...
Bang!
Shin had taken down yet another beast monster. But after dissecting its body and gathering useful materials from it, he felt a little disappointed since he did not find any Beast Core from it.
He had already spent an entire day already hunting quite a number of Lord Rank monsters as well as the ones in Common, Elite, and Special Elites in the area. Surprisingly, none of the monsters that he had encountered were at Chieftain Rank, which was quite strange.
And despite the number of monsters that he had hunted alongside Astaroth, only a few of them possessed a core. Even the Elemental Type Monsters that they had encountered did not guarantee that they had a Core either.
He now understood that not all the monsters in the area could possess such a thing in their bodies. And only those with the strength that far surpassed the ones on the same level and rank possessed them.
He also now realized that hunting for these Mana Cores was much harder than he had expected.
He felt that hunting here was really not worth it. Aside from the decent experience points, which he never needed at this point in time, the only thing that he could treat as a great harvest was materials from the beast-type monsters and elemental shards and mana stones and crystals from elemental-type monsters.
Boom!
Shin turned his attention toward the distance and saw Astaroth taking down yet another beast-type monster. The latter was stepping on the huge body of the monster while looking coldly at it.
The Elemental Spirit was now holding a huge sword resting on its shoulder. That sword was made of metallic elemental energy that had been martialized and solidified into a sturdy weapon.
Compared to the weapon of the others that either looked exquisite and majestic, this huge sword looked brute and ordinary, but the power that it provided Astaroth was at least on a comparable level.
Shin also witnessed how good Astaroth was when using that sword despite its enormous size. He also had gotten some inspiration when wielding a greatsword just by watching the latter.
Aside from that, he also noticed that Astaroth had gained great control over metal elements when wielding that huge sword. He saw the elemental spirit summon a huge group of metallic spheres that quickly turned into pointed needles that could pierce through the body of beast monsters despite their powerful defenses.
After witnessing the battle prowess of Astaroth, he could not help but think that this elemental spirit was really powerful. In terms of raw power, he was the strongest among all the elemental spirit companions that he had. And top of that, the elemental spells under Astaroth's arsenal were quite powerful too, and even complemented his battle style.
When Shin thought about it, he could not help but feel something. Though, that feeling only lasted for a brief moment.
He could not completely grasp it since it was too fleeting for him. But he was sure that it would be beneficial to him once he firmly held into it.
Unfortunately, he could not study it for long since he currently had another task at hand.
He had already arrived at his destination. He was now standing in front of a cave entrance that would lead him to the mines where he could find the meteorites that he was looking for.
"Let's go and enter. We can resume hunting for more Mana Cores once we are done mining the ores that I am looking for," said Shin as he led Astaroth inside.
"I heed your words, my lord," answered the elemental spirit as he followed right behind Shin.
Shin had already spent quite a lot of time inside the game, and he only had a day's worth before he had to log out. After all, he was no longer that free since he had to go to class at the academy in the morning.
He had to at least get the real reason why he had to go to this isolated map. He must work fast and secure the meteorite that he needed before the forces of the Black Market arrive.
Even though he would be getting reinforcements from the Hand of Midas, he would still not have enough time to deal with his real business when things turned out to be a mess.
With that, he had to finish everything that had to be done before having the time to get some fun later.
Having that in mind, he continued to venture inside the mine and look for the meteorite that he was looking for. Based on what Arthur had said, the Meteorite Ores were located in the deeper parts of the mine.
Moreover, there were also some monsters that were tricky to deal with, so Shin had to still be careful when advancing.
There were some simple golems disguised as rock formations and walls of the cave, but Astaroth was able to spot them instantly before dispatching them.
The journey was going smoothly when they finally encounter the monster that Arthur was talking about.
Shin raised his head and looked at the stalactites high up in the ceiling of the cave. On one of the largest stalactites, a huge silhouette was hiding in the darkness. It had a humanoid silhouette, but it also showed some noticeable differences.
Shin instructed Solus to make the light brighter than the one that she was currently releasing. And when it illuminated the cave, they were finally able to have a clear view of the monster clinging to the huge stalactite.
It was a huge gorilla with size that was much larger than the Comodo Earth Lizard that they had encountered the first time they arrived in the region.
Its arms were so muscular arms alongside the thick furs on them. Even its legs were in the same state. The round yet broad shoulders that this gorilla had also signified the strength that it had.
With such a build, it was easy to figure out that this was a strength-type monster. But after the experiences that Shin had earlier, he could not be sure, especially when he saw the rock armor that the gorilla had on its back.
----------------
[Monster Name]: Stoneback Gorilla
[Monster Type]: Beast, Mammal
[Monster Index]: Earth Elemental Mutation
[Monster Rank]: Overlord
Level: 165
Health Points: 5,000,000,000/ 5,000,000,000
----------------
Seeing the basic information about the monster, Shin could not help but frown deeply. "An Overlord Monster? No wonder there are no other monsters in the surrounding area. But it only has five billion health points despite its rank. It is pretty low compared to the monsters in the region, especially since it is an Overlord."
Shin was having a bad feeling about the monster when he saw that information panel. "To have such a 'low' HP Bar in that rank can only mean that it has either a broken defensive prowess or an overpower attack power."
"And given that this gorilla is hanging on that stalactite, it will not be surprising if it is very agile when fighting," he added while sighing. He was expecting that this was going to be much harder than what he was expecting.
"You better have a Beast Core to drop to make this trouble worth it," he said to the Stoneback Gorilla, not caring whether it could understand him or not.
After saying that, he suddenly instructed. "Pull it down to the ground!"
"Yes, my lord!" Astaroth, who was standing behind him silently and waiting for his orders somewhat impatiently, immediately kicked the ground and forcefully launched himself into the air. He flew straight to the gorilla while summoning his greatsword.
Tightly gripping the sword, the muscles on his arm bulged up as he put a lot of strength on them while brandishing the greatsword.
Swoosh!
Roar!
The Stoneback Gorilla hit its chest repeatedly with its free fist while releasing a deafening roar that shook the entire cave violently.
It even created an air shockwave that tried to push Astaroth back and prevent him from advancing. But it did not do much as the latter swing his greatsword in the air in front of him, cutting the invisible shockwave and creating a path for himself.
During his flight forward, he followed the momentum of his previous swing and twirled the greatsword a couple of times to generate more of it. And when he finally reached the ideal distance to attack, he swung the greatsword with a force much stronger than the previous strike.
Seeing the incoming attack, the Stoneback Gorilla swung itself a little before pouncing at Astaroth while widening up its arms in the air above its head before swinging them like a pair of hammers.
Roar!
Boom!
The collision quickly generated a strong shockwave that spread in every direction, shaking the whole cave once again when it hit the walls.
Swoosh! Swoosh!
Then two figures flew in opposite directions right in the next instant. Astaroth was sent back flying on the ground and slammed onto it while the Stoneback Gorilla was thrown to the opposite side and hit the walls.
Bang! Bang!
Swoosh!
Shin quickly made his move at that time and charged forward, chasing after the gorilla. He also entered Reality Manifestation since he knew that he could not hold back this time. Then he jumped in the air and used the 'Mondi's Jump' trice to further increase his speed and catch up to the latter.
His speed was so fast that he quickly caught up to the latter within a span of seconds. He appeared in front of the gorilla the instant it collided with the cave walls.
He then unsheathed the [Yamato] and stabbed it forward.
Swoosh!
'Jade Kirin Scripture: Quick Draw – Flash Strike'
Shing!
He might have timed his attack perfectly, but it was still blocked by a massive hand that appeared in front of the tip of the katana.
Cling!
It produced a metallic sound that reverberated in the entire cave alongside the shining sparks created by the collision.
After blocking, the Stoneback Gorilla extended its palm forward, trying to grab Shin with it. But that latter quickly reacted and kicked the surface of the huge palm to propel himself back in the opposite direction.
The gorilla was about to give chase when it saw Shin twist his body midair before spinning.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
Passing by his body with a narrow margin, 'thin' metal needles flew toward the monster with insane speed.
Roar!
The gorilla shouted once again before sinking the fingers of its hands clinging to the cave walls behind it. It then did a pulling motion as a huge chuck of rock was pulled out from that wall.
The gorilla threw that huge rock a size of a boulder toward the incoming hail of needles. It even infused a huge amount of earth elemental mana on that rock, making it glow with a brown light.
Cling! Cling! Cling! Cling!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The huge piece of rock was bombarded by metal needles and reduced into small fragments that were thrown in every direction.
Ta-ta!
When Shin landed back on the ground, he quickly raised his head and looked in the direction where the gorilla was. His eyes were glowing with a golden light, making his sight to passed through the thick could of dust and dirt in the air.
The gorilla did not make any sudden move after that, which made him relax a little.
Then his brows could not help but locked into a frown as he remembered what just happened earlier when he attacked. "Those hands look like made of metal. I can't even scratch it, much less leave a wound."
"This is getting more and more troublesome," he muttered as a slightly annoyed look surfaced on his face.
He then turned to his ability panel and saw that he could only summon two more Elemental Spirit Companions. "Tsk! It even has a Spiritual Suppression Skill. Fortunately, it is not a superior one that can prevent me from summoning more of my retainers."
"Alright, let's increase our numbers then," he mumbled while summoning two more Elemental Spirits.
Swoosh! Swoosh!
After a brief consideration, he decided to summon Solus and Whitie.
Given the elemental of this Stoneback Gorilla, the abilities of the others would only be suppressed, so he rejected the idea of choosing them.
At the very least, Solus had the destructiveness of her flames while the light element of Whitie was much more useful than the others.
As for Hanzo – well, he needed the guy for Elemental Spirit Possession. Since the old spirit was the only one who was currently perfect for his sword-drawing style aside from Solus, he did not have much of a choice.
Shin did not have to give his orders to the others as everyone quickly made their moves.
...
The sourc𝗲 of this content is fre(e)webnovel