964 Mini Boss Floor
p AndD nOve1.cO,m “I think that’s enough. I can spoil you rotten if it’s more than this.” Elysia helped Vanessa to stand up.
“Hmm, the time has come. Let’s show our master the results of our training.” Vanessa raised her hand high, expressing her determination.
The girls ended their rest session and went straight to the higher floor to challenge the mini-boss. Before entering the arena ground, they read the inscription nearby first.
“Beware of the mind control, hypnosis, and friendly fire. Attacking and killing is not enough.” Elysia contemplated what she had just read.
“We are immune from the influence of mind, spirit, and spirit control thanks to our spirit connection. The divine marker in new recruit’s spirits can also prevent that effectively. So, we can ignore the first sentence and focus on the last sentence. My daughter, what can you understand?” Luna unfolded her folding fan and pointed it at her daughter.
“Attacking and killing isn’t enough. I reckon the challenge this time involves an enemy that must be defeated not with proper attacking techniques.” Lynn considered the answer before speaking.
“It’s probably like the case of that troublesome parasitic tree. We have to find the core and destroy it. Otherwise, it’ll be an endless battle. That makes a lot of sense, right?” Sylvia raised her hand, expressing her understanding.
“En, that is highly possible. Attacking and killing minions will not clear the challenge. We have to find the real sneaky mini boss.” Lynn nodded in agreement. It was something she was about to say.
“Then, let’s enter the ground arena. The floor boss mechanism won’t activate if we are here.” Dori felt somewhat curious and anticipated a new type of opponent this time. Her senior sisters had quite a bit of experience regarding this type of enemy, and she could learn from them.
“The Misharan Tree event, huh. This mini boss will probably be similar to that one. Please go ahead and defeat the opponent quickly. I can’t enter the challenge with you.” Elysia put her hands together, not moving from her initial position.
“Uh, why?” Evelyn felt shocked and confused. The girls also immediately stopped because of Elysia’s statement.
“My overall capabilities are somewhat too high. If I were to challenge with you in a group, the level of difficulty would increase greatly.” Elisia shook her head.
“Ely, how many days did it take you to get from the first floor to here?” Ella felt curious.
“Hmm, I guess less than ten days. Morfina, Ariel, Lyla, Yae… Here, we have completed your divine battlesuit.” Elysia took out a small metal case and showed its contents to everyone.
“Less than ten days with your suppressed power? And you still look so relaxed… As expected of you, master.” Dori was in awe of Elysia’s achievement. The girls felt the same way. After all, they had to exert great effort to arrive at this floor.
“Divine-grade weapon artifact… Are we really allowed to have it?” Morfina gulped her saliva, feeling excited and happy yet a little scared.
“Yep, these were made especially for you guys. Please wear it.” Elysia handed over the new recruits one divine bracelet each.
“Ah, it suits you well. Ely is so considerate of you. Your divine battlesuit is capable of boosting your overall abilities to rival that of a God, but be careful how you use it.” Luna smiled gently as she rubbed her divine bracelet.
“If it’s like this, it would be best if you come with us, master. We came here not out of fear of facing difficult opponents, but was to hone our skills. Anyway, we will also meet difficult challenges sooner or later. We not trying to challenge the highest floor either, in the first place.” Yuuki walked back and held Elysia’s hand.
“…” Elysia was silent for a moment while observing the other girls’ expressions and Yuuki’s wiggle tails.
“Fine, I’ll go with you. But, I’m a support, okay?” Elysia closed one eye and raised her finger. She would suppress her power tremendously just in case.
“Yay, fierce battle with Goddess Ely as our support! Let’s go to challenge the mini-boss.” Xentia went beside Elysia, then escorted her Goddess to the arena ground.
*Rumble* *Rumble*
The retreat path was sealed, and the mechanism activated. The magic circles on the floor and ceiling lit up for a few seconds before dimming.
Several hundred big feather balls condensed from magic energy suddenly popped out from the ground and the ceiling, forming a battle formation to surround Elysia’s group.
“Their auras are not inferior to Saint-level monsters and they are just the minions! Let’s slay the first batch as soon as possible then we can search for the enemy’s core body.” Sylvia raised her black spear before charging at her opponent with impressive speed.
The girls soon followed to the battleground, showing off their improved skills to Elysia.
*Slash* *Boom* *Bang* *Swoosh*
The clash occurred between the feather balls and the girls, but Elysia noticed something strange. The girls were stunned for a few milliseconds every time they eradicated an opponent, and the duration of the effect kept increasing, but no one noticed it.
No one was affected by mind control, hypnosis, and the like due to the protection of spirit connections. However, that period of time provided an excellent opportunity for the opponent to injure her friends as time passed.
When the stun-like effect exceeded the tolerance limit, Elysia cast her blessing magic to protect everyone. “By my order and will, protect them from negative effects and debuffs.”
The blessing was spelled and heeded the caster’s order. The golden light enveloped everyone. Yet, they suddenly realized that they had been petrified for nearly a second every time they exterminated those harmless-looking feather balls.
The feather balls noticed the challengers could overcome the significant hurdle. Thus, they adopted another method of attack.
They bounced like balls and knocked themselves against the challengers. However, tens of simultaneous explosions occurred and overwhelmed everyone.
“Ah!” Ella and Evelyn were blown several tens of meters by the blasts. Still, they immediately stabilized themselves in mid-air and landed smoothly.
Elysia’s protection magic protected everyone from the explosion effectively.
“…” The mini-boss, who was hiding somewhere, felt it was really unfair. That divine-like entity in disguise was a significant threat that had to be taken down as soon as possible. Still, the other party’s capabilities were suppressed beyond comprehension. Thus, its battle power didn’t receive a significant boost from the tower’s system to defeat the cheater and challengers.
“Suicide attack? There is a cooldown before the second wave of attack. Can you find the mini boss’s core body? Vann, Luna, Lynn, Yuuki, Sylvi, Morfina… You have unique observation and radar-like skills, find the hidden mini boss now.” Elysia stretched her hand forward, uttering her order.
“I could only find a strange anomaly on the ceiling. This place is filled with intricate magic structures, and I’m not really sure.” Luna looked up and squinted her foxy blue eyes.
“Anomaly on the ceiling? Leave this to me. Let’s see if it stays hidden or not.” Sylvia summoned her dual gun and started shooting at the ceiling.
*Pew* *Pew* *Pew*
The ‘anomaly’ felt its core body was spotted and almost received a direct hit. It immediately ran away in camouflage, but it was more than enough for the girls to see the enemy’s movements.
*Swoosh!*
Yuuki released an ice arrow, pierced the ‘anomaly’, and froze it into a chunk of ice. She snapped her finger, and it crumbled into snow particles.
The poor thing was full of grievances from being defeated by underhanded methods where its skills didn’t have the expected effects.
“Mou, you stole my kill, Yuuki.” Sylvia pouted.
“Hehe, it’s just the same. We are a group.” Yuuki shrugged her shoulders.
*Rumble*
The exit and steps leading to the top floor opened from the other side of the arena ground.
“Phew, this was much easier than I expected. Ely’s presence and protection voided the most dangerous factor on this floor. I wonder where we would be without the protection of our spirit connection.” Evelyn wiped her sweat.
“Hm, you want to temporarily disable or seal our spirit connection to try this challenge again?” Elysia tapped her chin, wondering what would have happened if their protective privileges had failed to prevent the most significant hurdle on this floor.
“Er, ah, no. Sorry, that’s not what I meant. We have a special privilege thanks to you, Ely. Let’s go upstairs and visit the checkpoint rest area. We can exchange some valuables.” Evelyn immediately grabbed Elysia’s arm cheerfully. She knew everyone was blessed and would always be protected from mental attacks as long as Elysia and Elysium existed.
“Hehe, I earned five hundred points here. With nearly seven thousand points, I wish for some good items and resources! Xentia, let’s go and clear the path with me!” Sylvia ran toward the staircase.
“O-oh!” Xentia immediately caught up with Sylvia. She was also eager to visit the rest area as soon as possible. After all, she adopted Sylvia’s method of saving points and only spending them on each floor in increments of twenty-five.
“Ely, how many points have you collected?” Evelyn checked her current points and felt a little broke because she had already spent most of her savings on the hundred-twentieth floor.
“A little over a hundred and twenty thousand points.” Elysia showed her point screen to her friend.
Oh, one hundred and twenty thousand… I recommend correctly spending points in the item shop if you let me. That’s enough to buy…” Evelyn wanted to help Elysia, but she suddenly realized the numbers listed on Elysia’s point screen. “Wait, a hundred and twenty thousand!? That’s a lot! Have you never spent anything at any checkpoint rest area?”
“!?” The girls in front stopped their steps and saw that Elysia’s point was still too much. It was as if Elysia didn’t spend anything to come to this floor.
“Hehe, I just spent my points on some useful items that are cheap and useful. I’m very good at finance and money management.” Elisia clenched her fists. She felt proud because she was always good at saving.
“Ufufu, this tower belongs to the Goddess of Blessings, and she is literally yours. If you wish, she can give you anything you want. Perhaps, there aren’t many items that catch your eye?” Luna tilted her head slightly.
“Not really. Err, Vann, please don’t sniff me. That’s rather unpleasant. I haven’t had a shower since yesterday because of those troublesome floors.” Elysia took a little distance from the white tiger girl.
“Since yesterday? You still shower almost every day, right?” Evelyn widened her eyes in surprise.
“That’s of course. We girls need to take good care of ourselves even though we’re not ordinary people. Look, my hair is covered in dust and ashes. You also need to take a bath in the next reast area, Eve.” Elysia took a lock of her hair and showed it to Evelyn. She then compared her hair with Evelyn’s golden hair.
“Ah, haha, yes… I also need to clean up soon. Every challenge on each floor is quite difficult, and we can’t hurry to arrive at the rest area…” Evelyn pressed her fingers together. She felt pretty smelly and dirty because of the exploration in the last five days.
“Hum, but we are super grade people, master. Your natural scent has not faded at all. You smell divine, so good…” Vanessa took Elysia’s hand and stroked her head there. She craved some touches.
“You want to apply my scent to your body again, Vann? What a demanding and insatiable cat. But, yeah… My body natural scent is a bit tricky for camouflage and invisibility. Disguising it is a bit difficult.” Elysia scratched her head.
Everyone then stopped at a rest area checkpoint between the one hundred twenty-fifth and one hundred twenty-six floors. The first thing Elysia did was go to the hot spring.
Most of the girls also followed Elysia because they were worried about having an unpleasant body odor. Although, it had never been there since their bodies were not ordinary.