Two days easily passed by as fast as lightning...
_____
"I ended up succumbing to the pressure and still training so hard, huh?" Ryuk mused to himself as he looked at his own hand.
Right now, it was calloused—a sign of how hard he had been using it—as his face was incredibly pale, as if drained of blood.
And true to that, Ryuk was currently drained of blood, with all of it present in the cracks below his feet.
Around him were the broken parts of the three robots. But these robots weren’t just any robots.
They were around 2 meters in height, possessing cores at their chests and another one at their foreheads.
Electricity cackled from their destroyed bodies, and instead of arms, they possessed sharp, gleaming blades covered in red Apex energy.
These were robots at the Peak Stage of the Ascension Plane!
[Congratulations, Host has defeated three robots at the Peak Stage of the Ascension Plane.]
[Rewards: +1 Level Up!]
[+4000 EXP!]
[EXP: 5200/5000]
[Would Host love to level up?] the system asked Ryuk, who nodded.
[Congratulations, Host has leveled up to Level 18!]
[+15 Attribute Points have been obtained!]
[Level Up Cards Possessed: 1]
[Does Host wish to use Level Up cards?] the system asked as Ryuk nodded once more.
[Congratulations, Host has leveled up to Level 19!]
[+15 Attribute Points obtained.]
[Stats]
[Strength: 100]
[Agility: 100]
[Endurance: 100]
[Charisma: 11]
[Intelligence: 40]
[Mana: 50 (-40)]
[Luck: Knull]
[Attribute Points: 30]
[How does Host wish to use Attribute Points?] the system asked, as Ryuk stared lengthily at the panel before ordering, "Deactivate System Interface."
Immediately, the system panel disappeared, becoming a tiny bit of light at Ryuk’s corner sight.
"I have 30 free attribute points, a pretty substantial amount. I don’t know what can happen in the battle with Ignatius."
"But sometimes, a momentary boost in speed or strength can just be the last defining factor in a life-or-death situation. Hunting beasts for six years has at least taught me that."
"For now, I’ll keep those attribute points until the battle with Ignatius. The more cards I can play, the better..." Ryuk muttered as he rose to his feet, clicked on the holographs, and returned the room to its sparkling original state.
"That said, I had battled robots at the Peak of the Plane of Ascension, and even after close to 40 hours, I still only managed to defeat three."
"They are incredibly strong and difficult to defeat alone. Only these robots can give Ignatius any trouble, but would he have also taken close to two days to defeat just three? I highly doubt that is the case."
"That means he must be even stronger than these robots. This battle will be a close one..." Ryuk muttered to himself.
His ability to defeat robots at the same stage as Ignatius didn’t give him peace of mind that he would be able to defeat Ignatius too.
Ignatius was no robot, and he too would undoubtedly be able to accomplish what Ryuk did.
In fact, defeating the robots only informed Ryuk how difficult the battle with Ignatius would be.
"And speaking of secret cards, Isha is still yet to awaken..." Ryuk mused as he turned his consciousness to the storage space.
Sitting at the corner of the place was no Python. It was a gigantic Anaconda, oozing with an incredible amount of frost.
It was like Isha was undergoing some sort of mini-evolution as its body repeatedly expanded, and its white scales over its body became as hard as metal.
It’s aura was growing horrifically cold by the second, but still, the snake refused to awake from its slumber as if the transformation still wasn’t complete yet.
Right now, Ryuk doubted Isha would wake up soon enough.
The probability of that was incredibly low.
Most unfortunately, Ryuk would have no choice but to fight all alone himself.
Isha was no longer a secret card that he could place his hopes on anymore.
"Grow stronger, Isha..." These were Ryuk’s last words as he faded away from the pet world, reappearing in the center of the training room.
"How many hours left?" Ryuk suddenly asked, and the reply came.
[Around 8 hours before the announcement is made.]
"Hmm. Guess I’ll use the remaining hours to heal my injuries and refill my Mana." Ryuk muttered, disappearing out of the cultivation room and into the distance.
Unknowing to Ryuk, around a dozen skyscrapers away, there were a total of about five instructors who sat at the top of the buildings, all of their gazes locked on his disappearing figure as they watched him move into the special cultivation room.
"What do you think of him, Gorin? Fate or bad luck?" an instructor wearing a casual golden-coloured shirt and trousers asked another who stood by his side, donned in a long dark robe with its hood covering half of the man’s upper head features.
"I can sense one that is already defeated without the fight ever having started."
"Right now, it seems that Ignatius will no doubt be the winner, but the human himself has not a single aura of admittance of defeat within him."
"What can you tell from his aura right now?" another instructor butted in as they all turned to look at the dark-robed individual.
"His aura... It’s like that of a wounded hunter before its strong prey... An almost hopeless situation yet filled with such raw conviction and power."
"The boy won’t go down without a fight. This, I can say with surety..."
"Many of the elders will be watching this fight, and most of them are specifically here for Ignatius himself. His talents are out of this world, and they want to personally see that for themselves and nurture him."
"Today, they’ll be assessing his abilities, but the human boy is recommended by the Half-Fallen one herself, who also will be watching the fight."
"One thing will happen for sure in their battle, and that is one of them will become nothing but a stepping stone for the other."
"If the human boy loses, he loses face for the Half-Fallen one who recommended him here. I’m pretty sure he will receive nothing but mockery from the elders, and his fate would be unknown."
"Even if the Half-Fallen one chooses not to do anything for being let down, some of the Fallen elders would bring an end to the boy himself for daring to shame her."
"In short, if the boy dares lose, he surely dies!"