Chapter 12

"…What did you say?" Rhys glared at the two lackies who'd once again came back to his office empty-handed.

The brown-haired man sitting to Rhys' left tensed up as he spoke. "I—We're very sorry sir! We simply couldn't find him anywhere!"

"Y—Yes!" The young blonde man on the right spoke next. "He completely disappeared! Maybe he'd already died somewhere—"

"Enough with your pathetic excuses!" Rhys pulled out the sword that was strapped to his belt, just by taking it out of the sheath, both men's chests suddenly were cut deep and blood trickled from the wounds, causing them to whimper with fear.

'Wait…! Mister Griffins, please give me another chance!"

"Chance?" Suddenly, the blonde's right arm fell off his shoulders and blood gushed out violently.

It happened in only a mere second.

The armless boy fell to the ground while screaming in agony as the pain began to register. Rhys ignored him and spoke. "You want another chance? Do you know how long it'd been since I gave you those orders?"

The dark-haired man swallowed nervously and answered instead of his friend. "I—It's been two months, sir…"

"Oh?" Rhys' lips curled up into a smirk. "So you do know, then where are the results? 'We didn't find him' is not a plausible excuse now is it? Your target is literally an old man yet you can't even find him after two whole months?"

"I…"

"Don't say anything further." The tanned man stared coldly at the lackeys on the ground, the one that had his arm cut off had already passed out from pain and would soon die of blood loss if not treated. "I was generous enough to give you guys two months…And yet here we are."

The sword in Rhys hand shimmered ominously as it was raised, the dark-haired man knew exactly was what about to happen and his eyes widened with pure terror. "W—Wait…Wait please sir…Please! I swear I'll bring him to you next time…! Please!—"

'Slice!'

With just a flick of his blade, the two men's bodies were sliced clean in half. The upper portion of the young man fell forward and splattered on the ground.

As blood began to pool around the two bodies, Rhys stepped back with a disgusted look on his expression. "Hmph! Oliver, get the maids to clean up this mess."

The old butler, who'd always been standing by the door of Rhys' office, gave his master a bow. "Right away, sir." He responded and would begin to make his way out of the room.

"Wait." Rhys' words caused the old man to stop in his tracks, he turned back around before lowering his head again.

"Yes, young master?"

"I want you to go finish what they couldn't"

At that sudden order, the butler's bright blue eyes shone with a hint of lunacy. "Of course, young master. I'll be sure to bring that man to you."

Rhys waved and the servant quickly left the room, after he was alone, he made his way over to the covered window, carefully navigating around the blood and bodies of the two unfortunate lackeys.

He pushed the curtain away slightly just enough for the light of the morning sun to seep through and swept his eyes over the busy streets below while frowning lightly.

"Before the night of the Winter Solstice…huh."

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<<Name: Theodore Varon

Species: The Ouroboros Serpent (20 Meters)

Lvl: 34

EXP: 1,000,000/1,270,000

Skill Points: 1,167

HP: 300,000/300,000

MP: 1,155/1,155

Rank: A+

Attack: 540 (A)

Speed: 410 (B+)

Defense: 420 (B+)

Charm: 60 (E+)

Intelligence: 130 (D-)

Magic: 420 (B+)

Elements: Ice. Fire. Draconic.

Personal Attributes: Gaze of Wisdom (Lvl.6). Thermal Vision (Lvl.MAX). Venom (Lvl.5). Agility (Lvl.3). Tongue Receptor (Lvl.5). Will to Live (Lvl.2). Deitify (Lvl.MAX). All-Speak (Lvl.MAX). Greater than Dragons (Lvl.MAX). Dragon's Heart (LVL.MAX)

Skills: Ice Magic (Lvl.5). Ambitious Snake: Devour (Lvl.3). Master of Poison (Lvl.2). Persistence (Lvl.2). Flames of Pride (Lvl.3). Uriel's Blessings (Lvl.1).

Bloodline Skills: Embodiment of Chaos (Lvl.3). Super Regeneration [50%] (Lvl.4). Corrupting Touch [50%] (Lvl. 3). Divine Blaze (Lvl.2). Coldest Death (Lvl.2). Predator of All (Lvl.1)>>

Theodore's clamorous movement caused the surrounding animals to run away in fear. His current size would certainly caused anyone to faint with terror as the diameter of his body was almost two meters thick, combine this with his monsterous length, it wouldn't be a surprise if people mistook him for a gate creature.

His sharp green eyes fixated on something that was running away from him: A humanoid creature with bulging muscles and thick grey fur covering most of its body, its red eyes shone with pure horror as it ran with all its might.

<<Grey Werewolf

HP: 210,000/210,000

Lvl. 70

Rank: A

Age: 26 Human Years.

Type: Wild

Yield: 350,000 EXP.

Chance of Victory: 200%

Strength: A werewolf's age corresponds to its strength and intelligence, usually adult werewolves are strong enough to fight against a group of C ranks all on its own while sustaining minimal injuries.

Weakness: It's a creature that knows nothing but strength, using powerful long range attacks and magic could easily subdue it. Well-known werewolf weaknesses such as silver and wolfsbane are also viable options.

Description: A gift or curse that grants the wisdom of men and the instinct of wolves. These beasts are known as legendary creatures that loom over motals and devour all that can be shown underneath the moonlight. Werewolves are the smarter, stronger versions of the direwolves, they live in small packs but can thrive independently if so wishes, their primary prey are large animals that coexist with them in certain areas, they an even be found way up in the Arctic and down south in savannas, although, their favorite meal would always be humans, as during old times, small villages will fall victim to werewolf attacks which can purge a town's entire population in one night.

Expanded: There are two types of werewolves, the one you're currently chasing is a 'Wild Werewolf', they're born and raised in nature and have only been in contact with humans when they're hunting them. Regular humans can transform into werewolves through a special serum made from a werewolf's blood and they'll be given the skill 'Beast Transformation' upon receiving the serum.>>

Over the last two months, Theodore had been doing practically nothing but hunting down the monsters in Delphi Forest. He'd doubled his level and had his skills upgraded through choosing his Bloodline Skills; there wasn't anything that'd caught his attention so he chose to level up his existing abilities instead.

However, he did pick one of the skills during his 25th level's choice: 'Predator of All'.

It not only upgrades his skill 'Ambitious Snake: Devour' by one level, it'd also give him the traits of a true predator. Anything that becomes his target will be given the 'Fear' status condition regardless of their origins, meaning that even the gate creatures would be scared of him.

If the Bloodline Skill gets upgraded, then his prey would gain some other debuffs as well. The only downside to the skill is that it triggers the 'flight' response in his target which means he would need to chase them down manually.

"Well…It was the most useful out of all the other options…"

And because the 'Devour' skill is upgraded, he now has a chance of getting two abilities instead of one.

"It'll definitely be worth it."

The werewolf's movements seemed to have significantly slowed down, it was heaving heavily. It tried forcing itself to move forward despite knowing that its legs couldn't go on any further.

After all, Theodore had been chasing it at his full speed for over twenty minutes.

"P—Please…You already took my family!" The wolf finally collapsed, it turned around with widened eyes and begged him to spare its life.

He let out a mocking hiss as a response. "So? What makes you think that I won't eat you?"

[Ambitious Snake: Devour]

Immediately activating his skill, a silhouette of himself emerged from his frame, its size had grown abysmally large that even fully-grown dragons can be swallowed in minutes.

The light serpent circled around its frightened prey, the body phasing through any obstacles as if it was intangible.

"Your life will be put to good use." Theodore stared coldly at the werewolf as it would be eaten shortly after, swallowed whole by his skill.

After the snake had dissolved into small light particles, Theodore heard the System's notification.

[You killed a Grey Werewolf. Gained 350,000 EXP.]

[Level up! You're now Level 35!]

[Options for a new Bloodline Skill available. Would you like to view it?]

"Yes."

<<Bloodline Skills

This will be your last chance to finalize your Bloodline Skills. When you reach Level 40, you'll be given the choice to evolve into something more powerful, so as compensation, this time you can choose two (2) skills from the following options:

-The Great Cycle [Skill]

The Ouroboros is the symbol of eternity, of life and death that endlessly repeats forever without end. With this skill, anything within your domain can be repeated again and again until you deem it fit to stop. However, due to the low efficiency of the Bloodline Skill 'Embodiment of Chaos', this ability's true use is sealed. At the current level, you can duplicate spells by spending half of the original mana cost, but it comes with the risk of the arcane falling apart if you're not proficient enough with your controls.

-Spell Destruction [Attribute]

You are the representative of Destruction and can't bear to be bested in your magical crafts. This attribute allows you to disable any and all forms of magic as long as the opposing mage's proficiency is lower than you.

-Scales of the Serpent [Attribute]

A prideful snake that'd slain even the mightiest of dragons, yet your scales cannot compare to them in the slightest, choosing this attribute will double your Defense stat while giving you the Sub-Skills 'Thermal Resistance', 'Magic Resistance', and 'Scale Shield'.>>

<<Sub-Skill: Scale Shield

Branch: Scales of the Serpent

Cooldown: None

Description: You can summon a translucent shield in the form of scales and they have the durability to be contested with the armor of dragons. At the current level, this skill can withstand attacks from B rank individuals.>>

Another difficult decision was thrown his way, but Theodore didn't think about it for too long and chose based on the process of elimination. "Give me first and last skills on the list."

He felt that 'Spell Destruction' is a bit useless compared to the other two skills. Because he already has the Embodiment of Chaos's 'Discord' status, when his efficiency increases, he could probably achieve the same effects by disrupting the opponent's spells.

[Your attribute window has been updated. Would you like to view it?]

After a nod, his attribute window blurred, signaling that some of the information on it had been changed.

<<Name: Theodore Varon

Species: The Ouroboros Serpent (20 Meters)

Lvl: 35

EXP: 80,000/1,300,000

Skill Points: 1,169

HP: 302,000/302,000

MP: 1,165/1,165

Rank: A+

Attack: 540 (A)

Speed: 410 (B+)

Defense: 840 (S-)

Charm: 60 (E+)

Intelligence: 130 (D-)

Magic: 420 (B+)

Elements: Ice. Fire. Draconic.

Personal Attributes: Gaze of Wisdom (Lvl.6). Thermal Vision (Lvl.MAX). Venom (Lvl.5). Agility (Lvl. 3). Tongue Receptor (Lvl.5). Will to Live (Lvl.2). Deitify (Lvl.MAX). All-Speak (Lvl.MAX). Greater than Dragons (Lvl.MAX). Dragon's Heart (LVL.MAX). Scales of the Serpent (Lvl.1) [NEW!]

Skills: Ice Magic (Lvl.5). Ambitious Snake: Devour (Lvl.3). Master of Poison (Lvl.2). Persistence (Lvl.2). Flames of Pride (Lvl.3). Uriel's Blessings (Lvl.1).

Bloodline Skills: Embodiment of Chaos (Lvl.3). Super Regeneration [50%] (Lvl.4). Corrupting Touch [50%] (Lvl. 3). Divine Blaze (Lvl.2). Coldest Death (Lvl.2). Predator of All (Lvl.1). The Great Cycle (Lvl.1) [NEW!]>>

He's starting to feel lightheaded from the amount of skills he had displayed and reminded himself to hide them the next time he opened the status window. "Hm, my defense is now S rank but it seemed my overall ranking didn't change at all…"

He doesn't know exactly how large the gap between rankings is, although from the evidence in front of him he could only say that it's quite large. "One S rank stat isn't even enough…"

With a sigh, Theodore dismissed all the light panels in front of him and began slithering towards the east. After his attribute 'Tongue Receptor' had been upgraded, a single flick of his tongue was enough to gather the information as far as 150 meters in all directions, so it wasn't difficult to find what—'who' he was looking for.

After only a few minutes of slithering, he emerged through the thick bushes and saw his father. The old man was wearing a leather chestplate and iron pads on his shoulders, ankles and knees, and in his hand was a short sword—Theo's old blade that he once used as a backup weapon.

Staring right at his father was a gate creature; A monster that's almost 3 meters in height. It has the body of a muscular man and the legs and head of a bull, its weapon was a large battleax that looked as if it could cleave a car in half.

"Mooraor!!!!" The Minotaur let out a terrific shout before charging towards Lawrence while swinging its axe wildly.

Theodore didn't even need to use 'Gaze of Wisdom' to know what sort of creature it was, from a single glance, he immediately deduced that it has no brain and only brawns.

His dad seemed to have known this as well. He dodged to the side and cut the monster's abdomen while he moved, creating a large slash dragging from its belly button to its hip.

This prompted the Minotaur to cry out in pain and anger. It would turn around and begin charging at the old man again, this time with much greater speed and voraciously.

It should be about time that Theodore step out to help his father, but he decided against it since fighting a powerful opponent was essential in Lawrence's growth, besides, losing to a dumb cow would be nothing short of humiliating.

<<Rank: B>>

His father had managed to grow from C all the way to B rank in only two months, which was an extremely impressive feat. Usually a hero's development would stagnant after reaching C rank, and it could take years of hard work to even move up to C+, this just shows that the Delphi Forest has many powerful monsters that could quickly let a hero rise up in ranks.

The only trade off was that the forest was way too dangerous for anyone lower than B rank to enter.

Luckily for Lawrence, under Theodore's help and guidance, he was able to grow at an awe inspiring rate.

His father continued his fight with the Minotaur, it would run at him but the old man could easily side-step and avoid getting hit. He did this while also delivering minor to medium-length cuts to the monster until it started to get tired from blood loss.

<<Greek Minotaur

HP: 20,000/230,000>>

Just a few more hits to the vital points and the bull would certainly go down.

Lawrence took notice of the Minotaur's sudden drop in agility and immediately used it to his advantage. Instead of avoiding confrontation, he now chose this moment to run at the monster before jumping onto its back.

"You're dead!" His father raised his blade above his head before bringing it down onto the bull's thick skull, the traits of a 'Fighter' giving him just enough strength to pierce the head.

Crying out in pain, the Minotaur thrashed violently as it tried to shake Lawrence off of it, but doing this only caused the old man to hold on tighter.

The old man gritted his teeth in annoyance and pulled the short sword out of the wound before he began repeatingly stabbing it on the same spot.

"Just die already!"

Blood gushed out of the wound with each blow, causing more pain and agony to the monster. Instead of its great defenses being useful, it would merely cause it to suffer before its eventual death.

"Moarrauor!!!!!"

<<HP: 180,000/230,000>>

<<HP: 140,000/230,000>>

<<HP: 90,000/230,000>>

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<<HP: 0/230,000>>

After Lawrence's stabbing frenzy, the Minotaur finally gave up and toppled forward, hitting the ground with enough force to cause a slight shake accompanied by a thundering 'boom'.

His father hopped down from the monster's body, grabbing his bloodied short sword with him.

"Ah! Theo!" The old man waved with a bright smile as soon as his eyes landed on the snake not too far away from the battlefield.

Theodore crawled towards his father. "That was great, you really improved fast."

Lawrence laughed loudly. 'Ha! Of course! I told you that I'll catch up to you in no time, right?"

"Dad, you're B rank."

His father looked puzzled as he blinked at Theodore with confusion. "But I thought you're B rank?"

"I rose to A+ now."

"Eh!? How are you growing so fast!? That system you have is such a cheat!"

"Isn't that the point?" He looked at the old man with a blank expression.

"Well, that's okay!" Lawrence raised his blood-soaked sword, smiling with determination. "I'll just need to kill more monsters!"

For someone as old as his father, he's quite energetic.

Theodore huffed comically. "Alright, but not right now though, Merlin wanted me to help with his class."

"Oh? But aren't I strong enough to fight without your supervision now?" Lawrence titled his head as he disappointedly frowned.

"Well, you can. But I'll be very sad if you end up getting killed." Despite the context of his sentence, he didn't sound remorseful.

But his father knew he was being serious despite the tone of his voice. "Haha, okay…I'll try to control myself. Can I at least go buy us some fried chicken?"

Lawrence would always buy his son fried chicken when he comes home from work. Although that was ages ago, and since Theodore had to move out of the house to study at Stella Academy, the two father and son didn't get the chance to eat fried chicken together after that.

"…" Theodore was obviously tempted by this offer. "Okay, just be careful not to get seen."

"Alright! When will you be home?" His father's eyes were practically sparkling, sometimes Theo wondered who's the adult in the family.

"Merlin said it would most likely take all day."

"Ah, then I'll go out in the evening then." Lawrence scratched the back of his head. "Well, have fun then, kid!"

His friend had occasionally sent them supplies in secret, so their small little hideout was now filled to the brim with useful necessities for daily life, now his father doesn't need to use him as a pillow anymore.

Theodore nodded. "Okay, you take care."

After he watched his father disappear into the bushes, he turned towards the direction of the Stella Academy and began slithering towards it.

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Lawrence hummed a song to himself as he walked along the empty alleyway, the sun had just begun setting so he was on his way to buy some fried chicken for him and his son.

His hands were stuffed in his brown trench coat, which covered up his white shirt and black trousers, it was also hiding the muscles that he'd gained from the amount of time he'd spent killing monsters in Delphi.

"Mhm, an awaken's growth rate is surely amazing." He thought to himself while making his way out onto the streets.

There were barely any people around and most of them were too busy looking for restaurants to eat at than to be paying attention to an old man like him.

This was optimal for Lawrence, who was still under the Griffins radar, he planned to quickly get his food then get out.

It wasn't long before he could see the red sign of a famous chicken restaurant. "Ah, it's still not out of business! That's good!"

"Found you~"

The sudden voice of another old man came from his right, although Lawrence reacted way too slowly and he was suddenly dragged into a dark alleyway.