Limitless Ascension Supremacy

Battle Frenzy

Arthur regrouped with the others at the doors to the final dungeon. His body was ridden with a few wounds and bruises, but he was still as strong as a bull! Although, he couldn't enter the dungeon in his current state.

Lilith had to heal everyone, then drink just a few Sun Vials to regenerate her Supreme Qi. After she was done, Lilith had everyone drink it except the resistant Arthur. She didn't bother persuading him, as Sun Vials were precious — even to her.

"Okay danger alert. This domain we are about to waltz into is rated as a B rank by me. For a good reason that is." Arthur sheathed his sword and crouched, lowering himself so he could hunch over and touch the ground.

Everyone seemed to be shocked after Arthur's revelation, particularly Aaron whose eyes shrank to needle points the second he heard Arthur. He seemed completely confused and a bit angry.

Despite their mixed feelings, all of them did not say a word and just watched Arthur with flaring nostrils. Aaron's eyes seemed to have caught on fire as he glared sternly at Arthur.

Arthur under the other hand, was calm. He did not let the sudden change if his teammates affect his thoughts, and overall his calculative abilities in such a dire situation. Even he was stunned at this point in time.

The last time he had ventured in here, both in this timeline and the past, the gates to the boss domain was always a dark grey colour. That was the signal that the boss was unawakened, and he ventured into the dungeons without fear.

Now, the grey gates had a soft red glow to them, and the edges were giving off a metallic glow. It was the signal that the boss had understood the domain to some point, and evolved!

His fingers began to emit a soft blue light, the light burned through the stone as Arthur made his finger draw over it. What he drew was as it was at the beginning — incomprehensible to all that beheld it.

"The domain of the boss is incredibly annoying, and one should proceed with utmost care." His hand stilled for a while before he continued, "In the domain, we'll be unable to deal any damage to the boss."

Drake and the others were stunned. They were a bit skeptical as to why Arthur would even rank a domain owned by the boss of a C ranked dungeon as B rank.

A B ranked domain was the domain owned by a monster who was awakened for a short period of time, and had mastered it's ability to a certain point. B ranked domains usually appear in A ranked dungeons!

Dealing with something like that was simply not possible for a group of unawakened newbies with zero backing and less numbers. If care isn't taken they would be wiped out by the enemy in seconds!

"Although we wouldn't be able to deal damage to the boss, the boss would be unable to harm us in return. It's a give or take kind of ability, leaving both the user and target both unable to deal any damage to one another.

It is able to maintain that state for a very long time, should be around 10 - 30 minutes. A cool down of 20 - 40 mins begins, and only then can we be able to attack the monster."

Drake frowned. Even after all the farming they had done before deciding to reach this place, he had still not awakened up! He needed to reach a few levels before he could — just a few.

"I think we should go back and farm more, we can not go in there without having at least one or two awakened on our side." Lilith advised after a long time in thought. She wore a frown on her face as she stated at Arthur who lowered his head.

"I just need a few hundred thousand to reach the requirements for awakening." Arthur announced, his expression a bit dull as he stared back at the others, "I'm at level 9, will need more XP till I can reach level 10!"

Arthur needed just about 12, 000 to reach his bottleneck, then he would be eligible to attempt his awakening. Once he has done that, he would be finally able to begin his ascension.

"I could go into a crowded area and farm more experience there until I max out XP, or just run around in circles with no general aim. Either of the two is dangerous, but also rewarding."

Lilith stared at Arthur, then frowned in thought a second later. Her aura turned dead calm as she let various ideas run rampant in her head, searching for the best applicable in this situation.

"Hmm, you just need 12, 000? If you can find the respawned Stone Hooves, you can farm then with that flame of yours until you level up." Lilith said as she raised her head and stared at Arthur.

They were four or so in number when he blasted them with his flames. He believed if he could do it two or three more times, it should be enough for a level up to level 10.

"If I can do that, of course." Arthur sighed then in the next minute, he shrugged helplessly. That was just a few metres away from them, he could go now and finish in a few long minutes.

"We'll be the ones to run around in circles with no general aim. A crowded or cramped area will not be anymore rewarding than shooting oneself in the spot at this point." Drake spoke in a deep voice as he patted his sword heartily.

Felicia glared at Arthur, she wanted to continue annoying him, but seeing the gates she was a bit deterred. Nevertheless, she was nowhere near an awakening so she followed the others to farm.

After seeing them off, Arthur turned around, and ran back in the direction they came. The monster they killed on the way here were still respawning, but it was too early to fully respawn.

"It would take at least 20 or 15 minutes for them to respawn, more than enough time for me to get the job done before returning in an hour." Arthur nodded to himself, then frowned. He had seen the group of monsters already.

Four in total, with those Lionakes wandering with no particular goal. He raised his hand again just like earlier, and swings it — throwing a miniature ball of azure flames at the herd.

Following a massive blast, the azure flames easily ripped the monsters apart and consumed them in seconds. Both their bones, and flesh were reduced to nothing.

"Round 1, easy victo— cough!" Arthur choked on his sentence and coughed up blood. In the next split second, he began to bleed from his nostrils and his eyes became bloodshot.

‘Should be the repercussions, ah, so painful I can actually feel it in my head.’

"Cough, Cough!"

After coughing up his blood uncontrollably, it all stopped in the next few seconds. He simply wiped face with his hand, then sat down on the ground in wait for the monsters to respawn.

"I have just one blast remaining, hopefully it will not get too crowded in there. I don't want to even regret this plan of mine." Arthur thought out to himself, then silently closed his eyes.

——

Minutes later, he woke up to find the monsters in the same position he'd left them. Without wasting any time, he blasted them again then turns to run back to the dungeon.

The dungeon lit up, then numerous notifications flooded his brain, forcing him to shut his eyes to calm himself down with much difficulty. He had finally reached the next level!

With this, he was sure to beat the daylights out of the boss the minute he awakens. No casualties, no more ‘miscalculations’. Letting the thoughts sink in, he ran back, ignoring all the monsters.

After he met up with the others waiting for him at the gates, he joined to open it without saying anything. As soon as the gates were flung open, the team calmed themselves and waltzed in.

"This room seems to be the centre of the cave on which this dungeon was built! Everything seems to be made out of metal, including the walls."

Arthur frowned, then looked around carefully to find the boss monster standing at the centre of the dungeon, glaring down at them with a gleam in it's eyes. Four Stone Hooves gathered around the boss, all looking bloodthirsty.

"Lilith, Felicia cover me! Aaron, shield them from any sneak attacks. Drake be careful when taking on that thing, it's stronger than a Stone Hooves by many levels!"

Rushing forward crazily, the crazed monsters all dashed towards Drake. Arthur who noticed this, dashed ahead faster to clash with them — blasting them with azure flames to draw their attention.

Drake turned around and slashed the neck of the Stone Hooves nearest to himself, killing it with no hesitation for XP. As soon as it was killed, Drake pressed on with his swords gripped tightly.

Arthur lifted his hands and blasted one out of the four to the side, using the opportunity to slash the neck of a second Stone Hooves. As soon as it fell to the ground, he dashed towards the survivors.

Using his flames to stun them, he slipped past their defences and also hacked them down with his sword, killing the both of them instantly and without guilt. He claimed their XP and glared at Drake who was already metres away.

The summoned monsters were already defeated, Arthur seemed to be feeling relatively fine even after the blow he took to the head. Although he had backed away from the boss to recuperate.

On the contrary,

Drake dashed towards the boss monster, raising his sword to hack down at the Iron Hooves. If he was able to gauge the opponent's strength with his probing attack, then—!

“Bang!”

Drake felt as if some powerful force smashed into him, and before he could even scream out in pain, the darkness overcame him and he collapsed. His body was blown away like a ragged doll soon after his fainting, since he was unable to raise defence.

"Damn it!" Arthur's eyes widened as Drake was kicked away, the without hesitation he dashed to the boss before it lashed out on him too. Despite his lack of adequate Supreme Qi, Arthur was sure he would be able to take the monster on.

His sword slammed into a leg, sending sparks flying from the frictional collision between his sword and it's metallic hide. Wasting no time dwelling on his shock, Arthur struck again.

One, two, three times! He was unable to harm the beast with his regular attack no matter how hard he tried! All he could do was slash at the leg, but was unable to sever it!

"Damn it!"

Before Arthur could even react, the Iron Hooves raised it's other leg and kicked him away. All the air was spat out of his lungs as Arthur was blown back, shattering bones from the impact.

Arthur dug himself out of the wall he'd crashed into with a fierce gleam in his eyes. He clenched his fist and frowned deeply, trying hjs best to rise to his feet only to fall forward and crash his face into the ground.

'Time is running out, and if I'm unable to break this domain in time, it won't be easy escaping this place.'

Arthur was no longer calm, he had fallen into a state of rage and confusion. He had not faced this kind of annoying enemy in the past with his current abilities, leaving him at a loss of available paths to take.

Monsters like the Iron Hooves were only something he was entitled to face after his awakening. He never thought of the chances that the Iron Hooves would have evolved to such a level in the given scenerio.

"Hah, hah…"

He'd overdone it this time, his ribs were completely broken and he had wasted his SQ on those Lionake Guards. Drake was wiped out, and lain by the corner alongside a shivering Felicia and frozen Aaron.

Blood ran down his face and dropped to the ground slowly. Arthur's armour was dyed red with his blood, his wounds burning painfully as his body continues struggling to repair itself — expending supreme qi.

He grabbed his sword, his hands shaking as he took a battle stance and grinned at the monster before him, a heart wrenching pain tore through his vessels every move he made. Arthur bore the pain without blinking.

In his eyes — was the chance, the chance to finally awaken his ability! The minute he can achieve that, pain and suffering becomes meaningless. All things superficial bows before raw power!

Arthur dashed towards the Iron Hooves Boss with his eyes blazing, a strange and wild energy surging in his veins alongside the pain. He could feel all the bones in his body crack under the sudden pressure as he leapt towards the boss of the dungeon crazily.

[Warning! Forcing an awakening at your current level with such levels of external stimulation would prove detrimental to your eternal path of supreme ascent!]

[Abort the process now! Abort the process immediately!]

"Abort? Haha!" Arthur laughed crazily as he raised his sword to strike the monster towering above him, "Don't make me laugh in this state. I'm not aborting anything. I'm proceeding with the awakening!"

[…]

[Awakening, Commerced!]