Julius and Lian watched the mushroom cloud grow into a massive behemoth.

  “Wait, why does it keep growing?” Julius asked.

  Lian looked at him. “You did too much.”

  My god. I fucked up. Julius realized he might unintentionally destroy Lafayette. His vision could see many miles away, and he saw the small downtown skyline way at the back. But he did ask for it, so there was no choice but to deal with the consequences.

  [Hotspot #2 Found!]

  A giant purple rift appeared ahead and above. Two humongous beams exited at lightning speed. It touched the mushroom cloud and struck the dried land, piercing through the depths of the soil. Everything was in its way was sucked up like a vacuum.

  Incredible, deadly, and swift.

  Because the beams were in proximity, it left behind one wide crater. The sea level was disrupted, and Julius felt the heat from above. He and Lian descended as the minimap confirmed the new hotspot. A new pinpoint was dropped onto the map.

  King Valtoris teleported to the edge of the crater with his sword drawn. “All of that for these two chests?”

  “There has to be something in there…Where’s Ling Wu and Skylar?”

  “They’re coming.”

  Julius stepped forward, going down the inclined slope. The chest looked exactly like the one at the first dungeon’s completion. But being two, he wasn’t sure if he was supposed to open both at once or each in a specific order, or just one. Maldoro’s System left no note for this, much to all’s displeasure.

  King Valtoris thought to open only the right one, while Lian decided the opposite. Julius asked for Ling Wu and Skylar’s opinion when they arrived seconds later. The two thought of the left, leaving Lian the sole right.

  The decision went towards the left. King Valtoris wanted to open the chest, so he did it. After the lid was completely open, new pop-ups flashed in Julius’ system.

  [Open the Second Chest: Failed!]

  Are you shitting me? A fifty-fifty bet failed.

  The ground began to rumble. Two chests disappeared.

  “It’s about to happen. We need to get out of this crater now!”

  All five flew out with a few seconds to spare. Julius steered to get a view as he landed. Loads of dirt, water, and some silver stuff filled up the depths.

  Boom!

  A beam fired from the sky, hitting the ground behind the five. Julius turned around as the weight from qi pressed his shoulders. Gusts blew past his ears, and his jaw clenched. His gums burned up.

  The situation escalated. At least ten beams were summoned. Julius summoned his sword, Valence, and he flip-jumped, giving himself some space away from others. He made his eyes glow gold and unleashed his fire-like, sky-blue aura. With an arch, he thrust his chest upward, breaking the concentration of qi. His aura grew tenfold, and his long hair turned whiter.

  Julius’ upper robe was torn, exposing his black T-shirt. His arms were huge before unleashing the aura, and they grew by a noticeable inch.

  “Ooh, is this what you meant by refresh?” King Valtoris asked as the beams subsided.

  Maldoro’s System counted hundreds of giant crawfish ahead.

  “Yes, but we will talk about this later. We have an entire fleet ahead.”

  One of the many clusters of crawfish began flying, and Julius flew up and did a heavy swing, creating a curved line. It struck one’s left pincer, tearing the chelipod. Blood bursted and struck Julius’ face like a busted hose.

  He crashed to the ground, and the other four charged to the cluster of crawfish. Holy fuck. When did they even learn to fly? Oh hell…Cajun is going to have a field day if they find out.

  Julius immediately got up, realizing his face was burning because of the crawfish blood. He exerted more qi and let it turn into water, pouring a downpour on his face. The exact crawfish he inflicted on dropped to the floor.

  Ignoring the chaos the other four were inflicting, Julius dashed right to his targeted crawfish. These behemoths’ grand wings were made of material similar to shells. He sliced it immediately. To his annoyance, more blood. It spurted out of the gape, followed by electric sparks.

  He gave a kick to the crawfish, confirming it was dead. Julius put Valence on his back and grabbed a 500 lb carcass. He opened his mouth and went for it.

  Clench!

  Splat!

  Slurp!

  With his natural-steel teeth, he yanked the meat out of its body and kicked the rest out of his way. He chewed it into bits, finding its taste like fried chicken. It was pretty tasty and delightful. However, the strange part was that it didn’t feel raw. And there was a spicy aftertaste, causing Julius to blow out flames from his mouth.

  “Watch out!”

  Silt!

  A giant crawfish crashed to the ground with its head decapitated. All the white meat and blood spew onto the short grass and dirty floor. Steam departed its body.

  Julius lowered his bloodied blade, and Lian dashed to him. “Why are you staring?”

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  “The crawfish tasted good. How can I not?”

  Lian turned to the dead crawfish. “Oh…Wow. How much did you take a bite of it?”

  “At least half of it.”

  “I’m going to be honest…I never ate crawfish, so I don’t know what it tastes like.”

  Julius nodded, but he had to tell her to get back on track. There were still hundreds or thousands of gigantic crawfish left to deal with. Now, Julius joined with the rest of the group, offering assistance.

  After going through a few dozen crawfish, the difficulty grew. It was a test for Julius because he began to understand how power ceilings work. A requirement he figured out when tearing a crawfish apart. His body learned how to communicate with his mind. A weird adjustment to the idea that he could “talk” to his body.

  [Skill Count: 78] +1

  Almost like learning a new language, he had to memorize a few bits while dealing with crawfish.

  After kicking his thirty-fourth crawfish in the face, Julius heard the echo of Shàng (上). He was then surrounded by ten flying crawfish. In a swift gesture, he grabbed one by its wing and swung it around. Through his grip, Julius channeled his qi to the crawfish and hit all the other nine. Shockwave one by one.

  He dropped the crawfish and teleported away.

  Kaboom!

  His crawfish exploded by its head, flooding the wetlands. Its blood contaminated the waters nearby. The other nine obliterated into a blitz like a cluster bomb. All the energy evaporated from their blood, leaving their shells behind, and it went fast like bullets.

  “Close call,” he muttered to himself.

  Julius steered and headed to a Skylar and Lian collaboration fight against a horde of giant crawfish. “Need help?”

  He punched the biggest one so far, causing a head crack.

  “Bare-handed?” Lian asked, expressing how idiotic that was.

  Julius shakes his right wrist. “Yinhai! Fucking crawfish are putting me to my limit. How ironic.”

  He jolted his right arm, summoning qi through his hand.

  “Hang on, slow down!”

  Julius launched into the air and let the qi clad his fist. He clenched and went for the punch. The gigantic crawfish's defenses were activated and exerted extreme waves of heat.

  No more. Julius thought. You won't get me this time!

  He thrust his fists forward, and frost formed at his knuckles, embracing the tremendous heat.

  Wham!

  Crack!

  Julius followed up with a swirling kick, shattering its head.

  Using her palm, Lian blasted a vacuum spell, pulling Julius to her. She turned it off, and he landed by her side.

  The gigantic crawfish’s body shot out bloody red blood, followed by a rippling beam of energy into the sky. Shockwaves erupted from the bottom, pushing the three many meters back.

  The sky turned bloody red, and Julius found it eerie. He then stood upright and fired a gigantic energy beam at the berserk body.

  An eruption followed, invading the entire area.

  “Shit!” King Valtoris yelled. He grabbed Skylar and teleported to the other three, only for all of them to get hit by an explosion.

  Thirty Minutes Later

  Julius opened his eyes slowly. He was lying flat in shallow waters. Half of his face was submerged under the dirty water. The funky smell jolted his mind awake. He pushed himself up, and looking around, he found that everywhere was covered in water.

  His body felt sore from top to bottom. Looking down, water reached up to his ankles. He then heard King Valtoris’ subtle groan as he got up.

  The other three were still knocked out cold.

  “You're good?” King Valtoris asked.

  “Sore,” Julius said. He saw the former’s face turned south. “What?”

  King Valtoris stretched his arms, then teleported to him. He held Julius’ left arm. “You’re leaking again.”

  Julius nearly tumbled, causing King Valtoris to grab him.

  “I’m good. My right leg is having some stability issues right now.”

  “You took the entire blast. The fact that you’re standing right now is remarkable. Let me heal you back up.”

  A flaming green aura surrounded Julius’ body. Julius saw King Valtoris’ eyes glowed green as a surge of heat and force formed from his chest and his legs.

  King Valtoris’ heavy grips prevented Julius from falling.

  After a minute, Julius was let go. He took a deep breath, expelling steam through his nose. Once it was all out, he headed to Lian and the other three. Although he was healed, Julius felt a little fatigue and was still sore, but at least he could still walk.

  [Hotspot #2 Cleared!]

  King Valtoris helped Lian up first. Once she was healed, she woke up. Julius rolled Ling Wu and Skylar away from the water, giving them space to breathe.

  “Is it over?” Lian asked.

  “Yes, it is done,” Julius confirmed.

  “Good…I wonder if you got the answers yet.”

  Julius shook his head, standing up as King Valtoris let Lian go.

  King Valtoris went to the two lying in the shallow waters and healed them.

  Lian grabbed Julius, just wanting to chatter.

  When the two were far enough, they talked.

  “Yinhai, you’ve grown taller.”

  “Oh.” Julius didn’t realize he had grown. After Lian mentioned it, he noticed the visual difference when looking at her. “And you hadn’t.”

  “Nope, unfortunately…How long was I out?”

  Julius checked the clock at the corner of his Maldoro System interface. “At least half an hour, and I woke up first. Val told me that I tanked most of the blast in this area.”

  “That could be why you had grown. You took it all and absorbed it.”

  “I’m exhausted, and it’s not even morning yet.”

  “We still have time to head to New Orleans.”

  “We can’t leave yet. I hadn’t got a chest to appear like the last hotspot. Not even an answer or access to the locked features in the Maldoro System. I’m staying here until I get the information. You guys can go first and leave me here.”

  Lian shook her head and briefly turned to the three and back to Julius. “You already know that I can’t leave you empty-handed or alone. I’m staying with you till the end, no matter what unfolds.”

  “And you still stand by that?”

  “Yes.”

  Whoosh!

  Poof!

  “Oh, my. Look what came,” Lian muttered.

  Julius saw that two chests were summoned to the scene. He grabbed Lian’s hand, and the two walked up to it.

  [Open the two chests.]

  Water receded, and dirt formed around the chests.

  “We open both this time,” Julius said, letting her hand go.

  King Valtoris, Ling Wu, and Skylar surrounded the area as he and Lian opened the chests.

  Golden light swarmed the two’s faces.

  And the answer Julius was looking for was about to be revealed.