Chapter 523: Gate Successfully Cleared? (2)
Chapter 521
Standing right there in the middle of the chamber, with flames crackling around him, Ray ran his hands through his hair.
The silver strands had become damp with sweat and blood.
He swung his hands to the sides, sending a few specks of blood and sweat splattering onto the ground.
He then proceeded to wipe his lips with the back of his hand.
With a single thought, Nebula disappeared from view, leaving him alone in the destroyed and burning chamber, surrounded by the dead bodies of the Ogres.
A second time....
A second time in his lifetime that he had faced an Emperor-rank beast and needed plenty of help and luck to survive.
The first had been against Nebula.
Back then, he had fought alongside his friends.
As Aspirants, they had almost died.
He and Felix had lost their limbs during the fight, and only the fact that they were both werewolves had allowed them to make it out safely.
If it had been another person, they would have been crippled by now.
And now...
Now, today, he had needed Nebula’s help once again to fight against the Ogre King.
If his Echo hadn’t been here with him today, he definitely would have lost his life against the Ogre King a long time ago.
It was the fact that he had an Echo at all that gave him the confidence to accept Raze’s offer and walk into the Gate.
Forget the prize he had been promised.
No amount of money would have been worth his life if he hadn’t had a backup plan.
He was still unsure if Nebula would have been enough, considering the fact that she was a weaker version of an Emperor-rank beast.
Yes, she was Emperor rank, but she was much weaker than a standard Emperor-rank beast.
That was precisely why they had struggled so much against the Ogre King.
But luckily, his gamble had paid off.
Now that the boss was dead, Ray had ten minutes before the Gate would have to close.
Ten minutes....
His gaze swept across the chamber, taking in the hundreds of dead beasts with their cores still inside their bodies.
"Come forth," Ray ordered.
A burst of purple mist appeared beside him, and a spider beast emerged from within it.
His first Advanced-rank Echo.
"Go harvest all their cores. While doing that, make sure to leave two beasts intact and unharmed."
The beast lingered for a moment before dashing away to execute its master’s order.
"...And leave the harvested cores in a pile for me to store later," Ray added over his shoulder as he heard the beast’s powerful limbs tearing through the King-rank beasts.
It was a bit of a struggle considering its rank.
And it would definitely take a lot of time to complete.
But first off—
Ray’s heart was thrumming with excitement as he turned his gaze toward his System screen.
Tons of excited notifications had been going off ever since the Ogre King slumped to the ground.
Looking around for a moment, Ray walked away from the King’s dead body.
After a few moments, he sat down upon the ruined throne of the Ogre King.
Narrowing his gaze at his System screen, he began reading.
[Congratulations, Host, for clearing a Tier Three Gate.]
[Host has completed his quests and sub-quests by defeating all King-rank beasts.]
[Host has defeated an Emperor-rank beast.]
[Rewards: +2,400,000 EXP; +20 free stat points; +1 Bloodline Skill; +20 points to all attributes; +60 VIT; +1 System Skill; +200 Echo Essence.]
[Congratulations, Host. You have leveled up.]
[Level Up.]
[Level Up.]
[Level Up.]
[Level Up × 18.]
[Level: 31 >>> 49.]
The System messages almost overwhelmed Ray as he read through them with a small grin on his face.
In just one Gate incident, he had leveled up eighteen times.
Racked up tons of stat points, gained some skills, and even increased his Echo Essence.
Marvelous.
It was too marvelous.
Ray tightened his hands into fists, a small smirk curling across his face.
But then, something suddenly popped into his mind, causing his smile to slowly disappear.
*System?*
[....]
*Wh-Wh-When is my next evolution? When will I need to evolve again?*
[Calculating.....]
Ray’s heart beat in tandem with the loading screen in front of his vision as he waited patiently for the System’s words.
[Next evolution marked at Level 52.]
"Ba....thump...."
Ray slowly turned his gaze towards his screen.
[Level: 49]
’Cl-Close. I’m incredibly close to the next power-up. Are-aren’t I moving too fast? Wasn’t it just a few months ago I became a Tribrid Master? Wh-What’s all this?’
[You sound not excited?]
’Of course I’m not happy. The hell? I will have to go through that hell of pain again? How should I be happy knowing that with every evolution, I’m at risk of failing? One wrong evolution and I can die. The fuck?!’
[Well, look on the bright side.]
Ray lifted a brow.
’What bright side?’
[If you die, I won’t have to bear with your stupidity anymore.]
’How the hell is that bright?!’
Ray could have sworn he felt the System shrug, but he decided to wave the screen off with a tired sigh.
His Echo was working tirelessly to retrieve the beast cores.
After searching one beast, it was now much easier to search the others and locate their cores, so the Echo was beginning to make speedy progress. The pile of cores was growing larger by the second.
And with every second Ray spent here, he risked being trapped inside if he didn’t move in time.
But he still had one more task to accomplish.
He would have loved to scan his entire System and read through the rewards his quests had given him, but there was simply no time.
With one glance at a specific tab, he clicked on it.
====[ECHO REGISTRY]====
[Echo Slots: 2/5]
[Echo Essence: 200/300]
[Registered Echoes:
- Carapace Spider. (Advanced rank)
- Spider Queen. (Emperor rank)
- Empty
- Empty
- Empty]
=====
He had exhausted all his Essence summoning Nebula and then the Advanced-rank beast.
Thankfully, the System had been gracious enough to give him more Essence for his next task.
With a groan, the Tribrid pushed himself upright and began sauntering toward the dead Ogre King.
When he got there, he knelt down and stared at the corpse.
"Yo-Better not fail. I need you."
[Ding]
[Echo Candidate Detected.
Create Echo?
YES / NO]
Taking in a deep breath, Ray closed his eyes for a moment before speaking.
"Yes."
The screen switched, and now—
[-100 Essence]