164 Suffering through Hell
"Hold on for a bit longer!" Samar ordered Romero as he watched the rampaging Special Elite monster of Silver Grass Valley, Unihorn Rhino, charge towards Romero's shield once again.
The tankers internal organs were in a mess and the pain in his arms holding up the shield was no less than when he had suffered multiple hairline fractures. Despite this, Romero bit his lips as he prepared himself for another head on collision with the Lv 24 monster.
The massive gray figure charged at him, stirring up clouds of dust with its charge. Its massive unihorn was pointed at Romero's shield, ready to use its rushing momentum to punch through it.
Every moment was charged with tension, as the collision finally happened. With a loud bang, The Rhino's unihorn collided with Romero's Steel Tower Shield.
The initial impact made a small hole in the shield but as the weight of Rhino's body caught up, the Shield quickly crumpled as a dent the size of the monster's face formed on it. As the shield gave in, Romero experienced what was true hell!
"Aarrrghh!"
His guttural yell of pain echoed through the valley as he was sandwiched between the humongous body of the Unihorn Rhino and the cliff wall. He felt as if every bone in his body had broken and he almost bit off his tongue with pain.
Nonetheless, his pain was worth it as a ding sounded in his ears.
[You have endured extreme pain. You have unlocked Hidden Stat - Endurance.]
[Endurance +1]
Romero showed a thumbs up to Samar, signaling their success, even as the Rhino grinded him against the wall.
"Poh, heal him," Samar commanded, knowing his plan succeeded. "BigSoftie, Stivi, Zamir take care of the Rhino."
With this success, Samar's hellish training camp came to an end. In the past two days, his teammates had suffered pain and frustration like never before.
Poh, Mochi and Hardbro had faced Vine Centipedes who used Mana Toxins that made controlling Mana harder, a bane of Magic Class. They were merely Lv21 creatures, which any of the three could easily kill but Samar forced them to ingest the Mana Toxin.
What happened next was enough to give them nightmares for a few days. Hardbro was fine as he switched to close combat mode and thwacked the Serpents using his Staff like a stick but Mochi and Poh felt helpless.
As the slimy Vine Centipedes crawled towards them, neither managed to cast any of their spells and were forced to endure the painful bites of the critters.
The experience was so harrowing for them that even Mochi and Poh, who had never swore before, could not help but hurl curses at Samar. The death they longed for never came as Samar killed all the Vine Centipedes as soon as their lives were in danger.
Just a few hours of this disgusting and frustrating training, forcefully improved the Mana Manipulation abilities of the trio. Poh and Mochi learned the passive, Mana Management, which allowed them to reduce the expenditure of Mana while improving their channeling abilities.
Hardbro did not learn the same passive but he beat the centipedes enough times to create his own melee combat skill using a Magic Staff. The big troll named the skill 'Magic Thwack', leaving everyone on the team speechless.
While Samar accompanied others to train, he gave Zamir a training plan and trusted him to complete it on his own. Zamir had to stay within the attack range of the Red-Feather Hawk, a Rare-Elite monster, without getting discovered for an hour.
This training plan Samar devised could be said to be simple but it wasn't as it tested the patience and skill of a player.
Even Zamir, a veteran, failed numerous times as it was not an easy feat to achieve. However, when he did succeed, he felt the efforts were worth it. He received an incredible reward for his efforts, a title {Shadow under the Lamp}.
The title enhanced the effectiveness of his Stealth skills and abilities by 150%. If he was in the target's attack range and was still not discovered by the target after 30 seconds, he could see the Target's Critical points, one of which could even be a Lethal point!
This was such an overpowered title that Zamir did not regret wasting his five hours shadowing the Red Feather Hawk at all. After he met up with the team, they set off to the Sanctum of Sages in Panjal City.
—--
A light flashed as Kross appeared before the statue of Spirit Sword Arval. Zorkan was waiting for him before the statue, his eyes filled with anticipation.
"Did you succeed?"
The moment Kross appeared before him, words left his mouth but just a glance at his friend's disappointed face was enough to let him know the answer- He definitely had not succeeded.
Kross shook his head and confirmed Zorkan's suspicion. He punched the stone pedestal in frustration, his anger getting the better of him. He had used up two chances and was left with only one attempt.
Yet, he had still not figured out a way to survive Arval's Spirit Berserk skill. Without a way to pass the test, Kross could only say goodbye to Spirit Sword's Legacy.
"Maybe I am meant to be a mediocre Warblade…" Kross muttered, suffering from the despair of defeat.
Zorkan could not bear to see his friend drowning in despair. As a last resort, he mentioned Samar's offer. "If you cannot figure out a way alone, maybe that person can help you."
"You said he was suspicious," Kross said, narrowing his eyes at Zorkan.
"Well he did help us out of nowhere…." Zorkan said with exasperation.
Zorkan and Kross had been solicited by many teams and guilds since they left Magha City. Many of those offers were less of a courtship and more of a coercion from affiliated guilds or unranked guilds.
They had fallen prey to some and suffered quite some losses. Since then, they became much more suspicious of unsolicited and unwarranted help.
They did not know that Samar had only stepped in back then because they had been dragged into his conflict with Grandeur. The words that angered them had, in fact, been directed at him.
If they knew they would not have been so suspicious of Samar and would have gladly accepted his help. However, the offer had already expired and they could not reverse time to go back and take it unless Samar gave them a second chance.
"Doesn't matter," Kross cut him off, before Zorkan could list the same reasons again. The Twin Sword looked at the towering statue of Arval looming over his head and laughed depressedly, saying, "Even if he was not suspicious, can he help me clear the trial in just one attempt?"
Just as he said it, a team arrived near the Statue of Tier 4 Combat King, Suryon. It attracted the attention of two friends because it consisted of six people and three of them were even Tier 2.
Leading the team was the person they were talking about. They were unsure of how to react to this person.
On the one hand, he was their benefactor but on the other hand they had rejected his kindness due to their suspicion. Finally, they settled on a nod and a smile but it seemed like he hadn't even taken a notice of their presence.
They saw him turn to one of his team members, presumably a mage who was going to undertake the Solangelist Suryon's Trial.
"Remember, you trained for this and there is no way you will fail." They heard him say to the Elementalist in the red robes and watched him disappear into the trial space.
Then without throwing the two of them so much as a second glance, they saw Samar lead his team deeper into the Hero Memorium, towards the rows of Tier 5 Battle Saints.
After the team left, confusion clouded the faces of the two friends.
"Was that a show for us?" Zorkan asked, his paranoia acting up again.
Kross was annoyed by the question. "You are thinking too much!" He barked, "Who would waste a chance to obtain a Legacy just to catch us? Also, if it was meant for us to see, he would've at least ensured we were watching him, right?"
Zorkan simply gave him a look and Kross was silenced. The secret they had discovered did have that much of a value and some more.
"There were six of them. Someone must be paying attention to whether we were watching them or not…?" Zorkan countered, breaking down Kross's argument.
"What do we do then?" Kross finally asked, knowing Zorkan had a point.
"Of course, we follow them," Zorkan declared with finality. "Let's see whether it was a show or they really came for the Legacies."
