The Curator
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Chapter 36: Hunting Shadows
🕑 Added 2024-10-10 16:14:40 +0000 UTCThalion checked his credit score and was surprised. Killing the two nobles, the city bombardment, and the few warriors he had killed on the third stage brought him up to 92,070 credits, which was monstrous. There was also a counter under his tutorial quests:
Special Event starts in 175:06 hours
Tribute 50,000 Credits to travel to the fourth stage
This was interesting. He could instantly travel to the fourth stage, but he doubted he was strong enough yet. The beasts here gave a lot of experience, and he had the opportunity to kill survivors for credits. He doubted there were many survivors on the higher stages, and even if there were, they would likely be too strong to kill for credits. So, it wasn’t worth it just yet. Plus, he needed equipment for his human side, and with this special event coming up, he wanted as much fighting power as possible. So far, every tutorial quest has been about killing. He doubted this event would be any different.
He started moving through the jungle at incredible speed. He wanted to reach 100,000 credits before the system store arrived. Until then, the survivors couldn't spend their credits, and if he met the right people, killing two or three more survivors might push him over 100,000 credits on this stage.
He spotted a few lion-like beasts but quickly moved past them, marking their location for later. He needed to find survivors, not beasts. As he ran, he passed a tree, which slowly got devoured by black vines.
Night Vine Level 31
Thalion activated Abyssal Devourer, and black tendrils shot out, wrapping around the vines and slowly turning them into darkness. After a few minutes, the tree was free of the black vines. Satisfied with his little experiment, he continued his hunt. Good to know that the skill worked on plants too. Thalion didn't get any stats from eating the plant. It might have something to do with the affinity of the plant. The last time he also got almost no stats, but it was fine for him.
He was quite certain that he had gained this form by devouring fields of midnight sunflowers, and if he wanted an evolution that surpassed this one, he needed to feed on more things that would improve his dark affinity.
He sprinted through the jungle until he heard the shouts of a nearby fight. A smile crept across his face as he changed direction. He saw three vampires sucking the blood out of the last human, standing 10 meters up in the trees. They had probably found the humans hiding up there and killed them all in moments.
The other two vampires had already finished draining their targets and were likely checking their spatial rings. Thalion blurred into motion, climbing the tree as fast as he ran on the ground. In moments, his claws sliced through the neck of one vampire and his victim.
He didn't stop there. Charging at the second vampire, the third hissed at him but didn’t help his teammate, instead turning to run. The remaining vampire drew a red sword that looked like it was made entirely of blood and swung it at Thalion.
Thalion ignored the sword, which slashed across his belly and tore through the vampire with his claws. The wound on his stomach didn’t bother him much. It healed almost instantly, with his recovery speed on a different level.
He pursued the last vampire. Though the vampire moved with unnatural speed, Thalion was faster, and not just by a little. He could see the vampire clearly, while the creature clearly struggled to locate him whenever it glanced back. The vampire realized Thalion was getting closer and made an abrupt turn, firing blood spears in desperation. Thalion dodged with inhuman agility, jumping to a nearby tree trunk and then launching himself at the vampire, who hadn’t expected him to evade so easily.
The vampire conjured a blood spear in his hand and stabbed at Thalion. Thalion caught the spear with one hand and grabbed the vampire with the other, lifting the vampire into the air. The vampire released the spear and cast another blood spell that hit Thalion in the chest, but it did little damage. Thalion returned the favor by biting the vampire’s head off in one swift motion.
After the fight, he tried something new. Back in his human form, he activated crimson harvest. The blood drained from the vampire flowed in tiny streams to his hand, where it condensed into a small orb. Thalion felt the hunger and desire of the sanguine thorn, and within seconds, the orb of blood was absorbed into his hand through one of the thorn’s vines. How exactly this worked, Thalion didn’t know, but he felt nothing but the strength coursing through the sanguine thorn. Perhaps the sanguine thorn was close to evolving. He still couldn’t identify its level since it was part of his body.
Time to check his notifications:
You have killed Vampire Level 27
You have killed Vampire Level 32
You have killed Vampire Level 29
You have reached Level 27
Thalion put his free points from his human side into wisdom since the other stats were buffed anyway. The umbral predator had also reached level 27. Since both forms received 100% of the experience, and the umbral predator needed only slightly more experience than his human form, but for now they would level up at the same time. He allocated his free points into dexterity, which helped him react faster and more smoothly. He doubted he would have dodged the vampire’s attacks so easily without so much dexterity. He liked it more power for his skill in his human form and better reflexes for the umbral predator.
Thalion returned to the vampire corpses and snatched the spatial ring from the dead one. Then he activated crimson harvest again and drained all the blood from the other two vampires. The sanguine thorn felt like it was on the verge of bursting—so much power had gathered beneath his heart. He wondered how strong the upgrade from this god-designed plant would be.
His Credits store now showed 107,860 credits. The humans and vampires must have been hunting a lot over the past few days, which made Thalion relax. He wondered what he could buy for 100,000 credits.
With that, he transformed back into the umbral predator and resumed searching for black vines or midnight sunroses. The day was already beginning, and he wondered what those blue robes were doing after he had escaped their grasp and killed nearly half of their slaves.
<--
As Steven stood in the dim light of the temporary camp, his cold eyes surveyed the approaching group. They returned battered, with far fewer numbers than when they had set out. Their faces spoke volumes of fear, exhaustion, and lingering terror. But to Steven, none of that mattered. He was a cunning man who cared little for his men as individuals. Their worth was measured solely by their fighting power, nothing more.
One of the survivors, a bloodied warrior, stumbled forward, his voice trembling. “We were ambushed... a creature, something dark… it tore through us like we were nothing.”
Steven’s gaze hardened. This was not what he wanted to hear. He was ruthless, blessed by a god who had given him a divine task: conquer the tutorial or exit with a small, elite army. His power, bolstered by the god’s blessing, was unmatched, and he had yet to encounter anything that could truly challenge him. The idea that something could disrupt his plans was intolerable.
“Did you kill it?” Steven asked, his voice cold and detached, showing no concern for their suffering.
The warrior shook his head, fear evident in his eyes. “No, we couldn’t… it was too strong… too fast…”
"What about the girl and the orc?" Steven asked if they had managed to kill them. It was at least worth it.
"We don’t know. We tried to fight the beast since it only attacked us," the man replied to Steven's dismay.
“So the girl and the orc could still be out there,” Steven hissed. "If they slipped away after the beast chased us, they might still be alive. The speed and strength of that thing were insane and it was only level 25."
“Don’t worry, soldier. Tomorrow, I will go and see if I can find that beast. We all have work to do. Go visit the healer. We need everyone leveling up as fast as possible,” Steven concluded, trying to mask his emotion.
"Thank you," the man said, bowing before walking away.
The camp they occupied was only a temporary solution, a stopgap until tomorrow, when Steven planned to buy a castle from the system shop. A fortress where he could solidify his power. In his mind, there was nothing he and his men needed to fear. They were the apex predators of this world, and anything that dared oppose them, like the teenager and the Orc who had somehow eluded them, would be hunted down and annihilated without mercy.
With time, more humans would come to him. This camp would be their gathering point, where they would be safe. The competition wasn’t resting either. Some orc clan near the mountain, and the water princess residing on the ocean.
