Three years later.
...
[Ding! You have slain a Level 15 beast, Blackhog!]
[You have grown stronger!]
...
"Hmm, no Level up notification this time either." I muttered with little disappointment and pull out my spear from the corpse below.
[At your current level, Beasts or Monsters of the same level or lower will only amount to limited experience for you.] Meta inputted as I began to dress down the Blackhog I just hunted.
It was a beast reminiscent of a wild boar with a particularly thick and black hide covering it's back.
My dagger seamlessly cut through its thick skin as I shoved my arms inside of it. It was an ugly work, but years spent hunting like this has made actions like this almost commonplace.
... Almost.
"So I would need to kill a lot more Beasts or Monsters to level up or rank up the stronger I get?" While searching for the Blackhog's core fragment, I casually commented.
[Not precisely. Eventually, Beasts of an entire rank or more below you will result to no experience at all, regardless of how many you kill. But at the moment, your conjecture may still apply. For now.]
Feeling my expression dim further and further the more I listened to Meta explain how bleak my future will be, I lamented, almost depressed.
"Leveling up is hard."
I guess that's just the way it is.
It meant I would have to seek out stronger monsters eventually. The stronger I grew, the narrower my future prospects became. It was only a matter of time before my experience farm (the forest) wouldn't be able to assist me in leveling up anymore.
After all, the strongest monsters residing in this forest were at most Mortal Rank like myself. Chances were there could be a few rare Eta Ranks, but those were slim and could depend entirely on luck... Or unluck...for me to run into one.
It didn't take too long for me to locate and retrieve the core fragment from the beast. Staring at the glinting small bloody crystal in my palm, I mused inwardly with Meta.
'As I thought, in the end, remaining in this territory with my family will only limit my possibilities. I can't spend the rest of my life until the Calamity here, I'll have to start furnishing my plans about venturing outside.'
[Affirmative. Aetohria is a wide world with nigh endless possibilities. There are various ways and places to furnish your strength.] Meta also seemed to agree.
Sigh, I still remember how excited I was during my first kill a couple of years ago. It felt like I had landed a gold mine, but now I'm suddenly getting too strong for it, sniff sniff...
Somehow, I feel kind of nostalgic... My first kill, huh. That was the strange White Ware rabbit and the rush of euphoria that ran through my body was simply...
I sniffed again with a bitter smile.
Remembering to flesh out my plans for the rest of my future, I crush the small fragment in my palm. The Core shattered like glass underneath my Mortal strength and an ethereal wisp of energy broke from it before swirling into my nose and body.
Inhaling the wisp, I felt my body rejuvenate slightly, and my Aura core stir a bit. By the time it was finished, the shattered pieces of the core had vanished completely.
Absorbing the essence of monster Cores helped in saturating my Aura core and slowly increasing my reserves.
Just like leveling up, it was only a matter of time before low level cores like this would be able to barely increase the quality and fluidity of my Aura.
Well, in the first place, the reason I was hunting in the forest at the moment was to maximize my current opportunity. It might seem contradictory to my inital plan of trying to delay my progress as much as seemingly possible until it was right, but I was only here because it was right.
Just as planned, earlier in the year, I faked my Awakening.
Hehe
Thinking back about my performance, there was no chance I hadn't got everyone fooled.
[No kidding. You suddenly dropping to the ground and screaming "It's coming, it's coming! I can feel it in my right hand! The power, ahh!" Was certainly a performance worth a round of applause.] Meta dryly quiped sarcastically.
'D-don't say it like that. Makes it sound cringe. '
[It was.]
'... '
Fuck...
I facepalmed, feeling my cheeks burn from embarrassment while think back to how stupidly I had acted while faking.
Stupid, stupid. Why did I do something so embarrassing like scream, 'the power in my right arm '?!
Meta added;
[I think it was a splendid performance...eight graders will be proud.]
"S-shut the fuck up!"
I-it was for the sake of the plot! Yes, for the plot! I had to make it look believable!
[Is that why you're glad Adrianne wasn't there to see it?]
I said shut up! I screamed internally.
"...in any case, shouldn't we get going and finsih up what we're for before it turns dark? Those monsters aren't going to become my experience points themselves..." Muttering to myself with gritted teeth, I mached further into the forest.
However the method, I succeeded in faking my Awakening, which meant i can new progress further with my plan. I have already began to display 'improvements' to my family and raised their expectations slightly.
They believe I'm Beta ranked as a newly Awakened however.
All in all, everything has been going smoothly, I decided it wouldn't hurt too much to raise my level a bit more now. But I still didn't have plans to breakthrough into the next rank yet.
Even if I did, it would be twice as hard as it was for me to breakthrough to Mortal.
For reference, I had until level 35 to become Eta ranked. I was almost half way there though, and if I could get to Level 20 or 19 at the very least this year, i would be able to mask it as my advancement through my fake Beta Rank on the surface.
Hence why I was out here.
There was news about the sighting and location of a discovered den of Monsters nearby, somewhere in the forest. This was something discovered by the resident hunters.
I just happened to be in town trading in some pelts when I happened to hear about this (aka eavesdrop). It just so happened to coincide advantageously to my plans. So instantly, my eyes lit up as soon as I heard it.
And here I was; seeking out the Den for myself.
'A Den, huh. I've never faced an entire Den before, is there anything should know about before then? ' I hadn't found the Den yet, so I asked Meta for any prior advice.
It would be a lie to say I wasn't a little bit anxious. But at the same time, strangely excited.
Was it confidence or arrogance, i wasn't sure. Maybe it was because I knew the Monsters at least wouldn't be Eta rank or above?
[Monster Den or lairs have a considerable number of monsters or Beasts, depending on the size of the Den. But what would be the most you should be wary about would be the 'Boss' of the Den.] Meta said.
I furrowed my brows only slightly.
'The boss? '
I hadn't heard of that before.
[It is already strange a group of monsters reside together at a place, but this is often possible in most cases because there is an authority presiding over all. A Monster much stronger than the rest. That is called a Boss.]
The image of the level 17 Dire Fanged Wolf of some years ago popped into my mind.
'I see. I understand.
Somehow, this just turned into a game development...
'So the Boss is what I should be most worried about? Got it. '
[Aside from the numbers, yes.] Meta affirmed.
Well, it shouldn't be much of a problem if the Monsters residing in the Den are low level. But in the end, it is all only a chance. The boss is the strongest in the Den, but in the end, it's the numbers that are most deadly.
Concluding this, I decided to proceed carefully. This time, I made extra preparations and even brought my spear along. And whilst in my thoughts, it didn't take too long before I found the Monster Den.
"Is that it?" I mumbled from behind a fallen log, a couple distance away from target. In my hands were a pair binoculars I brought with me.
[Affirmative.]
"...it fits the description with the information I received." Lowering my binoculars, I hummed thoughtfully.
The Den looked like an unassuming cave in the side of a cliff at a forest edge.
It took a while to get this far and finally find it due to how far the Den actually was. I came across a few Monsters on the way and hunted them for experience, hoping to at least raise my level a bit before confronting the Den.
Unfortunately, that didn't work.
All I managed to get were a few Core fragments I hadn't absorbed yet for emergency purposes. I would most likely be expending a lot of Aura, the core fragments were backups.
After surveying the area for a while longer, I decided not to waste any more time. The news about the Den had spread considerably in the settlement, and I was sure father would be sending out a group to clear it. I intended to do that first however.
'I'm such a good and patriotic citizen, taking on such a danger for the safety of our region. Right Meta? " I sighed exaggeratedly and said to Meta.
[You just want to monopolize all of the experience for yourself.]
'A hero? No, please. That's too much. '
[...]
I made final preparations in place, keeping behind excessive luggage that would only slow or impede me and hiding them in a bush.
Arming myself with a sharp dagger, a bow, a quill of arrows, and my personal spear; i approached the den from the front.
There was a wide clearing before the Den, so there was no point in me trying to close in sneakily anyway. So instead, I walked casually with a big warm smile while twirling my spear.
"Now then, let's begin the hunt!"