CHAPTER 93: MAGIC PUNCH!

♦️ You have killed your opponent.

♦️ You have gained +5000 Enlightenment Points.

♦️ You have won two fights in the arena.

♦️ You have completed the trial of the 3rd sector.

♦️ You will be teleported back to the Main Hub in 3 seconds.

Three seconds later, Ray returned to the technologically advanced place that was bustling with life.

He went and sat down next to an acquaintance. He was almost exhausted. He couldn’t continue to the next trial in this state. He had to rest for around 14 to 15 hours to recover his stamina to the max.

Honestly, he wouldn’t have ended up in this pitiful condition if he had just relied on Muri to win his fights.

Two hands can’t win against four. The Ratman Swordsman and the Dark Elf wouldn’t have lasted as long as they did if he had brought Muri into the fray when he was fighting them!

Anyways, he intentionally didn’t do that.

As a common citizen from the common era, what did he lack the most? It was combat experience!

He was using them as live targets to thoroughly understand his limits and hone his combat style.

Fighting them had given him priceless experience. He had gained a clearer understanding of how he should behave and fight when he was walking a thin line between life and death and the odds were against him.

These were benefits no amount of shortcuts could provide.

"You look tired," Lia said.

"The trial I faced just now was really hard," Ray replied. "I had to defeat two seekers in consecutive one-on-one battles."

"The difficulty of the trial is readjusted to match your current performance and progression speed," Lia explained before continuing in a softer voice, "your opponents must have been really tough."

"They were tough," Ray nodded without hesitation.

The bartender, who was eavesdropping on their conversation, smiled at Ray.

"But you are here and they are not. That makes you tougher than them."

While saying these words, he placed a glass filled to the brim with a golden liquid in front of Ray.

"This drink is called Solar Fang Brew. Its flavour is nothing special, but that’s because it wasn’t made with the intention of being savoured. It classify as a magic drink. It has the effect of recovering stamina at a rapid pace."

The bartender’s name was Krazek. He was a member of the reptilia race. He wasn’t wearing any clothes, only a thick leather band tied around his neck that marked his trade as a bartender.

Ray raised his head to look at Krazek in surprise. "Such a precious drink... how much does it cost?"

"Drink it," Krazek replied with a smile. "It’s on the house."

"Thank you," Ray said.

"Don’t thank me." Krazek added, "You earned it."

"I earned it?" Ray asked, confused.

Krazek’s slitted eyes gleamed as his tongue flicked briefly. "In less than a week, you have completed not one, not two, but three whole sectors. The speed at which you are climbing the tower is horrifying, even by reptilia standards. I’ve developed a favourable impression of you. Consider this a small push from me. Climb faster, human. I want to know how far you can get before hitting a wall."

’The reptilia race is really direct and nice,’ Ray thought as he lifted the glass and drank the Solar Fang Brew.

It tasted like a mix of sweet-tart citrus, refreshing and slightly sour, with a cooling aftertaste that lingered on his tongue. As it slid down his throat, a refreshing feeling spread through his entire body.

♦️ You have drunk Solar Fang Brew.

♦️ Your body has responded to it extremely well.

♦️ The effect of your passive stamina recovery has temporarily increased.

♦️ Your stamina will now recover by +10 points every hour.

Ray’s eyes shone with delight.

’In less than an hour and a half, my stamina will fully recover and I’ll be ready to head to the next trial.’

He was only 20,000 Enlightenment Points away from reaching bronze rank.

In the best-case scenario, clearing one more sector would be enough.

In the worst case, he might need to complete three more sectors.

But lately, he hadn’t been down on his luck. Ray believed the worst wouldn’t befall him.

He should be able to get the remaining points he needed to buy the Blue Spirit Fruit in two more trials at most.

Meanwhile, Lia was staring at him in fascination. Her beautiful eyes lingered on his profile, as if she were trying to peel back the layers of who he really was. She had never met such an interesting human before.

When Ray caught her gaze, she looked away quickly.

The pointed tips of her ears flushed red, betraying what she truly felt. She was embarrassed as heck.

Not wanting to embarrass her any further, Ray swallowed the words resting at the tip of his tongue.

"What kind of opponents did you face?" she asked.

"A Ratman swordsman and a Dark Elf," Ray replied before recounting the flow of the battles.

Lia listened intently as he spoke. Her expression was calm but her eyes were sharp. She was dissecting every detail he shared.

When he finished, her brows lifted slightly. She opened her mouth to speak.

"That Ratman you fought must have been a Magic Swordsman. Magic Swordsmen are one of the three most dangerous hunter classes since they excel at both martial combat and spellcraft. The fact that he could summon multiple Amethyst Armaments proves his bloodline was pure. Such an ability usually appears only among highborn Ratallias of the Ratallia race. If he was that skilled, he might have been a Ratallia royal."

"As for the Dark Elf," Lia continued, "their kind isn’t known for teleportation. What you saw was most likely Shadowmeld, an innate power unique to their race. It lets them sink into the nearest shadow for a heartbeat before emerging from it. To the untrained eye, it feels like teleportation, but it really isn’t. Only the oldest bloodlines of the Umbrathen clan can wield it so fluently. The Dark Elf you fought was probably a highborn or a descendant of one. You probably mistook her Shadowmeld for teleportation in the heat of battle."

"Maybe." Ray questioned, tilting his head, "How come you’re so knowledgeable about them?"

"Ratmen and Dark Elves are natives to my homeworld," Lia answered.

"Really?" Ray leaned in, his interest piqued.

Lia nodded before saying softly, "I am from Veloria. It used to be dominated by the Ratallia race. But the Dark Elves... they were the ones more feared. Their talent for destruction and their skill in assassinating high-profile targets made them a nightmare to us all."

"What changed?" Ray asked.

"The bloodsuckers invaded," Lia replied, her voice low and heavy with emotion.

Their conversation stretched into an hour-long lesson, and Ray ended up learning a lot from Lia as he absorbed everything she shared like a sponge in water.

He learned that not all worlds were the same.

Each had a ceiling on how powerful their inhabitants could become.

Low-tier worlds could only support experts up to the Silver rank, while high-tier worlds were capable of sustaining even extremely strong beings like the Lords and the Overlords.

By that standard, Earth was considered a high-tier world, while Veloria, the world Lia hailed from, was a low-tier one.

Because Veloria lacked strategic value, it was never targeted by a grand coalition of demonic races. Only one faction set its sights on her homeland: the bloodsuckers. They were fiends with vampiric abilities.

Their greatest weakness was the sun. They thrived in darkness and rarely ventured out except at night. This made the Ratallia Kingdom their first prey.

The Ratallia Kingdom was built underground. Its cities were shielded from sunlight by a dense layer of earth. It was the perfect nest for the bloodsuckers. So when they arrived in Veloria, they attacked Ratallia.

Ratmen were hated because they used the beauties of other races as tools for reproduction and the men as beasts of burden or even emergency rations.

No one stood up to help them when they were in trouble.

As a result.

The Ratallia Kingdom fell to the bloodsuckers overnight, and its underground cities began serving as a stronghold for the invaders to establish their foothold in Veloria.

Lia’s voice grew colder as she continued,

"The fate of the Dark Elves was even crueler. The bloodsuckers required capable natives who could carry out their will in the daylight, assassinate, and sow chaos in places they themselves could not enter. The Umbrathen, who were born killers, masters of shadow, and already feared among my people, were chosen for that task. The bloodsuckers enslaved them, bound their very souls to their wills, and have been using them ever since to further their conquest of Veloria."

"Veloria still has three other great kingdoms besides Ratallia. They were built on the surface, and so far they’ve managed to hold out. The bloodsuckers couldn’t destroy them overnight like they did Ratallia. Out of desperation, the three kingdoms banded together under one banner to resist the invasion."

Her hands clenched on her knees, knuckles pale.

"But the odds are stacked against us. The bloodsuckers outnumber our Silver-ranked powerhouses. Worse, their innate ability turns every death into an advantage. They can make thralls out of the dead. Every soldier or warrior we lose rises again as one of their pawns. Do you understand what that means? The longer the war drags on, the stronger their armies grow while ours are bled dry. Unless a miracle happens, Veloria will fall. It is only a matter of time."

Ray’s throat felt dry. Hearing her words, he could easily imagine a world coming to an end.

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Hi 👋 Author here:-

Previous Chapter was slightly edited. (Dark elf’s gender changed to female. Word She used to describe her instead of he or it.