Anderson watched as his smile grew wider. It was the right choice to knock this guy down a notch now, If I had actually given him time to grow, he might have threatened me in the future. Playing around with his thoughts, he moved forward again as he continued talking "So, I received the power. And do you know the funny thing? Those people I looked up to, those rich assholes that I aspired to be, many of them were dead within a few days and many more were now looking up at me."
Seeing that his strike hadn't worked, he held his blade once more as lightning began to build upon it and continued "I used the new power that I had gained to kill monsters and get stronger. My power allowed me to become the richest man in the city. The best hunter in the city. It gave me strength that you could not imagine!"
Anderson was moving at high speeds as he spoke. His sword that was covered in lightning kept on striking at the bubble of protection that surrounded Noah
"It is this strength that's going to destroy that thin bubble that you have around you. I'm going to keep on striking and watch as you gradually lose that annoying expression on your face and you start begging for your life underneath my feet"
Noah wasn't standing still, moving in and out as his defensive skills completely deflected the strikes of the blade and the lightning that came out of it. He wanted to test the extent of [Arcanist's Sphere of Protection] as its proficiency was literally a point shy of 100, and it seemed to completely protect him from C rank skills, its power also deflecting most of the damage from rank B skills
If any damage actually managed to pass through, the [Arctic Armor] would absorb it. If anything else passed that, he would just quickly use [Regeneration].
Anderson's voice rang out as he charged forward once more "You cannot imagine the things you can do when you have the strength. Those rich big wigs that survived, the ones that spent the remaining amount of their money to buy skills, items, and cores to get stronger themselves? They work under me now. They do me favors, and they send their own f.u.c.k.i.n.g daughters to my bedroom just to get on my good side. That is power, that is strength!"
Noah seemed to be getting ticked off as he was listening to this madman's ramblings so he began replying and cut short his experimentation time. "That is not what strength is, dude. I was just like you a few days ago. I didn't have any of this. When I did become slightly stronger though, all I felt was a sense of liberation."
His words seemed to carry power with him as a huge pillar of flames appeared beside him, making Anderson even more surprised as he was expecting him to run out of energy any time with his extremely bad efficiency in using it.
The pillars of flames acted like a rope, wrapping itself around the entirety of Anderson's body and squeezed down. Anderson let out a pained expression as he began roaring.
RAA!!!
Rank B skill, [Giant's Strength] was activated. The red aura coming out of him condensed even more as his power rose by another level, the sword clad in lightning struck out once more. But it did nothing.
His body bulged out as let out a howl and the pillar of flames surrounding him was dispersed and he once more seriously attacked the man in front of him. His attacks continued as Noah deflected or absorbed them and continued talking "Strength does not mean you can look down and others. Strength does not mean you can do whatever you want. You can even look at it as a responsibility. It's the reason I came along to this high-risk dungeon that can explode any day."
The calmness seemed to fade from Noah's face as he finished his words and condensed dark balls of fire around him. More than 20 quickly surrounded him, spinning furiously as they rushed towards Anderson's body and exploded on contact.
Anderson could be heard laughing in the midst of the explosion. "Haha, Responsibility? Sophistry! Utter bullshit!"
An expression of someone that had given up appeared on Noah's face as he shook his head calmly and looked at the imposing Anderson and gave a command
BOOM!
A screeching scream resounded as Anderson was inadvertently blasted back. He had a shocked face as he looked at the left hand on his body. It was missing. It was gone. Anderson looked back in a pained expression towards Noah as he exclaimed "What the hell did you do?!"
He seemed dumbfounded by the sudden attack that he didn't see coming from anywhere. They were standing apart at the time, and yet an unseen attack came that took his entire arm clean off.
A calm voice rang out of the clearing.
"Stand down."
Noah was staring at him with a cold expression. He did not want things to go down this road. He did not want it to get this bad, but this guy would not stop. So he repeated himself once more.
"Stand down"
The man that was clad in a red haze in front of him stood up with an even more furious expression as he roared out and held his sword and his remaining good arm, rushing forward once more.
BOOM!
Another exclusion rang out the moment Anderson began rushing out, being thrown back once more and his face adopting and even more pained expression. His chest armor had exploded out and blood was gushing from his chest. He breathed heavily as he looked towards Noah. He didn't understand how he was taking damage when the guy wasn't even near him. What was going on? What kind of skill was he using?!
Noah sternly stared at the man before he repeated himself once again. "Stand...down"
Chapter 18 - Resolution
Noah looked at the man in front of him as he continued speaking. "You could have stopped all of this a while ago you know"
He looked towards the man that was missing a hand and had a bloody chest. The entire time they were fighting, he had plastered a ton of [Explosive Rune]s on the man's body. The tattoos spread all over him without notice, and he had detonated two of them just now.
A burst of hysterical laughter came out from Anderson. "Stop? Stop? Haha! Do you really think I could stop? Power was all I had, and now someone like you, someone that has awakened barely a few days can already stand above me? Bullshit!"
Anderson's wounded body stood up and moved once more, his words that were dripping in anger had somehow given him even more power. The dark red haze that was constantly created from his inherent skill, {WRATHFUL} wrapped around him and became even more condensed. [Giants Strength] was also activated once more.
As the man stood and raised his one good remaining hand arcs of red lightning began to pulsate from his sword.
Noah turned his face from this and looked towards the five party members that had been watching this entire fight. He saw a rueful and expectant expression on the faces of Anderson's original party members. Rachel was staring at both of them in a distasteful manner while wiping the dust and rubble from her body
He then turned back towards the rushing Anderson and watched him come forward as if he was looking at a flickering flame in the wind. "Strength isn't having the power to look down on others."
As soon as Noah's words finished, another loud explosion rang out as Anderson's body was inexplicably blown away.
A crazed laugh could be heard as the explosion cleared "Haha. I am being lectured by a child. I am being lectured by someone who doesn't understand how the world works. Do you know what I've done with my power? The monsters I destroyed? The pathetic people I've killed? The women I've taken? Do you know?!"
The right leg on Anderson was the next limb to be missing as he lay tattered on the ground. He turned his head to observe his leg, and then at his left arm, that was also missing. He then stared at the man that kept looking at him with the same calm expression on his face. He felt like he was being looked down upon.
He had to bring his eyes up to meet the gaze of this man and he laughed even more. "Haha. What are you gonna do? Are you gonna kill the strongest hunter in the city? Are you going to damn the lives of hundreds of thousands of people?"
Noah was slowly walking towards the destroyed man as he began talking. "The strongest hunter in the city huh. Do you really believe that you still hold that title?"
His wo
rds were slow, but rang out as if they were a clap of lightning in Anderson's ears. Noah gave the man in front of him a look of pity as his hands wrapped around Anderson's neck. He looked at the man that was about to perish from this changed world forever and shook his head in disappointment.
BOOM!
A thundering explosion rang out on the clearing once more, and the infamous rank B hunter of Outer Bank X was lying down without a head.
Noah let out a deep sigh as he looked at the body of the so-called strongest hunter in front of him and felt relief. He didn't want to be like this man one day. Shouting his ideals on someone stronger only to die soon after
He deactivated the many defensive and support skills on his body as he shifted his face onto the items that Anderson wore. They were C rank equipment, and even though they were currently damaged because of [Explosive Rune], they had a self-repairing property and they would be as good as normal in a few days.
Near Anderson there laid a thick blue book. This was why hunters were regularly hunted down by other hunters if they were jealous enough and had the balls to do it. Killing any hunter had a definite chance of dropping the highest-ranked skill that they were using.
Unscrupulous lower-ranked hunters sometimes worked in groups that target those one rank higher than them, either ambushing them in their sleep through other unsavory means.
And this was also why the Hunter Lodgings were very popular because they guaranteed a level of safety for the hunters staying there. There were hunter guards around the clock doc.u.menting everyone that came in, where they were going and what their purpose was.
The skill book made my heartbeat increase as I thought of the huge windfall that all of these unfortunate events brought. This skill took the pedestal as the top prize today. This was the Rank B skill [Giant's Strength- Imbue your body with immense strength that blows away anything daring to stand against you(+50 Strength)]. Information about the skill's effects quickly appeared in front of me as my mood turned sour
There wasn't any information about this skill as Anderson was the only one who held it, but I didn't expect it to simply add 50 strength once activated. Of course, 50 strength was something huge, as that amounted to an advancement of an entire rank, but it did not match the many focus based skills I had been collecting so far.
Skills that are geared towards close combat fighters would just reduce my attention from the powerful mage skills that I should be spamming.
My mood went down as I held the skill before another thought flashed through my mind and I had to ask myself if I was the dumbest person on the face of this planet.
Yes, Anderson was a close combat fighter and this skill complimented him perfectly. But, even though I was a Mage, it did not mean it wouldn't be tremendously helpful to me too. I was limiting my thoughts to what I commonly knew about Mages, Berserkers, and Knights. A skill like this would normally be great for a Knight or a Berserker. But I would literally lose nothing if I learned and activated this skill, and would instead gain an entire rank's worth of [Strength] attributes, and all times at that. Even though I wouldn't be using the extra power that the added strength provided, the extra speed that came with it would be more than worth it.
Damn, just when I was feeling myself and thinking I was all that, to think I was about to disregard a rank B skill just because it did not conventionally match my class. Alright, learn and try to be better.
This train of thought opened up my mind to many paths and skills I had not thought about before. There were many skills specifically for Knights and Berserkers that I didn't even look at as the only thing in my head was to just spam Mage skills to blow away everything. But if I searched for and learned those skills meant for close combat fighters that will reinforce my defense, health, speed, and power…
It was like a light was shining down on me opening up a very obvious path that my dumb ass hadn't thought about before. The cost of skills didn't matter to me, so why did it matter if they were not geared for my class as long as they provided constant benefits on other aspects? I did not waste any more time and I learned the skill, watching the book fade away in particles of light
I activated the skill as soon as it was learned so it could start earning proficiency. My body soon felt like I had an extra layer of strength added on, increasing my striking power and speed as well as giving me an imposing aura. I mentally patted myself on the back while I placed the [Item]s that Anderson was wearing in my storage ring, and carried his [Ring of Storage] with me, leaving a mangled body on the ground as I walked towards his team members.
The two tanks and mages had relieved expressions on their faces while Rachel looked at him in a peculiar way. Death wasn't something rare for hunters, they had seen plenty of their team members die and most were glad when they didn't perish themselves. He went forward and asked the girl that got a beating a few minutes ago "Are you okay?"
Rachel clicked her lips in an annoyed expression that also seemed somewhat afraid and looked back at the 4 party members behind her without answering my question. She looked at them and chided in a disappointed tone as she said "You four are by far the most spineless cowards and such a poor excuse of hunters that I had ever seen in my life"
The 4 hunters listened to this and shook their heads as if they would not engage. Did Anderson break them this much? They looked towards me and gave a nod before one of the tanks carefully came towards me and introduced him as Dan. He couldn't look me in the eyes as he gave me his card and mentioned that he and the rest of the party members would be back here in 3 days to clear the dungeon, and that I should let him know what time I'll be free to lead them
I unconsciously nodded as I had prepared to accept this role when everything fell apart with Anderson. Although I will only do this as a play for the next week. I didn't plan to be limited by tying myself to hunting in a party when my progress is explosive as I move alone and clear dungeons without anyone holding me back. My solo hunting of this dungeon would be much more fruitful
Rachel watched this exchange as we swapped contact information and watched the hunters go towards the green crystal to leave the dungeon. They instinctively looked towards the loot that was shining in a pile beside the TITAN that was now dead but looked away just as fast, not entertaining any thoughts
They didn't mention a single word about Anderson in the entire exchange or acknowledge what had happened. Just leaving with happier faces and expressions like a huge weight had just been lifted off their chest
Rachel came opposite me as I was thinking this and put on a brave expression as she said "So what the heck was up with you? You were stronger than this guy all along and were playing around just to be the knight in shining armor after?"
I was taken back when she said this as my mind was only observing the situation and acting only when I needed to. I replied to her with a smile "I became stronger than this guy just yesterday if you can believe it, and didn't exactly know how much stronger so I was testing the waters"
She clicked her tongue as she stared me down and then turned away towards the green crystal. "Thank you for stepping in any way, you're not too bad." She said as her figure flashed away, leaving me as the last hunter remaining for the this raid
I let out a relaxing sigh as I took in everything around me. Pushing the dead hunter in the room out of my mind, I went towards the shining pile of [Core]s and what seemed like a [Skill Book] besides the gigantic BOSS.
Chapter 19 - Changes
The dungeon didn't end exactly how I expected, but I was content with the way things worked. As all the hunters had left the boss room, I actually enjoyed the fact that there were fewer people around me, maybe I was just a natural loner.
I shook my head as I reached down towards the rank C cores lying down as boss. We had been splitting the cores into equal amounts as we killed the statues in the rooms until we arrived at the BOSS room, with Anderson taking most of the cores as he dealt with most of the statues.
All of the cores that he
grabbed though, along with everything else he owned was now situated in my ring of storage.
I didn't feel particularly bad from taking everything from the dead man as my thoughts quickly moved forward to what I'll be doing next. I reached my hand out to identify the skill book that this C ranked TITAN dropped. Much to my surprise, it was a skill called [Smite- Pass down your ruling in the form of 10 swords of light!]
This skill gave me quite a shock as it wasn't among the many rank C skills that I have researched. I actually hadn't heard of this one before and the skill seemed to go very well with the guidelines I set for myself for the new skills I'll be learning.
So I quickly learned the skill as I was impatient to see its effects, even if it would just be for show right now as there were no monsters to test it out. And for the first time, I cast [Smite]
A marking quickly appeared on top of my head with a symbol that very closely matched that of a star. A golden light was then being released in the sky as 10 literal swords of light quickly took shape and pointed down imposingly. My eyes were shining as I watched them hover in the sky just waiting for a command to strike
I was very excited to see exactly how amazing the effects of this skill work out to be and I wanted to quickly rush into the dungeon again to test it out right away. But I knew I had to call it a day for now. It had been a long day, and I was finally not feeling pressed against time. I burned the sight of the dead TITAN and the dead hunter in my brain, and then I reached towards the green crystal, vanishing from the hall.
---
A man wearing a well-tailored suit was watching the news with his arms trembling. Something shocking was being announced as breaking news. About an hour ago in Outer Bank X, the highest-ranked hero, Cohen Anderson, had perished in the dungeon [Solael's Castle]
In an effort to save the rest of his party members, he had given his life to take down the terrifying BOSS, making sure nobody else was injured.
The man listened to the news and stood there dazed, as this was something out of his wildest nightmares. Never something that he ever felt was possible. His benefactor, the person who saved him was now dead. And as for the things they were saying?
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