Abium and others soon arrived on a brand-new island and faced more than 250 Goblins during their second mission. Thankfully, they came well-prepared and successfully completed the mission in 3 hours.
Over the next seven days, they cleared the first five levels without difficulty and earned around 18,400 Reward Points!
Abium also shared his sword insights with Nicolaus and Fennelis and even taught Umi a few things. Mainly, he guided her on how to cast the newly unlocked [Ice Needle] spell and even succeeded!
After clearing the fifth level, Abium and others teleported back to the Core Chamber and decided what to do next.
Compared to the first level, this amount of reward points was higher, but Abium and others realized that they needed to work harder.
While thinking about the problem, Abium turned his gaze towards Nicolaus and pondered.
After listening to Runeth's advice, Nicolaus had stopped focusing on using Warrior Skills and solely relied on his sword skills during the previous mission, which caused some difficulty during the fifth level.
'If he could use the Intermediate Sword Aura... Unfortunately, it would take more than a year for him to master the Intermediate Sword aura. It's better to boost his strength with an artifact.'
Nodding, Abium took a deep breath and spoke solemnly.
"Enemies will become more powerful during the next five levels, Nicolaus. Use all the current reward amounts and boost your strength wisely."
After hearing his words, Nicolaus was stunned and quickly shook his head.
"No! How can I take your rewards?"
Before Abium could convince him, an illusionary blonde-haired man appeared next to him and spoke.
"It's better to do as your friend says, young man. Otherwise, you'll only drag others."
Nicolaus froze for a moment before he sighed. After some thought, he told Runeth to open the artifact list and choose the [Boot of Lightning] artifact first.
Although it was just a Low-Grade Artifact with a single Tier-0 spell called 'Lightning Steps' engraved inside, Nicolaus felt that this should be more than enough to help in the current situation.
1000 Reward Points disappeared in a blink.
'I still have 17000+ Reward Points.' He nodded inwardly, quietly skimmed through the list of artifact names, and soon stopped at a particular one.
"What is this 'Hero's Fruit'?" He asked while looking at the Ancient Mage's Incarnation.
On the other hand, Runeth rubbed his illusionary chin and explained like a sage.
"Consuming this 'Hero's Fruit' will give you similar effects as the Champion of Gods, young man. For example, you'll receive a glimpse of 'Time' power to your Sea of Consciousness and get a unique skill called 'Hero's Intuition.' Not only that, but your luck will be boosted a bit. Although your skills won't be as powerful as the skills of True Champions and only give you a few opportunities and rewards, it would be more than enough for you to outshine all the common warriors and Mages. If you manage to get a suitable Warlock bloodline in the future, you might have a bright future."
After hearing Runeth's explanation, even Abium got shocked and widened his eyes.
'Time power? Seer? I also want that ability!' But before Abium could open his mouth, Nicolaus instantly clicked the 'Hero's Fruit' name on the blue screen, spent 13,000 reward points, and brought it.
Upon seeing this, Abium sighed deeply and asked.
Mr. Runeth, do you have any more fruits like that?"
"Oh? Are you also interested in this Hero's Fruit? Unfortunately, I don't have an extra one." Runeth shook his head.
On the other hand, Abium waved his hand and spoke.
"It's alright, Mr. Runeth. I actually thought of increasing my 'Time' affinity using the Affinity Strengthening potion."
Meanwhile, Runeth raised his illusionary eyebrows and nodded his head in agreement.
"You are indeed an interesting young man. You already noticed the presence of 'Time' power in your body, don't you?"
This time, it was Abium's turn to be surprised.
He instantly tensed up, touched his space ring, and took out the 'Sword of Wrath.'
"How do you know?" He asked warily
"Don't panic. I was well aware of the presence of 'Time' power in your soul, but chose not to investigate it. After all, everyone has their own secrets, right?" Runeth chuckled and changed the topic.
"You can indeed use the Time Affinity Strengthening potion to increase your 'Time Affinity,' but it's worth far more than 200,000 reward points. Do you think it is worth spending that much amount of reward points on this potion? Even if you manage to buy it, it will only increase your affinity to 'Average' level, though."
On the other hand, Abium went silent for a while and finally spoke.
"I have a strange feeling that it will benefit me more in the future."
'Oh? He already got some precognition ability?'
Runeth fell silent and decided not to say anything.
In the meantime, Nicolaus caught the 'Hero's Fruit' with his right hand, moved it towards his mouth, and quietly consumed it.
After that, he decided not to spend any more reward points and sat down quietly before closing his eyes to gain some understanding of the Intuition Ability.
On the other hand, Abium, Fennelis, and Umi also quietly sat on the concrete floor and decided to rest.
After 24 hours of rest, the group teleported to a random island and started their sixth-level mission.
Unlike before, the enemy they faced this time was Orcs! They were monstrous, and their brute strength posed a serious threat to all of them.
Due to the Orcs' fiery attacks, Abium and others got cornered initially, but they used different tactics to fool them and started gaining the upper hand.
The group continued to face hardship against the Orcs and only managed to complete the mission after four days!
At the end of the 4th day, they killed more than 64 Orcs and earned 9,000 Reward Points!
They didn't stay idle after that and continued their hunting for the next 30 days.
After an endless battle with Orcs and Orges, they finally cleared the tenth level on the 31st day and earned 95,000 Reward Points!
It was a massive improvement!
During this time, Nicolaus showed miraculous sword ability and even managed to create the Intermediate Sword Aura!
What shocked Abium most was Nicolaus's newly acquired 'Hero's Intuition' unique skill! It enabled him to predict the enemy's movement and boost his strength during one on one battles.
Like Nicolaus, Fennelis also improved rapidly and had already increased her Spirit up to 10 points.
Unlike the last time, she could cast her two Zero-Tier spells more frequently and was about to unlock the third spell.
Umi had also shown some improvement, but not much due to her young age.
Meanwhile, Abium had been doing multiple tasks such as comprehension of spell models, spirit power gathering, and even training sword skills during his free time. He also chose the fourth Darkness Element Spell Model named 'Mirage' and constructed it a few days ago.
'It's time to strengthen Lady Fennelis's and Umi's bloodline.' He thought as they reappeared in the Core Chamber.
Even though it would take them years to unlock and upgrade the bloodline spells, their strength would increase exponentially after consuming the potion and help him complete the upcoming missions.
Abium knew that they wouldn't be much help during the next level and decided to increase their bloodline strength first.
Before that, he and others sat on the concrete floor and took some rest.
An hour later, Abium slowly sat up, inspected the surrounding crystals and artifacts, and narrowed on one particular head-sized crystal core.
At that moment, a dense amount of reddish energy came out of it and soon formed into the appearance of a middle-aged man.
He was none other than the Incarnation of an Ancient Mage.
As Runeth quietly observed them, he asked.
"Do you guys want to continue?"
His voice contained no trace of emotion.
Meanwhile, Abium nodded his head and spoke.
"Yes. Please show me the potion list, Mr. Runeth."
Just as he spoke, a blue rectangular box appeared before his eyes.
While others looked on, Abium quietly scanned the list, clicked a potion name, and purchased two of them.
It was a low-tier Bloodline Strengthening Potion and looked like a bluish gel.
He quickly took two potion vials, moved towards Fennelis, and gave them to her before explaining.
"It's a bloodline strengthening potion, My Lady."
On the other hand, Fennelis nodded her head in understanding, took one vial, and opened the lid. She then signaled Umi to open her mouth and poured the potion into her mouth.
Following that, she opened the other potion vial and drank it.
Once she swallowed that healing potion, a tearing pain assaulted her head out of nowhere and caused her to almost scream in pain. Tears flowed out of her eyes, and her breath became shorter.
She couldn't endure the pain for two seconds and blanked out as soon as possible.
At that moment, Umi also opened her mouth to scream due to the sudden pain but fell unconscious within a second.
"W-What happened?" Nicolaus sat up with a anxious face, hurriedly moved towards Umi, and asked.
"It's the side effect of forcefully raising one's bloodline. Don't worry; the Beastkins won't die." Runeth said calmly, moved towards the opposite wall, and leaned his back against it.
Meanwhile, bone-cracking sounds appeared from Fennelis's and Umi's bodies, followed by strange, chilling air in the chamber.
But before Abium could ask the reason for the sudden chill, the temperature around them began to drop rapidly. Frost soon formed inside the room and started spreading everywhere.
At the same time, multiple while rays of icy lines emerged from Umi and Fennelis and formed into two cloudy fox-like figures!
'Spirit form!' Abium recognized those two foggy foxes in a blink and soon noticed they increased in size. At first, those two white foxes appeared one meter tall and two meters in length, but their growth almost doubled and reached the chamber's ceiling. After their spirit forms had completed their growth, they slowly started to shrink and soon entered their respective bodies.
"Oh? I thought there would be some problem, but the Bloodline Strengthening Potions are working perfectly." An ominous comment came from Runeth, causing Abium's and Nicolaus's faces to stiffen up.
Soon, Nicolaus snapped out of the shock and spoke slowly.
"I honestly envy their growth method."
On the other hand, Abium shook his head, shifted his gaze towards Runeth, and asked.
"Will this Low-Tier Potion work on them again?"
Meanwhile, Runeth quietly walked towards Fennelis and touched her forehead. He then recited a strange chant and shook his head.
"Her soul is pretty weak. If she drinks another Low-Tier Bloodline Strengthening Potion, her head might burst open." He paused for a moment as he thought of something, waved his hand, and took an ancient book out of nowhere.
"This Beastkin's soul appears to be in a weak state due to a strange blood curse, young elf. I don't know if practicing this 'Spirit Awakening Manual' could break the curse, tell her to buy it using Reward Points later and check it on her own."
He then moved towards Umi, checked her body, and soon widened his illusionary eyes.
His illusionary body exploded the next second, disappeared from there, and soon began to reappear two meters away from Umi.
After that, Runeth hurriedly turned to Abium, pointed his forefinger at Umi, and asked solemnly.
"Where did you find this child, young elf? Do you know who she is?"
At that moment, a strange smile appeared on Abium's face.
"I know she is a Champion of God." He said.
Meanwhile, Runeth shook his head and corrected him.
"She is a Champion of a Goddess. To be precise, she is a Champion of the Goddess of Trickery."
Upon hearing those words, a strange chill appeared in Abium's heart.
'How?!' At that moment, a statue's image flashed in front of his eyes.
When he entered the Star Tower in the Forgotten Land, he had indeed seen the Goddess Nyara's statue but didn't think thought much about it!
'She has been stalking me ever since, huh? She probably one who drew the clumsy arrow marks in Bare Keep Town and guided me to Umi. No wonder I felt someone was pranking me at that time.' His face changed slowly.
Runeth sighed heavily and asked,
"Do you realize the situation you are in?" His face was tensed.
"You've got some bad luck, young elf. Once you leave this dimension, stay away from this Beastkin child at all cost-"
Before he could finish his sentence, the sealed box on his right side suddenly made a cracking noise and broke into small pieces.
Even the Ancient Mage got goosebumps at that moment and stiffly turned towards the broken sealed box.
He soon noticed a small white paper inside the broken box and frowned.
'What is this?!'
After a short pause, he extended his right hand, picked up the white paper, and opened it before reading the contents.
"I'm taking them- By Nyara."
As he muttered the content, Runeth noticed an eerie silence in the core chamber and turned pale.
'She took them!' He didn't even notice any spatial disturbance in the surrounding air and realized the real gap between an Ancient Mage and a true God!
"F*ck! What have I gotten myself into?" He couldn't help but curse loudly.