Chapter 256: Ancient One's Message

<Grisly Mist Bear>

Race: Mutated Mammals

Power: Fifth Rank (Mid)

Mental: 103

Strength: 211

Agility: 94

Endurance: 270

Intelligence: 73

"That's probably for the best", Edward replied with a wry smile.

The mutated white bear that stands on two like a human emits a different air from the mutated brown bears, it's clear that the mutated white bear is way stronger than the brown ones.

Adhara is also seeing this, but then she said, "I can take care of it"

"Nope, the white ones are mine to fight", Rex replied, he cracked his hands and neck as he strides forwards completely ignoring the mutated brown bears.

One of the mutated brown bears growls and attacked Rex from the side.

But in the blink of an eye, the mutated brown bear's body stopped as Rex kept walking forward.

All the others mutated brown bears stepped back subconsciously, the one that attacked Rex suddenly got split in half like a sandwich.

<Killed a mid-fourth rank mutated animal, Obtained 80,000 Exp>

<Kill Grisly Brown Bear 1/10>

Even Adhara and Edward got surprised by it,

Rex's movement is very fast almost like a blur, both of them can't even see how Rex cut the mutated brown bear in half.

Looking at this, the white mutated bear roar menacingly.

CRACK!!

The mutated white bear slam the ground with its paw as the ground cracked,

Rex jumps out of the way before a smile appeared on his face, "It has elemental powers huh", Rex mumbles as he saw the mutated white bears emit a red hue.

But then in front of Rex's eyes, something materializes in the bears' paw.

Fire mana gathers in the mutated white bears' body as a big club made of fire mana materializes in its paw, the ground cracked under the weight of the fire club.

"IT CAN USE FIRE MANA?!", Edward shouted in shock.

Adhara is also shocked to see such a creature here, it's rare to see a mutated animal that can use mana easily just like the mutated white bear did.

It's almost as good as an Awakened!

But seeing this, Rex is not surprised as he stands still in front of the menacing white bear.

GROWL!

With a growl from the mutated white bear, the bear then swung the fire club down putting all of its power into it without holding back.

By the display Rex did earlier, the mutated white bear can feel Rex is dangerous.

Then suddenly,

BAM!

Rex caught the fire club with his bare hand stopping it on its track, 

A red tattoo appeared as the fire mana from the fire club got suppressed heavily, fire is the most ineffective element to fight Rex right now.

With the resistance, he got from the ritual, and also the Sakhmet Tattoo.

Fire is just not as effective as other elements to him, and the mutated white bear notices it too.

"You can be the apex predator here but too bad, you met me", Rex said lightly.

The mutated white bear felt its fur stands up after seeing Rex catch its attack easily, and before the mutated white bear know it,

BAM!

Rex punched the mutated white bear's chest creating a gaping hole in it.

Blood gushed out of the mutated white bears' mouth as it fall to the ground slowly before creating a heavy thudding sound.

<Killed a mid-fifth rank mutated animal, Obtained 500,000 Exp>

<Kill Grisly Mist Bear 1/20>

All of the mutated brown bears also step back in fear after seeing Rex kill the mutated white bear easily as if he's killing a chicken.

"Alright, let's hunt them all down", Rex said with an evil smile.

The three of them butchered the mutated bears as their clothes becomes red by their blood.

After killing the mutated bears around the area,

Rex smiles lightly after looking at the system's notification,

<Kill Grisly Mist Bear 16/20>

Because of their loud fights, the other mutated bears that are around the area join in before realizing that fighting Rex and the others is a mistake.

They got butchered easily by Rex and the others,

Aside from killing the mutated bears, Rex also can already see the Vermillion Flowers.

The flowers aren't exactly hard to find because of their natural red color in this bleak grey dominant place, and the flowers are many.

Based on the number of the Grisly Bears, Rex reckons that these flowers are their food.

The system said that the flower can give a slight boost in mana for Fire Elementalist, and these mutated bears that eat the flower every day might just unlock a mutation.

But aside from the first Grisly Mist Bear Rex killed, the others can't use mana that efficiently.

"Pick the flower and put it inside here, we'll give this back to the villagers and go straight to Lountain City. Kyran must be waiting for us", Rex commanded after pulling out a sack.

He bought the sack from the system which only costs him 5 gold, it's just a normal sack with immense elasticity to contain more than what it should.

After hearing Rex's command, they then started to pick the surrounding Vermillion Flowers.

Rex and Adhara started picking the flowers on the ground, but soon find out that the flowers on the ground is not many.

So Edward is tasked to get the flowers on the rock spikes,

While Rex is picking the flowers around him, he suddenly heard a shriek.

Rex glance up and saw Edward slipped again, 

The Vermillion Flowers on the ground are few because the mutated bears ate it all, but the tip of the huge rock spikes has many of the Vermillion Flowers on it.

Because the tip is inaccessible for the mutated bears, the flowers groom there.

The huge rock spikes around the place are huge, and they are at least 100 feet high some even reach 200 feet high.

Edward is currently hanging on with only his hands,

"Are you okay?", Rex shouted from below, he's holding back his laughter seeing Edward struggle.

Hearing this, the veins on Edward's forehead bulge feeling annoyed before he shouted back, "DOES IT LOOK LIKE I'M OKAY?!!"

Rex laughs burst upon hearing Edward's shout,

It's not an everyday thing Rex can see Edward in this state, and the scene even manages to make Rex laugh which surprised Adhara.

Feeling annoyed by Rex's laughter, Edward tries to pull himself back up.

But this makes the situation even worst as his left hand slipped, the mosses, the Vermillion Flowers, and the rain makes it easy for Edward's hand to slip.

Adhara starting to feel bad,

Her hands then burst with purple fire as it slowly helps her to fly, she approached Edward slowly before helping him get down.

Edward gets down with the help of Adhara,

"That's not funny dude, what kind of friend are you", Edward grumbles in annoyance.

Hearing this, Rex chuckles before he said, "Friend laughs first before helping, that's just how it is right?', Rex teased.

After getting the Vermillion Flowers on the surrounding, Rex frown.

<Collected Vermillion Flower 471/500>

To get the last reward from the system's quest, Rex needs to get 500 Vermillion Flowers but he's still short 29 more even after swooping the place.

"This much should be enough right?", Adhara asks after looking at the sack.

Edward glance inside the sack before he nodded his head, "Yep, I doubt the villagers have more than 200 people"

But Rex is not having this, "let's get some more just in case"

The three of them searches the entirety of Deep Bleak Valley to no avail, they only found other wandering mutated brown and white bears that flee upon seeing them.

After searching for a while, Rex and Adhara gathers together again,

"I can't find anything, I don't think there's any Vermillion Flowers left", Adhara said.

Hearing this, Rex frown in thought, 'The system will not give an impossible quest right? '

<All quests can be completed by the user, no given quest is an impossible task for the user's current strength>

Reading this, Rex confirms his suspicion.

He then looks to his surrounding to try to find the remaining Vermillion Flowers.

But then, Edward comes back to them with a slight sigh, "I found the flowers, but you both aren't gonna like where it's located"

Rex and Adhara look at each other before they follow Edward.

Not far from their place, Edward brought them to the back of the huge rocky spike that he almost fell from before.

There's a huge murky pond in front of them with a huge ancient Banyan Tree in the middle.

Rex squinted his eyes and saw red flowers around the Banyan Tree, but the flowers are located in the middle where the huge tree lies.

It's far away from them, it's about 100 to 150 yards away from them.

"Well let's go there and take the flowers", Adhara suggested but Edward stopped her.

Edward then points at the side where a tree trunk floats above the water idly, "Look at that floating tree trunks", he said.

It's a bit unclear with the mist but it's close enough for them to see.

Adhara looks at the tree trunks in confusion, but Rex already knows what it is.

After Adhara looks at the tree trunks, Edward takes a rock from the ground and throws the rock at the tree trunks.

Right, when the rock hits the tree trunks,

SPLASH!!

The murky water splashes as a mutated animal open its jaws and bite the rocks before the murky water becomes calm again.

Looking at this, Adhara's skin crawls.

"What the heck is that?!", she shouted in surprise.

Edward looks in the tree trunks direction while touching his chest, "Thankfully, I accidentally kick a rock when I was about to enter the water and that happened"

Rex glance at the tree trunks before he too shakes his head.

'I can probably jump that far, but it's not a guarantee that those mutated animals inside the water can't sense me jumping over them', Rex thought with a frown.

But then suddenly, Rex got an idea.

Rex bought a learning pill from the shop and instantly swallowed it.

"You guys step back, I'm gonna try something", Rex said as his body cracked with black lightning.

Looking at this, Adhara and Edward step back.

After making sure that Adhara and Edward will not get hit by what he's about to do, Rex then nodded his head as he gathers immense mana as the clouds create a swirl.

He's gathering mana to use his Sky Rupture spell,

'If what I think is true, then that creature is trying to demonstrate a spell', Rex thought as the ground around him cracked under his lightning pressure.

Rumble!!

The sky started rumbling with a flash of lightning in between.

Adhara and Edward look at the sky and remember that this is one of Rex's spells, and both of them are confused about what Rex is trying to do.

FLASH! 

BOOM!!

A thick lightning bolt strikes down from the sky hitting Rex, "Arrgh!!"

Rex got down to his knees as his body emit smoke, he got zapped by his own spell and the power surprised him greatly.

'That really hurts', Rex thought while gasping for air.

[What are you trying to do?], Devo suddenly asks seeing Rex's attempt.

Hearing this, Rex then replied, 'You said you can control the weather right? Then help me out, I'm going to try something'

"Rex!", Adhara shouted before running towards him.

But Rex signal for her to stop before he stands back up slowly, his body is tense as his muscle got electrocuted by his own Great Spell.

"One more time!", Rex said as he summons another lightning bolt.

BOOM!!

"Huaakh!", Rex falls to his knees again before throwing up a mouthful of blood.

This may seem like Rex trying to kill himself from Adhara and Edward's perspective, but Rex got some insight from getting hit by his own Great Spell.

'Did you get it?', Rex asks Devo with heavy breaths.

But Devo's reply makes Rex smile, [I got it, we can try your plan now]

After Devo confirms it, Rex gathers his lighting mana for another round of Sky Rupture.

"Let's go!!", Rex shouted as the sky cracked open and spat a powerful lightning bolt heading towards him.

KABOOM!!

"Rrrrghh!", Rex grunted as his body got zapped by the lightning.

Seeing this for the third time, Adhara falls to the ground as she also feels the pain that Rex is feeling through their links.

But in front of their eyes, Rex's body slowly turns into a streak of lightning.

When the lightning bolt finished, Rex is also disappeared from his spot as if his body got pulled away by the lightning.

"Rex?! What happened?!", Edward this time panic,

No matter how he looks at it, Rex looks disintegrated by the lightning bolt.

But Adhara on the side can still feel Rex is alive, he's just can't be seen by the naked eyes, "Don't worry he's alive", she said assuringly.

Hearing this, Edward frowns, "What is he trying to do really?"

Then suddenly,

KABOOM!!

Another lightning spat from the sky hitting the ground near the big tree in the middle of the huge murky pond, it makes the tree leaves rumble for a bit before everything turns back to normal.

But what appears after the lightning makes Adhara and Edward's eyes pop out in shock.

Their throat went dry for a second as they saw Rex appear on the other side where the lightning strikes, "WHAT?!", both of them shouted in a union.

Rex lies on the ground feeling fatigue, but there's a smile on his face.

[Hah!! So that's what the Ancient One is trying to say, turns out it's a spell!]

'Ether Blink', Rex mumbles lightly remembering the remnants of the Ancient one.