Undying Warlord

There were still a few hours of daylight left when Dilan provided Jacqueline with the Essence crystals she required to level up and reach level 10.

He had procured more than enough Essence for her to fill the common ancient path of advancement that she could choose from.

Unfortunately, Jacqueline didn't seem to have unlocked a special ancient path of advancement, which was something that bothered her a lot.

But Dilan had already expected this to happen. After all, it looked like one's abilities, and achievements since the advent of Primordial Ascension were taken into consideration when the different ancient paths of advancement were given out.

Jacqueline was bothered by this, but it was not Dilan's fault that she didn't have a special ancient path of advancement.

Thus, Jacqueline could either choose one of the few common ancient paths she received, or she would have to wait until a special ancient path would unveiled itself to her.

He finished his other business with Old Jeff as well, which left him with the task of amassing more Essence crystals to be able to pick Kirak's Vassal as his occupation.

For this, Dilan began to research more about the surrounding area.

He moved carefully through the streets and avoided monsters that were simply too powerful.

Simultaneously, he avoided large groups as well because the commotion they would cause while fighting them would unnecessarily attract more trouble.

The dangers within Rian were numerous, and Dilan noticed that there were far more Tier-1 monsters than before.

They didn't number in the hundreds yet, which was a relief but it seemed that the terrifying possibility wasn't far off.

Dilan doubted that anyone would survive such a significant increase in the monster's strength as well.

As such, it was great to see that there were mostly weak and ordinary Tier-1 monsters that seemed to have chosen the common ancient path of advancement.

That was also why Dilan was able to assassinate a bunch of them by using his superior speed and [Gale], the extraordinarily powerful ability of his boots.

He took his time in approaching the center of Rian and kept his guard up. While observing the surroundings, Dilan realized that his theory of stronger monsters being closer to the center was correct.

There were fewer monsters the closer he came to the center of Rian, while the number of corpses that littered the ground were relatively higher.

Dilan could even see the bodies of monsters he had seen before. And those monsters had been Tier-1 existences with a prowess that exceeded his own!

Their head was either bitten off, or their bodies disfigured due to a huge hole caused by claws, tendons or other sharp attacks.

'Looks like the city's center is a battle royale…'

Dilan's assumption was on point and perfectly summed up the happenings in the city.

His ability to scrutinize situations and uncover the truth behind them was exceptional.

But this was something that annoyed Dilan right now because he could clearly tell that he would die the moment he would encounter a monster from Rian's center area.

That was also why he had begun to distance himself from the center once again.

It was quite annoying, but not exactly something Dilan could avoid.

After all, survival preceded everything else.

'The others should be fine, right? They won't fight recklessly…or will they?'

Dilan knew that both Kathrine and Williams wanted to increase their stats right now.

Simultaneously, they also wanted to accumulate more Essences.

But amassing more Essence was quite challenging because their stats were not that high.

Their highest stat was at 8, while their lowest was at 4.

This was a huge contrast to Dilan's stat and progress, which everyone was fully aware of.

'I wanted the others to become more independent, and stronger by themselves…why am I so bothered about how they're doing, now??'

Dilan tried to avert his train of thoughts, but it was quite difficult.

As such, when he returned to the hospital to have dinner after a thorough inspection of Rian, Dilan kept checking whether everyone was present or not.

He couldn't help but think that he was being unnecessarily paranoid, which was why he left the hospital shortly after he finished dinner.

Dilan didn't even ask many questions about the progress of the Ascenders' training, and nourishment.

Somehow, he felt like a hypocrite for acting like this, but Dilan knew that he was incapable of changing his behavior overnight.

That was just how he acted.

To clear his head, he went outside the hospital and tested [Nightvision] for the first time. The last sun rays had already disappeared behind the horizon, decreasing the efficiency of his natural sight rapidly.

Dilan had already expected that he wouldn't be able to see as much during night as he could in broad daylight.

But even then, his sight was much better than expected.

Because his sight in the darkness allowed him to see beyond 30 meters, Dilan was not really worried as he rushed through the surroundings.

The once-bustling city was eerily silent and merely a few monsters could be heard issuing various voices from further away.

Dilan followed a specific path for more than half an hour until he reached a different corner on the outskirts of the city.

Stretching his arms, he took a deep breath and a faint smile emerged on his face.

Here he was not burdened by the responsibility of protecting the others or tackling some pseudo-powerhouses, who believed that they could decide the fate of all the living beings in the world with a snap of their fingers, Dilan finally gained the freedom he needed to gain more Essences.

That was also one of the few reasons for him to reach a different area of the city's outskirts; to kill as many powerful monsters as possible.

Another reason was quite simple but even more efficient. With the information Xenia procured from the Death Beatles gang members he had crippled, they figured out their shelter's location, their numbers, and much more.

Now, Dilan wanted to make sure that the intel was correct and to find out even more about them.

His self-appointed mission during today's night hunt was to obtain more information about the Death Beatles gang, and to hunt numerous monsters!

After spending a few hours fighting against the rather weak ordinary Tier-1 monsters, Dilan grew a little bit bored.

He had picked out these monsters in order to gain more Essences to fill the progression bar of Kirak's Vassal.

But even then, Dilan couldn't help but feel frustrated because most ordinary Tier-1 monsters didn't even have half the stat points he owned.

They were simple Tier-1 existences at level 0, who chose to advance by picking a common ancient path of advancement!

Even then, Dilan was perfectly fine with facing boring opponents as long as his purpose of fighting them was fulfilled.

That was the case, which one could clearly see as he looked at the progression bar of Kirak's Vassal when the moon reached the zenith.

<Kirak's Vassal> [44.8075%]

Considering that he was hunting in a rather careful manner, the progression bar had filled up rather fast.

Dilan was already a little bit tired because of everything he did during the day, but now that midnight had passed, he felt that it was time for him to fight a little bit more aggressively!

"With the uses of [Gale] having been recharged, I can fight to the fullest once again!"

Because Rian was quiet during the night, it would be stupid for Dilan to activate [Thunder Step].

Not being able to use the ability would hamper his speed and decrease his combat prowess by a large margin, thereby preventing him from fighting to the fullest.

With, at least, one ability left to use in an emergency, Dilan was glad that [Gale] could be used without attracting even more attention from the surrounding.

Being pursued by powerful monsters was not something he wanted to face, after all!

**

If you want to support me use your golden tickets and powerstones.

You can also visit my pa treon: Pa treon.com/HideousGrain

More character images and nice chats about the HideVerse:

https://discord.gg/EdsDgFVWwZ

Link also in my description.

Do you like it? Leave a review and add it to the library!