363 River's Dwell

The next day, Eva walked with the Four Beauties through the unclaimed Field Zone that was adjacent to the Paradise Lands called River's Dwell. They had previously been here but stopped after a bit since the three of the NPC beauties Ranked up. 

River's Dwell was an aquatic-based primarily meant for players between level 65-80. The monster population was about 1/10th that of typical Field Zones between level 1-50. 

These four ladies were back and ready to continue their task. Before, they had to tread relatively carefully because they were all Rank 1 and faced level and Rank suppression. 

Now though, the three NPC beauties were at the same Rank as the monsters here, meaning the troubling Rank suppression was gone. As for level suppression, it meant little to them in the long run. 

As such, there were no longer any qualms. When they were Rank 1, they could already slaughter Rank 2 monsters with relative ease. Now that they were Rank 2, they could certainly slaughter Rank 3 monsters with extreme likelihood. 

As such, Eva simply tossed an item that she purchased from the Guild Shop out. 

｢Monster Attraction – Consumable 

Rank: Epic (50% effectiveness) 

Effect: Entice all monsters within an Area Zone to focus on one location.｣ 

An item that was most commonly used by players and NPC adventurers to lure monsters away from a location or zone to carry out a plan was for one of the few times in history used to rather attract all monsters in one place to save time. 

The ladies lazily waited for the various monsters to rush to their death. Even though the monster population for a Rank 2 Field Zone was only 1/10th of a Rank 1 zone, there were still a few hundred of them for sure. 

Due to the large size of individual Field Zones (even the smallest Field Zone is the size of Wyoming), the distance between each monster was naturally quite large. 

As such, they didn't arrive as one group, but in a sequential manner. As soon as these monsters laid eyes on the Four Beauties, they roared and rushed over. No matter the race, monsters were monsters, and their simple calling in life was to slaughter sapient beings… sometimes even each other. 

Eva slowly spoke. "One by one." 

The other three shared a look and nodded. After all, the three of them acting together would be overkill! Just one of them was enough to slaughter this entire Field Zone, so it would be best to take turns and allow them to get used to their own power. 

Zaine decided to step up first. Her body lit up with a blue glow, and her eyes also emitted a scintillating blue light. On top of that, sparks of lightning began to coil around her body intermittently. 

(Author's Note: You can picture her as something like when one goes Super Saiyan 2 or above in terms of aura, only that hers is blue and not yellow, and her hair doesn't automatically dye itself.) 

Level: 73 

HP: 900,000/900,000｣ 

This monster was a blueish otter that was the size of a wolf. It was of the agility type, boasting extreme speed and maneuverability, but had poor defense and raw physical damage. 

However, in that same vein, it used ranged attacks to fight. It usually used water skills or spells to attack its foes from a distance, relying on its agility to keep it from being hit as well. 

However, this monster chose the absolute worst enemy to fight with, as Zaine was no longer the same. She had a serious lightning affinity, which was extremely potent against aquatic monsters. 

Eva had also given her the Thunderbolt ornamental item. The first passive gave her a lightning shield whenever she was attacked, repelling 40% of the incoming damage and sending 10% of it back as lightning damage. 

As for the active skill, it had the same name as one of Zaine's new skills, and it dealt 30% lightning damage over an area of effect which was not specified but should be within 3 miles of the user. 

Still, Zaine opened up the field with a new skill she acquired on Ranking up. 

｢Thunderstrike – Active skill 

Effect: Call down a bolt of lightning from the heavens that strikes a single target, dealing 70% lightning damage on contact. May stun the target. 

Cooldown: 5 minutes｣ 

This attack struck the Water Trail Otter before it could even screech its threats and shit talk Zaine in the monster language to build momentum. It had literally only appeared here for a few seconds and was hit with an instant thunderbolt from the heavens. 

-500,000! 

This was the base damage for the lighting attack. Before Rank 2, doing above 100,000 damage without the help of a weapon or piece of equipment was rare. Using one's own skills to deal this kind of damage required absurd stats and modifiers from the system. 

And this was not even counting the fact that Lighting damage was multiplied by 3 against water-based monsters, so the final damage was 1,500,000! 

Amazing! 

Just going up one Rank could change the damage output of NPCs so greatly? And that was not even considering the fact that Zaine was level 50, and the otter was level 73. 

This meant that there was a 20% stat suppression on Zaine due to the level difference, but she was still able to cause this much harm using a basic skill… 

Clearly, Zaine's Rank up might have had the least momentum but had the most effect as she controlled it manually. She had used almost all of it to awaken a lightning element in her and strengthened it as much as possible. 

Now, her lightning damage was even higher than her mental damage! 

The Specialist Rank monster fell to the ground in death, smoke curling around its form as it was charred. Even in its last moments, it couldn't understand why this woman would not adhere to the unspoken rules of battle by letting it posture a little. 

Zaine stood back and let Roma come to the fore. Roma still held Rosella as she only needed one hand to cast her Mystic Arts, and she waved her hand slowly as she chanted a familiar verse everyone had heard multiple times. 

With a chilling green light that washed over the earth, hands began to punch through the ground as they pulled heads, then torsos, then full bodies up into the world of the living. 

The Witch Slaves had arrived. 

There was no noticeable change from them, as they had not Ranked up with Roma. After all, they were summoned through her own technique, not through a system skill. 

However, it made little difference as the Witch Slaves would soon be doing their own version of a Rank up. They had absorbed a lot of Rank 1 life force from monsters, and even Rank 2 life force. 

If they could consume a bit more, they would achieve their first transformation. After all, right now they did not resemble undead in the least. Their skins were glossy and healthy while their movements were agile and proper. 

If it wasn't for the fact that they hardly spoke and those black eyes they had - where even the cornea was black - one might even confuse them for the living. 

｢Name: Fishman – Specialist Rank monster 

Level: 71 

HP: 800,000/800,000｣ 

An ugly Fishman came next, with the head of a mudfish which had small beady eyes, two long whiskers, and an opened mouth, making the fellow look like a supreme idiot. 

He had a humanoid body covered in scales and his hands and feet were webbed with sharp claws at the end. As for his lower body, there was only a thin and flimsy speedo covering it. 

However, this meant little to Roma. She simply instant-cast her upgraded Necrotic Hands skill, which now held enemies in place for 1 minute as opposed to 30 seconds. 

The hands emerged from the ground and gripped the Fishman tightly, not allowing him to even move. Not only, that, but these hands dealt a significant amount of damage per second, which had been negligible at Rank 1, but was now noticeable at Rank 2. 

What was most important was the fact that the Witch Slaves laughed ominously as they surrounded the trapped Fishman. 

The fellow might have been a near mindless monster, but it suddenly felt endless fear coursing through it as the Witch Slaves came closer. It howled in fear and worry, but it was all futile. 

After about 30 seconds, the Witch Slaves dispersed, allowing the body of the Fishman to come into view. All that was left was a desiccated husk void of any bit of energy or blood. 

The moment the Necrotic Hands elapsed, the skin just turned into dust and floated away. As for the Witch Slaves, they looked even more amazing, as if they were about to cross a major threshold and needed a bit more. 

Seeing this, Zaine smiled. "Roma, you can continue handling the monsters that come. I'll paralyze them for your Witch Slaves so that they can absorb the life energy in peace." 

Roma nodded gratefully. "Thank you, Zaine." 

As such, over the course of the next hour or so, Roma had her Witch Slaves drain many Rank 2 monsters into empty skin bags. Zaine would freeze them with her telekinesis, just grasping them in place with her enhanced mind. 

Of course, if these monsters were to resist strongly - which they obviously did - she would have a grimacing expression as she held them in place. However, Zaine's mental skills and techniques were boosted by her Lightning Aura passive. 

｢Lightning Aura – Passive skill 

Effect: All of your mental and physical attacks are imbued with a lightning effect, which might stun targets or deal random amounts of lightning damage on contact.｣ 

As such, just gripping them often lead to them being paralyzed by a static shock, leaving them doubly vulnerable to Roma's menacing Witch Slaves, who drained these poor monsters without a care for their feelings. 

Though, one thing that was interesting was that as time went on, the arrival of monsters became less stretched apart and more frequent. Those who were attracted from far were now arriving, and they came in twos and threes. 

Zaine and Roma were still able to handle them with disgusting ease, and the Witch Slaves could now split up to feast on different targets, allowing them to gain a lot more energy individually. 

By the time they had killed about 25% of the monsters in this Field Zone - according to Eva's Control - the Witch Slaves froze in place and stopped draining life energy. 

Instead, they all sat on the ground as energy began to whirl around them. For their Rank up, they did not need external energy with all that they had drained. What they needed was time to digest it all. 

After all, there was a gap between draining external energy and using it as one's own. For any energy devouring species, they absolutely needed to convert the consumed energy into their own for a permanent change. 

As one could imagine, the Witch Slaves had finally reached this threshold, and could now Rank up. They slowly turned their huge wells of life energy into their own strange form of energy, which was similar to the Mystic Energy Roma channeled, but slightly purer. 

This was a time-consuming process that would last a while, but the Four Beauties were not bothered. After all, they came here to systematically clear this Field Zone, so they planned to spend some time out here anyway. 

As such, Zaine and Roma returned to their shift style of killing. Zaine would test out her new skills like Thunderstrike, Thunderwave, and her powered up Mind Blast skill. 

She also had a Thunderstrike skill from the Thunderbolt ornamental item, but that was dealt an AOE of 30%, while her own skill dealt 70% damage to one target. 

Thunderwave was also an AOE lighting attack that dealt 30% damage, so when paired with the skill from the item, it was truly a chilling sight to see thunderbolts striking down from the heavens like Zeus was enraged.