Chaotic Zenless Zone Zero Chapter 26 (Patreon)

As the twenty odd disciples and two inner disciples in Ju Fufu and Ye Shuiyen followed me into the Hollow alongside the floating carrier truck that carried the Droidekas.

I prepared my mana as we stepped almost all together through the walls of the tiny hollow, and the ultra-thin barrier between the hollow and reality brought us in without issue.

And as we entered the hollow fully, I held up Kubikiribochi and all of us... Including the Droideka's were covered in a soft golden glow as I performed the Golden Vow miracle to enhance everyone!

Then, as I lowered my massive sword, I called out strongly. "That was a buff that will last you guys for around half an hour! To put it simply, it raises your physical strength, by a solid fifty percent!"

I wasn't 'scared' of showing off my buff's at this point. I had a registered company, I had good friends who had my back. And while there were certainly dangerous entities here in the world of Zenless Zone Zero.

They as 'enchainers' or cultists, had their strength greatly restricted to being within Hollow's. And I didn't spend all my time inside Hollows either.

If the TOPS decided to go after me to steal my secrets, or even send Krampus after me? I will go after their leadership directly to make it clear that I am not someone they can fuck with.

Then Ye Shuiyen called out firmly. "While Jake's buff is very helpful. Be wary, fellow disciples. Treat the buff as though it wasn't there and rely on strength you have cultivated over the years and enjoy the ease in which you slay these enemies now." 

I nodded as that was a good way to look at it. It's not like I was going to follow these disciples around and just give them buffs later on either.

"Ena!" I looked down at Eous who was pulling my pant leg, and then Belle, who was controlling the bangboo, waddled off in a hurry.

The terrain of this hollow at the back end of the mountain wasn't that bad either. It was a mostly angled downward flat slope heading downwards with dense forests with large tree's with extremely deep roots.

Still, it wasn't bad enough terrain to stop the Droideka's at this point unless it rained super hard and made it impossibly muddy or something.

After getting the droidekas offloaded and giving them an odd look as I wondered how a defensive and 'strength' boost even worked on them. I followed Eous off to the side alongside Anby and Billy.

As Nicole was busy already getting into the meat of things. Keeping the Yunkui Summit disciples in order and away from me as she knew that Belle wanted to talk to me privately.

"Jake! There is huuuge! I tell you HUGE ether energy levels are emitting from under the ground or something!" Belle whispered to me as she climbed up my body to whisper into my ear.

I paused at that, and I also realized that there wasn't much in the way of ether crystals to be found in the surrounding area, either on the surface.

Which meant that there was indeed likely to be an underground cave system or something similar that was hosting the major source of ether energy.

"Hmm, good job noticing that Belle. I guess my next goal is to just find the clearest source of the ether before blasting downwards if I wanted to close this hollow quickly." I muttered to myself mostly.

Giving Eous a head pat made Belle make a weird noise... I realized that my hentai logic pervert was at work, as Belle was mentally, and almost physically, linked to Eous at this point.

I did my level best to ignore the blushing bangboo as I cleared my throat and spoke to Billy. "Billy, please go to the truck and grab the Ether detector that's right near the door. It looks like an old-school metal detector; I made it very specifically in case there were underground ether crystals we would need to pull out of the ground."

Billy threw me a giddy thumbs up as he shouted out excitedly. "An actual treasure hunt! Don't worry, Jake! I just calibrated my sensor's just yesterday!"

A small laugh escaped me as I enjoyed how much of a goober Billy was before I paused as the sounds of disintegrator rounds rang out in concert.

'Hmm with this hollow being out on a pretty open mountain slope, it's alot more of a straight shot for etherials to sense us as well.' I mused to myself as it was clear that there was alot of etherals that were rushing everyone.

"Anby, let's go join the fun as I well." I said before I beat my wings to take to the corrupted sky of the hollow!

Shooting up into the air of the hollow I flew well into the sky to get a good view of where things were happening and saw the main battlefield. A messy affair where the Yunkui disciples were using talismans and martial arts to create a killing zone for the etherals.

And the Etherals were very much on the weaker side as well. Standard humanoid etherals, with the odd Blastcrawler and Tyrfing rushing to fight the disciples.

Meanwhile, with the Virtual Intelligence built into the Droideka's they 'Knew' that having the disciples in the line of fire was a no-go. So they had moved to the side to hit the backline and sides of the etherals as we pushed towards the center of this micro hollow.

Seeing a rather tattered Dullahan class etheral that clearly wasn't doing well with this hollow's very low ambient ether. That was making it's way towards a normal disciple of Yunkui Summit.

I formed an orb of soul energy and with a crisp screech of shattered air. A Great Soul Arrow shot from my hands and exploded as it hit the Dullahan, sending it to the ground.

'Hmm, yeah, that spell isn't that great to be honest.' I mused helplessly as the Dullahan got up with a good chunk of its stone-like armor on its chest shattered from the force of the blow.

But its core was still fine, and it was clearly hurt. The wound wasn't nearly at all lethal for the energy construct.

Taking a deep breath, I saw three more Dullahan's coming out from what looked like a cave or something towards the center of the hollow. So I mentally said, 'Fuck it'.

I was in a hollow, and I was going to need to tear this place up to make it ready for the factory add-ons and such!

Collecting all my mana, I glowed brightly with golden energy as dozens of magical 'portals' opened up behind me.

And from those 'portals' came beams of gold-and-black-tinged energy that shot at high speed into the Dullahan's and etherals that I could see that were a good ways away from any disciples!

[Kill 1 Elite Ethereal- 1 Gold Ticket] 
[Kill 500 Ethereals in general- 1 gold ticket]