Chapter 80: Pack Hunter, Lone Reaper

[14th Everdusk 2103], Verdant Hollow Dungeon, CGA Branch

{You've killed 5~ Lv.6 Forest Wolves. You've gained 150 Exp points.} [220/250 EXP]

[You've gained 20 Evo-enchant points, being stored in talent.]

“Oh? Not bad at all,” I muttered, watching the Evo-enchant points tick upward. “Keep this pace up and I might just get another round of upgrades before the floor ends.” I glanced at my mana bar again.

[31/200 MP]

Still too low for comfort, but manageable—for now.

“If I don’t speed things up, I’ll be stuck clearing just the second stage while the rest of the students finish their entire test,” I mused. But while my intentions screamed ‘go faster,’ my

Stamina stat

told a different story—like a friendly-looking guy who turns out to be a backstabber.

Here’s the thing about stats: they’re misleading. Just because two people have the same number doesn’t mean they’re on equal footing.

Take Strength, for example. Let’s say two individuals each have 12 points in Strength. You’d think they’re evenly matched. But in reality? One’s 12 could function like 15, and the other’s might barely hit 10.

Stats scale differently for each person. It’s all about how your system converts them.

In my case, my

Stamina stat

might read higher on paper, maybe around 17, but its actual performance? Probably closer to 12 or 13 in comparison to someone else. It was frustrating.

Twice that of an unawakened person, yet still… pathetically low.

{A/N: Alright, theory time’s over. Let’s not turn this into a lecture series. I’ve got more system logic than most readers can stomach, but I promise not to drown you in it—for now.}

“<Plunder>,” I commanded, activating the ability as wisps of talent energy shimmered around me, swirling toward the wolf corpses on the ground.

[Talent has detected 2~ Lv.7, 3~Lv.6 Forest Wolf bodies. What do you wish to do: Plunder, Dismantle, Store.]

“Plunder, obviously. Can’t you just do that by default until I unlock the auto-execute skill?” I muttered. As expected, silence. No reply. Not even a beep.

[No talent, skills, or abilities, bloodline detected. Stats identified.]

[You've gained +3 Agility, +2 Intelligence, +1 Endurance, + 1 Stamina]

“Yo~~~! Now

that’s

what I call stat growth,” I grinned and immediately pulled up my updated stat screen to verify the change.

“If this keeps up, I might hit Tier 1 strength while still sitting at Peak Tier 0,” I mused aloud, feeling the familiar buzz of growing power ripple through me.

Curious, I checked my summoned skeleton’s stats next.

__

Status

Name

: Skeleton

Familiar Type

: Undead Creature

Grade

: Basic

Level

: 4

Stats

:

[Health

]: [85/85]

[Mana]

: [0/0]

[Strength]

: 8

[Agility]

: 11.5

[Intelligence]

: 0

[Vitality]

: 8.5

[Attack Power:

23

]

[Defense:

14

]

Skills

: None

Undead Constitution

: Passive

Increases resistance toward poison, curse, and status effects by a huge amount.

__

“Right. Their stats are about half of mine,” I muttered, nodding to myself. “If I hit 100, they’ll be 50. If I go 500, they hit 250. So this class might actually be cracked if I keep scaling.”

Images of a vast skeletal army crushing everything in its path flashed through my head.

But that fantasy was cut short when I noticed a notification: the timer on some of the corpses was about to expire.

Snapping back to reality, I resumed my hunt. The deeper I ventured into the forest, the thicker the tension grew.

Then I heard it.

A low growl… followed by a chilling chorus of howls. Footsteps. Many of them.

And soon after, they revealed themselves—

a pack of over a dozen wolves

, closing in like starving predators surrounding their prey.

“Uh oh…” I muttered, wide-eyed, but I couldn’t even finish the thought before several wolves lunged toward me.

But I wasn’t some rookie.

Reacting swiftly, I slashed a fiery arc through one of them and pivoted to dodge the others. I broke into a sprint, pushing in one direction to break their formation.

Standing still would’ve been a death sentence. I needed to break their circle.

I dashed through, cutting down any wolf in my way. Once the encirclement broke,

the slaughter began

.

Parry. Dodge. Block. Strike.

A simple pattern, repeated with growing confidence.

Then, I called in backup.

“<Undead Summon>”

←30 MP→

A familiar skeleton wielding a battered but deadly blade materialized beside me.

“Watch my back,” I ordered, and the summon obeyed without hesitation.

While I engaged the front, the skeleton handled the wolves trying to flank me—impressively, too. It clashed with three wolves and held its ground.

After a few minutes, I had taken out most of the pack. Two wolves broke off and fled when they realized they were losing.

Turning back, I saw my summon still battling one wolf. Another lay defeated beside it, and a third tried to sneak away.

I wouldn’t allow that.

“<Bone Fang Strike>”

←10 MP→

A jagged fang of bone erupted from the ground, impaling the fleeing wolf cleanly through its midsection.

“Bullseye!” I grinned as my summon finished the final wolf.

“I guess those few that ran earlier really did bring their buddies to finish me off,” I said, eyeing a few corpses with familiar wounds from our previous encounter.

“Well, nothing I can do about it now.” I turned to my summon. “Hey Skelly, collect all the bodies.”

Without a word, the skeleton sheathed its sword and began gathering the fallen.

I couldn’t help but chuckle. “How the hell is a skinny skeleton lifting those heavy wolves…?”

It didn’t make sense. But there it was—undeniably real.

“Okay, back on topic—where the hell are my notifications?” I grumbled, annoyed.

Right as I was about to yell at the system…

{You've killed ....}

—To be continued—