LIGHTNOVELONLINE 25. Predator Showdown
Chapter 25 – Predator Showdown
Overseer Velcodirust
The overseer sat in his chair with a wine cup in hand. He observed his student pacing the room back and forth while going on random tangents about the boy. For his part, he just showed a sad smile on his face, trying to project a grandfatherly energy of care and love. In all honesty, he did care about the tantrum throwing teen. She was his flesh and blood after all. Just not as much as he was forced to show at the moment.
“Maybe… maybe it’s the prince I killed. His family might be behind the disappearance. They must have figured out it was Aenon…”, Allie went on, but the Overseer had tuned her out about an hour ago.
This was the problem with Soul magic, unfortunately. He preferred it since the System had a tough time detecting it, but he could neither directly control the subject, nor could he alter their personality. He could only nudge them in the direction he wanted, but once anything went wrong, it was very hard to intervene. He had tried to be gentler with the girl, merely wanting her to be interested in the boy. He was not expecting her to fall so hard in love, a byproduct of personalities. And now that the boy was gone, it would take him years to fix her.
The System was always careful about souls, sending in Overseers to handle it when something went wrong with one. And that was how he had come across such a rare gem. For the first time in millennia, he had invested so heavily trying to acquire someone, and the loss irked him. The kid disappeared out of nowhere, and a month after that even the soul mark had stopped responding. Which meant the boy was most likely dead. He couldn’t make a move yet, but he would eventually find those responsible and rain hell on them.
Unfortunately, his granddaughter was too naïve and had let the village survive, going as far as to use the rare talisman he had given her. And if he went ahead and erased them from existence, she might get more unstable. He had to let her heal from this and then act when she eventually forgets about them.
“… maybe if I covertly went to their kingdom and checked what was going on. Might also be able to find out about the corruption that Aenon came across. Couldn’t you assign me the quest you gave him? Aenon had said he hated leaving unfinished business. So, maybe that’s where he went”, Allie finished speaking and stared at him intently.
“I am afraid that is not possible dear. The quest has disappeared from my list, meaning either someone has already cleared it, or the System has conducted a purge of the corruption itself”, the Overseer replied with a fake sad smile.
Although he was hiding it, in reality this actually puzzled and worried him. Quests don’t just disappear and what he told Allie was something he really wanted to believe. The alternative would be extremely dire for him otherwise. Because it would mean she was involved. And if so, then his subterfuge might come to light eventually. Even though he was loathe to admit it, he really hoped the boy was dead. The kid was the only piece of evidence not in his control that he had meddled with souls.
“So, what am I supposed to do? In my desperation I even caused the downfall of the village I was supposed to oversee. So many died because of me. I completely failed in my duties”, Allie collapsed in a chair opposite him with her head buried in her hands.
“Now, now. Things aren’t as bad as you think”, he said while internally cursing his luck. Things were in fact that bad. The loss of the boy was significant, but the loss of the Arbiter title he had spent so long to acquire for her made it much worse. He had been carefully nurturing the girl to be a powerhouse and this setback would push his plans back by hundreds of years. She was a good seed, but her soft nature was a detriment he had no way of bypassing. Another reason why the boy was such a great fit for her. He was remarkably ruthless and sharp, and had his plan of tying them together worked, he would have obtained not one, but two more sharp blades at his side.
He was the only overseer who had gotten 4 S-grade evolutions, making him the strongest. But younger generations always had the unfortunate knack of exceeding their predecessors. He was carefully eliminating such geniuses to ensure no one surpassed him, and whenever possible, he subdued them to serve under him. That was the beauty of soul magic. Once his manipulation took root, there was nothing else he had to do. His victims essentially shackled themselves and limited their own growth to never surpass him. And that is how he had managed his hegemony, with none the wiser about it. Everyone assumed he was sitting on an unattainable peak, not knowing that there were levels beyond. Levels that he intended to be the first to attain.
“This was just a minor setback. Not everything goes according to plan. Such is life. For now, I want you to focus on recovering and improving your Skills. I will find Aenon, failing which I will exact revenge on whoever caused this”, he said in a calming tone.
Allie nodded in understanding amid sobs and walked out of the room. His smile vanished the moment the door closed behind her. There were preparations to make, and plots to modify. Nothing would get in between him and Level 701.
………………..
Aenon
Aenon stayed completely still as he observed his target. It had been a couple of hours since he left the mansion, and he had only managed to sneak a hundred meters into the thick forest that now surrounded Jadefall. His soul sense was going haywire with all the strong soul signatures in the woods, and only after 2 full rounds of the village, was he able to find a gap to squeeze through and observe what was going on. The scene before him was misleading to say the least. His soul sense was registering a strong presence 20 meters in front of him, but he saw nothing of note ahead. Just a regular tree stood there, with not even an insect nearby. This must be the treant that the village head had mentioned, and if not for his soul sense, he would not have found it at all. He cast identify, and thankfully it worked as usual.
If a Juvenile was level 54, he could not imagine what an adult would be. But the bigger issue was its fighting ability. From the explanation he had received, it used vines and some kind of spores to attack. As for defense, its one-meter-thick trunk was going to be a pain to pierce, even with magic. Aenon continued his vigil to see if the creature would move. He was rewarded for his patience when a goblin party of 4 appeared and walked close to the tree.
Before any of the green skinned creatures could react, a bunch of vines shot down from the branches above them. Within seconds all the goblins were tangled up and struggled to break free, but nothing they did affected the vines, not even the shaman’s fire spell. Eventually the vines constricted and choked the life out of them one by one. Despite what the village head had claimed, not once had the tree moved from its spot, which meant this goblin party wasn’t a serious threat to it.
Aenon stayed in the shadows, trying to come up with a strategy on how to proceed. He could see a bunch of nature wisps floating about the treant, which had been what it used to control its own vines like whips. He really wanted to see all its capabilities before engaging though, so he backed off for now. He settled down comfortably in a house on the outskirts and pulled up his status.
Name
Aenon Fenrast (13 yrs)
Race
Ascended Human (F)
Level
0
Class
Void Stalker (0/100)
Level
0
Subclass
Abyssal Warden (0/100)
Level
0
HP
13760
MP
13800
HP/10 min
2754
MP/10 min
2768
Stats (Free Points: 0)
Strength
1376
Intelligence
1380
Constitution
1377
Willpower
1384
Dexterity
1379
Perception
1382
Titles
Rebirth (0)
+1344 all stats
Skills/Effects:
(1) Detect and resist the effects of soul attacks and spells.
(2) Double the available Skill slots per evolution level
(3) Ability to fake Titles, stats, and levels. This effect cannot be bypassed even by Overseers.
(4) Can bypass certain System restrictions.
(5) Unfettered: ???
(6) Stat Point multiplier: 2
Skills
Slot 1
Stealth (Woods, Urban) – Savant
Slot 2
Weapons (Dagger, Unarmed, Traps) - Savant
Slot 3
Tracking (Woods) - Adept
Slot 4
Mana Manipulation - Adept
He had decided to give up on the System Adjudicator and Corruption Cleanser classes despite its superior stats for one simple reason. It would limit his freedom. As for his open Skill slots, he had decided to go with tracking and mana manipulation. Even though his soul sense did an amazing job at picking presences, it was useless when it came to non-living objects and clues. The overlay of highlighted colors was off balancing at first, but he was getting used to it now. The manipulation skill on the other hand was giving him subconscious hints on how to interact with wisps which he was sure would come in handy.
But the biggest aid he had received was the brand-new tab in his status window that had appeared with his Abyssal Warden class. He recalled that his class allowed him to manipulate magic to create projectiles, which meant these were the building blocks for such spells.
Mana Aspects Proficiency
Physical
Conceptual
Earth (58%)
Heat (46%)
Air (12%)
Gravity (21%)
Fire (36%)
? (2%)
Water (23%)
-
Light (37%)
-
Dark (90%)
-
Life (6%)
-
-
-
It was the first time that he had a clear idea about mana aspect types. And by the looks of it, he had only managed to scratch the surface. The table presented a clear demarcation between physical and conceptual mana aspects. The empty slots meant he was either yet to come across that aspect, or he needed to gain some understanding for it to unlock. The question mark was a bit more confusing. He was wondering when he had interacted with an unknown mana aspect, when it clicked. Back when he had killed the two people via their projections, he must have interacted with something. The baffled expressions of the two arbiters had clued him to the fact that he had done something unnatural. He wasn’t sure what it was though, but if he was to take wild guess, it must have been something to do with space.
The list clearly showed how poorly he understood the different aspects. The green wisp he had been calling nature type wasn’t even on the list. Which meant it was an amalgamation of multiple aspects. Even the fire wisps which he had assumed to be a mix of heat and light, must have more components to it. But one thing he finally understood, mana aspects combined into wisps, which then manifested into spells when he added his personal mana into it. It would take some practice and trials to get the hang of it, but he would get there eventually. He hoped his class would help with that.
He pulled up his quest log and saw about 18 different tasks ranging from gathering firewood to clearing out the surrounding forest of monsters and beasts. He made a mental plan on which tasks he could complete in one run without going too deep into the jungle. For now, he wanted to give the treants a wide berth and focus on the other threats which had grown significantly in his month-long absence. He shortlisted goblins, kobolds, and dire wolves from his mob clear quests, and essential supplies like firewood, raw hides, and wild game for his gathering quests. There were other things, like ore and lumber, but they required specialized tools for them and would take more time.
With a clear plan, he set out along the perimeter till he found another gap where there were no treants and blended into the bushes using the passives of his gear and some clever use of mana manipulation. He decided to remove his cloak for now since he wanted to try out a few things. He used air wisps to trap his natural scent, and dark wisps to make the shadows around him darker for easy and undetected navigation. He even controlled the gravity wisps to make himself lighter, which was the hardest thing to control by far. His mana started ticking down, but he decided he needed to practice active mana manipulation.
Eventually he came across a pack of 8 dire wolves, huge creatures with thick grey and brown fur. The smallest of them stood at about 5 feet when on all fours. Their levels ranged from 63 to 80, with the largest of them identifying as an alpha variant. Thankfully, the quest had also granted him some basic information about the creatures. It was also the reason why his identify worked and didn’t just present him with only level info. He pulled up the information for just the wolves for now.
System Notification
Due to an active quest description handed out by an authoritative figure, you have been granted access to the basic details of your quarry. Identify Skill can now identify the following monster types and their variants – Dire wolf, Kobold, Treant.
Dire Wolf – The bigger cousins of the wolf species, dire wolves are faster, stronger, and much more agile. They have absolutely no magical ability or stats, foregoing it completely for enhanced physique which they use with devastating effectiveness. They only have 3 stats in place of 6. As pack hunters, their overall stats are increased by 20% when in groups of more than three.
Alpha Dire Wolf – The leader variant of dire wolves, alphas keep the pack more organized and efficient. A pack with an alpha is more lethal and difficult to take down. Alphas grant the pack a 30% stat boost and any target the alpha lays its eyes on will have its WIL reduced by 5% which inflicts paralysis and fear if victim’s WIL is lower than the STR of the creature.
The fear effect was interesting. It was like his, except weaker and used the creatures STR stat to compare against. He deduced that was because these were pure physical stat-based creatures. With the two buffs, the wolves had 50% more stats and were essentially one unit while under the alpha. Aenon had faced off against wolves back on Earth, and his go to strategy then was to avoid them at all costs. They were a pain to deal with and were smart enough not to fall for traps. If these were stronger, it was going to be much harder.
He decided to stalk them and learn of their behavior before engaging. He followed them in silence, all the while practicing his stealth skills using Mana Manipulation. Whenever his mana fell below 25 %, he put on his cloak and stopped spending mana. Once his mana refilled, he swapped out the cloak. Rinse and repeat.
He learned two crucial things while tailing his opponents. First was that they had keen senses with which they avoided areas that had treants. They also used this ability to sneak up undetected on unsuspecting opponents. The scene before was a testament to their stealth skill as the pack was facing off against a bearlike creature four times their size which had taken significant injuries in the first volley of attacks. The alpha was giving them commands using a series of chuffing sounds, and with an airtight coordination they were chipping down the bear’s health.
As the bear collapsed from its mounting injuries, Aenon learned the second thing about the wolves - they were extremely smart. And unfortunately for him, he found this out the hard way, since he was now surrounded by 8 very angry looking dire wolves. While he was observing them take down the bear, two of them had managed to juke their way behind him using extreme speed and immediately after that the others had sealed his escape routes within seconds.
Aenon chuckled as he calmly stood up and walked out of his supposed hiding place. He now stood in an open clearing where the wolves had decimated the bear with precision. Surrounded, he looked around at the wolves one by one before landing his gaze on the alpha. An invisible battle kicked off between the two, as each tried to intimidate the other. Eventually, both their skills failed, and they reached an impasse. Aenon smiled at the outcome. This was the most exhilarating experience he had had since his new life started. He removed all his gear, stowing them away into his inventory.
“My apologies. I forgot who I was stalking. Let’s do it the proper way, shall we?”, Aenon said with a smirk while holding out his empty hands to the side. The alpha’s eyes narrowed before it gave a brief nod, acknowledging the challenge. All other dire wolves backed off and made a defensive circle around their leader and the challenger.
Aenon and the alpha started circling each other slowly. Each studying the other’s moves with care. Neither of them knew what the other was capable of, since Aenon had not seen the alpha fight a single time. After a full circle, they both abruptly stopped while the pack looked on solemnly.
With a growl both charged at the other, colliding midway through the air. Aenon felt the wolf’s teeth barely sink into his shoulder as he too bit down on one its legs. What followed wasn’t an elegant dance that he most often used. It was brutish and savage. Aenon’s body had gotten tougher, and the wolf’s fangs and claws only managed to inflict shallow wounds. But so was the wolf’s fur. Aenon bit and scratched with his enhanced body like a wild animal. Even though neither could inflict a deep wound, the ground was eventually drenched with blood within a few minutes.
And so, the feral clash continued for hours, with 7 sets of eyes looking on. The screams of pain and anger echoed in the forest, warning anyone present to stay away. By now, no one could distinguish between the two blood-soaked beasts. Both were covered in deep claw/bite marks, blood, and dirt. Aenon was blind in one eye, courtesy of a gash running the full length of his face. While the alpha was missing an ear, which Aenon had bitten off. Even so both had a savage grin on their faces.
At sunset, the battle finally reached its crescendo. Both the predators were heaving with pain and exhaustion, barely able to stay on their feet. They eyed each other one last time, before making their last dash. Aenon successfully landed a punch to the wolf’s gut, shattering its ribcage completely. But the alpha used the blow’s momentum to go around his defenses and slashed at his throat.
Both parties collapsed atop each other, with their faces inches apart. They stared into each other’s eyes in defiance. Even with their bodies broken beyond recognition, neither wanted to concede. Unfortunately, their bodies gave out and they both lost consciousness simultaneously.
The seven dire wolves tightened the circle as they trotted closer to the crumpled bodies amidst them. After a moment’s silence, they all howled to the rising full moon as one before turning their faces outwards and sitting down on their haunches to guard.