THE STRONGEST NEXULYTE

They all looked at Ivan in surprise when they heard that he finished up the surviving monster that was able to kill the red tree demon, that monster must have been strong too; but it wasn't too shocking considering how Ivan had been able to match the demon during their previous clash.

"Where's the monster's corpse? What type of monster was it?" Karin asked, her eyes blinked with curiosity.

Ivan pointed at the pool of blood beside him without saying anything, they all immediately understood what he meant.

"Where's Elliot?" Ivan asked after a while.

"He stayed back in the land carrier," Ralph reported.

Ivan's eyes narrowed slightly, he knew that Elliot wasn't obliged to do anything during the mission since he just had to drive the land carrier for them but the lack of reaction from him when the rest came to look for Ivan cleared Ivan of a few doubts.

"Alright, let's go back" Ivan voiced out.

They returned to where the land carrier was and Elliott opened the ramp for them to enter.

"You good?" Elliot asked with a concerned look on his face.

Ivan gave him a long look and ignored him, Karin was the one who filled him in with what Ivan had told them.

"Well, at least the tree demon is dead now, we can continue moving," Elliot muttered with a relieved sigh.

….

A few minutes later after everything was settled, Ivan took out a few Nexus crystals from his storage and threw one each to Ralph, Glen, Clint, and Karin.

The four of them caught the objects and took a look, their expressions immediately changed after seeing that it was a Nexus crystal.

"I got them from the two monsters," Ivan informed them before they could ask.

Their mouths hung open, Ivan had read their minds and answered the question they wanted to ask.

"I see, they must have consumed other monsters with Nexus crystals as well. But why give it to us? You found them yourself, we didn't do anything" Ralph looked at Ivan and said.

The price and value of a Nexus crystal wasn't a secret as even ordinary people were aware of its immense value to a Nexulytes growth and its use in creating powerful machines.

It was a fortune to find one during a person's lifetime yet Ivan has found quite a few, he would definitely make a fortune if he sold them instead of giving it to them.

"I still have some, use them to increase your strength; the stronger you are, the more you can do during the mission," Ivan said casually and showed them two more Nexus crystals.

Added with the four that he had given it, they thought that he had a total of six of these! Who knew how they would react if they knew that Ivan had actually gotten nine Nexus crystals.

Listening to Ivan's words that sounded harsh, they knew that it was true. They accepted the Nexus crystals and thanked Ivan.

Well, all except for one person.

Clint suddenly threw something towards Ivan and he caught it in midair, it was the Nexus crystal that he had given the red haired young man.

Ivan looked at the crystal in his hand and lifted his gaze to look at Clint with a raised eyebrow.

"I don't accept what I don't work for, keep it to yourself" Clint said to Ivan before looking away.

Ivan's expression didn't change and he kept the Nexus crystal with fluid movements.

He had decided to give Karin and Clint a Nexus crystal each because they had joined his friends to look for him when they thought that he was in danger, it simply be because they were a team and had to look after each other but Ivan still decided to give them just for coming along.

But since Clint seemed to not care about the value of his gift, who was Ivan to force others to accept things from him? He would gladly keep it.

Karin stared at Ivan as he kept the Nexus crystal, her mouth wide open as her words stuck down her throat. She turned her gaze to Clint  who was looking outside through the glass of the land carrier while screaming in her mind.

'Are you crazy? Why would you reject such a thing? At least pretend to accept it and give it to me!'

"Hey, what about me?" Elliot called out at this moment, he saw that Ivan was about to start gathering Nexus energy after sharing crystals among the others but ignored him.

" Are you part of our team?" Ivan gazed at him and said with a cold tone.

Elliot shrank his neck and shut up.

'Petty' He thought to himself, knowing that Ivan was definitely holding a grudge.

Ivan returned to what he was about to do after Elliot dropped the matter.

Glen, Ralph, and Karin stared at the two with a weird expression; they could only sympathize with Elliot, he just lost a chance to get stronger or richer depending on what he would have done with the Nexus crystal.

The night passed quietly without any more sudden events happening.

The next day, they continued back to the hall of the red tree demon.

The place was now empty after the death of the tree demon, they stopped the land carrier there.

Considering that they had covered quite a distance into the tunnel, they decided to drop a marker here as the first section.

The marker was a small metal pill-like object that was the size of a thumb, it had a button on top which Ivan pressed after placing it on the ground.

Vwooom!!

The marker let out a low buzz before releasing a wave of bright blue light that spread through the place, covering the entire territory of the tree demon and even moving toward the other opening that led deeper into the tunnel.

...…

"Don't hold back, fight seriously!" Karin voiced out with a serious tone as she gripped the handle of her mallet tightly.

Opposite her, Ivan looked at her with a casual look.

He slowly stepped forward and vanished, disappearing from Karin's like of sigh.

Before Karin knew what was going on, Ivan was already in front of her with one of his hands on her shoulder.

A gust of wind followed a second later, brushing against her face and blowing her hair up.

"You sure want me to fight seriously?" Ivan asked calmly and looked her in the eyes.

Karin jumped, she froze for a few seconds before suddenly stepping back. She dropped her mallet to the ground with a loud bang while still looking at Ivan.

" Hehehe, don't mind my previous words. Please go easy on me" Karin laughed in embarrassment while rubbing her neck with her other hand.

Ivan nodded and they started training.

Ralph and Glen were watching from on top the land carrier while commenting on their attacks from time to time.

It's been two days since they started using the territory of the red tree demon as a base, they had trained and recovered during the last two days.

After their fight last time, Ivan knew that Glen's snake wasn't fully recovered yet, same as Karin as well.

Since this might affect them later on, he suggested that they stayed here for a few days before they continued with the clearing.

Aside from that, after distributing the Nexus crystals the first time, Ivan had later given his two friends another two Nexus crystals each; increasing the number of their crystals to three each while Ivan only kept two for himself.

Ralph had expressed his concern about Ivan giving them so many Nexus crystals.

"Don't you have to get stronger as well?" Ralph had asked when he received the other two Nexus crystals.

Ivan had simply said it was fine and told them that he had actually gotten nine crystals.

As for Glen…he even asked if Ivan could sell one more to him.

"You're already a Partial Lord, you can easily get more in future" Glen had said but was scolded by Ralph.

Ivan didn't find a problem with Glen's words and even smiled at it, he didn't find anything wrong with what Glen had said.

After getting the Nexus crystals, the two had immediately gone to absorb them and during the course of two days, their strength improved.

Ralph happened to be lacking just a few points of AP and with the three Nexus crystals, he finally stepped into the True King rank!

Unlike last time when he got a new undead being after entering the Mortal King rank, Ralph didn't get a new addition to his Undead.

The change that occurred after reaching the True King was the advancement of his undead General.

The old man in black robe had been Ralph's first undead after awakening the necromancer talent, its strength had increased after Ralph entered the True King rank; the color of its robe also changed from black to blood red.

As for Glen, he had entered the upper rank of the Mortal King rank, reaching an amount of 18.03% AP; he was just two more points away from reaching the True King rank.