Tales of the Endless Empire
Chapter 167: Power Leveling (7)

"You want to shrink how many?" Lucan gasped in surprise after Thalion explained his plan. He had already gathered the large crystals, which were currently placed in his aquarium.

"Probably around eighty or so, but you can do it, right?" Thalion smiled, handing him a spatial ring filled with crystals.

"Also, remember, you don't have to do it if you have more important stuff," Thalion added.

"You’re crazy! I would never let someone else handle this. Do you have any idea how much experience we’ll gain from operating that formation?" Lucan exclaimed with a wide grin.

"Well, no. I guess you're welcome then. How long will it take?" Thalion asked, happy he didn’t have to force the task on someone else.

"Probably a few days until we're done with all of them," Lucan said thoughtfully.

"Good luck with the crafting. I hope it earns you a lot of experience," Thalion nodded, turning to leave. He wanted to get some hunting done and have some fun soaring with Eagly up in the skies.

"Speaking of experience, how much did you kill to level up so much these past few days?" Lucan asked curiously.

"I don't want to talk about it," Thalion replied, transforming into Eagly. He trusted Lucan not to share secrets, but there was no need to spread that peculiar information. Everyone already knew he leveled up slowly, but nobody truly understood why or how much effort it took and Thalion wanted to keep it that way.

A powerful beat of his wings lifted him into the sky as he made his way to the portal leading to the skyship near the mountain. Flying through the portal with fluid motion, he emerged on the skyship.

The moon above shone brightly, its silver light reflecting off the many white crystals, creating a mesmerizing sight. Otherwise, nothing had changed. Many birds still circled the crystals or rested atop them. Some flying worms had wrapped themselves around the crystals to avoid falling off. The flying turtles hovered effortlessly, even in sleep, which looked amusing.

Three other ships continued hunting for crystals. The beasts seemed only to nap, always sensing when an attacker approached.

Thalion didn't care. He rushed toward his first targets perched on the larger crystals higher up. None had formed into a giant crystal since he last visited. There were likely a few more in the distance, but Thalion wasn't eager to hunt them right now. Those beasts could teleport to the new earth, denying him any experience points. And experience was what he needed most. Even though giant crystals were valuable, earning experience took priority.

He aimed to fight his way toward one of the giant crystals—at least, he assumed it was one, though it was too distant to see what circled it. Best to warm up by eliminating a few early E-grade beasts first.

A large, fat raven perched atop a crystal caught his attention. It didn’t take long for Thalion to transform the bird into a feathery explosion with a wind blade. His passive skill allowed him to get much closer now, and the raven hadn’t noticed him until it was too late.

The wind blade was excellent for surprise attacks, with its high lethality and incredible speed. The raven even had a skill that allowed it to shoot feathers, but Thalion preferred to keep his feathers intact. What if the bird lost them all—would it just plummet from the sky? He already had much stronger and better attacks, so there was no need to acquire such a mediocre skill.

His next targets were three wasps, each larger than a human. Their size wasn’t their only unique trait. They also had four sets of wings and moved rapidly through the sky. Their legs were slightly shorter, and their wings longer, likely for better acceleration.

Even against Eagly, they were no match. Thalion swiftly cut them to pieces with wind blades. It was good practice, as he hadn’t used the skill much, and the fast-moving wasps served as excellent training dummies.

Looking toward where the wasps had come from, he noticed that the crystals in that area were mostly dominated by insects. That was interesting.

Then he spotted something unexpected—a spider sitting in a web between two crystals.

How did a spider get up here? He recalled that some baby spiders could release strands of silk to catch the wind and be carried away. Had this spider used the same tactic to land here? The winds certainly weren’t strong enough to carry a spider this big.

Each leg was easily the length of a human, and the two long, venomous fangs looked particularly nasty. Thalion wondered what would happen if he cut the web or destroyed the anchors on the two crystals with wind blades. The result? The spider plummeted rapidly.

Thalion watched it fall, puzzled. How had such a beast even made it up here? Well, whatever—better to keep the slaughter going.

He tried to be as efficient as possible, slicing the beasts apart in flybys with wind blades or occasionally his lightning beam. The experience in the skies was decent, though not as good as what he had earned in the ocean. There were simply more beasts in the ocean, and they seemed to yield more experience. Perhaps it was because they were larger or had stronger souls—he had no idea.

What was clear was that leveling in the ocean was far superior to doing so above the mountains.

Thalion fought throughout the night, even finding another giant wind crystal. The beast guarding it was a wasp queen surrounded by hundreds of wasps. For Thalion, it was one of the easier battles; his domain was highly effective against insects. After killing all her spawn and severely injuring the queen, she vanished, just like the hawk and sky turtle had before.

It was disappointing, but at least the crystal was worth it.

This pattern continued for the following days until the system shop's arrival at the end of the week. Thalion spent his days in the ocean's depths, battling intensely to collect the big blue crystals. He ensured there was enough blood in the water to keep the beasts coming. It was absolute carnage but also an incredibly effective way to level up.

As night approached, he swapped his hunting grounds to the skies. Occasionally, he skipped farming above the clouds to practice his swordsmanship and blood control. Sometimes, he worked on rebuilding his spirit veins, which had been damaged when he bonded with the outsider.

By the end of the week, Thalion had gained ten levels, reaching level sixty-nine across all forms.

He allocated his free points strategically—putting them into agility and wisdom for his human form. As an Umbral Predator, he invested everything in agility. He loved being faster than his opponents. It made him harder to hit and offered him a reliable means of escape.

He deliberately avoided putting any points into strength. For that, he relied on the gravity array. Thalion hadn't forgotten the dwarf's advice at the golden palace: increasing toughness was important. Still, he wasn't ready to subject himself to body-smashing training just yet. He knew the time would come, but for now, he could progress quickly with other methods, giving him a convenient excuse to postpone it.

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The Tidecaller Serpent had grown far stronger than expected, constantly feasting on pearls while training to sense and control the water around him. So far, the serpent could do little more than move the water around, similar to Thalion's early blood-training stages.

The water in the aquarium had changed, especially after Thalion placed all the shrunken blue crystals into it. Not all of the crystals were in the aquarium, as some had found their way in the blood pond.

Every time Thalion walked by the blood pond, he felt the intense desire of the Sanguine Thorn burning like wildfire in his mind. He was definitely doing something right with the blood pond if it provoked such a reaction.

There was so much blood in it now that he occasionally let the Sanguine Thorn consume some to prevent the pond from overflowing.

His progress that week had been extraordinary, but he wasn't the only one with significant gains.

The darkness elemental had surged to level 35, which was excellent. Thalion no longer needed to kill the air elementals himself—except for the level 60 ones, which he still sliced up a bit. The rest were consumed directly by the elemental without needing any preparation.

It wouldn't be long before he could bond with it fully. He definitely needed to buy a darkness crystal from the system shop to accelerate its growth even further.

Yes, things were looking good.

He had even spoken with the female vine horse, which had been quite amusing. She described in great detail the taste of different letters and salads.

So far, they hadn't managed to eavesdrop on any important conversations, but that wasn't too surprising. Thalion was just glad he hadn't killed the intelligent vine horses and that they were living a pleasant life now. They even helped with beast hunting from time to time.

While their skills weren't particularly powerful, they often managed to ensnare enemies long enough for the hunters to finish them off.

All in all, Thalion was very pleased with how things were going. He couldn't have wished for much more. Well, he could always wish for more—but things were good as they were.

Maike reported that Amalia and her faction had assimilated four other blessed factions in the meantime, which was impressive.

Thalion wondered how they had pulled it off.

Everyone in the base knew what Amalia and her people were capable of, so how had anyone been foolish enough to fall under their spell?

Ah, he didn’t care that much—the only thing that mattered was that they stopped interrupting his progress. He needed to become powerful, and time was running out. Only one week remained until the teleportation.

His progress over the last few days had been excellent, and he had allocated his free points in the same way as before: as a human, splitting them equally between agility and wisdom; and as an Umbral Predator, putting everything into agility.

Having so many points in agility made a real difference—it made him much faster. It felt like doing a heavy set of squats and suddenly feeling like everything was lighter afterward.

In his other forms, he had different options for point allocation. The Tidecaller Serpent mainly received wisdom and intelligence, while the Eagle form focused on agility, perception, and dexterity.

Burning with desire to return to the ocean, Thalion knew he first had to attend the council meeting. It was an important one where they would discuss which defenses to purchase and strategies for repelling future attacks.

This week, he planned to skip hunting in the skies and spend the nights on soul cultivation, creating as many spirit veins as possible. After all, he wanted the strongest soul possible when the Sanguine Thorn got its feast.

While upgrading his soul, he noticed a fascinating effect—his energy control improved significantly. Initially, he assumed it was related to wisdom, but it might also have something to do with the strength of his soul.

For the final week, his plan was to continue hunting in the ocean depths as the Tidecaller Serpent and focus on cultivation activities at night, such as soul improvement, gravity array training, and other techniques.

Feasting on the gathered plants was also essential, and whenever he felt ready to eat again, he would stop whatever he was doing and throw himself at the nearest pile of plants.

So far, he had gained thirteen vitality, sixteen intelligence, and eight wisdom. Not bad at all. He hoped to repeat that success in the following week.

The only item he wanted to buy from the system shop was a darkness crystal for the elemental. The rest of his credits would likely go toward purchasing defenses to ensure that the undead had no chance when they attacked.

He wondered how strong the vampires in the higher stages had grown compared to him.

For now, it was time for the council meeting, and then he would head to the ocean as fast as possible. The need to press on burned inside him.

As usual, he was the last to enter the room. The others were already seated and engaged in intense discussion.

"Ah, finally our grand leader has found the time to visit us," Isolde said, her voice laced with steel.

It took a great deal of self-control not to reply with a polite shut up, bitch, but Thalion restrained himself perfectly and answered calmly.

"In contrast to most of you, I have to ensure your safety in the coming stages as the strongest of this base. You only have to do some logistics and set up rules so the people can enjoy their life here."

A short silence followed. No one could read his mood behind the mask, and perhaps some of sanguine thorns intense desire for blood had leaked through.

Thalion got straight to the most important topic.

"What is the current level of most people, and how many will teleport with us to the next stage?"

"It looks like most people want to teleport with you to the next stage. They believe there's safety in numbers. The only ones staying behind are those who recently joined us and are still between level thirty and forty, but we're working hard to level them," a new guard on the council replied.

Thalion had no idea who the guy was, but if Kaldrek approved, he would too. Besides, it was a good sign that most people wanted to come along. No wonder—he had gathered the largest group of survivors in the surrounding area maybe even the whole third stage.

"Okay, that's good. How are we doing with credits? Does everyone have enough to jump straight to the fifth stage if we face trouble on the fourth?" Thalion continued questioning the council.

"There’s still time, but we think only a few thousand people have enough credits for the fifth stage," Maike explained.

"It’s not a big issue if fighters are missing the credits since they'll likely earn plenty when the undead attack. Just make sure the craftsmen have enough—it'll be much harder for them to gather credits during a war."

Thalion finished his explanation. Things were looking promising, and he was eager to see what they would accomplish in the fourth stage.