One in a thousand (3)

'These monsters are getting tougher and tougher to fight. At this rate it won't take long for me to run out of essence.'

[Don't worry, I am here! ]

'I know sys, but you can't come and fight them personally.'

[ಥ_ಥ]

Ed swung his hammer trying to kill a goblin but fighting for so long was starting to finally take its toll as his movements were getting sloppier and body fatigued, this gave the goblin time to escape.

"Che!" Ed retracted his hand and used his other hand to horizontally swing his hammer and blow the goblin away.

"*cough* Khughhh *cough*"

Ed felt a cold, metallic sensation spreading from his lower abdomen as he glanced back to see a goblin stab him with a rusty spear. The goblin was smirking at Ed, irking him.

Ed kicked the goblin but the pesky little creature didn't let go of the spear taking it out with itself, giving Ed even more pain than he initially felt.

"Puaahhh!" he spat out a mouthful of blood and retreated a couple of metres to create some distance.

He pulled off his sweater which was sticking to his body because of being soaked in blood.

"And I just bought this, what a waste." he threw away the tattered sweater and took out the health kit that the guard gave them.

"if. only. I. could. use. this. kit" the kit included bandages, disinfectant, antiseptic and other basic supplies. He tried to dress his wound but the goblins quickly caught up with him, not allowing him any rest.

"Quest window"

_______________________________

HUNTING QUEST

Kill all the monsters in the vicinity

Monsters killed: 61/250

REWARDS

Acquire a random skill

Failure may result in death

_______________________________

"Tsk, still over 180 monsters to go." Ed tried to repel the goblins with minimal movements as dancing around the area will only spread open his wound.

"I can't go on like this, I'll have to use that."

[By that, do you mean that?]

"Yes, I have no other choice."

[But you are not used to that power, it can hurt you, please think again]

"I have no other option"

Ed pulled out a large sledgehammer and smashed it into the ground with all his strength, creating a small shockwave which pushed back the goblins a step or two.

"Secret move, movement style: Ass twerking"

Ed turned around and started twerking at the goblins, moving his ass up and down.

It could be seen through his movements that he was no stranger to this and might have trained hard for this move.

His waist bent in such an exquisite way that beginners could only hope for, showing Ed's genius as he was able to do so despite being a beginner himself. And the way his ass protruded was enough to rival even professionals but sadly this was not what others thought.

Sys- [.....]

Goblins- "..."

________________________________

The enemy has been stunned due to witnessing an unsightly scene

________________________________

Ed straightened his back pulling his chinos up to cover his butt, which he was showing off just moments ago.

"Attack successful"

Ed started tending to his stab wound before the goblins start attacking him again.

"..... and done. Bring it on!" Ed tightened the bandage and put back his hammers to only replace them with two battle axes. Ed specialised in short range weapons, axes and hammers to be specific.

Ed began slaughtering monsters as limbs and heads flew in every direction, increasing the death count.

"Grrraaahh!" Ed looked to see a very angry goblin rush at him. The goblin was infuriated by Ed's twerking which probably gave him trauma for life and in a suicidal attempt attacked Ed.

Ed managed to chop its head off but because of the reckless charge, the goblin managed to reopen his wound.

"Ugghhh!" Ed clenched his wound as blood again started flowing out of it, staining his chinos.

"Now I've had enough.

Electric discharge: Max output"

Lightning started dancing around his body as it slowly enveloped his whole body.

*crackle* *crackle*

The goblins instinctively took a step back as they all could sense the amount of essence Ed was exuding..

"Haaa!" with a single movement, the lightning spread away from his body in a circular wave, hitting everything in a 100m radius.

Ed used the last of his essence to use the strongest form of his skill Electric Discharge. This form had the drawback of hurting the user and with Ed already being injured it dealt even more damage, furthering his wound.

"F*** my health dropped by 40% but it is a relief that some died and majority of them are immobilised or else who knows."

He dragged himself away from the monsters and leaned against a tree, covering his wound with a piece of cloth which barely qualified for it.

"Now if Rey doesn't come quickly, he'll have my skeleton greet him."

"You missed me and here I am"

Rey descended from the air as if flying when in reality he just jumped from a tall tree and used Shadow Assimilation to break his fall.

"Darkness Blast" he shot a ball of essence amidst the goblins instantly killing them.

"What a show off."

*10 minutes earlier*

"Put 80 points in intelligence, this is just unfair." Rey had been trying for quite some time but all he managed was to send the ball of essence a couple of metres away with negligible strength. This was pretty outstanding considering his age because what he was trying to do was an advanced technique for his level, it was taught to students after reaching level 25 or having around 400 points in intelligence, but Rey was not satisfied with this much as this wouldn't help their current situation.

With the potion's effect coming to an end he decided to invest in his intelligence.

Increasing ones intelligence doesn't make one more smart or raises their IQ. Rather it is linked with essence and its usage. A higher intelligence stat means that one is more proficient in controlling the essence in their body and surroundings.

But a higher intelligence stat doesn't always mean that you'll be better than the next. For example, if an average person were to bring his intelligence to 276, the same as Rey, one would expect both of them to have a similar level of control but rather, Rey would be better than the other.

To put it simply, it was like having different starting positions and then even after putting in the same amount of effort, the one ahead will always be ahead.

"Now let's try this one more time"

[Do it slowly, slowly....]

Rey carefully moved his essence towards the tip of his index finger, repeating the process many times increased his efficiency and it didn't take as much time as it used to before.

Rey took a deep breath and started concentrating more and more essence at his tip until it grew to the size of a golf ball.

[Release it now]

*BAM*

Rey released the ball and it collided witha large boulder, destroying a large chunk of it.

"Got it"

_________________________________

You have learnt a new skill.

Darkness Blast (C) Lv. 1

Release a ball of concentrated essence in the form of a projectile at the enemy. The force depends on the amount of essence imbued and the speed of rotation.

Cooldown: None

_________________________________

[How'd you manage to do that?]

"Well I simply just rotated the essence and hoped that the force generated by it would be able to sustain its shape and increase its power. Don't you know it already?"

[O-of course I knew it. I-I was just testing you.]

"Let's go back, we have a quest to complete."

*Back to present*

*BAM* *BAM* *BAM*

Rey released three blasts to secure the perimeter around him and give Ed enough time to rest.

"What was that move?" Ed chugged down a health potion and wrapped a new bandage around his wound.

"A new skill I just learnt, it's pretty rad."

'Hehe now I'll show off, just watch me.'

"Let me take care of them while you rest, besto friendo."

"O... ok"

*BAM* *BAM* *BAM*

Rey used the skill in quick succession to thin out the horde of goblins which regrouped shortly.

[Rey, I want.....]

"Let me kill them first, Soph."

[B-but....]

*BAM*

Rey used a larger blast this time and instead of aiming at the horde, shot it at the goblin illusionist who was still disguising as a lady.

The ball of essence hit the lady but instead of a large explosion, it vanished into thin air as if it didn't even exist.

"What, how can this be?"

[Rey, listen to m.....]

"I'll close up on her and blast it right off in her face. That ought to do it then."

Rey completely ignored Sophie's words and dashed towards the lady, dodging every attack thrown his way.

He killed a few who dared to come face to face with him and when he was right in front of the lady jumped up into the air and tried channeling large amounts of essence.

"Darkness bla....."

Rey tried to channel his essence but none came, the dude was out of it for god's sake.

"Wait, really and at such a moment!"

Rey was helpless as he was falling and out of essence, he couldn't use any of his skill and his knuckles weren't strong enough to hurt the lady.

"Why didn't you tell me Soph?"

[I tried but you wouldn't listen to me.]

"I guess, do something to save me at least."

[Don't ask me, hmph!]

"Soph... Soph..." Rey called out, but Sophie didn't answer. He looked down at the ground but instead saw a large bear opening its jaws to swallow him whole.

Not able to do anything, Rey just accepted his fate as he entered feet first into its jaws, lined with razor sharp teeth.

The bear closed its mouth and Rey felt the teeth biting into his skin, tearing his flesh, first his neck, then his arms, abdomen and lastly his legs.

"Ahhhhhhh!" Rey screamed as he was helpless, utterly helpless in the face of death.

"Rey..... wake up. Rey *slap* *slap*"

"Huh!" Rey slowly opened his eyes and scanned his surroundings. Instead of seeing a hellish landscape of souls being tortured by demons, he saw Ed's face.

"There is a demon just like Ed in hell, I will tell him if I see him again."

"Hey, you ok? And what are you mumbling about?"

Rey stood up and started feeling his body all over, trying to check whether he was really dead.

"I'm ok. Ed I am alive, I thought..... I died b-but I'm perfectly fine."

"Dude did you hit your head way too hard after falling? What are you even saying?"

[Like seriously Rey, quit overreacting]

Rey barely managed to calm down and looked at Ed as if asking him to explain what happened.

...

"So what do we do? Except for that goblin illusionist we have killed everybody else and depleted our essence in the process."

"Without any essence, it is practically impossible to break free from her illusions. We'll have to retreat."

" No.. no.. no.. no, we can't retreat now. Think about all the sweet sweet exp we'll get from killing it and the skill you'll get."

"But didn't you experience it first hand what the illusions are capable of when you saw that bear. Rushing in there is just plain reckless."

"What about the herbs we collected earlier, there ought to be something useful in there."

"It is highly unlikely but it doesn't hurt to try."

*Few moments later*

"There is nothing here, Rey. Let's go back it's not like there is a time limit."

"Wait a minute.... here it is."

"What is it?"

"The dragon tailed rose"

"This... how could I miss this. I guess we'll be staying here a bit longer."

[Hey you know that this can be dangerous?]

"Of course we know, but who cares. Here this one is for you Ed."

Ed grabbed a few petals and put them under his tongue. Dragon tailed rose was a naturally occurring plant.

It is a plant so if course it will occur naturally, what the hell am I even saying?

Whatever, so dragon tailed rose was used as an ingredient in many potions for its property to store essence in its petals and leaves and for this reason, potions made using it also had this property.

This made them extremely effective but the down side was that, the dragon tailed rose absorbed the purest form of essence which was harmful for the human body and because of this it's use was restricted to limited products.

Rey and Ed were using a dragon tailed rose just after plucking it, which could have a much greater effect than the potions but the side effects will also not be anything to scoff at.

"All or nothing" Rey also put the petals under his tongue as he felt essence enter his body alongwith the sweet flavour of the plant.

It was the same essence he always felt but because of its purity, his essence channels opened, rejuvenating his body and increasing his essence storing capacity.

"Thish ish amashing"

"I know, lesh kick ashh!"

Rey materialised knuckles identical to his brass ones whereas Ed took out two small hammers resembling a certain God and covered them with lightning.

"Don't forgesh shu cover your eish with eshensh."

"I know, I know"

Rey and Ed approached the lady from two different sides to not give her any chance to fight back.

The lady just looked at them and flicked back her hair, ignoring them.

Rey reached the lady and extended his fist which to her surprise connected with her face and she started bleeding.

The lady was dumbfounded beyond belief, she had actually used her skill while flicking her hair but because of the pure essence that they were using, the illusion was nullified. And what is an illusionist without its illusions- answer, nothing when fighting those specialising in combat.

With her illusions being ineffective, the lady was just like any other goblin, waiting to be killed. Her illusion started to fade revealing a goblin with many wounds as she took on more and more beating.

That's when Rey noticed that the blast he used earlier was actually effective but the goblin used its illusion to fool them.

Rey smirked on realising this and increased the pace of his punches and shortly, it died.

_______________________________

Quest completed

Kill all the monsters in the vicinity.

Monsters killed: 250/250

REWARDS

Memory fragment of the 'Shadow Warrior'

_______________________________

"Bro, we did it." Ed and Rey fist bumped and collapsed on the ground because of the side effects from using the dragon tailed rose. Their bodies were not accustomed to circulate such pure essence and as a result even after completely resting, they collapsed in under 10 minutes.

"Ed please carry me back home!"

"Come here, we'll crawl back together."

"Let's go!" Ed and Rey started dragging themselves in the ground, leaving a trail behind them.

[Stop this bullshit and use the flare that the guard gave you.]

[Ya what big sis said]

"What's this Ed?"

"Well, actually....."