Chapter 380 Serpent

The journey continued after no more demonic wyrms came to attack them.

On the way, Tristan, who was walking in the very back row, was deep in thought.

Before arriving at the ancient monster's place and fighting against it, his strength had to be increased.

[Blood Essence: 254,100]

[Upgrading Blood Synthesis to stage 4 requires 200,000 Blood Essence.]

[Upgrading Blood Seal to stage 4 requires 50,000 Blood Essence.]

[Upgrading Blood Monarch Body to stage 7 requires 200,000 Blood Essence.]

Which should be prioritized?

The blood essence he currently had could be used to upgrade his innate ability. Blood synthesis to stage 4 or blood monarch body to stage 7 would leave 54,100 blood essence, which might be quite a stretch if used as capital for the next battle.

Meanwhile Blood Seal was at stage 4, even though the cost for upgrading it was very cheap, he felt this was not the right skill for now. It was not like he could increase the strength of these magus elves, right?

On the other hand, raising the blood monarch's body to stage 7 might make the daily consumption of blood essence for his body increase drastically and he might even run out of blood essence because of it.

The last option was [Blood Synthesis], this innate ability would be very useful to help him fight monsters, especially if the monsters arrived in large numbers and had a large size.

However, the creation of tier 5 equivalent blood weapons that [Blood synthesis stage 3] could currently do was still ineffective at dealing damage to the monsters in that place. So the level needed to be increased.

[Upgrading Blood Synthesis to stage 4 requires 200,000 Blood Essence]

"Do it."

[Upgrading blood synthesis stage 4 in progress]

[200,000 blood essence has been consumed]

[...]

[Blood synthesis has been upgraded to stage 4]

[Current blood essence 54,100]

Tristan's heart suddenly stopped beating for a second, it was as if he could feel a giant iron hammer being slammed hard into his chest.

His footsteps stopped for a moment, but those who were already walking in front of him continued their journey without paying any heed to him.

In the next second, Tristan could feel his body tingle as if a cold gust of wind hit the back of his neck and sent chills down his spine.

However, after that, he could feel the abundant energy within his body. A strange sensation always came every time he did something to his blood elf's body system.

"This will be enough."

"I guess."

After recovering himself Tristan continued walking, quickening his pace to shorten the distance between himself and the front line.

The condition of the place was still the same dark, or even darker because the trees were getting closer to each other. However, Tristan and the others who had mastered Katra and had enhanced senses weren't the slightest bit made difficult by the conditions in that place.

King Ivaasar was still leading the expedition team, his experience of being trapped and living in that world was really helpful for Tristan and the others who didn't know which direction to go.

Tristan felt that they had walked long enough. And sure enough, they had been walking into the darkness through the swamp for 45 minutes now.

Suddenly, Tristan could feel his body, which was very sensitive to the power that could come from all directions, suddenly stiffen.

As he swiftly focused his enhanced senses, Tristan could feel the presence of a terrifying creature in front of him, waiting for him. The creature's heartbeat sounded very clear and loud as if the creature's heart was beating right next to his ear.

From the sound alone, he was certain that the creature's size would be much larger than the titan wolf that had been defeated in the previous place.

"That thing knows we're coming, I can feel it," said King Ivaasar, who was able to detect it like Tristan.

The strength of the full moon level elf was indeed different from the others.

"Go as planned, we need to get out of the water." The king gave a command which got a nod from the elves.

The magus level elves used their own magic that sent their bodies flying into the air. They were flying at the same height, swamp water dripping from their wet feet. However, Tristan still had his legs in the swamp as he couldn't hover in the air like them.

Again, Tristan had to use [Blood Synthesis] to create a foothold and set it up to help him fly

Previously, King Ivaasar had already described the shape of the ancient monster he was referring to.

The ancient monster was not alone, two other monsters were guarding it in the same place as bodyguards.

As planned before they went into this endeavor, three people - Callan, Hanz, and Leena - would attack one of the two monsters. Meanwhile, King Vizier, the dark elven elders, and Tristan would attack the other one.

King Ivaasar had calculated the strength of each one of the attack groups. He firmly believed that the two monsters could be wiped out by Team Callan and Team King Vizier.

Meanwhile, the main thing was the ancient monsters they were guarding.

The monstrous monster had a body that was 3 times larger than the other two monsters.

King Ivaasar, King Castian and their best high-elve elders would be tasked with defeating the ancient monster. There were a total of five magus level elves.

All attacks had to be done flying because the monsters could hold their heads high.

King Ivaasar informed that the thing to avoid was the terrible poison of the ancient monster.

Two types of poisonous attacks could be carried out by the monster, the first one was poison in the form of smoke, and the other one was poison in the form of liquid.

"We elves are blessed with immortal bodies. Poison is no big deal." King Castian replied, reminding the advantages of being an elf.

However, King Ivaasar clenched his jaw.

"Divine Poison. That liquid poison can affect the souls of elves that you can never imagine before, King Castian."

Hearing King Ivaasar's explanation, the magus level elves instantly looked at each other in horror. If that was the case, it meant they couldn't let their guard down even for a second.

King Ivaasar continued his interrupted explanation. The liquid divine poison could be emitted by the monster at any time without a legible sign, so everyone had to stay alert and jump to dodge the attack.

Meanwhile, to avoid the poison smoke attack, the elves must flee as far as a safe radius of up to 2 miles from the monster.

Woosh!

Tristan and the others shot through the air in the direction indicated by the King.

Before them was only darkness. The trees were no longer visible in that place.

As if there was a barrier to another layer of dimension, there was a puff of thick black smoke. It looked as if it was hiding something behind it.

They shot through the thin layer that separated the clear surrounding from the barrier of smoke.

As he passed by, Tristan could feel the touch of the air changing again, the temperature was dropping. He could even feel the very thin droplets of water in the air as if he were entering into a dense fog.

No one else spoke, everyone focused on their respective tasks.

After flying for five seconds in the smoke, the smoke suddenly disappeared, and the atmosphere returned to normal. Still the same, still swampy water.

However, his feelings suddenly became depressed.

It was as if a terrifying force was waiting for him in that place.

And sure enough—

Far in front of them could be seen a giant pillar that stuck to the ground. It was drowning in swamp water. It was enormous in size as if the place was created for the God and Goddess.

From a distance, Tristan could clearly see the throne of the ancient monster that the elves were targeting.

The ancient monster was seen coiling its giant body, sitting on a throne with its head poking up.

It was a monstrous serpent. Its mouth, which was lined with venom-dripping teeth, was large enough to swallow a god or giant whole. Its body grew gills near the base of its head as well as numerous fins and spines, giving him a Sea Serpent appearance.

Everyone froze in midair as the pair of round yellow eyes with flat pupils formed a sinister line as if staring at the new arrivals one by one.

[God Serpent-Jormungand]

[Ancient Mythical Creature]

[Level 90]

In front of the monstrous monster, Tristan could see two smaller monsters staring at him.

[Guardian-Zilant]

[Mythical Creature]

[Level 60]

Its body resembled a giant snake with a red body who also had yellow eyes with thin-shaped pupils. As King Ivaasar said, this one had a pair of wings and legs. It would allow it to perch on top of a partially destroyed pillar.

Beside him was a monster that had quite a striking body colour. It had a bright yellow colour, and it was clear from its shape that its body was so hard it was as if it was wearing a special armour that wrapped around its back so that it looked like pieces of giant scales.

[Guardian-Naja]

[Mythical Creature]

[Level 60]

The monster wrapped its long body around one of the giant pillars that were still intact.

"How can we defeat these monsters?" Tristan doubted King Ivaasar's calculations after seeing the monster's appearance with his own eyes.

"Quickly move to your respective positions!"

"Now!"

WOOSH!