Chapter 99: Light Flash
Every single Ice Hopper in the vicinity attacked in unison.
Sara and Blade immediately responded.
Six Blades materialized directly around Blade, while complex magic circles flared to life from the Sara’s tomb. One magic circle cast a protective barrier around her and Blade, while the other rained relentless firebolts down upon the charging swarm.
As for Night, he simply expanded his [Nightmare Fire] around himself and charged at the Ice Hoppers like a bull.
Most of the monsters desperately tried to dodge, seemingly well aware of his lethal abilities, but the sheer number of Ice Hoppers densely crammed into the cave left them with nowhere to run.
It didn’t help that Night also rapidly fired off stray [Nightmare Fire] bullets from time to time to.
[Ding!]
[You have slain a Lvl. 84 Ice Hopper | +840 EXP]
...
[You have slain...]
[You have slain...]
[You have slain...]
[You have slain...]
[You have slain...]
[You have....
He watched a row of notifications cascade across his vision.
[Ding!]
[Congratulations! You have reached Lvl. 23]
Level 23: (EXP: 780 / 24,000)
The blissful feeling of leveling up washed completely over him, motivating him to rack up even more kills.
Turning his focus from the rapid notifications back to the fight, he activated [Wind Overdrive] and [Wind Dash], even though he was still noticeably much slower than the Level 84 Ice Hoppers it was still better than nothing.
At the rear, Blade killed Ice Hopper with every precise strike.
The flying blades constantly orbiting her split the monsters in two the exact moment they got too close.
Meanwhile, Sara’s firebolts decimated the ones actively trying to flank them from the cave walls.
While Blade didn’t gain any EXP from killing the monsters, it was a different story for Sara.
She was only Level 67, and similar to Night, she possessed the overwhelming strength to finish these Level 84 Ice Hoppers off in a single strike.
[Ding!]
[Congratulations! You have reached Lvl. 24]
Level 24: (EXP: 520 / 25,000)
After a lot of grueling effort, Night finally managed to level up once more. The best part? There were still plenty of them left in the cave to kill.
The only thing that slightly annoyed him was that despite killing monsters roughly three times his own level, the System still treated it as a standard kill and refused to grant any bonus EXP.
Previously, whenever he had killed foes way above his level, the EXP he got had been significantly higher.
"It’s because of the transformation you went through," [Dream] chimed in, acting as if effortlessly reading his thoughts. "While it looks like you are getting less EXP, you are actually getting the same overall amount, it’s the fundamental quality of the energy that is different now."
"You will clearly realize this once you finally fight people of your own level. The quality of your energy, thsheer potency of your attacks... little by little, all your attacks will start taking on the terrifying properties of the Nightmare Fire, even your Stone Creation. "
"But that structural shift will only happen after you firmly cross halfway through the Demigod Realm."
"EXP is just a resource," [Dream] continued softly. "You are already Divine Rank in everything but your level, even your human body. I made sure of it."
Still, Night thought back with a frown, doesn’t that make leveling even harder for me?
"Yes. That’s why it is vastly better that you hunt things close to your own level, find a way to increase your movement speed, or simply track down hordes like this one."
"All you need to do is get close to an enemy, and the Nightmare Fire will do the rest of the job."
After an hour of non-stop, mindless slaughter, they finally managed to clear the cave.
[Ding!]
[Congratulations! You have reached Lvl. 28]
Level 28: (EXP: 520 / 29,000)
Night was graciously allowed to devour all the corpses of the monsters slain by Sara and Blade.
In fact, the two had deliberately killed the monsters while doing as little damage to the bodies as possible, ensuring he could extract the maximum amount of EV. They well knew he was perpetually low on it.
[Energy Value (EV): 246,356 EV]
The greatest progression he made today was in his EV reserves.
He noticed that, despite receiving less EXP, the amount of EV harvested from these high-level monsters remained the same.
Looking at his newfound wealth, he was incredibly excited to finally have enough EV to upgrade some of his skills.
Watching the corpses being devoured by the flames made Sara wince, but she knew it was for the best.
Though selling the materials in the System Shop could have easily earned them an fortune, in her opinion, feeding them to Night was vastly more worthwhile.
The more time she spent with Night, the more attached to him she became, a sentiment that admittedly led her to make some questionable decisions.
Blade, however, didn’t seem bothered in the slightest.
For her, SC (System Currency) was of little use.
As a true Unique Being, her strength was entirely self-dependent; aside from some rare natural treasures, SC held no value to her.
Besides, since Night was a fellow Unique Being, she was more than willing to indulge him. His very existence made her feel a little less lonely in this world.
"Are those corpses enough?" Blade asked calmly as her flying blades vanished. "You don’t seem to have a lot of high-level skills. You should upgrade them with your EV."
"I’ll check my notifications," Night replied, looking half-embarrassed. "I should have received a lot of Ice-Aspect skills, so I think most of the EV will be spent on merging them with System Girl’s help."
Blade nodded, then glanced over at Sara. "Should we continue? So far, they aren’t much of a threat to us. Even if these dark tunnels lead directly into the Death Zone, I think we can manage."
Sara thought for a moment before nodding. "Though, if it gets too intense, I will need some short breaks from time to time."
Blade nodded in deep understanding. It was almost exactly as if she possessed the ability to see Sara’s internal condition.
Night looked a little solemn.
Through his [Mystic Eyes], he could see something constantly draining from Sara.
At first, he had merely assumed it was just her mana or energy, but now, he wasn’t so sure. The mystery of it only heavily fueled his motivation to level up faster.
As he sifted through his System logs, he finally saw the promised haul of skills:
[Ding! You have received a skill.]
[Ice Spear (Common) (Lvl. 1)] - Allows the user to create an Ice Spear. Power scales with the user’s level.
[Ice Shield (Common) (Lvl. 1)] - Allows the user to create an Ice Shield. Power scales with the user’s level.
[Ice Blade (Common) (Lvl. 1)] - Allows the user to create an Ice Blade. Power scales with the user’s level.
[Ice Bullets (Common) (Lvl. 1)] - Allows the user to create Ice Bullets. Power scales with the user’s level.
[Ice Slash (Common) (Lvl. 1)] - Allows the user to create an Ice Slash. Power scales with the user’s level.
[Light Flash (Rare) (Lvl. 1)] - Allows the user to move at blindingly high speeds in a straight line. Speed scales heavily with the user’s level.
[Ding! Skills have been upgraded.]
[Ice Armor (Rare)]: Lvl. 3 ➔ 15
[Ice Spike (Common)]: Lvl. 2 ➔ 17
[Ice Bullets (Common)]: Lvl. 1 ➔ 14
[Ice Spear (Common)]: Lvl. 2 ➔ 16
[Ice Slash (Common)]: Lvl. 1 ➔ 15
[Light Flash (Rare)]: Lvl. 1 ➔ 13
"Light Flash," Night muttered in awe.
He immediately activated it. A bright burst of white light coated his body, though it remained mostly obscured beneath the shroud of Nightmare Fire. With a single step, he instantaneously reappeared exactly 50 meters away.
Testing his limits, he activated [Wind Overdrive], [Wind Dash], and [Light Flash] all at once. He crossed 100 meters in a blink of an eye.
Watching him warp across the cavern, Sara smiled warmly. "That speed is more than enough against these Ice Hoppers. They are actually slow for their high level."
Still, Night decided to upgrade the [Wind Dash] skill to Level 10. It cost him just 950 EV.
[Wind Dash (Uncommon) (Lvl. 10) (Cost: 1,500 EV)]
The EV cost naturally scaled up exponentially, just like his other skills. [Light Flash] was in a similar situation.
[Light Flash (Rare) (Lvl. 13) (Cost: 13,000 EV)]
It was the first Rare skill he currently owned to cross the Level 10 threshold. As for his Legendary skill...
[Stone Creation (Legendary) (Lvl. 1) (Cost: 100,000 EV)]
Its upgrade cost was out of his current league for now.
He wanted to hold onto his EV, not just for merging skills, but as a reserve.
If he unexpectedly came across a interesting monster, he might try to bond with it, and from past experience, turning a creature into a summon cost a massive amount of EV.
The cost also depended on the level of the target. If he encountered a high-level beast, the EV required to would be completely astronomical.
With these thoughts, the trio pressed forward.
After walking for some distance in silence, they reached the far end of the cave, only to be greeted by the mouth of yet another dark tunnel.
Exchanging glances, they stepped inside and resumed their adventure.