CHAPTER 117: Strange Happenings

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While MJ's five corpse integrated monsters were clearing 31st and 32nd trial zones of monsters, Jay reached the 33rd trial zone from Earth's trial zone and there, he found something that he hadn't seen in any trial zone.

The monsters in that trial zone didn't attack him directly like they usually do. That was quite strange because the instinct in their mind tells them to kill any Alpha Chosen they come across.

At least, that was what Jay learned back when he tried to tame the Storm Eagle monster.

Instead, the monsters Jay came across didn't blindly attack him and retreated, sensing that they weren't a match for him.

Jay didn't chase after them to find the reason behind their unusual behaviour right away and instead waited for his weakened state to end since he recently exited the mode.

He hid in a tree's shadow using the skill , one of the hundreds of skills he had in his possession.

It's not like he had merged with every skill he looted but only a few that seemed helpful. Jay left aside the remaining ones, and if he were to come across a situation where he had to use a particular skill, he could always merge with that specific skill and use it to his convenience.

The rare grade skill was something Jay recently obtained when he converged a few uncommon grade skills together using Qew's 1st Innate Exclusive skill, .

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: Enables the user to hide in any shadow. This effect will be disrupted if the user initiates an attack from within the shadow or if the shadow that the user hid in disappears.

Cost: 1 Spirit Energy per minute.

Cooldown: None

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Using this pure stealth-type skill, Jay hid in a tree's shadow and after a few minutes, the same Tier-2 monsters that ran away brought two Tier-3 Low-Phase monsters with them.

They then signalled the Tier-3 monsters, pointing at the location where they had last seen Jay.

This new revelation caught Jay's attention since it was his first time seeing monsters act as subordinates for other monsters and bring in reinforcements when they were outpowered.

The monsters usually collaborate with each other against Alpha Chosen but not to this degree.

Jay stayed still within the tree's shadow as those monsters looked for him. He didn't worry about being found since there weren't any Darkness innate talent monsters among them.

For a while, those monsters searched for Jay, and after not finding any traces of him, they left, but they all dispersed in different directions and continued to search for him.

Meanwhile, Jay had already recovered from his weakened state and even summoned the Shadow Leopard MJ to his location and had it secretly plant 'Shadow Markers' within the shadows of the two Tier-3 Low-Phase monsters to track their movements.

The ability to plant 'Shadow Markers' was from the Spirit Item that was with the Shadow Leopard.

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(Rare Grade): Enables the user to implant a 'Shadow Marker' in the target's shadow to trace their location within a 250 km radius.

No. of traceable targets: 250

Effect: Spirit+50^

Requirements: 80 Spirit

Durability: 100/100

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Thanks to Qew's second innate exclusive skill, , the once Uncommon grade Spirit Item was now upgraded to a Rare grade one, and the range increased from 100 km to 250 along with the number of traceable targets.

Jay had the Shadow Leopard MJ stealthily follow those Tier-3 monsters and observe their every move.

At the same time, he intentionally travelled around, leaving a trail behind, without hiding his presence to catch the attention of the monsters.

That was when the third assessment was about to begin, and Jay had MJ postpone it as he was occupied.

After some time, a few Tier-1 monsters found the traces Jay left and what happened next confirmed his suspicions.

The Tier-3 monsters that the Shadow Leopard was stealthily following had changed their path and headed right towards Jay.

Since that happened right after they found his tracks, Jay concluded that someone was controlling the monsters.

Jay ruled out the possibility of that someone being an Alpha Chosen because he learned that there weren't any Alpha Chosen alive within the 33rd trial zone through MJ.

For a Soul A.I like MJ, who has Tier-4 System access; it was easy to find this kind of information.

Since that someone wasn't an Alpha Chosen, that must be a Monster.

Since that unknown monster could control every monster in the trial zone, MJ concluded that the unknown monster must have a Hive-mind type Innate Talent, which is mainly seen in the Insectoid Race.

Dealing with a monster that possesses such Innate Talent would be rather tricky as it stays hidden and controls other monsters to attack its prey as a horde.

It was no wonder that the Alpha Chosen in that trial zone died already.

When a few Tier-3 monsters caught up to Jay, he didn't bother escaping anymore and subdued them before using on them to pry out the location of the unknown monster.

However, there was no helpful information about that monster's location in their memories.

The puzzling part was that Jay couldn't find anything related to the unknown monster within their memories.

Jay felt it was a pity that he couldn't find anything. If they had learned about the exact way the unknown monster used to take control over the monsters, MJ could have browsed through the System records in search of any information regarding the unknown monster.

Since that wasn't possible for now, Jay didn't bother finding the unknown monster for now and began to kill the Tier-3 monsters in that trial zone, one by one.

Whenever the unknown monster tried to send groups of several monsters at him, Jay would escape after killing the monsters in locations where he was last seen.

Time passed, and Jay slew hundreds of monsters but didn't find even a single clue about the unknown monster's whereabouts.

Even though Jay could fight a horde of monsters in a full-frontal battle, he didn't want to exhaust himself and be prepared for when his mode cooldown ends as his top priority is to enter as many trial zones as he could to find the Arch Spirit Fruit.

Jay didn't hunt for monsters anymore and reached the other end of the 33rd trial zone. He then hid in a small cave he created in the ground and began to recover his Stamina and Spirit Energy.

Soon, the cooldown ended, and Jay entered the mode and made his way through to further trial zones.

The commotion Jay caused by breaking the trial zone barrier didn't escape the unknown monster's attention, and its intelligent eyes shone with a golden-yellow glow within a dark, gloomy area.

Ignorant to that, Jay continued to pass through other trial zones and in the 34th, 35th and 36th trial zones, he didn't find anything odd about the monsters like in the 33rd trial zone.

Two more hours passed, and it has been six hours since the start of Day-9, and the cooldown of ended.

Jay made a small cave in the ground, hidden from the monsters there and began converging another element to the Dual-elemental Innate Talent.

[You have successfully converged Grade-5 and Grade-4 , creating a Grade-5 .]

[ enters a 24-hour cooldown until it can be usable again.]

[Congratulations! You are the 1st Existence in the Entire Universe to combine three elements into one, creating a Tri-Element, 'Lightning Flame' while just being in Tier-2.]

[Grade-5 (Fire, Water & Lightning) (Elemental Category):

Gives Host the ability to comprehend the 'Lightning Flame' Element without losing the ability to individually manipulate Fire, Water and Lightning elements along with their respective skills. Increases its comprehension speed by five-fold.]

By using the Water element, the 'Lightning Fire' turned into 'Lightning Flame'.

Even though it looked like a slight difference, that brought another leap of power for Jay.

It was because 'Flame' is a higher element, and only Fire and Water dual Innate Talent users could manage to use it upon reaching Stage-4 Mastery.

Jay brought out his right palm, and over his finger, the 'Lightning Flame' flickered, and the heat it produced instantly changed the temperature in the makeshift cave.

The purple flame turned denser, and the red flashes on it became brighter.

Not only had the attack power of the new higher element improved, but also its movement fluidity along with its reach.

Soon after he conjured the Tri-element, another series of notifications appeared.

[Congratulations! You have gained Lv.1 (Stage-1)]

[Lv.1: Lv.1 Lightning Flame-element training methods will be transmitted into your mind.]

[Your Lv.30 is compatible with Lv.1, do you wish to merge it with Lv.10?]

By accepting it, the improved by a notch.

[Lv.30 + Lv.10 = Lv.15]

[Congratulations! You have gained Lv.15 (Stage-2)]

[Lv.15: Lv.15 Lightning Flame-element training methods will be transmitted into your mind.]

Jay wanted to test out his new element in actual combat. Since killing monsters wasn't a challenge for Jay at all, he thought of something before calling for MJ and had him analyse the properties of the 'Lightning Flame' so that he could simulate it perfectly within the A.I space for Jay to test it.

Once it was done, he entered the A.I space, and for half an hour, Jay familiarised with the Tri-Element.

Following that, he instructed MJ to begin the third assessment so that he could test out the 'Lightning Flame' in an actual combat situation and at the same time learn the extent to which Earth's Alpha Chosen has grown in the past few days.

As an overview of the upcoming chapters, In Ch.117, there will be a minor introduction of the monster that could become a threat to the Alpha Chosen. However, it was just a vague introduction. The real one will be shown in Ch.121 in great detail.

Two to three chapters after that, the Tournament part will begin and I believe it will be quite interesting with the Earth's Alpha Chosen interacting with a lot more characters from different trial zones. The different rounds that will take place in the Tournament will be something that you all could undoubtedly look forward to. Also, the Arc-1 would end with quite an intense battle that could even threaten Jay's life.

So, all those who are thinking that Earth's Alpha Chosen could easily come out on top in the upcoming tournament would have to rethink their opinions. I am estimating the Arc-1 would end at around Ch.150. Alright, this is it for a short overview. Well then, Stay Safe, see ya.