Chapter 17 - Piercing Sword Of The Flame Deity

"Die!"

[Piercing Sword of the Flame Deity]!

The flaming sword was stabbed towards one of the legs of the mantis, as it pierced it like butter. Steam began to appear as the stabbed leg sizzled from where the sword was stabbed. The mantis gave a piercing screech that forced its way into everyone's ears. The mantis tried to move its body but for some reason it was unable to, it was as if his body was weighed down by a mountain.

The mantis that still struggled with the net paused. Silence at this moment was everything as the only sound heard was the sizzling of the mantis' flesh. Everyone was focused on this scene, and nothing was happening.

"That's… it?" Someone in the crowd murmured with doubt. If that was all the skill could do then they were doomed, or at least they thought.

Suddenly, Marcos smirked.

"Boom!"

"Screech!"

An explosion was heard coming from the mantis and soon after a strange scene occurred. The mantis was engulfed in flames as it began to swerve its upper body side to side, however, it was unable to move its legs as it was stuck to the ground. It tried to slash towards Marcos with its other blade-like arm, however, as it was about to slash, the flaming intensified and it became stiff.

Niko was unable to move his spirits away as they were easily destroyed by the flames leaving him with only one left. The heat was so strong that Niko and the people near him could feel it themselves. Even the silver net that the mantis couldn't break had disappeared in the flames.

The flames dissipated and the black mantis fell back towards the ground. The grass had disappeared and the ground was hard showing the true strength of the flames.

Marcos fell to the ground as he was extremely tired, seeing this, everyone rushed towards Marcos who was on the ground. His body was completely unaffected by the flames, making everyone relieved. They looked at the bodies of the other people around them with pain in their hearts. Although it was painful seeing this themselves, it was something they were required to get used to.

Marcos began to struggle upwards as he was helped by other people. A smile appeared on Marcos' face as he stared at the black mantis that lay there stiff. People surrounded the mantis and helped Marcos over as well, to look at it. Niko also came over, staring at the corpse with glowing eyes. Niko noticed the items that dropped on top of the mantis. The way that drops appeared was always a nice thing to see, not only because it dropped useful items, but also because it looked dazzling. The items were inside of a translucent cube, probably to protect it from loot stealing. Inside of the translucent cube was a sword that looked exactly like the mantis' arms and it was the length of a normal sword. The sword was completely green, even the hilt with some purple outlines here and there. The blade which curved upwards was extremely shiny showing its sharpness and beauty. Next to the blade was a small bottle, the size of a thumb, which was filled with green liquid and there was also a small blue crystal shard the same size as the bottle. Lastly, there was also a fist-sized sphere which almost looked like a skill, however, it shone in a bluish-white light like a star as it was almost translucent.

"How come loot dropped from this monster but nothing from the ones we have killed?" An older man spoke with curiosity as he looked at the translucent cube.

"Why was that monster so strong!" A woman who was a head taller than Niko spoke out.

Hearing all of this Marcos shook his head and prepared to speak. Everyone faced him as if he was about to spill knowledge from the heavens, " The stronger the monster the better the loot, not only that but this seems like it was one of the many bosses from that jungle layer… Thankfully we killed it… and like I just said that was likely a boss that's why it was so strong."

Marcos freed himself from those trying to support him and moved towards the cube. He crouched and extended his hand towards the cube. His forearm had a black watch that was extremely smooth and without dents. As soon as he moved his hand and watch inside, the watch glowed slightly and all of the items within the cube disappeared except the small sphere.

Marcos grabbed the sphere and looked at the people around him, "This is the object that allows you to raise a skill point in your stats. This item as well as leveling up is the only way to raise the core stats. Ranked monsters will drop them and the higher the rank the more of them there will be."

Marcos then stared at the sphere as it slowly began to dissipate into small orbs of light that were sucked into his body. Marcos looked at the dead mantis and once more at the people, "You all aided me heavily in this battle, and thanks to you all I was able to level up once. I have been stuck at level 11 for five months. The mantis was extremely powerful and thankfully I was able to defeat it. I wish I could give more to you, however, Since you are all new here the exp you all received might have been enough… at least those who helped anyways."

Niko checked his Exp and was shocked to see it skyrocket to 60.11%. Just like that, he was more than halfway through getting to the next level. He was also shocked that it took Marcos 5 months to raise his level, this was something unimaginable.

Marcos wasn't done lecturing as he spoke raising his wrist, "Also, this thing can be very useful. It allows you to store things, create parties and it helps with location drastically, there are many uses for this thing and you'll find them out eventually."

Niko nodded as he knew this already. He looked at the dead mantis with greed, however, he didn't want to use his skill as of yet. There were too many eyes on the mantis at this moment.

Marcos moved over to the mantis and grabbed the blade-like arms of the mantis and lifted it up. He pulled the arm over with power so that it wasn't as coiled as it was before. Surprisingly, the blade of the mantis was completely fine unlike the rest of its body. Marcos looked at the people and pointed at the blade, "When you kill a monster, make sure to take some of their parts. The loots aren't the only good things as you can easily create items with these body parts. This can be made into a sword. Even though it's as big as me, there are still people who yield huge weapons like this, and if you don't want to turn this into a weapon yourself you can always trade or exchange."

Marcos followed up by cutting the blades off of the mantis and storing inside of his watch, "All of the people who have killed those big beetles, for example, you might want to take some of its parts out as it can be extremely useful, especially the horns as it can be turned into a weapon. The carapace can turn into fine armor for your levels and the other parts aren't bad. Try to take the parts you can carry, we will rest here for now and leave as soon as possible."

Niko was surprised. This was something completely different than the games. After killing monsters, they would disappear leaving behind loots and that's that, however, it seems like the loots aren't the only prizes in this world. Looking at everyone heading back, Niko looked at the mantis and per usual used his skill.

[Spirit King's Order]

Like before a green aura surrounded the mantis and a small orb came flying out of it towards Niko.

…

[Name: Giant Mantis Spirit(Rankless) ]

Rank- None

Potential: F-

[Status]

Strength: 1

Constitution: 1

Agility: 2

Intelligence: 0

Mana: 0

Mana Power: 1/1

Spirit Power: 0/50

[Skills]

None

Niko was dumbfounded. The mantis was actually an F-ranked monster! F- was already strong enough but rank F? Incredible.

Seeing the orb floating around Niko, Simon who was staring at it said, "Seriously dude, that skill of yours is damn cool!"

Niko smiled and walked back with his group who stayed with him.