Elliot dodged the spears that followed after. The three Guards he was fighting seemed to got stronger somehow. Like they were boosted when their fellow guards died just now.

"It's called Revenge Snapback!" Lance yelled after sensing the confusion on Elliot. "Guards have the weakest defenses in all Palace Beasts. When you kill another Guard near them, they will gain 30% boost in their strength and speed."

"If they have lower defenses, why don't they increase that instead?" Elliot whispered with a thick coat of sarcasm. He sighed and shot another set of Lotus Blast. He hit four of the eight petals on two Guards and the lotus flower was on the last one. This was his third cast of the skill but the Guards were still standing.

Lance had eliminated his last Guard now, Elliot had to move quick.

"Supreme…" he trailed his fingers on the blade of his sword dramatically, "Malevolence."

With a sudden burst out of his energy, Elliot launched himself to the guards. He slashed his sword continuously, stacking up the Supreme Malevolence skill, but he was only in his third strike when he had slayed every Guard he was fighting.

"W-What the hell?" Elliot scrunched his face. "Does these things need physical attacks to easily slay?"

"Yeah," Lance said. "They have high magical defense, so it's hard to penetrate their armor with magical attacks."

Elliot deadpanned, "I'm so stupid sometimes."

"What do you mean sometimes?" Lande teased, a smirk plastered on his lips. "You don't know a lot of fundamentals. I thought you studied hard before?"

"I studied discoveries, not actually battling techniques," Elliot said. "Plus, I didn't know that my attacks wouldn't break through their armor. Lotus Blast seems to get weaker and weaker. What the hell happened?"

"Oh, I think that needs an Enhancement," Connor said. "You know how Enhancements work, right?"

"Of course, I know how it works," Elliot narrowed his eyes. "But it's only this skill that's like this. The other ones aren't acting differently."

"Compatibility issues maybe?" Ed pointed. "You do have Buff skills mostly, you only have like two offensive ones. They may start to become incompatible as you get stronger."

"Those happen?" Elliot pouted.

"If you're not naturally a hybrid, yeah," Lance said. "It's why Skill Gems get less and less popular. Compatibility issues arises more and more as more and more Adventurers use Skill Gems. It's actually starting to become a problem."

"Skill Gems make out about 30% of the Adventurer Market's profits. When you take that out, it will start to take a huge blow in the economy," Lance sighed. "I just sounded like a politician. I'll stop now."

"Yes, you do," Ed flattened his lips, holding back his laughter. "You're really good at it too."

"Shall we continue?" Lance said, scratching his nape. "It's almost noon now. We need at least a few hours to get to the halls and take a Knight down."

"We only need one, right?" Connor asked, to which Elliot nodded. "Yeah. Just one Knight."

Elliot used his The Creator's Sloth and took all the Guards in the vicinity. Some were already toasted and some where completely obliterated, but it was still accepted by the Inventory.

'Junk found in Inventory.'

'Clear Inventory?'

[ Yes ] [ No ]

Elliot pressed Yes and let The Creator's Gluttony do its thing. It junked the things he didn't need and earned him points. He had earned a lot now and he also learned that the skill does not permit just anything to be put in it.

It doesn't activate when Elliot put random things like a chair or grass. It was like the skill had a mind of its own, like it was sentient.

"Elliot, come one," Lance called out. "Let's kill a guard and go home. We still need to train for quite a bit."

"Yeah," Elliot said. "Let's go."

The group moved closer to the large wooden front door of the palace. They had to move stealthily as to not alarm the Archers that were on the towers nearby. They moved through the small hallways beside the courtyard and moved closer into the door.

"Is there another entrance?" Elliot asked. "It seems like the door would creak loudly if we go inside."

"We could pass through that small door." Lance pointed at the smaller trace of a rectangle shape inside the big door. It also had a smaller handle on the side that made it pass as a door. "Palaces are like this. A smaller door is usually the ones we go through in the night, because it would be a hastle for the guards to open the big one. The big doors are only open in the day or when there's an event."

"Only royals know," Ed teased that earned him a snort from Lance.

"Yeah, but everyone in Solaguer knows that," Lance smirked. "It's common knowledge."

"Look at this man bragging about living in the capitol," Connor was the one who teased this time. "Such wealth."

Lance was now laughing lightly, he placed a finger up his lips, signaling them to silence. "Let's go."

He led the way and pushed the small door. It didn't give them any trouble and opened easily, Lance learning from Frederick and sending a drone inside. He used an orb from his White magic and let it probe the area. He also injected a bit of his presence into the orb to fool the beasts inside, if there was any.

"Hold on one moment," Lance whispered and went in first. He raised his arm and placed it on the surface of the door from the inside. "Shadow Lurk."

He went through the darkness of the castle and was planning to roam the halls, but he came right back outside not a second longer. "There's an eight foot Knight just beside the door. I'll go inside and distract it while you enter. We're going to–"

The wooden door was destroyed, cutting Lance off. They all leaped back and brandished their weapons, raising defensively. There was a fog of dust that clouded over the big hole in the door and it was blocking their sight.

"Phantoms do not leave the grounds, Guards do not leave the courtyards…" Lance trailed off, seeing the Green Knight step outside the palace's front door. "Knights weren't supposed to leave the halls they guard."