Dean was now outside the cave. His eyes sparkled as he took a deep breath, filling his lungs with fresh air
Looking up for about a second, he easily spotted the crimson dragon and in extension, Leona, still circling the drafting area.
Deciding not to dwell on that for now,.instead focusing his attention to what's important in the moment.
He realized that the hill's edge was closer than he'd expected.
There were a few metres of rocky ground and then empty space. There was absolutely nothing between the rocky ground and the slope that dropped to another section of the hill below.
He looked from left to right, and there was no bridge or any form of path that linked the edges.
"So it's an obstacle course too?"
Dean sighed as he extended his palm. Using the channeling skill. He took the gale breath ability again.
He angled the first burst behind his body, letting it rebound off the rock beneath him, launching him forward.
In mid-air, the second burst of air hit the wall opposite, redirecting his momentum.
By the third burst, he wasn't jumping anymore, he was gliding through the air.
He landed on the other side with a grunt and kept moving. His familiars flew behind him.
From his new posting on the hill, he could see a fair expanse of the zone spread out.
The terrain went from rocky high ground into a wider open space with chasms, destroyed boulders and scanty vegetation.
Barely taking two steps from his position. He heard some shouting coming from his right.
"Would you die already?"
"Let's leave it, we don't have much time."
"Shut up, I must kill this bastard."
Dean moved closer to the edge and looked down.
There were four participants on a narrow ledge about five meters below. The three men and a woman surrounded what looked like an armoured sphere that sat against a rock.
One man was hitting it with a sword. Visible lines of frustration on his forehead as he kept at it for a minute between heavy grunts.
Another stood off to the side, attacking through his mantis familiar.
Dean leaned in closer. With hermit's eyes active, he could see the flow of verge on the seemingly unresponsive armoured sphere swelling up.
After a minute, the silver sphere pulsed and released a shockwave. The woman closest to the edge staggered, almost falling off the edge. Her party luckily was able to grab her before she went over.
After saving her, the men's faces turned dark as they went back to attack the sphere.
As if it could sense their killing intent. The creature spun and rolled directly into a near-by crevice, disappearing completely.
One man leaped after the sphere monster with just his hand entering the crevice.
"Fucking armadillo," he tried reaching into the crevice but no avail.
Dean chuckled. The creatures in this world were quite silly but generally intriguing.
The party looked defeated after a few minutes of trying and failing to enter the crevice.
With the posture of someone defeated by circumstances. They left to explore other parts of the zone, after all, the clock was still ticking.
Dean looked at the crevice for a long moment. The slime on his shoulders looked at him and the crevice as its eyes squinted.
The weight on his right shoulder shifted.
'Don't,' before Dean could finish the thought, the slime was already hovering down.
"I said. Don't."
Dean sighed as the slime hit the rock face and with those small deliberate bounces moved towards the crevice as if it had a meeting to attend.
Dean watched it go as he looked at the wind sprite on his left. She offered no solution.
'Fine,' Dean thought. 'You better bring back something good,' he concluded with a small smile.
Reaching for the black box again. Dean noticed the weight had increased after absorbing all those flux cores.
He suddenly heard a whistling sound. Looking upwards, he noticed several texts materialize inside what looked like the pages of a scroll.
It hovered high in the sky, high enough that everyone could see.
Several names populated the screen. Dean looked through it and on the 34th spot, he finally found his name with thirty points.
"Hmm," he said as he scanned straight to the very top.
"Von Vermith Astrea."
Dean nodded as he repeated the name. Whoever that person was. They were in a different league entirely, with 400 points to their name already.
He kept scanning through the list and found a familiar name. Rogue.
'The idiot is actually 8th?' Dean thought.
He glanced back at his 34th position and then at Rogue's 8th.
He didn't necessarily feel apprehensive about it, but something in his stomach just wouldn't have it.
'Tch… even that blond idiot made top ten.'
Meanwhile… North of the Hill where Dean was…
A pale-skinned vampire was walking across a broken terrain. Her umbrella was still over most of her face, with only her rosy red lips in view.
The surrounding ground was wet with streams of water flowing around her, turning bloody red as she walked past.
Another vampire followed beside her with the verge gauge in hand, absorbing the flux cores of the beasts that littered the destroyed ground.
The vampire heard the whistling and looked up towards the scoreboard.
She was still first by a considerable margin, with her total points increasing by the second.
Her cold, red eyes moved down the board in search of something, and finally they stopped at the 34th spot with 30 points.
She stared at the name longer than needed or intended.
With her expression unperturbed, she turned towards the hill as the other vampire, without an umbrella, followed behind her.
<><><>
'Upgrade Channeling.'
While Dean waited for the slime, he thought of what to do with the remaining experience points and decided to upgrade the channeling skill.
After all, the slime was gaining more skills, and having an extra channeling slot wasn't necessarily a bad choice.
[You have leveled up your channeling skill: Level 1 → Level 2]
[EXP used: 3000 EXP]
[EXP remaining: 100 EXP]
[Channeling Lv 2 - You can use the borrowed skill of your familiars at a significantly increased potency and output up to 80%]
[Slot available: 1]
Dean sighed. It seemed like the system was toying with him.
"I need slots, not more power, you stup—"
Dean was about to go into a cursing spree when the slime emerged from the crevice.
It looked different like there was a spring in its bounce.
Then the notifications appeared.
Ding!
[Familiar 3 — Skill: IMU Active]
[Source: Silver-scaled Armadillo]
[Method: Consumption]
[Skill - Evolving
Est. time for evolution: 47 minutes
Grade: D - evolving]
Before Dean could respond. The slime's body pulsed and four flux cores emerged from its body, rolling softly and stopping in front of Dean.
The black box hummed and immediately absorbed the green cores.
Dean's eyes instinctively moved to the scoreboard above, and his position was now 29th with 70 points.
Looking back at the slime, he crossed his arms as the slime wobbled as if it were proud of itself, even if Dean wasn't.
"You're doing this on purpose now, aren't you?"
The slime hovered and landed on his right shoulder again. He looked over his shoulder.
At this point. He could assume the slime was copying his bad habits.
It was stubborn and petty. But it was also useful and somehow was reading his mind.
It copied the armadillo that Dean found intriguing, even when he protested against it.
"Okay, let's go," Dean said as he looked at Rogue's 8th position again.
He leaped off the hill immediately, making his way into the open terrain.
Making his way through the scanty vegetation. He heard a low growl from behind some boulders.
The sound grew louder, and it was now obvious that it wasn't two or even three sources of the growl.
He stopped as the hermit's eyes granted him a 360° view of his surroundings without him turning.
From behind the rocks, six dog-like beasts emerged. They looked like dogs but that was because Dean didn't know what else to call them.
They had dark skin as black as the cave he'd escaped from. Their eyes were bloodshot, with narrow heads and long limbs.
Dean watched as they moved like a unit. Spreading out slowly, brandishing sharp,sabre, like teeth.
A system screen appeared beside Dean, who looked with the vision provided by hermit's eyes.
[Threat Detected]
[Species: Shade Hounds]
[Classification: Epic — Mid]
[Threat level: Moderate — High]
[Pack behavior: Active]
Six epic-mid tiers together? He exhaled as he settled into his fighting stance.
Suddenly the slime on his shoulders leaped forward as shadowy fumes burst from its body.
'Of course.'
Dean smirked as he lunged forward.
A/N: If you're enjoying the story, Please add to library and support with powerstones. I'll appreciate a review as well.
Thank you!