Open Two Chests

Su Jiang arrived at the location marked by the system.

"So it's a teleportation array..."

Before going in to fight the boss, Su Jiang chose to open the rewards for ranking first on both leaderboards.

The server had only just launched, so leaderboard rewards were not yet as extravagant as they would be later on. Still, as the first-place holder on both rankings, Su Jiang received two Talent Enhancement Chests. These rewards were distributed monthly based on rank.

Although it was possible to obtain the core item for an Epic-grade Dimensional Avatar from these chests, the odds of that happening...

Forget it. He should focus on strengthening the Kurumi Incarnation for now. After all, there was no need to handle too many different situations in the early stages, so there was no point in raising another incarnation.

Players with the Dimensional Avatar talent could not learn skills outside their character's own abilities or equip gear outside their character's own equipment. They could only raise multiple incarnations to deal with different situations. But resources were difficult to acquire early on, and raising a second one now would only slow him down.

Su Jiang transformed into Kurumi and opened the two chests.

"Ding— Talent Enhancement Chest opened successfully. Congratulations, your talent skill Dimensional Avatar: Tokisaki Kurumi has gained proficiency. City of Eating Time skill level +1."

City of Eating Time LV.2

Cost: None

Active Effect: Upon activation, a barrier appears centered on yourself with a radius of 9 meters. While inside the barrier, drain 1 point of Time Value from each unit per second, reduce all enemy speeds by 1% per second (when the slowdown reaches 100%, enemies enter an eroded state, becoming unable to move. Their skills disappear, and the erosion effect ends.), and increase all of your own speeds by 12%. Lasts 12 seconds. Cooldown: 50 seconds.

Oh, that was quite a good skill increase this time.

Kurumi's eyes immediately lit up. City of Eating Time could be said to be the core skill behind the Kurumi Incarnation's endless firepower. The increase to all her speeds had risen from 10% to 12%, its duration had increased by two seconds, and its cooldown had dropped from one minute to fifty seconds.

Not bad, not bad.

The second Talent Chest!

"Ding— Talent Enhancement Chest opened successfully. Congratulations, your talent skill Dimensional Avatar: Tokisaki Kurumi has gained proficiency. Time Value limit +100!"

"Uh, this is good too. At least in the early stages, increasing the Time Value limit is still very necessary..."

An incarnation's skill levels had limits. In his previous life, once most Kurumi Incarnation skills had reached their limits, Talent Enhancement Chests had kept giving this attribute. Her Time Value limit had once exceeded one hundred thousand, yet it had always remained impossible to fill.

He set Zafkiel's resurrection checkpoint outside the teleportation array, then walked in.

The scene changed.

The name changed from Green Root Mountain Range to Ice Dragon Palace.

"Ice Dragon Palace? Isn't this a team dungeon that only appeared half a year later? Is the final part of this quest the Ice Dragon boss?"

Kurumi was a little dumbfounded.

At this stage, there was no way she could clear this dungeon alone. And the Ice Dragon dungeon's boss, Kura Ha, was a Level 75 dragon. How could she possibly defeat it?

The interior of the palace was not as dark as she had expected. Ice fragments on the walls reflected the light, giving the cave a dim blue chill.

She walked deeper inside.

The cold atop the mountain had caused blue ice spikes to grow everywhere within the cave.

Kurumi had entered this dungeon in her previous life as well, but there should have been many Ice Sprites along the path leading to the boss's palace. Yet now, she could not see a single one.

Strange.

Killing those little fellows could drop Ice Crystal Stones, which were also a kind of Rare Ore. The Adventurer's Guild bought these elemental stones at high prices to make enchanting potions. If a few dropped, it would count as a small profit.

Although Ice Dragon Palace was located at the mountaintop, its internal structure was far from small. Kurumi wound through the enormous ice spikes for a long time, yet still found neither treasure nor Ice Sprites.

It seems I have to complete the quest first before this dungeon becomes the way it was in my previous life...

Kurumi gave up on searching for Ice Sprites and arrived at the second entrance.

Beyond it was a massive palace with the Ice Dragon's throne in the center. The lighting here was brighter, and the space felt more imposing.

However, the boss battle that should have begun with the boss quietly waiting for players to arrive before opening with a roar was now filled with chaos and cries of slaughter.

The entire area was covered with Fallen Ones dressed in black, Ice Giants formed from accumulated ice, and Ice Sprites.

The two sides were locked in fierce battle.

What was going on?

Kurumi was utterly baffled.

Why were the Fallen Ones fighting these elemental creatures? And where was the Ice Dragon boss?

Several Fallen Ones noticed Kurumi's presence and charged at her with weapons raised.

Fallen One

Level: 35

Life Level: Elite Human

HP:

Attack: 810

Defense: 350

Skill: Summon God, magic attack...

Damn, minor mobs with seventy thousand HP, and they were coming in wave after wave.

She placed a City of Eating Time beneath her feet, and the swarming Fallen Ones instantly entered the skill's effective range.

Because of the sheer number of monsters, the Time Value drawn by City of Eating Time surged wildly.

First Bullet!

Third Bullet!

Shadow!

Fairy Bottle! (Favor of the Wind Fairy)!

Kurumi immediately activated every enhancement skill. Her speed soared, her damage skyrocketed, and her three avatars used City of Eating Time's blink to leap to the four corners and draw aggro.

The next moment, Kurumi raised her antique rifle, and crimson bullets burst forth!

Bang, bang, bang...

-1568!

-3205!

-1650!

Red bullets struck the Fallen Ones squarely in the face, producing one terrifying damage number after another.

Unfortunately, this avatar of Kurumi had no AoE skills. Otherwise, with so many monsters gathered together, mowing them down would have felt absolutely incredible!

At that moment, Kurumi was still harvesting them with relish, constantly switching between her clones to evade the Ice Sprites' magic attacks.

Roar!

A thunderous roar suddenly echoed from deep within the palace!

Kurumi and all the monsters were simultaneously stunned for ten seconds.

This control effect was a battlefield-wide hard CC unleashed when the Ice Dragon boss's HP fell to 10%. In her previous life, countless raiding parties had died during these ten seconds of control.

Kurumi instantly understood. Someone inside was fighting the Ice Dragon!

Combined with the Fallen Ones before her, that meant the person fighting the Ice Dragon inside was the leader of these Fallen Ones!

Could it be that, when I arrived, these people were trying to transform this Ice Dragon?

Remembering the faint black aura around the first two bosses, Kurumi fell into thought.

Ten seconds later, the stun effect vanished.

Kurumi had her control-type clone keep the minor mobs occupied outside while she cast City of Eating Time and blinked to the other side of the palace.

This was the dungeon's third entrance, and also where the treasure would be found once players cleared the dungeon.

It was an ice cave.

However, the surrounding ice was covered in dense cracks.

Kurumi walked through the passage littered with shattered ice and reached its deepest point.

A human dressed in black gripped two enormous black chains in both hands. At the other ends of the chains was the Ice Dragon boss, Kura Ha, bound so tightly that the chains had sunk into its flesh.

As for Kura Ha, there was no need to say more. Judging by its HP bar, it only had around 9% left.

Meanwhile, this black-robed human still had over 50% HP remaining.

If even the Ice Dragon couldn't beat him, there was no way Kurumi could!

Nightmare High Priest Edgar

Level: ???

Life Level: ???

HP: ???

Attack: ???

Defense: ???

Skills: ???

Description: A lucky fellow who has gained a sliver of Nightmare's authority and is attempting to bring this nightmare into this world!

Holy shit! A high-level lifeform! Kurumi was stunned.

When everything showed up as question marks like this, it meant the other party's Life Level was extremely high—so high that her Insight skill could not take effect.