Dyne glanced at the enemies that surrounded him. He ‘equipped’ two special art skills in his person. Although he could do more, his insanity and love for the game made him want to play the game right on this first exciting battle.

Dyne glanced at the large apes and did a quick count. Seventeen large apes had surrounded them in the area. There were two among the seventeen that were larger and did not have the usual yellowish hair. Yet even with these numbers, the Apes did not attack because of an innate fear on the small two-headed serpent resting on Dyne’s shoulder.

It was then a large red ape moved the front and roared.

Its entire body sparked embers all around.

Another also moved forward, and a layer of ice coated its arms and created spikes and spines all over.

“Oh! Good timing! Food for the two of you!” Dyne laughed. It was then he remembered the woman behind him.

“Oh right! Gotta play it all mysterious and cool. I guess, kinda like a Squall Leonheart vibe?” Dyne thought to himself. He had treated this Rena as the same Rena in the game. Strafe had seen this woman’s past and present and claimed that she was “perfect” to remind Dyne of a very Star Ocean experience. Dyne hated that Dias had a huge heart in the life of the game character Rena. And so, seeing that such circumstances and emotional ties exist here, Dyne vowed to wipe the shadow of that person in Rena’s heart.

“She will be mine!” Dyne secretly laughed as his inner gamer surfaced. It was then that Dyne realized his thoughts.

“Crap! I have to be careful. I just treated her as a game character. She will be mine, but you know… whatever. She has her own choice. Of course, it has to be with her consent.” Dyne made a mental note.

“But man… She is beautiful.” Dyne recalled the beautiful appearance of the girl.

“She must be mine!” Dyne vowed as the girl reminded him of Rena.

“The heroine must get together with the hero! It’s the law!” Dyne vowed again.

Suddenly, a strange bright beam shot from the back and struck the large red ape.

It didn’t faze the red ape even by a bit.

“Please! Runaway!” Rena called out in tears. She did her best to stand up but continued to tremble. The last time this scene played out, she was too weak, and because Zaied had to protect her as well, Zaied’s elder sister died.

Zaied blamed his weakness, and Rena hers.

Dyne was in deep thought.

“Alright. I have to be like that Dias fellow in the game. But it has to be different. So it has to be a Squall Leonheart feel. What would that lone wolf say in this scenario?” Dyne pondered.

Rena summoned more of the light energy and tried to stand up. Her legs were trembling, but this scene reminded her of that event.

I have a magic power that can-”

“I don’t believe in relying on others,” Dyne answered in a cold and detached manner.

“You can’t handle them all! Please, you can’t die-”

“I'm not having anyone talk about me in the past tense! Just sit there and wait.” Dyne immediately charged towards the group of Apes. The first thing he did was threw Grim.

SWISH!

The Black-reddish Scythe flew at incredible speed, but the ice-coated ape managed to do a quick dodge.

Grim flew past the blue ape and struck another ape on the back.

Dyne was already running towards the apes, and the Red ape met Dyne head-on.

It swung its two arms downwards like a hammer.

But Dyne used Spirit and suddenly accelerated at the last minute and jumped.

The sudden jump threw Dyne closer and faster than anticipated. Dyne wanted to test his new strength.

He knew that his awakening here had caused his body to undergo a lot of changes. The entire Basilisk was compressed and placed inside the Earth Jewel, but some of its excess earth energy was melded into Dyne’s body.

His entire body had increased in durability and hardness because of this.

With Spirit, Dyne delivered a two-armed punch striking the ape's elbows which were about to deliver its two-hand hammer attack.

BANG!

It was as if two large rocks collided at incredible speed.

Dyne felt as if his entire body was trembling and could feel the stony parts of his body.

The ape who was arching its back in preparation for its hammer-swing attacks stumbled backward.

Dyne took advantage of this and ran towards the stumbled ape and delivered his first special art.

“Shooting Stars!” Dyne called out and unleashed a flurry of fast fists.

Each attack was filled with Spirit and exploded out upon impact. This allowed Dyne to borrow the explosion to pull back his extended arms and would punch once more.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

The punches of Dyne surpassed the level of power that any Level 6 Martial Advent cultivator could unleash.

Even the hard defense of this ape could not withstand these punches that Dyne coated with Spirit.

The fire around the ape's body could not burn through Diggin and allowed Dyne to continue its flurry of blows.

The blue ape had tried to rescue his companion but suddenly received several fire magic blasts on its back.

Grim came flying towards the Blue ape when it turned around and was now in its spear form.

The strike didn’t penetrate deep but created a large wound in the chest of the Blue ape.

The blue ape cursed and struggled to pull back the spear but suddenly, Grim burned its entire body, causing the blue ape to shriek all the more.

The other apes were startled at the scene. Their leaders were at a disadvantage on the first clash.

The Red Ape roared as his entire body exploded into flames.

Dyne had to retreat and flipped back. He then summoned Grim to fly back and stood right in front of Rena once more.

Rena was shocked at what he saw.

Dyne was silent but kept taking deep breaths. But while he carried on with his silent routine, his head was bursting with analysis and ideas.

"So this is the power of Soul Cultivation. Those villagers had warriors that ought to be at a level 8 or 9 Martial Advent Stage, yet they fled from these monsters. This means that if my current strength is enough to exploit their movements, my current power should at least be at the First level of the Martial Novice rank." Dyne guessed.

“But it wasn’t for Gyoro and Ururun imparting fear to those apes this would have been more difficult. So the Basilisk is that strong. Oh right. Gyoro and Ururun can’t be considered a Basilisk since they are fire and ice. But why do I still sense Earth in them?”

The Red ape was furious. His face was full of bruises and wounds, and even some of its teeth were missing.

“Where’s Gyroro and Ururun anyway?” Dyne wondered as the small serpent was nowhere in sight.

The Red Ape roared, and the other apes began to move. Some hesitated, but as the Red Ape called once more, they moved closer and prepared to attack.

"Looks like things will get messy." Dyne frowned and prepared to counter-attack.

The Red Ape then turned towards the Blue one but noticed that something was wrong with the Blue ape.

The large Blue ape suddenly stumbled down and began to toss around and would scratch its chest.

ROAR!

It howled and kept touching the small wound in its chest. It then tried to tear open its wounds.

“Don’t tell me…” Dyne glanced at the wound.

“That’s why I didn’t want you to throw it away. I was very, very generous in bestowing that serpent to you. It would have been impossible to raise or tame it. You see, the Basilisk is a serpent with an inferior bloodline. They generally don’t try to raise a serpent with a purer bloodline but invest in changing their own. If the serpent they birth is stronger or has a purer bloodline than the parent, it would kill them and devour them! That is a serpent that is closer to the Serpentarius bloodline!”

“It’s eating… the soul!” Dyne was shocked at the sensations he was feeling.

“Yes. Serpents are strong because of their soul attacks. While they have a body inferior to True Dragons, they have their soul powers to compensate and places them on equal standing with the strongest dragons! And I gave it to you in a way that it thinks you are its parent. But because of your element, that serpent is naturally afraid of you!” Strafe laughed.

The blue ape began to quiver as blood gushed out of its mouth.

The Red ape shouted and began to move towards the blue ape, but Dyne moved immediately.

Harnessing the energy of the Shooting Star attack, Dyne unleashed an attack similar to the Hadouken.

“Shooting Star!’ Dyne shouted again as the spirit energy was launched towards the Red Ape.

BOOM!

The Red Ape was caught off guard at the ambush and was knocked back again.

The apes raged at this and began to attack Dyne as a group.

Dyne held on Grim and sneered.

He raised Grim and glanced at the Earth Jewel, which was tightly attached to Grim's mouth.

"I could move Earth with the weaker Earth Jewel. Now that this has the Basilisk's power, I should be able to use that attack!"

He then stabbed the Earth jewel on the ground below.

“Ripper Blast!” Dyne shouted and channeled the pure Earth energy in the Earth Jewel to manipulate the ground below.

The ground exploded, and rock formations jutted out and created rock spikes that pierced the approaching apes.

ROAR!

Many of the apes were pierced as they rushed into the place. The rock was harder than their skin and what was unusual was that those who were pierced were slowly getting petrified.

“Wow! What a strong Jewel! I didn’t even have to expend MP! Strafe, you’re not such a cheapskate after all!” Dyne laughed.

Five apes at the front died at the sudden appearance of the earth spikes.

The apes were startled but circled around to attack Dyne.

Dyne was about to use his attack again but realized that Rena would think that he had unlimited MP.

“I gotta make a good impression and get injured! She could heal me anyway! That’s right! This is perfect! Not only will I appear like Dias, but this time, her long wish to be useful and helpful in this battle! This will definitely work!” Dyne plotted.

“For now, I can replace the image of the 'Dias' in her heart and be the person that she can help! I have to get beaten up and get all bloody!”

Dyne held his ground and allowed the group of apes to attack him. Dyne braced for close combat.

Meanwhile, the Red Ape had finally reached the Blue ape.

The Red ape kept on scratching his chest's wounds, and it was already opened down to the bones.

The Red ape couldn’t understand what was going on and looked closer to the wound.

A figure leaped out and charged into the open jaw of the Red Ape.