong smell of decay covered the entire domain to the point of turning into visible gray mist.


    The whole domain would have remained silent like a scary painting if not for the sudden sounds of footsteps that echoed from the entrance of the dome.


    A figure dressed in a long flowing golden royal robe that was decorated with precious gems and filled with beautiful patterns, a red royal cape hanging over her shoulder, her neck beautified with dazzling jewelries, a golden crown on her head, and a one meter long staff in her hand.


    Her face was covered with a veil but could not hide her world shattering beauty in the slightest, her sky blue eyes stared right at the small temple in the distance as she took casual steps towards it.


    Rumble!! Rumble!! Rumble!!!


    Creeeck!!!


    The entire domain suddenly began to tremble violently as if an underground earthquake was about to occur, but the woman remained unfazed by this and continued her casual stroll.


    The rumbling continued as the grave in front of every tombstone began to crack open and out of those cracks came huge fearsome skeleton warriors clad in heavy armor and each carrying menacing huge swords in knightly manner.


    Each skeleton released a terrifying pressure and strong bloodlust as their red glowing eyes landed on the woman who was still casually walking past them, their bodies made clicking noises as they all raised their huge swords before dashing towards the woman.


    Their speed was so fast that these skeletons in huge armors left afterimages in their wake!


    Yet, despite the sight of thousands of fearsome skeletons that were dozens of times her size rushing towards her with huge swords that were bigger than her body, the woman remained calm as she slowly raised her staff that had a blood red crystal attached to its top.


    "Ten thousand tombstones, ten thousand immortal warriors, yet I still receive the same treatment every time I come here. Do the residents of the temple of ten thousand graves have no regard for the mother of your emperor?" The woman voiced out slowly as she gently waved down her staff.


    Time seemed to have stopped the instance she had lifted her staff as all the skeleton warriors were frozen in place until she lowered her staff, time began to flow normally once more.


    Crash!! Pop!!!! Clack!!!


    As if an invisible force had hit these huge skeleton warriors, every single one of them crashed heavily into the ground and their bodies exploded into piles of bones. The entire place became a sea of bone in just less than five seconds.


    The woman paused for a moment to admire these clusters of whiteness, her sky blue eyes revealed a hint of familiarity to the sight before her before turning blank once more.


    *They never change" was all she said before she resumed walking toward the temple.


    She had walked for over a hundred meters and just had a few more meters to cross before she could reach the temple when¡­


    "Why¡­have you¡­come here¡­mother?"


    A low but thundering voice came from within the temple, the voice seemed like a whisper but had reached every corner of the domain as even the tongues of blue flames flickered violently when the voice spoke. The owner of this voice was most without a doubt the emperor of these immortal skeleton warriors and the son of this woman who has destroyed them.


    The woman, who referred to herself as the mother of the emperor, came to a halt at the words of the voice. For the first time since she stepped into this domain, her sky blue eyes flashed with emotional expression as she stared at the small temple with¡­sorrowful and pained expression in her eyes.


    "What? Can''t I come visit anymore?" The woman asked back but did not take another step forward.


    The voice stayed silent for a while as if it was thinking of the best answer to give, it finally spoke after ten seconds.


    "We all¡­have¡­our own¡­domains. My¡­warriors¡­you destroyed them" the voice said once more, its voice shook the walls of the domain with each word it said.


    " It''s their fault for not recognizing strength, they deserve it. Besides, you made them immortal, they''ll come back in a while " the woman said in response. S§×ar?h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The voice turned quiet as if silently agreeing with the woman''s words.


    " Then¡­why have you¡­come?"


    "I believe you should know already, he''s the reason I came" the woman replied. Her eyes changed from having a sorrowful expression to a sharp glare.


    "So¡­you came¡­for his sake¡­mother?" The voice asked, a hint of amusement could be heard from its voice.


    "I just hope that you do not interfere," the woman said in a serious voice.


    This time, the voice stayed silent for a whole minute before suddenly letting out a chuckle that shook the whole place even more than when the skeleton warriors had come out of their graves. It chuckled for half a minute before saying


    "Of course, of course. It¡­was the same¡­back then too. Anything¡­for you my¡­dearest¡­mother "


    The eyes of the woman reverted to that of pained expression after hearing the words of the voice, she did not stay any longer and simply turned around and left.


    Five minutes after the woman left, the sea of bones began to move as the skeleton warriors began to resemble themselves. Ten minutes passed in a flash and ten thousand skeleton warriors were once again standing gallantly with their huge swords.


    " So¡­it finally started¡­huh? How¡­long¡­has¡­it¡­been? The words of the voice became more faint with each word before completely disappearing. The ten thousand skeleton warriors also returned to their graves. The domain became just as it had been previously before the woman in royal regalia arrived, only the constantly flickering blue flames told of what had transpired.


    ...¡­


    At the awakening center.


    Ralph, Ivan, and Glen had entered the awakening center and one of the staff had immediately approached them after observing the young boys and realizing that they were new to the place.


    The staff had previously thought that they were here to try their luck too just like the majority of the people here but was shocked to find out that all three of them had awakened their Nexus energy and we''re here to awaken their talents.


    The staff had immediately proceeded to call someone over before handing the three over to the new person who took them to the upper floor through the elevator. The person tried to ask a couple of questions about them but Ralph was on the defensive and did not say more than what he considered necessary.


    They arrived at the upper floor and were led to a counter where they were asked to fill in some forms and answer some questions such as their age, when they awakened their Nexus energy, and if they had ties with any tower.


    "Ah, I see you young lads don''t have any background. But don''t worry, it''s fortunate for you that you are able to awaken, while this place is under the Owen tower, their requirements are strict and difficult to enter but other towers will surely extend their invitations towards you as long as you do well enough.


    Your futures will be limitless!" The person at the registration encouraged them before asking them to pay the awakening fee which was fifty bucks per person.


    (A/N: so, I''ve been conflicted about which currency to use in this book but could not come to a firm decision so I''ve decided to use ''bucks'' instead. The value will be equivalent to a dollar so fifty bucks is equivalent to fifty dollars in this book. Damn! I wished I could withdraw all the money in this book to my account!)


    Of course, Ralph had exclaimed at how expensive this was. Their parents had only managed to give them a few hundreds which could last an ordinary family for a month or two but they were about to spend half of it on awakening?


    "I can see you don''t really know the importance and benefit of awakening here, if you did, you won''t complain about fifty bucks being expensive. Let me explain


    While it is possible for some people to awaken on their own, there are a lot of risks involved.


    A person might awaken their Nexus energy but might never be able to trigger the talent awakening on their own no matter how much they try and if a person does manage to trigger the talent awakening and enter the awakening state, there are risks of them hurting themselves after waking up or hurting the people around them with their new found power because they might not know the difference between the real world and the awakening state after waking up.


    But awakening in an awakening center has none of those. Firstly, some people might even awaken their talent without awakening their Nexus energy first! While having awakened your Nexus energy is a guarantee to awaken a talent, people who have yet to awaken their Nexus energy still stand a thirty percent chance of awakening a talent if they use our pod!

 Chapter 8 - 8: Awakening center

    ''So that''s why there were so many people here, throwing away so much money just to try their luck'' Ivan thought to himself and continued to listen to the man''s explanation.


    "Also, by awakening here, you can use the pod which is filled with special liquid that has a slight chance of increasing the level of your talents and at the same time disabling them for a few minutes so that you do not hurt yourself. And the most exciting part¡­this place isn''t only an awakening center, it is also a place for towers to scout talented Nexulytes!


    As long as your talent is good enough, there are dozens of Tower representatives here who will try to recruit you and train you, your life can only get better after that!


    What more glory is there than being a Nexulyte? Power, fame, money? You''ll get them all!


    So, what do you think? Is it too expensive or worth it?"


    The man grinned cheekily at Ralph as if he had successfully swayed the boy into paying an over price.


    Ralph just stared at the man quietly for a couple of seconds before opening his mouth and slowly said.


    "The price is still too much" Ralph had an adamant expression on his face as he stared hard at the man, it was clear that this young man wasn''t planning to pay that absurd amount for the awakening.


    "Tks! Why are you so stubborn? Most people would pay the same amount without even needing me to explain, is it that you don''t actually have money to pay, huh, four eyes?" The man spat at Ralph in annoyance while pointing his finger at Ralph''s face.


    One of the man''s coworkers quickly pulled the man back and whispered to him.


    "Hey, watch how you speak to the kid. He''s a future Nexulyte, you won''t have an easy life if he holds a grudge against you"


    Similarly, Glen also pulled Ralph back and whispered to him.


    " Don''t argue with the worker, what if he refuses to allow us to awaken or do something bad to us? That might be the true price, isn''t it natural for things like this to be expensive?"


    Ralph gazed blankly at Glen like he was looking at an idiot before shaking his head and pulling away from the boy.


    " Like you said, most people would pay without asking, so the price must be lower than that, right?" Ralph resumed his bargaining with the man who had also pulled away from his coworker.


    The man gritted his teeth, he had seen the other boy pull back this troublesome four eyes and said something to him. Who would have thought that the boy would still continue to argue after coming back!?


    They continued to bargain for a couple minutes more before finally agreeing on a twenty bucks price for each person.


    "Follow me" the man said with a scoff as he led the three boys to another room but he could not stop glaring at Ralph who was right behind him.


    ''You better pray you do well or else¡­''


    "Wow! He actually lowered the price, from fifty bucks to twenty! You''re awesome Ralph!" Glen exclaimed with sparkling eyes and gave Ralph two thumbs ups from behind.


    Hearing the words of the other boy made the man become even more embarrassed and he started to walk faster.


    They finally arrived at an enormous room that was as huge as two basketball courts combined, numerous sleeping pods were arranged in neat columns and one could see people entering and climbing out of the pods. Circular screens could be seen hanging above every pod, these screens displayed different information whenever a pod opened for the person inside to come out.


    Different people in suits would then immediately approach some of the people who came out of the pods to talk to them.


    "You see those people? They have successfully awakened their talents and are now being scouted by representatives of different towers, you can only imagine how bright their future will be. Compared to brats like you!" The man said as he shot a side glance at Ralph.


    Not waiting for the boy to reply, he called a few people over and asked them to lead the three boys to a sleeping pod.


    Ralph, Ivan, and Glen, were escorted to a roll of sleeping pods and assigned sleeping pods right beside each other. Ralph got the first one, Glen took the pod in the middle and Ivan took the last one; the pod after Ivan''s was being used by someone.


    "We are¡­we''re finally going to awaken" Glen muttered, his voice and body trembling slightly as he touched the sleeping pod gently.


    Ralph and Ivan looked at the trembling boy and was about to comfort him when the matured woman that was amongst the people who led them here patted Glen''s head.


    "Don''t be nervous, kid. Even if you don''t awaken now, you can always try another time" she said with a professional smile.


    Glen shook his head before saying.


    "I''m not nervous, I''m excited!" He exclaimed.


    The woman was taken aback by Glen''s response, she wore a startled expression on her face for a few seconds before reverting to a smile.


    " If that''s the case, good luck"


    She said to Glen as the sleeping pod opened with a shuooo sound.


    Glen, Ivan, and Ralph exchanged eye contacts and nodded at each other before climbing into the sleeping pod.


    (The liquid inside the sleeping pod was a special liquid that beside the disabling and calming properties, it won''t get their clothes wet so they were not asked to remove them)


    The three of them entered the sleeping pods and the lid closed up.


    They realized that the liquid inside the sleeping pod did not submerge them completely and only reached up to their ears, their face was well above the level of the liquid.


    After staying inside the sleeping pod for just five seconds, the three boys were hit by the effect of the liquid and began to feel drowsy. They knew that this was because of the liquid in the sleeping pod so they did not resist, all three of them soon fell asleep inside their respective sleeping pods.


    "Aren''t you going to go back?" Someone asked the man who had brought Ivan and his friends to this place after seeing that he was still standing there.


    "No, I''m waiting to see the result of a stinking beat" the man said with irritation as he fixed his eyes on the round screen that was above Ralph''s pod.


    ...¡­


    For as long as Glen could remember, he had found it difficult to understand anything related to studying. There were no schools in the outskirt but his parents had tried to teach him some basic knowledge like alphabets and simple spellings, yet, the young Glen had found it difficult to understand whatever they tried to teach him. S§×ar?h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Though his parents did not blame him for this and still treated him normally, no elder brother would remain happy about the fact that even their junior was becoming better than them in such a simple aspect.


    Shouldn''t he be the big brother whom his little sister would run to for help in such regards? How come his little sister was then the one who was offering to teach him?


    Glen did not hate his little sister for this, of course. He blamed himself and got depressed occasionally, this was until he met Ralph and Ivan.


    He has since then lost interest in trying to improve and focused on helping his friends, parents, and playing with his little sister.


    Of course, these were not the only thing that helped Glen out of his depression. The secret was¡­his sudden love and understanding for animals!


    Glen had realized that he was naturally attracted to animals and could somewhat understand that even the most dangerous looking dog would become like a cute pet after Glen made contact with it. He was able to know the right thing to do to get any animal to become friendly towards him.


    He had found solace in this because he had finally found his perk as an elder brother. He would take his little sister around the outskirt and let her play with whichever animal she found appealing to her!!


    Currently¡­..


    Glen found himself walking on a footpath that cut through bushes, he did not know where he was going but just kept going while humming a tune along the way.


    Rustle!!


    The sound of something moving in the bush to his side caught Glen''s attention and he went to take a look. Upon getting there, Glen saw a small white snake that seemed to have gotten caught in a trap. The tail of the snake was locked in iron strings and was bleeding.


    "Ugh, who dared hurt such a cute snake? Don''t worry buddy, I''ll help you" Glen grumbled in anger and proceeded to set the snake out of the trap.


    The snake showed resistance toward Glen and bared its small fangs at him, it thought Glen was the one who had set the trap.


    "Calm down, I won''t hurt you. Calm down" Glen said softly and slowly as he slowly moved his hand toward the head of the snake and gently rubbed it.


    The snake finally stopped resisting and allowed Glen to release it from the trap.


    (Don''t try this in real life, you''re not Glen. The snake would bite the hell outta you, hehe)


    Click!!

 Chapter 9 - 9: Beast companion

    The strings trapping the tail of the snake were finally removed and the snake instantly dashed into the bush without a moment of hesitation, leaving Glen alone with a stunned expression on his face.


    It took Glen a few seconds to recover and he burst into laughter.


    "It ran away just like that, must still be afraid or must have returned back to its mother" Glen said with a smile on his face after he stopped laughing. His eyes stared in the direction the snake had escaped to for a while before turning to leave.


    Glen returned to the footpath and had only taken a few steps when¡­


    "Hey boy, stop there!" Someone shouted from behind him.


    Glen turned to look at who it was and saw two men standing behind him, along with four other boys who were around the same age as him; 17 to 19.


    "Umm, can I help you?" Glen asked in confusion since he could not recognize any of them.


    They did not answer Glen immediately, one of the men signaled to one of the boys. The latter nodded and went into the bush, it was where the trap was located. He could out a few seconds later and whispered something to the man who in turn glared murderously at Glen.


    "So it was you who stole our catch, huh? Do you want to die?" One of the men shouted at Glen as he pointed his matchet at him.


    Glen was instantly frightened and raised both hands in surrender.


    "I don''t know what you''re talking about, what catch!?" Glen questioned fearfully as he stared at the five people before him. He wasn''t confident in defeating even one, much less five and they were even carrying cutlasses!


    " Are you still planning to lie? Our trap had been undone and there''s trace of blood, who do you think took it?" The man questioned sternly.


    " You guys were the ones who hurt the white snak¡­" Glen instantly covered his mouth with one hand upon realizing that he had misspoken, his eyes trembled in fear when he saw the menacing look in their eyes.


    " Ah, so it was a white snake? Tell me more, where is it?" One of the men gripped his cutlass firmly and began to walk toward Glen.


    " I-i don''t¡­know" Glen replied weakly while taking small steps back.


    "Are you still planning to lie? Looks like I''ll have to teach you a lesson first!" The man spat out, clearly enraged. He raised his cutlass and charged toward Glen.


    Seeing the ferocious man charging at him, Glen was scared out of his skin and he shut his eyes tightly while he raised both hands in front of himself in an attempt to defend.


    Rustle!!


    Hissss!!!


    "Ahhhhh!!"


    With his eyes still closed, Glen heard the rustling of bushes and hissing sounds which was followed by a painful scream.


    He opened his eyes to see what had happened and was stunned by what he saw.


    A white snake, much bigger than the one he had saved had appeared out of nowhere and was currently fighting with the man who was about to cut him.


    "It''s a white snake, run!"


    "What do you mean, run? Can''t you see that (name omitted) is in danger? Everyone attack together!"


    " Kill the damned snake!"


    " Ahhh!" S§×arch* The nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Glen watched in shock as the five people all attacked the big white snake together, hacking down at its white scales with their weapons.


    The white snake, in turn, would swipe around with its tail and send one or two people flying before lashing out with its enormous mouth.


    " What¡­what''s going on?" Glen mumbled absentmindedly as he watched the fight.


    The five people were soon getting tired and injured as the snake kept sending them flying; similarly, cut marks had also begun to appear all over the body of the white snake and a part of its body was soon covered in blood.


    Glen suddenly felt a wriggling sensation on his left leg, startled, he jumped back but discovered that he could not shake the feeling away. He looked and saw a small white snake climbing up his leg, it rounded his waist upward before finally reaching his head.


    Glen recognized the small white snake after seeing the injury on its tail, it was the snake he had saved not too long ago.


    The small snake coiled its body on top of Glen''s head before raising its head proudly, its posture was akin to sitting on top of Glen''s head while watching its mother wreck some bad guys.


    Glen looked at the tail of the small snake that was dangling in front of his face before looking at the big snake that was still fighting the five people, he raised his hand and pointed out a finger.


    "Is that¡­your mother?" He asked, uncertain if the snake would understand him.


    Surprisingly, the snake bent its body so Glen could see its face before bubbling its head up and down while making a hissing sound; it had understood Glen''s words and even responded!


    "You¡­you can understand me!" Glen exclaimed in a loud voice, clearly shocked.


    The next thing that the snake did shocked Glen even more, it made a human-like expression that Glen could swear that he saw the small snake smile! Its smile was so cute!


    Glen did not know what happened next as it seemed as if they skipped time, the five people were no longer anywhere to be seen and the big white snake was now covered in numerous large gashes and was fully covered in blood.


    It appeared to Glen that the fight must have ended with the five people fleeing.


    Glen looked at the big white snake that was easily five times his size and was probably over ten meters long, just how were those five people able to fight this thing?!


    "You''re injured heavily, follow me home so I can help you" Glen said to the big snake. Since the small one was capable of understanding him, the big one should be able to do the same as well, right?


    The big white snake stared at Glen with its pitch black eyes for a few seconds before opening its mouth.


    "It''s alright, young human. My injuries are severe and I won''t be able to survive. I can tell that you''re not like any other human, it''s no wonder my daughter took an interest in you.


    I came to thank you for saving her but it seems like I''ll have to trouble you to take care of her more, in return, she will be of great help to you on your journey" the white snake said, its voice was nothing as Glen would have imagined if he even thought of a snake talking. Its voice was akin to a top celebrity singer! Soothing and pleasing to the ears!


    But that''s not the main issue right now!


    "What do you mean you won''t survive? What do you mean I''ll have to look after her? What¡­" Glen threw a bunch of questions but was cut short when the small snake suddenly leaped off his head toward its mother, its eyes had small tears in them.


    " I''m sorry, human. But you''re the only one I can trust to keep my daughter safe " the big white snake said once more and opened its mouth, a red beam suddenly shot toward Glen.


    Glen was unable to react before everything went blank.


    ....


    Glen woke up after an unknown amount of time had passed, he found himself in a dark space with not a single ray of light. He could not even see his own body.


    Suddenly, texts began to appear in this black space.


    CONGRATULATION, NEXULYTE!


    YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY AWAKENED YOUR TALENT AND CAN NOW TREAD ON THE PATH OF YOUR ANCESTORS.


    NAME: Glen Frigret. TALENT GROUP: Beast companion.


    TALENT TYPE: Combat. TALENT: White serpent!


    TALENT LEVEL: A. ASSIMILATION PROGRESS: 0%


    RANK: Null!


    Glen stared at the bold texts in front of him, even though he wasn''t that good at reading, he was able to understand what those words meant.


    He had awakened! He was now a Nexulyte!


    Wave of emotions surged within Glen, he could feel tears gathering in his eyes.


    Though he had yet to celebrate his successful awakening when he became drowsy again and lost consciousness, the next time he woke up, he was back inside the sleeping pond.


    At the same time when Glen was having that experience in his awakening state, Ralph was going through the same thing; only that his experience was different.


    He had found himself in a graveyard, dressed in black suit and a lot of people who he could not recognize dressed in similar ways. The atmosphere was heavy as everyone stood in front of a grave in silence, they were apparently holding a funeral for someone.


    But things quickly changed as monsters appeared out of nowhere and started to attack people, the whole place was soon thrown into chaos as people ran for their lives.


    Ralph, had somehow been separated from the others and found himself surrounded by countless monsters. He also appeared to be injured and his glasses were broken.


    Ralph sat in front of a grave with his back leaning on the tombstone while the monster slowly moved closer to him.


    Not knowing why, Ralph suddenly became filled with emotions of hate and anger.


    "Why! Just why? We were finally able to lay him to rest after all he had gone through, why did you all have to interrupt?!" Ralph let out a shout in an outburst of emotions.


    Of course, the monsters would not care about his little whining and continued to approach him. One of the monsters to the side suddenly leaped at Ralph and the others followed its action and leaped at him as well.


    But Ralph wasn''t afraid, he was blinded by rage that he did not care what happened and just shouted.


    "Get away from me!"


    Boom!!

 Chapter 10 - 10: Necromancer

    "Get away from me!" Sear?h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Boom!!


    The ground trembled right after Ralph''s outburst as the grave behind him exploded, sending dirt and grass into the air. A black shadow flashed from inside the now open grave and began to flash all over the place at a breakneck speed, moving from one monster to another in quick succession.


    Whenever it flashed past a monster, a huge gaping wound would appear on either its head or chest before dropping dead. In less than a minute, all the monsters around Ralph had been effortlessly killed off by this shadow which after finally killing every monster that had tried to attack Ralph now stood in one place, letting Ralph get a closer look at what had come out of the grave and had saved him.


    The black shadow turned out to be an old man who was in his seventies but displayed the vigor of someone in his prime as he stood straight like an arrow. His head was completely covered in white hair and a line of mustache connected his dirty long beard that must have been white once upon a time.


    The skin of this old man was gray which was different from that of normal humans and cracks covered the parts of his body that weren''t covered by his black robe, his face included.


    This old man showed no expression as he stood silently beside Ralph, his eyes were blood red that it was difficult to tell where he was looking unless he moved his head; slightly transparent red smoke flowed from his red eyes constantly, giving him a dangerous vibe all together with his appearance.


    Ralph did not allow himself to be shocked by the sudden appearance of this strange old man who had suddenly surfaced from a grave, he was completely blinded by rage and hate towards these monsters and did not have time to care about anything else.


    The only things that his clouded mind was able to register were that this old man was strong, he somehow knew that the old man would not harm him and that he could feel a faint connection with the old man.


    With those points registered in mind, Ralph stood up from the ground, a dangerous look on his face as he looked at the other monsters that were still attacking people who were trying to escape.


    "You all¡­should just DIE!!!" Shouted at the top of his lungs and began to run toward every monster in sight, the gray-skinned old man following closely behind him.


    Whenever Ralph got close to a monster, it would immediately sense him and turn to attack him but before their limbs could even reach a meter close to Ralph, the old man would disappear into a black shadow and the next scene was that of the monster getting shredded into pieces in a matter of seconds.


    This kept on for a good one hour until Ralph was finally able to kill the last monster with the help of the old man whose expression had not changed in the slightest even after engaging in battle with more than a hundred monsters.


    Seeing that every monster in sight had been reduced to lifeless bodies or chunks of meat and the people who had managed to survive until now were now safe, Ralph fell on his butt and began to breathe heavily.


    He turned to look at the old man who was still standing next to him like a trained bodyguard, despite all the fights the old man had fought, he still managed to keep his back robe clean and his breathing was steady.


    "I don''t know who you are or why you decided to help¡­but thank you, thank you for helping me save all these people, " Ralph said to the old man in honest gratitude, his thanks were replied with silence from the old man which Ralph had expected but what the old man did next shocked him.


    After not responding to Ralph''s words of gratitude, the old man suddenly spread his arms and opened his black robe to reveal what was underneath its cover.


    Shocking as it may be, Ralph did not see the body of the old man as he had expected, what he saw instead was a mass of darkness so dark that Ralph felt himself being pulled into it, and before he could react he found himself in a boundless black space without a shred of light.


    Similarly to Glen''s experience, words soon began to appear in this space which Ralph could see and understand even without looking at the words; it was as if the words were being imprinted directly into his mind.


    CONGRATULATION, NEXULYTE!


    YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY AWAKENED YOUR TALENT AND CAN NOW TREAD ON THE PATH OF YOUR ANCESTORS!


    NAME: RALPH LUCIAN TALENT GROUP: NECROMANCER


    TALENT TYPE: COMBAT TALENT TALENT: UNDEAD GENERAL


    TALENT LEVEL: S A/P: 0% RANK: NULL


    (A/P=assimilation progress)


    Ralph stared at the words in front of him with a calm expression while his hands were tightly clenched into fists. No matter how calm he usually was, Ralph could barely contain the emotions swelling inside of him upon reading the words that had appeared in front of him.


    His mother had explained about level of talents to him once while he was still a kid before her injury so he was very aware of what his talent level meant, he could join whichever tower he desired and receive VIP treatment as a Nexulyte with such a high talent!


    But before he could get too emotional about his awakening, Ralph felt a wave of dizziness which he was not able to resist, and slowly fell asleep. When he opened his eyes again, he was inside the sleeping pod.


    Ralph saw the lid of the pod slide open, giving him a chance to sit up. The first thing that he did was to look at Glen''s and Ivan''s pod to see if they had woken up too.


    He saw that Glen had already woken and it seemed like it had been a while as there were a lot of people standing around him and trying to talk to him but they all stopped after Ralph woke up and were now staring at him; to be specific, they were staring at the round screen above his pod on which the content of his awakening was being displayed.


    On the screen were the same words that Ralph had seen after he found himself in the dark space, details including his talent and the rest.


    They were all about to rush over to Ralph''s position when all of them suddenly stopped and stared at a different screen, the expressions of everyone present aside from Glen who really didn''t know what level of talent meant, were of deep shock.


    The entire place fell into deep silence that was pierced by the sound of a lid being opened over a pod and a boy with white hair slowly sat up with a face of determination.


    But what had attracted the attention of all these people was not the appearance of this young man but the words on the screen above his pod as even Ralph who had thought that he had done well couldn''t help but widen his eyes in disbelief.


    A particular line was what had sent everyone into a state of deep shock.


    TALENT LEVEL: SS


    ...¡­.


    The man who had entered a brief bargaining war with Ralph stood in place like a statue, his expression was a mixture of disbelief and terror.


    "All of them¡­All of them are monsters!" The man muttered in a quivering voice as his mind fell into chaos for a few seconds.


    "I argued with them, what if they take it out on me in the future? No, I have to inform the headquarters about this!" Said the man to himself the moment he managed to recover and without answering any of his colleagues, he left the hall.


    Similarly, a lot of people were also taking out their phones and making phone calls; their voices were filled with urgency.


    ...¡­..


    A few minutes before Ivan caused the present commotion.


    After entering the sleeping pod and succumbing to the drowsiness, Ivan found himself in an unfamiliar room when he woke up.


    The room was one he had not seen before but at the same time recognized it as his room. He was lying on his bed in sleeping pajamas while staring at the familiar yet unfamiliar ceiling of ''his'' room.


    Without giving him time to form thoughts in his head, Ivan heard a knock on his door before a voice came from outside.


    "Big brother, are you up? Hurry, everyone''s waiting for you outside!" The voice called out from outside the room before sounds of footsteps leaving were heard from outside.


    Ivan, still in bed, widened his eyes in surprise; he had recognized that voice.


    It was the voice of the little girl he had met after getting swallowed by that yellow mist!

 Chapter 11 - 11: The wisher appears

    Without a second thought, Ivan jumped out of bed and dashed toward the door before swinging it open as fast as he could but he found no one. A few meters away was a path of stairs that led to the bottom floor, Ivan quickly ran toward it and descended the flight of stairs in a rush.


    Ivan soon arrived at what seemed to be an enormous living room but he did not bother stopping to admire it as his gaze was attracted to a dining room where a few people were sitting, amongst which was the little girl who Ivan had seen before. As for the other three, he wasn''t able to see their faces because they were blurred for some reason.


    "Oh, Ivan. You''re here already. Are you so excited that it''s your birthday and you didn''t bother to change? Come, Mom baked a nice cake personally for you" the voice of a woman entered Ivan''s ears, causing a type of shock to run through his body.


    He looked at the figure that was the only one that resembled a mature woman, the others were a young teenage boy who seemed to be around the same age as the girl, the figure of a grown man, and finally the girl who was the only one Ivan could see her face; the others had their faces blurred.


    Seeing that Ivan was still standing in place, the woman approached him and grabbed his hand before pulling him towards the dining table.


    "What are you still standing there for, come and cut the cake!" She said, her voice radiating with a kind of warmth and love that Ivan wasn''t used to. After all, he had lived all his life alone and never interacted with anyone in such a manner.


    He did not know what to respond with and could only follow the woman in silence to the dining table.


    Ivan was offered a seat while the woman stood behind him with a hand on his shoulder, unsure of what to do or say, he could only allow her to do what she wanted.


    In front of Ivan was a lovely-looking cake with the number "19" written on its surface with blue icing and two small candles burning gently on both sides of the number.


    "Happy birthday to you" ¡Á4


    All four of them began to sing a birthday song for him, including the woman behind him. Ivan saw the little girl smiling cheerfully at him, as for the others¡­he wasn''t able to read their expressions since he could not see their faces but he could somehow tell that they were all wearing happy faces as they sang for him.


    Immediately after they stopped singing, Ivan was asked to make a wish and blow the candles.


    Ivan, new to such treatment, sat there in a daze for a good couple of minutes without doing anything. All he could do was stare at the cake like it was a strange and new sight.


    Well, it was a new sight to him. S§×arch* The N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "What''s wrong honey, why won''t you blow out the candles and make a wish?" The woman moved her blurry face to Ivan''s side as if looking at his expression while she asked in a worried tone.


    "Why don''t we give him his present first? Maybe it will help him calm down"


    For the first time, the figure of the man spoke up as a small present appeared in his hand which he passed over to the woman standing beside Ivan.


    Ivan looked at the figure of the man as a question rang in his mind.


    ''Calm down? Calm down from what?''


    "Here honey, we got you this for your nineteenth birthday" The woman placed the present in front of Ivan while the little girl pulled the cake to create space.


    "Open it, big brother, let''s see what it is!" The figure of the teenage boy spoke up, excitement was evident in his tone.


    Ivan took one more look at all of them before reaching for the present and tearing off the wrapper on it. What was revealed was a small box that was only as big as a perfume box with a small lock on its side.


    Ivan flipped the lock open and moved the top of the box to reveal what was inside.


    The moment Ivan''s eyes landed on the object that was inside the box, his eyes widened and his pupils shook. He lost control of his fingers for a few moments, causing the small box to fall from his grasp to the table, causing a low thud sound.


    Ivan had been shocked beyond measure when he saw the item inside the small box and that was because he had recognized the item, this was the second time he was seeing it¡­it was the same item that had served as his ability in the strange dream he had a few days ago.


    Inside the small box was actually a card, a card like any normal game card with only a few differences.


    These differences were the intricate designs on it, the blue cover with golden edges that covered almost to its center, and seven planet-like diagrams that were arranged on it. Adding to this was the constantly blue smoke-like substance that kept swirling beneath the blue cover and would leak out occasionally.


    Ivan turned his gaze away from the card and the box on the table and looked towards the others in hopes of getting an explanation but his words got stuck down his throat when he realized that the little girl along with the teenage boy had disappeared, leaving him with the man and the woman who was still beside him.


    Before he could speak, everything except for the two of them and the box that contained the card disappeared as well. All three of them along with the box now floated in a dark space.


    Ivan looked around himself with wide-open eyes and fingers trembling, his attention was pulled back by the man and the woman who suddenly spoke in unison.


    "Be careful what you wish for!"


    "Be careful what you wish for!"


    Their voices were serious and stern like they were talking to a stranger, their words sent a shiver down Ivan''s spine because this was also not his first time hearing those words as well.


    The instant after they finished saying those words, both of them vanished. Leaving only Ivan and the box containing the card floating in the black space.


    Ivan, now alone, was suddenly hit by a wave of sadness that he had never felt in his many years of living without a family. He felt the sadness of being alone.


    Suddenly, text began to appear in front of him.


    CONGRATULATION, NEXULYTE!


    YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY AWAKENED YOUR TALENT AND CAN NOW TREAD ON THE PATH OF YOUR ANCESTORS.


    NAME: IVAN VON CHARLES TALENT GROUP: PRIMAL


    TALENT TYPE: WISHER TALENT: WISH CARD


    TALENT LV: SS A/P: 0% RANK: NULL.


    Ivan stared at the words in front of him with a startled face which soon turned to one of conviction and determination. All his life he had only known that his name was Ivan, this was the first time seeing other names which he assumed was his family name. As for the other things, Ivan paid them no attention because he did not know what they truly meant aside from the fact that he had awakened.


    Ivan''s hands clenched into tight fists. He once hated Nexulytes and wished for all of them to die but he had now become one himself, along with realizing a few other things.


    Ivan immediately set a goal for himself right at that moment, since he had been given the opportunity to grow stronger, he was going to gather enough strength and look for his family¡­if they were still alive and also look for that little girl; he wanted answers to a lot of questions that he did not get the chance to ask.


    Without him noticing, the small box had floated in front of him. Ivan stared at it for a while, accepting that this card in the box was now his talent, his strength, his way to find answers to all the questions that were buried deep in his mind.


    Ivan stretched his hand and picked up the card from inside the box, he wanted to see what was on the other side. He turned it after picking it up but the other side of the card was empty except for a single line of words which Ivan was now more familiar with than his own name.


    "Be careful what you wish for!"


    The next thing was a wave of dizziness which did not even give Ivan a chance to blink before passing out.


    When he woke up, he was inside the pod.


    He used the few seconds it took for the lid of the pod to open to calm himself and go through everything that had happened in his mind, a determined expression still laced on his face even as he sat upright after the pod opened.


    Ivan saw a large group of people with Glen in their midst, staring at him with shocked eyes; except Glen, the boy was just looking at him with a neutral expression on his face.


    Ivan saw that Ralph was also up but had yet to leave his pod, similarly, Ralph was also staring at him with a surprised look in his eyes.


    In the next instance, the large group of people swarmed toward the two of them like a horde of hungry beasts, completely ignoring Glen who now has a dumbfounded look on his face.

 Chapter 12 - 12: People from the Tower

    In another part of San Pluto. A huge skyscraper that counted over two hundred floors stood tall in the middle of what seemed to be a training facility. It marked a borderline between the facility and a thick forest that stretched far into the distance that one could not see the end of it even from on top of this building.


    On the floor of the very top of this building, a large office room could be seen that was decorated with normal office equipment. An executive chair was placed close to the huge glass panel that allowed one to see the view of the forest and in front of this executive chair was a large office desk, two other office chairs were placed on the other side of the desk.


    Two people could be seen sitting on these chairs with serious looks on their faces, another man stood in front of the large glass panel, looking at the view of the forest while turning his back to the rest of the office room.


    "What is the report on the mission to the soulless graveyard?" A calm voice sounded from the man who was staring at the outside view, both hands folded behind his waist, completing his straight posture.


    The eyes of the two men who were sitting trembled slightly as they stared at the back of the man who just asked a question, not daring to keep him waiting, one of the two stood up and said.


    " Our tower sent three Domain lords along with two half supremes for the mission¡­we lost contact with all of them a few days ago " The man added after a brief pause.


    The palm of the man clenched behind his back upon hearing this news, clearly shaken but managed to not react too strongly as a sign of great steeze. The loss of Domain lords and half-supremes was no small matter but he could not lose his composure in front of his subordinates.


    "What about the other towers, any news from them?" The man asked once more, his tone even calmer than before, that it made the two men straighten their backs as beads of sweat began to form on their faces.


    Gulp!


    The man standing swallowed hard before proceeding to speak up.


    "They received similar damage along with the loss of a few True lords," the man said carefully.


    Silence reigned for a few seconds after the man made his report, he did not dare to sit and waited for his superior to act.


    A whole minute passed in silence before finally, the man stopped staring at the view of the forest and turned around.


    His appearance was that of a man in his late fifties, his facial features were well-defined which made one think of how handsome he must have been during his prime. His head was covered in black hair with a few strands of white hair mixed within, an almost unnoticeable wrinkle at the edges of both eyes spoke of his age.


    This man had sharp green eyes that looked like they could pierce through a person whenever he looked at them, his wide shoulders and straight posture gave the feeling of a vicious emperor.


    He wore a suit without a tie and the first few buttons of his inner white shirt were left open, exposing his upper chest.


    With quiet steps, the man slowly walked over to the executive chair and sat on it, placing an elbow on the armrest while resting his chin on his knuckles, his other hand was placed on the desk as his fingers taped on it repeatedly.


    "So, the mission was a failure?" The man asked after staring daggers at the two nervous men in front of him for a good couple of seconds.


    The bodies of the two men were slightly trembling and their palms were sweaty but they still forced themselves to nod in response.


    Ding!


    The sound of a phone notification interrupted what the green-eyed man was about to say next, his eyes flashed with annoyance as he picked up his phone from his desk and looked at the screen.


    The two men quickly saw the expression on the man''s face shift from one of annoyance to a dubious one when he saw what had caused his phone''s alarm to go off.


    Wordlessly raising his eyes to the two of them, he said.


    "Leave"


    The two men immediately got up, bowed, and walked out of the office in quick steps.


    After he was left all alone in his office, the face of the middle-aged man finally shifted, becoming one of disbelief in the next moment. An expression that he would usually not show outside casually.


    Without a moment of hesitation, he unlocked his phone and dialed a number. The phone rang for just three seconds before the other side connected and without waiting for the other party to talk, the green-eyed man spoke first.


    "Is the information in your message true? You better have not interrupted me over a silly mistake" his voice was so deep and menacing that the sound of the other party gulping could be heard over the phone.


    "Y-yes, tower master. The information is true, I witnessed it myself. They are still here at the moment and a lot of representatives from different towers are trying to recruit them as we speak!" The voice on the other side of the phone spoke hurriedly.


    The eyes of the man flashed with a glint before replying.


    "I''ll be there soon," he said before disconnecting the call.


    He looked around his office for a couple of seconds as the message he had read a while ago kept appearing in his mind.


    " A SS, S, and A level talent appearing at the same time, huh?" He muttered to himself before suddenly disappearing from the office.


    ...¡­..


    Back at the awakening center.


    Large groups of people surrounded Ralph and Ivan who had yet to step out of their pods, of course, the crowd around Ivan had more people compared to Ralph''s.


    "Hello young man, I''m a representative of the Golden Hawk Tower, I would like to invite you to join our tower as a recruit. There are a lot of benefits in joining our tower¡­"


    " Hi, I''m the vice tower master of the Federation assembly tower, I happily invite¡­."


    " Hi, I''m from the Green dragons tower, we¡­."


    One after the other numerous people spoke to Ivan at the same time, all of them trying to get his attention and invite him to join their tower; Ralph was also going through the same thing.


    "You maggots should get out of my way, can''t you let the young men get down from their pods at least?" A powerful voice sounded from behind the crowd of people, causing all of them to turn silent and turn to look at the owner of the voice who dared to scold so many people.


    When they turned around, the majority of people immediately froze for a moment before moving to the side and creating a path for someone at the back. Ivan and Ralph looked at the owner of the voice who was standing at the entrance of the hall and looked to be a middle-aged man in his forties. He had a huge build and was in a blue suit.


    Neither Ralph nor Ivan knew who this man was but their curiosity did not last for long as the crowd began to whisper.


    "Just because he''s a tower master of one of the Lance towers, he thinks he has the right to scold us?" Someone muttered in displeasure.


    "Shhh, don''t let him hear you. Even if he is a tower master of a branch tower, his strength isn''t weaker than those smaller main tower masters. And don''t forget that the Lance tower is one of the biggest five towers in the world, do you want to anger a Lance?" Another person immediately cautioned the person who had expressed his displeasure.


    A few more whispered already around the crowd of people which Ivan and Ralph could hear, the man who was the main topic also heard these words but didn''t react to them.


    From what Ivan had heard, this man was a tower master of a branch tower that was under a certain Lance tower. This tower was one of the biggest and strongest towers in the world and was owned by the Lance family.


    And seeing how cautious and afraid most of these people were toward this man, it could be said as well that he had a certain level of strength.


    The man in question casually strolled through the path that had been created by the crowd and approached Ivan and Ralph, stopping after reaching Ralph''s pod which was close to Ivan''s.


    "First of all, congratulations on awakening successfully and attaining a remarkable result at that. Your families must be very proud to have such talents as yourselves, now why don''t you both step down from the pods first so we can talk?"


    The man said to them with a kind smile on his face.


    Ivan and Ralph looked at each other before climbing down from the pod, the liquid in the pod was a special type so they did not get wet despite spending a few minutes in it.


    Glen forced his way through the crowd of people and went to stand beside Ralph and Ivan. Though he wasn''t jealous of them getting all the attention, he didn''t feel happy with being ignored. S§×ar?h the n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The man looked at Glen with a raised eyebrow but did not say anything immediately since Ivan or Ralph did not say anything about Glen''s appearance.


    " And who might this young man be?" He asked in a gentle tone despite his menacing appearance, trying to appeal as friendly as possible.


    "They are my friends, I also just awakened!" Glen said while pointing at the screen above the pod he had used, the information of his awakening was still displayed on it

 Chapter 13 - 13: Offers from the Towers

    " And who might this young man be?" He asked in a gentle tone despite his menacing appearance, trying to appeal as friendly as possible.


    "They are my friends, I also just awakened!" Glen said while pointing at the screen above the pod he had used, the information of his awakening was still displayed on it


    The Tower master turned to look at the screen that Glen was pointing at, he silently read all the details on the screen within a second.


    ''Oh, he''s an A-level talent? That''s a result to be proud about, just his luck to have two prodigies awaken at the same time as him" the Tower master of the Lance branch Tower thought to himself. He felt that Glen was just unlucky to have his spotlight stolen by his two friends but that did not mean that he was any less valuable.


    " Oh, an impressive result as well. Birds of the same feathers flock together indeed. Allow me to introduce myself," the man stood up straight while placing one of his hands in front of his chest " My name is Adam Lance, the current Tower master of the seventh branch under the Lance family.


    I want to formally invite you three to join our Tower so that you can get adequate training that is befitting of your talents as germs like yourselves would need the perfect refinement to glow.


    Priorities would be given to your every needs for the duration of your training and a high-paying position in the Tower upon your graduation from training, along with these benefits will be land properties which are personal villas in the middle of San Pluto which will be given to each of you¡­of course, the cost of all these will be covered by the tower.


    All we require is that you join the Lance Tower and sign a contract to work for the tower, don''t worry about the Tower trying to take advantage of you because you will be provided with a copy of the contract each to study and negotiation is very well welcomed.


    The Tower will only require you to go on a few missions each year which you can as well reject for other missions" The man who had now addressed himself as Adam Lance said with a genuine smile on his face, his words sounding so sincere that they left no room for people to doubt them.


    Ivan and Ralph stared at Adam with stunned looks on their faces which soon turned into a frown. From everything Adam had said, everything seemed to benefit them while they only needed to do just one mission every year for the tower, the offer was just too good to be as simple as he had presented it.


    Glen, on the other hand, was trembling from excitement upon hearing everything that Adam had said. He could not stop imagining all the wealth and fame he could get with such an offer, there was also a personal villa! He could bring his family over and they would never have to worry about anything ever again!


    He would have rushed to accept the offer if not that Ralph was secretly holding his shirt from behind.


    Adam looked at the three young men in front of him, he felt confident about recruiting these three future powerhouses before the representatives of the other big towers arrived. Glen''s expression greatly boosted his confidence but Ralph''s and Ivan''s serious expressions did the exact opposite which made Adam want to say more.


    ''What are you thinking about so seriously? Everything I said is sincere, hurry up and accept before others arrive!'' Adam urged inwardly while maintaining a calm expression to make the two believe that he wasn''t nervous about rejection.


    Unfortunately for him, a loud voice sounded from behind him which made him feel like someone had downed a bucket of cold water on him.


    "Adam Lance, do you think it''s funny to try tricking children just because they are inexperienced?" The voice said scornfully.


    Adam froze for a bit before his face turned to one of annoyance as he turned back to face the person he had spoken to from behind him, Ivan and the rest also looked at the newcomer who had suddenly appeared without anyone noticing.


    "James" Adam muttered in a low voice that was laced with fighting intent while his eyes looked like they would tear their newcomer to shreds.


    This newcomer was a tall man in a suit, he looked like someone in his fifties but stood straight like an arrow with piercing green eyes which stared back at Adam as he confidently stepped toward him. He wasn''t as buffed as Adam was but his appearance and presence weren''t less intimidating.


    The crowd of people immediately stepped back as it had turned into a competition between the top bosses, only people of similar standing as them would be able to compete with them.


    The man who Adam had addressed as James stopped after reaching in front of Adam and stared at him right in the eyes.


    "Adam" he called back in a low but contemptuous tone which made Adam grit his teeth in suppressed rage.


    "What do you mean by tricking? Everything I said was sincere!" Adam retorted as veins bulged on his neck.


    "Sincere you say? Oh please spare me that crap, priorities during training? Isn''t that harming their level of talent?" James said with an amused expression before walking past Adam and approaching Ivan and the other two. Before he could take more than three steps, Adam''s voice sounded from behind.


    "Tks! Saying it like I was doing something wrong, aren''t you here to compete for them on behalf of your Tower as well?"


    These words made James stop on his track, his eyes slit till they were half closed and his green eyes seemed to be glowing with a dangerous light that made many amongst the crowd retreat even more when they saw it.


    With his head half turned to the back, he gazed at Adam through the corner of his eyes.


    " Compete? Do you think you are worthy of competing with me? Let me remind you," James'' voice became cold suddenly" I am the Tower master of the headquarters of the Owen tower, which is located right here in San Pluto. The Lance Tower''s headquarters on the other hand is NOT in this city and you, Adam, are just a Tower master of a side branch.


    We aren''t on the same level, know your place!" James'' words were so piercing that a lot of people were already shivering from his aura. Adam''s hands were tightly clenched as he stared at James with a murderous gaze. It took him a while to calm himself before saying


    "Even if that is true, you can''t force your idea on them too. The final decision is theirs to make so I''ll wait for them to decide!" His words were firm, Indicating that he wasn''t going to leave just because of James.


    James did not respond and simply let out a small smirk that disappeared immediately after before turning to the three boys.


    Ivan watched as James approached them, his actions just now would definitely serve as a bad point if he wanted to recruit them but for some reason, Ivan wanted to know what James had to say. Not like he could simply walk away anyway.


    James stopped in front of them and looked down at them, he did not know who amongst them was the SS, S, or A-level talent. But he did not need to know as he was planning to take them all in.


    Silently clearing his voice, James opened his mouth and said.


    "You might already know this but I''ll still take my time to introduce myself.


    My name is James Owen, the Tower master of the headquarters of the Owen Tower. One of the strongest five towers in the world and our headquarters is located right here in San Pluto.


    I want to invite you three to join the Owen Tower as trainees to undergo training, and unlike a certain someone he doesn''t know how to nurture talents" James gave Adam a side glance as he said those words which made the man glare back at him.


    " I believe that true germs can only shine through perfect tempering so do not expect any special treatment from the Tower during your training. S§×ar?h the ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    You will join other recruits and undergo similar training with them without any specific help from us, you will have to rise with your strength and only then will you be able to truly achieve your true potential; by competing against others who are as talented as you.


    As I said earlier, our Tower is one of the strongest five left. We got that title for a reason so do not think that you are special just because you managed to get such impressive results. There are many like you in the Tower and even some who are more monstrous.


    As for the benefits of joining, after you finish training, you''ll have to start from the lowest level of the Towerand work your way up with your strength along with other people. So it doesn''t look like we are not appreciative of your talents, the Tower can offer personal villas to each of you as well. These villas are located on the western side of San Pluto "

 Chapter 14 - 14: Choices

    The crowd that had been silent all these while erupted in an uproar when they heard James''s words, even Adam could not help but stare at James in shock.


    While his previous offer of giving them villas in the center of San Pluto could be counted as generous, James'' offer was outright startling.


    One had to know that the center of San Pluto was the most flourishing part of the city with all the big companies and wealthy people living in it, affording a simple apartment in this location was as hard as shaving one''s hair with their toes.


    When compared to the western side of San Pluto on the other hand, everyone had to admit that that location held a significant importance to the people of San Pluto. The western side wasn''t as bustling or as populated as the center of San Pluto, it rather had few people and was mostly a quiet neighborhood. The reason for this was that¡­


    Getting a place on the western side of San Pluto was close to impossible! Only those at the Pinnacle of Power were able to afford to stay in that part of San Pluto, people spent billions upon billions but still got turned down at times even when their request was a simple duplex or bungalow.


    Yet, James was promising these three young men three villas in that place? Even Adam did not have the right to stay there!


    Ralph and Ivan carefully observed everyone''s expressions and could easily figure out that the location of the villas that James was offering was of a higher status compared to Adam''s, but that wasn''t what attracted them the most about everything that the man had said.


    To Ivan, all he could hear was having the chance to train with others who were as talented or even more talented than himself. Getting the chance to compete against such geniuses was the most attractive offer for someone who had sworn to gain strength. Why would he want to receive special treatment when he could fight and increase his strength against other prodigies?


    "I accept" Ivan''s voice broke through the sea of murmurs, causing everyone to temporarily turn quiet and look at him.


    James'' eyes flashed over as he gazed at the white-haired kid, nothing looked special about this young man at first glance but who would imagine that he was actually an SS-level talent Nexulyte?


    Ralph and Glen turned to look at Ivan in surprise as this was the first time Ivan had decided to make a decision for himself, he would usually leave the decision-making to Ralph and just follow with it as long as it was alright.


    Seeing that Ivan had decided to join the Owen Tower, Ralph knew that he must have thought it through before accepting because he had done the same. So without wasting anyone''s time, he accepted James'' offer as well.


    James wore a slight smile on his face as he looked at the two future powerhouses of his Tower. He really did not care much about what Glen decided to do as he was as valuable as these two.


    Though slightly reluctant, Glen still decided to accept James'' offer. After all, his two friends were going there, why should he be the one to go another way?


    Having secured what he came here for, James turned to look at Adam and shot him a provocative smile.


    "There, you have their answers. Are you still planning to follow them to our Tower?" He asked.


    Adam did not respond and only gave all of them hateful glares before leaving, the rest of the crowd also began to disperse slowly in search of other newly awakened Nexulytes.


    James turned back to look at the three of them, he waved his hand and three tokens appeared above his hand which he passed to each of them.


    "These are the tower''s tokens which will show that you are a trainee when you come to the tower. I''ll like to bring you with me but I know that you all might have a few things to take care of before coming since the training will last for six months and you will not be allowed to leave until graduation.


    Luckily for you three, the training will start in a week from now so make sure you find your way to the tower by then. Someone will be waiting to receive you once you arrive" James explained to the three who were observing their tokens.


    Before he left, he added.


    "Just so you know, there are people who will join the training as well who failed to graduate last year and also people who have received special training from their families. So do not think it will be easy and put your all into your training" Only after this reminder did James leave the three alone.


    They stayed there for a few more seconds, taking in the new feeling and everything that had happened since they exited the pod.


    "Yes!! We are now Nexulytes!" Glen could not help but jump in excitement while waving his token in the air. Ralph had a smile on his face, equally happy about everything. Only Ivan kept a serious face, he was thinking how the training would go and how long it would take him to start carrying out his plans.


    The people who were in the hall turned to look at the trio since Glen''s shout of excitement had been heard by them but no one tried to caution them over their behaviors, more like no one dared to.


    Their celebration was called short by Ralph who suggested for them to leave and return to meet the cab driver who was still waiting at the parking space.


    On their way out, however, they ran into four men at the entrance of the awakening center. The face of Ralph and Glen turned stern and hateful upon seeing these four men while Ivan''s face became cold and murderous.


    These four people were the Nexulytes in charge of guarding the outskirt that the three of them were from. They were also the freaks who had tormented Ivan for years.


    "Well well well, what do we have here?" One of the four men said with a surprised voice upon seeing the three boys, they quickly moved toward them and surrounded the three.


    "We only left our post for a day and you dared to sneak out? You want to try and awaken, right? Then why leave so soon, can''t pay the fee?" Another one asked with a dirty grin on his face but his eyes shone with a dangerous glint.


    The one who seemed to be their leader stared at Ivan intently, seeing the clean clothes that Ivan was in left a bad taste in his mouth.


    "Who gave you the permission to leave the outskirt? How dare you come to San Pluto? Tell me!" He demanded with his eyes still fixed on Ivan.


    Ivan, as if getting hit by an old trauma, seemed to have forgotten how to speak or move and could only stare at the ground obediently with his hands clenched.


    "Oh, I see you''ve grown some balls after we left you for just one day. You even dare to ball your fist in front of me" the man asked in a threatening voice.


    Many of the people who were close by had gathered to watch the show, some of these people were amongst the crowd who had experienced the battle between the Owen Tower and the Lance Tower over these three but decided not to speak up.


    They wanted to see what those four men would do and try to step in at the last moment, in hopes of forming a good impression on Ivan and Ralph which would lead to a good connection with powerhouses in the future.


    Seeing the many people watching them, Glen became tense and angered. Unable to hold himself back anymore, he glared back at the leader of these men.


    "You better let us be if you know what''s good for you, we''ve now awakened and have been recruited by a powerful Tower!" He let out in an attempt to scare these men away but his action seemed to now have achieved its intended effect.


    "Hahaha, did he just say awakened? How funny? Can you afford to pay by even selling your family? And even if you do, what can trash like you from the outskirts possibly achieve?"


    The four men laughed in unison.


    "Don''t you dare talk about my family!" Glen shouted back in rage.


    "Hmm, you dare to raise your voice at me? Looks like I''ll have to teach you a lesson before we go back" the leader of the men said and approached Glen with one of his hands raised high, he was going to slap Glen.


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    His arm was caught in midair by a powerful grip. The man turned back to see who it was that had grabbed his arm and was met by a pair of sharp green eyes.


    It was James!


    Glen''s face showed one of excitement upon seeing James, Ralph equally sighed in relief.


    "Now now, who might you be trying to harm a trainee of the Owen Tower?" James asked with a cold smile that sent shivers down the spines of the four men.


    " T-tower master?" The man whose arm was grabbed by James stuttered fearfully.


    "Hmm, you know me?" James asked with raised eyebrows while releasing the man''s arm from his grip.


    The four of them quickly moved to the side and bowed to James while introducing themselves.


    "We are Nexulytes of the Owen Tower, I and my squad have been tasked with guarding one of the outskirts around San Pluto for years now," The leader said.


    " Yet you choose to bully those weaker than you? Looks like the discipline of the Tower is lacking, the four of you are coming with me" James said before strolling past them while the faces of the four men turned pale. They looked at Glen''s group one last time with disbelieving gazes before hastily following James.


    Ralph saw that Ivan was still standing with his head lowered even after James had left with the four men, he approached him and placed a hand on his shoulder.


    "It''s alright now, they will most likely never bother you again, let''s go," He said as they left for the parking space.

 Chapter 15 - 15: Unknown talent

    Later that day, at 9:43 pm. San Pluto, western sector (also the western side of San Pluto)


    Inside a massive villa that stretched for over a hundred meters, a wide living room that was decorated lavishly could be seen through a window.


    An old man sat inside this living room on a couch while reading a file, a massive chandelier hung from the ceiling and perfectly lit up the living room.


    This old man looked like he was in his nineties and had a very long white beard, his face had turned skinny with age and his head was fully covered in gray hair but his eyes were as sharp as those of fierce predators.


    He wore a one-piece robe that covered almost every part of his body, leaving only his skinny hands that were holding onto the file as he read in silence.


    The peaceful silence of the living room was interrupted by the sudden sound of the door being opened, followed by hurried footsteps and a voice filled with urgency.


    "Father, father! I have something to report!" James Owen, the Tower master of the Owen Tower rushed to the side of the old man with a small pile of files in his hand. His present demeanor was vastly different from his bearing earlier today as he appeared to be almost panicking.


    The old man who turned out to be James'' father slowly raised his head and gazed at his son with a pair of calm yet scary green eyes, he did not appear bothered by his son''s lack of composure in the slightest.


    "What is it that makes you behave so out of character and why do you need to inform me? Is it about the failed mission to the soulless garden? Don''t worry about it since I had expected such an outcome, whatever it is that happens in the tower should be regulated by the tower master. Now leave and stop bothering me" The old man calmly said before returning his attention to the files in his hands.


    James was temporarily stunned by his father''s words, the old man had learned of the failed mission so fast yet he claimed to have left James in charge of everything! But that did not mean he was going to leave as that wasn''t what had brought him here.


    Without sitting, James impatiently said¡­


    "It''s not about that, I came to report about a recruit I recruited into the tower today, " James said and stretched his hand that was holding the files toward his father.


    The old man once again raised his head to look at his son, a slight frown could be seen on his old face this time.


    " You, the tower master of the Owen Tower main Branch, personally recruited a newly awakened Nexulyte. Not only did you make such a degrading act, you even dare to come to inform me about it?" The old man questioned coldly.


    Still not shaken, James waved the files in front of the old man and added


    "You will understand once you read these"


    The old man stared at James intently for a few seconds, observing his confident expression before taking the files and opening them.


    Just a few seconds after he started to read it, the eyes of the old man widened after reading the first page. He quickly began to flip through the rest pages as he read faster, he had finished reading everything in less than thirty seconds.


    The information contained in these files were details about Ivan''s ability, talent level, and background, as well as similar details about Ralph and Glen. Not only did James have someone compile a file about the results of their awakening, but he also investigated their backgrounds in less than 10 hours.


    Ivan was an orphan who had been living badly for years, Glen was from a family that grew up in the outskirts and his parents worked hard to take care of him and his sister, Ralph had been more fortunate at the start. His mother was a Nexulyte under a small Tower but was discarded with a little money after she got gravely wounded, they had lived in the outskirts since then.


    " A talent that has no record of it and such a high level at that, I suspect that you''re the only one who might know about it" James voiced out from the side, his voice pulling the old man who had suddenly fallen into a daze from his thoughts.


    The old man handed the files back to James before standing up, his back was slightly hunched and both hands were placed above his waist.


    "Indeed, his talent has no record of it throughout the long history of Nexulytes. Even I have not heard of such a talent or talent group before" the old man said in a low voice and began to move towards a door on the side of the living room, James followed behind him.


    "Does that mean this is a first?" James asked as his eyes widened in realization.


    The old man replied without turning around.


    "Don''t get me wrong. I did say that his ability has no records of it, I didn''t say he was the first"


    James'' face contorted in confusion "What do you mean" he asked.


    "What I mean, is that¡­he isn''t the only one with an unrecorded talent in the long history of humanity. A long time ago, there was someone who also had a talent that held no record. He was a monster amongst men, a prodigy to look up to. Sadly, he disappeared without anyone finding out what his talent was; his talent remains a mystery to date" explained the old man.


    " Who is that person that even you praise so much?" James could not help but ask. His father, the head and founder of the Owen Tower, was a very picky person. And throughout his long years, the number of people he had acknowledged could be counted on one hand.


    The old man stopped in front of an iron door, he responded to his son while placing a hand on the door.


    "You said that you had investigated their backgrounds and found out he was an orphan who did not even know his family and had lived in misery for many years, but you know that the awakening is able to bring out the truth about such matters"


    James showed a thoughtful expression at his father''s words while nodding "Of course, I know that. But what does it have to do with this?"


    The old man paused and turned to look at his son with a meaningful gaze before asking.


    "What did his name show?


    James stared back at his father with looks of confusion as to why his father would ask him that, but he still answered regardless.


    " According to his awakening, his full name is Ivan Von¡­Charles"


    James'' eyes widened as he mentioned the last part of Ivan''s name, realization hitting him like a truck of cold water.


    At the same time, the old man opened the iron door, and a grand room was revealed with a single statue inside.


    This statue was that of a middle-aged man in plate armor and a long cloak on his back, at the foot of the statue where the words


    ''Charles Von Ethan, savior of humanity''


    James stared at the statue with wide eyes, as if unable to believe what he was thinking.


    His father looked at his expression and shook his head before approaching the statue and standing in front of it.


    "I believe you should have figured it out by now," he said, pulling James from his state of shock.


    James looked at his father as he slowly calmed down.


    "But how is that possible? Ethan disappeared over eight hundred years ago and you all could not find traces of him even after trying for years!" He argued.


    The old man shook his head gently.


    "I do not know how either, but their names are too similar to be a mistake. The results of one''s awakening don''t lie. These two are the only two in history to possess two family names along with theirs, others who had tried to imitate this act had all died mysteriously.


    In addition to that¡­Ethan is the other person who possessed a talent that had no record " the old man said with a sigh and a hint of unknown emotion in his voice.


    "Then, if this kid really is Ethan''s descendant¡­then" James mumbled, cut short by his father''s voice.


    " It''s a good thing that you managed to recruit the kid into our tower, I wasn''t able to help Ethan back then when his family was murdered. If he really did have descendants after disappearing, the least that I can do as an old comrade is to take care of them when I find one" the old man said emotionally.


    It might not look like it but this old man, Karl Owen, the head and founder of the Owen Tower, was a powerful Nexulyte who was over 800 years old and he had been present when Ethan saved humanity from annihilating itself with his strange and unknown talent.


    "Did you send someone to watch over them?" The old man asked and James nodded in response.


    The old man, Karl Owen, smiled with both eyes closed.


    " That''s good, keep watching over him till he arrives at the tower where we can fully protect him and let him grow. The others must have already reported to the leaders of their respective towers and this news is bound to cause a ripple for those of our time. Ethan might have saved humanity but he still made enemies who would do anything to get back at him.


    The chance of Ivan being his descendant despite not being verified yet puts him in grave danger, so be sure to protect him at all costs" the old man said.


    " Understood, Father, " James nodded and left the room.


    The old man, also known as Karl Owen, was now left alone in the room. He stared at the statue for a while more before turning to leave the room while saying.


    "You were a shining star during your time and shadowed us all, now someone who might be related to you has also appeared and his talent and potential are bound to cause a ripple in the world¡­are you watching from wherever you are?" Sear?h the nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The door was closed as his words fell.

 Chapter 16 - 16: Chaos

    At the same time when James had gone to report to his father, similar actions had been carried out by other representatives of the other towers who had been present in the awakening center that day.


    Members of various Towers would report the news to their Tower masters who would then proceed to inform the founders and heads of the Towers about the matter.


    The many small Towers had ordered their people to only observe Ivan and the rest and not get in contact with them to avoid angering the Owen Tower, but the same was not so for the other four biggest towers that were on par with the Owen Tower.


    At the residence of the head of the Lance Tower, Gareth Lance, the founder of the Lance Tower and ancestor of the Lance family stared at the Tower masters of the seven branches of the Lance Tower with a serious face. He was an old man who looked no younger than Karl Owen.


    "It would be a disaster to leave that kid with the Owens if my speculations are true. Adam, you''ve met this kid before. Lead the others and be sure to bring back the kid at all costs!" Gareth Lance ordered.


    At the residence of the founder and ancestor of the Christopher family, an old man who was of similar age to Gareth and Karl stood backing a group of people. Sear?h the ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "I don''t have any hatred with him nor do I have a favorable impression of him, even if the kid isn''t related to him, his talent level and unrecorded ability are too much of a big news to leave to the Owens alone. Who knows how much the Owens will grow if they can gain the trust of a potential Demigod rank Nexulyte?


    Go, get the boy at all costs!" He ordered in a plain voice.


    The group of people behind him bowed in unison before disappearing.


    On the opposite side of earth, the dreamscape. The Current Tower master of the Dominion Tower had come to report to the heads of the Dominion Tower who were currently residing at their base in the dreamscape.


    Unlike other Towers, the Dominion Tower wasn''t founded by a single person and was rather the collective of five old and powerful Nexulytes.


    These five were a group of three females and two males who were of similar age to Karl and the rest.


    The five of them immediately held a meeting after receiving the news.


    "That dude really did not disappear huh? He actually created a monster like himself!" One of the five mumbled in a heavy tone.


    "Shouldn''t we do something about him in case he is related to him?" Another asked with a ferocious expression.


    "We should observe the situation for now and see how the other Towers will react, everything should be under control since he was taken in by the Owen Tower but we should still keep an eye on him and his friends. After all, San Pluto is ruled by our Tower and the Owen Tower"


    The third, last, and smallest major city on earth, this city was where the Ethan Tower was located. The Ethan Tower was a tower created by a group of old Nexulytes who claimed to have been helpers of the Savior of humanity during his mission to save the world back then.


    Four people sat cross-legged inside a Nexus chamber, visible Nexus energy swirled around them which they absorbed at a crazy pace.


    These four were the founders of the Ethan Tower.


    "If the kid is truly " his" descendant, then it is only right that he comes to us!" Someone voiced out righteously.


    "I agree, the Owen Tower recruiting him is clearly suspicious. That old man is not a trusted person" another person added.


    "They are clearly after the talent of the kid, we should send people to San Pluto and get him"


    "Agreed"


    "Agreed"


    "Agreed"


    ...


    Over the following days, Ivan, Glen, and Ralph had been provided with shelter in the home of the old driver who lived with his wife and kids. His kids included the girl he had talked about and a little boy who was around fourteen years old.


    On the first day of their arrival, the girl had locked herself in her room for the whole day and refused to come out no matter who tried to get her out. Only on the second day did she agree to join them for breakfast due to her little brother''s persuasion.


    Glen and the rest had been stunned by the beauty of the girl after finally getting to see her. She was a young woman who was about 18 or 19 years old like themselves, she was a peerless beauty with blue eyes and long blonde hair which wasn''t a common sight in the outskirts.


    Glen had immediately tried to get friendly with her but the girl would not respond to him no matter what or how much he chatted on and on.


    Regardless of her silence, Ralph still kept part of his deal and shared their experience at the awakening center during their breakfast.


    He had noticed the eyes of the girl show interest before becoming dull after hearing how a lot of people gathered around them and tried to recruit them.


    ''She must really dislike people '' Ralph thought to himself.


    After a good two days of persuasion, the girl finally agreed to awaken.


    She had ended up awakening the singer''s Talent and had been shown to have a B-level talent at that. While this was not a useful ability for the towers when conquering the dreamscape, it was big news for entertainment industries and a lot of them tried to scout her.


    Unsurprisingly, she had ignored all of them and came straight home with her father.


    "Such a talent for a person with her personality, how unlucky?"


    Glen had exclaimed after hearing the news, this had earned him a glare from the girl who later went to her room right after.


    "Sigh, I also think she''s quite unlucky. We''ll have to give her time to get used to the change, now about the books you guys asked me to get for you" the old driver said before opening a big bag he had brought with them.


    Ralph had asked him to get them books about the different towers, Nexulytes, as well as books about the dreamscape.


    Unknown to them was that, during these few days of peaceful living, a lot of battles had actually been happening around them.


    The battles were of course between members of various Towers who were either sent to kidnap¡­ahem, sorry¡­rescue Ivan or keep watch over them.


    After five days had passed with all sides suffering losses, the various heads who took Ivan very seriously had decided to make a move themselves as it would be near impossible to get him once he left for the Owen Tower training facility.


    On the sixth day of Ivan and his friends staying at the home of the driver who they now knew as old man Yamato, it was currently 10:33 pm and the world was covered in a veil of darkness with countless stars gleaming in the night sky.


    At the borders of San Pluto, various figures appeared one after the other and remained floating in the air with their abilities or external support.


    At the same time as these figures appeared, a group of other people opened their eyes in their respective residences before flashing out and reappearing in the air in front of these figures.


    "Gareth"


    "Karl"


    "Myles¡­"


    Names were mentioned for a few seconds as the people confirmed each other''s identity.


    On one side were the heads of the Dominion Tower and the head of the Owen Tower, while the intruders were the heads of the Ethan Tower, the head of the Christopher Tower, and the head of the Lance Tower.


    Everyone numbered in a Total of twelve, six on each side.


    "What have you come to our city for?" Karl Owen asked in a not-so-friendly tone as his eyes moved from one person to another, the heads of the Dominion Tower standing behind him with serious expressions as well.


    "We heard the news of his descendant''s appearance, we demand custody of him as his place is with us," said one of the heads of the Ethan Tower. This person was an old lady who still managed to make herself look like she was in her sixties despite being the same age as the other people present, her name was Sylvia Scott.


    Karl looked at her for a brief moment before moving his eyes over to the head of the Lance family.


    "Your tower failed to recruit him, he chose to join us instead so why are you here?" Karl asked Gareth Lance.


    "I and "he" were on good terms and I admired him. I can''t let you take advantage of his descendant!" Gareth voiced out in a serious and righteous tone.


    Karl still did not answer and moved his gaze to the last person present, his eyes turned murderous as they landed on the head of the Christopher family, Myles Christopher.


    The old man who was known as Myles Christopher let out a smile when he saw the gaze of Karl.


    "Hehe, don''t look at me like that. I only heard there was a super genius here, I only came to verify and maybe invite him if possible" he said with a short cold laugh.


    Karl glared at all of them one last time before turning to look at the bright San Pluto that was well-illuminated by street lights and shining billboards despite the time being night. The city looked so successful and peaceful and he wasn''t able to see the end of it despite his ability.


    "We should discuss this somewhere else" Karl spoke up as a menacing wave of Nexus energy began to rise from his body.


    "Oh, definitely. A nice location would be needed for this matter" Myles Christopher responded with a grin as red lightning cracked around his body.


    The others also began to enter combat mode as well, hell was about to be unleashed!

 Chapter 17 - 17: Proper conversation

    Five minutes later, a total of twelve figures appeared at a distance of over five hundred kilometers away from San Pluto.


    The place that they appeared at was like a barren wasteland that stretched as far as the eyes could see, signs of destruction and battles scarred this place. Rubbles that were once parts of buildings and old tree stumps were all that was left in this place.


    When one looked down, one would be able to see quite the number of mirror gates of various sizes with countless monsters crawling out of them; the entire wasteland was now home to monsters from the dreamscape!


    These twelve people who had appeared above this place were the heads of the five biggest towers and had come here to settle the issue about Ivan, of course they had come here knowing what to expect.


    A flying monster that was as huge as fifty meters but had butterfly-like wings immediately spotted them after they appeared, the monster let out a loud roar before flying towards them. Despite its size and small Wings, the monster''s flight speed was surprisingly very fast as it covered the distance between the ground and the group of twelve oldies in a second!


    Sadly for it, these old people were no ordinary people as the instant it got close enough to them, a single red lightning bolt flashed towards it at an even faster speed and pierced its head before exploding it into a rain of blood and burnt flesh.


    "Quite the location for a discussion, these old bones of mine haven''t had the chance to stretch in a long time after taking up responsibilities" Christopher Myles said with a smirk as red lightning continued to crack around his body.


    Without much being said, they quickly separated into smaller groups as they were about to engage into the fight.


    Christopher Myles and Gareth Lance were facing Karl Owen and Wayne Adam, one of the heads of the Dominion Tower.


    The other four members of the Dominion Tower were facing off against the four people from the Ethan Tower.


    "You could have taken an easy way out if you had just minded your business, looks like the Christopher family will have to continue without their ancestor" Karl Owen muttered in a cold tone, the thick Nexus energy rising from his body formed into a five meter tall dark red panther. This panther was known as the shadow panther and it was Karl''s beast companion.


    The face of Gareth Lance turned serious when he saw Karl summoning his shadow panther and merging with it, he also began to morph as well.


    In less than ten seconds, the two of them had changed from how they looked when they had come here earlier.


    Karl was now clad in dark red mecha like suit with the helmet of a panther covering his head, his hands had sharp pointy steels that acted as claws and a metal tail attached at the back of his waist.


    This was one of the abilities of a high ranked beast companion Nexulyte, the ability to merge with their beasts and use the beast''s abilities and features like theirs.


    Gareth, on the other hand, was now in a bright red nano tech suit with red and black patterns. His head was covered in a smooth helmet that only showed two glowing red eyes and on his chest was a small glowing red circle.


    The only ones who did not have any transformations were Christopher Myles and the one of the heads of the Dominion Tower, who''s name was Wayne Adam.


    The reasons were that Myles had the elemental gods talent while Wayne was a necromancer and had already summoned his undead keeper that now floated by his side, it was a large being that was completely wrapped in white bandages with only two pitch black eyes showing.


    All hell was let loose the next second when Karl suddenly disappeared from where he was and appeared right above Gareth, his claw like Mecha hand slamming down on his head.


    Clang!!


    Although his speed was fast, Gareth was able to react and created a large red blade with a long handle and used it to defend himself but the force of the strike was still enough to blow him away as he was sent flying away into the distance and tearing through a good numbers of monsters that had tried to swallow him.


    Seeing that his surprise attack had been blocked, Karl was about to go after Gareth but suddenly stopped and crossed his arms in front of himself.


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    A bright red lightning bolt struck his crossed arm so fiercely that the sound of a small explosion was generated, this attack equally pushed him back but not as far as he had sent Gareth flying.


    "Wayne!" Karl shouted while using Nexus energy to mend the damaged part of his transformed suit.


    "Here!" Wayne shouted in respect and his eyes glowed red.


    The Large undead beside him seemed to have come alive as it suddenly roared loudly before transforming into a white blurry figure that rushed toward Myles, Karl also took this moment to attack from behind the undead keeper as well.


    Myles wasn''t phased by their joint attack, instead, countless red lightning began to run across his body and gathered in front of his chest at a fast speed. The lightning streaks soon formed into the size of a human head, just in time for the undead keeper to arrive in front of Myles.


    With a smirk, Myles softly said¡­


    "Rampage!"


    What happened next was a gigantic explosion of red lightning bolts as lightning ran rampant through an area of three hundred meters, turning the night skies red for a moment.


    Some monsters were unfortunate to have been hit by a small amount of these lightning and immediately exploded into pieces, the whole place was immediately covered in corpse, blood, and pieces of flesh.


    Karl and the undead keeper who had been the main targets of this strike had only been pushed back for about twenty meters due to the undead keeper tanking the full force of the attack. It was currently seriously scorched with a good patch of its white bandages missing, it released the smell of burnt rotten flesh.


    Yet, this level of injury did not bother it at all since undeads were unable to feel pain. It immediately charged forward again immediately after stabilizing itself in the air. As for Karl, he had jumped away immediately after the undead keeper helped him block the attack and had dashed at Myles at a crazy speed with his claws aimed at his face.


    Myles eyes widened slightly upon seeing Karl''s claw so close to his face but his surprise lasted for less than a second, he disappeared into a streak of lightning before appearing a few meters away from Karl''s line of attack.


    Seeing that his target had escaped, Karl did not have time to react as his face was suddenly lit up by the red color of a red beam that had been fired towards him. But before the beam could reach him, a huge figure in white appeared in front of him and once again tanked the damage for him.


    Looking into the distance, one could see Gareth who had risen back into the air and was now holding a miniature cannon launcher, he had switched his sword for a cannon launcher!


    This was the ability of a battle mechanic, they were able to create nano weapons from Nexus energy as long as they had enough energy to sustain it.


    While all of these might have taken long to describe, these actions had actually all been carried out in Just five seconds! Had an ordinary person been present, they would not be able to catch the movements of these people and would only witness the destruction that they unleashed upon the earth and the unfortunate invader from the dreamscape.


    Because far in the distance, the four heads of the Ethan Tower and the remaining heads of the Dominion Tower were causing their own fair share of damage.

 Chapter 18 - 18: The strange monster

    Their fight continued for a long time with no side gaining any notable advantage, both sides seemed to have entered a game of tag.


    Myles was always fast to escape as lightning while dealing out deadly lightning strikes which the undead keeper would always block for him before attacking with its white bandages like octopus tentacles, Karl would always try to use this chance to corner Myles with his speed but he would always be forced to evade and retreat to avoid getting pierced by Gareth''s deadly beams.


    This continued for hours as white and black blurry figures danced around a red streak of light and super fast red light beams.


    The ground below them had been turned into a bloody mess as the amount of dead monsters had formed a large field of corpses and rivers of blood that flowed back into the mirrored gates in the surroundings.


    Another hour passed and both sides decided to pull from each other to keep their breaths, although their fights hadn''t made any notable progress, they had managed to land some hits and exhaust one another.


    Karl stood in the air with an exhausted Wayne and the undead keeper beside him. Karl''s helmet was currently gone and one could see that his hair was standing straight as if he had suffered an electric shock.


    Wayne was bathed in sweat as he had been expanding a large amount of energy to sustain the presence of the undead keeper and to continuously heal it from the damages that it received, the undead keeper appeared to have lost a few of its bandages and it had multiple burnt marks on its body which were closing up at a very slow pace.


    On the other hand, Myles had a few cuts on his body where blood flowed from and dyed his clothes but his expression didn''t show that he was in pain and his body was still covered in lightning.


    As for Gareth, his nano suit had begun to lose color and the type of weapons that he could create had become smaller.


    Both sides stared at each other in silence while trying to assert the condition of the other party.


    "This is just stupid and irrational, we won''t get anything with this. Don''t you old farts have anything else better to do with your time?" Karl hissed in anger and annoyance.


    "Looks like you don''t understand, old man. It''s either you hand over the kids or we can continue this all day" Myles replied plainly like he was requesting vegetables and not a person.


    Karl''s eyes narrowed, his claw-like hands clenched together in suppressed anger.


    "Christopher Myles, you have no connection to Ethan nor do you have any relationship to him, why would you want the boy?" Karl asked in honest curiosity.


    Myles shrugged in response before saying.


    "You don''t understand, their talents aren''t something that I can simply ignore. So even if I can''t have both, I''m determined to take one with me"


    Karl''s teeth gritted in anger but before he could speak, a low voice that sent all of them quiet sounded from the ground.


    " What''s all this ruckus about? I can hear your noises from miles away on the other side" Said an irritated voice.


    The voice wasn''t loud but had reached the ears of everyone in the area and for some reason, they all felt a chill run through their bodies.


    Karl, Myles, and everyone who had come here for the "discussion" stopped whatever they were doing and turned to look in the direction of the voice.


    Not far away, in front of a mirrored gate that was surrounded by flowing rivers of blood and corpses of monsters, stood a humanoid creature but its appearance was nothing similar to humans.


    Bright red skin, two huge birdlike wings, a face that was akin to the skeleton of a horse''s head, and on top of its head were small red horns with flames on their tips. The monster stood at a height of six meters and had smokey purple eyes on its horse face.


    It quietly stood in front of the mirrored gate that it had just walked out from and stared at the mess of corpses that littered the place, both of its arms folded behind its back.


    Karl and the rest looked at the monster with wide eyes, they all had a single thought on their minds the instant they laid their eyes on it.


    They were no match for it!


    The monster observed for a while more before raising its head to look at the people in the sky, they immediately felt cold in their hearts whenever the eyes of the monster swept past them.


    Myles was the only one who dared to show a disgusted expression toward the monster despite being shaken by the strength of the monster.


    "You twelve are responsible for this mess?" The monster questioned as it slowly rose into the air.


    Karl wanted to speak but found his words stuck in his throat.


    "As expected, humans are always troublesome creatures. These monsters have given up on hunting humans and chosen to stay here but you just can''t let them stay in peace and have to kill them. Is killing fun? Maybe I should try it too"


    The voice of the monster was so eerie and cold that it made one shiver.


    Without waiting for the monster to do anything else, Karl turned around and shouted.


    "Wayne!"


    As if able to read Karl''s mind, Wayne immediately reacted and controlled his undead keeper which turned into a white blur and flashed toward the red-skinned monster.


    At the same time, everyone including Wayne turned around and fled; they did not want to know what would happen to the undead keeper, all that they knew was that it would not be able to defeat the monster and at most only buy them time to run.


    Immediately, they had covered dozens of kilometers as they fled from the place. At the same time, the undead keeper arrived in front of the monster with its huge arm raised high.


    The monster''s smokey eyes glared at the undead keeper before looking away.


    "Ignorant" it muttered while waving one of its hands in front of it lazily.


    Boom!!!


    The undead keeper didn''t even have the time to react before it exploded into a bloody mist from the casual wave of the monster''s hand.


    Wayne, who was running with the others, suddenly clenched his chest and almost fell from the sky after being hit by a soul-crushing pain.


    This was the after-effect of the death of his undead keeper, the necromancer would feel excruciating pain; this was a sort of measurement to make sure that necromancers did not abuse or mistreat their undead(s)


    (An undead creature dying, LMAO)


    Despite the pain, Wayne did not dare to stop. This was not due to him not caring about the death of his undead but that he could not afford the price of stopping. After all, he could regrow his undead later on as it did not really die in its entirety.


    After killing the undead keeper, the monster spread its wings and was about to go after the humans but suddenly stopped and turned it ahead to look down in the direction of the mirrored gate it had come out from. In front of it stood a young human male who seemed to be in his teens.


    No matter how one would look at him, he looked like an ordinary human child in his teens but the monster who had scared Karl and other heads of famous Towers away did not dare act arrogantly in front of this teenager.


    "Why?" It asked in confusion.


    The teen stared at it with a lack of interest before opening his mouth.


    "Don''t just go after them and come back immediately" he said before going back into the mirrored gate and disappearing into it, he did not even wait to confirm if the monster would make any unpleasant remarks or disobey.


    Seeing the teen act so arrogant, the monster was not displeased in the slightest. It bowed while saying "understood" before descending to the ground.


    Only after crossing the mirrored gate and arriving in the dreamscape did the teenager reply.


    "Mother''s order" S§×ar?h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

 Chapter 19 - 19: Arrival at the tower

    The one-week time limit given to Ivan and the rest was finally over and it was time for them to leave for the tower where their training was to be held, the three of them had gotten ready to leave as early as five in the morning.


    After seven days of staying with the old driver and his family, Ralph had requested various books to fill them in on general knowledge about Towers and Nexulytes. Of course, the informal they were able to get were only those the Towers allowed to let out and were considered more or less useful.


    After spending some time in their home, the young woman who had awakened a singing talent had found it convenient enough to wave them goodbye; the old driver had offered to help them get to where they were going.


    After driving for five minutes, they arrived at a place with quite a few people in high-quality clothes. They all came down from their cars before entering a huge cabin-like structure.


    The old man found a place that wasn''t far from the cabin and parked before coming out, Ivan and his friends came down as well.


    "Alright, if I remember right, the Owen Tower headquarters is located in the southern sector of San Pluto, occupying more than half of the sector. This teleportation vault will take you directly to the Tower''s region and you can easily find your way from there " the old driver explained.


    " Why do we need a teleportation vault? Can''t you just take us there in your car?" Glen asked in confusion.


    The old driver laughed in response.


    " As much as I would like to go there, I can''t. The southern sector isn''t that close to the northern sector where we are and it would take me hours if not an entire day to get there by driving " explained the old driver after laughing.


    " What?! It''s so huge?" Glen exclaimed in shock. sea??h th§× N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    " Maybe you don''t know but each sector of San Pluto covers hundreds of kilometers, exploring the entire northern sector can''t be done in a few hours " The old driver added before urging them to go enter the teleportation vault so they would not be late from chatting with him.


    "Goodbye old man, see you another time!" Glen called out as they entered the vault, Ivan nodded at the old man while Ralph gave a slight bow before the doors of the vault closed up and a white light enveloped them inside.


    The old man watched with a smile as the white light flashed around the teleportation vault, he felt a bit emotional like he was sending his kids away.


    "Good luck, boys" he muttered to himself before entering his car, he still had to carry on with his driving job.


    ...¡­.


    The white light enveloped them inside the vault and the three of them felt a strange sensation that made their insides turn and they felt light-headed, it took everything in them to prevent themselves from throwing up; Glen was less unreserved and fell on his knees the next moment after the feeling disappeared and the white light retracted.


    The other people in the vault stared at Glen with curious expressions but said nothing and simply left the vault to carry on with their business.


    "You alright?" Ralph asked while extending a hand to help Glen up.


    "Of course not, I wouldn''t be like this if I were," Glen said, irritated that he was the only one who was in such a condition.


    "Must be because of first time experience with teleportation" Ralph said to console him but that did not help, it instead angered Glen even more.


    "Then what about you two? Isn''t this your first time as well?"


    Before they could carry on with their banter, a huge man in a neat uniform appeared at the entrance of the vault with a few others behind him.


    " Are you brats going to stay here all day? Others need to use it" the man said with annoyance.


    All three of them looked at the people who had suddenly appeared in front of them with blank faces, they were all dressed in similar uniforms like they were some special force.


    " Sorry, we''ll get out now" Ralph apologized before dragging Glen out, Ivan silently followed from behind.


    " Looks like just anyone can come here these days, even brats are allowed to come here to play around " one of the people behind the huge man snickered when they passed the three.


    All three of them turned to look at the person who seemed to be just around their age but gave off a dangerous vibe, it was a young man with blue hair that fell at the side of his face.


    Glen was pissed that someone their age would talk to them in such a manner and wanted to vent but before he could, Ralph covered his mouth with his hand and continued pulling him.


    Only after they had gone a good distance from the place did he release the struggling Glen.


    "Puah! Why did you stop me? That guy was acting like a d?*K!" Glen complained.


    Ralph stared at him, annoyance visible in his eyes which were directed at Glen.


    "Are you stupid? Don''t just go around challenging everyone like you do in the outskirt, this is the territory of the Owen Tower, and judging by their dress, they must be members of the tower!" Ralph retorted while shifting his glasses.


    " So what? We are recruits of the tower and will be joining soon, what gives him the right to talk to us like that?" Glen still wasn''t satisfied.


    This time, it was Ivan who replied to Glen.


    "That''s the difference. We are recruits but not members yet and have to go through training, there''s a possible chance of things going wrong for us.


    They, on the other hand, are already members of the tower and have the right to look down on unknown people like us" Ivan said slowly, his eyes help blank look that barely shielded the hatred that was burning within while he looked in the direction of the vault.


    He did not need to be told before he knew that those people were all Nexulytes and the attitude of that blue-haired dude reminded him of those four who tormented him for years.


    Glen stared at Ivan, his lips quivered as he forced himself from saying another word. Ivan rarely took time to explain anything so the few times he did, they had to listen.


    "Come, let''s go find someone to ask for directions," Ralph said before leading the way.


    They soon came across two men in similar uniforms to those people they had met earlier. They approached them respectfully with Ralph handling the conversation, they were asked a few questions including asking them to show their tokens.


    After the brief discussion, they were led by the two to the front of an enormous gate before being handed to someone else who took them to another place.


    "You three wait here, someone will come to get you," said the woman whom they had been placed under at the huge gate before leaving.


    They had been brought to a tall building that the top of it they were unable to see and taken into a room its walls were reinforced with metal and a small door on the other side.


    The room looked like a small court for a kind of sport but had no decorations or distinguishing features, it was just a plain large room with metal walls.


    Immediately after the lady left, a loud voice sounded in the room.


    "Welcome to the Owen Tower, to prove your worth of belonging to the tower, you''ll have to pass a little test before you can process through the door in front of you," The voice said.


    The three of them were startled by the sound that seemed to come out from every side of the room but before they could recover, a small space on the ground opened from which came a small platform on which a few objects were placed.


    "Pick a weapon of your choice, you have six seconds to do so"


    Sounded the voice once more.

 Chapter 20 - 20: The monster is out of control!

    "Pick a weapon of your choice, you have six seconds!"


    Ralph, Ivan, and Glen all turned to look at the platform upon hearing the voice starting a countdown from six.


    On the platform were different types of weapons ranging from street tools, delicate weapons, classic weapons, and those that they had never seen before. Immediately after the voice called out 3, all three of them rushed towards the platform and grabbed whatever their hands could reach.


    Ralph picked up a thin long sword, Glen''s choice of weapon was a small shovel with sharp sides, as for Ivan¡­Ivan picked a strange-looking brick as his choice of weapon.


    Immediately after they finished picking their weapons, the platform lowered back into the ground which then closed up when the voice reached zero.


    The three of them stared at each other and the weapon they had picked, it went without saying that Ralph and Glen gave Ivan odd stares when they saw him firmly holding the brick in his right hand.


    Was he planning to fight with that?


    They both wondered but didn''t say it out loud, Glen loosened his grip around the handle of his shovel before changing to a firm grip; he repeated this action as he got a good feel of his weapon.


    Ralph gave a few swings with a long sword as if getting used to its weight, he nodded in satisfaction after five swings.


    As for Ivan, he just stood there with his brick.


    "Now that you have picked your weapons, the test will now begin. Good luck" the voice sounded once more before going silent.


    Three seconds later, the door on the other side of the room opened, and on the other side was a metal cage that was pushed inside; they were unable to see what had pushed the cage inside the room before the door closed.


    The metal cage was not too big and was just the size of three wardrobes combined, they could hear the faint growling sounds that came from whatever was inside the cage.


    All three of them immediately got serious and entered a fighting pose, all their faces had serious expressions as they stared at the cage that began to fall apart.


    Bang!!


    All four sides of the cage fell to the ground with a loud noise and sitting in the middle of the fallen cage was a huge monster that the three of them did not recognize.


    The monster had a buffed body that was covered in black hair, two extremely long arms that ended with large paws and long claws, thick legs that were as big as two people combined, and a round head with only one eye on it; they could not tell how the monster was able to make the sounds that it was making.


    But that did not matter at the moment because immediately after the cage fell apart and the monster looked at them with its single eye, it stood up on its two legs and began to move toward them, step by step.


    One thing was that the monster looked incredibly intimidating and scary, the good thing was that it was very slow when compared to human movements.


    "Ar-are we supposed to fight that thing!" Glen stuttered as he stared at the big monster with wide eyes, his legs were shaking and his fingers trembled around the shovel he was holding.


    "Keep calm and don''t let yourself panic! It''s moving slowly so we should be able to deal with it if we work together!" Ralph quickly called out upon seeing how Glen was reacting to the presence of a monster.


    "B-but it''s s-s-so big!" Glen responded without thinking.


    "Listen here, you idiot! Get yourself together and don''t mess up! Didn''t you dislike how you were looked down on earlier? This is your chance to change that, now get a grip on yourself and stop acting like you have never seen a monster before!" Ralph yelled at Glen, his outburst successfully pulled Glen from the verge of despair.


    .....


    In another room that looked like a control room, Two people sat in front of a small screen that displayed the scene in the room where the three boys and the monster were facing off.


    "Hmm, nice reaction. This kid has a good talent for leading, he would make a good team leader" one of them said while nodding.


    "Indeed, a befitting character for an S-level talent Nexulyte. The other two look rather ordinary" Replied the second person.


    "True, I wonder what''s so special about him that we were not given information about him nor allowed to ask him ourselves, just look at his weapon choice"


    " Let''s just wait and see what they can do"


    ...


    Back in the testing room, following Ralph''s orders, Glen and Ivan had moved to both sides of the monster while Ralph remained standing in front to attract the monster''s attention himself so that they could attack it from the sides.


    Immediately the monster shortened the distance between itself and Ralph to three meters, it swiped toward him with one of its long hairy hands.


    Swoosh!


    The sound of the hand flying through the wind was so piercing that it made Ralph freeze for a moment but he quickly regained his calm and swung out with his sword.


    Clang!!


    The sound of his sword hitting the claws of the monster resounded inside the room and Ralph felt a small shock run through his arms as he was sent flying backwards.


    While still in midair, Ralph shouted for Ivan and Glen to attack it.


    "Now!!"


    Without saying anything, Glen charged at the monster with his shovel.


    He reached and hacked at its leg with the side of the shovel.


    Ting!


    The sound was as if Glen had struck a piece of iron, not even a scratch could be left on the body of the monster.


    "What the!" Glen muttered in shock.


    "Watch out!" Ivan''s voice pulled him from his daze, he looked up and saw the other hand of the monster coming toward him.


    Luckily, the attacks of the monster were slow which gave Glen enough time to bend down and dodge the powerful strike before quickly running away.


    Ivan, who was the last to attack, kept his distance from the monster.


    It wasn''t due to fear, he was timing the monster, and the instant he found it in the position he was waiting for, he launched his brick at its head.


    Thud!


    The brick hit the head of the monster heavily and immediately caused a small injury on it. Despite being very small, it was the only successful attack from the three of them and it also appeared to have hurt the monster as it let out an ear-piercing roar the next moment before swiping down at Ivan.


    Ivan quickly moved and tried to retrieve his brick but was forced to stop and run in the other direction to avoid the leg of the monster that was coming in the form of a kick.


    "It doesn''t attack with just its hands!" Ralph said to inform Glen.


    Ralph ran forward and picked up Ivan''s brick before throwing it to him.


    " Its head must be the weakest, let''s try to attack it there," Ralph said before running forward.


    It became a game of tag as the three of them ran around in between the monster''s legs while attacking and avoiding its attacks.


    But all their strikes were unable to leave even a wound on its tough body.


    "Ivan, go throw your brick at its face, Glen, prepare to toss me as high as possible!" Ralph called out and the two instantly understood what he had in mind.


    Ivan quickly ran to the front of the monster and sent his brick toward its only eye, the brick obviously missed but still landed on its face.


    The monster was enraged and attacked Ivan with its two long hands while changing after him, this caused it to bend its body slightly.


    "Glen!"


    Ralph shouted, he was already running toward Glen who immediately dropped his shovel and balanced himself before putting both hands together for Ralph to step on before launching him up with all his might.


    Ralph was only able to reach slightly above the monster''s back but it was enough. He stretched out both legs and gave a heavy stomp on the back of the monster''s neck, putting all his weight into it.


    BAM!!!


    The monster was unable to balance itself and fell heavily to the ground. Sear?h the nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Glen immediately jumped on its back and ran toward its head before bringing down his shovel in full swing.


    Whack!!


    Glen''s shovel dug deep into the back of the monster''s head, and a huge amount of blood gushed out.


    The monster let out a painful roar, its head was immediately bathed in blood.


    Glen pulled out his shovel and was about to hack down again when the monster suddenly stopped moving and its body began to tremble, the next instance¡­.


    Boom!!


    A powerful burst of red energy exploded from the monster''s body sending Glen who was standing on it flying away without restraint.


    Bang!


    Glen slammed into the side of the wall, his head cracked and he immediately lost consciousness. He left a trail of blood on the wall as he slid down on it and fell to the floor.


    "Glen!" Ralph shouted when he saw Glen''s condition. He was about to go check on him when he suddenly saw the monster move, it pressed its hands on the ground and lunged at Ralph.


    Ralph''s eyes widened when he saw this, the monster''s speed had increased!


    He was barely able to fully raise his sword before the huge paw of the monster slammed into his body and sent him flying toward the wall.


    BAM!!


    Ralph''s back slammed against the wall heavily and he immediately spat out blood before passing out as well.


    Only Ivan and the monster were now left in the room.


    ...


    In the control room.


    "Damn! Why didn''t we know that that monster was about to evolve??" One of the people exclaimed in panic and rose from his seat in a hurry and rushed out of the room.


    "This won''t be considered a test if the higher-ups found out, it''s a death sentence!" The last person who was still staring at the screen muttered in worry.


    ...


    Ivan stared at his two unconscious friends before turning back to look at the monster but all he saw was a blur before a huge hairy leg filled his vision.


    Bang!


    Pain spread all across Ivan''s face, his eyes immediately blurred and the last thing he felt before passing out was his head slamming into the wall.


    Now left alone in the room, the monster turned and started working toward Ralph who happened to be the closest to it. But before it could move too far, it suddenly stopped and turned back and saw Ivan standing with his head lowered and covered in blood; he was still unconscious and was still holding the brick that was now covered in Nexus energy.


    Roar!!


    The monster let out another sound and was about to move in Ivan''s direction when the brick in Ivan''s hand suddenly shot out at a blinding speed with Nexus energy still covering it.


    Swoosh!!


    Bang!!


    The brick flew at high speed and pierced the face of the monster, shattering its head into pieces in one strike!


    Thud!


    The monster stood motionless for a few seconds before falling to the ground, Ivan remained standing with his head lowered.


    One of the two people who had left the control room in a hurry arrived at this moment and was shocked by the sight in front of him, the monster had been killed before he arrived.


    Back in the control room, the other person stared at the screen in shock and disbelief.


    "He''s unconscious, how''s that possible?!"

 Chapter 21 - 21: Passed

    Ivan slowly opened his eyes which he immediately squinted due to the bright light that shone from above, he blinked a couple of times to adjust his sights before fully opening them.


    He did not know how much time had passed since he was out and his mind was currently muddled by a light throbbing, it took him a few seconds to realize what had happened.


    ''Last thing I remembered was getting kicked in the face by that monster, how did I get here?'' Ivan asked onward as he rolled his eyes to see where he was. He was currently lying down on a hospital bed in a large room with white light fixed to its ceiling, multiple other similar beds could also be found in this place as well and a few people in white coats could be seen moving up and down.


    '' I''m in a hospital?'' Ivan wondered before pushing himself and to sit.


    He touched his head and felt the bandages wrapped around it, it was clear that he had been brought here from treatment after getting knocked out by that monster.


    Strange, he clearly remembered getting kicked but aside from the bandage on his head and the throbbing pain that could be ignored, Ivan felt very energetic.


    "Ah, you''re up! About time, was starting to worry that my powers were becoming useless"


    A gentle feminine voice sounded from beside Ivan. He turned his head and saw a beautiful woman in a similar white coat walking toward him with a kind smile on her face, her hands tucked away in the coat pockets.


    She stopped right beside Ivan''s bed and looked at him curiously for a few seconds.


    "You look alright to me, how do you feel? Do you hurt anywhere?" The woman asked after finishing her checkup.


    Ivan shook his head.


    " I''m fine. Where are my friends?" Ivan responded with a question of his own.


    The face of the woman beamed with a smile.


    "You don''t have to worry about your friends, they are in perfect shape and woke up a while ago. You''ve been unconscious for three hours.


    Your friends are waiting for you outside" the woman responded before gesturing for Ivan to get off the bed and follow her.


    While they moved through the lines of the hospital bed, the woman couldn''t help but ask.


    "What were you three doing that got you all into such a state? Had the three of you not been brought here sooner, chances of permanent damage were very high"


    Ivan continued staring at his surroundings even when answering.


    "I¡­ I can''t remember " he lied. He didn''t know if it was right to tell about the test since the people who saved them didn''t mention it to the person who treated them.


    The woman stared at Ivan for a while with a pout on her face, she sighed and said.


    "I understand if you do not want to talk about it, but I advise you not to engage in such again even if it is training. It''s not worth it to risk your life if you can''t reap the reward"


    By now they had arrived at the entrance of whatever this room was, there, Ivan saw Glen and Ralph standing at the entrance with serious looks on their faces.


    From what Ivan could see, the both of them seemed to be perfectly fine which once again surprised him once more. He clearly remembered the amount of damage that the two of them had received from the monster but they had been treated to full health in Just three hours that he had been unconscious.


    The two of them arrived where Glen and Ralph were waiting, Ivan moved over to stand next to them.


    "There should not be any future troubles with your bodies since I''ve personally healed you with my healing talent, just promise not to put yourself in such conditions again, alright?" The woman uttered while staring at their faces.


    "Thank you for healing us, we promise to avoid such situations again," Ralph said and gave a polite bow.


    "You can wait here, someone will come get you," the woman said and left after giving them one last long look.


    After the woman left them alone, Ivan turned to look at his friends with eyes demanding answers.


    "What?" Ralph could not stand Ivan''s gaze and hissed at him. S~ea??h the ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Why are you two looking so serious?" Ivan asked in return.


    It was alright for Ralph to look serious once in a while for no reason but it was rare for Glen to do the same.


    Ralph sighed before expressing his worry about whether they had failed the test since they did not know what happened after they failed to kill the monster.


    Ivan realized that it might really be the case and his face also became serious as well, they could do nothing but wait for whatever was going to happen next.


    The person who was sent to get them arrived a few minutes later and they left with him to meet the people who would decide what would happen to them next.


    ...


    Back in the control room, the two people who had been watching their test looked at the three of them being led away from the front of the infirmary through a different screen.


    "Do you think we should apologize to them when they come? We almost got them killed" one of them asked, clearly nervous.


    "Better not let yourself slip, it wasn''t our fault either. It will be best to make it look like we are allowing them to pass because of their effort and tell them that others managed to pass without messing up. That way, they will feel grateful and not talk about it with others; we will be able to avoid letting the higher-ups know and also gain their trust" the other person explained.


    The eyes of the first person lit up upon hearing his colleagues'' explanation.


    "Brilliant! You really are the most intelligent in our group " he exclaimed, his nervousness reducing significantly.


    The three were brought to the control room a while later and faced the two men who had been waiting for them.


    Ivan, Ralph, and Glen still held serious looks on their faces which masked the nervousness that they felt.


    "Ahem, do you remember anything that happened after the mishap in your test?" One of the men cleared his throat and asked, his gaze was fixed on Ivan since he was the one who had surprised them the most.


    The three of them shook their heads in response, they had only woken up to meet the white light on the ceiling of the infirmary after getting knocked out.


    "It''s fine, although we had to save you in the end, we''ll give you credit for managing to force the monster into using its full strength," The man said before proceeding to explain to them.


    According to him, Ivan and his friends had only managed to force the monster to get serious after injuring it after which they were unable to even defend against it. They learned that this was supposed to be a failure since other trainees had passed the same test without having to get saved.


    "So, although you guys did not succeed in the test, you still passed. Welcome to the Owen Tower"


    Glen''s fist clenched in excitement as a bright smile spread across his face, his nervousness totally vanished after hearing that they had passed.


    Ralph gave a sigh of relief while Ivan''s eyes burned with even more determination. It seemed like all he heard was the part about other trainees passing the same test that they had almost failed.


    Didn''t that mean that the other trainees were very talented people? What more could a person who longed for strength hope for than to be able to train with such people?!


    "Here are your things and necessities that you will need during your training, anything else can be settled later," one of the men said and passed three bags to the three of them along with their original bags.


    They didn''t have the time to open their new bags to see what was inside before someone else came inside the control room. This new person was a young-looking woman with long green hair and a pretty face. She had a busty figure that made her cold face even more alluring.


    She was a cold beauty!


    She entered the room and stared at the two men in the control room with visible annoyance in her cold gaze.


    "What is it?" She questioned, her voice soothing but toneless.


    "Hehe, sorry if we disturbed you. We were hoping you would give these new trainees a tour around the place before their training in the morning" The two men laughed awkwardly as one of them said in an almost apologizing manner.


    The woman who looked like she was in her mid-twenties glared at them for a few more seconds without saying a word, the two men were clearly starting to get uncomfortable under her piercing gaze.


    "Follow me" The woman voiced out as she turned around and walked away, not even slowing down for Ivan and the others to react; they had to run after her when they came to their senses.


    Now the only ones left in the control room, both men fell flat on their chairs with exhausted looks.


    " Phew, that went surprisingly well," One of them said while taking deep breaths.


    " True, let''s never let something like this happen again "


    " Agreed "

 Chapter 22 - 22: A new begining

    Ivan, Glen, and Ralph followed the young lady as they navigated through maze-like corridors, the atmosphere was hushed as nobody said a word.


    They soon arrived at a huge clearing that looked like it was in the outside world and not inside a building, the space was so huge that one could not see the end from one point; it was curved, and big trees that were planted scantily blocked one''s vision. They also found a way to make the ceiling mimic the actual sky to near perfection with the only difference being the absence of clouds and a sun.


    Iron benches could be seen positioned close to some trees on which some people sat while chatting, they were also able to spot a few passages from where they stood.


    A lot of people could be seen around this space, some were in uniforms similar to the people who Ralph''s group had encountered at the teleportation vault while the rest were in purple tracksuits, the age of those in uniforms ranged from the mid-twenties to mid-forties as far as they had seen while those in tracksuits were mostly in their teens, the oldest they had seen was at the early twenties.


    "This is the lobby, you can come here to waste time if you feel that you have nothing useful to do with your life"


    The soothing yet cold voice of the young woman finally broke the silence that had been ruling over their stroll but her words were not friendly in the least and made the three boys tongue-tied.


    The lady turned and pierced the three with a sharp gaze which lingered for a few seconds before she turned around and resumed walking, the three followed.


    "Over there is the cafeteria, be sure to be there by 7 in the morning, you can decide to skip during the afternoon but don''t forget to come by 7 in the evening unless you want to miss dinner as well"


    "This place leads to the classes where you will be taught various things, ranging from physical training to theories "


    " Behind this, you will find the field where all trainees will undergo morning warm-ups every day. Make sure not to forget "


    " Going through here will lead you to the weapon rooms "


    " Here you will find the arenas "


    " This leads¡­"


    For a good couple of minutes, the lady showed Ivan, Ralph, and Glen different paths that led to different sections of the Tower that were accessible to trainees, this even included a library.


    Although they did notice that everywhere she showed them was limited to the third floor, trainees had no business above the third floor.


    It didn''t bother them though, they were already excited about the new things they were learning.


    Finally, after fifteen minutes, they arrived in front of a large door that was wide open. Inside was an even wider corridor that stretched deeper inside and on both sides of the corridors were doors that had numbers on them.


    "Here are the boys'' dormitories, you can find your access card which also holds your room numbers in your bags'' '' the lady said while standing at the entrance of the boys'' dormitories. Throughout their tour, she spoke only words that were necessary and never made a personal remark which made it impossible to try to understand her.


    What Ralph did notice were the gazes directed at them by those in uniforms and tracksuits, some of them showed envy, curiosity, and surprise, and some extreme ones even showed pity. This made him even more curious about this woman''s identity, she didn''t seem to be older than them by much but those men in the control room seemed to be wary of her.


    This did not stop them from searching the bags they had received at the control room and quickly pulled out a small gold card that looked like a credit card, it had some inscriptions on it as well as some numbers which were most likely their room numbers.


    Ivan''s card had the number 305, Glen''s card had the number 321, and Glen''s card had the number 209, Ivan and Glen''s room happened to be fairly close while Ralph found himself separated from his friends.


    "Now, go settle down and get comfortable because you won''t get a lot of opportunities to do so starting tomorrow," the lady said and was about to leave when she remembered something and turned around "Training starts by 4 in the morning, so be sure to sleep early" she finally disappeared from their sight after saying this.


    Now left alone at the entrance of the dormitories, Ivan and his friends stared at each other''s faces. They could all read the expressions each one had and the burning determination in their eyes.


    This would mark the beginning of a new chapter in their lives, they had failed but were given a chance to go ahead, and they swore to make good use of this second chance!


    Stepping into the dormitories with the confidence of a new beginning, the three set out to find their rooms. They met a few people on their way and exchanged simple greetings, they only parted after finding Ralph''s room.


    They agreed to meet at the entrance of the dormitory in thirty minutes as it should be enough for them to settle down in their new rooms. S§×arch* The Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Ivan soon found his room after they parted with Ralph and it was left for Glen to go look for his room and give a reminder to Ivan about their meet-up as if worried that the white-haired boy would forget.


    Ivan gave a forced smile since he wasn''t fluent with the act before pressing the card on the scan that was on the door, he had seen Ralph do the same and the door opened.


    Entering his room, Ivan was welcomed by a small but big enough space for a single person. The room was a simple room with white walls, a bed, chair, desk, a closet, and a door which Ivan discovered led to a private bathroom.


    Ivan dropped his bags on the ground and approached the bed, gently touching it. The thought of having his own bed was a strange feeling for Ivan who never even had a home and caused a wave of strange emotions to wash through him.


    He stayed like that for a good ten minutes before getting up, he began by taking out the things in his bags and keeping them in his closet.


    His bag contained clothes that they had brought with them from the outskirt or bought while staying with the old driver and his family.


    The bag handed to them in the control room however, contained five sets of purple tracksuits and five gray T-shirts, three pairs of black sneakers, some notes, and a trainee badge with his age, gender, and face on it.


    Ivan had no idea when this information was collected but he knew that the tower would definitely have its way of obtaining information.


    After arranging his things, Ivan went into the bathroom to take a quick shower before changing into a different set of clothes.


    "Time to head out"


    Ivan mumbled to himself.


    Ivan quickly arrived at the entrance of the dormitory where Glen and Ralph had been waiting for him, he was the last to arrive.


    Since there was still quite some time before it was time for dinner, the three decided to tour the place on their own before 7 pm.


    They visited the places they had been to earlier to get better looks and to familiarize the different paths and corridors, they went back to the lobby and sat under one of the trees after a few minutes of touring.


    " Damn! This place is big!" Glen exclaimed while looking at the people walking by, none of them were paying attention to them.


    " I can''t help but feel excited about tomorrow, this is really it" Ralph took off his glasses and said with a small smile on his face.


    Ivan looked at the boy who rarely showed such expression and was about to express himself when the sound of commotion caught their attention.


    They looked in that direction and saw a group of young boys and girls, a total of three girls and four boys surrounding another boy who looked quite battered. His cheeks were red with palm prints, his hair messy, and his tracksuit was covered in dirt as he knelt in front of a red-haired young man who seemed to be the leader of this group of young adults.


    They were all wearing the same thing, by the way, purple tracksuits which showed that they were all trainees.


    "You think you''re something just because your family has a few powerful Nexulytes? You think you can mess with me?" The red-haired boy asked coldly before landing another slap on the already red face of the boy.


    The other six laughed at this while the boy being hit did not dare to move or shield himself.


    Everyone who was walking by seemed to not be able to see anything as they simply ignored the act of bullying.


    This sight caused a frown to appear on the faces of Ivan, Ralph, and Glen. Especially Ivan who''s eyes flashed with a dangerous glint. He knew more than anyone how awful it was to be bullied and it appeared to him that the same thing was happening right in front of him¡­a Nexulyte bullying a weakling!


    (He didn''t care if the one being bullied was a Nexulyte or not)


    They decided to wait for a while in hopes that one of the people in uniform would come by but they caught sight of none even after a minute of watching the boy get bullied, unable to take it anymore Ivan rose up and walked toward them in heavy steps.


    "Ivan!" Glen tried to call out but Ivan acted to not hear him, Ralph silently stood up and followed behind Ivan.


    "Huh? Do you think you can disrespect my girl like that? I''ll teach you a lesson!" The red-haired boy snickered and was about to hit the kneeling boy again when suddenly¡­


    "Enough!"

 Chapter 23 - 23: Repeaters

    "Enough!"


    A loud voice suddenly sounded, halting the actions of everyone who heard it and causing them to look in Ivan''s direction, they all saw him standing just a few steps away from where the bullying was taking place.


    After realizing what had happened, a few people quickly gathered around in hopes of watching a good show while some carried on with what they were doing and were clearly not interested in whatever drama was going on.


    The red-haired boy and his group all stared at Ivan in confusion, they saw that he wasn''t wearing a uniform or tracksuit like them so they couldn''t tell his identity in the tower.


    "What is it?" The red-haired boy questioned while staring at Ivan with vigilant eyes.


    Ivan glared back at him with hateful eyes before spitting out "I do not like how you are treating this person" His words were laced with fighting intent that stunned the red-haired boy for a moment.


    "And what does that have to do with you? Do you know his offense? Who the heck are you even?" The red-haired boy retorted at Ivan, clearly annoyed by Ivan''s presence.


    Before Ivan could respond, one of the girls standing with the red-haired boy clapped her in realization and pointed at Ivan while saying.


    "Luke, that''s them. They are the ones I told you were walking with Miss Elora earlier today!" The girl blurted out.


    Ivan raised an eyebrow, he looked behind him and saw Ralph and Glen behind him; he gave him supportive smiles when their eyes crossed.


    " So you''re a new trainee and you dare to act big in front of me?" The red-haired boy who was now known as Luke said with a disdainful grin on his face.


    Immediately after saying that, he walked toward Ivan as red energy began to swirl around his two hands.


    This action startled Ivan, he didn''t know that other trainees would be able to effectively summon their Nexus energy at will.


    "The same as always, you''re only good at oppressing the weak. How pathetic" a scornful voice sounded from the side. Luke stopped walking as his face turned into one mixed with anger and shame when he heard those words.


    They all looked at the source of the voice and saw a young woman with brown skin and long black hair that was braided into a single line and left hanging from her right shoulder. She had a pair of gleaming brown eyes and a very beautiful face. She stood at the same height as Ralph, causing her to be taller than Ivan.


    She wore a similar purple tracksuit with the zipper undone revealing her gray T-shirt underneath that was sticking to her skin due to how sweaty she was, perfectly showing the outline of her moderate-sized breasts and flat belly.


    She was a stunning black queen figure!


    Her brown eyes gazed at Luke with a hint of contempt for a few seconds before moving to Ivan.


    "And you, mind your business and stop poking your nose in people''s business when you are so weak," she said before proceeding to walk away.


    Ivan was once again left stunned by the girl''s words, didn''t she come to help him? S§×arch* The N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Hold it right there Sommy! Don''t you dare talk to me in such a manner when you''re just a failure yourself, what gives you the right to act so arrogantly to me? Think I don''t dare to fight you?" Luke raged, veins bulging on his neck and arms as the amount of Nexus energy around his palms multiplied instantly and started giving off an oppressive feeling.


    The girl whose name turned out to be Sommy paused her steps and turned her head to look at Luke over her shoulder, a faint smile formed on her lips as Nexus energy slowly appeared around her body.


    "Do you dare? Don''t compare me to failures like yourself, unlike you who failed pitifully, I have a reason for still being here" She replied, her voice teasing and daring at the same time.


    "Tch!" Luke clicked his tongue, he felt humiliated by Sommy''s reaction. He was about to rush toward her when they suddenly noticed someone stroll into the lobby.


    Despite being just one person, her presence was instantly noticed. Sommy and Luke immediately retracted their Nexus energy and acted as if they were not just about to rip each other to pieces.


    This person was of course the green-haired lady who had given Ivan and his friends a tour around the tower; they had learnt that her name was Elora from one of Luke''s minions.


    Elora gazed at Luke and then Sommy for a few seconds before moving her gaze away.


    "No fights allowed in the lobby, go place a challenge in the arena if you feel your hands are itchy," she said before walking away.


    After Elora left, a lot of other trainees quickly left the lobby while some still stayed to see if anything would play out.


    "See you at the arena then," Sommy said and shot Luke a provocative wink before leaving the lobby, Luke trembled with anger and immediately walked away in heavy steps.


    "Come, let''s go" Ralph whispered to Ivan, everyone was slowly leaving the lobby so they left too.


    Time for dinner soon reached and they all gathered at the cafeteria to get their dinner, they were served a bowl of soup, vegetables, meat, and bread.


    The meal was delicious and Ivan felt satisfied after getting full with just one serving, they left for the dormitory immediately after.


    While going toward their rooms, they bumped into a boy who approached them immediately after he spotted them.


    "Hey, good job with what you did earlier, you''re very courageous. But I''ll advise you to be careful of Luke, he''s a very petty person and strong too" the boy said in a hushed tone while constantly looking left and right.


    "Do we know you?" Ralph asked with a frown, he felt this boy was too suspicious.


    "Don''t worry about it, who I am doesn''t matter because I don''t want to be associated with you now that you''re probably on Luke''s target list. You''re lucky that Sommy helped you this time and Miss Elora''s presence made them back away but they might not be there next time.


    Just make sure to run away whenever you see him" the boy whispered back.


    The frown on Ivan''s and Ralph''s faces deepened while Glen''s face was covered in fear.


    This was their first day and they already made an enemy out of a strong troublemaker?!


    "Why are you so scared of Luke but Sommy isn''t? Who are they?" Ivan asked after some thoughts.


    The boy stared at him for a few seconds as if he was looking at an idiot, his face suddenly lit up in realization as he remembered something.


    "Sorry, I forgot that you guys only came today. Let me tell you, Sommy and Luke were actually part of the previous batch that came here for training but didn''t meet the passing mark so they have to repeat the training with us, There are actually a total of five of them but I heard that Sommy is the strongest of them while Luke is the opposite!" The boy informed them.


    Ivan''s eyes widened in surprise, Ralph frowned even harder, and Glen was terrified.


    Before they could say anything else, the boy suddenly jumped like a startled kid.


    " Oh shoot, he''s coming. Bye, you never met me!" The boy rushed his words before running away.


    Ivan and his friends stared at the fleeing boy wordlessly before turning around and spotting Luke walking over with arrogant steps, he stopped briefly to look at them before clicking his tongue in disgust and resumed walking.


    "Seems like we will have to get stronger faster than we can pray for" Ralph mumbled as they kept staring at Luke.


    ...¡­..


    Northern sector of San Pluto, inside an underground study with a few bookshelves. Karl sat on a wooden chair with a book in his hands, each page of the book showed a kind of monster and an explanation underneath.


    On the current page was a red monster with angel wings and flaming horns, Karl was currently reading the descriptions under this image with a deadpan face.


    He currently looked ten times older than he usually did, he looked like an old man who would kick the bucket at any time.


    Another man walked into the study, this person was James.


    "Father, they have arrived at the tower and have settled in. We encountered five assassination attacks and three kidnapping attempts, all culprits files after failing; we were unable to get their identities" James reported.


    Karl raised his head from the book and stared at his son with hollow eyes.


    " It''s alright, as long as he''s safe¡­in our tower" Karl voiced out.


    "There''s another thing, father" James spoke once more, he continued after Karl said nothing in response.


    "The kid had entered conflict with Luke on his first day, Elora and Sommy helped him this time but I''m afraid of later" James showed his concern. He might be the Tower master but he couldn''t just control the lives of the people in it, of course, this was him being civil.


    "Don''t worry too much about it, Sommy is there for a reason, let them be" Karl said before returning his gaze to the book.


    James bowed and left.


    ...


    4 am the next morning¡­

 Chapter 24 - 24: Start training

    Ivan''s eyes flipped wide open the instant his consciousness woke up a bit and he threw a quick look toward the wall clock in his room.


    It was exactly four in the morning!


    Ivan did not have the chance to enjoy the feeling of waking up in a comfortable bed nor grumpy about waking up so early as he sprang up from his bed and hastily took out his trainee uniform, sliding the pants on his waist and quickly putting on the gray T-shirt, he held the top of the tracksuit as he dashed out of the room.


    The instant Ivan got out of the room, he noticed a lot of other trainees also making their way toward the entrance of the dormitory. He spotted Glen running over from behind and he began to run too.


    ''Being late on the first day of training, such luck!''


    Ivan thought to himself as he ran, he had almost overslept due to how warm it was under his blanket; good thing he still managed to wake up on time.


    They arrived at Ralph''s door and took a second of their time to knock on it, Ralph quickly came out and he was already dressed up.


    "What were you still doing in there since you woke up earlier?" Glen could not help but ask as the three of them headed out together.


    Ralph stared at him with a poker face before saying calmly.


    "Mental preparation"


    Glen "..."


    Mental what! Are you kidding me?


    Glen immediately began to question Ralph nonstop but the latter simply ignored him.


    They arrived at the field along with other trainees after a few minutes, they had run the whole time just to avoid arriving too late.


    They discovered that several people had already arrived at the field for morning warm-ups.


    There were over a hundred people in purple tracksuits standing like a small crowd but maintained an orderly line, ahead of them were two middle-aged men in the regular black uniform and white belt.


    One of them had curly blond hair and a handsome face with a beard while the other had shoulder-length black hair with a menacing look.


    They silently stood in front of the crowd of trainees and watched as more and more people arrived. After another five minutes of waiting the number of trainees had already exceeded five hundred; one had to know that even with this number, the field still had enough space to accommodate ten times the amount of people present


    But it seemed like the men had had enough as the man with a menacing look raised his right hand immediately after the five-minute mark, the man with curly hair nodded softly before disappearing from where he was standing and appearing behind the group of trainees.


    Thick red Nexus energy began to sip out from his body as his uniform fluttered as if he were in the middle of a storm.


    Swoosh!!!


    With a push of his hands, the Nexus energy around him surged forward before moving up like an upside-down waterfall. In less than five seconds, the man had built a tall wall of Nexus energy between the trainees who had arrived on time and the path that led to the lobby; by separating the field from it and preventing anyone who wasn''t already inside from coming in.


    A lot of trainees who arrived at this time saw the tall wall of Nexus energy and stared at it in confusion; they wondered what it was for; their answer came a while later after the menacing-looking man began to talk.


    The man with curly hair had reappeared beside him before he started talking.


    I welcome you all to the new session of training and I will be your instructor for the next six months as far as morning training is involved. Sear?h the ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    You can address me as Instructor Logan and my colleague here as Instructor Nathan, both of us will be in charge of your morning training until you successfully surpass your limits and leave as true prodigies of the Owen Tower.


    Know this, every one of you is here because you are seen as geniuses and talented Nexulytes but talent alone will not be enough to reach greater heights.


    So for the next six months, we will make sure to push you to your limit and if possible¡­breaking point; both physically and mentally" Instructor Logan''s voice was loud enough for everyone to hear, even those who were blocked out by instructor Nathan''s wall of Nexus energy could hear him clearly.


    They all felt a rush of excitement and nervousness just from listening to his speech, the words filled them with so much adrenaline that they felt that they could soar at any moment.


    But instructor Logan''s next words filled the trainees who were outside the wall of Nexus energy with dread and they began to lament while some girls started crying right away.


    "Now, we will start our traditional morning run. A ten-kilometer run. As for those who arrived late¡­you''ll have to do it while wearing three times gravity bracelets, that''s your punishment for being late"


    Ivan immediately felt grateful that he had woken up on time, he didn''t know how heavy three times gravity was but he did not wish to test it out.


    After instructor Logan''s words, instructor Nathan disappeared once more, he flashed constantly between the trainees outside the wall of Nexus energy. Whenever he appeared and disappeared near a group of trainees, they would realize that they now had a bracelet attached to their wrists and Instructor Nathan was already gone


    This went on for twenty seconds and it was all it took for instructor Nathan to place a bracelet on the trainees who numbered up to six hundred.


    After placing the bracelets, the Nexus wall slowly disappeared and the trainees were allowed to join the rest. Ivan could not help but notice that the movements of these people were heavy and strained, some of them were already gasping for air.


    "Now we will add talent-blocking bracelets to those who arrived early, this will prevent those who already have some training with Nexus energy from using their talents or enhancing their bodies with Nexus energy, " instructor Logan said and Nathan flashed away once more.


    Ivan felt something brush against his skin and saw that he already had a bracelet on his wrist.


    He immediately felt¡­weaker. The feeling wasn''t extreme but it was enough to tell that something had changed within him.


    He hadn''t noticed that he had gotten stronger after awakening because of how subtle the increase in strength had been along with the liquid in the pod helping him to adapt but now that he had his ability blocked, Ivan was able to tell that he wasn''t the same as before.


    After Nathan was done, he returned to Logan''s side and the both of them rose into the air.


    "Don''t worry about getting lost, just keep going forward and you''ll end up here. Just be sure to look out for traps, now go!" Instructor Logan said and a large number of trainees immediately set out, it was like a free-for-all marathon as they all sped off along the path that led into a forest.


    "Traps?" Ivan muttered in confusion.


    "Come on, let''s go together," Glen said and pulled Ivan and Ralph along with him, they started running along the other trainees.


    The field had a wide footpath that led into the forest that was behind the Tower, tall trees with thick branches and wide leaves were all one could see at a glance. The sun wasn''t out yet as it was still very early in the morning, causing low visibility as they navigated through the forest path.


    Just three minutes after they started running, a lot of people had already started panting and sweating heavily as they dragged their bodies to keep going forward; these people were those who had been given gravity bracelets.


    While running, Ivan, Glen, and Ralph had maintained moderate speed which helped them to be among people at the front.


    "Instructor Logan told us to look out for traps, so far, we haven''t encountered anything yet" Ralph voiced out as they kept running, his voice had to t fade when a trainee who was a few meters in front of them suddenly got sent flying all the way back by a tree that had appeared out of nowhere.


    The tree had a metal string attached to it which allowed it to swing back and forth, more of similar trees appeared and sent a few more trainees back to the field.

 Chapter 25 - 25: The top

    Thirty minutes after the start of the morning run, the trainees arrived at the base of a mountain that was about seventy meters tall and had a slippery surface with very little rough edges to hold on to; they had to climb over this mountain to continue with their run.


    Some trainees immediately began to climb, gripping the barely pointy rocks that stuck out on the surface of the mountain to carry their weight.


    A few more stood at the base of this mountain, catching their breaths while thinking of how to cross this mountain.


    Amongst these people were Ivan, Glen, and Ralph.


    Thirty minutes into the morning run, they had not only navigated through a forest filled with traps, they had come across a mud puddle that was over fifty meters long and they had to drag their feet through the sticky puddle of mudd. They had also come across a long iron net barricade which they had to climb over.


    All of these obstacles had joined in tiring out the trainees and a lot of them had given up halfway to rest while those who had managed to drag themselves to this spot were currently sprawled on the ground while breathing heavily; of course these were trainees who were completely out of energy.


    A few like Ivan and his friends still had some steam left in them.


    But what baffled all the trainees was the so called repeaters, the five who were said to be part of the previous group of trainees from last year. No matter how difficult the trainees saw the obstacles during their run, these people scaled through everything with stunning ease as if it was a walk in the park.


    Three of these five had already climbed over the seventy meter tall mountain and were already out of sight, as for the other two¡­they kept with the pace of the other trainees despite how obviously easy the obstacles were for them.


    While others might not know this, Ivan was very well aware that Luke had been following him the entire time and had refused to leave his side. Ivan had noticed how on numerous occasions during their run when Luke tried to sneakily approach him but Sommy would always come to bother him at such a point which irritated Luke to no end and stopped him from doing whatever he had in mind.


    Although Ivan was bothered, he had chosen to ignore this as it wasn''t new to him; wasn''t this the same as those bastards in the outskirt? Luke couldn''t possibly do more than those scums.


    After a few minutes of resting, Ivan looked toward Glen and Ralph before saying with a smirk.


    "Wanna race to the top?"


    Ralph positions his glasses before saying with a confident tone.


    " I''ll be waiting for you there, don''t make me wait for long "


    Immediately after he finished saying that, both of them began to climb the mountain, leaving a dumbfounded Glen behind.


    " Hey, no fair! Aren''t we supposed to start at the same time?!" Glen called out to them in displeasure before starting to climb as well.


    Three minutes later, Ivan had only managed to climb for only twenty meters up the mountain. The surface was so slippery and his fingers hurt from gripping onto whatever they could find, it was almost as if he was climbing while pinching needles with his fingers to carry his weight.


    Dead tired and fully covered in sweat, Ivan gritted his teeth as he reached out to grab onto a small pointy stone above his head.


    "Nnghh!"


    Ivan groaned painfully as he pulled himself up while finding proper footing for his foot. He was already starting to feel pain in his joints and fingertips but he wasn''t still at the top yet.


    "Huff, Huff!"


    Ivan stopped climbing for a while and took a couple deep breaths, he looked to his sides but couldn''t find Ralph or Glen; he had been so focused on climbing earlier that he lost sight of the two of them and didn''t know if they were already ahead or had fallen back to the ground like the cases with many other trainees.


    They had slipped and crashed to the ground where they would have to start over, some had even taken others who were unfortunate to be right below them along with them on their falls.


    "A bit more, a bit more and I''ll be there" Ivan muttered to himself. His eyes blazing with determined shine, the level of pain he was feeling was nothing compared to what those scums in the outskirt had put him through for so many years.


    If this was the price to pay for strength, then Ivan would pay ten times the price!


    Ivan immediately began to rush upwards, passing a lot of trainees in swift movements that left the trainees aghast and they looked at Ivan as if he was a monster.


    Although his speed was nothing compared to those of the five repeaters, it wasn''t something that the other normal trainees could keep up with.


    In another five minutes, Ivan had crossed another fifteen meters distance and was getting closer to the top. He could already see the top of the mountain, victory was within reach!


    Ignoring the pain he was feeling and his bleeding fingers, Ivan continued on his ascension.


    Just then, Ivan grabbed onto a particularly large rock and pulled himself up but before he could balance his body.


    Check!!


    The rock broke off and Ivan found himself waving backwards after his other hand slipped off the body of the mountain.


    ''Noooo! Not now!'' Ivan cried out in his mind while gritting his teeth in reluctance as he fell backwards, he was almost there!!


    But before he could fall for even a meter distance, Ivan''s foot landed on a solid surface that suspended him for just a second before disappearing but that one second was like a ray of sunlight in Ivan''s darkest times.


    He immediately reacted, using the opportunity to dig his fingers into a small hole on the surface of the mountain before hugging the mountain like a starfish.


    Along with Ivan''s relief sigh was a loud angry voice that came from below and continued to fade away to the foot of the mountain.


    "You bastard!!!!!" The voice yelled as the owner fell off after being used as a stepping stone by Ivan.


    Ivan closed his eyes when he heard the voice and muttered.


    "Sorry"


    " Hehe, that trainee must be very upset by that. Why don''t you go and apologize to him? I can send you to him right now"


    A mocking voice suddenly sounded from Ivan''s side, he opened his eyes and looked over only to find Luke who had unknowingly climbed to his side and was now just an arm length away from Ivan.


    He was holding onto a small crack on the body of the mountain so loosely like he wasn''t afraid of falling or slipping off.


    Ivan''s face formed a frown, this was a bad time to meet Luke. He possibly could not outrun Luke in this situation and it seemed that Luke was serious about sending him down.


    What should he do?


    Luckily for him, Luke''s nemesis appeared a second after. The beautiful brown skinned Sommy in her gray T-shirt and tracksuit jacket tied around her waist appeared right next to Luke.


    She didn''t say anything and just smiled at the both of them but this smile seemed to anger Luke to no end.


    "Tch! I''m done playing here, I''ll definitely have a chance another time " Luke clicked his tongue and said before climbing up the mountain, his movements were agile and precise like he knew where to hold and where not to.


    Ivan could only stare in awe as Luke quickly reached the top before disappearing.


    He looked at Sommy who was still at his level curiously, the latter looked back at him and winked before ascending as well; her speed wasn''t slower than Luke''s.


    Ivan immediately tried to follow behind Sommy in hopes that imitating her movements would help him but he learnt that he was dreaming too big as not only did his speed not increase than it before, he even almost slipped and fell a few times.


    Only after a painful twenty something minute did Ivan arrive at the top of the mountain.


    The top of the mountain was a well leveled hundred meters round plateau where one could lay down and rest if they wanted. Seeing that he was the only one here, Ivan simply laid down on his back while looking into the night sky, his chest rising and falling as he took in air while at the same time savoring the pain he was feeling.


    He wasn''t the first to arrive since there were already those five who had probably left but Ivan was still satisfied with the result, he was the first amongst the batch of normal trainees.


    He lifted one of his hands and made a grabbing motion in the air, a thought registered in his mind as he suddenly clenched his hand into a fist; no one knew what his thought was. S~ea??h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

 Chapter 26 - 26: First training complete

    Ivan had waited at the top of the mountain for over ten minutes before other people began to appear. They had managed to climb to the top after so much struggle but all had their excitement from being the fastest squashed when they saw that there was someone resting at the finish line.


    Some decided to rest while others left in stubborn denial to continue the race. Since Ivan had beaten them to the top of the mountain, they were determined to finish the morning run before him.


    Ivan simply ignored all of these while shaking his head in pity for them, they seemed to have forgotten the five repeaters after seeing only Ivan here and were bent on getting back before him; Ivan on the other hand was waiting for Ralph and Glen who showed up a while later and were among the five ten people people to arrive after Ivan and the repeaters.


    They rested for a while more before resuming.


    On the other side of the plateau were twenty ropes that were attached to the mountain and stretched into the forest behind it.


    The trainees looked down and all they found see were the short trees that cover to half of the mountain from where they stood, the base of the mountain from behind was definitely not fit for walking on as there was simply no way to climb it without using specific tools; who knew what will happen if someone fell off the rope?


    "Scared?" Ivan asked Glen and Ralph with a teasing smile on his face.


    Glen reacted in a way that showed that he was clearly nervous about climbing on these ropes while Ralph had an unreadable look on his face, he simply walked over to one of the ropes.


    "Try to keep up" Ralph said to Ivan before stepping on the rope which shook a bit from the sudden disturbance.


    Step by step, Ralph walked calmly on the rope with his hands spread out to balance himself with the weak current of the night breeze, he quickly disappeared into the darkness of the retreating night and the shadows of the tall trees, only the constant shaking of the rope showed that he hadn''t fallen off.


    Seeing this, some trainees stilled their minds and moved toward other ropes and began to advance as well.


    Ivan also didn''t want to be left behind and moved as well.


    The journey back after climbing the mountain was much smoother and relaxing, after they entered the forest by walking on the rope they had to climb down on those ropes as well before navigating through a forest once again.


    They arrived back at the field where five people in trainee uniforms and the two instructors were waiting, the night sky was already starting to brighten up a bit and they were now able to see further than before now.


    Ivan speculated that it must have taken them over one hour to finish the morning run.


    The instructors allowed them to rest as more trainees arrived at the field before falling on their back, dead tired and out of breath.


    After finally waiting for almost another hour and some of the trainees had yet to return, instructor Logan turned to instructor Nathan before nodding at him.


    Instructor Nathan received the meaning of Logan''s nod and disappeared from where he was standing, when he reappeared, he was carrying two unconscious trainees in his arms.


    He roughly dropped them to the ground before disappearing again, this process went on for quite some time and Ivan had lost counts of how many trainees the instructor had brought back in Just a few seconds; some were unconscious while others were simply too exhausted to even move a finger, they numbered almost a hundred in less than twenty seconds!


    "Now that everyone is here, we will move to the next part of the morning training" instructor Logan''s loud voice rang in the ears of all the trainees, with the exception of those who were unconscious of course.


    "You all have wasted too much time with just the morning run and that leaves us with little time before breakfast. As a special first day treatment, I''ll let you all off this time by only using thirty minutes for the second part of the morning training.


    Mind you, those who failed to complete the morning run will all have to do two sets of exercises tomorrow morning as punishment!" Instructor Logan said authoritatively.


    " Umm, doesn''t that mean that they will be late for breakfast and might miss it?" A trainee raised her hand and asked weakly.


    Instructor Logan shifted his eyes in her direction before responding while staring right at her face.


    " That''s right, you''re here to train and not get fed fat. You won''t always have the chance to eat breakfast when in the dreamscape, so you''ll have to get used to it!"


    The girl''s neck shrank in fear, instructor Logan''s words and gaze scared her.


    "Now take your forms! Legs wide apart! Hands on your toes! Bend this way! Stay steady! Up!


    Push it!"


    For the next thirty minutes, Ivan and the other trainees received instructions from instructor Logan who made them do a lot of uncomfortable stretches and even push ups.


    By the end of the thirty minutes mark, Ivan''s body was screaming in protest to the strain it was being put under but one glance at some of the other trainees showed him that he was fairing better than most of them; Ralph and Glen included, they were in terrible shapes after the thirty minutes of exercise.


    ''''Looks like my endurance is better than others because of those scums, should I feel grateful for it?'' Ivan mused to himself while looking at the completely drained trainees.


    "You can now leave, you have thirty minutes before breakfast time so make sure to wash up and get enough rest. I don''t want no dead fish showing up during my breakfast, and prepare yourselves for the combat training after breakfast" instructor Logan spat out before leaving the trainees on the field.


    "Damn! That was inhumane, I almost died!" Sear?h the ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "He keeps calling out orders like it''s easy to follow them, my body hurts, boohoo"


    "Double set of training? I would rather quit!"


    Many of the trainees immediately began to vent after Logan and Nathan left, they spewed a lot of rubbish about the difficult training and the instructor''s lack of sympathy.


    Ivan stared at these trainees with a weird look, he did not think that the training was extreme at all since the instructor already told them that they were going to surpass their limits in six months.


    It was hard but not difficult, some of these trainees were just lazy and too used to comfortable living that they found this new routine as a threat to their lives; Ivan was even thinking about arriving late on purpose so he could get a gravity bracelets but erased the thought the moment it formed, he didn''t think that he would be able to climb that slippery mountain under such conditions.


    Ivan left the field with Ralph and Glen after the two got control over their aching bodies, they went back to the dormitory where they had their baths and changed into new sets of tracksuits before going out to the cafeteria.

 Chapter 27 - 27: The strength of an instructor

    After having their breakfast, Ivan and his friends immediately left for their next training that was to be held in the class section.


    They entered the section and began to look for the place, every door that they passed had a plaque on it which had the name of what that class was used for on it.


    Finally, after two minutes, they came across the first door with the words "combat training" written on it and they entered.


    What appeared in front of their eyes was a large room that was the size of two basketball courts combined and it was completely empty without a single piece of furniture, only the people inside showed they this room was actually in use.


    Currently, aside from Ivan, Glen, and Ralph, there were the five repeaters who were Luke, Sommy, another girl who they did not know and two other boys.


    Also standing with her back resting on the wall of the room was the cold faced Miss Elora in her well fitting black uniform, the skirt of her uniform stopped above her knees while a pair of black hose ran from under her skirt into her long black boot; she looked incredibly compelling that Ivan couldn''t help but stare at her without restraint.


    As if feeling his gaze, Miss Elora raised her head and shot a cold glare at Ivan which caused him to quickly look away. The three of them moved to the side to wait just like everyone else since they did not know what else to do.


    While they waited, Ralph and Ivan took the chance to observe the five repeaters. For one thing, the five of them didn''t look like they were familiar with each other as they stood separately from one another.


    They were already familiar with the red haired Luke and the somewhat friendly Sommy, who left three repeaters.


    Standing opposite them on the other side of the large room was a petite girl with shoulder length brown hair and a short bang covering her forehead. She had a small round face that was somewhat cute but her eyes were half closed yet Ivan and Ralph could see those sharp yellow pupils gazing back at them.


    They gulped and quickly looked towards the next person, standing ten meters away from the petite girl was a dude who was more than two meters tall and had a very buffed figure with wide shoulders on which he hung the jacket of his tracksuit.


    His gray T-shirt glued tightly to his body and perfectly outlined his bulging muscles and well defined abs, he had a serious look on his face with two sharp eyebrows resting above two closed eyes. Also, he was bold.


    Ivan could not help but stare at this guy in amazement as he had never seen anyone with such a figure before, he looked like a small giant while his bald head added a bit of innocence to his scary look. S§×ar?h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Moving their eyes to look at the last of the repeaters, they saw a boy with normal height yet he looked abnormal to them; for some reason, they found this boy more scary than the previous dude.


    First was how his black hair fell all over his face and acted as a shade for his eyes. They wondered if he was able to see like that. Another reason was the ominous aura that they were feeling from this boy. He had the height of a normal person, standing at a 1.70 meter height but he gave people the feeling that he was staring down on them; like literally looking down at someone tiny.


    ''So these are the repeaters? They all look extraordinary in their own ways. I wonder how those who passed would look like by now and how did they fail to pass? They all look strong'' Ivan wondered, he tried to imagine how he would be at the end of the six months training. Would he look as impressive as them? Would he pass or repeat?


    ''No! I can''t think of that, no matter what, I have to pass! If it means increasing my training then I''ll train more than anyone else!'' Ivan thought to himself while clenching his fist, his fighting spirit blazed within him.


    This small action of Ivan''s caught Miss Elora''s attention and she glanced at him through the side of her eyes before looking away the next moment.


    They waited for a while as more and more trainees entered the room, the room soon had about a hundred trainees who still looked dead tired from the morning training.


    At this point, Miss Elora finally lifted herself from the wall and walked toward the door. She opened it and came face to face with a trainee who was about to open the door. Behind the trainee were many other trainees who were chatting with one another.


    "This place is filled up, find another place" she said bluntly before slamming the door shot on the trainee''s face.


    After telling the trainees to go look for the other combat training classrooms, Miss Elora walked to the front of the many trainees in the room and she immediately got their attention as they all turned to look toward her.


    After a quick scan of the trainees with her eyes, Elora slowly opened her mouth and said.


    "For the next months that you''ll be here, this will be your classroom for learning hand to hand combat from me. Lateness will not be tolerated so make sure to be here by 7:30 every morning, we will now begin"


    Miss Elora''s explanation was short and straight to the point, she did not elaborate more than needed as she immediately got the trainees to distance themselves from one another to avoid any incidents during the training.


    The trainees followed her instructions and were now standing in neat rows while facing her, excluding the five repeaters, they were all still standing in their previous positions and acted like whatever was going on did not concern them.


    Elora''s face showed a frown when she saw this, she looked at all five of them before saying.


    "What is the meaning of this? Why aren''t you doing as instructed?" Her voice was laced with slight irritation.


    "Why do we have to join? We already went through this and are far better than these bunch of newbies. Besides, you are only a few years older than us, do you think that you''re qualified to teach us?"


    Luke replied to Elora''s questions, he was visibly annoyed to be here.


    Elora stared at him upon hearing his words, her eyes piercing cold like a glint on a sharp knife.


    "You think you are better than them? Why didn''t you pass with your bunch then? And if I''m unqualified to teach you? Why don''t you come try me?" Elora muttered back in anger.


    Luke was a hot tempered guy so when Elora hit his sour spot with her words, he was already starting to tremble from anger. Getting the invitation to show his skill was like an opportunity to vent his anger, he immediately matched forward and faced Elora.


    Luke took a fighting stance while Elora remained standing calmly as before, she didn''t seem to take Luke seriously despite how close they looked in age.


    Luke raised an eyebrow seeing how calm Elora seemed to be taking this challenge, his anger erupted like a volcano as he dashed toward her while shouting.


    "You''ll regret this!"


    Luke shouted as he arrived in front of Elora in a matter of seconds, his fist tore through the wind and headed for her face.


    Elora calmly stepped to the side, dodging Luke''s punch. Luke immediately reacted after missing his attack and losing balance, he used the force to launch himself into a spiral spin and sent a flying kick toward Elora who once again stepped out of range of Luke''s leg.


    Immediately after landing on the ground, Luke rushed at Elora again and sent another attack. Strike after strike were aimed at Elora but she easily dodged them all no matter how fast or how close Luke was, she was always faster and able to calmly dodge it without changing her expression or moving an arm.


    This went on for a whole minute as Elora danced around Luke, easily dodging all of his attacks. Luke was on the verge of erupting, he felt that Elora was purposely making fun of him in front of the new trainees.


    "Are you just going to keep running away? Fight back if you dare!" Luke growled angrily after failing to hit Elora once more.


    Elora raised an eyebrow at Luke''s words and replied with a faint "Alright"


    Luke came at her again with a rotating elbow slam, this time she did not dodge. She blocked his elbow with her palm while at the same time slamming her other palm into Luke''s rib.


    "Kikh!"


    Luke made a painful sound but refused to give up after getting hit, he pulled back slightly before sending a swipe with the side of his fingers but before his hand could touch Elora, she poked his shoulder, arm, and rib once more in fast and fluent movements.


    Luke only felt a wave of pain and paralysis before his vision suddenly turned.


    BAM!!


    His back slammed heavily into the ground and he was currently looking at the bewildered trainees upside down.


    He felt shameful and wished to disappear but the pain he was feeling currently made him temporarily unable to move.


    Elora stood beside Luke and stared right at the remaining four repeaters.


    "You were asked to repeat the training because you were not good enough, that means you have to go through everything again. Now stand in line unless you want to know if I''m qualified to teach you or not" she said to them in a cold voice.


    Aside from Sommy, the other three stared at her for a few seconds before sluggishly moving to stand with the other trainees. Luke was helped up by some trainees after the paralyzing effect wore out.


    At the side of the room, Ivan looked at everything that had happened with sparkling eyes. He had guessed that Elora was strong enough to be able to wear the black uniform despite being around their age but he did not expect her to be so impressive. She had easily subdued the arrogant Luke in a few moves!


    This was strength, this was what he wanted!


    Wave of excitement rushed through Ivan''s body, he could not wait for the training to start!

 Chapter 28 - 28: Quick path to strength

    For the next one hour, following Elora''s demonstration and constant repetition, the trainees were made to practice a set of four moves which included a move for, approaching, blocking, dodging/retreat, and striking.


    It went in a sequence of:


    Approach


    Attack


    Block


    And then dodge or retreat.


    For one hour, the trainee tirelessly repeated these actions while Elora patrolled the place and corrected those who were doing unknown actions.


    "Hah! Hah! Hah!"


    Step step step!


    At one side of the room, Ivan could be seen swinging his hands while moving his legs in a coordinated movement set as he went forth and back. His tracksuit was once again soaked and he had optioned to go Sommy''s style by tying the jacket around his waist and revealing his slim figure that exhibited the unfamiliar movements.


    Since his awakening, unknown to Ivan. His body had been slowly repairing itself in ways that he would not notice such as fixing his malnourished structure. He no longer looked sickly and skinny like he used to, he now looked a lot more healthier and his skinny frame was now replaced with a slim one.


    "Ha!"


    Ivan voiced out as he through a full powered strike before moving his legs again like he had been doing for the past one hour, his white hair stuck to his scalp due to all the sweating and his body was feeling sore but Ivan did not slow down or stop to rest; he made sure to put as much force into every move he made.


    Thirty minutes passed slowly for the trainees, they had been repeating these movements for over one hour thirty minutes and some were already so tired that their movements had become very sluggish and strained as they gasped for air.


    They had not fully recovered from the results of the morning run, adding this amount of stress made them feel like giving up.


    "Stop, that''s enough for now" Elora''s soft voice was like the sweetest of melodies at this moment as a few trainees directly slumped to the ground while others supported their upper bodies by placing their hands on their knees.


    Elora looked at them with expressionless faces before returning to stand in front of the trainees.


    "Now that you have at least familiarized yourselves with these basic movements, it''s time you try it out against others. Everyone pair up into a group of two, you can pick anyone to be your partner" Elora said.


    The eyes of a certain someone flashed immediately after hearing this and he sneaked away from where he was standing previously.


    " Hey, want to team up?" A voice sounded from behind Ivan, almost startling him. He turned around and saw that Luke was standing behind him with a faint smile on his face but one could easily see the evil grin that smile was hiding.


    He was definitely targeting Ivan but did Ivan care?


    " Alright " Ivan simply said in response and Luke''s smile widened.


    Sommy appeared at this moment.


    "Sorry but I already planned to pair up with Luke. Why don''t you find another trainee?" She said to Ivan with a small smile.


    Luke stared at her with his lips bent to one side in irritation.


    "Who wants to pair up with you? Go away!" He spat at her. sea??h th§× NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "You can''t force him to pair up with you, you just want to bully him* Sommy shot back with a small but the looks in her eyes were cold.


    "Don''t slander me! I didn''t force him, he agreed willingly" Luke retorted angrily, Elora beating him had been disgraceful enough but now Sommy was coming to bother him again.


    Sommy''s face changed into one of surprise confusion upon hearing this, he looked at Ivan with a doubtful look.


    "Is that true?" She asked and Ivan nodded, she stared at him in disbelief like she was looking at an idiot.


    "Are you crazy? He''s clearly targeting you. Why don''t you pair with me? I''m stronger than him" she proposed but Ivan responded with a shake of his head.


    He knew that unlike Luke, Sommy would go easy on him which he did not want. He wanted to get stronger quickly, getting special treatment wouldn''t help much.


    (Just to be clear, Ivan isn''t a masochist! He just isn''t scared of pain like other people after what he went through)


    Sommy stared at him, clearly unable to understand why Ivan was doing this. She didn''t know him but she knew Luke and was aware of what he was capable of doing, Ivan was just going to get wrecked by pairing with Luke.


    "You heard him, now get lost!" Luke chimed in before Sommy could say anything else to dissuade Ivan.


    Sommy was still unwilling to give up but before she could say anything else, Miss Elora''s voice sounded through the air. She was asking every duo to make distance from the others as they were about to start.


    Sommy could only walk away after shooting Luke a "don''t you try anything stupid" glare.


    Ivan saw Ralph and Glen looking at him worriedly while standing with their duo, he gave them a reassuring nod before turning away to look at Miss Elora.


    "Since everyone has paired up, you all will have to fight your partners using only the four moves you''ve learned today. Any other moves aside those four and two won''t like the consequence, now start" Miss Elora ordered.


    The trainees immediately began to attack each other.


    "Ha!"


    "Yaa"


    "Uhaa"


    They advanced, hit, and pulled away from each other using the set of movements that they had been training for the past one hour and thirty minutes.


    At one glance, one could tell that these trainees were still not very familiar with the movements. Their steps were clumsy and their strikes were funny to look at despite how serious they tried to make it look.


    Same could not be said for the repeaters though, their sparing was on a whole other level as they moved with efficiency and precision. Sommy was facing off against the petite girl while the bald guy and the scary looking boy danced around each other with these sets of movements.


    One would think that they were doing something entirely different if they didn''t pay close attention.


    Glen and Ralph were training with other trainees and their exchanges were no different from the other trainees, clumsy and slow.


    Ivan, on the other hand, was currently getting a fine beating.


    Elora could not help but frown upon seeing this but she didn''t say anything.


    Ivan raised both hands in front of his face with his fingers balled into fists, his face had a few bruises and the same on his arms too. Standing opposite him was Luke in a similar stance and a devious smirk on his face.


    "Get ready" he said with a slight chuckle before approaching Ivan quickly.


    Ivan immediately tried to use the dodge movement to distance himself from Luke but the red haired boy was faster and was already right in front of him with his fist coming for Ivan''s face.


    Ivan immediately gave up on dodging and tried to block but Luke seemed to have expected this, he stopped his punch midway before sending his other fist towards Ivan''s stomach.


    Bang!!


    A powerful force landed on Ivan''s stomach, sending a wave of pain across his body and knocking the air out of his lungs.


    It took all of Ivan''s mental defense toward bullying to prevent himself from passing out, he gritted his teeth and used the chance to send a punch toward Luke''s head.


    Sadly, Luke was more proficient in fighting than Ivan and he had pulled away by the time Ivan''s punch arrived.


    "Huff, Huff" Ivan huffed and puffed while staring at Luke who was smirking at him. The latter felt very pleased being able to use Ivan as a punching bag, what was even better was that Ivan wasn''t giving up.


    He waited for a few seconds for Ivan to steady himself before attacking him again. For the next minute, Ivan was constantly being beaten up by Luke while he tried to keep up with Luke''s movements.


    Many minutes later, Ivan was now covered in many more bruises and was panting more heavily. He felt pain all over his body but he still held himself up, prepared to fight Luke for another round.


    "Everyone stop, that''s enough for today!" Miss Elora''s voice echoed in the room.


    Ivan immediately fell on his butt upon hearing her voice, he supported his weight with his arms while gasping for air. He felt sour all over but his face showed a slight smile while dripping with sweat.


    He was very satisfied with the level of practice with Luke even though he had been receiving hits the whole time, he believed that he would be able to improve faster this way.


    The trainees were left to rest for a bit in the combat classroom before leaving for the rest of their next lesson. It was a theory class where they thought about Nexus energy for the next hour.


    They learned the history of Nexus energy, uses and phenomenons brought about by the appearance of Nexus energy. They were also thought about level of strength that one could attain by training their Nexus energy and increasing their A/P(assimilation progress)


    They learned that those who were able to raise their A/p to 10% were known as Known as Mortal kings and they were the weakest among the ranks of Nexulytes, above the Mortal king rank was the True king rank which would require a Nexulyte to had an A/P of at least 20%; trainees would have to reach the Mortal king rank to successfully pass the six months training which meant that they had to reach an A/P of 10% and above within six months!

 Chapter 29 - 29: Profile

    The trainees were also taught what a Nexus chamber was and how to locate it in their bodies, they did a practical session right there in class and only after successfully locating their Nexus chamber were they allowed to leave.


    The Nexus chamber was a special space inside their bodies where they could store Nexus energy and also refine it to increase their A/P to get stronger.


    Following that were classes about other things such as talents, level of talents, introduction of the dreamscape, and lastly, how to handle weapons; after all, one could not always rely on their talents when in battle. What if they ran out of Nexus energy in unforeseen circumstances?


    The trainees were only allowed to rest for the day at 7 in the evening since it was time for dinner, they dragged their tired bodies to the cafeteria while some went straight to bed. This was only the first day of training yet some of them were already exhausted both mentally and physically.


    At 10 o''clock in the evening, Ivan could be seen sitting crossed legged on his bed. He had changed out of the purple tracksuit and was currently wearing a simple sleeveless shirt and a pair of shorts. One could see the bruises on his arms, legs, and face which were the results of his training with Luke. His palms also had a few cuts on them too.


    Ivan clenched and opened his right palm, his blue eyes gazing at it with intent. This was just the first day but Ivan could already feel it, he could feel that he had gotten stronger than he was a day ago.


    He closed his eyes and focused his mind, this was a practice that they had been taught during one of their lessons to check their progress.


    And as expected, a window appeared in front of Ivan.


    NAME: Ivan Von Charles


    Talent group: Primal Talent type: Wisher Talent: Wish card


    Talent lv: SS AP: 0% Rank: NULL


    Ivan opened his eyes and stared at the information on the window with a serious expression on his face. According to the instructor who had taught them on this topic, this window was called a Nexulyte''s profile and would display their progress and information about their talent. They could keep it invisible or reveal a part of it to anyone as long as they wished for it.


    After staring at his profile for a while Ivan made the window disappear, his chest rose and fell as he took a deep breath.


    "Let''s see how far we can go in one night" Ivan muttered to himself. He closed his eyes and began to sense the air around him, they had already gone through the first step during class hours so it did not take long for him to sense the Nexus energy around him and absorb it into his Nexus chamber.


    Minutes slowly ticked by and soon Ivan had lost himself to the flow of time, he soon fell asleep. S§×arch* The N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Strangely, his body did not stop absorbing the Nexus energy around him even while he was asleep; he continued absorbing!


    4:00 am.


    Like an inbuilt alarm clock in his head, Ivan sprang up from his bed with a jolt. His head instinctively turned toward the wall clock and he rushed to change his clothes immediately after seeing what time it was.


    He immediately dashed out of his room immediately after changing, the first thing he did was to go check on Glen''s room when he didn''t spot him outside. Turned out that Glen was still sleeping and it had taken almost two minutes for Ivan to force him to wake up by constantly banging on his door, waking some other trainees in the process.


    Glen had slept in his gray T-shirt and purple pants so he only had the chance to grab his jacket before Ivan dragged him out and they headed toward Ralph''s room. They happened to meet Ralph coming toward them on their way so they all headed toward the field together.


    Upon arriving, they found the five repeaters were already there, instructor Nathan was checking his wrist watch while instructor Logan sat on the ground with folded arms. What surprised Ivan was that there was a group of other trainees who had arrived before then!


    This group consisted of four girls and two boys who were around their age as well. They only threw a glance at the three who arrived before closing their eyes again; Ivan didn''t know if they were sleeping or not.


    Time slowly passed as few tired and sleepy trainees swaggered into the field, after what seemed like thirty minutes had passed. Instructor Nathan moved just like the previous day and erected a tall wall of Nexus energy, barricading entrance into the field.


    "Alright, anyone who arrives after now will have to do their morning training with gravity bracelets and do double sets of stretches later. As for the fortune few of you¡­


    Start running!" Instructor Logan yelled.


    The trainees who had arrived could not help but pity those who had yet to come, some people were about to miss breakfast.


    The trainees that were present quickly realized that they all already had a talent blocking bracelet on their wrists, they immediately sprinted forward under the dim shine of the night sky.


    Scaling through the forest, dragging their feet through the heavy mud, climbing over the iron net, and climbing up the slippery mountain. Each session was as laborious and tiring as the previous day but the trainees managed to keep up without collapsing halfway, it was to be expected since none of them had gravity bracelets on today; those who would get a bracelet were still at the back.


    Ivan stood at the base of the mountain, his head bent backwards as his eyes ran along the body of the mountain but he couldn''t see too far up from where he stood due to how dark it was.


    "Let''s do this"


    Glen said spiritedly from the side and immediately began to climb, this was a payback for the two of them leaving him behind yesterday!


    Ralph and Ivan smirked when they saw this, they didn''t waste time and started climbing as well.


    Just like yesterday, not more than twenty minutes had passed since they started climbing but three of the five repeaters were already out of sight.


    Ivan had crossed thirty meters up the mountain and Ralph and Glen were a few meters behind him, other trainees were either ahead of Ivan or busy falling.


    "Why are you going so fast? I suspect that you cheated so you have to start again" A sinister voice sounded above Ivan. He looked up and saw Luke smirking at him from above, before Ivan could say anything.


    Thud!


    Luke stepped on his hand that was grabbing onto a rock, Ivan temporarily released his grip on the rock due to pain but that was a very wrong decision because he found himself falling without restraint the moment.


    "Ivan!" Glen shouted.


    Luke watched as Ivan fell further away and smirked in satisfaction.


    " Loser" he snorted before continuing to climb, ignoring the hateful glares from Ralph and Glen.


    While climbing, he came to Sommy''s height and saw the girl staring at him with contempt.


    "What?" Luke scoffed.


    Sommy stared at him for a while before looking down as if trying to look for Ivan, she shook her head and continued to climb.


    "Don''t ignore me!" Luke yelled and climbed after Sommy, they both disappeared up the mountain.


    As for Ivan, he was currently at the foot of the mountain with a blank expression on his face, a small smile slowly grew on the side of his lips as he gently touched the surface of the mountain.

 Chapter 30 - 30: 6%

    Following the end of the morning run, the trainees carried out sets of exercises which included stretches and pushups.


    Time went by quickly and it was soon time for breakfast, they all headed to the cafeteria after changing their uniforms into clean ones and washing up. The cafeteria was less populated today compared to yesterday, a lot of unfortunate trainees who had woken up late were still suffering in the field and would be missing breakfast.


    After eating, they headed for their various combat classrooms where they once again repeated yesterday''s lesson. For another one hour thirty minutes, Ivan received another round of beating from Luke since they had once again paired up with Ivan taking the initiative to look for the red haired boy.


    With a bruised face, black eyes, and aching body, Ivan headed for his theory class after the combat class had ended.


    "Are you sure you''re alright? You don''t look fine to me" Ralph asked worriedly while looking at the almost limping Ivan.


    "I''m fine," Ivan replied shortly.


    "Why do you keep pairing with that bastard? He''s hitting you so hard on purpose, do you like getting hit?" Glen questioned while running his chin in thought.


    Ivan shot him a glare that shut him up and made the boy look away.


    Inside the classroom, the instructor who was in charge of their teaching them about Nexus energy stood in front of the row of trainees.


    It was a stout man in black uniform, his big belly appeared to want to burst out from his uniform.


    "As I taught yesterday, I assume that some of you must have studied on your own after class so I''d like everyone to show me their profile and see how much progress you made during your self experiment" the man said as his eyes roamed the faces of the trainees before settling on Ivan''s.


    Of course, the news about Ivan had been a big one and almost everyone with a bit of influence had heard about him including this instructor. He could not help but see what the result of an SS level talent would be.


    ''Ah, the profile! I completely forgot to check it this morning!'' Ivan exclaimed inwardly and focused his mind, the window soon appeared in front of him but he willed it to be invisible so only he could see it.


    NAME: Ivan Von Charles


    Talent group: Primal Talent type: Wisher Talent: Wish card


    Talent lv: SS AP: 0.11% Rank: NULL


    Ivan stared at the words displayed on the window with dead fish eyes.


    ''Noooo! Only 0.11? I didn''t even get 1%? Why is it so slow? After my hard work all night, I only made so little progress? wouldn''t it take me days to get just 1% at this rate?'' Ivan lamented inwardly but managed to prevent it from showing on his face.


    He looked around and saw a lot of trainees shifting nervously, they must have made slow progress too. Ivan became a little relieved upon this thought and waited for the instructor to start asking the trainees about their progress.


    But before they could start, a person appeared at the door of the classroom. This person turned out to be Miss Elora.


    "Excuse, Mr Barnes. The tower master would like to see you" she said to the instructor and immediately turned and left.


    The instructor stared at the opened door with a strange expression on his face for a while before turning to look at the trainees.


    "Excuse me, I''ll be back soon" he said and walked out of the room.


    Immediately after going out, the trainees became noisy as they began to talk about their progress.


    Turned out that some people had been too tired to try increasing their AP yesterday while some nervously showed their progress. All in all, Ivan discovered that the highest AP among the trainees was 0.05%


    And the person with this AP was Ralph!


    The rest were lower than 0.05%! This discovery has shocked Ivan who had thought that his 0.11% was a failure, but it turned out that his result was more than twice the others!


    ''Is it supposed to be this slow?'' he wondered.


    "Hey, Ivan. What about you? What''s your result?" Glen came to Ivan''s side and asked excitedly, he had a result of 0.03% but wasn''t nervous like the others.


    Ivan stared at him for a while before answering, he decided to hide his true result since it might sound like he was bluffing or in case or these people were joking.


    "6?" Ivan responded in a doubtful tone.


    The entire room immediately became quiet, Ivan discovered that everyone was staring at him with wide eyes.


    Crack!!


    A loud crashing sound disrupted the silence in the room, they all looked and saw that Luke had destroyed a chair with his fist that was covered in Nexus energy. He slowly turned to Ivan and gazed at him with a menacing look.


    "Did you just say you got 6% in one night? Are you asking for a beating?" He mumbled coldly, his voice filled with fighting intent.


    Ivan stared at him with confused eyes, he wasn''t the least scared even when Luke looked like he was about to punch him to death.


    Ivan also saw that Sommy and the other repeaters were also staring at him with unbelievable expressions.


    "6%? I don''t remember saying so?" Ivan responded calmly.


    His response seemed to have angered Luke even more as the Nexus energy around him exploded with force and sent strong gusts of wind blowing everywhere.


    "Are you insulting my intelligence? We all heard you saying it loud and clear!" Luke bellowed in anger.


    Ivan remained calm despite his outburst, he slowly said. S§×arch* The ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "What I meant was 0.06, which is a bit higher than Ralph''s"


    Luke was clearly more provoked upon hearing this and was about to explode in rage, Sommy suddenly appeared behind him and placed a palm on his shoulder.


    "Calm down," she then turned to Ivan " and you, be more specific next time" she added with a playful smile on her face.


    The other three repeaters also stopped paying attention to Ivan, the other trainees also burst out in laughter when they heard Ivan''s explanation.


    "Man, you almost gave us all a heart attack just now. Really thought that you were at 6% hahaha" Glen laughed hard while playfully slapping Ivan''s shoulder.


    Meanwhile, instructor Barnes arrived at the office of the tower master. The large office with a huge glass window that showed the view of the forest behind the field.


    "Tower master wanted to see me?" Mr Barnes asked politely as he walked into the office.


    James could be seen seated on his chair, he looked quite exhausted.


    "Yes, I wanted to see you. It''s about Ivan, I believe you are already aware of his situation?" James scanned Barnes with his green eyes to catch his every expression.


    "Indeed, I know about him," Barnes responded after a brief pause.


    "Good, then that saves time. I want you to avoid revealing his progress to the other trainees, unless he decides to show them on his own accord which I believe he won''t do if he''s sensible enough" James said.


    Barnes stared at the tower master with a neutral expression on his face, he knew about Ivan''s talent level and unrecorded ability and was aware of how much chaos it had caused among the many towers and the level of danger Ivan would be in if he went outside but was there a need to hide it inside the tower?


    But it wasn''t in his place to question the tower master.


    "Understood," Barnes said with an affirmative nod.


    "That''s all, you can leave" James said and waved his hand as he rested his back on his chair.


    Barnes turned around and walked toward the door but before he could go through.


    "One more thing, the ranking for the trainees¡­inform the other instructors that I want the kid to be in first place," James said.


    Barnes had been maintaining a calm expression since the beginning but he could not stop his eyes from widening in disbelief, he hastily turned around to look at James.


    " But tower master, the repeaters will not accept this!" He said, almost shouting.


    "I don''t care, if they do not accept it, they can simply challenge him for the spot but I won''t allow any challenges till the third month" James said calmly, a sly smirk could be seen on his face.


    Barnes stared at him wordlessly for a while before sighing.


    "If that''s the case, I''ll do as Tower master says" he added before leaving.


    Left alone, James turned around on his chair and gazed down on the forest, his eyes piercing through the trees and landing on the dead tired trainees that were laying at the foot of the mountain.


    "I''m definitely not giving special treatment, I''m just showing support" James muttered slyly.


    "Show me the strength of an SS level talent kid, don''t disappoint me"

 Chapter 31 - 31: The Ranking

    Ivan opened his eyes and his head instinctively turned in the direction of the wall clock since this had been the first thing he did whenever he woke up and had become something he did without realizing it.


    The time showed that it was just 3 in the morning which was an hour before morning training started.


    Ivan focused and made his profile appear in front of him.


    NAME: Ivan Von Charles


    Talent group: Primal Talent type: Wisher Talent: Wish card


    Talent lv: SS AP: 3.11% Rank: NULL


    Ivan''s eyes lingered on his AP for a long time, a serious expression on his face. It had been a month since they came to the tower and had undergone rigorous training for the past month, a lot had changed during this one month with Ivan undergoing the most shocking change amongst the trainees.


    Compared to last month when they just arrived, Ivan had undergone stunning physical changes. His build was now as tall as Ralph''s and other people his age and his lean body now had well defined muscles.


    He no longer looked sickly and his hair had also grown so much that they now fell over his eyes, almost covering it.


    His cold demeanor only grew colder since he mostly kept a blank face that made it difficult for one to guess what he was thinking about.


    Aside from that, Ivan had also grown much stronger compared to other Nexulytes. Not only did his AP increase at a terrifying speed, his comprehension in hand to hand combat had shocked all the other trainees and even Luke who was his training partner for the past month.


    He had even been given the nickname ''''Monster" by the other trainees.


    Ivan slowly got off his bed and changed into his purple tracksuit before heading out. During the past one month, one of the many changes that had happened was that Ivan no longer waited for Ralph and Glen when going out for morning training.


    This was because he had started getting up very early and also because those two would always arrive on time so there was no need to wait for them. Sear?h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Arriving at the field, Ivan met only the two instructors there; not even the five repeaters were here yet.


    "As early as usual I see" instructor Logan voiced out immediately after seeing Ivan, he wasn''t surprised as this had been Ivan''s daily routine for the past few weeks since coming to the tower.


    Ivan greeted both of them with a simple bow before walking over.


    "Sadly, there won''t be any morning training today. All trainees will be asked to gather in the lobby in a while, there will be important announcements to pass to you all" instructor Logan added after a brief pause.


    His words didn''t seem to move Ivan as he remained standing there while staring at instructor Nathan.


    " What? Don''t tell me you still want to go through it regardless?" Instructor Nathan asked with a raised eyebrow, Ivan responded with a nod of his head.


    "What a freak" instructor Nathan mumbled with a helpless sigh before walking toward Ivan and attaching a gravity bracelet as well as a talent blocking bracelet to the boy''s wrist.


    The gravity bracelet on Ivan''s wrist was a three times gravity bracelet which would increase the pressure on the wearer by three times! This used to be the punishment for late comers but as the trainees got stronger, it had been changed to a daily use for them.


    Those who still came late got a different gravity bracelet with increased gravity pressure.


    Immediately after getting the bracelets, Ivan sprinted off Into the distance.


    He left footprints on the ground as he quickly disappeared into the forest as if he wasn''t wearing any gravity bracelet!


    "This kid sure is a monster" Logan said with a bewildered look on his face as he watched Ivan disappear in between the big trees.


    "That''s an SS level talent for you, so stunning and annoying at the same time. Now I know why the Tower master wanted to put him in first place on the trainees ranking, he just might be able to hold onto that spot till the end" Nathan voiced out with a helpless expression, he felt glad for Ivan''s quick growth but couldn''t help feeling jealous of his talent.


    If he had the type of Ivan''s talent, his life would have been much better.


    Meanwhile, Ivan had just arrived in front of the mud puddle. During the first week of their training, it would take Ivan and the rest of the trainees over twenty minutes to drag their feet through this sticky puddle.


    But recently¡­


    Tap! Ttap! Tap! Tap!


    Ivan stepped into the mud puddle but before his leg could enter fully, he pulled it out and launched himself forward; Ivan started sprinting on the surface of the mud puddle like he was walking on solid ground, he wasn''t moving like someone who had a gravity bracelet on.


    He crossed the fifty meter sticky puddle in a matter of seconds!


    After a few more minutes of running, Ivan arrived in front of the wall made of iron net. Ivan slowly bent down and jumped.


    Btzzzzzz!


    Ivan made the whole net tremble from his force when he grabbed onto a line, he had crossed half of the net with that one jump!


    After crossing the net, Ivan ran a while more before arriving in front of the slippery mountain. Not stopping to rest like before, Ivan once again jumped. Crossing a height of twenty meters with that single jump.


    After reaching the peak of his jump and was about to start descending, Ivan arched his right elbow backward before thrusting it forward.


    Thick!!


    A low sound resounded as Ivan''s fingers stabbed into the body of the mountain and held him in place long enough for Ivan to grab onto something else and began climbing with shocking speed.


    It took him twenty minutes to climb to the top of the mountain!


    Still not stopping, Ivan continued to run until he arrived at the field.


    "Impressive, a record of 40 minutes" instructor Logan commended while nodding his head.


    Instructor Nathan proceeded to take off the talent blocking bracelet and gravity bracelet but Ivan stepped back, he refused to take them off and began carrying out the morning stretches while still under their effect.


    This action had stunned the two instructors but they said nothing and just him be.


    A few minutes later, at exactly 4 am.


    Five people showed up in the field one after another, they were Sommy and the other repeaters. They all threw Ivan confused looks when they saw him sweating profusely while doing push ups before turning to look at the instructor.


    Instructor Logan told them to ignore Ivan before proceeding to pass the news to them that there won''t be training, the repeaters were not surprised by this news; they had in fact expected this to happen.


    After all, it was the same during their first time of training.


    A while later, more trainees began to arrive one after the other and after five minutes everyone had arrived.


    Of course, they all did not fail to give Ivan questioning stares when they saw him doing sets of stretches. Only when everyone had arrived did Ivan stop.


    "Alright, everyone''s here now. Let''s go to the lobby, there are important announcements I want all of you to hear and see"


    Instructor Logan said and led the trainees back to the lobby.


    Arriving at the lobby, the trainees formed orderly lines in front of the two instructors who were standing before a huge screen that no one had noticed this morning or most likely wasn''t there a while ago.


    "Alright, listen up. You all have been privileged to be accepted into the Owen Tower because we saw the potential in you and after a month of watching you all grow. I must say that you have all managed to meet our expectations with a few of you being rather exceptional and impressive.


    Today marking it one month of training, I will now reveal more privileges of being a member of this great tower to you all and that privilege can only be accessed by getting a good place on the ranking"


    Instructor Logan said in a loud and powerful voice, he paused for a while as he watched the trainees begin to murmur to one another, quickly filling the lobby with the buzzing of their murmurs.


    " Quiet! I''ll explain the ranking to you. The ranking is a list compiled by all the instructors who have been in charge of training you all for the past one month, only the top fifty on the ranking will be able to enjoy the benefits of the tower.


    These benefits include being able to skip any class of your choice and being able to use the training room, as well as getting access to the Nexus chamber of the tower.


    I know you must be confused but yes, just like the Nexus chamber inside of you, the tower has a Nexus chamber with a large amount of Nexus energy.


    Not only will training there increase the speed in which you absorb Nexus energy and provide you with an abundant supply of Nexus energy, it also makes your AP increase faster!" Instructor Logan added and the lines of trainees immediately exploded into an uproar, the news of such a place was just too shocking!


    Even the repeaters, except for Sommy, the other four all silently gripped their fists when they heard of the Nexus chamber in the tower.


    "But¡­" instructor Logan''s loud voice made the trainees shut up as they did not want to miss anything he was about to say.


    "Only the top five will have access to the Nexus chamber and the higher your rank, the better the Nexus chamber you will get. Now look at the screen before you and rejoice over the outcome of your hard work or rage with determination to do better!"


    Immediately after instructor Logan''s voice fell, the large screen flashed with a bright light that made the trainees close their eyes for a brief moment and when they opened their eyes, they saw that the screen now had five long rows of names displayed on it.


    None of them thought of looking for their names immediately after seeing the ranking list, every single trainee including the repeaters all looked at the name that was number one.


    The entire lobby immediately fell into dead silence the next second, they were shocked speechless when they saw the name at the top.


    NO. 1: IVAN.


    "I do not accept this!"


    Boom!!

 Chapter 32 - 32: Unacceptable

    " I do not accept this!"


    Boom!!


    A loud and enraged voice echoed through the entire lobby, accompanied by the explosion of Nexus energy that sent the trainees who were close to the source flying like pieces of paper.


    Everyone turned to look at the source of this voice and saw that it was the petite girl among the repeaters, her body was currently fully coated by Nexus energy that made her hair and uniform to float in the air.


    She was currently standing on a small crater and on her face was an expression of dissatisfaction and rage, her small face stared at the screen with eyes flashing with ruthlessness.


    The trainees stared at her in shock and fear, those who had been blown away by her had either slammed their bodies into one of the huge trees in the lobby or crashed onto other trainees and had sustained injuries all looked at the petite girl in terror.


    They all knew that the repeaters were strong but they did not expect the usually weak looking girl to have such monstrous strength, her current appearance was a great contrast to her normal self and some of the trainees were now terrified of her.


    Only a few people kept a calm face even after this sudden outburst, they were the instructors, the remaining four repeaters, Ivan, Ralph and a few other trainees; but all of them except Ivan and the instructors were staring at the screen with serious expressions on their faces.


    "Mind your manners! The positions on the ranking are a recognition of a trainee''s abilities and potential, you know what to do if you are unwilling to accept the result. So do the needful and stop causing a scene, else you will have to face me" instructor Logan said in a chilling voice while glaring at the petite girl.


    The words of the instructor seemed to have had some effects on the girl, she gradually calmed down and the threatening Nexus energy around her gradually retracted into her body.


    But before instructor Logan could continue with his speech, the Nexus energy that had just retracted into the body of the girl burst out once more but this time, it wasn''t as malicious as it had been just then. The Nexus energy this time was more concentrated and dense as it gathered above her palm before stretching out.


    Thang!!


    A dull sound resounded, the Nexus energy scattered and what was left in the girl''s hand was a long katana. Its blade had a red aura rising from it and one could guess how sharp it was just from staring at it.


    Dangerous!


    Was what came to everyone''s mind immediately after seeing the katana in the girl''s hand.


    ''So she''s a weapon master with a katana talent '' Ivan thought to himself while staring at the katana, he wanted to touch it.


    Meanwhile, the girl grabbed her katana and gave it a few swings, producing air slashing sounds.


    She turned in the direction of Ivan and slowly stepped forward but before her foot could touch the ground, she moved forward as fast as a shadow.


    Swoosh!!


    Like a gust of wind, she arrived in front of Ivan like a phantom; her speed was so fast that most of the trainees were unable to see her movements clearly.


    Because of the physical changes that had happened to Ivan, he was now very tall and was like an adult standing close to a child as he looked down at the petite girl in front of him.


    "I challenge you to a duel!" The girl muttered while staring at Ivan straight in the eyes, she didn''t look intimidated by their height difference in the slightest.


    Ivan did not say anything and only stared at her with a calm look on his face, it was instructor Logan who came to his rescue.


    "I know I said you should do the needful but I didn''t ask you to create a scene when doing that. Besides, there is a new rule¡­the first position isn''t allowed to accept any challenges until the third month" instructor Logan said.


    These words once again caused a ripple in the hearts of the trainees, especially the repeaters.


    They were well aware of how fast Ivan was progressing and were also aware of how much resources the first position on the ranking would receive. If Ivan was allowed to train like that for another two months¡­would they still be able to easily beat him?


    They could only wonder just what level of talent Ivan had to be so monstrous.


    The hand of the petite girl holding the katana trembled violently when she heard the words of instructor Logan, she kept standing for a while before making her katana disappear in a puff of Nexus energy.


    She snorted and left, directly leaving the lobby.


    Instructor Logan acted like he did not care about her absence and continued with his announcement, he explained the process of issuing challenges and the effect of the training rooms.


    While he was explaining, the trainees had begun checking on the ranking list once more.


    Following Ivan, the next nine in the top ten were.


    NO.2: Sommy


    NO.3: Miko


    NO.4: Malcolm


    NO.5: Damian


    NO.6: Luke


    NO.7: Mark


    NO.8: Elysia


    NO.9: Liora


    NO.10: Ralph


    The trainees were not surprised to find the repeaters in the top ten, only the appearance of Ivan at the first spot shocked them.


    "Is the tower doing this on purpose? There''s no way Ivan is stronger than the repeaters"


    "That must be the case, didn''t you hear that he can''t be challenged until the third month? They''re giving him time to prepare"


    "This is unfair, we all worked hard. Why is he the one getting special treatment?"


    "You think it''s special treatment? He will be targeted by the repeaters once his period of grace is over, you want to switch places with him?"


    The trainees began to whisper to one another.


    Ivan was not too surprised to find Ralph in top ten, Glen was ranked 105; the total number of trainees on the ranking was 832 so Glen getting a ranking of 105 wasn''t really too bad. S§×ar?h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Though the boy still lamented about being left behind by his friends.


    "Now that you all have been informed, go and prepare for your new training routine. Ivan, come with me" instructor Logan said and left with Ivan under the curious stares of the trainees.

 Chapter 33 - 33: Cant use talent

    (Announcement: so I''ve received a message from a reader that the current training arc is becoming too boring and long so I''ll be speeding things up a bit and skipping some stuff that I was supposed to write, be sure to ask anything that you''re confused about in the comment section and I''ll reply with an explanation)


    After Ivan left the lobby with instructor Logan, the trainees were dispersed by instructor Nathan while Ivan followed instructor Logan to an elevator that took them up.


    They traveled for a minute on the elevator until finally reaching the highest floor of the tower, Ivan was led to one of the rooms which turned out to be the office of the tower master.


    They entered without knocking and Ivan saw James sitting behind a large office table, an enormous glass window behind him that displayed the view of a forest.


    "I''ve passed the information as instructed by tower master" instructor Logan said respectfully while giving a slight bow.


    "Good morning tower master" Ivan greeted while bowing his head as well.


    James raised his head to locate the two, he nodded at Logan for him to excuse them. Only after the buffed instructor had left them did he turn to Ivan.


    "Hello Ivan, it''s been a while since I saw you. You''ve changed¡­in a good way" James said to Ivan, a warm smile glued to his face.


    " It''s all thanks to the training I have received " Ivan replied calmly, his voice wasn''t as warm as James had hoped for.


    James stared at the white haired youth for a few seconds as the warm smile slowly vanished from his face and was replaced with serious expression.


    " I don''t want to waste your time so I''ll go straight to the point, you''ve heard what your instructor announced this morning. You should already know that your training routine will be different from now on compared to last month. This is what I want to discuss with you¡­


    Your talent " James muttered and Ivan''s face immediately turned stern at the mention of his talent. For the past one month he had kept his talent hidden even when other trainees were already able to use theirs.


    And the reason for this was¡­quite embarrassing. It was because he did not know how to use his talent.


    "Your talent¡­is a special type without any information about its specialty. So for the following month when you have talent training, you''ll come to me so I can help study it with you.


    You can also check the library in case you notice certain things that you do not wish to reveal, but know that I''m trying to help you so telling me everything about your talent will help a lot" Sear?h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    " I understand " was all Ivan responded with.


    His casual response left James stunned for a while but he quickly recovered and added.


    "And about the Nexus chamber, you can go there as long as you complete combat training and combat training. You can skip everything else but I advise you not to get too engrossed in it because it can affect your absorbing speed outside the Nexus chamber. Going to the training room will help you prepare for after the three months grace I gave you "


    Ivan still said nothing and continued to stare at James as he spoke.


    " That''s all, you may leave now" James said while letting out a sigh, he could see that Ivan wasn''t interested in chatting.


    Ivan bowed and left the office, after he left a figure silently appeared in a corner of the office.


    James immediately stood up from his chair and stood to the side respectfully, this figure was none other than Karl Owen, the founder of the Owen Tower.


    " Interesting, after seeing him in person, I must admit that he does resemble him a bit. He did not even ask why he was given first place which shows that he is confident of being able to hold his position when the time comes.


    Confident, talented, and a calm demeanor, fitting for a genius. Getting to the Saint rank should not be too difficult for him" Karl said while stroking his long white beard.


    " Did you find anything about his talent, father?" James asked.


    Karl stopped stroking his beard, he placed both hands behind his back and walked to stand in front of the huge glass window.


    "None of the books mentioned anything about a wisher talent or Primal Talent, I did find a few talents related to cards but they were either under the support type or combat type. We''ll need to see him use his talent to know more" Karl said, he thought for a while before continuing.


    " I''ll be going now, a strange monster had appeared near our tower in the dreamscape so I want to go take a look "


    " Is it that monster you have been researching about? " James asked solemnly.


    Karl''s face instantly turned tense and his eyes shook with nervousness.


    " Hopefully it isn''t that monster, it might be the end if such a monster decides to cause trouble " he managed to say after a while of silence. He didn''t wait for what James had to say next before disappearing from the office.


    Meanwhile, Ivan had returned to his room. There was still some time before 7 am, he had nothing to do before then.


    Ivan took his bath to wash off the sweats and changed into a new set of purple tracksuit, he climbed onto his bed and laid on his back with one of his hands behind his head and his other hand raised high enough for him to see it above his stomach.


    Nexus energy slowly began to gather above his palm before condensing into a single blue card with golden edges, the card remained suspended in the air for a brief moment before Ivan grabbed it.


    He stared at the card, observing its back and front but he could see nothing different from what he had already seen before.


    "Be careful what you wish for" Ivan mumbled the words on the front of the card.


    "Just how the hell do I use this thing?" He hissed in exasperation, this was a side of his that Ivan never showed to anyone; not even his only friends have seen him like this.


    Others might think that Ivan was a monster and was progressing quickly, but no one knew just how frustrated he was over not being able to use his talent!


    No matter what he tried, the damned card would remain a card!

 Chapter 34 - 34: A way, Challenge

    Out of frustration, Ivan threw the card away while cursing. The card flew for only a few meters away after Ivan threw it before disappearing into a puff of red energy wisp.


    Ivan stared at the red wisps and gritted his teeth in extreme anger, for some reason Ivan''s mind wandered to a time over a month ago. To the day he had awakened, the experience he had gone through during the awakening process replayed in his mind.


    "It''s your birthday Ivan, make a wish"


    The words of the female figure sounded in his mind and Ivan''s eyes flashed with realization, it was as if he had just woken up from a long dream.


    " Of course! Why didn''t I think of that, it might just work!" Ivan exclaimed, he smacked his forehead and jumped off his bed in enthusiasm.


    Now he felt like it did make sense after staring at his profile once more.


    NAME: Ivan Von Charles


    Talent group: Primal Talent type: Wisher Talent: Wish card


    Talent lv: SS AP: 3.11% Rank: NULL


    His talent type was a wisher and his talent was a wish card! He was told to make a wish during his awakening which he didn''t get the chance to make!


    "It just might work!" Ivan said to himself as he summoned another blue card and pinched it with two fingers.


    Feeling a bit nervous and excited, Ivan took severe deep breaths before slowly saying.


    "I wish¡­" he paused and suddenly burst into laughter.


    After a good one minute of laughing like a maniac, Ivan''s face turned serious as he stared at the card in his hand.


    " What should I even wish for?" He muttered in a self mocking voice.


    He contemplated for a while before continuing to carry on with his experiment anyway.


    " I wish¡­for my AP to increase" Ivan slowly said, his voice held expectancy and doubt.


    Immediately after Ivan''s words fell, the card in his hand trembled violently while releasing a burst of blinding blue and golden light that made Ivan squint his eyes.


    Btzzz!!!


    Like a flash of electricity, the card made buzzing sounds before exploding in the air. It turned fine particles to blue and golden light before¡­vanishing.


    Ivan hurriedly checked his profile, his AP was still at 3.11%.


    Nothing changed.


    "Looks like I hoped for too much, there possibly can''t be any talent that could be so overpowered" Ivan said to himself. He felt sad that his talent wasn''t able to increase his AP but he was delighted that he finally got the damned card to react!


    "So that''s how to use them but what can I use them for then? I obviously can''t wish for anything" Ivan pinched his chin in thought.


    "I''ll try again" he came to a conclusion and summoned another card which he held between his fingers.


    "I wish¡­ "


    Although this time, Ivan wasn''t able to finish making his wish before everywhere suddenly turned dead quiet and a low whisper sounded in Ivan''s head.


    "BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR¡­WISHER"


    The voice was like a mixture of a whisper and a scream as it echoed in Ivan''s head like a loud thunderclap, Ivan held his head in pain. His vision was already turning dark and he could barely see.


    " What''s¡­happening?" Was all Ivan managed to say before passing out.


    ...¡­..


    After an unknown amount of time had passed, Ivan who was currently laying on the floor beside his bed slowly began to regain consciousness; he had fallen off the bed after passing out.


    His fingers twitched slightly and then his whole body, he made a groaning sound after a few seconds before proceeding to pick himself from the ground.


    "Damn, my head hurts," Ivan cursed after getting up. His head was throbbing seriously and he felt like he was hit by a big hammer on the head.


    It took him a while for his mind to fully recover and he was able to think straight.


    " I passed out? How long was I out?" Ivan mumbled while looking toward the wall clock.


    The time was only 7:45 am.


    " Huh, I''ve been out for over 2 hours?" Ivan said before his eyes widened in realization.


    Over two hours! He had missed breakfast and would be late for combat training!


    Without thinking, Ivan rushed out of his room and began running towards the lobby. Ignoring the curious gazes people threw at him, he raced in the direction of their combat classroom.


    Though he was in a hurry, Ivan did not forget to observe himself if he could find out the reason he had passed out and he discovered that it was because he had run out of Nexus energy; his Nexus chamber was as empty as an abandoned house without the slightest bit of energy in it.


    ''Looks like three cards is my current limit before I run out of energy'' Ivan concluded. He would continue his experiment after he replenished his Nexus energy later.


    Ivan arrived in front of a door and pushed it open without knocking.


    Inside was the combat classroom where everyone had gathered, he was the only one who had arrived late since it seemed like they were about to start training.


    "This is only the first day of being the first place on the ranking and you think you are already too big to come to class early?" Miss Elora''s icy voice drifted into Ivan''s ears. He could clearly feel the contempt from her words. S~ea??h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "I''m sorry, it won''t happen again" Ivan gave an honest apology.


    Miss Elora glared coldly at him for a while more before moving her gaze away, her impression of Ivan had dropped a bit due to this so she didn''t feel the need of saying anything more to him.


    " If everyone is done pairing, then you can start " Miss Elora''s voice echoed through the air as Ivan quietly walked over under the piercing stares of the trainees.


    " Hehe, first place on the ranking and you want to skip classes already. People like you can only be trash. Why don''t you come show me why you were placed in first place? " A taunting voice halted Ivan''s movements as a figure appeared in front of him.


    It was a red haired youth who had a twisted smirk on his face. Luke had been very pissed about the ranking list, he could be said to be the angriest amongst the repeaters even. After all, he had already planned it all out and would use the fifth spot privilege to get a Nexus chamber in the tower; even if it was the trashiest one, it would still be able to increase his growth speed a bit.


    But because of Ivan suddenly appearing in first place, he was pushed to the sixth position! How could he accept? If not for the petite girl acting up first, he might have rushed up to give Ivan a beating in the lobby.


    So how could he not use this chance to teach Ivan a lesson? Although Ivan had improved a lot and had been giving him a hard time lately, he still believed that he would be able to beat Ivan if he got serious.


    "What do you say? Dare to pair with me or are you too scared?" Luke taunted again with a wicked grin on his face seeing that Ivan wasn''t replying and was just staring at him.


    "Won''t dare? What''s there to be afraid of? It''s just you and not a monster" Ivan replied calmly after silently staring at Luke for more than ten seconds.


    His gaze was so calm as he stared at Luke that it felt like he was staring at a little kid and not an opponent. Luke felt that Ivan was looking down on him.


    "Good, that''s how a first place on the ranking should be like" Luke laughed wildly but his mind was raging.


    ''Damned bastard! You dare stare at me with such an expression, see as I wipe that cocky look off your face!''


    The both of them got into a fighting stance, the other trainees stopped what they were doing and were watching these two instead; Elora didn''t say anything about this, she was also watching with interest as she was also curious as to why Ivan was put in first place instead of Sommy.


    "Come on, I''ll let you attack first. Let''s say it''s my gift to you for getting first place" Luke beckoned to Ivan with a mischievous smile.


    Ivan''s expression didn''t change, he still looked calm like someone who was quietly fishing.


    " If you say so, then I won''t reject,'''' Ivan replied before suddenly lunging forward.

 Chapter 35 - 35: Humiliating Luke

    During the past one month of combat training, the trainees had been taught various sets of fighting techniques which they could now compile into fighting styles and choose a fighting style of their own form.


    After a whole month of constant combat training, a few trainees had managed to grasp a bit of the essence of hand to hand combat with Ivan obviously being one of these few.


    They were the only ones who had managed to grasp the meaning of fighting and had managed to create their own fighting styles from what they were taught, the only thing that they now needed was constant practice to become true masters.


    Back to Ivan''s and Luke''s fight.


    Ivan arrived in front of Luke in a blink of an eye, his hand swept through the air in the form of a punch toward Luke''s face.


    His sudden speed surprised Luke a bit but he was ready for whatever Ivan had to dish out.


    With a tilt of his neck, Luke let Ivan''s punch pass by the side of his head before immediately delivering a powerful punch toward Ivan''s side which could potentially break a rib or two if it hit.


    But of course it would be too early for their exchange to end if Ivan allowed himself to be hit. Bringing down his left elbow, Ivan knocked Luke''s punch away before attacking with a side chop with his other hand that was beside Luke''s neck.


    Luke didn''t block this time as he bent his body fully, letting Ivan''s hand pass just a few centimeters above his head while he sent a kick toward Ivan''s leg.


    Ivan easily blocked the kick and attacked immediately after.


    For the next minute, the two of them locked each other in a ferocious close range combat with neither of them backing off or getting thrown off by the other''s attack.


    Kicks, punches, chops, palm strikes, elbow slams, knew strikes¡­for the next minute, every form of attack that could be performed by the body were used by the two of them yet none of them managed to land a clean hit or get the advantage.


    Bam! Bam! Bam! Clap!


    Loud sounds of flesh hitting flesh filled the room as Luke and Ivan danced around each other while throwing life-threatening attacks at one another.


    Ivan''s face was still as calm as ever but his eyes had changed completely that one might even think that he was possessed, his blue eyes were now looking as sharp as those of eagles and seems to be glowing faintly as he followed Luke''s every move; his current gaze was similar to those of powerful experts who had been through countless battles, some trainees could help but feel cold when they saw Ivan''s eyes while he fought.


    As for Luke, his face no longer had the smirk from before as a deep frown now etched on his forehead while gritting his teeth.


    He had been fighting for over a minute and could tell that his movements were faster than Ivan''s but no matter how he attacked, the latter was always able to block his attacks! It was almost as if Ivan could predict his attacks.


    He wasn''t the only one with this thought, Sommy, Miko, Malcolm, and Damian, the rest of the repeaters were also watching the fight between the two with serious expressions on their faces. This was because they had realized the same thing as Luke, Ivan seemed to be predicting Luke''s movements! S~ea??h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    As for the rest of the trainees, the movements of Ivan and Luke were just too rapid for them to follow, talk less of noticing anything. They could only stare at the two in awe.


    Compared to how their own training went, Ivan and Luke seemed to be in a death battle. The trainees concluded that they would not even last for five seconds if they had to face either of those two!


    "Since when was Ivan this strong? He wasn''t this powerful yesterday, how did he change overnight?!" Glen muttered absentmindedly as he watched one of his friends go toe-to-toe against a repeater. He felt both shocked and proud at the same time.


    Ralph did not respond to Glen, he continued watching the fight between Luke and Ivan with a serious expression. Unlike others who were amazed by Ivan''s combat strength, Ralph was more concerned about Ivan''s current expression.


    To him, Ivan''s eyes appeared¡­empty. This was the same look that Ivan always had in his eyes when they first met in the outskirt, he has slowly changed over the years and Ralph had seen him show anger, hatred, dislike, happiness, relief, every other possible emotion but Ralph could not remember this emptiness among them.


    Miss Elora, who was watching from a distance, was having the same thoughts as Ralph. But since she wasn''t familiar with Ivan, she ticked it off that he must have been into fights a lot to be able to make such fast progress and possess such a focused gaze when fighting.


    If only she knew that Ivan hadn''t been into fights but had been used as a punching bag instead.


    Pam!!


    Ivan threw a punch but his fist was grabbed by Luke who refused to let go, taking advantage of this, he pulled Ivan over and launched a knee strike toward his waist.


    Ivan was caught off guard by this action, he tried to pull away but Luke held onto him tightly.


    BAM!!


    Luke''s knee slammed into Ivan''s side with so much force that it sent a great wave of pain to Ivan''s brain and made his whole body tremble. Ivan''s expression finally changed into one of pain; he gritted his teeth to prevent himself from making a sound.


    Finally landing a hit, Luke revealed a satisfied grin while at the same time letting go of Ivan and doing a spin.


    Ivan had barely regained his senses from the pain when he saw Luke''s leg coming down on him in a spinning kick, he quickly raised his arms to block it.


    Paw!!


    The kick landed heavily and Ivan stumbled backwards while enduring the new pain in his arms.


    Silence! The place became dead silent as everyone stared at the two.


    "Hehe, not so cocky anymore huh?" Luke landed and laughed when he saw Ivan''s twisted expression. He felt proud upon finally landing a clean hit on Ivan, this showed that they were not on the same level!


    Before Ivan could speak, Luke dashed toward him again. Ivan ignored the pain in his waist and arms as he once again locked Luke into a ferocious exchange of blows.


    They fought for another two minutes without anyone landing a hit but they could see that Ivan was being pushed into defending, Luke was slowly getting the upper hand.


    While dodging a blow from Luke, Ivan saw a chance and suddenly hugged Luke tightly.


    "What is this!?"


    Luke roared in confusion but before he could try to free himself, Ivan threw his head backwards and brought it forward with as much force as he could.


    Crack!!!


    "Ahhhhhhhh"


    The clear sound of Luke''s nose breaking rang through the room and what followed it was the agonizing screaming of Luke, Ivan had given him a full powered nod on his nose.


    "How dare you?! I will kill you!" Luke shouted in a crazed manner as red energy started rising from his body.


    Boom!!!

 Chapter 36 - 36: Dream. Is that your wish?

    "Ahhhhhhhh"


    The clear sound of Luke''s nose breaking rang through the room and what followed it was the agonizing screaming of Luke, Ivan had given him a full powered nod to his nose.


    "How dare you?! I will kill you!" Luke shouted in a crazed manner as red energy started rising from his body.


    Boom!!!


    The Nexus energy coming from Luke''s body exploded like a bomb and sent Ivan flying away like a broken kite.


    Ivan slammed onto the ground and rolled a few times before coming to a stop, his body was in pain but he didn''t make a sound and kept staring at Luke while forcing his legs to keep him standing.


    Luke currently had his nose bent and half was his face was covered in blood that kept rushing out from his bent nose, his eyes were bloodshot as he stared at Ivan with deep resentment.


    "You''re just a nobody, how dare you hit me in the face!" Luke bellowed as the Nexus energy around him quickly began to gather and soon formed a nano suit on Luke''s body as well as a helmet with glowing red eyes.


    Turned out that Luke had the battle mechanic talent!


    His current appearance was very similar to Gareth''s! A big laser gun formed in Luke''s hand which he aimed at Ivan and was preparing to fire!


    Ivan, despite his aching body, forced himself to rise to his feet after being sent flying by Luke''s Nexus outburst. No matter how much he had improved, Ivan realized that he still was not able to handle the amount of energy the repeaters possessed. But that did not mean that he was going to back away.


    With blood flowing from the side of his head and covering a part of his face, Ivan stood firm while gazing at Luke with a calm look in his eyes. His calmness further infuriated Luke.


    "You bastard! I''ll kill you!" He roared but before he could fire a shot at Ivan, a beauty with long green hair appeared in front of him.


    "That''s enough, the training session for today is over" Miss Elora casually said while staring at the two glowing eyes on Luke''s helmet.


    One could hear Luke click his tongue in dissatisfaction from under his helmet before retracting his Nexus energy, his nano suit vanished and with his bloodied face stormed out of the class.


    Bang!


    Luke slammed the door shut behind him, Miss Elora stared at the closed door with a frown; she had the impulse to go hit Luke a few times but decided to let him be in the end.


    Just before she could turn around.


    Thud!


    "Ivan!"


    The sound of something hitting the ground followed by the screams of Ralph and Glen rang from behind her, she hurriedly turned around to see what had happened. What she found was an unconscious Ivan on the floor, Ralph and Glen were rushing to his side.


    "Tks, senseless idiots" Elora cursed under her breath while staring at Ivan.


    His condition didn''t look that bad from the outside but she knew that Luke''s Nexus burst must have done something to his organs but the boy had pretended like he was alright until Luke left the room.


    Elora took the unconscious Ivan from Ralph and dismissed training, she then carried him to the infirmary like a bag of potatoes. A lot of people were surprised to see Elora carrying a body but quickly went back to minding their business when they saw it was a bloodied trainee.


    ...¡­..


    Ivan found himself standing in the middle of a ruined city, collapsed streets, destroyed buildings, wrecked vehicles, and bloody corpses scattered all over the place. The entire place was in such a mess that Ivan found it difficult to recognize this place as San Pluto but the truth was right before his very eyes.


    The destroyed building he was standing on was the home of the old driver who had sheltered them during their one week stay and in front of him were the corpse of the old man, his wife, and introverted daughter; their son was nowhere to be seen.


    What freaked Ivan out the most was how gruesome their corpses were, they looked like the remains of a beast''s meal!


    Ivan stood rooted to the ground, countless emotions running through him at a fast speed that made his body unable to react for a long time as he could only stare at the sight in front of him with wide eyes.


    Boom!!!


    Roar!!


    Suddenly, a huge explosion rang out behind Ivan followed by howling of beasts.


    Ivan stiffly turned around and what he saw sent terror drilling into his bones, his hands trembled and he forced himself from falling.


    Up in the sky was an enormous mirror gate! Yes, a link to the dreamscape! S~ea??h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    This mirror gate was much larger than the one Ivan had seen in the playground back in the outskirt with countless monsters flooding out from it. Different kinds of monsters filled the sky while large and enormous hideous looking ones roamed the ground.


    It was a mess as hundreds of humans that Ivan realized were Nexulytes charged at these monsters in an all out battle.


    Explosions rang out constantly and monsters and humans were killed every second! Screams of pain, anger, and fear filled the air as battle between humans and monsters raged on.


    Amidst this chaos, Ivan sighted a few familiar figures.


    First one was Glen who was facing off against a swarm of bee-like monstera while standing on the head of an enormous white snake that was the size of a skyscraper with over a hundred floors.


    These bee monsters only had the bodies of bees but no more similar features, their sizes were similar to that of an elephant and they had humanoid skeleton heads! Their wings were pitch black and bone-like with blood flowing from them constantly.


    Glen was soon completely surrounded by these monsters that Ivan wasn''t able to see him or his white snake despite its enormous size, the only thing that made Ivan know that he was still alive were the frequent flash of red light which were signs that Glen was using Nexus energy!


    The second person was Ralph, Ralph was currently wearing a black battle suit with two small guns in both hands. His face was dirty, hair covered in blood and blood dripping from the side of his mouth. His battle suit was a mess with many tears on it through which one could see the wounds he had sustained.


    Around Ralph was a small army of undead beings in black robes, they all had red aura rising from their bodies while they stared at the rocky monsters approaching with blood red eyes.


    Surrounding the small army of undead that were protecting Ralph were over a thousand rock monsters, each carrying an axe made of rock.


    Another person Ivan was able to spot was Miss Elora.


    Clad in a dark blue combat suit, she wielded two blood red gauntlets that were clearly too big for her fists as she went up against a demon-like monster in hand to hand combat.


    Every strike they exchanged was deadly and fast and each collision of their fists generated explosive sounds along with strong gusts of wind that threatened to destroy the ground.


    While still watching, Ivan saw the monster suddenly find a chance and sent a powerful punch toward Miss Elora''s chest.


    BAM!!


    The sound of the collision was deafening as Miss Elora was sent flying like a broken kite while smashing into everything in her way.


    Aside from that, a lot of other fights were going on around him but Ivan wasn''t able to move from where he was and everything seemed to be ignoring him.


    His friends were in the face of death, his instructor was facing danger, a lot of humans were being killed every second but Ivan wasn''t doing anything.


    A thought suddenly came to him.


    ''What can you do? You''re just one person, what can you change? Isn''t this what you always wanted? For Nexulytes to die obediently? They are Nexulytes and they are just fulfilling your wish, why should you bother?!''


    The thought was like a brainwashing whisper in Ivan''s mind that made his whole body tremble, he felt a strong sense of pleasure from watching people die trying to take over his mind. Just in time, another thought countered the first one.


    "They may be Nexulytes but they were your friends before gaining that identity, they stayed by you for years and looked out for you. Remember your promise of brotherhood, shouldn''t you at least consider their kindness? Is it really alright to let them die?"


    " Shut up! Nexulytes are bad people, they deserve death no matter who they are. The world will be a better place without them!"


    " Aren''t you a Nexulyte too? Do you wish to die then?"


    Ivan''s mind seemed to have become two different people as they argued nonstop while giving Ivan a reason to help or just keep watching.


    But could he really do anything? He was just one person and even if he wanted to help, how could he change things by himself?


    Ivan was on the verge of breakdown, his mind was about to explode. Unable to decide, he opened his mouth and screamed.


    "Shut up!"


    Like a powerful sound wave, his shout spread out across the whole place, freezing time and silencing everything; not even the wind was moving.


    In this frozen world, only Ivan could move and speak.


    Ivan fell to his knees, unaware of what his shout had caused. He was only glad that he finally got a moment of quietness.


    Looking at his hands that were now holding two cards each, Ivan wondered when he had used his talent but couldn''t remember summoning them. But it didn''t matter, what mattered was that Ivan had suddenly come to a decision.


    He had given up on dying after becoming a Nexulyte but that didn''t mean he didn''t hate Nexulytes. His new principle was¡­


    "Whoever hurt my friends¡­must die! Human or monster "


    " Is that what you wished for, Wisher?"


    A voice suddenly spoke up from above Ivan, a voice that made Ivan''s body jolt for some reason.


    Ivan hurriedly looked up and above him was a man floating in the air, clad in golden armor with a cape hanging over his shoulders. The man gave Ivan a familiar feeling yet he could not remember knowing him.


    "Is that your deepest desire, wisher?" The man once again asked, seeing that Ivan wasn''t responding.


    "I¡­"

 Chapter 37 - 37: Way of a wisher.

    "Is that your deepest desire, wisher?" The man once again asked, seeing that Ivan wasn''t responding.


    "I¡­"


    Ivan tried to speak but no words would come out of his mouth, he could only stare at the man with his mouth hung open while the man stared back at him. The man had a rather handsome face with eyes similar to Ivan''s and white hair just like Ivan''s hair as well but Ivan still could not recognize this person.


    Heck, he didn''t know a lot of people to begin with!


    Seeing Ivan unable to say what was in his mind, the man decided to continue. While still floating in the air, Nexus energy began to leak out from his body before condensing into blue cards with golden edges.


    These cards were just like Ivan''s wish cards!


    The man made the cards he had summoned to float around him like a lightless sun.


    "If that is what you want, then wish for it!" The man said to Ivan in a commanding tone.


    He stretched out one of his hands and a card flew out from the ring of cards and landed on his hand. He held the card in front of his chest and said something that Ivan wasn''t able to hear.


    Soon after¡­


    Wooosh!!


    The card shattered into tiny red, blue, and golden particles that drifted in the air and went in the direction of Glen and the bee-like monsters.


    While still frozen and unable to react, the tiny particles swept through the swarm of monsters and shredded them into pieces!


    Ivan was shocked at this sight, he looked at the frozen decimated monster parts that floated around Glen with wide eyes.


    Before he could recover, the man''s voice pulled his attention again.


    "Wish for it if it''s what you desire, make it happen if that''s what you want!" The man voiced out, his voice now high enough to pass as a shout.


    At the same time, three cards flew out consecutively and shattered into light particles which spread and attacked various monsters. The tough bodies of the monsters were light paper and easily shredded by the light particles.


    "Wish for it!" The man yelled again as another card flew out and shattered.


    Boom!!!


    This time it did not attack a monster but scattered into the air as countless red energy barriers formed around every human in sight, protecting them from the monsters.


    "TURN IT TO REALITY!" The voice of the man boomed once more as he turned his head and stared right at Ivan in the eyes.


    Suddenly able to find his speech, he sprang up to his feet with a determined face. The man''s demonstration of his ability had moved him and he wanted to learn.


    "But how, how do I turn it into reality!?" Ivan called out in a desperate voice. He had been trying to understand his talent for a whole month now but had only managed to get a response from it once.


    "How?" The man repeated Ivan''s words as he stared at him with a raised eyebrow, he maintained the stare for a few seconds before stretching out a hand and taking another card. S§×ar?h the N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Watch closely" the man ordered as his eyes suddenly started glowing with red light.


    "REVERSE!" He calmly said but for some reason, his voice sounded like a thunderclap in Ivan''s eyes but what happened next was what brought Ivan the real shock.


    Immediately after the man said the word, Ivan saw the world around him begin to flow back in reverse.


    Pieces of collapsed buildings rose into the air, destroyed vehicles reformed in slow motion; everything was repaired to its original state after the man said those words and within just a minute, the place had turned back to how Ivan remembered it. Ivan the dead people came back to life with only the exemption of the monsters and that everything was still frozen in place.


    Ivan saw the bodies of the old driver and his family coming back to life and the city returning to its original state.


    "Wish for it, envision it, want it, make it your desire¡­make it a reality!"


    The man''s thunderous voice rang in Ivan''s ears after the whole place was restored, he was giving Ivan a lecture on how to use his ability!


    Ivan stared at the cards in his hands, thinking to himself if he could do the same thing.


    "Can I¡­really do this?"


    He wasn''t able to get an answer to his question before time began to flow freely again but this time. Every single monster turned their eyes on him, and they charged towards him.


    Ivan was spooked by the sudden change and didn''t know what to do as he was swarmed by the monster as he wasn''t able to even see the sky anymore, he frantically held the cards in front of him but nothing happened and the monsters were getting closer.


    "Desire it, don''t just think about it!"


    That was the last thing that Ivan heard the man say before the demon-like monster that had been fighting Miss Elora previously appeared in front of him and punched him in the face, everything went blank.


    .....


    Gasp!!!


    Ivan suddenly woke up and jumped to his feet in a swift moment, his breathing was rigid and he was covered in sweat. It took him a few seconds to realize what was happening.


    He was currently in the infirmary and what he had just gone through was most likely a dream¡­no, it was a nightmare!


    "Oh, you''re up? Why are you out of bed and how are you covered in so much sweat?" A soft voice drifted into Ivan''s ears. He looked over and saw that it was the same woman who had healed them when they came here the last time.


    The woman stared at Ivan''s erratic breathing and the sweat all over his body "Hmm, you had a bad dream while unconscious? Not like it''s my business anyway" she said before moving to check his condition.


    "You''re perfectly fine now, although this time wasn''t as bad as last time. I thought I remembered some people promising to stay away from dangerous situations. Seems like you have a talent for creating them" she said with a serious expression to which Ivan could only mutter a weak "sorry" while slightly lowering his head.


    The woman stared at him for a few seconds before shaking her head "Come with me, you have visitors waiting for you outside" She said and led Ivan to the entrance of the infirmary. There, Glen, Ralph, and surprisingly Miss Elora were waiting for him.


    Ivan could not resist staring at this young instructor of his with a confused gaze.


    Noticing Ivan''s gaze, Elora glanced at him with cold eyes before saying.


    "Don''t look at me, the tower master wants to meet you," she said briefly.


    They left the infirmary and returned to the lobby where Glen and Ralph left to continue their own things.


    Glen didn''t make it into the top fifty so he still had to follow the normal training routine and attend classes while Ralph was planning to go check out the library and see what he could find there, they agreed to go look at the training room later after Ivan was back from seeing the tower master.


    Agreeing on this, Ivan and Miss Elora took an elevator to the top of the tower where the office of the tower master was.


    Arriving at the familiar office, they met James who immediately went straight to the point which would be Ivan''s new training.


    He also commended Ivan for managing to stand his ground against a new Mortal king Nexulyte, it turned out that the tower master was aware that Luke had reached an AP of over 10% and was now at the Mortal king rank.


    This information left Ivan stunned for a while, he knew that the repeaters were strong but he didn''t expect Luke who was ranked the lowest amongst them to be so strong. Then what about the others who were ranked higher?


    Was he going to be able to have a peaceful life after his months of grace?


    "I know what you''re thinking, don''t worry too much about it. With the new training routine I''ve prepared for you, I guarantee that you''ll not be helpless when facing them after the third month" James said, pulling Ivan from his sea of worrisome thoughts.


    His new training program was¡­


    After morning training, he was to go straight to the Nexus chamber every day and spend the next three hours there. After which he would come to him for talent training, next would be weapon/combat training where his partner would be none other than Miss Elora.


    "But tower master¡­ " Elora tried to object but was stopped by a hand gesture from James.


    " I''m not requesting this as the tower master, I''m asking for your help in this as your father, " James said to her with a gentle smile on his face.


    Elora stared at the man in front of her, stunned by the sudden words for a good number of seconds before eventually turning with a faint blush on her face.


    "I''ll listen to Father," she muttered softly.


    This revelation shocked Ivan, so these two were father and daughter?


    Following this addition to his training, Ivan was to go to the training room where he would spend a good part of whatever was left of the day.


    He was informed that the training room had one hundred levels and the further one went, the harder each level would get. Currently, the highest any trainee had climbed was the 30th level and that was accomplished by a trainee who had held first place on the ranking during the training last year.


    This discovery came as a pleasant surprise to Ivan, fighting intent blazed within his eyes; he couldn''t wait to go to the training room.


    "And that''s all for now. Elora, you can carry on with whatever you have been doing. Ivan, come with me. I''ll take you to the Nexus chamber" James said as he rose from his chair.


    (Hello!! Author here, I want to ask for your help. What''s the best tool to use on someone you want to kill but don''t want them to die quickly, so they can feel as much pain as possible? Fantasy weapons of course, for Ivan''s use)

 Chapter 38 - 38: Fusion

    James and Ivan took the elevator and began to go down after closing its door. They reached the lobby but the elevator did not stop as Ivan had expected; it continued to descend underground!


    They kept going for a minute more under the ground before the elevator finally stopped and the door opened, revealing a long stone corridor. Two people in black uniforms stood at the entrance of the corridor and bowed to James immediately after they spotted him.


    " We greet the Tower master!" They both said in unison while bowing their heads.


    James waved one of his hands in response before walking through, Ivan walked right behind him under the curious gaze of the two people in uniform.


    The corridor was like an ancient tunnel made of bricks with a few torches hanging on its sides to lighten the path; the discovery of such a place in the Tower had surprised Ivan greatly. He still remembered how tall the building of the tower was from outside, it almost pierced the clouds! S§×arch* The Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Since their arrival, he had only been to so few floors and even this underground; what other secrets could those many floors hold?


    They walked for about five minutes before finally exiting the corridor and came to an empty chamber with nothing but surging Nexus energy, the place looked like a typical cave that one could find anywhere with untempered walls and flat ground. To the side of this chamber was a stairway that led further down.


    James explained that this was the first level of the Nexus chamber where the fifth position on the ranking could train, he also said that it has the worst quality compared to the other four chambers.


    Ivan found this statement difficult to believe, he could very well feel the surging Nexus inside this chamber; it was so strong that he could faintly feel it brushing against his skin! He believed that he would be able to progress very quickly if he trained here.


    At least an additional 0.03% to his normal speed outside!


    It was only after they visited the other four chambers did Ivan understood why James had said that the first chamber had the worst quality!


    In the fourth chamber, the Nexus there was so abundant that Ivan could clearly feel it in his skin. In the third chamber, the Nexus was so thick that Ivan felt that he could taste it if he tried hard enough.


    In the second chamber, he felt he would be able to grab the Nexus energy; of course, this was only a feeling of how much he felt the presence of the energy and for a fact that he could faintly see it mixed with the oxygen in the chamber.


    The last chamber and the one meant for first place was what had given Ivan the greatest shock. This chamber looked even more ancient than the previous four, the walls of this chamber were a mixture of red and brown which spoke of their age, and in the center of the chamber was a small pond filled with pristine sparkling water that filled the chamber with a soothing scent.


    The Nexus energy in this chamber was so thick that Ivan could see them, literally! They formed small red clouds and drifted about in the air while releasing red wisps constantly.


    Ivan could not even dare to imagine how much progress he could make if he trained her for only one day!


    "This¡­" Ivan stuttered while still standing in the middle of the stairway. He was too shocked to speak as he struggled to control his expression.


    " Hehe, I like that expression on your face. I heard it''s very difficult to make you change your blank expression, I know this would work" James chuckled when he saw Ivan''s expression, he was pleased with it.


    Ivan quickly calmed himself upon hearing James'' words and walked down the stairway, James revealed a small smirk when he saw the boy quickly adjust his demeanor.


    "Let me not take much of your time, this is your chamber and you can come here to absorb Nexus energy whenever you want. Of course, that''s as long as you can keep holding onto the first place on the ranking" James said and patted Ivan''s shoulder lightly.


    "The two people we met in the corridor just then will help you return to the lobby when you''re done, you can come see me when you come out. Good luck kid" James added before leaving Ivan alone.


    Now alone in the chamber, Ivan approached the pond and deeper his fingers into it. The water was cold and spread a cooling sensation into Ivan''s hand.


    "It''s not dangerous," Ivan said to himself.


    Taking off his tracksuit and gray T-shirt, Ivan was left with only his boxers.


    Splash! Splash!


    He slowly walked into the lake till it reached his waist, he took one last look at his surroundings before going down.


    Blup!


    Ivan sat with his legs crossed underwater, he closed his eyes and immediately began to absorb Nexus from around him.


    He had exhausted all the Nexus in his Nexus chamber during his experiment earlier so he first had to refill the now empty Nexus chamber. This took only a few minutes which was way faster than usual!


    After filling his Nexus chamber to the brim, Ivan started to refine the Nexus to increase his AP; he was once again startled by the result.


    +0.01%


    +0.01%


    +0.01%


    ¡­.


    He would gain an additional 0.01 increase in AP every few seconds! This increase in speed shocked Ivan so greatly that he momentarily stopped defining Nexus to be sure that he wasn''t dreaming.


    ''Such speed!'' Ivan exclaimed in his mind before he resumed absorbing and refining.


    With enough Nexus energy to circulate in his body, he did not have to worry about breathing for a few hours.


    ...


    James had by now reached the corridor, he approached the elevator in calm steps but his face had an expectant smile on it.


    "Even if his talent hasn''t been figured out yet, his progress with an SS talent level should still be of great use to the tower in the future. Work hard kid, let''s see how terrifying an SS-level talent is" James mumbled to himself as he entered the elevator and tapped on the ascend button.


    ¡­..


    While Ivan was busy increasing his AP in the Nexus chamber of the tower, Ralph was buried in a pile of books in the library.


    Five long rows of books created a miniature wall of books on the table with Ralph behind it sitting on a chair with another book in his hands which he read with a very serious expression.


    The back of the book was a title which read: The fuse of both worlds.


    In this book was information about the fusion of the dreamscape and the real world which happened once every ten years, the number of times and dates that such had happened were all written in this book and according to the date of the last fuse, the next one was just a few months away! To be more precise, it was expected to happen in the third or fourth month of the following year!


    "Such a coincidence! That will be just a few months after we finish training!" Ralph could not help but exclaim at this discovery.


    He had heard about the fusion of the dreamscape and real-world once when he was a kid but could not clearly remember what it was.


    Now that he was reading this book, he realized that it was around that time that his mother got her injury which later led them to move to the outskirt. It was said in the book that when the fuse happened, all Nexulytes regardless of rank would be pulled into the dreamscape forcefully and unprepared.


    Their locations in the real world would be mirrored in the dreamscape and it was advised for every Nexulyte to be close to a tower branch during this period so they could team with other Nexulytes when required.


    There had also been cases of Nexulytes appearing a few distances from their supposed locations but the gap would not be too exaggerated, there had also been unlucky people who directly appeared in the midst of monsters and forbidden zones.


    During this period, no Nexulyte would be able to return to the real world and the fusion usually lasted for days with the longest being a month!


    If one were to be at a place that was far from a tower, one should try to locate one in the dreamscape as fast as possible because terrifying monsters and forbidden zones in the dreamscape are usually very active during those periods; encountering one would be a Nexulyte''s unluckiest moment or a Nexulyte''s most horrifying experience if they survived.


    "Hmm, only three to four months after our training" Ralph mumbled as he fell into thoughts. He decided to inform Glen and Ivan about this so they could prepare more, he had also decided to train harder as he intended to challenge the top five on the ranking soon; he wanted to get his hand on one of the Nexus chambers.

 Chapter 39 - 39: Three days progress in three hours

    Underground the Owen Tower, inside the Nexus chamber was a small pond with clear pristine sparkling water. The surface of the water was as clear as a mirror without a single ripple on its surface, a gentle wave of Nexus swayed above the pond and slowly fused into it.


    Inside the pond, Ivan could be seen in a crossed-legged posture with both eyes closed as he refined the Nexus energy that was fussing with the pond. He had long lost track of time and didn''t know how long he had spent inside the pond, the only thing that he knew was that he had made progress!


    Ivan focused and made his profile appear in his mind.


    NAME: Ivan Von Charles


    Talent Group: Primal Talent type: Wisher Talent: Wish card


    Talent lv: SS AP: 3.47% Rank: NULL


    Upon seeing the information on his profile, Ivan was so stunned that he gasped; temporarily forgetting that he was under, and ended up swallowing a mouthful of water which ended up choking him.


    He hurriedly got out of the pond while coughing hard, it took him a few seconds to calm himself and return his attention to the information displayed on his profile. Precisely, his AP.


    AP: 3.47%


    Ivan:(?©¿???????)?©¿?áê?©ß?©¥?©ß


    3.47? That was an additional 0.36% to what he had before! It was more than three times what he would usually get from training in his room for three nights!


    A single night usually gave him a 0.11% increase in AP.


    "How long have I been in this place? Don''t tell me I''ve been here for a whole day!" Ivan questioned himself in utter disbelief. He suspected that he had gotten carried away and had wasted a whole day here. No, he couldn''t call it wasted since he actually made the progress of three days in one!


    "I have to go, the tower master must have waited all day for me!" Ivan screamed to put his clothes on and immediately dashed toward the stairway.


    While leaving, Ivan ran into someone in the third chamber.


    A petite figure sat cross-legged with both of her hands resting on her lap, her long hair tied up behind her back in a ponytail.


    She opened her eyes and they locked with Ivan''s eyes, a look of hostility immediately flashed through her eyes.


    This person was Miko, one of the repeaters, and ranked third on the ranking. She was the same person who had challenged Ivan one the day the ranking was revealed.


    Ivan halted his steps and locked Miko in a short staring competition.


    "Hmph!"


    Miko snorted disdainfully and turned her head away, she closed her eyes and continued to absorb the Nexus around her.


    Ivan also did not stay long and continued climbing, he didn''t encounter anyone else until he arrived in the corridor where he saw the two people who were watching the place.


    "Ah, you finally came out. The Tower master asked you to come straight to him when you come out" one of the men in black uniform said immediately when they saw him.


    "Is that so? How long has it been since I came here?" Ivan asked in a calm tone but he was worrying internally.


    "It''s been a bit over three hours" They replied in unison.


    Ivan "..."


    Really? Just three hours? Are you two joking with me?


    Seeing that Ivan wasn''t reacting the two men looked at each other, wondering if they had said something inappropriate.


    "Uhh, is everything alright?" One of them asked while waving his hand in front of Ivan''s face.


    Ivan snapped out of his daze and let out a few awkward coughs.


    "Sorry, I was distracted for a bit just now. How long did you say it had been since I was inside?" He asked again to confirm that he hadn''t heard wrong the first time.


    But the response was still the same, it had been three hours!


    ''So I got an increase of 0.36% in just three hours? Crazy!'' Ivan exclaimed in his mind while walking into the elevator


    Arriving at James'' office, Ivan found James reading a book which he immediately put down when Ivan entered the office.


    "Came out already? I thought you''d spend more time there, isn''t the effect exciting for you?" James asked with a raised eyebrow.


    " It''s not that, the effect is actually¡­" Ivan tried to explain but stopped halfway, still finding it difficult to believe. S§×ar?h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    " No need for words, show me how much progress you made in three hours " James demanded and Ivan made his profile appear.


    James stared at the 3.47% AP with a blank face, his mouth hanging open.


    It took him a few seconds to recover, Ivan did not say anything about this since he had reacted the same way too.


    " Sorry about that, how much AP did you have previously?"


    They entered a brief question and answer session where James asked how many AP Ivan had before entering the Nexus chamber, how many AP he usually got from training by himself, and how many AP he got from training in the Nexus chamber.


    He was once again left in shock after Ivan answered all of his questions.


    ''This is only the beginning of the second month in the tower and he''s already so far ahead of others? Is an SS-level talent so terrifying?'' James screams internally, instantly coming to the conclusion that it would not be a problem for Ivan to hold onto his first place on the ranking at all as long as he kept working hard; catching up to the repeaters and surpassing them was only a matter of time!


    Without delaying any further, James proceeded with why he had asked Ivan to come to him, which was for talent training.


    Other trainees with similar talents would be having their talent training together but Ivan had the tower master as his instructor, other trainees would be envious of him if they knew.


    James grabbed the book that he was reading before Ivan walked into the office.


    "I guessed that you haven''t made any new discoveries about your talent so I will be going with what I''ve gathered. I have been looking through books with abilities similar to your talent¡­cards. While such talents are very rare, I''ve found records about some" James explained and began instructing Ivan according to the information he had gathered.


    One was asking Ivan to try using his card as a throwing knife. According to James, there was once a Nexulyte whose talent was a flying card. He was able to use his cards like a set of throwing knives and the cards were able to cut through almost anything!


    Sadly, this method did not work as the card immediately scattered into light particles after going a few distance from Ivan.


    They moved to try another method that James had also discovered. This time, it was for Ivan to use the card as a summoning ticket. In the record that James had found, a certain Nexulyte was able to summon different objects and even beings with her summoning card.


    Ivan tried it but nothing happened even after five minutes of changing the summoning phrase he used.


    They tried another method but that one also failed, Ivan had to remind James that he was only able to summon three cards as that was his limit before running out of Nexus energy.


    "Sigh! I guess we''ll have to stop for now and continue tomorrow, I''ll call Elora to come get you for your weapon training. Until you can use your talent like other Nexulytes, you''ll need a way to defend yourself when necessary" James said with a helpless sigh.


    While he contacted Elora, Ivan was Staring at the card in his hand as the dream he had played in his mind. He clearly remembered all that the man had said and the demonstrations he showed to Ivan.


    Still staring at the card Ivan quietly muttered to himself while creating a scene in his mind.


    "Envision it and make it a reality¡­Slash?"


    Immediately after muttering the last word, the card in Ivan''s hand trembled and glowed before shattering into specks of red, blue, and gold light which then transformed into a long beautiful sword that had a red blade, blue hilt, and golden crossguard!


    Swoosh!!


    The sword turned in the room for a split second and finding only one person aside from Ivan, it immediately slashed at James.


    Ivan watched this with terrified eyes, his mouth opened wide as he planned to scream for James to look out but it was obvious that the sword would act faster than his warning.


    But he seemed to have forgotten that James was the Tower master of the Owen Tower for a reason.


    In the split second that it took for the sword to slash James, he turned around while at the same time, his left hand was being covered by the sleeve of a nano suit.


    Clank!!


    A loud sound rang out as James grabbed the sword with his robot-like arm.


    "Watch out!" Ivan screamed out at the same time.


    Everything had taken a fraction of one second, he didn''t even see James move.


    Ivan ???


    Ignoring the stunned Ivan, James studied the sword in his grip with a surprised look on his face. The sword remained in his grip for only about twenty seconds before scattering into red and blue particles which drifted into the air.


    He turned his gaze to Ivan after the sword disappeared while retracting the nano sleeve that was covering his arm.


    Ivan immediately snapped back to his senses when he felt James stare.


    "I¡­that wasn''t intentional, I can explain" he quickly said, thinking that James was suspecting him of trying something stupid.


    " I know it wasn''t on purpose, I couldn''t feel any killing intent from you or the sword which shouldn''t have been the case if you were trying to harm me; that would have been impossible even if that was the case, at least for the current you. But¡­how did you do it?" James assured Ivan he was bothered about what just happened before asking what he was curious about.

 Chapter 40 - 40: Training room

    " I know it wasn''t on purpose, I couldn''t feel any killing intent from you or the sword which shouldn''t have been the case if you were trying to harm me; that would have been impossible even if that was the case, at least for the current you. But¡­how did you do it?" James assured Ivan he was bothered about what just happened before asking what he was curious about.


    "I¡­don''t know, I just thought of a sword attack and this happened, " Ivan said half truthfully, he didn''t want to disclose everything to James. After all, no matter how kind James seemed, ivans still could not easily get over the fact that he was also a¡­Nexulyte.


    "Hmm, it''s alright. Elora Will come get you soon, we''ll continue trying tomorrow" James said after giving some thought and decided not to press Ivan further.


    Elora soon came and Ivan followed her out of the office, after Ivan left.


    James'' face immediately turned into one of shock that he had been suppressing for a few minutes now, he lifted his left hand and looked at his palm.


    On it was a small shallow cut which was a result of him blocking Ivan''s sword, his body trembled.


    "How terrifying, if I didn''t react as fast as I did then the result could have been severe! He''s not even a Mortal king yet and he was able to wound me with a sneak attack!" James exclaimed, barely containing his excitement and disbelief.


    Such miraculous talent, if the Owen Tower could gain the full trust of such a person then there might be the hope of restoring the world and the heroes of it would be them!


    "He thought of a sword attack¡­hmm, thought, wisher, wish" James eyes suddenly widened in realization.


    " I get it now! He just has to wish for something to make it happen, of course! That''s what a wish should be! I have to inform father about this!" James said to himself as he hurriedly grabbed the book he had dropped unknowingly and vanished from the office.


    ....


    Meanwhile, Elora had brought Ivan away to another place.


    This place was just as huge as the usual combat classroom with reinforced walls and weapon racks with different types of weapons on all sides of the room, various training types of equipment like dummies, automatic firing machines, and the like could be found in this room.


    A stage was set in the middle of the room that acted as a small arena for people to practice against each other, Elora walked toward one of the numerous weapon racks before turning to Ivan.


    "What weapon would you like to train with?" She asked.


    Ivan looked at the numerous weapons in the room, there were so many of them that he didn''t even recognize some thus making him unable to choose quickly.


    "Don''t just pick a weapon because of how cool it will look when wielded, your weapon will become an instrument of killing, saving, and also protecting your life in the future so make sure to choose after really considering it" Elora advised when she saw Ivan staring at the various fancy weapons on the weapon racks.


    Ivan''s face turned serious when he heard this and after minutes of thought, he made a choice.


    His choice of weapon was¡­a sword, this didn''t come as too much of a surprise to Elora. But Ivan had different thoughts.


    One was that the sword was like a short stick which he was familiar with; he usually used sticks and bars to defend himself in the outskirt when there was nothing to throw, the sword was just like a short stick to him.


    Another reason was its sharpness, being able to cut and stab made it a nice choice. Lastly, using a sword would make him look¡­cool.


    "Hmm, a sword it is then" Elora nodded, turned to the weapon rack close to her, and grabbed two swords before passing one to Ivan.


    "I''m not an expert in using the sword and it''s not my strongest forte, but I have enough experience to teach a newbie like you the basics. Don''t think I''ll go easy on you just because my fa¡­the Tower master thinks favorably of you " Elora said before getting into a stance, Ivan followed her movements as they began training.


    ¡­..


    A few hours later.


    Ivan could be seen walking out of the infirmary with an apologetic smile on his face, behind him was the woman who had treated him the two times he had been brought here; she had her arms folded in front of her chest and a pout on her face as she glared at Ivan''s back.


    Elora had been serious when she said that she wasn''t planning on holding back against Ivan even when he was a beginner, they had even used real swords instead of practice swords and Elora had been ruthless and harsh with her training that Ivan had ended up sustaining some injuries and had to come for treatment.


    "Better look after yourself, you hear me? I don''t want to see you anywhere close to this place for the next two weeks!" The woman in a white coat said sternly to the departing Ivan. Ivan''s rate of pulling up to the infirmary was too frequent compared to other trainees and she was starting to get concerned.


    Although the infirmary was able to bring people to peak health in no time, such a mentality wasn''t fit for young people.


    "Sorry, I''ll try not to" Ivan replied awkwardly as he hurriedly left the place.


    Ivan left for the lobby after leaving the infirmary, he found Ralph was already waiting there as planned.


    "Hey, Ivan. You finally came" Ralph called out when he spotted Ivan approaching him and Ivan responded with a silent nod before sitting beside Ralph while they waited for Glen.


    For some reason, Ivan felt strange sitting like this with Ralph. Not that he disliked it or anything. It was just that, for the past month, he had taken training so seriously that they had not been hanging around as much as they used to and Ivan felt bad about this.


    Ralph seemed to notice Ivan''s strange emotions and stared at the white-haired young man while shifting his glasses.


    "Are you alright? Something bothering you?" Ralph asked.


    Ivan was a little startled by the question, he looked at Ralph who was staring back at him before looking away with a guilty look on his face.


    "It''s nothing, I''m fine" Ivan replied after a few seconds of silence.


    Ralph stared at the side of Ivan''s face for a few seconds before sighing, he suddenly noticed that Ivan had grown a bit different after one month although the changes were almost unnoticeable since they saw each other every day during training.


    "You don''t have to feel guilty about anything Ivan, we understand perfectly. Everyone is trying to get stronger as quickly as possible and we shouldn''t be held back by unnecessary things, we''ll have all the chance to hang out and fool around like before after leaving here; everything will be different by then and it will be a good experience.


    So don''t think that you''re distancing yourself from us, you didn''t get first place by luck if you really think about it. Glen thinks the same too, so don''t dare slack off because of this or stop training seriously; you never know when I''ll come for your first place " Ralph said with a small smirk on his face.


    Ivan was taken by surprise by these words, he stared at Ralph for a long time with his mouth hung open. When he finally recovered, his lips curved into a big smile as he quietly muttered ''''I understand, thanks "


    Ralph smiled back at this and struck up a conversation while they waited for Glen. Sear?h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Glen arrived a while later and looked as tired as an old man.


    "Damnit! The class today was so boring, I almost fell asleep" he lamented as he landed his butt heavily on the bench beside Ivan.


    "There''s something I want to tell you guys," Ralph said immediately after Glen sat down, the boy obviously stared at him with resentment; would he kill him to let Glen take some breath first?


    While Ivan stared at Ralph with a curious expression, he didn''t seem to have anything important to say before.


    "Don''t look at me like that, I was waiting for everyone before saying it because I don''t want to repeat myself" Ralph said in his defense and proceeded to tell the two of them about what he had read in the library¡­the fusion of the dreamscape and the real world.


    After explaining everything that he had learned in the library, Ralph turned silent and allowed the information to sink into the two.


    A few seconds later Glen finally broke the silence.


    "Damn, seems like going to the library is better than attending classes. The fusion was also mentioned to us in today''s class but it wasn''t as detailed as what you''ve explained, we have to make enough preparations before then! From now on, I''ll train harder and try to enter the top fifty" Glen voiced out with determination, Ivan only nodded.


    The three friends spent some time together before going their separate ways, while Glen returned for more classes, Ralph and Ivan went to the training room; Glen wouldn''t be able to use the training room as it was only available for those in the top fifty.


    Ralph and Ivan arrived at the training room and found a few trainees were there as well. They were staring at something on the roof.


    The two of them looked up and saw that it was a list of names similar to the ranking list.


    This one only counted up to a hundred and out of it, thirty were lit up while the rest were dim. On the thirtieth row was a single name which showed that only that person had managed to reach that place.


    " Alaric Vladimir" Ivan called out the name on the thirtieth spot, every other name was placed on the twentieth row and downward, none could be found above the twentieth row until the thirtieth except this Alaric Vladimir.


    Not paying any more attention to the list, Ivan immediately entered one of the training rooms with determination to surpass this person.


    Ivan entered the place and he found a pod which he immediately entered, he was transported to another place that looked like a VR world.


    [Welcome to the training hall]


    [Initializing trail, level one]


    [Pain, senses, movements, trainees data has been set to reflect real life]


    [Begin training!]


    A set of prompts popped up in front of Ivan before vanishing and in front of Ivan was a monster he was ever so familiar with¡­the one-eyed monster that had almost killed them during their test.


    "Let''s do this!" Ivan muttered to himself as a card appeared in his hand.


    Roar!!


    At the same time, the monster lunged at Ivan with remarkable speed while swiping its long hands at him.

 Chapter 41 - 41: Level 25

    Two months later, three months since the beginning of the training program in Owen Tower.


    Grrrrrrrrrrgh!


    Roar!!!!!


    Screeeeee!


    Hisssss!!


    In the middle of the virtual space of the training room, Ivan could be seen standing leisurely with an expressionless look on his face.


    Surrounding him were over twenty different monsters with menacing sizes and ferocious appearances, they were all prepared to shred Ivan to pieces at any moment but Ivan did not seem to care; he wasn''t even paying them any attention.


    "Sigh"


    A low sound escaped Ivan''s mouth as one of his hands conjured Nexus energy which then turned into a card.


    "Kill" Ivan mumbled softly as the scene of these monsters getting shredded into minced meat formed in his mind.


    Wooosh!!


    The card floated into the air before scattering into light particles and at the same time, all the monsters lunged at Ivan with their mouths wide open and their claws swiping toward him.


    SHING!! SHING!! SHING!!


    Sounds of flesh being cut through resounded across the whole space as the light particles of the card intercepted the monsters midair and shredded them all into pieces in an instant.


    Showers of flesh and blood rained from the air as the whole place around Ivan turned into a bloody mess of minced corpses.


    Ivan only watched this scene with a neutral expression, he was now very used to such a scene so it didn''t bother him. He waited for a few seconds before the blood and flesh of the monsters turned into holographs before disappearing, the place was now neat and spotless with only Ivan standing there.


    [Level 24 cleared successfully, the trainee may proceed to the next level!]


    [Trainee id: Ivan Von Charles, would you like to continue or stop?]


    A prompt appeared in front of Ivan as an electronic voice read out the words to Ivan.


    Ivan looked at the prompt in front of him and then looked at his hands and folded them, Ivan was actually exhausted despite appearing calm.


    "I have used up six cards to climb up to the 24th level and I can only use my talent one more time before completely running out of Nexus, should I continue or stop for now?" Ivan asked himself, contemplating what to do next. For the past months, the monster on the twenty-fifth level was a boss that Ivan had found difficult to defeat because he was always left with few cards when facing it.


    Every five levels of the training room would hold a boss-level monster for the trainees to face and the monster on the 25th level was one that Ivan found particularly annoying to deal with, causing his progress in climbing the levels of the training room to come to a halt.


    After a minute of consideration, Ivan finally came to a decision.


    " Continue" Ivan voiced out.


    Receiving the command, the prompt in front of Ivan vanished and a hologram appeared opposite Ivan which slowly became lifelike before finally turning into a green-skinned monster.


    The monster had the shape of a human with four arms, a third eye in the middle of its forehead along with wings that seemed to be made of rocks. This was the boss of the 25th training level that had prevented Ivan from climbing higher for an entire month.


    The monster came to life after a few seconds and its eyes immediately landed on Ivan, a look of recognition flashed in its three eyes as a devious smirk formed on its green face.


    Ivan equally smirked upon seeing the monster, a card appeared in his hand before turning into a long red-bladed sword.


    "Hello, old friend. Did you miss me? I''ve come to kill you for good this time" Ivan whispered to the monster before both of them charged at each other.


    Outside Ivan''s training room. A lot of trainees could be seen gathered outside, they were all looking at the list of names beside the 100 levels of the training room.


    "He''s in! He''s in! Ivan has completed the 24th level again!"


    "Damn, we all started together but why do I feel like he''s an expert in disguise?!"


    "True, he''s already as strong as the repeaters, if not stronger!"


    "He''s a monster! A monster! Just three months and he''s already about to break a record!"


    "Say, do you think he''ll clear the 25th level this time?"


    "It''s hard to say, he hasn''t been able to make the 25th level light up since his ascension. What would make today different?"


    " Don''t be a sore loser, you know well that he has a talent for surprising people "


    " Let''s just keep watching, it''s either he comes out soon or clears the 25th level. Either will only prove how much of a monster he is, even the strongest repeater is still at level 21!"


    A lot of trainees said to one another as they stared at the list of training levels in astonishment. Two months ago after Ivan started challenging the training hall, he had managed to leave the trainees in shock every single day because of his unimaginable achievements. One had to know that the average level a normal trainee in the top fifty has managed to reach in these two months was level seven!


    The most impressive ones reached ten and even the repeaters were still below the twentieth level; after all, a trainee might have to challenge a single level multiple times before finally clearing it, Just like how Ivan had been struggling with the monster on level 25.


    But still, Ivan as a new trainee had left them behind in the dust! Be it his weapon training with Miss Elora, talent training with Tower Master James, his AP training, or even the training rooms, Ivan had proven to be an absolute monster in all aspects; the title of genius was not worthy of him anymore!


    In a corner of the training room, two girls could be seen standing close to each other. One was a brown-skinned beautiful young lady with sexy curves, the other was a petite girl with yellow hair tied up in a ponytail.


    These two were Sommy and Miko, ranked second and third on the ranking.


    "Wow, he keeps surprising everyone. To think Luke was picking on such a monster, he must be regretting it" Sommy exclaimed.


    "Hmph! It''s only because he got the best Nexus chamber that his progress is so fast" Miko snorted, unwilling to accept that Ivan was a genius amongst geniuses.


    "Come on, don''t be like that. What''s the use of a Nexus chamber to us at this point? We''ll still pass the training this time successfully anyway, so why not give the chance to others?" Sommy suggested with a soft giggle.


    Miko only snorted in response without saying a word, Sommy shook her head at Miko''s action as she went silent as well.


    Not far away, Glen and Ralph could be seen staring at the list as well.


    "He''s the one who hated Nexulytes the most, but he''s becoming a terrifying one himself," Glen said with a teasing voice.


    Seeing that Ralph did not respond to him, he made a serious face before speaking again.


    "Seriously, his speed of getting stronger scares me at times. Is our talent level so big?" Glen asked in a somewhat dispirited tone. S§×arch* The N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "It''s also because of the Nexus chamber in the tower, it''s why he can get so strong in a short time" Ralph stared at Glen and said.


    "If that''s so, then why don''t we ask him to share with us? You know, we can challenge him and he''ll lose on purpose, and then repeat the circle between ourselves so everyone can get a share that way" Glen proposed seriously.


    Ralph looked at him with a look of surprise in his eyes, this was actually his first time hearing Glen propose something that made sense without anyone having to tell him first.


    But he shook his head after a few seconds. That idea might be great but Ralph felt it was too much to ask for even from a brother, they knew very well how Ivan craved strength and how much he had suffered. So asking him to give up his way of accomplishing his dream felt just too cruel.


    In the end, Glen still brought up useless ideas.


    Glen could very well guess what Ralph was thinking and made an angry face.


    " You don''t even know if it will work yet and you''re already insulting me in your mind!" He hissed at Ralph.


    Ralph didn''t deny it and simply told the boy not to bring up this topic ever again especially not in front of Ivan. No matter how close they were, trying to take advantage of one''s friend wasn''t noble.


    "Look!"


    "Oh my God!"


    "He did it! The monster finally did it!"


    "Damnit, why am I feeling happy and angry at the same time?!"


    Loud shouts of the other trainees suddenly exploded through the whole area of the training room. Ralph quickly looked up and saw that the number "25" was currently lit up which meant that someone had just defeated the monster there!

 Chapter 42 - 42: Three months recap

    Inside the training room, Ivan could be seen sitting in a corner of the virtual space. Signs of battles could be seen around him, the walls were littered with cracks and holes and so was the ground.


    Blood painted a side of the wall and reached the ground, pieces of rocks could be seen scattered all over the place. On one side was the corpse of the monster that was the boss of this level, one of its three eyes had been damaged and one of its rocky wings was missing.


    A red sword could be seen stabbing from the side of its neck which had been the reason for its death. Ivan sat opposite the corpse of the monster and wasn''t in that much of a better shape than the monster, the only difference was that he was alive and the monster was dead.


    Countless claw marks could be seen all over Ivan''s body and the most glaring ones were the three long gashes on his chest through which blood flowed out from, the wounds were so deep that Ivan''s lungs and rib bones could be seen. S§×arch* The novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Cough! Spit!


    Ivan coughed and spat out a mouthful of blood, his breathing was getting difficult and he knew that he wouldn''t last much longer.


    "Damn realistic feeling of the training room, feels like I''m in the real world" Ivan cursed, the amount of pain he was in was truly unimaginable and he felt like crying, the feedback of the training room was just too realistic!


    Raising his head to look at the corpse of the monster that had always defeated him for an entire month, Ivan temporarily forgot about the pain as he felt a sense of achievement. He had finally won, he had defeated the monster; although it had been a close one, it was still a win regardless.


    [Trainee has cleared level 25 of the training room, proceed to the next level or end here?] A prompt appeared as a systematic voice said to Ivan.


    "End here" Ivan replied without hesitation. He was in no condition to fight right now because even a monster from level one might threaten him due to his injuries so it was best to not push himself and suffer unnecessarily pain, he wasn''t a masochist!


    [Command received, exiting the training now] the prompt changed after Ivan gave his response.


    He watched as the corpse of the monster turned into a holographic image and then disappeared. Ivan saw his body doing the same and closed his eyes with a sigh.


    When Ivan opened his eyes again, he was back inside the pod in the training room. The pain he felt previously was gone and he wasn''t injured.


    Of course, everything that happened in the virtual space of the training room ended there and would never cross to the real world.


    Ivan calmly came down from the pod and headed for the door, he did not try to go a second time since he had other things to do and because he could not afford entering again with an empty Nexus chamber.


    Opening the door of the training room, Ivan met a large crowd of trainees outside; this wasn''t a new sight so he simply ignored them and proceeded to leave but he suddenly felt a burning gaze on his back.


    Ivan turned and his eyes crossed with Miko''s, the girl was glaring at him like he had stolen her boyfriend.


    Ivan understood this gaze from Miko, she was reminding him to prepare himself. After all, today was the last day of the third month; his period of grace ended today.


    Beside Miko was Sommy who gave Ivan a helpless smile, they had kind of gotten friendlier with each other during the past months and could be regarded as friends to some extent.


    Not changing his expression, Ivan turned away and walked out. Ralph and Glen caught up with him before he could reach the lobby, Ivan''s face immediately turned into a less colder one when he saw his friends and they began to chat.


    It was already getting late and there were no more classes or training for the day, so they headed to the cafeteria to eat. Ignoring the stares of trainees and even officials since they were now used to it, they returned back to the lobby after eating.


    "Seriously man, I would have sworn that you were an official Nexulyte of the tower who was here to mess with us if I didn''t know you. Just how strong are you?" Glen exclaimed suddenly, causing Ivan to pause briefly before releasing a small smile.


    "Stop it, you idiot! Ivan has an SS level talent, it''s only natural for him to be so strong after training" Ralph said to Glen who snorted in response.


    They chatted for a while more, talking about what had happened during the previous months. Ralph had managed to enter the 8th position but had been stuck there since, the people in the top 10 were the best of all the trainees. Not a single one of them had been defeated despite the many challenges issued by other trainees, they only kept switching positions between themselves.


    Glen had managed to enter the top 50 after two months and was currently ranked 45, one had to acknowledge Glen''s strength too because holding even the top 100 position wasn''t easy when one looked at the list of 800 plus trainees.


    Regarding the training room, Ralph had only been able to reach level 5 while Glen was at level 3; this was the normal level for most trainees and only a few had reached level 7 and 8.


    Ivan''s and Sommy''s interaction had also improved and they had become training buddies during morning runs as they would race each other to the finish line, beating everyone except three people.


    These three were Miko, Malcolm, and Damian. Not even Sommy who was ranked second and was probably the strongest of the repeaters could compete with these three during the morning runs.


    Another interesting thing that had happened during the previous months was Ivan''s talent training with Tower Master James; he was now able to proficiently use his talent after what had happened that time in James'' office. Ivan discovered that he could wish for any weapon or form of attack as long as he could visualize it, he did not also need to control them to attack!


    That wasn''t all, Ivan had also discovered that he could wish for other things aside from attacks and weapons. Examples were shields or protective barriers, containers, and restriction materials.


    Of course, Ivan would not show all his abilities to anyone as he still found it difficult to trust others and made this aspect of his talent hidden. James, being the only one who had seen Ivan''s talent in action only knew that Ivan could create attacks; he wasn''t aware of the other things that Ivan could do like creating protective objects or blinding equipment.


    James had concluded that Ivan''s talent was an attacking talent type and Ivan wanted to keep it that way. Ivan was aware that this wasn''t all there was to his talent after his dream back when he had fainted but this was all he could do for now.


    Another interesting thing that Ivan had learnt was that others would not be able to force him to use his talent, he has to do it willingly.


    If someone asks Ivan to create a sword but Ivan did not want to make a sword, he could take out a card and use the card but it won''t work no matter how many times Ivan said the words to make a sword (he could still think of a wish but he still kept this a secret)


    "But seriously man, why don''t you share with us? The people in the top five are all monsters, I doubt I''ll be able to reach the 10% AP needed to pass the training. It''s already three months and I''ve barely managed to get 5.65% AP! Now I know why the repeaters are so pissed about you being in first place" Glen lamented suddenly.


    Ralph immediately smacked the back of his head.


    "What do you mean to share with us? Do you think it''s possible to share a Nexus chamber?" Ralph berated.


    Glen rubbed the back of his head with a wronged expression but wasn''t willing to give up.


    "Ivan will be able to start accepting challenges from tomorrow, we can both send challenge invitations to him and he''ll lose to us on purpose. Since there''s a two days cooldown to every challenge, we can take turns challenging each other" Glen explained.


    Ralph looked at him with a look of disbelief, he remembered telling this idiot not to bring up this matter in front of Ivan but the big mouth just won''t shut up. Ralph was about to scold Glen when Ivan said.


    " That''s really doable, let''s do that. Your progress will be faster if you use the best Nexus chamber" Ivan said seriously. He didn''t feel good with the thought of his two friends becoming repeaters and staying here while he was away.


    Ralph looked at him in shock, he thought Ivan would be annoyed and not actually agree to it.


    "But what about you? That will affect your progress" Ralph protested. He didn''t want to get stronger at the cost of pulling down others.


    Ivan only smiled slightly at this.


    " You don''t have to worry about that, someone will bring me their Nexus chamber tomorrow "


    '' Besides, I have enough AP to pass the training already'' Ivan thought to himself as he made the window of his profile appear in his mind.


    NAME: Ivan Von Charles


    Talent group: Primal Talent type: Wisher Talent: Wish card


    Talent lv: SS AP: 29.05% Rank: TRUE KING.

 Chapter 43 - 43: Challenge accepted

    NAME: Ivan Von Charles


    Talent Group: Primal Talent type: Wisher Talent: Wish card


    Talent lv: SS AP: 29.05% Rank: TRUE KING


    Ivan had already crossed the Mortal King rank and was now a True King Nexulyte; the majority of rogue Nexulytes were still in this rank despite years of struggling; this showed the importance of joining a tower and having good talent.


    .....


    The next morning, Ivan woke up to the sound of a static voice in his room. He was sitting cross-legged as usual, he slept in this position.


    [Notifying trainee No.1 that you have received 7 challenges, please decide on which of the challenges you will accept and the other trainee receive the notification immediately.


    You can pick more than one challenge to accept but can not ignore all]


    Said the static voice, a list of names appeared in midair the next instance.


    These were the people who had challenged Ivan and wanted to take his spot, on the list were their names and current rank.


    NO.3 Miko


    NO.5 Damian


    NO.6 Luke


    NO.8 Ralph


    NO. 10 Elysia


    NO.7 Mark


    NO.43 Glen


    Ivan stared at the list of people who had challenged him. Aside from his two friends who had their own agenda for issuing a challenge, Ivan saw that there were only five people who had challenged him.


    He felt¡­disappointed; the numbers were too small!


    "Not like I can fight all of them today anyway" Ivan sighed while deciding on the ones that he would accept.


    He picked Luke first; that dude had targeted him before for no reason. Ivan wasn''t the one to let go of a grudge easily. Next, he picked Damian who was ranked in fifth place.


    That bald, gigantic young man always gave off a powerful feeling, and Ivan wanted to fight him. Besides, they had not interacted much so Ivan had not expected the bald guy to challenge him immediately when his period of grace was over.


    The last challenge that he accepted was from Ralph, although he was already planning on losing in their fight, Ivan still wanted to see how much his friend had grown.


    After accepting three challenges, the list vanished.


    [The challengers have been notified and will meet with you in the arena. Failure to show up will be seen as forfeiting the match.


    You may pick a trainee to challenge]


    The static voice said once more, and another list appeared in front of Ivan; this list was much longer than the previous one since it contained all the trainees in the tower. Challenging others was not a must but since someone wanted to challenge him so badly, Ivan would give them a taste of their medicine.


    He tapped on the screen.


    [You have challenged trainee NO.3, Miko. The other party will be notified of your challenge request shortly]


    [Trainee NO.3 Miko has accepted your challenge, please proceed to the arena later for the battle]


    The static voice finally disappeared completely after saying this, and Ivan''s room regained its initial silence.


    Ivan looked at the time; it was already past three in the morning, and there were only a few minutes left before the morning training started.


    Summoning his profile, Ivan looked at his AP.


    29.56%


    He was now at the True King rank, and although he was still improving quickly, his speed had decreased slightly since he got stronger.


    "The Nexus chamber is still very useful to me but the training room is even better since I can gather a lot of combat experience there so I guess I''ll only be visiting the Nexus chamber less frequently, staying like this for the next few months won''t cause any harm," Ivan said to himself as he got up to put on his trainee uniform.


    The trainees now had two more months in the tower, and Ivan planned to go as far as he could in the levels of the training room; he wanted to beat the record of that Alaric Vladimir guy as soon as possible.


    This decision would undeniably affect his AP greatly but Ivan believed it was all for the better.


    .....


    In another room, a young girl with long yellow hair could be seen sitting at the edge of her bed in a blue cropped top and short pants. This person was Miko and she was currently staring at the list of challenges issued to her with a frown on her face.


    She had already accepted Ivan''s challenge but was still confused as to why he had challenged her instead of just accepting her challenge; he would not get anything from challenging someone below him even if he won.


    "Humph! Doesn''t matter, I''ll be taking first place today!" Miko snorted before getting dressed and tying up her hair before strolling out with both hands in her sweater pocket.


    Damian, Luke, and Ralph also received the notification of Ivan accepting their challenges and quickly changed before going out of their rooms. They were not the only ones who were in anticipation for today''s matches as even people who were not challenging anyone were itching to go to the arena to have a look.


    After all, today was finally the day that they would be able to see the first spot on the trainees ranking in action!


    The trainees even talked about it during the morning training, it was a heated discussion.


    While scaling up the slippery mountain, a figure moved closer to Ivan''s position. Although it was still dark, he was able to see just fine with his current level of strength. S§×arch* The NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The person approaching him was Sommy.


    "Yo, Ivan. Xup!" Sommy called out after getting close to Ivan, Ivan was aware that this was her way of greeting.


    "Good morning" he greeted back.


    "So wassup with you? How are you feeling about today? Got challenged already?" Sommy asked as they climbed up with speed.


    "Yeah, but why didn''t I see your challenge though? Aren''t you interested in the first position?" Ivan asked, turning to look at Sommy with raised eyebrows.


    "Nah, why bother fighting you? Second place is already good enough. I''m more concerned about what to do after leaving here" Sommy responded with an easy tone.


    Ivan looked at her without a change of expression, he didn''t say anything and simply continued to climb.


    After their morning training, the trainees went to the cafeteria before going back to their rooms to wash up.


    They had a few classes and training to attend before they could go to the arena; a lot of trainees felt their blood boiling, and they could barely stay put during their training.

 Chapter 44 - 44: Talent reveal

    After attending their various classes, it was soon 2 o''clock in the afternoon. The trainees, who had been impatiently waiting for this moment and were barely able to focus during training, immediately bolted toward the direction of the arena that was on the second floor.


    Ivan had just finished his training with Miss Elora and also headed for the arena; their training today wasn''t as intense because Ivan had three matches right after, so he was still full of energy after their training.


    Arriving at the arena, Ivan saw that the place was already packed with trainees who had come to spectate the long-anticipated match.


    Some trainees immediately spotted him and caused a ruckus.


    "There he is! Ivan is here!"


    "It''s really him! He never bothered coming here all these months, but he showed up today; I wonder who his opponent is?"


    " I suspect it must be Sommy or that scary girl, Miko. Anyway, only a repeater will dare to challenge him "


    " What are you saying? Do you think those in the top 10 are jokes?"


    The place immediately became noisy as the trainees debated on who would fight Ivan, Ivan ignored all of this and calmly walked toward the stage.


    The arena was like a small stadium built inside the tower, it was the size of two basketball courts combined with a spectator''s seating area built around it. The fighting stage was like a ditch at the bottom of a pit.


    Around the fighting stage was a faint yellow barrier which Ivan speculated was supposed to block the attacks of trainees inside from going out. sea??h th§× N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    At the side of the barrier was a middle-aged man in a black uniform; he stood straight like an arrow with a serious face and sharp eyes; he was an expert in the tower.


    "Trainee number 1 and trainee number 6, proceed to the arena for your match!" The middle-aged man voiced out in a powerful tone, his voice spreading throughout the whole arena.


    The words of the man left the huge crowd of trainees in shock, they fell into silence for a while before breaking out in an uproar.


    The person who challenged Ivan was Luke.


    They were expecting either Sommy or Miko since they were the closest to Ivan''s position on the ranking, but it turned out to be Luke.


    One had to know although Luke was one of the repeaters, he was known to be the weakest among them. He had not managed to move up from sixth place since the ranking was made!


    Ivan ignored the buzzing of the trainees and approached the man with calm steps after hearing his number being called and stopping only a meter away from the man, the feeling that Ivan got from the man was similar to that of instructor Logan.


    ''Strong'' was the only thing that Ivan could think of.


    The man turned to look at Ivan; his eyes showed a slight amazement, but his facial expression didn''t change as he carried on with the challenge procedures professionally.


    "Name and number on the ranking?" The man asked in an expressionless voice as if he didn''t recognize Ivan.


    "Ivan, first place on the ranking"


    Ivan responded casually.


    The man nodded and placed one of his hands on the yellow barrier, causing a part of it to split open like a door.


    "Go in, your opponent will arrive shortly," the man said, and Ivan responded with a nod before walking onto the stage.


    After Ivan entered, the split on the barrier didn''t close.


    A few seconds later, Luke appeared before the middle-aged man as well; he was allowed to enter after answering the same questions Ivan was asked.


    Only after Luke entered the stage did the split close; the middle-aged man had entered the stage with them but kept himself suspended in the air above the stage.


    Luke and Ivan stood opposite each other with a gap of over twenty meters between them; the middle-aged man in black uniform who would act as the referee for their match was in the air above them.


    "Trainee number 1 and trainee number 6, the rules of the arena are as follows:


    Killing your opponent is not allowed.


    Attacking your opponent after they surrender is not allowed.


    Any form of cheating is forbidden.


    Violating any of these rules will result in immediate disqualification and be punishable by the Tower, a restriction could be placed on you or you might even get kicked out from the tower "


    The voice of the middle-aged man rang through the arena as he told the two young men below him the rules; he stared at the two for a few seconds before flying higher and slowly opening his mouth.


    "Begin!"


    Immediately after the man gave the command to start the match¡­


    BOOM!!!


    Luke exploded with so much Nexus energy that the ground three meters around him directly shattered into a small crater.


    Wooosh!!


    The Nexus energy swirled around Luke''s body and started to change into pieces of a red nano suit; his eyes did not leave Ivan during this period as he stared at the white-haired youth with a wicked smirk on his face.


    Luke maintained eye contact until his whole body was fully covered in an inspiring nano suit, a small portion of Nexus energy moved to his head and formed a helmet with two glowing red eyes on it.


    Luke had gone into full battle mode immediately after the start of their match, displaying his ability as a battle mechanic!


    Seeing Luke, who was now looking like a cyborg, brought a wave of excitement from the trainees who were spectating; they could not wait to see him in action!


    After summoning his talent, Luke pointed a finger at Ivan who was on the other side of the stage.


    "Hehe, you were really stupid to accept my challenge. Unlike before when I had to go easy on you during training, there are no rules that we should go easy on our opponents here; your first place is mine!" Luke voiced out with a burst of confident laughter.


    Ivan''s face remained unchanged as he stared at Luke''s Mecha face, he sighed slightly and then raised his left hand.


    The whole place immediately became dead silent when the trainees saw Ivan''s action, they wanted to see what he was going to see; after all, not many people were aware of what his talent was or what it could do.


    Swoosh!!


    Nexus energy appeared above Ivan''s palm, it swirled around for a few seconds before condensing into¡­a blue card with golden edges.


    Trainees "A card?!"


    Middle-aged man referee: "A card?!"


    Luke "...."


    ''A card?!''


    Thousands of question marks appeared in everyone''s mind at the sight of the card in Ivan''s hand. The first place on the ranking was¡­a card.


    Only a few people who were already aware of this managed to remain calm at the sight of the card, although they were curious as to what the card could do as unlike James Owen, no one else had seen Ivan''s talent in action.


    "Are you kidding me? Ivan''s talent is a card?!"


    *Seems I''m not the only one, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me!"


    " How is he supposed to fight and keep his first place with that card? It looks useless!"


    " A freaking card? Is he going to play his opponent to death?"


    " Just keep quiet and watch, don''t forget he reached the 25th level of the training room with that talent "


    The arena was drowned in the loud voices of the trainees; the appearance of Ivan''s talent had shocked them, but Ivan did not react to this despite being able to hear everything.


    In a corner, Glen and Ralph sat next to each other quietly.


    Ralph had a serious expression on his face while Glen was looking down at the stage with a worried expression.


    "Ralph, do you think Ivan can win? What does his talent do? Can he cut people with that card? Or does it explode in people''s faces? Have you seen him use his talent before? Are you aware of what his talent can do?


    Did¡­"


    " Shut up!"


    Ralph was unable to take it anymore and yelled at the fidgeting Glen who was about to kill him with questions.


    " We both know as much as each other does regarding Ivan''s talent, how do you expect me to know the answers to all those questions?" Ralph spat at Glen angrily before turning back to focus on the stage.


    He was currently trying to get a good look at the card in Ivan''s hand to see if he could recognize it from any of the card talent books he had read about in the library.


    ''Although most card talents aren''t that strong compared to battle mechanic talent, Ivan should be able to cover the gap with his superior rank'' Ralph thought inwardly while shifting his glasses.


    In another corner of the seating area, a young, beautiful woman with long green hair and a well-fitting black uniform could be seen staring down at the stage below with a cold and expressionless face.


    This person was Miss Elora, who had come to watch the fight between Ivan and Luke; she had picked a place where no one could see her to watch.


    "A card talent? How unexpected," Elora thought to herself after seeing Ivan''s talent; she was as surprised as the trainees.

 Chapter 45 - 45: Ivan vs Luke

    Luke stood rooted in place like a rock, luckily his face was covered by the helmet which made his expression unreadable.


    But it went without saying that he was greatly shocked by the appearance of the card in Ivan''s hand.


    "Are you messing with me? Do you think you can fight me with that?" Luke shouted out in anger while pointing a finger at Ivan aggressively.


    "You talk too much" Ivan responded casually and with the card still in his hand, he quietly muttered something.


    Wooosh!!


    The card suddenly flew from Ivan''s hand and trembled in the air in front of him before bursting into light particles which then transformed into a red sword with blue hilt and a golden cross guard.


    The blade of the red sword gave a fine silver glint that made everyone who saw it believe in how sharp it was. The sword fell from the sky but didn''t touch the ground and just kept floating at the level of Ivan''s elbow.


    The appearance of the sword caused another wave of murmuring amongst the trainees who were watching, they were surprised to see the small card turning into such a big sword.


    Amongst the trainees in the seating area, Sommy and Miko could be seen sitting next to each other at the very back of the sitting area but because of the way the seating area was created they had no problem seeing what was going on in the stage.


    "That''s even more surprising, so he''s a weapon user just like you" Sommy said with a surprised smile on her face as she glanced at Miko teasingly.


    The petite girl had a cold expression on her face as she stared down at the stage, her eyes fixed on the red sword floating beside Ivan.


    "That''s not a weapon mastery talent" Miko said plainly in response to Sommy''s teasing. As a Nexulyte with the talent of a weapon master, she was able to tell instantly that Ivan''s sword wasn''t made from the weapon master talent but she could not tell.


    She wasn''t the only one, others with weapon Master talents and those with enough knowledge were able to see this was well.


    " Hmm, but he summoned a sword. If he isn''t a weapon user like you, what is he?" Sommy asked in confusion.


    Miko turned to look at her, annoyance visible in her eyes.


    " Shouldn''t you be worried more about Luke? That duck might hurt himself " Miko questioned.


    Sommy gave a helpless smile, she didn''t react to Miko calling Luke a duck; his character was not an honorable one to begin with.


    " I''m sure Ivan won''t go too far¡­hopefully" Sommy responded.


    Back on the stage¡­ sea??h th§× Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Luke stared at the sword beside Ivan, a surprised expression hidden underneath his helmet.


    "So you''re a weapon user, good. Now let''s see what the first place on the ranking is made of" Luke laughed but his laugh was cut short as he had to jump from where he was standing.


    Boom!!


    Luke created a small explosion as he launched himself into the air with force.


    At the same time, a red blur slashed at the place he had been standing just a while ago.


    The speed at which everything happened was so fast that not everyone was able to see what had happened, only a few had seen what had transpired between the two on stage.


    While Luke was still busy laughing, the red sword that Ivan had created had been sent out and slashed at Luke''s waist at a fast speed. Had he been any slower, he would have been slashed in two by the sword if he didn''t protect himself.


    Luckily, he had reacted in time.


    Luke landed over five meters away from where he was before, the sword was now floating in his previous location.


    "Tks! Trying to sneak attack me? Is that all you can do? Such a cowardly first place" Luke snorted and charged at Ivan like a bullet.


    Swoosh!!!


    He left a trail of red light behind him as he arrived in front of Ivan like a ghost, in his hand was a huge hammer created from Nexus energy.


    "Ahhh!!"Luke screamed as he brought down his hammer with so much force that the sound of the air exploding could be heard.


    BOOM!!


    The hammer landed heavily on the ground, creating a large crater and sending pieces of rocks into the air. But there was no sign Ivan, he had simply disappeared.


    "What the¡­" Luke stared at the space in front of him in shock, Ivan had simply vanished from his sight at the last moment before his hammer could reach him.


    " Looking for me?"


    Luke felt a chill run down his spine when he heard the voice whisper into his ears, his soul almost left his body from fright; he did not know when Ivan got behind him.


    Before Luke could turn around, he felt a sharp pain in the side of his head.


    BAM!!


    A heavy hit landed on the side of his head and sent him flying away, Luke smashed into the ground repeatedly on his flight path.


    Before he could come to a stop, Ivan appeared next to him again with his sword in hand.


    BAM!!


    He smashed Luke''s face again with the hilt of his sword, sending him flying in the opposite direction.


    BAM!!


    BAM!!


    BAM!!


    Ivan repeated this process and kept smashing Luke around the place like a broken doll, the boy was unable to resist and could only fly around helplessly.


    His whole body was in pain and his helmet was already deformed from getting hit repeatedly by the hilt of Ivan''s sword.


    "Now go to sleep"


    Ivan''s voice drifted into Luke''s ears while he was mid air, he suddenly felt a great sense of dread but before he could surrender¡­


    Bang!!


    The last thing he saw was a foot coming at his face at a terrifying speed, Ivan kicked him hard in his face.


    The kick caused Luke''s helmet to shatter on the spot and the nano suit on his body to vanish; he left a trail of blood in the air as he flew away and hit his head on the yellow barrier.


    Luke''s vision immediately went blank and he lost consciousness.


    Silence!


    The entire arena was in dead silence as the scene unfolded in front of them.


    Most of the trainees were unable to properly keep up with the speed at which the two were moving but for those who were able to keep up with their speed¡­they could only watch in shock as Ivan smacked Luke around like a doll

 Chapter 46 - 46: Ivan vs Damian

    (I added a few words in the "author''s thought" at the end of the chapter, remember to read it!)


    Ivan turned his neck and stared at the referee in the air. He had already won the match, but the result had yet to be announced.


    The middle-aged man immediately came back to his senses when he saw Ivan looking at him and landed on the stage; he looked at the unconscious Luke with a swollen face and then at the calm Ivan.


    The result was shocking that he had not expected this, Luke was a repeater but was unable to hold out against Ivan at all!


    "The winner of this match is trainee number one!" The man said in a loud voice that reached every corner of the arena; his voice managed to wake the stunned spectators, and they immediately went into an uproar.


    At the side, Glen was jumping and howling happily like a crazy fan whose football team scored; Ralph only stared on with a smile that said he had expected such.


    Sommy had a helpless smile as she watched two people in black uniforms carry Luke away.


    "Thankfully, he only trashed him a bit and didn''t go extremely to mentally torture him," Sommy said with a sigh.


    She had expected that Ivan might want to crush Luke''s ego completely by keeping him awake for a long while overwhelming him with his strength; the prideful Luke would never be able to recover from such a blow.


    "With his level of strength, I don''t dare to imagine what he''ll become by the end of the training. He will be able to climb ranks quickly immediately after joining the tower officially" Sommy said with a serious expression. Miko, who was beside her, did not respond; she was glaring fiercely at Ivan with both of her hands clenched.


    Over where Elora was watching from, one could see a strange glint in her eyes as her gaze lingered on Ivan''s handsome face. An ever-so-rare smile hooked the side of her lips up before disappearing the next moment.


    Back on stage, the referee turned to Ivan after Luke had been brought away.


    "Would you like to continue with your other matches or take a break?" He asked.


    In the arena, one could take a pause to recover used Nexus and let others fight their own matches in the meantime.


    Ivan shook his head, he wanted to continue. After reaching the True King rank, his Nexus chamber was now able to store enough Nexus for him to use over twenty cards.


    Their fight just now could not even be considered as him using a card since the sword was still with him.


    The referee nodded before turning to the side and walking over, he placed his hands on the yellow barrier and began to pour red energy into it.


    Ivan showed a look of surprise when he saw the stage being repaired; the many craters that had formed as a result of their fight were soon covered up, and the stage was as good as new.


    After repairing the stage, the referee turned around and flew up.


    "Trainee number 5 please head to the stage for your battle!" The referee called out in mid-air as a split appeared on the barrier.


    It took only five seconds for Damian to appear in front of the split, the repeater who was ranked fifth on the trainees ranking.


    Damian was a young man with a huge build and massive muscles that threatened to tear through his trainee uniform. His bald head added a funny innocence to his masculine face, he was like a giant when standing near other people.


    Damian walked onto the stage with the split closing behind him, his massive arms crossed in front of his huge chest.


    His eyes locked with Ivan''s as they stared at each other as if trying to read what the other party was thinking.


    Seconds ticked by and Damian finally dropped his crossed arms.


    "Let''s have a good fight!" Damian voiced out; his tone holding nothing but fighting intent.


    Ivan, seeing that his opponent simply wished for a full-out battle, decided not to hold back as he did with Luke; he would go a little more serious against this big guy.


    "Hmm," Ivan nodded in response.


    Seeing that the two were ready, the referee gave the command for them to begin.


    The whole place immediately became quiet as the spectators watched the stage carefully to make sure they did not miss anything.


    "Begin!"


    Immediately, the voice of the referee faded, and both sides immediately exploded with Nexus energy.


    BOOM!! BOOM!!


    Mini explosions rang out as the places that they were standing on shattered from the pressure of their fierce energies.


    Damian was a weapon user, his talent allowed him to create a weapon fit for his build. After using his talent, two mini shields appeared on both of his wrists and covered up to his elbow.


    Both shields had pointed tips that allowed Damian to use them to attack as well.


    The shields were pitch black and blood red; they were made out of pure Nexus energy, so one could feel the concentrated amount of Nexus in them.


    As for Ivan, he directly took out three cards. The appearance of the cards once again brought questions to people''s minds; his sword was still with him, so why did he bring out three more cards?


    And besides, some had already speculated that he was a weapon user so why not just take out the weapons directly?


    " Does he perhaps have some kind of vault-type talent? Maybe the cards are for taking out random weapons?"


    One of the trainees spectating said in deep thought. His words actually made a lot of sense, and a lot of people agreed with him; those words were soon spread amongst the spectators, and they all concluded that Ivan''s talent allowed him to take out random weapons from the cards.


    Seeing that Ivan had taken out his card, Damian did not wait any longer and charged at Ivan.


    BOOM!!!


    Swoosh!!


    The sound of an explosion rang in the air as Damian vanished from his position and dashed toward Ivan, leaving a huge footprint on the ground.


    Similarly, the three cards shattered and changed into three more swords. Including the first one, there were now four swords.


    With a thought, Ivan made all four swords fly toward the incoming Damian while he retreated from his position.


    Cling!!!


    A loud sound of metal clashing was heard as sparks flew in the air above Damian.


    One of the swords had hacked down at him but he had been able to knock it away with his shield. He turned to look at where Ivan had moved to and was about to charge when another sword came right up to his face.


    Damian had to put both arms in front of himself and allow the sword to clash with his shields.


    Ding!!


    Damian used the chance to jump back, avoiding the remaining three three swords that would have skewered his guts had he been a second late.


    Boom!


    A small explosion as Damian landed heavily on the ground a few meters away, all four swords turned to face him after missing their target once; it was almost as if they had a mind of their own.


    Damian looked at Ivan, who was looking back at him seriously. He knew that Ivan was the one controlling these swords, and he needed to deal with Ivan if he wanted these swords to stop assaulting him.


    But that was not the most pressing issue, Damian took a quick glance at his shields. His eyes trembled slightly when he saw the small crack on the shield which quickly closed up after Nexus energy gathered around it.


    ''His swords can cut my shields?!'' Damian asked inwardly in disbelief. He knew just how tough these shields were, and even the attacks of some officials were unable to do anything to them, but Ivan had managed to leave a crack on them. Wouldn''t he be cut clean if any of the swords touched him then?


    But this thought didn''t make Damian cower in fear, his eyes shone brighter with fighting intent.


    He suddenly waved both hands, causing both shields to vanish.


    His action puzzled everyone in the arena including Ivan.


    Was he going to forfeit?


    But they were thinking too much at the next second.


    Wooosh!!


    Damian vanished like a gust of wind, his footsteps not making a sound.


    Ivan''s eyes widened, and he quickly bent his neck to the side.


    POW!!


    The sound of wind exploding sounded beside Ivan''s head, a huge hand had suddenly appeared there; had Ivan not moved his head, he would have been punched in the face by Damian.


    ''He became faster?'' Ivan thought as he pulled away.


    Of course, Damian wasn''t going to let him; he immediately moved after Ivan and sent another punch.


    Ivan was more prepared this time, he had already recalled his swords.


    Shuuu!!


    The swords sliced through the air and hacked at Damian, halting his pursuit.


    Ding! Ding! Ding!!!


    In the nick of time, Damian summoned his shields and knocked away all four swords before chasing after Ivan again; of course, he made his shields vanish since his speed would increase if he wasn''t carrying them.


    Wooosh!!


    He appeared in front of Ivan again and sent a ferocious kick to Ivan''s side, his leg was like an axe cutting through the air.


    Clap!!!


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 Chapter 47 - 47: An undead General

    CLAP!!!


    Ivan did not dodge this time, he had instead used his arm to block Damian''s kick!


    Ckreeeeee!!!


    Ivan''s foot created two long trenches on the ground as he was sent sliding away due to the force of the kick.


    The whole arena: Gasp!


    Ivan was currently raising his left arm to protect the side of his head; his entire left arm was covered in a thick layer of red energy, which had helped him to take the full force of Damian''s kick.


    Damian, with his leg still hanging in the air, looked at Ivan in shock.


    Ivan had actually taken his kick head-on without sustaining any damage, and the reason for that was¡­


    "He''s already at the True King rank!" Miko squeezed out through gritted teeth; she stood up because she did not feel comfortable sitting anymore. This new discovery shocked everybody.


    "He''s already at the True King rank? So fast," Elora gasped from where she was hidden; she did not expect Ivan to be so strong.


    "Hehe, good job buddy! It''s another win for us!" Glen cheered loudly.


    ''He is already a True King Nexulyte at such a young age; what a terrifying talent,'' the referee thought within himself as he stared at Ivan from above.


    He was already in his thirties and was still at the Partial Lord rank, he was only a rank higher than Ivan! Although the gap between these two ranks was huge, he believed that it would not be a problem for Ivan to reach the same rank in a few years or even surpass him if he worked hard enough.


    All the other trainees were in a state of absolute disbelief as well, they were finding it difficult to understand how Ivan could grow so strong within such a short time.


    "With this level of strength, you are more than qualified to graduate from training. Why still keep the resources to yourself?" Damian asked while dropping his leg, he had recovered from his shock of finding out that Ivan was a True king rank Nexulyte and was now angry that he was still unwilling to let others get the resources of the first place on the ranking.


    Ivan dropped his arm and retracted his energy, his eyes gazed at Damian calmly for a few seconds before casually saying.


    "Having more strength isn''t a bad thing. Besides, I already have plans for the resources given to first place"


    Wooosh!!! Wooosh!! Wooosh!!


    Immediately after saying that, Ivan disappeared from where he was standing previously and reappeared in front of Damian; one of his swords in his hand and the other three around him as they attacked together.


    Ding! Ding! Ding!¡Á99


    The speed of the swords attacking became faster and faster with Ivan attacking as well. Damian could only retreat continuously while desperately blocking the attack with his shields.


    Numerous cracks kept appearing on both shields, which Damian would quickly fix up, only for Ivan to cut it open again.


    This dragged on for a minute, Ivan kept advancing with his swords while Damian kept getting pushed back till his back hit the yellow barrier.


    His bald head was now covered in sweat, which made it shine from the lights of their clash; Damian was beginning to get exhausted; he was expending too much energy to fix the cuts on his shields.


    Finally¡­ S§×arch* The N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Clap!!


    Ivan landed a clear hit! He used the blunt side of his sword and slapped Damian''s bald head heavily.


    The hit was so strong that a red print of a sword was instantly left on Damian''s head as his face smashed into the ground.


    BOOM!!


    The ground collapsed from the force of Damian''s fall, and everything stopped.


    Damian felt dizzy for a few seconds and only regained clarity after a fierce head shaking; he could have sworn that he had seen seven stars when his face smashed into the ground.


    "You lose"


    An emotionless voice rang in Damian''s ears, it was then that he realized that he was lying on the ground and a pair of legs were standing in front of him.


    Damian''s eyes traveled up the pair of legs to see the owner and saw Ivan standing above him while gazing down at him with a blank look in his eyes.


    He was pointing a sword at Damian''s bald head while the remaining three swords circled above Damian, ready to stab him at any moment.


    He had undeniably lost.


    He did not even get the chance to avenge the shame of getting his head smacked by his opponent''s sword and was already at his mercy.


    The referee landed at this time.


    " Trainee number one wins the match!" He announced.


    Only then did Ivan withdraw his swords and walk to the other side of the stage.


    The referee turned to look at Damian, who was still lying on the ground; thankfully, he didn''t have dull eyes, so his fighting spirit wasn''t crushed yet.


    "Trainee number five, you may leave the stage now," the referee said softly to avoid embarrassing Damian any further.


    Damian immediately stood up but didn''t leave right away; he stared at Ivan, who was looking back at him from the other side of the stage with an intense gaze for a while before raising his hand and giving a thumbs up.


    "I acknowledge your strength!" Damian said and immediately walked off.


    Ivan looked at his departing back for a while before turning his gaze away.


    ''A failure who could not pass during his time, are you worthy of acknowledging me?'' Ivan thought. He would have preferred hearing those words from that Alaric Vladimir guy instead.


    The referee turned to Ivan and once again asked if he would like to continue or take a break; Ivan obviously chose to continue; he only had one challenge invitation left, and he would have enough break before it was his turn to request a challenge.


    "Alright then," the referee said before placing one of his hands on the barrier and fixing the stage.


    "Trainee number 8, proceed to the stage for your match!" The referee called out after fixing the stage.


    "Ehh? Who''s this number 8? I don''t pay attention to anyone below the fifth rank"


    "Bah! You trash at rank 200 dare to say nonsense, are you worth paying attention to?"


    "Someone still dares to face Ivan after finding out he''s at the True King rank? I bet they will forfeit"


    "Forfeit? I''ll eat shit if they even dare to show up!"


    "Then be prepared to eat a bucket of shit, my friend, you might not know this but that number 8 is a very good friend of Ivan"


    " That''s right, Ivan has only two friends and that number 8 guy is one. I heard that they came to the tower together "


    " What?! Is that true?"


    " Yes, very true. They were scouted together and came together, I remember seeing Miss Elora showing them around the tower on the day they came"


    " How lucky, I wish I was his friend too "


    " You can wish for that later, for now, wish for how you will eat that bucket of shit you promised "


    " What? I was just joking, can''t you take a joke?!"


    " Sure, sure. You''ll jokingly eat it too "


    " Get lost!"


    " Fight me!"


    While the trainees were chattering, Ralph had already made his way down to the stage and was already inside the barrier.


    The referee flew back up into the air to give them space.


    "I don''t think there''s even a need for this fight; you''re already at the True King rank; I''m not even at the Mortal King rank yet." Ralph took off his glasses and wiped them with his shirt while saying this.


    "Don''t worry too much, I just want to see how much progress you''ve made. I''ll still stick to the original plan" Ivan responded with a small smile.


    Ralph paused and glared at him. Although Ivan doing so would help him and Glen, it would be too shameless and many would criticize Ivan. Before he could speak though, Ivan raised his sword and pointed the tip at Ralph.


    "I know what you''re going to say, and I don''t care about all that; they were not there with us in the outskirt," Ivan said coldly as if threatening Ralph not to dare forfeit.


    Ralph froze, the words just now were like an electric current that struck him unexpectedly. It took him a few seconds to come back to his senses, a faint chuckle left his lungs.


    "Indeed, then please provide pointers for me, my friend," Ralph said amidst his chuckling, but he was already getting serious.


    His eyes turned blood red as a large amount of Nexus energy flowed out of him like a cloud of smoke; the oppressive aura within the stage was impossible to overlook.


    Anyone with weaker strength than Ralph would immediately find it difficult to breathe under this oppression aura.


    ''He is not as powerful as this white-haired kid, but his potential isn''t to be underestimated either,r, '' the referee commended inwardly while nodding his head.


    The mist continued to expand and covered a distance of ten meters around Ralph; only after this did it stop and slowly begin to vanish, only to reveal the appearance of an old man in a big black robe.


    This was the same old man during Ralph''s awakening.


    It was an Undead General, a General of the undead legion in the underworld!

 Chapter 48 - 48: Ivan vs Ralph

    The whole arena was silent as the spectators patiently waited to see how this fight would turn out, the undead General looked strong and it was common knowledge that under beings were difficult to deal with.


    Ivan and Ralph stared at each other, both having a serious expression on their faces as they waited for the referee to announce the start of the fight.


    Seeing that both sides were ready, the referee took to the sky before saying.


    "Begin!"


    Immediately after the voice of the referee sounded, the three swords around Ivan shot out at a stunning speed.


    Swoosh!!


    Sounds of the wind being split through could be heard as the three swords tore through the air toward Ralph, Ivan remained standing in his place and did not attack along with the swords.


    Peng! Peng! Peng! S§×ar?h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    But before the swords could reach Ralph, the undead General made its move.


    Turning into a black blur on the stage, it flashed over to the three swords at an even greater speed and slapped them away before they could reach Ralph; it returned to Ralph''s side immediately after blocking the attacks successfully.


    Ivan raised an eyebrow at the sight of his swords being slapped away, a hint of surprise flashed past his eyes as he stared at the old man in black robe.


    Those red eyes that gave off nothing but chills like staring into a bottomless abyss stares back at Ivan before suddenly disappearing.


    Ralph had gone on the offense!


    Ivan''s face did not change expression even when the undead General suddenly disappeared, its speed might be fast but not so fast that a True king Nexulyte like himself would not be able to keep up.


    With a fluid movement of his legs, Ivan jumped into the air and did a backflip while landing over ten meters away from his previous location.


    At the same time¡­


    BOOM!!!


    A sound of a loud explosion rang out on the stage as a huge wave of broken concrete was sent flying everywhere ten meters away from Ivan, a huge crater of over five meters could be seen and in the middle of the crater was the under General who was standing like a statue while looking in Ivan''s direction.


    Swoosh! Swoosh!! Swoosh!!!


    A second later after the explosion, three swords suddenly arrived around the undead General in the middle of the crater and stabbed at it viciously, one stabbing at its head, another at its chest and the last one pointed at its waist.


    Wooosh!!


    The undead General was still shockingly quick to react to these sudden attacks, immediately flipping its big black robe and blowing away the sword that was going for its head before sending a punch toward the one coming for its chest. A slight shift of its body allowed in to prevent its waist from being split in two.


    All this time took only as little as two seconds but the undead General was able to avoid the attacks. Just when it had successfully evaded all strikes, it suddenly looked to the side and its red eyes exploded into a dazzling shine of red light as if an explosion had gone off behind its eye sockets.


    The direction that the undead General was looking at with such intense stare was where Ralph was standing and the reason for such a reaction was because Ivan had suddenly lunged at Ralph while it was distracted.


    It hadn''t expected Ivan to go for Ralph so soon. After all, to deal with a summoned being, one would need to take care of the summoner.


    Disregarding the three swords that were coming back for it, the undead General disappeared again with another explosion and creating an even wider crater.


    It turned into a black shadow that flickered across the stage at a breakneck speed and chased after Ivan, it crossed a distance of over a hundred meters in just a second and caught up to Ivan.


    Ivan smirked secretly when he saw the black shadow that had arrived near him, he suddenly stopped his advancement toward Ralph and made a sharp turn to face the undead General with the sword in his hand stabbing out.


    The shine in the eyes of the undead General intensified upon seeing Ivan''s sudden action, so the attempt on Ralph was a faint!


    But it was too late to stop or dodge, it could only cross its pale arms in front of itself to block Ivan''s sword.


    Ting!!


    The sound of Ivan''s sword hitting something hard echoed throughout the arena upon their collision, the force had generated a strong shockwave that caused the ground under their feet to shatter and sent concrete flying around them. Yet¡­


    ''Just how hard is this thing?'' Ivan thought to himself while gritting his teeth, he knew just how sharp his sword was yet it was unable to stab through the arms of this old man in black robe.


    They came to a stand still with Ivan trying to force his sword forward while the undead General tried to push him back with its arms, it was an undead after all so it could not feel pain.


    ''An ordinary sword user would have been helpless against this thing, unfortunately I''m its opponent'' Ivan thought and suddenly gripped the handle of his sword tightly and poured Nexus into it, causing the blade of the sword to light up!


    Shink!!!!


    After engulfing his sword in Nexus energy, he only had to apply a bit of force and the sword easily pierced through the crossed arms of the undead General and into its chest.


    At the same time.


    Shink! Shink! Shink!!


    The other three swords arrived behind it and stabbed ruthlessly into its back, red smoke immediately began to rise from its body; this was a sign that it was bleeding.


    Even at this, the face of the undead General remained expressionless as it balled its hands into fists and sent a double punch toward Ivan.


    Ivan immediately let go of his swords and made them disappear while at the same time jumping back to avoid the punch from the old man, he did not jump too far though.


    He landed just half a meter away from the old man before charging forward again and giving it a hard punch to the face.


    Bang!!


    The sound of the punch was loud and clear as the undead General was sent flying away like a broken doll and crashed into the barrier surrounding the stage.


    ''Such hard skin'' Ivan thought to himself while staring at the undead General that had fallen to the ground after hitting the barrier, it had immediately jumped back to its feet the next moment but suddenly stopped when it wanted to attack Ivan.


    It turned its head in Ralph''s direction as its body suddenly started to scatter into Nexus energy, it was being recalled.


    Ivan was confused and turned to look at Ralph only to see him panting heavily while bending over, his face was covered in sweat and his tracksuit was almost soaked in it.


    It was obvious that keeping the undead General for so long had taken a heavy toll on him, he had expanded too much energy.


    Ivan did not use any more cards and slowly walked over to Ralph''s position and supported him up.


    "You really have an issue with going easy unless told to do so, don''t you?" Ralph said with a helpless smile. He was the one who had wanted to fight seriously but this dense friend of his had trashed his undead General all around like a punching bag, of course he would have to use more energy to keep it around.


    "You did great" Ivan replied shortly but Ralph could feel how honest he was with those words, he only chuckled softly in response while adjusting his glasses.


    The referee landed beside them at this point, ready to announce the results and also check up on the trainees.


    ''As expected of a True king rank Nexulyte, even an undead General can barely face him.


    But if they had been on the same rank, the match might have ended differently'' The referee analyzed inwardly, he was only thinking this because he was unaware that Ivan had over a hundred ways to defeat the undead General and Ralph had he wanted to; but Ivan wasn''t planning to reveal his true strength and definitely not on his friends.


    The referee inspected Ralph''s condition and nodded after seeing that he was only exhausted and did not have any injuries or things to worry about, he stood straight and was about to announce the winner when Ivan''s voice suddenly sounded from behind him.


    "I surrender"


    His voice wasn''t loud but it had traveled across the entire arena and everyone had heard him clearly.


    Referee "..."


    Trainees "..."


    Elora who was secretly watching "..."


    Silence.

 Chapter 49 - 49: Forfeiting

    A deafening silence suppressed the whole arena for a few seconds after Ivan''s sudden forfeit, not even the wind dared to make a sound.


    Ten seconds¡­


    Twenty seconds¡­


    Thirty seconds later¡­


    "What!!!! What the hell!"


    "What do you mean surrender? You already won!"


    "Is this some classic joke? Was he planning to surrender on his third fight? Why didn''t I challenge him instead? First place would have been mine just like that!"


    "Don''t beat your luck, I''m sure he would have smacked you unconscious"


    " Is this what they mean by hugging a golden thigh? That dude got first place just for being his friend?"


    " They clearly aren''t on the same level, why surrender?" S~ea??h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    " Ugh, my heart!"


    " Help, help! He''s not breathing!"


    The spectators were thrown into chaos after 30 seconds of silence as they shouted like little children, some people even passed out from shock and were carried away by their friends.


    It couldn''t be helped, Ivan''s sudden surrender had been too much of a shock for the trainees to handle. Those who were even more affected were the repeaters who longed for resources of the first place, they were prepared to battle hard for it but Ivan was giving it away just like that?


    Miko gritted her teeth to an almost shattering point while her fingers almost dug into her palm in a tight grip as she forcefully controlled herself and resisted the urge to go down there to beat Ivan to death; that was if she could.


    While the trainees kept making a ruckus, the referee, who had woken up from his shock, looked at Ivan with a speechless expression.


    "Are you sure you want to surrender? Your spot as the first place will be transferred to your opponent, and you will fall down in the ranking; you will also lose all your privilege as the first place," he stated in an attempt to make Ivan understand that surrendering was as simple as just saying it.


    But it was obvious that Ivan was already aware of this and had prepared to surrender a long time ago because his face didn''t change expression even after the referee''s warning, he only nodded to confirm that he was indeed surrendering the match.


    The referee, unable to understand why Ivan would do such a thing, turned his gaze to Ralph.


    From every perspective one would look at it, Ralph was in no condition to fight anymore and he didn''t even stand a chance considering their current gap in rank.


    ''Was it simply because of their friendship?'' The referee thought to himself. He had seen how Ivan dealt with all of his opponents and had to admit that Ralph had been treated far better than the previous two.


    Shaking his head to clear away those thoughts, the referee sighed while saying.


    "This is your choice, don''t blame me in the future"


    "I won''t" Ivan responded seriously.


    Referee "..."


    "Ahem. Trainee number one has decided to surrender the match, the winner of this match is trainee number eight!"


    The referee announced, causing the spectators to go into another wave of chattering.


    "You may now leave the stage," The referee said to the two after making the announcement.


    Both boys nodded and turned to leave, Ivan continued to support Ralph as they walked out of the barrier.


    "Although I feel this isn''t right, it is for our own good¡­thank you" Ralph mumbled.


    "No worries, " Ivan replied.


    They met Glen outside after leaving the stage, the boy immediately ran towards them.


    " Ralph! Are you alright?" He asked worriedly while helping Ivan to support Ralph.


    Not waiting for Ralph to answer, Glen immediately turned on Ivan.


    " You rascal! You''re already so strong but still out, Ralph, in this state. Don''t you know that damaging a summon too much will affect the summoner? And you''ll say I''m the dumb one!" Glen scolded Ivan who looked back at him with blank eyes.


    Indeed, he had not been to the arena before and wasn''t aware of this information. He would not have attacked the undead General too much if he knew otherwise.


    " Stop it, it''s not his fault. I forced him to fight seriously " Ralph said in Ivan''s defense. Glen only grunted and didn''t say anything else; after all, Ralph wasn''t hurt and was just exhausted; getting enough rest would fix everything.


    "Let''s take him to his room," Glen said to Ivan, but Ivan suddenly passed Ralph to him completely.


    "What are you doing?" Glen asked. Was he angry that I scolded him and now wants to ignore me?


    "I can''t; I still have one more match," Ivan said when he saw the expression on Glen''s face.


    "Oh, so it''s that. No problem, you can go back. I''ll take him to his room myself" Glen said, secretly relieved that Ivan wasn''t angry at him.


    "Come, let''s go back," Glen said to Ralph.


    Ivan watched the two of them leave the arena before returning to the spectators section, he had to wait for his turn since others were currently on the stage and about to fight.


    Ivan found a place to sit, ignoring the fierce and questioning glares of the trainees.


    Miss Elora looked at Ivan from above for a few seconds before leaving the arena.


    On the stage after the place had been repaired, three people could be seen standing inside the barrier. These three were the referee and two young women in purple tracksuits.


    One of the women had a tall figure with a rather explosive chest that bulged her tracksuit despite the zippers reaching her neck, long legs, short red hair that barely touched her ears, and sharp yellow eyes that gazed at her opponent with all seriousness.


    Her opponent was a girl with average height, a plain shape, and blue hair that stood out easily. Both parties stood a few tens of meters away from each other with the referee standing in between them.


    After confirming that they were ready, the referee flew up into the air before giving the command for both parties to start their fight.


    Immediately after hearing the command, both sides began their assaults.


    It turned out that they were both Nexulytes with elemental talents; the tall woman had the water element while her opponent had the earth element.


    They began hurling water slashes and chunks of concrete at each other while running across the stage.


    Their fight was rather boring compared to Ivan''s battles but was nonetheless entertaining for the other trainees and they cheered for the two.


    Ivan silently watched with an indifferent expression; he was not in the slightest interested in the fight between these two as, in his eyes, they were just playing.


    It couldn''t be helped; these two were not even at the Mortal King rank yet!


    The fight between the two women went on for a few minutes more before finally coming to an end with the tall woman emerging as the victor.


    Both sides had ended up expanding their Nexus sea and had resorted to hand combat which ended up in favor of the tall woman due to her size advantage.


    The referee came down and announced the results before asking both parties to clear the stage, after which he placed his hand on the barrier and repaired the stage again before the next fight could take place.


    Ivan had to wait another three fights before it was finally his turn again to fight, Miko was already standing on the stage when Ivan arrived.


    "Begin!"


    The referee shouted as he watched with anticipation, the whole arena was quiet as well as the trainees were paying great attention to Ivan''s fight.


    After receiving the command to start, Miko immediately summoned Nexus energy before condensing it into a long katana with an extremely sharp blade; one could tell just how sharp the blade was by the chilling silver glint that it emitted.


    Miko''s expression was cold, and her eyes were as sharp as her blade; she was well aware of Ivan''s strength now and knew that she had to give it her all if she wanted to have a chance at winning.


    Swoosh!!


    Not waiting for Ivan to take out a card, she immediately bent her body before disappearing and appearing in the air right above Ivan with her katana slashing down toward his head.


    Gasp!


    Her speed was so shocking that she had already appeared in front of Ivan before most of the trainees even realized that she had moved!


    But the same was not so for Ivan, who was already a True king Nexulyte; he had seen her movements clearly; although he had to admit that her speed had caught him by surprise, it wasn''t to the point that he could not follow her movements.


    Huaa!


    Ivan swiftly leaped backward and left the range of Miko''s katana slash and, at the same time, took out a card before throwing it at Miko.


    The card scattered into light particles in midair and formed a sword that stabbed at the girl.


    Miko''s expression didn''t change, she did a twist midair and met Ivan''s sword with her katana.


    Swooop!!!


    A clean cut as two halves of a blade were sent flying!


    ''Impossible!''

 Chapter 50 - 50: Engaged

    Ivan stared at the blades of his sword that were sent flying away after being cut by Miko''s katana, his eyes flashed with utter disbelief.


    He knew how sturdy his swords were, yet the same sword had been cut cleanly by Miko''s weapon.


    It was no secret that weapon users would awaken an additional trait or skill after stepping into every new rank; it seems like the trait that Miko had gotten after entering the Mortal King rank was her katana becoming incredibly sharp; sharp to the point it had been able to slice through Ivan''s sword!


    Clank!!!


    The two halves of the sword landed over ten meters away, creating dull sounds.


    Miko''s expression didn''t change after missing Ivan; she turned to look at him before charging again, not planning to give him a chance to attack.


    Swish! Swish! Swish!!


    Miko arrived in front of Ivan and sent dozens of katana slashes in a matter of seconds, Ivan had to make quick turns and even step back continuously just to avoid getting cut.


    It appeared for a second like Miko was pushing Ivan back with the latter not being able to retaliate, but all of that was just for a moment.


    Boom!!


    Ivan suddenly exploded with Nexus energy, a great shockwave from the sudden energy burst sent Miko flying away; she had to release her own energy to protect herself. Sear?h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The ground beneath Ivan''s feet had a web-like crack that was over two meters wide, which was a result of his Nexus outburst; he was currently covered in a thick, fiery bubble of Nexus energy.


    (Imagine might guy opening gates)


    Miko, who had landed several meters away, also had a wave of Nexus energy surrounding her, but one could tell at a glance that their Nexus were not on the same level.


    Gritting her teeth, she dashed forward once more.


    "That''s enough," Ivan muttered softly as five cards appeared on both of his hands at the same time, and he tossed everything into the air.


    Five swords immediately appeared in front of Ivan and shot towards the incoming Miko.


    Swoop!


    Swoop!


    Swoop!¡Á3


    All five swords were neatly cut through by Miko''s katana as she continued her charge, Ivan had expected this after all and wasn''t hoping to defeat her with the swords.


    After cutting through the fifth sword, Miko realized that Ivan was gone from his previous location; she didn''t see him move!


    Suddenly, Miko''s expression turned grave; her senses were screaming for her to turn left.


    Without giving it a thought, she hurriedly placed her katana to her left side, and at the same time, Ivan appeared with his right hand bent backward and his fist coated in Nexus.


    BAM!!


    His fist landed on the flat side of the katana before crashing into Miko''s temple, she felt a wave of pain accompanied by dizziness before her body was sent flying away uncontrollably.


    BOOM!!!


    Her body crashed into the barrier with a loud sound.


    "Hirck!"


    Miko made a painful sound as she spat out a mouthful of blood before falling to the ground. Her vision became more blurred, and she could hear ringing in her ears.


    The first thing that she heard after coming back to her senses was Ivan''s voice telling her that she had lost.


    Ivan was currently standing above Miko with an indifferent expression on his face, a sword in his grade which he rested its blade on her nape.


    "Trainee number 8 wins the match!"


    The referee announced as he flew to the ground, only after then did Ivan recall his sword and move from where Miko was.


    He could see that the girl had forced herself to get up after struggling a bit, a look of unwillingness was etched on her face as she glared at him with fierce eyes.


    But Ivan didn''t care; he had won and was now ranked third. Miko''s Nexus chamber was his now, and there was nothing that she could do about it.


    The barrier was opened and Ivan walked out of it, not caring about anything that happened on the stage anymore.


    Of course, others were going to continue their matches, but Ivan had no interest in watching.


    But one thing was certain, Ivan had shown everyone on his first day of stepping into the arena that he was worthy of being in first place.


    The trainees had now officially given him the title "demon Ivan"


    Who else aside demon Ivan could surpass everyone and even trash repeaters after only three months?


    ...


    After leaving the arena, Ivan decided to go check up on Ralph first before anything else.


    Glen was with Ralph in Ralph''s room, they opened the door for Ivan after hearing his voice.


    "Your fight is over?" Glen asked while sitting on Ralph''s bed, not caring if the latter was comfortable.


    "Mm" Ivan nodded and turned to look at Ralph. He looked perfectly normal aside from his slightly pale skin.


    "Who was your last opponent?" Ralph asked when he saw Ivan looking at him.


    "Miko," Ivan replied casually.


    "A repeater! Did you win?!" Glen''s eyes light up with eagerness for answers.


    "Of course, I am now ranked 3rd" Ivan replied with a small smile.


    " Awesome! Now we can all continue getting stronger together. I''ll be challenging Ralph in two days, and then we''ll take turns like that," Glen said with excitement; he could not wait to test the effect of a Nexus chamber.


    "So noisy, lower your voice" Ralph hissed at Glen while covering his ears.


    They chatted for a while more before Ivan and Glen left Ralph''s room. Ivan was going to the cafeteria while Glen was going to the training room. Ivan was to show Ralph to the Nexus chamber used by the first place after he was done eating.


    ...¡­


    Not a lot of people were in the cafeteria since most of the trainees were still in the arena, so Ivan had fewer people looking at him when he entered.


    He got his serving and went to an empty table in a corner to eat. He had just taken a few mouthfuls when a figure appeared opposite him and dropped a tray of food in front of him before taking the seat opposite Ivan.


    Ivan raised his eyes and came face to face with a smiling Sommy; the uninvited guest turned out to be Sommy, who was ranked 2nd on the ranking.


    "Hi, hope you don''t mind me joining you," Sommy said with a smile, even though she was already seated and had no intentions of leaving.


    Ivan swallowed before saying it was fine; they were, after all, acquainted, so he didn''t mind.


    "Good match today, I was honestly surprised by your display. You''re stronger than we all thought" Sommy said approvingly.


    "Thanks" Ivan responded and continued chewing.


    They are in silence for a few seconds before Ivan asks why Sommy did not challenge him. Was she not interested in the first place?


    "Honestly, I''m not a big fan of fighting; why fight when I already have enough AP to pass the training? I have no interest in your Nexus chamber" Sommy replied truthfully.


    Ivan stared at her in silence for a while and Sommy only returned his gaze with a smile.


    "Ok" was all he said in the end, and he continued eating.


    "Thanks" Sommy suddenly said, causing Ivan to pause.


    He looked up and saw that Sommy now had a helpless smile on her face while she played with her food; she seemed to have lost her appetite due to helplessness.


    " For what?" He asked.


    " For going easy on Luke " Sommy replied with a sigh.


    Ivan raised an eyebrow; he had noticed that although Sommy usually confronted Luke a lot, it was mostly when he was doing something stupid, and she was, in fact, looking out for him. He had ignored this before since it had nothing to do with him but now he was very curious since Sommy came to thank him for going easy on that guy.


    "Why do you care about him so much?"


    Sommy paused; a look of hesitation could be seen on her face, which stayed for a while before vanishing.


    "It can''t be helped; he''s my fiance even though I wished it wasn''t so," Sommy answered helplessly.


    Ivan froze, his eyes widened in shock as he stared at Sommy.


    What she had just said was like a bomb that was dropped in his mind.


    ''These two¡­are engaged!?''


    Ivan thought to himself as a thousand WTF ran through his mind in an instant.


    He could not even begin to imagine Luke getting someone like Sommy, these two were simply not meant for each other!


    Sommy giggled when she saw Ivan''s expression; it was very rare to see Ivan with such an expression, and she found it amusing.


    "I know you must be shocked but that''s the truth. I was raised by his family and engaged to him since we were kids; that''s why I can''t just leave him despite his awful personality." Sommy sighed after a while.


    Ivan had to agree with this, Luke was a dick. He flirted with a lot of girls even when Sommy was around and didn''t treat her like someone who was engaged was supposed to, it was just impossible to guess that they shared such a relationship.


    "Why don''t you call off the engagement?" Ivan asked.

 Chapter 51 - 51: Outside world

    "Why don''t you call off the engagement?" Ivan asked.


    Sommy replied that she would have done so a long time ago if she could, but it wasn''t her decision to make; she had no parents and was taken in by Luke''s family, who had taken care of her all these years.


    This was a kind of payment for all their care and the reason she bothered looking out for Luke at times.


    Ivan could only feel sorry for Sommy after learning all this; she was tied to that jerk for life. Luke''s family was just taking advantage of the helpless girl; it was a mystery how she still managed to stay so cheerful most of the time.


    "Anyway, let''s forget about my problems. I can''t imagine how strong you''ll become by the end of our training; I wonder who would be stronger by then, you or Vlad," Sommy said with a thoughtful look.


    " Who''s Vlad?" Ivan asked.


    " Oh, that''s an abbreviation for Vladimir. Alaric Vladimir" Sommy stated.


    A glint flashed past Ivan''s eyes, he immediately asked Sommy to tell him about this Alaric Vladimir guy.


    According to Sommy, Alaric Vladimir had entered the training program together with their set and had quickly started to dominate in every aspect of the training.


    He easily defeated the repeaters of that time and got the title of the strongest before the ranking was even created, it went without saying that he became even more monstrous after the ranking and Nexus chamber were introduced.


    It was said that Alaric Vladimir even matched up with some of the officials of the tower.


    He had a few circles of followers who were all also up in the ranking but none of them got close to Vlad''s level.


    Ivan''s eyes blazed as he listened to Sommy talk about this Alaric Vladimir guy, he wished he had met him and was able to fight him.


    ''It doesn''t matter, I can find him after leaving here'' Ivan thought to himself.


    "As for his personality, he''s just like you. Rarely talks, always wearing a deadpan expression, and cold" Sommy suddenly said with a teasing expression on her face.


    Ivan "..."


    "You don''t know me," he said bluntly.


    "Exactly, you''re too cold and won''t allow others to get close enough to know you," Sommy added while giggling.


    Ivan made a poker face, unable to find a response to Sommy''s claim.


    "Anyway, I''ll be off now. See you around," Sommy said; her food had finished at some point, and she got up to leave.


    Ivan also got up as well, but his mind was occupied with thoughts of that Alaric dude and what Sommy had said; he shook his head fiercely to clear his thoughts.


    "Training first, everything else comes after," Ivan said to himself before leaving for Ralph''s room. He''ll take Ralph to the Nexus chamber before going to the training room to fight more monsters and bosses.


    ...¡­


    While the trainees in the tower were taking their training seriously and trying to increase their strength as much as possible, the outside world was experiencing its own crisis.


    After the appearance of links and the discovery of the dreamscape, the earth was left with only three major cities and nine outskirts, with three outskirts anchoring to a major city.


    These major cities were San Pluto, which was the biggest and had over five million people living in it; Motuni, which had over two million people living there; and Orcuno, which was the smallest major city of humans and had a bit over a million citizens.


    Of course, there was still a vast population of humans inside the dreamscape, but the total number of humans currently did not even count up to fifteen million in total, with limited space for them to occupy.


    After regaining stability and forming strong forces, humans had begun their quest of reclaiming what was theirs; the lost lands and seas that were lost to the habitants of the dreamscape!


    Swoooooo!!


    An enormous air carrier flew above the surface of an eerily quiet sea, its humongous shadow that was cast by the blazing sun moved over the sea surface like the silhouette of a behemoth.


    Strange gigantic creatures would leap into the air from the sea from time to time in an attempt to snap at the air carrier with their enormous maws.


    Inside the air carrier, in what looked like a meeting room, over fifty people could be seen seated around what looked like a holographic image of an island while holding a meeting.


    Each one of these people had fearsome and bloody auras revolving around them and they all had serious looks on their faces. All of them were dressed in fine black uniforms with eye-catching white belts over their regalia, their ages ranging from those in their twenties to those who were in their forties.


    A man who appeared to be in his thirties stood in the middle of this gathering with the hologram right before him, he made gestures while saying something.


    "This area used to be a continent occupied by the Africans, and two thousand kilometers behind it is the vast Death Sea; on the other side of the Death Sea is the camp of people from the Dominion Tower who can act as reinforcements if the need arises.


    You will be deployed around here," he made a gesture and made the hologram zoom in and show an area that looked like a forest region with tall-looking trees. "Your mission is to sweep through this area all the way here, which should be an area of 800 meters of detours.


    Arrive at the location of the link that gives these monsters entrance to our world and secure the place, report back immediately after completing the objective!" The man stated and the hologram vanished, causing the room to fall into darkness briefly before light was restored.


    "Is that understood?" The man asked while looking towards a young man who seemed to be in his early twenties. He had short black hair and black eyes that gleamed, he was also extremely handsome and looked like a main character from some anime.


    The young man looked back at him with expressionless eyes before nodding.


    "Good, do well. You''ve been making remarkable progress since you came out of training. Continue, and you''ll climb ranks faster than most of us," the middle-aged man commented, but the young man paid no attention to him, immediately walking out of the room.


    Had Sommy or any of the repeaters been here, they would have definitely recognized this young man; he was no other but Alaric Vladimir!


    "Hey, Vlad! Wait up" S§×ar?h the n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Alaric Vladimir paused his steps when he heard someone call his name, he turned around and saw that it was a youth with blue hair covering a side of his face.


    Ivan would have definitely recognized this youth, they had met at the teleportation vault back at the tower four months ago.


    This young man with blue hair was called Jack and he was already a True King rank Nexulyte.


    Jack reached where Vlad was before passing a piece of paper to him, Vlad took the paper and read through it quietly for a couple of seconds before lifting his head without a change in expression.


    "Inform Bella and the others; you all should assemble your team and meet me at the facility vault in five minutes," Vlad said to Jack and immediately turned to leave. Jack gave his back a long stare before turning over to carry out his assignment.


    Vlad, still holding the piece of paper in his hand, walked through the lobbies of the air carrier. The paper was a permit to claim a land carrier and since his team had quite several people, he had been permitted to claim ten land carriers.


    A single land carrier was usually able to carry seven people along with a month''s worth of supplies.


    "Seems like it''s going to be another long mission" Vlad muttered to himself, his eyes narrowing into a slit.


    This was his third mission since he left the training camp; as a Partial Lord ranked Nexulyte, Vlad had a team of ten True King Nexulytes under him, and those True Kings had four Mortal King subordinates; this made his team reach a total of 51 people for every mission.


    Of course, it was also because the missions assigned to him always required a large number of people to be able to share the workload; he could decide to take fewer people if he wanted.


    Vlad arrived at the facility vault shortly, this was a huge workshop in the air carrier where hundreds of Nexulytes with mechanic talents did their work. Of course, these ones were not battle mechanics; they were seen to be even more valuable than battle mechanics at the time since they were in charge of creating everything related to machinery.


    Weapons, carriers, communication devices, spatial storage devices, just name it.


    A young man in his early twenties spotted Vlad immediately after he stepped into the facility vault, this young man was in a nano suit that was probably the manifestation of his talent as he jumped from on top of a tall piece of metal.

 Chapter 52 - 52: An A-22G3 land carrier

    A young man in his early twenties spotted Vlad immediately after he stepped into the facility vault, this young man was in a nano suit that was probably the manifestation of his talent as he jumped from on top of a tall piece of metal.


    Clang!!


    The young man made a loud sound upon landing but no one paid any attention to this since the facility vault was always filled with similar noises.


    "Hey, Eric" Vlad called out in a toneless voice.


    This Eric was also one of the trainees from their batch.


    "What are you here for?" Eric asked with a smile, already used to Vlad''s talking style.


    Vlad didn''t say anything and simply handed him the piece of paper. Eric read through it, and his eyes lit up.


    "Wow, you guys are going on another mission? Do you need a mechanic to come with you? I''ve been here for months, and I''m bored," Eric complained.


    "Sure"


    Eric was surprised that Vlad agreed, he jumped in excitement before saying.


    "Come come, there''s a new batch of A-22G3 that we just made and ready for take out. Their functions are the best, let''s pick them!"


    Vlad raised an eyebrow upon hearing Eric''s suggestions; he honestly didn''t know of any land carrier called A-22G3 and was interested since a support mechanic recommended it.


    " Let''s go then"


    Following Eric''s lead, they moved through the spaces where other mechanics were working and arrived in another room inside the facility vault.


    In this room, Vlad saw the A-22G3 that Eric talked about. Unlike the usual land carriers that he was familiar with, these ones were different.


    Having long metal legs like those of crabs instead of wheels, the A-22G3 was able to maintain a distance of five meters from the ground while depending on its metal legs for balance and movements.


    It was suitable for climbing uneven terrains and mountains as well, those legs could also be controlled to attack as well!


    And this one even had more space and people wouldn''t need to cramp up together inside. S~ea??h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    " This land carrier is indeed more useful than a normal land carrier, it''s really nice to have them. Are you sure we''ll be able to take them out since they were just made?" Vlad asked. He was clearly impressed by the usefulness of the A-22G3 but he spoke casually.


    " Ehh, actually. There are already a lot of them in the dreamscape, just that they aren''t used in the real world. We just assembled these after some were brought for repairs " Eric scratched his nose in embarrassment.


    Vlad only stared at him for a few seconds before turning away, he continued to inspect the A-22G3.


    Its metal legs were over three meters thick and were very sturdy as well, he doubted that he would be able to damage them without at least attacking five times with all his might.


    One had to know that the A-22G3 was already incredible enough to last so long against an abnormal Partial Lord Nexulyte like Vlad.


    As for the cabin on top of these metal legs, looking at the size from the outside, Vlad estimated that the inside should have a space of over fifteen meters at least, which was twice the space of a normal land carrier.


    "Vlad, I''ve brought everyone"


    Vlad''s inspection was cut short by Jack''s voice; he turned toward the direction of the voice and saw that Jack had brought everyone else to the facility vault; there were over fifty people in total, with Vlad and Eric included.


    "Ok, we''ll be taking these," Vlad said while tapping an A-22G3 that was close to him.


    "What''s that?"


    "It''s like a land carrier but strange, what model is this?"


    "Incredible, I''ve never seen a land carrier like this before"


    Some of the people who were to go on the mission with Vlad immediately began to examine the carrier, they were unable to hide their amazement and left pleasing comments that made Eric grin with a long nose.


    Of course, most of the people who let out these remarks were new Nexulytes who were either from Vlad''s batch or had never been to the dreamscape so it was natural that they had never seen a land carrier like this before.


    "Eh? Isn''t this a land carrier only used for special parts of the dreamscape? Are we allowed to take it out?" A voice suddenly sounded.


    Clear disapproval could be heard from the voice of this person, it was obvious that he was dissatisfied with Vlad''s arrangements and was opposing him.


    Vlad''s eyes narrowed; those around him could feel the temperature suddenly drop to a chilling level, and they all shivered silently.


    His narrowed eyes landed on the figure of a middle-aged man who looked to be in his late thirties; he had a gigantic figure with ripping muscles that stretched his uniform, a thick bushy beard, and a pair of sharp eyes with a ghastly scar running over one.


    Despite this man''s fearsome appearance, he was only at the Mortal King rank. He was probably one of those people who were against Vlad being in charge of missions just because they were stronger, they believed that experience and age should be the basis for leading.


    Vlad has encountered quite a few such people; they always appeared whenever he was to set out on a mission and never learned.


    Seeing that Vlad was looking at him, the man didn''t shriek back and glared back at Vlad with a fearless look.


    "I don''t mean to oppose you since you might be inexperienced and unaware of this, but these types of land carriers are only allowed inside the dreamscape; you should pick another one," the man said haughtily.


    " Did I ask you for an explanation?" Vlad voiced out coldly.


    The man''s expression changed, seeing that Vlad was clearly pissed, this Vlad brat might be young, but he was still a Partial Lord Nexulyte.


    " I was just stating a fact; I didn''t intend to offend you," the man explained, but his tone was far from his words.


    "Didn''t intend to offend me huh?" Vlad wore a wicked smirk before asking for the man''s name.


    "Koblack, my name is Koblack," the man answered.


    "Koblack¡­I''ll remember that. As for your information, this is what we are taking" Vlad scoffed before walking away.


    Eric moved over to Koblack after Vlad left.


    "That was probably the worst decision you might have made," he said to him before walking away.


    The piece of paper had shown that Vlad had clearance to take any land carrier of his choice, who was this Mortal King nobody to butt in?


    ....


    A few minutes later, at the exit of the air carrier, ten A-22G3 could be seen standing orderly and preparing to move out.


    Each land carrier had five people riding in their cabins, except the one in front which was carrying seven people; the additions were Vlad and Eric.


    Standing on the ground in front of the ten A-22G3s was the man who had given them a briefing on the mission earlier.


    "You''ll be deployed at your starting location in a few minutes, remember to watch out for hidden dangers and keep in touch with us if you encounter anything strange!" He bellowed in a loud voice and all the Nexulytes could be seen saluting from the windows of their cabins.


    The man said nothing else and walked away.


    Three minutes later, the cover of the air carrier slowly rose, revealing the scene of a forest to Vlad and his team.


    They had arrived!


    Thwoop! Thwoop! Thwoop!


    The metal legs of all the A-22G3 made robotic noises as they were controlled and began to move out of the air carrier; the air carrier had stopped twenty meters above the ground, so they had to jump.


    This event once again glorified how useful an A-22G3 was, jumping such height was a piece of cake with those legs.


    All ten land carriers made loud sounds upon landing on the ground, their legs dug into the ground and allowed them to withstand the impact of the jump before they started moving forward again.


    "Hahahah!! This is what a land carrier should be like; cool, right!" Eric was laughing like a maniac inside the A-22G3 cabin he was in; since he was the one driving this A-22G3, his maneuvering skills were far better than the others, and he was already making their land carrier run all around the place.


    "Can you stop? I''m feeling dizzy!" Jack screamed as he held onto his seatbelt to avoid crashing around inside the cabin due to Eric''s maneuver.


    The other members in the cabin were also sitting tight in their seats with fearful expressions, only Vlad had an indifferent expression and wasn''t affected by Eric''s rough driving.


    "Focus!"


    But he couldn''t allow the whole team to suffer because he was simply unaffected, so with a single word, he made Eric stop terrorizing the rest of the team.


    " Hehehe, this baby''s awesome!" Eric laughed while sensually touching the surface of the control system. His behavior was very befitting for his talent as a support mechanic, he was a machine fanatic!


    " Open a communication line to the others" Vlad instructed again.


    "Hai hai, captain!" Eric chuckled before opening the public communication system.


    Vlad passed out his order to the rest of the team; they were to form into pairs of two and only move a distance of 200 meters in a single direction; they were to report immediately if they found anything strange¡­monsters not included.


    "Understood!" ¡Á9


    The rest replied after receiving the command.


    Vlad turned to Eric before nodding for them to start exploring too.

 Chapter 53 - 53: Gene banshees

    Bang!!


    Thwoop!


    Bang!!


    Thwoop!


    Controlling the A-22G3, Eric stabbed the long metal legs into the bodies of several behemoth worm monsters.


    These giant worm creatures that were no smaller than the land carrier itself and had wide mouths filled with razor-sharp teeth were immediately covered in gaping holes under the assault of Eric''s driving.


    Loud screeching sounds filled the air while the green slimy liquid, which was these monsters'' blood, gushed all over the place.


    They had stumbled upon these monsters on their search and realized that this was the territory of these giant worms, the members of the group remained in the cabin and just watched as Eric massacred the entire swarm of monsters using the land carrier alone.


    These monsters had green skins which made them capable of hiding in forest areas and their bodies were as tough as steel that one would need to be at least at the True King rank to be able to deal damage to them, adding to their size and insane abilities; it would have been a tough battle for the team considering that they had ran not into just one of these monsters but a whole swarm of them.


    Luckily, they just happened to have a special land carrier that could be used as a war mecha! None of the members had to do anything, and they just watched from the cabin; the fight was over in just five minutes!


    "Hehe, feel the might of a super land carrier!" Eric laughed crazily while controlling the A-22G3 to stomp over the dead bodies of the worms, creating more holes in them and causing loud noises.


    Pah!


    "Focus"


    Vlad smacked his head and snorted, Eric muttered a sorry while chuckling.


    Ignoring him, Vlad opened the communication link with other land carriers.


    "What''s the situation?" he asked.


    Vlad could hear sounds of fighting from the links of the various land carriers, so it was apparent that they had run into some monsters as well; since none of them were close to Eric''s level of controlling the land carrier, they would need to fight whatever monster that they encountered themselves.


    "All clear, we ran into some monsters but the other members are currently dealing with it and should be done soon"


    "We just finished with some rock golems and will be reaching the 100 meters mark shortly"


    "We have yet to encounter anything, our location isn''t far from the 200 meters mark"


    ¡­.


    Each group gave reports of their situation; some had needed to fight or were still fighting, while some had yet to encounter any troubles; in conclusion, everything was going smoothly, and they would all meet up soon if nothing changed.


    " Alright, keep advancing," Vlad replied before cutting off the link. "Forward," he turned to Eric and said.


    Thwoop!


    Thwoop!


    Eric resumed control and the land carrier began walking forward once more, but they had barely moved for over fifty meters through the forest when a strange scene suddenly unfolded before them.


    From behind huge trees, large groups of people suddenly began to appear. These people looked like ordinary citizens and were not Nexulytes; they were dressed in ordinary clothing but looked miserable in them.


    Blood stains, tears, and dried mud made their clothes unbearable to look at; the people were also equally dirty and looked like they had not taken a bath for years.


    They ranged from children at the age of nine to elderly at the age of seventy, men and women; they all looked like refugees, and their numbers quickly crossed a hundred as they formed a large crowd in front of the two land carriers.


    The two land carriers immediately came to a stop upon seeing these people who had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, every member had a frown on their face as they stared at the pitiful faces of these people from their cabins.


    This continent was abandoned during the early years of the appearance of the dreamscape, which was over four hundred years ago. The entire continent had been overtaken by monsters so how could so many people appear here?


    Could there really have been survivors?


    "Vlad¡­" Jack called out, turning to look at him.


    Vlad was staring at the people from inside the cabin with expressionless eyes, he thought for a few seconds before opening a communication link to the other land carrier that was following along with them.


    The ten land carriers had been divided into groups of five, with two land carriers in each group, so naturally, Vlad''s group also had two land carriers, and the True King in charge of the other land carriers was someone who Vlad was familiar with.


    "Bella put Koblack through," Vlad said coldly through the communication link.


    There was brief silence from the other side; those who were familiar with Vlad already knew what would happen next. Jack and Eric also turned to look at him with helpless eyes.


    Sounds of footsteps came from the other side after a moment of silence before the voice of Koblack came through.


    "What''s the matter, kid?" Koblack asked through the communication link.


    The entire team heard this and Eric could not help but click his tongue while Jack facepalmed.


    ''This Koblack was just asking for it, calling your superior, kid? Could one be more disrespectful?''


    Vlad acted like he didn''t hear what Koblack just said; he took one more glance at the crowd below before turning to the communication link.


    "Go down and check out what''s wrong with those people" Vlad voiced out coldly.


    "W-what do you mean, go down alone?" Koblack''s voice immediately became flustered and he stuttered through the communication link.


    "What? Don''t you understand human language? You''re older and have more experience, so go check it out" Vlad scoffed in response.


    The sound of Koblack grinding his teeth hard came through the communication link for a moment before he suddenly called Vlad''s full name in a heavy voice.


    " Alaric¡­Vladimir, don''t let leadership get to your head!" Koblack said through gritted teeth.


    Vlad didn''t even get to respond before the sound of collision came from the other side.


    BAM!


    Crash!


    It sounded as if someone got kicked hard and crashed into a sturdy wall.


    Next was the cold voice of Bella.


    "A mere Mortal King dares to be so arrogant to a Partial Lord, are you asking for death? Go down immediately or I''ll throw you out"


    It was followed by the distant voice of Koblack cursing before the communication link was cut off.


    Thwoooooo! BOOM!!


    The other land carrier suddenly had all of its legs folded before its cabin landed on the ground with a loud sound; an opening was created, and from it came Koblack, who had blood on the corner of his mouth.


    He threw a glare at the land carrier that Vlad was in before turning to look at the crowd of refugees in front; his huge figure trembled slightly, and one could see the unwillingness and fear in his eyes.


    The place was dead silent as only the passing wind dared to make a sound while Koblack slowly approached the crowd.


    He reached a ten-meter distance away from them before stopping; his sharp, scary eyes scanned the faces of the people.


    "Who are you people?" Mustering enough courage, Koblack asked while watching them vigilantly.


    But the people did not respond to him and just kept staring at him, their expressions were those of grief, fear, pain, and anxiety.


    "We are people from the Owen Tower; we''re here to help." Seeing that they showed similar behaviors to traumatized people, Koblack gained more courage and took a step towards them, but the moment he took a step, the mood of the crowd immediately changed.


    Their expressions turned vicious and fierce, they all opened their mouths and screamed.


    "Help us!"


    " Help us!"


    " Save us!" S§×ar?h the nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Someone save us!"


    ¡­.


    The entire crowd of over a hundred people screaming similar words at the top of their lungs was a very frightening and ghastly sight that made one''s skin crawl, the hair on Koblack''s body stood straight as a sudden chill watched over his body.


    " What the..!!


    He cursed and immediately tried to run back, but it was too late; the whole crowd of people surged toward him like a fierce wave of hungry zombies.


    "The fuck! Get away from me!" Koblack screamed and immediately covered himself in Nexus energy and punched the closest person who was about to grab him.


    BAM!!


    It was a powerful punch to the face of a person who looked like a middle-aged lady with dirty blonde hair.


    Shockingly, the woman let out a loud shriek that a human would never make before transforming into a completely different thing; it was not a human!


    The monster that the woman turned into was a very fat and robust monster with pale skin and had the head of a pig, it was three times the height of a normal human and had the tail of a reptile.


    The mere sight of the monster alone was so repulsive that everyone who saw it had the urge to throw up. The Koblack who had punched it had it worse since he was right in front of it and more of what they suspected were similar creatures were rushing towards him!


    "It''s a gene banshee!"

 Chapter 54 - 54: Nexulytes vs Gene banshees

    "It''s a gene banshee!"


    Someone inside the land carrier that Vlad was in screamed in horror; that person wasn''t the only one who had realized this, as a few people were familiar with this monster as well.


    Gene banshees were a type of monsters from the dreamscape that would strike fear in the hearts of people, running into one can be considered having terrible luck unless one was specialized in dealing with them.


    The Gene banshees were monsters that could assume the form and perfectly take up the behavior and habits of whatever they consumed. If they are the corps of a powerful monster, it goes without saying that they will be able to assume the appearance of that monster and use its strength and abilities!


    Not only that, gene banshees were very glutinous in nature and never stopped eating no matter how many things they consumed; one can not even begin to imagine what type of monsters or how many a gene banshee has consumed!


    Another horrifying thing about them was that in their base form, despite their repulsive and humongous appearance, they were incredibly fast! Their speed could easily match up with a Nexulyte at the True King rank!


    The only good thing about them was that they had incredibly fragile bodies as long as they were in their base form; a single punch would be enough to blast them into pieces but then again, that wasn''t good news at all because making contact with a gene banshee would make one get their body fluid on them.


    The body fluid of a gene banshee was so toxic that it would make anything it touched rot in a matters of seconds and worms would start to crawl all over it, the body fluid of a gene banshee was also able to eat through Nexus energy so trying to cover oneself with Nexus energy would not work as well!


    To put it simply, a gene banshee was an incredibly weak but troublesome monster as long as it was in its base form and could become a nightmare by assuming the form of anything it had consumed.


    One gene banshee could cause hell or die easily, but meeting a crowd of it¡­ was a nightmare!


    Over 100 gene banshee¡­


    Vlad stared at the scene in front of him with indifference before saying "Contact the rest team, call everyone back"


    Eric nodded and immediately sent the message along with their location.


    As for Koblack, who had come in contact with one of the gene banshees, the Nexus covering his arm immediately retracted despite how much he tried to stop it, and right in front of his eyes, worms began to eat through his skin while his arm dried up at an alarming speed.


    "Ahhhh!!! Help me!!" Koblack screamed like a pig being slaughtered as he hurriedly retreated while throwing chunks of earth at the people rushing towards him but it still wasn''t enough as the wave of people swallowed him up.


    Only his anguished screaming could be heard as the crowd of people tore him to shreds and in a matter of seconds, nothing was left of the huge koblack anymore; he was dead!


    After dealing with the koblack, the crowd returned their sight to the two land carriers. They stared for a few seconds before they began advancing towards the land carrier, they changed back to their base form as they moved.


    Soon, there were over a hundred gross-looking masses of flesh with pig heads crawling toward the land carriers.


    "Vlad¡­what should we do?" Jack asked while staring at the large group of gene banshees that were approaching them.


    Vlad did not respond to Jack as he fell into thought for a few seconds before suddenly saying.


    " Eric, how many of them can you take out with the A-22G3?"


    Eric was surprised by this question; his eyes widened in delight as a wide smile formed on his face. S~ea??h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Half, at least half of them!" Eric answered excitedly.


    Vlad nodded upon hearing that before walking towards the back of the cabin where their supplies were kept.


    "Everyone else, prepare for battle!" Vlad said while moving.


    "Yes!"


    They answered and followed him, including Vlad himself; they were six in total.


    They all equipped themselves with protective suits and helmets, Vlad also instructed Eric to inform Bella and her team to come out for battle while leaving one person to look after the land carrier.


    A minute later, a total of nine people could be seen standing in front of the two land carriers. They were Vlad, Jack, Eric, Bella, and the others in their black protective suits.


    Vlad tapped on the chip in his ears while staring at the approaching gene banshees with eyes that looked like they were soulless, the trees did a good job in making them split into groups; this should help them take care of these monsters easily.


    A beep sound rang in everyone''s ears and they could all hear Eric''s voice.


    "I''m ready" Eric voiced out, his voice telling them how excited he was.


    "Then move out!" Vlad answered and the next moment, the land carrier that Eric was driving jumped from the back and landed amid the Gene banshees.


    Boom!!


    A loud sound followed as a few gene banshees were crushed under the legs of the A-22G3 instantly, the rest made loud shrieks before throwing themselves at the legs of the land carrier.


    But Eric was just too good at maneuvering it, he skillfully controlled the legs of the A-22G3 and made it crash the gene banshees into nearby trees.


    Bang!


    Boom!!


    Creeaakk!


    The whole place was in chaos as Eric destroyed the gene banshees and trees in his wake, he was unstoppable!


    Of course, Vlad and the rest were not going to keep watching, while Eric dealt with a bigger number of the gene banshees, they attacked the others.


    Jack, the youth with blue hair, turned out to be a Nexulyte with an elemental talent and his element was the ice element!


    Sliding across over an ice track that he had created, Jack landed in the middle of five gene banshees and immediately slammed both hands into the ground.


    Pow!


    Pow!!


    Pow!!


    The area of ten meters around them was immediately covered in huge icicles that skewed the gene banshees, killing them on the spot.


    Jack immediately turned around after dealing with those gene banshees; he created another icicle before throwing it forward and nailing another one to a tree about ten meters away.


    Jack suddenly looked up and his expression changed as he rolled on the ground while creating an ice slide that pulled him further away, just in time for a gene banshee to drop on the spot he was standing on previously.


    Had he been a second late, that disgusting gene banshee would have fallen on him and it would be over!


    "You piece of crap!" Jack cursed angrily before rushing towards the gene banshee while forming ice with his hands.


    On another side, Bella, who turned out to be a weapon user, was nailing gene banshees to trees with her arrows. She did not use a bow since her arrows hovered around her and would fly in whichever direction she pointed them to; she had already nailed four gene banshees with her arrows as she moved through their ranks.


    Vlad was still the most ferocious, after becoming a Partial Lord, a weapon user would awaken another attribute or skill to their weapon. Vlad, being a sword user, had awakened the flaming river sword technique!


    (Weapon users are like martial artists so be ready for names like this, hehe)


    Such a powerful technique allowed Vlad to create sword attacks that would launch addictional flame attacks, and these attacks were even more ferocious than his normal attacks.


    Imagine someone slashing at you with a sword but after managing to dodge or block, a wave of blazing flames would suddenly appear out of nowhere and rush towards you!


    That was exactly what Vlad was doing right now! With every slash he made, not only would a gene banshee be split in two because of their weak skin, but both sides of their bodies would suddenly burst into ferocious flames, and that flame might even spread to another gene banshee!


    The other True Kings were still doing their best in defeating the gene banshees, but sadly, the same could not be said for those at the Mortal king rank; they were struggling to fend off even one gene banshee and would immediately fall into a disadvantage when faced with two.


    Things got worse after the gene banshees realized that they were dying too quickly to a group of humans and that giant piece of metal, they immediately abandoned their base form and began to change into other creatures; things got really difficult after this because they instantly lost the advantage of the gene having weak bodies.


    Even though the number of the gene banshees had dropped significantly, they still outnumbered Vlad''s group by a lot.


    "Ahhh!"


    A scream of anguish suddenly echoed through the air, the others looked over and saw that a man in his early thirties had been pierced by the tail of one of the gene banshees that had turned into a strange monster that they could not identify. After piercing the man, the creature immediately turned back into a gene banshee before swallowing the man in one bite.


    "Damnit!" Jack cursed and launched a huge icicle at the gene banshee that had just eaten the man, but the creature dodged. Let''s not forget that gene banshees are also fast in their base form.


    At this time.


    Thwoorp!


    Thwoop!


    Thwoorp!


    Thwoop


    Thwoorp!


    Thwoop


    The sounds of numerous A-22G3s approaching were heard.


    Reinforcement had arrived!

 Chapter 55 - 55: unexpected encounter

    While Vlad and his group members were fighting for their lives somewhere on an abandoned continent, the situation in Motuni was different; it was rather peaceful just like San Pluto.


    Motuni was the second largest human city amongst the three that were left, it had a large number of people residing in it which included Nexulytes as well as ordinary people. With such a population, it was only natural that the security around it would be top-notch as well.


    There were dozens of towers located in Motuni, the headquarters of the Lance Tower and Christopher Tower were located here in Motuni as well as branches of the other big towers.


    It was late at night and like any other prosperous city, night in Motuni was always like a carnival as many people who had returned from their busy activities of the day would choose the night to relax and catch up with friends.


    In a public park with quite a few people sitting quietly to enjoy the night view, a man could be seen sitting alone on a bench while scrolling through his phone; he would occasionally mutter something to himself.


    He had short blond hair and long side beard that connected with his mustache, and wore a pair of white glasses.


    This man looked ordinary just like anyone else in the park, there was nothing worth noticeable about him aside from his calm demeanor.


    But what people didn''t know was that this man was in fact James Owen in disguise!


    James Owen, the Tower master of the Owen HQ in San Pluto, was in Motuni in disguise!


    And he was secretly having a conversation with another ordinary looking young lady that was sitting just a seat away from him to his left side and looked like she was browsing through a magazine.


    "What''s the situation with him?" James asked discretely as if he was commenting on what he saw on his phone. S§×ar?h the ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    " He''s progressing well despite our actions to slow him down, he''s currently in third place and has just entered the Mortal king rank" the lady replied without drawing attention.


    " What about the item? Found anything about it? Or did he carry it with him?" James asked again.


    " That¡­I don''t know, he hasn''t made any strange actions since the start of the training and I suspect that he didn''t bring it with him" the lady responded.


    " Very well, find a way to slow down his progress. I don''t want him causing any troubles for me like his father, not until I''m done with my plan" James said instructed before abruptly standing up and raising his phone to his ears as if he was on a call, he began to converse while walking away.


    The woman didn''t turn and continued browsing through the magazine for another five minutes before closing it and leaving the park as well.


    They had been so discreet during their meeting that no one would suspect a thing¡­or so they thought.


    Shortly after they left, an old man who had been sleeping on a bench suddenly woke up and tapped on his ears.


    "They''ve left" the old man said, his eyes didn''t look like what have seen memories befitting for his age but had the vigilance of someone in his prime instead.


    "Alright, return to the tower at once"


    A voice said into the ears of the old man before the connection was cut off.


    ...


    Back in the abandoned continent.


    Thwoop!


    Thwoop!


    Thwoop!!


    Ten land carriers made their way through a forest with tall trees at a slow pace, signs of battles and blood stains of various colors could be found on the bodies of the land carriers.


    Inside one of these land carriers, Vlad could be seen sitting on his seat quietly with both eyes closed and a peaceful expression on his face.


    In his mind, an image appeared.


    NAME: Alaric Vladimir


    Talent group: Combat Talent type: Weapon master Talent: Sword(Flaming river sword technique)


    Talent lv: S AP: 47.05% Rank: PARTIAL LORD


    Vlad looked at his profile for a few seconds in his mind before opening his eyes.


    ''Just a little more till 50% AP, I''ll finally become a True Lord when that happens'' Vlad thought to himself.


    It had been three weeks after their battle with the gene banshees, aside from that Mortal King who was pierced during the beginning of the fight and koblack, they didn''t lose anyone else after the arrival of the others.


    They had finally killed off the remaining gene banshees after two hours of fighting, the reason why the fight had dragged on for so long was because of the troublesome creatures that the gene banshees were turning into; one could not really predict what a gene banshee had consumed.


    One would be in serious trouble if they ran into a gene banshee that had eaten the remains of a zone guardian. An example of a zone guardian was that red skinned monster with the head of a skeleton that the various heads of the big towers had fled from when they were fighting over Ivan''s custody.


    The good thing was that after the fight, they had gotten a few Nexus crystals from a few corpses; a total of five.


    This was already a lot since Nexus crystals were extremely hard to find and one might not even find one after killing a zone guardian but they had managed to get five after killing almost a hundred and fifty gene banshees, it wasn''t a bad gain at all.


    A Nexus crystal was an incredibly valuable item that were only found inside creatures of the dreamscape and could be used to increase a Nexulyte''s AP or be used as a power source for carries and even teleportation vaults.


    One Nexus crystal would add up to 0.50% AP to a Nexulyte''s total amount of AP no matter what rank they were, its value would never diminish! This was what made it very valuable and one could easily be sold for millions of bucks!


    One had to know that the stronger a Nexulyte got, the harder it would become for them to increase their AP, but the Nexus crystal did not have this restriction!


    Even if a Domain Lord with 69% AP and would need two months to gather an additional 0.10 AP were to absorb two Nexus crystals, that Domain Lord would immediately get 1% AP to cross to the next rank!


    This was to show just how valuable a Nexus crystal was to Nexulytes.


    Of course, after getting five Nexus crystals, Vlad could not keep all of them simply because he was the leader and the strongest; well he could if he wanted to but he didn''t, he decided to share it instead.


    Since there were ten squads under him, Vlad kept one for himself and they agreed to sell the remaining four which the money would be divided amongst the members of the team since everyone did their fair share of work in killing the gene banshees.


    During the last three weeks, they had all decided to move together from fear of running into another large group of gene banshees or any other type of annoying monster; and they did!


    Just that they were more prepared at that time, they did not lose another person but they did not acquire any more Nexus crystals either.


    During those three weeks, they had been forced to retreat after engaging with certain monsters due to some of their members getting injured and needing to use healing gel or due to unfavorable conditions that could have led to the death of the whole team.


    But nonetheless, they still managed to clear their way through to their destination within three weeks while maintaining their losses to the minimum of the two people who had died on the first day.


    "Vlad, we''ve arrived!" The voice of a tired Jack pulled Vlad from his thoughts.


    The latter looked in the direction and through the window of the air carrier he could see it outside, over twenty meters in front of them was a mirror gate, the link to the dreamscape.


    The gate was over twenty meters tall and stood in between the trunks of two enormous trees.


    "A mirror gate" Vlad mumbled to himself, a flash of light flashing past his eyes for a split second.


    The mirror gate was like something that came from a dream, very unrealistic with edges made of what seemed like countless broken mirrors yet perfectly reflected whatever stood before it. Inside this circle of broken mirrors was a constantly squirming mass of gray fog and sitting in front of this mirror gate was a stone monster that remained just motionless like a statue.


    This stone monster was the size of a normal person and had the features of humans as well, the only difference was the third closer eyeball on its forehead. It wore a stone samurai attire and two stone swords with thin blades rested on the ground on both sides of the monster.


    Without being told, everyone knew that this motionless monster would immediately come to life once they approached the mirror gate to a certain distance.


    "Let''s leave the land carriers here, Eric and a few will remain inside while the rest will follow me down" Vlad said before standing up.


    Eric nodded and immediately passed the message to the rest of the land carriers, in less than a minute all the air carriers had their legs folded and were turned off.


    Vlad and thirty nine people were standing on the ground in their black uniforms, each of them having a serious look on their faces as they stared at the mirror gate and the monster sitting in front of it.


    But before they could make a move.


    Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap!


    Sounds of clapping suddenly came from a distance followed by the sound of multiple approaching footsteps, it was clear that a large group of people or whatever was coming.


    The others immediately had an anxious look on their faces while Vlad looked over with a dull look in his eyes. Soon, people began to appear from within the forest one after the other and their numbers quickly caught up to the size of Vlad''s team.


    "Well well well, if it isn''t the star from the Owen Tower" A malicious voice laughed out after seeing Vlad and the rest

 Chapter 56 - 56: Thieves

    "Well well well, if it isn''t the star from the Owen Tower" a malicious voice rang out.


    Vlad looked at the source of the voice and saw that it was a middle aged man with handsome features but having a ruthless glint in his eyes as he looked toward their group.


    These people who had suddenly appeared were all dressed in purple uniforms and blue belts, they were from the Christopher Tower which was one of the five biggest Towers in the world.


    It wasn''t a secret that some of the five biggest Towers had hostile relationships with each other, the relationship between the Owen Tower and the Christopher Tower just happened to be one of the hostile ones.


    "I was wondering which thief was trying to steal the mirror gate that we had secured. It turned out that it''s the little rats from the Owen Tower. Don''t you all have any sense of shame trying to rob us in broad daylight?" The man spat out with a vicious look on his face, the people behind him went into a feat of laughter after hearing this.


    "Tks!"


    Jack clicked his tongue in irritation, Bella and the others also had enraged looks on their faces.


    ''Secured your father! With the number of monsters we had to fight to get here, how dare you say we are stealing from you? You should feel ashamed as a Nexulyte!''


    Vlad was the only one who still had an expressionless look on his face even at this time as he stared at the man who was spouting nonsense.


    "What do you mean?" Vlad asked, his voice extremely cold and menacing that a few people of the Christopher Tower had a grim look on their faces for a moment.


    ''Just who was that brat to be scaring them with just his words!?''


    The man who had been talking since settled his eyes on Vlad, a wicked smirk formed on his lips before he opened his mouth.


    "Ah, Alaric Vladimir. I''ve heard of you and I must say that it''s impressive that you managed to bring so many weaklings this far, but that doesn''t mean that you have to go around stealing other people''s things.


    We got here first and have already occupied this mirror gate, so naturally this mirror gate is now a property of the Christopher Tower. Thief''s from the Owen Tower should go look somewhere else, don''t force us if we decide to protect what belongs to us" The man sneered while rubbing his knuckles and releasing Nexus energy from his body.


    He was a Partial Lord ranked Nexulyte! Just like Vlad.


    The look in Vlad''s eyes finally changed, his eyes had an amused look as he stared back at the man.


    "And what if we want to rob you? You think you can defend ''your property'' from me?" Vlad asked as a cold grin crept up the corner of his mouth.


    " Huh? Are you planning to force us to give up on what belongs to us? I''m afraid that won''t be easy. Ah, I know why. As the star of the Owen training camp, you must have been cared for and think everything is easy as long as you are stubborn. Hehe, we heard how you dominated the training and no one was able to reach your level.


    Those old dogs of the Owen Tower really doted on you a lot, didn''t they?


    Your talent was so good that they had to give all their resources to nurture you, but do you know what? You''re old news now! S§×arch* The N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Back then, you were an outstanding talent but that was it. Do you know what''s going on now in San Pluto? I heard that another talent appeared in this training, he''s so talented that the various founders of the big Towers even fought over him and your tower master offered him a personal villa just to get him. What, feeling jealous yet? They clearly value this new guy more than you!


    What''s his name again¡­ah yes, Ivan!"


    The man ranted non-stop, clearly trying to piss off Vlad. Saddle, Vlad''s face remained as cold as an ice sculpture and didn''t react but the same wasn''t so for Jack and the others, they were ticked off by the man''s ranting.


    But before they could respond, Vlad calmly said.


    "Even at that, he''ll still be under me and remain under the same tower as myself. The Owen Tower would have two geniuses but what of you? Who are you even? Some unknown person is trying to provoke me?"


    Vlad''s tone was calm but his words were piercing, the face of the man who had been ranting since immediately took a change as his mood went for a dive. Those behind him were also affected too.


    " Arrogant brat, what makes you think you can talk to our leader like that?"


    Someone in purple uniform suddenly burst out in fury and rushed at Vlad while summoning a huge hammer with his talent.


    The face of his group members changed and they tried to stop him but it was too late as he was already in front of Vlad with his hammer raised high in the air.


    But before they could even blink.


    BAM!!


    Vlad delivered a fierce kick to the man''s ribs and sent him flying in the direction of the mirror gate, in other words, in the direction of the stone monster with three eyes.


    What happened next, none of them except for Vlad and the leader of the people from the Christopher Tower were able to see clearly.


    Within a fraction of milliseconds, the stone monster got up, picked up its two stone swords and slashed the man with a hammer dozens of times.


    He didn''t even get to feel the pain or understand what had happened before he was cut into countless pieces.


    Gasp!


    The others gasped in horror. All they saw was Vlad kicking the man away and the next thing was a rain of blood and flesh with the stone monster already standing.


    What the hell happened and when?!


    Everyone''s expression immediately turned grim, this monster¡­was not something that they could deal with.


    Looking at the pieces of flesh that the man had been reduced to, Vlad directed his gaze to the people from the Christopher Tower and said.


    "Since it''s you who got here first, we''ll respectfully leave it to you to finish what you started" Vlad said and took a step back.


    The leader of the other people stared at him, did this brat take him for a fool?


    Leave it to us to finish what? Even a fool would know that you''re trying to use us as cannon folders!


    "Hump! It''s good that you know your place, we just lost a member and will need to reorganize first" suppressing his frustration from having just lost a subordinate, the man replied before proceeding to withdraw with his people.


    But how could Vlad allow this? A wicked smirk formed on his face when he saw the people of the Christopher Tower retreating.


    "Are you sure? Don''t blame me if I take your property in your absence" he voiced out.


    The leader of the other group turned and scoffed at Vlad''s claim.


    ''Take it if you can, let''s see if you can kill that thing with just these group of yours''


    Seeing that the other party did not stop, Vlad tapped on the chip in his ears and connected with Eric.


    "Contact people of the Dominion Tower, tell them we have completed our objective" He said before cutting off the connection. Immediately after doing that, he instructed Jack and the rest to retreat.


    They did not dare to question him and immediately retreated into the land carriers behind them.


    The people from the Christopher Tower sneered at this.


    ''You just claimed that you''ll take the mirror gate, why are you retreating instead?''


    But never in their wildest dreams would they imagine what happened next.


    Vlad released a burst of red energy that condensed into a fine sword before suddenly shooting forward like an arrow.


    BOOM!!


    The place that he was standing on previously exploded with a spiderweb crack under the force of his dash, Vlad appeared in front of the rock monster in a second before slashing with his sword.


    Clang!!!


    Boom!!!


    A loud ring echoed through the forest upon the clash of the two swords, followed by a wave of fierce flames that was swallowed by the mirror gate behind the beast.


    Immediately after the attack was blocked, Vlad moved back, dodging a slash to his waist before running away.


    "The hell!!"


    The people from the Christopher Tower cursed as their eyes widened in terror. Vlad, with his expressionless face was running towards them; the fearsome stone monster that had yet to open its third eye was right behind him!!


    The damned bastard was leading the beast to them!


    "Run!!!"


    The group of Nexulytes from the Christopher Tower immediately fell into chaos as they tried to get away from the two sword monsters, they were only at the True King rank and Mortal king rank and did not have the ability to face any of them.


    Only their leader stood a chance and winning wasn''t even guaranteed for him!


    Meanwhile, Eric had already opened a communication link to the base of the people stationed by the Dominion Tower.


    Eric quickly explained the situation and gave a detailed description of the stone monster.


    On the other side of the Death Sea, a camp with over five hundred Nexulytes could be seen at the base of a huge mountain.


    Inside the communication room, an extremely cold faced beautiful woman with long white hair listened to the report through a transmitter.


    She wore a white military uniform with a black belt around her waist.


    "Understood, you all retreat for now and maintain a steady line; we''ll send help soon" she said before ending the connection.


    Immediately after she did that, she turned to the young man standing stationary at the side.


    "Gather a team of fifteen Partial Lords immediately and prepare a G99B7 Carrier to cross the Death Sea! It''s a three eyes monarch"


    She instructed and the man immediately left to carry out her orders.

 Chapter 57 - 57: The training center

    Back in San Pluto, three weeks had passed quickly since the display of Ivan''s strength.


    After getting third place from Miko during their due, Ivan abandoned everything related to the arena since he had no interest in fighting anyone; he only came every two days to battle because he has to accept at least one challenge every once in a while, his opponent always being the stubborn Miko who would not give up on trying to defeat him.


    It was as if Ivan had left an unsettling knot in her heart that she was unwilling to let go of until she defeated him, she was almost at the point of obsession with challenging Ivan.


    Of course, Ivan always won every single time that they dueled. It became easier after he discovered Miko''s abilities and their fight would always end within minutes after it had just started.


    During the past three weeks, aside from attending usual training routines and occasionally going to the Nexus chamber, Ivan had poured most of his time into challenging the training room and climbing levels.


    But despite his numerous attempts to climb higher up the levels of the training room, he was still stuck at level 27!


    He had only managed to clear two levels after level 25 the last time and was currently unable to clear through the 28th level.


    Ivan had discovered a harsh truth after clearing the 25th level of the training room and that truth was that all the monster(s) on every single floor above the 25th level were as strong as bosses that usually appeared every five floors before.


    What''s worse was that these monsters were now unreasonably strong and very strange, some would refuse to die even after he chopped or blasted them into pieces; they just kept regenerating!


    But this little setback wasn''t enough to stop Ivan, who craved strength so much; he finally found a reason to push his ability to the extreme and discover new ways to use his cards. This had caused him to almost abandon everything else aside from compulsory training just to spend more time inside the training room.


    And this has affected his growth to some point because, for the past three weeks, this was what Ivan''s profile looked like.


    ¡­..


    NAME: Ivan Von Charles


    Talent Group: Primal Talent type: Wisher Talent: Wish card


    Talent lv: SS AP: 29.65% Rank: TRUE KING


    ¡­.


    He only managed to move from an AP of 29.05% to 29.65%, this showed just how much he had neglected his AP training for clearing levels.


    "Eishh! Doesn''t matter, battle experience is equally experienced" Ivan consoled himself while staring at his AP that hadn''t improved much for three weeks.


    Other Nexulytes might trash him to death if they heard this; others were taking months to increase just this much, but Ivan was this slow because he had been neglecting this part of his training.


    Pushing the thoughts out of his mind, Ivan left his room and headed for where he would undergo weapon training with Miss Elora.


    Due to his frequent visits to the training room, his use of weapons and battle styles had become so refined that he was now able to match against Miss Elora during their training¡­as long as she didn''t use her rank abilities or fight with the intention to kill, of course.


    Ivan passed the lobby and ran into Glen who was returning from the cafeteria. The boy now had changed very much compared to three weeks ago; one had to praise the effects of the Nexus chamber.


    Ivan had once bothered to watch a duel between Glen and one of the top 10 trainees; he was surprised by the battle prowess of his friend, who always acted¡­silly.


    Although he wasn''t at Ivan''s or Ralph''s level yet after the latter had used the Nexus chamber for first place for three weeks, Glen should now be able to hold his own against Ralph from three weeks ago.


    His coordination with his white snake had reached a scary level that they were able to fight as if they were a single entity, this was something that not every trainee could deal with. What''s more, was that the white snake, which was now the size of a long bus, had the strength of a Mortal King when it fought alone!


    Adding Glen, who wasn''t too weaker than the snake, was just a nightmare for other trainees.


    *Hey, Ivan! What a coincidence to meet you; you''ve been disappearing a lot in the past weeks. Tell me, are you sneaking out to get me a sister-in-law?" Glen immediately called out to Ivan upon seeing him, he wrapped his arms around Ivan''s neck and whispered into his ears in a mischievous tone.


    Ivan''s face did not change despite Glen''s teasing, the boy was just speaking beautiful nonsense. Was it possible to go out of the training center unless one was done with training?


    " What sister-in-law? I''m busy in the training room" Ivan replied indifferently.


    "Hey hey, don''t lie to me like that even if you don''t want to tell the truth. What training room? You''ve only been able to climb two levels higher for three weeks, and you say you aren''t hatching a love affair behind your brother''s back? Even if you are not sneaking out, she must be in the training center too, right? Is it a trainee or an official?" Glen said with bright eyes, looking very thoughtful.


    Ivan only looked back at him without saying a word, but his expressionless eyes made Glen realize that Ivan wasn''t kidding, and he staggered back.


    "Are¡­are you trying to say that even you can''t climb higher in three weeks? Are the monsters above level 25 so strong?" Glen gasped in shock, he suddenly looked lifeless and exhausted.


    Ivan did not know why the boy would have such a reaction, but he decided not to comment; it wasn''t like Glen could even reach the 25th level, to begin with, so why was he worrying about the monsters at higher levels?


    "Where''s Ralph?" Ivan asked after a while.


    "He''s in the Nexus chamber; I think he''ll stay there all day," Glen responded after calming down.


    Ivan only nodded before excusing himself and saying that he had training; Glen didn''t hold him up since he had things to do as well.


    Arriving at the place where he held his training with Miss Elora, Ivan was surprised to find James there as well.


    "What are you doing here?" He asked after greeting him; the latter was the tower master, after all.


    James smiled gently at Ivan after hearing the question before replying.


    Turned out that he wanted to inform Ivan about a change in his training routine personally. According to him, Elora was to go on a special mission assigned from the Tower and would not be able to stay here and continue teaching him anymore since she would have to leave and would most likely not return to this tower anytime soon.


    "So¡­what''s going to happen to my training?" Ivan asked as a disappointed frown settled on his face.


    " That''s why I''m here; I will be in charge of your weapon training," James replied, an expectant look on his face. This way, not only will he be able to monitor this young man''s talent training, but he''ll be able to follow with his weapon training as well; this will help him gain a better understanding of this monster.


    "Then about our usual training?"


    "We''ll be mixing both"


    "Oh, I see" was all Ivan replied before turning to Miss Elora.


    "What?" Miss Elora asked when she saw Ivan staring at her, a faint blush shading her face.


    "Nothing" Ivan answered before moving towards the weapon rack on the side and picking up two laser guns.


    Miss Elora watched him go over to the weapon rack, her cold face flashed with a helpless and unwilling expression for a second.


    After teaching this student of hers who wasn''t much younger than herself, Elora was unaware of the feelings she had been developing and was now suddenly feeling so empty that she had to leave.


    ''I don''t even understand why I''m feeling this way'' She thought to herself while staring at Ivan''s back.


    Shaking her head, she turned to look at her father, James.


    "I''ll be leaving now," she said before moving towards the door. S§×arch* The n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    James nodded with a small smile, he muttered to her as she walked past him.


    "You''ll see him again"


    Elora paused but only for a second and resumed walking without looking back.


    James turned to look at Ivan after Elora left.


    "Now that we are alone, why don''t we start?" James said and suddenly disappeared.


    Ivan''s face turned serious immediately, he turned to the left and fired two rapid shots of lasers while jumping back.


    Dong! Dong!


    James appeared exactly where Ivan had fired at, he summoned Nexus energy and easily blocked the two beams that had been fired at him.


    "Not bad; I didn''t use even 10% of my strength, but it seems like I''ll have to do more if I want to be of use." James grinned before disappearing once again.


    The entire room was soon covered in rays of laser beams as Ivan tried to aim at James'' figure.


    Meanwhile, in the Nexus chamber underground.


    ¡­.


    NAME: Ralph Lucian


    Talent Group: Necromancer Talent type: Combat Talent: Undead General


    Talent lv: S AP: 11.00% Rank: MORTAL KING


    ...


    "Finally!"


    An excited voice burst out as two pairs of shining brown eyes opened behind a pair of glasses.


    He was finally a Mortal King rank Nexulyte!

 Chapter 58 - 58: Undead knight

    Although it had taken him a long time and it was already the end of the fifth month of training, Ralph had finally pushed his AP to 10% and reached the Mortal King rank!


    Immediately after reaching the Mortal King rank, Ralph was able to feel the changes inside of him. His Nexus chamber had grown bigger, and the amount of Nexus energy it could hold had increased as well; this meant that he could keep his summon much longer.


    Not only that, Ralph had felt a change in his talent and decided to try it.


    Summoning a must of Nexus energy that filled the Nexus chamber and even covered the small pond, the mist of Nexus energy slowly solidified into undead.


    Ralph''s eyes revealed a look of surprise, the mist had transformed as usual but it wasn''t the undead General that appeared this time.


    Standing beside it was another being that would strike fear into the hearts of people.


    It was a fearsome underknight sitting on a ghastly-looking horse.


    The knight was clad in decayed leather armor and wore a helmet that revealed only two red glowing eyes; in its hand was a large great sword that emitted a thick black aura.


    The horse looked equally as fearsome as the rider, it was like a being born from darkness and had blurry features; only its smokey red eyes were vivid.


    "This¡­an undead knight!" Ralph stuttered in amazement as he observed the new creature that had appeared along with the undead General.


    The undead knight gave a strong feeling that he wasn''t any weaker than the undead General.


    Ralph looked at his profile again to see if he had missed something; he found out after taking a second that his talent now had an additional ''s'' after the ''General.''


    "So I got another undead General after advancing a rank, will I get another one from reaching the True King rank as well?" Ralph said with a thoughtful look while walking around the new member of his team.


    Ralph wanted to see how strong this undead knight was and wanted it to attack the old man in the black robe, but the undead knight only turned to look at the old man before turning back to look at Ralph; it didn''t attack the other party.


    "It won''t attack its ally? Then I know just where to test it" Ralph smiled before turning to the stairs that led up to the fourth Nexus chamber.


    He kept climbing through the other Nexus chambers before arriving at the long corridor where two officials of the tower were guarding, Ralph took the elevator and went up.


    Arriving at the lobby, he didn''t stop to look for Ivan or Glen and immediately headed for the training room.


    Upon getting there, he looked at the top and saw that the 27th level was lit up with Ivan''s name beside it.


    "He''s here already" Ralph shook his head before entering one of the rooms where sleeping pods were placed.


    Ralph entered the pod and soon arrived on the first level of training.


    Welcome trainee¡­.


    The usual systematic voice made the usual announcements before commencing the training. Ralph''s highest level cleared was level 9, but one had to start from level one every time they came to training.


    Monsters were generated randomly at every level, so it wasn''t a surprise to meet different monsters whenever someone came to the training room; only their strength would be the same.


    This time, the monster that Ralph had to face on the first level was the one-eyed monster that had almost killed them five months ago when they had just arrived at the tower.


    It was a one-eyed monster with very long arms.


    Immediately after the system announced that Ralph could start, the monster that was towering over 12 meters long came to life and gazed at Ralph with its big eyes. Letting out a loud roar, it dashed toward him with both hands aiming at Ralph; its speed was comparable to that of a normal human.


    "It was just this strong back then and almost killed us had it not been for those officials who arrived on time, but now isn''t like back then" Ralph muttered to himself as he stared at the monster that was swiftly approaching him, a nostalgic smile formed on his face as the scene of the monster terrorizing three of them but now he was facing the same monster alone.


    "I don''t need to summon my undead Generals for such a monster; I can handle it myself." Ralph flashed a rare arrogant smirk as he prepared himself to meet the swinging hands of the monster head-on.


    BANG!!


    An explosive sound echoed through the whole space, the ground under Ralph''s feet cracked and his arms and leg muscles bulged under the weight of the monster''s arms.


    Despite this, the smirk remained on Ralph''s face.


    "Easy"


    He suddenly said before throwing himself up, he sent the hands of the monster flying into the air easily.


    The monster roared but before it could move its hands back, the human before it had already moved.


    Swoosh!!


    Ralph dashed forward and jumped, easily reaching the level of the monster''s head.


    "See ya" Ralph grinned at it before punching out at the only eye of the monster.


    BAM!!!


    Splash!!! Sear?h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Ralph delivered a powerful punch to the monster''s face and immediately turned its head into a ball with a massive hole in it, the monster''s enter face was gone!


    A monster like the one-eyed monster was just this weak in the face of a Mortal King Nexulyte.


    The body of the monster swayed before falling down with a loud bang, a large pool of blood quickly formed before turning into light fragments that disappeared a second later.


    [Successfully cleared the first level, do you wish to proceed to level two?]


    [Yes/No]


    "Yes," Ralph answered, and another monster appeared in the space he was in.


    This monster was a bull monster with the hands of a human; it stood on its bull legs and carried two large blades in both hands.


    It was only a four-meter-tall monster with two long black horns and big red eyes.


    Although this monster was not as huge or fearsome as the one-eyed monster, it was still taller than Ralph, and it was clear why it was a monster on the second level; it gave a much stronger aura compared to the one-eyed monster.


    Ralph''s face became more serious, but he still did not summon his undead Generals; he was planning to deal with this bull monster on his own as well.


    [Trainee may begin!]


    After the system''s command, the bull''s red eyes flashed with life before settling on Ralph''s figure. Its eyes burned with fury immediately as if it had found a life enemy, it immediately charged at Ralph while swinging its large blades.


    Ralph did not dare to meet the blade of this monster with his bare hands, he kept dodging until he got a chance to deal a strike to the monster''s chest and sent it flying back while spitting out a mouthful of blood.


    He repeated similar movements for almost a minute before he managed to punch a hole through the monster and finally cleared the second level.


    At the third level, a moth monster appeared, but Ralph was still able to handle it on his own. The fight lasted for five minutes and ended with Ralph sweating and gasping for air, this moth monster had incredible defense and had given him a tough time.


    At the fourth level, a skeleton warrior appeared and carried a thin blade with it.


    This skeleton warrior wore worn-out bronze armor and its blade was equally rusty, but one should not underestimate it based on these factors; the skeleton warrior was an incredibly fast monster and its speed surpassed what Ralph could handle so he needed to summon his undead Generals, but Ralph instructed the undead knight to not move; the old man in black robe could easily handle things for now.


    With a swift movement across the space, the undead in a black robe turned into a shadow and flashed away before returning the next moment.


    Clank!!


    The skeleton warrior stood frozen in place for a while before falling to the ground and scattering into a pile of bones; the undead in black robe killed it with a single move!


    At level five, the undead old man was still able to kill the monster in a single move. Level six, a swarm of monsters appeared but the undead old man still handled things swiftly and didn''t need the help of the undead knight.


    At level seven, a behemoth worm creature appeared and had given the undead old man a tough time but the latter still managed to tear it into shreds after a few seconds of struggling with it.


    Level eight, three of the monsters appeared! The old man finally got hit and Ralph had to spend Nexus energy to treat it.


    Even then, he did not let the undead knight intervene.


    The old man took a minute this time, moving around and attacking, before finally defeating the three monsters.


    Finally!


    [Successfully cleared the 8th level, proceed to level 9?]


    [Yes/No]


    "Yes," Ralph responded earnestly.


    The remains of the three worm monsters vanished before another monster appeared in front of Ralph.


    This monster was like a giant Orc wearing plate armor all over its body and carrying a large cudgel. The old man always had issues with this monster because of its tough skin and armor, the monster was also very fast.


    Upon seeing it, Ralph immediately called the old man to withdraw before sending out the undead knight. He was hoping to see how they would battle it out but his eyes opened wide in shock and disbelief the next moment.


    The undead knight moved forward with its horse at a blurry speed and with a single swing, sent the head of the Orc flying into the air!

 Chapter 59 - 59: Forbidden zones

    Ralph was left stunned by the sight of the giant Orc being killed in an instant by the undead knight. This was a monster that the other under General was unable to defeat before Ralph eventually ran out of Nexus energy, but the undead knight had killed it in an instant with a single strike!


    Feeling a wave of excitement rushing within him, Ralph quickly started the next level of training, and the monster appeared. Again, the undead knight killed it with a single sword strike!


    Level 10, cleared!


    Level 11, cleared!


    Level 12, cleared!


    Level 13, cleared!!


    This continued all the way till level 15 when Ralph ran out of Nexus energy, and he was unable to sustain the two undead Generals anymore and had to recall them to his Nexus sea; only then did he leave the training room, extremely satisfied with the results of his training.


    He had gone from level 9 to level 15 in one go! Very few people have reached this level, even amongst the top 10, and all of this was due to the addition of the undead knight.


    Ralph had discovered while the undead knight traveled that not only was its sword incredibly sharp, but the black aura around the sword had a corroding effect that would eat away at whatever it touched.


    The horse was also strange, just like a real shadow; it was unable to receive damage, and its speed was not slower than that of the undead in a black robe, even while it was carrying the knight.


    Ralph was very satisfied with all of this, he left the training room with a pleased smile on his face and headed for the cafeteria to replenish himself; he would head to the Nexus chamber after eating.


    ...


    The day passed just like that, with every trainee in the Tower doing their best to increase their AP as much as they could, the end of the training session was coming to an end, and they had less than six weeks left to make progress.


    Of course, there were a few people who were taking things easy; these were people with already enough AP to pass the training and were not feeling pressured even as the end of the training approached.


    Morning training was the same as usual; under the guidance of Instructor Logan and Instructor Nathan, the trainees finished their morning runs and stretches while wearing gravity bracelets before heading to wash up and then to the cafeteria.


    Ivan never failed to attract a lot of gaze, even in the cafeteria; everyone would also take a look at the tyrant eating to see if he had a different way of chewing his food that made him stronger than them.


    After leaving the cafeteria, they all left for their compulsory classes.


    During class today, a special topic was introduced to the trainees.


    Forbidden zones in the dreamscape!


    "As you all are already aware, the dreamscape, also the reflection of the real world, holds a striking resemblance to our world. It mirrors the climate, terrains, location of places, and even structures at times.


    Of course, it also has its differences from the real world, which is why it''s not called a second earth. These differences are the habitats of the dreamscape and the unusual color of the sky.


    But those are not the only factors that make the dreamscape different from the real world because, since the appearance of the mirror gates, some territories on earth have adopted characteristics of the dreamscape.


    So what really makes Earth different from the dreamscape? They are forbidden zones!" The instructor explained as various images appeared on the screen behind him.


    " Forbidden zones are extremely dangerous territories in the dreamscape with features that seem almost impossible but are very possible. These are places that one must avoid at all costs unless under extreme measures with a purpose valid enough to take the risks.


    Some forbidden zones might not hold horrors on their own but the appearance of a living being can vastly alter them. For instance, concept zones.


    These are zones that do not pose threats by themselves, and ordinary people can actually live there, but of course, ordinary people can''t go to the dreamscape, so that''s not something to even consider.


    The reason why concept zones are the safest and at the same time the most dangerous of all zones is because one would not be able to tell what type of danger they would face inside, a concept zone would only react according to whatever creature intrudes into its space and most times, the weaker the creature that entered, the weaker the horror that they will face but that will only be in the perspective of a stronger observer. Sear?h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    If a stronger creature were to enter a concept zone that was previously empty, it will suddenly have to face a being of equal strength and in cases that it defeats it, the zone will manifest stronger beings as a form of retaliation.


    As for other forbidden zones, they are relatively simpler to understand since you''ll know what you are facing and know what to do in order to survive, but this doesn''t mean that they are safe; no forbidden zones are safe, not even for Nexulytes at the Demigod rank!"


    The instructor went on to explain more about forbidden zones. They learned about concept zones that would create beings to retaliate to intrusion, zones that did not hold any monster but had different ways of killing Nexulytes, such as mental attacks, or even zones that attacked one''s shadow or drove a person mad with amplified desires and emotions.


    Other zones had strict methods of dealing such as having a particular number of monsters or levels to pass through, while some zones actually had the ability to move and actively search for prey!


    To crown it all, the trainees realized that forbidden zones were territories in the dreamscape that they must avoid at all costs! Unless one was tired of living or did not mind dying for a particular resource that could only be found in it.


    The trainees were given room for questions and after another thirty minutes of interaction, the instructor informed them that he had an announcement to pass.


    "Since the training session is coming to an end with just a bit over a month''s time left, the tower has decided to introduce a special training mode with promising rewards as a final push to aid all of you in your training. This is going to be a team mode where all of you will face different opponents in a simulation with realistic features.


    Each team member will be evaluated by an instructor, and rewards will be distributed to those with high evaluations alone. So do not think that you can just join a good team and get free rewards, everyone has to work for it.


    To make sure fairness is ensured, purposely making your teammates look bad or causing them to fail one way or another will result in your own disqualification. This is to ensure team spirit and cooperation.


    Also, to make sure that all teams are balanced and everyone gets a chance to make a move, all teams will be picked by instructors. Teams and their members will be announced later in the lobby, so pay attention to changes on board," The instructor said before leaving the classroom.


    The trainees immediately went into an uproar after the instructor left.


    A team mode special training? Who''s team would they be on? How was the team going to be set? Most importantly¡­who were going to be Demon Ivan''s teammates?!


    Ignoring all their chattering, Ivan stood up and left the classroom. He wasn''t interested in whatever thoughts or ideas these people had to bring up since the board would reveal everything later; he would go focus on his other training for now.


    ¡­


    Later on that day, the system for the new training was finally released, and everyone was rushing out to the lobby to see what team they were in.


    The trainees realized that the teams were made up of four combat-type talent Nexulytes and two support-type talent Nexulytes.


    Ivan wasn''t here at the moment; he was still in his training with James, so Ralph decided to check for him.


    He discovered that Ivan was in a team with five unknown people.


    Group 16: Ivan, Camellia, Joseph, Rose, Mari, Susan.


    Ralph was stunned by the sight of this. He did not recognize any of the people on Ivan''s team so he looked them up on the ranking and was shocked to see that all five of Ivan''s team were below 500th place on the ranking!


    "They are really trying to balance teams huh? Putting such work on one person" Ralph said with a helpless sigh before checking his own team.


    Group 44: Ralph, David, Joa, Noel, Kate, Sophia.


    Turning to look for his teammate''s name on the ranking, Ralph saw that one of them was in the top hundred while the rest were below the 200th place.


    "Not too bad" he nodded and then proceeded to check Glen''s name.


    Group 8: Glen, Lily, Hana, Benson, Doris, Lilian.


    Ralph''s face held a strange expression, Glen''s group was almost a team of girls!

 Chapter 60 - 60: Monster in the outskirt

    It was a normal day on the outskirts of San Pluto; the sky was bright, and the weather was warm. A gentle breeze blows past occasionally, cooling the skins of the residents of the outskirts.


    Old house structures, abandoned playgrounds, and damaged vehicles were the normal sights in the outskirts, and no one bothered about these as everyone went about their daily lives.


    Some people could be seen gathering scraps on the streets while others walked about doing one thing or the other, some kids could be seen running around playing while others fought over food on the streets; it was just like any other day with nothing out of the ordinary.


    This was until the sky suddenly turned dark as if it had become night in the middle of the day, accompanied by a loud sound that was as loud as an explosion and the whole outskirt shaking vigorously as if an earthquake had occurred.


    Grrrr!!


    A thunderous growling rang in everyone''s ears as slimy liquid splattered from above and landed on some people.


    Everyone froze, their eyes trembling from terror as they prayed desperately to be hallucinating, but was it possible for so many people to hallucinate about the same thing at the same time?


    A young boy around the age of seven in tattered clothes stiffly turned around and looked up, he was one of the people who had received a drop of the strange liquid from the sky.


    Looking up, the boy''s eyes shrank to the size of a needle; his face drained of all color and became as pale as white paper.


    It had not turned night in the middle of the day, it was a huge shadow that had been cast by the sun. It was the shadow of a behemoth!


    Towering above the residents of the outskirts was a creature the size of a battleship; it was so large that one could not even measure its length with their eyes.


    The creature had an enormous head with frightening features that could be seen clearly despite being over a hundred meters in the air, its size was just that traumatizing.


    Green humanoid face with skin looking as hard as bones, large blood-red eyes that rolled uncontrollably in their sockets like they would drop out at any time, three ghastly large noses that opened and closed in the middle of its face, and a large mouth with huge teeth with large beads of saliva dripping down from it constantly.


    The slimy liquid that had touched them was its spit!


    The creature had four long insect-like legs that connected its enormous body to the ground; it was like a giant beetle with a ghost''s face!


    Unable to hold himself back anymore, the boy opened his mouth which trembled for a few seconds before letting out a piercing scream.


    At the same time, one of the monster''s gigantic legs rose from the ground before moving forward; its location just happened to be above the screaming child.


    The giant insect''s leg towered above the boy for a few seconds as the latter''s eyes became wider and wider while watching the leg that was the size of a building dropping down on him.


    BOOM!!


    With an abrupt sound, the screaming stopped as the leg fell down hard, and blood splattered across the place from under the monster''s leg; the boy had left the world just like that!


    Immediately after the death of the boy, all hell broke loose!


    "Ahhhh!!"


    People screamed in terror and began to run for their lives, trying to get as far away from the monster that had suddenly appeared and blocked the sky.


    The entire place immediately became a mess as people ran without caring for anything else but themselves; the crying of children and yelling of adults immediately filled the whole outskirt.


    Amidst the chaos, the monster continued to shake the earth with each step as it slowly moved deeper into the outskirts, covering dozens of meters with every movement of its legs.


    BANG!


    Bang!


    Explosions rang out constantly as the legs of the monster crashed every building in its path and crushed people under its weight, the whole place was soon covered in blood and destruction.


    Shortly after, four people appear before the monster.


    These four were all in black protective body suits and carried laser guns in their hands, they were the Nexulytes in charge of guarding the outskirts as well as the four people who Ivan hated the most.


    "Such a huge monster, where did it come from?" One of them voices out with mouth wide open in horror. S~ea??h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "The outskirt hasn''t been attacked by monsters in a long time; a lot of people had died within just a few minutes of its appearance," another added.


    "Should we run away? We can''t defeat such a monster"


    Three of the men began to panic and had thoughts of fleeing for their lives, as Nexulytes they would surely be able to at least escape from this monster; fighting It was no different from suicide!


    " Shut up! Do you think we can run? What will the superiors do to us if they find out? Let''s try to stall it, you go send a message and ask for reinforcement!"


    The one who was the leader of the group, the only True king amongst them yelled at the other three. Although his legs were shaking and he had a terrified look on his face, he would not dare to run away.


    The rest immediately came down under the bellowe of their leader and gritted their teeth.


    "I''ll go send the message!" One of the men said before quickly running away.


    The others turned to face the monster; its front legs were less than twenty meters away, and it would reach them in at most three steps.


    " Shoot at its legs! Try to slow it down!" The leader shouted before opening fire.


    Tatatatatata!!!


    Beans of light flew through the air and smashed into the legs of the monster as the three men fired like mad dogs while screaming at the top of their lungs.


    The light beans fired by the Nexulytes smashed into the legs of the behemoth monster and caused a series of explosions; the two front legs were covered in the explosion.


    Roarrrr!!


    A loud roar echoed through the air as the monster came to a stop.


    " Don''t stop, keep shooting!" The leader yelled as they kept shooting with their laser guns.


    He knew that these attacks were nowhere close enough to harm the monster and did not know why it stopped, but he was still glad by the outcome; stopping the monster was their objective anyway.


    Suddenly, the monster moved one of its legs back slowly.


    Seeing this move, the eyes of the leader showed confusion for a second before quickly changing to a dreadful look.


    "Get away!" He screamed like a little girl before covering himself in Nexus energy and jumping away.


    The other two were a bit slow but still reacted upon seeing their leader run away so frightened.


    A second letter, the leg of the monster came down with a devastating force while crashing into the ground.


    Rumble!


    The earth shook as the leg of the monster created a long wide trench in the ground with its kick and sent huge chunks of hard earth and everything in its path flying forward.


    Multiple loud bangs round out as those boulders and objects smash Into other buildings.


    "Gahhh!!"


    An anguished scream resounded as a huge piece of earth smashed into the covering of one of the men in protective body suits; the force sent the man flying while spurting blood mid-air.


    BOOM!


    The Nexulyte smashed into a building a far distance away, instantly bringing down half of the house in a collapse.


    "Falco!!"


    The leader and the other man shouted and immediately went to look at the condition of Falco who had been sent flying.


    Despite being a Nexulyte at the Mortal King rank and having been protecting his body with Nexus energy, Falco suffered multiple injuries with many of his bones breaking due to the collision. He was currently spurting out mouthfuls of blood with white eyes, he would have died had he been an ordinary person.


    BAM! BAM! BAM!


    The monster, after finally dealing with the annoying pests, resumed moving.


    .....


    In San Pluto, after receiving the news from the outskirts concerning the attack of a behemoth monster that suddenly appeared from the border, the tower immediately began to organize a team to provide backup.


    Watching the group of Nexulytes dressed in black protective body suits and carrying laser guns rushing in the direction of the teleportation vault from his office, James wore a neutral expression as he turned to look at Nathan; Nathan was one of the instructors in charge of the trainees morning training.


    "According to the report of the people stationed there, the monster should be on par with a Partial Lord Nexulyte or even stronger. Adding to its size, I''m afraid that those people will be unable to hold it off long enough for help to arrive," James said to Nathan, who stared back at him without a change of expression.


    Pausing for a few seconds, James continued.


    "That outskirts is where Ivan is from, not just him, two other promising trainees also have families there. It would be bad if something happened to them. I''ll need you to go ahead of them, with your talent, you should be able to get there faster. Get things under control before the rest arrive" James said seriously.


    " Understood" Nathan resounded before disappearing from the office.


    James turned back to look in the direction of the teleportation vault.


    " The border huh¡­Should have expected it"

 Chapter 61 - 61: Titan Beetle

    BAM!


    BAM!


    Slowly but steadily, the monster continued to march forward despite the constant shooting of the pesky humans.


    It would occasionally kick one of its legs into the ground, creating mass destruction.


    Burning houses and corpses could be seen all over the place, loud screams and piercing voices of crying children filled the air amidst the loud sounds caused by the moment of the monster.


    Click!


    The leader suddenly stopped and took out a small tub from the pocket on his belt before inserting it into the laser guns and shooting again.


    Dan! Dan! Dan!


    White laser beams flew toward the monster''s leg before exploding into a mist of cold air that quickly spread across the leg of the monster, freezing it in place.


    Dan! Dan! Dan!


    The other two followed the actions of their leader and quickly switched the tubs in their guns before shooting similar laser beams that formed into ice wherever they touched.


    Soon, the two front legs of the monster were covered in a thick layer of ice and it came to a stop once more.


    But it was only for a second.


    Craaaacckkkk!


    With a loud sound, the ice around the legs shattered into tiny fragments and the legs of the monster kicked into the ground again.


    The three of them quickly took cover from the wave of destruction; screams of unfortunate people could be heard; the destruction from the kick could travel for hundreds of meters, so it was inevitable for some unlucky people to suffer.


    "Damnit! How long do we have to face this thing? We''ll die sooner or later at this rate!" One of the men cursed while trembling.


    They were simply enjoying a quiet afternoon at their post and reminiscing about life; who would have thought that such a horror would suddenly pop out from nowhere?


    "We don''t know, just keep shooting at it!" Their leader yelled back through gritted teeth.


    They suddenly heard the monster letting out a furious roar before coming to a stop.


    They all peeked out their heads to look, and their eyes immediately lit up; in the air, in front of the enormous head of the monster, was a person in a black uniform. He wasn''t wearing a protective suit like them, which was usually the case when going into battle, but they did not dare to underestimate this person.


    To be able to stand in the air and in front of such a fearsome monster like that took just more than courage.


    This person was, of course, Nathan, who had rushed here after leaving the tower. As a Nexulyte with a teleportation talent, he was able to cross dozens of kilometers within seconds; this enabled him to arrive here in less than five minutes after leaving the tower.


    "A Titan beetle, how rare" Nathan muttered as a strange light flashed through his eyes.


    The monster suddenly opened its mouth, and a small energy bomb quickly began to form before growing into the side of an elephant; it aimed the energy bomb at Nathan, who was in the air.


    Nathan looked at this without a change of expression, he glanced behind him through the corner of his eyes.


    Avoiding this energy bomb was not a problem for him since he could just teleport away but everything behind him would be done for.


    "Tch, so stressful" Nathan sighed before suddenly launching himself towards the mouth of the monster before the latter could release its energy bomb.


    He arrived before the monster like a phantom before sending a full-powered punch to the side of its mouth.


    A scene that left the three men who were standing on the ground to freeze in place like statues unfolded.


    Upon receiving the punch¡­the monster could be mistaken for a small mountain if it rested on the ground, rose into the air, and was sent flying away, causing a series of deafening sounds and creating a huge crack in the ground.


    "Such touch skin, killing it won''t be easy," Nathan said casually while rubbing his wrist.


    The three men "..."


    They knew that this person was strong but to be able to send the huge monster flying with just one punch¡­just how strong was the person sent by the Tower?


    Not bothering with whatever else was going on around him, Nathan focused all of his attention on the monster that had landed over two hundred meters back and had successfully left the area of residents.


    A huge explosive sound rang out when it landed on the ground, and a huge cloud of dust and dirt was sent flying into the air. S§×ar?h the ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Upon making contact with the face of the monster just now, Nathan had already concluded that he would be unable to kill it on his own; he wasn''t a combat-type Nexulyte, to begin with, and didn''t possess the destructive powers equivalent to deal with such a monster. The skin on its face felt like hard reinforced steel when he punched it just now.


    He would expand his Nexus sea if he wanted to tear through it with brute force, and that wasn''t even guaranteed to work.


    "But holding it back before the others arrive should not be a problem," Nathan mumbled; this was what the tower master had sent him to do anyway.


    The monster landed right outside the border, a vast space with signs of battles. Huge craters and trenches marked the border, only a few kilometers away could one see the tall trees of a forest.


    "With such a large open space, how did this thing get here without being spotted?" Nathan could not help but wonder as he glanced at the three men on the ground with narrowed eyes.


    These people were definitely not taking this work seriously.


    Buzz! Buzz!!


    Nathan quickly turned around as a strange noise attracted his attention to the direction the monster had landed, a look of disbelief appeared on his face the next second.


    After getting sent flying away, the monster landed on its long legs and lowered itself as if a bug preparing to make a jump, but this wasn''t what turned Nathan''s expression ghastly.


    The back of the monster spread open and four large transparent wings appeared before starting to make buzzing noises, flapping at a speed that Nathan could not even follow.


    But the main concern was¡­this thing was able to fly!


    "Titan beetles might have features of bugs but they do not possess flight abilities due to their size!" Nathan voiced out with a perplexed expression on his face, his confusion was cleared in the next second.


    Wang!!!


    Like an arrow, the enormous monster that rivaled the size of an air carrier shot through the air at a crazy speed toward Nathan.


    The latter''s eyes widened, and he immediately tried to teleport away.


    BOOM!!


    The speed of the Titan beetle surpassed Nathan''s speculation and it still ended up crashing into him with its large head before he could teleport away.


    Wang! BOOM!!


    Nathan vanished a moment later but due to getting hit by the monster, he ended up flying away on controllably when he reappeared. A series of explosions resounded as Nathan was sent crashing into a building like a cannonball.


    The three Nexulytes who were watching from the ground "..."


    New horror unlocked! Not only was this damned monster so huge and tough, it could fly and at such a diabolic speed at that!


    "It''s over" one of the men gasped and fell like a deflated balloon.

 Chapter 62 - 62: Might of a True Lord

    "Cough! Cough!"


    Coughing sounds were heard as a person pushed huge debris of a collapsed building away, a person appeared from the ruins of the building after finally pushing away all the huge broken walls.


    This person was, of course, Nathan, who had been sent flying by the Titan beetle.


    He was covered in dust, and his uniform had multiple tears on it; he had only managed to remain unharmed due to having a high rank and protecting himself with his Nexus energy.


    "Damn crazy bug" Nathan cursed under his breath before jumping out from the debris into the air.


    The clash just now had sent him flying for over two hundred meters and he had crashed into more than fifteen buildings with people in them.


    "Hopefully, no damage was caused," Nathan said while observing around him; he only saw a little girl crying in one of the buildings that he had collapsed into; luckily, she didn''t look like she was hurt.


    Nathan returned his gaze to the Titan beetle that was still floating in the air with its wings looking almost invisible while generating deafening buzzing noises.


    The speed and flight ability of this monster was something that Nathan had not expected, but that did not mean that Nathan was now helpless against it; he had only been stunned by the unexpected discovery; containing the monster until help arrived was still very possible.


    Wooosh!!!


    Still in the air, thick ferocious Nexus energy rose from Nathan''s body like a fierce wave and covered him completely.


    Seeing this, the Titan beetle immediately beat its wing before shooting forward again; its speed was just as terrifying as the first time and it even left afterimages in the air! But Nathan was prepared this time.


    Immediately after the monster flew forward, Nathan disappeared as well and appeared right in front of the huge head of the Titan beetle the next instant.


    The eyes of the Titan beetle rolled fiercely in their sockets upon seeing the human appear in front of it, it immediately lowered its face and prepared to smash Nathan with its head.


    BANG!


    Nathan''s fist collided with the head of the Titan beetle and resulted in a loud sound. A pained roar left the mouth of the monster as it was sent flying away once again while Nathan was pushed back fifty meters in the air.


    Their collision had created a strong shockwave that blew away everything below them.


    Nathan took a while to stabilize himself in mid-air before looking in the direction of the monster. His punch had sent the monster flying away outside the border once more, and to avoid it from coming back and causing more destruction, Nathan teleported after it. S~ea??h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    BOOM!!


    The Titan beetle landed on its back with a loud sound as it sank into the ground due to its weight, it roared ferociously as it used its legs to turn itself around before facing Nathan.


    The latter appeared in front of the monster and was about to throw another punch when the Titan beetle suddenly opened its enormous mouth and snapped at Nathan, trying to eat him in one bite.


    Of course, Nathan dodges it by teleporting away.


    Like a thunderclap, the huge teeth in the mouth of the monster smashed down but they caught nothing as Nathan had teleported. The two large eyes wandered around before falling on Nathan''s figure, the Titan beetle immediately began to create another energy bomb.


    But Nathan wasn''t obviously just going to stand by and watch; he ambushed the monster again amidst its attack and landed another punch in its face.


    Paw!!


    The head of the Titan beetle moved to the side forcefully before its body followed and it was once again blown away.


    The monster had yet to regain itself when Nathan appeared before it again and gave it another punch, smashing it deeper into the ground.


    BAM! BAM! BAM!


    Punch after punch landed on the monster, blasting it deeper into the ground as Nathan constantly teleported around its enormous body and hit everywhere.


    The Titan beetle roared ferociously and waved its legs frantically in an attempt to drive the annoying human away but it was futile as it was knocked deeper into the huge pit that had formed due to its body getting hit constantly.


    From within the residence area of the outskirts, the three men watched the fight going on in the distance with astonished looks on their faces. Despite how far the two were away from them, they were still able to clearly see the body of the monster digging into the ground with each thunderous blast; even the shockwave of their fight reached all the way here!


    They were filled with nothing but worship towards Nathan, to be able to beat such a monster to such a state that it could only roar and do nothing else; they could not imagine it.


    While watching in awe, they suddenly heard the sounds of fast-approaching footsteps from behind them. Looking back, they saw a group of people in black protective suits and carrying laser guns running towards them.


    The faces of the three men immediately lit up, more reinforcements from the tower!


    The group of people did not even stop to look at the three of them, upon seeing Nathan battling with an enormous monster, they picked up speed and rushed over.


    Upon getting to a distance of twenty meters from the pit that Nathan and the Titan beetle had created, they stopped, and a woman came forward. It was a tall woman with slightly tanned skin and a beautiful face, she had black hair with a mix of yellow in front; she was the leader of this group of people and was a Nexulyte at the Partial Lord rank.


    "Instructor Nathan, we''re here to help!" The woman shouted at the top of her lungs so Nathan could hear her. After all, the latter was teleporting around constantly, and the blasts from his attacks were really loud; even the shockwave generated from those attacks was strong enough to blow an ordinary person and weaker Nexulytes away.


    This was the strength of a True Lord Nexulyte!


    A person suddenly appeared in front of her, it was Nathan!


    "This monster has extremely tough skin, and my talent isn''t suitable to damage it enough; those with support talent should try to keep it down with me while the rest try to kill it," Nathan explained hurriedly before disappearing again.


    Despite being stronger than them, Nathan did not possess the ability to finish off the Titan beetle quickly. This was the difference between the two types of talents and why they should never be compared.


    When facing different monsters, combat-type talents were the best choice, but it didn''t mean that support type was useless since it could render a monster helpless even if it was unable to kill it.


    "Understood!" The woman responded before turning to the rest. They all immediately abandoned their laser guns and began to use their talents.


    Those with restricted talents used their abilities to restrain the monster.


    Some of the people possessed ice/water and earth elemental talent, they created large chunks of ice to freeze the legs of the monster and pointy earths to restrict the movements of the Titan beetle.


    The others immediately went into an all-out attack after the monster was locked in place.


    Different kinds of attacks rained down on the Titan beetle and multiple deep wounds soon began to appear all over its body as blood flowed like a river.


    The Titan beetle roared loudly but was unable to do anything under the coordinated assault of Nathan and the others, its roar gradually became weaker and weaker as time went on.

 Chapter 63 - 63: The last month

    Back at the tower


    After the information about each team was released and everyone now knew who their teammates were going to be, the trainees immediately began to link up with their team members so as to get to know each other before the training started.


    They had been informed that it would begin in the first week of the coming month which was only a few days away. Also, the training would only be held once every three days and rewards would be given after every session.


    In the lobby, groups of young men and women gathered together and chatted. These were the trainees who were conversing with their teammates and getting to know each other''s talents better.


    At a corner, five people could be seen sitting under a tree, with each of them having either a nervous look or an ecstatic look on their faces; these were the people on Ivan''s team, and they were all placed below 500th on the ranking.


    They were excited about being on the same team with the number one place on the ranking and, at the same time, nervous because they were on the same team with the number one place on the ranking!


    After finding out which team they were in, they had immediately tried to gather themselves just like everyone else; but who would go look for Ivan? None of them dared to go look for him, what if he got angry that they were disturbing him?


    "Ahh, this is so frustrating. Why didn''t they just put us in a team with normal trainees instead" a lady in the group pulled at her hair in frustration.


    "Don''t say that, being in that same group with Ivan will increase our chances of winning," another girl replied to her with a nervous smile.


    "Sigh, even though that is true, who would want to be on the same team with someone who doesn''t even think of others?" A boy voiced out from the side.


    "I don''t mind, as long as we win; I can just stay at the side like a background character. You know, most main characters are like that" Another girl said casually while showing a carefree expression.


    The group had two boys and three girls, adding Ivan would make it three boys but he was not here currently.


    Since each team was to have two support-type talents and four combat-type talents, they had found out after chatting for a while that the girl who had said she didn''t mind getting carried just now and the boy who had yet to speak were the ones with the support-type talent.


    The girl, whose name was Camellia and she was a beauty with a slender figure and long golden hair, possessed the Nature welder talent and could control plants.


    The other support in the group was the boy whose name was Mari, he had an ordinary appearance and black hair. The only thing that stood out about him was the black scar on the side of his face that looked like a birthmark. Mari possessed the beast companion support type talent, and his summon was a sharp-eyed wind parrot.


    While this type of talent was useless in a one-on-one fight, it was an extremely useful talent when it came to scouting. The sharp-eyed wind parrot was said to be able to see as far as ten miles in a straight line and could switch its sight with its summoner, allowing the Nexulyte to see what the parrot sees.


    Also, it was able to fly very fast and silently as well which made it difficult to detect. Also, after getting to a certain level, the sharp-eyed wind parrot could slightly change itself into a gust of wind. Further enhancing its camouflaging ability and escaping skills.


    Everyone else had a combat-type talent.


    Susan had the necromancer talent. Rose was a swordswoman. And Joseph had the fire element.


    The last person in the group was Ivan and everyone was already aware of his ability to summon multiple swords.


    The group chatted for a while before Susan suddenly looked ahead with a face mixed with excitement and nervousness.


    The others were confused by her actions and looked over.


    What they saw¡­or who they saw, to be precise, was Iva,n, who had just returned from his training with James. He had seen the information of the teams on the board and was currently looking for his teammates. He didn''t know what any of them looked like, but that wasn''t the same for the others as they immediately recognized him.


    "Over here!" Camellia called out to Ivan while smiling sweetly.


    Ivan raised an eyebrow when he saw the pretty girl with golden hair waving at him but still walked over.


    "Are you¡­" Ivan wanted to ask upon reaching them but was cut off by Susan who earnestly answered amidst his speech.


    " I see," Ivan muttered while scanning them with his eyes.


    He proceeded to ask them several questions such as their AP, talent, and battle styles.


    The strongest among the five was Camellia, who had 7.08% AP, and the weakest was Joseph, with 5.77% AP; the others were somewhere in between.


    Ivan realized that the group was not too weak and the reason why they were so low on the ranking was either because of their talents that weren''t suitable for one-on-one fights or because they were staying indoors to increase their AP as much as they could.


    They chatted for a bit before Ivan decided to leave but not before saying in a cold tone.


    " I have no issues carrying you all, just don''t be a dead weight and listen to orders"


    Watching Ivan walk away, Camellia giggled while Rose stomped her feet in frustration. She was annoyed by Ivan''s attitude towards them.


    "Well, he has the right to be arrogant," Joseph said with a sigh.


    "Un, and he''s not too cold either. He''s actually easy to communicate with; you just need to be careful what you say." Susan nodded.


    "Whatever, I''m going to my room. I''m just a bit short from 6% AP" Rose said before leaving.


    The others talked for a while before leaving to do their own things. Sear?h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    After leaving the lobby, Ivan left straight for the Nexus chambers.


    He arrived at the third chamber and immediately sat in a cross-legged posture.


    ...


    NAME: Ivan Von Charles


    Talent Group: Primal Talent type: Wisher Talent: Wish card


    Talent lv: SS AP: 29.69% Rank: TRUE KING


    ....


    Looking at his AP, which was at 29.69%, a look of determination flashed through his eyes.


    "Let''s get to 30% first" Ivan mumbled softly before closing his eyes.


    Fwoosh!!


    The Nexus energy in the room immediately began to gather toward Ivan before entering his body and into his Nexus chamber.


    Shortly after, his AP began to rise slowly.


    ¡­..


    Days passed quickly, and before one even realized it, a new week had arrived, and it was the start of the sixth month, their last month of training!


    The special training that was announced last week and was to be held every three days was also starting today.


    After the morning training, Instructor Logan asked all the trainees to go gather in the lobby and wait for further instructions.

 Chapter 64 - 64: Dryads

    Upon arriving in the lobby, the trainees saw a lot of instructors and officials in black uniforms waiting in line. Instructor Logan and instructor Nathan came to join them shortly.


    "Since the special training will be starting today, each one of these people will be in charge of evaluating one team. They will call out your team''s number, and everyone on that team is to follow them to the simulation room. Is that understood?" Instructor Logan explained, and the trainees responded, ''Yes sir!'' in unison.


    Nodding his head, he turned to the officials in line before asking them to begin. S~ea??h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The officials stepped forward one after the other and called out the numbers of the team that they would be evaluating.


    Surprisingly, Instructor Nathan was the one who called Ivan''s group.


    The six of them immediately found their way through the crowd and approached their morning training instructor who led them out of the lobby and toward one of the elevators.


    They arrived at the fifth floor, and instructor Nathan led them to a white room with sleeping pods, which he asked them to enter after giving them a briefing on how things were going to be.


    They would be taken to a random location or even zone where they would have to face different creatures that would require the work of a team. Their objective was to defeat the monster while making sure everyone got a fair share of action, trying to go solo was not allowed.


    After Ivan and the others entered the sleeping pods, instructor Nathan went to stand in front of a large screen that came out from the ceiling of the room. It displayed footage of Ivan''s group in a forest region.


    The training has begun!


    ...


    Ivan and his teammates appeared in what appeared to be a forest with tall trees and a mountain range. The fresh wind brushed against their skin, and the smell of nature filled their noses.


    Butterflies flew from flowers to flowers while birds soared in the air.


    "This¡­is where we''ll be holding our training?" Someone muttered as they all looked around them, observing the area.


    The place where they had appeared was a clearing in the middle of the forest with tall trees surrounding them on all sides. They were confused as to what to do next since this place didn''t look anything out of the ordinary at all; it looked just like a peaceful scene from a movie.


    ''The instructor should be watching us somehow since he''ll be evaluating our performance; I will have to avoid showing too much then; luckily, it''s a team mode training,'' Ivan thought to himself while observing his surroundings with sharp eyes.


    "Since we were not told exactly what to do next when coming, we should go look for clues," Rose, the swordswoman, suggested.


    The others nodded in agreement.


    " Should we split up then? We''ll be able to cover more ground that way" Susan asked.


    "No, we should stay together. We don''t have any means of contacting each other from a long distance here; it''ll be troublesome if we run into dangers while separated," Joseph said while shaking his head.


    Ivan, who had yet to say anything nodded in agreement with Joseph.


    ''Not bad, they can at least use their heads'' Ivan thought before looking to the side with narrowed eyes.


    Unlike Joseph and the rest, who were yet to even enter the Mortal King rank, Ivan was a True King Nexulyte, thus allowing him to sense better than them.


    "Prepare to fight!" Ivan suddenly said and at the same time, he summoned a card before turning it into a sword that floated beside him.


    The others were confused by his words and actions, they could not see a reason why they should get ready for a fight when there were clearly no enemies around; but considering the reputation of the other party and his level of strength, they obeyed regardless and each of them prepared to use their abilities at any moment.


    Seconds slowly ticked by, ten seconds passed ever so slowly and it felt like hours to Joseph and the others. Was Ivan perhaps mistaken and there wasn''t any danger?


    Just when their doubts were about to settle deeper, countless glowing green eyes began to appear from behind the shades of the trees.


    These pairs of glowing eyes were so many that they counted over twenty at a glance, and there were still more!


    Coming from under the shades of the trees, they realized that those glowing green eyes belonged to Dryads.


    With bodies of trees, long branches for hands, and legs like many roots that moved like countless snakes, these Dryads stood at heights of over seven meters.


    "Dryads should have expected such monsters in such a place" Camellia flashed a wry smile.


    The faces of the others turned serious as well; Dryads were troublesome monsters, especially when they were on their turf.


    "It''s no use thinking about it, try to kill them as fast as possible. We''ll need to find a place that''s not surrounded by trees" Ivan said solemnly.


    As long as they remained here, the Dryads would be able to slowly recover and more Dryads would come join the fight as time went on.


    Creeeee!!


    One of the Dryads let out a piercing sound before rushing forward with its many roots, it raised its arm and swiped its many branches at Mari.


    "Look out!" Camellia reacted.


    Throwing her hands forward, thick vines burst out from the ground before wrapping around the arm of the Dryad, and then a wave of Camellia''s slender arms, the vines tossed the seven-meter-tall Dryad away.


    The rest of the Dryads also charged at them; soon, the clearing was completely surrounded by Dryads.


    Ivan jumped forward, his sword slashed before him, and he chopped a Dryad into two halves.


    Upon landing, Ivan sent out a punch.


    BOOM!


    A Dryad was sent flying back and slammed into another Dryad behind it, but they quickly got up after a few seconds.


    Seeing that it was impossible to punch these creatures to death, Ivan summoned another card and turned it into a sword before welding it; he went into a chopping spree as he cut down one Dryad after another.


    The rest were equally doing their best too to kill the Dryads.


    Susan had summoned a group of skeleton warriors, only that these were low-level skeleton warriors. They were nothing compared to the ones in the tomb of ten thousand graves.


    These skeleton warriors wore no armor and carried bone swords, their eyes flickered with darkness as they charged out toward the Dryads.


    Crash!!


    With a wave of their branches, the Dryads would send one or two skeleton warriors flying away and crashing into other Dryads or skeleton warriors.


    The skeleton warriors would shatter into clusters of bone but would quickly reassemble before picking up their swords and charging out again.


    Pak! Pak! Pak!


    Sounds of their bone swords cutting at the bodies of the Dryads filled a part of the clearing.


    A skeleton warrior suddenly jumped on the head of a Dryad and stabbed its bone swords into its face.


    Creeeee!!


    The Dryad let out a piercing screech, it grabbed the skeleton warrior from its face and threw it away in anger.


    Crash!!


    The skeleton warrior was thrown for over twenty meters and only stopped after smashing into a tree. It met the tree head first, causing its shiny skeleton head to shatter upon impact.


    The darkness in its eyes immediately died out and the skeleton warrior was unable to stand up again, remaining just a cluster of white bones on the ground.


    "Tch!"


    Susan clicked her tongue and gritted her teeth in pain, she waved her hands again and summoned another group of skeleton warriors to join the fight.

 Chapter 65 - 65: Run away

    BOOM!


    Raging flames surged forward and engulfed a group of three Dryads; their root limbs and branches immediately caught on fire and burned into ashes within seconds, although they immediately began to grow back within seconds after just burning.


    " Oh no you don''t!" Joseph shouted and launched another ball of flames that exploded in the faces of the Dryads.


    Pieces of charred wood flew into the air after the fire exploded in the faces of the Dryads as they fell back heavily.


    Joseph had just finished dealing with these three when another four Dryads came running toward him while screeching.


    Multiple branches shot toward him at the same time.


    Joseph threw flames at one, burning it instantly before jumping away but one still caught up to him and wiped him hard on the back.


    Joseph forced himself from screaming as he rolled on the ground, he had barely come to a stop when he saw the roots of another Dryad wriggling in his direction.


    "Shit!" Joseph caused and was about to use his flames again when something suddenly wrapped around his leg and pulled him back. At the same time, he saw the figure of Rose rushing up to the Dryads and swiftly chopped off multiple roots from one before slashing it around the waist area.


    The Dryad roared as its upper half fell to the ground. It was unable to move for the time being, but they could already see its wound growing back.


    Joseph soon came to a stop as whatever was pulling him let go of his leg, he looked and realized that it was Camellia who had dragged him away. She was controlling multiple vines to assist the others in battle.


    Mari, who didn''t possess a talent that would be helpful in this situation, hid behind Camellia and shot at the Dryads with a laser gun; no one knew where he got the laser gun.


    Minutes into the fight over thirty Dryads could be seen scattered across the clearing but more kept coming out from deep within the forest.


    Seeing that the others would be unable to last much longer due to their low Nexus storage, Ivan jumped in front of them before sending his swords out. Chopping five Dryads in half instantly but his swords scattered into light particles after carrying out the action, Ivan did not mind.


    Turning to the group, he said.


    "We won''t be able to fight them all, we don''t even know how many they are. Start moving towards the mountain range, I''ll cover the rear; try to avoid confrontations since it will slow you down"


    Listening to Ivan''s words, the rest nodded and immediately turned toward the direction of the mountain range. Jumping over a few Dryads, they immediately sprinted into the forest.


    Ivan kicked at a few Dryads that were about to attack the others from behind before following them.


    With the twenty-plus skeleton warriors in front under the control of Susan, the group was able to avoid facing any Dryads and focused more on running.


    Their faces turned pale due to the amount of Dryads they met during their escape, they realized that they would have been overwhelmed by their sheer numbers had they continued to stay in the clearing; the Dryads numbered over a hundred!


    After twenty minutes of running, the group finally came out from the forest and came to the base of a rocky mountain. Without pausing, they immediately began to climb with speed as if they were running on normal ground.


    Susan recalled her skeleton warriors after climbing. After recalling them, she received a bit of Nexus energy which she used to enhance her body to increase her climbing speed.


    After they climbed as high as fifty meters, they came to a small cliff on the side of the mountain, where they all paused to look back. They could not be more glad that the Dryads did not follow them and just stopped at the edge of the forest.


    They could see dozens of glowing green eyes staring at them from behind the shadows of the trees. S§×arch* The ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Breathing in relief, some of the group fell on their backs and gazed at the sky as they panted heavily. Only now did they realize that all of them except Ivan were sweating profusely and their clothes were already sticking to their bodies.


    "Let''s rest here; it looks like they can''t leave the forest, so we should be safe here,e," Ivan said to the group before falling on his butt. He wasn''t as exhausted as them, but the long fight had made him use a bit of energy; it wasn''t a bad idea to try to refill himself.


    Seeing Ivan closing his eyes in a meditative state, the rest looked at each other before sitting up and assuming similar postures as well; they began to gather Nexus energy into their bodies.


    Ivan could not help but open his eyes after minutes of absorption, the Nexus energy in the air was so thin that it felt like he wasn''t doing anything.


    If he were to absorb Nexus energy in a place like this, it would take him a whole day just to fill up his Nexus chamber. Trying to refine the Nexus he absorbed to increase his AP could take days!


    ''The tower is really a heaven for Nexulytes'' Ivan thought to himself before closing his eyes and resumed absorbing Nexus.


    After about five hours passed, the group had absorbed a satisfactory amount of Nexus energy and had become energetic once more; of course, Ivan had filled his Nexus chamber long ago but did not dare to refine it into AP because he would be left with an empty Nexus chamber.


    Now that they were all well rested, it was time to think of their next course of action but before that.


    Ivan turned his gaze to Mari, the boy with a support-type beast companion talent.


    "How did you get a laser gun?" He asked seriously.


    The others also turned to look at Mari as well, they were confused as to how he got a laser gun but didn''t ask before because the time wasn''t right.


    Mari looked at everyone, and his lips quivered from the pressure; he shut his eyes before hurriedly saying.


    "I¡­I don''t know either. I just found it on me after the Dryads started to attack us"


    Listening to his explanation, the group lifted their eyebrows and stared at the uncomfortable expression of the boy.


    "Could it be that the instructor provided a laser gun for him because his talent wouldn''t be helpful in a fight at all? After all, most officials carried laser guns around with them" Camellia said thoughtfully.


    The rest fell into contemplation upon hearing her words, what she said was reasonable and was the only logical explanation.


    "We''ll ask the instructor about it after we are out, for now, let''s think of how to deal with these Dryads. Everyone should already realize that they are our objective to pass today''s training," Ivan said, and the others turned their focus to him.


    "Any suggestions?" Ivan asked when he saw all of them looking at him; this was team training, so he wanted to hear their opinions.


    "Dryads are creatures that usually live in clans and have a wood spirit as their leader who possesses the life core of all Dryads to prevent rebellion. We could search for their base and locate the wood spirit leader


    And kill it"

 Chapter 66 - 66: Searching for the leader

    "And kill it"


    Everyone nodded, that was the best thing to do and most likely the only thing that they could do.


    "Mari, you should be able to look for where the leader is, right?" Ivan asked.


    Mari nodded and asked for a moment, he proceeded to summon his sharp eyed wind parrot.


    It was a small parrot with beautiful blue feathers and pitch black eyes, the parrot immediately flew into the air after it appeared. S§×arch* The NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    It didn''t make any sound as it disappeared into the distance.


    They saw Mari''s eyes turning pitch black as he suddenly turned motionless and would not react to anything they said.


    Minutes slowly passed as the group waited for Mari to wake up, ten minutes later.


    "Found it!"


    Mari said as his eyes returned to normal, he turned to the ground and told them what he had found.


    Three kilometers to the north from where they were resting was a small village built on top of trees with countless Dryads roaming around the area, the number of houses were few since most of the Dryads simply slept out in the open but Mari was able to see the house that was most likely to be the leaders residence through his shared eyesight with his parrot.


    In the heart of this small village was an extremely enormous tree, the tree was just as tall as every other tree but its size was about three times the size of the rest and its leaves were as wide as canopies.


    On top of this tree was a small hut made from fresh green vines and radiant flowers, it had to belong to none other than the leader.


    While he explained, a gust of wind blew towards them as the parrot landed on Mari''s shoulder. It has returned quickly after completing its objective, it had only spent so much time outside previously since it was searching for something.


    After listening to what Mari had to say, the group concluded that he had indeed found the location of the Dryads leader.


    The problem now was how to get there.


    The small village was three kilometers away from them and everywhere in front of them was part of the forest which meant that hundreds of Dryads were waiting for them down there, it was plain suicide to go down.


    Also trying to slowly hunt down the Dryads till their numbers reached a critical point was doable since that would take them days if not weeks.


    "I have a suggestion" Mari suddenly said while the others were thinking.


    "Let''s hear it"


    "While my parrot was searching, it came across a canyon that followed the base of the mountain and stretched between the mountain and the forest. Following it will take us as close as five hundred meters to the village and we can enter from the back" explained Mari.


    "Good job! Your talent is so useful, we would have had to give up if not for this" Camellia patted Mari on the shoulder and said while smiling.


    The rest agreed with her. Mari''s discovery had just saved the team a great deal of worry.


    "Since everyone has no objective, Mari can lead the way," Ivan said after a while.


    They also stood up and resumed climbing up the mountain, they reached the top after a while and started walking in the direction of the canyon under Mari''s lead.


    With the parrot flying ahead of them, Mari was able to lead the group through the canyon without encountering any monsters that lived in it.


    They finally reached their destination after over an hour of walking.


    "This part of the forest will lead us straight to the backyard or the village. I checked before and saw that very few Dryads roam these parts so we should be able to deal with them swiftly without drawing attention" Mari said to Ivan and the rest.


    Ivan nodded before turning to rose.


    "You and I will be at the front, Camellia will stay behind us to support us if needed, the rest will follow quietly behind her" Ivan instructed and everyone nodded.


    They then climbed up from the canyon and slowly entered the forest.


    "Two Dryads are fifty meters in front of us, one is resting on a tree two hundred meters to our left while five are currently heading this way but are still a hundred meters away at the moment"


    Hiding behind a huge tree, the group surrounded Mari whose eyes changed from pitch black to normal before giving his report.


    " Ok, we''ll deal with the two in front before those five get here. We''ll not bother the one resting on a tree. Rose, let''s go" Ivan said before summoning a card and turning it into a sword.


    Rose followed behind him as they jumped from tree branch to tree branch in stealth, the others followed while maintaining a good distance.


    Few seconds later, Ivan saw the two Dryads.


    The two monsters were resting on tall trees five meters away from each other and it looked like they were sleeping.


    Turning to look at Rose, the two nodded at each other before slowly approaching the two sleeping Dryads.


    After getting as close as six meters from the Dryads, the two of them stopped before looking at each other again and making sure that both of them were ready to strike.


    ''Now'' Ivan muttered and immediately dashed toward the sleeping Dryads.


    Rose did the same as well.


    The two Dryads immediately sensed the movements of the two with their root limbs and opened their eyes to see who the intruders were.


    Swoosh!!


    Shrink!!


    Before the Dryad could react, Ivan had already appeared above it and swung his sword at its face. Instantly cutting its head in half, the Dryad died immediately.


    Unlike Ivan, Rose wasn''t as fast. Immediately after she arrived near the Dryad, the monster immediately raised its branches and used it to block her sword.


    Keg!!


    The sword cut through the branches and sank a few centimeters into the neck of the Dryad but got stuck, she wasn''t able to finish it off instantly.


    After blocking the attack, the Dryad raised its other branch like hands and was about to hit Rose when a red sword suddenly came flying in its direction and pierced its head.


    Its movements immediately stopped and it fell, dead.


    Rose looked over to Ivan and saw the latter walking toward her, she gritted her teeth, thinking that he was coming to scold or mock her.


    But contrary to her expectations, Ivan simply picked up his words before quietly telling her to follow him.


    Rose''s eyes widened in surprise. She has always seen Ivan like a cold hearted and seemingly mean person who didn''t like people. She has expected him to at least complain about her failure if not directly scolding her.


    But not only did he help her, he did not even talk about it.


    Ivan paused and turned back to look at her when he saw that the lady wasn''t following him, his gaze asking what she was still standing there for.


    Rose blushed and looked away for a second before following behind him.


    They met up with the rest of the team and had Mari scout ahead again.


    They found their next target and safest route quickly, Rose and Ivan moved out together with Camellia this time around to deal with the Dryads.


    There were three Dryads this time and they were not sleeping. Ivan had Camellia sneak up on them with her Vines and bound them while he would take care of two and Rose would finish the last one.


    Following Ivan''s instructions, the three of them swiftly killed the three Dryads without Ivan needing to assist Rose this time. Everyone carried out their parts perfectly and the three Dryads did not even get the time to screech before their wooden necks were cut through.


    After a slow thirty minutes of sneaking up on Dryads, the group finally killed over twenty Dryads and reached the village.


    Just like Mari had said, the place was crawling with Dryads but very few of them reached the back.


    Fine huts made from trees and vines could be spotted on various trees and Dryads of various sizes could be seen moving around the place.


    In the middle of the village was an enormous tree. Mari had tried describing it for them before but seeing it in person still left the group in awe, the tree was easily the same size as a building!


    Its branches and leaves were equally just as big to fit such a tree, huge roots spread from the base of the tree and disappeared into the ground.


    On top of this tree was a beautiful hut just as Mari had described, it was more beautiful and pleasing to the eyes than the rest.


    While the group hid on top of a tree a few meters from the village and were contemplating their next course of action, a figure came out from the hut.


    The eyes of everyone in the group flashed with disbelief upon seeing this figure that looked like a human.


    This figure has the body of a human being, a woman to be precise. She had slender arms and long legs, her skin was so smooth that one could tell how soft it was just by looking at it and her skin color was fair with a bit of green. She had long flowing green hair that reached all the way to her lower back and on her head were two little cute wooden horns.


    She wore a majestic green evening dress that seemed to be made from fresh leaves, the dress clinging to her body and perfectly outlined her seductive shape and sizes.


    This spirit has such a body that would make men go crazy with burning desires and make any woman grit their teeth with jealousy, even top models and superstars would be jealous of her body.


    The only thing that made one realize that she wasn''t human and at the same time frown in disgust was¡­

 Chapter 67 - 67: Very wrong combination

    The only thing that made one realize that she wasn''t human and at the same time frown in disgust was¡­


    The diabolic face of hers.


    The face of this figure with such a body looked so hideous and didn''t resemble that of a pretty woman at all, not even an ugly woman!


    This realization shocked the group and, at the same time, made them so infuriated that their eyes were almost spitting out flames from anger.


    Why would such a figure have a face that was like that of a demon from hell? It was like rubbing shit on a piece of fine painting, ruining it completely!


    "Damnit!" Joseph cursed under his breath while gritting his teeth. Susan and the others closed their eyes, unable to accept the truth before them. Only Ivan kept watching with a serious look on his face, although he had a slight frown that one might not notice if they didn''t pay close attention.


    He was thinking of a way to finish off the leader as fast as possible before she could call for reinforcement or escape.


    "Camellia, what more can your vines do?" Ivan turned to the girl and asked.


    Camellia raised an eyebrow, not first understanding why Ivan was asking her.


    "I can grab objects with it and use it as a form of attack as well, although the force is weak. I can also use it to protect myself by covering my¡­ohhhh! I get it now" Camellia suddenly exclaimed mid explanation. She just realized why Ivan had such a look in his eyes while asking her what her Vines could do.


    He wanted to push the leader into an enclosed space.


    Seeing that the girl had caught on to his idea, Ivan nodded before saying.


    " Yes, I want you to create a type of cage around her and block her path of escape or any other Dryads coming to help"


    "I can do that but I won''t be able to do anything else while the cage is up, so someone will have to protect me while we''re inside. I can only hold it up for five minutes before running out of Nexus energy. Also, it will immediately crumble if a very powerful attack touches it," Camellia explained.


    Ivan asked her to describe how the cage she could create was, his eyes lit up after the girl was done with her explanation.


    Turned out that she could create a literal cocoon with her Vines and it would be impossible for anyone to see what was going on inside.


    This was just perfect.


    " If that''s the case, then five minutes is too much; half a minute should be more than enough," Ivan breathed and directed his gaze to the Dryads leader. He had been holding back because he didn''t want to reveal his full abilities but if he was to fight in a place where no one would be able to watch, Ivan did not even need to say what the outcome would be.


    " Half a minute? Do you think we can defeat that thing in half a minute? It must be stronger than the other Dryads since it''s the leader; its regeneration ability must also be stronger," Joseph said with doubt. He knew Ivan was strong but would he be able to chop the leader to pieces within thirty seconds? They might not have even killed it in that time together if the leader just stayed motionless.


    "We?" Ivan voiced and turned to look at Joseph with dull eyes.


    "I am going to face it alone inside the cage; the rest of you will prevent any Dryads from approaching within those thirty seconds," Ivan added.


    "What?"


    This caused the entire group to be stunned and they looked at Ivan as if he had gone crazy.


    "I know that you''re strong and could possibly face the leader on your own but what about us? What will happen if it turns out to be stronger than you expected? And besides, this is supposed to be team training. What would our evaluation be if you ended up doing all the work?" Joseph spoke up in dissatisfaction.


    "You don''t have to worry about that, if we fail, feel free to hold me responsible for our failure.


    Also, you guys won''t be idling around while I kill it. You''ll set the place on fire and cause as much chaos as you can; Mari will stay close to Camellia while she maintains the cage, and Susan will summon her skeletons to assist Rose in pushing back any Dryads that manage to get close. You all have to hold out for thirty seconds, I promise I won''t take longer"


    Ivan said in all seriousness.


    Joseph gritted his teeth, holding back his words. In the end, he only spat out, "Better don''t fail," before looking away.


    Rose stared at Ivan from the side, a strange look in her eyes.


    After a few minutes more of observing the movement of the village and sorting out their plans, it was time for them to move.


    At this moment, the hideous-looking leader was standing in the middle of the village with three small Dryads playing around her. A hideous smile formed on her face as she giggled with a pleasing voice; the sound of her voice infuriated the team even more, and they were determined to remove such an abomination from existence!


    "Now!" Ivan''s voice suddenly rang out as he dashed out from behind a tree and rushed to the leader and three small Dryads.


    The others followed behind him.


    The leader, noticing the sudden appearance of humans, was stunned for a brief moment before suddenly displaying a ghastly expression and trying to create distance.


    But large Vines suddenly burst out from the ground all around her and enclosed her, the three small Dryads, and Ivan who had already reached her.


    They were all trapped together inside the vine cocoon with very tiny spaces where light could pass through.


    Immediately after creating the cocoon, Camellia stopped moving with both of her hands stretched toward the cocoon as she focused on maintaining it.


    Mari stood next to her with his laser guns in hand, he looked around with vigilant eyes and was ready to shoot at any Dryads to approach them.


    Joseph immediately also swung into action.


    Summoning large balls of fierce flames, he hurled them out without aiming.


    The flames landed on the grass and tried tree branches on the ground before quickly spreading out. Some trees soon caught on fire, and the fire kept spreading out to the huts in the village.


    Loud screeching sounds filled the place as the Dryads fell into chaos. They tried to charge through the flames, but their bodies would immediately light up upon making contact.


    They ran around in disordered manner, trying to get over to the other side where the five humans were and also to assist their leader.


    Standing behind the raging flames was Rose with her sword, and around her were twenty-five short skeleton warriors, each holding a bone sword and ready to attack whatever dared to cross the fire.


    Meanwhile, inside the vine cocoon.


    Seeing that it had been trapped without a path to retreat, the Dryad leader turned to look at Ivan.


    "Foolish human, you think you can face me by yourself? I am the head of the tree spirits for a reason!" She shrieked in her sweet voice.


    Hearing her words, Ivan''s eyebrows twitched fiercely; hearing such a pleasing sound from such a face was not nice at all and felt very wrong.


    "You talk too much," Ivan replied before bringing out a card that turned into a sword.


    "Got behind me!" The leader said to the three small Dryads before stepping in front of them.


    This action of hers surprised Ivan greatly, and he froze for a second. Despite being in the face of danger, she was still trying to protect her little ones.


    ''Even then, I still have to kill her to pass the training and I promised the others to finish this within thirty seconds. I can''t afford to be considerate,'' Ivan thought to himself as his expression hardened, and he slashed forward.


    The leader immediately summoned her own Vines out of nowhere to counter Ivan''s sword but she had underestimated the sharpness of the sword.


    Slash!!


    With a single swing, the sword cut through the vines of the leader like butter before and even chopped away one of her arms.


    "Ahhhh!!!"


    The leader let out an ear-piercing shriek that spread out to over a hundred kilometers, reaching all the Dryads in the area.


    Even Susan and the rest were shocked by the sound and could not help but turn to look at the cocoon, wondering what was going on inside.


    "All Dryads, attack with everything or we''ll lose our home! Sacrifice yourselves for our younglings and village!"


    From within the cocoon, the loud shriek from of the leader spread to all the Dryads in desperation.


    As if they had been placed under a spell, the Dryads in the area immediately charged into the flames, disregarding their lives and throwing themselves at Rose and the skeleton warriors.


    A fight immediately broke out outside as Mari struggled to keep the Dryads away from Camelia while the rest engaged the Dryads in close combat.


    Back inside the cocoon, the leader looked at Ivan with a crazy expression while her hand, which had just been cut off, grew back with a shocking speed. S§×arch* The N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Even if you''re able to fight me, defeating me is impossible. In this forest, I have infinite regeneration!" She laughed like a maniac but did not move from the front of the three little Dryads that were hiding behind her.


    Seeing the speed at which she regenerated, Ivan shook his head before letting his sword scatter into light particles; it was useless since she would simply regrow after getting cut.


    Fifteen seconds had already passed, and he could not hold back anymore.


    "Sorry, I have no intentions of failing," Ivan said coldly before bringing out another card. At the same time, the image of a dark sword with rising black smoke formed in his mind.


    The sword was two meters in length and was pitch black, thick black aura rose from the sword like black fire.


    It was a Death sword!

 Chapter 68 - 68: The words of a monster

    The Death sword was the weapon of the monster on the 28th level of the training room that Ivan was currently stuck at.


    This sword possessed the dark aura which was capable of corrupting a person upon contact, preventing self healing and messing up the use of Nexus energy in them!


    This sword was the perfect fit for this occasion!


    Immediately after the sword formed into existence, it went flying towards the Dryad leader.


    In a single second, the sword sliced through the slender body of the leader multiple times.


    "Ahhhh!!"


    The leader let out a heart piercing scream, she only registered the pain from the sword a second later.


    Marks suddenly began to appear all over her body as green blood gushed out like erupting volcanoes, her body began to fall apart.


    It took just a moment for the leader to realize that her body wasn''t healing and the strange dark smoke was wreaking havoc in her body, thus preventing her from using her ability.


    "What did you do to me!" She bellowed at Ivan with a beastly expression on her ugly face, her voice piercing through the cocoon and spreading through the forest.


    Ivan did not respond, he gripped the handle of the sword and dashed toward the miserable looking monster.


    Seeing Ivan approaching it with a cold expression, the leader of the Dryads knew that it was impossible for her to escape; her fate was sealed.


    Her expression suddenly turned calm as she gave up on resisting, she closed her eyes before saying softly.


    "We didn''t do anything wrong"


    Those words caused a wave of emotions in Ivan and his movements slowed for a bit. Images of those scums bullying him in the outskirt for years surfaced in his mind but all of this was only for a second; he gritted his teeth and cleared his mind of every thought.


    "It''s only a simulation" Ivan muttered to himself before slashing down, cutting from her shoulder to her waist.


    Even till the end, the Dryad leader did not stop blocking the three little Dryads with her body. They immediately started to screech loudly upon seeing her body being cut in two.


    But their screeching suddenly stopped after three seconds, the leader had finally died completely and the life core within her had been extinguished.


    This caused a chain reaction in every single Dryads, they all started to drop dead on after the other.


    This left the exhausted team shocked but they soon realized why, it was because the life core within the leader had stopped working.


    In other words, Ivan had successfully killed the wood spirit!


    "Yes!! We did it, we passed the training!" Susan immediately jumped and shouted joyfully. The rest dropped to the ground, panting heavily but on their faces were gleeful looks.


    They had completed the objective for the training!


    Camellia realized her control over the vines and the cocoon began to fall apart, revealing Ivan who was standing in front of four dead Dryads. sea??h th§× ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    They could not help but gasp in surprise when they saw the state of the leader''s body. She was cut in multiple pieces and her wounds were covered in black lines.


    Just what did Ivan do to it?


    Ivan had already recalled the Death sword so they didn''t see it when the cocoon fell apart.


    "Good job man, you really defeated it alone. No wonder you''re in first place" Joseph walked up to Ivan and patted him on the shoulder while laughing heartily.


    Ivan did not mind this and only smiled faintly in return. The words of the Dryads leader and her actions were still causing a turmoil inside him.


    ''You didn''t do anything? Being a creature of the dreamscape is already enough reason. I''m sure you would not have let me live if our roles were switched'' Ivan said inwardly in an attempt to console himself but it only worked a little since the words of the leader kept repeating in his mind that he didn''t even hear what the others were saying.


    The thought kept bothering him until a sudden drowsiness hit him and his vision turned dark, he found himself in the capsule when he woke up; they had returned to the simulation room and instructor Nathan was standing in the middle of the room.


    After they all climbed down from the sleeping pods, they gathered in front of instructor Nathan who addressed them.


    "Good job all of you, you all performed well. Knowing how to utilize the strength of each member of your team to complete a mission effectively is a trait of a good commander and all of you have contributed to the success of this training.


    My evaluation is¡­ all of you passed"


    Instructor Nathan said with a smile and the trainees beamed with bright smiles, their bodies trembled with excitement and expectations.


    Instructor Nathan didn''t make them wait long and handed each one of them a Nexus crystal. The trainees asked about the laser gun with Mari and instructor Nathan admitted that he was the one who sent it to him.


    He told them a few more words before letting them return.


    "Ivan, please wait a moment" Nathan suddenly called out as they were about to walk through the door.


    All of the trainees paused and turned to look back at instructor Nathan.


    "Only Ivan should stay, the rest of you can return," Instructor Nathan said once more.


    Joseph and the others looked at Ivan briefly before leaving.


    The two of them were now left alone in the simulation room, Ivan looked at the instructor with questioning eyes.


    "The tree spirit is a special forest creature with the ability to regenerate no matter the degree of damage it receives, its life core is also constantly changing locations and difficult to destroy without killing the tree spirit.


    Because you were fighting it in the cocoon, I was unable to see what happened during your fight. Care to explain how you were able to kill it and what are those black lines on its wounds?" Instructor Nathan questioned with a sharp look in his eyes as if telling Ivan not to dare lie to him.


    Ivan looked back at instructor Nathan with a blank face for a while before responding.


    "I cut it," Ivan paused before adding "many times"


    Instructor Nathan could not help but raise and eyebrow as a helpless smile formed on his face. Ivan''s tone was casual and didn''t give a hint of nervousness, he could not tell if he was lying or not but it was obvious that he didn''t just ''cut'' the tree spirit ''many times''


    "Is that so?" He asked but Ivan did not respond and just kept staring at him.


    Seeing that Ivan was planning to reply, instructor Nathan shook his head before asking him to return as well.


    After Ivan left, instructor Nathan looked at the screen again. He clicked on a few icons before pulling out a chip.


    "I''ll have to show this to the Tower master" he said before walking out of the simulation room.


    ...


    Ivan returned to the lobby and met up with the rest of his group.


    "Hey man, you''re back. What did the instructor say?" Joseph said after Ivan reached them.


    "Nothing" He replied shortly.


    " Anyway, we have successfully completed our first training. Ivan did most of the work and we only did little, let''s train hard before the next training and be more useful!" Camellia said energetically and the rest nodded in agreement.


    "I''ll go back first," Mari said before quietly leaving.


    Next one Susan who thanked everyone for carrying her, Camille and Joseph left together after and only Ivan was left with Rose.


    Ivan turned to look at Rose, his eyes asking why she wasn''t leaving yet.


    Rose blushed upon noticing Ivan''s gaze and looked away.


    "Good job back there, see you in the next training" She muttered softly before running off.


    Ivan looked at her back with a confused look.


    *What''s wrong with her?" He mumbled.


    " Ayooo! Looks like we weren''t the fastest to finish our training after all, as expected of you"


    A cheerful voice suddenly sounded from behind Ivan.


    Ivan didn''t need to turn around to know who it was, he recognized the voice immediately.


    "Hello, Sommy" Ivan greeted while turning around.


    " Tks tks tks, what''s with that stiff greeting? Or are you acting modest because your girlfriend just left?" Sommy clicked her tongue playfully and looked at Ivan with teasing eyes.


    " What¡­girlfriend?" Ivan''s face displayed deep confusion that made Sommy shake her head in amusement.


    "I won''t force you if you don''t want to talk, want to head to the cafeteria?" She asked.


    "Ok"


    "How was your training though? You guys even finished before us and I thought our training was the easiest"


    They chatted on their way to the cafeteria.


    Under Sommy''s persistence, Ivan had to narrate the details of their training to her. He omitted many things and concluded that he had been lucky to have struck the wood spirit''s life core.


    By now, they had arrived at the cafeteria and had received their servings.


    *What about you?" Ivan asked as they found a place to sit.


    " Oh, my team didn''t face any major issues. We only met a single warrior from the reverse godhood clan"

 Chapter 69 - 69: Sword technique

    "Reversed godhood clan?" Ivan repeated in a questioning tone.


    Sommy looked up from her food to stare at Ivan and realized that the young man was giving her a clueless stare.


    Just say you don''t know it, honestly asking about something won''t kill you!


    "Reversed godhood warriors are special creatures from the dreamscape with corrupted godhood bloodline, making them the degraded version of gods. But even though they are degraded versions, they are still a very fearsome clan.


    Being skilled in different forms of combat and possessing terrifying martial arts and techniques, they are part of the strongest species in the dreamscape" Sommy explained before proceeding to share her experiences during the training.


    ...


    Sommy''s team included two other girls and three boys. One of the girls was a battle mechanic, the other was an elemental user like Sommy. As for the three boys, two were support type talent. One had the Analyst talent that could read the moves they saw and find their weakness, while the other one possessed the perfect copy talent and was able to mimic the appearance of anything.


    The last boy was a weapon user and wielded dual blades.


    Aside from Sommy who was already at the Mortal King rank, the other five were still below 7% AP.


    After entering the simulation, they found themselves inside an underground chamber.


    Walls of cold ancient rocks and spider webs covering most corners, the place looked like an abandoned cave that hadn''t been visited in a very long time.


    They were still wondering what they were supposed to do when they suddenly heard footsteps echoing from deep inside the chamber, the footsteps were slowly approaching as the owner wasn''t in any form of hurry.


    Soon, the source of the footsteps appeared in front of them.


    It was a single woman in silver armor, and on her waist was a sword scabbard.


    Her armor was shining silver as if brand new and had smooth surfaces with rough edges on every joint section. It was full body armor so it covered all her body and even her feet were hidden in metal boots.


    She wore a silver helmet that covered half of her face, below her nose was exposed and they could see the thin cherry lips of the woman; but one side of her face seemed to have rotten as the skin that was supposed to cover that side of her mouth was nowhere to be seen, making it possible to see her set of white teeth.


    On top of her helmet was a line of white feathers that stood straight and two sharp yellow eyes gazed at them through the two holes on the helmet.


    It was a warrior from the Reverse godhood clan!


    Sommy and the others immediately panicked when they realized this and hurriedly retreated.


    These creatures were masters of combat and possessed scary martial arts and techniques, facing one without a sufficient level of strength was plain suicide!


    They retreated for dozens of meters before stopping and realized that the woman in silver armor wasn''t following them, that was strange.


    Warriors of the Reverse godhood clan were very territorial and would stop at nothing to destroy whatever entered their ground, unless¡­this was a weaker warrior and didn''t have the right to own her own territory yet; she wasn''t expected to fight for what didn''t belong to her, was she?


    "That makes sense, the Tower won''t give us an impossible mission in the form of training. We would be dead in an instant if it was a stronger warrior" Sommy explained, the group breathed in relief.


    But still, even if she was a weaker warrior, it did not mean that the training was going to be easy.


    She might be weak but to them at their current level, she was strong.


    "Alright, this is what we''ll do¡­" Sommy, being the person she was, had already made contact with her teammates days ago after the list of teams were released and was already familiar with each of their abilities, so she immediately went straight to making plans and instructing each of them on how to act during the fight.


    After two minutes of planning, they finally came up with a plan to face the woman.


    They returned to where the woman had been standing and found out that she was gone.


    Surprised, they began to search for her.


    It was then that they realized how enormous the underground chamber was, they traveled for more than two hours down an old stairway before arriving at another chamber.


    Some of the group members were already panting and feeling dizzy just from climbing down such a long stairway, they had to use another hour to rest and return to perfect condition in case they ran into the warrior at any moment.


    After resting, they resumed their search which took over another three hours!


    They had almost decided to give up on looking for the warrior when they suddenly heard sounds of collision, their eyes lit up and they all rushed over.


    Following the direction the sound was coming from, they found themselves at the entrance of what looked like a training room.


    A dummy was placed in the middle of the room and weapon racks could be found resting on all four sides of the room and containing different kinds of weapons.


    They saw the warrior standing in front of the dummy with her sword out of its scabbard and pointed at the dummy, numerous cuts could be seen on the body of the dummy which were most likely the result of the collision they had heard from outside.


    The warrior¡­she was training?


    Upon noticing the arrival of Sommy and the rest at the entrance of the room, the warrior stopped her training and turned to face them.


    Without saying a word, she suddenly dashed toward them.


    "Everyone go!" Sommy immediately shouted before jumping away from where she was standing previously, the others reacted swiftly as well and quickly jumped away.


    The speed of the warrior was very fast, one second she was in front of the dummy and the next second she was already upon them.


    BOOM!!


    An explosive sound rang out as the sword of the warrior slammed into the ground, a ten meters long gash immediately appeared on the ground where the group were standing before.


    "Get in positions!" Sommy shouted as visible wind blades began to rotate around here, ready to fly out on her command.


    The other girl in the group who also possessed an elemental talent like Sommy stretched out her hands and sent a wave of flames towards the warrior.


    BOOM!!


    The flames fell on the warrior like a crashing wave and exploded, the blast sent the warrior flying back. S§×arch* The N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    But aside from that, she didn''t seem to sustain any other damage as silver armor gleamed.


    "Her armor is fireproof!" The girl exclaimed seeing that her attack was ineffective.


    The warrior moved again, she charged forward and with a flick of her wrist sliced through the wall of flame in front of her before attacking the girl with the fire element.


    "Look out!"


    Sommy called out and shot forward like a gust of wind, she threw her hands and sent two wind blades towards the warrior.


    The latter gave up on attacking the girl and used her sword to perry the wind blades, the force of the wind blades pushed her a few meters away and gave the girl time to retreat.


    The boy with the dual blades moved at this moment, swinging both blades at the back of the warrior.


    But as if she had predicted it, the warrior turned and blocked both blades before sending a strong kick to his chest.


    The boy was sent flying away with a painful grunt.


    Immediately after sending the boy flying with a kick, the warrior turned to face Sommy as she gripped her sword before suddenly opening her mouth.


    "Nine heaven devouring sword streams!"

 Chapter 70 - 70: Thats how we passed the train

    "Nine heaven devouring sword streams!"


    She suddenly called out the name of a sword technique in a crisp voice before swinging her sword at Sommy.


    The entire room suddenly began to shake as countless sword shadows appeared in the air before setting into sword formations and charging at Sommy with great momentum.


    Sommy fell into a split second daze but quickly woke up, large beads of sweat forming on her face instantly. The pressure of this sword technique was so oppressive and Sommy had seen an illusion of her entire field of vision getting filled with the sword formations.


    Only after waking up did she realize that it was an illusion but she had less than three seconds to act before she was drowned under these sword formations.


    Wrapping herself in a ball of wind, Sommy gained a great boost in speed instantly.


    Dan! Dan! Dan!


    The sword formations immediately crashed on the place that she was standing on previously, raising a cloud of dust and destroying a part of the building. S~ea??h the N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Cough, cough. Luckily, I was able to react on time"


    On the opposite side of the room, Sommy coughed as she looked at the damage done by the sword formations with shocked eyes; there was no way she was surviving that if she got hit!


    "Sommy! I found it!" A voice suddenly called out from a distance, it was the boy with the Analyst talent. He was standing at the back with both eyes glowing with red light.


    " Its movements slow down after releasing a technique and its armor becomes brittle for three seconds!" He reported.


    After observing the movements of the warrior with his talent, he has received this feedback thanks to his ability and immediately shared it with the team.


    "Good! Everyone prepare to take it out. Cici, blast it with another round of flames. Drex, fire your cannons at it!" Sommy instructed.


    The fire elemental user acted immediately and launched another wave of flames at the warrior, throwing it back again.


    Of course, the warrior''s armor blocked the flames and she didn''t get hurt. She had barely managed to stabilize herself when a person in a red nano suit suddenly appeared in front of her, his right hand transformed into the nuzzle of a cannon and glowed with red light.


    BOOM!!


    A great force came crashing toward the warrior, destroying the ground in its wake. She quickly brought her sword forward to block it.


    A strong impact crashed into her sword, her knees caving in as she was pushed for several meters back, creating two long trenches on the hard ground.


    Swoop!


    BOOM!


    Forcefully swinging her sword, she sent the remaining force from the cannon to the side; It landed on another side of the wall and immediately crashed it.


    Before the warrior could even breathe, the boy with he perfect copy talent suddenly transformed into a silver armored warrior with a sword as well and dashed toward her.


    His talent allowed him to turn into anything he sees and can replicate their functions, just that it could only last for a short time¡­a very short time.


    The warrior was stunned upon seeing a mirror of herself charging at her but this did not stop her from facing this duplicate with her sword.


    The both of them clashed and it became a struggle of speed and strength as they flashed all over the place like streaks of light.


    Boom! A white figure was suddenly sent flying away toward the wall and created a cloud of dust.


    Only after the dust settled did they realize that it was the boy with the perfect copy talent, his talent had worn off and he had been thrown away by the real warrior.


    Facing the boy she had sent flying, the warrior opened her mouth for the second time.


    "Formless sword slash!"


    She called out before waving her sword at the boy but before she could make a full swing, a strong force cashed into her from the side and caused her to miss her mark.


    It was the boy with the battle mechanic talent!


    "Now!!"


    Seeing that she had just cast a technique, Sommy shouted before sending multiple wind blades over.


    Pang! Pang! Pang!


    The wind blades accurately struck the armor of the warrior, she was unable to react fast enough due to her brief reduction in speed.


    The silver armor that has become brittle for some reason finally broke! Exposing a smooth patch of hair skin.


    Immediately after the armor broke, the boy with the dual blades appeared behind the warrior. Ignoring the pain from his chest, he forcefully slashed at her back with both swords.


    Sound of blades sinking into flesh was heard as a long line of red blood drew in the air.


    Three seconds was up!


    The warrior instantly regained her full speed, she turned around and kicked the dual sword user again and sent him flying toward a wall.


    Thud!


    "Ngggrr!"


    The boy grunted from pain, he didn''t try to get up immediately.


    As for the warrior, after getting cut on the back, her body swayed as blood flowed down like streams.


    Another cannon shot was fired at her and she was sent flying, she crashed into the hard wall and was unable to get up as she rested in a sitting position with her sword still held tightly in her hand.


    ...


    "That''s how we passed out training" Sommy said after narrating what had transpired during their training.


    "I see" was all Ivan responded with.


    "Well, I''ll be going now. Have some other things to do, see you around" Sommy stood up and said to Ivan with a smile before leaving.


    Ivan stayed in the cafeteria for a while more before leaving as well, he met Ralph and Glen in the lobby.


    Unexpectedly, both of them had finished around the same time. They immediately dragged Ivan to chat.


    Ivan had to recount what he told Sommy, the two opened their mouths in amazement before telling their own experiences.


    Ralph and his group had been sent to a swamp area where they faced a group of crochunteres. Literally crocodiles that could stand on two legs and used weapons, they had impressive jump force but lacked speed. They had been able complete the training but it was mostly due to Ralph and a few others.


    One person in their group had been so scared that he passed out before the fight even started, he wasn''t given a Nexus crystal after the end of the evaluation even though their team had completed the mission.


    As for Glen, along with his team of girls had been sent to a desert where they fought a sand serpent.


    Throughout the story, Ralph and Ivan could tell that Glen''s snake had done most of the work but the idiot would not stop talking about how impressive the girls were during the training.


    He especially talked about a certain blue haired beautiful who had the same talent as himself, her summoned beast was a giant white cat that could use its fur as knives.


    After listening to Glen''s story, the two of them conclude that Glen¡­had a crush on this girl!


    "I''m going to the Nexus chamber, see you two later" Ivan said while rising to his feet.


    "Ok, we''ll be going to the arena. It''s my turn to use the Nexus chamber" Glen jumped up and pulled Ralph away.


    Ivan looked at the two of them and shook his head with a faint smile before heading for the elevator.


    Time to level up his AP.

 Chapter 71 - 71: Negative

    Weeks later.


    Dreamscape.


    In one of the bases of the Owen Tower located in the dreamscape, a fortress built around an enormous mirror gate and had hundreds of Nexulytes patrolling around it at all times.


    In the control room of this base, a group of people in black protective body suits could be seen. Some were operating the systems in the control room while others stood at the back and watched.


    Among the people standing at the back and observing quietly was Elora, clad in a similar body suit that wrapped around her body tightly.


    Her long hair was firmly tied up behind her in a ponytail and had dirt on it, stains of dried blood could be found on her body suit as she stood at the back with narrowed eyes.


    After leaving the Tower in the real world, Elora had come to the dreamscape for a special mission that was to be carried out by a team of Domain Lords.


    One had to know that Domain Lords were a fearful existence that could destroy an entire neighborhood with a single punch, to require a team of them for a single mission should tell how dangerous and important the mission was.


    Elora just happened to be one of those Domain Lords and had been out for days now, only returning to the base today.


    They had been separated into groups of ten Domain Lords in each team, Elora and her team had just returned after days of facing near death situations in the dreamscape but she realized that a team was still out there.


    It wasn''t rare for an entire team to go missing in the dreamscape considering the amounts of horrors in it. But this was a team of Domain Lords, as long as they didn''t barge into a forbidden zone or encounter a guardian they should be at least able to run.


    That wasn''t all the reason why Elora was trying to reach out to them so badly, it was because she knew someone from the missing team. Someone who had been like an elder brother to her for years was a part of the missing team.


    "Still no connection yet?" Elora asked, her tone impatient.


    The person sitting in front of the system was sweating seriously under the invisible pressure from Elora.


    "N-no, nothing yet" He replied forcefully.


    Suddenly, the screen in front of him released a static noise as a signal was picked up.


    "It''s on! I''ve gained a connection to them!" The man hurriedly said in high spirit.


    Elora was barely able to stop herself from snatching the control seat from him, she went to his side and stared intently at the system.


    "Hello? Can you hear me? Reply if you can hear me. Hello?"


    The man in front of the system said repeatedly into his headphone mic but only a static sound came from the other side. It took over ten seconds before a dull voice was heard after the signal stabilized a little bit.


    "I¡­can¡­hear you" A voice filled with grief and fatigue came from the other side.


    Elora''s eyes flashed with a glint and a worried expression formed on her face, she wasn''t able to stop herself anymore and snatched the headphone from the man in front of her.


    " Hello, this is Elora speaking," she said hastily.


    " Miss Elora? I¡­we¡­" the voice from the other side sounded surprised for a moment before starting to stutter.


    The expression on Elora''s face collapsed further upon hearing the other party stutter, she gritted her teeth before asking.


    "What is your status?"


    "We¡­I am trapped in the land carrier, location unidentified" The other party responded in a low tone.


    "What about your teammates?" Elora asked as a dreadful feeling rose in her heart.


    There was silence from the other side for a couple of seconds before the voice replied heavily.


    "Dead"


    Elora staggered, her heart emotions plummeting instantly but she still forced herself to maintain her steeze.


    "Your captain?"


    "Dead"


    "What about Sam?"


    "...Dead too"


    Elora stopped talking for a while as she breathed heavily, trying to call herself down. After a whole minute, she spoke up.


    "Understood, retreat to base as soon as possible" she ordered and was about to return the headphone when the other party suddenly said what shocked her.


    "Negative" The voice from the other side said with all seriousness.


    Elora paused, wondering if he had misheard her and decided to repeat the order.


    "I said retreat to base"


    "Negative ma''am, I can''t do that" The voice from the other side responded which meant that he did not mishear her the first time.


    Elora''s eyes narrowed.


    "What do you mean negative!" She said through gritted teeth.


    "It was all my fault. I''m the controller of the land carrier, I wasn''t fast enough. I wasn''t good enough, I caused my teammates death!" A voice filled with guilt and self blame came from the other side.


    Elora''s eyes reddened and she tightened her fist so much that her knuckles popped.


    "It doesn''t matter, return at once" She said once more.


    "I can''t, I won''t be able to live with myself. Sam treated me like a brother, the team was kind to me even though I wasn''t useful in battle; I''m going to avenge them!" The voice said with so much anger that Elora could feel it from his words.


    " Listen to me. Your whole team didn''t survive it, what makes you think you can avenge them alone?" Unable to hold back anymore, Elora yelled into the mic.


    " I''m sorry ma''am. Even if I can''t even them, I would like to go join them" the other side responded before cutting off the connection.


    " Hello? Hello? Shit!"


    BAM!!


    Elora cursed and punched the table in front of her after realizing that the connection was cut off.


    Everyone else in the control room stared at her with startled eyes, seeing the usual calm and composed Young miss act so aggressively made them not even dare to breathe.


    Dropping the headphone on the system desk, Elora walked out quietly as if nothing had happened.


    Immediately after she came out of the control room, she saw a young woman in a similar black body suit walking towards her with a smile on her face.


    "Your request for a one week leave has been approved but you must return after a week, so I don''t get blamed for your absence" the lady reported with a sweet smile, unaware of what was going on in Elora''s head or what had transpired in the control room.


    "Alright" Elora said shortly before walking away.


    Looking at Elora''s back, the lady scratched her cheeks in confusion.


    "What did I say wrong?" She muttered to herself.


    ¡­.


    Finding her way through the base, Elora arrived at her room which wasn''t less furnished than a six stars hotel room.


    She went straight to the shower and just stood under the fall of cold water that washed over her skin and hair, colored liquid flowed down her skin; the bloodstains she had accumulated over the days. S~ea??h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    A sigh suddenly escaped her lips as the face of a person appeared in her mind.


    "You should be done with your training in a few days, wonder if you would be excited to see me" she muttered to herself as a sad smile formed on her lips.


    The water from the shower perfectly camouflaged the tears streaming down her eyes.

 Chapter 72 - 72: A step away from the next rank

    Three weeks had passed swiftly, one had to say that it was the most intense weeks in the training center; far more intense than the first week that the trainees started training.


    And this was because it was their last month of training!


    The trainees had just a week left and their training would be over!


    During the last three weeks, the instructors were surprised to see all the training working harder than they ever did in the last five months of their training.


    Some even skipped theory classes for physical class and training rooms even at the cost of getting punished and there was a bizarre outbreak of challenges in the arena, trainees of different levels challenges the top five as if they had been possessed; they wanted to try their lucks with the Nexus chamber even though it was logically impossible.


    Ivan wasn''t spared either as even with his fearsome reputation, he still received tons of challenges every two days.


    Of course he would ignore all of them, he only had to accept one and that was his favorite opponent¡­Miko; the girl''s hate was so strong that she didn''t give up on challenging Ivan despite her numerous defeats against him.


    As for the special team training that was held every three days, the trainees had participated in seven of such training and a lot of trainees had received the rewards for their hard work.


    This had boosted the strength of a lot of trainees who previously did not have hope of passing the training by themselves and at the same time gaining more friends as well as improving their combat experience.


    This was especially true for Ivan''s teammates, all of them had managed to reach the minimum 10% AP within those three weeks and entered the Mortal King rank!


    Ralph and Glen had progressed well during those three weeks as well, under the effect of the Nexus chamber and Nexus crystals, the two were slowly approaching the True King rank.


    As for Ivan.


    Currently, inside the third Nexus chamber underground.


    Ivan slowly opened his eyes while at the same time summoning his profile in front of him.


    ¡­.


    NAME: Ivan Von Charles


    Talent group: Primal Talent type: Wisher Talent: Wish card


    Talent lv: SS AP: 38.55% Rank: TRUE KING


    ¡­..


    "Just a little bit more" Ivan muttered softly, his blue eyes flickering with a strange light as he felt the Nexus energy rushing through his body.


    He was just a small step away from becoming a Partial Lord ranked Nexulyte!


    His speed was nothing that any Nexulyte would compare to in the entire tower, unless one was using Nexus crystals of course; but to get enough Nexus crystals to match Ivan''s speed was harder than looking for bottled water in an ocean.


    After reaching 30% AP, Ivan was able to tell that he had become stronger than before. Although he was still in the True King rank, he knew that his strength was almost twice what it used to be when he was still below 30%.


    "There truly are differences between Nexulytes of the same rank" Ivan said to himself as he unfolded and folded his fingers repeatedly.


    After reaching 30% in his AP, not only did his Nexus chamber increase and his Nexus energy becoming more potent, Ivan felt that his talent could be used in more ways now.


    "I''ll see what else it can do" Ivan stood up and left, his destination was the training room.


    ¡­..


    Arriving at the training room, Ivan immediately found a room and entered a pod.


    Appearing at the virtual space of the training room, the familiar notifications appeared in front of him along with the options to begin.


    [Training level one, trainee may begin]


    With a monster in front of him, the system gave the notification for the fight to commence; the monster immediately charged at Ivan.


    Ivan stared at it with carefree look in his eyes as a card appeared in his hand, he wanted to create a sword to chop the monster into pieces but paused when he remembered why he had come here.


    "No swords" Ivan said to himself before forming another image in his mind.


    ¡­..


    Thirty minutes later.


    [Level 27 completed, proceed to level 28?]


    [Yes/No]


    After defeating the monster on the 27th level, the notification to continue or quit.


    Ivan checked his Nexus chamber and saw that he still had a lot of Nexus energy left. From the 1st level to the 27th level, Ivan had defeated all the monsters with a single attack so he had not spent a lot of energy.


    He had really become stronger than when he was below 30% and the gap in strength wasn''t small!


    "Yes"


    Ivan answered and the corpse of the monster in front of him vanished into light particles before a new monster appeared in the virtual space.


    This was the level that Ivan had been stuck in for so long now, me matter what he did he was just unable to defeat the monsters on this level.


    This time, it was a monster with scales like that of a dragon.


    The monster stood on two large legs that ended with three large claws, it was seven meters tall and had two large red horns.


    A wide mouth filled with razor sharp teeth took half of its face, two small yellow eyes glowed above its mouth.


    A tail that was over a meter thick and three meters long was attached to the back of its waist.


    It was a fearsome monster which Ivan didn''t know its name but had met it before, what he could say about this monster was that it has a very high defense and a speed that wasn''t inferior to that of a True King Nexulyte.


    [Level 28, begin]


    The system announced the start of the fight and the yellow eyes of the monster immediately came to life and turned to Ivan.


    It opened its fearsome mouth and let out a loud roar before dashing toward Ivan.


    The ground cracked from the force of the monster''s steps, over a dozen small craters appeared on the ground almost instantly aa the monster seemed to be teleporting around the place; it''s speed was just that fast.


    But its opponent wasn''t some random True King or any other trainee, Ivan was capable of following its movements with his eyes.


    Just when the monster thought that it had caught Ivan, the human in front of it suddenly vanished. No! He didn''t vanish, his speed was just so fast that the monster hadn''t seen anything.


    Before it could react, a giant icicle suddenly appeared out of nowhere and the sharp tip crashed into the back of the monster.


    BOOM!!


    A loud sound rang out as a cloud of dust rose into the air after the monster crashed fiercely into the ground.


    A large hole immediately formed on the ground with half of the icicle buried inside it. Sear?h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Roar!"


    An enraged roar came from under the icicle before cracks started to run through its body.


    Kacha!


    It only took a second before the giant icicle shattered into ice fragments and the monster jumped out from the hole.


    It turned to face Ivan and roared again.


    Ivan stared back at it with a slight smile on his face.


    "As expected, it''s unharmed," Ivan said. It turned out he had expected that the scales of the monster would be able to block his attack.


    "Well, if ice doesn''t work, let''s try something else" a cold smile that would make others shiver formed on Ivan''s face as another card appeared in his hand.

 Chapter 73 - 73: Clearing the 28th level

    Upon seeing the card in Ivan''s hand, the monster went into a frenzy and smashed the ground with its arms. S§×arch* The N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Pierces of hard earth burst out from the ground as the ground cracked open, it punched them toward Ivan.


    Like a shadow, Ivan''s figure faded away while leaving afterimages behind him as he dodged everything and appeared ten meters away.


    The card in his hand jumped into the air and scattered into light particles of blue, red, and gold.


    Rumble!


    A moment after the card turned into light particles, the sound of the sky rumbling rang out as a thick lightning bolt of similar colors appeared out of nowhere and struck at the monster.


    Roar!


    The monster roared and prepared to meet the lightning bolt head-on; it was too fast for it to dodge.


    Bang!!


    An explosive sound echoed as the lightning bolt exploded on the chest of the monster, sending the latter flying away like a broken kite.


    It smashed into the ground fifty meters away from its previous location and continued crashing for another twenty meters before coming to a stop.


    The impact of the lightning bolt had been so strong that the monster wasn''t able to stand its ground.


    BOOM!


    With a deafening sound, the monster jumped back to its feet and landed heavily on the ground; creating another deep crater with its weight.


    Ivan took a close look at it, on the chest of the monster was a clear burned mark with a few of its scales having cracks that spread for inches.


    He had almost broken through the defense of the monster with a single lightning bolt!


    Pleased with the outcome of his attack, more cards appeared around Ivan and floated around him in circles.


    The monster, having been sent flying by Ivan''s attack, roared angrily. Its scales had cracked and it could still feel the stinging pain around the area that was hit.


    The ground trembled as the monster moved like a gust of wind again and approached Ivan.


    Ivan was prepared and immediately sent out five cards that turned into lightning bolts and struck at the monster but the latter had prepared this time.


    With a sonic boom, its speed doubled.


    Hundreds of craters appeared on the ground almost at the same time as the monster crossed the distance between it and Ivan in an instant.


    The five multicolored lightning bolts missed their target and struck the ground, creating five holes in it and causing the space to tremble; the monster had already appeared in front of Ivan.


    It immediately sent its large claws swiping at Ivan''s face.


    Swish!


    The sound of the wind being sliced through by the sharp claws of the monster rang in Ivan''s ears when he tilted his head to dodge the swipe, there was no doubt that his head would be cleanly cut off if those claws had landed.


    After dodging the swipe of the monster''s claws, Ivan quickly moved back to gain distance but the monster was not going to let him and moved along with him while at the same time sending another swipe at Ivan.


    Ivan dodged again but barely this time, the movements of the monster were becoming faster!


    Bending his body after dodging the swipe, a large mass of oppressive red energy burst out from Ivan''s body and gathered around his right fist which he sent toward the side of the monster''s body.


    POW!


    A punch smashed into the body of the monster with great impact and sent a shockwave out through the other side of the monster''s body, a painful roar left its hideous mouth.


    The force of the punch caused the body of the monster to curve, but it wasn''t strong enough to push it back or break its scales; Ivan even felt a slight sting in his knuckles after executing that punch.


    Ignoring the pain, the monster sent a knee strike to Ivan''s face.


    The knees of the monster had scales that stuck out like a knife, it would definitely pierce Ivan''s face if he took the hit.


    Still, in the half-kneeling posture, Ivan had to push flexibility to the extreme and made an insane twist in that position.


    He slammed his palm on the ground and did a side flip while at the same time pulling back his head.


    Ivan managed to successfully avoid the knee strike and landed two meters away from the monster on all fours, he did another backflip before standing on his two feet.


    The monster was surprised that Ivan was able to dodge that attack; after all, there was only a fraction of o.3 seconds before its knee smashed into Ivan''s face.


    It turned to Ivan and opened its large mouth, a red energy ball immediately shot out at a speed that made Ivan''s eyes widen.


    BOOM!!¡Á9


    One energy ball after another was shot toward Ivan in quick succession that he would not have time to dodge; all energy balls landed on the place Ivan was standing, and a huge explosion engulfed him.


    Smoke and dust screen covered the place, a massive hole had been formed and Ivan was presumably inside it.


    The monster waited for the smoke and dust to clear. Although it had not seen what happened after the first energy ball, it was sure that Ivan hadn''t been able to dodge; he would have appeared at another location by now if he had.


    The monster waited for a few whole minutes as the smoke screen and cloud of dust slowly dissipated; it finally caught sight of Something after the place cleared a bit, but before it could take a proper look.


    Wooosh!


    A red light suddenly shot toward it from behind the dissipating cloud of dust and smoke.


    The monster was stunned for a moment before recovering and immediately moving away, but the red light followed it as if it had eyes; the speed of the red light wasn''t slower than that of the monster either.


    In just a fraction of a second, the red light caught up with the monster and jumped on its body.


    The monster''s retreat immediately came to a stop as it came crashing into the ground forcefully.


    Taking a closer look, it realized that the red light was, in fact, a fire snake.


    The snake was only four meters long and wasn''t as huge as the monster; it had a large head, and its entire body was made of scorching fire.


    The fire snake wrapped itself around the body of the monster before squeezing and biting at the monster.


    Every scale that the snake made contact with would immediately begin to melt under the strong temperature of its body.


    Roar!


    The monster roared furiously upon seeing its scales beginning to melt. It tried to cut the snake''s body with its claws, but the body of the snake would simply reattach after separating for a few seconds. It was made of flames, after all, and was intangible.


    What''s more, the claws of the monster instantly began to melt after making contact with the fire snake.


    The monster began to roar in pain as it thrashed about, creating loud noises and causing the ground to tremble from its movements.


    Meanwhile, while the monster was struggling with the fire snake.


    Ivan was standing inside a faint blue barrier inside the hole that was created by the energy balls shot by the monster.


    He had been caught off guard by the sudden energy ball as the monster had never used it before, thus he didn''t have time to evade. But that did not mean that he didn''t have other ways to deal with it.


    He had turned one of his cards into this barrier and it had successfully blocked all the energy balls without receiving a single crack.


    It was even sturdier than the scales of the monster!


    Returning his gaze to the red monster that had almost all of its scales melted by the fire snake and was still thrashing around, Ivan removed the barrier and began walking over in calm steps.


    He stopped a few meters away from the monster that seemed to have gone mad from pain, a look of satisfaction appeared on his face.


    "End it" Ivan muttered.


    Reacting to Ivan''s order, the fire snake unwrapped itself from the body of the monster and moved to its head before exploding.


    The explosion of the fire snake caused the head of the monster to explode as well, its body immediately became motionless after its head exploded.


    Clang!


    One of its red horns flew over to where Ivan was and landed before his feet. Ivan looked down at the scorched horn, the notification from the system appeared in front of him at the same time.


    [Level 28 cleared, proceed to level 29?]


    [Yes/No]

 Chapter 74 - 74: Level 29

    [Level 28 cleared, proceed to level 29?]


    [Yes/No]


    Ivan stared at the notification with a liberated gaze, a good feeling swelling within him.


    He had been stuck in the previous level for more than a month, unable to move further notice matter how much he tried; he was helpless against the monsters of that level.


    This realization had made him very displeased and caused him to take a long break from training rooms at the start of this month; he had only returned after he had crossed into the upper level of his rank.


    And the result of his short break? It was worth it!


    Not only had he managed to defeat the monster and finally pass the 28th level, but he had done so easily without breaking a sweat and still had enough energy to continue.


    The fight would have been over very quickly if he had gone all out and used the fire snake from the start.


    Now, he was just two levels away from reaching the highest level a trainee had ever reached. Level 30, and the trainee who had reached this level was none other than Alaric Vladimir.


    "Yes!" Ivan replied to the notification, a wave of excitement rushing through his body.


    After receiving Ivan''s response, the body of the red monster vanished into light particles and a new monster appeared in the virtual space.


    Ivan''s eyes twitched when he saw the monster, a word appeared in his mind.


    ''Huge''


    The monster that appeared in level 29 was a behemoth creature with spider legs and the body of a turtle, its head was a giant mass of flesh with a single eye taking the whole space on its face.


    The creature was so huge that Ivan had to bend his neck fully just to see its head.


    [Level 29, begin]


    The notification of the system rang in Ivan''s ears, and his expression immediately turned serious as he repeated several meters back from the monster.


    At the same time, the one eye of the monster rotated disgustingly inside as it came to life.


    It looked around for a couple of seconds before gazing down at Ivan.


    Its eye suddenly glowed with a bright flash and the next instant.


    Woom!!


    A huge beam of light was shot out and toward Ivan.


    "Crap!" Ivan cursed and quickly brought out a card and shattered it in front of him as the light beam arrived in front of him at the same time.


    BOOM!!!!!!


    The light beam fell on Ivan, covering him completely as it brought a wave of destruction along.


    This lasted for over 30 seconds straight as the light beam from the eye of the monster washed over Ivan.


    After 30 seconds, the light beam stopped and the huge eye of the monster blinked.


    It looked at the result of its attack.


    Its eye beam had destroyed the ground and created a canyon that was over ten meters deep, and hundreds of kilometers long; scorched earth and a huge cloud of dust covered the canyon.


    As the dust slowly settled, at the very start of the canyon was Ivan who was standing inside a radiant blue barrier, perfectly unharmed.


    He had created the barrier just in time before the light beam reached him.


    Looking at the deep canyon that he was now standing in, Ivan''s eyes could not help but widen in shock; nothing would be left of him if he got hit by that thing!


    Crack! Crack!


    While Ivan was busy being stunned by the level of destruction caused by the light beam, the sound of breaking glass suddenly entered his eyes.


    Ivan''s eyes immediately zoomed in on the source of the sound and his face showed disbelief while his mouth hung open.


    Right in front of his eyes, more cracks appeared on the blue barrier and quickly spread like webs before the entire barrier shattered.


    The attack from the monster had¡­destroyed his barrier?


    One had to know that the items Ivan created with his cards were at the extreme of their purposes. If it was a blade, it would be sharpest amongst blades of its level. The same was true for items that acted as shields; they were the sturdiest on their level.


    While Ivan was still in shock, the eyes of the monster glowed again; it wasn''t done attacking yet!


    "Oh no you don''t!" Ivan scoffed before bringing out another card and throwing it into the air.


    The card shattered into light particles before transforming into a huge fire snake that was the size of a long bus, its searing heat scorched the ground even further as it slithered toward the monster at a breakneck speed.


    It coiled around the legs of the monster and used them to climb up its large body, its intense flame scorching the shell of the monster.


    But unlike the previous red monster, this turtle-like monster was more resilient and its body only gained burnt marks from the flames of the fire snake.


    Although the fire snake didn''t manage to melt or burn the shell of the monster, it was still painful to have something so hot on one''s body regardless.


    A piercing screech resounded through the air, Ivan was stumped as to how the monster was able to make such a sound when it didn''t even have a mouth.


    It couldn''t be that it could talk through it asshole, right?


    But that wasn''t something Ivan should be worried about right now, controlling the fire snake to move to the head of the monster, he made it explode right in the monster''s face.


    BOOM!


    The fire snake exploded in the face of the monster, forcing it to close its one eye. The monster''s body swayed as it staggered on its spider legs, causing the space to shake violently.


    It stabilized itself after a few seconds. Aside from its blackened face and scorched skin, it wasn''t unharmed!


    Its eyes glowed again, about to fire another light beam.


    But Ivan wouldn''t allow it, its attacks were too dangerous to let them out; he had to prevent it from attacking.


    Taking out another card, a bizarre image appeared in his mind as the card shattered into the air.


    A massive earth golem suddenly appeared in front of the monster.


    The earth golem was almost as big as the monster and in its large rock arm was a massive black axe.


    Woom!!


    The light beam shot out from the eyes of the monster and toward the earth golem; at the same time, the axe in the hand of the golem came down on the monster like a meteor.


    Boom!


    The light beam touched the chest of the earth golem and immediately pierced through it before bursting a five-meter-wide hole in the middle of the golem''s body, sending pieces of rocks flying everywhere.


    Likewise, the axe of the earth golem hacked into the head of the monster and almost chopped it off in one strike but it stopped after traveling just a few meters into the flesh of the monster.


    One more strike and the head of the monster would fall off; sadly, the light beam from the monster had destroyed the golem.


    "If one is not enough, then take two" Ivan let out a cold chuckle before bringing out another card and tossing it into the air.


    Another earth golem carrying a black axe was formed!


    The new earth golem attacked with its axe immediately after it was formed, not giving the already wounded monster time to react.


    BANG!


    The massive head of the monster fell to the ground with a loud sound, raising a cloud of dust and creating a crater.


    Its massive body swayed a bit before falling over as well.


    [Level 29 cleared, proceed to level 30?]


    [Yes/No?]


    The notification from the system appeared in front of Ivan.


    Ignoring the notification, Ivan opened his mouth and exhaled deeply. S§×arch* The n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "I''ve used quite a lot of energy just now; creating massive attacks consumes too much energy," Ivan muttered to himself while sensing his Nexus chamber that had been halved after the fight just now.


    "But I still have enough energy to face another monster like this, so¡­Yes, proceed to level 30," Ivan said.


    After receiving Ivan''s response, the body of the monster vanished while another appeared in the virtual space.


    While Ivan moved to level 30 of the training room, outside¡­

 Chapter 75 - 75: Level 30

    Unbeknownst to Ivan, clearing the 29th level and moving to the 30th level had caused a commotion outside the training room.


    Although the trainees were training like crazy since it was the last week they had to spend inside the tower before they graduated from training, they still kept track of what was going on in various parts of the tower such as the arena and the training room.


    Currently, hundreds of trainees were gathered outside the training room and staring at the level list with wide eyes.


    Currently, besides level 29 was Ivan''s name, which meant that he had successfully cleared that level, and level 30, which had Alaric''s name, was currently lit up, which meant that someone was currently challenging that level.


    Who else could it be aside from Ivan? He was about to beat the long-lasting record in the history of the training center!


    "Wow! He really is a monster"


    "He really caught up to the highest record, do you think he''ll be able to succeed?"


    "Are you asking me? Do I look like Ivan?!"


    "Goodness, just how strong must one be to catch up to them? I''ve been stuck at level 10 for months"


    "You tried, brother. I keep dying on level eight, the monsters on that level are just too brutal"


    At a corner, Rose, Mari, Susan, Joseph, and Camellia, who were the members of Ivan''s team, looked at the glowing level list with glowing eyes.


    " Do you think he''ll be able to beat that person''s record?" Susan asked, her expression was a mix of nervousness and astonishment.


    "Can''t say; none of us knows how strong the monsters on the higher levels are, so it''s not in our place to judge.e," Joseph shrugged.


    "But considering his strength during our previous training, I can tell that he''s at least twice as strong as he used to be. It''s like he advanced to a new rank, such a freak" Camellia added, a small prideful look glued to her face.


    Rose, who was staring at the list with a faint blush on her face, was startled out of her daze by Camellia, who suddenly hugged her from behind.


    " Hehe, what''s our lover girl dreaming about again? Can''t be that you''re planning to do something to him once he comes out, right?" Camellia teased.


    Rose''s face immediately turned bright red from embarrassment and she moved away from Camellia.


    " W-what are you talking about? I wasn''t thinking of anything. Hmph!" Rose said hurriedly before leaving the training room in hasty steps.


    Camellia giggled at the girl''s reaction.


    After three weeks of being on the same team with them, all the members of the group were aware that Rose was harboring feelings for Ivan.


    Sadly, Ivan was the only one who wasn''t aware of this; he didn''t even notice the girl''s change of attitude toward him.


    As for Rose, she didn''t look like she planned on revealing her feelings to Ivan anytime soon. Sear?h the ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    According to Camellia ''The both of them were a lost cause''


    On another side of the training room behind the crowd of trainees, Sommy and Miko could be seen staring at the list as well.


    "He''s really just like Alaric back then; I''m sure they would have been best buddies had they been in the same batch. You really picked the wrong person to target this time," Sommy said to Miko with a pitiful look on her face.


    The petite girl clenched her fists upon hearing Sommy''s words, her small face twisted in frustration.


    "It''s alright; you most likely won''t see him again after our training," Sommy rubbed Miko''s hair while comforting her.


    "Hmph! I don''t need to hear that; he should be the one praying not to run into me outside the tower," Miko snorted and stormed off.


    " Sadly, you might never be able to catch up to him even outside the tower" Sommy looked at Miko''s retreating figure and shook her head.


    ...


    Back in the virtual space of the training room.


    After accepting to proceed to level 30, a new monster appeared in the virtual space.


    The appearance of this monster left Ivan stunned for a while, and even after the system notified them to start, it did not attack him as other monsters would usually do, or it would be more appropriate for him to address this new monster as a ''she.''


    This was because it looked nothing like a monster and looked like an ordinary little girl instead.


    She looked to be around ten to twelve years old, wearing a beautiful yellow sunflower dress, and had her black hair styled in a twin ponytail. The girl had big, round, blue eyes that stared at Ivan with innocence as she hugged a green zither with her little arms.


    This¡­monster, looked too¡­strange to be considered a monster. She reminded him of the little girl who kept calling him big brother when he had been swallowed by that mist creature.


    This caused Ivan to frown deeply, unsure of what to do.


    After battling in the virtual space so many times, Ivan had gotten a kind of understanding about the monsters that appeared in it and that was.


    Every monster that appeared had been encountered by a member of the tower or appeared from a mirror gate. To sum it up, every monster in the system of the training room existed.


    Still unsure of what to do next, Ivan just stayed standing in place, but he had raised his guard to the maximum.


    Something he had learned was that looks could be deceiving at times.


    Ting!


    Suddenly, a soft melody played out and was followed by another.


    The little girl started playing the zither in her hand, producing a soft and pleasing melody that made one''s mind calm down.


    Ivan immediately went on high alert and made distance, the little girl didn''t seem to mind; she started reciting a poem.


    "Lighting casts shadows, too much light drives away shadows.


    Creating and eradicating, is the source still there?


    Which is real, and which is fake?


    Dreams birthing revelation or misleading, illusions producing hallucinations or painting a picture of the truth.


    Tell me, Wisher¡­what is real and what is not. What is the truth and what is not!"


    The little girl sang in a sweet voice, causing Ivan''s mind to enter an extreme state of calmness despite his struggle.


    With a sudden hard pull on the zither, the string created a loud tone that shook the virtual space. At the same time, something that looked like a small door appeared in front of the girl before shooting toward Ivan at a shocking speed; it expanded as it got closer to Ivan.


    Ivan was unable to react before the door swallowed him, next thing he knew was that he was in a white space.


    Ivan looked around the white space that was definitely not the virtual space of the training room. He could not find the little girl anymore, and neither could he hear the sound of the zither.


    Just to be sure that he hadn''t been teleported out of the tower, Ivan tried to communicate with the system of the training room.


    [Forcefully exit the training? Will be counted as failing]


    [Yes/No?]


    Ivan exhaled in relief. Good, he was still inside the virtual space and this was most likely the effect of the little girl''s power.


    "No" Ivan responded to the message of the system before he started to look around the white space.


    "Just what sort of ability is this?" Ivan thought he had been walking for minutes, but all he could see was the white space.


    Remembering the song of the little girl, Ivan speculated that he would have to figure out an illusion or something similar.


    At this moment, Ivan finally caught sight of something that was hundreds of meters ahead of him; the thing was too far, so he wasn''t able to see it properly, so he decided to approach it.


    Upon getting close enough to take a proper look, Ivan''s face twisted in a weird expression upon realizing what it was.


    It was a little boy dressed in rags. The boy looked like he was 13 or 14 years old, he had dirty white hair and was shivering as if he was suffering a cold.


    Eyes tightly shut, hugging his body, lying on the hard ground, tattered clothes, unkempt white hair, and a skinny body.


    This was Ivan when he was still in the outskirts; this was before he met Glen and Ralph.


    The image lasted for a few seconds before changing, next was the scene of the four Nexulytes who were in charge of looking over the borders of the outskirt beating Ivan.


    They were laughing and chatting as they hit him one after the other, clearly enjoying themselves.


    This lasted for a few minutes until the child Ivan passed out and they threw him out in the rain.


    Ivan''s fists tightened while he watched this, he tried to rush up to those scums but his body simply passed through them; he could only grit his teeth and watch.


    The scenes kept changing and showed years of Ivan suffering in the hands of the four Nexulytes; he watched as the young Ivan developed a deep hatred for Nexulytes because of these four and how he had tried to escape many times.


    The scenes kept changing until Glen and Ralph appeared, it continued until their journey to San Pluto and then to the Owen Tower.


    After all of these, a new scene appeared. This scene was one that made Ivan''s mouth hang wide open and his face showed a vicious expression.


    It was a scene of Ivan belonging to a loving family; his family was killed, and he left for the outskirts, where he ran into those four Nexulytes.


    But this time, they did not bully him. They took him in and showed him unconditional love and care, giving him everything Ivan never had while growing up.


    In exchange, it was Ralph and Glen who made life miserable for him on the outskirts.


    Ralph''s mother wasn''t injured during these scenes so the four Nexulytes were unable to do anything.


    "This¡­this isn''t real!"


    Ivan muttered.


    The scenes played out in such a way that it was almost as if that was what would have happened if Ralph and Glen had come from powerful families and were not poor.


    Finally, the scenes ended with Ralph''s mother bringing people from her tower to kill the four Nexulytes who took care of Ivan before chasing Ivan out into the border where monsters hunted him.


    Everywhere turned white again.


    The gentle voice of a young girl sounded through the air.


    "You have seen that illusions are mirrors of reality. What should have been might not be but could be, what shouldn''t be might be but could not be. Seek Truth in deceit, differentiate real from fake, find the source of the shadow, and ignore the light casting it¡­


    Wisher, what is your judgment on this?"


    The girl''s voice said a bunch of words that Ivan could not find meaning to at all, but one thing he was sure of¡­

 Chapter 76 - 76: A moving forbidden zone

    "I don''t care if their attitude toward me would change under different circumstances or if everything was a lie, all I care about¡­is the present.


    Nothing else matters"


    Ivan mumbled while looking at his palms, which had suddenly turned bloody at some point.


    " Really? Is that your judgment?" A calm voice whispered to Ivan. Ivan looked up, and his gaze met with a pair of dull blue eyes; it was a second Ivan; it was like Ivan was looking at himself in the mirror, but at the same time, it seemed like the person in front of him wasn''t him.


    " Yes, that is my decision," Ivan replied firmly.


    " Then prove it,," The second Ivan said and calmly gestured to the side. Following the direction the latter pointed, Ivan saw the four Nexulytes looking at Ivan with tenderness.


    This was clearly the version of them that had taken care of the young Ivan. While on the other side were Ralph, Glen, and their parents. They were all looking at Ivan with hateful eyes and were even cursing at him, the sight of this made Ivan''s eyes twitch slightly.


    "The choice is yours, pick a side"


    The second Ivan whispered before disappearing into a drifting wind, leaving Ivan alone with these two sets of people.


    Ivan took a minute to observe both sides, their actions and expressions were so real that Ivan almost doubted his memories.


    "My choice?" Ivan snickered as a card appeared in his hand.


    " This is my choice!"


    Tossing the card into the air, Ivan immediately felt all the Nexus energy inside him being drained out. The card scattered into dazzling particles of red, blue, and gold that danced in the air like a life dragon before gathering together into a small back dot.


    " Hellfire, detonate"


    Ivan muttered softly and the next second¡­


    BOOM!!


    The small black dot enlarged into a ball of black flame before erupting into a massive explosion that engulfed the white space.


    A flash of white light forced Ivan to close his eyes as a fierce shockwave sent him flying like a pebble.


    Crack!!


    Like a glass hit with a rock, the white space development cracks due to the impact of the explosion and begins to fall apart.


    Unsure of how much time had passed, Ivan opened his eyes to see that he was back in the virtual space of the training room. His purple tracksuit was a mess, and his hair was smoking; he had at least survived the explosion.


    Looking up, Ivan saw the little girl with the zither staring at him with a deadpan face; her expression was unbefitting for a girl of her age, causing her to look like a ghost instead.


    Seeing that the girl was still around, Ivan forced himself to get up; he had expended all of his energy and was currently under great fatigue but tried not to show it.


    "You¡­didn''t fail, neither did you win. You are undecided, wisher" the little girl said while staring straight into Ivan''s eyes.


    Ivan was confused by her statement. In fact, most of the statements of this girl didn''t make sense at all, but Ivan realized one thing after leaving the white space. He was about to speak when he suddenly saw a crack appear on the green zither before quickly spreading to the girl''s body.


    Shatter!!


    She crumbled like an ice sculpture.


    Ivan stared at this with his mouth hung open. It took a few seconds for him to recover, and he shook his head.


    "It wasn''t an ordinary monster," Ivan said to himself while staring at the pieces of the little girl.


    What Ivan had realized was that the little girl wasn''t a monster, she was a mobile aspect forbidden zone!


    A forbidden zone that was able to move, take the form of creatures, and could communicate!


    Scary.


    [Level 30 cleared, proceed to level 31?]


    [Yes/No?]


    Seeing that he had apparently cleared the level, Ivan fell on his butt and began panting heavily. He was completely drained, how was he supposed to continue?


    But it wasn''t a must that he had to win, he could just take a peek at what was in level 31.


    "Yes," Ivan said softly.


    The pieces of the girl vanished, and another monster appeared; Ivan turned to look, but he didn''t see anything.


    A sudden chill washed over his body and his vision suddenly turned dark.


    [Level 31, failed. Exiting the training room]


    The notification suddenly appeared in front of Ivan, he blinked once and saw that he was back inside the pod in the training room.


    "I died so quickly?" Ivan muttered in astonishment, he didn''t even see what type of monster had appeared in level 31.


    Looks like he would have to reach the next rank before coming here again, else with his current strength, he won''t even know how he died.


    Ivan shook his head before climbing out of the pod and heading for the door, he would worry about level 31 later.


    Upon opening the door, what welcomed Ivan was a sea of trainees crowding the training room.


    Immediately they saw Ivan come out, the place immediately exploded into an uproar.


    "He''s out! Demon Ivan is out!"


    "Really, thought he was going to clear level 31 as well"


    "Even if he didn''t clear it, he already reached the highest record; it won''t be long before he sets a new one"


    "Indeed, he''s so strong¡­"


    ¡­.


    Ivan was stumped by the massive crowd outside, and they were all talking about him; all eyes were on him.


    Although he had expected that something like this would happen, he didn''t think it would be on such a scale as this.


    His expression hardened and he walked forward with calm steps.


    It was a good thing that the trainees didn''t dare to gather around him too much, and they all made way when Ivan walked toward them, creating a path for him to walk through.


    "Troublesome," Ivan sighed after finally leaving the training room. Did they have nothing better to do with their time?


    Thinking that everything was over, Ivan was about to head to the Nexus chamber underground when a figure suddenly appeared in front of him.


    It was instructor Nathan.


    "The tower master wants to see you," instructor Nathan said.


    Ivan gazed at him motionless for a few seconds before nodding, the other party turned to lead the way to James'' office.


    They soon arrived at the office where they found James reading through a file.


    "Take a seat," he said without looking at them.


    Nathan gestured to Ivan, indicating that he was the one James was talking to. He didn''t tag around any longer and left right after.


    Now with the two of them left alone in the room, James lowered the file and turned his gaze towards Ivan.


    "You cleared level 30" He voiced out.


    "Yes," Ivan nodded.


    Giving Ivan a contemplating look for a while, James asked him to tell him what happened inside the virtual space and what sort of monster he encountered.


    Ivan immediately became suspicious when he heard this question, he thought for a while before saying.


    "I met a strange monster with a zither¡­and I killed it, barely," Ivan said seriously, hiding everything about the white space.


    "How did you kill it?" James pressed on. Ivan might not know, but the officials of the tower were aware that there was only a single monster on level 30, and to clear it, one needed to pass its test.


    James was trying to know the content of Ivan''s encounter with the little girl.


    "I simply killed it" Ivan responded, not saying a single word in addition to what he had said before.


    James'' eyes twitched, and seeing how Ivan wasn''t willing to speak up, he gave up. In the end, he didn''t want to force the young man since that might leave a bad impression.


    "I see, you can return them. Your training will be complete in a few days; try to make the best use of your time left; outside isn''t this peaceful," James said after a moment of silence before returning to read the files he was reading before Ivan came in.


    Ivan nodded and stood up to leave.


    Nathan came in after Ivan left.


    "Did he say anything?" He asked.


    "No," James muttered in response.


    "Sigh, the boy is too secretive; he doesn''t trust others easily," Nathan said while rubbing his cheek.


    He had reported the matter of Ivan''s first team training to James. As an instructor, he was well aware of how frightening wood spirits were; especially the ones that took the roles of leaders. Their regeneration abilities were unmatched in their territories.


    But Ivan had been able to kill one within half a minute''s time, this had stumped Nathan. He wasn''t able to see what happened because of the cocoon and Ivan had refused to disclose anything.


    He reported to James in hopes that the latter could get Ivan to talk, considering their teacher-and-student relationship, but James had returned empty-handed as well.


    "It''s alright, we have plenty of ways to make him speak. For now, let him be and hope he opens up willingly" James said with a cold smile.


    Nathan stared at him for a while before turning to leave.


    After Nathan left, James raised the file and the smile on his face widened.


    The files were actually paper works of Ivan''s first mission after graduating.


    Details¡­


    Dreamscape, coordinate 2G12.


    Mission: Scout and intelligence gathering. S~ea??h the ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Mission regulator: Ala¡­


    ¡­.

 Chapter 77 - 77: The last week of the training program

    After leaving James'' office, Ivan went straight to the Nexus chamber, where he refilled his depleted energy before starting to raise his AP.


    The day passed quickly and it was morning before anyone could realize it.


    The trainees gathered outside the lobby and did their morning training as usual before heading for the simulation rooms; another round of training was held, with some trainees getting Nexus crystals at the end; not everyone still passed the evaluation, so it was natural that they did not get anything.


    Ivan did not stay to chat with his Camellia and the others, immediately going to the Nexus chamber after receiving his Nexus crystal.


    His AP rose another 0.50% after absorbing the Nexus contained within the Nexus crystal, Increasing his strength further.


    He stayed for a few hours before coming out and heading for his weapon and talent training with James, Ivan left for his room to wash up before going to the cafeteria.


    He ran into Camellia and the others who tried to converse with him, but Ivan didn''t say much and mostly nodded or shook his head whenever someone talked to him. S§×arch* The nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    After leaving the cafeteria, Ivan met up with Ralph and Glen.


    Ivan did not let what he had seen in the white space affect his relationship with his friends; he acted completely normal and they talked about random things.


    From their chat, Ivan learned that his friends were progressing in strength as well. Glen did not fail to bring up the topic of his female teammates and how he was planning to ask one of them out.


    Aside from that, they also talked about the training program that was coming to an end and what they were going to do next; it had to be said that a lot of trainees were already shaking from excitement as the end of the training drew closer while some who had yet to make enough progress were having sleepless nights due to nervousness and worry.


    The day passed uneventfully and a new day quickly came, the third day of the week and four days to the end of their training.


    Trainees gathered for morning training as usual, morning training was different today; the trainees didn''t have any restrictions and were even allowed to use Nexus energy and their talents.


    Morning training ended quickly, and trainees left for their rooms before going to get breakfast; they all went to their respective classes afterward.


    Ivan had to attend three compulsory classes today, which lasted till noon, before going for weapon and talent training.


    Later during the day, he met with Ralph and Glen. Glen was like a salted fish when Ivan saw him, the boy looked soulless and would have been mistaken for a ghost.


    When Ivan inquired why, Ralph told him that Glen had asked out the girl in his team that he always talked about but the girl had turned him down.


    They tried their best to cheer Glen up, but nothing they did seemed to work on the lifeless-looking Glen; Ivan had then volunteered to drag him to the arena and beat him up a bit if it would help, and Ralph immediately agreed to the suggestion.


    Glen was helplessly taken to the arena by Ivan and Ralph, where he faced a round of trashing from Ivan; the latter only let him off after the boy promised that he wasn''t sad over being rejected anymore.


    On their way from the arena, they ran into someone whom Ivan had not seen in a long time; he even almost forgot that this person existed.


    It was the red-haired Luke!


    The boy had been dodging Ivan since their last match and had been doing it so perfectly that Ivan had completely forgotten about him; he had even managed to stay out of Ivan''s sight during morning training.


    Today, the three happened to see Luke bickering with Sommy on their way out of the arena, and the red-haired youth immediately bolted when he saw Ivan''s face.


    "What''s wrong with him?" Ivan asked when he reached Sommy.


    "Ugh, it''s nothing important. He''s just pissed that I told off one of his chicks" Sommy replied with a frustrated look on her face.


    "He still does that?" Ivan asked with a raised eyebrow.


    Not many were aware of the engagement between Sommy and Luke, so Ivan did not mention it; he was just shocked that Luke was still able to flirt with other girls in front of Sommy.


    "Seriously, I wonder why those girls still fall for trash like him," Sommy hissed.


    They exchanged words for a while before going their separate ways, after making sure that they were far enough, Glen immediately attacked Ivan with questions.


    "Hey, since when did you become so chatty?"


    "Your relationship with her is almost as good as us brothers, you don''t even gossip with us!"


    "I know she''s a ten but when did you guys get this far?


    You didn''t even bother to inform us, brothers; how long has this been?"


    "Is this one of the secrets to getting stronger quickly? Now my rejection is hurting me again"


    Glen spoke nonstop that Ivan and Ralph were on the verge of having a headache.


    Ralph immediately turned to Glen.


    "Shut up! If you''re hurting, I''ll drag you back to the arena!" He snapped at Glen.


    "Ah, no no. I was just kidding, I''m perfectly fine now. But¡­"


    " I said shut up!"


    " Ahh"


    While Ralph dealt with Glen, Ivan turned to look in the direction that Sommy had walked in.


    ''True, a scum like him doesn''t deserve her. It''s a pity'' Ivan thought while shaking his head.


    Another day passed, and it was the fourth day; nothing special happened for the trainees.


    Morning training, classes, training, and more training until the whole day passed.


    On the fifth day, the same thing happened.


    On the sixth day, the last team training was held, another distribution of Nexus crystals, and then more training.


    Finally, it was the seventh day. The day that all the trainees were anticipating or dreading its approach.


    The last day of their training.


    ¡­.


    In his room, sitting cross-legged on his bed, Ivan opened his eyes, and a streak of red light swept past his glowing blue eyes.


    ''Profile'' Ivan said in his thoughts.


    ¡­..


    NAME: Ivan Von Charles


    Talent Group: Primal Talent type: Wisher Talent: Wish card


    Talent lv: SS AP: 43.75% Rank: Partial Lord


    ¡­..


    Ivan stared at his profile, a small smile slowly crept up the corner of his lips.


    He came here six months ago as a nobody, a newly awakened Nexulyte with no strength, and had even nearly died to a one-eyed weak monster.


    But today, he was leaving as a new person; a Nexulyte that had stepped into the upper circle of strength!


    Not just him, his friends as well well leaving as new people.


    For many, being a Mortal King was already enough to be worshipped because they possessed strengths that were outside of human comprehension.


    Getting to the True King rank was where 60 percent of Nexulytes ended their journey of strength due to low talent levels. Many Nexulytes at this rank would build families and facilities to foster future generations and make names for themselves in safe cities.


    Entering the Partial Lord rank, one could be said to have completely left the realm of human limitations and stepped into a whole new world; Partial Lords were the benchmark for true strength!


    Only 40 percent of awakened Nexulytes were able to cross to this rank.


    Ivan had gone from being a homeless poor orphan to a powerhouse in six months! He could feel the excitement rushing through his body.


    Now, he could put his plans of looking for that little girl into motion and searching more about his talent.

 Chapter 78 - 78: Graduation

    Ivan got up from his bed and entered the bathroom to wash up before changing into new clothes, they did not have to attend morning training today as they were to attend a gathering.


    After changing, Ivan took one last look at his room. He had spent countless nights in this place, and it was starting to feel like ''home'' to him, but it wasn''t his home; it was time for him to leave.


    Going outside, Ivan saw Ralph and Glen waiting for him; other trainees were already heading for the gathering so the place was a bit crowded.


    "Ready to go?" Ralph asked while shifting his glasses.


    "Un" Ivan nodded and the three of them mixed with the large crowd of trainees and headed for the gathering.


    The gathering was held in a hall on the tenth floor, the hall was so wide that it could contain a thousand people and still leave space for each person to do a spin.


    Rows of chairs were arranged neatly inside the hall while a podium with over fifty chairs stood opposite the rows of chairs.


    Trainees began to pour in after a while and quietly took a seat; not more than thirty minutes later, all the trainees were seated quietly in the hall and were facing the podium.


    Shortly after, a new set of people walked into the hall. Some were in their twenties, while some were in their thirties and early forties.


    Men and women with serious expressions each of them wearing the ceremonial black uniform of the Owen Tower with their beautiful white belt around their lower stomachs, they walked in an orderly manner and some of them took the fifty seats on the podium; the others who seemed to be of lower status went and stood at the back.


    Amongst these people were James Owen, their instructors, and some high-level officials of the tower.


    After the group had settled, a middle-aged woman stood up and walked to the pillar in front; the trainees immediately stopped murmuring when they saw her.


    " Good day everyone. You all might not know me so I''ll start by introducing myself.


    My name is Lana, and I''m the vice tower master of this great tower.


    Six months ago, you all were picked, scouted, or recommended to come under this tower for training. During these six months, you all have undergone intense training and nurturing from this tower and have all transformed into who you are today, becoming valuable Nexulytes not only to this tower and your families but also to society.


    As your vice tower master and on behalf of the Owen Tower, congratulations on completing your training.


    Of course, this is only for those who have met the mark of graduating. Some of you will be repeating the training, while some of you will¡­be expelled" the woman said in a calm voice that held no emotions as she said words that made some of the trainees wear expressions of despair.


    Going on, she continued to address the trainees, mostly glorifying the reputation of the tower that they had graduated from and what bright future awaits them outside the tower as well as their expected responsibilities to the tower and society as a Nexulyte.


    She didn''t fail to raise the reputation of the Owen Tower over the other four big Towers to the trainees, building a sense of superiority in them.


    After twenty minutes, the vice tower master returned to her seat and James came up.


    "Hello everyone. As your tower master, I feel pride in having watched all of you grow stronger during your time here; I felt like a parent who watched his child learn how to say their first word. So once again, congratulations.


    In addition to what my partner has said already, I want to inform you all to remember to keep everything that you have learned in mind. Our planet has almost been taken over by habitants of the dreamscape, it is your duty to reclaim our lost territories and drive those creatures back.


    The dreamscape isn''t any safer than you have been taught by your honorable instructors; dangers lurk in every corner. Some of you might never see each other after leaving here, some might die out there; only those who remember their training and knowledge that they have been taught will have the chance of living long enough to enjoy the glory of a Nexulyte.


    It will be hard outside, but remember your training, why you worked so hard for these six months, and what you want to achieve at the end¡­"


    James went on for another twenty minutes, filling the trainees with what might await them outside the tower.


    After saying all of this, it was finally time for the big moment.


    "The list that''s about to appear will contain the names of those who have passed the training program successfully and those who are going to retake it.


    As for those who will be expelled, do not feel dejected. Failing here isn''t the end. You should go out, experience life, and work on yourself. After reaching the Mortal King rank, you can come back, and the tower will always have a place for you," James said to the crowd of trainees before a large holographic board appeared in the air.


    The trainees immediately focused their eyes and began to look for their names with beating hearts.


    A while later.


    "Yes, I made it!"


    "I found my name, I did it!"


    "Oh God! I''m just at 9%, I''m repeating"


    "You should be happy, I can''t find my name"


    "How many APs do you have?"


    "4%"


    "What? Get lost, what are you doing here?"


    "Sob! Brother, don''t be like that; we were friends"


    "Alright alright, I''ll look after you in the future"


    The trainees were unable to contain themselves any longer, they went into an uproar as some cheered after finding their names while some sighed that they were repeating; quite a number of people were being expelled.


    Ivan and his friends quickly found their names, as well as some other noticeable names (their teammates during the special team training)


    "We did it" Glen pumped his fist while seated, his face beaming with a bright smile that almost blinded Ralph.


    "Yeah, we did," Ivan muttered while staring at the list with a faint smile. Even though he was already certain that he would pass with the amount of AP he had, seeing his name on the list still made him feel ticklish inside.


    In the end, only 450 trainees passed, there were 10 repeaters, and over 400 hundred were to be expelled; the numbers were shocking.


    "Alright, everyone, calm down." A loud voice sounded, causing a ringing in the ears of the trainees.


    They turned to look and saw that it was instructor Logan, James had returned to his seat.


    "All those who passed should come up one at a time to receive a storage device. This will contain your identity as a Nexulyte, your uniforms, contract, and other paperwork, as well as a small present from the tower. sea??h th§× nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Now in an orderly manner, starting from the first row"


    A trainee in the first row stood up and walked up to the podium while shaking from excitement.


    " Congratulations," instructor Logan said while passing a small cube device to the trainees. The trainee bowed before walking off in shaking steps.


    The next trainee came up, and then another¡­

 Chapter 79 - 79: Rose likes me?

    After the gathering, the trainees had all left the hall.


    The lobby was currently packed with excited trainees and gloomy-looking trainees; those who passed and those who failed were given two days to leave or report to the tower as official members.


    Sitting in a corner of the lobby were Ivan, Ralph, and Glen. The three of them gazed at the trainees'' purple tracksuit moving around chaotically; this had been their everyday sight for months, leaving everything now just felt wrong. sea??h th§× n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Ivan returned his focus to the storage device that he had been given during the gathering.


    Inside it was a complete set of three ceremonial black uniforms of the Owen Tower, three sets of black combat uniforms, and three sets of black body suits.


    Aside from the uniforms, Ivan saw the contract that James had presented to them back then in the awakening center. Documents of the Villa he had promised them, as well as a black card that contained some money; as for how much, Ivan had no idea.


    "What should we do next? Should we go check out our new home or return to the outskirts first?"


    Glen''s voice pulled Ivan''s attention from the storage device.


    "The place promised by the tower master would need some work before we can settle in; we should deal with all these first before bringing them over," Ralph said. By ''them'' he was talking about their families.


    " Oh! We have a week''s time off before we resume duties in the tower; we can finish everything before that time," Glen added.


    " What do you think?" Ralph turned to Ivan and asked seeing that the latter wasn''t saying anything. After all, Ivan didn''t have anyone in the outskirts so it would be reasonable if he didn''t want to return with them.


    Contrary to Ralph''s speculation, Ivan nodded in agreement that they should finish setting up their new homes before going to the outskirts together.


    " But before that, I have something to take care of," Ivan suddenly added before standing up.


    " What''s that?" Glen and Ralph asked at the same time and stood up as well.


    " The training room," Ivan said seriously.


    Ralph "..."


    Glen "..."


    The what now?!


    "We''re already done with training, what''s the deal with the training room?" Glen could not help it and snapped at Ivan. What was this freak''s problem?


    Ivan did not respond and started heading in the direction of the elevator; he had only moved a couple of steps when a group of people appeared in front of him.


    They were Camellia, Joseph, Rose, and Susan; Mari wasn''t with them.


    "Hello, Ivan," Camellia waved with a sweet smile on her face.


    Ivan looked at them and nodded in response, not saying a word; his eyes fell on Rose, who was staring at him so passionately; the girl immediately looked away with a red face when their eyes met.


    "I¡­I..want" Rose tried to speak but couldn''t stop herself from stuttering. After fumbling with her words for a few seconds, she became so embarrassed that escaped with a face so red that her head was almost letting out steam.


    Ivan stared at her back with an expression that asked "What''s wrong with her?"


    "Don''t mind her, she''s just too shy when you''re involved," Joseph said with a chuckle as he wrapped an arm around Ivan''s shoulder before saying again.


    "What she was trying to say is that you should try to visit us when we leave the tower. Since we were all on the same team during our final training, we should bond more. Rose is from the Weston family located in the northern side, Camellia is from the Stalin family and they''re in the same area with Rose''s family¡­"


    Joseph went on to inform Ivan about their backgrounds and how to find them after they left the tower, Ivan just stood there and silently listened.


    " We''ll be meeting at Rose''s place in five days'' time; try to come if you have time," Joseph said before suddenly moving his head close to Ivan''s ear and whispering, " In case you haven''t realized it yet, Rose likes you¡­a lot. Better put up a good behavior before her family." Joseph finally let go of Ivan and winked; he waved goodbye before leaving with the others.


    " Rose likes me?" Ivan muttered to himself, a bizarre expression on his face.


    How come he didn''t notice? The girl never showed any behavior that hinted at her liking him.


    Ivan "too dumb to notice a girl''s feelings" Von Charles.


    After Joseph and the others left, Glen immediately rained Ivan with questions. Unlike Ivan who was too blunt to notice Rose''s actions, Glen and Ralph were fast to realize what was going on.


    "My goodness, you''re a true player. Not just Sommy and that petite katana demon, you even got a cold beauty to fall for you. You''re my idol from now on, bro," Glen said with a peaceful face after raining Ivan with questions that the latter didn''t bother to answer.


    "Shut up," Ivan mumbled and resumed moving toward the elevator; the two followed him.


    A few seconds later, the eyes of the two almost popped out when they found themselves in front of James'' office.


    This was the office of the tower master, how could anyone visit it so casually? Was this allowed?


    Of course, they were not aware of how often Ivan had come to this place during the past months; they wouldn''t be so shocked if they did.


    Ivan ignored their piercing gazes and knocked on the door.


    "Come in," James'' voice came from inside; Ivan pushed the door and walked in; Glen and Ralph followed him after a moment of hesitation.


    Inside, they found James standing in front of the large glass panel at the back of his office and staring into the distance.


    "Take a seat"


    James said to the trio without turning back. The three of them sat on the seats in front of the desk.


    "Six months ago, you boys were newly awakened Nexulytes. It''s amazing how much you''ve changed after six months, most Nexulytes don''t manage to reach this level in their lifetime; I hope you all remember the goodwill of the tower and hold up to the agreement" James said and turned around, staring at the trio with a faint smile while taking the seat on the other side of the desk.


    Ralph and Glen looked at each other before turning to stare at Ivan, they felt that it wasn''t in their place to speak.


    "Understood," Ivan said calmly.


    Staring at the calmed-faced Ivan, James nodded before saying.


    " Is there a problem with the items in your storage devices? What could you be here for instead of going to your families?" James said as his gaze swept over the faces of the three.


    " Today is the last day of our training and still counts as part of the training program, right?" Ivan asked.


    " Technically, you''re right," James nodded.


    " Then I can still enter the training room, right?"


    " You want to go back to the training room?!" James was stunned by Ivan''s question for a moment but quickly recovered.


    " If that is all you want, you can enter the training room," James said after a while.


    Ivan stood up and bowed in gratitude before turning to leave, Glen and Ralph followed behind him.


    "Mind if I ask, is there a reason for this?"


    They had just reached the door when they heard James'' voice from behind, causing their steps to pause.


    "No, it''s nothing serious" Ivan turned and said.


    "I see. Then you don''t mind if I come along, right?" James pressed on.


    Ivan looked at him with a dull look in his eyes for a few seconds before shaking his head.


    " Good, let''s go," James smiled and rose from his seat.

 Chapter 80 - 80: Challenging the training room again

    Ivan felt like he had grown twice as strong as he was after crossing 30% AP, then entering the Partial Lord rank had increased his strength by five times!


    It was like jumping out of a cramped room and into an open garden; he felt like he could reach the sky in a single leap; of course, this was just a feeling, and Ivan knew that he would not be able to do so yet.


    [Trainee ID: Ivan Von Charles, starting training. Level 1] S~ea??h the n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    [Begin]


    A monster appeared in the virtual space and immediately charged at Ivan, bearing its ugly mouth filled with long teeth at him.


    Ivan stood in place and waited for the monster to get close, he immediately sent a punch when the monster entered the range of his arm.


    Pow!


    The head of the monster smashed into a bloody pulp, its body fell and scattered into light particles.


    [Level 1 cleared. Proceed to level 2]


    [Yes/No]


    "Yes"


    [Level 2, begin]


    BANG!


    [Level 2 cleared. Proceed to level 3]


    [Yes/No]


    " Yes"


    [Level 3, begin]


    ...


    [Level 27 cleared. Proceed to level 28]


    [Yes/No]


    In a short time of five minutes, Ivan had moved from level 1 to level 27. He had killed every monster in a single blow and had yet to even use his Nexus energy, depending solely on his physical strength; this was the might of a Partial Lord!


    " Yes," Ivan answered for the training to continue.


    A new monster appeared shortly; surprisingly, it was the same red-scaled monster that Ivan had encountered on this same level the last time he was here.


    " A familiar opponent, let''s see how well you fare this time" Ivan flashed a cold smile before dashing toward the monster.


    Back then, due to the tough scales of this monster, Ivan had been unable to hurt it no matter what and had used a fire snake to melt its scales before killing it; he wanted to check if the monster''s scale would still be hard enough to resist his punch now that he had broken through to the Partial Lord rank.


    The monster opened its mouth and roared when it saw Ivan heading toward it with the speed of a bullet, it threw out a punch with its claws as well.


    BAM!


    Crack!!


    Ivan ignored the monster''s punch as his fist made contact with the body of the monster, a clear sound of something breaking rang out as the monster was sent flying away like a broken kite.


    It left a trail of red broken scales in its wake, Ivan''s punch had destroyed the scales on the side of its body.


    "Hmm, it survived?" Ivan voiced out in surprise, the monster was tougher than he thought.


    Although Ivan did not use all of his strength in that punch just now, it would have been enough to collapse a building upon contact.


    Flashing forward, Ivan arrived above the monster. The latter was sprawled on the ground; a good number of scales were missing from its rib area, from which cracks spread to the rest of its body. Its mouth opened wide as blood poured out continuously.


    Seeing this, a look of realization appeared on Ivan''s face.


    "It only survived barely," He said while rubbing his chin.


    Placing his foot on the head of the monster, Ivan applied some force, and a popping sound was heard.


    Under his foot was a mixture of blood, meat paste, broken scales, and two horns.


    [Level 28 cleared. Proceed to level 29]


    [Yes/No]


    "Yes"


    The corpse of the monster vanished as another one appeared. It was a corrupted knight.


    Wearing rusty chainmail armor and carrying a severely damaged greatsword, the monster that looked like a human but had two mouths on its face stood opposite Ivan.


    Seeing this monster, Ivan knew that he would have to use his talent if he wanted to finish things quickly; he could still defeat this monster easily without using his talent but it would take time.


    Corrupted knights possessed a corrupted aura that was similar to the fluid of the Gene banshees; it could eat through Nexus energy and corrode anything it touched; Ivan would rather not want to deal with such troublesome things.


    [Level 29, begin]


    The corrupted knight waved his great sword in Ivan''s direction immediately after the system announced for the fight to start, sending a black sword wave toward him.


    The sword wave grew wider as it approached Ivan, it soon reached a width of five meters.


    Ivan didn''t try to dodge this sword wave, he took out a card and tossed it into the air.


    The card turned into a sword that slashed at the sword wave.


    Fwoosh!!!


    The sword wave was successfully cut in two and each half flew by Ivan''s side, though his sword didn''t survive either; it rusted and turned into scrap metal in a matter of seconds.


    After blocking the sword wave, Ivan made another sword.


    He grabbed it before flashing over to the monster.


    Swoosh!


    In a single swing Ivan''s sword cut through the chainmail like butter, splitting the corrupted knight in half.


    Plop!


    The body of the monster fell to the ground, it was dead.


    [Level 29 cleared. Proceed to level 30]


    [Yes/No]


    "Yes"


    Ivan watched as the body of the corrupted knight disappeared while a new monster appeared.


    He was expecting a random monster this time but was stunned when he saw that it was the same little girl with the green zither.


    [Level 30, begin]


    Immediately after the announcement, the girl pulled on the strings of her zither and began to recite her poem; Ivan soon found himself in the familiar white space.


    "This again?" Ivan said with a frown.


    Unlike last time, he knew what would happen next but he had no plans of waiting for it.


    He brought out a card and tossed it into the air while visualizing the image of a small black flame.


    "Hellfire, detonate!"


    Ivan called out, and just like the last time, the small tiny flame in the air started to grow bigger before suddenly turning into a huge explosion, engulfing the white space and destroying it.


    Ivan returned to the virtual space and watched the little girl shatter like broken glass, she didn''t say anything to him this time.


    [Level 30 cleared. Proceed to level 31]


    [Yes/No]


    Ivan looked at the notification and checked his Nexus chamber first; he still had more than half left. The majority of the Nexus he had used up was consumed by the hellfire destination.


    "Yes"


    Ivan replied a serious expression forming on his face as he set his gaze on the new appearing figure while the broken pieces of the little girl disappeared.


    When the monster that he was going to face on level 31 appeared, a name immediately came to Ivan''s mind.


    Warrior of the Reverse godhood clan!


    Indeed, standing opposite Ivan was a female knight in full body armor.


    A pair of cold blue eyes stared at him through the visor of the helmet; only her upper face was covered, just like the one Sommy and her team had encountered.


    A pair of gauntlets held onto a slim sword that pointed at the ground.


    The only difference between this one and the one that Sommy''s team met was the color of their armor.


    This one was in silver armor, while the one Sommy had encountered was in bronze armor, and since this one was what he was supposed to face for level 31, Ivan concluded that it was of a higher rank than the one in bronze armor.


    While Ivan was still in thought, the notification from the system for them to start was announced.


    The female knight took a step forward and bent her knee, her mouth opened as a crisp voice rang out.


    "One sword separates the heavens"

 Chapter 81 - 81: Facing a silver armored knight

    "One sword separates the heavens"


    The female knight called out the name of a sword technique before stabbing her slim sword into the air.


    Ivan suddenly felt the sky turn dark, an oppressive pressure pressed down on him from the sky and caused his knees to bend a little.


    Looking up, Ivan saw the image of a massive sword splitting the clouds as it fell down toward him; the lard sword brought along with it a cry of countless swords.


    This scene was enough to have a strong impact on one''s mind.


    Ivan''s eyes narrowed and his body immediately exploded with Nexus energy, instantly shaking off the pressure that was pressing down on him.


    Taking out a card, the card exploded into a dazzling light before spreading out around Ivan and began to connect like lines of a net; they soon formed a barrier of three colors around Ivan.


    Shortly after the barrier formed, the large sword fell down on it.


    A thunderous sound akin to a thunderclap echoed throughout the virtual space; the ground trembled and split open under the impact of the clash.


    A huge crater that was over fifty meters wide appeared after the large sword disappeared; Ivan was standing in the middle of the crater, unharmed.


    His barrier was still there as well, the sword didn''t manage to destroy it.


    The blue eyes behind the helmet gleamed with surprise upon seeing that the barrier was still there.


    She bent over and¡­


    BOOM!!


    She shot toward Ivan, forming a silver comet that left a long line of destruction behind her.


    She appeared in front of Ivan''s barrier within a split second, one of her arms arced backward as her gullets clenched into a fist.


    She threw the punch at the barrier.


    BAM!


    The punch landed on the barrier, and a loud sound followed; the ground between the female knight and the barrier split open from the strong shockwave as the female knight was pushed several meters back from the impact.


    On Ivan''s side, small cracks began to appear from the point where the punch had landed before spreading all over.


    Crack!


    The barrier collapsed.


    Ivan''s face didn''t change even after this, he continued to stare at the female knight with narrowed eyes.


    The latter, seeing that the barrier protecting Ivan had collapsed, gripped her sword and dashed toward him again.


    Ivan also created a sword and met the female knights head-on; they locked each other in a sword fight.


    The ground was split open whenever they clashed and space shook from their speed as they moved around as if they were teleporting.


    This kept on for a few minutes without any of them finding a gap in the other party''s attacks. They could only try to create an opening, but it was proving difficult.


    The female knight suddenly pulled back after clashing swords with Ivan and using Ivan''s sword as a springboard to jump back.


    While still in mid-air, the female knight made a strange movement with a sword.


    "Thousand swords formation!"


    She called out. Hundreds of sword shadows immediately filled the sky in front of her before raining down on Ivan like bullets.


    Ivan immediately flashed away and dodged the falling sword shadows.


    Each sword''s shadow created a small pit in the ground whenever it struck down. While this might not hurt Ivan, he was sure that it would be painful; a thousand such attacks landing on one person would not be pleasant.


    While Ivan was focused on dodging, the figure of the female knight suddenly appeared in front of him.


    "Never forget about your opponent in a fight" she snorted coldly before she attacked Ivan with her sword.


    Ivan, who had been focused on dodging the sword shadows all this time, suddenly revealed a smirk and a card suddenly appeared in his hand.


    "And don''t fall for a bait so easily" he scoffed back before suddenly grabbing onto the sword of the female knight and slamming the card on her chest.


    Spurt!


    The card transformed into a long black spear that stabbed through her chest and came out from her back.


    All of the sword shadows that had been chasing Ivan immediately disappeared, and the sky was clear again.


    Letting go of the Knight''s sword, Ivan watched as her body staggered with the spear still stabbing through her body; fresh blood dripping down the body of the spear.


    Thud! sea??h th§× Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    She fell on one knee and stabbed her sword into the ground to support herself, her other hand trembled as she tried to reach for the spear.


    "...I tr¡­"


    She tried to speak but suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood before her hands fell down and her head hung low.


    She died in that kneeling position.


    [Level 31 cleared. Proceed to level 32]


    [Yes/No]


    Ivan stared at the kneeling corpse of the female knight with an expressionless face, but his eyes revealed a look of acknowledgment; even in death, she still looked honorable.


    " Yes," he said after a while.


    Two seconds later a new monster appeared in the virtual space.


    [Level 32, begin]


    Roar!


    " Hellfire, detonate!"


    BOOM!


    Roaaar~


    " Lightning wrath!"


    Kaboom!!


    ...


    Outside in the training room, Ralph and Glen stared at the glowing level list with shocked faces.


    Ivan''s name was currently under level 33 and level 34 was glowing, meaning that he was currently attempting to clear level 34.


    He had beaten Alaric Vladimir''s record and set a new one!


    "Wow, so cool! That''s my bro!" Glen placed both hands on his waist and laughed proudly, his nose pointing tilted upward.


    James looked at the boy with a glint in his eyes.


    This brat was the least talented of the group but he liked to show off the most. Had it not been because of Ivan and Ralph, James would not have bothered recruiting someone like him personally even if he had an A-level talent.


    ''Sigh, he can still be of use, so I''ll tolerate him,'' James said to himself before turning his gaze to look at the list; his expression immediately turned to one of satisfaction.


    A while later and a door opened, Ivan walked out of it. In the end, he failed to clear level 34; he had to face a group of strange monsters that were able to reflect attacks!


    Ivan had managed to kill just five of them at a great cost before eventually running out of Nexus energy.


    "Satisfied now?" James asked while staring at Ivan.


    "Hmm, I want to use the Nexus chamber one last time," Ivan said after nodding to his question. He wanted to refill his empty Nexus chamber before leaving the tower.


    "Of course, you can even use the Nexus chamber for first place," James said with a smile and gestured for Ivan to go on.


    "Can we use it too?" Glen immediately asked, seeing how James had easily allowed Ivan to use the Nexus chamber.


    James turned and stared back at him with a forced smile, the veins on his neck were threatening to explode.


    He would have outright rejected Glen and even scolded him sternly, but he couldn''t do so in front of Ivan as he didn''t want to leave a bad impression on him.


    "Of course, you can," James squeezed out through the gaps of his teeth.


    "Great!" Glen clapped his palms and caught up to Ivan, ignoring James'' weird expression.


    Only Ralph seemed to notice the look on James'' face; his eyes narrowed as he looked at James with judgmental eyes.


    The three of them headed for the Nexus chamber together.

 Chapter 82 - 82: Furious Glen

    With a sudden flash of light, the doors of the teleportation vault opened and three young men dressed in simple outfits walked out.


    These three were Ralph, Ivan, and Glen who had finally left the southern sector of San Pluto where the Owen Tower was located and returned to the northern sector. This was where they had arrived after leaving the outskirts back then.


    Looking around, they saw that it had very few people as it did back then, and everyone here was dressed in high-quality outfits; they probably had businesses to attend to in the southern sector of San Pluto.


    "Move! You''re blocking our path to the teleportation vault" A loud voice filled with arrogance suddenly came from ahead of the trio, bringing back their attention to what was in front of them.


    Turning to the source of the voice that dared to speak so arrogantly to them, the trio saw a group of five young people being led by an elderly man with a slightly hunched back.


    The group had three young women and two young men, each of them wearing an arrogant look on their faces.


    The one who had talked to them was the elderly man in front of the group of young men and women.


    "Are you talking to us?" Glen asked with a raised eyebrow.


    The old man and the people behind him stopped in front of the trio, they all gazed at Ivan''s group from their heads to their toes. After getting their storage devices, the trio had stored their stuff inside them; causing them to walk out barehanded. S§×arch* The n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Coupled with how plainly they were dressed, it would not be a surprise if they were mistaken for jobless people who went to play in the teleportation vault.


    "Humph! Kids these days have no respect for elders nor the will to work. Instead of doing something more productive with your time, you three are out here playing with an important teleportation vault. Do you have any idea where this teleportation vault leads to?" The elderly man scoffed at the trio.


    The young men and women behind him looked at them with disdainful eyes as well.


    Ralph and Ivan were stumped by the sudden turn of events. They had just returned from a long period of training and had taken a moment to process the feeling of coming back, yet they had ended up getting insulted instead.


    Glen, on the other hand, was on the verge of exploding from rage.


    " What did you just say, old man? I dare you to say it again" he voiced out angrily and stepped toward the old man.


    " Kid, what are you trying to do, do you know who I am?" The old man looked up and met Glen''s fierce gaze with a look of contempt, angering Glen even more.


    "Who the hell are you? Do you believe I don''t dare to beat you all up?" Glen spat out in fury.


    "Humph, truly an ignorant person. He is the butler of the Thamuz family and a True King Nexulyte, do you think you can beat him?" One of the young women scoffed from behind the old man and the rest laughed at Glen.


    Glen was about to go mad.


    "What the hell? Just a True King and he dares to be so arrogant? My snake can easily squeeze him to death, Ralph''s ''zombie'' can kill him, and Ivan can punch him to death before he can blink!" Glen yelled at them furiously.


    ''Zombie'' is what he calls Ralph''s undead General.


    The faces of the youngsters behind the old man turned into one of amusement, they were on the verge of bursting into laughter.


    "What''s this clown saying? Snake? Zombie? Where did you hear any of those, such a comedian? How could any of you be stronger than a True King Nexulyte?" One of the young men said while laughing.


    Glen had finally had enough.


    "You''re the clown, your entire family are clowns!" He yelled and was about to summon his snake when a pair of arms suddenly came from behind him, covered his mouth, and hugged his body before dragging him to the side.


    It was Ralph.


    "Sorry about my friend''s behavior, you can pass," Ralph said while staring at the old man.


    The old man waved his hand dismissively and proceeded to walk into the teleportation vault; the youngsters followed behind while throwing provocative and disdainful looks at Glen, who was being held tightly by Ralph and couldn''t struggle free.


    "I would have taught this little one a lesson for delaying my time. I''m taking these young masters and misses to the Owen Tower, where they will undergo training beyond your understanding; he should have been punished for wasting my time. But considering the two of you are mannered enough, I''ll let it slide" the old man said, his tone as arrogant as ever.


    The doors of the teleportation vault closed, and a bright flash of light beamed inside; they were gone. Only then did Ralph let go of Glen.


    "Puah! What was that for? You should have let me deal with them!" Glen shouted; his chest was burning, and he was extremely angry.


    Ralph just looked at him and pushed his glasses before saying.


    "You shouldn''t go around looking for trouble because you are now strong, just let it be"


    Glen stared at Ralph, his expression blank as if someone had stolen his brain. It took him a while before he recovered; an aggrieved expression formed on his face, and he was on the verge of crying.


    Brother, when we came here six months ago. Someone had looked down on us, you stopped me from fighting back because he was stronger. Now, six months later, after we''ve gotten stronger, someone looked down on us again, but you still stopped me from getting revenge.


    Are you really my brother? Why do you always side with others, why?


    Glen felt depressed and victimized by Ralph''s attitude during these two occasions.


    Ralph completely ignored Glen''s lamentation, and so did Ivan; the two of them didn''t even put the group that just passed in their eyes; only Glen was free enough to banter words with them.


    "Let''s go look for a taxi," Ralph said, Ivan nodded, and the two began walking away from the teleportation vault without waiting for Glen. The latter was forced to Chase after them after realizing that they were really not planning to wait for him.


    While they walked, Ivan and Ralph were discussing where they should go first; the western sector where their Villas were located or whether they should visit the old driver who lived in the northern sector that they were currently in.


    They hadn''t seen the other party for six months, so it wouldn''t be a bad idea to pay him and his family a visit, considering how he had helped them back then; they also wondered what had happened with Elisa.


    Elisa is the daughter of the old driver who had awakened her singing talent back then.


    "Since we''re currently in the same sector, we should go visit them first before going to check out our villas," Glen voiced out; he had caught up to the two a while ago and heard what they were saying.


    Glen had just finished his words when they suddenly heard the sound of a motorbike. Looking ahead, they saw a black motorbike speeding in their direction. They were able to tell even from this distance that the rider was a woman, a sexy woman at that. But they were unable to tell if she was a beauty since she was wearing a helmet


    Ivan, on the other hand, stood motionless as he stared at the approaching motorbike; it was the same motorbike that he had seen back then!


    They watched as the motorbike got closer before stopping in front of them after doing a beautiful drift; the driver placed both legs on the ground before pulling off her helmet; her beautiful long green hair danced around with a shake of her head.


    They were finally able to see the face of the rider and all their eyes widened in shock while their mouths opened wide enough to fit an egg.


    "Miss Elora?!"


    They all said in unison.

 Chapter 83 - 83: Miss Elora is acting strange

    Turned out that the rider was instructor Elora.


    Elora turned to stare at the shocked trio, a small frown settled on her face.


    "What?" She asked while placing her helmet on the tank of her motorbike and getting off.


    "Nothing, sorry; we were just surprised to see you," Glen explained while scratching his neck awkwardly.


    "I thought you were on a mission?" Ivan asked from the side.


    Elora moved her eyes over to him before nodding and saying that she was on a one-week leave since it was the New Year celebration in a bit.


    "I was thinking I would meet you all in the tower; I didn''t expect you to leave so quickly; I almost missed you guys," Miss Elora said to them.


    " You¡­were looking for us?" Ralph asked in confusion. Why was their cold-faced instructor looking for them after they''d already graduated?


    " No," Miss Elora responded with a straight face.


    Ralph''s face twitched while Ivan and Glen stared at her with raised eyebrows.


    You just said you hoped to meet us at the tower, but you''re changing your words so fast and with such a straight face; what do you really want?


    "Umm, ok" Ralph added after a brief pause.


    "Anyway, congratulations on passing the training. Where are you all going now?" Miss Elora inquired.


    The trio exchanged glances before telling her their plans to go see someone before going to check out their villas.


    "You all have personal villas in the western sector?" Elora asked, her tone showed how surprised she was.


    The trio were first surprised by her reaction but quickly realized why, their surprise turned to disbelief.


    Back then when James had offered them the villas, the reactions of the people present had hinted that getting a place in that sector was probably not easy; their speculations were further confirmed when Elora said that she wasn''t even allowed to live there.


    "Who decides this?" Ivan asked.


    Elora replied and told them that it was decided by her grandfather, who was the founder of the Owen Tower, as well as the founders of the Dominion Tower, one of the five biggest Towers that was as old as the Owen Tower.


    "I see," Ralph mumbled to himself.


    Elora was about to say something but paused; she caught Ivan staring at her motorbike so intently that she could not help but ask him why he was staring so much.


    Ivan turned to her and simply replied that he wanted one. Elora was silent for a while before telling him that he could not afford it at present, maybe after he completed a few missions.


    " Okay," Ivan nodded in response while still looking at the motorbike.


    " Since you all are leaving now, would you want a ride?" Elora asked. The trio turned to look at her before turning to look at her motorbike. S§×arch* The N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    This thing clearly has enough space for two people at most, how was she going to carry three of them in addition to herself?


    Noticing their gaze and the reason behind them, Elora calmly turned to her motorbike and pressed a button on it.


    Right in front of the trio''s shocked eyes, the motorbike started to expand as new components appeared from within it and moved into place while creating sounds of metals hitting each other.


    The front and back tires lengthened before splitting into new pairs of tires as the body of the motorbike changed into something else entirely, it was as if an invisible force was pulling and reassembling the motorbike on the spot.


    The three watched with wide eyes, the process took a minute to complete.


    After a minute, what was in front of them was no longer the beautiful black motorbike that Elora arrived with.


    It was now a sleek, low-slung sports car; its body was a glossy metallic black that gleamed under the sunlight, with sharp aerodynamic lines running along its length.


    The outside of the car gave off a mysterious and menacing allure.


    Inside the car was a blend of luxury and advanced technology, a large digital display dominated the dashboard through which every movement of the car could be controlled; the interior of the car was nothing like what the trio had seen before.


    All they could tell was that it must be very expensive, no wonder Miss Elora said that Ivan would not be able to afford it yet.


    The car had enough space for four people; Elora casually opened the door and entered the driver''s seat before turning to look at the three young men, who still had dumbfounded looks on their faces.


    "Come on in" she called out to them. The trio woke up from their dumbfounded states and quickly went over, Ralph and Ivan sat at the back; Glen had quickly entered the front seat beside Miss Elora.


    With nothing else said, the car''s engine roared to life before shooting forward.


    ...


    During their ride in Elora''s car, the trio could not help but stare at the sight outside through the window of the car.


    It was as if it was their first time in San Pluto, the scenery was marvelous.


    They soon arrived at their destination, the home of the old driver, Mr Alonso.


    Getting out of the car, the four of them walked toward the house of the old driver.


    Ralph knocked on the door, and a voice asking them to hold on came from inside; a while later, and sounds of quick footsteps could be heard from inside the house; with a clicking sound, the door was opened.


    The one who opened the door was Mr Alonso''s wife, Mrs Florence.


    "Hello, how may I help you?" She asked upon seeing the four young people in front of her house, she clearly did not recognize Ivan and the others; they had changed so much within just six months.


    " Hello, Auntie, it''s us." Glen stepped forward and greeted cheerfully with a wide smile.


    Mrs Florence stared at him with a confused look on her face, she was still unable to recognize Glen''s face immediately. But when she remembered a certain youngster who had the same cheerful attitude, she began to see the resemblance between that youngster and this young man.


    Looking at the others, their images in her mind began to match with their current looks; only the girl in their group remained a mystery to her.


    "Glen?" Mrs Florence called out in disbelief.


    "Yes, it''s me," Glen responded with bright eyes.


    "Then, these two are¡­" Mrs Florence turned to look at the white-haired young man who now looked a lot like Ivan and the one wearing glasses who resembled Ralph.


    "Hello, aunty(ma''am)," Ivan and Ralph greeted in unison.


    " Oh my goodness, it''s really you. You have all changed, I didn''t recognize you just now" Mrs Florence covered her mouth, overwhelmed by surprise.


    She quickly ushered them into the house and asked them if they would like to eat anything; the rest wanted to refuse politely so as not to stress her, but Glen¡­Glen didn''t want to skip a meal.


    Mrs Florence happily prepared a quick meal for them, they chatted while they ate. She asked how their training had been and if it had been difficult for them, she acted like a considerate aunt.


    After the three assured her that they didn''t have a hard time, they asked how things had been with them in San Pluto.


    Mrs Florence was happy to indulge them. Mr Alonso was still working, driving his taxi as usual, but was planning to stop soon because Elisa said she would give him some money to start up something.


    After awakening her talent back then, Elisa had spent two months rejecting offers from various entertainment companies and had only agreed in the end because of her little brother''s wish to see his sister on stage.


    Still, she had only accepted to join the entertainment industry on the basis that she would perform all her shows alone and behind curtains; they could use a projector to air her person to the audience.


    Elisa had made quite a sum of money since then and had been saving up to give to her father.


    As for the little boy, he was still at school which left Mrs Florence to be the only one at home.


    "Wow, Elisa actually agreed to join a company? I thought she hated people?" Glen said with a stuffed mouth.


    Mrs Florence only laughed in response to this and said that Elisa would most likely stab him to death with her eyes if she heard what he said.


    "Ah, I almost forgot. Elisa''s company will be hosting a big event for the new year and Elisa will be performing. You all must come and cheer for her, though that will be after the performance" Mrs Florence informed the group.


    "When is it?" Ralph asked.


    Mrs Florence informed them that it was going to be held later in the evening and also told them the location, so the trio agreed to be there.


    "I have a question though, when are you all planning to introduce me to this pretty lady?" Mrs Florence asked while throwing a side glance at Elora.


    The body of the trio froze for a second when they heard how Mrs Florence addressed Miss Elora, Glen was just about to explain and apologize to Miss Elora when the latter spoke up.


    "Hi Auntie, I''m Elora. A friend of theirs" Elora said, putting on a rare smile on her face.


    Glen and Ralph''s eyes almost popped out of their sockets when they heard her; even Ivan was shocked and speechless.


    Since when were they friends with an instructor?


    You''ve been acting strange since you came back, are you really our instructor?

 Chapter 84 - 84: Labor channel

    They chatted with Mrs Florence for a while more before leaving and heading for the western sector where their villas were located.


    Along the ride to the western sector, no one said anything about how Elora had acted in front of Mrs Florence; they all came to a silent agreement to pretend like it never happened.


    Thanks to the speed of Elora''s car, it took them three hours to leave the southern sector and arrive at the western sector of San Pluto; they did not use a teleportation vault.


    Arriving at the western sector of San Pluto, the trio was stunned to see that the entire sector was fenced and had a massive gate at its entrance; they could only imagine how long the fence was and the amount of time it took to build it.


    Another thing that shocked them was that the person watching over the gate was a Nexulyte at the Partial Lord rank!


    Using a Partial Lord Nexulyte as a guard, how exaggerated; no wonder not just anyone could get a place on this part of San Pluto.


    Driving through the gate, it was like they had entered a whole brand-new world. Beautiful villas and lush gardens filled the place, expensive-looking vehicles and even air carriers could be found there; it was a great contrast to the southern sector of San Pluto.


    After driving for minutes at high speed, Elora asked them to bring out their housing papers and check their address.


    They did and were delighted to see that their villas were right next to each other, they would be neighbors. Sear?h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    After getting the address, it took Elora another five minutes to drive at full speed to get there; she packed in front of the first Villa.


    Nexulytes in combat vests and carrying laser guns could be seen patrolling the place, all of them wearing the bearing of experts.


    Entering the gate of the first Villa that was Ivan''s place, they found themselves in an enormous compound that was at least five hundred meters wide. A driveway that was twenty meters wide cut through a large lush garden with pretty flowers and well-trimmed bushes stretched for three hundred meters before stopping at a fountain that was in front of the villa.


    Entering the Villa, they found themselves in an enormous hall with a huge chandelier hanging from the roof. A flight of stairs with a red carpet led up.


    They spent a long time touring the villa, and they all agreed that the place was really huge.


    It had five master bedrooms, five guest rooms, three bathrooms, a study, a kitchen that was several meters wide, a dining that was too large, in Ivan''s opinion, and even a training room with reinforced steel walls that could hold the blow from a Nexulyte at the Domain Lord rank!


    The Villa also contained many other rooms that Ivan didn''t even know what they were for and needed Elora to tell him. As someone who never lived in a proper house in his whole life, it wasn''t surprising that he lacked knowledge of such things.


    After touring Ivan''s villa, they moved to Ralph''s Villa and then to Glen''s.


    All three villas were the same, be it in design or space.


    After touring the villas, the four of them returned to where Elora''s car was; they admired the villas from there; this was going to be their new home from now on.


    It was especially more heart-touching in Ivan''s case; he finally had a place to call home, only that it was still empty.


    "I like this place a lot. I never dared to imagine that I''ll be able to live in such a place in my whole life" Glen said from the side while producing a sniffing sound as if he was going to cry.


    "But it still needs a lot of work to set it up; the place is too empty and too large for a few people to live in," Ralph voiced out with a thoughtful look. He threw a sneak glance at Ivan after saying this; Ivan''s place would look even more deserted, considering that he didn''t have any family.


    " That''s easy; you can hire workers to do the work for you," Elora butted in. All three of them immediately turned their gazes over to her, their eyes asking how.


    "Your communicator," She said and brought out what looked like a phone.


    "None of us own a communicator," Glen declared right away.


    Elora stared at the three of them strangely before recalling that they were all from the outskirts.


    Shaking her head, she asked them to get into the car before driving off.


    They returned to the southern sector and Elora drove to a shopping center where they were to get a communicator.


    The three of them nearly screamed when they heard that a communicator cost five hundred bucks; that was a sum that they could never have imagined back then.


    Elora glared at them before forcing them to take the black cards from their storage devices.


    Glen felt his heart bleed as he paid for the communicator with his card, the joy of owning a communicator was snuffed out by the pain of losing five hundred bucks; it was too much!


    After Elora forced them to get a communicator, she helped them to start with them before setting up the basics and installing a few necessary things; of course, she didn''t forget to add them to her own communicator.


    "Now go to your profiles" Elora instructed.


    The three of them obeyed and searched for the ''profile'' she was talking about, they quickly found it on their respective communicators and clicked on it.


    A page opened where they were asked to input their names, which they did; another page opened right after.


    This page held details such as their names, profession, current location of residence, as well as their total net worth.


    The three of them were stunned to see that each of them had 499,500 bucks as their balance, it would have been 500k had they not gotten their communicators from it.


    "So much money!" Glen said in a daze, his eyes sparkling as he stared at the communicator.


    He has never seen so much money in his entire life.


    " That''s the gift from the tower; you will be able to earn even more in the future because you''ll have to spend more; being a Nexulyte isn''t cheap," Elora commented before telling them what to do next.


    Which was to go to the Labor channel. It was a network where information on different workers could be found, ranging from normal humans to Nexulytes. One could find people fit for all kinds of jobs, jobs went from finding a normal person for a cleaning job to finding a rogue Nexulyte for a bodyguard job.


    One could also hire workers for part-time jobs or permanent jobs on the labor channel as well; information about the workers was displayed under their pictures so as to prevent employers from being scammed; it was the same for employers as well, so no one used it for kidnapping or other bad things.


    The prices for employment were also listed below, ranging from 50 bucks for part-time to 1000 bucks yearly for permanent; this was the price for normal people who did simple jobs and the prices were negotiable.


    For rogue Nexulytes, part-time started at 200 bucks to 1,000,000 bucks for permanent; the price was negotiable as well and depended on the strength of the Nexulyte.


    "Waw!" Glen exclaimed as he scrolled through the list of workers; there were thousands of people on the list.


    "You can set a category for what you''re looking for; only workers belonging to that category will then show up," Elora announced to the three.


    They immediately started to browse for the type of workers that they needed.

 Chapter 85 - 85: Charming trio

    In the end, Ralph got five workers who would do cleaning and set the duration to permanent; he would have to pay each of them 1500 bucks every year. He got two workers who would handle the kitchen; they would be working permanently as well, and the price was 1000 bucks.


    He planned to hire more if needed in the future. Glen copied him and got the same number of workers, but he didn''t set a permanent working duration for the workers in the kitchen; his mom might kill him if she found out that he spent so much on people who would cook.


    As for Ivan, he only got seven cleaners to clean the Villa and has set their work duration at part-time.


    The other three looked at him, confused by his choice but didn''t say anything about it in the end.


    Next was buying what they wanted to place inside their place; places such as the study and training rooms were empty, and they could also change the interior decorations if they wished.


    By the time they finished dealing with everything they had to buy, it was already getting close to the evening. Entering Elora''s car, they drove back to the western sector to wait for what they had requested.


    On their way back to the western sector, Ivan looked up the price for vehicles; he specifically searched for motorbikes, and his eyes narrowed when he saw what he was looking for.


    The price for the cheapest motorbike was already at 2 million bucks! It was not even as nice as Elora''s motorbike, which could change into a car, yet it was so expensive; now he knew why Elora said he would not be able to afford it in his current state.


    Getting to the western sector and informing the Partial Lord, who was at the gate, about the arrival of what they had ordered, they drove in and stopped in front of Ivan''s villa.


    Shortly after, huge vans began to appear from the distance and drive toward them, stopping in front of Ivan''s villa since it was the location they had set for delivery.


    "Good evening, honorable Nexulytes," a middle-aged man came down from the first van and greeted the four of them while bowing respectfully. He didn''t mind that they were far younger than he was. Nexulytes were the most respected beings on the planet, and he wouldn''t dare to disrespect them.


    They sorted a few paperwork with the delivery vans, a total of 15 vans carrying items that the three of them had ordered were lined up outside the villa.


    The workers also arrived at the same time and paid their greetings to the four just like the middle-aged man had done earlier.


    Elora dealt with giving them instructions on what to do with the items and how to place them, the workers were to assist them in doing it.


    "Alright, ma''am," the middle-aged man nodded to Elora before turning to the long line of vans and waving his hands.


    Tall men with bulging muscles began to climb down from each van and moved to the back of the vans, they started to offload the items carefully.


    After dealing with the matters with the vans and workers, Elora turned to the three young men behind her.


    "Your friend''s show will be held in a bit, are you all planning to show up to her performance dressed like that?" She inquired while looking at them up and down.


    "What about them?" Glen asked while pointing at the items being brought out from the vans.


    "You can leave them to do their jobs; everything will be set by tomorrow morning," Elora stated.


    Left without a choice, the trio got into her car again, and she drove them back to the shopping center, where they got new clothes to wear for the event later.


    Elora waited outside for them to change, she read a magazine on her communicator in the meantime.


    " We''re done!" Glen''s voice rang out and Elora raised her head to take a look.


    Her eyes flashed with a glint that was hard to notice if one didn''t pay attention, she had to force her expression from not changing.


    The three of them looked¡­stunning.


    Ralph was in a black tuxedo and a bowtie around his neck; the white he wore inside had neat ironed lines that looked like a piece of art, and he wasn''t wearing his glasses, which further added to his charm.


    Glen wasn''t bad either, wearing a midnight blue tuxedo with the first two buttons of his inner white shirt left undone, he wore a wide grin that made him look like he was glowing.


    As for Ivan, Elora had to force herself from losing her composure as a faint blush crept up her face; the young man was too charming in his silver white tuxedo that perfectly complimented his white hair.


    Similar to Glen, he didn''t wear a bowtie and left the first two buttons of his undershirt hanging free, allowing others to see a part of his chest.


    "This should do, right?" Glen asked when he saw that Miss Elora was just staring at them with a blank face, he wondered if they would have to change again; he didn''t want to.


    Luckily, his worry was uncalled for because Miss Elora said it was alright after a while.


    "Let''s go," she muttered while standing up from the waiting seat.


    "You aren''t going to change too?" Ralph asked, Miss Elora was still in her leather jacket and jeans; this wasn''t an outfit that was fit for a part.


    " Why should I? I''m not going; I have somewhere else to be," Elora replied without turning back and kept walking.


    " Not going?"


    The trio were surprised and wondered what she had to do, they honestly thought that she would be going with them.


    "Stop standing around and hurry up; I''ll leave after dropping you three off," Elora called out from ahead.


    "Ah, coming, coming!" Glen answered and walked over swiftly, Ivan and Ralph followed closely behind.


    On their way to the car, the trio noticed how a lot of people were staring at them; especially women.


    They stared at the three with almost sparkling eyes as if looking at a delicacy, the three had to increase their walking pace.


    They reached the car and quickly jumped in as if they were being chased. With a gentle roar of the engine, the car shot into the distance. Sear?h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    ...


    They reached the venue for the show in a few minutes and just as she had said, Elora drove off immediately after they came down from the car; she didn''t even say if she would see them later or not.


    Staring at the car that soon disappeared, an enlightened expression appeared on Glen''s face.


    "I didn''t notice back then, but Miss Elora isn''t as cold as I had imagined. Maybe it was because of fear of how she trashed Luke or was it how fierce she looked in her uniform? She''s surprisingly easy to talk to, easier than a certain someone" Glen remarked while stealing a glance at Ivan.


    The latter turned and glared at him with sharp eyes, Glen immediately looked away while chuckling; Ralph looked at the two of them and laughed as well.


    "Let''s go look for some to wait for the show to end," Ralph said to the two.

 Chapter 86 - 86: At the event

    (A/N: I''m not a songwriter, so take what''s below and love it even if it''s bad, I command you!!)


    ...


    "Kiss me before you go, tell me you''ll be back~


    Don''t let the dreamscape separate us, hug every second more~


    I''ll be wherever you go, please don''t leave me behind ~


    Tell me what you want to do, I''ll go with you all the way~


    If the world wants you gone for the greater good ~


    I will let the world burn~"


    A gentle voice drifted across the entire hall, filling people''s hearts with touching emotions; a few young girls were even crying as they listened to the song.


    "My goodness, Elisa is so good at singing. Her voice is so beautiful, I think I''m in love" Glen muttered softly from where he was seated.


    The three of them were currently sitting together around a table, hundreds of similar sitting arrangements were placed all over the hall; there were over a thousand people who had come to watch the performance this evening.


    "I admit she''s good, but her talent is what''s making people so emotional," Ralph said to Glen, who was looking at the huge projection of Elisa on stage.


    Just like Mrs Florence had told them, Elisa refused to perform live on stage and sang from behind the big red curtain while a projection of hers would be displayed to the audience.


    From the protection, they could see the girl wearing a red evening dress with gleaming stones on it. She wore two red hand gloves that covered up to her elbow and her blonde hair was styled in a traditional Chinese style and had a golden hairpin holding it.


    She looked so beautiful even from afar, it was no surprise that she was able to gain many fans despite her eccentric character of always performing behind the curtains.


    Everyone quietly listened to Elisa''s beautiful voice as she sang a heart-touching song of two lovers who were to be separated because one had to be sacrificed to the dreamscape. This song moved many young ladies to tears.


    The performance lasted for three hours straight as Elisa sang one heart-touching song after another; she was only able to last so long without taking a break thanks to her being a Nexulyte herself.


    Finally, around 10 pm, the performance ended and Elisa''s projection disappeared.


    The entire hall was filled with thunderous applause as the people gave their appreciation to the singer.


    Soon later, refreshments were being served. People with servant uniforms carried trays of drinks and moved around the place.


    Of course, they were not real servants; this was a part-time job.


    Glen found himself holding a glass of wine as the three of them moved upstairs, where there were fewer people.


    "Wow, this thing is amazing!" Glen smacked his lips with a flushed face. He had never had wine before, the taste of it blew his mind away.


    Reaching upstairs, they started to move around aimlessly.


    A lot of ladies approached the three in an attempt to have a conversation but left due to the trio''s unresponsive attitude, still, it didn''t stop the ladies from following them around.


    After roaming aimlessly for a while, they happened to bump into Mr Alonso, his wife, and son.


    "Look, there they are!" Mrs Florence announced to her husband when she saw them approaching.


    " My wife said you lads came to visit; I was so surprised and thought she was joking," Mr Alonso, the old driver, said with a laugh. Sear?h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    " Good lads, you all remembered me after finishing your training; this old man is really happy" Mr Alonso chuckled while patting Glen''s shoulder.


    They talked for a bit before Glen asked about Elisa, she was done with her performance and should be with her family.


    "She should be at the back of the stage; let''s go meet her; I''m sure she''ll be happy to see you guys," Mrs Florence declared, and they all moved to the back of the stage.


    The back of the stage was packed with people who were in charge of organizing the events and other performers, as well as people in charge of refreshments; racks of clothes were being pushed all around.


    Making their way through the busy hallway, they asked some people about where the singer Elisa was staying.


    They were pointed in a direction and immediately moved over.


    After a while, they came to a less crowded hallway; people moving through were not up to ten.


    They soon found the room that was Elisa''s place for the duration of the event, performers like Elisa usually had their own private changing room where they could rest.


    But strangely, they found two huge men standing in front of the door and blocking anyone from approaching.


    This caused a frown on everyone''s face, the Elisa that they all knew disliked the company of strangers; no way would she get bodyguards to accompany her.


    "Maybe they were provided by her company?" Mrs Florence voiced out.


    " But it''s strange, I don''t think Elisa would agree to it. Don''t forget that she''s a Nexulyte, even if she''s a weak one; it will be difficult for anything to pose a threat to her inside the city" Ralph said with a serious look on his face.


    They gave up on guessing and approached the door, they would ask Elisa when they saw her.


    But just as expected, the two huge men stopped them from approaching when they got within a meter of the door.


    " What are you doing?" Me Alonso asked.


    " No one is allowed to come in for now, go back," One of the two men declared dismissively; he clearly didn''t think much of this group.


    "What do you mean? The person inside is my daughter; she''ll surely not have any problem seeing us," Mr Alonso responded strongly, unwilling to leave.


    "Leave, don''t make me use force" The man scoffed while giving the old driver a menacing glare.


    Mr Alonso flinched and took a step back, the man''s eyes just now frightened him.


    From the back, Ivan was analyzing the two men with narrowed eyes. They seemed to be Nexulytes, but he couldn''t tell their ranks; he guessed that they should at least be at the True King rank since they were doing guarding duty.


    "Sorry about my husband but could you at least let her know that her parents are here to see her?" Mrs Florence stepped forward and said to them with an apologetic smile on her face.


    The two men stared down at her before looking away, ignoring her.


    "Excuse me," Ralph''s voice sounded from behind the couple as he walked in front of them and faced the two men; they were only a few inches taller than him, so Ralph didn''t need to lift his gaze to look them in the eyes.


    "They are the parents of the person that you''re guarding, how can you be so rude to the parents of your employer?" Ralph stated coldly.


    The expressions on the faces of the two men changed slightly as they gazed at Ralph, a fierce glint flashed past their eyes.


    "Are you looking for a beating, boy? I said scram!" One of them barked at Ralph.


    While Ralph exchanged words with the two, Ivan focused his hearing and tried to listen to what was going on behind the door; he immediately caught someone''s voice, it was a man''s voice!

 Chapter 87 - 87: Angry Ivan

    "Why are you playing so hard? You''re just an ordinary singer, my father''s company owns you!


    Do you think you can continue acting as you wish? How long do you think he''ll tolerate your eccentric behavior? You''ll sooner or later lose value to him after your followers stop listening to you, and you''ll be tossed aside; what next?


    Do you think another company will accept a singer who refuses to perform on stage? No fan service at all?


    I''m clearly giving you a chance but you''re acting stubborn, just be my woman and I''ll promise you that you''ll never have to worry about anything ever again; I can even help you grow stronger, I can get you Nexus crystals"


    The man''s voice said with so much maliciousness that Ivan''s eyes twitched, this person definitely had bad intentions.


    He waited for a bit but no response was given to the man''s words as the room turned silent for a bit.


    Crash!


    The sound of something breaking suddenly entered Ivan''s ears and the man''s angry voice rang out.


    "You''re always acting like this, ignoring me. I''m so sincere in wanting you, but you keep ignoring me. Do you think I''m that easy? Who do you even think you are? You have no idea how many women would willingly crawl into my bed if I gave them a chance; even top celebrities will fight for the chance.


    But here I am, giving a new singer like you that chance but you dare to ignore me? Do you think I don''t dare do anything to you? Do you believe you can''t lose everything within a day if I want to?" The man''s voice said irritably but the room still fell into silence after Elisa didn''t respond.


    ''Another bastard'' Ivan thought to himself before walking forward to Ralph''s side.


    All eyes immediately turned to him as he stood side by side with Ralph.


    "Another brat? You want to end up in the hospital with your friend?" One of the two guards said as Nexus energy began to rise from his body.


    The sudden appearance of Nexus energy immediately scared Mrs. Alonso, his wife, and his son while the faces of Ralph and Glen turned serious; they were both at the Mortal rank and would cause a lot of destruction if a fight were to break out.


    Just as Ivan had guessed, the guard was a True King but his Nexus energy was weaker than when Ivan was in that rank; he must be below 30% AP. Sear?h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Scram, don''t make me use force," Ivan said softly, but his voice was so chilly that the guard felt cold for a moment.


    " Kid, you''re looking for death!" He spat out and suddenly threw a punch.


    "Ivan!" Mrs Florence and her husband called out anxiously upon seeing the guard attacking Ivan.


    They were ordinary people and obviously could not tell what rank the guard was or how strong Ivan was, only Ralph and Glen remained calm in the situation.


    PAM!


    The sound of flesh slapping each other was suddenly heard as Ivan caught the man''s fist with his palm; the punch didn''t even manage to push his hand an inch backward.


    The eyes of the two guards widened upon seeing how Ivan easily caught the punch, they immediately realized that this kid was a Nexulyte as well.


    "What¡­" The man was about to say something when a sharp pain suddenly assaulted his fist as all of his fingers were crushed by the sudden grip of Ivan''s palm.


    But before the man could even scream from the pain, Ivan''s other hand moved like a shadow and slammed into the side of the man''s head, sending his body flying to the side.


    No one saw Ivan''s movements and before they knew it, the huge guard was lying on the ground a few meters away, unconscious.


    Everyone except Ralph and Glen was shocked by the sudden turn of events; they all stared at him with wide-open mouths.


    "Get out of my way, or you''ll experience the same thing." Ivan turned to the other guard and said to him while pointing at the unconscious guard.


    The guard was shaken by Ivan''s sudden voice, and he took several steps back while looking at Ivan vigilantly; he immediately realized that this young man wasn''t a weak Nexulyte.


    "Damn you!" The guard gathered courage and snapped at Ivan before materializing a nine-ringed saber from Nexus energy; he gripped the saber and charged at Ivan.


    The sudden appearance of a weapon sent the old driver and his family into another wave of shock while Ralph and Glen prepared to act in case Ivan destroyed the place accidentally; they were not worried about the guard hurting Ivan; that was impossible.


    The guard arrived in front of Ivan and swung his saber at Ivan''s body, a nasty expression on his face; he was clearly ready to kill.


    "Don''t blame me then," Ivan mumbled and calmly stepped backward and allowed the blade of the saber to cut the air in front of him; he stretched out one of his hands and grabbed the handle of the saber before sending a palm strike to the chest of the guard with his other hand.


    The sound of bones breaking rang out as the guard was sent flying back, he smashed into a wall on the other side of the hallway and started vomiting blood before passing out as well.


    The sound of him crashing into the wall was quite loud, and a few people came to see what was going on; they all showed dismayed expressions when they saw the two unconscious guards.


    Ignoring everything, Ivan walked toward the door and kicked it open.


    BANG!


    The door was sent flying by the kick, revealing the inside.


    "What the hell? Didn''t I tell you I didn''t want to be disturbed? How dare you barge in?" The man inside the room yelled angrily but stopped when he saw the bunch of unfamiliar faces, these were not the guards that he had left outside.


    " Who the fuck are you all?" The man asked in an irritated voice.


    No one answered him as they stared at the mess in the room. Broken flower vases, mirrors, and pieces of painting were scattered all over the floor. The man was standing in front of Elisa, who was sitting on a single-person couch in her red gown; her hands were clenched together, and on her pretty face was an awful expression.


    Mrs. Florence''s eyes immediately turned red when she saw this; Mr. Alonso was enraged as well; they quickly moved to Elisa''s side while leaving their son to Glen.


    "I asked who are you lots, and don''t come close to her when I haven''t allowed you!" The man bellowed at the couple and began calling for his guards.


    Mr. Alonso and his wife didn''t listen and still rushed to Elisa''s side; Mrs. Florence touched her daughter''s face and began to ask if she was alright. Mr Alonso just stood beside his wife and looked at his daughter with red eyes.


    Being ignored by the two, the man was pissed off. He raised his hand and wanted to hit Mrs Florence who was closer to him.


    "I said don''t come close to her!" He yelled while bringing down his hand toward Mrs Florence but another hand suddenly caught him in midair in a firm grip.


    Looking over, he saw it was a dashing young man with white hair; the gaze of this young man was so chilling that it made the man who was about to hit Mrs Florence gulp nervously.


    "What-what are you doing? Do you have any idea who I am?" The man managed to speak after a while and tried to break from Ivan''s grasp but it was impossible as the grip on his wrist was as strong as concrete.


    Ivan ignored him and turned to look at the couple who were trying to console their daughter.


    "Is she hurt?" Ivan asked calmly.


    Mr Alonso answered that she wasn''t hurt anyway, ivan nodded before turning back to the man.


    Krack!


    He applied a little force and immediately broke the man''s wrist before letting go, the man fell to the ground and started screaming like a pig that was being slaughtered.


    "Let''s leave," Ralph came up and announced.


    They had caused a ruckus, and a lot of people had gathered by now; this man must have some background to be able to have two True King Nexulytes as guards; it might become troublesome if his backers were to come and meet them.


    Ignoring the screaming man, all of them quickly left the room.


    They had just returned to the hallway when the sound of multiple footsteps was heard, and a lot of people suddenly appeared in front and blocked their path; almost all of them were in similar uniforms as the two guards that Ivan had knocked out.


    In front of the new group was an old man with white hair and a white beard; he wore a white suit with a white trench coat hanging around his shoulders; this old man stood straight like an arrow; his eyes were as sharp as the eyes of predators.


    The old man''s eyes moved from Ivan''s face to Elisa, goen6, Ralph, the two unconscious guards, and then Elisa''s parents before looking in the direction of the room. Since the door was broken, he was instantly able to see the state of the room and the screaming man on the floor.


    His eyes immediately narrowed upon seeing the twisted wrist of the man, his body exploded with Nexus energy.


    BOOM!!


    Like a small explosion, the Nexus energy from the old man cracked the ground below the old man as the trench coat on his shoulders swayed violently behind him.


    "How dare you!" He bellowed.

 Chapter 88 - 88: Uno reverse

    "How dare you!" The old man bellowed and exploded with Nexus energy.


    Ivan''s face immediately changed, this old man was a Domain Lord!


    This was the strength of the majority of the instructors back at the tower. Sear?h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Even at that, Ivan wasn''t scared as he prepared to fight.


    The man who was screaming on the ground immediately stopped when he heard the voice of the old man, he got up and ran out of the room.


    "Father, this person is causing trouble. He came here and started harassing us! He''s a strong Nexulyte and even knocked out my guards" The man cried out to the old man the instant he saw the latter.


    The face of the old man contorted in rage hearing his son''s claims, he stared at Ivan with murderous intent.


    "As a highly ranked Nexulyte capable of defeating two True Kings simultaneously, you should be ashamed of yourself for using your powers on an ordinary person!" The old man said through gritted teeth.


    A huge amount of Nexus energy rose from his body and splashed on the ground before forming into a huge black scorpion that was as tall as a human and six meters long.


    The scorpion landed on the ground with a bang.


    "Ivan, be careful!"


    Ralph suddenly called out from behind as he and Glen came to stand beside Ivan with serious faces.


    "We''ll help you deal with this old man," Glen stated.


    The three of them faced the old man and his Scorpion, ready to fight at any moment.


    Contrary to their readiness, the old man had a doubtful look on his face as if he had heard something wrong; he looked at the three young men before suddenly asking.


    "Did you just say¡­Ivan?"


    His sudden question left the three speechless, they glanced at each other before turning to the old man.


    " Yes, I said Ivan; what does it have to do with you?" Ralph replied.


    The doubtful look on the old man''s face grew and he asked again.


    " Are you perhaps the new recruit of the Owen Tower from six months ago?"


    This question once again stumped the three of them, they could feel that the man''s tone wasn''t as energetic as before and there was even a slight hint of panic.


    Thinking of something, Ivan brought out his storage device instead of answering and took out his ID before showing it to the old man.


    The eyes of the old man immediately shrank upon seeing this, he turned to his son before bellowing.


    " How dare you!"


    The shout was backed up with a slap that sent the man flying back into the room while screaming. Everyone in the hallway was shocked by the sudden twist, they all looked at the old man as if he had gone crazy.


    After sending his son flying, the old man turned to Ivan and his friends and suddenly bowed his head slightly.


    "I apologize for my son''s misconduct, I''ve neglected teaching him the right way. Please pardon him this once, I''ll make sure I find out what he did and compensate you if necessary" the old man mouthed words of apologize to Ivan''s group and without waiting for the three to digest what was going on, he turned around and ordered the people behind him to make room for them to pass.


    Still confused, Ivan led his friends and Elisa''s family through; they left the place easily which wasn''t what they had expected when the old man had arrived.


    After finally sending Ivan and his group off, the old man sighed in relief before rushing into the room that he had sent his son flying to.


    "Son, son! Are you alright?" The old man called out worriedly as he rushed to the man on the floor, the side of his face was bruised and a few of his teeth were missing.


    "Why" the man muttered with so much difficulty as he looked at the old man with a wronged expression in his eyes, his face was currently unable to form an expression.


    He had been delighted that his father had shown up, as a Nexulyte himself and a strong in at that, he believed that his father would be able to avenge him. But not only did his father not do as expected, he had sent him flying with a slap after asking a few meaningless questions.


    ''Sniff, I feel so wronged. Are you really my father? Are you being biased because he''s a Nexulyte and I''m not?'' the man lamented in his mind as hot tears streamed down his eyes.


    The old man shook his head when he saw his son crying silently, he felt a tightening feeling in his heart but there was nothing he could do.


    "You messed with the wrong person this time son, you should be careful who you cross paths with; not every Nexulyte will be scared off by me easily.


    That young man is a talented recruit of the Owen Tower, he was scouted by James Owen himself six months ago; I don''t need to tell you who James Owen is, do I?


    What is more frightening about him is that the heads of all the big towers fought over him. Do you know what it means for those old monsters to make a move personally? I do not even have enough worth to make them move.


    Do you have any idea what would happen to our family if we offended him or as much as to hurt him? The entire Owen Tower might come for us or James might come knocking on our door the very day he learns of it, our heads might not be enough for compensation; he will definitely sweep our entire family clean!" The old man patiently explained to his son before sighing again.


    Imagining the consequences that might have befallen him had he attacked irrationally caused his body to tremble, he was extremely lucky to have waited a bit.


    Looking at his son who was still shedding tears silently, the old man picked him up from the ground.


    " It''s alright, he shouldn''t hold a grudge after seeing what I did to you. Just make sure to stay as far away from him or anyone related to him in the future" said the old man as he walked out of the room.


    ¡­.


    After reaching outside, everyone turned to look at Ivan.


    "What?" Ivan asked with a frown.


    "What was that about?" Glen shot back with another question.


    Ivan shrugged, he honestly didn''t know.


    "It''s alright, we were able to avoid trouble thanks to whatever just happened" Ralph mentioned and everyone nodded.


    " Thank you so much Ivan, thank you all for helping our daughter" Mrs Florence suddenly began to thank them, tears gathering in her eyes.


    " It''s nothing Auntie, Elisa is like a sister to us too" Glen quickly stopped Mrs Florence with a honest smile on his face.


    " Who''s your sister?!" Elisa snorted coldly from the side.


    Glen looked at her with a confused face.


    ''What did I do wrong?!''


    "Come, let''s return home first. I''ll prepare a nice meal for everyone!" Mrs Florence announced.


    " Sorry Aunt but that will be next time, we have something else to deal with. We''ll come tomorrow" Ralph mentioned.


    " Oh" a look of disappointment appeared on Mrs Florence''s face but she didn''t force them, they waved goodbye before going their separate ways.

 Chapter 89 - 89: Return to the outskirt

    After Separating with Mr Alonso and his family, the three of them found themselves stranded in the middle of nowhere without a means of returning to their villas.


    Glen shamelessly proposed contacting Miss Elora but was stopped by Ralph, they should not bother their former instructor just because she was being unexpectedly nice to them.


    In the end, they had taken a taxi to the nearest teleportation vault that would take them to the western sector. After reaching the western, they took another taxi to their place.


    The taxi cars that worked in the western sector were far more luxurious than the ones in the southern sector, their charges were just as equally expensive.


    They arrived in front of their villas and separated, each of them going to check out their new homes after the setup.


    Click!


    The front door opened and Ivan stepped in. Unlike Ralph and Glen who had hired permanent workers, the workers Ivan had gotten had left after completing their jobs.


    The place has been cleaned up nicely, and a refreshing scent drifted in the air; the workers really knew how to do their jobs.


    Using a few hours to go take a look in every room, Ivan returned to the training room.


    The training room inside the villa was as big as the one back at the tower.


    Inside the training room was a small platform that could be used for sparring, a sleeping pod was placed on another side.


    Ivan approached the sleeping pod and entered, he immediately found himself in a dark space after entering the sleeping pod.


    A list of options appeared in front of him.


    Fist training


    Weapon training.


    Combat mode.


    These three options appeared in front of Ivan and Ivan immediately tapped on the second one, weapon training.


    The list disappeared and another list appeared in front of Ivan. This list was a large board with the image of various weapons on it, weapons that Ivan didn''t even know existed.


    Ivan randomly tapped on one of the images and a scythe with a long metal handle appeared in his hand, after which another interface appeared in front of him.


    Scythe weapon training: select level.


    Beginner


    Novice


    Master


    Expert


    Ivan tapped on the first one since he had never since he had never used a scythe before, it wasn''t amongst the list of weapons he trained with back in the tower.


    The interface vanished after Ivan made his choice, and an illusionary silhouette appeared in the dark space; it was holding an illusionary scythe as well.


    Without saying anything, the silhouette began to wave the scythe it was holding in divergent patterns that managed to link with each other in ways that Ivan could not understand.


    He immediately understood what was going on, the silhouette was showing him how to use this weapon!


    Ivan immediately began to follow the movements of the silhouette and began to wave his scythe as well while copying its footwork, time flew by as they continued training.


    ...


    The gentle rays of sunlight pierced through the windows and bathed the inside of the villa, morning had arrived.


    Ivan had spent the entire night inside the training room yesterday and he only came out after receiving a notification from the pod system that it was morning.


    Surprisingly, Ivan didn''t feel fatigued or sleepy; it was as if he had slept during the night; he felt very refreshed.


    Walking out of the training room, Ivan went to one of the bathrooms in the Villa to clean up and change into a new set of clothes.


    Since the entire place was empty and no one side Ivan lived there, the place was very quiet, and not a single sound could be heard.


    Ivan went to the kitchen and got something from the fridge to fill his stomach with before going out, he met Ralph and Glen at the front of his gate; the two were also dressed up and ready to go out.


    The three of them arrived at the teleportation vault a few minutes later before taking a taxi that took them straight to a station where they would get a light train back to the outskirt.


    The light train took three minutes to cross the thousands of kilometers distance that separated San Pluto and the outskirt they were from and stopped at the familiar old train station.


    Stepping out of the light train, the three could not help but stare in a daze at the familiar sight of the outskirt. The old buildings and destroyed roads were still the same as when they left, nothing changed.


    They had left as three young adults who had never seen the world six months ago but were returning as changed men. They were now Nexulytes, people who stood at the top of the world, and ordinary people could only look up to them.


    "Sniff, I feel like crying. We''re really back" Glen choked out while rubbing his eyes. Ralph only stared with a passive look in his eyes while Ivan had an expressionless face as the images of a few people formed in his mind.


    "You guys go ahead, I''ll catch up later," Ivan said to the two.


    Ralph immediately turned to look at him, his eyes narrowing.


    "Where are you going?" He questioned.


    Ivan only replied that he had something to take care of before running off, not giving the two a chance to ask any more questions.


    Ralph and Glen watched Ivan disappear into the distance, they exchanged glances before turning away; they had things to take care of as well.


    Their families!


    The eyes of the two brightened as they left the train station.


    The two immediately attracted a lot of gazes when they started to see other people; many stared at them in shock, while some looked with pity while shaking their heads.


    This confused the two of them, why the pity?


    But they soon came to realize why after reaching Glen''s house, the sight that they met with was¡­devastating.


    The whole place was a mess as if a bomb had been dropped on it, almost every single building within a two hundred meters radius was completely destructive; Glen''s house as well was also destroyed.


    "Big brother!" The voice of a little girl suddenly came from the side of the collapsed buildings as a small figure dashed out and ran toward Glen.


    Glen immediately recognized her, it was his little sister. He went down on one knee with his arms spread open to catch her.


    "Big brother, you came back!" The little girl cried out in Glen''s embrace.


    Looking at the miserable state of his little sister was worse than when he left; Glen felt a sharp pain in his heart. He hugged her tightly and softly told her not to cry.


    While comforting his little sister, Glen''s eyes fell on another figure from where his little sister had come from; his face immediately collapsed, and his eyes reddened; the always cheerful Glen looked like someone who had lost everything at this point. Sear?h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "M-mom?" Glen called out in disbelief.


    The person he was seeing looked so much like his mother but she looked so different at the same time. She had huge eye bags, tattered clothes, messy hair, and was very skinny; Glen almost thought she was a ghost.


    Carrying his little sister, Glen moved over to his mother and hugged her as well.


    "What happened?" Glen''s voice was almost inaudible and he almost choked with tears.


    Ralph stood at the side quietly, but an overwhelmed expression could be seen on his face; the state of Glen''s family was too unexpected.


    Glen''s mother slowly opened her mouth to speak.


    "You father¡­"


    Glen''s and Ralph''s eyes widened in shock as they listened to her.

 Chapter 90 - 90: Do you bleed?

    Meanwhile, after leaving Ralph and Glen at the train station, he went to another side of the outskirt.


    After searching for a few minutes, he finally found what he was looking for.


    The four scums who had made life miserable for him in the past!


    Inside an old structure, four middle-aged men could be seen sitting around a table and enjoying a meal that was definitely not made in the outskirts; they must have brought it back with them from San Pluto.


    What Ivan found odd was that one of the men had a bandage around his head, but this wasn''t a problem he had to worry about.


    Leisurely walking over, the four men immediately spotted him.


    "Who are you?!" One of them shouted at Ivan and immediately reached for his laser gun; the others also became alert seeing a white-haired young man walking toward them.


    Ivan didn''t respond; his face was as hard as a rock, and his eyes were colder than winter as he continued to walk over in casual steps with both hands in his pants pockets.


    "Hold on, he looks kind of familiar," The man with a bandage around his head said to the others as he stared at Ivan with squinted eyes, his eyes lit up after five seconds of carefully looking at Ivan''s face.


    "Ah! It''s that Ivan kid, he came back" The man announced. A malicious smile immediately formed on his face as he jumped up happily, ignoring his head injury.


    The others also took a closer look before their eyes brightened in the realization that their friend was right; it really was Ivan.


    "Haha, to think he''ll come back after managing to run away. Looks like he missed us" One of the men laughed and tossed his laser gun to the side as he started to rub his palms together.


    "Hehehe, of course, he would miss us. I knew that this kid was a masochist a long time ago; he came back since he missed getting hit by us," another man said while licking his lips, and the others laughed.


    "I was so furious after getting punished because of this brat back then, who would have imagined that the tower master was there that day? He was so lucky. I thought I would never get a chance to get my revenge; to this, he would come to me himself.


    Come, come, you''ll explain how you got the guts to escape in my absence and even dared to let the tower master punish me because of you." The leader amongst the four men laughed with a cold glint in his eyes.


    Back then, at the awakening center, they had encountered Ivan, Ralph, and Glen, but the tower master had been there and had even punished him for bullying a potential Nexulyte of the tower.


    The man had been enraged after returning, he had undergone physical punishment and his pay had been halved. He thought he would never be able to resolve this knot in his heart since the tower master seemed to think highly of Ivan and he would never see the brat again.


    As Nexulyte, he has obviously gone to the tower for training as well. His talent was just so bad, and he had barely passed; he had been assigned here since then to watch over a stupid outskirt instead of living a good life in the city.


    ''Looks like his talent is bad as well and he has been thrown away just like me! Good, I''ll show you the consequence of trying to escape me''


    The leader thought to himself as he stared at Ivan with sharp eyes, his gaze would have cut Ivan into a thousand pieces if possible.


    Ivan ignored their taunts and kept walking over; he stopped after reaching a five-meter mark away from them.


    "What are you doing? Who told you to stop? Get over here right now!" One of the men yelled impatiently.


    "What walk? Crawl on all four you lowlife, better obey because no one will be able to save you this time"


    Another laughed.


    Ivan scanned their faces with his eyes. Their current location was still relatively close to people, and they would hear if a commotion broke out; he couldn''t start yet.


    Bending down slowly, the four men grinned widely thinking he was really going to crawl. But even suddenly grabbed a handful of dirt and threw it at their faces and bolted in a direction away from the living area.


    "You bastard, how dare you run after throwing dirt at me? Come back here and take a beating!"


    One of the men was unlucky, and a small part of dirt had entered his mouth; he immediately chased after Ivan.


    " He''s a Nexulyte now, so he can take more beating; catch him!" The leader shouted and gave chase as well.


    "Kekeke, he''s running in the wrong way; I would go to where a lot of people are if I were him" one of them laughed as they pursued Ivan. S§×arch* The n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "It doesn''t matter; no one can save him even if he runs into a market," The leader sneered.


    They chased Ivan for a good five minutes before the latter finally stopped, and the four men stopped as well.


    Their current location could only be described in two words.


    Ancient ruins.


    It was like a long abandoned city with very old buildings, cracked ground, and large skeletons of monsters. It looked like a piece of land that escaped an apocalypse; it was a small settlement outside the border and no one actually came here.


    "He stopped? Did he think he intentionally led us out of the outskirt to deal with us? How naive"


    "He''s only been away for six months and since he came back, he must be a Mortal King at most. We are all Mortal Kings as well, and our leader is a True king. Does he think he can face us alone?"


    " You made a bad choice, Ivan; you even came outside the border. If anything happens to you here, we can easily blame it on a stray monster; you''re trapped here with us" The leader choked out with a cold laugh.


    Ivan slowly turned around and faced them, his face extremely cold and his eyes were narrowed and sharp like that of an intelligent monster.


    "You got it wrong¡­you''re the ones trapped here with me"


    Ivan mumbled softly but his voice reached the ears of the four men and sent a cold shiver through their bodies.


    Their faces paled, and they took a step back subconsciously; Ivan''s expression just now frightened them for a moment.


    "What bullshit are you spitting out? What nonsense are you saying? Do you think you can fight all of us?" The leader snapped through gritted teeth, embarrassed of being scared by a young boy who had just become a Nexulyte not long ago.


    But before he could say anything else, Ivan suddenly stepped forward and disappeared from their sight only to reappear in front of the leader.


    "Tell me¡­do you bleed?"

 Chapter 91 - 91: Payback

    "Tell me¡­do you bleed?"


    Ivan''s cold voice sounded in the ears of the leader, and the latter''s eyes shrank to the size of a needle; he didn''t know when and how Ivan appeared in front of him so quickly.


    Alerted, he immediately wanted to let out his Nexus energy when a sharp pain shot up his left knee.


    Ivan had kicked his knee so strongly that the bone split and pierced out from his flesh, causing a bloody sight of shattered bones, ripped flesh, and dripping blood.


    The pain was so strong that the leader wanted to let out a heart-wrenching scream, but before he could open his mouth, the back of Ivan''s hand met his face; a swift and heavy slap that sent broken teeth, blood and saliva flying out of the man''s mouth landed on his cheek.


    The force of the slap was so strong that it lifted the man off his two feet and sent him flying to the side like a broken kite.


    BOOM!


    The man crashed into the remains of the old structures and came out through the other side, smashing into the ground heavily like a ragged doll.


    The man lay motionless on the ground as if he was dead; they could only tell that he was still alive because of the mouth full of blood that he was constantly coughing out.


    The leader stared at the sky, his expression was unreadable because of the blood covering his face. Many of his bones were broken, and some of his ribs stabbed into his lungs, making breathing unbearably painful and difficult; his entire body was screaming in pain, and he couldn''t move a finger.


    ''How'' he choked inwardly, unable to understand what had happened.


    Back at where Ivan and the other three men were standing, Ivan slowly lowered the arm that he had used to slap the leader before turning to the next person with a cold glint in his eyes.


    The three men were still standing there, their eyes wide open in shock. It took them time to wrap their minds around what had just happened, and it was as if their brains were not working for a moment; everything that had happened had taken only two seconds; they had not been able to see Ivan''s movements clearly!


    The first thing they saw was him vanishing from their sight and then appearing in front of their leader. Before they knew what was going on, the left knee of their leader suddenly exploded into a bloody mess before he was sent flying and was now constantly coughing out blood while lying on the ground like a dead person.


    Just what in the world had happened?!


    They all stared at Ivan, who was now facing them; a look of terror appeared on their faces.


    "M-monster!" One of the men stuttered as he took several steps back, his knees trembling as a yellow patch appeared on his pants.


    This kid had put their leader in such a state within two seconds, how could they possibly face such a demon?


    "Just like you said, this is outside the border. If anything happens, it can be blamed on monsters." Ivan''s voice sounded in the ears of the three, and they immediately felt cold hands wrapping their hearts; they felt a huge lump in their throats.


    It turns out that Ivan has really tricked them; they were the ones who had misunderstood¡­no, they had underestimated him; they did not trap a weak kid, they were trapped with a monster!


    A thought immediately formed in the minds of all three men.


    Run!


    Instantly abandoning any sense of shame and reasoning, the three middle-aged men turned tails and bolted into the distance, trying to get as far away from this white haired monster.


    Ivan only watched this as a cold smile crept up his lips unknowingly, he looked just like a villain who enjoyed torture.


    These three were only at the Mortal King rank; how could they possibly escape Ivan, who was at the Partial Lord rank?


    Swoosh!


    Ivan vanished from where he was standing, creating a gust of wind as he chased after them.


    The first man had crossed five hundred meters by this time and was just a few kilometers away from reaching the open space that separated the outskirt and the border, a look of horror could be seen on his face as he ran with everything he had while praying like his life depended on it; his life did depend on it though.


    "No one can answer your prayers, no one can save you from me"


    A calm voice that sent shivers down the man''s body sounded from the side; he slowly turned his head to look with desperate eyes, hoping everything would be his mind playing tricks, but what he saw made him almost go mad on the spot, and he immediately tripped.


    Running beside him was Ivan with an expression that resembled that of a demon, it was a smile that only psychopathic killers would have.


    Ivan also stopped running when the man tripped over and walked over to him.


    " No, no! Please stop! Don''t come here! I''m sorry, I didn''t want to do it, I didn''t want to hurt you. I won''t do it again, please!"


    The man begged while crying profusely like a child, tears, and snort covering his face.


    Ivan ignored all of this and calmly approached him, standing in front of the man, Ivan opened his mouth and mumbled. S§×ar?h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "It''s too late to apologize"


    Immediately after saying those words, Ivan slapped the man''s chest.


    Sounds of bones popping rang out as Ivan destroyed the man''s rib cage in a single slap.


    The man cried out in agony as a fountain of blood gushed out from his mouth. Ivan did not intend to kill him quickly so he left him there and went after the other two.


    It only took Ivan a couple of seconds to catch up to the other two men, he directly shattered one''s pelvis with a kick rendered the man unable to move anymore, and blew off the legs of the other one before dragging him with his open wounds running the ground; Ivan completely ignored the man''s screaming and pleading.


    A while later, Ivan had carried all three of them back to where their leader was; the four of them were now together.


    None of them were dead yet, but only two were still able to talk; the other two just kept vomiting blood.


    Ivan looked at the sight with a wide smile that made the men tremble, wondering what sort of demon Ivan had become.


    "Don''t you feel nostalgic about this? This was how it has always been, just the five of us; only that the roles are reversed this time," Ivan said with a devilish smile on his face


    "You guys usually laughed a lot and looked happy, must have been fun," Ivan voiced out again as he stepped on the leader''s already shattered leg and slowly applied force, letting out the sound of bones being crushed.


    The leader, who was unable to make a sound, could only throw up more blood as the pain was driving him crazy.


    Ivan watched this with a wider smile while the other three men looked at him fearfully.


    He was a demon, a true demon from hell!


    "Come on, laugh like you used to!" Ivan ordered as he pressed down with more force until the leg was completely destroyed.


    Ivan wasn''t done yet, moving to the other leg, he did the same thing.


    The amount of blood that the leader vomited was already forming a small pond under him; the other three men fell into despair, knowing it would be their turn soon.


    Ivan stopped after three minutes of walking the leader through a garden of agony, he did not kill the latter and left him after destroying all of his bones.


    Ivan turned to the next person, it was the one who had his pelvis destroyed with a single kick.


    "Congratulations, it''s your turn," Ivan said to him with a smile.


    The man was spooked. Ignoring his shattered pelvis and the excruciating pain he was feeling, the man fell on his front and began crawling away by pulling his body with his hands while screaming for Ivan not to get close.


    "Where do you think you''re going?"


    Stomp!


    Crack!


    Ivan asked before stepping on the man''s fingers, shattering them along with the ground.


    "Ahhh!"


    The man screamed like a pig being slaughtered but Ivan wasn''t done yet.


    Stomp!¡Á99


    "Ahh!" ¡Á99


    The other two men watched in horror as Ivan stomped on the man''s limbs and even his already shattered pelvis, they could only imagine the world of pain that their companion was experiencing and shivered.


    Ivan continued for five minutes, he had been carried away and didn''t know when he stomped on the man''s body. In the end, the man was reduced to a bloody pulp of flesh and blood; not a single part of his body was left whole.


    "Ah! That was unfortunate; I''ll be more gentle with you two." Ivan shook his head with a sigh before turning to the last two.


    "No! No! Please, ahhh!!!"


    Screams that would make even the bravest of soldiers shake in terror filled the air as Ivan carried out multiple ways of torturing the three men, from breaking bones, tearing their flesh, and even inserting objects into them; it was a sight that would leave other traumatized for life!

 Chapter 92 - 92: The new year

    Looking at the sight of the four dead men, Ivan did not feel any discomfort over killing a human for the first time. Instead, he felt a huge burden leave his chest, and his shoulders strangely felt lighter; it was as if he had thrown away a heavy load that had been pressing down on him; it was refreshing.


    After that, he used his card and produced droplets of water which he used to wash himself and clean the bloodstains from his clothes before creating a gust of wind to dry himself.


    After he was done cleaning himself, Ivan took out another card and turned it into a fire snake.


    He ordered the fire snake to wreak destruction all over the place and to attack their corpses as well, making it look like a beast had killed them.


    With this, Ivan could report to the tower after returning and the tower will send people to investigate. As long as there was no evidence that showed that it was a human who killed them, they would drop the matter and send other people to take the place of these scumbags.


    Ivan finished his set up and returned to the outskirts to look for his friends but what he met wasn''t what he was expecting.


    Ralph filled him in after he rejoined. According to Glen''s mother, a monster had attacked the outskirt a month ago and was causing destruction at the edge that was relatively far away from where Glen''s family lived.


    The Nexulytes in charge of the outskirt had held off while the people ran in the opposite direction for safety. Reinforcement soon arrived, and everyone thought that the issue would be resolved quickly.


    But the monster suddenly sent the person that was fighting it flying and crashing into many buildings, destroying them.


    One of these buildings just happened to be Glen''s home. The house had collapsed, and a part of it had crushed his father right in front of his mother and little sister.


    Ever since then, Glen''s mother had been barely trying to take care of Glen''s little sister as they had lost everything and didn''t even have a place to stay; they were still living in the ruins of their destroyed home.


    Ivan looked at Glen who was trying to console his sister and mother. The boy had a small smile on his face, but Ivan could see something in his eyes, something that he was very familiar with.


    Hate!


    Ivan didn''t need Glen to confirm it himself; he could already tell that his friend now had so much hate for the dreamscape and its inhabitants, just like Ivan had for Nexulytes back then. S§×ar?h the N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    After a long while, they left the outskirt and returned to San Pluto.


    Glen''s mother recovered a bit after listening to her son talk about how well he had been doing, a mother''s greatest joy was always her child''s happiness so listening to Glen cheered her up a bit; it obviously could not make him forget about her deceased husband so soon but it at least helped her smile a bit and realize that she needed to be strong for her son and daughter.


    Arriving at San Pluto, they contacted Mr. Alonso, who gladly came to pick them up from the station and personally drove them to the western sector, which took almost the whole day; this made them realize how far the western sector was and why it needed a teleportation vault.


    Mr Alonso drove them to their villas, the old driver was stunned by the sight of the three villas and could only exclaim how it was befitting of Nexulytes.


    They also introduced him to their families and told them how the old driver had assisted them even though he didn''t know them back then.


    "I''m really thankful to you for looking out for our boys; good people like you are rare," Ralph''s father thanked Mr Alonso while standing behind his wife''s wheelchair.


    " Haha, it''s nothing. They''re good boys and have helped my family as well" Mr Alonso laughed before telling them what happened last night.


    The old man had personally visited their home after they separated; he came along with his son, who tried to take advantage of Elisa to apologize.


    Not only did they apologize, but the old man extended Elisa''s contract, increased her monthly pay, and told her that she could even decide to refuse to have her projection on stage if she wanted!


    Mr Alonso and his wife were not stupid; they immediately connected the dots and figured out that it was because of Ivan, so they planned to pay their gratitude next time.


    They all chatted a bit before going to their villas; Mr Alonso was asked to stay since it was late; although San Pluto had Nexulytes guarding almost everywhere, crime was something inevitable in human society, so Mr Alonso took one of the many bedrooms at Ivan''s place.


    The night went by swiftly with Ivan once again spending the entire night in the training room.


    The morning quickly came, and Mr. Alonso returned home to his family after bidding everyone farewell.


    Ivan had no plans for the day and remained in his villa, in the training room to be specific.


    Glen spent time with his mother and sister, he bought his mother a communicator and showed her how to run it.


    After which he directly sent her half of his entire balance and told her she could get whatever she wanted and it would be brought over, he went to the training room after.


    As for Ralph, he contacted Miss Elora and explained his mother''s situation to her and asked if there was a treatment.


    "Wait a moment, I''ll get back to you." Miss Elora replied because she wasn''t too knowledgeable about medical conditions and had to ask others; she replied a few minutes more.


    The good news was that there was a cure for it but the ingredients for making the cure were highly classified items found in the dreamscape and not just anyone knew about them much less get their hands on them, their prices were also astronomic with the cheapest in selling for over 50 million bucks and the most expensive one had a price of over 500 million bucks.


    As for the location of the ingredients, Miss Elora said that she wasn''t qualified to know about it yet and would have to ask her father or grandfather.


    Ralph thanked her before disconnecting the call and turning to his parents.


    "I promise I''ll find a cure for Mom," He said seriously.


    His parents told him not to stress over the issue and to focus more on improving himself; they would be happy as long as he was safe and had a good life.


    After all, his mother was a Nexulyte and knew just how scary the dreamscape was; she couldn''t help worrying about her only child going there.


    Being a Nexulyte can be both a blessing and a misfortune.


    After the discussion with his parents, Ralph went to the training room as well while his parents packed some food that was prepared by the hired chefs to go visit Glen''s mom and little sister and spend some time with her.


    Over the following days, Mr Alonso and his family had interacted more with the families of Glen and Ralph; they had gotten friendlier and friendlier and frequently came to visit them.


    Days flew by quickly and it was the new year!


    Everyone gathered at Ivan''s villa, they had all agreed to this without informing Ivan.


    The boy has no family, so they used this opportunity to show him that he wasn''t alone and that he could consider them as family; Ivan was touched.


    Miss Elora also stopped by to wish them a happy new year and also introduced herself to the couple. She saw Glen''s sister and suggested that she be sent to a school at the start of the upcoming term; the kid was smart, and she would definitely shine more after receiving guidance from respectable teachers.


    The meal of the New Year evening was exceptionally memorable, and everyone had fun; everyone returned home by midnight, though.


    What Ivan found strange was that the screen of his communicator was open when he picked it from where he left it, this had puzzled him; he could not guess who might have touched it.


    He dropped the matter after searching and seeing that nothing was wrong with his communicator, he returned to the training room after.


    This was the last day of their time off, and they would need to return to the tower tomorrow; he had forgotten to visit Camellia and the others.


    "I''ll do that next time when I''m free," Ivan whispered as he made his way to the training room.


    Looking at his AP, which was still at 43.75%, Ivan decided to try increasing it tonight instead of doing weapon training like he had been doing the whole week.


    He sat with his legs folded together as he began to sense the Nexus energy in the air, it wasn''t too bad compared to the tower; Ivan immediately began to absorb it.


    Many hours later.


    +0.01


    +0.01


    ¡­.


    Ivan soon lost track of time.

 Chapter 93 - 93: Setting out

    When Ivan woke up, it was already morning. He summoned his profile to check.


    ¡­


    NAME: Ivan Von Charles


    Talent Group: Primal Talent type: Wisher Talent: Wish card


    Talent lv: SS AP: 43.81% Rank: TRUE KING


    ¡­.


    A frown settled on Ivan''s face when he saw his AP; the thing had only increased by 0.06% after an entire night; this was far less than what he usually got from refining Nexus energy in his room back at the tower.


    "The speed of increasing AP is getting slower the stronger I get, looks like I would need to find another Nexus chamber or a Nexus crystal if I want to improve quickly." Asserted Ivan before standing up.


    He went to the bathroom, took a shower, and then proceeded to put on his uniform since they would be going back to the tower today.


    Ivan checked himself in a mirror after putting on his black uniform and black boots, he looked just like a seasoned officer.


    He was on his way to get something from the fridge when Ralph contacted him, inviting him over to have breakfast together.


    Ivan stared at the message for a bit before turning around and heading for the door.


    He reached Ralph''s place soon, Glen with his mother and sister were there as well.


    Ivan noticed a slight change in Glen''s disposition, the boy was still chatty with everyone but would suddenly zoom out at times.


    "You alright?" Ivan asked as he took the seat beside Glen.


    "Ah, yes. I''m good." Glen was stunned to hear Ivan taking the initiative to talk to him since the latter rarely did so; he gave a casual smile and answered.


    "Good," Ivan mouthed before facing his food.


    They finished breakfast quickly before heading out and waving their families goodbye.


    Miss Elora was already waiting for them outside the gate of Ralph''s Villa, she was in a similar black uniform as the three.


    "You all ready to go?" She asked when she saw the three coming out and the trio nodded.


    "Get in then," added Miss Elora before entering her black sports car. The trio entered after her, and they drove off.


    On their way to the tower, Ivan suddenly received a notification of a message.


    Opening it, it was a text from an unknown sender.


    ¡­


    Hi! Good morning, did you sleep well?


    ¡­.


    The content of the message was a single line with a simple sentence, but it made Ivan frown; he didn''t know who had sent it.


    And he wasn''t able to guess either judging by the way the sentence seemed, very few people had his contact and only one of them would talk like this; that person was Glen, but Glen was currently not even holding his communicator and he doubted that the boy would bother saying such words through a message.


    He would just say it to Ivan''s face!


    Ivan tried to check the information of the sender, but it was anonymous,s, and he was unable to find anything useful.


    ''A scammer?'' Ivan thought to himself and decided to ignore the message, he didn''t send a response.


    ¡­.


    Less than two hours later, they arrived at the northern sector where the Owen Tower was located.


    Miss Elora dropped them off in front of the tall massive structure of the tower that they were ever so familiar with.


    "I''ll leave you all here, good luck on your first mission." Miss Elora wished them before driving off.


    The three of them turned to look at the building of the tower after Miss Elora drove off. They had been away for just a week, yet it suddenly left like a very long time.


    "Let''s go" Ivan muttered to the two as he took the lead.


    They walked into the building and passed through twisting corridors before arriving at the ever-so-familiar lobby.


    Young men and women in purple tracksuits could be seen walking around the place; they were the new batch of trainees.


    The three could not help but feel¡­strange, they had really graduated and were now officials of the tower; they were no longer rookie trainees.


    "It''s you?!"


    A startled voice sounded from behind the three, they turned back and saw a group of trainees walking behind a youth with a mop of yellow hair. The youth was staring at the three of them with trembling eyes, the trainees behind the youth also stared at the three with looks of confusion.


    They felt that the three were too young to be wearing black uniforms which was a sign that they were their seniors.


    "Who are you?" Ivan asked with an expressionless face, the youth with yellow hair gulped and jumped back from hearing Ivan''s voice.


    "Ah! I remember him; he''s one of the repeaters from our batch." Glen''s eyes lit up, and he announced.


    Ralph and Ivan revealed looks of realization while the trainees behind the youth showed enlightened expressions, they quickly connected the words of this person in black uniform.


    So they were people from the previous batch of trainees before them!


    Realizing that this person was only a repeater, Ivan paid no more attention and turned around to leave; they ignored the many eyes and whispers as they made their way to the elevator before going to James'' office.


    They reached James'' office, and a voice announced for them to come in before they could knock.


    Entering the room, they saw James and another person; it was the woman who addressed herself as the vice tower master of the tower during their graduation.


    "You arrived just in time; we were just discussing you guys. This is the vice tower master, and I''m sure you already know her; you''ll all be under her care from now on; do a good job," James said to them while gesturing at the woman sitting opposite him.


    The trio turned to look at the woman who stood up from her seat and approached them.


    "Are you done with your preparations?" She asked, her voice crisp as she stood in front of them.


    "Yes," Ralph answered for the trio.


    The woman looked at them for a while, "Follow me." She instructed before taking the lead toward the door.


    The trio exchanged brief glances in silence before falling in line behind her.


    James watched with an expectant smile as they left the office.


    ¡­.


    Following the lead of the vice tower master, they quickly came out of the tower building.


    They found an armored jeep waiting for them outside, which they entered after the vice tower master climbed on, and they drove off.


    During the ride, the three could feel a sort of pressure building up in them; it was as if they were about to step into a whole new different world.


    After more than two hours of driving, they finally reached their destination.


    A sleek towering structure that looked like a fort stood loomed ahead. Its black metallic walls gleamed under the sunlight, and a huge strange devil that kept spinning buzzed with energy on top of it; the structure looked like a fortress built to withstand anything!


    "This is our northern defense base," the voice of the vice tower master rang in their ears as the armored jeep drove past a checkpoint before entering the huge structure; her voice was calm but carried a hint of pride as she introduced the place to the three.


    "You''ll be embarking on your first mission from here." She added after the jeep stopped and they came down.


    Ivan, Ralph, and Glen stared in awe, this place was nothing like the simple tower building where they trained.


    Nexulytes in black uniforms and black protective body suits marched, each carrying advanced weaponry or controlling robot-like machinery, while air carriers of various sizes zipped in and out of the airspace of the base.


    The sheer scale of this place made the trio realize just now how small the part of San Pluto they had seen was!


    "This way," the vice tower master continued and led them toward an air carrier that was resting on a landing pad nearby; this aircraft wasn''t too large and could mostly only fit twenty people.


    "This is the KY17; it will be taking us to our destination, where you will undergo your first mission." The vice tower master said to them as the ramp of the air carrier lowered with a low hissing noise revealing the inside had a stark, high-tech interior.


    "The KY17 has an impressive speed, so we''ll arrive at our destination quickly; that will only leave me with enough time to brief you about your mission. Before we board, I want to let you know that this is no longer training. S§×arch* The N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    You all are now officials, and your every action will have consequences; hesitating or disobedience to senior officials can result in the death of many, do you understand?" The vice tower master uttered with a serious look on her face.


    Ivan, Ralph, and Glen nodded, determination etched on their faces.


    "Understood!" They voiced out in unison.


    "Good, then get on board!" She ordered.


    Without hesitation, they climbed into the KY17, the ramp closing behind them with a sharp ''clang''

 Chapter 94 - 94: The start of a new chapter, the dreamscape

    Above the Death Sea, the KY17 flew past like a meteor, creating a whistling sound.


    They had left San Pluto and arrived here within just five minutes of flying, the speed of the air carrier was unlike anything that Ivan, Glen, and Ralph had ever seen before; it was even faster than a bullet and broke the sound barrier!


    The trio looked down at the Death Sea, which was thousands of kilometers long through the windows of the air carrier; it separated the base of the Dominion Tower from the abandoned continent.


    They had been briefed on what their mission was going to be by the vice tower master during their ride to the abandoned continent, it was a newly discovered mirror gate that had been claimed by the Owen Tower and needed more hands with exploring.


    Their first mission was to the dreamscape!


    After flying for another minute, the sight of a small island finally came into view. The KY17 began to slow down and the island grew bigger as they approached it.


    Flying past the shore of the island, the trio could see signs of battles. Shattered trees and deep craters littered the island.


    Flying for another five hundred meters, they started to see small moving black dots and structures; these were people and structures that had been used to construct a base on this part of the island.


    The KY17 lowered and found a place to drop, the ramp lowered after.


    "Alright, let''s go out!" The vice tower master voiced out before walking out, and the trio followed behind her.


    "Welcome back, vice tower master!"


    Two groups of Nexulytes in black uniforms lined up in front of the lowered ramp and saluted immediately. They saw the vice tower master coming out, responding with a nod of her head; the vice tower master turned to one of the Nexulytes in front and asked.


    "What''s the current situation!" Her voice was loud and authoritative, unlike how she had been talking to the trio during their flight; she had assumed her role as a leader now.


    While the vice leader was receiving the reports from the man, Ivan, Glen, and Ralph were marveling at the sight of the base that had been built in the middle of the forest.


    A space of over 1000 meters had been cleared of all trees, and tall and spacious structures of gleaming, sturdy black materials had been constructed in the cleared space.


    People wearing protective body suits and metal body pieces patrolled the perimeters of the space constantly while carrying laser guns and other advanced weapons.


    Small land carriers could be seen transporting huge pieces of equipment from one structure to another and voices could be heard from all directions.


    This place looked just like a miniature-sized fortress of the northern defense base!


    Well, aside from what was in the middle of this fort.


    With a thick metal ring that has flickering devices that radiate with energy built around it, a tall squirming mirror gate could be seen. The sight of it was awe-inspiring and frightening at the same time.


    It was a mirrored gate after all.


    "You three, come with me!"


    The loud voice of the vice leader sounded, pulling the three from their trance state.


    They quickly came back to their senses before following behind her as she led them to the third largest structure in this base.


    It turns out that this structure was a sort of office quarter where groups could meet up for planning and preparation making.


    Following the lead of the vice tower master, the four of them came to a spacious room with just a chair and a table in it; the room didn''t have a window and a digital display projected the image of a blue sky on the wall.


    Taking the only chair in the room, the vice tower master placed a file on the table before turning to look at the trio.


    "You are currently at the Partial Lord rank, right?" The vice tower master asked while staring at Ivan, the latter nodded in response.


    " According to normal protocols, you should be entitled to a team of six to ten True King subordinates who will each have four Mortal King subordinates. But for your first mission, the number of your subordinates will be reduced to see how you manage them." The vice tower master informed, she paused and took a look at her file before adding.


    "Your party for this mission will include a team of five members including yourself. Your teammates should be randomly selected for better judgment on your leading ability but under the special requests of the tower master, you three will be on the same team and will be paired up with other two rookies who just finished training"


    After saying all this, the vice tower master took out her communicator and said into it.


    " Bring them in,"


    A while later, the door of the room opened, and two youngsters who were in similar black uniforms as Ivan and the rest were led in by two officials in black body suits.


    The two officials saluted and left after leading the youngsters in.


    Ivan, Glen, and Ralph turned to look at the two people who were most likely the two rookies that the vice tower master talked about.


    One was a 19 years old looking handsome young man with dashing features, he had red wavy hair that fell below his ears and his eyes were almost narrowed to a slit; Ivan wondered if he was able to see with his eyes closed.


    The other party was a tall young girl who seemed to be in her early twenties. She had a cute round face, large blue eyes, a small nose, and pink lips that formed a cheerful smile.


    She had long blue hair that was styled up in a single ponytail and held by a black metal hair clip that kept hair in place, preventing it from moving unnecessarily or scattering.


    She could only be described by the word ''cute'' as everything about her screamed of innocence.


    She gave the ''next door cute junior sister'' vibe despite being around Miss Elora''s age. Sear?h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "These two will be the rest of your team, go out and try to get familiar with each other; you have two minutes before you enter the mirror gate." The vice tower master ordered.


    They all saluted before walking out in a single file.


    Immediately after exiting the room, the five of them found an empty room.


    It took them only a couple of seconds and they immediately went down to business.


    "Clint, Elemental God talent, dark element, True King rank." The boy with the red hair said with his eyes still closed, his voice was void of emotions and made Ralph and Glen turn to stare at Ivan. Their eyes say, ''A second you!''


    After Clint introduced himself, the girl with the ponytail immediately stepped forward and introduced herself.


    Her name was Karin, she was at the True King rank as well and had a weapon master talent.


    Everyone''s impression of the girl immediately after she introduced herself was that she was a very chatty and easygoing person; she was just like Glen.


    But the odd thing about her was her weapon¡­her weapon was a mallet!


    How could a cute girl like her own a mallet?! The sight of Karin swinging a huge mallet that was almost three times her size left them with their eyes twitching.


    After the two introduced themselves, Ivan, Ralph, and Glen took turns introducing themselves as well.


    In the end, they had concluded that their team was a team with one Partial Lord, Ivan, two True Kings, Clint and Karin, and two Mortal Kings, Ralph and Glen.


    Soon, their two minutes'' time was up and the vice tower master came looking for them and led them to the mirror gate.


    Tapping on a few spots on the metal ring surrounding the mirror gate, the ring broke into three pieces that floated a meter around the mirror gate and created a path for them to pass through.


    "After getting to the other side, someone will provide you with a land carrier and supplies and then give you further instructions on how to proceed. Remember, hesitation might lead to death" the vice tower master reminded before asking them to go in if they were ready.


    Ivan and his team stood in front of the mirror gate, a heavy feeling settling in his heart. After stepping through this gate, he would enter a new world, this was no longer a simulation; everything that happened from now on was real.


    Stepping closer to the mirror gate, it made a weird sound and like a wormhole, sucked all of them in.


    The dreamscape.

 Chapter 95 - 95: In the dreamscape

    Woom!!


    With a strong pull from the mirror gate, the five of them we sucked in and appeared on the other side instantaneously; the feeling of crossing over was like getting pushed through a thick layer of jelly at a bullet speed.


    Immediately after they arrived on the other side, the first thing that they noticed was the strong aura of death and decay that was almost suffocating; an ordinary human would die immediately from the pressure if they were to come here as their organs would be too weak to breathe.


    The next thing that they noticed was that they were inside a similar metal ring that was identical to the one around the mirror gate in the real world; tiny devices flashing with light could be seen all over the metal ring, and ahead of them was a middle-aged man who seemed to be in his forties.


    He had rough dark hair that fell backward and a large scar on his face running from his lower jaw to the side of his forehead, with eyes sharp as those of a hawk staring intently at the five of them.


    The man proceeded to press a few buttons on the metal ring, allowing it to break into three pieces and creating a passage for Ivan and his group members.


    Coming out, the five of them took a brief moment to take a better look at the place. Just like on the other side in the real world, the base here was also located in a forest with huge towering trees; a space of over 2000 meters was cleared and turned into a base fortress that was twice the size of the one in the real world.


    Not only was the base bigger, but the number of people here was also twice the amount of people on the other side of the mirror gate: more people were in charge of patrolling the perimeters, and they all had hard expressions that showed that they were ready to swing into action at any moment.


    Clearly, the situation here was more intense than it was in the real world; they were, after all, inside the dreamscape.


    Another thing to take note of is that no one here was in black uniform as the five of them that just arrived; everyone was in their black protective body suits, and some who had mechanic talents were already in their half-cyborg forms!


    The entire base was giving the feeling that they were expecting to fight the next moment.


    "You must be Ivan," The man with the scar grunted, pulling the attention of the five to himself. Ralph, Glen, Clint, and Karin immediately stood straight as a senior official addressed them; only Ivan remained at ease and casually nodded.


    The man shot him a glare, clearly displeased by his lack of respect for him. He snorted before turning his back to them and started walking.


    "You can address me as Sir Peter, as I am in charge of this operation, and you''ll all be under my command; follow me," Sir Peter commanded; the five of them immediately filed up behind him and followed.


    They followed Sir Peter to a small tent built with sturdy black materials and stood in front of the small table. While Sir Peter took a seat behind the table, he opened the drawer under the table and brought out a piece of paper before passing it to Ivan.


    "Here''s your mission: you can go to the equipment chamber and request a land carrier for your team; you are expected to be back within a month at least; make sure to report back to the base in case of any unexpected changes." Sir Peter said dismissively.


    Ivan took the paper and took a glance at its content.


    ...


    Clear region 17 and leave a marker at six sectors.


    Eliminate all habitats in Region 17.


    ...


    The content on the paper was just two sentences and was quite easy to understand, but Ivan doubted that the mission would have been as easy as it looked. Turning to look at Sir Peter, Ivan asked what a marker was and an explanation of sectors and regions.


    "You''ll receive the markers along with your supplies, and as for the regions, you''ll understand after going through the first 16," Sir Peter replied impatiently.


    Ivan nodded and left with his team; Sir Peter looked at them with a mad look in his eyes. sea??h th§× N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Arrogant rookies, let''s see if you can stay arrogant for long."


    ...


    After leaving the tent, they asked a few people before finding their way to the equipment chamber.


    It turned out to be the biggest structure in the base with a lot of people in half cyborg forms working on various machineries, these were all Nexulytes with support mechanic talents!


    Immediately after getting there, someone approached them. It was a young woman with a rose of blonde hair and a pretty face; she was in a half-cyborg form as well and was holding a massive wrench formed by Nexus energy; she was a support-type mechanic Nexulyte.


    "What are you looking for?" The woman asked while staring at their faces, a skeptical look on her face.


    It couldn''t be helped, the five of them were the only ones in black uniforms in the entire base.


    "We''re here to get a land carrier and our supplies for a mission," Ivan replied and handed the paper over to her.


    "A mission?" The lady repeated, and she took the paper; her eyes immediately showed understanding after reading the content.


    "So you''re the ones in charge of Region 17; where are the rest of your crew?" The lady nodded her head before asking.


    "This is all of us," Ivan replied with a straight face.


    "What? This is all of your team? It will take weeks for just a few of you to clear a region!" The lady exclaimed, she stared at them as if they were crazy.


    "We are already aware of this; we were given a month to finish the mission," Ivan informed her.


    " Oh, I see. Is there a reason for that?" The lady asked further and Ivan told her that it was their first mission.


    " So that''s why, follow me then," She uttered, not asking them any more questions as she led them to a section of the chamber and stopped in front of a land carrier.


    It was another A-22G3!


    *This will be your land carrier, an A-22G3. Wait a moment," the lady said before quickly disappearing.


    While she was gone, Ivan and his team took the chance to observe the land carrier.


    It was a tank-like vehicle with very long metal legs instead of wheels; it was an impressive sight.


    The lady returned soon and passed a storage device to Ivan.


    "Inside this storage device are the six markers, your supplies that should last for a month if used wisely, and two extra markers in case you lose any of the other six or they get destroyed, so be sure to handle them with care." The lady advised them.


    "How do we use the markers?" Ralph asked from behind Ivan. Neither of them had seen a marker before so they had no idea how to use it.


    "Just insert it into the ground after clearing the place; it will send us a signal and visual footage of the area of a hundred meters around the marker." The lady explained.


    They all fell silent and stared at each other as seconds ticked by, looking at Ivan and his team, who were still looking at her even after a minute had passed; the Lady wore a confused expression.


    "What? Aren''t you going to head out?" She voiced out in confusion.


    Ivan, Ralph, Glen, Karin, and Clint all looked at her before turning to look at the A-22G3 before looking back at her.


    The lady wore an astonished face as she thought of something and asked in a low tone.


    "It can''t be that¡­ none of you know how to run a land carrier?"


    ¡­..


    In the end, they were assigned a person who would help them control the A-22G3, but the person wasn''t considered a part of their group, so he had no obligation to follow Ivan''s orders and help them with their missions.


    It was a young man in his late twenties named Elliot. He had spiky black hair, and he had the mechanic talent; he was at the True King rank.


    They quickly set out for their mission.


    Exiting the base, what welcomed them was a world of huge trees with enormous branches. The sky was blood red like a blood curtain had been drawn over the world; the suffocating aura of death and decay made the place look gloomy.


    "So, which training center did you all come from? I graduated from the Owen branch in Motuni." Karin suddenly said.


    "A branch of the tower is there too? The three of us are from the Headquarters!" Glen immediately engaged her, trying to distract himself from the bothering thoughts in his mind.


    "Really? I heard that the training center there is very intense, tell me about it!" Karin burst out with excitement, the land carrier was soon filled with the voices of the two as they chatted away.

 Chapter 96 - 96: Region 17

    "No way! You mean Ivan is the strongest from your batch?"


    Karin gasped.


    "Not just the strongest, he totally dominated the ranking; no one stood a chance," Glen added proudly.


    "How lucky we are to be on his team, trainees from the headquarters are always stronger than trainees from other branches. Do you know that the person who secured this mirror gate for the tower was a guy from the headquarters as well? His name was Alaric Vladimir. The instructors from our branch talked about him a lot," Karin expressed.


    "Oh, Alaric? We heard of him too, but he''s just so so; Ivan beat his record in the training room!" Glen mentioned with a straight nose.


    "Unbelievable, he''s so good?" Karin uttered.


    "Of course, he''s that good"


    "Hey, Clint. What about you? Which tower branch did you come from?" Karin turned to the red-haired Clint, who still looked like he was closing his eyes, and asked, trying to drag him into the conversation.


    "Leave me alone." Clint turned to her and mumbled softly before turning the other way, he wasn''t interested in chatting.


    Karin had an awkward look on her face for a moment before shaking it off and turning back to Glen and they resumed chatting. She asked Ivan and Ralph some questions as well; the two were more responsive than Clint was, although Ivan only gave one-word replies each time.


    Ivan took a side glance at Glen, and a faint smile hung to the side of his lips; the boy was behaving just as before and wasn''t as gloomy as one would have thought, considering what happened to his father; he would be able to heal faster if he kept the grief off his mind.


    They got to know more about Karin while she chatted with Glen. The girl was 25 years old and came from a family of Nexulytes in Motuni. Their family specialized in weapon talents; a high percentage of the family possessed the weapon talent and trained in martial arts from a young; weapon talents were highly viewed by her family.


    Being the granddaughter of the family head, she had been sent to the Owen Tower to join as this would strengthen the connection that her family had with one of the five biggest towers.


    She was a very chatty person but knew when to get serious as well, Ivan even started to find her presence not bothering.


    While they chatted, Eliot had controlled the A-22G3 and covered a distance of a kilometer away from the base.


    They had come across other parties of Nexulytes and land carriers as they crossed different regions that had already been cleared, these regions were currently being turned into smaller bases.


    They did not encounter any monsters on their way, and they reached Region 17 after a three-hour journey.


    Region 17 was a mountain range where over ten tall mountains connected and stretched far into the distance, cutting through the forest.


    In front of the first mountain was an enormous opening, its inside was pitch black that they were unable to see anything inside; the darkness of the cave was so formidable that it felt almost tangible.


    The land carrier stopped right in front of the entrance.


    "This entrance should be a tunnel that cuts through the entire mountain range; this should be our starting point," Ralph voiced out as he stared at the opening on the mountain.


    Nodding his head, Ivan told Eliot to advance.


    Eliot tapped a button on the control panel, and an opening appeared on top of the A-22G3 from which a small object rose.


    Woom!!


    The object burst out with a blinding light that immediately lit up the entrance of the cave, driving the darkness a couple of meters back.


    With thwoooping sounds, the A-22G3 began to advance into the tunnel.


    "Hehe, I can''t help getting nervous now," Karin said with a nervous look on her face.


    "Don''t be nervous, we''ll protect you," Glen said to her with an honest smile, and Karin smiled in return, a Mortal King saying he would protect a True King. S§×arch* The N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    ¡­..


    The land carrier traveled for tens of meters into the tunnel as the tunnel continued to stretch before them, the walls of the tunnel narrowing and widening intermittently as the A-22G3 moved forward with its metal legs; climbing over small risings occasionally as the light of the land carrier reached further into the darkness.


    Ivan and his group began to make out twisted shapes scattered across the floor of the tunnel.


    Massive rocks were scattered all over the ground, some protruding like jagged teeth while others had tumbled from the ceiling, leaving gaping holes above.


    "I''m not sure I like this place." Glen suddenly blurted out, Karin looked at him and covered her mouth to suppress a laugh.


    Karin suddenly stopped laughing as her eyes caught something in front and she pointed.


    "What is that?"


    The light of the land carrier illuminated a cluster of skeletal remains scattered on the ground ahead. Some looked humanoid, while others were more monstrous, with long jaws and elongated limbs. Some looked like they had been here for a while, the bones brittle and withered and half buried under layers of dust and debris; others looked like they had been recently added to the collection of bones.


    Clearly, they were not the first to get here.


    "Looks like we found the whereabouts of the missing people," Eliot said grimly from the control seat. Apparently, there had been cases of people going missing during the past months.


    Ivan remained silent but his eyes lingered on the bones from inside the cabin. Some of the skeletons were entwined and cracked as if their owners had died in a desperate struggle, others laid apart as if they had tried to flee from whatever had claimed them.


    "Look," Ralph called out and pointed in a direction.


    Ivan looked over, and his eyes narrowed; on the tunnel walls were long claw marks scratching deep into the rocks.


    Just then the walls of the tunnel began to tremble slightly, causing the light of the land carrier to become unstable. All of them immediately sat straight and sharpened their gazes, they soon caught the source of the trembling as the ground ahead of them began to twist and shift slowly.


    From below the rock surface, massive snake forms began to emerge. Their bodies were covered in jagged, stone-like scales that blended perfectly with the tunnel floor and made them almost impossible to notice until they moved; their heads were flat and broad, their eyes glowing with eerie light.


    "Rock snakes!" Karin yelled in a low voice, the tension in his voice was clear.


    There were at least five of these rock snakes, each as thick as a tree trunk and long enough to coil around the huge rocks on the ground twice. Their movements were slow and deliberate until the light from the land carrier shone on them, they reacted with sudden aggression.


    One of them lunged at the land carrier with lightning speed, its mouth wide open, revealing sharp stone-like teeth.


    "Hold on tight!" Eliot shouted as he gripped the controls of the land carrier and turned back with a lightning-speed maneuver.


    Sadly, the walls of the tunnel were too chaotic for a fast maneuver.


    Ivan, who had been observing for a while, slowly stood up.


    "Prepare for battle" His voice rang out calmly.


    Glen, Ralph, Karin, and Clint turned to him before getting up with serious expressions. They prepared to face the rock snakes head-on.

 Chapter 97 - 97: 5v5

    While they were changing into their protective body suits, the entire cabin kept shaking vigorously as Eliot controlled the legs of the A-22G3 to defend against the rock snake; his control was not inferior to Eric''s in the slightest!


    BAM! BAM! BAM!


    Huge explosive sounds echoed through the tunnel as the metal legs of the land carrier and the body of the snake clashed repeatedly.


    Eliot controlled the legs of the land carrier and stabbed at the body of the rock snake, knocking it to the ground.


    Tang!


    It was like hitting a hard rock with a sword, the sound was deafening and scratch marks appeared on the body of the snake; but it didn''t do any more than that.


    The snake hissed in fury, it wriggled its body and went around the legs of the land carrier before diving at its back leg with its mouth wide open like an abyss.


    Tang!


    A loud sound resounded as the stone teeth of the snake bite at the leg of the A-22G3, it shook its big head side to side aggressively in an attempt to rip the metal leg off but it was futile; it only managed to leave scratches on the leg of the land carrier as well.


    With a specialized maneuver, Eliot tossed the rock snake away and slammed it into the wall of the tunnel.


    BOOM!


    With a thunderous sound, the entire place shook and pieces of rocks fell from the ceiling.


    The snake let out a hissing sound and beared its stone fangs at the tall land carrier.


    By then, Ivan and his group had finished changing.


    The ramp of the land carrier opened and they jumped out and landed in front of the land carrier.


    The rock snake regrouped with its kind and the five of them slithered toward Ivan''s group together; they were like moving trains charging at a group of humans; their disparity in size was frightening.


    But Ivan and the others were not scared by their size, they immediately got ready to fight.


    Each one of them exploded with ferocious red energy that covered their body like glowing bubbles, they manifested their talents afterwards.


    Pouring out a massive amount of Nexus energy that turned into mist in front of him, two fearsome undead creatures appeared before Ralph.


    The latter was currently in his black protective body suits with red lines running through the joints of the suit, a black metallic line extended from the neck of the protective suit to the back of his head before circling the side of his head and turning into a green glass frame around Ralph''s eyes.


    (Don''t ask why he still needs glasses)


    In front of Ralph were the undead General, the old man in black robe, and the undead knight sitting on its shadow horse and carrying a great sword that let out black aura.


    On Glen''s side, an enormous white snake that was not inferior to the rock snakes in size coiled up behind him; its red eyes stared straight at the rock snakes, its huge tongue appeared and disappeared as it hissed.


    Clint was casually standing on the side in a bubble of red energy, he wasn''t holding anything or was there a sign that he was using his talent; one would only notice the difference if they looked carefully, the area around Clint had become darker and the shadows seemed to bend to his movements.


    This was his ability as a shadow element user, he had the ability of utilizing shadows around him.


    Ivan had two cards in hand, ready to toss them out at any moment.


    As for Karin¡­the girl was carrying a blood red mallet that was three times her size, she was resting the handle of the mallet on her shoulder while holding it in one hand.


    The size was baffling, Glen could not help but wonder how she carries such a huge thing with one hand.


    By now, the rock snakes were already upon them; each of them attacked a snake monster, turning it into a 5v5 brawl.


    The first to attack was Ralph.


    A rock snake lunged at him with its mouth wide open, wanting to swallow him in one bite.


    Swoosh!!


    Turning into a black shadow, the undead General flashed and appeared in front of the snake before it could reach Ralph.


    Its fist shot out and smashed into the snort of the rock snake.


    A sound akin to that of a thunder clap rang out in the tunnel and traveled for who knew how far, the rock snake let out a pained hiss as it was sent flying back and crashing into a huge rock that was resting at the side peacefully.


    The boulder exploded under the pressure of the rock snake, swallowing the snake in a rubble of stones and dust.


    Ralph led his two undead to attack the snake before it could come out.


    ¡­..


    Meanwhile, Glen''s snake and a rock snake had locked each other in a battle of strength.


    A huge snake with pure white scales was tangled with a snake with jagged rocky scales as they slammed each other on the ground and into the walls of the tunnel, causing rumbling sound and making the whole place shake.


    Glen kept providing his snake with Nexus energy to mend its scratched scales while maintaining a safe distance, there was really nothing else he could do in a fight of this level.


    The white snake suddenly broke free from the entanglement with the rock snake, it locked the latter with its tail before biting at its neck.


    Tang!


    Hiss!!


    The fangs of the white snake hit the hard scales of the rock snake and produced a metallic sound, the fang was unable to penetrate instantly. But the white snake didn''t give up, it applied so much force as its red eyes shone brightly.


    Crack!!


    A loud sound of something breaking echoed as pieces of rocks flew into the air. The fangs of the white snake had broken through the jagged scale of the rock snake.


    The rock snake hissed in pain and began to thrash around, trying to shake off the white snake from its body.


    It managed to break free from the jaws of the white snake at the expense of damaging itself even further, it immediately slapped at the body of the white snake with its tail that was like the surface of a broken rock.


    Because of the pain caused by the bite of the white snake, the rock snake had put all of its fury into that slap. The body of the white snake immediately burst open immediately after the tail of the rock monster slammed into its body.


    Fountain of blood gushed out and the white snake hissed in pain.


    Glen''s eyes widened in shock and anger, he immediately channeled a large amount of Nexus energy to his snake to fix its wound; Glen immediately fell to his knees after sending out so much Nexus energy, sweat covering his face.


    The white snake looked at its wound close up at a speed visible to the eyes, it could feel the exhaustion of its master after healing it; this infuriated the white snake even further as it turned to face the rock snake, its eyes shining with a dangerous light.


    Unlike the white snake, the rock snake wasn''t able to heal and would need time to rest; that wasn''t something that the white snake would allow, it immediately charged at the rock snake again and was targeting the already opened injury on its neck.


    ¡­..


    On Karin''s side.


    BOOM!


    Karin jumped out of the way, dodging the huge head of the rock snake that crashed into the wall behind her.


    She immediately turned toward its body after dodging the attack, she raised her red mallet up in the air before bringing it down on the body of the snake with full force.


    "Ahhh!"


    Karin shouted as she brought down the mallet on the body of the monster.


    BAM!


    A thunderous sound followed by a painful hissing from the snake sounded as Karin slammed it into the ground, the force of the hit caused the body of the snake to sink five meters into the ground; she had destroyed the ground with the body of the snake.


    This was Karin''s weapon''s special awakened attribute after reaching the True King rank, she could increase the force behind her attacks by many times, letting her deal a lot of damage with little effort. sea??h th§× N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

 Chapter 98 - 98: A classic prank

    Karin suddenly turned her head to look to the side, the huge tail of the snake was coming toward her like a drill!


    She hurriedly carried her mallet and placed it in front of her body while she bent her knee to resist the incoming impact, but she had overestimated herself.


    Bang!


    The stone tail crashed into the mallet, a strong force traveled through the mallet and into Karin''s arms. Her eyes widened in shock as her legs left the ground and she was sent flying back.


    She flew for several meters before crashing into a boulder.


    Thud!


    She fell to the ground while her mallet flew three meters away from her position; a pained expression appeared on her face as she bit her lips; she felt her wrist had fractured.


    Raising her head, she saw the rock snake pull itself from the small pit. A wide web-like crack could be seen on its back which was a result of Karin''s attack just now; she had almost broken through the snake''s defense in one strike.


    But almost wasn''t enough in this case.


    The snake immediately shot at her with great speed after pulling its body from the pit, it opened its mouth wide open as it approached Karin.


    Gritting her teeth, Karin got up and ran toward her mallet with a face mixed with pain and desperation. She did not dare to look back but could feel the ground tearing up as the snake got closer.


    She reached the mallet in just two seconds, she did a flip over it while picking it up.


    Her fingers wrapped around the handle of the mallet at the same time her feet touched the ground, she hastily raised it in front to clock herself once more.


    At the same time, Karin got into a stance to defend herself, the snake was already in front of her with its mouth wide open.


    Everything seemed to slow down at this moment; the mouth of the snake was like a huge gate that led to hell that suddenly spawned in front of her, its stone teeth like the ruthless claws of the abyss, ready to rip her life.


    Karin''s eyes widened; she felt extreme fear at this moment; she wasn''t confident of surviving this one-way ticket to the underworld at all.


    It would have been better if all she needed to do was to block against a strike, what could she do when a wide hole that was dozens of times bigger than her was crashing down on her?


    ''I¡­I don''t want to die!''


    With eyes wide open, Karin watched as milliseconds ticked by and the mouth of the snake inched closer to her and¡­


    ...


    Snap!


    Karin was bitten in half and blood gushed everywhere!


    (Sike! Got you, didn''t I? Haha)


    ¡­..


    With eyes wide open, Karin watched as milliseconds ticked by and the mouth of the snake inched closer to her.


    BOOM!!


    Just when the snake''s mouth was about to swallow her up, a sudden huge mass of red energy crashed into the side of the snake''s mouth, pushing its huge head to the side and away from Karin.


    A strong gust of wind blew against Karin''s face as the huge body of the snake flew past her, just a few inches away from her.


    Bang!


    Another explosive sound followed as the snake crashed into a boulder some distance away.


    Karin, unable to process what had happened immediately, could only stare at the space in front of her with a blank face.


    In front of her was Ivan who was still in the posture in which he had punched the snake. Sear?h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    His legs were wide apart with his upper body bent forward slightly, his left elbow was pulled back a bit and his right arm stretched forward like a straight arrow; a massive amount of thick red energy gathered around the gauntlet on his right fist, pieces of broken rock like scales laid at his feet.


    Ivan stood up straight after a few seconds and took a glance at Karin, his gaze was dull and expressionless. Without saying anything, he turned away before dashing toward the snake.


    BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!


    Thunderous sounds followed.


    It took a few more seconds after Ivan left before Karin''s brain turned back on and she understood what had just happened, she had almost died and Ivan had saved her; she did not mind the kind of look he gave her just now as it was irrelevant, what was relevant was that he had saved her.


    Her knees trembled, and she fell to the ground; she looked up and¡­burst into tears.


    ¡­..


    A while ago after they had clashed with the rock snakes, Ivan had used one card and turned it into a sword before hacking at the body of the snake that had rushed up to him. Strangely enough, Ivan''s sword wasn''t able to cut through the hard scale of the snake!


    This had surprised him greatly, even reaching the point of almost shocking him.


    One has to know that Ivan''s sword was already so sharp that it had been able to leave a mark on James''s transformed state when he had just learned how to use it; it began to get sharper as he increased in strength. He understood that there were a lot of creatures out there with abnormal defenses that could block his sword, Miko''s sword, for example, and that turtle monster with one eye.


    This had made him realize that his sword would not be able to solve every situation for him, and he had expected much later on, but who would have thought that he would meet such a creature on his very first mission to the dreamscape?


    Immediately after realizing this, Ivan throws away the thought of using a sword and decides to get physical.


    The rock snake was fast, but Ivan, a Partial Lord, his strength and speed were faster. He has created a gauntlet with his remaining card and pummeled the snake to pieces.


    The snake was completely helpless against Ivan and could only get hit repeatedly until it crumbled into a rock pile.


    After dealing with the rock snake, Ivan just happened to catch the scene of Karin getting slapped away by the tail of the snake she was fighting.


    He took a quick glance around and realized that she was the only one who was struggling despite being one of the two True Kings on the team; he hesitated for a moment if he should help her.


    ''We don''t know her, why should we help her?'' a voice rang in his head.


    ''She is part of our group, she follows your order without complaints. Why not help her? She isn''t an enemy!'' a second voice countered.


    ''So what? She''s a Nexulyte!'' the first voice reported.


    ''And the snake is a creature from the dreamscape, which one is our enemy?''


    All of these happened within a second as the two voices argued in his head, only after the last words of the second voice did Ivan decide to act.


    Yes, the snake was the greater enemy!


    His moment of hesitation had allowed the snake to arrive in front of Karin, Ivan had expended a huge amount of Nexus energy to boost his speed, letting him arrive on time.


    This was why he had given Karin a dull look just now, his eyes were saying.


    '' I''m wasting energy because of you


    ¡­.


    Back to the present.


    While Karin was crying, everyone else was rounding up with their fights.


    Ralph''s undead has bullied the rock snake all throughout the fight.


    The undead General tossed it around like a punching bag while the undead knight stabbed at it with its great sword. Although the great sword wasn''t able to pierce its stone scales, the black aura rising from it passed through the small gaps on the scales and wreaked havoc inside the snake''s body; its stone body was slowly turning into dust due to this.


    On Glen''s side, after finally creating an opening, it didn''t take long for the white snake to expand the wound and destroy the neck of the rock snake, easily winning the fight.

 Chapter 99 - 99: Gratitude

    Clint has the second easiest fight after Ivan, his shadow element allowed him to blend in with the shadows of the surrounding rocks and even hide in the shadow of the rock snake!


    In this state, he was immune to physical attacks to a certain extent, and only elemental attacks would be able to deal real damage to him which the rock snake wasn''t capable of.


    Clint had blended with the shadows in the tunnel and used the shadows of the boulders and even that of the rock snake to attack it! Tearing at its stone scales like an invisible claw. The shadows were able to slip through the cracks of the snake''s scales before pulling them out.


    The snake had been very miserable, wriggling its body like a worm that got salt sprinkled on it as it searched for what was pulling its scales and the human it was planning to attack.


    After ripping off the majority of the snake''s scales, Clint rolled the shadow of a pointed rock from the ceiling and stabbed it into the body of the monster, killing it instantly.


    As for the snake that had almost eaten Karin, it was reduced to rubbles under the rain of Ivan''s gauntlet; it wasn''t able to retaliate and could only hiss continuously as it was beaten up.


    From the control seat in the cabin of the land carrier, Eliot watched the fight between Ivan''s group and the five rock snakes with an astonished face; he was greatly shocked by the display of strength of these five new Nexulytes, a thought formed in his mind.


    ''Monsters! They were all monsters!''


    He had never seen True King ranked Nexulytes easily deal with rock snakes of this size in his entire life; there would not have been so many skeletons in this place if they were easy to deal with.


    After the five finished fights all returned to the land carrier; the fight seemed to have been easy, but almost all of them had used more than half of the Nexus in their bodies; they needed to rest before they could continue.


    Ivan asked Eliot not to move the land carrier any further for now; they would stay here and rest. Eliot happily agreed.


    The group took their seats and began to absorb Nexus energy from the surroundings. The quantity of Nexus energy inside the dreamscape was a little better than in the real world but it was basic knowledge not to try raising one''s AP inside the dreamscape unless in a very safe location like a guarded base.


    Since it was easy to lose oneself when trying to increase AP, one would not know when a monster crept up on them and claimed their lives.


    While the rest of the group rested, Karin was sitting quietly on her seat and hugging her knees; her eyes stared at the ground of the cabin with eyes like those of a dead fish.


    Glen noticed this after a while and went over to ask what the issue was, they had talked a lot on their way here and had become relatively close.


    Karin turned to look at Glen with a tearful face; her eyes were red and watery, and her lips were trembling.


    Her expression had stunned Glen greatly, he immediately asked what the problem was.


    With so much effort and stammering, Karin had managed to tell him that she had failed to kill the rock snake that attacked her and that she had almost died had it not been for Ivan, who came to help her.


    "I-i¡­don''t want to die!"


    She muffled after reporting to Glen before bursting into tears again.


    Glen looked at her trembling body for a couple of seconds before gently rubbing her hair and softly said to her.


    "It''s alright, you were just unlucky that your opponent was a snake that was several times bigger than you. I''m sure Ivan didn''t blame you¡­he wouldn''t have helped you if he did."


    " Sob¡­really" Karin looked up at Glen''s face and asked while cleaning the tears on her face with her palm.


    "Yeah, really." Glen smiled back, he couldn''t help thinking how soft this girl was.


    "Ok," Karin voiced out while sobbing softly before suddenly hugging Glen''s waist "thank you." She muttered with her face buried in his lower belly.


    She hugged him for a few seconds before releasing her grasp on him and stood up, she walked over to where Ivan was.


    Standing beside Ivan''s seat, the latter opened his eyes and looked at her.


    Karin didn''t waste time before bending forward in a deep bow toward Ivan.


    "Thank you for saving me, I promise to do better next time!" She voiced out loudly before raising herself to see Ivan''s reaction.


    "Ok" Ivan uttered a casual word before closing his eyes again, no longer paying any attention to the girl.


    Clint, Ralph, and Eliot turned to look at this as well before returning to what they were doing.


    Karin''s eyes brightened when she heard Ivan''s response, a relieved smile stretched her lips as she turned to look at Glen while returning to her seat.


    "Told you he wouldn''t blame you" Glen whispered to her and winked before returning to his seat. Karin smiled at him before sitting down as well.


    The cabin fell silent again as they all gathered Nexus into their Nexus chambers, they spent the following hours like this.


    ¡­.. S§×ar?h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Six hours later, the group was done with what they were doing and they resumed exploring the tunnel.


    Leaving the place where they had battled with the rock snakes, the land carrier traveled deeper into the tunnel. Passing twisted paths and even climbing cliffs in the tunnel.


    They traveled for another kilometer before they encountered another group of monsters.


    The A-22G3 stabbed its metal legs into the rocks of the tunnel walls as it proceeded down a long sliding path to prevent the land carrier from falling forward too quickly, an opening that was fifty meters wide could be seen at the bottom.


    Thwoop! Bang!


    With a last maneuver, Eliot controlled the land carrier in the direction of the opening before jumping through; the A-22G3 landed on the other side with a loud sound as its metal legs stabbed into the ground.


    The group immediately looked at their new surroundings.


    It was a wide clearing that looked like an underground hall, roughly carved pillars connecting the ground and the ceiling, and in the center of this hall was a strange tree monster.


    This monster looked just like a tree stump, its limbs were like those of humans, and its head was a cluster of leaves that stuck together.


    Its body was green and brown and it was as huge as seven meters. The monster was standing in the middle of the hall with a small object in its hand and a dead monster that was identical to it was held in its other hand.


    The group immediately recognized the small object in its hand, it was a Nexus crystal!


    The monster turned around and looked straight at the front glass panel on the cabin, staring directly at Ivan and the others inside.


    "Humans?"


    A loud chaotic voice that sounded like a lot of people were shouting at the same time sounded from the head of the monster as a dazzling red light glowed in its eyes.


    Ivan and the others were stunned when they heard the monster''s words, it could talk!

 Chapter 100 - 100: Red tree demon

    The monster could talk!


    They were all shocked at this discovery; any monster that was capable of speech was no ordinary monster; they had a high probability of becoming guardians in the future and usually possessed strange abilities that were difficult to deal with at times.


    The monster looked at them with a red glow in its eyes for a few seconds more before tossing the dead monster that was of its kind away to the side; the dead monster crashed heavily into the ground from the casual toss and created a crater on the ground.


    The eyes of the group widened; so much damage from a casual toss; this monster certainly possessed strength that rivaled a Partial Lord or even higher!


    After tossing away the dead kindred, the monster turned around and faced them while still holding the Nexus crystal in its hand.


    "It''s a red tree demon!" Eliot suddenly shouted after taking a few looks at the monster. He had seen one before, but it was a long time ago, and he almost didn''t recognize it.


    " You know what that thing is?" Ralph looked at him and asked with a serious face.


    Eliot did not dare to take his eyes off the monster so he answered Eliot without looking at him.


    "I have only encountered one once in the past," sea??h th§× NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "How strong are they?" Ralph asked again.


    "Very strong. Even if I join you guys, we might not be able to defeat it." Eliot replied and the looks on everyone''s face changed.


    Even if he joined them, they would not be able to win. How exaggerated!


    "I advise we retreat for now; let''s observe it first before acting again," Eliot suggested.


    "What do you mean retreat? You''re just afraid because you almost got trashed back then? Remember that you were not as strong as you are now, how will you know without trying?" Glen voiced out from the side while looking at the monster outside.


    Ralph turned to look at Glen, his eyes screaming ''Are you stupid? Didn''t you see that toss just now?''


    "What?" Glen stared at Ralph with a confused face.


    Ralph only shook his head in the end and decided not to bother with Glen, his friend was used to talking without thinking properly.


    Elliot''s face showed an embarrassed expression when he heard Glen''s words. Indeed, he had been shaken by fear of his past experience with the red tree demon.


    "Tell us what you know about it," Ivan suddenly said after a few seconds of observation, the monster also didn''t approach them and just stared from a distance.


    "I¡­I don''t really know. We were just a team of Mortal Kings back then and barely escaped thanks to the arrival of a Partial Lord who held it back. We were unable to find anything aside from the fact that it had incredible speed and strength¡­it can also use magic attacks!" Elliot voiced out after giving it some thought.


    A look of shock appeared on everyone''s face again. That thing could use magic attacks?


    " What magic attacks does it possess?" Ivan asked again, and Elliot said that he wasn''t sure of the numbers; he recounted that he had seen the monster use earth magic and fire magic before.


    Ivan fell silent, a look of contemplation appeared on his face.


    "Everyone gets ready, we''re going to meet it," Ivan suddenly announced after a few seconds, and everyone turned to look at him as if he had gone mad.


    "What? We''ll have to face it sooner or later, better to find out as much as we can so we can make plans on how to fight it. I''ll be in front; you all attack from behind me," Ivan said to them, seeing their conflicted faces.


    ¡­.


    A minute later, all five of them were standing on top of the land carrier and gazing down at the monster.


    Swoosh!!


    With a gush of Nexus, Ivan summoned a card before turning it into a pitch-black sword. He gripped the sword and turned to look at Ralph and the rest.


    "Stay out of its attack path, I''ll face it head-on," he instructed once more before jumping down; the rest followed him, with each of them bringing out their abilities.


    The red tree demon stared at the group that was rushing towards it. Five humans in bodysuits, a white snake, and two undead creatures.


    "Another wave of pests"


    Its chaotic voice rang out again as the red glow in its eyes intensified and it suddenly grew in size, reaching an impressive size of 14 meters!


    It brought the Nexus crystal that it was holding in front of its chest, its body opened like a wormhole and swallowed the Nexus crystal.


    The look on Ivan''s face didn''t change as he continued to charge forward, running zigzag between the pillars.


    Ivan soon appeared in front of the monster in a flash and slashed at it.


    "Pesky humans!" The monster growled and sent a punch at Ivan.


    Ivan tilted his body to the side, his hand that was holding the black sword moved with lightning speed and created afterimages.


    Swish, swish, swish!


    He executed dozens of sword strikes instantaneously before moving to the side.


    Wooosh!


    The monster''s punch missed Ivan but before it could withdraw its hand, lines suddenly began to appear all over its hand before suddenly exploding into pieces.


    "Impossible!" The monster shouted upon seeing that its entire hand had been cut into pieces by Ivan.


    The other four were shocked as well, they had not seen Ivan''s move at all.


    Ivan''s face remained calm; he jumped to the side and stepped hard on the ground before shooting forward; he saw that the hand of the monster was starting to grow back at a bothering speed, and he had to make sure the monster didn''t get the chance to heal.


    Seeing that Ivan was coming back for it, the red glow in its eyes glowed brighter and it stomped on the ground hard.


    Rumble!


    The ground between it and Ivan suddenly exploded and broke into countless pieces, pieces of rocks flew into the air and shot toward Ivan like bullets.


    Ivan''s eyes narrowed, and he moved from side to side as if he were teleporting while dodging the rocks that were flying at him. Glen and the other who were behind him were not as fast, so they had to pull back while dodging and destroying the pieces of rocks that they were unable to dodge.


    Ivan arrived in front of the monster again; its hand was almost recovered completely, but Ivan was here to chop it off again.


    Swish, swish, swish!


    Ivan slashed out again.


    "Die!"


    The monster shouted at the same time as a huge mouth made of stone burst out from the ground right under Ivan''s feet, it opened wide and snapped at Ivan.


    In the face of the sudden attack, Ivan gave up on attacking the monster and changed his attack path and slashed at the mouth instead.


    The rock mouth shattered into multiple pieces of stones under Ivan''s rampage but this had given the monster the chance to heal completely.


    It immediately punched at Ivan with its other hand.


    Ivan saw that he would not be fast enough to use his sword for this punch, then immediately let go of his sword and met the monster''s fist with a punch of his own.


    BAM!


    Both fists clashed, and a strong shockwave exploded out, destroying the ground around them and creating a crater below their feet; none of them retreated even a single step.


    They were evenly matched in strength!

 Chapter 101 - 101: Escape

    The monster let out a roar and threw out another punch with its other hand, a small explosion bursting out right behind its elbow and increasing the speed of the punch.


    Ivan didn''t back down, his body exploded with Nexus energy and he met the monster''s punch with a fierce fist of his own.


    Ckraak!!!


    Their fists collided, and it sounded like thunder had struck; the ground around them collapsed even more, and Ivan was pushed back for three meters with his legs, creating two long trenches on the ground.


    The strength of the monster had increased!


    Just that, Ivan wasn''t the monster''s only opponent as immediately after it pushed Ivan back, the massive head of a white snake appeared in front of it with its mouth wide open.


    Glen''s snake attacked with speed and bit down at the location of the monster with strength that would be enough to smash a boulder into pieces.


    The snake did get the monster but it suddenly started to struggle after a few seconds, letting out hissing sounds while slamming its tail around.


    Upon taking a closer look, they saw that the red tree demon had grabbed the upper and lower jaws of the snake; preventing it from closing over it.


    "Haa!" With a low shout, the monster lifted the snake''s entire body, which was the size of a train, off the ground and sent it flying away.


    BOOM!!!


    The snake crashed into one of the pillars some meters away and instantly broke through it, it only came to a stop after crashing into the wall.


    "No!"


    Glen shouted as blood trickled down the corner of his mouth, he quickly ran over to where his snake was.


    At this moment, Ivan had already reached the monster once more; five swords rotating around him like birds.


    The monster saw this, and the glow in its eyes changed; Ivan''s swords came down on it at the same time.


    Fwoosh!!


    Suddenly, a strong gust of wind burst out around the monster and created an almost invisible barrier of sharp winds that spun at a crazy speed and made whistling sounds.


    Clang! Clang! Clang!!


    All of Ivan''s swords were immediately sent flying immediately after making contact with the ball of wind that was protecting the monster, they were unable to pass through.


    At the same moment that Ivan''s sword was sent flying, the blue-haired Karin jumped out from behind him with her mallet raised high above her head.


    "Take this!" She screamed before bringing the mallet down on the windshield of the monster.


    BOOM!


    The mallet smashed into the wind barrier, and the strong rebound force sent Karin flying away in the air while the monster was tossed back as well; Karin''s attack had been unable to break through its barrier but ended up sending it flying with the monster inside of it.


    The red tree demon crashed into a pillar that was behind it, shattering it and causing it to collapse and creating a cloud of dust; three shadows immediately shot into the cloud of dust.


    They were Clint, the undead General, and the undead knight.


    But before they could reach the monster, a loud bellow that shook the entire space that they were in resounded.


    "Enough!"


    Right after, a massive explosion took place as the area around the monster burst out with ferocious flames that poured out like a raging wave.


    The shadow that Clint was hiding in immediately disappeared, and he became visible; the wave of flames knocked him and the two undead creatures back.


    From the flame came the red tree demon, still inside its wind barrier. It now had an even more fearsome appearance as the flames solidified into numerous hands behind it; these hands were just as huge as the 14-meter monster and stayed behind it like wings; their excruciating heat caused the ground to melt and turn into magma.


    Ivan''s eyes flashed upon the sight of the monster''s new appearance.


    "Everyone retreat," He ordered while he stood to face the monster, he would hold it back until everyone else had returned to the land carrier.


    Ralph and the others nodded, not daring to delay a minute later; they could already tell that it was no longer in their place to fight this monster, not when it was in such form.


    Glen had already recalled his snake back to his Nexus chamber; Ralph didn''t waste time to recall his undead General and undead knight as the four of them dashed toward the land carrier.


    "Who asked you to leave?" The red tree demon bellowed before dashing forward, wanting to chase after Ralph and the rest.


    Its speed had also increased than before, and it looked like it had faded out of existence, but it was simply because it was too fast.


    "I did," a calm voice rang out as Ivan, with an expressionless look in his eye appeared in front of the monster. S§×ar?h the N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The glow in the monster''s eyes flickered, Ivan''s speed that had suddenly become on par with its had stunned it.


    "You die first!" The monster growled as the fire hands behind it all punched down at Ivan.


    The heat of these hands was so intense that Ivan felt a light sting on his face but it was still bearable for him as he covered himself with his Nexus energy.


    Performing complicated footwork, Ivan evaded every single punch thrown by the fire hands with a gap of at least half a meter. Although the ground behind him didn''t, it exploded into craters and burning rocks under the rampage of the firehands.


    Iven looked back from the corner of his eyes; Ralph and the rest had already reached the land carrier and were now waiting for him.


    "Not yet," Ivan mumbled under his breath before suddenly twisting his body and executing a rotating leg slam; his foot slammed into the barrier of the monster and created a strong shockwave that split the ground open.


    The monster was shocked as its body lifted off the ground and flew back for dozens of meters like a comet. Ivan wasn''t any better, he allowed himself to be lifted into the air as well as the force from the collision just now sent him flying in the direction of the land carrier.


    While he flew in the air, Ivan stared at the monster with narrowed eyes.


    ''I will deal with you later,'' Ivan thought before suddenly twisting his body and landing gracefully by stepping on a pillar; he then jumped to the ground and ran in the direction of the land carrier.


    The ramp was already lowered, so Ivan jumped in with a fluid movement, and the ramp immediately closed up; Elliot didn''t waste time controlling the land carrier.


    Its metal legs dug into the ground and made an unrealistic jump toward the opening that they passed to come here, the slope that they had passed through to come here was not a slanted hill that they had to climb.


    "Come back here!"


    An enraged shout sounded from behind them, the monster was coming at them like a furious demon!


    (It was a demon after all)


    Elliot did not delay any further and jumped into the opening, the legs of the land carrier stabbed into the walls of the passage and began to climb like a spider; they escaped with such professionalism.


    Luckily, the monster didn''t chase them past the opening of its territory. It stood at the entrance and watched the huge land carrier escape like a frightened spider.

 Chapter 102 - 102: Night chat

    The land carrier climbed out and moved for five hundred meters away from where the red tree demon was before finally coming to a stop.


    "Told you it wasn''t a good idea to attack it first, are you guys okay?" Elliot turned around and asked, He had not gotten a chance to talk to them after they returned because he was focused on running, and the thought of the red tree demon suddenly appearing behind them made him flustered; creatures of the dreamscape were unpredictable.


    Turning back, he saw that Glen was helping Karin with treatment. The girl had been hurt by the rock snake in their previous fight, the rebound force from attacking the red tree demon''s windshield had worsened her wound a bit.


    While it wasn''t serious yet, it could affect her battle efficiency seriously when needed.


    After helping her, Glen returned to his seat and sat quietly as he absorbed Nexus energy. His snake had been hurt, and thus, hurting him, he would need a lot of energy for the both of them to recover.


    Ralph and the red-haired Clint were perfectly fine as they had not made contact with the monster; they didn''t get the chance to. Ralph''s undead were thrown back by the monster''s explosion and the flames had driven away all the shadows around it, rendering his shadow element useless.


    It had to be said that Clint''s ability had a very fatal flaw.


    As for Ivan, who had faced the monster head-on on multiple occasions, Elliot could not help but feel astonishment. Ivan''s strength shocked him every time, the young man was just too overpowered!


    "We''ll rest here tonight and continue with anything else in the morning," Ivan announced to them. There should not be any dangers since they had cleared from the entrance of the tunnel to this very spot but there was still a chance of something coming in from outside the tunnel, so Ivan volunteered to keep watch the whole night.


    He came out from the land carrier after they shared their evening rations from the supplies. It was a standard outdoor canned ration used by the towers for Nexulytes on missions to the dreamscape; these kinds of foods could last months without getting spoiled.


    Ivan ate his share expressionlessly while sitting on a large boulder and gazing into the darkness; the food wasn''t too tasty, but it wasn''t bad either.


    At night, the tunnel had become so dark that it felt like a fog; one could barely see two meters around him, and the light from the land carrier only helped to see twenty meters around their current location.


    ... S§×arch* The N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    As the night grew deeper into darkness, Ivan could be seen lying on his back on the huge boulder just a few meters away from the land carrier.


    Everywhere was silent, the others were either sleeping or gathering Nexus energy.


    It was just the first day and they had already started getting busy.


    Remembering the scale of the mountain range they had seen outside, Ivan could not help but think just how much work they had to do to clear Region 17.


    "But this is what we have been training for for months, isn''t it?" Ivan mumbled to himself before looking to the side and smiling into the darkness.


    A few seconds of silence followed before a person walked out from it, it was Ralph.


    "Yeah, this was what we have been training for. I wonder how the others are doing now," Ralph said softly; he walked over and sat beside Ivan.


    The both of them stared at the land carrier in silence for a while before Ralph spoke up.


    "You¡­are still hiding things, aren''t you?" He squeezed out in a low tone without looking at Ivan.


    Ivan turned to look at him, he blinked once before looking away.


    " Sorry,"


    Ralph smiled lightly, seeing that Ivan didn''t deny it; at least the boy was planning to deceive him as well.


    " It wasn''t hard to notice, I know just how strong you are. Well, not exactly sure but I know you''re stronger than this. So why?" Ralph stated, his voice carrying curiosity.


    Ivan lifted his body and sat up straight, he looked at the design of the land carrier meticulously. His thoughts flashed back to when he would curse at every living Nexulytes each night; he was cold, broken, hungry, and stranded; all of this suffering stacked together on him made him disgust the existence of Nexulytes.


    But now, he had become the very thing he prayed death for every day. Not just him, his friends who had been with him for so long were in similar situations as well; does this title now mean they deserve to die as he had wanted previously?


    Suddenly taking out a card, Ralph stared at Ivan with deeper confusion when the boy suddenly summoned a card and began looking at it instead of answering his question.


    To Ralph, the card was just a blank blue card with golden edges but to Ivan¡­it was a present. A birthday gift from the family he never had and on the back of this card were words which no one else other than him could see.


    ''Be careful what you wish for''


    Rubbing his fingers on the words that only he was capable of reading, Ivan turned to Ralph before answering his question.


    "It''s not time yet; I have too many things that need answers and things I have to look for¡­also, I feel they''re pretending, and we''re being monitored," Ivan said, his tone soft but serious.


    Ralph raised an eyebrow.


    "Who are they? The¡­" he trailed off as a word appeared in his mind, causing him to turn and look at the A-22G3.


    He sighed after and looked back at Ivan.


    " I understand, but remember this¡­we''re your friends, no, brothers, and we''ll stay on your side no matter what," Ralph declared.


    Ivan''s blue eyes shook slightly as he stared at his friend, a sad smile forming on his lips as a bizarre idea that he hoped wasn''t true formed in his mind.


    " Hmm, I hope you keep your promise," Ivan said before standing up and started walking, his direction was where the red tree demon was located.


    Ralph stared at his back until the latter disappeared into the thick fog of darkness.


    "I will, no matter what," Ralph uttered before resting his back where Ivan was resting previously.


    Inside the land carrier, a red-haired figure with closed eyes turned his face and gazed outside through the window before looking away.


    ¡­..


    Ivan walked for several minutes, one quiet step after another as he moved through the fog of darkness. He finally stopped in front of a large slope path that cut through a side of the wall, at the end of the slope was a wide opening through which light reflected.


    Without wasting time, Ivan stepped on the slope.


    Driiiiii!


    His foot made a scraping sound as he slid down; he jumped when he was about to reach the opening and scaled across before landing on the ground gracefully.


    He was back in the enormous hall where the red tree demon lived.


    Signs of their fight could be seen everywhere, craters, broken pillars, and destroyed boulders.


    Ivan''s eyes scanned the place before finally landing on the figure of the red tree demon that was devouring the body of the dead monster that they had seen earlier.


    Its face, which was made of leaves, opened, revealing a ghastly mouth filled with razor-sharp teeth that bit down on the body of the death-tree demon.


    The monster made slurping sounds as it chewed.


    It turned its head suddenly as if noticing something. The glow in its eyes flickered violently when they fell on Ivan''s figure and the monster immediately tossed its meal to the side and stood up.


    "Human, why did you come alone? Where are your friends? Did you come here to feed yourself to me?" The tree demon said in its chaotic voice that it was as if a crowd was shouting in unison.


    Ivan calmly shook his head before staring back at the glow in the face of the tree demon, his expression was as calm as if he wasn''t facing a monster that could go against a Partial Lord rank Nexulyte.


    "No, I came here," Ivan calmly muttered as a card appeared in his grasp.


    " To kill you."

 Chapter 103 - 103: Rematch

    "Eh? To kill me? Just you?" The monster tilted its head upward and laughed crazily, it laughed for a whole minute before stopping and looking at Ivan.


    "Foolish human, I know you''re strong but you overestimate yourself. Come, I''ll make you regret it in your death" The monster growled as its eye settled on Ivan.


    Dum!


    Ivan looked back, his eyes calm and his face void of all emotions; his expression was as if he was looking at a joke that wasn''t funny.


    The laugh of the monster ceased, and it took a step back; Ivan''s expression was like that of a ruthless monster!


    (A monster calling a human a monster, Ivan what have you done?!)


    Without saying another word, Ivan tossed the card in his hand into the air.


    Swoosh!


    With a low ringing sound, the card shattered and turned into three colored lights that swirled around Ivan before taking form.


    A dazzling golden bow that stood as tall as Ivan appeared in front of him, a blue arrow bursting with luminance gradually forming on the red string of the arrow before pulling back under an invisible force and facing the red tree demon.


    The colors of the bow and arrow were so dazzling that they illuminated the entire hall with their colors.


    The light in the eyes of the monster changed from red to pitch black as it saw the attack that Ivan was preparing to shoot at it.


    With a sudden burst, the monster slammed its hands into the ground and mounted several defenses on itself.


    It summoned a cloak of fire around itself, then made an armor of hardened rock; it proceeded to create a wall of thick vines in front of itself before finally creating its windshield.


    It had stacked up every defense it could create to welcome Ivan''s attack, the sight of the arrow filled the red tree demon with dread. sea??h th§× ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Ivan stared at the scene in front of him, his expression unchanging; with a thought, the arrow flew out.


    Kacha!


    It was like the entire world fell into darkness for a moment, a dazzling white light cut through this darkness, painting the whole world in black and white.


    The arrow flew at a speed that broke through the sound barrier and appeared in front of the red tree demon. It left a long line of destruction as shattered earth froze in the air; unaware that their previous positions had changed.


    With blinding speed, the fast-rotated windshield was as if it wasn''t there.


    Pierced through the wall of vines without leaving a mark.


    Pierced through the armor of hardened rocks around the monster.


    Passed through the cloak of flames without stopping.


    Before finally piercing through the red tree demon, dragging the monster along with it and nailing it to a pillar behind it.


    BOOM!


    The entire hall shook and many pillars cracked, threatening to collapse at any moment.


    Time resumed to flow normal again, but the scene in front of Ivan was like that of an apocalypse; the flight of the arrow had taken less than 0.0001 seconds!


    The monster didn''t even see what happened; it only realized that its defenses had been breached when it was already pinned to the wall, the three-colored arrows stuck in its chest.


    "H-how"


    Spurt!


    The monster choked before a mass of green blood gushed out from the spaces between its leaves.


    It proceeded to grab the body of the arrow in an attempt to pull it out.


    Swiiisss!


    Like sword intent, the luminance around the arrow rushed at its hand and shredded it into pieces.


    The monster let out a pained howl, the luminance of the arrow had also started wrecking his insides.


    *What is this? What did you do, you filthy human!" The monster shouted at Ivan who was currently walking over slowly with a carefree gaze.


    "Don''t talk; die now," Ivan mumbled in response as another card appeared in front of him, which he threw out.


    Wam!


    The card burst into light particles before gathering into a Small Golden flame in front of Ivan. The flame looked small and harmless, but its heat was not something to be taken lightly, as even when it was in the air, the ground around Ivan was already melting because of it.


    Without another word of command, the flame flickered in the air and floated over to the monster that was nailed to the pillar.


    "No! No, stop! I refuse this! Stop and fight me!"


    The monster shouted relentlessly as it watched the flame getting closer and closer, the colors of its eyes changing rapidly as it attempted to push the flame in the other direction by sending gales of wind, vines, and even throwing earth at it; the small tongue of golden flame that looked like it could be easily extinguished simply melted through all of the monster''s attempt and finally reached it.


    The monster watched in horror as the golden flame calmly landed on its body and¡­


    Voom!!


    Like a matchstick that was tossed on a flammable object, the golden flame quickly spread across the monster''s body and swallowed it.


    "Ghraaaahhhhh!"


    A loud anguished bellow came from the monster and spread far into the tunnel for over a hundred meters, echoing through the night.


    But the voice quickly stopped because just after three seconds, the golden flame had reduced the red tree demon to nothing; not its ashes were left as the golden flame had burned it up as well.


    The monster was gone!


    Clang! Clang! Clang!!


    After the monster was eaten up by the golden flame, several objects fell to the ground at the place where the monster had been pinned before, creating small metal-like sounds.


    Ivan turned to look over and a glint flashed past his expressionless eyes, widening them for a moment.


    The objects that had fallen from the remains of the tree demon were¡­Nexus crystals!


    Ivan got closer and counted 8 of them, he was stunned.


    "8 Nexus crystals from a single monster, I wonder how many other monsters it had devoured." Ivan thought while picking up the Nexus crystals and storing them.


    Ivan had finished storing away his spoils of war and was about to leave when he suddenly heard heavy footsteps approaching, the ground shook under the pressure of these footsteps.


    He turned over, the sounds coming from the direction of the other opening at the end of this space that led deeper into the tunnel; something was approaching from the deeper side of the tunnel.


    Ivan''s eyes narrowed, he waited to see what was causing the ground to shake from its weight.


    "You withered tree, prepare to die by my hands this time!"


    A loud beastly voice suddenly sounded from the opening.


    ''Another monster that was capable of speech?'' Ivan raised an eyebrow.


    The source of the voice and footsteps finally appeared at this moment.


    It was a nine-meter tall reptile monster that stood on its two legs; it had massive webbed feet with three large claws poking out of them.


    Its entire body was made of bulging muscles that made it as wide as three grown men joined together side by side, its long snout had jagged teeth poking from the side; its vertical yellow eyes rolled in their sockets as they scanned the place.


    This new monster looked massive and powerful!

 Chapter 104 - 104: Then die

    "Hmm? What happened here?" The reptile monster was surprised by the sight of that red tree demon''s territory.


    Signs of fightings cough be seen everywhere, it almost thought that it was in the wrong place.


    The eyes of the monster soon landed on Ivan, it immediately turned over; a human!


    "Hey, human. Where''s that old withered tree, tell me were it is and I''ll kill you painlessly after killing it" The reptile ordered Ivan while licking its teeth with its huge tongue.


    Ivan just stared back expressionlessly, he took a few seconds to observe the reptile.


    While Ivan was doing this, the monster thought that he had become mute from fear for it and began to stride toward him.


    "All these punny humans, immediately loosing their minds to fear. I''ll just eat you then and come for the old tree another time," the monster growled.


    " Dead"


    A calm voice suddenly sounded in the monster''s head, it stopped and looked at Ivan who was the source of the voice.


    " What did you just say, human?" It asked in its beastly voice.


    " I said it''s dead, I killed it" Ivan looked at it right in the eyes and uttered.


    "Hahaha, humans sure know how to tell a joke. You''re telling me that you killed the old tree demon? Do I look like a fool to you? Since you killed it, why don''t you come kill me too?" The monster laughed hard, stomping its leg on the ground repeatedly; it found Ivan''s words to be very ridiculous.


    Forget how a human managed to sneak into the territory of the red tree demon, the old tree was in par with it. Their only flaws being that it was slower than the red tree demon while the latter was weaker than it in terms of raw strength.


    But this little human was saying that he killed the old tree demon? A monster reptile had fought against for years without any side winning? He even looked unharmed, then he killed the tree demon in one strike? How hilarious!


    "Ok, if you want to die too, I''ll kill you" Ivan replied casually, a card appeared in his hand before transforming into a dazzling golden sword with animated golden luminance; this was a weapon that Ivan had never used before, a sword that he had never shown anyone.


    Gripping the sword handle, Ivan took a stance before lifting the sword.


    The expression of the reptile monster instantly changed, it felt a dreadful feeling from the the sword in the hands of the human before it.


    The monster immediately tried to charge at Ivan but it was already too late because Ivan disappeared from its sights suddenly and reappeared in the air front of it the next moment with his golden sword swinging down on the monster.


    "Now, die" Ivan''s calmly said as he slashed down.


    A burst of golden sword wave flew from the blade of the golden sword and shot at the monster, growing larger by the second.


    The monster opened its long snout to say something but the sword wave was faster.


    BOOM!!!


    Like a bomb, the sword wave crashed down on the monster. The later was immediately pushed down to the ground, the monster had crossed its enormous arms in front of its body at the last moment before the golden sword wave had touched it.


    "Grheeee!" It made a thunderous growing sound as the Sword wave pushed it deeper and deeper into the ground, busting craters that were larger than the previous at each push; the monster was soon five meters deep I to the ground and the sword wave was slowly inching deeper into its flesh, blood began to gush out.


    Ivan had already landed on the ground by then and was watching the scene with a poker face, his eyes lowered as he gazed at the golden sword wave that seemed to be getting brighter by the second; it was as if the sword wave was charging.


    "Should be about time," Ivan mumbled to himself as the golden sword he was holding scattered into light particles.


    At the same time, the golden sword wave that was pressing down on the monster suddenly burst out even brighter, it was like a small sun had appeared in the pit that the monster was pressed into.


    And like a meteor.


    BOOM!!


    An even louder explosion rang out, the sword wave created a ten meter long sword mark on the ground.


    The ground was split open and the reptile that had been struggling previously was slashed in two without being able to resist; its body parts laid in the tower as fountains of blood pumped out and quickly covered the crater, turning it into a small pool of blood.


    Blinking once, Ivan''s expression remained unchanged as his eyes fell on a glistening object that had floated to the surface of the blood pool.


    He bent over and deepd two fingers into the blood pool, his finger tips were smeared with blood as he pulled out the object.


    It was a Nexus crystal!


    Another Nexus crystal, adding to this to the ones that he got from the red tree demon, he had found nine Nexus crystals from killing two monsters!


    "Tch, poor thing. The other one has given me 8 and you only give one" Ivan scoffed after looking at the Nexus crystal for a while but still stored it after; he was only disappointed that this monster hadn''t devoured other monsters with Nexus crystals like the tree demon did, he wasn''t going to reject it even if it was on.


    At this moment, Ivan suddenly heard sounds of footsteps approaching rapidly; the owners of these footsteps seemed to be in a rush.


    Thinking it was about set of monsters, Ivan turned around and prepped to fight. His expression turned into confusion when he realized that the footsteps were coming from the direction that led to where he came from.


    This meant that whatever was coming should have passed through Ralph and the rest.


    "Or could it be them?" Ivan wondered.


    Soon enough, multiple faces appeared in Ivan''s line of sight and he haved a sigh; they were Ralph and the rest of the team.


    Ralph had summoned his two undeads, Glen was riding on top of his snake that was still in the process of recovering, Karin waa dragging her huge mallet behind her, and Clint just stood there; the area around him visibly darker than other places.


    They had all arrived battle ready.


    They immediately spotted Ivan when they arrived, they saw the pool of blood beside him next and their expressions turned serious.


    "Ivan, are you alright? We heard a huge explosion come from this side and trembling even reached our position, we were unable to find you so we came here as fast as we could" Glen


    cried out while jumping down from the back of the snake.


    " I''m fine," Ivan calmly said. Sear?h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "What happened here? So much damage" Karin mumbled aloud as she looked around the place.


    Her eyes roaming where Ivan had pinned the tree monster, the new craters, the large split on the ground, and the pool of blood.


    Everyone immediately turned to Ivan for explanation, he was here before then after all.


    Ivan went mute for a few seconds before casually making up a story.


    He explained that the red tree demon had been attacked by another monster and they had fought, causing all of the destructions that they were seeing.


    "The other monster managed to kill the tree demon but was left on the brink of death"


    "Them where is it?" Glen yelped and looked around vigilantly.


    "I finished it off" Ivan added with a straight face

 Chapter 105 - 105: Petty

    They all looked at Ivan in surprise when they heard that he finished up the surviving monster that was able to kill the red tree demon, that monster must have been strong too; but it wasn''t too shocking considering how Ivan had been able to match the demon during their previous clash.


    "Where''s the monster''s corpse? What type of monster was it?" Karin asked, her eyes blinked with curiosity.


    Ivan pointed at the pool of blood beside him without saying anything, they all immediately understood what he meant.


    "Where''s Elliot?" Ivan asked after a while.


    "He stayed back in the land carrier," Ralph reported.


    Ivan''s eyes narrowed slightly, he knew that Elliot wasn''t obliged to do anything during the mission since he just had to drive the land carrier for them but the lack of reaction from him when the rest came to look for Ivan cleared Ivan of a few doubts.


    "Alright, let''s go back" Ivan voiced out.


    They returned to where the land carrier was and Elliott opened the ramp for them to enter.


    "You good?" Elliot asked with a concerned look on his face.


    Ivan gave him a long look and ignored him, Karin was the one who filled him in with what Ivan had told them.


    "Well, at least the tree demon is dead now, we can continue moving," Elliot muttered with a relieved sigh.


    ¡­.


    A few minutes later after everything was settled, Ivan took out a few Nexus crystals from his storage and threw one each to Ralph, Glen, Clint, and Karin.


    The four of them caught the objects and took a look, their expressions immediately changed after seeing that it was a Nexus crystal.


    "I got them from the two monsters," Ivan informed them before they could ask.


    Their mouths hung open, Ivan had read their minds and answered the question they wanted to ask.


    "I see, they must have consumed other monsters with Nexus crystals as well. But why give it to us? You found them yourself, we didn''t do anything" Ralph looked at Ivan and said.


    The price and value of a Nexus crystal wasn''t a secret as even ordinary people were aware of its immense value to a Nexulytes growth and its use in creating powerful machines.


    It was a fortune to find one during a person''s lifetime yet Ivan has found quite a few, he would definitely make a fortune if he sold them instead of giving it to them.


    "I still have some, use them to increase your strength; the stronger you are, the more you can do during the mission," Ivan said casually and showed them two more Nexus crystals.


    Added with the four that he had given it, they thought that he had a total of six of these! Who knew how they would react if they knew that Ivan had actually gotten nine Nexus crystals.


    Listening to Ivan''s words that sounded harsh, they knew that it was true. They accepted the Nexus crystals and thanked Ivan.


    Well, all except for one person.


    Clint suddenly threw something towards Ivan and he caught it in midair, it was the Nexus crystal that he had given the red haired young man.


    Ivan looked at the crystal in his hand and lifted his gaze to look at Clint with a raised eyebrow.


    "I don''t accept what I don''t work for, keep it to yourself" Clint said to Ivan before looking away.


    Ivan''s expression didn''t change and he kept the Nexus crystal with fluid movements.


    He had decided to give Karin and Clint a Nexus crystal each because they had joined his friends to look for him when they thought that he was in danger, it simply be because they were a team and had to look after each other but Ivan still decided to give them just for coming along.


    But since Clint seemed to not care about the value of his gift, who was Ivan to force others to accept things from him? He would gladly keep it.


    Karin stared at Ivan as he kept the Nexus crystal, her mouth wide open as her words stuck down her throat. She turned her gaze to Clint who was looking outside through the glass of the land carrier while screaming in her mind.


    ''Are you crazy? Why would you reject such a thing? At least pretend to accept it and give it to me!''


    "Hey, what about me?" Elliot called out at this moment, he saw that Ivan was about to start gathering Nexus energy after sharing crystals among the others but ignored him.


    " Are you part of our team?" Ivan gazed at him and said with a cold tone.


    Elliot shrank his neck and shut up.


    ''Petty'' He thought to himself, knowing that Ivan was definitely holding a grudge.


    Ivan returned to what he was about to do after Elliot dropped the matter.


    Glen, Ralph, and Karin stared at the two with a weird expression; they could only sympathize with Elliot, he just lost a chance to get stronger or richer depending on what he would have done with the Nexus crystal.


    The night passed quietly without any more sudden events happening.


    The next day, they continued back to the hall of the red tree demon.


    The place was now empty after the death of the tree demon, they stopped the land carrier there.


    Considering that they had covered quite a distance into the tunnel, they decided to drop a marker here as the first section.


    The marker was a small metal pill-like object that was the size of a thumb, it had a button on top which Ivan pressed after placing it on the ground.


    Vwooom!!


    The marker let out a low buzz before releasing a wave of bright blue light that spread through the place, covering the entire territory of the tree demon and even moving toward the other opening that led deeper into the tunnel.


    ...¡­


    "Don''t hold back, fight seriously!" Karin voiced out with a serious tone as she gripped the handle of her mallet tightly. S§×arch* The n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Opposite her, Ivan looked at her with a casual look.


    He slowly stepped forward and vanished, disappearing from Karin''s like of sigh.


    Before Karin knew what was going on, Ivan was already in front of her with one of his hands on her shoulder.


    A gust of wind followed a second later, brushing against her face and blowing her hair up.


    "You sure want me to fight seriously?" Ivan asked calmly and looked her in the eyes.


    Karin jumped, she froze for a few seconds before suddenly stepping back. She dropped her mallet to the ground with a loud bang while still looking at Ivan.


    " Hehehe, don''t mind my previous words. Please go easy on me" Karin laughed in embarrassment while rubbing her neck with her other hand.


    Ivan nodded and they started training.


    Ralph and Glen were watching from on top the land carrier while commenting on their attacks from time to time.


    It''s been two days since they started using the territory of the red tree demon as a base, they had trained and recovered during the last two days.


    After their fight last time, Ivan knew that Glen''s snake wasn''t fully recovered yet, same as Karin as well.


    Since this might affect them later on, he suggested that they stayed here for a few days before they continued with the clearing.


    Aside from that, after distributing the Nexus crystals the first time, Ivan had later given his two friends another two Nexus crystals each; increasing the number of their crystals to three each while Ivan only kept two for himself.


    Ralph had expressed his concern about Ivan giving them so many Nexus crystals.


    "Don''t you have to get stronger as well?" Ralph had asked when he received the other two Nexus crystals.


    Ivan had simply said it was fine and told them that he had actually gotten nine crystals.


    As for Glen¡­he even asked if Ivan could sell one more to him.


    "You''re already a Partial Lord, you can easily get more in future" Glen had said but was scolded by Ralph.


    Ivan didn''t find a problem with Glen''s words and even smiled at it, he didn''t find anything wrong with what Glen had said.


    After getting the Nexus crystals, the two had immediately gone to absorb them and during the course of two days, their strength improved.


    Ralph happened to be lacking just a few points of AP and with the three Nexus crystals, he finally stepped into the True King rank!


    Unlike last time when he got a new undead being after entering the Mortal King rank, Ralph didn''t get a new addition to his Undead.


    The change that occurred after reaching the True King was the advancement of his undead General.


    The old man in black robe had been Ralph''s first undead after awakening the necromancer talent, its strength had increased after Ralph entered the True King rank; the color of its robe also changed from black to blood red.


    As for Glen, he had entered the upper rank of the Mortal King rank, reaching an amount of 18.03% AP; he was just two more points away from reaching the True King rank.

 Chapter 106 - 106: Metal mosquitoes

    After resting for two days in the territory of the red tree demon, they continued their journey deeper into the tunnel.


    They passed through the territory of the reptile monster that Ivan had slashed in half a few days ago, the territory of the monster was just next after that of the red tree demon; they could even be considered as neighbors.


    Here, they found a bunch of old skeletons belonging to strange monsters that the reptile had devoured and claw marks painting the walls.


    They didn''t stop and continued on their journey, the land carrier climbing uneven terrains and paths that made no sense.


    They traveled for another kilometer before stopping, they could hear sounds of loud buzzing coming from ahead of them like a swamp of bees.


    To avoid alerting whatever was producing the buzzing sounds, the group came down from the land carrier and proceeded on foot to take a look.


    After passing through a five-meter-wide stone path, they arrived at an opening on the wall of the tunnel.


    It was as if they were standing at the entrance of a hole that was dug in the middle of the tunnel wall without a clear path of reaching it unless one was capable of flight.


    Looking down, they saw that the ground was over a hundred meters away from the opening that they were in and a long river of blood cut the ground in two as it flowed from one crack into another crack at the other end smoothly without splashing around.


    As for the buzzing sounds that they had heard¡­


    Hanging from the ceiling was a gigantic beehive castle with hundreds of openings on it.


    Countless metal mosquitoes with two-meter-long silver needles flew around it; they were the ones making the buzzing sounds.


    These metal mosquitoes were creatures that were three meters huge; they had the body of mosquito and bee wings and long silver needles that were almost as long as their bodies stuck out from their heads.


    "So¡­so many of them!" Glen gasped with wide-open eyes; the number of metal mosquitoes was easily over a hundred of them, and more were still inside the castle.


    "Metal mosquitoes are not particularly hard to deal with; what makes them is their large numbers¡­ Besides, we are not in a favorable terrain to fight them," Ralph voiced out from the side as he stared down at the ground and river that was very far away.


    Everyone silently agreed to what Ralph said; the metal mosquitoes were weak creatures individually, but having a swarm of them come after you was a different matter.


    "Let''s go back first," Ivan gave the order after staying silent for a while, all of them returned to where the land carrier was.


    "Back so soon? What''s with the noise, should we continue?" Elliot rained out questions after they entered the land carrier.


    "No, there''s a giant beehive occupied by hundreds of metal mosquitoes ahead, and the place is a gaping hole with no place to step on," Karin explained to him.


    Elliot clicked his tongue upon hearing this, he knew just as much as they did about how difficult it would be after finding out what was ahead; it could even be labeled as impossible.


    " Unless we can create an attack that can wipe all of them out in one go, we might not be able to kill them all even if we could fly," Elliot shook his head while letting out a sigh.


    They all agreed with him that this mission might come to a stop because of these troublesome creatures.


    " What are we going to do now? Return?" Ralph turned to Ivan and asked, everyone else also turned to look at him.


    Ivan seemed to be in thought for a few seconds, he lifted his gaze shortly after before responding.


    " We wait till we think of something."


    His tone was strong, indicating that he wasn''t planning to fail his first mission as a Nexulyte.


    "What can we even think of? It''s best if we go back and ask for reinforcement and electric cannons," Elliot protested, but Ivan paid no attention to him.


    "What are you so worked up about? It''s not like you''ll have to do anything even if we were to fight those things, your job is just to drive!" Glen looked at Elliot and scoffed after Ivan ignored him.


    Veins on Elliot''s face popped up in anger at Glen''s words.


    " So what if my job is to drive? Will the metal mosquitoes ignore me because of that?!" He yelled at Glen.


    " How is that my business? You''ll have to take care of yourself then or do you want us to protect you as well?!" Glen yelled back.


    " You!!!"


    " Shut it!"


    " Hey, hey, hey! Both of you calm down; you''ll attract the attention of the metal mosquitoes at this rate; we shouldn''t be fighting amongst ourselves!"


    Karin hurriedly stepped in between the two who looked like they were about to charge at each other at any moment given.


    " Fighting? He''s just a Mortal King, can he fight me?" Elliot sneered.


    " Oh yeah? How about saying that to my snake''s face?!" Glen retorted, and they began to argue again; Karin was trying her best to prevent them from starting a fight while Clint simply watched from his seat.


    At this moment, Ivan and Ralph completely ignored the scene going on inside the cabin and were discussing silently.


    "What are we going to do now?" Ralph asked in a low tone.


    "I¡­don''t know yet," Ivan mumbled in response while gazing at his palms.


    "Then don''t you think we should head back? I can''t think of a way that we can pass without facing those mosquitoes, and that itself looks like a bad idea," a brief pause followed before Ralph continued. " Unless you''re going to¡­" he trailed off because Ivan turned to stare at him at this moment.


    They looked at each other for two seconds before Ivan looked away, not saying anything.


    "I see, be careful" Ralph patted Ivan''s shoulder before going to his seat. He wasn''t bothered about Ivan still refusing to speak, the boy had always been like that; in Ralph''s opinion, Ivan just needed time.


    He always opened up in the end anyway.


    Time slowly ticked by as the members of the group did their own thing while waiting for Ivan''s next order, which didn''t seem to be forthcoming.


    Since they had nothing to do, Karin decided to drag Elliot out to train with her since Ivan declined her request this time and Ralph didn''t seem to be interested.


    Glen came out to watch but his main goal was to taunt Elliot. S~ea??h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    While this was going on, no one except Ralph noticed that Ivan wasn''t present anymore.


    The boy had sneaked away without them noticing.


    Currently, Ivan was standing in front of the opening, a card in his right hand and a calm look in his eyes.

 Chapter 107 - 107: Coming back with a swarm of metal mosquitoes

    Ivan''s gaze settled on the gigantic beehive castle hanging from the ceiling, numerous metal mosquitoes flew from one opening on it to another.


    Some transported eggs that had metallic shells, while others just flew around aimlessly and made loud noises with their wings.


    "How disgusting," Ivan mumbled after a while before tossing the card and a familiar scene played out.


    Multicolored light particles formed into a long bow and arrow of three different colors, their luminance immediately attracting the attention of the metal mosquitoes nearby.


    BIZZ! BIZZ!!


    The mosquitos immediately became noisy upon discovering the existence of a human; a group of them separated from the rest and flew toward Ivan, their long needles pointing straight at him.


    Without a change in his expression, Ivan watched as the string of the arrow pulled back before bouncing forward.


    Once again, the place turned black and white as the arrow shot out.


    Passing through the metal mosquitoes that were approaching Ivan and then piercing through the beehive castle within a time frame of countless military seconds.


    The metal mosquitoes that were first to make contact with the arrow didn''t even realize that they had been pierced by it until three seconds later, they were still buzzing toward Ivan when suddenly.


    Puff!!!


    Their bodies exploded holes and blood gushed out like a broken pipe, falling down and mixing with the stream of blood below.


    The metal mosquitoes swayed in the air, confused as to what happened before their bodies plummeted down to the ground as they lost strength in their wings.


    At the same time, the arrow had made contact with the beehive castle, and its ferocious luminance spread through the entire castle.


    All of the metal mosquitoes were startled by the sudden appearance of the sudden light but better they could even understand what it was.


    BOOM!!!


    A thunderous explosion burst out, and the gigantic beehive castle lit up like fireworks and scattered into the air. Pieces of it, as well as corpses of hundreds of metal mosquitoes, rained down from the sky; it was like a painting, a beautiful work of art that all Nexulytes would want to have in their homes.


    Ivan looked at the scene with a pleased expression, he had annihilated more than half of the population of the metal mosquitoes with a single attack.


    BIZZ!!!¡Á99


    The remaining metal mosquitoes watched the scene of their home and kins falling down to the stream of blood like rain drops, they immediately flew into a frenzy and began to buzz crazily.


    They all turned in the direction that the strange light that destroyed their home had come from, and their pitch-black eyes all landed on Ivan''s figure, which was already retreating.


    Like arrows released from an iron bow, they all dove down and went after Ivan.


    ¡­..


    Back where the others were minding their business, doing their own stuff, and staying out of trouble.


    They suddenly heard a thunderous explosion that sent their skins jumping, the explosion was so loud and the impact rocked the ground; broken pieces of jagged stones even fell from the ceiling.


    "What the hell? What''s that!" Elliot immediately stopped his charge toward Karin and asked in shock"


    " It''s an explosion, it came from over there!" Glen replied while pointing in the direction of the five-meter wide stone path that led to the opening; he was equally shocked and had responded instinctively.


    But Elliot thought that Glen was trying to mock him for asking something that was so obvious.


    "Of course I know that, I was asking what caused it!" He retorted in his defense.


    "Guys look!" Karin suddenly shouted from behind them while pointing ahead.


    Everyone turned to look and what they saw caused their eyes to almost pop out of their sockets.


    Ivan was running toward them, leading a wave of metal mosquitoes behind him!


    The mosquitos, though not as many as the ones they had seen, still numbered over a hundred; they assumed that more would be appearing soon.


    What the hell did that guy do? Why is he leading a swamp of those things over here?!


    Ivan had yet to reach them when his voice rang in the air.


    "Prepare to fight, these are all the metal mosquitoes left!"


    Everyone "..."


    Ehh? Are you joking with us? We saw their castle ourselves, and there were over a thousand of them; how can these few be everything?!


    But they didn''t have time to think too much about this; Ivan had almost reached them, and the mosquitos were closely behind him.


    All of them immediately got into combat mode. sea??h th§× n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Elliot swiftly slipped into the A-22G3 while Clint came out of it.


    He immediately started the A-22G3 and made it stand on its metal legs.


    Glen immediately summoned his snake, the snake appeared and immediately circled itself around Glen while hissing at the incoming Ivan and the metal mosquitoes behind him.


    The undead General, who was now clad in a red robe, stood quietly to Ralph''s right side while the undead knight and its shadow horse stood to his left.


    Karin stood not far from them, both her hands gripping her mallet tightly.


    Clint was right under the A-22G3 and had summoned six shadow tentacles that wriggled around him like the limbs of an octopus.


    They were all prepared to welcome Ivan and the metal mosquitoes.


    Ivan reached them at this moment and came to an abrupt stop, turning around at the same time and reaching out.


    He grabbed the silver needle of the metal mosquito that was close to him before slamming it into another metal mosquito.


    BAM!


    Both metal mosquitoes were sent flying through the air, spinning and crashing into the hard wall a distance away.


    The two immediately turned into bloody pulps after making contact with the wall.


    At the same time, he threw those metal mosquitoes away, another one appeared right in front of Ivan with its silver needle stabbing at his face; the distance between his face was just the gap of a nail but before it could touch Ivan''s face, a massive mallet appeared out of nowhere and crashed into the side of the metal mosquito.


    The metal mosquito immediately exploded into a bloody mess and was sent flying away.


    Immediately after Karin''s entrance, a massive white snake dropped in front of her and swiped its tail at the incoming metal mosquitoes, slapping a few of them into blood mists.


    Large shadow tentacles shot from behind the snake and stabbed into three metal mosquitoes each, skewering them.


    The mass of metal mosquitoes swallowed them at this moment, it was as if they were covered by a black wriggling cloud; only the cabin area of the land carrier and the head of the white snake could be seen, the others were battling the metal mosquitoes inside this black could as flashes of red light could be seen occasionally.

 Chapter 108 - 108: Fighting the metal mosquitoes

    Within the cloud of metal mosquitoes, Ivan and his team were fighting the monsters with everything they got; making sure that they didn''t get stabbed by the silver needles.


    A portion of the mosquitoes attacked the land carrier relentlessly, trying to break through the windows of the cabin.


    Elliot controlled the metal legs of the land carrier professionally, knocking the mosquitos away from the land carrier or pinning them to the ground.


    A few meters away from the land carrier, Glen was standing within the circled body of the white snake as the snake bit down one metal mosquito after the other and slapped more of them from the air; every metal mosquito that tried to dive at Glen would either get crushed in the large mouth of the white snake or sent flying by the swipe of the snakes tail.


    Crash!


    Glen tilted his body, dodging the half-crushed body of a metal mosquito that was bitten in half by the white snake; the silver needle of the mosquito stabbed into the ground right beside Glen and caused pieces of rocks to fly at him.


    Glen waved his hands and knocked away the pieces of rocks before quickly placing his palms on the body of his snake and pouring Nexus energy into the body of the snake to mend its scales that had gotten damaged by some of the metal mosquitoes that managed to land their silver needles on its body.


    Wooosh!!!


    A large amount of Nexus energy gushed out from Glen''s palms and sank into the body of the snake; the torn scales on its body immediately began mending themselves at a crazy speed.


    Glen huffed slightly, small sweat dripping down his face.


    He suddenly heard a peculiar swooshing sound and turned his head, his eyes widened as he saw a metal mosquito shooting right at him with its silver needle stretched forth like the top of an arrow; it had managed to slip past the protection of the white snake and was now coming for Glen.


    Large beads of sweat immediately began to pour out from Glen''s body as he hastily covered himself with Nexus energy and prepared to meet the mosquito head-on.


    Just then, a large red mallet suddenly appeared out of nowhere and smashed into the side of the metal mosquito, shattering it into pieces on the spot.


    The shattered remains of the metal mosquito flew past the face of the stunned Glen, some of its blood even splashing on his face.


    "You all right?"


    Karin''s voice jolted Glen awake as the girl landed beside him and began to smash the metal mosquitoes that managed to pass the white snake into pieces.


    Shattered bodies of metal mosquitoes would fly in the air with every movement of her mallet that was already covered in the blood of these pests.


    "Looks like Ivan didn''t lie. The mosquitos are really reducing in numbers, and more don''t seem to be coming to join them!" Karin shouted out to Glen without looking back, she focused on smashing every single metal mosquito that approached them to a bloody pulp.


    Glen was awed by Karin''s show of strength, not a single metal mosquito managed to survive a strike from her.


    The metal mosquitoes were fast yet the girl was able to follow up with their movements, swinging her huge mallet with a speed that Glen found shocking.


    Not far from where Karin was destroying metal mosquitoes, Clint was causing an unrealistic scene with his shadow tentacles.


    With both eyes closed, Clint stood still in one place as he controlled the movements of the shadow tentacles with hand gestures.


    Suddenly, waving one of his hands to the side, two shadow tentacles lashed out and skewed two metal mosquitoes; he twisted his wrist, and the two shadow tentacles spun around him before skewering another two metal mosquitoes that were coming from that direction.


    Two of the shadow tentacles were constantly swaying above him, acting like propellers that lashed at any metal mosquitoes that came from the air.


    The remaining two shadow tentacles remained at his sides and would suddenly stab at any mosquito that managed to survive the propeller tentacles, some had only gotten their wings snapped off and would try to rush toward Clint with their skinny legs only to get stabbed by the two tentacles staying by his side.


    Around Clint was a small hip of shredded metal mosquitoes; not a single one of them was in one piece as they had been torn into two or more pieces, while others had gaping holes punctured through their bodies.


    It was as if Clint was standing in an encirclement of black corpses of the metal mosquitoes, almost reaching up to his waist.


    Just in front of where Clint was dominating, Ralph wasn''t any less ferocious than the red-haired youth.


    Despite being a newly promoted True king, Ralph''s battle prowess with his undead had reached a whole new level!


    Before, he was only able to instruct the two undead by instinct, giving them a hint of what to do which luckily worked all the time; the two undead didn''t need to make coordinated attacks; they would also attack on their own whenever they felt he was in danger.


    But after reaching the True King rank¡­Ralph was now able to communicate with his undead! Although their communication was weak, he could pass orders and roughly receive what the two were thinking through a slight link with their emotions.


    He had already guessed that his undead were capable of feeling emotions after the undead knight refused to attack the undead General when it was first summoned.


    This had finally been proven after Ralph reached the True King rank! The undead knight would always have a feeling of kinship whenever it was around the undead General and Ralph would feel its desire to assist whenever the undead General was fighting an opponent.


    This was the same for the undead General.


    And at this moment, both of them were giving Ralph a special feeling¡­.


    ''Protect at all costs!''


    Both undead, one in front and one behind him collaborated and protected Ralph in this storm of metal mosquitoes, quickly building two small hills with their corpses.


    They were now able to carry out collaborated attacks; Ralph was stunned to see the undead General gripping the silver needle of a metal mosquito and tossing it back, only for the mosquito to get split in two by the sword of the undead knight.


    Another shocking scene was the undead General stepping on the Shadow horse of the undead knight and using it as a springboard to launch itself into the air while the undead knight momentarily took its position in front of protection Ralph.


    Aside from all of this, the most ferocious of them all was still none other than Ivan himself.


    Swish! Swish! Swish!!


    Gripping two three colored swords in both hands, Ivan was like a fish in the water as he waved through the cloud of metal mosquitoes, cutting them down like grass.


    His movement speed was blinding, and not a single metal mosquito was able to even touch him with their silver needle. Ivan seemed to teleport from place to place within the storm of mosquitos, and more than three mosquitoes would suddenly burst into multiple tiny pieces after getting slashed multiple times by Ivan''s sword.


    Ivan suddenly stomped on the ground hard and launched himself into the air before doing a tornado spin with both swords stretched out.


    Sharp wind blades were sent out under the immense speed of his spin, cutting dozens of metal mosquitoes in the air into pieces.


    Immediately, Ivan landed on the ground; more of them dove at him madly, but Ivan was already gone once again.


    Swoosh!!


    The next thing they saw was a flash of sword light before all of them burst out with fountains of blood and rained down.


    Ivan alone had created multiple hills with their corpses and their blood was already flowing slowly.


    The fight continued for minutes before the last metal mosquito was finally smashed into the ground by Karin''s mallet.


    BOOM!! S~ea??h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The ground exploded into a crater as blood gushed out from under Karin''s mallet, the fight was finally over.

 Chapter 109 - 109: Decision

    Glen fell down on his butt, panting heavily.


    "What the hell was that? Why did you end up getting chased by them?!" Glen looked at Ivan and asked in a loud voice.


    The place now was littered with the corpses of the metal mosquitoes, and their blood was like a small pond that reached above their ankles.


    Everyone else also turned to look at Ivan, waiting for an explanation.


    " I went to take a look at the beehive castle when a strange monster suddenly attacked them and self exploded, destroying their castle and killing the majority of them; the remaining mosquitoes came at me after that" Ivan explained calmly, causing everyone to put on strange expressions.


    The heck? Who would believe such a story?


    "It''s your choice to believe me or not," Ivan added after seeing the looks on their faces as he turned the two swords into light particles and allowed them to disappear.


    Unable to find a response to Ivan''s words, the group could only click their tongues before releasing their abilities and finding clear spots to rest.


    The fight had gone well unexpectedly, and nobody was injured; one should not underestimate the defense of their protective body suits.


    After a while, they checked the corpses of the metal mosquitoes and couldn''t find a single Nexus crystal.


    Well, it wasn''t too surprising though. Finding Nexus crystals depended greatly on luck.


    "So what''s next now?" Elliot turned to Ivan and asked.


    "We continue moving," Ivan stated.


    Soon, everyone was ready inside the land carrier and they resumed their journey.


    Arriving at the opening, the group was awed by the sight of what was left of the beehive castle; its remains looked like a bomb had exploded in its center, and a part of the ceiling had been destroyed as well; blood painted the remaining part of the ceiling.


    Looking down, they saw particles of what must have been the other part of the castle as well as charred corpses of countless metal mosquitoes.


    "Just what sort of monster came to attack these metal mosquitoes? Good thing we didn''t run into it, I doubt that the land carrier could resist such an explosive attack!" Elliot remarked when he saw the amount of damage caused by the so-called monster that Ivan claimed had attacked the metal mosquitoes.


    Karin and Glen nodded in agreement while Ralph took a side glance at Ivan, neither of them saying a word.


    Thoowp!


    Thwoop!


    After taking a while to observe the ghastly sight, Elliot controlled the A-22G3 and came out from the opening.


    Stabbing one metal leg after another into the side of the wall, the land carrier started to climb down the wall of the tunnel like a robotic spider.


    It took over five minutes for the land carrier to reach the ground, it almost slipped off a couple of times.


    After reaching the ground, they took a closer look at the stream of blood.


    It made a sound that was similar to that of a running stream and let out a pungent stench that penetrated the cabin through the tightly closed window, making them flinch their noses.


    Quickly locating the next exit, they finally left the space where the stream of blood was located, entering a large long stone corridor with strangely shaped rocks.


    The land carrier moved deeper into the stone corridor, taking several turns before finally arriving at a small opening that led into another smaller stone corridor.


    A problem arrived at this moment, the path ahead was too small for the land carrier to move through.


    "What do we do?" Karin asked while moving her gaze from the path ahead and Ivan''s face.


    Ralph turned to look at Ivan as well, waiting for his decision.


    There were only two options at this point anyway, either they abandoned the land carrier or gave up on the mission here.


    After thinking for a few seconds, Ivan raised his gaze and stared at them seriously. sea??h th§× ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Everyone''s shoulders subconsciously tensed as they awaited what Ivan was about to say.


    "We''ll continue on foot," Ivan announced. " Everyone, pack up."He added before rising to his feet and moving to the back of the land carrier.


    " I guess this is where I stop then" Elliot suddenly voiced out at this moment, causing everyone except Ivan to turn and look at him.


    " What?" Elliot questioned when he saw all of them staring at him.


    " What do you mean ''what''? You just said you are stopping here?" Glen spat at him.


    " And so? Is it too difficult for you to understand?" Elliot shot back.


    "You said you are stopping here, aren''t you coming with us?" Karin joined from behind Glen.


    " Seems you guys are forgetting something here; my job is to handle the land carrier," Elliot stated slowly.


    " So you are going to stay here until we come back?" Clint, who had not said a word unless spoken to since the start of their mission spoke up at this point, stunning everyone.


    Elliot chuckled lightly before saying that he would wait for them as this would not be the first time that he had been out alone on missions.


    " I''ll wait for you for a month and leave if you haven''t returned by then"


    Elliot informed them.


    " Don''t waste time on him, let''s go" Ivan called out to them after giving Elliott a long look.


    They took a bigger portion of the supplies into their storage before exiting the land carrier.


    Without looking back, they advanced into the smaller stone path on foot; leaving Elliot behind with the land carrier.


    ...¡­


    Days flew by in a flash and a week had passed in the dreamscape.


    Inside the tunnel, Ivan and his group had made great progress during their missions. They had placed another two markers, setting up another two sectors.


    During the week, the group cleared out numerous monsters, improving their teamwork with each other as well as their individual strength.


    Glen had successfully entered the True King rank while the rest of them had increased their AP as well.


    As for Ivan.


    ...


    NAME: Ivan Von Charles


    Talent Group: Primal Talent type: Wisher Talent: Wish card


    Talent lv: SS AP: 46.23% Rank: TRUE KING


    ....


    He was getting closer to the True Lord rank and was just four AP points short.


    Currently, they were resting in the territory of a group of yuukis that they had cleared up three days ago; all of them looking visibly different from how they looked a week ago.


    Their hairs had grown longer and were covered in dirt, their gazes sharper and they gave off auras of seasoned veterans.


    "Everyone gathered, we''re moving forward now."

 Chapter 110 - 110: The village head is very demure

    BOOM!!


    Ivan jumped off a high point and landed on the ground with a loud sound, four more similar sounds rang out as Ralph, Karin, Glen, and Clint jumped and landed behind him.


    "Where is this place?" Karin muttered while looking around.


    They seemed to have landed in the middle of a giant crater that looked like it was dug by humans, a small village with ten to fifteen ancient stone houses could be seen in the middle of the crater.


    The houses looked very ancient and abandoned; parts of them were missing as well as if a battle had occurred here in the distant past; the village was eerily silent, but a faint glow of a bonfire lit up the place, burning silently.


    "Fire? Are there people here? That''s impossible!" Glen voiced out.


    "Let''s take a look around first, stay close," Ivan ordered before taking the lead and stepping into the small village; the rest followed behind him.


    The walls of the houses in the village were made from ash-colored stones, and their rooftops were made from straws tied together, open square windows with torn pieces of clothes dangling over as coverage were the only thing that allowed light to enter these structures aside from the open entrance that had wooden doors.


    Many of the buildings had long collapsed, and pieces of the collapsed buildings littered the streets; craters and broken items could be found at a few places in the village.


    Moving through the quiet roads, the ground was constantly on the alert in case of any sudden monster that might appear but none showed up; they only found something after reaching the center of the village where the bonfire was. sea??h th§× ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The group stood about ten meters away from the bonfire, with looks of surprise on their faces as they stared ahead.


    Sitting around the bonfire were the figures of what looked like two men who had their backs facing them. These two figures wore old, tattered cloaks that rubbed the ground behind them, and their heads lowered as they chewed on something in their grasps without making a sound.


    One of them suddenly stopped as if it had sensed something; it turned its neck and looked at Ivan''s crew; it looked just like an average middle-aged man.


    A look of surprise appeared on his face upon seeing the five of them; he blinked before suddenly flashing a wide smile and waving at them, his lips stained in red liquid, making him look almost like a certain villain with white makeup.


    The expressions on the faces of Glen and Karin turned grim, they gasped and took a step back while covering their mouths with one of their hands. Ralph had a serious expression on his face as he stared at the smiling man who was waving at them with narrow eyes, Ivan and Clint remained expressionless.


    The reason for their various reactions was that the man who was waving at them was too pale to be a human, and his smile was creepy. What''s more, it was waving at them with the severed arm of a person that was half chewed! The bone poked out from the elbow joint, and severe bitemarks riddled the arm.


    And the red liquid on the man''s face was¡­blood! The damned thing was waving at them with the arm of another person!


    The second figure in a tattered cloak also turned at this point, just like the first, it was a pale-faced old man with blood stains on his face and holding onto a half-eaten leg; a huge chunk of the leg muscles had been bitten off which this figure was currently chewing while waving the leg at Ivan and the rest as if inviting the five to come join them in their meal.


    "Gross!" Glen exclaimed, feeling his insides turn at the carnivorous sight.


    Karin wasn''t able to hold it in anymore, she bent over and started retching hard.


    "Human limbs, where did they get them?" Ralph mumbled.


    "Those can''t be Elliot''s, right? Please tell me it''s not" Glen voiced out with wide eyes.


    Although he argued with the guy a lot, they needed him to control the land carrier for them and take them back to the base so he didn''t want anything to happen to Elliot.


    "No, it can''t be. They would have crossed us to reach where Elliot is" Ralph replied with a thoughtful expression.


    " Ah, that''s a relief," Glen sighed while patting his chest.


    " Stay focused!"


    Ivan''s voice rang out at this point and Glen immediately returned his attention to the bonfire and the two figures sitting in front of it.


    The two had stood up at some point and were not facing the five, tossing the limbs in their grasps away; the limbs landed near a few more that were in front of the bonfire.


    With the two figures now facing them, the irritated looks on Glen and Ralph''s faces became more vivid; even Ralph couldn''t keep a straight face anymore, and his face showed clear disgust while Clint frowned.


    They were now able to see clearly what the two figures looked like, and it wasn''t friendly in the slightest; their features were mind-troubling.


    Firstly, they stood at a height of 7 ''0 feet; their ash skin looked like they were molded from remains of burned wood, which stopped at their necks while their faces were as white as paper.


    Their bodies were like pieces of dried skin wrapped around twisted bones, creating a disgusting sight as some of the bones poked the surface of their skin from time to time.


    Their legs were a large mass of twisted flesh dripping with slimy substance and constantly swelling and bursting blisters, they strangely didn''t make any sound while popping.


    "Hello travelers, welcome to our village. Would you like to check into a place to rest?" The figure with the face of an old man said with the voice of a cute young woman, his lips not moving as the wide creepy smile remained plastered on his face.


    *Or would you like something to eat first? We have varieties of dishes." The other one that had the face of a middle-aged man joined. His voice was like that of a young teenage boy; his lips also did move and it seemed like their words were welcoming right from their necks.


    The sight of this made Karin''s skin crawl and she shivered slightly.


    "How about you die?" Ivan uttered calmly, his eyes dull and his face expressionless.


    The two figures turned their gaze to Ivan; their eyes rolled disgustingly in their sockets as if trying to force themselves out, and their smiles reached right under their eyes.


    "Sorry, we don''t offer such services in our village. Maybe you should ask our village head?"


    The both of them announced in unison with their childish and girly voices.


    "Your village head? Who is your village head?" Ivan asked them.


    The body of the two figures began to twist, their necks elongating and their mouths tearing wide as they began to laugh like crazy psychopaths.


    "Hahahaha, our village head is the most generous"


    "The most caring"


    "The most mindful"


    "The most courtesy"


    "The most demure!"


    "He is the protector of our village, all hail the village head!"


    As if reciting a memorized poem, the two creatures that now looked nothing like humans sang with great joy in their voices.


    Immediately after they recited the last lines¡­


    BOOM!!!


    The ground right beneath the bonfire exploded and sent a cloud of dust into the air, Ivan and his cohort could see the vague outline of a huge creature within the cloud of dust before an extremely cute voice rang out.


    "Misters, are you going to hurt us?"

 Chapter 111 - 111: Glens partial transformation

    Ivan frowned deeply when he heard the voice; it was like that of a four-year-old little girl who had just become fluent in speech, very eager to say as many words as possible.


    His eyes narrowed as he fixed his gaze on the cloud of dust, waiting for it to settle; two bright red glowing eyes gazed back at him from within the cloud of dust.


    "Misters, do you not like my Village?"


    "Are you bad people? We promise to be good, so please don''t hurt us"


    " You can''t leave without eating, Mother will be offended. She said to feed all visitors"


    "Misters please be kind and not hurt us?"


    The cute voice kept shouting as the cloud of dust gradually settled, revealing the horror that was making such a noise.


    The eyes of the group shrank, and every single one of them took a step back; even Ivan wasn''t able to maintain steeze this time.


    The so-called village head was an embodiment of abominations!


    Body made from twisted bones and tangled flesh in a very mind-troubling manner, a face featuring that of three people screaming at the same time but their screams couldn''t be heard, limbs made from folding rotting flesh with gigantic blisters that would pour out tiny worms upon popping, and chest that wriggled continuously as if snakes were struggling to come out.


    This so-called village head was the most disgusting-looking monster that the five of them had ever seen in their lives!


    On top of its head, the bonfire was still burning ever so quietly and a stick with the head of a little girl attached to it was standing in the middle of the bonfire with two glowing red eyes and a twisted smile on her bloody face.


    "I understand now! The words that these monsters are saying are recorded words of people they devoured!" Ralph suddenly exclaimed at this moment, a look of rage formed on his face as he gazed at the village head who was speaking in a little girl''s voice.


    Ivan''s eyes flashed with a mad glint.


    If what Ralph said was true, doesn''t that mean that everything the village head has said was said to it by a certain little girl in the distant past? Then, that little girl¡­


    "Clint and Ralph, take on the old man. Glen and Karin, the other one is yours; I''ll handle the village head myself" Ivan ordered, his voice low but chilly. Ralph and Glen, who had known Ivan for a long were able to tell that he was angry right now.


    " Yes!"


    They all answered before splitting into two groups, Ralph and Clint moved toward the figure with the face of an old man while Karin and Glen went for the other one.


    "Travelers, what are you doing with my son? You-you killed him!"


    The figure with the face of an old man screamed, its elongated neck twitched violently before tearing open, and countless black spiders landed on the ground before increasing in size, each of the spiders easily reaching the size of a baby hippo. Sear?h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Their black eyes scattered over their eyes, their long legs pierced the ground with ease, and their bodies were dripping with green liquid that was similar to what came out from the blisters on the monster''s legs.


    The spiders immediately rushed at Clint and Ralph after they finished growing in size, turning into a small black tide on the ground.


    Both of them instantly prepared, Ralph summoned his undead General first.


    The old man in a red robe moved in front of Ralph. The spiders immediately jumped on his robe and tried to tear it to pieces, but their legs were unable to penetrate.


    Pah!


    Pah!


    Pah!


    With swift movements, the undead General threw out his hands and punched all of the spiders and they exploded into blood mist.


    Sizzling sounds came from the undead General''s fists after eliminating the first wave of spiders, its skin corroded slightly.


    "Careful! The green substance of the spiders has a corrosive effect!" Ralph called out and informed everyone before releasing Nexus energy to heal the undead General''s fists.


    Just beside Ralph, Clint placed both of his palms on the ground after hearing Ralph''s warning, a large mass of shadow rose from the ground like a riding wave and washed toward the spiders.


    The shadow reached the spiders and crashed on them before fussing with their own shadows; this didn''t have any effect until suddenly, the shadows of every spider that was rushing at the Clint rose from the ground and pounced on the spiders before tearing them to shreds.


    All of the little spiders were soon dealt with, leaving just the monster itself to face the two.


    "Help, help! The travelers are killing people, why doesn''t anyone believe me?!" A shriek rang from the monster with the face of an old man as its arms began to twist violently as well and started stretching to abnormal lengths! Its arms soon grew like vines, coiling on the ground beside it.


    Swoosh!


    Its body palm suddenly came flying at Ralph like a sudden hook, its speed like that of an arrow released from a crossbow.


    Clap!


    Just before the palm could touch Ralph, the undead General appeared in front of him and knocked the palm away with a slap.


    Clint created a huge shadow spear and hurled it at the monster only for the body of the monster to create a huge mouth of flesh and bones to catch the shadow spear before it dissolved.


    Ralph and Clint frowned, this was bound to be an intense fight but they were ready for it!


    On Glen''s side.


    After splitting up, Glen summoned his white snake and used the ability that he had gained after reaching the True King rank.


    Partial transformation!


    Just like Karl Owen, who was able to fuse with his shadow panther to assume a different form, letting man and summoned beast fight as one, Glen was now capable of such transformation after reaching the True King rank too!


    Although his transformation was only partial and he wasn''t able to fully use the skill like Karl did back then.


    Right now, Glen''s head was covered with a white snake mouth. The size was modified just right enough to fit the shape of his head. In front were two horizontal snake eyes that acted as visors for him and allowed him to see.


    The snake helmet had an open mouth with two long fangs stretching down, Glen''s lips could be seen through this open mouth.


    He had white scales protecting a few parts of his body, such as his chest, stomach, and back. On both hands were white gloves covered in scales, and his fingers were covered by incredibly sharp-looking claws!


    A big white snake tail stretched out from the back of his waist, and Glen was able to control it just the way he instructed his snake!


    This was Glen''s partial transformation form!


    In this form, Glen''s speed increased greatly and he became as nimble as a snake, carrying out maneuvers that he wouldn''t dare before in his body.


    The scales were hard enough to resist the attack of a True King as well; he just had to avoid getting hit in an area that was not protected by scales.


    Just like the other monster, the one that Glen and Karin were facing was also capable of summoning minions to help it.


    But instead of spiders, its body started to bulge and swell before suddenly splitting open and four humanoid monsters with faceless features climbed out from the split.


    "No, no! Travelers ate my husband and kids, the old man isn''t crazy!" The voice of the woman cried out from within the monster while the split on its body closed up.


    At this time, the four faceless humanoids charged at Glen and Karin, their speed blinding, and they left afterimages everywhere.


    But Glen and Karin were not to be outdone.


    In his half-transformed form, Glen bent his body forward before shooting out like a bullet.


    Zip! Zip! Zip!


    Sounds of claws slicing through the air resounded as Glen appeared behind one of the faceless humanoids the next second.


    The faceless humanoid froze in place.


    One second¡­


    Two seconds¡­


    Three seconds¡­


    Multiple white lines suddenly began to appear on the body of the faceless humanoid before it suddenly exploded into pieces with a low ring.


    Glen had sliced it with his claws without the faceless humanoid realizing it!

 Chapter 112 - 112: Glen x Karin, teamwork

    The other faceless humanoids saw that one of their kind had been killed; they all immediately rushed at Glen in a frenzy, but before they could even reach him.


    BOOM!


    A red mallet suddenly appeared in the air in front of them and struck down, ground in front of them exploded, sending the three faceless humanoids into the air along with shattered stones.


    While still in midair, Karin jumped and smashed one of the faceless humanoids with her mallet like a baseball, sending it flying in Glen''s direction.


    Glen instantly zipped past it, and the faceless humanoid turned into multiple pieces; it had been shredded by Glen as well.


    The remaining two humanoids landed a few meters away before running toward the two again, one jumping at Glen while the other jumped at Karin.


    Karin moved to the side and dodged, letting the faceless humanoid land on the ground before swinging her mallet at its legs.


    BAM!!


    Karin''s mallet smashed into the right leg of the faceless humanoid ruthlessly, instantly breaking it as it bent in an unnatural position with its flesh raptured through which a bloody bone stuck out.


    The faceless humanoid was sent flying after by the force of the hit and crashed into the ground, creating small craters on its way before smashing into the side of the wall and making a wide crack in it.


    It was yet to recover from the hit when Karin appeared in front of the crack, her mallet raised high above her head which she brought down with speed.


    BOOM!!


    The crack on the wall deepened, and blood splattered out from under the mallet; the faceless humanoid had died tragically.


    While Karin was finishing up, Glen wasn''t any slower.


    When the two faceless humanoids had jumped at them, Glen had flashed toward the one that aimed for him instead.


    Like an agile Snake, Glen used the body of the faceless humanoid to maneuver in the air before slamming his tail on its back like a piece of log.


    Bang!


    The hit was brutal as the skin on the back of the faceless humanoid instantly burst open after taking a whipping from Glen''s tail.


    It fell toward the ground at an even faster speed and crashed face-first; Glen dove down and landed on the back of the faceless humanoid, causing more damage.


    A split appeared on the blank face of the monster through which blood gushed out. It tried to turn, but a white claw suddenly gripped its neck from behind.


    With a low grunt, Glen ripped off the head of the monster from its shoulders before tossing it to the side like garbage.


    His lips formed into a vicious smile under his helmet as he turned to face the monster that had closed up by now only to find out that its four minions that it had summoned were really dead.


    It let out a scream before suddenly bending forward; its arms suddenly stretched out like ropes that shot toward Glen and Karin; the speed of its arms was incredible.


    Glen reacted on time thanks to his new form, he was able to twist his body and dodge the palm of the monster before rolling away.


    Karin wasn''t able to move so fast but it didn''t mean that she had no means of defending herself.


    Stomping her feet and causing a small crack in the ground, she brought her mallet in front of her, and Nexus energy burst out from her arms, enhancing her grip on the mallet.


    BAM!!


    The palm of the monster smashed into the mallet with a loud sound; Karin gritted her teeth as her knees buckled, and she was pushed back but stopped after just moving three meters back.


    She had successfully blocked the monster''s attack.


    Seeing that its attacks had failed, the monster recalled its arms, which began to retreat like vines, but how would Karin and Glen just allow that to happen?


    With a speed so fast that he turned into a white shadow, Glen flashed to the side of the monster before hacking at its arm with his claw.


    Multiple white claw marks appeared in the air as Glen clawed at it madly, sending pieces of rotten flesh and green liquid flying into the air.


    "Ahhh!" The monster let out a high-pitched cry from having its arm shredded by Glen; it tried to attack him with its other hand when¡­


    Bang! Crack!!


    A sudden force smashed into its other shoulder, it turned its head over and saw that Karin had appeared beside it while it was distracted by Glen and had blasted its shoulders off with her mallet.


    Leaving a bloody mess there and its entire arm lying on the ground.


    Enraged, the neck of the monster twisted like that of a snake before suddenly snapping at Glen but Glen dodged it and caused the monster to bite nothing but air.


    It became more furious; its entire body suddenly began to swell, and its skin made bubbling sounds as if water was boiling; it was about to explode.


    "Get away from it!"


    Glen shouted and instantly moved away from the monster, Karin didn''t need Glen''s reminders and had already jumped away the instant she saw the monster''s body double in size.


    Uncaring if the two were still there, the monster''s body continued to swell as countless blisters appeared all over its body. It was a very troubling sight to see, they could even see the liquid jumping inside the blisters; they were literally boiling!


    This continued for 10 seconds as the monster soon reached an enormous size, a massive body of folding rotten flesh covered in large blisters; and like a balloon that was popped by a needle, it exploded.


    Paow!!


    Pieces of flesh and corrosive green liquid spattered, covering a distance of twenty meters around the monster and causing every rock in the area to melt after it was touched by the green liquid; even the ground wasn''t spared, the green liquid melted craters all over the ground.


    Karin''s eyes widened while Glen''s eyes narrowed as they stared at the center of the explosion where the monster was standing before.


    A totally different kind of monster was currently standing there.


    It looked just like a faceless humanoid made from hardened bones. It was the height of a human and stood on two slender but athletic legs and long arms that ended with five long and sharp fingers.


    It looked just like a robot with the face of a middle-aged man! Sear?h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Grheeee!"


    The monster opened its mouth, and steam came out as it made a low growling sound before lifting its arms and making a gripping motion with both fingers; it turned its gaze and stared at Glen and Karin.


    It suddenly shot forward, disappearing from their sight.


    "What the¡­!" Karin exclaimed in shock, she wasn''t able to follow the movement of the monster with her eyes.


    Swoosh!!


    A gust of wind suddenly blew against her face from the side, and she quickly turned around; her eyes widened when she saw that the monster had appeared beside her and was about to attack her.


    She quickly brought her mallet in front of her even when she knew that it wasn''t going to be fast enough to block the monster''s attack, which was a powered-packed punch.


    With eyes still widened from shock, Karin saw Glen in his partial transformation form suddenly appear in front of her and send out a punch of his own to meet the monster''s fist.


    Clap!!!


    A thunderous sound echoed when both fists collided.


    The ground below Glen''s fist shattered as he struggled to hold his ground, but he was only able to do so for two seconds before he was sent flying; he flew past Karin, who was in the process of swinging her mallet.


    Since Glen had appeared on time to help her block the monster''s punch, Karin had changed her mallet swinging pattern from blocking into a slam; she was surprised to see Glen fly past her in the middle of her attack, this angered her and she increased the force behind her slam.


    BOOM!!


    The mallet crashed into the body of the monster like a nuke, its body bent backward, and its feet left the ground; the monster flew away like a loose arrow, creating five air blasts midair.


    It smashed into the village, crashing through multiple buildings before crashing into the wall on the other side of the village and causing a massive crack to form on the wall.


    Ignoring the monster, Karin turned to where Glen had flown to and wanted to go help him only to see that the young man was already up on his feet.


    Some of the scales on his right knuckles had cracked, and Glen was currently fixing them with Nexus energy, but this didn''t prevent him from witnessing the scene of Karin smashing the monster away like a ball.


    "Damn, that''s one crazy swing!" Glen remarked after reaching Karin.


    The girl ignored his remark and asked if he was ok first; after all, he had been sent flying like a broken kite as well and had even created a human-shaped crack in the wall.


    "Yeah, I''m good. My transformation is stronger than you think" Glen said easily.


    The both of them quickly went to the other side of the village to look for the monster, they had to finish it first before anything else.

 Chapter 113 - 113: Smashing the monster to bits

    Upon getting there, they just happened to catch the scene of the monster pulling itself out of the crack that it had made on the wall with its body.


    The monster landed lightly on the ground, its gaze fixed on Karin''s mallet.


    "Wow, a few more hits like that, and it will definitely not be able to get back up," Glen exclaimed while staring at the monster.


    The side of its body that Karin''s mallet had touched had bent out of shape, the shoulder had shifted backward, and a part of its ribs sank into its body, causing the other side of its body to look very wrong.


    Karin''s attack had totally ruined half of its body.


    "Here''s the plan; since I''m faster than you and you''re stronger, I''ll try to hold it in place, and you will finish it off," Glen suggested, and Karin nodded readily.


    She had realized this as well, and what Glen had proposed was the best plan that she could think of as well; without Glen holding it in place, there was no way for her to land a hit on the monster; she couldn''t even see its movements!


    The same was for Glen as well, while he was able to keep up with the speed of the monster and was even a bit faster, he wasn''t its match in terms of strength; it would only be a matter of time for him to run out of Nexus energy and his transformation would be undone, the monster would finish him off easily by then.


    "You ready?" Glen asked Karin as his body burst out with ferocious red energy that shattered the ground around him, all of the Nexus energy rushed toward his legs.


    "Un!" Karin nodded, and she also exploded with Nexus energy that gathered in her arms as she held her mallet up.


    Glen dashed out the next moment after Karin nodded, appearing in front of the monster like a ghost.


    He sent out a punch the moment he arrived, his fist tearing the wind and creating explosive sounds.


    The monster didn''t hesitate, as if it was incapable of feeling pain, it met Glen''s punch with its own.


    BAM!


    Both fists collided and the ground suffered, neither of them taking a step back.


    BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!


    After the first clash, Glen and the monster rained blows on each other at lightning speed.


    Destructing the ground even more and causing the wall behind the monster to cave in, the speed at which they threw their punches was so fast that all Karin was able to see were afterimages; this didn''t mean she was going to hesitate on their plan, her mallet was ready to swing into action at any given notice.


    They exchanged hundreds of blows within seconds; the loud sounds of their fists hitting each other were ear-piercing.


    Glen suddenly exploded with another wave of Nexus energy that rushed toward his arms, the speed of his punching instantly doubled!


    They had just exchanged a round of blows, and the monster was yet to pull back its limb when Glen''s fists suddenly appeared in front of its face again; it was as if Glen suddenly had four hands!


    A punch landed on the face of the monster, another one on its chest, an uppercut, a side punch that forced its head to sway to the side, and another elbow jab that forced its head back into place.


    Glen''s assault had suddenly become more ferocious, and the monster was unable to keep up; it could only watch as its body was knocked around without being able to react.


    If it tried to punch back or move, a fist would always appear to knock it off balance.


    BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!


    Glen rained the punches on the monster like a hail storm, causing the monster''s body to rise into the air and its back to crack deeper into the wall; yet, despite all of this, Glen was unable to cause significant damage to the hard body of the monster.


    But of course, he was aware of this, and he wasn''t planning on finishing up the monster in the first place.


    "Karin, now!"


    Karin, who was staring with a bewildered expression on her face as punches that she wasn''t able to see nailed the monster into the wall, was pulled back to her senses when Glen suddenly shouted her name.


    " Here!" She yelled back before dashing toward the two, arriving behind Glen within a second.


    Glen felt Karin''s arrival and immediately moved to the side, giving the monster a moment to catch its breath.


    But this short moment of liberation came at a very deadly price because the round side of a red mallet suddenly filled the vision of the monster immediately after Glen left it.


    Bang!


    The mallet smashed into its head, instantly deforming its face and pressing its head.


    The mallet lifted off its body before coming down again.


    Bang! Bang! Bang!


    Hit after hit landed on the body of the monster, Karin kept pounding the monster into the wall with her mallet.


    Only stopping after the mallet smashed the monster into a bloody pulp, its body had turned into multiple pieces that stuck into the wall.


    "Phew!" Karin dropped to the ground, breathing heavily.


    "Good job." Glen looked at her, breathing hard as well as his half-transformed form deactivated, and a small white snake appeared on his shoulder. S§×ar?h the nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    (Let''s not forget that his snake can change its size at will)


    "Let''s go help the others!" Karin adjusted her breathing for a while before standing up; the duo turned to look at the aftermath of their fight with the monster; they had destroyed a large part of the village and its surroundings.


    "Who do you intend to help?" A voice suddenly sounded from the side.


    The two of them turned to look and were stunned to see Ralph, Clint, and Ivan looking at them; the three were done with their fights as well!


    ¡­..


    A few minutes ago, while Karin and Glen were dealing with the monster with the face of a middle-aged man.


    After Ralph and Clint finished killing all the small spiders, they turned to face the monster that still had a split in its neck.


    "Traveler, do you not like the food my mother prepared? Why do you look angry? Don''t hurt me, please!" The voice of the young children rang from within the body of the monster as it began to change its form.


    Its neck twisted like a snake wrapping its body before suddenly tightening, turning as firm as though made from steel.


    Another two splits burst open in its shoulders and another pair of hands came out from.


    "Attack it!"


    Ralph had no intentions of letting the monster transform fully and immediately sent the undead General to attack, Clint also attacked with an enormous shadow spike as well.


    But before any of them could reach the monster, the blisters on its disgusting legs grew several times in size before exploding with slimy sizzling liquid and pieces of rotten flesh.


    Glen immediately called back the undead General from the range of the monster''s explosion, the slimy liquid instantly caused the ground to melt, and the shadow spike dissolved upon contact.


    The monster had finished transforming!

 Chapter 114 - 114: Undead knight, rage

    The monster looked completely different after it was done with its transformation.


    Its neck looked like a compressed spring made from flesh and its pale face had a wide split that threw from both sides of its mouth.


    Its body became more muscular and tall as well, with bone sticking out from its sides; it now had four arms that were over three meters long and ended with bone sickles that had blood dripping from them.


    Its legs, which were previously a large mass of folding flesh, were now replaced by clusters of bone that seemed to be twisted together; one could tell just how much damage those legs could cause if they landed on a person.


    "It''s stronger now," Ralph mumbled as he stared at the four sickles that were each one meter long; they looked sharp enough to cut through metal.


    "You go right, I''ll go left" Ralph turned to Clint and said before summoning the undead knight.


    The fearsome knight in rusty armor appeared with its shadow horse, its eyes scanned Clint before moving toward the monster.


    ''Kill''


    Ralph immediately got feedback from what the undead knight was feeling after seeing the monster.


    "Go!" He ordered and the shadow horse flickered before dashing forward, the undead General right behind them.


    Clint wasn''t staying idle either; placing his hands on the ground, he summoned a thick blanket of shadows before sinking into it, vanishing without a trace.


    Ralph was stunned by this but suddenly got a feeling from the undead knight that pointed its sword in a direction.


    ''There''


    Ralph looked but saw nothing, only after focusing his eyes was he able to notice that the shadow in that place was abnormal and seemed to be moving slightly.


    ''It can even see through Clint''s ability!?'' Ralph was shocked at this discovery, it was a pleasant shock; he wouldn''t be too worried now if he was to face someone with similar talent as Clint.


    Back to the fight, the undead General was first to reach the monster and a sickle was immediately sent at it.


    Clang!


    A metallic sound echoed and the sickle made contact with the red robe of the undead General, unable to penetrate.


    The undead General immediately attacked as well after blocking the first sickle, it stepped on it and used it as a springboard to launch itself into the air and toward the monster''s neck.


    Bang!


    It landed a fist on the neck of the monster, the neck of the monster rippled like a water surface, absorbing the damage from the punch of the undead General.


    A sickle appeared right behind the undead General as it was dropping to the ground.


    Swoosh!


    At this moment, three large shadow hands appeared from the ground and grabbed the sickle that was about to hack at the undead General.


    The latter was able to land thanks to the shadow hands and went in for an attack again.


    The undead knight also joined this time. Arriving close to the legs of the monster, the undead knight lashed out with its sword.


    Sparks flew out as the sword and the leg of the monster made contact; only a small cut appeared on the leg, but it was enough for the dark aura on the sword to slip into the body of the monster.


    At the same time, multiple shadow spikes shot from the darkness around them, stabbing into the body of the monster and causing it to bleed.


    The monster was furious, letting out a piercing screech, it stepped forward and suddenly vanished.


    When it appeared again, it was behind Ralph with one of its sickles coming down on Ralph like a meteor. S§×ar?h the nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    It was so fast that Ralph did not even get enough time to react before the sickle reached him, he closed his eyes in anticipation for the pain.


    Swoosh!!


    Ralph suddenly felt a gentle push on his shoulder, and he went flying a few meters away; he realized what had happened and quickly opened his eyes to see who had saved him, only to catch the scene of the monster''s sickle slamming into the undead General.


    BOOM!


    The undead General was sent flying away like a bullet after taking Ralph''s spot; it crashed into a half-collapsed building, finally finishing up what was left of it.


    Ralph did a flip midair and landed lightly on his feet after witnessing this, a sweet taste rising up his throat, but he forced it down; the impact wasn''t too strong and had only affected the undead General lightly, so Ralph was able to resist the backlash.


    Seeing that it had missed its primary target, the monster turned to face Ralph again, blood flowing out from the wounds that the shadow spikes created on its body.


    It let out another shriek and was about to vanish again when another pair of shadow hands rose from its shadow and confined it in a firm grip, pulling it backward.


    Bang!


    The monster let out a shriek as its black landed heavily on the ground, it slammed its sickles into the ground in an attempt to force whatever was controlling the shadow hands out. It even tried slashing the shadow hands but they would simply mend themselves after it cut them.


    The undead knight appeared beside it at this moment, its eyes flickering with black smoke.


    Ralph was able to feel its emotion and it was¡­rage.


    It lifted its sword, which burst out with an even darker aura that made the shadows in the area grow darker; the shadow hands that were the doings of Clint were also enhanced under the sudden burst of dark aura, and their grip became tighter around the monster.


    Like a streak of black lightning, the undead knight and its horse began to flicker around the body of the monster; its current speed wasn''t any slower than Glen''s in his half-transformed form!


    Wherever the undead knight reached, it would deliver multiple sword strikes to the body of the monster; making sure to leave a large wound with dark aura pouring into the wound.


    Soon, the entire body of the monster was covered in sword wounds created by the undead knight, the black aura from the sword wreaking destruction within its body.


    The monster began shrieking in pain and struggled aggressively, trying to free itself but the enhanced shadow hands were like thick metal chains that wouldn''t bulge.


    Seconds passed slowly, and the body of the monster began to fall apart under the effect of the death aura that had burst out from the sword of the undead knight; its sickles fell off, its limbs collapsed, and its body began to turn into dust.


    In less than a minute, the monster that had nearly ended Ralph was no more.


    The undead knight finally lowered its sword this time, and the intensity of the dark aura reduced; it lingered for a little while before returning to Ralph''s Nexus chamber; it had used too much energy.


    Same was for the undead General as well, Ralph had recalled it after the monster had died.


    Clint finally rose from the shadow that he was hiding in, a complicated expression on his face as he faced Ralph.


    Ralph didn''t know if the boy was staring at him since the latter''s eyes were closed so he just stared back.


    Clint finally looked away for a few seconds, not saying a word as to why he was staring at Ralph. Only he knew that he had been shaken by the might of the undead knight.


    "Took you guys long enough" A calm voice suddenly sounded from their side.


    The two of them turned to look and saw Ivan sitting on top of the monster that was addressed as the Village head while holding a Nexus crystal in his hand.


    He had finished a while ago.


    They then turned in the direction of Glen and Karin.


    "Looks like they''ll be finishing soon as well," Ralph voiced out but couldn''t help turning to look at Ivan again; he was wondering how Ivan had killed that monster faster than them.

 Chapter 115 - 115: White flames

    A while ago, after Glen, Ralph, Clint, and Karin went to deal with the other monsters. Ivan was left alone to face the leader.


    The massive calamity glared at Ivan with its three faves and the red glows in the eyes of the little girl above the bonfire was fixed on him as her smile became more twisted, the light from the bonfire reflecting on the crude injury under her head; Ivan was able to tell at a glance that her head had been ripped off crudely.


    His face was calm, but he felt a great sense of rage in his chest that caused a burning sensation; his eyes gazed at the monster with killing intent, causing the temperature of the surroundings to drop.


    A card instantly appeared in his hand, and he disappeared.


    The monster was slightly stunned to see Ivan suddenly vanish. It was about to start looking for him when Ivan appeared in front of it with a pitch-black sword.


    "Let me lay you to rest." Ivan''s voice was gentle as if he was whispering to a little girl, trying to put her to sleep.


    The sight of the girl''s head hanging on the stick above the bonfire angered him so much for a reason that he didn''t know or wasn''t sure of, it was as if he had experienced such pain before.


    Gripping the sword with his right hand, a wave of red energy burst out as Ivan madly slashed out.


    "Travelers, is the food nice?"


    The voice of the little girl sounded from within the monster in a hurry as the twisted smile on the little girl''s face vanished and the mouth that revealed a pitch-black hole replaced it.


    All the mouths of the faces on the monster opened as well, each of them suddenly launching rings of blazing flames toward Ivan who was still in the air.


    The three faces that made up the face of the monster, and the face of the little girl that was hanging on a stick spat out the rings of fire in unison.


    The heat from these rings of flames was so intense that it caused the Nexus energy surrounding Ivan''s sword to waver, but Ivan didn''t back down; he wasn''t going to back down.


    Gripping his sword, he slashed at the incoming rings of fire and sent a wave of dark and red energy at them.


    BOOM!!


    The dark and red energy wave from Ivan collided with the rings of flames from the monster, causing a miniature explosion in the air, and a cloud of smoke was instantly formed.


    But before the monster could even understand what had happened, Ivan sure burst out behind the cloud of smoke like an arrow and shot past the monster''s head, a streak of sword light following him.


    Ivan landed behind the monster in light steps, he was holding something in his hands along with his sword.


    It was the head of the little girl!


    Ivan had cut the stick that the head was attached to and had taken it away when he shot past the monster just now!


    Above the head of the monster, the bonfire quickly stopped burning and died out after the head of the girl was removed.


    The monster shrieked loudly in fury and stomped on the ground but Ivan ignored all of it.


    Still holding the head of the girl, he ran his fingers across her face and closed her two eyes that had long stopped glowing red light.


    "You can rest now," Ivan mumbled as another card appeared in his hand before bursting out with white flames that consumed the head of the little girl, turning it into sparkling ashes that disappeared into the air.


    Just after Ivan made the white flame that had consumed the head of the little girl disappear, he stepped to the side before slashing a hundred times with his black sword.


    At the same time that he moved, a large arm that was made of twisted flesh, bones, and blisters brushed past him; the arm just happened to enter the wave of Ivan''s slashes, and it naturally suffered the consequence.


    Shin! Shin! Shin!


    Like a tornado of blades, the arm instantly exploded into hundreds of pieces after Ivan withdrew his sword.


    Pieces of rotten flesh and chopped bones scattered in the air as blood rained down like a broken dam.


    The monster let out a thunderous shriek that shook the ground, countless blood tendrils suddenly shot out from the wound in its shoulder and stabbed at the countless tiny pieces of flesh and bones, pulling everything back into their original place.


    "So that''s how it is? I see" Ivan muttered under his breath before taking out another card that changed into a long white spear with its top blazing with white fire.


    Taking a step forward, Ivan vanished again.


    "Uu?" The monster made a low groaning sound, it got cautious when Ivan vanished again.


    Zam!


    A flash of white light suddenly shot past the monster''s body and a long gash appeared on its body, blood gushing out of the split and the opening of the wound burning with white flames. Blood tendrils appeared again and tried to open the open split only for the white flames to burn them to ashes.


    The monster shrieked from pain and fury, but this was only the start.


    Zam! Zam! Zam!


    Ivan, in the form of a white light, flashed around the body of the monster with his spear, leaving deep splits on the body of the monster every time he flashed across it.


    The body of the monster was soon covered in countless gash and thousands of blood tendrils had been burnt up, preventing the monster from healing.


    Unable to hold it in anymore, the monster suddenly roared instead of shrieking and its body started to swell while the blisters on its body boiled with high intensity as if they could explode at any moment; it was about to transform!


    Of course, Ivan didn''t know that this was what these creatures did when they were about to transform and thought that it was going to be a large-scale attack, but it didn''t really matter because¡­


    Whatever the monster was about to do, Ivan had no plans to just stand there and watch.


    Gripping his spear, Ivan bent his knees and made a big jump. S§×ar?h the n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    BOOM!!


    The ground exploded as Ivan''s feet left the ground, he reached the height of the monster''s head in a single leap before poking out with his spear numerous times.


    Sounds of the spear piercing into flesh rang out as Ivan made several holes in the next of the monster before dropping to the ground.


    Puff!!


    The monster froze, a fountain of blood pumped out through the numerous holes created by Ivan''s spear; the eyes on its three faces rolled and stared at Ivan, who was still falling after executing the spear attack before its head suddenly tilted to the side.


    With a bang, the head of the monster rolled down its shoulder. The body of the monster remained standing for a few more seconds before falling forward as well, the empty space in its neck landing right in front of Ivan.


    Ivan slowly bent down and picked up the little shining crystal that had rolled out from the neck of the monster.


    "Now you can rest!" Ivan said in a low tone while gazing down at the corpse of the monster.

 Chapter 116 - 116: A human village?

    After finishing the monster, Ivan and his cohort explored the small village.


    There wasn''t much to explore about the village since it was very small and one could easily see everywhere at a glance from a high point, though they did find something interesting in the village. S§×ar?h the nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    In a small structure that was slightly more spacious than the others and looked like a hall, a single half-statue stood straight at the forefront of the hall.


    The statue appeared to be a statue of a warrior in medieval armor and carrying a shield beside its leg; the statue only has up to its waist remaining; its upper body seemed to have been smashed off by something, considering the jagged edges on top.


    Dust and cracks riddled the statue and spoke of its age, in front of the statue were stone slabs that looked just as old as the statue itself. One the stone slabs were delicately carved letters that seemed to have been carved by humans, the carved letters were too neat and exquisite to have been the work of a clawed creature.


    Was this really a village of humans? Were there humans from the dreamscape, or had they escaped here after the mirror gates appeared in their homes?


    These questions rose in their minds as they tried to guess what might have been the case.


    Staring at the words on the stone slabs, none of them were able to make sense of what whoever had carved them was trying to communicate; they were unable to read the language on the stone slabs.


    "What language is this? I''ve never seen such characters before," Ralph mumbled with a frown on his face; he had spent much time in the library back at the training center, but he had never come across such letters before.


    "It''s no use thinking; we''ll return it to the tower after we get back; they can decide what to do next." Ivan stared at the stone slabs and said, for some reason, he felt that the characters were familiar, as if he had seen them before but was unable to recall.


    After storing the stone slabs, they checked the remaining part of the village. They found nothing worth noticeable so they returned to the hall to rest and chatted on how their fights with the monsters had gone.


    "She was incredible! We wouldn''t have been able to kill it if not for her, her strength was frightening!" Glen stated as he explained how his fight and Karin against the monster had gone.


    "You must be joking, it almost had me if not for you. You''re so fast in that form, now I envy not having a beast companion talent like you; I won''t mind being a black sheep in a family that prioritized weapon talents" Karin laughed before adding "Even if you were unable to defeat it, escaping back it would not have been a problem for you."


    And that was true, with the kind of speed Glen had when he assumed his transformed form, escaping from anything below the true Lord rank would not be a problem at all.


    "What about you guys? We thought we were pretty fast with our fight, we didn''t expect you guys to be even faster; how did you guys do it?" Karin turned to look at Ivan, Ralph, and Clint; Glen also turned to them as well.


    "Clint held it down while my undead knight finished it off; it was pretty easy, to be honest," Ralph stated while smiling lightly.


    " Dang, it seems like I have the least cool talent in the team; you all have cheat talents." Karin faked a tear.


    Glen laughed at her reaction while Ralph let out a slight chuckle, the girl joked too much.


    " How about you, Ivan? How did your fight go?" Karin turned to look at Ivan, everyone turned to stare at him as well.


    " I stabbed its neck till it fell off"


    Ivan''s answer was straight and simple, not adding any other details.


    "I just knew you would say something like that, boring!" Glen said with a chuckle, and everyone laughed; what Glen said was funny but also true.


    Ivan always gave straightforward answers wherever he was asked such questions, they were not surprised when he said he stabbed the monster''s neck till it fell off.


    They chatted for a bit more before resting for the night, Ralph was on night duty today and would wake them in case something happened.


    Morning came quickly and the group resumed their mission, clearing deeper into the tunnel.


    They encountered a nest of red-eyed rabbits after just moving five hundred meters from the small village.


    The red-eyed rabbits were monsters with bodies of rabbits but were as tall as children between the ages of ten and eleven; they had masculine builds and strong legs that were about to jump up to five meters into the air.


    In their mouths were rows of razor-sharp teeth and two large fangs that poked out from their lower lips; these fangs had paralyzing effects if they bit a target.


    The rabbits built their nest on the wall like bees, and the most funny and, at the same time, scary aspect about these rabbits was that they were able to use weapons; each and every single red-eyed rabbit had a stone battle axe, which they used to hack at their opponents.


    Imagine a group of tall muscular rabbits running toward you with red eyes and each of them waving a stone axe in the air. The scene was comical and frightening at the same time.


    During their fight with the rabbits, Glen''s snake had gone on a rampage. It did not fuse with Glen but kept its original form; it went about swallowing and biting one red-eyed rabbit after the other.


    Karin had also displayed the greatness of her mallet once more. Every time her mallet landed on the ground, a number of red-eyed rabbits would be sent into the air, making them easy targets for Clint''s shadow spikes.


    Ivan wasn''t staying idle either; he danced through the ranks of the red-eyed rabbits and cut them down like grass.


    The battle was exciting for them, and as soon as they finished all the red-eyed rabbits within half an hour, the ground was littered with their corpses and blood at the end of the fight.


    "What''s that?" Karin suddenly shouted and pointed at something ahead of them.


    Everyone looked over and saw a single red flower with white petals lying in one of the rabbit''s nests; they moved closer to take a good look.


    "Impossible!" Ralph was unable to hold himself and exclaimed after getting a close look at the strange plant.

 Chapter 117 - 117: Blood labyrinth

    "What is it?" Karin asked, her gaze moving from Ralph''s shocked face to the strange flower.


    As if still unable to believe his eyes, Ralph moved closer to the plant and picked it up, his movements careful as if he was holding something very fragile.


    After thorough observation, his shocked face turned into one of excitement.


    "It''s really it, it''s a nightmare flower!" Ralph exclaimed.


    Everyone stared at the plant in Ralph''s hand, their minds wondering what a nightmare flower was.


    "Wait, it can''t be that nightmare flower, right?" Karin suddenly voiced out and looked at Ralph with eyes that hoped they were dreaming but Ralph''s nod made her eyes widen.


    *Can someone speak in a language I understand? What''s a nightmare flower?!" Glen snapped at the two who were acting like animated characters, his face filled with annoyance.


    Their reactions showed that this strange flower was something important, so why were they leaving the rest of them hanging with curiosity?


    "I''ve heard my grandfather mention it before, although I have never seen one. The nightmare flower is an incredibly rare plant that is only found in the dreamscape and in forbidden zones ; they are always guarded by powerful guardians!


    Who would have thought that we would find one here, these rabbits must have obtained it by luck!" Karin explained while staring at the flower in Ralph''s hand with sparkling eyes.


    "I get it that it''s only found in such places and bla bla bla, what''s it used for?" Glen yelled, even more annoyed by Karin''s explanation.


    " Oh, about that. I don''t know, I only know that it''s very expensive. One can be sold for over a hundred million bucks!" Karin replied.


    Glen''s eyes widened and glowed, a money sign appeared in his eyes; he was yet to calm down when Ralph joined.


    " It''s not its price that''s shocking, nightmare flowers are part of the main materials for making Nexus chambers"


    Everyone moved their heads to look at him in shock.


    " You mean like the Nexus chamber at the tower?" Ivan asked.


    " Yes, those Nexus chambers. The nightmare flower contains a vast amount of Nexus energy and is capable of generating Nexus energy, which makes it reusable; the more of them in a place, the more abundant the energy in the place will be," Ralph enlightened the group.


    " No wonder it''s so expensive," Karin exclaimed.


    " If it contains so much energy, isn''t it just like a Nexus crystal then?" Ivan muttered.


    " Yes, isn''t it like a Nexus crystal? What if someone tries to absorb it?" Glen remarked.


    " That''s why it had the name ''nightmare'' in it" Clint suddenly voiced out in a low tone.


    Ralph nodded. "He''s right. The energy in the nightmare flower is very useful to Nexulytes, but it''s not a good idea to absorb it directly. This is because the nightmare flower is corrupted and absorbing the energy directly with corrupt the person, causing their Nexus flow to be disorganized and causing them to hallucinate about terrifying things that can make anyone go crazy"


    Their eyes lit up after Ralph''s explanation; now, the nightmare flower in Ralph''s hand didn''t look so beautiful anymore to Glen and Karin, but its price value still made their eyes shine.


    "We can sell it and split the money after returning," Ivan said to Ralph, who passed the nightmare flower to him, and he kept it in his storage device.


    "Wait, I thought you three are from the same training center? How come Ralph seems to know more than you two?" Karin suddenly moved closer to Glen and whispered.


    "Oh, it''s because he spent so much time in the library during our training; he must have read all the books in the library within the first three months" Glen replied casually.


    "I see them. Ivan must have been to the training room a lot since he''s so good at fighting and is the strongest, right!" Karin continued with a look of realization in her eyes.


    "Correct" Glen nodded.


    "Then¡­what about you? What were you doing when they were reading and fighting? To be honest, you look ordinary compared to them" Karin suddenly said with a poker face.


    Glen froze, he felt a slight sting in his cheeks but didn''t react. sea??h th§× ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Umm, I don''t feel fine talking about this," He said after a while.


    "Are you sure? Or you''re just embarrassed to admit it?"


    "Are you looking for a beating!"


    "Would you hit a girl? I''m pretty!"


    "True, you''re pretty, and I¡­no! That''s not the main issue, leave me alone or I''ll spank you"


    "Pervert"


    "You!!"


    ¡­.


    After storing the nightmare flower, they continued moving forward.


    Moving for another hundreds of meters in a narrow path, they arrived crag that poked above a cavern.


    The cavern was hundreds of meters deep under crag and it stretched so far that they suspected that this was the last part of the mountain range that was region 17.


    But knowing that they had almost reached the end of their objective didn''t make them feel relieved, instead, an uncomfortable feeling formed in their hearts.


    "At least now we know where the stream of blood stopped," Glen said with a nervous and uneasy chuckle.


    This was because, below the crag, the entire cavern was a labyrinth made from solidified blood!


    The unpleasant stench of the blood even reached all the way to the top of the crag where they were standing, causing their noses to twitch.


    The blood labyrinth had red mist hovering above, preventing them from seeing what kind of creatures could be hiding inside; they were also unable to draw out a route because of the red mist.


    Suddenly, they heard a loud rumbling sound and the place began to shake violently.


    Grrrrr! Clang! Bwishhhh!


    Different strange sounds thundered before coming to an abrupt stop, silence fell over the cavern after.


    The five of them stared down in shock, unable to believe what they had just witnessed.


    The blood labyrinth¡­just shifted spaces!


    "A labyrinth that can shift space within it, there goes the idea of drawing a route" Ralph mumbled with a serious expression on his face.


    With such a labyrinth, it was definitely going to take them weeks to find their way out in the worst-case scenario; if they were lucky and the monsters inside were not powerful, their coming out in a few days should be possible.


    "This is going to take forever, what if we get lost?" Karin remarked with a fearful look. Getting lost in such a labyrinth would be horrible.


    " That''s not necessarily the case; labyrinths that can shift space often have guardians guarding them, and they are mostly found in the heart of the labyrinth. We simply have to find the labyrinth, kill it, and the labyrinth will create a straight path for us" Ralph replied to her.


    "What do we do now?" Glen asked, and everyone looked at Ivan; he was in charge after all.


    "What else is there to do? We go down" Ivan simply said.

 Chapter 118 - 118: A strange face

    Currently, the group had climbed down from the crag and were standing in front of the labyrinth.


    In front of them, blood pumped out from the ground before fussing with the walls of the labyrinth. The ground of the labyrinth was also made from blood and blood coral stretched through the floor, extending deeper into the labyrinth.


    The blood walls were over twenty meters high, with the blood mist hovering above like a red curtain; growls of monsters could be heard deep within the labyrinth.


    From time to time, a chunk of solidified blood would break from the walls of the labyrinth and smash into the ground like jelly.


    The scene was just as disturbing as its stench.


    Ivan and his group sat on the only rocky part of the cavern that was just two meters away from the entrance of the labyrinth, as for why they were sitting here¡­


    They were measuring the time intervals that the labyrinth used to shift so that they could make preparations.


    After waiting for three hours, they realized that they were wasting their time because the labyrinth had shifted six good times within the three hours that they had spent waiting outside.


    The first one was just thirty minutes after they came down, the second shift occurred a few minutes later, the third shift only happened after a full hour, the fourth and fifth were just two minutes apart after the third one, the sixth shift happened at the end of the second hour; there had not been any more shifts within the last one hour.


    All six shifts had occurred during the first two hours that they spent waiting and not a single shift had happened during the third hour.


    The shifting period was just unpredictable, and it seemed that whatever was causing it to shift simply did it on a whim.


    "Guess there''s no point waiting here then, let''s just go in and stick together," Glen suggested, but Ivan didn''t move; they continued waiting.


    After nine hours of waiting and doing nothing but hearing the troubling sound of the labyrinth shifting, they finally found a rhythm to it!


    Every two hours, the shift of the labyrinth would occur randomly without warning, but for the following one hour, it wouldn''t shift even once.


    This meant they would have to be very cautious during the first two hours and could move however they liked during the third hour.


    "All right, let''s rest here. We move in the morning" Ivan ordered.


    (Although they were unable to see the sky since they were inside of a tunnel, they had time measuring devices with them)


    No one gave a complaint, and they all found a spot to rest; Glen was asked to watch and would switch with Ivan later.


    ...


    Hours flew by while Glen was still keeping watch; the red mist above the labyrinth suddenly began to let out a strange scent that could easily be ignored because of the stench of the blood.


    Glen suddenly found himself getting very sleepy and his eyelids became incredibly difficult to hold up.


    "What''s¡­happening?" Glen voiced out amidst a yawn as he tried to keep his consciousness awake; he soon realized that it was as simple as falling asleep.


    He immediately thought of waking the others, but before he could even get up, his head tilted over, and he fell to the ground; his breathing was calm and silent; he had fallen asleep! S§×arch* The Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    He wasn''t the only one, Ivan and the others were also fast asleep.


    Wooowoooowooo!


    Like the howling of the night wind, a low sound spread through the cavern as a large shadow drifted over the five like a blanket.


    The shadow was wide like a cloud and its edges wriggled like countless worms.


    After covering the five, it suddenly stopped all movements before slowly retreating into the labyrinth; the place returned to normal as time ticked by.


    A few hours later it was already morning.


    Glen''s eyelids twitched, and his consciousness was slowly waking up.


    His eyes slowly opened after twitching for a few seconds, his sight was blurry but Glen could see that something was in front of him.


    He blinked several times, and his sight slowly recovered; Glen could not see what was in front of him. It was a face, a face with two large white eyes, and these eyes were staring at him.


    The face seemed a bit transparent, and Glen could vaguely see through it; it had the texture of water trapped in a plastic bag but was murkier than dirty water.


    On the face were bloody lines and a wide mouth that had a creepy smile on it.


    The eyes blinked as if it was able to tell that Glen could now see it clearly.


    "Good morning"


    The mouth opened and the voice of a man rang out in a formal tone as if greeting a coworker.


    Glen "...."


    He paused, staring at the face, his mind stopped working.


    "Eh? Can you not understand me? Is my speech weird?" The voice said once more seeing as Glen didn''t respond.


    Now Glen was one hundred percent sure that he wasn''t dreaming or seeing things; there was really a strange face talking to him; he instantly freaked out; the distance between this face and his was not even up to five inches!


    Slowly opening his mouth, Glen quietly sucked in air before¡­


    "Aaaaahhh!!!!"


    He let out a scream at the top of his lungs, even a woman who was in labor would stop mid-push just to look at Glen at this point.


    The body of the face immediately reacted to Glen''s scream and turned jagged like the fur of a startled kitten; it was definitely stunned by Glen''s scream.


    Glen suddenly saw it fly into the air before dashing in the direction of the labyrinth and disappearing into it. Its flying speed was very impressive, and it was already gone within a second.


    Still, Glen didn''t stop screaming. He only stopped when Ivan and the others woke up and rushed to his side.


    "What? Why are you screaming?!" Ralph grabbed Glen''s shoulders and asked.


    Glen tried to speak, but his lips kept shaking, and he wasn''t able to make out anything meaningful.


    "Calm down, something strange must have happened last night," Ivan said from the side. He didn''t know what happened, but he was certain that something happened; he was supposed to switch with Glen last night to keep watch but had only woken up this morning!


    Twenty minutes later, Glen had managed to calm down and told them why he was screaming earlier.


    "That must have been terrifying; I would get a trauma if I saw such a thing." Karin shivered as she sympathized with Glenn.


    Imagine experiencing such a thing immediately after waking up. The first thing you see is not the face of a pretty girl or handsome dude, but the face of a strange monster, and it even dared to greet you good morning; some people would simply die from the shock alone.


    But that wasn''t the bigger issue here, the most disturbing thing they realized was that¡­they had all slept without anyone keeping watch!


    "Geeze, thank goodness no monster came to eat us; we would have died in our sleep" Karin shivered again.


    The five of them had slept like dead fishes inside the dreamscape without any protective measures! What could be crazier than that?


    (Maybe waking up to see a big face blinking at you)


    "Everyone check if there''s anything strange with your body"

 Chapter 119 - 119: Inside the blood labyrinth

    After making sure that there was nothing wrong with their bodies, the group breathed out in relief before waiting a bit.


    They waited for four hours, following the time that the labyrinth carried out its shifting before entering it. They had exactly one hour to explore before they would experience the shifting of the labyrinth firsthand.


    Entering the labyrinth, ahead of them was a long twisty corridor with blood walls on both sides; it was a very unsettling feeling, like a knot in their stomachs as they walked through the corridor.


    As they moved, they began to notice a few things about the inside of the labyrinth.


    One was that the deeper they went, the darker the blood that had solidified into walls became; it got to the point that they started to find spots of pitch-black jagged corners on the walls.


    The blood corals that stretched from outside the labyrinth would mysteriously disappear at times before appearing on the other end of the blood walls, leaving gaps that were of similar sizes to large doors.


    Behind the blood walls, they would occasionally spot silhouettes of creatures with various shapes and sizes as if moving behind a large curtain with a spotlight on them; this planted seeds of uneasiness in the hearts of some of the group members.


    Luckily, the labyrinth didn''t seem to possess any hidden traps that needed to be activated so they were able to move freely but this did not mean that they were no longer cautious; the lack of hidden traps made them even more cautious because a labyrinth without traps would definitely hold greater dangers that would prevent others from easily clearing it, a good example was its space shifting ability.


    For the first ten minutes that the group moved together, they did not encounter a single creature or anything dangerous but they had made several cuts where the part ahead of them took sharp turns.


    "Looks like we have been here before" Ralph suddenly said when they came to a particular spot. The area was like a cross-section with only a single part ahead and blood corals stretched on only three sides that were dead ends.


    "I know that this place looks familiar, but the previous ones that looked like this had slight differences; for example, the four sides are not always equal, or the path with a clear way ahead are on different sides," Glen corrected while rubbing his nose.


    Ralph glared at him before saying.


    " That''s why we didn''t notice at first and have been here more than six times already, we''ve been going in circles and that''s why we haven''t found anything yet"


    " Do you have proof?" Karin joined, her tone wasn''t questioning Ralph''s claims but of pure curiosity.


    " I''m not too sure but I''m at least seventy percent sure that we''ve been going in circles. Those blood corals are always shaped the same and are always pointing in the direction with the clear path out of the crossed section" Ralph uttered seriously.


    " That''s it? It could simply be a coincidence, or every single coral in all crossed sections is shaped like that." Glen shook his head and looked at his friend as if saying he was being too paranoid.


    Ralph had a frustrated expression and turned to face Ivan; arguing with Glen wouldn''t change a thing. Ivan called the shots within the team, so his decision would determine what they did next.


    Seeing Ralph turn to face him, Ivan''s eyes flashed with thoughtfulness for a few seconds before he opened his mouth.


    "We have been wondering for a long time without any progress, considering your speculation isn''t a bad idea," Ivan voiced out before giving instructions.


    They had noticed that there was a gap of two hundred meters between each crossed section that they had come across so far so it shouldn''t take them more than three minutes to return here if they were really moving in a loop.


    "Karin and I will continue ahead, the three of you wait here. If we don''t come back here after three minutes, then it''s not a loop, and we''ll wait for you three at exactly two hundred meters from here." Ivan explained the plan to Ralph, Clint, and Glen.


    " Just¡­the two of us?" Karin''s anxious voice rang out weakly.


    Ivan turned to look at her with an expressionless gaze and casually said.


    "Don''t be scared, I won''t do anything to you"


    Karin froze for a second as she took a while to process Ivan''s words. Her face immediately turned red from anger, and she stomped her feet on the ground.


    "Humph! What do you mean by that? Are you looking down on my ''big sister'' charm? Do you have any idea how many young boys are crushing on me? Besides, that''s not what I was worried about!" Karin snapped at Ivan angrily.


    Any girl would definitely be offended if they received such a remark from the opposite sex, not to mention that Karin was actually an exceptional beauty with the charm to sway a crowd; Ivan''s words hit her pride like a truck of middle fingers.


    "Then what were you worried about?" Ivan''s expression didn''t change even in the face of Karin''s rage.


    " I was worried that we might run into a horde of monsters; we would need everyone''s strength to deal with the problem," Karin replied while pouting.


    " Oh, it''s about that. Don''t worry, I can protect you from anything we run into" Ivan stated plainly before looking away.


    "You!!"


    Karin was left speechless, she wondered how come she hadn''t noticed this annoying side of him ever since.


    A palm suddenly landed on her shoulder from behind, she turned and saw that it was Glen.


    "It''s best not to argue with him; you''ll only get more pissed; not everyone is as understanding as I am," Glen whispered to her before winking.


    Karin''s face blushed slightly and she nodded, agreeing with Glen''s advice.


    The group parted ways, Clint, Ralph, and Glen waited at the crossed section while Karin and Ivan continued on the path ahead.


    ¡­.


    Ivan and Karin continued walking forward, only the sounds of their footsteps could be heard through the corridor.


    Pieces of jelly-like blood would break out from the blood wall occasionally and fall in front of the blood corals would then stretch to the broken part before mending it.


    Throughout their walk, Karin kept glaring intensely at Ivan''s back like a resentful girlfriend whose boyfriend had annoyed her.


    Ivan ignored her at first but paused after a minute into their walk.


    "What?" He turned to her and asked.


    "Nothing," Karin snorted before looking away, her arms folding below her breasts and lifting them slightly.


    Ivan raised an eyebrow at the girl''s attitude, something was definitely wrong.


    "Why are you staring at my back?" Ivan asked again.


    "Well, maybe because you''re in front of me duh?!" Karin said sarcastically.


    " I see, then you can be in front if you want" Ivan nodded before moving to stand behind her.


    " Hey, what are you doing? I didn''t mean it like that!" Karin immediately became flustered and ran to hide behind Ivan, a frustrated expression on her face.


    Staring at the girl with both eyes closed tightly, Ivan shook his head; he couldn''t tell what was wrong with her.


    He proceeded to keep moving but a tug on his protective suit made him stop.


    He looked back and saw Karin who was holding onto him with her head lowered.


    "What is it this time?" Ivan inquired.


    Karin didn''t respond for a while and just kept staring down, she only spoke when Ivan was about to say something.


    " Do you¡­think I''m ugly?" She asked.


    Ivan was surprised by her sudden question, it took him a few seconds to give a response.


    "No, you are not ugly" Ivan answered.


    "Then do you think I''m pretty?" S~ea??h the ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Yes," Ivan gave a casual response.


    "Was that why you asked me to come with you?"


    "No"


    Silence¡­.


    After a while, Karin broke the silence.


    "Do you perhaps think¡­I''m useless and won''t be able to do anything if there''s no one to protect me?" Karin asked, her tone dark.


    "Why would I ask you to come if you were useless? Those three can work together to handle most situations; Glen and Ralph understand each other''s fighting style and can face me in a duel if they cooperate; adding Clint would make them even stronger since his ability is quite useful," Ivan explained.


    " Then how about me?"


    " Your talent is kind of like a cannon launcher; you can simply create chaos by smashing everywhere while I pick out the targets," Ivan said after a brief thought; he was distracted by Karin''s sudden giggling.


    " Fufufu, you shouldn''t tell a girl like that next time; it doesn''t make them feel like a lady. Come on, let''s go," Karin said with a smile.


    Ivan shrugged and started moving, Karin following behind him.


    They walked for another two minutes before arriving at another crossed section.


    "Guess Ralph was wrong then," Karin voiced out; the crossed section that they had arrived at looked similar to the previous one where the three boys should have been waiting for them but also different at the same time.


    More importantly, Clint, Ralph, and Glen were not there.


    " Hold on, look" Ivan suddenly said and pointed at a side of the blood wall.


    The silhouette of three humans could be seen standing there, the three silhouettes seemed to be frozen inside the blood wall and were gazing at the two of them.


    " Huh? Are those¡­Glen and the others?" Karin''s voice trembled as she stared at the three silhouettes with wide eyes.


    At the same time, Ralph''s voice sounded through the blood wall.


    "Ivan, Karin, is that you?"


    Ivan''s pupil shrank and a card immediately appeared in his hand.

 Chapter 120 - 120: Trapped?

    A card appeared in Ivan''s hand, his gaze narrowed as he stared at the three silhouettes in the blood wall which he assumed were Clint, Glen, and Ralph.


    "What are you guys doing inside the wall? How did you get in?" Karin asked fearfully, she also summoned her mallet when she saw Ivan bringing out a card.


    "How did we get inside the wall? We should be asking two of you that question!" Glen''s voice rang out from the wall.


    " How do we know that you''re really Glen and not some monster pretending to be you?" Karin asked back.


    "Yo, Ivan. Ask me anything!" Glen''s voice came from the wall again.


    After a session of questions and answers between both sides, they came to a realization.


    The silhouettes on the wall were really Ralph and the others, another thing was that on their side, they were also seeing Ivan and Karin as silhouettes on the blood wall.


    "Then, if nobody is actually stuck inside the wall¡­what is this that we are looking at?" Ralph''s voice reached Karin''s and Ivan''s ears.


    Ivan looked at the wall with narrowed eyes for a few seconds before turning to Karin and asking her to stand back, which Karin immediately obeyed, after which Ivan turned the card in hand into a sword before slashing at the wall with force.


    Clang!


    A clear sound of collision rang out when the sword clashed with the blood wall, sparks flew out and Ivan felt a numb feeling in his fingers.


    His eyes narrowed, surprised; he felt like he had hacked at a metal barrier instead of a wall made from solidified blood.


    " It''s no use attacking it," Ivan mumbled to himself before lowering his sword.


    He then asked Ralph, Clint, and Glen to come to meet them since breaking through the wall looked impossible.


    "Ok!"


    The three silhouettes slowly vanished as Ralph and the other two left to meet with them a few minutes later, but they had not arrived yet. Instead, another three silhouettes appeared on the wall on the other end of the crossed section.


    "Huh? We are already at the next crossed section, where did you guys go?" Glen''s voice sounded from the wall.


    "Look at the wall," Ivan called out.


    "Oh shit! Did you guys move? How are you in the wall again?"


    Glen exclaimed.


    "Idiot, they are not in the wall; they''re in another crossed section" Ralph''s scolding voice echoed.


    " Oh, makes sense"


    The group fell into thought again as they stared at each other''s silhouettes on the wall.


    If the group had not taken another route and just followed the path ahead of them, how did they miss each other?


    Ivan was lost in thought when he suddenly noticed something from the corner of his eyes, he immediately turned his gaze fully to see.


    The blood corals on the side of the walls moved slightly for a split second just now; he was sure of it.


    He walked over and squatted in front of the blood coral that he had seen move.


    " What are you looking at?" Karin asked and moved closer to Ivan.


    " What''s he looking at?" Ralph''s voice came from the bloodwall. S§×ar?h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    " Oh, he''s looking at the blood coral on the wall," Karin responded.


    Meanwhile, Ivan stared at the blood coral with a serious expression on his face.


    Right in front of his eyes, he saw the coral move again. The thing stretched and seemed to disappear into the curved part of the crossed section, it was as if it was passing through an invisible curtain since there were no holes.


    Out of curiosity, Ivan poked at the wall with his sword. He was stunned to see his sword pass through it without resistance; it was as if he simply stabbed his sword through empty air, and there was not a blood wall right in front of him.


    "Hey look! A sword is poking through that side of the wall!"


    Glen''s loud shout suddenly rang out from the wall, followed by Ralph''s voice of affirmation.


    "A sword?" Karin turned around and faced the fall with the three silhouettes.


    "I see," Ivan mumbled softly. He stood up and walked into the wall, his body passed through it as if walking into a bubble.


    The bubble was only two meters thick, so Ivan was able to cross through within three seconds; he arrived at another crossed section and found the three boys staring at the wall on the other side that now had a single silhouette on it.


    "Hey," Ivan called out softly to get their attention.


    The three turned around swiftly when they suddenly heard someone''s voice behind them, Ralph summoning his undeads, Clint creating a wave of shadows around him, and a small white snake appearing on Glen''s head; three of them immediately went into combat mode as they turned.


    "It''s a monster that looks like Ivan! It probably took Ivan''s form to make us lower our guards!" Glen shouted as he took a fighting stance.


    Ivan gazed at Glen with an expressionless face before shaking his head.


    "You''re the monster, do you believe I won''t throw a card at you?" Ivan voiced out with a slightly annoyed tone and summoned another card in his left hand since he had a sword in his right hand.


    "Ugh! This monster''s pretending ability is too strong; it''s acting just like Ivan and can even mimic his talent!" Glen cried out, and his expression turned more serious as if he was facing the greatest enemy of his life.


    ''I would never attack you, Ivan, but understand me, since this monster is pretending to be you, I''ll take justice for you as your friend,'' Glen thought grimly to himself.


    Ivan''s eyes twitched, he ignored Glen and turned to Ralph and Clint. He was about to speak when Karin''s voice came from the silhouette on the wall.


    "Ivan? Kyaa! Ivan''s gone, he''s no longer here with me!" Her voice sounded terrified and shocked.


    Ralph frowned, he stared at Ivan before looking back at the wall.


    "What do you mean Ivan isn''t there? Didn''t you say he was staring at a coral just now?" Ralph asked.


    "Yes, he was; that was before Glen said that he could see a sword passing through a wall. I turned around and the next moment I turned again, he was gone!" Karin explained they could hear the fear in her voice, the girl was clearly shaken.


    After all, if something could take Ivan without causing a commotion, then she might not even notice if the thing came for her.


    "Karin, go through the wall that I was looking at just then." Ivan ignored Glen, who was still glaring at him with cautious eyes, and said to the silhouette on the wall.


    "Huh? Isn''t that Ivan''s voice? How did you get there? Come to think of it, there are now four silhouettes on the wall" Karin''s voice came through the wall.


    "Don''t ask, just walk into the wall" Ivan replied strongly.


    "Umm, ok," Karin''s voice sounded doubtful, but she still obeyed and walked toward the wall before touching it with her hand.


    Surprisingly, her hand passed through like the wall wasn''t there.


    Not hesitating anymore, Karin immediately walked into the wall. Just like Ivan, she felt like she entered a bubble and soon came out and entered another crossed section.


    Here, Ivan was in front of her while Glen, Clint, and Ralph, who looked like they were about to fight, were standing some distance away.


    "Wow! The wall is fake!" Karin remarked as she dropped her mallet to the ground.


    Clint, Ralph, and Glen made a strange face as they stared at the girl.


    ''Yeah, that was Karin for sure!'' they all thought before looking at Ivan, an apologetic look appeared on Glen''s face.

 Chapter 121 - 121: The labyrinth shift

    "Hehe, of course, I know it was you. I was just, you know¡­" Glen chuckled nervously while trying to find words to explain but was unable to make up a meaningful excuse.


    " Get lost," Ivan glared at him before looking elsewhere.


    " Come on, you can''t blame him. This is the dreamscape; anything can happen," Ralph said to Ivan.


    Ivan knew this as well but couldn''t help feeling slightly annoyed; he didn''t hold it against Glen for long, though; he wasn''t such a petty person after all.


    After dropping the matter, they returned their focus to the wall.


    "So this thing is like a sort of illusion? A trap?" Karin mumbled as she walked toward a random side of the wall, expecting to pass through it as well.


    BAM!


    She walked into a solid blood wall and hit her face on it.


    "Ouch! This one isn''t a fake " she shouted in a low voice and turned to the boys while rubbing her forehead.


    ''We can tell as much already'' Ivan and the others thought inwardly without voicing it out.


    "It seems like only the part where the blood corals disappear into are illusionary walls," Ivan said since he was the one who had discovered this aspect of the walls; it strange that only the crossed sections were like this.


    They began to carefully study the cross-sections and even moved back to the previous cross-sections that they had been to before; their speculations were finally complete after studying the walls of each cross-section carefully.


    The colors of the blood walls where the blood corals disappeared in each of the crossed sections were lighter than the color of the usual blood corridors or the solid part of the walls, all of them were illusions!


    After finding out this secret, the group started going through the walls whenever they reached a crossed section instead of moving along the clear path ahead; they would appear in other crossed sections immediately after passing the illusionary blood wall.


    Without them realizing it, several minutes had passed and they had gone through tens of crossed sections.


    After a long time of going through the walls, they finally came out from the maze of crossed sections.


    This was after passing through a crossed section without any blood corals to tell them which wall was fake, they had to manually find it themselves.


    The space that they found themselves after coming out was an extremely large opening, it was so large that one would never have guessed that such an open space could be found inside a labyrinth.


    The space was as wide as a football court, and in the middle of it was a straight, long corridor that cut through the middle of this space, multiple crossed sections made from blood walls linked like a network to this corridor with blood corals acting like threads that held the illusionary walls and the real walls together.


    It was like a labyrinth inside a labyrinth!


    "Umm, I think we should worry about the crossed sections later; we''ve got company!" Karin said with a shaky voice.


    Ivan and the others turned around to see why the girl sounded frightened; they soon found out why after turning around.


    The ground in this large space was starting to rise and mini graves before bursting open silently and from each grave, a monster that looked like a mixture of a human and a scorpion would crawl out.


    These creatures had bodies of scorpions, heads of scorpions, and even stingers as well. Their resemblance to humans, however, was their arms and legs, which were like those of a bulky bodybuilder.


    They stood on both legs and cracked their knuckles like humans who were preparing to fight while their scorpion heads looked at the five of them; their bodies were covered in sturdy-looking red shells, and their tails let out red smoke occasionally.


    "What are those?" Glen''s voice sounded; these creatures didn''t look as scary as some of the monsters that they had encountered since they came to the dreamscape. If anything, they looked weird instead for having human limbs.


    "I have no idea, just prepared to fight," Ralph said seriously, his two undead standing on both sides of him.


    The numbers of these scorpions were slowly increasing and they soon reached a hundred, covering half of this space and leaving a little free space and the network of crossed sections as the only escape route for the five; that was if they were planning to escape.


    One of the Scorpions that was closest to the five suddenly dashed toward them with speed, its target was Karin.


    Startled, Karin didn''t think before carelessly swinging her mallet at it; she forgot to control the force of the swing, causing it to look like a casual wave of her mallet.


    Surprisingly, immediately the mallet touched the body of the scorpion.


    BAM!


    It smashed into the body of the scorpion, cracking its shell before sending it flying away like a kite with a broken string. S§×ar?h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Karin "..."


    Eh? It was so weak?


    Everyone thought. They watched as the monster was sent flying into the distance before smashing into another one of its kind, the two of them shattered into a bloody mess of shells, limbs, and blood.


    It turned out that the bodies of these creatures were quite deceiving, and they were actually very weak.


    "Goodness, they might be as weak or even weaker than the one-eyed monster!" Glen exclaimed as a look of relief appeared on his face.


    It didn''t matter if their numbers were much, it would just be like cutting grass.


    ''Sob, I''ve not had such an easy fight in a long time, all the monsters I came across in the dreamscape were bullies. Huhu'' Glen clenched his fists and wept silently, letting out invisible tears.


    "What is a one-eyed monster?" Karin looked at Glen before turning to ask Ralph.


    Ralph explained that it was a weak monster found on level one of the training room of the Tower center that they came from.


    "Oh, I see. Then it must be the same as the silver worm from our tower; it''s very soft and slow; it can only attack dead creatures," Karin recalled.


    "Talk later, let''s deal with these things first," Ivan said to the two while staring at the approaching scorpions.


    But just before they could swing into action, a loud rumbling sound shook the entire labyrinth; they looked up and saw the red mist above the labyrinth turning.


    Their expressions changed.


    "The labyrinth, it''s shifting already?!" Glen exclaimed in shock.


    Without them realizing it, an hour had passed?!


    Before any of them could react, the ground below them suddenly split and blood walls burst out from the ground all around them while some parts withdrew.


    The entire place was collapsing!


    "Stay together!" Ralph noticed something and called out, his voice filled with panic but it was too late.


    A tall blood wall suddenly appeared in front of him, and the ground below him collapsed; he was unable to see or hear from Ivan and the others.


    He wasn''t the only one, everyone found themselves enclosed by blood walls before getting relocated as everywhere seemed to be reshuffling.


    They had been separated!

 Chapter 122 - 122: Alone

    Ivan found the space around him rotating, and the motion kept pushing him around. His head was spinning from all this, and he had to use the blood wall to keep himself from falling over.


    This lasted for a couple of seconds before finally coming to a stop, and everywhere went silent again; the labyrinth had completed its first shift!


    Placing a hand on his forehead, Ivan felt slightly muddle-headed! It was as if he had experienced a rollercoaster while riding on a carriage without anything to hold him in place.


    With his head still feeling disoriented, Ivan heard sounds of growling and stomps that were getting closer to him. Without looking, he brought out a card and tossed it into the air while creating the image of what he wanted in his mind. sea??h th§× Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Swoosh!!


    The card scattered into light particles before transforming into an enormous fire snake; its heat caused the blood wall and the ground to boil, but it still wasn''t enough to melt it.


    The fire snake landed in front of Ivan and hissed at something ahead of him; without waiting for Ivan''s orders, it launched itself forward with ferocious speed, and its maw wide open.


    The next thing Ivan heard were sounds of fighting that lasted only 30 seconds, but this was enough time for his mind to clear up, and he was back to normal.


    Ivan finally turned to look at what was going on and just happened to catch the sight of the fire snake sinking its fire fangs into the neck of a monster that looked like a man with the head of a bear. Half of its body was covered in rusty armor while its other body parts were covered in animal fur.


    It was over five meters tall and had a buffed figure; it stood on both legs and carried a huge metal bludgeon in its large hand.


    The fire snake wrapped itself around the monster, scorching its skin and causing the monster to roar in pain; it slapped itself in an attempt to knock the fire off but its hand simply passed through the body of the fire snake and got scorched instead.


    With a sizzling sound and the smell of burnt meat, the fire snake ripped off the throat of the monster as smoke rose from its burnt flesh; cooking it in an instant with the heat from its body.


    A fountain of blood gushed out from the throat of the monster; it opened its bear mouth and revealed a mouth filled with sharp teeth as blood flooded.


    The fire snake finally released it and returned to Ivan''s side, letting the bear monster fall to the ground with a loud bang.


    Ivan looked at the bear monster that the fire snake had just killed only to see another two of such monsters lying on the ground with scorched bodies and puddles of blood under their bodies, the fire snake had killed the three bear monsters within thirty seconds!


    Turning his eyes from the corpses, Ivan began to look at his surroundings.


    He was in a small square cornered by blood walls, and two openings led out of this place; one was in front of him while the other was behind him.


    "I don''t even know where I am right now; getting lost would be easier than sleeping," Ivan mumbled as he debated if he should use the front passage or the one behind him.


    Letting the fire snake keep watch, Ivan closed his eyes and focused his mind to sense his surroundings. He could hear growls and shrieks all around the square but was unable to pick up any human sounds.


    The shifting of the labyrinth must have thrown them far from each other.


    After a while of contemplating, Ivan gave up on thinking about which side he should go.


    Casually getting up, Ivan and the fire snake moved forward and left the square.


    They found themselves in a much bigger space in the labyrinth.


    Here, a monster was sleeping but it immediately opened its eyes upon Ivan''s arrival. The monster stretched its head and easily reached a height of twelve meters.


    It was a venomthorn Hydra!


    Ivan''s face turned cold, and his eyes narrowed at the sight of the three-headed snake. The venomthorn Hydra was a giant snake monster with three heads. Its body was covered in hard black scales, and its tail was as sharp as the blade of a sword.


    That wasn''t the only annoying thing about this monster; the venomthorn Hydra was also known for its regeneration ability; if one managed to cut off one of its heads, it would simply regenerate the lost head within seconds.


    On top of that, its speed that wouldn''t lose to a Nexulyte at the True King rank made it a very scary monster to fight against.


    The three heads of the venomthorn Hydra also had their own abilities as well which made many fear them. One of its heads could cause a paralyzing effect if one got bitten by it, another would make one fall into a state of hallucination and mess up their mind, and the third head had the necrosis effect.


    Its sharp tail also seemed to be laced with poison as one would immediately start to lose control over their Nexus energy and their innards would begin to rot if they got scratched by the monster''s tail.


    "Well, just my luck" Ivan mumbled in an expressionless voice before commanding the fire snake beside him to attack the venomthorn Hydra.


    Upon receiving the orders from its masters, the fire snake turned into a streak of red light as it slithered across the ground at a stunning speed toward the venomthorn Hydra that was dozens of times its size.


    Swoosh!!


    The tail of the venomthorn Hydra flashed with an even greater speed and sliced through the fire snake after the latter reached its striking range.


    The fire snake was slashed in half by the tail of the venomthorn Hydra but as a creature made from flames, the fire snake''s body stretched and connected after it was cut in half before throwing itself at the monster.


    It slithered across the body of the venomthorn Hydra with nimble movements, leaving scorch marks on its scales.


    The venomthorn Hydra roared with its three heads into the air and began thrashing around in an attempt to throw the fire snake off but it was useless as the latter quickly reached one of its heads before wrapping its body around it and exploding.


    BOOM!


    The explosion caused by the fire snake threw the other two heads to the side as a smoke cloud shrouded the area of the explosion, broken scales and blood flew out from within the smoke.


    The other two heads of the venomthorn Hydra roared in pain and slammed its tail on the ground repeatedly while rolling on the ground.


    The head that the fire snake had wrapped before exploding currently looked nothing like the head of a serpent.


    The head was bloody, missing scales; its flesh had been blasted by the explosion, and some pieces were barely hanging together by a small thread of skin.


    The eyes of the monster glared at Ivan with resentment and hatred, a loud roar sounded as the monster darted toward Ivan.

 Chapter 123 - 123: Venomthorn Hydra

    Ivan''s expression remained unchanged at the sight of the monster charging at him, its other two heads opening their mouths wide like the gate of a black hole, flashing their long fangs and sharp teeth that they wanted to shred him with.


    As for the other head that had suffered from the explosion of the fire snake, blood tendrils slowly stretched from the body of the venomthorn Hydra before wrapping the head like a cocoon of tendrils as it began to heal.


    "Oh no you don''t!" Ivan scoffed before bringing out another card and tossing it at the incoming monster, the card flew at the healing head of the serpent like a throwing knife while Ivan jumped away at the same time.


    BANG!


    The body of the venomthorn Hydra crashed into the ground where Ivan was standing previously, pieces of solidified blood flew into the air like rock particles upon impact.


    At the same time, the card that Ivan had thrown out turned into dazzling light particles before transforming into a three-colored lightning bolt.


    The lightning bolt flashes in the air one moment and strikes the healing head of the venomthornHydra the next moment.


    BAM!


    After getting hit by the three-colored lightning bolt, the blood tendrils wrapped around the third head burst into tiny parts while the head that had yet to heal fully and had barely recovered all of its scales was blasted into pieces.


    Unlike the explosion caused by the fire snake, the lightning completely shattered the head of the monster and turned it into a rain of blood and flesh that flew everywhere.


    The monster roared again and whipped its tail at Ivan, the latter easily dodged the sharp tail of the monster by jumping backward.


    Unwilling to give up, the venomthorn Hydra chased after Ivan, its two heads biting at the air whenever it thought it had Ivan, only for the latter to escape its maw.


    Seeing that the human was too fast for it to catch by just chasing, the venomthorn Hydra came to an abrupt stop.


    It opened one of its remaining two mouths wide enough to fit in a car.


    Black liquid immediately began to gather inside its open mouth and soon filled every space, it turned its head toward the sky before spitting the black liquid into the air.


    Ivan glanced at the black liquid that was about to fall to the ground like rain after they were spat into the air, he didn''t know which head possessed which ability; he didn''t want to find out either.


    Taking out a card, it shattered in Ivan''s hand before rising into the air, and a burst of three colored lights covered Ivan before turning into a transparent energy barrier.


    Since Ivan was alone now, he had no plans of holding back his abilities anymore and was going to use every aspect of his talent that he had discovered.


    The barrier appeared just in time for the rain of black liquids to drop from the air.


    Tap! Tap! Tap! Tap!


    Like raindrops, the black liquid made similar sounds as they dropped to the ground, on the surface of the barrier, and on the body of the venomthorn Hydra.


    The black liquid simply fell on the scales of the monster before dripping down its body as if the snake was bathing in the rain, they had no effect on its scales.


    But it was different for the ground and the barrier that Ivan had put up; cracking sounds reached his ears, and Ivan immediately turned to look at the source of the sounds.


    It was his barrier! The black liquid was causing his barrier to lose its radiance, covering it with dark spots before making cracks appear in the barrier.


    Ivan quickly released Nexus energy from his body and infused it into the barrier; the dark spots vanished, and the cracks disappeared.


    As for the ground, the blood that made the walls and floor of the labyrinth immediately lost their red color after the black liquid dropped on them; they turned gray like ashes before crumbling into smelly dust.


    The rain of black liquid lasted for five seconds before stopping and Ivan came out of his barrier.


    Swoosh!


    A large tail immediately appeared in front of him the moment he stepped out from the barrier, but Ivan was ready; his fist was already coated with Nexus energy, and he punched out.


    Bang!


    Fist and tail collided and both sides were pushed back by the shockwave.


    Ivan skidded backward for three meters while the venomthorn Hydra was pushed back for six meters, it was clear who had won the exchange of strength.


    Not giving the monster the time to stabilize itself, Ivan took out another card and was about to toss them out when.


    Rumble!


    The labyrinth was shifting again!


    The ground cracked around Ivan and the venomthorn Hydra and blood walls rose from the ground like pillars, separating Ivan and the monster.


    Just like before, the space began to spin again as Ivan''s location changed once again.


    Unlike the last time, Ivan was quick to take a stance and find something to support himself so he doesn''t become disoriented like last time.


    After a while, the spinning stopped, and everywhere became silent; the labyrinth had stopped shifting, and the venomthornHydra wasn''t here.


    Ivan found himself on a small hill that was also made from blood, below him was a spacious opening with numerous short pillars scattered around the place.


    White monsters with wings walked around the space below the hill and made shrieking sounds.


    These monsters had snow-white bodies and bat bodies. They walked with their feet and large joints of their wings were pressed in the ground for support.


    Their heads were long lumps of white bone; they had no facial features except for the cracks on their faces that acted as mouths, which they used to produce sounds.


    They numbered over two hundred and moved about like worms; the sight of them would cause people to feel their skins crawl.


    Looking further ahead, Ivan saw the exit from this place at the very end of the opening; he would need to pass through these creatures if he wanted to leave.


    Another passage could be seen on the blood wall, but it was over fifty meters high; Ivan would need to know how to fly if he wanted to use that one.


    One of the creatures soon noticed Ivan on top of the small hill, it pointed one of its wings in his direction before shrieking loudly to attract the attention of the others.


    All of the monsters looked at the shrieking monster before turning their faceless heads in his direction.


    Ivan wondered if they could see him when they had no eyes, how did the first one even find him?


    "Doesn''t matter anyway," Ivan aired softly, and a card appeared in his hand before floating into the air and turning into a small flickering black flame that fell to the bottom of the hill.


    "Hellfire, detonate!" Sear?h the N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

 Chapter 124 - 124: Gargoyles

    The black flame dropped to the ground slowly and landed on the head of one of the monsters rushing at him, next thing that followed was a thunderous explosion that shook the place.


    The small hill that Ivan was standing on shook as if under the effect of an earthquake, the explosion covered the whole space and swallowed everything below the small hill.


    The monsters did not have the time to react before they were swallowed by the wave of the explosion, their brief shrieks of agony sounded before quickly disappearing within the roar of the explosion.


    Ivan''s hair fluttered violently from the shockwave caused by the explosion as he gazed below calmly, the flames of the explosion reflecting on his face and eyes.


    The flame burned for half a minute before gradually disappearing, leaving the space pitch black.


    Not a single monster could be seen after the flames disappeared, not even their ashes were left behind; the explosion had burned up everything.


    Ivan glanced at the space after the fire disappeared completely colored smoke rose from the ground; the explosion of the hellfire wasn''t even able to damage the blood wall. Ivan wondered just how strong the blood wall was and what sort of attack would be able to break through it.


    But more importantly¡­his eyes flashed with disappointment after taking a look at the burnt space.


    "Not a single Nexus crystal," he muttered before letting out a breath.


    Now that he was alone, Ivan didn''t continue to move immediately. The first shift had just taken place, and there were still two more hours of unpredictable shifting; moving now would be meaningless.


    So Ivan sat cross-legged and started absorbing Nexus energy in the air. The hellfire just now had consumed a third of his energy storage, and he would only be able to use it two more times before he expanded his storage.


    The space fell into silence and only the sounds of wind howled around Ivan as he drew the Nexus energy in the air toward himself while paying extreme attention to his surroundings.


    ...


    After the first shift, where they were separated in the hall with the scorpions, Ralph found himself in a corridor with only one way out; behind him was a dead end.


    Just like Ivan, Ralph''s head was spinning as well and he needed a minute to relax his mind. It was a good thing that his undead were shifted along with him; they kept watch while Ralph dealt with the after-effects of the shift.


    After a minute, Ralph was back to normal and took a look at his current location. The corridor wasn''t wide and had just enough space for three people to move side by side, about ten meters ahead of him was a curve that bent the corridor to the left side.


    "No use thinking when there''s just a single option" Ralph sighed and sent the undead General to scout ahead.


    Without a word, the undead General turned into a rad flicker of light and vanished into the distance, quickly reaching the end of the corridor and taking the turn to the left.


    Ralph recalled the undead knight so as to save energy before following behind the undead General, he maintained a safe distance and only moved after getting feedback from the undead General.


    After a few minutes of waking, he got a message through the emotional connection that he shared with the undead General.


    ''Room. Statues. Safe''


    Those were the words transferred from the undead General to Ralph''s mind, Ralph immediately increased his walking pace to meet the undead General that was a few tens of meters ahead.


    After making five turns through the corridor, Ralph finally left the twisty corridor and entered a hall-like space.


    This space was at least fifty meters wide and five red statues were placed side by side in the middle of the space.


    These statues seemed to be structured in human shape, but they had vertical eyes and large bat wings that unfolded behind them; each of their wings was three meters wide and had pointed tips.


    The statues were all in half kneeling postures with one of their hands on the ground and the other hands placed on their chests.


    Ralph stared at the five statues with an awed expression, they were crafted so skillfully that they looked so lifelike.


    Moving his gaze away from the statues, Ralph looked around and soon spotted an exit at the end of the room: a door-shaped opening on the blood wall that was four meters high and two meters wide.


    "I should rest here for a bit and think of what to do next" Ralph mumbled and dropped to his butt, resting his back against one of the statues as he fell into thought.


    He already knew that trying to look for Ivan and the others might be a waste of time in a situation like this where space was constantly shifting, the best option would be to look for the guardian of the labyrinth and kill it; the labyrinth would stop functioning by then and it would be easier locate the others.


    "Sigh, would I even be able to kill it if I found it? Just how strong would a guardian be?... I wished Ivan was here; I''m sure he would be able to handle a guardian." Ralph sighed to himself as his head fell down and stared at the ground; he was mentally exhausted.


    Ckreeee!


    Ralph suddenly heard the sound of rock moving, the sound was dull and could easily be missed if one wasn''t paying attention.


    At the same time, he got a feeling from the undead General beside him.


    ''Danger. Run''


    Swoosh!!


    Immediately after the undead General passed these feelings to Ralph and before the latter could raise his head, the undead General turned into a red shadow before moving toward Ivan and pushing him to the side; the undead General proceeded to shield Ralph with its body after pushing him.


    "What the¡­?" S~ea??h the N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Bang!!


    A Stony Wing suddenly swiped through the air like a bullet and smashed the red robe of the undead General.


    The force of the hit sent the undead General and Ralph, whom it was protecting, flying away into the distance.


    They flew for twenty meters before crashing into the ground and tumbling multiple times, they only came to a stop when the undead General finally managed to throw itself off the ground.


    Ralph, still late to react to what was happening, found himself in the embrace of the undead General; they were currently meters away from where he was resting before.


    Ralph''s eyes widened when he saw what had caused the undead General to relay those feelings and send them flying.


    One of the statues was currently staring at him, one of its wings lowered and the pointed tip hovered where Ralph was sitting just a while ago; it had slapped them away with that wing.


    The other four statues had also risen from their half-kneeling postures as well and were all currently standing tall like demons with back wings; horns had unknowingly grown out of their foreheads.


    "Thought as much, how could statues be lying around in the dreamscape" Ralph mumbled with a smile that showed he had expected this to happen.


    These statues were no ordinary statues, they were Gargoyles!

 Chapter 125 - 125: Nexus crystals

    The five Gargoyles stood side by side, their wings stretched to their full lengths. They looked menacing as their vertical eyes opened and revealed pitch-black eyeballs that gazed at Ralph and the undead General as if they were trying to look into the souls of the two.


    Ralph''s smile slowly disappeared, and his expression became serious; he immediately summoned the undead knight.


    The knight and its shadow horse appeared in front of him and the five Gargoyles immediately reacted to the appearance of the shadow horse.


    They opened their mouths and spoke in strange languages that Ralph was unable to understand, it was as if they were arguing about something.


    They continued for a few seconds before suddenly stopping, one of the Gargoyles suddenly flew into the air with its arms stretched wide open and its head facing the red mist that covered the surface of the labyrinth, it opened its mouth and mumbled words that Ralph found incomprehensible; it was as if it was praying.


    Not intending to wait for whatever it was going to do, Ralph gave orders for the undead General to attack while the undead knight stayed beside him.


    Swoosh!!


    Like a red streak of light, the undead General faded from its position as it rushed toward the Gargoyles.


    The Gargoyles that had flown into the air just happened to have finished its prayers at this moment and its gaze returned to the ground, falling on the red light that was shooting toward them.


    Like the sound of swords cutting through the wind, the gargoyle made a turn in the air and dived down at the undead General like a comet.


    BOOM!


    Both of them met and threw a punch; a loud sound rang out, and both parties were pushed several steps back.


    A strong shockwave spread out due to their clash and Ralph had to block the shockwave by putting his hands in front of his face.


    The gargoyle and the undead General stared at each other; a pair of pitch-black eyes and a pair of red misty eyes exchanged intents.


    The undead General suddenly flashed forward again, appearing in front of the gargoyle like a ghost; its hand formed a palm and struck at the chest of the gargoyle.


    BAM!


    The palm landed on the chest of the gargoyle before the monster could react, the force lifted it off its feet and sent it flying back as a loud cracking sound followed.


    The gargoyle flew several meters back before flapping its wings and controlling its flight, soaring into the air and hovering ten meters above the ground.


    On its chest was a palm-sized crack, which was the result of the undead General''s attack.


    The Gargoyle opened its mouth and spoke in their strange language again, the remaining four gargoyles on the ground reacted after it said whatever those sounds meant.


    Their wings flapped as their legs hovered above the ground, and with another flap of their wings, all four of them shot toward the undead General.


    Ralph''s expression hardened and he was ready to send out the undead knight if he saw that the undead General was unable to handle things by itself.


    The undead knight shifted beside Ralph, its eyes following the movements of the gargoyles.


    The first gargoyle reached the undead General and immediately attacked with its wings, sending it swiping toward the face of the undead General like a blade.


    With a wind-splitting sound, the undead General faded into red light and dodged the wing of the gargoyle. It appeared on the other side of the wing and grabbed it before launching the gargoyle to the side with a powerful throw; it had easily dealt with that one but the remaining three were already upon it.


    One sent a swipe of its hand that looked like a claw from above at the head of the undead General, another one sent out a flying kick as it inched closer to the undead General, and the last one had its mouth wide open as if it was planning to munch on the undead General.


    Their speed was incredible and they were already too close for the undead General to carry out excess maneuvers.


    Still, that didn''t mean it was just going to stand there and get hit.


    Just when the claw was about to land in its head, the undead General sidestepped before reaching out and knocking the claw away with one hand while its other hand landed a solid slap in the face of the gargoyle that was trying to bite it; the strong slap sent the Gargoyle flying to the side while spinning along the way.


    BAM!


    With the undead General dealing with the other two Gargoyles, the last one had no obstructions and its punch landed squarely on the chest of the undead General.


    The latter was sent flying and crashed into the ground, coming to a stop in front of Ralph and the undead knight. It immediately jumped up to its feet and faced the gargoyles again.


    The undead knight turned to look at Ralph at this moment, and Ralph felt the emotion of the undead knight; it wanted to fight with the undead General.


    "Go!" Ralph gave the command; he wasn''t a fan of watching his undead getting bullied, to begin with, so he wasn''t going to let the undead General get ganged up on.


    Upon receiving the order, the shadow horse neighed into the air before stepping forward, the undead knight on its back stretching out its sword.


    BOOM! S§×ar?h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The shadow horse suddenly charged forward with a loud sound, its speed was even faster than that of the undead General!


    A black-light shot across the distance between Ralph and the gargoyles, which stopped right in front of one and transformed into the undead knight who already had its sword raised high and a dark aura gushing from its blade.


    The undead knight swung down.


    Swoosh!!


    A wave of dark aura flew out like a wind blade and slammed into a gargoyle, the dark sword wave was ferocious as it sliced through the gargoyle and continued flying until it crashed into the blood wall and finally collapsed.


    Ralph''s eyes lit up at the sight of this; his expression became even brighter when the gargoyle that was cut by the sword wave fell apart, and a small shiny crystal fell down.


    It was a Nexus crystal!


    Immediately giving another command, both the undead General and the undead General attacked the remaining gargoyles with ferociousness, pushing them back.


    Ralph took the chance and ran toward the Nexus crystal before picking it up.


    At this moment, Ralph suddenly felt a shadow loom above him.


    He turned his gaze upward and saw the gargoyle that had exchanged punches with the undead General before was currently flying above him; it had one of its hands stretched toward Ralph, and red energy was currently gathering in front of its palm.


    Swoosh!!


    A black-light suddenly flashed as a sword even flew past.


    Pfff!


    The hand of the gargoyle was cut clean at the elbow and fell from the air, the energy attack that it was preparing to launch at Ralph also vanished as well.


    They had yet to react when the undead knight appeared in front of Ralph and slashed out again, sending another dark sword wave that split the gargoyle in half from the waist.


    The sword wave sent it flying backward. As its body separated mid-air, a shining crystal flew out.


    Another Nexus crystal!


    Ralph was stunned at the sight but before he could make a move.


    Rumble!


    The ground shook violently as blood walls burst out from the ground, the labyrinth was shifting again!

 Chapter 126 - 126: Glens situation

    The space in front of Ralph changed rapidly as the ground under him moved in a zigzag pattern, he was thrown off balance and found himself spinning in the air; luckily, the undead General appeared beside him and caught him.


    After a few seconds of switching views, the shifting came to an end, and the surroundings stopped spinning.


    Ralph looked around himself, it was an empty ten meters wide circular space with not a single monster in sight; the gargoyles were not brought along with him.


    "Damnit, my Nexus crystal!" Ralph cursed while gritting his teeth, he had just lost something so valuable because of the shifting.


    Looking at the other Nexus crystal in his hand, a sigh escaped his mouth. Well, at least he got one.


    Ralph sat on the ground after making sure that nothing suspicious was around him this time, not even a boulder could be seen.


    He recalled the undead General and the undead knight back into his Nexus chamber as he had spent a lot of energy to sustain them during the fight with the gargoyles, after sending them back and taking one last look around, Ralph began to absorb the energy in the Nexus crystal as he waited for the next shift that should be happening in a few minutes.


    ¡­..


    Bang! Bang! Bang!


    Loud sounds rang out continuously in the open area, a white snake could be seen slamming its tail around the place and sending dozens of scorpions flying with each swipe of its tail.


    Some of the scorpions were smashed into pulp by the tail of the white snake while some flew and crashed into others that were behind them.


    Behind the white snake, Glen could be seen sweating profusely and he had a tired look on his face.


    A while ago after the first shift, Glen was so unfortunate that he was shifted along with all of the scorpions!


    They immediately began to jump at him after the shifting stopped; Glen had tried to run away, only for all the scorpions to chase after him.


    He ended up running into this open space with no other way out except for where he came from, it was a dead end!


    Left with no choice, Glen summoned his snake to fight.


    He also covered himself with Nexus energy and joined to help the white snake. The Scorpions were weak monsters, and Glen was able to kill one with a single punch.


    Along with his snake, they soon created a sea of blood and corpses of these monsters, but their numbers seemed endless; Glen was already getting exhausted, yet the number of the scorpions had only reduced by a bit!


    He stopped using Nexus energy and hid behind the white snake, letting the latter do all the work while he supplied it with Nexus energy when needed.


    It would be terrible if he kept fighting and ran out of energy, he would be unable to keep the snake in the real world and that would leave him to face the scorpions by himself.


    Even as a True King rank Nexulyte, Glen would end up getting exhausted if he fought so many opponents for too long.


    BAM!


    A scorpion suddenly jumped past the tail of the white snake and charged at Glen, who was hiding behind it; its human arms opened wide as if it was going to hug Glen.


    "Fuck!" Glen cursed in fright as he watched the scorpion get close.


    A massive white head suddenly appeared between them, and a huge mouth filled with long white teeth opened and snapped at the scorpion, tearing it in two.


    The snake had saved Glen just before the scorpion reached him but this had caused it to neglect the others for a moment.


    Dozens of scorpions used this chance and jumped on the body of the white snake, they started clawing with their human-like fingers and stabbing at its scales with their stingers.


    Cracks immediately began to appear on the scales of the snake, it raised its head into the air and roared.


    Noticing this, Glen gritted his teeth before pressing his palms on the body of the snake and sending streams of Nexus energy into it; the cracks on its scales quickly vanished as if they were never there.


    It resumed smashing the scorpions with its tail.


    Glen''s face turned grim; his energy was running low, but there was still no end to these scorpions.


    At this moment, Glen saw a scene that caused his body to shiver.


    On the other side of this opening, a being walked out from the blood wall as if it were a bubble.


    Glen knew just how strong the walls were, but this monster walked through it as if it were liquid.


    That wasn''t what shocked Glen the most, it was the appearance of the monster that sent fear into his soul.


    The monster was shaped like a beast, it was as tall as a minivan and had large paws. Its skin was that of a human but pale like a corpse; its body was bloated, and horrible-looking wounds with decaying surfaces riddled its body.


    Bones poked out from the wounds, and black, slimy blood flowed down from them; tiny creatures that looked like flies buzzed around the monster, thus making it look more disgusting.


    It was a Blightbeast!


    Glen knew about this monster, they had learned about it back in the tower.


    Blightbeasts were monsters that were rarely seen in the dreamscape, they were known for their decaying ability that affected their surroundings and their poisonous blood.


    Another disturbing thing about them was their crazy sense of smell and their photographic memory, they were able to remember faces and trace smells for up to three kilometers!


    The Blightbeast slowly placed a paw in front as it stepped toward the scorpions. Some of them immediately jumped at it, but they withered into dust immediately after they made contact with the body of the beast!


    Glen''s eyes widened.


    Wherever the Blightbeast passed through, all the scorpions within two meters of it would instantly turn into dust.


    In just a few seconds, it had crossed half of the space and more than half of the scorpions had turned to dust because of it.


    Good news for Glen, he was now able to rest since most of the scorpions went to attack the Blightbeast but Glen wasn''t happy about this at all because an even more terrifying being was now in front of him.


    Wouldn''t he be next after the Blightbeast was done with Scorpions?


    Glen was lamenting over his bad luck when a thunderous rumbling sound echoed through the labyrinth and the ground shook. S§×ar?h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Another shift was about to start!


    Glen''s eyes lit up, he was so happy about the shift that a drop of tears dropped down his face.


    "Thank you, labyrinth," Glen sobbed as tall blood walls rose around him, and his location changed.

 Chapter 127 - 127: Clints profile

    A couple of minutes ago after the first shift where the group got separated, Karin found herself spinning in between blood walls.


    She ended up hitting her head and blacking out for a few seconds, she only regained consciousness after a minute.


    When Karin woke up, her head was fussy, and she wasn''t able to think properly; it took her a while to come to her senses, and she was able to take a good look at where she had ended up.


    It was a small square that was only five meters, and all four sides were blocked off; the only path that could be used to go out was up; how was she supposed to climb the blood wall that was over two hundred meters high?


    Thankfully, there were no monsters in this space so Karin was able to rest easily.


    She sat in a corner and rested her back on a side of the wall, her mallet resting on the ground beside her just in case.


    "I''ll wait for the labyrinth to shift again, then I can go look for the others" Karin mumbled softly and waited patiently while staring at the blood wall.


    The next few minutes were boring as hell, all Karin had to do was stare from one side of the blood wall to another side; she got so bored that she almost slept off.


    After an excruciating couple of minutes, a sound that made Karin''s eyes light up sounded.


    Rumble!


    The ground shook, and the four walls surrounding her began to shift; Karin found herself spinning rapidly again, but this time, she stayed close to the ground and didn''t end up flying around like last time.


    After a short while, the shifting stopped and everywhere fell silent.


    Karin got up with an expectant look in her eyes but her gaze turned dark the next moment.


    She was in another small space with all sides blocked off.


    Karin blinked, her expression slowly changed before turning into a furious one.


    "Ahhh!"


    She screamed at the top of her lungs. Out of anger, she grabbed her mallet and jumped at the wall.


    BAM! BAM! BAM!


    She began slamming her mallet on the blood wall, she didn''t stop even when she saw that she was not dealing any damage; she just wanted to vent her frustration.


    After going at it for who knows how long, Karin finally stopped.


    She was tired, and her breathing was ragged; small drops of sweat fell from her chin.


    She slowly stepped back from the blood wall and fell to her butt. S§×arch* The N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Stupid labyrinth!" She yelled angrily.


    She suddenly saw something from the corner of her eyes after calming down, and she turned to take a better look.


    Her eyes widened.


    Laying on the ground about three meters to her side was a small shiny crystal, it was a Nexus crystal!


    Beside the Nexus crystal was the corpse of a monster that had been split in half around the waist.


    "The Nexus crystal must have come from this monster, but where did they come from?" Karin wondered as she crawled over and picked up the crystal to take a better look.


    "It''s really a Nexus crystal, awesome!"


    Ignoring her frustration from being trapped twice, Karin sat down and began to absorb the energy inside the Nexus crystal.


    Ralph would definitely vomit blood if he knew about this.


    ¡­..


    Unlike the others who had gotten into relatively safe situations after the first shift, Clint''s case was a bit¡­special.


    Currently, Clint was sitting on the back of a pitch-black snake.


    Although the snake was dead, its body wriggled like constantly moving black worms. It was dozens of meters long and was as thick as a tree; on its head were four cross-shaped eyes that gleamed with green light.


    It was a Nightmaw!


    Above it, Clint was dressed in a cloak made from darkness and wriggled like caged smoke; on his back were a pair of almost invisible shadow wings, although his shadow wings were torn after the fight with the Nightmaw.


    "Cough!"


    Spit!


    Clint coughed once and spat out a mouthful of blood. His face was bruised, and blood covered a part of his face, and one of his eyes was covered as swollen skin surrounded it.


    "Damned labyrinth" Clint mumbled softly before coughing again.


    His mind drifted to a few minutes after they got separated by the first shift.


    ...


    Rumble!


    Blood wall burst out from the ground, and Clint found himself cut off from the rest of the ground, and the scorpions were no longer in view; next thing was the space around him spinning.


    Immediately, Clint formed shadow hands that held him to the ground and prevented him from getting tossed around.


    Everything came to an abrupt stop after a short while and Clint released his control over the shadow hands, letting them return to being shadows.


    He looked around and saw that he was in a wall light ball with jagged shining rocks covering most of the space.


    A couple of scorpions happen to be in this place, too, and Clint easily disposed of them.


    After looking around for a while, Clint saw that there was only one way out of this place, which was a window-like opening ten meters up in the wall.


    Due to the light coming from the shining rocks, there were very few shadows in the place for Clint to make use of, but that wasn''t a really big issue for Clint.


    Since no one was with him, Clint had no need to restrict his abilities.


    His eyes turned pitch black as the Nexus energy within him boiled and started to gush out from his body in the form of dark mist, in less than a minute, Clint had surrounded himself with a wave of true darkness.


    This was the true essence of his talent, the dark element: the ability to manipulate darkness.


    For various reasons which mostly concerned his background and childhood, Clint was a very distrusting person and didn''t have any friends. He was used to dealing with things by himself and didn''t trust anyone to do anything for him.


    Naturally, such a person would also develop the habit of hiding things as well. This was exactly what Clint had done all these years, making everyone believe that his talent was just to control shadows; but the truth was that¡­


    NAME: Clint Owen


    Talent Group: Combat Talent type: Elemental God Talent: Dark element (Emperor of darkness)


    Talent lv: S AP: 33.23% Rank: TRUE KING


    ¡­..


    His talent did more than just controlling shadows but this was only known to him.


    With the wave of darkness surrounding him, Clint''s perception naturally increases as well and his senses become sharper.


    He was planning to use the darkness he had summoned to get to the opening that was up on the wall but now that his senses had heightened, Clint felt that the surroundings weren''t exactly as it seemed.


    His eyes narrowed as he moved the darkness around him, sending them in all directions; his eyes suddenly widened; he sensed something.


    Hurriedly calling back the darkness he had sent out, Clint controlled them to form a tall wall of wriggling darkness in front of him. A second after he formed the darkness.


    BAM!


    An enormous mouth that was twice the size of Clint appeared out of nowhere and crashed into the wall of darkness.


    It was the Nightmaw!

 Chapter 128 - 128: Emperor of darkness

    The Nightmaw was a creature that was born from darkness and had the ability to bend shadows to form illusions which it uses to trap its prey before attacking them out of nowhere.


    "Sadly, you picked the wrong target," Clint scoffed before controlling the wall of darkness in between himself and the enormous mouth of the Nightmaw; the wall turned into a large chain that wrapped around the head of the monster before tossing it to the side.


    BAM!


    The Nightmaw flew away and disappeared suddenly into space before the sound of it hitting something rang out.


    At the same time, the space around Clint suddenly developed cracks before shattering like a broken mirror; the illusion of the Nightmaw had collapsed.


    Clint was now able to see where he was properly; it was still the space with shiny jagged rocks, but now, the ground was overflowing with blood, and corpses of different monsters littered the place; each monster looked like their soul had been sucked out of their bodies, and they looked incredibly pale.


    A few meters away, the Nightmaw had smashed into a column of corals and had broken them. It let out an inaudible strange sound that seemed like a roar before stretching its body into the air and gazing down at Clint with its four eyes.


    After stretching, it got over fifteen meters tall; it was colossal as it looked down at him, its body kept wriggling like constantly running black worms.


    It was frightening.


    Clint''s expression became serious as well. Unlike most monsters, the Nightmaw was an intelligent monster and knew how to think.


    It was most likely observing Clint after the latter managed to discover that he was inside an illusion and had even pinpointed the exact location that it had attacked from.


    Clint wasn''t going to underestimate such an opponent, it would be his biggest regret if he didn''t go all out.


    Taking a deep breath, Clint''s eyes burst out with black light that seemed to even flow out from his eyeballs, the darkness around him beginning to squirm restlessly.


    Like a volcano, they surged into the air like a wave of black waters had crashed into the surface of a gigantic rock and fell over Clint''s figure.


    Swallowing him completely and hiding him from view. The four crossed-shaped eyes of the Nightmaw gleamed as it gazed into the wave of darkness, trying to see Clint''s figure, but all it could see was the darkness squirming within.


    As if having minds of their own, the darkness began to sip into Clint''s body before bursting out again.


    Clint''s face remained calm, but his eyes flickered with a painful glint; it was clear that whatever he was doing caused him pain, but he didn''t stop.


    This continued for a few more seconds before all the darkness around Clint had disappeared into his body, even his shadow and the shadow of the objects around him were not left.


    By now, Clint had taken a new form.


    A long flowing cloak made out of darkness, its helms like a constantly flowing black waterfall wrapped around Clint''s body.


    On his back were two large wings made from darkness also, they moved up and down without making a sound; waves of black smoke gushed out from them with each movement.


    In Clint''s hand was a long black staff with two red shining gemstones on top.


    This was the true form of his talent, emperor of darkness!


    Clint''s black eyes moved like mist and gazed at the head of the Nightmaw; his mouth slightly opened, and a sound came out.


    "Come and die"


    Swoosh!!


    Immediately after Clint said those words, his wings flapped once and he suddenly disappeared from the ground.


    Like a ghost born from the void, Clint appeared in front of the monster''s head almost immediately and struck out with his staff.


    Wooosh!!


    As if sensing the danger, the Nightmaw suddenly scattered into countless dark particles that flew past Clint. They flew in the air like fish in water and moved to another side of the space before forming the body of the Nightmaw again.


    Clint turned around in midair, his eyes landed on the monster and he disappeared again with a flap of his wings.


    His speed was astonishing and he left an afterimage at his previous location when he was already in front of the monster.


    BOOM!


    This time, the Nightmaw was unable to react in time and the staff ruthlessly smashed on its head.


    A strong shockwave resulted and launched Clint into the air while the body of the Nightmaw crashed into the ground. Pieces of shining stones were instantly sent flying into the air after the creature crashed into them.


    Still not planning to let it go, Clint vanished again and appeared in front of the snake, his staff swinging down.


    His head suddenly turned sideways just before his staff could land on the snake, immediately, his wings moved like shields to his side.


    A split second after Clint covered his side with his wings, a large drill appeared out of nowhere and crashed into his wing.


    BAM!


    The force of the drill was unimaginable, and Clint was unable to stop himself from flying away; he flew for a couple of meters and smashed into layers of blood corals and shining stones, destroying everything in his path.


    He only came to a stop after slamming into the blood wall and causing the ever-so-sturdy wall to generate ripples.


    "Gah!" Clint''s mouth opened involuntarily, and a sound escaped his lungs; small drops of blood flew out of his mouth in the process.


    Clint was yet to recover from the hit when countless dark particles crashed into him and began to hit him all over his body, pinning him against the blood wall; it was as if he was being hit by high water pressure.


    His body screamed in pain, his limbs were finding it difficult to move. S~ea??h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Ahhh!"


    Clint opened his mouth and let out an inhumane scream, his voice almost generating a sound wave.


    In response to his scream, the red gemstones on top of his staff blazed; bursting out with a dazzling shine that illuminated the entire place.


    As if moths had made contact with the sun, the dark particles crashing into Clint''s body immediately burnt into a puff of smoke before disappearing into the air.


    The rest of the dark particles immediately retreated, moving away from Clint and letting him fall to the ground. His face was bodies and he was breathing heavily.


    A few meters ahead of him, the Nightmaw had formed into its snake form and was currently thrashing around, smashing itself into anything around it.


    On its body, a large chunk of dark particles was missing, leaving a huge gaping wound on the monster; that was most likely the place where the dark particles that the gemstones had destroyed used to be.


    Forcing himself to stand up, Clint gazed at the creature that had obviously reduced in size after taking damage. He cleaned the blood from the corner of his lips as a small grin formed on his face.


    However, at this moment¡­


    Rumble!!!


    The ground trembled, blood walls burst out from the ground; the labyrinth was shifting again!

 Chapter 129 - 129: Killing the Nightmaw

    Clint sighed, thinking that he was going to be separated from the Nightmaw.


    But boy was he mistaken!


    The Nightmaw was a resentful creature, it naturally held grudges.


    Even though it had been thrashing around after a part of its body went missing, it wasn''t planning on letting Clint leave just like that.


    Immediately after the blood walls started popping up, the Nightmaw scattered into dark particles again and swarmed toward Clint and forming a ball of wriggling darkness around him.


    The two fought throughout the duration of the shift and continued after the shift had already stopped.


    The Nightmaw had reverted to its snake form and suddenly whipped out with its tail.


    BAM!


    The tail smashed into Clint''s face and he was sent flying back, crashing into the blood wall.


    Clint knew that he didn''t have time to think about his aching body because the Nightmaw won''t give him that time, he immediately rose to his feet after dropping to the ground only to see the huge mouth of a bottomless abyss in front of him.


    The Nightmaw had reduced in size, so its mouth wasn''t as enormous as it was previously, but it was still enough to swallow Clint in one bite.


    Clint forced his body to move to the side while his left-wing slashed at the Nightmaw.


    Arrchgg!!


    The Nightmaw snapped at Clint but caught his wing instead.


    With Clint''s Wing in its mouth, it lifted its head before thrashing around again.


    Clint found himself getting lifted into the air and the next thing he knew was his body smashing into things that he couldn''t see clearly as the Nightmaw pulled him around like a toy.


    It kept slamming Clint into things for a few seconds before tossing him to the side with force.


    Clint landed on the ground heavily and bounced a few times; his body was screaming in protest, and his innards were churning.


    He lay motionless on the ground, his dark cloak and wings slowly dimming into they looked like shadows instead of things that were made from darkness; Clint was reaching his endpoint.


    The Nightmawslowly slithered on the ground toward where Clint was lying, its four eyes gleaming with the ferociousness of a beast as its body faded in and out of reality.


    ''Just a bit¡­closer''


    Clint looked at the Nightmaw approaching, one of his eyes swollen while the other was back to normal; the black light had faded, and his blood-red pupil could be seen, albeit it was smeared with blood.


    Clint patiently waited as the Nightmaw got closer, his body was too weak for any excessive movements anyway.


    Immediately after the Nightmaw got into the range of 5 meters near Clint, his one eye that had gone back to normal suddenly burst out with black light again.


    The Nightmawinstantly noticed that something was wrong, but it was too late.


    Clang!


    Fwoosh!!


    A colossal wave of shadows suddenly surged into the air around them, locking the two of them inside it.


    From around the shadow cage, countless shadow spikes and chains shot out from all directions and stabbed into the body of the Nightmaw.


    They stabbed its body messily before letting out small layers of darkness that ran across the surface of the monster''s body and fully circled it like a shell. S~ea??h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The Nightmawroared and tried to scatter into dark particles in order to escape, but the shell of darkness that had been formed around its body would knock back every dark particle that tried to separate from the monster''s body, causing it to be unable to escape.


    This created a scene of the Nightmaw exploding and forming together over and over again.


    It repeated this routine several times before realizing that it was trapped, this shell of darkness around it was keeping it in one piece; it was like a sealed pack that prevented any parts of it from leaking out!


    At this point, Clint slowly stood up and approached the struggling monster. He stood two meters away, just out of the monster''s reach.


    "Hehehe, cough! You didn''t expect this, did you?" Clint laughed and coughed a mouthful of blood.


    The monster kept snapping its mouth at him, but it wasn''t able to move a single step further than the shadow chains and spikes allowed.


    Clint stared at its eyes that were glaring back at him with hatred, a smirk appeared on his bloody face.


    "I told you at the start, come and die" Clint chuckled with difficulty before throwing his staff into the mouth of the monster like a spear.


    The spear entered its mouth and traveled down its body, the light of the red gemstones on the staff gleamed through the darkness that made up the monster''s body, allowing its movements to be followed from outside.


    The staff flew till it reached the middle of the Nightmaw''s body, a soft mumble escaped Clint''s mouth at this moment.


    The light from the gemstones suddenly stopped moving within the monster''s body, its light started to glow brighter and brighter.


    The monster also began to struggle even more violently, breaking some of the chains and shadow spikes in a few seconds.


    Clint fell on his knees and spat out blood but the smirk didn''t leave his face as he continued to stare at the monster''s eyes.


    "It''s too late to struggle"


    He whispered.


    BOOM!!


    A thunderous explosion bloomed inside the body of the Nightmaw, the explosion causing the numerous shadow spikes, shadow chains, and the shell of darkness around its body to shatter.


    A strong shockwave burst out and crashed into Clint, sending him back a few steps.


    The monster that had suffered the full brute of the explosion naturally suffered worse. Like blowing on a speck of dust on a table, the darkness that made up the body of the Nightmaw evaporated light ashes.


    What was left was a couple of meters long black snake with the thickness of a tree, its body looked like it was made of wriggling black worms.


    On top of it was a small shining crystal, it was a Nexus crystal!


    The eyes of the snake were still open and gleaming with green light, but Clint was certain that it was already dead.


    Forcing his lungs to breathe, Clint slowly rose to his feet and climbed on top of the snake to claim his prize; he didn''t forget to curse at the labyrinth in the process for letting this damned thing chase him mid-shift.

 Chapter 130 - 130: Dreadclaws

    After staying on top of the hill for over 30 minutes, Ivan''s eyes slowly opened as the familiar rumbling sound reached his eyes and walls rose from the ground.


    The third shift!


    Just like before, the space around him moved and Ivan found himself in another part of the labyrinth after the shifting stopped.


    His eyes picked up screeching sounds behind him, Ivan''s eyes flashed and he instinctively bent his head down.


    Swoosh!!


    A green light flashed above his head, cutting off a few strands of white hair.


    Ivan didn''t hesitate and jumped away after dodging whatever had cut his hair; dozens of green lights flashed in his previous location the moment he jumped away.


    Turning around after landing several meters away, he was finally able to see what had ambushed him from behind.


    Facing Ivan were seven Dreadclaws that stood at a height of four meters.


    The Dreadclaws were huge mantis creatures with metal hands that were so sharp that they could slice through steel, they were known for their speed and ability to coordinate with each other.


    The seven Dreadclaws looked at Ivan with their black eyes before letting out low screeches.


    Three of the monsters immediately moved to the right while another three flanked his left side, the last one charged at Ivan in a straight line.


    They left afterimages all over the place as they moved with speed, it made it seem like there were dozens of them for a moment.


    Ivan bent his knees slightly and launched himself into the air, numerous green lights that were the glint from the metal hands of the monsters slashed at the afterimage that Ivan had created.


    They looked at Ivan after missing their target and their wings immediately expanded from their backs before making buzzing sounds.


    Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!!


    One after the other, the seven Dreadclaws flew into the air to attack Ivan.


    Ivan burst out with Nexus energy and stepped on a Dreadclaw that had reached him, he moved his foot as he dodged the sharp hand of the monster before stomping on it and using it as a footing to launch himself back to the ground.


    Ivan landed on the ground with a loud bang sound and brought out a card. He tossed the card into the air, and it burst into particles of red, gold, and blue light.


    The light particles swirled in the air before turning into seven ice spears that hovered in front of Ivan.


    With a thought from him, the seven ice spears shot at the monsters in the air like bullets.


    The ice spears left trails of white light in the air as they flew toward the seven monsters in the air, the other parties immediately reacted.


    Each of them slashed at the ice spears with their metal hands.


    Ptui!


    The ice spears stabbed through the hands of five of the monsters, severing them in one move; green blood gushed out as their severed hands fell to the ground.


    The other two had somehow managed to knock away the ice spears, but they still ended up getting injured, and blood was flowing to the ground.


    Screeching loudly, the Dreadclaws all charged at Ivan in fury, their wings almost turning invisible from the speed at which they were moving.


    Ivan calmly stepped to the side and vanished just in time for one of the monsters to crash on the ground where he was standing just a while ago.


    Ivan appeared above it the next moment, with a card in hand. He thrust the card at the monster on the ground, and the card turned into a silver spear mid-thrust.


    Ptui!!


    Ivan stabbed the spear into the body of the Dreadclaws ruthlessly and green blood immediately gushed out and fell on his protective suit.


    Sizzling sounds rang out as the part of the protective suit where the blood of the monster touched began to let out smoke and the black color of that area turned even darker.


    Ivan''s eyes flashed, he pulled out his spear and moved back.


    ''I forgot that their blood was toxic'' Ivan thought to himself.


    His foot suddenly got stuck and he wasn''t able to move anymore. Looking down, Ivan saw that the monster that he had just stabbed and was on the verge of death had grabbed his foot with its curved metal hand.


    Ivan was slightly confused as to why it would make such a move since it was going to die in a few seconds but his answer soon came when the remaining six monsters appeared around him and slashed at his body with their hands; streaks of green light flashed around Ivan as the six Dreadclaws tried to rip him to shreds.


    Ivan found himself under the onslaught of six sharp metal hands that were as fast as the propellers of a helicopter.


    ''It is still trying to give an assist even when it''s about to die, what troublesome creature''


    Ivan''s grip on his silver spear tightened, and his muscles bulged under the protective suit; his body exploded with Nexus energy that sent a powerful shockwave all around him and slowed down the approach of the monsters for a bit.


    His spear moved, flashing around the monsters; it was as if Ivan''s spear was teleporting as his arms almost turned invisible from the speed at which he was swinging the spear.


    Sounds of the wind getting slashed rang out as white light formed a wide net around Ivan and the Dreadclaws, strong sharp wind waves flew out from the tip of the spear.


    Ptui! Ptui!!


    A fountain of green blood gushed out the next moment as multiple tears appeared on the bodies of the monsters; the green blood flew into the air before falling down with Ivan in the center of its rain.


    BOOM!!


    With another explosion of Nexus energy, Ivan pushed the green toxic blood and the severely wounded monsters away in all directions.


    He swung his spear and slashed down with the spearhead, severing the limb of the monster that had held onto his foot even in death.


    He kicked his leg and sent the severed limb flying.


    Turning his gaze to the other Dreadclaws that were bleeding profusely, Ivan slowly approached them one after the other and slashed at their necks. Their heads rolled forward as more blood gushed out.


    From the open neck of one of the Dreadclaws, a Nexus crystal rolled out and stopped in the puddle of green blood that had formed in front of the monster''s corpse; the crystal was also covered in green blood.


    "Only one dropped a crystal; well, it''s still better than those white creatures," Ivan said softly before walking over with his spear in hand; he dipped the spearhead under the Nexus crystal and used it to toss the crystal into the air.


    Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!!


    He waved the spear around the crystal multiple times while it was in the air before catching it, the crystal was now sparkling clean; Ivan had removed all the blood on it by hitting it all over with his spear.


    With the spear in hand, Ivan looked for a clean spot to sit. He would not start absorbing the Nexus crystal yet since there were still about two hours of unpredictable shifts in the labyrinth.


    Just when he was about to rest his butt on some blood corals, Ivan''s gaze hardened and his eyes narrowed.


    Turning his head to the side, he caught the scene of a giant silhouette moving within the blood wall.


    No, not a giant silhouette; there were two silhouettes, and they seemed to be coming closer as their features became more distinctive.


    At this moment, something suddenly came flying out from the blood wall and crashed into the ground. S~ea??h the n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Ivan couldn''t stop his eyes from widening due to surprise, it was the Venomthorn Hydra that he had encountered before; the monster was severely wonderful with two of its heads missing!


    ''Since when could this thing go through the walls?!''


    Raising his gaze to meet the other silhouette, Ivan saw a massive beastly creature walk out from the blood wall.


    In its mouth was a serpent head, it was one of the three heads of the Venomthorn Hydra!

 Chapter 131 - 131: USING THE GOLDEN SWORD AGAIN

    It was the Blightbeast that Glen had escaped from!


    Of course, Ivan didn''t know that Glen had also met the Blightbeast but was saved by the shifting labyrinth.


    The Blightbeast walked out from the blood wall as if the wall was invisible and not as sturdy as a fortress, it was munching on the severed head of the Venomthorn Hydra while gazing at it.


    Ivan "..."


    What the hell was going on? Are these two fighting?


    Ivan glanced at the two. The Blightbeast had a few scratches and some chunks of flesh missing from its body; it was covered in black liquid that caused the sores on its body to rot faster, but its injuries were nowhere close to the condition that the Venomthorn Hydra was in.


    It only had one head left, its other two heads were missing and blood tendrils were forming in their place, and on its body were multiple claw wounds and bite marks.


    Ivan silently moved backward and found a remote corner to watch what was going to unfold. He had no desire to get ganged up on by these monsters, so it was best to hide for now and be a spectator.


    The Venomthorn Hydra slithered on the ground and lifted its remaining head, it hissed at the Blightbeast and shot a wave of purple mist at its face.


    The mist crashed into the face of the Blightbeast and some seeped into its eyes and nose.


    Roar!


    The Blightbeast tossed the half-eaten serpent head in its mouth away and roared, seemingly in pain. Its eyes closed tightly as small drops of blood flowed from the corner, and yellowish glue-like liquid gushed out from its nose.


    The Venomthorn Hydra immediately took advantage of the beast''s short moment of blindness to attack.


    Wriggling across the ground with impressive speed, it shot toward the Blightbeast before wrapping its body around the beast.


    It opened its mouth and spat out another wave of purple mist before biting at the neck of the Blightbeast with the mouth of its remaining head.


    The beast roared as blood gushed out from its neck, it temporarily ignored the pain on its face and slapped the head of the snake that was biting its neck with its large paw.


    BAM!


    The paw landed on the head of the snake heavily and another claw wound immediately appeared on the remaining head.


    But the Venomthorn Hydra was persistent and kept biting regardless. sea??h th§× N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The beast landed another slap, and a loud sound of bones cracking echoed this time. Blood burst out from the head of the snake, but It kept biting.


    Left without a choice, the Blightbeast turned around and ran toward the blood wall.


    It passed through it easily, but the same was not so for the snake as its body crashed into the wall with a strong impact; its body flew off the beast''s body due to this as the latter disappeared into the blood wall and loomed within it in the form of a massive silhouette.


    The snake wriggled in pain on the ground, more blood flowing out from its injuries as the blood tendrils tried to amend them.


    Just when Ivan thought that the Blightbeast had fled, it suddenly came out from the wall and jumped at the snake.


    It pinned it to the ground, pressing down on its remaining head with its paw, and started ruthlessly tearing at it with its massive teeth.


    Blood and pieces of flesh were sent flying everywhere as the Blightbeast shredded the Venomthorn Hydra, blood quickly covering its beastly face.


    The Venomthorn Hydra constantly hissed in pain as it thrashed its body under the weight of the Blightbeast, but it was useless as the letter wouldn''t bulge; it began spewing out purple mist as a last form of struggle.


    Ivan watched the two monsters battling from a distance, a serious expression on his face as he stared at the ghastly scene in front of him.


    After watching the fight between the two, Ivan realized that the Blightbeast had the ability to move through the blood wall; this would be. It is a very troublesome ability if it decides to run away from a fight because no one would probably be able to chase it into the wall.


    Another thing that he had realized when they arrived was that the beast could take anything along with it into the wall as long as it wanted; that was how it was able to bring the Venomthorn Hydra here.


    ''I will need to make sure to kill it in one strike so it doesn''t escape, it would be troublesome to have such a beast stalking me through the labyrinth; though I''ll have to wait to see which of them will survive till the end'' Ivan thought inwardly as a card discretely appeared in his hand.


    Although it looked very obvious that the Blightbeast was going to win, considering how severely damaged the Venomthorn Hydra was, nothing was certain inside the dreamscape, so Ivan needed to be sure of things before acting.


    The fight continued for a few more minutes as the two monsters struggled. Without anything unexpected happening, the Blightbeast finally ripped off the remaining head of the Venomthorn Hydra.


    The body of the snake immediately stopped moving and a Nexus crystal was pushed out by a blood spurt.


    The Blightbeast caught the crystal with its paw. Even as a creature that had decay and poisoning abilities, the purple mist that the snake kept spitting out had done a lot to it. Its face was currently disfigured and half melted with one eye dangling from its socket like molten steel.


    The injuries on its bodies were covered in purple spots with yellow liquid dripping from them and causing the ground to make sizzling sounds upon contact.


    It moved to a corner and lay down on its stomach while breathing heavily and letting out soft growls, it was exhausted and in pain.


    ''This is my chance''


    Ivan thought before tossing the card in his hand into the air; the card burst into dazzling three-colored lights before changing into a shiny golden sword.


    Half of the energy in Ivan''s Nexus chamber was instantly used up when he formed this sword.


    Gripping the sword, Ivan dashed from his hiding spot and appeared in front of the Blightbeast like a ghost; his size was like a three-year-old child standing in front of an adult when he stood in front of the beast.


    Ignoring the disparity in their sizes, Ivan slashed down with his golden sword with full strength.


    A powerful Golden sword wave that shone like a small sun shot out from the sword and sliced through the wind as it flew toward the Blightbeast.


    The beast was startled by the sudden appearance of the human and the powerful Golden wave that was flying toward it, it felt a great sense of danger from the golden light.


    It immediately thought of escaping; it got up and wanted to run into the blood wall, but it was too late.


    Shing!!!


    Like a hot knife cutting through tofu, the Golden sword wave sliced through the Blightbeast without any resistance.


    It passed through its body, continued to fly forward, and crashed into the blood wall.


    BOOM!!


    A thunderous explosion that shook the space rang out after the golden sword light crashed into the wall. Ivan''s eyes widened, not at the sight of the beast that had been cut in two but at the damage that his attack had caused.


    The blood wall that Ivan believed that nothing would be able to damage¡­had a large sword gash that was over five meters deep in it!

 Chapter 132 - 132: Three days

    Hours flew by in a flash, it''s been 3 days since the group got separated in the labyrinth and found themselves roaming from one space to another.


    They had all lost count of how many monsters they had faced within the past three days, the shifting of the labyrinth was becoming more and more unpredictable as monsters with weird abilities began to appear; they even feared resting their heads to take short naps, a mouth could casually come out from the blood wall and snap your head off your neck.


    The group currently looked battered and messy with body appearances; their faces looked almost lifeless, and dark circles could be seen under their eyes, but their gazes remained as vigilant as ever; as Nexulytes above the Mortal King rank, it wasn''t too much to go a few days without sleep.


    Luckily, they didn''t have to worry about starving to death since all of them each had a storage device with enough supplies to last them a week if consumed gradually.


    During the past three days, aside from facing tons of monsters inside the labyrinth, there had been many occasions when the members of the group had to escape and hide after encountering some monsters.


    This scene was even more frequent with Clint who was still healing from the injuries that he received from the Nightmaw.


    Although Nexulytes had self-healing abilities that were far superior to that of normal humans, it would still take a while for them to heal from serious injuries if they didn''t get treatment from medical personnel or someone with healing-type talent.


    At times when Clint encountered a large group of powerful monsters or a single strong one and there was no route to escape to, he would create a veil of darkness to cover himself and stay quietly in a corner.


    The veil of darkness was perfectly able to mask his presence and hide his scent, making it impossible for the monsters to detect him even when they walked right in front of him.


    He would only attack when he ran into weaker monsters.


    It was better to deal with them using shadow spikes or shadow tentacles than covering himself with a veil of darkness as the latter ability required more Nexus energy to be spent, and the longer he sustained the veil, the more energy he spent; this would only end up exhausting him even more.


    One thing that he was thankful for though, was that he didn''t encounter any other Nightmaw or a creature with darkness/shadow elements; he would have been done for.


    After three days in the labyrinth, Clint had gotten four Nexus crystals. He had gotten three from a group of weak pig-like monsters, the monsters were so weak that he had killed them by just pressuring them with Nexus energy.


    This was why the saying that ''Finding Nexus crystal was purely based on luck'' was a very popular saying amongst Nexulytes.


    Who would have expected him to acquire such valuable items from such monsters? Even an ordinary person might be able to kill them if they make enough preparations.


    As for the crystals that he had collected, Clint stored all of them; he would know whether to absorb them or sell them after leaving the dreamscape, that was if he could make it out alive because¡­.


    Currently, it was the last shift after three hours, and according to their understanding of the labyrinth, there should not be any more shifts for the next hour.


    Clint, who was hiding behind a veil of darkness that he had created, sighed helplessly. Sear?h the N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    He was currently inside an enormous space that was about a hundred meters wide, and a large red eyeball that was as huge as a land carrier floated around the place.


    Clint had been unfortunate and found himself here after the last shifting of the labyrinth.


    The huge eyeball had spotted him before he was able to create his veil of darkness, which was why it was currently floating around the place with a ray of yellow light shining from its enormous pupil; it was looking for Clint!


    "Damned labyrinth" Clint mumbled under his breath, sweat gathering on his forehead.


    The veil of darkness was consuming his Nexus storage at a fast rate, he might be left with little to nothing by the time the one hour was over; what would he do if he encountered another of such monsters after the labyrinth shifted again?


    ''I should worry about that after surviving this first, not like I have another choice; things might be different if the team was still together but I wonder if those people are still alive, Ivan probably should, and maybe that dude called Ralph''


    Clint thought to himself as he tried to distract himself by thinking of the others.


    What he didn''t know was that he wasn''t the only one in a tight spot.


    A certain girl with a ponytail who had been experiencing special treatment from the dreamscape during the first day in the labyrinth had finally used up her lucky free trial and had begun to face the horrors of the labyrinth.


    Bang!!


    A huge rock fist smashed into the ground immediately after Karin moved away from the place.


    She appeared beside the owner of the fist the next moment with her mallet swinging behind her.


    BOOM!!


    Karin''s mallet smashed into a pair of huge rocky arms before sending their owner flying backward.


    Karin dropped to her knees after sending whatever she had just hit flying back, her face covered in sweat and her lips stained with blood.


    Opposite her stood a tall golem that was about 6 meters tall and had an armored body; the rock limbs of the golem were longer than usual, which helped it to make nimble movements, and its head had just a single square-shaped eye that glowed with red light.


    It was a Gavelorn!


    The Gavelorn was a golem covered in sand armor, despite its size, it was known for its ability to move silently on the ground and was able to create quake sand!


    The golem flew back for twenty meters after receiving the hit from Karin''s mallet; it landed lightly on the ground before dashing at Karin again, its legs lightly tapping on the ground as it crossed the distance between them in less than five seconds.


    Immediately after reaching Karin, the girl swung her mallet at it while the golem smashed down with its hand.


    BOOM!


    Both the mallet and the hand of the golem collided, filling the space with a deafening sound.


    Immediately after the collision, Karin suddenly felt the ground below her turn soft and her leg sank into it.


    She looked down in shock and the golem took the chance to attack her again. Sensing the feeling of death approaching, Karin lifted her mallet and placed it in front of her without looking.


    With a bang, a powerful force crashed into her mallet and sent her flying away like a broken kite. Karin crashed into the blood wall on the other side and a pained scream escaped her lips as more blood flew out.


    Landing weakly on the ground, Karin watched the golem approaching with slightly dizzy eyes.


    "Not¡­yet" she mumbled to herself as her hand that was holding the mallet trembled.

 Chapter 133 - 133: Rage

    The red light that served as the eye of the golem locked on Karin''s figure as it dashed toward her again without making a single sound, one might even think that it was an illusion because of how it moved like a shadow. S~ea??h the n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Karin gritted her teeth and prepared herself; immediately, the golem reached her, and it punched out with both hands.


    Karin rolled on the ground and dodged to the side as two large rock fists smashed into the blood wall behind her with great momentum.


    Karin didn''t roll far and immediately jumped to her feet before swinging her mallet at the body of the golem with all her might.


    BAM!


    The mallet smashed into the side of the Gavelorn ruthlessly, cracking its sand armor and causing sand and pieces of rocks to fly out.


    A roar rang out as the golem was pushed to the side, its feet creating a trench of quake sand on the ground.


    "One¡­more," Karin mumbled; she was having difficulty breathing, but her focused eyes remained locked on the figure of the golem that was already charging at her again.


    Its huge hand punched at her face; Karin bent her waist and lowered her upper body backward, letting the hand of the golem pass above her.


    Still in that form, she used her mallet as a hook to pull herself by throwing it to the side while still holding onto it.


    The instant her feet touched the ground, she rotated and sent her mallet smashing down on the head of the golem from above, but a cold, stony grip suddenly enclosed her neck and harm that was holding the mallet.


    The Gavelorn gripped Karin by the neck while holding her arm up in the air before slamming her on the blood wall.


    "Gahhh"


    Karin screamed in pain; blood gushed out from her mouth and nose, and her eyes widened; her entire body was in pain, and she felt like she might have injured her lungs.


    Her eyes glared at the golem that was staring back at her with its red eye, its grip around her neck slowly tightened.


    Karin spat another mouthful of blood that fell on the arm of the golem, she was feeling suffocated as she wasn''t able to breathe anymore; despite this, a small smirk slowly crept up her trembling lips.


    "Cheek¡­mate"


    She managed to squeeze out those words before sending the last amount of Nexus energy into her mallet before letting go.


    The mallet suddenly burst out with a fiery wave of Nexus energy and grew bigger in size, easily turning five times bigger than before; it was now bigger than the Gavelorn!


    The head of the golem swiftly turned to look up at the sudden burst of Nexus energy that attracted its attention but it was too late as the mallet fell on its head the very next moment.


    BOOM!!!


    As if a meteorite had landed on the golem, it was squashed to the ground by the enormous mallet, and a strong shockwave spread out and knocked Karin flying away.


    She landed several meters away from where the mallet and the golem were and hit her back on the ground; with uneasiness still hugging her heart, she got up on all fours and crawled toward her mallet.


    Only after seeing the pieces of rocks and sand lying motionless under her mallet did she finally let out a sigh of relief and dropped to the ground on her back.


    Her face stared at the red mist above the labyrinth as she breathed heavily, her well-sized chest rising and falling with each breath she took.


    She didn''t care about anything else at the moment, all she wanted to do was to breathe. Her Nexus chamber was completely empty, and the labyrinth would shift in a bit more than half an hour; she might not survive if she got shifted to where another monster was as her body was too battered to go another round.


    "I''ll just stay like this for a while. Hopefully, I won''t die from the next shift," Karin said while staring at the red mist, tears silently rolling down the corner of her eyes while blood covered the lower part of her face.


    ¡­.


    At the same time on another side of the labyrinth.


    Glen could be seen battling a monster that was just as tall as he was.


    This monster had the body of a lion but its skin was pitch black, its lion head had a ring of fire circling around it, and on its back were large bird wings.


    It was a Chimera of dread!


    It had this name because it was about to inflict fear on its target; it would make the target think of their biggest fear, which would often get them distracted.


    Unfortunately for it, its opponent was Glen.


    When it had used this ability on Glen, what Glen had seen wasn''t something that would cause it to feel fearful or distracted.


    What Glen had seen was a massive beast stepping on his father, killing him in a single stomp. This was what he had imagined from what his mother and little sister had told him, although they had said that it was the human who crashed into their house, Glen understood that it was the monster that had sent him flying when he was trying to save the people of the outskirts.


    For this reason, Glen had transferred all of the blame for his father''s death to the monster, filling him with hatred for creatures from the dreamscape and thus the reason he had seen such a scene after the Chimera of dread used its ability on him.


    But the scene didn''t end there, in the scene, Glen saw the giant monster turning to his mother and sister before jumping towards them.


    This was where Glen had gone mad with rage. Instead of being terrified by fear as the monster had hoped for, he had instead exploded with fury.


    Glen immediately summoned his snake and assumed his half-transformation before going on a rampage.


    "Damned brat! What the hell is wrong with you!" A thunderous beastly voice roared angrily.


    Ah, yes. Another thing, the Chimera of dread was capable of speech.


    "Shut up!" Glen shouted back before disappearing into a white flicker and appearing right in front of the monster, his fist that was covered in white snake scales already stretched out.


    BOOM!


    The punch landed on the face of the beast mercilessly and sent it stumbling back by dozens of steps, sadly, he didn''t manage to deal any damage.


    The body of the beast was just too tough.


    "You can''t hurt me, give up; let''s make a truce!" The beast roared again. It was angry and helpless.


    What sort of Human demon was this? It had only used its ability on the fellow but the human had turned into a mad dog instead of trembling from fear.


    Although the human was unable to hurt it even after attacking countless times, it was just too fast for the beast to keep up with; the current scene looked like it was being bullied by a human who was purposely beating it up.


    How vexing!


    "I said, shut up!" Glen roared back and vanished into a white line again that shot at the beast.


    BAM!


    BAM!


    BAM!


    BAM!


    Disappearing like a ghost, Glen appeared around the beast at the same time while punching it all over.


    His speed was so fast that it looked like there were multiple Glen.


    Despite this, Glen was feeling desperate. He knew that the monster would certainly get revenge after he stopped attacking it but he was unable to hurt the beast.


    As if feeling his distress, Glen got a feeling in his mind.


    It wasn''t from him, the feeling was from his white snake!


    Suddenly, a large pointy scale poked out from his knuckles just when he was about to punch the beast again.


    Ptui!!


    The sharp scale stabbed into the body of the monster and drew out a line of blood.


    The beast roared in pain and shock, Glen was equally shocked.


    "I can do that?"

 Chapter 134 - 134: Ghoulshade

    Glen stared at the scale that was covered in blood, surprised at how effective it was.


    He looked at the beast and grinned.


    "Didn''t you say I can''t hurt you? Well, guess what?" Glen said with a sinister voice.


    The beast roared.


    "What sort of freak are you? Stay away from me!"


    The ring of flames around its neck rotated before sending out balls of flames at Glen.


    "Never!" Glen shouted in fury before disappearing.


    Swoosh!


    He appeared in front of the beast''s face like a phantom with his fist punching out.


    BAM!


    The punch landed on the beast''s face and the scale instantly stabbed into its skull before sending it flying.


    It slammed into the blood wall and was yet to stand up when Glen appeared in front of it again, his hands turning into a white whirlwind as he rained down his fists on the monster''s body.


    Blood flew everywhere, and cuts began to appear all over the monster''s body; it was soon bathed in blood and covered in cuts in Just a minute.


    The fire around its neck had long died out and disappeared, and its breathing was faint; Glen had beaten it to the verge of death.


    "You¡­despicable¡­human" it cursed while looking at Glen hatefully.


    The latter stumbled back and fell on his back, his transformation undone and a small white snake coiled up on his stomach; Glen had unknowingly used up all of his Nexus storage and didn''t have enough to sustain his transformation anymore.


    Although the beast''s ability had affected him in a different way than he had expected, the rage that Glen felt had clouded his mind and made him ignore things that he shouldn''t have.


    Now, he was out of Nexus energy and totally exhausted; he could even barely move.


    The good thing was that the beast was in even worse shape than him, it could not even move its tail.


    So he was safe for the time being, he would just stay like this till he recovered a bit of energy; his snake would keep watch until then.


    "Stupid beast, you just had to use the wrong kind of ability on me; now see what you''ve caused; I''ll make sure to finish you off once I get up," Glen voiced out while staring at the red mist above the labyrinth.


    The Chimera of dread heard this, and tears almost burst out from its eyes; it was unable to move unless it would have walked over and slapped this detestable human to death.


    ''You dare to complain when I''m the one who''s on death''s doors? How shameless can you be? I used the wrong ability, what else do you expect me to use besides what I have?''


    It lamented inwardly while cursing its bad luck for running into someone like Glen.


    But there was nothing either of them could do, they could only lie on the ground and patiently wait for either of them to regain their mobility or if the labyrinth would shift first and have something else kill them.


    ...


    On Ralph''s side.


    He was battling against a Ghoulshade.


    Ghoulshades were skeleton creatures with bits of flesh hanging on their bodies, they wore black tattered robes and were able to fly in the air.


    Their means of attacking were just like necromancers, they could summon undead creatures to fight for them.


    That wasn''t the only scary thing about them, what was even scarier was their ability to use dark magic.


    They could form black patterns in the air and fire all sorts of dark spells at their targets.


    Currently, the Undead General and the undead knight were facing a bunch of tall skeletons and a single abyss worm.


    The abyss worm was a gigantic worm with a death aura.


    Bang!!


    The undead General flashed, turning into red light, and crashed through the sea of skeletons, knocking them away.


    The skeletons flew in the air and slammed into the blood walls, they dropped to the ground before quickly standing back up again and rushing at the undead General; their speed was equal to that of an average human being.


    The undead General turned and waved its hand at the head of a skeleton, slapping the head off its neck bone.


    With a crack sound, the skull of the skeleton flew off and fell dozens of meters away.


    Strangely, the body of the skeleton didn''t drop to the ground after its skull was sent flying. Instead, a dark aura appeared around it and formed another skull that turned to face the undead General instead.


    As for the skull that was sent flying, dark around shrouded it as well began constructing a whole new body for it!


    The single skeleton that the undead General had killed became two!


    This was why the number of skeletons kept increasing the longer the fight dragged on; these skeletons would multiply when killed!


    As for the undead knight, it was having a face-off against the abyss worm.


    Swoosh!!


    The undead knight rode on its shadow horse like an illusionary being and flickered around the huge worm, its sword slashing out at the body of the worm.


    Puff! Puff! Puff!!


    Black blood sprayed out as cuts appeared all over the soft body of the worm, the worm made a large screeching sound before suddenly turning on a nearby skeleton.


    It dove toward the skeleton and swallowed it in one bite.


    Immediately after swallowing the skeleton, dark smoke began to rise out of the numerous wounds on its body before closing up.


    It instantly turned to the undead knight after healing, the abyss worm opened its mouth that was filled with jagged black teeth, and spat a jet of black liquid at the undead knight.


    The latter simply flashed away from the place on its horse, the black liquid landed on the ground and the ground immediately melted into a black puddle.


    Swoosh! Swish! Swish! Swish!


    The undead knight flashed again, and a fountain of black blood gushed into the sky as it covered the worm in cuts again, but the monster simply swallowed another skeleton before healing.


    The battle entered a statement: the undead General was unable to kill the skeletons as they simply multiplied no matter what they did, while the skeletons were unable to catch the undead General, much less leave a scratch on it.


    It was the same for the undead knight and the abyss worm.


    The undead knight would always dodge the black water jet that the worm shot at it while the other party would swallow a skeleton and heal up whenever it got injured.


    The fight was going nowhere.


    The reason for this statement was the Ghoulshade that kept casting black magic patterns on the ground; these magic patterns covered the ground and acted as an energy source for the skeletons and abyss worms.


    Ralph, who covered his body with Nexus energy, was currently battling with the Ghoulshade.


    BAM!!


    Ralph''s fist landed on the ground after the monster flew away and dodged his attack.


    The Ghoulshade turned to Ralph after dodging his punch; it stretched its palm, which was a mixture of bones and little pieces of flesh, at Ralph.


    A small black magic circle suddenly appeared on the creature''s palm before flickering with black light.


    Ralph''s gaze hardened and he immediately jumped away from the place.


    A split second after he left, a black bolt of lightning shot out from the small black magic circle and ruthlessly struck the place.


    BOOM!!


    The sound of the lightning bolt was thunderous; Ralph had not gone too far from the place, so the force from the lightning explosion sent him flying away.


    He crashed into the ground and rolled, coming to a stop after hitting his back on the legs of a skeleton.


    The skeleton immediately turned to look at Ralph before stabbing at him with its bone hand that acted as a dagger.


    But before the hand could reach Ralph, a red light shot past and the skeleton suddenly exploded into pieces of bones that flew to the side along with the wind.


    Ralph was stunned but didn''t waste time lying down there, he immediately got up to his feet just in time to see another three skeletons jumping towards him.


    He hurriedly grabbed one of them and used it to hit the other two like a baseball bat.


    The three skeletons flew away while scattering into pieces in mid-air.


    Ralph didn''t get a chance to rest before he was forced to roll away from the place again as a bolt of black lightning flew above his head immediately after he went to the ground. sea??h th§× Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The Ghoulshade was after him again.


    "This isn''t working; I''ll end up exhausting my energy if this goes on," Ralph mumbled to himself as he went after the Ghoulshade again.


    His speed was pretty fast as he ran on the blood wall before jumping toward the creature in the air. The Ghoulshade immediately flew away, but Ralph was ready for this; his Nexus energy gushed out from his body and took the form of an enormous arrow that flew after the monster.


    BAM!!


    The red energy arrow hit the monster before it could fly too far away and pinned it to the wall on the other side.


    A thunderous scream that resembled that of a human rang out from the Ghoulshade as it tried to pull the energy arrow from its body.


    "Knight, finish that damned thing off; you have five seconds, I''ll hold this worm till then!" Ralph shouted desperately before the Ghoulshade could break free from the energy arrow.

 Chapter 135 - 135: Targeted by the labyrinth:solo shift

    "Knight, finish that damned thing off; you have five seconds, I''ll hold this worm till then!" Ralph shouted desperately before the Ghoulshade could break free from the energy arrow


    ...


    He usually didn''t need to voice out his commands to his undead, but the situation didn''t allow Ralph to think much about his; he subconsciously thought it would be better this way.


    Immediately after hearing Ralph''s words, the undead knight turned its head and gazed at the Ghoulshade pinned to the wall as its eyes blazed with light.


    As if sharing the same mind with its rider, the shadow horse turned around and shot toward the Ghoulshade.


    The monster saw this and let out a scream while stretching both hands toward the incoming knight and horse, small magic circles formed on both palms and flickered with black light.


    Bzzz!


    Swoosh!!


    Black lightning and black flames shot out from both palms and flew toward the undead knight.


    The latter dodge the black lightning swiftly by turning its body on top of its horse before slashing the black fireball with its sword.


    BOOM!


    The black fireball exploded into a black cloud that fell on the undead knight and swallowed it along with its shadow horse but this was only for a brief moment as a sword slashed through the black cloud and the undead knight emerged without a scratch, its sword blazing with a large wave of dark aura as it continue toward the Ghoulshade.


    While this happened, the minions of the Ghoulshade were not playing around. The previous scream of the monster seemed to have been a command for help as the skeletons and abyss worm immediately abandoned their opponents and chased after the undead knight like crazy zombies that smelled fresh blood.


    But of course, Ralph wasn''t going to allow this; he only had five seconds before the energy arrow that was pinning the Ghoulshade to the wall disappeared.


    Immediately sending a mental order to the undead General, he turned and faced the abyss worm.


    4 seconds!


    The undead General flung his robe open, and a wave of red energy gushed out and pushed the skeletons back; it instantly turned into a red shadow that shot through the center of the skeletons like an arrow.


    Dozens of skeletons flew into the air and exploded into pieces.


    3 seconds!


    The abyss worm had just reached in front of Ralph, his body was already coated with ferocious red energy. He immediately bent his body before punching out with every single strength that he could muster.


    BOOM!


    A huge hole exploded on the body of the abyss worm from which the view behind it could be seen; black blood immediately poured out as parts of its body fell like chopped meat. It was pushed back by a few meters and crashed into tens of skeletons.


    2 seconds!


    The undead knight reached the wall that the Ghoulshade was pinned to; its sword exploded with even more black aura, with some of it fusing into the body of the shadow horse.


    It tapped its front hooves on the ground and leaped into the air with the undead knight still on its back.


    1 second!


    They reached the same height as the Ghoulshade and the undead knight slashed out with its sword, leaving a large wave of dark aura in the air.


    Clang!!


    The sword smashed into a large pentagon-shaped black pattern right beside the monster''s neck, blocking the sword from touching the monster''s neck.


    0!


    The energy arrow began to disappear and the Ghoulshade was about to fly away again.


    The eyes of the undead knight suddenly burst out with bloody red light that pierced through the body of the Ghoulshade, the light was just so dazzling; it had no attacking effect.


    But with the sudden burst of energy, the dark aura on its sword changed and became a wave of red and black aura.


    Crack!


    Immediately, the sword slashed through, breaking the magic pattern that was blocking it and passing through the monster''s neck at a blurry speed.


    Immediately after the sword flashed past, the undead knight and the undead General disappeared from the space, returning to Ralph''s Nexus chamber; that last attack of the undead knight that turned its sword into a wave of red and black aura had used up what was left of Ralph''s Nexus storage so they were unable to stay any longer.


    As for the Ghoulshade. The energy arrow finally disappeared completely, and it flew into the air while letting out a mocking scream; all of the skeletons and the abyss worm immediately turned on Ralph.


    The Ghoulshade also stretched his skeleton hand toward Ralph, and a black magic circle formed on it, but it suddenly broke; the skeletons and abyss worm also stopped moving.


    Confused, the Ghoulshade tried to create another magic circle, it suddenly felt its vision turn upside down and saw its minions scattering into red dust.


    In Ralph''s POV, the head of the Ghoulshade, along with the top of its robe, had suddenly tilted to the side before falling off.


    Only now did the effect of Knight''s sword slash take place.


    Thud!


    Ralph fell to his butt, breathing heavily.


    "I got scared there for a second," Ralph mumbled to himself while watching the body of the Ghoulshade fall to the ground; he suddenly noticed a small shiny object gleaming within it.


    "It was a Nexulyte crystal!"


    Ralph''s expression brightened a bit, at least he had gotten something in return for using up all of his Nexus storage.


    BAM!!


    The body of the Ghoulshade crashed into the ground with a loud sound, Ralph stood up and staggered over to retrieve the Nexus crystal.


    He held it in his hand and began to draw out the energy within it while waiting for the next shift of the labyrinth which was still minutes away.


    .....


    On Ivan''s side, several minutes ago.


    Shin!!


    Ivan stabbed his sword into the body of a turtle monster on the ground before pulling it out.


    Blood sprayed out of the wound and the monster immediately stopped moving.


    He retreated a few steps and slashed his sword to the side to get rid of the blood on it.


    Looking ahead, one could see that Ivan was in a spacious section of the labyrinth, and over fifty corpses of similar monsters were scattered across the place.


    Some had been stabbed to death, had wide gashes on their bodies, signs of being crushed with brute force, or had been split in half. Their bodies littered the place and their blood formed a small stream in the place.


    These creatures were earth turtle dwellers; they had turtle bodies and huge shells, which they usually hid in. They were each over five meters tall and had webbed feet which were unusually very sharp.


    They had fast movements and sturdy bodies and were very troublesome creatures to deal with for low-ranked Nexulytes.


    Unfortunately for them, their opponent was Ivan.


    Ivan had easily massacred the entire group within five minutes, and he had done so without breaking a sweat; none of them were able to resist him.


    "Not a single Nexus crystal again" Ivan sighed and walked to a corner to sit on the shell of a dead earth turtle dweller.


    Ivan felt that he had been very unfortunate during the past 3 days. He had lost count of the number of monsters he had killed, but he didn''t find a single Nexus crystal!


    Well, nobody ever said one could find Nexus crystals by simply killing a million monsters anyway; those things were really hard to find.


    Rumble!


    Ivan''s eyes widened slightly, startled at the sound that he just heard.


    The ground shook and blood walls suddenly burst out from the ground around him.


    ''Another shift? But there shouldn''t be another shift for the next one hour'' he thought to himself, feeling suspicious.


    He only realized that only the spot he was standing on was experiencing the shift; there were fewer blood walls this time, and the trembling wasn''t as intense as usual.


    "What the¡­" Ivan was about to speak when the space around him changed and started spinning, he immediately shut his mouth and stabilized himself.


    While spinning, Ivan had confirmed that the blood wall seemed to have targeted him as even the monster corpse that he had been sitting on wasn''t taken with him.


    Rumble!


    With another rumbling, the walls stopped spinning around Ivan and everywhere went silent.


    The silence was immediately pierced by the sound of gentle footsteps that echoed in the place.


    Ivan''s head snapped in the direction of the sound.


    He saw that he was in a hall-like part of the labyrinth and a few meters ahead of him was an alter, the altar had the statue of an angel in a long garment and six pairs of bird wings folded behind it; one of the wings were broken and the broken piece was lying on the ground in front of it. sea??h th§× N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The sounds of footsteps were coming from there!


    In front of the altar was a petite figure that resembled that of a young girl. She was dressed in a white garment, and a white piece of silk material covered her head, her back facing Ivan as she walked about on the altar around the statue.


    "Welcome to my place, descendant of Von"

 Chapter 136 - 136: Priestess of a fallen Angel

    "Welcome to my place, descendant of Von"


    An elegant female voice rang out from the figure of the girl who was walking around the altar.


    Her long multicolored hair fell from underneath the silk covering her head and dragged on the ground as she moved.


    Ivan froze, staring at the figure without saying a word; for some reason, he felt uneasy even when this person appeared to be minding her business.


    After a few seconds of doing what seemed like drawing inscriptions around the statue of the angel, the figure finally stopped and turned around to face Ivan.


    Ivan was finally able to see her face: a straight pair of pink lips that poked out beautifully under a straight, elegant nose. Her cheeks were full, and she looked cute with slight reddish blush makeup; her skin was pale as that of a corpse that had been lost in water for weeks but radiated with beauty.


    The large crack with golden eyelashes that took up the rest of her face till her forehead didn''t hinder her beauty in the slightest.


    She was the prettiest one-eyed female that Ivan had ever seen in his life, not like he had been any before her, but this girl¡­ if she could be called as such, was prettier than most females that he had encountered in his entire existence.


    But this didn''t distract Ivan from the main matter, she had one eye and was in the dreamscape!


    Ivan looked at her, his eyes narrowed and his expression asking everything that his mouth intended to say.


    "Not the chatty type, I see; Vons do have different traits," The girl muttered in her cute voice as she brought her slender white hands together and pressed both palms against each other; she looked like a nun sister.


    Ivan''s eyebrows raised when he heard this, an intense feeling of curiosity exploding within him.


    "You don''t have to worry about what I meant by that¡­or why I called you a descendant of Von; you have it in your name, don''t you? But what I can tell you is why I have brought you here" The girl said with a smile as her golden eyelashes fluttered gently before her eyelid slowly raised.


    A dazzling golden shine burst out immediately after she opened her single eyes, forcing Ivan to cover his face with his palm and bring out a card in his other hand; he thought that she was attacking.


    Strangely, he didn''t feel anything from the golden light that had burst out from her eyes, it seemed to be just harmless light.


    Ivan lowered his hand but still kept holding the card in his other hand after the eyes of the girl stopped glowing; he was now able to see what was behind her closed eyelid.


    On the upper half of her face was a large oval-shaped eyeball with multicolored pupils jumping around; there were red pupils, golden pupils, blue, green, indigo, yellow, every color that Ivan was familiar with, and even some unfamiliar colors of pupils were present in her eye.


    Underneath these jumping pupils was a small layer of a labyrinth made out of blood. Despite the small size of it, Ivan was able to tell how large it must be in real-time; he was able to recognize it as the labyrinth that they were currently lost in!


    His eyes sparked with realization at this moment as he stared into her eyes.


    "You''ve guessed correctly, I am the guardian of this labyrinth. You may call me priestess of the fallen Angel." The girl smiled brightly, held the sides of her garment, and gave Ivan a courtesy bow while lowering her head slightly.


    "And I brought you here because I need your help" She added after standing up straight again.


    "Help with what?" Ivan asked in confusion.


    The girl smiled as the pupils in her eyes slowly calmed down and stopped jumping around.


    "I''ve been watching you and your group annihilate residents of the labyrinth for the past few days, even killing some of my champions. I''ve taken notice of a few of you and watched with close attention but discovered that they were only average with the only exception of you.


    Even when I send you a champion after killing one champion on purpose, you still manage to end it easily since you stopped holding back; your talent isn''t of this realm" She said with a look of reverence on her face.


    "What¡­do you mean?" Ivan was only getting more confused by her words. The only thing that he had was that she was the guardian of the labyrinth and killing her would stop the labyrinth from functioning and let them out. Sear?h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "You do not have to be flustered¡­well, you should, but it will be of no use, so I will advise you to be calm. Since you don''t seem to know, it is not in my position to tell you as that might affect my Master; you see, sharing knowledge might be a high form of treason" The priestess smiled before slowly walking toward Ivan.


    " Why I brought you here after noticing how peculiar you are is that¡­I need your help," She said while approaching him in slow steps.


    Ivan''s expression turned even more perplexed by her words.


    Without hesitation, the card in his hand flew into the air and burst out with light before transforming into a small white flame; more than half of his Nexus storage was used up immediately after this white flame appeared; it consumed even more Nexus than the golden sword that he had used to kill the Blightbeast.


    The white flame floated in the air quietly, a small seven-colored halo surrounding it as it made space around it to crack.


    The lips of the priestess shaped into a small smile at the appearance of the white flame, she suddenly moved forward before Ivan could send the white flame out.


    Swoosh!!


    It was as if time had stopped moving; the priestess moved as if she had teleported and appeared right in front of Ivan before stretching out one of her hands and¡­grabbing the white flame.


    Ivan''s eyes widened, and the feeling that was very unfamiliar to him formed in his heart immediately.


    Fear!


    A feeling that Ivan could count how many times he had felt it.


    His eyes moved and stared at the priestess that was standing right in front of him, her eyes staring right into his eyes and a small smile on her lips.


    She vanished again and appeared in front of the altar the next moment, Ivan wasn''t even able to see her movements!


    Her palm that had grabbed the white flame opened, the flame had died out and there was not a single scratch on her smooth palm.


    "Now, now, at least listen before you try to kill me; you are very different from the others I''ve heard of." The priestess giggled softly at Ivan''s expression.


    Unable to say a word, Ivan could only stare at the girl with wide eyes.


    "Don''t look at me like that, it''s not like I''m going to kill you¡­you won''t be living here alive, but I''m not going to kill you; you are going to help with the resurrection of my Master," She said in an apologetic voice.


    "But you are currently out of shape for the ritual, I''ll have to feed you so you''ll be able to fulfill destiny. When my Master is awakened and rules the dreamscape into the real world, your brave act will be recorded throughout history!" She added in a low shout as her face blushed harder.


    Ivan heard this and a strange feeling suddenly mixed with the feeling of fear within him, as if a screw had been driven into his head. His face suddenly turned cold and expressionless, and his eyes turned dull as if they had lost all meaning to life, fading all colors instantly.


    "And why do you think I will help with that?" Ivan uttered in an empty tone that lacked any emotions.


    The priestess paused and stared at Ivan, the smile on her face fading and being replaced by a sinister smirk.


    Suddenly, the image of the labyrinth in her eyes shifted and Ivan felt a rumble under his feet as the space shook.


    The next thing he saw was blood walls suddenly bursting out of the wall around the hall he was in, and a monster was brought to the place.


    It was a large red-scaled monster with bulging muscles and two large twisted horns; it had the face of a bull and stood on both legs like a man. In its hand was a large blood axe that was several meters long.


    The monster looked around in confusion before suddenly settling its red eyes on Ivan, it roared into the air before dashing toward him.


    Another card appeared in Ivan''s hand before flying out into the air, with a burst of light, it formed a transparent golden barrier around him.


    BAM!


    The axe of the bull smashed on the barrier, and a loud sound rang out as the ground trembled. The axe of the bull flew back from the rebound force and the monster was pulled along with it.


    "This won''t work. Kill it and absorb its Nexus crystal; only then will you be in shape for the ritual," The priestess shook her head and said to Ivan from behind the monster.


    The monster seemed to ignore her existence and attacked Ivan''s barrier again.


    "I refuse" Ivan stated coldly and continued to stand still inside the barrier.

 Chapter 137 - 137: Projections

    Minutes later.


    Bang! Bang! Bang!!


    Explosive sounds echoed, and powerful shockwaves swept in all directions; the monster kept slamming its axe on Ivan''s barrier.


    But the barrier refused to crumble under the onslaught of the monster''s attack; ripples appeared on the surface of the barrier, but that was all; the ground around the barrier had long shattered and turned into dozens of meters wide craters.


    The priestess watched from a distance, her single eye and Ivan''s blue eyes locked in a staring competition as they both ignored the bull monster.


    "You really aren''t going to kill it? I don''t think you can keep up that barrier forever" The priestess blinked at Ivan before walking toward him from behind the monster with slow steps.


    " There are a lot of things that you don''t know about me," Ivan replied tonelessly.


    " I understand, your talent is one, for instance, but¡­are you sure you won''t change your mind?" She stood right behind the monster and smirked.


    Ivan''s face darkened; he didn''t know what she was planning, but it definitely wasn''t anything good.


    His guess was soon confirmed when the eye of the priestess suddenly moved and several of her pupils flew out into the air.


    Ivan raised his head and gazed at the pupils in the air; they spun around each other but burst out with light.


    Woom!


    The light shot at each other before expanding and turning into a projection. There were a total of four split projections, and each split showed a scene of the rest of Ivan''s group.


    Ivan''s expression darkened even more and his eyes narrowed to almost a slit.


    In one of the splits, he saw the red-haired Clint looking all battered and wretched; only his protective body suit was still intact and showed that he wasn''t a crazy person.


    Clint was currently lying behind a tall veil of darkness in a large space while an enormous eyeball that let out a ray of light scanned the place. Ivan could tell as much that the eyeball was looking for Clint who was hiding behind the veil of darkness.


    In another split, he saw Glen.


    The boy was in a better state than Clint. Although he still looked miserable after all he had been through in the labyrinth, he wasn''t as bad as Clint.


    Glen was lying on the ground with his front facing up and his snake on top of him, his chest raising up and down as he gathered Nexus energy in the air.


    Not far from him was a terribly beaten beast with cuts all over; the beast was breathing faintly, and only its eyes could move.


    The three were the only ones in the space that they were in and Ivan could guess as much what had transpired.


    In another projection, Ralph could be seen sitting cross-legged on the ground beside the headless body of the Ghoulshade. A small, faintly glowing crystal was in his hands, and the energy from the crystal was slowly being pulled into Ralph''s body.


    Around Ralph and the headless monster was a sea of red dust; Ivan had no idea what the sea of dust was, but he was relieved that Ralph was in a good state as well.


    On the last projection, he saw Karin lying motionless on the ground. She looked bloody as she lay beside her mallet, which had grown in size and was resting on top of sand and shattered rocks.


    One thing was that each one of Ivan''s teammates seemed to have experienced a terrible encounter but the good thing was that they had managed to survive.


    "What is the meaning of this?"


    Ivan returned her gaze to the priestess and asked coldly.


    "Oh, this? Nothing much, just wanted to find out if you really intend not to help me" She grinned and suddenly snapped her fingers.


    Ivan''s gaze immediately swept up to look at the projections, a change had occurred in each of the splits.


    His eyes widened.


    In Clint''s projection, the giant eyeball that had been roaming the place suddenly stopped moving and froze in the air for five seconds before suddenly turning around; the ray of light coming from its giant pupil landed right on the spot where Clint was hiding.


    The light ray from the eyeball pierced through the veil of darkness that was covering Clint, exposing him.


    Ivan saw Clint''s expression change into one of shock as his closed eyelids trembled.


    The boy hurriedly forced himself up to his feet while groaning from his injuries as he tried to move away but the giant eyeball delayed a level of speed that shocked Ivan.


    With a swooshing sound that he was able to hear through the projection, Ivan saw the eyeball dart across the air and arrive above Clint before the latter could move.


    Woom!! S§×arch* The ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    A burst of light ray shot out from the eyeball and crashed down on Clint, pressing the guy against the ground.


    Ivan heard Clint let out a pained scream, and blood flew out from his mouth as he was pressed against the ground; the light ray from the eyeball kept pressing on him as the ground under Clint started to crack.


    One could imagine just how strong the pressure the light ray was pressing on him was.


    At the same time, a yellowish aura began to rise from Clint''s body and entered the eyeball.


    "That''s a soul drinker; I think your friend has about thirty minutes before his soul is completely drawn out and he turns into an empty husk," the priestess explained with a smile on her face as if she was doing Ivan a favor.


    Ivan didn''t respond as his eyes drifted to another split.


    Karin, who was lying on the ground, was suddenly sent flying into the air as the ground under her broke, and a large pitch-black tentacle burst out from it.


    The girl let out a startled and pained scream as her body flew into the air.


    The tentacle wiggled about for a brief moment before shooting toward Karin and wrapping around her.


    "Ahhhh!"


    Karin let out an ear-piercing scream, and blood flew out of her mouth as the tentacle tightened around her body and squeezed her; her limbs immediately bent in the opposite directions, and many of her bones shattered.


    Ok, Glen''s part, a monster that looked like a man with pale white skin and scars all over his body, suddenly walked out of the blood wall. Its eyes were hollow, and his lips were dry and cracked; both hands were bound by cuffs that were connected by chains that were dozens of inches thick.


    It was a howling banshee!


    The feet of the monster drifted just a few centimeters from the ground as it floated toward Glen.


    Its hollow eyes gazed down at Glen, who was lying on the ground; it totally ignored the almost-dead beast.


    Ivan saw Glen''s eyes widen in shock and horror before the monster suddenly bent down and grabbed his neck before lifting him into the air. Glen grabbed the monster''s fingers that were around his neck and began to struggle, but the monster didn''t budge an inch.


    It suddenly opened its cracked lips and let out a piercing howling sound that came out like a sonic wave.


    The wave smashed into Glen''s face and he instantly gritted his teeth as his eyes rolled up, threatening to disappear into his skull.


    The white snake shot at the monster with its mouth wide open and its fang poking out but it wasn''t able to do anything damage after biting the hard skin of the monster, its fang even broke before it was sent flying by the sound wave as well and began to wriggle on the ground like a worm that made contact with salt.


    This was the ability of the howling banshee; its howls were able to drive one crazy, and they were painful to the ears.


    On Ralph''s side, the boy was still absorbing the energy from the Nexus crystal when a pair of shadow arms suddenly rose from the ground on his side and grabbed him.


    The arm grabbed Ralph and immediately lifted him into the air before slamming him into the wall.


    Ralph groaned as blood burst out from his nose, but it was only the beginning; the arm lifted him again and slammed him into the ground.


    Sounds of bone breaking rang out as Ralph almost passed out.


    He immediately used the little bit of energy that his head absorbed and summoned the undead knight and the undead General.


    Both creatures appeared and found their master suffering; their eyes immediately blazed, and they attacked the shadow arms, but all their attacks went through them without causing them any harm.


    "What¡­is this?" Ivan muttered in a disbelieving time.


    "Nothing much; I just sent my strongest champions to keep them¡­safe," the priestess replied with a malicious tone.


    " No, this isn''t real, they are all fake! You''re trying to trick me" Ivan closed his eyes and shook his head.


    " Your choice, I won''t force you to believe me. We can just watch them die together" She laughed loudly.


    Ivan''s expression turned complicated. He suspected that this was the girl''s scheme to force him to comply with her demands, but again, she was the guardian of the labyrinth and was able to control everything in it; the screams from Karin and the others sounded too real to be an illusion.


    What if they were really in danger and about to die because of him?


    "Gah!!"


    Ralph''s scream echoed in Ivan''s ears at this time as he was smashed into the wall again by the shadow arms face first.


    Ivan looked, and his eyes trembled; Ralph''s face was a bloody mess, and blood was rushing out of his head like a loose tap.


    Clank!

 Chapter 138 - 138: Five more crystals

    Clank!


    A dull sound suddenly rang out in the space, and the banging of the monster''s axe on Ivan''s barrier instantly came to a stop; the next thing that followed was the dripping sound of something hitting the ground before a loud bang of another crashing into the ground.


    Looking over, one could see Ivan, who had come out of his barrier, standing three meters behind the monster with one of his hands stretched out and his fingers straightened like a spear while being covered in Nexus energy that constantly swirled around it.


    The priestess immediately beamed a smile, she had seen what had happened just now clearly.


    Immediately after the anguished scream from Ralph, Ivan''s eyes had turned bloodshot, and his Nexus energy had exploded out of his body like a fountain; he flashed from inside his barrier and stabbed his fingers through the hard scale of the monster, creating a hand-sized hole in the monster''s chest and killing it instantly.


    Ivan lowered his arm and turned to look at the priestess.


    "I don''t care if they''re fake or not; I''ll do it, so stop!" He snorted coldly at her.


    The girl''s smile grew bigger at Ivan''s words and she clapped her palms together.


    "Splendid! I knew you only looked cold-hearted on the surface, but actually soft inside; you descendants of Von are always the strange ones," She happily said before snapping her fingers.


    Immediately after the snap of her fingers, the shadow arms that were slamming Ralph around the place stopped moving and held the boy suspended in the air. Ralph was a bloody mess with a lot of cuts on his face.


    The soul drinker also stopped pushing Clint into the ground but had already created a ten-meter-deep crater with Clint''s body. Blood stained every corner of the crater as Clint lay at the bottom motionlessly.


    The howling banshee also stopped screaming at Glen and released his grip around Glen''s neck, letting the boy fall to the ground; he was unconscious and blood was flowing out from his ears and nostrils.


    Karin was the same; her limbs had been terribly twisted in the wrong way, and her bones were sticking out of her flesh; she had also lost consciousness from the pain and was now hanging on the tentacle after it loosened its grip around her body.


    Ivan stared at the projections with great fury in his eyes, but his face still managed to remain calm; he called his profile in his mind.


    NAME: Ivan Von Charles


    Talent Group: Primal Talent type: Wisher Talent: Wish card S§×ar?h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Talent lv: SS AP: 46.23% Rank: Partial Lord


    Ivan took a look at the amount of AP he had; he was just four points short of reaching the next rank.


    ''You want to use me as a sacrifice and kill my friends? Just wait till I reach the True Lord rank, I''ll make you go through hell'' Ivan thought to himself as he turned his gaze from the projections to the priestess.


    The priestess didn''t know what Ivan was thinking but was able to see the anger in his eyes, she smiled softly before giving a polite bow.


    "Don''t worry, I''ll release them and let them go out of here safely after you help me with what I want. Your great contribution will be recorded throughout history and spread to every part of the world as the one who released my master and brought salvation to this cursed world" She said with an honest voice.


    Ivan completely ignored her and walked over to the monster on the ground that now had a small pool of blood under its corpse, his eyes immediately landing on the small crystal in it.


    Ivan picked up the crystal and sat beside the corpse of the monster, he began to absorb the energy within.


    He didn''t have to worry about the priestess trying something funny while he absorbed the energy of the crystal. She was stronger than he was and could easily get rid of him if she wanted, she wanted his help so he could absorb Nexus freely.


    The girl''s single eye blinked at Ivan once before turning around and walking toward the statue; she resumed drawing symbols around it; the symbols would soon disappear into the statue, and she would draw another one.


    Ten minutes passed in the blink of an eye, Ivan was already done with absorbing the energy from the Nexus crystal and was currently standing on his feet with both eyes gazing at the priestess with a cold glint.


    "Done, I see; here''s your second meal," the girl giggled before the mini-map of the labyrinth in her eye shifted.


    A low rumbling sound followed before another creature was brought into the hall by blood walls.


    This new creature floated a few centimeters above the ground.


    It looked like a zombie in metal armor with tentacles for limbs, its eyes were dangling out of their sockets and were held by a red vein that stretched from its brain. Its mouth opened and revealed a rotten maw with brown large teeth.


    It made growling sounds that were similar to that of zombies, and it looked a bit transparent as if it was an illusion.


    It was a Void wraith!


    Ivan''s eyes immediately narrowed, he knew about this monster.


    Void wraiths were ghost monsters that were capable of going through obstacles and were partially immune to physical attack. Every physical attack that landed on them would have 90 percent of its damage deflected, and only 2 percent of it would affect the void wraith.


    Void wraiths were also capable of sound attacks just like the howling banshees, just that their sound attacks were different from that of the howling banshee.


    The dangling eyes of the void wraith moved while still connected to the red veins; they rolled disgustingly, and the two pitch-black eyeballs gazed at Ivan.


    The monster floated forward a bit before opening its mouth and opening a low growl.


    Ivan flashed before he suddenly disappeared into a gust of wind.


    He didn''t actually disappear, his speed was just so fast that it looked like he had disappeared to the void wraith.


    Immediately after Ivan left the place, space around that place formed obviously cracks before the ground exploded as many invisible spikes shot out from the void behind the cracks in the air and stabbed into the ground.


    One could only see the invisible spikes if they were far stronger than the void wraith or only feel their presence with their senses.


    This was the difference between the sound attacks of the two creatures. While the howling banshee drove people to insanity with its screams, the sound attack of a void wraith was to summon invisible spikes from the void.


    Ivan appeared behind the void wraith the next second after the invisible spikes had stabbed into his previous location. A card in his hand changed into a streak of red lightning that flashed toward the monster.


    This was the weakness of the void wraith; they might be partially immune to physical attacks, but magic attacks had an over two hundred percent damage rate toward them.


    Crack! BOOM!!


    The red lightning shot through the air and slammed into the chest plate of the monster''s armor, the lightning easily pierced through the armor before exploding within the monster''s body.


    The body of the void wraith immediately blasted into pieces and parts of it flew everywhere in the air while bringing out smoke.


    Ivan had killed it easily.


    Without waiting for the priestess''s irritating compliments, Ivan walked over to the Nexus crystal lying on the ground a few meters away and picked it up.


    The thing was really one of the most sturdy objects in existence; the explosion just now didn''t even leave a dent in it.


    With the crystal in hand, Ivan walked to a corner and quickly started drawing the energy from the crystal.


    AP +0.01


    AP +0.01


    AP +0.01


    ¡­.


    Similar notifications immediately started to appear in his mind for the next ten minutes as Ivan absorbed the energy within the crystal and refined them into AP.


    He opened his profile again, he was already at 46.90% and would reach 47.23% AP after he finished with this crystal.


    ''A little more'' Ivan thought to himself as he crazily absorbed the energy from the crystal.


    Ten minutes quickly passed, and Ivan had finally reached 47%; he could already feel his strength growing significantly, but he felt that it would still not be enough; he would only act after reaching the True Lord rank.


    "Good, you''ve finished that one, here''s the next meal"


    The mini-map shifted within her eye again, and another monster was brought over by the blood walls.


    This monster was a humanoid-shaped monster with its entire body covered in bandages, and it carried a scythe on its shoulder.


    Two yellow lights that Ivan assumed were its eyes gleamed through the bandages around its face.


    Ivan didn''t know what sort of monster this was, but he didn''t care; a card appeared in his hand before turning into a long silver sword with a thin blade and a long handle.


    "Five more crystals" Ivan mumbled under his breath before disappearing from where he was standing, leaving an afterimage behind.


    Clang!

 Chapter 139 - 139: last crystal

    NAME: Ivan Von Charles


    Talent Group: Primal Talent type: Wisher Talent: Wish card


    Talent lv: SS AP: 49.73% Rank: PARTIAL LORD


    ¡­..


    Leon glanced at the profile in his mind as he stood up from the ground, visible Nexus energy swirling around his body.


    Around him were the corpses of five different monsters he had killed, including the void wraith.


    He had absorbed the energy of five nervous crystals under the watch of the priestess who kept bringing one creature after another; he was currently waiting for the sixth monster to be delivered.


    While the situation wasn''t one to be happy about, Ivan was fine with growing stronger quickly; he had gotten the four points that he was missing in a single day, wish he couldn''t have done without the help of the priestess, not even if he roamed the entire labyrinth for days or even weeks. sea??h th§× ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    After all, the labyrinth was dozens of kilometers huge, and his chances of encountering these monsters separately were slim and entirely up to luck. He had only been able to accomplish what might have taken him months in a single day, people with lesser talent levels would even take years for this.


    ''After this last one, I''ll enter the True Lord rank. Then I can handle the situation'''' Ivan thought to himself with narrowed eyes. He was just a step away from the rank and could only feel how much his strength had increased, he was confident of beating the Blightbeast to death with his bare hands with his current strength.


    While this would not be enough to deal with this one-eyed girl who was able to snuff out his white flame with her bare hand, Ivan didn''t think that the situation would still be the same after he entered the next rank as he could already feel the level of power awaiting him; it was like coming out of a small village and entering a flourishing city with hundreds of opportunities.


    "You''re done, good. I can feel it, yes! You''re almost ready to carry out the ritual, hahaha!" The priestess stared at Ivan and laughed like a lunatic into the air, her entire body shaking from her laughter and her pupils jumping around her eye.


    With a familiar rumbling sound, the monster that would provide Ivan with his last crystal was delivered into the hall.


    It was a creature that looked just like a human, everything about it was so human-like that Ivan would have mistaken it for a human had he met it somewhere else.


    This creature looked like a middle-aged man with a bushy beard and unkept gray hair wrinkled on top of his head; he wore a dirty black cloak that looked tattered and told of years of suffering with the amount of tears and holes in it.


    The man stared at Ivan with calm eyes that held faintly glowing yellow irises and red pupils; his nose twitched above a pair of thin, cracked lips that seemed to have not seen water for a very long time.


    His hands had long, pointy fingernails stretched out from the sleeves of his cloak just a bit, and Ivan could see the dirt that was probably a mixture of dried blood and pieces of flesh on them.


    "A human? Been a while since I''ve seen one, he looked better than this one that I''m wearing right now"


    The cracked lips of the man opened and a disembodied voice rang out.


    Ivan''s eyes narrowed even more when he heard those words, he instantly understood what was happening.


    '' So it didn''t have a human form but was wearing one instead, and it can talk'' Ivan thought to himself as a card appeared in his hand.


    The yellow eyes of the man moved to the card in Ivan''s hand, and he raised an eyebrow.


    "What''s that? Poker?" He asked with a hint of amusement.


    "Never knew that Gene Banshees had such a sense of humor once they gained the ability of speech, or are you just different?"


    The priestess joined at this moment, a small smile on her face as she blinked at the middle-aged man.


    The two turned to stare at the girl with different expressions.


    "Oh, it''s the guardian. I haven''t seen you in a while; why did you bring me here to this kid?" The man asked with a wicked smile on his face.


    "Nothing really, I just need his help in killing you?" The priestess replied with a smile.


    "Hahaha, how amusing. You think he''s capable of that?" The man''s shoulders trembled slightly as he let out a loud laugh.


    " Well, there might have been a small accident, but I don''t think so now that he knows what you are," She responded with a small giggle.


    And she was right, Ivan, who was about to turn his card into a sword and dash toward the man, had been stunned to learn that he was a Gene banshee in a human form!


    This revelation had honestly shocked Ivan, he was aware of what Gene banshees were and their Characteristics.


    They were capable of assuming the forms of anything that they had consumed and perfectly mimicked their abilities and level of strength; their true forms were also terrifying because of their absurd speed and the fluid on their bodies that could eat up Nexus energy and corrode anything.


    But he had never heard of a Gene banshee that could perfectly communicate like a real person, he might have been fooled completely if he encountered such a Gene banshee elsewhere.


    ''Its power level must be very high by now; I will have to take it out with one strike to avoid uncertainties,'' Ivan said in his thoughts as he observed the man who was conversing with the priestess.


    "So you think his chances of surviving have increased now that he knows what I am? Why don''t we find out then?" The man, whom Ivan had now confirmed was a Gene banshee, turned to face him before suddenly exploding with Nexus energy like a Nexulyte.


    BOOM!!


    The overbearing Nexus energy gushed out from his body and produced a powerful shockwave that shattered the ground around him, a small crater of four meters instantly formed as the Nexus crystal swirled around him like a red whirlwind and caused his cloak to flutter in the air.


    Ivan''s eyes widened immediately after sensing the Nexus energy that the Gene banshee was letting out.


    " A Domain Lord energy level," Ivan mumbled seriously; this meant that the person that this Gene banshee had consumed was at the Domain Lord rank and was currently two ranks above him.


    While this was not good news for Ivan, it wasn''t something that he was bothered about either.


    The card in his hand flew into the air and scattered into light particles before forming a small white flame that floated in front of him.


    The Gene banshee also moved at this time.


    BOOM!!


    It bent its knees slightly before shooting forward like a comet and leaving an even bigger crater on the ground as he made a beeline for Ivan, his dirty fingernails stretching out like daggers that would rip Ivan to shreds.


    At the same time that he moved, the white flame shot forward.


    The priestess smirked as she watched the white flame and the Gene banshee make contact.


    The Gene banshee underestimated Ivan greatly because of their difference in ranks and didn''t bother to dodge the attack of someone who was two ranks below it.


    It stretched forth one of its hands and attempted to slap the white flame away, but that was the greatest mistake of its life because the instant it made contact with the white flame.


    BOOM!!


    A strong explosion shook the entire place like the shifting of the labyrinth occurred; a violent shockwave followed and sent the Gene banshee flying away and crashing into the blood wall before making a huge crack in it.


    Its entire arm that had made contact with the white flame had disintegrated completely and its shoulder was left with a bloody mess.


    But that wasn''t all, the white flame stuck on the bloody shoulder before spreading to the rest of its body; the Gene banshee was soon covered completely by the white flame and began to burn!


    "What is this? Stop it!" It screamed in its disembodied voice as it ran around the place in pain. It even transformed to its original form in hopes of using the slimy liquid on its body that could eat Nexus energy to stop the flame. After all, every attack that a Nexulyte produced was fueled with Nexus energy.


    But it soon realized that it was pointless. Its true form was just as disgusting as the ones that Vladimir and his group had encountered back then, just that this one was several times bigger; it was as big as the abyss worm!


    It kept screaming for a long time as it switched between forms of various creatures that it had devoured, changing size and shape in desperation but it was all pointless as the white flame was unquenchable.


    Everything went silent after a few minutes. The Gene banshee had burnt to a crisp, and even its ashes weren''t spared.


    The only thing left on the ground after the white flame disappeared was the small Nexus crystal which was the reason it had been brought by the priestess.


    "The last one, take it, and let''s amend history!"

 Chapter 140 - 140: Partial Lord rank reached

    Ivan stared at the crystal in his hand before turning to look at the priestess who was smiling at him; his expression was cold, and his eyes dull.


    "Don''t worry about me playing any tricks on you while you absorb it; you can''t be any safer than you are here; I have no use for using tricks anyway," She uttered calmly when she noticed Ivan''s hesitant and suspicious look.


    The pupils in her eyes danced around as if reacting to her words.


    Ivan''s expression didn''t change but he sat down cross-legged right after. What she said was true, she had no need to sneak up on him or do anything funny while he refined Nexus energy into AP; he might as well advance to the next rank under her


    watch since no monster would bother him.


    The red energy contained within the crystal soon started to rise and enter Ivan''s body at a fast pace, his AP immediately began to rise.


    +0.01 AP


    +0.01 AP


    +0.01 AP


    ¡­.


    Ten minutes passed swiftly as Ivan absorbed all of the energy within the crystal.


    BOOM!


    A small explosion took place inside his body at this moment, the energy inside the Nexus crystal had been completely drained and had now become a transparent crystal.


    A powerful shockwave rocked Ivan''s Nexus chamber and spread outside his body, flying in all directions.


    Ivan''s eyes opened, and his pupils flashed with a red streak of light that looked like passing lightning; he felt himself and the surroundings change.


    His Nexus chamber had increased in size again, and his energy had become dozens of times more potent than before; he felt his strength soar to a new height and filled him with the feeling of invincibility.


    Ivan called in his profile in his mind, and it immediately appeared; he carefully read through the changes on his profile.


    NAME: Ivan Von Charles


    Talent Group: Primal Talent type: Wisher Talent: Wish card


    Talent lv: SS AP: 50.23% Rank: TRUE LORD


    ...


    Ivan''s eyebrows eased as a small smile unknowingly crept up his face.


    He had finally reached the True Lord rank, now he could be considered a top powerhouse in the world of Nexulytes.


    But that wasn''t what Ivan was most concerned about; his eyes slowly moved and locked on the figure of the priestess in the distance.


    After reaching the True Lord rank, Ivan could feel that his strength was more than five times what he used to be; it shouldn''t be difficult to get rid of this one-eyed girl now.


    "Splendid! You finally reached a new level; you''re now fully ready to commence the ritual; now, let''s do the needful," the priestess clapped her hands and exclaimed happily like a little girl.


    But Ivan''s next words caused her to go silent and her face turned serious.


    "What about we do something else?"


    The girl stared at Ivan with confusion while tilting her head to the side.


    "Something like what? Don''t tell me you don''t want to keep the original agreement anymore. I detest people who go back on their words the most" she responded with a hint of threatening in her voice. S~ea??h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Ivan wasn''t faced by her tone nor moved by her words. A card appeared in his hand, and he suddenly finished into a flicker of white and black light.


    The priestess saw this and shook her head, a hint of sadness appearing in her one eye.


    "I knew that your Vons were the stubborn type, to think I expected you to be different," She said with a sad tone before taking a step forward.


    Peng!


    Immediately, space froze in place as time stopped flowing.


    Ivan could be seen just a few steps away from the priestess, frozen in place as well; his hand was slightly raised, and the card was in the process of bursting into light particles.


    The pupils in the eye of the girl jumped crazily in her large iris, it was as if they were going to burst out at any moment.


    Tap! Tap! Tap!


    She took slow steps toward Ivan and soon reached him. After a while, she stretched forth her right arm and covered Ivan''s face with her palm, her fingers locked around his face.


    Time started flowing again at this moment and Ivan''s eyes immediately widened at the realization of what had happened.


    He wasn''t aware that time had stopped; he only saw the priestess suddenly vanish when he tried to attack her, and the next thing he saw was her fingers on his face; he wasn''t able to move a single step forward after she clutched his face.


    The priestess brought her face closer to Ivan''s and her lips moved next to his ear.


    "Why don''t you¡­take a long sleep and let me deal with everything else?" She whispered before suddenly dashing forward with Ivan''s face still clutched in her grasp.


    Ivan suddenly felt a strong wind against his back and his vision shifted before.


    BAM!!


    A mind-blowing pain assaulted his entire body as he was slammed into the blood wall by the priestess.


    His head immediately split open, and blood gushed out like a lava spurt; Ivan wasn''t able to react before he blanked out from the pain.


    "Sigh, just had to get the sacrifice bloodied; I hope my lord understands" the priestess sighed before tossing Ivan''s body toward the statue of the angel that was dozens of meters away.


    His body flew in the air and left a long trail of blood in the air before crashing into the hard ground, his body bounced a few times and only came to a stop right at the foot of the statue.


    The girl didn''t turn to look at the sight immediately as she kept admiring the large crack that had appeared on the blood wall after she smashed it with Ivan, a large net of blood painted the crack.


    "At least he didn''t explode into meat paste; he''s quite resilient," she mumbled before turning around in the direction of Ivan and the statue, only for her eye to flash with surprise.


    "Ah, I forgot that there''s still ''That'' to deal with; it was surprising that he would go down so easily." The girl nodded as if she had expected this.


    Standing opposite her in front of the statue was a bloodied Ivan, who was standing like a zombie. His protective body suit was covered in blood, and blood was still gushing out from the back of his head.


    He looked just the same way as when the one-eyed monster had knocked all of them unconscious during their test at the tower; Ivan was unconscious as well when he killed the monster at that time.


    His white hair was drenched in blood and covered his face so the priestess was unable to see his expression, not that she cared though.


    She watched as two cards appeared in both of Ivan''s hands and burst into light particles.


    One changed into a green light that covered Ivan''s body and slowly melted into his body.


    Immediately after the green light entered Ivan''s body, the blood gushing out from the back of his head stopped and his injuries closed up.


    The green light particles were healing essence!


    As for the other card, it turned into particles of silver light that stuck to Ivan''s body. Unlike the green light, this silver light didn''t enter his body and instead remained on the surface of his skin.


    Making him look like he had many silver insects walking around his body.


    "Should be¡­about now?" The girl placed a finger on her lower lip and muttered softly.


    Immediately after her voice fell, Ivan disappeared from where he was standing and appeared in front of her with his fist flying at her face.


    A grin formed on the girl''s face, Ivan''s punch passed through her face the next second; it was an afterimage!


    Ivan''s head suddenly turned to a part of the hall, there, the girl could be seen floating a few centimeters above the ground. A pair of black bird wings had appeared on her back at some point.


    "You aren''t the only one with a second form." She smiled, and the two of them vanished the next second.


    BOOM!


    A powerful shockwave erupted as the ground collapsed, pieces of solidified blood walls flew into the air like rain, and a crater that was twenty meters wide appeared on the ground.


    Ivan and the priestess could be seen in the center of the crater with their fists joined together, they had destroyed the place with the shockwave from their clash!


    "It''s not enough," The girl muttered before suddenly disappearing and appearing behind Ivan; a short pitch-black staff had unknowingly appeared in her hand.


    Ivan quickly turned around to face her but he was a bit too slow.


    Swoosh!


    Bang!!


    The pitch-black staff flew through the air and smashed into Ivan''s chest; his body back instantly caved from the force, and his body was sent flying.


    The priestess wasn''t done yet, she shot toward his body like a bullet.


    Bang! Bang! Bang!


    One hit after another landed on Ivan''s body as the girl smashed him around the place like a tennis ball, only stopping when she was sure that she had really knocked him out for good.


    She grabbed him by the hair while holding her bloodied staff with her other hand.


    "Now let''s start the ritual"

 Chapter 141 - 141: Teenager, A dream?

    The priestess dragged Ivan''s body and threw him at the foot of the statue.


    She returned her staff to where it had appeared, and her wings also disappeared back into her body; she placed both palms together and began to mutter chants under her breath.


    Peng!


    With a burst of soft light, a large glowing sigil appeared on the ground around Ivan and the statue. The sigil had two points, Ivan and the statue were on both points.


    She continued her chant even after the sigil appeared, soon, layers upon layers of runes began to appear on the surface of the statue while black tattoos crept up from the sigil on the ground and entered Ivan''s body before spreading over his skin; his body was soon covered completely by these tattoos.


    After the tattoos and the runes appeared on Ivan and the statue, they began to stretch out like limbs in each other''s direction.


    The runes on the body of the statue and the tattoos on Ivan''s body stretched and connected in mid-air.


    Woom!!


    A low sound rang out immediately after the two made contact, a mysterious black energy began to rise from Ivan''s body and enter the body of the statue through the tattoos and the runes.


    Slowly but noticeably, the stone body of the statue began to change.


    Starting from its wings, they started to change from their rock-like form to snow-white feathers.


    The speed was very slow but apparent.


    "Yes! Yes! Finally, the world will be saved by the only one worthy!" The priestess pressed her hands together like a devoted worshiper as she screamed at the top of her voice with an excited look on her face.


    She suddenly paused and turned to look at the projections that displayed the situation of Ivan''s cohorts, they were still being held in place by her champions.


    "Kill them!" She said in a low tone.


    But nothing happened, none of her champions reacted to her command.


    The single eye of the priestess narrowed when this happened; she was about to issue another command when she suddenly felt a presence, and her head swiftly turned to look up.


    There, she saw the reason why her champions, who had been under her command for years, were refusing to listen to her orders.


    Sitting on the 200-meter-tall blood wall of the labyrinth and the red mist just a few meters above his head was a teenager with similar features to Ivan, just that his hair was of a different color and his eyes were purple. S~ea??h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Oh, it''s another of the Vons. Didn''t think I would see any of you so quickly." The priestess voiced out with a small laugh that was mixed with nervousness as she stared at the teenager.


    The latter glanced bad at her before moving his eyes to Ivan, he stared at him for a few seconds before shifting his gaze to the projections.


    "You promised to let his friends go if he helped, why do you want to kill them right after he''s unconscious? Thought you detested those who go back on their words?" The purple-eyed teenager''s tone was soft, his voice reaching every part of the labyrinth.


    The body of the priestess trembled slightly.


    She knew that she wasn''t a match for the teenager so she didn''t dare to argue with him and could only stay silent.


    "A monster of equal strength with a True Supreme, picking on those weaker than you should be very fun," The teenager added after the priestess didn''t respond to his previous words.


    "It can''t be that you''re going to interfere, right?" Her head snapped straight and she immediately got into a defensive stance while moving in front of the statue.


    The teenager stayed down at her expressionlessly.


    "You should be glad that ''She'' didn''t come here personally and no¡­I don''t plan to interfere; he can take care of things himself," he said as his eyes landed on the unconscious Ivan.


    The eyes of the priestess showed confusion at the words of the teenager, her nervousness increasing as she continued to lock her eyes on him.


    While the two continued to stare at each other, in another space¡­or state.


    ...


    "..An!"


    "..N!"


    "IVAN!"


    A loud angry voice thundered, followed by the bang of someone hitting a table violently rang in Ivan''s ears.


    Immediately waking up his drowsy consciousness.


    Ivan sprang to his feet with a jolt as his eyes swept around the place with great vigilance; a strong sense of danger filled his mind, but he was unable to recall what had made him feel in such a way.


    Clang! Clang!


    A chair and a study desk were knocked to the ground because of Ivan''s sudden movement, his eyes showed great confusion the next moment after he calmed down and realized where he was.


    He wasn''t in some dangerous place or anything of such, rather, he was inside a classroom. Dozens of students his age stared at him with weird eyes as if he had gone crazy, while in front of the classroom was a big-bellied man who seemed to be the teacher of the class.


    He was glaring angrily at Ivan with both palms placed on the desk in front of him.


    Ivan was really confused at the change of events. Although he wasn''t able to remember what had caused him to react so desperately or filled him with a sense of urgency, he was able to recall a few things such as his friends, the dreamscape, and his time at the training tower.


    "Hmm?" Ivan''s eyes flashed, the memories he just recalled were turning blurry and he could barely recall any of the things he just thought about. Soon, new memories soon appeared in his mind as if they had always been there.


    "Gate? Dreamscape? Was it all a dream?" Ivan mumbled to himself, temporarily forgetting the situation he was in.


    As for the new memories that had formed in his mind and seemed to be there all along¡­


    "Mr Ivan, I presume you have a reasonable explanation for this?!"


    The angry voice of the big-bellied teacher woke Ivan from his thinking; he turned to look up.


    The face of the man was red and his face trembled from anger. Ivan''s classmates were also looking at him with various expressions. Contempt, ridicule, pity, various gazes were thrown at him.


    Ivan ignored all of this for the time being and faced the teacher.


    "I''m sorry, Mr. Dredo, I slept off," Ivan voiced out a word of apology; he was surprised that he even knew the teacher''s name.


    The teacher shook even more after hearing Ivan''s words of apology, it looked like those words had pissed him off instead.


    "Not only did you fail your Ki examination, you even dared to sleep off in my class; I can see you have no regard for your future and intend to turn into a scoundrel for society instead of trying to study hard to get a good life as an ordinary person, off to the principal''s office!" Teacher Dredo barked furiously, spit flying out of his mouth.


    "Just look at that, truly a disgrace to us normal people"


    "It''s embarrassing enough that we have to be in the same class as someone who dared to take the Ki examination but failed, but he even dares to sleep off; does he think he''s better than us because he took the examination?"


    "He''s the reason why Ki users have no regard for ordinary people"


    "He should just get kicked out, I hate seeing his face!"


    "Don''t worry, we''ll teach him a lesson later"


    Ivan could hear the whispers of his fellow classmates as he walked to the door of the classroom which was in front.


    ''Seems like I''m not welcome here'' Ivan thought to himself as he left the class.


    Later that day, Ivan''s parents had come to get him after receiving a call from the principal of the school.


    ''Parents¡­why does this concept feel strange?'' Ivan mulled his thoughts as he stared at the middle-aged couple sitting in front of the car that he was riding in.


    A serious-faced man who looked like he was in his forties with a neat beard and short brown hair controlled the car in silence while a beautiful woman with long white hair like Ivan''s sat next to him in front and mumbled soft words to the man in an attempt to calm him down.


    For all Ivan had concluded, this serious-faced man was his father, and this beautiful woman was his mother.


    For some reason, he felt like he had seen his mother before¡­somewhere else and she had looked different.


    ''Maybe it was in that strange dream that I had in class?'' He wasn''t sure either, as he could barely remember anything about the dream; everything had flown out of his mind immediately after he remembered his new memories.


    "We''re home,"


    His mother''s gentle voice announced as the car came to a stop. Ivan was pulled out of his thoughts as he realized that they had arrived inside a huge compound.


    His father silently opened the door of the car and came out before walking off while his mother stared at him worriedly from her seat.


    " Are you ok, honey? You''ve been spacing out a lot recently; you were even barely focused during the meeting with the principal," she asked, her tone filled with a familiar yet unfamiliar love and concern.


    Ivan stared for a while with his mouth open before responding softly that he was fine.


    His mother didn''t nag him anymore and came down before going to open the door for him even though he could open it himself.


    Ivan came out and saw a huge, magnificent house that looked like it had popped out of a sci-fi movie. His father stood in front of the metallic black door without any handle or frame to hold onto.


    A static voice rang out at this moment.


    [Identity verified, homeowner. Welcome, defense protocols turning off]


    The static voice announced before the black door made clanging sounds before lifting.


    Right behind the door was a young, beautiful girl who looked so much like his mother. She had long white hair and blue eyes, just like Ivan but was sitting in a wheelchair; she was crippled.


    But her condition didn''t stop her from flashing the brightest smile immediately after her blue eyes landed on Ivan.


    "Welcome home, Junior brother. Did you miss me?"

 Chapter 142 - 142: A dream?: family

    Currently, Ivan was lying on a big bed with white clean sheets inside ''his'' room. He was gazing at the ceiling that had an animated image of a solar system with multiple planets revolving around a bright sun and countless tiny sparkling stars in the background.


    Many thoughts were flowing through his mind at this moment.


    After returning from school with his parents and a short moment with his elder sister, Ivan left for his room to rest and organize his thoughts.


    His room was a wide spacious room with many cool advanced gadgets, a private bathroom and changing room, and even an errand robot and a gaming capsule.


    Apparently, Ivan''s family was quite well off.


    The current earth he was in was one that had undergone years of evolution and had advanced greatly in technology, they now even explored outside the planet and conquered other solar systems for resources.


    This was where Ki energy came in.


    Ki energy was something attributed to people known as warriors, they were the ones who were responsible for exploring the galaxy and protecting the planet from foreign invaders.


    His father turned out to be one of these people.


    This earth wasn''t like the one in his dream that was on the verge of decline; it was instead flourishing with life, and there were even many people living on other conquered planets with alien beings.


    Everyone wanted to be a warrior and explore the galaxy as not only were warriors extremely powerful and important to the world government, they enjoyed a lot of privileges that normal humans would not start to imagine; a single warrior was equivalent to a thousand ordinary citizens in the eyes of the world government and they were given priorities in everything.


    But the success rate of becoming one was very low; it was so low that out of the billions of people who populated the Earth, only 20 percent were warriors.


    This meant that only 1 in every one million people would become warriors. sea??h th§× NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    This was the situation with Ivan. His father had taken him to awaken but he had failed the test to become a warrior.


    This had obviously come as a great disappointment to his father, who had high hopes for him; after all, it was known that having parents who were warriors would increase the chance of one succeeding their awakening.


    But it appeared that Ivan had failed to take this part of his father''s gene.


    Having come to terms that his son had no hopes of being a warrior, his father had optioned to let him continue living as a normal person and send him to school so he could at least get a high position after graduating from school.


    But he had been called for a meeting with the principal and told how Ivan disregarded the students and teachers, and even slept during classes.


    "Was I always such a jerk?" Ivan mumbled to himself, unable to believe his memories where he saw himself disobeying teachers and acting rudely to classmates.


    [Homeowner Nora is waiting for you outside]


    The static voice of the home supervisor rang in Ivan''s ears, pulling him from his thoughts.


    The home supervisor was an AI that acted like a butler in the house and controlled most of the robots to do chores, any of the family members were able to command it.


    And Nora was the name of Ivan''s white-haired elder sister.


    She was four years older than him and had been crippled due to an accident that happened when they were young. Ivan remembered that the incident had been his fault but he could not recall what had happened.


    Ivan got up from his bed in his casual clothes and walked to the door. He placed his palm on it, and a light beep sound rang out as the door scanned his palm before opening.


    Right outside the door was the beautiful young girl sitting in a wheelchair; she wore a long dress and a sweatshirt made from wool. She beamed a smile at Ivan immediately after seeing him.


    "Bother, Mother and I have made dinner; come eat," she said with a warm tone.


    Ivan stared at her smiling face; seeing the sincere feelings in her eyes filled him with so many rioting emotions that he was unable to speak; he only came back to his senses when he felt a wet sensation on his face; Nora''s voice rang out at the same time.


    "Why are you crying, did I do something wrong?" She panicked while frantically waving her arms in the air, unsure of what to do.


    Ivan touched his cheeks, he realized that tears had started to come out of his eyes without him knowing.


    ''Just how messed up are my emotions? What did I even dream about? Doesn''t matter, I''m awake now'' Ivan thought to himself as his gaze moved back to his panicking elder sister.


    He rushed through his memories and realized how unfriendly he had been to her in the past, especially since she was a cripple; he would ignore her in public and pretend not to know her.


    He would also play pranks on her like hiding her wheelchair or framing her, he would always be caught by the home supervisor who would report to their parents but Ivan would not change; what baffled him was how his sister would still continue to love and tolerate him even after everything he did, she would always say that they only had each other in this world so she could not stay angry at him.


    Remembering this made the tears run faster from his eyes and began to drip down, but a bright smile formed on his lips amidst the tears.


    "No, you didn''t do anything wrong. I''m sorry¡­for everything"


    Ivan knelt down to her level and hugged her before whispering those words to her.


    Nora froze for a few seconds before hugging him back and began to cry like a baby as if a strange emotion hit her as well.


    Her brother finally accepted her!


    The two siblings cried for a few minutes in each other''s arms before separating, they wiped their faces and smiled at each other before going downstairs.


    Nora''s wheelchair was able to hover a few centimeters above solid surfaces so it was easy for her to use the stairs.


    They returned to the dining room and met their parents there, his father was serious as always and only glanced at them before turning his attention to his plate and started eating.


    His mother, on the other hand, smiled at them and invited them to come eat.


    They ate their meals in silence; the food was very tasty, and Ivan even complimented his mother and sister.


    Everyone in the dining was stunned by this action; the Ivan they knew would never compliment anyone no matter how hard they tried to impress him.


    They finished eating, and Ivan''s father asked his wife and daughter to excuse the men; they needed to talk.


    Ivan''s heart skipped a beat, but he remained seated; his mother gently patted his head before leaving, and his sister winked at him while taking the dishes away.


    Now, it was just the two of them left in the dining room.


    "What do you want me to do, Ivan?" His father started, his voice heavy with anger and exhaustion.


    Ivan didn''t say anything and continued to stare at the table.


    "Why, I just don''t understand. I do everything, everything for you. I even paid a lot to let you take the Ki examination, but not only did you embarrass me in front of my superiors and colleagues, but you still had to make me come to your school to get an earful from your principal. Do you know how humiliating that is to a warrior?


    What is your problem?! Your rude behavior, you go around causing trouble, you don''t have any plans of making a person out of yourself, you even make your mom worry all the time, just what do you want us to do?


    I''ve tried everything, everything in my power to try to make you something, but you keep ruining my plans with your behavior. Just how did you end up like this? We didn''t neglect you or ignore your attitude during your childhood; we were always there to guide and correct you; just where did things go wrong?


    If one day¡­I''m no longer here, who will protect your mom and your sister? Who will shield them from the¡­"


    His father paused when he realized that his words were getting too serious.


    "I''m sorry"


    A low whisper sounded from Ivan''s lips. His father stared at him for a few seconds, and he was surprised; this was the boy''s first time apologizing during a lecture; he would usually even argue or try to justify his actions.


    "Leave, go to your room" his father voiced out after a few seconds.


    Ivan quietly stood up and walked in the direction of the stairs, he paused just before he could take the first step.


    "I''m sorry for all the wrongs I''ve done, I''ll do better from now on"


    Ivan said without looking back before climbing up.


    His father continued to stare at the empty space where Ivan had been standing with wide eyes.


    In Ivan''s room, Ivan rested his back on the door with both eyes closed.


    "I''ll do better, I promise" Ivan mumbled repeatedly.

 Chapter 143 - 143: A dream?: Noras first time at school

    Back in the labyrinth, the priestess was still watching the teenager sitting high up on the wall with wariness. The latter, on the other hand, was attentively observing the changes between Ivan''s unconscious body and the statue of the angel.


    The tattoos and runes that connected the two and transferred the energies from Ivan to the statue seemed to grow thicker with each passing hour and were already half a meter thick by now.


    The statue''s body had reverted back to that of a normal living being just to its forehead.


    Half of its wings had fully reverted to fluffy white beautiful feathers that shone like the sunlight and fluttered softly, the skin of the angel''s forehead was smooth and pristine like that of a baby, and it had beautiful golden hair that had only reverted back to their original color while the rest was yet to change.


    The change was still ongoing and the statue was slowly turning into a real angel. As for Ivan, half of his body had lost all colors and became as pale as ashes and hard as a rock.


    "What sort of dream did you put him in?" The teenager voiced out after hours of silently observing.


    The priestess flinched the instant she heard him speak but quickly calmed down after realizing that he only asked a question and wasn''t intending to make a move.


    "I made him dream about his deepest desire that he always wanted but probably didn''t realize himself, something that his soul turned for but he refused to admit it. This is a form of payment for his sacrifice, living the way he always wanted"


    She explained with a nervous look.


    The teenager stared at her before looking back at Ivan, his eyes zoomed in on the teardrops running down the side of his face.


    "Then why is he crying? Shouldn''t he be happy to finally live the way he always wanted?" He asked.


    " That¡­I don''t know; I can''t tell what he''s dreaming about.," Thee priestess shifted uncomfortably.


    Neither of them said anything afterward and returned to monitoring Ivan and the statue.


    ¡­..


    Meanwhile, Ivan woke up the next day after a good night''s sleep; he felt this was the best sleep he had ever had.


    He quickly washed up before heading down.


    His father had already left very early while he was still asleep, he had work to attend to. Warriors were barely free to roam around unless they were retired or granted time off after coming back from an important mission.


    "Ivan, your sister will be starting school today. Your father finally managed to work out her admission, and she will be going to the analyst school that''s not far from yours; make sure to go pick her up after school," His mother informed him during breakfast.


    There have been different types of schools since the discovery of foreign life forms and since humans started to explore them. Analysts are trained scholars who focus on studying other planets, their behaviors, and their characteristics.


    It was a rather well-paying job and didn''t require much labor; one only needed to be insanely intelligent and smart. Nora just happened to meet these requirements.


    "Yes, brother, remember to come over after you close from school." Nora smiled at him; she looked incredibly beautiful in her long white skirt and blue blouse with a blazer; this was the uniform of her school.


    "Sure" Ivan smiled back while stuffing his mouth with food.


    They were both taken to their respectful schools after eating; their mother dropped Ivan in front of his school before taking Nora to hers; she also had to go to work after.


    Ivan entered his school compound and instantly attracted the eyes of almost everyone, they all had hostile looks as they looked at him.


    "They must really hate my guts" Ivan mumbled as he walked through casually, not bothered by whatever they thought of him.


    Time flew by quickly as Ivan went through one lesson after the other; he found everything boring and almost ended up falling asleep but managed to pull through because Mr. Dredo was constantly watching him.


    School hours were finally over, and it was finally time to leave; Ivan could not be happier; he packed his things and quickly left the classroom.


    He heard some of his classmates saying that they wanted to teach him a lesson, but he had no intention of playing with them; going to get his sister was more important.


    The analyst school was only a few hundred meters away from his school and it didn''t take long for Ivan to walk over.


    On getting there, he saw a scene that made his eyes narrow.


    In front of the analyst school, a group of young boys and girls surrounded his sister and made fun of her. Some of them even pushed her wheelchair at times while laughing.


    Ivan saw his sister putting on a fake smile as she tried to play along with them; she was trying not to show that she was scared, as that would make her bullies feel more powerful.


    Ivan immediately quickened his steps and dashed toward them, his eyes turning cold.


    Just before he could reach them, one of the girls pushed Nora hard, and she ended up falling off her wheelchair and landing heavily on the ground.


    A pained scream escaped Nora''s lips, she immediately got light scratches on her hands.


    Ivan''s heart immediately went cold at the sight of this and killing intent spilled out of his eyes.


    "Haha, my bad. Sorry, my hands slipped; you don''t mind, right?"


    The girl who just pushed Nora looked at her scornfully while covering her giggle with her fingers.


    Swoosh!!. S§×arch* The N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    She had barely finished her words when a figure suddenly appeared in front of her like a ghost and huge knuckles covered her vision.


    "Ehh?!"


    BAM!


    She only had a moment to express her surprise before the fist smashed into her face ruthlessly.


    Ivan''s punch sank into the girl''s face, her nose immediately cracked and her body was sent flying backward like a broken doll.


    Gasp!


    Everyone was shocked by what just happened, they all stared at Ivan with wide eyes before turning to look at the girl he had punched.


    She was now lying on the ground unconscious and her face was bloodied because of the blood from her nose.


    Nora sat up and looked at Ivan''s back, she didn''t know when he arrived.


    "Brother?" She called out softly, but Ivan didn''t turn immediately; he kept staring at the young boys and girls with his fingers clenched.


    "You! How dare you hit my sister?" A girl who looked similar to the girl whom Ivan punched pointed a finger at Ivan and shouted angrily.


    His head moved in her direction, she flinched and immediately took a step back in fright.


    Only then did Ivan turn around and attend to Nora.


    She squatted and gently held her hands before helping her back into her wheelchair.


    "Are you all right?" He asked with concern.


    Nora nodded.


    " I''m fine, it wasn''t serious¡­you shouldn''t have hit her," Nora muttered as she stared at the unconscious girl in the distance; she was secretly shocked.


    Was her brother always so strong?


    "She deserved it for laying her hands on you first," Ivan said dismissively.


    He stood up and was about to push Nora''s wheelchair away when the other youngsters stopped him.


    "Who do you think you are? Coming here and ruining our fun? You even hurt someone and you think you can leave?"


    A young man with striking red hair sneered while rubbing his knuckles.


    They had been stunned by Ivan''s sudden appearance and aggressiveness, which had caused them to become mute for a while; they only came to their senses when the siblings were about to leave.


    Even though Ivan was strong, he was only one person; there was no chance that he could take all of them unless he was a warrior, which was not the case as no warrior would be wearing a normal school uniform.


    Ivan paused his steps and looked at the young man with red hair. He was previously planning not to overdo it since it might get his parents involved but the young man''s words made something inside him crack.


    "What did you say?" Ivan gave him a death stare and asked coldly.


    The boy was stunned by Ivan''s expression but shook it off as Ivan trying to scare them away.


    "I said what I said, what are you going to do about it?"


    He chuckled.


    "So¡­you think my sister is a way of having fun?" Ivan asked again.


    "Brother, don''t bother with them. Let''s just go" Nora touched Ivan''s hand and whispered to him. She could feel that Ivan was becoming strange, and his attitude was turning very unfamiliar; well, he had been acting unfamiliar since he came back from school yesterday, but this time was different.


    She gave her the feeling of a warrior.


    "Yes, that''s right! She''s a cripple, after all; what else will she be good for other than letting us have fun?" The red-haired young man snickered, but his smile froze in his face the very next instant as Ivan suddenly vanished from his sight.


    Bang!


    Before he could react, Ivan appeared in front of him and landed a solid kick on the side of his face.


    The boy''s skull immediately cracked and blood gushed out of his face as he was blown to the side by the kick.


    Everyone present was left in a stupor once more; even Nora could not help but open her mouth in shock.


    ''Fast, brother is too fast and ruthless!''

 Chapter 144 - 144: A dream?: Fight

    Ivan attacked the youngsters one after the other, landing kicks and punches on their bodies and causing them to scream in pain while falling to the ground.


    His speed was too fast for the young people to follow. It wasn''t excessive like some superhuman or anything since Ivan was just a normal person like them and not a warrior but he moved like a professional fighter who had gone through years of training.


    His movements were swift and agile; the young boys and girls were only able to follow him with their eyes, but their bodies could not keep up with his speed as Ivan moved from one person to another.


    Soon, all of them were lying on the ground and trembling in pain; it was as if an adult had rampaged amid kids.


    A few distance away, other students of the analyst school had gathered and were watching the scene of Ivan beating up all the youngsters.


    They whispered to one another in hushed voices while pointing at Ivan who was standing in the middle of the young people.


    Nora stared at the scene with wide eyes, a look of worry in her eyes as she covered her mouth with her slender fingers.


    This was definitely going to get them in trouble.


    Ivan stared at his hands in surprise, his surprise was different from the others. For all he knew, he had never gotten any fighting training or done any exercises before, but for some reason, all of these movements seemed so natural to him, as if he had trained them countless times.


    He even had a strong urge to end these people, which was very strange for a person his age, It was a good thing that he had managed to hold back.


    "Brother, you shouldn''t have¡­" Nora said from behind him but suddenly stopped; she shook her head before continuing, "Come, let''s leave quickly!" She called out in a tone of urgency.


    She moved her wheelchair forward and grabbed Ivan''s hand. She was about to pull him so they could leave when another group of people arrived.


    "Hold it!"


    A loud masculine voice rang in the air from behind the surrounding students of the analyst school, the siblings turned to look when they heard the voice.


    The students moved apart and created an opening through which a group of four people walked out.


    Three of them were adults in white uniforms and wore strange gears on their fingers and chests; these gears looked like tiny components of robots.


    The last person was a young man around their age, he had long black hair that reached his lower back and was wearing a red hoodie and black baggy pants; he looked like someone from a rather wealthy family.


    The eyes of the youth in the red hoodie narrowed when he saw one of the youngsters lying on the ground and shaking from pain.


    "What happened here?"


    One of the adults asked as he took a few steps toward the group Ivan had beaten up to examine them.


    Nora looked at them with fear in her eyes.


    "Oh no!" She exclaimed in a low tone.


    These people were warriors! Except for the young man with long black hair, she didn''t know who he was but he must be someone very important to be escorted by three warriors.


    Ivan had also realized this as well, his expression was serious as he looked at them; it was impossible to avoid trouble now that warriors were involved.


    Ivan looked to the side and saw that the young man who came with the warriors was squatting beside one of the youngsters he had beaten up.


    "Who did this to you!" The youth asked the boy and the latter pointed his trembling finger at Ivan while muttering something through gritted teeth.


    The youth looked at Ivan with a cold look in his eyes as he stood up.


    " How dare you hit my little brother?" His voice was filled with hostility as he questioned Ivan.


    Ivan wanted to retort but was stopped by Nora, who pulled on his fingers. He looked at her, and the latter shook her head at him before moving in front of him with her wheelchair.


    " I''m very sorry, it was a misunderstanding. Your brother and his friends were teasing me, and my little brother didn''t like it, so they got into a fight; it was all because of me; please forgive him," she said while lowering her head so that her forehead almost touched her knees.


    She was trying to fulfill her role as an elder sister and protect Ivan; he had already protected her once, but she couldn''t let it happen a second time.


    The youth stared at Nora expressionlessly, not moved by her words of apology even a bit.


    "Is it a misunderstanding? Look how much pain he put my brother and his friends in, how can this be a misunderstanding?" He sneered with a ferocious glint in his eyes as he took a step forward.


    A large hand suddenly landed on his shoulder, it was one of the warriors. It was a middle-aged man with red hair and a red beard; he had sharp red eyes and a small scar on his forehead.


    The man shook his head at the youth before looking at Ivan.


    "Kid, you did all of this?"


    Ivan nodded, he wasn''t going to deny it since it was meaningless with all the witnesses around.


    The warriors stared at each other with strange looks in their eyes before turning back to Ivan.


    "Are you a warrior? Did you awaken your Ki?" The red-haired man asked again, and Ivan shook his head before saying that he failed the awakening examination.


    A look of disappointment and pity flashed in the eyes of the man as he let out a sigh. He didn''t know if Ivan had received special training or not, but for him to be able to take out so many people of his age without the aid of Ki, meant that he was a prodigy; it was a pity that he failed the awakening examination.


    "It''s all right; we''ve noticed that you didn''t do any real damage to them and only caused them light wounds. It shouldn''t be difficult to resolve it; apologies to them, and we''ll all be on our way," the warrior who had checked the conditions of the group lying on the ground stood up and said.


    "Sir!" The youth in the red hoodie shouted with unwillingness but immediately shut his mouth when the red-haired warrior glared at him.


    "Silence, you already awakened your Ki and will soon become a warrior. Do you wish to throw hands with an ordinary person who''s willing to acknowledge their mistakes?" The man barked at the youth.


    The latter gritted his teeth, clearly unwilling to let go but there was nothing he could do.


    The warriors shook their heads before turning to Ivan and waiting for him to apologize, Nora also let out a sigh of relief and turned to Ivan as well; at least they wouldn''t have to disturb their father if this ended like this.


    " No, they were wrong and deserve what happened to them, I won''t apologize"


    Contrary to everyone''s expectations, Ivan opened his mouth and said strongly.


    Everyone was stunned by his words, they stared at Ivan as if he was insane.


    "Kid, we are giving you a way out.


    One of the kids you beat up had a brother who''s a warrior, although normal people are protected by state law so warriors don''t abuse their superiority over them, offending a warrior isn''t something a normal people should do" The red-haired warrior said with a serious tone in hopes to make Ivan change his decision but the latter was adamant and stood on his words that he would not apologize because he did nothing wrong.


    "Ivan, just apologize; it won''t cost anything, and we can just end everything." Nora pulled Ivan and whispered to him.


    Ivan looked back at her and smiled.


    "It''s all right, they bullied you first and deserved what I did to them"


    Nora''s eyes trembled and tears immediately gathered in her eyes. She didn''t know whether to be happy about the fact that her brother was strongly defending her or to be worried that he was getting himself into trouble. S§×arch* The nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Since he refuses to admit it, then it should be fine for me to get revenge for my brother, right?" the youth in a red hoodie shouted out from the side. He was internally glad that Ivan was refusing to apologize, this was giving him a chance to vent his fury.


    The warriors had a complicated look on their faces, Ivan''s refusal to apologize was making this difficult for them.


    "Well, he''s still just an ordinary person, and you''re a warrior; even as the weakest warrior, it isn''t appropriate to fight a normal person," The third warrior, who was a woman with short brown hair, said with a tired sigh.


    "This isn''t as a warrior, I''m facing him as the brother of the person he abused!" The youth argued.


    " You, do you dare to fight me?!"


    He suddenly turned to Ivan and shouted before the warriors could say anything else.


    Everyone now turned to look at Ivan; his next words would determine what would happen next, as not even warriors could interfere at this point anymore.


    The youth was a newly awakened warrior and was, to some extent, still a normal person; they would not stop the fight if Ivan accepted, as that would be them abusing their privilege.


    Ivan stared back at the youth with expressionless eyes; his lips slowly opened, and he said the words.


    "Do I look like I''m scared of you?"

 Chapter 145 - 145: A dream?: Beating a warrior

    The haired youth beamed with a smile when he heard Ivan''s response while the warriors sighed, this kid didn''t know what was good for him.


    "He said he isn''t afraid, then I can fight him, right?" The youth looked at the warriors and asked with eagerness.


    The warriors stared at each other before silently nodding their heads. Fighting was encouraged between the younger generations as this would awaken their competitive spirit, but that was usually between people of equal standing and strength.


    A warrior and a normal human was plain bullying!


    Immediately after getting the confirmation from the warriors, the youth dashed toward Ivan, his speed was so fast that he almost looked like a blur. Although he was a newly awakened warrior, he had still awakened his Ki regardless, and his body had been strengthened beyond that of a normal person.


    Ivan''s expression didn''t change as he watched the boy approach him; for some reason, he felt incredibly calm, as if he wasn''t facing a threatening opponent.


    The youth arrived in front of Ivan and immediately threw out his hand in a fist, Ivan threw his hand as well.


    Pah!!


    Both fists collided, and both parties stumbled back by several steps, with Ivan taking five more steps than the youth.


    A look of shock appeared on the faces of the warriors when they saw this, Ivan had actually traded blows with a warrior!


    Nora stared at Ivan with worried eyes. She wanted to ask him to stop, but she realized that he would not listen as long as he wasn''t in the wrong.


    Ivan stared at the youth calmly. He could feel pain in his right fist, but it didn''t show in his face; his pain tolerance was incredibly high for some reason, and this amount of pain was negligible.


    "I see you have some skills, no wonder you are so arrogant; I''ll make sure to beat that arrogance out of you today!" The youth shouted before sprinting toward Ivan again.


    "You talk too much," Ivan mumbled before dashing forward as well.


    Both of them quickly reduced the gap between them to three meters and the youth suddenly jumped, his right leg stretched out as he continued toward Ivan with a flying kick.


    Nora closed her eyes in horror; the gap was too small, and she thought that Ivan would be unable to dodge; she was unable to watch the scene of her brother getting hurt, but her ears readied to hear his scream so she could rush up to apologize in his place.


    But contrary to her expectations, Ivan''s scream didn''t come; instead, it was the loud groan of the youth that entered her eyes. She opened her eyes and was stunned to see that the youth was lying on the ground with his face glued to the hard ground and blood flowing from his nose.


    A few moments ago, when the youth jumped at Ivan with the flying kick, the latter had calmly sidestepped to the side before grabbing the leg of the youth and using the momentum from his jump to turn him in midair and slam him into the ground.


    Ivan released his leg and took a step back to analyze the situation and prepare for the youth''s next attack.


    The youth quickly stood up after recovering from the pain that had blinded him for a split second.


    Aside from the pain from getting slammed into the ground, he felt the stinging burn of embarrassment and shame on his face from the eyes of the onlookers; he was the warrior here but he was the one eating dirt.


    His eyes quickly scanned the place and landed on Ivan, he rushed toward him again.


    "You bastard!" He roared as he ran toward Ivan.


    Ivan welcomed him calmly, he didn''t take a single step from where he was.


    "This kid isn''t bad, he looks like he has undergone years of training or months of special training, but his physique doesn''t seem like one," The red-haired warrior said with a serious expression on his face.


    "He might be a natural born fighter; even without awakening Ki, he might be able to become a warrior if injected with an awakening fluid," The woman amongst them said.


    " What do you think we should do then? We can''t such talent go to waste"


    " Let''s keep watching first"


    Meanwhile, Ivan and the youth exchanged dozens of blows. The sounds of their clash were deafening, and the speed of their hands was beyond what an average person could compare to.


    Nora stared at this with wide eyes, unable to believe that this was her brother who was never serious with anything and only knew how to play tricks and cause trouble.


    " Was he pretending the whole time?" She couldn''t help but wonder. The current Ivan, who was going toe-to-toe against a warrior, was very different from the one in her memories; he was almost like another person!


    Ivan''s face was serious and his eyes were calm as he moved his hands, slapping and punching out as he knocked away or clashed with the youth''s attacks.


    His hands felt pain whenever they clashed with the fists of the youth who had his body already enhanced but he didn''t let out a single sound and continued to move with speed.


    The latter had an ugly expression on his face as he cursed nonstop, he was very embarrassed and furious the longer the fight lasted.


    He could tell that Ivan was now lying about being an ordinary person because his movements were a bit slower than his, but the white-haired bastard was someone able to keep up with every one of his movements by taking advantage of the youth''s excessive movements and lack of control over his strength.


    After fighting for so many minutes, Ivan was getting bored and wanted to end things.


    At this moment, the youth''s face had become twisted from rage, and he suddenly threw a punch at Ivan''s face while his knee went for the side of Ivan''s waist.


    Ivan suddenly moved at this moment, his neck tilted and his legs moved. He backed the youth and allowed his punch to pass the top of his shoulder while Ivan''s back slammed into the front of the youth''s body, he proceeded to grab the arm that was stretched above his shoulder before throwing the youth''s foot with the back of his leg.


    The youth''s eyes widened as he suddenly found himself flying in the air over Ivan''s body and his vision rotating.


    BAM!


    The next thing was a wave of pain that rushed through his body as he was slammed into the ground heavily, his ribs almost cracking.


    "Gah!"


    The youth let out a pained scream as saliva flew out from his mouth; he lay on the ground and curled his body in pain.


    "Stop!"


    The voice of the red-haired warrior sounded at this moment as he walked over.


    He took a short glance at Ivan before checking on the youth on the ground, he stood up after a while and sighed.


    "Nothing aside from his confidence has been damaged, luckily." He said and suddenly looked at Ivan with sharp eyes.


    "You are coming with me, kid; I need to talk to you," he said strongly. S§×arch* The n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "No, wait! Please don''t take my brother, he didn''t do anything wrong, it was all my fault" Nora''s panicking voice rang out from the side as she rushed over in her wheelchair, her face filled with nothing but worry.


    She reached them and positioned herself between the man and Ivan as she looked at him with seriousness as if ready to shoulder all the blame.


    The warrior stared at Nora in surprise for a while before suddenly letting out a laugh, he laughed for a few seconds before calming down and patting Nora''s hair gently.


    "It''s all right little girl, nothing will happen to your brother. He''s not in trouble or anything; I actually wanted to talk to him about an opportunity," He said with a smile.


    "Opportunity?" Nora repeated as she and Ivan looked at the man for an explanation.


    "Yes, an opportunity. Ever heard of the awakening fluid?"


    The man wasn''t the one who replied, it was the woman amongst them as she approached with their other colleague while carrying the youth like a sack of potatoes.


    Ivan frowned in confusion when he heard the awakening fluid, but Nora''s eyes widened; she seemed to be aware of what it was.


    "This¡­we''ll have to inform our parents first" Nora hesitated for a few seconds before saying.


    "That''s fine too, where are your parents? Let''s go to them now; the sooner, the better," the red-haired man said in high spirits.


    "That¡­our father is a warrior and left very early; he won''t be back in a few days," Nora replied.


    The eyes of the three warriors lit up when they heard this. So, their father was a warrior, which might explain Ivan''s talent, although partially.


    "Then that''s even better, tell me his name," the red-haired man demanded, and Nora told him their father''s name.


    The man raised his wrist and touched the gear in it; he tapped a few times, and a voice suddenly sounded from the gear that looked like a bracelet.


    "Hello sir, any orders?" A male voice sounded from the other side.


    "Get me in line with¡­warrior Von"

 Chapter 146 - 146: A dream?: A genius

    In a conference room with a lot of advanced equipment and gadgets attached to the walls and the ceiling, a large transparent square-shaped table was placed in the center, and sitting on opposite sides of the table were Ivan''s father and the red-haired warrior who had chatted with Ivan and Nora previously.


    The man had a slight smile on his face as he tapped on his side of the table before flickering it gently with his finger, something moved within the table and shot toward Ivan''s father''s side before stopping right in front of him.


    Ivan''s father stared at the smiling man with a serious look on his face before looking down; his eyes flashed when he saw what was on the table; it was a sort of holographic file with Ivan''s details on it; the file rapidly moved and changed contents at a fast speed.


    It was showing information about Ivan, from the moment he was born till this very second.


    The eyes of Ivan''s father moved with speed and he was able to read everything on the files before it flew back to the man''s side.


    "What is the meaning of this, sir?" Ivan''s father asked; his tone was respectful, but the red-haired man was able to sense the worry in his voice; he thought Ivan had caused trouble again, and it must have been very serious for the warrior base to compile an investigation about him.


    "Be at ease, man. It''s not what you are thinking, though I do need to confirm some things with you," the red-haired warrior said before proceeding to ask a few questions, such as if Von had ever introduced Ivan to any training program or given him fighting lessons in private.


    Von answered all of these questions truthfully, afraid that a wrong answer might cause issues.


    "I see, then your son is really a born prodigy; you should be happy," the man said with a burst of excited laughter.


    Von''s eyebrows rose. "What do you mean?"


    He asked.


    The red-haired man didn''t respond; he instead tapped on the table again before sending a clip to Von. Von lowered his gaze and watched, it was a video.


    The video showed Ivan beating up the group of youngsters after they bullied Nora and then showed how Ivan trashed the youth who had just awakened.


    Von''s eyebrows twitched as he watched the clip, he could feel his superior smirking at him.


    He was honestly shocked while watching the clip, he found it difficult to recognize Ivan as the one who was moving like a member of a special force.


    He didn''t know if he should feel the pride and happiness that Ivan was facing so many people and even coming out victorious or if he should get a headache because this was the same as causing trouble.


    Before he could say anything, the red-haired man voiced out.


    "The youth whom your son beat up at the end is a warrior who just awakened his Ki"


    Von''s eyes widened when he heard this.


    ''Impossible''


    He thought to himself as he raised his gaze to meet those of the red-haired man.


    "You should know what this means, right? That lad was a promising seedling and is related to those at the upper level; it won''t end well for your son because even you will find it difficult to protect him." The man placed both hands together and smiled.


    Von''s expression turned cold ''That brat!'' he cursed in his heart.


    " But that is not why we''re here, I have a way out for your son"


    Von''s expression eased up a bit when he heard this and he stared at the man with hopeful eyes.


    " Your son failed the awakening examination, right?" He asked and Von nodded before the other party continued " My solution is¡­the awakening fluid"


    Silence.


    Von''s face turned extremely cold when he heard this, his eyes turned into a sharp glare.


    "The process of using that is too low and painful, chances of succeeding are low and dying isn''t impossible. Also, it''s a high-level treasure of the planet; the higher-ups won''t allow it to be used on him," Von said with a grave tone.


    " I know that, but it''s different if I support him" the other party kept smiling.


    Von frowned, what the man said was true. It would be different if he supported Ivan for the awakening fluid but¡­


    "It''s too dangerous; I can''t risk it," Von breathed.


    "You talk about risk? Not doing it is a risk in itself; this is the only way out for your son. Do you think they''ll let him be if he continues with the status of an ordinary human? And just take a look at the clip, do you think someone like him will be unable to withstand the effects of the awakening fluid?"


    The man stated with an obvious tone, causing Von''s frown to deepen.


    Indeed, Ivan looked very different from what he remembered in the clip. His eyes were like those of someone who had seen a lot in life, and his movements were sharp and deadly but under control; his eyes didn''t even flinch when he faced others; he was like a seasoned fighter with a strong mental fortitude.


    "I think you should talk with him about this as well; this concerns his safety; you shouldn''t make a decision all by yourself," the red-haired man suggested before dismissing Von.


    The latter stood up and saluted before walking out of the room.


    Immediately after he left, the red-haired man tapped on the table, and a door opened on the wall through which a young woman in white uniform stepped out.


    "Prepare the capsule," the red-haired man didn''t wait for the young woman to speak and ordered her without turning to look at her.


    The woman didn''t mind this, her eyes widened slightly before she saluted and left as well.


    ¡­. S§×ar?h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Later that day, Von returned home and discussed the matter with his family; they came to a decision after a long hour of debate.


    The next day, Ivan didn''t go to school.


    He was brought by his father to the enormous base of the warrior camp in their city, they took an elevator that sent them hundreds of meters underground to a huge laboratory with many people in white coats moving around.


    "Haha, I knew you would come!"


    A loud voice sounded from the side; Ivan and his father turned to look and recognized the red-haired man.


    "Come, I have everything sorted out already" he called out to them while gesturing with his hands.


    Ivan followed behind his father as they approached the man, both of them were serious expressions while Ivan scanned the place with his eyes.


    "You managed to get approval to use it?" Von saluted before asking.


    "At ease, I told you it would be different if I asked," the man said with a grin; his personality was very jovial.


    They exchanged a few more words before immediately moving to serious business.


    Ivan was asked to take off his clothes except for his underwear; Ivan already knew the importance of what he was about to do, so he wasn''t shy and swiftly took off his clothes.


    He and his father were led by the red-haired man and a group of people in lab coats through a wide metal corridor; they arrived at another wide lab with a circular platform, and a huge glass-like sleeping capsule was placed in the center.


    "Get in," one of the people in lab coats said to Ivan as they pressed a button that made the capsule lower and its lid open.


    Ivan looked at his father once before stepping toward the capsule and climbing in, the lid closed back after he got in.


    Ivan could still see everyone and everything from inside the capsule but he wasn''t able to hear anything aside from beeping sounds that were caused by the capsule.


    He saw one of the people in lab coats take out a pad and tap on it. The capsule suddenly made a brief tremor before tilting, and Ivan was now slanted and was partly facing the metal ceiling of the lab.


    Another beeping sound rang within the capsule and holes suddenly formed in the roof of the capsule through which green liquid began to flow out from and fill the capsule.


    Ivan didn''t panic as he had already learned of this before, he patiently waited until the level of the green liquid rose and filled up the capsule, swallowing him completely.


    Strangely, he was still able to breathe despite the green liquid covering his face.


    Soon, Ivan suddenly began to feel the liquid turning warmer. After just a minute of this change, his eyes widened.


    Pain!


    A great sense of pain assaulted his brain and made Ivan gasp subconsciously, he immediately swallowed a mouthful of green liquid.


    He hurriedly calmed down upon realizing that he would end up choking himself if he kept panicking.


    Still, the pain was overbearing. Ivan felt like his body was being cooked and thousands of hot needles were stabbing his flesh. It was unbearable, and Ivan was on the verge of losing consciousness.


    But he gritted his teeth and held on as he remembered what his father had said yesterday during their meeting at home.


    "You will die if you can''t withstand it"


    Ivan gritted his teeth so hard that his teeth were on the verge of shattering.


    ''I¡­can''t¡­fail!''


    Ivan roared in his thought as he endured, he tightened his fists so hard that his fingers dug into his palm.


    Without him realizing it, the level of the green liquid slowly began to decrease.


    Outside the capsule, the people in lab coats and his father stared at Ivan struggling in the capsule with wide eyes while the red-haired man laughed with an excited expression.


    "A genius! A true genius!"

 Chapter 147 - 147: A dream?: 100 percent

    Ivan didn''t know how much time had passed since he entered the capsule; it felt like he had suffered unbearable torture for years and was almost starting to feel like an eternity.


    Luckily, just when he felt that he was reaching his end and would no longer be able to hold on, the pain abruptly vanished from his body.


    He no longer felt the burns or the pain from his flesh being stabbed by thousands of needles, Ivan''s body trembled as he breathed heavily.


    He slowly opened his eyes, and a red streak flashed past his eyes like red lightning; his body was numb, but he could feel the difference within him.


    Suddenly, he heard a beep sound, and the capsule began to move. Before the lid opened, large smoke suddenly poured out from the capsule and let out a gust of hot air.


    Ivan raised his head and met with his father''s serious gaze that hid his worry for him, a warm feeling formed in his head as he took a step out of the capsule.


    His knee suddenly trembled immediately after his foot made contact with the ground, and his leg lost strength, Ivan found himself falling over, but he was caught by his father and the red-haired warrior before he could reach the ground.


    "Haha, you well brat. Very good," the man laughed heartily as he supported the powerless Ivan; Von didn''t let go of his son as well and kept his hold on Ivan''s shoulder. S§×arch* The ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Come, come, there''s no time to waste!" The man said with urgency. They supported Ivan and followed the people in lab coats back to the previous laboratory before sitting him on a chair.


    "You said he failed the examination before, right?" The red-haired man turned to look at Von and asked with a grin; the latter nodded without saying anything.


    "Okay then, let''s try again," he said before turning to the others.


    A woman in a long lab coat walked toward Ivan on the chair that he was sitting before taking out a thin cable and plugging it into Ivan''s vein on his arm, Ivan didn''t make a sound because his body was still numb; he simply stared at the woman who plugged a few more cables into his body, blood flooded through the cables and enter a strange looking device with a screen.


    This was the device that showed the result of the awakening; if a person had any talent with Ki at all, the device would show the amount of talent they had with it, and the result would determine that warrior''s standing.


    Mind you, the lowest a person could get was 20% and even that would allow someone to achieve great things; just that warriors with higher talents would achieve even greater things.


    Ivan watched as the woman pressed the various buttons on the device with an expectant look on his face.


    The last time he did this test, his result had been a shocking but not so surprising 0 percent.


    It was only shocking because his father was a warrior, and he should have inherited his father''s genetics; at the very least, he should have managed to have a bit of talent with Ki.


    This time, Ivan hoped to at least get the basic 20 percent after going through that degree of pain for so long.


    Soon, the screen on the device began to fluctuate as readings flashed across the screen. It took a minute before the readings stabilized and the result of Ivan''s re-examination appeared.


    [Ki aptitude: 100%]


    Silence!


    It was a single line of words, but it sent everyone present into deep shock; Ivan was also equally shocked as he never expected such a result on his second try when he failed the first time.


    "Impossible! M-maybe there was an error, I''ll run it again!"


    The woman who was standing in front of the device said with a trembling voice as her hands ran across the buttons of the device; she was obviously shocked and senseless.


    A hand suddenly grabbed her fingers, her body jumped and she turned to look at the owner of the hand in shock.


    It was the red-haired man.


    The latter shook his head at the woman before letting go of her hands.


    "The device is never wrong; it simply shows that he''s a prodigy who needed a little push," he said seriously before suddenly placing both hands on his waist and laughing into the air.


    All the people in lab coats trembled under the sound of his laugh, their faces turning pale and ghastly for some reason.


    The man laughed for a whole minute before looking at Von.


    "What do you think? Still scared of risk? With such talent, you don''t have to worry about protecting him anymore. The camp will take full responsibility for him and no one will be allowed to touch him, didn''t I say it?!" The man said to Von with a wide cheeky grin.


    Von smiled slightly, he felt that the character of this superior was too strange; those who didn''t know him well might think that he was a good person.


    "Thank you for your help"


    Nevertheless, Von still bowed and thanked him. After all, it was all thanks to him that Ivan was able to gain access to such a top national treasure.


    "It''s nothing. The two of you can return first; I''ll contact you for further instructions." The man waved his hands with a kind smile that reached his eyes.


    Just before the two could leave, the red-haired man suddenly moved toward them and bent his body slightly to whisper into Ivan''s ears.


    "Never, do not ever tell anyone about your hundred percent aptitude score, okay?" He had a strange smile on his face that made Ivan''s body tremble for some reason. Von''s body also tensed but he managed to hide it. The two left shortly after.


    After the two of them left the underground laboratory, the smile on the man''s face faded like a passing spring and a cold expression appeared on his face as he turned to look at the people in lab coats behind him.


    "Now, now, why don''t we make sure no one runs their mouth?" He said with a chilling smile that caused the people to shudder.


    "S-sir, please. We swear not to say a word, please, we can sign whatever agreement you have!"


    The woman who had been in charge of the device during Ivan''s examination fell to her knees and begged; her face was already covered with tears, and her eyes were red. The other also went down on their knees and cried like kids as well.


    The face of the man grew even colder at the sight of this; he raised his left hand, and red energy condensed on it.


    "Sigh, I promise to take care of your families," he said before taking a step forward, and the eyes of everyone widened in horror.


    Soon, anguished screams and begging voices filled the underground laboratory; no one witnessed what had happened except for the red-haired man.


    ¡­..


    Outside, Ivan and his father entered their car. Von suddenly did something that puzzled Ivan; he issued a command to lock everything in the car, turn on the anti-sound function, and then shut down all working functions that would allow anything from outside to know what was going on inside the car.


    After doing all of this, Von looked at Ivan. His eyes were now filled with dread and worry.


    Ivan was beyond confused as he couldn''t understand why his father was reacting this way.


    "Ivan, no matter how kind he acts or how well he treats you, be careful of him! Do you understand? Do not trust anything he says without evidence" Von said in a grave tone.


    Ivan wanted to frown but maintained his expression, this didn''t mean that he wasn''t confused.


    For all he knew, the red-haired warrior had been a very nice and helpful fellow since they met; he could not understand why his father suddenly wanted him to not trust the man.


    Still, one was his father, who would never harm him; at least, he didn''t during all these years when he had been acting like a jerk. As for the other party, he was just a stranger to him.


    Ivan would naturally decide to listen to his father.


    "I understand," Ivan mumbled after a short while.


    Von nodded; he didn''t say anything else, and they drove home in silence.


    The news of Ivan becoming a warrior was announced to the rest of the family, his mother and Nora were very happy to hear the news.


    The two ladies worked together that night to set up a feast to celebrate Ivan''s successful awakening.


    The next day, a strange order came. Ivan''s father was suddenly drafted for a galactic expedition, they were going to explore a newly discovered planet!


    "Ivan, make sure you take care of your mom and sister in my absence. I know this mission might take years, but I expect to see a greater man when I return"


    Where Von''s last words to Ivan before he left the house.


    As for Ivan, he was taken away for special training with other new warriors. The training was going to be held on a different planet under Earth and would last for 3 years.

 Chapter 148 - 148: A dream?: Monster

    Days flew by quickly and Ivan was finally taken away from earth after spending just a week with his family and brought to a different planet for the training.


    The travel through space was a first time for Ivan and he felt a mix of excitement and nervousness as he stared at the huge meteorites and stars in the distance as their spaceship shuttled through the black space, the enormous size of the earth was so mind boggling that Ivan felt his head spinning.


    They traveled at an incredible speed that the gigantic earth got smaller and smaller at a visible speed, soon, it was out of sight and all that surrounded them were black space and stars.


    They traveled for days in space before finally arriving at the planet where the special training was to take place, it was a desolated planet with red rock surface and a single enormous structure which belonged to the human civilization. The structure was millions of kilometers tall and had floors that Ivan could not even count, inside the structure were the millions of living beings from different planets that had come to this planet for one reason or another; the structure was like a standing continent!


    Ivan learned that aside from the structure, everywhere else on this planet was nothing but red rocks; no other living being resided outside the structure, it was also going to be where his training would be taking place for the next three years.


    After a week of familiarizing himself with places that were accessible to him, training soon started.


    Ivan realized that there were hundreds of other humans who were also participating in the training as well as youngsters from other life forms, aliens!


    Coincidentally, the youth who Ivan had beaten up back on earth was here as well; the youth swear to get back at Ivan.


    Training started soon, it was hell.


    The trainees complained about the torturous training but the warriors only increased the difficulty but this also helped them improved quickly.


    Time flowed quickly as the training continued everyday, Ivan was making fast progress and had already gotten the title of "demon" from the other trainees.


    The youth wasn''t able to keep up and could only despair wherever he encountered Ivan, Ivan wasn''t bothered to pay any attention to him and just let him be.


    He had gotten so strong that he was even competing with official warriors.


    Ivan also made friends during the period of training, two boys and a girl who were from earth and an alien kid from a different planet. His alien friend had a single eye and purple skin but that didn''t hide his handsomeness; he was good looking even in human standard.


    A lot of other people also tried to become friends with him but Ivan wouldn''t let them as he was able to tell that they were only approaching him for benefits unlike his four friends who genuinely liked him and had similar mindset with him.


    Things progress further and Ivan even got into a relationship with the girl in their circle, her name was kira and she had long green hair and was a cold beauty. For some reason, Ivan always thought that he had seen her from somewhere else but knew it was just his mind playing tricks on him.


    After all, all of his human friends were from far away countries on earth and there was no chance that they had met before.


    Training continued and Ivan''s speed of getting stronger continued to shock everyone, he was so monstrous that he graduated early.


    After only a year and six months, Ivan was already stronger than many of the warriors in charge of their training and was able to face up to ten of them in a fight and even won a few times.


    The higher ups were puzzled about this and invited Ivan a lot of time for questioning about his Ki examination but Ivan remembered the words of the red haired man and would always lie about the actual number that had shown that day.


    As for the red haired warrior, Ivan had not heard from him since he came to this planet.


    Since the higher-ups were unable to force him to say the truth, they could only let him be and make him graduate ahead of the others.


    As this would cause the courage of the others to shatter and Ivan would not be able to make any more progress from continuing the training, it was best to leave this child''s play and enter the real battlefield.


    Before Ivan left, he promised his friends that he would come find them after a year and six months during their graduation so they could catch up. His girlfriend proposed that he took her to see his family and told him her desire to get married as well.


    Ivan didn''t refuse her and accepted her suggestions before leaving.


    Ivan was brought back to earth a few weeks later after passing through a lot of paperworks and formalities. He got his warrior identity and a lot of benefits like an entire estate, citizenship upgrade certificate, cash rewards, and many more.


    He really became a changed person after just a year and six months away from earth.


    Ivan was finally reunited with his family after returning to earth, his mother and sister welcomed him with tears of joy.


    Later that day, he found out that a report came shortly after he left for training; the planet that his father had been sent to for exploration turned out to have its own civilization and the creatures were not weak either. S~ea??h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    As the first batch of warriors to make close contact with the planet, dispute resulted from an argument and it escalated into a brutal battle. His father was reported to have died in the battle and the entire team was wiped out, they were unable to retrieve their corpses so Ivan''s mother wasn''t able to do a proper burial for her husband.


    Ivan felt that this report was extremely suspicious and couldn''t help remembering when his father warned him to be careful of the red haired warrior.


    He decided to think about this later as there was no evidence to anything yet, comforting his mother was priority for now.


    Ivan spend two months with his mother and sister, enjoying the feeling of having a family after going through a year and six months of extreme training.


    His sister was doing well in school and his mother has been asked to retire as the mother of a warrior, she was being paid a huge amount of money every month and it was not difficult to just sit back and enjoy life.


    Ivan suggested them moving to his estate but his mother refused, she wanted to live in her late husband''s house until she joined him in the afterlife.


    Ivan could not force her, he could understand her; the couple were still in their prime after all.


    He told them about his experience during the training as well, obviously filtering the hardship he had passed through so as not to cause them worry. He also told his mother about his girlfriend and their plan to get married in a year and half after she graduated.


    His mother was in full support and was eager to meet kira.


    After two months of spending time with his mother and sister, it was time for Ivan to resume his duty as a warrior.


    His first mission just happened to be the planet where his father had died, Ivan happily accepted the mission.


    He was equipped with gears and his personal mecha which could only be controlled by fusing Ki into it.


    He was sent along with a squad of older warriors to the planet, they boarded a spaceship and were soon on their way.


    They reached the planet after two months of travelling through space and came in contact with the creatures living in it.


    It was a massacre!


    Ivan showed how much of a monster he was and shocked even his teammates.


    It was as if he had an unlimited storage of Ki and was able to keep his mecha running for days straight without taking a rest!


    Mechas were gigantic machine in human shape, they had various attacking methods and can cause a mountain to collapse with enough energy poured into it.


    Ivan''s mecha was special, it wasn''t as huge as the normal mecha that other warriors used and was only seven meters tall, its body was smoother had had less edges compared to normal mechas; it was like a veey tall human with metal bodies.


    It''s speed and power output what countless of times more than that of other mechas, it also had more attacking methods!


    In just a week of landing on the planet, Ivan singlehandedly massacred half of the planet''s population; laying waste to half of the planet and turning it into an apocalypse.


    It was devastating, his teammates even began to fear him. He didn''t fight like someone on a mission but instead like someone who had a personal grudge against this planet.

 Chapter 149 - 149: A dream?: Rush of time

    He was like a beast on a rampage, Ivan unleashed a bloodbath whenever he went; leaving mountain of corpses and rivers of blood everywhere.


    The planet gathered all their resources and fought back with everything they had, focusing everything on Ivan but it was pointless. Ivan was like a true devil to the native of the planet; unstoppable and undying!


    After two months of total annihilation, Ivan had driven the native of the planet to near extinction with only a fraction of their population left.


    The native of the planet decided to surrender and sent envoys to relay their intention to Ivan but Ivan showed just how ruthless he was, he directly killed all the envoys.


    He continued with his massacre, killing every native came across.


    After another two months of battling the last line of defense of the planet, Ivan singlehandedly claimed the planet and all of its resources for earth, the base camp on earth soon sent warriors and other specialists to setup branches and research facilities on the planet; they began searching for resources on the planet after they finished building the base.


    Ivan and his team returned to earth after completing their missions, they were rewarded greatly and Ivan''s name quickly spread through the entire organization after his first mission; his strength was recognized by even the higher-ups and old monster in the organization and humans on other planets.


    Returning to earth, Ivan resumed living a normal life and spent more time with his family.


    In a blink of an eye, months flew by and it was already a year and six months since he graduated early from training.


    His friends and girlfriends were graduating this month as well!


    As promised, Ivan went to see them on the planet where the training was taking place. He had rose up in rank after his first mission and was allowed to attend the graduation ceremony, he reunited with his friends after the graduation.


    Ivan learnt that his friends had heard of his monstrous deeds and that everyone on this planet had talked about it for months.


    Ivan only laughed it off without saying anything meaningful about this.


    They returned back to earth after a week.


    As promised, Ivan took his girlfriend, kira, to go see his mother and sister.


    Nora and Ivan''s mother welcomed her warmly and she received good treatment from them.


    After spending a month in Ivan''s city, they went to see kira''s family and talked about their intentions to get married.


    Kira''s family was a family of warriors, so naturally they had heard of Ivan''s monstrosity; it would be a honor for anyone to have someone as powerful as Ivan as a son-in-law. So kira''s family naturally had no issues with this and readily agreed, they even urged them to hurry with the wedding.


    The wedding was set for the coming month, news about Ivan''s wedding quickly spread throughout the planet and even reached other planets that were under the control of human civilization.


    Invitations were sent out to various people while kira''s family and Ivan''s mother prepared for the wedding.


    Time flew by quickly and the day of the wedding soon arrived.


    It was a huge event that shook the whole planet, it was recorded as one of the biggest events in history!


    Almost every single warrior on the planet and people of great influence attended the wedding to show their goodwill to Ivan, people from other planets as well as natives from other planets that were on good terms with earth also attended the wedding as well to show their sincerity.


    Ivan didn''t know this but he had gotten the title of "the sword of the earthlings" in various planets and everyone from those planets feared him. It wasn''t easy for a whole regiment of warriors to take control of a planet within a decade, it was natural to feel fear toward a single person who could do this in a span of a few months.


    The wedding was finally concluded, it was a beautiful thing. Kira was all smiles when she saw the many well-wishers and the jealous looks on the faces of many girls, their fellow trainees had come to give their blessings as well.


    As for Ivan, he was all smiles and looked nothing like his reputation; people might even mistake him as a harmless young man if they didn''t know his identity.


    Meanwhile, Ivan was secretly searching for someone amongst the sea of well-wishers. sea??h th§× N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The red haired warrior!


    But no matter how hard he searched, he wasn''t able to find the other party.


    The wedding was concluded and everyone returned after the banquet, Ivan and his wife also returned to his estate which was now their new home.


    That might was a blissful night as roses were thrown and soft voices made the night beautiful.


    Seven months passed swiftly after Ivan''s wedding and a part of the planet was still talking about the event.


    Ivan and kira were given seven months to enjoy the sweetness of marriage and indulge themselves in all the sinful deeds that they wanted to do, they returned to service after those seven months.


    Ivan requested to form a team after returning to the field, his request was instantly approved by the higher-ups.


    Ivan''s team was made up of himself, his wife, and his three friends (including the alien with one eye)


    After forming his team, they accepted a mission from the warriors organization. The mission was to aid in a war between earth and a newly discovered civilization.


    The group immediately set off.


    Wars between civilizations with great achievements in technology was usually held in the empty space since a lot of battleships would be involved, this was to avoid damaging the planet and all the potential resources within.


    As expected, when Ivan''s party reached the battlefield, it wasn''t much of a war anymore.


    With his special mecha, Ivan decimated the army of the other force and laid waste to majority of their warships.


    In less than three months, with the help of Ivan and his team, the human army ended the war that had dragged on for five months before their arrival.


    They defeated the army of the other civilization before taking control of their planet.


    Ivan''s team returned after the mission and were rewarded handsomely, their ranks soared as well for being the main contributors during the war.


    On the third year after their wedding, kira got pregnant and retired early; this was Ivan''s request as well so that she could take care of the child they were expecting personally.


    The news of the Von family expecting a new blood caused a great wave in the planet, people anticipated what monstrous talent the child of the strongest warrior would have upon entering the world.


    Ivan''s mother, Nora, and kira''s parents came to the estate to personally take care of kira and the pregnancy before delivery.


    After nine months, kira face birth to a beautiful baby girl with white hair and multicolored eyes.


    The news shook the world, another piece of news that came along with the birth of Ivan''s daughter was that she was born with innate KI! Her Ki was no less powerful than that of a warrior who had trained for decades!


    She was already destined to be a powerful figure just like her father!


    Time passed quickly and in a flash, fifteen years had passed.


    Ivan was now in his forties and his daughter was fifteen this year, she had grown into a beauty with long white hair and pretty eyes.


    At fifteen, she was already asleep powerful as her mother and was able to train with kira who was using her full strength.


    Only Ivan was about to subdue her when they trained.


    As for Ivan, his name had shaken the entire universe during these fifteen years.


    Every single planet will advance civilization had heard about him.


    The devil of humanity!


    This was a title that Ivan had been granted by the countless planets in the universe because of his monstrosity and ruthlessness when dealing with enemies, he had also officially become the strongest warrior in existence but still listened to his superior; he didn''t become arrogant because of his strength.


    All these years, Ivan had still not seen or heard of the red haired warrior who had helped him become a warrior years ago.


    On this year however, the universe faced a great threat; an invasion from another universe that came through a black hole!


    The shocking thing was that this invaders had reached a higher achievement in technology than earth and they had someone who was in per with Ivan!


    The whole universe were shocked out of their wits. The battle between Ivan and this person lasted for days but neither of the two sides managed to gain the upper hand before withdrawing.


    A week after Ivan''s fight, he received an unexpected visitor; it was the red haired man who Ivan hadn''t seen in more than 18 years!


    Both of them sat in the living room of Ivan''s mansion and faced each other.


    "I haven''t seen you in more than a decade, you''ve really grown; your father would be very proud" the red haired man said with a smile as looked at Ivan.


    His red hair and beard had bits of white hair that told of his age but his face still looked like someone in his fifties, he didn''t look like someone who was dozens of years older than Ivan; they looked like friends of the same generation.


    Ivan stared at him with casual eyes before saying.


    "You''ve been away for years, I thought you were dead" Ivan muttered, he tried to crack a joke.


    "Hahaha, you wish. I can''t die yet, too busy for that"

 Chapter 150 - 150: A dream?: Father of Ki

    Ivan chatted with the red-haired man for a bit before getting down to business.


    "I haven''t heard from you for more than 18 years, but you suddenly appear right after my fight with the invaders. Don''t you think it''s a little suspicious?" Ivan asked with narrowed eyes.


    The red-haired warrior didn''t become offended by his tone as he maintained his casual smile.


    "You see, I''ve been away¡­far away. Looking for ways to keep human civilization safe from foreign and internal threats. You might think that I haven''t been around all these years but the truth is that I''ve been watching, Ivan. Every passing second, I''ve had my eyes on everything" he stated with a smile that reached his eyes.


    Ivan became even more suspicious, this meant that the man knew everything that had been happening all these years.


    " Who exactly are you? I tried searching for information about you but found nothing other than you being an influential warrior who suddenly went missing, even the higher-ups claimed to know nothing else"


    Ivan didn''t hide the fact that he had investigated the man while he was away and directly told him.


    "I know this, I was aware"


    To Ivan''s surprise, the man was aware!


    "Then do you mind telling me yourself?" Ivan raised an eyebrow and sat with his body bent forward.


    "Of course, I feel a bit guilty about what has happened¡­and what''s about to happen, but it''s all for the best, so I don''t mind revealing a bit to you." The man smiled, but this made Ivan frown.


    "Do you know why I warned you not to let anyone know about your 100 percent Ki result? It''s because you would be viewed as a threat by ''them'' and would be eliminated or controlled, this was something I did not want because¡­I wanted to be the one to control you" the man said slowly, his smile slowly disappearing and being replaced by a cold face.


    Ivan''s eyes narrowed even further, and his frown deepened, but he didn''t say anything and waited for the man to continue.


    "All these years, I''ve watched you make great contributions to human civilization but all of these were actually my arrangements. Your wife, Kira¡­was my arrangement as well"


    He stated and paused to wait for Ivan''s reaction.


    And as expected.


    BOOM!


    Ivan''s body exploded with terrifying energy and the chair he was sitting on instantly collapsed into pieces.


    " Lies!" He bellowed with unwillingness.


    The other party shook his head.


    " I won''t bother explaining, you can ask her yourself. As I was saying, everything was my arrangement and I had great plans for you¡­this was until the invaders arrived and caused a change in my plans.


    You see, there''s this small gathering of special species outside our visible universe. In a dark space that crosses between space and time and can''t be reached by ordinary means, there''s a small group of beings who can bring a universe to its knees if they want.


    I''m part of that group, so you can imagine how strong I am; you aren''t far from there but that''s not the point now. Everyone in this group is from different universes, and we''re not supposed to interfere with each other''s territories, but someone has defaulted and brought their people here.


    They are the invaders" the man ended with a helpless sigh.


    " But that doesn''t explain who you are," Ivan voiced out; his voice was incredibly chilling and wasn''t as friendly as before.


    " Oh, right. You might not have found anything with my current identity but I believe you must have heard of this name¡­Hercules Blaze" the man mumbled with a mysterious grin.


    Ivan''s eyes widened upon hearing that name.


    " You mean¡­the father of Ki?!" He exclaimed in uncontrollable shock.


    "Ah, I was indeed called that as well. Just like you, I was the first person to possess a 100 percent score on my awakening examination¡­that makes just the two of us. I planned on making you the second father of Ki but it seems we won''t have the chance since I''ll be needing something from you to stop the invaders, the person in our group that''s from their universe to be precise"


    " And what''s that? How will that prevent me from becoming a second father of Ki?" Ivan questioned.


    " Sorry I didn''t specify, the reason you won''t be able to do so I because¡­you''ll die and the thing I need from you is your daughter"


    BOOM!


    A more violent wave of Ki surged from Ivan''s body, and the house they were in completely collapsed. It caused a huge commotion that alerted the entire estate, and a lot of people rushed over.


    " I know you won''t agree, and that''s why I apologized earlier, but don''t worry, I won''t be sending your daughter to you; I only need her eyes," The man said as the grin on his face widened.


    Ivan''s eyes widened, and his body trembled; he staggered backward.


    " Y-you know?" His voice was trembling from disbelief.


    No one else knew this, but Ivan had long realized that his daughter''s multicolored eyes were special; they could absorb and store other people''s Ki! Even his daughter wasn''t aware that she had this ability yet because he was still hiding it from her, he didn''t expect this person to know.


    "Come on, let''s not act so surprised now. I already told you that I kept my eyes on


    everything,


    and I meant ''everything''.


    Still, I will keep my promise and not kill her; taking her eyes will only turn her into a vegetable, and she''ll be in a bit¡­a lot of pain for the rest of her life, but that''s better than dying, right?"


    The other party said while shrugging.


    Ivan''s eyes widened.


    "You bastard!" He cursed in a low tone.


    At this moment, a few people arrived at the ruined building. They were Ivan''s wife, daughter, and friends.


    "Dad!"


    His daughter called out when she saw her father wearing a murderous face and was standing with a strange man.


    Ivan and the red-haired man immediately turned in her direction at the same time. Ivan''s eyes widened in horror while the eyes of the red-haired man lit up with pleasant surprise.


    "She''s really a beauty even at such a young age, sad that this has to happen to her" He sighed before suddenly stepping toward her.


    "Don''t you dare!"


    Ivan roared before disappearing and appearing in front of his daughter, shielding her with his body.


    Woom!


    But the red-haired man didn''t stop; he suddenly vanished and appeared in front of Ivan, his right hand shot out.


    Bang!


    Ivan moved with speed and brought his palm forward. The man''s hand smashed into his palm, and a thunderous sound rang out.


    "This force!"


    Ivan''s eyes widened as he stared at the red-haired man with horror; the force just now felt like it could easily crush Ivan; the other person was still holding back!


    The red-haired man suddenly lowered his hand and sighed.


    "Considering our past relationship and a few things I''m guilty of, I''ll let you have one more month with your daughter before I come back again; be prepared to meet your father by then," he said before disappearing into thin air, Ivan wasn''t able to sense him at all.


    He stared at the space in front of him for a long while, lost in thought. He only came back to his senses when he heard his daughter''s voice.


    "Dad, who''s that strange man?" Her gentle voice sounded from behind him, he could sense the nervousness in her words. After all, this was the first time she had seen someone facing her father so arrogantly; he didn''t see the battle with the invaders and only heard of it.


    Ivan suddenly turned and hugged her, he hugged her tightly and whispered to her.


    "Dad will protect you, always!"


    Those words sounded more like Ivan trying to assure himself instead of his daughter.


    Later that day, Ivan confronted his wife about what the red-haired man said, but Kira didn''t have any idea of what was going on.


    He instantly understood that the red-haired man must have gotten the instructors at the planet where they trained to pull a few strings; he now suddenly remembered how odd it felt when he was always paired up with Kira in almost everything that involved partnering.


    In the end, Ivan decided that it didn''t matter anymore as what was done could not be undone; he was sure that he would still do the same thing if faced with the situation again.


    As for Hercules Blaze''s one-month period of grace, Ivan didn''t use it to spend quality time with his family as the man had suggested. Instead, he searched for a secular place to hide his family; he was sure that the red-haired man would never find them there.


    A month later.


    Ivan flew across space with his mecha at full speed, he shot past planets, and the Earth was quickly getting bigger and bigger at a visible rate.


    He suddenly came to a stop just when he was a few million kilometers away from Earth; his eyes narrowed coldly as he stared at the person in front of him.


    "I''ve always hated his race, though I have to say that you do have some loyal friends; this bastard''s lips were sealed to the end" A playful voice chuckled. S§×arch* The nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

 Chapter 151 - 151: A dream?: Ill let the world burn

    Ivan stared with cold eyes; in front of him was the red-haired man in a mecha. The mecha of the man was different from those of ordinary warriors and was even different from Ivan''s, it was like a body suit instead of a mecha and perfectly fitted the man''s body.


    In the hands of the red-haired man, he held a bloodied blade in his left hand, and in his right hand was the lifeless body of Ivan''s friend; it was his alien friend with one eye.


    The face of his friend was bloody and badly bruised, multiple injuries could be seen on his body, and his single eye had a large hole which was in place of where his Iris was supposed to be; there was a clear sign of torture on him, and an anguished expression froze on his face in his death.


    The red-haired man shook his hand and tossed away the lifeless body, allowing it to float aimlessly in space as he turned his gaze to Ivan.


    Ivan''s body trembled, but he held himself back; he could feel his great anger boiling within him. He had to keep his rationality; it would be horrible if he got blinded by rage.


    "You see, I came to get your daughter as promised, but I wasn''t able to find her, neither was I able to find you. I decided to look for your family, but even your parents and sister didn''t know. I thought they were lying, so¡­I held a special interrogation with them; they seemed to really not know because they didn''t tell me anything useful until their death.


    I went to look for your friends instead but only found this guy. He showed a reaction after I interviewed him, but he refused to say, such a stubborn guy," the red-haired man said with a helpless sigh as if he was reporting something casually.


    Ivan''s eyes widened when he heard the man''s words; his body trembled violently when he was told that his mother and sister had been killed in search of his family.


    Ivan suspected that the man might be lying but he wasn''t able to hold himself back at the thought of his mother and sister suffering in the hands of the person.


    BOOM!


    His body exploded with Ki energy and his mecha roared to life, Ivan immediately shot toward the man like a comet. His speed was so fast that he caused a crack in space and made the universe shake.


    The man''s face formed a grin when he saw Ivan rushing toward him with a mad look in his eyes, red energy began to leak out from his body. This energy looked exactly like Ki but was far more vibrant than Ki energy.


    Ivan reached him in less than 0.001 seconds as he seemed to have teleported through space.


    But just before his hand could touch the man, the man vanished into thin air and what Ivan''s hand reached was only an afterimage!


    Ivan''s eyes widened. No, the man didn''t vanish, his speed was just so terrifying that Ivan wasn''t even able to follow up.


    Just how strong was he?!


    Sadly, Ivan wasn''t given the chance to think about this as a large palm appeared in the corner of his eyes and grabbed his face.


    Ivan felt his vision blur and a strong wind pressure slamming into the other side of his face as he was moved at a very fast speed that he wasn''t able to follow.


    Like a shooting comet, the red-haired man grabbed Ivan''s face, and the two of them shot through the empty universe and flew past planets, smashing through meteorites along the way and even empty planets.


    Ivan felt pain as he was smashed through meteorites and planets at a terrifying speed.


    "Hahaha! Do you feel it?! Do you feel it? This is true power, this is what a father of Ki is like. Do you know I no longer use Ki? This is Nexus, a power far stronger than Ki!"


    The voice of the red-haired man echoed through the universe, spreading to millions of planets that were close by as they continued to shoot through the universe; Ivan was completely helpless and unable to resist.


    ¡­.


    In the blood labyrinth, the single eye of the priestess stared at Ivan''s body with a horrified look as she screamed in despair.


    "How is this possible? It can''t be; I made sure to put him in a good dream; what''s this reaction?!"


    She stared at Ivan''s body on the ground. His body had turned half-stone, and his body to his chest had lost all color; that part of his body looked just like the statue. More and more energy passed through the tattoos and runes.


    As for the statue, it had almost reverted back to looking like a true living being. Only its head was still stone, every other part of its body was now very lifelike and refined.


    The priestess was panicking. For some reason, Ivan''s expression had suddenly turned into one of viciousness and the part of his body that had not turned into was trembling.


    The energy that had been moving from his body into the statue had also stopped and was slowly flowing back instead, the sacrifice was reversing!


    The priestess was getting anxious and wanted to do something but didn''t dare to move because of the teenager who was still sitting on top of the blood wall and was looking at Ivan''s body with expressionless eyes.


    She was afraid that he would interfere if she tried to take action.


    "Good, I would have been disappointed if he wasn''t able to do this by himself" the voice of the teenager sounded through the entire labyrinth as he nodded.


    The priestess bit her fingers when she heard this but still didn''t do anything and could only pray to her master.


    ...


    Meanwhile, standing on top of an enormous meteorite that was as huge as a planet was the red-haired man. His body was spotless and he didn''t look like someone who had engaged in battle not too long ago.


    But it wasn''t the same for Ivan.


    He was currently kneeling in front of the red-haired man and looked more like a kneeling corpse than a human.


    He was bloodied, his white hair was drenched in blood that it had turned crimson. His mecha had been shattered and only had a few pieces of it left on Ivan''s body, blood rushed down his body like a running stream and stained the place around him.


    He looked horrible!


    "Just tell me, Ivan. It''s to use trying to hide them anymore since I''ll find them sooner or later but I won''t be able to guarantee their safety if I''m in an angry state when I find them. You already know the power I possess, Ki is useless before it. Why not save yourself the suffering and end all of this?"


    The red-haired man said with a smile on his face as if he hadn''t just beaten Ivan to near death.


    Ivan didn''t respond for a while; his entire body was screaming in pain, and he felt like dying, but something strange was happening to him.


    Memories, memories that he had forgotten after so many years were resurfacing in his mind.


    He now remembered why Nexus sounded familiar to him, it was in that dream that he had years back when he was still just an ordinary person.


    Nexus energy is a form of energy that is hundreds of times more powerful than Ki.


    Along with the memories of Nexus, strange images that Ivan found difficult to believe also began to resurface.


    At this moment, a click sound sounded within Ivan as he felt a strange heat suddenly rush through his body and make all the pain that he was feeling disappear. He still looked bloody on the outside but he felt so much strength within him, a level of strength that he didn''t dare to imagine.


    The red-haired man didn''t notice this and continued to speak.


    "The universe is in danger, without her eyes, I won''t be able to save it. Come on, you''re a hero of humanity. Would you rather let the world burn or let me get your daughter''s eyes and let her live?" He asked.


    Ivan finally reacted, and he slowly raised his head. His eyes now had hints of red in them, but because of his blood-drenched hair falling over his face, the man wasn''t able to see this.


    "Just¡­answer me this once. Years ago, my father''s death," Ivan trailed off; he believed the man already knew what he wanted to ask.


    The face of the man didn''t change when he heard Ivan''s words, the smile remained on his face as he answered.


    "Ah, about your father. True, I planned the mission to kill him. He knew my real identity, I don''t know who he found out but I previously let him be because he was useful. I killed him because I couldn''t let anyone else know about your secret, not even your father"


    " I¡­see" Ivan mumbled under his breath as if finally getting a heavy burden from his shoulders.


    The man looked at him strangely before asking.


    " I''ve answered, so what''s your reply?" S§×arch* The n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    " I will.." Ivan muttered softly.


    The eyes of the red-haired man lit up, and he bent his body to Ivan''s level.


    " I didn''t catch that, you would what?"


    He thought that Ivan was about to tell the location where he hid his daughter.


    Ivan paused for a few seconds before muttering again.


    " I will¡­let the world burn!"


    BOOM!

 Chapter 152 - 152: A dream?: Back to reality

    Ivan''s body suddenly exploded with a terrifying wave of red energy; the explosion was so strong that it sent the red-haired man flying, and the gigantic meteor that they were standing on shot downward into space like a bullet while particles of it scattered around space.


    Ivan was currently in red energy like a blazing tongue of flame, his hair fluttering widely and the blood on his body quickly dried up. His eyes were glowing white and blue as he gazed at the red-haired man who had flown hundreds of kilometers away in space.


    Hercules Blaze stared at Ivan. For the first time, he did not have a casual smile on his face but a serious expression stuck to his eyebrows; the energy that was surrounding Ivan was blazing red, much more violent than Ki.


    It was Nexus energy, the same energy that Hercules was using!


    He didn''t expect Ivan to suddenly awaken Nexus energy just when he had already defeated him, this shocked him greatly.


    "It''s really surprising but wasn''t unexpected. After all, you got 100 percent on Ki just like me. I know it was only a matter of time before you discovered the hidden energy within you.


    Since that''s the case, let''s see who''s energy is stronger." The man said in a deep tone before equally exploding with Nexus energy and a gigantic beast with the body of a beast and a fish head appeared behind him.


    The monster was so enormous and was as huge as a small planet. Ivan and Hercules were like fireflies in front of it.


    With a roar, the beast suddenly shot toward Hercules before exploding into particles of light that drilled into his body.


    In an instant, Hercules began to grow in size and quickly reached a height of hundreds of meters tall. His body was huge and covered in features of the beast that had just fused with his body.


    "Now, let me see the might of the strongest warrior." Hercules''s voice thundered like rolling lightning and echoed through space like a ripple.


    Ivan was expressionless as he slowly raised his left hand as three cards appeared around him, the cards burst into multicolored light particles before spinning around him.


    Two streams of light particles drilled into Ivan''s body.


    Woosh!!


    With a deafening windy sound, two wings suddenly spurt out of his back.


    A red wing on one side and a blue wing on the other side. Both wings were two meters long and were shaped like crystals and had pointy tips. Tiny particles of light fell from them like stardust and disappeared into space.


    The last swirling light particle around Ivan had mysteriously vanished without a trace while his wings were forming.


    Hercules stared at Ivan from behind his fish helmet, a confused and wary expression twisted his face. But he didn''t retreat.


    BOOM!!


    Despite his huge size, he suddenly shot forward with an impressive speed that caused ripples to spread through space and sent hundreds of meteorites flying as he sped toward Ivan.


    He was so fast that he covered the gap of hundreds of kilometers within a split second, and his large fist appeared in front of Ivan''s body; the latter was like a small chick in front of Hercules''s large fist.


    Ivan suddenly moved at this moment; his red and blue wings flapped once, and he vanished; his speed was even more exaggerated, and cracks formed in space because of his speed.


    With a boom, Hercules''s fist pierced through the crack that Ivan had created because of his speed. His large fist immediately tore the crack wider and entered the empty void.


    Fear gripped Hercules for a moment as he sensed the dangers in the void; he hurriedly pulled back his fist. Even with his level of strength, venturing into the void was a death sentence for him.


    Woosh!


    With a silent sound, Ivan appeared behind Hercules, another crack that led to the void tore through space again because of his speed.


    This time, Ivan was holding a black ball in his right palm as he gazed at Hercules''s large body with his glowing eyes. It was a small black hole!


    Without waiting for Hercules to turn around, he threw the black ball at him with a casual movement of his hand.


    The black ball flew with a frightening speed, it was like a bullet that broke through space and landed on Hercules''s back.


    Immediately, Hercules''s eyes widened in horror from under his helmet. He felt a strong suction force suddenly envelop his entire body and a sharp cutting pain spreading from his back, slowly shredding his tough body that could resist the full force of a planet destroyer!


    Dangerous!


    His eyes turned red from fear for his life, and he immediately focused all of his energy on moving away from the black ball; he only managed to escape, but he had lost an arm to the black ball.


    The ball was only the size of a human head but had managed to swallow one of his arms that was as huge as an airship!


    "W-what is this power?!" Hercules trembled in despair as he stared at Ivan after making a good distance between them. He no longer had the air of a powerful Senior as he usually did when he met Ivan, he could currently feel death''s cold fingers gripping his throat just from staring at Ivan''s eyes.


    The strength of the once young boy terrified him.


    "This¡­is the might of a wisher," Ivan mumbled softly, but his voice spread through thousands of kilometers in space. His memory of the strange dream that he had years ago was slowly coming back and he could not remember a lot of things that had happened in the dream, and the more he remembered, the more he felt like it had not been a dream.


    Another card suddenly appeared in his hand before changing into a black ball, which he threw at Hercules; the latter was shocked out of his skill and ran into the distance.


    But how could Ivan let him go? The black ball flew after him while Ivan flapped his wings again and vanished, another crack leading to the void was formed in his previous location.


    Meanwhile, inside the labyrinth.


    A wave of Nexus energy suddenly gushed out from Ivan''s body and moved toward the connected tattoos and runes. Immediately after, the black aura began to move out of the statue''s body and return to Ivan''s body at a stunning speed.


    At the same time, the change in them began to reverse. Ivan''s body started to return to normal at a speed visible to the naked eye while the statue''s body reverted to being a statue.


    "What? No, no! This can''t be, I have to do something!" The priestess screamed and rushed toward the two but before she could reach them, she suddenly felt cold. Her eyes widened and she came to an abrupt stop.


    The teenager had suddenly appeared beside Ivan and was now standing next to him while looking down at the other.


    The priestess''s body trembled as she stared at the teenager, not daring to take another step.


    ¡­


    Back in space, Ivan stood above the bloodied Hercules who had now returned to his original human appearance.


    His mecha had been turned off and he was a complete bloody mess.


    He coughed and spat out a mouthful of blood, his eyes gazing at Ivan resentfully.


    "You¡­you are you? Cough!"


    He asked as he coughed out another mouthful of blood.


    Ivan gave no resources as he floated in the air above Hercules; his face was expressionless, and he held a card in his hand.


    The card suddenly burst into light particles that disappeared into space, next thing was a sudden scream from Hercules as his body was torn into multiple people.


    His screams came to an abrupt stop, he had died swiftly¡­painfully but swiftly.


    "No one¡­hurts my family," Ivan mumbled while staring down at the disembodied corpse on the ground.


    Right after saying this, a crack suddenly appeared in the air in front of Ivan. Ivan looked up at it, thinking that someone or something was coming.


    But another crack suddenly appeared beside the first crack, then another, and another. In less than a minute, the cracks covered a large portion of the sky and Ivan felt the world crumbling; yes, the world was crumbling as those cracks began to connect and spread even wider before collapsing!


    "What''s happening?" Ivan asked in confusion. He flew into the air but a crack suddenly appeared in front of him and swallowed him.


    Darkness followed.


    At the same time, in the labyrinth.


    The teenager suddenly took a step back before saying.


    " I''m done playing, I''ll be going back now; you can continue."


    He vanished immediately after saying this, the priestess wasn''t able to sense him in the entire labyrinth.


    A look of hate appeared in her eyes as she remembered the face of the teenager and she gritted her teeth in anger.


    "Just wait; my Master will make you pay for this." She growled like a beast before rushing to where Ivan and the statue were.


    Only for her to discover that Ivan wasn''t there anymore, the statue was the only thing left inside the large formation on the ground.


    "Where did he go?" She questioned as she looked around. sea??h th§× N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Looking for me?"

 Chapter 153 - 153: Return to the labyrinth

    "Looking for me?" A cold expressionless voice sounded behind the priestess.


    Her body froze and she swiftly turned around, only to see Ivan standing in the air with red and blue wings poking out from his back. His eyes were glowing and he almost felt like a different person.


    "No, he''s not conscious; his body is moving instinctively, it''s like that form!" The priestess exclaimed in a low voice upon realizing that Ivan was actually unconscious.


    Her staff immediately appeared in her hand as she prepared to attack again, the multiple pupils in her eyes jumped around crazily.


    She suddenly dashed forward, she left afterimages in the hall as she arrived in front of Ivan and swung her staff at his face.


    But unlike last time when Ivan had been unable to keep up with her movements, she suddenly saw Ivan turn his neck and stare at her face just before her staff could reach him. Her body trembled, and she felt cold all of a sudden; she immediately retracted her staff and pulled away, distancing herself from Ivan and stopping on the other side of the hall.


    "Hmm?" Ivan made a sound before his wings suddenly shook.


    He disappeared from the girl''s field of vision and appeared right in front of her face the next moment, he was so close that their noses were almost touching.


    The eye of the priestess widened as her multiple pupils shrank to needle sizes, she didn''t see Ivan''s movement at all; he was too fast for her, who was three ranks higher than him!


    She immediately tried to retreat but Ivan''s hand suddenly flashed as a card appeared in it before disappearing.


    "Ahhhh!"


    The priestess suddenly let out a piercing scream as her body was blown away with force and she crashed into the blood wall, making a large crack on it.


    A part of her stomach was missing, and blood poured out from the ghastly wound; it was as if a beast had bitten off a chunk of her flesh.


    Ivan slowly drifted over and gazed down at the girl, ignoring her condition or the large amount of blood that was gushing out from her body.


    "I¡­ remember you," he mumbled softly as strong killing intent spread from his body and formed a visible dark wisp in the air.


    He stretched forth his right palm and another card appeared in between his fingers.


    Immediately when the priestess saw this, she gritted her teeth and forced her pupils to move. The mini-map of the labyrinth in her eye shifted as a loud rumble shook the labyrinth.


    Blood walls suddenly began to appear from different locations in the space, each bringing along a strange monster with it.


    Soon, the hall was filled with monsters that released terrifying pressures.


    There was the howling banshee, a huge eyeball, a huge shadow giant that faded in and out of existence, an enormous octopus monster with multiple tentacles, and many other monsters that were not weaker than the previous ones.


    They were all champions of the priestess!


    "Kill him!" The priestess roared like a mad beast while pointing her staff at Ivan.


    Immediately after giving the order, all of the monsters turned their attraction to Ivan who was floating in front of her. A mixed sound of roars, screeches, and growling filled the hall for a moment before all of the monsters charged toward Ivan.


    Ivan didn''t turn around to look at them and scoffed in a low tone.


    "Noisy."


    Swoosh!!


    The card in his hand burst out with light before disappearing, the next moment, the single eye of the priestess widened in horror.


    Right in front of her eye, she saw the monsters suddenly bursting into blood mists. Some were shredded into pieces by an invisible force, and a rain of flesh and blood fell to the ground behind Ivan.


    Her lips trembled.


    "I-impossible! You''re only a True Lord, how can you be so strong?!" She screamed crazily, it was as if she was about to go mad. Nothing made sense to her anymore; nothing about Ivan made sense!


    Ivan only stared at her with his glowing eyes; his hand was still stretched out, and another card appeared in his fingers at this moment. This caused the body of the priestess to tremble again, the appearance of the cards had left her with a sort of trauma.


    " I won''t die without a fight!" She shouted before suddenly dashing toward Ivan with her staff raised high in the air.


    The card in Ivan''s hand also burst out with light at the same time and a small multicolored bead appeared in front of him before shooting forward.


    Ptui!!


    The bead flew out at a shocking speed and pierced the forehead of the priestess, blood immediately gushed out and ran down her single eye as her body came to a stop.


    She looked at Ivan with an open mouth and trembling lips for a few seconds. It looked like she wanted to say something but her words were stuck down her throat.


    Thud! S§×ar?h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    She fell to her face, her body became motionless; she was dead!


    After killing the priestess, Ivan turned around and his gaze locked on the statue that had now turned back to being a Statue. Its body was made of finely molded stone and looked smooth.


    He floated over and stopped a few centimeters away from the statue, he raised his right hand before reaching out with his fingers.


    The instance his fingers made contain with the statue, a loud boom resounded and shook the entire labyrinth. Ivan was pushed back a few meters as he lost balance in the air, it took him a few seconds to stabilize himself.


    "Strange¡­statue" Ivan mumbled before flying back to the statue. This time, he didn''t touch it with his bare hand. He took out a card and turned it into a small black ball that was only the size of a tennis ball before slamming it on the surface of the statue.


    Woom!!


    A Strong shock wave spread out as an invisible forcefield suddenly appeared around the statue and blocked the black ball. Ivan frowned slightly before pressing down with more force.


    After many seconds, cracks finally started to form on the forcefield, and the black ball pushed through and reached the statue.


    BOOM!!


    A thunderous explosion spread out through the labyrinth immediately after the black ball made contact with the statue; the shockwave of the explosion was so strong that Ivan was sent flying like a broken kite, and many blood walls were destroyed.


    After everything settled, Ivan flew back to the location of the statue and saw that it had been shattered by the black ball and only its legs below the knees were left.


    Ivan stared for a whole minute before moving his gaze away and turning to look at his surroundings, a sad expression formed on his face.


    His eyes suddenly stopped glowing at this moment, and the wings on his back gradually vanished like dust particles that drifted into the air; Ivan''s body slowly drifted to the ground.


    Thud!


    Immediately his feet made contact with the ground, Ivan''s body fell to the ground and he passed out.


    While he was unconscious, the labyrinth was going through a shocking change.


    The ground rumbled, spreading through the entire labyrinth. The blood walls slowly started to sink into the ground and the red mist in the air gradually vanished.


    After twenty minutes, the two-hundred-meter-tall blood walls of the labyrinth completely vanished into the ground, and the red mist was nowhere to be seen.


    What was left was an enormous empty space with a red floor that stretched for kilometers in all directions, hundreds of monsters could be seen scattered around different points in their large space and so were the unconscious bodies of Ivan and his friends; they were all lying on the ground a few hundred meters away from one another.


    These monsters obviously saw them but for some reason, none dared to approach the unconscious five. Instead, they turned in the other direction of the space and dashed toward it, they quickly disappeared and left only the five of them in this empty space that used to be the labyrinth.


    Millions of miles away from the mountain range where the labyrinth was located, an eerie-looking temple that was surrounded by thousands of tombstones and had blue cold light flickering in the air could be seen.


    A grunt was suddenly heard from within the temple and caused the blue flames to flicker violently as if reflecting the emotions of the being that just grunted.


    "You¡­are¡­helping him¡­mother, that''s¡­against¡­the rule." a hoarse voice sounded from the temple; minutes passed, but no response came from anywhere.


    "I¡­see, I¡­see." The owner of the voice didn''t seem to be awkward after being ignored, he voiced out once more before turning silent as well.


    In a garden with blue skies and beautiful butterflies flying from one flower to another, a small hut could be seen in the middle of the garden; no one would imagine that such a place could exist in the dreamscape since everywhere else had red skies.


    A woman in a simple dress sat on a chair in the hut, she opened her eyes when she heard the voice before closing them again; time froze because of this casual action of hers.

 Chapter 154 - 154: Returning

    An unknown amount of time passed in the dreamscape. In what seemed like an enormous cavern with a blood-red floor that stretched for kilometers, five figures could be seen lying on the floor without moving.


    All of them looked badly bruised and messy as if they had suffered for months or even years with blood stains on various parts of their bodies.


    After a few seconds, one of the figures with white hair moved. His body trembled slightly before a low groan was heard.


    This person was obviously Ivan who had just woken up.


    Ivan felt his entire body screaming in exhaustion as he pushed his body from the ground, his eyes looking around the place in confusion as he reorganized his thoughts.


    He felt a terrible headache that made him frown his eyebrows and he touched his head with one of his hands.


    "What¡­happened?"


    Ivan mumbled as he tried to remember what led to him getting on the ground, he forced his mind to ignore the headache as he dove into his memories.


    Soon, Ivan''s eyes widened as he began to remember. He remembered encountering a one-eyed girl who claimed to be the priestess of a fallen Angel. He remembered how the girl had fed him till the True Lord rank and then completely overpowered him and knocked him out.


    Then, he lived a completely different life from his life here.


    In that life, he had a family and lived as a normal person. He had a wife and a daughter after many years, as well as close friends¡­very close friends.


    At the thought of his wife in that life, Ivan''s wide eyes flashed with a strange light. This was because he was able to match Kira''s face with someone''s face after waking up.


    It was Elora!


    Miss Elora, who was his instructor during training, was the same person as his wife and the mother of his daughter, Kira.


    Their looks, personality, and character were the same.


    "Was that a dream?" Ivan thought to himself. He guessed that it was a sort of dream or illusion that he was placed under by the priestess.


    But even after this thought, Ivan could not help but feel an inexplicable feeling in his heart. This feeling made him feel suffocated and hot at the same time.


    Aside from Elora and Kira, no one else whom Ivan had encountered in that life matched with anyone in this life, not even his daughter.


    Continuing with the memories, Ivan recalled how Hercules had suddenly appeared and asked for his daughter''s eyes. He also remembered how Hercules killed his alien friend and then trashed him terribly after he refused to reveal his daughter''s location. sea??h th§× N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Aside from that¡­


    "Argh!" Ivan suddenly held his head and let out a painful scream.


    He screamed for a minute straight, and his screaming woke up Glen and the others, who wore dazed expressions on their faces after waking up; they only came to their senses after a while and realized that Ivan was screaming.


    Ralph and Glen quickly rushed to his side, they stared at Ivan without knowing what to do.


    Ivan soon stopped and began to breathe heavily; he didn''t answer any of the questions thrown at him as his thoughts wandered.


    He wasn''t able to remember what had happened after Hercules almost killed him or how he came back here, he wasn''t able to remember anything.


    It was as if that part of his memory was hidden within a thick fog that would bite him if he tried to recall those memories forcefully.


    After seeing that Ivan had stopped screaming and was now breathing, they concluded that he was already and would talk when he felt like it.


    Glen suddenly fell to the ground on his back, he wasn''t unconscious and was just staring at the ceiling of the cavern.


    "Damn, my entire body is in pain and my ears as well; I feel like I suffered from a monstrous sonic sound attack," Glen grumbled as his body twitched.


    He wasn''t the only one, Kira also complained that she felt like he had been beaten up by three hefty men.


    Ralph and Clint were the same as well; they all had similar experiences, and their bodies were screaming in pain.


    But no matter how hard they tried, they were unable to recall what had placed them in such states.


    "Hold on, I thought we were inside the blood labyrinth, what''s this place?" Karin suddenly asked as she tapped her fingers on the ground that was blood red and stinking awfully, but for some reason, they were not too bothered by the stench.


    "Now that you mentioned it, it''s indeed the case. What''s this place and how did we get here?" Glen added as he sat up and looked around.


    The space was so huge that they could see it stretching into the distance and everywhere was covered by this stinking red floor that had the same stench as the labyrinth.


    "Don''t tell me¡­could it be that the labyrinth moved?" Ralph said after a while. They had also noticed that the red mist that was in the air was not there anymore which meant that this was not just another corner of the labyrinth.


    "Shouldn''t that only happen if the guardian of the labyrinth was killed? Did anyone kill it?" Ivan muttered.


    "That might be related to our missing memories and why we all feel like we''ve been beaten up, it could be that we had a serious fight with the guardian and won," Ralph said with a thoughtful face.


    "Then shouldn''t its corpse be here? Or how did our memories vanish if we won?"


    Karin asked and Ralph immediately shrugged his shoulders.


    " How would I know?" He answered.


    While Karin''s question made sense, they felt that Ralph''s words were the only logical explanation as to why the labyrinth was no longer there; there were strange creatures in the dreamscape, after all, and those who were known to use curses and magic were not rare. Besides, there were still a large number of creatures that were yet to be discovered even after hundreds of years of humans roaming the dreamscape.


    Ivan watched them debate in silence, he remembered that the priestess had sent some of her champions to capture Ralph and the others. She had used them to force him to consume the Nexus crystals that he used to reach the True Lord rank.


    He felt that Ralph''s analysis might not be true, how did they escape the hands of the various champions when some of them were already unconscious before Ivan accepted the girl''s demand?


    But he didn''t say this as it would cause too much confusion, it was best to leave mysterious matters that they didn''t know how to resolve alone.


    Without realizing it, Ivan was being influenced by the life he had lived after he was knocked unconscious by the priestess. After all, he had lived a normal life and interacted with people during his early years in that life, unlike in this life where he had suffered and was alone for the first half of his life.


    After a long time of resting and recovering, the ground resumed scouting the place. They walked the full length of the place and finally burst out at the end of the mountain; they found themselves at the top of a cliff, and before then was a large river that was surrounded by other mountains; a waterfall could be seen on the other side of the river.


    "Guess this is the end of Region 17; we finally completed the mission!" Karin could not help but let out a low shout of happiness.


    The others were also emotional, they had finally completed the mission after spending weeks in this place.


    They returned to the space that used to be the labyrinth to rest for a bit before they returned. They took out some healing gels to relieve their pain and also ate some of their supplies.


    The group finally left after three hours of resting.


    They followed the route in their memories and finally returned to the space where they had separated from Elliot.


    The young man and the land carrier were nowhere to be seen when the group returned.


    "The heck? Didn''t he say he would wait for a week? Why did he leave without us?" Glen said furiously while stomping his feet.


    This place was the last place that the A-22G3 could reach which was why they had left Elliot behind and continued themselves. How could they not be furious to find out that their ride to return to the base had left without them?


    " What if a week had passed? He was following the agreement." Ralph said with a sigh.


    " What rubbish agreement, why didn''t he use his consciousness? The only way out of this place is that damned tunnel that''s hundreds of meters up the wall, how does he expect us to leave?" Glen asked.


    He had always been on the wrong foot with Elliot so he naturally wasn''t going to see things from Elliot''s pov.


    "No need to be so angry, I can take us out of here"

 Chapter 155 - 155: strong

    Everyone looked at Ivan, puzzled by his words. How did he plan to get everyone out of here?


    But immediately after, their questions reviewed the answer as Ivan''s body suddenly exploded with terrifying Nexus energy.


    The ground under his feet exploded as a strong shockwave spread in all directions around him.


    The shockwave blew against everyone''s faces and caused them to close their eyes, and their hairs fluttered widely.


    After the shockwave subsided, they all looked at Ivan in shock, they were moved.


    "How, when?!" Glen walked toward Ivan and began to walk around him with wide eyes.


    Ralph was also observing Ivan, everyone felt like their eyes were playing tricks on them.


    The last time they saw Ivan was before the blood labyrinth separated them, and he was only at the Partial Lord rank at that time; how did he suddenly become a True Lord?!


    Ivan only smiled slightly and didn''t respond, the Nexus energy around him took form and shaped into four large arms that grabbed Karin, Glen, Ralph, and Clint.


    After grabbing them, Ivan lowered himself slightly as he gathered strength. After a few seconds, he suddenly leaped into the air.


    BOOM!


    The ground exploded and a huge crater that was over ten meters wide and three meters deep appeared in the ground after Ivan shot into the air. Ivan shot through the air while carrying the four of them, he easily reached hundreds of meters in the air and came to the level of the tunnel that was on the wall.


    BAM!


    Ivan''s feet landed on the ground of the tunnel with a loud sound while still holding the four with his arms made from Nexus.


    "WOW! That was crazy, the distance you just jumped was more than the walls of the labyrinth; the True Lord rank sure is something else." Glen exclaimed as he stared at Ivan with eyes filled with reverence and excitement.


    Ivan smiled back without saying anything.


    Ralph glanced at him from the side and didn''t comment, the five continued their journey back.


    Meanwhile, back at the base.


    Elliot could be seen standing in front of a small table in an empty office building with sturdy black materials, and on the other side of the table was a middle-aged woman with an extremely cold expression on her face as she stared at Elliot with eyes filled with killing intent.


    It was the vice tower master!


    "You were sent to control the land carrier for them, but you''re telling me that you left them behind because the time limit you agreed upon had elapsed?" The vice tower master asked softly, her voice was low but carried strong killing intent that made Elliot''s body shiver.


    He didn''t dare to say anything or even raise his head to look at the woman in front of him; his entire body was shaking, and he was sweating seriously.


    BAM!


    The vice tower master suddenly slammed her palm on the table and shattered the table that was made of the same material as the walls of the base.


    Elliot was startled and jumped back in fear, he immediately went on his knees.


    "I''m terribly sorry, I didn''t know what came over me!" Elliot cried out while sobbing in his heart.


    The vice tower master gazed down at him with extremely cold eyes.


    "You didn''t know what came over you? You better pray to your stars that nothing happens to them. Get out this instant and go back there, the tower master will have your head if you come back without them!" She hissed.


    Elliot stood up with trembling legs and immediately ran out of the office, he hurried toward where he parked the land carrier and immediately left the base. He headed toward Region 17 while sobbing. He felt great injustice, but there was nothing he could do about it; he could only pray that Ivan and the others were not dead yet.


    Meanwhile, Ivan and his cohort were climbing the tunnel of Region 17; they were getting closer and closer to the exit.


    They had passed many familiar places and reached one of the sections where they had placed a marker.


    While the distance that they had to cross was very far, it was still faster than when they were clearing the place. They did not have to kill any monster this time and directly ran past the various halls and nests of monsters, they would rest occasionally but only for a brief moment.


    In a blink of an eye, five days passed.


    The group finally reached the last section where they had dropped the first marker.


    "Just a little more and we''ll be out of here," Ivan mumbled to the group.


    "I can''t wait to get out of here, the air is so oppressive and uncomfortable," Glen said with an exhausted sigh.


    "I miss the fresh air of earth," Karin murmured with a lifeless tone.


    " Let''s rest here for a bit; we don''t know if we''ll encounter anything ahead of us," Ralph suggested, and Ivan agreed.


    Everyone immediately found a place to sit and recuperate.


    While everyone was resting, Ralph quietly moved toward Ivan''s position. The latter turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow.


    " Hey," Ralph said softly after reaching Ivan.


    " Hey," Ivan mumbled back.


    Ralph immediately went straight to the point.


    " I don''t know if you noticed but you''ve become¡­warmer during the past few days. No, it should be since we woke up in the labyrinth. You seem different."Ralph said softly while looking Ivan in the eyes.


    Ivan showed a stunned expression for a few seconds as he exchanged eye contact with Ralph for a few seconds. He suddenly let out a silent chuckle after a few seconds, and he broke off the eye contact.


    " As expected of you, I should have expected you to notice immediately," Ivan said in between his chuckles.


    Ralph didn''t find it funny and kept looking at Ivan with a serious face, Ivan sighed and patted the boy''s shoulder.


    " You shouldn''t be bothered. Let''s just say something inside me changed, but I''m good; thanks for worrying about me." He said with a sincere smile on his face.


    Ralph looked at him for a few seconds before sighing and moving his gaze away.


    "If you say so, just remember you can always tell us anything. I and Glen, we are your friends and will always support you." Ralph said before walking back to sit elsewhere.


    Ivan had a smile on his face as he watched Ralph walk away; he called out his profile after.


    ¡­.


    NAME: Ivan Von Charles


    Talent Group: Primal Talent type: Wisher Talent: Wish card


    Talent lv: SS AP: 50.23% Rank: TRUE LORD.


    ...


    "It''s really been a while, huh?" Ivan mumbled to himself as he recalled when he used to be just a nobody back in the outskirts.


    In less than two years, so many things had changed and he was now a powerhouse in the world of ordinary humans and even Nexulytes.


    Time passed quickly, and two more days passed swiftly; the group finally arrived at the entrance of the mountain range that was the entrance of Region 17; this was where they had battled the rock snakes.


    Just like Ralph had guessed, some monsters had started residing in the cave after the rock snake monsters were cleared out by the group.


    The group found a pack of barbarian bulls staying in the cave. The barbarian bulls were bull monsters with a height of seven to thirteen meters and had buffed shapes. They had extremely black bodies, and their skins were as tough as wood. They used blunt weapons as a means of attacking other creatures.


    There were over fifty of them residing inside the cave where the rock snake monsters used to stay.


    "The hell? Where did these things come from?!" Glen exclaimed when he saw the barbarian bulls.


    "Shut up you idiot! You''ll alert them!" Karin covered Glen''s mouth and hissed at him.


    Ralph facepalmed from the side. This girl''s voice was even louder than Glen''s, yet she dared to scold him.


    As expected, some of the barbarian bulls immediately looked in their direction when they heard Karin''s voice. They immediately raised their voices and made low, growling sounds; it sounded more like they were calling for help.


    A few seconds later, heavy footsteps could be heard as more barbarian bulls rushed over. In the blink of an eye, there were more than seventy barbarian bulls gathered in the cave, and each of them was carrying huge tree branches in their hands.


    "Damnit, now see what you caused." Karin glared at Glen as if it was his fault.


    Ralph stared at the two and shook his head helplessly, he didn''t have the energy to lecture them at all. Sear?h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Prepare to fight," Ralph said and immediately let out Nexus energy from his body but a palm suddenly landed on his shoulder.


    He looked and saw Ivan looking back at him.


    "Let me," Ivan said as he stepped forward. A card appeared in his hand before changing into a long sword.

 Chapter 156 - 156: base

    Ivan gripped the sword and stepped forward; at the same time, the barbarian bulls charged at them while raising loud growling sounds and lifting their weapons into the air.


    Swoosh!!


    Ivan suddenly vanished from where he was standing and sped toward the barbarian bulls, Ralph and the others were shocked. They were not able to see him as his speed was too fast.


    It was worse for the barbarian bulls, they had barely moved a single meter before Ivan flashed past the ones in front.


    Puff!!


    Heads and limbs suddenly flew into the air, accompanied by showers of blood as the lifeless bodies of the barbarian bulls were sent flying to the side. It was as if a speed train had pierced through the group of barbarian bulls as many of them were sent flying with parts of their bodies cut cleanly off.


    In less than five seconds, Ivan had flashed through the ranks of the barbarian bulls and appeared behind them, striking a cool pose. The barbarian bulls that were over 70 in number didn''t even know how they had died as their corpses flew everywhere.


    Ralph, Glen, Clint, and Karin stared at Ivan with wide eyes; they were greatly shocked by his display of strength.


    The True Lord rank was really something else.


    "That was awesome, bro. I wished I was that strong," Glen voiced out while walking over; a clean path was created in the middle of the bloody mess that had been created by the corpses of the monster me.


    "With time," Ivan responded while letting the sword in his hand disappear into light particles that vanished into thin air.


    "That was really amazing, you saved us a lot of stress. I''m honestly tired of fighting." Karin joined as she walked behind Glen.


    They checked the corpses and left after they found nothing; not a single Nexus crystal was found in the many corpses of the monsters.


    They were disappointed but knew that Nexus crystals were not guaranteed whenever they killed monsters.


    The group finally came out of the cave and stood in front of it, staring at the vast mountain range that stretched into the distance.


    Region 17 was a long mountain with unimaginable horror under its cover.


    "Ah, finally! Feels like I''ve spent years inside this damned mountain." Glen let out a loud sigh while staring at the cave.


    Although they were still inside the dreamscape and were yet to return to the real world, the group could not help but feel a sense of relaxation after finally coming out; it suddenly felt as if they had been suffocating for the past weeks.


    They had yet to move when they suddenly heard thwooping sounds approaching quickly, it was a land carrier!


    The group quickly turned around to take a look, and their faces showed strange expressions when they saw the A-22G3 rushing over from a distance; they could see Elliot through the glass of the land carrier.


    Similarly, Elliot was shocked when he saw Ivan and the others outside. He quickly stopped the land carrier and came out, a restless expression could be seen on his face.


    "Y-you guys¡­you are all right!" Elliot exclaimed as he slowly walked toward the group with trembling hands and eyes that looked like he was about to cry.


    This made the group look at him even more strangely, wondering what was wrong with him.


    "Thank God, thank God you are all right." Elliot closed his eyes as invisible tears streamed down his face.


    Someone suddenly rushed toward Elliot, it was Glen.


    The boy had a furious expression as he rushed toward Elliot, he immediately pushed Elliot in the face after reaching him.


    The punch landed heavily, and Elliot stumbled backward while holding his cheek; his eyes stared at Glen with a confused expression.


    "What was that for?" He asked.


    Glen''s chest rose and fell asleep he breathed heavily, both of his hands were balled into fists.


    "You dare to ask why I punched you? How dare you leave us behind and dare to act like you were worried about us, do you want us to beat you to death?!" Glen snapped angrily.


    " But we agreed that I would wait for a week; I thought you died in there, so I went back intending to ask for help." Elliot defended himself but didn''t dare to be too aggressive; he had realized that the tower master seemed to value this group of new Nexulytes through the words of the vice tower master. S§×ar?h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "And so what if we had agreed on a week? Why didn''t you come to check for yourself?" Karin joined from the side and also began to attack Elliot with questions.


    "Why would I do that? If something managed to kill all of you and even Ivan, what chance would I have to survive?" Elliot shot back, his tone sounding more aggrieved.


    "How dare you say such things about us, you want us to die, don''t you? Come, I beat you to death?!" Glen raged and charged toward Elliot but the young man was prepared this time and dodged.


    "Don''t run, fight me if you dare!" Glen shouted and was about to attack again.


    "That''s enough, stop it."


    Ivan''s calm voice sounded from behind, the two of them immediately stopped what they were doing and turned to look at him.


    Ivan stared at them before shaking his head.


    "What matters is that he came back, at least we won''t have to walk back to the base," Ivan said while walking toward the land carrier.


    Glen and Karin turned and shot one final glare at Elliot before following Ivan. Clint, and Ralph followed right after.


    Elliot watched them enter the land carrier and sighed, he didn''t waste time standing there and went in as well.


    The A-22G3 resumed moving as Elliot controlled it and headed back to the base.


    Along the way, Elliot tried to converse with the group about their experience after they separated but no one replied to him. Only when he asked how they had crossed the place with the flowing blood river did Glen speak to him.


    "Hmph! You must have left because you wanted us to stay there forever, too bad for you. Ivan is now a True Lord and easily got us out!" Glen snorted at Elliot before looking away.


    Elliot''s eyes widened, and he turned to look at Ivan with a disbelieving gaze. He found it difficult to believe that Ivan was from the same batch as Glen and the rest; the boy had only been a Nexulyte for less than a year, after all.


    ''What a monster!''


    Elliot exclaimed inwardly before looking away, he didn''t say another word and focused on controlling the land carrier.


    They encountered other Nexulytes as they passed through the various regions on the way back to the base, the group felt a strange feeling upon seeing other people after a month of only seeing monsters.


    Soon, they arrived at the base and were allowed entry by the Nexulytes patrolling the perimeters of the base after verifying their identities.


    The group saw that the base was still as serious as ever, with lots of Nexulytes in protective body suits patrolling; it appears that not a lot changed while they were away; the experience of people here would obviously be different from theirs.


    After entering the base, Elliot drove the land carrier to an empty spot before lowering its metal legs and opening the rim for everyone to come out.


    "You should report to the vice tower master, I have something else to attend to," Elliot said before bolting off, he quickly disappeared into one of the large structures.


    The group didn''t bother with him and allowed him to leave.


    "Let''s go," Ivan uttered before leading the way. They had reached the office of the vice tower master before so they did not need anyone to guide them.


    After a few minutes of walking, Ivan and his cohort stood in front of the vice tower Master''s office door.


    "Come in."


    The familiar voice of the vice tower master sounded from inside the office before Ivan could knock on the door.


    Ivan''s hand stopped just before he knocked on the door and gently pushed it open, he entered the office with the others behind him.


    They saw the vice tower master sitting behind her table, another person was sitting opposite her; it was an aged man who seemed to be in his 60s and had sharp eyes. The stranger and the vice tower master were both staring at the five of them as they walked into the office.


    The five of them were not bothered by their stares and calmly walked into the office, they formed a straight line in front of the two before saluting and greeting the vice tower master.


    The latter waved her hand dismissively before speaking with an expressionless face.


    "Your mission took longer than the time given, I believe the report on your mission gives enough explanation for this."


    She paused and brought out a file from under her table before stretching it toward Ivan and asking him to fill in all the details of what happened during their mission.


    Ivan stepped forward and accepted the file before stepping back.


    He suddenly looked through the corner of his eyes, a frown formed on his face; he was sure that he had seen the eyes of the man sitting opposite the vice tower master glowing just now.

 Chapter 157 - 157: Carl Barry

    Ivan was suspicious as to why the man did whatever he just did but didn''t ask, this person must be of high status to be sitting with the vice tower master.


    Ivan collected the file, and he left with his group; they were told to report back after filling out the form with details of their mission, and after cleaning up, they were allowed to pick any empty room in the dorms.


    After the five left, the man turned to look at the vice tower master, a stunned expression could be seen on his face.


    "What do you think?" The vice tower master asked with a serious tone. Ivan and his group didn''t know but this man was one of the founders of the Dominion Tower that was on very good terms with the Owen Tower.


    This old man''s name was Carl Barry, and he was a powerful Nexulyte with analyst talent; this allowed him to see the flaws of others. In short, his talent allowed him to decipher the errors and weak points of anyone and anything!


    While this talent was not really powerful in some sense, it was a very vital ability that could end a fight if used wisely along with well-planned opportunities; this was because everyone and everything had weak points; even the hardest substance would possess a weak link that could destroy it.


    This was why he had used his talent on Ivan just now. He had heard James and Karl talk about this kid nonstop and he was also present during the fight for who would keep Ivan after his talent was discovered.


    He had never met this special kid before despite having engaged in a bloody battle because of him; this was why he decided to take a look at Ivan after finally meeting him, and he was shocked.


    His talent was able to work on even the likes of Karl, Gareth, and Myles, showing their weak points. But he wasn''t able to see anything when he looked at Ivan. When he looked at Ivan with his glowing eyes just now, all he saw was a bubble of three-colored light surrounding his body like a small invisible cocoon; there was no gap or gray spot!


    This had shocked him greatly, but he had managed to control his expression; he had decided to check on the rest of Ivan''s group out of curiosity. Ralph, Glen, and Karin were normal, and he was able to see their weaknesses, but Clint gave him another shock.


    Just like Ivan, this red-haired kid had a veil of darkness surrounding him. Just that his veil was weaker than Ivan''s three-colored cocoon.


    Carl looked at the vice tower master for a while before speaking.


    "Impressive, I wasn''t able to see anything. That kid is hiding a lot of things."


    The vice tower master frowned when she heard this and couldn''t help looking toward the door of the office.


    "The tower master suspected the same; that''s why he purposely assigned this mission to them; he''s aware of a powerful monster in Region 17 and hopes to use it to force out some of his secrets," the vice tower master stated.


    Carl raised an eyebrow.


    "And he didn''t send a secret backup? What if the kid wasn''t hiding anything and died in there?"


    The vice tower master shook her head slowly.


    "I had similar thoughts but apparently, the kid is like that other kid¡­or even better. He defeated a mobile forbidden zone twice back at the training center and his speed wasn''t slow during both times." She informed. Carl''s eyes widened.


    " You mean, he''s better than that Vlad kid? Defeating a mobile forbidden zone? That''s preposterous! Even Domain Lords can''t do so easily." Carl said with agitation.


    "You saw it for yourself, now it has been confirmed that he''s hiding things about his talent; we still haven''t found anything on it." The vice tower master sighed.


    They were still searching for information on Ivan''s talent since his awakening but haven''t found anything, James hoped to use this mission to get a better understanding of him.


    "The new generation sure is bringing us more pleasant surprises. I almost forgot, he wasn''t the only one," Carl suddenly said and the other party looked at him with a raised eyebrow.


    "That red-haired kid, Clint, was his name if I recall correctly. I wasn''t able to see anything on him either; he''s just like that Ivan kid but weaker. I presume it''s their difference in ranks." Carl ended.


    The vice tower master wore a serious look on her face and didn''t say anything else.


    ¡­..


    After Ivan, Clint, Ralph, Glen, and Karin left the office, they easily found the dorm in the base; it was one of the biggest structures in the base and was located on the west side with countless rooms. sea??h th§× N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The group went in and picked five rooms for themselves, they agreed to come out after twenty minutes and meet outside the dorm.


    Ivan entered his room, and the door slowly closed behind him. The room was a small space with just a bed, and a door that led to the bathroom could be seen on the left wall; this room was even smaller than his room back at the training center.


    But Ivan didn''t mind this, he took off his protective suit and storage device before walking toward the bathroom; he hadn''t taken a bath for so long, none of them had.


    Splash!!


    The cold water burst from the holes in the shower head and fell on Ivan''s head and shoulders before washing down his body.


    The coldness of the water cooled him down as water droplets ran down his skin; Ivan''s mind could not help but wonder while he washed.


    The life of a Nexulyte was really different from what he had imagined. He had only gotten a glimpse of it after entering the training with his two friends, but he only felt the seriousness of his new identity after coming here.


    He had spent more than a month away from human settlement and had wondered inside what could have been their grave with just four people to rely on. They had faced many life-and-death situations together and gained knowledge of things he never could have imagined.


    Aside from that, he had also gotten stronger, far stronger than he would have imagined, and this was all thanks to that one-eyed priestess.


    Ivan raised his right arm, his fingers clenched and opened repeatedly.


    "With this level of strength, I should be able to start with my plans," Ivan mumbled to himself as the water continued to fall on him.


    He still remembered the little girl who had appeared a day before he awakened. He still couldn''t tell if that was a dream, but it felt so real.


    But the thought of more beings like the priestess made him hesitant, he was totally helpless against her; would he be able to survive if he encountered another monster like her?


    Ivan suddenly clenched his fist hard with a determined look in his eyes; no one knew what he was thinking.


    After a few minutes, the five of them gathered outside the dorm. They had all washed up and changed from the miserable states that they were in when they arrived earlier, though they currently had overgrown hair; that was something that they could take care of after returning to the real world.


    They went back to the structure that acted as the office building and found an empty room before filling the forms with details of their mission.


    They only wrote important details as they couldn''t write every single thing that they encountered during the mission; it took them a while to finish filling in everything that needed to be written.


    After which they returned to the office to give their reports.


    Upon getting there, they found Sir Peter instead of the vice tower master. The group was slightly stunned but not too much; this was originally Sir Peter''s office, after all.


    Sir Peter stared at the five with a look of astonishment in his eyes before quickly changing it to a calm look.


    "You came back quickly, the vice tower master tasked me to take care of your report." He said to them from where he was sitting.


    Ivan''s expression was calm as he walked over and dropped the file on the table. He also brought out the stone slab that had strange inscriptions on it and the nightmare flower and gave them to Sir Peter as well.


    "We found these during our mission," Ivan said.


    Sir Peter stared at the nightmare flower with a shocked face, he wasn''t able to maintain his expression this time as his eyes widened and his mouth opened wide enough to fit in an egg.


    "This...this is a nightmare flower! How did you get it?" He looked at Ivan''s face and asked.


    " The details are in the file," Ivan replied calmly without a change in expression.


    Sir Peter took a while to calm down, he cleared his throat before saying.


    "The nightmare flower is a very valuable item and rare to find, it will be of great use to the tower''s general development. Naturally, the tower won''t rob you of what you found while on a mission, you''ll be rewarded for it. The money for the nightmare flower will be deposited into your account along with the payment for completing the mission."


    "What about this?" Ivan tapped his finger on the stone slab.

 Chapter 158 - 158: Ruthless karl

    "This looks like it was written in an ancient language, or it might not even be from Earth; I''ll hand it over to the vice tower master and allow her to deal with it. You''ll be informed if it can be translated and is relevant to you." Sir people said while looking at the stone slab.


    Ivan nodded while Ralph and the others glanced at each other at the back.


    Sir Peter looked at the stone slab a little longer before turning to look at the five of them.


    "The markers that you placed within Region 17 have been activated, and we''ve received visual footage. Groups will be sent out to set up stations around the markers after we look into your report. It will be another win for humanity; good job, all of you." Sir Peter said with a small smile; his words almost sounded forced, considering how he had viewed the group as arrogant back then.


    The five saluted and left after they were told that they could leave if they wanted to or stay a little longer; he told them to come look for him whenever they wanted to leave, and he would open the mirror gate for them.


    "I can''t stand it anymore, we have to go back now so I can return home and get a good sleep!" Karin voiced out immediately after they came out of the office.


    "Then why didn''t you say it just now before we came out?" Glen glared at her.


    Karin pouted and looked away, not saying anything.


    Ralph shook his head and looked toward Ivan, who shrugged in response; they had nothing else to do here, so they might as well leave.


    "Why don''t we go get something to eat first, we can still tell Elliot that we''re leaving as well," Ralph suggested.


    "Why should we tell him? It''s not like he''s part of the group." Glen immediately disagreed.


    "Yes, he''s not, why should we tell him what we want to do?" Karin supported.


    Ralph pinched the bridge of his nose, he felt a headache from the two of them.


    Ivan and Clint watched them in silence.


    ¡­..


    Meanwhile, inside one of the structures in the base.


    In a large room with a single long black table, seven people could be seen around the table.


    One of the seven people was standing alone on one side with a nervous look on his face, while the other six were opposite him on the other side of the long table; five of them sat while the last was standing behind them.


    If any of Ivan''s group was present, they would immediately recognize some of the people there. These people were Elliot, who had been their driver during their mission, James Owen, Karl Owen, the vice tower master, Carl Barry, a beautiful middle-aged woman, and a young woman who was around their age; the last woman was the one who introduced Elliot to Ivan''s group after finding out that none of them knew how to operate a land carrier, she was the one standing behind James and the others.


    "He''s the one you recommended to operate the land carrier for the group, right?" James asked the woman standing behind them, his eyes fixed on Elliot, which made him even more nervous.


    "Yes, he''s the driver." The woman quickly answered.


    "All right, you can leave." Karl looked at the woman with a cold look in his eyes.


    The woman was spooked and hurriedly left the room as if she was being chased by ghosts.


    After the woman left, Elliot was left alone in the room with these oldies; he knew they were hundreds of years old even though they all looked relatively younger. After all, he recognized everyone sitting there.


    Karl Owen, the head of the Owen family and founder of the Owen Tower. James Owen, Karl''s son and the current tower master of the Owen Tower. Freda Alex, the vice tower master of the Owen Tower. Carl Barry, one of the founders of the Dominion Tower. And lastly, Susan Riddick, another founder of the Dominion Tower.


    All of them were powerful Nexulytes who had shaken the world during the battle against the dreamscape many years ago.


    All of them stared at him with sharp eyes that made Elliot feel fear and caused his legs to shake.


    "You followed Ivan''s group for their mission, right?" James asked in a deep voice.


    Elliot gulped and nodded while saying yes.


    "Then you have seen him in battle and using his talent, correct?" James continued.


    Elliot suddenly felt a bad feeling rising in his heart, he hesitated before saying yes again. sea??h th§× novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    " Then can you tell me about his talent, what can it do?" Karl was the one who asked this time.


    Elliot''s eyes subconsciously moved over in Karl''s direction and met with a pair of aged, sharp eyes that made him sweat buckets.


    " H-he can make¡­swords with his talent," Elliot stated, his lips trembling.


    "No, aside from the sword, can he do anything else?" The vice tower master asked this time.


    Elliot had a fearful expression as the bad feeling in his heart intensified, he swallowed a mouthful of saliva before shaking his head.


    There was silence for a while as everyone stared at Elliot with puzzled expressions.


    After a full minute of unbearable silence, James finally spoke up.


    "What do you mean just his sword? How did he kill the champions of the labyrinth and the guardian then?"


    It was now Elliot''s turn to be puzzled.


    ''Guardian? Champions? Labyrinth? Where did those come from?'' Elliot thought to himself before his eyes suddenly widened in realization.


    Seeing how the boy''s expressions changed so quickly, James and the others immediately understood what was going on.


    "How do you not know about the existence of the labyrinth if you followed them?" Karl asked.


    Elliot turned to look at Freda, the vice tower master. He realized that she hadn''t told them that he had abandoned Ivan and the others halfway into the tunnel.


    "I-I-I didn''t follow them all the way in," Elliot said and proceeded to explain what had happened after they crossed the flowing blood river.


    BOOM!


    Immediately after Elliot finished his explanation, James exploded with Nexus energy, and the long table crumbled.


    A furious expression could be seen on his face as he stared at Elliot coldly, Karl and the rest also showed cold expressions as well.


    "So you are saying you were ordered by your superior to follow a team of new Nexulytes for their first mission and control the land carrier for them, but you left them to go further by themselves because of some stupid agreement? As someone who has been to the dreamscape more, what do you make of your decision?" James asked with a heavy tone.


    Elliot''s heart fell when he heard James'' words, he fell to his knees and began to beg.


    But no one seemed to care about him as everyone looked at him with sharp glints in their eyes.


    "I took my time to scout for a perfect place and purposely prevented him from having anyone capable of controlling a land carrier on his team so that an outsider could be added but you are telling me this!" James said with strong killing intent.


    Elliot''s body trembled; he couldn''t understand what James was talking about, but he knew that he was in trouble and could only beg for forgiveness.


    "Enough!" Karl suddenly said, his tone was low but everyone immediately shut up. He stared at Elliot for a while before looking at Freda. "he left a group of junior Nexulytes to their deaths without thoughts for their safety; this is a grave crime since it''s forbidden to leave a fellow Nexulyte behind; dispose of him." Karl voiced out before disappearing from where he was sitting, he directly vanished from the room and could no longer be seen.


    Elliot''s eyes widened when he heard Karl''s words, his heart was drowned in despair.


    "No, please. I know my mistake, It''ll never repeat itself!" Elliot cried out.


    "Sigh, sorry kid." Freda looked at him and sighed before pointing a finger at Elliot.


    A small wind bullet shot out from her finger and sped toward Elliot.


    Ptui!


    It pierced through his forehead and came back from the back of his head.


    Elliot''s body froze, his mouth was wide open as blood flowed out from the small hole in his forehead, his eyes slowly lost color and his body fell over.


    James, Carl, Susan, and Freda looked at Elliot''s lifeless body with expressionless faces. They were not surprised by Karl''s ruthless decision, they were used to it.


    "Get someone to clean this up, I''ll go back first," James said before leaving the room as well.


    "I understand," Freda said from behind him.


    ¡­..


    Meanwhile, Ivan and his group had already finished everything that they wanted to do here and were ready to go back. They went to Sir Peter''s office to let him know that the man had yet to submit the file that Ivan had submitted because the vice tower master had yet to return to the base.


    "I''ll just send you back first." He breathed and got up.


    The group walked out of the office and soon came in front of the mirror gate that was surrounded by thick metal rings.


    Just before Sir Peter could press the buttons on the metal rings, a voice called out from behind them.

 Chapter 159 - 159: Ralphs request. Messages

    "You''re going back already, why don''t you come with me then?"


    A familiar jovial voice sounded from behind them. Sir Peter''s hand paused before he could touch the button while Ivan and his group members hated their steps as well, all of them turned around to look at the same time to confirm the voice that they just heard.


    "Tower Master?!" Sir Peter''s eyes widened when he saw James walking toward them; he immediately stood straight and saluted.


    Ivan, Ralph, Glen, and Karin were surprised to see James, they also saluted. Clint, on the other hand, wore a cold expression while saluting as well.


    James was the Tower master of the Owen Tower HQ after all so Karin and Clint knew him too.


    James had a kind smile on his face as he walked over with both hands behind his waist, his eyes roaming their faces.


    "I heard you finished your mission; I was told that you did well; Well done, everyone," James said to them, his tone was very gentle.


    Glen, Ralph, and Karin showed confident expressions as they were praised by the Tower master. Meanwhile, Ivan''s face was calm, and Clint''s face turned colder.


    James turned to look at Sir Peter.


    "You can return to what you were doing, I''ll take them back myself since I was planning on returning as well." He said.


    Sir Peter straightened up and accepted the order while saluting, he quickly escaped right after.


    After Sir Peter left, James turned back to look at Ivan''s group as he stepped toward the Meta ring.


    " So how was the mission?" He asked while pressing the buttons on the metal rings.


    " It was all right," Ivan responded plainly.


    The metal ring opened with a hissing sound and created a part for them to approach the squirming mirror gate.


    James stepped toward it and the rest followed behind him.


    " You didn''t encounter any difficulty during your first mission, right? I made sure to try and help you get an easy mission for your first time in the dreamscape." James smiled at them. S~ea??h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    " It was fine, we didn''t face any difficulty." Stated Ivan.


    James nodded before asking about the other''s well-being and how they fared during the mission. Glen and Karin were excited to receive the concern of the tower master and answered energetically with sparkling eyes.


    Ralph''s response was calm and he wasn''t overly excited as the other two. Clint was the most shocking, he directly ignored James'' question.


    The others were surprised by this action but didn''t ask, at least not in front of the Tower master.


    James didn''t seem to mind this and walked into the mirror gate, he immediately vanished into it. The group also approached and walked into it as well; it was their second experience using a mirror gate, and they could not help but marvel at the surreal feeling when they passed through it.


    They appeared on the other side instantaneously, and a wave of fresh air crashed into them. When they appeared outside the mirror gate inside the base of the real world, they all felt alive and free; the five of them couldn''t help but breathe in deeply.


    "Ah, it''s so good to be back; I''ve missed the real world so badly," Glen said while making sobbing sounds.


    "Same here, same here. I feel like I''ve been locked in a cave for years." Karin nodded her head in agreement with Glen''s words as the two of them sucked in the oxygen hungrily.


    Ivan looked at the two of them with a small smile on his face, he felt the same way as the two but did not think it was enough to overreact like them. Ralph facepalmed at the two and let out a sigh.


    "Once again, welcome to the real world from your first mission." James, who was standing a few meters ahead of them and had already opened the metal ring said to them.


    The group looked toward him and immediately walked over, leaving the area of the mirror gate.


    It was daytime in the real world when they returned and the bright sun was hanging high in the sky, bathing the base with harsh sunlight.


    The group looked around, they saw many Nexulytes moving around in protective body suits and black uniforms; the situation here was more peaceful and wasn''t as intense as the situation on the other side of the mirror gate.


    They could see that the base had been expanded and more structures had been built in the base. They could also hear loud explosive sounds in the distance, it sounded as if there was a fight going on.


    "Don''t bother about that. It must be a group of monsters attacking, but there are already people dealing with it." James said when he saw them looking into the distance.


    The eyes of the group flashed in realization and they nodded in understanding.


    "I presume that you''ll want to return immediately instead of staying here in the base. After you, all have families to return to. I''ll arrange for someone to take you back, you can walk around the base in the meantime." James said to them.


    " Ummm, Tower master. Is there perhaps a place where we can get equipment in the base?" Ralph suddenly asked. Everyone immediately turned to look at him, surprised by his request.


    James paused for a few seconds before saying.


    " Yes, of course. You can go to the equipment vault to take a look, but you''ll have to pay as the tower can''t give out the equipment there for free; there won''t be enough resources to make it for every person in the tower if that''s the case." James explained before walking off.


    Ralph saluted and turned around only to see Glen and Karin staring at him.


    " What?" He raised an eyebrow.


    " What equipment do you want to buy?" Glen asked.


    " Something to defend myself," Ralph said casually.


    Glen was confused and asked why he didn''t just summon his undead to do the fighting; Ralph only smiled and shook his head without saying anything.


    He had similar thoughts before they entered the dreamscape, but his experience insisted Region 17 opened his eyes to a whole new world. He realized that depending on his talent wasn''t enough.


    In a situation where his undead were being occupied by strong opponents and were temporarily unable to protect him, wouldn''t it be easy for him to die if a monster that he couldn''t handle with his physical strength attacked him? Besides, it wasn''t every time that he would spend Nexus to summon his undead for every opponent; he didn''t go through so much training for nothing.


    For this reason, Ralph decided that he needed something that he could use to fight whenever the enemy was something beyond his power.


    Ivan looked at his friend in silence; he seemed to have figured out Ralph''s thoughts but didn''t say it out loud; he silently supported it, though.


    "Has anyone checked their balance yet? How much did you receive?" They suddenly heard Karin''s voice. Everyone''s attention was immediately drawn to this matter and they all took out their communicators from the storage devices to check their balance in their profiles.


    Ivan also took out his communicator to take a look, the instant he turned it on¡­the screen of Ivan''s communicator was flooded with message notifications.


    He was stunned as he saw the hundreds of messages flashing on the screen, many of them were from a long time ago. Precisely from the time they came here for their mission.


    Ivan felt strange when he saw the notifications. He didn''t know a lot of people, and very few people had his contact so who could have spammed him with so many messages?


    He curiously opened his communicator to see, and his eyes flashed; next to a small bubble profile was a number tag that displayed +99.


    It was from the anonymous person who had messaged him the morning after the New Year evening, the one whom Ivan regarded as a scam and didn''t reply.


    ''Why is this person messaging so much? Don''t you have anything better to do with your time?'' Ivan thought to himself with a frown.


    "Ivan, is everything all right?"


    He suddenly heard Ralph''s voice and raised his head, he saw that everyone was staring at him after hearing Ralph''s question. Ralph had apparently seen him frown all of a sudden and couldn''t help but ask.


    "Yes, I''m good. Don''t worry about me." Ivan waved his hand and returned his gaze to the communicator before opening the anonymous person''s message. Ivan''s expression turned strange again when he saw the long line of messages.


    He started scrolling with his thumb and his expression turned even more strange.


    Most of the messages were asking about his well-being, like: "How are you?" "Good day," "Good morning (afternoon, evening)," "Good night, sweet dreams," "Are you in the dreamscape yet?" "Stay safe," "Please respond when you get back," "Not back yet?"...


    Ivan felt weird reading the messages; there was nothing important in any of the messages, and everything was this person asking about his well-being and wishing him to be safe.


    ''Who is this person? So persistent'' Ivan wondered inwardly as he thought of the people who had his contact. Of everyone he knew, only Glen would be crazy enough to do such a thing, and that was even a guess, as he wasn''t entirely sure.


    As for their families, they had no reason to send him so many messages.


    ''It can''t be Miss Elora either, she''s not so free.'' Ivan thought.


    At the mention of Miss Elora in his mind, Ivan''s heart skipped a beat, and memories with Kira flashed appeared in his mind.

 Chapter 160 - 160: Nano watch

    The person sent a message this morning as well.


    Whoever this person was had been very persistent and sent Ivan a message every single day.


    After staring blankly at the messages for a while, Ivan finally typed.


    "Who are you?"


    Ivan sent the message and pushed the matter of the anonymous person to the back of his mind, he opened his profile and checked his balance.


    A surprised look crossed his face as the figures displaying on the screen of his communicator reflected in his eyes.


    "So many," Ivan mumbled softly. He had never seen so much money before in his life and never dreamt of owning so much.


    He previously still had over 400k bucks after all the expenses spent on his Villa and payment for the workers before coming to the dreamscape; his current balance, however, nearly sent him into shock.


    ?20,400,300!


    He now had an additional twenty million bucks in his profile!


    "Damn, no wonder Nexulytes are so wealthy. I got ten million bucks!" Glen suddenly exclaimed from the side.


    He wasn''t the only one, Ralph and Karin got the same amount as well. Clint didn''t say it, but they could more or less guess that he got the same amount from his indifferent expression.


    Ivan decided not to say that he got twice the amount of the other, it might ruin their mood. He guessed that it was probably because he had been in charge of the mission, that was why he got paid more.


    After checking their balance, the group headed for the equipment vault to take a look.


    The equipment vault was the biggest structure in the base, so it was very easy to find; they approached and could hear the sounds of heavy machinery within the building that was as large as a stadium; it could even be larger, considering how far it stretched into the distance.


    The place was just like last time when they came to get their land carrier; many people with mechanic talents and carrying different tools could be seen moving around the place while large mechanical arms carried heavy pieces of metal around.


    "What might you guys be looking for?"


    Someone approached them and asked after they stood in one place for just a few seconds; Ralph relayed his intentions about wanting to get a piece of equipment.


    "Oh, this way then." The person with a half-transformed arm said and beckoned for them to follow him; he had a mechanic talent as well.


    The group followed him and walked deeper into the equipment vault, only now did they realize just how huge the equipment vault was on the inside; it was bigger than it looked on the outside.


    They walked for a few minutes before arriving in a large square-shaped room that had a space of at least 50 meters. Not many people could be seen in this place as there was no active work going on here. Many long transparent tables that shone with white light filled the place, and inside these tables were different kinds of equipment.


    More of these tables were lined on the wall of the room as well and more equipment was being displayed inside them.


    A man with a short, screw cut hairstyle immediately approached them after they entered the place.


    "What do you want to buy?" The man asked, his tone wasn''t overly polite but wasn''t rude either.


    "Not me, these young people are the ones who want to buy something." The person who brought them here said before turning to leave, saying that he had other things to do.


    Ralph thanked him before facing the man in screw cut.


    Ralph proceeded to tell him the type of equipment he was looking for. Since he had no specific thing in mind, he could only ask for suggestions about weapons.


    "That''s not a problem, I''ll show you a few of our best weapons. What price range might you be looking for? The higher your budget, the better the equipment I''ll be able to recommend." The man stated.


    Ralph hesitated before asking the man what the price range was, the five of them were startled when they heard the man''s response.


    "You can get any low-grade equipment for 2 million bucks, but these are not very useful and can get damaged easily since they are not made with durable materials. If you want a nice equipment that will serve you well, a budget of 10 to 50 million bucks will be fine; anything below this is basically trash if you plan on going out more often and don''t have a combat type talent. Of course, you can still go higher; you can get more powerful equipment for 100 million bucks and above." The man explained while making hand gestures.


    " I only have a budget of¡­ 5 million," Ralph said in a low tone after listening to the man''s explanation. He was shocked to realize that he might not even be able to get a decent weapon with his entire payment!


    ''No wonder Miss Elora said that the journey of a Nexulyte isn''t cheap.'' he exclaimed inwardly.


    The man''s face immediately turned awkward when he heard Ralph''s words but he quickly relaxed and let out a few coughs to clear his throat.


    "5 million, 5 million isn''t too bad. You can still get a good weapon for that, too; it won''t be too bad." He said, conveniently ignoring the fact that he calls everything below 10 million ''trash.''


    Ralph nodded and asked the man to lead the way. Before they started looking for the equipment for Ralph, the man asked if Ivan and the others wanted to get something as well. They immediately shook their heads, unlike Ralph, they had no strong desire to get a weapon. Why would they spend half or all of their earnings when they just got rich?


    "All right, you can look around in the meantime, then." He said before asking Ralph to follow him.


    They moved from one table to another as the man showed Ralph the various equipment that he could buy with 5 million bucks. They ranged from swords to shooting equipment and even energy throwers. But Ralph wasn''t satisfied with any of these, so they kept looking; he had spotted some good-looking equipment at times, like the dual crystal daggers and a plasma pistol, but the price that the man called immediately made Ralph give up on them.


    The dual crystal daggers were two short transparent daggers that were only a few centimeters long and could turn invisible; the man said that the user could make it turn invisible with their Nexus energy and even control it from a ten-meter distance with their energy.


    Ralph was fascinated by the attributes of the daggers and wanted to buy them but learned that the pair of daggers cost 60 million bucks!


    The plasma pistol was still a nice piece of equipment that could shoot lasers that could travel for up to 5 kilometers and could easily take down a monster that was as strong as a Domain Lord. Ralph didn''t need to know more to know that this five-inch pistol was god-killing equipment, but its price was even more monstrous than the Duggars.


    The words "300 million bucks" had almost deafened him.


    Ralph was starting to get disappointed; none of the equipment that was within the five million bucks range was satisfactory enough. None of them would have been helpful in some of the scenarios that they had experienced during their mission.


    At this moment, Leon suddenly sighted something. Resting peacefully inside a small round table was a small nano watch that looked exactly like a wristband. It looked plain without any form of designs on it but for some reason, Ralph felt it was special.


    " What''s that?" He pointed at the small watch and asked. S§×ar?h the n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The man looked over, and his eyes landed on the watch; he walked over with a casual expression and explained.


    " You sure have good eyes, lad, sadly, this thing is above 5 million. This is the Nano watch, but it''s not your typical watch for checking time; the only similarities it has with our usual watch are the three modes that reflect the hour, minute, and second sticks in watches." The man said before explaining further.


    Just like the three moving hands of a clock, the Nano watch has three modes that it could change into once activated.


    One was becoming a laser shooter that could shoot a target from a distance of five hundred meters; the second mode was a sword that could cut through the hardest steel, and its sharpness could be further enhanced by coating it with Nexus energy; the last mode was the Nano shield. In the Nano shield mode, the Nano watch would release a five-meter tall and two-meter wide transparent shield that was capable of blocking the attack of a Domain Lord.


    Ralph was awed when he heard the explanation, the Nano watch was an amazing piece of equipment!


    "How much is it?" He could not help but ask. The use of the Nano watch was so great that Ralph was willing to spend all of his 10 million bucks on it; he still had over 300k from the previous and could manage with that for the time being.


    The man hesitated before saying.


    " It costs 15 million,"

 Chapter 161 - 161: Going back

    Ralph "..."


    The amount for the Nano watch was still more than everything he currently had. Was he really going to be unable to afford good equipment?


    "Let''s go on, we might find something that you''ll like." The man said with a sigh and proceeded forward. He could see the reluctant look on Ralph''s face and could tell that he fancied the Nano watch, sadly, its price was more than he could afford.


    ''He is probably a new Nexulyte of the tower and hasn''t made enough money yet, he just needs to go on a few more missions and will be able to afford it.'' the man thought while shaking his head.


    "We''ll take it,"


    A voice suddenly sounded from behind the two. Ralph and the man turned to look in surprise; behind them was a handsome young man with overgrown, long white hair and sharp blue eyes who stared at them calmly, a small smile on his face.


    It was Ivan.


    "What did you say?" The man asked, he felt that he didn''t hear properly just now.


    "I said we''ll take it, the Nano watch," Ivan repeated.


    Ralph looked at Ivan with a frown, he could already guess what Ivan was trying to do; he wasn''t in support.


    In his opinion, Ivan also got the same amount as them. He didn''t want Ivan to spend his earnings to help him get a piece of equipment.


    Ivan noticed his gaze and patted his shoulder.


    "Don''t worry, take it as me loaning you; you can pay me back later if you want," Ivan said and took out his communicator before directly transferring five million bucks to Ralph''s account. Sear?h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The money arrived in Ralph''s attack almost instantly, the boy was stunned and stared at Ivan, speechless.


    It took him a while to wake up from his daze, he promised to pay Ivan back before turning to face the man on screw cut.


    "I''ll take it," Ralph stated seriously.


    "All right then!" The man exclaimed and immediately opened the cover of the round table, he brought out the Nano watch and invited Ralph to his counter.


    Ivan watched with a smile as Ralph and the man walked away.


    While they waited for Ralph to finish the payment for the equipment, the rest checked the place to fill their eyes.


    While they checked, Ivan spotted something that piqued his interest.


    "Not bad," he mumbled.


    After a few minutes, Ralph and the man came back. Ralph now has the Nano watch on his wrist; it looks like an ordinary metal wristband.


    "Thanks," Ralph mumbled to Ivan after returning. The man beside him was smiling widely after doing the same.


    "No problem," Ivan replied before looking at the man and pointing at a nearby table, "what''s this?" He asked.


    The man and Ralph looked over, it was a small table holding a pair of glasses with black frames. Ralph showed a confused expression when he saw the equipment that Ivan was asking about, what might he need a pair of glasses for?


    The man''s expression was natural as he walked closer to the table and explained.


    "This is an ex-ray glass, it''s really nothing special other than being able to see through a thin layer of obstacles and its sturdiness when compared to ordinary glasses. Do you want to get it? It''s cheap and can be used for fashion." The man explained.


    Ivan thought for a while before asking for the price of the ex-ray glasses, he was told that it only cost five hundred thousand bucks; it was only expensive because of its ability to see through objects that were not thicker than one meter.


    "All right, I''ll take it," Ivan said.


    The man gladly invited him to his counter with the glasses. They finalized the transaction, and Ivan paid for it before returning to his group.


    Everyone gathered around Ivan and looked at the black framed glasses in his hand; the thing looked like it was made from special materials and was very sturdy, while the glasses were transparent.


    "Why did you buy a pair of glasses? What do you need it for?" Glen raised an eyebrow and asked.


    "Did you get injured in your eyes? Or is it just for fashion? Glasses won''t look good on you," Karin added from the side.


    Ivan didn''t answer and turned to face Ralph before stretching out his hand that was holding the glasses toward him.


    "Here," he said softly.


    Ralph was stunned and didn''t react for at least five seconds, he just stared at Ivan''s hand.


    "Why?" He asked. After five seconds; he didn''t accept the glasses yet.


    Glen and the others were also stunned by Ivan''s sudden action and looked at him for his explanation.


    "I noticed that you don''t have your glasses anymore; you must have broken them in the labyrinth. So I got you another pair, take it." Ivan shrugged and shoved the glasses into Ralph''s hand before walking away.


    "And you aren''t allowed to refuse it!" He voiced out without looking back.


    Ralph looked at the glasses in his hand with a strange expression, after a short while, a small smile formed on his face.


    "Fine, I''ll take it; thanks," Ralph said before putting on the glasses.


    Clang!


    Immediately after the frames of the glasses rested on his ears, a metallic sound rang out as the frames stretched and connected behind his head; firmly bounding to his head, Ralph was sure that he wouldn''t be able to lose it with how firm it was.


    Strangely enough, he didn''t feel discomfort even after the frames connected; he didn''t feel a thing.


    Glen and Karin walked around Ralph, they inspected his new glasses.


    "Can you really see through things?" Glen asked while rubbing his jaw.


    Ralph didn''t respond immediately and looked around while letting out Nexus energy into his glasses. Soon, his expression changed; a stunned look appeared on his face.


    "So you can really see through things now!" Glen exclaimed with wide eyes.


    Karin suddenly covered her chest with her arms and bent down slightly, she was glaring at Ralph with a blushed face.


    "D- Doesn''t that mean you can see through clothes as well? Pervert!" She barked at Ralph.


    Ralph turned to look at her and clicked his tongue in annoyance.


    "You idiot, I can only see a vague outline of things behind walls; I can''t see through clothes! Even if I could, why would I look at someone like you?" Ralph snapped.


    Karin''s face turned ugly and she glared at him even harder.


    " What do you mean by that? Say it again: if I would punch you to death, do you think I''m not good-looking enough to be spied on?" She asked with an angry expression. Ralph didn''t respond, he stopped releasing Nexus energy into his glasses and walked after Ivan.


    Glen laughed at Karin mockingly before running after Ivan as well, the girl was pissed and stomped her foot on the ground with a frustrated expression on her face.


    These airheads do not understand true beauty!


    Glen caught up with Ivan shortly and began to question why he only got something for Ralph and not him as well.


    "Are you playing favoritism? Did the two of you form a secret friend group without me?" Glen asked with a sad face.


    Ivan looked at him expressionlessly and asked if he lost anything in the dreamscape.


    "That isn''t the point, you only got something for Ralph!" Glen argued.


    Ivan shook his head.


    "You still have ten million bucks, why don''t you get yourself something? Ralph already spent everything on his Nano watch so I was just helping him." He stated.


    Glen was speechless, he wanted to retort but Ivan''s words made sense. Additionally, the things here were too expensive! How could he bear to spend so much on things he wasn''t in urgent need of?


    " I''ll let it slide this time, remember not to do the same thing again; buy for one and buy for all." Glen raised his head and said with a generous tone.


    Ivan grinned and softly muttered loud enough for Glen to hear.


    " Sure, I''ll use your money next time and buy for everyone."


    Glen''s eyes opened wide and he looked at Ivan in horror.


    " Ermm, forget what I just said." He voiced out before distancing himself from Ivan. Ivan''s words just now almost scared the hell out of him, why would he use his money to buy stuff for everyone? So outrageous!


    Ivan and Ralph chuckled at Glen''s reaction as they left the equipment vault.


    They met someone just after they left the place; it was a middle-aged man with a serious face. He said that he was the person who the tower master had arranged to take them back to San Pluto.


    "We will set out whenever you''re ready," the man said.


    The group was already done with everything they wanted to do so they decided to leave immediately.


    "Follow me,"


    The man led them to a large open space where a few air carriers were parked up, they followed him into an air carrier that was many times bigger than the one they came here in.


    They were finally heading back home!

 Chapter 162 - 162: What next

    The air carrier that took them back to San Pluto was dozens of times larger than the KY17 which they came in. It had plenty of room, bathrooms, and even a reinforced training room, so the group was not idle on their way back.


    After three days of flying over the Dead Sea, the air carrier finally entered the perimeters of San Pluto.


    After a few more hours of journey, they arrived at the northern defense base of the Owen Tower, which was close to the training center.


    The group came down after the air carrier dropped and entered the building of the northern defense base. The place was just as they remembered, with hundreds of Nexulytes carrying out different tasks. Vehicles drove around the place constantly like an expressway, and loud sounds could be heard.


    They Ralph, Ivan, and Glen looked at the place, they felt emotional.


    The last time that they were here was only a bit over a month ago, they were only newbie Nexulytes then who had just finished training and were yet to see the real deal.


    But coming back now, they felt like they had been away for years. They were no longer newbie Nexulytes but experienced experts who had come face to face with death multiple times.


    "Let''s go to the tower building; we can use the transportation vault to return," Glen said with excitement bubbling in his voice.


    He had been away for so long and couldn''t wait to see his mother and sister. He had already sent them a message and informed them of their coming. His mother had promised to set up a feast for them.


    Ralph and Karin were the same and were eager to meet their families after being away for so long, the two had also sent messages to their families after returning and were expecting warm welcomes once they returned home.


    Only Ivan and Clint did not seem to miss anyone and didn''t send out messages about their return.


    Ivan''s reason was that he didn''t have any family waiting for him, and he already met with James,s, who seemed to think favorably of him even though Ivan suspected he had other reasons for his kindness. As for Miss Elora, Ivan planned to contact her after reaching his place.


    As for Clint, no one knew. The boy didn''t seem particularly excited about coming back.


    "You and Clint aren''t from San Pluto, right? How about spending a few days at our place before going back? Let''s celebrate the success of our first mission!" Glen looked at Clint and Karin, he asked with expectancy.


    Karin thought for a while before nodding but said that she could only stay for one day and would need to return.


    Clint didn''t answer and seemed to be in thought about the matter, Glen didn''t pester him.


    They walked around the defense base for a few seconds and quickly reached the place that they were looking for. It was where the vice tower master had parked the armored jeep that she drove from the tower building to this place the last time.


    They saw six similar jeeps in the place.


    "Does anyone here know how to drive?" Ralph asked.


    All of them looked at each other in silence before Clint suddenly walked out and moved toward the driver''s seat. He entered the vehicle, and its engine roared to life after a few seconds.


    The rest of the group were stunned, they never expected someone like Clint to know how to drive. The boy was so distant and never tried to interact, he almost looked like he was pissed with everyone even though his expression was always calm; who was bold enough to teach such a person?!


    Clint poked his head through the open window of the jeep and faced the group at the back, his eyes still half closed and his pupils couldn''t be seen.


    "What are you waiting for, or should I leave without you?" He asked them with an annoyed tone, his overdue red hair swaying slightly.


    The others immediately reacted and rushed to get in, afraid that Clint might really leave without them.


    The engine of the jeep roared before moving forward. Clint was surprisingly very skilled, and the ride was smooth.


    On their way, the group chatted in the vehicle.


    It was mostly what they intended to do when they returned.


    Ralph revealed that he had no specific plans other than training and trying to increase his strength as much as possible before the next time they would go to the dreamscape. The boy wanted to get enough money for the things needed to cure his mother or at kind the ingredients himself.


    "That''s so boring. It''s no fun to train all the time, we still have many free months before we accept another mission. Why don''t you guys come over to Motuni for a few days? There are many exciting places that we could visit together, it will be fun!" Karin declared.


    She had no plans of training too hard and wanted to enjoy a long vacation instead after returning from the dreamscape. She wanted to play around and eat all types of dishes during this period.


    "Aren''t you afraid of growing fat if you do that?" Glen asked; he immediately received a glare from Karin, who told him that Nexulytes didn''t have to worry about getting fat since their bodies consumed lots of energy; she would need to eat a full truck of food daily if she wanted to get fat.


    Glen just shrugged his shoulders. As for him, what he wanted to do after returning was spend more time with his family. He wanted to take his little sister and mother out more often and allowed them to enjoy life while visiting a few of their old friends from the time of their training. He accepted Karin''s invitation and said he might visit her in Motuni with his sister and mother when he had the chance.


    As for Clint, the boy didn''t say anything. He instead called them childish and focused on his driving.


    Ivan wasn''t as cold as Clint and said he wanted to train a bit while trying to pay some promised visits whenever he was free.


    With all this said, the group had agreed to keep this team as it was for now. They had all gotten familiar with each other and had some understanding of each other''s abilities and fighting styles; it was better to keep a team like this than mix with strangers.


    The group continued to chat until they reached the tower building and met a few Nexulytes patrolling, they were immediately allowed entry into the tower ground since they were coming from the northern defense base; the Nexulytes on patrol didn''t dare to stop them.


    Clint found a place to park the jeep, and they all got off; they didn''t enter the tall tower building and immediately headed for the teleportation vault.


    Clint''s face was expressionless when he saw the massive tower building, but the same could not be said for Karin, who stared with a wide open mouth.


    "It''s so huge! The tower building where I went for training was huge as well, but it was nowhere close to this; just how big is the space inside?" She exclaimed.


    Glen was more than willing to indulge her, the two immediately began to discuss as Glen recounted details about the inside of the tower to Karin. The eyes of the girl widened more and more as she listened; they only stopped when Clint snapped at them; they were about to enter the teleportation vault, but these two were still yapping.


    "Tch! Don''t be a sore thumb, you don''t have to share your gloominess with others." Karin pouted.


    " What did you say?" Clint asked in an icy tone as he turned his face to Karin. His eyes were closed, but Karin felt like he was going to stab her with his eyes.


    She was spooked and immediately hid behind Glen. Sear?h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    " Forget it, let''s go," Ralph said to Clint as the door of the teleportation vault closed up. A burst of white light flashed within and they felt space bending.


    They appeared in the teleportation vault in the southern sector of San Pluto instantaneously.


    When they came out, the place was still as the trio remembered; not a lot of people came here after all.


    " Let''s wait for a bit; I already messaged Mr. Alonso; he will be here shortly," Ralph said to the group.


    Immediately after Ralph said this.


    Doom!


    A heavy sound rang in everyone''s ears as a strange feeling washed past them, everyone froze as they looked at each other with shock on their faces.


    Ivan and Clint were no different, and the shock on their faces was evident.


    The feeling just now¡­was similar to when they passed through the mirror gate.


    Their necks stiffly turned, and they looked around themselves; they realized that they were no longer in front of the teleportation vault; the teleportation had vanished.


    Instead, around them were tall-looking buildings with cracked walls and washed paint; it was as if they were in the middle of a city that had experienced an apocalypse!


    While Clint and Karin didn''t recognize this place, Ralph, Ivan, and Glen recognized it¡­this was the area where the New Year event had been held.


    With a heavy feeling in his heart, Ralph tilted his head and looked up; his eyes widened in horror after seeing what he dreaded.


    "How¡­how is this possible?!"

 Chapter 163 - 163: The fusion

    The sky above them¡­was blood red instead of the usual blue sky.


    The five of them didn''t need anyone to tell them before a world came to their minds.


    The fusion!


    The fusion was something that they had learned about back during their training; it was an event where the real world fused with the dreamscape, and both became one, but only for Nexulytes. Every single Nexulyte would be unexpectedly thrown into the dangerous dreamscape during this period and left to defend themselves against the horrors of the dreamscape.


    Humans had managed to study the nature of this event and had long prepared defense measures awaiting it, and that was informing every Nexulyte to gather at the closest tower which would correspond to their territories in the dreamscape; giving them a safe haven to stay in during the duration of which the dreamscape would last instead of them wandering aimlessly in the dreamscape and potentially stumbling into something that would kill them.


    The group had expected to experience the same thing after becoming Nexulytes and had long made preparations, but¡­wasn''t the next fusion supposed to be two or three months from now? Why was it happening now that they just returned from a mission?


    "How is this possible? Why is it happening now?" Ralph mumbled with wide eyes while looking at the blood-red sky.


    Ivan''s eyes were narrowed as he looked around. He could feel the presence of many creatures, but they seemed to fade in and out of existence around him.


    "Everyone calm down, we shouldn''t panic in this situation," Ivan muttered to the group in a low voice, barely managing to calm the group that was on the verge of trepidation.


    All of them immediately calmed down and focused on Ivan, waiting for what he was going to say.


    Ivan paused for a while before looking toward Ralph and asking him what he thought of the situation.


    Ralph fell into thought for a while before saying.


    "I think¡­the fusion this time is different,"


    Everyone except Ivan looked at him in surprise and confusion as to why he would make such a statement, Ralph naturally gave his reason for saying such words when he was asked.


    According to the previous records and other information that he had read about the fusion, space inside the dreamscape was supposed to be the same in the real world at the time that the fusion occurred; they were not supposed to move from their former location to a new one just because the fusion arrived unexpectedly.


    He then went on to give an example of the blood labyrinth.


    " I suspect that this fusion did the same thing as the blood labyrinth, locations have been shifted; that''s the only explanation for why we are here instead of being in front of the teleportation vault."


    Everyone nodded, feeling that Ralph''s words were very logical. But knowing this didn''t help them feel any better at all, didn''t that mean it would be difficult now to locate the nearest tower base?


    " What do we do now?" Karin asked while rubbing her arms together in nervousness.


    " What''s there to do? Let''s turn around and head toward the tower!" Glen spat out and pointed in where should be the direction of the Owen Tower HQ, where they had undergone training.


    Ivan shook his head at the boy.


    " Did you not hear what Ralph said? If space really shifted, then the tower base is most likely not in that direction anymore," Ivan said.


    " But we should at least check, we have no other choice unless we want to roam the dreamscape until the fusion ends; that would be too dangerous." Glen retorted.


    Ivan fell into silence for a few seconds before saying.


    " Even at that, we can''t go in that direction; at least not now,"


    " Why?" Glen, Karin, and Clint looked at him with confused faces.


    Ivan didn''t respond and turned to look at Ralph instead. The three followed his gaze and stared at Ralph; they still did not understand what Ivan said. They couldn''t go in that direction yet. Only when Ralph raised his head to look at them did Glen understand what Ivan meant?


    " Your¡­your Mom!" He exclaimed. Ralph and Ivan let out a sigh at the same time. It took Glen long enough to catch up.


    "What about his Mom?" Karin asked and looked at Glen for an explanation.


    Glen told them about Ralph''s mother''s situation, he only needed to say it once for the two to realize the seriousness of the matter.


    Ralph''s mother might be injured and unable to move but she was still a Nexulyte nevertheless. Now that they were inside the dreamscape because of the fusion, she would obviously get pulled in as well!


    "Damn, Aunty is in the dreamscape as well! We have to hurry over there." Glen almost screamed. Ivan immediately reacted, he moved toward him with blinding speed and covered his mouth with one of his hands.


    " Don''t raise your voice, you might attract monsters," Ivan said.


    If they wanted to go save Ralph''s mother, getting chased around by monsters inside the dreamscape was the last thing that they wanted.


    He might be stronger, but that didn''t mean he was allowed to be overconfident; there were many horrors that were dreamscape that were stronger than him; the priestess of the fallen Angel was a good example.


    "Mmf, mmmf." Glen made muffled sounds while nodding.


    Ivan finally released him.


    "Huff, what should we do now?" Glen breathed and asked in a low voice.


    "We hurry to the villas as quickly as possible," Ivan said.


    Ralph was silent all through; his face was calm, but despair could be seen in his eyes. The Villas were many kilometers away from where they were currently, and it would take them days to get there if they tried to avoid fighting; he could only imagine how his disabled mother would be able to survive long enough for them to come to save her.


    ''Being a Nexulyte can indeed be a curse,'' Ralph lamented inwardly while hoping for some sort of miracle to happen since there were other Nexulytes living in that part of San Pluto, he hoped that they wouldn''t mind looking after her.


    After making out their next cause of action, the group faced the direction that should lead them to the villa and began moving.


    Firstly, they needed to leave this strange neighborhood that kept making Ivan''s senses tingle in alarm.


    They walked along the corner of the streets, taking covers and not daring to be too open.


    "Wait, I see something!" Ralph suddenly called out in a low voice, making everyone stop.


    Ivan looked back at the boy behind him and saw Ralph looking ahead with his glasses glowing, he was using the ex-ray ability of the glasses.


    Ivan looked ahead of him; in front of him was the corner of a broken building that led to a sharp turn; he wasn''t able to see what was behind it.


    "What do you see?" Ivan asked, but Ralph didn''t reply. Instead, he stood in place with his lips trembling and his eyes opened wide.


    "Hey, get a grip man!" Glen grabbed Ralph''s arm and shook him, forcefully waking him up from his terrified state.


    "We should hide, hurry!" Ralph urged, his expression was as if a dog was trying to bite his balls.


    Ivan was puzzled but trusted Ralph''s judgment, he immediately led the group to hide. They found a spot and Ivan pushed a large piece of a broken structure to act as a coverage for them.


    Seconds slowly ticked by as the group waited with tensed air surrounding them, each of them ready to swing into combat.


    After many minutes, nothing seemed to pass by this place. Glen was about to ask what Ralph had seen or if he had even seen anything. But the boy had just opened his mouth when Ralph moved like lightning and covered it, he gave Glen a piercing cold glare that sent shivers down his soul.


    At the same time.


    Thud! Sear?h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Thud!


    Thud!


    The sound of something hitting the ground could be heard from a distance away from them, and all of them froze.


    "I.SEE.YOU¡­.I.CAN.NOT.HEAR.YOU¡­I.SEE.YOU¡­I.CAN.NOT.HEAR.YOU¡­"


    A voice that sounded like countless terrified people talking at the same time drifted into their ears, and the group immediately felt fear spurt in the depths of their souls.


    What a terrifying voice!


    Unable to hide their curiosity, they peaked from behind their coverage. What they saw filled them with dread.


    A few meters away from where they had been standing just before Ralph suggested for them to hide was a lonely figure.


    This figure had long, dirty hair that had almost turned black, but it was still possible to tell the original color; the hair was so long that it touched the ground and dragged along with the figure.


    Its back was hunched and it wore a shit white robe that was covered in blood stains and what seemed like burnt marks.


    Below the robe was a single bloody lump of flesh that acted as a foot, the thudding sounds were made by the figure hopping on that single lump. A large smoking chain was attached to the stump and dragged another stump along with it; one could interpret that the figure once had two feet that were chained but had ripped one off to hop on the remaining one.


    It was a mind-troubling scene.


    The head of the figure suddenly moved and looked in their direction, their eyes locked.

 Chapter 164 - 164: Silence

    Everyone froze when they suddenly saw the figure look in their direction. Its two eyeballs were pitch black, darker than night and two streams of blood flowed down from them, staining her pale face that had pulsating veins showing under its skin.


    The figure tilted its head at a very unnatural angle while still looking at them.


    "I.SEE¡­YOU,"


    Swoosh!!


    Immediately after saying this in its voice that was similar to that of multiple people, it vanished, only to appear right in front of the group; it was standing on the half structure that Ivan had used as coverage for them with its single bloody lump, its pitch black eyes gazed down on them.


    "I.CAN.NOT.HEAR.YOU,"


    It said again while tilting its head from side to side. Ivan, Ralph, Glen, Clint, and Karin were as frozen as sculptures, they didn''t even dare to breathe too loud.


    They could all feel it, this creature¡­was not something that they could deal with. This was especially true for Ivan, who had met with the one-eyed priestess before; he could tell that the priestess would die a miserable death if she were to face whatever this creature was.


    They stared still for several minutes before someone finally moved, it was Clint!


    He suddenly took a step to the side. The moment he took that step, the creature vanished from on top of the structure and appeared in front of him. Its head stretched forward, and its face was right in front of Clint''s face; those pitch-black eyes seemed to be piercing through his soul.


    Ivan and the others were confused and startled by their careless action. Clint wasn''t someone who did things irrationally, and they had confirmed this during their first mission to the dreamscape, so why would he suddenly make such a suicidal attempt at such a critical moment?


    Clint also froze; his red eyelashes connected so no one could see his eyes, but they could read the expression on his face.


    It was an expression of relieved realization.


    He paused for a few seconds before he resumed moving again, the head of the creature moved along with him as it continued to repeat its previous lines. Strangely enough, it didn''t do anything to Clint and just followed him.


    Thud!


    Thud!


    It hopped on its single bloody lump and followed Clint while staring at him intently, dragging the chain and another lump along.


    One of the most troubling things about this creature was that the chains didn''t make any noise even when it dragged them, one would not be able to tell when it was approaching them from behind if the creature decided to dash; its speed was already so ridiculous that it looked like it was vanishing even to Ivan who was the strongest amongst them.


    Ivan, Ralph, Glen, and Karin all stared at Clint with wide eyes when they saw that the creature wasn''t attacking him and just followed behind him.


    The red-haired boy made a shushing gesture when he saw them, signaling for them not to speak.


    He walked over and bent down before scribbling something on the ground, the creature was right behind him and was staring at the back of his head while saying its favorite lines.


    The feeling was very uncomfortable, but Clint had to bear with it unless he was confident of defeating the monster.


    After a few seconds of writing something on the ground with his fingers, Clint gestured for the group to take a look.


    With curious and cautious expressions, the four of them bent their bodies to take a look; their eyes narrowed when they saw what Clint had written on the ground.


    "Don''t make a sound, stay as quiet as possible. I know this monster.


    I read about it in an old book that used to belong to my father, it''s called The Herald of Silence,"


    The four finished reading it and then turned to look at Clint, they wanted to ask who his father was but couldn''t speak.


    After seeing that they had finished reading it, he wiped the writings off and wrote something else on it. This time, it took him longer than before to finish writing everything.


    He looked at them after he was done. The four took a look, and their expressions changed.


    What Clint had written down was information about the herald of silence that he had gotten from his father''s book.


    It said that the herald of silence was a very powerful creature that could go against three Half supreme-ranked Nexulytes without falling into a disadvantage and was very aggressive.


    But one thing about it was that it only attacked things that made sounds. The instant you made a sound, the herald of silence would attack you relentlessly and wouldn''t stop until it made sure you were dead; the thing would chase you across the world just to finish you off!


    (The sounds that he was referring to were vocal sounds.)


    But this did not mean that it only had a sense of hearing; it could also see perfectly; in fact, even better than most powerful creatures, but it wouldn''t attack you just after seeing you.


    Another troubling thing about it was that it would tail any moving creature without attacking and just observe the creature until the other party made a sound, it was like a vengeful assassin spirit that stalked whatever it saw and could move!


    The group had strange expressions on their faces as they understood what this meant, they would have to continue from here on with this herald of silence unless they could find a way to get rid of it.


    Ivan bent down and wrote something on the ground, it read.


    "It would be unpleasant to have it follow us around, but we don''t have a choice; it''s fine as long as it doesn''t attack us; its presence might also scare away other creatures."


    The others read this and nodded, Ivan then wrote that they should avoid talking for now and use sign language to communicate. They were not professionals at sign language but they knew enough to hold basic conversations as there was no need for irrelevant words.


    The others nodded, and just like that. The group started to move on to their original part, but this time, they had a new member in their group, the herald of silence that hopped behind them while staring at the back of the five with its black eyes.


    As expected, the feeling of being followed by such a creature was very uncomfortable and the group could not help turning to look back every few seconds. Thankfully, what Clint had written seemed to be true as the herald of silence only followed and didn''t attack.


    They passed through several buildings and crossed several streets within half an hour. Then, trouble finally found them.


    BOOM!


    A loud noise that shook the ground was heard as a gigantic monster landed on one of the tall structures around the group.


    It was a huge four-legged monster with the body of a lion and the head of a snake. It had two little bat-like wings that were almost easily overlooked because of how small they were, but they could surprisingly carry the weight of the monster.


    Hisss!!


    The monster was several meters tall, and the tall structure looked like a small tree stump under its body; it twisted its snake head and hissed at the group.


    All of them stopped and looked at the monster on top of the building; they then turned and looked at the herald of silence behind them; the creature still did not move, so it was safe to say it didn''t consider the hissing of the monster as a ''sound''.


    "I.SEE.YOU¡­.I.CAN.NOT.HEAR.YOU,"


    The herald of silence was still reciting its lines even while it followed behind them.


    Glen and Karin were already sweating profusely from the nature of the situation they were in, Ralph and Clint had frowns on their faces. Only Ivan had a calm expression when he looked at the monster on top of the building.


    While the others felt that it was strong, Ivan could feel that it was only as strong as the champions of the one-eyed priestess, which he was already capable of killing while he was still a partial Lord.


    Without waiting for the monster to attack them first, Ivan moved his hand and a card appeared in it.


    He tossed the card and it changed into a burst of light particles that condensed into a long golden sword.


    Ivan grabbed the sword in the air before looking back at the gigantic monster.


    He inhaled softly before suddenly slashing out.


    BOOM!


    Swish!


    Air exploded as a dazzling golden sword wave shot out toward the monster.


    Space seemed to distort around the wave and ripples appeared wherever it passed as it approached the monster on top of the building.


    The monster hissed at the incoming golden sword wave and tried to fly away; its small bat wings flapped forcefully and caused the air around it to explode as it rose into the air, but it was too slow compared to the golden sword wave.


    Swish!


    Spurt!


    sea??h th§× Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

 Chapter 165 - 165: Fleeing

    The sword wave shot through the air and sliced through the body of the monster and a part of the building, cutting them cleanly off.


    The monster hissed in pain as blood spurted into the air and rained down, it came spinning to the ground as it wasn''t able to keep itself in the air anymore while the severed part of the building fell along with it.


    Bang!


    The beast smashed into the ground violently, along with pieces of concrete and metal rods, and a large crater immediately formed on the ground. The crater was several meters deep and many meters wide, blood soon gathered inside the crater and almost submerged the body of the monster.


    The four were stunned, and they all looked at Ivan''s back with wide eyes; they were shocked by his strength; he had killed the monster with a single sword slash!


    Of course, their astonishment didn''t make them forget about the bigger issue that was behind them, the herald of silence.


    They only stared in shock and didn''t make a single sound.


    Ivan released his grip on the sword hilt and let it scatter into light particles that vanished with the wind, he then turned back and gestured for them to follow him.


    He looked past them and saw that the herald of silence was still watching them attentively while reciting its phrase; it showed no reaction to the ruckus that he and the monster had caused just now.


    Just when they were about to continue moving, they heard the sounds of monsters roaring and explosions in the distance.


    The ground trembled, and it seemed like some of the monsters were coming in their direction; the expressions of the group immediately changed.


    Ivan quickly scanned his around them before pointing in one direction, it was an opening in a nearby building.


    The group immediately rushed toward the opening and entered the building, prepared to face whatever was inside.


    Of course, the herald of silence hopped after them as well and followed them inside.


    Ivan and Ralph led the others as they moved into the building and climbed a flight of stairs to go to the top floor.


    They encountered some monsters on the way but Ivan easily dealt with them.


    After reaching the second floor of the building, the group moved toward one of the large windows and looked down.


    Monsters were gathering from all directions to the place that they were standing just a while ago outside, more than a hundred monsters of various sizes and weird shapes soon surrounded the crater where the corpse of the monster that Ivan had killed was.


    ''So many!'' S§×arch* The N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The members of the group thought to themselves. The monsters gathered around the crater were not only many but they were also powerful. Each of them having a power level that started at the True King rank to the Domain Lord rank!


    There was no way they would have been able to fight them had they remained outside.


    This was obviously Glen''s, Ralph''s, Clint''s, and Karin''s thought. To Ivan, those monsters on the ground would only take him a few minutes to get rid of, but there was no need for that.


    Accidents might happen, he couldn''t take the risk with the herald of silence following them.


    Moving his gaze away from the window, Ivan gestured for them to follow him. He used hand signs to tell them that they should leave through the back.


    Just when they were about to leave.


    "So this is weird you rats were hiding. It''s finally the fusion, and you''re all hiding instead of celebrating with us?" A beastly disembodied voice rang in their ears from behind.


    Their eyes widened when they heard the voice, and they felt the cold wind brush against their necks; the head of the herald of silence also snapped in the direction of the voice.


    "I.CAN.SEE.YOU¡­I.CAN.HEAR.YOU!"


    It shrieked in its voice of multiple people.


    The five of them were spooked and turned to look in the direction of the voice.


    Right in front of them, a transparent figure clamored into existence in front of the window and took form. It was a tall skeleton in heavy bronze armor; it carried a huge halberd, and its eye sockets burned with red flames.


    The skeleton was six meters tall and a torn cape was attached to the back of his armor.


    Immediately after appearing, it slashed its halberd toward the group; its attack was very fast.


    Ivan''s eyes flashed, and he rushed forward while a card appeared in his hand. At the same time, the card quickly changed into a golden great sword which clashed with the halberd of the skeleton.


    BAM!


    A strong shockwave spread out in all directions the moment their weapons met, the window behind the skeleton shattered and glass fragments were sent flying to the ground outside while Ivan and his group were pushed back several meters.


    " You blocked that?" The voice of the skeleton sounded surprised, the red flames that acted as its eyes suddenly flickered as it looked toward the herald of silence.


    " Eh? What''s this annoying bitch doing here? What tricks are you playing here, humans?" The skeleton grumbled, it sounded extremely annoyed by the presence of the herald of silence.


    But it was only given a short moment to express its feelings as the herald of silence hopped into the air and vanished the next instant; it appeared in front of the skeleton, and its hair rose into the air like long needles before stabbing at the skeleton.


    " Tch!" The skeleton made a sound before lifting its halberd and spinning it in front of him with lightning speed.


    Ting! Ting! Ting!


    Sounds of the hairs stabbing at the halberd filled the place as the skeleton was pushed back constantly and was on the verge of falling outside from the window, the herald of silence stood in front of it and attacked aggressively with its long hair.


    Meanwhile, Ivan and his group members had already rushed out of the place after the herald of silence attacked the skeleton.


    Ivan was able to tell that either of the two were powerful beings that were stronger than the one-eyed priestess, and he would need to go all out if he wanted to stand a chance against any of them; that was something he was unwilling to do.


    He felt his blood surge after he exchanged that clash with the skeleton, and he almost coughed up blood; he forced himself to swallow the sweetness in his throat while using the great sword to support himself.


    "Let''s leave quickly while those two fight each other!" Ivan urged as he charged out of the place, the others followed behind him.


    "Is it all right to speak now? Won''t that scary herald of silence hunt us down after killing the skeleton?" Glen asked in fear, the image of the herald of silence had become a nightmare in his heart.


    "That shouldn''t be the case, that skeleton isn''t necessarily weaker than it. And from its words, this isn''t their first time meeting each other." Ivan explained.


    " Don''t worry, as long as we get very far away from it before it finishes fighting that skeleton, we''ll be fine; the herald of silence usually doesn''t focus on anything else after finding a target," Clint added as they ran.


    They reached the stairs but found a bunch of monsters climbing up, the group immediately abandoned the idea of using the stairs; they rushed to another room before bursting its window open and jumping out.


    Most of the monsters that had gathered outside had rushed into the building after the skeleton found them, the few that were still outside were very weak monsters that they did not need to bother with.


    Loud explosive sounds rang behind them from the top of the building where the skeleton and the herald of silence were fighting, the group didn''t look back and dashed into the distance.


    They jumped over the remaining monsters and quickly disappeared into the streets.


    "Where are we going now?" Glen asked while they ran.


    "Our original destination," Ivan responded.


    After running for a long time, the group finally decided to stop. This wasn''t because they were tired, it was because they had found under people.


    In front of them, a group of ten to twelve people were fighting some monsters that seemed to be able to fuse with the ground and appeared at random places.


    The group was made up of adults, and they all seemed to be in their 30s to 40s; there were only four men in the group; the rest were women, and they were all in clothes that were not fit for combat.


    The fusion had caught them off guard as well.


    As for the monsters that the group was fighting, they were some sort of green slime that drilled into the ground and shot out from random locations; they could also shift their bodies into various forms.


    "Should we help them?" Karin asked.


    The people were outnumbered but were holding fine, but that was only for now.


    They could already see that only one of them was at the Partial Lord rank; it was only a matter of time before the rest ran out of Nexus energy and were killed, and then the Partial Lord would have to face all the monsters alone.


    They would definitely die if they didn''t get help.


    Ivan looked for a while before saying.


    "No,"

 Chapter 166 - 166: clash

    The power of Rules.


    Unlike spells, the power of Rules was different and depended on his will. He had to understand the detail behind a command to make a Rule for it.


    This also made him the only mage with two abilities as it was a general knowledge that a mage could only use one element, all the mages who had been fortunate or unfortunate to awaken two had died from their soul exploding due to the star patterns of both elements fighting for sovereign over their soul.


    "You monster! What do you want from me!" The beast growled at Vee after he walked to stand in front of it, it was still trembling which meant that it was still trying to break free from Vee''s command which was impossible because the will of the beast was nowhere close to that of this abnormal Divine mage.


    "Hehehe, a monster calling a human a monster. Aren''t you a special kind?" Vee chuckled loudly as his fingers ran across the rough surface of the beast''s head. He was not at all surprised that the beast was able to speak and its speech was as fluent as that of a human, that was because it was not a surprising thing to see. After all, beasts at the transformed rank already knew how to speak so it would be weird if a calamity rank magic beast did not know how to since some could already turn into human form.


    "Just let me go, I did nothing to you or any human. I have been slumbering all my life and I don''t even know where I am" The beast begged as the intensity of its body trembling from trying to break free increased.


    Vee stared at the beast for a while, not saying anything. His fingers pinched his chin as he fell into thought but his eyes remained on the beast.


    The beast was getting nervous from the stare of the human in front of it and its body slowly stopped trembling after minutes of trying to break free from the invisible pressure that was holding it in place, it now realized that there was no way for it to escape unless this white-haired human wanted it to.


    Minutes passed by quickly and Vee finally woke up from his thoughts and locked eyes with the beast, causing the whole body of the beast to shiver from fear.


    It was a very strange sight to behold especially if the size of the two were put into consideration, Vee was like a little cat as he stood in front of the humongous beast. But who could really blame it? Vee was a monster among humans, the beast had not lied when it called him a monster even without knowing it was actually on point.


    "Alright, I have a proposal. If you do well, I''ll let you follow me. What do you think, deal?" Vee voiced out in an excited tone.


    The beast instantly became uneasy upon hearing Vee''s words, it realized that this despicable human had no thoughts of letting it go easily.


    ''Damnit, who wants to follow you? I just want to stay far away from you and hope to never see you again in my life. You are even asking me what I think like I have a choice, would you let me go if I said no? Waah! Why did I have to wake up today of all days? Someone save me!!'' The beast lamented inwardly but did not dare to voice anything out and could only sorrowfully agree to whatever proposal Vee had even without hearing it first.


    "Great!" Vee could not hold himself back this time and clapped his hands together from excitement, due to his casual action, a fierce wind burst from in between his palms and slammed into the face of the beast, thereby slamming its head into the ground. S§×arch* The n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Good thing that Vee was not a wind mage so the effect of the wind just now did not cause any damage to the beast but that did not stop the beast from becoming resentful.


    ''So his proposal was to freely beat me up? How despicable'' it cried in its beastly heart.


    Vee realized that he might have acted too much and quickly regained his composure.


    "Ahem, sorry about that just now. I got carried away" Vee did not know why but he decided to apologize to the beast for the injustice just now, after all, this was the only beast that had allowed him to use his second ability so he was a bit grateful.


    The huge eyes of the beast rolled and looked upon Vee in surprise.


    ''Looks like I misunderstood him then'' it thought but Vee''s next words almost made it throw up blood from rage.


    "Let''s exchange attacks, you will attack me with your full strength and I''ll attack you as well. We''ll do it twice each and if you pass, I''ll let you follow me so we can keep doing so in the future" Vee said with a look of expectation on his face.


    The beast felt like cursing at him but did not dare to as it was purely terrified by this white-haired human, it could only grumble inwardly.


    ''And here I was thinking I misunderstood him, he still wants to bully me. Follow you in the future so we can do it again. Isn''t that the same as asking to get beaten up by you many times in the future? Fvck you!!!!''


    Still not daring to say it out, the beast could only accept Vee''s proposal and was finally freed from the force holding it in place.


    "Alright, you attack first. Do not hold back at all" Vee distanced himself a bit and stretched his neck to prepare himself.


    The beast stood on all fours and looked at itself, feeling its freedom of movement return simply after the words of the human. The thought of fleeing came to mind but disappeared quickly as it came. Trying to escape was not only an impossible thing to do at this point but also a very foolish decision.


    It could only prepare itself to blast the hateful human to pieces with its strongest attack.


    ''Such arrogance, your pride will be the end of you today'' the beast snickered at Vee. It had initially refrained from fighting this human because it had been spooked by the pressure that the white-haired human was emitting when it woke up from its slumber and knew it would be hard for it to land a successful attack on him, but who would have thought that the foolish human would provide himself for it to attack? It must be the heavens hearing its prayers.


    Not even warning Vee to get ready, the beast raised its head as its chest began to glow with blue light while a house-sized blueish sphere formed above its open mouth.


    It did not release the sphere even after charging it for over twenty seconds, the power of the sphere was increasing by the second and Vee could feel it too.


    "Hahaha, good, good!! Keep charging!" He laughed in approval of the beast''s action as he spread out his arms in anticipation of the attack.


    Calamity rank magic beasts might be equal to Divine mages in strength but Vee was not afraid of the beast''s fully charged attack at all.


    The beast finally stopped charging after two minutes, the size of the sphere was now almost as big as itself and the ferocious pressure from the sphere was already shattering the earth around them when it had yet to release the attack which did not take long as the beast lowered its head and launched the sphere towards Vee the next moment.


    Vrooom!! Boom!!!


    The sphere tore through space and destroyed the ground as it sped towards Vee at a speed faster than sound, a long mini canyon was created on the ground where the sphere flew past before hitting Vee and a huge explosion followed.


    An enormous blue cloud rose into the air as the destruction of the beast''s attack covered an area of five hundred meters, turning everything within this five hundred meters into ashes not even the ground was spared because a properly scorched canyon that was more than five hundred meters long appeared after the effect of the explosion cleared.


    "What the!!!"


    The beast exclaimed as its already huge eyes widened further due to shock as the image of the familiar white-haired human reflected on its pupils.


    "Hmm, it was not even powerful enough to damage my clothes. Makes sense though, I made these clothes myself after all" Vee muttered to himself while inspecting himself. He was not even scratched by the attack just now nor was his clothes wrinkled, his hair had returned to normal after fluttering a bit; he was perfectly fine.


    He looked at the disastrous scene behind him before turning back to stare at the shocked beast, he was literally standing on the edge of the newly formed canyon.

 Chapter 167 - 167: clash

    "Hey, Alex. Take this back to the warehouse and bring a water sack when coming back" a woman with long red hair tied up with a hair band called out.


    "Alright, mom!" A scrawny-looking kid with dirty red hair shouted out in response as he began to jog over to the woman. These two were Alex and his mother who were in dirty clothes.


    Alex arrived in front of his mother and she helped him lift a basket filled with tomatoes on his head, he then proceeded to walk behind other kids who were carrying different farm products to the warehouse. Of course, his basket was small compared to others considering how small he was and no one complained about it since he was still helping regardless of how little it was.


    "Hey, don''t run with those on your heads. You''ll get hurt and also get them crushed!" Alex''s mother called out when she saw Alex and other kids around the same age started running with the things they were carrying but the kids did not listen to her, she could only hope that they didn''t trip on their way.


    They were currently working on the field close to the village, the same field that old man Vee had returned from back then and had met the bald old man telling the kids stories.


    This field had been the villagers'' main source of food for as long as he could remember, which was fifteen years ago when he came here, he got interested in their farm work and naturally joined them as a resident of the village.


    Years passed but Vee became more and more engrossed in the work that was tedious for the villagers, the process of working on the dirty field and slowly growing plants was a sort of entertainment for him and he spent most of his time on the field tending to the crops.


    Of course, he was not the only one who worked in the field. All the villagers would come once in a while to work on it too but unlike them, Vee literally spent half of every day in the field while the rest of the days were spent drinking and interacting with other villagers.


    On harvest day of every year like today, all the villagers would leave whatever they were doing and come together to harvest the crops that were on the field and store everything in the warehouse of the village. The warehouse was literally the only well-secured building in the entire village. Although it was still made of wood, it was in better condition than the houses of the villagers.


    After storing the products safely, the head of the village who happened to be the other mage apprentice in the village beside Vee (he hid his strength and only showed the power level of a mage apprentice) would distribute the food to each household, separately some to be sold in the next city that would take days of travel and keep the rest in case of emergency celebrations like marriage or childbirth.


    This was the reason that made Vee like the village and its villagers even more, despite their limited resources, they were able to make anything seem enough and would always look out for one another.


    "Old Vee. You have been picking tomatoes for a long time now, why don''t you take a rest? The kids would be back shortly with water and food" Alex''s mother came over to Vee''s side and took the basket from him with a sweet smile on her face. She was baffled how the old man was still able to work so hard despite already picking more than seven baskets of tomatoes and was still going, he was already sweating profusely but refused to stop. She had to personally come over to take the basket from him.


    ''Being a mage really makes one stronger than ordinary people. A lot of people already rested once or twice but this old man had not stopped to take a break even once'' Alex''s mother praised in her thought before proceeding to pick the line of tomatoes old Vee had been picking.


    " Ah, you don''t have to help me. I can still go a few minutes more before getting tired. Don''t underestimate me, I''m a mage too, you know?" Vee tried to refuse with a short laugh.


    " No, I insist. Take a rest before the kids come back, they won''t take long" Alex''s mother refused to bulge, a helpless smile on her face as she stared at the sweaty old man.


    Vee was about to say something when his best buddy suddenly chipped in. Vee regarded them as best buddies because he liked messing with the other party a lot.


    "Ptui, trying to act all strong. You are only a weak mage apprentice, keep working and you will pass out soon" an annoyed scoff sounded from under a tree not far away, this person was none other than the old storyteller who was currently lying on the grass under the shade of a tree that protected him from the sun. He had only picked two baskets of vegetables before almost losing consciousness and hurriedly searched for a spot to rest his old bones.


    He glared at Vee who was sweating like a pig under the hot sun and sneered. S§×arch* The N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "You imposter, if it was truly Vee of the northern continent, he would have harvested everything within a few seconds and would not even break a sweat!"


    "Well, I don''t want to show off to my best friend. What if you get jealous or too excited and die?" Vee shrugged and said nonchalantly causing the face of the old man to tremble and he began to stutter without saying anything meaningful.


    Old man Vee, Alex''s mother, and the other villagers close by laughed at his angered expression, he looked like he was about to explode from rage.


    "Even if you are Vee of the northern continent, you''ll still need to rest from how much you are sweating. We can''t let the elderly do too much work" A newcomer walked over and patted Vee''s shoulder lightly.


    This newcomer was also an old man but compared to Vee and the storyteller, he looked like a seventy years old man still full of energy and vigor. He wore a long trench coat under the sun and a wand hanging on his belt.


    He was the head of the village and the other mage apprentice in the village. Unlike Vee who was busy with farm labor as he was not seen to be suitable for combat, the village head patrolled the corners of the field and protected the villagers who were busy with work from wild beasts.


    The beasts in this area were all of the lowest rank of magic beasts and most were not even magic beasts so it wasn''t difficult for a mage apprentice to protect this small village.


    Vee did not argue after the village head had come to persuade him personally, he walked off to sit beside his buddy.


    "Humph!" The old storyteller snorted and turned away, backing Vee.


    Vee only chuckled at this before resting his back on the cold ground. Maybe because this place was covered by the branches of the tree, it was cooling, unlike the burning ground of the field.


    ''Sigh! I wish I was actually as tired as I look, it would have been more fun'' Vee sighed in his heart while staring at a butterfly circling above his face. It went without saying that all these sweats on his body were fake and he had created them himself since it would be suspicious for an old man to keep working without showing any sign of fatigue. Even the village head who was only patrolling was still sweating.


    ''Anyway, it''s not that bad to sit and just do nothing either'' he added before closing his eyes.


    ....


    Back in the village, the kids had all kept what they brought back with them in the warehouse and left to get what they had been told to carry, which were food and water.


    Alex was one of the kids told to carry water back to the field along with other kids. They knew where to get the water because they had already been prepared by the villagers.


    In another house, numerous water flasks made from the beast''s skins could be found. The children entered and grabbed as many as they could before going out.


    It finally got to Alex''s turn but something strange and shocking happened.


    The instant Alex grabbed a water flask, his hands would release a cooling sensation and the next thing he knew was the water flask getting covered in frost and the water inside frozen solid.


    He was aghast by this strange occurrence and those waiting behind him were also stunned by what they saw and could only stare at Alex with wide eyes as the same thing happened over and over again when he tried picking other water flasks.


    "What''s¡­what''s happening to me!!" Alex screamed in fear as he stared at his hands thinking he was turning into some sort of beast; he somehow refused to think of magic and mages for some reason and all he could imagine were bad things.