Chapter 143 - 143. Blessing
Seven packs of monkey-type magical beasts to defeat in six weeks of time.
They had all the time needed to carefully plan their approach, they had just to be careful not to cause too much ruckus.
In the end, they chose a simple tactic: Noah would be the bait and expose each leader and the other three students had to kill it.
Then, they would regroup and apply a different combat formation to better exploit the weaknesses of each kind of beasts.
Earth monkeys and Spiked monkeys relied on their bodies so it was better to fight them as a group in a solid and stable formation, using strong attacks to kill each specimen in one strike.
Fire monkeys and Toxic monkeys were adept in spells with a large area of effect, the students chose to fight them separately, dividing the creatures' attention into four different areas.
Wind monkeys and Dwarf monkeys were fast and nimble, Noah and Errol had to stay in the center of their packs to attract their attention while June and Nigel did a pincer attack on them.
The last pack was composed of Enlighted monkeys.
They were not extremely strong but their intelligence was high.
They often ran away seeing that they had no chances of defeating the students from the academy.
The only option of Noah's group was to slowly corner them until all their specimens were dead.
As for why Noah had to play as the bait, it was because his martial art and his blood companion were the most suited to handle large numbers of enemies.
"We are finally done!"
Errol exclaimed happily as he slowly raised his blood-stained mace in the air.
Below him, there was the crushed corpse of the last magical beast of the sixth layer.
"Yes, it's finally over."
Nigel said, releasing a fatigued sigh.
It took them three weeks to kill all the monkeys, these long and constant battles had placed a heavy burden on his mind.
Noah and June were not better off, they too felt extremely tired.
'I wonder if I could have done it alone. With my Demonic form, just this number isn't enough to defeat me. However, I have to consider the amount of mental energy expended in the process.'
Noah analyzed the test and compared its difficulty with his actual battle prowess.
'They won't be able to defeat me but I will probably be exhausted before the last one of them is dead. I guess it's fair since the power of my spell is incredible.'
The inscriptions on the walls of the floor lighted up and converged at the center of the forest.
The trees were tall and their leaves were thick, they could not see the rewards from their position.
"Let's inspect the rewards and then rest for a whole week, I'm afraid that we might face hundreds of peak rank 3 beasts in the next layer."
Nigel spoke and they moved toward the central area.
As they went deeper in the forest though, the density of "Breath" increased drastically, so much that it surpassed even the one of Noah's current accommodation.
"How is this possible? We clearly inspected this zone before."
June spoke and the eyes of the four students sharpened.
When they arrived at the location where the rewards appeared, their mouths unconsciously opened due to their amazement.
On the terrain of the forest, there wasn't the usual pile of items and Credits that they received in the previous three floors.
Instead, a five meters large and four meters tall blue stone was placed on the ground.
Noah had once seen a similar mineral at the bottom of an underground lake.
"That's a "Breath" blessing!"
Noah exclaimed.
'I never thought that they could be this big! Its value should be immense!'
The other three youths stared with wide eyes at the imponent stone.
The density of "Breath" was so high around it that a few drops of "Breath" were slowly accumulating on its surface.
"The concentration is at the point where the "Breath" changes state by itself! My friends, I think that we struck it rich!"
Errol spoke excitedly and moved with his mace to hit the stone.
Noah appeared in front of him and stopped his advance.
"Errol, what are you doing?"
He answered in a confused tone.
"Well, I wanted to divide it so that we can share its frame in our space-rings."
"It will lose value if we divide it, it's better to store it in one piece. I will take it, as the appointed captain for this mission, it's my responsibility to handle such a valuable item."
Nigel spoke from behind him.
"I think you are all underestimating the addiction that he has for cultivation."
June spoke calmly as she sat on the ground near the stone and closed her eyes.
Nigel and Errol looked confusedly at her gesture and then moved their gazes on Noah.
He was smiling slightly as he stared with a fervent gaze the "Breath" blessing.
Sensing that the two students had their eyes on him, he turned and explained what June had already understood.
"Since we cleared the test, we don't have a time limit anymore. The sooner we advance, the sooner we would have to give this precious object to the Royal family. I say that we can cultivate here for a month or so before going in the seventh layer, we are advancing rather quickly anyway."
He then moved his gaze back on the mineral and sat near it.
There was no need to think if it was day or night on the outside world, the limitation in his technique existed only because it was required a higher concentration of "Breath" of the darkness element to make it work.
However, near the mineral, the "Breath" of each element was so abundant that any restriction was pointless.
Noah hastily used his Yin body and his Dark vortex cultivation technique at the same time and began to cultivate.
June was doing the same in the opposite corner of the stone.
Nigel and Errol looked at each other and smiled happily before occupying the other two corners and starting their meditation.
Like that, a month slowly passed in the sixth layer.