Chapter 121: Leveling Up (1)

The three of them charged forward, and the battle began.

Zaid charged ahead. With his daggers in hand, he lunged at about twenty wolves that surrounded him almost immediately. Valia finally leaped from his shoulder, but she didn’t unleash her fire. Relying solely on brute strength rather than her skills, she began to fight masterfully alongside Zaid.

The wolves attacked from different directions, trying to bite their legs and strike when Zaid was isolated.

Their movements were precise. His daggers sliced through them time and again with ease, though he couldn’t kill them quite so easily with a single blow. Unless he landed a critical hit, that was impossible.

But his attacks dealt a great deal of damage. His Sense performed exceptionally well, allowing him to kill them in just a few strikes. The same went for Valia.

Thanks to this, Zaid didn’t even have to summon his Bloody Spear or try to use his newly acquired Illusions.

He charged head-on and slit the throats of a few wolves.

His PE shot up dramatically, reaching 380 in a single fight. His ME hasn’t increased much yet, but it surpassed 2,000.

He wanted to see how things were going on the other side while he was fighting.

Erick had learned to move quickly among them. His sword slashed at the wolves again and again. He didn’t have much strength, so more than once he was countered and wounded. His right leg and left arm were severely injured. But he managed to kill several of them alongside John.

Although John was the weakest of the group, he had a lot of experience fighting with his fists. His talent was what allowed him to kill as many as Erick. However, they were unable to take down all 10.

John was shoved. A beast leaped on him and bit his shoulder. He tumbled to the ground, and the two-man formation broke apart.

Erick quickly took a step back to avoid an attack from one of the wolves, but his ankle was struck. The pain threw him off balance, and he fell to the ground. The jaws of a beast snarled in front of him, threatening to bite his face.

Erick rolled across the ground to dodge it. He got back up, but realized he’d made a mistake.

He was now with his back to one of the creatures he was fighting.

"Shit," he tried to turn around quickly, but he didn’t have time.

John couldn’t help him either.

"Killing more than seven Rank E wolves is pretty good for just the two of us," Zaid muttered, appearing in front of them as he kicked one of the wolves in the chest and landed a direct punch with his fists on another.

The first one let out a scream and tumbled several meters away. His chest was caved in, and he couldn’t breathe, though he was still alive.

The other one rolled backward several times. The blow to his head left him dazed and knocked out several teeth. However, he didn’t die.

’On the edge,’ he thought.

Still, that was fine.

He didn’t want to kill him in the first place. He had struck with less force precisely because he needed to test his new acquisition.

[Boxer’s Kinetic Impact]

The first attack was a success, so the spirit talent he had just purchased for 2,500 ME activated.

He quickly struck a second time. His second attack was superior to the first, as expected—10% more damage alone, using the same amount of force. The beast’s head was completely shattered. And the energy was released as a shockwave, tearing its body apart from the inside out.

There was so much energy that the wolf completely exploded.

’Nice attack,’ he said, his face lighting up with joy.

[+10 PE.]

[+10 PE.]

[+20 PE.]

[+50 ME.]

[+50 ME.]

[+50 ME.]

’A nice reward for a single beast,’ Zaid smiled.

But behind him, John watched in shock.

Even Erick noticed something.

They stood frozen in place.

"That’s..."

Zaid looked at them. "I left several of them alive over there, and that one over there. Go kill them. You’ll get a good reward."

Erick frowned. He could tell that Zaid was just trying to divert their attention. He thought about it for a moment and looked at John.

John didn’t think he’d seen wrong. "That talent..."

But Zaid sent some beasts their way, moving faster than they were talking. "Have you heard the famous saying among the powerful? Some questions are better left unasked because they could get you killed. I think they’re quite right, although I’ve wondered why everyone seems to have it," he said.

Erick and John frowned immediately.

That subtext, which was all too obvious, couldn’t be easily ignored.

"Valia, are you done?" Zaid took advantage of a moment of inattention to step away from them.

Valia was actually devouring several of those creatures. She ate five, leaving a few alive for Erick and John.

John looked over at Zaid. He didn’t think he’d seen things. He’d just witnessed his talent activate in someone else’s hands.

’A coincidence?’ he thought, and convinced himself that it was.

Only a coincidence could bring two people with the same talent together in the same city.

John was about to get up to finish his work and do a little farming, but suddenly he froze.

’Fists? Come to think of it, he’s a master with daggers...’

He remembered that there was another person at the academy who was a master with daggers: Robinson Shawn, who also had some nice, heavy fists.

He looked at Zaid again...

’Is it really just a coincidence?’

Although he couldn’t delve any deeper into the subject—not for now, at least.

"Just how strong are you, really, Zaid?" Erick asked as he absorbed several beasts.

"Rank D, I’d say."

"That high? Even though your rank seems to be E, your strength doesn’t match..."

"There’s always a way," Zaid replied.

"I guess everyone has their secrets... I wish I had a secret that would make me a strong Rank D, even though I’m Rank E," Erick laughed.

He suspected it had something to do with that cat-like spirit.

"Oh. I’ve leveled up," Erick murmured happily. "Level 14!"

"Congratulations," Zaid said.

"Did you reach level 14 that easily?" John also came over to congratulate him.

"What about you? Level 11?" Erick asked.

John shook his head in frustration. "Unlike you guys, who have C-Rank talents, I have to make do with my little D-Rank talent. I’m still short."

"How many?" Zaid asked.

"10."

"Well, we’ll make it before the second floor."

Zaid took the lead. "Let’s keep going deeper."

"With these injuries?" Erick and John looked at each other. "Forget about fighting—just walking is a problem right now."

"True," Zaid walked over to them. "Here, these are really good. You’ll be able to recover in a few seconds or minutes."

He handed them several recovery potions.

They stared at them, in shock.

"A-alchemist potions? Did you buy that many?"

"Buy? No. I have a friend who’s an alchemist," Zaid said. "If I bought that many, I’d be broke, you know?"

"Do you know an alchemist?!"

After getting over their surprise at the potions and the legendary alchemist whom John and Erick seemed to adore, the three continued on their way.

Of the first group, several beasts were devoured by Valia. Others had some of their blood drawn by Zaid. The rest ended up in a special storage ring to be sold soon.

"Go ahead, John," Zaid stepped aside after leaving several more beasts dying.

John leaped after him, and his fists became the last thing those wolves ever saw.

In that instant, though very slight, John felt a surge of strength coursing through his body.

"Congratulations," Zaid exclaimed with a smile.

Erick leaped forward as well. "Great, we’re all above Rank E! Now we can really compete in our own league."

John nodded at both of them and thanked them. "Thanks... really."

He felt a little nostalgic. It was the first time that two people other than his siblings had helped him level up like that.

Zaid nodded. "We’re a team, and we have common enemies. We have to get stronger if we want to survive," he replied.

John nodded.

’I’m about to level up too, even though I’ve left almost all the monsters to these two,’ Zaid thought.

[Level 11: 580/600 PE.]

’It’s time to kill a few more,’

"Let’s keep going deeper."

However, they suddenly came across something different.

A large hall that connected to all the caves in the dungeon. They had come out of one of those caves.

The hall had only one enormous altar in the middle. It was round and poorly built and carved, but it served its purpose.

"We have to fill this with wolf blood, right?"

John nodded. "We don’t need to drive out the wolves we already have," he said, glancing at the caves. "They’ll come out in droves when we stand on top of it, and they’ll gradually be absorbed. At some point, Level 2 will open up, and the beasts will stop coming after us."

He’d been in charge of investigating the dungeon last night, so he knew what he was talking about.

Zaid nodded.

Erick got ready.

"Then it’s time to kill as many as we can. I hope at least a hundred come out."

"H-hundred?" Erick and John turned to look at Zaid, who had already started walking toward the altar. "Are you trying to kill us?"

Zaid burst out laughing.

"Of course not. I just think that if we have the chance to kill such weak beasts and get a lot of XP, why wouldn’t we want them to come in droves?"

"Because we definitely wouldn’t be able to hold out!" Erik exclaimed, frustrated by the way this guy saw things.

Zaid shrugged. ’If you could gain PE and ME on a massive scale like I do, you wouldn’t think any differently than I do,’ he thought. Unfortunately, he couldn’t reveal those thoughts.