Chapter 201 - Pure Destruction (1/2)
Whoosh! Whoosh!
With strands of energy connecting Inhee's fingertips and the orb, a massive amount of information was sent to the inheritance Aurus was in without a problem. Of course, that was all due to Inhee's expertise in managing inheritances, only taking a couple of minutes for the changes the Supreme Ruler of the Void wanted to be finished.
After doing what she was paid to do, Inhee let out a long sigh as she dispelled the strands of energy on her fingertips, turning her head around to look at the Supreme Ruler of the Void before asking, ”Is that suitable to your tastes?”
”More than suitable,” the Supreme Ruler of the Void said in a slightly joyous tone. He then laughed in a low tone as he muttered, ”Hehehe. With a mechanic like this, would you even be able to clear this stage, Inanimate?”
Just as the Supreme Ruler of the Void was going to continue laughing, Inhee poked him on the arm, interrupting his plans as he asked her, ”What?”
She then extended her left hand outward as the Supreme Ruler of the Void was on her left, opening her palm as she said, ”Payment for the hasty replacement.”
”Haah…fine.” As the Supreme Ruler of the Void let out a short sigh, he snapped his fingers as a small rift appeared a couple of meters above Inhee's opened palm, a small satchel landing precisely on it not long after. As the rift was closed, Inhee went ahead and checked the contents of the satchel, a smile plastered on her face as she looked at the Supreme Ruler of the Void like a treasure chest as she said, ”You truly pay me the best out of the other Rulers, Supreme Ruler of the Void. After this, wanna go and grab a bite?”
”Sure,” the Supreme Ruler of the Void responded to her question before letting out a chuckle that gradually took on a lecherous tone. ”After grabbing a bite, wanna—”
”No thanks,” Inhee interrupted him before he could finish his question. ”Our relationship isn't even that close, One Shot.”
”Fine, fine,” the Supreme Ruler of the Void said as he shrugged his shoulders. He then focused his attention towards the orb before saying, ”Anyways, don't you think you've given the Inanimate enough time to rest?”
”Ah, right,” Inhee said in response. After that, she then focused her attention on the large stone room.
…
Within the large stone room.
”Your 5-minute break is now over, Aurus,” Inhee said, slightly startling Aurus as he was talking about things regarding the system with Theresa. Nonetheless, these words attracted Aurus's attention in an instant, focusing his sense of hearing towards Inhee's next words.
”We shall now be starting the next stage,” Inhee uttered as the area of the large stone room had increased to a great degree in an instant. Looking at the expanded stone room he was in, Aurus could not help but calculate how much it has expanded, eventually coming to the figure that the area that the stone room had right now was equivalent to about 9 stone rooms from before.
”What's the next stage about?” Aurus asked Inhee after the expansion, to which Inhee responded, ”The second stage is about killing as many enemies in one shot. That's also why the name of this next stage is One Shot.”
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
After Inhee was finished talking, a large number of beings appeared around where Aurus was, surrounding his field of vision with the sight of a being that was quite similar in appearance to Horell. The bodies of the beings were akin to Horell's, being made out of energy, but the shape of their body was more or less akin to a pillar. In other words, Aurus was surrounded by a ton of pillars.
Just as Aurus was about to ask the specific mechanics of this second stage, Inhee was one step ahead of him, explaining as it said, ”Right now, you're surrounded by a ton of pillars. To be more exact, you're surrounded by 1,000,000 pillars. You might be wondering, after what I said a while ago, I just have to try and destroy as much of the pillars surrounding me, right?”
Even before Aurus could answer Inhee's question, Inhee continued with its words, saying, ”Well, with that kind of mindset, you're half-correct. You indeed have to destroy as much of the pillars surrounding you as possible. But…you have to at least destroy 10,000 pillars with a single move or else you won't pass the second stage. Now, you're wondering, it wouldn't be that hard to destroy these pillars, right?”
And yet again, just as Aurus was about to answer back, Inhee did not even let him do so, continuing, ”And that's where you're wrong. Each pillar surrounding is a Pseudo-Animate at the Epic grade. Not to mention, the stats of these pillars are all at 1…except for their Defense. Other than that, it's pretty straightforward. There are no tips or tricks to clearing this. You just have to hit them with your strongest attack.”
After this, Inhee went silent, finally allowing Aurus to talk. With him not being interrupted by Inhee anymore, he then asked it, ���Although I used to have a lot of questions a while ago, most of it was answered by your explanation. There's one question in my mind that you haven't answered with your explanation though.”
”And what question might that be?” Inhee asked, to which Aurus responded, ”How many Power Baptisms have these pillars undergone?”
To Aurus, the difference of a single Power Baptism would make this stage harder for him to clear. When a Pseudo-Animate hasn't undergone any Power Baptism, a single stat of theirs is equivalent to 1000 points of an Inanimate's. But when they clear a single Power Baptism, that factor increases by ten times, with a single stat of theirs now being equivalent to 10,000 points of an Inanimate's. If a Pseudo-Animate had undergone two Power Baptisms, their stats would be just as powerful as a normal Animate. That's the reason why Aurus had asked this question.
”Oh?” Inhee's interest was piqued by Aurus, making it wonder where he had heard of such a term. Nevertheless, Inhee suppressed this urge to know as it replied, ”Although I'm quite curious as to where you've heard of such a term, these Pseudo-Animates have not undergone any Power Baptism yet.”
”I see,” Aurus said, inwardly letting out a sigh of relief. Although he did not know how much defense these pillars had, with him knowing that these Pseudo-Animates had not undergone any Power Baptisms, he was now a bit more confident in clearing this stage with his power.
”These pillars won't attack you while you're charging up your attack, so don't worry about being attacked and just give it your all,” Inhee said a while later before adding, ”If you don't destroy at least 10,000 pillars within 30 minutes, you would be stripped of your title.”
”Good luck.” And with that, Inhee went silent, leaving Aurus in a slightly annoyed mood as he let out a sigh, muttering, ”You know, knowing that there's a time limit doesn't really feel good.”
But then, he let out a light chuckle as he radiated an aura of confidence before saying, ”Then again, I have a feeling I'll clear the stage far before time is up anyway.”
After saying that, he then went ahead and focused his sense of vision towards a single pillar before muttering, ”System, identify this being in front of me.”
Ding!
Accompanied by a notification sound, a holographic screen that listed the stats of a single pillar had appeared in front of his field of vision not long after. He skimmed through it, eventually saying, ”I kind of like the fact that the Defense stat is an exact number. But if I convert it to Inanimate stats, I need to have enough strength to pierce through…a million points of Defense.”
________
[Super Duper Defense Pillar]
Species: Super Duper Defense Pillar
Existence Level: Pseudo-Animate
Grade: Epic
Power Baptism: None
—————
[HP]: 1/1
[MP]: 1/1
—————
Stats:
Vitality - 1
Strength - 1
Defense - 1,000
Agility - 1
Intelligence - 1
________
As he pondered over what he was going to do to have enough strength to destroy the pillars, he could not help but wonder how high his Attack stat is after what he had been through. With that in mind, he focused his sense of vision towards Theresa as he closed the holographic screen, asking it, ”Theresa, could you show me my HP, FP, as well as my stats?”