Darius watched it burn coldly, not a hint of sympathy in his eyes. Rather, he casually noted how the flesh and blood nature of the miniboss actually reduced its fire susceptibility, while its vines also seemed to be less Wood element and more fleshly protuberances. 

Eventually, the miniboss was slain, and Darius proceeded to the next rest station. From there he entered the second battle room. The usual fare was thrown at him, 60 level 66 monsters, 70 level 67, 80 level 68, 90 level 69 and 100 level 70 monsters in all before a miniboss. 

After clearing them all, the lance managed to go up one level. 

[Dragon Ancestor’s Lance of Destruction – Unique Weapon (Lv. 26)   

Durability: 3,350,000/3,500,000   

Quality: Perfect   

Damage: 36,000-40,000   

Description: A one of its kind spear that has never existed in the history of Faust. It is made from the broken shaft of the Dragonlance, Holy Gold, and a little bit of Mithril, God’s Steel and Soul Essence. During its creating, it was mixed with Lunar Dew and the heart blood of the Ancestor Dragon, granting it Supreme might and a sentient spirit that can grow the weapon’s power endlessly as long as it is wielded by someone worthy.]   

Darius moved on through the Master floors just like this, easily tearing his way through the increasing number of monsters without a hitch. With the kind of damage output this lance had, it was impossible for anything down here to survive one hit. 

He noted that he was also gaining experience in terms of his level, as he was still an Adept. In fact, he had started gaining experience from the Adept floors till now, the only problem being that it was overall a pitiful amount because of his power. 

The True Supreme System was unlike the previous iteration, which had simply compared Darius’ level with that of his opponent. Here, there were no hard caps, instead experience was calculated organically, based on the quality of the battle, and especially, the power difference between both sides. 

Long story short, it was wishful thinking to hope to see any big changes in level from Darius’ side with his current stats unless he jumped into Armadon or Elysium to do some heavy lifting himself. 

Darius finished off the final boss of the Master stage floors and bypassed the large treasure chest to head down to his true target, the Grandmaster floors. After entering the first battle room, he noticed that instead of hundreds of doors all around, there was on one door and a very large arena space. 

It took a minute, but the door opened to release the first and only Grandmaster monster for this round, a level 81 Forest Shambler. It took heavy steps into the area, its large, viney body dragging along. 

In the depths of the hold where its face should be, a red light glowed, which likely denoted its eyes or consciousness. Darius calmly gazed at the monster and checked its stats, nodding to himself when he saw that it wasn’t too far from what he expected. 

[Name: Forest Shambler || Race: Vegetation || Stage: Grandmaster || Jobs: Wood Walker, Vine Lord. 

HP: 70,028/70,028 || MP: 972/972 || STA: 23,247/23,247 

Level: 81 || 

Power: 244 || Speed: 22 || Constitution: 287 

Magic: 12 || Will: 5 || Luck: 3. 

Skills: Shambler Charge, Powerful Swipe, Vine Swarm. 

Spells: None.] 

Darius flourished his lance and thought to himself how interesting it would be to see how much a Grandmaster would feed his lance compared to the Insect Grandmasters he had killed previously. 

As such, he struck first and without fanfare. With his speed, maneuvering around this slow Shambler was easy. Darius struck it right in the void where its eyes glowed, making the monster screech in agony. 

He kept the lance within its body, thought, allowing it to suck out the monster’s essence while he stood there with his arms folded behind his back. Soon, the monster that was twice his size was reduced to some vines and wood that looked decayed. 

Darius fetched his lance and saw that it had risen by a whole 50%! While this was half what the other Insect Grandmaster gave him, this was more than enough to leave him delighted. 

As such, he spun his lance and waited for the next two monsters. They were two Treemen, who looked exactly like the archetype from the Tolkien series. They were slow of mind and body, but their size and nature made them overpowered for smaller beings. 

Darius did not waste time. He hefted his lance on his shoulder and threw it right into the face of the Treeman on the right, sending him crashing down to the ground screaming while his essence was being drained. 

This angered the other Treeman who roared and charged at Darius with killing intent rippling from his eyes. Nonplussed, Darius trapped it in a sphere of dilated time, slowing down its movements using his Time Accel spell. 

[Time Accel – Level 60 Spell 

Grade: Advanced 

Cost: 2,000 MP 

Description: Move through the river of time to cross within a local area to advance forward beyond the means of those who are time-locked. This affects up to a range of 2 kilometers around yourself. The maximum dilation is 1:3 for up to 30 minutes.] 

So the second Treeman who was already running over quite slowly was now moving three times slower than before. This gave Darius the leisure to walk over to the first one and pull out his lance that had drained the essence of the monster. 

He then turned to the second one, whose expression was changing at a snail’s pace from fury to horror. With a chuckle, Darius hoisted his lance once more and threw it like a professional javelin thrower. 

Obviously, such technique was derived from both the Basic and Intermediate Lancer Arts. 

The lance flew through the time sphere, unaffected and exempted from its control, striking the second monster in the same area as the first, unsurprisingly yielding the same results. 

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Author’s Note: After battling on the verge of life and death, I have finally overcome my weakness, and enjoyed my rightful Zenkai boost. 

Chapters should slowly return to normal from here.. From February 1st, chapters will return to their breakneck pace, similar to the past two months.