Cosmic Peak

"Underworld?" Aren muttered as he heard the voice, "so I was literally falling all this time and reached the Underworld?"

"But...I feel more comfortable here."

Aren took a deep breath as he felt refreshed and quickly energized here.

Suddenly, a notification window popped up along with a voice.

-----

[Emergency Quest: Run for your life.]

<Objective>

-->Run out of the cave and find an Underworld City.

<Reward>

-->1000 Exp.

-----

*Crack...*

"huh?" Aren was surprised as the whole cave started trembling.

Aren activated his bangle and wore his Mobile Armored Suit, Weimbus, before flying out of the cave without thinking twice.

The cave was lit with Luminous Crystals, but outside was perpetual night.

*ROARRR!!!...*

*BOOOM....*

Aren looked behind only to see a large hand with glowing silver patterns on it coming out of the mountain cave he had just left.

Slowly, the entire mountain crumbled as a black giant with silver glowing patterns on its body revealed itself.

"Fuck...," Aren cursed with a shocked expression seeing its details, and continued running away with his full speed.

<World Varnish>

He activated the <World Varnish> skill to erase his presence and mesh his appearance with the barren land around him as he continued flying.

"Another legendary lifeform," Aren muttered while flying, "hope it doesn't notice and bother with an ant like me."

He looked back again but saw that the Giant was not following him or anything. Seeing that, he sighed a relief before focusing on the front.

"Underground City, huh?" Aren looked at the quest and decided to continue flying to find a city.

This land was barren with very few plants. The plants he saw were strange because none of them were green.

They were either purple, black, dark yellow, and such myriad colored plants.

*Roar....*

Suddenly, Aren noticed six monsters three kilometers in front of him surrounding a young man in his teens.

Aren slowed down as he neared them and stopped a hundred meters away behind a boulder.

The young man was holding a katana-like sword, and his expression was calm despite being surrounded by six dark brown monsters standing on two legs with spiky hands.

[Earth Demonling]

-Level: 43

-Grade: A

-Lifeform: Supreme-2

-Bloodline: Terra Consumer Demonic Spawn.

These Earth Demonlings looked cautious as they surrounded the young man and didn't directly attack.

Aren looked at the young man with his Astral-X eyes and got his information.

-----

[???]

-Level: 24

-Path: Meastro of Myriad Blades

-Lifeform: Mortal-3

-Spinergy Method: Quoralian Saint Sword Energy.

...

...

-----

"Oh...he is just two levels above me," Aren muttered with surprise and adopted a curious expression.

He wanted to see how other people dealt with monsters high above their levels.

The young man had his hand on the sword, still in the sheath, and didn't move. He just stood calmly and observed the monsters.

Suddenly, one monster pounced on the young from the front.

Right after that, four other monsters pounced from behind the young man while the last monster pointed its spiky hands at the young man's legs and released a dark brown glowing spike.

However, the young man closed his eyes when the first monster pounced him and then rapidly took out his sword from the sheath.

Aren was tongue-tied as he watched the next events with his Astral-X eyes, "Clean...,"

He saw the young man waving his sword a total of four times in rapid succession.

The first slash cut the monster's head in front of him, while the second and third slash was performed as the young moved 360 degrees twice.

The fourth slash was strange as the young man just waved his sword towards the last demon, which released a slash projectile that cut off the spike along with the demon in two from head to toe.

Five heads rolled down while the last monster was cut into two.

Seeing that the battle was over, Aren flew towards him.

"Hello, there. Do you know a location of any Underground Cities nearby?" Aren asked while floating five meters away from the young man.

"Are you otherworlder?" the young man asked as he squinted his eyes.

Aren nodded unhurriedly. He was in his Mobile Armored Suit, so his face was hidden due to the headgear.

"My name is Tyrance Bell," the young man spoke as he unsheathed his sword and pointed at Aren, "I want to challenge you to a duel."

[Do you want to accept the duel request from Tyrance Bell?]

'Woah...so there was this type of function as well?' Aren was surprised to receive this notification.

"How does this duel work?" Aren asked with curiosity.

"If you are afraid of losing your life, then don't worry, this is a normal duel where the duel will automatically end before one of us is about to get killed," said the young man calmly, "once we leave the duel zone, all our injuries will be recovered as well."

"Interesting...," Aren muttered before he nodded, "alright, I accept the duel."

Right after Aren finished speaking, both of them disappeared and appeared on a floating island surrounded by clouds.

[The duel will start in 10 seconds.]

Aren saw Tyrance Bell standing just a hundred meters away from him with his hand touching the sheath.

Both of them were bound by an unknown force and couldn't move.

"Don't hold back because I will not," Tyrance spoke with a solemn expression.

Aren nodded as he became serious as well. When he arrived here, the chakram and hammer had automatically entered his inventory, and now he couldn't move, 'I should be able to take them out when the countdown reaches zero.'

[4]

[3]

...

[0]

*Zooooooom...*

A slash came towards Aren breaking the sound barrier right after the countdown hit zero.

Aren was also ready as he flew up with his full speed before taking his chakram and hammer.

Tyrance saw Aren flying up speedily, but he remained calm and waved his swords rapidly a few more times as several sword slash projectiles flew towards Aren.

However, Aren had also started attacking with his chakram as it flew towards Tyrance. As for his hammer, he manipulated it as well but didn't attack directly.

Tyrance saw the chakram coming towards him and focused. Just when chakram was going to hit him, he waved his sword that glowed sharply with silver light slashed.

Aren was dumbfounded as he felt his connection to the chakram cutting off.

"What the...I am going to destroy your sword!" Aren snorted as he waved his hand and started releasing <Wind Slash> while manipulating his hammer and attacking.

"Heh, my sword is unbreakable," Tyrance spoke with a smirk as he waved his sword in a circulating motion, which created a mystic transparent barrier that nullified all those Wind Slashes.

"Really? Then try blocking this hammer with it," Aren spoke as he activated all of his skills and also consumed 200 mutant magic energy to activate the impact burst skill.

Tyrance's expression turned serious as he saw a giant burning hammer hurling towards him at a breakneck speed and hurriedly waved his sword in front of him three times.

He only had one second as he used the most powerful attack towards the hammer.

However, Aren had also started flying towards Tyrance with his hammer.

But Tyrance didn't care, 'heh, if you come near me, I will automatically win with this move.'

*POOOOOOOOOOO.....*

Right when Tyrance was about to make his most powerful move with his sword that was intensely glowing with silver and gold hue to hit the hammer that was just a meter away from him, something happened that decided the duel.

Both Aren and Tyrance were literally stunned because Aren used [Cursed Shofar] item by consuming 30 soul energy after he arrived within 100 meters of Tyrance.

Cursed Shofar would stun everyone within 100 meters radius and deal 30 soul damage.

Although Aren and Tyrance recovered within 1 second by expending their soul energy to come out of the stunning status, that one-second cost dearly to Tyrance as he couldn't use his move.

[The winner is Aren. 10 Honor points gained.]

The hammer didn't hit Tyrance but hit his sword and broke it into pieces. However, the hammer stopped after that as the attack was considered a life-ending move. So after that, the duel ended in Aren's victory.

Both of them disappeared from the duel zone and arrived back to the barren land.

Aren looked at Tyrance and spoke with a smile hidden behind the headgear, "your sword is breakable after all."