-Vol 4: To The North Pole!-

-The Frog at the Bottom of the well!-

[Ding* You have completed the quest.]

[You have completed Quest 12: Kill10 Level 79 Snow Apes]

[You got]

25487 G X10 EXP 5 SPs A mystery box

[You have gained 14570k EXP]

[your level has increased]

[your level has increased]

[your level has increased]

[You have gained 12 APs]

As the continuous notification popped up, Kenshin didn’t mind them. Instead, he looked towards the sky. His map was showing the presence of a vast amount of monsters which wasn’t there earlier.

It wasn’t only him, even Vera was able to sense the presence of many monsters above them. More than that, she was able to detect the presence of a very powerful monster above them. Currently, they were on the second level down the ground. It was two floors below the ground level.

Just as she was about to warn Kenshin about that, her eyes flashed as she felt a sense of crisis in her heart. With a step, she flashed near Kenshin’s side and grabbed him by his shirt, then ran back to where she stood before.

Just in time too, before a massive furry hand came crashing down, punching from the heavens.

BOOM!!!

The hand broke everything in its path and went down unobstructed. The floor on which they stood also tore apart by that hand, throwing Kenshin and Vera down. But she was able to stabilize herself and jumped down to the lower floors, that too while holding Kenshin.

When Kenshin saw the massive furry hand, he couldn’t help but freeze for a second. It was his first time seeing such a big hand. If only the hand were this big, one could imagine just how big was the creature. Furthermore, if that hand landed on him, he would have undoubtedly died no questions there.

Just now, he was that close to death!

The whole underground facility shook violently as the hand destroyed everything on its path. After some time it stopped before withdrawing. The entire underground facility was now covered with broken concretes and snow. Their visions were also blocked thanks to the fog formed from what happened just now.

“What was that?” Kenshin stammered. He really couldn’t fathom the existence of such big monsters. All his happiness from killing and leveling up had vanished into thin air and deflated like a balloon that was out of all air.

Throwing him to the ground, Vera’s eyes were complicated as she looked at the ceiling. Since everything was broken apart, there was a massive hole in the ceiling. Through it, the light was permitted into the underground facility, together with snowy smog.

“That’s a truly powerful monster. A semi-ascended if my guess is right.” Vera’s voice sounded grave as if she was facing something frightening.

“Semi-Ascended? What's that?” Kenshin asked in wonder. He didn’t know what a semi-ascended monster mean, his connection with upper echelons of DCB was shallow. As such he didn’t know many things that were common knowledge to other upper echelons. As a result, he didn’t know many things, like how to form an Intent or the existence of it for the matter. And now, knowledge about this ascended-monsters.

“Semi-Ascended, you can call them as monsters that were very close to level 150. Unlike us humans, monster’s level up happens in many ways. Thanks to that, their next level up becomes harder and harder, the stronger they get. So for them, reaching level 150 is like a divide that separates normal and truly powerful monster. At that level what they gain is not physical strength or some skill, its intelligence. Semi-ascendeds are nothing but monsters that are on the verge of gaining enough intelligence as that of us humans.” Vera explained with patience while still looking up for something, most probably the monster.

As for Kenshin, he felt his horizons broaden again. Monsters gaining intelligence wasn’t that surprising to him, he had already met a being that was born from concepts. What frightened him most was the fact that a monster with incredible powers gaining enough intelligence to use it as good as humans.

Unless humans that have someone more powerful, they can’t cope with that monster.

“But where did it came from? We would have probably sensed it, something of that size couldn’t have possibly escaped our senses!” Kenshin asked in puzzlement. His map could detect everything within 2 KM range, so how could something of that size escaped his detection when he was intently looking at the map all this time!

“…I think it was summoned here!” Vera muttered while furrowing her brows. She wasn’t sure if what she thought was the truth or not but it was the most probable cause. After all, such a monster couldn’t possibly evade her detection when she had seriously searched everything before entering this place.

“Are you saying that there is someone strong enough to summon and control this powerful being? Is that even possible?” Kenshin was in a state of mild panic. Even though he had become very powerful in this short amount of time, and thought himself to be strong enough to protect his sister and himself from anyone, it's only after coming here that he realized that how small was Mito.

Unless he reached level 100 or have power equivalent, he couldn’t hold a candle to the real powers of this world. He would be an ant in front of them. Vera was the shining example of how powerful someone became when they reached level 100.

It was not just a simple increase in stats, it’s a qualitative change. An evolution.

He lunged for this power, his eyes shined brightly, and his heart began to beat rapidly. He finally regained the same passion he had when he had just received the system. All this time, due to his sudden strength gains, his sense of crisis was dulled, and his desire to become strong was lowered considerably.

Now after seeing the true powerful being of the world, he realized that he had to become stronger. What he had might be not enough to even protect himself, let alone his sister.

‘I must become stronger!’ he vowed in his heart.

Suddenly at that time, the transparent purple light of his Intent became more visible. Its sturdiness and sharpness increased considerably. Now even ordinary people would be able to see it if Kenshin releases his complete Intent on someone. Not only that, it was strengthened enough that even while not releasing it, the powerful ones would be able to sense it.

Vera’s eyebrows jumped up when she sensed the Intent of Kenshin suddenly getting stronger and stronger. One had to know that, to strengthen one’s intent, many factors must work at the same time. Moreover, one must have a will strong enough to reinforce their Intent.

The most critical fact needed to be was determination! If one didn’t have enough determination, even if he had all the requirements, he couldn’t strengthen his Intent even if he wanted to!