The Abandoned Hunter

The moment Jay heard the words 'Dark Overlord', his mind went blank. Hearing that from a guild master was astonishing.

Needless to say, he suddenly felt vulnerable. He activated four runes that were placed on his body which aided in increasing his stats.

[ You have used the Rune Of Buff And Healing ]

-> All buffs denied by the user would be ignored.

-> All buffs accepted by the user would be accepted.

-> The accepted buff would be with 200% increased potency.

-> Self buffing will be increased by 100% potency.

-> Healing would be increased by 200%

[ You have used the Rune Of Strength has been activated ]

->Physical stats of the body has been increased by 50%

-> Muscles and ligaments have been restructured

-> Attack power has been increased by 200%

-> Defense has been increased by 200%

-> Due to the effect of the pre-used rune, the effects have been doubled.

[ You have used the  Rune Of Agility ]

-> Speed has been increased by 200%

-> Foe's speed has been decreased by 50%

-> Fatigue accumulation is neglected.

-> Due to the effect of the pre-used rune, the effects have been doubled.

[ You have used the  Rune Of Magic ]

-> MP has been increased by 200%

-> Reduced the time required for MP restoration by 50%

-> Reduced the usage of MP by 50%

-> Due to the effect of the pre-used rune, the effects have been doubled.

"Who-"

"Who are you?", was what Jay asked in the end after activating the runes.

"Me?"

"Haha, that's funny."

"Ain't I just a guild leader?", Jake said with a burst of weird laughter.

Jay would never buy that because no normal guild leader would know about the title that had been troubling him since earlier.

Jay was being more and more cautious as time passed. The reason was simple, he was worried about the same stats because even after buffing himself, he was nowhere near to Jake's strength.

"Sigh, just relax..."

"I'm not planning on doing anything to you..."

"It's not the time yet to face you...", was what Jake said.

When Jay heard the word 'yet', he became even more nervous and cautious.

'What does he mean by that?'

'He plans to fight me but not now?', he asked himself for which he wasn't answered obviously.

In any case, Jay wanted to confirm if Jake knew about the system that he had been using. However, he didn't know how to ask. Regardless, he was still cautious and was keeping a track of everything, even the slightest change in Jake's breathing was being observed by him.

"What do you mean by yet?"

"You plan on fighting me?', Jay ended up asking that.

"Yes, I would love to fight you, however, they wouldn't forgive me if I were to hurt you while you were so weak...", Jake stood up and looked out of the window that was towards the left side of Jay in the room.

"They? Who exactly?", Jay asked.

"Hmm..."

"You are a year early to learn about that..."

"In fact, you won't learn that unless you level up and reach SS rank...", was what he said.

'Level up? Ranks?', of course, everyone had the ability to check their ranks, but they couldn't possibly check their levels.

After all, it was something that the system was showing only to Jay. So he was puzzled and baffled after hearing that.

Jay was quite arrogant perhaps when he had met Jake earlier, but never would have he known that Jake was way too different from what he had imagined and what was shown in the news and newspapers.

*gulp*

"How do you know about levels?", while asking this, he gripped the hammer even more tightly.

Of course, he was equipping only one of the daggers thanks to which he could equip the hammer too. Regardless, the stealth didn't work and he was exposed so he didn't have anything else to worry about regarding them.

What he actually wanted to find out now was about the leveling thing which Jake spoke of.

"Haha, I see..."

"You still haven't realized it...", Jake laughed loudly, well not loudly enough that it could be heard from the outside.

Even if he laughed much more loudly, it would still be inaudible since the room was soundproof.

Whatever the case may be, Jay was now sure that Jake knew something which he knew nothing about.

He was now keenly listening to whatever he said instead of just being cautious but that didn't mean that he let his guard down.

"Listen, do you really think that you are the only one with a system?", Jake asked.

The way he glared while asking seemed quite freaky. Jay broke out cold sweat the moment he felt a slight amount of killing intent or rather a dominating aura that was being emitted from Jake.

"So you mean to say that..."

"There are others with systems that help them to grow stronger?", Jay asked.

*gulp*

He swallowed an insane amount of dry saliva while waiting for an answer.

Jake continued to glare at him. Of course, he didn't answer immediately. It was as if he was thinking something.

In any case, it was weird. Jay thought that he was the only one with a system in the world. Of course, he thought that he gained such power from Akaluman so he had no idea if Akaluman had given a similar power to anyone else.

He had nearly forgotten about the weapons in his hand. Also, he didn't think about attacking anymore. He was now completely sure that Jake knew about the systems and now wanted an answer from him.

"Haha, I was just joking..."

"You are indeed the first person to gain a system...", he laughed loudly.

"Huh?", Jay was now puzzled.

He was almost sure that others had the system's powers too but after hearing him say that, he could no longer decide which words to believe.

"Then why did you ask that question?", Jay asked after regaining the same cautious attitude again.

He was relaxed for a minute but not anymore. Although Jake told him that he was the only one to have a system, there was something extra that Jake knew about which Jay wanted to know.

"Haha, that was just to scare you..."

"Believe me, you are the first and probably the last person to have a system...", he sighed while saying that.

"..."

Alright, Jay was able to accept that, however, he was still a bit uncomfortable with the topic at hand. In any case, he wanted to know the source from which Jake learned about the system, and thus he didn't waste any more time in asking.

"Then tell me, how did you know that I had a system?"

"Who told you about the system anyway?", Jay asked.

"Sigh, do you really want me to die?", while quite opposite to what Jay asked, Jake said something totally different.

"N-no...", Jay replied immediately with a little pause because he wasn't ready to accept such an answer. 

It was probably Jake's way to tell that he wasn't interested in discussing the topic.

But that wasn't the case, whatever he told was connected to what Jay had asked a second ago.

"If I were to answer your question, then I would definitely end up dead...", Jake sighed again.

For a guild leader, he was talking way too casually. Well, of course, he did have a dominant tone and a strong aura since earlier, but for quite some time now, after the glare, he had become quite normal, as if he was some average human.

"Dead?"

"How so?"

'Who is so powerful that they could kill him?', Jay wondered.

He didn't want to admit that Jake was stronger than himself so he just said to himself in his mind.

Indeed, Jake was strong, way stronger than Res or any others, so it was rather surprising to see him talking about death. 

Actually, Jay was able to defeat Makruin, the Golden Knight, only because he underestimated Jay. If he were to go with full power from the start them Jay would have turned into dust in no time.

If he could imagine Makruin to be so strong, then he could easily tell that if two Makruin were to combine, then they would stand at the same level as Jake.

"Listen, Jay, I may be powerful, but I am not the strongest..."

"There are many out there who are stronger than me and could kill me with just a flick of their finger..."

"Take your father for example, if I were to oppose him, wouldn't I end up dying just by his breath?", Jake asked.

"Father...? My father...?"

"..."

To be continued...