Chapter 176: Rewards

Within seconds, Maleficnite was surrounded by the Ruination Knights, each one attacking without giving him a chance to recover.

His body was covered in wounds, and dark blood began flowing from them.

"Get away from me!"

Maleficnite roared and released all of his remaining dark energy.

A massive explosion of darkness erupted from his body.

Boom!

The Ruination Knights were forced backward several steps, but none of them were seriously injured.

Maleficnite breathed heavily as he looked around.

His dark flames flickered inside his eye sockets.

He knew that he had lost.

But he still refused to accept it.

"I am the Priest of Darkness! I have served the darkness for hundreds of years! How can I lose to you?!"

Rachel looked at him calmly.

"Because your power is nothing compared to my Ruination much less my Rule."

She raised her hand toward the sky.

The golden light filling the cave suddenly gathered above Maleficnite.

His expression changed.

"Wait..."

Countless golden-black rays appeared in the air.

Rachel’s voice remained calm.

"Ruination Bloom."

The rays descended simultaneously.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Maleficnite’s body was completely pierced by the attacks.

The dark energy surrounding him shattered like broken glass, and his body slowly began turning into particles of darkness.

His staff fell to the ground with a loud clang.

Maleficnite looked toward Rachel one last time.

"You... are you really only Rank 1?"

Rachel smiled.

"Who knows?"

The final ray pierced through his chest.

Maleficnite’s body completely collapsed.

[Boss Monster Maleficnite has been defeated.]

[You have cleared the Nightcrawler Dweller Dungeon.]

[Rank-Up Trial Objective Completed.]

[Trial Completion Rate: 100%]

[Congratulations!]

[You have successfully completed the Rank-Up Trial.]

Kaiser looked at the notifications before glancing toward Maleficnite’s remains.

"Even without your Rule, it would have been a easy fight."

He wasn’t particularly surprised by the result. With Rachel’s Ruination powers and the Rule, this trial had been far easier than he had expected.

Rachel walked back toward him while the Ruination Knights stood quietly behind her.

"That was surprisingly easy."

Kaiser nodded.

"Yeah. I thought the boss would at least give us a little trouble."

Rachel smiled.

"Perhaps you should choose a stronger opponent next time."

Kaiser chuckled.

"I’ll keep that in mind."

Suddenly, another notification appeared in front of Kaiser.

[Trial Rewards are being calculated.]

[Calculating performance...]

[Difficulty: Nightmare]

[Completion Rate: 100%]

[Boss Defeated: Maleficnite]

[Additional Achievement: No Casualties]

[Additional Achievement: Boss Suppressed by a Lower-Rank Combatant]

Kaiser raised an eyebrow when he saw the last notification.

"Lower-Rank Combatant?"

"Was there an Achievement like that? But why didn’t I get it before?" he mumbled in confusion.

After thinking for a moment, he suddenly remembered that some Achievements required certain ranks to be unlocked.

"That must be the case."

He nodded before glancing toward Rachel.

The system was technically correct. Rachel was only Rank 1, yet she had completely crushed a peak Rank 2 boss.

A few seconds later, another notification appeared.

[Congratulations on completing the Nightmare-Rank Rank-Up Trial with an SSS rating.]

[You have successfully completed the Rank-Up Trial.]

[You have received the following rewards.]

[Reward 1: Random Legendary Pet Egg]

[Reward 2: All Attributes ×3]

[Reward 3: Genesis of Death Authority has advanced.]

[Reward 4: Genesis of Death Skill Creation Limit has increased.]

[Reward 5: Reconstruction Talent has advanced.]

[Reward 6: Fate Goblin King has awakened two new abilities.]

[Reward 7: Three Random Skill Books]

"The rewards are mostly the same," Kaiser mumbled.

They were similar to the rewards he had received when he reached Rank 1. The only major difference was the Random Legendary Pet Egg, which had previously turned into the Rank 8 Frost Light Wyvern Egg.

Before Kaiser could think further, another notification appeared.

[Accumulated EXP has been used.]

[You have leveled up.]

[You have reached Level 256.]

Kaiser was slightly surprised by so much level increase but didn’t pay much attention to it.

Another notification appeared soon after.

[Your Fate Goblin King has awakened two new abilities.]

[Fate Domination]

[Fortune Compass]

Just as Kaiser was about to check Ripple’s new abilities, his Bond Space suddenly began glowing, startling him.

Before he could even check what was happening, Ripple came out of the Bond Space on his own.

[Your Bond is growing up.]

"Oh, it was this."

Kaiser wiped the invisible sweat from his forehead.

"Fuck, you almost scared me to death."

After all, Ripple was his Bond and was practically like his second heart. If Ripple died, Kaiser would become crippled and lose all of his mana.

Though of course his powerful body will remain but without mana it won’t mean much.

Seeing that Ripple was simply growing up, Kaiser finally relaxed.

The Fate Goblin King, who had previously been small enough to comfortably fit in Kaiser’s hands, suddenly began to change.

His body slowly grew larger, reaching the size of a five- or six-year-old human child.

His appearance also changed significantly.

His body became fully humanoid, and instead of looking like an ordinary goblin, he now resembled a strange half-elf. His skin was golden, and his eyes were filled with beautiful prismatic colors.

A small red bag hung across his back.

Kaiser stared at him for a moment.

"Whoa. You changed so much."

The tiny golden figure looked almost like a child from a divine world.

Ripple looked up at Kaiser with a serious expression or what he thought as the only thing Kaiser and Rachel saw was him being more cuter.

"I wanted to become like Father."

His voice was clear and surprisingly cute.

Kaiser was stunned for a moment.

"You can talk now?"

He immediately picked Ripple up and held him in his arms.

"Yes, Father."

Ripple nodded proudly, his small face filled with happiness.

With his golden skin, prismatic eyes, and adorable appearance, Ripple really looked like a divine world’s golden goblin prince than an ordinary goblin.

"Damn, you just put many models to shame."

Kaiser couldn’t help but laugh as he looked at Ripple.

As for how Ripple had managed to become so human-like, the answer was one of his newly awakened abilities.

[Fate Domination]

[Description: Your will has been connected to fate, allowing you to influence and manipulate fate according to your desires. However, changing fate is not an easy task. The greater the desired change, the greater the requirements and difficulty. If the desired outcome exceeds your capabilities, you may suffer a backlash from fate.]

Kaiser read the description carefully.

"It seems your will to be like me made you look like this."

He looked at Ripple with some surprise.

The ability was clearly extremely powerful, but it also had serious limitations. The greater the change Ripple wanted to make, the more difficult it would become.

The second ability was equally interesting.

[Fortune Compass]

[Description: The compass will always point toward the best resource in your surroundings.]

Kaiser’s eyes immediately lit up.

"Now this is useful."

A compass that could always point toward the best resource in the surrounding area could be incredibly valuable, especially when exploring unknown dungeons or dangerous regions.

Kaiser looked at the adorable golden-haired Ripple in his arms.

"It seems your evolution was quite worth it."