Chapter 273 Bottleneck In Improvement

"Where's Bella?" I asked.

"I thought she was with you?"

We waited another hour and then another and then another and then another until finally… in the dead of midnight, she came back to the camp exhausted.

"I-I couldn't find any camps! It took me way too long to get to ten!" She complained.

And suddenly, Luna and Cy, who had just woken up, began to smile viciously.

…

About a month had passed, and the number of imp camps we had been trying to find was swiftly dwindling to a number that was practically zero.

Everybody was immensely stronger than before as Cy, Luna, and Bella had all evolved, achieving a form with long demonic horns.

We were all about the same size besides Luna, whose horns were just a tad inch shorter than all of ours.

Though that was only because she focused on support rather than actual damage, but all of this was provided by the new rune skill she unlocked: [Throne World: Dream of Mirrors].

I haven't had it used on me, but from what I've seen on other monsters, it's pretty deadly and could absolutely manipulate an entire army.

You couldn't call it strong, as most of the damage came from the target or targets getting forced into a daze that caused them to attack themselves or the othersd around them… but it was definitely useful in a wide-scale battle.

Cy and Bella, on the other hand, struggled to obtain a throne world as their second rune skill was just a simple buff skill… well, it was pretty fucking strong, but it wasn't on the level of a throne world.

Findir, Aisa, and I had, of course, been practicing with our throne world since it was probably the best skill in our reservoir.

"DAMMIT!" I cried out as my throne world was still the same… just an extra buff to my base stats.

As I continuously stomped on the corpse of a single imp leader to let out my anger, I was eventually stopped by Luna, who quickly grabbed my shoulder.

"It's already over. Try again tomorrow," She coldly muttered, but when I turned around, I saw her taunting smirk.

The reason as to why she was so smug was because she mastered her throne world within only a couple of days.

But it wasn't like it was necessarily tough in the beginning.

It was literally just an extension to her base powers that allowed her to create more options and openings in battle… it wasn't nowhere nearly as complicated as my throne world.

"Don't give up," She gave me a taunting smirk with an annoying little thumbs up, but I didn't give in and just pushed her to the side as I stormed out of the monster camp.

On this long walk back to our base camp, I racked my brain again and again and again and again until I ran out of steam, eventually collapsing on my sleeping bag and only waking up once dinner was ready.

"Need any suggestions… or is that petty little pride of yours still standing in the way?"

"*sigh*... Fine… Then what can you say will help me? Meditating under a waterfall of lava? Trying to commune with the grotesque monsters around me?"

"Oh… I didn't expect you to give in that easily… well… uhhhhhh…"

I just blankly stared at Luna before turning away, storming back to camp, and following my usual routine.

Yet, that small little nap caused me to fall into a trance of dreams.

[You have awakened a new hidden quest]

.

[Hidden Quest: The Plateau of a Successor]

[Description: This hidden quest has been revealed because you are struggling with your new-found power. You are unable to improve and are beginning to give up on the struggle for the secret to your throne world. How about you switch it up? Take a break?]

[Reward: A Meeting]

[Penalty Upon Failure: None]

[Time Left: One Month]

.

I just blankly stared at the notiiccations in this abyss of silent and eerie void, just standing on a firm surface with my body not even twitching a single muscle.

"A break?"

[Take a break]

[Try out a different weapon]

A bit astonished at how the system actually replied to me, I jumped just a bit, but then my eyes slivered as these panels could only be created by a single person.

"Ares, if you were a true father, you would've scooped me out of hell by now… but I don't think the god of war would've wanted such a passive child. You want vengeance and hatred, right?"

[...]

"That's what I thought… but your guidance won't be unused. I mean, you are a god, after all, so there must be some useful knowledge that you hold," I rolled my eyes, and just like that, my actual fleshy eyes snapped open, revealing the dark and hoarse world around me.

"Aisa… have you managed to find a way to obtain a sniper down here? I'm sure they must have guns… unless they're too weak for the flesh of Tarturlings… though, don't you think their innovation would've skyrocketed with such godly beings?"

"Are you asking yourself or me?"

"... Sorry, I got a bit carried away…."

Her eyes shifted off of me before and landed on the ground as she roamed her mind, trying to find something useful.

"If you don't know anything, I won't blame you. You haven't really had the time to explore,"

"No, I do know something… I think there might've been a store back in that perverted city of lust… it wasn't exactly a gun, but it was a mass of flesh that… could be used for various things, but if we gather enough of it and somehow synthesize them together, then we might be able to form it into a sniper?"

"Hmmm… Okay… We're taking a break for the rest of the month,"

"Hey, why do you want a sniper? What are you gonna even use it for?"

"Switch up my train of thought… also, I thought my training might've gone to waste if I don't use it every now and again,"

"Then count me in. I've been itching to use a gun ever since we got here,"