Although the elderly statues shielded the child statues that were still trying to take down Udann's guard, it's only enough to block the Purple Lightning Dragon that I sent for a few seconds.
It's an attack filled with Swordforce, compressed Energy Explosion Projectiles and the properties of the Willful Sword it stole from the lightning at my Transcendent Trials as well as any other properties it managed to steal from some of those who died under its tip. Moreover, my current UPL with the boost from the Domain of Valor is now above 300. The shields the statues conjured were ripped to shreds before it landed straight at the child statues, toppling all of them while explosions ensued on their surfaces.
Freed from the child statues' attacks, Udann partly used his Rusting on his arms and feet to counter attack the statues who couldn't get up by themselves,
Swish! Swish!
With every attack, the wind whistled from his glaive and each statue would be sent near my direction. Picking them off one by one along with the elderly statues, the welcoming party of this castle town ruins started to dwindle and eventually got taken care of by us.
Although they looked threatening at our first encounter, knowing the limitations of their abilities proved that they're even easier to deal with than the regular-sized soldier statues.
"These aren't the same stones," Udann said in furrowed brows when he picked up some of the stones dropped from the child and elderly statues.
"Right. They can't be used for Absorption of Energy but they have other and perhaps more useful purposes here." I also picked up some to check with my Adaptability and like he said, they're a bit different than the stones dropped by the previous statues we destroyed.
To test it, I injected energy into a stone dropped by a child statue and threw it in the midst of a group of soldier statues, the same as the one I kept calling regular-sized statues,
When they felt the emission of energy from the stone, they activated and jumped back, right before the stone blew up, firing Energy Waves in its surrounding.
Although those waves weren't as strong as what the child statue used to attack Udann, it's enough to injure or make a dent on these statues' surfaces.
It's like a rather subdued grenade. Those Energy Waves only extended up to a meter from where the stone landed.
Also, I found another thing to note about these statues, they're not moving because of us, but it's because of the Energy leaking out from us. They're sensitive to it.
Maybe if we could suppress it, we could walk among these statues undetected. But there's no point in doing that.
"I see. So it can be used like that. What about this one?" Udann followed my example and injected energy on the stone dropped from the elderly statue.
"Don't throw it away. Drop it in front of you or better yet, beneath your feet." I reminded him. Picking them up already enlightened me of its use.
Although he was a bit puzzled, the clueless Udann really trusted my words. He dropped it in front of him but he jumped back, perhaps as a precaution in case something went wrong.
However, no blast of Energy Waves came out; instead, it produced a circular Energy Barrier with the drop point as its center.
If the child statue stones could create a small blast of Energy Wave, the elderly statue could conjure an Energy Barrier that could block Energy or Physical attacks. However, it couldn't be moved and it's rather fragile. One needed to stack up at least two of it to block a Rank 1 Transcendent's attack. But it's fairly effective if one only needs to block any approaching enemies or disrupt their charge.
Then let's name them as the Blast Stone and Barrier Stone.
After picking up all of the stones they dropped, we continued our steps inside the castle ruins. They also gave out energy which gathered on top of our heads but it's a tad bit lower than what a soldier-statue could give us.
Well, that's normal. They can't move unlike the soldier statues and they can only either attack or defend. Observing the gathered energy on top of my head, I estimated that it's only about 1/4 of what a soldier statue can give.
Regardless, they're still worth to killsteal.
Six days. To benefit from this zone to the fullest, we have to move faster and destroy more of these statues. Resting can only be done when I start feeling mental exhaustion or when I'm about to breakthrough.
Maintaining the range so as not to wake up surrounding statues, I started to extend my Transcendent Senses deeper in this ruin as we stepped further inside.
On my initial observation, this is a crowded place that if a Rank 2 Transcendent goes in alone, he will be ganged up by these statues like how we ganged up the giant statue from before.
Good thing I have this useful Udann who can act as my shield and my weapon. He will beat these statues until they're cracked enough to be destroyed easily by a little tap from my sword.
Around 30 minutes later, we've already ventured inside the castle ruins wherein the decrepit old castle can now be perfectly captured by my eyes but the luxurious ruins which turned out to be walled manors are closer. Behind us, if we turned around, the entrance of the ruin is already a small dot where the wreckage of statues and buildings we passed by dotted the path we tread on.
Upon further observation of this place, I manipulated Udann's thoughts to let him arrive at the conclusion that we should venture further inside and straight to the decrepit old castle. Although it's what I led him to think, he's convinced that it is his idea.
I still need to stroke his ego, right? Otherwise, he will feel like he was being cheated by me.
Along the way, we found out that the man and woman statues could move and they both have the same super strength. There's a small difference though, the man statues were focused on their arms while the woman statues were focused on their legs.
The two new statues dropped the same kind of stone and I called them Power Stones. Although the same, their effects are different from each other and naturally, it reflects the statue's abilities. Arm Power for man statues and Leg Power for woman statues.
Halfway through where we were at the moment, we got all four types of these civilian statues at once. With the group of child statues sending out Energy Waves from their mouths, the group of man and women statues rushed in to land a few punches and kicks on Udann's body, causing him to be suppressed at where he was. And like the first time, the group of elderly statues shielded the child statues to allow them to continue suppressing Udann with their Energy Waves.
I don't know if it's deliberate but the statues would only react to me whenever I would assist Udann or rather whenever I would attack and openly make use of energy directed to them.
He hadn't seen it but I once walked in their midst accidentally and the statues didn't react at all.
Although they wouldn't move if there was no energy fluctuation, at that time, I was not deliberately suppressing my Energy. Somehow, I'm invisible to them like a passive cloak skill.
However, once again, I don't see any point of it being useful… Even if I can walk in their midst, what can I gain from that? I also can't seem to find the reason why it only applies to me.
In any case, during that encounter, we also utilized the four stones. I threw the Blast Stones in the midst of the elderly statues toppling some of them which removed some of the shields protecting the child statues. Afterward, I threw a few Barrier stones in the space between the child statues and Udann who was being besieged by the man and woman statues, giving him a few seconds of breathing space to launch a counterattack against them.
Growing another pair of arms, he grabbed onto one of the man statues' arms and one of the woman statues' legs and clapped them together, breaking the rhythm of their cooperative suppression.
At that point, he used Arm Power Stones destroying them into pieces, while I used the Leg Power Stones to jump up high to get behind the child statues, breaking them one by one at the part where they weren't shielded by the elderly statues.
With their collaboration broken, the next part became easy for us. I blitzed child and elderly statues before taking some of the pie from Udann in the guise of helping him.
Thanks to that, I once again formed a cloud of energy on top of my head which started to bathe my body and steadily increases the progress of my Mortal Pathway.
"Let's go in." Udann declared after he kicked the rusty gate of one of the luxurious manors.
From outside, we already saw a group of soldier statues in a square formation with three giant statues behind them. Like the personal army of whoever's the owner of the manor, they're standing guard to block anyone who would dare approach it.
Well, since he already tasted the baseball-sized stones, it became like an addictive drug for him. It couldn't be compared to their Dark Energy stones after all. It contained more energy than that and he thought he would be able to progress his Transcendent Pathway much faster and hoped to breakthrough once more.
"Be careful, there might be new types in there." I reminded him before I expanded my senses again to observe the place, especially the interior of the luxurious manor. But before I could do that, the broken manor was somehow protected by an Energy Screen or Formation that prevented my senses from slipping inside.
Perhaps there's something special inside it.
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