Apex Bloodline's Power

Point out any errors I made in the chapters, as I'm very lazy and sometimes can't be bothered to reread them. Also, give your opinions on something I should change or add.

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Feng didn't spend a long time at Level 0, though, and he immediately started absorbing the EXP stored within the Levellume Capsules a moment later, going back up to Level 66 in an instant.

When he did, Feng's attributes, both Basic and Hidden, skyrocketed once again.

Within only the first ten levels, Feng's Basic Attributes had each increased by around one hundred points, and his stats only kept improving by massive amounts with each level higher.

By the time he returned to Level 66, Feng's Basic Attributes had seen an increase of around 3,000 points, with his Strength being greater than before he consumed the Draconic-Voidling Bloodline by around 3,500.

And there were also the attributes he never got between Level 0 to Level 20 from the Purple Stigmata and Blessing, which he now finally received. 

Coupled with his already huge attributes from various things, even a Tier 4 player wouldn't be able to compare to Feng unless they had a Legendary Weapon or a few pieces of Legendary ranked equipment, while he currently isn't inferior to even an average Tier 5 player that doesn't have multiple Fragmented Legendary items.

His Hidden Attributes didn't increase as massively as his Basic ones, but it was still a huge improvement nonetheless.

Moreover, aside from all the boosts to Feng's stats along with every single of his aspects and his very being, he had gained a Tier 4 Draconic Spell.

Any Draconic Spell would instantly become a trump card that made doing immense damage and killing high-ranking bosses much easier, not to mention a powerful one obtained from absorbing an Apex Bloodline.

The only unfortunate factor was that it was a Draconic Spell instead of a Skill, which greatly limited the extent of its power that a melee player like Feng could show, with it being a lot more suitable for mage players.

Nevertheless, it was still a great boon to Feng's capabilities.

With it and all the other boosts he had received after consuming the Draconic-Voidling Bloodline, Feng's combat power was elevated by an enormous amount that was even greater than if he were to go through his Class Promotion Quest and reach Tier 2, far above what he was previously capable of while climbing the Divine Staircase.

At the moment, Feng was even confident of killing the 60th Divine Shrine's Guardian Boss, a Superior Mythic ranked monster, and he had a decent shot at even defeating the higher Shrines' bosses.

Unable to calm his excitement and curiosity over his current strength, and wishing to test out the power of his new Bloodline, Feng rushed into the first Divine Shrine

There wasn't much of a difference between Feng's first run and the current one that could be seen in the lower Shrines except for him clearing all of the ones below the 10th Divine Shrine in one second along with the drops being a bit less since a player has already cleared the Shrines and killed the Guardian Bosses before.

When he was speeding his way through the Divine Shrines numbered from 10 to 30, however, his improved strength was a lot more obvious, as his clear time had increased by much, even slaying the Grand Lord ranked Guardian Boss of the 30th Divine Shrine within three seconds of entering the Shrine.

This time, there didn't seem to be any ritual-like activities happening near the Lizardman Chief, it acting like a regular boss monster with no Secret Technique Tablet around the center where the Teleportation Array was located.

Players would only get one chance in the Shrines designated for the Tablet Ritual, as Feng liked to call it, to steal the Legacy Tablet that appears from the Guardian Boss, and would no longer encounter such an opportunity in the same Shrine, with going to a higher one where there is a possibility for the Tablet Ritual to commence being the only way to get another shot at obtaining a Secret Technique Tablet.

Moreover, with each player that came across a Tablet Ritual, the chances of it appearing in any of the Shrines would greatly decrease, from the original 100% guarantee possessed by the first player to reach that Shrine, all the way down until it eventually dropped to merely one percent and nearly no one ever encounters them again.

The ranks of the Tablets which were given as an offering by the Guardian Bosses also fell each time someone encountered a Tablet Ritual, with only the first ones to appear in each designated Divine Shrine being Gold Legacy Tablets, their ranks being Silver for the next couple players who encounter the Tablet Ritual, and then only Bronze rank Secret Technique Tablets spawning.

Thankfully, since Feng was the first player to go through the Divine Staircase, he knew that he'll be getting Tablet Rituals with only Gold Tablets in them; which was also why he had decisively left the Divine Staircase after previously clearing the 50th Divine Shrine, knowing there would still be another Tablet Ritual in the next designated Shrine.

Though, there would now be no such encounters at the 30th and 50th Divine Shrine, and he could speed through across all of the Shrines he had previously cleared even faster than before.

Grand Lord ranked Guardian Bosses, even those that possessed a special Bloodline or were an Archaic Species, no longer posed any sort of challenge to Feng, dying within a few moves to his ferocious attacks and unable to put up much of a resistance even though they were Realm Lords two tiers higher than him.

Although Feng had been very strong before, he had still not been capable of rendering a Grand Lord ranked monster completely helpless, while Grand Lord ranked Archaic Species Guardian Bosses had required a decent amount of effort from him to defeat.

Now, however, after absorbing the Draconic-Voidling Bloodline, he was able to completely decimate such opponents in only a few seconds.

But the fun began when Feng climbed up to the 40th Divine Shrine and faced its Mythic ranked Guardian Boss, the Bouncing Knight, once again.

This time around, Feng had no need for a Berserk Skill, pushing the Bouncing Knight back with the sheer strength of his attacks thanks to the attributes gained from the Draconic-Voidling Bloodline and the power of his Transcendental Realm movements, striking the Mythic monster with a Bronze ranked Combat Technique executed within each of Feng's attacks.

Victory didn't come as easy as it did when Feng faced the 39th Divine Shrine's Guardian Boss, but he was quickly depleting the Bouncing Knight's HP, and large amounts of damage were done to the Mythic whenever Feng used any of his skills, even though it was a monster sporting tough armor and high Defense.

Not to mention, whenever he landed a slash on the Bouncing Knight, a pitch-black gash that eroded its golden armor over time would be left behind, dealing continuous damage that increased by some percentage with each second.

This was the Void Erosion[1] effect granted to Feng's attacks by his Apex Bloodline.

It would leave scars of void energy in the wake of Feng's sword strikes that did damage to his targets. The damage sustained by his target would increase as the void's corrosive energy spread all over its body unless the Void Erosion effect was properly dealt with and erased.

However, that would require a decent amount of Mana to be expended by the recipient of his attacks in order to counter the erosion if it didn't have a strong enough Physique, or for someone to assist his target with the matter.

The Bouncing Knight didn't have the leisure to fight off Feng's Void Erosion, though, and it was struggling to defend itself against the human's extremely fast attacks, the Mythic monster's HP bar emptying at a rapid pace as more and more of Feng's strikes landed and more of the void's corrosive energy built up.

Soon, the Bouncing Knight's HP dropped to 20%, its golden armor turning blood-red as the Guardian Boss entered a Berserk state.

Following its change, the Mythic monster's Attack Speed and Strength greatly increased, no longer getting pushed back by Feng's attacks and becoming able to block most of his sword swings.

Simultaneously, the Void Erosion on the Bouncing Knight was stopped in its tracks and couldn't seem to harm it anymore.

But this wasn't enough to save it from the Shrine clearer.

When the Bouncing Knight defended against another of his powerful attacks and had its defense broken for a moment, Feng's two swords lit up like miniature suns.

In an instant, the two glowing balls of fire enveloped in a golden hue turned into afterimages, Feng executing twenty slashes in an instant, all of which converged into a single point on the Mythic monster's armored chest.

The result was a blinding light and the sounding of a large explosion as the Bouncing Knight got sent flying backwards, turning into black mist midair before it could smash into the ground.

Only Feng now remained standing within the 40th Shrine's center as the victor.

With its enhanced Attack Speed and Strength due to becoming Berserk, the Bouncing Knight had indeed been too strong for Feng to defeat with basic attacks and weak skills like Chop, so he had no choice but to use Flame Burst once an opportunity arose in order to quickly finish it off.

Originally, Feng had thought that he'd have to follow up on the Sure-Kill Skill with more attacks, thinking that even though his Strength had greatly improved and Flame Burst normally had the power of a Tier 3 skill due to its unique nature, which was further boosted by the Pandemonium Lashblade's effects, it still wouldn't be enough to reap away the Mythic monster's remaining HP.

It was only after he saw the Guardian Boss turn into mist, signaling its death, did Feng remember the Draconic-Voidling Bloodline's other effects. Now all of his fire-type skills and spells would contain Dragon Fire.

The flames of a Dragon were one of the strongest in the entire Universal God's Domain, and Flame Burst getting enhanced by Dragon Fire undoubtedly resulted in its power achieving a stupendous change to both damage-dealing capabilities and effectiveness on higher tiered creatures like Mythic ranked monsters.

Along with the Bouncing Knight's Defense decreasing by a bit after going Berserk, it ended up getting instantly killed by Feng's attack that integrated all of Flame Burst's Attack Count in a single strike.

Pleasantly surprised by the outcome, Feng realized that he had still underestimated the power of the Apex-ranked Draconic-Voidling Bloodline, and he began wondering on just how powerful some of his skills had become after absorbing his first purchase from the Divine Hall.

Feng didn't immediately rush through the Teleportation Array to climb higher, but instead paused to catch a breather and collect all of the Bouncing Knight's loot.

From the moment Feng had stepped onto the Divine Staircase for the second time to now, only a little over one and a half minutes had passed.

Meanwhile, when he had reached the 1st Divine Shrine's Guardian Boss, Feng had activated Divine Providence and sacrificed five hundred units of Life Force to fuel it, the skill's duration ending just as he had finished off the 40th Shrine's boss.

Compared to Feng's previous clearing speed, where he had used Divine Providence several times, he was much faster in his ascension this time around.

After picking up all of the drops and waiting for Flame Burst's cooldown to end, Feng exited the 40th Divine Shrine, receiving a total of 13,000 Shrine Points from it, and headed into the next Shrine.

Arriving in the Shrine, Feng dashed through all the obstacles barring his path, reaching the center in less than three seconds with his incredibly fast Movement Speed, and confronting the bewildered Guardian Boss which didn't understand how an intruder had suddenly appeared in front of it.

The fight between them didn't last any longer than when Feng slaughtered the 40th Divine Shrine's boss monster, and he immediately continued climbing higher after removing the rest of its HP and looting the drops.

Easy fights that only required his regular skills to win was all that Feng faced up until the 45th Divine Shrine, where his opponents became Mythic monsters possessing a special Bloodline.

His immense attributes and combat standards still allowed him to overpower the Guardian Bosses, but when they went Berserk, Feng was unable to deal with them as easily and quickly.

So to hasten his ascent and make full use of the time of high Luck Divine Providence, which Feng had activated once again in order to maximize his profits, was providing him, Feng decided to activate Mysticsteel Berserk, his Damage and Attributes increased by a significant extent thanks to its effects.

This resulted in the Mythic monsters getting dominated once again, quickly having their HP hit zero as Feng rushed at his fastest speed to kill all of them within Mysticsteel Berserk's duration.

With his combat power being temporarily increased even further, it took Feng only around a minute to reach the 50th Divine Shrine and face off against the Mythic ranked Archaic Species serving as the Guardian Boss, engaging in another battle without hesitation.

However, compared to those Mythics who only had a special Bloodline improving their capabilities, an Archaic Species monster was far more powerful, and even with Mysticsteel Berserk, Feng was barely on par with it while utilizing Bronze Combat Techniques in his every movement and all of his learned skills to fight the boss monster.

Upon Mysticsteel Berserk ending and Feng losing its enhancements, the Mythic Archaic Species Guardian Boss began getting the upper hand while Feng was forced to dodge.

Though he still landed hits on the monster without it being able to so much as touch him, Feng had only drained around 15% of its HP within this time, and he wasn't doing enough damage to outpace the Guardian Boss's natural recovery anymore.

Seeing that this was his current limit while in his regular state, Feng decided it was time to advance further on the Divine Staircase.

The Blood Emperor's Armor on Feng turned into full body armor that covered him entirely as he used Imperial Ascendance, instantly turning the tables on the Mythic ranked Archaic Species monster.

Choosing to activate Black Emperor as well, Feng then plowed through the Guardian Bosses with the repeated usage of his powerful skills whose cooldown he decreased with the Death Auras.

Thundering Flash was now much easier and less taxing for Feng to use after consuming the Draconic-Voidling Bloodline, his Physique being capable of supporting the usage of Tier 5 power for much longer even though he was only a Tier 1 player.

Hence, spamming the AoE skill with its power upgraded by the Swordsmanship Great Grandmaster Title and the Pandemonium Lashblade on his opponents could be considered a proper strategy that Feng could use for clearing the Divine Shrines as long as he doesn't overdo it.

Slaying the Mythic ranked Archaic Species bosses guarding the Shrines' Teleportation Arrays became a trivial matter, while he sped through the Shrines at lightning speed with the usage of his wings, which had grown even larger and more powerful from the improvements brought about to his Life Rating and Physique by the Apex Bloodline, reaching a wingspan of over twenty meters, through the blood armor.

Traveling across the entire maps within anywhere between two to five seconds, Feng cleared the Divine Shrines at a record pace, only slowing down by a bit after reaching the 55th Divine Shrine, the Guardian Bosses from that point becoming even more powerful.

They required a significant amount of effort on Feng's part to kill, especially when they turned Berserk, and he was starting to have trouble finishing them off due to their huge HPs and Defense, along with their attributes being greater than his own while having a Berserk skill active.

In order to boost his bulldozing speed even more, Feng used the Shock-Inducing Fists' Internal Shock skill, the damage he dealt reaching a new level as he made the boss monsters' HP drain out like flowing water.

As expected, the 59th Divine Shrine's Guardian Boss was the most powerful, causing Feng plenty of trouble, and he barely managed to defeat it before Imperial Ascendance and Internal Shock ended after pummeling it to death with attacks, throwing out Thundering Flash and Thunder Flame Explosion, whose power has been greatly increased as well by the Draconic-Voidling Bloodline's Dragon Fire since it was half a fire-type skill, but its improvement not being as huge as Flame Burst's, in quick succession at it while reducing the skills' cooldowns to zero with Black Emperor.

Standing over the Guardian Boss's corpse, Feng stopped for a moment to rest after dashing up the Divine Staircase from the beginning to here in the span of only around four minutes, taking his time to collect all the items dropped by the powerful Mythic monster.

Since Black Emperor was still active, though, Feng didn't dillydally for long, soon leaving the Shrine and heading higher up.

System: Congratulations! You have passed the Divine Shrine. Rewarding 8,000 Shrine Points.

System: Congratulations! You have passed the Divine Shrine within the time limit. Rewarding 8,000 Shrine Points.

System: Congratulations! You have killed the Guardian Boss within the time limit. Rewarding 20,000 Shrine Points.

With the Shrine Points gained from the 59th Divine Shrine, Feng's total sum of points already greatly surpassed the previous amount he had obtained from just clearing the Shrines up to the 50th, with Feng now standing on 649,720 Shrine Points after having obtained 636,360 points in this run.

Entering the 60th Divine Shrine, Feng's environment changed, a thick jungle expanding in all directions and blocking Feng's vision.

But the danger signals still reached him.

The moment he appeared in the Divine Shrine, Feng could immediately sense that this one was far more dangerous by the threat he felt from it.

In the next moment, a patrol squad of monkey-like monsters jumped down from a cluster of trees behind him and attacked in a unified formation.

Even the weakest member of the patrol squad was a Level 70 Great Lord ranked monster that displayed signs of decent combat standards for creatures of the current God's Domain, while there were three Level 70 Grand Lords leading the charge.

From just this one could see the difference in difficulty between the 60th Divine Shrine and the ones before it, as the patrol squads in the 59th Divine Shrine consisted of mostly High Lords and Great Lords, with only a few having a Grand Lord mixed in the squad once one approaches the Shrine's center.

However, just this much wasn't enough to threaten Feng.

Disappearing from his spot, all of the attacking monkeys who had nearly reached Feng were suddenly dismembered, their cut-apart pieces falling to the ground and turning into ash as they left behind a few items.

Feng didn't bother with the drops, though, having rushed towards the Teleportation Array marked on his mini-map before the monsters' body parts had even touched the floor.

It took him only a couple of seconds to quickly traverse the Shrine's interior, which was much larger than any of the previous ones, nearly double in size, and arrive at the center.

While moving in a mostly straight line to his destination, Feng had witnessed how terrifying the 60th Divine Shrine was.

Not only were there now aerial traps and monsters to counter any players with the ability to fly since it was assumed only Tier 4 players would be able to make it this far, but the traps spread around everywhere have become incredibly dangerous, with the ability to instantly kill any Tier 3 player and severely injure Tier 4 beings.

The patrol squads near the center had also grown more powerful, their fighters being half Great Lord and half Grand Lord ranked monsters of various classes and abilities, all of which were led by a Grand Lord Archaic Species monster.

To prevent himself from wasting any time, Feng usually didn't engage in fights with the patrolling monsters, either dashing past them at a speed they were unable to keep up with or circling them when necessary; while for the traps he came across, Feng could move fast enough to get out of range before they can fully activate and pose a problem to him most of the time.

His only remaining challenge in this Divine Shrine was the gigantic five-headed tiger resting in front of the Teleportation Array.

[Jungle Lord (Realm Lord)] (Superior Mythic)

Level 70

HP 250,000,000/250,000,000

As soon as Feng attempted to approach the Jungle Lord, it instantly stirred awake, the tiger's aura fully awakening and spreading out from its body. Just its aura alone was enough to instill fear into the hearts of Tier 4 players.

When the Jungle Lord opened its five pairs of eyes, the first thing that greeted it was a pitch-black sword merely inches away from stabbing into one of its eyeballs.

Before the Pandemonium Lashblade could reach its target, however, the Superior Mythic monster reacted, moving its head and avoiding any damage to the giant eye, with the pitch-black blade only managing to graze the tiger's face.

Simultaneously, the Jungle Lord sidestepped to move away from the sword's trajectory, its monstrous claw turning into an afterimage that smashed towards Feng who had been standing right in front of one of its tiger heads.

The Superior Mythic monster's Movement Speed and Attack Speed were incredibly fast, and Feng could barely keep up with it. Nonetheless, he didn't show any concern on his face.

Just as the Jungle Lord's claw was about to rip Feng apart, golden scales appeared and covered his entire body, the previously calm aura around him churning ferociously like the awakening of a fierce dragon.

Slashing at the giant claw coming towards him, Feng blocked the Jungle Lord's attack, resulting in a powerful shockwave originating from the clashing point and erasing all of the tall trees in the surroundings.

Feng was pushed back following the exchange of blows, creating two deep grooves in the ground as his feet slid backwards.

Undeterred by being on the losing end of the clash, Feng smiled at the Jungle Lord, elated that he could equally fight against a Superior Mythic ranked monster while being only a Tier 1 Swordsman.

With this feat, Feng finally saw some hope in his ultimate goal of killing a Tier 6 natural-born God for his Tier 2 Promotion Quest.

Under normal circumstances, even with his extremely high attributes and Heavenly Dragon's Power empowering him, Feng would still not be able to take on a Superior Mythic monster's attack without the usage of any skills like he had done just now.

After absorbing the Draconic-Voidling Bloodline, however, the effects of his dragon-type skills were greatly increased, and the boost to attributes Heavenly Dragon's Power now gave him was far greater, allowing Feng to block an attack from the Jungle Lord.

Seeing the ant survive its attack, the Jungle Lord grew enraged and released a loud roar that shook the entire jungle, sending all of the other monsters fleeing in a panic.

Not one to be outdone, Feng shouted out a roar of his own and activated Dragon's Authority along with Emperor's Haki.

With the effects of Dragon's Authority improved by his Apex Bloodline and a Tier 4 skill like Emperor's Haki, Feng fully countered the Jungle Lord's roaring skill that would normally put all creatures below Tier 4 into a Fear state; and even decreased its Attack Power, Movement Speed, and Attack Speed by 30%.

Not giving the Jungle Lord a chance to adjust to the change in its reduced speed, Feng attacked, slashing the Pandemonium Lashblade at the Superior Mythic monster and sending out a sea of lightning towards it.

Although surprised at its Movement Speed dropping by a third and by the powerful attack sent out by the ant it had clearly sensed was only a Tier 1 human, the Jungle Lord still reacted quickly, dashing out of Thundering Flash's range.

Even with its speed, though, a few thunderbolts had managed to strike the tiger's massive body, several high damages appearing above its head as it gained a dose of the Damage Amplification effect with each bolt of lightning.

Without letting his opponent catch its breath, Feng followed up with another slash, having used the built-up Death Auras to bring Thundering Flash's cooldown to zero, immediately shooting out another sea of thunder at the Jungle Lord.

An annoyed look flashed across each of the Superior Mythic's five faces upon seeing the human hurl the same skill at it, choosing not to avoid it this time since it had originally thought it was a one-time use skill, and instead smashed the ground with its claws, causing a tsunami of vines to erupt from the ground.

When the tens of thousands of thunderbolts collided with the vines, a clear winner was instantly decided as the vines got eradicated in droves, proving to not be a very effective defense against Feng's mighty Thundering Flash.

But in the second those vines bought it, the Jungle Lord jumped up on top of the tsunami of vines, before propelling itself at Feng from the high ground. The force at which the Superior Mythic had sent itself flying at Feng made it go at a speed nearly invisible to the naked eye, reaching Feng in the very next moment.

Noticing his opponent's fast approach, Feng chose to meet the Jungle Lord head-on, pushing himself off the ground and slashing at the Superior Mythic monster with Thunder Flame Explosion, which reacted to his direct challenge with a skill of its own.

A green light erupting from the Jungle Lord's mouth collided with Feng's Thunder Flame Explosion, bathing the world in a blinding light and a thunderous explosion that shook the earth, while Feng and the Superior Mythic monster went on to clash in midair, the giant tiger's claws against the human's Chop.

Both ended up getting sent flying backwards, and the two monstrous creatures re-engaged immediately after without pausing to rest.

Their fierce clash of shocking strength and skills destroyed everything around them, leaving nothing but devastation in the wake of the fight wherever they passed.

As Feng and the Jungle Lord continued exchanging blows, though, it quickly became pretty evident which one was stronger.

Aside from his Strength being inferior to the Superior Mythic monster's even with an incredibly powerful Berserk skill like Heavenly Dragon's Power, as one would expect the difference would be between it and a Tier 1 player, Feng had a limited number of skills he could use against the Jungle Lord.

Most of his regular skills aren't able to do anything to the tiger monster, while the ones that had the capability to achieve something had cooldowns of a length that didn't allow for continuous usage like how skills like Chop, Double Chop, and Earth Splitter could.

This forced Feng to block and attack with basic sword swings most of the time, and although he integrated Bronze Combat Techniques into his every movement and attack, sometimes even resorting to Advanced Bronze Combat Techniques when he had no choice but to, it wasn't enough to properly fight the Jungle Lord, let alone actually kill it.

Moreover, the amount of time that Feng could continue fighting on like this was limited to Heavenly Dragon's Power's duration, since he'd be helpless against a Superior Mythic monster like the one he was facing right now without it; and even with his improved Physique and overall state of being after absorbing the Draconic-Voidling Bloodline, Feng could not achieve this level of fighting ability and Thundering Flash usage indefinitely.

If things didn't change and the two of them continued going at it, sooner or later, Feng would be defeated.

Well, the Jungle Lord would never be able to kill Feng even if he doesn't have the Heavenly Dragon's Power boosting his attributes, since Feng was simply too good to be killed by a mere Superior Mythic monster.

But he would consider it a loss on his part if he was unable to kill the Guardian Boss and was left with no other option but to commence a tactical retreat and escape the 60th Divine Shrine through the Teleportation Array; which is the goal of entering any Divine Shrine to begin with.

Deciding that he couldn't afford to let the fight drag on in this way, Feng prepared to end the fight right here and now.

Fourteen swords suddenly appeared around Feng out of thin air and flew towards the Jungle Lord while Feng distanced himself from the oversized cat.

The Superior Mythic monster naturally tried to follow, but between the flying swords thwarting its way, not so much as doing damage, since the twelve silver ones of the fourteen couldn't even tickle it while the two platinum blue swords were only capable of scratching its skin, and more so obscuring its path and blocking its vision, and Feng using God Speed, it wasn't able to keep up, with Feng making a gap of around fifteen yards from it.

In the next moment, before the Jungle Lord could attempt to rush over at Feng and keep the battle going as it wished for nothing more than to murder this ant which had interrupted its sleep, disturbing the tiger's peace, and then fought with it, a change occurred in Feng's aura once more.

At the same time, a feeling of danger swept over the Jungle Lord when it sensed Feng's aura greatly increase, rising so much that it matched its own, a Superior Mythic creature's.

Blade Liberation!

Profound Inheritance, Glorious Outreach!

Abyssal Curse!

It didn't have the time to assess its sudden gut instinct that something was wrong, though, as Feng slashed in its direction, sending out a sea of lightning at it again.

Thundering Flash!

The Jungle Lord felt like rolling all ten of its eyes after the human used this skill as a means to attack it for the umpteenth time, beginning to wonder if he had anything else that could actually damage it at this point and if the sea of thunderbolts was his only means of fighting.

Doing the same thing as before, the Jungle Lord called forth thousands of vines to emerge from the ground and used them to block the sea of lightning while it jumped on top, planning to pounce on the human and rip him apart this time around.

But when the Superior Mythic Guardian Boss rose above the sea of vines and thunder, it was greeted by a second volley of Thundering Flash.

Caught off guard by another round of thunder immediately after the human had just used one to attack it, the Jungle Lord was unable to react in time and got devoured by the sea of lightning.

Taking on a Thundering Flash that Feng had fired off while in Twofold Berserk proved to be a bad idea on the five-headed tiger's part, its HP dropping by large amounts as thousands of lightning bolts struck it.

As soon as the sea of thunder passed and the Jungle Lord dropped to the ground, thinking it was safe after enduring the baptism of lightning while not receiving an enormous amount of damage, another round of Thundering Flash was right in its face.

Stupefied by a third sea of thunderbolts appearing in a row, the Superior Mythic monster just sat there and ate all the lightning that came at it; this time losing even more HP due to the additional Damage Amplification on it from the previous usage of the skill.

When it finally passed, the Jungle Lord wasn't as relaxed as before and immediately checked on the human's actions, noticing that he had already shot out a fourth lightning sea from his small sword in its direction.

Somewhat already expecting this situation, the Superior Mythic monster moved at an incredibly fast speed as it utilized a movement skill and instantly circled the approaching thunderbolts, getting out of Thundering Flash's range while also shortening the distance between itself and Feng.

Unexpectedly, however, a fifth volley of lightning waited for the tiger beast the moment it dodged the previous round, as if its actions and movements had already long been predicted.

Once again being unable to react in time to avoid the sea of lightning, the Jungle Lord was enveloped in the thunderbolts, the amount of damage it now received much higher.

Then came the sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth...

The Thundering Flashes never stopped coming, and the Guardian Boss couldn't seem to ever completely dodge them, getting repeatedly struck with its HP dropping with each volley as the Damage Amplification effect just kept pilling up and pilling up.

Finally unwilling to endure getting blasted by the thousands of thunderbolts over and over again, the Jungle Lord stopped trying to avoid Feng's thundering attacks and instead chose to use a powerful Defensive Skill in order to block them.

This was kind of effective, since the Guardian Boss was no longer getting hit and sustaining damage, while Feng wasn't getting any more Death Auras after Thundering Flash couldn't achieve a large number of critical hits with each of the skill's usage, and became unable to keep using the AoE skill consecutively nonstop.

But its defense made of earth and roots wasn't able to withstand Feng's onslaught for long, breaking apart in only two seconds.

As the shield it had constructed with a skill was shattered into pieces, the Jungle Lord prepared to create another one as a means to block the next volleys of thunderbolts that were sure to quickly come and pummel it.

However, the giant tiger suddenly noticed that there were no more seas of lightning shooting in its direction. Instead of the blinding yellow light it had gotten used to, the dazzling light which had erupted right in front of the Superior Mythic monster's eyes was that of two miniature suns.

Ethereal Blitz!

Flame Burst!

Too fast to react to due to the increased Attack Speed granted to Feng from the Pandemonium Lashblade's Profound Inheritance after doing enormous amounts of damage to the Jungle Lord, the twenty consecutive strikes executed in a single instant by Feng landed perfectly in the exact same spot on one of the Guardian Boss's heads.

Despite the huge damage it had just received, the five-headed tiger showed no signs of being upset, instead a joyous expression appeared on its injured faces as Feng finally stopped just spamming the annoying skill at it, even going as far as to get so close to itself and enter within striking range.

Wasting no time since the Jungle Lord didn't want Feng to create any distance between them again, the Superior Mythic monster ignored Feng's attacks, tanking all of the hits, and swung its humongous paw at him, intending to rip the human to sheards with its sharp claws.

It choosing to exchange blow for blow was slightly unexpected to Feng, and at such a close distance, he wouldn't be able to get out of the claw's way in time considering its size and range.

Just as the Jungle Lord was about to land its first strike on Feng, believing it could easily kill a weak human with a single attack, he disappeared, causing the Guardian Boss's claw to miss, while Feng appeared at its side with Blinkstep; the power of thunder and flames gathering around the Pandemonium Lashblade.

Thunder Flame Explosion!

Unlike how he usually attacks with Thunder Flame Explosion by slashing down or at his target, though, this time, Feng swung his sword upwards from below, with the resulting enormous explosion erupting from a lower angle and sending the Jungle Lord flying into the air in spite of its massive size.

This change in its fighting environment left the Superior Mythic monster unsure of how to proceed after getting flung so high up by an attack for the first time in its life, so it could only flail its limbs around and attempt to regain its bearings.

Feng wasn't planning on giving it the chance to do so, immediately launching himself up after the Jungle Lord with the goal of confronting it in the air where it was unfamiliar with doing combat and unable to quickly readjust itself or adapt due to not having the ability to fly; while he had several means of achieving flight.

Previously, during the time he was engaging in a frontal clash with the Jungle Lord, Feng had switched to the Aura of Wind in preparation for going all out and killing off the Superior Mythic, having already had the feeling at the time that he wasn't going to be able to defeat it through a regular fight, and after distancing himself from the tiger monster, Feng activated Gale Domain before going back to using the Aura of Fire that he normally has active at all times.

Thus, he could now fly through the air at a high speed with ease without affecting his damage-dealing capabilities and keeping them intact, quickly catching up to the airborne gigantic tiger.

Noticing Feng quickly ascending towards it, being only a few dozen yards below its current altitude, the Jungle Lord gave up on getting a hang of how to steady itself in midair, deciding to rely purely on instinct, and pointed its long tail at Feng.

Thick and powerful roots started extending out of the Guardian Boss's striped tail, moving at fast speeds downward in Feng's direction, but the Swordsman simply countered with a Thundering Flash after using up the last of his remaining Death Auras to decrease its cooldown.

Panic appeared in the Jungle Lord's ten eyes after seeing the sea of thunderbolts flowing towards it, seemingly traumatized by the previous spamming of the skill that Feng had done, and although it attempted to put up some sort of defense, it, along with all the roots which the Superior Mythic monster had fired off towards Feng, was ripped apart by the lightning sea as it continued on to envelop the giant tiger.

Thanks to the timely Thundering Flash, not only had Feng's stock of Death Aura layers fully recovered to fifty while huge damage was done to his opponent with even more Damage Amplification effect being added to the count, but the many attacks also allowed for the chain sword in Feng's hand to grow longer, which Feng had previously suppressed, as a result of the Glorious Outreach Profound Inheritance.

Pitch-black flames that instantly caused the Jungle Lord to grow far more alert and sense life-threatening danger then spread along the Pandemonium Lashblade's long blade, turning into black lights as Feng swung the Destruction Soul Fire-covered sword.

The Superior Mythic's futile attempts to defend against his following attacks were all instantly incinerated by the black flames, leaving burning gashes all across the Jungle Lord's giant body and reaping away huge amounts of its HP.

Even though it was technically fire, the Pandemonium Lashblade's Soul Destruction Flames skill wasn't actually a fire-type skill, so the flames didn't gain any of the Dragon Fire properties provided by the Draconic-Voidling Bloodline.

Its damage, however, was still greatly increased by all kinds of factors, reaching far greater levels than when Feng had used it before.

Upon Feng getting high enough to the Jungle Lord, the tiger beast abandoned all of its pointless defensive struggles and decisively chose to attack, lunging with the entire weight of its body at the small human and bearing its sharp teeth for a biting attack.

A thin red needle that burned with fierce golden flames suddenly landed on the outstretched head's forehead, doing a small amount of damage compared to Feng's other attacks, but its power and the Dragon Fire enveloping the Blazing Meteor with Flame God's Fury activated still burned the Jungle Lord, causing it to wince in pain while the fur on that head started rapidly burning as the Dragon Fire spread across it.

The moment of distraction and pause on the Superior Mythic monster's attack proved to be critical, as Feng took the chance to inhale and shoot out a collum of flames out of his mouth that devoured the Jungle Lord.

Dragon Breath!

Out of all Feng's skills, the one that had received the greatest improvement after he absorbed the Draconic-Voidling Bloodline was definitely the Heavenly Dragon's Breath AoE skill, Dragon Breath.

Being both a dragon-type skill and a fire-type skill, Dragon Breath obtained two enhancements from the Apex Bloodline, increasing Feng's compatibility with it and the skill's effects, along with its flames turning into Dragon Fire.

Now, the skill had become like a genuine Dragon Breath that was spewed out by an actual Dragon instead of just a Fragmented Legendary item's skill used by Feng that resembled the real deal's power.

Naturally, the effects of a real Dragon Breath were far more powerful, and while the Dragon Breath Feng could currently achieve wasn't completely the same, it was fairly identical, very nearly reaching the same strength as a real one.

Moreover, with Feng's current attributes and the power of this skill while he was in a state of Twofold Berserk, the Dragon Breath he had just performed was akin to it being a Tier 4 Dragon's characteristic attack that the Dragon race became famous for.

One could imagine what the end result of a mere Superior Mythic monster receiving a Tier 4 Dragon's Dragon Breath would look like.

The Jungle Lord turned into a flaming ball burning with golden flames as the blast pushed it even higher in the air.

At the moment, aside from receiving a gigantic amount of damage that made the Guardian Boss's HP bar decrease by a very visible portion, the five-headed tiger had also been greatly injured after taking on such an attack head-on with no defenses in place.

Its fur across the entire length of its body was completely charred, while the Jungle Lord still seemed to be dazed by the attack and remained unresponsive for a few seconds.

Feng didn't intend on letting the Guardian Boss recover, so, taking full advantage of the opportunity, he appeared above it using Instant Strike, the Pandemonium Lashblade's chain mechanism retracting and bringing its blade back to the normal size of a One-handed Sword from the previous length of several dozen yards, while a silver glow suddenly erupted on the Demon Sword that was still covered in Soul Fire.

Moonchaser!

Stabbing his sword downwards at the Superior Mythic monster, Feng's Moonchaser that reached the Tier 5 standard in power converged into one point on the Pandemonium Lashblade's tip and exploded out, sending the Jungle Lord smashing downwards into the ground where tigers like it belonged.

A giant crater formed when the Guardian Boss got embedded into the earth, cracks spreading across the surface around it as the force at which the Jungle Lord collided with the ground shook the entire jungle, whose central area had already turned into a wasteland by now from the fight between Feng and the boss monster.

Before the Jungle Lord could even stand up from the crater, a towering pillar of fire rose up from the ground, forming a mountain of flames like a bonfire had been lit under the five-headed tiger, which caused it to receive huge amounts of damage with each second from the golden flames.

Flame Domain!

However, despite doing so much damage and achieving such feats against a Superior Mythic ranked monster, Feng didn't show any signs of joy.

Instead, he frowned as he looked at the Jungle Lord's remaining HP and Blade Liberation's duration that ticked down, getting close to zero.

Even after pummeling the Jungle Lord with so many powerful attacks in a combo one after another and using up nearly all of his moves that would be effective against a Superior Mythic monster, Feng had only managed to decrease the Guardian Boss's HP by around 60%.

At this rate, he'd never be able to finish off the Jungle Lord before his Twofold Berserk runs out, and Feng would be left with no choice but to run away once Blade Liberation's debuff kicks in, decreasing his attributes by 80%.

"I suppose this is a good opportunity to test it out as well." Feng was suddenly reminded of the new spell he had acquired, and decided there wasn't a better target to try it on than a Superior Mythic monster, while it might even give Feng the push he needed to defeat this Guardian Boss.

Thinking of so, a light blue threefold magic array with a 500-yard radius appeared above Feng, plundering all of the Mana within a 1,000-yard radius.

Down below, the Jungle Lord had finally woken up from its dazed state, and, noticing it was enveloped in flames that were rapidly draining its HP, it jumped up with its mighty legs, shooting out of Flame Domain's radius.

When the giant tiger emerged from the flame pillars, the first thing that came into view above it was the human flying high in the air, and the huge Magic Array behind him.

In the next moment, a blue, blinding light descended from the Magic Array, before splitting into several smaller shooting stars that flew down at the Jungle Lord with incredible speeds.

Tier 4 Draconic Spell, Drago Buster[2]!

Shocked by the power it sensed from the around one hundred shooting stars, the Superior Mythic ranked Guardian Boss instinctively used a Tier 4 Defensive Skill, a Magic Array from which an enormous golden tree emerged appearing and shielding the Jungle Lord from the quickly approaching blue stars.

Upon contact, though, the golden tree was split apart by the first shooting star as if it were made of paper, while the blue orb continued on its way with the power within it having barely reduced, landing on the Superior Mythic monster in an instant.

The resulting impact sent the Jungle Lord flying back down into Flame Domain as a damage far higher than anything Feng had managed to do to it before appeared above the tiger's head. The remaining hundred or so blue stars immediately followed after the falling tiger, entering Flame Domain and striking on top of it.

Huge explosions sounded one after another from the crater filled with flames and blue flashes, along with the Jungle Lord's pained roars.

Without letting up, Feng brandished the still-covered-Soul Fire Pandemonium Lashblade, whose blade had once again extended and grown longer after the Guardian Boss got repeatedly hit by Drago Buster and Flame Domain, the chain sword turning into an afterimage as it whipped around to strike the five-headed tiger far below him.

From an outsider's perspective, it looked like a black bolt of lightning had struck down into the pillar of fire, and before its residual black, burning light could disappear, ten more black thunderbolts fell, followed by ten more, until the entire airspace was covered in black flames.

Feng didn't stop executing Sword's Orbit at a standard nearing that of a Silver Combat Technique until Blade Liberation's duration ran out and his Twofold Berserk state ended.

When Feng had first exchanged for the Blade Saint Legacy's Berserk Legacy Skill, Blade Liberation had only been a Tier 1 Level 1 Legacy Skill with a duration of twenty seconds. By now, however, Feng had already built up enough Skill Proficiency with Blade Liberation to increase its level.

Unlike other skills whose Skill Proficiency increased as players used them while achieving a high Completion Rate, proving that they were mastering the skill, Blade Liberation was different.

As it had no Completion Rate while being used, simply increasing the user's attributes upon activation, its Skill Proficiency could not be increased the normal way like one would upgrade their other normal and Berserk skills.

Instead, Blade Liberation gained Skill Proficiency with each usage depending on the potential of the weapon chosen as the target for the skill. The more powerful the weapon, the more Skill Proficiency will be gained by the Legacy Berserk Skill once activated.

In his previous life, Feng had only used the Legacy Berserk Skill while paired with subpar weapons and therefore hadn't been receiving many Proficiency Points for Blade Liberation, leaving it to remain at Tier 1 Level 1 all the way until he completed his Tier 2 Promotion Quest and used Legacy Skill Points to upgrade the skill to Tier 2.

Moreover, due to the harsh repercussions of harnessing Blade Liberation's power, Feng had avoided using this trump card unless absolutely necessary during the previous timeline, so he naturally had trouble racking up the required number of Proficiency Points to upgrade its level.

However, in this life, not only did Feng have the Pandemonium Lashblade, a top-tier Fragmented Legendary Weapon, making the Proficiency Points gained from using Blade Liberation with the Demon Sword as its target much higher than when previously used, but he had also been using the Berserk Skill quite often to raid powerful bosses.

During the time he and Black Flame had been forging Intermediate Mana Armor Kits, whenever Blade Liberation came off cooldown, the two of them would join up with Zero Wing's Main Force and attack monsters the restored members usually wouldn't be able to handle on their own even with Celestina's help, both Feng and his Perfect Clone entering Twofold Berserk at the end of the fight in order to finish off their opponent.

Thanks to the Skill Proficiency gained from him making use of the Pandemonium Lashblade's immense potential to power Blade Liberation, and Feng essentially getting double the points from downloading Black Flame's own obtained Skill Proficiency Points, Feng had managed to amass enough Proficiency Points and level up Blade Liberation.

Now, not only was the time he had in Twofold Berserk longer, but even Blade Liberation's effects were greater, making his chances of killing the Jungle Lord much higher.

As he felt the boosts to his attributes brought about by Heavenly Dragon's Power and Blade Liberation disappear, marking the end of his Twofold Berserk state, Feng finally stopped madly slashing the Pandemonium Lashblade and looked down to see the damage he had caused; the Guardian Boss's fate still being unknown and whether Feng had been able to take it down undetermined.

Despite the predicament he was in, Feng showed no signs of worry on his face. He was fully confident that the Jungle Lord was dead after receiving all of his continuous attacks and taking on everything Feng had to throw at it.

Even if the Superior Mythic monster somehow still had some of its HP remaining by some miracle, the volume of soul attacks it had been hit with throughout their entire fight, especially the last part where Feng was repeatedly cutting the tiger and its soul apart with Destruction Soul Fire, was simply too great.

Being an expert when it came to matters of the soul, Feng knew there was no way the Jungle Lord's soul hadn't been completely destroyed after receiving so many powerful strikes.

As expected, when the dust settled after a dozen or so seconds, all that remained was a large pile of items that radiated an intense amount of Mana.

Seeing that the 60th Divine Shrine's Guardian Boss is no more, Feng breathed out a faint sigh of relief.

In his previous life, Feng had been a Tier 6 Sword God while passing through all of the Divine Shrines above the 40th for the first time, and had naturally never bothered with properly fighting a mere Superior Mythic ranked monster like the Jungle Lord at the time.

Although Zero Wing had created a full database pertaining around the knowledge they had gained about the Divine Staircase, each of the Shrines in great detail, and all of the Guardian Bosses that spoke about their abilities and weaknesses, Feng had never dwelled much into it.

This was especially so for lower Shrines, with any of the ones below the 100th Divine Shrine not even entering his eyes at all due to Feng and Zero Wing's strongest combatants being focused on taking on the higher Shrines and defeating their Guardian Bosses; particularly the 200th Divine Shrine which had a Level 220 Ancient God level Guardian Boss in it.

Hence, before entering the 60th Divine Shrine and fighting the Guardian Boss himself, Feng had not possessed any information on what he'd be up against aside from remembering it was a five-headed tiger monster that he had easily killed off with his immense attributes of a Tier 6 being while rushing up the Divine Staircase.

Any information on the Jungle Lord's abilities or if it had some special move that it could use at the end to turn the tables on him was a complete mystery, which could very likely cause Feng to fail in killing the Guardian Boss.

With it now finally being dealt with, Feng could relax a bit and rest, no longer rushing to kill the giant tiger before it could get completely serious and start using its dangerous skills to attack him.

A golden light from the heavens suddenly shined down on Feng, relieving most of the stress on his body, while his Stamina and Concentration recovered completely. Feng's Heavily Weakened state after Twoflold Berserk ended also improved to just a Weakened state as well.

System: Congratulations! You have exceeded your own limits and achieved a feat acknowledged by the Gods. Rewarding three Exploits.

Receiving three Exploits for killing a Superior Mythic monster instead of just two like when he killed the Mythics made all the trouble Feng had gone through to bring down the Jungle Lord more than worth it.

With these three additional Exploits, Feng's total Exploit count returned to six after having previously spent six of his nine to exchange for the Draconic-Voidling Bloodline.

His options on the items he could purchase after leaving the Divine Staircase again also greatly expanded with the Exploits gained from killing the Superior Mythic monster, and Feng couldn't wait to get to the higher Shrines so he could earn himself some more Exploits by defeating the powerful Guardian Bosses.

Following which, Feng collected all the items dropped by the Jungle Lord at his own leisure, greatly increasing his gains from the Divine Staircase thanks to the loot of a Superior Mythic ranked Realm Lord boss monster.

Since he wasn't in a rush anymore, Feng decided to look through all of his gains from climbing the Divine Staircase, not having bothered to do so ever since he started rushing up after clearing the 40th Divine Shrine during his first run.

The resulting haul of going through all those Shrines while killing the Guardian Bosses with Divine Providence powered by five hundred units of Life Force in effect was exceptional.

There were currently several thousand items in Feng's Spatial Bag that he had pocketed from the Guardian Bosses' corpses, most of which were pieces of equipment and weapons, a significant portion of them being Level 55 items, Level 60 items making up the majority of the remaining loot, along with a few Level 70 items.

There were also many Epic items among the drops, their level range being mostly between Level 55 and Level 100, and Feng had even managed to obtain five Fragmented Legendary items from killing so many powerful bosses.

Many rare materials were among the large number of items as well, with Magic Barrier Crystal Fragments being the most prominent of them.

Having killed 110 Realm Lords, among them 8 being Special Elites, 10 being Chieftains, 20 being Lords, another 20 being Great Lords, along with another 20 being Grand Lords, half of them being Archaic Species, 31 being Mythic ranked monsters, from which 11 were Archaic Species, and one Superior Mythic ranked monster, with all of them getting slain while Divine Providence was boosting his Luck, Feng had naturally accumulated an enormous amount of Magic Barrier Crystal Fragments.

Thousands of the crystal fragments filled his Spatial Bag's slots, and Feng would have more than enough to support the continuous usage of any of his Towns' and Cities' constructions that required Magic Crystals to operate after he synthesizes the Magic Barrier Crystals.

Not to mention, Zero Wing's restored members would also be making several trips up the Divine Staircase once Feng gets back and starts sending them to the World Summit through the Gate of Darkness opened by his Manager Token, and since they'll all be killing every Guardian Boss that they can as well in order to maximize their Shrine Point acquisition and obtain Exploits, even more Magic Barrier Crystal Fragments are bound to start pouring into Zero Wing's Warehouse.

From this point onwards, it would even be difficult for Feng to use up all of the Magic Barrier Crystals he gets, which was a problem he was more than happy to have.

But there was another collection of items that he had gained from killing the Mythic ranked and above Guardian Bosses which even Feng placed a decent amount of value on.

These were thirty sheets of parchment that were fragments of an Advanced Forging Design.

[Monarch's Armor Forging Design Fragment] (Advanced Design, Epic Rank)

When learned, you will be able to produce the Level 70-120 Magic Rune Armor. Every piece of crafted armor contains a Magic Array. Five pieces can be used to form the Advanced Strength Battle Array.

(Current fragment count 30/30)

With Feng gaining all of the pieces for the Monarch's Armor Forging Design, he had officially collected all of the Advanced Designs on the Divine Staircase and possessed the Designs for all three variations of the Magic Rune Armor that dropped below the 100th Divine Shrine.

Though, there were still other Designs that could drop on the Divine Staircase, they weren't Advanced Designs, but Peak Designs a rank higher.

Unfortunately, those were currently impossible for Feng to obtain.

Taking out all of the thirty sheets of parchment, Feng immediately completed the Advanced Forging Design.

[Monarch's Armor Forging Design] (Advanced Design, Epic Rank)

When learned, you will be able to produce the Level 70-120 Magic Rune Armor. Every piece of crafted armor contains a Magic Array. Five pieces can be used to form the Advanced Strength Battle Array.

[Monarch's Armor] (Chest Piece, Plate Armor, Epic Rank)

Level 70-120

Equipment Requirement: Strength 3,800 and Agility 3,800

Defense +11,500

Strength +856, Endurance +720, Agility +633

Additional Passive Skill 1: Life Sacrifice

The lower the wearer's HP, the greater the power they will receive. Increases to a maximum of 70% Strength and 100% Attack Speed.

Additional Passive Skill 2: Together Strong

Whenever another wearer of the Monarch's Armor is within a twenty-yard radius, Strength increased by 15%, Agility increased by 10%, Endurance increased by 30%, and gains immunity to the Fear effect. (Stacks up to a maximum of fifteen times)

Additional Active Skill: Advanced Strength Battle Array

Requires five or more players wearing the Monarch's Armor to activate. Upon activation, increases the wearer's Strength by 170%, Agility by 125%, Endurance by 150%, and Physique by 80%. Grants Advanced Perception Sharing buff. Stamina and Concentration consumption rates are also increased by 1,200%. Maintaining the Battle Array costs fifty Magic Crystals every five minutes.

Finished appraising all of his loot, Feng walked over to the Teleportation Array and left the 60th Divine Shrine.

As soon as he appeared on the Divine Staircase, three system notifications rang in Feng's ears.

System: Congratulations! You have passed the Divine Shrine. Rewarding 15,000 Shrine Points.

System: Congratulations! You have passed the Divine Shrine within the time limit. Rewarding 15,000 Shrine Points.

System: Congratulations! You have killed the Guardian Boss within the time limit. Rewarding 40,000 Shrine Points.

Feng's Shrine Points instantly shot up by another 70,000 points, his total reaching 719,720 Shrine Points.

Since he was currently in a Weakened state with 80% of his attributes reduced, Feng chose to log out and wait for it to pass while resting.

Players' accumulated time in the World Summit only decreased when players were online; logging off to rest would not affect one's progress. Hence, to maintain their combat efficiency, players would often choose to log out while climbing up.

After all, challenging the Divine Staircase was a long and arduous progress, and as one climbed the staircase, they'd have to navigate larger maps in the Divine Shrines. As a result, players had to spend more time clearing the Shrines.

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Meanwhile, back in White River City, Black Flame had grown bored of constantly making Intermediate Mana Armor Kits and decided to embark on his own small journey.

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1. Thanks to Ren_Moduo for the Void Erosion name suggestion.

2. Idea for the spell from anime "That time I got reincarnated as a slime".