Challenger (VI): Bloodbath (End)

While Nehar silently observed his surroundings, the continuous System messages made him aware of his current situation.

[System: Skill: Quick Movement (Common) has been deactivated]

[System Alert: Your body is strained. Please take caution!!]

[System Alert: You've deactivated the Skill: Mana Barrier (Common)] 

[System Alert: Skill: Curse Weapon (Inferior) was used against you by your Enemies to reduce the Durability of the Bloodkin's Dagger]

[System: The Bloodkin's Dagger has resisted fiercely and nullified the Effects of ]

 [System: Skill: Curse Weapon (Inferior) has been canceled forcefully]

[System: Skill: Curse Weapon (Inferior) has been…]

[System Alert: The Priests have suffered a condition of and became injured gravely]

[System: Skill: Lesser Magic Reflect (Common) has been used successfully!]

[System: You've eliminated a large number of Enemies.]

[System: Your Current HP: 175/380, Your Current MP: 33/325]

[System Alert: Your mana is low. Please take a rest to recover!]

[System: Your Control over Mana has increased. Skill Proficiency for the Passive Skill: Mana Control (Inferior) has increased]

[System: Current Skill Proficiency: 87.2%, Current Skill Completion Rate: 10.04%]

[System: Quest: Eliminate Your Enemies (98/113)]

[System: Quest: Remaining Time: 00:01:06] 

[System: Fatigue: 83]

Nehar silently contemplated while seeing these messages.

'Many died from the impact of those reflected arrows and Fireballs, mostly. Choosing to buy that Skill,  for these kinds of situations was a good idea. Luckily, I didn't register as an Active Skill before, otherwise, I'll not be able to buy any more Active Skills as I've already filled the Quota of 10 Active Skills.' 

'Only a minute left and there are still 15 people remaining. My mana is quite low and my body is also strained, so I can't easily activate Skills like or like before. Moreover, my fatigue is quite high right now.'

He looked around silently.

'There are 7-8 people around me, cowering in fear. And the rest ran away…if I need to go after them now, then...…'

Nehar shook his head and gripped the daggers in his hands tightly.

He had already changed his left-hand dagger over 5 times during the battle.

'Let's take out these people first, and then I'll think about those deserters.'

"COME", Nehar commanded in a deep, cold voice.

Blood-red smoke started generating from the Bloodkin's Dagger, which was embedded deep inside one of his enemy's back.

The Dagger vibrated slightly and then flew off from the body that was lying on the ground following the order and appeared in Nehar's right hand once more.

'It's good that I can have it back by a simple command after throwing it away…'

'I guess, this dagger is not gonna leave me anytime soon huh…'

Nehar chuckled lightly.

[System: Your Current Agility: 34.6]

Nehar started to run after seeing his current Stat with a satisfied grin on his face.

'This Dagger has helped me a lot in increasing my Stats tremendously…my was at 25 before and now; it's almost going to touch the peak speed of the Level 5 participants.'

He sighed.

'No wonder the previous owners of this Dagger were insanely powerful…though, there will be a quite severe backlash too for using this dagger..…'

While thinking about various topics rather than the imminent battle, Nehar swung his daggers again and again, killing people in the process.

Those people, who were already affected due to the reflection of the Fireballs and arrows over them, died quite pathetically without being able to put up any resistance at all.

Nehar didn't bother to activate any of his Skills, as many of them were under cool-down and he was quite low on mana himself.

He just adjusted his basic Skills and chopped those unlucky people.

He didn't even bother to look at these people carefully to discern their Classes anymore, as he already knew all of them were now out of mana and wouldn't be able to cast any Skills anymore.

Thus, he just ended them as fast as he could.

[System: Quest: Eliminate Your Enemies (107/113)]

 [System: Quest: Remaining Time: 00:00:37]

[System: Fatigue: 90]

'Huh, still 6 people left…the remaining time is short though…' Nehar tried to locate those deserters who ran away before.

Soon, he located 3 people on a corner, far away from him…at least at a distance over 300 meters. And the others were separated from each other, running away from him like headless chickens.

'I need to decide…I can't follow both groups at once… will not work surely from such a long distance…and time is short. So, what should I do?'

Nehar took a second to think.

[System: Quest: Eliminate Your Enemies (108/113)]

[System: Quest: Eliminate Your Enemies (109/113)]

Nehar looked over the System messages with a surprised look this time.

'Who is killing them? Are those two…', Nehar looked at his back and soon found two women, one with a bow and another one with a staff, chasing after a lone man.

Nehar almost laughed out loud after seeing that scenario.

[System Alert: Your Team members, Artemis and Hecate are eliminating the remaining ones quickly] 

'They must have noticed that I'm in a pickle and in no position to chase after everyone due to shortage of time…So, they killed for the first time in life and that too not for themselves but me.'

'I'll replay your kindness, Amelia and Grace.'

[System: Activating Skill: Quick Movement (Common)] 

[System: Activating Skill: Dagger Arts (Common)]

Nehar stepped forward and started running at an unimaginable speed.

[System Alert: Warning!! Your health is currently low. Your mana is almost depleted. The System advises you to deactivate the Skill to avoid extreme straining of your body]

[System: Your Fatigue is very high (91). You're advised to take a rest to recover]

[System: Your Current Agility: 50]

[System: You've reached the Peak Speed possible for Level 8]

[System Alert: Warning!!! Your current Level is not high enough to maintain this speed for long. Please, deactivate the Skill to reduce the strain on your body!]

[System Alert: Warning!!! Your Skill: Quick Movement (Common) will be disabled forcefully within 10 seconds]

[System: Time Remaining for Forceful Deactivation of Skill: 00:00:10]

Nehar saw all those System messages but didn't reduce his speed for a single moment. He tried to run as fast as he could to reach his enemies.

'Only 10 seconds…after that the Skill will be deactivated forcefully as I don't have the necessary means to keep it going on.'

'Huh…I can feel the straining in leg muscles…this feeling is like quite a good memory after such a long time…'

[System: Time Remaining for Forceful Deactivation of Skill: 00:00:08] 

[System: Quest: Remaining Time: 00:00:21]

Nehar didn't worry about the one who was being chased by those two women, as he was sure that he would meet his end soon.

He focused on the people running ahead of him intently.

Nehar first swapped the Bloodkin's Dagger with another Inferior Rank dagger from his Inventory and started channeling the leftover mana in his body into the daggers in his hands.

He had already tested it out that, though the Bloodkin's Dagger can't be unequipped permanently, it can be unequipped temporarily to equip other weapons in his right hand.

Otherwise, there's no way that he would be able to complete his first goal, achieving the once more, as he needed to become more proficient in other weapons, and some of them required Nehar to use both of his hands.

Thus he was quite pleased when he saw that the Dagger and its owner, the remnant spirit of the Blood- Fiend were at least reasonable in the matter of handling weapons.

If not, then he had to get rid of this Dagger by any means necessary.

Gaining power at the beginner stage was necessary for him, but he couldn't sacrifice his future goals just to become stronger than any other person at the beginning.

[System: Time Remaining for Forceful Deactivation of Skill: 00:00:04] 

[System: Quest: Remaining Time: 00:00:17]

Nehar stopped paying attention to the System messages and focused on those three people in front of him.

He had already crossed over 200 meters distance after activating his Skill forcefully. The three people, who were running away in front of him, became more fearful and frantic as they saw the Incarnation of Death God was continuously closing the distance between them.

They tried to run as fast as they could, but still, it didn't increase the distance between them in the slightest.

Every time they looked back, they saw the man was getting more and more closer to them. Nehar found himself at a distance of nearly 35 meters when his Skill finally wore off.

He felt intense strain in his leg muscles, but he didn't care. He was so close to achieving his goal this time.

[System: Your Skill: Quick Movement (Common) has been deactivated forcefully]

[System: Your body is under strain. Starting Regeneration…]

Nehar ran some more distance and then he threw the daggers in his hands with every ounce of strength that he could master.

The two daggers flew away at tremendous speed towards his enemies.

He didn't stop there and equipped the Bloodkin's Dagger from his Inventory, channeled mana into it, and again threw it towards them with everything he had.

The first two daggers flew away at great speed and hit two of his enemies in the back, killing them instantly in the process.

The third one, who saw the tragic deaths of two people alongside him, tried to duck and roll away to avoid another incoming dagger attack from the back, but in the end, his effort became futile.

The man rolled over the ground to avoid the dagger attack and thought that Nehar must have missed this time.

He was happy as he saw the Quest was about to end and he's the only one who was still alive. "Thank God, I'm still ali-eek…Arghhh…"

He screamed in pain as he felt the cursed blood-red colored dagger pierced his back and penetrated deep inside.

He could feel that the Dagger was sucking his Life-force with great ferocity.

He had already seen this blood-red smoke emanating from the dagger and sucking other people dry…he just never imagined that he was going to die like those unfortunate people here.

He tried to move his hands and pull out the dagger from his back, but he couldn't even move a single finger on his hands.

It was like he suddenly became immobilized by the dagger attack.

He could only suffer and wait for his death patiently as the dagger sucked him dry, leaving nothing behind.

[System: Skill: Dagger Throw (Common) was successful. Killed Enemy successfully]

[System: Mimicking the Skill: Dagger Throw (Common) was successful. Killed Enemy successfully]

[System: Mimicking the Skill: Dagger Throw (Common) was successful. Eliminated the Targeted Enemy successfully]

Nehar saw all the notifications while breathing heavily.

[System: Fatigue: 95] 

[System Alert: Warning!!! Your fatigue is too high!! You're advised to take a rest]

'Huff...huff ....fuck…I did it.'

Although he was able to complete the Quest in time, he was not worried even if he failed the Quest too. He was sure that the upper existences had already taken an interest in him.

And most importantly, The System itself helped him greatly.

Without the System's help, amassing a large number of TPs and Skill Proficiency Points, getting a chance to use a Privilege this early, Opening the Shop before anyone else, and acquiring the Bloodkin's Dagger using that same Privilege, visiting the Blood-Fiend's Domain, obtaining two High Ranked Special Quests, buying a total of 6 Skills one after another and most importantly, continuously Leveling up in such a short period – all of these would've been impossible.

Thus, he was sure that even though the Failure of this Quest was a Death Penalty, it wouldn't be the case for him.

He was sure that he would be able to overcome this problem by other means.

'Still, it doesn't mean that I've to take risks recklessly like this…I've to behave more maturely, as I can't lose my progress after coming this far…I still have a long way to go…'

Nehar thought in his mind.

[System: Quest: Eliminate Your Enemies (113/113)] 

[System: Quest: Remaining Time: 00:00:00]

[System Alert: You've completed the Emergency Quest: Challenger]

[System Alert: You and Your team members have completed the Emergency Quest successfully] 

Nehar sighed lightly after seeing the messages.

'Completing a 'C' Rank Emergency Quest at my current level was really hard…moreover; I started from Level 0 along with the rest. If not for my previous experiences and opportunities, things would've ended quite differently for me.'

'I've to become stronger so that this type of situation arises less frequently in the future….'

[System: Participant Details: Raven, Artemis, Hecate]

[System: Quest Completion Rate: Raven (97.34%), Artemis (1.47%), Hecate (1.19%)] 

[System: Rewards will be given according to the Quest Completion Rate]

[System: Please wait! Your rewards are being given….]

While the System was still busy analyzing their performances and choosing the appropriate rewards for them, Nehar took a look over the other System notifications that he missed previously.

[System: Your Health is low. Your Current HP: 97/380] 

[System: Your mana is very low. Your Current MP: 02/325]

[System Alert: Warning!!! Please take a rest to recover your health and mana. Otherwise, there's a chance that you will suffer from the adverse Status Effect ]

Nehar himself could feel the absence of mana in his body quite clearly. 'It's been such a long time since I'm in this state…'

'I will ask Grace to cast on me later…for now, let me just lie here for a minute…' Nehar just dropped his back on the ground, panting exhaustingly.

[System: Your Control over Mana has increased. Skill Proficiency for the Passive Skill: Mana Control (Inferior) has increased]

[System: Current Skill Proficiency: 95.14%, Current Skill Completion Rate: 11.32%]

[System: You've earned EXP Points. You've earned TPs. Calculating….]

[System: You've received 2750 EXP points for eliminating your Enemies]

[System: Current EXP: 5150/6500] 

[System: You've received 1650 TP for eliminating your Enemies]

[System Alert: The System has gifted you a total of 2500 TP as a reward for steadily advancing through the Quest, when it was still ongoing] 

[System: TP Collected: 7315]

Nehar noticed the final amount of his Tutorial Points.

'I've used a total of 9000 TP to buy all those 5 Active Skills last time, which drained my balance quite a lot. But, now I've regained some of it…a good business with the System after all…'

'But the good thing is, those Skills will not be available to anyone anymore…at least not in the Tutorial Phase…'

The System's Tutorial Shop operated Globally and not for a single specific Region or Zone.

In the past, when Nehar finally understood this, he saw many items were already bought from the System's Shop and they were greyed.

He couldn't buy them even though he had enough TPs at that time.

But, this time, he was the first one to unlock and use the Shop before anyone else. Thus, he didn't hesitate at all to use his TPs to buy important Skills, like , , , , and even one Magic Skill of the Caster Class, .

Although the name of the Skill suggested it to be a Magic Spell or Skill, in reality, it wasn't.

In the past, while climbing the Tower Of Heaven, Nehar came into contact with this Skill (Spell) for the first time facing a Ranker. 

This Skill didn't use the mana in the user's body to cast something like or , rather it helped the user to concentrate the mana in his/her body into a single point or some nodes (more than one point in body) and then release it all at once.

The mana would be released in the form of Mana Pulse from the user's body and the released pulse will hit the incoming attacks/spells to counterattack them by reflecting their damage towards their Source Points.

This is how the Skill worked.

Thus, even though this Skill was listed under Magic Skills (Spells) and was given to the Casters as one of their Primary Skills starting from the Tutorial, it never became a full-fledged Magic Skill.

Thus, later almost everyone, whether they were Warriors, Swordsmen, or Magicians, used it while climbing the Tower and in also battles.

But, at this point, this secret was only available to Nehar among all of those who participated in the Tutorial. Moreover, he was able to use it perfectly because he had no Class to begin with and he also had exceptional control over mana at this beginning stage which no one else had.

Thus, even if those Casters used against him in the battle, it wouldn't have been more powerful and destructive than his own version of .

As Nehar already knew the importance of this Skill, he bought it from the System's Tutorial Shop without a single bit of hesitation.

He was sure that currently, in the whole Tutorial, no one other than him had access to this Skill, if they were not from the Caster Class to begin with.

Nehar bought this Skill while understanding its value and importance perfectly. It could be used as a perfect Defensive Skill while his Skill is off and at dire times, it could be used as a sudden Attack Skill, just as he did before during the battle. 

Leaving the Skill , which was a purely Defensive Skill, which made him almost invulnerable to the attacks of Lower Rank (Inferior) and to the attacks of Same Rank (Common) to some extent, had given him the chance to attack all of his opponents within a limited range, like an AoE spell attack.

As Nehar didn't have Skills like or , he bought this one to supplement his ranged AoE attacks for now.

As for later, he had other plans.

The only drawback of these two Skills, and was they consumed a huge amount of mana, which left Nehar no choice but to use once or twice at most. As for , he continuously activated and deactivated the Skill amid the battle, depending upon the situation.

'I bought a total of 5 Active Skills last time, leaving the Skill behind which I purchased earlier along with the Bloodkin's Dagger, using the Privilege (Unlocking the Shop before anyone else and unlocking the Shop Items up to the Unique Rank) given to me...the System didn't bar me from buying more than one Inferior Grade (Rank: E) or Common Grade (Rank: D-) Skills using my TPs, just like the Normal Tutorial Shop function.'

'I'd even leveled up recently bought and and also the Skill, from Rank: D- to Rank: D, using a total of 15 Skill Proficiency Points to use them more proficiently, still, it was far from enough.

If my Stat was any lower or my control over mana were to be any less, my Skills would've been nullified under their bombardments.'

Nehar chuckled lightly as he remembered something from his past.

'All of your preparations would be for naught if the enemy decides to take you out using overwhelming numbers...What are you gonna do then, Nehar? Will you accept defeat or will you still try to win the unwinnable war by using any means?'

'I will just crush them using my overwhelming strength so that they won't dare to raise their heads in the future, even for once...'

"Yeah, I should start building my 'Strengths' properly and crush the opponents overwhelmingly this time too..."

[System Alert: The System has saved The Basic Prototype of your Movement Skill: Shadow Steps in its database for future use and reference. Achievement Unlocked!!!]

[System: Achievement 03: The First One to Create a New Skill: Shadow Steps in the Tutorial Phase!!! Reward: 2000 TP, +5 Skill Proficiency Points.]

Nehar didn't become disheartened when he saw the Reward for his 3rd Achievement. he had already received huge amounts of Reward before when he created the Skill. Still, the System has given him another 2000 TP and 5 Skill Proficiency Points.

In his eyes, these rewards were more than enough as he knew even though was a newly created Skill, it was only an Epic Grade Skill.

The System decided to reward him heavily probably because it had deciphered that the current Skill can be improved over time and it can also be used with Two distinct Elemental Attributes, 'Darkness' and 'Shadow Energy'.

Nehar was quite sure that the System must have concluded something valuable about this Skill's future growth while running its simulations...and only due to that reason, it was counted as an 'Achievement' by the System.

While he was thinking about these, another notification popped up. Nehar chuckled lightly as he saw the notification. 

He had thought of seeing this one much earlier.

[System Alert: The Skill: Shadow Steps can not be included in your Active Skill Chart as you already have 10 Active Skills and reached the Current Limit of the Active Skills as you have not selected a Class till now]

[System Alert: Please select a Class to increase your Active Skill slots]

[System Alert: Special Note: Even after selecting a Class, your current Skills will not be deleted or disabled by the System!]

Nehar sighed after seeing the notifications.

'Even though I'm the one who did it...it's still hard to believe that I already have 10 Active Skills in my Skill Chart. Before, I thought it would at least take up to the 2nd Tutorial to gather all these Skills....but all these happened just within a mere fifteen minutes...Unbelievable !...

'Should I be happy?' Nehar asked himself.

'No, I shouldn't be. 

The Communication Channels will soon open, just after the beginning of the first Zombie Horde...various Celestials and Stars will watch the performance of the Participants to select appropriate candidates from them. 

Right now, their primary focus will be on me, a mere Participant who had leveled up continuously, created an Epic Grade Skill from scratch, met an Administrator, gained a Privilege, opened the Shop, bought many Skills, and upgraded them one after another with perfect judgments in mind and even used them perfectly to slaughter over one hundred Level 0 Participants just within fifteen minutes...moreover, I obtained the 'Bloodkin's Dagger', which is a Cursed and Sealed Object, and used it perfectly to butcher people without losing my mind to the Curse of Blood-Fiend.

No matter what I say or do in my defense, they will be vigilant around me and will keep me under their scrutiny to uncover my secrets.

Even though they're not able to interfere with me by any means before the start of the 1st Tutorial, it doesn't mean that they're not currently watching all these developments around me. 

Although they wouldn't be able to descend here physically, they could easily manipulate an Administrator or some lower-ranked Invigilators to keep an eye on me by giving them some benefits or luring them with a higher position in the Middle or Upper Heavens.

The Administrator I met previously, Andrea von Rocheveron, already has some schemes in her mind to eliminate me and obtain the Skill from my cold corpse, so it wouldn't be wrong to consider that she would join them to keep an eye on me or to create some underhanded troubles for me, while I'm still in the Tutorial Phase.

"I shouldn't be complacent with this small achievement of obtaining only 10 Active Skills... many more dangers are awaiting me ahead. The good thing is, I've already sensed the familiar feeling of when I activated all of my Active Skills related to Dagger before, during the last phase of the battle. I just need to follow that familiar feeling and upgrade all the Skills related to Dagger to the same level to achieve the final feel of . 

Once I've achieved that, I'll be able to create the 'First Technique' related to the Dagger Arts, which will later help me to move forward and obtain the related to the Daggers. 

If Aellion's intel was right about the 117th Tutorial Phase, then I've to complete the First Technique and upgrade it up to a higher level before reaching the 4th Tutorial. Or else, I'll not be able to collect the 4th hidden piece and also the subsequent hidden pieces from the Tutorial, which will create further complications."

Nehar shook his head.

'There is no need to think about it that hard. For now, my first target is to achieve Level 20, undergo the 1st Evolution process, and then unseal the First Seal of the Bloodkin's Dagger permanently by completing the 1st Special Quest, before its 7-day completion time. Also, I've to get my hands on some important things starting with the Zombie Horde...doing these will increase my Stats and Skill rates significantly.

Only after I've accumulated sufficient strength and resources, I will start preparing for the Infiltration...'

----

While contemplating these matters silently, Nehar looked towards the place where two women could be seen. They were coming towards him while chatting with each other.

Seeing them together, some thoughts and questions arose in his mind.

'Should I make them my partners for my future endeavors? Will they be able to do everything that I command them without raising a single question? Will they prove themselves to be helpful in my operations later too? 

Or should I just ditch them here so that they can at least live a normal life even after their Awakening, away from hundreds of battles and deaths....huh, what should I do?

I would indeed need competent yet powerful subordinates at one point. 

In the past, I tried to achieve many things using my strength alone and it wasn't sufficient, I had to suffer losses many times due to my overestimated self-confidence. I'm not going to repeat that this time.

But this time, my battles will be more excruciating than before...and I will not be able to meet with 'Them' before I've achieved an actual position of power in the Tower.....I should talk with them and try to make them as powerful as I can for now...'

[System Alert: You have proven yourself while completing the sudden Emergency Quest: Challenger. You have also completed the Quest while having a higher Completion Rate than the others, who also participated in this Quest alongside you. The System has decided to give you appropriate rewards for completing the Quest successfully and for making the Largest Contribution to it]

[System: You've been rewarded with 4000 EXP points, 1500 TP, +1 Level to all of your Active Skills]

[System: Congratulations for completing your First Quest in the New World 117, Edoria. Please continue to prove yourself to achieve a higher rewards]

Nehar stared at the System screen for two seconds, blankly.

"Fuck....+1 Level to all of my Active Skills?"

'+1 Level to all Active Skills, what did it mean?'

'To level up an Active Skill from Rank: D- to Rank: D, it would require 5 Skill Proficiency Points. And if one were to level up even one of his Active Skills from to , it would require 10 Skill Proficiency Points for each Skill.'

'Currently, out of his ten (10) Active Skills, 6 were in , 3 were in , and one was in .

To upgrade each of his Active Skills by one Level, he would require a total of 77 Skill Proficiency Points.

And the System had casually gifted it to him along with a huge amount of EXP points and TP too.'

Nehar started laughing loudly after understanding what happened.

Completing this Emergency Quest along with the Largest Contribution Rate was worth it.

[System: Current EXP: 9150]

[System: TP Collected: 10815]

[System: Unallocated Skill Proficiency Points: 09]

[System: Unallocated Stat Points: 03]

[System Alert: EXP Limits crossed for your Current Level]

[System: You have started leveling up!]

Nehar saw the golden light enveloping him once more as he started leveling up again.

Nehar closed his eyes and started to enjoy the feeling of leveling up after a very, very long time...