Chapter 365 - 365: Emerald vine special ability

Soon, all twenty monsters were dead, either crushed, sliced open, or both.

Aiden really didn't pay much mind to them. Instead, his gaze remained locked onto the weapon in his hand.

He slowly lowered his eyes to the hammer side of the massive weapon, and a faint smile appeared on his face.

"This kinda looks like Ron's own."

The moment those words left his mouth, the image of a young man flashed through Aiden's mind.

A young man who was bare-chested, carrying a massive Warhammer right at his back, swinging it casually across his neck while wearing that same calm and cool expression he always had.

Ron.

Aiden's smile slowly faded, replaced by a forlorn expression.

He missed him.

He really missed Ron.

But he wasn't the only one who missed him... they all did.

Yet, alas, it was impossible to meet anymore.

After all... Ron was dead now.

And although they had taken their revenge by wiping out the Cursed responsible for his death, alongside numerous other people who had suffered the same fate, that still didn't bring Ron back.

It didn't bring any of the other victims back either.

Revenge could punish the ones responsible.

It could satisfy the anger burning inside their hearts.

But it could never return the people they had lost.

Aiden slowly shook himself out of his thoughts, his gaze sharpening once again as he decided it was time to wrap things up.

For now, he had to let go of his forlornness.

If before he wasn't completely certain that the Portal Boss here must be crazy strong, now he was more than certain.

For all these S-Rank monsters to willingly listen to their leader's orders without even trying to resist meant only one thing...

The Portal Boss must be overwhelmingly stronger than them.

So overwhelmingly stronger that if they ever fought against him, he would be able to massacre them.

That was no small deal.

After all, one had to understand that even Aiden, with his Emerald Vine Warrior King Armor, had not been able to easily crush these monsters.

Clearly, without the sudden surge from the energy of the dead Ashen Army that he had consumed to strengthen the Emerald Vine Core, this battle would have been a tough one.

He might have even needed to shift into yet another one of his strongest forms just to take them out.

That alone went to show just how powerful those Ashen Generals were.

And not only that...

Their leader, whosoever he was, was bound to be anything but easy.

Aiden sighed.

He might have to use his best beast mode if he wanted to take this boss down.

The bright green glow that emitted from his body slowly began to reduce, fading more and more until it eventually vanished completely.

The massive boost was finally over.

And with that great boost gone, with only around twenty percent of it remaining with Emerald Vine Mode, Aiden was still stronger than he had been before.

But he was almost certain that even this wouldn't be enough to take the Portal Boss down.

Well...

The good news for Aiden was that he still had three more powerful modes that he had yet to use.

So until then, there was no need to worry.

Aiden reverted to the Emerald Gorilla Beast Form, the real form of the Emerald Vine, and immediately looked toward his energy level.

Without any surprise...

It had dropped tremendously.

It had fallen to such a low level that even looking at it made Aiden's eyes hurt.

Ever since he had advanced to the Superhuman Level, his energy reserves had never fallen this low.

Never had he pushed himself to the point where his energy was almost completely used up.

But when he considered everything he had done during this battle, it was understandable.

He had not only used his sub-skill, Body Extension, alongside Emerald Vine Mode...

He had created and controlled five hundred Elite Vine Warriors, each of which possessed power nearly at the A-Rank level.

At the same time, he had been using those same energy reserves to continuously restore them whenever they were damaged.

And he had also been maintaining the Emerald Vine Warrior King Armor.

All of that had already placed a massive strain on his energy reserves.

Then, in the end, he had poured out even more of his power to overwhelm the twenty S-Rank Ashen Monsters.

Combining all of that together had strained his energy reserves to the extent that he almost suffered from complete energy depletion.

But alas...

That didn't happen.

At least, not yet.

And now, he was going to refill his energy.

He wouldn't be doing it with any Restoration Pill, though.

To Aiden, that would simply be a waste.

Instead, he used the ability of the Emerald Vine to absorb the energy of the twenty S-Rank monsters.

However, this time, he didn't convert the absorbed energy into another power-up surge or anything of the sort.

Instead, he directly redirected the energy into himself and used it to replenish his depleted reserves.

The process was surprisingly fast.

About two to three minutes later, Aiden's energy was completely restored.

His energy counter had returned to full.

Aiden smiled.

The Emerald Vine Mode was truly versatile and powerful.

It was one of his best Beast Modes, after all.

Aiden had wrapped things up now, so he decided it was finally time to free Elen from the vine barrier he had sealed her inside.

He had done so to keep her safe from being caught in the crossfire.

If she had been caught in that battle, there was no doubt that she would have died.

The Emerald Vine that had wrapped itself firmly around her, forming a midsized cocoon where Elen had been safely protected, slowly shifted.

The vines began to loosen and retract.

Soon, Elen's face could be seen.

Her hands were pressed tightly together as if she had been praying the entire time.

Praying that Aiden wouldn't lose.

Because if he lost...

She would also die.

And would you look at that?

Aiden didn't lose.

He survived.

Not only did he survive...

He had come out of that battle looking completely fine.

Aiden gave her a bright, warm smile, the same smile he had been wearing ever since they entered this portal.

"Come on. There is only one big boss left, and we can finally..."

Elen stared at him.

Seeing Aiden standing perfectly fine in front of her, she couldn't help but feel her breath catch in her throat.

There wasn't a single wound on him.

Not one.

After facing off against more than fifteen hundred Ashen Monsters and twenty S-Rank Ashen Commanders, he didn't even look exhausted.

At that moment, Aiden didn't just look like a freak.

He also looked like an angel.

A hero.

And, in her eyes...

A hot, cool dude.

Her cheeks flushed slightly.

Immediately, she rebuked herself for the thought.

Now was not the time to be getting lost in some strange fantasies.

Right now, they only needed to take down this big bad boss Aiden was talking about, and then they would finally be done.

The duo moved away from the shriveled corpses of the dead monsters and headed directly toward the place where Aiden had sensed a massive fluctuation of power.

There was not even the slightest shred of doubt in his mind.

That was where the Dungeon Boss was.

Meanwhile...

Back in the Ashen Palace.

The Ashen Lord's eyes suddenly snapped open.

BOOM!

His aura erupted from his body in an instant.

The entire palace shook violently beneath the pressure, the terrifying wave of power spreading through every corner of the enormous structure.

The air itself seemed to tremble.

The Ice Elf beside him immediately turned her eyes toward him.

A small look of surprise flashed across her beautiful face.

It was the first expression of surprise she had shown ever since she arrived.

To think...

That he might really be on the same level as her.

That was quite unexpected.