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After Alex's outburst, he quickly took a combat-ready stance. The Sky Wolf's body blurred and appeared right in front of Alex. He knew he couldn't dodge the attack, so he moved in a way that him in a non-fated way. He knew he couldn't outrun the wolf, so he rushed toward the wolf and horizontally slashed toward it from the left. The wolf seemed to see this coming and dodged backward. However, at that moment, his instincts began to scream at the wolf. Alex had used accelerate on himself, and then he used Stop on the mana surrounding the Sky Wolf. Alex had chained his horizontal slash with a downward diagonal slash. With the Sky Wolf being unable to use mana, his stomach received a large cut. Unfortunately for Alex, this cut wasn't life-threatening. The wolf seemed to grin at Alex and lunged toward him, baring his teeth. Alex used his last spell, Warp. With his remaining time, he could only buy himself a few minutes. He needed a way to get out of this situation alive, and his mind kept coming up blank. With only 30 seconds remaining, he remembered a part of Chronos's comprehension that went as follows:
"I'm in my brief journey watching the river of time, I had noticed a few things. Time was not omnipresent or omnipotent. Time can be merely represented as uncertainty or certainty. If someone had a perfect affinity for Time, then they might be able to see those uncertainties and certainties."
Alex had merely glossed over this part of Chronos's comprehension. However, doesn't he have a perfect Time affinity?
Alex tried to sense the certainties and uncertainties, but he had no success. That's when he saw it. He saw where the bite would land. He saw how he would die. The beast wasn't aiming for a fatal area but instead somewhere that would immobilize him. He was aiming for his dominant hand. However, he was naturally ambidextrous. He could win if he had another weapon or something to attack it with. Those last 30 seconds had ended, but at the very last second, he had found a way.
The wolf that was once moving in slow motion began to speed up and return to its normal speed. Alex, knowing what was about to happen, steeled his mind and quickly took out a tooth from his storage ring. He hid it in his left hand and waited for his right hand to be torn off. He didn't scream out in pain even though it hurt like hell. He pushed through and cleared his mind. He clenched the wolf teeth he had harvested from a few wolves and stabbed the neck of the Sky Wolf. The Sky Wolf, not expecting an attack, was caught fully unprepared and was stabbed through the neck. The wolf whimpered and tried to back away when Alex stabbed again, killing the wolf.
[You have killed the boss monster Elite Sky Wolf]
[You have leveled up]
[You have leveled up]
[The title Rare Slayer has been upgraded to Elite Slayer]
[You have cleared the Wolf's Den on Hell difficulty, Solo.]
[Would you like to announce your achievement?]
The Sky wolf began to glow gold, and items began to appear. Around 20 items had appeared, most with a green and blue glow. This implied that most were mostly Ivory Iron and Shimmering Silver. Alex did see a few with a light gold glow, meaning they were of Light-Gold rank. While looking at his missing hand, Alex began to regret not buying healing potions. He had no way to stop the bleeding or to heal. Alex might really die from blood loss. He quickly looked through the items that dropped, hoping for something that could heal him. Through some kind of divine intervention or maybe pure luck, Alex had found a dark red potion. He didn't know much about it except for the information Inspect was able to get.
[Rank: Light-Gold
Type: Potion]
Alex looked at the potion and immediately drank it. He didn't know what the potion was, or if it would help. Inspect isn't able to get most items' names or descriptions. Luckily, it seemed his gamble had paid off. His wounds began to slowly close up; his hand slowly began to regrow. The hand took half an hour to regrow, and the major loss of blood would take a while to recover. He began to dismantle the Sky Wolf and found his hand inside its stomach. He reached inside and grabbed his storage ring. After he was done dismantling its entire body, he stored everything inside the storage ring. He then looked through the Wolf's Den, looking for anything of value. He scraped the moss off the walls of the cave and then he found a bracelet. The bracelet was gold, however, it was dirty and had dried blood on it. He put the bracelet inside his storage ring and left the dungeon. He then remembered one of the system messages.
[Would you like to announce your achievement?]
[Yes] [No]
Alex smiled, knowing what kind of commotion this would cause. However, he didn't care. He tapped on "Yes" and heard the voice of Thea.
"World Announcement!
The player Lucifer has cleared the first Hell mode dungeon, Solo. He has received 25 free Status Points for the first-in-the-world Hell mode clear. He has received 5 Status Points for the first Solo clear in the world. He has received a random Light-Gold item for the first Hell mode clear of the Wolf Den."
The announcement repeated itself three more times. Alex had walked out from the black portal with a white outline. He noticed that most people were absentminded and hadn't noticed him. He looked inside his storage ring for a return scroll to Violet City, and then he remembered. He never bought a return scroll. As Alex realized he would have to walk 5 hours back to the city, his face twisted into horror. He then remembered the commotion he just caused. Before anyone could understand what was happening, he used acceleration on himself and sprinted toward the city. Unfortunately, a few players had noticed him.
"Huh? Wait!? He's getting away! Lucifer is getting away!"
"Everyone after him!"
"Don't let him escape until he joins our guild!"
Alex quickly escaped the scene and headed back toward the city. He arrived at the city 2 hours later and immediately headed toward the beggar in the alleyway. He wanted to turn in the quest as soon as possible to get the skill he needed. He found the beggar in the same spot. Alex walked up to him and said,
"I have returned, sir."
"Why are you back so soon? Don't tell me you want to give up the request just like all the others?"
"No, sir. I have already killed the Sky Wolf that killed your daughter."
"Do you have any proof?"
"Yes, here's the skin of the wolf, and if that's not enough, I have its other body parts."
The beggar looked at me for a second and then began to inspect the materials. After a couple of minutes, his eyes started to become watery, and he cried. He looked at me with gratitude and said,
"Thank you! Truly thank you."
"Sir, I also want to know if your daughter's initials were J.R."
"Yes, they were. How could you have known that?"
"Here, I believe this belonged to your daughter."
"I-it, it couldn't be. This was her bracelet. Oh my god, thank you for giving me this. I have no idea how I could ever repay you."
"It's alright. I'm just happy you can finally start to find closure."
The beggar smiled at Alex, and that's when he saw a few system messages appear.
[Revenge of a Father
Difficulty: Unique
The Sky Wolf that rules over the Wolf Den killed Lamin's daughter. Bring back its head for a suitable reward.
Reward: ???]
[You have completed the Quest.]
[You have completed the hidden condition: Lost Item]
[Rewards from the Quest have been increased]
[Lamin's intimacy has increased to: Respected Friend]
[Please talk to Lamin to receive your reward]
"Sir, is that all?"
"You don't have to call me sir; you can call me Lamin from here on out. While it's not much, however, here. It's the object that made it possible for me to become such a renowned blacksmith. Also, I have a material I was never able to find the use for. I hope you can put it to great use."
"Thank you, Lamin. If I ever need to find you, where would you be?"
"I'll still be here in the capital. I plan on going back to my old business. Just know that if you need my help, I'll be more than happy to help."
"Thank you, Lamin. I'll see you around."
"You too, Lucifer."
Lamin smiled at Alex's look of disbelief as he never told Lamin his name. That's when he realized that Lamin probably used inspect on me, and I was too weak to notice. Alex walked away with a small smile and headed toward the guards outpost where he got his quest. Now that he had some time, he began to look at the rewards from the quest and his evolved title.
[Elite Slayer
Rank: Bronze (Upgradeable)
Effect: Increases NPC familiarity by 2 points.]
[Mysterious Page of Unknown Origin
Rank: Epic
Effect: Gives the user the eyes of a Seeker]
[Unknown Material]
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A/N
I must say I was surprised about about that huge amount of power stones. I just wanted thank you everyone for the support, and while I have no idea how many I had got I'm just going to release 3 more chapters today. Also because I'm not trying to get buried in debt of bonus chapters I'll be increasing the power stone requirement to 10. I already have 2 done and just need to make the third. Hope you all enjoyed the chapter and have a good day or night.
If you like this book so far you should check out my other work, A Last Wish!