The group of three giant Minotaurs was keeping a guard on the city streets and taking a stroll to keep an eye out.
Kahn was crawling on top of a building roof, trying to avoid the gaze of this group. He was currently thinking of a plan to take out these minotaurs one by one. Every single one of these creatures was too big in size and also had highly defensive abilities that made it even harder to kill.
Soon, he noticed a pattern between these minotaurs.. One would check the end of the street while the other two took turns in checking the other end. Kahn was waiting for an opportunity to take out the one who would be alone in the middle of their guard post so he could distract it when the others were away.
A few minutes later, when the one minotaur was alone while the other two went to check the ends of the street as part of their routine, Kahn jumped down and hid behind a big and sturdy stone wall.
PHEWHEW!
Kahn whistled and the minotaur on the guard finally felt like it heard something. And just as Kahn had expected, it followed the noise.
Kahn had merged himself with the shadow behind the wall using Shadow Walk so the giant monster didn't notice him. As soon as its back turned towards Kahn, he jumped out of the shadow and from his own shadow three more figures jumped out the next second.
Unlike before, Kahn no longer needed to verbally command his subordinates to come out of his shadow. Thanks to the Hive Mind ability he got from Synthesis.. He could telepathically command them and they'd react as per his will without needing a verbal order.
The three figures were none other than Omega, Blackwall & Ceril. Just as their footsteps made noise, the lone minotaur looked their way and was alerted of the enemy's presence.
It roared loudly and stomped its leg on the ground, trying to alert the fellow guards, but it noticed that even after its roar and heavy stomp, there was no sound coming out from its mouth or a single vibration from the ground.
Just then, it noticed Ceril who had a black mage staff in his hand and a faint blue barrier surrounding their location.
Silence Barrier.
It was a Mage exclusive skill that could only be performed by an Intermediate Rank mage.
Ceril, who was created from the bodies of a Mage & Summoner class had inherited this skill. The moment they jumped out of the shadow, he had cast the silence barrier and removed any sound from their surrounding.
The minotaur roared again, albeit producing no noise. Omega and Blackwall charged at this lone minotaur and clashed with it using their bodies. Blackwall used his Knight's Taunt and Templar's Will to enrage the giant bull creature and banged his sword on the big shield he was holding in his left hand.
The minotaur was instantly enraged and focused its attention. Omega attacked with his sharp claws on its legs, trying to make it fall on the ground.
The minotaur quickly swung the giant wooden club it had to guard against the attack.
Blackwall used the Knight's Charge and hit its back and throwing it out of balance. Omega on the other hand used this opportunity and used Shredder Claws on its head to disoriented it and blur its vision. The minotaur lost its balance and fell on the wall on its right-hand side.. Thanks to the silence barrier, not a single sound was heard.
The giant body was the minotaur was now under the rubble of large and heavy stones from the wall and was trying to get out of it.
At this very moment, a small figure of a man jumped on its chest and a jet stream of greenish liquid was thrown in the eyes of the minotaur.. Instantly melting them away as the poison went inside its brain and only the lifeless body of the minotaur was left lying under that rubble.
[Phew! Barely made it in time.] Kahn spoke to himself and mentally ordered his subordinates to hide in his shadow again. Because this was the best strategy he could come up with given his current situation. Taking out the enemy one by one without being noticed was his best approach because in a group, these minotaurs were hard to deal with.
Kahn other the other hand found this method viable because there wasn't any way he would be able to kill these monsters without causing a commotion and alert its nearby allies.
Because from what he had read, in the entire history of this floor, hundreds of teams failed because of the same reason. Just one minotaur was strong enough to take on 5 to 6 people by itself and they'd always create loud roars and noises during a fight. And as more minotaurs joined the fight, the more difficult it would be to kill them. Even an Intermediate Master Rank Swordsman like Kahn would have a hard time killing a single one of these creatures in a one-on-one fight.
So Kahn used the numbers and his strong fighters to catch it off guard, and deal damage while using Silence Barrier to prohibit any sound leaking out so no enemy would be alerted.
He too could cast the Silence Barrier but it needed the caster to stay at the same position and put all of their focus on keeping the barrier functioning. Hence he used Ceril for this job while he dealt the finishing blow with his Poison Acid which can quickly take out a fallen enemy in a matter of seconds.
The Grandmaster Rank Poison Acid ability he had gained after absorbing the legendary Somir's body indeed lived up to its reputation.
Kahn soon noticed that the other Minotaur was coming back from its stroll and now he didn't have any more time to absorb the body and abilities of this dead minotaur in front of him.
Kahn repeated the same process for the remaining minotaurs on guard and caught them off guard just like this one. Soon he had 3 dead minotaurs in front of him. He started using Ability Absorption divine ability on these bodies and absorbed their abilities & skills.
"System, show me the abilities & skills." Kahn commanded the system to check the new skills.
[The host has acquired the following abilities & skills :
Magic Resistance (D Rank) (Passive) :
Allows the host to create a physique resistant towards magical attacks and damage.
Health Recovery (C Rank) (Passive) :
Enables the host to recover the health at a small rate.
Minotaur Might (D Rank) (Active) :
Greatly increases the host's physical strength for 20 seconds.
The host has acquired the Minotaur bloodline.
Current Bloodline purity : 8%]
"Huh.. I guess the small fries are small fries in the end." said Kahn and put his hands on the remaining two dead bodies of the minotaurs.
"Merge!" Kahn ordered and started the Synthesis.
I'm just 3 minutes, he welcomed a new ally who was a meter taller & twice stronger than its predecessors.
"You're now part of the Legion." said Kahn and the new subordinate bowed in front of Kahn and entered inside his shadow.
For the next 5 hours, Kahn covertly repeated the same process on the small groups of minotaurs he found and killed them one by one. Whittling down the enemy numbers.
He now had 30 minotaur subordinates in his legion. All of them were Elite Rank monsters.
He didn't use them to create another bigger or higher species version because he simply had no interest in spending his cores on small fries. He wanted to catch a big fish and then use these fodders.
As per the old records, there were nearly 80 Minotaurs on this floor and Kahn had killed more than 60 of them. He was completely focused and committed, while his sheer will didn't let him become overconfident and make any mistake.
Kahn now hid amongst the broken and fallen buildings in the city and looked at the end of a big Arena-like building.. No different than how ancient Rome had those Gladiator fight arenas.
And at the end of it.. There was a giant throne made of fur and bones of the fallen minotaurs.
Currently, some sort of competition was being held amongst these monsters and they were killing each other with their weapons and bare hands.. Even using their giant horns to pierce through the hearts of their opponent.
Kahn realized one thing that these monsters were fighting to decide who was the strongest amongst themselves.
At the end of the competition.. Stood a red minotaur who had a metal club that had multiple spikes as its weapon. It then roared and shook the entire arena with its mighty scream in victory.
The next second however, it pointed the weapon at the giant minotaur who had a giant Battleaxe lying next to its legs.. The minotaur in the arena was now openly challenging the one sitting on the throne, as if trying to contend for the position of the king.
The giant minotaur sitting on the throne snorted in anger and grabbed its Battleaxe and a giant shield and straight-up jumped inside the arena grounds.
BOOM!
A big cloud of dust was released and the entire arena shook from the ripples of waves as soon as the reigning king of the arena jumped inside the battlegrounds and stared at the challenger with eyes full of rage and contempt.
Kahn could feel the pressure even from a mile away.. Based on his experience from fighting and facing monsters and people; Kahn quickly understood the level of this yellow minotaur..
"It's a Lord Rank Floor Boss!"