About 20 to 30 miles away from the shore...

A giant glowing figure popped into existence.

Atlas took a look around. He was about 50 meters in air now. Only fog could be seen around. Below, it's the endless ocean tides.

"Oh?" Atlas turned his gaze. Before him, Jeff had suddenly appeared.

"You've got to hit harder than that." Atlas chuckled. His giant golden figure gradually dissipated away.

There wasn't an audience here anyways.

In a moment, Atlas' body came into view. Wearing a purplish-black crown, having a halo floating behind him, the dude's eyes overflowed with a purple light. His surroundings was clearly dimmer than the environment. It's as if this guy was a black hole engulfing light.

Wearing a confident smile, Atlas looked at Jeff with a raised chin. "Jeff Norman... My last obstacle..."

About half a street away, Jeff stood in air as well. In sage mode, he was emitting a faint blue glow. Blue light overflowed from his eyes.

Under the two's unreserved presence, the ocean winds quickly disappeared. Below, the ocean tides gradually flattened. In a moment, the ocean surface gradually curved downwards.

Looking at Atlas, Jeff smiled a little in relief as well. He'd successfully brought Atlas away from the sanctuary. With this success, half of the battle was won.

Sure, Atlas had the same attributes as him. However...

Jeff tightened his grasp onto his staff. He had a radiant-tier weapon. What did Atlas have?

Jeff could stack pages of abilities. What did Atlas have?

Yet, for some mysterious reason, Atlas thought that he was on the same level as Jeff now? Weird.

'Everything is under control now...' Jeff took in a deep breath.

"I never liked you." Jeff sighed. "But I never wanted to see you as my enemy either."

"You don't have to." Atlas raised his brows. "Take your girlfriend and your friends. Leave this city. I won't stop you."

"So you can sacrifice this city to the void, get stronger, become unstoppable?" Jeff chuckled at this offer. "Then what. This region? This world?"

"Say. Atlas. Of all the people, you should know the consequences of accepting the void's gift."

Atlas raised his brows in disdain. "You mean becoming the void's eternal slave after death?"

"Well. Yes." Jeff nodded.

"The consequences only come after death." Atlas chuckled. "So just don't die. I am currently immortal anyways. Age means nothing to me."

"Uh huh..." Jeff slowly nodded. 'Still trying to pursue me to join?'

"Well Jeff. Nobody can plan for afterlife. I only plan for this lifetime. You only live once after all."

Jeff raised his brows. 'Did he just yolo me? He totally just yolo'd me. Seriously?'

Leaving a smile, Atlas shot into one direction.

Jeff tapped his staff in air. In an instance, Jeff appeared in Atlas' way. Without hesitation, Jeff swung his staff at Atlas' head.

BOOM!

Jeff's staff clashed with Atlas' blocking arm.

Under this collision, the air around the two quickly expanded out into a wild torrent. For a moment, a vacuum had formed.

Along with the air, the dense fog was shoved away as well. For an instance, within 100 meters of these two's vicinity, the fog had cleared up. For once, the view had been clear.

Below, a shockwave quickly expanded out above the water surface. Under this blast, tides quickly built up to 20 meters tall.

BAM!

Under the atmosphere pressure, the air crashed back into this vacuum.

"Hmm..." Atlas smiled. This towering dude suddenly exploded into a cloud of black mist.

The black mist brushed through Jeff and condensed back to Atlas. Without hesitation, this guy continued to fly back to the sanctuary.

'Troublesome...' Jeff's expression turned serious.

The game here was rigged.

Atlas only needed to return to the sanctuary. If he accomplished this objective, Jeff would be heavily restrained. Atlas had nothing to lose. However, Jeff had people who'd cared about in the sanctuary.

Atlas never needed to defeat Jeff in battle. However, Jeff had to defeat Atlas. A draw was not an option. Atlas knew Jeff's staff's ability now. The same trick won't work again. Atlas won't give Jeff charging time again.

Realizing Atlas' objective, Jeff's gaze turned cold. A trace of kill-intent flashed by.

Can't hold back...

Tapping his staff in air, Jeff appeared in Atlas' path again.

Wearing a smile, Atlas threw a punch at Jeff. This warrior couldn't be surprised by the same trick again.

BOOM!

Jeff grabbed onto Atlas' wrist.

Spurts of water were blasted into the air.

By mere collisions, the two brought catastrophic destruction to the environment.

Locking gazes with Atlas, Jeff's eyes bursted with light. In an instance, a stream of psychic energy had blasted out of Jeff's eyes.

Yet, this psychic energy failed to punch into Atlas' head.

Vrrrrreeeemmm...

It's as if countless invisible blades had exploded out from these two. The water droplets in the air instantly vaporized.

BAM!

Atlas punched Jeff off.

"I can do this all day Jeff." Atlas carelessly smiled. "With my current body, I will never tire! But how long will you last Jeff? How long can you halt me for?"

"Really now." Jeff tiredly looked at Atlas.

"You can try me." Atlas smiled in victory. The dude seemed to be enjoying this moment. "It is my win this time."

"Huh. That's not very fair." Jeff took in a deep breath. His psychic energy was quickly regenerating. His mental clarity quickly returned.

"It is what it is." Atlas' smile widened. Even now, Atlas looked rather relaxed.

Leaving a shrug, Atlas headed to the sanctuary again.

With a tap of his staff, Jeff appeared in the way.

Leaving a series of clashes, the two drew a destructive path above the ocean.

Gradually and steadily, Atlas was closing in distance from the sanctuary. Jeff was the one under pressure here.

BAM!

Clenching onto Atlas' wrist, Jeff sighed. "If you return to human, we can still figure something out Atlas."

"Neither of us want to see the sanctuary in ruins. I don't want to kill you Atlas."

"Kill me? Kill me?!" Atlas leaned back and heartily laughed. "Are you saying you can kill me anytime you wanted?"

"So be it." Jeff exploded with a blinding golden light.

BAM!

Jeff landed a firm punch onto Atlas' face.

PLUSH!

Atlas shot into the ocean like a meteor, bringing out an explosion of ocean water into the air.

At this moment, Jeff's attributes became overwhelmingly higher.

[Beast Instincts] toggled on...

This was the first ability Jeff had gained. A reward from the oversized coyote Jeff had slain.

Thinking back at his first fight, Jeff couldn't help but to chuckle in his mind. So many rookie mistakes were made in that fight. He'd grown so much since then...

[Blessing of Wind] toggled on...

An ability gained from that giant goose. If that goose wasn't chasing down Alice, perhaps Jeff wouldn't have met Alice...

[Warrior's Physique] toggled on...

An ability Jeff had gained from that wolfman. This was his first time facing an S-rank monster. This was the monster that changed Jeff's mentality. No more running away from threats. Eliminate them!

[Telekinesis]

That vampire girl's trump card ability. A versatile ability that could be used by itself to clear out small minions. Or, it could be a buffer ability that strengthened Jeff's attacks.

[Mist Breathing Technique]...

[Furnace Body]...

These were the rewards from Lord Trample the minotaur. Thanks to these abilities, Jeff could grow even when he couldn't find unique monsters.

[Living Fortress] toggled on...

[Runic Barrier] activated...

[Unbreakable] toggled on...

[Energy Drain] activated...

[Regenerative Genes] toggled on...

[Assassin's Instincts] toggled on...

[Execution] activated...

[Cursed Aura] activated...

[Blaze] activated...

'Before knowing it, I have already accumulated this many abilities huh...' Jeff looked down with a complicated look.

5% might not be much by itself. But 5% stacked 50 times becomes a 11.5x multiplier.

For most attributes, Jeff had more than 50 abilities stacked. And most abilities gave him more than 5% enhancement.

(% effects reduced after entering sage-tier. But most still gave more than 5 %)

About a 20 times boost in strength...

18 times boost in reflex speed...

Only 12 times faster movement speed...

Mana capacity. Mana density. Defenses. Damage reduction. Regenerative speed. Mental strength...

At this moment, all of Jeff's attributes flipped 10 folds at least.

The cost: Jeff could only be in this mode for 10 minutes. But that'll enough.

With Aura vision, Jeff could see Atlas' glowing figure under the ocean.

Jeff raised a palm at Atlas. A sphere of golden energy quickly inflated before Jeff's palm.

'For the sanctuary. For this world. Rest in peace, Atlas...'