Chapter 134: "Is the System Trying to Screw Me?"
The advancement mission for the next rank had some rather troublesome completion requirements.
The ones aimed directly at him were already difficult enough, but who would have thought that even leveling up his clones would make him sweat buckets?
[Ding! Your clone has slain a D-Rank (Advanced-Stage) Forsaken.]
[You have earned +6,000 ESS!]
[Ding! Your clone has slain a C-Rank (Early-Stage) Forsaken.]
[You have earned +15,000 ESS!]
[Ding! Your clone has slain a D-Rank (Advanced-Stage) Forsaken.]
[You have earned +6,000 ESS!]
...
[Ding! Your clone has slain a C-Rank (Advanced-Stage) Forsaken.]
[You have earned +6,000 ESS!]
[Ding! Your clone [ASH] has reached 100% ESS.]
Over the past two days, Evan had been leveling his clones like a madman.
If there was one good thing about the Forsaken, besides the fact that they rewarded nearly ten times more ESS than ordinary beasts, it was how incredibly easy they were to lure.
Or close enough. From what he had figured out after fighting so many of them, they were driven by the instinct to consume mana, which meant all he had to do was put out a controlled amount and they’d come to him in whatever numbers he wanted.
He had also noticed that the higher the mana output, the more Forsaken appeared, and the stronger they tended to be.
Up until that point, everything had been going perfectly.
Then...
The first problem appeared.
Ash was the weaker of the two clones, still locked at the beginning of early-stage D-rank, which made the initial hunting phase slow. At that level, he could only reliably handle Forsaken of his own tier.
Shadow, on the other hand, was already mid-stage D-rank, and with his army he could hold his own against significantly stronger opponents, even pushing into early-stage C-rank territory, though against those, Evan still had to step in to finish the job.
The first day went to leveling Ash. Once he hit mid-stage, the real hunt began.
Two full days of non-stop grinding. Hundreds of Forsaken eliminated, ranging from D-rank all the way up to C-rank, massacred across the forest by him and his clones working in tandem. It was also the first time he had truly fought alongside both of his Divine Clones. It gave him the chance to see their abilities and Domains in action firsthand, and the boost they provided to their overall combat power was far greater than he had expected.
"Let’s check the new advancement requirements," he murmured, curious to see what they needed to do to reach the next rank.
If the pattern held from before, they probably needed to hunt specific types of enemies, like Ash with his fire element, or Shadow needing to drain life energy using [Life Drain]. That had been the formula for the last two advancement missions, and he wondered whether it would stay the same or change.
---
[Advancement Mission]
Rank: C
Description: Your shadow has reached the peak of its current rank. It is time to awaken.
Due to the Host’s particular circumstances, the requirements have been adjusted accordingly.
Kill one hundred D-Rank (Advanced-Stage) Forsaken, ten C-Rank (Early-Stage) Forsaken, and one C-rank (Advanced-stage) Forsaken in order to advance.
Mission Status:
> D-Rank (Advanced-Stage): 0/100
> C-Rank (Early-Stage): 0/10
> C-Rank (Advanced-Stage): 0/1
---
Evan read through the mission with mild curiosity, and the moment he finished, his brow furrowed.
’Wait, is it just me or is this literally the same as last time, just with Forsaken instead of regular beasts?’
He thought back to Shadow’s D-rank advancement requirements. And yeah, he was right. Back then the mission had called for killing beasts of a certain rank and draining life energy from enemies within a specific range. The same thing was happening now, just with Forsaken substituted in.
’don’t tell me...’
He immediately pulled up Ash’s mission.
---
Mission Status:
> D-Rank (Advanced-Stage): 0/100
> C-Rank (Early-Stage): 0/10
> C-Rank (Advanced-Stage): 0/1
---
He read through it.
Same structure. Nearly identical requirements. And not just similar to Shadow’s. they were the exact same mission.
’What the hell, why do these two get such easy missions?’
He couldn’t help comparing his own requirements against theirs. There was no comparison. His were on a completely different level. If he was being made to walk barefoot across a floor covered in broken glass, his clones were strolling through a meadow with the grass gently tickling their feet.
He had initially thought it was a good thing that he didn’t need to wait for his clones to advance before he could advance himself, but now, looking at these requirements, he realized it was anything but an advantage.
It felt like the System was deliberately screwing him over.
’I really need to have a word with Bruce when he comes back online,’ he muttered, already deciding exactly who would become the target of all his frustration.
Still...
There was at least one piece of good news.
---
Mission Status:
1. Advance your clones to D-rank peak: 2/2
2. [Kill]:
> B-Rank (Early-Stage): 2/5
> B-Rank (Mid-Stage): 1/3
> B-Rank (Advanced-Stage): 0/1
---
While completing his clones’ advancement missions, Evan had also managed to make decent progress on his own.
He could now hold his own against Early Stage B-Rank Forsaken, though not without some difficulty.
The Mid Stage ones, however...
They proved far more troublesome than he had expected.
In the end, he had been forced to rely on both of his clones to gradually wear them down before delivering the finishing blow himself.
Shadow continuously drained their vitality with [Life Drain], while Ash relentlessly pressured them from the front.
Only after they had been weakened enough did Evan step in to finish the job.
That alone made him realize just how troublesome his current situation truly was.
If Mid Stage B-Rank Forsaken were already this difficult...
Then what about an Advanced Stage one?
He had witnessed the strength of Advanced Stage beasts before.
Back in Branleaf, even those monsters had possessed overwhelming combat power.
But the Forsaken...
They were different in every possible way.
Their ability to devour mana only made them more dangerous the longer a battle dragged on. More than once, it had forced Evan to rely on Void Energy to finish the fight. That strategy worked well enough against weaker Forsaken, but opponents stronger than himself were a different story.
Fighting them required the help of his clones, and unlike him, both of them still relied heavily on mana to unleash their full strength.
It was obvious that if he wanted to take on an Advanced Stage B-Rank Forsaken...
He would have to prepare carefully.