449-460

Chapter 449 Removed Restrictions?

Dilan's current mission was to level up and to increase his stats as much as possible.

However, he didn't use the Realm Gate to enter the isolated realm where the Blood Monarch's Sanctum and the Instance Dungeon was located.

He rather allowed the others to kill the powerful monsters and use them as a stepping stone to becoming as strong as possible in the shortest amount of time.

His Slaves were ordered to move around with his people to make sure that they would protect them and become stronger at the same time.

'The Slaves are pretty powerful, and they can learn the human language while acting as my people's Guards as well,' Dilan thought after he had given all the necessary orders.

It was not long after that he left the Sanctum with the intention to reach Level 50 and increase his stats to the limited capacity of a Tier-2 existence.

His situation was different from others but that didn't immediately mean that his situation was a lot more different.

Just like others, he wanted to increase his Level, advance in the ranks, and become a stronger Ascender. It was just different for him because his stats were already higher than what the existences at a higher Tier could attain.

His Health, for example, would inevitably reach an extremely high stat upon advancing.

As long as [Undying] improved in the ranks, it would inevitably increase his Health drastically.

Dilan was quite curious to find out how Undying would progress upon advancing in the ranks.

It was weird that his Origin ability was graded differently than his other abilities, to begin with, so Dilan had to figure out what exactly was going on with this Origin ability, and what exactly the difference was between the ranking labels 'Tier' and 'Circle'.

But before focusing on that aspect, he decided to kill a bunch of powerful Tier-2 Monsters.

Maintaining the use of [Thunder Step], Dilan's Agility was high enough for him to run around all over the Shikan plains, which was the place he had turned into his tiny little hunting ground.

The Shikan plains were one of the biggest territories all over the continent.

There were not many cities all over the huge expanse of land and one could consider it as a region that was blessed abundantly by nature.

That was also why there hadn't been much more problems with Zombies.

Dilan couldn't even remember when he had seen the last zombie. All of them had been killed by the devastatingly high numbers of monsters and mutated animals.

All the animals had become ferocious after the Primordial Ascension had occurred and it was quite hard for them to control their wild instincts.

However, Dilan wasn't going to be intimidated by their roars and snarling. His focus was on killing and collecting Essence Crystals while maintaining his Agility which was close to 500 Units.

There were humongous hordes of monsters that were trying to run away from him, attempting to escape the terror of the bipedal being that was but a flash when Dilan appeared in front of them.

His speed was 500 times the average speed of a human before the Primordial Ascension while most monsters around him were merely 90-150 times faster than the average human. As such, they were as slow as a sloth compared to his speed.

There were also a bunch of monsters with passive stat boosting abilities and active abilities similar to [Thunder Step] to increase their movement speed and reaction speed as much as possible.

Unfortunately, that was not enough for them to face Dilan head-on.

But even if that was the case, Dilan noticed something after killing several thousand monsters.

'Is it just me or does the strength of monsters vary more than usual? I feel like some monsters are a lot faster than others, while others are a lot stronger…and the faster ones are always beings with a flexible and agile physical build…' Dilan thought, understanding that it was usually obvious for Cheetahs to be faster than Elephants, while Elephants were supposed to possess higher health and strength.

However, even if that was something obvious, the reality was different after the Primordial Ascension.

After the Primordial Ascension, it felt like the special traits of animals was not important anymore.

It was almost as if the system the Primordial Ascension brought prevented animals to have higher agility than others who had a lower Agility stat.

"Does that mean animals and monsters had been restricted before? Is the restriction lessening, or is there something else going on?" Dilan wondered, trying to figure out how difficult it would become to fight certain monsters.

He didn't feel much while fighting against the Dragonbloods but that was probably because he didn't sense that anything was wrong with them.

"Now that I think about it… wasn't it weird that I could defeat Wyverns and the Earth Dragon so easily?" Dilan realized something as he added, "If I am not wrong, they are mythical existences with tremendous power, not bunnies that are easy to kill just because one had a little bit higher stats…I'm still human after all…"

The more time passed, the clearer Dilan's understanding became. He was certain that the given situation was something he could handle easily, especially while using [Power Appraisal].

The ability of his headring helped him a lot and it allowed him to experiment around with a large group of Monsters to see whether his theory was correct or not.

Testing around for a few hours was already more than enough to tell that his theory had been correct and that all beings were restricted to a certain extent and that the true power of their race would only be unveiled after Milarn's awakening would progress.

Dilan was not sure about the reason for this, but he could tell very clearly that the situation all over Milarn would quickly change again.

Humans were not exactly powerful, after all, and the wide variety of opponents one would make while on their quest for power could become quite troublesome.

However, Dilan didn't want to waste his time worrying too much. He was sure that everything would be fine and that there was no reason to be troubled about anything.

His stats increased rapidly and he was slowly reaching the Peak of a Tier-2 existence whether it was in terms of Level or Stats, and that was something he was proud of.

After all, only a week had passed since he had intervened and successfully obstructed the construction of the Dragon Temple and his third stat had reached the status capacity of a Tier-2 existence!

[The Host's Mana stat reached the maximum capacity of a Tier-2 Existence. Congratulations!]

Dilan was quite proud about his achievement but there were several other things he had to achieve. His Health and Strength had yet to reach their maximum capacity and he was still missing lots of Levels to reach the level cap of a Tier-2 existence.

However, there were other things that attracted Dilan's interest, or to be precise, things that annoyed him quite a bit.

"The Vampire Lord returned…again? Has he nothing else to do?" Dilan wondered when he heard the news from the Magic Communication Device they had gotten their hands on from exchanging Essence Crystals at the Gates.

The Magic Communication Device was an upgraded version of what they possessed before and it didn't require much Mana to be used either.

"He wants to talk to you…yeah…"

Chapter 450 Gate In A Gate?

"But I don't want to talk to him. Why would it be necessary for me to talk to him?!" Dilan resisted talking to the Vampire Lord. He was pretty sure that there was nothing he would gain by talking with him.

With that in mind, he chose to ignore the 'invitation' of the Vampire Lord and to focus on improving his Log of the Ancient.

Currently, his Log of the Ancient was in an orderly manner but it was rather disadvantageous that he still had five open passive ability slots. Dilan should focus on acquiring powerful passive abilities to make sure that his strength would increase potentially the higher the ranking of his abilities but there were not many abilities he truly liked.

Thus, he blankly looked at his Log of the Ancient for quite a while.

Name: [Dilan Cier]

Rank [Tier-2 (Level 35)]

Race [Human(85%] [Blood Vyrm(15%)]

Occupation [Squire of Life(Divine)]

Title [Beyond the Stars <Bronze(Growth) >]

**

Strength= [228.9+22.8]+5% +158

Health= [438.9+43.8]+5% +108

Stamina=[220+22]+5% +8

Agility=[220+22]+5% +138

Mana=[235+23.5]+5% +238

Status Points to allocate→10.0

**

-Constitution-

[Ring of Infinite Elements] 1st Circle

-Origin ability-

[Undying] 1st Circle(Primal)

-Special Trait-

[Iron Skin]

[Green Magic(Comprehension)]

-Active abilities (3/4)-

[Thunder Step] Tier-1 ★★★★★✭✭

[Second Acceleration] Tier-1 ★★★★✭✭

[Switch] Tier-1 ★★★★★✭✭

-Passive abilities (2/7)-

[Language comprehension] Tier-2 ★★★✭✭

[Mantle of Elements] Tier-1 ★★★★✭✭

-Blessed Curse-

[Will of the Primordial]

__________

Dilan was quite satisfied with his stats and Level that had improved significantly after only one week. There hadn't been any trouble with the Hordes of Chaos and Destruction, and by using his newly acquired Slaves it had become much easier for all Ascenders to Level up.

He didn't spend much time with his Slaves but he got to know more than enough about them from the higher-ups of the Undying Group.

What he got to know was quite interesting, especially when it came to the combat awareness of his Slaves. Most of them were fully focused on combat. This was probably something the Drakins had wanted from the Slaves they had offered to Regilav Gaus to ensure cordial relations with the Leader of the large settlement.

Unfortunately, they didn't think that an anomaly such as Dilan would appear all of a sudden and that not a single of their plans would succeed.

Every single plan of theirs had failed miserably and the information which the Drakins and the God of Dragons had received from the Divinity Fragment was not very helpful either. The Golden Dragon Eye had barely been of any use to figure out what was going on because it had merely shown pictures of a human slaughtering a few monsters before everything went dark all of a sudden.

The God of Dragons didn't think that a single human was capable of destroying the Reinforced Bronze Dragon Temple, knowing very well that the Primordial Ascension in Milarn had only occurred a few months ago.

Even if the Primordial Ascension would have occurred a year earlier, there wouldn't be many existences capable of destroying the Reinforced Dragon Temple. Even existences at the Peak of the third Tier wouldn't have an easy time attacking the temple, let alone someone at Tier-2…a human at that!

However, Dilan didn't care about the Dragon Temple at all. The problem revolving around the Dragon Temple had already been discarded so now was the time for him to think about the Hordes of Chaos and Destruction rather than anything else.

But now the Vampire Lord came back into the picture and Victoria called him once again after a short while.

"I know you're busy but I believe that you will be interested in what the Vampire Lord has to say," Victoria merely said, which caused Dilan to frown.

He knew that nobody in his group would message or call him if it was not truly important.

"The Vampire Lord said that he would share the coordinates of several Monster Nests with tens, if not hundreds of thousands of monsters if you hear him out. You are currently searching for monsters…soo…." Victoria spoke calmly, or she tried to, at least. However, Dilan could clearly tell that the Vampire was interested in the important information the Vampire Lord had for Dilan.

In the past, the Vampire Lord had been an esteemed figure that everyone respected, including those, who didn't even know the Vampire Lord. They would subconsciously submit to him and show him their respect.

However, after the Primordial Ascension, things changed quite a bit. The vast majority of humans and Vampires were still like before, showing their respect to the Vampire Lord, but there were quite a few people with the necessary willpower to prevent their subconscious from succumbing to the Vampire Lord's pressure.

But not Dilan. He was in a completely different league and was capable of achieving things many could only dream of. There was not even the need for him to do much in order to make other people succumb to him, or fear him.

Fearing someone was much easier than forcing them into submission without using violence.

Nonetheless, Dilan's presence was more than enough to achieve this.

The Vampire Lord didn't dare to offend Dilan anymore, knowing that he would die the moment he were to do something stupid.

"If he has some coordinates for me, I might reconsider his offer," Dilan muttered slowly, thinking about what to do.

Right now, he was not exactly close to the Sanctum, and it would take him a few hours to run back. If the coordinates were not useful for him, it would be a waste of time for him to return, especially now that he had found a pretty decent place to kill monsters.

There were a dozen or more Gates around him and Dilan wanted to enter all of them.

He was searching for a Gate in a Gate so that he could move to a different world where Tier-3, or even Tier-4 monsters were not difficult for him to find.

This would make things a lot easier for him. It was not difficult for him to advance to Tier-3 but his journey toward greatness was not over after that advancement.

Dilan wanted to make sure that he could advance as quickly as possible. After one reached the 3rd Tier, things would change a lot. The difference in strength between a Low Tier-3 existence and a Peak Tier-3 existence was enormous and Dilan wanted to make sure that he could reach the Peak of Tier-3 with his stats and abilities as quickly as possible.

Thus, all those Gates around him were more than just a little useful, but a Gate in a Gate would be nothing less than grand treasures that would lead to a different world or realm.

"If the Nests have tens of different types of monsters, I'm fine and I will return…but if he dares to lie to me, I will hunt him down, tear his body apart and feed him to the long-legged Lizard!" Dilan declared coldly and he could only hear Victoria chuckling lightly.

"That sounds pretty good, I like it!"

Chapter 451 Thief

Dilan ended up returning to the Sanctum, where he was greeted by his Slaves. None of his 100+ Slaves had died and their strength had increased tremendously, which was a good sign.

He knew that he had to increase his stats more than others to make sure that he could advance in the ranks, but it was also obvious that others had to overcome a bigger hurdle to defeat Monsters that were at a higher level. Elite Monsters or those with several blood enhancements were extremely powerful and it was no wonder that they were capable of defeating Dilan's Ascenders…under normal circumstances.

Dilan didn't have that problem and it looked like some of his Slaves didn't encounter that problem often either. The Slaves had an extremely good synergy, which made it easy for them to fight together and defeat stronger opponents.

That teamwork was also the reason why Dilan didn't really bother paying much attention to his Slaves. He knew that they would be fine even without him, freeing him to look after other things.

When he entered the inner area of the sanctum, Dilan found the Vampire Lord, Lord Galliard, waiting for him.

He walked slowly to the Vampire as if he was leisurely strolling through a park. Lord Galliard noticed this and he felt offended to be kept waiting but he didn't dare to say anything when he sensed the high density of Mana that radiated from Dilan.

Even without the use of an ability, Dilan's mana reached close to 500 Units. The pieces of equipment he was wearing were responsible for half of this and Dilan knew that he wouldn't be able to increase his stats much more with the use of equipment.

In fact, it was already surprising that he could wear three accessories that increased his Mana by 80 Units each. From other human Ascenders, Dilan knew that their stats could only be increased up to a certain percentage, but that was a little bit weird and inconsistent.

Most Ascenders seemed to have a different limit on how much their stats could be improved with the use of equipment, which was quite interesting and also very confusing.

After some research, they found out that an Ascender's occupation determined how much their stats could be increased with the use of treasures. Dilan didn't know how much his stats could be increased because he was in possession of the only Divine Occupation on Milarn.

Nobody else had the same predicament as Dilan, and that made things a little bit more difficult for him. He had to figure out many things by himself, but that was fine with him because he had many advantages others didn't have.

Amongst all of the people who surrounded him, his stats could be improved the most, which was more than enough of a gain to be satisfied with himself.

"First tell me the locations of the Monster Nests you found before I reconsider listening to you," Dilan declared the moment Lord Galliard tried to open his mouth.

The Vampire Lord frowned deeply but upon seeing the crimson glint in Dilan's eyes he shut his mouth immediately.

'Something seems to have changed…' Lord Galliard thought and he could hardly control himself as he involuntarily lowered his head.

"T…that is fine with me…" Lord Galliard said, subconsciously submitting to Dilan. The young human Ascender grinned at the sight of the Vampire Lord but he didn't say anything else to continue humiliating Lord Galliard. That was not necessary.

"The Black Lagunes have given birth to various temporary Gates that brought forth Snakes, Frogs, Fishes and various other monsters that laid eggs, increasing their population to the tens of thousands. As long as you don't waste too much time, it will be possible to kill them before other monsters, humans or mutated animals start hunting them to readjust the ecosystem's situation," The Vampire Lord revealed one of the facts he had learned about before looking at Dilan.

However, Dilan didn't seem to be impressed. He seemed uninterested with the information he had received, which was enough for Lord Galliard to start frowning.

"There are also the Kambutcha Reverine Ravines. A Goblin settlement was built there not too long ago. The settlement is made up of Blue, Red, Silver, and even Black Goblins. All of them are quite weak but they breed like ants and they can evolve very fast. They have hundreds of Tier-2 Warrior Hobgoblins and who knows how many other powerful Warriors in their settlement must have appeared by now.

And then there is the Forest of Kelvasci. It is home to all kinds of deadly and powerful insects. Burning down the forest will definitely be enough to increase your stats to the Peak of Tier-2!" The Vampire Lord revealed a lot of information that he had intended to keep a secret but he had been forced to share to appease the human in front of him.

It was simply too important for him to make sure that Dilan would receive the information he was told to relay to him. Lord Galliard was not sure what would happen to him if he was not even able to tell Dilan what he was supposed to get to know.

He didn't want to imagine it, which was why he forced himself to share more than he wanted.

"All these places seem quite suitable for someone strong enough to sweep through and make big gains. Looks like I have to thank you," Dilan said nonchalantly, which was enough for Lord Galliard to feel like crying once again.

Dilan didn't mind the Vampire Lord's annoyance and he welcomed it regardless.

"Does that mean you will listen to me?" Lord Galliard asked hopefully while trying to not appear like an expectant puppy and Dilan nodded his head.

"Go for it!" He uttered and his eyes lit up. Dilan didn't expect to hear anything pleasant from the Vampire Lord, but he hoped that it wouldn't be something annoying at the very least.

Unfortunately, it was not that easy. Things were a lot more frustrating than expected.

"The Vampire King wants to meet you!" Lord Galliard announced in a prideful voice, his eyes closed and his arms spread out widely.

Victoria let out a squeal and she quickly placed her hands on her mouth while Kathrine and Yvonne exchanged perplexed glances.

The sister duo had been quiet since they'd arrived but they were just as confused as Dilan.

"Why should I?" Dilan asked with a gesture that showed his obvious disinterest.

Lord Galliard looked at Dilan like an idiot but that was not something Dilan could be bothered about. Considering everything he heard about the adventurer teams that had then given birth to the Witch Queen, the First Alpha King, and the Vampire King, he didn't really feel like meeting them.

They were not as special as they thought they were, and Dilan had definitely more important things to do than running behind someone, who stole other's powers a few thousand years ago.

The powers might be theirs now and they might have become a lot stronger than before but that didn't really mean anything to Dilan.

"He can just come to me if he wants to meet me," Dilan added with a shrug, causing both Victoria and Lord Galliard to stare blankly at them.

"You…want the King to come over to us…are you insane?" Lord Galliard went ballistic as he finally lost his composure. Many Ascenders looked over at him, but the Vampire Lord couldn't care less about that right now. He was too baffled…

"He is a Thief, not a King…so yeah, ask him to come and see me!"

Chapter 452 Leveling Together

"How dare you call our King a Thief?!? Are you tired of living???" Lord Galliard spat vengefully. He screamed at the top of his lungs, his eyes turned crimson and razor-sharp nails grew out of his fingers.

He wanted nothing more than to tear apart Dilan for the sin he had committed. Nobody was allowed to insult their King, the leader of all Vampires, even if it was Dilan!

"I'm just speaking the truth. Your King is a thief because he stole the power of some True Demons. If you don't know the truth, just shut it!" Dilan didn't feel like discussing something as unnecessary as the current topic because he was the only one who knew the truth or information that was the closest one could get to the truth.

"You're dishonoring our sacre-…." Lord Galliard shouted but Dilan had had enough of the Vampire's tantrums. He simply summoned a bunch of Basic Wind Spirits to create a bunch of wind blasts that were shot toward the Vampire Lord.

The wind blasts shot straight into the Vampire Lord's mouth, preventing him from speaking another word. Lord Galliard was suffocating as too much air went down his throat. He staggered back, his vision blurred and he faced a lot of difficulties just to stay conscious.

Meanwhile, Dilan just looked at the Vampire Lord with a small grin on his face.

"Just shut up. You know that you are way too weak to win against me. I need to prepare for the fight against the Hordes of Chaos and Destruction, so if the Vampire King has some spare time, he might as well just come over and have a meal with me," Dilan said in a mocking tone as one of his eyes turned crimson.

Bloodlust radiated from his body and the power of a Vampire swept through him. His grin widened at the shock he saw in the eyes of the Vampire Lord.

"And if you meet up with your sacred King, or whatever you call him, tell him that I got the real deal from the Blood Vyrm bloodline!" He added as an afterthought without really explaining anything.

There was not really the need for him to say much more because he could tell that the Vampire Lord had no idea what the Blood Vyrm bloodline was, to begin with.

Thus, he waved his hand, indicating to the Vampire Lord to leave him alone.

"Are you…serious right now??" Lord Galliard asked after a while. He was not sure if Dilan was being serious or if he was just using some sort of ability, Magic Scroll, or Magic Device to toy with him.

Only when he saw the ice-cold expression on Dilan's face was Lord Galliard sure about one particular thing; Dilan wanted him to leave as quickly as possible, otherwise, things would get bloody!

"Alright…I will leave…I will also pass on your message to the Vampire King…just know that you might have to face the aftermath of your actions!" Lord Galliard declared at the end. He didn't want Dilan to have the last say and leave the conversation with an overwhelming victory.

However, Dilan couldn't care about that at all.

"Sure, do whatever you want!" He retorted with a shrug.

​ Lord Galliard had to take a deep breath before he turned around. Afterward, bloody red mist shrouded him before he transformed into a huge bat.

He shot in the air and disappeared within seconds.

"Well, that's a nice way to leave without making things awkward," Yvonne said sarcastically, which caused Kathrine to start giggling.

Dilan looked over to Yvonne before his eyes flicked to Victoria, who was staring into the sky.

"Will you be able to do the same in the future as well?" He asked, understanding pretty well that Victoria was currently not able to transform her whole body into a bat..

Dilan could also tell that this was one of the powers he would have gained if his Blood Vyrm bloodline had been purer. However, given his 15% purity of the Blood Vyrm bloodline, this was certainly not possible.

He was fine with that because he had never expected to be able to turn into a bat, and he knew that he would be able to fly in the future, either way.

"As long as I learn how to control the true extent of my powers, I should be able to turn into a bat as well. Though, usually, you would have to be around 2000 years old, or extremely talented to be able to do so. I might be talented but not thaaattt much. I was a little bit….lazy when I was younger," Victoria acknowledged in embarrassment.

She didn't really want to explain how she had ignored trying to comprehend or strengthen her powers for close to 900 years.

There hadn't been a reason for her to try improving her powers at that time, after all.

Only now was it really necessary to make use of one's racial traits to become as strong as powerful? Numerous races were trying to get over to Milarn, conquer lands, create their own territory, and reign supreme.

It was necessary to be strong, which is why Victoria was trying her utmost to make sure that she would become stronger as quickly as possible.

"That's fine. You should have it a lot easier than others as long as you keep advancing your Tier, and stats. I feel like the true powers of the human bloodline are getting clearer for me to understand with time!" Dilan explained quite simply before he paid attention to all the women around him.

There was also Williams and Sven, who had been present to make sure that Lord Galliard wouldn't do anything stupid with others.

"How about you all just come with me to the three locations Lord Galliard told us? I can kill all of them by myself, but wouldn't it be better for you guys to become stronger as well?!" Dilan asked a question that did not even require an answer.

The others just nodded their head. They knew that it was a great opportunity to go hunting with Dilan.

Whenever they had gone hunting with Dilan, their strength had increased the fastest. Because of that, it would be extremely stupid for them to decline Dilan's offer.

"Alright, then let's go to the Black Lagunes the Kambutcha Reverine Ravines and the Forest of Kelvasci!" Dilan suggested and they made some quick preparations before they left the Sanctum.

It didn't take long to conquer the three places the Vampire Lord had revealed to them. In the end, they finished the hunt in a week in which five days had solely been used for traveling.

Dilan was totally satisfied with his gains and the others were grinning from ear to ear as well. It was obvious that they were exhilarated but that was only obvious because they were at the Peak of Tier 2 by now.

Their stats were almost at the peak of their Tier's limit and the same could be said about their Level.

Meanwhile, Dilan had killed the vast majority of monsters, which is how he was able to reach the Peak of Tier 2 in all possible ways.

"Just how high are your stats?" Williams couldn't help but ask dumbfoundedly. He was pretty sure that Dilan was an otherworldly being and not a human.

It was simply not possible that he was in possession of so many special traits, abilities, a powerful constitution, and an Origin ability that was powerful enough to turn him into a Superhuman existence amongst superhumans!

"Not that high yet. We will see in the future how far I can go!"

Chapter 453 Peak

Name: [Dilan Cier]

Rank[Tier-2 (Level 50)]

Race [Human(85%] [Blood Vyrm(15%)]

Occupation [Squire of Life(Divine)]

Title [Beyond the Stars <Bronze(Growth) >]

**

Strength= [235+23.5]+5% +158

Health= [450+45]+5% +108

Stamina=[220+22]+5% +8

Agility=[220+22]+5% +138

Mana=[235+23.5]+5% +238

Status Points to allocate→25.0

___________

After he conquered the three places which Lord Galliard had spoken about, Dilan's stats were now at the Peak of Tier-2.

Even with the Cursed Blessing [Will of the Primordial, it was not possible for Dilan to increase his stats any further.

With that in mind, it was about time for the others to reach the peak of Tier-2 as well.

They didn't need a lot of stats or Level anymore, which was why they ended up entering a certain Gate they had stumbled upon.

"What exactly is that Gate? I've never seen a Gate as big as this one, with so little information…" Sven spoke in doubt. His gut feeling told him that something was different about this Gate which worried him a little bit.

There were all kinds of Gates and the more unique a Gate was the bigger the danger. Subsequently, the bigger the dangers one overcame the greater the rewards one would receive.

"We can just find it out. Don't worry too much," Dilan tried to reassure his teammate. His train of thought was not on the exotic Gate he entered without hesitation but more on the fact that fighting monsters had become a lot different.

Fighting certain predators had become a lot more difficult, especially if the monsters were known as Warriors or something like that.

The Hobgoblin Warriors and War Champions had been extremely powerful even if their stats had only been at the Peak of the second Tier. Dilan's stats had been a lot higher but he would have had a hard time killing them without the use of [Thunder Step], [Second Acceleration], and his extremely powerful equipment.

Now that he recalled his equipment, Dilan figured that he had to get his hand on a bunch of Essence crystals to finish upgrading the Hyel Destructo Armor Set.

He wanted to make sure that he would be prepared for the next Abyss advancement mission. Dilan had yet to even take a look at the advancement missions to Tier-3 but that was not exactly important right now either way.

In the end, he would choose the highest possible difficulty, either way. It was necessary for him to procure as many Ability Merits as possible, meaning that the highest difficulty advancement mission was a must-have.

However, even before Dilan could focus on anything else, his body reacted instinctively when he emerged on the other side of the Gate.

The surrounding area was reduced to ashes and three searing hot flames burst straight toward him. Dilan frowned when he saw this and he instinctively summoned Basic Water Spirits to create a huge wall of water in front of him.

A loud sizzling noise rang through his ear, which was why Dilan covered his body in tight layers of compressed water before he activated [Thunder Step], [Second Acceleration], and [Master of Gravity] before he shot forward.

Dilan ignored the searing hot flames that evaporated the water around him as he emerged in front of a five-meter tall three-headed dog whose body was enveloped in sizzling flames.

The three-headed dog's fur was blazing red and its eyes were as dark as the abyss. They stared straight at Dilan, who smiled at the sight of a monster that was supposed to exist only in fairy tales.

"Cerberus!" Dilan muttered and the Cursed Dagger appeared in his hand. The Cerberus spit out more blazing flames that set his surroundings ablaze but Dilan was not intimidated by the monster's power display.

He created several water jets, fired them at three pairs of eyes of the Cerberus and shot to his right. With a single dash that had been utilized with all his power, Dilan crossed almost a kilometer of distance. He turned around at once, leaned forward, and thrust the dagger forward just to accelerate further as he dashed back to the Cerberus.

His Agility was terrifying enough to easily overwhelm the Cerberus, an existence at Tier-2 with stats equivalent to the Mid Tier-3 Wyvern he had fought before.

However, even though Dilan's stats were much higher, the Cerberus didn't even think about giving up.

Hundreds of blazing fire walls erupted out of the ground, intending to protect the Cerberus, but little did the Monster know that Dilan wasn't going to back off just because of the searing hot flames.

Dilan activated [Blood Sacrifice] to increase his Strength and Agility further. Simultaneously, Dilan made sure that his Strength would be powerful enough by activating [Switch].

He reallocated his stats temporarily by removing 150 Units from his Stamina and 50 Units from his Mana, which was then added to his Strength.

In response, Dilan's muscles bulged and he felt terrific power surging through his body. Replacing the Basic Water Spirits with Basic Wind Spirits, Dilan tried to use his comprehension of Green Magic to enhance the power of the Wind spirits.

This worked out decently as he released a spear-like gust of wind toward the front, bursting apart tens of walls of fire that crumbled down as if they were made up of loose soil.

The blazing flames that touched Dilan's skin tried to burn him alive but Dilan's Health was more than 600 Units, crossing the threshold ordinary Peak Tier-3 existences could reach.

However, the Cerberus was not an ordinary existence, just like Dilan!

The moment the Cursed Dagger was about to pierce deep inside the Cerberus' left flank, it turned into countless blazing flames.

Dilan could only perceive the Cerberus' Essence crystal and a red marble that moved at a rapid pace. Both the Essence crystal and the tiny marble appeared above Dilan and a moment later the Cerberus revealed itself as it hovered above Dilan.

Two of the Cerberus three heads spit out flames while the head in the middle lunged out toward him.

Dilan twisted his body to see what was going on above him, just for a smile to appear on his face.

'Don't underestimate me, tiny doggo!' Dilan shouted in his mind, activating [Short-distance traveling] to escape the monster's snapping maw and reappear right above the Cerberus.

He manifested powerful air currents in an attempt to disperse the searing hot flames around him but that failed miserably. Thus, Dilan ended up pushing the Cursed Dagger downward.

Dilan was about to kill the Cerberus with a single blow when the monster sensed danger and dispersed into countless blazing flames once again.

The Cerberus' body was much hotter than the flames it could manifest and Dilan ended up frowning as his other hand pierced out through the monster's skin. He reached out for the red marble while activating his Gloves' [Breaker] ability.

Using [Breaker] in addition to his terrific Strength, Dilan was given the opportunity to break the red marble and he made use of it immediately.

Tiny cracks appeared all over the surface of the red marble the moment Dilan used all his force into his arm and it was not soon after that a loud roar overflowing with pain filled the air.

"Yes, die for me!" Dilan screamed at the top of his lungs as the Cerberus emerged in front of him again. His entire hand was stuck deep in the monster's chest and the three heads of the Cerberus were snapping viciously, trying to bite off his head.

But Dilan just smiled as he used all of his might to pull his hand out of the chest of the monster while his other hand pierced forward once again as powerful air currents accelerated his dagger thrust.

And it was just a moment later that the body of the Cerberus was torn apart, revealing Dilan's blood-drenched body and the excited smile on his face.

"That's how I like it!"

Chapter 454 New World

"That monster was stronger than the ones we usually encounter, or am I wrong?" Kathrine asked with her gaze on the body of the Cerberus.

The Cerberus' body was torn apart and Dilan was now standing in front of it. He removed the monster's Essence crystal before he took a look around to make sure that there were no more monsters similar to the Cerberus.

However, there was no living being except the three women and two men, who had emerged from the exotic Gate after Dilan.

They looked at him with conflicted expressions but Dilan just ignored them. There was no need for him to explain himself because his personality was already well known.

"It's a Peak Diamond Tier-2 Monster with stats only someone at Tier-3 is supposed to be able to reach," He thus answered rather simply, showing the others the hand-sized Essence Crystal that looked just like a huge diamond. It crumbled into countless pieces as Dilan empowered his Growth type Armor Set with some Essence.

There were five pieces of equipment he could upgrade and Dilan wouldn't stop before each of them reached the Diamond Tier-2 ranking.

He looked in the further distance to see exactly where they were located and Dilan quickly noticed that they were basically on a huge plains area without any borders.

In other Gates, there were always restrictions, whether they had been created naturally or artificially. It was not possible to charge through these restrictions, which was also why Gates were considered dungeon portals due to the NEEDS of the Undying Group.

Dilan accepted this name as well because it was pretty obvious that the Gates acted quite similar to the dungeon portals one knew from games and novels.

Nonetheless, they were called Gates, which was why Dilan kept using the name.

"Do you guys think we've been teleported to a different planet?" Yvonne asked all of a sudden and both Dilan and Sven nodded their heads nearly at the same time.

"It's definitely possible, but I would have to take a look," Dilan said before the ground below him burst open as he dashed forward. He sprinted in a particular direction for more than a minute while [Thunder Step], [Second Acceleration], and [Switch] were fully unleashed. After the minute passed, he slowly walked back toward his teammates while observing everything in his surrounding area.

"I didn't see any other races but there is definitely no restriction to how far we can go. Looks like we're on a planet filled with monsters, or there are some hidden civilizations somewhere around us," He explained before giving the others a rather detailed report of what exactly he had seen.

There was a lot to say, but if one had to give a brief summary, one could say that there were monsters up to Mid Tier-4, several settlements of monsters such as Goblins, Kobolds, Minotaurs, Centaurs, and many more.

The greenery was flourishing and it looked like nature was, by far, the strongest force out there.

"So…we really are on a different planet? That knowledge feels a little bit weird…" Williams couldn't help but mumble. He was pretty sure that they were merely in a different and restricted dimension because the surrounding environment didn't feel much different from Milarn.

While the others had begun to discuss various topics with each other, Dilan was more focused on his surrounding area.

There were a few things that annoyed him a little bit when it came to his finds in the surroundings such as the lack of sole monsters, but things were quite interesting when it came to the creation of settlements made up of a single type of race.

Dilan had seen several dozen settlements in the short time he had run in a single direction. That made it quite clear that the monsters around him were different to the wild monsters in Milarn.

"Let's not bother about that. We should go out to hunt!" Dilan suggested while looking at the others, who were still talking to each other. They had yet to come to a conclusion on what they should do next when Dilan had already summoned four Basic Wind Spirits.

By now, it was possible for Dilan to create weak air currents with the use of his own comprehension of Green Magic, but it was still better to use Basic Wind Spirits to his advantage.

As long as he used Spirits, it would be much easier for him to use the four Basic Elements and the Lightning Element. That was why he kept using the Spirits even if it was not actually necessary.

Everyone turned their focus toward Dilan, who pointed far in the distance.

"So we're just going to hunt monsters until we're at Level 50 and our stats are maxed out?" Victoria asked, not sure what else they could do.

"We can also collect high-ranked Essence crystals to exchange them with high-ranked treasures at the Gate. And we have to increase the rank of our abilities. There is a technique I want to test out as well!" Yvonne declared and everyone else nodded their heads in agreement.

Dilan didn't need Essence crystals to exchange with other treasures at the Gate but he wanted to improve his Armor Set's rank as much as he could. If possible, he would have loved to increase his ability to Tier 2, preferably to a high star ranking.

He was not sure if abilities had a limit in terms of how much they could be improved but that was something he would find out sooner or later.

"There are lots of things we can improve, don't worry," Dilan reassured his teammates before pointing in a specific direction once again.

There was a nearby Kobold settlement he had seen earlier and if he was not wrong there were a bunch of Trolls that were about to attack and destroy the Kobold settlement.

"Let's exploit this situation to our advantage as much as possible!" Dilan declared before he set off at a slow pace.

The others were left with no other option but to follow him, which they did without hesitation.

They ran behind him, using all their might in an attempt to keep up with Dilan. Keeping up with him was not possible but he slowed down after a while to focus on his surroundings rather than running as quickly as possible.

"There they are!" Dilan updated the others while pointing at the far distance where he saw more than ten Tier-3 Trolls, led by a Tier-4 Troll Warrior wreaking havoc in the Kobold settlement he had seen earlier as well.

'Looks like the Kobolds are having a hard time…well that was something I expected to find!' Dilan thought and it was already a surprise that the Kobolds were able to hold their fort for a few minutes.

Dilan was pretty sure that [Power Appraisal] saw that there was no Tier-4 Kobold in the Kobold settlement. Thus, it shouldn't be difficult for the Tier-4 Troll Warrior to decimate the Kobold settlement all by himself.

It seemed like a menial task for the Tier-4 Troll Warrior yet, the given situation showed that there was something huge going on in front of him.

"If you guys are not ready to fight some Low Tier-3 Monsters, I recommend you to stay behind," Dilan opined as he slowed down further to make sure that the others would follow his action.

"In the worst case, we can just work together to fight a Low Tier-3 Monster, don't worry about us!" Kathrine spoke proudly, trying to show off that she was ready to fight Tier-3 monsters.

But Dilan could only shake his head.

"There is more than just one Tier-3 monster for you to fight at the same time, and I will be busy fighting some anomaly and a Tier-4 Troll Warrior!"

Chapter 455 Powerhouses

After Dilan had warned the five Ascenders, who followed him, he dashed forward. He activated [Thunder Step], and [Second Acceleration] to reach the Kobold settlement in a moment and it was not long after that he faced one of the Tier-3 Trolls and a bunch of Kobold War Champions that were fighting each other.

Both sides gave their utmost to overwhelm the other side but it was pretty obvious that the Tier-3 Troll was at an advantage. He wielded a humongous club that was more than three meters long and more than a meter in width and smashed it down upon the body of the closest Kobold that was squashed at once.

The Kobold had been incapable of protecting himself, giving its brethren a glimpse of how their own situation was bound to look like the moment the club would descend upon them as well.

'That club is definitely a Tier-3 treasure!' Dilan immediately recognized when he sensed the terrific power behind the Troll's smash. All Trolls were roughly at the same power level and their physical strength seemed to be more or less the same as well. However, Dilan's [Power Appraisal] clearly showed him that the Trolls were not as strong as what he perceived in front of him.

Thus, the most obvious conclusion was that the humongous clubs were the reason for an increase in their stat. Dilan nodded his head inwardly as he blasted to his right, ignoring the Tier-3 Troll.

He didn't need the Tier-3 Troll, his Essence crystal or the club because there were multiple things that piqued his interest much more than the ordinary Trolls.

Dilan's focus was on the Tier-4 Troll Warrior, who wielded a heavy broadsword that was even larger than the clubs of the other Trolls. The Tier-4 Troll Warrior was almost 8 meters tall while the other Trolls were only five meters tall.

However, this humongous size didn't decrease the flexibility or agility of the Trolls. They were not clumsy or slow in any way…on the contrary, their speed was astonishing and Dilan realized that he had to pay attention to their fast reflexes and movements.

It would be bad to get dragged into the mess of the Kobolds and Trolls, after all!

Dilan would rather watch the Troll Warrior, who smoothly swung his broadsword downward, just to hit nothing but the soil that burst open upon facing the tremendous impact of the heavy broadsword.

"This Kobold is different…and even more so is his dagger…" Dilan blurted out quietly as he observed the human-sized Kobold, who dashed toward the Tier-4 Troll Warrior.

The Kobold was fully covered in white fur and a layer of holy power surrounded his body. Dilan was interested in the holy power because it radiated from the white dagger that the Kobold was gripping tightly.

'Tier-3 Kobold with stats that are close to the Troll Warrior…and he becomes even stronger thanks to the dagger he is wielding…' He concluded while watching the Kobold easily evade the Troll Warrior's swift attacks.

Even if the Troll Warrior was extremely fast, it was not possible to swing the heavy broadsword as quickly as a small, 30-centimeter-long dagger.

That was one of the many reasons why the Kobold was given several opportunities to initiate attacks upon the Troll Warrior, who was trying to move his body aside to make sure that the Kobold wouldn't be able to find an opportunity to severely injure, or even kill him at once.

'The Troll Warrior knows that the Kobold's weapon is dangerous!' Dilan realized when he saw that the Troll Warrior was playing defensive and trying to evade all kinds of attacks instead of attacking him. He didn't want to get injured at all, which was pretty difficult because the Kobold seemed to be getting faster with time.

However, it was only when the first cut appeared on the Troll Warrior's body that things started to change much more dramatically than before. The Troll Warrior's body deflated, and his stats increased by almost 50% and his skin turned red. Dilan was pretty sure that the Troll Warrior had used some sort of Berserk ability to increase his stats for a short period. Following that, the Troll Warrior activated another ability that covered his body in a layer of blazing mana, just for blazing flames to burst out of his feet as well.

The Troll Warrior's Agility increased drastically but blood was also spurting out of the deflated monster. It was not able to handle the current power its body possessed and even maintaining it for a few minutes was extremely dangerous.

Yet, instead of fearing the pain, or the life-threatening danger, the Troll Warrior was ready to give his all to defeat the Kobold, who began to smile as the holy power circulating around him was further unleashed. The Kobold expanded in size and it looked like he was turning into a huge furry monster.

Dilan looked at the situation in front of him with great interest, especially when he realized that the dagger of the Kobold was fusing with the body of the expanding Kobold.

A furry monster with razor-sharp claws was what the Kobold turned into, and numerous thoughts began to flash through Dilan's mind.

'The Troll Warrior's occupation, if they have something like that, doesn't seem to be that high. It's probably just an old monster that grew stronger with the passage of time…but the Kobold… seems to be on par with Yvonne in terms of powerful abilities. This shapeshifting ability and the fusion of the weapon with his body is definitely strong…' Dilan thought and his eyes widened slightly.

Earlier it had been pretty rare for him to actually come face to face with powerful monsters, whether they were Tier-2, Tier-3, or Tier-4. The last somewhat powerful monster he had encountered was probably the Blazing Spinosaurus if one were to ignore the Island Turtle.

However, even the Blazing Spinosaurus was not a monster that could compare to the Shapeshifting Kobold if one were to solely focus on their potential, future combat prowess, usage of abilities, and so on.

The Shapeshifting Kobold was definitely different compared to most of the monsters Dilan had ever encountered in his life. Thus, it was only obvious that he was quite happy when he saw that the Troll Warrior and the Shapeshifting Kobold started to fight each other in a manner that caused both sides to sustain numerous injuries.

Both Monsters had stats that were around 1500 Units by now and Dilan had difficulties keeping track of their moves.

'Even if I could follow each of their movements, it's not like I'm capable of fighting them…' Dilan admitted to himself, feeling a little bit frustrated that he was a lot weaker than he had expected earlier.

Even seemingly ordinary monsters were able to tear him apart provided they had a single stat-boosting ability!

However, it was only obvious that beings like the Tier-4 Troll Warrior or the Shapeshifting Kobolds would be powerful enough to kill him easily after activating one of their strongest abilities, their trump cards!

They had the experience of decades in which they had learned and progressed slowly but steadily using their skills and abilities to their advantage. The Primordial Ascension had swept through their world thousands of years ago, yet, a being who had yet to live even close to half a year in the same predicament as theirs was trying to defeat them.

Wasn't that ridiculous?

Chapter 456 Blessed Blade

Dilan terminated the use of his abilities to make sure that they wouldn't have a cooldown.

Simultaneously, he retreated to give the two powerful monsters a chance to mortally injure one another.

In order to ensure his own safety, he circulated mana through his eyes.

No sooner had he done that he was attacked by a bunch of Tier-2 and Tier-3 Kobolds. They hoped to be able to kill Dilan in the blink of an eye, only to fail miserably.

Dilan didn't use any other ability except his Green Magic to accelerate his speed. He pushed strong air currents toward the Kobolds to make sure that they would be slowed down while he was getting a backwind. It was possible for him to push forward and kill the Kobolds with swift movements.

Slashing the Cursed Dagger across the monster that was closest to him, he hauled up the dying monster with his other hand. Throwing the injured monster to the side, he blocked the other Kobolds' attacks with the body of their dying brethren.

They staggered back and fell on their butts, giving him a chance to counterattack. Dilan made use of every single opportunity, he thrust his dagger through the chest of one opponent before spinning around to kill another Kobold.

Within less than ten seconds, Dilan had killed all the Kobolds around him and his focus returned to the fighting powerhouses.

Dilan moved slowly in an attempt to collect the Kobolds' Essence crystals one after another and it worked out much better than he had expected. With five Essence crystals in his hand, Dilan could enhance the rank of one of his armor pieces quite a bit.

However, Dilan was not yet satisfied with the enhancements he had received. Unfortunately, it was not intelligent to use [Taunt] right now.

The ability that hailed from the Artifact of Traction was not something he could utilize right now, not until the two powerhouses were still in their berserk state, and able to keep using their unique abilities.

Dilan wanted to make sure that it wouldn't be possible for the Shapeshifting Kobold and the Troll Warrior to kill him. He was fully aware that he could enter a state where his Life force was at the bare minimum and most of his stats would cross 1000 Units.

With additional means such as his equipment's abilities, his special traits, and so on, it might not be impossible for him to fight one of the two powerhouses. This was great but it was not what Dilan was looking forward to.

His plan was simple but devilish and Dilan didn't intend to let any being be it a bipedal being or a monster take advantage of him or the current situation. Only he was allowed to do so!

Dilan knew that this was hypocritical but who was going to stop him? Nobody! He retreated further from the battlefield of the two powerhouses and allowed them to destroy the settlement of the Kobolds.

Meanwhile, Victoria, Kathrine, Yvonne and the two others had finally reached the Kobold settlement… or what was left of it.

Dilan appeared next to them and he began to smile.

"That is the degree of destruction you will face once the Hordes of Chaos and Destruction will arrive, or it might get worse, I have no idea," Dilan said with a shrug. He smiled lightly and allowed the others to imagine what would happen once the Hordes of Chaos and Destruction were to reach them.

"Do you think it might look even worse than…that?" Kathrine asked while pointing at the red and white flashes that clashed with one another every now and then. The Troll Warrior and the Shapeshifting Kobold were fighting with all their might and one could see blood and body parts being flung through the surrounding area every now and then.

Dilan could see that the Shapeshifting Kobold had already lost one arm because of a powerful strike of the Troll Warrior, while the Troll Warrior had encountered a similarly bad situation. More than ten deep claw gashes covered the deflated body of the Troll Warrior and each of them could be considered a serious and lethal injury.

"These two powerhouses are no problem anymore. They will die soon," Dilan answered rather calmly and he turned around after taking a deep breath.

'How about I take this first?' He asked himself and his devilish smile deepened as his gaze moved to the cut-off arm of the Shapeshifting Kobold.

It was trying to get to the arm with the additional claw.

However, Dilan didn't intend to allow the Shapeshifting Kobold to do something like that and neither did the Troll Warrior.

The Troll Warrior appeared in between the cut-off arm and the Shapeshifting Kobold, ready to face the monster head-on.

Both were already weakened but the Shapeshifting Kobold's strength was even lower because it had lost the additional power it had received due to the weapon that had fused with the shapeshifted Kobold.

Dilan activated [Switch] to reallocate some of his Stamina and Health to his Agility before he activated [Thunder Step], [Second Acceleration], [Master of Gravity], [Power Up], and [Mantle of Elements].

His Agility crossed 1000 Units, which was more than enough to reach the cut-off claw of the Shapeshifted Kobold. He grasped the additional claw, used as much force as possible to tear the additional claw out of the arm, just to end up activating [Blood Sacrifice] to increase his Strength and Agility.

'Should I step up my game and forcefully deprive myself of the Life force?' Dilan wondered but did no such thing as he felt holy power surging through his left arm.

"That is it?!" Dilan exclaimed and it was no sooner that both the Shapeshifting Kobold and the Troll Warrior turned around to Dilan.

They roared out at the same time but Dilan didn't pay any attention to them as he grasped the white dagger tightly. Several golden insignia appeared on the dagger, and a similar situation could be seen happening with the Cursed Dagger, Xealtron, as well.

[[Signav, the Blessed Blade] Tier-4, Blessed treasure

[+20% Strength], [+30% Stamina], [+20% Agility]

A Holy weapon forged in the Abyssal Flame of the Karikan and blessed by the power of the Sacred Sacrilem of Carilas.

The wielder's body is invigorated with holy power.

[Holy Light] increases the sharpness and endurance of the weapon according to the amount of mana inserted into the weapon.

Special Remark: The Weapon can only be wielded if the wielder has any kind of special constitution and a Legendary Occupation or above!]

Dilan could tell that the Blessed Blade, Signav, was amazing but he did not even ensure if his stats could increase that much anymore without injuring himself body gravely.

His Strength and Stamina were still fine but his Agility was already pretty high.

Nonetheless, Dilan accepted the power of the Blessed Blade and he allowed it to further increase his stats.

But what Dilan didn't realize was that he could use the Blessed Blade even though he had already one weapon equipped.

And then there was the obvious factor of the weapon being a Tier-4 Blessed treasure!

Dilan was oblivious to the fact that the Cursed Dagger had released some of its cursed power. The cursed power swept through his right arm, while holy power swept through his left arm.

Both powers seemed to encounter each other in his chest where they formed a Ying-Yang symbol that everyone could see clearly.

"Now I'm ready to rumble, bitches!"

Chapter 457 Ending The Powerhouse

The Shapeshifting Kobold and the Troll Warrior were now totally focused on Dilan, who could hardly control himself.

He grinned from ear to ear, feeling that he was ready to rumble at any time. The two powerhouses were already severely injured and they couldn't make use of their entire combat prowess anymore.

Even if their stats were much higher than Dilan could attain with all kinds of possible abilities, pieces of equipment and so on, there was no way that they would be able to fight against them in their current state.

Thus, Dilan was not worried as he inserted some of his wind altered mana inside the Blessed Blade, Signav, to make sure that it was sharp enough to cut through his opponents before he dashed forward.

Powerful air currents pushed him further ahead and he activated [Master of Gravity] to decrease the gravitational force that was weighing him down. His speed increased drastically after that and it was only a matter of milliseconds before he reached the Shapeshifted Kobold.

Smiling excitedly, Dilan issued a cross slash with his Cursed Dagger and the Blessed Blade. He inflicted deep gashes in the chest of the shapeshifted Kobold before he vanished.

Dilan left golden sparkles behind when he disappeared, just to reappear on the ground right behind the Troll Warrior.

The Troll Warrior flicked his head in Dilan's direction and he was about to attack the tiny human when Dilan jumped upward.

With enough mana inserted in the Blessed Blade, [Holy Light]'s effect was unleashed, drastically increasing the weapon's sharpness, to the extent that he didn't feel any resistance when cutting through the skin and flesh of the Troll Warrior.

The Troll Warrior's entire back was slashed open as it staggered back, reeling from the effects of the attack. Flesh, innards and a fountain of blood spurted out of the monster that roared out in pain.

Meanwhile, Dilan ascended in the air, ignoring the filth he was covered in. He rose high in the air with the Troll's blood splattered on his face and wind currents shrouding him, a manic look on his face.

He used the Wind Spirits, his comprehension of Green Magic and the [Master of Gravity] ability to make sure that he would hover in the air, move around and blast downward with a terrific pace.

Dilan increased the gravitational force that weighed on him drastically before he used the wind currents around him to forcefully pull him downward rapidly.

Electric currents shrouded his feet and they spread out through his entire body as two of the four Wind Spirits were replaced with Basic Lightning Spirits.

Currents of electricity shrouded the Cursed Dagger and the Blessed Blade, giving them an additional reinforcement in power as he impacted on the Troll Warrior, who had attempted to react fast enough to respond to Dilan's attack.

But to the Troll's misery, its movements were drastically restricted because of the painful and more than twenty centimeter deep gash that ran along the length of its entire back.

Nonetheless, the Troll was able to lift the humongous broadsword in an attempt to block the incoming attack.

"You really think that's enough?" Dilan shouted at the top of his lungs just before the Blessed Blade collided with the heavy broadsword's blade with a resounding clang.

Upon impacting, Dilan further increased the gravitational force being exerted upon him and soon loud crackling noises began to resound through the surrounding area mere moments later.

A bright, yet, devilish smile began to form on his face when spider web-like cracks formed all over the blade of the Troll Warrior.

It was obvious what was about to happen but the Troll Warrior couldn't believe it when his Tier-4 weapon actually crumbled to pieces.

That was not supposed to happen at any time, not against an opponent, who was obviously only at the second Tier…yet, Dilan was not only able to destroy a Tier-4 weapon but he was also able to exhibit enough strength to make sure that the Troll Warrior would die at any moment.

The Blessed Blade pierced through the skull of the Troll Warrior, who looked up with desperation in his eyes.

However, Dilan wasn't feeling pitiful. He was fully focused on killing the most powerful opponent to ensure a clean and sweeping victory.

With the huge gains he had already made by acquiring the Blessed Blade Signav, Dilan was already fully prepared to go all out and grind enough Essence crystals for the purposes he had in mind.

Brain mass trickled down the Blessed Blade when Dilan pulled it outside the head of the Troll that collapsed on the ground. However, he didn't focus on that at all.

He pushed his body away from the Troll with all his might and he appeared in front of the Shapeshifted Kobold, who slashed at Dilan, prepared to sustain more heavy injuries if that would allow him to kill his opponent.

But that was not something Dilan wanted to accept, which was why he activated [Short distance traveling] once again. He disappeared just when the Shapeshifted Kobold's claw was about to sweep through him and he reappeared behind the monster.

Dilan didn't lose his tempo, which was why Dilan was given the opportunity to plunge both daggers deep inside the neck of the Shapeshifted Kobold.

A pained gurgling escaped the Kobold's mouth before the monster quieted down just as Dilan twisted the daggers in the Kobold's neck.

Unexpectedly, the Kobold continued moving even with the twisted daggers stuck deep inside its neck. Its eyes turned lifeless but weirdly enough, a bright expression appeared on its face when its eyes lost the remaining traces of life.

'What is wrong with this one?' Dilan wondered when something unexpected happened.

The Shapeshifted Kobold deflated in size and it seemed as if it was returning to its original size and maturity state when a bright light manifested all around the Kobold.

"The hell?" He blurted out, obviously confused when the Kobold turned into countless white sparks that spread out in all directions.

A Diamond-blue colored Essence Crystal fell to the ground, just for the remaining parts of the Shapeshifted Kobold to be never seen again…not by Dilan at the very least!

"What was that?" Dilan shouted out in bewilderment as he picked up the Essence crystal. Luckily, he was not the only one to feel confused because when he threw a single glance to his right, he could easily tell that his people were just as confused as him.

'Well, whatever,' He turned his head away with a shrug and jumped upon the dead body of the Troll Warrior, whose Essence Crystal he had to pull out with some effort.

Dilan stored the two Essence Crystals inside the storage ring before he turned his head in the direction of the remaining Trolls and Kobolds.

By now, the entire Kobold settlement was destroyed and it was only a matter of time before all the other monsters would be killed as well.

Dilan alone was more than enough to kill them within five to ten minutes.

However, he was not alone and it was time for his people to get ready for some real fights.

"Guys, it's your turn! Fight, and kill them all!"

Chapter 458 Evolution

There was no need for Dilan to fight anymore. He could just watch how everything unfolds itself in front of him while supervising the girls, Williams and Sven to make sure that they would be fine.

As a safety precaution, Dilan used the Blood Eclipse Necklace to summon a huge black Gate.

The Gate released black miasma and the surrounding temperature decreased rapidly as a blood curdling scream blasted through the surrounding.

The scream originated from the black Gate that was filled with an abyss-like liquid. Dilan didn't pay much attention to the Gate even though bony hands slowly appeared out of the abyss-like liquid.

Dilan saw the long talon like fingers curl around the frame of the Gate tightly but he was not fazed by that.

"Protect these five humans!" He ordered the moment a huge Skeletal Head of a Gorilla or something that looked similar to one protruded out of the black liquid.

Afterward, Dilan turned around before activating [Taunt] to make sure that all monsters in the surroundings would focus their attacks on him.

"They will focus on me, just pull out one or two to fight them whenever you guys are ready!" Dilan declared and his people nodded their heads, readying themselves to fight.

Simultaneously, they stared at Dilan, wondering how high his current stats were. After all, he had defeated the two powerhouses whose fight destroyed the whole Kobold settlement.

Even if they didn't know the Tier of the two powerhouses, they could roughly gauge how strong they had been. Gauging the monsters' strength was much easier than doing the same with Dilan even though they knew that Dilan was still at the second Tier.

Dilan activated all of his abilities at the same time before he dashed toward the most crowded area of the Kobold settlement. It was mostly built out of mud, wood and stones, and there was no sign of modern construction.

However that was not something Dilan had expected to find on this planet, where everything seemed to be controlled by intelligent monsters.

He considered annihilating the whole Kobold settlement with a simple, yet powerful attack but he decided against it because he wanted his people to become stronger as well.

Dilan was not in need of as many Essence Crystals as the others anymore and it wouldn't be a problem for him to collect everything necessary to upgrade his equipment.

Yvonne retrieved a bunch of Undeads from her storage ring and she controlled them to attack the Kobolds and Trolls. A black hue shrouded the Undead and their strength increased drastically.

Meanwhile, Kathrine's body was shrouded in powerful currents of lightning, Williams' controlled tens of razor-sharp blades all around him, Victoria's body metamorphosed while blood Icicles circulated around her, followed by Sven who was the only one who was wielding a sword properly in his hands.

Sven didn't have a high combat power. He was one of the few Tier-2 Ascenders, who focused on supportive occupations with the intention to support his people from the backend while they fought on the frontlines.

He was shouting out a bunch of commands, while Dilan was just watching how their battle fared with folded hands.

There didn't seem to be much of a problem for the five Ascenders to pull a bunch of monsters out of the large batch that focused on Dilan.

It was not exactly difficult for Dilan to escape the clutches of the Monsters because he reactivated his abilities once their effects had worn off.

His body could passively replenish an enormous amount of mana in a short period, especially after he attained the Ring of Infinite Elements Constitution, and the Armour Set effect of the Hyel Destructo Armor.

Thus, he could activate many of his abilities constantly without being bothered about his mana consumption.

He ran around, and killed a bunch of Tier-3 Kobolds and Trolls whenever he felt like accumulating a higher proficiency with his abilities.

Dilan was slowly getting used to his stats exceeding 500-800 Units on a regular basis, which gave him the opportunity to work harder on his martial art skills.

There was a big difference between knowing martial arts as a perfectly ordinary human being, and having the superhuman power to do things that couldn't have been possible before the Primordial Ascension.

Dilan continued to hoard Essence crystals and he then stored them in his storage ring.

He wanted to spread the Essence within them out in an even manner, and not focus on one Armor piece at a time.

However, what he didn't expect to happen was to receive a bunch of system notifications.

[The host's proficiency with the ability 'Thunder Step' has increased drastically. Due to the ability having reached the highest possible threshold, it will evolve!]

[The ability 'Thunder Step' evolved to 'Walk of Thunder'!]

Dilan didn't expect that the first active ability he had bound to himself would reach Tier-1 so quickly. It came as an unexpected surprise that the Thunder Step's ability evolved after reaching its limit but that made sense.

If he had learned the Thunder Step ability through a martial art book rather than binding it to his Essence crystal, he would have reached the limit by now.

However, because Thunder Step had been bound and nourished by the Essence crystal it could evolve and become stronger!

That was something Dilan was overly satisfied with, especially when he found out about the perks of the evolved ability!

[[Walk of Thunder) Tier-2 ★✭✭

-Drains 2 Units of mana to enhance Agility by 40% for 120 Seconds- Each additional Unit of mana used will increase the Agility enhancement by 2.5%

Once activated, currents of lightning shroud the lower body and create an ear-piercing noise!]

"That's pretty good," Dilan mumbled to himself while continuing to slaughter a bunch of monsters.

The others were doing a great job hunting the Kobolds and Trolls which gave Dilan the opportunity to avert his focus on testing out [Walk of Thunder].

He wanted to see how much of a difference the evolved ability could bring forth. The result was quite interesting because the power of the ability had increased by 30%, which included the lethality of the electric currents.

With a seemingly simple kick, Dilan could easily break the neck of Tier-2 Kobolds and even the Tier-3 Trolls had to face him with more vigilance than before.

After all, Thunder Step was not the only ability that advanced to Tier 2!

In fact, all of his abilities advanced to Tier 2 after a while!

[[Mantle of Elements] Tier-2 ★✭✭

[+20 Strength], [+20 Mana]

The host can augment his weapons by seeking the help of Elemental Spirits.

Stronger Elemental Spirits can be summoned the higher the ability's rank.

The stronger the summoned Spirit, the higher the Mana consumption.

The augmentation of the weapon differentiates with each Elemental Mantle.

Spirits that can be summoned at once: Five

The highest rank of the summoned Spirits: Intermediate]

[[Switch] Tier-2 ★✭✭|Growth| (0%)

The Host can reallocate 300 stats points once per use.

Ability can be activated once every 8 minutes.

Duration: 5 Minutes]

[[Second Acceleration] Tier-2 ★✭✭

Ability can only be used if an Agility-enhancing ability has already been activated.

Stamina consumption increases by 5 times.

Consumes between 5 to 100 Units of Mana to amplify the overall Agility stat by 5% to 60%

Duration: 180 Seconds

Disclaimer: The more Mana used to activate this ability, the higher the Stamina consumption will be. If certain criterias exceed the Stamina consumption may increase to more than 5x!]

Chapter 459 Upgrades

Dilan was satisfied with the growth of strength his comrades had and his abilities after they had advanced to Tier 2.

They were extremely powerful and Dilan conquered two more settlements and plundered through them before stepping out of the exotic Gate afterward.

With enough Essence Crystals to upgrade his Armor Set, Dilan didn't hesitate anymore as he used up the accumulated Essence Crystals.

The following changes allowed him to become much stronger than he could have expected.

[[Hyel Destructo] Diamond Tier-2 treasure.

-Headring of Hyel Insight- <Diamond Tier-2> treasure

[+100 Mana]

[Power Appraisal] The host can determine the strength of all kinds of opponents up to the Tier-5(rank will increase with the upgrades of the Headring of Hyel Insight!)

-Gloves of Destructo and Power- <Diamond Tier-2> treasure

[+85 Strength], [+35 Mana]

[Breaker]: The host can destroy all kinds of treasures at the same rank as the Gloves of Destructo and Power

-Boots of Hyel Space- <Diamond Tier-2> treasure

[+125 Agility]

[Short-distance traveling] The host can teleport to any place within a radius of 500 meters. 50 uses a day!

-Chestplate of Hyel Strength and Endurance- <Diamond Tier-2> treasure

[+40 Strength], [+110 Health]

[Power-Up] The host can increase his Strength and Health by 20% for 120 seconds. 10 uses a day!

-Trousers of Hyel Gravitation- <Diamond Tier-2> treasure

[+25 Strength], [+25 Health], [+25 Stamina], [+25 Agility], [+25 Mana]

[Master of Gravity] The host can alter the gravitational force that weighs on him for 180 Seconds. Ten uses a day!

-Set boost 5/5-

+5% all stats

+15% Physique

[Power of Destruction] -The host has to comprehend this power!-

[Heightened Mana Affinity]-Better Mana control, faster mana replenishment, stronger mana output and more!-

[Regeneration] As long as the core of the equipment has not been destroyed, the Hyel Destructo Armor-Set can regenerate over time!

Soul bound by Dilan Cier]

***

All of his stats except Stamina were above 500 Units if one were to include the amplifications he received from all the pieces of equipment he was wearing.

He was decked up in powerful equipment from head to toe that was only known in myths, wielding weapons that were never supposed to have reached his hand, and with abilities that increased his strength to a degree where nobody could know for sure just how strong Dilan was.

The short demonstration when he had fought the injured Shapeshifted Kobold and the Tier-4 Troll Warrior was still imprinted in the mind of the human Ascenders.

They could tell that it wouldn't be possible for them to face Dilan head-on, even if all of them were to work together.

Overwhelming power was simply too advantageous in a fight, no matter who the opponent was or what the prevailing circumstances were.

Thus, even upon returning, the five human Ascenders were still thinking about ways to increase their strength drastically.

With Dilan by their side, it was easy to become stronger but they could also tell that they needed some powerful equipment to increase their strength. Abilities linked to treasures were usually quite helpful as well, and that was something Dilan had showcased pretty obviously.

He wielded two different daggers that were both powerful and could enhance the wielder's strength drastically, three Accessories with powerful abilities and reinforcement in his Mana, and an Armor Set consisting of five pieces of Armor.

Nobody else was in possession of so many high-ranked treasures. Some may have a bunch of pieces of equipment but it was rare for people to find exotic treasures like his that often made even his people feel envious.

"I will accept my next advancement mission now, we should support each other if that's necessary for our missions, so just tell me if you need my help!" Dilan said before he accessed the Log of the Ancient.

Without giving it much thought, Dilan chose the Abyss difficulty advancement mission.

He wanted as many Ability merits as possible for the completion of the advancement mission. That way, it wouldn't be long before he could upgrade [Mana Slash] and [Aegis' Shield].

Dilan was quite excited about advancing to the third Tier because it would become a lot more difficult to reach the stat capacity of a Tier-3 existence. He would have to fight and kill thousands of powerful existences just to marginally increase his level and stats.

Dilan predicted that his status limit for most stats would be around 750 at Tier 3 while others had a limit of 500 Units. [Will of the Primordial] caused this difference and it was something he was both thankful for and annoyed about. After all, the Cursed Blessing caused him to require ten times more Essences and status points to improve than others.

Picking the Abyss difficulty advancement mission without hesitation, Dilan awaited the next system notification, hoping to receive an easy mission.

[The host's power, achievements, and potential has been taken into consideration while choosing the advancement mission to Tier 3. Mission selected; Unite Camsun!]

Dilan scowled upon reading the last two words.

"You want me to unite the fucking continent?!? Are you sure that you're not mentally ill, system???" Dilan shouted all of a sudden and the others turned around to look at him.

"Ehm…I think you need more help with your mission than we…" Victoria blurted out but she stopped abruptly when Dilan started glaring at her.

"We…can help you, no worries," She added in a small voice after a while but Dilan could only sigh deeply.

"I will need everyone's help for that…I guess…" he said, feeling a little bit frustrated. It would have been fine to conquer and unite the Shikan plains but Camsun was several times larger than the Shikan plains.

That made things a little bit frustrating, especially when it came to uniting the place.

'I will have to defeat the Red Dragon to unite Camsun as well, won't I?' Dilan was growing increasingly annoyed and he began scratching the back of his head.

To make sure that everything would work out as he wanted, the Hordes of Chaos and Destruction on Camsun had to be killed as well.

This disrupted his plan a little bit and it made things a lot more difficult than he had hoped for.

He continued scratching the back of his head and his thoughts went astray.

"I have slaves…and it should be possible to get my hands on a bunch of loyal subordinates by turning a few humans into Vampires…will that be enough though?" Dilan was not sure how many human settlements called Camsun their home but he could tell that there would be a bunch of Temples all around the continent.

Conquering them would be easy, but Dilan was pretty sure that he didn't want to offend tens of races at once.

In the future that would be fine, but for now, he was forced to pay most of his attention to uniting the continent instead of destroying it.

That was essentially what the content of the abyss difficulty advancement mission was and Dilan wanted to make sure that everything would work.

"Can you guys ask how long the long-legged lizards will need until they're matured or if they have already given birth to a new litter? Afterward please gather some people, who feel like becoming Vampires. Tell them that they would become my subordinates after getting turned," Dilan instructed the five Ascenders before starting to think about what else he should do.

"Why the hell am I supposed to unite the continent?!?"

Chapter 460 Unite But How?

Dilan could tell that the abyss difficulty advancement challenge was more difficult to solve than the last one. The Abandoned Island had merely been a place where he had to survive for three days straight, but this time things were a little different.

He was forced to unite Camsun, the entire continent, not just a small region. That was in an entirely different league than anything Dilan had done until now.

"So what the hell am I going to do now? If I use my Ascenders, Victoria's Mutants, my Slaves, the tamed Monsters, and the Scorpionmen it should be possible to achieve something…but we're only a few thousand people and I don't really know what exactly the 'unite' in the mission implicates…" Dilan mumbled to himself, hoping that the words he spoke out would help him figure out everything he wanted.

He was surrounded by Victoria and the others right now. They knew the 'content' of his abyss of difficulty advancement mission, which was not exactly a lot.

The mission's content was to unite Camsun and everyone could interpret it in their own way.

"You will have to unite all humans in Camsun to complete the advancement mission… that will be quite difficult!" Kathrine said, just for Yvonne to start shaking her head.

"It's possible that you will have to unite all humans, Werewolves, Vampires, Witches, and so on, but that is not really something you know for sure before completing your advancement mission. I think you should try to unite all races on Camsun if you want to receive the highest possible score in your abyss difficulty advancement mission," Yvonne said while turning her head to Dilan at the end.

He nodded in response, with the same thought in mind as Yvonne.

"But the question is how will you unite a whole continent? I can use force, enough force to overwhelm everyone on this continent but I'm not sure if that's what the system wants from me. If they want me to act diplomatically, they've definitely chosen the wrong person!" Dilan grunted irritably.

If he could use his strength to make sure that everyone would succumb to him, even if it was only temporarily, Dilan would be more than satisfied. It would be the easiest to overwhelm everyone even if it would require him to summon a Tier-3 Demon.

As long as he rushed through Camsun, it would only be a matter of time before he finished overwhelming everyone. Camsun was the smallest continent on Milarn. It was roughly ten times larger than the Shikan plains and Dilan could start conquering the Shikan plains before beginning to pilfer through one region after another.

"Using force would result in Dominion rather than uniting," Sven added thoughtfully and everyone else nodded their heads.

"And what if I intimidate them and force everyone to connect to one another? At first, it might seem like dominion but if I don't intervene more than necessary, it should be fine…I guess?" Dilan asked in uncertainty. He was actually doubtful of how to complete the mission because he wanted to get as many Ability Merits as possible.

This was important and not something he could ignore, otherwise, he could have just used brute force to overwhelm and unite everyone.

Unfortunately, that was not how it worked these days. Strength was good, especially when it came to making his statement clear, but there were certain situations where brute force wouldn't be the best solution.

"I don't know about other races but all native inhabitants of Camsun should be united without force. The future looks bleak if Milarn keeps evolving so fast and it is obvious that more and more races will try to find their ways to Milarn. The world will be overflowing with all kinds of races and a bloodbath will occur wherever you look. Having more people on your side, and uniting Camsun will help fighting against the foreign forces!" Sven suggested and everyone agreed to his statement.

Even if Dilan was powerful, the incident in Shiron clearly showed that he was not omnipotent and that it was not possible for him to protect everyone, everywhere. If two incidents were to happen simultaneously, Dilan would fail miserably to protect all of his people.

That was only obvious and it was also one of the reasons why Dilan was a little bit bothered asking other people for help. Many Ascenders would die in an attempt to unite Camsun and only those, who really wanted to, should help him!

"Don't you worry too much about others? You are willing to help us, so it's only obvious that we will help you as well!!" Victoria declared loudly. She was not going to abandon Dilan after everything he had done for all of them.

Yvonne and Kathrine thought the same and the others did not feel any different.

Everyone, who knew how much Dilan had done for them, would support him in completing his advancement mission even if it would be dangerous.

"Instead of beating around the bush, we should just explain the situation and make it clear that you will conquer or unite Cansum even if they don't like it. They can decide whether to accept the decision willingly or make you use force and you shouldn't be bothered about them," Williams added carefully. He had gauged Dilan's personality by now and it warmed his heart to know that he thought about his people's life that much.

At the first glance, it looked like Dilan was heartless and wicked but upon getting to know him it was quite obvious that he was just like a coconut, hard from the outside but a gem of a person on the inside.

"Yeah, let's do that then," Dilan said before he asked them something he recalled,

"By the way, what are your missions?"

The others looked at him with a trace of pity in their eyes and it took them a while to answer.

"I need to collect a bunch of materials," Sven revealed.

"That's pretty easy, I have to kill some Tier-3 monsters, including an Inferior Behemoth. I have no idea where to find one,to begin with!" Kathrine complained, and she sighed deeply.

The others explained their missions one after another and Dilan's expression changed slowly.

He wanted to sigh in frustration but he held it in.

"I guess we can complete your missions while I try to unite Camsun. Collecting specific materials or killing specific monsters can be quite annoying when you stay in the same place all the time!" Dilan offered, trying to appease his people while making sure that he wouldn't get too annoyed himself.

Ending up frustrated was definitely not helpful and it would hinder him from keeping a calm and composed mind.

"Just call over everyone who is willing to become a Vampire. As long as their potential is high enough, I'm sure that they can become noble Vampires," He came up with an idea and Victoria left with the others.

Most powerful Ascenders were currently in the Netherworld Realm, which is what they had labeled the realm where the Blood Monarch's Instance Dungeon was located.

Victoria and the others went there to bring everyone back and hold a big meeting.

Dilan didn't prepare a speech but he noticed that this was not necessary, to begin with.

Everyone looked at him with the desire to battle.

They were far from done with fighting the Vampires and they yearned to fight the Hordes of Chaos and Destruction.

However, now that an even bigger opportunity to fight had been unveiled in front of them, they were quite literally waiting for him to order them to fight and to kill.

"How about it, guys…do you want to conquer the continent with me?"