Chapter 21 - Big Catch

Shin watched the chase from a high cliff, using binoculars to keep track of the action below. As Connor came out of the woods and headed towards the academy grounds, Shin pulled back and refocused on the scene unfolding before him. 

"Master, let's go and get the treasure. I even found where the map is located after looking around. But since it was rolled up, I couldn't read its content," Kiara said, frustrated by her inability to interact with anything in the mortal realm.

"Kiara, what's the rush? This is quite the spectacle unfolding here," Shin remarked casually from his perch on the high cliff, peering through his binoculars.

His gaze was fixed on Connor, who deftly maneuvered on his sword like a seasoned surfer, dodging the monstrous creature that surged towards him like a relentless tide.

At this point, the others had abandoned their futile attempts to combat the beast—or more accurately, they had fled.

"But those others will grab the map. You must retrieve it or they will get to the treasure," the fallen pixie pleaded, She wondered why all her masters were so difficult to deal with.

"Go after them and find the location of the treasure" Shin said to Kiara, his eyes still fixed on Connor. To him, witnessing the spectacle was nothing less than a treasure. As a fan of novels and games, he felt like Connor was the protagonist of a story.

meanwhile, Connor lured the gorilla to an open space surrounded by vehicles.

Connor stopped in his tracks and muttered silently "Emerge" as three undead humans emerged out of a runic seal.

Those three humans had died at the beginning of the chaos, but Connor's skill [Soul Eater] had worked on them as well as they were not corrupted an lesser-ranked souls.

He awaited the gorilla's approach, his eyes narrowing in focus. As the beast lumbered closer, the three undead humans moved into position.

Each of them held a water hose salvaged from a fire truck, aiming with unwavering precision at the blazing top of the gorilla.

With a synchronized pull, they unleashed torrents of water.

The powerful jets struck the gorilla squarely in the face, weakening the intense flames that had blazed atop its head. Steam erupted, enveloping the creature in a cloud of hissing vapor.

Staggering back, the gorilla was momentarily disoriented, struggling to regain its balance amid the unexpected onslaught.

Connor took action, taking advantage of the beast's disorientation.

Using the steam as cover, he approached and swung his sword in a swift diagonal cut, severing one of the gorilla's legs and causing hot blood like lava to spew from the wound.

The giant ape winced in pain as it fell to one knee and swung its fists around as if it had gone mad. It also activated its second skill [Magma Skin] to transform its entire body with a magma coating.

It became harder for Connor to cut again as the magma shielded the gorilla's skin. He kept dodging the gorilla's fists as it used more and more force to cause destruction.

While clicking his tongue at the failed attempt, he commanded his undead humans to launch the water precisely at the beast's legs.

The water solidified and trapped its movement, giving Connor the time he needed to think up a way to penetrate the beast's defenses.

'I have only used Darkness Surge to block my enemy's senses and paralyze them, but can I also use it to remove their defenses and armor?' he thought as he brought out the skill's activation details.

[ Skill Description: Creates a field of darkness around the user, binding everything inside to the laws of darkness, rendering them still. The user can move freely within this field, unaffected by outside interference. The field size depends on the mana used, and it drains 50 mana per second to remain active.]

'It says it binds everything inside to the laws of darkness, causing them to drown in it. But if I could control the intensity of darkness inside the field, won't it completely consume the matter itself in that space?'

Connor knew that it was possible since the rune had also given him knowledge about darkness.

The system had also told him that the law of darkness mentioned in the skill is related to void and emptiness when he asked about it 'Night blend' and darkness origin back in dungeon.

Just then, a crazy idea clicked for Connor, one that normal people wouldn't even consider.

He created a huge field of darkness spanning 100 meters in radius, but then, by keeping the same mana in the field intact, he reduced it, causing the darkness-imbued mana in the field to gather and compress around the field.

It became tougher the more he shrank the field, but he also felt the intensity rise as his own clothes were slowly losing their color and fabric.

Even his sword was being consumed. After the field shrank to 25 meters, the intensity was four times normal.

Connor sweated from the mental exhaustion of using so much mana and controlling it.

He recovered mana using SP and repeated the process of increasing and shrinking the field thrice, causing him to lose more than 5000 mana or 50 SP.

At last, the field became so intense that Connor lost all his clothes.

He had to stuff his blade inside his core as he feared the darkness would consume the blade as well. Then he focused on the beast that was on the verge of being wiped out.

It was holding out this far only thanks to its coated magma skin, but even that was consumed.

Its head had already lost all the magma that poured out and became void. As Connor manipulated the darkness in the field to gather at the beast, it died immediately after the head was consumed.

[You have slain a level 30 Infernal Kong]

[You have gained 10,024 (5012) SP]

[You have leveled up]

[You have leveled up]

[You have leveled up]

.....

[You have gained +38 Strength +35 Stamina from the excess SP gained]

[By using 'Darkness Surge' in an unsophisticated way, you have discovered a new evolution path to the skill. Check the skill evolution requirements.]

Connor grinned widely at the messages as he deactivated the skill.

Even though he should feel ten times less intensity from the darkness as it originated from himself, if he had stayed a minute longer, his body would have also disintegrated.

As the adrenaline and stress were released, Connor gasped for air as he realized he had been holding his breath, 'or else, the oxygen inside the darkness was also wiped out'

'Doesn't that mean that what I just did was matter disintegration?' he thought, pulling out the skill evolution requirements.

[ Evolution Path for 'Darkness Surge'

1. ??? - Use the skill to incapacitate and kill thousands of people above level 80 while the skill is still activated. (0/1000)

 -->Additional requirement: Must kill at least one Class Three rank (0/1)

2. ??? - Use the skill to wipe out an area of 1 km radius or more from all lifeforms. (New) 

 -->Additional requirement: at least 10 lifeforms of Class One rank to be killed ]

Connor knew that the 2nd condition was the newly formed one as the evolution path for Darkness Surge was unique and unexplored.

Even Uriel could only wait for further simulation and research to derive and discover the new evolution paths that no one has walked before.

He felt a mix of excitement and trepidation. The potential to evolve such a powerful skill was tempting, but the requirements were daunting.

The first one was impossible, he needed to evolve a darkness-related skill to 3rd order for his class advancement at lv.25, whereas the second one seemed possible but not now as he needed more.

He thought what kind of an absurd requirement it was to have or evolve a skill to 3rd order while still being unranked.

But he had no choice as his life was on the line.

He called his status screen to check his profile:

[

Name: Connor Lennox

Race: Human

Class: None

Subclass: Necromancer

Rank: Unranked

Level: 18 (43/1900)

AP: 3

Attributes:

->Strength: 101 (+3) 

->Endurance: 67

->Stamina: 22/142(+5) 

->Agility:33

->M.P: 15

->Mana: 200/75

Weapons(2) Equipment(0) Skills(4) Weapon Arts(0) Blessing(1) ]

Connor was completely exhausted mentally as abusing his skill like that had taken a heavy toll on both his will and mind, but he felt satisfied with the increase in level, having risen 5 levels with just one big kill. 

It was not easy to advance after level 10 as the SP requirement increased ten times more than usual. For each level, it would take more than 1000 SP. But it was good for him, he could store more Sp in his core to abuse with mana conversion before leveling up.

"Truly a big catch. I should get the treasure and call it a day," he thought, feeling extremely strong. With over 100 in both strength and stamina, he felt like he could lift and throw a car with ease.

"MP, what is that?" he thought mockingly, despite the fact that all this rise in strength was thanks to the MP and Mana in him.

He still felt bitter since he would not gain any increase in MP or mana from the extra attributes he would gain from SP. At least not until his core was healed.

Meanwhile, Shin, who had been watching the entire scene unfold, felt like he had found the perfect man to compete with.

Connor was like a monster in his eyes. No, he was even beyond a monster.

At least a monster acts according to its instincts to survive, but Connor was a walking menace who ignores the danger and survival instincts—if he even had any—and walked the path of self-harm, ignoring all the risks just to achieve his goal.

"Ahhhhh, such madness!" Shin exclaimed with a mix of fascination and excitement at the thought of facing off in a one-on-one death match with such a daring adversary.

"I had planned to kill you, but I have changed my mind," Shin muttered as he approached Connor and swiftly threw a gas grenade toward him like a pitcher.

Despite being distracted, Connor sensed the incoming threat and instinctively caught the grenade with his hand, reacting as if it were a thrown object like a stone.

However, before he could fully comprehend what he had caught, the gas began leaking from the grenade. Before he could even realize the nature of the gas, some of it had already entered his lungs.

Coughing violently, Connor struggled against the effects of the M99 anesthetic, its potent sedative properties quickly overwhelming his senses.

"That was an M99 anesthetic that is mostly used on elephants. Now rest well, Connor.. We shall meet later at a bigger stage" Shin's voice echoed faintly in Connor's fading consciousness. It was the last thing he heard before he lost consciousness.

*******************

A/N:

Hello guys, how are you doing, I loved the responses and questions I had so I am answering some more questions you might have here, Also please help me grow and support my work by sharing with your reading buddies. Gotta get this work contracted moving forward.

Question: Isn't the 2nd perk of SP to mana conversion too OP ?

A: Yes it is a highly powerful quirk that gives the user an instant refill of mana, but what the MC does not know is that the perk was originally supposed to only convert a 1:10 ratio, someone or some entity had changed it.

Question: Why does connor have an easy fight ending in one chapter with no intense melee?

A: Currently his skills are necromancer, Darkness, and Healing based. He will need a weapon art to make him more suitable for close combat. I plan to do that in the next 10 chapters where he will also be struggling.

That's all for now, please help my novel grow, I plan to work hard and make better lasting fight scenes, I really am new to writing them so I am still struggling, hope you understand.