I sat about halfway up the mountain that had the guardian up top, relaxing a bit to let my MP restore a bit. I’d gone on a mad killing spree shortly after nightfall yesterday, and it was currently almost noon. I’d been killing every monster with ease and was just running around the island looking for stuff to kill. This continued for hours until I was having trouble finding any more monsters. It would appear that I single-handedly culled the monster population of the island. I wasn’t entirely sure how the system populated these places, but I eventually decided that it would be more efficient to just go slap the guardian around a bit and then migrate to another island.

I’d manage to get myself to level twelve and had a sizable amount of corpses in my inventory. I hadn’t eaten any yet, so I wouldn’t waste my precious double XP time. I was way too strong for this layer anyway, so I could afford to wait with my upgrades a bit. The attribute points I’d gotten from leveling had all gone into luck, which was now sitting at ninety. Only ten more points until I cleared the rainbow moth quest. And, as soon as I’d collected twelve skill points, I bought another upgrade to my MP regeneration, which was now increased by seventy-five percent total.

Together with my high wisdom score, I could just watch the MP number shoot up every second. Sure, it was just two MP every second, but considering that I could restore my MP to full in just under three hours without doing anything, that was incredibly good. If I ate some monsters, gluttony would speed up the process even more. As long as I used my spells in a conservative fashion, it was almost impossible to run out of MP!

That being said, I wasn’t yet sure about what I could expect from the island guardians. I assumed they were a bit weaker than a hunter, maybe only half as strong. If that were the case, I wouldn’t have any issues, but until I actually fought one, I couldn’t know for sure. Which is why I was waiting for my MP to fill up while patiently snacking on a monster. Safety first.

Eventually, my MP had been topped up and I activated my void cloak before going up the rest of the mountain. I arrived at the top in short order, seeing the oddly level platform up close for the first time. It looked like somebody had just cut off the tip of the mountain, leaving a perfectly flat surface that was maybe thirty meters in diameter. And in the center stood the guardian.

I was a bit taken aback since it looked a lot like a human at first glance. It was about two meters tall, was wearing red armor, and was carrying a huge, spiked, metal club. It didn’t wear a helmet, which allowed me to see its face, which was most definitely not human. It had red skin, a constant smile on its face that revealed a sharp set of teeth, long black hair, and piercing yellow eyes that were on a constant lookout for intruders.

Oni Guardian (T5)

These warriors from the demonic plane are fiercely loyal and incredibly stupid. But what they lack in brain power, they make up with sheer, unadulterated strength. Due to their ability to follow simple commands and their easy-to-win loyalty, they are oftentimes used as guards.

An interesting fellow, and definitely not human. Or intelligent.

I observed it for a few minutes, trying to see if it would do anything, but it just stood there, occasionally turning around to look somewhere else. Well, this should probably not be too big of a problem, I just needed to watch out for that club it had and I should be fine. I readied an array of void spears, which numbered seventeen by now. I then waited for the Oni Guard to face away from me so that I could catch him from behind.

When it finally turned, I shot my entire array like a firework battery, explosions rocking the mountain and throwing up dust. I could still see the Oni through the dust, so I tried to follow it up with a giant spike, only to find that the spell wouldn’t trigger. I was confused for a moment and didn’t pay attention, which caused me to miss the Oni rocketing out of the dust cloud. When I finally noticed, its club was only inches from my face.

I had barely enough time to activate my compress skill when I got hit with full force. I could feel the spikes penetrate my skin, regardless of my high defense, but even worse was the sheer force trying to splatter me against the stone below. The Oni raised his club again for a follow-up hit, and I took the opportunity to jump away, putting as much power into my tentacles as possible.

I narrowly dodged the next strike, using the precious few moments before the next attack came to cast a void jump, frantically pumping it full of mana and designating the jump location directly above us. The next swing was already coming for me, so I had no other choice but to cast the spell, barely making it through the portal before I got another taste of iron.

I emerged about twenty meters above, not nearly as far away as I’d hoped, but I’ll take it. I spread my wings and started to glide in circles, the Oni below frantically looking for me. I readied another array of void javelins, keeping a nervous eye on the guardian. I admonished myself for taking it a little too easy. It had never been an issue before, but I remembered that I could only cast giant spike on enemies that were at least three times my size. I’d gotten quite a bit bigger and the Oni, while pretty tall, wasn’t big enough.

I made a mental note to not cast the spell if there was any doubt about the size difference since it was quite jarring to not have a spell trigger when I expected it to. Done with admonishing myself, my array had been completed and I started raining it down on the Oni, sticking it with a couple of poison assassinations for good measure. Once again, explosion after explosion tore at the guardian, obscuring him from sight.

I should consider getting an eye upgrade that let me see heat or something, this was getting annoying. Just as I was done thinking that, the Oni jumped out of the dust cloud, arriving next to me in the blink of an eye. That asshole just jumped like fifteen meters without breaking a sweat! I pulled in my wings, initiating a fall, which let me narrowly dodge another swing of the club. I used a mid-air leap to get above it again, wary of the chance that it might have the skill as well.

Apparently, it didn’t, since it started falling while trying to grab at me with a mad face. I started conjuring up a mixed bag of poison spears, poison bombs, and void javelins, sending them on their way as soon as they were ready, not giving the Oni a second to recover. I could see it ragdolling around from the constant bombardment, not able to find the balance for another jump.

Eventually, I got the notification of my victory.

You have killed a T5 Lv. 20 Oni Guardian (Island Guardian)

You have been awarded 320’000 XP

You have been awarded 150 Data Points

You have leveled up twice!

Defeat the island guardians of three different islands. (1/3)

I glided down towards the dead guardian. My double XP bonus came in handy here, since the guardian probably gave more XP than a regular monster, letting me level up twice. I quickly dumped the two points into luck, briefly checking out my HP. I only let the Oni hit me once, but I still took a massive three-hundred points of damage! The description wasn’t joking around when it said that it was stupidly strong. It shaved off almost a third of my health with a single hit.

The Oni got put into my inventory while I started casting restoration spell. This was as good a time as any to start leveling it up. I’d used a lot of spells in the fight, but my MP hadn’t even gone below half of my maximum. I smiled a bit as I watched the numbers tick up again, eager to fill up what was missing. It was time for a little break, and then I’d attempt to fly to another island with the help of a supercharged void jump.

There were still about six hours left on my XP bonus, and I planned to capitalize on it by going straight for the island guardian if I could spot it. They gave good XP after all.