After they killed the orc, Aiden decided to look at the rankings to see how many points they had gotten by themselves.
Thinking about it, the ranking panel opened in front of him instantly.
[Rankings]
[Aiden: 52 points]
[Ava: 28 points]
[James: 18 points]
[Gus: 12 points]
Aiden was in front by a large margin since every kill he made would be his, and he had received no help killing them, which put him at the top of the leaderboards.
After giving the ranking a glance, he noticed an even bigger change in Ava. She seemed scared, not saying anything. It was like she thought she would be in trouble if she opened her mouth. She also didn't try to touch him anymore, keeping her distance.
Ava had not said anything when Aiden had proposed the idea of splitting up, but she didn't want to be in a team with that man, especially now that she knew from which family he came. One mistake would probably result in her death when they finished this trial.
She knew that the family he was a part of was known to be ruthless, and she didn't want to be close to all of that.
Still, Aiden didn't mind her attitude as he finally spotted the first orc for them to fight against.
"Alright, do you see that Orc?" Aiden said as he pointed right in front of him. "Let's kill it."
"Uh...sorry if it offends you when I say this, but before fighting, shouldn't we at least know what we can do?"
Aiden shrugged. "I guess you're right; well, I remember your skill. Your skills are charm-related and can affect the mental monsters, right?"
"That's pretty much it. But what can you do?" Ava asked, making sure to pay attention to his every word.
"Well, you'll see when we fight, but I can do most things since, as I have said before, I'm not being restricted by any type of class," Aiden answered, keeping the mystery around his abilities a secret from Ava.
Then, Aiden didn't say anything as he dashed forward, excited about this fight since it would be the first time he would be getting help from someone when fighting an enemy because even in his past life, he hadn't gotten that opportunity.
As they were moving toward the orc that they had chosen to fight, Ava couldn't help but notice that Aiden wasn't making any noise while walking, as if he was a ghost.
'Why the hell can't I hear any noise from him when he's moving around? Is it a skill? Or some type of technique that he has learned from his family?' She thought, slowly realizing that there were a lot more things that she ignored about Aiden.
As he was getting close to the monster, Ava decided to cast her spell which caused the orc to be even more confused than he already was, which helped Aiden because it reduced the chances of it spotting him even more.
He did almost the same moves as James earlier, but they were executed much better, which shocked Ava.
'Did he learn this skill just by watching him earlier? That's crazy! Is that the power of one of the four founding families? Or is it just one of their techniques?'
However, what she didn't know... was that she was very far away from the truth since he had been abandoned by the Nightshades years ago and was currently living in the slums. He also didn't learn the skill just by watching James since he was much better than him at it.
Then, using his movements, Aiden appeared right behind the orc and swung down his mace, which caused a lot of damage to the orc once again. He did another one, and the monster started to dematerialize into particles like all the monsters he had killed before him.
[You have killed an orc.]
[You have gained 20 XP.]
[+2 points]
It seemed the points for killing the Orc had been separated between the two of them.
He was now level 7 and had added his two free stat points to his strength.
An hour later, the two groups had succeeded in killing all the orcs that had entered the city and received a message from the system.
[You have killed all the monsters from the final wave, do you wish to fight the boss monster?]
Seeing this message, Ava and Aiden went to find the other two, who looked completely exhausted. It seemed like the fight against the orcs hadn't been as simple for them as it had been for Aiden and Ava, who hadn't even sweated.
'Well, I guess it's time,' Aiden thought as he was finally done using them.
All he needed to do now was kill the three of them and kill that boss monster by himself.
'What's he doing?' Gus and James thought as they noticed Aiden approaching them. They couldn't help but wonder why. However, they didn't have the guts to ask.
Aiden just smirked and made a swift strike toward both of their necks, and both of their heads fell to the ground.
"That was for abandoning me," Aiden muttered as he turned around, looking at Ava dead in the eyes.
"It's your turn now," he said, slowly approaching her, acting like a true Reaper.
But then, Ava started saying all sorts of things as she didn't want to fail her first trial.
She knew that it would be detrimental to her. Dying on your first trial was the same thing as saying that you were talentless.
"No, no, don't kill me. I-I can help you," she stuttered, slowly moving away from Aiden.
"How will you help me?" He asked as he kept approaching her.
"With my skills, I'll be able to confuse the boss monster, and you'll be able to kill it," she desperately said.
However, Aiden wasn't convinced at all, as she had abandoned him at the beginning. How could he even trust now after all this time?
"That's not enough. Find something better," Aiden muttered as he held his dagger in a threatening manner.
"Then, I'll be your literal slave during the boss fight. I'll listen to everything that you say."
Aiden hearing that was somewhat interested, however, there was one thing he didn't like about what she had just said.
"Just during the boss fight? If I find you again after this trial, then you will continue listening to my every word? Do you accept?"
Ava didn't even think as she knew the chances of him finding her again were very slim.
"Sure, sure, whatever you want."
"Then, let's go kill that boss monster."
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It looked like the two of them would have to fight the boss monster to complete the first trial, or else they wouldn't get anything and would have to do a trial all over again.
They could see the monster approaching, and it looked dangerous. It had green skin, and he exuded an aura of pure horror. It had claws that were at least five inches and they looked sharp enough to slash the throat of anyone in his path.
"Ready?" Aiden asked, grinning, not feeling the pressure of the monster in front of him. He seemed to be excited to fight such a strong monster. "When I dash, just cast a spell on him that makes him confused."
The monster was getting closer and closer, it was now time for Aiden and Ava to attack it, but there was one thing that Aiden ignored that Ava knew.
Boss monsters would appear in each trial and be much more powerful than all the other monsters combined in that trial. It was known in society that those who fought would be able to get a much faster progression, but they would have to face riskier situations. Most awakened decided against fighting it for safety.
Killing a boss monster would give extremely good rewards, this was one of the reasons Ava agreed to fight alongside Aiden and she also had the reason that she wanted to have a good relationship with someone from that family.
However, this was no time to doubt her choice, and she decided to give her all fighting that monster since he was getting closer and closer to them.
Seeing it get close to them, Aiden dashed toward the monster before him and was no longer by her side.
Not expecting this, she started casting her skill which seemed to affect the monster a bit. He started moving aggressively, it looked like the skill affected his emotions and he was now slashing the air, probably thinking some monsters were attacking him from the sky.
Aiden used this chance to give a good hit to the monster in front of him, and he succeeded. It got a good hit in the chest, and blood could be seen leaving its body.
However, something unexpected happened, and the wound on the monster's body that Aiden had just done started to regenerate at a speed that was not humanly possible. It seemed that the orc possessed a skill, and a powerful one at that.
'Monster can have skills?' He thought, realizing that the monster in front of him wasn't like the ones he had fought before.
Seeing his body regenerate, he decided to back off and go back to where Ava was standing.
"Give me information on that monster. How can he regenerate like that?" Aiden ordered, trying to get some type of clue to fight this monster the best way possible.
Ava didn't question his tone as she simply started answering him.
"Well, this monster seems to be a Cyclops, and it seems to have a skill that helps its regeneration. Actually, killing a Cyclops in our first trial would be quite the exploit since not many on their first trial are able to attempt to kill the boss," Ava replied, not sure why he would ask something that obvious to her.
However, she didn't ask for details as to why he didn't know that type of information and simply continued explaining the best way to deal with monsters that can regenerate.
"The method that is used most of the time when dealing with monsters that can regenerate is to simply hurt him until he is unable to regenerate anymore. But, that's difficult to do, especially for us, since we are not strong enough to hurt him over and over again."
"Is there another method to kill regenerative-type monsters?" Aiden asked.
"Well, the other way to deal with this type of monster is to slash his neck in one swift motion, which causes him to not be able to regenerate anymore."
Hearing this, Aiden started thinking about how he could slice the neck of the Cyclops, it seemed to be quite difficult to achieve because he would need a lot of force to do such a thing even more with a mace. If only he had some type of weapon like a sword or a dagger that was sharp enough to do that, but that was only wishful thinking. He wouldn't be able to find such a weapon here.
"Hmm, I don't think the second option will be possible as you see I only have this mace here with me. Even if you think that hurting it until it can't regenerate anymore is harder to achieve, I still think that we should choose that method, who knows maybe we can do it."
"Sure, as you wish," Ava replied, understanding his logic.
Aiden smiled, hearing her comply, happy with the change in her attitude. He didn't know why, but he liked having her around since she couldn't refuse anything.
She now addressed him with respect and didn't try anything to seduce him anymore.
"Alright let's try to do this, cast your skill again and do you have any type of weapon to attack the monster with me after activating it."
"Sure, and I have a bow with me, actually. I'll try to hit him from a distance."
After learning that she had a weapon, Aiden was overjoyed since it meant they could make a lot more damage in a short time window.
The same scene from earlier was starting to happen. The only thing changing was the arrows coming from Ava toward the monster.
As the arrows were starting to rain from the sky, Aiden swung his mace with all his might, trying to make as much damage as possible. But the same thing as earlier happened the wound he had just made was starting to heal by itself.
The Cyclops, realizing he had just been attacked, decided to counter-attack and swung his claws in the direction of Aiden since he was the only one close to him.
The speed was far above what Aiden had ever seen, even though he wasn't as fast as the monster he tried dodging the strike as best he could and received some damage to his chest leaving marks of claws on it.
This didn't seem to affect Aiden. It seemed to boost him as he seemed even more concentrated on the fight that was unfolding right in front of his very eyes. His concentration was reaching its peak, and a red aura seemed to be coming from him. But this time he was fully aware of what was happening, and he wouldn't forget this moment.
[Mind of an Assassin has activated.]
What do you think his skill will be? Any ideas?
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