Capítulo 60: Evomon's Benefits

After seeing this description and locating the system's hidden warning message, Cassius saw a crimson-black skull key drop into his hands. It radiated death and certain demise; for him, there was no question about the veracity of the system's words. If he leapt into what would be created by this key before achieving a B-Rank power level, he would undoubtedly die. And even with his most recent gains included, he was still far from the 250 stat mark that would indicate the B-Rank.

Furthermore, that 250 stat mark was usually meant to be an all-around milestone, as in every single main stat should be at or above 250. Cumulatively, the weakest B-Rank Hunter would have around 1250 stat points distributed mostly evenly.

Of course, Hunters had their strengths and weaknesses, but they never varied greatly enough to exceed a rank.

Unlike Cassius, who had his Agility stat nearly a rank and a half above his other stats, most Hunters simply had large differences within normal scopes. Of course, there were exceptions to this, such as Mage-type Hunters, who had extremely high Intelligence stats yet would oftentimes be lacking in Strength, Agility, and Endurance, which facilitated every major physical attribute.

Some Mage Hunters, like the S-Rank Mage Lord from Russia, had Intelligence stats that exceeded their physical stats by 2–3 ranks. However, no one had ever heard of someone who mained Agility so drastically.

Well, there was one… But to most in the world, he was regarded as a complete lunatic, someone who traveled around the world in search of anyone who claimed to be the fastest of their respective territories.

The sheer number of Hunters that were lapped and viciously killed by this S-Rank Speedster Hunter had already exceeded that of small towns…

To the world, he was an S-Rank menace that went by the title of 'Speed of Light Blur Devil.'

Yet, to those who knew him on a personal level, he was Victor Rapido—the one regarded as the fastest person on the planet!

Cassius, like Victor Rapido, was following a similar path. However, the biggest difference between the two of them was that Victor's speed was set from awakening, whereas Cassius would only continue growing.

How long Victor would remain as the supposed 'fastest in the world' was still to be seen…

'After receiving HELL's 1st Floor Key, I then went on to challenge Gate after Gate, all while remaining a complete mystery,' Cassius continued his recap from where he left off.

At first, the rate at which he conquered F-Rank and E-Rank Gates was rather slow, as he usually struggled with locating the Boss area and the rest of the monster stragglers.

To temporarily leave a Gate inactive, one only needed to eliminate some Elite monsters and the Boss Monster; this method was typically used by the Government and the Guilds that had ownership over these lucrative Gates. To permanently close a Gate, on the other hand, required the participating Hunters to exterminate every last monster and then leave before the dimension collapsed on them; this method was used when a Gate too dangerous to keep around appeared.

In an average F-Rank, E-Rank, and D-Rank Gate, there would normally be thousands of monsters, all varying in rank. And to completely clean one of such Gates, one would need to spend weeks inside the Gate, which would not only be a waste of time and resources but also pointless since the Gate would break open before all monsters inside could be killed.

Sending in stronger Hunters would naturally solve this issue, but that would be even more of a waste when there were far more powerful Gates that needed to be managed.

It was for these reasons that countless Gates were left open to farming in Japan and the rest of the world. In just Japan alone, the number of C-Rank and below Gates, which equated to Yellow-rank and below, had already reached the tens of thousands. And for a small country like Japan, this was a matter that was just a few mishaps away from being catastrophic…

As of late, even the Japanese government had made plans to redistribute Hunter forces and focus on gradually clearing the lower-rank Gates.

Not a single government official could have possibly expected someone like Cassius to appear out of nowhere and start making quick work of various Gates with the assistance of his Evomon. That was the name he decided on to easily organize his growing force of rebranded Pokémon. Only, rather than peaceful and typically chill creatures, his Evomon only knew how to shed blood in their endless slaughtering of monsters…

After an entire week of clearing dozens of Gates scattered around Hoshito, Cassius was able to gather together 15 powerful D++ Rank Evomon, which used to be capped at 10 prior to his Agility stat passing 150. Now, with 15 Peak Orange-ranked Gate bosses standing by his side, he was able to effortlessly sweep through D-Rank Gates in less than 20 minutes, which was an insanely fast clear rate for someone with less than 400 cumulative stats.

Yet, that was all without considering the most spectacular part of the whole Evomon and monster-enslaving feature which, although morally questionable, came with the benefit of 'Evolution.'

Cassius had tried out the 'Evo Fusion' almost right after acquiring it and beating into submission his first D++ Boss Monster. And though the qualities of him and the Evomon didn't mesh well, he was still able to tremendously improve his power following the transformation of his body into something akin to a water bear humanoid Spirit. It was an amazing thing to experience, and his abilities even more so.

He could shoot out large beams of water, summon miniature tsunamis, and even run on water while in 'Aqua Bear' form, and though it was temporary, he experienced what it was like to Lord over the sea. The feeling was thrilling, to say the least.

Moreover, this emboldened him to act more proactively in his search for more suitable Evomon to fuse with.