Chapter 256: Achievement: Dungeon Villain

Chapter 256: Chapter 256: Achievement: Dungeon Villain

’This is awesome.’

Lance casually tossed aside the Demon’s corpse and sighed internally.

It was a far cry from yesterday’s wretched state, where he had to constantly look over his shoulder to guard against sneak attacks from Demons.

Today, he only needed to focus all his attention on the kills right in front of him.

This perfect support synergy elevated his clearing efficiency to a new level.

Moreover, this battle gave Lance a much clearer picture of the shortcomings in his combat style.

Specifically, he was severely lacking in wide-area control Skills and defensive, life-saving abilities.

In terms of single-target damage, thanks to the boosts from his various insane Specialties, he was already about three Levels ahead of ordinary Professionals of the same Tier.

But he was stretched thin when it came to support capabilities.

’Looks like I’ll have to go back and farm more Satori Essence.’

He planned to really dig into the other hidden Specialty branches of the Azure Dragon Extreme Intent Style. Maybe he could even stack more Armor Value on himself to increase his margin for error.

With Nieve’s all-out support, the space a few meters around Lance was no longer packed with swarms of Demons like before.

The Frost Domain neatly sectioned off the monsters.

Even when Lance charged into the mobs ahead to maximize his kill rate, Nieve would quickly follow with her sword, constantly using Spells to protect his flanks.

’She’s truly the perfect battle partner.’

Nieve, for her part, was ecstatic.

With the buff from Lance’s Crown, her Crown Value was skyrocketing at an unbelievable rate.

As long as she continued this highly efficient partnership with Lance... 𝑓𝑟ℯℴ𝓂

She even had a shot at making a run for the top ten on the Summer Crown’s individual leaderboard.

Just as the two were cooperating seamlessly, a new threat appeared.

A Mutated Demon over three meters long, which looked like a Slime but was made of crimson flesh, rolled right over a few Bomb Goblins blocking its path.

Like an out-of-control war chariot, it roared and charged toward Lance.

"Leave it to me."

Nieve’s cool, clear voice sounded from behind him.

Her delicate body stepped directly in front of Lance.

Gripping the Heavy Sword in both hands, she slammed it into the ground.

A thick Frost Shield instantly materialized before them.

The Mutated Slime slammed violently into Nieve’s Shield.

A deafening THUD rang out.

An arctic chill erupted from the Shield, instantly coating the creature’s massive body in a thick layer of white frost.

Its charge was brought to a dead stop.

The Shield, which had begun to crack under the terrifying impact, quickly reformed thanks to a continuous infusion of Ethereal Magic Power.

At that moment, Lance took advantage of the opening Nieve had created.

He powerfully pushed off with his legs, leaping high from behind the Snow Lady.

He flipped in mid-air, landing precisely in the blind spot on top of the Mutated Slime.

"Nice one!"

Lance roared, shaping his right hand like a spearhead.

Ash Dragon Breath coiled and compressed around his arm.

Using the gravity of his descent, he plunged his arm from top to bottom deep into the Mutated Slime’s body.

His entire arm, up to the shoulder, was submerged in its disgusting flesh.

The Slime let out a pained roar.

But this type of Mutated Demon possessed an extremely powerful healing Talent.

The cells at the wound began to proliferate madly, attempting to trap Lance’s arm firmly within its flesh.

At the same time, a highly corrosive mucus oozed from the wound, trying to dissolve the intruder’s bones.

But Lance was unfazed.

Ash Dragon Breath erupted from within the monster.

A terrifying, crimson heat centered on Lance’s arm exploded inside the Mutated Slime.

A gruesome SIZZLE echoed through the mine.

It was the sound of flesh being roasted.

From the outside, the Mutated Slime’s entire subdermal layer glowed with a blinding light, like a red-hot iron.

The Healing Ban Trait of Ash Dragon Breath completely shut down the Demon’s vaunted regenerative abilities.

The newly grown flesh was instantly incinerated by the high temperature before it could even take effect.

The tenacious Mutated Demon only stopped struggling and collapsed with a crash once pungent smoke began to billow from all over its body.

The monster’s corpse quickly melted into the ground and disappeared, leaving only a few shimmering, rare drops in its place.

The surrounding, slowed Demon Tide surged forward once more, oblivious to their own fate.

It was at this time that Lance noticed the sound of panting beside him.

When fighting alongside Lance, Nieve could sustain about twenty minutes of high-intensity combat before needing about ten minutes to recover her stamina.

This was already the third time Nieve had shown signs of stamina depletion.

It was only by seeing a fellow Professional—the Snow Lady—struggling to keep going that Lance truly appreciated how ridiculously overpowered his Unlimited Stamina perk was.

However, Lance also observed that Nieve’s windows of continuous combat were gradually getting shorter.

This meant that her body had entered a state of deep fatigue.

This kind of exhaustion required stopping combat immediately for a long period of rest and recovery.

While glancing at his system panel, Lance also saw that the Research Progress for several Demons in his Illustrated Guide was maxed out, meaning he could extract their Talents at any time.

’Might as well take this opportunity to end this pull.’

’It’s a good chance to take stock of the morning’s spoils and start extracting Talents in peace.’

"Nieve, let’s wrap it up."

"Understood."

Hearing this, the Snow Lady immediately activated her remaining Magic Power.

A huge, semi-circular dome of ice firmly enveloped the two of them.

The endless stream of Demons outside pounced, completely enveloping the small, frost-emanating dome.

Lance first stopped killing, slowly waiting out the duration of the Crown Buff above his head.

After the Aura disappeared, he and Nieve worked together to slowly clear out the remaining Demons that had surrounded them.

Time ticked by.

As the buff Aura faded, Lance and Nieve worked at a deliberate pace, carefully avoiding another kill-streak buff. It took them over ten minutes to clear out the last of the Demons.

The battle was over.

Nieve immediately took the initiative to handle all the hard work of cleaning up the battlefield.

She was bent at her slender waist, like a diligent hamster hoarding food for the winter.

She sorted and bundled the various collected Magic Materials, then forcefully stuffed them into a hidden crevice in the mine’s rock wall.

’Farming Demons while carrying this huge pile of heavy materials would seriously mess with our mobility.’

’It’s better to hide them in this remote corner for now. We can bring them back to camp when we’re done for the day.’

Meanwhile, Lance found a clean rock and sat down.

He vigorously shook the monster slime off his limbs and turned his focus inward.

’Let me open my panel and see what my overall gains are.’

He had just opened the interface when he noticed a special system notification prominently displayed at the top.

After clicking it, he discovered it was a new section he had never seen before.

[Notice: You have obtained a Summer Crown Event · Special Achievement]

[Achievement Name: Dungeon Villain (Unique)]

[Condition for Achievement: Ignore the established rules of the Underground City, using special means to forcibly seize ownership of Chaos Items a total of one hundred times.]

Lance raised an eyebrow.

’So this achievement came from me using Royal Armory to snatch all those bombs from the Goblins over the last two days.’

This morning alone, he’d snatched at least sixty unstable Alchemy Explosives from those little green-skins to clear out mobs.

’Counting the ones from last night, the total is definitely over a hundred.’

’I never expected the Summer Crown event to have such a bizarre trigger mechanism hidden in it.’

Lance marveled to himself.

His gaze quickly moved down, continuing to check the specific effects of this unique achievement.

[Achievement Effect 1 · Habitual Rulebreaker: During the Summer Crown event, as long as you are within an Underground City, whenever you initiate a seizure check against any target, the target’s Resistance Threshold will be forcibly reduced by two points.]