Chapter 279 Nightfall Valley’s Devastation
Needles of darkness shot through the Nightfall valley, piercing into the flesh of the beasts that habituated the valley.
The darkness needles that were invisible to the naked eye were the best tool for an Assassin in the gloomy and darkness-shrouded valley.
The Nightfall valley was always dark. Right amidst the center lay a beautiful lake that enhanced the valley's beauty. The lake was surrounded by a forest of Necran trees. The valley's borders were the mountain range that surrounded the valley.
Numerous beasts lived within the mountain range, and it was also the place with the most value within the Nightfall valley's dungeon. Deep within the dungeon's mountains, one could find deposits of various types of rare minerals. This included dark gold, Niclan silver, and titanium copper.
They were extremely rare to find in normal circumstances, which made them even more valuable. Their value was even more important considering that each of the minerals had a high mana conductivity.
When Nial heard about the minerals even he wanted to get his hands on them.
Great mana conductivity was essential to create stronger runic armaments. Even Common grade ores could rival the value of Superior grade ores as long as they had a high mana conductivity.
Since runic armaments had become a highly sought-after piece of equipment, mana conductivity had turned into one of the most important characteristics of ores. There were many other major characteristics one had to pay attention to, but Nial was mostly interested in the first one.
He easily killed all the beasts in the surrounding area using his darkness needles. Creating darkness needles didn't require much mana, and their use was exceptional.
'To think that my dark energy became stronger after the fight with Silvian,' Nial thought the moment he released dark energy to attack someone else for the first time after his battle.
The Essence of Darkness within the Odyssey seed had begun to increase the potency of Nial's dark energy from the moment it had been released first.
This increase in potency simultaneously led to an increase in the amount of mana that had to be used to create dark energy, but this exchange was definitely worthwhile.
Nial liked it a lot, which he showed by displaying a bright smile from the moment he realized what was going on.
"Aren't we fighting too few beasts? I heard that the population of beasts is really high within the entire Nightfall valley," Cecile sounded displeased as she stated what was on her mind. Simultaneously, her fist that was protected by the golden gauntlet bashed into the skull of a Nightmare wolf.
The Nightmare wolf's skull cracked, and Cecile's entire fist began to dig deeper into the wolf's head. Kelia shuddered at this sight but she kept using the supportive abilities she owned to amplify Cecile's strength.
Meanwhile, Leo swung the maze in front of his body with his powerful brute force. He forced three Nightmare wolves back, while simultaneously providing Timothée with the opportunity he needed to appear behind the three Nightmare wolves.
He was a Swordsman and an extremely fast one at that. By utilizing a technique called [Thousand Aerial steps], his speed accelerated by more than 30%. The wind pressure splashed into his face, and his golden hair fluttered in the wind as he slashed out with rapid movements.
In the following two seconds, another six slashes followed suit before Timothée slowed down.
"I don't know what's going on either. I expected to fight groups of 20 or 30 beasts," Timothèe suddenly answered, feeling as confused as Cecile.
However, he didn't actually mind it. They advanced through the Nightfall valley's forest much faster than he had anticipated. It made things much easier for them.
Timothée felt like they finally had a lucky day.
'It's only a matter of time before we become filthy rich. After that, we can buy whatever we want, whether it's to splurge our money on luxurious goods or to keep working on becoming even stronger!!' Timoethèe clenched his fist, and a smile filled with greed appeared on his face.
Leo just frowned upon seeing their leader's reaction and expression before he looked over to Nial with concern filled in his eyes.
Nial was just playing around with the Dragonflame spear, and the others may not have noticed it by now. However, it was Nial, who killed all the beasts around them, and merely left a few behind so that nobody would notice it.
"If you guys want to fight more beasts, I can join the melee fights. But then more beasts will come after hearing the commotion," Nial said, indicating that he would stop using his dark energy to fight close combat. This was actually what he had planned from the beginning.
Unfortunately, the news about the dark gold, the Niclan silver, and the titanium copper fogged his mind for quite a while.
"You want to stop doing what? You haven't done anything yet!" Cecile complained as her voice reverberated through the forest.
Nial just smiled in return, not feeling bothered by her comment,
"Am I really not doing anything? Let me show you how your fights will unfold if I don't do anything," Nial wanted to provoke Cecile a bit.
She was fun to tease. With that in mind, he stopped attacking the beasts that were lurking in the darkness.
They took a while to realize what was happening. However, upon sensing that the invisible attacks lurking in the darkness didn't kill them anymore, the beasts began their counterattack.
Several groups consisting of more than 50 beasts each attacked Timothèe's group all of a sudden.
There were a total of close to 300 beasts that emerged out of nowhere that entered their range of view. The darkness that shrouded the Nightfall valley was countered by Light spheres.
They were maintained by the use of mana, or by inserting Origin crystals inside them, and one could control them freely. Their bright light lit up a radius of 50 meters.
It was bright in the surrounding of the group, yet, the moment 300 pairs of eyes stared through the darkness, everyone in Timothèe's group felt goosebumps erupt all over their body.
"Fuck, Cecile, why did you have to say that Nial is doing nothing!" Leo suddenly groaned, feeling like cursing the fierce and tiny woman.
He faced nearly 10 beasts at once all of a sudden, and the moment Timothée reacted by killing one of them, two beasts emerged to replace the dead one.
Timothèe frowned deeply when he realized that it had not been their luck that allowed them to advance so fast through the forest. Rather, it was Nial's doing.
He had no idea what Nial had done but something prevented the beasts from attacking them in large numbers…at least until now.
It was frustrating and he felt like lecturing Cecile for provoking Nial. However, just when she looked over to Cecile, Timothée saw that the number of beasts on her side was ridiculously low.
Darkness needles shot out of the darkness that surrounded their group. With each darkness needle that shot out of the darkness, one beast died moments before Cecile was able to do something.
Her head turned as red as her hair when she realized what was going on. Every single beast that attacked her and the beasts she wanted to attack were killed even before they clashed.
Nial killed them with ease, using his dark energy, not leaving a single prey for her.
"NIALLL!!" She roared out in rage. Her body was surrounded by a red hue and Cecile's hair seemed to have turned crimson.
Cecile was ready to throw a fit, and she turned in Nial's directions, expecting him to use the dark needles to kill the beasts around him as well.
However, what she saw prevented her from doing anything as her mouth opened widely.
'How the hell is he doing that?!' Cecile asked dumbfounded. Nial fought more than ten monsters simultaneously, killing one with every thrust. The tip of the Dragonflame spear was searing hot, burning, and cutting through his opponents, eliminating them instantaneously.
He moved with a grace that would rival a gazelle, just a deadly one. However, what astonished Cecile so much was the smoothness with which Nial fought. It looked like he was fully focused on his fight, and that his entire world revolved around the group of beasts in front of him.
Not a trace of mana seemed to leave his body. But that was impossible.
'Is he not the one who creates the darkness needles?' Cecile suddenly wondered, feeling complicated emotions surging through her.
Just at this moment, a bunch of beasts was ignored by Nial, who had summoned the darkness needles right in front of him the moment Cecile began to doubt her entire life.
The darkness needles were clearly visible to everyone because they were a huge contrast to the bright shining light which the Light Spheres released.
Nial shot the darkness needles in Cecile's direction. She froze in place, the moment the needles brushed past her with a terrifying velocity.
She feared losing her life for provoking Nial and was cowering in fear. Just a while later, she heard a few muffled sounds as several beasts behind her died at the hands of Nial. They fell to the ground and died in an instant as blood splattered on her face when she turned around.
"You can fight on your own again," Nial suggested while continuing to fight the beasts around him.
Nonetheless, his focus was still on the entire battlefield. He could create darkness needles everywhere in the detailed range of his range of perception. This was exactly what he had been doing since earlier.
All of a sudden, Nial noticed that his speed and strength had increased. His gaze flicked in Kelia's direction as he realized the reason for the boost. With a nod, he thanked her for helping him with the use of her abilities.
She didn't need much mana to provide small boosts to others. However, the higher the boost was supposed to be the more mana she would have to consume.
Some abilities even required her to use her stamina. It tired her out, but that was the least important right now.
Three hundred beasts attacked them, and Nial was clearly the strongest in their group.
He could fight using both the weird dark-attributed power and his spear. Fighting while using long- and short-range attacks simultaneously was difficult.
However, Nial acted as if it was one of the easiest things one could do. He was even smiling, which made it seem as if he was enjoying the current situation.
While the others were under tremendous pressure to face dozens of monsters simultaneously, Nial felt great. He could go all-in without the need to hold back.
The reason for him to enter a dungeon in the first place was to figure out how much his strength had changed, whether he became rusty or if his muscle memory was still as great as before.
In the end, one could pretty much conclude that Nial's strength had not suffered a lot of decreases. In fact, the opposite was true and his strength increased by a lot.
Nial was happy about this, which was reflected in his combat style. The longer the fight started the more aggressively he fought. He wanted to become even stronger, he wanted to move even faster, and his attacks should be even fiercer!
'I rested long enough, it's about time to go all in!'