After a few minutes of silently staring at the night sky, Aurora gazed back down, her eyes falling on the corpse of the old man. Currently, she felt a lot of complicated emotions, but regret wasn't one of them.
At the end of the day, the silver-haired man was an enemy, and just like Yuki had pointed out, killing even between humans was most probably normal in this world. This was no longer her past life; here, it was kill or be killed.
"We did what we needed to do. Now, let's just see our spoils." Yuki said encouragingly, trying to lighten her sister's current not-so-pleasant mood.
Indeed, Yuki words served their purpose, as Aurora nodded her head softly and focused on the other messages sent to her by the system. After all, she had just defeated a rank 2 enemy all on her own, even without the help of that mysterious flame.
[You have defeated the Swordmaster Jian Shen level 14.]
[You have reached level 23.]
[You have reached...]
...
...
...
[You have reached level 30.]
[You have received a Great Air Crystal.]
[You have received the Boots of Lightness.]
[You have met the requirements to evolve your title The Killer of Giants to its next form. You have obtained the title The Colossus Slayer.]
'A lot of good stuff!. But I guess that's to be expected considering who I beat.' Aurora muttered excitedly as her eyes swept through all the various system messages.
"Hehe, you're still forgetting something, sis. Humans are treasure chests; look." The image of Yuki appeared in Aurora's mind, and the fox pointed at the old man's corpse.
When Aurora's eyes once again fell on the corpse, she couldn't stop them from widening. Her eyes shined an excited glint as she finally noticed all the various treasures that the old man had on himself. Surprisingly, these treasures even managed to withstand the power of Aurora's absurd attack.
'Seems like the items made by the system are indestructable.' She muttered, licking her lip in anticipation. There were at the very least six different treasures on the man's body. She was sure that even if she couldn't equip them all, they would still be a huge gain in her total power.
'You know, if I felt even the slightest bit of regret or guilt, all of those feelings disappeared this instant.' Aurora muttered seriously, but Yuki merely giggled in response and said nothing else.
'Let's check the actual drops and the title first...' Reaching out with her paw, Aurora grabbed the light green five-sided crystal and crushed it with her paw.
[You air soul vessel reached level 5.]
With the immediate increase of 25 000 exp points, Aurora's air soul vessel has immediately reached level 5, on par with her two main soul vessels.
'Truly, defeating rank 2 enemies is absolutely broken at my current level. Just this one kill was able to boost one of the soul vessels I never even leveled up all the way to a level equal to my main vessels.' Aurora shook her head internally, and before moving onto the treasures, she first decided to take a look at her newly evolved title.
[The Colossus Slayer]
– A title only given to those who have continuously pushed themselves and defeated those much more powerful than them.
[Requirements to obtain:
- Defeat a rank 2 enemy while still being in the first rank without any external help or without using any items you yourself haven't created or received by the system.
[Effects:
- Your natural stat growth is increased by 20%, and you also instantly receive +50 points into all your stats.
'Fifty points!? Not to mention the stat increase is now 20% instead of 10!' Aurora exclaimed when she saw the effect of her new title. The effects of the evolved form were the same as those of the original title; however, they were just much more powerful.
Even Yuki was completely speechless, still in shock. The immediate boost of 50 points into all stats was simply huge to the current Aurora. Even with her highest stats boosted by her equipment, a boost of 50 points was akin to almost a 25% increase. As for her lowest stats, it was almost a 50% increase.
Without a second thought, Aurora immediately opened up her status window to see her current stats.
[Status]
- Name: Aurora
- Race: Fiery Icebloom Kitsune
- Rank: 1
- Level: 30
[Energy:
- HP: 302/302
- MP: 383/383
- SP: 303/303
[Stats:
- Health: 114 -> 192 (+10)
- Intelligence: 135 -> 257 (+70)
- Mana: 135 -> 213 (+70)
- Strength: 112 -> 190 (+20)
- Agility: 119 -> 197
- Defense: 109 -> 187 (+15)
[Free points: 16
'That's... I... what?' Aurora muttered incredulously, not willing to believe her own eyes. Of course, she knew that these numbers checked out; it was just too absurd to even think about. I mean, her intelligence was almost reaching 330 points!
"We should take this calmly. We haven't even looked at any of the treasures, so there are probably more surprises to come." Yuki took a deep breath and said, causing Aurora to nod.
After calming down a bit, Aurora closed her status window, her eyes falling on the pair of simple white boots. They looked to be made out of normal leather that was simply dying, but from the faint energy the boots gave off, she was sure that the boots weren't anything simple.
[Boots of Lightness]
- Grade: Very rare
– A pair of boots made out of magical material that allow the weaver to move around like a feather.
[When equipped:
- Increase the wearer's agility by 45 points.
- Increase the wearer's air affinity.
- Reduce the weight of the wearer's other equipment by 50%.
'These boots are a very rare-grade treasure!' Aurora exclaimed excitedly. The boost of 45 points into agility was already very good on its own, but if you combine that with the affinity boost and the passive effect, this pair of boots definitely deserves the grade of a very rare treasure.
Unfortunately, Aurora's excitement died the next second as realization hit her. This treasure was a pair of boots... and she didn't have a slot for such an item.
With a bitter heart, she stuffed the boots into a fake slot and shook her head disappointedly. However, even if she was disappointed, that didn't mean she was done yet!
Her eyes, burning with determination, fell on the lifeless body of the old swordmaster. Without a second thought, Aurora used her flames and burned what was still left of the old man, leaving only the seemingly indestructable system-created items.
'Four rings and two bracelets. No necklaces or anything else, hmmm...' Aurora fell silent, seemingly in thought. But even then, she slowly picked up the first item and used her skill on it.
Upon seeing the item's stats, she nodded slightly and picked up the second item. This process repeated until she was done checking all six items.
'Hmmm, I have no bracelets at all, so there's no harm in equipping these two.' Aurora muttered, taking the two bracelets into her paw one by one and equipping them. The bracelets weren't anything breathtaking, but they were still useful.
One of them was a simple bronze bracelet called Armored Bracelet, and it increased the wearer's defense and health by 10 points each. As for the other bracelet, it was very similar to the first one, with the difference being that this one was made out of silver. The silver bracelet was called Agile Bracelet, and it increased the wearer's agility by 20 points.
Both the bracelets were common items, but they were useful nonetheless since Aurora had no bracelets yet. Besides, the 20 points into agility were very useful now that she didn't have a necklace that boosted the stat.
'Hmmm, as for the rings, it's quite obvious as well.' After putting on the bracelets, Aurora picked up two of the four rings and put them on.
One of the rings was an uncommon treasure called the Ring of Silver Light. The ring increased the wearer's agility by 20 points and their mana by 10 points. And to top it all off, it also granted a slight increase in the user's light affinity.
The second ring was a much more interesting one, on the other hand. It was actually a rare-grade treasure called Ring of Thousand Steps. Overall, it was very similar to Aurora's old necklace, just having the stat values swapped and granting no affinity boost. Still, 20 points into agility and 15 into intelligence was a great boost.
Aurora stared at the rings she didn't equip and took them into her paw. They would be treasures for Rejoke, as both rings granted the wearer an increase in strength.
'Still, with how the old man's treasures were mostly agility-focused, he would have no problem cutting me in half in a second if he took the fight seriously.' The realization was pretty scary to think about, but there was no need to think about it.
All these 'what-ifs' were utterly pointless; that's why she didn't really waste time on them. She had defeated the old man, so she could just forget the whole fight and move on with her life. However, that didn't mean Aurora didn't feel the aftermaths of the fight.
'The increase of 60 agility points is really yummy. I dare to say that not even some early rank 2 monsters would be able to match my speed. Combine that with my magic, and I'm pretty deadly alright.' Aurora chuckled, walking over to the other battlefield with leisurely steps.
However, with her current agility, even if she was walking with leisurely steps, she was moving fast enough for a normal human to be able to hardly see her. This was because, with her new treasures, Aurora's agility was already above 250 total points.
It took the small fox no more than a few seconds to reach the battlefield, about two hundred meters away from where she fought against the silver-haired man. Well, what was left of the battlefield anyway?
The arrogant blonde man's life had long since left his body; similarly to what she did to the old man, Rejoke had cut off this man's head as well after his screams got too annoying.
However, even if he killed him, he didn't do anything else. He didn't even collect the drops he got from killing the strange beast. This was because he was obviously waiting for Aurora to first check the loot herself.
Seeing the black wolf, who was larger than he normally was due to the lingering effects of his skill, a small smile appeared on Aurora's cute face. How could she not understand what the wolf was doing? Quite obviously, he was waiting for her, something she considered to be unnecessary.
Still, just the gesture of allowing her to have the loot first showed how much Rejoke cared for her. Even then, she had no plans of going through the loot that they gained from the blonde man. It was Rejoke's kill, not hers.
Unlike sometimes, she did nothing to help this time. It was entirely his fight and his victory; there was no way she would still get the loot that rightfully belonged to him.
And so Aurora chuckled a little and nodded towards the wolf before throwing two rings towards him. After that, she merely walked away, but not before pointing at the young man's body. She did that to make sure that the wolf wouldn't forget to take even the treasures from the corpse.
Now, whether he understood what she was trying to say or not, that wasn't her problem. Still, Aurora very much doubted he didn't understand. After all, the wolf had a very good understanding of her by now.
And just like she believed, a few seconds after she walked away, Rejoke nodded lightly and began to go through all the loot he got. Of course, he didn't have a skill like Aurora, nor did he know how to use the system. But thanks to his now-higher intelligence, he was still able to try on the various items without help. And by using his instincts, he could feel what the item actually did.
While the wolf was busy picking up his spoils of war, Aurora merely glanced at the moon that was slowly going down, soon to be replaced by the morning sun.
'This was a tough night.' She muttered, heaving a tired sigh, but the smile never faded from her face.