Abyssal Awakening-Chapter 964: Experimental Combination

Alice sat on a rock with a defeated expression on her face.

In this world of colour, she alone felt like a black-and-white image.

All life drained from her body.

Every time the boss fight started getting exciting... she was pulled back.

Every. Single. Time.

Not because she was in danger.

But because they wanted data.

Different combinations. Different triggers. Different reactions.

Test this. Try that. Don’t kill yet. Wait. Observe.

It’s like having mead presented in front of her but not being allowed to drink it.

When the mug is in her hands, she could smell the charm of the mead, place her lips upon the corner and then...

They rip it away.

When the boss’s neck was this close to being cut, she was pulled back with a skill.

"Stop sulking already. We need to figure out how your ability works." Miki sighed.

Right now Alice was like a child who wasn’t allowed her favourite toy.

"I know but... Arghh!!!" Alice flailed her limbs.

"At least let me land a solid hit against them!"

"If we kill them too fast, we’ll run out of bosses to test on. But come on, didn’t we figure it out in the end?" Miki smiled helplessly.

She had to pacify Alice so that she would be more cooperative.

Pouting her lips, Alice held up her arm filled with crimson marks.

Each mark signifying a boss ability that she had siphoned.

Like her original power, killing a boss allowed her to steal one skill they used. On top of that, she absorbed a portion of their dominant stat.

If a boss cast spells a lot, she would gain the spiritual stat.

Spell-heavy bosses granted spiritual stat.

Physical ones granted strength.

The gains were small, only a few points at a time.

But over many kills, the difference would add up.

Still...

It was inefficient.

So instead, they changed their approach.

Alice had showcased how fast she can react as well as her awareness of her surroundings.

Therefore, they crafted a build tailored for her.

A little different to her usual set up but it’ll be perfect for what they wished to accomplish in the fifth zone.

To clear as much of the area as fast as possible.

If they have more people summoned with them, the number of beasts will quickly rise up to unrealistic standards.

So they needed to keep the battles short and with low numbers.

During this time, Alice wasn’t the only one being helped.

Alice wasn’t the only one being trained either.

She insisted on fighting alongside Alyss.

Partly personal reasons.

Mostly because Alyss was terrifyingly strong.

If she was to raise her stats, she would make a fierce vanguard to help them.

Miki agreed. If Alice wasn’t lying, Alyss had hardly died despite reaching the third Zone.

That level of power wasn’t something that can be found easily.

So another farming unit was accelerating Alyss’s growth separately.

As for Cayla, even though she’ll be helpful information wise, her capabilities as a fighter were a little... weaker than some of the other candidates.

It was hard for Alice to convince Miki using the same method she used for Alyss.

In the end, the final group they decided to go with was Miki, Alyss, Alice and a flexible spot.

Depending on what they need in the moment, this fourth slot will be adjusted.

"Alright, I think that concludes the experiments for now. We’ll run some live tests for you to get used to the set up." Miki clapped her hands, stopping everyone in their tracks.

Hearing this, Alice’s ears perked up as she sat up with a glimmer in her eyes.

’So simple.’ Everyone thought upon seeing her reaction.

One of the experimenters even looked like she wanted to desperately ruffle Alice’s hair but tried her best to hold that desire back.

"Finally! I thought I was going to die from boredom." Alice rubbed her hands together with a grin.

"It wasn’t like you were idle. How could you be bored?" Miki rolled her eyes.

"Don’t worry about it. Anyways, I just gotta hit them with the bow right?" Alice held up the new weapon they gave her.

Even though she originally wanted to be a mix of casting and melee like how fighting style in reality, they figured it wasn’t going to be efficient in the Nightmare.

Not with her downsides.

Therefore, the best option would be to take advantage of her reaction speed.

Their build for Alice takes into account of certain skills she gained from bosses along with some stray items that didn’t look like they would synergise.

Items belonging to different sets with no correlation whatsoever.

However, when put together...

Jumping onto the roof, Alice pulled back the bowstring.

Azure flame converged into a single arrow as the fog around them dispersed momentarily, increasing how much they can see into this fog.

"Hou~ six targets." Alice grinned.

Her eyes turning demonic as one of the markings on her arm started to glow.

Boss skill – Pavi’s Hunt.

When activating Pavi’s hunt, Alice’s detection range greatly increases while also slotting critical strike spots around their body.

Striking these spots granted increased damage.

A second marking lit up.

Boss skill – Combo Master.

Linking up strikes without dodging increased damage. Perfect for short bursts of rapid strikes.

But when paired with Pavis’ Hunt, so long as Alice can hit the targets, it’ll become a multiplier to increase the damage of the crits!

A third skill was activated.

Item skill – Rapid Fire.

By activating this ring, Alice was able to significantly increase the rate of which she can fire her arrows. Briefly removing the limiter of how many attacks per second she can perform with this weapon.

Fourth, fifth, sixth.

Six skills were all activated simultaneously as Alice took a deep breath.

The world was slow.

She could see the exact spots she needed to fire her arrows. The paths open to her, the obstacles, the enemies lying in wait.

All of it was open to her view. A different sensation compared to her Zone or Vision but regardless, this entire area was exposed to her.

It was a shame that most of these skills came from items and boss skills rather than spells you can take back to reality.

If they could, maybe Grand Cathia wouldn’t have that hard of a time defending against the siege.

Alice fired three arrows before firing three more into the air.

Like magic, the arrows began to curve around the buildings.

*THUNK!!!

Each shot perfectly struck dead centre of the critical spots.

Six arrows fired, six crits. Zero misses.

The hard part was landing the shots and Alice succeeded.

Now was the easy part.

The delayed explosion of her skills.

*BANG!!!

From each arrow, a Pale Lance burst out and carved a hole through their body!

Usually, firing this many Pale Lances would have issues.

Range, consumption and damage.

But thanks to the combination given to her by the Experiments department, all of that was solved!

So long as her arrows hit the crit, a Pale Lance would trigger, affected by the combo streak and deal extra damage.

A guaranteed one shot one kill if the requirements are met.

Some of these even gave Alice a few ideas for her own trigger casts.

To put conditions that automatically boost strikes that meet the requirement.

"How is it?" Miki asked with a smile, proud of her department.

"It’s good. No, it’s better than good. How the hell did you even figure out this combination so quickly???" Alice praised.

Since it wasn’t a combination of item skills, they had to think of everything from scratch.

How the boss skills interact and so on.

One of the experimenters grinned, feeling pride in their work.

"Once you understand the logic behind certain skills, it becomes easy. By that point, you understand how the designers have designed their puzzles, the habits and so on."

There were other combinations they could’ve tried but this was by far the most effective in terms of getting easy kills. Of course, using this method against bosses in a solo instance won’t be easy.

Alice will need someone to tank for her so that she can land the strikes.

With a combination now figured out, they made their way to the fifth zone.

Alyss was still farming so they’ll be joining next time.

In the meantime, Miki led the charge.

She took care of anything that got too close, rounded up monsters to be killed by the caster.

And anything too far out, annoying to round up or too fast, was dealt with by Alice.

Even with the support skills of the items helping her out, Miki was surprised by how proficient Alice was with the bow.

Especially for someone who usually uses swords.

"It’s not that hard. It’s just a matter of replication for the initial movements. After that, I’ll take notice of the wind and other crap like that. But I do more mental calculations for my spells outside of the Nightmare anyway. So this is easy."

That was Alice’s answer.

A single shot of the bow was all that she needed to figure out and calibrate her motions. Like a machine, she repeated the perfect motion over and over without deviation.

It didn’t matter how far away they were, Alice’s arrow always met target.

"Honestly, you should just use bows from now." Miki chuckled.

"Hell no. Bows are a little unreliable when fighting people stronger than you. Anyone with half-decent reaction speeds can swat away an arrow without an issue." Alice rolled her eyes.

Though...

Her sense of scale wasn’t what many would consider to be ’normal’.

After all, the ones she’s been fighting are those stronger than her. Beings that the common man considers to be untouchable.

Lords, Apostles.

Beings like that.

In such cases then yes, a bow would be a little unreliable.

But so would everything else.

Of course, Alice didn’t tell Miki that. There’s no reason for her to know that it was Alice who killed Kazira.

If she did, she’ll probably pass out from shock.

Soon, they reached a boss arena within the fifth Zone.