Conqueror

Four months... we still couldn't get past these basilisks and two dragons accompanying them.

"Hey... are we really gathering an army here?" Feran asked.

"Well, our goal was to complete the trials and get the attention of everybody... but we're the only ones getting in the stage four." I added.

"How about we try to do other things? I'm bored trying to fight those monsters every single time. The only benefit we get from fighting those monsters are our EXP growing and so does our levels." Neco joined in. "I'm at level 179 after those fights. I jumped like a hundred levels or something. It's getting incredibly difficult. Did Zeta and Zieglind really finish this?"

"Well, the hosts did say that the difficulty increased after they beat it. It might've been twice or ten times more difficult. Who knows. But we just have to do it either way..."

"Hmm..."

"I also think we should do other things to feel a sense of accomplishment. We have been failing hard... pretty, hard. Let's take a break from entering the trials and let's raise our adventurer rank for the time being." 

That's what we just did and set off to find some more quest to do. We farmed more gathering quests until we reached the platinum rank. Ranking up was easy since we're pretty known for the trials. So they know our strengths. We slogged through like two to three ranks and we can finally get some decent quests.

Helga and Feran were taking escort quests. Aiding the merchants to get from other place to another. Despite its name and this location, the sky island is pretty huge. Most people here are not hostile. The pay of the escort quests are incredibly low because of that. But we don't really need the money since Lam already gave us a generous amount. We only care about improving the ranks and leveling up.

For me and Neco, we have been given a key by the guild. We're already recognized as a sky island people. So we can get back here whenever we want using this key as a teleporter. And the other reason is, we finally got a mission that lets us out of this place. 

Our first mission is eradicating the monsters at the east of the sky island. Which was confusing at first since this island moves. But with a bit of searching, we found it. I don't understand why these people care about the ground when they're safe there. I guess we all have our own duties to do.

The moment we got there, it was not just two simple monsters. It was a horde. A gigantic horde. This was a mission for platinum ranked? Then what about the higher ranks? But whatever it is, it's going to be difficult. But we also saw some explosions at the back of the horde. There was like three people fighting them off.

I opened up my inventory and equipped the Hou Yi's bow. I aimed at the three people, "Eyesight Enhancement." It was like looking at a scope, I can zoom in and zoom out easily. And what I saw in the distance... "Precia?"

"They're here?" Neco then asked.

"Yeah... I can see them from the back of the horde. But why are they here?" 

"Let's go find out."

The both of us flew to where they were. In an instant, Yefa was in front of my face ready to punch it but good thing she held back. But her punch was so powerful, it created a shockwave in which I was barely able to withstand from being blown away. "Rize... and Neco? Why are you here? Aren't you supposed to be-"

"At the sky island yes. But why are you here? This quest is specifically for the sky island's adventurers. Why and how do you know this place?"

"Herold knew where we could find this horde. It's a spawn of the Tartarus. We can't let it go."

"Aren't you... gathering up an army?"

"I could say the same to you."

"Well we didn't know what to do to gather an army so we're completing the trials and raising up our adventurer ranks so that the people would trust us. So that's why we're doing that quest."

"For us... the normal monsters from the overworld are far too weak. Searching for artifact dungeons has been pretty difficult because Neco... raided everything. So it'll take a year for those dungeons to regenerate. So the strongest monsters that we can find for now is... these. The monsters of Tartarus. We're going to enslave everything that we can. The normal monsters just doesn't cut it."

"Then let's help each other while we can. It has been months after all. What do we need to do?"

"Don't kill anything. Try to hold back as much as you can. Just put them in a state where they're unable to move or do anything. Or just put their health under ten percent and that's the best thing you can do."

"Alright th-" 

"Watch out!" Yefa instantly appeared in front of us and punched the gigantic stone in front of us. It was huge and it was fast. To the point that neither of us could react except Yefa. With all her might, a single punch that sent shockwaves everywhere completely obliterated that giant stone that was in front of us. And in the distance, we could see a giant... thing?

The structure of it were just stones and a giant glowing crystal on its head and chest. There were etched lines on all of its body and there, they were glowing with a color yellow. As if that's powering up that giant monster.

Its skin was rough, and looks like incredibly tough. It has four limbs like a human, two arms and two legs and it was standing upright. It was tall. Too tall.

It wasn't raising its foot up as it walked. It just drags its incredibly heavy body through the course sand creating huge ravines as its trail. 

It raised his hand and the horde below split into two groups. It was organized, something unique amongst monsters. Especially when most of the monsters below were ranging from demons to... angels? 

We all looked at Herold but his was just puzzled. "For how long I've lived, I have never seen any monsters or enemies like that. Well players can get the same look as those but... I haven't seen angels as enemies before. Where did these things come from... and that giant rocky monster... The hell are they trying to add here..?"

The giant stone monster at the distance began to run at us full speed. For a giant, it was fast. Way too fast than we've expected. I couldn't believe it. It spawned in several rock spikes from its hand and began to throw it at us.

Those projectiles it was throwing was fast. Incredibly fast. This is completely unfair for a monster like that.

Yefa jumped to grab one of the stones it was throwing then threw it back right at the monster. The monster was knocked down by a single throw of Yefa and the armor on its chest began to crumble down. It stood up once again and the broken armor began to regenerate. "Okay... that's a problem."

The horde below began to move on their own, rushing to the front of the giant monster. The mages behind began to cast hundreds of buff spells to everything that they can inflict buffs on. Speed, attack boost and health gain were the only ones that I could recognize. 

"We have to stop them here. Rize, as far as I can remember, you can use that skill yeah? Try disabling all rock type skills on the vicinity."

"Alright, I'll try. Free-Form Barrier!" I set up a gigantic barrier that stretched out several kilometers both vertically and horizontally. "Law Breaker Number One! Rock type spells aren't allowed!" But nothing happened. The armor on the monster is still there. A system message then popped up in front of me. [Not Enough Mana.] "I don't have enough mana for it... I really need to improve my mana pool."

"Then just cage them in here. A few kilometers from here, there's a kingdom, and beyond that is Izgoy."

"Alright! Law Breaker Number One! No one can destroy barriers!"

The horde below began to bash the barriers with their weapons. The mages began to unleash gigantic blasts that damages their own troops. The demons began to scratch, pounce and do anything they can to break it but they can't. They're stuck here with us. And with this gigantic monster.

The gigantic monster then began to detach itself from its limbs. Yellow colored electricity was the one holding them all up. Its hands began to extend. For how big it was, it was fast. Too fast. We didn't even notice that we were sent flying to the other side of the barrier with its slap.