401-412
Chapter 401 Exposed?
Because Dilan had no idea what the Hordes of Chaos and Destruction, the Frontier Dimensions, or the Streams of Reality were, he sent another barrage of messages in the Divinity Mission Board chat.
The questions were likely to expose quite a lot about his world to the others, and the fact that Milarn was currently undergoing the second evolution but Dilan couldn't really care about that.
If all the world underwent the exact same time of evolution progress, it was only logical to ask about it in the Divinity Mission Board chat to get his hands on more information about future dangers.
Thus, his questions ended up something like this;
[What exactly are the Hordes of Chaos and Destruction? How dangerous are they?]
[Are the Frontier Dimensions and the Streams of Reality different from Gates and Realm Gates? If so, what exactly are they?]
[Exactly how many 'Phases' does the Primordial Ascension have before it's completed, and is there usually a precise date and period for each Phase?]
Dilan had many more questions in mind but he couldn't ask them all at once if he wanted to have answers to all of them. He knew that many Ascenders that had access to the chat were already annoyed at his stupidity, but it was not Dilan's fault for getting access to the Divinity Mission Board chat when he was still a Tier-1 Ascender.
In fact, it would be stupid not to ask questions about things he had no idea about, and if he was only frowned upon by others that were also fine with him.
Once he finished sending the three messages, Dilan took a proper look at his surrounding area. He wanted to see what kind of update the Interface System was undergoing but that could wait for a while.
"I'm not sure if I should actually say this but this looks pretty much how I always imagined hell to look like…" Kathrine said, feeling a bit uneasy as a shudder ran down her spine.
As he cast a look at their surroundings, he saw that the earth was red in color and he could also see steam wafting off its surface. The Realm Gate behind them couldn't be accessed right now and the gigantic building opposite the Realm Gate looked like the manor of a Demon Lord.
Black miasma oozed out of the building and a chilling cold swept through the air. The feeling of having hot feet and a cold upper body was weird enough to make everyone feel odd.
"If hell looks like this, it should be considered a paradise," Dilan said with a faint smile on his lips as he saw various monsters strolling through the surrounding area.
It looked like they couldn't see Dilan and the three women next to him as they didn't cast a single glance at them even once.
But that was pretty advantageous because Dilan's [Power Appraisal] exposed the strength of all the monsters around them.
"Why paradise? You didn't fall on your head while advancing to Tier-2, right?" Victoria asked in a genuinely concerned voice.
Dilan's lips twitched and he glared at her for a moment just to see that she was clueless as to why he was glaring at her.
"There are many powerful Tier-2 and even Tier-3 monsters in our proximity. If we were to hunt all of them, our strength would elevate quickly," He explained before he sighed a little.
Had he been alone, he would probably rush to all the monsters, kill them and then enter the Blood Monarch's Sanctum. However, with the three girls by his side, it was better if he wouldn't do anything that could kill them just by standing near him.
A single long-range attack that went astray would be more than enough to kill any of the three women without a lot of difficulties.
"Killing Tier-3 monsters? Are you that confident in yourself?" Kathrine asked, squinting her eyes.
However, instead of receiving an answer from Dilan, both Yvonne and Victoria could only sigh. Their reason to sigh was different, yet the same and they simultaneously blurted out.
"He probably can…" Victoria said with a trace of uncertainty because she had only sensed Dilan's bloodlust and overwhelming mana before.
"He definitely can…" Yvonne said confidently, knowing that Dilan provided Old Jeff with way too many body parts of Tier-3 and Tier-4 monsters. If he couldn't kill Tier-3 monsters now, Yvonne was not sure what to believe anymore.
Dilan smiled lightly before he turned in the direction of the Instance Dungeon of the Blood Monarch.
Yet, just when he was about to tell everyone to enter the Instance Dungeon, he received an interesting message.
[Ariel Silvertale requested the creation of a personal chat with the host. Ariel Silvertale has already paid all fees to do so!]
Dilan lifted his right eyebrow in surprise while reading the system notification but instead of telling the system to open a personal chat, he went over to the Divinity Mission Board chat, where he had received a really long answer for all the questions he had asked.
"Damn, that woman sure is helpful…" Dilan mumbled as he started to read the message for a second time.
'The second phase of the awakening happens two months after the Primordial Ascension, and the Descension of the Hordes of Chaos is normal…but the 'Destruction' part is missing or different…' He thought, tilting his head in confusion.
[If you want to receive more answers, you will have to reveal something about yourself as well! I'm not answering you for free!] That was the last message he had received in the Divinity Mission Board chat before she had requested the creation of a private chat with him.
Somehow, this sounded like a threat but Dilan didn't have anything to lose by answering some questions and talking to this stranger.
With that in mind he accepted her request and a new icon appeared on the top right corner of the Divinity Mission Board Chat. He clicked on the Icon and an empty chat window opened that contained a single message.
[You are the being who got your hands on the Divine Occupation of your planet, aren't you?]
Dilan's eyes widened a bit and he began to wonder if he had asked too many questions in the Divinity Mission Board chat because strangers could make exceptional inferences with the information he had unveiled intentionally or not.
The fact that someone had figured out the secret about his Divine occupation's existence made him feel a little bit odd because it indicated that more people were capable of concluding the same as Ariel Silvertale.
This was a bit frustrating but Dilan knew that he would have to accept the reality. Deleting messages was not possible in the Divinity Mission Board chat and he was not sure how much of a problem it was to expose the existence of his Divine occupation either.
Dilan knew way too little about the Primordial Ascension, after all!
[What do you mean with 'Divine Occupation of your planet?' I don't think I can follow your train of thoughts!] Dilan answered after he thought about it for a moment.
If he was already exposing his occupation, he should at least get to know what everything meant. Dilan reconsidered bombarding Ariel with questions but he knew that she wouldn't answer him more than necessary until she received some kind of information from him.
Despite not knowing Ariel Silvertale on a personal level, he could roughly gauge her personality…and that was something he didn't like, at all.
Chapter 402 Martial Arts and Spellcraft technique
'Now that I think about it, I really don't know anything about the Primordial Ascension. I've accepted everything because I became stronger much faster than others, but I never questioned anything…' Dilan realized after a short chat with Ariel Silvertale.
He got to know many pieces of important information, including the fact that there would only be one Divine occupation for every Primordial Ascension that happened.
Apparently, the Primordial Ascensions didn't happen often and they were initiated by a being that wanted to spread mana through the entire universe.
It would use the Primordial Ascension to awaken the mana of a specific planet and once the planet would be fully awoken, its overflowing mana would spread out to awaken other planets.
This was pretty interesting but it didn't really help Dilan to figure out why someone would make the effort to create a system, numerous Gates, advancement missions and many more things just to awaken a planet's mana. That didn't really make any sense but only the Creator of the system and the Primordial Ascension could explain the same.
In the end, he shared a few personal pieces of information in exchange for a wide variety of information. Ariel Silvertale was very knowledgeable and sharing the fact that he was a Tier-2 existence along with a few other things about himself didn't really matter to him.
He was more than willing to expose a lot more as long as he would get the information he wanted to get his hands on!
However, now it was time for him and the girls to enter the Blood Monarch's Sanctum.
They didn't receive a single notification upon entering the Instance Dungeon but that was not something they were bothered about right now. The three women knew that Dilan was chatting with someone and the changes in his expression were easy for them to notice and conclude that he was talking to someone credible enough. Had that not been the case, he would have closed the chat right away.
This led them to conclude that Dilan had been chatting with a woman! That was something the three women were certain of, and they didn't really like it. Even Yvonne had a bad feeling about this, which was odd.
Dilan ignored the three glaring women and he smiled, feeling that it was worth befriending Ariel to have someone to answer his questions in the future.
It was also quite relaxing to have someone to talk to and get some information about her personality and strength, especially if it could be achieved just by chatting around a little bit.
He was not scheming anything when chatting with her but it was still interesting to know how much one could read between the lines, even when it looked like one wanted to hide the most personal information about oneself.
'Chatting is scary,' Dilan felt all of a sudden when he realized just how much one exposed about oneself while chatting with other beings from other planets.
If someone with hostile intentions were to find his planet because of him, that would be extremely terrifying…but also somewhat exciting.
Dilan knew that he would behave a bit weirdly in certain situations, which was why he ended up sighing deeply as he entered the Sanctum of the Blood Monarch.
The moment he stepped through the doors, his sight blurred and everything around him seemed to change in an instant.
'A messy teleportation?' Dilan wondered, closing his eyes for two seconds before he opened them once again.
He had appeared in a humongous library, where only he and his three female companions were located. Victoria and Kathrine had slumped to the ground to prevent vomiting all of a sudden, while Yvonne was holding her head as if she could magically stop the world spinning around herself just by doing that.
Dilan smiled at this before he averted his attention from his three companions to take a look around.
'Is that really just a library? There is so much mana….every book is overflowing with it…' Dilan swallowed his saliva, feeling the tremendous pressure coming off from certain books.
It was quite interesting but also a bit weird at the same time.
Dilan was just about to wonder what they were supposed to do in this instance dungeon when he and the three girls received two notifications.
[By entering the Library of ten thousand techniques, the first trial has been initiated!]
[1st Trial – Learn ability without an ability crystal!]
Dilan and the others were confused by this. They didn't even know that it was possible to learn an ability without an ability crystal. It would make things so much easier if one could actually learn abilities from other means than a disposal ability crystal.
Dilan picked one of the books from the shelf next to him and he wanted to open it when a flood of the information entered his mind.
"We can only learn abilities without ability crystals as long as we possess the necessary compatibility with the said ability. From the looks of it, they will be automatically added to the Log of the Ancient if an Ascender takes the effort to improve them at a much faster rate than abilities that are not bound to the Log of the Ancient…" Dilan mumbled when he had digested and comprehended the information that had flooded his mind.
"What do you mean by 'improve much faster than abilities that are not bound to the Log of the Ancient'?" Yvonne asked, picking up a book from the shelf herself.
She received the same flash of information and looked at Dilan with even more confusion. He was talking about something that was not included in the strands of information that had entered her mind.
"Ah, I forgot to tell you. The Primordial Ascension's Second Phase will remove the upgrade function of active and passive abilities. Your ability will naturally be upgraded the more you use it, and your proficiency will improve as well. That being said, abilities you don't bind to your Log of the Ancient can be considered martial art or Spellcraft techniques because you can only use them as long as you possess the necessary requirements to use them and a high comprehension.
That being said, someone who is in possession of an ability related to fire will be capable of learning certain fire-attributed techniques," Dilan tried to explain in simple terms, only to realize that it was pretty hard to do so.
"But we never possessed an aptitude toward certain affinities before and were still able to bind the abilities of ability crystals? How is that possible," Kathrine asked, trying to comprehend what was going on.
"Ability crystals force their way through to the Essence crystal, and they plant the necessary aptitude inside your body. That being said, you and I have an aptitude toward lightning, just that yours is higher because you have an occupation that relies on it, while I have only [Thunder Step].
This means that you will be able to learn Martial Arts and Spellcrafts related to lightning at a much higher degree than it is the case for me…At least as long as Thunder Step is still at a low-tier," Dilan said, trying to understand a few things by himself.
It was not as if he could understand everything immediately either. He required time to figure out what was going out as well, and he was confused right now…very confused!
'I shouldn't allow this confusing topic to affect me. Rather than being too bothered about all of this, I should really try to comprehend what is going on. One step at a time towards my goal…'
Chapter 403 Useless?
"So to put it simply, binding abilities to our Essence crystal engraves the necessary talent, or requirements into our Essence crystal, which changes our body? At the same time, abilities bound to our Essence crystal will grow stronger the more often we use them instead of the need to meet certain conditions to upgrade them? Is that what this means?" Yvonne asked rather calmly as she looked at the bunch of shelves all around her.
"And we can learn abilities from books by studying and comprehending them. As long as our body innately possesses the necessary requirements we can also learn more abilities than we can actually bind to our Essence crystals…and by gaining a higher comprehension of the abilities we'll be able to use these abilities even if we didn't bind them?" Kathrine added not hiding her confusion.
Dilan nodded his head, but even he was not really sure if it was that easy.
"Let's not think too much about it for now. We can always figure out what is going on after the Log of the Ancient is accessible once again. For now, let's search for a powerful ability to learn, otherwise, we will be stuck in the first trial itself!" Dilan tried to motivate them as he approached the staircase to go to the next floor.
'If the library is constructed like it is in games and novels, we should be able to find better abilities on the higher floors,' He thought and it was only a moment later when he sensed the presence of a barrier that restricted him from leaving the first floor.
[Because it is the host's first time entering the Sanctum of the Blood Monarch, the techniques from all floors can be learned free of charge. Remark: Greed may make your life miserable but so will being a coward!]
Dilan frowned after reading the remark but he discarded it after a moment as he looked back at the three women.
They looked over at him and approached him.
"You guys received the system message as well?" Dilan asked and they nodded their heads, which was enough for him to climb up the floors.
He walked up to the highest floor of the Library and started to take a look at all the different techniques to see if there was something suitable up there.
[The host's constitution and Innate talent are not suitable for the <Dragon Breath> technique. Missing; Dragon Bloodline, Mana 1000 Units!]
[The host's constitution and Innate talent are not suitable for the <Seven Slashes of the Eternal Eclipse> technique. Missing; Darkness Constitution, Mana 600 Units, Strength 500 Units, Health 500 Units!]
[The host's constitution and Innate talent are not suitable for the <Purification > technique. Missing; Holy or Light affinity, Mana 800 Units!]
"Looks like the highest floor is too much for me to enter, let alone conquer it…" Dilan mumbled as he started to wonder who the Blood Monarch truly was.
He could tell that the system created the Blood Monarch's Sanctum but it would be weird for the Blood Monarch to be a resident of Milarn considering that he was given so much importance by the system.
The highest floor was small and it had only 10 books. All of them required him to possess some sort of special conditions whether they were stats one could only attain by being Tier-3 and with a similar stat-limit-increasing condition like the [Will of the Primordial], or by being a Tier-4 existence.
Thus, Dilan was forced to go down to the second highest floor again where roughly a hundred books were located. The three girls were also on this floor, picking up one book after another to see if they were compatible with any of it.
"This is much harder than expected. Why are there only so few abilities we're compatible with…and if they're compatible, I don't want to learn them because these techniques are not what I'm looking for," Kathrine pouted after a while. She could tell that there was not a single book on this floor that she really liked.
The only thing she could do was to dejectedly go to a lower floor, and sift through the books in hopes of finding a relatively weaker technique that she might like.
"In the end, even weak abilities can be powerful, you know?" Yvonne tried comforting her sister as she added, "If we can bind the technique to our Essence crystal upon comprehending it, we shouldn't be obsessed with binding powerful abilities but look out for abilities that grow powerful as long as we use them often."
Yvonne had realized this before already but given that their bound abilities would grow stronger the more they used them, the easier it would be to improve a weak ability to a certain degree.
Nobody said that it would be easy to improve abilities after they reached a certain threshold but learning a complicated ability that was not compatible with yourself might as well be considered useless.
"But we might as well try searching for a powerful technique which we don't bind to our Essence crystal," Victoria suddenly came up with the suggestion as she read through one of the books she seemed to be compatible with.
Only after a while did she realize that everyone was looking at her.
"What?" She asked in confusion, feeling embarrassed that Dilan and the sister-duo seemed to be staring deep into her soul.
"What you said is pretty interesting…" Dilan could only say. He had been focused on searching for a new ability to bind to his Essence crystal rather than a technique that he could comprehend and use as his 'killing' move.
The only disadvantageous factor was that he didn't really possess the requirements to learn any kind of technique. He didn't have many passive abilities that could be considered helpful and the only active ability that changed his constitution a bit was [Thunder Step].
Being able to manifest weak electricity currents around his feet was something he could only do because his constitution had been adapted to be able to do so after binding [Thunder Step] to himself.
Other than that, his body was in possession of extremely high regeneration and he was mostly immune to poison and so on. His Origin ability made it possible for him to learn a bunch of techniques but none of them could be used to attack. All of them were more on the defensive side.
'Even my occupational abilities are rather neutral, and the only thing that might be somewhat useful is [Green Magic], but I have no idea how to use it yet. I need to comprehend it but that is easier said than done if I have nowhere to start…' Dilan felt that his head was beginning to ache which caused him to stop moving and to start thinking about what he should do next.
Kathrine was great with lightning, Yvonne was closely tied to death and darkness, and Victoria could bind blood, ice, and demonic-related techniques. On the other hand, Dilan had nothing like this.
Under normal circumstances, this wouldn't be bothersome because he wouldn't require any kind of special condition or something like that. However, since the second phase of the Primordial Ascension had been initiated, it would be troublesome if he was unable to learn techniques without binding them to his Essence crystal first.
'What if the system disappears in the future, and my bound abilities stop progressing? Will I be fine, or will my choice to focus on stats-amplifying abilities lead to my doom? What if I meet someone capable of countering my high stats with the use of some techniques? How will I escape?' Dilan wondered as numerous scenarios flashed through his mind, each more worrisome than the previous one.
He was bothered by the thought of being incapable of learning abilities, which was why he ended up taking a look at the possible occupational abilities he could procure with the 28 Ability merits he possessed.
And it was just half an hour later that he found something that caused him to smile foolishly.
[The host requires 30 Ability merits to undergo the desired change. Is the host willing to sell/remove one of his occupational abilities?]
Chapter 404 Ring of Infinite Elements
[The host requires 30 Ability merits to undergo the desired change. Is the host willing to sell/remove one of his occupational abilities?]
Dilan smiled weirdly when he saw the system notification but he instinctively knew what he was supposed to do.
"Remove my active occupational ability [Berserk Mana] and purchase the Constitution [Ring of Infinite Elements]!" Dilan ordered the system after he was sure that he was doing the right things.
[The host removed [Berserk] mana to make up for the missing Ability merits. The Constitution [Ring of Infinite Elements] has been purchased.
[[Ring of Infinite Elements] 1st Circle (Sealed)
Everything exists within nothingness, and nothingness originates from the existence of everything.
+The owner of the special constitution possesses flexible and easily adjustable mana that can be used for basic elemental techniques!
+100% Mana recovery
[Sealed]]
Dilan knew that he was taking a big risk by using a total of 30 Ability merits for this technique but he accepted it nonetheless. Sometimes, it was necessary to take a risk to make it big.
Dilan planned exactly that; to make it big!
With that goal in mind, he endured the searing pain that spread out from his left chest. His heart was palpitating wildly and it felt as if someone had pierced his heart with thousands of searing hot needles.
Dilan coughed up blood and his legs buckled under his weight as a sudden weakness overcame him.
The three women turned toward Dilan in shock.
"Dilan!!" Kathrine shrieked in an alarmed tone before she shot toward Dilan.
"What's wrong?" Yvonne asked, concern evident in her eyes as she bent down to touch Dilan's blazing hot forehead.
"Darlinnggg!" Victoria was shocked about the sudden happenings around her. She thought that someone had attacked them but that didn't really make any sense.
"I'm fine, you guys should look out for a suitable technique to learn, whatever that may be!" Dilan ordered before he rested against one of the shelves as he tried to regulate his breathing.
He broke in a cold sweat and tried to calm himself down by taking slow breaths, but the pain was even more excruciating than he had expected.
Dilan had been sure that it would hurt a lot to change his constitution, however, what he was feeling right now was the worst pain he had ever felt. Even being lethally injured couldn't be compared to the pain he was going through right now.
It was terrifying and Dilan could barely keep his calm by focusing his mind on his heart.
He could clearly feel that something was etched on his heart and that something had manifested around it as well.
Time passed slowly and every hour that elapsed felt like eons, but the pain Dilan felt didn't seem to decrease. On the contrary, he started to feel worse when his flesh and organs were being moved around and re-aligned inside his body.
Something new was being created inside his body even though there was no place for anything. Yet, when he tried to sense the thing that was being created using his mana, Dilan could only perceive that his heart was pulsating rapidly and that various signs were etched on it, while a ring that circulated around it was being constructed.
The ring forcefully altered his body and Dilan accepted this without any hesitation. He wanted to be in possession of the Ring of Infinite Elements, so he would have to accept everything that would happen, whether he wanted it or not.
'If I try to reject it after accepting it, I might as well sustain serious injuries…' Dilan just thought before he activated [Undying] to heal his injuries, while simultaneously accelerating the changes occurring within his body.
He didn't hesitate to circulate enormous amounts of mana through his body to make sure that everything would work out fine.
His body had undergone many changes in the past and feeling pain was not new for Dilan either. Thus, he ended up enduring everything patiently, until his constitution had finally been completely integrated.
[The constitution 'Ring of Infinite Elements' at the 1st Circle has been integrated into the host's body. The host is able to learn techniques related to [Wind], [Water], [Fire], and the [Earth] element!]
Dilan nodded his head in satisfaction and he got up from the ground after he wiped the blood from his face.
When he had been forced to patiently endure the pain of getting his constitution adjusted, Dilan had received enough time to think about the kind of technique he wanted to bind to himself.
The final result was something pretty simple, something that was perfectly suitable to be used with the new constitution he had gained. It was a semi-passive ability technique!
Semi-passive abilities were both active and passive abilities, and Dilan hoped that the technique he had seen on the first floor of the library could be bound to his Essence Crystal as a passive ability.
He had thought a lot about what kind of technique he should learn and he had initially purchased the Constitution [Ring of Infinite Elements] to make sure that he could learn a powerful technique with which he could deliver a powerful strike to kill Tier-3 or even Tier-4 monsters when necessary.
However, there was something even more interesting he could do!
Semi-passive abilities had a passive effect and a sub-ability that could be used actively, and that was what he was looking for.
"I hope I can find it again…" Dilan mumbled to himself as he rushed down the library floors. He had only seen the name of the technique from the corner of his eyes.
That was why Dilan would probably require quite a while to find the technique he was searching for.
[[Mantle of Elements] requires the host to have a great aptitude toward one or more elements. The host meets the requirement!]
Dilan smiled foolishly when he saw that he could actually learn the Mantle of Elements technique. He opened the book and started reading through it hastily.
It was a pretty simple technique where one sought the help of spirits to reinforce the strength of their weapon by enveloping them with the elemental power one had an aptitude for.
In Dilan's case, he would be able to seek the help of Wind, Fire, Water, Earth, and Lightning spirits to enhance his strength. Each spirit was labeled in a different manner, and it was Dilan's task to learn how exactly to do so.
He had to comprehend the whole technique to bind it to his Essence crystal, which was what Dilan planned to do.
The technique itself was already very interesting and something he would love to learn right away, especially since he had an aptitude for multiple elements after his constitution had changed.
Furthermore, by binding the technique to his Essence crystal, things would be a lot more intriguing because he could tell that lots of interesting things would happen when a technique that is deemed as weak would be bound and upgraded.
He got the feeling that the combination of his new constitution, Mantle of Elements, and possibly even his other abilities that were neutral would become something extremely powerful and he looked forward to it.
With that in mind, Dilan sat down and studied the technique day in and day out without fail. He was not sure how many days had passed but when Kathrine and the others had come to inform him that they had learned what they needed, Dilan was almost done as well.
He was not sure what kind of ability they had learned but that was not important right now because he finished comprehending the core information of the technique before a message appeared right in front of him.
[The technique 'Mantle of Elements' has been comprehended. The host can bind the technique to his passive abilities if he is willing!]
Chapter 405 Symbiotic
[[Mantle of Elements] Ungraded ★✭✭
[+2 Strength], [+2 Mana]
The host can augment his weapons by seeking the help of Elemental Spirits.
The higher the ability's rank the stronger Elemental Spirits that can be summoned.
The stronger the summoned Spirit, the higher the Mana consummation.
The augmentation of the weapon differentiates with each Elemental Mantle.
Spirits that can be summoned at once: One
The highest rank of the summoned Spirits: Basic]
"I already guessed that it would be like this, but why does this ability feel more like an active ability than a passive ability?" Dilan asked himself as he read through the description of Mantle of Elements once again.
He unsheathed Xealtron and activated the Mantle of Elements ability.
[The host has activated [Mantle of Elements]. Does the host want to summon a Basic Wind, Fire, Water, Earth, or Lightning Spirit?]
Dilan chose to summon the Water Spirit because he didn't want to destroy the library around him by burning it to a cinder or doing something else.
He held Xealtron in front of him to witness what would happen next. A Water Spirit, a tiny winged-human-like figure made out of water emerged on top of Xealtron before it turned translucent when it merged with the Cursed Dagger.
A mantle of water formed around Xealtron and Dilan swung it around to see how the water mantle would react when he moved it rapidly.
Nothing much happened, which was enough for Dilan to nod his head in satisfaction.
"Water Spirit, can you form a water ball at the tip of the dagger?" He asked quietly and the Water Spirit responded immediately by forming a ball of water after quickly draining Dilan's mana.
"Now release the water ball with all your might!" Dilan ordered while pointing the tip of the Cursed Dagger toward himself.
The Water Spirit hesitated for a moment but it followed Dilan's command and released the water ball that began to spin. The waterball exploded on Dilan's chest and all the water splattered on his clothes and face.
"Alright, thanks," He said before he tested out one more thing that was more related to the Ring of Elements than anything else.
Dilan circulated his mana through the Cursed Dagger and the Water Spirit, altering it in the process.
His mana gained properties of water-attributed mana, which was exactly what Dilan had hoped to happen.
[Aegis' Shield]!
A blue shield manifested in front of Dilan just like every single time he had used [Aegis' Shield]. However, a sharp contrast to its usual use was that Aegis' Shield was of a much deeper shade of blue color than before.
"You can go back now, Water Spirit!" Dilan said and the spirit disappeared just a moment later.
[Mantle of Elements]! Dilan activated the semi-passive ability once again, summoning a Basic Earth Spirit this time.
He used a few units of mana to alter them once again before he repeated the process from earlier.
[Aegis' Shield]!
A brown shield with traces of a sky-blue color manifested in front of Dilan. After seeing the color of the shield, Dilan was already very satisfied but the experiment was far from done.
He adjusted his strength and stance before he punched the centermost part of the Aegis' Shield, destroying it easily.
"It's a little bit stronger but only by around 10%…well that is a lot considering that I used the same amount of Mana as usual!" Dilan concluded before he released the Earth Spirit Once again.
If he were only in possession of the Mantle of Elements ability, the only spirit he would have been able to summon would have been a Basic Lightning Spirit. The summoned Basic Lightning Spirit wouldn't have the same properties as the other elemental spirits and Dilan wouldn't have the necessary permission to control it as well as he could control all Elemental Spirits thanks to the Ring of Infinite Elements constitution.
'As long as I use Mantle of Elements on my weapons, along with Mana Slash and Aegis' Shield, I can get a lot stronger than I would have been by binding some other ability to my Essence crystal!' Dilan thought in satisfaction.
Right now the Spirits he could summon were not really powerful but Dilan was pretty sure that this would change in the near future. Thinking about summoning High Spirits and using his constitution to alter his mana while simultaneously using the Spirits to help him fight made him imagine a lot of things.
And every single scene he imagined in his mind was something that caused him to smile because all of them were advantageous.
With the Ring of Infinite Elements constitution, he could control the summoned Spirit outside of their jurisdiction, which was just to envelop the weapon of the user's choice with the element they can control.
'Now I only need to get my hands on more Ability Merits to upgrade Mana Slash and Aegis' Shield before I'll be capable of attacking and defending myself against monsters that are far stronger than myself!' Dilan thought in satisfaction.
The purchase he had made with his Ability Merits had been great and the new ability which he had procured had a very good symbiotic relationship with his constitution.
It might take a bit until he would face his next advancement mission where he could procure more Ability merits but that was fine with Dilan. He had more than enough time, which he could use to strengthen his already existing abilities.
Dilan knew that it hadn't been long since he had advanced to Tier-2 and gotten his hands on various new treasures that had all very strongly bound abilities. Thus, he would have to set aside some time to get to know all abilities, how to regulate them and what the extent of their powers truly was.
While he was thinking this, a bunch of notifications reached him, just when the three women were about to speak to Dilan so as to ask him various questions.
[The host has bound [Mantle of Elements] to his Essence crystal. The host won't be able to bind another technique from the first trial of the Blood Monarch's Sanctum to his Essence crystal no matter how often the host enters the Instance Dungeon!]
[2nd Trial- Monster hunts can be initiated!]
" Fortunately, I didn't choose to bind the technique to my Essence crystal. I would rather wait until I meet the requirements of one of the techniques on the highest floor before I bind one of those to my Essence crystal," Victoria huffed dramatically, acting as if that was the only correct decision she made.
Dilan didn't think like this but he simply shrugged his shoulders, not minding her attitude.
For some, it might be better to wait and prepare to bind a stronger ability to their Essence crystal while others would rather bind a weak but highly compatible ability to their Essence crystal and grow with it.
Dilan was glad to be in possession of the Mantle of Elements and he was pretty sure that the second trial would help him improve the rank of the ability further.
After all, he would have to hunt monsters, and enveloping his weapon with the Mantle of Elements was certainly helpful.
"Alright Victoria, congratulations…I guess," Yvonne just said, not intending to quarrel with Victoria before they turned in Dilan's direction as he rubbed his hands together in excitement.
"Let's go, we have to go on a monster hunt!"
Chapter 406 Monster Hunter
[The second trial <Monster Hunt> has been initiated. Hunt as many monsters as possible in the next 180 Minutes. Three extra lives have been granted!]
"What is the meaning of extra lives? Are we in a game where we can simply resurrect, or what?" Kathrine grumbled because she didn't understand what was going on.
However, it was not as if the others understood the meaning of the message's last part either.
"We are not here to die, so let's not worry about finding the answers to it," Dilan merely answered before he unsheathed the Cursed Dagger once again.
Holding Xealtron tightly in his hand, he looked around the steppe they had been teleported with [Power Appraisal] fully unleashed. He could see the power level of all monsters up to Platinum Tier-3.
That being said, it shouldn't be much of a problem to figure out what monsters they would have to avoid fighting and which monsters would be no problem for them to fight.
"You're not planning on searching for Tier-4 monsters here, right?" Yvonne asked suddenly as she recalled the body parts of the Tier-4 monsters Dilan had given to Old Jeff.
Dilan froze in his steps and he looked back at her with a faint smile on his lips.
"Would that be bad?" He asked in an innocent voice but Yvonne saw right through his act.
"The mission says as MANY monsters as possible, not many powerful monsters…" Yvonne glared at him threateningly as she explained the rules of the second trial.
It was not as if Dilan didn't understand the situation but he had wanted to search for Tier-4 monsters nonetheless. However, given that he had three women by his side, Dilan could only sigh deeply as he agreed with Yvonne.
"Yes, you're right…so let's search…tierless monsters or whatever…" Dilan answered, grumbling a bit while reluctantly acknowledging that she was right.
His behavior made Yvonne wonder if Dilan was really their leader for a moment, just to see him dash forward.
The ground around them burst open and a strong gust splashed on their face as Dilan catapulted himself in the direction of the closest monsters with all his might.
'Whether it's tierless, Tier-1 or Tier-2 monsters, they all look the same to me…' He could only think as he activated [Thunder Step] to enhance his already terrifying Agility even further.
Dilan wanted to let off some steam and test around the [Mantle of Elements] ability. That was more than enough reason for him not to stay behind with the three women and to start fighting with all his might.
With [Thunder Step] activated, Dilan's Agility was above 450 Units. This was more than enough to defeat most Tier-3 monsters in a contest of speed.
Thus, Dilan shot at the closest group of hundred monsters that seemed to be waiting to become lifeless bodies at his hands once he shot past them.
Dilan moved the Cursed Dagger rapidly as he slashed, cut and thrust Xealtron into the vital spots of the monsters of varying sizes yet lethally injuring every single one.
None survived more than one of Dilan's attacks. He was the Reaper of the Steppe and didn't hesitate to eliminate all life.
All monsters that were severely injured or killed in a single blow burst open like a volcano and turned into black particles when Dilan pulled the Cursed Dagger out of their body.
They didn't leave behind anything and dissolved into nothingness, which was a bit sad.
Dilan was quite happy to have found large groups of Tier-2 monsters so soon after advancing to Tier-2 himself. The Essence crystals of hundreds of different monsters would be quite helpful in his progress.
'And here I hoped that I would have a much easier time increasing my stats and leveling up a few times,' Dilan complained inwardly before he continued to kill all the monsters around him.
He activated [Mantle of Elements] to summon a Basic Lightning Spirit, which summoned electric currents around the Cursed Dagger.
This enhanced the weapon's lethality and added a paralyzing function.
It might not be necessary to activate [Mantle of Elements] right now but it was certainly helpful considering that he wanted to upgrade the ability as quickly as possible.
Right now, the ungraded ability was not exactly useful to him. It may be nice to play around with the ability to summon five different types of Spirits but it was certainly not of any use to him at the moment.
Only by upgrading it would the ability reveal its true potential, which would only be possible by increasing the ability's proficiency. And that could be done by summoning and banishing the spirits, by ordering the spirits to do something and much more.
Dilan was currently searching for the fastest way to increase the proficiency of the Mantle of Elements ability. In the meantime, he killed all the monsters around him without paying a lot of attention to them.
There were a bunch of Tier-3 monsters in the surroundings but they were not exactly powerful.
The second trial of the Blood Monarch's Sanctum summoned the Tier-3 monsters to prevent the participants that were on an average at Tier-2 but below level 10 from killing a large number of monsters.
That being said, the Tier-3 monsters were not even programmed to be defeated by the four participants. Rather, it was supposed to be more simple…it meant that the participants would kill the Tier-2 monster groups while avoiding the Tier-3 monsters.
However, Dilan didn't care about anything the Instance dungeon might have planned as he took the lives of all the monsters on the steppe in the following two hours.
He was oblivious to what was going on and continued to test around with the Mantle of Elements ability that he had used consistently for two hours, consuming more than 2000 Units of Mana in the process.
Dilan's Mana regeneration was extremely fast due to his constitution and the set bonus he received from the Hyel Destructo armor set.
Both were quite helpful in this regard and they were also the reason why the Mantle of Elements had been upgraded to Ungraded ★★.
It was just a single upgrade but Dilan was already quite satisfied with that. He had been testing around a lot rather than focusing his time on acquiring proficiency by efficiently summoning Spirits and ordering them around.
"This guy…how is it possible for him to be so powerful immediately after advancing to Tier-2?" Kathrine pouted as she looked at Dilan enviously.
She had hoped that the increase in her strength would shock her sister and Dilan. Kathrine had planned to show-off her power in the Instance dungeon and make them marvel at her but it looked like this wouldn't work.
It was quite obvious but Dilan was stronger than all of them put together. None of them could perceive the extent to which his strength had reached by now and that was a bit scary.
They didn't fear Dilan as a person but more of the fact that sooner or later he would begin to have a nagging feeling that the entire Undying group was holding him back from unlocking his true potential.
The three women understood that Dilan liked fighting powerful enemies, but they were pretty sure that he had other goals as well.
Kathrine could clearly recall the scars all over his body. She could only guess that Dilan was probably thinking about taking revenge on whoever had given him those whip scars.
Now that she thought about it, Kathrine realized that she didn't know anything about Dilan. He was not often with them, and never mentioned his past, whether it was related to what he had been doing before the Primordial Ascension, or if his family had been alive and where they were.
Dilan was a mystery to all the people around him and it didn't look like he was willing to share his experiences of life with anyone else.
And that was what made Kathrine and the others feel even more restless, after all, it didn't look like Dilan was close to anyone.
It was a hurtful thought, especially for everyone, who liked Dilan as a leader, friend, or more, but Dilan would rather fight monsters than talk with others, let alone build up a relationship, whether it was mere friendship, or finding a romantic partner.
"I don't know…and I dislike it, if I were to be honest with myself," Victoria mumbled quietly, and the other two women understood her.
Victoria realized that Dilan was not really interested in her, at least not with having her as a lover until the end of time. She was not sure if that would change in the future but the fact that his strength increased much faster than anyone else's was a major disadvantage.
How could someone, who was much weaker than Dilan, be able to stay by his side and fight next to him for eternity? That may not be obvious if the relationship was with any other Ascender…however, they were talking about Dilan, the biggest battle maniac they had gotten to know until now.
And the three girls didn't think that there was anyone worse than Dilan than he was to himself in this regard, which made it only more difficult to get close to him.
Chapter 407 Incomprehensible
After Dilan's battle had concluded which the three women had watched keenly, they were all in deep thoughts. None of them was worried about the dangers of the Blood Monarch's Sanctum anymore.
The Instance Dungeon created trials according to the Tier and Level of the participants that entered the Instance Dungeon. Thus, with Dilan by their side, it was near-impossible to sustain injuries, let alone die, inside the Blood Monarch's Sanctum for those who were with him.
This allowed the three women to think a lot and reconsider ways how they could become stronger.
"Stats and Equipment are the two major factors of Dilan's strength, but he doesn't really use tactics to fight his opponents. Maybe we could become strong the opposite way by using tactics combined with a bunch of abilities to be as powerful as Dilan?" Yvonne wondered upon recalling how Dilan had fought.
His brute force had been more than enough to defeat all the monsters on the steppe. However, that didn't mean he would come out victorious against more intelligent and cunning opponents the moment they would exploit his straightforward combat style.
[The second trial 'Monster hunt' has been concluded. All monsters have been hunted, extra points will be rewarded to the participants upon clearing the Instance Dungeon!]
[The 3rd Trial has been initiated– 'Traps'!]
When the two system notifications reached them, the four participants were teleported to a different space. They found themselves in an empty, dimly lit up floor.
The hallway was five meters in height and width, and it was not possible for them to see the end of the floor.
"Why are these trials so weird? First, we learned a technique, then we fought monsters, and now we have to pass through a hallway filled with traps…" Victoria was displeased with the trials. She had expected the Blood Monarch's Sanctum to be somewhat related to the Vampire race and that it might even be a heritage place of the Blood Monarch.
However, there had only been three techniques related to blood, or traits that all the Vampires instinctively possessed in all floors of the Library. Other than that, there was nothing related to Vampires in the Instance Dungeon and that bothered Victoria, further worsening her already bad mood.
After all, she was already bothered thinking that Dilan might leave the Undying Group and her as well the moment they would turn useless for him and he wouldn't gain anything from them anymore.
This thought was the most frustrating if one were to ignore that she had no idea the person Dilan was. If not for his sacred blood, the way he fought, or the attitude he showed when dealing with others, she wouldn't have a single clue to what or who Dilan was.
"This is way too annoying. I'm dealing with this and you guys can come once I've triggered all traps!" Dilan said and activated [Switch] to reallocate 100 units of his Stamina to his Health, before activating [Thunder Step] and [Second Acceleration].
That way, his body would easily survive everything thrown at him, while his Agility would handle the rest.
Dashing forward, Dilan turned into a purple flash. He left behind blurred afterimages and activated various traps. These included poisoned arrows shooting out of the sides, endlessly deep pits opening on the ground, armors suddenly gaining life and thrashing everything around them, and many more traps that were installed in the seemingly endless floor.
The three women could only see the purple flash Dilan left behind and the response of all the traps Dilan triggered. From the noises they heard, the hallway was much longer and broader than they initially expected, but that didn't seem to be important to Dilan because not even a minute had elapsed before the system notifications reached everyone.
[The first participant has reached the final destination of the 3rd Trial. Because the participant broke a record that was deemed impossible, extra points will be rewarded to the participant!]
[Upon completing the 3rd Trial, the participant is eligible to advance to the first Solo Trial, the 4th Trial also known as Blood Demons]
It had been no problem for Dilan to rush through the hallway but upon looking back he realized that his actions had left behind lots of destruction.
Blazing flames erupted on some parts of the surrounding area, angry scorch marks from bolts of lightning, deep gashes from wind blades and other projectiles, and much more.
'I should go back to see how the others are doing,' Dilan thought with a grimace.
He rushed back at a much slower pace this time as he had to focus a little on the pits in front of him. It would be a bit problematic if he were to fall in one of the pits by accident, after all.
"Looks like you guys don't need any help," Dilan said, smiling lightly at the three women who were being carried by Undeads.
Yvonne rolled her eyes at his comment before she looked at him for some time.
"You should understand that you're not the only one who can become stronger!" She grits her teeth and uttered while pointing at him.
Somehow, Dilan felt that Yvonne was angry at him, but he didn't really understand why.
"Isn't that obvious?" He thus asked, tilting his head in confusion.
Yvonne looked at him feeling appalled as she had nothing left to say. Dilan was truly dense and devoid of common sense in her opinion.
He could easily enrage others and make things worse simply by giving the perfect answer. That only worsened the situation further and made him look like a snob at times.
Thus, Dilan ended up feeling even more confused than the three women, who were being carried by Yvonne's Undeads who passed by him.
Their expressions were different from what they used to be earlier, which was something Dilan didn't understand either.
'Why do I feel like I did something wrong by rushing through the Traps' trial? I just wanted to avoid the nuisance of slowly passing through them…' He wondered.
He disliked traps simply because they were annoying. With that in mind and the fact that his Health stat was extremely high, Dilan hadn't been all that worried as he passed through the few-kilometer-long hallway.
In the end, Dilan knew that it was too difficult to attempt to understand women, which was enough reason for him not to abandon unraveling the mystery of what went inside their heads, to begin with.
In comparison to the women by his side, it seemed much easier for him to get along with Ariel Silvertale.
Their relationship could be considered purely professional because they exchanged information in a subtle manner but Dilan had also noticed that it was much easier for the mysterious woman, if she was a woman to begin with, to extract information out of him.
He was pretty sure that Ariel Silvertale was a powerful Ascender and that she could socialize very well. This made it easier for her to get her hands on important information.
Meanwhile, Dilan struggled to improve his communication skills, especially with the three women who had entered the Blood Monarch's Sanctum along with him.
If Dilan were to pick a select few that were somewhat close to him, he would definitely say that Victoria, Yvonne, and Kathrine were amongst the few people he cared for.
But his care was not related to having romantic feelings for them in any way. Rather, he saw traits from his sisters in the three women every now and then, even if it were just certain exclaimers or other tiny portions of their behavior, and that made him want to protect them.
Were his sisters fine?
Chapter 408 Blood Demon
[The host has been teleported to the fourth Trial 'Blood Demons'. Your opponent for the final trial will be calculated based on the points the host has gained in the first three trials!]
[The host's score in the first trial; <D >
The host's score and contribution in the second trial: <SSS >, <98% >
The host's score in the third trial: <SSS >]
Dilan's ranking was a bit weird and he was not sure what exactly would happen during the fourth trial but he was a little bit astonished that they had already reached the final trial.
"The others should be fine because their score in the second trial will be much lower. I hope they won't hate me for that," Dilan grimaced as he made the calculations and he could only sigh deeply after a moment.
Victoria would definitely blame him if she wouldn't be able to get something from the Blood Monarch's Sanctum because he acted on his own.
At least that was what Dilan thought because he knew that the Blood Monarch was some sort of sacred figure for the Vampire race.
If it was possible to become the disciple of the Blood Monarch or gain his legacy it would be a dream come true scenario for Victoria.
Dilan understood this, somehow, but he didn't even go all out when passing through the Instance Dungeon. His current strength was beyond his Tier, which was a simple yet terrifying fact.
[The host's difficulty level for the final trial will be <SS >!]
[If you die while fighting against the Blood Demon, you will be expelled from the Instance Dungeon, and you cannot enter it for 72 hours. A temporary Curse may be cast on the host if he ends up getting expelled from the Instance Dungeon.]
The notifications didn't really bother Dilan. He was not afraid of dying against the Blood Demon because he was confident that his strength was high enough to defeat weaker Tier-4 existence.
Even if the final trial's difficulty was SS, he felt that he wouldn't be facing a Tier-4 monster because the Instance Dungeon had all the required information pertaining to his Tier and Level.
The Pagoda of Time had always been fair and all other system-created challenges and advancement missions were no different.
Thus, Dilan was not worried as he emerged into a ginormous, brightly lit cave. It was extremely hot but that was only obvious because there were several streams of lava all around him.
The interior of the cavern hall looked pretty intense, and Dilan would be lying if he were to say that there was no ominous feeling crawling up his spine.
Nonetheless, he retained his calm even as a huge purple magic circle manifested on the ground.
Overflowing mana shot out of the magic circle that created a purple beam. Dilan's hair was pushed back as some of the overflowing mana shot through the surrounding area, and he would have stumbled backward if not for his feet that were firmly anchored to the ground.
He didn't move a single inch and kept staring at the purple beam where a huge, yet skinny body emerged. A being with black leathery skin, a pale, almost white face, huge leather wings, claws, eyes that were entirely crimson, and black horns that grew out of his forehead emerged in front of Dilan.
Dilan looked at the figure and he could immediately tell that this was the Blood Demon he was supposed to fight. With power appraisal, he could tell that his opponent was stronger than Platinum Tier-3 because the ability didn't work on that monster.
By using his senses, Dilan could gauge that the Blood Demon was not yet a Tier-4 existence but that it was definitely stronger than the Flood Dragon he had fought on the abandoned island.
"Are you the Blood Monarch? Your power seems too similar to a Vampire's powers, just stronger and purer," Dilan asked all of a sudden.
He had noticed that the Blood Demon had no idea where he was, let alone why he had been teleported to the cave. It was almost as if the system had kidnapped the Blood Demon and thrown him into the cave to force him to challenge Dilan.
This was quite interesting and enough reason for Dilan to speak to the Blood Demon, knowing deep down that he was not the Blood Monarch. However, there was something Dilan wanted to test out, and it seemed to work out pretty well because he finally had the Blood Demon's attention.
"Blood Monarch? On Milarn?" The Blood Demon asked, grimacing weirdly before he began to laugh loudly. His rumbling laughter thundered through the entire cave and it took him a while to get back to his senses.
"Is that what he calls himself…Blood Monarch?? This tiny weakling is really brave!" He snarled, and his crimson eyes began to glow in anger.
"Human, tell me! What are the other measly adventurers calling themselves?" The Blood Demon was ready to kill Dilan at any moment.
However, instead of killing him right off the bat, he wanted to enjoy himself a little bit and toy around with the weak and puny human.
The history of the weak group of adventurers, who had fled from their realm after attempting to steal a few Demon's Essence fragments, was far too intriguing.
'How does he know that I'm speaking about Milarn…and from where does he even know the name of my world, to begin with?!' Dilan was suspicious and he squinted his eyes, not sure what to think about the given situation.
Nonetheless, it was a fact that he could understand the Blood Demon and that he was talking to him, to begin with.
"What other adventurers are you talking about? Were there more than the Blood Monarch?" Dilan asked, not sure if he understood properly.
Talking to the Blood Demon felt a bit weird, especially since he could converse with him despite speaking different languages. That was more than just a little bit odd.
Fortunately, Dilan had faced and overcome many odd situations during the last two months. Thus, he was able to regain control of his senses rather quickly.
"The being you call Blood Monarch is but a weakling, who had nearly sacrificed himself to protect the adventurer group in the hope to gain a fortune from them. He followed one of the Adventurers who stole the Essence Fragment of a fellow Blood Demon and merged it with himself.
That is probably the being you call a 'Vampire'!" The Blood Demon didn't seem stupid. He could make up his own theories and conclusions by connecting the dots by piecing together the shreds of information Dilan had shared.
Dilan could also understand what the Blood Demon was talking about and his eyes widened a little when he realized what was going on.
"You mean that the King of Werewolves, the Vampire King, and the Witch Queen stole the powers of a bunch of demons, that they somehow came to Milarn, and then they used their powers to build their own empire…that's pretty cool, not gonna lie!" Dilan began to laugh at the absurdity of the Blood Demon's words.
According to Victoria's information, the King of all Vampires was several thousand years old, and it looked like he was one of the adventurers the Blood Demon was referring to.
If that was not funny, Dilan didn't know what else could be…which was probably the case.
However, Dilan didn't give a damn about that, which was enough to enrage the Blood Demon.
"You puny little human!!"
Chapter 409 Demon Acquaintances
Now that will be fun!" Dilan blurted out excitedly as his necklace began to glow in a dark light.
[Demon Summoning]!
Dilan had activated Demon Summoning from the Blood Eclipse Necklaces after which 200 Units of his Mana were drained in an instant and a gigantic black Gate manifested in front of him just as the Blood Demon had initiated an attack.
The Blood Demon's fist collided with the black Gate that didn't budge even a single inch. The Gate opened and Dilan began to smile foolishly as a huge, fifteen-meter-tall Demon emerged from the Gates.
"Who dares to summon me during my Millennials Helllands training?!?" He roared menacingly in the same language as the Blood Demon, who had retreated several meters when he felt the terrifying power that radiated from the summoned Demon.
"I summoned you, little boy!" Dilan answered calmly and the necklace around his neck began to glow in an even brighter shade as three units of his Mana were drained from him.
The summoned Demon screamed out in pain as his mind was being controlled and he swung the ginormous broadsword which he wielded at Dilan to make the pain stop.
Dilan took a single step aside and the broadsword ended up missing him. It cut through the empty air and lodged itself into the ground where it was stuck for a moment or two.
"Kelkas, the Lord of Monsters?" The Blood Demon muttered in confusion as he intently observed the summoned Demon for the first time since he had shown up.
The summoned Demon pulled his huge broadsword out of the ground before he turned his head in the direction of the Blood Demon.
"Zirach, the Bloodhound? Why are you with a human?" Kelkas, the summoned Demon, asked, feeling just as confused about the situation as Zirach, the Blood Demon.
"You guys know each other? That's even better!" Dilan was overjoyed at the way things were unfolding in front of him and he let out a whoop.
"Kelkas, beat up Zirach!" He ordered with a faint smile on his face when Kelkas turned in his direction.
"Damn human!!! Where did you get the Blood Eclipse Necklace from?!?" Kelkas roared out in anger and frustration but Dilan could only shrug his shoulders.
"If you don't want to move, I'll whoop your ass later as well!" Dilan declared, which caused Kelkas to frown deeply.
How was a newly advanced Tier-2 human Ascender supposed to beat up a Tier-3 Imperial Demon?! It was already a wonder that Dilan's mana was potent enough to summon him while he was training, let alone that he could control him, Kelkas, the Lord of Monsters…
However, just when Kelkas was trying to fight against the control of the Blood Eclipse Necklace, Dilan had already reacted.
He activated [Switch], and reallocated 100 Units of his Stamina to his Strength. Simultaneously, Nial activated [Bearer of Pain] to replenish all the mana he had consumed by allowing his Lifeforce to be drained.
[Bracing Pain] was unleashed and it amplified his stats drastically. But that was not everything because he used [Blood Sacrifice] to unseal Xealtron's Curse, further increasing his stats drastically.
Afterward, Dilan was already extremely powerful, but he was not yet done. His body was crackling due to the potent power that surged through him but he activated [Thunder Step], [Second Acceleration], [Mantle of Elements], [Power Up], [Master of Gravity], and [Burst Regeneration] to further increase his stats as he shot forward.
His Agility was already terrifying but by decreasing the gravitational force being exerted on him via [Master of Gravity], he left behind blurry afterimages the moment he dashed forward.
He broke the sound barrier at once, appeared below the Blood Demon, and started with his hack 'n' slash as lightning currents mantled Xealtron.
In a single second, Dilan inflicted more than 100 deep cuts on the leg of the Blood Demon, who began to scream out in pain.
Zirach, the Blood Demon, tried to activate several abilities and racial traits to enhance his strength but when all abilities had been activated properly, he looked more dead than alive. Dilan wondered how long Zirach would last.
Dilan's Cursed Dagger was coated in the dark blood of the Blood Demon while his whole body was drenched in the same dark blood as well.
A devilish smile appeared on his face as he climbed over the barely moving Blood Demon, who had collapsed on the ground less than 10 seconds after Dilan had initiated his first attack.
There was not a single spot on Zirach's body that Dilan didn't inflict damage upon. The Blood Demon's eyes were filled with terror as he looked straight into the crazed sky blue eyes of the human being, who was supposed to be a weakling, someone, he could easily defeat…
Yet it was the same human, whose stats reached a threshold where his mortal body was not able to cope with his strength anymore, and that was something the Blood Demon had never seen before.
In his long life, he had witnessed some terrifying existences reaching a stat close to 500 Units when they were only Tier-2 existences, but that was also only after they activated three active abilities and with two of their passive abilities being related to the enhancement of the particular stat.
Yet, Dilan was able to reach even higher stats than that quite easily, and that too without the secondary amplification of his equipment!
,m "Kelkas, or whatever your name is…do you think I will be able to get my hands on your Essence crystal if I kill you after I summoned you?" Dilan asked all of a sudden, and the Demon, who was also known as the Lord of Monsters, gave an involuntary shudder.
"How about…we talk…" Kelkas' demeanor had changed drastically and Dilan could only smile at this.
"That was the plan from the beginning; to talk a little bit about the adventurers, who stole the power of a few Demons a bunch of thousand years ago. The adventurer team, who fled to Milarn!" Dilan said coldly before he deactivated the rest of his abilities.
Only [Undying] and [Burst Regeneration] were left to be used and Dilan inserted his remaining energy in [Undying] to regenerate at an even faster pace.
"I want to know why the system created an Instance Dungeon for the Blood Monarch, considering that you, Zirai, or whatever your name is, called him a weakling.
The Instance Dungeon of the Blood Monarch's Sanctum is extremely helpful and my final trial was to defeat you, Zirai. Fighting a Blood Demon that has the strength close to a Tier-4 monster while I'm merely a Tier-2 monster seems a bit too much, under normal circumstances. That being said, the rewards I would gain will be terrific for ending your life, but that can wait for a moment or two," Dilan said, his gaze never leaving the severely bleeding Blood Demon, who was struggling to move.
Kelkas looked at the situation in front of him and he wondered why Dilan had summoned him. The human could easily deal with everything by himself and he didn't need the replica of the real Blood Eclipse Necklace, to begin with.
The only gain Dilan made was that the Magic accessory augmented his mana drastically.
"I understand what you're thinking, Kelkas, and I didn't summon you to kill you. I feel like the Blood Eclipse Necklace would break if I were to kill you," Dilan answered the demon's unspoken question, which was enough for the Demon to breathe in relief.
"But that doesn't mean I cannot torture you…so you'll start answering right away, or you will end up in a state that will be far worse than your comrade right here!"
Chapter 410 Final Trial Completed
There were a few things Dilan wanted to know about the Werewolf King, the Witch Queen, and the Vampire King, and both the Blood Demon and the summoned Demon were basically his best sources of information in that regard.
He stopped using mana to control Kelkas because it was simply not necessary after the summoned Demon had seen what Dilan was capable of.
As for Zirach, he was not healing properly and the only thing he was capable of doing was destroying his pain sensors. This was his only way of ensuring that he wouldn't feel any pain for the next few minutes until Dilan would end his life.
"So basically, more human or human-like races like the humans on Milarn have been in existence, and it has been a very long time since the Primordial Ascension occurred in your realm.
After your realm was fully awakened, the Interface system maintained itself for a millennia before it disappeared, and the Essence of Demonic Power, or whatever the human adventurer group stole was one of the remnants that belonged to the Era when the Primordial Ascension happened in your realm?" Dilan summarized it quite easily.
The situation was much less worrisome than he had expected. However, there was still the question about why the system would create an Instance Dungeon like the Blood Monarch's Sanctum for an existence that the Blood Demon and even Kelkas labeled as extremely weak.
"You don't understand the system yet. It takes the belief of a race into consideration and creates special places through the power of their faith," Kelkas explained, while his eyes kept darting towards Dilan every now and then.
He didn't plan on revealing a lot of secrets but he didn't plan to be crippled either. It was much better to talk a bit than to live in pain for the rest of his life in the worst-case scenario.
"So you mean that the Vampires' belief that the Blood Monarch is the second strongest and the most unique of all Vampires is the reason that an Instance Dungeon had been created for it? Doesn't that mean there should be many Instance Dungeons about all well-known figures of mankind's history, and people everyone knows about?" Dilan tried to conclude what was going on but he found it to be extremely weird.
The Pagoda of Time, the Sun Temple, the Temple of Scorpio, the Blood Monarch's Sanctum…what else would come next? Places related to the Zodiac signs had already appeared, meaning the Pagoda of Time that seemed to be related to Taurus, and the Temple of Scorpio, which was likely to be related to another Zodiac sign denoted a pattern if he didn't misunderstand something essential.
"The system will create numerous Instance Dungeons and Gates to accelerate the awakening of the planet. The Instance Dungeons will be considered as an opportunity for the native race to learn, adapt to the changes the Primordial Ascension brings forth, and make enough gains to cope with the invasion of mana, monsters, and other races.
Gates will bring forth mana whether it is in the gaseous state or through monsters that release mana innately, and other races will awaken the system emerging on Milarn. The races will attempt to make use of the system in order to become a stronger race, adapt and overcome the struggle of their low innate talent!" Kelkas continued to speak and the more the summoned Demon said, the better Dilan's understanding of the situation became.
The Rasnian and Ligav race were subjects of the Sun temple but they were also races that were innately not much stronger than humans.
Dilan had tested this theory of his ample times and then reached the conclusion. Werewolves and Vampires were innately stronger than the Rasnian and Ligrav races.
With that in mind, it was pretty easy for Dilan to understand everything the summoned Demon said.
'They're really good sources of information. Why didn't I think about summoning a Tier-3 Demon before??' Dilan wondered as he grinned from ear to ear.
The more information he received, the easier it would be for him to understand what he would have to do in the future. The Interface System was not permanent, but as long as it existed it would be fair to all races. There would hardly be any benefits the system would provide to already powerful races that they couldn't manage to do on their own.
As for the awakening of the innate talent that was hidden within weaker races, the system would never allow augmenting the strength of a race in its entirety.
The only advantage they gave weak races was the awakening of special powers that were compatible with certain beings. Origin abilities were something like this, a special treat the system awarded to a certain number of beings on Milarn during the start of the Primordial Ascension and only if they were highly compatible with it.
Dilan figured out many interesting things while talking to Kelkas but it was not long after he started that he felt it was time to end the chat.
"You can go now. I might use the Blood Eclipse Necklace in the future once again, so tell your buddies that they should treat me with respect, otherwise, I will cripple them!" He declared while manifesting the Gate to the Netherworld realm once again.
He allowed Kelkas to leave before he turned to Zirach.
Dilan's mind was occupied with all the information that flashed through his mind and digesting all of the pieces would take a while. Forming new plans with the given information wouldn't be easy either, which was why Dilan felt like killing Zirach now rather than later.
"I doubt that you will actually die here, but you were able to feel the pain I could inflict to you easily. It has only been a bit more than 60 days since the Primordial Ascension began and I was perfectly normal…well maybe not perfectly normal…but I was a somewhat ordinary human before.
That being said, I will be much stronger if we ever meet again, so think carefully of how you would treat me in the future!" Dilan said as he activated [Mantle of Elements] to summon the Basic Lightning Spirit.
Afterward, he activated [Mana Slash] and by using 50 Units of altered Lightning mana, Xealtron was coated in lightning currents, and compressed lightning-attributed mana circulated within the blade as he rammed it into the huge eyeballs of the Blood Demon.
A beam of compressed lightning mana shot through the eye of the Blood Demon, piercing through the soft tissues of the eye, fractions of the skull, and Zirach's brain.
The Blood Demon died not long after and a notification popped up in front of him when the Blood Demon dissolved into countless black particles.
[Congratulations to the host! You have defeated a <SS > threat! The final trial has been concluded!]
[The host overwhelmed the <SS > difficulty Blood Demon with his tremendous power! Evaluation re-calculated. Final score <SSS+ >]
[The host has reached the required threshold to advance to the Hidden trial 'Awakening'!]
[Does the host want to advance to the Hidden trial? Only one existence will be able to undergo a true awakening of the Blood Monarch's Power!]
At first, Dilan was excited because the first two messages indicated that he would receive many dungeon points to purchase something in the Taurus shop and other shops and that he would gain something even better.
However, the third message dampened his mood considerably.
The notification clearly said that he could awaken the Blood Monarch's Power. Under normal circumstances, most people would be happy to see this message.
Only Dilan was a bit disappointed because he clearly recalled the words of both the Blood Demon and the summoned Demon, who had repetitively said that the Blood Monarch was an extremely weak half-blood Blood Demon.
He was not sure if that power would actually allow him to become stronger or if it might deteriorate the strength which he had attained until now.
"Well…I might test it out and suppress the awakening power if it's not useful?"
Chapter 411 Awakening
[The host's compatibility with the bloodline of the Blood Monarch's ancestors is exceptional. Do you wish to abandon your race when you awaken?]
"What the…?" Dilan blurted out, squinting his eyes at the notification that had appeared in front of him.
It was pretty obvious that he didn't have any reason to stay human because it didn't really matter whether he was human, Dragon, Angel or something else to retain his original body or race.
Nonetheless, his reasoning to reject abandoning his race was because he didn't want to lose some vacancies of his active and passive abilities in the Log of the Ancient.
He knew that the Vampires had fewer passive abilities while Werewolves had fewer active abilities to bind to their Essence crystal.
Dilan didn't want to abandon his race because of the advantages of being able to bind more active and passive abilities. Thus, he smiled lightly as he provided a rather vague answer to the system.
"I will decide how much of the Blood Monarch Ancestors' bloodline I will accept, so start the fucking True Awakening!" Dilan ordered with a smile when he realized that his surrounding area changed.
He emerged into a huge room filled with blood and corpses. The blood trickled down the ceiling and it splashed down on the walls, forming unique symbols by filling the engravings that could be seen all around Dilan.
The room began to tremble as the symbols started to glow and Dilan felt a tremendous pressure weighing down on him. He closed his eyes and regulated his breathing upon sitting down.
Dilan chose a meditative stance instinctively as he sat in the center of the room while the blood that had splattered all around began to move in his direction.
The engravings on the ground were even more complex than those on the ceiling and the walls around Dilan, but that was not something he could notice anymore.
The Hyel Destructo Armor set was stored in his soul and all the other pieces of equipment had been moved inside his spatial ring that seemed to have disappeared.
His clothes slowly disintegrated due to the blood that trickled down from the ceiling. It scorched his clothes that sizzled before it came in touch with his skin and smeared it darkish-red.
Dilan kept his eyes closed and he endured the ever-increasing pressure around him without intending to do anything against it.
When his entire body was drenched in warm blood, Dilan's skin began to itch. There was not a single spot on his body that didn't itch but Dilan didn't move despite that.
He stayed silent and unmoving, even when the itching sensation turned into an unbearable feeling as if every pore was being pierced with a needle.
Dilan grit his teeth and he began to clench his fists, understanding very well that his body was being transformed on a cellular level.
That was only obvious because his blood was being altered. Thus, upon understanding what was going on, Dilan rather focused on the things the new bloodline actually changed rather than the pain or other things.
The notifications he received whenever a change occurred were extremely helpful and Dilan sorted them in his mind while continuing to accept the new bloodline. He could tell that most changes were advantageous, which was not really surprising because the human bloodline was innately not very powerful.
Dilan's knowledge had improved a lot since he got to know Ariel Silvertale and the fact that he could make Demons speak using brute force and his imposing attitude.
That was definitely helpful and Dilan intended to make use of everything he had up his sleeves to keep getting his hands on more information.
'How much further should I go?' Dilan began to wonder until he received one of the messages that caused him to release his mana in a burst.
[The Awakening has forcefully been stopped due to the host's interference. The Awakening can be initiated with weaker effectiveness if the host desires to do so.]
"Stop the Awakening!" Dilan ordered without wasting a second, spreading his mana further outward. A black and badly reeking mass surrounded his body, and more of it was expelled from his body, accompanied by the blood that oozed out of his pores from all over his body.
He felt a bit stiff and the reeking stench all around him made him feel nauseous but Dilan accepted everything nonetheless. His senses were hyper-aware now, especially as the smell of blood had gotten stronger.
All of this was something Dilan had expected because the notifications he had sorted in his mind when awakening had been quite precise about the changes that had occurred to him.
And reading them once again allowed him to sort his thoughts and understand everything much better.
[Blood Vyrm have great senses, are unable to see in the darkest of the nights, and they seek all kinds of pleasure. Blood is their Essence. It makes them stronger and allows them to become unfathomable creatures in countless places all over the Universe.
[The host has accepted the Blood Vyrm bloodline. The host's natural regenerative abilities have increased drastically, he has gained the racial trait to control blood to a certain extent and natural night vision as well.]
[The host's passive ability 'Nightvision' has been abandoned by the Essence Crystal, and it was devoured by the Blood Vyrm bloodline to gain higher control of the host's bloodline.
[The host's special trait 'Stone Skin' has evolved to 'Iron Skin' due to the host's acceptance of 15% of the Blood Vyrm bloodline!]
[The host's major bloodline 'human race' has only 85% purity left! If the host further decreases his human bloodline, the effectiveness of the human bloodline's strongest trait will start deteriorating!]
"I stopped after I got the last message, but I don't really know what the strongest racial trait is, to begin with. Is it the fact that we have many active and passive abilities?" Dialn was curious about the answer but he hadn't been ready to test it out.
The importance of every ability spot was too high to play around with.
His spatial ring had reappeared around his index finger once again and he accessed it to retrieve some of his clothes. After putting them on, Dilan started to wear all his accessories once again as well before he left the hidden trail of the Blood Monarch's Sanctum.
"The first trial was definitely the best…re-entering will definitely be helpful to learn various techniques, whether one can bind them to their Essence crystal or not," Dilan mumbled to himself as he noticed something.
"Wait…I didn't even get a notification about how many Dungeon points I received, did I?" He blurted out and accessed the Log of the Ancient, just to see that a new icon had appeared on the top left corner.
"Another shop, great!" Dilan muttered in excitement as he accessed it.
[Blood Points: 100,000]
"Is that a lot?" He wondered with a wry smile, just for his ears to start twitching as he heard noises from all around him.
"Was about time that you return, Dilan!" Kathrine's voice rang in his ears and he looked away from the screen, just to see the three women appear in front of him.
'They're all done already? Looks like quite some time has passed since I awoke the Blood Vyrm's bloodline,' Dilan concluded as he tried to assess how strong the three women had gotten compared to their previous strength.
"How much time has passed?" He enquired while scanning the girls from head to toe.
At this moment, he sensed faint killing intent spreading out from Victoria, who turned into a flash as she shot forward.
"Who the hell are you, and what did you do to Dilan?!"
Chapter 412 Back
"Who the hell are you, and what did you do to Dilan?!" Victoria screamed out when she emerged in front of Dilan. Her hands had formed into claws that were shrouded in blood ice as she lunged out at Dilan, ready to kill him at once.
Dilan was a little surprised about the sudden attack but he would have been able to react fast enough to move aside…if his feet hadn't been locked down to the ground by Victoria's blood ice.
"Looks like you got a lot stronger," Dilan mumbled to himself as his fist shot out toward her claw. He was faster than Victoria, and his punch landed a heavy blow on her palm, nearly breaking Victoria's hand.
Afterward, his other hand shot out and reached for Victoria's neck, which he held tightly as his eyes began to glow in a crimson hue.
"Calm down!" He ordered and as if on cue, Victoria's body released all its tension. She stared at Dilan in disbelief and the sister duo got a bad feeling about what he would do next. They let out a sigh of relief when Dilan lowered Victoria to the ground before he let her go once again.
He looked down at his feet and circulated mana through both his hands which he smashed down on the blood ice that restricted him from moving.
When he activated [Mantle of Elements] while smashing downward, flames erupted around his fists, which Dilan considered as his weapons right now.
The blood ice, which Victoria had conjured burst open, and Dilan's feet were freed after he used some more force. His sole was injured a tiny bit but Dilan healed ahead in a matter of seconds.
"Dilan?" Kathrine asked carefully, not sure what the hell was going on with Victoria who had suddenly attacked Dilan, or what was wrong with Dilan, whose eye color didn't seem to be the same as before.
There was a faint red hue to his pupils, which confused Kathrine quite a bit. However, more confusing was definitely the fact that Dilan had easily calmed down Victoria after she had begun to release terrifying killing intent.
"What's the issue, Kathrine?" Dilan asked lightly as he looked down at the confused woman.
"What happened to you inside there? It makes no sense that we completed the final trial four days earlier than you!" Yvonne asked as she stood beside him, glancing at Dilan with squinted eyes.
She suspected something that was proven to be correct when Dilan answered her.
"There was a hidden trial after I defeated the Blood Demon. I was given the opportunity to accept the bloodline of the Blood Monarch's Ancestors and thought that I could test out whether it would give me some benefits or not," He answered quite nonchalantly.
However, his nonchalant answer was exactly what caused Victoria to jump up from the ground.
She had regained her senses and could clearly tell that a lot about Dilan had changed. He smelled a bit different, which was why Victoria had thought that some unknown person had replaced Dilan.
Right now, she was embarrassed about her behavior but it was not as if she could do something against it, other than the obvious choice of playing it down.
"You've accepted the bloodline of the Vampire's ancestors?" Victoria asked with gleaming eyes and she turned her attention back to the Instance Dungeon. She was ready to conquer it all by herself once again if that meant that she was given the opportunity to receive the bloodline of the Blood Monarch!
"Yeah, but I talked to the Blood Demon, who appeared in the fifth trial, a little bit after beating him. The Demon I summoned was quite useful as well in answering some of my questions," Dilan said and he was just about to reveal what the Demons told him when Yvonne looked at him doubtfully.
"Your Blood Demon could speak? Mine only made growling noises and he acted like a hoodlum despite being a Gold Tier-2 Blood Demon…just how strong and intelligent as your opponent to be able to talk?" Yvonne asked and Dilan could only smile weirdly in return.
"I don't know how strong he actually was but with all the enhancements he received and the fact that Demons are usually a bit stronger than ordinary monsters, he was definitely as strong as some weaker Tier-4 monsters," Dilan revealed, which caused Yvonne to sigh deeply once again.
"What did I even expect…" She grumbled to herself while Victoria froze in her place after discarding the thought of conquering the Blood Monarch's Sanctum all by herself. It looked like she had to become a little bit stronger…
"Just let me tell you what I found out," Dilan tried to laugh her concern off about what he had just said but the three women were already glaring at him.
"Alright…calm down ladies," He said while moving his hands in a calming manner in the air before he started to summarize everything he had gotten to know.
All three of them listened to him in rapt attention and they were baffled for quite some time, which Dilan made use of to take a look at the Realm Gate.
"I've received permission to leave. You guys probably have it as well, right?" Dilan turned around and the three women nodded their heads before they followed him while being deep in thoughts.
"It's time to go back and see what mess our friends created in the last few days!" He laughed and walked through the Realm Gates, ready to beat up a bunch of Werewolves, and the Vampire Lord as well, if necessary.
After emerging on the other side of the Realm Gates, Dilan could immediately sense a lot more than before. The walls of the Inner Sanctum felt alive, which was quite weird if he were to be honest with himself.
The hair all over his body stood up on its end as he felt various new things and Dilan tried hard to ignore this weird feeling.
He took a few deep breaths and left the inner sanctum to take a look at how everyone else was doing.
"Dilan, you're finally out! Why did you guys take so long?" Sven rushed over the moment he saw Dilan. Dilan's pressure was terrifying and something seemed different about their leader but that was not something he could be bothered with right now.
"It wasn't thaaatt long," Dilan retorted, roughly guessing that they had left for about a week to comprehend a technique in the first trial of the Blood Monarch's Sanctum and to awaken his bloodline.
These two things required the longest, which was why they hadn't been back for roughly a week.
"8 days are a lot longer than you can fathom, especially since the Hordes of Chaos and Destruction arrived!! Couldn't you have hurried a little bit?! The second phase of the Primordial Ascension and the changes of the system are driving everyone crazy, and the Scorpion people from the temple of Scorpio seem to have found us because the Werewolves acted like brain-dead zombies…." Sven whined and he looked extremely tired.
Dilan felt a bit sorry for his state but he couldn't help but blurt out what was on his mind,
"I forgot about the Hordes of Chaos and Destructions…oops…"
Sven's lips twitched when he heard Dilan but there was nothing he could do against the attitude of their leader.
"Did the Hordes of Chaos and Destruction arrive on the Shikan plains, or have you yet to hear something from them?" Dilan asked with more seriousness than before, which calmed Sven quite a bit.
"We haven't heard anything from the Hordes of Chaos and Destruction but we've heard something from the Scorpion people. That is if Mick and his [Translator] occupation could properly understand the recording the Werewolves sent us, capturing their conversation!" Sven explained and Dilan ended up nodding his head in understanding.
"In that case, I will visit the Temple of Scorpio now. Getting information first-hand would be the best but asking the Scorpion people should also work," Dilan said before disappearing on the spot, leaving a baffled Sven alone.
"How much stronger did he become?" He mumbled to himself, and soon enough Victoria and the others appeared as well.
"We don't know…"