Undying Warlord

[71H:59M:59S]

Above the Log of the Ancient Dilan could clearly see the countdown that showed how long he would have to stay in the isolated dimension.

He took a deep breath and looked around in an attempt to figure out where he was and how safe it was at his current position.

'A mission at the Abyss difficulty won't be easy. I should play it safe until I know how strong the monsters around me are!' Dilan told himself as he walked over the sand beach he had appeared on.

His feet sank a little bit in the fine sand, but Dilan ignored that as he looked to his right, where the wide horizon and a huge ocean were greeting him.

"An Island?" He immediately wondered as he walked ahead. Dilan could see the Ocean far away in front of him, on his right, and with the use of some mana, he could even see the ocean behind him.

"Twenty kilometers or so?" He tried to gauge the length of the island, which was difficult because he was on a leveled area where he could basically see only as far as his eyes allowed him to.

Turning his attention to the left, a huge forest entered his view. Far away from his current location, he could see a large mountain that was partially covered in huge trees.

Hiding in the forest should be possible but Dilan didn't immediately go over because he felt that it may be for the best to wait and watch what was going on behind him first.

In the worst case, he could activate [Switch], [Thunder Step], and [Second Acceleration] to increase his Agility as much as possible.

'Even ordinary Tier-3 monsters shouldn't be able to reach an Agility of close to 500 Units, considering that 150 Units are the peak for ordinary Tier-2 existence. The status cap doubled from 75 Units to 150 Units by advancing to Tier-2, after all!'

He might not be able to fight a Tier-3 monster head-on but running away should be feasible.

But Dilan's issue wasn't actually Tier-3 monsters. He was more worried that some Tier-4 monsters would find and pursue him.

If he had been teleported to an island, which was his current guess, then he could hardly run away from a Tier-4 monster.

It would be more troublesome to survive, which is also why it was so important to scout his surrounding area.

Dilan figured that there was no monster on the beach right now, which was why most of his attention was focused in the direction of the forest that radiated a weird, chilling sensation.

It was almost as if Dilan felt that he would be killed shortly after entering the forest.

No sooner had he thought that Dilan could sense a ripple behind him deep inside the water. He didn't move his head but a faint smile emerged on his face when he understood what exactly was happening.

'As expected, this won't be easy!' Dilan thought when he heard the loud noise of water splashing all over as something emerged from the ocean.

It was possible for Dilan to perceive the pressure of a Tier-2 monster. He could clearly tell how strong it was according to the pressure he felt. Thus, Dilan retrieved the Silver Blazing Serpentine Blade from his storage ring to prepare himself for a battle.

The Serpentine Blade began to burn fiercely as Dilan turned around while slashing the blade forward, enlarging it to its maximum length of 30 meters.

The Serpentine Blade lunged forward to the wide open mouth of a large monster, whose rows of teeth wanted to mince through Dilan's flesh and bones so as to welcome him on the abandoned Island.

However, Dilan didn't want the five-meter-long shark that had blue leather wings on its back to being anywhere near him. Instead, Dilan gave the shark a gift by piercing the blazing serpentine blade straight through its less defended mouth, where it wreaked havoc.

Dilan couldn't allow himself to make too many sounds, otherwise, he would attract the attention of the other monsters in the surrounding area. That was why he ended up killing the winged shark with a single move, and with no hesitation.

He had inserted several units of mana inside the Serpentine Blade to sharpen, control, and ignite it, giving the weapon more than enough strength to kill the winged shark.

It crashed down in front of Dilan, where it writhed in pain for a few times until it stopped moving altogether.

Dilan retracted the Serpentine blade before he walked towards the beast's head, and got hold of a Silver Tier-2 Essence crystal.

"Fighting Tier-2 monsters would be fine with me," He mumbled quietly before he received a bunch of system notifications as he held the Essence crystal.

[The host has killed his first monster in the Abyss-difficulty mission. Essence Shop will temporarily stay open until the end of the mission!]

[The Silver Tier-2 Essence crystal of the Wingua Bluekiller Shark can be sold, or exchanged at the Essence Shop!]

[The host killed a monster less than five minutes after the start of the Abyss-difficulty mission. 1000 Essence points will be added to the host's balance!]

Dilan was pretty interested in the Essence Shop and eager to make a purchase. He opened it without delay and browsed through the exhibited goods he could choose from.

"1000 Essence Points are basically worthless…" Dilan mumbled as he looked at the Essence Shop's best-selling and hottest goods.

"Bloodline of the Great Red Dragon…Incubus Lord's Bloodline….Black Dragon's Heart of Mana…The Destroyer….Tier-5 Slave; Dark Elf Queen…the hell…" He was taken aback by the things he saw in the shop but they were truly valuable.

Everything in the shop was of great value and selling the Silver Tier-2 Essence crystal would reward him with only 50 Essence points. That was not really what he had been looking for, but it was still better than he had expected.

After all, he had entered the portal to the Abyss-difficulty mission to advance to Tier-2, not to make sudden gains with the unexpected appearance of some sort of Essence Shop.

'Will it be possible to sell other Essence crystals or Blood Essences?' He thought all of a sudden and retrieved one Blood Essence and another Essence crystal from his storage ring.

Unfortunately, it was not possible for him to sell them and a notification appeared in front of him once again.

[Only Essences procured from the Abandoned Island can be sold at the Essence shop].

This was a bit annoying but Dilan was still quite satisfied because the system revealed that his guess about the Island was correct.

"Survival is the first priority and hunting monsters the second, I guess…" Dilan mumbled.

It was of no value to him, which was why he chose to walk away from the corpse.

The fine sand was dyed red and other monsters would be drawn to the bloody feast he had created.

This was not something Dilan had planned before but he wouldn't change his decision of killing the shark either way. It would have killed him otherwise, after all.

Walking along the beachside with the Serpentine Blade retracted inside the storage ring, Dilan was searching for a safe place to stay.

It would be for the best if he had a safe shelter, where he could stay and rest in between breaks before running around to kill all kinds of weaker monsters.

However, before he could even think about a shelter, Dilan came face to face with a fierce battle between two rivaling groups of monsters.

"That's fucking bloody…I love it!!"