Chapter 14: Testing New Skills (Part 1)
Evan's prime core absorbed all the energy that he wanted to refine through his monarch core. When his prime core absorbed all the energy, it became filled with many cracks, and Evan started panting heavily due to the pain in his chest area.
"What the hell was that?" Evan said after some time, when the pain in his chest area lessened a bit.
Evan checked his prime core and was horrified to see many cracks all over it. Quickly, he took out another core from his storage ring, refined it using his mana, and used the energy of the core to heal his prime core.
As the refined energy approached his prime core, it started to heal the cracks. When he absorbed all the energy of the core, all the cracks on his prime core disappeared, and it also advanced to F+ rank.
Evan let out a sigh of relief when the cracks on his core were healed, and his prime core advanced to F+ rank. His prime core had almost shattered because it couldn't handle the unrefined energy that Evan had absorbed directly.
"Why did my monarch core stop absorbing more energy?" Evan was confused by this sudden turn of events. He opened his status window and looked at his progress.
Name: Evan
Rank: F+
Monarch core rank: D
Strength: F+
Agility: F+
Mana: F+
Stamina: F+
Intelligence: F+
Luck: E+
Charm: C
Skill: Shadow Walk, Haste, Shadow Bullet
Physique: Shadow Monarch Physique
Title: ???
Job: None
After seeing his status window and how his monarch core directed the energy towards his prime core, Evan concluded that to increase the rank of his monarch core, he first had to increase the rank of his prime core.
"I still have some cores left in my storage ring. These cores should be enough to advance my prime core to E rank," Evan decided to improve the rank of his prime core since he was unable to absorb energy using his monarch core.
At first, Evan thought that his monarch core would advance easily since it could absorb 100% of the energy from a core. But when he started absorbing, he found out that even though his monarch core could absorb 100% of the energy, it still required more cores than his prime core.
However, Evan was not bothered by this because he could feel that every time his monarch core advanced, he received a great boost in power that his prime core could never provide.
Evan absorbed his remaining cores, and as he expected, his prime core advanced to E rank when he finished absorbing all the cores he had received after sacrificing his shadow physique.
When his prime core advanced to E rank, Evan felt his body being strengthened to another degree, and he couldn't help but let out a sigh of satisfaction as he felt the boundless power coursing through his body.
Name: Evan
Rank: E
Monarch core rank: D
Strength: E
Agility: E
Mana: E
Stamina: E
Intelligence: E
Luck: D
Charm: C
Evan checked his stats and was surprised to see that his charm had not increased after his prime core advanced to E rank.
He closed his status window and finally stood up after finishing absorbing all the cores.
Evan felt a little odd when he stood up because his height, which was previously 180cm, had now increased to 185cm. But he quickly adjusted to it and looked at the crumbled wall from which he had fallen into the odd hall room.
Evan examined the hall room but found nothing other than a small mountain of dust that had formed after the statue and the platform had turned into dust because of the black aura that erupted from his monarch core when it was formed.
Not finding any trace of the person who had spoken to him, Evan started walking outside the hall room.
However, Evan had to close his eyes for some time after coming out because the hallway was too bright, and he felt like he was looking directly at the sun.
After a while, his eyes adjusted to the light, and when he looked back at the hall room behind the crumbled wall, he was surprised to find that the entire room was completely dark. Yet, he could still see everything clearly.
"I also gained night vision," Evan thought when he realized he could see even in complete darkness.
As he emerged from the hall room through the crumbled wall, he saw the corpse of the bat that had almost killed him with its last attack.
Once his eyes were fully adjusted to the light, Evan approached the bat's corpse. His sword was stuck in its head, indicating that the bat had died from the sword attack Evan had delivered at the last moment.
Evan went near the bat's corpse and pulled out his sword.
To his surprise when he looked for the core, he found a core inside the bat's body.
Happily, he put the core away in his storage ring along with the other three cores he had obtained earlier by killing monsters.
He hadn't absorbed these cores because, although he now had enough strength to enter the dungeon without the invisibility potion, he still wanted to sell some cores to earn a little money. His bank account had almost emptied when he purchased the invisibility potion to enter the dungeon.
"I think my days of living on cup noodles are over now," Evan said with an emotional tone. For the past two years, he had been forced to eat cup noodles every day while saving money.
"After selling the cores, I will definitely go to the most famous restaurant to eat something," Evan said, starting to walk towards the exit of the dungeon.
When Evan was just 700 meters away from the exit portal, he saw a lion-like monster, two meters tall, blocking his way. However, instead of feeling the fear he had felt when he saw the bat, this time Evan didn't even flinch and continued to walk towards the lion with steady steps. For some reason, when he saw the shadow lion monster, he didn't feel an ounce of threat from it.
Evan also wanted to test his current power, so he calmly walked towards the lion. When the lion sensed Evan's presence, it looked in his direction. As its deep yellow eyes met Evan's pitch black eyes, for some reason, the lion felt the shadow power inside its body tremble, as if it had been affected by those deep black eyes.
Chapter 15: Testing New Skills (Part 2)
Evan stopped 50 meters away from the lion. The monster had already noticed Evan, but it did not attack him immediately because it could sense a dangerous aura from him.
Evan smiled when he saw how cautious the lion was upon seeing him. If it had been before, the lion would have already attacked him without giving him a chance to catch his breath.
Roarrrr!!!
The lion roared at Evan upon seeing him smiling, although it could sense the danger he posed. As a monster with the primary instinct to kill, it couldn't endure any longer and charged toward Evan at full speed.
The lion was quite fast for a D rank monster, but when Evan saw it, he felt like the lion was moving in slow motion. As the lion charged toward him, Evan also moved.
"Haste!" Evan used his newly acquired skill, Haste, and his agility increased sharply.
But when he used haste to increase his agility, he wasn't able to control his speed properly and ran past the lion appearing behind it.
When Evan stopped, he felt like his head was spinning. Since he had just advanced to D rank with his monarch core and his prime core had also advanced to E rank, his agility had increased exponentially.
It was his first time using his newfound power, so he wasn't able to control it properly, and instead of appearing in front of the lion, he ended up appearing behind it.
"Damm! I'll have to practice if I don't want to crash into something while running," Evan said when he realized he couldn't control his new power.
The lion, which was charging toward Evan, also stopped and quickly looked behind when it sensed Evan's presence.
Roar!!!
The lion roared once again and charged toward Evan once more. Evan took a deep breath and dashed toward the lion but didn't use the Haste skill this time to enhance his agility. He wanted to first control his natural speed.
Even without using the Haste skill, Evan was much faster than the lion. When he neared the lion, the monster used its front claw like a hammer to strike him, but Evan easily dodged the lion's claw with his agility and punched the lion in the face.
Roar!!!
The lion roared in pain as Evan's fist landed squarely on its face. Due to the impact, the lion was blasted ten meters away from him.
Evan was shocked by his own strength. Normally, an average D rank hunter would have a hard time fighting against a monster of the same rank. But here, he wasn't even using his full strength, but he was able to fight against the lion effortlessly.
"Looks like the power the monarch core gave me when it advanced to a new rank is vastly different from the power that the prime core gave me," Evan said, impressed by his ability to fight against the lion without much effort.
Roar!!
The lion roared and stood up after being blasted away by Evan's punch. Suddenly, a black mist started to emanate from the lion, covering its entire body.
The mist began to solidify, forming armor that covered the entire body of the lion. Because of the armor, the lion's defense greatly increased, and with a loud roar, it dashed toward Evan once again.
Evan didn't care about the skill the lion had just used and pointed one of his fingers towards the incoming lion.
"Shadow bullet," Evan muttered, and a dark bullet shot from his finger towards the lion at a frightening speed.
Since the lion was running towards him at full speed, it wasn't able to dodge the bullet. The bullet struck the lion in the center of its head.
The bullet easily pierced through the lion's armor, and even its tough skin couldn't stop the shadow bullet completely. The bullet dug deeper into the head of the lion and made a small hole at the center of its forehead.
Roarrrrr!!!!
With a loud roar, the charging lion dropped to the ground when the bullet struck it in the center of its forehead, and black blood spurted out from its forehead.
"The power of Shadow Bullet is not bad," Evan remarked, observing how his bullet easily pierced through the lion's defense.
"I think I can easily take care of any Rank D monster with my current power. I should finish off this lion so I can go back and eat something. After doing so much today, I'm starting to feel hungry," Evan said, dashing towards the lion, which was still roaring in pain because of the earlier bullet.
With his high agility, Evan reached the lion in the blink of an eye and once again used Shadow Bullet, but this time, Evan used three times more mana than before.
A sharp, two-centimeter-long bullet formed at the tip of Evan's finger, and he shot it at the lion. The bullet pierced through the lion's head, destroying its brain.
Roarrr!!!
With a loud, agonizing roar, the lion ceased to breathe and died. Evan looked at the lifeless body of the lion for a moment and remembered how just a few hours ago, he was struggling to fight against monsters of similar strength. But in a matter of hours, everything changed due to a single event.
As Evan contemplated how easily he had killed the lion, a small smile appeared on his face. "I wonder what kind of expression those arrogant students from the academy will make when they find out about my current strength."
After killing the lion, Evan searched for its core, but unfortunately, he didn't find anything. Nevertheless, Evan was not disappointed and began walking toward the exit portal of the dungeon.
This time, he didn't encounter any monsters and safely arrived at the exit portal of the dungeon.
Evan took a deep breath and exited the dungeon, ready to start a new life where he wouldn't have to endure the mocking looks of others and could continue to improve his power.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
14 Power
stone 
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