Lord of the Karmic Fate

While President Bai made sure to keep everything in order on Earth and to avoid all hell to break loose, Raven ran through the streets of the abandoned city, killing all the monsters that tried to stop him.

[Congratulations! You have slain Rank 10 Steel Hound!]

[Your Dexterity has gained +2 points!]

[Congratulations! You have slain Rank 9 Crawler!]

[Your Constitution has gained +2 points!]

[Congratulations! You have slain Rank 11...]

[Your Mystique has...]

Quickly, not caring about the panels popping up in his line of sight or the corpses he left behind, Raven ran without slowing down, his eyes fixed on only one thing.

The black pillar of light.

Yes!

Because understanding that at the moment he stood no chance against the Rotrid, not even with all the things he currently had, the only thing he could do was to reach the black pillar of light in the far distance.

At least, if what his vision told him was the truth and he really had a seal on or inside his body, that could grant him a chance. As for what kind of chance that was, he had no idea.

'Considering the size of that thing, I still have a long way to go. Perhaps around fifty miles?' killing a flying beast that tried to assault him from the sky, Raven sighed inwardly and picked up his speed by a notch.

Fifty miles in the past was an insanely large distance to travel, especially if one decided to do it on foot. Even a professional athlete needed around 13 hours to accomplish such a long-distance run, much less an average human.

Of course, with the appearances of all kinds of Relics, Rune Marks, Artifacts, and Avatar Traits, that amount of time one needed to run such a long distance got dipped drastically but was not completely reduced.

For instance, if one takes Raven's close to 130 points of Speed, running fifty miles could be easily done in less than one and a half an hour, or two hours at most considering how high his stamina is. However, that was only possible if he was running in a straight line, which, currently, was not the case at all.

Zig-zagged through streets that had a layout akin to a maze, fighting and killing monsters from time to time, and sometimes even forced to go on a detour when he crossed paths with creatures that gave him a feeling they were either dangerous or were in large numbers.

With all these things being obstacles, things that slowed him down from time to time, it was not a huge surprise to realize the amount of time needed for Raven to reach his destination was around 3 to 4 hours, which was an insanely long time, especially in this kind of environment!

Naturally, with his refined strength, his Rune Marks, and his Title, he could skillfully take care of any creature under Rank 16 or perhaps Rank 17, but considering he was chased by something even stronger than that, he knew it was better not to stop.

He must save his energy if things happened to turn from bad to worse.

After running for an hour straight and killing a dozen creatures, Raven looked behind him and decided to take a rest.

"Fuck... Although my stamina is considerably higher than in the past, sprinting with all my speed and fighting several creatures for an hour straight is still taking a toll on my body..."

Once he made sure no monsters tried to ambush him, Raven found a good hiding spot inside a building, he sat down and opened his Avatar Status.

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[Avatar Status]

• Name: Raven

• Rank: 9

• True Rank: 6

• Avatar Title/s: The Blessed Prodigy (Active), Death Defier (Dormant), Chaotic Survivor (Inactive), Beast Slayer (Inactive)

• Avatar Class: None

• Avatar Imprint: Luck Boost (1st Layer)

• True Artifacts: Dice of Fate

• Fragmented Artifacts: Monarch's Crown

• Rune Marks: Death Runner (+3), True Heir's Resolve (+4)

~~~

° Vitality: 71 [20]

° Mystique: 64 [25]

° Strength: 77 [20]

° Speed: 99 [32]

° Constitution: 86 [32]

° Dexterity: 66 [20]

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'All of my Traits have increased a bit with my speed just 1 point away from breaking the 100 mark.' Raven thought as he looked at his Traits.

Then, he slowly shifted his gaze upward, resting his eyes on a single piece of information.

'I should use my Artifact and see what I can get. But before that...' thinking about something, Raven summoned his dice together with a few smaller crystals into his hand.

And a moment later, he shattered one of the crystals above his dice... Or at least tried, but failed.

"Huh? Why is it not working?" feeling confused, Raven frowned deeply and tried again, but once again, he failed to break it.

[Warning! Your Artifact no longer can be enhanced with Small Piece Artifact Crystals!]

'What?' Raven was surprised before he seemed to understand what happened and summoned two bigger crystals into his hand.

And just as he thought, when he tried to break them, they shattered with ease, increasing his Artifact's Form from Initial to Complete!

'Now it's time to see what I will get.' Raven smiled behind his mask and threw the dice which not so surprisingly, as his necklace lit up slightly, ended up being a 3 star.

Whoosh!

'This...'

Raven widened his eyes the moment he saw what the item in front of him was before he showed a wide grin filled with glee.

"Now this is what I am talking about!"

-

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Running through numerous streets while claiming the lives of dozens of monstrosities, which eventually pushed him beyond Rank 10, Raven finally reached the other side of the city.

"So this is the other side, huh?" mumbling with awe softly, Raven stared at the sight in front of him and slowed down his speed.

Currently, he was standing at the perimeter of the city with nothing in front of him but a vast clearing. However, different from normal clearings where tall emerald green grass grew everywhere with small hills going up and down here and there, this one looked more like a wasteland instead.

Dried grass, withered flowers, grey soil, pits of various sizes filled with that greenish slimy substance, and moving roots covering almost 70% of the whole clearing!

The entire scenery before Raven looked similar to a wasteland from an apocalyptic movie. And tight at the end of this vast wasteland, a massive crater could be seen from where the pillar of black light soared toward the sky!

'This whole place gives me the chills...' Raven thought inwardly, feeling as a cold shiver ran down his spine.

BOOOM!

As Raven was staring at the scenery before him with both awe and a little fear, suddenly a loud explosion coming from behind his back shook the ground below his feet.

'She is close.' looking at the cloud of dust rising from somewhere in the city, Raven tightened his fingers around his weapon and quickly started to run.

However, not even after he took more than 10 steps, suddenly something flashed in the sky before it plummeted toward the ground, crashing into it with so much force that it formed a large pit and sent large cracks in all directions as a result!

"And where do you think you are running, little lamb?" talking with a cold voice, the Rotrid swung her spear from side to side, revealing her figure from the cloud of dust in a flash!

'She still looks ugly as hell...' Raven grimaced before he raised his weapon and said, "I am sorry to say this, I am kind of in a hurry, so if you could..."

As he reached that point in his speech, Raven summoned a small circular item into his hand, and after channeling a large amount of his Mystique into it he was there forward.

"Please don't waste my time!"

Whoosh!

With a black flash, the small ring left Raven's hand and appeared right before the Rotrid, who although has already swung her spear could do nothing but watch with widened eyes as her weapon passed right through the ring and attached itself around her neck.

[Restriction Halo had been activated!]

[Remaining time: 10 seconds!]

"Eh?" the Rotrid was alarmed the moment she felt how her strength was halved and was ready to see if she could tear it down when suddenly Raven's figure appeared before her, his dagger already raised.

"Surprise, bitch!"

Swish!

Clang!

"If you really think you can kill me with such a pathetic trick, you are so fucking damn wrong!" hissing through her teeth as she used her spear as a shield while her legs sunk into the ground, the Rotrid stared at Raven with both hatred and disgust.

[Remaining time: 7 seconds!]

Looking at the small panel floating beside him, Raven curved the corner of his lips upward into a soft smile and asked, "Who said I wanted to kill you?"

"Wha-" the Rotrid was confused and wished to say something, however, just as she opened her mouth a sharp pain assaulted her body before she was sent flying.

Bam!