Encountering Jay

Last time Agnar was out hunting, all of the weaker ranked monsters were coped up in their dens, hiding from the Burst Panther. This time around, monsters were out roaming and many attacked Agnar. However, they were clueless and were completely decimated by Agnar. Unexpectedly, Agnar finished hunting 17 monsters in a matter of a few hours.

"Alright, I've killed 15 D ranked monsters as well as 2 C ranked monsters so far. The D ranked monsters were relatively easy to overpower, but the C ranks were a little bit harder for me." Agnar nodded as he counted up the number of monsters he's killed.

Agnar stored all of the monster corpses inside his inventory. He had heard that monster organs can fetch a pretty high price in the underground black market, so he decided to keep them. He walked deeper into the woods when suddenly, he felt two overwhelming presences clashing with each other. Agnar quickly scurried away and hid behind a large boulder.

Two extremely powerful figures were fighting each other. Agnar was having trouble keeping his eyes up with their speed and his heart pounded with each sword clash that was sounded.

Clang! Clang! The two ominous figures were neck in neck in terms of fighting power, speed, and many other aspects. However, the figure with a black robe had a slightly more advantageous Blessing which allowed him to manipulate metal. The other figure had the ability to manipulate glass. The metal manipulator conjured two metal spikes from the earth and flung it towards the glass manipulator at extreme speeds. The glass manipulator looked unfazed by this and two razor sharp glass lances were immediately hurled towards the two incoming metal spikes. As the glass lances and metal spikes collided with each other, the glass lances instantly shattered the metal spikes and kept racing forwards towards the metal manipulator.

The metal manipulator quickly conjured a 50 cm thick metal wall and used it to protect himself. Unfortunately for the metal manipulator, the glass manipulator suddenly changed the constitution of the glass lances; they were transformed into ballistic glass! The glass lances tore through the metal wall with ease as they pierced the metal manipulator right in the neck.

Bloody started to gush out from the metal manipulator's neck as the light in his eyes started to die out. The glass manipulator walked up to the metal manipulator and murmured something under his breath, which was impossible for Agnar to hear. The glass manipulator conjured a sharp glass blade and immediately slit the metal manipulator's throat.

"It's safe to come out now." The glass manipulator boomed as Agnar jumped up in astonishment. He completely sealed his presence and was still detected by this unknown glass manipulator.

"I apologize, I was just scared that I would end up in the crossfire…" Agnar said as he walked out from behind the boulder.

"I understand, but I do have a question, why is such a young man like you doing this deep in the forest?" The glass manipulator questioned with a suspicious frown on his face. The man had a stern face, with facial features that would be considered quite handsome if not for the ginormous mane-looking beard that covered almost his entire face. He had dirty-blond hair, a 2.2 meter tall body, and muscles that looked like it would rip out of his clothes in any minute.

Agnar's thoughts scampered for an answer. He couldn't just say he was trying to complete a quest the system gave him. It was certainly out of the ordinary that someone his age would be out here. Agnar quickly thought of an excuse: "Sir, I was out in the sparser region of the forest when I encountered a powerful monster. I fought back and when I killed it, I ended up around here." Agnar said with a hopeful look on his face. He understood that the glass manipulator probably did not believe his nonsense. But to his surprise, the glass manipulator just shrugged and walked towards the limp corpse of the metal manipulator.

"These damned assassins, they keep on finding me for some reason." The glass manipulator sighed as he turned towards Agnar. "Hey kid, the name's Jay, Jay Grendol. If you need somethin' just give me a call." Jay laughed as he threw Agnar a card. Agnar widened his eyes when he saw the words: "Underworld King." Before he could react, Jay had already disappeared into thin air.

"So fast, no wonder he's a general in the Underworld." Agnar chuckled as he tucked the name card away in his pockets. The Underworld consisted of ranks including the soldier, warrior, captain, commander, general, king, and emperor. There were only about 12 Underworld Kings in the current continent that Agnar lived on, and Jay was one of those 12 kings.

"Phew, that was nerve-racking." Agnar started to walk deeper into the forest when he noticed the corpse of the assassin. With a swift motion, a blue light radiated and absorbed the corpse into the palm of his hand. "Alright, now we can finish hunting more monsters!"

…

About three hours later, Agnar finally received a system notification.

Ding! "Mission completed: Hunt down 20 monsters (20/20) Reward: Blessing (Soul Extraction, Montaq rank, Upgradable)." Agnar smiled as he looked at the blue holographic screen in front of him.

"Now this is what I'm talking about!" Agnar yelled out in satisfaction.

Ding! Another system window popped out in front of Agnar. "Due to your superior rated performance on this mission, the system has awarded you with an extra 10,000 EXP."

Agnar was overjoyed, he was finally no longer in the negatives and had a chance to level up. He then proceeded to open his stats.

Strength: 7 Mana: 20 Level 9: 250/2,000 EXP Health: 26/30 Mana: 100/100

Agility: 6 Mentality: 5 Rank: Low C tier Champion/ Low 3rd tier mage.

Defense: 5 Health: 5 Attribute Points: 40

Stamina: 4

Agnar once again laughed with joy as he saw that his level was no longer 2. He closed his stats window and opened up the Blessings window.

{Blessings:} Magic (Niveru Rank, Upgradable). Soul Extraction (Montaq Rank, Upgradable).

Agnar looked at the new Blessing's description and found out that it could absorb the souls of organisms and take their abilities. However, at the Montaq rank, Agnar currently can only absorb souls partially and take weakened abilities.

"Interesting, let's try it out." Agnar nodded and withdrew the corpse of the Burst Panther out of his inventory. He activated Soul Extraction and a bright light within the Burst Panther started to shine and vibrate. The light slowly started to connect with a light that was also appearing on Agnar's body. After a few minutes, a system notification popped up.

"Extraction Complete. Successfully Extracted the Burst Panther's Innate Ability: Burst Step. The Host's Blessing rank is not high enough, automatically turning Burst Step into a similar skill… Complete. New skill received: Burst Step (2 steps)."

Agnar frowned as he looked at the newly received skill. He remembered that the Burst Panther had four steps to his Burst Step, so he realized that the system weakened it down to two steps for himself. Agnar then proceeded to take out all the other corpses that were stored in his inventory. He decided to only absorb the useful abilities and sell the other corpses later for money.

After a while, he finished absorbing 8 corpses that he felt were useful. The other 12 he placed back inside his inventory. He then looked down at the black-robed metal manipulator's dead corpse. Agnar started the Extraction process in hopes of something good.

Ding! The system sent out a notification window after almost 30 minutes. "Extraction Complete. Successfully Extracted the Blessing: Metal Manipulation. The Host's Blessing rank is not high enough, automatically lowering the rank of Metal Manipulation to Vimeu rank. New Blessing received: Metal Manipulation."

Agnar beamed with excitement in his eyes. This was the first soul that he had received a Blessing from, all the other corpses gave him skills.

"I guess I should leave soon, it is starting to get dark out." Agnar calmed himself down and started to leave the forest.