After packing everything, Lucas waved at Chloe. “Let’s go to the next floor. Gotta get all of those experience points.”
“Yeah, I want to reach Second Class as soon as possible!” Chloe agreed.
Both of them rode the elevator and descended to the third level. “The third floor is where they processed the raw Mophalite. I guess we can get more Mophalite there. But the monsters down there are getting stronger,” Lucas explained.
“So the monsters get stronger the lower we go, huh?” Chloe mumbled, holding her chin thoughtfully. “What’s under there?”
“More Lurkers and Fleshhounds. The spiderlings didn’t see any Crawlers there,” Lucas answered.
Soon, the elevator opened, and Lucas and Chloe instantly sprang into action.
Similar to the previous scenario, Lucas used the spider bots to lure the monsters over, gathering them in the central room to slay them all.
After defeating the monsters on the third level, the couple began exploring the floor, salvaging and gathering anything valuable. This time, they managed to collect quite an amount of refined low-grade Mophalite.
Then, they approached the elevator. But before they entered, Lucas stopped Chloe. “The fourth floor is different from here and the earlier floors. Very different. So get ready,” he said solemnly.
Seeing Lucas’s stern expression, Chloe nodded. However, she couldn’t resist asking out of curiosity, “What’s down there?”
“Probably where the Boss monster is,” Lucas replied as they entered the elevator.
When they arrived at the fourth floor, Lucas and Chloe were taken aback by what they saw. Unlike the previous floors, this one was drastically different. The entire room was filled with blue crystals.
Jagged Mophalite crystals jutted out from the walls, floors, and even the ceiling, pulsing with faint blue light.
“Just what the hell…?” Chloe muttered, staring at the sight, speechless for a moment.
Even though Lucas had already seen this through the spider bots’ shared vision, he was still baffled when he saw it with his own eyes.
He touched one of the crystals and activated his
His eyes widened as if realizing something. He hurriedly shifted his vision to one of the spider bots in the corridor. As he expected, he saw a group of humanoid crystals running in their direction.
“Chloe!” he barked. “We got company. Get ready!”
Before Chloe could respond, numerous crystal humanoids emerged from the corridor.
Their bodies were composed entirely of jagged blue crystal and were roughly human in shape, standing around seven feet tall. They had no visible eyes, just a giant piece of crystal where their face should have been.
The crystal beings raised both of their arms and fired a barrage of crystal shards at the couple.
Seeing the shards darting at them, the couple hurriedly hid behind a giant pillar to dodge the attack. “I count seven,” Chloe said, peeking at the approaching crystal beings.
“Let’s go,” Lucas nodded, pulling out his pistols.
In an instant, Chloe dashed out with
Her sword slashed through the air, striking the crystal being. But it took more effort than she anticipated. Her sword sank into its chest, leaving only a small crack behind.
“Tsk, they’re tough,” Chloe clicked her tongue before pushing the crystal being back and leaping to avoid another barrage of crystal shards.
Meanwhile, Lucas aimed his dual pistols at one of the crystal beings and fired. Two beams of energy blasted at it, but to his surprise, the attack was ineffective.
Instead of shattering the crystal, the energy seemed to dissipate into its body. Moments later, the creature raised its arms and fired the same energy beam back at him.
Leaping aside, Lucas avoided the attack. “So they can absorb energy?” he muttered as he continued firing more energy shots.
On the other hand, Chloe yelled, “No matter how I cut, they keep regenerating themselves!”
Lucas glanced over at Chloe and saw the creature in front of her recovering the crack in its arm by absorbing the surrounding Mophalite.
However, through his
To test his theory, he shouted, “Chloe, pierce its stomach!”
Hearing this, Chloe’s eyes narrowed as blue and purplish energy began concentrating on her sword.
“Dover-style, Rend.”
Her sword thrust out, piercing through the crystal being’s chest. In an instant, the creature halted as if a toy had its battery removed.
Back on Lucas’s end, he summoned dozens of spider bots and willed them to barrage the crystal being with endless energy blasts. Initially, the creature absorbed the energy fired at it, but eventually, its absorption rate faltered. Its body began cracking, and before long, it shattered into pieces.
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“Piercing the core and overloading them,” Lucas muttered.
He then glanced at Chloe and saw her activating a skill that made her sword screech at a high pitch. When he saw this, he noticed the crystal creatures faltered slightly at the high-pitched noise.
“So, high frequency affects them somehow,” he muttered, his mind racing to come up with a plan to deal with the creatures more efficiently.
Suddenly, an idea clicked, and he grinned.
He willed the ‘storage’ spiders over and controlled several materials to float out, including the bones he had extracted, scrap metals, and pieces of Mophalite.
Soon, the materials began morphing into a mechanical arm with a sharp rod attached to it.
“Chloe, here!” Lucas shouted, directing the mechanical arm toward her left arm.
When she saw the mechanical arm attached to her left arm, Chloe immediately understood what was happening. She grinned wide at the troublesome crystal creatures.
“I’ll mark the spot where you need to punch. Punch and press the button with your thumb!” Lucas called out as he willed the spider bots to fire chemical shots at various body parts of the crystal creatures.
Smoke sizzled from the crystal creatures’ bodies. Chloe saw this and chuckled, “You’re so dead!”
She lashed out with her left arm at one of the creatures. As soon as the punch connected, the sharp tip of the mechanical arm burst out, piercing through the crystal creature. Laughing out loud, Chloe swiftly defeated the remaining crystal creatures with her new weapon.
“Hah! Suck it!” Chloe laughed triumphantly at the fallen Crystalheads. She turned to Lucas with shimmering eyes and asked, “Are there any more of these crystals coming in?”
Lucas nodded and pointed at the remaining corridor. “They’re all flooding in. That one pile bunker won’t be enough. So, here’s another one,” he said with a grin as another mechanical arm flew over and attached itself to Chloe’s right arm.
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Bunker Bolt
Rank: Rare++
A variant of the Lightweight Mechanical Arm, crafted by a Talented Crafter. Designed as a heavy-duty weapon for delivering devastating, concentrated force, it boasts remarkable power while maintaining an unexpectedly lightweight structure.
Shattering - A successful strike weakens the target's defenses, inflicting 'Armor Break'.
Corebreaker - Striking an enemy's weak point deals significant bonus damage.
Deep Puncture - Residual psychic energy imbued in the tip of the pole causes a psychic penetrating force to damage enemies when stabbing.
Special Note(s): 'Armor Break' temporarily reduces the target's physical defense.
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“This is awesome!” Chloe slammed her fists together, admiring the
Soon, a cacophony of stomps echoed from every corridor. Glancing at Lucas, Chloe shouted, “I’ll handle the right one!” before dashing into the right corridor and demolishing the group of Crystalheads.
Watching Chloe’s excitement, Lucas shook his head with a small smile. Left with two more corridors, he directed the spider bots to delay the Crystalheads in one corridor as long as possible while he dealt with the last corridor himself.
Cracking his knuckles, Lucas smirked, “Time to get some exercise.”
He raised his hand, and the crystal shards from a fallen
As the Crystalheads emerged from the corridor, Lucas grinned, “Heed my words! Come, Jonathan!”
A hammer materialized in his grasp, as long as a baseball bat, with a hammerhead forged from steel and crystal.
Clutching the weapon tightly, Lucas swung it sideways, shattering the pelvis of a Crystalhead and destroying the core within.
Kicking his legs, he dashed into the corridor and jabbed the hammerhead into another Crystalhead, disorienting it. Gripping the hammer like a baseball bat, he swung it into the creature’s chest, sending it tumbling backward to the ground, where it lay motionless.
The remaining Crystalheads raised their arms and unleashed volleys of crystal shards at him.
Lucas barely flinched as the shards struck him. The cutting projectiles bounced harmlessly off his
Grinning, Lucas allowed the strike to land on his shoulder. The blade skidded off, unable to penetrate the suit’s reinforced defense. Smirking, he grabbed the Crystalhead’s arm and slammed his hammer into its head, shattering it in an instant.
Suddenly, another Crystalhead planted its arms into the ground, causing a crystalline ramp to erupt and charge toward Lucas like a battering ram.
Seeing this, he fired five strands of wire from his left gauntlet, latching onto the ceiling. With a powerful yank, he propelled himself into the air, dodging the ramp.
Using the momentum of his descent, Lucas swung his hammer downward, smashing into the Crystalhead beneath him and crushing the core embedded in its shoulder.
The final Crystalhead, now desperate, fired a flurry of crystal shards, which Lucas ignored as they harmlessly struck his armor. In a last-ditch effort, it morphed its fists into massive spiked clusters and lunged at him with a wild punch.
Lucas raised his left arm, blocking the strike with his vambrace. The spikes failed to leave even a scratch. Frustrated, the creature lashed out with its other spiked fist.
This time, Lucas ducked under the swing and countered with a powerful hammer strike to its knee, shattering the joint and sending it collapsing to the ground.
As the creature struggled to rise, Lucas raised his hammer high and brought it crashing down on its abdomen, shattering the energy source hidden within.
“Phew! That's refreshing! Hmm?”
All of a sudden, Lucas sensed several spider bots losing their connection to him. These were the spider bots he had sent into the last corridor.
Narrowing his eyes, he linked with one of the remaining spider bots in the area. He saw a giant arena-like testing field within a massive hall through its shared vision.
Inside the hall, chaos reigned, a literal chimera was rampaging against several Crystalheads.
Furthermore, countless Crawlers, Fleshhounds, and Lurkers were banding together to battle the Crystalheads. The clash was ferocious, with spider bots crushed as collateral damage. The sheer scale of the battle surprised Lucas, it was baffling that neither he nor Chloe had detected a conflict of this magnitude before now.
“Infighting?” Lucas mumbled, his gaze turned sharp as he studied the monsters clashing with one another.
The chimera grunted and tore a Crystalhead apart, ripping it in half like it was nothing. “That must be the boss,” Lucas muttered, focusing on the giant creature.
Its body was massive but hunched, almost gorilla-like, and at least the size of an elephant. If it stood upright, Lucas reckoned it would be as tall as a giraffe.
The chimera’s body was a nightmarish fusion of countless Crawlers, Lurkers, and Fleshhounds, all held together by Mophalite oozing from its joints and muscles like thick, crystalline glue. Cracked and jagged crystals jutted out, lining the edges of its head and spine.
Crushing another Crystalhead, the chimera let out a monstrous howl, beating its chest. Even from his location, Lucas could hear the howl reverberating across the entire floor.
Chloe hurriedly ran over when she heard the howl. “Lucas, what the hell was that?!”
“Our boss monster and its minions,” Lucas smiled wryly as he continued to study the chimera.