Guild Wars-Novel

Chapter 586 - Floor 13

The energy did not just enter Draco, but Qiong Qi and Clarent as well, though it was already obvious that such a thing was useless. Even further, Draco saw four lines snaking through the horizon, likely heading towards Eva and the other three.

So this told him that regardless of where they were within the world of a floor, it was likely that the bonus experience would still be granted to each and every one of them.

That was an interesting thing to note.

Each of them had gained 857% experience, which was a Godsend at Rank 3, especially for the White Haired Duo.

Draco went up 9 levels, going from 102, 86% to 111, 43%. This gave him 4 stat points to allocate, of which he graciously placed into Intelligence once more to bring it to a total of 95 points.

Eva went up by the same amount and reach the same threshold as Draco. Her 4 stat points were placed into Strength, bringing it to a total of 95 as well.

Roma went up 9 levels, going from 106, 52% to 115, 09%. Her stat gain was 9 lovely points, of which she placed 5 into Intelligence to bring it to 310 points and the remaining 4 into Spirit, which saw it reach 120 points.

Hikari went up by the same amount and reached the same threshold. Her 9 points were placed all into Spirit, as usual, bringing it to 510 points.

Zaine was a little behind her other two sisters, coming from 105, 86% to 114, 43%, which as still the same 9 levels in essence. Her 9 stat points were allocated strangely, with 5 going into Intelligence, bringing it to 310 points, and the remaining four into Strength, bringing it to 14 points.

...Seriously, ever since Eva had stopped allocating for her, Zaine had just been doing whatever she wanted. She was supposed to be the smart one, and she was, but she was eerily silly about certain things like this.

Draco came back to the village with his two pals and saw that the evacuation had gone smashingly. Everyone was accounted for and the group were moving steadily. Eva levitated over casually and send Draco a mind message, informing him of the location they were supposed to lead these fellows to.

Hearing it, Draco guessed that the floor plan was for the trial taker to stall the Agility Sentinels and make sure that their evacuation is protected while being pursued by the three. So sort of like a caravan defense mission where you had to make sure that certain NPCs survived an attack.

That kinda stuff was epic in single-player games, where you could restart. Here, not so much. Since Draco had already culled the thee Sentinels, all that was left was to make sure the caravan reached its destination.

The Evil Duo did not see why they had to follow this group who would certainly move slowly now that they were in the clear, so Hikari buffed them with White Light Blessing, and they dragged Zaine over to commune with them. Combining all their Psychic Energies and powers into Draco, he then used Apportation on the entire group to teleport them towards the destination.

When they appeared, the three psychics gasped like they had been hit with a hammer as veins popped on their foreheads. Transporting these many people over such a long distance had certainly taken its toll, even if the three of them were inordinately powerful with their minds.

Heck, they were even lucky they had Hikari’s buff, otherwise, Draco would have had to use his Devil Form to achieve this. Why he didn’t from the onset was obvious, this was not the First Player Competition where the AI would refresh cooldowns for you on each floor.

If any skill was used, he would have to wait out the cooldown in full.

Now that he had brought the group to their destination - much to the shock of the various residents of this world - they had already achieved their goal, and perfectly at that.

The floor began to decompose the next second, everything turning to pixellated ash and leaving the outsiders of this world alone in a mixture of a white and black void.

Draco checked the floor menu and saw the usual details. They had scored 16,000 score points, and got another peak bronze grade selection token. Now, Draco’s score points were listed as 124,350 and his total score points - including what he got as compensation from those players back then - was 359,437.

It was quite an impressive amount, but not enough for the evil purposes lingering in Draco’s heart. Heh heh, if the tower could read minds, it would do everything in its power to disqualify Draco right now.

Draco returned to the castle and entered the 13th floor right away. He did not want to waste any more time climbing because the benefits of these next set of floors especially were very good!

At this rate, he might be able to reach the threshold of Rank 3 and get ready to Rank Up before even finishing the Unique Quest!

As such, when they appeared on the 13th floor, Draco was initially wearing an expression of excitement which changed once he saw his surroundings. He noticed that he was amongst a slew of broken human bodies that were bleeding all over.

Even worse, he himself had only half his HP and was not doing so good. The remains of the caravan from the previous floor were also strung around, meaning that as usual, their overwhelming success from the previous floors were overwritten but the storyline the tower wanted to force down their throats.

The same went for his wives and two pals who appeared beside him in their usual garb. However, what caught the eye of the group was the large face that was gazing at them with wide-open eyes as if it wanted to swallow them with its cornea alone.

｢Name: Endurance Sentinel – Colonel Rank monster

Level: 150

HP: 1,000,000,000,000/1,000,000,000,000｣

At this time, the details of the floor came up.

｢The Thirteenth Floor – Divine Quest

Description: You have added to your list of honors by fighting back against the Agility Sentinels and enduring that, a sufficient amount of people arrived at the evacuation destination. However, the Sentinel have finally gotten wind of your existence through the Strength Sentinel from before and have dispatched an Endurance Sentinel to stall you while they launch an attack on the Ferrut Fort in the Yellow Zone.

Reduce the Endurance sentinel’s HP by 25% to scare it off and rejoin the vanguard.

Limitation 1: Enemies are limited to within your Rank.

Limitation 2: You may retreat from the floor at any time, but upon re-entry, you would have to resume from the exact situation you were in at the time.

Provision 1: Every 5% of HP removed from the colossus allows you to gain one level regardless of your current Rank or experience requirements.

Provision 2: You have full use of all your powers and abilities in the same way as you would outside.

Rewards: Score Points, 1 Bronze-Tier Reward Selection.｣

The group was left speechless by the plot. They then raised their heads to gaze at the sentinel before them that didn’t make any moves, but continued to stare at them stupidly.

So it was clear enough how Sentinels were structured. It seemed that they differentiated between which stat they were strongest in. Strength types were slow, but had immense size which mean immense power, as well as a good amount of HP.

Agility Sentinels and low offensive power and less HP, but were fast on their feet for their size and could easily run down any force.

And now, there was the Endurance Sentinel which was about half the size of a Strength Sentinel but had five times its HP. Draco could also bet that its defense would be far higher, and their damage numbers would not be as magnificent as before at least.

What was strange was how the Endurance Sentinel was built. Instead of standing on two feet like all those who came before, it was on all fours, and the joints of its arms and legs were twisted weirdly.

With its huge and wide back area... could the Endurance Sentinel be their version of a cart or wagon?

Well, that would certainly explain the stupid look in its eyes. Realizing what they had to do, the seven fellows shared a look and got into battle mode.

Hikari naturally cast White Light Blessing on everyone and easily maintained it. Roma sat on her broom and rose to the skies, pointing her hand towards the Endurance sentinel casually.

｢Final Blast – Active skill

Effect: Fire a concentrated beam of Mystic Energy that deals 1,000% Mystic Damage to a single target and causes their defense and resistance to drop by 60%.

Cooldown: 12 hours｣

A huge greenish beam of light was shot from her fingertip that seared the back of the Endurance Sentinel, but did not even penetrate its skin. However, the green light spread across its body and made the monster wail... which sounded like neighing.

-1,245,000!

Roma’s face instantly became black. Something that should have deal upward of 12 million damage and beyond only deal a little over a million... just what the fuck kind of defense was this?!

However, she knew that this absurdly high defense would now be lowered by more than half, which should allow herself and her family to vanquish this vile fiend once and for all.

Still, a cruel light appeared in her eyes as she used another, more wicked skill.

｢Chaos Spirit – Active skill

Effect: Summon a soul tainted by chaos energy that infiltrates the minds and bodies of others, warping their very essence into something random.

Duration: 1 minute

Cooldown: 10 minutes｣

From Roma’s fingertip, a portal manifest that lead in an area that was coated with grayish energy that swirled lazily. However, anyone who gazed into that portal would shiver in fear, as it represented the purest form of chaos.

Well, except humans, as they were chaos-aligned beings.

A being made of this grayish energy came out of the portal which soon closed after, its eyes filled with a light of craziness. Roma then directed it towards the Endurance Sentinel, which began to shiver like an animal about to be abused.

The Chaos Spirit dove through its body, warping anywhere it touched as it entered and did battle with its soul. The Endurance Sentinel immediately began to thrash about in agony as it screamed.

-23,908,112! -43,764,098! -31,258,909!

Soul damage would always be the rawest and most agonizing, also the most effective way to kill a foe. This was shown in how Roma’s Chaos Spirit brutalized the Endurance Sentinel for the entire of its one-minute duration.

It dealt a total of 2,135,400,008 damage! That meant that in a total of a minute, Roma’s total damage on the Endurance Sentinel amounted to 2.13 billion damage!

However, against HP that numbered 1 trillion, this was only about 0.213% of its total. It was clear why the Endurance Sentinel had been sent to stall them, as regardless of whoever, it would take time to whittle down its HP even if it was stupid and didn’t attack.

Draco was deeply certain that the others likely had to leave and come back multiple times to allow their skills to cooldown, as using auto-attacks against this behemoth would be a waste of time.

Zaine rose to the challenge by focusing her mind. She commanded the world’s lighting to condense into her hands, acting as a conduit as she blasted it out towards the Endurance Sentinel.

The beats roared with pain as it began to shake and shudder like it had a seizure. This was occurring during the period its soul was being attacked by the Chaos Spirit, so one could imagine its agony.

-6,754,098!

Zaine continually challenged the Lightning energy until her mind was exhausted and she could no longer use Ultra Transvection to lift herself up. As such, he changed into her half-devil form and activated her succubi claws.

Since she was out of mental power, it was time to go the old-fashioned way! She activated her Fury Swipes skill and went to town on the back of the Endurance Sentinel, which it couldn’t reach or defend.

Each swipe dealt fatal damage, which was multiplied by three.

-7,654,332!

The skill did not have a duration, but lasted based on Zaine’s physical stamina. As her Endurance was pretty average even though she had increased it a bit, she soon tired by the time the Chaos Spirit was done wreaking its havoc.

In this time, Zaine had managed to deal 1,908,000,000 damage! This was especially thanks to Roma’s skill which reduced the monster’s defense, and especially the fact that Zaine’s Lighting and swipes were dealing damage many times in a second.

Roma’s Chaos Spirit only dealt damage each second, which was why it had only done 2 billion for a whole minute. Zaine could stack damage a hundred times in a second with all the boosts she had thanks to the items Draco made for her, so she made up for her low average damage with speed.

Clarent was also doing his part with his insane raw powers now. As stated before, his stats now made it such that any form of attack he sued was pretty much stronger than anyone else, even slightly than Draco.

After all, he had 250 points in each stat, while Draco and Eva only had 100 at most for their bests stats. If it wasn’t for the fact that the Evil Duo had sick items and equipment that boosted their damage crazily, Clarent would give them a run for their money.

Clarent unleashed a barrage of skills upon the poor Endurance Sentinel that set it ablaze.

｢Flamepillar – Ability

Effect: Cause an eruption of fire at a certain location that engulfs an area of 75 yards. This deals 350% fire damage per second.

Duration: 45 seconds

Cooldown: 1 minute.｣

｢Immolation – Ability

Effect: Set a target within 500 yards aflame from the inside out. This deals 500% fire damage.

Duration: 12 seconds

Cooldown: 3.5 minutes.｣

There were low cooldown skills which he could reuse many times in this battle. He had more powerful skill, but some had cooldowns in hours, which was why he didn’t use them on the previous floor or this one.

Flamepillar saw a huge eruption of fire spring out beneath the Endurance Sentinel and began to sear its underside with nonstop flames. Its crazy damage of 350% per second was amplified but Clarent’s 300% fire damage passive skill boost and Hikari’s 4x overall powerboost.

This meant that the damage Clarent was dealing each second with Flamepillar was a whooping 29,008,057 damage each second roughly! He had almost breached the 30 million damage threshold, which meant that he was infinitely close to Draco in terms of casual damage!

By the time the entire 45 seconds played out, Clarent had dealt a total of 1,425,361,575 damage!

This was not even factoring Immolation which had been cast in tandem with it. The skill deal 500% fire damage times 3 and then times four.

Each second, it dealt 35,098,995 damage approximately, which amounted to 423,197,739 damage in total!

Combined, Clarent shaved off 1,848,559,314 damage on his own, and he was not done. He now decided to go for some mid-range skills with slightly longer cooldowns that he had been saving for a stronger foe, and while this Endurance Sentinel was not exactly ’stronger’, it was certainly far more resilient.

｢Magma Wave – Ability

Effect: Spawn a huge wave of flowing magma that covers an area of 500 yards. This deals 150% fire damage and disintegrates anything caught within the wave.

Cooldown: 25 minutes.｣

Clarent made some handsigns and then a burst of red energy erupted from his body and struck the earth. Immediately, the ground began to tremble and it cracked then burst in various pots.

One could see a reddish-black liquid seeping out from the cracks at various places, even spurting out like geysers at times. This liquid soon grew in volume crazily until it engulfed the entire landscape surrounding 500 yards, which was essentially about half a kilometer.

This just happened to be where the Endurance Sentinel was laid to the ground, still thrashing in pain from the Lightning, Chaos Spirit, and other attacks that were rained down upon it.

The attack didn’t have a duration which meant it was a single hit. The magma washed over its body, melting most of its tough skin which formed its impressive defense in one blow.

Unfortunately, the disintegration effect did not kick in, but that was a given since the foe was so tough. It would only work against weaker and less notable foes.

The magma soon sloshed away, receding back into the earth, but Clarent sued his second mid-level skill right after that.

｢Rain of Fire – Ability

Effect: Call down a rain of fire over an area of 20 miles that pelts anything within with little balls of intense flame. This deals 1% fire damage per strike from a hailstone of fire.

Duration: 30 seconds

Cooldown: 15 minutes｣

He raised his snout and breathed an endless stream of intense fire into the sky, not topping for almost a minute as he expunged the flame within his body.

Interestingly, this fire did not disperse, but concentrate itself to form fire clouds that burned the atmosphere greatly. Once the clouds reached peak condensation, they realized their payload down onto the earth, which happened to be droplets of fire.

Each droplet contained an intense amount of fire energy, so it was like being struck by a flamethrower.