--- Mist Form
====================
[You entered The Great Mist Forest!
Monsters: Mistman(C), Misty Hunter(C), Treant(C), Mist Spider(C+), Mist Fairy(B), The Grand Mist Lord(A+). *Hidden Monsters: Moonlight Ambusher(B+), Moonlight King Ambusher(A+), Mini Mist Slime(S+).]
====================
"..."
Just as Chris stepped into the boundary of the Misty Forest, a window showing the list of monsters appeared in front of him. It suddenly piqued his interest, as it was the first time that a list of hidden monsters appeared on the list.
"Uhhh... Moonlight?" Chris frowned. "Are they somewhat related to my job upgrade quest?"
He remembered that he had to eliminate a band of named bandits, specifically the Moonlight Raiders, who terrorized the roads of Crescent Moon City. He was confused if these Moonlight Ambusers were related to them.
"Oh well, I'll find out once I see these guys."
Shrugging his shoulders, he moved forward. There was no use contemplating something that he hadn't even seen yet.
*Wooosh!* *Wooosh!*
He used the tree branches as walking surfaces and leaped from one tree to another. With his new, enhanced perception, he was going toward the closest presence he could feel.
His current system level allows him to see up to three kilometers away, and when combined with his new perception attribute, which has a value of 4,000, the total range of his sight is seven kilometers.
Although the area he was in was covered in mist and his vision was impaired, that range also included the ability to detect anything that had life. So he can easily navigate this forest filled with mist and tall trees.
"Man, this place is not suitable for my heavenly spells."
He already had a plan of doing multi-kills in the area because the list of monsters is plentiful, but the monsters that he can feel are scattered all over the place and are very far from each other, and there's no cluster of monsters at all, which makes him quite disappointed.
Stopping on the branch of a tall tree, he finally saw his first monster and stopped a few tens of meters away from it to look at its information.
====================
[Mistman(C) Lvl. 180
HP: 106,875,000
Skills: Powershot, Misty Shot, Strafe, Mist Form, Child of the Mist*
Drops: 3- 5 Gold Coins, Each of its skills as Skillbook except the ultimate.]
=====================
"What a sad loot table... but it looks hella cool though." Chris shook his head in disappointment because the loot was very few, but he approved of the monster design.
Similar to him, the monster was standing atop a tree branch. The monster was surrounded by a green mist all over its body and was about three feet tall. There's also an outline of a huge bow and a quiver of arrows on its back. If not for its glowing red eyes and the slightly sharper color of the mist surrounding it, the monster is as good as invisible.
"Okay, just like old times, let's test the waters first!"
[Powershot]! 5...4...3...2...1...
*Swiiish!*
[Mist Form]!
*Sooo!* *Tok!*
As the arrow traveled towards the mistman, it actually passed through, hitting the tree behind it instead.
"W-what!?"
He was surprised at what happened and felt a dejavu, remembering his encounter with the ghosts of the glades.
[Mist Form(S): Passive Skill.
Immune to critical hits.
When the user is about to receive any type of physical damage, the skill automatically activates, avoiding it. Cooldown: 20 Seconds.]
"Oh, so that's how it is!"
His eyes lit up upon seeing the effect of the skill that the mistman has. Despite his dislike of this gloomy place filled with mist and trees, such skill would be helpful not just for him but for his friends and his people as well.
"I guess I'll be staying here for a while."
*Sooo!*
As he was in a daze, the mistman shot at him.
"Oh crap!"
[Teleportation]! [Camouflage]!
"Phew! That was close!"
After wiping the imaginary sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand, he finally became serious.
"Since I will never be able to play Gaia for probably at least a week, I'll be grinding here as much as I can."
[Powershot]! 5...4...3...
Without further ado, he began to charge an arrow again. Even though his target was too far away from him and he literally couldn't see it thanks to the mist, he could still feel where it was. The trees in the surrounding area are avoided as well because they are considered living things, so he can feel them too.
...2...1...
*Swiiish!* -6,420,000
[Teleportation]!
Despite his pitiful damage—or at least that's what he thinks—he didn't panic at all. Instead, he used a hit-and-run tactic to finish the fight faster by not letting the monster get near him. Although he was itching to use his new melee weapon, he knew it would be a pain in the ass to use on this kind of monster.
Also, thanks to the combination of his quiver's stun/knockback ability and teleportation spell, the monster is kept as far away from him as possible.
....
....
A few minutes later...
*Swiiish!* -6,420,000
[You killed Mistman!]
[You obtained 4,000 Experience Points, 4 Gold Coins, Skillbook - Powershot, Misty Shot, Strafe, Mist Form.]
[EXP: 3,781,526,730/75,000]
*Thump!*
"Haaah... As if the passive skill ain't troublesome enough, its ultimate is even more troublesome...
It took him more than ten minutes just to take down the mistman. As if the mist form ability wasn't enough to give him a headache, its ultimate skill gave him a migraine afterwards.
[Child of the Mist(S)*: Passive Skill.
Once the HP reached a critical level, regenerates 1,000,000 HP per second for 60 seconds, increase damage dealt by a hundred fold, movement speed by tenfold and attack range by fivefold. No Cooldown.]
"I would give up all of my currency for that overpowered ultimate skill."
It became almost unstoppable and dangerous that he had to use his partial berserk just to stop its regeneration and kill it as quickly as possible. He was certain it would cause him a lot of pain if it managed to attack and hit him, something he doesn't want to feel if he can avoid it.
Shrugging his shoulders, he decided to learn the Mist Form skillbook instead, as it was pretty overpowered as well.
"Well then, what skill should I unlearn?"
With the skill book in hand, he began to ponder what skill he should replace with it.
====================
[Passive Skills(5/5):
Stun/Silence/Poison Immunity(A)^, Regeneration(A)^, Command Aura(A)^.]
====================
And it didn't take him that long to think about what to unlearn.
"Since I'm mostly a lonewolf, I guess I'll give you up now and give you to her." He mumbled. "Geez! I completely forgot about that..."
He somewhat shivered as he thought of a certain silver-haired girl who kept on nagging him to unlearn it because he didn't need it anyways and would be more useful on her team, as they raid almost 24/7.
He agreed but told her that he will give it to her once he reaches Crescent Moon City, but it completely slipped out of his mind, and thank goodness, a skillbook drop managed to make him remember and he avoided getting a side waist spiral pinch, which is quite painful thanks to 300% pain sensitivity.
[You unlearned Command Aura(A)!]
[Passive Skills(4/5).]
[You obtain Skillbook - Command Aura(A).]
[You learned Mist Form!]
[Passive Skills(5/5).]
[Mist Form(S)^: Passive Skill.
Immune to critical hits.
When the user is about to receive any type of physical damage, the skill automatically activates, avoiding it. Cooldown: 20 Seconds.
*Hidden Recipe: Mist Form(S)x10 + 100K Spirit Stones + 100K Empty Books + 100K Fairy Dust = Mist Form(SS).]
"With this, I can avoid instant death from physical attacks." He then stood up and stretched his body. "Although it doesn't feel right after unlearning that movement speed skill, this new skill is much better for me, and I'll be able to avoid that waist pinching disaster."
He moved once again to find his next target.
*******
"Oryaaa!"
*Bam!* -42,000
Inside a level 50 dungeon, a group of twenty-four people can be seen marching while killing monsters along the way. Despite it being a nightmare difficulty, they can be seen breezing through it like the monsters they passed by were just some newbie monsters.
They are the Lazy Dragons' higher-ups and some elite members ranging from levels 26 to 50 being led by Peter.
"Hehehe, my first brother found a really hot chick." Darryl had a glint in his eyes while looking at the avatar of Sonja on the guild member list.
*Pak!* "Ahhh!" *Bam!* "Ugah!"
"""Hahaha!"""
Out of nowhere, Julia landed a thundering slap behind his head, making him fly a few meters before landing face down on the cold, hard ground. The laughter of his party members nearby can be heard after his hilarious landing.
"What's with that perverted look, I wonder?" Julia bent down and picked him up by the ear, twisting it in the process.
"Achachacha! Babe, you're gonna rip it off..." Darryl was already squirming in pain, trying to pry off his girlfriend's hand, but he's not really putting any force on it, afraid that she might give him more punishment. "I'm just admiring a beauty, please..."
Julia let go, still disappointed at her boyfriend's antics.
"Ow, ow... I think it will come off..."
"Hmph! I will definitely rip that off at some point."
"..."
Each and every higher up and even the elites of their guild have their pain sensitivity maxed out as a form of training. They knew that they'd be in for a huge battle at some point, so they are preparing for that.
"Still, she seems familiar." Peter had a serious face while stroking his chin, trying to recall Sonja from his memories.
"Huh? Of course she is!" Akira said.
""???"" Darryl and Peter looked at Akira as if asking her to continue. Only the two of them are pretty ignorant among the party about the happenings in the world.
"Geeez... you guys didn't know?" It was Belle of the triplets who answered. "She's the youngest graduate from Venerable Denary Academy and top of her class, you know?"
""!!!"" The two widened their eyes. They sometimes came across magazines, news, and newspapers and finally remembered that certain event.
"I finally remembered." Peter urmured. "She graduated two years ago at the age of fourteen."
It was an academy created by ten of the most powerful clans of their time more than 500 years ago that teaches mostly martial arts with the most advanced facilities any student could hope for as well as powerful martial arts practitioners as teachers.
They also teach academics, which is also on another level than any other school in the world, and there was no tuition fee or anything where you only needed talent to enter.
The founding clans also donated their secret martial arts for students to learn. Although it was incomplete, which is only a quarter mastery, it was already incredible, as those martial arts can be considered epic-ranked skills if you use them on Gaia. God knows what rank it can reach if it's a complete mastery.
"Yeah, that was incredible." Said Akira with a slight envy. "I heard that she got a lot of offers from different powers around the world, ranging from marriage proposals to becoming an ace guild member of newly created guilds in Gaia with lots of benefits, and some even offered her an island just to hook her."
"Amazing!" Darryl jumped in joy and now had stars in his eyes. "To have a sister like that on our side makes me feel more secured."
"Hm!" Peter nodded. "Our brother really got lucky this time."
He then looked up at the ceiling of the dungeon with unfocused eyes and spoke with some bitterness. "Still, that academy, huh?"
"""..."""
The atmosphere became heavy, and Daryll clenched his fists while the rest just looked at the brothers in silence. They already knew the real identities of the three brothers a few weeks ago, so they can feel their bitterness. After all, the Dragon Empire's Drake Clan was one of the founders of that very academy.
"Well, what?" Darryl then put his right arm on Peter's shoulders. "We'll get everything back soon, and I'm sure our brother is really working hard for that."
"Haaah... you're right." Peter nodded and then looked behind him. "Let's go and clear this dungeon, as it's the very reason why we're here."
He then marched forward and spoke once more solemnly. "So that we become strong enough to support him!"
"""OUUU!"""
The heavy atmosphere was finally lifted, leaving only people filled with determination.