Chapter 279: THE WEIGHT OF STRENGTH

After listening to Gazel and Sirus’s explanation, the dungeon boss remained silent for a while.

Then, after a few moments, he finally spoke again. “How long do you have before your bodies start degenerating again?”

“I think around twenty hours, boss,” Gazel replied.

“Alright. Go outside again,” the boss commanded. “This time, try to find a stronger body. But if you can’t find one before time runs out, merge with any body you can. That way, your time limit will extend. Once both of you find compatible hosts, bring back stronger humans here. In the meantime, I’ll contact the Lord and try to summon more of our brothers. Once that’s done, we’ll rule this planet and begin searching for body-strengthening techniques more easily.”

“Yes, boss,” both Gazel and Sirus replied in unison.

With that, they left the layer and soon emerged from the dungeon into the outside world once more.

“Let’s start searching for stronger humans,” Gazel said, glancing at Sirus.

“Yes,” Sirus nodded.

And so, the two began walking once again.

Meanwhile, at Smith Villa, training continued just as it had before. Rowan and Daliah kept pushing toward the next level, Lilith focused on gathering Qi to form her dantian, and Logan continued cultivating at a rapid pace, steadily increasing his internal energy.

Days passed in this rhythm. Then one morning, after hours of training, Lilith suddenly opened her eyes and let out an exasperated sigh. “How long is this going to take? It’s so boring just sitting like this all the time!” she complained.

Hearing that, the other three also opened their eyes.

“I already told you, it’s going to take a while,” Logan said calmly. “Cultivation doesn’t just demand talent, it also requires discipline, patience, and determination.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Lilith said, pouting slightly. “But it’s still boring! Can’t we do something else to speed things up? Or maybe something different for a change, just to break this monotony? It might even help us train better afterward, don’t you think?”

As she spoke, she turned to look at Daliah and Rowan with pleading eyes, hoping they’d back her up.

“Something else, huh? But what could that something else be?” Logan asked with a faint smile. “It’s not like we can just walk into a dungeon. So… would you rather go outside and wander around a bit?”

He spoke before either Rowan or Daliah could respond. Logan knew that excessive training without breaks wasn’t always effective. While he himself was desperate to grow stronger and defeat the dungeon boss as soon as possible, he also understood that the others might need a change of pace, some motivation or a little break to keep their progress steady.

“Go out and roam around?” Lilith tilted her head, then grinned mischievously. “Nah… how about a sparring session instead?!” she suggested, her voice brimming with excitement.

“Sparring?” Logan raised an eyebrow, amused. “You want to fight Daliah again? Or maybe Rowan, to avenge your loss during the Arcadia Young Elite Tournament?” he asked with a soft chuckle.

“Nope,” Lilith said firmly. “It’ll be with you.”

“Me?!” Logan blinked, momentarily taken aback. “You want to spar with me? Are you sure about that?” he asked, wanting to make sure he had heard her right.

Rowan and Daliah exchanged surprised looks, their eyes widening slightly. “She sure has guts,” both of them thought at the same time.

“Yes, with you,” Lilith confirmed confidently. “But it won’t be just me. It’ll be the three of us, me, the prince, and even the princess, all against you at once. Oh, and there’s one more thing.”

“One more thing?” Logan asked, raising an eyebrow. “And what might that be?”

“You’ll have to wear some wristbands and ankle bands that I will give you,” Lilith explained. “They’re special artifacts I had my father make for me after I saw you fighting under gravity manipulation. They can be adjusted to add weight and restrict movement for training purposes. It was hard for me to train while maintaining gravity manipulation at the same time, so I asked my father to create these instead.”

She finished her explanation with a proud smile, clearly pleased with her idea.

Hearing Lilith’s suggestion, even Logan’s curiosity was piqued. “Those artifacts sound interesting. Can I see them now?” he asked.

“Sure, why not? Just wait here for a moment,” Lilith replied with a grin.

She quickly headed to her room and returned a few minutes later, carrying two wristbands and two ankle bands. “Here,” she said, handing them to Logan.

Logan took the bands and examined them carefully, turning them over in his hands. “But… they don’t seem to have any weight at all,” he remarked.

“That’s because you haven’t activated them yet,” Lilith explained. “They’re bonded to me, so only my voice command can activate them.”

“Wow, that’s pretty impressive,” Logan said, genuinely intrigued. “Alright then, let me put them on.”

Without hesitation, he began fastening the bands onto his wrists and ankles, his expression showing clear enthusiasm.

Watching him, Lilith blinked in mild disbelief. “Why does he look so excited about this?” she wondered. Rowan and Daliah, standing nearby and observing the scene, couldn’t help but have the exact same thought.

Soon, Logan finished putting on all four bands. He flexed his arms and legs slightly to test their fit, then looked toward Lilith.

“Alright… I’m ready. You can go ahead and increase the gravity now,” he said calmly.

“Okay,” Lilith nodded. “How much should I increase it? Ten times? Twenty? Maybe thirty?”

After seeing Logan’s performance before, she thought she had a rough idea of his limits. But the moment he spoke next, that confidence shattered like glass.

“Make it a hundred. One hundred times gravity,” Logan said, his tone completely casual.

“What?!” Daliah, Rowan, and Lilith all shouted at the same time, their eyes wide in disbelief.

“Hun… a hundred times?!” Rowan exclaimed, staring at him in disbelief. “Logan, are you sure about this? That’s way too much, don’t you think?”

Logan glanced at him and replied in an utterly calm, almost casual tone, “Don’t worry. Just go ahead and do it already.” Then his eyes shifted back to Lilith.

Lilith stood frozen for a moment, clearly taken aback. But after a few seconds, she snapped out of her daze and said, “Alright… I’ll do it now. Be ready.”

After everything Logan had done so far, she told herself nothing should surprise her anymore, but even then, this felt insane. Still, she took a deep breath and asked, “Are you ready?”

“Yes,” Logan replied firmly.

“Okay then…” Lilith hesitated for a heartbeat before speaking the command. “Gravity… one hundred times.”

The instant her words left her mouth, an invisible force crashed down on Logan. It felt as though two mountains had pressed down on his limbs at once but even so, he steadied himself, refusing to yield under the crushing weight.

After that, Logan began throwing a few punches and kicks, testing his movements under the immense pressure. Each motion created a faint gust of wind, the air rippling from the sheer force behind them. Once he felt his body had adjusted, he nodded slightly and said, “Alright, let’s get started. Attack me whenever you’re ready.”

But the three standing before him didn’t move. Rowan, Daliah, and Lilith could only stare at him, eyes wide in disbelief, as he moved so freely under a hundred times gravity.

Only Lilith truly understood what that kind of weight felt like. She had trained under gravity herself, though nowhere near this level and she knew how unbearable it could be. The fact that Logan was still standing, let alone moving so easily, was simply monstrous.

As for Rowan and Daliah, who had never experienced gravity training before, the sight was overwhelming. Even imagining that kind of force pressing on them made their bodies tense unconsciously.

Logan’s calm voice snapped them out of their daze. The three quickly stepped back, creating distance, and took up their fighting stances, ready to attack.

Meanwhile, Logan didn’t even bother to take a stance. He simply stood there, composed, relaxed, waiting patiently for their first move.

Somewhere else at the same time….

Gazel and Sirus stood before two hunters, both at the peak of A-class strength.

“Brandon? Is that you?” one of the hunters asked, frowning in confusion. The body Gazel had taken over once belonged to a hunter named Brandon.

But neither Gazel nor Sirus responded. They simply exchanged a brief glance.

“They seem strong,” Gazel said quietly.

Sirus gave a single nod in agreement. And before the two hunters could even react, Gazel and Sirus lunged forward, swift and merciless, like predators pouncing on their prey.

Both hunters reacted instantly, but against Gazel and Sirus, their efforts were futile.

One of them, a fire-affinity hunter, quickly conjured a blazing fireball and hurled it forward. But Gazel moved like a phantom, slipping past the flames effortlessly and closing the distance in an instant. His right hand morphed into a sharp, blade-like form, and before the hunter could even blink, Gazel drove it straight through his chest. The man’s eyes widened briefly before his lifeless body collapsed to the ground.

By the time Gazel turned around, Sirus had already finished off the other hunter.

A moment later, thick black smoke began to seep out from the bodies Gazel and Sirus had previously inhabited. The dark mist coiled and twisted through the air before merging into the fresh corpses of the two fallen hunters.

The bodies trembled for a moment, then went still, as Gazel and Sirus once again opened their eyes, now in their new, stronger hosts.

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