Chapter 163: Eating Tier 11 Ores! Unexpected Ambush, Acquiring an A-Rank Talent

There weren’t any guild heads here. But there were people far worse.

These people belonged to the most prominent bloodlines in the Solaris Kingdom!

The Perez family, the Torres family, the Johnsons, and the Patek family.

They were the four Duke families of Solaris.

The Perez family held the most military might among the dukes. The Torres family possessed the deadliest assassins.

And the Patek family ran multiple massive auction houses across the entire kingdom.

The Perez family matriarch, Brenda Perez, stood upright. She wore fierce red armor and held a glowing red-orange halberd.

Behind her stood the elite army of the Perez family. They wore similar armor and exhibited Silver auras, while the matriarch herself radiated pure Gold rank aura.

Nearby, the Torres family members all wore cold and indifferent looks.

They were dressed in sharp black suits, maintaining a gentlemanly appearance. But beneath the surface, they were all infamous assassins.

Old Man Welt had mentioned this to him before. Not many knew their true nature.

They used a massive business corporation as a front for their assassination headquarters.

Ralph Torres, the head of the family stood at the front with a thin, unsettling smile plastered across his face.

The Patek family looked the most average of the bunch.

They wore monocles and slightly bizarre clothing. There were only five of them compared to the heavy ranks of the Torres and Perez families.

"Looks like the challenge has already started." Phillip Patek, the head of the family, stepped forward with a polite smile.

"I wish you all good luck inside the domain. May we reach the core without any unnecessary bloodshed."

As he said that, he gestured to his people. They immediately jumped down into the abyss.

It seemed they had already held a lengthy discussion before Caelus and Sylvia arrived. No more words needed to be said.

The Perez family matriarch glanced at Sylvia and Caelus indifferently before jumping in with her elite members.

The Torres family followed right behind, not giving them a single ounce of attention.

Only the Johnsons remained. They glanced over at Caelus and Sylvia.

There were only two of them. They both had blonde hair and casual, arrogant looks, as if they were simply born with those faces.

"Should we eliminate them, Dad?" the Silver-ranked blonde youth asked.

He was Robert Johnson, the heir of the Johnson family.

The person next to him was the patriarch, Kevin Johnson. A highly prominent figure in the kingdom’s inner circle.

"They are just fillers that got swept into the challenge domain. No need to pay attention to them," Kevin Johnson replied in a deeply arrogant tone.

With that, those two dropped into the abyss as well.

"Let’s go in, Sylvia."

Caelus naturally didn’t care about what the man said. He turned to Sylvia with a smile.

She nodded back with a small smile of her own.

They jumped down together. Soon, their vision began to rapidly shift and distort.

When Caelus opened his eyes, he realized he was in a place filled with rocky terrain. The barren land stretched on endlessly.

"There’s such a massive place inside a challenge domain?" Caelus muttered, completely baffled.

He could hardly believe his eyes.

However, just then, he frowned.

He felt killing intent!

Whoosh!

He activated his projection frame and dodged the attack in one clean swoop.

It was a bullet that looked like a miniature meteor. It traveled incredibly fast, but his active Chaos Perception eyes caught the trajectory perfectly.

"Have I offended you in some way, Miss Brenda Perez?" Caelus calmly turned to face the attacker.

It was indeed Brenda Perez. She was the only one here with him.

"I always attack my enemies first," Brenda Perez said coldly. "If I don’t, I will be the one getting attacked."

"We aren’t enemies here, are we?" Caelus replied, his lips twitching slightly.

"Nor do we have the need to kill each other. The challenge isn’t meant for that."

"What if you get penalized for killing me?" Caelus proposed.

"It seems like everyone has been scattered randomly across this map. This was likely done to prevent players from instantly killing each other."

"How about we team up and work together to find the core?" Caelus added.

This Brenda Perez was no ordinary individual. She was at Gold Rank III with a base combat score of 30!

Even with his current combat score, he couldn’t possibly beat that without going all out.

"Team up with you?" Brenda Perez looked at Caelus with narrowed eyes.

"Now that I look at you closely, you look less than twenty years old."

"How did the Player Association let a bunch of kids in here?"

"This is a place for Silver and Gold ranks," Brenda said coldly. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

However, the moment she finished speaking, the space around Caelus abruptly distorted.

Brenda’s expression completely changed.

It was someone from the Torres family. Brenda recognized him instantly.

Rigard Torres. A notorious assassin known for slaughtering players and holding the ’Player Killer’ title in the domain.

He was going in for the direct kill. He weaved his hands expertly as sharp silk threads formed all around Caelus.

But Caelus just stood there calmly. He let the silk threads clamp tightly onto his body.

"Kuku. Are you dumb, kid? The fact that you dodged Brenda but didn’t dodge me means your last move was just a fluke. Hahaha. Die!"

The assassin, Rigard, pulled hard to tighten the silk threads.

However, the very next moment, the silk threads bounced right off Caelus’s skin and shattered into pieces.

"I didn’t dodge because I didn’t need to." Caelus turned to the side with a completely indifferent expression.

"Also, you have a very good ability. A pity that it belongs to you."

BOOM!

Mind Requiem!

A terrifying sonic wave erupted from Caelus and shot straight into the assassin’s head.

Rigard’s eyes rolled up into his eyelids as they bulged in shock. He collapsed to the ground with a heavy thud.

"So. About that team up." Caelus glanced back at Brenda, who was staring at him in utter disbelief.

At the exact same time, he activated his extraction.

[Ding! You have obtained the talent: Silk Thread (Upper A-Rank).]

[Silk Thread: Form fine threads up to 30 meters around you anywhere to slice and kill enemies in an instant. You possess the Core of Silk. Consume powerful ores and metals to fill up the core.]

[Core: 0/1,000]

[Cost: 1 Core Power to unleash a full array of silk 30 meters around you. 15 CA to expand range by 10 meters.]

Caelus looked at the panel strangely.

This was interesting. Because the only way to fill the core of the silk thread was by literally eating metal!

Caelus’s lips twitched. His talent, Matter Assimilation, finally had a practical use.

He had first obtained it during the Space League on the first stage of the battle royale, and he had never found a reason to use it until now.

Then, with Brenda watching closely, Caelus took out a Tier 11 Mana Ore.

He bit directly into it amidst Brenda’s speechlessness and began chewing it rapidly.

It tasted extremely earthy. But for some reason, he didn’t feel like gagging at all.

Perhaps the system had removed his gag reflex for materials.

[Core: 500/1,000]

"One ore filled it by half, huh?" Caelus smiled.

He knew exactly why. This was an Upper A-Rank talent. The high rank amplified the refueling efficiency of the core.

If this were a D-Rank talent, perhaps that ore would have only filled it by 50 points.

Soon, he ate one more ore and completely maxed out the core.

Now he could weave deadly threads across a 30-meter radius around him.

He could effectively set up invisible traps. Stumbling into them would chop a person down instantly.

And considering the silk was fueled by Tier 11 ores, the threads would scale perfectly with his current combat score.

Brenda on the other hand simply didn’t know what to say.

A young man who looked barely twenty had just effortlessly taken out an assassin with a Gold I combat score.

And now, he was casually chewing down high-tier Mana ores like they were snacks!

She felt like she was stuck in some sort of bizarre fever dream.

"So, about that team up, miss?" Caelus smiled.

There was naturally a good reason for his offer.

If they teamed up, he could extract more information from her and stay perfectly safe from the other Gold III powerhouses lurking around.

It was clear that the Duke families knew a thing or two about this specific challenge domain.

"Fine," Brenda finally spoke. "We will team up."

Caelus nodded in satisfaction. "Then, shall we head out?"

Brenda was fine with it. Without another word, they set off across the barren landscape.

However, as soon as they walked a short distance, they both suddenly stopped.

Their expressions simultaneously darkened into deep frowns.