Chapter 69 - Thirty-First Floor (2)

"I want an ability similar to Lumen's light powers!" Androssi stated to Boking. She envied his light powers and wanted to be able to use them as well.

"What do you mean?" Boking asked, and Lumen turned his arm into light to demonstrate.

"Oh! What a unique ability! Bonerakard can grant you something similar, but it's an even better ability!" Boking replied with confidence.

"Really? What is it?" Androssi asked, and Boking pointed as himself.

"What do you mean? He can give you to me?" Androssi asked as she didn't understand what he meant.

"No! Bonerakard can give you a body like mine! You don't need that ugly skin that you have. You can have a body as amazing as mine!" Boking answered as he was munching on a bone. He was proud of his bone body.

"Did you call my skin ugly? You will..." Androssi was about to attack him, but Lumen placed his hand on her shoulder and stopped her.

"Don't do anything stupid." Lumen told her.

"But he called me ugly! Do you think that I'm ugly?" Androssi asked him.

"No, I don't think you are ugly, but you shouldn't attack him. That wouldn't be very smart." Lumen replied to her.

"Then, do you think I'm beautiful?" Androssi asked him.

"Yes, you are beautiful. So, just ignore his comment, okay?" Lumen replied to her.

"Fine." Androssi pouted and crossed her arms. "What else can you give me then?"

"Bonerakard offers to remove the foreign influence from your blood without suffering any drawbacks," Boking answered.

"No!" Androssi instantly replied, thinking that Boking was talking about the Thorn.

"You said there will be no drawbacks, right?" Lumen asked Boking as he understood he was talking about Zahard's blood.

"Yes," Boking confirmed.

"Androssi, accept the offer." Lumen told her.

"Why? I don't want him to remove the Thorn!" Androssi replied to him.

"He's not talking about the Thorn, but about Zahard's blood. Zahard can control those that have received his blood." Lumen told her. That was something that he didn't expect to be possible, but he was happy to hear that it is.

"What?!" Androssi exclaimed. She wasn't aware of that fact.

"Now accept the offer. You can get an ability like mine from a later Test." Lumen said.

"Fine. I will accept it!" Androssi replied.

"Good. So you will be taking the special Test." Boking said while looking at Lumen.

"You will take a Test to get your foreign influence removed." He looked towards Androssi.

"And you will be taking the Test with her to increase your limit on how much Shinsoo you can control." Boking then looked towards the rest.

"That's right." Lumen confirmed.

"Great! Bonerakard had already decided on what your Tests will be." Boking declared.

"You will be facing seven of Bonerakard's Bone Hydras! You have exactly one week to kill them! You know the consequences if you fail, so off you go now." Boking told Lumen and teleported him to a desolate island.

The ground was red in color, and there were a few bone trees, but the Bone Hydras were nowhere in sight.

"Kill seven Bone Hydras, doesn't sound so hard." Lumen said to himself and looked around. "So, where are they?"

Lumen used his Shinsoo reading ability and was able to sense something dangerous coming from his right side. Turning around, he saw a giant bone head emerging from the purple sea. Soon, another bone head followed, and in a moment, there were a hundred of them staring at him.

Lumen gathered a large Baang of his black flames and sent it towards the Bone Hydra. "Hellfire-Nova!"

The Baang of black fire erupted into a massive explosion of black flames, as it engulfed the Bone Hydra, which had just stepped on the island. In a moment, there was nothing left from the giant bone beast.

"One down, six more to go." Lumen said and looked around for the other six, but then he sensed something wrong. He turned back towards the Bone Hydra he had just destroyed and saw it reform back out of nothing in a matter of seconds.

"ROAR!" All of its heads let out a beastly roar, and they turned towards Lumen while gathering Baangs of purple Shinsoo. All one hundred of them then fired a breath of poison at him.

He was about to fly up with Shinsoo, but something stopped him from doing so. At the last moment, flaming wings emerged from his back, and he managed to escape from the blasts of poison.

Lumen fired another Hellfire-Nova at the beast and destroyed it once more. He then carefully watched as the beast reformed itself once again.

"This will be annoying." Lumen said as he sensed something from behind him. He flew away just in time as another hundred poisonous breaths converged to his previous location.

Another Bone Hydra emerged at that moment. All one hundred of its heads flew towards Lumen at high speed. At the same time, the other Bone Hydra started firing their poisonous breaths at him.

However, even that had no effect as the heads quickly reformed afterward.

"I guess there was a reason why there is a one-week time limit." Lumen said and watched as the heads of one of the Bone Hydra detached from their necks. They flew at high speed and started chasing him around as the miniature suns were shooting them down. Every time he destroyed one, another one will reform on the Bone Hydra's neck, detach itself, and start chasing him once again.

A few moments later, five more Bone Hydras emerged from the poisonous sea, and a total of seven Bone Hydras were trying to kill him. Three were chasing him with their heads, while the other four were firing poisonous breaths at him.

Lumen pulled out Chompaphosis. "Ignite!"

The stone covering the spear crumbled away, and the snake head started chomping in place.

Seeing the large number of bone heads, Chompaphosis started chasing them in excitement. Each time it chomped down, a head would get destroyed.

However, the destroyed heads would shortly reform. Even Chompaphosis wasn't able to permanently destroy them.

Ten minutes later, the Ignition time for Chompaphosis passed, and it turned back into a stone spear. Lumen returned it back into his Arms Inventory and continued trying to deal with the Bone Hydras.

He pulled out his black jar and summoned Archer, the small winged-snake.

"Archer, help me out!" Lumen called out.

Archer saw its master dodging hundreds of bone heads and poisonous breaths while destroying as much as he can of them. It tilted its head to the side, wondering what it's supposed to do.

"Don't look at me like that!" Lumen yelled.

"Help me destroy them. Maybe try to eat one of them. Just do something!" Lumen said. He knew that Archer's true size is as big as the Bone Hydras.

The snake looked at the Bone Hydras and saw how their heads quickly reform after being destroyed. It immediately shook its head. There was no way it would eat one of those Hydras. What if it reforms back inside its stomach?

"Archer, I said, do something! Attack and distract them while I think of a way to deal with them." Lumen told the snake.

Archer flew higher in the air and detached the feathers from his body. They turned into massive weapons and flew towards the Bone Hydras. Archer's weapons weren't able to destroy the bone heads as easily as Lumen, but a few hits from them was more than enough for the job. The snake was able to safely use his weapons to intercept the Hydra heads since they were ignoring it and solely focusing on Lumen.

With Archer helping him out, Lumen had a bit more breathing room to think about how he should deal with the Bone Hydras.

So far, not a single one of his attacks had managed to destroy them permanently. No matter what he did, they will always reform a moment later.

"While you..." Boking turned towards the rest. "You will have to find and destroy the Bone Hydras's hearts within a week. Bonerakard's Bone Hydras are immortal creatures that can only be killed if their hearts are destroyed."

"What?!" They exclaimed.

"Are you saying that Lumen won't be able to kill those creatures unless we destroy their hearts?" Leesoo asked.

"Correct. The Bone Hydras's hearts are located somewhere in the poisonous sea. That's the only hint you will get. You better hurry up, as your friend is already facing against them. Hopefully, he can survive until you find their hearts." Boking told them and continued eating his bones.

Leesoo immediately sent Lumen a message on his Pocket.

[The Bone Hydras that you are facing are immortal creatures that can only be killed if their hearts are destroyed.]

[Damn, no wonder they reform even if I destroy them completely. Where are their hearts?] Lumen replied back while avoiding their attacks.

[Boking said they are somewhere in the poisonous sea. Our Test is to destroy their hearts in a week.] Leesoo quickly replied back.

[Fuck that. I'm going to do it myself.] Lumen replied and flew towards the poisonous sea. Since he knew where their hearts are supposed to be, he decided to go and destroy them himself.

However, the moment Lumen reached the end of the island, he hit an invisible wall and was bounced backward. Bonerakard wouldn't allow him to cheat and kill the hearts of the Bone Hydras, as that was the Test for the rest of his group.

Lumen shook his head from the impact and flew away quickly from his spot as a large number of poisonous breaths were about to hit him.

[I can't leave the island. So, you better hurry and find the hearts!] Lumen sent a message to Leesoo.

"Guys, we better hurry. Lumen's in trouble." Leesoo informed the rest.

"Let's go, I will lead the way!" Merrie said and took the lead. As a Guide, she had the highest chance of finding the hearts of the Bone Hydras.

The group then quickly left the bone mansion of Boking.

"I wonder, will they succeed, or will there be a new Essence in the Tower?" Boking asked while munching on a bone.

"Will they even be able to enter the poisonous sea without their bodies decaying? Honestly, I wouldn't mind having some new tasty bones to eat." Boking said as he finished the bones on the table.

Meanwhile, the group had reached the end of the island and were standing in front of the poisonous sea. Merrie had her eyes closed as she was trying to find the path to the Bone Hydra hearts.

"Damn, this looks dangerous!" Leesoo said.

Tiana created her purple tulip and tried detoxifying the poison from the sea, but the tulip shortly withered.

"It is dangerous," Tiana confirmed.

Aleksai walked up to the sea and covered his hand with his miasma. He plunged in the poisonous liquid, but quickly pulled it out. His red skin was bubbling and slowly falling off.

Tiana created a white tulip and covered his hand with it. In a moment, his hand looked as good as new.

"Thank you." Aleksai thanked her.

"Got it. I found one of the hearts. It's in that direction." Merrie pointed to where she sensed the heart.

"That's good, but how are we going to enter the poisonous sea without dying? Neither, Aleksai nor Tiana was able to deal with the poison." Androssi asked them.

"I wonder if the Ghost Ship could enter the poisonous sea?" Tiana asked and, the group looked upwards to where the Suspendship was floating in the air.

The next moment, the Ghost Ship disappeared from their view. Bonerakard had teleported it away from there. They had to use their own abilities to pass the Test.

"Damn!" Androssi cursed out, she was slowly starting to panic.

"Think of something! Aren't you supposed to be the smart one?" Androssi grabbed Leesoo by the clothes and started shaking him. She knew that if they couldn't find a way to enter the poisonous sea, Lumen would end up dying. There was no way she would allow that.

"I'm trying. Stop shaking me, I can't think like this!" Leesoo yelled out. He was trying to think of a way.

Androssi stopped shaking him and turned towards Merrie. "Do you have any ideas?"

"I...no, I don't," Merrie replied. "But I'm confident we will think of something."

"Damn it!" Androssi cursed out. If Lumen died because of them, she would never be able to forgive herself.

"I think I know what we can do. However, we would have to work together to pull it out. If we make a mistake, we might end up all dying." Leesoo exclaimed.

"Well, stop wasting time and tell us what it is!" Androssi yelled at him.

"We could..." Leesoo started telling his plan to the group.

*Quick note, I realized I forget to mention Vespa quality. I've edited the chapter, but it's only one small paragraph, so you I will just leave here it as well. No need to go back just for this.

Vespa's Shinsoo quality was a thin stinger. She normally uses needles that look like a wasp's abdomen with a large stinger. So she had no problem at all manifesting hers due to her familiarity with the weapon.