An unwavering focus. Unparalleled attention to every little detail. Eyes devoid of the very concept of blinking. Even the Soul-Piercing Eyes Skill had been activated. I didn't want to miss a thing. I mean, can you blame me?
Say a really awesome movie you've wanted to watch badly for a while now recently came out, would you behave any differetly from how I am right now? Good, then we understand each other.
Because what laid before my eyes right now, was better than any movie out there, no special effects, no CGI, no previously planned choreography, it was all raw. And it was 'literally' 3-D.
A beauty like no other, dressed in a black tuxedo, kept doing omni-directional flips. Her short blonde hair; flowing elegantly in response to her actions. Her movements; masterful, they had purpose, yet somehow, still gave off a sense of instinctive characterization to them, as if devoid of previous preparation, and instead operated to match whatever current situation was at play, giving off a contradictory feel. Her arms, her feet, every wave, every step, could be described as rhythmic yet free, patterned yet random, fixed yet scattered. She looked like she was dancing. But that couldn't be further from the truth. They were evasive maneuvers. What she was evading; a continuous seemingly limitless brigade of attacks. Nearly countless needles kept flying at her. Their sender; a masked figure who wore a hooded long black coat. His posture; firm. His aim; precise. His demeanor; calm. As if he was sure, sure that he'd win. Making sure to keep a fair distance from his opponent, the woman, who fought barehanded, he was certain he had the clear advantage. Little did he know, he was falling right into the woman's hands. From a spectator's perspective, it was obvious, but from his, having to fully immerse himself into the battle, he had no clue. Little by little, he was dropping his guard. And little by little, the distance between them was decreasing. He payed it no mind however. Why wouldn't he? As long as she wasn't too close for comfort, he was certain, he'd drag it out. It was only a matter of time until she got tired, thus allowing him to launch the final blow. How wrong he was. In a split second. That's all it took. A split second. She was gone. Disappeared completely. Her presence; almost nonexistent. An instant afterward, there she was. Right infront of him. Her hand on his neck.
"Impossible!" He yelled in disbelief. "Kaah!" He screamed as he attempted to attack. A needle in each hand, both visibly bigger than the ones before. It was apparent that those ones were for close quarters combat. However, they were also proved useless. Before he even knew it, both his arms had a different form. A form that could be called an....'inverse' of how normal arms should look like. They were broken, it was beyond him how, but they were broken. The moment he realised it, he couldn't help but squeel. "Arrgghh!"
"That sounds familiar." I thought. "She's ruthless. Although I shouldn't be one to talk, but...daaamn. To think there's such a large gap even when both Warriors are A-Rank. She didn't even go all out either. No Special Attacks, no overpowered Skills. I wouldn't have been able to tell without Soul-Piercing Eyes but all she did was activate one specific Skill to just increase her Stats and sensory perception."
"I really don't like doing this to other Warriors, considering the fact that we're all supposed to work with one another to clear all the Dungeons." She said. "But a mission is a mission. Not to mention, the person you're targetting is someone I li-...I mean...someone...th-that I...know very well." She finished as she snipped his neck. The assassin made no sound as he breathed his last.
"How the hell did she do that with those tiny fingers of hers?"
"I was right. You're terrifying." I said as I walked towards her.
"At least now you know not to mess with me." She said with an exaggeratedly bright smile while placing her index fingers on her cheeks.
"Trust me, wouldn't even dream of it." I said with an awkward smile.
"How did she manage to look cute and deadly at the same time?"
"So you said you wanted my help clearing the Dungeon?"
"Oh yeah, but...before that." I walked over to the body of the now dead assassin and took the two needles he held in each of his hands then started searching his body for more stuff.
"Are you....seriously looting a person's corpse right now?" Peyton asked with very genuine contempt.
"I need materials for blacksmithing! Don't judge me!" I defended myself. Very expertly if I may add.
I found a neat interesting looking pouch in his coat and checked it out.
"Are you sure you're not a Demon? Now that I think about it, that'd explain your broken abilities." She said.
"Haha. Demons wish they were this amazing."
"Have you ever even seen a Demon?"
"Aren't I looking at one right now?" I said after I turned to look at her.
"I thought I made it clear not to mess with m-...that's a Spacial Storage Pouch." She said as she looked at the pouch I found.
"Explain." I said while examining it.
"The pouch warps space in an interesting way. Small on the outside. A whole lot bigger on the inside. Comes in real handy for those of us who don't have cheat Skills that allow us to carry a lot of things without problems....unlike, other people."
"Well that sounded specifically personal. This pouch must be were all those needles came from. I don't need it but I do want what's inside so I'll take it." I teleported both the pouch and two needles in the Item Space.
"There, now that that's outta the way. How do you feel about clearing this Dungeon with me?"
"Thought you'd never ask." She said as she put her hand out. "Let's form a party. What do you say?" This was no normal handshake. It was a Contract. The moment I take her hand, we'd officially be a party and as such, will receive the same Quest messages and rewards based on the amount of contribution we each had in completing said-Quests. We still won't be able to see each other's Status Windows though or the individual rewards we get.
"This is only temporary right? I'm a greedy man in case you didn't know." I said as I shaked her hand.
"Oh I know, I'm not much for sharing either."
A message then popped up for both of us to see.
[Report. Party Contract confirmed. Party has officially been formed.]
Party Members:
• Peyton Garner
• Raid
[Report. Members are required to provide the recently formed party with a name and a Party Leader.]
As I was about to speak, Peyton quickly shouted. "The Leader with be Raid and the name of the party will be the Raid Party!"
"Oh please no." My Soul-Piercing Eyes Skill automatically deactivated in my exhaustion.
[Confirmed. Naming of party is successful. Now redesigning overall party info...]
Name: Raid Party
Party Members:
• Raid [Party Leader]
• Peyton Garner
"Why? Just....just why?"
"You got to see *me* in action. Now it's my turn, you're taking on the Dungeon Boss. Alone."
"Okay, but...'Raid Party'?"
"You've been following me this whole time, didn't you see enough of my capabilities?" I asked.
"No! I wasn't comfortable at all! I had to make sure I kept myself expertly hidden so I couldn't even get a clear vision. My Hide Skill even kept deactivating everytime I lost focus or got surprised by the things you did. Do you know how draining that was!?" She complained.
"Is that why I only picked up on you for a sec, just every now and then?"
"Could be. Not to mention I had to pay close attention."
"Makes sense. That's why she was able to jump me earlier at the Association now that I think about it. It's easy to miss her if her focus isn't specifically on me."
"Fine then, I'll humour you just this once."
"Yay! Thank you sir!" She said with a bright smile. "So! What's the plan Party Leader?!" She asked with enthusiasm while doing a salute.
"Call me that again, and I swear I'll kill myself."
"And stop the salute! It's weird!" I screamed internally.
"...." She paused and smirked.
"Don't..." I said.
"...." The grin then grew more sinister.
"Please don't."
"Fiiiine. So, plan?"
"Yes, there is one. But it's crazy."
"Not surprising. Let's hear it."
I explained everything. I told her my whole plan and the fact that it wasn't for specifically clearing the Dungeon, rather for making sure to get the best rewards possible in the process of clearing the Dungeon. The harder the Quest, the greater the rewards from completing it, that was common knowledge. So my plan was to create the hardest Quest we could get in this Dungeon. When I used my Treasure Hunt Skill previously to check the Goblin villages, I found that there were 15 of them, total, including the one the Dungeon Boss was located. 14 now, since I destroyed one. The plan was that we would go to one Goblin village, make sure all the Goblins see us and chase after us as we run to the next nearby village, and do the same thing there going on to the next one. Once all Goblins from every village have been grouped together, we would then lead all of them to where the Dungeon Boss is and take them all down *including* the Boss in one fell swoop.
"Do you want to die?" Peyton asked.
"No." I hurriedly answered.
"Then you'll forget about this absurd plan of yours. You said there's fourteen villages left, right? And there's what, over six hundred Goblins in each village? You're talking about fighting an army of eight-thousand plus Goblins with just the two of us. Are you insane?"
"I think we've already established that I am. But what Warrior isn't? We go into Dungeons and risk our lives everyday to protect our world from these "invaders,". What makes this any different?"
"You just wanna do this so you can get your "sweet" rewards."
"My "sweet" rewards, make me stronger, insuring me to clear more Dungeons, *insuring* the safety of my planet from monsters. I don't get what you're so worried about, you're an A-Rank. You said it yourself, didn't you? Goblins are small fries."
"Yeah sure, on their own they are but over eight-thousand?! I admit you're incredibly strong for F-Rank, but...an army of ants can kill an elephant. Calling us outnumbered is an understatement at this point. I don't even think an S-Rank could-"
"See that's the thing. You're telling me what you think, not what you know. Since no one has ever actually tried it before, simply because of how outrageous it sounds, people would readily believe it's impossible, but that's just your perspective, and I have my own as well, neither one outweighs the other. But one thing's for sure, we won't know until we try." I declared.
"....you were planning on doing this from the start, weren't you?"
"Guilty as charged." I said shrugging my shoulders. "Even before I knew you were following me, this was always the plan. So even if you bail, I won't back down, but I know you're not gonna do that."
"What makes you so sure?" She asked.
"Protect the F-Rank. That's your mission, right?"
"That only applies to attacks from the Reinhardt Family."
"I'm not so sure my uncle would be okay with me dying in a Dungeon either." I joked.
"What does your uncle have to do with any of this?."
"Nevermind that. Inside joke."
"Hmm..." She looked confused there for a second. I decided not to dive deep into that specific topic, they'll be other times to tell her about how her boss might be my father figure's brother. I still needed to confirm it myself afterall.
"Well, what about the Quest?"
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"As soon we enter the first Goblin village, we'll get a Quest, right? Upon success, we live, upon failure, we die. So if we run away without killing all the Goblins in the village and completing the Quest then..." She explained.
"I see what you mean. But running away doesn't count as failure if at the end of the day, we're still gonna kill all the Goblins. As long as we do it within the duration we'll be given, I'm sure we'll be fine."
"I say that, but I'm not sure at all. Well it's not like we'll be running outside the Dungeon. I mean, we're heading straight towards the Boss for goodness sake! So, chances are, we'll just get multiple Quests all at once. I really hope that's all that happens."
Peyton then thought it all over. Though she seemed against it all, I had no doubt in my mind that she'd join me.
"Fine then." She said. "You're not exactly giving me a choice here so I might as well play along." She added.
"Well duh!"
"Good girl." I said.
"Don't even."
"Sorry." Seriously, this girl is terrifying sometimes.
"You should be. Now then, where are we off to?"
"Oh you'll see, just don't fall behind, heh." I jumped the top of a tree as I said that then started hoping from tree to tree, heading straight to the closest inhabited Goblin village. Peyton followed suit, even going ahead of me to then look back with a conniving smirk.
"'Don't fall behind' he says. Did you forget I have higher Stats than you?"
I pride myself in being a cool-headed person, it takes a lot to affect me and past events are a solid testimony to that undeniable fact. But for some reason, what this woman said ticked me off. So I tried to see if I could mess with her a little as payback.
"Branch." I warned.
"Nice try." Rats.
"Worth a short."
"Darn A-Rank senses!"
Well. Moving on. We had moved at incredible speed so we were already very close to reaching the village. I then remembered something of the utmost necessity that I had to do.
"Since I won't be doing this again until we defeat the Dungeon Boss, I might as well absorb all the Mana Crystals I have right now."
Since Peyton was still here, I had to use the same new method of absorption that I came up with before. The problem was, because it was incredibly more complex than the other methods, it was recommended that I did it while in a comfortable position where I can concentrate solely on the absorption, but right now, I was moving, so it was exponentially a lot harder to keep my focus. One wrong move and the Mana might spiral out of control. I don't think I need to explain how dangerous that is.
"But,.what can you do? I don't necessarily have a choice right now. I noticed before that if I absorb Mana Crystals through the Item Space, no visible Mana surrounds my body. So when I absorbed those Goblin monster cores, to Peyton, it must've simply looked like I was just randomly sitting down for a while. With this method, I can absorb Mana Crystals even in public and no one will see anything strange or get suspicious. So, what I need now is to learn how to use this method without the, 'sitting down and meditating to concentrate' fiasco."
Readying myself for the risks, I activated my Item Space Skill, Bladework Skill, Treasure Hunt Skill, Soul-Piercing Eyes Skill, Cultivator Skill, Fury of Dantian Skill and finally the Astral Unification Skill. The harmony between all Skills was indescribable. Astral Unification in particular, in addition to Soul-Piercing Eyes made sure to allow me to concentrate on the absorption while moving without fail. The pain I had felt before was significantly less this time around. As soon as I noticed that it was in fact doable, I started absorbing. 120 Mana Crystals at a time.
"I'll absorb 600 now and sell the other 91 after clearing this Dungeon."
....
[Report. Success! The E-Rank Mana Crystals have been successfully absorbed.]
[Mana Capacity gained from all the E-Rank Mana Crystals: 3000.]
[Extra Mana Capacity gained from each E-Rank Mana Crystal absorbed with the use of Fury of Dantian Skill: 7.5.]
[Total amount of extra Mana Capacity: 4500.]
[Total amount of Mana Capacity gained from Mana Crystal absorption: 7500.]
[Report. Advancements in the Subject's overall Warrior info have been detected as a result of recent actions.]
[Now calculating advancements...]
[Cultivator's Sub-Skill Fury of Dantian has advanced from C-Rank to B-Rank.]
[Weapon Fanatic's Sub-Skill Bladework's effects on the Subject's Stats have increased. Effect on Strength has increased by 4000. Effect on Speed has increased by 4000. Effect on Health has increased by 5000 and effect on Intelligence has increased by 6000. Now redesigning the effects of the A-Rank Bladework Sub-Skill on the Subject...]
A-Rank Bladework Sub-Skill: Effects When Active
• Strength +6300
• Speed +6570
• Health +8260
• Intelligence +11720
[Furthermore, Mana Capacity has increased by 30000+7500. Strength has increased by 7000. Speed has increased by 7000. Health has increased by 8000 and Intelligence has increased by 9000.]
[Now redesigning overall Warrior info...]
Name: Raid
Surname: ???
Affiliation: Awakened Warrior
Class: Blacksmith
Skills:
• Craft C-Rank : Can craft expert level equipment, weapons and amour Grades Elementary to Hyper from scratch as long as the necessary products to do so are present.
• Repair C-Rank: Can fix expert level broken equipment, weapons and amour Grades Elementary to Hyper as long as the necessary products to do so are present.
•• Improve D-Rank: Can improve high level equipment, weapons and armour as long as the necessary products to do so are present.
• Weapon Fanatic C-Rank: Possesses an expert level of understanding of how various weapons operate, including how to use them in battle.
•• Bladework A-Rank: Possesses an apex level of mastery with blades.
••• Sunset Slash: A very powerful slash with the power to bend nature to its will.
• Treasure Hunt B-Rank: Can expertly locate mines with products and minerals for crafting within a 1200 kilometre radius. Tip: Mines found in dungeons have the best products.
• Soul-Piercing Eyes C-Rank: Exponentially increases sensory perception, allows one to spot a large number of weak points in their opponents and see many various hidden secrets of nature.
• Mine D-Rank: Can masterfully mine products and minerals for crafting.
• Item Space B-Rank: Massive space to store equipment, weapons, armoury, products, minerals, etc...
• Brawler C-Rank: Possesses an expert level of mastery in hand-to-hand close-quarters combat.
•• Demolition Strike: A very powerful strike that releases shockwaves of incredible force that can demolish anything of weaker strength.
• Cultivator C-Rank: Possesses an expert level of mastery in Mana manipulation, through the use of a Dantian.
•• Astral Unification B-Rank: Allows one to unify multiple aspects of oneself through breathing for the purpose of increasing sensory perception, Mana manipulation efficiency and overall amount of Mana.
•• Fury of Dantian B-Rank: Large sized Dantian that acts as the Mana Source of the Subject. Can temporarily increase Subject's Mana Capacity six-fold. Significantly increases Mana manipulation efficiency. Adds 160% extra Mana Capacity when absorbing Mana Crystals.
• Resilient Regeneration D-Rank: Can heal almost all damages to the body, regenerate any body part including organs except for the heart and brain, speed of regeneration is dependent on the scale of damage.
• Hypermove E-Rank: Can increase one's speed drastically through the use of electric Mana. Said Mana also acts as a shield against air resistance.
• Trigon Element King D-Rank: Can manipulate Fire, Wind and Water Elemental Magic.
•• Ifrit E-Rank: Possesses a moderate level of control over Fire Elemental Magic.
•• Tetrax E-Rank: Possesses a moderate level of control over Wind Elemental Magic.
•• Marid E-Rank: Possesses a moderate level of control over Water Elemental Magic.
Rank: F
Level: Locked
Mana Capacity: 64880
Strength: 13290
Speed: 14683
Health: 17084
Intelligence: 19000
"Now's that's what I'm saying!"