After joining the Dark Mist, they lost the right to hunt Dark Mist monsters and gain Spiritual Essence.
If they wanted to boost their Spirituality, they had to do things that helped the Dark Mist.
Like wasting human Psionics, or waking up Dark Mist nodes early, among other things.
Especially waking up Dark Mist nodes—the Dark Mist would grant massive perks, providing sick improvements.
Dark Mist node monsters were generally in hibernation mode, sleeping undisturbed until they stacked enough energy.
But if someone woke them up, they wouldn't go back to sleep and would hunt in the surrounding area, speeding up the Dark Mist node's energy stacking.
"This is getting messy. The node boss Four-Section Beetle probably won't stay put in its bedroom.
It could show up anywhere in the nest."
Carlos was a bit worried. If his assault was too aggressive, it might spook the boss Four-Section Beetle and make it chicken out.
The previous two node bosses—the Infernal Beetle and Agony Beetle—
They were both trapped in their bedrooms with nowhere to run, forced to face Carlos head-on.
But the prematurely awakened Four-Section Beetle would probably just bail if it figured out it couldn't win.
Node bosses had decent brains—running away, playing tricks, and using tactics were all par for the course.
Carlos walked a full circle around the entire nest, carefully checking out the exits at the bottom level.
"1, 2, 3... 6.
Six exits total.
At least it's not crazy."
After thinking it over briefly, Carlos locked in his game plan.
"#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6,
Each of you watch one exit. Don't let a single monster slip through.
Especially the node boss Four-Section Beetle—if you spot it, pin it down immediately!"
"#7, #8, #9, #10, #11, you're on cleanup duty in the nest!"
After handing out assignments, Carlos tacked on a quick heads-up:
"If anything goes sideways, fire up the synergy effect immediately!"
He refused to believe that facing Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards with activated synergy, the node boss could still make a getaway.
The group split into two teams. After the Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards reached their spots,
Carlos immediately ordered the other 5 Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards to hit the nest...
...
"Boom!"
Inside the nest, massive explosions went off one after another as Carlos's mind got flooded with Spiritual Essence notifications.
[Spiritual Essence +1]
[Spiritual Essence +1]
[Spiritual Essence +0.8]
...
After the Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards attacked the nest, they hadn't been slaughtering for long when pretty much all the monsters swarmed over.
But notably, there was no sign of the boss Four-Section Beetle.
Carlos had seen this coming and calmly directed his Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards to massacre the monster groups.
In this Dark Mist node, there were three types of monsters total.
Explosive Beetles—seriously bloated appearance, Spirituality 10, maximum attribute only 5 points, bottom-feeders among same-level monsters.
But their most annoying trait was self-destructing with serious punch.
The ground was covered everywhere with corrosive gunk splattered from Explosive Beetle self-destructions.
Luckily they moved like molasses, so the Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards could dodge trouble by staying sharp.
The second type was the monster group's backbone—Cone Beetles.
A full 3 feet long, kinda like Black Beetles but brown all over, with six pairs of spike-like legs!
Spirituality 8, Strength 5, Constitution 3, Speed 2.
The Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards butchered these the most—each greatsword swing could drop one,
But they still charged forward without fear, not giving a damn about death.
The last type was Tail Bugs with long-range attack capability—not many, just a few hundred.
Spirituality 10, Strength 2, Constitution 2, Speed 3, Mental 6.
6 feet long, with a long pointed tail taking up half their body, ending in rows of spikes.
They hung back with the swarm, launching cheap shots at the Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards.
"Watch out for Explosive Beetle kamikaze runs!
Ignore those Cone Beetles—prioritize wiping out those Tail Beetles!
Stay frosty—boss Four-Section Beetle hasn't shown its face yet!"
Carlos calmly called the shots. The Tail Bugs did the most damage to his Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards.
Hundreds of tail spikes firing together, blotting out the sky—the Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards could only tank them and had to be dealt with first.
"Creak!"
"Boom!"
...
The 5 Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards ignored the Cone Beetles and Explosive Beetles' harassment, pushing through the hailstorm of tail spikes toward the Tail Beetles!
"Rustle! Rustle!"
"Squeak! Squeak!"
Just then, the entire swarm seemed to get marching orders.
The Cone Beetles and Explosive Beetles quickly fell back to the front of the Tail Bugs, forming a thick wall of bugs blocking the Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards' push.
The Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards' assault got stonewalled—they could only clear the Cone Beetles and Explosive Beetles that kept rushing at them.
For now, they couldn't get close to those hundreds of Tail Bugs and were forced to eat the overwhelming tail spike barrage.
Seeing this scene, Carlos didn't sweat it. He constantly scanned the surroundings.
"That Four-Section Beetle boss should be nearby."
The swarm's sudden shift meant the Four-Section Beetle boss was watching the battle unfold and reacted lightning-fast.
Where could it be?
"Nothing around here."
Carlos looked around, then quickly looked up to scope things out carefully.
Suddenly, his eyes lit up with recognition.
On the nest wall, he spotted something that looked off. Looking closer,
It was actually a monster camped out on the nest wall.
White-brown all over, blending almost perfectly with the wall's color.
About 16 feet long, its body divided into four weird sections,
Each section had a pair of crimson insect eyes and six pairs of razor-sharp spike-legs.
Sharp spikes jutted from its shell, gleaming with a metallic shine!
Four-Section Beetle: Spirituality 16, Strength 20, Constitution 10, Speed 3, Mental 3.
A whopping 20 Strength points—the Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards' stats were way outclassed and would probably get wrecked easily.
"Careful enough. Even after sizing up the Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards' strength, it still wants to use its minions to grind down their health first."
Carlos had run into a play-it-safe type boss.
"Too bad. If I were you, I should have booked it the second the Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards walked in."
Since he'd already pinpointed the boss Four-Section Beetle's hiding spot, to avoid any curveballs, Carlos decided on a lightning round.
"All Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards, activate synergy 'Glory of the Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards'!"
Through the soul link command,
The 5 Purple Thornblade Skeleton Guards in the nest and those watching the six exits
All had their greatswords explode with purple light at the same time.
The Purple Thornblade patterns fired up, and the markings on their bones seemed to come alive, flowing like liquid.