Parallel Memory

Looking at the monster core, I felt happy. It was my reward for all the hard work I put in.

Spectral Lion without his commanding abilities and with his fire ability suppressed by my ice energy was just like other Brutal Lion, only a little stronger.

Facing an opponent who could completely suppress him with his energy, Spectral Lion trembled, not to mention the scary face that Zero had.

It is not that fire energy cannot fight with Ice energy but Zero practiced level  Ice Art, an absolute Art which was comparable to an Ice Elemental Dragon skill. His profound Ice energy could easily suppress the fire wielded by the Spectral Lion.

Zero threw the lion after catching the Spectral Lion in his hand. Zero continued to tor… I mean fight with Spectral Lion mercilessly until Spectral Lion stopped moving.

Zero felt Spectral Lion was too easy not knowing how hard it is to solo this dungeon. The main difficulty of this dungeon is the number and teamwork of the monster but Zero easily destroyed those numbers easily.

This led to Spectral Lion not being able to show his actual power or the power he is known for.

However, since Zero took care of most of the Brutal Lion before Spectral Lion made its appearance, he effectively made killing Spectral Lion much easier.

As usual he checked for the monster core in the bodies of the monsterafter he had defeated the Spectral Lion and unexpectedly he got a monster core from the Spectral Lion's corpse.

Though the monetary value of this thing could only be dust in the eye of Zero, you need extreme luck to get one of those. Akin to people winning a lottery even if one is very rich, they would feel happy.

Zero was also happy to be able to get the monster core. He stared at the shiny red monster core which was a little bigger than the average size of the monster core.

Storing the other Brutal Lions body, Zero left the area and made his preparation to leave the dungeon.

"Congratulations on defeating the Spectral Lion."

Appearing out of nowhere was Professor Mia. 

( Ah! She was here. I completely forgot! )

Zero was so engrossed in the training that he even forgot that professor Mia entered the dungeon with him. 

He even forgot the fact that his training here was all arranged by Professor Mia.

"Let's go out together!"

Since the objective of the training to defeat the dungeon boss was completed, she chose to exit the dungeon with Zero. 

It was because she wanted to tell her observation to Zero and tell him which area he needs to work on. 

Though she will train and make sure he get rid of his flaw, Zero needed to know his own flaw and also work on it himself.

And there was something she needed to take care of before going out of the dungeon.

*****

"Are you sure the boy is here?"

A domineering voice asked.

"Yes, BOSS! We already surveyed the nearby places and we are sure he had gone to challenge the dungeon boss recently."

Mitchell answered. He has already traced the whereabouts of Zero before the boss and other gang members arrived.

"It better be worth it. I bought 20 of my lackeys for this."

Boss said in an annoying voice. He didn't like to wait and he had already spent hours hiding to ambush the boy.

He would not have been hiding so meticulously if not for Dale telling again and again about how great the boy's senses are. 

He was only enduring the uncomfortable place because of the wealth he would get after robbing the boy. 

According to Mitchell, the boy possesses an item worth over hundred thousand Ethan and if they ask for ransom from the parent, they would easily be making at least one million Ethan.

Only for this operation, he ordered 20 mens from his Blackstorm gang and also come personally to help Dave and his team.

The gang members were all Rank-D and above and they had spent years in this dungeon robbing and killing the Explorers. They were the rulers of this place.

He, himself was Rank-C. There was no way the boy could escape from their gasp.

( Hmph! Challenging the boss of this dungeon? He might be looking for death. )

The Blackstorm gang had defeated Spectral Lion before but at the cost of many lives and he, the boss, also suffered heavy injuries from it. Half of his face was burned to the point that it could not be healed back by low level potion or middle level potions.

Although they managed to kill the Spectral Lion in the end. 

He didn't believe that the boy would be able to defeat the Spectral Lion and would come crying back soon.

"Boss, we have spotted the boy."

"!!!"

The scout immediately saw the people waiting for the ambush. They had been waiting for this moment for hours.

"Get Ready! Try not to kill the boy. His parents must be loaded to give him those artifacts."

"Boss, there is someone else with the target."

"How many?"

"One."

"Nothing of concern. We will get them together."

One or two does not make any difference. They just need to add another person into their killing list.

*****

Walking down the way that I have come previously, I noticed a presence of lots of people ahead. 

I was about to use my skill to test whether my perception was wrong or not when Professor Mia held my hands and stopped me.

"Shhh… Act like you never noticed them."

I nodded. With Professor Mia's perception, she must have already noticed them. With her, I was not worried about meeting anyone in this dungeon.

-WHOOSH!

Jumping out of their hiding places, the ambusher revealed themselves when we got too close to them. The number of ambushers was close to 25.

"Hehe… I suggest you surrender yourself if you don't want to win."

The one who seemed to be the boss spoke as he showed off his blade.

"Hehe… I didn't expect to meet such a beautiful woman. Hey woman, if you can entertain me, I might spare you. …Haha…"

"Boss, you should give her to us after you are done playing with her. Hehe…"

The other ambusher also joined their boss and laughed like a hyena. 

-SIGH!

( They are dead! )

I don't know who gave them the guts to say such things to the Ice Enchantress. I almost pity those guys who are going to be in hell a lot of pain. Even god can't save them.

Is it because those guy spend their entire time in the dungeon that they don't recognise Professor Mia's face or is it because the dungeon is dark right now. Either way they would be dead soon.

Professor mia raised her right hand and aimed at them.

Professor Mia's eyes turned cold as an inexplicable mana aura started to emanate from her body.

The ambusher expression turned from bliss to horriefied. They knew they had touch a hornet nest from the suppression that they felt.

The ambusher immediately released their defensive skill as they felt extreme danger as the temperature around them rapidly fell down.

Following the unleashed of her aura, a cold mana started being exerted from her hand, instantly turning the surrounding air to becoming freezing cold.

[ "Ice Wave" ]

She used the skill which was used against me when she was fighting with me. But unlike the training, she was not holding back against them and using her real power.

"The crazy woman is using a dangerous skill. Quickly use all your power to block it."

The boss of Blackstorm gang immediately released his strongest skill as he prepared himself to resist against the incoming attack.

From his perspective, he could not actually tell the rank of Professor Mia, just felt that she was more powerful than Spectral Lion.

He didn't know that the attack that was released by Professor Mia is rank A+. He thought that since the skill was of a wide range, it could not be too powerful.

If they could withstand the attack, they could counterattack. There was power in numbers afterall.

Some ambuschers attempted to cancel the attack with their own attack while others had barriers around them. Some even used their defensive artifact feeling that the attack was too powerful.

However, when the attack made contact with Professor Mia attacj, it immediately froze and continued to make its way towards them, freezing everything in the path.

As soon as the Professor Mia skill hit them, regardless of skill and artifact that they were using, they all felt an immense, frigid chill coming from them.

Then their vision started to blur. While they could still think, their skill, artifact, body and mana all were all frozen in Ice.

It was an instant defeat for the Blackstorm gang. As expect of Rank-A, one attack was all it needed to take out those people.