As soon as the cloud of energy swirling around Udann subsided, his Transcendent Aura grew to an extent that it's seemingly a lot stronger than earlier.
Well, I guess that's normal, although it was just one breakthrough, the changing in the realm gave him more benefit than just a simple breakthrough on stage. A true opposite of what I'm getting. When I changed in realm, the stats I got were lower than when I reached the 5th stage of the 3rd realm. I got a lot of skills though so that evens out.
Udann stood up from where he was sitting and picked up the glaive he put down earlier. He only nodded at me before he immediately bent his back forward to charge towards the group of unmoving regular-sized statues.
With every swing of his glaive, a statue will fly over in my direction. By using only the minimum effort to punch, kick or hit it with my sword, the statue would crumble, break, or be divided into pieces.
While giving me every kill, the gathered energy on top of my head started accumulating once more.
A group of five beheaded.
A group of ten hacked in two.
A group of twenty crushed.
Following the destruction of the last of the regular-sized statues on this side of the fortress, Udann immediately set his eyes on the 5-meter tall giant statue.
Compared to the two we destroyed earlier, this particular giant statue wears armor that protects its neck, elbows, knees and toes.
Other than that, everything is unprotected.
Boasting an experienced Rank 2 Transcendent of strength, its rough clay eyes shined as he picked up a bludgeon from behind it.
Although taken aback at its quick response, Udann couldn't stop his charge anymore. Instead of halting his attack, he used Rusting and grew two more arms beneath his original arms. And from out of his black pouch, another identical glaive appeared and grasped by the two new arms.
I see. Those arms were probably what he got as a new skill or abilities from breaking through to the 2nd realm of his Transcendent Pathway.
"I'll stop it. Don't hold back!" I shouted at Udann and activated the Support Hero's Bind, using a huge amount of Level 2 Flux Energy.
Before the statue could swing the bludgeon towards the incoming Udann, energy chains unceremoniously appeared from the ground beneath the statue and instantly coiled around its arms, weapons and legs, stopping its swing.
Luckily, he's quick in the uptake. As soon as the chains appeared, Udann opened and activated everything he had to offer to enhance his attack.
While shouting an incoherent name of his attack move, his four arms pointed the two Spearforce-covered glaives forward, intending to pierce through the giant statue.
Left defenseless and unable to move out of the way to block or dodge, the giant statue could only take his attack head-on.
Psh!
Backed with the power of a full-fledged Rank 2 Transcendent plus the bonus brought to him by the Domain of Valor and being listed as my ally, the glaives hit the same point in its chest.
Like a knife cutting through tofu, the glaives embedded deep in the giant statue's body before it stopped as if it met an incredible resistance when the glaives' blade stabbed halfway. Most likely, he hit the basketball-sized stone.
It's quite clear now that the stones are these statues' Energy Core.They're a walking Formation but they're not man-made.
After destroying a bunch of them, I observed their intricacies and made my own judgement. Their interior was probably a natural Formation just like the Formation where we found Jayna's Earthfire Essence.
Well, in this case, this is probably semi-natural. It's the World's Will of the enemy Transcendent World who molded this Dimensional Space after all, creating these statues was just an add-on.
It goes to show how exponentially high a Transcendent World's Will's Energy Control is compared to a Mortal World's. And through this, it's now almost unbelievable how they restricted Worldy that he couldn't move freely. The information not included in their history was possibly a higher world's interference. That's the only plausible explanation unless Illiana and Worldy are truly deceiving me.
"It's still alive! End it, Ember!"
Instead of pushing his glaive to stab through the energy stone, he instead opened it up, breaking the chest part of the giant statue by aggressively twisting the two glaives.
He didn't really need to shout. Since the start, I have already planned to steal his kill.
That's why, even before he finished his sentence, my Energy Manipulation works along with my Swordforce to activate the now named Sword Skill.
"Dominating Strike!"
Amidst the shower of its crushed part, a burst of energy ejected me from where I was and while creating sonic booms, the Willful Sword passed through the giant statue's opened chest area.
With a little delay, the part just above the exposed energy stone suffered from numerous Energy Explosions as it slowly dug into its body, cutting him into two.
It's not clean but the slashing strike of the sword was just the guide for where the explosions will happen.
When I sheathed the sword back to its scabbard, the clouds of energy on top of my head grew again and the trickle became a downpour.
"Great Sword Skill." Udann praised as he picked up the basketball-sized energy stone that rolled out of the statue's body before throwing it to me.
"Thanks. Let's part ways for a while. I'll be back later."
Because of the energy I gathered from all the statues we killed and the large bulk I got from this giant statue, I'm certain that I will experience another breakthrough. To not let him be too suspicious, I need to separate from him for a while.
In any case, the place was fairly safe unless one entered a ruin. I just needed to find a secluded spot and with how wide this Dimensional Space is, it's easy to find one.
"Here, stabilize your Pathway first, let's go to other fortress ruins later and clean the statues in there." I threw a dozen baseball-sized stones towards him which he caught with his four arms.
-
-
[Advance to Noble Spirit]
[Current Connection: 3 Seas]
[Advanced to 3rd Stage King Realm]
[A Pillar has been successfully created]
[Advanced to Diamond Rank Tier-3]
[Energy Manipulation has been enhanced]
[Advanced to 3rd Stage Elemental Forming Realm]
[Aether/Void Secondary Core has successfully formed]
[Support Hero System has leveled up to 3]
[Support Bonus has been enhanced]
[Supplementary Skill has been created]
[Support Hero's Haste: Boost your and every recognized allies' agility and speed caught within your eyesight. The boost percentage depends on your and the affected ally's Endurance stat.
[Duration: 1 minute (Minimum) 3 minutes (Maximum). The higher the number of affected allies, the shorter the duration of the Haste Buff.]
[Activation Cost: 2000 units ofLevel 1 Flux Energy or 1000 units of Level 2 Flux energy]
[This Supplementary Skill will also instantly activate on every created clone upon using the Support Hero's Awakening.]
[Received 12 Strength, 12 Endurance, 0.5 Intelligence]
-
[Level 3 Support Hero System (0%)
Strength: 168.8 (258.7)
Endurance: 173.7 (267.5)
Intelligence: 16 (21.8)
UPL: 262.8]
-
Once I opened my eyes, the notification about my breakthrough as well as the change in the average stats of the Supported Individuals welcomed me in this tight hole in the ground which I personally dug and buried myself in.
I couldn't find a cave or any secluded place after all. I checked every ruin I passed and there were really statues or something similar to it inside them.
It's been almost 12 hours since I left Udann at that fortress. This means the first day of being in this Dimensional Space was already about to end.
Because I concentrated on absorbing and consolidating the downpour of energy from the statues, I hadn't answered any of my Companions' calls.
It appears that some of the Heroes whose world I hadn't visited yet have reached Transcendence or Yuko and Yumiko already managed to breakthrough to the next stage which led to the increase in average stats.
Either way, now that I reached these high stats, using Domain of Valor will now allow me to reach the strength of a Rank 2 Transcendent.
Rank 2 Transcendent, huh? Now that Descendant who I haven't met yet will now become an easy opponent even for me.
Ah. Dang. I shouldn't be this complacent. I'm still an ant in terms of Transcendent Worlds' powerhouses.
I will check on my girls first before going out of this… hole.
-
-
"Where did you run off to?"
Before I reach the previous fortress that's already devoid of any battles taking place, a familiar melodic voice rang out inside my mind.
I instantly used my eyes and senses to observe my surroundings to search for the crimson-haired and crimson-garbed woman but no matter how hard I look, she's nowhere in sight.
I thought of continuing on my walk but before I could react, I was already being dragged from the collar.
A few minutes later, the woman dropped me inside an already opened castle grounds
"So?" With her eyebrows raised and arms crossed, Alwyn waited for my answer.
"I'm already done with my task so I thought of exploring the area."
If she was truly observing me she ought to know where I went but it seems that she took her eyes off me.
"Exploring, you say? Why does it feel like your strength had just undergone a significant change? It's only the first day. What did you do?"
She stepped forward and scrutinized my appearance from head to toe. As she leaned forward, close enough for me to see even the tiny mole just above her collarbone, her pleasant and exquisite scent wafted to my nose. I noticed it before, this girl is somewhat defenseless. Or she's not just thinking about it.
Either way, there's nothing wrong with it. I'm going to take that as a treat.
"Ah. That's because I exploited someone. I managed to achieve a breakthrough." I answered while scratching my cheek.
"… I know you're special but for you to be this bold. Exploited, how?" Alwyn was speechless but after a while, she regained her calm and asked me with a slightly interrogating tone.
Should I tell her?
Well, she's already an Exalted. If even she was unaware of it then… this will be beneficial for her. From our interactions, I don't see any malicious intent from her. Although she's taking care of me under Illiana's command, she could choose to minimize her interaction with me if she wanted to but she didn't do that. She's doing her job almost perfectly.
Alright. It's not like there were Exalted-level statues and if there were, I wouldn't be able to dip my fingers on it to steal a kill. It's better to let her benefit from it.
"I don't know if you're already aware but you can also acquire pure Energy from the statues if you're the one who landed the last hit."