Chapter 381: Ruined Mana City, Impossible Difficulty Monster
[You have entered the "Ruined Mana City"]
[Difficulty: Impossible.]
"Heh, as I thought," Leon mumbled with a wide smile, his grip tightening on his sword and staff as he prepared for anything that might come his way.
At this point he was on full alert mode, both for sudden monsters attack, or if any player was already here to ambush another participant and steal their potential mana.
Fwoosh!
At that moment, Alphox emerged from his pet space as well, sensing the power around them and wanting to fight alongside his master with eager determination.
"Alright," Leon crouched down to pet the baby dragon, "I’m not sure you can kill anything here... but this should be good enough combat experience for you to learn from."
The ruined city, as expected, seemed to be completely devoid of anything living or intact, a ghost town of what it once was.
Every building was broken, even the streets had massive cracks running through them, and many had even fallen down due to the sheer damage inflicted by the rampaging monsters.
There was no place that seemed to be intact, as the monsters rampaged through everything in their path without mercy or discrimination.
’Is Iris imagining what could happen to her kingdom if the monsters passed through the walls?’ Leon wondered, the thought giving him pause.
Either way, the buildings and streets still standing had traces of mana and massive fissures everywhere, evidence of the destruction that had occurred here.
Leon kept moving around, and even decided to use [Abyssal Slash] to move more stealthily through the ruined streets.
He hadn’t used the skill that way before since he mainly used it in battle for offense rather than for stealth and reconnaissance.
But indeed, Leon could seep into the darkness of the ground, and since he had an SSS-Level darkness talent, he was even harder to detect than normal.
It would truly take an incredibly powerful player, native or monster to actually sense him, even if he was standing right before them in plain sight.
Just like that, Leon seeped into the ground, becoming almost invisible to the naked eye, a shadow among shadows.
Alphox seemed confused at first as it saw its master disappear, but then it understood what was happening and adapted quickly.
Leon didn’t know what to do about Alphox since he couldn’t really hide the dragon, but right as he thought of putting the dragon in the pet space, something incredible happened.
Fwoosh!
Alphox’s body turned into dark particles that seeped into the ground, mimicking Leon’s own ability with surprising ease.
’Wait what?’ Leon thought, genuinely surprised by his pet’s sudden adaptation.
Ding!
["Alphox" has learned the skill "Shadow Step"]
"Damn," Leon said, impressed by his pet’s rapid learning and adaptability.
[The primordial dragon of chaos is a master of all elements, including supreme ones, as he is one of the sole existences in this world to be able to inherit them all at birth.]
[Shadow Step: Use the element of shadows to hide into the ground, making it very hard for your opponents to see you.]
Unlike Leon’s abyssal slash which had a 2 minute duration before needing to be recast, shadow step didn’t have one.
This meant Alphox could stay in the shadows indefinitely unlike Leon who had to periodically reapply his ability and manage its cooldown.
’Really need to upgrade my skills to match his,’ Leon sighed, a hint of envy in his voice at his pet’s natural abilities.
Either way, using abyssal slash and shadow step, Leon and Alphox traversed through the streets of the ruined city, moving like ghosts through the destruction.
They kept going for around a minute, the silence deafening in Leon’s ears as he prepared for any potential ambush that might come.
And at some point, the silence was broken by something unexpected that made him stop in his tracks.
CLANG!
He heard something, the unmistakable sound of metal clashing against metal echoing through the empty streets.
"TAKE THIS!"
"G-Goddamn, why is this monster so strong!"
"Shut up, focus on the support so that the leader can get the kill!"
Several voices were erupting forward, meaning that there was a group of players fighting a monster somewhere ahead in the plaza.
’I guess teaming is allowed, though it serves no purpose since only one person can get the mana points in the end,’ Leon thought, analyzing the situation.
Leon decided to use that opportunity to attack and also observed what the "impossible" monster looked like, to gauge its power.
He reached a small plaza in the ruined city, and while behind some rubble, he and Alphox gazed at the scene unfolding before them with keen interest.
In front of them was a group of three elves, in fact, it was the group that he had seen before in the outside world, though they were missing one of their own since they had been four originally.
And facing the group of three elves was... a massive ape-like monster, its body covered in thick fur and its eyes glowing with fury, its massive fists pounding the ground.
ROOOAR!
It roared loudly before the group, smashing the ground repeatedly to force them back, the earth shaking with each impact of its massive fists.
"Goddamn it, what do we do?"
"Huh..."
"Focus, people," the leader said calmly as he pointed his sword at the boss, "We need to kill it, since it has to be worth a lot of mana points."
Seeing that, Leon’s eyes narrowed, and he was ready to intervene at any point to get the kill for himself.
Standing before the group of three elves was the massive ape-like monster, roughly five-meters tall with a hulking frame that blocked out the light from the sky above and cast a long shadow over the plaza where the battle was taking place.
Its skin was a dull tan color, its eyes were hollow and devoid of any emotion or intelligence, and cracks spread all over its body like a web, almost like a broken statue that had been shattered and pieced back together imperfectly.
ROOOOAR!
Still though, it seemed to be pretty alive based on how it moved and the ferocity of its attacks, its massive fists pounding the ground with enough force to send shockwaves through the plaza.