Chapter 310

Ascendance (XI)

Fire raged across the ragged surface, with the Mana-infused limbs flattening and turning limp by dozens every second, yet still seemingly rebirthing beneath the ground, more and more of them sprawling toward the group. While the twins managed to inflict some damage on the main mass, they were quickly denied by a heaving wall that erupted from around the mass, encasing it within a thick, black-suffused cocoon.

While Quinn struggled to wade through the vine-like infestation of Mana-infused limbs, Cain remained afloat in the sky, observing the creature. Its offense was, well, for lack of a better word pathetic. Though it cast a wide net with its limbs, even when Quinn got hit, she barely registered it.

Defense, on the other hand, was extremely strong. However, Cain immediately spotted the faltering point--the creature had finite Mana. As such, so long as they cut through its limbs, eventually, it would simply run out of them while its main body would stand completely exposed in the open.

However, even after cutting through the limbs for nearly ten minutes without stopping, it didn’t seem as though the number of them diminished by a whole lot. Though the quality of the creature’s Mana was subpar, evidenced by the fact that it simply never managed to cut through Cain’s outward Mana shield, the sheer quantity was...

“... fuckin’ insane,” Cain mumbled, sucking in a cold breath. Just the amount the creature spent so far eclipsed Cain’s total Mana pool by about a hundred at the very least. If the boss difficulty was gauged entirely by the Mana reserves, Cain held no doubt that the abomination of flesh and Mana in front of him would have ranked among the top-brass, as even the Guardians of 60 and up floors didn’t breach a million Mana--that only became the case just before the 70th floor.

However, the sheer quantity was wasted--the creature didn’t know how to actually use it, at least not properly. It stored it and grew new flesh through it, but that was about it. It didn’t even know how to strengthen that flesh as to make it harder to cut through it.

It was even slightly sad, Cain mused; after all, if he had such reserves... well, it would be a repeat on what happened during the second floor. Just before he got nerfed into oblivion.

Despite the seeming ease of the battle, Cain quickly realized the problem: though the creature’s attacks were slow and languid and incredibly easy to dodge, if they actually did hit... they packed a major punch. Furthermore, Conquerors weren’t like it--they had finite Mana reserves and, especially in this world, those reserves regenerated painfully slowly.

As such, even after cutting through it for almost twenty minutes, Quinn still looked worse for wear than the creature itself. Cain himself just maintained the distracting rain, occasionally firing off a few extra skills. There was no need for him to stand out just yet, not to mention that he wasn’t the group’s main attacker--he was just the support. And he was very good playing the part.

One thing he noticed, however, was that... nobody talked. Not because there was that much hate among them, but because everyone knew their assignments. It was a strange experience for Cain as he’d always have to coordinate the group, even after they improved considerably.

In this case, however, Quinn knew exactly what to tank, what to dodge, what to parry, where to move... tanks like her, Cain mused, were worth more than ten good damage dealers. The ability to dictate the pace and the nature of the battle was something that every tank eventually had to learn, but the level to which she mastered it was still quite superb.

On the other side, the twins were just as good--Cain was tempted several times to espouse commands only to bite his tongue as the twins made even better decisions. Knowing when to go in, when to retreat, when to take a hit in order to deal considerable damage... it felt like vacationing, he mused, battling alongside those three.

Is this the standard? He mused inwardly. Though he never got to see the top-tier tanks in his previous life go all-out, he’d seen the rough edges of what they’re capable. And though Quinn was hardly going all-out at the moment, she still appeared more refined than they did.

Cain was well aware that beyond just the levels and the items and the raw stats and skills that come with climbing the Tower, the most important aspect of actually climbing was refining the most basic skillset--the very root concepts of what made each class unique. The holy trinity would eventually seem almost pointless as more and more bosses would just completely ignore the concept of aggro and simply fight like people would, yet, the groups never dropped either tanks or healers.

One of the lessons he hoped the group would pick up in his absence was the fact that the ‘holy trinity’ remains the foundation of a good party. Even here, though technically there were no healers, Cain took upon himself the role of a support. And even though the creature often ignored aggro and attacked both Cain and the twins, Quinn was still quintessential to the fight--after all, she dictated which attacks went through. Using her cooldowns, she tossed her body in-between them and the creature when the latter attacked with several or even several dozen limbs, while letting through the weak attacks in waiting for her cooldowns.

Even beyond that, she understood something that nobody on Earth did just yet--a tank’s job... wasn’t to tank. In fact, at a certain point, it will become physically impossible to tank as almost every major boss would just flat out be faster than even the speed-focused tanks.

Cain never mentioned anything of the sorts since it would only be counter-productive that early on. Until roughly the 30th floor, the groups would be fine treating the parties in the basic concept--to a certain point, it was even beneficial.

However, noting the differences between the parties... caused a bitter smile to emerge on his face. This wasn’t something he could teach them, after all--these instincts had to be beaten into them as they climbed. But still... judging from how they’re fighting, they must have actually gone even further than the 70s...

“Can you charge a slightly stronger attack?” Quinn suddenly turned toward Cain and asked.

“It’s still not close to dying,” Cain replied.

“I know that much,” she rolled her eyes. “But you look so bored.”

“I am bored.”

“Then do it.”

“I don’t want to intervene with our lovely twins,” Cain said. “And kick them out of rhythm.”

“Don’t worry about us,” one of the twins replied. “We are also curious.”

“... of course you are,” Cain sighed, charging up a slightly stronger attack. A shine of stars surrounded him for a moment as they spun in several concentric circle before expanding into a colorful, shining blade--without hesitation, Cain sent it hurtling toward the ground, causing a reaction almost instantly.

The creature went from using dozens of limbs at most to immediately summoning out hundreds, all ejected above and aimed at the sword. The limbs met the blade halfway between Cain and the creature, wrapping around it as they all began to either burn or disintegrate. However, with each fallen limb, the blade lost a bit of its shine until, eventually, it burned out before even reaching the creature.

Quinn glanced at him and rolled her eyes while Cain shrugged, as though saying ‘well, I tried’. However, despite not landing a ‘direct’ hit, Cain still did considerable damage simply by burning through so many limbs.

“Hm?” he frowned, sensing a faint, but abrupt change in Mana. Looking around, he realized that neither Quinn nor the twins had realized anything was amiss as they continued battling the creature.

“Stupid human, it’s dangerous! Dangerous!” Te’gha suddenly appeared on Cain’s shoulder, shaking slightly. “Run!”

Cain had a nanosecond to make a choice and he made it--he immediately used ‘Blink’ seven times in succession to create a major gap between him and the creature. Just as he was halfway to his destination, a burning pillar of black light erupted, swallowing the world and causing all of the surrounding buildings to start shaking and collapsing.

He could hear sudden cries of pain in the distance, though couldn’t afford much sympathy for either the twins or Quinn as he wasn’t out of danger himself. He saw black clouds expand as though pushed by a world-altering wind, reaching toward him.

Just as he finished the last Blink, the clouds stopped--some few inches in front of him, seemingly having reached their limits. Cain couldn’t see past them--in fact, from the outside, they looked like completely normal, albeit thunderous and stormy clouds. They had no Mana footprint.

His back doused in sweat, his instincts finally settling after screeching at him that he was in danger, he remained frozen in position for several seconds as he watched the black cloud contract, eventually disappearing. In its wake... there was nothing. Not the city, not the cliffs, not the creature, and not even Quinn or the twins. There was just a gaping void of rocks stacked together, creating a landscape of sorts.

“... what the fuck was that?” he mumbled, wiping his forehead. “Te’gha, do you know what that was?”

“Humph, great Te’gha knows everything!”

“...”

“...”

“... except this?”

“I--I know something! It was Chaos! Yes, Chaos! A bit of Chaos... I think. Humph, stupid human! Figure something out yourself!”

“... well, there are two possibilities,” Cain mumbled, flying over to where they were just fighting. “Either it’s some natural phenomenon... or a creature. Creature, most-likely. Nature wouldn’t consciously hide its presence so precisely.”

Looking around and noting that there was nothing to really investigate, Cain frowned. Even if Quinn and the twins were outmatched, it was unlikely they’d just keel over and die--it was especially unlikely as both definitely had life-saving items, just as he had.

“Oh well, I’ll figure it out later,” he mumbled. “For now, let’s find someplace quiet, eat, and replenish my Mana. This world... isn’t so simple, it seems.”