Chương 465: Chapter 464 – Advancements

"7. 8 million magic power," Damion informed Mage Veers and Mage Harris as he started moving his ice platform carrying the three of them away from the guardian of the fifty-third floor. He had to get to 250 meters from the guardian to tell its magic power since his True Sight had not risen in Rank. Though, having an SS Rank spell while he was only A Rank was probably a bit of wishful thinking.

"Then we are still not past the midpoint," Mage Harris sighed.

"If this floor is not the midpoint I am afraid the next floor will either be a peak SS Rank or possibly SSS Rank."

"Is that possible?" Damion asked. Despite what he knew from the Magic System, until recently SS Rank was considered a myth by most of Nerotath, having the bar raised to SSS Rank so soon would certainly dishearten a number of mages.

"Anything is possible. What is probable is a different matter. Now that we are seeing such high magic power, I fear we may indeed see SSS Rank creatures."

"In any event, let's return to the others," Mage Veers said.

"This type of Demonic Beast is not very mobile and since it is the guardian, I doubt it will make a move until we are within striking distance, we have plenty of time to plan out our assault." A few minutes later the three of them were back with the other S Rank mages and the strategy to combat the Demon Sunflower was being devised.

Despite the fact that the guardian was likely fixed in place, it had tremendous defensive power as well as the ability to strike multiple targets at range through the metal seeds it could launch from its auxiliary maws. This meant even if they tried to stay out of range of the razor-sharp leaves the mouth-like maws of the main plant, they could still be hit with a metal seed of mithril.

"We should return to the safe area around the entrance passageway to rest and recover," Mage Harris proposed.

"No sense in starting a fight with a stronger opponent while we are not at our best." There was no dissension amongst the mages to this plan and soon enough the S Rankers joined the few A Rankers that had come through the passage from the fifty-second floor. There were around sixty people resting in the safe area with two or three more arriving every hour. By morning most of the A Rankers had arrived on the fifty-third floor and the safe area had become quite crowded.

'System, status,' Damion mentally called out to the Magic System. [Magic System] [System Level: 4] [User: Damion Wells] [Age: 20] [Magic Talent: EX] [Magic Affinity: Ice EX, Water E, Poison D, Spatial EX, Fire EX, Earth EX, Shadow EX, Holy C, Light E, Wood A, Wind A] [Mana: 45, 097/39, 215] (15%) - 45, 097 [Magic Power: 197, 684] (15%) - 227, 336 Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

[Mana Recovery: 382 P/S] (15%) - 439 [Strength: 244] [Dexterity: 236] (15%) - 271 [Vitality: 593] [Intelligence: 153] [Experience: 9, 300/50, 000] [Store Credits: 8, 383, 790] He had made some progress during the fighting on the previous floor but considering he still had so far to go for S Rank he was not satisfied. Even with 200, 000 magic power he was still considered low A Rank and the majority of the A Ranks in the expedition were stronger than he was.

Luckily, because of his position on the Atlantis City Council, his ownership of the labyrinth, and the amount of things he had achieved to gain fame in the past, no one was complaining about his inclusion. What Damion really wanted right now were the cores of all the A Rank and S Rank creatures that were being killed. Each of those A Rank beast cores were worth 5, 000 credits with the S Rank ones being worth 100, 000.

If he could acquire a few dozen he could drastically increase his credits and not have to worry about going on a spending spree. While he was mentally drooling over the credits he imagined rolling in, Damion realized there was a way for him to get a decent number of those cores. Once the midpoint was reached the entire expedition would be leaving the labyrinth to fully recover and restock for the mission to the Mother World.

Some of the S Ranks would also likely be going back to their cities once the SS Rank floors on the other side of the midpoint were cleared. Since the group would be splitting up, the spoils would be divided. Damion would receive an equal share of the A Rank portion of the spoils but so would all the other A Ranks. Once the spoils were divided, it meant that he would have the opportunity to offer his artifact upgrade services again. The majority of these A Ranker mages were using low quality artifacts.

Most did not have a single A Rank artifact, in fact, most had B Rank at best. While it was true that many mages did not bother with a weapon artifact, preferring to cast spells, they did have utility artifacts and armor artifacts. If he could upgrade just one artifact for each A Ranker he would probably make close to a million credits from the cores.

"Alright, listen up everyone," Mage Veers shouted, getting everyone's attention.

"The SS Rank guardian of this floor is not one A Ranks can casually approach, even S Rank mages will be hard pressed to keep themselves safe at range. The SS Rank mages will be the primary attack force for this battle, with the S Ranks forming an outer perimeter to assault the Demon Sunflower from all sides.

"All A Rankers," Mage Veers continued, however, he looked right at Damion as he spoke, "will remain outside the S Rank perimeter and make sure no Demonic Beasts sneak up on their S Rank team member. Any questions?"

"Are we keeping to the same teams we had before?" an A Rank mage asked.

"To keep things simple, yes." This left Damion with a bit of a puzzle. He had been with the SS Rank mages and Mage Veers, before going off on his own. Did this mean he would now be assigned with Mage Veers, assuming the S Rank Void mage would be attacking from range?

"If you have any other questions, please ask your team's S Rank leader, they are more than capable of answering," said Mage Veers before moving away. Damion followed Mage Veers to ask his questions. After all, the Void mage was his team leader.

"Where do I fit in?" Damion asked Mage Veers when he reached his campsite.

"I will be roaming the perimeter to assist any of the teams that run into trouble. Unless you want to join a different team, you will be with me."

"Do you think any of the teams will need assistance?" Damion asked, he did not think they would have much to do this time around.

"The remaining Demonic Beasts on this floor are scattered. Even before the S Ranks cleared a path to the guardian, the other Demonic Beasts let the Demon Sunflower have a wide berth."

"Quite true, but you can never be too careful. It is possible the guardian can summon other Demonic Beasts, just like the guardian on the last floor. However, since you did not report it having a Mind affinity, I doubt that will be the case. Still, as you are aware, Demonic Beasts can communicate with each other, so it is possible for others to come to its aid."