Chapter 454: The Power of Fluttering Maple Leaves
"Brother..."
Amber shot him a resentful look. "You didn’t leave me any monsters. I’ll have to find my own way to contribute."
Even while complaining, she kept her bow raised, her eyes fixed on the huge untouched cluster of monsters ahead. Rather than sounding upset, she looked excited.
"Brother, I’ll pull for you!"
With that cheerful shout, Amethyst, her Violet Thunderwing Steed, beat its wings and lifted smoothly into the air. Seated atop the flying mount, Amber looked completely at ease. The Mythic Artifact in her hands, Maple Leaf Dance, burst with violet-red light as energy gathered along the bowstring and condensed into a single glowing arrow.
"Fluttering Maple Leaves!"
Thrum.
The bowstring rang out. The violet-red arrow shot forward and exploded in midair like a firework. Countless glowing maple leaves scattered outward, spinning through the sky before surging toward the monster horde ahead.
Marcus blinked. ’Damn. That’s strong.’
He wasn’t the only one impressed. Every woman present stared at the spectacle.
The swirling maple leaves swept across an area nearly eight meters wide and thirty meters deep, crashing into every monster caught within range. Explosions erupted one after another as damage numbers flooded the battlefield. The coverage alone was absurd, and even Marcus couldn’t help being surprised. The damage wasn’t lacking either.
Every monster struck by the attack lost more than 2,000 HP.
Over two hundred monsters were caught inside the skill’s range. The sea of red damage numbers rising simultaneously looked like a crimson cloud hanging over the battlefield. It was a stunning sight.
The moment the attack landed, every affected monster turned toward them.
Aggro locked.
This was the power of Amber’s Mythic Artifact set, Spirit of the Maple Leaf.
The Corrupted Boarmen raised their weapons and roared. The Corrupted Ratmen lifted staves taller than their bodies and rushed forward alongside them. Hundreds of monsters charged as one, surging toward Marcus’s position.
Three hundred monsters charging together was an intimidating sight. Ordinarily, even Marcus would have needed to be careful.
Each monster only dealt around 200 damage to the Sea Demon Souls, but three hundred attacks landing at once would erase both summons instantly. Unfortunately for them, the Boarmen only had a three-meter attack range, while the Ratmen could only reach ten meters. They simply couldn’t focus enough attacks at once to threaten the Sea Demon Souls, and Amber had handed Marcus the perfect setup.
"Amber, nice one."
Marcus gave his sister an approving nod.
"Dragon Soul Aegis!"
The skill from Dragon’s Crest activated instantly, boosting his attributes by thirty percent. Without wasting another second, Marcus, Pebble, and the rest of his pets charged directly toward the approaching horde. The moment they reached the Sea Demon Souls and collided with the front line of monsters, Marcus roared, "Kill!"
He and Pebble swung at the same time.
The Corpse Demon Dark Soul Swords flashed through the air as both unleashed Hundred Phantom Strike. Phantom blades exploded outward.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Critical hit after critical hit appeared. With Dragon Soul Aegis active, both Marcus and Pebble were dealing more than 17,000 damage per strike. The monsters inside the attack radius had no chance of surviving, and everything within four meters died instantly.
A clear gap opened in the middle of the charging horde, but before Marcus could take more than a couple of steps forward, the next wave rushed in to fill the empty space.
"Keep attacking!"
Another Hundred Phantom Strike crashed down. More critical hits. More monsters died. Another section of the battlefield was instantly cleared.
Again.
And again.
And again.
Facing the endless tide of monsters, Marcus abandoned all restraint and fully immersed himself in the fight. Hundred Phantom Strike followed Hundred Phantom Strike as he carved through the horde, enjoying every critical hit and every clean one-shot kill. The best part was that the monsters practically lined themselves up for him.
Even when he and Pebble failed to trigger critical hits and left survivors behind, Goldie’s magic would finish them off. If any somehow escaped that, Lyanna’s attacks or Camillo’s spells would cut them down. Above them all, Amber continued raining Fluttering Maple Leaves onto the battlefield.
The monsters never had a chance.
Corpses piled up faster than Marcus could collect them. He didn’t even have time to use Gathering.
Behind him, experience notifications flooded everyone’s screens without pause. The women barely paid attention to their rapidly rising levels. Their eyes remained fixed on Marcus.
They watched him charge through the battlefield without hesitation, cutting down waves of enemies as though nothing could stop him. His strength, confidence, and control over the entire fight made it impossible to look away.
The twins, Icefall and Firebrand, were the most shocked of all. Before today, they had only heard stories about Marcus’s strength. They had never witnessed it personally.
Now they finally understood.
"Anya..." Firebrand whispered, her cheeks slightly flushed. For once, she had completely forgotten her usual complaints about Marcus. "Stone is ridiculously strong."
---
Over the next two days, everyone spent nearly every waking hour at Blackscale Bluff. Other than attending classes and sleeping, they followed Marcus around grinding monsters nonstop.
The results were impressive.
Talia and Professor Tina both reached Level 35.
The rest of the women had all surpassed Level 42.
The Level 55 monsters at Blackscale Bluff provided enormous amounts of experience, making leveling far faster than normal.
For Marcus, however, things weren’t nearly as pleasant. The Level 49 bottleneck was proving far worse than anything he had experienced before. After days of grinding, his experience bar had crawled forward at an agonizing pace, and he remained stuck at 5%.
There was nothing he could do except continue farming monsters.
Hour after hour passed. Finally, after another eight straight hours of grinding, the experience bar reached its limit.
100%.
Marcus stared at the number for a second before grinning. ’Hell yes. Finally hitting Level 50.’
He had barely turned around, ready to share the news with everyone, when a system notification suddenly appeared before him.
Ding!
[Stonehaven, congratulations on reaching 100% of Level 49. To advance to Level 50, please seek Lonely Bell, the High Cleric of Dragon’s Peak Citadel, and accept the trial for leveling up and your second class advancement.]
