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Chapter 89

“Hmm.”

At the same time, the Five Elements Augmented Qi dispersed from his sword into nothingness as though its purpose had been fulfilled with the death of the Rift Guardian. The Five Elements True Dragon Ring, which had been revolving fiercely, also calmed down, and the flow of the Five Elements Qi within Leonard’s body returned to its usual tranquility.

He shouldn’t have been able to reach this level in his current state, and yet, the sensation of the power slipping away left Leonard with a sense of emptiness.

It’s not that I have grown... It felt like an innate ability within me awakened in response to facing a foe that I absolutely had to defeat.

Instead of succumbing to the emptiness, Leonard pondered on why this had happened and how things had come to be. He attempted to form the Five Elements Augmented Qi once again.

He tried activating the One Origin Five Elements Cultivation Method: Five Stars Convergence. For a moment, the five-colored energies whirled together, creating a radiant starlight.

However, it was slower and sloppier than before—the circulation speed of the Five Elements was subpar; the Five Elements Qi was not pure enough; and the augmented qi wasn’t fully integrated.

But despite these shortcomings, it was far more refined than when he had attempted it in his past life as Sword Emperor Yeon Mu-Hyuk .

Nevertheless, reaching the Five Elements Augmented Qi required speed and precision several times greater than this. An External Force Tier martial artist like Leonard couldn’t possibly manage to embed an entire world into a sword.

It always comes back to the Cardenas lineage. Leonard smiled bitterly, reaching a conclusion through elimination. There was no mistake about it.

The mana core forming the heart of the Five Elements True Dragon Ring originated from that lineage. Though his One Origin Five Elements Cultivation Method and fortuitous enlightenment had elevated it to something greater, the essence remained unchanged.

The ability to detect a Rift’s core, the instinct to oppose otherworldly energies, and a surge in power when facing an enemy of the world were all traits naturally manifested by anyone inheriting the Cardenas bloodline, albeit to a lesser degree than Leonard himself.

It almost feels like the Cardenas were born with this power so that they could fend off threats from the Rifts and beyond.

If that was the case, it would make sense why the Seven Great Orders of the Cardenas family could consistently eradicate Rifts and Demonic Realms. As he had learned from the Atlantis Maritime Alliance, even expedition teams like Wild Hunt often failed to locate the core and subsequently missed the critical timing to seal the Rift.

Finding cores was incomprehensibly difficult, with Charybdis’s core being harder to locate than fighting the monsters within.

But the Seven Great Orders conquered the Rifts with astonishing speed. Even with a Profound Realm knight in each order, there must be times when the commanders refrain from intervening.

Leonard had learned that by chatting with the mid-rank knights of the Order of the Fledgling Dragon stationed in the Galapagos Islands. They would often speak of how the Order of the Red Dragon had annihilated a legion on one battlefront, or how the Order of the Black Dragon had vanquished a demon in a specific region.

Those feats were often recounted in great detail. Whether it was to boost the pride of their family members or not, the reports were not entirely exaggerated.

“...If they have a group with a Profound Realm knight and several Creation Realm knights, supported by tracking abilities similar to mine, sealing Rifts or defeating Rift Guardians would be no different from monster hunting.”

Above all, excluding the Order of the Golden Dragon, they had six such groups. Even for an empire ten times larger than Atlantis, their forces were more than adequate to protect the territory of the empire.

What if the Cardenas bloodline, already several times stronger than other warriors, could become even more formidable within the Rifts?

“They could handle even the Demonic Realms....”

Even regions like the Sixth Sea District, declared unconquerable by the Atlantis Maritime Alliance, wouldn’t pose a significant problem to them.

Confident in his conjecture, Leonard sheathed his sword.

The Rift’s core, a purple crystal, floated ominously before him. Despite the sinister glow emitted by the core, Leonard remained unfazed. Destroying it now would immediately seal the Sea Orc Den, allowing him and his companions to escape.

However...

“It looks like it’s almost over. Time to grade their performance.”

He shifted his focus to the faint sounds of battle echoing from afar, the vibrations traveling through the cave walls. He headed to where his three comrades were engaged in battle, leaving the quivering core behind. The Rift Guardian was dead, and no other monsters were left to protect it.

It was truly the epitome of misfortune for a Rift to be raided by a natural enemy, someone from the Cardenas Family, despite being located in a far-off land.

* * *

While Leonard was battling the Sea Orc Champion deep within the cave, the rest of the team was engaged in fierce combat with the other monster.

The Sea Orc Warrior was missing an arm and a lung, but it was nonetheless a Chaos Demon Tier monster. Galanao, despite rapidly improving his skills in the past few days, wouldn’t last more than a few minutes against this sea orc.

The monster’s physical strength, mana reserves, and combat skills far surpassed the Tenth Degree External Force Tier. If it hadn’t been wounded, Galano alone wouldn’t have been able to withstand its attacks and keep it in check.

Clang!

The Warrior deflected Galanos’s Maelstrom thrust with a single swing of its blade. Galano tried to diffuse the counterforce as much as possible with an outward spin, but his palm was split open, his hand drenched in blood.

Despite his frustration at the exchange, a shiver ran down Galano’s spine. If the creature could fight like this with just one arm, how formidable would it be with twin blades?

“...I should be thankful to the leader.”

As if to agree with him, Ninian’s rain of arrows fell from behind, targeting the gaps in the Sea Orc Warrior’s defense.

Each arrow was swift and precise. The concentrated power was infinitely greater than when she used to shoot her arrows haphazardly. The aura flickering at the arrowheads showed that the archer’s usage of bow energy had reached the level of Three Star.

Ninian’s rapid growth stemmed partly from her elf lineage, which gave her an edge over humans, and her spirit affinity, which allowed her to read the flow of the wind.

Groaaaar!

The Sea Orc Warrior frantically swung its bone blade multiple times, deflecting all the arrows aiming for its vital points.

One couldn’t deflect Ninian’s hail of arrows with mere wind pressure. Lower-level spiritual arts that relied on wind spirits or sword winds would be just as ineffective.

The arrows veered off course but still grazed the Seo Orc Warrior, drawing blood. The instant Galano and Ninian’s combined assault immobilized the monster, Esther took the opportunity to unleash her power.

“Flame Strike!”

She cast a potent, single-target fire spell, considered the most powerful among Class 5 spells. A magic circle formed above the Sea Orc Warrior’s head, and a large, fierce fireball erupted, engulfing the creature in its fiery blaze without giving it a chance to dodge or defend itself.

Kreeeeaaagh!!

The gills that functioned even outside water allowed the Sea Orc Warrior to take deeper, more powerful breaths. But in this dire situation, they only served to roast its lungs.

The monster’s body, more like that of a sea creature than an orc, couldn’t withstand the intense heat. Its scales and hide, barely scratched by aura before, began to char and disintegrate. Even for a Chaos Demon Tier monster, a direct hit from a Class 5 spell of the opposing element was devastating.

Galano was also caught in the heat blast of Flame Strike, but things were different for him.

“If it’s not a direct hit... I can take it!”

Leonard’s advice on applying Maelstrom for defensive purposes shone through. The heat wave from Flame Strike only served to amplify Galano’s next thrust. The flames swirling around him as he unleashed a vortex made for a mystical sight.

Ninian, however, furrowed her brows and whispered softly, “The wind is too unstable... This combination makes it hard for me to provide cover.”

“Really? Should I try Lightning Spear next?” Esther accepted her input and began preparing her next spell.

Even amidst the flames, the Sea Orc Warrior was still alive and moving. It had been reduced to a bleeding, battered wreck with hardly any blood left to lose, and yet it kept swinging its sword; despite the massive hole left in its abdomen by Galano’s enhanced thrust, the creature continued its relentless assault.

The adventurers, facing such a tenacious Chaos Demon Tier monster for the first time ever, broke into a cold sweat.

“Such insane vitality...! Leonard could deal with it with a single blow, but even with three of us, it’s tough!” Esther exclaimed.

“He’s the one who taught me archery and also taught Galano spear techniques,” Ninian responded, shaking her head. “Don’t compare yourself to an outlier.”

“Huh... I guess you’re right.”

“Mhm. Feels a lot better if you think of it that way.”

As the human mage and the half-elf archer found common ground, the creature’s desperation intensified.

The Sea Orc Warrior believed—it believed that the Sea Orc Champion, who had disappeared into the depths of the cave with that terrifying human, would return victorious. As long as it held on until then, it would be its victory.

Krooaaaaahhh!!

Despite one of its lungs being frozen and the other scorched, the monster roared so loudly that it echoed through the entire cave. The sea orc raised its bone blade high; it couldn’t afford to die without taking down at least one intruder. That would taint its honor as a warrior representing the sea orcs.

In those final moments, the Sea Orc Warrior mustered its last ounce of strength for a final attack...

Krr... Krak?

Even with its distorted vision, the Sea Orc Champion spotted Leonard watching them from above.

Two had gone in, and only one had returned. The monster wasn’t foolish; it understood what this meant. Its eyes, previously burning with desperate resolve, were suddenly clouded by utter despair.

And then...

Boom!!

Seeing the opening, Galano unleashed the accumulated power of Maelstrom in a thrust, piercing the Sea Orc Warrior’s heart. Almost simultaneously, Ninian’s two arrows planted themselves in its eyes, followed by two bolts of lightning that trailed along the metal shafts of the arrows into the Sea Orc Warrior’s body.

Even a lower-class spell like Lightning Bolt became unstoppable when it directly struck the target from within, bypassing the monster’s magic resistance.

The lightning coursed through, boiling the creature’s brain and sending black smoke pouring from its facial orifices.

Thud!

Following the almost perfect joint attack, the Warrior’s lifeless body collapsed on the temple floor, its heart and brain destroyed. Not even a Chaos Demon Tier monster could regenerate from such critical damage.

Regardless, the Sea Orc Warrior’s spirit died the moment it saw Leonard by himself.

Damn, I made it too easy by showing myself, Leonard thought to himself, realizing his mistake. But what was done was done.

The three, realizing why the creature had suddenly stopped attacking, turned to him.

“Leonard!”

“Ohoo, you won as well, leader?”

“I knew you would.”

With Esther’s delighted greeting, Galano’s whistle, and Ninian’s reassured expression, Leonard couldn’t help but chuckle. Then, he pointed deeper into the cave.

“I found the core. Since we’re here, let’s take a look before we destroy it.”

The three nodded without hesitation. Getting to see a Rift’s core was rare even for a Rank A expedition team. In resource mining expeditions, teams deliberately avoided to core, and in sealing expeditions, cores were notoriously difficult to locate due to obstacles like the Rift Guardians.

Though exhausted from the fierce battle, their curiosity as adventurers compelled them to move forward.