Chapter 463 - Lurkers everywhere

The muscleman, annoying boy healer, Leticia, and good girl Luna are also marked by the fight. Well, other than the boy who looks like he came from a walk. The big musclehead has his hand and forearms terribly burned, but he doesn’t seem to mind and is even smiling brightly.

“What a fight! That little man sure packed some heat!” As he talks, I watch burns on his arms heal even without any support from the boy.

His natural regeneration might be even higher than Lily’s. I still think he doesn’t match her high Constitution, so my suspicion is either a trait or powerful skill, be it active or passive.

Leticia, meanwhile, is blinded on one eye, a terrible burn scorching half of her face, and the same goes for the golden retriever. Luna is missing one of her legs, the same burn around.

Noticing my look, the woman smiles, “I will be fine. That lurker was faster than expected.”

Noelle joins the conversation, “Noname fought Rookie Killer. He is quite famous for bombarding newbies and causing a lot of trouble to weaker expeditions, but not that strong. We got attacked by Specter, one of the more dangerous ones, and he ran away. But I don’t know the one who fought you.”

“They fought a vyssari woman, also a named one called Blazing Shortie.” Savant is already healed, the wounds on him closed, and the same bearing as before.

“That fits pretty well!” Our musclehead smiles and then shoves the boy near him. “Go and heal her.”

For a moment, I think the boy might refuse, but he just sighs and reaches Leticia, who thanks him and lets him touch her face.

With curiosity, I observe the process, comparing him to Lily.

The wound closes quickly, and it doesn’t even seem to cause the boy that much trouble. The mana feels similar to Lily’s. It’s the same when he restores the missing leg of the golden retriever, bone growing first, soon to be covered in nerves, tendons, flesh, skin, and lastly, fur grows.

He doesn’t seem to push himself, so it’s hard to estimate how he compares to our petite maniac.

Then we continue moving on our way.

We pass by a ruined smaller city, a huge crater in the side of the mountain, and even a big field filled with spikes piercing through the ground, tearing the surface apart.

When we meet two more lurkers, they are dealt with easily, these ones much more in line with beginners getting there.

As promised, I’m the one to deliver the finishing blow, making lurkers more attracted to me the more of them I kill.

When we meet three more, one of them dies near instantly, torn apart by a barrage of my and Noelle’s attacks.

Leticia is great at manipulating mana. Her shields have perfect timing, and she creates them incredibly quickly. Even then, these barriers are not too shabby, able to endure even more powerful attacks.

So far, she doesn’t attack, so I don’t know what her full capabilities are.

As for musclehead, I watch as he jumps first to face the lurker in a set of heavy armor.

The winner of the 1st round’s tournament is surprisingly nimble and doesn’t take on attacks if not needed. His fights usually don’t take long.

I watch as he hits the armor that dents as if it’s made of aluminum foil. Taking a few quick steps, he follows it with a knee kick.

The lurker in armor creates a greatsword with mana, and the bald man dodges nimbly. Then again, his next hit strikes the flat side of the blade, the weapon breaking in the middle. The following kick sends the lurker flying, slamming into a boulder.

Grabbing a stone from the ground, the man throws it at full force, the impact seeming like an explosion as the stone turns into dust from the sheer force and sends reveberations though the air.

“You can finish him,” he tells me, sounding disappointed, the same as from the fight before.

I let one of my javelins pierce the unmoving lurker, his armor turned into nothing.

[You have defeated Reanimated Corpse - lvl 253]

***

We move again, and as we progress, more and more lurkers head toward us, attracted by that annoying mechanic of this floor. The more we kill, the worse it becomes, and we aren’t even halfway through.

As much as we can, we avoid killing them, often leaving lurkers behind crippled with limbs missing.

We could have done it before, but I think the others wanted to see if I would keep my word. Someone to be thrown away if needed, while they would run. I consider it very fair, and it’s exactly what I offered to them.

Nearly a day passes like that as we move slower than my expedition from before. My stay token is about to end so before I disappear back to the 6th floor, I use another 1-day stay token. It leaves me two more 1-day stay tokens and one 3-day stay token.

We lower our speed as most of the others use the opportunity to acclimatize themselves and explore the floor and its dangers. We do some tests on lurkers as well, curious how much of the original person remains in them.

Another half a day passes like that, and the more I observe this group, the more curious I am. We stand around, chewing on some food, a barrier surrounding the somewhat stable house. A short break.

So, who other than me and Savant is a Champion candidate? I can’t sense the title from anyone else. If there is one with the title, they are most likely using the function to hide it.

As we eat, while Luna and Leticia keep watch, I get a great idea.

“Are you a Champion candidate, CarrotCake?” I ask directly.

His healer seems like he is about to spit out the food he is chewing, but the tall man laughs.

“I’m not. Some weird guy on the 2nd floor wanted to declare me one, but I rejected it because it sounded suspicious. Like, why the hell would I become Champion something from someone I don’t know?”

Is he messing with me?

“Are you serious?” Derick also seems unbelieving.

“Champion this, Absolute that, Candidate not Candidate, Ruler, blights, radiances, and other bullshit. Who cares?” The bald man shrugs, his teeth showing in a wide smile. “I let my group deal with all that and I just fight.”

Huh, I could respect that. He might not be that bad.

An unexpected question comes from him. “And you, Noname? Are you that Candidate thingy?”

The question sounds innocent, but the way he looks at me makes it clear the way I answer will allow him to put me in a box. To understand me better.

“Yup,” I answer.

Satisfied with the answer, he nods and doesn't go further.

He is also an Adept of Pride, and the same as I can sense it from him, he can sense it from me.

“My name is Jean, and this is Lucien.” His massive arm slaps the back of the boy who nearly chokes on his food.

“You goddamn dumbass, tell your name if you want, but why mine as well!” the boy immediately complains.

“It’s fine, it’s fine. Don’t worry about useless stuff.” He adds another slap and then turns back to me. “During the second tournament, we will fight,” he declares.

"Sure."

That makes me remember one cockroach who promised to join. That tournament will be one huge mess.

“Luna says there is a group of 10 lurkers coming; they are heading right at us,” Leticia announces.

Jean doesn’t even bother exiting the door and instead, with a single punch, blows off the entire side of the house. We exit before it buries us in.

“Any strong ones?” Derick asks while we get to running.

“Two, maybe three,” Leticia quickly announces and immediately stops, her feet burying into the ground. “Twenty more in the direction we were running.”

Oh boy.

“We could head in the direction we came from and then try to get around them.” As Derick says so, I can see him rolling up his sleeves, tattoos with designs I haven’t seen yet densely covering his entire arms—fingers, palms, forearms, all of it. He then continues, rolling up his pants, similar tattoos showing on his legs.

“That would make both groups join and follow us. Leticia, is Luna sure they are heading right at us?” Noelle also takes the bow off her back, a string made of mana appearing and the bow bending into position.

On her forearms, there are tattoos that start sparking with white and red primordial lightning.

“Yes,” Leticia confirms.

“It’s time to have some fun, gals and boys.” CarrotCake—Jean—seems to be happy as he turns to the boy. “Give me a mark, Lucien.”

With a defeated sigh, the boy slaps the enormous man’s back, and I sense a flash of mana and that healing aura. Some sort of connection is created between the two of them.

No one says anything, but all of us start heading in the direction where the group of 10 is coming from.

“Noname, I won’t hold back this time,” Derick tell me, his tattoos radiating more and more mana with each step he takes.

“Sure.” He better not, we need to kill them quickly.

I take a few more steps and boost myself high into the air.

Even from this distance, some lurker attacks me, and I dodge to the side, the massive icicle continuing to fly into the distance.

Someone touches my mind, but that’s it. My passive renders the attack useless, and I detect the attacker, deciding to deal with that lurker first.

First, I shoot dozens of threads of [Ley Line] all over the area, immediate attempts at disrupting them coming from two sources, but neither of them is able to get rid of them.

As the group of ten lurkers enters my view, I dodge a few more attacks and block a few of them with my barrier.

The group is split to cover a bigger area, some staying behind to attack from a distance, others moving into melee. There is no sense of cooperation. Just like zombies, they just move somewhat close to each other and attack similar targets.

My first tricolored orb explodes in the middle of the ground of five melee attackers, throwing a few of them to the side while two endure the attack. One of them, likely a named one, even shrugs it off, the armor made of mana absorbing it all as he rushes toward Jean.

The huge man welcomes the lurker with a powerful punch that explodes the ground in a massive area, and in a single hit tears apart the lurker, nothing left behind.

With it, Jean’s arm is also nearly gone, flesh torn, the arm profusely bleeding, but the wound closes quickly. I notice that not a single bone is broken.

Savant is already attacking the lurker I threw the orb against, his movements much more dangerous than during the tournament, not even activating his domain.

Teleporting through my anchor, I reach the lynthari woman who used some sort of mental attack.

She attacks me and that attack crashes against me again, as she follows up with oscillating mana spinning around her and cutting the area close to her apart.

Mana armor forms around my body, deep cuts appearing on the surface, but by boosting my body with kinetic energy, I take a few steps. Foot burrowed into the ground, spin of my waist, redirecting all the force through my body and releasing it in short bursts.

The lynthari’s chest caves in, making her stagger back, but there is no sense of pain visible in her eyes.

Another step and swing of my hand separate her head from her body.

[You have defeated Reanimated Corpse - lvl 261]

I teleport away, and a barrage of attacks crashes where I stood, mostly ice projectiles that seem to radiate immense cold into the area they land in.

A pulse of mana shoots from me, detecting the positions of my group and the lurkers, then I compress a huge amount of mana and send five tricolored orbs through my Ley Lines.

Five powerful explosions reverberate through the air. The heatwave is followed by a shockwave and then an implosion.

[You have defeated Reanimated Corpse - lvl 241]

[You have defeated Reanimated Corpse - lvl 253]

[Lvl 278 > Lvl 279]

The air is still shaking, reverberating, when I sense one more signature heading from the direction where the group of 20 lurkers are. A signature that moves at incredible speed, passing a distance that should take the other lurkers a few minutes in mere seconds.

It lands in the middle of the group, enormous wings made of mana on its back disappearing and the figure slowing down to a walk.

The figure is twice as tall as I am. Humanoid proportions, but they feel off on someone of this size, one of the races I met on the entrance floor.

[Reanimated Corpse - lvl ???]

Leticia shouts something, and Luna grows in size until the golden retriever is as big as a horse. The legs elongate, as well as the maw that now shows a dangerous set of teeth. But before Luna can attack the lurker, the musclehead tackles her with his shoulder, sending the retriever to the side.

“Mine!” he laughs maniacally as the muscles on his body bulge.

His skin tears, the air around him seems to shake, and with a huge shockwave, he and the giant lurker crash.

***

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