Traversing the Middle Realm

As Veil's mind juggle with extreme dizziness inside the chaotic space of the gate, she never stopped protecting herself with mana.

After a total of 17 days, she finally arrived in a desolate land within the Middle Realm.

She could not help but vomit the meal she ate before she set off.

She was in a roller coaster ride which turned upside down every second or so, she never even determined her orientation as she gets flipped and twisted.

Eghh. Cough cough.

As Veil stood back up and regained her calmness, she surveyed her surroundings.

The sky is full of dark and purplish clouds that constantly block out the sunlight.

Plants have eyes and some have mouths on their own which spits out poisonous gas.

There is nothing normal that could be found within the Middle Realm. As Veil experimented, the flow of mana in the atmosphere is actually different.

She then hypothesized that time should also flow differently here, although it is not that differently from her world.

As she sets off the mountain she spotted to gain more information on the terrain here, she heard multiple footsteps approaching her.

Guraaaaaak!

More than ten horned goblins simultaneously pounced on her and sent claw attacks.

Mana Expansion: Shadow Envoy's Descent!

As Veil's newly-improved Mana Expansion, she now produced shadow tentacles with golden blades on their tip.

Swing swing swing swing!

Unexpectedly, she started a massacre against the horned goblin attackers using her new skills.

She did not even break a single sweat before finishing off the last horned goblin. She also noticed that she could absorb Dark Soul Fragments from these goblins, although the amount barely increases her growth.

She then tracked the origin of these goblins, after about days of combat and tracking, she finally arrived at a massive cave.

This cave is home to the horned goblins, but also, another fact that Veil is unaware of is that other dangerous monsters reside in this cave.

Monsters such as orcs, ogres, giant spiders, phantom assassins, elemental golems and finally, the strongest monster who reigns the whole cave, the 3-headed beast Cerberus!

This cave is actually a famous spot in the past from when human Adventurers could easily access the Middle Realm via constructed transport gates powered my mana crystals.

This cave is a massive source of elemental crystals which can enhance weapons and even engineering aspects of humanity.

However, due to the Ancient War, the said transport gates have been locked down by various evil forces from the Middle Realm to avoid invaders.

As a long time have passed since then, only a single massive crystal remains inside this cave, which is guarded by the Cerberus.

This massive crystal is a World Crystal which holds tremendous amount of mana, it pulsates on intervals to produce mana in the whole cave.

The Cerberus, who treated this World Crystal as its toy, is the sole receiver of the largest amount of mana among the monsters inside the cave.

The farther you are from the World Crystal, the less energy you would be able to harvest.

Thus, through time, the monsters residing in this cave just settled down quietly as to not reveal the source of their infinitely growing powers.

However, horned goblins always liked pillaging treasures outside, which is why they stay out most of the time and barely receive the powers of the World Crystal.

Now, they made a huge blunder of attracting their end, a strong human Adventurer.

[...]

Veil entered the cave, she immediately noticed the strands of mana soothing her slight exhaustion from the battles she faced.

As she carefully treads deeper into the cave, she spotted a new type of enemy: the orcs. The orc shaman immediately channeled its buffing skill.

Skill: Drums of Garu'kka!

As the melee orcs charge her, she immediately wrapped her sword with mana.

First Divine Technique: Phantom's Descent!

As her sword gain longer range due to the mana extension, she cut her enemies and culled down their numbers.

Splatter! Rumble!

What Azazel said to her was true, far more enemies can be found inside the Middle Realm.

Orcs have been flooding her nonstop and she could not approach the shaman to lower their battle prowess.

However, just as she thought of leaping upwards to skip on the melee orcs, she heard gigantic footsteps behind the shaman.

'Ogres!' Veil is slightly surprised.

It seems that her fierce battle with the orcs have attracted the bigger monsters.

Three ogres with wooden clubs kicked away some melee orcs before charging at her.

Thud thud thud thud!

Sensing the danger from the ogres, she immediately used her upgraded skills.

Skill: Dark Swipes!

Skill: Shadow Weave!

Skill: Shadow Dance!

As she blinked in and out of the ogres, even more green blood filled the cave.

Splattttt!

Blood sprayed from the beheaded ogres, as her Shadow Dance has not run out of empowered attacks yet, she utilized it to trim down the number of orcs surrounding her.

Swing! Vuwooooosh! Urkkkkk!

As the fallen orcs and ogres could only groan in pain, the shaman finished its incantation.

Summon: Garu'kka!

A gigantic 10-meter gate rose up from the ground, sound of chains snapping one by one could be heard.

Boom! Boom! Crackle!

As the doors swing open a loud deafening growl filled the cave.

Roaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrr!!!

Garu'kka is the fallen lord of the orcs. He was killed from his attempt to snatch the World Crystal from the Cerberus.

He contested a 3-day battle against the beast, however, an unknown interference caught his attention just before he tried blocking the Cerberus' bite attack.

He was then mauled to death by the Cerberus, however, his soul refused to perish from the world, so he conversed with the orc shaman to lock his soul away until they found a vessel.

Now, the chosen vessel is an orc warrior who boasted various skills, but the said orc caught an untreatable disease.

With this perfect opportunity, the shaman sent the orc to the space where he locked the soul of Garu'kka.

["I sense great energy from you human! You shall be my new vessel!"] Garu'kka bellowed in orcish language.

He sent consecutive slashes with massive physical power. With brute force alone, he created vibrations in his sword attacks that will be harder to block.

Skill: Juggernaut's Trance!

With a total of 50 slashes, Veil struggled to cope with the fierce attacks.

She then summoned her shadow tentacles to contend against the orc lord.

Mana Expansion: Shadow Envoy's Descent!

Loud vibrations of metallic objects rang through the cave, while the human and the orc lord engage in a fierce battle, the shaman constantly buffed his lord with defensive skills and even healing totems.

Skill: Protection Blessing!

Skill: Aura of Sword!

Summon: Healing Totem!

The receiving end of the buffs, Garu'kka, grew even stronger.

Every swing from his two-handed greatsword would shake the cave and send the human flying like a cannonball.

Thud! Boom!

The entire cave wall crumbled when Veil crashed.

Pant pant pant.

Aughh…

She spat a mouthful of blood while she catches her breath.

As she prepares to stand back up and attack the shaman, she discovered that the new cave area she landed in was full of magic traps.

Fortunately, she did not activate them as the caster is no more.

When she looked at the magic traps, she got reminded of Daybreak's Lurk, the assassin who is adept in magic traps.

She then tried modifying a magic array on her hands and expanded it on the floor in front of her.

Garu'kka, unaware of the human's plan, did not stop his charge.

Skill: Juggernaut's Charge!

He dashed like a massive bull without rest as he destroyed a bunch of rubble where he sent the human flying.

Just as he is about to resume his charge after clearing the obstacles, he suddenly found the ground beneath him glowing.

Vuooooshhh! Stab!

A tentacle with golden blade on its tip pierced the orc lord's entire leg.

Garghhhhh!

Veil successfully made her own trap utilizing magic arrays and her Mana Expansion.

With a lesser mobility and massive bleeding, Veil was able to cope with the melee battle against the orc lord.

Swing! Kabooom!!! Rumble!

Guraaaaaa!

She was able to send the massive orc stumbling and crashing on the wall.

With the window she created, she immediately reappeared behind the shaman who is in the middle of incantation busily healing the damaged orc.

Stab! Splatter!

Thick green blood sprayed from the orc shaman as blood bloomed on his chest.

Like a puppet with no strings, the shaman fell down lifelessly while all the skills he channeled gradually dissipated.

Thud!

Arghhh argghrrrr!

Garu'kka angrily stomped his feet as the door who summoned him rose up from the ground, as the caster was killed, it was also his time to go.

However, just as the first chain is about to wrap around the orc lord to pull him to the door, a nimble shadow suddenly cut the chain!

Skill: Dark Rend!

Clang! Snap!

The chains snapped cleanly as Veil cut it down, she must not let this opportunity to absorb the orc lord's Dark Soul Fragment go to waste.

She then immediately used her strongest skills to finish the orc lord as new chains are about to drag him.

Mana Expansion: Shadow Envoy's Descent!

Skill: Shadow's Wings!

Skill: Shadow Dance!

She flew like a gale of wind as she swiped her sword horizontally, followed up by 10 shadow tentacles piercing the orc lord all over his body.

Slash slash slash! Stab! Splatter!

Urraarrggggghhhh!

The orc lord Garu'kka could only groan loudly in pain as flowers of blood formed all over his body.

As his strings of life have been cut off, the chains slowly fell down to the cave as well before gradually disappearing with the door cracking.

Veil catches her quickened breathing as she gestures her hand to absorb the Dark Soul Fragment.

A massive harvest!

As the strands of darkness seep through her fingers and spread through her body, she immediately sensed the fierceness and danger of her new aura.

Before, when perceiving her, she is like a calm lake with cool air. But now, she is like a great ocean with an unfathomable depth.

Any moment, a wave could devour you to the deepest and darkest waters.

She must learn to sheathe her own aura to hide her cards from her future battles.

Leaking her unkempt mana would only produce more disadvantages rather than good.

She then proceeded to absorb every corpses' Dark Soul Fragments, her harvest this time is truly mind-boggling.

She chose to camp outside the cave on a relatively safe tree spot to regain her best fighting state before going deeper.

[...]

While Veil is on her own journey, a massive attack happened on the Elven city Alvanheim, which also serves as the Elves' main city.

The forest's strongest combatants, Riveria and elder Doryarus are the only ones saving the city from its annihilation.

The Elven mages' summoned wisps and treants are barely holding their ground while the melee combatants are getting culled down by the attackers.

Skill: Song of the Forest!

Skill: Weeping Sword!

Summon: Elven Wisp!

Summon: Guardian Treant!

The Elven archers stationed on different walls and watchtowers never stopped their attacks to trim down the enemy troops.

Skill: Wind Quiver!

Skill: Culling Arrows!

With that, sounds of swords clashing, raining arrows, various magical spells and explosions fill the Elven city.

The invaders this time is an unknown ancient civilization who survived since the Ancient War.

It seems that their greatest engineering, a flying Ark capable of travelling outside the world saved most of their citizens and engineers.

This ancient civilization boasts steel beasts taller than most human buildings standing tall over 20 meters. Even their weapons are powered by mechanical steelworks instead of magic crystals.

This ancient race is one of the strongest races in the past world: the Aegis!