Chapter 008

Conquer Pillar.

This type of Pillar only appears 5 years after The Descent.

Unlike the Raid Pillar where Champions are tasked to attack and kill all the monsters inside the Pillar within the constrained of Attempt Counter and Time Limit.

Conquering Pillar is quite different.

One could say that Conquer Pillar is a path to another world.

The Champions who joined the Conquering Mission know the hard and challenging road they would take.

Compared to Raid Pillar, Conquer Pillar is different in many ways.

As a Conquerer your goal is to survive within the Time Limit.

Aside from the Time Limit, the Conquer Pillar also has the Attempt Counter.

This counter will reduce every failed attempt of the Raiding party.

But what happens to the Conquering Champions whenever they succeed in defending the Pillar? 

When they kill all the Raiders.

The Conquerors will receive a 'The Reset'.

Their health and mana will replenish.

All their skill cooldown will reset.

Equipment will be restored to its previous condition.

Dead Conquerors will revive.

Then creature on the other side of the pillar could try and raid them once more.

If the Conqueror successfully reduces the Attempt Counter to Zero or when the Time Limit expires, the surviving Champions may now raid the new world and gather as many resources as they can.

This is a great boon for Conquerors not only they will receive the Pillar's rewards but the unlimited chance to gather new resources is available to them.

However, this is the reward when they survive.

Conquering Pillar has one deadly characteristic that any Conqueror should take into consideration.

First, upon its creation, it will gather and calculate the total power level of the Conqueror inside the Pillar.

Next, this should match the total power level of the Raider.

However, this is not always 'equal' in a sense.

If an Ant is 1 point then a hundred thousand Ants is 100,000 points.

These 100,000 Ants can be paired with a single Dragon for 100,000 points.

Would 100,000 ants be able to kill a single dragon?

*****

"Violet…violet…"

Canis walked towards the edge of the building and glanced at the street below.

Thousands of people are dead in the street.

Some monsters can be seen mixed in those.

Canis' face looks sad and disappointed.

"I already expected this but… it's still surreal that I got inside a high-rank pillar."

"Only the best of the best can survive here… for a Violet Pillar, a Champion needs to be at least level 60 just to survive fighting those creatures, even though Pillars don't have restrictions, instead as a Champion you can see the information about the pillar (The number of Raiders that can enter and the recommended rank to attack the Pillar), the Association and Guild put law in place to protect their Champions."

…

"And this what happened when those restrictions didn't exist."

However, unlike Raiding a Pillar where you can choose to enter a higher ranking pillar that is your rank, a Conqueror doesn't have that kind of luxury.

He glances at the horror below.

(What a disaster!)

But.

"This confirms it…"

Canis looks at Maple, who is quietly standing in the side.

"I may not have chosen the 'Mother' of Maple but I end up with the best rank there is."

(At least one of my criteria in choosing to whom I use the skill was a hit, I got lucky that the monster is at Violet Rank.)

Canis glances at the dead Grandiflorian and then glances at Maple.

He clearly remembers the battle that happens just now.

(Is it the effect of the buffs?… Right now Maple should be at Green Rank because he already hit the first Level Quest… but despite being Green Rank he was able to beat a Violet Rank?)

Canis didn't know this yet, and maybe he will never find out.

The level works as a multiplier to the person's original attributes, this concept is universal which means it is also applicable to the Grandiflorians. 

One of the differences between humans and other creatures when it comes to level is when the Level Quest or Green-Rank Wall will appear.

To summarize this will be Maple's level.

With First Born achievement, this will double all his stats in a sense, and Maple will be at level 120. 

However, there is another achievement, the Born In A Day achievement which will increase all attributes by 20%, we can consider that Maple level is currently at 144 while Violet Rank Grandiflorians is around level 90.

Maple has 144 times the strength of Grandiflorians compared to its enemies.

But Canis didn't know this information.

Still, he felt relieved that Maple won against a Violet-Rank monster.

He felt that all those regrets he felt earlier slowly disappeared.

But then he glances at Maple and remembers something from the battle earlier.

"Maple, did you talk to the monsters earlier?"

He remembered the knocking sound of wood earlier.

"Yes, Father, from the moment he saw us she has been talking to me."

Canis nodded signaling Maple to continue.

"She said that I have the same 'fumes' as Wisdrangea, she also called her several times 'Mother'. She felt confused. But I just simply ignore her."

"Wis… dran…gea… Who is that?"

"I don't have any idea Father… she is just spouting 'Who are you?' 'What have you done to her?' 'Why can't we feel her presence?' 'Why did we lose our strength?', over and over again."

"Oh!"

Canis eyes widen.

(That's… Wisdrangea might be his mother's name.)

"Those… fumes… ah…"

(Maple might have similar 'fumes' to his mother… then…)

"Maple… those two who are chasing us?"

"They are nearing us, father."

"This might also be because of those fumes."

Boom…

A loud boom in the distance and a light of explosion even appear.

(There must be a battle there…)

Canis shook his head off.

"For now, we will do the same… we need to fight off those two monsters so we can lose our 'tail'."

"Tail?"

Maple replied.

"Figure of speech…"

Canis wave his hand around.

"Don't mind it right now, let us focus on killing them first."

(This is very painful to me to see, that my kid is the one fighting and I was not able to help him at… but Violet-level monsters are already disasters themselves.)

Canis just look at the rooftop.

(A minute fight, completely destroy the rooftop.)

And when he looked at the debris, he could also see that the lower floors was also damaged.

(Those crystals and bombs completely destroy this place.)

Canis can still see some ice shards in the area.

(This a fight between monsters with 60 times and 80 times their original strength… how can I even survive if I got between them? Nay.)

Finally, he look at the corpse of the monster on the rooftop.

…

(How did I survive the attack from this Wisdrangea?)

Canis was curious.

(It's either that the physical attack power of Wisdrangea is weak, maybe she is similar to a 'Mage' class Champion, or… she is controlling her strength in beating me.) 

Canis is having these thoughts while gathering loot from the Grandiflorian, but all those thoughts suddenly disappear when Maple begins wrapping his vines around Canis as they begin to charge toward the next target.

Canis looks back at the dead monster one last time.

(I will get your body later… Violet Rank loot is not cheap.)

*****

(Instead of running away like our original plan.) 

(We need to deal with the Grandiflorians that chase us.) 

(Initially, we wanted to deal with them because of fear of being surrounded but after the first fight, we had another reason to deal with them, and that is because of the 'fumes' that Maple released.)

Rip! Rip!

Maple rips the roots of other Grandiflorians.

And when Canis look at the ground several roots are already lying down.

Tok! Tok! Tok!

The Grandiflorian made that wooden annoying sound once again but Maple didn't reply.

The monster this time didn't have that Ice and Lighting ability but instead used pollens and scattered them around.

Which is ineffective against Maple.

Maple didn't bother and just ripped those 'legs' apart to lessen the mobility of the monster.

Bam!

When the monster finally lay down on the ground, he began grabbing the hole in the monster once again and forcing it to split apart.

The monster resists by rolling around and scattering pollen but unfortunately for him.

(Those things wouldn't affect Maple… just like Maple's pollen wouldn't affect them.)

Crack!

A small crack appears on the monster.

Crack!

The crack began to grow.

…

Crack!

BAM!

Maple put his large fist inside the very wide crack.

He grabs the seed and pulls out with so much force that the vines connected to it suddenly snap.

Maple immediately crushes the seed but the monster already stops moving and lifelessly lying down on the ground before it even happens.

(Even though it is considered a Violet Rank monster, its ability is a bad match to Maple.)

Canis was hiding in the corner in a distance to keep away from a disastrous fight.

In addition, they are now fighting in the street instead of the rooftop.

Canis was about to move when he noticed that Maple looked in another direction and signaled him to stop.

Bam!

A Grandiflorian appeared once again.

Same as the first two, this one is 2 meters wide, and it has green leaves and red circular thorny fruit hanging in those branches.

There are multiple vines moving around the upper part of the tree and an octopus-looking leg, that is made up of its roots.

Tok! Tok! Tok!

The monster began talking once again but as usual, Maple didn't reply.

Another battle begins just as the former battle ends.

The Grandiflorian this time uses the red fruits as a long-range weapon and uses its vine to throw it.

Maple charges but he is unable to dodge those red fruits.

Splasiiiisssshhhh!

The red fruits got smashed on Maple's body and just like an acid, it destroyed that part it hit.

Tok! Tok!Tok!Tok!

Tok!Tok!Tok!

However, the reason why the monster seems panicking is because the rate of decomposition from the acid is similar to the rate of regeneration that Maple has.

Bam!

Bam!

Bam!

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Three punches on the trunk and then their vines started to tangle between them.

Then, Maple began to rip the roots of the monster once again by skillfully using his gigantic hand.

Rip! Rip! Rip!

The monster began struggling.

The red fruits are falling on the ground.

Pollens are scattering.

Its vines are also tangling with Maple vines and in a distance Canis cannot determine who's who anymore.

CLANK! CLANK!

The monster began creating a weird noise that Canis reflexively covered his ears.

However.

Canis notices a liquid slowly dripping from his nose and ears.

"Blood."

He was slowly losing consciousness.

Immediately he ran away and moved inside the nearest building.

He was stumbling as he moved and almost fell down several times.

Canis opens up his waist bag and picks up several potions.

He opens two of them and pours them into his ears.

Then open another one and drink it.

He does this while moving away from the sound.

Cling! Cling!

He throws the vial away and continues to run as long as the sound can be heard.

He opens the door and moves inside of it.

This place looks like an office but he didn't care about it.

He saw another door in the distance and moved towards it.

"Shit!"

The room doesn't have any exit, he needs to return and find another path.

However.

…

…

…

The clanking sound disappears.

Bam!

He sat down on the ground leaned on the door and tried to catch his breath.

He picked another vial and drank it.

Gulp! Gulp!

"That's!"

A headache welcomes him.

After that a blurry vision.

"That's a frightening experience."

He closed his eyes for a bit.

Open it and stand up.

"Let's go back-"

He stops his tracks and glances at the table inside the office.

He walks towards it and grabs the thing that interests him.

A bundle of money.

"I see… When the Conquering Pillar is activated, everything within the 'scope' of the user will become part of the Pillar, that much is known to the public."

He moves towards the table and opens it.

There are several things inside, a pen, paper clip, photos, and also several bundles of money.

"And Champions within that 'scope' will be the only one remaining inside while the non-awakened will be teleported outside the Vanishing Cloud…"

"Then… the things inside, the materials and money…"

He grabs the bundle of money.

"They also went inside Pillar."

Something clicked inside Canis' head.

"Hmmm… right now I am confident that Maple can fight those monsters one at a time… as long as we didn't get ambushed then I believe he can deal with it."

"Then… should I take advantage of this scenario."

Canis eyes lit up, and he smiled widely.

Step! Step! Step!

Canis heard a step coming in front of him outside the office.

Immediately he kneeled down so he could hide his body and touched the 'leg' bag.

The plants inside of it rustle for a bit.

Step! Step! Step!

…

Step!

The person should be near the door.

He slowly peeks and looks at the person.

"Sighed…"

Relieved.

He saw a humanoid child tree in that place.

"I thought it was an enemy."

"I apologize, Father, trimming down the body takes time."

"Yeah, yeah, I believe you already told me that earlier."

In front of him, a child version of Maple.

To be honest, if Iron Man is a kid made out of wood with red star leaves and bushes behind him and a couple of flowers and mushrooms on him.

This might look like him.

"Maple, Are there any enemies around us?"

"No, Father. That was the last one."

"Then, I think we have to change our plan a bit."

Canis showed him the bundle of money and smiled.

*****

'Breaking News! It's been a day since the Vanishing Cloud appeared here in Philip City!'

"Grandpa! Grandpa!"

A woman who was watching the news in the kitchen shouted.

An old man went into the kitchen and immediately looked at the television.

"Grandpa, didn't Sir Canis live in that area?"

In the television, there is a heavy dark circular cloud in the middle of the city.

The helicopter is taking footage far from it.

The cloud didn't just cover the city but it extended above the clouds, like a cylinder.

The old man picks up his phone and immediately scrolls the name.

He clicked on 'Sir Canis'.

'The number you dial is out of coverage area.'

'The number you dial is out of coverage area.'

The old man's eyes widen with surprise.

"Grandpa? You can't reach him?"

"No… Missy… I can't."

The woman who is 24 years of age looks sad as she glances back at the television.

She immediately clasps her hands into a praying position.

"I really hope Sir Canis was not dragged into that."

'We still don't know who triggered the Conquerer Pillar at this point. The Association doesn't have any news if one of the guilds in the area triggers this. The National Defense is looking at the possible terrorism.'

'With this large scope, the Association is assuming that the Pillar being created is a High Ranked one especially the Freedom Guild, United Asia Storage Facilities, and the Association-Philip Branch are caught within this pillar.'

'We still didn't have any number of casualties at this moment. However, the Non-Awakened people who living inside the affected zone immediately appeared outside the Vanishing Cloud.'

'For now, we could just wait and pray for the Champions who are now fighting inside the Vanishing Cloud.'

"High-Rank!?"

Missy was surprised and looked at the old man.

The old man, who seemed to lose all hope immediately grabbed a chair and sat down.

"No…No… Sir Canis…"

Missy who saw his Grandpa's reaction suddenly forced a smile.

"Come on Grandpa… Sir Canis might be a level 1 Champion but maybe he could have run towards the Association for Safety… We should not lose hope."

(Sir Canis is a good and kind person, he is always there for the kids and the people who live here… Grandpa already treats him like his own son.)

Missy looks at the television once more.

(Please be safe Sir Canis, the kids are waiting for you here, I bet they wanted to play with you a lot… So please come back to us…)