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n“I’M COMING, BENNY BOY; HANG IN THERE!” Selene shouted as she rushed forward and attacked the remaining four demons, two Tiz’gog and two Vir’eth.

nAlthough Her voice broke through the Void Domain, Selene didn’t have time to focus on it. Rushing forward, she unleashed a series of combination stabs and slashes with her spear with one arm at the first Tiz’gog before twirling it and bashing in the skull of the second, killing them quickly.

n|You have successfully Killed two Level 20, Peak Tier-1 Virtual Tiz’gog Demonoids.|

n|You have received 10 Obelisk Kill Points.|

n|You have received two KCPs (Kill Counter Point).|

n|You have received two 1000 Essence, XP Crystals.|

n|You have received 6 Merit Points.|

nEarlier, when she peeked outside of her domain, she noticed Benny being backed into the southwest corner of the room and decided now was as good a time as ever to use her Valk-Vanguard Skill Fella Darraðr Kostr.

nEven though it had a hefty two-week cooldown, Selene felt it was necessary to use it at that moment. There was no telling if her teammate would be able to come out of the ambush laid by the two boss monsters in one piece, and with that thought in mind, she went ahead and used one of her trump skills.

nKicking through the particle remains of the two deceased creatures, Selene ran down the remaining green, sickly emaciated Vir’eth Demons and, with a wave of her sharp spear, cut the tendons in their legs, causing the two creatures to collapse in a heap on the ground.

n“Reeek, ahhhrk,” the first disabled creature cried as it tried crawling away from the monster of a human, Selene, but she was too fast.

nStoring her shield on her back, Selene retrieved two backup spears, impaled one of its arms and one of its legs to the ground, and replicated the process with the second.

nWith all of her backup weapons holding the two injured demons in place, Selene deactivated her Void Domain and immediately ran off to help out Benny, who was in a precarious situation at the moment.

nWhile Selene was dealing with the remaining demons, he had been firmly forced into a five-meter radius. He had spent the last few minutes working on finding out where his enemy’s blind spots were.

nThe result was him not being able to step more than a couple of meters outside the cover of the pillar he was currently hiding behind.

n‘Selene is done, but she can’t just jump right into battle. Not to mention, the respawn timer has already begun, and there is still a little over three minutes until more creatures spawn.’ As he pondered what to do, Benny peeked his head out from behind the pillar only to be forced to tuck back behind cover due to another glob of Magma that was shot at his head.

n‘Think, think, what would Cynrik and Brance do right now?’ Looking around the area for some answer, Benny resorted to trying to simulate what resolution the brothers would find, given that they were in his position.

nClosing his eyes and resting his back against the pillar, Benny envisioned Brance and Cynrik standing in the spot he was. In his imagination, the two were arguing about what course of action to take.

n“Cynrik, you can’t just run out there recklessly. Sure, you are fast, but the instant you clear the range of the Tolmoth, the Ogodoth will be right there to beat you back into the corner.” Imaginary Brance grumbled as he used his shield like a mirror to spot the enemy’s positions.

n“Bull**, I know for a fact that I am faster than that black demon; the only annoying thing is how I am supposed to deal with its weird Affinity. If I didn’t have to worry about that, I could use my stealth skill to get around behind those two and wipe them out.” I-Cynrik snarkily replied while jamming a finger into his I-Brother’s back.

nBut then, I-Cynrik suddenly stopped jabbing his finger and examined I-Brance’s shield.

n“Hold on, Hey, Brancie, what is the durability like on that shield of yours?” He asked while trying to swipe it off his I-Brother’s arm.

n“Hey, what the **, Cyn? Don’t just take my equipment like a thief?” I-Brance scolded while rubbing his reddened arm where a mark had been left by the shield being yanked off.

nDespite the complaints, I-Cynrik ignored them and leaned to the side, exposing part of the shield. Half a second later, a blast of Magma smashed into the weapon, nearly ripping it from his hands before he retrieved it and examined the damage.

n“I’ve got a plan; it combines the best of both worlds. Your turtle shell and my reckless death charge, kuekue.”

nThe moment the words left I-Cynrik’s mouth, the scene puffed into smoke, and Benny opened his eyes and exhaled slowly.

n“Seriously, those to morons would do something crazy like that.” Sighing to himself, Benny stored his Estoc on his back and replicated the actions he had seen in his mental scenario.

nInstead of using his Tier-1.5 Iron Aspis, Benny pulled out one of the backup Tier-1 Bronze Aspis from his inventory and then held it out in the open like a target for the Tolmoth.

nAs expected, the instant the shiny metal shield came into plain view; the dumb, fat orange demons spat out a mouth full of Magma.

nSHOOOM SPLAT!

nJust like he had imagined, the force behind the attack was nearly enough to rip the Bronze Aspis from his grasp. Still, by deflecting the attack slightly at an angle, the impact was mitigated a bit, allowing Benny to keep hold of the shield and pull it in for examination.

nTssssss

nFeeling the heat and hearing the sizzling sounds the Magma was making upon contact with the metal, Benny quickly placed the shield down on the ground and examined it thoroughly.

nHis eyes narrowed on the top right corner of the weapon, where the metal was glowing bright red and bubbling slightly, indicating just how hot the attack had been. So to get a better look at the damage, Benny generated a Water Sphere large enough to cover the boiling area and dropped it onto the shield’s surface, causing a burst of steam as the metal quickly cooled.

nIt only took a couple of seconds for the glowing metal to return to normal; now, it was blackened instead of its formerly shiny appearance.

nTing Ting

nRapting his knuckles on the darkened spot, Benny scrunched up his face before knocking on an unaffected spot

nTong Tong

nThere was an unmistakable sound difference between the two spots, and Benny could tell its hardness had increased due to his actions.

n‘Ugh, what did that book say about Iron vs. Bronze.’ Benny tried remembering what he read in the book on blacksmithing he had bought the night before.

n‘Melting points….what was it.’ Drumming his fingers on the shield in thought, Benny heard some shuffling from his right, and when he looked up, he spotted Selene sneakily moving closer while using the pillars as cover.

nWhen their eyes met, Benny held up a hand, indicating for her to stay where she was and wait for his signal.

n‘Bronze melts somewhere around 900 degrees Celcius (1652 degrees Fahrenheit), and I think Iron is like 1500ish degrees Celcius (2732 Degrees Fahrenheit).’

n‘And judging by how quickly the Magma superheated my shield, then it is definitely higher than that.’

n‘The question is how much higher. Regardless, I don’t really have many options here. But it also brings up another question: if I use the quenching method (Submerging hot metal in water), I can control the overall strength of my shield.’

n‘Which will work, but I have no clue if that Ogodoth can take control of my Mana if I don’t attack it and only use Water Sphere to cool down the Aspis from the inside.’

n‘Fuck it. We only have a minute and a half to kill these two demons and move on to the ones I assume Selene crippled. There is no time left to think; if I don’t make my move now, then we will get caught by the next wave.’ Picking up the Bronze Aspis, Benny equipped it on his right arm.

nWearing his Iron Aspis on his left and the Bronze on his right, Benny stood up and motioned for Selene to get ready before signaling that there were only 85 seconds until more demons respawn.

n‘Now or never,’ Benny said as he took a deep breath and secured both shields firmly on his forearms.

nBursting into motion, Benny lept from the left side of the pillar and ran forward.

nSeeing him out in the open, the Ogodoth cackled while the cheeks of the Tolmoth swelled as it gathered Magma into its mouth and spat out a Magma blast at Benny.

nHowever, Benny was prepared for this, and when the liquid Magma shot out of the orange fatty’s mouth, he raised up his Bronze Aspis and swatted it out of the air as if using a tennis racket.

nWhile on the move, Benny quickly brought his left arm to the back of the hot glowing red part of the Bronze Aspis, gathered Water Mana, and quenched the shield, increasing its strength and darkening the metal.

nSeeing this, the Ogodoth stopped cackling and barked out the order to the Tolmoth to continuously fire more Magma.

nTwo, three, four, after the fifth time that Benny deflected the attack alternating between his Iron Aspis and his Bronze Aspis while quenching the glowing metal, he arrived in front of the stunned Ogodoth and punched out with his left arm, connecting with the jaw of the creature and hurling it backward.

n“NOW! TAKE OUT THE ORANGE ONE!” When the creature’s feet left the ground, Benny jumped into the air and yelled to Selene to move.

nWithout hesitating, Selene threw her spear with all her might and took off, sprinting behind it.

nHalf a breath later, the spear pierced into the Tolmoth’s throat, which began gushing out a mixture of blood and Magma as its head reared back and it howled in pain.

nBut before it could do anything other than yell, Selene appeared in the air beside it and kicked the Tolmoth in the head, rocketing the blubbery fat creature to the right and making it crash into a pillar with a loud BANG.

nAs this happened, Benny, who was still airborne, ripped the Bronze Aspis off his right arm, gripped it with both hands over his head, and landed on top of the Ogodoth before bringing the weapon down like a guillotine and decapitating the black demon.

n|You have successfully Killed a Level 10, Early Tier-2 Virtual Ogodoth Demonoid.|

n|You have received 10 Obelisk Kill Points.|

n|You have received one KCP (Kill Counter Point).|

n|You have received a 10000 Essence, XP Crystal.|

n|You have received 6 Merit Points.|

n-This series is exclusively published on WebNovel if you are reading it anywhere else…You Wrong, Fam. PS Check out the discord, https:

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/discord.gg

/dcxKNJEMwg-

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