Chapter 013

Canis is now at the top of another building.

He is looking over the battle that is happening on the ground.

Maple can be seen slaughtering Grandiflorians while avoiding the security personnel.

"Pathetic…"

It wasn't about Maple but about himself.

Canis looks at his hands and remembers the battle.

No.

(I didn't even fight back… I cannot even call it a fight… it was a one-sided slaughter with me as the victim… He just let his guard down, that is the only way I survive this time.)

(Even Maple had a hard time fighting that guy, if we didn't have the element of surprise, and if those guys have the luxury to investigate us like how normal Champions do to each other, then I bet we will not win that fight.)

In addition.

(Maple got lucky that the enemy entered the pollen area with Hydra's Embrace with lethal toxicity and Dream Garden with quick-acting paralysis, slow-acting poison, and slow-acting hallucinations.)

Power and Authority.

That is his dream, he thought having Maple was already enough, and he thought it would change everything.

No.

(Though Maple gives me a fighting chance, I am far from achieving my dream.)

He taps his leg bag, a bag that contains different kinds of herbs, instinctively.

(Unique Ability: Grandiflorian Absorption.)

It's the ability that he received when Maple was born.

The ability will let him consume a 'plant' or 'fungi', and absorb and use its abilities for 1 hour.

He will have an immunity to the 'plant' or 'fungi' that he uses his skill on and consume.

Even Death Mushroom, lost its effect when Canis ate it.

Even though the ability has an 8-hour cooldown, it's a very useful ability when you need it the most.

He remembers back when he received the ability and immediately tested it, he consumed a herb with a paralytic nature, he was ready to get paralyzed at that moment but it didn't happen.

Instead, he gains the ability to slowly inflict paralysis on a creature via breath.

However, eating the death mushroom at that time is a gamble for him.

He just received this ability and hasn't tested it fully. 

Yet, he used it on one of the most dangerous plants available on the market… just because he was on the brink of death.

Surely, this ability saves him now, but what if the enemy is similar to Grandiflorians, or inanimate monsters, or anyone who is immune to poison… will he still survive?

(Is this enough for me to reach my dreams…)

…

…

…

There is only one answer to that.

(I don't think it's enough… even if I have this ability or continue to train my body every day… what I have now isn't enough.)

Maple killed another Grandiflorian while keeping the humans at bay using vines and mushrooms.

His insane recovery ability under the scorching sun puts him in a very advantageous position, even when the three groups are focusing their attack on him.

Then Canis glances in the direction of the previous battle, the tower with a damage roof top, like a bomb exploded in the top.

The vault shines under the bright light.

He could not see his previous enemies but he knew that they were lying down on the ground, bloodless.

Then he remembered the loot that he got from the mission…

"A wand that enhances wind ability, a ring that doubles the forces, a Circlet of Rexus (this was labeled properly in the vault), Axe of Fire and Ice Storm (a label was indicated on the transparent container)."

"And lastly…"

A crown with four prongs protruding on the side, each prong has an 'eight note' musical note design pattern, there is a small circular cut in the middle, and the whole rim has uneven crevices and slots.

The first thing that came to his mind was… 'Metal Puzzle'.

That is what it feels like to Canis, it feels like this crown is unfinished and you need to find the remaining piece to see the whole art.

However, what interests him is not the 'Metal Puzzle' but the golden aura around it.

This crown is compatible with him, but unfortunately, it is not compatible with the Circlet of Rexus.

Which is normal for anyone who knows about artifacts.

Unfortunately, it's not just compatibility with the user that should be taken into consideration when equipping artifacts they should also consider 'Synchronizing'.

Synchronizing appears 4 years after The Descend when a Champion can equip two artifacts at the same time, without losing the effect of the other one.

On the contrary, the effects of both artifacts even improved due to Synchronization.

This made rich individuals hunt down artifacts that may be compatible with each other.

Going back, what surprised him the most about the crown wasn't its ability to double the effect of 'Your my friend' ability against monsters, a type 'Charm' ability which has no use to him because he doesn't have the 'ability' that is required to use this.

What took his interest was the name that appeared whenever he put mana on the crown.

Crown of Orpheus.

This doesn't happen to artifacts.

In fact, only humans put names on the artifact, the only information you will receive when you put mana on the artifact are the abilities effect, number of uses, limits, cooldowns, and various restrictions of the artifacts.

So Canis felt surprised when he first experienced this.

He knew that this artifact was special and even if the artifact wasn't useful to him, he just needed to keep it for now.

Canis goes back and looks at the war that is happening on the ground.

Maple killed the last Grandiflorian and some of the 'thieves' already started to run away.

They scattered like insects and went into separate ways.

"Alright, the preparation is done… let's begin the next phase."

*****

Joaquin Alfredo.

He is one of the most wanted Champions in the world, the one who lead the biggest cartel after The Descend, he created one of the five biggest Dark Guilds in the world, which is stationed in the center of a dead zone, in Mexico.

The leader of the dark guild, Muerte La Marcha, personally traveled towards the United Asia to get what he wanted.

"Jefe! Jefe!"

A man wearing light armor with daggers resting on the side rushed towards Joaquin.

"Oi! What happened!?"

Joaquin sitting down on coach asks the man.

Blowing his cigar and putting it on the table.

Everybody in the room is already in commotion.

"The plan is ruined Jefe, some 'persona' already intruded on UASF."

Juaquin Alfredo stood up.

"Why? Isn't that one of our 'Cholo'?"

"No! Jefe! We don't know who is it yet. We only saw that the top part of the UASF exploded and that there was a vault on the top floor. Some of the security seems to have died too."

"Died? The security? Isn't Commander Girthwell the one heading the UASF right now… Hmmm… How many intruders are there?."

Joaquin said with a serious look on his face, it didn't make sense to him.

"Eh! From the looks of it… Uno, it looks like he is a tamer."

The man doesn't look confident.

"WAHAHAHAHA! UNO! TAMER!"

Instead of worrying Joaquin laughs at the remarks.

"Check again! Commander Girthwell will not fall to a single tamer… Aside from that there are countless Yellow to Green Rank Champions inside, telling me that a single tamer kills all of them and opens the vault is stupid. There must be others involved with the intruder, find them and kill them it doesn't matter."

Joaquin shook his head and whispered.

"Pendejo."

(How could a Violet Rank die against a Tamer? My Cholo are a group of Pendejo… If it so easy to kill a Violet Rank I can walk towards the gate and kill all the Champions.)

"TODO EL MUNDO!"

Everybody looks at their Jefe.

"I didn't come here to play games with any of you or a fucking single Tamer, comprede! I came here and used the Conqueror Pillar Stone to get this…"

Joaquin showed everyone the crown he is currently wearing.

"So everyone, put down what you're doing focus on getting inside UASF and hunt down that Tamer and his group, I don't care if you kill him or bring him alive, the important thing is to bring the crown to ME!"

"YES! JEFE!"

"AI! JEFE!"

Everyone exited the room, except for his bodyguard and his servant.

Joaquin sat down once again in the coach.

(Freaking pendejo, they wanted to play around when I spent a lot of money just for the info on the crown.)

He just thought of the crown and looked at the television before him, which reflected the crown on his head.

Three prongs are protruding in the front side of the crown and there is a horse design similar to a chess piece for each of the protruding prongs.

The left horse is looking behind so he can see the 'back of the head' of the horse, the middle horse is looking in looking down and he can see the 'top head' of the horse and finally, the right side is looking forward and he could see the 'face' of the horse.

(Crown of Orobas, not only does this artifact see the past and future of a certain area, but it provides a resistance for 'Dark-Spirit'.)

Spirit monsters are hard to deal with, only elemental abilities can work on those monsters.

Champions needed to buy elemental enchanted weapons whenever they needed to fight spirit monsters.

Which adds to the cost of hunting them down.

But that isn't the case for Joaquin Alfredo, from the beginning inflicting damage is not the problem.

Joaquin opens his hand and a black fire appears.

The initial step to cast any magic-related abilities is to conjure the element you have.

This knowledge is immediately available to any Mage Class Champions so they didn't have any problem doing it.

Joaquin's element is Dark Flame.

(Tsk! Dark Flame… if only my Violet Quest Level Up wasn't about killing thousands of Dark-Spirits and instead killing Light-Spirits I wouldn't have this problem.)

(Those Blue Rank Dark-Spirits tend to group together, so I wanted to raise my resistance against them before starting the quest… not only will my chance of survival increase but those spirits will be easier to deal with.)

In addition, Joaquin's white spear glinted on the side of the room when the sunlight reflected.

Joaquin glanced at his Light Enchanted Spear.

*****

After a while, Joaquin continues to relax in VIP room of a hotel far away from the UASF.

Step! Step! Step!

Creak!

The door opened and a man came inside.

"Jefe! Jefe! I need to report!"

Ha! Ha! Ha!

The man is catching his breath because he runs up on the stairs from the ground to the high floor.

"Jefe! The monster! The big red tree! Killed all of those other trees!"

Joaquin didn't understand at all.

"Ei! Someone give that guy some water."

The servant immediately gives the cholo some bottled water and the man gulps it down.

Joaquin look at the man and using his point finger and middle finger, he command the man to repeat what he said.

"Again!"

"Ah! He! Jefe! We are fighting those tree monsters and those UASF security right… then this red tree monster appeared from nowhere… we thought we had another monster to fight but it helped us Jefe! The monster helps us!"

"Help?"

Joaquin asked, still confused about what the man was blabbering about.

"You see Jefe, after the red tree arrived and attack those monsters. We began to focus our attention on killing those security personnel."

(Isn't that a good thing that a random monster helps but then…)

"Then is it time to enter the facility? Did you already secure the entrance?"

Joaquin leaned forward, ready to stand up as soon as he confirmed that they could now enter the facility.

"Ah eh! Jefe…"

The Cholo cannot respond properly.

"About that, after the red tree killed all the other monsters, the monster focus went on attacking us… specifically, our group."

"Huh? Does it mean it didn't attack the security group? Even so, why did you run? You could all team up to kill it."

Joaquin looked at the man in front of him with sinister eyes.

(Running away when I gave you a mission? Are you courageous? Or stupid?)

"Ah eh…"

The man perspired immediately.

"Tsk!"

Joaquin cast his Dark Flame in his hand.

"Jefe! Please Jefe! Everyone that the monster fought died Jefe! Please you have to-"

"Incinerate!"

Joaquin touches the man and he immediately burns.

"AHHHHHHH!!!!"

The man didn't know what to do and ran towards the glass panel.

Break!

"AHHHHHhhhhhhh!"

The man's voice was lost as he fall down in the top level floor.

"Tsk! Pendejo! Pendejo! Pendejo! Every Cholo out there is a Pendejo!"

Bam! 

Joaquin kicked the chair and the chair flew towards the broken window panel.

Joaquin can feel the wind on the top floor of the building.

"Someone cover it up!"

One of the servants immediately grabbed a carpet in the other room and made a hastefull cover with duct tape.

"I still haven't got any good news!"

Joaquin shouted while he looks how his servant secured the carpet to the glass panel.

Step! Step! Step!

"Jefe! Jefe! Jefe!"

Another cholo went inside the room.

His eyes are panicking as he looks at Joaquin.

"Jefe it's here! It's here!"

The guy who entered the room is the same guy who monitored the battle on UASF.

"Who is here?"

(Is it General Girthwell… well this place will not be enough for a showdown… I should move to the rooftop.)

"The Tamer! Jefe! The monster is already going up Jefe!"

However, his excitement died down.

(Tamer… Puah.)

"Ah! What is the monster again? Carlos could you take care of it, A yellow rank monster is a waste of our time."

One of his bodyguards Carlos, a bald man with a scar and tattoo on his face nodded.

"Of course Jefe."

"Wa… Wait… Yellow…"

The cholo that was reported was confused.

"Jefe! The pet monster is also a tree monster that we are fighting below… this one has red colored leaves…"

Joaquin was confused now.

(Tree monsters… when we killed one of those, I am sure they were Violent Rank level monsters…)

While he was thinking, he saw the cholo suddenly wrap around by a green vine and pull out from the room.

Then a black heavy pollen began to enter and cover the room.

"Fog? FUCKING MONSTER! Do you really have the courage to enter my room?"

Instead of feeling fear, Joaquin grinned.

"I just slaughtered your kind earlier, those two didn't even put up a fight."

He was speaking inside the black pollen, and his voice is full of confidence.

But it wasn't a fake confidence, because his Dark Flame is truly effective against them.

He easily killed two of those Violet Rank monsters with ease.

Surely, he uses one of his Ace skills in one of them and uses all of his skill on another but, he can kill two at the same time.

What can a single tree monster do?

"Idiot!"

He was not afraid of the darkness.

He was a Flame Mage Champion after all.

"Dark Flame!"

"Poooffff!"

His dark flame came out from his hand.

Then…

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Then an explosion happened and destroyed two floors immediately.