Chapter 147: A Better Deal.
Felix felt a buzz ringing inside his mind, transmitting to him information about the current battlefield and the danger he was facing.
"Shit!"
Looking at the pointed metallic shards looming over his head, he quickly took action.
'Agility Burst!'
There was no time for him to face the attack or escape into the ground, so he could only hurriedly retreat backwards as the metal shards rained down on the spot where he stood a few seconds ago.
"Whew~ That was close....", he gasped in relief.
But Selena didn't seem to hold herself back as she launched forward while raising her broadsword.
"Take this you arrogant prick!!"
Before Felix could relax, another attack came down towards him, making him raise his sword in defence.
"GODDAMMIT!! Will you stop for a second?!"
Their swords clashed against each other, lighting up sparks as Felix gritted his teeth in a struggle.
'Fuck! She's too strong!'
Even though he could sense and predict her movements with his skill Battlefield Awareness, he wasn't at the same physical level as her, who was at Rank 2.
The two of them pushed their swords onto each other, and eventually, Felix couldn't handle anymore as he took a few steps back.
Selena took advantage of that as she quickly swung her broadsword again to hit on his sword.
Clang!!
The force of the attack sent trembles from the sword to Felix's body, making him fly a few meters away as his body felt numb.
After rolling a few times on the ground, he hurriedly used his skill.
'Earth Swimming.'
Selena dashed towards him to carry on with her hits, but his body finally sank into the ground before her broadsword could land on him.
Felix sighed in relief after he escaped from her, moving around the underground as he started analysing the battlefield.
'There's clearly something wrong with her brain, but I can't waste any more time fighting her. I only have about a few minutes left for the skill to stop....'
As he thought to make the best use of the remaining time from the Battlefield Awareness skill, Felix quickly calculated the perfect spot to emerge from the ground to launch an attack on the monsters.
'There!'
Finding a place near the wall of the tunnel behind a few spiders, he hurriedly swam over there through the underground.
Felix slowly emerged out and narrowed his eyes while bringing his sword in front of his chest, eyeing the more than dozens of huge spiders.
'There's no time to waste. I have to be serious now!'
To satisfy his growing greed for more skill points and the short time left for his skill, Felix decided to go all out on the numerous spiders in front of him.
He activated and focused on all the skills that could help him achieve his current strongest stage.
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'Equanimity! Enhanced Brain! Parabolic Hearing! Ratio Technique!'
After forcibly turning on these active and passive skills after thoughtful consideration, in addition to the already activated Battlefield Awareness skill, Felix sensed the rush of information and strategies to carry out the battle, yet felt calm and collected at the same time.
The sounds around him got filtered with the the Parabolic Hearing skill, curbing down all the useless shouts, screeches, and echoes in the tunnel, except for the footsteps and breathings of the monsters, and the sound of weapons.
In this state, he felt like a battle genius and strategist, reminding him to use the other things in his possession.
'Let's see how useful they are.'
Felix took out a necklace from his small shoulder bag and wore it. He also took out a piece of paper from it and stuck it on his sword.
They were the two Rare grade treasures he had found in the Underworld Castle, the Blood Amulet and an earth attribute talisman, one of the five from the Elemental Talismans.
After equipping them, he felt a newfound energy coursing through his mind and sword, one was refreshing and the other was heavy.
Gripping the sword that now held a wisp of earth elemental power, Felix closed his eyes to think for a second before opening them again, a bright gleam flashing out.
"Huh!"
Letting out a short breath, he kicked off the ground using an Agility Burst and dived towards the monsters, targeting only the Rank 2 Deadly Spiders as Evan was still skillfully handling the Rank 1's with his arrows.
Felix flashed like a bolt and arrived right between three of the Rank 2 Deadly Spiders, swinging his sword at the red line appearing on one of them while simultaneously using another skill.
"Earth Spikes!"
With his surprise attack, he accurately sliced apart a spider's head from its blindspot with his single slash, killing it in one go.
His sword enhanced with the element of earth passed like butter through the thin and hard jaw of the spider.
[You have killed a being higher than your own rank.]
[You have gained 100 skill points.]
At the same time, the spikes attacked the weak parts of the other two spiders, specifically the leg joints and abdomen.
'One down.'
Felix rapidly stepped away from the falling corpse of the dead spider and mingled with the two injured spiders, who were staggering and limping due to the sharp pain in their body.
"KHWEEKHH!!"
The two spiders spat out their acid on him when they failed to land a hit on him, but Felix easily dodged them using his enhanced instincts.
'Ratio Technique.'
A sword slashed through the air, carrying with it a dense energy of earth, before piercing into the heart of one of the spiders.
"KWIRKK!!"
The huge spider trembled on the spot as blood drops fell on the ground starting from the sword.
"Whooshh!"
Felix quickly pulled out his sword and ignored the wounded spider, before turning around and blocking the attack that was aimed at his head from the other spider.
The huge Deadly Spider was so surprised at the human's reaction speed that it didn't even feel the pain in its leg that was currently cut down by Felix.
The sword on the other hand didn't stop and moved like a snake, targeting the bright red line on the spider's head.
Before long, the spider felt a sharp piece of metal entering the deepest part of its brain, and a few seconds later, it felt a cold sensation as the chilling wind passed by into its head.
[You have killed a being higher than your own rank.]
[You have gained 100 skill points.]
Along with that chime came a thudding sound as the other wounded spider fell after losing all the blood from its heart.
[You have killed a being higher than your own rank.]
[You have gained 100 skill points.]
Standing among the spider corpses as he jerked off the blood from his sword, Felix heard some skittering sounds from behind him.
"Three down and more incoming, huh?"
He grinned crazily as he turned around to face the other Rank 2 Deadly Spiders that had stepped forward to fill the space of the narrow tunnel.
"You spiders sure know how to make me happy.", Felix chuckled as he gripped his sword, "Don't worry, everyone will get their turn."
'Agility Burst!'
'Silent Steps!'
The spiders rushed towards him together, but he was faster as he disappeared into their crowd, hiding among the monsters to find the best way to attack.
Suddenly, the ground below the spiders started to liquefy, preventing them from stepping around properly as their legs staggered.
It happened for about 10 meters of radius from the middle of a spot, and from that spot, another massacre started as Felix magically appeared on top of one of the Rank 2 Deadly Spiders.
"Earth Spikes! Ratio Technique!"
With his superior instincts and thirst for battle, the monsters faced another carnage as their predator would never let them go until he heard a chime.
But for Felix, it was a moment he wished which could repeat again and again.
*****
Underworld, Edenmont City.
A man wearing a loose robe and a mask, to hide his face, was tapping his leg on the floor anxiously while sitting alone in a room.
He was shifting his eyes around the place cautiously, as he had taken a huge risk to come here all alone.
After waiting for a long time at the place, he was starting to get impatient and angry, but there was nothing he could do as the people of this place were the only ones who would be able to help him with his problem.
"Cheh....these scums! How dare they waste my time like this...", eventhough he was in need of their help, that didn't mean he would respect and care about them as they weren't anywhere near to his status.
After a minute, the door of the room opened and a man wearing a dark blue suit entered inside with a smile.
A gray robed person followed him in and closed the door before standing there.
The man in the blue suit greeted the masked man politely as he offered his hand.
"Welcome to the Underworld. It's an honour that a man as great as you, Howard Ryeagon, the younger brother of the Duke of Edenmont City would like to meet me, an insignificant lawless criminal."
While the masked man, who was actually Howard Ryeagon, eyed the smiling man in front of him warily and removed the mask on his face.
"It seems like the rumours were true. You have the tongue of a snake, Mr.Dealer.", Howard stood up and raised his hand forward as the two exchanged a handshake.
Mr.Dealer sat across the table infront of Howard, asking him cordially.
"Please sit, Sir Howard. Would you like to drink anything? Wine or Tea?", he gestured towards the Grey Robed man.
Howard sat down with a sigh as he shook his head with a frown.
"I've already waited a long time for you here, so I want to be straightforward with you without wasting any more time. So no, I won't have a drink."
Though it was dumb to have come here alone as he didn't want anyone to know this, he wasn't stupid enough to also drink something made by these people.
Mr.Dealer nodded with his usual smile at the refusal and replied.
"Alright, that's fine. So if you want it to be straightforward, then may I get to the point and ask you the reason for your visit?"
Facing the direct inquiry, Howard looked seriously at the man before him and stated slowly.
"I have a deal for you, Mr.Dealer.....A deal that'll profit the both of us tremendously."
Hearing the serious yet slightly excited words from Howard, Mr.Dealer shrugged passively.
"I thought you wanted to be straightforward, Sir Howard. So mind telling me what this deal is about?"
Getting reminded back of his own words, Howard let out an awkward cough as he decided to stop being mysterious and suspenseful.
"So the thing is, I want to you and your subordinates to stop the dark guilds from interfering with the guild wars that is currently taking place in the Edenmont Dungeon."
"I don't know what reasons they may have for doing it, but I know they'll only bring about destruction to the entire city if not stopped."
"I'm willing to provide you with the suitable amount of money for such a task and am also ready to offer you more privileges if you choose to accept it. So what do you say? Do we have a deal?"
Presenting the deal he was talking about in one go without taking a breath, Howard waited for the man's decision worriedly.
Mr.Dealer had a pondering face, but then he took out a silver clockwatch to check the time and smiled at the man.
"It seems I'll have to refuse such a deal, Sir Howard.", he then turned to gesture at the grey robed man.
Howard widened his eyes in panic at the quick refusal as he stuttered hurriedly.
"W-Wait...Mr.Dealer. I'm sure we can t-talk more about it...Is it about the money? I can increase the amount...."
Mr.Dealer shook his head and said.
"It's not about the money. The deal is just too dangerous and high of a risk for me."
Howard clenched his fists in worry as he asked anxiously.
"Isn't...Isn't there something we can do about it? Don't you want to protect the Edenmont City? A lot of people will die as usual if the Dark Guilds are not stopped."
Mr.Dealer glanced around the room as he made a pondering face, before holding his chin as he nodded.
"I think there's a better way to do this...A better deal than the previous one..."
Howard's eyes lit up as he moved his butt forward on the seat and asked impatiently.
"Yes yes! Please tell me about it, Mr.Dealer. I'm all ears!"
Seeing the excited look on the man's face, Mr.Dealer smiled as he clapped his hand towards the grey-robed man.
"Well, we're going to need more than just my gang to take part in this deal. So, why don't I introduce you to some of our future partners in this deal?"
Howard got a bit confused at his words, but as the grey-robed man opened the door of the room after getting his boss's order, he understood what he meant.
Led by a man wearing a one-eye patch on his face, a few people slowly entered the room one by one as they took their seats.
"You...You....", Howard was shocked to his core when he came face to face with some of the notorious people from the underworld.
The man with the eye patch raised his legs and crossed them on the table, as he picked his ear with his pinky finger.
"Why are y'all so quiet? Hurry up and get done with it already, I have to go back to the forest...."