297 The Orchard 8

With a good number of monsters culled in just over a minute, the battle was destined to be a quick one. Angel's Blessing's strength came from its duration and distance. With a duration of 10 minutes, Draco and his compatriots were compelled to keep the fights within this range of time. 

Draco then unleashed Bow Skill 1: Vortex! Although it was useless on the Fluffy Growlers who were too heavy to even get disturbed by it - as well as the Feisty Barkers - Qiong Qi was tanking both groups, so they were not in Draco's range in the first place. 

Clarent was currently handling the Diving Flappers, being locked in a serious and thrilling aerial battle. He absolutely could not afford to allow the Diving Flappers to catch him with their beaks or their talons, as even his Dragon Scales might get damaged. 

As such, Clarent was continuously mobile in the air, kiting the overgrown birds. He would spit fireballs whenever the cooldown elapsed to cook his foes, and even used immolation to disrupt one that almost caught him. 

He naturally could not use flamepillar since that one affected a static area over time, and he was speeding through the sky with nearly twenty Diving Flappers on his tail. 

Qiong Qi used his claws and teeth to bite into the weakened Fluffy Growlers. He totally ignored the bites and scratches of the Feisty Barkers because they dealt no damage, only pain. 

After the many fights so far, he had learned to completely ignore the pain and focus on the fight. As such, it was no longer easy to beat him about like before. 

Even though Qiong Qi's damage output continued to be mediocre, his job for the most part was just to delay and attract the aggro of those creatures. For some reason, that seemed to be very easy for him, as the monsters always targeted him first. 

Draco was facing off against the Creepy Crawlers. Among their group, they had the lowest HP, but at the same time, they were the fastest. They slithered along the ground even faster than snakes and tried to surround Draco many times. 

Draco stomped his foot and released an explosive wave of fire from his body with his subjective magic. He was mimicking a Pyromancer skill he knew from his past life, Shockwave! 

He knew about it because of Rina, as well as the enemy Pyromancers he had fought, obviously. It was much easier for Draco to cast spells based on objective magic parameters and they took the least Willpower or Concentration to use. 

Unlike Hikari, Draco did not suffer from her issue of low Worldly Energy. In fact, within this Treasury lay Divine Energy and Aetheric Energy, much less Worldly Energy. 

The only thing limiting him now was his Mage God Rank as well as his own proficiency in spellcasting. He had lost his Magic Genius passive skill when his new class came about, so he took a hit in that regard. 

However, Devil's Guile was a far better tradeoff for Draco. 

With the Sonic Wave continuously battering them with every shot, the Creepy Crawlers lost their HP steadily. Draco's shots per second had increased to 6, so he only needed 60 seconds to deal 720,000 damage with Sonic Wave alone. 

In just over a minute and a half, he was able to fell many of the Creepy Crawlers. He then cleared up the rest and moved to assist Clarent. Qiong Qi could handle himself, but Clarent needed some assistance to save time. 

Draco shot the arrow towards the sky and used Vortex. Vortex was practically super effective on the birds since they were trapped in midair. It was far more powerful than using it on monsters on land. 

Coupled with the Sonic Wave passive, Draco was able to single-handedly break the pursuit of Clarent. The Red Dragon also used this chance to cast flamepillar, searing the Diving Flappers unceremoniously while they screeched in agony. 

Draco didn't give them a moment's rest as he re-cast Vortex, preventing them from escaping far. They were pulled back into the range of the flamepillar, and the damage over time piled up. 

Clarent stayed back and fired many fireballs at the weaker Diving Flappers in order to end their lives. With Draco's help, they were able to rout the Diving Flappers in less than a minute. 

As such, they joined Qiong Qi in dealing with the Feisty Barkers and the Fluffy Growlers. These two monsters were instantly suppressed with Draco and Clarent's help. 

Draco even used Mind Blast on the remaining foes, and things became simpler from then on. Even though Mind Blast lasted only 10 seconds, a lot of damage could be dealt in that time. 

Draco also used Bow Skill 3: Flurry once more. His increased fire rate was mostly useful in propagating the effect of the Sonic Wave passive. 

Within 10 seconds, he was able to deal an unmitigated 200,000 flat damage. Even after Mind Blast's effect elapsed, he still had 50 seconds in which his fire rate would be buffed, and he certainly used it well. 

With the extra 1,000,000 flat damage, most of the Feisty Barkers whimpered their last and fell to the ground in death, dropping their loot. This left the tanky Fluffy Growlers with more than 600,000 HP. 

Draco then focused on the 10 Fluffy Growlers left and bombarded them endlessly. Since only 5 minutes of the 10-minute duration of Angel's Blessing had elapsed, there was no pressure on the group. 

Racial skills were overpowered by default, especially Angelic ones. Then again, they were destined to be greatly weaker than Hikari's skills, as Angels were beings of the Light and used the purest Creation Energy below White Dragons. 

Angel's Blessing was even a Rare skill to top it off, and Rina's luck was unbelievably high to acquire such an overpowered skill. It would have been greatly useful in a team battle, but due to Draco's Dark Angel affiliation, it became corrupted. 

It was twisted into a skill that harmed others, making it perfect for one man against a group of enemies. However, Angelic skills were the hardest to acquire for Draco right now, with Draconic skills following right after. 

Due to his complex bloodline, he couldn't automatically learn Black Dragon skills as Hikari could. He could only try and find out what skills they had and use them as techniques. 

The basic skill was the Destruction Energy attack, then the skill learned at level 10 was the Orb of Destruction. Because the Metal Dragon had only been level 23 at that time, he hadn't learned the next skill he would have gained at level 30. 

This was a windfall for Draco of course. If the fellow did have it, the battle might have ended with a completely different outcome. 

As it were, Angel's Blessing was more than good enough for the current situation. It had extreme versatility and shortened the time these battles would have taken otherwise. 

Draco also used Charm on the last Fluffy Growler. With plentiful HP and a tanky body, it would be a perfect ally for Qiong Qi. The skill calculated his Charisma against the monster's, and he naturally won. 

Draco had 70 points in Charisma. He needed to have at least double that of his target for this to work, and he did. A dire bear wasn't exactly the picture of charisma in the first place. 

After this battle, he had gained 2,100% experience. Sergeant Rank monsters at Rank 2 gave far more and far better experience than those Specialists. Their numbers had been fewer though, so there was that. 

Draco allowed this experience to add to his thick stockpile and threw an Angel's Kiss potion over to Clarent. The Red Dragon had expended the most stamina in the battle with his evasive maneuvers, so he needed to rest. 

Now that Draco was trying to rush things, he planned to avoid Clarent and Qiong Qi having any moment of unnecessary rest. As soon as their stamina was ready, they would move on. 

Clarent drank the potion and felt rejuvenated. Draco didn't have to prompt him, he was ready to jump into battle once more. Draco also had Qiong Qi drink one, and the lion reacted in the same way. 

"Fuck, this Dragon King wants to beat up someone. Hey, those ugly fellows over there, do you wish to see what the afterlife is like? I promise it'll be very intriguing!" 

"Hahaha, this Cat Daddy is ready to FIGHT!! LET'S FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOO!!!" 

They were incredibly pumped and Draco capitalized on that to assault the next zone. There were only 6 zones remaining after the one they just took down, with the last one being the final zone. 

In essence, there were five more zones with Legendary fruits and Sergeant Rank monsters. 

In the second one, Draco repeated his strategy of kiting, and Clarent did the same for the aerial/ranged foes. 

Qiong Qi, along with the charmed Fluffy Growler, tanked the ground monsters with the highest defense of the lot. Qiong Qi was relatively fine, but the Fluffy Growler immediately entered dire straits under bombardment. 

It was soon killed, leaving Qiong Qi alone with the arduous task of tanking. Draco's Angel's Blessing was still on cooldown, but it would come out it in 10 minutes. 

The original cooldown duration was 30 minutes, but Draco had equipped his Richmond's Herald title. This slashed all cooldowns by 50%, so he was able to relax. 

He even used Rapid Hands and Rapid Legs to boost his speed, dealing more damage in a short amount of time. When Angel's Blessing came out of cooldown, he cast it once more. 

With the extreme ease it provided his group, they were able to cull these monsters in 4 minutes. Since the 50% bonus to HP, stamina, and focus regen was still active, Draco allowed the two to rest while his skills entered cooldown. 

After 10 minutes, they headed to the next zone and began their slaughter. Draco's Charm skill had a 1-day cooldown which was slashed to 12 hours, so he couldn't find a pal for Qiong Qi. 

It was unnecessary though, as they were able to clear out this zone in 7 minutes. 5 of those minutes had been spent waiting for the cooldown of Angel's Blessing. 

This racial skill was crucial in lowering the difficulty of group battles. Draco was absolutely in love with it, as it made things so much easier. 

After the third zone was cleared, they headed to the fourth, and then the fifth. Each monster in these zones was killed by these three fellows after some time of battle, which further sharpened their skills. 

After clearing the Legendary Zones, Draco allowed Qiong Qi and Clarent to have a longer rest while chewing some Legendary fruits. Since Draco planned to take all the trees away, there was no need to be stingy with fruits. 

He even chewed on one himself, and it felt heavenly. It was sweet in a healthy way, something only a great and fresh fruit could invoke in a person. 

After his fights, Draco had earned a lot more experience. In addition to what he received in the first zone, which was 2,100% experience, he gained 2,060%, 1,907%, 2,134%, 1,902%. 

So in total, that was 10,103%, which, when added to his dormant 67,543%, increased his stockpile to 77,646% experience overall! 

Draco sighed. Truly, fighting above your Rank was the fastest way to level up in this grind-heavy game. Draco purposely chose not to calculate how much experience he would have received had he not gotten a Divine Class. 

After this was done, Draco then used his Eyes of Caelo to check on the monsters in the final zone while he munched on his fruit. 

However, when he inspected the sole Boss monster lying in the final zone, his eyes widened. 

｢Name: Fruity – Captain Rank monster 

Level: 90 

HP: 5,500,000/5,500,000｣