Bab 34: Soul Stone II

They left the dungeon via the black gate that'll spawn when you killed the last boss.

"All these loots are all yours Brother Kite", Ansel declared pridefully.

"Shut up rich punk!" Kite retorted. He was a little jealous of Ansel since his uncle, Severus was a rich man. He's the strongest swordsman of this city after all.

"It's already noon. Shall we raid the hell mode tomorrow? We also need to prepare things", Vanessa reminded them.

Ansel and Kite, being hotblooded males, agreed instantly.

"Let's raid the Hell Mode!" Ansel shouted

"I don't wanna go here again tomorrow. We should just finish the last difficulty." Kite lazily replied. But the excitement in his tone can't be hidden.

Vanessa sighed. To be honest she was still afraid that the Hell Mode Last Boss might be stronger than the Hard Mode Boss. But since they leveled up and defeated the Hard Boss, they might just finish the whole dungeon.

"Fine, let's go", she dejectedly agreed.

"Nice!" Ansel smiled brightly. He fainted when they were battling the last boss of the hard mode difficulty. This time he'll join and participate in the Boss fight.

"You made the right decision my wife!" Kite cheekily said while grabbing Vanessa's shoulders.

"Shut up! Let's go!" Vanessa knew what Kite was thinking. He was still a teenager and at his age, battling and fighting was the most exciting part of their life. She also already knew that Kite was Jax's successor. She of course heard the exchange between the two combatants so she learned a lot. Although Kite was still not talking to her about this stuff, she didn't force him to. Kite might have a reason not to tell her.

But what bothered Vanessa was Kite's adaptability skills. He adapted to situations at an abnormal speed. When battling the boss, he adapted to the environment and platform. That's why he didn't make a mistake regarding his stability and balance in battle. But sadly his right index finger was cut off on his past adventures resulting in a disadvantage during the fight.

At first, Kite was also not killing monsters to savagely. It seemed he was holding back and killing was not his forte. But as he fought and fought, he got used to it and his eyes showed no hesitation when killing enemies.

Vanessa tried to remind Kite about this but there was something that was holding her back. It was like a warning. A warning that no one mentioned nor said. As if it was a warning that even Gods couldn't carelessly go into. That was the invisible thing that was holding Vanessa back.

She shook her head and prepared to enter the dungeon.

| Select Difficulty:

*Normal

*Hard

*Hell |

"Hell Mode, here we come!" Ansel shouted excitedly.

***

Just like what they did earlier, Ansel soloed the entire dungeon. He was now currently Level 11, while Kite was now Level 14. Vanessa's level didn't change since the ExP she needed were a lot just to level up once.

Kite helped Ansel on the second boss fight. Its agility was enhanced so Ansel, a Shield Bearer who wear heavy armor, had a hard time keeping up with the enhanced boss. Kite on the other hand has a lot of agility points. They defeated the second boss in no time. Kite deal the most damage, his damage and attack speed was higher compare to before.

"Thanks for the help, Brother Kite. And here I'm thinking that you'll let me deal with it myself", Ansel said meekly. Everyone was afraid of death, Ansel was not an exemption.

"Don't worry! Our job is to protect you. If we don't act while you're engaging your enemies, it only means that we believed you can defeat all of them." Kite spoked encouragingly. He can, of course, tell that Ansel was scared from the earlier battle. He rubbed his head and they began to walked towards the lace the Last Boss resides.

Seeing the exchange between the two, Vanessa smiled. Kite might always tease this junior of his, but when it comes to trouble, he'll immediately lend him a helping hand. Kite was a really good example of a big brother.

They entered the palace and saw the Last Boss. The Normal Boss and Hell Boss expressions were the same. They only show hostility and no killing intent towards Kite.

"Did I kill the consciousness of the Hobgoblin King?" Kite thought to himself.

This was the only explanation. After he killed the Hard Mode Boss, the intelligence it showed before was gone. Their movements went slower and the skills and techniques they exhibit were weaker and slower.

"Nevertheless, this is a good thing", Kite silently spoke.

"Alright! Ansel uses a taunt skill and I'll attack from its blind spot. Vanessa will continue raining this boss with arrows." Kite ordered. Ansel was still a kid while Vanessa doesn't like giving instructions, so Kite has no choice but to direct the battle.

They easily surround the boss and delayed a lot of damage. The Hard Mode Boss was so hard to deal with because of its intelligence. It can decide on its own and make sacrifices for his own gain.

Not long after they killed the boss and received a ton of ExP.

| Dungeon, Goblin's Paradise (Hell Mode) is c completed!

Time took to finished it: 35:20:48 (minute, seconds, milliseconds) |

| 12,000 ExP rewarded to all participants in the dungeon clear |

Kite only needed 10 more ExP just to level up. Too bad he needed to kill two or more goblins to level up. Sadly they already completed the whole dungeon.

This Boss loot was a little lacking compared to the Hard Boss' loot. Kite frowned the. he saw all these loots. Hell Mode is clearly more difficult than Hard Mode. Why were the loots only at this amount?

Vanessa noticed Kite reaction and couldn't help but giggle.

"Risk is equal to rewards. The harder it is to complete a quest or to defeat a monster, the bountiful is the rewards when completed it", Vanessa slowly explained.

'So it was like this'. Kite silently mused.

Risk is equal to rewards. So the high the amount of rewards, the harder it is to complete. So that explained his Mythic Quest. The reward was the Death Sword, but its difficulty was at an insane level.

He searched the loots and finally found what he was looking for.

| Hobgoblin King Soul Shard (Hell Mode)

There are three shards in total. You'll obtain it once at every difficulty. Combine the three shards to form the complete soul stone. |

"So how would I combined these shards?" Kite questioned himself.

He took out all the three shards and place them at his palm next to each other. They were different in shape and size but they were still small for him to hold.

When he put those shards next to each other, a system message appeared.

| Three soul shards are detected.

Proceed to combine these shards? |

Kite was surprised for a second before he clicked confirm. He thought that he needed to ask someone with a professional regarding stones like those alchemists. Luckily he didn't need to waste time and money to combine these shards.

The shards glowed and floated mystically. They circled each other mid-air and released a bright green light in all directions. After a while, the shards combined and formed a complete diamond-shaped soul stone.

It was dark green in color. Kite took it and used inspect to check its status.

| Hobgoblin King Soul Stone (Consumable)

Soul Stone of one of Jax's creations. Can be consumed to permanently add 20 Status Points to Vitality. |