Sneaking through the forest, Julian snarled at the memory of his last encounter with the wolves. It had been some hours since he had left the others to go hunting alone after almost dying because of their stupidity.
When he had entered that portal and been given a choice of classes, he hadn't hesitated to pick the rogue class, the system granting him stealth and obfuscation abilities that let him become the assassin he had always dreamed of becoming. Growing up on games like Assassin's Creed, slipping into the shadows and discreetly eliminating targets was his ideal method of fighting, striking hard and fast before the enemy even knew what was happening. As such, he was thrilled to discover a skill called [Shadow cloak], an ability that lets him blend into the shadows, along with [Shadow stride], which made his movements smoother when moving through shadows, essentially giving him home-field advantage when lurking in the darkness.
With the help of his final skill, [Empowered Strike], it was clear that he would excel in assassination-style fights, something that was entirely impossible with those bumbling idiots giving away their position all the time. Which is why he eventually decided to go out on his own, where he would actually be able to use his skillset to its fullest; not to mention he wanted to become the strongest, and everyone knows you don't grind in a team if you want to get truly powerful. High risk equals higher rewards after all. Still, he was glad those other guys decided to split off and go chase down those goblins; he wouldn't be sad if they never returned. But one good thing about those speedy green creatures was the black daggers they used, the blades cutting almost effortlessly, a weapon worthy of an assassin like him.
Yet it wasn't until night started to arrive that he really felt alive. The forest offered a large variety of shadows for him to lurk within, going from shadow to shadow with a fluid grace he hadn't been capable of before, not even his steps sounding as he traversed the woods at top speed, his passage going unnoticed to various lesser creatures of the woods.
Loud howls echoed through the woods, kindly marking themselves as his next targets, but this time, he wouldn't let them jump him like before; instead, he would make them the hunted. Slipping through the pervasive shadows, he soon spotted one of the large gray beasts, its muzzle covered in blood from its last meal as its nose sniffed the ground, attempting to pick up on the trail of some creature or another. Jullian briefly wondered if the large wolf might be able to sniff him out, but it didn't seem to notice him crouched in the shadow of a nearby copse of trees. He grinned viciously, confirming that his shadow cloak skill must not only be suppressing the sounds of his footsteps but also the other, less obvious tells of his position.
Waiting for it to get closer, his black daggers held in each hand, he felt his body flood with adrenaline, the feeling unlike anything he had felt before as he finally struck, using his empowered strike to its fullest as he embedded both daggers into either side of the beast's neck, the attack taking it completely off guard as it had been sniffing around for something, never having noticed Jullian only meters away.
With a swift movement of his blades, he sliced around the wolf's neck and severed it cleanly, the notification of its death appearing in his mind, along with confirmation that fighting alone is indeed far more profitable than sharing the kill with others.
You have slain a gray wolf - level 7 (+10 TP)
Congratulations! You have reached level 6 (+3 free points available)
Skill: Empowered strike has reached level 5
Skill: Shadow cloak has reached level 9
With all the training he had gotten on being stealthy from his time in the military, he found that moving unseen in the dark was exceedingly easy, the system granting him more levels in the skill faster than he could even raise his own level. It made getting into positions for a single definitive strike easier than he would have expected, allowing him to slay beasts that are by all rights far stronger than himself simply by refusing to give them the chance to fighting back.
A jumpy energy suffused his body as he assigned his free points into speed and intelligence, both improving his movement within the shadows as he fled back into the night in search of more prey. The wolves were a treasure trove of points and experience, which he planned to monopolize all for himself, and with all the TP he was earning, he honestly didn't feel the need to return to the others. He planned on becoming the strongest person alive, and he had no reason to stick around with a bunch of strangers who would simply hold him back and steal his experience.
Unlike during the day, he felt like he truly owned the night, the sound of distant battles and primal roars of predators resounding through the woods as the true predators emerged, yet Julian didn't flee from these creatures, instead rushing towards them, discovering a large brown bear with stone shards sticking to its thick fur to create some sort of armor around its body, the creature fighting a large moose with glowing antlers.
He watched, unseen from the shadows, as the moose rammed the stone-armored bear, its horns pulsing with power as a shockwave blasted forward and flung the bulky bear backwards, the creature tumbling onto its back and slamming into a nearby tree, its growls growing louder from anger and frustration at its target. The crated stone on its back slowly reformed as the creature repaired its armor and got back to its feet. The moose was already charging in again with its large antlers down and glowing with that faint blue light.
He watched for a few minutes as they devastated the ground and smaller trees, the two creatures clashing time and again, the moose's shockwaves even managing to send the bear flying and breaking one of its legs from an awkward fall. Julian had expected the herbivore to leave now that the bear was incapacitated, but instead, it continued marching towards it, the light of its antlers gradually increasing as it charged up another directed shockwave attack, seeming intent on killing the bear. However, that would simply be a waste for Julian. He was fascinated by watching the fantastical battle, but he wasn't about to let a good experience go to waste, so he slipped closer to the moose, his daggers primed as he leaped out of hiding and slashed at the underside of the creature's neck, its body too tall for him to reach any higher, but his empowered strike, combined with the unbelievable sharpness of the goblin blades, was more than enough to sever its carotid artery and release a fountain of blood as the moose leaped in panic at the sudden and devastating attack, trying to rush away but only managing to run in a circle then collapse as a pool of its own blood covered the ground.
You have slain Moonlight Alce - level 10
Congratulations! You have reached level 7 (+3 free points available)
Skill: Shadow cloak has reached level 10
Within moments, the creature was dead, and Julian invested the points into speed and intelligence once again. He found that his shadow skills used a small amount of mana, but simply by increasing his intelligence, he could further improve his movement in the shadows as well as his shadow cloak. He felt far better hidden in the dark every time he added points to intelligence and even found that the small sounds of his breathing and heartbeat were nearly entirely muted while using the skills, allowing him to sneak up on creatures with sharp senses like the wolves.
It's also the reason why the bear looked so confused, his body frozen as he stared at the bleeding corpse of his enemy, the bear having had his back turned from being pushed back by the moose's attack when Julian had struck, and now that he had turned around, he found his prey dead with no attacker in sight. At least until it spotted movement from the shadow of the tree it had just been slammed into, a figure blurring towards it, the feeling of something cold piercing the underside of its neck while another struck the top, severing its spine and instantly paralyzing it for the next moment, before the cold objects sliced around his neck and met in the middle, half of its neck slicing open as blood gushed out in sprays, but the figure had already disappeared, fading back into the shadows and avoiding the sprays of blood and gore as the light faded from the shocked stone bear's eyes, its external stone armor having been cut through like it didn't even exist.
You have slain Earth Bear - level 11
Skill: Empowered strike has reached level 6
Damn, that was the toughest beast yet. I actually struggled to cut that thing. I guess it makes sense, though; even those goblins had issues with dealing severe damage simply by relying on speed. I've got [Empowered Strike] to help boost my strength by letting me strike a lot harder than I would otherwise be able to, but it looks like I'll have to start upping my strength, or I'll lose my advantage with the element of surprise. I don't really have any recourse other than fleeing if something actually survives my initial attack and retaliates.
Julian breathed hard from the momentary weakness that follows using the empower strike, a feeling like he had just exerted himself greatly, rather than simply slicing the throat of a single injured bear. It wasn't a big deal for now since he had mainly been picking off lone creatures, but it would have been a serious issue if he had tried to take on a pack of wolves head-on. Still, with these black blades, it was practically cheating; he definitely wouldn't be nearly as effective if he had stuck to the default steel daggers the system had given him when he had picked his class.
He stayed within the shadows, not using his shadow cloak skill since he didn't actively need to hide from any beasts, and the skill did use up mana even if it was only a minimal amount, but he knew that was only because it was now night and shadows were aplenty. When he had tried to use the skill during the day, it had taken a large amount of his new energy pool, and the results were uninspiring at best. He had feared that the skill was actually a complete dud, having seen the others use all sorts of magic and even Lue's own invisibility skill, but now he understood.
He was a creature of the night now, a terror to any he decides to make his enemy, lurking within the shadows, unknown, unseen, until he ends their life in the blink of an eye. His greatly increased speed not only allows him to move at speeds no normal human could hope to match, but also his eyes and reflexes had significantly increased, giving him a feeling of dexterity and agility he didn't know was possible. A newfound grace that was only amplified by his shadow stride skill.
He had never been one for acrobatics, but now he felt like he could do anything: backflips, handstands, parkour. It was like he had a level of control over his body that would let him do anything he wanted. Feeling the weakness recede, he started moving again, gliding through the shadows, his feet moving of their own accord in unusual patterns, making him perform a strange sort of half run he didn't think he would be able to do without all his recent increases to his speed and the instinctive knowledge [Shadow stride] provided, allowing him to move in the most optimum way, his mind working faster than before, allowing him to accurately anticipate his next steps instead of focusing solely on speed and hoping for the best like you would do when sprinting at full speed back on earth.
Listening out for more of the larger beasts that had come out to hunt at night, he moved towards the location of a commotion, wanting to find another higher-level creature to get him closer to the next level. With his shadow cloak now at level 10, he felt practically invisible within the shadows, so he hardly tried to stay a safe distance from what sounded like a fierce battle, instead traversing from the cover of shadows as he came upon a most unexpected scene.
He knew it involved a pack of wolves since the beasts grew more numerous the further from the goblin territory he travelled, along with the average levels of the beasts rising, so he expected to find them battling some other predator, perhaps another earth bear or even multiple based on the anguished cries he could hear, but what he found instead was a true bloodbath.
The scent of iron was thick in the air as crimson covered the clearing, dozens of corpses spread all about as three humanoid figures stood in the midst of it all, several more wolves howling and growling at them, but they clearly weren't getting any closer, as the three figures seemed to be eating the corpses of the beasts. One of them was even lifting the large head of an earth bear and burying its face into its neck, Julian belatedly realizing that not all of the corpses were those of wolves, four more being earth bears, a trail of carnage leading into the clearing where the three figures stood, their humanoid appearances only betrayed by the inhumanly pointing ears and the glowing red eyes that seemed to reflect the light in the same way as the wolves, but to a much more haunting effect.
One of them dropped the corpse of a gray wolf and waved his hand, dark crimson spikes appearing before him, before firing towards the gathered wolves, the spikes impaling a few and causing the others to scatter in the wind, their morale crushed and fellow kin obliterated, all hope of victory over their attacks gone as they fled deeper into the woods, the three humanoid figures returning to sucking the blood from their victims.
A chill ran down Julian's spine as he slowly backed up, finding his confidence in his ability to blend into the shadows suddenly shattered in the face of real-life vampires, the darkness he hid within no longer feeling like safety but like he had walked naked into the lion's enclosure. Sweat beaded his forehead as he backed up, making a deliberate attempt to avoid making any brisk moves or sounds, even with his shadow cloak skill working at full capacity.
Unfortunately, his instincts were right, as the tall, black-haired woman with two distinct fangs and deep red eyes dropped the large head of the earth bear and turned towards him directly, Julian freezing up as his eyes met the vampire's, a malicious grin spreading across her gore-coated face as she spoke in a deceptively smooth and elegant voice.
"I smell your blood, human."
Julian ran.