Tales of the Endless Empire
Chapter 159: Power Leveling (1)

Thalion heard about Maike's encounter with the murder pixies. It worried him, but not enough to stop him from jumping through the portal leading to the skyships hovering near the mountains. He had a base full of fighters—they should be able to keep everyone safe. If not, they’d have a big problem when entering the next stage. He expected the vampires to be stronger than the murder pixies, and who knew what else the undead had prepared.

Anyway, that was a struggle for the future. Right now, it was time for absolute carnage.

All the lanterns had been distributed to the crew members, and Lucan had even designed an additional container for air elementals. The container was supposed to hold fifty elementals once the lamps were full. This was perfect, and Thalion, in his wisdom, had urged him to build a few more. With the open portal, he should be able to finish his hunt before both the container and the lamps were filled with air elementals.

Thalion considered pausing to bring some of the elementals to the darkness elemental for faster growth. That sounded like the best plan, he thought.

The skyship he appeared on was one of the large ones he had first purchased. It was stationed just outside the wind crystals’ area, while two smaller ships were already busy hunting for crystals. Hundreds had been farmed already, and now, with the portal active, the influx of new fighters would only increase that number. Thankfully, the wind crystals seemed almost endless, giving them plenty of work to do until the Ascension.

Before too many people noticed him, Thalion shifted into his eagle form and shot toward the wind crystals with three powerful beats of his wings. He also activated Tempest Glide to speed up further—it was time for a killing spree. Maybe he’d find a special opponent to do some testing, but he doubted any of the beasts here could block his lightning beam.

Maybe he should practice his talon and beak attacks more, Thalion thought as he entered the area of the floating wind crystals. They glowed softly with white light, and in the distance, the sun was beginning to rise. Yes, testing his melee abilities would probably be the best option for now. It would also help avoid drawing too much attention from nearby beasts.

His first target was a worm guarding one of the smaller crystals. These beasts tended to be fast flyers and simply swallowed their prey whole. For Thalion, it was the perfect target to test his claws. Other beasts would die too quickly, leaving no useful data on how powerful his attacks really were.

The worm noticed him and lunged with incredible speed. Thalion had fought such worms before, so he smoothly leaned to the right, dodging the attack with ease. He was far faster than during their previous encounters, and evading the worm—even at close range—was effortless. He could feel the wind flowing around his body and wings, responding to his every movement.

The worm, however, had anticipated only a simple sidestep, leaving it slightly delayed in turning around. By the time it managed to face him again, Thalion’s crystalline talons had already ripped through half its tail.

He had activated the skill at its normal level without overloading it with the crystal. In the future, he might not always be able to empower every attack, so he wanted to test how effective it was without the extra infusion of power. The worm’s hide was tough, but his claws sliced through it like butter.

This was promising. Next, it was time to test his beak attack.

The worm writhed in pain, its movements widening the gash on its body with every twitch. Thalion took advantage of this moment to perform a flyby attack, biting into the worm’s midsection. The attack worked perfectly; even the worm’s hide didn’t stop his beak. He immediately spat out the worm’s flesh in disgust—there was no way he was swallowing that.

So far, the experiment was a success. Now, he wanted to see if the worm could withstand an uncharged lightning beam.

It couldn’t.

The first blast of the lightning beam tore the worm in half. Its pieces plummeted, twitching violently as electricity coursed through them.

Thalion looked at the dead worm with disappointment. He had hoped it would survive the first blast. Perhaps its hide wasn’t as strong as he’d initially thought. He needed a better-defended target to test his skills further.

Hmm… Where were those turtles again? Thalion thought as he flew toward the next crystal with incredible speed. He didn’t even bother collecting the smaller crystals—they already had more than enough. He’d only grab the larger ones, but even those were of little interest at the moment.

Not spotting the turtles or anything with similar defenses nearby, Thalion resorted to slaughtering everything in his path as he flew deeper into the seemingly endless field of crystals. First, he annihilated a weak swarm of pigeons, then some ravens, and so on.

The deeper he went, the more insects he encountered among the crystals. From giant dragonflies to massive fruit flies the size of small cars, they all swarmed the area. The fruit flies were particularly unsettling, using their long proboscises swallowed any beast that came too close hole.

For Thalion, it was just another opportunity to hone his skills as the carnage continued.

It turned out that insect bodies didn’t resist his lightning beam at all, which was to be expected. The swarms of wasps and hornets that circled around some of the crystals were difficult to deal with without his domain skills. While the lightning beam killed everything it hit, the insects always attacked from multiple sides. Thalion mostly ignored them, but occasionally fired a lightning beam at them to gain some experience.

Nothing on his level could resist his power or put up a fight worth mentioning, so Thalion decided to clear some of the crystals higher up. These crystals were still not large enough for Thalion to bother picking up, but the beasts around them were a bit stronger. He still refrained from using his domain skill, ensuring that not every beast would immediately flee upon seeing him approach. Hiding his aura was still highly effective; most beasts couldn’t gauge his true strength, and some even saw him as an easy target and attacked.

This was perfect, as it allowed him to test different maneuvers and their efficiency. Most of the time, his tactics involved a variety of sharp turns combined with rolls while charging a lightning beam. So far, most of these maneuvers had worked quite well. The best one involved taking a sharp turn to either side, then flying in a wider arc. The moment his pursuer adjusted to the wider arc, he would make another sharp turn, which left him free to fire at his target.

When birds fired their feathers at him, most missed due to his sharp turns. This, however, annoyed him slightly. None of the birds had any particularly useful skills. It wasn’t surprising—his current skills were all exceptional and of high quality.

Perhaps the gust beak or talon attack wasn’t particularly powerful, but maybe he could find something interesting to fuse them with. It was also understandable that pigeons didn’t have great talon skills. They did have a feather-shooting skill, but Thalion wasn’t interested in that. The moment both his domains were active, those feathers wouldn’t even come close to hitting him.

He was still at a relatively low level, which likely explained why the beasts didn’t possess worthwhile skills. After killing a few more flying beasts, it was time to enter the higher layers with the more powerful E-grade beasts. While they wouldn’t compare to the ones roaming the oceans, Thalion doubted he would struggle to defeat them in battle. Still, that didn’t mean they wouldn’t have intriguing skills to offer.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

With a few beats of his wings, he ascended to the second-highest layer, where only the massive crystals and the strongest beasts resided a few hundred meters above him. Looking down, he noticed the two ships gathering crystals and air elementals alike.

Air elementals were far rarer now compared to the first time he had discovered this place after gaining Eagly’s form. This was likely because they had no means of attack or defense, making them easy prey for any flying beast.

The elementals were also drawn to the wind crystals like moths to light, which likely contributed to their short lifespans. The strongest elemental he had spotted was around level thirty-eight. However, he only saw it briefly, as it was instantly killed by two small hawks that repeatedly dove through it with glowing claws and beaks. The hawks were slightly higher in level, and Thalion didn’t see the elemental managing to deal any damage before its demise.

One thing he did notice was that it took the hawks quite a while to kill the elemental, as it kept reforming itself over and over again. Elementals always had a core that allowed them to form their bodies, which also served as their power source. If the core was destroyed, the elemental would die. According to the books in the Golden Palace, this could sometimes be difficult—especially if the elemental was massive, spanning the size of multiple cities.

Air elementals, being semi-transparent, made it hard to spot their core. The hawks likely missed it several times before finally destroying it. This semi-transparent quality was also why darkness and light elementals were notoriously difficult to defeat. Their cores were nearly impossible to locate, making it extremely hard to destroy them.

For Thalion, this wouldn’t make much difference. He intended to bond with the darkness elemental and link its core to his body. According to the books, this bond would permanently connect the elemental to him, ensuring it couldn’t die as long as Thalion lived. If the elemental’s core were destroyed. After the bond such a loss would weaken it temporarily, but it wouldn’t perish—it would simply take time for the core to regenerate.

This bond could even allow the elemental to possess two cores: one primary and one backup. While it was unlikely the elemental could draw power from both simultaneously, the backup would ensure it could keep fighting if something happened to the first.

At least, that was the theory Thalion had read about in the Golden Palace. He wondered if integrating a darkness crystal into the Umbral Predator’s body would empower his attacks and provide a constant source of energy to feed the elemental.

He definitely needed to purchase some items at the next system shop. Darkness crystals were at the very top of his list—twice, Thalion noted with amusement. Hopefully, he wouldn’t forget about it. Enough thinking, though. He needed to earn some experience points and, with some luck, acquire a few impressive skills.

<--

Garrick had a rough time after leaving Thalion's base. He had no home, nor any chance of gaining new followers without a base. If he started a new one, there was always the risk that Thalion would just fly by and kill him and his men. That guy was definitely not normal. He hadn’t even taken a serious hit during their encounter, and the skills he displayed were nothing short of phenomenal. The way he controlled blood, his sheer speed, and his mastery of the sword—it was incredible.

How could he be so strong yet so low in level? It didn’t make sense. On top of that, he had some kind of mental attack that could pull the blood out of your body if you couldn’t resist it. Then there was his form—the Umbral Predator. Garrick had never seen anything like it. The strength, the speed, the sheer power of its attacks—everything about it was overwhelming. Again, how was it possible for one man to become so powerful? None of it added up.

Garrick had dealt with plenty of invaders before, especially those who entered Kael's base uninvited. When he learned Kael was naive, he saw an opportunity to take control of the base, one way or another. Things were going well for him—especially when the orc and the girl showed up asking for help. That had been a perfect opportunity to make himself look indispensable.

But then everything spiraled out of control. Kael eventually saw through his schemes, and then there was Thalion—the far bigger threat of the two. Garrick had no idea how to handle Thalion if he encountered him again. Running probably wouldn’t help; even if Garrick had an army at his side, Thalion would just massacre them all.

He seriously doubted that Thalion had been slacking off. The way he moved, and those eyes—so full of purpose and determination. Garrick didn’t recall ever seeing anyone so driven in his entire life.

In a panic, he and his remaining followers had leveled up and gained experience as fast as possible, all while moving as far away from Thalion’s base as they could. The moment everyone had enough credits, they teleported to the fourth stage without hesitation. There was no point in staying any longer on the third stage with Thalion around.

The system shop had informed them that the fourth stage was significantly larger than the third. They hadn’t even found the end of the third stage yet, so their hope was that they would never cross paths with Thalion again.

At first, everything went well during their first week on the fourth stage. They established a new hidden base to avoid detection by the undead, and their group slowly grew as they encountered others looking for safety.

Some were survivors from the water planet, left behind when the nobles teleported to the higher stages before they were ready. According to these newcomers, they had tried teleporting later, but had appeared in completely different locations.

For Garrick, gaining more followers was nice, but it was far from enough. His top priority was to avoid detection by the undead. This often made hunting more difficult, but they had all agreed it was necessary. None of them had the confidence to fight vampires.

Their camp was located in a jungle. The trees here were much smaller than those on the third stage, and the blue bioluminescent glow at night was completely absent. Despite the challenges, their group had done well in leveling up, with everyone reaching level eighty.

No one had evolved yet, though, since they knew evolving too soon would result in worse classes, making progression through E-grade much harder. Many had started body-tempering or refining their techniques, but one question loomed over all of them: What should they do about the special quest?

Should they just hide and wait it out? At some point, they would be teleported to the fifth stage for a short period before the tutorial ended. The chances of the undead finding them seemed slim, and since they couldn’t gain any more levels, why risk fighting stronger beasts?

There were already plenty of high-variant beasts on this stage. They had no idea where the catacombs mentioned in the special quest were located, and with their group numbering just over a hundred men, what could they possibly do?

For now, Garrick planned to stay on this stage and hide on the fifth until the tutorial ended. Why risk his life when other humans would fight for survival anyway? He would continue body-tempering and aim for a strong evolution at the end of the tutorial.

If the humans lost, why should he care? It wasn’t as if he’d be the one dying.