Undying Warlord

"I had never expected the difference between Tierless and Tier-1 to be so big. We have to work harder, otherwise, the gap between us and our leaders will only increase!"

"Kathrine is so powerful and beautiful. No wonder everyone looks up to her…"

"Our Leader is the strongest! Williams' demonstration was not only mesmerizing but also overflowing with power. Maybe he is even stronger than Leader Dilan!!"

"Stronger than Dilan…are you still asleep? Leader Dilan provided Williams and Kathrine with the remaining Essence crystals which they required to advance to Tier-1. Do you think he would have done so without having the required strength to subdue them if necessary?

Furthermore, I heard that some Essence crystals were Silver Tier-1 Essence crystals! Even if Williams and Kathrine are far stronger than before, I don't believe that they'll be able to reach Dilan's prowess!"

Dilan was able to overhear a heated debate when he entered the hospital once again.

Lunchtime was already over and both Williams and Kathrine seemed to have undergone their advancement to Tier-1 as well.

If he understood the situation correctly, the two had even demonstrated how powerful they had become after advancing.

'That is a good idea to motivate more Ascenders to improve faster and to provide more security to the easily scared survivors. Not bad, at all!

Was that Sven's plan, or did they come up with this on their own?'

Dilan just smiled faintly while walking past the survivors. They were still discussing Kathrine and Williams' demonstration of power after advancing.

The more he heard, the more interested Dilan became in finding out just how much the two had improved.

Thus, he headed to the permanent Gate before stepping through it without a moment of hesitation.

Once he emerged on the other side of the Gate, Dilan took a quick glance at his back.

Before he had been unable to see in the darkness. That was not the case anymore owing to his passive Nightvision ability.

The darkness behind him spread further and enveloped more than a dozen meters behind him before he saw the faint outlines of the wall.

It was nothing impressive but it still made Dilan smile.

'Nightivison is truly powerful after being enhanced by just two ranks.'

Dilan recalled the way to the cavern entrance he had told Kathrine and her people to make use of.

It wouldn't take long for him to reach them, even less after he activated [Thunder Step].

When the thunderous sound of the ability's activation originated from him, Dilan shot through the small part of the 'valley'.

Horned rats, Krendels, and both their mutations and evolutions could be seen everywhere.

There were far more War Krendels and Tier-1 existences than before. This made Dilan confused for a moment because it was not supposed to be like this.

However, he also recalled that the Gate's notification had changed.

Dilan began to think that not only the Gate in the hospital had been altered but the same must have happened to the other Gate, and maybe all Gates connected to Milarn.

Of course, he was not sure about that but once he was to start researching the truth, Dilan would be able to figure out how much he had to tweak his plan.

Passing by the monsters he had once fought with his life on the line, he kept moving forward and his speed never decreased.

Dilan didn't waste any time killing monsters, with the sole exception of when he encountered those which he presumed to be Tier-1 Bronze monsters!

While Kathrine and the others had to collect all the ores and the Graphene, Dilan had to ensure to have enough Essence crystals for Old Jeff to create Molten Tier-1 Essence.

Because he wanted the Serpentine Blade to be of a higher quality, only Bronze Tier-1 Essence crystals were barely made the cut.

If possible, a Serpentine Blade made of the highest quality materials and Silver Tier-1 Essence crystals would make him the happiest.

However, Dilan knew that hunting down dozens of Silver Tier-1 monsters would require way too long and even then he couldn't be sure of the benefits it would bring.

Maybe it was not even worthwhile to hunt Silver Tier-1 monsters so as to forge a Serpentine Blade out of their hide.

That was highly unlikely but in the current times, Silver Tier-1 monsters were simply too rare. Even Bronze Tier-1 monsters were rarely spotted.

Only ordinary monsters could be seen roaming around everywhere but the Essence they provided was not exactly high, even less if one required 20 times the Essence others needed to level up once!

Thus, Dilan didn't spare any of his valuable time to hunt monsters that obstructed his path.

It took him only a few minutes to reach the cavern entrance. He immediately spotted all the different colors of the Lumina crystals followed by small deposits of Jadetite and Silver iron ore.

Earlier, many horned rats and Krendels could be seen working as a big team to mine and transport these ores and the Lumina crystals.

But now, only corpses littered the ground. Dilan was not even able to see any lizards, bats, Earthworms or armadillos that were alive.

This astonished him a little bit, and not long after huge bolts of lightning pierced through the surroundings. They destroyed huge rocks and remnants of former ore deposits.

A painful squeal reached Dilan a moment later before it quieted down at once.

'That was Kathrine, wasn't it?'

His mouth twitched at this thought and excitement spread through his entire body.

It was not as if he underestimated Kathrine's power but if she was truly able to manifest the said bolts of lightning, his worry about their group's combat prowess would decrease rapidly.

Dilan knew that his occupation did not grant him the ability to fight in an overly magnificent way. That was quite obvious as he was merely able to manifest a blueish shield and create a slash made of compressed mana.

Some may say that this was already extraordinary enough but Dilan knew that wielding elements while moving around dozens of objects at once and so on was more interesting.

That was, if one was just an ordinary spectator, and one wanted to look at a fight instead of actively participating in it.

Dilan jumped on top of a stone, where he could see that Kathrine was breathing heavily. She was standing next to a few Ascenders, who looked at her in both fear and admiration.

"Good fight!"

Dilan spoke in a voice loud enough for Kathrine to hear him.

His voice attracted everyone's attention. Some instinctively grasped their weapon even tighter than before, only to calm down the moment they saw that it was Dilan who had complimented Kathrine.

However, instead of feeling elated at Dilan's praise, Kathrine could only frown. She had fought a Bronze Tier-1 monster with all her might and barely defeated it after shooting her highly enhanced Lightning strikes at it.

She had to use up all her mana in order to defeat the monster, which Dilan could defeat easily.

Even if Kathrine had yet to see Dilan defeating such a monster, having seen the Essence crystals Dilan had brought back was more than enough for her to understand Dilan's might and strength, or, at least, the fact that she was unable to reach him for now.

Smiling bitterly, she nodded her head while thanking him for the praise.

"I gave my best. Why are you here? I thought you told Williams that you have something else to do…"

In the end, Kathrine was correct. Dilan had planned to visit every single of the buildings he had marked early in the morning.

He had been ready to bring all survivors to the Rian mountainside hospital and give them shelter if they were willing to accept his help.

Unfortunately, his excitement and a weird feeling had brought him to the Krendel's Underground Valley.

And from the looks of it, his decision to come to help Kathrine wasn't wrong.

After all, the monsters in the Krendel's Underground Valley had grown stronger.

Something had changed. This 'something' was nothing else than the influence of the [Universe's Faith] but that…was not what Dilan would be able to comprehend, not today, nor in the near future.

However, what Dilan was bound to witness soon as the true extent of the [Universe's Faith]'s influence because EVERYTHING was about to change once again!

Chaos was about to descend…