11 Invasion of Shadows
One of the shadows used Time Stopping and, to Liam's surprise, neither he nor any of the other shadows were affected.
Having a reach of 320 meters and having a duration of 5 minutes, the party was made.
More than 100 demons were caught in the bubble of time. Those who were, after seeing that anyone who dared to enter the bubble would freeze and be attacked indiscriminately, did not dare enter.
Even the poor Genex was trapped inside the bubble.
Numerous fireballs were launched. Sword cuts were made. But of course none of the demons were killed, not when time stood still.
Every 60 seconds, Liam goes back to using the ability summoning another 128 clones. Even within the bubble of time.
Within 4 minutes, there were over 600 clones summoned and many spread through the fourth layer and activated Time Stopping and thus creating countless bubbles of time.
Liam did not even have to fight. All he needed to do was summon the clones and from time to time activate Time Stopping to protect himself from the attacks.
When the time bubble burst, more than 80 demons were killed instantly. EXP flowed to Liam increasing his experience bar and from time to time raising his level.
All the points he earned were put into Force.
Quickly, the whole area around Liam was clear of demons and like a wave, the whole fourth layer was slowly being cleansed by just one person.
At the Altar of Order, Liam and only 50 more awakened entered the fourth layer, but all the others were struggling to fight against the apparent infinite number of demons.
Genex had to fly high so as not to be affected by the bubbles of time.
Liam saw that the orb also had its tricks. Somehow he split up and went out on the fourth layer collecting the drops from the demons.
When a demon was killed, its body remained for only 60 seconds before exploding into fragments of black light. That's why little by little the whole fourth layer was getting clean of demons.
The awakened ones in the third layer saw the whole scene and opened their eyes wide. How could anyone be so fraudulent?
"Does anyone know the consumer complaint number?"
"Game Master, have someone cheating! Do something about it!"
One clone wound up halfway to the other side of the altar when it was killed.
[You received a Critical Strike.]
[You died.]
His eyes went dark and the last thing he saw before exploding into numerous fragments of white light was:
[The effect of ability, Blessing of the Gods, was activated.]
He opened his eyes and was greeted by a message:
[You were revived within the safe area of the Altar of Gods.]
Liam's eyes widened. If he concentrated, he could see and hear everything the clones were seeing. When a clone dies, all his memories are assimilated by Liam. Then he was surprised when Blessing of the Gods also worked with the clones.
More and more clones began to die as they approached halfway to the other side of the altar. More and more memories of the clones arose in Liam's head and all the clones were revived in the white field.
Just as Liam could see and hear, as well as knowing what his clones were thinking, since they were him, the clones could as well.
Thus, the clones that were killed circled the altar across the white field and invaded the other side in the weakest part and began to create bubbles of time.
The number of clones that Liam has created has surpassed 2.000 and continued to grow.
Some awakened, who no longer dared to fight more, kept their eye on the classification.
*
1st: Li Yun - Level 68: Altar of Discord
2nd: Gao Jun - Level 65: Altar of Discord
3rd: Lara Carter - Level 60: Altar of War
4th: Erik Stwart - Level 59: Altar of Justice
5th: Misha Denver - Level 59: Altar of Illusion
6th: Susan Calton - Level 58: Altar of Heroes
7th: Katherine Mills - Level 57: Altar of Justice
8th: Leonardo Mason - Level 57: Altar of Force
9th: Ji Ning - Level 56: Altar of War
10th: Henry David - Level 55: Altar of Illusion
11th: Stefan Singer - Level 55: Altar of Illusion
....
107th: Liam Mason - Level 48: Altar of Order
*
This awakened was not the only one. On many other altars, there were countless awakeners who could not stand the stress of the fights and had stopped fighting and were just waiting for the time to come home.
The names in the rankings were increasing in rank as they were rising. Most of them kept their eye on the Top 10, but there was a minority who occasionally glanced at the other positions and it was some of those who discovered a name coming up in position at an astonishing rate.
*
106th: Liam Mason - Level 48: Altar of Order
105th... 104th... 100th... 98th...
*
Within 10 hours, Liam's name became known when he reached the Top 50.
*
49th: Liam Mason - Level 53: Altar of Order
*
Unknown to Liam that others were talking about him, he was more concerned about the two demons before him. Well, not really him, but his clones. Liam stood on the other side of the altar, surrounded by five clones on guard while Liam closed his eyes and concentrated on watching the battle.
Sure, he could use his skill and stop time, but what if, for some reason, in the future find someone immune to his ability? How would he solve that?
So he decided that his clones should fight without using Time Stopping. In the fourth layer there were only the two demons.
[Darkrox, Chimera of the Fire (Elite) - Level 30]
[HP: 50.000 / 50.000 | MP: 20.000 / 20.000]
The two were Elites.
[Shelgar, Chimera of the Wind (Elite) - Level 30]
[HP: 30.000 / 30.000 | MP: 50.000 / 50.000]
The battle began.
Darkrox used his spear to combat the 3-clone sword cut.
There were more than ten thousand clones. Liam did not forget to summon more clones, since after 60 minutes, those who had already completely used the ability to revive, exploded in a cloud of black smoke.
Half the clones invaded the fifth layer and continued to hunt.
Liam had stopped distributing the Attributes Points when he reached level 50.
Shelgar created tornadoes that swept more than 500 clones of existence. Darkrox created waves of fire capable of turning the clones into ashes.
But even so, with more and more clones being created and sent by Liam, the two Elites demons were killed after 5 hours of battle. By this time, Liam had already reached level 58. The demons of the fifth layer were very generous in giving experience.
Two hours later.
"You only received Contribution Points by defeating the two Elites." Genex informed him.
Liam had already returned to the white field and was just waiting for time to run out. Within 30 minutes they would be summoned to the white room and then returned to Earth.
"Why?" Liam's voice was far more indignant than it should have been.
"Darkrox and Shelgar are demons Elites. Demons Elites possess an ability similar to Blessing of the Gods. And also, your actual levels are higher than your current level. They were only using an item that lowered their levels to level 30. Since they were not killed for good, Neutral Dimension does not deliver any reward for those victories." He was stunned. So was something like this possible? Not surprisingly, they were both much stronger than the fifth-tier demons.
"Say, Genex. The way you said, it made me think that maybe... Neutral Dimension is alive? "
"I would not say alive, since that has not been confirmed until now. But there's definitely some will."
Thinking that this seemingly endless dimension might be alive made Liam feel an involuntary shiver. That was scary.
"Time to see my winnings. Status."
.....
Name: Liam Mason
Level: 61 | EXP: 39%
Class: Awakened
Title: [Demon Hunter] | [Brave Warrior] | [Fearless Hero]
HP: 970 | MP: Infinity
Vitality: 97
Strength: 176
Dexterity: 148
Mental Power: Infinite
Magic Power: 69
Attributes Points: 55
Skill Points: 215
.....
The new title he gained gave him 5 additional Skill Points when leveling. He gained it when he reached level 52.
He then distributed 3 points on Vitality, 4 on Strength and 2 on Dexterity. The rest was all for Magic Power.
"Genex, my gains."
Genex showed him just what he had gained so far by killing demons.
[Blood Core: 128.386]
[Soul Core: 13]
[Rank-G Chest: 78]
[Rank-F Chest: 43]
[Rank-E Chest: 13]
[Contribution Points: 118847]
Viewing the both of chest that it would have open, Liam was discouraged. One thing about it is that in certain things, Liam is lazy. Especially in simple things.
Luckily, he was saved by hearing what Genex had to say.
"Just another 10 seconds to get out of the Neutral Dimension."
Liam let out a sigh of relief.
"Finally, I'm going back home..."
"9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... Time is running out . Returning Awakened to your world."
Liam was wrapped in a golden sphere that disappeared.
He disappeared from the Neutral Dimension, ranking 11th in the overall ranking of all human awakenings.
Then he found himself in the white room before everything turned white to the point where he was forced to close his eyes.
When Liam opened his eyes again, he was greeted by the familiar ceiling of his room.
