Early the following day, they returned to the encampment that was quickly turning into a full-blown village. First, they went to Chio and Nevala, who agreed to join them and shared some exciting news. Chio had wanted to tell them for a while, but had never had a good opportunity. They were going to be parents. Ray and Erith congratulated them and continued looking for more recruits.
They ended up gathering twenty more volunteers in total. Erith’s mother also joined, offering to train in sword and spear combat even if she couldn’t participate herself. The next month passed in a blur as they spent all their time changing between completing high-level quests for the monster hunters guild and training their combat skills.
During this period, Ray’s leveling speed was a crawl, only going up by one. On the bright side, he had created four new spells, all of which had similar devastating effects to his hand.
There was a lightning spell that functioned like the one Horde Breaker used on him, and they could be combined in a spell resonance, making him appear like a bolt of lightning to anyone below level 50. Next, he had made a void spell which would link his mana pool to three others, allowing them to cast devastating spells, drawing on more power than they had on their own for the duration.
The final two were entirely focused on maximum devastation, with one enhancing a weapon into a three-affinity blade mixing void, lightning, and wind. When Ray had tested that one in Arabella’s testing range, he nearly leveled a small hill with a single strike. The last one was by far the most dangerous, and he planned never to use it unless it was a last resort. The only problem with that was that it took nearly all his mana to use, so it could only be used if he found himself in a situation where he knew he was doomed from the start.
It used special magic to compress a tree-sized ball of lightning down to the size of a marble. When it was unleashed, everything in a 100-foot radius was vaporized or turned to plasma in less than a second.
Ray wasn’t the only one who had made significant progress. Erith had gained four levels and was growing into an unrivaled battle weave user. She trained with Arabella and her mother on a near-daily basis, and on multiple occasions, the scale kin was forced to call a stop to the fight as she would have been forced to go all out to match Erith. With the damage to the land from their clash already leveling several smaller hills, she did not want to risk doing permanent damage to the land.
Arabella’s training ground had strange magic that would repair any damage done almost instantly, but it did have a limit, as Ray had learned after getting yelled at when his last spell caused an unhealing wound in the land that he had to fill in manually.
The rest of their party was also making good progress, with their lowest level member being level 56. Chio and Nevala had both passed the 8th threshold. While they did not have the same devastating power as he or Erith, their skills shone in other ways. Nevala had turned into a true sniper and could instantly kill up to level 60 pray from over half a mile away. Chio had turned into a beast with a great sword, and while he could not beat Erith in technique, if she tried to take one of his swings head-on, it would have passed straight through her block.
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Ray looked over the members of their horde extermination party, as it had come to be known, and smiled. They actually had a chance at this.
“Objective completed: kill horde leaders 6/6 quest updated.”
Slay the Horde
Requirements for compilation
Kill horde commanders 6/6
Kill horde lord 0/1
Kill the king of Imperium Solis 0/1
Time limit
This quest will not end until one side is wiped out.
Rewards
All xp gains related to the hordes are doubled for the duration of the quest.
Ascension quest completed.
New title based on performance
Ray’s eyes widened, and only one word came to his mind. “What?!”
The lord stood before the pod containing Ren and watched as it began to open. “Finally!” he roared and knelt.
Steam poured from the pod as tubes disconnected, and Ren opened his eyes. He stepped from the pod and flexed his hands, opening and closing them before looking toward the lord. He cocked his head.
“Welcome back, my king.”
Ren took one last look at his body, examining every detail. “Status report Sol-7”
The lord’s eyes flashed with static, and in a robotic tone, he answered. “We have arrived on Earth 2214 years ago, 73 years after the weapon was activated.”
“2214 years? Why did it take so long?”
“The human population had been reduced by 90%, and the human growth rate is insufficient. Protocol 5392 activated six times before a successful candidate was finally located.”
“I see. Call the commanders here. I wish to reclaim my power.”
“I have called all surviving commanders to this location.”
Ren’s eyes went wide. “Surviving?”
“Yes, sir, Commander Thren was killed last month by another transcendent.”
“Have they been captured?”
“No, sir, they managed to escape through a gate spell before procurement could be completed.”
Ren sighed. “Deactivate status mode.”
The static left Sol-7’s mechanical eyes, and he stood. “The commanders have arrived, sir.”
“Good,” with a wave of his hand, Ren appeared before the five remaining commanders, and with the utterance of one word, they turned to pure yellow energy and flowed into him. “Return!”
His body morphed, and within seconds, Ren no longer floated above the forest. Instead, a humanoid man wearing a billowing golden robe with a slender face and glowing halo hovered above his head.
“Quest received”
Slay the usurpers
Requirements for compilation
Kill or subjugate usurpers 0/2
Time limit
This quest will not end until one side is defeated.
Rewards
Restoration to full power.
The king of Imperium Solis took in a long breath. “Oh, it feels good to have a body again.” A golden staff with a miniature dim star floating above it, and after a few more deep breaths, he waved the staff and returned to Sol-7.
Erith joined Ray, also getting the change to her quest.
“What do you think it means?” she asked.
“I’m not sure. I’m hopeful it’s a good thing, but I get the feeling that it’s not.”
“I know what you mean. Either way, we will be ready,” she said, looking over their training comrades.
Ray nodded. “As long as we’re together,” he said, grabbing Erith’s hand.
She smiled. “As long as we’re together.”
“A message to my would-be usurpers,” A strange, high-pitched, like that of a young child’s, and eloquent voice entered Ray and Erith’s mind. “I will begin decimating all those that remain in the forest unless you show yourselves in the location where you killed my commander in three days. The choice is yours, but I hope you will be reasonable and not force me to slaughter my future subjects.”
“Well, there goes our unlimited time,” Ray said, blowing out a breath of air.
“We got this, but we should let the other know and let them decide if they still want to join us.”
“Yeah, let's go tell them.”
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