The creature stood twice his height, dark red skin stretched over a bulky, muscular frame, its body covered in scars and glowing white tattoos. It wore crude armour made of bones and rusted iron, and in its hand was a massive axe, nearly as long as Raven was tall.
An Ogre.
He didn't need the system to tell him. Even without the pop-up above its head, the raw pressure rolling off the creature told him all he needed to know.
[Red Ogre – level 33 (D-Rank)]
The Ogre bellowed, its roar rattling the stone walls as it swung the massive axe in a wide arc that could have split him in half.
It was dangerous. And definitely hostile.
Raven didn't wait.
He activated his all-elemental magic, flames wrapping around the edge of his sword, and launched forward with a quick slash.
A dark aura of nothingness started to surround the blade.
The blade cut deep across the orc's abdomen, the heat of the fire amplifying the damage.
Since even space was cut, the damage was substantial.
The monster staggered back, a deep red gash blooming across its stomach, and one of its arms hanging limp from the strike.
'That did more than I expected...'
Between his high stats, the Divinity trait, and the 10% boost from the Enchantment Ring, the strike had been devastating.
'Let's try some magic this time.'
He raised his hand and launched a fireball made with Aether.
He put as much power into it as possible. It struck the orc cleanly, igniting it in a blaze of crimson flame.
The creature barely got the chance to scream.
Soon, it stopped squirming altogether, leaving only the sound of a crackling fire, violently swallowing the body.
A notification echoed in his mind:
[You have slain a D-Rank, level 32 Red Ogre]
[You have levelled up]
Raven stared at the messages for a second
'What...?That much EXP from just one monster?'
'I wasn't even close to the end of the level.'
He blinked, still surprised. However, more started appearing as the first was slain.
These weren't all the same as the first.
Some bore jagged bone shields strapped to their forearms, others carried crude iron spears that sparked with unnatural heat.
Their glowing tattoos pulsed brighter with rage, veins of white fire crawling up their scarred arms as they charged.
'It was level 33... but it only took two attacks.'
Raven thought, without yet engaging the new foes that had appeared.
A slow grin formed on his face.
"This is going to be a breeze."
…
[You have slain a Red Ogre – level 34 (D-Rank)]
[You have slain Red Ogre – level 32 (D-Rank)]
[You have slain a Red Ogre…]
[You have slain...]
[You hav...]
[…]
…
Nothing else really needed to be said.
Raven was having fun.
While the rest of the world saw this Gate as a death trap, Raven was casually massacring everything inside it.
These Red Ogres, terrifying to most, a nightmare to the average hunter, were little more than moving targets to him. His skills made quick work of them. Each strike, each spell, cut through like butter.
As the ground cracked beneath him, scorched by fire and frozen by ice, Raven paused briefly. The chaos he unleashed was starting to look more like the work of a force of nature than a human.
A smirk tugged at his lips.
'Yeah... getting closer.'
[System is processing EXP...]
[…]
[You have levelled up]
[You have levelled up]
[You have…]
[…]
"Phew... let's see where that puts me," Raven muttered, opening his stat panel.
{Name: Raven Dmitry}
Class: Classless
Level: 35
EXP: 2000/4500
Attributes:
Aether: 23/50
All-Elemental Magic: 23/50
Martial Power: 23/50
All-Master: 23/50
Divinity: 23/50
Attribute Points: 11
'Not bad at all... but still not enough to ignore all external threats in the outside world without consequences.'
Despite the carnage, his energy hadn't dipped. If anything, he was more fired up now than when he started. He could feel it; he was inching closer to being untouchable.
And this gate wasn't done yet.
The tremor of footsteps echoed through the cave as more Ogres appeared, eyes blazing with rage. They wanted revenge for their fallen. But to Raven, they were just more EXP.
"Flame tornado."
The words left his lips calmly, almost lazily, and chaos erupted ahead.
A massive torrent of fire swirled forth, swallowing the incoming Red Ogres.
Heat blasted through the cavern, baking the stone until it glowed faintly red. Smoke stung his throat and eyes, the air filled with the sound of Ogres screaming, only to be drowned out by the howling storm of fire.
When the spell finally faded, nothing remained but smouldering husks and the acrid stink of burnt flesh.
The combination was devastating. Raven had started to experiment with multi-attribute fusion through his All-Elemental Magic. Most hunters struggled even to cast a basic spell. He was creating new ones.
'So it's effective depending on the combination and control.'
Flame tornado was a double-attribute spell, combining fire and wind. Combining compatible elements like wind and water was easy. But opposites like fire and lightning? Way harder. But also way stronger.
'I can't do other combinations just yet, but it seems that will change with practice.'
Raven didn't care about difficulty. He cared about results.
Still, there were limits. Fusing completely contradictory elements, earth and wind, or fire and water, was still beyond him.
[You have levelled up]
[You have levelled up]
[You have levelled up]
He'd wiped out a dozen Ogres in one move, but the level-ups had slowed.
Still experimenting with different attacks, this time, a cacophony of spikes emerged, impaling most of the horde.
Level: 38
EXP: 4000/5100
"Tch. I don't want to spend all day in here."
Time to wrap it up.
He started casting spells in rapid succession—fireballs, tornadoes, even mini tsunamis. The cave shook with the force of his attacks. Then, switching gears, Raven summoned his D-rank sword and charged in.
Despite its low rank, the weapon cut cleanly through anything that still moved. His Spatial Manipulation passive warped space with every slash, making even weak hits lethal.
Even when one Orc managed to sneak up behind him, Raven sidestepped by a hair, then leapt onto its head and drove the blade down into its skull.
His synergy was deadly. Each skill alone was powerful, but together? Raven was nearly unstoppable.