37 EXP, that was how many he had managed to gather since coming into this world, this was seriously pathetic, but that was about to change, the secret realm had been open for a few months now, and things were heating up, it wouldn’t be uncommon to find someone cultivators fighting over whatever they had found, and it also wasn’t rare for some dead body to be left behind. Or, if not dead, then close to it, and while Nylarthog had originally been reluctant to kill them for possible EXP in case he was implicated, things had started escalating so far that even the guards would just kill the person and then move the body somewhere else.
Almost nobody seemed to mind though, as if it was normal, which it was, as Nylarthog found out, even after living in this new dimension for probably a decade there were still common cultural things that he hadn’t even realized existed before. As a result, he had decided that he may as well kill some of these already half-dead bodies for EXP.
But before going through with that, he still had some preparations to do. First, he organized himself a disguise in a town about three weeks travel time away, he had visited it while searching for a supplier of Soul Elixiers, wearing the disguise he bought there, he then fast-traveled to a city in the opposite direction.
There he bought another disguise. The one he would be wearing when killing people. Had he bought more, someone may have been able to infer that he was using some teleportation ability, but with only two, he may as well just have been a traveler that decided to take a bit of a detour.
He then finally started going out to find some people whom he would relieve of their suffering.
It wasn’t difficult to find the first one, a knife through the throat, and he continued on his way, searching for another living being while waiting for the EXP notification.
It didn’t take long before he finally got the notification:
Killed Mortal (Breath Cultivation Stage):
* Base EXP gain: 1.3 EXP
* Race Multiplier: 10
* Cultivation Multiplier: 1
* Combat Multiplier: 1
* Boon Multiplier: 1
* Total EXP gain: 13 EXP
Now maybe another 4, and he would be able to level up. But it didn’t seem like he was in luck, the sun was starting to set, so he started returning to his tavern, even if Ignatius was taking care of it, he was getting old, so he wasn’t as fast anymore and if things got busy he would need some help.
It always confused Nylarthog why people didn’t simply invest some time and cultivate to live longer, offsetting aging wasn’t exactly difficult, sure, it made advancing more difficult as one had to control more internal energy, but that also meant one had larger reserves, so really, it had more benefits than disadvantages. Taking a bit longer wouldn’t kill you, literally in this case.
While he was walking back, somewhat lost in thoughts, he nearly missed that one of the bodies he was about to walk by was still moving. Well, only barely, so not much later he got another notification that he had earned EXP.
Killed Mortal (Mortal):
* Base EXP gain: 1.5 EXP
* Race Multiplier: 10
* Cultivation Multiplier: 1
* Combat Multiplier: 1
* Boon Multiplier: 1
* Total EXP gain: 15 EXP
Nylarthog almost stopped for a moment in surprise, he had just killed someone with no cultivation, but that person had given him the most EXP, that quite fit, he needed to find for what exactly he was getting EXP, and maybe also why he was constantly getting extremely small amounts, if he could make those more, then maybe he could someday get 1 EXP a day, or maybe every hour or so. Unlikely, but he could dream.
For now, he would work in the Tavern for a while, after he had gotten rid of his disguise of course, but that wasn’t difficult, he just dropped it in a random forest, and if someone found it, he would have to get a new one, but what were the chances?
As Nylarthog walked into the Tavern, he saw Ignatius sitting behind the counter, cleaning a glass. "Welcome back, Nylarthog," he said with a smile. "How was your day?"
Nylarthog shrugged. "Same old, same old. Did anything interesting happen while I was gone?"
Ignatius shook his head. "No, not really. It's been pretty quiet around here lately. But I did hear some rumors about a new secret realm opening up soon."
“Another one? What is this, some kind of secret realm gathering place? Most secret realms only open every century, if even that often, and that would be what, the 7th in the last 100 years?” This was ridiculous, he was sure he wasn’t an MC, so why would he spawn somewhere that active?
Ignatius chuckled. "Well, you never know what the world has in store for us. And who knows, maybe you'll be the one to discover something new and exciting."
Nylarthog raised an eyebrow. "Me? Discover something? I highly doubt it."
Ignatius shrugged. "You never know. Sometimes the most unexpected people can make the biggest discoveries.”
“Well, I hope I won’t be the one that will happen to, way too much attention, not to mention that I have absolutely no plans to enter one, the city has gotten risky enough already, no need to tempt fate.”
Ignatius nodded understandingly. "That's understandable. It's important to prioritize your safety above all else. But who knows, maybe one day you'll change your mind."
Nylarthog gave a small smile. "Maybe, but for now, I think I'll stick to working at the Tavern." He left the ‘or leave the city’ unspoken, and started tending the customers.
As the night went on, the Tavern started to fill up with more people, and Nylarthog found himself getting busier by the minute. He served drinks and food, chatted with customers, and listened to their stories. As the night wore on, the customers slowly began to leave, until only a few regulars remained.
Nylarthog wiped down the counter and took a deep breath, glad for the quiet moment. As he turned to head to the back room, he noticed a lone figure in the corner, hunched over a mug of ale. The figure wore a dark hood, obscuring their face, and Nylarthog couldn't tell if they were male or female.
He hesitated for a moment, wondering if he should approach the mysterious figure, but ultimately decided to leave them be. He could stick his nose into other people's business once he was way stronger, for now he was going to entertain himself with what people shared without prompting.
As he disappeared into the back room, he couldn't help but wonder who the stranger was and what brought them to the Tavern. But he pushed the thoughts aside and focused on cleaning up for the night.
The next day he started quite early, he had people to kill, and after a short fast travel to the place he had left the disguise, he was off.
As always, the streets had a few more bodies in the morning as the guards didn’t clean up at night when most fights were happening, they weren’t suicidal, most probably weren’t anyway.
It didn’t take long before he found the first bundle of EXP, it was a middle aged man who seemed quite wealthy, but that wouldn’t stop Nylarthog, he was not only in disguise, merchants weren’t exactly uncommon, and once they were dead, no one cared much about them anymore, why waste money on a dead person when you could use it to make even more money? Or that was at least the general consensus.
Killed Cultivator (Elemental Attunement Stage):
* Base EXP gain: 1.4 EXP
* Race Multiplier: 10
* Cultivation Multiplier: 2
* Combat Multiplier: 1
* Boon Multiplier: 1
* Total EXP gain: 28 EXP
That was... unexpected, he would kill one more person to level up, and then leave the city without looking back, only taking the time to take the elemental stones that he had stowed away in his tavern.
He likely wasn’t at risk, and running away may make him look more suspicious, but he was getting bored, and if he blew up his tavern nobody would be surprised if he left, probably. He would just need to get his hands on some explosives
That gave him an idea, since things had already potentially gone wrong, and he was bored, it was mainly the second really, he would simply steal the explosive and kill the owner, that way he would solve two problems at once.
Explosives themselves weren’t rare, with cultivators running around, it was more likely to be blown up as casualty rather than dying in an explosion caused by combustibles. He knew five people of the top of his head that had enough lying around to blow up his tavern twice, and one of them just so happened to be another tavern owner, wasn’t that just screaming ‘choose me’?
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As it was quite early still, the tavern was still closed, so he didn’t run risk being seen by customers, which wasn’t actually that important as he was still disguised, but it definitely wasn’t a disadvatage.
First he went to where he knew the owner would be sleeping, and killed him with a well-aimed hit of a knife-handle behind the ear, it would probably take a few hours for the guy to die, but he had made sure to check that there was enough bleeding that his victim would die with a significant probability, and even if he didn’t, that he wouldn’t wake up again. The latter wasn’t really important, but that way any changes that he may have made in the building would be more likely to go unnoticed, so it would still be useful.
After that, he went into the cellar and took the sack of mostly wooden dust with a bit of gun-powder. Nylarthog had no idea why anyone would have that laying around, especially in one place, but he wouldn’t complain. Then again, he only really complained about boredom and when he was annoyed, so no surprise there.
Back in his own tavern, he set up everything so that he could blow it up, only to remember that Ignatius was still inside, and while he wasn’t exactly a nice person, that guy had worked for him for probably a decade by now, so he took the minute to send him on a shopping trip before finally blowing his tavern to kingdom come. And him against the wall of the opposite building, he should have remembered about the blast area.
Killed Mortal (Mortal):
* Base EXP gain: 0.4 EXP
* Race Multiplier: 2
* Cultivation Multiplier: 1
* Combat Multiplier: 1
* Boon Multiplier: 1
* Multikill: 3
* Total EXP gain: 2.4 EXP
Yeah, he was going to ignore that, the fact that instead of missing 7 EXP he now needed 4.6 EXP, and it wasn’t even a whole number, yes, that never happened and he still had nice numbers on his character-sheet and wasn’t scratching even closer on level one without reaching it.
And with that he vanished into the night, the sun shining down on him.
Ok, maybe he should have prepared a better mental monologue for his exit.
And also planned some more, and not just fast traveled as far as he could and then walked into a random direction.
“Paperwork.” A bored voice interrupted him in his self-pity.
“Huh?” Nylarthog replied intelligently, surprised that he had somehow ended up in front of city gates without any clue how, especially since there were people waiting behind him, which meant that he had to have been waiting in the queue for at least some time.
“Paperwork," the city guard, staring at the MC expectantly.
Nylarthog took out an Elemental Stone, not having the mental capacity for dealing with whatever was going on right now. “This should cover everything.”
The guard's eyes widened in surprise as he examined the Elemental Stone. "I'm not sure if this is enough to cover everything," he said, "but it'll definitely get you through the gates for now."
Well, that was all he wanted Nylarthog thought to himself, glad that he didn't have to deal with any more paperwork or bureaucracy. He quickly made his way through the gates and into the city beyond.
He would need to find somewhere to sleep, and maybe a way to get his hands on a house to live in, even if he were to use the 5 Wind Stones he had to cultivate, he would still have enough Elemental Stones to cover his expenses for a few decades of no other costs surprised him. And the house wasn’t too expensive of course.
As he pondered his options, a group of shady-looking individuals caught his attention. They were gathered around a back alley, exchanging hushed whispers and glances. Nylarthog's curiosity got the better of him, and he decided to investigate. He would normally turn around, but he wasn’t exactly at his highest right now.
But as he drew closer, one of the individuals spotted him and shouted out a warning to the others. They turned towards him, and Nylarthog realized too late that he had stumbled into something he shouldn't have.
The group started to approach him, their eyes full of suspicion and hostility. Nylarthog took a step back, playing the terrified random civilian, the leader of the group was about the strength of a regular Body of Wind stage cultivator, the rest were basically base-line mortals, so he wasn’t actually intimidated, but he didn’t want any attention, especially while mentally tired.
One of the individuals stepped forward, a burly man with a scar running down his cheek. "What do you want?" he growled.
Nylarthog tried to back away further, but he found himself backed up against a wall. "I didn't mean to intrude," he stammered, "I was just passing by and saw you all gathered here."
The man with the scar narrowed his eyes. "You're not from around here, are you?" he said. "You're a traveler, and you stumbled upon our business."
Nylarthog didn't like where this was going. "I'll just be on my way then," he said, trying to edge past the group.
But the man with the scar grabbed him by the arm, his grip like a vice. "Not so fast," he said. "You've seen too much. You're going to have to pay for that."
"Please, I don't want any trouble," he said, hoping to reason with the group.
But the man with the scar wasn't interested in reasoning. "We can't let you go now," he said, "you're a liability. But maybe we can come to an arrangement." He grinned, revealing a row of yellow teeth. "You give us everything you've got, and we'll let you live."
Yeah, he wasn’t going to do that, he should be able to disable all 7 of them within a few seconds, so he wasn’t running too much risk at being caught, and even if he was, he could always fast travel again, his Elemental Stones were quite definitely worth that possible risk.
Nylarthog took a deep breath, then with a sudden motion, he disappeared and reappeared behind the man with the scar. Before the group could react, Nylarthog plunged his knife into the man's back, twisting it for good measure. The man let out a gasp of pain before slumping to the ground.
The other members of the group looked at each other in shock before rushing towards Nylarthog with their fists raised. But Nylarthog was already gone, teleporting from one spot to another, dodging their attacks and striking with his knife whenever he could.
Within moments, the group was in chaos, their members falling one by one to Nylarthog's quick movements and deadly accuracy. He moved with the speed and precision of someone who didn’t care about showing off, teleporting in and out of the group, striking with his knife and disappearing before they could react.
In the end, all seven members of the group lay on the ground, their bodies lifeless and bleeding from their wounds. Nylarthog wiped his knife clean on one of their shirts, and then checked his system notifications.
Killed Mortal (Mortal):
* Base EXP gain: 1.2 EXP
* Race Multiplier: 10
* Cultivation Multiplier: 1
* Combat Multiplier: 1.2
* Boon Multiplier: 1
* Total EXP gain: 14.4 EXP
Congratulations. You reached Level 1.
Reach Level 1 for your journey to truly begin.
* Reach Level 1:
* * Reward: Unlock Inventory; Unlock Shop; Unlock Help Feature
* Failure Condition: Permanent Death
* Failure Punishment: None
* Optional Objectives:
* * * Reach Level 1 within 1 days:
* * * * Status: [Failed]
* * * Reach Level 1 within 7 days:
* * * * Status: [Failed]
* * * Reach Level 1 within 30 days:
* * * * Status: [Failed]
* * * Reach Level 1 within 365 days:
* * * * Status: [Failed]
* * Status: Complete
* Claim: [Yes/No]
Killed Mortal (Mortal):
* Base EXP gain: 1.3 EXP
* Race Multiplier: 10
* Cultivation Multiplier: 1
* Combat Multiplier: 1.2
* Boon Multiplier: 1
* Total EXP gain: 15.6 EXP
Killed Mortal (Mortal):
* Base EXP gain: 0.9 EXP
* Race Multiplier: 10
* Cultivation Multiplier: 1
* Combat Multiplier: 1.2
* Boon Multiplier: 1
* Total EXP gain: 10.8 EXP
Killed Mortal (Mortal):
* Base EXP gain: 1.1 EXP
* Race Multiplier: 10
* Cultivation Multiplier: 1
* Combat Multiplier: 1.2
* Boon Multiplier: 1
* Total EXP gain: 13.2 EXP
Killed Mortal (Mortal):
* Base EXP gain: 1.4 EXP
* Race Multiplier: 10
* Cultivation Multiplier: 1
* Combat Multiplier: 1.2
* Boon Multiplier: 1
* Total EXP gain: 16.8 EXP
Killed Mortal (Breath Cultivation Stage):
* Base EXP gain: 1.1 EXP
* Race Multiplier: 10
* Cultivation Multiplier: 1
* Combat Multiplier: 1.2
* Boon Multiplier: 1
* Total EXP gain: 13.2 EXP
Killed Mortal (Mortal):
* Base EXP gain: 1 EXP
* Race Multiplier: 10
* Cultivation Multiplier: 1
* Combat Multiplier: 1.2
* Boon Multiplier: 1
* Total EXP gain: 12 EXP
He turned around, planning on claiming his rewards while wandering the city, but was interrupted again, though this time not by thugs.
"You shall escort this Young Master back to his residence."