A/N: Alright so I'll be testing something out for this chapter. Normally the borders for Matthew and Luke's system windows are "====" and "<><>" respectively. However, for this chapter, they will be changed to "~-~-~" and "~x~x~" respectively. I'm simply trying this to see how I like it and to get your opinion. If the readers prefer the original, then it shall be reverted back in the next chapter. Nonetheless, I wish you all a good day.
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~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
[Name: Matthew Adams]
[Level: 14]
[Job: None]
[HP: 115/115]
[MP: 24/58]
[Available Status Points: 0]
[Strength: 26]
[Agility: 33 (+5)]
[Vigor: 23]
[Intelligence: 23]
[Sense: 23]
[Faith: 23]
[Skills]
[Active: Healing Hands]
[Passive: Spear Proficiency]
...
[Name: Luke Sirius]
[Level: 14]
[Job: None]
[HP: 115/115]
[MP: 44/78]
[Available Status Points: 0]
[Strength: 23]
[Agility: 23]
[Vigor: 23]
[Intelligence: 31]
[Sense: 23]
[Faith: 23]
[Skills]
[Active: Sundering Blow, Ember Step]
[Passive: N/A]
...
[Quest: Bloody Vengeance]
[Rank: C]
[Objective: Slay the vampire fledgling]
[Rewards: +5 attribute points to all stats, 1 C-rank skill of your choice, 1 unique item]
~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~
Matthew could feel that he was much faster then he'd been when entering the dungeon. When he was just level 1 he was hardly faster then most athletes. But now, at level 14, Matthew could nearly keep up with the fledgling as they leaped from rooftop to rooftop.
Matthew spared a glance at Luke who was noticeably slower, falling behind the two by several buildings.
Matthew looked forward just in time to skid to a half, duck, and swing up with his spear to deflect a swing from the fledgling who had suddenly stopped in their tracks on the rooftop.
The head of his spear knocked the fledgling's hand aside, only making a small gash in its hand.
As Matthew came to a halt he quickly spun and swung his spear to the side, followed by a quick jab.
The fledged stepped backwards from the swing and knocked aside the head of the spear as it was thrust towards them.
The undead went for a swing with its claws but quickly jumped backwards as two magical bullets, once streaking with purple mist, flew past where they had been standing.
[MP: 44/78 > 38/78]
However just as its feet touched the ground a burst of fire erupted from the floor behind it before vanishing just as quickly, only to be replaced by Luke, his gun held forward.
[MP: 38/78 > 28/78]
He fired off a purple bullet into the fledglings back just as it spun and swift his gun upward against the second shot, the silver bullet flying elsewhere into the sky.
[MP: 28/78 > 23/78]
[Silver Bullets: 5 > 4]
Suddenly, the fledgling was pierced partially into its back by a spearhead. It turned its head to see Matthew continuing to push forward, ramming the spear deeper into its back.
The fledgling roared as the veins under its skin began to rise to the surface. Suddenly, the veins burst from its skin and flailed about.
Quickly, Luke and Matthew leaped backwards as the bleeding spines spun around the fledgling like razor blades, tearing open the tiles of the roofing.
Luke burst into flames only to reappear along the roof of the next building over, well out of the swirling vein's range.
[MP: 23/78 > 13/78]
Matthew, on the other hand, only had time to pull his spear from the fledgling and leap backwards. However Matthew wasn't as quick as the spiraling veins as they slashed across his body.
[HP: 115/115 > 70/115]
Matthew tumbled across the building's roof, nearly falling off of its edge as he fell to a knee. His torso, as well as his shoulder and hip all had a large wound across them.
He glanced to the fledgling as the swirling veins sunk back into their body. While it was slight, Matthew noticed the definition of it's form diminish. The fledgling heaved as it simply stood for a moment.
Matthew put a hand to his chest as his palm began to glow; his wounds began to close as his mana ran through his body.
[MP: 24/58 > 10/58]
[HP: 70/115 > 93/115]
Matthew clutched his spear and dashed forward, thrusting his spear towards the wound on the fledgling's back.
However as he thrust his spear forward he struck nothing but air as the fledgling burst into a small swarm of bats that quickly flew passed Matthew's face.
For a moment, Matthew felt the hair on the back of his neck rise. Instinctively he crouched to the ground just as a clawed hand swung where his head had been. In a fluid motion, Matthew spun, swung his spear upward, and flipped away from the fledgling just as it went for another low swipe where he had been.
The head of the spear grazed across the forehead of the fledgling, causing a stream of ichor down half of its face.
The fledgling dashed towards Matthew and swiped at his head again, then again, and again. Each time Matthew ducked to the side and dodged the razor-nails by mere centimeters.
As the fledgling came in with another swipe, Matthew knocked it aside with the butt of his spear. He used the force to spin his spear and aim the blade for the fledgling's neck, however it quickly dodged backwards, out of the reach of the blade, before dashing back in with its claws pointed forward at Matthew's chest.
Matthew raised his spear and knocked the claws aside, however instead of attacking he took a half-step to the side.
Beyond Matthew, on the next building over, the fledgling spotted a figure pointing a gun in his direction. He heard a bang before quickly ducking as the silver bullet flew above its head.
[Silver Bullets: 4 > 3]
Just as the fledgling ducked it was met with a swinging spearhead cutting into its face. The fledgling had just enough time to jump back to avoid its skull being split open. However, it didn't get far when a silver bullet pierced its chest, tearing through its chest and making a decently sized hole through one of its lungs.
[Silver Bullets: 3 > 2]
The fledgling was about to turn and run from the roof when the spearhead Matthew had swung upward, then swung down onto its collarbone, digging deep into its skin and breaking its collar as well as several ribs.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
The fledgling lets out a feral snarl as it slammed its hand against the spear. The first strike dented the iron spear while the second strike tore it cleanly in half.
Matthew took a step back as the fledgling then reared its hand back and thrust it forward.
However, a burst of flame erupted between the two. Instead of piercing the chest of the spearman in front of it, the fledgling's hand instead impaled the gunman that now stood in front of them.
[MP: 13/78 > 3/78]
[HP: 115/115 > 25/115]
The fledgling looked to the face of its new opponent, but was met with nothing but the barrel of a gun as its hammer was clicked back.
"Gotcha' bitch." Luke smirked as he pulled the trigger.
[Silver Bullet: 2 > 1]
The fledgling's corpse fell backwards, the top half of the creature's head had been blown off from the blast of Luke's gun. Its hand dislodging from Luke's stomach as it fell.
Luke fell to sit on the floor in front of the corpse, holding his chest. "Shit," he grunted. "So this is how you felt back at the town square." He said to Matthew who quickly knelt beside him.
Matthew put both palms over Luke's chest and began to pour his mana into him. However he stopped shortly after when he finally heard the familiar ding of the system's windows... several of them.
Both Luke and Matthew looked above the fledgling's corpse to see a mix of gold and red screens peppering the air.
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
[Leveled-Up]
[Leveled-Up]
[Leveled-Up]
[Leveled-Up]
[Leveled-Up]
[Leveled-Up]
...
[Milestone reached (level 20)]
[Allocating rewards]
[10 attribute points, 1 C-Rank item]
...
[Quest 'Bloody Vengeance' complete]
[Allocating Rewards]
[Rewards: +5 attribute points to all stats, 1 C-rank skill of your choice, 1 unique item]
~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~
Matthew and Luke exchanged stunned glances as they now looked to their respective status screens.
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
[Name: Matthew Adams]
[Level: 20]
[Job: None]
[HP: 138/170]
[MP: 37/85]
[Available Status Points: 10]
[Strength: 37]
[Agility: 46 (+5)]
[Vigor: 34]
[Intelligence: 34]
[Sense: 34]
[Faith: 34]
[Skills]
[Active: Healing Hands]
[Passive: Spear Proficiency]
...
[Skill 'Healing Hands' has increased in power due to your Faith]
[Current Conversion Rate: 1 MP > 3 HP]
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
"Seems like every 10 Faith my skill levels up." Matthew commented as he glanced to Luke's screen.
~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~
[Name: Luke Sirius]
[Level: 20]
[Job: None]
[HP: 75/170]
[MP: 31/105]
[Available Status Points: 10]
[Strength: 34]
[Agility: 34]
[Vigor: 34]
[Intelligence: 42]
[Sense: 34]
[Faith: 34]
[Skills]
[Active: Sundering Blow, Ember Step]
[Passive: N/A]
...
[Skill 'Sundering Blow' has increased in power due to your Faith]
[Current Reduction: 20%]
...
[Skill 'Ember Step' has increased in power due to your Faith]
[Maximum Range: 65 feet]
~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~
"Same for my skills." Luke noted. "Shame the distance for Ember Step only increased by 5 feet though. Figured it'd be a bit higher."
"The increase to Healing Hands is always pretty drastic," Matthew explained as he held his palms to his wounds and began to heal them. "Every time it increases it basically multiplies its effectiveness.
[MP: 37/85 > 26/85]
[HP: 138/170 > 170/170]
He then turned to Luke and began healing the partially closed wound in his chest.
[MP: 26/85 > 0/85]
[HP: 75/170 > 135/170]
The wound was mostly healed, although he was mainly only able to heal the tendons and part of the organ tissue that had been injured. As for other parts of the tissue, it was a separate story.
"Sorry... I can't quite heal all of it yet." Matthew commented. There was a slight bit of unease on his voice as he looked at the wound. Regardless of the fact he had mostly healed it he still felt bad he lacked enough mana to completely relieve Luke of his injury.
Luke just waved his hand as he got to his feet with a slight grunt. "We both've had worse. This isn't too bad." He glanced to his HP. "It's over a hundred anyways. We've gotten pretty durable since we've started this whole..." his voice trailed as he simply waved a hand at the many remaining screens in front of them.
Matthew nodded in understanding. He never really imagined being this strong. If him and Luke had never gotten this system then, as an E-rank, Matthew surly would have died against their first encounter with the vampire thrall.
Matthew then glanced down at the object hands; his spear had been broken by the vampire and was now basically useless.
Technically he could wield the half with the spearhead as a strange short sword, but it would've been equivalent of giving an inexperienced fighter a blade and telling them to go and kill. He had little training in any weapon other then polearms, specifically spears.
"I need a new weapon. Only reason I could pierce that fledgling's skin was cause of that purple bullet." Matthew noted.
Luke gestured to the rewards screen that persisted above the fledgling's corpse. "We can get an item from the quest. Not sure what the 'unique item' would be, but we also have the item for our level milestone."
Matthew glanced to the pair of quest rewards. "Accept quest items." He commanded towards the two screens.
The milestone screen closed, it's rewards having been used; the reward screen for slaying the fledgling stayed, it's only rewards now being 'C-rank skill of your choice'.
Suddenly, two items dropped on front of Matthew.
At the sight of them Luke and Matthew exchanged confused glances, primarily to one item. One of the items was, in fact, a spear which Matthew picked up; another golden screen appeared before him.
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
[Ballistic Spear]
[Rank: C]
[Attack: +30]
[Description: A fine metal spear with a unique shaped spearhead that can be detached and shot off.]
[Effect: The spearhead can be shot forward with immense speed and force, dealing twice the weapon's damage. The spearhead reforms after use.]
[Recharge: 1 minute]
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
"At least I got a new spear." Matthew muttered before turning his head to the item that confused Matthew and Luke both.
On the ground before them was a pure white norse horn. A leather strap was attached to its sides so one could hold onto it.
The horn was inlaid with golden designs of wings around it.
Matthew picked up the horn as the screen displaying the spear's stats was replaced by the horn's.
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
[Horn of Heaven]
[Rank: Unique]
[Description: A war-horn used by commanding angels at the gates of Heaven to inspire their allies]
[Effect 1: By blowing the horn you imbue both yourself and creatures of your choosing with divine fortitude, increasing their defense and strength by an amount determined by your faith stat for 5 minutes]
[Strength and defense increase: 17]
[Recharge 1: 1 hour]
[Effect 2: By blowing the horn you can call upon the army of light to fight for you. The amount of warriors of light summoned is determined by your faith stat]
[Warriors Summoned: 2]
[Recharge 2: 24 hours]
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
"Christ." Matthew muttered as he looked through the item's effects. He looked over the item's description twice as he held the horn in his hands. "I can summon magic beasts." He muttered.
"Two at that." Luke said in equal astonishment. While other hunters had the potential to summon magical beasts to fight for them, albeit this skill was primarily reserved for mage type hunters. Regardless, summoned magical beasts lacked in number. It was rare for most hunters, even of a higher rank to be able to summon more then around 2 or 3 without a massive toll on their mana.
"How powerful would each warrior be? I doubt they're any stronger then I'd be?" Matthew asked, glancing to Luke who simply shrugged.
"Might be tied to Faith, like everything else."
"Maybe," Matthew replied. He grabbed the horn and slung it over his shoulder, however, as soon as his hand left the leather strap, the horn flickered and vanished in a brief flash of light.
Luke and Matthew exchanged glances again, this time of confusion and partial annoyance.
"The hell did it go?" Matthew asked, as if his friend knew the answer.
The answer came in the form of another screen, replacing the horn's description.
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
[Item 'Horn of Heaven' has become soul-bound]
[When not in use soul-bound items will become one with the soul]
[You can summon and use the horn at any time]
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
".... huh.... we need to start asking this thing more questions." Luke retorted, pointing a thumb to the screen as it disappeared.
Matthew opened his mouth to speak, but a voice rang out.
"Luke, Matthew! Hurry, lead the vampire down here so I can freeze it!" Dorian's voice came from the streets below them. His voice came through slight winded gasps as he ran through the streets.
Luke rolled his eyes and walked to the edge of the building. He cupped his hands around his mouth towards Dorian. "Ice-guy, the vamp's dead. We're up here."
Dorian suddenly stopped running and looked around him before finally turning his head upward to see Luke and Matthew poking their heads from the edge of the building's roof.
Dorian knit his brow. "You killed it?"
"Yes, we- Y'know what-" Luke stopped and stepped from the edge, and grabbing the corpse of the fledgling.
"Luke... what the hell are you doing?" Matthew asked as Luke hoisted the the body over his shoulder and stepped back to the edge.
Without further elaboration, Luke turned to the building's edge, and tossed the corpse from the edge.
Dorian took several steps back as the corpse fell with a thud a few feet from where he had once stood.
Dorian looked over the corpse. Looking for any signs of movement or latent regeneration from the stump where the top half of its head once was. Any sign of the beast having not been fully killed. However several seconds passed; there was no indication of movement, no indication of life.
Matthew and Luke jumped from the building, landing on their feet next to Dorian. From having increased their stats to significantly, a fall from that height was hardly an issue at their strength, assuming the hunter landed on their feet.
Dorian looked up and glanced between the two hunters. Then his gaze turned back to the corpse. "You managed to kill it." He muttered, more to himself then to the hunters.
Matthew suddenly felt something from Dorian, albeit it was faint. He couldn't quite describe the feeling. It was as if he wasn't feeling a sensation that belonged to any of his 5 senses. He could sense a shift on Dorian. Suddenly he felt, worried, confused, even angry. But suddenly, as he took a glance up at Matthew and Luke, the feeling spiked, then plummeted just as quickly.
"Well anyways, there's still one last thing to do." Dorian retorted, turning to face down the street.
Luke and Matthew followed his gaze down the path, towards a large opening on the ruined buildings. In the opening stood the ruined cathedral. Its front gates were made of dry, decayed wood. The grass on either side of the pathway towards it were dried out and long dead.
"There's still the boss. Although, seeing what you two have done," Dorian looked to the fledgling's corpse. "That shouldn't be an issue."
He looked between the hunters who simply nodded.
Finally, the three stepped towards the cathedral gates, ready for whatever lay inside.
***
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[Leveled-Up]
[Leveled-Up]
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
Dorian had been right: the boss of the dungeon hadn't been much of an issue.
Within the cathedral, sure enough, had been the boss; a giant amalgamation of rotten corpses melded together into a blob of torsos, and limbs.
Matthew stood atop the blob's main torso. What was left of it at least. During the fight Luke had used his last few silver bullets to blow two chunks out of the creature. Followed up with a stab through the skull of its main head, courtesy of Matthew, the boss was felled.
"Well that was underwhelming." Luke commented as he spun the cylinder of his gun, waving the briar-rimmed screen that appeared before him.
Matthew leaped down from the corpse to meet both Dorian and Luke who still stood next to the exit.
"Thank you two for the help in the dungeon." Dorian noted. "Originally you were supposed to get a fifth of our profit... but it seems you'll be getting a bit more then that." He looked between the two hunters, noting the lack of Lilian and Horris within the group.
"Sorry for the others. We weren't quite strong enough to save them." Matthew said, setting a hand on Dorian's shoulder.
Dorian shook his head and moved Matthew's hand. "You don't need to lie. It's clear you aren't who you said you were. Nonetheless, I don't blame you for their deaths. It's my responsibility to keep them safe." Dorian walked towards the cathedral door. "I'm not sure what reason you two have to become false-rankers, especially as E-ranks of all things, but given the fact you haven't took a chance to kill me yet, I doubt you're as psychotic as some others would be." He explained, opening the door.
False-rankers were a strange type of hunter who could alter the amount of mana they put off, altering the rank they obtain during their rank evaluation, causing it to be lower then what they are actually capable of. Normally, false-rankers were considered loose cannons, using their inferior rank to surprise other hunters and kill them.
Dorian glanced behind him. "I'm sure you have your reasons for doing what you did... now let's get back to the gate."