Chương 11: B1 | Chapter 11

Aidan It's about time. I was getting bored with these weak monsters. And why were they all wolves? Wolves are cool. We shouldn't be forced to kill wolves for days straight. It's just cruel. But it doesn't take long for my smile to twitch. Specifically after we continue into the higher level part of the hunting ground. Where we find more wolves. Just bigger ones now. Damnit. Wolves are one of my favorite animals, so why do we have to kill so many of them…?

I let out a sigh at that before identifying the latest arrival. A solo wolf prowling around our group as if sizing us up. [Level 11 Silver Hunter Wolf] And it's not all that strong either. Still several levels beneath me overall. Then again, it just goes to show how much more difficult the hard difficulty of the first floor was than the average person's floor. Since these monster levels are more in line with everyone else. I let out a sigh before glancing at my status.

◊◊◊◊◊ Name: Aidan Vale Species: Void Crowne(UNIQUE) Bloodline: Void Devourer – Grants a passive drain that drains the source mana of anything the Devourer touches except for living organic creatures.

Class: Void Devourer – Level 17 – Iron Rank Profession: Void Creator – Level 15 – Iron Rank Affinities: Void(500%) Titles: Preawakened Iron Rank, Aqua Forerunner Physical: 37 Magic: 37 Mind: 51 Soul: 51 Stamina: 370 Mana: 370 ◊◊◊◊◊ Despite gaining a few levels in both my Class and Profession, neither of them has gotten any new skills over the course of the past few days' wolf hunts. I've also only gotten a few levels in both. Due to the much lower level monsters here. Still.

We are on the seventh day out of twenty-eight total days for the Tutorial, and yet I'm already past halfway and almost three quarters of the way to the level goal. So I'm not worried. Henry draws his bow and quickly sends an arrow flying right at the larger wolf. And while the wolf attempts to dodge it, it doesn't succeed. Not fully, anyway. Leading to it getting hit by the arrow in its side.

I rush the wolf while it's being assaulted by the mental pain Henry's Bloodline grants his attacks before ripping its throat out. Then the rather enthusiastic Jackson runs up to its corpse and takes a leg that he quickly skins and separates the bone from, seemingly using some sort of Profession skill to do so. Leaving me to drain the source mana from the wolf. And to my surprise, I find myself leveling up both my Class and Profession. With my Class giving me a new skill in the process.

[User's Class, Void Devourer, has reached level 18. User's stats have risen by the following amounts: +2 Physical, +2 Magical, +2 Mind, +2 Soul.] ◊*New Class Skill*◊ [Aura of the Void Devourer(Epic) – Grants the Void Devourer the aura of a predator. Of the apex predator. One who devours all in their path.] ◊*New Class Skill*◊ The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. [User's Profession, Void Creator, has reached level 16. User's stats have risen by the following amounts: +1 Mind, +1 Soul.] Details about what the new Class skill does appear in my mind before I find myself frowning a little. Ali shared with me what she learned about auras from her Guide over the course of the past few days. So I know this skill, or rather aura skills in general, pretty much give the user their own aura that they can use to pressure others with and defend themself from other auras. But I was kind of hoping for a more combat oriented skill.

That's alright though. Having a resistance to auras will help me a lot. That said, the thing that interested me the most about what her Guide told her wasn't about auras. It was about the most powerful nations of the multiverse. Because the original Void Crowne's Void Throne nation is one of them. The Void Crowne, the Heavenly God, the Demon King, the Ruler of the Dead, and the World Tree are the five rulers at the top of the multiverse.

With each ruling over one of the five most powerful organizations in the multiverse. There's the Void Throne, the Great Heavens, the Nine Hells, the Underworld, and the Protectors. Knowing that makes me all the more cautious about the original Void Crowne. Our group continues moving through the forest hunting the stronger wolves as we find them. Sometimes with the wolves appearing in groups and other times on their own or in pairs. The others have all leveled up pretty well too.

Probably at about the same speed as me since I've killed more of them than they have, and I have my Bloodline to devour their source mana on top of the kills. I even cede a few kills over to them from time to time, letting them get more source mana to level up and not fall behind. Specifically the more timid members of the group. Like the healers. And not long before the end of the seventh day, our group ends up finding someone out hunting on their own.

Which is surprising by itself, but what's more surprising is the identify result I get when I identify the lone woman. [Jessica Steele – Level 17 Human Shadow Assassin] The main reason I'm surprised is because she's the second ranked user on the leaderboards. Directly beneath me. But I'm also surprised by her Class. Because Shadow Assassin wasn't what I was expecting the second ranked person on the leaderboard to have as a Class. And her level is surprisingly high.

Even if it's just her Class and might not be her Profession too. For all I know, she could've just leveled her Class and not leveled her Profession at all. She also seems to be alone, while I've been hunting with a group since reaching the second floor. Regardless of her level, she notices us at the same time as we notice her, with her identifying us around when I identify her. Following which she focuses on me and frowns as she asks, "Isn't the Void Crowne one of the rulers of the multiverse?

Why is there another one?" My eyes narrow ever so slightly at her, and something tells me she's not good news. And it's not just because she's asking about my personal matters immediately either. I notice Ali tensing up a little as well. But neither of us manage to say anything before the woman just shakes her head and walks away without a word. Only to vanish with her body turning into a wave of shadows. Some sort of shadow teleportation or shadow travel skill? Seems fitting for a Shadow Assassin.

Second ranked on the leaderboard or not, I'm a little surprised to see her on her own. Even if it feels a little fitting for an assassin Class. We've run into numerous groups of other people over the past few days, but we've only found a couple lone users. And those users were heavily injured most of the time. After we're sure the second ranker is gone, our group finishes up for the day and sets up camp.

Then the rest of them begin to either sleep or practice their Professions, with some taking watch while I continue on to hunt in our general surrounding area like I've been doing over the past few days. Taking advantage of my species' lower sleep requirements to do so. But since I'm just hunting in our group's surroundings, I don't find all that many wolves to slay before I begin to make my way back.

Just seconds after turning to head back though, I feel a strong sense of killing intent through my aura skill – which I've grown used to over the past several hours since getting it – before jumping in the opposite direction of said killing intent. Only to turn around and find a woman appearing from the shadows where I was just standing with a frown on her face.

"Knew you were bad news," I mutter while climbing back to my feet and frowning at her.

"And I knew I needed to get rid of you as soon as possible," Jessica retorts in a rather dry tone of voice. Seems she didn't bother us earlier because we were in a group. But I'm a little surprised she stayed up this late just to hunt me down. She looks a little tired after all. Not really very good shape to be attempting an assassination. My thoughts come to a halt when she suddenly swipes the knife she's wielding in a diagonal line in front of her and sends an arc of shadows straight at me.

Making me use my Void Pit skill for the first time. I watch as an orb about half a meter in diameter appears in front of me, between me and the arc of shadows. Then the arc just goes into the orb and vanishes, with me gaining a little bit of the mana I used to activate the skill back. Interesting. I haven't been able to use this skill before thanks to the fact that those wolves didn't have any magical attacks. And the rest of the people in my group didn't really either since they specialized in weapons or healing.

Well, except for Ali. But her magic is poisons. With her having high mana cost skills with wide areas of damage. So she didn't want to potentially poison us if my skill turned out to be too weak and burn a lot of mana in the process. I rush straight past the orb at Jessica before slashing at her with my claws. Digging five crimson gouges across her forearm and bicep as she slashes at me in return with her knife. The knife makes contact with me, but thanks to my unique constitution, it doesn't really do much.

And all it takes is me tearing at her with my claws one more time to heal the minimal damage she manages to do. Her eyes widen at the sight of my wound healing instantly before she sends another two arcs of shadows my way. Forcing me to jump back a few steps while activating Void Pit. A bigger one this time to handle both attacks. But when my Void Pit vanishes, Jessica is also gone without a trace. No doubt having used that shadow teleport skill of hers that we saw earlier. She's going to be a pain, isn't she?