As Xar unsheathed his sword a strong aura bursted from his body.
The monster horde rushed towards him, the one who stepped ahead to face them. Their roars, hisses and growls made a vibrant cacophony. Sensing the aura and threat coming from Xar as he moved, any other beasts or monsters would have been frightened away.
They, however, were different from an ordinary creature as they were all products of core crystal with a set program. There is no instinctual hesitation or retreat in the face of crisis from their opponent. They only know to behave according to their program and attack the nearest adventurer.
After unsheathing the longsword, Xar made a horizontal slash, creating an incredible scene.
Swish!
When his sword blade passed the space seemed to have turned into a crumbled curtain, moving away along the sword's path to reveal a different picture. When the crumbled curtain of space was moved with the slash all the monsters were turned into a spiral meat bundle, still alive and blinking.
Click!
Xar slowly sheathed the sword and the meat bundles which were alive turned into specks of light, now truly dead.
He finally got to experience the feeling of leveling up as experience points poured in from the light specks and entered his body. These are all refined Cosmium that is acting on his body to weaken the restriction imposed by the secret realm. He intuitively felt that he had progressed by twelve levels, reaching Level 42.
"This is the Water Moon Illusion Art, a technique of the Umbra Family which can be practiced by the clansmen who have taken the path of illusion. Illusions are of two types, tangible and intangible. This technique is used to create the tangible type illusions. Though wands can be used to amplify the power but as you can see, a sword can do the same thing but with more lethality as long as the evolver has some attainments in swordsmanship. It just so happens that I have some talent in the path of the sword so I practiced it on the side as an auxiliary means for my main path."
Xar introduced the technique he used and explained the advantage of using a sword instead of a wand. He won some words of praise from Ryonen who was particularly excited when he saw the power of that slash and wondered if he could withstand such tangible illusions. He became eager for a spar.
"This is not the place for it. Let's talk about it after we exit. By the way, which Skill Cards you chose?"
Esmeria said from the side when she saw Ryonen's unruly look before asking him about his choice as he was the only one who had leveled up before Xar. She does remember his answer but she still asks just so Xar can get some reference from him.
"According to those commoners, only three Skill Cards are truly meaningful when in D-rank and C-rank. Turns out there's no reason to experiment with other ones. After I took a look, they indeed were unsuitable for the codex so I chose those three and its next upgrade versions. It really did speed up the unsealing progress of the Intermediate Stage. I would recommend you do the same, Xar."
Ryonen replied and plainly advised him.
Xar nodded as he connected to the virtual space where a large array of Skill Cards appeared in his vision. This was the game mechanism where a player can choose a Skill Card of his adventurer rank when he levels up. After the merge, this mechanism has appeared in reality in this form.
Technically, Level 30 to 39 is considered D-rank and Level 40 to 49 is C-rank. So, unlike Ryonen who could only choose from D-rank back then Xar can now choose two C-rank Skill Cards in addition to ten D-rank cards. There's not much fundamental difference in these two ranks from the empire's perspective.
Only B-rank's signature, Mana Weapon, is similar to an Intermediate Stage evolver's development after their breakthrough. That's why, for qualitative progress Xar and his party needs to reach Level 50, the threshold of B-rank, before they can truly unleash the next stage's power.
After leveling up for the first time and connecting to the virtual space all Pangaea humans finally got to choose a Skill Card for Level 30. It was because they didn't achieve this level in the conventional way which in turn failed to trigger the game mechanism to connect to the virtual space.
When they level up for the first time they finally get to choose the due Skill Card.
Seeing the large array of Skill Cards, Xar glanced at their names and descriptions before losing interest. It seems the collected intelligence and Ryonen's advice is credible, those cards are meaningless for those who are practicing the codex as their main technique.
Only three Skill Cards,[Better Mana Channeling I][Greater Mana Control I]and [Inner Body Enhancement I]are the suitable ones that can better complement how Intermediate Stage is reached. The effects of those skills can already be understood by its name.
In the Intermediate Stage of Level 1, an evolver forms the regulating core on the heart. First, determine the four main arteries in the four limbs. All humans have special arteries that can circulate the Cosmium throughout the body in the most efficient way possible. In this stage, four limbs are the goal of development.
After determining it, temper it using the circulation methods of the codex till it shows signs of tearing which indicates the limit. Now, the main arteries can better channel the absorbed Cosmium than when it was in a semi-clogged state during Initial Stage.
Finally, connect all four main arteries which have been tempered to the limit to the main heart vein in the form of an infinity symbol. This step is very risky as any mistake in the process can cause serious internal damage. Of course, for geniuses like Xar's group the difficulty is just like that, not much to say.
It's worth mentioning that the Human Evolution Codex that is available outside the five families differs in the aspect that the regulating core is formed in the shape of a circle. This was intentionally done by the five families to maintain a gap in quality.
It is public knowledge that nobles have a different regulating core than them but even if they know it they don't have the detailed methods on how to accomplish it.
There's no possibility of leakage from the side of clansmen of five families. The specific knowledge in certain key parts of the codex is under a spiritual ban personally placed by generations of Saints, only getting stricter as time goes by. All evolvers of the five families accept this ban in the soul when they practice the technique.
No nobles could reveal those key details to others in any shape or form of expression under the ban. There is of course an exception to this ban, the five families clansmen can internally discuss it as long as outsiders are not present in the vicinity or eavesdropping from somewhere.
A spiritual ban placed by the Saints using cosmic rules and various extraordinary powers is definitely strong as well as comprehensive enough to guard against information theft.
Xar chose the three skills and also kept choosing the upgraded versions of it for the remaining levels. The upgraded versions are just an extra number on the spot of "I" in the name. The effects are obviously strengthened by each version.
He can feel that the addition of these skills have further weakened the seal and the power he can display has already gotten some features of Intermediate Stage. As long as he reaches eight more levels and keeps choosing the same skills then he can completely unleash that stage along with some rudimentary power of Late Stage.
This is the benefit of practicing a superior technique and properly understanding the power one holds in their hands. This is also the thing that natives lack thus they can be suppressed by Pangaea humans who just entered this realm.
"Woah! Is this the achievement function?"
Wuryan suddenly exclaimed as he saw a big blue panel appear in front of them. There was a list of achievements one can get by fulfilling certain conditions. Because Xar alone killed all the monsters of the first stage with one slash, their party was the first one in the lakeside zone to see it.
[Achievement List]
[Stage 2: Kill all the orcs in under ten minutes. (+5% experience point when orc monsters are killed)]
[Stage 3: Find the eggs of Morphed Spider and destroy it before orcs appear. (+7% experience point when spider monsters are killed)]
[Stage 4: Help the Shroom Blooms resist enemies and keep their home undamaged. (+4% experience point when any monsters are killed near Shroom Blooms) *(Hidden achievement available)]....
There are a total fifty stages before one can face off against the final boss Orc Champion in the 51st one. In some stages there are hidden achievements available which can further increase the benefits an adventurer can get in this labyrinth.
The best thing is that the reward from the achievement is effective to all the party members.
"Interesting. By the way, how many levels till you hit B-rank?"
Irilea asked him. She wanted to know in what stage Xar would rotate the grinding position with them. According to their previous discussion, since he was the party leader he will go first and reach Level 50. Others will just do a coin toss to decide the next one. When everyone has reached B-rank, he will get to grind exp for A-rank at the first turn and so on.
From the information provided by Orion the experience points that can be gained in this labyrinth should be just enough for everyone to reach Level 100, which is the S-rank. The condition is that only a single one of them monopolizes the experience points in one stage instead of distributing it with others and they complete all the achievements and most of the hidden achievements to gain buffs of extra experience in every stage.
The adventurers can only gain a sufficient amount of experience points from monster hunt according to who dealt how much damage to it. Instead of the rule of last hit priority, this rule was more fair or so the developers of "Unending Adventure" might have thought when they coded it back then.
Level 50 to 79 is B-rank and from 80 to 99 is A-rank. The locals are actually blocked from directly leveling up to 100 through experience points. Only when they have enough control over mana and their body thus achieving supersonic flight can they enter Level 100, the final level of the game.
This was not in the game but a derivation result of World's Will on how Cosmium application can better simulate the proper path instead of some people's ignorant writing about "mana" and whatnot.
Even so, the S-rank adventurers can only be considered the weak existence among Late Stage of Level 1 according to the empire's standard. They are actually not even qualified to be in the Final Stage as many conditions and requirements for it are not met by them.
"I still need eight more levels. After I am done with the next stage we can do a coin toss."
Xar replied as he walked towards the lake. The four followed behind as they chatted. The orcs in the distance were not taken seriously by them even though some of them suddenly revealed the aura of C-rank. The difficulty setting of the labyrinth is appropriately set so that not all monsters in a stage are turned into the same rank as the strongest adventurer of a party.
When they were about to leave the dome the blue panel appeared again asking if anyone wanted to exit instead of proceeding to the next stage. Naturally, no one exited as they walked forward. When they took a step outside of it another identical dome appeared of fifty Yircil size, connecting a part of the lake in it.
The adventurers behind them were in a fierce fight with the monster horde. It hasn't even been two minutes since it all started but Xar's party is already on the next stage. Many adventurers, especially the top A-rank ones who were teleported to this zone had the leisure to observe their actions.
The monster horde in front of them, though the same rank as them, actually didn't pose all that difficulty for them. That's why they had the breathing room to be distracted during combat. When they saw five disciples of Ghost Spear Orion in the same zone as them they were surprised and also very curious about their performance.
Sure enough, the slash that turned the space into a fabric of curtain that can be pushed by a sword shocked all of them after witnessing it. Then came a sense of horror when all of the monsters turned into those bizarre shapes before finally dying without a struggle.
They increasingly felt that the word "adventurer" doesn't quite fit them.