"Everyone, retreat immediately! Get back to the canyon entrance!"
Ethan's voice was sharp and commanding, leaving no room for argument.
"What's wrong, Ethan?"
Ella had just hacked a Blood Guardian to pieces.
She retreated quickly at his order, her eyes filled with confusion.
"These monsters are symbiotically linked to the heart! They're unkillable as long as it's still beating—and they can't move far from it!"
Ethan explained rapidly.
"If we keep fighting them head-on, we'll only make them stronger until they're completely out of our league!"
"Then what do we do?"
Lucas held up his shield, blocking a bone blade strike that sent him staggering back, the impact nearly numbing his arm.
"I can handle this heart—but I need to test something first," Ethan said, his eyes sharp as he scanned the seven grim-faced members of the team.
"Fall back to a safe distance and keep watch! Try activating the beacons again while you're at it!"
"What are you going to do?!"
Amy cried out, a sense of foreboding washing over her.
Ethan didn't answer.
In the next moment, he charged directly toward the three Mutated Blood Guardians!
If it weren't for the immense strength he'd displayed earlier, earning their trust, his actions would have looked like suicide to the others.
Even so, everyone held their breath, their hearts in their mouths, as they watched him.
But Ethan's target wasn't the Blood Guardians—not for farming talents, anyway.
That would be far too slow, taking him hours just to get one talent.
Ethan marched straight into the 10-meter radius of the Mutated Heart.
In an instant, the violent, corrupting energy of the Demon God flooded into his body like a bursting dam—far more intense, far more ferocious than before!
His vision was swallowed by crimson light, and countless maddening whispers and twisted illusions assailed his consciousness, threatening to drive him insane!
It felt as if his body was about to be torn apart, to be assimilated completely by the invading demonic power!
[Demonic God Energy Detected. Talent Grace is upgrading. Current Progress: 10.01/100.]
[Demonic God Energy Detected. Talent Grace is upgrading. Current Progress: 10.02/100.]
[Demonic God Energy Detected...]
"So it works!"
"But it's still too slow!"
Ethan took another few steps forward, closing the distance to the pulsing heart until he was only five meters away.
The tide of demonic power became almost tangible, crashing against his body and will like a relentless wave!
[Demonic God Energy Detected. Talent Grace is upgrading. Current Progress: 13.18/100.]
[Demonic God Energy Detected. Talent Grace is upgrading. Current Progress: 16.18/100.]
[Demonic God Energy Detected. Talent Grace is upgrading. Current Progress: 19.18/100.]
The progress bar shot up rapidly—but the pain it brought multiplied exponentially.
Ethan felt every inch of his flesh being torn apart, crushed to pulp, only to be forcefully reconstructed by the power of his Grace talent.
His bones creaked under the strain, and his soul felt like it was burning alive.
Twisted veins began to bulge beneath his skin, only to be smoothed away by a cool, soothing energy a moment later.
It was his Grace talent, working at full capacity, devouring and transforming the invading divine power.
But his actions had clearly enraged the Mutated Heart beyond all reason!
Thump!
Thump!
Thump!
The heart's pulses grew violent and erratic, its blood vessels throbbing and swelling grotesquely.
More cracks split open across its surface, accompanied by the sickening sound of flesh tearing away.
This time, five more Mutated Blood Guardians crawled out of the heart!
They roared in unison, brandishing their bone blades as they charged toward Ethan.
The three Blood Guardians that had just revived joined the fray as well!
Eight elite monsters—unkillable, ever-growing stronger—closing in for the kill at the same time!
Clang!
A bone blade sliced through the air, striking Ethan's body with a resounding crash—only to be blocked by a golden shield that flared to life around him.
-3251! (Shield Absorbed)
The shield's durability plummeted—but Ethan didn't even spare it a glance.
His entire focus was on resisting the overwhelming tide of divine power and watching the progress bar climb higher and higher!
[Demonic God Energy Detected. Talent Grace is upgrading. Current Progress: 34.77/100.]
[Demonic God Energy Detected. Talent Grace is upgrading. Current Progress: 37.77/100.]
[Demonic God Energy Detected...]
A single Holy Barrier lasted for 100 seconds and could absorb over 7,000 damage.
With Ethan's current casting speed, he could slap down ten shields in a single second.
Before approaching the Mutated Heart, he'd already layered over six million points of shield durability on himself.
A 3,000-damage slash was nothing to him—barely a scratch.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Bone blades rained down on the golden shields surrounding Ethan, sending ripples of energy cascading outward with each strike.
-3251! (Shield Absorbed)
-3987! (Shield Absorbed)
-3412! (Shield Absorbed)
The shield durability dropped at a visible rate. The combined assault of eight Blood Guardians would have torn through any ordinary tank in an instant.
But Ethan didn't even look back.
20 seconds left!
Ethan glanced at the progress bar on his status panel, then checked his remaining shield durability.
No need to worry.
He didn't even have to bother refreshing his shields.
Time ticked by in a blur.
[Demonic God Energy Detected. Talent Grace is upgrading. Current Progress: 97.89/100.]
[Demonic God Energy Detected. Talent Grace is upgrading. Current Progress: 99.99/100.]
[Demonic God Energy Detected...]
The progress bar hung at 99.99% for a heartbeat.
Then, a light brighter than the dawn exploded in the depths of Ethan's consciousness!
All the pain, all the whispers, all the illusions vanished in an instant!
[Talent Grace Upgraded Successfully!]
[Talent: Grace (SSS)]
Trait 1: All your healing skills cost 99% less mana, have no cast time, no cooldown, and require no casting materials.
Trait 2: When any of your healing skills affect a target, you have a chance to gain a portion of their attributes and an extremely low chance to copy one of their talents.
Trait 3: You can see all detailed information about any creature you have healed.
Trait 4: You can consume 3–10 random talents to forge a single, more powerful talent.
Trait 4!
A brand-new trait!
Ethan didn't even have time to test the new trait's effects before another notification popped up in his mind:
[Demonic God Energy Detected. Talent Grace is upgrading. Current Progress: 0.30/100.]
[Demonic God Energy Detected. Talent Grace is upgrading. Current Progress: 0.60/100.]
[Demonic God Energy Detected...]
It could level up again!
Though it would require ten times more demonic energy this time around.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
-5521! (Shield Absorbed)
-5917! (Shield Absorbed)
-5442! (Shield Absorbed)
The Blood Guardians struck again.
In just twenty or thirty seconds, their base damage had skyrocketed from 3,000 to 5,000!
The rate of their growth was terrifying!
Fortunately, now that his talent had upgraded, Ethan was completely immune to the illusions and whispers caused by the demonic energy contamination.
He could finally spare some attention to refreshing his shields.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Shields flickered to life around him one after another as he took another step forward, closing in on the heart.
The closer he got, the faster the demonic power flowed into his body.
By the time he stood directly in front of the heart, the upgrade progress bar was filling at a rate of 0.9% per second!
He cast a Mass Heal on the heart.
The Mutated Heart's detailed information flooded into his mind instantly:
[Mutated Heart (Boss/Special)]
[Level: 30]
[HP: 200,000/200,000] (Original: 1,000,000)
[Attack Power: 0]
[Defense: 0]
[Skills: Flesh Curse Aura, Life Drain, Spawn, Earth Veins, Ultimate Feast]
[Talents: Flesh Curse * Origin (All attributes increase slowly, up to 1,000x the original limit—Inactive)]
[Status 1: Divine Demon Construct. Incomplete state; unable to move.]
[Status 2: Absorbing energy from the void. Will complete its first form evolution and break free from the dungeon in 29 days, 13 hours, 42 minutes.]
[Status 3: Blessed by the Demon God. Reduces all ranged damage taken by 90%.]
[Status 4: Has spawned 8 Mutated Blood Guardians. Maximum HP temporarily reduced by 80%.]
"It's so weak!"
Ethan stared at the Mutated Heart's stats in shock—not because it was strong, but because it was ridiculously weak.
Only 200,000 HP, zero attack power, zero defense.
It was nothing more than a sitting duck!
And its talent—the one that could boost its stats by 1,000x—wasn't even activated yet!
Ethan had no idea why—but the fact remained that the boss currently had only 200,000 HP.
He checked his own attributes, then glanced at his S-rank talent, Blaze of Destruction:
[Blaze of Destruction (S-rank)]:
Fire damage increased by 100%.
Casting speed increased by 50%.
Mana cost reduced by 50%.
All attacks apply a Blaze Mark (deals damage equal to Mark Stack × 50% of your Spell Power per second for 5 seconds).
When Blaze Mark stacks reach 10, you can detonate them to deal fire damage equal to 5 × the target's missing HP.
He was confident he could take down the boss in under ten seconds!
The only obstacle standing between him and the heart was the eight unkillable Mutated Blood Guardians it had spawned.
Elite monsters like these were practically unbeatable in a Level 30 dungeon!
Even if someone was talented enough to tank their attacks indefinitely, they'd still have to cross the 10-meter Flesh Curse Aura to reach the heart.
And if anyone tried to cheat by attacking from a distance, the Demon God's Blessing would negate 90% of the damage.
"Too bad you ran into me!"
Ethan unleashed a flurry of attacks on the heart.
The Mutated Heart seemed to sense the mortal danger it was in, its pulses growing frantic and erratic.
The eight Blood Guardians roared in unison, their bone blades striking Ethan's shields in a relentless, impenetrable storm.
-6012! (Shield Absorbed)
-6233! (Shield Absorbed)
-6891! (Shield Absorbed)
Ethan's shield durability plummeted under the elite monsters' onslaught, the numbers dropping so fast it made everyone's hearts race.
But he stopped attacking once the heart's HP fell below 100,000.
Every now and then, he even cast a Mass Heal on it—not just to keep it alive, but also in the hope of copying its powerful Flesh Curse * Origin talent.
After all, he needed more demonic energy to upgrade his Grace talent again.
This boss couldn't die—not yet.
But the Blood Guardians' stats were rising at an alarming rate.
If they reached their ultimate evolved form, a single slash would deal 300,000 damage.
Even Ethan would have to retreat in the face of that kind of firepower.
He had to make sure the boss's HP was low enough to be killed instantly by the detonation of Blaze of Destruction's stacked marks.
Time ticked by minute by minute.
The Grace talent's upgrade progress bar stalled at 69%.
Just as Ethan was starting to wonder what was wrong, disaster struck again!
It seemed the Mutated Heart had finally had enough of Ethan leeching its power.
It began to pulse violently!
THUMP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The sound was like a hammer blow to everyone's soul.
Even the group watching from the basin's edge felt a wave of nausea and dizziness wash over them.
The blood vessels on the heart's surface writhed wildly.
Instead of flowing into Ethan's body, the tide of demonic power surged into the eight Mutated Blood Guardians!
"ROAR——!!!"
The eight Blood Guardians threw their heads back and howled, their voices deafening.
Their bodies swelled in size visibly, their stats skyrocketing once more!
This time, it was an explosive leap in power!
Swish!
A bone blade sliced through the air, so fast it left a trail of afterimages!
-212471! (Shield Absorbed)
Thirty layers of shields shattered in an instant!
Then, the other seven bone blades struck simultaneously from all directions!