NOVEL NEXT Chapter 134: Athropos
The life accumulation was proceeding excellently, and the leveling progress was equally satisfying.
They'd encountered a group of these Island Crabs - all at relatively high levels compared to Moon and Selene's current strength. The creatures were formidable opponents with their natural armor and powerful pincers that could crush bone.
Moon opened his status screen to review his progress.
[ Name: Moon ]
[ Race: Human ]
[ Class: Classless, Assassin]
[ Level: 23 ][ 6% ]
[ Lives: 5251 ]
[ Strength: 36 ] [ Agility: 36 ] [ Constitution: 41 ] [ Mana: 56 ] (+5 to all stats)
[ Attribute Points: 0 ]
[ Skills: Elemental Attack, Five Element Affinity, Tenacity, Silver Skin, ignite, Dagger Art (Limited Time)]
[ Talent: Grim Reaper ]
[ Class Skill: Class Slot {1/1} ]
His attribute increases from the golden fish's blood were now integrated into his base stats, making him noticeably more powerful than before entering this realm.
Selene had leveled up to nineteen during the hunt, her own progression steady and consistent.
Meanwhile, Moon had been feeding the crab carcasses to Mirage. Beasts leveled up through various methods, with consuming defeated enemies being one of the most effective. Mirage was still too weak, only around level twelve despite his evolution, to effectively contribute to combat against level twenty-plus threats. So Moon let him sit out the actual fighting and simply feast on the bodies afterward, slowly accumulating the experience needed to raise his level.
Yara approached them as they finished with the crab group, clapping her hands together in approval. "You are incredibly strong! You defeated those beasts so easily, with such coordination and power. You truly are like our benefactor, able to wield multiple elements including the rare lightning!"
She looked at Moon with open admiration, her large eyes glinting.
Moon glanced at her in surprise, something clicking in his mind. "Did you say the benefactor could wield the same elements I used? All of them?"
Moon had openly demonstrated fire, water, earth, and lightning manipulation during the hunt. To possess mastery over four distinct elements, with one being an intermediate element would require an extremely rare class with a powerful skill too.
"Yes, all of them," Yara confirmed enthusiastically. "Though I should mention that according to the stories passed down, his elements were far more powerful than what you've shown. The benefactor could apparently summon storms, create earthquakes, and manipulate fire on scales that shaped terrains."
A human from five hundred years ago, three centuries before the Collapse who possessed multi-elemental mastery on a scale that impressed these powerful Savi people.
"Yara," Moon said carefully, "did the benefactor ever mention where he came from? What land or kingdom he originated from?"
Yara tilted her head thoughtfully. "The elders say he spoke of a place called..." She struggled with the pronunciation. "Ah-th-ro-pos? Something like that. A land far beyond the waters, where his people lived in great cities of stone and metal."
'Anthropos…The old Greek word for human.'
Was the benefactor simply using philosophical language, or was that an actual place name from before the Collapse?
Moon put the information away for later. Right now, they needed to focus on getting stronger in case the Heretics forced a confrontation.
"Let's continue hunting," Moon said. "We still have time before the Heretics are expected to arrive."
Yara nodded and returned to her perimeter position while Moon, Selene, and the recovering Mirage prepared to engage the next group of beasts.
Every level gained, every life accumulated, brought them closer to the power they'd need to survive whatever this realm had in store.
♢♢♢♢
For the next few hours, Moon, Selene, and Mirage continued their progression through the hunting grounds. Moon focused on eliminating the highest-level beasts that provided him maximum experience gains, deliberately leaving the slightly weaker creatures for Selene so she could catch up in levels. Meanwhile, Mirage simply devoured corpse after corpse with ravenous hunger, his evolved body processing the meat at remarkable speed.
They all took necessary breaks during the extended hunt, especially Mirage, whose belly had become visibly distended from overeating.
"That's enough for you, Mirage, I'm afraid that if you eat any more, you'll not only have difficulty moving but actually explode." Moon said firmly, stopping the white horse mid-bite as he approached yet another carcass.
Mirage turned to look at Moon with large, pleading eyes, as if begging for permission to get one final bite.
Moon stared at his companion for a long moment, then sighed in defeat. "...Fine. Last bite. Absolutely no more after this one."
Moon couldn't help but smile despite his exasperated tone.
"Hehe," Selene chuckled at their interaction before turning back to resume her own combat with a level twenty-thirty beast.
When they'd finally cleared all the huntable creatures within their immediate vicinity, Moon approached Selene as she cleaned blood from her weapon. "What level are you at now?"
Checking her status screen, Selene responded with an excited voice, "I'm level twenty-one now. The progress has been incredibly fast - almost shocking compared to normal hunting speeds. Thank you for deliberately leaving the weaker targets for me."
The creatures she'd fought were by no means actually weak. Level twenty-three beasts could easily be classified as B-rank threats in any place. These weren't even normal B-rank specimens either - their high levels pushed them toward the absolute peak of that classification tier.
"You're welcome," Moon said. "I'm still stuck at level twenty-three myself. I need to kill a few more level twenty-four beasts before accumulating enough experience to advance."
Selene nodded understanding. "You're rapidly approaching your first class evolution. Are you excited to see what evolution tasks the system might assign you?"
"Yeah, kind of," Moon admitted, though his tone carried some uncertainty about what challenges a Classless designation might generate.
Seeing them taking a rest break, Yara approached with a bright expression. "Selene, you look really beautiful. Especially your clothes, they're so different from anything we have here. The fabric and design are stunning!"
Selene was momentarily taken aback by the sudden compliments, her cheeks flushing a slight shade of red. "Thank you so much! You look absolutely stunning yourself, your eyes are incredibly pretty with those unique markings!"