Chapter 44: Jack’s Advancement Mission
Elara was genuinely kind of surprised.
Not by the kill itself, but by the fact that She had already killed zombies at this Level before.
What surprised her was how easy everything felt.
Glacial Sword Body had increased her attack power much more than she had ever thought.
The Mana entering her sword felt denser, and her physical body responded far better whenever she accelerated or changed direction.
Not only that, her Ice Mana circulated through her body without the resistance she had unconsciously grown accustomed to, making her every movement consumed less energy.
A zombie approached from her left.
Elara turned and stabbed, her sword entered through its eye.
She withdrew it immediately as another zombie rushed behind the first.
Ice spread across the pavement beneath its feet.
The creature lost balance.
Elara stepped beside it and swung across the neck.
Another head fell.
[Advancement Mission Progress: 10/25]
She looked toward the remaining zombies.
A faint smile appeared on her face.
Her new Talent had only been obtained a short while ago, yet her combat ability had already risen considerably.
Against these high-Level Unranked zombies, there was almost no need for a second attack.
She had originally thought that she would be quite struggling in finishing the mission and take quite a long time to finish it.
A zombie had entered within her attack range.
She immediately cut its neck cleanly.
At the same time, a zombie lowered its head while charging.
She responded kindly by stabbing her sword through its forehead.
Another raised both arms to grab her.
Elara responded by slashing its head into two.
She did not attempt to freeze the entire road or release a large Ice attack as there was no reason to waste Mana like that.
Small patches of ice appeared wherever she needed them.
A single frozen step could ruin a zombie’s balance.
Then a thin layer around the blade was enough to increase the cutting power of her sword.
Everything else depended on her own swordsmanship.
Cain stopped watching after confirming that she was fine.
His gaze moved toward the First-Echelon corpses instead.
Originally, Cain had expected his fight to occupy most of his attention.
The Blade Mantis Tyrant had been Level 40, and its Wind-covered blades were dangerous enough to cut through metal from a short distance.
He had assumed the battle would last long enough that he would have no opportunity to help with anything else.
Instead, the enormous difference in their current strength allowed him to kill both remaining First-Echelon zombies quickly.
That left Cain with time he had never included in his plan.
He could join Ron and Jack, but he just couldn’t be bothered with it.
Cain walked toward the nearest First-Echelon corpse.
"Might as well do something useful."
The Level 35 zombie lay on its side with black blood pooling beneath its severed neck.
Cain crouched beside the corpse and used his sword to open its chest.
Cain easily opened his body with his sword as the Faultline Vision took a part showing the easier part to cut.
His fingers closed around a hard sphere.
He pulled it free.
The Core was dark gray, with black veins spreading across the surface.
The corruption inside was obvious.
Cain stored it temporarily before heading toward the Level 38 corpse.
That zombie had suffered a far uglier death as its head had been destroyed by Cain’s throw, leaving little above the neck intact.
Fortunately, the chest remained undamaged.
Cain quickly retrieved the second Core.
This one contained noticeably more energy than the first.
The Blade Mantis Tyrant was last.
Cain approached the narrow corpse lying near the damaged cars and opened its chest.
The moment the flesh separated, a faint green Wind escaped from within.
Cain raised an eyebrow.
A gray-green Core rested inside. Black corruption spread through most of it, but beneath those dark veins, Wind energy continued rotating.
Cain removed the sphere.
"This one should be useful for Nathan."
The archer had already formed a Wind Mana Core.
Absorbing a purified Core carrying the same element would naturally be far more suitable for him than using something without any elemental compatibility.
Cain was about to leave when a faint blue glow beneath the Blade Mantis Tyrant’s corpse caught his attention.
He moved the severed arm aside and found a small blue sphere resting on the bloodstained road.
Cain’s eyes lit up slightly when he saw the blue orb.
"Not bad."
He picked up the Blue Orb but did not open it.
The others were still fighting, and there was no reason to waste time checking what was inside right now.
Cain stored the Blue Orb inside his Inventory before glancing over the corpse once more.
Finding nothing else, he headed toward the side of the road with the three contaminated Cores in his possession.
He chose a position near an abandoned delivery vehicle where he could still see everyone fighting.
Then he sat down and retrieved the Level 35 Core.
Dark gray energy gathered around his fingers as the Ruin Dragon Force entered the sphere.
The black veins immediately reacted.
They twisted across the surface before retreating deeper inside.
Cain had already purified the Ironhide Tyrant Core before.
He no longer needed to slowly test every change.
As he had done it before, his control in the Ruin energy was easier than the first time.
Cain prevented it from spreading into the valuable energy and focused only on the contamination.
Thin black smoke escaped between his fingers.
One vein disappeared.
Then another.
Before long, the foul presence inside the Core had completely vanished.
[Purification completed.]
[Zombie corruption has been destroyed.]
Cain stored the purified Core and immediately took out the next one.
The sounds of battle continued around him.
Ron cursed somewhere near the center of the road.
A moment later, the sound of his spear cracking a zombie’s head followed.
Cain did not bother looking as Nathan was there in case they needed help.
The second Core required even less time.
Ruin energy spread through the contamination and erased it until only the clean energy remained.
[Purification completed.]
Cain finally took out the Blade Mantis Tyrant Core.
This one required more care.
Its Wind energy had mixed closely with the corruption.
Dark gray Ruin energy entered the sphere slowly.
The black veins resisted. Faint green currents escaped around Cain’s fingers whenever he destroyed another contaminated section.
He continued until the last trace of darkness disappeared.
The sphere became pale green and Wind circulated smoothly within it.
[Purification completed.]
[Blade Mantis Tyrant Core]
[Rank: First Echelon]
[State: Purified]
[Element: Wind]
Cain smiled with satisfaction.
He now possessed four purified First-Echelon Cores.
The Ironhide Tyrant Core remained stored inside his Inventory.
Together with these newly obtained Cores, Cain had accumulated an extremely valuable collection within only a short time.
He stored the Wind Core separately.
That one was already reserved for Nathan.
The other three would remain with him for now.
Cain looked toward the battlefield again.
The horde had already become much smaller with dozens of corpses covering the road.
Nathan remained behind Ron and Jack, calmly controlling the number of zombies reaching them.
Green Wind once again rotated around an arrowhead.
He released it.
Whoosh!
The arrow pierced straight through a zombie’s knee.
The joint broke as the projectile continued into the road behind it.
The infected person collapsed.
Jack approached before it could crawl far.
His fist struck downward.
Bang!
The zombie’s head slammed against the pavement.
A notification immediately appeared in front of him.
[Ding! You have leveled up to Level 25.]
[You have reached the maximum Level of the Unranked stage.]
[Further Levels cannot be obtained until you complete your 1st Echelon Advancement Mission.]
Jack raised an eyebrow as he read the following notification that appeared before his eyes.
[1st Echelon Advancement Mission]
[Participate in the defeat of a 1st Echelon being.]
[You must personally deal considerable damage upon the qualifying target.]
[Required Contribution: deal at least 20% of the target’s total damage.]
[The target must die while you remain within the battlefield.]
Jack stared at the mission.
He had already witnessed the difference between Unranked and 1st Echelon creatures.
Even the weakest 1st Echelon zombie they had encountered possessed physical abilities far beyond most Unranked beings.
Dealing twenty percent of the damage himself would not be easy.
Still, Jack did not appear discouraged as his fingers slowly closed into fists and his lips slowly turned into a smile.
’It’s time to use my strongest skill that I’ve never had the time to use.’ Jack thought to himself.
He actually had an extremely strong skill but never had the chance to use it since he never truly encountered an extremely strong enemy as Cain had always dealt by himself.
Cain noticed his expression from a distance.
"You finally reached Level 25?"
Jack nodded.
"What’s your Advancement Mission?"
Jack glanced toward him.
"I need to deal at least 20% of the damage to a 1st Echelon creature."
"Can you do it?"
"To be honest, I have no idea." Jack shrugged. "We’ll find out when the time comes."
"I don’t know everything about your Talents and Skills. So you’ll have to judge that yourself. But don’t underestimate a 1st Echelon zombie since even the weakest 1st Echelon zombie is not your average joe."
Cain continued, "We should find you one of the weaker ones first. If your target was set to a fairly strong 1st Echelon Zombie like the Ironhide Tyrant or that Blade Mantis, you might have to risk your life just to reach twenty percent."
Jack glanced toward the Blade Mantis Tyrant’s corpse.
"That much?"
"I’m certain of it."
Cain rested one hand against his knee.
"Your mission doesn’t say you have to fight alone. So there’s no reason to make it harder than necessary."
Once Jack dealt enough damage, Cain or the others could finish the creature.
There was no need to gamble his life for pride since he knew how dangerous it was.
"Just don’t expect me to somehow cheat the System for you if things go wrong."
Jack nodded.