Chapter 83: Class Advancement Challenge Complete! Breaking Through to Lv32, SSS-Rank Talent + Divine Forbidden Spell Acquired!

Chapter 83: Chapter 83: Class Advancement Challenge Complete! Breaking Through to Lv32, SSS-Rank Talent + Divine Forbidden Spell Acquired!

Vira hadn’t quite recovered yet.

She stared at the young man in front of her, confusion filling her water-blue eyes.

Before she could say anything, Ophelia threw herself at her and pulled her into a tight embrace.

This time, Ophelia finally stopped holding back.

"Waaah... Vira! You’re okay! You’re really okay... Waaah... Never leave your sister again..."

Vira was a little overwhelmed by the sudden embrace. She froze for two seconds before slowly raising her arms and hugging Ophelia back.

"Sister..."

Her voice was still a little hoarse.

"I think... I died?"

...

Bladeborne stood to one side, looking first at John, then at the two sisters embracing each other.

Grief and shock flashed across his face before eventually merging into a single question.

"...What?"

Arno also suddenly raised his head.

There were still tears in the corners of his eyes, but his pupils contracted sharply.

Resurrecting the dead.

Wasn’t that something only gods could do?

Just who exactly was their Lord?

John quietly stepped aside to give the sisters some space.

Watching them cry uncontrollably, he thought for a moment before finally interrupting.

"All right. You can catch up once we’re out of here."

He raised his hand and pointed toward the ceiling.

Everyone followed his finger and looked up.

Above the enormous hole Ophelia had torn through the hall’s ceiling, the gray-black Heavenly Nail was slowly rotating.

Centered around the stone pillar, the clouds had been stirred into an enormous vortex.

At its center, silver-white light was gathering, growing brighter and increasingly blinding.

"If we waste any more time, none of us are getting out of here."

Hearing this, Vira looked up at the stone pillar, and her expression changed dramatically.

"The Heavenly Nail is coming down! Come on! There’s a teleportation gate behind the main hall!"

At this point, she didn’t even have time to wonder how she had come back to life.

She quickly broke free from Ophelia’s embrace and dashed barefoot toward the depths of the hall.

John and the others immediately followed.

Behind them, the Heavenly Nail came crashing down.

The entire crystal sanctuary was ground into dust beneath the silver-white radiance.

[Ding!]

[Dungeon Instance Destroyed. All participants are being transported to a safe area.]

A flash of white light.

Suddenly, the ground beneath everyone’s feet disappeared.

The exit of the teleportation gate was suspended high in midair.

Wind roared past their ears.

Nobody had even realized what was happening until—

"AAAAH!"

Their bodies began plummeting uncontrollably.

John instinctively reached for Ophelia’s dragon scales, only to grab empty air.

He turned his head in disbelief.

Ophelia had actually dived in the opposite direction!

The direction farthest away from him!

And more importantly, toward Vira!

"Vira!"

Vira had only just been resurrected and wasn’t accustomed to flying again.

Her dragon wings instinctively flapped, but one of the wing membranes folded halfway.

Her entire body immediately began falling like a stone.

Ophelia didn’t even have time to worry about John.

Purple flames exploded behind her, forming a pair of blazing wings as she recklessly threw herself toward her younger sister.

Bladeborne instinctively gathered wind beneath his feet and took two steps forward, trying to chase after them.

And then...

He demonstrated a perfect free fall.

Arno’s white figure briefly faded in midair.

Looking at Ophelia, who was seemingly close enough to touch yet impossibly far away, he simply gave up struggling.

"THUD! THUD! THUD!"

Within seconds, three heavy impacts echoed across the barren hillside.

Three new craters appeared in the ground.

John had landed headfirst.

Fortunately, the soil was soft, and only his upper body had become buried.

He planted both hands on the ground, pulled himself free, and spat out two mouthfuls of dirt.

When he looked up, he saw two pairs of boots sticking straight into the air nearby.

Bladeborne and Arno had managed to bury themselves even deeper than he had.

Not far away, Ophelia was carefully patting Vira on the back, while the latter stood perfectly upright.

"Are you hurt? Does your wing hurt?"

"Sister, I’m fine."

"Don’t move. Let me check."

"I’m really fine. I just wasn’t prepared."

John rubbed the dirt off his neck and watched the dragon who was practically determined to inspect her sister from head to toe.

He was speechless.

This wouldn’t do.

He could understand ignoring Bladeborne and Arno, but how could she forget about her own Lord?

He would definitely have a word with her when they got back.

"Forget it. Let’s check the rewards first."

As if trying to cover up his embarrassment, John sat cross-legged on a nearby rock, brushed the dirt off his clothes, and opened the system notifications.

The first two notifications were glowing with brilliant golden light.

[Ding!]

[Class Advancement Challenge Completed!]

[Lord "Tyrant’s" level cap has been lifted. Current Level: Lv32!]

[All-Attribute Growth: HP +2,000, Constitution +20, Agility +20, Spirit +20, Strength +20.]

The level-30 bottleneck had been broken through, and he had even gained two additional levels.

Immediately afterward, a second golden notification appeared.

[Ding!]

[Lord’s class advancement detected. Talent Tree refreshed.]

[Congratulations, Lord "Tyrant"! You have obtained an exclusive SSS-Rank Talent:]

[Hero Coronation (SSS-Rank · Unique)]

[Effect: Once per day, designate one Hero under your command and directly upgrade their quality to SSS-Rank.]

John stared at the panel, his eyes widening slightly.

"This talent... Isn’t this a little ridiculous?"

Directly upgrading a Hero’s rank?

Such an ability was practically unheard of.

After all, the quality of recruited Heroes was normally fixed.

But now, not only could he upgrade a Hero’s quality, he could even raise it all the way to SSS-Rank!

Ophelia, Raistlin, Bladeborne, and Arno were already SSS-Rank Heroes, so there was no point using it on them.

But there was someone who could benefit from it right now.

Vira!

Vira was currently SS-Rank. Her stats were naturally inferior to those of her older sister.

But if he upgraded her to SSS-Rank...

Then...

"This isn’t much worse than Augustus’s Star Coronation."

John muttered quietly to himself.

He continued scrolling down.

[First-Clear Rewards for "Brotherhood Headquarters (Hell Mode)":]

[Obtained: Divine Forbidden Spell Scroll · Frostsky Spike ×1!]

"What is this?"

John’s eyelid twitched slightly as he immediately opened the item’s details.

[Frostsky Spike (Divine-Rank · One-Time Forbidden Spell Scroll)]

[Effect: Designate any area within a ten-kilometer radius. All values within the designated area are forcibly reduced to zero.]

[Restriction: Ineffective against Divine-Rank and higher units. The scroll will be destroyed upon use.]

Even John couldn’t help falling silent after reading the description.

He immediately locked the scroll to prevent accidentally using it.

A rule-level reset to zero.

In other words, even if the enemy had a Joint Defensive Barrier with tens of millions of durability, tearing open this scroll would instantly reduce its durability to zero.

And if an entire army happened to be standing within that ten-kilometer radius...

Then the soldiers, their equipment, and everything else would all be wiped out.

"That’s one hell of an item."

John suppressed the excitement stirring inside him and continued examining the other rewards.

[Obtained: gold coin ×300,000, Lord EXP ×500,000.]

[Obtained: Five-Star Unit Altar Stone ×1, Five-Star Unit Training License · Templar Knight ×1.]

[Obtained: Legendary Weapon Selection Chest ×1.]

The previous rewards were nothing particularly surprising.

He had received similar basic resources and items before, and the quantities weren’t bad either.

But the last reward was clearly the most valuable.

It had been quite a while since he had obtained another weapon selection chest.

The previous one had come from Odin Town and had only been Epic-Rank.

Although it had been decent, with John’s level continuing to increase, it was clearly no longer sufficient.

"Open it."

John immediately clicked on the chest.

Various weapon silhouettes appeared, floating across the holographic interface.

Longswords, great axes, spears, war hammers...

John didn’t hesitate for long before selecting a staff.