A few weeks ago...
In a certain part of the mountain slopes of the Dragon Valley, there are so many prehistoric animal carcasses are scattered all over the place. There are carcasses of Triceratops about twice the size of an adult hippopotamus, dozens of Velociraptors, and even a pair of T-Rexes.
It is not clear how much the total number of these dead monsters is, due to the lack of light at dawn.
Meanwhile, four warriors are taking a rest on a cliff near a giant cave. There are also bones of a pair of dragon thighs on the remnants of a bonfire near their camp.
One of them, a woman with golden hair wearing some kind of Magical Paladin Robe without its armor, just gets up earlier than the others. As soon as she sits up, she starts doing odd stuff, like touching the empty air in front of her.
“Status!” she mutters.
In that instant, an interface window appears in front of her, displaying various personal information about her personal status.
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[Lv 81. Loser No. 3 a.k.a. Leia]
- Class: Paladin Warrior
- Specialty: Aura Mastery
HP : 100%
MP : 100%
Vitality : 100%
Fatigue : 5
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That woman with the nickname Leia looks a little uninspired to find out there are still 5 fatigue points left. Of course she is also aware, a night of rest wouldn't be enough to eliminate all the fatigue in her body.
She stands up and starts stretching her body. A moment later, she walks over a man with a big body build who is still asleep in a crooked position.
All of a sudden, that woman kicks him in the ass.
“Woi, Gas! Wake up!” she shouts.
“Hmm? Just wake up the others,” replies that man as he tries to get back to his sleep. “You should know it already. I was the last one on guard last night.”
“Come on! I know you fell asleep right away. There weren’t any monsters in this area since yesterday,” she grumbles, giving the man another kick on the butt.
Meanwhile, the other two people wake up due to their commotion. One of them, a man with long white hair, is seen waving his hand so slowly. A chilling aura occurs around him. A moment later, a lump of ice is created from the thin air.
But before long, the ice immediately melts. He collects the water in the palm of his hands and splashes it on his face. He washes his face by repeating the same thing several times.
He even splashes the last water to the face of the other man who still looks sleepy. But the man is so indifferent, looking so uninspired to respond to his friend's jokes.
“Dude! Are you okay?” the white haired man asks with a frown face.
“Yeah!” replies the sleepy man curtly, with a languid face and eyes still not fully opened.
“What do you mean by yeah?” says that white-haired man with a slightly ridiculous expression on his face. “Leia, would you mind checking our condition?” he asks.
The condition of that sleepy man indeed provokes Leia’s attention. Immediately, she mutters to herself once more, as if carrying out an order.
“Skill Set! Activate scanning level 1!”
Immediately, an interface window appears again, displaying a list of the skills she possesses. But only a glance, since she issues the two commands at once.
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[Notifications!]
- Lv 1 Scanning is activated!
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She turns her gaze to her friends one by one. She starts scanning the big man who is still sleeping, until it shows a brief info of the man’s personal status.
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[Lv 86. Loser No. 5 a.k.a. Gaston]
- Class : The Colossus Champion
- Specialty: The Firmness Of The Goliath
HP : 100%
MP : 100%
Vitality : 100%
Fatigue : 0
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“Gas! Get up! The point of your fatigue is already back to zero. Don’t look for excuses to be lazy!”
After that, she checks the white-haired man who is already busy tidying up his things.
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[Lv 80. Loser No. 4 a.k.a. Zul]
- Class: Grand Magus
- Specialty: Wizard Of The Frost
HP : 100%
MP : 98%
Vitality : 100%
Fatigue : 0
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“Zul, your mana hasn't fully recovered yet,” Leia informs.
“I can see it myself. I just used my mana a little to wash my face,” Zul replies.
However, when Leia starts scanning the other man who is still so dispirited, she gets quite a strange status.
“What’s wrong with you? Azzim?”
His HP is stuck at 83 %, and it doesn’t seem like it’s getting any better. In fact, as far as Leia knows, Azzim's HP regeneration rate is quite high for an Assassin Warrior.
It's such a strange that his HP is stuck like that. What makes it even worse is that his Vitality falls so low, already below 50%. That’s a number usually found in someone with serious illness.
“Your HP is stuck at 83 % even after a night of sleep,” says Leia with a kind of awry face.
“I'm fine. It will be recovered later by noon,” Azzim replies as he goes back to sleep again.
“You idiot! Your HP won't recover with such a low level of Vitality.”
She starts checking on Azzim's condition with a more detailed examination by using a higher level scanning skill, until she gets info that Azzim’s blood had been contaminated by some kind of poison.
She then rushes to check his body directly and finds a scar that still hasn’t closed on the upper part of his arm. She even slightly feels a strange aura from the wound.
“You got poisoned. Since when did you get this wound?” she asks.
“Last night, I did a little patrol on the hill below. That viper did manage to touch me with the tip of its tail,” Azzim replies.
“Touch my ass! Don't you realize you've been poisoned?”
“Yea, yea!” Azzim ignores her and lays back down to continue sleeping..
Leia is squinting her eyes, looking so annoyed with Azzim's responses. She then rushes to the tent looking for something.
“You should know it already. We are going to face the Gatekeeper for this Sixth Trial Realm today,” Leia grumbles while busy unpacking her bag.
Shortly after, she comes back with a vial filled with a clear yellowish liquid. It’s a magical ether liquid that can be used to heal any type of poison.
“Drink this! If the poison doesn't go away, your HP won’t recover. Didn't we agree that we will only fight the Gatekeeper in our best condition?” she says rhetorically.
Azzim drinks the ether liquid from the vial given by Leia. That is the last vial of Ether they have. Within seconds, the liquid starts to work. Gradually, his vitality status rises. His HP is also starting to increase, albeit slowly.
“It will take a few hours before your HP is be completely recovered. We can’t enter The Boss’ Lair right now. After all, we have absolutely no idea what kind of monsters we will face later,” Leia continues.
“Why don't you just activate your Vitality Aura in its maximum level?” asks Gaston, who is busy putting his armor back on.
“I want to maintain my mana before we face the Gatekeeper later. We no longer have any elixir crystals nor an elixir liquid right now,” Leia objects.
At her current level, even a vial of mana potion wouldn't give a significant effect in replenishing her mana. Although she has a high mana regeneration rate, as a master level of Paladin Warrior, most of her skills consume so much mana. After all, she is such a perfectionist in preparing for something. With this mindset, she chooses to wait for Azzim to recover by his own HP regeneration rather than using her mana to help him recover. She is the sole healer in the group. She knows it the most, how crucial her mana for them in fighting the Gatekeeper later. “We've come this far. A few hours of waiting won't be that hard. After all, we still have some time before they reset the realm,” she says. At noon, they have already dismantled the tent. They only collect a few essential items, such as weapons and a few stock items which they put into small bags. The rest, such as cooking utensils and those tents, they just leave them there. After all, not long after this, they will face the Ga
It's almost like an insult for Leia, for only getting information about the monster's level after using her highest level of scanning skill. “I can understand if the scanning doesn't show the abilities of the monster we just met. But currently, I only get information about the monster's name and its level,” she informs the others. “As for the name, we can also see it from the hologram that appears above the monster's head,” Zul replies. “I know!” she replies, looking so annoyed with Zul's response. “So, what level monsters?” asks Gaston. “Level 95,” Leia replies curtly. “Maybe later, after observing you fighting that monster for a while, I could get more detailed info about the boss,” Leia explains. “Hey, wait a minute!” Azzim suddenly interrupts their conversation. The other three people immediately turn to him with curious faces. “As I recall, two weeks ago, I once met a dragon type monster by the name of Zarkhan around The Deadly Swamp area. But I only saw a level 62 monster
Gaston shouts furiously with the grave mistake Leia has made. “Leia! What the fuck is wrong with you!” He slams his huge axe down, releasing a shock wave attack that spreads across the floor. The energy attack continues to spread until it hits the dragon’s tail and prevents it from hitting Azzim and Leia. The dragon turns its attention back to Gaston who is still not deterred by its rampage. It starts hunting him back. “Leia, you should know that you must always keep your distance in battle. We won't be able to get out of this place alive if anything happens to you,” shout Gaston. “I know. You don't need to teach me basic things like that,” Leia argues while she is busy treating the burn on Azzim's shoulder. It’s not like she’s being reckless. She just has that much confidence in Gaston’s ability to protect her, while she really needs to cover the injured teammate. Shortly after, Azzim backs up and looks ready to continue the fight. Meanwhile, Leia immediately takes out a short s
They already feel the heat from Leia’s Blazing Wave affecting them for some time. They realize this is their last gamble. If they really don't want to waste all the mana Leia uses for the three auras, there is no other choice but to finish off The Great Zarkhan as soon as possible. “Zul, there's no need to hold back,” says Leia. “The monster's Elemental Resistance has been decreased. As long as you don't throw your ice magic directly at its flames, your magic can still hurt that monster.” “Yes, Mam!” says Zul before he starts moving to the left flank. Gaston continues to bombard the dragon’s head from the front, while Azzim begins his madness slashing movement using his daggers from the right flank. “Listen! My mana supply won’t be enough to last for the next 2 hours,” Leia warns. The monster's large size makes it an easy target to be bullied. However, its high durability makes it so hard to knock out. On the other hand, with its large size, its attack range is quite difficult
Azzim, who doesn't have much mana, really can't fight with any special skills or techniques like the rest of his friends. What he could do so far was only to attack with ordinary physical attacks using arrows, daggers or his short swords. He has long since realized that he has been taking a wrong path for his character growth as a warrior. But he has gone too far for him to redo everything. They are already in the Sixth Trial, and their ticket to get out of that realm is imminent. It is no longer possible for him to repeat it all from the beginning. Forget about killing that monster anytime soon. He even isn’t sure he could take on the monster by himself. After all, what choice does he have now? “Looks like I really have no other choice,” he mutters. Azzim takes out a gemstone from a small pocket that is wrapped around his waist. He puts the gemstone into a special socket slot on the hilt of his magical short sword. ******************* [Notifications!] [You just installed the B
On the other hand, Zarkhan has returned to flying after having regenerated for a while. Just as Azzim is ready for his final attack, Zarkhan is also ready to leash all the heat out of his stomach. Zarkhan raises his head for a moment. He then takes it towards Azzim with his mouth wide open. A dazzling hot light comes out of the bottom of his mouth cavity. Another burst of Corrosive Breath, much more corrosive, much hotter, with far more concentrated venomous gasses than before, blows out of his mouth. It seems that Zarkhan's instinct has also been realizing it too, that he should no longer underestimate that one warrior he is currently facing. Azzim runs toward that attack with his dear life on the line, intending to block the monster's corrosive breath. Just before his body is hit by the monster's torrent, he depletes it with his sword away. His Magical Short Sword, which has been strengthened by the dense dark red plasma Azzim drew out, is able to disperse the deadly Corrosive Br
The alert system keeps appearing, showing how dire his situation currently is.********************[Alert!][Your HP has reached 3% and keeps decreasing][Your Vitality has reached 10% and continues to decline]- When your HP reaches 1%, you won't be able to move.- When your Vitality reaches 5%, your base HP regeneration rate will turn to 0 and your body will stop healing by itself.********************“Shut up!” he mumbles.And suddenly, they fall not too far from the portal. Azzim tries his best to crawl while dragging Leia along with him. But he becomes increasingly pessimistic about his chance of getting out of that place alive.“Leia, wake up. I can't drag you around like this,” Azzim cries, patting Leia's cheek again.Leia opens her eyes once more, though not fully conscious.“Then, just leave me here,” she replies with a weak voice.But then, she closes her eyes again. Azzim starts to growl, slamming his hands on the floor. He is so angry and desperate, because the portal is
Azzim realizes, his personal status has returned to the ground state, just like the first time he entered Alorexa, the simulation world he is currently in.However, he finds something odd. How could he has such a high value in Inteligence while he has such a low mana point. As far as he knew, the level of inteligence is always in line with how much mana someone has. Thought, he also knows it so well that he is not an Inteligence type warrior like Leia and Zul.But somehow, he then realizes it, that value of inteligence is not too much different than his latest intelligence value before he entered the Sixth Trial Realm.“Could it be that this number only indicates the level of insight and knowledge I have gained so far in this 10 years?” he speculates.After all, It's not like he lost his memory after he dies. He still remembers it so well how he fought the Great Zarkhan recently.Azzim gets out of the sleeping pod and rushes to find the exit. His foot accidentally hits another sleepin