All the ascenders and inhabitants who were near the guard could feel the thick murderous aura that he was releasing and stepped away from him.
"Stop right there! I dare you to take a step further from your position." Kyle heard a raged voice from behind him which sounded like a bull's bellowing.
Kyle stopped for a brief instant under the pleased expression of the guard before disappearing the next instant.
[Wink leap]
The guard became even more enraged when he saw Kyle disappearing. He ground his teeth with so much strength that the people who had distanced themselves from him could also hear the sound of his teeth grinding against each other.
The guard looked around but failed to find Kyle's silhouette in the crowd. After raging for a few minutes, the guard thought something and his grimace turned into an evil grin as he walked away towards the city gates.
He would definitely teach that brat a lesson.
Kyle blended into the crowd and walked away. After arriving at another street, he checked for any available missions that he would be interested in. It was worth noting that with all his stats at 9(18), Kyle was one of the strongest existences on the first floor of the Ascension Temple. Kyle had been holding back on testing his combat strength for quite some time since he didn't have the chance to do so.
Now that he was in the central zone and there were many beasts, ascenders and inhabitants who were close to Kyle's level, he wanted to test his strength.
After scrolling through the available missions, Kyle left the place with a sigh. He couldn't find any missions that even resembled what he had in mind. Since that was the case, he would rather go to the forest and hunt those beasts by himself. If he was lucky he would likely find a beast that could be used as his sparring partner.
----------------------
'Bangg!'
'Gruntt! Grunt!'
A wild boar about the size of a half-grown elephant crashed into a big rock and let out a pained grunt as it felt the bones near its chest shatter.
Kyle had a slight disappointed expression as he saw the boar flying away with just a kick of his.
He was so excited to test his strength that he had forgotten that it was his base stats which were 9, but with the added bonus of one of the conditional rewards, all his stats were 18.
And 18 was well beyond the limits of what could be found on the first floor of the Ascension Temple, unless there was an abnormality.
He took out his sword and threw it at the boar which was limping away from him while shivering in fear. It was the boar's fault to attack him when he didn't even provoke it in any way.
The sword pierced through the broken ribs of the boar and shot out from its other side while puncturing its heart in the way.
[Herculean Boar killed.]
[+120 (60) exp]
[Extract usable parts?]
[Yes/No]
Kyle just ignored the notification and drew out his sword from the rock behind the dead boar and walked away. For a moment, he was tempted to add a point to one of his stats and switch off the Conditional reward that doubled his stats when all of them were equal, but when he thought about the presence of transcendents in Accelente City, he held back on his impulse.
He couldn't be sure when he would run into any not-so-friendly transcendent. He wouldn't break this bonus unless he had enough points so that he could add them to make all his stats in one go.
'Status' Kyle muttered under his breath.
[Name: Kyle Zehern ]
[Ascendant level: 1]
[Life tokens: 2]
[Status:]
[HP:10/10]
[Mana equivalent: 20/20]
[Exp: 580/100]
[Stats:]
[Strength: 18(9)] [Agility: 18(9)]
[Stamina: 18(9)] [Endurance: 18(9)]
[Energy affinity:18(9)][Intelligence: 18(9)]
[Skills: tap to expand]
[Abilities: tap to expand]
[Equipment: Doppelganger blade]
[(Sword/mortal/tier 1)]
He still had 620 points more to go to be able to execute his plan. Kyle looked at the time in his watch. It was a few minutes to 6 PM in Rostelles city, so he decided to return back.
On the way back, Kyle was stopped on the city gates. Kyle looked at the burly man blocking his path while giving him a creepy smile.
"Didn't I tell you to stop, kid?" The man said as he pointed towards a road in the forest from which Kyle was returning.
"Come let's have a talk." Saying so, the man walked in front without bothering to look back.
Kyle glanced at the gatekeepers who were pointing their swords towards him and the crowd of inhabitants who all were trying to find something fallen on the ground.
Sighing to himself, Kyle walked in the direction that the guard had pointed him.
'Since the guard had no desire to live further, he would only be doing him good by providing him the euthanasia he desired so much.'
The two gatekeepers also followed Kyle without caring for the long line of people waiting to enter the city.
When Kyle arrived at a clearance in the forest, he spotted the man in guard uniform waiting for him with the same creepy smile.
"Today, let me teach you how to respect people whom you can't offend. Little f*cking outsider! I will teach you to know your place." Saying as much, the man charged at Kyle with a spear in his hand.
Kyle looked back at the two gatekeepers. Seeing Kyle look towards them, the gatekeepers tightened their grips on their spears and took their stances to prevent him from escaping.
Kyle saw as the blunt handle of the spear was swung at his head. It was clear that the man wanted to torture him. But the next second..
'Ting!'
'Spurtt!'
Blood spurt as a head fell to the ground.
The two guards who were expecting to hear a muffled cry of agony were stunned for a second before their brains processed that 'heads did not roll when the attack was made from the blunt handle of a spear.'
Before they could even react, they saw a ray of moonlight in the shape of a sword move towards their necks.
'Thud!'
'Thud!'
Two more heads joined the previous one, making a total of three heads rolling on the ground as Kyle walked past them.
[Humans ×3 killed]
[+80(40)exp]
[+76(38)exp]
[+110(55)exp]
[Collect loot?]
[Yes/No ]
'...' Kyle looked at the notification for a brief second before choosing no.
'No way was he collecting those lootes.'
He would see the consequences when the time came.
Just as he was walking past those corpses, Kyle saw something shining in the clothes of the dead guard. It was an envelope half of which had come out of the guard's pocket and was shining.
'Oh, this can trigger a mission.' Kyle thought as he took the envelope and put it in his storage bracelet. He would look at the mission when he had the time.
Kyle entered the city from the gate that was left unguarded and walked straight to the inn room that he had booked.
After arriving back in his room, Kyle took a bath before heading down for dinner. It had been more than a week since he entered the Ascension Temple and all the household workers had returned from their leaves.
This time, Kyle also saw Butler Lynn who had been spending most of his time in the Ascension Temple ever since Kyle suggested him to do so. Butler Lynn was waiting for him at the dinner table. Seeing Kyle arrive, Butler Lynn served him the food.
"Uncle Lynn, can you search the internet for some place on the first floor that has creatures with higher stats than the central zone." Kyle said as he took a bite off the food.
Upon receiving this order, butler Lynn immediately took out dozens of thin objects that looked similar to pens and placed them around himself.
Multiple holographic screens appeared around him.
Kyle looked with interest as he saw Butler Lynn's left hand and face blurred and all those holographic screens either scrolled up or down at nearly the same time.
True enough, the higher one reached in the Ascension Temple, the more amazing things they became capable of doing.
By the time Kyle had eaten his fill, butler Lynn had already put back all but one projector back in his storage and stood behind Kyle with a perfect posture.
"Master, there is no place that exactly fits what you are looking for, but I found something which may interest you." Saying so, butler Lynn handed a projector over to Kyle.
Someone had posted a short video on their social media account a few decades ago, claiming to have uncovered a scheme of the Transcendent Association.
This person had taken a mission to find a certain herb which grew near a specific mountain range near the Accelente City.
He had searched the surrounding region for three days before finding the herb, but in the duration of this mission, he had seen more than a few transcendents entering and leaving the said mountain range which sparked his curiosity.
This person let his curiosity get the better of him and entered the completely unguarded mountain range after finishing his mission.
Halfway through the path, a small creature which could be said to be a Sabre-toothed kitten appeared before him. Before the man could react, the creature leapt towards him and the next thing that he saw was the notification to choose the location where he wanted to revive.
This post was accompanied with a short video.
"Master, this creature is called a tusked cat and does belong to the second floor, but I am not sure whether this video is shot on the first or the second floor." Butler Lynn added.
After looking through the video, Kyle returned back the projector to Butler Lynn. He did know that transcendents were not limited to floors and could freely breathe mana from any floor of the Ascension Temple.
They also had their own means to travel through different floors of the Ascension Temple, but he didn't know whether they had means to bring creatures from other floors back with them.
Anyways, since he was already in Accelente City, Kyle decided to check out this mountain range when he next entered the Ascension Temple.