Chapter 134 - 133: Tender Affection
Chapter 134: Chapter 133: Tender Affection
Gray paused, taken aback for a moment.
"Gray, we’re here to help!" Lante shouted.
As he spoke, Ice Crystals began to form at the tip of his Magic Wand again.
It wasn’t just Lante; Bev and Yanni also began storing energy for their Magic, preparing to deal with the Earth Monsters closing in on them.
Zelir’s team was already locked in a fierce battle. Since Gray’s group couldn’t handle the Giant Rock Golem, they decided to kill its servants and contribute to the fight that way.
"Ha... Well, that makes things even easier."
Gray smiled.
He continued to swing his sword in wide arcs. With the Mages providing suppressing fire from a distance, Gray could clear out the Earth Monsters with much greater freedom.
On the main battlefield, a series of crisp CRACKLING sounds came from the heavily damaged Giant Rock Golem’s knee.
The shattered rocks were reassembling under the effect of its Magic Power.
The area they had just severely damaged was slowly repairing itself at a visible rate.
Even the edges of the ghastly wound on its left shoulder, carved out by the Water of Cutting, were beginning to heal.
Of course, Zelir’s team wasn’t about to give it a chance to breathe. A second, even more ferocious, assault began.
Valles led the attack, once again paving the way with his expensive Glazed Armor-Piercing Arrows.
This time, he didn’t aim for the back of the knee, but for the gash on the Giant Rock Golem’s left shoulder that Zelir had created.
BANG! BANG! BANG!!!
A series of violent explosions erupted. Three Armor-Piercing Arrows, infused with Thunder Fighting Qi, not only blasted away the slow progress of its healing but also widened the opening.
Zelir attacked at the same time, conjuring an Arcane Missile that shot forward!
BOOM!
The torrent of blue Magic Power poured precisely into the gash and detonated, deepening the wound even further.
By now, the rocky body of the Giant Rock Golem’s left shoulder was mostly destroyed.
From the outside, one could already see the rock essence within its body, shimmering with an earthen-yellow light.
That was the hardest part of its body. Once they broke through it, they would be able to attack the Giant Rock Golem’s Energy Core.
At this point, continuing to bombard it with Arcane Missiles and Thunder Arrows would have greatly diminished effects and would be unlikely to accomplish much more.
’It’s about time to prepare the finishing blow.’
With his mind made up, Zelir began charging the Water of Cutting with his Night Peace Staff again, and a blue light flickered incessantly.
"ROAR...!"
The Giant Rock Golem let out an indignant roar, sensing the threat of death.
’I can’t just sit here and wait to die! I have to kill that Mage first!’
It gave up on repairing its wounds and instead poured all its remaining Magic Power into an attack!
The sand and dirt on the ground surged upward, rapidly coalescing into a mass.
In the blink of an eye, a massive rock sphere over two meters in diameter materialized in front of it.
In the next second, it was about to hurtle toward Zelir!
But Marcus had already anticipated the Giant Rock Golem’s target. He immediately used Charge and leaped high into the air.
Infusing his shield with Fighting Qi, he smashed a vicious Shield Strike onto the Giant Rock Golem’s head.
"THUD...!"
Although the blow didn’t cause any substantial damage, its most important effect was interrupting the Giant Rock Golem’s process of forming the rock sphere.
For Zelir, who was protected by the Fog Flowing Gauze, the rock sphere wouldn’t have posed much of a threat even if it had hit him.
However, it definitely would have interrupted him as he charged his Water of Cutting.
Marcus’s Shield Strike successfully thwarted the Giant Rock Golem’s attempt, buying Zelir precious time.
The Technique was complete.
A Water Blade extended forth and then swung down!
VSHHH... SZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!
The blue Water Blade once again sliced into the gash on the Golem’s shoulder. As expected, the rock essence was much harder.
This time, the cutting speed was slightly slower than when it had carved through the outer shell.
’This turtle shell is pretty thick, but can you actually stop this...!’
Zelir’s eyes narrowed as he increased his Magic Power output.
He pushed the power of the Water of Cutting to its maximum, and his Night Peace Staff erupted with an even more brilliant light!
The cutting power of the Water Blade surged once more!
In this ultimate contest of power, the hard essence-shell finally let out an overwhelmed cry, beginning to flake away piece by piece.
Amidst a splash of earthen-yellow motes of light, the Water Blade finally broke through the last line of defense, revealing the Energy Core inside.
The Water Blade viciously slashed down!
Time seemed to stand still in that instant.
With a crisp shattering sound, the Water Blade destroyed the Giant Rock Golem’s Energy Core.
A flash of earthen-yellow light burst forth, weaving together with the dissipating blue light of the Water Blade before slowly drifting away.
The movements of the Giant Rock Golem’s massive body suddenly froze.
Its whole body flickered with light a few times before going completely dim. All its struggles ceased.
Immediately after, a huge crack started from the destroyed core and spread like a spiderweb across its entire body.
The sound of cracking rock was incessant. The countless stones that formed its body began to fall away, no longer bound by Magic Power.
Finally, before everyone’s eyes, the behemoth slowly crumbled apart, turning into a lifeless pile of rubble scattered across the ground.
Kill confirmed!
"Huff... Huff..."
Zelir gasped for breath, his chest heaving violently. Sweat soaked the hair on his forehead.
Although they had achieved a complete victory, the battle had truly consumed a great deal of his Magic Power.
Between using Fog Flowing Gauze and intensely casting Water of Cutting and Arcane Missile, he barely had any Magic Power left.
Exhausted, the first thing he did was glance at his Attributes panel, but his brow furrowed involuntarily.
Level 11 (101/350) -> Level 11 (345/350).
The Giant Rock Golem did give a lot of Experience Points, almost two hundred and fifty from just one.
’But I still haven’t leveled up... I’m so close.’
Zelir hurriedly turned his head to look.
Fortunately, Gray’s cleanup operation was still ongoing. There were still four or five slow-moving Earth Monsters that hadn’t been eliminated.
’Can’t miss this opportunity!’
Zelir didn’t bother to rest. He conjured a series of Arcane Missiles from the tip of his Night Peace Staff and blasted them at the Earth Monster Servants.
"BANG! BANG! BANG..."
Zelir killed three more Earth Monster Servants, finally gathering enough Experience Points to level up.
Level 11 (345/350) -> Level 12 (1/375). Leveled up!
’Time to pump up Spirit!’
After today’s battle, Zelir was more aware than ever of the importance of his Magic Power reserves.
Right now, he couldn’t even activate Fog Flowing Gauze at will. His sustainability in a fight was severely limited.
A Mage with no mana is a Mage not far from death.
Power: 90 -> 91
Agility: 90 -> 91 -> 93
Constitution: 93 -> 94
Spirit: 99 -> 103
Intelligence: 114
Perception: 32
Charm: 54
Lucky: 51
Talent Skills:
Technique Celestial Calculation
Magic Contract
His Spirit had broken one hundred.
He had leveled up twice in one day. Forget the four points he’d added to Spirit; Zelir could clearly feel the changes even in his Power, Agility, and Constitution.
He felt lighter and more explosive.
’Monster Hunting really is efficient...’ Zelir marveled internally.
It was like having a map and just going down the list of Demon lairs, hunting them down one by one.
Once all the Earth Monsters were annihilated, the battle finally subsided.
"Zelir, you don’t have to push yourself so hard."
Instructor Lena walked over from the rear, her tone a mixture of reprimand and affection.
She ruffled Zelir’s hair.
"After the boss is killed, you should leave the cleanup work to your teammates. You’re the core of the team; you need to conserve your strength."
"I know, Instructor Lena..." Zelir felt a little embarrassed being patted on the head by Lena in front of everyone and tilted his head away slightly.
"I seem to recall hearing... you all teamed up with Zelir often back at the Adventurer’s Association, didn’t you?" Lena asked, looking at Marcus and the others.
"Yes," Marcus replied with a respectful nod.
"No wonder. Your teamwork is excellent. I’d say your coordination in killing the Giant Rock Golem was perfect."
Lena smiled, her gaze returning to Zelir.
"Zelir, it feels like this Monster Hunting isn’t even a Challenge for you at all."
During the earlier annihilation of the Goblin Community, Zelir’s calm command had already left Lena thoroughly impressed with him.
His performance this time, in wiping out the Giant Rock Golem, made her value his talent even more.
No wonder Marvin and Manlin both held him in such high regard.
"That’s not true, Instructor Lena. I still have a lot to learn in battle," Zelir said.
He was a little afraid that Instructor Lena would arrange for the Third Squad to handle all the upcoming fights.
"Being overly humble just sounds like showing off."
Instructor Lena lightly tapped Zelir on the head, then turned to the other members of the Fourth Squad.
"You all performed well, too. You each contributed what you could to this battle."
"Thank you for the praise, Instructor Lena," Bev said happily.
Lante also had a pleased expression on his face.
"Come here," Instructor Manlin said, beckoning to Zelir.
She placed her palm on Zelir’s forehead, and a verdant green light seeped into him.
Zelir felt a cool stream of energy flow through his entire body, immediately soothing his exhaustion from the intense battle.
A new prompt popped up from Technique Celestial Calculation.
Vitality Granting, Analysis Progress - 5%
"Leiden, you’ve watched two battles in a row now. You must have learned a lot, right?"
Lena looked toward the Third Squad. "It’s your turn next, you know?"
"Yes..." Leiden replied with a pained expression.
’That Giant Rock Golem just now... If Zelir hadn’t volunteered to take it on, if it had been me instead... I honestly wouldn’t have known what to do.’
’I probably would have just gotten beaten half to death and then had to be rescued by Instructor Lena, right?’
Leiden looked up at the sky and sighed melancholically.
’That guy Zelir... he only just promoted to Junior Mage. How can he be so much stronger than me...?’
’I’ve been a Junior Mage for two or three years now.’
"Hey, Leiden, don’t you dare embarrass us when it’s our turn."
Riley poked Leiden from behind, clearly displeased. "If Zelir can do it, so can we!"
He was already annoyed that Leiden had given up their chance for combat practice.
"I’ll do my best..."
From the pile of rubble left after the Giant Rock Golem crumbled, Marcus found the loot it had dropped: a Demon Core.
The Demon Core was nearly half the size of a watermelon. It was a smooth sphere, earthen-yellow all over, with a texture like Yellow Jade.
Patterns like shifting sand flowed slowly across its surface. Just holding it in his hands, he could feel a heavy, dense Earth Element.