The shattered teleport nexus meant two things: there was no easy way out, and if Kael died here, the Behemoth Corpse would almost certainly drop. His time in the Land of the Behemoth, this secret Hidden Realm, would be over.

  Kael had thought this would be a simple quest turn-in. He never expected a twist like this. He had to stall for time, to think of a strategy, even as he spoke to Simbra.

  "And you really think you have what it takes to control the Behemoth spirit?"

  Simbra threw his head back and laughed. "The men I brought with me yesterday had all undergone a special dark ritual. When the behemoth devoured them, their corrupted essence poisoned its spirit from the inside, crippling it. The beast was too greedy. It swallowed them all in a single gulp, and I fused with it when it was at its absolute weakest."

  Simbra pointed a clawed finger at Kael. "And I have you to thank for it! If you hadn't defeated it first, it wouldn't have been nearly weak enough. I could have fed it tens of thousands of villagers and still achieved nothing like this!"

  Kael wanted nothing more than to smash that smug look off Simbra’s face. The men who followed him had strayed onto a dark path, but only to protect their home, willingly sacrificing themselves for what they believed in. To think their devotion had been twisted and used as a tool for this man's selfish ambition was sickening.

  But disgust wouldn't change the reality of the situation. He had to face the monster before him, the man who had merged with the Behemoth spirit. Kael subtly inspected Simbra's stats and saw that he was even higher level than the original behemoth.

  [Behemoth_Simbra]: Level 36

  By level 36, the passive on his Galeharrow did nothing. Kael’s eyes flicked to his movement speed—could he be kited?

  Seeing Kael’s silence, Simbra took it for fear and grinned triumphantly. "Dawnbreaker, you can forget about the outside world. This is your home now. Once I have fully absorbed the behemoth's power, I will tear open a path to your world, and together, we will conquer it!"

  Kael scoffed internally. Conquer the outside world? What a clueless moron. Setting aside the wider world, even a standard captain of the guard in any main city could swat him like a fly, to say nothing of the true guardians who protected those cities from the shadows.

  There was one thing Kael couldn't figure out, though. "How did you know I would bring the corpse back here?" he asked, glancing at the Elder.

  The old man shook his head, indicating it wasn't him.

  Simbra laughed again. "The Behemoth spirit contained a sliver of Apollo's consciousness. Naturally, I could overhear your little conversation with the Apollo spirit."

  Kael's brow furrowed. The logic was flawed. Yes, the behemoth had a spark of Apollo's divinity in it, but that only meant Apollo could monitor the behemoth's status. It didn't mean the behemoth's remnant spirit could spy on Apollo's private communications.

  Which meant… Apollo had deliberately leaked the information to Simbra.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  With that realization, everything clicked into place. This was a test. Apollo had set this up as a trial for him.

  A sense of calm washed over Kael. If it was a test, there had to be a solution. And more importantly, there would be a reward.

  Just then, the Elder, who had been silent all this time, finally spoke. "Dawnbreaker, thank you for everything you have done for our village. From this day forward, I ask you to watch over Behemoth's Watch in my stead!"

  A sense of dread filled Kael. He yelled at the old man, "Don't do anything stupid! I can handle this!"

  This minor NPC, who had against all odds survived this long, looked like he was about to make the ultimate sacrifice.

  Kael had grown to respect the Elder immensely. A man who had carried the conviction of his ancestors for thousands of years, selflessly protecting his people even when misunderstood.

  A man of such pure conviction deserved to be protected. He couldn't die.

  But the Elder ignored Kael's plea. He raised his staff and began to chant. Suddenly, he opened his mouth and coughed, spraying a mouthful of blood directly onto Kael. The blood covered him for a moment, but strangely, it didn't drip off. Instead, it soaked into him, vanishing into his body.

  A system notification popped up.

  [System: You have received the Blessing of the Guardian Elder]

  Kael’s stats skyrocketed.

  [Blessing of the Guardian Elder]:

  Strength: +10,000

  Constitution: +100,000

  Agility: +10,000

  Intelligence: +50,000

  Spirit: +50,000

  Attack Range: +30 yards

  Attack Speed: +100%

  Movement Speed: +110%

  Skill Cooldown Reduction: 50%

  Duration: Unknown

  .....

  "Holy shit!!" Kael's jaw dropped. This was insane. For him, this was a boost of two million health and forty thousand attack power, not to mention the insane buffs to his speed and cooldowns.

  But what did a duration of "Unknown" mean?

  Suppressing his excitement, Kael turned back to the Elder. The old man had already collapsed, his life status uncertain.

  Just then, a massive shadow fell over him. Kael whipped his head around to see Simbra's body swelling, his form twisting and expanding.

  By the time he stopped growing, he stood twenty feet tall, a perfect, monstrous replica of the original behemoth.

  Seeing the villagers trembling in terror, Kael immediately sprinted out of the village to draw the aggro. He raised his bow and fired an arrow.

  -173,452 (Critical Hit)

  Simbra's health bar appeared: 50,000,000 HP. The exact same as the original behemoth.

  Simbra opened his massive maw and fired a beam of light.

  BOOM!

  -12,341

  His damage was significantly higher than the spirit form's. Having a physical body made all the difference. Kael dashed away, retreating from the village while keeping an eye on the monster's speed. It was slightly slower than him with the buff, but definitely faster than he had been before receiving it. Without the Elder's blessing, Kael would have stood no chance.

  The two of them, one chasing and one fleeing, reached the open plains outside the village. Kael stopped, turned, and fired another shot.

  -50,312

  By now, Behemoth_Simbra was fifty yards away. It swiped its claws through the air, launching five spectral talons that shot towards Kael.

  He dodged to the side, but the ethereal claws corrected their course, homing in on him. It was a lock-on skill.

  Just as the attack was about to hit, Kael's body vanished.

  Mirror Image!

  The spectral claws lost their target and slammed into the ground, gouging five deep trenches in the earth. In Kael's place, a team of clones appeared. But there weren't three anymore. Now, there were four. The blessing had enhanced his skills.

  The real Kael stood his ground and began firing, while his four clones scattered in different directions. His goal wasn't to fool the boss; most high-level bosses could easily distinguish between a clone and the real player. The point was to spread them out to avoid being wiped by a single AoE attack.

  It turned out to be a wasted effort.

  A brilliant blue light erupted from Simbra's body, and in an instant, the entire area was engulfed in a raging thunderstorm. The sheer power and staggering size of the spell were breathtaking.