Endless Evolution: Last Star

"Yeah, it’s definitely a cathedral, like a huge church, though... no, it’s like part of a throne room. You know, long and straight where the throne is at the end. The building is elongated, no towers, nothing else nearby." Adam answered with a slight wave of his hand.

Silvana’s eyes sparkled brightly as she smiled.

’Good, I think I know where you are. It’s the Fume Cathedral. That’s good since I don’t see in the records that any monster is currently occupying this cathedral. There might be weaker monsters there, but no one particularly strong that you should avoid for the sake of saving your lives.’ Silvana explained with a little joy in her voice.

’Furthermore, it means that you are in an area that is inhabited only by Light Yellow Threat monsters. It’s not the safest part of the Fallen Crypt, but it’s one of the best places you could be, given the situation...’ Silvana bit her lip.

Then, she relayed the message to everyone else.

In fact, it didn’t change the actual situation, because they were still in a place where there were monsters above their strength level.

However, dangerous monsters didn’t scare people’s minds as much as the unknown. Even if the situation was worse than nothing, it was much better to know how bad it was than to guess and remain in the dark.

The unknown is humanity’s greatest fear and perhaps one of the main reasons why people are so afraid of death.

After a few more seconds everyone was able to come to their senses. Now, it was time for everyone to start working together again and get out of this unpleasant and gloomy place that doesn’t like sudden guests.

"We’re in a difficult situation, but it’s not that bad." Oskar said with a serious face. He glanced at Scarlet Pyromancer, then at his mates.

"If the spatial anomaly had transported us to another part of the Fallen Crypt, we could hope for a miracle or write a will right now, but things are different here." Oskar stepped forward confidently, holding his sword tightly.

Erla looked around before approaching him.

"What are we going to do? Do we engage and kill these monsters? Do we retreat towards Fume Cathedral or do we try to get out to a safe zone where a fighter can fly in directly?" Erla asked, remaining cautious.

It was worth realizing that it had only been a few minutes since they had arrived, no, not even five minutes.

It only took a few seconds to realize what had happened, then, half a minute to answer questions and look around. Two or three minutes was enough for them to already think about their next actions and have information about their current situation.

Thus, Scarlet Pyromancer and Gray Stalkers only exchanged a few attacks.

Gray Stalkers tried to pounce on Scarlet Pyromancer and tear his wings apart with their powerful jaws, but Scarlet Pyromancer simply flew back a few meters, leaving a flaming trail behind him.

Oskar didn’t respond immediately, he only frowned as he considered their options.

"Hey Silvana, what does Light Yellow Threat Level even mean?" Adam asked staring at the Gray Stalkers, "I instantly felt that they were strong, but they were weak at the same time. It’s a rather strange feeling..."

Silvana nodded.

’You’re not wrong, because in relation to Purple Threat monsters, Gray Stalkers are superior opponents, but among their level, they’re just trash.’ Silvana said stiffly.

’That’s why Scarlet Pyromancer is successfully fighting against them. Perhaps there were even more than three of them originally, at least he has already killed one of them and only received a few scratches. If there were opponents one level higher against him, he would already be dead.’ Silvana said confidently because these were facts based on knowledge.

Adam continued to listen to her curiously, keeping a close eye on the situation.

’As you know there are four levels of monster difficulty for K0 and K1 Phantoms. For K0-Phantoms, it’s White and Green Threat Level, and for K1-Phantoms, it’s Blue and Purple Threat Level. But, as you move to the next level, things change drastically for both Phantoms and monsters.’

Silvana continued:

’First of all, the only threat level comparable in strength to K2-Phantoms is Yellow Threat Level, but, this is where things start to get complicated and different from all the previous stages you’ve already passed.’

Silvana let out a light sigh.

’Between each new level of strength, the difference is greater than the previous level. Roughly speaking, if the difference between K0 and K1 Phantom is one unit of strength, then the difference between K1 and K2 is three units of strength. These values are approximate and are absolutely not exact figures, these are simplifications for an example to make it clear to you.’

"Sure, go ahead." Adam nodded, looking around.

Oskar was still mulling over his decision and no one else had spoken up, so Adam could use this time to get some useful information from his Operator.

’It’s the same situation with Threat Levels, but, with each new level of strength, it becomes more difficult to advance to the next. The path to be traveled becomes longer and harder.’

Adam nodded.

He was able to reach K1-Level relatively quickly, but he still hadn’t gotten to K2.

Sure, there were many other reasons for this besides the fact that the path from K1 to K2 was longer than from K0 to K1, but the point remained.

’Thus, the difference between the strongest monsters of the Yellow Threat Level and the weakest monsters is too great to stick to the old system. Moreover, the Yellow Threat monsters are much more numerous and diverse because they dwell much farther away from the Citadel than the weaker level monsters.’ Silvana quickly said.

"I see... The farther the path, the more dangerous it is, right? Well, Light Yellow is the weakest section of the Yellow Threat Level, correct?" Adam asked glancing at the Gray Stalkers.

He was sure that he could kill them, it wouldn’t be easy, but only slightly harder than defeating Prime Giant Rogo.

This was real praise for Gray Stalkers, as Adam had rated the strength of one of the weakest monsters of the Yellow Threat Level higher than the monsters that were in the Top-20 of the Purple Threat Level.

’Yes, Yellow Threat Level is divided into three parts: Light, Mid, and Dark. To help you understand the difference in these levels, I’ll give you a simple example. The strongest monster of the Light Yellow Threat Level will be only slightly stronger than the weakest monster of the Mid Yellow Threat Level.’

Adam nodded.

The situation Silvana described was very similar to the situation Scarlet Pyromancer and Gray Stalkers were currently in.

There was a fundamental difference in levels between them, but the multiple superior factors of one monster allowed it to still be the strongest among them.

Step. Step. Step.

While Oskar was pondering what to do, Katrin was heading towards Adam with a serious expression on her face. It looked like she had already made up her mind, and she needed Adam for that.