At the moment, Aiden was waiting, not doing anything worth noting.
He was simply waiting for the new wave of monsters to appear so that he could try and get some experience again.
It's because the feeling of strength he had gotten from upgrading his stats was simply addicting, and he wanted to feel it once again.
Suddenly, a message appeared in front of him.
[The monsters of the second wave have all been eliminated.]
[The next and final wave will appear in 5 minutes, try to prepare for it.]
The thing about those messages that Aiden liked the most was the five-minute break.
It might seem brief, but it granted him precious time to catch his breath and prepare for the final wave, which might be the hardest for both him and his teammates.
***
Five minutes passed, and as Aiden had finally relaxed a little, he immediately got back to how he was previously, serious and aware of his surroundings just like an assassin would be.
He seemed to be ready for a fight at any moment, always looking around himself.
Boom!
Boom!
Explosions could be heard by Aiden, it seemed like the monsters were starting to appear.
Aiden couldn't see them well since they were so far away from the city, but one of them stood out, which he felt he shouldn't approach, that is, if he didn't want to die.
The creature was enormous and towering, boasting a single eye that resembled the fantastical beings often seen in movies.
It bore a resemblance to a Cyclops, yet Aiden wasn't sure of it, as his knowledge of such monsters was limited to fiction movies.
Maybe it was another monster he didn't know.
[The final wave is starting to approach the city, try to defend it.]
[If you kill the boss monster, extra rewards will be given. You can decide to leave the trial without killing the boss monster.]
Looking at the big monster, Aiden thought, 'It's probably the boss monster that I will need to kill if I want to get stronger quickly.'
However, before fighting the monster, Aiden had to kill the monsters that were coming toward the city gates at a fast rate.
The weaker monsters were green and all had a weapon with them, which didn't happen beforehand.
The weapon they carried resembled a heavy mace, but the monsters were swinging it like nothing.
As they entered the city, Aiden activated his passive skill, Shadow Steps, to stay hidden from those hungry-looking monsters.
He wanted to test the strength of a single monster before wanting to fight many of them.
He repeated the same strategy as with the other monsters, he hid until he spotted one that acted alone and decided to check the strength of that monster.
The innocent orc was looking around, not knowing what was happening around him.
'It seems these monsters aren't the smartest, but that means their pure strength might be massive.'
Going behind the orc, Aiden charged his attack with the same dull knife from earlier, as he didn't get the chance to find a better weapon and was still stuck with it.
He aimed to land a strike on the orc's neck, hoping to exploit its vulnerability.
However, just before Aiden's strike connected, the orc turned around purely by chance and saw Aiden with his dagger swung high up in the air.
Seeing this, the orc swiftly raised his mace to shield himself from the impending strike, avoiding an injury.
Aiden didn't give up and tried to attack the orc again, this time by throwing a fake attack at it to test its reaction.
It was a good idea, as the Orcs were not the smartest. Well, from what Aiden knew.
From their wobbly walk that resembled a penguin with a hangover to their body language which could rival squirrels on the skates. They seemed to be the embodiment of stupidity. It was as if the universe had a peculiar sense of humor, and these orcs were its chosen clowns.
The fake attack used by Aiden caused the orc to defend itself needlessly, creating an opening that Aiden seized as soon as he saw it, unaware of when he would get another clean strike.
His attack seemed to work as green blood laced around the dull knife Aiden had used to attack.
The orc touched his arm, which was injured because of the attack from the knife.
It looked furiously at Aiden.
'Was it the first time in his life that he had gotten hurt by something?'
Enraged, the orc started swinging his mace around with no clear target.
However, this loss of control played into Aiden's hands, as it presented more opportunities for him to attack.
Aiden repeatedly struck the orc with his knife, not being able to slash him due to the knife's dullness.
He continued the assault as he sometimes saw green blood flowing out of the body of the orc.
After a while, the orc was lying on the ground, having lost so much blood that he wasn't able to stand and lost all functions in his body.
Aiden had finally succeeded in killing this orc as messages from the system started to appear in front of him.
Beep!
[You have killed an orc]
[You have gained 20 experience.]
[+4 points]
[An item has been dropped.]
Seeing the last message from the system, Aiden decided to look at the place where the body of the orc had disappeared into particles.
There was the mace that the orc had used while fighting Aiden.
Aiden was happy as he had finally found a better weapon than the one he had currently, which would make it much easier to hunt the other monsters around him.
He decided to pick it up and inspect it. As he did so, a panel from the system opened in front of his eyes.
[Orc's Mace]
[Rank: Basic]
[Description: A mace used by most of the orcs when fighting. It is made of quality material, but the blacksmith who crafted this mace was not skilled enough to make it one of a kind.]
It was the first time Aiden had gotten an item that the system recognized.
The dull knife he had used earlier didn't trigger the system, probably because it wasn't a weapon judged as good enough to be used by an awakener.
However, the mace wielded by the orc was a Basic rank item, the lowest rank possible for items. Still, while it was of the lowest rank, the mace was clearly better than the dull knife that Aiden had been using.
The mace would probably help Aiden fight against the orcs because this weapon would cause a lot more damage to monsters in a shorter amount of time.
Aiden was excited to test it out on the other monsters, so he didn't waste any time finding his new victim.