Chapter 115: System, Do You Hate Me?
...
"Damn royalty…" Lucifer muttered underneath his breath.
"Are you okay, Lucifer!? I didn't mean to hit you so hard! It's just that I was finally done with training, a-and I wanted to see you, so I came as fast as I could…"
Twiddling her thumbs and looking in every direction but where her victim was located, it was quite obvious that Shun Wen felt bad about what she had done. But with her straddled on top of him like she was ready to dominate the rodeo, Lucifer found it hard to believe that she was anything but a she-devil in disguise.
Lifting his upper body off the ground with his arms, he found himself face-to-face with the flustered blonde elf princess. Instead of taking advantage of this situation like a Japanese protagonist, he simply asked, "You're done…?"
"Mhmm… For at least 50 hours…"
Nodding her head with a slight crimson brush over how close she was to his face, Shun Wen had no urge to move a single inch from her spot.
"I see…" Slowly tracing his eyes up and down the curvaceous figure of the princess, he caused her to become a little self-conscious. Cupping her breasts and turning her face off to the side, she was about to say something. But before she could, Lucifer interrupted her, saying:
"You ever gonna get off me or what?"
"A-Ahh, yes!" Flustered and a little embarrassed over her risque positioning, Shun Wen leaped up off his groin and scuddled a few feet away. Taking a moment to muster up the courage, she said, "Lucifer, I was wondering if you would like to- Lucifer?"
She looked up from her own little daydream, quickly realizing that Lucifer skedaddled and got the f*ck out of there!
"Lucifer…!!"
Immediately putting aside her thoughts, Shun Wen became rather anxious. Running around the riverside area like an obsessed yandere lunatic, she not once entertained the idea that maybe her victim didn't want her here…
Hiding behind a few trees, Lucifer held his breath and brainstormed ways that he could permanently get the crazy chick off his back. "Should I kill her…?" He mumbled.
In his mind, that was the easiest and most efficient way to get rid of a problem. But then again, he would most definitely die if he attempted something like that. Or it might end up even worse than that…
"Scratch that. Plus, she sort of, maybe, kinda, not really helped me in getting onto the Nightmare Express… Not that I needed the help, but yeah…"
Rubbing his chin and meandering around in his own thoughts, Lucifer failed to notice that the crazy blonde chick had already found him…
"..."
Looking up from his thoughts, Lucifer saw that creepy smirk and just knew that he was truly and rurally f*cked this time around. Not able to catch a single break, he was forcefully dragged by the arm. Being sentenced to do whatever the insane elf wanted for a few hours, he only found his break when the other crazy chick and the weird midget left the cabin to look for him.
Slipping out of the catfight that started between the insane girls he in no way wanted around him, Lucifer walked through the deeper areas of the forest. Hoping to find something strong to fight and drown his troubles in, he aimlessly strolled through places where Half-Step Void Refinement Realm Nightmare Monsters were quite common.
After spending a few hours in the forest, Lucifer managed to triple his total Clone Essence amount. Furthermore, his Body Cultivation and Mind Cultivation made large strides within the Middle Diamond Rank, successfully passing over the 50% mark.
In case it wasn't mentioned previously, all Qi Paths had the Diamond rank after the Gold rank. After the Diamond rank was the Adamantine rank, and after that was the Platinum rank.
"Though the Platinum Rank is way out of reach for the current me, I should definitely be able to reach the Adamantine Rank for my Body Cultivation and Mind Cultivation before long. Moreover, if I can breakthrough into the Nascent Soul Realm, I can unlock and advance my Spirit Cultivation Path as well."
Taking a cursory glance at his simplified system interface, Lucifer focused on the Qi Cultivation part, curious to see how close he was to the Middle Golden Core Realm.
[Qi Cultivation: Early Golden Core Realm (Limit)]
"The limit, eh?"
"Screetch!!!"
SHING!
Doing a quadruple spin flip, Lucifer spun around with his sword, sending out a few sword arcs in the direction of a twenty-meter-tall Nightmare Monster dinosaur.
SPURT! SPURT!
Slicing it up into dozens of neatly cut pieces, Lucifer ignored the system notifications, continuing to look over his system interface as if that were the only thing that mattered.
[Ding! You have killed a Dark Raptor in the Half-Step Void Refinement Realm. The reward is 10,500 Super Clone Essence!]
He had already obtained so many system notifications like this one in his hike through the forest that a few more didn't really make that much of a difference. Still, something was always better than nothing, so he made sure to look at them at least once.
"Hmm… If my power keeps on progressing at this pace, then it shouldn't be long before I'm able to obtain a foothold in this world. But before that can happen, I will need to go through with this breakthrough and achieve a Battle Power in the Void Refinement Realm."
Actively circulating his |Elusive Ascension|, Lucifer didn't even feel the need to sit down and breakthrough the normal way. Thus, it wasn't that surprising that he successfully broke through while in the midst of a battle with a terrifying Python Nightmare Monster in the Early Void Refinement Realm…
"Ahh… A breakthrough?"
Inspecting the inside of his Dantian Space, Lucifer was pleased to see that his dull gold core had transformed into something multiple times larger. Moreover, it also had its color become a few shades brighter.
"ROOOAAARRR!!!!"
Being taken out of his thoughts by a massive tail whipping around the forest like a divine cleaver, Lucifer had to dodge by leaping up into the air. Spinning like a cracked-up beyblade, he turned into Malaketh from Elden Ring, slashing out with multiple crimson red sword arcs!
SHING! SHING!
Previously, these attacks were unable to so much as chip off the smallest of scales from the mighty Python Nightmare Monster. But now, with his breakthrough a complete success, he was able to slash off large chunks of the python's slithery body!
"HSsSsssSsss…!!!!"
Switching from a deep, almost lion-like roar to a pained hiss, the Python Nightmare Monster stopped its tail swing. Moving from offense to defense, it did its utmost to thwart the seemingly endless amount of crimson Qi Arcs coming from dozens of different directions!
SHING! SHING!
However, in the end, no matter what the snake did, the crimson arcs subtly increased in ferocity with each passing second, emulating the pace at which Lucifer progressed in his strength.
In mere moments, the Python went from overwhelmingly confident in its success to being pushed through hundreds of trees. Destroying the terrain with every crimson arc that was shot out, the Python became bloodier and bloodier. With its dark yellow/black scales flaking off and littering the surroundings with its greenish red blood, Lucifer pushed it one last time!
KABOOOOM!!!
Blasting into the back of a large mountain, the Python monster was planted into an enormous spiderwebbed crater!
Unable to get itself unstuck, it was forced to stay there and watch as the crazy, flipping demon made one last flip. This one, unlike the last few flips, was one that was majorly delayed. It was unknown if he was gathering energy or truly playing the part of an Elden Ring boss, but when the attack fully went through, the dragon-like head of the Python was no longer there.
In its place, there was a high-reaching fountain of greenish-red blood, and standing under that blood was a raven-haired man who was starting to look more demon than human with every passing second…
[Ding! You have killed a Python Nightmare Monster in the Early Void Refinement Realm. The reward is 1.2 Million Super Clone Essence!]
"..."
Emotionlessly staring at this system notification, Lucifer's apathy suddenly broke all at once and was instead replaced with a wide, goofy grin.
When fighting, he really locked in, so emotions became rather useless. But when there was loot to be had, well… guhehehe~
"Yo, system-chan. How much does a clone in the Early Void Refinement Realm cost?"
[Ding! In order to purchase an Early Void Refinement Realm Clone, the host will need to spend 10 Million Super Clone Essence!]
"Hey, system-chan?"
[Ding! Yes, dear host?]
"Why do you hate me…?"
[Ding! The system cannot feel; therefore, it is impossible for the system to hate the host. But if the host would like to talk about it, the system can leave you on the nearest system hotline and will have an associate on the other end as soon as possible!]
"Such a thing is really possible?"
[Ding! Of course not, you f*cking dumba*s!]
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