His Katana slashed through the air with immaculate accuracy and grace. Each swing, while still amateur, showed great skill and understanding. His attacks soon saw notable improvement, which he found impressive. With the help of his Innate Ability, it would be no time before he mastered the blade.
He did notice a weird awkwardness when he swung, which he couldn't seem to hammer out. He didn't mind it, though, mainly attributing it to inexperience.
Although he enjoyed using the Katana due to its speed and sharpness, He knew as he got stronger and his gifts started scaling better, a katana wouldn't be able to fully maximize his power as a warrior.
He would eventually need to transition into something heavier and more impactful.
However, he also didn't want to lose the fantastic speed and sharpness a katana gave, which left him conflicted.
Lucian ignored the thought. He would test out other weapons with Giffard either way.
Soon as he walked on the path, he spotted a small swamp filled with dark red souls lurking in the shade. They looked pretty weak compared to the other monsters he passed by. He took a quick look at the map; this was the location. Walking towards the area, he could identify the beasts in question.
It was a lizard-like beast roughly a meter long with silver scales all over its body. Hanging on one of the trees, it lackadaisically ate some leaves as its head whipped back and forth periodically. Every once in a while, a long flaming tongue protruded out, burning the leaves it stuffed in its mouth. The surroundings were littered with scorch marks as other iguanas played ignorantly.
[Dragonic Iguana (Common) - LVL 7]
Nodding internally, he knew he had found the proper beast. Turning toward Halia, he spoke to it.
"Stay here, Halia." He told her as he pointed towards the ground. She was still level 1, and he wouldn't want her to get hurt.
Staring at him, she sat down as she waited patiently.
Seeing this, he turned towards the beasts. He decided to sneak behind the first Ignana he saw since they seemed pretty easygoing. If he could silently get the kill without any extra work, that would be great.
Unfortunately for him, things didn't pan out the way he wanted them to. As soon as he reached a few meters closer, it instantly turned towards him, its eyes flashing red.
A long flaming tongue immediately sped towards him.
Lucian was prepared. He dodged the attack as he unsheathed his blade. However, just before he released his attack, it quickly ran down the tree and away at an incredible speed!
Lucian simply stood there dumbfounded as he saw the beast disappear from his sight. That was by far the fastest he had ever seen a beast move apart from the Stag. It was gone in less than a second!
Lucian knew for sure that he wouldn't be able to match that speed without hurting himself.
"I should have done more research on the beast," Lucian said to himself as he turned back. It looks like he wouldn't be able to do much hunting today.
Walking back to the main road, he searched for Halia, noticing she wasn't there anymore. Looking around, he found no trace of her anywhere, which made him anxious.
"Halia! Wher-" Suddenly, a woosh sound echoed as a black fox appeared right in from of him. It sat on the floor patiently as the dust cleared.
Rubbing some of the dust off his eye, his eyes widened once he saw what was in the fox's mouth.
She had a silver-colored beast in its mouth that puffed out smoke.
It was a Draconic Iguana!
Lucian stared in shock at the creature as Halia dropped it onto the ground. She stared at him with a haughty stance that seemed to scream, 'praise me now.'
"Did you kill this beast yourself?" Lucian asked in shock. Wasn't Halia Level 1? How was she able to kill this beast? He took a look at her status once more.
[#$%*@$#$(#@!$#%)- LVL 2]
She was now Level 2! Lucian couldn't make heads or tails of it. Did she just level up from killing that beast? From his knowledge, that should be impossible. Beasts gained strength naturally through their genetics. They should not have access to the system.
Then why does it seem like Halia just leveled up?!
She simply nodded once and pushed the dead body towards him. She wanted to give it to him to complete his quest.
"Halia. Did you just level up?" Lucian asked gravely as he stared into her eyes.
Slightly confused, she tilted her head a little before nodding once.
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"Incredible..." Lucian exclaimed as he stared at her like she was an alien.
Lucian knew this was monumental. For a beast to be able to level up was something very unnatural. Even with Lucian's limited knowledge, he knew such a thing was impossible. This meant Halia could evolve its species and quicken its strength gains faster than any other beast.
Beasts grew stronger by absorbing the natural energies of the world passively. When they aged, their strength would naturally increase. They could also evolve their species to a higher level which will increase the speed of their natural energy absorption, which allowed them to gain strength faster. The system simply acted as a measure of their relative strength and grade compared to other beasts within itsself to enable system races analyze their strength.
On the other hand, Halia had just skipped the aging process and headed straight to the next level, just like that! Her potential to gain strength was many times stronger than average!
"And when did she get so strong?" Lucian thought to himself. The only reason he was so powerful was because of his titles and unique abilities currently, so how could she jump levels so easily? However, he cleared the thought. He was just glad that she could keep up with him in the future.
"Alright! Now I know you can kill these things. Let's get to hunting, shall we?" He said with a grin.
Halia smiled and nodded along as they dashed into the forest.
Soon enough, movements were heard in the forest as the battle ensued. The duo hunted the beasts with no difficulty as Lucian saw steady progress in his skills.
Halia also seemed to gain strength with each fight as she had gotten accustomed to fighting at her level. Though oddly enough, even after multiple kills of the Draconic Iguanas, she had not leveled even once after!
Lucian believed that her threshold for each level was relatively high, which made sense considering how much of an advantage having a system was to her. Her incredible speed was not the only advantage she had. She could perfectly camouflage herself in darkness, and her claws periodically glowed in red as she attacked, which seemed to increase her piercing power dramatically.
At this point, it was very much clear that Halia was very special in many ways. Lucian knew he would have to investigate her abilities further. However, on the bright side, she seemed to listen to everything he said. They were slowly becoming a great team!
A giant red claw materialized in the air as the final iguana was cut by Halia's incredibly quick claws. Hitting a vital point, the beast died near instantly as Halia picked up its corpse using its mouth. Shaking it a bit, Halia confirmed its death before walking it toward Lucian. As required by the quest, he pulled out its tongue and put it in a pile inside the pack he had brought.
"I'll definitely need one of those space rings soon enough. It's such a waste to leave the rest of the bodies here," Lucian said as he threw the corpse to the side.
"Woo!"
On the other hand, Halia loved the arrangement as she dug into the beast's guts, eating its favorite parts.
Lucian didn't mind it since it was a waste, after all. He would simply need to amass some money to be able to buy one in the future.
"I believe it is sold around 5000 Astral Currencies back in Town. *Sigh* I'll need to do roughly 14 of these quests to afford it," Lucian said with a sigh before walking towards the main path again.
"Though I'm sure I can take multiple quests at the same time, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem unless all the lower-leveled quests are taken," Lucian thought as he walked down the road.
Lucian stared into the sky. The sun glowed at the rim of the world, signaling the end of his hunt. From experience, he knew hunting at night was much more dangerous compared to the day. Although with Halia's help, he could survive, he would rather not take the chance on himself. The combat, combined with all hours of practice, also made him quite tired. Overall, resting here was the best option.
As he walked he took a look at his new status.
Basic Stats
Name: Lucian Villin
Class: ---
Profession: ---
Race: Human
Strength - [0.25][0.59]
Constitution - [0.25][0.5]
Endurance - [0.27][0.62]
Perception - [0.28][0.66]
Agility - [0.28][0.56]
Dexterity - [0.28][0.66]
Willpower- [0.25][0.69]
Intelligence - [0.22][0.64]
Soul - [0.4][0.8]
Health [29]
Stamina [20]
Physical Attack [30]
Magical Attack [37]
Mana [10] (NULL)
Critical Chance [0.15%]
Critical Dmg [1.5]
Health Regen [1.4/Min][0.024/sec]
Stamina Regen [10/min][0.17/sec]
Mana Regen [0.21/min][0.003/sec] (NULL)
Soul Essence [10]
Soul Essence Regen [5.2/min][0.09/sec]
Cultivation
Body -The Imperishable 6 Paths of the Hegemon (Unique)
Gifts
* Primal Muscle Activation (Rank SSS+) (Passive)
* Primordial Bone Burst (Rank SSS+) (Passive)
* Titanic Body (Rank SSSS) (Passive)
Soul - Grand Myriad Dao Soul (Unique)
Gifts
* Sense Amplification (Rank SS) (Passive)
* Sense Strengthening (Rank SS) (Passive)
* Soul Manipulation (Rank SSS+) (Passive)
Skills
Universal Language LVL X
Phantom Body (Unique)(Unranked) LVL 9
Soul Cutting Edge (Unique)(Unranked) LVL 7
Blood Burst (Unique)(Unranked) LVL 2
Beginner Blade Mastery (Passive)(Rank G) LVL 15*
Quick Draw Stance (Stance)(Rank G) LVL 9
* Quick-Step Draw (Unique)(Passive)(Rank G)
He gained a significant amount of skill level on his [Beginner Blade Mastery], [Soul Cutting Edge], [Quick Draw Stance], and [Phantom Body] with an increase of 5, 4, 8, and 5, respectively particularly due to his excessive use of the four He also gained a fair amount of stats in all fields as he finally broke through to the Golden Limit in his Intelligence Stat with minimal to none in the rest due to how difficult leveling through the Golden Limit was.
Soon he passed by the sleeping guards guarding the door once again as he headed straight for the Questing board.
Directions pointed him towards a stand where the hunted items were held. An inconspicuous man sat quietly while he waited for the final quest takers to bring in their spoils.
Walking towards him, he gave him the pack of Iguanas as he collected the reward. It was a relatively simple process that required not much speaking.
With 350 Astral Currencies in hand, Lucian smiled slightly before heading towards the hotel with Halia right behind him. With this amount, he should have enough to live and conduct some experiments he would need to do in the future.
Soon, he reached the front receptionist's desk and walked upstairs. He took a quick glance around, but Aerith was nowhere to be found. Most likely, she was asleep herself.
He reached his room and dropped onto his bed like a sack of potatoes. He was completely drained. Halia felt the same way as she curled into a ball and drifted off to sleep in minutes. Following her footsteps, after cleaning himself with a hot shower, he lay in his bed, slowly drifting off to sleep, resting up for the challenges he would face tomorrow.
Lucian Woke up early the next day, and he quickly got ready. Learning from his lesson last time, he used [Soul Sight], and, as expected, one of Giffard's subordinates was waiting behind the door for him.
Greeting him warmly, he followed the man towards the training area once again, where he found Giffard waiting for him in the exact location as last time. Taking his seat, he watched as Giffard brought out his favorite wine again. The two talked about the day for a bit before jumping into the next topic.
"Now, we will begin with skills and abilities." Giffard began with a small smile.