Aaron walked by activating the digital map that appeared before his face, in a blue panel emanating from his system watch.
Within it, there were two locations and a line of white light that lit up in the shape of an arrow. Aaron's position was marked with a white dot, while his destination was a red dot.
[Map]
[Estimated arrival:]
[00:00:23:45]
[Destination: Dimension Justice Safe House]
'To arrive there, it will take at least half an hour on foot. I hope I don't encounter any high-level monsters,' Aaron explained.
Going by the directions of the route on the map, Aaron continued to follow it. From his map, Aaron walked through a dirt road in the forest, which made him alert immediately.
The desolate situation with the sound of leaves falling in the wind became Aaron's only true companion.
Now and then, the young man cast his eyes around the area, confirming that no monsters were staring at him like he was easy prey.
Though everything would be fine, Aaron's assumption was wrong. His steps were blocked by a pack of wolves with red eyes and arrow-like tails, ten in number.
[Monster Details:]
[Name: Red Arrow-tailed Wolf]
[Level: 32]
[HP: 34000/34000]
[MP: 36000/36000]
[Element: Wind]
There are two different panels between them. The first one says the identity of one monster, while the second panel explains the identities of nine other monsters
[Monster Details:]
[Name: Arrow-tailed Wolf]
[Level: 30]
[HP: 31500/31500]
[MP: 33000/33000]
[Element: Wind]
'Two monsters of different levels. It seems like the red arrow-tailed wolf monster is their leader,' Aaron explained.
Having no other choice, Aaron raised a hand before him and brought forth a purple light, the power of the darkness elemental talent.
His two sharp eyes gazed straight ahead, his eyeballs moving wildly, watching the movements of each wolf monster.
All ten wolf monsters began to surround Aaron from all sides, attacking by extending their sharp tails to slash the young man's body.
His position was completely cornered. Aaron brought up purple magic in his other hand and spread both hands to create a protective dome of his dark elemental magic.
Although the barrier was pretty strong, it didn't have much durability. In Aaron's mind, the purple dome would probably protect him for a few minutes.
'I can't keep it up all the time. They'll find my weakness then.'
[Talent Activated]
[Sub Talent Activated]
[Claws of Darkness]
[MP -37000]
While taking cover inside the purple energy dome, Aaron began to coat both hands with purple energy, forming a powerful claw similar to an eagle's claw.
Realizing the momentum was with him, Aaron spun around powerfully by unleashing a scythe-shaped purple energy attack that lunged from the ground, creating scratches across the ground where the scythe had landed.
[Damage +13256]
[Critical +29124]
[Damage +19875]
[Critical +34200]
[Critical +26851]
[Five Combos! Great!]
Three of the nine arrow-tailed wolf monsters died, their carcasses shattered into tiny particles that evaporated into the sky, items dropped away by them.
Now, Aaron had to face the remaining seven monsters even though four of the six arrow-tailed wolf monsters had been injured severely by the attack earlier.
Aaron jumped firmly back, keeping a safe distance from them. A notification panel appeared before Aaron, which was the result of killing the three monsters.
[EXP +35462]
[TP +17734]
[3000 RL]
[DING! Congratulations on leveling up]
[Level 35]
[Item Obtained]
[3 Red Ruby Gem Lv.2]
[5 HP Potion Lv.2]
[3 MP Crystals Lv. 2]
[6 Arrow tails]
'Killing three has already made me level up. Should I just go monster hunting instead of raiding the dark pillar?'
'That's stupid! I can only become strong by going to a higher floor.'
As Aaron paid attention to the system panel before him, seven wolf monsters aimed sharp arrow tails forward, followed by a cross-shaped gust of wind from their claws swinging.
Aaron thrust his hand forward fast to form a protective magic from his dark energy. The tail arrow attack was blocked, but it significantly impacted the durability of the protective magic.
'Damn it! I can't strengthen this protective magic's durability,' Aaron replied, annoyedly clicking his tongue.
The clawed scythe attack lunged forward and hit right at several parts of Aaron's body, causing significant damage to him.
[Damage -5420]
[Damage -2102]
[WARNING!]
[Host's HP is below 15%]
[Recovery immediately!]
[Recovery immediately!]
[Recovery Immediately!]
Aaron fell down with cuts on his hands, legs, and cheeks. He also vomited blood, with his vision blurred. Aaron took HP Potion Lv. 2 and downed three bottles at once.
[HP +7500]
Although not fully recovered, it was better than suffering from a lack of HP. His incision wound recovered, leaving only his clothes torn.
"You are really troublesome to me! I won't let you leave easily."
[Sub Talent Activated]
[Dimensional Explosion Orb]
[MP -72000]
The purple magic that was originally gathered in Aaron's two hands began to be thrown into the sky when Aaron swung his hands. It spread into the sky and spun clockwise, opening dozens of dimensional portals.
From within the portals, orbs about the size of a baseball shot downwards. Each dimensional portal released one orb of purple energy targeted at the seven wolf monsters.
BOM!
The purple orbs did not touch them but exploded when they were near them. So did the other orbs until they created an unstoppable boom of multiple explosions, emitting a powerful light into the sky that could attract anyone's attention.
Alisha, in her study, watched as the water in her glass wavered without cause. She also saw her members running to the south gate, suddenly making Alisha curious.
"What's wrong?" asked Alisha.
"There are multiple explosions, a terrible power fluctuation from the forest in the south," said one of Alisha's members.
Alisha began to feel the power. It was a powerful type of fluctuation because it could be felt all the way here. There was only one guess in her head about the possible master of this power.
'Is this Aaron's power? If the energy release fluctuation alone is this strong, what about the power at the center of the fluctuation?' Alisha asked.
The woman urgently called several people who were experts in disguise and infiltration. She ordered them to go there and find out the power's origin without telling them about Aaron's truth.
At Aaron's place, he saw seven wolf monsters unable to survive the barrage of the exploding energy orbs.
[Damage +65677]
[Critical +143562]
[Critical +134256]
[Damage +54078]
[Four Combo! Great!]
'Such terrible power, why didn't I use it earlier?' asked Aaron, astonished.
The seven wolf monsters fell with their bodies torn apart. Slowly, their carcasses turned into particles and disappeared, leaving some valuable items for Aaron.
[EXP +127546]
[TP +63773]
[11000 RL]
[DING! Congratulations on leveling up]
[Level 38]
[DING! Congratulations on getting a new title]
[10. Merciless slayer]
[Kills >5 level 30+ monsters in a single attack]
[DING! Congratulations on being promoted to the second tier as an Intermediate Mage]
[DING! Servant feature unlocked]
[Hosts can add new servants, increase servant levels, or terminate servant contracts]
[Servant Talent Rank cannot be increased]
'Woah, what a significant improvement. Now, I can use the servant menu features that I couldn't use before due to level constraints,' Aaron explained.
Aaron was able to use servants before, thanks to the help of Additional MP, who allowed him to use Jack the Ripper's soul.
Now that the servant menu feature is open, the allocation of MP usage for soul servants can be drastically reduced.
[ANNOUNCEMENT!]
[Talent: Dark Dimension Reality]
[Rank: SS-R]
[Stage: 2]
[Talent Point: 517470/499999 TP]
[Efficiency: 301-400 TP/h]
[Talent Point is full. Perform Ascension immediately]
[Talent Ascension Location: 10th Floor City]
[WARNING!]
[Talent power will not increase if the host has not performed the Ascension stage]
Aaron smiled. He never thought killing them could make his TP accumulation full, waiting for Ascension.
Until this moment, Aaron had never imagined that he would do Talent Ascension, even though he had never had the opportunity before because of his low talent rank and weak ability.
He stretched his hand forward and caught the items dropped by the monsters. The items he got were almost the same, but what made him happy was the five Level 7 EXP crystals.
"I'll use them later. It's more important to maintain a balance between my level and my CP."
While looting the monsters' items, Aaron's ears faintly heard the sound of human footsteps from within the forest, as well as their whispering voices.
The young man remembered Aerith's words about level 35 and Rasputin's soul. Aaron stretched his hand forward, starting to bring up the dark dimension portal using his talent.
[Sub Talent Activated]
[Dimensional Dark Portal]
[MP -100000]
The dimensional rift appeared before Aaron. The young man seemed to swallow saliva deeply to reassure him that he would be fine. He cautiously stepped inside, just like Aerith used to do.
Aaron's eyes opened, he arrived at a space-like place that felt familiar in his mind. He looked up and saw hundreds of red cages tied together with an energy web.
Right in the center of the hundreds of cages was a throne of black roses with sharp, thorny stems. Aerith sat majestically there, crossing her legs.
She opened her eyes slowly and looked down, smiling as she found that her favorite young man was there.
"Welcome home, Aaron."