Chapter 97 96 - One Rank Higher

Milo wanted to test out the new equipment so he put it on along with the rest of his equipment and checked his status screen.

[Stats] [Tutorials] [Plunder]

Name: Milo Fenix

Title: [Squad Leader]

Level: 26

Gold: 175

Armor Rating: 1650

Abilities[4 / 6]:

1 - Reinforce: can reinforce the body to make it stronger (lvl. 5)

2 - Ice - Can freeze water nearby and control it, the higher the ability the better the ice can be shaped (lvl. 6)

3 - Beast Tamer - Able to read the thoughts and feelings of friendly beasts, also allows the user to imprint on and tame young beasts(lvl. 1)

4 - Hunter's Eye - Allows the user to overlay their vision that highlights the weak points of lifeforms(lvl. 5)

5 - empty -

​ 6 - empty -

[Stats]

Free Stat Points: [0]

Strength: [45+23]

Agility: [40+19]

Intelligence: [45]

Stamina: [53+12]

Constitution: [40+14]

Magic Power: [30]

[clear]

With his equipment on, Milo's stats were all close to 60, with some being even higher, aside from Intelligence. Milo thought he already had raised his abilities to a high enough level and didn't think increasing his intelligence would help him increase their strength much more. Along with this, his stamina had been bottoming out when he was forced to push himself in combat so he felt his stamina was the most important thing to increase based on his current needs.

Milo then took off all his equipment, allowing it all to return to the dimensional storage earring. After this mist disappeared into the ear ring, Milo went to bed. Tomorrow was the teams first time attacking a B ranked gate, simulation or not, a B rank gate would take a lot out of him.

Waking up the next morning, Milo ate a big breakfast and made his way to the guild headquarters. He took the elevator up to the correct floor and made his way to the room where his team would be entering the simulation. Once everyone had arrived they got to work immediately. David set the difficulty to rank B and just like their two previous attempts the gate started and formed around where they were standing.

The gate this time would prove to be the toughest one Milo had been in so far. The groups of beasts were not as quite as large as the two C rank gates they'd taken on, but the beasts they were facing making their way through the gate were at the unique rank which was the strongest tier that Milo had faced so far. Not only this, but the beasts were particularly annoying as they used both ranged and close ranged attacks.

The beasts were strange looking lizards the size of wolves. They had a trail of flame that ran down their back starting at the back of their heads. They could spit balls of fire that would burn for a while where it landed, almost as if their saliva was a form of napalm. When up close they'd shoot flames out of their neck almost like a frilled lizard would when threatened. The tanks would need extensive attention from the healers after every fight, and the dealers were getting burned quite a bit from the flaming lizard.

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Milo had learned a secret weakness using his inspect skill which allowed him to have an edge in combat his teammates didn't but he used the knowledge he'd learned using the skill to make callouts to assist his team and they had gotten to the boss room without any casualties thus far. His Ice ability was extremely effective against the lizards, as using it he could disorient them out by putting out the flames that shot out of the lizards' bodies. Once the flames were put out, they grew much more sluggish and could no longer use their flames to attack.

[Unique Tier Beast]

Species: Blaze Necked Fire Lizard

Status: Healthy

Disposition: Territorial

A fire elemental Unique Tiered beast. Their saliva acts as a fuel and burns slowly causing them to spread fire at a scary pace. They are extremely susceptible to their fire being put out, and when it has been put out, the lizards enter a sort of hibernation in order to allow their inner flame to reignite.

[clear]

These beasts were the first elemental ones he had fought outside the acid spitting salamanders he had killed in Miami, and the boss of the gate he first closed on his in field experience. Seeing them in action and so high in number made Milo realize just how troublesome elemental beasts could be, as without the right abilities they'd be especially troublesome. Chris would've struggled a lot in a gate like this, as the monsters were essentially fireproof, although he would've also fared a bit better against their attacks due to him gaining a bit of fire resistance due to his ability.

Eventually the group had finished off the all of beasts found in the gate's interior aside from the boss room, mostly due to the help Milo had given them. This only left the boss and its guards if it had any. The group got into formation and slowly entered the gate. Unlike the previous gates, when entering the room, there were pools of lava spread around. Some of them were as small as puddles while others were almost 50 feet across. Along with this, in some of the lava pools there were pillars of lava pouring down from the ceiling feeding into the bigger pools. It was almost as if the group was in some cave under a volcano. Not only this, but the heat given off by the lava was almost unbearable, Milo wasn't struggling too terribly with the heat, but he wasn't sure if it was thanks to his Constitution stat or his Ice ability that was helping him withstand it. He felt sorry for the tanks who had to endure it while wearing their massive suits of armor.

Seeing the layout of the boss room made Milo a bit more nervous than he was before, as this was his first time seeing a boss room with hazards like lava inside. Not only this but it most likely meant that the boss would thrive in an environment like this, as the beasts they'd fought so far had also been of the fire element. Milo scanned the room and noticed a small group of the unique tiered fire lizards they had fought already, but couldn't see where the boss was at. Normally the boss would be in the center of the room or at least visible, and because it couldn't be seen Milo was unable to come up with a plan to defeat it ahead of fighting it. Milo and Harvey made the call to move cautiously as without any knowledge on where the boss was, they were susceptible to a surprise attack.

The group inched forward and eventually drew the attention of the group of fire lizards. They immediately jumped into combat and soon only one of the fire lizards remained. After fighting so many of them in the gate, the team had a good system figured out for exterminating them. When the beast noticed it was alone it turned and ran towards a pool of lava, as if it were trying to escape. Once it got near the pool, the entire chamber rumbled and the boss finally made its appearance.

The boss burst out of the lava pool and snapped up the fire lizard that looked dwarfed next to the boss. The boss was still partly submerged in the lava but once it appeared, Milo scanned over it taking in its appearance. Like the lizards, it had scales running down its long sleek body, each scale was surrounded by an orange glow as if there were lava flowing beneath them rather than blood. As his view got close to the head, the body widened out, and on its stomach a pattern that somewhat resembled black flames could be seen. On the back of its head, two long horns could be seen spiraling out like two menacing spears. Eventually looking where its face would be, Milo could see two huge glowing yellow eyes with slitted pupils staring towards the group with hatred. Milo finally activated his inspect skill to see what exactly they'd be fighting.

[Heroic Tier Beast]

Species: Horned Magma Cobra

Status: Healthy

Disposition: Aggressive

A fire elemental Heroic Tiered beast. Their internal body temperature gets so high that just touching the scales on the outside of their body can leave a burn. When battling one, they have a tendency to spray lava from their mouth.

[clear]

Reading the description of the beast, Milo first noted that once again it was an elemental beast which could be easily seen by the fact that it was hiding in a pool of lava. Not only this, but like the other beasts they'd fought and killed so far, it was of the fire element. The second thing Milo noted was its tier, Heroic. This would be the first time Milo would be fighting a beast at the Heroic tier outside of the cyclops that had cornered him in Miami. Unlike the cyclops though, this one was elemental and he wouldn't have a gatecrasher from one of the big four to protect him.