Rise of the Limitless One

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Limit Release, or just any of his new abilities, in general, were basically a mystery to Lucian. Aside from Amplification and the Duplication ability, which only managed to copy Quinn's ability thus far, he had yet to utilize the others for combat.

Fortunately, the Amplification ability was just an upgrade to his earlier Reinforce, so he was familiar with its usages. But, when it came to the matters of Limit Release, Lucian was at an impasse, especially so for its consequences. Nevertheless, Lucian could only make his guess as to what the defining factor for his ability's duration was.

Either it was based on his remaining Mana Quotient, or it came with a built-in duration, but it was just undisclosed for the moment.

Still, since he couldn't verify that as of right now, the only other option was to end this battle before those mysterious afflictions appeared. So, Lucian immediately rushed the boss while emitting powerful ripples of energy.

Similar to Lucian, the boss charged as well and its agility was absolutely unheard of. Its large frame turned into a blur, which matched Lucian's current movement speed.

Unsurprisingly, their similar stats gave neither side the upper hand. Within Lucian's unusual Limit Refinement, the increase each of his stats gave was on par with this inhuman monster.

Hence, the reason for his Hypervigilance disclosing his evaluation as equal to the wolves. Contrary to Lucian's belief, his Hypervigilance didn't just determine Mana volume, it took into account all the examinee's parameters.

Bang! Bang!

Lucian and the boss collided numerous times, and each impact caused a great amount of damage. Even some of the dead bodies were annihilated by the aftershock of their Mana ripples, not to mention some of the nearby rocks were leveled.

Yet, despite the destructive effect of his knuckles, Lucian failed to shatter the boss's claws as intended.

'Just what its claws made of? If possible, I want to extract them. Perhaps I can conduct some test or even sell it off. Surely this place has a method of exchanging found materials, right?' Lucian thought.

All of a sudden, an orb of cerulean flames gathered in the wolf's maw. With its insane gathering rate, Lucian didn't have the opportunity to dodge.

He could only cross his arms and withstand the attack.

Szzzzzzt!

The armor protecting Lucian's body sizzled from the immense heat of the attack. Simultaneously, his health meter dropped notably. Against the attacks of this monster, the protective gear he wore didn't stand a chance.

Still, Lucian wasn't deterred by this development. Instead, he advanced while under the assault of the flames. Eventually, he appeared from within the sweltering flames and landed a clean blow on the wolf's jaw, forcing it to take a few steps back.

With most of his armor now melted, Lucian tore it off his body and gazed at the Infernal Doom Wolf with a menacing gaze. Dastardly thoughts flowed through his mind as he thought of how much Merge Tokens had gone down the drain with this run alone.

"Your death will correct all expenses and sacrifices we have made," Lucian muttered. Suddenly, his hair started to flow upwards as a crimson aura materialized from his eyes. Once that appeared, a surge of translucent light surrounded his body.

'Just the second activation isn't enough. At best, I'm on par with this monster. If I wish to win, then I'll have to overwhelm it without remorse,' Lucian inwardly thought. Until now, he wanted to refrain from using the last activation of Limit Release, because as it was the last activation, and possessed a large expenditure of Mana, Lucian was almost certain the aftereffects were terrible.

Sadly, reality usually didn't permit the best-case scenario. In fact, more often than not, the frequently occurring outcome was typically the worst one possible.

〈Alert: The third activation of «Limit Release» has been exhausted. Due to all three usage being used, the temporary state of «Shattered Limits» is achieved.〉

〈Alert: «Shattered Limits» has affected all of your stats. As a result, each one will be forcefully elevated by 100%.〉

"Argh!" Lucian roared as his body thrummed with a bizarre energy signature, the wave he emitted was near identical to the wave issued from that mysterious lab found in the mysterious lab on his chosen first floor.

〈Alert: Your ranking has been temporarily raised to the B Standard. [Remaining Time: 13 seconds.]〉

Although Lucian released an absurd aura, this bizarre increase in power would only last for 13 seconds! Typically, such a small time frame wasn't enough to deal with such a difficult foe, but with the feeling coursing through Lucian at this moment, he had no qualms about his short window.

Boom!

An explosion took place as Lucian dashed forward at an astonishing speed. He closed the distance between him and the boss in an instant. His movement eclipsed the reaction speed of the boss, causing it to fail to respond.

Without pausing, Lucian landed a strike that blew the wolf's left leg that obliterated the bones. It was akin to a bag of crushed glass, but the wolf didn't even whimper. Instead, it unleashed a swarm of fiery attacks all aimed at Lucian.

If it was in a regular situation, Lucian would dodge this torrent of flame attacks with ease, however, unleashing that strike also left his own arm numb. Although the effects of having shattered limits were intoxicating, the pain that followed its usage wasn't.

It was painful enough to cause Lucian to halt for a moment. 'This discomfort,' Lucian thought while clenching his first. But, he was at a point where he couldn't stop.

Before the flames managed to touch him, Lucian disappeared from where he stood.

His teammates in the background stared in shock as they watch Lucian moved at a speed that defied their current ranking. Compared to them, he was at least five times faster. They could only capture faint glimpses of his movement before once again losing track of his location.

"A-Are you seeing this shit right now?" Olov exclaimed. This was a mix of horror and marvel laced into his expression. After all, he had never heard of someone possessing an ability which enabled them to strengthen themselves fivefold.

Even the leaders of the Guardian Corps didn't possess such an ability they have all long since earned their ranking as S Rank Guardians.

"I'm seeing it! But, damn, I'm just not believing it!" Desmond replied in just as much shock. Even Aeran paused his haphazard vibrations for a moment. At this point, most if not all of the wolves were dead, so they intended to help Lucian, but after witnessing this scene, they weren't sure if it was such a bright idea.

"Should we help?" Adonis added, wondering if it was better for them to just join in. However, Ahri gave her own thoughts, which made the others rethink their decisions.

"I don't think so. At least, not yet. If he can't solo it then we'll help him finish it off. But, if we don't approach it and let him kill it alone, he'll receive 100% of the point. If that happens, then we'll be essentially paying off our debts."

"That's true, but what if he takes it as us abandoning him and waiting for him to die or something?" Olov added. If he was in the situation and his team didn't render aid, he'd immediately believe they were condemning him to death.

Therefore, he projected this same belief onto Lucian's actions.

"Oh, that's also a possible outcome as well. Well, now I don't know how to answer you," Ahri answered with a bitter smile.

"No need to overthink, he was the one who gave us our roles. If he needs our assistance, I'm sure he'll call for it...WHAT IN THE FUCK!?" Desmond's voice petered out before being taken aback by Lucian's ludicrous actions.

He burst directly through the wolf's flames, unaffected by its fire save for the faint scorching marks on his front torso. What's more, he didn't even acknowledge the pain before grabbing the wolf's arm and slamming into the ground.

Straightway, he landed a seismic punch that formed a ring-shaped crater of varying depths spanning the origin of his strike.

Watching this display, the others could only shake their head.

"Nope, doesn't need our help. Let him handle it," Sylvia murmured while peeking from behind Olov's burly body.

But, what they didn't understand was that only 3 seconds remained for Lucian's temporary state of glory!