Chương 110: THE FINAL EVALUATION (13)

That's when a thought came across Jimin's mind. Wait… Why is there no kill notification yet? Suddenly, the familiar ominous aura started aggressively leaking from the corpse of the assassin, as the head and torso began to twitch. Jimin noticed it. So, it has started. The twitching turned from subtle to violent in a couple of breaths, the intensity of the blackish-red aura rising rapidly. Jimin had become somewhat used to this scene by now, but the aura suddenly spiked to a level he had never witnessed before.

He dropped back into a guard stance. Huh… Is it just me or is this one a bit different? But a few moments later, the corpse eventually began to melt. Jimin let out a sigh of relief.

"I was worked up for nothing," he murmured. Then, it started vaporizing. But that's when Jimin noticed something. Unlike the others, the energy didn't simply vanish into thin air. Instead, it began to gather at a single point over the corpse, condensing into a thick, swirling sphere of red-black energy.

"Unknown energy signature detected, Master," Mimi's voice suddenly buzzed in his head, her tone carrying a rare trace of friction. Is this really the same kind of energy? His jaw clenched. Compared to the usual faint aura, this sphere felt physically present. It was way more intense, spreading across much further than usual. The surrounding air had turned oppressive and suffocating. Jimin felt it deep in his gut. Something is completely off. He dashed backward instinctively, as he slammed his barrier up.

But he didn't feel particularly on edge. I stepped back out of instinct, but 'Danger Sense' still hasn't flared up. His gaze sharpened as he analyzed the whole situation. Suddenly- A light shockwave of red energy burst out from the sphere. Jimin braced himself, his heart skipping a beat since his barrier was only effective against physical impacts. But the wave passed cleanly through him, leaving his barrier and body completely unharmed.

The sphere simply dispersed, flying up and away into the sky like a wild stream of smoke, quickly vanishing entirely out of sight.

"Huh…" Jimin muttered.

"What the hell was that?"

"I have absolutely no knowledge of it, Master," Mimi replied. Jimin let out a sigh of deep frustration, trying to contemplate what the anomaly was. But before his thoughts could loop any further, a notification window popped up. [You have killed a **************] But the window suddenly began to glitch wildly. Jimin's eyes narrowed. What's this now? Then, the violent glitching stopped as abruptly as it had started, and a new notification window appeared in its place.

Reward: 3000 LP Total LP: 3108 Huh?! Jimin couldn't believe what he was seeing. He blinked hard and rubbed his eyes, but the number remained exactly the same.

"Three thousand LP!" he muttered, his voice cracking slightly.

"Three thousand!" But before he could process the astronomical numbers any further, another system notification appeared.

[Level-up] You have leveled up! You are now Rank-E, Lv. 9 Jimin stared at the floating notification text, a wave of shock and excitement washing over him. A wide smile spread across his face.

"Hell yeah!" he muttered. Finally reached level-9! But he kept his celebration to the minimum and immediately opened his status window.

【STATUS WINDOW】 Name: Sam Jimin Age: 16 Rank: E Level: 9 HP: 457/520 STA: 127/330 MP: 146/505 PE: 317/810 STATS: STR: 20(+1) AGI: 22(+1) END: 23(+1) INT: 38(+2) WIS: 28(+3)(+1) VIT: 20(+1) CHA: 10(+3)(+1) PSY: 69(+16)(+3) LUK: 15(+4)(+1) FREE STATPOINTS: 5 UNIQUE SKILL: Skillmaster SKILLS: Telekinesis (Lv. 16) Telekinetic spin (Lv. 13) Telekinetic barrier (Lv. 13) Meditation (Lv. 13) Growth (Lv. 12) Dash (Lv. 13) Appraisal (Lv. 17) Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent.

Report sightings.

Damn… I thought it was gonna take a while longer to level-up. He began to skim through the numbers. But as he did, the strange aspects of the assassin's death kept nagging at him. He couldn't understand why this specific person was so radically different from the others he had encountered before. First, the ominous sphere. Then, the massive LP as reward. I never got any LP from killing a human. But this one gave LP, three thousand on top of that! Even killing an E-rank boss only gives a few hundred…

And the experience points. Jimin's brows furrowed. Did I receive any XP from killing the portal user earlier, Mimi?

"No, Master," Mimi's voice replied instantly.

"But the assassin gave a huge amount of XP, equivalent to killing five Rift bosses single-handedly." Jimin's breath hitched. Equal to five bosses! From a single E-rank Rifter?! A deep, unsettling dread mixed with his amazement. Whoever people are behind these are even more dangerous than I thought. Just who are they? What are they? Why did they target us? But his eyes suddenly widened, as a thought crossed his mind. Is it because of me? Because I killed those kidnappers? Have they found out it was me?

Jimin shook his head in denial. No, it can't be. That bastard didn't mention anything about that? And they seemed to be after all of us.

"Tch," he clicked his tongue.

"Nothing makes any sense." But then he remembered. My party! He frantically closed the status window. I'll deal with the distribution later. He spun on his heel and rushed straight toward his party's direction. Mimi, locate my party members immediately! Give me their current coordinates and an update on their vitals! Within a few rapid breaths, the glowing golden lines snapped back into his field of vision, slicing cleanly through the fog.

"Location confirmed, Master," Mimi reported instantly.

"Your party members are currently near the Rift gate, approximately 679 meters ahead along your active path. Party member Yu-jun is slightly injured. Min-su remains lethally injured, but his condition seems to have stabilized a little." Hearing the update, the suffocating anxiety pressing down on Jimin's chest eased a little bit. But he was slightly baffled. How on earth did they manage to travel that far while carrying two heavy and injured people? He shook his head.

It must have been out of fear of that bastard catching up to them. Gritting his teeth, Jimin stepped up his pace even further, rushing to his party. Soon, Jimin could see his party members near the Rift gate through his 'Hawkeye' vision. The entire group looked completely broken. Yu-jun was resting against a boulder, holding onto his buried sword. Hye-jin was sitting flat on the damp dirt, leaning against a tree.

Her face was hollow, eyes staring blankly ahead, as Min-su lay completely motionless on the ground, his head resting quietly on her lap. Yuna was slumped nearby, while Gun-woo stood guard in a paranoid stance. The rest were the same, looking like survivors of a massacre. The sight made Jimin's chest tighten. He maintained his pace, soon arriving near his party. Gun-woo was the first to notice.

"Jimin!" Gun-woo gasped, as his jaw fell open. Every single head snapped ahead. Hye-jin's eyes instantly widened, a sudden wave of shock washing over her pale face, quickly turning into a look of overwhelming relief. Yuna practically pushed herself off the ground, her voice cracking as she breathed out his name.

"You're back... You're really back," Yuna breathed, taking a shaky step forward, as her hands trembled. They couldn't believe he was actually standing right there, completely intact.

"Jimin! Did you escape from him?" Gun-woo asked frantically, his eyes darting to the woods behind him.

"Where is that robed bastard? Is he following you?"

"Did you fight him alone? How did you get away?" Yuna added, her voice laced with panic as she checked him over for injuries. Jimin offered a swift, tight nod to calm their rising panic. He knew he couldn't tell them the full details just yet, so he kept his reply brief.

"He won't be bothering us anymore. He's dead. But I'll fill you guys in on the details later. Right now, we have bigger problems." The sheer gravity in his voice made them swallow their remaining questions. He began to take a closer look at their individual physical states, giving Yu-jun a brief, worried look. The battered Yu-jun blinked his eyes, offering him a slight nod. Jimin understood the gesture. He was doing fine. His focus immediately shifted to Min-su.

"How is Min-su?" he asked.

"It's bad," Dong-hyun replied frantically, his hands covered in blood as he knelt on the other side of the body. His voice was trembling with panic.

"I managed to somewhat stabilize him using my 'Heal' and that potion you gave me earlier. But my skills aren't strong enough to fix his injury. He has gone into hemorrhagic shock from the excessive blood loss." Dong-hyun wiped sweat from his forehead, his breathing incredibly shallow.

"He needs real medical assistance as soon as possible. He... He probably doesn't even have an hour left." Jimin's brows curled. An hour? No… No, no, no. His thoughts raced wildly, a cold dread setting deep in his stomach. There's the boss and a hell lot of things to take care of before we can leave. Then, he has to be taken to the hospital too. An hour is not enough time. His eyes drifted down to the unconscious boy's ghostly, unmoving face. My own 'Heal'... can it save him right now?

"No, Master," Mimi's voice buzzed inside his head, instantly shattering his desperate hope.

"Your 'Heal' is not strong enough to heal this level of injury." Then, how much LP is needed to make it strong enough.

"Calculating cost… 7200 LP for full recovery," Mimi replied after a moment's pause. That much! Jimin clenched his jaw hard. No… Then how much to patch him up? Just enough to get him out of danger for a few hours.

"Focusing on restoring severed blood vessels and cracked bones, stopping blood loss and replenishing some lost blood…

'Heal' is currently at level-9, reaching level-10 will automatically unlock blood vessel restoration and blood clotting. Editing preferred for the rest. Calculating cost… 940 LP-" Jimin didn't even let her finish the sentence. Do it. Do it right now. Within a few moments, a notification window popped up. ['Heal' has reached Lv. 10] ['Heal' has reached Lv. 10] Total LP: 2904 Soon, a window with the modified description followed up.

[Skill: Heal] Description: Casting immediately restores a fixed amount of HP. Channels mana to close wounds, knit flesh, restore blood vessels and cracked bones, stop blood loss, replenish some blood and restore more HP over time (30s). Higher levels allow for the treatment of internal injuries, organ and mana vein restoration. Required LP: 940 Jimin confirmed the edit without any hesitation.

['Heal' Successfully Edited] Total LP: 2168 Alright. Jimin shifted his focus back to Min-su, walking over to his wounded unconscious body. Using this skill right now means revealing my abilities. But he had already gone over this in his mind a number of times on his way here. But as he stared at his friend's pale face, his hesitation vanished. He slowly knelt down, placing his hand over Min-su's chest, as the rest of the party stared with confused and curious gazes. It doesn't matter anymore. He resolved grimly.

We've already become a part of some deep shit today and keeping him alive is the only thing that counts right now. Besides, I created 'Absolute Oath' precisely for situations like this. It's the only key to our safety and survival… It's time to bring up the safety card. Jimin let out a long sigh. Heal.