55 Maze of Grand Weed
Erix powerfully kicked it up, causing the Mantis to shoot up before he flew up and punched it even higher!
-193!
-485!
The Mantis, who couldn't fly, managed to see the whole forest before it descended again, and its gaze met Erix's grin.
Mantis hissed and angrily tried to attack Erix mid-air, but Erix punched it from above before its attack could hit him and slammed it on the ground.
*Smack!*
-542!
Afterward, he snapped his finger and used Crimson Blood Flare as an arm's length trail of crimson flare shot towards the Mantis on the ground and killed it.
Unfortunately, it didn't drop anything.
On the other hand, Isabella also finished off the Lion and completed her second class task.
It dropped its origin core but didn't drop any treasure chest or orb.
"What happened?" Isabella asked when she saw Rin's sitting stiffly with faint lightning around her.
"She overloaded herself with lightning," Erix chuckled.
Rin opened her eyes and pouted, "I am going to do it again and will acquire Lightning Affinity; just watch."
"Oh, so it was for that," Isabella smiled with a nod before she adopted a thoughtful expression. "I also want to acquire it but don't know how to start."
"Hmmm, you have to try to use your Flame Whip in an extreme way," Erix said after thinking for a second. "I don't know how you use your Flame Whip, so it's up to you how you can extremize that skill to use it above its limit and your limit."
"Also, Rin, Isabella, try to feel the element…like, it's not visible, but it's there if you manage to sense it."
"Element?"
Erix nodded.
"Yep. I am sure you can also feel the elemental force of your skills when you use them. They are always there and responsible for transforming our mana into flame, ice, poison, and such."
"When you use the skills, you try to focus and perceive the element within them, familiarize with them, and... feel them while trying to control them?" Erix pondered. "I can't explain it clearly, but it's something like that."
Erix didn't know, but he was a prodigy at acquiring affinity if one considered how fast he got it. He also gave an accurate way to acquire it, even though he just described his experience.
The starting point was to familiarize oneself with the element's power by using the skill many times and then trying to sense the element's true factor, which would only happen when you go to extreme lengths and enter the same wavelength as the element of the skill one use. Thus, starting the affinity-building progress.
That progress would only advance if they continued to feel the element while trying to control it. So, If one finally grasped the control, the progress would reach 100%, thus acquiring level 1 affinity of an element.
Rin and Isabella tried for half an hour but only made minor progress.
At least the affinity-building progress notification appeared, but they couldn't reach 100%.
"Alright, let's continue moving. We can try again later," Rin said. "We have to complete the tasks first so that we can depart."
They planned to complete the class tasks, regrow Toshin's leg with Isabella's skill, and depart for Phoenix City as soon as possible.
The trio continued walking in the forest, killing a few monsters that attacked them while leaving those who couldn't catch up.
After all, most of them were around level 30 or 40, so they didn't even drop anything nor gave them any progress on leveling up. It would waste their time and energy to kill worthless monsters.
But soon, they found a worthy and useful monster.
It was a tree, and Isabella was eager to kill it.
*Khreeee!*
A tree monster with two hollow eyes containing dark green wisps and its moving branches covered with dark green liquid.
"Those seem poisonous, so let's not get hit by it," Erix said.
It was a level 54 Tree Monster, and it could not move from its position, so Erix, Rin, and Isabella didn't have much trouble bringing it down as it turned into motes with Isabella's killing blow.
Still, none of them leveled up from 51 to 52, and the monster didn't drop the origin core, disappointing Isabella since she only needed to absorb the origin core of a plant-type monster to awaken her class.
Although it didn't drop its origin core, it dropped a single orb.
"It seems like our leveling considerably slowed down after reaching supra-order," Rin picked up the orb as it opened and revealed the item.
It was a towering rectangle shield 2 meters in height.
[ Dark Wood Shield ]
_Rank: Tier-0
_Grade: Rare
_Durability: [10,000/10,000]
_Perk: Takes -10% damage from physical attacks and -5% damage from magic attacks.
_Description: A shield made from mutated dark wood. Infusing 10 mana in the shield will create a barrier in 3 meters radius around the user for one minute. Damage to the barrier will reduce the shield's durability.
_Note: This shield is not repairable and will be destroyed once its durability reaches 0.
"Good. This can be useful," Erix nodded and put it in his inventory.
Indeed, they had to use the shield after ten minutes to fight four supra-order blood-bone wolves at levels 53 and 54. They had mutated into undead-type wolves!
It seemed that monsters reaching Supra-Order were also increasing in number, though it was also no wonder if one considered the number of animals, insects, and plant life in areas like forests.
The battle against the wolves lasted three minutes, and the shield's durability decreased by 490 since Erix used it.
In a sense, the wolves were tougher than Ogres because they were quick and also used long-ranged attacks by shooting blood balls from their mouths that exploded on impact.
After defeating those four wolves, the trio finally leveled to 53 from 51.
"Let's take a small break to recover our energies."
Out of those four wolves, two dropped origin cores.
Erix and Isabella decided to let Rin have them to increase her magic power and mana.
After she finished absorbing them, she gained a total of 6 magic power and 20 mana.
When they finished resting, they continued moving for a bit when Erix suddenly stopped as a bright aura blinded his eyes when he looked in a particular direction.
"What's that?!" He deactivated his Aura Vision to look at the thing clearly, but Rin's surprised voice informed him before he could see it.
"Why is there a dungeon gate here?! Do they also spawn randomly?"
It was at the foot of a hill filled with a thick array of trees!
They quickly rushed there and inspected the gate.
[Dungeon: Maze of Grand Weed.]
_Type: Consumable dungeon.
_Requirement: Level 51.
_Tasks:
—> Kill 50 Weedlings.
—> Escape the Maze within one hour.
_Rewards:
—> A Tier-1 Consumable crate.
—> A Tier-1 Healing Fruit.
The dungeon gate had an alluring mist covered around it, causing Erix to narrow his eyes. 'Don't tell me this dungeon has THAT type of weed?'
"Erix, we have to go in this," Rin grinned as she had a similar guess regarding the dungeon gate.
"Let's also look out for hidden tasks," Isabella said as she was slightly fired up. "It doesn't mention, but I think every dungeon must have a hidden task."
"Wait, this one doesn't have a first-time clear reward," Erix raised his eyebrows. "Did a group already get it, or do wild dungeons not have such a reward in the first place?"
Rin shrugged and walked forward as she touched the gate. "Whatever, let's go inside and clear it."
As such, the trio entered inside, not knowing what awaited them would be one hell of an experience bordering on their life and death.
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