"As a motivational bonus, all participants will be evaluated for a possible promotion," informed the receptionist, making many adventurers excited by the information. "You have 10 minutes to prepare."
Taking advantage of the time provided, Alexander returned to his room and made his own preparations, because he needed them to become even more lethal.
The first step was to change to goblin form, since its poison was more potent, and soak the combat needles and the dagger with paralyzing poison.
The second step was to transfer all the most conspicuous items he might need during the fight to his internal storage bag, since he wouldn’t have time to restrain himself — and hide his ability to pull items out — in the heat of battle.
The last step was to allocate most of his free attribute points so he could last longer in this battle and still remain on the path of the evolution he had chosen.
[20 points added to Vitality]
[5 points added to Strength]
[45 points added to Intelligence]
Alexander felt his vitality, energy, brute strength, and mana increase when he allocated his points. But since this wasn't the moment to be enjoying the sensation, after a brief look at the first part of his status, he headed to the designated gate with Ocean by his side.
Interestingly, when the status appeared for Alexander, some information was in a different order from the last time he saw it. The most surprising thing was that they were in the order he thought of leaving them with his |False Status| skill.
『 Status 』
Name: Alexander Ocean ♂
Race: Human
Age: 14
Condition: Good
Level: 17/25
Class: Water Mage
Talent: Evolutionary Metamorphosis
Metamorphosis Race: Poisonous Goblin
HP: 280/280
Stamina: 155/155
Mana: 280/280
MP: 293/293
Attributes:
Vitality: 120
Strength: 80
Defense: 50
Dexterity: 130 (30 + 100)
Agility: 230 (30 + 200)
Intelligence: 120
Charisma: 10
Luck: 20
Free Attribute Points: 1
"I won't complain, especially because I don't know to whom to do it, but the system interface changing to accommodate my wishes is strange," thought Alexander with conflicting feelings. "Though it's also quite convenient."
Upon arriving at the designated gate, he noticed there was already a large number of adventurers gathered preparing to face the Wave.
Noting that the overwhelming majority of adventurers were in groups and that he could only count on Ocean, Alexander felt he needed to reinforce himself and used all his (Random Reward Cards).
Ding!
[You used 4 random reward cards.]
*[You received: (1 growth point), (1 level-up card), (1000 XP points), (1 growth point)]*
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Alexander liked the first random reward and became even more excited about the second, but when he saw the third he almost cried, because that amount of XP was almost negligible for his current moment. Fortunately for him, the fourth reward was also good.
Pondering what to do with the rewards, he decided not to use the (Level-Up Card) at the moment, because the amount of XP needed to level up is progressive and he didn't need a level increase that much at the moment.
On the other hand, the approach with the growth points was completely different. Alexander immediately used them, without any hesitation, to recover and strengthen the spell |Water Cannon|.
Ding!
[You learned the Tier I spell |Water Cannon|]
[|Water Cannon (Beginner)| leveled up to |Water Cannon (Intermediate)|]
His motivation was simple, to increase his destructive power, because, from his prior experience, he knew this spell was more destructive than the spell |Water Blade|, which in turn was faster.
About 20 minutes after arriving at the gate, everyone began to hear the noise and feel the ground vibration caused by the Wave's approach.
It didn't take long for a large number of creatures to appear and initiate a generalized battle against the adventurers. Fortunately for Alexander, he was still at iron rank and wasn't forced to go to the front.
"These creatures seem to have a hierarchy and sense of preservation, which is very different from the monsters that were in the dungeons," he analyzed upon observing that the weaker creatures were sent as cannon fodder. "Most of those who entered combat are common. Are the stronger ones waiting for us to tire?"
The initial clash was very favorable for the adventurers, because even though outnumbered, the average power of the adventurers was much greater. It was as if the front part of the Wave had gone to a slaughterhouse.
With the fight in the adventurers' favor, Alexander and Ocean managed to stay safe by firing their respective |Water Cannon| sporadically to open a path through the hordes of creatures.
From that moment on, they basically became 2 hydraulic war cannons that fired large spheres of water to destroy the common monsters that crossed their path. And when their attacks hit targets strong enough to withstand them, or lost momentum, they exploded releasing a large amount of water.
"What destructive power," thought Alexander. "Even an {Orc}, with its powerful physique, would suffer serious injuries if hit."
It took just over 10 minutes of combat/slaughter for the number of common creatures involved in the combat to become less than the 1st evolution creatures.
Amid all this chaos, Alexander and Ocean were some of those who stood out the most for causing damage to the Wave. Not that there weren't more powerful people than them there, because there were several, but they were busy blocking the Wave’s advance so it wouldn’t reach the city.
The elimination of the common creatures almost caused no damage to the adventurers, but as soon as the 1st evolution creatures began to attack en masse, some adventurers were caught by surprise and almost died.
"Anyone below bronze rank must retreat now!" commanded one of the adventurers on the front line. "Those who stay must prepare. We will attack and push them back."
Completely ignoring the first part, Alexander prepared to help in the vanguard's attack. And even having spent almost half of his mana, which fortunately was greater than that of most there, he still joined the group that would launch a barrage of spells to help the front line advance.
As soon as the vanguard opened space for the mages to launch their spells, a great variety of spells were fired and made blood and fresh meat rain in front of one of Phoenix City's gates.
From this point on, the battle became truly chaotic, because Phoenix City wasn't large and the average level of adventurers was bronze. In other words, they were capable of fighting 1st evolution creatures, but not necessarily of winning, much less winning as easily as before.
Even facing a smaller number of creatures, the fight became much more intense. So intense that some bronze-rank adventurers began to get seriously hurt.
Amid the confusion, an adventurer received a strong blow to the head that made him fall unconscious, possibly even dead, and this bothered Alexander a bit, who knew him. The adventurer was Victor.
"Empathy?" Alexander asked himself, exasperated. "Did it have to be right in the middle of a situation like this?"
Upon seeing an {Orc} running after the fallen adventurer, Alexander grabbed 2 of his mana potions and threw them to some mages beside him, who didn't understand his actions.
"Cover me," he said to Ocean and the mages before starting to run.
On the way, Alexander realized that if things followed their normal course, the Orc would arrive before him.
With no other option, he activated |Run|, materialized one of the needles he had left in his ring for emergencies, and used |Throw| to launch it at the orc.
Just as Alexander wanted, the needle made the orc have to stop to defend itself and no one seemed to notice he had taken it from "nowhere."
Having no time to kill the orc, Alexander just kicked it back, put Victor, who was still breathing, over his shoulder, and began to return.
Some creatures even tried to attack him while he carried Victor to a safe place, but whenever any of them tried to approach him, a spell or magical skill prevented it.
When he finally took a short break after taking Victor to Mary, Alexander noticed something important about the notifications he had been receiving and ignoring. He didn't need to put himself at risk to gain a larger amount of XP, because he was gaining a part of the XP from all the creatures he or Ocean helped kill.
"It seems I don't need to hold back," thought Alexander while formulating a plan. "With this, I'll gain a massive amount of XP without putting myself in much danger."
With this opportunity in mind, he told Ocean to imitate him and threw water in the faces of all creatures his |Water Jet| could reach.
Not satisfied with the XP he was obtaining for having obstructed/hindered the creatures' vision with their attacks, Alexander told Ocean to keep attacking beside the mages and ran through the battlefield throwing combat needles at the strongest 1st evolution creatures.
As soon as Alexander launched some needles, his skill |Throw| finally leveled up to intermediate level and his hit rate became overwhelmingly high, which gave him 60 hits with 70 needles.
Unfortunately for him, not all news was good. As soon as the 1st evolution creatures were hit by his needles, they seemed to feel the poison on them, and this made them furious with him.
Their fury was so great that, in most cases, they even tried to force their way through other adventurers just to attack him, even if this created several openings.
Seeing this as a great opportunity, Alexander increased his speed to the maximum and began kiting some creatures to ease the situation of some groups that seemed overloaded.
But as could not be otherwise, as soon as the fight began to improve, the 2nd evolution creatures began to attack relentlessly. One adventurer even received the |Claw Attack| from a {Great Lone Wolf} and had his body torn from chest to abdomen, dying on the spot.
Due to a carelessness, Alexander almost suffered a fate similar to the poor adventurer's at the hands of a {Great Orc}, but managed to escape thanks to his attributes and his set's skill, |Survival Run|.
