After the castle was emptied out, leaving nothing but silence behind and making it so the screams outside would reach me, I finally got up from the throne. Storming outside to follow the army's fragments that spread through the base…
Even after successfully striking fear into the whole army, I didn't bother removing my 'invisibility' despite the consumption of elements. I planned to make the most use out of the unexpectedly great start of the confrontation!
As a target of the demon higher-ups' red list, I didn't want to be mistaken as an easy target after their preliminary success. Instead, I wanted to be a thorn stuck deep into their 'body' that it would hurt more to remove it than to leave it be!
The reaction of the demons to my 'experiment' perfectly built the base for this. In their current mental state, an 'invisible' reaper would be more than enough to drive them crazy!
At the same time, this was a perfect opportunity to train my control over 'Invisibility' while engaged in combat, it also served as a great chance to revisit the 'body arts' that I had put aside since obtaining them back at the Light Domain…
However, rather than my limited use of elements through physiques, I could now use elements more freely. In a sense, I wanted to see if I could give recreating the whole thing a try. Coincidentally, the horror that the physically strong demons were sinking into just happened to turn them into perfect punching bags!
Using my training on the first floor as a basis, I adjusted my speed and strength to the absolute minimum to chase and annihilate the demons relying only on my limbs as 'Lightning Cloud' floated around me in its 'Cloud' phase.
[ You have absorbed… ]
"It's here!"
As the torso of my first victim exploded, the demons that were running along it scattered in different directions. The only thing they could see was a small floating cloud, so they probably thought it was another power of the terrifying 'dragon'.
[ You have absorbed… ]
[ You have absorbed… ]
[ You have absorbed… ]
After finishing up the group and getting slightly used to using my fists and kicks once again, I started lowering my force even more as I replaced the gap with a stream of Earth Elements!
Bang!
[ You have absorbed… ]
The body explosions became fiercer as I used elements rather than pure physical force, the ground was quickly soaked in blood as I went through the groups of scattered demons, exchanging between my 'list' of elements, growing more accurate at using the proper amount of elemental supplements…
[ You have absorbed… ]
[ You have absorbed… ]
[ You have absorbed… ]
Before long, the screams that spread through the base started to fade, a few hours of punching and kicking had almost wiped out the scared flock.
On the other hand, thanks to my elemental control being already decent, I was more or less done getting used to bare-handed 'elemental fighting'. Although it wasn't a skill that I would specifically need later, it wasn't a bad approach to further train my elemental control from a different angle. In any case, that was the best time to integrate the countless martial arts that I read at the imperial library into my abilities.
Moreover, that wasn't the only boon that I managed to exploit out of this base!
[ You have leveled up! ]
[ You have reached level 124! ]
Despite having just leveled up in the throne room just before the final battle, the abundant EP that the higher-leveled demons gave me was enough to boost me by another level!
'I guess the suppression's weakening played in my favor…'
Standing before the last group in the base according to my 'Mental Map', I approached as 'Lightning Cloud' teasingly moved around to give them a scare. I merely had a hint of a thought about it, but my faint thought was executed before I knew it, piquing my interest…
'The 'Cloud' phase needs to be studied soon…'
The group before me was the largest as those who left their 'flock' had joined it during my hunt, approaching them, I couldn't help but have some mischievous thoughts.
Adding up to my prior performance, I pushed my 'invisible' fist towards the demon closest to me. However, instead of using any other element, I intentionally used Lightning Elements!
"The dragon… it will slaughter us all!"
"Aaaah!"
As the demons only saw lightning sparkling out of nowhere, the silence brought by the horror broke up once again, screams resounding out…
'Well, that's enough mental torture for today…'
Wanting to end their pain early, my lightning fists took away their life in turns before a new notification sounded in my ears.
[ Unique skill, 'Elemental Martial Arts', has been created! ]
[ 'Lightning & Thunder Body Art' has been fused into 'Elemental Martial Arts'! ]
[ Your Title, 'Master of Martial Arts' has evolved into 'Grandmaster of Martial Arts'! ]
'As expected…'
By now, I didn't feel that surprised about the creation of a skill being this often, I knew this was under the influence of 'Omni-Mastery'.
Although it wasn't as obvious as the skills that were creatable after obtaining knowledge of them, I could more or less tell that repeating and adapting to a certain action would give the same result, though conditional 'actions' like 'Invisibility' were still out of hand…
As I absentmindedly moved my fists through the last group, I only came out of my little bubble when silence truly enveloped the whole base.
'It's about time.'
After opening up the 'Mental Map' to make sure that no demon had miraculously escaped my hunt, I used the ability gained from the 'Demon Base Ranger' title to pinpoint the location of the 'Corruption Core', strangely it wasn't even close to the Overseer's 'Castle'. Rather, it was at the other end of the base…
However, making my way to the obscure location pointed in the 'Mental Map', I found… nothing.
'Is that what is meant by 'inaccurate'...?'
Looking at the deserted ground around the spot, I scratched my head as I tried to sense the core through its connection to Darkness Elements.
Although I wasn't exactly in a hurry to get out, I was undeniably excited to check my gains from the gate! It was just that I didn't want to rely on the chance that I wouldn't end up in another predicament for carelessly staying in a demon base…