Thalion was flabbergasted while fighting the termites. Their individual strength was far from exceptional, but as a team, they proved to be formidable enemies.

He couldn’t simply overwhelm them with his powerful domain skills. At the moment, he was circling above, firing lightning beams at the snipers. The targeted sniper would stop attacking and start dodging, while the others kept bombarding him.

The snipers were unable to hit him thanks to the strong winds generated by his domain skills, but Thalion also had trouble landing his own attacks. The termites were highly agile and had sharp reflexes, making them difficult targets.

Despite the strong winds that would make spotting him nearly impossible, their eyes seemed to grant them a form of surround vision—he had yet to catch any of them off-guard. He had experimented with various attacks, including unleashing lightly charged lightning beams to avoid giving away the buildup of electricity, but so far, nothing had worked.

It was time to shift focus. While targeting the snipers was good practice, he also wanted to win the fight. The next fully charged lightning beam struck the juggernaut termite right in the head. Its thick armor dampened the attack, but the impact was still strong enough to seriously injure one of the nearby workers.

With his powerful domain skills active, the termite snipers struggled to fly high, as the strong winds made controlling their flight nearly impossible. Additionally, any attempt to rise up made them prime targets for the erratic lightning bolts from his domain, which were currently striking the tallest trees in the area.

Thalion decided it was time for more experimentation. He wondered how his domain skills would function if he maneuvered through the jungle itself. Activating Skydive, he appeared before the last remaining termite worker. He used Talon Claws, causing his claws to glow with energy—a skill inherited from the original eagle form.

However, when he actively channeled the power of the storm crystal to enhance the attack, storm mana enveloped his talons, doubling their size. The empowered claws tore through the termite effortlessly, not even slowing him down.

The sheer surge of power from the crystal was something else entirely, and he almost lost control of the skill due to the overwhelming influx of energy. As he turned around one of the massive tree trunks, he noticed the corpse of the worker still twitching from the residual electricity.

Damn, this is even stronger than I thought, Thalion mused with a grin as he set his sights on the remaining termite snipers. The insects were already struggling under the effects of his domain, and one had been severely injured when the strong winds slammed it against a tree, breaking a wing.

It could still fly, but the ever-increasing winds made its struggle futile. Thalion swooped through the trees with incredible speed, finishing off the injured insect in a single swift motion.

The remaining snipers didn’t attempt to flee; instead, they focused all their efforts on taking him down. Their attempts, however, were in vain. Thalion was simply too fast, and the relentless winds rendered their attacks ineffective. With the fight nearly over, he decided to run another test.

As he rounded a tree, the next sniper came into view. This time, he channeled the storm crystal’s power directly into his lightning beam to see how much strength he could summon instantaneously.

His normal lightning beam was already devastating, especially when fully charged and amplified by his horns. With the crystal’s boost, however, the sheer energy flowing through his body was overwhelming. He had to fire the beam quickly, fearing that holding onto it any longer would cause him to explode.

The lightning beam tore through the termite sniper, obliterating it completely. Thalion grinned as his confidence grew. Now, he could fire charged beams without the usual delay. Meanwhile, the sniper likely wasn’t as thrilled with this revelation, given its body had just been pierced by the attack.

Thalion grew increasingly exhilarated as he took down the remaining snipers with precision strikes. His speed and power were simply too much for them to handle. To finish off the last one, he used Dusk Beak, a skill that became utterly terrifying when amplified by the storm crystal’s power.

Once the fight was over, Thalion deactivated his skills and landed on one of the snipers to examine its abilities. To his disappointment, the insect only had a single skill—firing its stingers. The ability itself wasn’t bad, and its rarity was higher than expected, but it was completely useless to him.

After all, he didn’t have a stinger cannon integrated into his body, nor did he want one. It would be utterly impractical and, frankly, would look ridiculous on his shoulders in any form.

Still, the fight had proven to be an excellent test of his new abilities, and the results were far beyond what he had hoped for.

An exalted rarity skill from an insect had to be something special—at least, Thalion hadn’t encountered anything like it before. What was that queen doing?

Perhaps striking a deal with her could be highly beneficial, though on the other hand, she probably wouldn’t be too keen to work with him after he had killed so many of her children. But if he managed to enter her chambers, he would definitely ask.

If the queen viewed her kin merely as worker machines, a deal might be possible. With a beat of his wings, he shot back into the sky, heading for the grasslands to hunt some beasts.

<–

Jakob stood on the wall of Kael’s base, gazing out over the savanna of the fifth stage. He couldn’t pinpoint exactly when everything had gone wrong, but he desperately wished he were anywhere else.

Annie was gone, living with the water people because of her patron. He missed the evenings with Thalion and the others—drinking and talking together. The struggle for survival and the memories of all the torture and death he had endured as a slave were hard to forget.

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Then everything had changed. First, Annie left. Then there was the incident with Thalion, though he still didn’t know what really happened.

Next, Evelyn and Kargul left the base for extended hunts, and while on the fourth stage, they disappeared entirely. There were few people left in the base that he liked. He felt alone—even Sylas, with whom he had shared such a strong connection, now felt distant and cold.

If his patron hadn’t ordered him to stay and assist Kael and the others, Jakob would have left long ago. When he first met Kael, Kai, and Sylas, they had been warm and focused on getting everyone through the tutorial.

Now, they were cold and distant, obsessed only with growing stronger. He didn’t know if it was the gods pushing them to such extremes, but he doubted it.

His own patron had offered him guidance and tips for gaining power, but Jakob had resolved not to engage in anything evil, like killing humans or betraying friends. There were boundaries he wouldn’t cross, no matter what.

Yes, he wanted to see his family and friends again—even though the chances seemed slim—but he didn’t want to become a ruthless murderer who betrayed his comrades.

He didn’t know exactly what had happened between Thalion and the others, but he was certain of one thing: Thalion wasn’t the cause of it. Jakob was sure Thalion would never have betrayed them. After all, he had saved Annie and him from slavery and looked after them while they farmed.

True, Thalion wasn’t always around—he pursued his own goals—but that was normal in this new world. Betraying friends or allies was something Thalion would never do.

This left only one possibility: Kael and the others had attempted something drastic, which drove Thalion away. Kael and his group had even spread rumors that Thalion had killed some hunters and that Sylas hadn’t been able to stop him, but that was obviously nonsense.

Annie had sent a message through the others, urging Jakob not to slack off. In hindsight, he realized he had made a mistake. In his rush for power, he had attempted a risky method of body tempering.

As a stonemage, the process left him trapped in a prison of stone when his skin and parts of his flesh turned to rock. It took weeks for him to escape, but by then, he had fallen behind the others and was no longer invited to the meetings in Kael’s room. In truth, he didn’t mind—he wouldn’t have enjoyed being there anyway.

Now, he was in the final stage and could only hope the undead wouldn’t find them too quickly. The last time they had faced the undead, they didn’t stand a chance. An army of undead, led by vampires, had dismantled their defenses.

Only one wall remained, and most of their people were stuck on the fourth stage, left as food for the vampires. It was horrifying. If they had managed to hold the walls for even thirty more minutes, hundreds more might have escaped, as many had been close to earning enough credits to use the teleport.

Now, Jakob was just another soldier in Kael’s army. He was still stronger than most survivors, but not nearly strong enough to rival Kael or his generals. The gap between them had only widened over time, and Jakob knew he wouldn’t stand a chance in a fight against them.

The fact that none of them had managed to kill a vampire during the last battle was terrifying. If the undead on the fourth stage were already so powerful, what chance did they have on the fifth stage? This fear was one of the main reasons Jakob hadn’t run off on his own.

Perhaps Annie felt the same way, living under the rule of the water people. Hopefully, she was having a better time than him. On the fourth stage, they had relied on strong defenses to hold off the undead. Here, things were different.

No one was allowed to leave the base unless part of a hunting group of twelve—except for generals, who could leave in groups of two or three. The entire base was also shrouded in an illusion array, designed to make it harder for the undead to find them.

After leaving the array, the base became nearly transparent, making it difficult for anyone to pinpoint its location. Numerous scouts patrolled the surrounding area, keeping watch for any approaching undead.

Jakob felt uncertain about what he would do if the undead attacked again. They would simply smash through the wall and slaughter everyone inside. No one had managed to kill a vampire yet, while the vampires had easily eliminated many of their elite fighters.

At some point, Jakob couldn’t help but think that the vampiric race might simply be superior to humans. To prepare for the worst, he had purchased a skill that allowed him to bury himself, which would help him escape if the vampires found the base and things went south.

He had also finally reached level 80 and was grinding to achieve the best evolution possible. This meant killing as many beasts as he could and undergoing extensive body tempering.

At least now, he understood how far he could push himself before turning to stone again. Currently, he could still absorb three more rocks before needing to hunt again.

Since there were no mines on the fifth stage, the only reliable source of these rocks was the system shop. It was possible that many were buried deep underground, but searching for them would take too long. Farming was a better use of his time—or so his patron advised him.

The beasts on the fifth stage were formidable, with higher variants that exhibited tactical awareness. They didn’t fight like mindless creatures that charged headfirst into battle. Instead, they used ambushes and strategic retreats. The moment they realized they couldn’t win, they fled for their lives, making farming much more challenging.

On his first day on the fifth stage, Jakob struggled to kill anything. He wasn’t the fastest, and the killing blows were usually made by the archers in his group. They were faster and more agile than him, allowing them to keep up with the beasts.

To address this issue, Jakob upgraded his movement skill, Earthsurfer. Though he still wasn’t fast enough to match the archers, he could now prevent the beasts from outrunning him. He also added a few more attacks to handle flying or jumping prey. Before reaching the fifth stage, his only ranged attack had been a large earth spear. Now, he had two additional skills better suited for hitting faster-moving targets.

When his prey had their feet on the ground, fighting him was a nightmare for them. However, when they didn’t, he faced significant challenges. Behind the base was a large rock formation and a dried-out riverbed, which was more the size of the Grand Canyon than any ordinary river from Earth.

Climbing down revealed numerous tunnels carved into the canyon walls. The intricate tunnel network below had initially given Jakob hope that it might serve as an escape route from Kael and the others. Unfortunately, the tunnels were inhabited by powerful beasts.

These beasts were not only difficult to kill, thanks to their strong defenses, but the fights took so long that the experience gain was poor. Still, Jakob found value in their armor, which he used for body tempering.

For him, this made the effort worthwhile. On the fourth stage, there had been only one other warrior who used stones for tempering. Sadly, that warrior had died during the vampire attack. This loss was unfortunate, but it meant Jakob no longer had to share the materials—most people avoided them anyway.

Only a handful of alchemists and smiths had earned enough credits to ascend to the fifth stage, and they were already overworked with the materials they had. As a result, Jakob kept the beast bodies for himself. He wondered how much longer this situation would last.

With no one scouting far and no one using the skyships, they would never locate the catacombs where the pillars aiding Ankhet’s ascension were hidden. Making any significant impact on the special quest seemed almost impossible.

He could only hope that the other humans were faring better than they had on the fourth stage. Without reinforcements or a large army to support them, the fight against the undead was already lost.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep