Akira found it quite troublesome to face down the golems by himself. The golem had regenerative abilities as the crystal's magic was still functional. Even with releasing his blood slash, it blocked the slash and couldn't get through. Akira attempted to destroy the monuments instead but was dumbfounded as the crystal didn't fall and floated in the air.
The next thing he did was to lead the golems far away until they lost their connection to the crystal. Akira backed away while taunting them to chase him down. It successfully did so, and after 70 meters, they were finally dead. Akira praised himself for his clever thinking and straight away went back for the crystal. Finally, Akira tried to come up with something new to destroy the crystal, but he needed precision in aiming his blood slash at the crystal.
"I need to aim my blood slash that far? You know what, in most common sense, maybe I should jump and destroy it! " Akira finally found a new idea, and that was to jump. He quickly gained momentum and began to raise himself up in the air. He was later struck down by an unknown fist-shaped rock as he aimed the crystal and tightened his muscles, forcing him to fall.
"Ow! Really?! What a pain in the ass! " Akira was fed up with the annoying magic that came from the crystal as it tried to defend itself.
Akira would later again use his blood slash repetitively but failed the same twice. Performing the same thrice, eventually, Akira tired himself out after launching a hundred pairs of attacks until dust was all around the crystal. Not even a scratch was inflicted on the crystal, which remained unharmed. Even with Giganta blood slash, proved useless of harming the crystal.
Akira's eyes twitched as his reaction to the crystal magic made him really tick off for wasting his time. Akira grabbed a pebble and hurled it toward the crystal, however, something came to mind after seeing the crystal's defense. It had a delay in protecting itself.
Biting his index finger he tried to think but later something rang a bell. He remembered he had his bow and arrow in his system.
"Ah! Summon! Largunta Masrex bow!" Akira summoned his bow after finally recalling his new weapon. He then summoned his arrows from his system inventory since he kept some after he visited Miyu Aqualin for bow practice. Akira could summon his system, but he couldn't seem to get it to show him his stats or skills.
He had 27 arrows in his quiver and grabbed one of them to destroy the crystal. Also, all of his arrows were recurve arrows. Before Akira went to Ringgu island, he had visited Miyu again before, to improve his mastery. He wasn't good at it yet but learned lots of valuable lessons from her teaching.
[BLOOD MAGIC: BLOOD ARROW]
Akira coated his entire arrow and it changed its look. It was coated with two colors, which were red and black. The arrow was hardened as if it was placed on an armor plate, plus, it became sharper than ever after the point of the arrow was combined with Akira's blood, or to be exact, all completely enhanced.
Taking a deep breath and slowly releasing them, Akira paused his breath in focusing his objective. In his mind, he imaged the crystal as one of the dummies back when he trained as he pulled the string from the bow while holding the arrow, aiming it at the crystal. And then, he released it and it launched faster than any bullet or even from a sniper. The arrow hit and Akira were dumbstruck by his succession in shattering the crystal.
Finally, after 12 minutes of trying to destroy the crystal, he succeeded after he put much effort into destroying it.
"YESSSSS!" Akira was overjoyed and finally dashed to the next crystal. Locating the crystal by using his keen instincts and sensing mana from it had confused him because of its broad-spread mana-like radio waves.
The easiest way to detect its presence was to feel it getting stronger, similar to how he sensed danger as a threat got closer. Akira could feel a shudder in his spine and hair as the mana's power grew closer and stronger. The same monuments emerged in front of him as soon as he arrived.
Akira hastily gathered his arrows and aimed his bow at the second crystal in an attempt to destroy it. Focusing on his target, Akira released the string and the arrow was fired. However, it failed to hit the crystal...
The crystal's defenses were much stronger and more annoying than the last one he destroyed. More, in fact, the crystal was twice its size of it, meaning it had twice the mana and twice the strength.
Akira was overwhelmed, but he did learn something from his battles with the Metamorians and Savanth: tossing his scythe at his foes. Akira would only do this if he died without damaging his opponents, or if things got too out of hand. Though his blood slashes trajectory and scythe throwing wasn't as fast as his arrows trajectory, it did show massive damage when combining a giganta blood blade.
He grasped his scythe tighter and spun faster than a hurricane as he thought of his next strategy to destroy the crystal. As he spun swiftly, the big blade from his scythe produced a disturbance in his surroundings, accidentally chopping trees.
He flung his scythe at the crystal just as he finished amassing velocity for its momentum. As he hurled his scythe at the crystal, it was successfully destroyed with the strength and speed produced by throwing it with a fast spin.
The second crystal was destroyed and now, 1 remaining...
Because the three crystals had fouled up his directions and rendered him blind, Akira was eventually able to identify it readily with two crystals destroyed. He saw it coming from a long way away and hurried to escape the island. Akira ordered his scythe to return, and it did so once he gave it orders.
After the last crystal was discovered, it was simple this time, and he shattered the crystal as soon as he leaped after he dashed fast. After destroying the third crystal, Akira was able to retrieve his escape key and return to the old man.
"Yo! Sorry for the long wait!" Akira panted when he sensed the elderly man's scent and returned to him. As he gazed at the beautiful shore, the old guy inhaled deeply.
"The ring that locked the entire island and cursed the entire ocean has finally been freed. Now the ring has successfully left its home."
"For what sake are you keeping the ring now?" The old man wondered what Akira would do to the ring.
"I don't know much yet, though the main reason was to prevent the Mikadzuki from stealing it."
"I see, if it were handed over by the wrong person, it'd be a troublemaker since it gave the power of the gods once it was worn."
"I don't really think they would wear it, much like they were going to gather them for something."
"Ah... resurrection." The old man knew immediately what they were going to use the rings for.
"What?"
"Once the rings had gathered, their powers could be bestowed for resurrection, meaning they could resurrect gods. Resurrections are not possible if there are no souls or fresh vessels. However, the rings' powers are an exception."
"If only you had soul magic. It'd only be possible if their death was within 7 days before their bodies rotted and their souls disappeared. Soul magic consists of a lot of mana, or maybe the person's life could be dependent on it as well. The most basic conditions for the resurrection are godly artifacts and soul magic, so I presume what you were saying was that they were plotting to resurrect gods."
"Wait, that's their real objective. How did you know?"
"I gained knowledge as the days passed while I lived here, lonely and repugnant. But now that you've destroyed the entire crystal, the door to escape is about to open."
As he was talking about the gateway of escape, in front of them appeared a mist that slowly began to fade. Akira could see the entire view, and the whole place was nearly non-existent. As Akira began to smile at seeing the ship was in shape, Akira felt relieved. Akira would then start shouting to get their attention.
The warriors then looked to their right as the loud voice of a person was heard to their right. Akira was waving at them while jumping, trying to get their attention. Kamui then ordered them to take a sharp right to the island where Akira was stranded on.
Their ships looked okay, but the warriors looked tired after they fought numerous beasts that were in the ocean. Kamui helped them, and somehow, the beasts faded right after Akira successfully destroyed the crystals at the same time. They were all safe and were searching for Akira because Shura told the warriors to look out for him.
Akira was later found mysteriously after the beasts were gone. Kamui looked at Akira, believing something unusual had happened because of him.
Three minutes later, they picked him up and pulled the anchor. Akira wasn't sick after Shura gave him medicine that helped him gain control over his sickness.
"Wait! Bring him in too!"
"Who?" Shura looked everywhere and found nothing but sand where Akira was pointing.
"Him! Eh?" Akira only pointed to the island. The old man was gone in an instant. He was sure he was with him after the gateway opened.
"Uhhh? Are you imagining things? Is your head okay after you drowned?" Shura saw nothing but believed that Akira was hallucinating.
"No! It's not that! I just saw him there!" Akira didn't sense the old man's presence anywhere. Even if he searched for him, his senses wouldn't lie. Akira then said, "Never mind," and so they set sail.
Finally, the mission was a success, and they beat the Mikadzuki to it and kept the ring safe...