"By the way, do you even know where you're going?" Trey asked as he followed behind Kael.
"Nope," Kael replied, his eyes scanning the surroundings as they continued walking. In the distance, he noticed a cliff, and atop it, a spire shrouded by fragments of space shimmered faintly.
"Then why are you taking the lead?" Trey sighed. "I'll admit, you're skilled at fighting, but you're just a newbie at this kind of thing. You should be following me."
Kael didn't respond. Instead, he suddenly stepped to the side, narrowly avoiding a mirror-like space fragment. His unexpected move startled Trey, whose eyes widened in shock as he hastily stopped, barely a foot away from being swallowed by the fragmented space.
"Hey! You really want me to die, don't you?!" Trey shouted angrily. "Could you at least warn me next time?"
"What level are you?" Kael asked, ignoring Trey's outburst.
"Level Four! One level away from Rank One!" Trey said proudly.
"You're Level Four, and yet you couldn't dodge that?" Kael glanced at Trey and shook his head. As someone who used to enjoy games before becoming the White Prime, he knew that leveling up came with attribute increases that should enhance a person's reflexes and strength. "Come to think of it, you should've been able to defeat that Mechanibbit far more easily than I did."
"That's because I'm saving my four Attribute Points!" Trey retorted.
"Attribute Points? This really is like a game," Kael muttered to himself. Whoever designed this Level System and the concept of Attribute Points must've been quite the gamer.
"What did you say?" Trey asked.
"Nothing," Kael shrugged. "But what's the point of saving them? If you invested them in Strength or Agility, maybe you wouldn't be struggling so much right now."
"Because if I reach Rank One without using my Attribute Points, I'll gain an extra Point!" Trey explained. "And if I reach Rank Two without using any, I'll get three extra Points!"
"And if you make it to Rank Three without using them?" Kael asked, curious.
"I don't know," Trey admitted with a shrug. "Nobody's ever reached Rank Three without using Attribute Points. At that level, you're basically a regular human with a high level. And you think they can just stay in Gray Zones like this forever? It takes years to grind to Level 15!"
"Oh? Is that so?" Kael raised an eyebrow, processing the information. So at Level 15, a Primer was considered Rank Three. A wild idea surfaced in his mind—an idea most would find absurd. Smirking, he continued walking.
"Yes, that's how it works," Trey said with a nod. "Once I level up, I'll dump all my points into Strength and Agility!"
"It's your Status Band," Kael commented dismissively, hopping over a small obstacle in his path.
"And then I'll reach Rank Two in no ti—" Trey's words were cut short as he stumbled and fell. He scrambled to his feet, cursing, and aimed a kick at the offending object. "D*mn you, rock!"
But as he moved his foot away, his face paled. "D-dead person!" Trey cried, stumbling back in terror.
His eyes shook as he stared at the corpse he had tripped over. It was a man wearing an Exoskeleton suit, wires and mechanical parts exposed from its damaged plating. The suit was riddled with holes, and a pool of blood had formed beneath the body.
"He's been shot," Kael said calmly, glancing at the body before scanning the area. Nearby, he spotted four more figures in similar Exoskeleton suits. Each was dead, their bodies riddled with bullet holes and deep slashes. One of them had even been decapitated, his head split clean in two.
"Y-yeah," Trey stammered, swallowing hard. "I can see that."
"Another group must have done this," Kael said, approaching the woman with her head split in half. He knelt to inspect the wound and determined that the weapon used was likely an axe. Rising to his feet, his eyes fell on a deep crevice in the ground nearby.
A crevice caused by something heavy falling, Kael thought, imagining a monstrous figure being slammed into the earth.
"They're really cruel," Trey muttered as he stood beside him.
"Does an axe user ring any bells?" Kael asked, a small, chilling smile curling on his lips. It was cold—dangerous.
"Axe?" Trey repeated, his mind racing. After a few moments, his eyes widened. "Yeah! Those guys who bumped into you earlier—one of them had an axe on his back!"
"They must've found something… something valuable," Kael said, his gaze falling on a trail of meter-long monster footprints leading toward a forest west of the giant cliff.
"So they killed this group," Trey muttered, his expression heavy as he noticed the same monstrous tracks. "I think it's a Grade 2 Behemech, with a 10% to 20% success rate to achieve Rank Two. If I got the Growth Orb from this creature, I could level straight up to Seven."
They're using the same monster ranking system, Kael realized.
Creatures found inside Fissures were categorized by Grades, ranging from 1 to 10. However, Grade 10 creatures only appeared in continental-sized Fissures, and anything beyond that was of interest only to the Aegis Primeval.
Behemech, huh? Such a witty name for these disgusting creatures, Kael mused.
The success rate of Growth Orbs depended on the orb itself, the user's level, and their rank. For example, if a Rank Two Primer—or Level Five—used a Mechanibbit Growth Orb with a success rate of 0.8% to 8%, that rate would drop to 0.3% to 3%.
There were countless factors that influenced the success rate, which was why Primers were often willing to fight tooth and nail to slay a powerful Behemech and claim its Growth Orb.
Kael's gaze locked on the forest in the distance, a dangerous glint flashing in his eyes. "Give me the sword back," he said to Trey.
"Here." Without hesitation, Trey handed over the retractable High-Frequency Sword. "I've got a spare. It's yours now."
Kael nodded. "I will never forget your kindness. I, Kael Draven, will repay you handsomely. You can take that literally, but it works better on beautiful women."
"Can you stop calling yourself Kael Draven?" Trey muttered, his annoyance evident. But then he noticed Kael following the monster's trail. His face twisted with alarm. "Hey! That's dangerous! Let's not meddle in their business! That Grade 2 must've jumped from the cliff—we can just hunt them there!"
Kael didn't answer, simply waving a hand dismissively as he kept walking.
Seeing Kael's indifference, Trey hesitated. "Sh*t! He's a lunatic! Why would he put himself in such a dangerous situation? It's suicide!"
He glanced back at the spire in the distance—the place everyone was supposed to gather later. It was also where he had planned to hunt a strong, nearly Grade 2 Behemech. Yet his gaze returned to Kael's retreating figure.
"F*ck! I hate this good heart of mine!" Trey cursed aloud, gritting his teeth as he rushed after the reckless man who called himself Kael Draven.