165-175

Chapter 165 Blazing Serpentine Blade

After Dilan brought back the first group of survivors, many things changed.

Six days had passed since then and Dilan's group had now increased to a total of 2800 survivors!

Dilan was unable to stop after he rescued the first group of survivors. He spent quite some time searching for more human shelters.

But before that, he took a good look at the other places, where Dilan had presumed human survivors to be located to be certain that he did not accidentally leave behind any survivors.

There had been signs of humans searching for a shelter but most of them had moved, or been killed.

In the end, Dilan could only find a few more groups, which he brought back to the hospital.

Other groups of survivors and Ascenders joined Dilan when they noticed what Dilan had been doing in the past few days.

It was nearly impossible not to hear and see the ruckus Dilan created by killing numerous monsters.

He moved like a cheetah among his opponents, ended their lives with a single strike, and kept advancing.

Even the most powerful Silver Tier-1 monsters were unable to face Dilan the moment he unleashed his entire strength.

There were certain scenarios in which Dilan was forced to use the combo of his [Thunder Step] ability with both [Bearer of Pain] and [Bracing Pain].

But the weakened state Dilan entered was not noteworthy because [Berserk Mana] was not activated.

With his power, it was not a problem to face all kinds of opponents, even something as dangerous as an unscathed Blue Tiger.

Unfortunately, Dilan didn't come across the Blue Tiger, let alone other monsters with a combat prowess comparable to Tier-2 existences.-.

Dilan believed that they had already moved to the Shikan plains because the city was void of noteworthy prey.

Only humans were worth hunting but that was probably something most powerful monsters from the mountain had yet to realize.

They were not around when most humans had still been alive. Now that the number of human survivors had dwindled to a ridiculous low number, learning about the value of a human's Essence crystal was not something the mountain's monsters had learned in recent days.

That was also why Rian looked more like an abandoned city than anything else.

Only a few powerful monsters were left behind with most of them living near the city's center.

Dilan avoided Rian's center simply because he didn't want to hunt Tier-2 monsters yet, and a monster at Tier-2 or a monster on par with such an existence was certainly lurking in the center of the city.

He had more than enough tasks to do, including looking after the survivors, who joined his group.

From a total of 2800 survivors, 1000 had been willing to join the combat forces. Given the huge number, it was impossible for Ailee to train them by herself.

She was the most proficient in archery but had no idea about proper spear-wielding, how to fight with longswords, let alone battle-axes.

That was why Oliver chose to help Ailee in teaching the Ascenders. Oliver alone was not enough but it was better than nothing.

After Dilan chose to help out as well, everything became much easier. Dilan could teach the Ascenders about every type of weapon owing to his versatile passive ability [True Weapon specialist].

But Dilan had only begun to help out because it was the most important to strengthen the Ascenders. They had to turn into merciless monster slayers, which was something Dilan achieved quite well thanks to his ruthless training method.

He faced the young Ascenders all by himself and restricted his strength before starting a merciless fight.

Dilan had learned a lot as well in the prior six days. He could finally control his strength in a seemingly perfect manner but that was only natural after fighting against thousands of monsters and participating in hundreds of spars.

Thanks to everyone's efforts, a total of 150 Ascenders advanced to Tier-1, with a total of 100 Ascenders having advanced by choosing a Rare occupation!

Dilan told his people to focus on advancing with stronger occupations.

At first, some Ascenders were skeptical about Dilan's decision but their worries disappeared quickly.

He, Williams, and Kathrine showed off their strength by revealing a few abilities which they had gained from their occupation. This was everything needed to convince his people to follow his instructions.

That was also why there were still over 800 Tierless Ascenders in his rows. All of them were giving their utmost to meet the requirements for Rare occupations to finally advance and become stronger.

Even if it looked like the situation in Rian went smoothly, the truth was that everyone felt restless.

It was quiet in the surrounding area…too quiet. Since the Primordial Ascension had begun, there was no day when the survivors had not felt death breathing down their necks.

That was also why the eerie silence was comparable to the foreboding of terrifying events.

Even Dilan couldn't help but feel extremely bothered. His stats didn't change in the slightest despite hunting numerous monsters.

However, that was not exactly weird as Dilan had saved up all the valuable Essence crystals he collected.

On the other hand, he exchanged the less valuable Tier-1 Essence crystals with infected Essence crystals. To train the Ascenders he, Oliver, and Ailee had picked, they had been sent to the other towers of the Rian mountainside hospitals.

By now, all towers had been cleared, with only a few zombies having been left behind. The remaining zombies had been isolated and locked in rooms to act as a training dummy for new survivors to procure their first ability crystal!

Dilan didn't help the others in hunting because he wanted the Ascenders, including Oliver and Ailee to act independently.

Thus, he merely provided some benefits by exchanging his Essence crystals with the 'useless' tierless Essence crystals of all kinds of zombies.

Dilan absorbed more than 3000 Tierless Essence crystals of zombies, including more than 200 Bronze Tierless Essence crystals.

This had been more than enough to upgrade his passive [Immunity] ability twice!

[Immunity] was now a Tier-0 ★★★ without the two-star bonus from Dilan's Divine occupation.

Coupled with the enhancement Kirak's Vassal provided, his Immunity ability was simply too powerful!

[[Immunity (Passive)] Tier-0★★★✭✭

Gains immunity against poisons and infections below Tier-1 Level 15! Immunity includes scratches of zombies, restricted to 100 scratches/bites a day (100/100)]

But his upgraded ability was not the most interesting thing that happened during the last six days.

Dilan possessed more than enough high-quality Essence crystals to do everything he wanted to. But this achievement was nothing in comparison to Old Jeff's creation of the modified Serpentine Blade, and Yvonne's advancement to Tier-1!

Old Jeff had been forging for the last six days. He had created several Tierless weapons for new Ascenders. Simultaneously, he had been trying to get back to his peak condition before he began to forge the Serpentine Blade.

The first few attempts were a failure and only after three days had passed was Old Jeff able to create the first Serpentine Blade.

However, he had not been satisfied with the result, which was why he continued to forge the ordinary Serpentine Blades.

Only on the 5th day did Old Jeff dare to start forging the Serpentine Blade with the Silver Tier-1 Essence crystals and the Orb of Pyromancy.

It took him lots of time and a mountain of materials, but the final product exceeded Old Jeff's expectations.

The Blazing Serpentine Blade, Old Jeff had created, was a masterpiece in his eyes. It was the best work Old Jeff had created in his entire career as a blacksmith.

However, instead of overflowing with confidence, Old Jeff had been contemplating something when handing over the Blazing Serpentine Blade to Dilan.

"Treasure the weapon as long as you can use it…I will become better and forge you a new weapon whenever you need one!"

Old Jeff understood that the Blazing Serpentine Blade was not a weapon he could use to kill powerful Tier-2 existences.

He was not even sure if the materials used were strong enough to pierce through the hide of the weakest Tier-2 monster.

That was why Old Jeff couldn't help but contemplate.

The weapon he deemed as his masterpiece and his best work was merely enough to allow Dilan to wield it until he would ascend to Tier-2!

It was only a matter of time before it would have to be replaced once again…

However, Dilan absolutely adored and treasured the Blazing Serpentine Blade. It's fierce appearance, the silverish-red coat of the longsword, and the ability to control the metal threads connecting the scale-like blades was simply overpowering.

Calling the Blazing Serpentine Blade OP would be an understatement for its capabilities.

Of course, one could only call it overpowered as long as one was able to wield the Blazing Serpentine Blade properly.

Controlling the serpent-like blade by releasing the blades that looked like he was wielding a blazing red snake was far from easy.

But as long as one's mana control was accurate it would be possible to achieve this.

Yet, adding the pressure of controlling the Blazing Serpentine Blade during a life-and-death fight, followed by the difficulty of maintaining the flames summoned by the Orb of Pyromancy made things even more difficult.

The flames manifested by the Orb of Pyromancy engulfed the entire Blazing Serpentine Blade, except the hilt.

The weapon Dilan would wield, was far from being a plaything everyone was capable of using.

Even Dilan knew that he would have to be careful, otherwise, he might accidentally cut himself in half, let alone the people around him.

Thus, he had been very serious when Old Jeff had given him the Blazing Serpentine Blade.

But even after he comprehended how terrifying the Blazing Serpentine Blade was as it could probably tear through the defenses of every single existence at Tier-1, the occupation Yvonne chose to advance was even more shocking!

Chapter 166 [Fallen Angel]

Even if Dilan had accepted the Blazing Serpentine Blade in an overjoyed manner, he was still somewhat concerned about Yvonne's advancement to Tier-1.

Old Jeff had told him to come to the workshop as early as possible. That was why Dilan had arrived in front of Old Jeff's smithy early in the morning on the 6th day since he rescued the survivors of the underground shelter.

After Dilan received his new weapons, he was told to test it out. Thus, both Dilan and Old Jeff were standing outside the workshop, looking at the Serpentine Blade that was engulfed in blazing flames.

It moved around like a viper that was ready to pounce at its opponents and slice them apart.

It was possible to wield the Serpentine Blade like an ordinary flame-engulfed longsword but also like a bladed whip.

This was quite interesting but Old Jeff quickly noticed that Dilan's mind was somewhere else.

'Just what is he thinking about?'

Old Jeff knew that Dilan had been the most excited to obtain the Blazing Serpentine Blade. It was only obvious that Old Jeff felt that something was off when he saw the young Leader.

What Old Jeff didn't know was that Dilan was still thinking about Yvonne's Tier-1 advancement.

She had merely advanced the day before, which was why Old Jeff didn't know anything about it. He had been toiling in the smithy the entire day after all!

Yvonne's advancement to Tier-1 took an entire day, clearly showing that many changes were occurring in her.-.

Initially, Yvonne wanted to choose the [Necromancer] occupation, which she could have chosen from the available occupations, just like Dilan.

However, before she reached the necessary Essence, the legendary occupation [Necromancer] disappeared from her ancient paths of advancement.

Someone else picked Necromancer as his occupation to advance to Tier-1, resulting in the limited choices available to her and others to choose from.

That was why Yvonne had to switch to a different legendary occupation which she unlocked not long ago.

After accumulating the Essence of numerous Tier-1 monsters, Yvonne was the second in their group to choose one of the strongest existing occupations.

Only Dilan's occupation was stronger if one were to look at it from the occupation's potential and extraordinary characteristics point of view.

Nonetheless, Yvonne's occupation was unique because it provided her with a unique special trait.

Her occupation was called [Fallen Angel] and the special trait she received was none other than [Wind of the Fallen Angel]!

Black feathered wings with a wingspan of more than six meters would grow out of her shoulder blades when she made use of it, allowing her to fly through the air.

This provided her with a huge advantage in the battlefield as she could start aerial fights while ordering undeads from the ground with her Origin ability [Angel of Death].

It was possible for Yvonne to retract her wings, which she chose to do to prevent attracting too much attention.

However, even then, Dilan was a little bit bothered.

'Fallen Angel and Angel of Death…is that just a weird coincidence, or something more?'

Yvonne had wanted to choose Necromancer as her occupation to advance to Tier-1 because she wanted to become a one-man-army who could control numerous undeads with both her occupational ability and her Origin ability.

But she was forced to change her choice, which left her with the Fallen Angel occupation.

Dilan was not sure why he was so bothered about this but something deep within him told Dilan that he had to be a little bit more careful.

After he made up his mind, Dilan was finally able to free his mind of all the worries.

He continued to test out the Blazing Serpentine Blade that soared through the air while he firmly gripped the hilt.

His mana control was precise and as long as he didn't move, he could pick up the slightest movement of the Blazing Serpentine Blade.

Dilan chose to train to fight with the Blazing Serpentine Blade. But before he would join life-and-death battles, Dilan's focus was on moving around and getting adjusted to wielding the Serpentine Blade.

The longer Dilan moved while swinging the Blazing Serpentine Blade around, the brighter his expression became.

He was exhilarated at every sequence he was able to unleash with the strongest weapon he had ever held in his hands.

Calling the Blazing Serpentine Blade a powerful weapon was an understatement because Dilan was pretty sure that he wouldn't find a better Tier-1 weapon in the near future.

His heart skipped a beat whenever he made a small mistake because he was not even sure whether his body was strong enough to survive injuries caused by the razor-sharp Serpentine Blade.

However, the challenge his new weapon posed was something Dilan gladly accepted!

Half an hour had passed since Dilan began to wield the Serpentine Blade at a faster pace. Thanks to the [True Weapon specialist] passive ability, Dilan had it much easier to learn wielding new weapons.

Not only was this passive ability great to have a basic mastery over most weapons but it was even able to increase one's comprehension while wielding a new type of weapon.

This was exactly what was currently happening, allowing Dilan to wield the Blazing Serpentine Blade around as if he had been training with it for several days straight.

The serpent-form, which was what Dilan chose to call the enlarged form of the Serpentine blade, lunged out, enveloping him in a huge radius, and creating a huge ball of fire and razor-sharp blades around him.

Moving while enveloped like this was extremely difficult because every action had to be perfect, otherwise, he would accidentally cut off his legs.

However, moving was not important in this state because Dilan didn't want to use this move to attack. Rather, it was an aggressive defensive tactic that prevented others from attacking him.

Dilan tested out a few more movements with the Blazing Serpentine blade, and only when his mana was completely drained did he stop moving.

The Serpentine Blade went limp, forcing Dilan to use a trace of mana the moment he recuperated some of it, to retract the serpent form.

Once he was done, Dilan lay down on the ground, ignoring the fact that he was in the middle of the street, that monsters might jump at him all of a sudden, or that Old Jeff looked at him like he was seeing a little monster.

"Is he really a human?" Old Jeff mumbled to himself.

'How the hell is it possible for a human to become so proficient in wielding such a complex type of weapon in a matter of hours?!'

From the outside, it might have looked like Dilan was struggling for quite a while. However, the difficult movements Dilan practiced, followed by the fact that he was completely unscathed and smiling while wielding the Blazing Serpentine Blade were more than enough for Old Jeff to feel like Dilan was merely playing around.

The other Serpentine Blades were far easier to control than the one Dilan wielded. That was not only owed to the Orb of Pyromancy that had to be controlled precisely to prevent an accident from happening, but it was also because of the weapon's material.

At the first glance, one might not notice it, however, it was a fact that the Molten Essence of Silver Tier-1 monsters was several times more potent than the Molten Essence of Bronze Tier-1 monsters.

Through this distinct difference, Dilan's Blazing Serpentine Blade was a true monster, whether it was its lethality, power, or difficulty to control properly.

Yet, Dilan made it seem as if it was easy to wield the Blazing Serpentine Blade. Thus, Old Jeff was quite intrigued when he saw a batch of three humongous boars appearing from an alley on the side!

"Dilan! Can you see the huge boars there? How about you use them to show me how great this masterpiece I crafted truly is?"

Dilan had closed his eyes to enjoy the snowflakes that were melting on his face.

But after hearing Old Jeff's comment, his body shot upward. He looked in the direction Old Jeff pointed at before a smile blossomed on his entire face.

"They're strong, maybe they are Silver Tier-1 monsters…perfect!!" Dilan exclaimed, getting up from the ground while activating [Bearer of Pain].

'3 Units of Mana should be more than enough for me to deal with them!'

Chapter 167 Powerful Weapon or Wielder?

"What the hell…"

Old Jeff couldn't believe his eyes. He looked at Dilan feeling utterly dumbfounded.

When Dilan said that the three boars were extremely powerful, Old Jeff had become a little bit worried.

However, seeing that Dilan didn't even bother to activate a single ability was even more baffling.

Everyone knew that their Leader was powerful. But even he usually used various abilities in order to overwhelm Silver Tier-1 monsters.

In a fight against a single Silver Tier-1 monster, he still activated [Thunder Step] or [Gale] to be certain of winning the battle.

After all, it was impossible for him to know the exact strength of his opponents.

One could only faintly perceive how strong someone else was. This was without a single ability activated and merely considering one's brute strength.

And from what Old Jeff perceived, he could tell that each of the three humongous boars was stronger than Dilan!

That made things even worse for Old Jeff as he saw that the three humongous boars noticed Dilan. They didn't hesitate for long before charging at him, their two-meter-long tusks pointing at him.

Dilan should have begun to run from that point onward, whether it was toward the boars or away from them. Yet, instead of dashing in either direction, he slowly made his way toward the three opponents, whose speed exceeded 150 kilometers per hour.-.

Old Jeff had wanted to warn Dilan but the bright smile on the young man's face prevented him from doing anything.

To him, it looked like Dilan went looking for fights like the one that was about to happen at any moment; dangerous fights, where life-and-death played hide and seek with each other.

The excitement that flashed through Dilan's eyes and the adrenaline that coursed through his body was more than enough for him to be overjoyed.

It had been a while since he had felt like that.

As such, Dilan enjoyed every single moment of it. With a total of three Units of Mana within him, Dilan could easily activate the Orb of Pyromancy, engulf the whole Blazing Serpentine Blade with it, and control the serpent-form for 10 minutes.

In Dilan's opinion, a single Mana unit would have been enough to defeat the opponents in front of him.

However, he wanted to make sure that nothing went wrong, which was why he used [Bearer of Pain] to recuperate three units of mana.

Tightly grasping the Blazing Serpentine Blade, Dilan held it in front of his chest.

A moment later he slashed out to his right, providing the Blazing Serpentine Blade with enough space to unleash its entire length of 20 meters.

While unleashing the serpent-form its blade was engulfed in blazing flames.

This attracted the humongous boars' attention as they could tell that the flames were quite lethal and would burn through their thick hide in an instant

Usually, that would be enough for the boars to change their means of attack.

However, after having been tossed around in Rian from one place to another for several days, they didn't want to back off anymore.

They had faced more than 20 groups of stronger opponents and lost many of their brethren in the last six days.

Thus, they were unwilling to back off at the moment, even less if their opponent didn't seem to pose any threat to them.

Despite being a rather intelligent species, the boars were unable to decipher that Dilan was not the one they should be scared of.

It was the weapon he wielded they should be focusing on. After all, it was something they should be terrified of.

But their ignorance about the lethality of external weapons was the cause of their misery. Dilan smiled brightly when all three humongous boars came within the range of his weapon.

His eyes gleamed in determination as he shook the Blazing Serpentine Blade before brandishing it in front of himself.

Dilan issued a seemingly ordinary slash, however, what only Old Jeff realized was that the height at which Dilan's blade lunged out was way above the humongous boars' upper body.

Dilan's attack focused on crippling the humongous boars, all at once at that.

However, what even Dilan didn't expect was that the Blazing Serpentine Blade was mighty enough to cut and burn through the first humongous boar's legs.

His attack cut off two of its legs at once without losing its momentum.

While a painful roar reverberated through the entire street, Dilan's eyes widened in excitement.

He felt exhilarated to see that the Blazing Serpentine Blade was fully under his control and working as he had hoped.

Not only did he cut off two limbs of the first humongous boar but he had also injured the other two boars.

Their legs had been burned and cut as well.

Yet, contrary to the first boar, their legs were still intact, just injured a bit.

But that was not something Dilan was concerned about.

He kept smiling like a madman as he used the momentum to pull back the serpent form.

Retracting the Blazing Serpentine Blade left a second impact on the humongous boars as Dilan didn't leave out a single chance to attack his opponents.

In a mere second, Dilan had already severely injured one humongous boar, while its other two brethren were inflicted with mild injuries.

To their misfortune, their injuries wouldn't stay mild for long.

The blade danced like a ferocious viper in his hands that shot straight toward one of the mildly injured boars.

Without any resistance, the blade pierced straight through the boar's neck before penetrating deeper into its huge body.

Retracting the weapon from this point was slightly more troublesome but by increasing the flame's heat with the use of more mana, the blades' resistance was barely noticeable.

Moving backward, Dilan retracted the Blazing Serpentine Blade, only to see that the second boar had collapsed on the ground.

One was dead, one was severely injured and one was mildly injured.

Dilan smiled faintly before he advanced to the humongous boars with rapid speed for the first time. With a simple move he emerged more than ten meters to the right side of the mildly injured boar.

It had noticed him but the rapid speed with which it was running and its large turning radius prevented it from evading the sudden attack of the Serpentine Blade that cut off its head at once.

The mildly injured boar was not even able to let out a whimper before its head rolled over the street.

The thumping noise of a heavy body collapsing on the ground followed suit.

But Dilan didn't pay any attention to this. He turned to the severely injured boar, who had already collapsed on the ground.

With only two legs left, it was impossible for it to move, forcing the mutated animal to helplessly watch its brethrens' death.

It could only scream in anger and fright as Dilan appeared in front of it, thrusting his longsword into the boar's heart, and ending its life for good.

The humongous body of the boar twitched for several seconds and only when it stopped moving was Dilan ready to pull the Blazing Serpentine Blade out of its body.

He looked at the weapon with gleaming eyes as if he was holding the nation's treasure. In fact, he truly felt as if he was holding an invaluable treasure in his hand and that he was lucky to be able to wield it.

"What a powerful weapon…!" Dilan was baffled as he smiled at the weapon that lay like a beast that was resting after having massacred a horde.

Meanwhile, Old Jeff could barely swallow his saliva.

'Powerful weapon…my ass…This is just a weapon wielded by a demon!!'

Chapter 168 Scam

Dilan collected the Essence crystals of the three humongous boars before absorbing them directly.

[3 <Silver > Essence of Tier-1 Level 11 Giganon Long-tusk Boars have been absorbed→ +0.7 Strength, +0.5 Health, +0.9 Agility]

Dilan didn't level up but that was to be expected. Thus, he returned his attention back to Old Jeff with a faint smile.

"You're not proficient at handling leather professionally, are you?"

Old Jeff didn't expect this question but he answered Dilan after a moment.

"Even though I'm a blacksmith and my expertise is in forging, I can still create leather armors, if that's what you want to know."

While looking at the boar corpses, it was not difficult to figure out what Dilan wanted from him. Thus after hearing Old Jeff's answer, Dilan smiled again and replied,

"That's great. I'll ask Kathrine to send over a butcher to dismantle the boars. Afterward, you can play around with its hide."

Dilan was in a good mood, which was why he played around a little bit.

Old Jeff could only roll his eyes, not believing that the bloodied person in front of him was capable of joking around at the moment.

He just waved his hand, feeling an impending headache while looking at Dilan, only to send him away.

"I have to forge hundreds of weapons, so please leave…Take good care of the Blazing Serpentine Blade!"-.

"Thanks for this great weapon, I'll treasure it!" Saying so, Dilan turned around to leave Old Jeff.

With his speed, it didn't take him long to reach the hospital, where he told Williams to send a few Elite Ascenders to the smithy to protect the old man and safeguard the boar corpses.

Meanwhile, he told Kathrine to send a few butchers along with the Elite Ascenders.

'Ordinary Tier-1 monsters and all kinds of Tierless monsters will not be able to penetrate the Giganon Long-tusk Boar's hide. Armors made out of their hide will be great for new Ascenders, and also Oliver, Ailee, and other Ascenders, who need to move smoothly without any disturbance.'

Body parts of monsters were currently much better suited to craft weapons and protective garments simply because the Jadetite and Silver Iron Ore mined from the Krendel's Underground Valley was of bad quality and grade.

The Serpentine Blade could be considered to be the best weapon one could create with the resources extracted from within the underground valley.

It was a great weapon but that could only be said for a few people and a short-term.

Not many Ascenders would be able to wield the Serpentine Blade properly without injuring anyone, and the ordinary Serpentine Blade was not powerful enough to kill Peak Tier-1 monsters either.

Thus, by connecting the dots one could tell that the Krendel's Underground Valley's value was slowly decreasing in the eyes of Dilan and his group.

But that was not the case for everything because Dilan still had to enter the permanent Gate.

This was not for the Stonemonkey Devial plant, which had been carefully removed by Mira or to search for other treasures.

Rather, it was the huge Gate, which he reached only a few minutes after he had emerged in the underground valley.

[Permanent Gate to (Blood Ratmen Kingdom, Kirak). Conditions to enter not met! -All stats <150+ >, Tier-2 Level [50]! Special permission granted to <Horned rats>, <Krendels >]

When Dilan reached the large permanent Gate its information popped up right in front of him.

"Reaching Tier-2 level 50 should be more difficult for me than all stats reaching 150…sigh…"

He could only smile, clearly remembering that his progress had been severely restricted. Even 3 Silver Tier-1 Essences of Level 11 monsters provided him with mere 2.1 status points, let alone a level up.

Kathrine and the others were not able to defeat such monsters, which was why he felt even more frustrated whenever he thought about the Blessed Curse he had received upon advancing to Tier-1.

But even then, Dilan could only shrug his shoulders because there was one particular secret his group had comprehended about Essence crystals.

-The stronger your opponent is, the more Essence and status points you will receive upon absorbing their Essence crystals!-

This was the sole reason for Dilan to receive 'so many' status points. They would be worth 21 units of status points without his Blessed Cure.

However, that was only in his case as he was the one to have defeated Silver Tier-1 monsters that were even 8 Levels above him!

Unfortunately, this did little to comfort Dilan. After allowing his mind to go astray for a few minutes, Dilan emptied the contents of his backpack in front of him.

A total of five Silver Tier-1 Essence crystals and 109 Bronze Tier-1 Essence crystals lay between him and the large Gate.

No monster was in his proximity as they immediately retreated upon sensing Dilan's power and terrifying presence.

They could instinctively tell that it would be suicidal to attack Dilan, which was why they hid as far as possible from him.

But that was not something Dilan noticed. He was focused on the azure screens that popped up in front of him.

[<Bronze > Tier-1 grade treasures can be exchanged with 50 <Bronze > Tier-1 Essence crystals of the same type!]

[<Silver > Tier-1 grade treasures can be exchanged with 25 <Silver > Tier-1 Essence crystals of the same type!]

"What a fucking scam…" Dilan nearly choked on his own saliva when he read through the information.

It was already hard enough for him to collect 5 Silver Tier-1 Essence crystals of the same type. Where the hell was he supposed to find 25 Silver Tier-1 monsters? It was not as if such existences were easily found near Rian, to begin with.

His mood plummeted the longer he thought about where he had seen a large group of powerful monsters. What he could recall was that the biggest hordes of monsters he had seen were Bronze Tier-1 monsters, which was actually where he got his hand on the 109 Bronze Tier-1 Essence crystals.

Other than that, the Silver Wolf pack could be considered to have been the biggest group of Silver Tier-1 monsters Dilan had encountered until now.

"So, that means I can give up on the Silver Tier-1 treasures…what a shame!"

The reality was frustrating but Dilan could only accept it with a deep sigh.

"So be it, 2 Bronze Tier-1 treasures are better than nothing, I guess…"

After he said this, Dilan threw most Bronze Tier-1 Essence crystals inside the large permanent Gate. He only left nine on the ground before he issued another sigh.

"Please throw something useful…"

Even if Dilan didn't need many things right now, it was a fact that he was not up to date with the happenings inside or around Rian.

The mountainside was a place nobody dared to go, and there was no new information about the Sun temple.

Dilan sent Xenia to keep a watch over the Sun temple whenever she had time. However, there was not much to see because the two intelligent races seemed to do nothing but expand their base.

They were building a city, slaughtering the beasts around and it even looked like they had begun to create farmland around the Sun temple.

Dilan was convinced that the races were truly intelligent and that they acted similar to the human race. They may even be more intelligent but that was not something he knew for sure.

However, what Dilan was sure about was that their strength was several times higher than the average strength of his people.

He was not even sure if he could defeat a single one of them…and that was a problem because it meant that a single one of them could annihilate his entire group if desired!

Even Dilan felt uneasy with the mysteries that revolved around the mountainside and the Sun temple. Thus, he desperately hoped that the two Bronze Tier-1 treasures would be helpful in any way!

It took several minutes until the large Gate finished the exchange of his Essence crystals with the treasures that ought to be helpful.

In the meantime, Dilan had absorbed the remaining five Silver Tier-1 Essence crystals and the nine Bronze Tier-1 Essence crystals.

And this…was still not enough for him to level up!

'So fucking annoying…'

Chapter 169 Valauble Treasures

'So fucking annoying…'

[5 <Silver > Tier-1 Essences, and 9 <Bronze > Tier-1 Essences have been absorbed → +0.9 Strength, +0.3 Health, +0.2 Stamina, +0.1 Agility, +1.9 Mana]

Dilan simply glossed over the additional status points he received by absorbing the 14 Essence crystals before averting his attention back to the large Gate.

'My Essence pool is filled by three quarters. That's fine then, I guess.'

It was not as if Dilan needed to level up right now. The only gain he made by leveling up were additional status points either way.

There were still 8.5 status points he had yet to allocate.

Not leveling up was thus not exactly a problem as he was already struggling with how to properly distribute the 8.5 status points.

Nonetheless, it was frustrating that so many high-quality Essence crystals had suddenly turned useless for him.

He could have nurtured new Survivors straight to level 10, with more than enough Essence to choose a Rare occupation with the Essence crystals he absorbed today, after all!

Smiling faintly to hide his pain, he issued a muffled sigh of relief when the two Bronze Tier-1 treasures dropped out of the Gate.

With a swift movement, Dilan picked them up. The items looked inconspicuous but a bright smile emerged on Dilan's face when he realized what types of items had dropped.

One was an ability crystal, and the other item was a pouch!

[Botanica Lexica Magica(Active)] Tier-0 ★★★★★-.

[[Penta Item Pouch] <Bronze Tier-1> treasure

Engraved with numerous ancient runes, the Penta Item Pouch can store an unlimited amount of five items!]

The description of the pouch was simple, but the meaning behind that one sentence was more than enough for Dilan's former frustration to be washed away.

He smiled foolishly as he kept looking at the pouch that appeared quite ordinary.

Not feeling like wasting any time, he used a trace of his mana to access the Penta Item Pouch before he attempted to store the Blazing Serpentine Blade inside it.

Under normal circumstances, it should be impossible to store the Serpentine Blade inside a pouch that had the length of an adult hand.

However, the moment the pouch opened, the inside of it looked like one would stare into the sky on a cloudless stary night.

Not even a second later the Blazing Serpentine Blade disappeared into the pouch.

But it was not hard to pull it out of the pouch as he could reach for it easily though that was not what Dilan planned to do.

He threw the ability crystal inside the pouch as well, before he started to collect some soil from the gorund.

After he stored it in the Penta Item pouch as well, Dilan's smile turned even brighter.

"So…'unlimited' was truly not a lie? That's fantastic! And the filter that differentiates items is not that strict either!"

The soil he stored in the pouch was coarse, and pebbles of various sizes had been mixed in it.

Yet, from the looks of it, the soil took up only a single spot in the five slots of the Penta item pouch!

"Storing hundreds of monster corpses of a single type should be possible now, right?"

Dilan's mind was rattling with the possibilities. He considered storing Essence crystals in his pouch, his weapon and other valuable things.

In fact, if it was possible to procure more Penta Item Pouches, there wouldn't be a problem with storing all kinds of things.

Just thinking about it was enough for a vibrant smile to emerge on Dilan's face.

Dilan took quite some time to come back to his senses. He recalled how difficult it was to find a large horde of Bronze Tier-1 monsters. As such, collecting a large number of Penta Item Pouches was not feasible.

Nonetheless, he was happy to have procured such a great item. Without hesitation, Dilan attached it to his clothes before expelling the soil he had stored within it.

Afterward, he recalled the ability crystal that had dropped from the Gate as well.

'To think that I can procure ability crystal in exchange for Essence crystals…interesting!'

It was not a reliable way to procure ability crystals but it was certainly an interesting way.

Dilan made a mental note about it while reading through the description of the ability crystal.

[[Botanica Lexica Magica(Active)] Tier-0 ★★★★★

[+5% Mana]

-Abilities related to the growth of plants, life and gardening are amplified by 10%!

Only the wisest of the wise know nature's value. Nature will always reign supreme until the end of time.

With the constant use of Mana, a tome consisting of the knowledge of a thousand gardening experts from all over the Universe can be acquired!]

Even if the ability was certainly not useful for him, Dilan couldn't help but feel that the ability crystal was perfect.

"As long as Mira learns this ability, and procured more information about the Stonemonkey Devial plant it might be possible to grow the plant again."

Dilan couldn't stop smiling. He even imagined that Mira might be able to go one step further and strengthen the Stonemonkey Devial plant with the knowledge she would get her hands on by using the Botanica Lexica Magica.

The gains he made from the exchange with the Gate were certainly satisfying.

They might not be useful in terms of revealing the secrets of the mountainside and the Sun temple but that was something Dilan could take care of in different ways as well.

Thus, he averted his gaze from the Gate and turned to a specific direction.

Several Krendels and horned rats, who had evolved several times, looked at him with uncertain expressions.

They were debating with themselves whether to attack him or not. Dilan had sensed their gazes and their killing intent a while ago.

He merely smiled in their direction, while the Blazing Serpentine Blade's hilt emerged from the Penta Item Pouch.

Grasping it tightly, Dilan pulled it out of the pouch, while starting to run to his prey.

[Thunder Step]!

From running calmly, Dilan turned into a purple flash. The ground gave in under his feet as he crossed several hundred meters in an instant.

He appeared in front of the closest five-meter-tall Warlock Krendel before slashing out with the flame-engulfed Serpentine Blade that expanded all of a sudden.

Not even a second later the Blazing Serpentine Blade had coiled around the huge Warlock Krendel like a living serpent.

The serpent's hissing was replaced by the flames that sizzled loudly.

A moment later, Dilan moved his hand back to pull back the Blazing Serpentine Blade, which resulted in the coiled serpent-form squeezing the Warlock Krendel.

Cutting through its hide and flesh hundreds of times in a second, the blade ate away at its flesh and it began to bleed severely at once.

The monster's arteries had been cut and so were its muscles, preventing it from towering above Dilan.

It slumped to the ground, bleeding out in the following seconds.

However, Dilan had already disappeared from his former location while reaping the lives of the other monsters that had been hiding in the darkness.

It was their misfortune to have revealed their intention to kill him, while simultaneously expecting him to be unable to spot them in the darkness.

Dilan had turned into the Grim Reaper, who decided over the life-and-death of the monsters he ended, only to disappear a moment later.

Several minutes passed, and every single best in his proximity succumbed to the fate they had chosen by not retreating and staying in his blade's radius.

His entire body was drenched in blood that trickled onto the ground, while the Blazing Serpentine Blade sizzled, evaporating the blood that touched its blade.

No excitement could be seen on Dilan's fully focused expression, but his heart was beating wildly.

'I almost killed myself!'

While fighting the last batch of monsters, he had overestimated his capabilities.

With a seemingly simple strike, Dilan had planned to kill a total of 30 monsters at once.

The 20-meter-long serpent form of the Blazing Serpentine Blade was more than capable of achieving this as long as it was controlled properly.

However, in his excitement to show off his control skills, Dilan had nearly cut off his left leg. It was a near brush and only a few millimeters would have made him go down in history as the one-legged idiot.

It was his fortune that nothing serious happened but even then Dilan reminded himself to act more carefully.

To calm his jittery nerves, he started methodically collecting the Essence crystals before storing them inside the Penta Item Pouch.

"So it's like that? What a shame…"

Chapter 170 Leaving Rian?

As long as he inserted a trace of mana inside the Penta Item Pouch, Dilan knew how many items were stored within the pouch and how high the quantity of the items stored within was.

"So it does differentiate between the quality and Tier of Essence crystals." He merely mumbled, while perceiving that there were dozens of Ordinary Tier-1 Essence crystals in his pouch, all of which were considered as one item.

On the other hand, another item was Bronze Tier-1 Essence crystals.

'Truly a shame…if 'Essence crystals' wouldn't be split up, it would be possible to store thousands of various types of Essence crystals, taking up merely one spot…'

Dilan sighed a few times, feeling that it was a shame because he could not find a loophole on how to exploit the Penta Item Pouch.

But he quickly realized that he was overthinking. The gains from a single Penta Item Pouch were already great, so there was no use complaining about it.

"Now that I think about it, it would have been even better if the Penta Item Pouch would split up the same Essence crystals according to the type of beast the crystals hail from."

Dilan didn't want to waste Essence crystals and absorb them if they didn't even provide him status points.

He had already received so little Essence from Essence crystals that only status points were somewhat valuable to him.

However, once again, Dilan had expected too much from a Bronze quality treasure, which was why he returned to the hospital.

There, he searched for Mira and handed the [Botanica Lexica Magica] ability crystal to her.-.

Mira, the youngest Nurse in their rows, had been talking with her friends before she jumped up the moment Dilan approached them.

He left after giving her the ability crystal, not saying anything about the fact that she was currently slacking off.

'What is wrong with him?'

Mira was not sure what was going on with Dilan but he was much more relaxed than the days before. This was truly odd because most survivors were worried about the Sun temple and the unknown dangers from the mountainside.

By now, everyone had heard about the Sun temple and the foreign races that had appeared out of nowhere and were currently residing in it.

Even Dilan didn't know that the survivors were aware of the foreign races because he had kept everything under wraps to prevent mass panic.

If he were to know that everyone had found out about the Sun temple, he would be quite confused about the rather calm behavior of all survivors.

He would have definitely expected some survivors to lose their sanity and to run for their life.

However, in the end, there was nowhere to run. It was quite obvious that being under Dilan's protection provided the highest chances of survival to them.

Thus, nobody considered running for their lives, simply because it would be a death sentence.

Seeing that Dilan was much calmer by now, not only Mira was baffled but also the other young Nurses, who had been rescued from the other towers.

They were Mira's friends, whom she had started her apprenticeship with.

A few days ago, when the hospital's towers had been fully cleared by the Ascenders, they had found nearly 100 Survivors spread through the hospital.

Nearly all of them were on the verge of death but they had survived with the use of several healing abilities and the surplus of Essence that had invigorated their body.

Afterward, they had been accepted in Dilan's community. All Survivors had been strengthened and given the chance to do whatever they wanted to.

Many survivors wanted to search for their families, including the old Survivors and Ascenders, who had been staying with Dilan for quite a while already.

When Dilan heard this for the first time, he was quite proud of his people because they still cared about their family, despite all the chaos, which had wreaked havoc on Milarn.

In his opinion, it had been quite late for them to start thinking about their family, simply because it had already been two weeks since the Primordial Ascension had occurred.

However, when he had considered that the last few days had been the first rather peaceful days, Dilan understood that nobody had time to think about others as their own life had been on the line.

To protect others one needed to be alive first. This logic was quite simple and Dilan could tell from the expressions of some of the Ascenders that they were simply too afraid to ask Dilan for his help.

Of course, Dilan wouldn't help them search for their family. He had to take care of a group with close to 3000 Survivors.

If he were to help everyone search for their family, it would take decades to find them, whether alive or dead.

He had allowed everyone to leave to search for their family and to return with them. But in all honesty, Dilan didn't have much hope for the Ascenders and the others to find their family alive.

Even finding their corpses should be quite difficult.

This realization was something that had hit the teenagers the most because they had been dragged out of their ordinary life, and separated from their loved ones, only to be struck with the reality that their family was most likely dead by now.

In the end, this was why Dilan didn't say anything to Mira and her friends, despite knowing that they slacked off a little bit.

He had sensed their tension, fright, and sadness, and knew that his complaints would only worsen their mental state.

'As long as they can console each other it will be fine..' He concluded before entering the cafeteria.

There, he filled his stomach with a few dishes, just to get up and leave the cafeteria once again.

"Tell the others that I will leave Rian until the evening. I might even take until tomorrow to return if I'm busy."

The moment he finished the line, Dilan had already reached the cafeteria's doors.

"Wait!! What do you mean 'leave Rian'?? Where are you going?"

Bianne had clearly heard Dilan and a shocked expression appeared on her face. She let go of all the pots and pans she had been holding as all of them clattered to the ground with a loud bang but that was not something Bianna could be bothered about.

In an instant, she rushed after Dilan, who had already stepped outside the kitchen.

"Don't worry, I'm just taking a stroll over the Shikan plains."

He sounded calm but when Bianne looked straight into Dilan's sky-blue eyes, she realized that she shouldn't ask more.

The seriousness in his eyes told her where he was headed to. Thus, she could only bite her lower lip in worry.

"Take care of yourself, alright? …We need you here…"

Bianne had almost said 'I need you' but it was only fortunate that she realized what her messed-up mind was doing. Her cheeks turned red in embarrassment and she sighed in relief because she had escaped a catastrophe just now.

"I know, I'll be back soon."

Saying so, Dilan disappeared from Bianne's sight. He left the hospital not long after and rushed out of Rian with a single target in his mind.

This target was none other than the Sun temple!

Chapter 171 Sun Temple

As long as he could gauge the threat posed by the Sun temple's dangers, a big burden would be lifted off his chest.

In fact, not only Dilan would be able to calm down the moment more information about the Sun temple was found out but everyone else would feel a bit relieved as well.

Dilan felt more comfortable when thinking about the Sun temple as well, which was why he chose it over the mountainside.

Running at a moderate speed without draining too much of his Stamina, Dilan arrived on the Shikan plains not long after he left the hospital.

Many hordes of mutated animals were calmly grazing without feeling bothered by the appearance of Dilan.

This astonished him a little bit as it had been quite a while since he had encountered peaceful animals.

"So not every existence strives to become stronger?"

Dilan only knew that it was necessary to kill other living beings to get his hands on their Essence crystals, which he would then have to absorb to become stronger.

There was no other way to increase one's raw combat prowess than by using Essence crystals.

That was the biggest reason for him to be astonished about the grazing mutated cows, Bisons, antelopes and so on.

None of them was eager to fight him and even they could sense that he was not out to fight them as well.-.

The moment they would sense killing intent or bloodlust the hordes of beasts would either flee or fight with their life on the line.

Dilan didn't plan on creating a commotion while researching the Sun temple.

He avoided the hordes of mutated animals, made a big detour around them and slowly made his way toward the Sun Temple.

It was much further away from Rian than he had assumed.

An entire hour passed before Dilan appeared in the proximity of the ginormous construction that was the Sun temple.

"It's much bigger than expected. 300 meters? Well, no idea, it might be more or less."

Dilan shrugged his shoulders while taking a last glance to his back.

There were quite a few predators in the Shikan plains and Dilan could tell that many of the said predators were quite strong.

Their predatory instincts had been strengthened after the Primordial Ascension and they had hunted many other mutated animals and monsters to become stronger.

Dilan had to be the most careful while facing the mutated animals as even monsters were less dangerous.

He was not sure why but most monsters he encountered on the Shikan plains seemed less dangerous than the Blue Tiger and other mutated animals he was forced to have a stand-off on the Shikan plains.

Nonetheless, they only glared at him, at most, and Dilan didn't have to fight anyone since he entered the Shikan plains, which was quite advantageous.

His combat prowess was still at its peak and he was ready to go all out if necessary.

Dilan was able to keep his cool in front of the ginormous Sun temple. The brightly glowing ball of fire that hovered above the temple attracted some of his attention but Dilan was more focused on the things that occurred on the ground.

He spent several hours walking around the Sun temple and the small town that had been built around the temple to have a first-hand impression of everything.

"Only the temple is impressive and looks a bit modern, other than that, it feels like we returned to the middle ages. Maybe even that is too much…"

If he were to say that he was fully satisfied with what he saw, Dilan would be lying.

In fact, he was quite disappointed by the state of the town. The entire town was crudely built out of wood, making it seem as if some wooden trunks had been thrown on top of each other.

This was already a culture shock for Dilan, but even more so was the fact that the two foreign races were actually trying to plant some seeds in the farmland they had cultivated within the last few days.

'If you guys want your seeds to germinate…how about you wait until winter is over?? The ground is literally frozen…'

Dilan was wondering if the human-like Lions and the human-like Hawks were stupid but he quickly realized something different.

'They're also shivering while seeking the warmth of the Sun temple…have they never faced cold, snow, or winter?'

On Milarn, some countries never had winter or snow. As such, it was not unlikely for the two foreign races to have never experienced cold as well.

It was not that unlikely, considering how weirdly they acted while walking through the faint layer of snow that had accumulated on the ground.

Only a few brave and resilient individuals of the foreign races dared to leave the enclosure of the town that had been warmed up due to the Sun temple's miniature Sun!

Dilan paid most attention to these brave and resilient individuals because they went out wielding weapons. Their expressions were fierce as well, and Dilan could clearly sense that they were powerful.

'On par with the Blue Tiger?'

If his perception was not wrong, each of the half-human half-lion and Hawk-headed beings was strong enough to fight Dilan head-on.

But that was actually what interested him a lot, simply because he had expected the two foreign races to be stronger.

'Those are not their strongest forces, right?' Dilan kept squinting his eyes as he followed the group of six individuals slowly.

As long as he figured out how fast they were, Dilan would be able to tell whether he could run away from them or not.

It was not as if he planned to run away but the idea that formed in his mind was too reckless. Thus, he needed to be able to run for his life if everything failed.

He kept watch over the six foreign existences and followed them while maintaining sufficient distance from them.

They didn't seem to notice him, or they simply didn't care about him but that was not something he was concerned about right now.

Dilan saw that they approached a batch of Bisons that had moved a bit farther while grazing the pastures from the rest of their horde.

There were a total of 10 mutated Bisons and their size was similar to that of the Giganon Long-tusk Boars he had hunted recently.

But contrary to the Giganon Long-tusk Boars, it looked like the Bisons were stronger and had attained a higher level of intelligence.

If Dilan perceived this from a distance of more than 300 meters, while pressing his body to the ground to hide behind the cover of the long grass blades, the foreign beings could tell this as well.

However, they were not even trying to hide their intentions as they kept approaching the Bisons. Not long after, the mutated Bisons noticed the approach of the six individuals followed by their intentions to kill them.

This enraged the Bisons but they didn't attack recklessly. At first, they retreated a few steps as they didn't know whether their opponents were stronger or not.

Yet, just when the mutated Bisons began to retreat they halted in their tracks as they saw that two of the approaching individuals slipped on the ground.

They struggled to remain on their feet but ended up falling even after the effort they put in to remain standing.

The Bisons took this as their opportunity when they saw what happened. After they issued a thunderous roar, they charged forward, reaching a breathtaking speed in an instant.

However, instead of panicking, the four Lion-headed beings changed their stance as if nothing was wrong.

At that moment, a glint of slyness emerged in the eyes of the two Hawk-headed beings, who had 'fallen' to the ground.

'What an act!!' Dilan could only think before his focus returned to watch the fight of the six existences of the foreign races against the 10 powerful mutated Bison!

Chapter 172 Destructive force

When the mutated Bisons were less than 50 meters away from the four Lion-headed beings, their mane suddenly ignited.

The blazing flames that emerged seemingly out of nowhere burned brightly, extending over their entire body, shrouding the Lion-men which was the name Dilan gave them, completely.

Meanwhile, the two Hawk-headed beings, who received the name Hawk-men from Dilan, were shrouded in a gust of wind.

The snow around them was stirred up as they flapped their wings once. In an instant, they soared three meters in the air before softly landing on the ground.

A moment later, the grayish feathered wings caught fire that was churned up by the gust of wind released by the Hawk-men.

All of this was intentional as brightly burning flames emerged around the Hawk-men. On the other hand, the spears held by the Lion-men turned a fierce shade of red as if they were about to melt.

'So the Hawk-men have a Wind and Fire affinity, while the Lion-men have only a fire affinity? Though the Lion-men's fire affinity seems several times stronger than their Hawk-men's fire affinity.'

Dilan didn't take long to comprehend several clues that he could pick up while watching the fight.

Using all their might, the Lion-men charged forward with the spears they wielded as the 10 mutated Bison were still 20 meters away.-.

The moment the spears were thrust forward out, the blazing flames, which shrouded the spear tips, were shot out. The burning spears flew through the air as they soared toward the mutated Bisons.

At the first glance, the blazing spears that had been shot out seemed slow. This was only obvious because they had been created without the use of much mana.

But when Dilan felt a strong gust of wind brushing on his face he realized what was going on.

'They used minimal mana to create the blazing spear before shooting it out. This drastically reduces the time required to manifest the attack as well.

Meanwhile, the Hawk-men use their wind affinity to accelerate the blazing spear's speed, which in turn, drastically increases the attack's lethality…'

If a single individual were to do everything by himself, it would drain lots of mana. But it was thanks to the six beings' teamwork that they didn't even use two units on average to create a total of 4 lethal attacks.

Even if the mutated Bisons' hide was extremely tough, the Bisons were not strong enough to block the advance of the four accelerated blazing spears.

They pierced through four mutated Bison, damaging them severely in an instant.

Dilan felt like clasping his hands together at this sight because even he was not able to eliminate his opponent so fast without using a high amount of mana!

Fortunately, he quickly regained his senses and kept watching the battle that turned even worse for the mutated Bisons' as the blazing spears were fired in quick succession one batch after another.

Dilan didn't feel any pity for the mutated animals that succumbed to the terrifying destructive force of the two Hawk-men and four Lion-men.

He was simply observing their battle waging in front of him and not giving in to the urge to fight against the foreign races rising from the depths of his consciousness.

'Get your act together, Dilan!! You're not here to fight… You need information…INFORMATION!!'

Dilan had to start shouting at himself inwardly to get back to his senses. His body was itching for a fight and so was his mind.

However, there were other things he had to do than launch a massacre.

He was barely able to calm down enough to see that the Lion-men pierced their spears in the head of the defeated Bison before pulling the mutated animals' Essence crystals out of their brains.

They absorbed it immediately after giving the Hawk-men their share.

Afterward, the Lion-men moved their hand around in a unique way before the spear they had been holding shrunk in size.

Their spear morphed and reduced to the size of a pen, which gave them the necessary space in their hands to start carrying the heavy mutated Bison corpses back to the Sun temple.

When Dilan saw how their spear had shrunk, he was astonished.

If it had been before his encounter with the Penta Item Pouch, Dilan would have been utterly flabbergasted.

But fortunately, he already had the Penta Item Pouch hanging around his belt, which he subconsciously patted to reassure himself.

He smiled while looking at the six foreign beings before he got up from the ground.

'Is it my time to shine now?'

His moves were slow and deliberate, which was why nobody noticed when Dilan was exposed.

However, the moment he took the first few steps toward the six beings, who were dragging the mutated Bison corpses through the snow, he was noticed by them.

Dilan didn't mind exposing himself. In fact, that had been his plan after gauging his opponents' strength.

Regarding power and brute strength, Dilan was confident of being stronger than the four Lion-men and the two Hawk-men.

There were three main factors to determine one's strength after the Primordial Ascension had occurred.

Stats, abilities, and items.

Stats could be labeled as the most basic and fundamental factor for strength. One could attain superhuman strength and speed from stats alone.

On the other hand, abilities were a factor that relied on certain stats to be unleashed. This didn't include all abilities but most active abilities were utilized through mana.

That means to attain superhuman powers one requires both stats and abilities.

Last but not least were items. They increased one's stats just by wearing them. Certain items even provided skills or other unique functions that even allowed low-leveled ascenders or unleveled ascenders to become superhuman existences with a single item!

While taking note of his opponents' strength, Dilan continued to advance toward the foreign beings, who had stiffened upon sensing him.

They were carrying heavy corpses as well, preventing them from moving rapidly all of a sudden. Thus, he didn't have to fear not being able to run away if something were to go wrong.

Nonetheless, Dilan lifted his arms as he approached the foreign beings to show that he was not hiding any weapons.

"Hello, my name is Dilan Cier. Who do I have the pleasure of meeting with?"

He was trying his best to sound calm but his first encounter with foreign intelligent races was something that excited him.

However, the Lion-men and Hawk-men were far from being as excited as Dilan.

They looked at him with squinted eyes before growling out something in an incomprehensible language.

"Shakrian vulnasmif oriagha snautraf!!"

When Dilan heard this, he halted in his tracks before knitting his brows.

'Was it smart of me to approach them if they cannot even understand me…?'

Chapter 173 Attack & Protect

All the eyes were glued on Dilan that stared at him with various emotions.

At first, they froze in place because they didn't notice him. But because they didn't see any weapons in his hands, they relaxed visibly.

It was possible for Dilan to hide his weapons elsewhere but he would have to move his hands rapidly that were held in the air.

The six foreign beings understood that Dilan showed them his empty hands as a sign to tell them that he didn't want to attack them.

However, this didn't mean the other side wouldn't think of attacking him.

This was something Dilan knew which was why he could tell that he was putting himself at great risk.

If they attacked and pursued him, it would become quite problematic.

But rather than being too worried about that, it was more important to find out where the Sun temple came from, what the two foreign races' mission was, and if they looked at the human race with hostility.

Dilan was ready to enter the pits of hell to figure this out.

'The worst that can happen is that I'll feel some pain…and pain is something I lived with my entire life!'

He didn't fear pain and embraced it if that was necessary to ensure his survival.

Thus, he kept smiling gently as he looked at the six beings, who were speaking with each other in an incomprehensible language.

"Dangarsa kinars limansit!"-.

"Osranto Iuroasd bsadirn?"

"Lasir seirn minasdh!!"

The tension in their group seemed to rise over time and though he did not understand a word, he could notice their body language and their tone which seemed agitated. This attracted Dilan's attention because he had not expected them to start a discussion due to his arrival.

'They won't attack me? Weird… Not even their weapons are pointed at me…Do they think of me as a weakling? Just what is going on?'

Dilan was a little bit confused. He thought that they would either be overly vigilant against him, and point their weapons at him, capture him to interrogate him because he was a human, probably the first one they encountered, or they would kill him at once.

However, at the end, the situation unfolded in the exact opposite way because the foreign beings didn't drop the Bison corpses to get into a combat stance. In fact, they didn't bother about him and continued to discuss something.

It was as if Dilan didn't even exist. This was more than enough for Dilan to be baffled.

Ever since the Primordial Ascension occurred, nobody had been foolish enough to knowingly ignore his existence, and if somebody would have dared so, they would have either died or faced some unfortunate situation.

That was, at least, what monsters and hostile human Survivors would have faced.

Dilan was not sure how much time passed but he didn't feel like lifting his hands anymore because the human-like beings opposite him didn't seem to care about that either way.

Yet, the moment Dilan lowered his arms and took a deep breath, six pairs of eyes immediately turned toward him.

"Now you guys finally pay attention to me, really?"

He knew that they couldn't understand him, which was why Dilan was quite relaxed while speaking his mind. They could only perceive his emotions, facial expressions, and every movement made by him to determine whether he was hostile or not.

The same was the case for Dilan but he was not exactly proficient in determining whether a hawk or lion was friendly or hostile.

At least, he couldn't tell that solely based on their facial expressions. That was why he sighed once again and felt that it might have been a mistake to approach the six hunters without any prior planning.

In the end, the Lion-men and Hawk-men were simply not sure what to do with Dilan. They had never seen a human after all.

But they knew that there would be other races on the planet. So they were wary of him as they were not sure if Dilan was strong, weak, if he was a spy, worked alone, or in a group.

They had zero information about Dilan, the surrounding area, let alone the planet, and the current survivability of the races living on the large and beautiful planet called Milarn.

Thus, they had been discussing what to do with Dilan; the first human they encountered.

At that moment, Dilan flinched. His ears pricked up and he looked at a location that was less than ten meters away from the six hunters.

His eyes didn't detect that anything was off at first. However, he felt bloodlust radiating from the location he was staring at. It was then that he spotted some footprints in the snow.

This attracted his attention. Subconsciously he took a step forward and his hand moved to the Penta Item Pouch.

The hilt of the Blazing Serpentine Blade emerged out of the pouch. Dilan grasped it tightly as he was completely oblivious to the reactions of the six hunters, who had their eyes trained on him.

They had noticed that Dilan's expression had changed, that his body was overflowing with the intent to kill, and that everything else but his designated target had become negligible.

However, what they misunderstood was that they weren't his designated target. Rather, it was something entirely different, which they hadn't even noticed until now.

Their eyes were fixated on Dilan's hand that was tightly grasping the hilt of a weapon, which had emerged from the pouch he was wearing.

Because their entire focus was on Dilan, the six hunters from two foreign races noticed too late that a huge cheetah had suddenly emerged out of nowhere.

From the hunters' point of view, there was no clue indicating a surprise attack.

However, the moment the one-meter-tall cheetah emerged out of nowhere, and pounced at the closest Lion-men, they felt as if they had frozen on the spot before the cheetah slashed at them.

One of the Lion-men, who was targeted by the cheetah saw his life flashing past his eyes, and could merely think about moving backward as blood spurted through the air.

A moment later, a body fell to the ground with a resounding thud. Yet, contrary to everyone's belief it was not their comrade, who died, but the cheetah, whose blood painted the snow red.

Instead of attacking the foreign races, Dilan activated [Gale] twice to emerge next to the cheetah.

He had also activated [Thunder Step] to accelerate his movement speed, allowing him to brandish the Blazing Serpentine Blade in a rapid motion.

The Blazing Serpentine Blade was engulfed in blazing flames when it cut through the air and the cheetah's body, killing it in an instant.

If one didn't pay close attention to their surroundings, it was impossible to perceive the cheetah that had some sort of [Stealth] ability which was enough to hide its appearance and presence.

Dilan merely noticed the cheetah because its killing intent leaked from its body.

'Stealth? If it would have been a stronger and more intelligent opponent, who is also capable of hiding its killing intent, I wouldn't have noticed it at all!'

He was quite surprised about the Stealthy cheetah's existence. It could be considered one of the apex perpetrators solely from the Stealth ability it seemed to have.

Unfortunately, the cheetah hadn't been adept at using its stealth, which was why it had been possible for Dilan to kill it.

The six hunters from the foreign races could only look at Dilan with conflicted expressions.

They couldn't fathom how Dilan had crossed the distance of 20 meters between them, let alone how he brandished the Blazing Serpentine Blade, which had suddenly enlarged to a 20-meter-long replica of a serpent lunging at its opponents.

Only when the stealthy cheetah had been killed did they notice that Dilan was the one, who had rescued them and that he had disappeared from his prior location.

This was when realization dawned upon them and they noticed that Dilan was powerful enough to kill the six of them if he wanted to!

Yet, even before they could attempt to say something, Dilan's ears pricked up once again. His head turned toward his right and he saw a blue shield emerge in front of his eyes.

Dilan had instinctively activated [Aegis' shield] because he had sensed danger from his right.

And the moment the glorious-looking blueish shield had emerged on his right, an even larger cheetah pounced at him.

It was the other stealthy cheetah's partner who had witnessed the death of its partner, enraging the cold-hearted predator.

Thus, instead of attacking the hunters of the foreign races, it had targeted the one and only human around.

But Dilan merely smiled as he noticed the cheetah's sudden emergence.

"Even if your Stealth is much more proficient than your friend's, if you cannot suppress your desires, you should definitely not try ambushing someone, whose Agility is much higher than yours!"

Dilan's eyes gleamed brightly, excited about the fact that he was now facing a new type of opponent, a seemingly perfect assassin.

Unfortunately, slashing the serpent-form of the Blazing Serpentine Blade through the air was more than enough to pierce through the neck of the stealthy cheetah, who had been struggling to break through the Aegis' shield's defense!

'What a waste of a great ability…and it didn't even drop the ability crystal. What a shame…'

Chapter 174 Entering the Lair

The fight against the stronger stealthy cheetah had been an extremely close one and he had won just by a hair's breadth. If it had not made too many sounds while switching its target from the foreign races to him, Dilan wouldn't have heard it.

At the same time, it would have been near impossible for him to protect them to label himself as their savior, their knight in the white shining armor!

But the final result was still quite satisfying. The six hunters from the foreign races might be holding their weapons tightly for now but they didn't dare to attack him.

In a short instant, Dilan had used up 20 Units of Mana. As such, he activated [Bearer of Pain] to instantly regain the entire mana he had used up.

Following that, Dilan grit his teeth before he activated [Regeneration] making use of five units of mana.

He quickly regained his composure and felt the soothing sensation of his body regenerating at a fast pace.

Dilan threw a short glance at the vigilant Lion-men and Hawk-men before turning to the stealthy cheetah's corpses.

With swift movements, their Essence crystals landed in his hand. They crumbled a moment later as Dilan absorbed the Essence within.

[Two <Bronze > Essences of Tier-1 Level 9/13 Snowwhite Isolation Cheetahs have been absorbed→ +0.4 Agility, +0.6 Mana]

Dilan was not surprised that he still didn't level up so he turned back to the hunters of the two foreign races. The Blazing Serpentine Blade was tightly packed and stored in the Penta Item Pouch in the meantime.-.

Once again, his bloody and blood-thirsty presence had been replaced with a calm and gentle aura.

This sudden change was somewhat frightening to the six hunters of the foreign races as every single strand of their fur stood up on its end.

They looked at each other in uncertainty, only for one of the Hawk-men to lower their guard.

It approached Dilan, who was still smiling faintly.

'In the worst case, I will activate the last use of [Gale] and run away!'

Even if he was stronger than the six hunters of the foreign races, Dilan didn't want to aggravate the first foreign race he encountered and leave a bad impression of himself before getting to know more about them.

That was why he could remain calm as the Hawk-men approached him. In the end, the Hawk-men stood less than two meters in front of him before they began to make several weird gestures.

Dilan didn't understand them at all, but he could sense the Hawk-men's gratitude.

The tension in the surrounding eased a little and the other hunters made similar gestures after they thought about it for a while.

'Looks like they know how to repay kindness with kindness. I guess this hand gesture is their way of saying <Thank you for saving us>?'

Dilan was not sure what to do so he instinctively bowed lightly, thinking that this was easier to understand than anything else.

Seeing Dilan bowing faintly, the other hunters stored their weapons once again. Almost in unison, they pointed at the corpses of the Snowwhite Isolation cheetahs before pointing towards the Sun temple.

"You guys want me to follow you to the Sun temple?" Dilan asked before realizing that they couldn't understand him.

Thus, Dilan pointed at the corpses and replicated a walking motion with his fingers before also pointing at the Sun temple.

The hunters nodded their heads vigorously, which Dilan took as a sign to pick up the corpses.

Afterward, he made his way toward the Sun temple while trying to ignore his wildly beating heart.

'Am I really entering the town of foreign races right now…maybe even their temple?'

Dilan was excited but that was not something he should openly let others notice.

He wanted to act as if he was used to dealing with foreign races so that they would show him more respect.

Unfortunately, it was difficult to keep his senses in an orderly manner as he entered the town.

Numerous, small, tall, skinny, bulky, old, and young members of the two foreign races entered his sight.

They looked at him in vigilance and kept looking at him intently until he left their sight.

Even the six hunters next to him were still not fully unguarded while walking next to Dilan.

But that was perfectly normal because Dilan was not able to keep his calm either.

He expected a surprise attack to happen at any moment because Dilan was unable to trust the foreign races completely.

In the end, Dilan made a big gamble by entering the Sun temple's proximity where he saw numerous Lion-men and Hawk-men that were as strong as the hunters.

His interest in the small town and the Sun temple was quite high. That was why he could quickly tell that there were only around 1000 Lion-men in addition to fewer than 500 Hawk-men.

That was a lot less than Dilan had expected but more than he had seen from far away.

Walking along with the six hunters he heard the incomprehensible and ancient-sounding language both foreign races spoke.

He tried to understand something but it was way too difficult. But even if it was impossible for him to understand them, Dilan's gut feeling told him that the Lion-men and Hawk-men around were speaking about him.

This was only obvious, and it hinted to Dilan that it was rare to see a human in their town, or that they might have never seen a human, to begin with!

The language barrier between them made things quite difficult, even more so when he noticed that hostile stares were directed at him.

Dilan was currently making his way toward the top of the Sun temple. It looked like he was approaching the cone-shaped structure on top of the temple.

It was uncertain what he was supposed to do up there but Dilan could tell that it was something great for the foreign races.

'They're probably jealous of me because it is a great honor to go up there?'

Of course, this was only Dilan's assumption and didn't necessarily mean that it was the truth.

Thus, he kept his guard up until he entered the cone-shaped building.

As he neared the miniature sun he found the temperature to become unbearable and it was only thanks to his high Health stat, his great physical condition, and the Stone Skin special trait that he was still able to stay on his feet.

He was sweating profusely, and could barely take note of what the hunters were doing.

There was a huge sacrificial podium in the center of the cone-shaped building on which the huntress placed their prey one after another.

Yet, what Dilan noticed only later was that the huge mutated Bison corpses disappeared not long after they had been put on the sacrificial podium.

They turned into countless sparks, which were then pulled toward the faint, almost inconspicuous suctioning force that emerged from the top of the cone-shaped-building.

Dilan looked up, and could instantly see numerous dozens of ancient-looking inscriptions on the ceiling.

The inscriptions spiraled around the tiny opening one could barely perceive in the center of the ceiling.

The sparks that were once the monster corpses were pulled through the small opening and were nourishing the miniature sun.

'Amazing!'

Dilan had almost shouted out in his excitement before putting down the corpses of the two cheetahs on the sacrificial podium.

[Corpses of two Snowwhite Isolation Cheetahs(No Essence Crystal) will be sacrificed to the Fragment of Sun God Valgard's Divinity, execute the task?]

Chapter 175 Sun God Valgard

[Corpses of two Snowwhite Isolation Cheetahs(No Essence Crystal) will be sacrificed to the Fragment of Sun God Valgard's Divinity, execute the task?]

When he received this notification, Dilan's mind blanked out for a moment.

He subconsciously agreed to it but didn't feel like watching the process of the sacrifice itself.

'Sun God…Fragment of a Divinity…what the hell?!?'

Dilan felt that his sight blurred for a moment but he regained his senses quickly.

Even if he had expected the Sun temple to be something special, especially the miniature Sun, he would have never expected to encounter something related to real Gods, let alone so early.

Not even a month had passed since the Primordial Ascension but he was already encountering the Divinity of the Sun God.

'So the miniature Sun is the Fragment of the Sun God Valgard's Divinity? That…is crazy….'

Dilan tried to get more information from the system but it didn't provide him with anything.

This was quite sad as he wanted to figure out if his Divine occupation was something similar to a Divinity.

'What does a Divinity of a God even mean? Does it have to be an object like the Miniature Sun, can it be living beings, weapons, all kinds of inanimate objects, abilities, or something else?'

It was only obvious for Dilan to be confused.

That was why he frowned deeply, feeling that he knew way too little about the world Milarn had turned into.

'I don't even know how the Sun temple had appeared out of nowhere, so how should I know something about divinities?!'-.

Dilan suppressed a sigh of frustration before he turned back to the hunters.

When he turned around, Dilan noticed that another group of Lion-men and Hawk-men had arrived next to the hunters.

They were clothed in beautiful garments, and expensive accessories, which made it seem as if they belonged to a royal household. Following the first batch of noble-clothed Lion-men and Hawk-men, Dilan felt distinct pressure of powerful existences.

Instinctively he knew that the four Hawk-men in the back were much stronger than he was.

Their equipment radiated a distinct sensation of danger as well. Thus, Dilan felt like stepping back. Yet, instead of allowing his mentality to be affected by the guards, he overcame it and began to smile gently.

Bowing faintly, he wanted to step aside to allow the noble-clothed female Lions to step toward the sacrificial podium.

However, instead of moving, they glanced at him and didn't do anything.

This felt odd to him and he was unsure of what to do next when a noble-clothed child stepped forward.

With both of its hands, it was carefully carrying a cushion while approaching Dilan.

On top of the cushion, an ability crystal was placed.

Dilan's interest was attracted almost immediately because the situation felt a little bit weird to him.

Yet, the moment he saw the information about the ability crystal, his eyes widened in surprise.

"Is that for real?" He blurted out, clearly baffled.

Without a second thought, he looked at the noble-clothed female Lions, not sure what the hell was going on.

But even if he was not sure what was going on, he had yet to be attacked by the powerful Hawk-men, which he deemed as a great sign.

Thus, he thought about something which led him to take action almost immediately.

Dilan first pointed at the ability crystal with his index finger before he pointed at himself. This was his way of asking if the ability crystal was for him.

Seeing this, the female Lions slowly nodded their heads before gesturing with their hands to signal him to go ahead.

Carefully taking the ability crystal from the cushion, Dilan studied every movement of the beings opposite him.

They didn't move at all and looked at him in anticipation.

'If they want me to absorb it, why not!' Dilan thought though he was unable to hide his bright smile.

But it was only obvious for him to smile brightly right now. After all, the ability crystal in his hand was extremely valuable!

[Language comprehension(Passive)] Tier-1 ★

One new language can be learned instantaneously! Understanding of foreign languages increases drastically. The more languages the host hears and the more he studies foreign languages, the easier it will be for the host to learn a new language!

Not wanting to hesitate any longer, Dilan absorbed the ability crystal.

It crumbled in his hand a moment later, while his mind was filled with various information.

For a moment, the sensation was great because Dilan could tell that he was learning more about the three languages he already knew about.

Other than that, it felt like he was able to comprehend the ancient-sounding language the two foreign races had communicated in a while earlier.

However, the more time passed, the more information flooded his mind. The sensation terrified Dilan after more than two minutes had passed. Dilan was not sure if his head would explode at any moment, which was why he groaned in pain while holding his head.

Without hesitation, Dilan used up 10 units of mana to activate his Origin ability [Regeneration].

This made the process of learning a new ability more bearable. However, Dilan had never felt so much pain while binding an ability to himself.

Thus, he was not even able to pay attention to the others around him as he was panting heavily while simultaneously trying to adapt to the sensation.

'Is it because I have learned a Tier-1 ability…or because [Language comprehension] is just like that?`

Dilan had no idea but if he were to think about it for a short time, he should have been confused why the six hunters weren't able to understand them if the noble-clothed female Lion was in possession of an ability such as [Language comprehension]!

If he was allowed to learn such an ability, the hunters should have learned this ability as well.

However, that was not the case because of a simple reason- The hunters' mental strength, and innate comprehension was too low to meet the secret requirements to learn the [Language comprehension]

They wouldn't be able to overcome the pressure and pain of receiving the devastating amount of information caused to their mind.

The noble-clothed female Lion certainly didn't plan on killing Dilan by providing him the opportunity to learn the Language comprehension ability.

Rather, she wanted to know how powerful the race that lived on the planet they had infiltrated was.

Other than that, the only way to communicate with each other was for someone with the Language comprehension ability to learn his first language instantaneously.

The noble-clothed Lion-men and Hawk-men had all already learned the Language comprehension ability but they had also learned their first language already.

It would take several weeks for them to get to know the human language, provided that they were in constant touch with a human.

Thus, to communicate without any barriers, they needed Dilan to be able to speak in their language and understand them perfectly.

Through this, the noble-clothed female Lion was able to gain all the benefits, while slowly getting to know whether Dilan was a strong or weak individual of his race.

'If he is stronger than the average, their race may be as strong as ours, but if he is weaker than the average, we may be annihilated the moment a stronger one appears!'

This was one of the many thoughts on the mind of the female Lion as she had ordered one of their young ones to procure one of the exceedingly rare Language comprehension abilities.

Procuring information was the most important right now, not the value of a single ability crystal!

The female Lion expected Dilan to survive. From the looks of it, he would require, at least, 6 hours before the pain would ebb and he would have learned everything.

His speed was twice as fast as she had learned [Language comprehension]. Thus, it was only obvious for her to be slightly nervous.

Yet, the moment Dilan stood up after merely five minutes had passed since he had absorbed the ability from the ability crystal, it was as if everyone froze in place.

'He..is already done? That cannot be… Five minutes is way too less of a duration…Maybe he can suppress the pain but hasn't adjusted to the flood of information yet?'

Trying to calm her mind, the female Lion cleared her throat before she began to speak in the seemingly incomprehensible and ancient-sounding language.

"Greetings esteemed guest of this wonderful planet. I welcome you into the first Basic Temple the Sun God Valgard transported to this wonderful place…the planet Milarn!"

The Lioness was intentionally using words that sounded extremely difficult in her language. She didn't believe that the weak being in front of her was being truthful to them.

'Reveal your true self! Show me that you have yet to adapt to the language that was planted in your head!!'

She sounded desperate but that was only obvious. Even if Dilan were to be extremely fast and stronger than the average, possibly even a prodigy of his race, if it was true that he had spent only five minutes to learn and adapt to [Language comprehension], even his race's average existence should have a much higher mental strength than the average Ligrav!

"How do you know that this planet is called Milarn?"

After using his Origin ability several times in succession, the pain in his head had finally dissipated. Unfortunately, it took him five whole minutes to adjust to the massive flood of information that swept into his mind.

Thus, he could only stand up when he had arranged everything.

Dilan even accidentally forgot to be formal as he began to speak in the ancient-sounding language he had just learned.

He was just expressing his suspicion as the Lioness shouldn't have been able to know Milarn's name…except…

'Was the notification about the Divine Inheritance and the Universe's Faith not only sent to everyone on Milarn…but to the entire Universe?…NO that cannot be possible…or can it?'

Dilan was unsure if he had missed out on some important pieces of information, however, he could tell that the situation became even more complicated all of a sudden!

'What a mess…'