Shadow Monarch: Multiverse Ascendance

"What came up…?"

Unable to understand Jinwoo's words, Kang Taeshik felt an unknown sense of terror wash over him.

'Well, I didn't expect to see him use 'Stealth'…'

When Kang Taeshik disappeared before his eyes, it didn't surprise him a little bit.  After all the moments Jinwoo focused his senses, and he was able to feel the man's presence even with his eyes closed. This was the power of his raised sense stat. Plus he was constantly using air manipulation to fill the cave with air so when the air was pushed he knew the location of his enemy.

And thanks to that, Kang Taeshik was startled as if he had seen a ghost.

"How, how did you?"

All that was left was to deal with him and get the rewards.

'If I'm going to fight, I might as well get paid for it.'

It was his turn now.

Time to attack.

The two men put strength behind their daggers, attempting to push toward each other.

Their strength was evenly matched for a few seconds before Jinwoo pushed him.

For the next move, Jinwoo quickly slammed his foot down on Kang Taeshik's.

crack!

"Uwaaaak!"

Having focused on the clash of daggers putting full strength so as not to get pushed by him, Kang Taeshik was caught off guard by the sudden surge of pain shooting from his foot and backed off.

Jinwoo did not give the man any room to breathe.

'Sprint!'

Sprint has been activated.

Your movement speed is increased by 30%.  

While active, 1 mana will be used up every minute.

As Jinwoo rapidly chased after the man, Kang Taeshik was surprised once more.

'He got faster! He was already faster but now he got much faster '

Up until now, he had felt that his speed was somewhat of matched by Jinwoo's; maybe he was just a smidgen faster.  But seeing Jinwoo suddenly speed up a level, Kang Taeshik could not afford to lose a moment of focus. Jinwoo closed the gap in an instant and stabbed his dagger into Kang Taeshik's thigh.  

"Argh!"

It was an attack that slipped past Kang Taeshik's defense that had been focused on his upper body.

Paralysis has been inflicted.

The target's resistance was too high.  Effect canceled.

Bleeding has been inflicted.

The target will lose 1% health per second.

'Good enough!'

One of Casaka's Poisoned Fang's special effects went through.  It was a shame that it wasn't 'Paralysis', but he somewhat predicted this. And 'Bleeding' would still make the fight much easier.

But Kang Taeshik held his pride as a high-ranking Hunter!

His resistance was not at all low.  He leaped after Jinwoo with his knife.

slash- slash-

Jinwoo dodged the knife by a hair's breadth and counterattacked towards Kang Taeshik's vitals.  Even with a wound on his thigh, the man skillfully blocked Jinwoo's attacks.

clang, clang!

Both of the fighter's brows moistened with sweat.

'The speed is superior but his experience in this is greater!'

'The speed is superior but he lacks experience in this so I can still predict where the next attack will come from!'

The two men praised the other's speed and experience and continued their ultra short-range battle of speed.  A single misstep would mean defeat; the duo mercilessly attacked each other with attacks meant to kill.

slash, slash, slaaaash, slash- slash!

A spectacle that would drain the blood of those watching, it was truly a fight to the death.

'I have to break the balance.'

Jinwoo focused strength into his eyes.

Bloodlust has been activated.

Kang Taeshik looked into Jinwoo's eyes and flinched.

'What?'

Fear has been inflicted.

The target will lose 50% of all attributes for 1 minute.

'It worked!'

Jinwoo became assured of victory.  On the other hand, Kang Taeshik's eyes were trembling.

'What's happening to me?'

After meeting Jinwoo's eyes, it suddenly felt like he had been submerged in deep water.  His body felt heavy as if he was struggling to move underwater. The speed that he was so proud of was cut drastically.

slash! slaash!

The stalemate had been broken.  Jinwoo's attacks began to land. One by one, wounds started appearing on Kang Taeshik's body.

'This, this can't be!'

The B-rank Hunter was in a panic.  This was definitely an effect of a debuff skill.  He had never heard of an Assassin class that could use debuff magic.

'Is he not an Assassin-class?'

But if not, how was his speed possible? And what about his strength recovery and defense?

Kang Taeshik could not finish his thought.  His panic quickly turned into terror. Jinwoo was charging straight at him from the front.  Kang Taeshik swung his knife at Jinwoo's eyes with all of his speed as a final resort.

slash!

Jinwoo quickly twisted his head but was scratched by the knife on his cheek.  But this amount of damage was in his calculations. And recovered in seconds He had thrown his entire body into the deciding blow, anticipating to dodge the desperate counterattack.

The two men had fought in a world where time had slowed down.  In their final infinitesimal moment, Kang Taeshik frowned in realization.

'Shit.'

stab.

Casaka's Poisoned Fang dug itself deep into Kang Taeshik's chest.

"cough!"

Kang Taeshik widened his eyes in pain.  At that moment, the two men knew it was over; the victor had been decided.  Blood seeped out of the corner of Kang Taeshik's mouth. He smiled with a blood-filled mouth.  Of all the days, he just had to meet a Reawakened Hunter in a D-rank Dungeon today.

'I really have shitty luck…'

The knife in his hand fell to the ground.  As he gasped for breath, Kang Taeshik whispered something into Jinwoo's ear.

"…"

Jinwoo allowed the man his final words, then removed the dagger from his chest.

Kang Taeshik's body slumped to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.

collapse

Ding~!

You have Leveled Up!

You have Leveled Up!

You have Leveled Up!

Ding~! 

You have gained a new Skill

Dagger Proficiency

Level: 1

Rank: Unique+

Skill Type: Passive 

Mana Cost: None

AOE: None/Dagger-specific

Cool Down: None

Damage: +33% Damage with Daggers.

Effect: "Having used a dagger for a long time, you are able to wield them with greater proficiency."

Gained knowledge on how to use a Dagger with some skills. The higher the Level higher the damage and chance of new skill unlock. 

Ding~!

You've completed the 'Emergency Quest: Deal With The Enemies'

The reward for completing the quest has arrived.

Would you like to verify? (Y/N)

Jinwoo smiled at the message.  And unlike before, killing a human being felt nothing to him as his trait was 'Remorseless'. And he was aware that traits affect him on a physiological level. That's how he felt nothing.

And three levels are not bad, not bad at all. Again humanoids are the best way to farm levels. 

It's getting harder to control this temptation of going after them. 

Ding~!

You've received the below reward.

Reward 1. Stat points +5

'What?'

Jinwoo stared at the reward incredulously.  It was much smaller than what he had received for dealing with Hwang Dongseok's party. And it was similar to the robber rewards. 

'The difficulty this time was much higher!'

Did the number of enemies matter more than their skill? Or was there some other factor involved?

Jinwoo tilted his head in question, then, he saw what he wanted behind the screen.  There was a dime-sized light coming from Kang Taeshik's corpse. Jinwoo's eyes widened,

'it's…?'

It was hard to believe it, but it was the same light coming from monsters' corpses with drops.  The same light also appeared in magic beasts' corpses with magic cores. And now, the light that signified a drop was coming from Kang Taeshik.

I stretched a hand toward Kang Taeshik's corpse.

Ding~!

You've found a "Runestone: Stealth"

Would you like to acquire it?

The skill that Kang Taeshik used had been left behind as a Runestone on his corpse.  'Stealth' was a rare skill that only a handful of Hunters had. Now the biggest question was how did he obtain it?

'Acquire.'

A small stone with runes inscribed on it appeared in his outstretched hand.

Runestone: Stealth

Break the Runestone to absorb the skill.

Breaking this would give him access to 'Stealth'.  The item is priceless.

Two people's voices cried out from behind him.

"Sung-ssi, are you alright?"

"Jinwoo-SSI!"

Jinwoo quickly hid the Runestone in his pockets and turned around.  Song Chiyeol and Lee Juhee were staring at him in disbelief. To think that an E-rank Hunter Jinwoo, who used to tremble in fear in D-rank Dungeons, defeated the B-rank Hunter Kang Taeshik.  The noncombat-class Lee Juhee might not fully grasp the situation, but the C-rank Song Chiyeol understood just how unbelievable this was.

Jinwoo looked over his body.

"Yes, I'm alright."

At a glance, everything was alright. As all the wounds and cuts he got from the fight were already healed with his neutral Hp recovery which healed with 1.3% (43.96) per Minute and he didn't receive much damage to begin with…

But Juhee's still reached to him as after she felt there were still a few wounds that were healing at a visual rate. 

"I'll heal it."

A blue light gathered in Juhee's hands, and even that small wound quickly disappeared.  The E-rank Hunter had defeated the B-ranker without any major injury. To the two that knew Jinwoo, this was more shocking than the fact that a B-ranker had tried to kill them all.

"Young man, how did you…"

Song Chiyeol could not finish his sentence.  Jinwoo knew what he wanted to say, so he opened his mouth instead,

"I'm sorry. I'll be able to tell you the full story someday, but right now, please don't ask me any questions."

As Jinwoo asked with a stern and sincere voice, Juhee nodded her head.  Song Chiyeol hesitated, then nodded as well,

"If you say it like that, I'm sure you have a good reason. I understand."

Then, Jinwoo turned his head toward the direction of the boss's room.  They had hit a bump on the road, but he wanted to complete his original objective.  However, he had to send the other two away. He wanted to solo the boss, and there was something he wanted to do without the others watching.

Jinwoo asked Song Chiyeol,

"I'm sure continuing the Raid after all this is too much for the two of you. Why don't you leave the Dungeon and contact the Association? I'll stay behind and see if there are other survivors."

Song Chiyeol intuitively understood what Jinwoo was asking for.

'He's going to close the Gate.'

"That sounds good, Ms. Juhee, why don't we leave."

Juhee hesitated, then ran over to Jinwoo,

"You didn't forget our dinner promise, right?"

Jinwoo smiled,

"Of course not. I still have to get that change."

"Then don't forget. I'll be waiting outside."

Jinwoo nodded as he ruffled her hair, and Juhee had a blush, satisfied, and left with Song Chiyeol.  But even as she walked out of the Dungeon, she repeatedly looked back.  

Confirming the two had left, Jinwoo sighed.

"Sigh..."

Killing the B-rank Hunter would be ruled as an act of self-defense.  Since he had two witnesses, there would be no problem. The problem was explaining how an E-rank Hunter had defeated a B-rank Hunter.

'Best explanation is that I went through Reawakening…'

And so, he decided to go with that route.  He would claim that he was a Reawakened Hunter and undergo the retest.  Nobody would believe the truth about the System or level-ups, not that he had any plans to ever mentioning it.

Jinwoo had thought that he had become stronger, but the increases in strength from B-rank to S-rank Hunters were beyond his expectations. 

Plus it's not like they will force me to take the reawakening test as soon as I am out. 

Let's not jinx myself. 

'Well, I'll worry about that later.'

Right now, he had to focus on the boss.  The D-rank Dungeon had only shown E-rank magic beasts so far, this meant that the magic power that was detected when measuring the Dungeon's difficulty mostly came from the boss.  If that were the case, he could probably earn some experience points still.

'Before that.'

There was something he had to check. And do.  As walked towards the corps of Kang Taeshik and threw it into inventory. 

As he wanted to do some experiments with it.  

Will he still have the skill of stealth after becoming a shadow soldier? 

What will change?

Even if he didn't have it, he was still a pretty good assassin plus being a B-rank means he is the second strongest corpse in his inventory...

And even if he didn't have any use he could always use Drain life on him. 

And he did that, he walked to each corps that was laying there and used Drain Life.

Which increased Jinwoo's mana and health by 150 points as they all were high-class hunters. So they gave him much more than a lowly robber. 

"Stat."

Stat,

Lv: 43

HP: 4301/4301 R: 1.3%(43.96) per Minute

MP: 3847/3847 R: 13.07%(296.296) per minute

Fatigue: 22

Stats

Strength: 85

Constitution: 73

Agility: 96

Intelligence: 163

Sense: 93

(Available stat points: 5)

After looking at my stat. I nodded.' I accomplished so much in this little bit of time.'

He focused his energies and expanded the range of his senses.

"Found him."

Now there were husk corpses of Kim Sangshik and the other Hunter.  This was the power of a high-ranking Hunter. If they wanted, it was nothing for them to quickly dispatch a lower-ranking Hunter.

Jinwoo passed the bodies of his former comrades with normal expressions.

Walking by Soon, Jinwoo came upon what he was looking for.

"Mmph! mMM! Mph!"

One of the prisoners was struggling on the ground.  The man's hands and feet were tied-up, and his mouth was gagged.  Before he died, Kang Taeshik's whispers had sent Jinwoo here,

"I left the rapist tied up somewhere nearby. The girl's father asked me to kill him in the most painful way, so I saved him for last. Now I leave this to you" 

And those were the B-rank Hunter's final words.

The prisoner saw Jinwoo approaching and struggled harder.  It was as if he was telling Jinwoo to untie him quickly.

"Mph! Mmmph! mmM!"

Looking closer, Jinwoo realized it was the prisoner who had winked at Juhee.  He knelt down and removed the gag from the man's mouth; the criminal opened his eyes wide in relief and took in a deep breath.

"pant, pant, pant! Kang Taeshik, that crazy fucker, he killed them all. All of them! Where did he go? What's with the blood? Did he get you too?"

Jinwoo did not reply and instead, raised his head and looked straight ahead.  It was the direction of the boss room. The prisoner's voice became more urgent,

"Hurry up and get me out of these. We gotta get out of here before Kang Taeshik comes back. Fuck, if only these ropes weren't filled with magic power! You got something to cut these with, right? Why aren't you saying anything? Are you not listening to me?!"

....

Important News.

So I am thinking of a sex skill that can power up both of them that also makes sense.. but I can't seems to find a good one so I open for suggestions and it's a

I do have general idia of what skill would do something like mixing mana/whatever energy he she had together and with pleasure entering in their bodies.

only for today do it fast.

And it will only be increasing 2 point in stat. with some points in mana boost.

So are you liking the story?

And write some comments please

Fun Fact.

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