8 Ancient Scroll
The awakened Altar of Order in the third layer watched with surprise as Liam activated his extraordinary ability to stop time.
Of course at the Altar of Order, Liam was not the only one with a fraudulent ability. Some also had a good fortune to get some unique skills. But when they saw him stop time, they could not help being envious. Who would not want to be able to stop time when they wanted to?
They also noticed when the golden bath that indicated that someone leveled fell on Liam, he got stronger and faster by killing demons.
It was not difficult to find out why. After all, all those summoned to this dimension had at least some knowledge about games.
"He has a title that increases his attributes by leveling..."
"Lucky bastard."
"Why does someone like that have such a fraud? Why him and not me...?"
As they struggled, many could not help muttering against Liam.
But even so, they had no hostile thoughts, not when in that layer had a good number of demons with "Leader" in their names, and all were at least level 12.
At this layer, even those who were hunting ground, began to work together, as it was getting more and more difficult and dangerous.
...
"These forms of lower lives are getting stronger and stronger..." a fourth-layer demon, humanoid, muscular, holding a spear and with a horn on his forehead, eagle's head and a bull's body, observed .
"Darkrox, will not you tell me you're afraid of these insects?" Another male demon with dragonfly wings and a more human-like, mocked. This demon was thinner and had a more elegant look.
"I may be a battle madman, but I'm not an idiot, Shelgar. The laws of Neutral Dimension are explicit. Those who invade the force and try to overthrow the Black Towers do not receive the power of the so-called system that has unlimited potential, not without paying an absurd price. These beings, because they are protecting their universe, have been given the ability to awaken and strengthen themselves each time they kill an invader. See for yourself, more and more there are numerous enemies being bathed in golden light. That means they are getting stronger and stronger. Within the area of effect of the altar, when our army dared to enter, we became the huntsman rather than hunters. We're stuck, unable to get out of these force fields. Everything was done to help the enemies to strengthen themselves to fight against us. You, like me, are an Elite. We are stronger and more intelligent than the simple soldiers. So I think you should know at least something simple like that."
Shelgar gritted his teeth. He and Darkrox are rivals and expect to be promoted to Captains.
Shelgar knew that Darkrox was right, and so he felt more and more wanting to kill his partner.
"No matter how strong these lower creatures become, before my magic, all will perish." Shelgar proclaimed as if he were an absolute king.
"Not if I kill them first," Darkrox remarked coldly as he watched a certain young man with a bent sword fighting two demon leaders. This young man would sometimes throw fireballs, sometimes spearheads and spears, and sometimes he would cast a higher-level spell, creating an almost invisible bubble around him and freezing everything around him. "Interesting... he has the same magic as the lord..."
The young man, after a lot of effort and clearly with his foot in the pit, managed to kill two level 15 Elites. Then he was bathed twice golden light and before the eyes of Darkrox and Shelgar, all the wounds and weariness that he demonstrated, disappeared.
"Humph... So he has temporal magic similar to the Duke? He is still clearly weaker than you. Defeating him will not even need to use 10% of my real power."
Darkrox rolled his eyes at the next roommate.
"Sometimes I think you've been adopted..." Darkrox can not but comment.
....
Instead of continuing to fight after killing the two Leaders demons, he returned to the white field at high speed.
As soon as he entered the field blank, he exclaimed,
"Genex, my earnings"
[Blood Core: 14.386]
[Soul Core: 2]
[Rank-G Chest: 3]
[Rank-E Chest: 1]
[Contribution Points : 6.847]
Now he had two Soul Core, plus he had enough Skill Points to increase rank of a Rank-G ability.
Without hesitation, he opened the status and allocated all the free points in Mental Power.
.....
Name: Liam Mason
Level: 32 | EXP: 2%
Class: Awakened
Title: [Demon Hunter] | [Brave Warrior]
HP: 340 | MP: 850
Vitality: 34
Strength: 63
Dexterity: 70
Mental Power: 85
Magic Power: 23
Attributes Points: 0
Skill Points: 75
.....
Instead of using the Skill Points, he decided to open the chests first.
Of the Rank-G's Chests, he received 20 Blood Core, a ring with a blue stone and a dagger.
From the Rank-E Chest, he received something incredible. A parchment.
Liam removed the red ribbon and opened the parchment.
.....
Ancient Scroll: multiplication spell.
Canticle: "My greed can not be contained. My desire can not be denied. My words can not be ignored. With the old power, everything was settled. The laws of physics are meaningless. Multiply everything without being contained."
Effect: An item will be multiplied by 2 successively while the user has Mana.
Cost: 500 MP 2x for each additional multiplication
Uses: 1
.....
With the help of Genex, Liam was able to understand how this parchment worked.
For example:
1 Blood Core + 500 MP = 2 Blood Core
2 Blood Core + 1000 MP = 4 Blood Core
4 Blood Core + 2000 MP = 8 Blood Core
8 Blood Core + 4000 MP = 16 Blood Core
16 Blood Core + 8000 MP = 32 Blood Core
32 Blood Core + 16000 MP = 64 Blood Core
64 Blood Core + 32000 MP = 128 Blood Core
he can only use a single item and while it has MP to meet the requirement, the item will continue to multiply.
"If I use that in Soul Core... This is a unique opportunity... I can not waste..."
He made his choice. Liam opened the skill window.
.....
Shadow of Darkness (Active): the ability to create clones of real shadows.
Rank: G (0/50)
Effect: Creates true clones with 10% of user attributes and all abilities (except Shadow of Darkness), user titles and equipment.
Clone Duration: 30 seconds
Quantity: 2 Clones
Cost: 5000 MP per Clone
Cooldown: 30 minutes
.....
Currently he had 75 Skill Points. He did not hesitate to use 50 to raise the skill for Rank-F.
.....
Shadow of Darkness (Active): the ability to create clones of real shadows.
Rank: F (0/100)
Effect: Create true clones with 15% user attributes and all abilities (except Shadow of Darkness), user titles and equipment.
Clone Duration: 1 minute
Quantity: 4 Clones
Cost: 5000 MP per Clone
Cooldown: 25 minutes
.....
"Damn!" He cursed. "The cost remains the same. That means no matter the rank of this ability, I'll have to spend 5.000 MP for each clone. How will I get 5.000 MP? This will take forever!"
He felt wronged. Shadow of Darkness is the only skill that allows you to kill demons easier and faster.
Liam took a deep breath.
"Being angry will not help me at all. The only thing I can do is to keep moving forward and not lose my goal in mind."
...
In the third layer, after increasing Time Stopping to Rank-E.
.....
Time Stopping (Active): the ability to stop time. The user is no longer affected by time.
Rank: E (0/400)
Duration: 12 seconds
Range: 20 meters around the user
Restriction: does not affect those that are 15 levels above the user
Cost: 400 MP
Cooldown: 45 seconds
.....
Using and abusing your abilities to the utmost, Liam began killing demons as a machine. He has killed more than 20.000 demons in all. With this astronomical number, he has already become a great warrior able to use sword and magic at the same time. His body moved just the way he wanted it to.
He spent another 10 uninterrupted hours fighting and killing demons, among them, countless Leaders. But even so, leveling up was not as easy as he'd imagined. Not when he was more than 10 levels above the demons. He had to kill an astronomical number to climb on only 1 level. Fortunately, demons with "Leader" in their names were generous in giving EXP.
He was struggling like this because Genex warned him that the additional Luck that the Order of the Gods had achieved for all would last only 144 hours. Now, they had only a little over 40 hours to return to Earth, and so the extra lucky buff would end.
Genex also warned that the more dangerous it was, the greater the rewards. That is why, at a certain hour, he decided to enter the fourth layer, but he noticed that, on the other side of the blue barrier, there were two demons that looked different, much stronger than the others. Genex soon identified them for Liam.
[Darkrox, Fire Chimera (Elite) - Level 30]
[HP: 50.000 / 50.000 | MP: 20.000 / 20.000]
Strong. Extremely strong.
[Shelgar, Chimera of the Wind (Elite) - Level 30]
[HP: 30.000 / 30.000 | MP: 50.000 / 50.000]
Looking at the HP and MP of the two named demons, Liam soon guessed that Darkrox was a type of warrior while Shelgar was a type of magician. To beat them would be impossible for him.
Knowing this, Liam felt no shame in going back to the white field where he knew that the sight of the fourth layer demons could not arrive, since the colored barriers were in the way, then he circled the altar. And far from the two named demons, he entered the fourth layer, where with his life on the line, fought fiercely.
Prior to entering the fourth layer, he was already a level 39 awakened. After fighting for two hours in the fourth layer, he reached level 42 and then after fighting 3 demons with the word "Leader" in his names, and kill them, he obviously received a message from the system after leveling to level 43.
[You received a Critical Strike.]
[You died.]
His eyes went dark and the last thing he saw before exploding into countless fragments of white light was:
[The effect of the ability, Blessing of the Gods, was activated.]
