A cold wind blew through the frozen streets of Frostheart, but this time no howls could be heard.
No roars, no screams, no sound of battle. The only thing left was silence. A heavy silence that had fallen over the city.
The massive corpse of the ice Titan lay in the center of the square. A monster that was once considered the king of this city.
A monster that thousands of creatures feared, but now it lay motionless on the ground.
Lian was lying on the ground. His whole body hurt, but it did not matter. For the first time in a long time, he was alive.
Next to him, Seris sat on a piece of ice. She placed her sword beside her and stared at the Titan’s corpse for a few minutes.
Neither of them said anything.
After a battle that had nearly taken their lives, even speaking seemed hard.
Suddenly, several notifications appeared in front of Lian’s eyes.
[Level Up]
[Level 8 → Level 9]
[Level Up]
[Level 9 → Level 10]
At that moment, a warm wave spread through his whole body. Flesh, bones, veins, and his entire body began to rebuild.
The hands that had been almost destroyed in the final attack reformed. The broken bones healed. The torn skin closed.
A few seconds later, no trace of those terrible injuries remained.
Lian’s eyes widened a little. It was not the first time he had leveled up, but every time he saw something like this, it was strange.
No matter how bad his condition was, no matter if he was between life and death, as long as he leveled up, all wounds would heal.
Next to him, Seris was also covered in a white light. Her wounds closed one after another. The paleness of her face returned.
Even the hole the Titan had nearly made in her body disappeared.
A few minutes later, both were in almost the best possible condition.
Lian sighed, then stood up. His gaze fell on the monster’s massive corpse.
A small smile appeared on his face.
"We really killed it."
"Yes. This was the hardest fight I have ever had." Seris looked at the carcass, then slowly nodded.
"Me too. Until a week ago, I never thought I would be in such a fight at all." Lian laughed quietly. He had always wanted to become an Awakened.
And looking at this situation, being an Awakened did not seem that fun. But the interesting thing was that he had killed a Fallen monster!
True, he had done it with Seris’s help and not alone, but that by itself was an incredible achievement.
Monster ranks are divided into five categories: Normal, Fallen, Unholy, Demon, and Supreme. And he had managed to defeat a Fallen one.
And not like before, a level 10 Fallen that was near death, but one that was at its strongest state.
And he had done it when he was only level 8. Normally, to hunt a level 19 Fallen monster, you need at least a group of ten Awakened between level 18 and level 20, and even then, they need items, weapons, and the best armor.
If guilds, organizations, or even governments found out he had done such a feat, they would try to hire him like crazy.
For a moment, silence fell between them. Then Lian opened his notifications. The first thing that caught his attention was the Fragments.
[Fragments: 36]
Their number did not surprise him. Before using them, his Fragments had reached 41. He had used 15 of them, so they should have gone down to 26.
But from killing that Fallen monster, he had gotten 10 Fragments.
Then his gaze fell on a new skill.
[Skill Acquired]
[Frozen Cataclysm]
[Rank: Common (+)]
[Description: The user concentrates a massive amount of ice energy at one point. When released, a destructive wave of ice and cold destroys a wide area. Enemies caught in the center of the explosion receive very severe damage. Mana consumption is very high.
Consumes 30 mana per use.]
Lian whistled quietly. Even from the description, it was clear he could not fully use this skill right now. 30 mana is no small amount.
Luckily, he had leveled up twice and his mana pool was full again. Otherwise, in a normal situation, it would take hours to refill.
Then his gaze fell on the Stat Points.
[Stat Points: 27]
Lian frowned.
"Only 7?" Then he thought for a moment. He had gotten a total of 7 from killing this monster. He had expected more.
But he immediately understood the reason. Group kill. Both he and Seris had contributed to killing the Titan.
That was why the reward was split. Exactly the same thing that had happened with the Fallen Wolf in the valley.
If he had killed this monster alone, he would probably have received much more reward.
His gaze fell on another notification.
[Kill Contribution: Shared]
"So that’s why." He thought out loud.
"What?" Next to him, Seris looked at him.
"Nothing. I just realized how stingy The Will is." Lian shrugged and said.
For the first time, a small smile appeared on Seris’s lips. As if she understood what he meant. But it was very short. So short that if Lian had not been paying attention, he would have missed it.
But that itself was strange.
"Anyway, I think you should change your armor." Lian then said to her, because many parts of the girl’s body were exposed.
"Oh." Seris looked at her armor and realized it was largely destroyed.
"Please look the other way." She then said to him.
Lian nodded and took his gaze off her, looking around. The monsters of the city were still there, but none came close.
In the distant streets, on the rooftops, and in the dark corners of the city, hundreds of pairs of blue eyes could be seen. But no one dared to come near.
The monsters just watched. Nothing remained of their king but a corpse, and now they were afraid. Of course, that was normal.
But he had no plan to leave them alone.
"I changed." Then Seris said, and Lian turned and looked at her. She was wearing exactly another set of armor like the one he had.
"How many sets of that armor do you have?"
"Three. This is the second."
"I think it’s time." Lian nodded to show he understood, then added.
"Time for what?" Seris raised an eyebrow.
"Cleaning up."
A few seconds of silence passed. Then Seris picked up her sword. It was clear she understood what he meant.
"Finally, you said something I like."
A moment later, both disappeared. BOOM! The snow under their feet exploded. Their speed was so high that they only left a faint trace behind.
The first monster did not even have time to run. Lian’s claw tore its throat.
[Frosthorn Stalker Level 7 Killed]
Blood sprayed on the snow.
The second monster was cut in half by Seris’s sword.
Third.
Fourth.
Fifth.
The slaughter had begun. But this time, the roles of hunter and prey had switched. The monsters were running, and the two were chasing them.
As time passed, more fear spread among the creatures of the city. Until suddenly, a new notification appeared.
[Title Acquired]
[Nightmare of Monsters]
[Description: Monsters within a 10-meter radius become scared for 10 seconds, and their senses are weakened by 20 percent. This effect does not apply to monsters that are more than 10 levels above the user.]
Seeing the notification, Lian laughed. Who would have thought he would get such a title? And at that moment, the nearest monster jumped back in terror.
As if it had really seen something scary. Seris also received a similar notification.
She looked at the fleeing monster. The poor creature immediately fell to the ground and started crawling in fear.
"Interesting." Seris just said.
Seeing this situation, normal people might feel pity for the terrified monsters. But her? She just cut the monster’s neck.
By evening, more than thirty monsters had been killed. The streets of Frostheart were again colored red.
But this time, no creature dared to resist. A large number of monsters fled the city.
Some to the mountains, some to the frozen plains. Anywhere to get away from these two monsters that looked like humans.
When darkness ruled the city, the killing finally stopped.
He and Seris had returned to the corpse of the Fallen monster. The wind blew through their hair.
The city that had almost become their grave was now the grave of these monsters.
Lian was cutting the corpse of that Fallen monster into pieces so he could put it in his storage space. He had also collected the corpses of the other monsters he had killed.
So there was no way he would leave this one, which could be extremely valuable.
"Are we going back?" Seris broke the silence.
Lian stared into the distance for a few seconds, toward where they had come from and the path to the golden mountain. Then he gave a cold smile.
"Yes." His gaze darkened.
"It’s time to go back to that damned village."