It took a while to analyse the pros and cons of the skills he was offered. But in the end, Ashton decided to go with the skill which would complement his fighting style the best. As he did that, a piece of paper, or a 'skill page' as it was referred to, got deposited in his inventory.
Ashton took out the frail-looking paper and tore it in half. Just like that, he had learned a new skill. It felt a bit weird that it was so easy, but Ashton wasn't complaining. In fact, he liked this system quite a bit.
It was much easier for him to learn and upgrade skills this way, rather than torturing himself to upgrade the efficiency of the passive skills as he had been doing till then.
'Let's take a look at the skill again, shall we?'
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>> Wolf's Mark: This skill allows the user to 'mark' someone. The marked target cannot hide from the user when they are within a kilometre's radius of each other. Up to 5 creatures can be marked using this skill at once. Deals additional damage to the marked enemies while also boosting damage and agility by 10% when around a marked creature.
Grade: Mid
Cooldown: 10 Minutes
Active Duration: 3 Minutes
Activation Radius: 70 meters (Your targets must be within this range to get marked.)
Condition to upgrade the skill: Kill at least 10 beings while the skill is active or use 15 skill points to level this skill up.
Current Werewolf skill points: 10
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'The skill is already at Mid grade? That's a first. I always thought you had to learn a skill from Low-tier and slowly climb up to the highest tier.' Ashton smiled as he went through the contents of the skill, 'This will go along well during the hunt in the night.'
The number of targets that could be affected by the skill was just perfect as well. The others were trying to hunt him in packs of five and he could mark five of them at once. Thus, in other words, once he used this skill to mark a pack of werewolves, there was nothing they could have done to save themselves.
It was about time for the hunted to become the hunter. Ashton was in no mood to hide anymore and set out to find prey while hunting down the prowlers who relentlessly got into his way again and again.
However, he wasn't the only one who was busy strategising his next move. Lucas was busy coming up with one as well, after all, his initial plan got screwed over thanks to the introduction of prowlers into the exam.
"Shit Shit shit!"
"Lucas keep it down! The prowlers will find us!" One of Lucas' teammates cursed him out.
The four of them had a bit of combat experience, but not much. That was the reason Lucas had made them follow him. As for the four of them, they knew Lucas had something planned to qualify for the next round. Thus they went along with him without asking him any questions.
But now that the things had turned this way, they were reluctant to tolerate his crap anymore. If it wasn't for the retaliation from his that they would have suffered, the four of them would have abandoned Lucas long back.
"It wasn't supposed to be like this..." Lucas said while biting his nails, 'I was going to take away all the hidden chests and secretly use these fools to earn points for me. But thanks to that damned director all of my plans have turned into ruins!'
Lucas looked around him and realised in that abandoned structure he was all alone. He had four others accompanying him, but he knew they were no longer his 'friends'. In fact, if they could they would have already thrown him out to fend for himself.
'I have to plan my moves carefully or else these bastards would throw me in front of the prowlers as a distraction... Think! Think! Think!'
"Hey look! There's someone outside!" One of the lackeys whispered to the rest, "It looks like he got caught by a pack of Prowlers."
"Looks like he has quite a few items on him as well." Yet another one of them chimed in.
Just that single sentence was enough to grab the attention of the others. Items... that was one thing they were in desperate need of. The whole reason that they had been avoiding Prowlers like plague was because they did not have enough proper weapons to confront the night creatures.
But now they had a chance... as long as they could eliminate the one examinee in front of him, all of his treasures would be theirs to claim.
"Let's go and take that bastard down. We can take care of the prowlers after that." This time it was the leader of the three lackeys who spoke with confidence.
However, before they could take a single step, Lucas stopped them. To him, it was clear that these four idiots did not have an ounce of a brain between themselves.
"You should leave using the brain to someone like me." Lucas reprimanded the four of them, "Why the hell do you, idiots, want to rush out right now? There are about a dozen prowlers out there and he is all by himself. Can you see where I am going with this?"
The four of them stared at each other with perplexed eyes. Not a single word that Lucas had spoken had entered their head. The look on their faces was evidence of it.
Lucas sighed and continued, "Let him fight the prowlers. Either the prowlers will eliminate him, leaving his items behind. Or the man would get tired after defeating the night creatures. That's when we will make our move."
"So either we will have to fight the remaining beasts or the injured examinees. It'll be a win for us either way.." The leader mumbled to himself, "I knew you would make good use of that head of yours! Haha! Let's go according to your plan."