Last Ruler Of The Empty Throne-Chapter 65: Beetle and Spider I

Jon just left the girls to their thoughts and left the room.

For him to have said the word "trust," even after the things that had happened to him... And honestly, he didn’t know why it was almost easy for him to trust again.

And because of those random words he had told them, there was a crack inside his being. But since he wasn’t even aware of that, all of that wasn’t in his mind now.

As he walked out of the mansion, he kept going straight instead of behind the mansion where the blacksmith was. He was moving towards the camp’s gate. "I should leave quietly," he thought in his mind.

After sensing disturbances during the recent level-up of the camp, he had said he would check out the cause of the vibrations. And with the sun setting and it being the perfect time, he silently left the camp for the forest.

Using Shadow Steps, he immediately appeared at the entrance. He could see Julius, the gatekeeper, still standing, keeping watch of the surroundings. It was really impressive, considering Jon had never seen him rest, and he wasn’t even an Evolver.

"Good job as always." Jon nodded a bit in his direction. Since he didn’t want to reveal himself now, he could only praise him inwardly.

"Well, I should reward him." With that thought, he sped off into the forest. And since he was alone, he went at full speed, which he hadn’t done in a while.

WHOOSH

"Using Cloud Steps feels satisfying," he smiled as he used Cloud Steps at his full speed.

In minutes, he arrived at the place where they had ended the last wave.

Then he stopped briefly and looked forward; he was looking in the direction he felt the vibrations earlier.

"I don’t know if the monsters fighting will still be there," he muttered to himself and started moving in that direction without hesitation.

As he passed the area, his senses stopped at, he saw an expanse of grassland. "No forest here?" He looked around and saw grass all around him. He partially expected to see another demarcation, but this was something different.

And he couldn’t help but marvel at the size. It was the size of about 12 football fields.Before the Fall, the world hadn’t even finished exploring the 30% portion of the world that was land, and now it was increasing.

But ironically, it might even be easier to explore the world in this situation where people have started getting abilities. People with skills related to tracing and observation, like Cynthia, could decide to explore the world. But who knew if or when the world would expand again?

Seeing nothing yet in the expanse of grassland, he moved forward. Spreading his senses, in the distance, the first thing he saw was what looked like a huge reddish-black beetle.

It was the size of a bungalow in height and width.

"Why isn’t it moving?" Slowly moving to the beetle, he wondered why it showed no sign of movement. "There is only one explanation: it is dead."

Looking at it closely, if it stood, it would have been even bigger than the strange ape that ignored them on their way to the camp. But what he wondered was, "What could have killed it?"

He was curious about what could have killed it because it was a First Realm beetle, and from the leftover mana left on it, it indicated that it was a strong one at that.

"It might even be higher than me in level." It wasn’t something he was saying casually; he meant it.Because of the wounds he was seeing on the beetle, it didn’t look like it had a chance to fight back.

There were some holes in its body that even perfectly blended well with its blackish-red shell. If he hadn’t moved closer, he wouldn’t have known it was dead.

"Maybe that is even why I can still feel it," because it died without revealing its power.As he was thinking about how he should move on, an explosion caught his attention.

BOOOOOM

He snapped his head towards the direction of the explosion, and it was still in the direction he was going.

Then he started moving towards the sound of the explosion. "I wonder what kind of monster is fighting."

WHOOSH

Upon getting closer, he felt the waves of power emanating from the aftershock of the monster’s collision.

On his way, he saw a few tall trees still standing. And for the fact that these trees were still standing despite the waves emanating meant they were stronger than normal trees. He didn’t waste time and climbed one of the trees.

And the scene before him unfolded:

It was an intense fight between the two sides. One side had more beetles the size of the one he had just seen. And now that they were standing, he could see their height clearly, they were taller than a bungalow but shorter than a duplex. Of the size of the beetle he had just seen, there were 20 of them, and even smaller versions among them.

And even those smaller ones were all in the First Realm, and there were about 50 of them. Finally, the largest of them was fighting the largest on the other side, too. This beetle was the height of a duplex, and it looked different from the rest. From what Jon could sense, it was also still in the First Realm.

And on the other side, it was spiders. They, too, were as large as the beetles, but their numbers were larger. Of the smallest spiders, there were about 80. Of the middle-sized, there were about 50. And the largest, only one.

But even with their greater number, the victory of the spiders wasn’t guaranteed.

The spiders kept shooting out a thick whitish substance from their mouths, striking the beetles all over, and the beetles were using their bodies, covered in what looked like reddish flames, and attacked back.

He didn’t see the flames around the dead beetle he found. "Maybe because it’s dead." But the beetles couldn’t actively use the red flames around their bodies to attack, except their leader—it seemed to be an exception.

Though it wasn’t full control, it was overpowering the spider’s leader.

This was the scene Jon was seeing, but he had his thoughts. "Since when did strong monsters like this start appearing?"

He was quite surprised at the number of First Realm monsters he was seeing at once. And it wasn’t only about numbers, but their strength. He had unleashed a massacre against First Realm monsters, too, but they were all at the beginning of the realm.

And besides, there were a lot of factors that helped, in that his growing bloodlust, his stunning aura, his moon skill, and even the new unknown thing that appeared in his status window.

This situation was different. He could tell just from looking that this wouldn’t go the way it had always been for him. He couldn’t stun them with his aura—they could shrug it off like the Claw Tigers had—and he still couldn’t control his bloodlust enough to say he wanted to use it.

He couldn’t even sneak attack like he usually did, because they were so huge and had eyes in strange places. There were so many things he normally did that he couldn’t do here, and that put him at a disadvantage.

But why was it that, among everything, he was finding himself happy about it? He even put his finger on his lip and traced it curling upwards. "Am I smiling at this?" He couldn’t believe it. "Do I actually like it?" he asked himself and did a quick flashback.

But he couldn’t remember himself smiling like this.

Most of the time, he had fought since the Fall, he was feeling either anger or sadness, except at the beginning.

"Was I happy then, too?" He wanted to reminisce, but he had to snap out of it—he couldn’t afford to slack just because they weren’t aiming for him.

His Composure trait now had very little effect on him, due to the Moon Path trait he got and the other skills that fortified his mind. With that, he had to calm himself down without help or actively using the skill for it to work.

"Well, I feel happy." He then let his smile bloom. If it was what he was feeling, why try to hide it?For a while now, he hadn’t fought any powerful enemy that would make him use everything. And even when he found one, he was on a time limit, or he was feeling something.

Now, nothing was bothering his mind. Though a little pain from his losses, it was fleeting at this moment. So, without waiting again, he pushed hard against the tree and jumped.

With a small DOOM, the tree that had been withstanding the waves of attacks for a while now caved in.

He jumped into the sky and morphed his black rod into a large hammer. He then used 40 points of mana to apply the Pressure effect on it. He added Telekinesis to increase its effect. Finally, he activated One Strike.

But he didn’t stop there with his aura and Moon Energy layered on it and a large grin on his face, he slammed down and landed on the ground.

He was closer to the beetle’s side, so when he was landing, he was in between the area where the spiders were invading the beetles.

KIEEEEEEEEEEE

From the moment he had started combining his skills, they had all noticed his presence and were looking at him. Then, sensing the danger in the weapon, they screeched and raised their black flame bodies for defense. Even the beetle leader had a bit of a tense face looking at the attack. And when it descended—

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM