As sunlight flooded the clearing around the cabin and the cool night temperature began to slowly rise, Lucius glanced toward the building, leaning Matriarch's Fury on his shoulder as he mumbled to himself casually.
"Wonder if anyone's up in there yet."
His eyebrows rose as he received an unexpected response.
"No, Father, the humans still sleep."
"Wait... You can hear me from in there?"
"I am not hearing your words—more like your intention. It is difficult to explain. I suppose it is easier to just assume that, yes, I can hear you."
"Huh... That's useful. Let me know when the others wake up then."
"Yes, Father."
Lucius turned away from the cabin and gazed into the increasingly illuminated woods. It seemed the creatures of the forest had woken earlier than the humans. Something odd was going on with his Sense Danger talent. The skill had been growing increasingly useful the more he used it—evolving from simply flooding him with fear whenever anything dangerous was nearby like it did when he first received the talent, to gradually becoming capable of distinguishing between different threats.
One such threat was slowly approaching the area around the cabin from deep in the forest, and for the first time, Lucius could almost precisely gauge the strength of the threat. The skill seemed to have suddenly broken through a bottleneck he did not know existed.
Through effort, you have raised Sense Danger to level 6.
Congratulations! System integration unlocked!
Would you like the system to display the information gleaned from Sense Danger?
Lucius could feel that whatever was coming was much weaker than himself, and it was still far enough away for him to comfortably focus on the system's message. The system was offering to display with words the information his skill collected, he decided that might be a useful thing.
"Sure, integrate the skill."
Integrating...
...
...
Sense Danger has detected an F-Class threat!
"F-Class? What does that mean?"
Class refers to the strength classification of a particular being. Classes are determined using each being's single highest attribute.
"That sounds interesting! Can you tell me what the classes are?"
F-Class refers to beings whose highest attribute falls within the 0 to 39 range. D-Class includes attributes between 40 and 99, C-Class covers 100 to 249, B-Class spans 250 to 999, and finally, A-Class—or the Demigod realm—applies to any being with an attribute greater than 1,000.
Lucius read through the information, doing his best to commit it to memory. As his gaze reached the end of the list, he couldn't help but suck in a sharp breath through his teeth.
"Damn... The highest class has 1,000 points in a single attribute? That feels impossible."
He rubbed the back of his head for a moment, wondering how high Twixy or her master's attributes might be, before focusing his attention back on the approaching threat. It wasn’t far away now.
"So, whatever's coming is F-Class. I just reached D-Class, so that means I outclass them by one grade. I should be able to handle this myself without waking the others."
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Lucius concentrated, determining the approximate location of the threat. As it drew closer, he realized it wasn’t a single creature—there were multiple.
"Hmm, feels like three separate creatures. They're moving through the trees. Wait... I know this feeling."
Lucius dashed forward, slamming his right foot against the ground to propel himself into the air toward the forest canopy. Grabbing the lowest branch with his left hand, he swung himself up and planted his feet on a thick limb, scanning in the direction Sense Danger had indicated.
"Sure enough, I've fought these before."
Twenty yards away, a creature swung into view through the trees. It was an apelike being, slightly smaller than a full-grown man. Its body was covered in yellow fur stretched over rippling muscles, and its eyes glowed with an eerie blue light.
It was another pack of the apes he’d faced during his first scouting mission after leaving the farm, or maybe the same pack, he couldn't be sure. These creatures had a strange ability to see through his aspect, likely tied to their glowing eyes. The apes weren’t heading directly for the cabin—more like passing by it. If he stayed where he was and did nothing, he would probably avoid the fight.
A wide grin spread across Lucius' face as he dashed into the woods, heading straight for the creatures.
"Let’s test my growth!"
He moved through the trees at speeds that the former Lucius would think was impossible, never slowing as he kicked hard off one branch after another, his body almost horizontal as he flew through the air. Breaking past the 40-point mark in Dexterity had caused a fundamental shift in his speed and maneuverability. That was probably why the system had set that point as the dividing line between F-Class and D-Class.
The apes let out startled screeches as they saw Lucius' rapid approach, quickly scattering in three directions as they searched the forest floor for their weapon of choice. Even as the three apes rounded on him with stones in their hands, Lucius did not slow down, choosing the closest ape as his target. Increasing his speed with a burst of effort as the force of his step destroyed the limb he had just kicked off.
Three large rocks blasted through the air toward him. Lucius had to give the apes credit—they possessed incredible accuracy, predicting his trajectory and sending the rocks straight at him even as he rushed through the trees.
Lucius focused his mind, reaching out toward the projectiles with the newly enhanced telekinesis granted by Signet of the Commander. Two of the stones vanished from the air immediately as Lucius diverted them into his storage ring. All his attention focused on the last one. The stone slowed as he pushed against it with his mind, coming to a stop mere inches from his body before following along behind him like a moon floating around a planet as he continued through the trees. He pumped his fist in celebration at his accomplishment.
Before, the most he could have done was pull one of the stones into his storage ring. He never would have been capable of grabbing two out of the air while stopping one in midair with his mind at the same time. When the apes saw their attack had been completely ineffective, they scattered in all directions, attempting to escape.
Lucius tried to hurl the stone back at one of the apes using his telekinesis, but his moderate level skill wasn’t quite strong enough yet to do significant damage by itself. The stone bounced harmlessly off the fleeing ape's back. However, it wasn't an entirely wasted effort. Mistaking the stone for Lucius, the creature spun around to defend itself, giving the real Lucius the opening to catch it.
The ape swung its long arms at the young man as he approached, but his body suddenly moved at such speed it became a blur, darting past the creature. The ape furrowed its brows in confusion, trying to turn its head to follow its enemy. For some reason, it couldn’t move its neck.
You have slain Magna Simia, Level 12.
Lucius glanced back just in time to see a spray of blood as the ape’s head fell from its shoulders, tumbling down toward the leafy forest floor. He shifted his focus to the remaining creatures, feeling a surge of exhaustion spread through his body after using Flicker to quickly defeat the first ape and close the distance on the next before the effect disappeared.
The second ape had just landed on the ground to rearm itself when Lucius got close enough to use Piercing Throw. He reached back, flinging his sword forward with all his might and boosting its velocity even more by pushing on it with telekinesis after it left his hand. The weapon tore through the air faster than ever before, appearing more like an actual arrow than a thrown sword.
You have slain Magna Simia, Level 14.
The ape had turned at the last moment to face him, just in time to narrowly avoid Matriarch's Fury. But Lucius slightly adjusted the weapon’s trajectory with telekinesis, driving it through the creature's skull. The ape stood motionless for a moment as it stared back at Lucius, the sword protruding from its head like some gimmicky Halloween costume. Even Lucius was surprised at how easily the weapon had pierced the creature's tough skull, he stared back at the doomed ape with widened eyes until it finally collapsed.
"Holy crap..."
Lucius came to a stop, taking a few heavy breaths and wiping the sweat from his forehead. He retrieved his sword and stored the slain creature's body in his ring. The third ape was already a few hundred meters away, so he decided to let it escape rather than risk leaving the cabin unprotected while his allies slept.
On his way back, he casually collected the beheaded ape’s body. When he returned to the forest clearing where the cabin stood, the message he was waiting for finally reached him.
"Father, the others have awoken!"