Chapter 29 - Intrusion (2) (1/2)
Chapter 29: Intrusion (2)
Tsssssk….!
Streaks of lightning sparked from the sword as it flowed through the wolf’s corpse.
‘I guess it’s not a C-rank for nothing.’
This was what it meant by applying an electrocution effect on attacks.
Just like the name suggested, lightning flowed out from the blade, killing the crazy wolf immediately.
‘It’ll be more useful than I expected.’
It was enough to completely take care of all the nearby monsters.
After a bit of experimentation, I should be able to incorporate it into my combos.
The 5th trial was looking good already.
‘And…’
That wasn’t the only thing I gained.
「 Skill Hunter’s Daggermanship (E)’s proficiency reached 100%. 」
「 Skill Hunter’s Daggermanship (E)’s ranked up. 」
「 Skill Accelerated Regeneration (E+) ’s proficiency reached 100%. 」
「 Skill Accelerated Regeneration (E+) ’s ranked up. 」
A couple of messages popped up after getting rid of about ten wolves.
“I can’t complain about the rewards.”
Progress that had been stagnating flooded in all at once and ranked up two of my skills.
It helped that I’d purposely been taking my time with the hunt to increase my proficiency.
I avoided killing them in one hit and instead took some non-threatening injuries to get some extra training in.
Even then, this growth speed was unheard of.
「 Skill – Hunter’s Daggermanship (E+) 」
「 Proficiency – 0% 」
「 Explanation – A technique made by hunters for effective hunting. 」
「 Effect – When using a dagger, the weapon’s cutting force is increased by two times. 」
「 Skill – Accelerated Regeneration (D) 」
「 Proficiency – 0% 」
「 Effect – Able to recover quickly from non-life-threatening injuries. 」
The only difference from the system’s side was the cutting force but…
In practice, these skills became exponentially more useful.
“The daggermanship is already at E+…”
I could feel myself getting closer to hitting the limit.
All skills have a rank where growth completely stops.
The case wasn’t any different with Hunter’s Daggermanship.
‘From what I hear, this skill stops ranking up after hitting D.’
After one more rank-up, I’d be hitting a wall.
I didn’t know any information on accelerated regeneration but—
“I’ll need to get a new blade-related weapons skill first.”
Weapons skills in general could be used to increase proficiencies of higher-tier weapons skills of the same family.
Once I found a better daggermanship skill, I shouldn’t have any problems.
And I knew exactly how I’d get one.
‘I’ll just have to absorb it from the correct enemies.’
Since I could never unlock abilities just by training, my only choice was to use my innate ability.
The only problem was finding an enemy with the correct skill, plus the probability of acquiring it.
Whatever, it wasn’t something I needed to think about right now.
‘I just have to hope for a solution on the higher floors.’
「 You have absorbed the soul of the crazy wolf. 」
「 You have absorbed the soul of the crazy wolf. 」
「 You have absorbed the soul of the crazy wolf. 」
…
…
「 Proficiency increased by 16% 」
‘The necromancy proficiency is quite high too.’
I wouldn’t be surprised if it ranked up in this trial.
I was absorbing more and more souls on every floor of the trial.
And my stats and proficiency had followed suit.
So…
“I’ll have to kill every last one of them.”
It was time to clear out this cave before heading to the boss.
***
Step, step.
“…”
I noticed that something was strange as I was walking through the wet cave.
The tower called this place a ‘Wolf Den.’
So why was it that I was seeing monsters less and less as I got farther in?
It was to the point of it feeling much easier than the 4th trial.
‘The tower definitely isn’t giving me a freebie.’
Not the tower that I’d experienced so far.
Why?
Before I could reason an answer, an object at my feet interrupted my train of thought.
Tap.
“What the hell is this…”
The object was nothing other than a wolf corpse.
‘Was it a fight for territory or something?’
Beasts fought each other all the time, so it was understandable.
In situations like these, most hunters would wait until the last second to reap the benefits of all the kills.
It was a situation I could understand.
The problem was that this was happening in the tower and not a dungeon.
Why would they lower the difficulty at this point when it would make sense for them to raise it?
“I got a bad feeling about this.”
Just to make sure, I stopped for a second to more closely examine the corpses.
And—
“Sword marks?”
I could see a clean cut right through the wolf’s torso.
‘Someone stabbed it in the heart to kill it in one shot.’
Clean and precise swordsmanship— it was clearly done by another entity.
‘This changes everything.’
There was someone else in this cave other than me.
It shouldn’t be possible, but it was the only explanation.
‘Low-tier monsters like goblins wouldn’t be able to make this clean of a cut…’
Whatever did this was a human or a monster with near-human intelligence.
‘There wasn’t an announcement about anything special happening on the 5th trial, nor did anyone mention that it was a group trial.’