Chapter 185: A Bet

Ooo...!

This time, followed by a deep roar, the ground shook. At the same time, white billows of smoke also emerged from the pipes. For quite awhile, the entire room was filled with smoke and a choking smell. Anne narrowed her eyes. She covered her mouth while fanning away the smoke around her. Rhode also quickly backed down, but as he retreated, he threw the green card in his left hand forward. The Spirit Bird who hadn't shown up for a long time appeared from thin air and soared in the air. It flapped its wings to raise a whirlwind from the ground to clear the smoke.

Shortly after, the smoke dispersed and the ground stopped shaking as the deep roar disappeared. Everything had returned to its peaceful state. However, Rhode didn't think so. He looked at the passageway before him, and shortly after, an image appeared in his mind. It was a white, wide room. In the center, there was a tall, huge golem quietly standing there. Its eyes emanated a faint blue light while electric current constantly flowed throughout its body. The storm was setting and the dangerous aura had gotten thicker.

Rhode shifted his gaze away and pondered for a moment. Then, he shook his head and sat on the ground.

"Let's get some rest, Anne."

She nodded and sat down. She had began to feel tired after all the battles. It wasn't physical, but rather spiritual. Although Anne was accustomed to concentrating in defense, it was a whole different matter compared to running a marathon. As a veteran who had experienced many adventures, of course, Anne wasn't behave like a nervous rookie due to the sudden changes — Being overly cautious might kill her. If they didn't take a break when they could, they would be too tensed for the upcoming battles and commit mistakes. No one would be able to take care of their corpses if they were dead...

Although this place was apparently strange, there were no dangers ahead. Since that was the case, it was meaningless for them to be overly cautious. Not to mention, Anne also trusted Rhode a lot. Since Rhode was confident that there was no lurking dangers, there were no reasons for her to doubt him.

Rhode drank up and felt his strength restoring. He thought that it was fine to treat this quest like a usual dungeon in the game — Where there would be some pressure on the time limit at most. This was why he only kept killing the monsters along the way and didn't loot their corpses. He could leave the loots to after the battle since the corpses wouldn't disappear. However, he had forgotten to consider that he would also be exerting physical power rather than mere brainpower. But, this was not a problem for him as long as the rhythm in battle was well controlled.

Rhode stood up to observe his surroundings. Then, he walked toward the pile of broken golems and started searching. His target was very clear: the Gargoyle's Heart. This was the best reward that he could get from this ruin. As a level 10 dungeon, the equipment here was basically useless to him. Even though he could take them back for his mercenary group, it would only be a waste of space to him. However, the mercenaries wouldn't want to waste them at all. On the contrary, these things were meaningless apart from being sold to make some money.

To him, it could still be considered pretty good.

Because Rhode was really careful when attacking the two Guardian Golems, the Gargoyle's Heart was still intact. However, the two Guardian Golem that Anne had destroyed really made him worried. Her brutal fighting style simply couldn't guarantee the intactness of Gargoyle's Heart. After looking for it for a long time, Rhode eventually found three intact Gargoyle's Hearts, as well as one broken piece that turned into a half.

Although it wasn't not fully collected, it was still a very good result for Rhode. The next question he needed to consider was which card should he choose for the three Gargoyle's Hearts. He knew that the next opponent wasn't easy to deal with. Although it was only a level 10 dungeon boss, its characteristics were very troublesome for a Spirit Swordsman.

Core Guardian.

It was created to guard the Sphere of Mystery. Unlike those mass piles of junk, the Core Guardian had very strong defense and offense, meaning that they had a high physical resistance and magic resistance. It flaw was that it only had a single skill attack, which also depended on how it was used it. The siege hammer only sloshed back and forth—no wonder people would look down on it.

One of the most common methods players used to conquer this labyrinth was by using lightning magic attribute. Because it was said that although the core guardian had a high resistance toward fire, water and earth, its resistance towards lightning was only so-so. Although it was not its weakness, it was at least more effective and lethal compared to other magical and physical attacks.

However, Rhode didn't have a lightning attribute summon spirit. Celia was a light attribute and Nether Tentacles and the Centaur Knight were dark attributes. It was impossible for him to summon Gillian—the Flame Killer also had a fire attribute. The only one that could get close to it was the Spirit Bird, but it only had a wind attribute and wasn't related to lightning attribute at all.

But Rhode's only hope for now was the Spirit Bird. When it leveled up, it might be able to gain the lightning attribute. Then, it would be easier for him to finish off the core guardian. However, it would be too much of a disappointment if nothing happened once it leveled up. Not only did he have to waste a Gargoyle's Heart, he also wouldn't gain anything... This kind of thing often happened to the Spirit Swordsman. Rhode had never used the Spirit Bird card before, so he didn't know what would happen once it leveled up. It's said that even sparrows could turn into phoenixes. But in many Spirit Swordsman cases, such a thing rarely happened. To the contrary, the situation where phoenixes shed off its feather and turned into hens were more often seen...

After thinking for a moment, Rhode made his decision. In any case, the Spirit Bird was also a wind element card; at least it's success rate was a lot higher than the Flame Killer. Although the fire elemental attribute magic also has a chance to gain a lightning attribute, the probability was too small and it would be a gamble. If his memory served him right, there were only five fire spirits that could gain the lightning attribute.

In 7 years, there were only five spirits that were successful among hundreds of thousands of players.

Those successful players really should have tried buying lottery tickets.

Rhode wasn't interested in the lottery, so he quickly made a decision. He put the other two Gargoyle's Hearts into his spatial bag and one remained in his hand. Soon, a system prompt appeared before him.

[The Gargoyle's Heart was detected (Magic Item). Do you want to use it? ]

Yes.

The dark red gem was broken and disappeared under faint light. Seeing Rhode's action, Anne was suddenly in high spirits. She curiously looked at the card floating in Rhode's hand. It was her first time seeing Rhode do something like that; naturally, she was very curious about it. But judging from Rhode's serious expression, she knew that it was a crucial moment, which was why she didn't ask any questions even though she was curious.

[Target? ]

Spirit Bird.

[Target - Spirit Bird - Forced Evolution]

[Level upgrade completed]

[Evolve?]

Yes.

Rhode answered. At this moment, the green card that represented the Spirit Bird was floating in his hand. Dark red light circled around it and the card rotated in the air, absorbing the red light. When all the light from the Gargoyle's Heart had been absorbed, it suddenly burst out a dazzling light, then quietly floated back into Rhode's hand.

[Sky Deck Fifth Place: Soaring Spirit Bird. Light & Wind Elemental Attributes. Can be fused — The child of wind who soars in the sky. Level: 15. Fury spirit of the skies. Ariel Properties.

A spirit fused with the wind.

Messenger of the storm. Lightning Properties]

Nailed it!

After seeing the last sentence, Rhode felt relieved and relaxed a lot. He was even felt happy that he had successfully gone through this. This painful joy could only be tasted by a Spirit Swordsman. As for other jobs, they would never be able to understand why Spirit Swordsmans thought of upgrading spirits as playing Russian roulette... For Spirit Swordsmans, the thrill was everywhere. They didn't only feel the thrill from adventure and killing monsters, they even also felt the thrill when upgrading spirit levels. From this point, it could be seen that the Spirit Swordsman job wasn't as boring as a Knight or Shield Warrior... However, it was another thing to say whether this special feature was welcomed by the people.

But...

Rhode noticed something strange. He scanned the description and puckered his brows.

Light & Wind attribute.

What's going on?