Chapter 023

'We have already passed the 15th day mark and today is the 17th day of this Conquer Pillar… Right now, this pillar could be the second 180-day pillar for all we know.'

A woman with blond long hair was watching the TV.

People who look at her cannot see any emotion on his face.

'The likelihood of survivors is still high, but we believe that the battle might be hard for our Champions.'

"Halley you're watching that news again…"

A woman with black hair wearing a suit walks towards her.

"Do you have a family in Philip City?"

The woman didn't notice it but Halley's eyes widened upon the mention of family.

"No… I don't have…"

Halley answered but a memory suddenly surfaced.

***

A boy, who is like a brother to her, was running in front of her.

"Halley, let's chase mommy and daddy!"

As a kid, she ran towards the two silhouettes in the distance.

She felt happy.

Mommy!

Daddy!

She genuinely feels that those strangers are truly her family.

***

But she shut that memory as it resurfaced.

"Anyway Prixie, what are you doing here? Are you done with your preparation?"

"Eh! What are you talking about Halley? We are the Elite Members of Phoenix, we have our own people who prepare our things."

Halley shook his head.

"You still didn't learn, last time your people didn't maximize your potion bag and you lacked potion after some time."

"Tsk, why did you have to remind me of that? We already fired that incompetent fool… well anyway Captain is looking for you we need to go to the briefing room."

Halleys sighed and looked at the TV once more.

The photo of Vanishing Cloud took up most of the screen.

(Is he alright?)

A sudden question came to her for some reason and just block it again once more.

"Alright, Prixie, let's move to the briefing room."

Prixie walks in front while Halley walks at the back and she glances at the tv one more time.

*****

Pant! Pant! Pant!

Joaquin Alfredo the Guild Master of Muerte La Marcha.

The Black Flame of Death.

Is running for his life.

Pant! Pant! Pant!

"Why? Why did those fuckers team up with UASF? Is this a trap all along?"

Bam!

A spear pierce the wall and a woman appears after it.

Joaquin changed direction.

(Run! I have to run!)

He can fight off the enemy if he wanted to. Unfortunately, there are alot of people following him.

"Pressure Punch!"

Instinctively Joaquin jump forward.

Bam.

He hit the floor.

"Fire Wall!"

A wall of fire appears on the ground to block the sight of the enemies and to prevent them from chasing him.

"The fucking Commander is after me."

A violet rank Champion is chasing him together with the full force of UASF and in addition to that the Elite member of Freedom Guild is also in his tail.

(Fuck! That bastard Luke and those Freedom Guild who ratted on me.)

Muerte La Marcha executives sacrifice themselves by being a bait and holding some enemies but they fall down like a fly.

First of all, Muerte La Marcha manpower is currently weak because they came to the United Asia with only eight of their main forces because they want to keep a low profile.

That's why the famous dark guild can't even handle the number of enemies right now.

"If I survive I will fucking kill you all."

Joaquin made a promise as he continued to dodge the incoming attacks.

*****

17th day.

Canis is observing Maple in the distance.

Maple is fighting a Grandiflorian that has blue bark and branches.

Just as they are about to clash Maple's priorities break the roots of the monster.

Crack! Crack!

Tok! Tok! Tok!

Two legs were lost immediately.

The monster tried to resist by moving away and pushing Maple using his roots but…

That made him expose his legs more and Maple took advantage of that.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

Only three more legs remain.

The monster fought for his life. 

He cut off one of his branches, and the resin from the wound solidified into a round bluish resin and exploded into an ice bomb.

Boom.

He tried to run while Maple was hit by the ice bomb and the cold air became a smoke screen however, the monster failed. Maple uses his vines to grab the monster and immediately move towards the monster.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

The last legs were ripped apart and Maple immediately performed the Coup De Grace… breaking the body in half and crushing its seed.

Canid walks towards the Grandiflorian, he touches the floor.

"Access."

A door appears on the floor just like a normal routine, Maple picks up the monster parts that can be looted and throws it inside the door.

Canis glanced inside and saw a mountain of unsorted Grandiflorian materials.

The door then was closed by Maple using his vine.

"Is that it? Is that the final monster…"

Just like that it seems like the Pillar answered his question.

Voooommm!

A golden wind rushed towards them.

"Maple, let's prepare to run!"

*****

Woooossshh!

'Run!'

'Use the stones!'

'Use it now!'

'Run! And use the stone.'

Just as they appear on the entrance of the destroyed pillar.

People begin to shout.

"Maple run, focus on running!"

Hundreds of Grandiflorian with unknown ranks welcome us.

'Ahhhh'

'Help me… Help'

'Use the stone! use the stone! use the stone!'

'I'm just a low rank!!!!'

Maple began to move, multiple roots tried to grab him but Maple moved skillfully.

Canis is embracing the back of Maple and vines are wrapped around him.

[For successfully finishing a Conqueror's Pillar.]

[Conquer, achievement]

(This achievement is similar to the Raider achievement that doesn't have any particular use according to those who received it already.)

[You received Return 777 Stone.]

(As expected Return 777 is the Return Stone to go home back to Earth. The standard reward for successfully finishing the Conqueror Pillar.)

A circular stone appears in front of him and grabs it immediately and puts it in his pocket.

(You received 515 Violet Crystals.)

"Maple, I need help here! Quickly!"

While running, a pocket dimension appeared in front of Canis and it began to drop crystals.

Ting! Ting!

A bowl made of vines was set up below that pocket dimension.

Ting! Ting!

Tang!

Due to his movement several crystals fall.

"Tsk! There is nothing we could do about it."

They continue to run and dodge several Grandiflorian while skillfully navigating the forest.

Canis couldn't see the other survivors due to their distance.

[Rank 1 Contribution Reward, Herbicide Ability.]

Canis eyes open wide.

(Ability Crystal!)

When the pocket dimension opened something immediately dropped from it.

Canis immediately grabbed it and looked at it.

A palm-sized square violet crystal, with a golden light character in the middle. The character is an 'l' and 'Y' combined together that looks like chicken feet.

But it doesn't end there, a 'V' shape can be found on the bottom part attached to the character and a small 'v' shape for every 'finger' of the chicken feet.

Canis uses mana on the crystal.

Canis smiled.

(Ability Crystal is one of the rarest and sought-after items to come out from Pillar.)

(In a world where you cannot increase the number of skills you have, this became the most valuable item to improve yourself.)

Upon awakening, you can get 1 to 3 abilities and you can learn another 1 to 3 abilities from your journey towards Champion Wall, and gain 1 ability every time you get over Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet.

Overall, if you are lucky you can get 10 abilities, if you are unlucky you can get 6 abilities instead throughout your journey to Violet Rank.

But if you look at the average ability of Champions, the majority who reach the Champion Wall only have 2 abilities.

"Even though I cannot use it personally, I'm still going to absorb it."

He put more mana on the Ability Crystal and slowly it was being absorbed by his hand.

[Herbicide ability learned.]

[All damage applied to Plant Base Creature will increase by 300%]

"The effect is awesome, maybe this is because the ability came from a Violet Rank crystal."

Unlike normal ability that didn't have a grade.

Ability coming from the Ability Crystal can easily be labeled, by the color of the crystal they came from.

Of course as humans, we like to compete so much, that the Association made its own grading system this is all made up and supervised by the Association.

"This is the effect of a Violet Rank skill... Well, they said that the skill you learn when you reach Violet Rank is also considered an Ace above your Ace."

Woooossshh!

Wooooossshh!

Maple continued to run, we didn't encounter any monsters because Maple was zigzagging all over the place dodging an area with large number of monsters.

"This is a great reward… what a 'mission'..."

Canis thought that he was lucky when he ended up in that Conqueror Pillar.

"Thank goodness I drunk that day and-"

[Raider achievement, completed.]

[Conqueror achievement, completed.]

Canis eyes widen.

(Why is there a sudden list of things coming into my head?)

[Level 1 soul requirement, completed]

(What!?)

Canis was shocked but the information continued.

[Unique room ability, used.]

(Wait… what is this?)

[Promoted to Level 2.]

Canis was stunned.

Eiiiiiii!

He cannot hear anything right now.

Only a buzzing sound.

Tears began to flow in his face but he didn't know it.

Dum! Dum! Dum!

His heart was pounding so hard that he could hear it together with the buzzing sound.

[Control Center Upgrade Available. (1/1)]

[Chamber of Lust ability counter restored. (1/1)]

Dum! Dum! Dum!

Canis could not do anything right now, the shock took him by storm, if not for their current situation he wanted to lie down on the ground and cheer.

Canis put his forehead on the back of Maple.

"Father?"

'Thank you.'

'Thank you.'

'Thank you.'

He whispered it so many times that even he lost count.

Maple continues to push through out of the forest while using Detect to dodge the enemies.