The Dark Forest

As Quinn arrived on Nyxterra, the landscape looked unreal as Quinn descended down, on top of the mountain. Standing on its tip, he could not help but admire the beauty of the planet; of the bioluminiscent dark forest, the patches clear of trees, and the lakes and streams that flowed were the embodiment of the lively nature on that planet and the thriving ecosystem.

"What a nice place," Quinn commented on the view, "At least the Vampires haven't fucked their planet up like we have... . Wait till the parasytes discover this place too; they'll fucking destroy it as they've done all the other planets, hahahahah! Ahh. I wonder why we, the Humans on Earth weren't forced to be made part of this Death Game...? Unless we and the Humas here are actually the same species... . I doubt that the Vampires came here on Earth and just picked a few of us up and left again. But, then again, why do we have so much stuff related to Vampires? Ugh... questions for another day."

Sniffing about for a bit, Quinn noticed that the air smelled somewhat like honeysuckle and roses. "Damn... this planet really just feels much better than Earth. I've never breathed in more fresh air in my whole life. Other than the gravity here being about 40% more than on Earth, everything's just a hundred times better; I'd defo' stay here and live like a neanderthal, away from all civilisation, hahahahah.

"Oh, right. Before I forget..." Quinn remembered that Aaron was still in the Shadow Space, so he released the latter from it. As Aaron fell down on the black, rocky surface of the mountain, out of nowhere, it seemed as though he had been running for a while as he looked completely spent as he seemingly jumped out of the portal and fell down face-first, "Well, shit."

Quinn jumped from the top of the mountain and into the dense, deciduous forest that streched for kilometres on end, with Aaron on his shoulder. He was headed straight for a beast that was closest to him. When he landed near the beast with a bang, creating a giant dust cloud, stumbling said beast, he could not quite see it for a second; however, he could still sense that it was close to him. But, after a second, he could see it again; he wondered why this was so.

When he used his [Scrutinize] Skill on it, he learned that the same was called a: "Stalker—Sen had talked about these quite vaguely... . Let's see what the Skill has to offer:"

Stalkers are medium-sized, agile creatures with elongated limbs that allow for silent movement. Their skin is covered in jet-black scales and fur that absorbed what little light that the planet received completely, and camouflaged itself as just another patch of black, in the middle of a forest where light barely enters. Their eyes were the same as their whole body because of the fact that they also absorbed the maximum amount of light, allowing them to see relatively better than the other beasts and creatures in the darkness of the forest; it was even helpful in seeing kin of their own kind. Using the cover of twilight and the darkness of the forest to hunt: they are solitary hunters, relying on stealth and patience.

Quinn had already equipped his new set of armour, but he did not wield his new three-section staff; he was waiting for a stronger being to appear to use it on. The armour fit him perfectly and the crown atop his head made it feel as though he was truly wearing an armour befitting of a divine king. The gentle light of the far-away stars that were eclipsed, reflected off of the emeral green scales of the Dragonic armour and the greaves of the Mantis; it hit the crown, forming a slight glint on its mostly dark material body.

The armour set seemed to glow with ethereal light perpetually. Quinn could feel the sheer amount of power that he got from the whole set. He could immediately tell that it was indeed an armour far outside the scope of mortal forgery; yet another reason to be happy about his acquaintanceship with Andre.

He continued to admire its beauty for a few seconds before he stepped forward, appearing right before the Stalker with his leg extended, travellng at least 50 metres in an instant, before chopping the beast's body smoothly—like the blade of the sharpest knife through butter. He had barely put any effort into the kick, and yet, it managed to do... that to the helpless beast that was scared witless when it saw Quinn donning the divine armour set.

Thinking of a decent idea for both raising his base stats and getting beast magic cores, Quinn was about to eradicate every single life form in a 1 kilometre radius, and use his [Gluttony] Skill to absorb their power, and use his Shadow to collect their cores. As he was about to proceed with the plan, he wondered what the limit to which his attributes could rise to as they were already pretty high; especially after the multiple Weekly Quests. He had figured that maybe 100 would be the limit, but that definitely was not the case.

Thus, without further ado, he used his Authority over Darkness over a large area—1 kilometre, approximately. Coupled with his Arcane Energy that helped his locate the beasts, it was quite deadly when used at such a large scale; the helpless beasts did not even know what hit them.

A myriad of needle-like materialisations of Darkness appeared above Quinn, and with the flick of a finger, all of them launched in all directions. Barely a second later, he had already gotten 3 notifications of:

[Level Up]

[Level Up]

[Level Up]

A total of 700 confirmed kills in the area around him; beasts of various ranks and sizes. Most of them were of B-Rank or above, so it was quite the haul: a harvest of good EXP and beast cores. Especially the beast cores and materials from an unknown land; surely they would be valuable. Therefore, Quinn moved the Shadows, all over the forest, on a massive scale to first: use his [Gluttony] Skill on them, and then, collect all the materials that could be extracted from the beasts.

While doing so, he also collected a myriad of flora in small quntities as well, just to satisfy his curiosity.

[Gluttony: +21 Strength, +27 Agility, +13 Intelligence, +15 Sense, +21 Stamina, +20 Dexterity]

Ever since his purchase of [Soul Sculpting] from the Shop, it had leveled up to Level 3, which was, in fact, the max level. Because of this Skill, the chances of Quinn extracting a Soul Core from any living being had skyrocketed. From the massecre in the dark forest, he had gotten a total of ~570 Beast Soul Cores.

His buisness in the forest was now done; he had killed a fair share of beasts and collected a lot of materials. If he were to kill any more, he felt like it would affect the area's ecosystem, and thus, refrained from doing so.

———

[Art Of Soul Sculpting] Lvl max

Change the property/skill/element of a soul just once. The skill is basically a gamble and if failed, the soul core will be destroyed. Additionally, increase the chances of extracting a Soul Core.

Success rate: 70%

———

User: Quinn Maw[Shadow]

Lvl: 89

Job: Assassin Of The Eternal Darkness

Authority: Shadow & Darkness

HP: 15,800

Mana: 53,515[+11,750]

Energy: 13,500

Strength: 238[+408]  Agility: 249[+415]

Intelligence: 215[+350]  Sense: 243[+180]

Stamina: 234[+332]  Dexterity: 257[+364]

AP: 30