The morning sunlight streamed through the high windows of the hallway as Verso walked toward the dorms, his mind humming with a new kind of energy.
Right after hearing about the dueling exam, he had decided to skip the rest of his morning classes.
'This is the best opportunity I could have got. I can't let it slip away.'
The cogs in his head were churning fast as he was trying to come up with a plan to complete his mission.
He knew Xavier would be really easy to manipulate into a fight. He didn't even need to come up with a complex lie or trick as the school's own rumor mill was doing much of the heavy lifting for him.
'I didn't think the coward rumor was going to help me this much.'
Because of the story about him running away from the Shattered Wilds dungeon, the entire school now looked at him with contempt.
To them, he was no longer the top ranker, but rather he came across as a cowardly failure who had awakened a miserably weak summon.
Which in the eyes of his classmates made him the perfect, low risk opponent for an easy final grade duel.
'I mean, they wouldn't aren't exactly wrong about my awakening being underwhelming.' Verso thought with a dry chuckle.
His summoning of the Nameless Skeleton was indeed the worst possible result, not only was the skeleton weak but was also completely unusable.
But his unique talent, Endless, changed everything for him. It not only had allowed him to strengthen his summons, but also had given him access to the Realm Menu which boosted his growth several folds.
If he were to estimate his current power based on his almost completely capped stats, he was most likely in the top three of the entire school in terms of raw physical ability.
The only thing he was lacking now, was a high ranking summon. Even though Lil Bone was now at the absolute peak of the Primitive rank, he was still way behind the elites who had awakened with Mutant summons or received powerful beasts from their families.
'I have to get that golem soul as soon as possible.'
After a few seconds of walking he reached his room and pushed the door open.
He threw his bag onto the desk and jumped onto his bed, laying flat on his back. He closed his eyes and focused on entering the realm, after a second feeling the strange pull of the system.
[Entering: The Shattered Wilds]
---
Verso moved through the terrain with a fluidity he had not possessed a few nights ago.
He had spent the last night dying, respawning and memorizing every jagged rock on this trail. He was also getting better at the parkour which was required to navigate the jagged landscape.
"No further than this." He whispered, stopping before a deep crevice in a corner of the trail.
He had faced a major issue yesterday. The deeper he had went into the crater, the more golems he encountered at once.
This let to him being swarmed and killed several times trying to push through and after a few reattempts, he had found a perfect sweet spot. A narrow part of the path where he could ambush a patrolling giant before its allies could arrive to help him.
'Anytime now.'
THUD.
The subtle vibration traveled up through his boots as a slow, cold smile appeared on Verso's face. He triggered his summoning space.
Lil Bone appeared beside him, its dark marble body shining in the dim light as Verso pointed to the shadows on the opposite side of the trail.
"I'll get its attention. Go for the head."
The marble skeleton shook its head in a silent yes and went on to cram its five foot frame into the jagged corner, disappearing into the darkness.
A few seconds later, the Giant Golem stepped into view.
The nine foot giant made of stone and blue light moved around slowly, its head rotating as it scanned the area for intruders.
Just as it stepped past Verso's hiding spot, he came into action.
He lunged out from the crevice towards the golem. With his stats now almost at the peak of Primitive, his speed was terrifying.
In a heartbeat, he reached the golem and swung his manifested stone hammer with everything he had.
THUD!
The blow slammed into the golem's leg as dust and grit exploded from the impact right away. Verso quickly moved back to clear up his vision as he looked towards the golem.
The Mutant giant had not fallen to the ground this time. Instead it braced itself and straightened its massive arm out to aim a mana beam directly at Verso's face.
Verso didn't move.
He just looked up at the golem with a smug grin.
"Look behind you, buddy."
From the shadows, Lil Bone erupted. The skeleton had been waiting for the perfect opening as it triggered the new ability it received after the synthesis.
'Energizing Rush'
Verso had long noticed that after the synthesis, the skeleton had received the golem's ability. This led him to deduce that there was a chance that synthesis allowed a beast absorb more traits from the monster aside from their stats.
Turning his attention to his summon he saw yellow light flared across the skeleton's marble limbs. Its speed suddenly tripled as it lunged high into the air with the heavy stone hammer in his hands.
The golem tried to shift its aim, but the skeleton was already there. Lil Bone drove the hammer down with a violent, vertical swing.
CRACK!
The hammer connected squarely with the blue crystal on the golem's forehead, the gem shattering instantly into a thousand glowing shards.
The giant's body went limp as the rocks that made up its body started collapsing into a heap of useless rubble.
[Mutant Beast Slain: Stone Golem.]
The notification chimed in Verso's head making his smile widened.
His strategy had worked out perfectly. At this rate, it wouldn't be long before he had a Mutant soul of his own.