Chapter 437 (1/2)

The second time the Red Death Cultists decided to challenge Randidly, they brought numbers. 12 of the fuckers swarmed out of holes that emerged from both above and below Randidly, sneaking through his blind spots created by the cloth walls to strike at him. But honestly, Randidly wasn’t sure why they even bothered.

“Circle of Flame.”

The fire, once again, smashed outwards, causing the attackers to screech in agony. In addition, the ground around Randidly ignited, adding to the slowly growing conflagration of the Eyrie around him. In the wake of the explosion, Randidly moved swiftly, approaching the downed enemies and striking them, ripping huge chunks of their bodies off with his swings.

Even though he could penetrate their leathery natural armor, it wasn’t easy. And slashes were quite a bit less effective than simply stabbing them. They jabbered and waved their arms in anger, glaring at him, but Randidly just looked back at them impassively, cleanly dispatching them.

A notification that he reached Level 13 popped up, and Randidly grinned. The one good thing about fighting these Death Cultists was that they gave a pretty huge amount of experience per kill. Which made sense, because they were far and above the most powerful enemies that Randidly had faced in the Raid Dungeon thus far. Of course, hopefully, the difficulty had another tier above that…

“It’s been a while since I have felt some real struggle,” Randidly whispered to the ash-filled air, his eyes glowing. “Can you satisfy me, White Death Cultist?”

Waving his spear, Randidly ripped a hole in the roof and went upwards, moving onto the next level. He was taking his time moving upwards, for the express purpose of finding all of the lurking enemies and milking them for experience. Mostly, because Randidly was slightly frustrated by how long it was taking for him to Level.

He had quietly asked around and found out that his Class appeared to take almost 4 times as much experience to Level as the other Classes on record. Mrs. Hamilton had warned him that there were slight variations in experience requirements for each Class, but the highest they had noticed was 1.2 times. Randidly hadn’t thought to really check his when he obtained it, but now it was becoming frustratingly clear that his path to 50 would be extremely difficult.

More than that, he had such a smaller share of the experience than everything else, that they gained Levels basically at a speed only half as fast as he did. And because there were 9 of them, that meant that 4 of them would Level every time he did. Their Levels would count towards the Level total of the group, and four of them would get a slightly larger share, which meant that his increase in proportion was effectively wiped out. An exercise in futility, if he had ever encountered one.

What was so frustrating was how easily this could have been avoided if he had taken the time to Level a bit in one of Donnyton’s kept Dungeons, which both Donny and Sam had advised him, but Randidly had been too focused on the task at hand to heed their words.

As such…

When a Red Death Cultist lashed out with its arm towards his chest, Randidly swayed to the side, letting it rip past. Then Randidly stepped forward and activated the Inevitable Phantom Arrives, a ghastly apparition appearing behind him. Although Randidly hadn’t used the Skill in a while, its application and image were still very familiar to him, like the embrace of a mother.

Randidly’s lip curled upward, and he felt the skeletal image of his mother mirror his smile.

The attack ripped directly through the shoulder of the bat, its flesh forcefully smashed backward by the power of the attack. By the time it opened its mouth to scream its hate and rage, Randidly’s second attack had slashed downwards through its neck. Blood spattered down Randidly’s front and onto the ground.

Shaking his head, Randidly stepped over the body and continued on, his footsteps echoing on the wooden floors. It was so strange how easily Randidly could kill now, at least in terms of unintelligent monsters. It came naturally to him. It was almost… tragic, how the System had changed him. But…

It’s not like there was anything he could do about it. And Randidly would choose becoming a monster over letting his friends and family die a thousand times. Although this path was littered with carnage, he did not regret stepping onto it.

The heat in the Eyrie was rapidly rising, as more and more of the bottom levels were engulfed in flame. Plus, the heat was rising, and very rapidly the fire was catching up to Randidly in his advance. Grinning, Randidly leaped up another level, punching through the wood of the floor and lifting himself up into a large room.

Jackpot.