Guild Wars-Novel

Chapter 583 - Floor 11

Draco smoothed his hair and appeared in his castle with a smile. Now that he had relaxed a bit, it was time to continue his climb up the Tower of Babylon, and to inevitably oust those cretins from their top 3 positions.

Draco then entered the portal within his castle and was whisked away to the 11th floor, which was the first floor in the second set of 10 linked ones.

When he re-appeared, he noticed that he was on a large plain that stretched out for miles, with some hills and plateaus all around that formed narrow cervices for one to rush through.

He noticed that there was an army of men and women arranged behind him, all of them wearing fearful and ashamed expressions. Beside him was a man who looked to be the leader of this army who was extremely well-built and handsome with a thick mustache and a set of silvery plate mail covering him, but his sweaty forehead belied his own trepidation.

He simply patted Draco on the shoulder and very hard too.

"Well, this is the place. Good luck, Chosen One! May the divines ever be in your favor!"

After saying this, he didn’t even wait for Draco’s reply as he rode away like there were ants biting his ass. His army also retreated rather rapidly on their horses, only glancing back to make sure he didn’t run away.

Speechless, Draco could only focus on the area in front of him. He noticed that it was a narrow path in between two tall plateaus on either side that would only allow one man to go through.

Just as he frowned and was about to walk through, he felt the earth tremor. His balance was too great for him to fall over, but the retreating army were not so lucky as many of their horses lost their balance and fell over with their riders.

Not to mention the damage and death caused by the fall at such speeds, many were simply trampled upon by the rest of the army who acted like crazed ants that were fleeing before a spider.

Draco felt another tremor that was even stronger, than another and another. As he wondered whether it was the effect of an earthquake, he noticed that there was a pattern to it.

Rather than the tremors before an earthquake, it felt like... footsteps. When Draco made that realization, his face hardened as he activated his Void of Perfection to see what exactly was causing this.

After all, his passive Control only worked when something was directly threatening him. Otherwise, there was no need to overload his senses with the endless stimuli happening around him at all times.

When Draco saw what was on the other side of that narrow pass and approaching the mountain range, his legs shook as he almost shat himself. The tremors continued on for a few seconds until the world came to absolute silence.

In that time, Draco hurriedly summoned his Four Beauties, who appeared in their normal attire and with their normal equipment, just like him. When they spawned, they were surprised as they remembered Draco promised to summon his two louts to assist him.

However, they were left speechless when Draco also summoned Qiong Qi and Clarent, who stopped their menacing laughter as they came out when they saw the Four Beauties.

Despite being idiots, they understood that something was terribly wrong if Draco would summon basically all his supportive fighting power at once. As such, they collectively turned their heads to the now quiet narrow path.

The next moment, they all trembled as they saw a hand reach up and grab the top of the plateaus, pulling up a body that started with a humongous head and a torso wider than the entire Manhattan Island.

｢Name: Strength Sentinel – Colonel Rank monster

Level: 150

HP: 200,000,000,000/200,000,000,000｣

At this time, the floor details appeared before every member of the now silent and stunned group.

｢The Eleventh Floor – Divine Quest

Description: Welcome to the world of Darion! This is a world similar to the one you hailed from, with swords, magic, and all the powers you are used to in the world outside the tower! However, Darion is plagued by the invasion of a new and terrible species, the Sentinels! As a sub-race of the Behemoth clan like the Colossi, they are violent and love to conquer, using their humongous size and bestowed powers to achieve their goals.

However! Before they could destroy this world, the Divines who are the Gods of this world saw fit to summon a Chosen Hero who had the power to fight off the Sentinels and absorb their power upon dealing damage to them. You must reduce the HP of the Colossus by at least 5% to pass the floor!

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.｣

After reading this, the group shared a look and then gazed at the behemoth before them with a strange glance. Even though it was huge and it roared with earth-shaking might the next second, none of them were fazed.

Rather, they licked their lips with greed and covetousness that made the roar of the Sentinel choke in its throat as it sensed something wrong. Especially Draco and Eva, who had long been thrust into the depths of despair at their 1% exp gain rate, finally felt as if life was worth living.

This Sentinel was no longer an obstacle for them to defeat to reach the next floor! Rather, it had become the most delectable meal in their lives!

Before it could even attack, the group took the initiative themselves. Draco, Zaine, and Eva spawned different colored wings from their backs and flew into the air like bullets fired from a gun.

Roma simply cackled evilly as she placed her mouth-watering rump on her broom and took to the sky, while Hikari transformed into a full White Dragon then cried out with glee before flapping her wings.

She was just happy to be able to take her full form again.

Qiong Qi jumped onto Clarent’s back and the Dragon took to the air, jets of fire spraying out behind him as he boosted his speed greatly. Qiong Qi’s man billowed in the wind, but the now serious lion only looked majesty for the first time in his life as he remained on all fours without being affected by the wind.

The Sentinel, seeing that these tiny existences dared to charged him, roared and swung a huge hand that moved slowly through the air due to its size.

However, its very size, which made its movements slow, did not make it weaker, as it would take about an hour for a high-speed jet to fly out of the palms range if moving upwards or downward from the middle, and two days if moving out of the way in a horizontal direction.

Basically, its size was bigger than one’s imagination could easily draw.

However, the oncoming group was far faster than anything the Sentinel had expected, and Draco, as well as Eva, arrived before its face in mere seconds. The Abyssal Prime then struck forth with the Dragorugio sword after activating four skills in succession.

｢Active 1 – War-Monger: Activating this skill allows the user to merge with the Fire of War, boosting damage by 150% for as long as there is stamina to burn. No cooldown.｣

｢Active 1 – Dark Fires: Cover the blade in a blackish miasma that is a mixture of Destruction Energy and Darkness Energy for 3 minutes. Cooldown: 4 minutes.｣

｢Active 1 – Rapid Hands: Drastically increase attack speed by 300% for 45 seconds. Cooldown: 1.5 minutes.｣

｢Active 1 – Rapid Legs: Drastically increase movement speed by 300% for 45 seconds. Cooldown: 1.5 minutes.｣

A black fire erupted and enveloped the length of his Dragorugio sword, looking like it could extinguish even the soul of a God. The blade came down upon the face of the Sentinel, carving deep into its right eye and going all the way down it its chin on that side of its face.

-30,987,000!

Where the strongest player in Boundless could only deal at most 2 million damage in a casual attack, Draco was dealing more than 15 times that amount. One could only wonder how much damage a full-power attack from him could do.

Still, when remembering the ball of Destruction Energy that had literally maimed every sea monster from Rank 1 to 5 between two continents, the answer was quite clear. This was only his first strike, and it only involved him, using about four of his various skills to achieve it.

As for his more monstrous powers and his various transformations, now was not the time. 30 million damage was truly impossible for a mere Rank 3 for sure, but this behemoth had enough HP to make his attack feel inconsequential.

Against his health pool of a whopping 200 billion HP, Draco had merely removed 0.015% of its HP!

Since Draco benefitted from 300% movement speed and attack speed for 45 seconds, he made full use of it by slashing at the Behemoth’s face so fast that he left after images.

Damage numbers appeared over his sword so fast that they began to overlay over each other to form a messy jumble that no one could read.

Eva flew beside Draco and smiled. Her Divine Halo glowed behind her as she pointed a finger, releasing a huge light beam that looked like it could destroy that kamamihaha thing from that old series about some carrot always being one step ahead of another vegetable.

This easily lanced through the right eye of the Sentinel, leaving a gaping hole behind that one could see through.

-60,340,000!

Evan used a bit more powers in this attack, but the reason her damage was so high was because of her upgraded Inner Sun granting her power. Even though Draco’s damage was high, he would soon be overtaken by the Celestial Prime because of what the two focused on.

Draco had a wide array of useful powers that were extremely applicable in all situations, and he had an Inner Universe that allowed him to perform grand feats. Essentially, Draco was focused on building a supreme foundation which could allow him and his loved ones to rise to the top.

Eva though, had a limited array of skills and abilities focused on things she could control and those that gave her great offensive power. Especially, her Inner Sun that greatly boosted her Light-based damage with every tier it climbed.

Eva then lowered her finger and spread her arms out a a strange golden-silver wave erupted from her body and encompassed the entire body of the Sentinel before her.

｢Spacetime Regulation – Passive Skill

Effect: Control the elements of Time and Space.｣

Eva had directly influenced time around the entire Colossus, decreasing its speed to a snail’s pace. It looked like something moving in a severely slowed playback of a video.

Even though Eva felt the strain on her body for using such a powerful ability to bind a powerful foe, she was not overloaded, and more importantly, she could keep this up for as long as her mental power was unbroken.

After all, just like Draco she also had a Divine Class passive that negated all mana and stamina costs for actions. This meant that she could use a skill like Spacetime Regulation and Element Regulation freely since they worked by draining mana.

However, like any other game skill or spell, its effectiveness was based on the power difference between two parties. If she met someone at Rank 4 with Element Regulation, their maximum output would be higher than hers no matter what class or bloodline she had, only that she could use hers indefinitely.

Even though it was at the level cap of the Rank, it nevertheless was still at Rank 3. Eva then pointed her finger out and used her bloodline this time to fire more light beams, but they were still buffed by her Inner Sun, so their power was just as great as before.

Seeing such a small being fire off beams large enough that they left gaping holes in the body of this Sentinel almost 500 times her size was truly blood-chilling. It was clear that the being wanted to roar in pain from Draco’s attack on its face and knock him away, as well as resist Eva’s own attacks, but at its speed, it was unable to do anything about its sorry situation.

Zaine appeared near its scalp and shook her palms, releasing her long nails that came out like claws. Immediately, she activated her Lightning Control passive skill that allowed her to use lightning in any form as long as she had mana for it.

The Royal Succubus then coated her claws in the electrifying energy as she activated the active skill of the special item Draco had made for her after he had returned from his Unique Quest.

｢Active 1 – Fury Swipes: After activating this skill, the user attacks a single target rapidly and ferociously, dealing automatic fatal damage to any foe per swipe. Cooldown: 3 minutes.｣

Like a cat that had its tail stepped on, she clawed at the head of the Sentinel so fast that her arms left afterimages. What could be seen though, were hand-sized chunks of flesh being ripped out with each attack, as if Zaine was digging into the head of the Sentinel like it was a patch of earth.

She continued to cut at the Sentinels’ flesh in all angles, aiming to reach its brain so as to give her family members a chance to deal a vital blow to this monster’s extremely high HP that still hadn’t lost even 1% of its overall health.

Roma flew over on her broom and gazed at the slightly open mouth of the Sentinel as it was still in motion to let out a roar of agony. She then began removing things from her special bags of Holding that Draco made for her.

"A dash of primordial lava, a hint of poison dragon’s blood, a pint of swamp fester, and a smidgen of demonic acid..." She chanted as she removed horrendous and dangerous-looking items one by one and tossed them down the gullet of the Sentinel.

The damage numbers that came up from each item that went down was quite small when compared to the works of her family members not to mention that since Roma was chanting, she was far slower than the speedy strikes of Draco and Zaine as well as the neverending beams from Eva, but she knew that once she was done, something interesting would happen.

Clarent appeared in a blaze of fire as he used his Immolation skill on the Sentinel right away.

｢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.｣

Immediately, the skin of the Sentinel that had been dark and tough like bark took on a reddish hue as its internals were being heated up so rapidly and intensely that it actually affected those around it.

Clarent followed up by letting fire coat his large claws as he struck down on the chest of the Sentinel, as if he wanted to tear out its heart. He left many black lines on its skin as he rent and cauterized everywhere he struck instantly.

｢Fire Claw – Ability

Effect: Imbue the fire element into the user’s claws, dealing 60% fire damage with each swipe for the duration.

Duration: 2 minutes

Cooldown: 2 minutes.｣

Due to the same cooldown and duration, he was able to maintain this skill in perpetuity technically as long as he had enough stamina, almost making it a passive skill at this point.

And this was when Hikari arrived. She flapped her large wings in the air and gazed at the Sentinel who was still almost 30 times larger than her draconic form, then at her family who were cutting it down fast and easily for now.

She then placed her claws together and use White Light Blessing on them, buffing their stats and power by four times, which instantly saw a huge marked increase in their damage outputs and how fast the Sentinel’s HP dropped.

Soon, the family passed the 5% threshold after a second or two of continuous strikes, and they all saw a golden thread of light leave the Sentinel then split into different streams as it merged with them.

Draco then saw that he had gained only 14% experience towards the next level, and a quick mental exchange with Eva showed that she too had received the same amount. So too did Zaine and the rest, which made Draco and Eva frown.

However, Qiong Qi and Clarent, despite receiving those threads, did not have experience bars. The two of them were basically always at the level ceiling of their current Rank, so they would only grow every time Draco himself increased by a Rank.

They gained nothing from it, but the division seemed to be too perfect. 100% experience which should have allowed any trial taker to level up once was shared between 7 since Draco’s group numbered as much.

Unfortunately for the Morningstar Clan, the lore background for this floor had been designed with only a single Chosen One in mind, meaning that all of them were now collectively treated as that one ’individual’.