Area D of the Dark Forest was silent.
It was an oppressive, heavy silence, completely different from the chirping birds and rustling leaves of Area A. Here, the trees were massive, black-barked things that choked the sky, leaving the forest floor in a perpetual, gloomy twilight. The air was cold, smelling of damp earth and something metallic, like old blood.
Any other Level 1 Awakener, in their basic starter robes, would have been petrified. I just pulled up my hood and felt a thrill of anticipation.
"Right," I muttered, my voice sounding unnaturally loud. "Let's see what we're dealing with."
I activated my Tier 1 [Appraisal]. The world was immediately different. I could see faint, colored lines on the ground—mana trails. I could see the 'health' of the trees, the structural weak points in the rocks.
And I could see, lumbering through a clearing 50 meters away, a 10-foot-tall, moss-covered Ogre.
I didn't move. I just focused. "Appraisal."
[Forest Ogre (Lv 17)]
Type: Brute
Health: 3,500/3,500
Skills: [Club Smash], [Boulder Throw], [Roar]
Analysis: A simple-minded, physically powerful monster. Its thick hide offers high physical resistance, but its magical resistance is pitifully low. Weakness: Head, Heart, Low Intellect.
A Level 17 monster. It would take a party of Level 15s to even consider fighting this. I, on the other hand, was Level 1. My mana bar was a pathetic 200/200. My health was 100. The Ogre would kill me in one hit.
But I had a Tier 8, Transcendent-Rank [Solar Flare].
"No," I thought, shaking my head. "That's overkill, and I don't have the 8,000 mana to cast it. Let's start at the beginning."
I extended a finger. The Ogre hadn't noticed me. It was busy picking its nose with a claw the size of my head.
"Skill: [Fireball]."
This was the Tier 1 skill. The one everyone in the world got. But it was my [Fireball]. It was Transcendent-Rank, and it was amplified by my [Transcendor] title.
A small, shimmering orb appeared at my fingertip. It wasn't the angry, crackling red-and-orange fire I'd seen in the academy's training videos.
It was blue.
A deep, piercing, cobalt blue, like the heart of a gas flame. It didn't crackle with heat; it hummed with pure, compressed energy, no bigger than a marble. The mana cost? A tiny [5 Mana] drained from my pool.
The Ogre finally saw me. It let out a derisive grunt, scoffing at the tiny human and the tiny, pretty light. It raised its massive, tree-trunk club to smash me into paste.
I flicked my finger.
The blue marble shot forward in a perfectly straight line, like a bullet. It struck the Ogre center-mass.
There was no grand, fiery explosion. No boom. There was a sound like a wet pop.
The Ogre froze. Its club stopped mid-swing. It looked down at its chest, a confused expression on its ugly face.
There was a perfectly round, cauterized hole in its torso. The Ogre didn't even have time to roar. It just... disintegrated. The blue fire, in an instant, consumed it from the inside out. The monster turned to fine grey ash, which was then scattered by a breeze I couldn't even feel.
I stared at the empty space. My Tier 1 spell... had just atomized a Level 17 monster.
Then, the notifications came.
[Ding! You have killed [Forest Ogre (Lv 17)]!] [Base EXP Acquired: 250] [Calculating Level Difference Bonus... (Lv 1 vs Lv 17)... 800% EXP Bonus!] [Total EXP: 250 x 8.0 = 2,000 EXP]
[Ding! 10x Multiplier System has detected EXP gain!] [Total EXP Granted: 2,000 x 10 = 20,000 EXP!]
And then, the real-time calculation began.
[20,000 EXP Acquired!] [Level 1 -> 2 (Cost: 100 EXP)]... 19,900 EXP remaining. [Ding! You have leveled up! You are now Level 2!]
[Level 2 -> 3 (Cost: 1,000 EXP)]... 18,900 EXP remaining. [Ding! You have leveled up! You are now Level 3!]
[Level 3 -> 4 (Cost: 2,500 EXP)]... 16,400 EXP remaining. [Ding! You have leveled up! You are now Level 4!]
[Level 4 -> 5 (Cost: 5,000 EXP)]... 11,400 EXP remaining. [Ding! You have leveled up! You are now Level 5!]
[EXP applied to next level (Lv 5 -> 6)]... [You have 11,400 / 80,000 EXP] [Progress to Level 6: 14.25%]
I stood there, stunned. Not by the level ups, but by the stop. Four levels in an instant, and then I hit a wall. 80,000 EXP. The "Rookie Wall" that separates the casuals from the dedicated.
[Ding! Loot acquired!] [1x Ogre's Club (Common)] [1x Ogre Hide (Tattered)] [3x Credits (Small Pouch)] [All items have been sent to your System Inventory.]
"Inventory," I whispered. A small, grid-like window appeared in my vision. Inside, a cartoonish-looking club, some torn green hide, and a tiny pouch of coins sat waiting. The system had auto-looted for me.
"So that's how it works." I grinned. "The Ogre disintegrated, but the loot is preserved."
My one kill, which would have been a god-like feat for any other Level 1, had only given me 14 percent towards my next level.
I laughed. This was so much better.
It meant that even with my 10x cheat, I had a clear path. I just had to kill... seven more Ogres. A normal person would need to kill 80,000 / (250*8.0) = 40 Ogres. They'd need a full party and a full day. I'd need about 30 seconds.
I opened my status.
[10x Multiplier System Window]
Name: Luke Arkwright
Occupation: ???mage???
Level: 5 (14.25% to Lv 6)
Title: [Transcendor]
Health: 200/200 (Base 100 + 4 Lvls * 2.5 * 10x)
Mana: 600/600 (Base 200 + 4 Lvls * 10 * 10x)
SP: [Still rising...]
Skill Trees (All Transcendent-Rank):(Unchanged)
My mana pool had tripled. My health doubled. My body, which had been the scrawny, introverted Luke, now felt... solid. The aches were gone. My senses were razor-sharp.
A roar echoed from deeper in the woods. Another Ogre.
"Okay," I said, cracking my knuckles. "Time to grind."
I began to walk.
An Ogre (Lv 16) burst from the trees. I didn't even use [Fireball]. "Skill: [Gale Slicer (T1)]." Mana Cost: 5. A tiny, almost invisible sliver of wind left my hand. It passed the Ogre. Shing. The Ogre's head slid cleanly off its neck.
[...10x Multiplier System... 1,800 EXP x 10 = 18,000 EXP!] [Progress to Level 6: 36.75%] (29,400 / 80,000)
Another one, an Ogre (Lv 18), charged me. "Skill: [Earth Spike (T2)]." Mana Cost: 20. I stomped my foot. A 20-foot spike of black, razor-sharp obsidian erupted from the ground, impaling the Ogre.
[...10x Multiplier System... 2,200 EXP x 10 = 22,000 EXP!] [Progress to Level 6: 64.25%] (51,400 / 80,000)
Two more Ogres charged together. "Skill: [Fire Burst (T2)]." Mana Cost: 20. Instead of a bullet, I shot the blue marble at the ground between them. A silent, 10-foot-wide shockwave of blue fire expanded, turning them both to ash.
[...40,000 EXP!] [...91,400 / 80,000 EXP!] [Ding! You have leveled up! You are now Level 6!] [Progress to Level 7: 11.40%] (11,400 / 100,000)
I had been in Area D for less than 10 minutes, and I was already Level 6, one-shotting everything. I spent the next thirty minutes in a blur, walking, appraising, and one-shotting. My level climbed steadily. Level 7... Level 8... Level 9...
I was now Level 12, and the Ogres, which were only giving me small percentages of my 280,000 EXP bar, were getting boring. I needed a real challenge.
That's when a shadow passed over the dim forest, and a piercing shriek split the air.
I looked up. "Appraisal."
[Adolescent Wyvern (Lv 20)]Type: Flying, Field Boss Health: 15,000/15,000 Skills: [Claw Dive], [Fire Breath (Basic)], [Wing Gust] Analysis: A rare Field Boss. Flying type gives it a massive advantage. Its scales provide high Physical and Magical resistance. Weakness: Wings (vital for flight), Eyes.
The Wyvern saw me. It shrieked again, a challenge, and dived, claws extended. This was what a party of Level 20s was supposed to fight.
"Finally," I breathed.
I cast my staple. "Skill: [Fireball (T1)]." The blue marble shot up and struck the Wyvern's scaled chest. Tink. The blue fire, for the first time, dribbled off and sputtered out. The Wyvern's magical resistance was too high for a Tier 1 spell. It was Level 12 vs Level 20, and the monster's natural defenses worked.
"Hah!" I laughed in delight.
The Wyvern was 100 feet from me and closing fast. "Skill: [Storm Wall (T4)]." Mana Cost: 200. I thrust my hand out. A swirling vortex of translucent, razor-sharp wind erupted in front of me, 30 feet high.
The Wyvern, locked into its dive, didn't have time to react. It smashed into the wind wall. The sound was like a dump truck full of cutlery being put in a blender. SHRRRIIIIINNNK! The Wyvern was flung back, its scales shredded, its chest a bloody ruin, shrieking in pain.
It tried to flap its wings to regain altitude, but it was wounded, furious. It opened its mouth and inhaled. "Skill: [Fire Breath (Basic)]."
A pathetic, orange-red stream of fire shot out. I didn't even move. "Skill: [Earthen Bastion (T1)]." Mana Cost: 10. A simple, angled wall of rock rose from the ground. The fire splashed harmlessly against it.
"My turn," I said. "Let's try a little more power."
"Skill: [Flame Lance (T3)]." Mana Cost: 100. I pointed my finger. A three-foot-long, spinning drill of solid blue fire formed. "Fire." It screamed through the air. The Wyvern tried to dodge. The blue lance hit its left wing. VWOOM. The wing didn't burn. It didn't tear. It was disintegrated. Gone. The Wyvern crashed to the forest floor, screeching, helpless.
I walked out from behind my wall. The field boss was flopping on the ground. I looked at my status.
Level 12. Mana: 1,300/1,500. My strongest fire spell was [Solar Flare (T8)] (Cost: 8,000). Still no. The next one down? [Sun's Vengeance (T7)] (Cost: 2,500). Still too much. What about [Meteor Swarm (T6)]? (Cost: 1,000). Perfect.
I pointed my hand to the sky above the writhing Wyvern. "Skill: [Meteor Swarm]."
My mana pool nearly emptied. [Mana: 1,300 -> 300]. For a second, nothing happened. Then, ten pinpricks of blue light appeared high in the sky. A second later, they streaked down, ten cobalt-blue meteors. They didn't just hit the Wyvern. They annihilated the 50-foot area it was in. The ground erupted in a series of silent, overlapping blue explosions that kicked up a massive cloud of dust.
When the dust settled, the Wyvern was gone. All that remained was a 50-foot-wide crater, its edges glassy and smooth.
I was breathing hard, partly from the mana expenditure, but mostly from the thrill. A chime, almost polite, broke the silence.
[Ding! You have killed [Adolescent Wyvern (Lv 20)]!] [Base EXP Acquired: 20,000] [...Total EXP Granted: 300,000 EXP!]
[Ding! You have leveled up! You are now Level 13!] [Progress to Level 14: 6.06%] (20,000 / 330,000)
[Ding! Field Boss Defeated! Bonus Loot acquired!] [1x Wyvern Scale (Rare)] [1x Wyvern Talon (Rare)] [1x Wind-Stone (Uncommon)] [25x Credits (Large Pouch)] [All items have been sent to your System Inventory.]
I stared at the crater. I stared at my level. I had been in the Dark Forest for less than an hour. I had entered at Level 1. I was leaving at Level 13.
I turned and walked out of the forest. I was still one-shotting everything, but my mana pool was my real bottleneck. The T6 spell nearly knocked me out, and I couldn't even touch my T7 or T8 skills. I needed to level up more, to expand my mana.
I opened my inventory and looked at the glowing Wyvern Scale and the pouch of credits. My dad had spent his savings on me. Now... I had a way to pay him back, and then some.
I was too strong for this place. I needed to go to the city's Awakener Market. First, I needed to sell this loot. Second, I needed to buy some new gear so I didn't look like a Level 1. And third, I needed to find a dungeon. A real one.
A/N: Thanks for reading, and if you like it, plzz add it in your collection.