Chapter 40: Night Watcher’s Skill

"It actually leveled up?"

Blaze looked at the Blessing interface in disbelief. At the same time, he realized that the Star Fragments were exactly the Experience Value needed to level up the Night Watcher Profession.

Unexpectedly, the Power of the Constellation had transformed into Leo. Moreover, this Skill had an Effect similar to the Curse of the Evil God that granted the Nemean Lion its invulnerability.

Putting aside these complicated thoughts, the Skills brought by the Night Watcher’s level-up all looked exceptionally good. It even made him feel that the reason he had worked so hard to save his Skill Points was solely so he could drop the facade of a restrained adult at this very moment and yell, "I want them all!"

"Anyway, I’ll learn Dark Assault F and Black Shadow Stealth F first. Just the names of these two Skills sound great."

[Dark Assault F]

[Launch a high-speed strike in the dark. Increases the critical hit rate when striking a vital spot. When hiding in the dark, there is a low probability of evading detection from reconnaissance Skills.]

[Black Shadow Stealth F]

[Can dive into a stationary shadow and remain there for 60 seconds.]

"Just learn the rest of the Skills. They’ll all be useful," the chicken advised while maintaining her slumped posture.

"My savings are completely wiped out." Blaze felt a pang of heartache for his Skill Points, but he dutifully spent them all anyway.

After learning the Passive Skill Night Pupil F, he felt a slight stinging sensation in his eyes. His Sight seemed to stretch further and become much clearer.

[Night Pupil F]

[Enhances Night Vision and increases Resistance to negative status effects that impair Sight.]

[Soul Sanctuary F]

[Adds extra soul slots to the inventory: 0/20.]

"This Skill..." Blaze looked around. Right on cue, a rabbit with a spiral horn burrowed out of the ground.

[Horned Rabbit Level 15]

[A carnivorous rabbit that Ejects at extremely high speeds to Pierce the vital spots of its prey with its single horn. Enters a bloodthirsty state during mating season.]

BANG!

The Horned Rabbit shot toward the chicken like a sharp arrow. The cunning beast knew better than to mess with the heavily Armored Blaze.

But it messed with the wrong chicken.

The chicken suddenly raised her claw and firmly grabbed the Horned Rabbit’s head. With a sickening SQUELCH, her talons Pierced right through its skull.

[Shared Vision F]

[Allows Shared Vision with one’s Contracted Beast or Summoning within a certain distance.]

"This is a good Skill. It can cover my blind spots." Blaze nodded in satisfaction and opened his hand toward the Horned Rabbit’s body, which was gradually turning into dust.

"Soul Capture."

The Horned Rabbit’s body instantly dissolved entirely, transforming into a rabbit-shaped Flame that landed in Blaze’s palm. Crushing it would grant him all of the rabbit’s Experience Value, but he chose to place the creature into his inventory instead.

[Soul Sanctuary F: 1/20]

"As expected, it stores souls in the inventory like crafting materials. I think Necromancer-type Professions can also unlock similar Skills... Was it called Mobile Graveyard or Tomb Soil?"

Blaze shook his head and shifted his focus to the final Skill.

[Guardian of the Dead F]

[Can summon a soul from the inventory or under one’s control to block one instance of damage.]

"This Skill is clearly named Guardian of the Dead, but in practice, it’s just a Soul Meat Shield."

"It’s a great Skill," the chicken chirped. "Once the meat shield is destroyed, it turns back into Experience Value for you to absorb."

"That makes this Skill terrifying," Blaze muttered.

The chicken hopped and skipped along the ground to lead the way, looking exactly like a flightless fowl. In her own words, she was practicing running on the ground so that once she obtained a proper body, she could immediately take up the position of a mount.

Since they knew the Broken Steel Mountain Range offered massive leveling opportunities, there was no need to hesitate. They marched straight for it.

A Peregrine Falcon abruptly dive-bombed from high above. A cold glint flashed in the chicken’s eyes. She launched herself from the ground and charged at the bird. The two brushed past each other in midair, like the clashing Samurai Blades of duelists.

The Peregrine Falcon landed steadily on the tree branch Blaze held out, while the chicken flapped her wings to hover in midair.

Through Shared Vision F, Blaze saw exactly what had happened. The Peregrine Falcon had dodged the chicken’s flashy attack with an incredibly elegant twist. Even with a comparable or perhaps superior physical body, the chicken’s aerial instincts couldn’t match those of a postman bird that darted through the skies all day long, sometimes even flying over the Hundred-Womb Ganges.

Right now, the chicken’s face was flushed bright red with embarrassment.

"Let’s see..." Blaze ignored the chicken for the time being and retrieved the letter from the Peregrine Falcon’s leg.

A magical thing happened. The moment the letter was opened, it burned to ashes, and its contents appeared directly on the Blessing interface. Displaying it like this was highly convenient. Only the intended recipient could read it, completely eliminating the worry of the letter being stolen.

The letter was from Merushi.

————————————

YAHOO—!

This is the Epidaurus Theater, the biggest stage in the world!

As a super popular idol with 1 million fans, I’ll be performing right at center stage!

Today, I have this entire theater to myself for my daily singing practice. Isn’t that amazing? But the others aren’t really logging in much. They’re probably practicing in the other world.

I’m so jealous.

Ah, someone’s coming.

Say... you’re coming to the concert, right?

You’ll definitely come, right?

———————————————

"She sure is energetic. I should write her back." Blaze typed out a few words of encouragement on his Blessing, attaching a firm promise that he would definitely be there.

Once he finished, a physical letter was automatically generated.

Just as Blaze was about to stuff it into the pouch on the Peregrine Falcon’s leg, the chicken suddenly swooped down, snatched the letter in her beak, and bolted into the sky.

The Peregrine Falcon rolled its eyes in a highly human-like manner before flapping its wings and flying off.

Blaze had intended to use Shared Vision, but the chicken activated Supersonic Flight F, instantly shooting past the Skill’s effective range.

She didn’t return until Blaze arrived at the foot of the Broken Steel Mountain Range.

[Map F-E]

[Grants photographic memory of routes taken.]

[Supersonic Flight F-E]

[Medium probability of triggering Supersonic Flight.]

[Locking F]

[Can accurately locate marked targets.]

It seemed the chicken had been fiercely competing with that Peregrine Falcon, and judging by her return, she had likely suffered a crushing defeat.

"Cough, cough... Human..."

"Alright, say no more. We’re going into the mine." Blaze deliberately changed the subject, pointing to the tunnel entrance reinforced with wooden beams in front of them. "Please switch to ground-dwelling chicken mode. You won’t have any use for flying in here."

"Oh." The chicken landed dejectedly on Blaze’s shoulder.

The Refined Gold Ore in the Broken Steel Mountain Range had been completely mined out one or two hundred years ago. Almost all the Refined Gold Weapons circulating on the continent today originated from this very mine.

Unfortunately, without a Blacksmith ranked at Master Forger or higher, it was impossible to craft pure Refined Gold Weapons. Refined Gold could only be utilized as an Enhancement material.

The fact that Dwarves were Cursed with low Intelligence was truly a fatal flaw. Fortunately, the entity who cast the Curse hadn’t robbed them of their potential to be miners.

Aside from having low ceilings, the mine shafts dug by the Dwarves were structurally sound. There was absolutely no need to worry about cave-ins.

"It’s quite complicated in here." Blaze pulled out the Map given to him by Flying Brick. It was a rather Advanced Map, actually rendering the layout in 3D.

[Skill Level has increased.]

[Danger Perception C-B]

[Can dodge all attacks within 3 seconds of triggering the Skill, even with eyes closed.]

Blaze sidestepped, narrowly dodging a stream of liquid fired from the shadows.

The liquid splashed onto the hard rock, emitting a corrosive SIZZLE.

[Gold-Eating Ant Level 20]