Level up

''Show them the power of Cleppe!'' Jean shouted as the other group came towards them.

Immediately, 10 soldiers of Cleppe raised their shields to form a defensive wall. Then, Jean rush towards the demon, intending to fight alone as his squadron was forming groups of 5.

Whenever a group fell in danger, another group helped them - usually a group composed of Cleppe's soldiers. The wounded ones could then take refuge behind the shield-like wall formed by Cleppe's soldiers.

'I need to leave some alive.' Eloise thought.

Not only would they be able to get information about the zone, but the quest rewards were quite attractive.

If a demon captured mean 50 energy units, wouldn't that go to 60 if she kills them afterward? Anyways leaving demons behind would bring them danger. She liked that thought even more as 60 energy units was the same result she would get if she transformed impure energy 3 times which was the equivalent of about a day of training.

Helmet on her head, she charged into the enemy lines, disarming and then knocking out the weakest demons. As for the tougher ones... she didn't have that luxury.

The enemies weren't weak as nearly every one of them was a veteran.

They even had a Knight. It was as if the zone had wanted to create equivalents fights between opponents of similar strength. But if this was the case, they had underestimated their fighting prowess.

Every Cleppe's soldier wasn't far from Eloise's level with their equipment, and she felt that some even surpassed her. She thought directly of François, Jean's second in command.

...

It was a humiliation. No deaths were to be deplored on Cleppe's side, and only 5 men have been wounded. All of them were being cured by Emilie.

On the other side, 35 of the 51 demons were captured, 5 committing suicide before being captured.

The enemy knight couldn't withstand the difference in equipment, his sword breaking against the high-ranked demonic sword wielded by Jean. He didn't even have time to commit suicide.

''What shall we do?'' Jean looked at the unconscious demons.

''We need information,'' Eloise replied coldly.

''Right... I can take care of that.'' François proposed.

Everyone ignored the violation of the rules of war as François tortured the demons for a few hours, not hesitating to use the cruelest techniques such as fracturing each part of the enemy energy center bit by bit before repairing it with spiritual energy, and repeating the process. Of course, he didn't forget the traditional tortures like removing nails or burning the Knight's body with his impure energy.

Meanwhile, Eloise and most of the soldiers began to meditate.

Fortunately for them, the barrier put in place by Emilie allowed them to cover the monstrosity that was taking place, not hearing the cries of pain of the opposing knight whose energy center was sealed - François excelling in the use of runes - coupled with bounds that wouldn't allow him to commit suicide.

31 captured enemies meant 1550 units of energy, which was added to the 160 units received from killing the demons.

There were two ways to use pure energy. The first one was to strengthen her body, which would be done automatically if Eloise did nothing. Of course, she could decide on which part to strengthen in particular. This step not only made her stronger but also more resilient, allowing her body to withstand the second method.

The second method was to cultivate, which depended on their realms. For example, the foundation period perfected the body as it allowed it to be in synergy with the body.

Eloise was a step higher at the fortification realm (of intermediate level). To move on to the next stage, she would have to fill all her cells with energy at the same time so that her body would no longer have any trace of the old and weak cells, and therefore wouldn't reproduce them anymore.

But as a result, it needed a huge energy mass, whereas the body only had its energy center to stock it. Another unfairness linked to one's natural talent.

To counter this, the ancients decided to contract their energy, making it more powerful and thus allowing them to pursue cultivation.

But that was a method of the past.

Now, all humans took energy tanks to put their energy into them and drew on them during their breakthrough moment.

Even if these tanks did change their pure energy slightly, it was still better than relying on pure energy that had touched someone else's energy center.

It was one of the major advantages of the system to have a very pure personal energy. No, to be exact, it was what pure energy really was. It hadn't be stained by anything, and so could transform itself and become Eloise's energy.

She tried to go straight to the next stage. Given the danger, she had no time to wait for an epiphany or a moment of supreme concentration.

The energy was released into her energy center, and she filled every cell with it. Despite the pumping, the energy came too quickly for her to run out of it.

Having trained her body well, she succeeds without much difficulty.

To do so, she had expended about 300 units of energy, the equivalent of 1500% of her storage capacity.

Full of vitality, she began to adapt her control to her new abilities.