Chương 14

4 kill notifications and 8 level-up notifications. Oliver was the first person to remove someone off of the leaderboards. And not even an hour after they'd been announced. Sasha had granted him 5 levels, the other three test subjects 1 level each. The strength that granted him felt equal parts exhilarating and dirty. Like drinking rancid coffee. It gave energy, but at a cost.

"Benjamin said no more than 10 levels a day," Oliver muttered, flipping through the notifications.

"I suppose so long as I don't level more than twice more today that'll be fine." A week ago, the idea of getting just two levels in a single day would have been laughable. Two levels in the same week was a challenge. And that was only if he was fighting undead of an equal or higher level as his own. Something he rarely risked before obtaining his [Paranormal Hunter] class. This was easily the most levels he'd ever experienced in a week and yet, he felt more disgusted than ever by the power gains.

"Thanks for the help." Kiki nudged her would-be-assassin's body with her katana. The [Invisible Stalker]'s arm flopped over under her prodding.

"No problem. You would have done the same if our roles were reversed." He looked at the bodies littering the street. In the distance he heard the whine of a siren.

"Let's loot what we can and head out of here as quickly as possible." Oliver used Appraisal on the [Invisible Stalker]'s blade and cloak. Both times he received an ' ERROR, SKILL IN USE' message for his efforts. Not a message he'd ever seen before, but he supposed that meant those parts of her gear weren't going to be much use to him. They must have been linked to one of her skills. When he tried to remove them, the cloth went right through his hands. That didn't mean the rest of her equipment would be useless.

He happily pulled off trinkets from the bodies and loaded what he could into his bag. Brilliant Baseball Bat. Enchanted through the process of quest rewards. Enhance Strength by 20 while wielding. Increase welder's mass and size by 40%. Value - 1300 Mel.

"Woah. This is incredible." Oliver marveled at the weapon. No wonder his attacker had hit so hard. He glanced back to the body. Dead people always looked quite a bit less threatening than their living counterparts. But now he noticed that the man's clothes hung loose. And he didn't look quite as old as Oliver had first assumed. He now looked far more like the teenager he truly was rather than the big threatening man he'd appeared before.

Still bigger than Oliver, but not yet the towering menace he'd been previously.

"Hey, Ben," Oliver called out as the drone approached.

"Is there a reason everyone I've met has been in their late teens?"" Yes. The experiment required us all to be in early puberty to function properly. That means between the ages of 11 and 13. Our bodies grew with our level system. But I believe there is a point in our early 20's that we will stop having the capacity for leveling. Though I cannot fully validate that theory."

"But it explains why they're bringing the experiment to a close now," Kiki surmised." They need to speed up the process now before we fully exit puberty,"Benjamin agreed." The new kill leveling system they've put in place might be a means in which to speed up. Perhaps we didn't perform well enough in the normal system. Or perhaps they always planned for this to occur."

"Great." Kiki flicked her katana, sending out a spray of blood across the metal street.

"Now, [Technomancer], did you catch up with that teleporter?"" I did. I obtained a fair bit of information as well. They used a skill to teleport into the city. That is how they found Neo Nova so quickly after the announcement. He'd only just unlocked his third class earlier today and they'd been eager to test it out. Unfortunately for them, he hadn't realized at the time it was a once a day skill. They originally planned to scout the area and lay down lethal traps to return to at a future date.

You spooked them by flying overhead." If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"They shot at us, we killed them," Kiki said.

"I don't care much if we 'spooked' them."

"I'm not going to lose sleep at night," Oliver agreed.

"Besides, they were trying to kill Ben with traps anyway."" Who is that?

"Ben asked. His drone pointed in the direction of Sasha." She doesn't match any of the descriptions the [Long Distance Porter] told me of his companions."

"Sasha Smith. She was the fourth ranked test subject on the leaderboard. She was an [Invisible Stalker]."" I see.

"Ben considered." Then she may have either been caught in the teleport skill accidentally or purposefully followed after them. I suspect with an intention to use them as fodder for levels, then hunt for me. If it is any consolation to your conscience, your opponents would have likely all died by her hand even should you not have not killed them."

"That makes sense," Oliver agreed. He'd moved on to looting the [Pyromancer]. A set of flame resistant clothing, a wand made of charcoal and a phoenix feather, and a potion of water walking. At first that last one seemed a bit random, but after some thought, he supposed if his main abilities were all fire-based he would also rather not end up submerged underwater. The wand wasn't particularly useful to him as a [Grave Robber].

A mage using it as a conduit would have their spells flavored with fire, but he lacked the necessary proficiencies to make that happen. Still, not utterly useless, if he ever needed an instant bonfire he could always snap it. He grinned as he stuffed his pockets with the newly acquired equipment. Looting reminded him of opening presents on his birthday as a kid. Every single body was a gift filled with mysterious potential. Sure, there would be hints beforehand.

But they always still managed to find some unique way to surprise him. And the best part about fresh corpses was that they didn't stink yet. He wasn't looting from graves or shambling undead corpses. The bodies were a bit bloodier than he was used to, but that was preferable to some of the other liquids that older corpses excreted. Trying to wash the stench of death fluids out of clothing was miserable.

"I found one of those healing potions you mentioned before," Kiki said. She held up the vial, having taken it from the [Arbalist]'s corpse.

"Lucky find," Oliver called back. Then he looked over to the drone hovering nearby.

"Ben, do you think your drone can retrieve my shovel? I lost it in the fight. It's down in that chasm over there." A minute later, Oliver's silver plated shovel clanged to the street, Ben successfully delivering the weapon back to its owner." If you're finished with your plundering, I have a replacement drone arriving now. I believe we should be on our way sooner rather than later. Our confrontation was not exactly a silent affair.

I've been distracting the local authorities with other issues, but they will arrive soon. It's an unnecessary complication I believe that would be best avoided." Oliver sighed and agreed. By far the biggest disappointment about looting these attackers had been their lack of Mel. They must have spent most of their funds on gear like the baseball bat. In total, split evenly between the two of them, he and Kiki only left a few hundred Mel richer.

When said replacement drone rounded the block's corner, Oliver and Kiki finished up their looting and prepared for the flight. It took a bit of finagling to get their new gear in position on the drones, but it still took a fraction of the time than it would take for Oliver to summon his sanctuary for storage. And then they were off again, resuming their flight. As they flew, Oliver decided to allocate his new free points.

Passing the level 50 mark meant he now received an extra free point every level up in the future. He'd expected as much. It was the same as when he reached levels 10 and 30. That meant a total of 19 free points from his 8 new levels. He decided to put 10 points in Strength 1 in Dexterity, and 8 in Resilience, so all three would reach new thresholds. Then he looked over his stats. At least he finally knew what Uncanny Sight was capable of. Invisible opponents like Sasha would no longer be able to escape his notice.

It would have been an invaluable skill back in the Nightmare Biome where he regularly fought ghosts. Oliver Nightingale. Level 53. Class 1 - [Grave Robber] Skills 1 - Appraisal, Shadow Slink, Shovel Proficiency. Class 2 - [Underkeeper] Skills 2 - Death Aura, Summon Sanctuary (Coffin), Echoes of the Dead. Class 3 - [Paranormal Slayer] Skills 3 - Silver Potency. Uncanny Sight. Pistol Proficiency. Status Points - Strength 40, Dexterity 130, Resilience 61, Mental 5, Speech 5, Luck 0. Mel - 911