[Translator - Peptobismal]
[Proofreader - Max]
Chapter 24
Liam stood before Zeke, drenched in sweat.
"Master, I'll be the bait. In the meantime, please escape quickly."
Zeke chuckled and pushed Liam back.
"Thanks for the thought."
Although Liam knew Zeke was at the Purple Knight level, fighting monsters was a different matter.
There were countless cases of skilled knights losing their lives in battles against monsters.
Moreover, there was no way Zeke, still an academy cadet, could handle a high-risk monster like a Troll.
Before Liam could stop him, Zeke darted forward.
"Gale Force: Phantom Step."
Zeke's body, leaving afterimages, slipped into the Troll's blind spot.
Kaaaaaaaak!
The Troll swung its massive club.
But it was impossible to catch Zeke's movements as he moved swiftly with Phantom Step.
Zeke had hunted countless Trolls in his previous life.
Furthermore, it was easier to use Soul Perception now than in his past life.
Zeke raised his mana and imbued his sword with the energy of Severing using Soul Perception.
Whoosh!
Then, he calmly circled the Troll, accurately severing the tendons in its limbs.
Cuckoo cuckoo cuckoo!
The entire cave shook as the Troll twisted its body.
Zeke, not fooled by the Troll's movements, stabbed its leg joints.
Thud!
The Troll, its joints destroyed, collapsed under its own weight.
However, its wounds began to heal due to the Troll's unique regenerative abilities.
Zeke didn't miss that opening while the Troll was recovering.
He thrust his claymore straight towards the Troll's neck.
Slice!
The massive Troll's head fell from its body.
At the same time, letters appeared before Zeke's eyes.
[You have defeated a Troll. You have earned 30 Karma Points.]
Both the Hellhound and the Troll awarded Karma Points.
'It seems that 'magic-wielding demonic beasts' refers to all monsters in general.'
The Gremlins were probably too weak to be counted for points.
Zeke wore a satisfied expression.
If he could accumulate points by hunting monsters, it seemed possible to gather Karma Points much faster than expected.
Zeke turned on the minimap and checked the locations of the surrounding monsters.
He grinned and said to Liam,
"Liam, collect their heads."
"Understood. Should I collect the Gremlins' heads too?"
"Let's just take the big ones."
Zeke rotated his sword-wielding wrist and walked towards where the monsters were marked.
This time, Goblins were gathered in one place. They seemed to have been waiting for the Troll to pass.
Zeke approached silently and swiftly beheaded the Goblins.
Kyaak!
The Goblins were turned into Zeke's points before they could even scream properly.
[You have defeated a Goblin. You have earned 5 Karma Points.]
Having dealt with five Goblins, he had earned 25 points.
'How many points do I have now?'
[Current Karma Points: 165]
Since there was no opportunity to go outside the dungeon, it seemed like a good idea to accumulate a large number of points this time.
As he was making plans, new letters appeared before Zeke's eyes.
―Tutorial Sudden Mission―
[Hunt 100 monsters of ten different types in the dungeon. Time limit: 72 hours]
[Sudden Mission Reward: Double the acquired Karma Points / 2 Random Boxes]
[Current Score: 3 types / 7 monsters]
[Non-aggressive monsters are excluded from the count]
'Sudden Mission?'
A new type of mission appeared.
Zeke grinned as he saw the reward for the Sudden Mission. It was a satisfactory reward, so he decided to act immediately.
He needed to move quickly to succeed in the mission within the time limit.
"Liam, let's move."
Zeke moved through the dungeon like a skilled adventurer.
By looking at the traces left in the dungeon, he quickly figured out which monsters were present. He continued hunting by having Liam attract the monsters' attention from the front while he beheaded them from behind with his sword.
Slash!
Once the hunt was over, Liam tied the heads of the monsters Zeke had slain with a string and carried them on his back.
They hunted the monsters in the dungeon, and when their stamina ran low, they set up a base camp again and rested.
Even the Infinite Stamina skill couldn't replenish hunger and sleep, so proper rest was essential.
They repeated the cycle of resting and hunting, resting and hunting.
In this way, Zeke swept through the dungeon, hunting 99 monsters of nine different types in three days.
'I just need to catch one more type.'
It was strange that there were so many types of high-risk monsters in a test dungeon.
But Zeke was more concerned about the possibility of failing the Sudden Mission, licking his lips in regret.
That's when it happened.
Crackle crackle crackle!
Zeke sensed a strange sound coming from beneath his feet.
He shouted to Liam,
"Liam! Throw me an Orc head and stay back!"
Liam quickly followed Zeke's instructions. Zeke took the Orc head Liam handed him and threw it towards where the sound was coming from.
Then he held his breath and waited.
A moment later, the ground shook.
Crunch!
A Dungeon Worm that had been underground had surfaced and devoured the Orc head Zeke had thrown with its sharp teeth.
Zeke knew that oil was like poison to Dungeon Worms.
He quickly took out some oil from his bag and applied it to his blade.
Immediately after, he approached the Dungeon Worm at high speed, using the Gale Force footwork.
Then, he boldly stabbed the Dungeon Worm's weak point, under its jaw, with his sword.
Kaaaaak!
Zeke's sword pierced through the Dungeon Worm's jaw and straight through to the top of its head.
The Dungeon Worm struggled, trying to wrap its tail around Zeke.
Crack!
The powerful tail wrapped around Zeke, trying to crush him, but it was no use.
Zeke's Healing Factor activated, instantly regenerating his broken bones and muscles.
"You damn worm!"
Zeke concentrated his mana and imbued his sword with the will of Severing.
His sword, now even more powerful, split the Dungeon Worm in two.
Slash!
The Dungeon Worm, split in half, went limp and collapsed on the floor.
Zeke brushed off the Dungeon Worm's tail that had wrapped around him and stood up.
[Sudden Mission successful.]
[For the first Sudden Mission success, low-grade potions and scrolls will be randomly awarded.]
[Time Reduction Points will be added to the reward.]
[Acquired Karma Points will be doubled as a reward.]
[Two Random Boxes will be awarded as a reward.]
The rewards were great, befitting the effort he had put in.
* * *
"Damn it, I thought I was going to die."
The cadets who escaped through the dungeon exit within the time limit were all in a sorry state.
Although there were only low-level monsters like Gremlins and Goblins, they had to push themselves for three days without proper sleep, not knowing when and where the monsters would pop out.
Still, those who received support from their families seemed to be in relatively better shape.
They brought out the heads or ears of the Gremlins and Goblins they had hunted, strung together.
In particular, Jakenn Vardec brought out the head of a Hobgoblin.
Since it was a ferocious and agile type even among Goblins, making it difficult to hunt, everyone looked at Jakenn with surprise.
Jakenn, enjoying their attention, smirked.
'It was worth it to have practiced beforehand.'
That's when it happened.
"Oh, my..."
Reina Draker emerged with the head of an Orc, dripping with blood.
When she submitted the Orc head to the instructor, the instructor was shocked.
"There was an Orc in the dungeon?"
"I found strange traces and investigated, and a wild Orc had made a nest there, preying on other monsters."
The instructor's expression turned grave at those words.
"Oh dear, it seems one of the wild monsters from the dangerous area escaped. Good work, Reina Draker."
The cadets once again marveled, saying that Reina was indeed on a different level.
The instructor checked his watch, confirming the cadets who had emerged and the remaining exam time.
"Is the only pair that hasn't come out yet Zeke Draker and Liam Stone?"
Zeke and Liam hadn't returned even when all the other cadets had emerged.
Jakenn and the other cadets mocked Zeke and Liam, who still hadn't come out.
"Maybe they were eaten by a Goblin horde."
"Or maybe they're too scared to move."
Just as the exam time was almost over,
Zeke and Liam emerged through a different exit than the designated one.
The instructor in charge, seeing Zeke and Liam, said,
"Zeke, Liam! There's a designated exit, why are you coming out from there? This is grounds for a penalty."
Just then, Zeke approached the instructor and dropped something with a thud.
"What's this?"
It was the head of a monster. But it was unusually large for an ordinary monster.
The instructor was shocked when he confirmed the identity of the monster.
"A-a Troll?"
Ignoring the instructor's surprise, Zeke opened the bag he had brought and rummaged through it.
Starting with the Orc head, the Hellhound head, and everything else that came out were all heads of high-risk monsters.
Zeke, having piled a dozen heads in front of the instructor, dusted off his hands and said,
"There's more, but I couldn't fit them all in the bag, so I just brought what I could carry."
The instructor stared blankly at the monster heads Zeke had brought.
The surrounding cadets had similar expressions.
Just then, Zeke looked around with sharp eyes.
Owen Siemens' expression, standing at the very back, caught his eye.
'It was him who played this trick.'
While others were wearing expressions of disbelief, Owen, although trying to hide it, had a look of dismay.
He had thought it strange that high-risk monsters were appearing one after another in the test dungeon.
He wasn't sure how, but Owen must have guided Zeke and Liam to the dungeon route where high-risk monsters appeared.
'Those Siemens guys are shady, as always.'
Zeke, having grasped the situation, looked at the instructor and said,
"Is this enough to pass?"
"Huh? Uh, y-yes."
Hearing the answer, Zeke immediately returned to the academy with Liam.
He was exhausted from hunting monsters for days and wanted to go back and rest quickly.
* * *
"It seems like it's time."
Zeke, having rested for a while and now in his private training room, looked at the letters floating before his eyes.
―Draconian Skill Level 1―
Gluttony (Locked)
Thanks to the massive amount of points he had acquired from hunting in the dungeon, he had a whopping 780 points available.
After some thought, Zeke decided to unlock the mysterious Gluttony skill.
[Would you like to unlock the Draconian Skill Gluttony?]
"Yes, unlock it."
Zeke unlocked Gluttony and tried using the skill.
Just then, letters appeared.
―Gluttony Information―
In the Gluttony state, it is possible to digest anything and convert it into energy. Also, when consuming a demonic beast with bloodline abilities, it is possible to absorb the abilities of that demonic beast.
"What? What does this mean?"
It was a preposterous explanation.
Digesting anything he ate, converting it directly into energy, and even absorbing the bloodline abilities of monsters – this was an ability he had never heard of or seen even in his previous life.
"This is a completely insane ability."
He now understood why it required 50 points.
Zeke tried using the Gluttony skill as a test.
Wooong!
As the skill activated, Zeke's shadow wavered.
Zeke took out the remaining jerky from his inventory and tossed it on the floor.
Then, according to Zeke's will, the shadow moved and swallowed the jerky whole.
[Energy is converted to restore depleted mental strength.]
He felt his mind clear in an instant.
"Replenishing energy includes mental strength too?"
With this skill, even in situations where he couldn't sleep properly, he could endure by replenishing his mental strength.
It also meant that during battle, if his stamina or mana ran low, he could immediately recover by absorbing and digesting anything with this skill.
Zeke was once again reminded that none of the Draconian skills were useless.
Zeke brought up the Draconian Skill window.
[50 Karma Points required to unlock Skill Level 2]
By investing 50 points, he could unlock new Draconian skills.
He didn't know what they would be, but they were likely to be better skills than Level 1, at least.
'Alright, let's make a bold investment here.'
Just as Zeke was about to unlock Level 2 skills,
Knock knock!
Someone knocked on the door of Zeke's private training room.
Zeke, his excitement dampened, shouted,
"Come in."
Decker entered the training room.
Zeke said in a slightly irritated voice,
"Decker, when I'm in the training room, try not to come in..."
“I received a call from Gelion.”
[Translator - Peptobismal]
[Proofreader - Max]