Kent snuck out of the city unnoticed and unhindered.

It didn’t seem like there was a widescale search for a free traitless yet. He’d used the Night’s Embrace regardless. Sneaking out alongside others leaving the gate – just to make sure that no hidden mechanisms detected him.

This alone had been a sign for Kent that he might have been more stressed than he had let on; that even his talk with Alexus hadn’t managed to calm him down entirely. Only worsened by his sleep schedule. He really needed to take a real break soon.

Just a few more days. Kent had said he would worry about that later and he would.

Right now, his thoughts were fully occupied with the four Alaks he had come across on his way towards the mountains that stood in the rising of Farburg.

Alak – Level 51

Things weren’t looking good. The creatures that reminded him of one of the creatures that were embroidered into a carpet in the village hall of Blueleaf, either a horse or a goat, were dangerous.

And by the dwindling light, it was all the more dangerous to keep up a prolonged fight, especially against multiple enemies.

But he didn’t need to fight them, he could. And four would certainly catapult him to the next level.

Kent had learned a bit about the monsters in the institute – information freely available due to their origin being one of the most prominent dungeons around Farburg. Their combat abilities resolved around their massive weight and strength as well as their control of the earthen element. With attacks consisted of heavy charges with their horns pointed forward and magically enhanced. But they were almost easy to dodge outside their home canyons. He’d just make sure that he didn’t have to dodge the giant bulls uphill.

Kent wasn’t expecting that to be the difficult part of the fight. Placing high odds on their combat style differing from the chasms of the Asalis Chasms dungeon. Their common tactics were charging in a line – not leaving space to dodge to the side. A mostly invalid tactic out here.

Which was good, but it wasn’t enough to win the fight. The issue was that fired head-on, Kent’s daggers only had a slim chance of causing real damage.

Kent had scouted out the plains and identified each of the monsters before coming to a decision. He would try to use his unique advantages to see if a sudden ambush was possible. The target for the test was a more isolated monster.

Alak – Level 39

Kent activated the Night’s Embrace and rushed closer to the unaware monster, with several daggers in hand he rushed up to ten strides away.

A quick glance over his shoulder confirmed that the other four alaks were currently not looking in his direction. With his anxiety lessened he dropped the cloak’s ability and appeared to the side of the monster.

It has just a moment to react before six throwing daggers hit it all over its body, primarily focused on its skull. Each accelerated dagger further boosted by Effect: Temporal Fitting and Penetrate thanks to Metallic Extension. A rather large expenditure of stamina, but one deemed necessary.

Kent was already summoning the Embrace’s effect again when the system rewarded him with new experience. He didn’t interrupt the summoning though.

Dashing away into the shrubbery he only observed how the ground he’d been standing on was torn up and a shell of dirt, earth, and stone was summoned around the deceased carcass. Dropping the cloak's effect as soon as he was out of sight. He’d potentially need the cloak again tonight and he was already feeling the pressure inside the odd world building up.

Odds are it was one of the four to the head. Penetrate seemed to struggle a bit. It didn’t look like the ones on the body pierced deeply. Which does make sense, the books advocated for magical attacks and blunt damage over piercing given their natural resistance to the latter. Unfortunate. So, what are my options?

Odds were that the higher-level monsters, each around or higher than level fifty, would care even less about those attacks.

Kent climbed a tree – to reduce the danger while he thought.

Unlike humans, monsters had power spikes every fifty levels, in addition to the thresholds. While those were generally considered weaker and minor enhancements, they often gained a new skill and a few more attributes.

What Kent had read, said that their toughness or strength usually spiked. Some, mostly the herd leaders gained additional passive defensive skills that could make his usage of daggers borderline pointless. Hindering them from even penetrating the outer layer of skin.

In the end, it didn’t matter. He thankfully hadn’t spotted a herd leader.

As he thought he considered two options. One he’d worked on for quite some time but never tried. The other seemed rather pointless.

The alaks’ snouts seemed to be more susceptible to damage, but causing injury there would no doubt not have any impact on their combat ability nor bring them close to death.

The other, potentially more useful attack was impaling copious amounts of daggers into the monsters’ flanks.

Kent rested a while, regenerating his Stamina until completely full. His mana hadn’t taken long to accomplish the same, even though he’d used a lot more of it throughout the day.

Maybe that’s something to consider for my next evolution. Though I will have to ask someone more knowledgeable if it’s true that you don’t need stamina for normal movements once you are beyond level one hundred.

Kent strolled out of the woods casually, disposing of a drop pig and a scrambler casually before jumping down his tree.

He scouted about, looking where the almost level sixty monster was before trying to finalize his approach. Going for either the strongest or the weakest monster sounded the smartest. The highest level would probably require a long fight which had a chance of involving more monsters. Which finally made him decide to go for the level fifty creature.

He crouched behind the few isolated bushes looking at the chosen prey.

Going all out from the first moment on could be a dire mistake – but also secure a fast and clean victory. If he managed to instantly kill the monster, he would be safe. But that would only be guaranteed if he closed the distance between him and the remaining monsters as well.

Too great of a risk.

Instead, he angled for the long-range approach. Roughly a hundred and fifty strides away he carefully aimed a single dagger at the alak.

He waited until it seemed to temporarily stop its endless trot through the rolling foothills. Then he struck. A single dagger accelerated straight for the monster’s shoulder. Kent couldn’t perceive the speed with which an earthen dome suddenly surrounded the monster.

Well, there goes that attempt. So I do need to take more risk or move on. Just to be safe, he tried to activate Accelerate Metal on the dislodged knife again, but the skill fizzled out almost as soon as it started. Bummer, it’s too heavy. Now, are four enough or should I go for even more?

Kent retreated a bit further before angling toward the next opponent. It would probably not be a significantly larger threat with level fifty-two.

Kent gave himself one more chance to go for the same approach. The monster slightly raised its head as he snuck closer. Kent tried to determine if something else might have drawn its attention, but they hadn’t. Something felt off and he hadn’t even gotten within two-hundred strides.

Kent’s reaction to his gut feeling was swift. He had three daggers in hand before he felt mana flowing around him. He shot them off fully amplified at the monster before anything else happened.

He engaged the Night’s Embrace and vanished from the world. Here, it felt like he could see mana densities better. And now he could see a veritable swell of mana washing through the ground below and ripples flowing back.

He dashed off within the heartbeat the cloak had embraced him. He felt his connection to the knives. They’d all gotten stuck somewhere. But he couldn’t push from within the cloak's effects. He rushed further and noticed sadly that he’d left the range where they could be commanded.

When he returned to the real world a few breaths later, he saw where the second alak had been. Now encased in stone and earth, just like its compatriot. He grunted disappointedly. His options were dwindling.

He could proceed as he was right now. Staying undetected and triggering the alak’s defensive response. But that would end up getting him nowhere if he didn’t have a way of killing the monsters. Kent could accept the loss of throwing knives. While he didn’t like it, if that was what it took to get him to level thirty, he would be fine with that. But this entire endeavor would be a waste of time if he lost the knives without gaining anything.

He sat crouched down in the underbrush for quite a long time, dispatching several scramblers as he waited, considering.

His plan reaffirmed, he stood back up and left the underbrush.

He followed his previous tactic, hoping against reason that his plan would work. If the monsters acted as they had thus far it might just work.

Kent crept up to the highest-level creature, carrying a broken piece of wood roughly half his weight.

Alak of Earth – Level 57

When he deemed himself to be close enough, he jabbed one of his remaining dozen throwing knives within. He aimed carefully up at the sky, trying to aim just a bit in front of him. Hoping for the best, he accelerated the metal and its accompanying wood upwards.

He held his breath, waiting for an immediate response. Yet there was none.

He counted to five, then ten, before finally unleashing all six daggers in his hands. They stuck off, the soft glow of Penetrate barely visible, even in the steadily darker growing night.

Kent didn’t wait for the impact, immediately sprinting off as soon as he’d let go.

Dirt and stone exploded where he’d just been standing.

A moment later something impacted further behind him, and another explosion went off. Sweating slightly now he dashed off further, hoping that he’d not been noticed. But he wasn’t entirely worried. Quite the opposite in fact.

So, it was a special type, he grinned. His precautions had paid off.

To his surprise, the system chimed a few moments later. Showing him that he’d killed the Alak of Earth somehow. Not that he minded, but his aim might not have been as good as he’d hoped.

Five more throwing knives, he thought. I’ve got this. Maybe I can even retrieve the ones I used right now.

But his plans were blown away when he peeked out of the underbrush again. The remaining three monsters had all dropped the earthen shells around them – or maybe they’d been destroyed – and were stomping around angrily. Looking for something to tear apart.

By this point, Kent could only see their rough outlines and with time it would even grow worse he’d have to act now, or he’d have to come back tomorrow. There was no way he’d try his tried and true killing-monsters-from-tree-tops here. Not with enemies that were in a league of their own.

Kent knew his next moves were reckless, but he was tired and just wanted to get done with it. He couldn’t wait weeks to kill hundreds of monsters at about his level to gain his next skill point. He wanted to do it tonight and so he would.

He ran back in after checking his resources and determining that he had enough left in stock.

The three opponents noticed him quickly and like he’d counted on only one charged at him. It was not entirely ideal as they might have harmed each other if they had, but he’d work with what he’d been dealt.

He had tried to angle himself so that he’d pierced the right of each creature, but not on all of them.

He prepared to dodge to the right anyway.

With the monster moments away, Kent dodged charging alak with an almost helpless roll uphill and shot a dagger behind himself. Surprised when he heard the slicing of skin and flesh as well as a grunt.

That might have just been a deeper cut. He kept pushing on the skill structure but quickly realized that he only got the monster to veer of course slightly. Metallic Presence meanwhile sang a different song for him as it detected another four daggers already within the monster’s hide.

Kent considered the one main idea he had again, but he wasn’t sure if it really would work out, or even could. He hadn’t gotten used to math, much less mental math over the course of his superfluous education at the Institute. But this was easy. Simple multiplication.

The only issue was that he had never tested Accelerate Metal as a force-applying skill.

Kent dodged to the side as another Alek hurled itself at him. He was just barely fast enough mostly feeling the tremors caused by its rapid charge. If Metallic Presence weren’t as disorienting he would be able to use it effectively to estimate the position and velocity of the knives within the monsters. Each one had at least one lodged in their bodies by this point. Sadly, Kent didn’t really get the chance to effectively use that.

As the third charge got close, he was seriously considering pulling all robes and activating Accelerate Metal on his harness. With it, he had plenty of time to get away – though that would result in passing out at least and didn’t even guarantee his survival. Kent was sure that he could take care of the monsters, with due time. But the longer it took the more dangerous it would become.

Instead, he dodged. Uphill again. This time he didn’t land quite as well as he had the previous time.

It took him a moment longer to get up but as he glanced around he saw that he still had the time.

Because the trio had just begone convening. Standing next to each other in a row.

He had been injured in basically the same situation, not even an entire day ago. But he thought he had learned some moves from the experience.

First and foremost, it seemed like the cloak was only protected from physical objects. Mana and magic could still influence him or would at least cling to his ephemeral body and affect him once he left the abilities effect.

He wasn’t necessarily in the mood to use it away right now anyway. The last usage had already felt too oppressive. And he was certain that he would need his cloak for robbing the Institute soon.

That left him with a singular other option. Keep going as he had thus far. And all the while making sure that he kept accumulating daggers on the same side of monsters.

Kent just hoped that the monsters didn’t learn that he favored dodging to the right and were adjusting their charges accordingly.

The alaks, having made up their mind, were thundering towards him. Seemingly trying their chasm tactics in the outside world.

He ran up the hill at a steady pace. Slightly towards the alaks, but mostly perpendicular. Then he dashed, pushing with all his might further up, and passed the trio of alaks. He disposited two of his last four daggers into the alak presenting its flank to him. Then he accelerated the seven daggers within the alaks body.

It pushed against its mates for a brief instant before both tumbled over and the last suddenly disappeared. Kent gaped at the downed alaks trying to parse what had just happened. He’d hoped for that. But he’d not expected it.

The rapid disappearance was at first silent before spheres of earth trailed the direction in which it had flown off. Then even more stones began to rumble, and the earth started shaking briefly. Not enough to dislodge Kent’s footing but enough to be noticeable. Then it quieted down and Kent knew he had another notification.

New Notification Log Entries:

You have slain “Alak” Level 53! Experience has been awarded.

But he had other worries anyway. He lodged both of his knives into the closest alak and dashed off to where he was hoping the Alak of Earth would lay.

Kent’s knife supply was running dangerously low. Something he thought he had fixed, but apparently required further adjustment. If possible, he would try to increase the number of knives he was carrying to double what he had currently.

He hoped that they weren’t following him, but he could barely make out the sound of hooves and heavy breathing in the distance. Several hundred steps later he found the corpse of the strongest alak. Six forceful pulls later, he was armed with six more throwing knives once again.

Not seeing anything up ahead Kent dodged to the side to inspect what had taken place in his absence.

He was a lot less worried now and looking forward to the next engagement.

But he couldn’t find the remaining two alaks.

Even though Kent had found a way to dispose of the monsters now, he wasn’t quite elated yet. With how Accelerate Metal worked – that if resistance of over 100 kilograms per affected piece of metal was detected the spell refused to do anything – it was impossible to further affect the monsters unless he’d gained something like the Effect: Force skill.

But he was content. Not ready to let himself feel happy until he managed to cut ties with the entirety of Farburg.

He followed the earthen debris further into the woods – hoping that they would lead to the last alaks.

And it did. Several hundred meters further in, after traversing ground torn up – and not tripping thanks to his budding mana sense – he began hearing heavy huffing again.

He fired Metallic Presence off again and felt thirteen daggers still impaled in foreign mana. It was weird that the creatures didn’t care about removing the knives, but he’d take it. Another few were in the ground around the alaks with only two stuck in slowly dissipating monster mana.

He considered waiting until they got closer to finish the monsters off in a less violent display of impulse but decided against it when a tree suddenly cracked several dozen strides away from him.

He waited for the silhouette of the alaks to shift before unleashing his hopefully last volley. Six daggers dashed toward their targets and as they impacted their chosen destinations dragged the two alaks with them. Kent strained visibly as he pushed eighteen knives away from him. Not caring about anything else.

Moments later the system chimed again. Informing him that he’d killed the remaining alaks and of his level up.