Mountain range Rovero was the closest land monsters had fully inhabited to Kera city, west of the Capital. It began south of Kera and ran the western edge of the Yalveran Union that faced the Great Blood Ocean.
A series of mountains and hills that contained many valleys and forests in-between. These became danger zones because of the uncleared dungeons it contained and wild monsters' hordes.
The reason Arthur liked to hunt here is that after he got his latest rune, fleeing became a lot easier. There was also the fact that this place was unmonitored by the Union, only sending guilds to regularly clear its periphery and report unusual monster activity.
Using his Teleport rune, Arthur scouted the village Dimon took him to. There were no signs of humans there, only wild monsters like wolves or bears roaming around. Using this chance, Arthur took his goblins toward the village, transporting away everything they needed to in his subspace.
The village was empty after they had chased the monsters away with their numbers. They were able to easily take place inside and they even found a smithy the goblins could use. Arthur inscribed a fire rune to them there so they wouldn't need to manually start the furnace.
Goblins were able to survive so far because of their fast reproduction and their ability to make use of weapons, so Ven, Ben, and Ken had no problem adapting to their new environment, although Arthur realized it would need some time before actual results appeared.
The goblins were confused by the houses they took in, but they were thrilled nonetheless since they had beds and better insulation from the cold. The ring of illusion was activated again and the village disappeared.
The ring itself was a dilemma, as it allowed him to change how he looked like if he used it. However, it was needed to keep the goblins safe, so Arthur had to forget about taking it from Mero until the goblins were strong to fend for themselves.
This place was deeper than their last village, so Arthur had to strengthen the goblins before he went to level up. He used their Strength Rune along with low-mid-tier cores so that it would yield better results. Although a bit expensive, it was a good investment.
The goblins were thrilled and had another round of worshiping, but Arthur commanded them otherwise this time.
"If you want to show gratitude, grow stronger, and bring everything you hunt to me." He told them and the goblins, despite the language barrier, seemed to understand what he meant through their bond. Things got livelier as they started venturing out of the village in groups to hunt and get stronger.
Arthur assigned Kira to Mero and a few other middle-mid-tier goblins so that they would help it grow stronger as he decided to hunt himself. He left the village and headed deeper into the ominous mountain range, with a clear goal in mind.
He couldn't absorb more stats except for his mana, so he had little use to hunting right now. However, leveling up could yield him Legacy Points that would enable him to purchase a breakthrough method.
Arthur didn't plan on following the normal path taken by awakeners as they got stronger. If he did, he would have no chance of becoming stronger than the seven families combined.
He would use his Jizo's knowledge to break through to the next rank, he had already wasted enough time being a neo-ranker. That's why he wanted to level up as quickly as possible.
The lands around become rockier as the forest disappeared and the world took a shade of grey. Arthur felt the lingering mana in the air and knew what he was up against.
Mana-rich areas sometimes gave birth to spiritual parasites, allowing ethereal beings to control inanimate objects. Because mana and living tissue were always closely related, the easier object to form a link to were corpses.
In simpler terms, undead.
After traveling a certain distance, Arthur finally heard the crackling of bones as he spotted their white appearance in the distance. The most common form of undead were skeletons because the bone tissue was easier to maintain. The flesh was a sign of higher-ranking undead since it would mean they had more mana.
Arthur stopped running as he slowed to a walk, studying the group. Two human skeletons and another one belonging to a wolf were traveling together. Since bones didn't decay after a long time unless they were in a humid environment, they were the most commonly seen form of undead.
The skeleton turned toward him as they sensed his approach. Using his detection rune, he realized they were of the middle-mid-tier rank each. He had already killed a peak-mid-tier undead before, so these didn't pose an issue. The only thing is that he fought using his all at that time.
The skeletons didn't scream or roar like other monsters since they had no vocals, but they crackled as they glided silently across the hill making them quite scary to face.
Arthur wanted to test how much he had grown so he tried to end the battle as fast as possible using his Fire and Legacy rune at the same time. He crouched as he prepared to dash toward them and his muscles tensed and brimmed with power.
His figure blurred as he bolted forward with only the fire tracing behind. His dagger was already in hand and he used it to send an arch of fire that burned the skeletons away and they broke down.
He turned to see his work as he realized that one of them was still alive, but its bones gave away as it crumbled like the others. The bones remaining were trying to move but Arthur went ahead and broke their skulls, taking the cores and ending their lives.
This was the best method against the undeads, who were an ethereal being controlling a vessel. As he threw the core into his subspace and saw his level bar go up, Arthur wondered what would happen if he used his insignia against such creatures.
The territory of the undead covered a few valleys that rested between the mountains. It was the richest environment in terms of mana that Arthur had visited but it was also the creepiest. Walking skeletons were everywhere and some of them had fused.
One such example was a skeleton Arthur met after hunting a few groups. He stopped using his legacy rune since it focused more on instant-power than long-term battles, but he still had no issue killing the undead.
The skeleton was a mix of a giant spider and a human torso. It was a peak-mid-tier monster and Arthur had to use his legacy rune against it to win. His fire was everywhere as he used it to gain an advantage.
He also used the two runes he got with Telekinesis but didn't get to use earlier. One of them was Weaken, which decreased the monster's stats and the other was Reinforce.
[Reinforce-I: Increase the sturdiness of an object or a living being by 10%.]
[Weaken-I: Decrease the stats of the target by 10.]
He used the Reinforce rune on his body and his defense got better as the damage he received from the spider's legs was decreased.
With his fire rune in the equation, he was able to take down the monster at last after using his skill shadow-swap to appear underneath it and strike it with fire.
Fire rune was the only offensive rune he had and it was simple, to generate flames. However, these flames came from the power of creation themselves with Arthur having full control over them, making them quite deadly. They also lacked the suffix (I, II, etc.) making them the final form of the rune, unless it evolves.
As the monster fell to pieces and the spiritual parasite died, Arthur's legacy notified him that he had leveled up to 24. He opened his legacy to check the changes and was glad that it was as he had calculated.
[Scholar Guardian's Legacy]
[Strength: 100] [+40]
[Abilities: Beginner Runes Wordsmith (35%), Useable Runes: 19]
[Skills: Lesser-Mana Breathing Skill (F), Poison Strike (F), Camouflage (F), Earth Manipulation (E), Bladeless Wind Slash (E), Shadow Swap (E), Monster Claws (D), Iron Skin (D), Goblin's Bond (Unique)]
Arthur tried to absorb the monster's essence, but there was none since it was undead. However, he knew that undead cores were different. They were a realm higher than normal but he stored the core away without absorbing it.
He was already feeling his mana getting out of control because he used his legacy to increase mana beyond its limit. Thus, he would keep these cores to increase his mana after his breakthrough.
He got 3 Legacy Point and 3 Stats point from leveling up at last, but he wouldn't stop there. After a short rest, Arthur resumed his hunt in the Valleys of The Dead.