132-142

Chapter 132 [Bearer of Pain]

Instinctively Dilan jumped on top of the wooden shelf right next to him.

While taking a look at his boots, he hastily wiped off the huge slimes' liquid without caring about the smoke around his arms.

The jacket he was wearing had been burnt before the liquid charred his skin as well.

Fortunately, the potency of the slimes' liquid deteriorated only moments after they died.

Because of this, his Immunity ability and high Health stat were more than enough to overcome the poison that burned his skin.

Ignoring his burning skin, Dilan shifted his focus to the halved slime cores. A bright smile emerged on his face.

"So powerful!"

He had tested his new occupational ability only once. But that was already more than enough to show him how powerful the ability was.

It required lots of mana to make him exert a high amount of lethal force. However, that was perfectly fine with him.

Slowly approaching the slime cores while treading carefully on the shelf, he managed to reach two out of three cores. Extending his arm that held the Gray Slayer, Dilan was able to reach the last core as well by using its tip to pull the core towards himself.-.

He grit his teeth a bit but managed to use the saber to free the Silver Essence crystal that was loosely embedded in the halved slime core.

It didn't take him long to get his hands on all three Silver Essence crystals.

For a second he considered storing them away to exchange them with a Tier-1 Silver treasure.

However, after giving it another thought, Dilan doubted that it was easy to obtain a TIer-1 Silver treasure.

They were far more valuable than ordinary Silver treasures, which meant that it should be even more difficult to obtain them.

'Only the huge Gate in the Krendel's Underground Valley should be able to provide Tier-1 treasures, either way!'

Dilan shrugged his shoulders after he understood this before the Silver Essence crystals crumbled in his hand.

[Three <Silver > Essences of Tier-1 Level 4 Gigantous Viper Slime have been absorbed→ +3.5 Mana]

The moment he absorbed the Silver Essence, Dilan's entire body was swept through by a soothing sensation.

It invigorated him and made him feel as if he was capable of achieving everything. The essence he absorbed was several times more potent than the strongest Essence crystal he had absorbed before advancing to Tier-1.

And that was despite the severe restrictions the Blessed Curse, and his passive occupational ability [Warrior's Unparalleled Physique] put on him.

But that was especially the reason for him to be so confused.

"They're not enough to level up??" Dilan didn't even grumble about the status points because he had expected to receive so few.

In fact, gaining 3 Units of Mana was already more than what he had expected to receive. He was extremely lucky with such a high gain.

Even then, Dilan was truly astonished about the fact that he didn't level up after absorbing such a high amount of Essence.

Even the restriction that was 20 times harsher than the current one shouldn't have prevented him from leveling up. After all, he had just absorbed three Silver Essences of Tier-1 existences at level 4.

This truly astonished him.

"Is it just because I need 20 times the usual amount of Essence, or is it because Tier-1 existences require tens of times the usual Essence to level up once?"

The latter was likely to be a big factor.

Unfortunately, Dilan didn't know how much Essence one required in order to level up. That meant he had no clue on how terrifying a demand of 20 times more than that of everyone else, truly was.

'Other Ascenders should have received similar restrictions, right?'

Considering that the Necromancer occupation ought to be extremely powerful as well, Dilann guessed that the being, who would pick this occupation was bound to receive a similarly high demand of Essence.

But that was not really something that made Dilan feel better.

Rather, it made him feel ridiculous because he was trying to find comfort in the sorrow others might have to face as well.

Shrugging his shoulders after he got a grip over himself, Dilan looked for a way to leave the third floor.

He didn't want to damage the Aeris' leather boots any further. Thus, he made a big detour before he reached the stairs that lead to the lower floor.

For a moment, he considered killing more Slimes, but most of them would only provide him with Essence.

Dilan had already absorbed most Slime Essence crystals before. That meant he wouldn't get any status points, either way.

Considering the low rate of Essence he received per Essence crystal, Dilan stopped wasting his time on procuring Essences.

The only task he was left to do within the supermarket was to exploit the mana-dense environment to recuperate his mana as quickly as possible.

At the same time, he tested out the special trait that he had received from Kirak's Vassal [Bearer of Pain].

His life force was drained, while mana was created out of it.

The sensation of losing some of his life force was…terrifying to put it simply. It was certainly not something Dilan was accustomed to enduring.

However, the fact that he could create Mana out of his life force was something that was a rare and extremely advantageous trait.

Even if it took away his breath for a moment, activating his special trait [Bearer of Pain] could certainly be used to his advantage!

Two Units of his Health were drained in exchange for one Unit of Mana.

In return, Dilan tested out activating [Regeneration] with the use of the said Units of Mana.

'If I can replenish 3 Units of Health rapidly, I can create a steady supply of Mana without too much of a hindrance!'

Of course, Dilan knew that this was not easy to achieve.

That was also why he averted his focus to replenish his Mana faster.

Even with the three additional units of Mana he gained from the three Tier-1 slimes, Dilan didn't have much mana to use.

Every single active ability required Mana to be made use of. That meant he had to start paying more attention on how to utilize his mana properly.

After he took that into consideration, Dilan spent two hours in the supermarket in an attempt to increase his understanding of Mana.

Simultaneously, his Mana had been fully replenished.

He was ready to leave the supermarket, which he did as excitement filled his heart.

Clenching his fist, he smiled brightly at the thought of encountering Tier-1 Ascenders, especially someone with an Origin ability that might be stronger than [Regeneration].

"I hope there will be some stronger insects to fight!" Dilan mumbled while turning his head in the direction of the Death Beatles gang's hideout.

Chapter 133 Disgust

As he stood in front of the corporate building, Dilan couldn't help but smile faintly.

It was broad daylight but he figured that nobody was inside.

But that didn't hold him back from entering the building all alone.

"Isn't it foolish to leave their home without leaving anyone behind to safeguard it?" Dilan wondered.

However, it was just a moment later that he sensed something that attracted his interest.

He perceived denser mana fluctuations from different directions within the building, and a knowing smile that was filled with excitement emerged on his face.

"So it wasn't abandoned, but you guys are just good at hiding?"

The moment, Dilan said this he activated [Thunder step].

He catapulted his entire body in a specific direction, while a thunderous sound emerged from within his body.

Shortly after, faint currents of electricity emerged from his body as well but that was not something that attracted much attention.

Rather, it was the fact that Dilan shot through the length of the room in a single second like a flash while simultaneously slashing out mercilessly.-.

At that moment, the outlines of a human emerged from the dark corner Dilan had slashed at.

A face filled with fright appeared right in front of him but Dilan wasn't too inclined to shower others with mercy.

He could clearly sense that something was wrong with this opponent. It made him feel a deep sense of disgust emerging from the deepest parts of his body.

Thus, he couldn't show any signs of weakness.

To Dilan's misfortune, the Ascender he attacked was able to use his active ability a mere fraction of a second before the Gray Slayer slid past the spot he had been standing.

[Shadow traveling]!

The Ascender had to use up more than 10 Units of mana to unleash the full potential of his active ability [Shadow traveling]

However, this was more than enough for him to evade Dilan's terrifying fast attack.

Dilan only watched his opponent turn into a shadow before merging with the darkness from the corner of a room.

He was supposed to be astonished, but this element of surprise was not exactly something that caught him off-guard.

Rather, Dilan's excitement increased even further as he began circulating mana through his body.

This invigorated his body and calmed his mind without actually using up a single Unit of Mana.

Using the corner of the room to his advantage, Dilan pushed his feet off the wall to propel himself forward.

This allowed him to keep accelerating his speed as he targeted the area where a new source of mana had appeared all of a sudden.

One could say that Ascenders could be considered as sources of mana. After all, they could make use of mana, generate it on some occasions, and could exert it for all kinds of things.

Recalling that detail, he could easily find the Ascenders, who were in a certain range of his perception.

This range of perception was extremely small and wouldn't be of use in normal circumstances.

However, the traces of the path [Shadow traveling] left behind were within his range.

Due to this, Dilan knew where he had to head to in order to face the first opponent.

He emerged in front of his opponent the instant he pushed his feet off the wall. This astonished the middle-aged man, whose eyes widened in terror.

From the moment Dilan had stepped into the room, each of the four Ascenders had realized that the following few minutes were bound to become a mess.

Dilan's presence alone was enough to tell them that he was a terrifying existence they would not be able to handle.

So far, only Melanie and Pyro had been terrifying in terms of their presence. And, this was more than enough reason for them to hide as well as possible.

At first, they wanted to initiate a surprise attack, but the four Ascenders that were supposed to safeguard the gang's home grew petrified when they perceived Dilan's speed.

They were able to see his outlines but had a hard time keeping track of his movements because he was blindingly fast.

Thus, the three Ascenders, who were still hiding, could only watch in horror when the strongest of them was cleanly sliced into two parts a second after the monster of a human appeared in the room.

In the beginning, Dilan had planned to talk it out with some people, and figure out what exactly they were planning.

But there was something about the Ascender that made Dilan loathe him without even knowing him.

It was just a feeling, but from what he sensed, the Ascender he had just slashed at was certainly someone, who had murdered innocent people!

He was not sure where this sensation originated from, but the moment he emerged in front of the man, goosebumps erupted on his skin.

That was why he had to be killed at once, which Dilan turned into reality without hesitation.

Dilan had yet to figure out if he would feel the same disgusting feeling around the other Ascenders, but he was pretty sure that this was the case.

There was still more than enough time left until the [Thunder Step] ability would wear of.

With that in mind, Dilan shot toward the other corner of the room and emerged next to the second Ascender, just to feel the exact same sensation as before.

'Just what is this?' He wondered. However, this time Dilan didn't kill his opponent. Instead, he merely twisted the Gray Slayer to bash the Ascender with its flat side.

This was more than enough to knock out the Ascender.

In less than five seconds, Dilan had knocked out others as well.

'They're the same?!'

Dilan was confused and he couldn't help but feel like killing them in an instant.

That was how disgusting he felt while breathing in the same air as the three Ascenders around him.

Unfortunately, he had to figure out what that disgusting feeling was, and its source.

Dilan had a faint idea but he didn't like the thoughts that were cropping up in his mind.

As such, he could only frown deeply.

"They killed innocent people and used their Essence crystals, didn't they?" Dilan could only mumble before frowning deeply.

His theory would clearly explain why Pyro was so confident in promising his people to reach Tier-1 so quickly, and easily.

The stats of the Ascenders Dilan fought had been around 15. This was far from enough to overcome his Agility of around 55 Units after [Thunder Step] was activated.

Nonetheless, 15 Units were far more than any of Dilan's team members.

Even after advancing to Tier-1 not many in his group would reach such high stats at once.

Those who were able to accomplish this were the few with his ranked occupations.

And Dilan was certain that the four Ascenders, who were supposed to safeguard the Death Beatles gang's home, hadn't advanced by choosing a powerful occupation.

Rather, he presumed that they must have chosen a Common, or at most, Rare occupation to advance to Tier-1

"So it's true, after all?"

Chapter 134 Cruelties!

While he tied up the three unconscious Ascenders, Dilan's mind was a mess.

There was a theory he had in mind pertaining to the individualistic nature of human beings.

If he was not wrong the system might consider every single human as an individual entity.

This was something that sounded extremely logical but that was not the crucial point behind his theory.

Considering that his theory was right, every single human would provide status points to the beings that absorbed their Essence crystals.

This meant that the restriction of absorbing a maximum of three to four Essence crystals before no further status points would be provided turned out to be baseless.

Had that theory been true, it would have been possible for someone to gain numerous status points and some Essence by killing humans, whether they were unleveled or Ascenders.

After all, every human being was supposed to have an Essence crystal.

Dilan knew that unleveled existences had one owing to the first day after the Primordial Ascension, where he had wanted to save a girl in front of the hospital but had seen her turn into a zombie.

He was merely a second too late but a completed Essence crystal had already formed in her mind.

Following that, the Ascender he had just killed gave him a Bronze Essence crystal as well. He had pulled it out of the Ascender's head without feeling much about it but that was not the crucial point.

"If they were mainly searching for Survivors, who are considered easy prey for Pyro and his team, they might have had much higher stats than I do…and they might have killed hundreds, maybe even more than a thousand innocent humans by now!"-.

It didn't bother Dilan that his opponents were likely to be extremely powerful. On the contrary, Dilan was looking forward to his encounter with them.

However, the possibility that the Death Beatles gang was likely to have killed a thousand or so human Survivors made him feel murderously angry.

That was also the reason why he didn't hold back the moment he noticed that the three Ascenders he had knocked out a while ago had woken up.

"Who…WHO are you?!!" One of the Ascenders asked, his voice filled with the intent to kill Dilan.

If the man in his 40s wouldn't have been tied up, he would have jumped up and attacked Dilan already.

Under normal circumstances, the distinct intent, and deep hatred the man showed would scare the person, who had to face his wrath.

But Dilan was unfazed. It was not the first time he had been subjected to a rage that was high enough to make the other person want to kill him.

It wouldn't be the last time either.

"You need not worry about my name or identity. You just have to tell me how someone like you was able to become that strong! You're already at Tier-1, but probably through a Common ancient path… sooo what did you do?!"

Dilan's expressions were ice-cold as he looked at the man in front of him.

He wouldn't hesitate to kill the man, and the exact same could be said about torture. Dilan had experienced more than enough pain to know that attacking which part of the body would hurt the most.

As such, he would do everything needed to procure the information he wanted.

Slowly approaching the man, Dilan lifted his foot a few centimeters into the air.

A mere moment later, he stomped his foot hard on the right foot of the man, who had continued to glare at him.

Dilan could tell that the man in front of him was not fazed by death.

Fortunately, the same didn't apply to the others. That made it quite easy for him to make an example of this man and showcase what the others would face if they were to disregard his questions.

They simply watched in horror as their comrade's foot was squashed before he screamed out in pain.

The three Ascenders knew that their gang would not return until the late afternoon.

In the end, this made things much worse as their fate would be sealed until then.

That was also the reason they could only look at Dilan with distinct fear in their eyes.

Even if they found satisfaction in the pain and death of others, this didn't mean that they liked being in pain.

Like true hypocrites and selfish people, if they could prevent to die, they would do it by all means!

There was no reason for them to be loyal to the Death Beatles gang and embrace death in the process as well.

After all, the two Ascenders didn't belong to the gang before the Primordial Ascension, to begin with.

Thus, while the middle-aged man in his 40s kept quiet after his initial painful scream, the others were ready to reveal everything they knew.

And that was merely after Dilan squashed the food of the middle-aged man.

'Isn't that too easy? I haven't even started yet!!' Dilan was somewhat dissatisfied, but it was exactly this kind of behavior the two younger Ascenders feared to the core.

Dilan's rather nonchalant expressions while inflicting pain, his ice-cold eyes, and his presence that reminded them of a Demon's, or their worst nightmare was more than enough to inflict the sensation that even a painless death would be a blessing!

This was something the two younger Ascenders never imagined to feel, and it caused far more damage to their mentality and fortitude than one could imagine!

"We will talk, we will tell you everything!! Please don't hurt us, please!!" One of them even begged with his hands folded in front of Dilan who imagined seeing tears in the corner of his eyes.

"In that case, I'm waiting." Dilan stated matter-of-factly while slapping the middle-aged man, who was about to start swearing at his comrade…or former comrade by now.

"The Death Beatles gang is actively searching for the other gangs that have resided in Rian before the Primordial Ascension. They're hunting them down to absorb their Essence, and to take in a few Ascenders, who…saved their own lives by leaving behind their former teammates…

Their plan is to keep hunting evolved humans to procure their Essence crystals because they have the most value.

While other Essence crystals lose most of their worth after three or four have been devoured, the Essence crystals from humans provide lots of Essence and many status points!

Everyone has advanced to Tier-1, and even if most of us choose a Common ancient path of advancement, our stats are still higher than most Tier-1 monsters we encounter in the outskirts of Rian.

As for-….."

The younger Ascender continued to speak for a good ten minutes before he finished. His lips were already dry, and his heart was thumping wildly but that was not something he could be concerned about right now.

He was more focused on Dilan and the ways he acted. His gaze followed Dilan as he paced through the room, reminding him of a ferocious hunter who is out for blood.

It was quite obvious that Dilan was displeased with the provided information but the young Ascender didn't dare to lie.

After all, it was easy to understand that Dilan would start torturing them the moment they lied.

That was, at least, what the young Ascender could predict by observing Dilan's behavior and attitude when killing innocent human Survivors was mentioned.

Dilan didn't care about the killed gang members in the slightest. In his opinion, they could slaughter each other whenever they wanted to.

However, the same didn't apply to the innocent humans that had been killed as well.

The Ascender spoke a lot about the torture they had subjected innocent people to.

Dilan presumed that the Ascender didn't even realize what kind of information he had revealed to him.

But that didn't change the fact that Dilan had to finish his job neatly, without making a single mistake. This time there was no way that he would show mercy to anyone, or anybody.

The Shepherds were a different matter, but not the Death Beatles gang.

They had to die…all of them!

And with that thought, Dilan grasped the Gray Slayer tightly before he slashed it across the three Ascenders' necks, beheading them one after another.

"Be happy that I grant you an easy and fast death…"

Chapter 135 One vs 200

Dilan was far from happy after he killed the Ascenders.

But even if he was displeased and angered, it didn't change the situation he had to face ahead.

Dilan bent down while sighing deeply as he retrieved the Essence crystals from the Ascenders.

His expression was stoic while doing so, but anyone, who was to see him right now would be utterly disgusted.

Unfortunately, the feeling of disgust and repulse wouldn't help in the given situation as Dilan had to reach into the head of the Ascenders he had killed in order to procure their Essence crystals.

"Their Essence crystals shall give me the necessary strength to kill all of them!!"

Some might think that Dilan was a hypocrite but that was not something he could be bothered about.

On one hand, he was angered and loathed the Death Beatles gang for absorbing the Essence crystals of humans, whom they killed, while on the other, he was actually doing the same.-.

However, there was one particular difference between him and the Death Beatles gang…he killed murderers, rapists, and other scums, not innocent Survivors, who were giving their best just to survive one more day.

Dilan was actually not bothered about the gangs fighting against each other. They could do whatever they wanted, but the Death Beatles gang crossed the fine line they should have never dared to reach, to begin with!

That thought was more than enough for Dilan to make his blood boil, and he wouldn't hold back on absorbing their Essence crystals as well.

If they were eager to strengthen him he would readily accept their generosity by granting them a death sentence.

The moment he thought so, the four Essence crystals in his hand crumbled.

[<Bronze > Essence of Tier-1 Level 2 Mirko Havic, and Essences of Tier-1 Level 1 Dirk Ninburg, Leonard Weissmann, and Justin Black have been absorbed→ +0.2 Strength, +0.1 Stamina, +0.3 Agility awarded]

There was one Bronze Essence crystal, while the others had been ordinary Tier-1 Essence crystals.

This was probably owed to the fact that the first Ascender he killed had advanced to Tier-1 with a Rare ancient path of advancement.

At least, that was what Dilan presumed to be the reason for one Essence crystal to be of the Bronze quality!

Dilan had yet to level up but he could not care about that for now.

His anger that targeted the entire Death Beatles gang was more than enough to switch his focus on finding a way to annihilate the gang rather than bothering to think about the large amount of Essence he required to level up!

Despite the anger that surged through his entire body, Dilan noticed one thing that astonished him quite a bit.

"Why am I not disgusted with myself? Not even the slightest bit…isn't that weird? Didn't I instinctively feel disgusted by the Ascenders because they absorbed the Essence of humans?"

Dilan's theory had been that he could instinctively perceive whether one killed and absorbed the Essence of humans or not.

However, this didn't seem to be the case, or at least it was not the entire truth because everything was perfectly normal when he absorbed their Essence crystals.

He had no time minding this either, so he picked up the corpses before throwing them to one side.

Afterward, he covered them with blankets before doing the same with the puddle of blood.

'It won't be necessary for me to clean up everything. As long as they don't notice me immediately, I will be fine.'

Dilan didn't feel the need to chalk out an elaborate plan to overpower his opponents.

He was sure that this would be over the top because a simple surprise attack was more than enough.

But instead of sitting idle and waiting restlessly for the Death Beatles gang, Dilan decided to examine his premises. Thus, he started to walk through the building.

There were only a few floors he had to take a look at. What he saw on his short trip that was wrapped up in less than an hour to finish was nothing special.

In fact, Dilan was quite disappointed because the only weapons he found were a Kobold's spear, a Gnomes maze, and some other Tierless Trash and Bronze weapons.

Because Dilan was curious about their lethality, he tried to inflict an injury on himself with the strongest weapon amongst them. Luckily, he was unscathed.

This allowed him to feel both reassured and a bit frustrated.

"By the looks of it, they have not received any treasures from the Gates but…why the hell is my body already resilient to Tierless Bronze weapons?! Do I really have to try injuring myself with the Gray Slayer to keep upgrading my Origin ability?"

The Gray Slayer was currently the strongest weapon Dilan's group possessed and even that weapon was not unparalleled.

Using some brute force, the Gray Slayer could still cut him. This was great but the force he had to use to create a small cut was still more than he expected.

'My Health stat is truly frightening.' Dilan could only smile wryly while shaking his head.

He was already at the peak of a Tier-1 existence in terms of his Health stat. This was the case despite his advance to Tier-1 having finished not too long ago as well.

However, even before he could start wondering just how powerful he would be once all of his stats were to reach their limit, Dilan heard several voices from below him.

He was currently on the first floor near the stairways. His plan had been to walk down and wait for the arrival of the Death Beatles gang.

But it looked like he didn't have to wait anymore, which was why he couldn't help but smile.

Slowly, Dilan walked towards the window that was on the floor directly above the old corporate building's entrance. He took a peek and his smile turned even brighter.

'All of them have advanced to Tier-1..they really did it!' Dilan thought, as a mixture of anger and a trace of excitement surged through his body.

Anger because he knew how the Ascenders below him had advanced to Tier-1 and excitement because Dilan was pretty sure that he was going to launch a massacre in a mere minute!

'Let the bloodbath begin!'

Chapter 136 One vs 200 (2)

None of the Death Beatles gang members even thought about looking at the window on the first floor while they entered the building.

Every single member of the Death Beatles gang was quite nonchalant as they walked inside in a relaxed manner. They didn't even consider that someone might attack them, let alone that it would be only one individual, who dared to go up against them.

Even Dilan felt that this was suicidal under normal circumstances.

He had yet to gain full control over every single Occupational ability he received, let alone the changes his other abilities had undergone.

But that was perfectly fine because Dilan could clearly feel that it was possible for him to activate [Berserk Mana] right now!

[Berserk Mana]

Cannot be activated at will! Certain conditions have to be met prior to activation.

Host has to be overflowing with rage, adrenaline, and the will to defeat his opponent by all means!

Host loses parts of his rational thinking in exchange for an alteration of his mana!

Potency of Mana 2x!

This ability was said to belong to active abilities. However, this didn't seem correct to Dilan because it was an ability that didn't require mana to be used, and it had an effect that could only be passively utilized.

But even then, Dilan had to activate it in order for the ability to unfold its true potential.

Berserk Mana was something Dilan had felt already once. However, at that time, it was his subconscious actions that had activated an inferior version of Berserk Mana.

He didn't even have the ability at that time but somehow had still managed to use it. That was proof of how deep his anger had been that day.

The only downside Dilan didn't really like was the part about 'Host loses part of his rational thinking'.

This was something that may cost him his head, which was certainly not what Dilan wanted to happen.

Dilan was also hesitant to activate the [Berserk Mana] ability for a few seconds.

However, a part of his rational thinking' indicated that he wouldn't lose his entire control.-.

With that in mind and the fact that he needed to be in his peak state to fight the Death Beatles gang, he was ready to face his opponents with all his might.

Mere moments after he clenched his fist in determination, he opened the window and jumped down.

Dilan landed on the ground right in front of the building's entrance with a loud thud.

It was loud enough to make all the gang members turn around. They were puzzled to see that a young man had appeared in their entrance with a crimson tinge gleaming in his ice-cold eyes.

[Berserk Mana] was activated and the mana within his body was sweeping through him, screaming to be released!

While Dilan's entrance was rather abrupt and totally unexpected, most members of the Death Beatles gang were able to get over the surprise relatively quickly.

They held their weapon tightly while facing the mysterious young man, who had appeared behind them.

"Who are you, and what did you do to Mirko and the others?!!" Pyro's angry voice resounded through the entire first floor as several balls of fire emerged around him.

Melanie was the first to notice that something was wrong. She could clearly sense that death was prowling around on the first floor.

As such, she informed Pyro about it the moment they had entered the building. It was only a second or two later that they found the puddle of blood that had soaked into a blanket.

It was almost as if the group, who had attacked their members in their absence, didn't even try to cover up the crime scene.

But what confused them was that they saw no group but only one young man in his early 20s who was staring at them.

This astonished Pyro for a moment, but his surprise quickly turned into rage because he could clearly tell that the four Ascenders he had patiently nurtured had died.

They had been Tier-1 existences, even though weak ones which told him that the unknown man standing in front of him was not to be messed with.

Pyro took note of this subtle warning and calmed down after taking a moment to accept the fact that his people had died.

He merely looked at Dilan while trying to assess his strength who suddenly announced,

"You obviously know what happened to these scums. Don't bother trying to find out my name…I don't feel like wasting my time by telling my name to someone, who is about to die!"

The moment Dilan's eerily cold voice echoed through the room, a thunderous sound emerged from the depths of his body.

Dense currents of electricity shrouded Dilan's feet, crackling on the stone foundation he walked on.

At first, he took a single step to test out how much the [Thunder Step] ability had been enhanced, and how high his Agility had increased to.

But the moment Dian took his second step, he blasted his body forward, crossing more than five meters in an instant.

He emerged right in front of the first opponent and pulled back the Gray Slayer to intimidate the young woman, making a big show of how he was about to slice her into two.

However, just then Dilan disappeared in front of her. It was as if he had never existed and just had been a figment of the imagination of the Death Beatles gang.

Only a gust of wind splashed the face of the woman in the front, and the gang members right next to her.

"I'm here, and now die!"

Dilan utilized [Gale] once to cross the distance of ten meters in the blink of an eye.

While his speed was already shocking, Gale provided a slight boost to his highly enhanced speed.

Being able to disappear from the sight of his opponents was simply too powerful, after all!

He had emerged on the left side of the room, right next to the farthest gang member, who had been looking at the building entrance.

The man, who was barely in his mid-20s, flinched the moment he sensed Dilan's presence right next to him.

However, even before he could do more than cower in fright, the saber Dilan held began to glow in bright white light.

Using 10 Units of Mana at once, [Mana Slash] was activated at once. His Berserk Mana was compressed in Gray Slayer before Dilan massacred his way through the huge crowd of 200 Ascenders without hesitation.

Due to his Agility which reached nearly 70 Units at this moment, Dilan's slash was merely a blur and appeared like an invisible wind blade to everyone in Dilan's range.

The Mana Slash, on the contrary, was something everyone was able to see as it manifested the moment Dilan finished his saber slash.

He had inflicted a deep horizontal gash on the opponent in front of him. This created the biggest threat to all Ascenders in his range and even behind him.

While the Ascender right in front of Dilan had been sliced apart by the Gray Slayer, the Mana Slash took a moment to be fully unleashed.

However, after it was unleashed, the lethality of the Mana Slash was unveiled.

It penetrated the skin, flesh, organs and bones of his opponents, and Dilan's eyes gleamed brightly when he saw the dozens of humans that died at his hands.

He didn't feel the slightest bit of remorse for having killed any of them.

Instead, it was a relief to know that dozens of scums had been obliterated and that they would never be able to harm others again.

The Mana Slash used with 10 Units of Berserk Mana had roughly the same lethality as the one Dilan had initiated at the supermarket using 20 Units of mana.

'It really doubles my Mana's potential,' Dilan could barely think, while his mind kept being invaded by the thought of going on a killing spree.

His mind was telling him to charge at the group of Ascenders, and to kill them with his brute force, and terrifyingly high Agility.

Even if it was possible for Pyro and Melanie to have higher basic stats than him, Dilan was certain that [Thunder Step] utilized with Berserk Mana was more than enough for him to overpower every single existence around him!

However, that was merely something he thought owing to the side-effects of utilizing Berserk Mana- the loss of his sense of reasoning!

In a battle of life-and-death stats were only one factor to determine which side would emerge victorious.

Another one was one's wits and the proper use of one's abilities.

While Dilan had the highest stats in the room, it was also advantageous for him to show that he was merciless and that he would kill all of them the moment they made a single mistake.

By clearly demonstrating his superior brute force, speed, and that he had powerful abilities gave him a huge advantage over everyone else.

But even then, Dilan was not the only one with abilities.

Rather, he was still facing more than 150 Tier-1 Ascenders! Each of them wielded more than two abilities, and each of the abilities could injure or restrict Dilan.

Some of the gang members were also tasked with the sole purpose of supporting their teammates to strengthen them.

As such, Dilan could tell that his upper hand would diminish within seconds as long as the others were able to regain their senses.

Dilan's sudden appearance and merciless attack astonished most gang members.

However, Pyro and Melanie were relatively unfazed and were not as frazzled as the rest of their gang.

Several fireballs were already shot at Dilan, while Melanie's eyes gleamed brightly as she disappeared from Dilan's sight.

'Where did she go?!'

Dilan was slightly astonished. He was certain that none of the Death Beatles gang members owned some sort of treasure similar to the Aeris' leather boots.

This meant that Melanie was able to disappear with the use of an ability.

But even then, Dilan was not able to sense anything.

Just when he furrowed his eyebrows, Dilan's body instinctively turned around. He had sensed Melanie's sudden approach and was about to lift his saber to deflect the daggers that were suddenly pierced at him.

Melanie's Agility was extremely high, but the sudden attack from behind was even more astonishing.

It had allowed her to disappear from her spot location, just to appear right behind Dilan.

Fortunately, Dilan's instincts were heightened to the peak of his capabilities, allowing him to turn around before anything could happen.

He lifted Gray Slayer to block her attack before lifting his leg to kick her hard and push her away.

While he was busy fending off her attack the fireballs fired by Pyro were about to hit Dilan.

Gritting his teeth, Dilan began to curse in his head, only for a large blue shield to emerge out of nowhere.

It appeared right in front of Dilan's left hand which he extended forward as if he wanted to deflect the incoming attacks.

[Aegis Shield]!

Dilan activated the third and last active occupational ability, blocking all attacks that were fired at him.

The fireballs' impact weighed down on Dilan, preventing him from moving as fast as he wanted to.

Initially, he had planned on attacking Melanie and killing the most threatening woman he had faced as an opponent in an instant.

However, that plan failed miserably. The situation grew even worse as Dilan saw that all Ascenders rushed toward him.

Some of them used different types of long-range elemental attacks to keep attacking the Aegis' shield.

Everyone wanted to kill Dilan with their own bare hands. After all, he had barged into their home and killed nearly 30 Ascenders within a single second.

How could they allow him to survive, let alone escape?

Yet, just when everyone thought that it was already over as the onslaught of fireballs and other attacks reached him, the smoke the attacks had created dissipated, revealing everything.

However, this 'everything' was a merely burned floor, nothing else!

Dilan had disappeared without leaving behind a single trace of mana.

Only a groan of pain revealed the location he had emerged at as six Ascenders succumbed to the gray blade that cut through his opponents as if a hot knife would slice through butter.

Chapter 137 One vs 200 (3)

Like a silver flash, Dilan's saber swept through the large space, cutting and slashing through flesh and bone and leaving behind a trail of spilled organs and splattered blood.

Dilan was death personified, reaping the lives of the Ascenders, who had the misfortune of being the first set of opponents with his reach.

Even if he didn't make use of [Aegis' Shield] until its time would run out, Dilan used [Gale] for the second time the moment smoke had covered him.

The fireballs and other attacks that were thrown at him had been blocked by [Aegis' Shield] before Dilan had disappeared from his earlier position.

Afterward he had immediately activated his Balrog's leather gloves' ability [Momentary Strengthening]. By using five units of mana, he received a ten second boost in his Strength stat by 10 Units!

After activating [Momentary Strengthening] Dilan was only left with a single unit of mana.

In less than a minute Dilan had used up 36 units of Mana to finish off 30+ Ascenders in one go.

However, that was perfectly fine in Dilan's opinion because he gained a terrifying advantage.

By activating [Bearer of Pain] he sacrificed some of his life force to replenish a single Unit of mana at a time.

This was enough for him to prolong the duration for which [Thunder Step] would stay active which was everything he needed.

Dilan was not yet done with the utilization of his special trait.

On the contrary, Dilan had sacrificed a total of 74 Units of his Health to restore his entire mana.

The endless pain of seeing more than 80% of his life force being drained at once was almost unbearable.

However, Dilan grinned maniacally while blood trickled out of his eyes and nose, making him look like a freak.

'It works!!'

[Bracing Pain]-.

Pain will be turned into power! Overall amplification of the host's prowess the more pain the host feels!

Limited amplification up to 50%.

[Bracing Pain] was one of the abilities he deemed exceptionally powerful but equally dangerous.

After all, he had to be severely injured in order to utilize the full effect of a 50% stats amplification!

However, this amplification included not only his Strength, Agility, and Stamina, but also his Mana and Health!

With the use of 10 Units of mana, Dilan activated his Origin ability [Regeneration].

His natural regeneration would be drastically boosted for 30 seconds, and his life force would quickly replenish.

Dilan could clearly feel how his Health was recuperating rapidly. His already bright smile turned even more vibrant because his strength increased drastically without him actually losing anything.

The seemingly unbearable pain of having his life force drained made him not want to repeat the process again.

However, it was not actually life-threatening because one Unit of his Health would regenerate every two seconds.

With the 50% amplification [Bracing Pain] provided, Dilan's health soared to more than 170 Units, further accelerating his recuperation.

On the other hand, Dilan's Agility soared above 100 Units, crossing the norms of an ordinary Tier-1 existence by far and large.

'So that is what a Divine occupation looks like?'

Dilan's mind was currently a mess. Most of his focus was forcefully put on trying to control his body.

However, this was easier said than done because his anger for the Death Beatles gang and his excitement to fight the gang of Tier-1 Ascenders with his current strength exceeded the norms of ordinary humans as well.

He was tightly grasping Gray Slayer and turned into a purple flash the moment Pyro and Melanie got wind of his new location.

To their misfortune, it was impossible for any of the present existences to keep up with his movement speed.

The Agility stat did not only increase his running speed, and his flexibility but also boosted his razor-sharp reflexes by another notch.

Others might not understand what this meant, but after Dilan received the knowledge of True Weapon specialists, he was fully aware of what kind of horror existences with rapid reaction speed and high attack speed could instill in the minds of their opponents, or rather, prey.

Not only was it possible for them to change their attack trajectory within milliseconds, but as long as their attack speed was high enough, they would be able to attack several times in one go.

Due to the experience he was granted through the passive ability [True Weapon specialist] Dilan began to attempt all kinds of things.

However, he quickly noticed that he was going overboard by inflicting more than a dozen injuries on certain opponents when just a single slash was more than enough to kill them.

That was also why he changed his way of attack, turning into the incarnation of a ferocious predator as he reaped the lives of the Tier-1 existences that had instilled fear in the hearts of more than a dozen small gangs and hundreds of innocent human Survivors.

With an Agility around 100 times the average human before the Primordial Ascension, Dilan currently exceeded the realms of all beings in the former corporate building and the entire outer district.

However, only he was able to tell what kind of strain his body was currently undergoing.

His body was on the brink of collapse and faced a near-death state all of a sudden, while his mind was overwhelmed due to the usage of several abilities he had never used before.

Adding the fact that he lost some of his sense of reasoning, Dilan could clearly tell that his mind was in a muddled state, and it was beginning to affect his movements. Luckily, the last remnants of nutrition in his body were used up by his Origin ability to heal him and keep him invigorated.

As if that was not enough yet, his body was not accustomed to enduring the stats of a Peak Tier-1 existence, otherwise, the system wouldn't have awarded him with the Blessed Curse [Will of the Primordial] to begin with.

His Health stats was currently at around 170 Units, meaning that it was more than double the limits of an ordinary Tier-1 existence.

In fact, it was nearing the standards of a late Tier-2 existence!!

That his body was currently not being torn apart was already a wonder, and only Dilan could barely grasp that keeping [Regeneration] activated was the only reason for his body to not suffer a breakdown.

However, Dilan also knew that he needed the amplification of [Bracing Pain] and that he had to use the [Bearer of Pain] in order to injure himself severely without putting himself in grave danger.

Right now, Dilan was feeling endless pain. Whether it was his feet, his hands, or even his head, every single part of his body felt as if it would stop working the moment he stopped moving.

That was also why he never stopped moving, and why he kept killing the Ascenders in the surroundings, one after another.

Nobody was able to block his path, turning the large room into a place that was filled with nothing but blood, guts, and corpses.

Death ran rampant through the room, feasting on the corpses as Dilan's kills made with Gray Slayer exceeded a three-digit figure.

Less than 100 Tier-1 Ascenders were left, but not a single one was willing to keep fighting.

Terror struck their minds and hearts at the sight of their fallen comrades and the sight of a blood-smeared Dilan made them rapidly lose whatever confidence they were left with. They were scared… scared to death

While most of the blood that smeared his entire body didn't belong to him, his skin had already burst open and was covered in blisters.

He was unable to keep fighting like this.

Even if it was physically not possible anymore, Dilan forced his entire existence to keep going, and only permitted himself to stop when the remaining gang members had been killed.

Dilan was not sure how much time had passed but at some point the duration of [Thunder Step] ended.

But as he threw a look around himself, it was the first time for him to realize that only five Ascenders were left alive.

Upon seeing this, he was dumbfounded. He was panting and halted in his tracks for a second to catch his breath.

However, just when he stopped moving, several fireballs were fired at him.

Pyro was still alive, giving Dilan a headache, who had been unable to close the gap between himself and the annoying Pyromancer.

He was unwilling to fight at a close range and made use of every means to fight him from a long distance.

That meant after evading the fireballs, Dilan had to take care of the three petrified Ascenders before he could focus on Pyro and Melanie.

They were the strongest and simultaneously the only ones, who had been able to evade or block one of his attacks.

Unfortunately, the others were not as fortunate, and their corpses were littered on the floor.

Slashing out three times, he swiftly finished off the last three weak Tier-1 Ascenders.

All of a sudden, a shocking sensation spread through every single cell in Dilan's body.

It was a burning sensation that spread through his entire being, affecting him severely.

At that moment, Dilan knew that his body would be unable to move with the same power as before.

'I'm not done yet…fuck!'

That was the only thought in his mind as he noticed that his Berserk Mana was also losing its effect. His entire body seemed to switch to an energy-saving mode.

This was terrifying because the strongest Ascenders were still left behind.

He felt that the seemingly perfect fight against the Death Beatles gang was going down the hill, only for the overflowing mana in his body to start circulating through him, soothing his mind.

It was only then that he realized something which allowed him to smile once again.

However, this smile was far from showering others with kindness and gentleness.

On the contrary, it was the smile of the Devil himself.

After giving the idea that formed in his mind some thought, Dilan pierced out with Gray Slayer in a perfect straight line.

Meanwhile, his distance to Pyro was still more than twenty meters.

As such, only the saber's tip pointed at Pyro, that was it.

But even then, the devilish smile on his face widened when he saw that Pyro had not moved.

Pyro was smiling as well, activating his Original ability to form a dozen fireballs at once.

He was sure to win the fight against the infiltrator. Pyro wanted to win by all means, he wanted to torture Dilan, and kill him slowly in the cruelest possible ways!!

Dilan's sky blue eyes which were currently crested with a crimson tinge turned ice-cold as a beam of mana shot out of the tip of Gray Slayer, piercing forward with a terrifyingly high velocity.

Having activated [Mana Slash] with the use of 10 Units of mana, Dilan wanted to finish the fight at once.

However, in order to do so, he had to kill the biggest annoying pest on the battlefield- Pyro!

Even though Melanie seemed to be stronger in terms of stats and technique, Pyro's Origin ability was too cumbersome for him to see make use of.

He was able to manifest and control fire at will, which was a hassle to counter.

Pyro was in possession of many abilities that were too dangerous for Dilan to face head-on in his current state.

As such, the only way to defeat Pyro was to stop attempting to close the distance to the Pyromancer, and to attack him via long distance.

Against all odds, the Mana slash that turned into a beam-like attack blasted straight at Pyro before piercing through his skin and bone, giving him no opportunity to retaliate.

Just like that Pyro succumbed to his ill-fate much like the entire gang he had built up with the efforts of a dozen years.

"Devil…A true Devil!!"

Chapter 138 Eradicated

Defeating the Death Beatles gang was everything but easy.

How could it be easy to kill 200 Tier-1 Ascenders, and a Tier-1 Ascender with a mighty occupation that could elevate the strength of the already powerful Origin ability Pyro possessed.

Fortunately, Dilan was able to achieve such a feat by voluntarily sacrificing most of his life force in exchange for Mana and an amplified state.

With the use of [Berserk Mana], [Bearer of Pain], and [Bracing Pain] it was possible for Dilan to overwhelm everyone.

But the downside was that the combination of this attack turned his brain into a hot mess.

Dilan was able to hide his exhaustion well, which was a feat in itself owing to the fact that he was barely able to stand on his feet.

His sight was blurred, and he could barely see Melanie, whose expression was filled with fear and desperation, contrary to her earlier thrilled expression.

To think that a single person was able to kill Pyro was already beyond her imagination.

However, killing more than 200 Tier-1 Ascenders single-handedly was insane, to put it simply.

But even if that was the case, Melanie had witnessed everything firsthand.

Right now, she was unable to move, and could only look at Dilan, whose gaze lingered on her.-.

His entire expression clearly told Melanie that Dilan wouldn't show any mercy to her and that he would kill her at once.

Goosebumps spread over her entire body, and she felt the fear of death that was clearly reflected in her eyes for the first time in years.

Melanie had killed hundreds of innocent people, whether it was before or after the Primordial Ascension.

Since her childhood, she always felt that fear, sadness, and desperation were worthless emotions that made people weak and that she would never let herself feel like this.

However, right now, Melanie was able to feel all the emotions that the people she killed must have felt moments before their death.

At that moment, even Melanie was unable to keep her calm anymore. Despite feeling ecstatic at the sight of blood and death, she was unable to feel exhilarated in any way at the moment.

After all, even Pyro, their leader, who chose the 'Extraordinary' ancient path of advancement when becoming a Tier-1 existence, could not stand tall against Dilan's might.

'Why…why is this monster suddenly appearing here?!'

Melanie had no idea who Dilan was, let alone what he wanted from them.

It didn't look like he had accidentally stumbled upon their shelter. Rather, it was almost as if he was well aware of Pyro's power, and the fact that all of his opponents would be Tier-1 existences.

Dilan had been unfazed at the sight of numerous abilities and simply blocked them off with the help of the weird blueish shield he had been able to manifest.

Afterward, his superior stats had been more than enough to finish off his opponent.

But that was also only feasible after Dilan's strength had elevated manifolds.

The fight, if one could even call it as such, had ended in no time. Every single trait about Dilan had been more than enough to defeat his opponents.

Yet, Melanie was still alive, while Pyro died due to the beam of compressed mana, which Dilan had fired.

He was slowly approaching her while forcing his body to listen to him. Controlling his body was far more difficult than ever before, even when he had been punctured by the old tree trunk as the Primordial Ascension had occurred.

Blood trickled down the Gray Slayer, reaching Dilan's hand and the clothes he was wearing before a few drops splattered to the ground.

It was like he turned into the incarnation of the Demon King, or the God of Slaughter.

And upon seeing such an existence approach herself, Melanie's legs gave in.

There was no sign of her previous imposing attitude, the lust to witness more bloody battles and to hear the desperate cries of humans, who wanted nothing but to keep living.

If any of Death Beatles gang members were to see her current state, they wouldn't dare to believe that this was the same fearless Melanie they had known for a better part of their life.

They would think that everything was just a dream.

However, the reality was much crueler than any member of the Death Beatles gang could imagine.

All of them, with the sole exception of Melanie, had already succumbed to Dilan's blade, and she knew that she was currently living the last few minutes of her life.

But even then, her body didn't want to move. Her eyes got teary the closer Dilan came. Melanie clearly understood what was about to happen.

Despite being aware of this, she was unwilling to die and leave the world just like that.

The Primordial Ascension had happened merely 2 weeks ago. Everything was just starting to get interesting.

Only recently was life starting to become more meaningful and interesting to her. She wanted to keep living, to strive for more strength, and to enjoy her life at the expense of others.

But Dilan's blade was more than enough to end everything at once.

He was still approaching her with slow steps while trying to regulate his breathing.

Dilan could clearly tell that he was on the verge of a breakdown and that he would have to rest properly right now.

Of all the gang members, only Melanie was still left alive, but she was not much of an hindrance anymore.

Her entire mana had already been used up in her first attack, which used up more than 10 Units of mana at once.

Even if she and the others had been Tier-1 existences, they had leveled up by facing unleveled, or low-leveled humans who they were confident of defeating.

They had only little fighting experience against truly powerful existences, whose stats were far higher than others.

That was another reason for him to be able to overshadow them as the Death Beatles gang had never faced someone like Dilan.

Blinking once, Dilan felt that his focus was deteriorating even faster.

Thus, he pulled back the Gray Slayer in a very slow motion before slashing out.

"Wait!! I have information about foreign races!!"

Dilan's first thought was to ignore Melanie's scream and just kill her.

He didn't have the strength to start bothering about some information that might be useful.

After all, Dilan was pretty sure that his mind wouldn't be able to process the information in his current state, either way!

However, he still averted the trajectory of his attack. Through this, the Gray Slayer narrowly missed Melanie by a hair's breadth.

Her heart skipped a beat when she noticed that she was still alive.

Yet, after seeing his unbothered expression, Melanie could barely swallow her saliva as her body began to shiver uncontrollably without her realizing it at first.

"Go on!" Dilan merely said, inserting the vast majority of his remaining strength in just those two words to prevent his voice from sounding shaky.

His gaze never left Melanie, and she was petrified to even move a single inch with Dilan looming over her.

At least, that was what Melanie saw. She didn't know that Dilan's vision had grown blurry and he was not even able to see her clearly anymore.

"I will tell you everything, please calm down. Just let me stay alive, and I will tell you everything!"

Dilan didn't say anything when he heard Melanie's hurried voice. If an outsider were to see the current situation, one might believe that Dilan was bullying a helpless woman.

But even if that were to be the case, it was not as if Dilan would be bothered about the impression he made on other people.

He didn't say a single word, which worried Melanie a lot, followed by the sight of Dilan's grip that tightened around his saber.

She broke out in a sweat before she started to hastily speak.

"Two days ago, a temple filled with intelligent monsters emerged on the Shikan plains!!"

Chapter 139 Shikan plains

The Shikan plains were right next to Rian, and the mountainside where everything had begun for Dilan.

The plains were a huge area that covered more than 30 cities and hundreds of small villages.

In total, more than 100 million humans inhabited the Shikan plains before the Primordial Ascension.

Because there were so many humans, Dilan had already presumed that the situation might be even more dangerous than it was the case on Rian.

After all, Rian was only a border city to the Shikan plains while humans were highly sought after because of their Essence crystals' efficiency.

Even if mankind's stance against mutated animals, mythical monsters, and other creatures was already disadvantageous, once everyone was to understand that the Essence crystals of humans would never cease to provide status points, carnage would devour the continent, if not the entire planet.

That was something Dilan understood since the moment he was certain that the system considered every human as a single entity.

Crowded places were supposed to attract most monsters in the future. As such, one could either travel around in small groups of powerful Ascenders or be strong enough to eradicate all threats.

However, in that sense, Dilan was not sure whether the temple mentioned by Melanie could be considered a threat or an opportunity.

Melanie didn't know much about the temple she spoke about because she had only seen it from the top of one of the highest skyscrapers.

She had used a spyglass at that time, and could only decipher a few things, including two different races that seemed to be living in and around the temple.

The reason for Melanie to believe that they were other 'races' instead of ordinary monsters was that the two races socialized with each other and lived in a rather huge community.

They had begun to build their own town around the temple that manifested seemingly out of nowhere, just to keep expanding their territory further.

Melanie also spoke a little bit about the appearance of the two races, but the only thing she had been able to see from far away was the fact that one of the two races had a lion head, while the other race had the head of an eagle.-.

Despite that, they walked on two legs and had various traits that were similar to humans, which was another reason for Melanie to believe that they were races instead of monsters.

But even then, Dilan didn't think much about her information, especially because he had already faced intelligent monsters such as Kobolds, Krendels, Gnomes, Kobolds, and so on so this piece of news was not really surprising to him.

His unfocused eyes turned cold as he digested the information before he let out a deep sigh.

"Even if your information is somewhat useful, you still have to die!"

The moment Dilan's weak voice rang out, Gray Slayer had already been brandished.

The gray blade flashes in front of Melanie, slitting through her neck. She didn't feel any pain as Dilan gave her a quick death. There was only regret in her eyes as her sight blurred.

'How…did everything turn out like this?'

Even in her last thought, Melanie was unable to accept reality.

After all, she, Pyro, and the rest of the Death Beatles gang were destined to become the Emperors and Empresses of their own Empire…or so was it supposed to be.

But now all of them were dead, killed by a single individual, the being, who ought to become the true Emperor!

Dilan would have killed Melanie even if her information had been exceptionally useful.

She was simply too dangerous to be kept alive. Without a way to control her, Dilan would have faced the risk of her seeking revenge, and this was not something Dilan could accept.

'Well, even if she wouldn't have sought revenge, her path would have led her back to seek the Essence of innocent humans…' That was the only thing on Dilan's mind before he found himself lying in the corner of the room.

He was not sure how he found his way to the walls, but when his body slumped to the ground, Dilan's eyes closed involuntarily.

'It will be fine if I sleep…a few hours, right?' He could barely think before his mind shut itself off.

Falling into a deep slumber, Dilan slept until the sun disappeared behind the horizon.

Bright moonlight was shining through the windows of the former corporate building. It spilled into the room through the large windows where Dilan had caused carnage.

The crime scene looked even worse than before, only for a dead-tired young man to wake up from his well-deserved sleep.

He opened his drowsy eyes while trying to recall where he was and what had happened.

His memories were muddled and Dilan had difficulties remembering a few things.

Only a faint recollection of some information that Melanie had provided was left in his mind but that was not something Dilan was bothered about right now.

Rather, he looked at the corpses of more than 200 Tier-1 Ascenders with frustration, anger, and a trace of excitement.

Dilan was proud to have killed more than 200 Tier-1 Ascenders all by himself.

Despite feeling frustration and anger toward the fact that the 200 Tier-1 Ascenders had killed far more than a thousand human survivors, Dilan still felt excited.

He loathed himself for that and bit his lower lip until it started to bleed.

Only when he felt the pain did he regain his senses and got up from the ground.

When his gaze flitted to his equipment and other clothes, he saw that all of them were smeared with dried blood which made a feeling of disgust rise up from the pits of his stomach.

"Why am I suddenly disgusted by myself? Because I killed so many humans? No…I doubt that. They couldn't even be considered humans, to begin with…"

Dilan was not sure why his body felt so weird right now. However, what he didn't know was that his mind was still in a highly restricted state, and that his body was currently highly sensitive to all kinds of feelings.

Right now, he was feeling easily influenced by the surrounding atmosphere.

That was also why Dilan felt so disgusted as the atmosphere around him held the stench of death and blood.

Looking at the corpses, Dilan shuddered for a moment, only to feel that his left leg gave in.

He nearly collapsed on the ground and was barely able to get a hang of his body after struggling for a few seconds.

'What is going on?'

Confusion spread through his mind. He was not sure what was happening to him right now but he felt extremely weak.

As he was not sure what was going on, Dilan felt the need to test out a few things.

Minutes passed as he stayed slumped on the ground while forcing his brain to work and only when Dilan began to understand what was going on did his expression turn grim.

"Was I pushed into a weakened state because I attained strength my body is not able to handle for a longer period?"

Despite possessing many abilities, which increased his strength only for a short period, the combined utilization of numerous abilities was something his body was not able to endure for too long.

In fact, because his body had yet to learn how to use mana perfectly, the use of Berserk Mana with the [Thunder Step] ability, [Bracing Pain], and so on made things not easier for Dilan.

Under normal circumstances, it would have been the best for him to slowly accustom his body to the sensation of every single ability, one after another.

But the battle against the Death Beatles gang forced Dilan to go all in.

He couldn't have postponed the fight against the Death Beatles gang either because their speed of advancement as a team had been way too fast.

Had Dilan not possessed a Divine occupation and numerous abilities that were capable of elevating his strength with their combined effects, he would have died today.

Dilan was also aware that he would have died if Pyro and his group would have been able to progress further and he would have arrived at their base after a day or two.

As such, he didn't regret having given his all to defeat the others.

The weakened state might be a little bit bothersome but it was just a little inconvenience.

With that in mind, he focused on getting his hand on the Essence crystals of the Tier-1 Ascenders.

Dilan couldn't allow wasting the Essence crystals, not only for himself but also for the innocent humans, who had been victims of the cruelty of the Death Beatles gang.

He thought about many things while collecting all Essence crystals, including the temple Melanie had spoken about.

"If the temples appeared two days ago, it should have been shortly after I advanced to Tier-1 and when the system notification reached everyone…

Did this notification only reach humans on Milarn, or also beings from other planets?… Is that even possible?"

Dilan tried to make sense of the situation.

However, he had no idea about the temple's existence, if the two races were truly intelligent races, or simply monsters with higher sentience.

Once he figured that out, it would also be crucial to understand whether these two races were hostile to humans or if they might even try to form an alliance.

The latter would be great but Dilan was of the belief that the future would become far more complex than he was already apprehending.

But it was just when Dilan's thoughts grew worse that he saw something that attracted his attention.

"…what the hell is that?!

After Dilan collected all Essence crystals, he found something near Pyro's corpse that attracted his attention.

Dilan reached out for a small bright red gleaming object. It was terrifyingly hot and increased the temperature in the immediate surrounding by several degrees.

But even if that would be enough to scare others, Dilan picked up the searing hot marble he had found.

"Just what is that…?"

Dilan was extremely confused. He couldn't absorb the marble and didn't dare to do something foolish such as consuming it, either.

He could clearly sense that it would burn him alive if he were to try swallowing the marble.

Burning from the inside out was not something Dilan wanted to ever feel in his life.

As such, he spent a few minutes calming his mind before his focus returned to the marble.

"This marble must have dropped from Pyro…but why?"-.

Because the marble had been lying right next to Pyro's body, Dilan could be quite certain that it manifested after Pyro died.

There was also the low possibility that Pyro possessed the searing hot marble while he was alive but Dilan didn't believe so.

Somehow, he thought that Pyro wouldn't have died so easily if he were to be able to utilize the marble's powers, whatever they were, properly.

But that was only something his gut feeling suggested to him and it was not as if Dilan could be 100% sure.

"Is it because of the Origin ability? That's probably it.'

He nodded his head but quickly averted his focus once again.

There was no way for him to find out what exactly the marble could do. That meant Dilan was merely capable of storing the blazing marble away for now, which was also quite a hassle as it was hot enough to burn through ordinary clothes.

Fortunately, storing it worked after Dilan experimented with a few things for a while.

Afterward, he could focus on absorbing all Essence crystals which he had piled up in the center of the room.

There were only two special Essence crystals in the entire pile. One of them was Silver in color, while the other one was Golden!

A Golden Essence crystal!

It was the first time for Dilan to see such an Essence crystal and it was quite difficult for him to hide his shock.

'If I remember correctly that was Pyro's Essence crystal, right? But even if he picked an Extraordinary Ancient Path of Advancement, is that already enough to improve an Essence crystal's quality to such an extent?'

While Tier-1 Silver Essence crystals were already filled to the brim with highly potent Essence, the Golden Essence crystal he stared at was several times purer in terms of quality.

Not only was the Essence purer but there was also far more Essence compressed within the Golden Essence crystal.

'Is that also owed to Pyro's Origin ability?'

In the end, Dilan didn't know what requirements one had to meet to possess a higher-ranked Essence crystal.

If he were to be honest, it would be quite interesting to find out more about the Essence crystals' secrets.

But even if he were to know more about Essence crystals, it was not as if many things would change.

Dilan could always perceive if an opponent was too powerful for him to defeat, or if it was possible for him to fight against an opponent head-on.

For this special case, it didn't really matter whether his opponent was an ordinary Tier-1 monster at the peak of its capabilities, or a somewhat low-level Tier-1 Gold monster.

It was also the reason for Dilan to simply stop bothering about it as he absorbed the pile of Essence crystals in front of him.

[1 <Golden >, 1 <Silver >, 34 <Bronze >, and 167 Ordinary Tier-1 Essences have been absorbed→ +6.5 Strength, +3.1 Health, +2.8 Stamina, +5.4 Agility, +8.2 Mana]

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

[Essence pool has been filled. Host reached level 2(Tier-1)! +1.0 Status points can be allocated!]

Seeing how much his stats had been boosted, Dilan could clearly understand how beneficial it was to hunt down humans.

For a moment, he even forgot the fact that he had finally leveled up, twice at that! In fact, he was close to leveling up a third time as his Essence pool was already filled to 80%.

But that was not important right now!

Due to the Blessed Curse [Will of the Primordial] Dilan would only receive a tenth of the status other Ascenders received by absorbing Essence crystals, yet, the status points he gained just now exceeded 25 Units!

That meant if a single individual were to kill 200 Tier-1 humans Ascenders, they would receive over 250 status points!

Contrary to monsters, human Ascenders seemed to provide fewer status points per individual but the fact that each of them provided status points made up for this.

Chills ran down Dilan's spine as he thought about the possibility of humans hunting down their own kind just to earn status points as quickly as possible.

'Well, under normal circumstances, it shouldn't be possible for anyone to hunt 200 Tier-1 Ascenders while being a low-leveled Tier-1 Ascender by oneself. The advantages I have simply exceed the norm, making it a rare occurrence…'

Dilan didn't want to think too highly about himself. This was simply useless and would only make him overconfident. Thus, he began thinking about a few more points.

'For now, everyone's combat experience, and proficiency with abilities is low as well. That is also why it's possible for us to advance so quickly… At Tier-1, monsters are slightly more cunning and intelligent compared to those at Tier-0.

While monsters would gain intelligence, human Ascenders would gain more experience with mana, fighting, and abilities the further they ascended, and the more often they fought while risking their life…

That means the difficulty level would steadily increase the higher one advanced… and humans would be considered the best resources for monsters…and other Ascenders to gain strength."

Dilan could already imagine communities that numbered in the thousands and would be considered a perfect target to be hunted down.

He knew that Tier-0 Essence crystals were less useful for Tier-1 existences but even then, they never lost their entire value.

If a single powerful monster or human Ascender would be capable of hunting and annihilating entire human communities, their strength would increase by leaps and bounds.

This thought was frightening, even more so because Dilan had no idea how the situation outside Rian looked like.

The only thing he knew was that a temple in which two races lived was nearby, and that was certainly not something he was happy about…

Scratching the back of his head, he thought in frustration.

"What should I do?"

Chapter 141 Resolve

Right now, Dilan was very confused.

The value of human Essence crystals worried him a lot.

He was quite certain that the situation revolving around their race would gradually worsen.

Simultaneously, the dangers around them would increase over time.

As such, everyone had to work hard and advance as long as it was still possible. This did not only include his own improvement but even more so of the others.

Dilan was quite confident to fight monsters at the Peak of Tier-1. He would have to go all-in and enter a weakened state afterward, but if the situation demanded it, a weakened state would be a small sacrifice.

"I'm still not familiar with my abilities, their limits, and how to utilize them properly to make use of their full potential if I were to combine several abilities at once…"

Not knowing much about his abilities was not Dilan's only issue. The few pieces of equipment he possessed could be considered quite useful and rare but they were still not enough for him.

It would be difficult to enhance his boots and gloves because they possessed additional abilities that were of great use.

However, Dilan could also wear other equipment that could improve his prowess even further.-.

The others would also be able to wear powerful equipment as long as Dilan procured enough Essence crystals to trade them with treasures.

But that would require time, similar to how Old Jeff required time to perfectly forge a weapon.

"Old Jeff should be able to start forging in a few days…I should enter the Krendel's Underground Valley with a few Ascenders tomorrow."

They had yet to procure enough ores to allow Old Jeff to start forging properly.

It was only fortunate that they didn't lack basic resources such as coal and forging tools.

Even if it took them some effort and time to find everything they needed, Old Jeff was currently in the last phase of his preparations before he would start working.

That was also why Dilan had been quite excited before.

Unfortunately, his excitement had been washed away by the fact that there was a possibly dangerous temple inhabited by two different races.

Mankind's stance was also somewhat questionable as they might either turn into a highly sought-after resource by other monsters, or they would overcome all struggles and keep ascending.

Dilan held high hopes for the latter but the current situation was somewhat uncertain while the true terror had yet to unfold.

He understood this and could only sigh deeply while searching for the highest building in the surrounding area.

Melanie might have told him about the temple but that didn't mean he should blindly believe her.

That was also the reason for him to get his hands on a spyglass and to take a look at the Shikan plains from an elevated position.

Even if the hospital's rooftop allowed Dilan to see a lot, Rian's tight-knit infrastructure restricted the sight and did not allow him to have a panoramic view of the Shikan plains.

Thus, when Dilan reached the rooftop of the highest building in his proximity, he immediately looked around.

There were some issues with his sight even though he had the [Nightvision] ability.

It was around midnight and the only somewhat helpful source of light was the moon.

The object of Dilan's interest was far away as well, which was why he could barely make out the outlines of a temple after more than 20 minutes had passed. If his guess was correct, it seemed to belong to the Aztecs.

His focus was on the temple.

'It must be quite large if I can see it from a distance of…more than 20 kilometers? Is that even correct?'

Dilan had difficulties determining how far the temple was located. That was why he gave up coming up with rough predictions.

Instead of gauging his current distance to the temple he tried to make out its appearance.

Its size certainly exceeded the size of pyramids. The foundation of the temple had stairs that led up to the round temple, which had a cone-shaped roof. The roof's shape was unusual but it was not something Dilan was concerned about.

Dilan also knew that round Aztec pyramids were predominantly built to worship one God; the Quetzalcoatl.

That was also why he couldn't help but feel a little bit odd. While he was wondering about this, his eyes suddenly spotted a faint reddish gleam above the temple.

A huge ball-shaped object shone like the sun for a quarter of a second before its glow dimmed at once.

The ball-shaped object made Dilan peer at it intently, which was why he realized only now that it was not connected to the cone-shaped temple but that it was levitating above it!

'How is that possible?!' Dilan wondered, only to realize that Milarn's logic didn't apply to real-life anymore.

After all, they had Gates that would transport them to other dimensions, followed by mythical beasts that were capable of spewing flames, bolts of lightning, and so on.

Even humans had now changed, turning into existences that could do things that rivaled the abilities of Gods.

As such, a levitating ball-shaped object shouldn't confuse Dilan that much.

But that was exactly what happened. It was just a few seconds but he was astonished before his mind calmed in an instant.

His worries about humans turning into a resource for other beings to become stronger deteriorated.

"Everything will be fine…even if I have to turn into a monster myself…" Dilan could only mumble. He clearly understood what kind of changes the appearance of temples and the races that inhabited the area around the temples would cause.

And even the best possible scenario Dilan could come up with in his mind was anything but good…

As such, he could only grit his teeth and clench his fist, knowing that he could only strive toward attaining more strength, and to overcome every single obstacle that was bound to be thrown in his way during his ascension!

Dilan's resolve was firm and reinforced, strengthened to an extent that exceeded mortal realms.

If someone were to see him right now, one would be able to see the first signs of a mortal existence walking down a path that was filled with dangers, pain, even death…but also opportunities and most importantly…hope!

It was a path that no mortal was supposed to walk on, yet, there was one individual, who would dare to take on all the burdens in order to achieve everything he wanted to, even if that meant he had to overcome death itself!

However, until that day would arrive, death would continue to lurk around Dilan.

Chapter 142 Change

Dilan was deep in thought as he spent more than an hour on top of the skyscraper's roof.

It was freezing cold but that was not something Dilan took notice of.

Ever since he had advanced to Tier-1, his physique improved a lot, including an increase in his natural resistance to the surrounding temperature.

This would be quite helpful for the future when he would enter Gates that brought him to places where the temperature was either extremely hot or ice-cold.

But for now he was glad that he had not turned into an ice statue while he was standing around absentmindedly.

Only after he regained his senses was Dilan able to return to the ground.

'Old Jeff's [Materials appraisal] should be more than enough to appraise the blazing marble…maybe we can make use of this treasure to increase our strength…'

Because he had slept for quite a while before, Dilan had no intentions to return to the cafeteria and rest. Instead, he was ready to return to hunting monsters.

He might be in a weakened state but that didn't mean he would turn into easy prey for the monsters.

To make a quick assessment of his strength, he lightly jumped up and down before moving in specific ways to roughly determine how much his strength had decreased.

"Halved…urgh"

Dilan knew that his strength had decreased by a lot, but after testing a few movements the final result was that he could exhibit only 50% of his strength.

In fact, Dilan was never able to exhibit 100% of his strength simply because the human body was not able to do so in normal circumstances.-.

His combat talent might have been high but only after he received the passive ability [True Weapon Specialist] did Dilan learn that his little talent had been wasted entirely.

It was only fortunate for Dilan to possess the passive ability [Warrior's Unparalleled Physique]. Initially, he had been annoyed at this ability because it provided him with mere 0.5 status points in exchange for half the Essence he absorbed.

This was akin to daylight robbery, and far from a fair trade.

But Dilan could understand more about this passive ability after he leveled up twice.

The 0.5 status points he received were just a bonus he received in addition to the main advantage of the ability which remodeled his body.

Before the Primordial Ascension, his physique could be said to have been above average.

Because he had been outside the house to do highly straining activities, his body was great, to put it simply.

However, only now could Dilan understand that his physique which he had carefully built was trash.

This was a harsh statement but Dilan had to acknowledge that his 'great' physique was simply trash in comparison to what his newly procured ability [Warrior's Unparalleled Physique] was capable of.

The ability fixed the flaws in his physique that Dilan had created by making trivial mistakes while working out.

But fixing his flawed physique was not everything. Instead one could say that it was just the beginning because Dilan could clearly feel how his physique was being remodeled and strengthened.

This was a process that would, most likely, never end as he was bound to keep progressing. However, this was something Dilan was perfectly fine with as long as his body's hidden potential could be unveiled.

In the end, after absorbing only a few hundred Tier-1 Essence crystals, Dilan was already able to sense that his physique underwent many changes, including his increased adaptability to mana.

It was much easier for him to sense and replenish mana. This made many things easier such as the instantaneous usage of abilities, shortening the period it took him to replenish mana and perceive the surroundings.

That was also why he was not exactly scared about facing the monsters on his way back to the hospital.

In fact, Dilan was not even tired as he had slept more than enough. Rather than wasting his time resting, he was inclined to search for more Survivors instead.

The news about the temple's emergence and the freezing temperature was worrisome enough to fear that all Survivors might die soon.

This was not even without including the dangers of monsters, and vile humans, which were similarly bothersome.

'If I help Williams, Kathrine and Old Jeff to become Tier-1 Ascenders, it should be possible to forge powerful equipment."

In the end, Dilan's mind came up with a rather simple solution to face the current situation.

Old Jeff's occupation will probably provide him with the necessary proficiency to regain his old glory, while William will be able to protect Old Jeff and everyone else when the goods will be transported from the hospital to the workshop, or the other way around.

Meanwhile, Kathrine would certainly attain more than enough power to lead a small group of Ascenders inside the Krendel's Underground Valley.

Even if it would be quite dangerous to enter the deepest parts of the mine, Dilan was confident that Kathrine was strong enough to procure enough Jadetite and Silver Iron ore!

Dilan, on the other hand, thought about averting his focus on eliminating the most powerful monsters prowling on Rian's outskirts while simultaneously searching for Survivors.

'It has only been 14 days since the Primordial Ascension… at least 1% of Rian's population will still be alive, right?!'

1% of Rian's population would only be 5000 Survivors. If that was the number of human Survivors in the city, there were still more than 4000 Survivors left behind. They could be alive either because they had learned to survive in the brutal place that the city had turned into, or they were helplessly cowering in the corner of some room without a way out!

Thus, the mission he gave himself was to find everyone who needed help and to accept them in his group as long as they wanted to.

That train of thought was something that would have never occurred to Dilan before the Primordial Ascension.

He didn't really care about other people's safety, let alone if they could survive.

After all, Dilan hadn't even valued his own life at some point in the past.

The change of his behavior confused Dilan the most. There was literally no reason for him to endanger his life for other people.

But that was what he had been doing since the beginning of the Primordial Ascension again and again. Not only was he actively helping other people but also risking his life every single time he fought humans and beasts alike.

He saved them from vile people, kept protecting them and even nurtured them.

Earlier, Dilan would have said that his actions were solely to fulfill his own selfish motives.

In order to become stronger, he needed people to do certain tasks for him.

For example, Bianne cooked, Sarah began to concoct potions, while Old Jeff would start forging quite soon.

With many powerful Ascenders by his side, it would also be possible to survive the onslaught of an army of mighty monsters.

As such, nurturing other Ascenders was not only logical but also beneficial. The exact same could be said about taking in more Survivors. Each of them would definitely procure one ability by killing their first monster.

It was still unknown how one was supposed to procure additional abilities.

So far, only once a monster had dropped an ability and that was the time Dilan got his hand on [Thunder Step].

Other than that, nobody was able to procure an additional ability yet.

That meant it was only logical to take in more Survivors to collect more abilities.

However, Dilan could tell that all of this was just a farce. Every single reason he told himself before felt like a lie.

It was not as if the reasons were truly a lie but it was more as if the reasons to help others and to protect them were an excuse he gave himself.

This was important to make himself believe that every single action of his was reasonable and not influenced by his emotions.

But was that truly the case? Dilan was not sure about that anymore.

'Bastard, you should have never been born!'

'Are you really my son, or did this bitch have an affair with another man?!'

'After throwing me aside, she abandoned you as well because you are just a piece of trash!!!'

'Do you think your father ever loved you? Are you really that naive?! He just left you to rot at my feet!

'Brother…leave…only that way you can survive. You've suffered enough, now please let us protect you…'

'Yes Sister is right, you should leave…we will take care of everything. Flee as far as possible, and…n-ne-…never call us again…'

Even if Dilan didn't want to recall memories of his past, they simply resurfaced without any rhyme or reason.

Numerous memories flashed through his mind, entire sentences that had been long forgotten echoed through his mind, and pictures of his family…if he could even call it that, manifested in his mind.

The most apparent memories were about the last day he stayed in the place that had been his so-called home.

Dilan never felt comfortable being surrounded by those walls but he had stayed there because of his two sisters.

They had been older than him by one and three years respectively but that didn't mean they had been able to protect themselves.

His father, Arnes Cier, was already in his 3rd marriage. Dilan was born in his second marriage, while his sisters were born to Arnes' first wife.

One day Arnes' first wife was found dead in the bathtub, her wrists slit open.

Everyone believed that Arnes' first wife had been lonely and depressed because Arnes had been working hard but that was far from the truth…

The truth was only something Arnes knew about…and Dilan.

And this truth, which Dilan got to know at the tender age of 7 while he had been beaten up just like any other day, was the reason for him to stay in the Cier mansion, the place everyone wanted to stay in, except the people that lived inside.

They…just wanted to escape that hellhole, together, as fast as possible…and alive.