Chapter Ninety-One: The Uncharted Land, Part Seven

Ere sat astride Meslamthea, drifting beside Zhao Tianhe, while Artoria remained standing on the ground.

Zhao Tianhe knew the situation was a little awkward, so he hurriedly cast more than a dozen wind-attribute acceleration spells on Artoria, though he still failed to produce any flight magic.

“Protect A-He!” Artoria shouted, charging straight at Zork.

Zhao Tianhe had been overthinking it. In a situation like this, who would care about such a trivial matter?

Ere summoned two Garula spirits, carrying the two of them as she released the lance she had been bearing, while spear barriers rose up around her.

“Two heroic spirits?! That’s cheating! Heroic spirits summon heroic spirits, and then those heroic spirits summon more, endlessly!” the pillar-like Zork somehow barked, though it was impossible to tell by which part of its body it was speaking.

But as Artoria rushed forward, the black sludge around the pillar began spewing out countless arms to seize her.

The invisible greatsword in Artoria’s hand began to turn into a colossal pillar of wind, while immense magical power surged from her body as though made tangible.

The next instant, she vanished in a burst of speed.

A passage opened in the tide of black mud, and at the far end, the lower half of Zork’s body now had a gaping wound more than two meters across.

The bounded field of the wind king dispersed, and the holy sword in Artoria’s hand revealed its true form.

The towering pillar-like monster, pierced through, lurched and crashed to the ground, sending black sludge surging in every direction.

That earlier thrust had not caused much damage; wind-attribute attacks were not especially effective against elemental types.

So Artoria had not hesitated to unleash the wind king’s barrier directly, all for the light-attribute damage carried by the holy sword.

With an upward slash, the pressure of the sword carved a fissure through the surging black tide, but the next moment even more black mud became countless arms lunging for Artoria.

Yet Artoria’s outfit shifted into a swimsuit, and with a light tap of her foot she shot backward as if gliding across ice, all while raising the water gun in her hand and firing.

The golden holy bullets worked beautifully against the black sludge; each shot blasted away a great mass of it.

At the same time, Ere’s self-destructing Garula spirits sprang into action as well. Bird-shaped familiars and lances plunged into the black mud, purifying huge swaths of it.

Zork also understood that the key was probably to kill Zhao Tianhe, so it was secretly using that earlier black-mud rain attack from above.

But the problem was, if its all-out attack over such a vast area had been useless before, how could it possibly work now?

Thus, a giant black-mud hand reached out.

The others thought it was about to unleash some devastating move, and hurriedly widened the distance while hammering the hand with all their might, but the hand kept pouring out more sludge until it suddenly plunged into its own body.

The three of them all found it a little strange, but none dared ease up on their attacks for a moment.

The next instant, the black sludge abruptly gathered together, taking on a humanoid shape, becoming the form of Old Barton, who raised his monstrous face to the sky and roared!

Zhao Tianhe could see that Old Barton’s body was only two-thirds of its previous size, and its height was already under twenty meters.

But compared to the earlier, relatively gentle attacks of black sludge, this Old Barton form, with its extraordinary offense and defense and lightning-fast rush speed, was indeed far more troublesome.

“All-out assault!” Zhao Tianhe shouted, while in his own hands he unleashed his limit attack: Resistance Weakening x40!

The price was that his entire back was soaked through with blood, but this time he had triggered two fourth-tier spells in one go.

Intermediate Slowness and Intermediate Shattering: the former greatly reduced Old Barton’s speed, while the latter caused any injury it suffered to worsen immediately.

Artoria switched directly into the Holy Sword Wielder form, her magical power bursting forth at full force, so that even the light radiance of the holy sword in her hand seemed to grow brighter.

With a flash of motion, the holy sword’s brilliance left a streak of light in Zhao Tianhe’s eyes, and he could not even make out Artoria’s own movements at all.

It was not enough for Zhao Tianhe to have sharp senses; if his agility attribute was lacking, his reaction speed still could not keep up.

A massive wound a full meter deep was carved open at the ankle of Old Barton’s right leg, and under the curse’s effect that wound had already begun to spread and crack apart...

The giant monster roared and swung a fist at Artoria, only to have her, in her burst state, brace directly against it!

The terrifying force drove Artoria’s feet into the ground, with dust and debris flying everywhere, and a ring-shaped shockwave erupted from the point where fist and sword met.

The difference in their sizes was enormous, making the scene all the more shocking, like a mouse holding off a tiger’s paw!

But even more outrageous was the fact that Artoria gave a fierce shout and actually shoved Old Barton’s fist aside, sending the monster staggering and forcing its right foot to step back!

The next moment, the ground beneath Artoria exploded apart. She shot upward in a leap, the holy sword cutting into Old Barton’s right waist and then slashing all the way up to the left shoulder. The terrifying force directly sent the giant horror, more than ten meters tall, crashing to the ground!

If the holy sword had not been too short, this strike might well have cleaved Old Barton cleanly in two!

“How is this possible?! Why is the heroic spirit they summoned still this strong?! This is practically a top-tier S-plus potential heroic spirit!” Zork stumbled backward, wondering if it had made a mistake. Taking on the battle in Old Barton form seemed to have made the end even worse!

Artoria landed on the ground and switched back into the Archer King form, then opened the distance and began kiting. The brief burst of magical power just now had already drained her mana completely!

But while she had been beating down Old Barton, Ere’s preparations had also been completed.

The spear barriers around Ere shattered one by one, turning into pure mana that poured into her body. The mana stored within those barriers could temporarily raise Ere’s mana cap, and radiance began to stream from her body, making her appear even more dazzling, like a goddess.

Though, to be fair, she really was a goddess.

The radiance around Ere faded in the next instant, and a dim red glow and heat began to pour from the shaft of Meslamthea, as though it had just been hauled from molten steel. It was not blinding, but merely looking at it made one feel it would burn the skin...

“Meslamthea... Great Impact!” Ere lifted her right hand high and swept it down toward Old Barton.

The lance thrust toward Old Barton. It was not fast, but the power contained within it made even the fallen monster feel a chill of dread.

But how could Zork simply sit and wait for death? Ignoring the wounds on its body as they continued to crack open, it struggled fiercely to rise, bringing both hands together to seize the terrifying lance.

“Submit to judgment,” Ere said coldly, looking down at Old Barton’s movements with contempt.

Streams of red light surged out from the joined palms, dyeing those giant hands a deep crimson...

Boom!

With a violent explosion, Old Barton’s clasped palms burst apart!

“Continue.” Five more spear barriers materialized around Ere once again.

“You lot! Don’t think you’ve already won!” Zork’s true body poked out from Old Barton’s forehead.

The giant monster’s right ankle had already been completely shattered from the strain just now, and the severed places at both hands and the wounds across its body were still cracking apart. The curse had greatly amplified the damage, and the Old Barton form had already collapsed.

More importantly, Zork could no longer change forms. Old Barton’s hands were unusable, leaving it unable to assume the corresponding stance needed to activate its abilities.

“I...”

Before Zork could finish, a burst of shots scattered its black mist body. Artoria looked at it with a cold expression. For a villain who harmed children without restraint, she would show neither mercy nor courtesy.

There was no need for words. Kill it, and be done.

Old Barton fell to his knees, its body slowly cracking apart, finally dissolving into a mass of black fog that faded away, leaving behind a heap of nightmare jars and a strange crystal.

Artoria and Ere looked at the jars with some puzzlement, but Zhao Tianhe knew the situation was bad and only told them to run quickly.

The nightmare jars on the ground were drawing in energy from the dungeon, slowly transforming into all kinds of monsters. Another massacre was about to begin.

But even Zhao Tianhe could not stop it. Seated atop a Garula spirit shaped like a whale, he looked down at the octagonal crystal in his hand, multicolored and radiating a dense spiritual glow, and swallowed hard.

Holy quartz, special item

Function 1: When used actively, instantly restores all life and mana to all allied heroic spirits and to the user as well, healing all injuries and removing all status effects. The item disappears after use.

Function 2: Every three Holy Quartz can be used to perform one gacha pull.

Function 3: Every thirty Holy Quartz can be used to perform one ten-pull gacha draw.

By rights, Holy Quartz was even more precious than summoning tickets, because in the actual game a single pull had almost no chance of yielding an SSR; only a ten-pull using Holy Quartz could do so.

'As for the summon rates, mine are all SSRs anyway, so even if this changes into Holy Quartz there probably won’t be any difference. But using it for summons would be far too wasteful. Function one basically gives the whole team another life! In the game that would be a loss, but in the real world this is absolutely a massive profit!' Zhao Tianhe recalled that in the past he had never spent quartz to clear the game; even if he could not get past a stage, he would simply turtle for three days and then use Command Seals to settle it.

But now he had no Command Seals, so the survival function of this Holy Quartz was far too important.

And, most critically, this item had no cooldown. If he had infinite Holy Quartz, would that not mean the whole team had infinite lives?

Zhao Tianhe looked at the Holy Quartz in his hand and slowly merged it into his body; only through his system could this thing be used.

“That thing was the dungeon boss, right?” Artoria asked in confusion. “It’s already been dealt with, so why hasn’t anything changed here?”

“I’m not sure.” Zhao Tianhe thought for a moment and said, “It should be something like a clone. Right—let’s go check over there...”

Zhao Tianhe led the way, taking Ere through the hall to the place where Eliza had previously been discarded by Zork.

If they wanted to understand the rules of this dungeon, it would be easier to ask the native inhabitants here.

'Only, I wonder what condition Eliza is in now. Is she still conscious? But since even Zork had no choice but to toss her out, that means she won’t be easily brainwashed into awakening either.' With two wives protecting him now, Zhao Tianhe naturally no longer feared being slapped to death by Eliza.