CHAPTER 37: BREAKING THE CYCLE OF REBIRTH

The beasts that should have melted were turned into steam because of her spell.

The might of her wide-destruction spell pushed the horde back. Almost twenty of the beasts had ceased to exist, but more kept spawning.

While Jessie had earned some crucial seconds for both of them, Ash loaded the gun with a D-rank core.

It was ten times more potent than an E-rank core. E-rank cores provided 10 MP, while a single D-rank core alone was able to provide 100 MP.

’75 MP for the 15 bullets, then 25 to recover my MP,’ Ash calculated, filling the pistol and restoring his own MP.

Reloading the gun was almost instantaneous, so spamming some cores into the gun was feasible.

Then he checked his system screen.

[Level Up]

[ Level: 8]

[ 1040 / 2000 Exp ]

[ AGILITY: 6 (+12) | ENDURANCE: 4 (+20) | STRENGTH: 3 (+14) | LUCK: 7 ]

[ MP: 50 / 70 (Recovery Rate: 1 per 450 seconds) ]

[ Stat Points: 3]

Store Coins: 7200.

He was confident in his physical stats; with the new armour, he could easily compete with a High D-rank beast in that aspect. That only left his MP and Luck.

He was tempted to increase his luck stat because it had enhanced his senses by multiple levels, but realistically he needed more mana cap at the moment.

[MP: 50/100]

He grabbed the last D-rank core and filled his MP. There was still mana left worth ten bullets, so he put it back.

Jessie retreated, huffing and panting. Using the spell once consumed a major part of her pool, and she couldn’t spam it if she didn’t want to run dry.

Then suddenly his screen lit up with notifications.

[+10 Exp]

[+10 Exp]

[+10 Exp]

Around twenty notifications appeared on his screen, giving two hundred free Exp.

He looked toward Jessie, where dozens of beasts were turned into a mist of fog by her flames.

He was getting only a small share of rewards, but the overwhelming number had accumulated a lot of Exp.

These beasts were one rank above him, and the system rewarded higher for killing beasts stronger than himself.

The beasts regrouped, ready to start their assault. Looking back toward busy Ash, Jessie cast some normal fireballs—a downgrade of Dragon Flame.

Ash looked ahead and readied himself for another round of fight.

At least the numbers were dwindling, but new beasts were emerging farther away. One thing was clear—they were killing beasts faster than their birth rate.

"Jessie—I will need some D-rank cores. Leave these beasts to me; just bring the cores from the other side if you can," Ash said, his hands shooting the incoming bird down.

Jessie was almost out of her MP, and she also needed some cores to recover.

"Do you want me to go into the swarm?" Jessie glanced toward Ash suspiciously.

The cores of dead beasts were beneath the emerging and already charging ones. She needed to go into the swarm to recover them. Though she had her armour, if all the beasts attacked her from every side, then she wasn’t confident in its durability.

Ash nodded. "I will give cover, just go."

Jessie’s eyes darted toward the horizon. The crystal plain pulsed faintly, as though the ground itself was alive.

Grinding her teeth, she rushed toward the charging horde of beasts. A wolf lunged toward her; as she put her hands up to cover herself, a bullet killed the beast, turning it into dust.

A D-rank core fell on her head as if offered by the god himself, but she needed more.

As she walked, beasts kept falling, clearing the path ahead. With every beast Ash killed, she was getting 10 Exp, and she had killed twenty beasts with Dragon Flame—that made her reach level nine.

Her eyes sparkled as she saw her Exp slowly meeting the level 10 requirement.

She needed to use Dragon Flame once more, and that would make her breakthrough.

The beasts lunged again, and Ash shot them down without hesitation. His bullets were running out, but he was ready to invest his own MP.

[+60 Exp]

[+70 Exp]

[+50 Exp]

[+80 Exp]

With every kill, he was getting astronomical amounts of Exp. He could see his Exp slowly reaching the level 9 requirement.

His hand shook with every shot. Jessie was slowly getting surrounded by the horde of beasts. Ash forgot the bullet count and didn’t realise when his personal Exp started getting used in the process.

He spammed bullets one after another but was unable to keep up with the frenzied mob.

Jessie slowly retreated back, a bunch of beast cores shining in her grasp.

As she retreated, a dragon-shaped flame ball bit down on the remaining beasts, incinerating them in the air. The air grew moist with the fog.

More beasts took the place of the deceased ones.

Ash’s luck warned him of something strange. The rate at which the beasts were emerging had accelerated.

Now, every second, one beast was emerging.

Currently, the count of beasts was around twenty in front of them, and it was increasing by one every second.

Jessie panted and fell down. "Here." She dropped dozens of beast cores.

"Recover the MP—we just need to kill them once. After that, it will be an easy walk," Ash said quickly, grabbing the cold crystalline core and recharging his gun.

Shooting nonstop—every bullet killed one beast, but in that time another rose. It was an equilibrium, and he needed support to break it.

The ground cracked beneath the beasts, and crimson fire engulfed them. A dragon clutched its jaw shut as the last of the beasts were killed in no time.

Ash ignored the flood of system notifications.

After killing around fifty more beasts the rate at which the beasts were born had also reduced, as if the mechanism that caused the cycle of birth had burned faster than ever and then lost all its energy.

It was just like a dying flame that burns bright at its last moment.

Ash smirked, spinning the revolver once more. "Now this is getting over."

A beast emerged every few seconds only to be killed by Jessie’s fireball or Ash’s bullet. Now this dungeon had become an Exp farm for them.

But there was anticipation of boss monster that hung in the air.