Within thirty minutes of arriving, the new hunters had finished clearing the hordes of ogres by themselves without losing a single person.
Not bad for a bunch of B-ranked hunters and one C-ranked hunter, though. The dead bodies of the ogres lay sprawled across the wide expanse where the battle had just taken place, their blood soaking into the ground and filling the air with the heavy stench of iron.
The portal had long since closed ever since the beasts had walked out, and now the young hunters could be seen huffing and panting with a few bruises across their bodies.
Max’s face was bruised and bleeding slightly, a thin trail of crimson sliding down his cheek. Jasmine held her side in pain, her hunter uniform already darkened with blood that leaked stubbornly through the fabric.
Jake had a deep puncture in his shoulder from pairing up with Lana earlier, and another slash across the opposite one where an ogre had nearly cleaved through him with its axe.
Lana had bloodstained lips and several scratches across her arms and feet. But aside from those wounds, the group was still relatively okay compared to the carnage around them. Some knelt down, others had their hands on their knees, all of them panting in exhaustion.
"That was fun," Jake chuckled loudly, though his chest rose and fell rapidly as sweat clung to his forehead.
"Can’t believe our first mission was a success," Jasmine muttered, still clutching her ribs while staring down at her trembling hands. Her sword, once gleaming, now had multiple cracks running across it and looked ready to shatter if she swung it again.
"Well, we still have more things to do," Lana said. She slowly pushed herself off the ground, her body weak and shaky, and then staggered toward one of the dead ogres.
"Which is?" Max asked with a raised brow as he watched her crouch in front of the corpse.
"Take their beast crystals," Lana muttered flatly as she began dissecting the ogre, rummaging through its flesh as if it were second nature.
’How can she do that without throwing up?’ Jasmine thought in shock, her stomach turning as she covered her mouth.
"Why do we need to do that though?" Max asked again.
"Because the Hunter Association is backed by one of the three powerful scientific corporations that specialize in producing more hybrid serums. Without them, there would be no hybrids. And it’s the beast crystals they use in creating those serums." Jake replied casually, crouching down in front of another beast.
He drove his fist into its chest with a sickening crunch, tearing a gaping hole straight through its ribcage. Without flinching, he dipped his hand inside, rummaging for a few seconds before pulling out a faintly glowing crystal. It pulsed with dim light, radiating a strange aura.
"And that’s part of our job," Jake continued, holding the crystal up for them to see. "Aside from slaying the creatures, we gather their crystals and send them to the corporations.
That’s how the Association stays afloat. They dump resources into us, and in return, we supply them with what they need to keep producing serums and providing the equipment we need."
’Corporations, huh? But why go this far?’ Max thought with a frown.
"Aren’t they afraid of hybrids turning rogue? Why create serums that might one day turn against them?" he asked.
"Tch! That’s one of our jobs too. We work with the hybrid cops to restrain whichever hybrid decides to cause trouble," Lana replied without looking up, her hands still bloodied from tearing into the ogre.
(Using "hybrid cop" for now since my brain’s not catching a better term. If you’ve got a suggestion, drop it.)
"Tch." Max scoffed as if uninterested. He didn’t have any more questions, so he crouched in front of another ogre.
Instead of truly attempting to extract its crystal, however, he kept his hands still while his eyes darted subtly, checking the glowing notification flashing in front of his face.
’What do we have here?’ he thought as the glowing blue screen unfolded in front of him.
{King tier beast killed! XP granted}
{King tier beast killed}
{King tier beast killed ×45: Rewards: +10,000 XP}
{First time slaying a beast: +5,000 XP}
{First time slaying a king tier beast: +5,000 XP}
{Total XP received: 20,000}
’The fuck?! That’s a lot of experience points.’ His eyes widened in disbelief as his heart thudded faster in his chest.
"System, pull up my Status tab," he muttered beneath his breath, keeping his voice low so no one else would notice him talking to himself.
{Race: Draconic Scion} ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ꜰʀᴏᴍ NovᴇlFirᴇ.ɴet
’Fuck! I leveled up five times?!’ Max’s jaw nearly dropped. ’And with each level up, I got +one stat point. That means with five level ups, I earned five free points. Sheesh! I can’t believe I even forgot about my free stat points sitting there.’ He rubbed his hair in disappointment, almost annoyed with himself.
"I think I should allocate them now, just in case," he muttered quietly, glancing around to make sure no one noticed how distracted he looked. Without wasting more time, he started distributing the points.
First, he sent two stat points into his AGI stat, and in a blink, the numbers shifted before his eyes.
A satisfied grin tugged at his lips. "Good. That should make me a lot quicker."
He then decided to dump the remaining three into his strength stat, but before the confirmation could finalize, a sharp error notification popped up.
{Error! Stats cannot be allocated}
"Huh? The hell do you mean?" Max almost shouted aloud but quickly bit his tongue and forced himself to stay composed. His fists clenched while the system continued.
{Maximum stats have been reached. Strength and Agility stat are now capped. To uncap and continue increasing stats, host must reach level 30 and undergo an evolution.}
’Huhhhhhh?!’ Max dragged the word in his mind, his eyes widening as the single word Evolution kept flashing over and over. His breath grew shallow.
He quickly recalled his first evolution, the horrifying process that nearly tore him apart. His bones had felt like they were shattering, his blood boiling, his veins exploding one after another. He had thought he would die from that torturous pain.
And now, the system was casually telling him he would have to go through another when he reached level thirty?
’How wicked can you be?’ he thought bitterly, his lips curling into a grimace. ’It was better if you didn’t even tell me anything, tch!’
Max scoffed inwardly as he was about to close the tab when suddenly, the screen flickered again.
His heart skipped a beat. "Huh?" he muttered in surprise and quickly tapped it open, excitement surging through him despite his annoyance.
{Skill Name: Predator’s Authority}
Max tilted his head, his brow furrowing. "What a weird name to give a skill," he whispered, curiosity pushing him to keep reading.
{Description: When activated, enemies weaker than the host cannot disobey his commands. They will be forced to abide by his every order unless they resist with extreme willpower.}
"Oh wow." His grin stretched wide, a spark of mischief lighting up his eyes. Instantly, dozens of possibilities rushed through his mind, each more outrageous than the last. The ability to command others like puppets... this was no ordinary skill.
{Cost: 150 MP per use. Skill automatically deactivates after 5 minutes.}
"Alright guys! Time to leave," Jake’s voice suddenly rang out, cutting through Max’s excitement and snapping him out of his thoughts.
Max quickly closed the screen before anyone could notice the glow reflecting in his eyes. With a casual shrug to hide his grin, he stood and joined the others as they began packing up.
The battle was over, but in Max’s mind, a dangerous new path had just opened.