Chapter 24
Liam stood before Zeke with cold sweat.
“My lord, I’ll lure them away. Please escape outside quickly in the meantime.”
Zeke smiled at those words and pushed Liam back.
“I appreciate the thought.”
Although Liam knew Zeke was at the Purple Knight level, dealing with monsters was a different matter.
There were countless cases of skilled knights losing their lives pathetically in fights against monsters.
Let alone Zeke, who was still an academy cadet, couldn’t possibly handle a dangerous monster like a troll.
Before Liam could stop him, Zeke sprang forward.
“Wind Step. Shadowless step Technique.”
Zeke’s body left afterimages as he dove into the troll’s blind spot.
“Raaaaargh!”
The troll swung its massive club.
However, it was impossible to catch Zeke’s movements as he moved quickly using the shadowless step technique.
In his previous life, Zeke had killed so many trolls it was hard to count.
Moreover, now it was easier to use soul techniques than in his previous life.
Zeke raised his mana and overlaid the temple’s energy onto his sword with soul technique.
Whoosh!
After that, he calmly circled around the troll while precisely cutting the tendons.
Rumble rumble!
The entire cave shook as the troll twisted its body.
Without being deceived by the troll’s movements, Zeke stabbed straight into its knee joint.
Thud!
Unable to support its own weight after its joint was destroyed, the troll collapsed.
But the wounds started healing due to the troll’s unique regenerative ability.
Zeke didn’t miss that gap while the troll was recovering.
He immediately swung his claymore toward the troll’s neck.
Slash!
The huge troll’s head separated from its body.
At the same time, text appeared before Zeke’s eyes.
[You have killed a troll. You gain 30 Karma Points.]
Both the hellhound and troll gave Karma Points.
‘I guess magical beasts refer to monsters as a whole.’
It seemed gremlins were too weak to count for points.
Zeke wore a satisfied expression.
If he could gather points by killing monsters, it seemed possible to collect Karma Points much faster than expected.
Zeke turned on the minimap and checked for nearby monsters.
He grinned and said to Liam:
“Liam, collect their heads.”
“Yes sir. Should I collect the gremlins too?”
“Just take the big ones.”
Zeke rotated his sword-wielding wrist once and walked toward where the monsters were marked.
This time, goblins were gathered on one side. They seemed to be waiting for the troll to pass by.
Zeke approached silently and cut off the goblins’ heads in one stroke.
Gack!
The goblins turned into points before they could properly scream.
[You have killed a goblin. You gain 5 Karma Points.]
He had gained 25 points for killing five goblins.
‘How many points do I have now?’
[Current Karma Points: 165]
Since there wouldn’t be opportunities to go to external dungeons, it seemed good to gather a large number of points this time.
Just as he was making such plans, new text appeared before Zeke’s eyes.
―Tutorial Sudden Mission―
[Hunt 100 monsters of ten different species in the dungeon. Time limit 72 hours]
[Sudden Mission Reward: Double Karma Points gained / 2 Random Boxes]
[Current Score: 3 / 7 species]
[Non-aggressive monsters are excluded from count]
‘Sudden mission?’
A new type of mission had appeared.
Zeke grinned at the sudden mission’s reward. Since it was a satisfactory reward, he decided to move right away.
He needed to move quickly to succeed within the time limit.
“Liam, let’s move.”
Zeke roamed through the dungeon like a skilled adventurer.
He quickly identified what monsters were present by examining traces left in the dungeon, and continued hunting by having Liam draw the monsters’ attention from the front while he cut off their heads with his sword from behind.
Slash!
After hunting, Liam tied up the monster heads Zeke had cut off and carried them.
They hunted the monsters in the dungeon like this, and when their strength fell, they set up base camp again to rest.
Even the Infinite Stamina skill couldn’t fill hunger and sleep, so adequate rest was essential.
They repeated resting and hunting, resting and hunting.
Thus, while sweeping through the dungeon, Zeke hunted 99 monsters of nine species over three days.
‘’Just one more species to go.’’
Actually, it was strange that there were so many dangerous monster species in a test dungeon.
But rather than that, Zeke clicked his tongue in regret at the thought he might fail the sudden mission.
That’s when it happened.
BOOM BOOM BOOM!
Zeke detected a strange sound from below.
He shouted to Liam, “Liam! Throw me an orc head and step back!”
Liam quickly followed Zeke’s instruction. Zeke threw the orc head toward the sound.
He waited silently.
Shortly after, the ground shook.
CRACK!
A dungeon worm beneath the ground had devoured the orc head with its sharp teeth.
Zeke knew that oil was like poison to dungeon worms.
He quickly took out oil from his bag and applied it to his blade.
Then, using Wind Storm footwork, he swiftly approached the dungeon worm.
He boldly stabbed the worm’s weak point under its jaw with his sword.
Kaaaah!
Zeke’s sword penetrated through the jaw up to the worm’s crown.
The dungeon worm struggled and tried to wrap its tail around Zeke.
CRUNCH!
The powerful tail tried to crush Zeke, but it was useless.
His Healing Factor activated, regenerating broken bones and muscles.
“You damn bug!”
Zeke concentrated mana into his sword, imbuing it with the will of the sword.
His enhanced sword split the dungeon worm in half.
SLASH!
The halved dungeon worm collapsed limply to the ground.
Zeke shook off the worm’s tail and stood up.
[Sudden mission succeeded.]
[First sudden mission success rewards: Random low-grade potion and scroll.]
[Time reduction points added to reward.]
[Karma points reward doubled.]
[Two random boxes awarded as reward.]
The reward matched the effort.
* * *
“Damn, thought I was going to die.”
The students who escaped the dungeon in time were all in terrible shape.
Though there were only low-level monsters like gremlins and goblins, they had to march for three days with little sleep, never knowing when monsters might appear.
Those with family backing seemed relatively better off.
They brought back strung-up goblin and gremlin heads and ears.
Especially Jacken Valdek, who brought back a hobgoblin head.
Everyone looked at Jacken with amazement since hobgoblins were fierce and swift, making them difficult to hunt.
Jacken enjoyed the attention with a smirk.
‘The practice training paid off.’
Just then:
“Good heavens.”
Reina Draker emerged with a bloody orc head.
The instructor was shocked when she submitted it.
“Were there orcs in the dungeon?”
“I found strange traces and discovered a wild orc had made a nest, eating other monsters.”
The instructor’s expression grew serious.
“My, seems one escaped from the dangerous zone where wild monsters are contained. Well done, Reina Draker.”
Students repeatedly praised Reina’s exceptional abilities.
The instructor checked his watch and the remaining test time.
“Only Zeke Draker and Liam Stone’s team hasn’t returned?”
Jacken and others mocked Zeke and Liam who hadn’t returned.
“Maybe goblin packs got them.”
“Or they’re too scared to move.”
Just then, as the test time was almost up:
Zeke and Liam emerged from a different exit than designated.
The instructor said,
“Zeke, Liam! Why use a different exit? This will lose you points.”
Zeke approached and dropped something before the instructor.
“What’s this?”
It was a monster head, unusually large for a common monster.
The instructor was shocked upon identifying it.
“A-a troll?”
Ignoring the instructor’s surprise, Zeke opened his bag and took out more items.
He stacked up numerous high-risk monster heads – orcs, hellhounds, and more.
After placing over ten heads before the instructor, Zeke dusted off his hands and said:
“There’s more but the bag couldn’t fit everything, so I only brought what I could carry.”
The instructor stared blankly at the monster heads.
Other students had similar expressions.
Zeke then scanned the surroundings sharply.
He caught Owen Jiemens’ expression at the back.
‘’It was him who played the trick.’’
While others looked incredulous, Owen tried to hide his dismayed expression.
It had seemed strange that high-risk monsters kept appearing in the test dungeon.
Even though I didn’t know the exact method, there was no doubt they had guided Zeke and Liam to a dungeon route where high-risk monsters appeared.
‘’Those Jiemens guys sure know how to be creepy.’’
After roughly grasping the situation, Zeke spoke to the instructor.
“Is this enough to pass?”
“Huh? Oh. Y-yes.”
After hearing the answer, Zeke immediately returned to the academy with Liam.
He wanted to go back and rest quickly because fatigue had built up after hunting monsters for several days.
* * *
“Looks like it’s time.”
After getting some rest and coming to his personal training room, Zeke looked at the text floating before his eyes.
―Dragon Race Skill Level 1―
Gluttony (Locked)
He had accumulated a massive 780 points that could be used from hunting in this dungeon.
After contemplating, Zeke decided to unlock the mysterious Gluttony skill.
[Would you like to unlock the Dragon Race skill Gluttony?]
“Yes, unlock it.”
Zeke unlocked Gluttony and tried using the skill.
Then text appeared.
―Gluttony Information―
In Gluttony state, it’s possible to digest anything and convert it into energy. Additionally, when consuming magical beasts with bloodline abilities, their abilities can be absorbed.
“What? What does this mean?”
It was an absolutely absurd explanation.
Not only could it digest whatever it ate, but it could immediately convert it to energy, and even absorb monsters’ bloodline abilities. This was an ability he had never heard of or seen even in his previous life.
“This is a completely insane ability.”
He could understand why it needed 50 points.
Zeke tried using the Gluttony skill as a test.
Woong!
When the skill activated, Zeke’s shadow flickered.
Zeke took out the remaining jerky from his inventory and threw it on the floor.
Then following Zeke’s will, the shadow moved and swallowed the jerky whole.
[Energy has been converted and depleted mental power has been restored.]
For a moment, he felt his head becoming clearer.
“So filling up energy includes mental power too?”
With this skill, it was possible to endure by replenishing mental power even in situations where he couldn’t get proper sleep.
It also meant that during battle, if he was low on health or mana, he could absorb and digest anything with this skill to recover immediately.
Zeke could once again realize that there wasn’t a single Dragon Race skill that was worthless.
Zeke opened the Dragon Race skill window.
[50 karma points needed to unlock Skill Level 2]
By investing 50 points, it was possible to unlock new Dragon Race skills.
Though he didn’t know what would be there, it seemed there would be better skills than Level 1 at least.
‘’Right, let’s make a bold investment here.’’
Just as Zeke was about to unlock Level 2 skills.
Knock knock!
Someone knocked on Zeke’s personal training room.
Zeke called out with an annoyed expression.
“Come in.”
Decker entered the training room.
Zeke spoke with a slightly irritated voice.
“Decker, when I’m in the training room, you shouldn’t usually…”
“We’ve received word from Lord Gelion.”
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