Chapter 40: I Gotcha
[You have died]
Arc was standing before the border of their island now, facing the Avariel island. He had once again underestimated Rhea and the range of her spirit needles and blood threads.
He had killed the formidable swordsman and metal-controlling assassin much faster, used his flying daggers to take out the ungodly archer, and had created distance between him and Rhea to force her out of her trap zone.
What Arc hadn’t expected was for the entire glade to be wired and spread thin across the island. There was really no hiding place from the enemy.
He wasn’t exactly annoyed after dying once more, because not only had he obtained more information about the enemy, Arc had also confirmed one vital detail about himself... he could regress—again.
Limitedly? Infinitely?
He wasn’t so sure. There was only the strange chanting and the forbidden prompt at the end. But he couldn’t control the range of his regression... yet.
With a sigh, Arc lowered himself to the floor and sat cross-legged.
There were only two ways he could think of—maybe three—to handle Rhea without the death penalty on his end.
One was if he had an undead summoning totem, whose summons were immune to spirit weapons such as Rhea’s needles and would only have to worry about the blood threads. But then Rhea would have to step out herself to finish them off, and that would give Arc the opening to deal a fatal blow.
Another was luring Rhea out of her island and onto theirs to battle her with just the dangers of her spirit needles. But that was easier said than done.
The third and most logical option for Arc was to buy off all the common and uncommon weapons in the trade market to create more Legendary and Starlight daggers, then stand from a distance and bulldoze the island from above to destroy everything in their path.
Arc could remember a formidable swordsman from his past life who could control multiple swords and had done this to a monster island. The result: the island was torn apart and dropped into oblivion with everything on it.
The only problem with that plan was that Arc wasn’t planning on killing Rhea, especially not after seeing what she could do. If that potential was channeled into farming EXP points for him, he could directly go into seclusion and still retire as a godlike player in a few years’ time.
The best course of action for him was the first option. Though Arc didn’t have an undead summoning totem, he could have one and not know it yet, because he hadn’t had time to check the Valemont Castle Dungeon loot.
[You have 67 unclaimed Loot Bundles from the ’Valemont Castle Dungeon’. Would you like to extract them now?] [Y/N]
He didn’t.
Arc directly viewed the loot bundles without extracting them.
Unlike the previous two battles, the Valemont Castle loot was made up of less trash and fewer but higher-quality pieces of equipment for his excellent-grade dungeon run.
That was when he came across it. An obsidian card that stood out among the list of quality loot.
[Lady Seraphina | Undead Spirit Beast Companion | Legendary-tier]
"A Legendary... Spirit Beast Companion?"
Arc was genuinely surprised.
Though Beast Companions weren’t exactly common, it wasn’t a big deal. But a Spirit Beast Companion? That was on a whole different level compared to a common beast companion of the same rank.
It wasn’t just a Spirit Beast Companion, which Arc could rely on to counter Rhea’s spirit needles, but it also had the undead attribute.
An ethereal woman in a black garment and a veil covering her face was drawn on the surface of the card, and in the background was the shape of a fierce beast resembling a dragon. Arc was too thrilled to hesitate and immediately used the card.
[Do you wish to bind the Undead Spirit Beast ’Lady Seraphina’] [Y/N]
"Yes."
The card disintegrated in his hand in black flames as a cloud of black fog began swirling before him, towering over him with occasional purple lightning that revealed the silhouette of a fierce beast in the making.
Arc didn’t blink as the fog began to disperse, anticipating the appearance of his very own Legendary-tier Spirit Beast Companion. Or should he say—
Arc was pulled back to reality after the black fog completely dispersed to reveal no fierce beast. Its appearance resembled that of a dragon with black scales, but... why the hell was it the size of a house cat?
"Rawr~"
What the hell? Its roar sounded like that of a pup.
Arc stared intently at the small creature that materialized before him, licking its paws before it paused to stare at him, assessing him as well.
He crouched to pick up ’Lady Seraphina’, who didn’t struggle or protest, lifting it and turning it at different angles to take a better look at it before casting the [Appraisal] skill on it with little to no expectations.
Arc’s eyes slowly widened in surprise.
"Hell... yeah."
***
Whoosh!
Arc disappeared onto the Avariel island, but delayed using his new skill: Formless Heaven-Defying Path.
The golden arrows came in quick succession, but this time around, he simply dodged and kept running forward. Not chasing after the shooter, but following a new strategy. Then came the metal-controlling assassin’s blades.
The moment the assassin arrived, Arc activated Formless Heaven-Defying Path, leaping into the air and stepping on a falling leaf before shooting himself across a thick line of bushes which the assassin used as cover to trail after him.
Arc didn’t die twice not to know this much.
The assassin was taken off guard, and without a weapon, he was in a vulnerable position and could only leap away from Arc’s daggers, which Arc grabbed midair and slashed toward the former’s chest.
The assassin was quick on his feet and only missed the attack by a hair’s breadth, but Arc was relentless. He didn’t stop at the first attack and pushed forward like a phantom, leaving afterimages in his wake as he chased after the assassin, who couldn’t turn his back to Arc and could only continuously backflip to avoid every attack.
Arc let go of his daggers to grab the assassin’s foot mid-flip, slamming him into the earth, which cracked beneath his weight. The assassin forcefully spat out a mouthful of blood, when his eyes could only widen in terror as Arc raised his fist, sending all his daggers into the air, pointing down at him, before dropping his hand along with the daggers that impaled the assassin through his vitals.
’One down, three more to go...’ Arc mused to himself as he quickly disappeared from the spot, leaving the shooter behind.
The archer, who was standing on the balcony of the manor with her golden bow made entirely of golden light, frowned as she scanned the glade for any signs of Arc.
"Are you having trouble with the enemy, Sarah?" Rhea calmly asked, her face covered in the shadows cast by her gray hood.
The female archer scanned the field one last time before turning to Rhea with a frown. "He can’t hide for long, Mistress. It’s only a matter of time before Jacob finds—"
Sarah’s vision swam, and for a moment all she saw was the blue sky before her head dropped and rolled across the floor, her eyes wide in shock.
She could only look upon her mistress one last time just as her vision was starting to fade, but even her mistress had an expression of absolute shock.
[GLOBAL ANNOUNCEMENT]:
[A PLAYER HAS SUCCESSFULLY CRAFTED A STARLIGHT-TIER WEAPON: Black Widow Fangs]
[SERVER ANNOUNCEMENT]:
...
’I gotcha...’
