Bang!
The Colossal Titan's eyes were blazing, and the light they held grew brighter. In his fury, Bertholdt ignored everything and unleashed steam from his body surface.
The scorching steam quickly melted the solid ice.
Wind-Stepping!
Roy cursed under his breath. Faced with an absolute power gap, even a magic sword couldn't hold up. At this moment, he held nothing back and decisively activated the special effect of the Wind-Chasing Boots.
With wind swirling around his legs, Roy ran desperately towards the distance. Distance meant life!
In a very short time, Roy was a hundred meters away. Just when he thought he was safe, a feeling of danger struck, and he suddenly turned his head.
The Colossal Titan swept its long arms across the surrounding buildings, throwing countless stone fragments towards Roy. They blocked out the sky and rained down on him.
Roy's pupils reflected the debris covering the entire sky. The coverage was too vast; there was no way to dodge!
Whoosh!
At that critical moment, a golden figure flashed past and appeared in front of him.
"—Wind of Light!"
The Elven girl's clear and sweet voice rang out. A large number of emerald-green orbs of light materialized around her, shooting out to collide head-on with the countless incoming fragments.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The emerald-green orbs and the debris collided, creating violent explosions mid-air. The brilliant flames illuminated the sky.
One magic attack cleared all the debris!
Roy, relieved to have survived, slumped down, gazing at the valiant, petite figure in front of him. It turned out that the Elven girl had been partially focused on him even while hunting the Pure Titans.
This LV.4 mercenary was so incredibly useful!
Roy gave a wry smile. Now, the debt of gratitude was piling up even higher. Such great kindness demands repayment—did he really have to offer himself in return?
Ryuu briefly turned her head, glancing at Roy. A hint of helplessness flashed in her sky-blue eyes. Despite having an early warning, she was still shocked by the young man's recklessness—daring to provoke even the Colossal Titan.
Based on Roy's description of the 'nuclear explosion,' the cap for this Colossal Titan was likely indefinitely close to LV.6!
Bertholdt, inside the Colossal Titan, was stunned. What were those emerald-green orbs?
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Heavy footsteps sounded.
A Titan of about 15 meters appeared on the other side of the street, its entire body covered in iron-hard armor, its appearance vastly different from the Pure Titans.
The Armored Titan—Reiner Braun!
Steaming, Bertholdt emerged from the nape of the Colossal Titan, crying out in heartbreaking grief, "Reiner, Annie was killed by them!"
The Armored Titan froze, its expression pained. Its cold and furious gaze shifted to Roy and Ryuu. It braced its stance, adopting a charging posture.
Ryuu's face changed. Trouble. If she were besieged by the Colossal Titan and the Armored Titan, she wasn't confident she could protect the LV.1 Roy during the fight.
At that moment, Roy shouted, "Miss Ryuu, quickly finish off that five-meter Titan on your left!"
Ryuu had no time to hesitate and immediately complied.
Meanwhile, the Armored Titan charged towards them. Each step it took caused a loud boom, making the ground tremble, as if stepping directly on Roy's heart.
"Come on!!"
Roy didn't attempt to flee. Instead, he watched the Armored Titan provocatively, attracting its attention to buy the Elven girl the last bit of time.
In reality, Roy was anxiously staring at his instance panel, just one more Titan left!
[Titan Subjugation Count: 29!]
To return from the instance world, the main quest must be completed; the extra quests are optional.
The Armored Titan charged forward as Roy wished. From a frontal perspective, it was more shocking than a tank, unstoppable, as if it would crush everything in its path.
Taking strides of over ten meters, the Armored Titan quickly closed the distance between them and arrived in front of Roy. It raised its massive foot high, casting a shadow over the youth.
Just as the Armored Titan was about to stomp Roy into meat paste, Ryuu finally killed the last Titan.
[Thirty Titans subjugated, instance quest completed. Please return within twenty-four hours...]
Roy clapped his hands together.
Roy and Ryuu's figures became ethereal and instantly vanished. With a boom, the Armored Titan's foot missed, leaving a giant footprint embedded in the ground when it lifted its foot.
Only the Colossal Titan and the Armored Titan remained, staring at each other, confusion evident on their faces.
Back in the courtyard of the Starry Sky Garden.
"Huff! Huff!"
Roy gasped for breath. That suffocating feeling still clung to his heart, refusing to dissipate.
Ryuu was no exception. When the two Intelligent Titans appeared, her heart leaped into her throat. She glared at Roy with her sky-blue eyes. "Didn't we agree not to deal with the Colossal Titan and the Armored Titan?"
"Well, you know, plans change," Roy laughed awkwardly. Who expected to run into them? If he had let them go, he would have regretted it forever, like a fisherman constantly thinking about the big one that got away...
Since the deed was done, Ryuu didn't want to blame Roy further. She needed to wash the Titan blood off her body.
Roy was left alone, lying in the spacious courtyard.
He had almost lost his life at least three times on this trip, yet there was no fear on Roy's face, only an excited smile.
A sense of inexplicable madness arose. He was less of a gambler and more of a lunatic, not motivated purely by victory or profit, but by the sheer pursuit of excitement.
Of course, the benefits earned were substantial.
[Teammate Ryuu Lion killed twenty-eight Titans: two 14m, three 13m, six 12m... Congratulations on obtaining 1420 Status Points.][Titan kill count reached thirty, triggered extra reward "Titan Summon Card." Usage summons 100 Pure Titans to fight for the user. Deviant Titans may randomly appear. Exists for twenty-four hours.]
[Successfully killed Annie Leonhart (Female Titan), obtained 1200 Status Points, Titan Slayer...]
Name: Titan Slayer (Greatsword)
Quality: High
Effect: Based on the size of a normal human, the larger the target, the higher the damage dealt.
Durability: 99%
...
Roy scanned the panel. Excluding the two Pure Titans he killed, he gained a total of 2620 Status Points, one Titan Summon Card, and one High-Quality piece of equipment.
It was practically getting rich overnight!
The truth was, this instance was never meant to be soloed by him. With the strength of an LV.1 scrub, he would be seriously wounded if he encountered four or five ten-meter-plus Titans.
Precisely because of this, the greater the risk, the greater the reward!
Name: Roy
Level: 1
Strength (STR): $30 \to 630$ (C)
Endurance (END): $58 \to 678$ (C)
Agility (DEX): $95 \to 1095$ (SS)
Dexterity (AGL): $608 \to 1008$ (SS)
Magic (MAG): 0 (I)
Skills: None
Spells: None
...
The sneak attack on Bertholdt and enduring the heatwave from the Colossal Titan boosted his ability scores. Roy then distributed the remaining Status Points.
Two attributes broke the limit, which was extremely rare for an LV.1 adventurer.