Cosmic Peak

Day 21 after the descent of Myriad mountain.

Aren has been traveling for one day high above clouds on his sword, looking at the beautiful scenery below through his Astral-X eyes. He also trained using Spinergy Method a bit as well while travelling.

*Cruuu....*

Suddenly, Aren heard a loud screech and looked in the front only to see a large bird flying directly towards him as if it was taking Aren as its prey.

Aren grinned as he took out his [Destucto] hammer gear and flew at the speed of 700 meters per second while controlling the hammer.

He activated the hammer's skill, consuming 100 mutant magic energy and infusing spirit energy to use his Spinergy method's Purple Spectrum effect as well.

The hammer's weight increased to 1620 KG from 1448 KG due to purple spectrum effect as he intended to increase the weight.

Naturally, the other two effects were activated the moment he used spirit energy in his hammer.

Both Aren and the hammer flew side by side at the speed of 700 meters per second, heading straight to meet the flying bird monster that looked like a giant vulture but with two horns on its head , and with brown-red patterns and feathers on its body.

He didn't want to use his full speed of 1321 meters per second to attack because it would definitely break his hammer again.

After two seconds, Aren stopped before three hundred meters from the monster while the hammer continued at the same speed towards the bird monster, who screeched loudly again as its beak shined as well, displaying confidence that its beak could break the hammer coming at it.

*BOOOOOOM....*

[-69,490]

....The bird was blasted into pieces upon meeting the hammer.

[Geocron Vulture killed, 850 EXP gained.]

Aren was was not surprised. After all, even though the speed was 700 meters per second, the power the hammer produced upon hitting was still 396 million joules of energy.

There was no way that this supreme-2 lifeform Geocron Vulture of B grade at level 41 could survive such an attack.

After killing it, Aren continued flying at full speed of 1320 meters per second in the north direction; his target, Demon Continent.

After turning the new armor into an Articule gear, he felt comfortable flying at his full speed because of lower air resistance.

Aren took out the map and looked at it for a few moments before he changed his direction a bit.

After flying for ten minutes, he stopped and descended downward.

He stopped here to enter a dungeon called Voltron Cave.

[Dungeon Quest: Voltron Cave]

<Objective>

-Kill at least ten Boltron foxes creatures in the Voltron cave.

-Kill the Voltron Cave boss, Boltron Foxking.

<Reward>

-10,000 Exp.

-A random lightning-type skill (Rank C to Rank A)

-Uncommon Thunder-gem stone.

"Thunder gemstone?" Aren was a bit surprised, "interesting."

Aren entered the cave without hesitation, and right after that, he got a notification.

[Lightning zone debuff: Lightning resistance -500. You will take 10% more lightning damage.]

[Due to your lightning resistance going into negative, you will be more prone to paralyze by lightning attacks and take additional lightning damage.]

Aren was not bothered by it because he had confidence in his dodging skills. His current Agility stat was 106, and with the armor on his body, he could move his body anywhere quickly.

After he walked into the cave, he encountered two Boltrone Foxes. They had a light purple coat and purple tail as their body cracked with lightning.

One of them directly pounced on Aren while the other opened its mouth and released a purple lightning ball towards Aren.

Aren's brain gears worked fast as he instantly dodged at the perfect spot before using the <Demonic Grasp> skill as two seeds wreathed in demonic flame, Zarkhel hit the two foxes. His ability, the <Icy Enchant> was also activated, which made the actions of the foxes slow.

[-4930]

[-4930]

The foxes were trapped, and before they could get away, Aren controlled the chakram wreathed in the demonic flame as it cleanly cut the necks of two foxes, killing them.

[Two Boltron Foxes killed. 1460 exp gained.]

Aren continued moving deeper into the cave and encountered Boltron foxes every now and then.

However, after killing a total of ten boltron foxes, he didn't encounter any other creature for five minutes. Nonetheless, he continued moving deeper into the cave, searching for the boss. After moving for three more minutes, he found another cave entrance inside this cave and felt that this was the boss cave because dark blue crystals were cracking with lightning on the cave's wall and its surrounding.

Aren didn't directly enter but decided to upgrade himself first.

Right now, he has two talent points of his path. One he gained from leveling up his path in this cave and another he had saved when he leveled up his path to 7 because he didn't want to use it on the talent node he unlocked at that time, which was [Armalist Cloak+].

Aren was currently looking at three blinking talent nodes and could unlock only two of them.

[Armalist Drive +4]: Increase the cap of your Armalist Force by 200. Gear slots increased to 10 slots total. Your control range of gears is increased to a 1-kilometer radius with you as the center.]

[Emporio Portal]: A portal is formed inside the Emporio Zone, which will produce an exotic material every ten days.

[Armalist Cloak+]: Your natural control of Articule gears is increased even more. Armalist Cloak skill <Hyper Drive> unlocks. (You can use the skill by infusing Armalist Force in the Armalist Cloak.)

Aren first looked at the EXP bar of the path, [6404/128,000], and frowned a bit, 'So the next level will require double of 128,000 exp? From the look it, that seems to be the case.'

Aren felt that he made the right decision by not using the talent point on Armalist Cloak+ when he leveled up his path to 7.

He really wanted to upgrade his Armalist Drive further and not the Armalist Cloak. Well, he could unlock Armalist Cloak+ as well since he had two talent points, but the Emporio Portal seemed more enticing to him.

'The Emporio Portal is day-based talent, and the sooner I unlock it, the better because I can get more of the so-called exotic materials that way,' Aren thought as he decided to unlock [Emporio Portal] and [Armalist Drive+4] talent.

After unlocking them, his soul stat increased by 5 points as well, making Aren feel stronger.

After getting ready, Aren entered the boss cave with anticipation and slight excitement. He didn't know why but he...craved for a difficult challenge deep within him. Aren himself didn't know the reason for this feeling, but he knew to control himself better and steer away from something that was way out of his league.

As he entered the cave, he saw a two-meter tall and two-point five-meter long, slender fox with purple and dark blue patterns on its body. Lightning produced from its body, and its fluffy tail and mane constantly cracked with lightning.

*sniiiiii.....crack....*

The fox produced a strange whistling sound from its mouth and also the slight sound of lightning cracking before it attacked Aren directly by waving its fluffy tail, which seemed like ten lightning needles shooting towards Aren.

Aren fell into a dazed state as a strange sound from the Boltron foxking entered his mind and made him dizzy.

'W-what the...'

*crackle....*

[-1340]

[-1340]

-Health: [1529/4200]

The first two lightning needles hit Aren, and that caused him to snap out of the stunned state. However, right after that, he was paralyzed.

But instead of panicking, Aren controlled his hammer and sword as they arrived before him, taking the brunt of the remaining eight lightning needles.

While he was stunned, he couldn't control his gears since it requires clear thought commands. However, paralyze effect only affects his body and not mind, so he quickly used his gears to block the attacks instead of panicking.

*Puchi....*

Aren spurted a mouthful of blood as his internal organs were badly damaged, and he was seriously injured.

He was feeling a lot of pain as well, and if not for a lot of pain he felt in the past that increased his pain feeling threshold, he would have most likely lost consciousness and fallen prey to this Boltron foxking.

'Damn...I guess I can't dodge the sound attacks that affect my mind directly through my ears. Next time, I'll have to use soul energy, even if crudely, to defend my mind from getting stunned like that,' Aren cursed as he forced himself to stay awake while attacking the Boltron Foxking with his three gears.

[You have leveled up to 17.]

[5 stat points gained.]

After using his exp to level up, Aren became perfectly fine and energized with full health.

Looking coldly at the Boltron foxking, he released the <Demonic Grasp> skill by leading it by its nose using his gears so that the demonic seeds would hit it perfectly.

Afterward, he finished off the Foxking with 30,000 HP easily by using 300 mutant magic energy to use <Impact Burst> of his [Destructo] hammer gear.

[Boltron Foxking killed. 4000 Exp Gained.]

[Dungeon quests: Voltron Cave, completed]

"It's indeed worth saving exp to recover to perfect condition in case of serious injuries. However, I do indeed have a lot of exp," Aren muttered.

-Name: Aren Azrael

-Level: 17 [ 0/24,000 ] ( Stored Exp: 277,510).

He saw the Thunder gemstone in his inventory and took out it to take a look.

[Thunder Gemstone]

-Grade: uncommon.

-Effect: Gives a Thunder-trait to an item. Thunder trait is a sound-related trait. This gemstone has captured the essence of thunder, which is a loud rumbling sound of expansion of rapidly heated air due to a powerful lightning flash.

"I guess sound attack does bypass physical defense as long as it's not airtight," Aren muttered as he put away the gemstone. He can use this gemstone in his creation of certain gear.

Aren then looked at the world leader and saw that the top 25 had reached level thirty. That Mackren guy has also reached level 30.

'I'll move according to my plan,' Aren thought as he left the cave and continued towards the Demon Continent's direction.

He added four stat points to Constitution and one stat point to the soul.

After flying for an hour, he found a safe-looking hidden place and descended to upgrade his gears.

Previously, he couldn't upgrade his chakram because apparently, he lacked Armalist force that needs to infuse into the gear in one go while using the <Gear Upgrade> skill. However, now that his Armalist force cap increased to 800, he should be able to upgrade his chakram and also his new armor gear [Wind Rider Leather Armor] which he named, [Vyrmend] as well.

He descended and went inside the cave that was just ten meters wide and empty before taking out his chakram.

<Gear Upgrade>