Ethan stretched out his hand and summoned his Bloodblade Ashura. He gripped the sword and activated Ashura Mode, changing his appearance as a surge of power rushed through him.

[Mode Ashura Activated]

Three lamia monsters appeared in front of them. Risa was in charge of long-range attacks, while Ethan was the one who had to hold them back.

He rushed forward and blocked their strength. He lured them away from Risa, even though the three lamia monsters did not detect Risa as their enemy at all.

Ethan swung his sword sideways to slice their bodies. He kicked and threw one of them, using the same technique he used when completing the Talent Quest for Crimson Slash.

Unlike Crimson Slash, which had a ten-second cooldown, Ashura Rift as Ethan's second skill had a cooldown of fifteen seconds.

That made the battle much longer than before, even though Ethan felt confident he could kill one of the three monsters with a single slash of skill two.

Ethan threw one of the lamias forward. He quickly jumped, following where the monster was thrown.

When he reached the front of the lamia, Ethan swung his sword upward, sending out the triple-crescent claw skill that hit the monster.

The damage he dealt drained the monster's HP so much that its entire health dropped to zero.

[Lamia Purple Void (Lv. 115) || HP: 0/87000]

The lamia's body shattered and fell onto the ground, slowly fading into magic particles that drifted into the sky.

Ethan immediately looked at Risa. Using her blood-finger power, Risa managed to hold down the two remaining lamias.

He was impressed, but he had to wait another ten seconds for his second skill to finish its cooldown.

"Can you hold them a little longer?" Ethan asked.

"I… I'm trying."

Ethan stepped in front of one of the lamias trapped by the blood fingers. He counted in his head so the cooldown would finish exactly on time, allowing him to use the skill the moment it was ready.

Once the cooldown was over, Ethan swung his sword upward again, activating Ashura Rift and cutting through the monster's body.

The monster split apart as Ethan struck it, and in seconds its HP dropped until it died.

"I… I can't hold them any longer."

The blood fingers holding the last lamia broke apart. The monster was freed and charged toward Risa, making Ethan panic.

He dashed toward her and protected her, stabbing his sword into the ground to summon a sword-wall barrier. The lamia crashed into the barrier and failed to hit Risa.

Risa was scared at first, but she slowly calmed down, relieved that Ethan had saved her.

"Thank you, Ethan."

"No problem. Let me finish this monster," Ethan said, and Risa nodded.

Ethan pulled out his sword and attacked the last lamia with basic attacks. His strikes landed, and he kicked the monster's body, pushing it far away.

He still could not use his skills because they were on cooldown, so the best thing he could do was buy time while fighting it.

The lamia charged at Ethan again. Ethan blocked every attack while still protecting Risa. It was easy for him to handle the monster's movements.

Once his cooldown finished, Ethan attacked seriously. When he found a gap in the lamia's attack pattern, he swung his sword upward.

The triple-crescent claw slashed the monster, splitting its body and killing it instantly. The pieces faded into drifting magic particles.

[Talent Quest: Swing Skill 2 500 times]

[Count: 229/500] [Duration: 45:11:02:52]

[Congratulations! You obtained loot:]

[+27000 EXP || +15000 Gold || +15000 Contribution Points]

Ethan and Risa managed to defeat them, taking about ten minutes, especially because Ethan had to keep protecting Risa from their attacks.

He gained EXP and three additional swings counted toward his skill-two total. To reach 500 swings, Ethan needed around 271 more, which meant killing 271 monsters.

If I can find a legendary monster with high defense, maybe I can use that fight to get all 271 swings of skill two.

"Are you okay?" Risa asked.

Risa nodded. She was tired because she had used a lot of her energy to hold down the monsters with her blood-finger magic, but she was not hurt, only exhausted.

Ethan noticed that. He then invited Risa to continue their journey south, hoping they would find a neutral city there.

From his time exploring floors 31 to 45, Ethan had learned the pattern of monster spawns. Monsters on the main road spawned far less often.

If monsters on floors 1 to 15 could appear three to four times, monsters on floors 16 to 30 appeared only two to three times, and monsters on floors 31 to 45 only twice.

There was a chance that the monster pattern on floor 46 would be the same. But since they had just fought three lamias, Ethan was sure there would be no more monsters attacking along the southern forest path.

Up ahead, Ethan stopped walking when he saw a horrifying and sad sight. Risa stopped and looked forward as well.

"W-What happened here?" she asked, shocked.

What they saw was the ruins of a city. The city gate had collapsed, the place was abandoned, and human corpses lay on the ground, rotting until only bones remained.

Ethan forced himself to enter the city, and Risa followed, staying alert. Both of them needed to watch for possible traps hidden in the ruins.

The area was silent, with only faint gusts of wind brushing past their faces. Ethan looked at the human remains, not knowing who these people were.

He could not tell whether this place belonged to a guild or NPCs. What was clear was that the massacre had happened long before they arrived, based on how far the bodies had decomposed.

Ethan stopped when he reached a large three-story building, half of which had collapsed. There were no flags or guild symbols anywhere.

The only way to investigate was to enter the building, which Ethan assumed had been the guild hall of the city's ruling guild.

When they entered, it was dark and silent. Ethan kept his sword ready and told Lyodra to light a flame to guide them.

He reached the lobby and found nothing. Ethan climbed to the upper floor, but the stairs were broken, so he had to jump.

He held Risa's hand and jumped strongly, landing on the second floor. Many rooms there were destroyed, and human skeletons were scattered in the hallway.

He entered one of the rooms. The smell was horrible, and Risa had to cover her nose. Ethan saw a pile of papers scattered on the floor.

The papers were still readable and not yet worn out by age. He picked one up and read it clearly.

"What?!" Ethan said in shock.

"What is it, Ethan?"

Ethan gripped the paper tightly, clearly seeing the letterhead with a guild's name and logo.

"This city… belonged to LionArk."

"LionArk? Isn't that your team?" Risa asked, surprised.

"Yes. I really want to know who did this massacre. If I find the one responsible, I won't forgive them."

"They must die!"

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