027

The impact I braced myself for didn’t come.

So I lowered and relaxed my posture as I looked on to see a fully armoured, almost 7 feet tall woman standing right in front of me. Even though she was covered in armour from head to toe, she didn’t have any weapon, which surprised me a little bit.

She radiated a kind of aura I didn’t know how to explain. It was heavy, like I had to focus on her at all times. I didn’t know if she was doing this on purpose or not.

Forcefully moving my vision away, I could see the halved bodies of the twelve trolls lying around.

‘How did she cut them up without a weapon? Is it a skill?’

While I was observing her, she too was observing me, didn’t say anything and just kept looking at me.

I was also keeping a somewhat defensive posture against her.

I didn’t know why or how she was here, so I had to be vigilant.

Getting tired of the silence I was about to say something when she asked.

“You, what is your name?”

It was a very powerful voice, but it was distinguishable as a female. It contained a very firm authority in the way she spoke. I could clearly feel, even without the help of [Awareness] that she was a lot stronger than me.

“Grant Steele.”

I replied.

She nodded and then signalled towards the men behind her.

‘When the hell did they arrive?’

Her presence stopped me from even noticing the people coming in the back.

One of the men in the back came forwards as if he knew what she was calling him for. The man arrived and even without needing an explanation from the woman, proceeded to come towards me. I was a little taken aback was about to move backwards.

“Stop moving, he is going to heal you.”

“Ah, ok.”

I relaxed myself and stayed put and the man got down and positioned his arms around my right leg, which was now fully exposed as the blood of the huge troll had burned off the lower part of my pants.

The skin was much worse though, if not for my strong body then it might’ve melted down my leg for good.

At this time, I suddenly remembered something.

“Um, excuse me, but there is a girl who is also very injured.”

I said pointing towards Silvia, who had once again lost consciousness. I guess the skill she used to help me with took too much of a toll on her body.

I mean, it gave me a two minute boost in exchange for a 3 hour cool down on the skill. It was a pretty useful skill if I say so myself, I should ask her about it when we get back.

The woman nodded and the healer who had fixed me then made his way towards Silvia.

I then took this opportunity to check my leg, which looked so clean that I, myself find it hard to believe that the skin on it was sizzling just a few moments ago.

I lifted my leg up and tried kicking a little. Seeing me do this, the woman was a little amused.

“His skill is nothing to scoff at, a level 8 [Heal] as well as a level 6 [Pure]. Any injury, poisonous or not, he can heal it.”

“Thank you for saving me... I’m sorry but I’ve yet to know your name.”

“Rosalie Bloodwater. Commander of the Eastern Outpost.”

“Thank you for helping me out, Miss Rosalie.”

I thanked her and maybe it was my imagination but she jumped a little when I said that. Maybe I shouldn’t have used her name, but I don’t know how official military personnel is referred to as by the local populace, so I don’t know what else would I have called her.

“Ah- No never mind. You also did a good job defeating the mother troll yourself.”

At least it looks like she isn’t angry.

“I was just lucky.”

“Luck is also a very important part of any fight, so do not belittle yourself. You are a Blood Artist I assume?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Quite the difficult path you’ve chosen to go down, but looking at the results I would say you’re doing pretty well.”

“Thank you.”

As we were having this chat all of a sudden, a chat I didn’t mind at all by the way, I noticed the huge pile of notification on the corner of my vision. Thankfully I can move away notifications so they don’t obstruct my view. Unless I’ve seen them or read through them, they don’t disappear. That’s a very neat feature they have, so I don’t have to worry about missing any important message or notification because I wasn’t paying attention.

We chatted for a while, and while we did that, Silvia had also healed herself enough to walk towards us.

She looked a little reluctant to get closer though, her eyes had locked themselves onto the armoured woman and she was having a difficult time keeping her composure.

I can’t blame her though, the presence this woman gives out is enough to give grown-ass men a scare, forget a timid little girl like her.

I was going to talk to her but Rosalie cut me off by asking,

“So, what did you do about the other one?”

“The other one..?”

“Yes, the other one, this is a queen, where’s the king?”

As if to answer our question, we all suddenly felt it. The atmosphere around us thickened, and I was having difficulty breathing.

I was very surprised but I wasn’t going to run. My body immediately turned towards the entrance of the cave.

I was still alright and my body still in very good condition, I could still fight.

Seeing me get ready, Rosalie put her arm forwards and stopped me.

“Let me handle this one, if you want to help, there is something else I want you to do.”

Something she wanted me to do?

“The King likes to stay at the deepest parts of the nest, so usually they aren’t the first ones to come out when their nest is attacked.”

Said Rosalie as she started walking towards the entrance.

“The first ones to respond are the adult trolls along with the weakest and youngest of the queens.”

Wait a minute…

“So you’re saying there are more of those creatures inside..?”

“Yes. Two more if this were a medium sized nest, a large would mean five or six or worst case seven. But judging by the numbers outside, we can safely assume them to be a small to medium. So there may only be two more at most.”

She turned around and looked at me.

“Once the weakest queen has been killed, only then will the king start to move. This means that it has judged us as worthy enemies that must be dealt with lest we destroy the nest.”

“So, what do you want me to do?”

I think if I could see her face right now, she would be smiling. If that smile is the good kind or the bad kind, I don’t know.

“You know exactly what I want you to do.”

“Go in there and hunt the two remaining queens?”

It wasn’t me who asked this question but Silvia.

“That’s right, little girl. So, what would you do?”

She asked that question looking at me. I knew what she was trying to do. She was trying to provoke me, to test me. It wasn’t a question, it was a challenge.

‘Can you take them on your own?’ it was this type of question.

The Qi in my abdomen which had just begun to calm down started roaring again.

I think my Qi is more honest than I am.

Of course I want to go in.

Of course I’m going to accept this challenge.

She knew how I was feeling, and was using this opportunity to fan the flames inside me.

Have I always been this way or did I became like this after coming here. Didn’t matter though, I liked being this way.

“Sure.”

I think I might’ve smiled when I said that.

“Good to know, Grant Steele. I will be moving ahead in the tunnels and run directly towards the king. Take my men and search for the two queens, I think you can handle them on your own.”

Saying this much, she ran in the entrance with such speed that would leave my [Sprint] in dust.

‘Is that [Swift Movement] or [Agile Feet]?’

Obviously I didn’t get to ask.

As soon as she was out of sight. The healer came up to me.

“Mr. Grant, I think we should move as well. The other queens aren’t as mobile as the youngest one. So we need to look for them in the deeper parts ourselves.”

I nodded and followed behind them, Silvia also followed behind me. Although she is a scaredy-cat, she has a pretty useful skill, she can be helpful down there.

I also took this chance to finally check the notifications.

With a single thought, all of them came rushing towards my face.

[You are now level 9.]

[Condition Satisfied. Rank Up criteria met.]

[Storing excess EXP.]

[Do you wish to rank up? Yes/No]

‘What the hell is a rank up?’

Well, I did just level up, so I don’t think ranking up would be something bad. But what exactly could it be? Whatever it was, I was selecting yes anyway.

Before I picked yes though, I actually wanted to know what would happen if I were to refuse now?

[Answering - Host would lose the ability to get EXP, which will in turn stop host from levelling up. Individual stats and skills can be raised without the aid of level up but the bonuses of level up cannot be applied.]

What the hell!? And what’re my bonuses?

[Bonus]

Basic bonus applied to host, 10% consistent increase in every non-derived stat for every level up. ???? – (Conditions to unlock not met) ???? – (Conditions to unlock not met)

Even though I cannot see two of the three there, but losing even the one there is too much of a loss. I can’t afford to lose it.

“Yes!”

I immediately answered.

[Displaying conditions for Rank Up:]

[1. Forming of an Essence Core - 0/1]

[2. Cultivation of World Essence - 0/1000]

[3. Cultivation of Qi - 560/500]

[4. Cultivation of Body – 346/500]

[WE not present in status…]

[Adding WE to status… Requirement of minimum 10 points not met…Failure to add in status…]

[…]

[Conflict detected… forcefully adding stat…Stat added successfully.]

[2 stats malfunctioning…]

[Removing redundant stats…]

[Modifying Status…]

[Displaying Modified Status.]

[Rank Up in progress]

Lv.9 [1/4 Condition Satisfied]

Name: Grant Steele

Rank 0 – Qi Fighter

HP: 285/346

QI: 380/560 [0.4/sec]

WE: 1/1

DEF: 120

Skills:

[Unique]

A Mortal’s Tenacity

[General]

Sprint Lv.5, Quick Dash Lv.-, Qi Manipulation Lv.5, Cold Resistance Lv.3, Qi Regeneration Lv.4, Awareness Lv.3, Magic Resistance Lv.1, Stone Skin Lv.3, Weight Control Lv.2

[Blessings]

Blessing of Understanding

[Excess EXP - 7977]

[Converting to stat point(s)…]

[79 unallocated stat point(s)]

[Kindly choose stat to upgrade.]

[HP] [QI] [WE]

I still didn’t understand what was happening, but I went along with it anyway.

“HP.”

[Max HP has been increased by 79.]

HP: 285/425

Now that the messages stopped coming, I could finally say it.

“What. The. Fuck.”