Chapter 104 - A-G 22097 Part 6 (1/2)

Cynrik only stayed in his [Shadow Leap] for a short time after talking with Brance. His next move was to double-check his DMG loadout one last time before moving out and sweeping through the remaining three mischiefs of Fanged Rats. Without having to worry about the others or holding back, it took him less than 15 minutes to clear through them like a chaotic storm filled with flames and darkness.

After the battle with Ragnar, Cynrik was aware of what he lacked in combat and took this time to work through his skills by stringing together combinations formed of fire and shadows. This process saw the birth of his fourth Fusion skill [BlackFire Sewing], which in a sense was just coating the previously formed shadow tendrils with a layer of Fire Mana.

He was able to manifest this Fusion solely due to having maxed out the points on [Shadow Sewing], and to say he was pleased with the end result was an understatement. In its base form, the shadow tendrils had an innately low attack power, but with the addition of his BlackFire, the amount of damage he could do spiked significantly. If a numerical attack value were added to the tendrils, each would be roughly at 100, yet once coated in flames, it would soar to around 500. This was, in a sense, a five times increase in the maximum damage output he could do. The only downside was how his new skill would eat up much MP.

Standing in the final cavern, surrounded by the corpses of the last batch of rats he needed to kill, Cynrik had Tobs unleash all the notifications she had been suppressing by an earlier request.

- Instance Quest, First Alpha Egress Dive-

-You have entered the Green Alpha Egress ”A-G-22097”, and the exit has been sealed. The only way to leave is to complete this quest. You will have 24 hours to do so. The quest requirements will not be shared between the party members, and you must meet them to achieve the Clear Status.

-Kill 25 Tier-1 Packhounds- (0/25)

-Kill 25 Tier-1 Fanged Rats- (38/25) (Complete)

-Defeat the boss Kobold Shaman.- (0/1)

-Once you complete the above tasks, you will be allowed to either Exit the Instance or continue to the next level of the dungeon.-

-You have killed 32 Brown Fanged Rats.-

-You have killed 6 Grey Fanged Rats.-

-You have received 256,000 XP.-

-You have received  21 AGI and 15 DEX.-

-You have located and extracted 35 Affinitiless Codexes.-

-You have located and extracted 3 Earth Affinity Codexes.-

-You have located and extracted Sliver of Skill (19).-

”Tsk,” Cynrik clicked his tongue in disappointment when he saw how little XP he netted from clearing out three dens. He had already assumed it was going to hurt his XP wallet, clearing out the mobs without his brother nearby, and seeing the low 256k XP made him shake his head. If Brance had been nearby, Cynrik would have walked away with half a million XP, but now he could only shuffle his way towards the Packhounds in sadness.

{I can feel your gloomy attitude from all the way over here; what's wrong?} As if having a sixth sense specifically detecting his older brother's mood, Brance chirped into the mind link curiously.

{Grinding with XP share turned off is like tryina play on Hell mode. At this rate, you'll be so far ahead of me that it'll take ages to catch up. TSK, WOE IS MEEE, how could I have been forsaken like this, sniffle?}

Cynrik waves his arms around dramatically as he walked through the winding tunnels towards the first den of Packhounds.

{…, soooo now a bad time to tell you Gabby and Benny are gunna pass you too orrrrr?}

{FUCK OFF!}

In the cave outside the Boss room, Brance chuckled to himself while teasing Cynrik. He hadn't been lying earlier. Since they had both been grouped with Brance throughout the duration of their Egress Dive, the two had gotten significant gains from killing the rats and hounds. By tagging along and helping out with Brance's kills, they had successfully hopped on the XP Bus that Brance was driving and earned their way all the way up to 17th Prestige, leaving them only needing 450k XP before they would hit the cap of 20.

Unfortunately, instead of celebrating this achievement, they had been shrouded with sadness over the whole Cynrik situation and had basically ignored the XP and stats they'd obtained by killing over a hundred creatures. Hearing that Cynrik was doing better and being talked at by Brance, the Sanford siblings had set about distributing their stats and getting ready for their breakthroughs to Tier-1.