Reality and Time.
Two words that encapsulates everything we know.
Both are equally important. Reality and Time when come together form the world we know.
Artificially fusing Reality and Time may cause unforseen circumstances.
After a long speculation that inferred nothing, Theo Adams came back into senses. He was sitting infront of the Dungeon Boss of the [ Ogre's Lair ], The Twin-headed Ogre.
Twin-headed Ogre 👹👹 was a mutant Ogre which had stats of multiple Ogres combined. Strength stat of over 1000, even a veteran hunter may not be able to kill it alone. A full party was required to hunt this monster.
Even though Theo was sitting in front of the Twin-headed Ogre, it didn't seem to sense the human at all. Theo stood up and shot, palm shaped like a knife pointing towards the left head of the Twin-headed Ogre. In a matter of moments, the left head of Twin-headed Ogre was decapitated! The right head roared in surprise, anger and.... fear? All emotions that monsters rarely felt was stirring up the right head. Before it could take any action though, another palm, sharp as a knife decapitated the right head.
Theo saw a notification when the right head was cut off.
[ Skill: Mana manipulation Level 8 used.
Duration: 15s.
Cooldown: 5s. ]
[ You killed the Dungeon Boss Twin-headed Ogre ]
[ Due to your efforts, your attributes have been increased. ST+3, AG+1, WP+1 ]
[ You have cleared the dungeon [ Ogre's Lair ] ]
[ Due to your efforts, your attributes have been increased. ST+5, AG+5, WP+5 ]
Everyone in the dungeon was notified of this.
A monster, which took hours to kill, even for veteran hunters, was killed in a few seconds. A feet only achievable by powerhouses like a Branch Chief of HTC.
"Efforts, huh", laughed Theo.
As he stored the monster's carcass into his storage space, he sensed a human running towards his position at breakneck speed. A person with Agility of at least 1000. Theo stuck around to see what was going on.
Since he was using the skill Invisibility Level 20(MAX), he didn't had to worry about being found by the approaching individual.
[ Invisibility Level 20(MAX)
Uses Invisibility Codex developed by T. All light and mana passes through the user using the skill and everything he wishes to be invisible. Making more things invisible uses more mana.
Mana usage: 20MP/sec
Duration: 2h
Cooldown: 10min ]
He glanced at the time for which he was using the skill.
[ 1h 34min 23sec/2h ]
He had quite a lot of time to see what the approaching person going to do. He found a suitable tree to sit on and watched the scene unfold.
Soon enough a person, more appropriately, a hunter came panting heavily.
It was a male hunter, aged in their mid twenties. He had a bit of rugged look and seemed like a veteran hunter. He was looking around frantically searching for something. He didn't seem to find anything though.
While this was happening, Theo used Identification Level 12 on the hunter.
___________________________
[ Identification ]
[ Name: ??? ]
[ Age: 25-29 ]
[ Attributes ]
[ Health Points(HP): ~14250 ]
[ Mana Points(MP): ~200 ]
[ Strength(ST): ~1050 ]
[ Will Power(WP): ~750 ]
[ Intelligence(IN): ~200 ]
[ Agility(AG): ~1050 ]
[ Health(Cell) Regeneration(HR) : ~105HP/sec ]
[ Mana Regeneration(MR): ~2MP/sec ]
___________________________
Yeah. Identification skill, even at Level 12 isn't that magical.
Life is not a novel, where Identification skills can magically know their names. And the opponents skills and attributes accurately.
"If there's a way to do it, you can do it with mana." holds true though. Humans haven't found a way to encode a person's name into their body. It would be not viable as identity cards make up for it.
An experienced mana researcher from the FR explained that "Instead of wasting time on names, just introduce yourself. If you want to encode mana into people, Stalkers with high level Identification skills get an advantage, which nobody wants, maybe except the stalkers though. When implementing mana policies, the Federal Republic Congress have to take into account how these policies may be abused in criminal or civil ways. If the abuse may be substantial and/or break other federal laws, the mana policy won't be implemented and any alternatives are considered. Don't worry, politicians are not like the ones from 200 years ago, where a President of a substantially big country just decide on a whim to not respect Global Climate regulations and laws, and can remove their country from a Global Agreement. If those kind of politicians were to even express their opinions, they would be 'taken care of' in a non gentle way by the HDO and MLO. So don't worry."
************************
Kole was running towards the place where the dungeon boss would usually live. He just got the notification that the dungeon was clear when he was watching the news on his Hunter Smart Watch.
He was watching the latest episode of 'Pursuit of the Invisible Hunter'. He knew that the 'Invisible Hunter' was in the same dungeon and wanted to meet his idol. Just when he was about to close his Hunter Smart Watch to look around for the 'Invisible Hunter', the dungeon was cleared. He knew that he was just a few kilometres away from the Dungeon Boss, so he started to bolt.
After a minute or so, he reached the place and started to look around. He saw two small blood splats and from the shape they were on the ground, he figured that it must have taken two clean hits to kill the boss.
This made him more excited. He started looking around more keenly for any presence of a human, but couldn't find any. Disappointed, he screamed on the top of his lungs!
"INVISIBLE HUNTER! I AM A BIG FAN OF YOURS! CAN I TAKE A PICTURE WITH YOU?"
************************
When Theo heard that he frowned. Was this a way for media to find his true identity? He didn't like that since his slow life would be in more danger. He used Mana Manipulation to gently move away from his position and appear a kilometre away from the screaming hunter. Then, he rushed towards the dungeon entrance, leaving behind a frantic hunter looking for his idol.
The dungeon entrance was guarded but he could maneuver through the guards and the reporters waiting for the 'Invisible Hunter'. He knew that the Smart Capture Device couldn't track him when he was invisible. He usually did not bother to switch on invisibility since his speed was enough to be not noticed by any normal person and the powerhouses won't even care to notice a hunter running through the streets unnoticed and doing nothing wrong. But from now on he had to make sure he would be invisible while moving into or out of a dungeon.
No one noticed that he was blending into the crowd who were concentrating on the dungeon entrance, waiting for the 'Invisible Hunter' to show up. They had encircled the entrance so that the 'Invisible Hunter' won't be able to escape, unless he/she could fly.
Theo noticed that he was next to a teenage boy and no one was watching him. So he undid his invisibility and poked the teenage boy's shoulders.
The teenage boy, seemingly annoyed, turned and asked, "What?" to the forgettable boy who poked him on his shoulder.
Theo asked, in visible confusion, "Why are you guys blocking the dungeon entrance?"
The teenage boy replied with a smile, "New here, aint'cha? Invisible Hunter cleared the dungeon, we are waiting for him outside."
Theo put a uninterested face and replied with an "Oh", turned and left. The teenage boy ignored the forgettable guy he just spoke with and looked in the direction of the dungeon entrance.
Meanwhile, Theo reached his home and called his mother using a mana powered communication device, untraceable and only available to the Noble and Royal Families of Royal Consortium.
"Hello, Mom. I want to go to the capital of Country AM, City DC. The dungeons there might be more challenging. Please ask your confidants to take care of all the paperwork. I'll be flying there tomorrow."
"Ok, ok, Theo. Just tell me what happened today? You seem more tired than usual."
"Nothing, Mom. Just a bit of inconvenience. I'll sort it out. Tell Dad and Grace I love them. Love you too, Mom. Bye."
"Bye, Theo"
And he cut the call. He packed all the stuff in his house except the bed into a storage equipment. He then whistled and a man wearing a black suit appear next to him.
"Clean the stuff up. Leave nothing behind. Not even a hair. Delete all the records of me living in this place. Ask the Branch Head of NV HTC 'politely' to drink Memory Loss Potion of term 1 day at 11PM today."
"Everything will be done as you have instructed, Prince Spencer."
"Alright, you may leave."
He sighed and lay on his bed. He smiled brightly and muttered,
"Slow-life is indeed wonderful."
Resting after working for the whole day was indeed a wonderful feeling.
He looked at his Hunter Smart Watch to see the time as 9:23. He ate his dinner and went to sleep at 10PM.
Meanwhile the Spencer Family Butler's son, the man in black suit was busy instructing his subordinates to finish the tasks given by Theo. After all his subordinates were gone. He took out a medicinal vial from his Storage Space and headed to the mansion where the Branch Head of NV HTC lived.