Chapter 97: Growing Stronger

Elizabeth looked around carefully, finally finding herself standing on the island after the long and difficult journey. She immediately searched for her friends and began running the moment she spotted them lying on the floor.

“Hikari! Reinhardt! Ariel, heal them quickly!”

With the combined help of Ariel’s magic, she healed them twice as thoroughly as usual. The powerful recovery magic helped them wake up quite quickly, leaving both of them surprised once the process was complete.

“D-Did we beat it?” the half-elf asked while still rubbing his head.

“Yeah,” Hikari nodded as she stood up and brushed dirt from her clothes. “Looks like we won…! Well done, Elizabeth! That was one mighty slash at the end! You’re a proper swordswoman now!”

“R-Really?” Elizabeth wondered, feeling a warm wave of embarrassment rise to her cheeks.

“In my country you would be called a great samurai for a strike like that!” Hikari nodded with genuine admiration.

“I kind of want to visit Yamato one day!” Elizabeth said happily, her eyes sparkling with interest. “Would you invite me to your house when that happens?”

“I-I… well, there’s… it’s better if we talk about that later,” Hikari sighed, her expression growing a little complicated. “But I’m not in good terms with my house right now.”

“Same,” Reinhardt said, rolling his eyes dramatically. “I wish families stopped being such bitches all the time. I hate it.”

“Bit… what?” Hikari raised a sharp eyebrow. “Your way of speaking is very confusing, half-elf. Speak properly and with manners!”

“Hah?! I was just empathizing with you. Don’t act like a bitch now…” Reinhardt sighed and crossed his arms.

“B-Bi— You dare call me that?!” Hikari roared in sudden fury and swung her naginatas toward him without holding back.

“Uwaaaa?! What’s with this crazy oni bitch?! Wait— stop!” Reinhardt cried out in panic. Although Paragon’s armor shielded him from serious damage, it still hurt quite a bit whenever she struck his head repeatedly with the flat of her weapons.

Elizabeth smiled softly and decided to ignore their lively banter for the time being. She moved on toward the large corpse of the defeated Nightmare. Like the Chimera Insect from before, this one had been big and strong enough to remain as a solid corpse rather than vanishing. The other bats scattered across the area were the same, covering nearly the entire clearing.

She extended her hand toward the remains and decided to claim her hard-earned prize.

“Extract!”

FLUOSH!

All the corpses glowed brightly at once and turned into pure energy that coalesced into her open hand. Dozens of items appeared in her system status one after another through a long series of detailed notifications.

Hikari and Reinhardt stopped their fighting and looked over in surprise, clearly awed by her wondrous powers. They also noticed a little fairy floating beside her that radiated a soft pixel-like aura. It was Astraea, and this was the first time either of them had ever seen a true System Spirit.

Ding!

[You have Extracted]:

[Soul Enhancement Elixir (C+ Grade)] x50

[Spirit Enhancement Elixir (C+ Grade)] x50

[Mana Enhancement Elixir (C+ Grade)] x50

[Agility Enhancement Elixir (C+ Grade)] x50

[Dexterity Enhancement Elixir (C+ Grade)] x50

[Strength Enhancement Elixir (C+ Grade)] x50

[Bottled Nightmares (C+ Grade)] x5

[Bonus EXP Card (C+ Grade)] x3

[Bonus Skill Proficiency Card (C+ Grade)] x3

[Nightmare Skill Shard (??? Grade)] x60

[Nightmare Class Stone Shard (??? Grade)] x40

[Low-Tier Nightmare Bat Ring (C+ Grade)] x10

[Low-Tier Nightmare Bat Armor (C+ Grade)] x10

[Low-Tier Nightmare Bat Daggers (C+ Grade)] x10

[Low-Tier Nightmare Bat Shield (C+ Grade)] x10

[Soul-Stealing Nightmare Bat Tyrant’s Hypersonic Fang Blade (B Grade)] x1

[Soul-Stealing Nightmare Bat King’s Cursed Ring (B Grade)] x1]

This time she received quite a big haul of items, and above all, some unique high-quality ones as well!

The Low-Tier Nightmare Equipment was not particularly special on its own, since such pieces usually only carried very basic and weak abilities.

Of course, that limitation changed completely when she used Harmonious Chaos Reversal. The ability did not simply reverse the nature of an item — it also made the result a little stronger in the process.

The equipment that Hikari and Reinhardt currently wore (Reinhardt now had a new set of armor underneath Paragon) had been created exactly this way. Those pieces granted them solid protection against nightmare curses along with extra damage or defense-piercing effects.

But now she had obtained some truly new and amazing pieces of equipment!

“Congrats, Elizabeth, you got something amazing this time!” Astraea said cheerfully. “Unfortunately, that was your last use of Extraction for the day… sorry about that. We might get more daily uses once I upgrade into the next tier.”

“That’s fine,” Elizabeth nodded without disappointment. “The Nightmare Equipment I was using earlier completely broke during that last battle, so let’s hope these new ones last longer… But right now this is pure nightmare power. It would heal my foes rather than hurt them, so let’s reverse them properly.”

Elizabeth focused and used Harmonious Chaos Reversal on both the special ring and the powerful blade she had just obtained.

Ding!

[You have used your Soul Ability: [Harmonious Chaos Reversal] to reverse the [Soul-Stealing Nightmare Bat Tyrant’s Hypersonic Fang Blade (B Grade)] into the [Soul-Exorcizing Harmonious Dream Bat Tyrant’s Hypersonic Fang Blade (A Grade)]!]

[You have used your Soul Ability: [Harmonious Chaos Reversal] to reverse the [Soul-Stealing Nightmare Bat King’s Cursed Ring (B Grade)] into the [Soul-Healing Harmonious Dream Bat Beast Blessed Ring (A Grade)]!]

“Both rose by one full rank…!” Elizabeth smiled brightly and quickly equipped both of the upgraded items.

Once they were equipped, she felt the pieces increase her stats quite nicely while also offering some form of passive protection against nightmare elemental damage. That protection would come in very handy in future battles.

The blade could still channel the hypersonic sound waves of the boss monster, but now those waves were infused with harmonious energy. Each attack could completely destroy nightmares from the inside out.

As for the ring, it enhanced her overall stats and provided a soft, fluffy layer of protection that created pure white fur around her body when activated. She also noticed that the original “Bat King” name had changed into “Bat Beast.” The depiction of the monster on the ring had transformed as well, now resembling a giant, fluffy white bat she had never encountered before.

“Well, this is hilarious…” she muttered while laughing quietly to herself for a short while.

After enjoying the moment, she quickly used Matter Restructuration together with Harmonious Chaos Reversal to transform all the remaining low-tier equipment into several more sets of Harmonious Dream Equipment. She also equipped several of the newly created rings for an immediate extra stat boost.

Lastly, she realized she had leveled up once more during the battle.

Ding!

[Due to the accumulation of EXP, your Levels have increased.]

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

[…]

[Your Dragon Path has Leveled Up from Level 178 to Level 190!]

[Your Chaos Demon Path has Leveled Up from Level 157 to Level 172!]

[Your High Human Path has Leveled Up from Level 131 to Level 144!]

[Your Ice Dragon Path has Leveled Up from Level 40 to Level 52!]

[Your Adventurer Class has Leveled Up from Level 133 to Level 147!]

[Your Jack of all Trades Class has Leveled Up from Level 44 to Level 53!]

[All your Stats have increased.]

[You earned a large quantity of Stat Points.]

[You have earned 1,100,000 System Points.]

[Your Bonded Familiar: [Incarnation of the Spiral of Eternity: Paragon – Rank 3: Level 158/300] has Leveled Up to Level 171!]

[Your Bonded Familiar: [Dark Nether Treant: Dryad – Rank 2: Level 121/200] has Leveled Up to Level 127!]

“Even more System Points, alright…” she nodded to herself with satisfaction. “I should probably use some of them to Rank Up a few Skills,” she thought while opening her Skill List and studying the options carefully.

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