20 (20) Underwhelming

Hato had finished speaking with each boss and had focused the attention on himself again, making the room silent, but it still felt more welcoming than at the start.

"Well done on making it to a Novice Boss stage, however this is only the first step if you want to become an infamous boss. Remember my advice for it will become much more important when you progress, I will be keeping track of most of you for a month or two, do not disappoint me. I hope some of you will become Intermediate Bosses within two years.. That is, to reach level 30 for those who do not know the requirements." Kraton shivered, it was as if Hato directed his words towards him, well the last sentence anyway. Other monsters also felt a similar feeling, however they held their chins high and proud as if becoming an Intermediate Boss was an easy feat.

"Right, we're done here so get lost!"

Many monsters near the back scrambled to get throught the doors, and when the huge ornamental doors opened, a cool breeze swept through. The sky was dark, however the half-moon emitted enough light to see, for these monsters anyway.

The whole gathering was rather uneventful so many were relieved to to get outside. The time was already past 1:00, with the gathering taking just more than 3 hours, and with since quite a few of them had long journey's to get back to their dungeon, they were envious of the flying and more local monsters.

"WHAT ARE YOU STILL DOING HERE? GET OUT!" Hato's voice trembled through the room, scary many more weak-willed monsters and causing them to flee without any more hesitation. Hato stormed towards the doorway where a few monsters still resided.

"Lord Hato, do you have any transport or ways to get us back to our dungeon quicker?" A brave Boss voiced out this question, his dungeon was a whole day's travel away and he was much too lazy to make the trek back on foot.

"You all want a fast way back?" Hato's voice was low and sweet, a very contrasating difference compared to his previous shouting.

The group of monsters nodded slowly.

"Wel... since you asked, I'll send you back immediately." Hato's sweet smile suddenly turned into an ear-to-ear grin, baring his fangs in a cold, cruel smile.

*Slash* <Demon Lord Hato has killed Boss Di-Yi, Boss Di-Er, Boss.....>

Hato was surrounded by a large area of dispersing white light, and was soon left alone by the doorway.

"Sabanto! Clean the room now. And also get rid of that body by the altar!"

A metallic skeleton with three legs clambered in from a semi-hidden doorway in the back of the room and began sweeping the room clean with a broom.

---

It had been 2 hours since the Kraton left, Psychi had seperated from the group an hour ago, and so Kim was left victim to Kraton's incessant talking, without a way to tell him to shut up, Kim was forced to listen to his endless attempts to make a conversation.

"And then I caught her flaming sword in my all-powerful hands and then I--"

Kraton paused his narration when Kim walked in front of him and looked around attentively. After a few seconds, Kim leapt towards a cluster of bushes and impaled two hiding humans with her spear-like tails. A few other bushes started rustling however Kim had already pounced into another bush, followed by a stream of white light.

Two more humans jumped out of their bushes and were charging at the bush Kim just dived in, their eyes were flaming in anger, most likely due to the death of their teammates. However, these two humans made it faster to the bush than they expected, even their faces were full of shock when they reached the bush so fast.

Kraton had been rudely ignored by the group, so when he saw these two humans run straight past him, he kicked out and sent them flying forward. Shortly after they disappeared into the bush, more streams of white light came out, and then Kim strutted out, shaking off the leaves that stuck to her mane.

The achievement of a clean wipe left Kraton with an empty satisfaction, he could tell that the hunting party they just wiped was only level 5 or lower, and half a year ago he would be crying in happiness. However, right now the experience he gained was much too low! although it was a small chunk of his experience, it was utterly underwhelming, although it did benefit his knowledge quite a bit as compared to other same levelled Bosses, Kraton Knowledge was rather low.

This was very clearly seen when compared to Psychi and Kim. Psychi is level 15, this marked him as almost a genius among the bosses in the gathering and Kim was now level 14, Although it was a bit unfair to compare these two 'monsters' with the lowly level 10 Kraton, it was still a clear indication on how much Kraton's Knowledge was lacking. Compared with his 270 K.P (He just earned a few with that fight), Kim had 456 K.P and Psychi had 520 K.P. Although a being's race could affect how intelligent they were, this was usually only a 50 to 100 K.P difference at the lower levels. But the divide grew incrimentally at higher levels due to the race's potential.

However, for a whopping difference of 200, even with 4 levels of difference, Kraton was a very dumb monster. Normally a humanoid monster capable of speech would have better Knowledge potential than a beast-type monster, yet Kim had left Kraton in the dust.

With the clean sweep being rather underwhelming in experience, it made up in the rate in which Kraton earned K.P in that fight. Assisting two kills out of a five-human party had increased his K.P by 14. By doing this 15 more times, Kraton would have caught up to Kim, therefore if it was just him party-wiping in his dungeon, it wouldn't be too long until he caught up.

When Kraton snapped back to reality, Kim was sitting in front of him, looking at him with a questioning gaze. Kraton scratched his head in embaressment when he realised he must have been so deep in thought that he had stood there like a moron for a few minutes.

"Sorry Kim, um, let's get going then."

Kraton started walking, and then Kim followed after him with a cheerful glint in her eyes.

2 hours later, Kraton and Kim seperated ways, and so Kraton was left alone for the next two hours on his way back to his dungeon. With no-one to talk to, Kraton hurried his pace to get back into his dungeon so he could start grinding the morning parties.

Next chapter