Chapter 332 Nial’s Challenge

Only 25 participants would be able to advance to the 3rd round.

That seemed a bit less but Nial wasn't all that worried about it as he expected.

He spectated the fight of the other participants' Runic Puppets and figured that everyone would have roughly received the same number of points from killing the beasts that appeared in quick succession.

In most cases, the difference in points was created due to the behavior of the beasts that moved like the intelligent, ferocious existences they were.

The moment the beasts' rank exceeded the average strength of the Runic Puppets they started to face difficulties. Nearly no Runic puppet had received protective garments from their Runicier, which was why every single successful attack of the beasts caused critical damage to the Puppets.

Some Runic Puppets started to malfunction because crucial runic constellations were damaged through the inflicted wound, while others lost some of their combat prowess.

The latter wouldn't be noticed immediately but only slowly over time.

The runic armaments created by the Runiciers were of exceptional quality in every aspect, whether it was the runic solutions that had been used, the forged metals which Runiciers had purified to create a strong metal, or the runic constellations that had been engraved on the shaped metal.

Thus, while the Runic Puppets were slowly getting worn out, their weapons weren't, not against monsters at the Mirae rank!

"I wonder if someone created a full body armor, thinking that the second round would be like this when the first round had just started…A full armor of Peak Tier-1 Runic armaments should be more than enough to let a Runic Puppet fight alone against a bunch of beasts," Nial mumbled to himself while trying to analyze the thoughts the Runiciers must have had while creating Tier-1 runic armaments in the first round.

"I don't think that anyone even thought of creating a full armor set, especially since the Mirae ranked beasts used after the sixth round have armor-breaking claws, if I may say so," A young man of the winged race, Balgris, had appeared next to Nial.

Nial had noticed the young man before but he didn't really pay any attention to him.

"I guess the armor-breaking claws will turn into a big nuisance for all Runic Puppets after they repeatedly get scratched by them.... Is that why all Runic Puppets seem to look worse after the sixth round of beasts than all five rounds before together?" Nial wondered out loud and the young Balgris nodded his head in response.

His huge feathered wings fluttered lightly in the wind as he turned himself in Nial's direction.

"I guess that the 6th batch of beasts ought to show the difference between a mindful and careful Runicier and an ordinary Runicier, who can only create the same type of runic armaments over and over again.

It would have been reckless to create only a single set of full armor because the other Runic Puppets would have been destroyed in the sixth round while the one and only armed Runic Puppet with the armor wouldn't have survived for long either.

But a similar situation happens with everyone, who focuses on gathering points in the first round rather than following the actual goal of the first round; to create runic armaments for the Runic Puppets!" The young Balgris was rather talkative and shared his opinions quite freely. It was great because it distracted Nial from thinking about the missing Runiciers, who were most likely dead.

Nial started to chat with the Balgris and they began to analyze the new runic armaments that appeared in the Challenge of each Runicier.

Most runic armaments were merely copied versions of each other but every Runicier was in possession of different runic armaments which they copied. This made things a bit more interesting as a small variety was created in each challenge.

Only after 20 or so challenges did things change a bit, a few more customized runic armaments appeared on the Runic Puppets, who were able to kill more beasts than the Runic Puppets in the previous challenges.

However, none of them was able to reach the record that was set in the 36th Challenge. His Runic Puppets managed to kill a total of 12 batches of beasts, which was three batches more than the second place attained. The runic armaments the Runic Puppets were equipped with were a bunch of shields and powerful weapons.

He had equipped three of his six close combat Runic Puppets with two shields, one for each hand. Their fighting style was switched to be fully focused on defense, while the remaining seven Runic Puppets were programmed to always stay behind the meatshields.

The tactic was interesting and the final result was certainly worth it.

Nonetheless, Nial was pretty sure that he could achieve a similar result, which he demonstrated when it was his turn.

'My runic armaments might not look aesthetically pleasing, but their efficiency is pretty darn good!' He grumbled inwardly as he gave his Runic Puppets a light push to make them move forward.

Five of six close combat Runic Puppets moved in a spearhead formation with the supporting Runic puppets just a few meters behind. Meanwhile, the long-range Runic Puppets stayed behind, merely staying in range to hit their designated targets.

As for the remaining close combat Runic Puppet, it stood behind the long-range combatants, and protected them, preventing any beast from surprise-attacking the long-rangers.

The five close combat Runic Puppets wielded their customized Tier-1 runic weapons, which made it look like the spearhead formation was not perfect for them.

However, the moment they activated their first ability, which was basically a combination of intertwined runic constellations for Runic Puppets, the truth was unveiled.

It was no longer a secret that the customized runic weapons allowed the Runic Puppets to release much higher strength as each initiated attack killed a beast.

There were no wasted movements and everything looked almost perfect if perfection were to exist in combat or equipment.

Nial's Runic Puppets passed the first five rounds without an issue, just like every other Challenger had achieved.

All of a sudden, Nial's close combat Runiciers switched their weapons. From using the customized Tier-1 weapons that were the most suited for them, they began to wield the spears Nial had created in the first round. The beast with armor-breaking claws was a type of long-legged lizard, and Nial was fortunate enough to have created Tier-0 spears that were pretty neat, with the exact same runic constellations as the lizard's claws possessed.

The Tier-0 spears had the [Armor-piercing] runic constellation engraved, which was what Nial made use of to obliterate the lizards, whose defenses were not to be underestimated as well.

Not just their mighty armor-breaking claws powerful but the lizard's defenses were strong as well. The Tier-0 spears were the beast's weapon of choice for the Runic Puppets and they easily obliterated the five dozen lizards that were fighting defensively.

The whole time, the Runic Puppets never went overboard by charging at their opponents hastily. They carefully attacked the beasts that were the closest to them, while luring everyone into a narrow space to allow the only long ranger mage to create fireballs, which was one of the Runic Puppets' abilities [Fireball].

The ability, [Fireball] may seem quite simple at the first glance but it was basically a complex combination of runic constellations such as [Mana Ball], [Compress], [Ignis], and a few more. The runic constellations had carefully been combined to create the ability [Fireball] that was strong enough to obliterate Mirae-ranked beasts.

Nial wouldn't be able to recreate the complex set of runic constellations even if he were to try to. Learning all the individual runic constellations was one thing but combining them like which was the case in the Mage-type Runic Puppet was not something Nial was capable of.

He was quite interested in the Runic Puppets and their Creator but his curiosity had to take a step back for now. Nial saw that the Runic Puppets changed their weapons after the 8th round. They exchanged the Tier-0 spears that had been worn out bit by bit with the Tier-0 longswords.

Fortunately, Nial had created enough longswords for every Runic Puppet to have two of them. This was not something Nial did by mistake or to make sure that he created enough Tier-0 runic armaments to get points.

It was a plan he had come up with in his mind, to make sure that he would pass two additional rounds.

Thus, he began wielding the Tier-0 runic longswords, which began to glow brightly. They were overflowing with power and cracks appeared on the blade almost instantaneously. The Runic Puppets slashed out, creating something he and Master Crevian had lovingly named [Crescent Mana Blade].

It was a combination made out of various Basic runic constellations, and the result was basically a big failure. The 'ability' Nial had created would destroy the weapon everything had been engraved. This was definitely not something a Runicier wanted to happen to their products, not under normal circumstances.

Only under unique circumstances, or if one had too much money and runic weapons to spare was engraving the [Crescent Mana Blade] onto a runic armament feasible.

Nial didn't really like to create broken runic weapons but he could tell that the following two rounds would be fiercer and would inevitably end up damaging some of his Runic Puppets. Thus, he was happy when the Runic Puppets 'thought' the same.

They killed a dozen beasts with each [Crescent Mana Blade] they fired, allowing Nial to pass the 9th and 10th rounds without a problem.

None of his Runic Puppets had been lost or gravely injured and they returned to use their customized Tier-1 weapons.

In the end, it was a big advantage for the Runic Puppets to be nearly unscathed, which was something one could clearly see when his Runic Puppets passed the following rounds before they would be worn out completely.

The Runic Puppets reached the 14th round and they gave their utmost to kill all the beasts before all of them finally broke down after the strenuous wear and tear. It was not heart-breaking for Nial to visualize the destruction of his Runic Puppets.

Rather, he was more interested in all the runic constellations that were unveiled to him when the Runic Puppets were torn apart. In every challenge, Nial used the moment when the Runic Puppets were damaged to scan their runic constellations and assess them.

They were made out of a material that had a special trait; mana isolation. This made it difficult to perceive what lay inside the Runic Puppets.

Nial used every opportunity to learn more about Runic Puppets, especially since it might help him recreate them at a faster rate, potentially to abuse the fact that numerous Gods were trying to awaken Jundra's planetary mana core faster with the use of dungeons

Nial wanted to exploit all the Gods, who believed to be smarter than everyone by creating permanent dungeon portals!

The Runic Puppets would be one necessary part for Nial to take revenge, and he was quite interested to make it happen sooner rather than later.