The dagger in Allen's hand fell to the ground.
He continued to gasp heavily as he brought his head closer and whispered something in Ajin's ear.
“…..”
Ajin put on a surprised face as he silently listened to those last words before pulling the dagger out of Allen's chest.
Like a dress slipping off a hanger, Allen fell to the floor, lifeless.
Plop.
Ti-ring!
[You have completed "Emergency Quest: Kill All Enemies".]
The expected messages appeared, but Ajin's expression wasn't so good. Just like last time, the aftertaste of killing someone remained bitter and nothing too happy. Even though the other guy attacked first and initiated this fight….
[Completion rewards are now available.]
[Do you want to confirm the rewards?] (Y/N)
If there were no rewards, then that would be a hell of a loss-loss situation.
Ajin consoled himself with this line of thought and confirmed the rewards.
Ti-ring!
[The following rewards are available.]
Reward 1. Five extra stat points
'Eh?'
Ajin formed a confused expression.
The reward offered was far, far less than that of fighting against and his henchmen.
"But was he a much tougher opponent this time around?" »
Did this mean that the number of enemies was more important than the skills of the opponent? Or was there something else he hadn't figured out yet?
Ajin tilted his head slightly.
This is where Ajin looked down and eventually spotted something quite strange. There was a flickering patch of light about the size of a coin shining on Allen's corpse.
Ajin's eyes grew wider and wider.
"No way, could it be…?" »
Although he could hardly believe it, that light seemed far too similar to that emitted by the loot found on dead monsters in instant dungeons.
This light also indicated the position of the magic crystal inside a door monster. But now the dead Allen was emitting that light.
'What does it mean?'
Ajin calmed his trembling heart and gently reached out his hand to Allen's chest where that flickering light was coming from.
Tti-ring.
Indeed, he did not see things at the moment.
[You have discovered 'Gemstone: Stealth'. Take it?]
'A precious stone?! Are you talking about THIS gemstone…??’
His heart began to beat even faster than before.
The skill Allen used had now become a runestone and was waiting to be discovered on his body.
"Stealth" was a rare skill that only a select few hunters could use. If this message was indeed talking about the Runestones he knew about, then….
" To acquire. »
Suddenly, a small rock with mysterious runic letters engraved on the surface appeared in his hand.
[Gemstone: Stealth]
You can absorb the skill by breaking this runestone.
….Absorb skills by breaking stone.
As the description says, this rock was definitely a runestone.
By breaking it, he could now use Stealth.
He hadn't heard of a runestone that taught stealth for sale until now. It was therefore impossible to estimate how well this small runestone would go on the market.
It was then that he heard the voices of two people coming from his back.
"Mr. Ajin, are you okay?" »
"Mister Ajin!!"
Ajin hid the gem in his pocket and turned around.
And he found Leon and Takuya busy staring at him with eyes filled with disbelief.
F-rank hunter Ajin, who was struggling like there was no tomorrow in a D-rank dungeon, just defeated a B-rank hunter Allen.
As an inexperienced Hunter, Takuya didn't know that, but B-rank Leon knew full well how incredibly crazy that notion was.
Ajin checked his own appearance.
“Well, yeah, I'm fine. »
At a casual glance, he was completely fine. He didn't feel any pain either. But, when he turned his head a little, the blood that had pooled around his chin flowed out. He reflexively touched his cheek and found that the cut he had earlier was bleeding now.
"Oh."
“Let me heal this for you. »
For a second or two, a blue light danced around Takuya's fingertips, before that small cut disappeared from sight.
It was the confirmation; a rank F had successfully defeated a rank B without a single injury.
For the two people here who knew Ajin, rather than the fact that a B-rank Hunter tried to kill them, it was the fact that the youngster before them defeated the Hunter that shocked them the most.
“How can you be able to…. »
Leon couldn't finish his sentence.
Ajin, of course, knew what Leon and Takuya meant here. That's why he opened his mouth first.
"I'm so sorry. When the time comes, I'll tell you both everything, so please don't ask me anything right now.”
When Ajin made a request in a deep voice, Takuya nodded first. Finally, Leon nodded as well.
“If you say that, then you must have your reasons. I understand, young man.
Ajin speaks to Leon again.
"With what happened here, I think it's impossible to continue this raid. Well, there's no problem with that since the boss is dead…”
Leon was surprised...
Then Ajin adds…
"Please, could you get out first? There's a few things I'm going to do."
Ti-ring!
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Name: Ajin Genku
Level: 27
Class: None
Title: Wolf Slayer
HP: 5,114
PM: 548
Fatigue: 0
[Statistics]
Strength: 72
Stamina: 43
Agility: 82
Intellect: 39
Insight: 69
(Points available to distribute: 5)
Physical damage reduction: 20%
[Skills]
Passive Skills:
(Unknown) Lvl. Max
Bleeding Lv.1
Paralysis Lv.1
– Tenacity Lv. 1
Active Skills:
- Dash Lvl. 1
– Intimidation Lv. 1
Bloodlust Lv. 1
[Equipped Items]
Runestone(B)
Before he knew it, his level was almost close to the '30' mark.
Ajin wasn't expecting much from this dungeon when hunting down the weak goblins at the entrance. But, well, he got a level up by killing the serpent giant, and then another by tracking down each of the Hobgoblin underlings as well. His level increased by 6 in such a short time.
What a lucky day it was for him, every strong monster being in the boss room and all.
“No, wait a bit here. It's a bit too much to call it luck, huh.
Three divergent paths, and the difficulty of the boss room….
If lower-ranked hunters became too conceited after hunting down weak goblins and arrogantly entered the boss room, they might have met with a serious accident due to the serpent's power.
There were also hobgoblins which, unlike goblins, were quite difficult monsters to face.
Well, it was still very rare to see such a large group of Hobgoblins in one place as in the case of this dungeon.
Really now, it was quite impossible to predict what might happen inside a dungeon. Someone's lucky day could turn into someone else's worst nightmare.
The only protection one had in this place was one's own power.
That's why Ajin wanted to get stronger. Surviving inside a dungeon was one thing, but what if there was a breach in a dungeon near the hospital where his mother was staying?
What if he was sneakily attacked by a monster while walking down the street?
No, monsters wouldn't be the only issues to worry about either.
Hunters were also dangerous existences, just as much as the monsters themselves. Even if various organizations tried to manage them, there would always be a limit.
Indeed, he needed to possess the necessary strength to protect himself.
"There are limits to how powerful a hunter can become."
However, there was no such thing for himself.
Theoretically, he could get stronger indefinitely as long as his stats increased and he found the right kind of gear to wear.
And today, another method to get stronger had been added to his arsenal. It was none other than the Runestones!
Ajin took the runestone out of his pocket.
Just like with other objects, the information on the stone floated like a hologram projection.
[Runestone: Stealth]
You can absorb the skill by breaking this runestone.
For those who didn't know, this thing would have appeared as a small pebble with strange letters carved into the surface, but if you were a hunter, you'd be salivating like crazy, regardless of your rank.
High ranked hunters would have used it for themselves, while lower ranked hunters would have sold it to higher ranked hunters.
And a runestone containing rare skills, like this one with the "Stealth" skill, would have especially brought in a large sum of money. When placed at auction, this particular stone is expected to fetch at least a few billion dollars, and when sold on the black market, many times more than that.
There was only one reason it would be more expensive on the black market. Because there would be no official record of who bought what with how much money, that's why.
Having a hidden skill was the same as having a more powerful weapon.
'….Just like how Allen hid his Stealth skill.'
Without his high Perception stat, Ajin would have been killed for sure. The thought of that sent shivers down her spine.
"Let's forget about selling this. I can always make money later.
He would not fall into monetary temptation at this time. His current priority was to become stronger than ever, after all.
It wasn't even necessary to mention how useful this rare "stealth" skill would turn out to be in the future.
"And to think that this little stone is worth several houses, no, several buildings, even."
Still, Ajin quickly did something he never dreamed of doing in the past.
When he squeezed his hand tightly, the runestone shattered into pieces without much resistance.
Crack.
A reddish aura escaped from the cracks in the runestone and slowly wrapped around his body.
It was almost the same as when receiving the effects of healing magic. Only the color was wrong, being red and not blue.
Anyway, it wasn't a bad feeling.
The reddish aura surrounding him gently entered through his nose and was absorbed into his lungs. Right away, he could feel an unknown power rising inside of him.
A familiar mechanical beep also sounded soon after.
Ti-ring!
[You have learned 'Skill: Stealth'.]
[You can now use 'Skill: Stealth'.]
'Pleasant!'
He managed to successfully absorb the skill.
He felt rather nervous as it would be his first time using a runestone to learn a skill, but the whole process turned out to be surprisingly quick and easy.
'So does that mean I can use Stealth now?'
His heart started pounding with the feeling of accomplishment after learning a rare skill.
Well, the ancient sages, they said seeing was believing, so….
Ajin immediately activated his new skill.
'Stealth.'
Just as he finished thinking about activating it, his body vanished from his own sight. From his fingertips to his toes, every part of him became transparent.
What a strange feeling it was, unable to see his own hands right in front of his eyes.
"What would happen if I did that?"
Since thinking about it, Ajin quickly summoned his dagger from inventory to confirm.
Then he felt he was holding something in his hand. Rather mystifying, though, he could feel it but couldn't see it.
'As expected….'
Much like the knife Allen was carrying, the 'Stealth' skill was also applied to his Poison Fang of Scorpion.
As he thought, it wasn't that Allen's weapon was weird, it was just the power of that skill, instead.
"I wonder how far this skill goes?"
Ajin picked up a pebble from the ground, and it also disappeared from sight.
'Can I do this with this too?'
He became even more curious, so he reached out and touched the shoulder of a dead Hobgoblin, but nothing happened afterwards. It seemed like there was definitely a limit to this skill.
At least he was now sure that the clothes he wore and the items held in his hand were affected by the skill.
It happened just then.
[You have used up all your mana and "Skill: Stealth" will be disabled.]
“Hey? »
Suddenly, 'Stealth' came undone.
'But, it's only been a few seconds??'
Ajin had moved his body this way and that, trying to familiarize himself with the state of being masked, but after the skill undid itself, he quickly called the skill list and confirmed the details with a troubled look on his face. Face.
[Skills]
Passive Skills:
– (Unknown) Lv. Max
Bleeding Lv.1
Paralysis Lv.1
– Tenacity Lv. 1
Active Skills:
Bloodlust Lv.1
- Dash Lvl.1
– Intimidation Lv. 1
– Stealth level Lv.1
What he was looking for was information on the Stealth skill.
Relevant words fluttered quickly before his eyes.
Ti-ring!
[Skill: Stealth Lv. 1]
Active skill.
Mana required to activate: 200
Simultaneously masks the body and hides all traces of the skill holder. When activated, 10 Mana will be spent every second.
It needed 200 mana to activate, and another 10 would be spent every bloody second?!
"Oh..."
No wonder his MP couldn't hold on.
[MP: 7/548]
His remaining mana of 7 seemed rather pitiful to him.
"It's really all spent, huh."
Currently, the maximum amount of mana he could store was around 550. If he activated the Stealth skill once, he would be able to maintain the cloaked state for around 35 seconds.
But if he used other skills, he wouldn't even get the full 35 seconds either.
"Come to think of it, even Allen canceled his Stealth pretty quickly, didn't he?"
He didn't do it accidentally, as it turned out.
If a high ranked hunter like Allen couldn't maintain the skill for long, that meant lower ranked hunters couldn't even use it.
"...My mana is the problem here, huh."
Until now, he had invested all of his stat points on all stats other than intelligence, and not once did his MP value increase by doing this.
In other words, he now had to increase the intelligence stat as well….
"I guess it's time I did that."
Still, it felt like a waste to invest his hard-earned stat points on a non-combat related stat just so he could use a skill for a few more seconds.
"Compared to other stats, intelligence has too low an efficiency."
Strength, endurance, agility and perception.
He had personally felt the increased effects of these four stats. As they increased in value, he became physically stronger and stronger.
The one stat he couldn't feel any tangible change happening to him was that intelligence, although it had increased a bit now.
"I mean, it's almost four times the value now compared to when I was at level 1."
If he were to really dig in and find the difference, then it would be his increased MP value. That was it, really.
So, investing your points on this Stat based solely on a single result like this…..
"It's just too wasteful."
These points would become his flesh and blood if he were to invest them elsewhere. The only conclusion he could draw here was to continue leveling until he no longer had to worry about his MP.
Meanwhile, he would spend his precious stat points on other, better stats….
'My stat points….'
He suddenly remembered that he still had five more points he had obtained as a reward from the emergency quest.
He wondered for a second or two if he should invest this in "Intelligence", but in the end he spent 3 points in Strength and the other 2 in Stamina.
[Statistics]
Strength: 75
Stamina: 45
Agility: 82
Intellect: 39
Insight: 69
(Points available to distribute: 0)
Physical damage reduction: 20%
"As I thought, numbers ending in 5 are the best."
As a smirk formed on Ajin's face…
TO SCOLD….
The earthquake inside the dungeon has become too violent for him to ignore.
"Is it the one hour mark already?"
There was no more time to waste here.
Ajin closed his status window. He had deliberately wasted time, waiting for the door to almost close, but if he stayed here a second longer, he might find himself trapped inside, unable to leave forever.
Before leaving, Ajin turned and once again swept his gaze around the boss room.
'I extracted all the magic crystals, and…'
Well, it looked like he hadn't missed anything.
After confirming this fact, he quickly disappeared through the exit.
GRrraaaooh@…
As if to warn those still inside that the gate was about to close, the dungeon began to shake even harder than before.