Hazel peered her head around a corner, gazing into an alley. Ahead of her, she saw more Fractured humans crowded together. Their chorus of groans and snarls echoed throughout the backstreet.
Taking a breath, Hazel lifted her staff toward the horde. A split second later, a malicious crescent blade materialized and rocketed toward the Fractured humans, ripping through their bodies like paper.
[Level 1 Fractured Human has been defeated!]
[Level 1 Fractured Human has been defeated!]
[Level 1 Fractured Human…!]
Hazel’s vision was flooded with kill notifications. However, instead of feeling elated, her face fell into a frown as her brows creased irritably.
“Still no level up yet…” She grumbled. “I’m starting to reach a limit…”
Hazel had been killing monsters for quite a while, but she showed no signs of reaching level eight yet. And that concerned her a little since part of her plan while staying in the town was gaining more levels.
And yet there was no progress regarding this. And it was beginning to bother her.
Walking down the alley and past the disbursing purple light fragments, Hazel took a look at her skills.
Rank 3
A skill that allows the user to summon a bolt of condensed mana to strike their enemies down. There are no cooldowns for this skill.
Rank 2
Gives the caster the ability to fire a sickle-like blade at their enemies. The sickle is made of cursed energy that damages the enemy over time. Curse Dmg is increased by 5%. It’s a skill that is highly used by witches. The Cooldown lasts eight seconds.
Rank 2
A skill that allows the caster to deteriorate anything or anyone they wish. By being afflicted with decay, their vessels slowly decompose, withering away until they are nothing but ash and dust. Rot Dmg is increased by 5%. It is a common ability used by Witches due to its fast-acting effects. The Cooldown is twenty-eight seconds.
Rank 2
Allows the user to summon a shield made of Mana for seven seconds. It will be able to protect the user and block most attacks. The Cooldown lasts ten seconds.
None of her skills had ranked up either, which irked her even more. Not only was she not leveling up, but her progress with her skills was just as stagnant. Even Mana Shield was still Rank 2 despite her using it during her sweeping.
However, this didn’t deter Hazel from continuing. She knew that she would see progress in her efforts, so all she needed to do was to keep going. Keep pushing until she got what she wanted.
Her eyes trailed away from the panels and toward the other end of the ally. Just then, another Fractured human shambled into her sight. Seeing the monster, Hazel raised her staff once more, prepared to shoot her target.
However, just before she could conjure a spell, more groans and snarls were heard from behind her. When Hazel whirled around to see what it was, her eyes widened as more Fractured humans appeared, blocking one of her paths to escape the ally.
As soon Hazel saw this, she gripped her staff before running off to the remaining exit. However, after taking only a couple of steps, she skidded her feet across the ground with horror-stricken across her face. Up ahead, she saw more Fractured humans emerging into the alleyway, thus blocking her routes of escape.
With both of her exits obstructed by the shambling horde, Hazel was now surrounded by the Fractured humans.
“Good grief…” Hazel groaned as the corner of her lip slightly lifted. “This feels awfully familiar, doesn’t it?”
Trapped on both sides, Hazel sharply inhaled, using the opportunity to collect her thoughts. Her eyes whirled between the Fractured horde in front of her and the ones on her rear.
There were quite a lot of Fractured humans. Not as many as before, but still enough to pose a problem for Hazel. So, that left the big question; how should Hazel handle this?
Her eyes dart around her surroundings, searching for an alternate path to escape the horde. But there wasn’t one. No stairs, no ladder, and no door that she could open and get away. Which meant she had only one option.
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To fight her way out.
Turning her attention away from the non-existent escape routes, the novice mage set her sights on the Horde before and behind her. She tightly held her staff while taking a few breaths to try and calm her nerves.
“I don’t have a headache, so I’m not at my limit yet,” She mumbled to herself. “So, I should be able to get out of this.”
Since Hazel believed she still had plenty of mana left in the tank, getting out of this mess should be easy for her. No, not should, it will be easy.
“Baneful sickle should be able to mow down most of them, clearing a path for me. And if not, Mana Bolt is a good secondary option to work with.”
Baneful Sickle is capable of eliminating several Fractured Humans with a single shot. The only problem was the ridiculous timer. Even if the cooldown only lasted less than ten seconds, Hazel wasn’t going to simply wait for the spell to become active again and simply repeat the cycle.
This was why she needed to make sure she had plenty of mana left to use against the Horde since there was a high possibility that she would need to use Mana Bolt to get rid of any Fractured monsters that were still blocking her path.
Feeling ready, Hazel raised her staff toward the horde in front of her. She then conjured a cursed sickle and hurled it at the horde. The novice mage watched as her cursed blade mowed down a good portion of the horde, severing not only their torsos but also their limps in a single attack.
And much like before, just as their bodies began to collapse on the ground, the cracks engulfed their vessels as they disbursed into violet particles. And as soon as the purple lights faded away, Hazel saw an open path for her.
But it was beginning to close as the Horde moved in to close the opening. And Hazel couldn’t let that happen.
Her legs tensed as she began to sprint toward the horde. Toward the open path made for her to leave through. And that path was becoming smaller and smaller due to the horde filling in the space. Obstructing her only exit.
But Hazel wasn’t going to allow them to keep her from leaving. Not when she had plenty of mana to spare and use against them.
While running toward the horde, Hazel directed her staff at them and fired off multiple Mana Bolts, one after the other. Her spells left a trail of brilliant blue as they barreled toward the horde that was in her way.
Several bolts of mana struck the skulls of the Fractured humans, instantly killing them. The path managed to clear up more as Hazel bolted through the horde and escaped out of the alleyway.
Several more Kill Notifications appeared in front of the novice mage, but Hazel mentally discarded them while focusing back on the horde. The Fractured humans slowly turned around to face her. Their glowing purple eyes glared daggers at their prey that got past them.
As the Fractured horde shambled over to Hazel, a small grin formed on her face. Although she wanted to move to where she was no longer surrounded by the horde, that didn’t mean that she wasn’t going to kill all of them after achieving this.
“I haven’t hit my limit yet,” She declared with a daring smile. “So, let’s keep going then!”
With her staff in hand, Hazel proceeded to exterminate the Fractured Humans within the alley, slaughtering each and everyone with blazing determination. She fired multiple Mana Bolts at the Fractured horde, making sure to hit as many of them with only a single bolt to preserve as much mana.
Once the cooldown on Baneful Sickle was over, Hazel would then line up the Fractured and fire the spell, cutting through them with her cursed crescent blade.
To make things a little easier for her, Hazel used the environment to her advantage and fired a couple of mana bolts at the builds that make up the alley. As her rods of mana struck the bricks and wood enough, the walls soon could no longer sustain themselves and collapsed.
And Hazel bore witness as the walls rained down on the Fractured, crushing them in an instant as a large dust cloud was kicked up in the process. At that moment, more kill notifications appeared, flooding Hazel’s sight with her deeds.
The novice mage lightly coughed after accidentally breathing in the dust while backing away.
She never took her eyes off the dust-covered alley, however. There was no way that all of the Fractured humans were dead, and the faint groaning was evidence enough to convince her.
Hazel could’ve just fired into the dust and hoped for the best, but she couldn’t risk using up her mana so recklessly. That and she was beginning to hit her limit now. She was beginning to feel a slight throb assaulting her skull, which meant her mana reserves were nearly depleted.
Hopefully, there was only enough of the Fractured Humans where she could just fire a single Baneful Sickle and be done with them. As the dust settled, Hazel narrowed her eyes to see how many were left.
Surprisingly enough, only half a dozen fractured humans were remaining. The rest were currently buried under the wall debris behind them.
Hazel scoffed at surviving Fractured. “Well, you guys are pretty lucky.” She then lifted her staff toward them with a sly smile. “But not lucky enough, I’m afraid.”
The Fractured Humans were close enough together to where the novice mage could easily dispatch them with a single spell. Without even hesitating, Hazel then fired a Baneful Sickle. She watched the cursed blade tear through what remained of the horde, severing them in an instant.
Their bodies fell to the ground before bursting into purple particles as the rest did. Watching the violet lights floating into the air while disbursing, Hazel smiled. Not just from taking down the entire horde, but also because of the outcome she received from the fight.
[Level 2 Fractured Human has been defeated!]
[Level 2 Fractured Human has been defeated!]
[Level 3 Fractured Human has been defeated!]
[Level 3 Fractured Human has been defeated!]
[Level 1 Fractured Human…]
[You are now Level 8!]
[Mana Bolt is now Rank 4!]
[Baneful Sickle is now Rank 3!]
Her grin deepened as she stared at the fruits of her labor. “Now that’s what I’m talking about.”
This was what was driving her to keep going. And after finally seeing some progress, Hazel felt even more determined to see this through to the end.