Eva and Douglas were lost in thought for some time after Kailan’s explanation. They were both trying to cement this information into their minds. Partially because they would need to include it in their report and partially because it was extremely useful to them personally.
“Shouldn’t we get going?” Kailan interrupted their thoughts.
“Oh! Of course.” Eva jumped up as she placed the dirty plates and other utensils into plastic bags before shoving them back into her backpack.
Douglas was still seated deep in thought.
“We’re going to leave you behind, big guy.” Kailan called out as he and Eva started walking towards the forest in the distance.
Douglas awoke from his reverie. He quickly got up and rushed after them.
As they walked around the area they encountered a number of other Reigon patrols. As usual Kailan quickly dispensed with them. None seemed to be able to stand against him. They couldn’t even hit him while most barely had the chance to move a muscle before he sliced them open.
Eventually a bright light flashed a short distance away. “It’s the mini-boss and his guards.” Eva explained.
Kailan darted in their direction with his blade drawn. The mini-boss was slightly taller than the others and had a large wooden staff. Clearly a mage. It’s guards were decked out in metal armor and had swords and shields.
As Kailan approached, the guards moved in front of the mini-boss letting out strange guttural screeches. While the mini-boss started letting out screeches in different rhythms and tones as he waved his staff in the air. He was preparing a spell and a big one by the looks of it. Some skills had low cast times, being able to be cast almost instantly, but higher tier skills had longer cast times as it took some time to gather the necessary Mana and focus it into the skill. Not to mention any processes of conversion.
Kailan didn’t slow down and simply crashed directly into the wall of guardians. A Zweihänder was a long sword making it unwieldy in cramped spaces, but highly effective in wide open spaces. Kailan swung the blade sideways as he spun, the speed and force were enough for him to slice straight through all four of the guardians at once, their armor and their shields were cut apart like tofu. He completely bisected them in a single strike.
As he completed his swing, Kailan lowered the blade to the ground to help slow his momentum, then placing pressure on his feet he launched himself at the mini-boss. The poor creature was still building up power and didn’t expect for it’s guards to be so useless in delaying this mad man. It screeched aloud as Kailan’s blade outstretched and pierced straight through its chest.
Kailan twisted the blade to the side and sliced out of the Reigon mage’s body, spilling its guts out onto the ground.
“This is too easy. They’re only Plebeian rank and low level so they can’t even put up a challenge.” He thought as he swung his blade to remove the blood stains.
“You have killed 4 level 1 Reigon Guardians.”
“You have killed a level 2 Reigon Sub-Commander.”
“You have gained 6 experience.”
“You have gained 6 AP.”
Eva and Douglas finally caught up. They weren’t running but they were moving at a fast pace. Still it wasn’t fast enough for them to even catch the battle. Eva sighed as she saw the carnage littering the ground. Kailan was standing there with his sword resting over his shoulder looking around for his next prey.
In truth it wasn’t difficult for any level 1 Hunter that has a talent rank of at least Knight to do what Kailan was doing, but it had not been done before. At least not to Eva’s knowledge. People would be cautious when venturing into dungeons. Not to mention that it was kind of wasteful to raid a dungeon with only three people when you could come in with a full party and everyone would obtain experience as long as they were within a certain range, even if they just stood there. The leveling system was relatively lenient and allowed for ‘power leveling’.
Of course simply power leveling someone was also wasteful as there were other factors like their skills or combat experience which were just as important. Stats were useful for facing opponents weaker than you, but when it came to ones of equal or greater strength, the victor was decided with a combination of factors.
She and Douglas continued to follow Kailan on his hunt and they eventually made it into the forest. Douglas thought that Kailan would have difficulty with his large blade weapon here, but to his surprise he didn’t. Kailan weaved around the trees sometimes at curious angles like it was natural. His blade never came close to striking one of the trees and always found its way to his opponent.
Eventually Eva counted a total of 146 enemies killed and another flash of light lit up the horizon over the trees. The boss and his guards had arrived.
Kailan didn’t pause and immediately made his way in their direction.
The boss was another oversized goblin-like creature. But instead of a wooden staff it had a big meat cleaver and bulky muscles making it stand out from the usual scrawny Reigon. And this time the guards had bows and arrows. The moment Kailan approached them they noticed him and began to set up for their attack.
The area they spawned in was up against a mountain that wrapped around in a semicircle. The archers moved to two places on a cliff that were on opposite sides of the area. It was somewhat like an arena with the big Reigon boss in the center and the archers on the stands to the side ready to snipe anyone that comes within range.
Kailan only took a second to analyse their formation. He smiled as he changed his trajectory to the left. He was going for the two archers on that side.
The archers immediately started firing at him. As the arrows flew past, Kailan dodged with absolute speed and confidence. Their arrows weren’t fast enough to catch him and it appeared that they didn’t know any skills to increase their arrow’s speed or accuracy. Kailan reached the cliff side and simply stomped his foot on the rocky wall propelling himself up the side at an angle. It looked as if he was running up the side of the cliff.
The cliff itself was only about 15 feet high, so he was able to quickly move from the bottom to the top where he then leapt up into the air above the Reigon archers. As he came down he sliced one of them in half vertically before arcing his blade’s trajectory and slicing the other in half horizontally.
The boss monster had already started running towards Kailan. After executing the two archers Kailan turned towards him. As the boss approached the cliff Kailan jumped off right on top of his head as he then placed pressure in his foot jumping once again before landing and running towards the archers on the opposite cliff. The boss smashed face first into the side of the cliff from the force that Kailan had used.
As Kailan approached the other side, he similarly ran up the cliff, slicing through the other two archers with ease. Once he was done with them, he turned to the boss who was struggling to get up. Kailan jumped down and walked towards him.
The boss was finally able to lift himself into a standing position. His face was bloodied. He wiped the blood from his eyes as he turned towards Kailan who was still walking leisurely towards him. He roared in anger as he raised the cleaver high and ran as fast as he could.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
When he was only a few meters away, Kailan placed pressure into his feet again, accelerating to an unimaginable speed as he sliced straight through the boss’s abdomen. It didn’t even see him move. One moment Kailan was there, walking arrogantly towards him, the next he was gone and he felt a pain at his waist. The top half of the boss, with the cleaver still held high, fell to the ground.
Kailan simply swung his blade before putting it back into its holster.
“You have killed 4 level 1 Reigon Guardians.”
“You have killed a level 2 Reigon Commander.”
“You have gained 6 experience.”
“You have gained 6 AP.”
“You have eliminated all enemies in the dungeon. Thank you for playing.”
Eva and Douglas walked up to Kailan shortly after he finished off the boss. They had to admit, Kailan really could run these dungeons by himself if he wanted. He didn’t need any help. And once he levels he’ll become twice as powerful at the very least.
When Douglas thought of Kailan leveling up it made him sweat again. Kailan was already almost as powerful as he was, if Kailan’s power were to double he’ll be strong enough to take Douglas down. Eva was also considering how powerful Kailan would be, but she was thinking even further. What happens when he reaches level 3 or 4?
Kailan had once made the comment to her that once he reaches level 4 or so, there wouldn’t be anyone on Earth that could challenge him. Now, after seeing Kailan in battle and receiving his teachings on how stats work, she understood that he wasn’t just trying to ease her worries or boasting. He was speaking the truth.
“Well that was kind of fun. It was like playing a game of whack-a-mole.” Kailan said as he wore a refreshed smile. Although he had been sent to a realm that took care of him he was basically in the care of warriors. So he naturally inherited their warrior’s spirit after a while. Which meant that he enjoyed combat and even craved it at times.
He hadn’t been able to really ‘exercise’ since he got back to Earth. So raiding this dungeon, despite how weak it was, was actually quite exhilarating.
“You certainly set a new precedent. I don’t think anyone has ever soloed a dungeon let alone so easily.” Eva said as she smiled at Kailan.
“I kind of feel sorry for the beasties here.” Douglas wore a sour expression as he exclaimed.
“Do you want to do another run?” Eva asked curiously.
“No. I think I’ll call it quits for now. What time is it outside?” Kailan replied as he retrieved his sword case from his Heart Dungeon and carefully placed the Zweihänder within.
“We’ve been in here for about 9 hours so it’s been 3 hours on Earth, so around 1.” Eva replied as she checked the clock on her wrist computer.
“Alright, let’s head back to the gate.” Kailan called out as he marched through the forest.
Douglas and Eva followed behind. They actually wanted to get back to the bureau soon as they had a lot to report. Kailan had really shown off his skill and knowledge this time. He of course didn’t mind and had factored that into his own plans.
As they approached the gate, the red film slowly dissipated allowing them to leave.
Back on Earth outside of the gate, the two men that had checked Kailan’s party in were talking to another group who wanted to try and get on the schedule for tomorrow. The red film on the gate slowly dissipated here as well, and Kailan, Eva and Douglas walked out.
The two men were startled and the party they had been talking to were looking at this group strangely. “Only 3 people came back alive from a level 1 mine?” They thought. It was strange.
“We’ll drive you home after I check us out.” Eva turned to Kailan and stated.
Kailan nodded, confirming he understood.
Just as Eva turned to walk to the check-in booth.
[https://i.imgur.com/a1dK0YM.png]
Kailan stumbled as he saw this.
Everyone stopped where they were, a look of shock plastered on their faces. They had never seen an alert like this before.
“Crap. I was afraid that might happen.” Kailan said in a low tone with a helpless expression.
Eva heard him and immediately realised this had something to do with him. She turned to the check-in booth and rushed over, urging the man behind the counter to check them out so they could leave. The man was just standing there absentmindedly, staring into the space in front of him where the alert was, too shocked to react to external stimuli.
Eva was finally able to rouse him, he handed her the tablet to sign. And then she walked back to Douglas and Kailan. “Let’s go. Now!” She urged quietly.
They walked quickly to the car and got in. Eva slammed the door shut before taking a deep breath. She took a moment to examine the world buff. It apparently appeared as a passive skill in their skills listing.
[https://i.imgur.com/M8C0I1T.png]
Eva’s eye’s bulged at the skill window that had appeared. This was basically a massive boon to every Hunter on Earth. Her head jerked around to stare at Kailan questioningly. Douglas had already been looking at him like he was a freak.
Kailan sighed. He knew they wanted an explanation.
“You can think of it as a motivational buff. It’s actually very rare for the Gods to watch any world closely, so when they focus their attention on one, Gaia sees that as a special event and thus issues this world buff.” He explained.
“Why are the Gods watching the Earth so closely now? Is it because of you?” Eva questioned.
“Yes. Because I completed the dungeon.” Kailan replied as he sank into the back seat.
“I don’t get it. You went into a dungeon before and nothing happened.” Douglas chimed in.
“Yes. but I didn’t complete the dungeon. How do I explain this? When I was taken from Earth I was in a field in Broad Ripple, but when I returned I was in Crown Hill Cemetery.” Kailan wasn’t quite sure how he should express this so he simply explained it.
Eva and Douglas weren’t quite sure where he was going with his explanation or what the rifts had to do with this.
“Why wasn’t I returned to the point I originally disappeared at? It’s because rifts are extremely random. There’s no way to properly track them. Not even Gaia can track where a rift is going to open up. Not until it starts to form. It’s because the rift travels through the void between realms which is nothing but chaotic space with no sense of reality or form. Even if Gaia were to create a rift it would still originate between the realms.” He continued his explanation.
“So when she opens a rift to send a Returnee back to their world, she does her best to guide the rift to open as close as possible to where we were originally taken from, but the coordinates it winds up at are still going to be off. I could have reappeared on the other side of the planet. Because of this the Gods wouldn’t have even known where exactly I wound up.”
“But wouldn’t Gaia have known where you were? They could have just checked with her.” Douglas interjected.
“Gaia doesn’t keep track of the exact spatial coordinates of every lifeform. There are way too many to track in real time. The most she tracks is what realm and what world something is in. So they would have had to look through the entire world just to try and find me.” Kailan explained as he looked at Douglas.
“Then there’s the fact that, for various reasons I’m not going to go into, the God’s influence is minimal in Midgard. So it’s hard for their power to reach here. It would have been a waste of time and power to track me down when they could just wait for Gaia’s records to update.”
“Records? Oh, you mean the Records option in the status menu?” Eva asked as she realised she had forgotten that Gaia does track dungeon information.
“Exactly. Gaia tracks the records of the dungeons so when I defeated the dungeon my name would have been recorded in the dungeon’s registry. If they search the registry then they can pinpoint me because the dungeon gates do have static spatial coordinates that Gaia tracks. And because I didn’t complete the previous dungeon my records information wouldn’t have been stored in that dungeon’s registry. It only stores the information of those that complete it, not everyone that enters.” Kailan confirmed.
“Hah. This means more meetings and paperwork when we get back.” Eva turned around and fell back into her seat as she sighed heavily.
Kailan figured that this might happen. It wasn’t a certainty, but it was a possibility. “Looks like I’m going to have to revise my estimations of when I’ll be unbeatable on Earth. With everyone gaining five times the experience, they’ll start to level up even faster.” He thought as he also sighed heavily.
Eva started the car and drove out of the parking lot. She headed towards Kailan’s house, dread was building up in her because she knew that she would have to first face the director and then the board or directors.