CHAPTER 40: ANOTHER ONE

In the morning, Edwin walked over to the formation, lifting his head to the teen still seated atop the bridge, munching on his breakfast while enjoying the vast view.

"Others are going back. Are you not going to get back out and increase your points?" he asked.

"Not yet."

This was the same reply Edwin kept receiving until four days went by. On the fourth day, due to full concentration, Godfrey noticed he could meditate for three hours straight before sleeping, a huge improvement from the previous twenty minutes.

Descending from the stone bridge, he made his way to the camp, squinting at the giant heaps of monsters in Isolde’s kill space. Not just her, but other students too.

A good number of his classmates stood analyzing those at the top.

"Sir Edwin announced this morning that Isolde already has six hundred and fifty points. Pendragons are monsters. Imagine being friends with her," a male student said while looking at his friends.

"We’re already her classmates when she’s easily one of the strongest existences in the school. We’re a privileged set to sit in the same room," a girl with folded arms said proudly.

"Look, Snow is definitely going to come second. He already has 400 points and Cecil has 280. I guess we already know the first, second, and third. It would have been a lot more competitive if Dale, Maldered, Orwen, and Siegfred were here, especially Dale," another student commented.

"Godfrey just sat on that stone formation sulking. It’s been four days, he’s already out of the top ten. Soon, he’ll drop to the twelfth position," the student added before someone nudged him.

He turned and his eyes widened as he watched Godfrey walk away. Did Godfrey hear him? He didn’t want to face any of those terrifying knights.

Just thinking about how the one with a bow shot consecutive arrows into Cecil’s summon, and the one with the shield sliced off Lucy’s summon’s claw, made shivers run down his spine.

Meanwhile, Godfrey made his way to Edwin, who raised an eyebrow.

"Are you finally ready?"

"I want to use my points."

Godfrey’s response made his eyes widen.

"What?! You’re already behind by a lot, and if you use your points, you might never catch up."

"I know. But I want dungeon cores with enough mana to boost Ballista to the peak of the elite tier."

"If I remember correctly, it’s tier 5.0. To push it to 5.4 will cost you 70 points," Edwin replied, seeing Godfrey wasn’t going to change his mind.

"I’d also like to be teleported to Raptor Valley."

Godfrey showed him an elite-tier danger zone on his digital map. Raptor Valley had several elite raptors and variants which could spit corrosive acid and some flames. A dangerous place where no low tier could be found.

"That will be 10 points."

***

Godfrey appeared on the top of a stone formation. From here he could see the deep slope and holes housing raptors which lived in the cavernous depths of these formations.

A diagram flared behind him and, with a light metallic clink ringing like a harmony, Ballista stepped out, his giant bow loosely held in one hand.

After absorbing the core, his aura exploded forth, rapidly rising. Godfrey’s eyes widened when, instead of stabilizing at 5.4, the peak of elite tier, Ballista’s aura kept growing more imposing until he settled at 5.5. A high tier!

This was due to his constant battles and already gathered mana gaining aid from the dungeon core.

His height didn’t change, but two suns were emblazoned on both cheeks of his sleek great helm, their resplendent golden sheen brighter than the golden helmet and the other parts of his armor.

Engravings appeared on the once simple crown attached to his helm, making it look ancient and more noble.

Two curved sharp ends extended from the giant recurve bow, just at both ends of the riser, and the plain wooden bow gained an exquisite scale craft on the upper and lower limbs.

The surge of mana made over a dozen raptors emerge, most of them Alpha raptors with three Igni raptors.

Ballista summoned an arrow made of fine wood with white feather fletching. The arrowhead had spirals making the tip even sharper, and once it hit a target, Godfrey couldn’t think of a painless way to remove it, if the target even survived.

He summoned three and shot them at once. The moment the arrows left the bow, they multiplied into nine gleaming arrows, each crackling faintly with golden lightning that left a golden trail behind as they streaked through the air, piercing through nine Alpha raptors.

The arrows drilled through the beasts, protruding out the other side and pinning them to the ground as if giant toothpicks were used to nail them to the earth. None survived an arrow.

"Hmm... I’ll call this new skill Splitting Shot," Godfrey said, standing at the edge and looking down at the stream of raptors surging out of their holes. A smirk formed on his lips.

"Eighteen points down..." Mountain emerged from a diagram beside him and both of them jumped down.

Midair, Godfrey used Echo to harness Mountain’s longsword and heavy armor before he made contact with the earth, squashing a foolish raptor that thought he would be shredded by its teeth.

It was its teeth that couldn’t handle his armor.

With a muffled voice, he spoke. "Let’s kill more! Ballista, enter Black-Out and summon your squad."

Ballista swiftly entered Black-Out and ten Bow Knights appeared, mounting their titan bows and launching powerful arrows that tore the raptors’ guts out, impaled them to rocks, tore off their limbs!

’Mountain,’ Godfrey said, barreling through a flameball and swinging his sword down on an Igni raptor’s head.

Mountain activated Black-Out and portals appeared around him. From them, heavy footsteps rang with deep, heart-pounding harmony that caught the attention of the raptors.

Five Sword and Shield Knights emerged, huge knights with massive pauldrons, fan-shaped crests on the tops of their great helms, and tiny slits that hid their golden eyes, pulsing with wrath as they beheld the beasts in their presence.

Their long white cloaks fluttered as they raised their oval great shields, banging their longswords against them before charging out like tanks at Mountain’s nod.

They barreled through four- and five-foot-tall raptors like they were weightless dolls, breaking bones with their shields, stabbing and slashing raptors.

Godfrey stopped and looked around. He had an army of grand-looking knights fighting alongside him, and it felt exhilarating.

***

The second week went by and the camp was rowdy once more as all the students had returned. Some huge trucks had already packed beasts, and over six of them, loaded to the brim, were on the move, with one last one half full.

Cecil, who stood with the crowd, averted her eyes from Edwin, who was on a podium, to Isolde and Snow. ’Isolde will surely come first and Snow second. I guess I’m third.’

A light smile brightened her face. Edwin was already announcing scores, but she didn’t care about those low scorers.

"Tsk! It’s the last day, everyone is back, but no one was able to break Godfrey’s record and kill a sandworm. At least our Queen killed a Desert King," a student said, looking at the massive black drake, with horns the size of a dragon’s, chopped up and kept in the last truck.

That beast was one of the bosses in this dungeon!

’Godfrey killed a sandworm?!’ Isolde blinked in subtle shock before looking around for the said individual one more time, creases forming on her forehead.

"Where is he?" she muttered softly.

"Scoring fifth is Josh Brown with a total of 300 points." The moment Edwin announced that, a massive sandworm almost thirty meters long appeared on the ground.

Arrows protruded from its body and it twitched with faint golden lightning. The second it appeared, a golden-haired teen appeared out of motes of violet light, stretching his back and arms with a satisfied expression.

Everyone froze. Not even Edwin could believe his eyes.

....

A/N: Sorry, it’s one Chapter for today.