After a few minutes of shock and disbelief, a sudden sigh sent everyone’s attention back to their screens.
“Phew~~” Stark fell to his knees, and his clones disappeared, their aura seeping back into his body, “That was… an experience…”
They had seen the fight, they had seen the bunny-masked guy defeat the boss, and yet…
They still couldn’t believe it.
Questions such as “how is this possible” or “how did he do that” kept popping left and right.
But the biggest mystery of them all was…
“HOW DID HE SURVIVE BEING CUT IN HALF!”
Lana sat there in stunned silence, her eyes wide with disbelief and awe.
The fight had been intense, brutal, and impressive as hell.
“Thank you… Stark…” she thanked him for surviving.
“Hey, Lana,” Vex and all the other ‘Crimson Moon Squad’ members approached her, disbelief on their faces, “He is your little boyfriend, so you must know how he did it right, I mean, he fucking came back to LIFE while his HP were at 0, we all saw it!”
“H-Huh?” Lana was taken aback, “W-wait, he is not my boyfriend, and no… I don’t know how he did that…”
If she knew that he could do it, she wouldn’t have cried.
Once your HP reached zero in this world, there was nothing much you could do in 99.9% of cases, it was immediate death.
Drinking a [Max Health Potion] was only possible if your HP were 1 or higher, and life-saving items like the [Escape Bundle] could allow you to escape a rift if your HP dropped to 0, but that would mean leaving the rift.
Yet Stark hadn’t left, and he probably didn’t have the money to buy such an expensive thing.
The only other known item that could save someone from death was the [Life Crystal], and there were almost no pieces that were sold in markets because of their sheer rarity, even top powerhouses wouldn’t be able to get their hands on it with all the money in the world.
This left two options: it is either a skill even above legendary, probably mythical, godly or even… IMMORTAL!
“Or…” Jack spoke loudly for everyone hear, “It’s his talent, a talent so powerful that it could bring you back from the dead…” he scratched his chins.
“We don’t know for sure,” Old Kai shook his head, “There could be other explanations we just don’t know about.”
“My ass… i’m gonna stick with my theory,” Jack suddenly began walking toward the exit portal that opened nearby, and his team followed closely, “We’ll be going, no more business in here if the items were taken and the boss was defeated.”
This was all the classifiers outside the boss room could see as the screen suddenly faded to black, now all they could do was wait for Stark to come back, leave the rift as everything would be taken (usually people attempt to steal, but most were dissuaded after seeing everything that happened), or keep fighting inside to hopefully gain experience and level up.
“Welp, let’s go, we’ll get them next time,” Vex shrugged, their squad were from the second category too.
“I think i’ll wait here,” but Lana shook her head, she needed… no… she WANTED to see Stark.
“Oh well, it’s fine then, you’ll help him get back too!” Stella smiled and the ‘Crimson Moon Squad’ began heading toward the exit, which appeared at the edge of the canyon.
“…” Lana sat on the ground, then opened up the ‘highlight replay’ to rewatch Stark’s battle.
***
[You have slain ‘Judicator, The Fallen Angel’, gained 550000EXP!]
‘Holy… that’s a lot of experience,’ Stark smirked, this was proof that Judicator was truly the strongest opponent he had fought yet, even stronger than the mirror master.
But getting this much EXP could only mean one thing…
[Your level has increased to level 24, granting you one skill point and boost in stats]
‘Nice!’ Star’s eyes widened, he was so close now…
And surprisingly enough… he was surrounded by the golden glow again.
[Your level has increased to level 25, granting you two skill points and boost in stats]
[Experience: 8391/500000]
‘I DID IT!’ he jumped, the adrenaline granting him a boost in stamina.
But getting to level 25 was much more overwhelming than Stark believed since many panels suddenly appeared around him, taking over his entire surroundings.
It was a new milestone, and a giant one at that.
He calmed down and decided to check them out one by one.
The first thing he noticed was that familiar text: [Level 25 Reached: please pick a card].
Just like all the previous times, three cards appeared before him, their color was orange.
Without hesitation, Stark reached out to pick one.
And once he turned the card, he saw the drawing of a… beam?
…
[Name: Heaven’s Wrath]
[Type: Legendary]
[Level: 1]
[Description: Unleash a powerful ray of crimson light from the heavens that destroys all enemies within a certain radius, the damage they receive is only in effect when they are inside the beam, otherwise they won’t be damaged if they leave it, cooldown is thirty minutes!]
…
‘My first skill to get rid of big amount of monsters, huh?’ Stark immediately thought of using that skill on armies of monsters to get rid of them, and it was even better since he could control where the beam would go.
Overall, it was a great skill, but its cooldown was higher than ‘Double Assault’ for some reason.
After knowing what skill he had gotten from reaching level 25, Stark turned his eyes toward the next panel.
[You have beaten ‘Judicator, The Fallen Angel’ while being alone (SOLO achievement), granting you AMAZING equipment pieces]
And just as it said, right on top of the pile of ashes that were previously Judicator’s body stood not one, not two, nor three, but FOUR equipment pieces, their small lights shining, inviting Stark to take them.
‘I’m rich,’ Stark nodded, proud of himself.
He crouched and grabbed one of the items to inspect it, it was a pair of black wings, and he immediately knew that these could do as they ressembled those from Judicator.
Most items that came out of monsters/mini-bosses/elites or bosses were related to their monster, so it was pretty obvious.
But right as he was about to check it out…
~TREMBLE~
The entire chamber began shaking violently, and the pillars that were still standing after the battle began to crumble.
‘What the…?’ Stark thought, he didn’t know what was happening.
[The boss has been defeated, the boss area is now crumbling since its power source has died, please leave shortly]
‘Ah shit…’ Stark didn’t waste time and immediately took all the equipment pieces that were on the pile of ash and put them inside his [Spatial Inventory], making sure not to drop anything as it was the rewards of his hard work
And as for the panels… he would check them out later, but he knew that there were many incredible things to uncover from there.
~SHAKE, SHAKE~
The ‘Shadow Monument’ shook more and more, until eventually, a part of the ceiling almost fell on Stark, which he only avoided thanks to [Invincible Dodge].
‘This place is actually crumbling, I need to get out of here, and quick,’ Stark mumbled while looking around him, trying to find an exit.
