Chapter 100: The Stone and the Starlight - Last Part

The sun was rising from the east. The early rays of light woke many creatures from their slumber to encounter their new day. Sila, too, woke up under the warm sunlight. A big blanket fell from his body.

"When did I fall asleep?" Sila thought as he had never fallen asleep unintentionally before, except when he was very exhausted.

"Are you awake, Sila? Then, please prepare yourself," Sangdao said. She was still sitting on the rock near the extinguished bonfire. Lookhin was still asleep on her lap.

Sila scratched his head, asking, "When did I doze off?"

"A few hours ago. Dao was telling you about a constellation called Orion. Dao guesses that it must be quite a boring topic so Sila dozed off." Sangdao stroke Lookhin"s feathers gently.

"I"m sorry. I am usually not like this."

"Dao doesn"t mind. It"s good that Sila had a good sleep since we will have to travel through the Misty Valley all day today."

Sila brushed away the dust on his body and picked up the blanket. "Is this blanket yours, Dao?"

Sangdao nodded. She took it back and kept it inside her system window. "Yes, it"s mine. Sila looked like you were cold so I covered you with it."

"Was I really that defenseless? If Dao was my enemy, I would already be dead. Or is her ability too great to the point that she can cover me with a blanket without me sensing?"

Sangdao slightly moved her body, waking Lookhin. It rubbed its head with Sangdao"s hand and intentionally didn"t look at Sila.

"Hmmm, Lookhin, what"s wrong with you again?"

Sangdao giggled. "Maybe it"s still sulking about its food. Sila will have to reconcile with it when you have a chance."

Sila nodded and readied himself for the journey. He thought to himself that he would find a good card to feed it.

The Misty Valley was the habitat of the Eight-Legged Spider King, the king of the spiders. It was a hundred-meter wide mountain pa.s.s which was always covered by mist, reducing the visibility of travelers.

There were several spiderwebs stretching between the valleys. However, with Sila"s and Sangdao"s ability, they could continue their travel without having to touch these spider webs.

Nevertheless, even though they didn"t touch the webs directly, the displaced air caused by their movements had vibrated the webs. Some Squire Rank spider monsters crawled out, but both Sila and Sangdao didn"t bother to fight them. For the record, Lookhin was now flying following Sangdao instead of Sila.

"Stop," Sangdao suddenly said and Sila immediately complied. However, Lookhin didn"t stop. It flew restlessly above Sila and Sangdao"s heads. Its body continued to emit qi, magic, and psychic powers.

"Lookhin stop, come down here," Sila called. He sensed that this place was not safe. Lookhin being out in the open while their opponents were hiding was a very foolish action.

A system alert could be heard..

You have accidentally encountered Eight-Legged Spider King Aramut, Marquis Rank, Level 500, the hidden boss of the Misty Valley. If you are killed by the Eight-Legged Spider King, you will lose all money and items in your possession.

Sila started his qi circulation and became more vigilant. Despite the system informing them about their encounter with the king of spiders, he still couldn"t see even a part of it. Even with the power of Galaxy Eclipse, Sila still couldn"t pinpoint its location. This was the first time Sila had faced an opponent like this.

Sangdao, too, was surprised. She had used this Misty Valley"s route for many times but she had never met the spider king even once. The chance of encountering hidden bosses was very rare, and the chance of encountering Aramut was among the rarest.

The chance of encountering Aramut being so low indicated that it must be a very powerful monster, or at least a monster with a strong, peculiar technique. Otherwise, it wouldn"t be the boss of the Misty Valley.

Lookhin still flew irritably on the sky. Sila shouted at it again.

"Lookhin stop, and come down here immediately!"

However, Lookhin didn"t comply with his order. It even unleashed more of its power.

"The bird race is a nemesis of the spider race, Sila. Lookhin knows that its enemy is near so it won"t come down easily," Sangdao replied while looking for the enemy.

That wasn"t the only reason that Lookhin didn"t obey Sila though. Taming a skilled monster was originally harder than taming an undeveloped one. Not only did Lookhin have a higher level than Sila, but its love degree was also low. Sila didn"t even possess any accessory with an ability to make him tame monsters easier like the ones Francine had. Now, Lookhin didn"t even use its Mind Connection with Sila. The only reason that it sometimes obeyed Sila was that Sila had raised it since it was a baby bird.

The sound of something crawling could be heard from every direction. All sizes of spiders ranging from tiny ones to ones as big as humans creeped out, surrounding Sila and Sangdao. The amount of psychic power emitted from them was too complicated for the two of them to spot which one of spiders was their king.

"It"s Perfect Mind Concealment. Please be careful," Sangdao said.

Perfect Mind Concealment was exactly like its name. It was a skill that completely allowed the user to blend with nature. The user of this skill might stand in front of the enemy without being sensed.

Like a small pebble on the side of the street. People could see it, but they didn"t care.

So, it was positive to say that Sila and Sangdao could only wait for the Spider King to attack them first to pinpoint its location.

The spiderwebs created by psychic power formed walls and became thicker. Instead of initiating the attack, the Spider King chose to cut off its enemies" escape route first. This action indicated that the Spider King was an intelligent monster and its ability to give commands and have its minions carry them out was flawless.

Many enemies of his race had appeared. How could Lookhin resist the temptation to go on a rampage?

It concentrated its magic power and summoned a hundred Swords from the Underworld to spin around it. The heat from the swords caused the spiderwebs to dehydrate and become brittle. However, all the spiders shot more spiderwebs in unison to recreate the walls. Some of the spiders also shot the spiderwebs at Lookhin.

Lookhin quickly swooped around, dodging the spiderwebs, and controlled the flame swords to strike the spiders. Nevertheless, every time a spider fell on the ground, another one would emerge and replace the fallen one"s position.

More spider webs stretched through the gap between the valleys, lowering the s.p.a.ce for Lookhin to dodge without it realizing.

Sila began to feel restless. Although he thought he could fight the spiders, given the number of them, he was very worried about Lookhin.

Sila used Cruise Breeze to shoot the power of Tortured Soul at the walls of spiderwebs. Some of them were frozen while some of them burnt down. However, his qi didn"t have any effect on the spiderwebs in crucial positions. It seemed to him that they were reinforced with great psychic power.

He had tried firing hidden weapons at several spiders, but the end result was the same as what Lookhin had done. Every time a spider died, another one would emerge and replace the fallen one"s duty without disturbing their tempo. Sila noticed that so he stopped uselessly firing his hidden weapons.

The spiders slowly but surely tightened the circle around their prey. It was natural for them to wait until their prey, who got caught in their webs, to stop the useless struggle before starting their meal.

Sangdao hadn"t performed any attack since the start of the battle. She just stood still, calming her mind like a lake without any ripples, to search for a single spider within a group of thousands.

The Spider King seemed to be able to sense that Sangdao was its most dangerous opponent. It ordered its subordinates to attack Sangdao to disturb her. Thousands of spiders slowly crawled to Sangdao.

"Sila, please prevent them from coming near me. Dao needs to focus on finding the location of the Spider King," she said before closing her eyes without waiting for Sila"s reply.

Sila didn"t have time to delay. He activated Galaxy Eclipse and used his quick wit to form two layers. The first layer was an empty s.p.a.ce with a ten-meter radius around Sangdao, while the second was fused with his maximum output of flame power of Tortured Soul.

Creating a gap within a power sphere was difficult beyond what ordinary players could do. One couldn"t perform such a feat with only G.o.d"s Cathedral or only Ray a.s.semble. To be able to do that, one needed to possess the power of Galaxy Eclipse which was the combination of the two mentioned above. Sila also needed to split his concentration to use Tortured Soul, so it was already his best to maintain the ten-meter empty radius around Sangdao.

The small spiders were instantly burnt into crisp at the moment they entered the power sphere. However, they kept marching forward and compensated the loss with their quant.i.ty. They advanced closer to Sangdao, though very slowly.

As for Lookhin, its fatigue started to kick in. Controlling hundreds of swords required a tremendous amount of concentration. Not to mention that, compared to other energy points, Lookhin had the least psychic points. It had to delicately control the sword and dodge the attacks from all directions so it wasn"t strange that it felt dead tired.

If it had supportive skills, it might be able to regenerate its energy or relieve its fatigue during the battle. However, it didn"t have them.

Lookhin lost its balance for a brief moment. Unfortunately for it, the Spider King didn"t miss that chance. Hundreds of spiders simultaneously shot their spiderwebs to Lookhin.

The spiderwebs covered Lookhin"s body, causing it to fall down. However, Lookhin quickly froze the spiderwebs and used qi to break it from inside.

Sadly, in the heated battle, once you"ve lost the tempo, you lose the entire fight. As soon as Lookhin broke itself free from the ball of spiderwebs, the next set of spider webs were fired at it. The psychic power infused in these spiderwebs was greater than before. Lookhin fell down again before breaking out of them for the second time.

In the blink of an eye, another set of spiderwebs came. They were strengthened by an unusually high amount of psychic power. Lookhin"s power couldn"t hope to freeze nor break them free. Lookhin"s body descended by the force of gravity and slammed on the ground.

Lookhin coughed out blood by the impact. The spiderwebs around it became tighter, crushing its small body. It could no longer breath.

In the same instant that Lookhin crashed with the ground, Sangdao flicked her right hand to fire her black kunai to the direction that the current spiderwebs were shot at Lookhin. The kunai stabbed her target promptly. Even Sila couldn"t follow its trajectory.

The middle-sized spider who shared a similarity with the rest of the spiders cried out once the kunai stabbed into its head. As Sila noticed that it didn"t die from Sangdao"s qi-reinforced hidden weapon, he realized that it was Aramut, the Eight-Legged Spider King.

Aramut"s body turned pitch black and its size doubled. Eight of its eyes stared intensely at Sangdao, full of vengeance. Since its location was exposed, there was no reason for it to play around. It ordered the surrounding spiders to charge at the two.

Sila dispersed his power around Sangdao and entered the stance for fighting in close range. At the moment that he was ready to battle the spiders, Sangdao said something to him.

"Sila, you go and defeat the boss. I will take care of them here."

As Sila was more proficient in fighting one-on-one, he didn"t decline nor reply to Sangdao and quickly dashed to Aramut.

A terrifying number of spiders came at the two. However, all that the spiders could see was a white flash of light. The flash from the Chinese sword overwhelmed all beings in Sangdao"s attack range.

Even with the help of their eight eyes, the spiders still couldn"t clearly see their enemy. The flash of light dispersed. it was at the same time that their eyes became lifeless and their body turned into pillars of light.

As for Sila who was charging at Aramut, he cleverly created a sphere of qi on his right hand with Galaxy Eclipse, made it hot with Tortured Soul, and pushed it away with Cruise Breeze. The concept behind this move was: since he could create a sphere with an empty core to protect Sangdao inside, wouldn"t he be able to create a sphere without him having to be its center?

The sphere of qi flew toward Aramut and stopped at its legs. The heat on the sphere caused the surrounding spiders to die. However, Aramut itself seemed to be unaffected.

Sila used Twelve Celestial-Traveling-Steps to pa.s.s through the group of spiders and approached Aramut. Once he was ten meters away from it, he instantly activated his newly acquired Universe Reversal and pulled himself toward Aramut.

Caring for Sangdao and Lookhin"s safety, he couldn"t afford to spend a long time fighting Aramut. Sila"s right fist was clad in qi reinforcement and Genesis Punch. He quickly threw it at Aramut.

A small crater one inch deep appeared where Sila hit Aramut with Genesis Punch, crushing the carapace and turning that section of it to dust. Aramut cried out in pain and counterattacked Sila with its fangs. A pair of its fangs was about to dig into Sila"s left arm.

Sila clad his left arm with qi reinforcement and Formless Soldier. However, the fangs still dug into his arm. Sila now realized that he had underestimated this Eight-Legged Spider King.

The difference between Aramut and the dragons was the size. The smaller the size, the quicker the monster is and the more efficient its energy reinforcement is. The Genesis Punch that had blown the dragon"s tail to bits could only create a one-inch crater in Aramut"s carapace due to how quickly it put up its defense. The fangs were the same. Like Varee who specialized in activating psychic reinforcement in the blink of an eye, Aramut could quickly exert more power into its fangs the instant they dug into Sila"s arm.

A deadly poison entered Sila"s body from his left arm, causing him to feel cold. Shapeless Qi immediately activated by itself to protect his body.

Sila pulled his right arm back and threw another Genesis Punch at Aramut.

This time, Aramut saw the punch coming so it had more time to put up its defense. The Eight-Legged Spider King clad its body with psychic reinforcement. It was the first time that Sila"s Genesis Punch didn"t work at all on the target. His right fist bounced off as soon as it connected with a powerful psychic reinforcement.

"I can"t defeat it in a direct fight, I need to adapt." Sila didn"t have time to panic. He changed his fighting method and controlled the freezing power of Tortured Soul to enter Aramut"s body via its own fangs that were still dug into his left arm.

Aramut"s body shook with a freezing sensation. Sila saw the chance and threw his third Genesis Punch at it on the same spot. Aramut"s body shook heavily with pain, though no external injury could be seen. It released its fangs on Sila"s arm and shot a web strand backward, pulling itself away from Sila.

Sila didn"t follow nor keep his eyes on it. He just activated Unblemished Aqua to detoxify the poison from his body. The black, sticky blood gradually flew out of his wounds.

Meanwhile, Aramut clad itself with psychic reinforcement, preparing for the next round. However, its body mysteriously shook once and the strength left its body.

Blood seeped through all eight of its eyes. Aramut collapsed on the ground. Although it didn"t die yet, it could no longer move. All of its eyes were staring at Sila, giving off the impression that the spider wanted to ask him how he did it, for several seconds before it finally turned into a white light.

The system sound alerted.

You have defeated Eight-Legged Spider King Aramut, Marquis Rank, Level 500. You have received 400,000,000 experience points, 30,000 gold, (A) Eight-Legged Spider King Card 1 EA, (A) Sky Silk 1 EA, and (B) Spider King"s Poison 1 EA.

Your Level has risen to 945.

Player Sangdao has defeated Eight-Legged Spider King Aramut, Marquis Rank, Level 500.Player has received 4,000,000,000 experience points, 10,000 gold, and (B) Spider King"s Fang 1 EA.

Sila released a sigh of relief. That last punch was him testing his luck.

Sila had once sent his qi to invade to Shueria"s body without Shueria noticing and then waited for the qi to explode from within. This time, he utilized this very same idea.

With him realizing that he wouldn"t be able to compete against Aramut in a battle of pure energy reinforcement, he tried using Universe Reversal to send the power of Genesis Punch into Aramut"s body. He didn"t think that it would work beautifully on his first try.

Sila didn"t know that sending Genesis Punch to damage the opponent from within was not something even Poluk had ever done. It was contrary to Poluk"s straightforward nature.

The experiment this time allowed Sila to build a unique style of Genesis Punch for himself. Even though it was still a mere idea, he was a step closer to adapting the skills of others for himself.

Sangdao placed her Chinese sword inside the sheath and intended to help Sila detoxify the poison but it seemed like Sila could do that himself, as he sat on a giant rock and started qi circulation. So, she gently carried Lookhin and put it down on her lap before transmitting her qi to heal its injuries.

Half a day pa.s.sed, but Sila still didn"t exit from his state of meditation. Sangdao was fully aware that she shouldn"t interrupt people who were cultivating so she started to play with Lookhin who was nearby.

Sila didn"t cultivate for a very long time so his body took time to continue adapting itself to his qi.

Night time in the Misty Valley was very quiet. The wind wasn"t strong but it drove away the mist, revealing bright stars in the sky.

At midnight, once starlight shone onto a rock, Sila"s body shook and he finally woke up from his meditation.