Mira and the others leisurely made their way down the chasm. Well, only Mira was acting carefree about it. The other mercenaries, including Robin, were constantly on their toes waiting for something to attack them.
They all knew what the chasms were like and knew that letting down your guard is the last thing you want to do.
Mira, on the other hand, wasn't too worried, at least for now. She's practically lived in the chasms over the last 9 months, so dealing with the little critters near the top of the chasm is nothing to her.
What she was more worried about was whatever is lurking at the bottom. The further down they went, the more Mira's instincts warned her that something terrifying was dwelling at the bottom of the chasm and she had no intention of engaging such a foe.
Of course, she'd still do her job to the best of her abilities as she can plunder more loot and accumulate enough Contribution Points that way, but she wasn't going to needlessly throw her life away fighting something that is way out of her league.
Suddenly, only a few hours after entering the chasm, Mira's group was swarmed with bats! These bats were all only Rank 4 or Rank 5, but there were hundreds, possibly thousands of them!
"Shit! Bats!" Someone yelled and everyone got in position, ready to attack, but then something extraordinary happened.
Mira waved her hand and nearly all the bats turned into ice sculptures. Afterward, Mira waved her hand again and put all of the corpses into her Storage Space.
That one move cost her around 15% of the Qi in her body, but she didn't mind. The Qi inside the chasm is so dense that she'll be back to full in about a minute.
After all of the bats were dealt with, Mira, without turning around said, "It'd be for the best if you guys used your heads. I don't particularly want to start fighting wave after wave of enemies right from the get-go. However, if you guys want to die quicker then, by all means, attack like a bunch of brainless monkeys."
With that said, Mira kept walking down the pathway as everyone stood there, stunned. They were so stunned that they almost forgot that Mira just collected a decent chunk of points from those bats while barely having to do anything.
They wanted to curse at her for saying such things, but any words wanted to say were stuck in their throats. Everything Mira said was true, even if it was a bit blunt.
The group kept moving forward, except this time they took Mira's words to heart. Although they wanted to earn some easy Contribution Points, they didn't want to have to fight hordes of enemies to get it. They had to live first before being able to make use of any Contribution Points.
Slowly but surely, Mira's group made their way down the chasm while seamlessly taking out anything that got in their way. They tried to make as little bloodshed as possible and if any blood was shed then they would be sure to clean it up afterward so that the beasts wouldn't keep hunting them down.
Two weeks passed by and Mira's group had barely taken a break. They were all cultivators in the Core Formation Realm, except for Mira, and could go months or even years without sleeping or eating. There was no need to set up camp or anything like that. In fact, doing so would make their trip much worse than it already was.
Over the last 2 weeks, about 10% of the people in Mira's group died. That number wasn't high nor low and was about what Robin expected. No matter how hard they tried to prevent a horde of beasts from chasing them, in the end, it was impossible.
There are too many people in the group and most of them aren't the most intelligent so of course, there'll be slip-ups.
Unfortunately, one slip-up is more than enough to cause a chain reaction. So for the past 10 days or so, they've been fighting enemies almost nonstop.
Mira was by far the biggest winner over the last two weeks, mainly because of Rhydian. To the Mercenary Association, the two of them counted as one person meaning any kills Rhydian gets also count towards Mira's overall kills.
So, while others might have to reluctantly take a break and switch with someone, Mira can just rest on Rhydian's back for a few minutes before she's ready to fight again and vice versa. For that very reason, Mira and Rhydian were able to spam destructive AOE attacks that can take out tons of weaker enemies.
Meanwhile, others have to preserve their energy in case of an emergency because they can't completely trust their backs to someone.
This all caused Mira's group to have mixed feelings about the girl. On the one hand, she was hogging all of the potential Contribution Points. On the other hand, she was saving their lives by taking out large amounts of enemies.
Robin might be the only one in the group who was happy about having Mira in her group. The more lives Mira saves now, the more cannon fodder she can use later in the chasm.
As they were walking, they were dealing with swarms of beasts like normal when all of a sudden, the ground started to shake.
This wasn't too big of a deal because such things have happened at least every day ever since they journeyed into the chasm, but Mira and Robin felt something was off. Their instincts were warning them that this earthquake wasn't so simple.
'It's an Earth Elemental! Mira, dodge!!' Elenei's voice rang inside her head and Mira didn't waste a single second hopping off Rhydian and dodging. Rhydian, seeing her companion dodge, did the same thing because her instincts were warning her of grave danger.
"FUCK! NOO-!"
"I DON'T WANT TO DI-!"
"SAVE ME!"
Right after the two of them dodged, Earth Spikes shot out of the ground and walls, impaling hundreds of mercenaries on the spot!
After dodging, Mira took a good look around and almost felt like she was inside a giant Earthen 'Iron Maiden'. Earth Spikes covered the walls and ground nearly preventing anyone from walking. Luckily, they didn't cover the entire area as gaps were still left in between the spikes, but that didn't make Mira feel any better.
Without even bothering to look at her injured and fallen group members, she turned to look at the newcomer. The Earth Elemental, as Elenei calls it.
The Earth Elemental basically looked like a giant golem made out of stone. It was almost 10 meters tall and incredibly bulky, but Mira noticed a few things that made it unique. It had 8 tentacle-like arms made of stone on its back and its head is in the shape of a cannon. The chest of the Earth Elemental was made out of some sort of crystal and Mira had no idea what it actually did. Lastly, its hands and feet were made out of metal, unlike the rest of its stone body.
Facing this titanous creature, Mira felt like an ant, both in size and power. Yes, this thing, although she didn't know how powerful it was, was powerful nonetheless. Much more powerful than her current strength could handle.
Luckily, she wasn't alone and had thousands of mercenaries with her to help along with Robin.
However, after glancing over at Robin, she knew that the receptionist also found this situation quite bad.
'Mira, let me give you a brief overview of Earth Elementals. First off, all Elementals have a Core and this Core contains all of an Elementals Essence. From the looks of it, you've actually absorbed an Ice Elemental Essence, albeit a very weak one. Essence is essentially an incredibly pure form of Energy and is something that can only be formed under certain circumstances. This Essence is the foundation of an Elemental, but it's not what actually creates them. The Core that forms around their essence is what makes an Elemental, well, an Elemental. So, by destroying the Core, you can kill the Elemental while keeping the Essence inside of it.' Elenei's explained quickly.
Mira immediately understood what to do, but she also had a few questions regarding Essence before jumping straight into things.
'But wouldn't the Essence dissipate once I destroy the core? How can I keep the Elemental Essence if that's the case? Do I need a special item to store it in?' Mira asked while dodging the next set of spikes.
'No, because Essence isn't Qi. In simple terms, it's a purer form of Qi, but in actuality, the two are completely different. Although that may be the case, Qi is actually able to turn into Essence. It's just that Essence isn't able to revert back into Qi. If you want more details, ask me after the battle. For now, you should figure out how to deal with that thing as it doesn't look happy.'
Elenei stopped talking after that and Mira focused on the Elemental in front of her because things already aren't looking good and the fight's just started.
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