Chapter 144: Completing the Trial, Acquiring the Grand Reward
After passing the third floor, everyone chose their talents and a new team trait.
[ Strategic Swapping ]
-Members can swap position with each other every 10 seconds.
-Both parties must agree to the swapping before it proceeds.
Everyone voted for this team trait because it was the most useful among the four options.
As for the talents, Athan chose [ Fire dragon's tail ], Tiana chose [ Frost Bubbles ], Avelia chose [ Eyes of Decay ], Qerin chose [ Transformation: Devil Butterfly ], and Mike chose [ Damantain Body ].
Mike's second talent [ Damantain Body ] complemented his first talent [ Expansion Body ] greatly. His giant, powerful body now became grey diamond color as his strength, particularly defense, increased greatly.
Qerin's 2nd Talent was more powerful than Athan's 1st talent. After she transformed into Devil Butterfly, She could flap the wings and produce glowing white pollen that could confuse enemies and even attack their minds.
Athan's 2nd talent[ Fire dragon's tail ] was as its name suggested. A tail emerged from behind him, and its attack power was very great. He could shrink and expand the tail, and it also does fire damage.
Avelia's [ Eyes of Decay ] could crumble the armor or defense of enemies, so it was a potent talent.
Lastly, Tiana with her 2nd talent [ Frost Bubbles] could produce bubbles from her mouth, and She could use it to trap enemies by freezing their body where the bubble hits and damage them.
They readily passed the floors. With Athan using his advantage of the special space, it wasn't difficult to defeat their enemies despite them becoming very powerful on each next floor.
But the boss of the 6th floor looked like a Metalic Titan with three heads and six arms wasn't even scratched by Athan's destructive orbs.
The three heads of titan had different colors. The leftmost head was yellow, and it could shoot a yellow laser. The middle head was red and could shoot destructive fire breath, and Its rightmost head was green in color, which would spray dark green liquid in a wide area that made it hard to dodge. Even Qerin's [ Resistance Forcefield ] barely stopped it for a few seconds before it was destroyed, so Athan had to transport them inside the special space.
Roukin, on the other hand, stood behind the Titan and was attacking it with his freezing breath and throwing square silver cubes from his hand. The silver cubes would explode and take away a bit of the Titan's flesh, which would regenerate shortly.
But They still managed to defeat the titan.
" Phew...If we didn't choose the [ Chain Attack ] team trait, it would take us much more effort to defeat this titan. " Avelia said as she heaved a sigh.
Others nodded, and even Roukin felt that it was the right choice to select [ Chain Attack ] team trait.
They could easily trigger it with Athan's special space transportation and their new team trait [ Strategic Swapping ], and this was how they defeated the Titan.
After passing this floor, they got another option besides selecting new talents.
[ You can either choose to upgrade your any talent or select a new one ]
Everyone went with the option to upgrade their existing talents because it was the best choice.
The enemies are getting harder, so instead of choosing a new talent that is not so powerful, they upgraded their talents.
As for the new team trait, Their luck was bad as all four options were subpar, so they choose the go with the most useful one.
[ Speed Debuff: Attacking enemies will decrease their speed by 10% ]
The other three team traits were similar to this, like increasing their attack power, defense power, and speed.
But since they only needed to trigger their [ Chain Attack ] trait, they chose [ Speed Debuff ] trait so their attacks could slow down the enemy and make it easier for them to hit.
They also received rewards for each floor, but they didn't have time to go inside their special space and check.
The most rewards they received were Rule Fragments, but there were some other things as well.
They continued to clear floors and finally reached the ninth floor, where they heard a different kind of announcement.
[ This is the last floor. If you can clear it, then you will receive a grand reward. ]
[ Good luck. ]
This time they didn't even receive the name of their enemies or anything of the sort. The floor was also different than other floors as this floor looked like a jungle, and they couldn't see the walls.
There wasn't even a magic circle that indicated that their enemy was coming.
Athan was feeling uneasy, and just then...
*puchii...*
Avelia, who was at the furthest back, had her arm cut off by a humanoid creature with a tiger's face and body.
This creature had two swords in his hand, and it appeared behind Avelia directly.
Actually, the creature was aiming at Avelia's neck, but Avelia sensed the danger at the last moment and instantly counterattacked by throwing a back punch.
This punch prevented the creature from cutting her neck, but the creature had two swords in his two hands, so it cut Avelia's arm from a part below her elbow as blood sprayed out, but Avelia gritted her teeth and endured before she disappeared.
Although late, Athan sent Avelia inside the special space where she started healing using white gold energy.
But the creature once again disappeared, and they couldn't even sense its presence.
" Everyone, get close to me. " Athan spoke while feeling uneasy because their enemy this time seems to be a tricky one.
This time, the creature appeared behind Roukin and attacked him.
Mike was waiting for it as they swapped position but surprisingly, The creature's blade cut through Mike's upgraded [ Damantain Body ].
" Fuck!! " Mike cursed with a pained face.
Blood gushed out from his leg as There was a deep cut between his thighs and knee area as his right leg was barely hanging. His leg didn't fully cut off because the creature couldn't cut all of it due to his large body.
Athan frowned as this creature seemed even more dangerous than expected. It would attack once and disappeared.
Just now, after it attacked mike, It once again disappeared.
He decided to bring everyone into the special space except Roukin.
Roukin, who was near Athan, saw him disappearing along with others and was dumbfounded. Still, fortunately for him, Athan returned after a few seconds with Lucent Tiger and A prism surround them with five illusions clones of everyone.
Right now, There appeared a total of twenty-six people, and it confused the creature.
The creature once again attacked, but this time, it attacked Athan's illusion clone.
The clone exploded as it released blinding white light of Flux element and blinded the creature, which Athan and Tiana took as a chance and attacked.
But after receiving their attacks, The creature disappeared into thin air once again.
" Just stay alert, and we can do this. Attack the creature when it appears. "
Everyone nodded, hearing Athan as they started playing game of tag and hit and run with the creature.
Although it took some time, They successfully defeated the creature.
[ Congratulations, you have passed the final floor!! ]
[ The grand reward is a random soul quirk. ]
[ Existing the trial zone in ten seconds. You will be transported to different locations. ]
Roukin bowed to Athan and the group before saying, " Thank you very much. Without your special ability, I wouldn't have dreamed of acquiring this grand reward. Soul quirks are hard to develop and get, and the only guaranteed acquisition is in Roumbra Blood War. If you are in trouble, I will do my best to help as long as it's within my means. " He suddenly paused as if he realized something and started laughing while shaking his head.
The ten seconds were up, and Athan sent others inside the special space at the last second before he disappeared and reappeared at a different location.
The place he appeared at was on top of a giant mountain, and there were many mountain ranges with valleys and water bodies on the land.
But Athan didn't start moving and entered the special space to see the rewards they acquired in the trial.