Chapter 132: Lilith [I]

〖First Phase: Blast Entry〗

Lucy doesn’t care if Derek is looking at her.

Derek may have forgotten she has 360 vision because of her spider beast. And since they were entering a Yellow-ranked Monster Zone, Lucy had activated this 360 vision if ever an ambush.

"The entrance to this zone looks like someone forced their way through," Lucy thought while looking around. "And the monsters are scarce. Are we not alone? Maybe not."

Her shoes entered a puddle as she introduced herself to the monsters. A Slime Centipede in armor. A Venom Gecko in armor.

Lucy’s scythe fell from her shoulders into her grip to do its bloody work. She was very good with this weapon since she was trained with it from childhood. By swinging it to the left and then swinging it to the right, like when mowing weeds, Lucy killed the centipede and the gecko.

The blade of the scythe was so sharp that it pierced those armors. The armors were also of poor quality, that’s why.

Derek was watching. Sure, slaying monsters as simple as a centipede and a gecko wasn’t impressive, but Derek was impressed—with Lucy’s weapon, the scythe. This was his first time seeing her Affix in action because their party used to fight monsters one by one before.

"What’s your affix, Lucy? There’s this purple thing you absorb after a kill."

"It’s like a 3-in-1 effect," Lucy answered. "Every damage I inflict is restored as vitality and Aeon for me, while the enemy gets hemorrhage forever."

Lucy killed another cabal of monsters to demonstrate.

The fifth monster was a Cordite Lizard. Lucy didn’t kill it completely; she just wounded it for the demonstration on how hemorrhage works.

After she wounded the lizard, she told Derek to watch it bleed to death, and soon the lizard was dead.

"But do you know how strong the monster could be to resist the hemorrhage effect?" Derek asked.

"No. Isn’t that why our weapons shouldn’t be our only reliance?"

Derek looked at his sword, affixed with: Shadow Mirage, then replied, "Yes, you’re right. But don’t underrate yours. Hemorrhage is a good way to kill a fleeing enemy or maybe even track them afterwards."

Lucy narrowed her eyes at Derek speaking, then looked at the Abomination Slime on his shoulder.

You should never trust what someone like Derek says, because all he knows is how to be stronger than who he was one minute ago. Lucy won’t be surprised if Derek was planning a way to incorporate an effect like hemorrhage into his Abomination Slime, Mordred, so it could be stronger.

Lucy summoned her beast.

The Malefic Spider, something so big and savage to the eye, appeared, and it looked ten times deadlier than the Abomination Slime.

When Derek saw the spider, he stopped thinking and became guarded. Then he looked at their system panel that said:

〖First Phase: Blast Entry cleared!〗

〖You have entered Second Phase: Monster Barracks!〗

There were seven phases in this Yellow-ranked zone, which wasn’t a surprise. But to tackle a zone like this, you must have a strategy to ensure you do not capitulate midway or at the end.

Fighting on your own first and then summoning later was one of these strategies, so Derek didn’t know why Lucy wanted to lessen their chances of survival by summoning her spider early.

"Lucy, you have been doing great so far with only your scythe. Can you dismiss that thing, please?"

"Thing?" Lucy repeated, looking at her spider from head to legs. "Her name is Lilith, and no, I want to keep her summoned but still fight alone. My scythe will make sure we don’t run out of Aeon."

"Lilith?"

Derek was confused as Lucy turned around to begin the second phase of the zone.

He doesn’t remember when she named her beast.

In the second phase, a corridor connected them to other sections, like an armory with old weapons, a command room, a comm room, and a storage room. The monsters in this phase were a greater threat than in the last phase, but Lucy and Derek will have no problem with them nevertheless.

Lucy allowed Derek to kill some.

With his sword, he smote them sore, and brooked no mercy.

Lucy noticed that Derek used Echo a lot to fight, not his own swordsmanship. Maybe he wasn’t that good with swords because he wasn’t raised how the Blackstones and Kingsleys were raised. Even Lucy, whose WOC was a scythe, could use a sword better than him without using tricks from her summon’s abilities.

But there’s a saying that if you can’t beat them, join them.

Derek was using these tricks too much to mix with swordsmanship, and it let him have more kills than Lucy, who was using only her weapon—and its affix effects.

Since Lucy was coming back from a two-day break, she was hungry for points, too, and didn’t want Derek taking everything for himself.

"Harvest!" Lucy yelled in the chaos of the fight, swinging her scythe, and the blade tore the air.

The air that was torn in half became a big web that traveled far like a train and captured a dozen monsters.

"Kite!" Lucy yelled again, and somehow she vanished from where she was to the captured monsters, showing her speed for the first time!

SHRRSSSHH!

Her scythe’s blade, now enshrouded with malefic webs, became bigger, the perfect tool for a mass execution like this!

〖You have slain a Cordite Scorpion!〗x11

〖You get +120 XP〗

〖Congratulations! You have levelled up to Lv. 35!〗

"Lilith, can you see? I am at level 35..." Lucy said to her beast. It didn’t reply as expected, but Lucy knew it was listening.

"But I didn’t unlock any skill..." Lucy continued, swallowing the disappointment.

There are universal skills every summoner can unlock, but Lucy hasn’t unlocked anything for an eternity. She is just leveling up like it is just a journey of numbers, with no magnitude.

This was scary because Lucy is forced to either pause leveling up and solve her problem or continue leveling up, hoping it solves itself.

The first option will make sure she doesn’t miss any skills again, but when you pause hunting and slaying monsters, your peers will surpass you and become better than you.

The second option allows her not to fall behind her peers, but leveling up without tangible power turns her into an empty shell at the end of the line. She would have the rank of a master, but the bite of a novice.