Flashy Adventurer System : Show Off to Get Stronger! - Chapter 944

Chapter 944: A Nasty Surprise…But Not For the Cohort
‘Celestial Radiance!’

Shye raised both Sigrun and Dagr—his twin elemental staffs—causing them to emit a pale lavender light that illuminated the area ten meters in front of him.

The next moment, two roaring balls of flame shot from behind the cohort’s vanguard, clearing the entire hallway of black crystal growths.

Shye and the others then pressed on.

After learning the skill [Celestial Radiance], the cohort’s crystal clearing speed increased more than twentyfold.

They could now clear an entire short hallway in just two seconds; the longer ones take around five to six.

If they were lucky and the staircase to the next floor was nearby, they could reach the next level within a minute or two.

Now, they had just descended to the forty-ninth floor.

Only one more to go before reaching the floor where the Black Dragon Gate was located.

The problem was that the entire forty-ninth floor was infested with crystal growths, leaving no space between them.

The black crystals formed a natural barricade that prevented the Battle Tracker from updating.

‘Curses!’

Everyone gritted their teeth in frustration. What else could they do except work harder?

‘Celestial Radiance!’

Shye activated the semi-passive illumination skill with divine properties again, softening the black crystals before Harry and David shattered them with elemental spells.

To their horror, the growths regenerated at an insane rate, visibly expanding before their eyes.

While they weren’t fast enough to seal the path immediately, it took only ten seconds for them to grow back.

If they weren’t careful, they risked getting trapped inside the crystals—either pierced or crushed to death.

“What the hell are these damned things?!” Seira exploded in frustration.

Shye was also desperate, and so, he summoned Zeth.

“You called, master?”

The gorgeous black mare materialized before him, lowering her head slightly as the hallway was too small for her.

This was also why Shye and Shirley hadn’t summoned their familiars—both equines were simply too large for the narrow, crystal-infested, metallic corridors.

The two masters couldn’t afford to worry about their familiars’ comfort. The world was at stake.

Fortunately, Aemorus and Zeth possessed elemental spells, allowing them to finally carve a path through the crystalline hallways.

As much as Harry and David hated to admit it, their casting speed and spell arsenal simply weren’t enough.

Shye, on the other hand, couldn’t deactivate [Celestial Radiance]. It required the use of two elemental staffs to soften the crystals just enough.

One alone was unfortunately insufficient.

With Harry, David, Zeth, and Aemorus, skillfully taking turns to clear the growths, the cohort was able to carve a path through the crystal infestation.

The two equines struggled to advance but voiced no complaints.

As stoic and steadfast as a spirit and a hybrid creature could be, they pressed on.

Nonetheless, finding the descending staircase remained a challenge with the Battle Tracker failing.

The divine lights never dimmed, while elemental projectiles howled, roared, and screeched as they shattered the crystals.

Yet, despite their steady advance, anxiety and worry grew in the hearts of the cohort as time passed.

It had likely been an hour since they received the message outlining Dweezel’s plan from the insider.

Perhaps… the Black Dragon of Destruction had already been transported?

The unsettling thought made their hearts sink, gnawing at their sanity and fueling their desperation with each passing second.

After clearing another crystalline hallway, the Battle Tracker finally picked something up.

A large room lay ahead, and inside it was the descending staircase to the fiftieth floor—the very thing they had been searching for over the past seven minutes.

Instantly, the cohort bolted in that direction.

Shye and Shirley quickly ordered Zeth and Aemorus to transform into accessories.

The two equines simply couldn’t move fast in such cramped spaces.

As Shirley cut through the final growth, they stepped into a spacious crystalline room with a dome-like ceiling.

It resembled the boss room of a mana dungeon.

Except there was no boss—only a descending staircase at the far end of the room.

The black crystals also seemed to have limited growth here, resembling those found between the thirtieth and thirty-fifth floors.

Momentarily halted by fascination, the cohort pressed on the next instant, remembering that every second counted.

Shye anxiously sprinted toward the staircase, throwing caution to the wind.

Normally, he would have scanned the area with [Mana Pulse], but the weight of time pressure got to him.

The disappearance of the only thing that could save the world was simply too much to bear—even for the [Unfazed Heart] trait.

As soon as they reached the center of the spacious room, the enormous cluster of black crystals on the ceiling… moved.

Alarm bells rang in the minds of the cohort.

Almost simultaneously, they looked up—eyes widening—as a colossal crystalline figure plummeted toward them like a doomsday meteor.

“DISPERSE!!” Shye shouted, his voice laced with urgency.

Luckily, everyone was fast enough to evade, though one of them was sent flying by the shockwave as the creature crashed onto the crystalline floor, shattering it and sending fragments in every direction.

Luna, burdened by carrying both Harry and David just moments ago, couldn’t move fast enough.

Her extremely heavy shielder equipment didn’t help either.

While she wasn’t wounded, she became the prime target for the crystalline monster.

To make matters worse, the monster belonged to the most feared species of all—a draconian.

It was a Crystal Dragon.

More specifically, a variant; instead of the usual bluish-white body, its scales were black—the same color as the crystals surrounding them.

“Kuhh…”

Luna realized she was in a precarious position.

Raising her shield, she activated [Stoic].

The Crystal Dragon’s opening attack likely wouldn’t kill her, but it would undoubtedly hurt—possibly causing internal injuries from sheer brute force.

Just as she braced herself to be slammed into the ground by the dragon’s front claw, Shye suddenly appeared before her, greatswords raised to meet the strike.

A moment later, the crystalline limb clashed against Darky and Murky, producing a dull metallic clang as crystal met metal.

“You damn dragon! I don’t have time for you, scram!”

The words indeed came from Shye—but not the one in front of Luna—momentarily confusing everyone.

In the next instant, the Ravenous Doppelgänger stepped back, swapped weapons, and activated [Celestial Radiance] as a black blur streaked in from the Crystal Dragon’s left.

The monstrous guardian sensed the danger and reacted in time, conjuring an enormous black crystal pillar with a razor-sharp tip, resembling a battering ram, and launching it toward Shye’s original body.

“Like I said, I don’t have time for your crap!”

With a furious, anxious battle cry, the edges of Shye’s greatswords glowed with an eerie, silent purple.

He cleaved through the crystalline pillar in a single motion and surged forward, closing in on the bewildered Black Crystal Dragon.

Before the monster could process what had happened, the world… had turned upside down.

It had been slain in a single hit.