1 vs 2 101
In the mind of Seraph, it all clicked. And he decided it was time to harvest his exp "Let's take a step into the future, a future you won't enjoy."
Seraph had the plan, at least the bare-bones of one, and felt his face loosen back up into a smile as he off-handedly looked at his stats.
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Strength; D-562->D-563. Endurance; E-489. Dexterity; D-532->D-542. Agility; D-567->D-568. Magic; D-502.
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Dexterity had gained a total of 10 points in that short exhange! That was way faster, far faster, this was so much more efficient.
Seraph fluidly again discharged an Empyrean spark, again being dodged, this time without any damage to the two, but it was expected. The Empyrean spark was put back while another was taken out and directed at the floor, causing a lot of debris and smoke to disorient the sentient beings within the cave.
Then another exhange was brought forth and another Empyrean spark was shot out the space between the two adventurers. Hearing the signature shouts of pain, Seraph was sure he had actually hit the man partially again.
Using that scream as a guide, he ran up with his long-sword, and cut through the smoke "Watch out!" The woman, somehow quite a bit further away than expected shouted.
The moment he heard that, he threw his dagger at her, hearing the sound of a dagger piercing flesh, he quickly stepped backwards, getting ready to give the woman a nice crescent.
But in the place he stood, from the side, the man stabbed with his sword. Seraph's face was getting distorted again "Don't you know not to play with fire?" Seraph remembered his silent steps from before, and realized that he had faked a scream.
Seraph used the moment that the man was shocked he had missed, to bend his momentum towards him, and gift a nice crescent as a death warming gift.
But it was; Again, blocked.
He quickly looked at his stats again, seeing them growing so rapidly compared to before, he felt bitter. The fact that he thought of people as exp-bags was offensive and wrong, he choose to reform himself into a new person, going the path of efficiency.
"I heard exp-warehouses need to be fed twice a day, don't worry, I'll feed you steel through your veins." He said as he quickly snapped two of his Empyrean sparks into a loaded form "(To break space-time, [Rift strike])" Seraph wispered to himself, as he kicked forwards.
Hitting the man who was looking at him in the back of the head, which caused quite the concussion. Leaving an opening for flames, and with a great spark- The woman pushed Seraph down as the spark changed directions, missing the mark.
Comming close to the ground, where the air had cleared slightly, Seraph could see his dagger, and without mercy he ripped it out of the womans stomach as he punched her in the face with all his might.
But the woman did not let go, so he had to go with desperate measures, and stabbed at one of her kidneys through her side with the dagger "Aah!"
Relieving his hand, and her grip loosening slightly, Seraph forced the two of them to roll, with him on top. He then slapped the both of her ears, again, with all his might, which finally freed him.
Seraph again watching his stats increasing by a few points, rolled out of the way of the stabbing man while taking out his dagger. From the roll he stood with in a crouching form due to the rush, and quickly tooking out the other loaded Empyrean spark while stowing his dagger, and you should know what he did.
He dropped the broken Empyrean spark, and again readied his crescent and closed in, charging towards the heat while in the smoke. And cut of the head of the man writhing in endless agony as a walking pyre, silent, even though screaming.
The cave started to clear up quickly as Seraph secretly loaded his Empyrean sparks under his cloak, thinking it was so nice that he had this cloak to obscure his face and purposefully hidden hand-movements.
To the girl, it seemed as if his little item could be used at least... 5 times, maybe more, without any cost.
He silently walked up to the woman who was focused on agility and currently unable to move due to fear, unsheathed his weeb-blade, raised it up high, and bestowed apon the land, the beauty of the crescent.
*Clang*!
His blade hit fellow steel, after which he quickly retreated. Seraph quickly examined the new exp-generator that had just appeared; Blond hair, blue eyes, 6'2, healthy complexion, muscular enough, and most noticeably; he was handsome.
-Noticeably for the masses, the most noticeable thing for him was the weakness, the achilles heel. And that was a mostly healed scar on his right hand's wrist. He wasn't wearing wrist guards, which must be how he got that scar.
Seraph of-handedly said "I should probably get some proper armor at some point, you should too, don't want to get another scar, do you?"
Then he looked around, and saw a team, and a certain supporter that he had kicked in the back of the head a while ago "Ohh, that's how you came here, cool..." Seraph instantly used his Empyrean spark to create another smoke screen, then used the other and threw it at the team and the loli "But you made a great mistake,"
Seraph laughed arrogantly while stepping back fastly and silently "You think you can defeat me?!" Seraph threw the 2nd destroyed Empyrean spark in a rolling motion, while running away himself.
The team heard the sounds of foot steps and the nearing noise of the Empyrean spark, and thought Seraph was closing in, especially due to the fact that he spoke so confidently.
They all kept their guards up, until the smoke cleared enough and they realized there weren't any footsteps "Shit! He ran away!" The blond haired man shouted.
He quickly wanted to run after Seraph, but due to the fact that a bit further, there was a split, basically making it redundant, and more importantly was the woman with two daggers "Are you okay?"
"Y-yes, I think so, i-is Joseph alright?" She really wanted to know that first before anything else, but then quickly looked at the still partially burning corpse "N-no t-this can't be happening!"
As she fell to the floor in panic, she was kept up by the man "Take deep breaths, manifest your destiny as being brave." Seeing that his words did not have a big effect, he silently mused "I wish I could have a can of any carbonated drink, I can't deal with this..."
"Deep breaths, I'll introduce myself first, I'm Alph, what's your name." Alph said, having the utmost of patience towards a victim of that terrible cloaked man. It wasn't her fault her friend had just died, though it actually was kinda her fault for not stopping him from attacking Seraph and marking themselves as exp-bags.
The woman named herself after some time "My name is Kanata." The moment she came too, she was shuddering in a building above ground. Specifically of the hephaestus familia.
"Katana," Alph said, filled with concern "Could you tell me what happened?"
She nodded slightly "M-me and my partner were traveling towards the 12th floor, and when we passed a sleeping cloaked figure-" 'They suddenly attacked us', that is what she wished to say, but bit her lip. Looking at Alph's honest concern, she couldn't stop the truth for spilling "W-we thought he was an easy mark, there were no rips or tears in his cloak which seemed to have been made from high-quality materials as his face was constantly hidden, I personally thought it was enchanted for anonymity.
But when he attacked the figure, the cloaked person somehow got out of the way of his strike. He talked about grading and teaching, after which he said something about fire and another thing about needing to feed us with steel?" She said.
Alph wasn't satisfied with this, he needed more information "Any traits you could make out? Voice? Face? Body-language? Equipment?"
"Ah- Yes! I remembered he used a few weapons with proficiency!" She shouted slightly, having remembered something she had previously overlooked "Really? What did he use?" Alph was happy he had even the slightest lead.
"He used a katana like those of the far east, a sword, a dagger which caused both of these wound," She pointed at the slightly-scarred points of her side and her chest "I also think he used a lighter as a means for one of his skills."
"A lighter?"
"More of a fire-starter, it was invented during the great feud and made commercially available a year after that era had passed for obvious reasons."
"Anything else?" Alph asked, what she had said didn't give many leads since any person could use those. And it was appearantly only 'Proficient', there were not any special techniques used.
"No, not that I can think of."
Alph sighed, and he continued to ask questions, and ponder on his extremely short encounter with the mysterious figure. He seemed arrogant, but also fearfull. Lili said he would suddenly sleep for a bit of time and come back with a vengeance. Never stopping for her to rest, meaning he was impatient.
'Short moments of sleep then quite some time, around 4 hours, and then another burst of sleep... Isn't this the uber man schedule I tried once? No... That shouldn't be possible.'
He had come here 6 years ago, in the last year of the great feud. His system given 'Main mission'? 'End the great feud'.
He had stopped it half-a-year-early with all the information he had from his fanatic obsession when he was still an otaku, though none would trust it if he were a fat middle-aged man without any future.
So the extra reward he was gifted based on his sub-concious wishes by the system 'A handsome and healthy body', and he was making the most of it. Though he hadn't made the harem of his dreams, he had what he had enough to stay happy.
When he finally entered his sleeping chambers, he looked at the ceiling and asked 'System, are there any quests?'
[Negative, all quests have been disabled.]
Alph had expected that response, as it had always been after the main quest ended 'Has there been someone else who has been summoned here?'
[Affirmitive]
'Are they dead?' Alph had already been told of a fresh blood a month ago, but had not found anyone acting as flagrantly as he did when he came here.
[Negative, they mentain healthy vital signs]
'Can I know their posistion?'
[Negative]
'Can you tell me what they gained as their gift?'
[Negative]
'Can you tell me what their main quest is?'
[Asking if it is allowed...]
"No, you may not." Seraph said calmly to the screen, repairing the left-over broken Empyrean spark, while panting heavily and systematically. He was sitting in a bloody field with many dead orcs.
He disliked the misty roof and the hills the had appeared on this floor, but he was not regretting taking the risk. His slow growth had finally sped up, even if the opponents were stronger and more dangerous if compared with him in the beginning against goblins and kobolds.
Only a few hours, and agility was finally C-rank! Though he was suffering from a major case of exhaustion.
He would leave after he fixed the Empyrean spark, then he would eat his fill again, and then he would buy more materials for his artificy after selling the magic stones... Good days for him.
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Strength; D-563->D-575. Endurance; E-489->D-502. Dexterity; D-542->D-573. Agility; D-568->C-603. Magic; D-502->D-563.
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He had a good portion of these stats from the sudden battle with the two adventurers, it was a shame he could not kill that girl. Though Seraph had almost totally forgot about her and her friend, it was not efficient to waste mental faculty and processing power on some rando's.
And so, this small event in Seraph's journey came to an end.