Ethan kicked the chest of a ghoul and pulled his dagger from its skull before swinging it to his back and cutting the head of another. He [Blink]ed to the back of the horde and started taking out the ones that stayed separate from the group.

They had already killed dozens of them, but thanks to the sheer number, he had to spend a lot of mana. Since he entered this place with only half of his mana pool, he was getting close to draining completely, even with the significant help of his dagger Devi.

The ghouls were between mid tier-3 and mid tier-4, added with their simple mind that was easy to manipulate, it wasn’t something hard to deal with. Well, as long as he had enough mana.

From the corner of his domain, he was following Beet’s shades, who were luring another big group, just making them run in circles. While Beet himself was following them from the air, jumping on top of the giant stone columns.

Looking at Beet’s carefree way of fighting, Ethan considered doing the same, even if it would take longer to end the fight, it’d be at least clean. First, I should check if we could avoid these rotten fleshes altogether.

‘’Stay on the air, and try not to lose too much mana!’’ he shouted at Beet. ‘’I’ll be right back.’’

He used another [Blink] toward the place where these creatures had come from and started running. Despite the whole place being illuminated with torches, it was impossible to see the end of it. So, he decided to check every corner personally and see if there was something they could use. If there was an option to not bother himself with the ghouls and just skip to another place, he’d gladly take it.

Sadly, the more he advanced, the more of the filthy creatures he noticed. Somehow, the grand scene of the flame-bursting torches didn’t attract these ones, but they were certainly interested in him. As he came to the end of the road with the crazy ghoul fan club behind, he found a door. The titanic door was about 100 yards tall and 30 yards wide. It didn’t have any locks or anything, just a giant door with words engraved on it: Those who seek death, shall find life.

Ethan had no idea how to open this door, but he was able to discern clues about what was behind it with his [Mana Sense]. There were creatures that seemed extremely similar to the ones on his behind, the ones getting closer and closer.

‘’Those who seek to avoid ghouls, shall find more ghouls,’’ he muttered, annoyed. ‘’Forget it. I’m not bathing in grime and rotten flesh anymore.’’

He started running toward the horde and got behind them with two [Blink]s before continuing his sprint toward Beet. As he ran his eyes were on the topography. Or maybe design? This place certainly didn’t look natural. There were hundreds of yards tall columns, holding the empty mountain together. Regardless, they were all old, to the point that it was impressive that most of the structure was still standing.

Ethan picked a half-destroyed pillar and blinked on top of it before calling for Beet, ‘’Call your shades back and come here bud!’’

When Beet arrived next to him, the ghouls were already gathering around the broken pillar. It was about 40 yards high and the top of it where they stood was quite spacious.

Ethan sat on the near edge and sent a [Shadow Spike] with a [Fabric Tear], piercing it into the ghoul’s head which was stuck between the pillar and the masses behind it. ‘’We’ll go nice and slow. Once I depleted my mana, I’ll meditate to fill it back, and keep hunting them one by one,’’ he explained to Beet. ‘’You also save your mana and only go for the ones far away from the horde with your shades. Only after there are few left, you can go wild. Alright?’’

Beet gave a nod, and Ethan returned to his fishing but stopped himself with a scowl. ‘’Aren’t those way too enthusiastic?’’

Seeing that the ghouls started climbing on top of each other to reach them, he stood up and called his ship. This time they jumped into the ship and made it float in the air very slowly. The horde was still going crazy, but climbing on top of each other wasn’t getting them anywhere since the ship was on the move and they had nothing to support their rotten flesh stairs.

Ethan sat on the deck and continued his hunt. Only five minutes later, when he emptied his mana, the long-awaited ‘dings’ arrived.

‘DING! You’ve leveled up.’

‘DING! You’ve reached tier-4.’

The essence gathered from the atmosphere poured into his soul, giving him a serene and content feeling. With a satisfied smile, he ignored the ghouls and checked his status panel.

Tier 4 - Level 40

Health: 1422/1500

Mana: 273/2000

Stamina: 790/1000

Vitality: 150

Strength: 122

Endurance: 100

Agility: 200

Intellect: 200

Perception: 100

*Available stats: 10

Skills(Rank 1): [Fabric Tear], [Mana Sense], [Shadow Spikes], [Long Jump], [Mana Conceal], [Mana Connection], [Void Mute], [Blood Rush]

Rank 2: [Void Wrap], [Mana Aura], [Blink]

It was damn good to look at it, but he still gritted his teeth and added 10 points into Agility, ruining the round number. He even considered giving 8 to STR before adding the rest to AGI, but the Strength stat was already way over his intentions. Not necessarily a bad thing since that was also an important aspect of his fighting style, yet he still planned to avoid it completely during tier-4. Perhaps it was because he never felt that his strength was lacking, it started to feel a bit useless comparing the other stats.

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The only thing he wasn’t sure about was the Perception. Many of his skills were connected to it, but how much would it affect him if his domain was any bigger? The range of [Fabric Tear] was only 50 yards, even if he managed to advance it while also connecting it to his domain, could he fight against enemies from more than 100 yards away? That was a long distance, and even a tiny deflection would make him miss the target, regardless of [Mana Sense].

As for [Blink], he never used the maximum range when he was fighting against large groups like the ghouls below. He was only using it when traveling or escaping, and his full mana was able to carry him more than 4 miles right now, would it matter that much, if it was 10 miles?

The skills like [Void Mute] or [Mana Aura] also didn’t seem to need more range. Yet, he still didn’t want to decide in a rush. What the future would bring was unknown. In the end, he chose to decide after checking the skills in Mirasatra and see where his future build will be leaning toward.

Done with the plans, he turned to Beet with a smirk. ‘’Thank you for your kind words. At such a young age, I advanced to tier-4 despite my trash talent. I’ll make sure to keep working hard and become an inspiration to people with similar problems.’’

Beet turned his head from the party going on down there to Ethan and threw a confused look.

‘’Don’t worry. Once there are a few dozen left, you can go have your fun. In the meantime, you can check the far-away corners to catch the lone ones. There should be a few around the door.’’

Beet didn’t lose any time and immediately flew away. While Ethan drank a mana potion and resumed his mundane task.

He also stopped using [Shadow Spikes] and instead used the [Fabric Tear]s with his daggers to save himself some mana. The mid-grade mana potion gave him 1000 points, only filling half of his reserves. Back on Niamaris, he did have money to buy high-grade ones, but they were much more expensive and filled 3000 points, which was more than he’d have at this tier. Even with how spendthrift he was, he felt that it was unnecessary and only bought the middle-grade ones.

Both driving the ship and killing 50 or so ghouls, depleted his mana once again. Now, how do I meditate and drive the ship at the same time? Being aware of my surroundings is possible, but to do another task… yeah, maybe in the future.

Ethan jumped to his feet and drove the ship to the opposite side of Beet who was hunting with his shades in the far corner where there wasn't even much light. Once he was far enough, he descended to the ground and stored the ship back. Just before the horde was on him, he used [Void Wrap] and [Blink]ed twice toward Beet with 100 yards each time. There was still distance but since he only left with 40 mana, he ended [Void Wrap] and made his way silently.

He swiftly helped Beet who was killing three ghouls inside his shade circle and pointed toward another broken pillar as he whispered. ‘’I’ll be meditating there until the ghouls find me. They will probably start separating from the horde and it’ll be more dangerous for you, especially if you make too much noise. So, be careful and don’t attract them toward this place.’’

Getting a nod from Beet, he used the last of his mana to appear on top of the pillar and started his Void Manual. Now that he was tier-4, the regeneration increased once again and his empty mana was able to be filled completely in just four hours without him doing anything. But the effect of cultivation also diminished, causing him to fill his mana pool in two and a half hours.

All this time no ghouls came by, not even near his domain. The place was big, but this was still strange. Calling his ship, he went to inspect the cause and found out it was Beet who was luring the horde.

Flying was never a problem for Beet. Ethan suspected that it only consumed a minuscule of his stamina and he didn’t need to fly all the time. By giving short breaks on the columns, he was luring them with ease.

Ethan got the ship near him with a smile. Even though it would take longer, he’d be able to kill everything here without my help. But if there are tier-5s behind that door, then it might be too dangerous for him.

Beet flew over the deck and took a break while Ethan started his mindless stabbing through [Fabric Tears]. He also tried to focus on the skill as he desperately wanted to advance it for a long time now.

[Fabric Tear] was his most complicated skill, perhaps even more than the [Blood Rush]. [Blink] traveled through the space dimension, but this skill was able to make a tear on reality itself and use the space dimension behind it. He guessed that perhaps not even the guys in the Inane Cultus were aware of its inner workings. After all, cultivation was more about feeling the elements than understanding the exact logic behind them. More accurately, cultivators first observed the elements on a subconscious level, and only after that, the comprehension came naturally. Not the other way around.

If Ani was its old self, it could’ve run countless tests on VR to figure out its truths. But now, even if Ethan managed to help Ani to create VR simulations, without the guidance of the hivemind or people with the right qualifications, it would still be impossible.

That was actually one of the reasons he had so much hope for Abraham’s projects. The guy knew how to use the new version of Ani much more effectively than the others. He was a scientist in a true sense and everything he did was following the philosophy of trial and error.

There were other scientists, engineers, and many more interesting professions among the original 500. He was very curious about what the others were up to.

Ethan kept daydreaming while stabbing his dagger into the air and pulling it back bloodily. As his mana was getting low, he noticed that the numbers of the ghouls were only in the dozens, barely 50 or so.

He whistled in amazement at his grinding speed and checked his experience bar, but the outcome of his work made him frown. ‘Are you sure, Ani? I mean, it’s normal for the leveling speed to go down after the advancement, but isn’t that too much?’

‘This isn’t about advancement. It was like this ever since you’re hunting with your ship.’

Whoa. Elisium knows that I’m cheating and it screwed the essence I get. How fascinating… I wonder if the creator of the ship was here, would he get the essence from my hunting? Ethan stood up and shook his head from his musings before addressing Beet, ‘’Alright, let’s finish here with close combat, but I’ll still go for the ship tactic after the door. My mental health can’t handle fighting thousands of rotten fleshes head-on.’’

He called both of these daggers and jumped from the ship with Beet following behind. His mana was enough for a few [Blink]s, but he had enough stamina for some [Long Jump]s. Not to mention with his new agility, the ghouls weren't even able to catch his shadow.

He danced his way to the center, avoiding the claws and butchering the sorry creatures. Just when he was completely surrounded and planning to use a [Blink], Beet entered the scene on top of a giant wolf shade, getting the attention of many.

Ethan used the shades as a shield and finished the ghouls around them swiftly. Beet also joined him and covered its scythes with [Blood Edge], cutting the heads of the ghouls like butter. In less than ten minutes they massacred every one of them.

The next hour was spent walking around everywhere and looking for the ones they left. Once they made sure that only one was left, Ethan called for Beet, ‘’Let’s leave this one in case the door opens after its death. We’ll kill him after a good meal and some rest.’’