The First Enemy [V]

「 Aspect Insight has been challenged by Mental Shield. 」

「 ■■■■■ has suppressed Mental Shield. 」

「 Aspect Insight is gathering advanced data. 」

「 Aspect Insight will now show the target's base data by default. 」

﹁

Name || Lexinus Maxima

Level || 15

Stats || [OPEN]

Stellar Aspect || Supreme Beast Commander Lvl. 1 [MORE]

Stellar Abilities || Mental Shield Lvl. 15, Speech Influence Lvl. 2, Ability Mimicry Lvl. 1, Ability Steal Lvl. 3, Resurrection Lvl. 1 (1 use remaining), Will Suppression Lvl. 3, Truth Seer Lvl. 2, . . . [MORE]

Equipment || Abyssal Cage Lvl. 6, Tamer's Aether Whip Lvl. 2

﹂

I was terrified of revealing his stats after seeing his stellar abilities but why was his aspect only level one if he was level fifteen?

﹁

Physical Strength || 17 + (5)

Stamina || 12 + (0)

Mental Prowess || 17 + (9)

Durability || 10 + (5)

Stellar Affinity || 15 + (0)

﹂

"What the &%@#..."

Khai looked at me in a confused way.

"Huh?"

"This guy is something else.."

"More specifically?"

"All of his stats are in the double digits and he has so many abilities."

"You've finally gotten around to looking at that? Thank you for your time. I can already see the worry in your bones."

「 ■■■■■ has suppressed Emotion Detection. 」

How many abilities does this guy have? But thank you ■■■■■, I'll start praying to you I swear.

「 A mysterious force giggles at your pledge. 」

"Damn, whatever you got sure is strong. Even blocking my emotion detection?"

"We have no abilities for you to take, nor equipment."

"You think I don't know that by now?"

「 ■■■■■ hasn't noticed the intrusion of Character Reading. 」

「 ■■■■■ has suppressed Character Reading. 」

「 A mysterious force sends apologies. 」

Lexinus unbuckled a small rod from his belt and from the tip a flow of aether burst out, forming the Tamer's Aether Whip. He cracked the whip in the air before walking towards the barrier.

"I'll give you two choices. One, you surrender your lives, or two, I take your lives. Either way, you end up dead so at least I'm giving you the choice of how that'll be settled."

I had faith in the Armillary Sphere and in Khai's combat so I wasn't planning on surrendering, and neither was Khai.

"We pick the second option, but first you'll have to get through this."

Pointing at the glowing layers of aether, Lexinus chuckled after tilting his head like a puzzled dog.

"You think that will stop us? You're funny."

The woman activated Spider Colony and grotesque spiderlings crawled out of her skin as if they were nesting in it. I gagged at the horrid sight.

"Attack."

The spiders crawled towards and onto the Armillary Sphere and then started to bite into it. Some were wiped off by the star rings but quickly came back. Lexinus started to slam the whip into the barrier and with each hit, the Armillary Sphere shook. Khai pulled me back into the dental clinic with his returning strength.

"Hey, we can win this."

His reassurance wasn't helpful.

"You didn't see what I saw."

"You said he only has 2 forms available right?"

"Yeah.."

"That means something's holding him back."

Fwwwwippppp

Crack

The Armillary Sphere continued to shake under the onslaught of spiders and the beating of the whip.

"I doubt it's something we can use."

"If he's as powerful as you say, there's no other choice."

「 European participants, there'll soon be an announcement regarding which primary game you'll be facing next. 」

That's if we manage to get past this one in the first place.

Ervant came back.

"Look's like you guys are in a pickle... hahaha."

"Can you help us?"

"Of course not, I'm only here to tell you to keep it up because spectators are excited for what will happen. Here, in case you don't believe me."

「 A spectator enjoyed your brave remark. 」

「 A spectator enjoys your teamwork with Khai. 」

「 A spectator finds your aspect interesting. 」

「 . . . 」

「 Multiple spectators are anticipating the development of this situation. 」

I felt Astral Wanderer blushing after reading that singular spectator's comment, and I swiped the rest away.

"I think I should set up a game for this..."

"WHAT?!"

「 A new game is starting! 」

﹁

An Unfair 2v2

Rank || Secondary

Difficulty || A-S

Task || Eliminate the opposite pair. Current pairs: Khai and Wyatt, Lexinus and ■■■■■.

Success || 200 gold

Failure || Death

﹂

"Sadist.."

"Enjoy you two!"

Ervant left, again.

"What do we do now?"

"We win this secondary game."

Khai finally broke out of his silence now that Ervant was gone. Was he scared of him?

"How?"

「 Armillary Sphere is starting to weaken. 」

That's not good.

"Our best bet is still me going for the girl as you can dodge the guy."

"Would he even bother with me? He already knows how weak I am."

"How weak are you...?"

"I'll tell you after."

Wait, we can buy stat points, can't we? I opened the marketplace since I stupidly skipped the extra information given out previously.

﹁

Stellar Shopping Array || Official Marketplace

Gold Balance || 600

Listings

. . .

Physical Strength Point | - | Stat point directly invested into physical strength | 25 | [BUY]

Stamina Point | - | Stat point directly invested into stamina | 25 | [BUY]

Mental Prowess Point | - | Stat point directly invested into mental prowess | 25 | [BUY]

Durability Point | - | Stat point directly invested into durability | 25 | [BUY]

Stellar Affinity Point | - | Stat point directly invested into stellar affinity | 25 | [BUY]

. . .

[MORE]

﹂

Is this how Lexinus got so many? I bought a couple.

「 24 stat points have been invested. 」

「 Physical Strength + 6」

「 Stamina + 10 」

「 Durability + 8 」

「 You feel your entire body develop. 」

「 Gold Balance || 0 」

With my strength no longer in the negatives, I felt more at ease and freely swiped the 6 notifications away - even my arm felt lighter.

"Did you know you can buy stats?"

"Yeah... damn it, I should've registered into the array when Ervant was here."

"You sent me your money either way."

"Right."

「 Armillary Sphere is beginning to collapse. 」

I heard the layers of aether crack under the pressure while the star rings slowed down and the string of aether connecting the stars started to rip.

"They sure overpowered it quickly..."

"It's fine, I'm ready to use Ichor Infusion."

As he said that, I watched the golden coating emerge from his palm and climb up the blade.

"This form better work."

「 Stellar Form, Cosmic Sight, has activated. 」

「 Duration = 30 minutes. 」

Stardust flew around me and sparkled in the rays of light that broke through the windows. Is this what will help me dodge? I tried to touch the specks but they moved away from my fingertips.

「 Armillary Sphere has collapsed. 」

The layers of aether shattered and the sound of the stars separating spread through the street. Armillary Sphere collapsing released a powerful shockwave which had hopefully hit Lexinus and his companion. Khai and I walked back out of the dental clinic; I was prepared to be a distraction while Khai fought the still-unnamed girl.

To our misfortune, Lexinus also had a barrier ability which he used to protect himself and the girl from the shockwave. Like his whip, it was white in colour. The fact aether could take any colour intrigued me. Even if it was all one type of energy, it could still disguise itself as anything else.

"What ability do you not have?"

"Monk's Mind."

"Great."

So Khai was a target. I looked at Khai - where was Khai?

Khai was already running towards the blonde woman who stood behind Lexinus, paying no attention to either of us.

"So it's just us, you excited? I am."

Lexinus' ecstatic tone did not make the situation any better for me. His whip pierced through the air, moving towards me, and - as promised - the gathering of stardust rotated my entire body, apart from my head, causing the whip to fly directly past me and into the ground. There were only a few centimetres between the tip of my ear and the whip so this form wasn't very eager to go all out protecting me.

"Nice one."

After bringing the whip back to himself, he swang it again but horizontally. The stardust forced me to accomplish something I have never accomplished before: one metre jump. I felt like I floated above the whip for a second before perfectly landing once it had passed.

Continuing to evade the oncoming attacks while staring at Lexinus, I resigned from looking at him and looked at Khai instead for a split second to see how he was doing.

「 Penalty administered: Cosmic Sight duration decreased by 5 minutes. 」

A penalty? For looking away? The form description never mentioned that...

The stardust gathering thinned as the duration was decreased, plus, it was meant to get weaker throughout its use so that was no surprise but the penalty was too far.

Lexinus inched forward with every attack while the stardust forced me to take steps back. The distance between Khai and I got bigger, was that part of their plan? Before when I looked away for a moment, Khai didn't appear to struggle so I had no doubt in the chances of him winning. I did hope that'd he hurry as I only had like around 22 minutes remaining on Cosmic Sight.

「 Lexinus Maxima used Ability Mimicry on Cosmic Sight. 」

「 Ability Mimicry failed due to Cosmic Sight being a Stellar Form. 」

「 Astral Wanderer is displeased with Lexinus Maxima. 」

Is he an ability collector or something?