"Here you go, gentlemen, enjoy," the owner said, placing two bowls of ramen in front of us. Without hesitation, we dug in right away.
"What about you? Surely, you must've had an easy life," Eirin asked, eating calmly, now fully composed.
"Compared to what you've been through, my life seems like a piece of cake…"
I paused, the memories of my past life creeping in. "Born without any parents, I studied like a madman to earn a scholarship, only to meet with an accident on the day of my graduation. Although I got a job at the bank, it was the worst decision of my life—I ended up dying from a robber's gunshots," I thought, completely lost in the recollection. My eyes stared blankly at the bowl of ramen as I was absorbed in my thoughts.
"Well...this boy's—I mean, my parents died on the day of the cataclysm, so I had to survive alone, scraping by on the streets. You already know how humanity fell apart when the laws of the world went useless—chaos everywhere, people snatching what they could just to survive. But I don't mind that now. It's all in the past," I explained, recounting the life this body had endured. Though I didn't feel it as deeply, a faint sadness lingered in my heart. Hearing about such hardships would bring sorrow even to the most hardened.
"Well, I guess we both went through something the other hasn't experienced. Isn't it ironic? You had no family, but even though I did, they were nothing more than strangers to me. I think we've both had our fair share of tough experiences," Eirin said, his face downcast as he ate his ramen.
"Yeah, you could say that," I replied, forcing a smile onto my face.
"Chairman has grown rather fond of you, Zephyr. I haven't seen him this excited in a long time," Eirin said, finishing his bowl of ramen.
"And I know why. It must get pretty lonely at the top," I said, leaning back with a grin. "But you're just a kid, so you wouldn't understand that anyway."
"There you go again with your nonsense," Eirin said, eyeing me skeptically.
"What? How can you possibly excite the chairman when all you do is get beaten up by him?" I teased, a smirk tugging at my lips.
"Just you wait...I'll surpass you very soon," Eirin shot back, clearly provoked by my teasing.
"Sure, sure and give my regards to the chairman and let him know I'm doing alright. See you tomorrow at the tournament."
"Yeah, tomorrow it is," he agreed as we left the ramen shop. We parted ways, and I watched as Eirin got into a taxi to head back to the association.
I still had time to spend so I searched a dungeon on the Hunters unters Nexus to raid.
"Shouldn't I just raise the proficiency of the skills I already have and make use of the new one I acquired?" I muttered to myself. "Since there's no higher-ranked dungeon available, my best option would be an E-rank dungeon to actually test my new skill out."
After my fight with the chairman, I realized that there are still individuals far stronger than me. The last attack he pulled off—I didn't even see it coming. And that's just the chairman. There are people even more powerful than him. "If the chairman is this strong, I can't imagine how terrifying the Six Stars must be," I thought, clenching my fists, my resolve solidifying.
"Taking a taxi would be too slow. I might as well go on foot." With that, I jumped onto a ten-story building effortlessly, a simple task for a high-ranked hunter like me. Leaping from rooftop to rooftop, I quickly arrived at the building near the dungeon I had searched for on the Hunters Nexus. As I looked down, I noticed quite a crowd of hunters gathering around the entrance.
Floor-type dungeons have their own unique traits, particularly in how they allow simultaneous raids by different groups of hunters. Imagine it like this: if a party of five hunters enters the dungeon, and another party of five enters after them, they won't encounter each other. Each group is teleported to its own dimension, identical down to every single detail. It's like parallel dimensions existing in the same dungeon, but separated from each other.
There's also a limit to how many groups can enter. This dungeon, for example, has four dimensions, shown by the square-shaped dots above the gate. Three of them were green, meaning three dimensions were already occupied. When the last one turns green, no one else can enter until a party exits and the dungeon recovers itself.
I braced myself, preparing to enter without drawing attention. Leaping off the rooftop, I created a powerful shockwave on impact that shattered the roof beneath me. The hunters below turned their attention to the disturbance, giving me the perfect opportunity to slip into the dungeon unnoticed.
The bright day vanished, replaced by the eerie darkness of a rocky cave. I was teleported to this shadowy environment, landing abruptly on the jagged rocks. The force of my impact caused a thunderous boom, demolishing everything around me.
Almost immediately, I sensed them—a horde of giant bat-like creatures, about sixteen in total, flying straight toward me. They were still a good distance away, but my A-rank level senses picked them up with ease. "No point in wasting time," I muttered, activating all my skills simultaneously, except my strongest one.
Boom!!
The entire area exploded, obliterating everything in its path down to fine particles of sand. Only the mana stones remained, dropped after the monsters were disintegrated. The whole floor trembled violently from the impact of my attack.
[Skill "Parallel Mind" has evolved to A-rank skill"Divergent Mind"]
"Another A-rank skill? Not bad." I muttered, opening the description of the newly evolved ability.
----
Skill: Divergent Mind (A)
Description: Allows multiple tasks to be executed simultaneously. Increases thought processing speed by 100 times.
----
"100 TIMES?" I exclaimed, completely taken aback. "If this description is true, it could be one of the most useful skills, even compared to some S-rank ones. Everyone knows that in the heat of battle, even a fraction of a second can make the difference."
I flicked my fingers, effortlessly collecting the mana stones from the ground. Holding two of them in my hand. "Hope these creatures had some decent skills," I said, tossing them into my mouth. "I probably should've let them demonstrate their abilities... Not that they could've done much to me anyway."
[You have acquired E-rank skill "Sonic burst"]×2
"A sound-related skill, huh? That could be lethal, especially since sound attacks target the brain directly," I mused.
I didn't bring my backpack this time, so I used [Telekinetic Control] to keep the mana stones floating around me as I ventured deeper. The dungeon had six floors, and I cleared each one swiftly, collecting a variety of E-rank skills along the way. After defeating the boss, I had 24 hours left in the dungeon.
For hours, I spammed the E-rank skills, grinding their proficiency to the max. Now, with the skills at their peak, it was time to combine them.
"Let's get started, without further ado."
====
Enjoy.....