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The coordinated work of level 7 and 8 builders had made the process faster than expected, but now came the real test.

"Think it\'s the fire one like you wanted?" Kriz asked as the group prepared to enter.

Elio observed the newly discovered crystal. "We won\'t know until we finish the first half of the challenge."

Before entering, he turned to Zara. "Like last time. I need you to guide the other group, but give me at least a twelve hour head start..."

"So the exterior won\'t be left unprotected," she completed, understanding the strategy. Their eyes met for a moment, a silent conversation about caution and promises passing between them.

"Watch my... this idiot\'s back," Zara told Kriz, who responded with his characteristic mocking salute.

The final group was established: Elio, Kriz, Brok, Taron, and, by the latter\'s specific recommendation, Arnaud.

"The new groups also need to understand what a deposit implies," Taron had argued when suggesting including the newly ascended level 8.

The crystal glowed when they approached, transporting them inside.

♢♢♢♢

The tunnel that received them was familiar but... different.

"Narrower than the previous one," Brok observed.

After advancing for a while.

"Seems like as Zara told us, the tunnels have different arrangements," Kriz added, pointing ahead.

Two Locus in stasis blocked the path, placed side by side in the reduced space.

The arrangement was different this time, more compact, more challenging than 100 Locus in a single chamber.

As Elio could have eliminated them all almost simultaneously in that case.

"How are we going to...?" Arnaud began, but stopped upon seeing the smile on Elio\'s face.

"This time we\'re prepared," Elio said, the Corrosive Glaucus undulating beside him while his hands began forming the familiar iron and carbon blades. "Very prepared."

The group positioned themselves, the lessons of the last few days fresh in their minds.

Elio\'s smile widened upon recognizing the Locus\'s level. Level 1, barely a shadow of the monsters he had been training against.

"Are those..." Arnaud began, but Elio was already in motion.

The spear in his hands came alive when a one-meter blade finished materializing at its tip, transforming it (without Elio having any knowledge about something alike) into something similar to a glaive.

The cost, barely two mana points.

There was no hesitation, no need for coordination. Elio launched forward, his body moving with the precision that only days of training against much more powerful opponents could grant.

A single turn, fluid and lethal, and both Locus\'s heads fell to the ground.

"By the walls," Brok murmured.

Without losing momentum, Elio continued his movement, the blade finding the first monster\'s torso and cleaving it cleanly. The second, headless, moved erratically, its arms groping the air in search of an enemy it couldn\'t see.

Two daggers flew quickly from Elio\'s hands. With a force of almost 20 points, he threw them with deadly precision, piercing the monster\'s remaining hearts as if they were paper.

The body disintegrated in a shower of bright particles.

"Should we help him...?" Kriz stepped forward but stopped.

More Locus appeared through the tunnel, but Elio\'s expression showed no concern whatsoever. He collected his daggers with a casual movement and launched himself toward the new targets, his improvised glaive describing lethal arcs in the air.

The monsters\' heads didn\'t even have time to register his presence before separating from their bodies.

"He\'s not going to waste more mana, is he?" Taron observed, recognizing the strategy.

"Why would he?" Kriz responded, watching the massacre with both amazement and amusement. "They\'re like babies compared to what he\'s been facing."

The resistant alloy that Elio had perfected at the level 10 daily challenge made his weapons practically indestructible against these minor opponents. Each cut, each movement, was a demonstration of lethal efficiency.

Elio advanced through the tunnel like a force of nature, leaving behind a trail of bright cores.

♢♢♢♢

The last level 1 Locus disintegrated, leaving behind a trail of cores that the others hurried to collect.

Elio\'s work had been so efficient that his companions had barely served as collectors.

The transition to the second level was instantaneous.

Before them, glowing with a soft light, the wall emblem floated in the air.

"Shouldn\'t we disc-?" Taron began, but Elio had already extended his hand, absorbing the emblem without hesitation.

"I guess it\'s better that Elio takes them all... The elemental emblems will be distributed when the time limit ends," Brok commented, remembering how Zara had distributed her three spare wind emblems among companions.

Kriz nodded. "Wonder if we can get more emblems from the first deposit. We only lost Micah\'s wind emblem..." he stopped, his usual joviality vanishing for a moment.

The emblem of their fallen friend, along with his body, remained in the first deposit\'s chamber... if the Artromus hadn\'t moved it from there.

The level 2 Locus appeared, larger but equally vulnerable to Elio\'s improvised glaive.

Heads kept falling with each precise strike, until...

CRACK

The blade broke near the middle, after about 100 level 1 and 50 level 2 Locus, during a particularly violent attack.

In that brief moment of vulnerability, the second Locus caught Elio in its claw.

"Elio!" Arnaud shouted, stepping forward. .net

But what followed left everyone frozen in place.

Elio, with his controlled 19.9 points of strength, simply... destroyed the arm that held him. Like a primitive beast, he climbed up the monster\'s body and began brutally beating it.

Each impact turned the Locus into something less recognizable, until finally the formless mass disintegrated into particles of light.

Kriz, normally quick with a joke, kept his mouth firmly shut. None found the courage to comment on the brutality they had just witnessed.

The silence only broke when Elio, spending some mana, regenerated his broken weapon.

"Let\'s continue," was all he said, his voice as casual as if he hadn\'t just pulverized a monster with his bare hands.

The others exchanged glances but followed him in silence. Kriz saved his jokes about the "incident" for another time... one when Elio seemed less prone to turning him, like the monsters, into pulp.