176-185

Chapter 176 Ligrav & Rasnian

Everyone looked at Dilan as if he was the weirdest existence they had encountered in their entire life.

This confused him a little bit but he couldn't mind it too much as he noticed that his nose was bleeding.

However, that was the only aftermath Dilan had to face, nothing else.

'He is merely bleeding a little bit but seems perfectly fine in every possible way…is that owed to his race that is so powerful, or because he is a rare and strong individual of his race?'

The noble-clothed Lioness, who was standing in front of the others, couldn't help but feel a little bit worried.

It didn't matter that Dilan was weaker than her, or the guards behind her were even stronger than her. Even then, she didn't feel safe right now as the fear of having entered a too dangerous planet crept up her spine.

Meanwhile, Dilan had noticed that he had spoken rudely to the noble individuals of the foreign race, which was why he felt the need to change his attitude.

He straightened his back, smiled gently, and introduced himself formally.

"Greetings your Excellency, my name is Dilan Cier, I belong to the human race, and I'm not here to hurt anyone."

After his introduction, Dilan waited for a second, hoping for the others to say something in return. Unfortunately, they kept looking at him with seemingly soulless eyes, which was why he felt the need to break the awkward silence once again.

"May I know your name and what race you hail from? I'm very interested in the Sun God Valgard as well. I have never heard about divinity, the existence of Gods, and so on.-.

In fact, your Excellency belongs to the first foreign race I've encountered in my entire life. That being said, I would like to apologize if my behavior comes across as rude. I am not familiar with the customs and traditions of your race."

It was obvious that Dilan was intrigued by the two foreign races. Not only was this because he had to figure out their views about the human race but also because they seemed to have the support of a God.

This sounded terrifying enough for Dilan to act as politely as possible, which was certainly not his biggest strength.

Yet, the more Dilan spoke, the more frightened the others became of him. They looked at him as if he was a devil, who had crawled out of the pits of hell to tear them apart.

'His pronunciation is perfect…even someone who learns a new language instantaneously cannot achieve this…just what kind of monster did our hunters pick up?!'

Instead of answering any of Dilan's questions, the noble-clothed Lioness asked him a peculiar question.

"Is everyone….like you, or are you the strongest of your race?"

The answer to this question was the only thing the Lioness wanted to know, right in this instant. She couldn't just answer Dilan's questions without knowing the answer to that first.

"Strongest of my race?… I'm not sure. I guess I'm not the strongest? But I'm certainly strong!"

There was no arrogance in his voice. He was quite nonchalant as he revealed his honest thoughts.

He could tell that he was not the strongest amongst humans right now. This was quite easy to deduce because Pyro from the Death Beatles gang had reached Tier-1 before him.

As long as someone similar to Pyro existed on Milarn, he or she should have reached a much higher combat prowess than Dilan.

Dilan did not only face the disadvantage arising from his occupational passive ability [Warror's Unparalleled Physique] that deprived him of half of the Essences he absorbed but there was also the Blessed Curse!

The Blessed Curse [Will of the Primordial] crippled his quick advancement, which was why Dilan was certain that there should be stronger Ascenders out there on Milarn he had yet to come across.

This was despite the fact that Dilan had a Divine occupation and that he was likely to be the reason for the System to send everyone the notification about the 'Divine Inheritance'!

When Dilan connected the dots, it was impossible for him to be certain about anything related to someone being the 'strongest' of an entire race.

Dilan's answer may not be perfect but it was more than enough for the noble Lioness to sigh in relief.

As long as Dilan was not an average or below-average human, everything was somewhat fine.

He had been quite nonchalant while answering as well, giving the Lioness more confidence about her opinion that Dilan was simply a monstrous talent!

Feeling reassured after hearing Dilan's comment, the Lioness could finally answer his questions.

"There is no need to refer to me as 'Excellency'. I'm merely a Priestess and a loyal subject to the Sun God Valgard! I'm managing this small but beautiful temple in the name of the Sun God."

The Lioness made some gestures with her hands when speaking about the Sun God before continuing,

"My name is Brashta, and our race was named Ligrav by none other than our magnificent God, Sun God Valgard!"

After Brashta said this, she turned to one of the Hawk-men guards before pointing at them in a subtle motion.

"The Eternal Guards that were born to protect the Ligrav race and to ensure that we will be able to follow our Sacred mission are called Rasnian. As long as Rasnians would reach enough achievement to be promoted to guards, their words hold as much value as mine!"

Brashta explained a few more things he had to pay attention to, which Dilan absorbed like a sponge.

He was very intrigued by every single piece of information she told him.

That was also why he didn't even notice that the tension on top of the Sun temple had slowly receded.

The Eternal Guards had calmed down as well, while the hunters were now looking at him with a slight trace of interest.

'No wonder we thought that he was strong. He truly is!'

Strength held the most value for most races in the vast space. The Ligrav was no different, even less the Rasnian, who were always training hard to attain the rights to enter the lowest ranks of Eternal Guards.

They had witnessed Dilan's strength first-hand, which was why they had allowed him to pray to the Sun God Valgard to begin with.

It was the highest form of gratitude Warriors of the Ligrav and Rasnian races could offer other races, who hadn't been lucky enough to obtain the right to be under the Sun God's protection.

However, seeing that their savior was powerful enough to talk with their Priestess on the same level made them somewhat proud.

'We brought him to the temple, that was the correct decision, right?'

Brashta didn't notice the proud expression of the hunters and even if she did, she wouldn't have bothered about that.

Her intention in treating Dilan as if he was someone on the same level as her was simple.

First of all, he had protected her people, second, he had sacrificed his prey to the Sun God, and third, he was the only human they had come across until now.

The information she could obtain from him was vast.

Little did she know that Dilan had obtained far more information from Brashta's seemingly endless babble, rather than vice versa!

'Just what is their plan?'

Despite having received many pieces of information, it was quite difficult for him to figure out the Sun God Valgard's plan.

Maybe it was normal for Gods to branch out their temples in newly awakened planets in order to gain more influence.

This would make sense, considering that the sacrifices made to the Fragment of Sun God Valgard's Divinity should be of great importance.

The sacrifices might even strengthen the divinity but that was not something Dilan could know right now.

By the time Brastha finished speaking, Dilan was already deep in thought. He was thinking about the ways to utilize the information he had just procured.

He had already gained a lot from his short trip. That was why Dilan believed that it might be a little bit too much to be overly confident and invite unnecessary trouble.

However, he had the urge to try something.

"Priestess Brashta, is the Sun Temple willing to make a deal with me and my group?"

"….a deal?"

Priestess Brashta was not sure how Dilan reached this conclusion because she was pretty certain that her chatter had nothing to do with anything that could be used to make a deal.

Nonetheless, her interest was piqued because Dilan mentioned his group.

'So he leads more people? If we can figure out more about the human race by making a deal with him…why not…as long as we don't make a loss, that is!'

"What kind of deal did you think of?"

Chapter 177 Slaves

From the moment he had received the passive ability [Language comprehension], Dilan had been thinking about something particular.

'Not only are both the Ligrav and Rasnian race experienced in absorbing Essences, but they can hand out a Tier-1 passive ability like [Language comprehension] to someone they never saw…. Their knowledge about the system, and how to procure ability crystals should be far higher than mine!'

That was why Dilan thought about making a deal, without actively showing that he didn't know how to procure Ability crystals other than by trading them with Gates, and random fortune encounters.

"How about I and my group provide the Sun temple with sacrifices, and you provide ability crystals, treasures, and other things in return?"

Of course, Dilan didn't know if the Sun temple usually accepted any kind of corpse as a sacrifice. He was taking a big gamble by demanding ability crystals and treasures in return for some corpses.

However, the Priestess didn't show much of a reaction at first. She peered deep into his sky-blue eyes and tried to figure out what Dilan was thinking about.

'Did he notice something about the Sun God's Divinity? That cannot be…the Fragment still has enough energy to bless us with its Ancient flame…'

The Miniature Sun was not only the Fragment of the Sun God's Divinity but also a necessity for the Ligrav and Rasnian race to survive the winter.

They lived in extremely hot temperatures on their home planets and rarely faced difficult times with the surrounding temperature when expanding their influence.

However, this time it was different. The Sun temple had emerged when a strong snowstorm was wreaking havoc and showed no signs of calming down.

The Ligrav and Rasnian entered a weakened state the moment the surrounding temperature dipped in the single digits, while they felt powerful and full of vigor as long as it was hot or at least warm.-.

This was something both races had in common, their weakness in cold and their strength while being in a hot environment.

Dilan couldn't know this normally. However, while walking along with the six hunters when he was being taken to Brashta, Dilan had noticed that the four Ligrav and the two Rasnian felt much stronger when they were closer to the Miniature Sun than they had been outside the town.

What Dilan assumed was that the Miniature Sun and the Sun God's Divinity provided an effect on the Ligrav and Rasnian race that had enhanced their stats and mentality.

He told himself that the more sacrifices the Miniature Sun received, the stronger the Miniature Sun's effect would become, or that its range of effect would increase.

That was why he made the deal.

What Dilan missed out on noticing was the fact that the Sun temple's hunters were not able to hunt too many monsters in the cold, without facing severe issues.

This resulted in the Miniature Sun's accumulated energy decreasing slowly, resulting in a quite depressive situation.

The Priestess had already thought about sending out the Eternal Guards just to hunt some monsters and procure corpses.

However, this would result in the temple being unguarded for a while, which was not something they could do under any circumstance.

After all, the moment a powerful monster got wind of a God's Divinity, they wouldn't hesitate to try devouring it.

Even the slightest damage to the Miniature Sun would make the Sun temple's branch face annihilation and both the Ligrav and Rasnian race would face severe punishment for disappointing the Sun God Valgard.

That was why Dilan's deal sounded both too good to be true and suspicious.

After all, he presented a deal when they were already in a dilemma of how to handle the situation ahead.

Was that really a coincidence or was everything Dilan's masterplan?

Neither the Priestess nor the intellectual Eternal Guards of the Rasnian race were sure about an answer.

But what the Priestess knew was that she had to agree to the offer, because they truly needed help at the moment

'We might need help but that doesn't mean anyone is allowed to exploit us! If you desire to take advantage of our situation, I shall use you and your group to get to know the human race in its entirety!!'

The Priestess devised a simple system on how to take advantage of Dilan and his people, which was why she required a few minutes of silence until she began to speak once again.

"We're willing to make a deal with you and your group. However, we will do it properly and make use of the system to measure the value of each sacrificed monster!

It is possible to measure the value of a sacrificed monster in Sacred points. These sacred points can be exchanged for everything you want, for example, ability crystals, ingredients such as herbs and ores, special-type Essence crystals, and recipes for constructions, devices, and weapons. The Sacred points can even be used to be exchanged with Slaves!"

The Priestess sounded quite calm at first. However, the more she spoke the more Dilan was forced to control his facial expressions.

'Why is she offering so much? Something is odd…and what?! Slaves?? Why are we suddenly talking about slaves?'

Dilan was more than a little bit confused but he merely smiled when he heard the plan the Priestess had come up with. It was a little bit crazy, in his opinion.

For a short moment, he ignored the comment about slaves, and that the Priestess sounded a little bit too desperate as he made something clear.

"So to put it simply, if I sacrifice a monster's corpse valued at 2 Sacred points, I will be able to purchase an item of the same value, right?"

The Priestess nodded while acting as if this was only normal.

However, Dilan felt a little bit intrigued.

"May I know how many Sacred points the two Snowwhite Isolation Cheetahs were worth, and how much the [Language comprehension] ability crystal is worth? The value of a Silver Tier-1 Essence crystal interests me as well; both if I sacrifice it to the Divinity of the Sun God Valgard, and if I want to purchase it using Sacred points."

It was important to ensure that the Priestess wasn't exploiting them. He didn't trust her a tiny bit!

Dilan was sure that she wanted to take advantage of him as much as he wanted to take advantage of her. Their common goals were to get to know each other's intentions, the characteristics of the other's race, and much more.

The Priestess turned her head to the Miniature Sun to take a look at something.

"Your sacrifices were valued at 7 Sacred points, while a Silver Tier-1 Essence crystal is valued at 15 Sacred points if you want to purchase it, and 5 if you sacrifice it.

As for the [Language comprehension] ability, it is valued at 2500 Sacred points!"

Dilan merely nodded his head before thinking about something.

'Did that system already exist before? Are the Sun temple's hunters using the same system to purchase goods? Well, either way… the price is fine. I expected it to be worse!'

Dilan would have to hunt around 700 Bronze Tier-1 Level 10 Monsters to purchase the [Language comprehension] ability on his own. However, that was without sacrificing their Essence crystal.

Thus, only the corpses that didn't hold much value for Dilan and his people would be sacrificed in exchange for Sacred points.

This was great, to put it simply and Dilan felt his excitement skyrocketing.

[Language comprehension] should also be one of the rarer abilities, meaning that all of his Ascenders should be able to accumulate some Sacred points as long as they worked hard.

'Yvonne, Kathrine, Williams, and the others will be able to easily earn enough to purchase powerful ability crystals…we just need some time…I don't know how many sacrifices the Divinity requires but I should make use of it for as long as possible!!'

Dilan hid his sly smile behind a poker face, only to recall something else.

'But about Slaves…what the hell was that about?!'

Chapter 178 Deal

Dilan was not sure what to think about the slaves Brashta had mentioned earlier but he chose to speak about it.

He sensed that there was something important about it, which he had to know before agreeing to a deal with the Ligrav and Rasnian race.

Yet, even before he could speak about the slaves, a notification popped up right in front of Dilan's face.

[Access permission to God Valgard's Sacred Shop (Basic) has been granted. Sacred Sun Points can be exchanged with all kinds of goods!]

Dilan halted in his tracks for a moment. He opened his Ancient Log, where he found a small Sun icon, on which he tapped to open the Sacred Shop mentioned by Brashta.

A big window similar to the online shops he knew about opened on a new holographic screen.

Dilan searched through the Sacred Shop for half a minute while his focus was on the [Slaves] column, where he could clearly see that there were a total of six different races that had been enslaved.

'I have a bad feeling…'

There were even Tier-3 Slaves that could be purchased as long as one had enough Sacred Points. Their prices was in the millions, so Dilan didn't bother focusing on the actual price.

However, something felt extremely off.-.

"By the way, what is that about slaves? I see that there are a total of six different races exhibited in the Sacred Shop."

Dilan sounded extremely calm and as if he had merely noticed this just now. It was as if he didn't give the slave topic much attention.

Brashta noticed this, which was why she thought about her answer for a moment before concluding that the human race had their fair share in the practice of slavery as well.

"We have enslaved the beings of races we defeated. They're great laborers and have other powerful characteristics as well. Some are strong and are great manufacturers, some are knowledgeable blacksmiths, while others are merely good enough to do some chores.

Brashta could say a lot more about the races both the Ligrav and Rasnian annihilated in the name of the Sun God Valgard.

But she didn't feel the need to do so as her expression turned in disgust at the mere thought of some races.

Some had been like cockroaches, nasty pests that were seemingly impossible to eradicate, while others had been too strong to let them to live, even if they were to be enslaved.

'So you guys annihilated other races…and you act so nonchalantly with it…Looks like you didn't understand why I asked you about the slaves.'

Dilan was still calm but his mind was working relentlessly, slowly forming the grand picture of the foreign races he was surrounded with.

The information Brashta's comment and behavior revealed was more than enough for Dilan to be vigilant. He believed that the Sun God Valgard might attack the human race the moment he knew that they were not dangerous enough.

However, there was another point Dilan had figured out.

'She is not scared of me, otherwise, she wouldn't tell me this information. It could also be her naivety and trust in me but I actually doubt that.

But there should be another reason for the Sun God's subjects to be so careful around the Sun temple for the last few days…Is it because of the possibility of other temples to emerge nearby, or something else?'

Dilan had yet to understand that the Ligrav and Rasnian race were drastically restricted from expanding further owing to the cold environment in the Shikan plains.

'It will be fine even if they attack us when they become confident of defeating us. We will take advantage of them while they'll try to do the same…If the situation gets too risky, I will kill them all!'

There was no way Dilan could trust Brashta, the Ligrav and Rasnian race, let alone the Sun God Valgard.

He wanted to survive, and the same should be the case for the entire human race, without their freedom getting restricted.

Slavery and torture were the worst things someone could face. That was also why Dilan, who had faced numerous obstacles, pain, and a state in which he was almost enslaved in his childhood, felt anger surging up from the depths of his conscience.

However, he had to keep his calm, which was why he swallowed his anger as he asked another question that ought to lead Brashta down the wrong train of thoughts.

"If I were to purchase a slave, how would I be able to ensure their loyalty to me?"

Dilan's eyes seemed emotionless when he asked this. Brashta didn't think that it was a big secret, which was why she didn't feel like hiding it.

"Usually Ancient Magic is performed to bind the slave's soul to their new master. The master will be able to do anything they please with them. Even eradicating their slaves' soul will be possible!"

Dilan nodded his head at Brashta's comment before taking a deep breath.

"If there is nothing else to talk about, I will return to my people, share the details of the benefits Sun God Valgard's grace has given to us, and we will start hunting monsters for you."

Dilan acted as if he was delighted to be accepted by them and a worshiper of the Sun God after he had been given the task to hunt monsters in exchange for Sacred points.

This was something Brashta seemed to easily believe, which was the major reason for him to act like this.

"How many monsters will you be able to provide in 9 days?"

Brashta's sudden question caused the Eternal Guards to look at her with an incomprehensible expression.

'9 days? What is in 9 days?' Dilan asked before replying with another question.

"How many monsters do you need in 9 days?"

He wanted to know the exact reason for which they needed sacrifices in nine days. However, rather than asking something that may be deemed suspicious and distrustful, Dilan felt that it was much better to focus on everyone's expressions.

"If possible we need 25,000 Tier-1 monster corpses. 18,000 if the Tier-1 monsters underwent one bloodline enhancement, 12,000 if they underwent two bloodline enhancements. It would be a third less if their Essence crystals can be sacrificed as well."

Brashta tried to sound extremely calm, but that was nearly impossible. She had already drawn an inference according to the state of the Miniature Sun.

Nine days.

That was how long the Divinity could maintain it's current condition without receiving further energy supplies.

The numbers Brastha mentioned were quite high considering that Milarn underwent it's Primordial Ascension not even a month ago.

However, she had to be as accurate as possible about the number with which the Miniature Sun could be maintained for a week, at the very least.

Dilan didn't really care about the number of monster corpses she wanted to have in the following nine days. He was more focused on two particular things.

'Brashta and the Eternal Guards are nervous, while everyone else seems clueless as to why they need so many sacrifices in such a short time. That means only the higher authorities know what is going on, and it is certainly not something good for the Sun temple.

That aside, what exactly are bloodline enhancements? Does she mean the Essence crystal's quality with bloodline enhancements? Bronze monsters equal to one bloodline enhancement in that sense, I guess?'

It was almost impossible for Dilan to hide his smile. He slowly gained a better understanding of the world in which Milarn had changed to.

He was glad to have approached the Sun temple because he had made huge gains without losing out in any way.

'I shall tell the others about it as well!'

Having sealed the deal, Dilan smiled as he looked at Brastha.

"I'll take care of it."

After that, Dilan bowed faintly, which was the only way he knew of showing respect to others with gestures without coming across as rude to beings belonging to unknown cultures.

He walked past the priestess and the Eternals Guards, feeling unaffected by their presence that was even more distinct than the Blue Tiger's.

With sheer unbending confidence, he walked down the sun temple's stairs, and crossed the town, where he was once again eyed warily before he left the town without another backward glance.

Chapter 179 Scheming

"What?! You've been inside the Sun temple, and you actually spoke to these foreign races?!" Oliver shouted out in excitement, feeling that each of Dilan's words sounded next to impossible.

He had been a nerd in the past, which was why his hand was trembling in excitement at the thought of talking to a foreign race.

Oliver wanted to rush over and have a word with them as well but it was his good fortune to have Ailee by his side.

She held him back, forced him to stay put, and to keep listening to Dilan's report.

Dilan had returned not too long ago. He had ordered the others to call everyone over, including Old Jeff, Williams, Kathrine, and others, who had been working outside the hospital.

He didn't say anything else and waited patiently before everyone had arrived.

Most information he spoke about was rather nice to listen to but the anger and frustration in Dilan's eyes made it clear that there was something he had yet to reveal.

Ailee's discomfort increased the more Dilan spoke.

And exactly as she had expected, Dilan began to speak about the slaves once he had reported everything about the Sacred Shop, the deal he made with the Priestess, and other miscellaneous things.

"They…enslaved the races they've conquered? Well, this is actually not something uncommon to do in the Era of the middle ages. Didn't you expect that Dilan?"

Neither Williams, Sven nor Xenia were actually surprised about the fact that the survivors of the defeated races were enslaved.

"Rather than annihilating entire races after they had been defeated, it is actually better to make use of them.

This is even more so the case if the beings of the defeated races are more proficient in certain fields of work than their own race.

You could learn a lot, have cheap laborers, and gain a lot. So, I cannot really find fault with their behavior. I'm sorry…"-.

Sven sounded truly apologetic to Dilan. He could not tell why it was necessary to apologize but Sven felt that it was necessary.

Dilan's expression looked bad enough to make his own people fear his reaction. This was certainly not good and clearly showed his stance toward slavery and bondage.

It also showed the others that Dilan's past may not have been as rosy as some thought it was.

In fact, Dilan didn't have anything to say in response. After conquering a territory, it made sense to take charge of the people, who had not fought in the war. To ensure their loyalty and to prevent them from rebelling, using ancient magic to subdue and enslave them seemed logical.

One could even say that it was the most efficient and cheapest way to ensure a large, loyal labor force at their disposal that would never dare to usurp them.

But even if that was the case, Dilan couldn't think that it was correct.

'Is life better while being enslaved, or is it better to die?'

Dilan was actually not sure about the correct answer. If the slaves were treated properly, without too many restrictions except for being loyal to their master, staying alive might be worthwhile.

However, Dilan was having an internal conflict with himself because he didn't want to acknowledge that enslaving someone was humane.

His mind was rattling wildly, enlarging the mess in his mind.

But Dilan knew that there was no point in breaking his head over the slavery topic. It was not as if he had enslaved someone, or that he thought of doing something stupid and reckless just because the Sun temple had enslaved a few races.

The Sun Temple was mighty enough to enslave beings at Tier-3, meaning that they could easily restrict Tier-3 beings and engrave the enslaved with ancient magic.

For now, the Sun temple in the Shikan plains didn't have these capabilities, and the Eternal Guards he saw were the strongest existences in the temple but it didn't mean that this would always stay the same.

"We have to become stronger, much faster!" Yvonne suddenly exclaimed. She was seated next to her sister and would prefer to stay quiet and observe everything around her instead.

In fact, she officially joined the leader meetings only after advancing to Tier-1.

Given her occupation and the speed with which she improved, it was impossible not to include her in the gatherings. Her strength was something the entire group required, and the same could be said about the others.

"Yes, we need to become stronger. That's why I want to use the Sacred Shop to our advantage." Dilan had calmed down a little bit and nodded his head while agreeing to Yvonne's words.

They wouldn't be able to enter Tier-2 in the following nine days, but he was certain that they could procure enough corpses to fulfill the quota mentioned by Brashta.

18,000 Bronze Tier-1 corpses should be equal to more or less 30,000 Sacred points.

And that was after allowing his Ascenders to absorb the sacrificed monster's Essence crystals.

30,000 Sacred points were more than enough to purchase dozens of powerful ability crystals, even more, if they chose ungraded, or Tier-0 abilities with few stars.

However, in that case, they would have to upgrade them, which might or might not be a problem.

'I have yet to find out the upgrade requirements for [Thunder Step]. If we purchase powerful Tier-0 ability crystals but cannot upgrade them, it will be a big mess as well…'

For now, the issue Dilan had in mind was actually not much of a problem. They had yet to procure enough Sacred points and think about what everyone in their group actually needed to improve at a faster rate.

Would it be better to provide the low-leveled Tierless Ascenders with powerful abilities to allow them to improve much faster, or was it necessary to further strengthen their best warriors?

Those were important questions that had to be answered…but only in the future.

For now, there was something else that had to be solved.

"How do you plan for us to improve faster? What should we do to meet the monster corpse quota you just mentioned?" Sven was a little bit doubtful if they would be able to even find that many Tier-1 monsters in Rian.

That was what made him feel was the reason for Dilan to venture in the Shikan plains. This would make it easier to transport the corpses to the Sun temple as well.

However, Dilan merely smiled as he revealed what had been on his mind.

He threw the Penta Item Pouch at Sven without saying anything.

Several seconds of utter silence passed before everyone could see Sven's baffled expression.

"Since when?…How?"

Sven was not even able to ask proper questions but Dilan knew what he wanted to say.

"I got it by chance when I exchanged 50 Bronze Tier-1 Essence crystals at the large gate within the Krendel's Underground Valley."

Dilan had forgotten to tell Sven and the others about the Penta Item Pouch before. Only now did he tell them but this was quite good as well.

The timing was perfect, which was why his smile turned even brighter when he added,

"I don't know if anyone noticed this already but I got Mira a new ability crystal as well. The new ability was a Tier-0 ★★★★★ ability, which I also obtained in exchange for 50 Bronze Tier-1 Essence crystals at the large Gate within the Krendel's Underground Valley!"

Dilan kept smiling even after he finished speaking, while Williams and the others took the Penta Item Pouch from Sven to figure out what shocked him so much.

Williams knew how hard it was to actually shock Sven, which was why he had been the first to move.

And as expected, the information about the Penta Item Pouch was truly shocking.

"Is that real?! It might only be able to store a total of five items, but you can actually stack them one above another! This can be described as a highly effective storage space. Oh my lord!!"

Williams was even more shocked than Sven. Thus, for a minute everyone was baffled and their eyes flicked to Dilan as if he was a treasure trove.

"So…that is your plan?" Sven asked after a while, to which Dilan only nodded his head without saying a word.

"How about you tell us your plan as well? I won't get younger the longer you make us wait…" Old Jeff was intrigued by the Penta Item Pouch and was curious to know how it had been created but Dilan's expression was even more intriguing because it looked like he planned to suck the Sun God's Temple dry.

It might have been shocking that the Sun Temple belonged to a true God but it was not as if the Sun God had actually descended on Milarn.

As such, with Dilan in front of them, everything revolving around the Sun God's Temple seemed far less impressive.

"You plan to make us focus on hunting Bronze Tier-1 monsters to sacrifice their corpses while we exchange their Essence crystals with Bronze Tier-1 treasures at the large Gate, right?" This time, it was Kathrine, who had spoken.

She had kept quiet for quite a while. Her mind had been in a similar mess, simply because the danger of the Ligrav and Rasnian race was much higher than what she had hoped for.

They were not a new race but had already annihilated several races, a total of six races had been enslaved, and they had the support and backing of a true God.

Once it was possible for them to transport higher Tiered individuals of their race to Milarn, they might be annihilated in an instant with the emergence of an inferno.

Despite her earlier worries, Kathrine felt that she knew what Dilan's plan was, which was why she straightaway asked her doubts when Old Jeff wanted to know about his plan.

"Kathrine is mostly right. I want to assemble an Elite Combat Unit and want everyone else here, except Old Jeff, and Bianne to join me to go hunting for the following nine days.

I want us to focus on increasing our stats and level while putting aside the Essence crystals that won't provide any additional stat points. A group of the Porter Unit will bring the monster corpses to the Sun temple to sacrifice them. I'm the only one, who is rewarded with Sacred points, either way, so I'll receive the points from all the sacrifices made by the human Ascenders in the surrounding area.

As Kathrine mentioned, the leftover Bronze Tier-1 Essence crystals will be exchanged with Bronze Tier-1 treasures in the hopes of procuring more abilities and Penta Item Pouches to increase the hunting efficiency."

Dilan finished his explanation rather simply. In his opinion, his plan was not actually difficult.

The only problem was to appoint fresh leaders of the subunits because it was not feasible to prevent the strongest people in his group to focus on management tasks.

They should focus on increasing their strength, not their management skills.

And that was why they had to work hard on finding a way to reform their group and re-assign their responsibilities.

Several hours passed by and Dilan got to know many Survivors he had never seen before. They had been praised by Williams, Kathrine, Ailee, and the others, and been told to showcase their capabilities, whether it was team management, martial art knowledge, and so on.

Thus, the group was once again reformed, and sub-leaders, along with the management team below the sub-leaders and so on were shuffled.

Slowly, but steadily, Dilan's group turned into a real community that began to work like a well-oiled machine instead of an old and rusty machine.

Dilan liked what he saw, which was why he couldn't help but forget about his worries for a few seconds.

**

[A/N: If you like the novel support me with your golden tickets, and leave behind a review.]

Chapter 180 Large-scale hunt (1 of 3)

By reforming the leader-base once again, some things got a little bit messy.

However, it was not actually difficult to sort the issues. With Dilan's help, there was no problem to ensure that everyone would obey the new Sub-unit leader's orders.

As long as they didn't demand too much from their subordinates, the Sub-unit leader's orders could be taken as Dilan's commands.

This was what they had mutually decided upon after spending the remaining day appointing the most trustworthy Survivors and Ascenders as leaders, vice-leaders, managers, and so on.

The most difficult was still finding the leader of the Elite Combat Unit, the Hunting Unit, and the Scouting Unit. Within all these groups, one could find powerful Ascenders.

While the Tierless Ascenders were not allowed to join Dilan's large-scale hunting group, close to half of the Tier-1 Ascenders had to stay behind as well.

For some Ascenders, this was quite frustrating because they felt that they were deprived of the opportunity to become stronger.

They knew that standing by Dilan's side would allow them to advance rapidly.

However, because they had been ordered to stay behind, they could only obey. They were tasked with protecting the hospital, Old Jeff's workshop, and the Porter Unit as they were the ones to carry the corpses Dilan's hunting group would kill.

Another opportunity for them to shine would come and they would grasp it the moment it would arrive.

That was what the Ascenders told themselves; to grasp all the opportunities that unveiled themselves in front of them!-.

Williams and Xenia stayed as the leader of their group, simply because the Elite Combat Unit and the Scouting Unit needed someone strong to keep them in check.

On the other hand, Ailee and Oliver were replaced because Dilan had found the perfect person to teach new Ascenders.

Dilan had found a batch of five Martial artists not too long ago. They had attempted to fight monsters without any weapons, which resulted in quite severe injuries. The injuries didn't kill them but some of them could have been considered to be crippling enough.

Some of the Martial artists had a near-death experience before because the days that had passed by worsened the state of the injuries.

They had only survived thanks to Dilan's arrival and the Essence crystals he had handed them.

Right now, they could be considered to be quite powerful, even if they were still restricted by certain internal injuries that couldn't be healed even with the healing abilities some Survivors in their group had.

Their healing abilities were either too weak and had to be upgraded, or the Martial artists' injuries were far worse than what Dilan thought.

But that was not actually something Dilan was concerned about because teaching someone didn't require you to be fit enough to fight.

In the end, reforming his group once again worked out quite fine and it was possible for him and the others to leave early the next morning.

With some good rest, Dilan, more than 130 Tier-1 Ascenders, and some other Ascenders they required for specific tasks left the Rian mountainside hospital, while fully being prepared to fight hundreds of monsters head-on.

"We have never moved in such big groups…that is so thrilling!!" One Ascenders mumbled, feeling the chills running down his spine.

He was not the only one to be excited. Most present Ascenders had only seen Dilan fighting before he advanced to Tier-1. In fact, even Kathrine couldn't remember having clearly perceived Dilan's fight.

In the Krendel's Underground Valley the majority of his fights had been in darkness, preventing her from seeing much.

That was why she could only perceive that Dilan was powerful but had not witnessed it clearly.

Yvonne was powerful as well, but even the little sister was eager to see Dilan's fight.

However, this was mostly owed to the fact that the Origin ability told her that the next few days would be filled with blood and death!

"The Porters will be ready in half an hour, and they'll be protected by more than 50 Tier-1 Ascenders. That should be more than enough."

Sven had appeared next to Dilan all of a sudden. He had not chosen a combat occupation while advancing to Tier-1. Despite that, Sven could be said to be one of the most important Ascenders in the entire group.

He had chosen an occupation called [Strategist of the Thousand Kingdoms]. It was an occupation that had imprinted a lot of information in Sven's mind.

This information was mostly related to the management of a kingdom while going to war and what strategies could be employed in times of war, or against monsters.

Under normal circumstances, Sven's occupation was the most useful within the Rian mountainside hospital but Dilan wanted to get to know how Sven would fare as a General of a large group.

Thus, he had asked Sven to command and lead the entire group, astonishing many.

The astonishment didn't stop at the Ascenders but even Sven, Williams, and the others were not entirely sure why Dilan wouldn't want to show off that he was the leader of the group.

However, that was actually not something he could be bothered about. As long as there was someone who was more capable than him, he would allow him to do the things he or she was better at.

Dilan had no idea about warfare, which was why he stepped aside for Sven.

This was the right thing to do. He didn't regret his decision after listening to Sven's plan and was certain that everything would be fine.

"Alright, I can let myself loose and pave my way through the monsters, creating a gap for the others to enter as well."

Being in front of everyone while facing opponents in the center of the battlefield was quite important.

Not only was it possible for him to support the others if they were to require his help but his title [Beyond the Stars] allowed the allies in a range of 100 meters to gain more courage.

This was quite helpful, even more so because many Ascenders were nervous about the first large-scale fight they were in.

One mistake and not only their own life but also that of others would be endangered.

It was not too much to say that one's responsibilities were several times higher than usual.

And that was without the danger of powerful monsters getting a wind of their group. If monsters stronger than the Blue Tiger would attack them, even the large group of Ascenders would struggle to overwhelm them.

At least that was what many Ascenders thought but Dilan was actually not worried about that.

He was hoping to encounter some powerful monsters because he had to release some steam from his encounter with Priestess Brashta and all the information he had gotten about enslavement.

That was also why Dilan stormed into the first group of monsters they had targeted, the moment Sven instructed everyone to attack.

While volleys of arrows flew through the air, balls of fire, icicles, earth spikes, and various other long-range attacks followed suit in an instant.

The batch of more than a hundred Demonic Antelopes, who had noticed the Hunting group, retaliated by releasing a gloomy miasma.

The gloomy miasma shrouded the Demonic Antelopes in an instant, before expanding further.

Only their bloody red, glowing eyes could be seen through the darkness of the gloomy miasma. However, that was not enough for Dilan to halt in his tracks.

He was the first to pierce through the gloomy miasma before a huge blazing serpent emerged from his hand.

Carnage and the cold traps of death flooded the Shikan plains, caused by a single human being, and the terrifying weapon he wielded like a madman.

The Ascenders, who had been motivated to fight, charging at the gloomy miasma could only halt their tracks at the sight of the serpent form of the Blazing Serpentine Blade.

They feared being killed by accident. It didn't look like Dilan needed their help either…after all, the gloomy miasma was already diminishing, while the painful screams of dying demonic antelopes filled the Shikan plains with the rising of the morning sun.

"Maybe, I should have told him to hold back a little bit…" Sven mumbled first before he sighed deeply.

"How the hell will the others learn something if Dilan is already more than enough to massacre more than a hundred Tier-1 monsters in…three minutes…"

Chapter 181 Large-scale hunt (2 of 3)

After Dilan let off some steam, he didn't fight rashly again.

He allowed the others to fight as well and mostly focused on supporting them.

The most important right now was to allow his people to become stronger and to get his hands on as many monster corpses as possible.

Dilan merely focused on killing the four strongest monsters in each group and being at the tip of the spear formation they mostly used before observing everyone's fight.

He might not be the best teacher in terms of his personality because he was not really known for his patience and calmness, however, he could still tell if someone was wasting time and energy in unnecessary movements or not.

Not many Ascenders possessed a passive ability about combat mastery, resulting in the Ascender's prowess being far below the standard they should have attained according to their stats.

The Basic training all Ascenders received was only that…basic training.

No amount of training would match the experience they would gain while fighting to stay alive, which was why Dilan focused on supporting them.

After a few hours passed, Dilan and the others encountered the first few groups of the Porter Unit. They were carrying the corpses to the Sun temple.

Dilan procured some information from them, which was why he knew that the Ligrav and Rasnian race didn't do anything to block his people from entering the town or Sun temple.

In fact, Priestess Brashta and her people were being quite welcoming and kind to all the groups, who came to the Sun temple to offer monster corpses as a sacrifice to the Sun God Valgard's Divinity.-.

She was overjoyed that Dilan acted so fast because it decreased her worry about the possibility that the Divinity's Fragment would have too little energy to maintain their current life.

At the same time, Priestess Brashta believed that Dilan's actions were a sign that he trusted her blindly.

According to her, if he wouldn't trust her blindly, there was no reason for him to show her just how weak humans truly were.

There were not many powerful Ascenders in the rows of the Porter Unit. Thus, Priestess Brashta and the Eternal Guards were able to conclude that Dilan was not only 'a little bit' powerful but that he was amongst the strongest humans in the surrounding area.

Priestess Brashta was exhilarated after realizing this and she was ready to act even kinder if that was necessary to procure more information.

Slowly but steadily, Priestess Brashta came to the decision that the human race was much weaker than she could have expected. There were only a few Tier-1 human Ascenders, and not a single one of them radiated a dangerous presence.

However, what Priestess Brashta did not include in her train of thought was the fact that Dilan had sent a non-combat unit to carry the corpses to the Sun temple.

Only a few Tier-1 Ascenders had been employed as bodyguards to protect the lives of the weak members of the Porter Units.

Yet, even these Tier-1 Ascenders were far from being the strongest in Dilan's group.

In fact, Dilan was currently intently watching the development progress of the combat unit.

They had already spent a long time hunting for several hours and were currently resting and eating.

Dilan was surrounded by Sven, Yvonne, Kathrine, and the others. A few of them continued to speak about the group's plan for the following days and found ways of helping some Ascenders to fix their most apparent flaws, and how to utilize their gains in the most efficient way.

There were only eight days left to hunt more than ten thousand monsters if they wanted to meet the quota mentioned by Priestess Brashta.

It was not that they had to meet her quota but it would certainly 'improve' their relationship with her irrespective of the fact whether that was truly necessary or not.

"In the evening, I'll go to the Krendel's Underground Valley to trade the leftover Bronze Tier-1 Essence crystals. That should be early enough." Dilan said calmly before the others nodded their heads.

They didn't think that it was necessary to run back and forth to exchange the Essence crystals they had procured with Bronze Tier-1 treasures in an instant.

Dilan could store them in the Penta Item Pouch perfectly fine, so there was no problem to reconsider anything.

They needed Dilan by their side as well, simply because their large group attracted the most attention.

"I don't think it will be necessary to wait until the evening. We shouldn't hunt for more than a few hours today. Everyone is already exhausted and we shouldn't be too arrogant in the Shikan planes. It's the first time for us to enter the Shikan plains after the Primordial Ascension, and there may be things we have yet to find out.

In the late afternoon, dangerous predators are the most active as well. It would be too dangerous for the Porter Unit's members to be out on the Shikan plains that long." Sven commented after looking around.

He had deduced quite some information through the last few weeks. Thus, he knew when monsters were the most active, and what to pay attention to.

Dilan nodded his head without thinking about disagreeing with Sven's commentary. Sven was right with everything he had said, and if Dilan were, to be honest, he was already happy that monsters such as the Blue Tiger had yet to appear.

From the looks of it, the Shikan plains were currently more secure than Rian's center.

When Dilan realized this at first, he found it to be quite weird. But after giving it some thoughts and discussing the topic with Sven, it made more sense.

The majority of humans, which were of high use to monsters, had lived in Rian and all the other cities spread through Milarn when the Primordial Ascension had occurred.

That had probably been the reason for most monsters to flood the city. They became stronger the more humans and other monsters they killed and decided to make the city their territory at the end of the day.

It was only a matter of time before the first monsters would leave the city. Once the first monsters would leave, the others would follow suit.

Only then would it be necessary for Dilan and the others to be fully focused on upping their protection even more than it was already.

Until then, it was best to focus on becoming stronger, which was what they had been doing for the last few hours.

Strength was important to eradicate all their threats, after all.

Everyone had leveled up several times, and the stats of most Ascenders had increased by more than 5 Units!

Even Dilan had leveled up once and he had gained quite a few status points.

Their strategy of hunting in a large group resulted in such a great result. The following days of hunting would become easier the more the Ascenders improved as the strength of monsters on the Shikan plains couldn't change that much in the next few days.

At least, herbivores wouldn't be able to become much stronger in a few days.

However, simultaneously with the Ascenders' increase in strength, everyone's progress would diminish the higher their level would reach.

After all, if their level exceeded that of the monsters they had killed before, the Essence and status points they would receive were bound to decrease rapidly.

The bigger the gap to the being killed, the more Essence and status points one would receive. However, the same logic played an important role the other way around.

If an Ascender was at the same level as the monster they killed, the Essence and status points could be said to be at 100%.

If the Ascender was of a lower level, it would increase exponentially but if the Ascender was of a much higher level, the Essence crystal would slowly lose value, until they wouldn't provide any Essence or status points further if Ascender's level was way too high!

Dilan didn't face many issues with all of this but his Ascenders would have problems to keep progressing at a rapid pace if they would be unable to face powerful monsters.

But Dilan didn't worry about that. His earlier worry had been that his people would progress too slowly to keep up with the rapid speed at which other living beings seemed to evolve and mutate.

It was truly frightening but with the way things were currently progressing, Dilan felt a little bit more reassured.

'As long as we're giving our best, everything will be fine…I'm sure of that!! As long as we don't give up, we'll be able to overcome everything!!'

**

Chapter 182 Large-scale hunt (3 of 3)

The following four hours passed in the blink of an eye. Everyone was exhausted but bright smiles appeared on the faces of the exhausted Ascenders.

They had leveled up once again, and their stats had increased as well.

Some had already noticed that their leveling speed had slowed down quite a bit and their stats were also not improving as much as before.

However, all of this was not that important because they knew that the next four days would allow them to become even stronger.

Everyone was excited, knowing that they had already killed more than 2000 monsters on the first day.

The Ascenders were slowly honing their fighting tactics, and they were getting to know their comrades, further increasing their prowess by working together as a true team.

Dilan had expected a lot in the following days. He was pretty sure that everyone would improve rapidly, whether it was their levels, stats, combat awareness, combat experience, and proficiency in using their abilities.

Throughout the last few hours, he was surprised at the high combat awareness depicted by some of the Ascenders. Their innate talent to assess the situation on the battlefield was exceptional.

It had allowed them to progress faster than others and to hunt more monsters than the rest.

The most impressive of them all in Dilan's opinion was Yvonne.

Even if it was already obvious that she would be extremely powerful owing to her Origin ability, the perks of her Legendary graded occupation were clearly displayed today.-.

Her Special Trait [Wings of the Fallen Angel] allowed her to fly in the air with the help of the black-feathered wings which sprouted out of her back.

Shooting bullets of darkness at her opponents while flying in the air allowed her to fight at an unimaginable advantage.

However, adding two corpses to her fleet which she could control with a single thought increased her combat power even further.

She might not be threatening for Dilan because their occupations and fighting styles were too different, but as long as Yvonne fought monsters, who were incapable of fighting in the air, or attacking via long-range attacks, she would be invincible.

But Yvonne was not the only one, who Dilan was quite astonished about. Williams' fights were extremely pleasing and oddly interesting to look at.

His extraordinary graded occupation was called [Great Mentalist]. It allowed Williams to read the mind of weaker-willed humans, which was quite useful.

This didn't help him in fighting other monsters but Williams didn't really need help to fight monsters.

After all, his [Psychokinesis] ability had been upgraded to Tier-1★, while receiving further amplification thanks to the Great Mentalist occupation.

As he could control several weapons with his mind, Williams could fight a dozen monsters at the same time.

He didn't choose to actively fight other monsters. Rather, he made use of the fact that his weapons could fly through the air the way he wanted them to and supported his people.

On the other hand, Kathrine acted like a Crazed Berserker most of the time. She charged at her opponents and made use of the Gray Slayer's sharpness to kill them. If necessary, she even used the additional lethality her lightning created to brutally finish them off.

She had received the Gray Slayer from Dilan after he had obtained the Blazing Serpentine Blade. This was why Kathrine had wanted to show Dilan that she was the perfect person to wield such a strong weapon.

However, even then, Kathrine's achievements weren't as impressive as the two Ascenders, who had shown remarkable proficiency while wielding ordinary Serpentine Blades.

Even if they were only the ordinary version of the Serpentine Blades, they were extremely difficult to control at first.

Nobody dared to approach any of the few Ascenders, who wielded these items. Thus, they had to fight on their own at first, which made things more difficult as they sometimes faced 10 monsters at once.

Yet, by facing the nearly unbearable pressure of fighting 10 monsters simultaneously, the few Ascenders improved rapidly, and at a much faster rate than anyone else.

Their control of mana improved the most. Dilan felt like a proud father upon seeing the improvements of all Ascenders in his hunting group.

They hadn't faced many problems while hunting, not a single Ascender died, and even if quite a few members had been injured in his group, nobody had been severely injured, to the extent that they would be deemed crippled.

With a few Ascenders amongst them who possessed healing abilities, it was not that difficult to tend to everybody's injuries.

And the fact that Sarah had long since begun to concoct the mana replenishment potions further improved their recovery speed.

Their effect might not be exceptional anymore but one could gulp them down one after another so as to rapidly replenish their used up mana.

Dilan didn't need these potions anymore because he would rather get accustomed to the sensation of his life force being drained.

This was one of the few forms of training Dilan had given himself; getting accustomed to unimaginable pain to prevent his mind from going awry every single time he had to replenish his mana quickly.

It was not as if he would die while bearing some pain, either way. He still owned a powerful Origin ability that could literally heal him from any kind of dying state!

"Powerful monsters spotted on our left!! They're hunting…Dodos??"

The sudden warning from one of the archers, who had been acting as watchguards of their group attracted Dilan's attention.

"Dodos? You mean these little chubby birds, who cannot fly… Those birds that went extinct hundreds of years ago?" Instead of bothering about the fact that powerful monsters were spotted nearby, one of the Ascenders was more interested in the fact that the archer found Dodos.

Many exhausted Ascenders were confused but also intrigued, so they took a glance in the direction the archer looked at with his bare eyes.

The archer in question had a passive ability called [Eagle Eyes]. It increased his eyesight to clearly see in a radius of close to 500 meters despite being a Tier-0 ★★★ ability.

After getting up from the ground, Dilan picked up the spyglass from one of the other archers, who had turned to his colleague to take a look at the Dodos.

"These monsters…what the hell are they?!" The young archer, whose spyglass Dilan had taken away mumbled, feeling confused and slightly frightened.

Dilan was confused too before his expression stiffened the moment he saw the batch of three weird mythical beasts hunting a group of more than a hundred dog-sized Dodos.

It looked like the mythical beasts were playing around with the Dodos before tearing them apart whenever one of the poor birds got exhausted.

"What are they?" Dilan repeated while keeping his senses on high alert.

He was currently looking at three mythical monsters, whose lower body was that of a grayish-scaled lizard. However, instead of short legs, they had legs that were several times longer than that of ordinary lizards.

If one considered this a rare trait, Dilan didn't know what one would call it after figuring out that the neck and head of the 'lizards' were that of two Serpents!

Their necks were one-meter-long, and each of the mythical beasts had two of them, two necks and two heads…

Dilan was not even sure what to call such a beast.

"Are those possibly…hydras?!" Oliver exclaimed in excitement after he had gotten his hand on a spyglass.

Dilan could understand Oliver's excitement. As a former full-time nerd, Oliver had obviously heard of hydras before.

However, Dilan couldn't help but frown.

'They're too small to be Hydras…right? Please don't let them be hydras…'

Taking a deep breath, Dilan focused his senses on the beasts they presumed to be hydras. Not long after he sensed the powerful presence of the Hydras as well, turning his worst fears into a reality.

"The archer was right, they're powerful…maybe even stronger than the Blue Tiger!"

That being said, Dilan licked his dry lips, completely forgetting about his earlier worry as he said in a definitive tone,

"I will take care of them, you guys can return…"

Chapter 183 One versus 3... or 6?

"You want to take care of these…things all by yourself?" Ailee asked with a disgruntled look.

Even if the serpent-headed lizards were far away, and busy playing around with the large group of Dodos, one could clearly sense how powerful these monsters were.

They might only be 1 meter tall if one did not include their long necks but a monster's size was never a great indicator of their strength.

As such, Ailee and the other Ascenders couldn't help but feel that it was too dangerous for Dilan to go out alone.

'These monsters are too powerful…if something happens to Dilan the entire community we build up with painstaking effort will crumble!'

"We want to help. As long as we have a good plan, we can wear these mythical beasts out by attacking from a long range. There are many Ascenders in our group, who can fire long-range attacks!" Kathrine suddenly intervened while looking worriedly at Dilan.

However, Dilan just shook his head.

"I want to take them on, all by myself. Don't worry, I'm stronger than them!"

Dilan sounded confident but this was not enough to convince the other Ascenders who stared at the beasts apprehensively.

They knew that Dilan was powerful but they had also seen that the weird serpent-lizard monsters were able to spit poison out of their mouth.

Their speed was not to be underestimated as well.

Thus, Dilan had to keep listening to the other's worried comments.

In the beginning, Dilan felt that their worry about him was a sweet gesture and it warmed his heart. But after some time, he thought that they were being needlessly anxious which made him sigh out in frustration.

"Rather than not being able to fight them on my own, I think that you guys will be in my way. There is literally not a single Ascender in this group, who has a single stat reaching 50.

Only Yvonne's Mana stat might be close to that and even then, her other stats are far below her Mana stat! I don't want anyone in this group to die, so I will say it only one more time.

I take the three mythical beasts on, by MYSELF! Is that clear?"

Even if there were Ascenders in his group, who had stat amplifying abilities, some pieces of powerful equipment and occupations that increased their stats by a bit as well, there was not a single Ascender in their group, whose stats exceeded 50 in a single category.

Thanks to her Origin ability and the Legendary occupation <Fallen Angel>, Yvonne's Mana stat had reached 48 Units.-.

If she were to find a proper mana-amplifying treasure to wear, her Mana would cross 50 Units. However, even then, her other stats lagged behind.

Dilan presumed that she had yet to reach average stats of 30 if he didn't include her Mana stat in the equation.

And that was already including the boosts in stats she had received by hunting for 8 hours.

That was why it was dangerous even for Yvonne to join Dilan's fight.

After all, his stats were much higher.

"But if we stay far enough, and attack only the two mythical beasts you steer clear of, it should be fine… as long as we have a good tactic it should work!" Kathrine was the most eager to help Dilan.

She didn't want to see him hurt and gave her utmost to follow every single order Dilan had given them just now.

He wanted them to leave, but Kathrine didn't want to .

She looked at Dilan stubbornly, which forced him to show her his Log of the Ancient so that she would finally quiet down and leave.

'Why the hell is she so stubborn? That's not how she acts normally. Doesn't she trust in my strength anymore? Have I become so weak in her eyes?!'

Dilan was a little bit flabbergasted because even his fierce and determined expression hadn't worked on Kathrine.

Usually, she wouldn't bother about what he was doing and just work on the tasks assigned to him. But suddenly she was demanding to fight by his side. This was weird.

Thus, Dilan opened his Log of the Ancient and showed her his stats, giving her permission to see everything.

____________

Name: [Dilan Cier]

Rank[Tier-1 (Level 4)]

Race [Human]

Occupation [Kirak's Vassal(Divine)]

Title [Beyond the Stars <Bronze(Growth) >]

**

Strength= [40.1+4] (+5)

Health= [84.5+8.4]

Stamina=[34.1+3.4]

Agility=[37.6+3.7](+10)

Mana=[44.6+4.4]

Status Points to allocate→9.5

**

-Origin ability-

[Regeneration] Tier-0 ★★★★✭✭

-Special Trait-

[Stone Skin]

-Active abilities (1/4)-

[Thunder Step] Tier-0 ★★★✭✭

-Passive abilities (3/7)-

[Immunity] Tier-0 ★✭✭

[Nightvision] Ungraded ★✭✭

[Language comprehension] Tier-1 ★✭✭

-Blessed Curse-

[Will of the Primordial]

____________

Dilan restricted Kathrine's sight, so as to not let her see the "Divine" tag alongside his occupation and the Blessed Curse.

He wanted to show her the effects of some of his Occupational abilities as well, including the Special trait [Bearer of Pain], the ability [Bracing Pain], and how much his 'ordinary' ability [Thunder Step] had improved thanks to the star-rating enhancement he received from his occupation.

But that was not necessary as Kathrine was already utterly dumbfounded while looking at Dilan's Log of the Ancient.

Her eyes were wide as saucers and she looked at Dilan in confusion before turning her head back once again to look at the Log of the Ancient.

Dilan was not really satisfied with his stats because they improved at a slow pace owing to his Blessed Curse but he had also the advantage of gaining more status points by absorbing the Essence crystals of higher-leveled monsters.

That was something the others wouldn't face anymore as their level had long since surpassed that of Dilan's.

Kathrine saw Dilan's level as well but she couldn't quite come to terms with it because his Health stat of more than close to 93 Units was simply too shocking.

Even his weakest stat was at 37 Units, and it was Stamina, which was not exactly something Dilan would need an exorbitant amount of while fighting the three mythical beasts.

Nodding her head subconsciously, Kathrine turned back. She was still utterly dumbfounded, which was noticed by the others. However, nobody dared to ask her a question as she mumbled.

"Let's go…we're not needed here…"

Yvonne appeared next to her dumbfounded sister, which allowed her to see how Kathrine's dumbfounding turned into a sudden and unexpected determination.

"Sis…we need to get stronger…much stronger, otherwise we might hold Dilan back in the future…and he might abandon us at that time…"

Kathrine was spouting nonsense in Yvonne's opinion but she could also tell that Dilan's strength was not something she could fathom anymore.

Ever since he had advanced to Tier-1, his presence had changed and it was as if his endless power was consistently increasing, spreading out, shrouding everyone. It was a weird feeling.

Even if one were to try to fight him, the sisters were unable to figure out if there was even anyone, who was stronger than him, to begin with.

Dilan smiled apologetically while looking at Kathrine. However, in his opinion, revealing his Log of the Ancient had been the only way to get rid of the stubborn Kathrine.

Thus, while everyone else was packing up, and preparing to leave, Dilan grasped the Blazing Serpentine Blade tightly.

A glint of excitement flashed through his eyes as the ground below him cracked and dirt and rubble flew all over.

'I should get rid of them as fast as possible, right?' He thought, smiling devilishly before he blasted ahead.

The ground below his feet was pushed away, and a small hole was formed.

Meanwhile, everyone else had halted in their tracks as they noticed various changes in Dilan's presence and demeanor. From his 'ordinary' powerful presence, Dilan had turned into an existence several times stronger than before.

This was a change he made in an instant as currents of electricity surrounded his feet.

In a single second, Dilan had crossed the distance between his group and the mythical beasts.

He had used 10 Units of Mana to activate [Regeneration] despite it not being necessary. It was just a precaution and a means to use up more mana if required.

Following that, 5 Units of Mana were instantly transferred in the Blazing Serpentine Blade, and another 5 Units of Mana were used to activate [Momentary Strengthening] which increased his Strength by 10 Units for 10 seconds.

Afterward, he activated [Mana Slash] using 20 Units of Mana. The brightly ignited Blazing Serpentine Blade in its serpent form began to glow in a white light that further highlighted its red and fiery flames.

All of the Ascenders stopped moving as they were awestruck by Dilan's speed, his strength, and the high density of mana that shrouded their leader.

Dilan had used up a total of 40 Units of Mana in an instant…exactly as he had planned.

Bearing with the seemingly endless pain of converting 80 Units of his Health to replenish the Mana he had just used up, Dilan's Life force was rapidly drained.

In return, Dilan's occupational passive ability [Bracing Pain] had been activated, amplifying his overall prowess by more than 40%.

Feeling the endless pain surging through every single cell of his body, Dilan felt as if he was going insane.

However, the Strength and Agility of the three mythical beasts exceeded 50 times the average human before the Primordial Ascension.

This was something Dilan knew for sure! Thus, he used three Units of Mana to activate [Thunder Step] thereby increasing his Agility by 30%.

Dilan turned into a flash as his Agility easily crossed 85 Units. Gritting his teeth, he endured the pain and emerged in front of his opponents that noticed him when he had already emerged in their range.

To their misfortune, they had been too distracted while playing around with the dodos. They had noticed Dilan and his group and chose them as their next target.

But it was important to wear down their current toy before approaching their newfound plaything.

Thus, their guard had been lowered to such an extent that they noticed Dilan's sudden increase in strength too late.

He swung the 20-meter-long enlarged form of the Blazing Serpentine Blade around while releasing the accumulated mana he had used to activate [Mana Slash] all at once.

Unleashing a thundering roar that echoed through the surrounding area, Dilan's [Mana Slash] was fired at once and pierced through his opponents.

The attack was forcefully halted after penetrating the mythical beasts' thick skin, and a few centimeters of their flesh.

Their defensive capabilities were what these monsters were the most confident about.

However, what they didn't expect was that Dilan's [Mana Slash] was not his main attack, but only his means to wear down their defenses and tire them out.

Thus, the moment the Blazing Serpentine Blade slashed through the beasts upon following the exact path of the Mana Slash, blood, intestines, and body parts splattered through the surroundings.

Fleeing from the battlefield, the Dodos escaped as fast as possible and ran for their lives.

They left the only living being on the battlefield…because that being was even more frightening than the ferocious mythical beasts that had torn their brethren apart…

It was the devilish image of a human being, who was smiling like a maniac while panting heavily standing under a rain of blood…causing them to feel various emotions at once…fear…admiration…excitement….anxiety… and many more.

Chapter 184 Inhuman? Invincible?

"Oh my…god.."

"What the hell"

"He…is still human…right?"

Even if they had been told to leave, Dilan's fight had ended even before all Ascenders had been able to pack up their stuff.

After seeing his performance, Kathrine and Ailee felt embarrassed about their offer to help Dilan in the fight against the powerful two-headed lizards.

'Couldn't he have said that he will be able to take care of them in an instant?' Kathrine grumbled to herself.

However, she clearly recalled that Dilan had tried to tell her that there was no need for him to receive any help.

It was just that Kathrine had not quite understood him because she had been too worried.

Meanwhile, Williams and the others looked at Dilan in fear, admiration, and as if they were standing next to a real God…The God of War and Slaughter…

Everyone looked at Dilan as if he was an inhuman existence but the young man didn't notice that at all.

He was breathing heavily and took a batch of mana replenishment vials out of the Penta Item Pouch before swallowing the sweet liquid in one go.

After he downed more than 10 vials, Nial felt a little bit better. He used [Regeneration] over and over again but the sensation of his Life force having been drained was still apparent in his mind.-.

'I wonder if I'll ever get accustomed to this weird feeling…'

It was unbearably painful whenever his Life force was drained. Not even injuring himself severely to upgrade his Origin ability was that painful.

To add on, it required a mere thought to activate the Special Trait [Bearer of Pain], and it didn't even count as a severe injury if his Health stat reached a dangerous level whenever his Life force was drained from him.

Dilan didn't understand why this was the case but he couldn't care less about it right now.

He approached the three monsters and began to search through the serpent's brains in order to find their Essence crystal.

However, before he found anything, Dilan's attention was quickly drawn to the spot right below the spot where the necks of the two serpent heads branched out. Right in the center of this spot which was below the joints of their necks and on the monster's chest, Dilan could clearly sense something.

He quickly pierced through the said spot with the longsword-form of the Blazing Serpentine Blade.

'That destroys my theory that the Essence crystals of all monsters are in their brains.'

Dilan had pierced the monster's heart, pulled it out, and found a Golden Tier-1 Essence crystal within its body.

Like the first, the two remaining corpses also had their Essence crystal within their hearts, which was how Dilan ended up with a total of 3 Golden Tier-1 Essence crystals in his hands.

"Gold…so these monsters underwent three blood enhancements? Or was it blood evolutions?"

Dilan tried to use the knowledge he had received from Priestess Brashta in order to determine the truth behind the color and purity of Essence crystals.

However, he quickly abandoned this thought and decided to let the future tell him more about this new theory. He didn't want to worry too much about something that might not even be worth being worried about.

Thus, he absorbed the three Gold Tier-1 Essence crystals that crumbled in his hand a moment later.

[3 <Gold > Inferior Two-headed Hydrani Tier-1 (Level 8) have been absorbed→+1.9 Health, +0.9 Stamina, +1.2 Mana]

[Essence pool has been filled. Host reached Level 5(Tier-1)! +1.0 Status points can be allocated!]

It had been quite some time since Dilan received that many status points by absorbing Essence crystals. It was a great feeling and clearly indicated that the Inferior Two-headed Hydrani must have been extremely powerful.

Without his surprise attack, his suicidal combination of abilities which Dilan had used to increase his prowess drastically, followed by the mana slash, it would have been quite difficult for Dilan to overwhelm the three Gold Tier-1 monsters.

And then, there was still the modified Blazing Serpentine Blade, which had followed the exact same trajectory as the Mana slash,

In some situations, it might be nice to have a fair fight, head-on against powerful opponents but Dilan was quite satisfied with the fight he had just won.

"Dodos and some Hydrani, or whatever type of inferior Hydra they're… Does their appearance mean that a dangerous permanent Gate emerged on the Shikan plains, or was it just a temporary Gate?? I found two temporary Gates in Rian as well. Is their number slowly increasing or was it just a coincidence for me to encounter two temporary Gates before?"

The number of mythical beasts in Rian was certainly not low, and the same could be said about their numbers on the Shikan plains.

However, so far, Dilan had not faced many mythical beasts that had been on par with the Blue Tiger.

The Inferior Two-headed Hydrani should have been slightly stronger than the Blue Tiger if he was not mistaken, which was why he started contemplating in his mind.

'We're already giving our best to improve faster. Is it still not enough? Do we have to change our plan?'

Dilan was not sure about the truth, and it was not as if he could force his people to do even more than they were already doing.

Thus, he stored the corpses of the Three Gold Tier-1 monsters away before returning to his group.

They had yet to leave and now that his fight was over, they decided to wait for him.

Dilan had not expected his fight to end so quickly as well, which was why he was glad for them to have waited for him, even if it was not what he had ordered them to do before.

He was a little bit exhausted but he could still endure it.

Without minding the gazes that were fixated on him, Dilan merely smiled as he stepped forward.

"Let's return to the hospital. We have to be fully prepared for tomorrow and the following week!"

His voice was not loud but everyone heard Dilan. A moment later, thundering roars emerged from the usually quiet group of Ascenders.

"Yes, Boss!"

"You're right, Leader!"

"We won't disappoint you, Boss!!"

"As long as you're by our side we will be invincible!"

Dilan twitched the moment he heard all of their shouts but he didn't say anything about it.

He was simply too tired to raise his voice, let alone to act in a domineering manner.

Sven and the others could focus on quieting down the Ascenders to prevent some powerful monsters from getting wind of their group's whereabouts.

Or at least, that would have been important if any powerful monster was still in their proximity, let alone bold enough to attack Dilan and his group…

With their exhilarated mood, nobody felt like sleeping or resting even after they had come back to the hospital.

Everyone ate their fill, while excitedly gossiping about the events of the day.

The Ascenders, who had been hunting with Dilan bragged about the increase in their strength, their level-ups, and most importantly, about Dilan's strength.

In the beginning, they didn't speak about Dilan's last fight. They merely bragged about how easily Dilan defeated his opponents and that he supported them in every possible way.

They watered down the story and his fight, which was why some of the newer Survivors started to believe that Dilan was a powerful Scholar.

However, that image was shattered the moment the Elite Ascenders began to brag about Dilan's achievement as he killed the three Inferior Two-headed Hydrani.

Even if none of them knew that these three monsters had been Gold Tier-1 monsters, this was not the important part of the story.

Rather, it was the strength Dilan had exhibited when killing the three monsters with a single set of powerful attacks!

Until late at night, the Ascenders kept bragging about Dilan, slowly etching a specific thought in the minds of all the survivors of Dilan's group.

-Everything would be fine as long as Dilan was by their side, nobody could lay a hand on them!-

Chapter 185 Danger?

While everyone was gossiping about Dilan's achievement, their so-called 'hero' in question had been speaking with Kathrine and the others.

Kathrine had apologized to him because she had doubted his strength. However, Dilan did not take it to heart.

He knew that Kathrine had been merely worried about his well-being, which was why she had been trying her best to force him to accept her and his group's help.

It was trivial and he was not a dictator to want her apology for something so harmless. That was also why they could quickly switch the topic to something else.

Because Dilan's to-do list of things he had to do in the last few days had been filled to the brim, he didn't notice many things about the Rian mountainside hospital and his people.

The few pieces of information he got to know were from the reports he read occasionally, whenever he found time to take some rest and focus on reading.

"Is it about the 8 public executions? I already said that there was nothing to be worried about. I seriously doubt that the Survivors would dare to attempt raping the women or killing each other again. At least, I doubt that it will happen in the near future."

Dilan had heard about the eight acquaintances, who had joined them a while ago. They had planned to **** a group of women when everyone was sound asleep.

Fortunately, one of the night guards had heard the women's muffled screams and rescued them early enough.-.

Yet, while rescuing them the night guard had been heavily injured because two of the eight perpetrators had been an Ascender.

The Nightguard survived and was healing rapidly, while the eight perpetrators had been beheaded in public.

The rules Dilan had set up were not something one was allowed to break without fearing a drastic punishment.

Thus, the penalty of a quick death due to attempted **** and attempted murder was already awarding them a painless punishment and, in turn, an act of benevolence in Dilan's opinion.

Others may not think like that but it was not as if he cared about it. Beheading the criminals was merely an act to show that neither he nor his group showed mercy to those, who broke the rules under his reign.

For those, who had witnessed the first time Dilan beheaded someone, nobody would ever dare to do something stupid. They knew that they wouldn't be able to escape his wrath.

Exactly the same could be said about everyone else, who had seen the public execution. Only new Survivors, who would join them in the future might attempt something stupid but Dilan was sure that it wouldn't be a problem.

After all, as long as he could maintain a safe environment, a few executions were not noteworthy in his opinion.

If the death of scums brought peace and created a well-working community, Dilan would gladly 'take care' of the scums.

"It's not about the execution. Rather, more and more Survivors have started to speak about their family. Everyone wants to start searching for their loved ones. Even a few Tier-1 Ascenders asked to leave the group to start searching for their family.

They feel confident enough to leave and to come back with their family as long as they're still alive!"

This time it was Bianne, who spoke. She knew about most of the gossip because she would always spend her free time in the cafeteria listening to the Survivor's gossip, and their worries whenever she was not cooking.

That was why she revealed a lot of internal information whenever their group held a meeting.

Bianne's information was always quite useful. Their group had already spoken about the topic 'leaving the group to search for their family' quite a few times and Dilan's answer had always been the same.

Only today it was a bit different. Dilan added a few comments to his usual answer, attracting the attention of Sven and a few more quick-witted people around him.

"Well, as everyone knows, I don't shackle anyone. If they want to leave, we should give them some food, other necessities and they can give it a try. But we cannot do more than that. I won't be able to help everyone, and I actually don't want to.

It's their private business and their personal choice, I'm not their nanny and I have to stay close to the hospital to protect those who chose to stay back.

As long as we're still here, inside the Rian mountainside hospital, they can return but if they take too long to reunite with us, we won't wait for them.

Nobody should believe that they'll get any kind of special treatment."

Sven had listened intently to Dilan's comment and he looked at him in confusion. This confused expression subsided quickly but his eyes were still fixated on Dilan, question marks evident in his eyes.

"Are you planning on moving the group somewhere else?"

From the way Dilan spoke, Sven could only conclude that their leader wanted to move their base to someplace else.

He agreed to this but he felt that Dilan's decision was a little bit sudden and out of nowhere.

Dilan didn't answer Sven's question directly. He was actually not sure what he wanted to do.

However, he had a weird feeling about the mountainside behind them.

Dilan felt that it was not the best choice for them to stay in the Rian mountainside hospital or even Rian city.

The Sun temple was also a dangerous variable Dilan had yet to assess properly.

The Ligrav and Rasnian race were certainly dangerous but they faced no immediate threats from either because their relationship was currently rather advantageous and neutral, if one were to ask Dilan.

Their entire group gained numerous advantages from the Sacred Shop and the fact that they gained Sacred points by sacrificing the corpses of monsters that were nearly unusable in most cases.

Hunting monsters became several times more beneficial because they gained something from the entire corpse of the monsters they killed.

That was also why the strength of their entire group was bound to increase in the following seven days.

Yet, Dilan was suddenly thinking of relocating? Why?

It did not make any sense in their opinion. Despite that, nobody mustered the courage to say anything as they kept looking at Dilan and patiently waited for an answer.

'Something seems to be wrong, but what is it?' They thought.

However, Dilan didn't have an answer yet.

"We might have to move soon. Something is wrong about the mountainside, and it's far more dangerous than the Sun temple's existence…"

Dilan was not sure whether he felt this because his perception of danger had developed well, or if it was owing to something else.

But he could tell that something ginormous, something of extreme power resided within the mountainside.

At first, Dilan wanted to visit the mountainside to figure out what the unbearable presence he sensed within the mountainside was.

But even before he could t step back into the forest he had come out of on the day after the Primordial Ascension had occurred, Dilan had been held back.

His body and mind prevented him from entering the forest, and <Kirak's Vassal>, his Divine occupation, seemed to warn him about that place, telling him that he would die if he went there.

Dilan was not even sure how his Divine occupation warned him, but he could clearly feel that it was his Divine occupation that had prevented him from entering the mountainside.

He chose to trust his Divine occupation…but that was not something he could tell the others, otherwise, his credibility would shatter at once.

"I cannot say more for now because I have yet to find out more…but it would be great if you guys stopped everyone from getting too cozy with this place. When the time arrives, everyone should be prepared to leave, if not, I'm not sure if they'll survive…"