NOVEL NEXT Chapter 168: Star marked Tyrant
Status:
[Name: Zyrus Wymar]
[Race: Sylvarix]
[Class: Balaur Summoner]
<Rank>
Onyx Crown, Blank Flag(In progress)
[Title: The last Apostle (Temporary)(Locked), Plague Bearer]
[Achievement: Call of the kin (A), Slayer of Camazotz (C+), Pioneer (B), Brave Sailor (E-), Helm of the cyclone (A+), Deep Sea explorers (E-), He who slays the Fallen (A), Unfair Survivor (B+)]
[Talent: Blood fusion (S rank), Devour (A rank)]
[Trait: Earth Movement, Underwater Breathing, Nastronder Dragon]
[Level: 48]
Exp: 3.98 M /42.54 M
<Stats>
[Strength: 85 (+10)]
[Agility: 81 (+5)]
[Vitality (Celestial): 80]
[Intelligence: 80]
[Mana: 79 (+2)]
[SP: 21]
HP: 5000
Combat stats:
MP: 807
Recovery Rate: 50% (+20%) (Per hour)
Stamina: 893
Recovery Rate: 30% (Per hour)
Crit rate: 15%
Crit damage: 120%
Penetration Bonus: 10%
Final damage Bonus: 20%
Health Regeneration: 10% (+30%) (Per hour), +20 HP/sec in Boss fights
Resistances: Void (?), Abyss (?), Earth (50%), Blood (35%), Penetration (30%), Slash (30%), Blunt (30%), Critical (10%), Water (5%)
Elemental Affinity: Void (?), Abyss (SS), Earth (C), Blood (F), Water (F)
<Skills>
[Eye of Annihilation], [Arcane Lance], [Master of Sojutsu], [Spear aura], [Xisheng Arts], [Avatar], [Vortex Manipulation], [Fear], [Maw of Oblivion], [Eclipse Snare]
<Equipment>
[Twilight Crusher (Epic)]
[Zubry Solleret (Rare)]
[Bone necklace Totem (Common)]
[Ymir's broken Gauntlets (Unique)]
[Muileartach's Cursed Ring]
<Inventory>
Currency: -
Items:
[Lorica Squamata (Partially Broken)]
[Scroll of Self-Demise]
[Heart of Abyss (???)]
Many things had changed about his status screen. From the staggering amount of exp needed to his ever-increasing skill tab. Even his stats had reached the 80 mark.
One had to know that without any SP bonuses, the average stats were equal to one's level. It could be imagined how far ahead Zyrus was when his average was at 80+.
It wouldn't be far-fetched to call him a roaming boss level monster. And this wasn't the limit.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Zyrus was well aware that the upcoming fight would be his final chance for improvement.
As for the Sp he had saved thus far, his priority was still the same- Achieve balance with all his stats. The equipment he wore gave varied buffs on different stats. The highest was strength with a +10 whereas the lowest was vitality. But since it was a 'transcended' stat, Zyrus didn't need to focus on that.
Thus, his target was the second last with a meager +2 buff. It was none other than his mana.
A surge of tingling energy ran through his body as Zyrus consumed 9 SP to raise his final mana to 90. For the remaining 12 points, he used 4 on agility and 8 on intelligence.
His status screen flickered and displayed the new stats.
[Strength: 85 (+10)]
[Agility: 85 (+5)]
[Vitality (Celestial): 80]
[Intelligence: 88]
[Mana: 88 (+2)]
[SP: 0]
HP: 5000
Once he was done, Zyrus called the ones who were training on the four islands. As much as he wanted them to keep their focus on creating their elemental seed, the upcoming fight wasn't something they could ignore.
Both their individual strength and commanding skills were crucial.
Kyle and the other greeted him and started fine-tuning their stats. Every player was doing the same process. They consumed whatever SP they had left and improved their combat prowess. Those with enough contribution points didn't hesitate any further and bought whatever they wanted from the faction store.
There were even some who borrowed contribution points from their friends to make the last-minute purchase. The most noticeable among them was someone who bought one of the items listed at the very top– Chief Weaver.
"Heck Yeah! Finally its mine!!!"
From the energetic voice and green shadow that jumped around the ships, it wasn't difficult to judge who bought the Chief Weaver.
"Calm down Lauren, you're embarrassing the rest of us."
"Hmph! Say that after you stop polishing that ugly mask after every 10 minutes."
The banter between Kyle and Lauren lightened the tense atmosphere. Most of the strong players had figured out their playstyle by now. Everyone had their favorite skills and equipment, and they would undoubtedly work on them before anything else.
Thanks to Zyrus's efforts, even the weakest player in his army was able to dash out decent individual damage with the elemental seeds.
Just when everyone was done with the preparations, a glaring red announcement appeared in the sky above.
[Caution! You have reached the center of the Boiling Sea of Kiama]
[Caution! Field boss "Star marked Tyrant" has detected your presence!]
The light from the message was intense enough to cast a shade of crimson on the ocean ahead. However, it did nothing to the players' morale. They knew that the fight would be dangerous, and they were prepared for it.
With strength came confidence and ambition. Zyrus's army lacked neither of the three.
[Commencing field raid…]
[Star marked Tyrant has awakened its subordinates]
[Defeat the Fiddler Rays to progress in the field raid!]
[Caution! This sea territory had been placed under lockdown. No one can enter or exit so long as the raid is active]
Innumerable manta ray like creatures were summoned as far the eye could see. Even though they weren't that big with a length of three feet and a width of five feet, there were close to a million of them!
Such a sight was enough to scare the bravest of warriors. Yet, one of the many factors that separated good players from great players was composure.
[Eye of Annihilation]
Zyrus surveyed the area with his blood-red pupils. His eyes were able to see through the mystery of laws, much less a skill from a similar leveled monster.
<Launch the range attacks>
Even Zyrus didn't know everything about the sanctuary. Apart from the skills of the Star marked Tyrant, he was clueless about the mobs that spawned in this area.
Afterall, why would the then powerful him bother with something that he could wipe out with a sweep of his hand?
*Siiiiing*
*Crrrackle*
The barrage from the ballista and torpedoes kept the surging monsters at bay. There was nothing particularly different about the orange blue fiddler rays. They flapped their wings to shoot water blades and used their mouths to launch a sonic attack.
Neither of them posed a threat to the players. But instead of being relieved, Zyrus's brows furrowed deeper as the fight went on.
The enemies were just too many in number. He knew that there was a trick at play after he used the eye of annihilation. The fiddler rays were overlapped like films of paper in his eyes. His first thought was that they were either using illusions or a skill similar to damage transfer, but both his guesses were wrong.
'They can split apart…'
It was a different yet fundamentally similar concept to cloning. There were two ways Zyrus thought this would be possible. Each fiddler ray had split apart its 'soul' into 10 parts, and each of those 10 parts controlled an individual body. If not, then the group of 10 were connected to a higher-level being, and they were connected to an even higher existence…all the way till the Star marked Tyrant.
'It would be easier if it was the former, but I'm pretty sure it's not.'
Splitting the soul to control a separate body was a unique and powerful skill. There was no way he wouldn't have known about something that had this skill before his regression. The fiddle rays were deemed as common mobs; thus, it meant that no one apart from him had seen the peculiarity behind their existence.
It was said that the Star marked Tyrant summoned these monsters, but what if it was the other way around? These monsters and the ones that'd come after were nothing but different forms of a single entity.
One of the many traits of an arcanist was to deduce many things from limited information. Zyrus was no exception to this as he already had a guess in his mind.
'Looks like someone chopped it into pieces and sealed it away.'
That 'someone' should be none other than the one who was conducting the experiments on the five islands. As for how the chopped-up body parts became new monsters, it was also easy to guess– willpower.
*Booom*
*Baaang*
The fiddler rays approached closer and closer which forced the players to use the frost cannons. The good thing was that each of the monsters gave an abundant amount of exp.
<Strongfist, free up your squad and do as I say. There's something I want to check>
Zyrus left the exp farming to his summons and jumped across the ships. His target was none other than Sedna which was led by Druv and Strongfist.
"Weak Fish."
"Haha, we'll see about that," Zyrus stood beside Strongfist and asked him to corner a group of fiddler rays.
The players were once again divided under different marshals based on their class and elemental seeds. The ones who followed Strongfist were a mix of melee attackers comprised of swordsman, shield warriors, and spearmen.
Still, it would be a fatal mistake if one assumed that they didn't have any long-range attacks. Nothing was impossible when army formations were used with the power of laws.
*Thump*Thump*Thump*
[-|-Imprison-|-]
The players banged their weapons at a steady rhythm. It looked like a stupid move at the start, but things started to change as a stifling aura covered the nearby sea.
The water and air itself took on the properties of metal. There was no visible change, and yet, the fiddler rays were unable to move a step forward.
"Go ahead and kill them. Maybe you'll find a strong fish in the end."
"Good," Strongfist grinned and jumped right into the middle of the enemies. There was no need to worry about terrain as the sheer number of fiddler rays made it impossible to drown in water.
Zyrus crossed his arms and kept observing the fight. If his hypotheses were correct, then every monster killed was loosening the seal placed on the Star marked Tyrant. Rather than saying that it was summoning monsters with increasing strength, it would be more accurate to say that it was recovering from the sealed state and becoming more and more powerful.