THE STRONGEST NEXULYTE

Glen fell down on his butt, panting heavily.

"What the hell was that? Why did you end up getting chased by them?!" Glen looked at Ivan and asked in a loud voice.

The place now was littered with the corpses of the metal mosquitoes, and their blood was like a small pond that reached above their ankles.

Everyone else also turned to look at Ivan, waiting for an explanation.

" I went to take a look at the beehive castle when a strange monster suddenly attacked them and self exploded, destroying their castle and killing the majority of them; the remaining mosquitoes came at me after that" Ivan explained calmly, causing everyone to put on strange expressions.

The heck? Who would believe such a story?

"It's your choice to believe me or not," Ivan added after seeing the looks on their faces as he turned the two swords into light particles and allowed them to disappear.

Unable to find a response to Ivan's words, the group could only click their tongues before releasing their abilities and finding clear spots to rest.

The fight had gone well unexpectedly, and nobody was injured; one should not underestimate the defense of their protective body suits.

After a while, they checked the corpses of the metal mosquitoes and couldn't find a single Nexus crystal.

Well, it wasn't too surprising though. Finding Nexus crystals depended greatly on luck.

"So what's next now?" Elliot turned to Ivan and asked.

"We continue moving," Ivan stated.

Soon, everyone was ready inside the land carrier and they resumed their journey.

Arriving at the opening, the group was awed by the sight of what was left of the beehive castle; its remains looked like a bomb had exploded in its center, and a part of the ceiling had been destroyed as well; blood painted the remaining part of the ceiling.

Looking down, they saw particles of what must have been the other part of the castle as well as charred corpses of countless metal mosquitoes.

"Just what sort of monster came to attack these metal mosquitoes? Good thing we didn't run into it, I doubt that the land carrier could resist such an explosive attack!" Elliot remarked when he saw the amount of damage caused by the so-called monster that Ivan claimed had attacked the metal mosquitoes.

Karin and Glen nodded in agreement while Ralph took a side glance at Ivan, neither of them saying a word.

Thoowp!

Thwoop!

After taking a while to observe the ghastly sight, Elliot controlled the A-22G3 and came out from the opening.

Stabbing one metal leg after another into the side of the wall, the land carrier started to climb down the wall of the tunnel like a robotic spider.

It took over five minutes for the land carrier to reach the ground, it almost slipped off a couple of times.

After reaching the ground, they took a closer look at the stream of blood.

It made a sound that was similar to that of a running stream and let out a pungent stench that penetrated the cabin through the tightly closed window, making them flinch their noses.

Quickly locating the next exit, they finally left the space where the stream of blood was located, entering a large long stone corridor with strangely shaped rocks.

The land carrier moved deeper into the stone corridor, taking several turns before finally arriving at a small opening that led into another smaller stone corridor.

A problem arrived at this moment, the path ahead was too small for the land carrier to move through.

"What do we do?" Karin asked while moving her gaze from the path ahead and Ivan's face.

Ralph turned to look at Ivan as well, waiting for his decision.

There were only two options at this point anyway, either they abandoned the land carrier or gave up on the mission here.

After thinking for a few seconds, Ivan raised his gaze and stared at them seriously.

Everyone's shoulders subconsciously tensed as they awaited what Ivan was about to say.

"We'll continue on foot," Ivan announced. " Everyone, pack up."He added before rising to his feet and moving to the back of the land carrier.

" I guess this is where I stop then" Elliot suddenly voiced out at this moment, causing everyone except Ivan to turn and look at him.

" What?" Elliot questioned when he saw all of them staring at him.

" What do you mean 'what'? You just said you are stopping here?" Glen spat at him.

" And so? Is it too difficult for you to understand?" Elliot shot back.

"You said you are stopping here, aren't you coming with us?" Karin joined from behind Glen.

" Seems you guys are forgetting something here; my job is to handle the land carrier," Elliot stated slowly.

" So you are going to stay here until we come back?" Clint, who had not said a word unless spoken to since the start of their mission spoke up at this point, stunning everyone.

Elliot chuckled lightly before saying that he would wait for them as this would not be the first time that he had been out alone on missions.

" I'll wait for you for a month and leave if you haven't returned by then"

Elliot informed them.

" Don't waste time on him, let's go" Ivan called out to them after giving Elliott a long look.

They took a bigger portion of the supplies into their storage before exiting the land carrier.

Without looking back, they advanced into the smaller stone path on foot; leaving Elliot behind with the land carrier.

...…

Days flew by in a flash and a week had passed in the dreamscape.

Inside the tunnel, Ivan and his group had made great progress during their missions. They had placed another two markers, setting up another two sectors.

During the week, the group cleared out numerous monsters, improving their teamwork with each other as well as their individual strength.

Glen had successfully entered the True King rank while the rest of them had increased their AP as well.

As for Ivan.

...

NAME: Ivan Von Charles

Talent Group: Primal Talent type: Wisher Talent: Wish card

Talent lv: SS AP: 46.23% Rank: TRUE KING

....

He was getting closer to the True Lord rank and was just four AP points short.

Currently, they were resting in the territory of a group of yuukis that they had cleared up three days ago; all of them looking visibly different from how they looked a week ago.

Their hairs had grown longer and were covered in dirt, their gazes sharper and they gave off auras of seasoned veterans.

"Everyone gathered, we're moving forward now."