Undying Warlord

While Dilan's Essence Points had increased drastically, the Sea Serpent blasted in his direction.

Dilan was going all out already but his Agility was still much lower than that of the Sea Serpent. It easily crossed 700 units, which was more than enough for the Sea Serpent to reach Dilan.

He could barely activate another [Instantaneous Teleportation] Magic Scroll to teleport himself ten meters to the side. Dilan predicted that he would be safe and far away from the monster but his eyes widened in shock when he realized that the huge body of the Sea Serpent was still in his way.

He barely escaped getting caught in its huge maw, just to be hit by the Sea Serpent's head that jerked in his direction, smashing against Dilan as if he was a baseball.

"Urgh!" Dilan groaned as he heard a cracking sound resounding through his body before he was flung meters away from his previous spot on the beach. He rolled over the sand when he impacted on the beach.

[The host's Health has reached a dangerous threshold. Several bones are broken, and Health reached less than 5%.]

[[Bracing Pain] has been activated due to the detection of a severe injury. The host's strength will be augmented by 50%]

The difference of an augmentation of 45% or 50% from [Bracing Pain] might be nice but Dilan couldn't exactly move any better because his entire body was on fire and every single muscle ached terribly.

He had no idea which bones were broken and which ones were still intact but everything hurt.

Unfortunately, he couldn't take a break and rest until he would have healed completely. The Sea Serpent had left the open beach and shot towards the outskirts of the forest. It's huge body bulldozed everything on the way as it changed its trajectory to slither toward him.

Dilan could only smile weirdly upon seeing this. He swallowed all the content of the potions that were attached to his belt before he got up from the ground.

Simultaneously, he accessed the Essence Shop while taking a deep breath.

'This will definitely hurt…' Dilan knew before he purchased a potion for 15,000 Essence points and a few more things for a total of 85,000 Essence points.

[Customized Temporary Weapon Upgrade has been applied to the Cursed Dagger Xealtron! 75,000 Essence Points have been deducted!]

[Temporary Treasure Upgrade has been applied to the Boots of Yamil, The Aquatic Gloves of Heretia, the Necklace of Replication, The Ring of Ice, and the Ilran Chestplate! 5,000 Essence Points have been deducted!]

[Temporary second Treasure Upgrade has been applied to the upgraded Ilran Chestplate! 5,000 Essence Points have been deducted!]

[Boots of Yamil] <Gold Tier-1>→ <Gold Tier-2>

[+20 Agility] → [+50 Agility]

[Aquatic Gloves of Heretia] <Silver Tier-1> → <Silver Tier-2]

[+15 Health], [+15 Stamina]

[Necklace of Replication] <Silver Tier-1> → <Silver Tier-2>

[+8 Mana] → [+35 Mana]

[Ring of Ice] <Bronze Tier-1> → <Bronze Tier-2>

[+3 Mana] → [+15 Mana]

[Ilran Chestplate] <Silver Tier-1> → <Pseudo-Platinum Tier-2>

[+20 Health] →[+120 Health]

[[Xealtron] <Cursed> <Gold Tier-2> → <Platinum Tier-3>

[+100 Strength], [+100 Agility] → [+300 Strength], [+300 Agility]

[Blood Drain(Sealed Curse)] The wielder of Xealtron will be drained of 10 Units of Health for every minute he/she holds it.

[Blood Sacrifice] The wielder can sacrifice 100 Health Units to temporarily release the Seal on Blood drain. Curse's potency will double, and the Stat augmentations will increase by 50%.

Special condition required to use the Cursed Dagger: Health stat above 400 Units!]

Dilan's stats increased drastically after he had upgraded his equipment. He was not supposed to be able to wear Tier-2 equipment, let alone wield a Tier-3 weapon. However, Dilan made it possible.

With his upgraded equipment, he was able to wield Xealtron, and Dilan didn't hesitate to activate Regeneration in the strongest form possible.

This was more than necessary because he was not actually in a great condition even after his chestplate improved his stats by a lot more than before.

He swallowed the Tier-3 [Instant Health Potion] he had purchased for 15,000 Essence Points before and it mended his bones almost immediately.

The effect of [Bracing Pain] decreased a tiny bit after he swallowed the content of the Tier-3 potion but that was more than fine.

Dilan felt much better than before and he was ready to face the Sea Serpent…or so he thought. His Strength and Agility stat crossed the threshold of 650 Units, and his body showed signs of retaliation.

His body was resisting even after the use of the temporary indestructible body he had purchased from the Essence shop.

This showed that his stats were not something even someone with a perfect Tier-2 physique was supposed to be able to attain.

However, Dilan couldn't care less about that. He had other things to worry about, such as defeating the humongous Sea Serpent in front of him.

"You're still faster than I am?" Dilan mumbled, taking a deep breath before he activated the upgraded version of [Blood Sacrifice] once again.

His Lifeforce, equivalent to 100 Units of his Health was deprived of Dilan and both his Strength and Agility increased by another 150 Units.

He reached a strength and agility of more than 800 Units, attaining a state where these two stats were above the Sea Serpent!

This was more than enough for Dilan to smile brightly despite his body showing signs of breaking apart.

The Curse of Xealtron drained Dilan 20 Units of Health every minute after Blood Sacrifice had been activated, and stats above 800 Units were not something a Tier-2 existence, let alone someone at Tier-1 was supposed to possess.

Unfortunately, Dilan had been forced to go all out in order to be able to face the Sea Serpent.

Running from the Sea Serpent after killing the Flood Dragon was not possible. In fact, Dilan was pretty sure that it was more difficult to run from the enraged Sea Serpent rather than attack it.

Thus, Dilan had chosen to go down the 'easier' path.

He tightened his grip over the hilt and pulled back the Cursed Dagger while patiently waiting for the Sea Serpent that was less than ten meters away from him. It shot toward him with its huge body and would collide with him a fraction of a second later, and flatten him…or so was the monster's plan.

It had sensed that something about Dilan had changed and the blood that spurted out of his skin that was riddled with angry blisters was a bit confusing to the monster but it took this as a sign of weakness, which was why it further accelerated the speed with which it slithered in Dilan's direction.

The Sea Serpent was known for causing death and destruction. It was not the strongest Tier-4 existence but around the abandoned Island, it was one of the Kings of the Sea. On land, its strength was not as high as its natural habitat but that was not something a puny existence like the 1.9-meter tall human ought to understand.

By charging at Dilan, and squashing him like a melon the Sea Serpent wanted to assert dominance, and overpower the puny human. It manifested a humongous ball of water within its mouth which it shot toward Dilan.

The moment the ball touched the ground, the entire side of the beach was sunk in. Sand flew up the sky and a huge crater of several dozen meters depths had been created.

Following that, Dilan had disappeared…or had he died in the water blast?