Chapter 23: Peyton: Part Two

I activated my Treasure Hunt Skill.

“Oh? Hello.”

What it showed me made me drool. Goblin settlements. There were numerous Goblin villages, each about the size of 3 to 5 schools grouped together. Excluding the Dungeon Boss’ domain, each of them had between 600 and 900 Goblins in them and in each of them, there was one Goblin who looked a lot stronger than the rest.

“The equivalent of an alpha Werehyena?”

They looked twice the size of normal Goblins and were all incredibly buff.

“Until the System says otherwise, I’ll refer to them as alpha Goblins.”

“First Dawn is now Hyper-Grade, making it a weapon only A-Ranks and above should be able to use. Since Bladework is also A-Rank, the synergy between the two will be humongous. First Dawn will now be able to fully manifest Bladework’s capabilities. But I won’t be using the two for this Dungeon, I need to increase my Brawler Skill’s Rank so I’ll use it to it’s fullest potential here.”

I deactivated my Treasure Hunt Skill, and as soon as I did. That throbbing sensation came back.

~Throb~

“There it is again.” I thought as I held my head.

“I’m getting a bit used to it now. There more it happens, the more I start to understand what it is. My senses spike up like crazy. As if they’re warning me of something, telling me to keep a look out. I doubt those weak Goblins would have an effect like this on me so that leaves only one conclusion…”

“Someone’s watching me” I uttered silently to myself.

“Since my Treasure Hunt Skill didn’t pick up anything aside from those Goblins, that can only mean two things, and it’s that who ever is watching me is an A-Rank Warrior and/or the Skill they’re using to hide themselves is A-Rank. Soul-Piercing Eyes can see things normal eyes can’t but it’s still low in Rank so it can’t do jack right now. One thing’s for sure, if they’re using an A-Rank Skill then they’re definitely a high-Ranked Warrior. ’Atleast’ B-Rank I would guess. But if my senses can pick up something, though slight, while Treasure Hunt can’t then that means my senses are on a level higher than Treasure Hunt. Which means I have the innate senses of an A-Rank now. And if that’s the case then the conclusion is that all the Skills that allow me to sharpen my sensory perception are, in a word, OP. OP as fuck. Then if I continue to use them, I’ll be able to sharpen my senses, which are already, at most, at the level of an average A-Rank, even further.”

I then sat down and took a meditation posture. The Goblins were a fair distance away so I didn’t have much to worry in terms of ambushes and the like. And I doubted that whoever was watching me would attack me while I wasn’t paying attention because if that really was their objective, they would’ve done it while I was fighting off the Goblins, the perfect time to catch me off guard. Seemed like they were mostly just surveiling me.

Feeling unparalleled comfortability, I activated my Item Space Skill, Bladework Skill, Treasure Hunt Skill, Soul-Piercing Eyes Skill, Cultivator Skill, Fury of Dantian Skill and finally Astral Unification Skill to synchronise all the other Skills. A pain in my chest echoed afterwards.

“Ark!” Shit hurt like a bitch.

“This is first time I’ve activated so many Skills at once, it takes a toll even with my Mana Capacity where it’s currently at.”

“A new method of Mana Crystal absorption, since I don’t want whoever is watching me to see that I have a Skill that allows me to absorb Mana Crystals, I have to absorb them from the Item Space where they won’t be able to see them. All the other Skills are for boosting my Intelligence Stat, Mana Capacity Stat, sensory perception and Mana manipulation efficiency exponentially.”

I absorbed all the monster cores at once.

[Report. Success! The E-Rank Mana Crystals have been successfully absorbed.]

[Mana Capacity gained from all the E-Rank Mana Crystals: 80.]

[Extra Mana Capacity gained from each E-Rank Mana Crystal absorbed with the use of Fury of Dantian Skill: 7.]

[Total amount of extra Mana Capacity: 112]

[Total amount of Mana Capacity gained from Mana Crystal absorption: 192.]

[Report. Advancements in the Subject’s overall Warrior info have been detected as a result of recent actions.]

[Now calculating advancements…]

[Cultivator’s Sub-Skill Astral Unification has advanced from C-Rank to B-Rank. Cultivator’s Sub-Skill Fury of Dantian Skill has advanced from D-Rank to C-Rank.]

[Weapon Fanatic’s Sub-Skill Bladework’s effects on the Subject’s Stats have increased. Effect on Strength has increased by 1000. Effect on Speed has increased by 1000. Effect on Health has increased by 1500 and effect on Intelligence has increased by 2000. Now redesigning the effects of the A-Rank Bladework Sub-Skill on the Subject…]

A-Rank Bladework Sub-Skill: Effects When Active

• Strength +2300

• Speed +2570

• Health +3260

• Intelligence +5720

[Furthermore, Mana Capacity has increased by 4000+192. Strength has increased by 1500. Speed has increased by 1600. Health has increased by 1900 and Intelligence has increased by 2000.]

[Now redesigning overall Warrior info…]

Name: Raid

Surname: ???

Affiliation: Awakened Warrior

Class: Blacksmith

Skills:

…

• Cultivator C-Rank: Possesses an expert level of mastery in Mana manipulation, through the use of a Dantian.

•• Astral Unification B-Rank: Allows one to unify multiple aspects of oneself through breathing for the purpose of increasing sensory perception, Mana manipulation efficiency and overall amount of Mana.

•• Fury of Dantian C-Rank: Matured Dantian that acts as the Mana Source of the Subject. Can temporarily increase Subject’s Mana Capacity five-fold. Significantly increases Mana manipulation efficiency. Adds 150% extra Mana Capacity when absorbing Mana Crystals.

…

Rank: F

Level: Locked

Mana Capacity: 24380

Strength: 4390

Speed: 5683

Health: 7584

Intelligence: 9000

“Well, this is, unexpected.”

I then deactivated the Skills.

“I knew the payoff would be humongous but this is just downright groundbreaking!”

My senses had reached a point where I could clearly see and hear things from hundreds of miles away without the Treasure Hunt Skill. The sensation from before was still around, but it was calmer, more informative, and more under control.

“The sensation isn’t necessarily warning me as if my life is in danger, it’s just telling me to keep an eye out. The sensation comes and goes, my guess is it’s because my senses pick up a slight fluctuation in the person’s Mana, the flactuation may be caused by the person moving closer to me or maybe by them deactivating their Skill for a sec and reactivating it again but I doubt they’d do something like that on purpose so it’s probably because they’re constantly having to move to follow me close. So whoever’s watching me, if they’re an assassin sent by the Reinhardt Family, then they aren’t out to kill me since they aren’t exuding any bloodlust, which means…”

“They must want me alive.” I thought it all over as I walked calmly towards one of the Goblin villages.

“The Head of the Reinhardt Family must really want to see the face of his son’s murderer before ripping his head off. So whoever they sent, is to detain and kidnap me, not kill, and the reason they’ve been surveiling me like this is because they’re still tryna figure out how to do that thoroughly, while gauging my capabilities. How very cautious of them. And as for the Head of the Reinhardt Family. One word to describe what kind of man I think he is, is ’thourough’, annoyingly so even. Really, sending an A-Rank to deal with an F-Rank? He must not want any mistakes.” A smirk made its home on my face.

“Then again, I killed his son, a C-Rank, along with his lackies, one E-Rank, and two D-Ranks singlehandedly. He must’ve gathered I’m not the average F-Rank. But joke’s on him, I’m the only F-Rank, so I am in fact, the average F-Rank.”

I arrived at the closest Goblin village.

“I doubt my secret admirer is gonna show him or herself anytime soon so I’ll make sure to force them to come out. My plan is almost flawless. I say ’almost’ because what I’m about to do is, partly, stupid…in a way. But it’ll still allow me to kill two birds with one stone. Getting sweet rewards and catching my watcher red-handed. Oh yeah. Seriously, sometimes I feel like my genius is…i-it’s almost frightening.”

“Alrighty then. Let’s get to it.”

I reactivated Treasure Hunt, entered the Goblin village and yelled as loud as I could.

“YYYOOOO!!! WAZZUUUUP!!!!”

[Report. Subject has entered the Goblin Settlement: First Goblin Village. Subject will now recieve an Immediate Quest…]

[Immediate Quest contents.]

Immediate Quest: Subject must exterminate all the Goblins in the village, including the leader of the village, the High Goblin.

Duration: 5hours

Upon Success: Subject will live.

Upon Failure: Subject will die.

Rewards will be calculated after the Quest is completed based on the Subject’s efficiency.

“High Goblin huh? So that’s what they’re called. Unlike the other Goblins with their spears, bows and arrows, he’s the only one holding a longsword. Okay, let’s do this.”

I counted 690 Goblins. 691 including the High Goblin who simply just stood all the way at the back behind all the others. 260 of them each held a bow and some arrows while the rest, the vanguard, had spears.

“Seems like he’ll probably only step in once he feels he has to.”

I activated Bladework, to increase my Stats, Treasure Hunt was already on so I activated Soul-Piercing Eyes in addition to it. I wasn’t going to use Brawler just yet, so I then activated Cultivator.

“Time to increase my Elemental Magic.”

I then activated both the Tetrax and Marid Skill.

“If I carefully manipulate my Mana to turn it to wind and water respectively then…there we go.” I conjured out water from my left hand and wind from my right as both elements were circling my fists continuosly.

“Now then, concentrate. Carefully regulate the density through the use of Cultivator. Fine-tune the Mana, increase the density…higher…higher…done.” The water and wind on my hands had changed form entirely, they were blades, very sharp blades, both the size and shape of First Dawn.

“Never tried duel-wielding before, but surely these count as blades so Bladework should… work…”

I took a fighting stance, and got ready. The Goblins didn’t waste any time and started attacking, I did the same in response. Some threw their spears straight at me while others sent arrows flying. I jumped then launched consecutive slashes taking down all the thrown spears and arrows. After landing back down, I ran straight to them.

“This looks familiar, running to an army of monsters. But this time, a lot’s different…”

I said as I launched a vertical slash towards the first small group of Goblins I saw with the wind blade.

“For starters, I won’t make the same mistake as I did before. And…”

The slash cut down over 50 Goblins in an instant.

“Right now, I’m a lot stronger than I was then.” I declared as I kept slashing through the Goblin army. And then finally, I had successfully breached their forces. There, in the centre of their vanguard I kept slashing away from all sides, each slash massacred at least 20 of them to pieces.

“As long as I’m here, the archers will think twice about launching their arrows, they’re smart enough to tell friend from foe so there’s no way they’ll commit friendly fire.”

As I thought that, I noticed the High Goblin act strange. Raising his longsword upwards, he yelled:…

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