《Death Mage with an SS-Rank Talent》


 Chapter 1 - 1

    Chapter 1: Chapter 1Rock City School, Rock City


    All the final-year students have gathered in the school grounds for the ceremony. Today is the awakening ceremony for all who have crossed eighteen years of age.


    Everyone who crossed the age limit will undergo the awakening process to awaken their profession.


    These professions are classified into three categories; combat, support, and life professions. Each profession has its own use in the society, but everyone wants a combat profession which helps them gain fame.


    No one remembers the one who produced food that sustains us every day but remembers the one who slays some legendary creatures. No one forgets them for years. This is only possible for someone awakened to a combat profession.


    Every student from the school is discussing what they would awaken or want to do.


    Though it has been hundreds of years, no one was able to discern how this process works. The profession would always be random. If a solution for how to awaken the top combat profession, everyone would want the secret.


    The principal walked onto the stage and spoke, "Everyone standing here has the potential to change the future for the better. Even if you awaken the Life profession, don''t be discouraged, you still would have a chance for a better life."


    This is true as you can see what you can really excel at. If one works diligently, they can better their lives.


    The ceremony process is not cheap and not every person in the world can awaken their professions. As students, they get a chance to awaken for free, but the price has already been drawn in the form of tuition fees and donations.


    So everyone who gets the chance to awaken is better than those who can''t afford it.


    "Now, stay quiet and wait for your turn."


    After that, one by one started to proceed through the awakening. S§×ar?h the N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Sunstriker, A-Rank"


    "Wind Element Mage, A-Rank"


    ...


    ...


    ...


    "Next, Mary Hinters."


    Everyone turned silent when they heard the name and turned to see the person.


    Mary Hinters is considered the school beauty. She is not only that but also a school topper in theoretical exams.


    "Oh my god, it''s my goddess. I wonder what she wound awaken?"


    "She will definitely awaken S-Rank talent. Of that, I am sure."


    "S-Rank? Do you think that it would be that easy?"


    While the students are speculating, the notification sound came.


    "Angel of Justice, SS-Rank."


    Everyone stopped breathing. This includes not only the students but also the staff of the school. The principal is in no better position than them.


    An SS-Rank profession has appeared.


    The professions are broadly classified as Combat, Support, and Life professions. Each of these categories of professions has ranks varying from F to S ranks. This is what the normal classification looks like.


    This was broken a few hundred years ago when the first SS-Rank appeared. In all these years, this rank only appeared five times.


    Now a sixth one appeared.


    Each of these SS-Rank holders was now the god of human society. They are at the topmost level.


    Such a rank appears in a Tier-1 city, and the future of the city will be changed.


    Everyone was shocked when they saw this.


    The principal immediately got hold of himself and pulled Mary away from the platform. Though it is a good thing that an SS-Rank appears here, it is also a catastrophe.


    There are a lot of spies that blend into commoner backgrounds. They inform their masters of any talent that appears. As much as the alliance doesn''t want others to have awakening details of the newly awakened ones, the details do spread easily.


    Though spying on the awakening process is not easy, it would be done through the mouths of newly awakened. Whenever a powerful talent appears, everyone wants to boast and can''t keep the details to themselves.


    They either discuss with friends or families while outside, which can be easily spied upon by the spies.


    It just not the enemies, but there are envious people among the crowd who don''t like someone better than them appear.


    Normally, powerful families would try to recruit the students with good talents and no background into their fold, but not everyone likes to be under someone''s thumb.


    Most families wouldn''t care if the students reject their offers, but there are also families who don''t like others to gain an advantage over them. So if they couldn''t have, no one can have, even if that student was not into joining any family.


    What the future holds, no one knows. They might change their minds and join some other family. So they try to eliminate their competition beforehand.


    These kinds of people always existed in this world. Even back when the world has yet to go through the awakening, they always did things in the dark.


    As soon as the principal pulled away Mary from the crowd, one of the head teachers took command and silenced everyone.


    "Enough chattering, the ceremony shall continue."


    The ceremony continued for two more hours. As expected, there were no more surprises. There are few A-Rank awakened, but mostly the talents are C-Rank and below.


    "Aaron Skyhart."


    It was finally Aaron''s turn. When his name was called, everyone became silent. After Mary, Aaron took the next place in school. He is not only handsome but stood next to Mary whenit came to the studies.


    Since Mary gave a surprise to the entire school, everyone was expecting that Aaron could too. If he could not, no one else could.


    Aaron walked towards the stage under the scrutinizing eyes of everyone present.


    He placed his hands on a stone tablet with some runic characters chiseled onto it. After less than a minute, a notification came, "Death Mage, S-Rank."


    Everyone''s eyes bulged. An SS-Rank appeared and now an S-Rank, but the awesomeness died soon when they realized it is the Death Mage''s profession.


    Yes, it is an S-Rank profession but didn''t have a bright future. This profession is similar to Necromancer Profession which is A-Rank but has drawbacks similar to that of Necreomancer.


    Firstly, there aren''t many who awakened these professions to properly guide him. Moreover, they couldn''t progress because of the limitations.


    Secondly, it comes under support class. All summoner professions do. Summoners can''t fight opponents by themselves. Even if it is close-ranged or long-ranged, they never fight directly but their summons does.


    A summoner is very weak even compared with mages. If the opponent finds a gap in protection from the summons, they get killed and the summons disappear.


    Since they can''t do direct damage and are weak, they are considered a support class.


    Unlike a Necromancer, a Death Mage can use curses that can weaken opponents, which gives them a rank higher. This would be useful only when a priest is not present, as they can dispel curses.


    All the teachers who know him sighed at losing a good seed. They considered the boy with good theoretical knowledge to have a high survival rate and a chance to become a powerhouse if he awakened a good combat profession.


    Everyone was either sighing or happy. It is common that some people envy him as he was handsome and also good at studies.


    This is not the case for Aaron. He kept his cold face the same as before in school. When he awakened, and didn''t show any fluctuations in his face.


    There is a reason for it. Unlike others standing here, he is a reincarnator.

 Chapter 2 - 2

    Chapter 2: Chapter 2Aaron has reincarnated into this supernatural world where almost anything is possible. His life is mostly similar to the stories of reincarnation.


    He led a simple and boring life in the past world. He died of excessive work, totally forgetting that ''rest'' is something that existed in the world.


    As usual, he reincarnated into a middle-class family in this supernatural world. He felt clich¨¦, remembering the stories where MC usually goes through the bullshit. He felt that even in this new world he may never find ''rest''.


    When he was five, something happened, something that the usual poor protagonist doesn''t go through. His system awoke or something. He never fully understood what happened. All that he knew was the message he saw.


    This is all that he saw. He tried to contact using different ways, but there was no response. This went on for days, weeks. Finally, he understood it, there is no understanding of the situation.


    He realized that he would awaken the Death Mage profession. So from that day, he concentrated on that. On the off chance that he may be wrong, he didn''t neglect the information about other professions, but what he concentrated on most is about Death Mage.


    ''All that hard wouldn''t go to waste now.''


    No matter how much confidence he was in the reincarnation cheat, he doubted in his heart about the awakening. Now seeing it, he started to believe in his cheat a bit.


    Moreover, he was quite happy with this awakening.


    Unlike others who either pitied or snickered at him, his thoughts varied. This is because of his talent.


    --


    Name: Aaron Skyhart sea??h th§× ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Age: 18


    Class/Profession: Death Mage, S-Rank


    Rank: 0


    Talent: Super Growth (SS-Rank) (Unique)


    [With super growth experience, attributes and skill points gained are ten times as much. Moreover, the progress of the skills is also increased by ten times.]


    Vitality: 10


    Strength: 8


    Stamina: 10


    Agility: 8


    Intelligence: 15


    Wisdom: 15


    Health: 100


    Mana: 150


    Free Status Points: 0


    Skills/Spells: Summon Undead (0/5) (Rank 0); Death Lash (Rank 0);


    [Summon Undead spell can summon undead creatures like skeletons, zombies, ghosts, etc... The quantity and quality depend on the rank of the skill. The spell caster can choose one of the undead as chosen summon. Specific spells are required to summon other undead.]


    [Death Lash is a debuff that when applied on an enemy will eat away their health. The health lost depends on the level of the spell. The spell lasts until the affected''s is dead or if the debuff is removed by a priest or a potion.]


    --


    This is what his status screen showed. This isn''t a reincarnator''s special, but is only available if one is awakened.


    At the moment after awakening a profession, everyone is at Rank-0. Only by earning experience can one increase their ranks.


    After successful awakening, everyone would be bestowed with two skills or spells to start their journey. These two are basic skills and are the same for everyone who awakened that profession.


    If one wanted more skills or spells, they can only learn, but this is quite costly.


    Skill or spell levels can be increased by using skill points or by unleashing the skills or spells as much as possible.


    For Aaron, these problems are of no consequence.


    With SS-Rank talent, Super Growth, he can earn experience and skill points at a much higher rate than anyone. Even the skill progression by using increases at a rapid rate.


    This talent is indeed a useful talent as he is a death mage.


    When in combat, a Death Mage would use the summoning undead spell to summon his undead. Only by summoning a new undead, it is considered as using the spell. As long as old ones are alive, even if they were retracted into undead space and summoned again, it isn''t considered a newly cast spell.


    Only when the old summons dies and a new summons appears, it is considered as casting new. This is kind of a disadvantage for a Death Mage or even a Necromancer or any death related summoners.


    Of course, there are some advantages here, that everyone overlooks.


    Undead summons can be created and placed in undead space beforehand. Pulling them out won''t cost any Mana. It would be like the instant cast.


    Most debuffs don''t stack over each other if they are cast on the same target. They can only be cast on the new enemy or old enemy if a priest removed the debuff.


    So unlike normal attacks, a Debuff spell wouldn''t increase its level just by using. It would consume a lot of skill points. So even though Debuffs are very useful, no one would learn more than one or two.


    This would have been a problem for Aaron. He is a Death Mage, and that means he has to learn a lot of Debuffs. This is why professions like his never gained any importance, no matter how powerful they looked at the start.


    With the Super Growth talent, Aaron would not face any such problems.


    ---


    Within another half an hour, the awakening process was completed.


    There are three halls where the awakened assembled, each defining combat or support or life professions.


    Each of the three needs different resources and follows different paths, so the division is.


    Aaron is inside the Support Class hall, as his profession, though combat in nature, was considered as support.


    A teacher appeared in the hall and spoke, "Okay, everyone here is of support class, but you are not below combat class nor above life class. No class is above, even though one class earns more than the other. Though earning is considered main, one class can''t proceed without help from other classes associated with it.


    I can give you an example. Let''s take a warrior or knight or any melee class. They use weapons like swords, spears, daggers, etc... These weapons can be created by a blacksmith.


    How can one make a weapon without materials? The ore is mined from mines by miners.


    Here, Warrior belongs to the Combat profession, while both Blacksmith and Miner belongs to the Life profession. See, one profession is dependent on other professions to survive in this world. So don''t look down on other professions. I know most of you omit this, but as a teacher, I have to say for one last time.


    Now concerning you, In a month you will enter the test dungeon which will decide your future. So this month, prepare well for the test. That''s for today, see you in a month.


    Before you leave, at the school exit, you can get a free professional skill or item."


    After that, everyone left the school, not before picking their choice. It is a free giveaway after all and no one would say no to that.


    As for Aaron, he knew he needed spells more than the items. So he chose a spell that would be useful for increasing his combat power in comparison to others.

 Chapter 3 - 3

    Chapter 3: Chapter 3Aaron returned home, where his parents are anxiously waiting for him. Both his parents worked for a small company, as they knew Aaron would need a lot of money for resources once he awakened.


    They are also awakened but only in Life class, so they never progressed much in life. Very few Life professionals gain fame.


    For example, a Chef could create special recipes for food and become famous. A good chef could establish a restaurant and settle well for life. This is not possible for all life professionals.


    As soon as Aaron opened the front door, both his parents rushed towards him. His mother hugged him and asked him lovingly, "How did your awakening go?"


    He can see the hope in their eyes. They wanted him to progress to a better life.


    Aaron sighed looking at them, "I awakened Death Mage, and it''s a support class".


    Hearing that, there was no change in their eyes. They were happy that he awakened some class that has a better chance at life than theirs.


    He was confused and so asked them, "Are you not disappointed that I didn''t awaken combat class?"


    His mother smiled and patted his head, "Why would we? As your parents, we do want better things for you. Even if you can''t reach a high level as we hoped for, we are still happy as long as you can have a good and long life. Moreover, the awakening depends on fate, not hard work, and we know how much you worked through school".


    "Your mother is right. Don''t overthink this. Even if you won''t reach the level of a powerhouse that can dominate cities, you can still achieve good status. Now go freshen up, and we can eat before the food becomes colder", his father spoke.


    Aaron smiled at his parents'' love for him. They wanted him to prosper and at the same time, they didn''t want to put pressure on him unnecessarily.


    After a quick bath, he had a good sumptuous meal with his parents. Though his family isn''t exactly poor, they aren''t rich either. This kind of meal would leave a hole in their pocket. His parents wanted to celebrate his successful awakening, and he can''t say no.


    Looking at them, he silently determined to become strong and rich, so that his family can enjoy like today more frequently in the future.


    ---


    In his room, Aaron took out the skill he got from the school. This skill is called ''Sprint''. When he opened the skill book, he got a notification.


    He quickly selected Yes, and the book turned into white particles and entered his body.


    --


    Sprint (Rank-0) S§×ar?h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    [Sprint: The skill increases the agility of the user by 10%. The increase would increase as the rank of the skill increase]


    --


    This is a skill must for Aaron, especially since he doesn''t have any direct combat power. His skeleton summons are the only ones that can fight for him or defend him.


    Though as undead, the skeleton summons would fight without fearing for life, there are many ways to bring them down easily. For the undead, it is the priest''s profession. With their light spells, they can immobilize the summons, and it would create a chance for others to easily beat him down.


    So the only way to survive is to either increase combat power or defense, or run away for life.


    As a Death Mage, increasing personal combat power is almost not possible.


    Increasing the defense would seem like a good choice, but that means he had to take beatings by standing still. No defense is absolute, it will crumble under constant attacks.


    So as a mage, he chose the best option for survival. With the sprint skill, he could run away from enemies without giving them a chance at catching up to him. Unless the other party has a Tracker class professional, or spells that could track and attack, he would be safe.


    This could also help to run away if he finds himself in front of a beast that is higher in rank than him. He could mislead and run away safely.


    This all depends on if there isn''t much difference between him and the other party. If not, none of the other two methods matter either. He isn''t dumb enough to throw away a life, which is his second chance. There is no guarantee that he could get another chance.


    After learning the skill, there is only one thing he needed to do before waking up tomorrow morning.


    Though he is not someone who would be categorized as reckless, he needed to be strong to be safe and have a peaceful life. So he needed to gain good results in the test that would happen in a month. Depending on this result, academies choose their students.


    For entry into top academies, one needed to get top scores in the province.


    A top academy means access to a lot of dungeons, where dungeons of almost every rank is available. There are also excellent teachers for guidance and access to huge resources.


    If he wanted to enter these academies, he needed to level up.


    As a death mage with summoning skills, he needed to summon the skeletons beforehand. Tomorrow he is going to enter one of the dungeons in the city. Summoning them after entering the dungeon is a waste as recovering Mana would take time and if he wanted to summon new, they would be delayed.


    Being prepared beforehand is a very good choice.


    "Summon Skeleton."


    As soon as he said that, a black ritual circle appeared near him and a bone man crawled out. There is nothing but bones and a rusty sword in his hand. Though it is undead, this won''t create terror in enemies.


    Few types of undead summons have such skills, but not skeletons. If the enemy gets paralyzed with fear, that means he has already forfeited the battle and his life. On another chance, the enemy could just run away looking at the undead warrior.


    There is a reason why Aaron chose this option.


    Aaron knew that he would most probably awaken this profession, and he had made up his mind on what kind of summon he would choose. The choices were between skeleton and ghost.


    Zombies appear strong and devastating to others, but Aaron always felt that he would puke if he sees the puss and worms in the zombie. Especially if they are his summons, they would definitely be very near to him.


    If that happens in a battle, it is a distraction and that could lead to lose his life.


    Ghosts would make a good choice, but he read that mages needed more than Mana to summon a ghost. With the low level of Mana, summoning ghosts at an early level is not suitable.


    Aaron sighed when he saw the bone skeleton before him.


    --


    Summon: Skeleton


    Type: Warrior


    Level: 1


    Health: 50


    Strength: 5


    Stamina: 5


    Agility: 3


    Skills: Slash;


    --


    The stats of the skeleton are not bad, but they are not very high. Well, they are skeletons, what''s there to expect.


    After that, he quickly summoned the remaining four. He didn''t need to worry much about the Mana as it took only ten Mana points to summon each skeleton, consuming a total of fifty.


    He has a lot of Mana reserve, and can summon them thrice before it depletes, but he can''t do that in reality as he would consume the Mana to keep himself alive or cause more damage to the enemies by using other skills.


    After summoning them, he retracted them into his undead space.


    He lay down on his bed to sleep, thinking about the next day.

 Chapter 4 - 4

    Chapter 4: Chapter 4Early in the morning, Aaron woke up and prepared himself. He is going to enter the dungeon today. If he needed to improve himself, he needed to push himself to the boundary. This can only be achieved if he kept challenging the dungeon again and again.


    Though he wanted to do that, he isn''t a moron to fight continuously. His body needs rest as much as practice, so for one to properly become stronger. If not, his body could die of exhaustion. He is not an immortal.


    So he decided to challenge the dungeon early in the morning but return home by night. He made a schedule of it, what dungeons to challenge, and when to.


    Everyone believes that one with high talent and hard work would reach the top, but this is not true. Many talents fall early, either because of their own stupidity or someone is jealous of their talents.


    In the novels, the main character survives all kinds of attacks from his enemies but at what cost? Most of the time, his friends and family sacrifice themselves to protect him. They say it because of plot armor or Son of Heaven or something ridiculous.


    A top-grade hunter dies at the hands of MC, because of these ridiculous things. Years of hard work go down the drain just because of MC''s plot armor.


    If that is the case, there is no point in working. The stories even work in favor of MC, and turn in whatever direction he wants.


    This is especially true in stories where a boy sincerely loves a girl and wanted to marry her, but the girl hates men for some stupid reason. She even starts to hate this boy, even after whatever help he does to her and her family.


    At this moment the MC enters the story and Abracadabra...she falls in love with MC even if he has a harem and pursues married women destroying families.


    She would even destroy the boy who helped her and her family in the past for no reason. This would involve the boy''s family who even though are powerful people would die at the hands of MC.


    If the world chooses some obnoxious idiot to represent it, then it is better to let the world perish than to save it.


    Aaron sighed thinking about this, ''I hope this world is not like that stories where hard work is wasted and something like plot armor is pushed forward.''


    ''Damn, I''m overthinking again. Having memories of past life is both a boon and a curse. I can never have a life without worries.''


    Aaron shook his head, ''I shouldn''t think about that. Aarrghh! Concentrate on the present.''


    After having breakfast and filling a bag with necessities for lunch, Aaron left his home towards the dungeon called Goblin''s Dungeon.


    ---


    Goblin''s dungeon is one of the most common monster-type dungeons present in the world. The number of these dungeons would easily be in the middle three digits across the world. This is just the number that were accessible to people. No one knows how many more are there in the inaccessible parts of the world. sea??h th§× n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Goblin''s dungeon belong to F-rank and E-rank. No dungeon that has goblins with higher rank was ever found until now.


    The F-rank dungeons were commonly referred as newbie dungeons. This is because they are usually easy to clear and also don''t cover a lot of area. As the rank of the dungeon increase, so does the area and number of monsters inside.


    Since a newbie dungeon is considered small when compared to other dungeons, every newly awakened hunter would go hunting for the first time in these newbie dungeons.


    Though goblin dungeons are considered newbie dungeons, the fatality is also high in these dungeons. This was because of two reasons.


    The first reason is that goblins usually move in groups, making it difficult to hunt solo.


    The second reason is the inflated ego of the newly awakened hunter.


    As soon as they awaken a profession, they feel like they are invincible in the world. Only when they go through the dungeons would they learn how wrong they were. The ones who survived would never underestimate the dungeons.


    To enter a dungeon one needed an identity card which would be provided by the Hunter''s Guild. This guild was the one that maintains the order around dungeons. Each time you enter a dungeon, you need to pay a certain fee for entry, depending on the rank of the dungeon.


    There are only two exemptions where the fee would be waived.


    One is when the dungeon seems to be at the point of breaking. This usually happens only in higher-level dungeons now. So this exemption would not apply to the low-level dungeons.


    The second is after awakening. A newbie hunter can get a free entry card for an entire month until the test for academies start. The newly awakened hunter had to apply for a card and show that they recently awakened.


    This exception is for newbies, so this rule applies only to newbies'' dungeons. Even in the grace period, if the newbie wanted to enter the higher dungeon, they need to pay the fee.


    Aaron went first to the Hunter''s guild to register, but it is fully occupied. This is the day after awakening, and that means every newly awakened student is present here at this moment. No one wants to waste a day before the test. They needed to get the card and enter the dungeon as early as possible.


    Only by this, they can reach a higher level and can surpass others, paving the way for their entry into prominent academies.


    The first criteria that needed to be fulfilled was the level. If by the time of the teat dungeon, you are still below level 10, then that means the chances of entering good academies has declined.


    This is something everyone knows. So there would be a lot of competition and to overcome that, one needs to stand out by reaching a level no one can reach by the time of the exam.


    Aaron sighed, looking at the queue. It would take one or two hours before he gets his chance, or so he hoped.

 Chapter 5 - 5

    Chapter 5: Chapter 5It was almost noon by the time Aaron exited the Hunter''s Guild. It took longer than he thought.


    Hunter''s guild is particular when issuing someone their card. The guild was very busy, especially with the awakening ceremony that happened the day before.


    The newly awakened would be issued a free entry pass for a month. Many would try to take advantage at this time to get free access using some false information. To avoid such things, they verify the information before issuing the passes.


    Most awakenings would happen in schools that could afford education. There are many who couldn''t afford school fees but scraped what they could to awaken using other associations. The student''s info can be easily verified from schools, but to verify others it would take time.


    Though his verification could be done in small time, there were others before him. So he got freed only at noon.


    Since it was almost noon, Aaron postponed going to the dungeon and took out the lunch to eat before proceeding to enter the dungeon.


    ---


    Goblin''s dungeon is one of the three dungeons in control of Rock City.


    Aaron sighed, looking at the queue in front of the dungeon.


    ''Seriously, I already went through one queue today. Why another one? If it is like this, I won''t gain anything by the end of the day.''


    Before entering dungeons, one would go through a serious and thorough check. The guards would only allow people to enter if they have a Hunter''s Guild card. Even with that, they have to pay the fee to enter or have the free access pass.


    ''Should I return tomorrow? No, I am already in the queue. So I just have to wait for a little bit of time for now.''


    After half an hour of checking, Aaron finally entered the dungeon.


    ---


    As soon as he entered the dungeon, a notification popped up. He already learned about this. When a hunter enters the dungeon for the first time, they get a notification like this. The only problem is that the dungeon needed to be cleared before the name of the dungeon appears.


    If this was an unexplored dungeon, the notification would just say, .


    Immediately after entering the dungeon, Aaron summoned his skeletons. It didn''t waste his Mana as he already summoned them beforehand and stored them in the undead space.


    Though this is a goblin''s dungeon, it is also fatal if one wasn''t cautious enough. Most of the time, goblins move in a group of three or four. Like civilized people, they also form villages to live in.


    If you come across a village, then you should run before goblins find you. Once they sense your presence, they would swarm you to death.


    Even fighting three or four at a time is a nightmare. So, the students in school are advised to form groups before entering a dungeon. In case they had to solo the dungeon, teachers always advised them to find the strays to attack before moving to attack groups.


    Aaron advanced along the dungeon, with his skeleton summons surrounding him as guards. Even with them as assurance, he moved slowly. It is known that low-level undead summons wouldn''t have intelligence. They only gain intelligence at Rank-4.


    For intelligent undead, Aaron needed to upgrade the skill to Rank-4, i.e. he has to upgrade four times. With super growth talent, he didn''t need to fret about upgrading his skills. All he needed is to survive at the lower ranks. Once he gains a high rank, there would be few things that could threaten him.


    He walked for half an hour before he finally found a suitable prey. A few times he saw goblins, but they were in either groups or pairs. As he didn''t know how powerful they actually are, he decided to play it safe.


    After half an hour of the waiting game, he found a stray which left its group. It was equipped with loin cloth on its body and a wooden club in its hand.


    It didn''t pay any attention to its surroundings. Normally, on the outside, this won''t be the case. In this dungeon, where there is only one dominant race, they don''t have to be on guard.


    When the hunters enter the dungeon, they would enter their own copy of the dungeon. So things that happen in one copy has nothing to do with the other copies, at present or in the future. The copies would be of default settings.


    Of course, there are anomalies that happen once in a while, but they would affect only the specific copy of the dungeon.


    Aaron slowly sneaked on the goblin. The monster was oblivious to its impending death.


    When the distance was reduced to three meters between them, Aaron commanded the skeletons to attack. All five of them pounced on the goblin at once.


    The goblin didn''t even have an idea of what was happening before its life ended.


    [Killed a goblin. You gained 5 XP.]


    [Super growth talent activated. XP gained increased to 50 XP.]


    "Nice, the fight ended before it started. Though the skeletons are considered weak, a single goblin would by no means be a problem for them, especially when it is a surprise attack."


    After that, Aaron spent till night hunting stray goblins one by one. He made sure not to make any mistakes because of his ego. S~ea??h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    By night, he hunted a total of ten goblins and gained a total of 500 XP and thereby increasing his level by one.


    --


    Name: Aaron Skyhart


    Age: 18


    Class/Profession: Death Mage, S-Rank


    Rank: 0


    Level: 1 (400/1000)


    Talent: Super Growth (SS-Rank) (Unique)


    Vitality: 10


    Strength: 8


    Stamina: 10


    Agility: 8


    Intelligence: 15


    Wisdom: 15


    Health: 100


    Mana: 150


    Free Status Points: 50


    Skill Points: 20


    Skills/Spells: Summon Undead (5/5) (Rank 0); Death Lash (Rank 0); Sprint (Rank 0);


    --


    For every level-up, one would be rewarded 5 free status points and 2 skill points. It is one of the reasons why no one would learn many skills but stick to a few useful to them.


    Skills can be leveled up with use, but the time it would take for that to happen increases as the rank of the skill goes up. Increasing a skill rank just by using it continuously is not easy. It would appear easy at first but once the skill reaches Rank-3, reaching Rank-4 it would take a lot of their time.


    Though a lot of skill points are required for this, no one can wait for a long time. So most people would only use this method for a skill to reach Rank-1 or 2. After that, everyone uses skill points to progress.


    This is also because they could save skill points for later rank-ups.


    For a skill to reach Rank-1, it requires only 1 SP, but Rank-2 requires 3 SP and Rank-3 requires 5 SP. This is where the change happens. Rank-4 requires 10 SP, 20 for Rank-5, and 40 for Rank-6. Another change occurs here.


    As one''s skill reaches higher rank, a lot of skill points are required, but one can only get 2 SP for every level-up. Of course that would change as we rank up but the consumption far outways the points that one can receive.


    Aaron has a clear advantage here. With his talent, he leveled up with fewer kills and got more Skill points and Status points.

 Chapter 6 - 6

    Chapter 6: Chapter 6Aaron exited the dungeon as the night appeared. He got a notification when his level went up. He skipped to check that for later.


    Dungeons are dangerous, and he didn''t want to get distracted. As he already planned to return home at night and to do a dungeon run only in daytime, he decided to check when he is home.


    When he reached home, his parents were already at home. He could see the worry on their faces when he saw them, and how relieved they were to see that he wasn''t injured.


    He didn''t think about this before going to the dungeon. Furthermore, he only told them that he would return home at night and never thought about how they felt about him diving into dangerous things.


    Before he spoke, his mother spoke, "Go wash yourself. We can speak while eating".


    He knew that he needed to have a talk with them. He went to his room to take a bath, after all, he smelled after the day''s work. Though he didn''t need to physically handle the goblins, he did have to spend time hiding from them in bushes and things.


    He quickly washed himself off.


    At the dinner table he spoke, "Mom, Dad, I know that you are worried about my safety in the dungeon. I know diving into dungeons is dangerous, but you know that life is dangerous. We may feel safe living here, but you know that this world is nowhere near safe."


    "If I become strong, it can be safer. I know that in no way, one can predict danger and everyone is vulnerable. I know that whatever I do, however strong I become, there would be something that could endanger us."


    "All I wanted is that we need to be in a better position in terms of safety. You should already know where we live may be safer for now, but that won''t be the case if a monster tide happens. I wanted to create a place, where you could be safer and happy without worrying about me much".


    Both his parents nodded, understanding that there is no other way.


    If one has to be safe they have to be strong and to be strong they have to take certain risks. No matter how weird it sounds, to be safe one has to go through risks.


    After that, he described how his day went on. His time at the Hunter''s Guild and then his hunt of goblins. Though he wanted to tell them about his talent, he didn''t want to risk their lives. A tiny slip could bring doom to his family.


    After hearing him out, his parents were a bit relaxed, but there is still some tension. He came to the conclusion that the worry they have over his safety would never leave completely. As his parents, they would tense every time he dove into dangerous situations.


    Whatever he says, this is reality and there is nothing he can say or do anything about it. The only thing he could do is to become stronger and show them that he could protect himself better.


    ---


    After having dinner, Aaron went back to his room. He needed to check today''s gains and how to proceed for the next day.


    He gained a total of 500 XP after killing 10 goblins. Normally a goblin gives 5 XP but with his talent, it went up to 50.


    Out of this, 100 XP was used to level up. He needs another 600 XP to reach level-2.


    With level up, he would normally gain 5 FSP and 2 SP, but what he got was 50 FSP and 20 SP.


    As he only hunted stray goblins, he didn''t use his skills much, and so they didn''t rank up even with his talent.


    First, concerning his skills he didn''t want to use SP. Even with more SP he got and would gain in the future, he has a feeling that he would need them a lot.


    As a mage, his defense is thin. So in the future, he would need defense skills. His attack is pretty much non-existence. He has to depend on his summons, which is not always good.


    Even if he has an idea to get direct attack skills/spells, that doesn''t mean he would abandon his summon skills/spells. No, as a Death Mage, they are what would put him at the top. He would need more of these undead summon skills/spells.


    As a mage, he needs Mana Regeneration skill.


    To guard against enemies, he needs to have good stealth and detection skills.


    For a safe future, he needs many skills pertaining to attack, defense, perception, concealment, and Mana. This would definitely put a dent in Skill Points. He wanted to save them for the future unless it is necessary as in for his summoning skill.


    Only when a new summon is summoned, it is counted as a new cast. So it would take a lot of time for it to rank up even with his talent.


    So he decided to rank the skill thrice, which made Summon Undead skill reach Rank-3.


    He chose to rank this skill because it is difficult to rise the rank and also a higher rank could be useful and keep him safe as this would let him summon a lot more summons.


    As for attribute points, he wanted to share them equally, but that was not an easy thing. As a mage, he needs intelligence and wisdom attributes more than others, which in turn increases his Mana and attack/regeneration power.


    So they were his highest priority, but he did increase all his attributes, as one may never know when that would become important.


    After all modifications, his status changed for the better.


    --


    Name: Aaron Skyhart


    Age: 18


    Class/Profession: Death Mage, S-Rank


    Rank: 0


    Level: 1 (400/1000)


    Talent: Super Growth (SS-Rank) (Unique)


    Vitality: 20


    Strength: 12


    Stamina: 12


    Agility: 12


    Intelligence: 30


    Wisdom: 30


    Health: 200


    Mana: 300


    Skills/Spells: Summon Undead (5/20) (Rank 3); Death Lash (Rank 0); Sprint (Rank 0);


    Free Status Points: 0


    Skill Points: 11


    --


    "Hmm, now that I have raised the rank of the skill, I have 15 more skeletons to protect and fight for me. I should summon them and be done for now." S§×arch* The N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Summon Skeleton"


    As it happened last time, a skeleton rose, but it was different from what he had seen last time.


    This time it had a proper sword as a weapon and also armor. Its attributes also differed from last time. Now they have the values higher than of a newly awakened human, nearly double.


    --


    Summon: Skeleton


    Type: Warrior


    Level: 4


    Health: 200


    Strength: 20


    Stamina: 20


    Agility: 12


    Skills: Slash;


    --


    They can easily kill a goblin, one on one. With weapon and armor, maybe stand toe-to-toe with two goblins at the same time.


    "I wonder if all would be the same."


    He proceeded to summon the remaining. All of them have the same attribute status and armor for protection. The only difference is that some have spears as weapons and the skill they got was [Pierce]. Except for that, there are no visible differences.


    Wondering how his old summons are, he pulled them from the undead space.


    They looked the same as before for a few seconds before a fog surrounded them. The fog disappeared after a few seconds, only to reveal the five skeletons in the same appearance and power as the newly summoned.


    "So, the old ones would change when the skill rank progress. This is good to know, but the problem was that the summons increase their power when the spell rank increases. It would be okay now but could cause problem after a certain level".


    "The only way out of this conundrum was to either mutate the summons. If there is any other way, it was not available to me either in school or the internet. Maybe I would know more in the academy".


    "Whatever, I need to have a good rest so that I could hunt better tomorrow."


    Deciding that, he unsummoned all his skeletons and went to sleep.

 Chapter 7 - 7

    Chapter 7: Chapter 7Mary had a hectic day. From the moment of her awakening, her life was no longer hers. She doesn''t have any freedom to choose to do what she wants, since that moment.


    As one with an SS-Rank class, she was immediately transferred to a safe location. Even her parents were quickly brought away. The higher-ups are not stupid to only protect her. If anything happens to her family, she may soon follow her parents and fall before she gets a chance to rise, and rise to the top is what is needed from her.


    After they pulled her away, the higher-ups quickly made a decision on how to protect her. She needs to enter dungeons for hunting. Only by leveling up could be strong enough to protect herself.


    The city has a few newbie dungeons. They assigned a 2nd Rank bodyguard to intervene only when her life is in danger. Though she needed protection, intervening unnecessarily would hinder her growth, and ultimately they would stop the probability of her reaching her full potential.


    Moreover, with her SS-Rank class, she can easily sweep through the newbie dungeons.


    When people awaken, they are at level 0 and Rank 0. When one''s experience reaches level 20, it is when one can progress to Rank-1. The ascension to higher rank isn''t automatic. They have to go through a trial quest, and that quest varies for everyone. Only once it is completed do they progress in levels again.


    The 2nd Rank trial would at level-50. When one considers these trials, the difficulty increases as rank increases. So a second-ranker bodyguard could easily clear any anomalies that may occur.


    With such security, Mary quickly leveled up. She reached level-5 in the span of just more than a day. This can be said as unprecedented. No one ever has reached that level by the end of day one after awakening.


    When she returned late at night after a day of dungeon diving, she heard the news from the capital. The leaders of the alliance decided to groom her perfectly so that she could become a pillar of humanity and could even reach the level of the five gods.


    It was decided that after she reached level-20, she would directly enter the top university of her choice as a special entry.


    The perk is that she starts well before anyone else. There is still almost a month before the test. Even after that, the admission wouldn''t happen until a month after the test. This means she gets almost two months'' head start.


    With the Rank-2 bodyguard, it is estimated that she can reach level 20 within two weeks at maximum, maybe even less as she was already level 5. The faster she can reach level 20, the more time she would get to enjoy the benefits of the academy.


    By the time new students enter the academy, she would be faraway from their reach.


    As a special student, she can enter any dungeon with a guard. She would also be provided with a residence for herself and her family, where it is not easy to hurt her or her family, as it would be heavily guarded.


    The protection wouldn''t last for long, probably till she reaches Rank-4. After that, the protection from the alliance may reduce but until then, there would be bodyguards and that costs a lot for the alliance. This is a cost that she has to pay in the future.


    She would be dancing in the palms of the alliance. She wouldn''t have the freedom of her choice, not until she reaches the level of those five gods. Even then, she has to pull her weight to improve the alliance.


    Mary knew that this could bite her in the ass in the future, but she had to take this gamble. Her family''s life is in danger. She was happy that she awakened a top class, but that placed a target on her back. Her family could become collateral real quick if the alliance withdraws the protection.


    The only way to be safe and to have no restriction in her choices is to become the god of humanity, a level only five reached in the entire history.


    She knows that this won''t be a walk in the park, but five did before her, and the conditions that they lived in were way worse than what she is in now. Only with this five present did humanity reach new levels.


    The times were harder when they awakened. This was so true for the first one, as there was no guardian to watch over that one.


    Those five had it worse when they started out, but because of them, humanity stands in a better position.


    These five normally wouldn''t involve themselves in alliance matters of ruling unless it is important. Though they abide by the alliance, they don''t have a leash on them.


    She decided that she would be the sixth. The only way to make sure that the alliance wouldn''t put a leash around her neck.


    This would be her goal to reach. For now, she needed to reach level-20 as soon as possible. She may need help to complete her trials for the rank-up.


    Though it is forbidden to get help while taking those rank up quests, others can help them indirectly by providing information on how to complete the efficiently or making sure that no one would interrupt them.


    Most of these quests would be to kill certain monsters to rank-up and that too in real world not in a dungeon.


    In real world, the habitats of the monsters are not directly accessible, as one has to go through various other monster habitats. This would leave them tired by the time they reached their destination and can make mistakes when completing the quest.


    While they were completing the quest other monsters may interfere, even other humans may interfere.


    Out in the world, a hunter has to watch their backs not just against monsters, but also against other hunters. Greed would make people do a lot of bad deeds, and out in the wild with no surveillance they can be as bad as they want and nothing could happen to them.


    So for efficiency''s sake, having guards would make it easier for her. sea??h th§× NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    She quickly got back to her room to rest as it would be super busy for her from the next morning.

 Chapter 8 - 8

    Chapter 8: Chapter 8Aaron woke in the morning, free from the stress of the hunt from the previous day. He was a little carefree about hunting, after all, he has an excellent talent that can propel him faster than others.


    He took a bath and had breakfast before leaving for the dungeon with lunch packed by his mom. He reached the entrance of the goblin dungeon as quickly as possible. Though there are people, the number is much less when compared to yesterday.


    Newbie dungeons are not used by hunters most of the time. There are two types of dungeons that exist in this reality. One type would only give experience, while the second type gives both experience and loot. Of course, the experience is reduced when there is loot.


    A hunter dives into a dungeon mainly for loot. Though they need experience, most hunters enter the dungeons looking for loot. The loot can be used by themselves or sold if nothing of the loot is useful for them. This is the source of living for most hunters.


    With no loot spilling out, most hunters would avoid entering such dungeons.


    Of course, some do to quickly level up their ranks. The trial for rank advancement would also sometimes happen inside these experience dungeons.


    The dungeon Aaron visited is one such experience dungeon. This is the only one that is located in the premises of the Rock City. So every new awakened would inside this dungeon, trying to level up as much as they could. Some would even spend their nights inside the dungeon, as that could save time.


    This is because one had to start over from 1st floor if they left the dungeon. The lowest floor would be where elites are found, and the last floor would be where the dungeon boss is located.


    Aaron summoned all his skeletons from undead space. Unlike the previous day, today he is going to reap a lot. After summoning, he went in search of goblins, unlike yesterday where he hid in the bushes or rocks to ambush some stragglers.


    He had only five skeletons yesterday, and all of them appeared weak. Today he is not in the same situation. There are twenty skeletons, and all are stronger than the ones he had the previous day, with good defense and attack power. Today he is going to be proactive in hunting. After all, even with the talent, he needed kills for it to be useful.


    He didn''t need to fear them with so many skeletons protecting him, and started to hunt goblins in groups rather than single ones.


    Whenever he came into contact with goblins, he immediately sent fifteen to kill and five to watch his back. Soon the entire floor saw the deaths of goblins.


    [Killed a goblin. You gained 5 XP.]


    [Super growth talent activated. XP gained increased to 50 XP.]


    [Killed a goblin. You gained 5 XP.]


    [Super growth talent activated. XP gained increased to 50 XP.]


    ...


    ...


    The notifications kept ringing, but he ignored them. The notifications are a nuisance that could distract them and give a chance for the enemies. There is no way to silence them but to ignore them mentally.


    After clearing out the goblins on the floor, he went to the next floor. He kept hunting till night, only to take occasional breaks to keep his stamina and to eat lunch when he got hungry.


    By the time he returned home, his status changed, and he leveled up twice.


    --


    Name: Aaron Skyhart


    Age: 18 S§×arch* The N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Class/Profession: Death Mage, S-Rank


    Rank: 0


    Level: 3 (150/10,000)


    Talent: Super Growth (SS-Rank) (Unique)


    Vitality: 20


    Strength: 12


    Stamina: 12


    Agility: 12


    Intelligence: 30


    Wisdom: 30


    Health: 200


    Mana: 300


    Spells: Summon Undead (20/20) (Rank 3); Death Lash (Rank 1); Sprint (Rank 1);


    Free Status Points: 100


    Skill Points: 51


    --


    At dinner, he had to ease his parent''s dread for his life. After that, he went straight to his room. When he checked his status, he was a bit shocked. He crossed two levels with the easy-going hunting he has been doing.


    If he concentrates more, he could reach the top rank in the province during the test, but he doesn''t want to do that.


    Yes, there are many benefits that do come with being in the top ranks but also a lot of envy. One should always watch their back in that position. He didn''t have any background support. If the enemy targets him, he could die or his parents would.


    Before the test, every entry would be checked on their level. A higher-level person would gather the eyes of a lot of people. Some of these watchers are good and are only to scout for talents to recruit, but not everyone watching would have only such intentions. There are many traitors or jealous ones who would like to eradicate anything that could threaten them.


    The only way to become strong is by properly training. Training means killing more monsters, which would increase not just his level faster, but also his skills/spells.


    The only way for that was to go to loot dungeons, where the experience gained is reduced and there is the dungeon loot that can be obtained. This is a win-win situation for Aaron.


    He gains a lot of training, his level would be good but stays below the radar. In addition to that, he can sell the loot for money. Money is required to get better equipment. The one he is wearing is a school standard uniform, which would only give him protection against monsters below Rank-1.


    Even if he gains good scoring and attends a good academy, there will always be competition between students for resources. To get those resources, he had to invest some resources.


    His family can''t afford to buy him any decent equipment. They have already worked their asses off to pay his school tuition.


    So Aaron has decided that he would lessen the burden on them. He is now an awakened and should be more than ready to take care of himself.


    The dungeon hunt for money starts the next day. Tonight he needed rest to prepare for the next day.


    He quickly added most of the FSPs to his status. He kept a few points idle, but not as a reserve. He doesn''t need to keep them in reserve, as he could get more than enough if he wanted to improve just by leveling up once, which was not possible for others.


    He only did that to get only 5''s and 0''s in his status page, maybe only 0''s later as he levels up. This way, he can easily understand how much strong he actually is easily, rather than wasting too much time calculating unnecessary things.


    He didn''t change anything about his skills, but they improved after two days, and he saw no reason to waste the skill points. He has a feeling that he would need them very much in the future.


    --


    Vitality: 40


    Strength: 25


    Stamina: 25


    Agility: 25


    Intelligence: 50


    Wisdom: 50


    Health: 400


    Mana: 500


    Free Status Points: 1


    Skill Points: 51


    --


    Aaron''s attributes are now very high and can easily defeat any one below Rank-1. He didn''t need to fear monsters of low-level dungeons.


    Tonight rest, tomorrow money hunt.

 Chapter 9 - 9

    Chapter 9: Chapter 9Aaron stood in front of the new dungeon. This was not the goblin dungeon he visited in the previous two days. Today he is going to explore the Wolker Dungeon. This was named after the adventurer James Wolker who was the first to conquer the dungeon.


    The goblin dungeon is a Single-Monster dungeon where only a monster of the same species. In that case, only goblins live in the dungeon. Wolker dungeon is a Multi-Monster dungeon and this type of dungeon has various monsters living in it.


    Single-Monster dungeons are relatively easy to conquer compared to Multi-Monster dungeons. You only needed to be prepared for a single species that has almost identical skills and weaknesses.


    For example, if a species specializes in scent tracking, all you need to keep yourself alive is that you come prepared with an item that makes your scent not stand out from the surroundings.


    This can''t be said if the dungeon has monsters of multiple species. Some can detect others'' presence with scent, thermal, or even echolocation.


    Not only staying under the radar is a problem but also the fighting methods. Some are afraid of fire but some welcome it. One has to adapt as one proceeds in such an environment.


    After entering the dungeon, Aaron summoned the skeletons as usual. This hunt will be different from before. As this dungeon has more than one monster, he needed to be cautious.


    He started to walk for a few minutes before he encountered his old prey, goblin. The goblin group has five members, but they were not a match for him. With improved skills, he easily dodged their attacks, while the skeletons took care of them.


    [Killed a goblin. You gained 1 XP] X5


    [Super growth talent activated. XP gained increased to 10 XP] X5


    [You gained goblin''s eye] X2


    [You gained a goblin''s brain.]


    [You gained goblin''s ear] X2


    After killing the five goblins, he received notifications of kill and loot. He checked how much difference the gain is between the loot dungeon and the experience dungeon.


    He has gained only 1 experience point for each kill, totaling 5 experience points. With his talent, the experience gained increased to 50 XP.


    He then checked the loot. He gained two goblin eyes, two ears, and a brain.


    "Hmm, the talent didn''t apply? Uh, yes, it only increases growth, not the loot", Aaron muttered to himself.


    The goblin parts are not as useful as other monster parts, but they do have a use. Many monsters hate goblins for some unknown reason. They would go berserk when they see goblins intrude into their territories.


    So alchemists use these parts to produce a potion for bait. When the potion was poured at a place, the monster near that position runs towards the place without thinking.


    Hunters place traps to catch monsters that run blindly at the scent of goblins. Most of the time the monsters would get caught in the traps which would reduce the capabilities of that monster. This would reduce the burden on the hunters.


    This dungeon was already conquered, so most of the information is already available to hunters.


    Aaron hunted goblins in the last two days. They were no match for him, so he wanted to quickly move onto the next floors, where he can find more monster types. This is a common occurrence in these type of dungeons.


    On the first floor, only a single species of monster is found. To hunt different types of monsters, one had to move to lower floors. There are a few occasions where this was not true.


    On the second floor, he came across a new monster, a wolf. The wolf is considered as basic of the wolf monster species. This wolf has no control over elements until it evolves. Unlike goblins where only shamans and the king could do magic, wolves develop magic after crossing Rank-1.


    After this, they mutate into one of the various subspecies depending on their element. The most common are wind wolves, flame wolves, and dark wolves.


    The ones Aaron encountered are not ranked monsters. So they had to fight normally, but they do have an advantage in agility.


    Immediately after encountering them, he used fifteen to kill and five to defend him. He used Death Lash as fast as possible on all the wolves.


    Monsters don''t have priests that remove debuffs, so their health deteriorated significantly. With the skeleton''s high stats and Aaron ready to replace and destroyed skeletons created the path of victory.


    [Killed a wolf. You gained 1 XP.]


    [Super growth talent activated. XP gained increased to 10 XP.]


    [You have gained Wolf''s teeth.]


    ...


    [Killed a wolf. You gained 1 XP.]


    [Super growth talent activated. XP gained increased to 10 XP.]


    [You have gained Wolf''s skin.]


    By the end of the day, Aaron hunted 80 monsters in the dungeon before deciding to return home.


    After exiting the dungeon, he immediately checked his status.


    --


    Name: Aaron Skyhart


    Age: 18


    Class/Profession: Death Mage, S-Rank


    Rank: 0


    Level: 3 (950/10,000)


    Talent: Super Growth (SS-Rank) (Unique)


    Vitality: 40


    Strength: 25


    Stamina: 25


    Agility: 25


    Intelligence: 50


    Wisdom: 50


    Health: 400


    Mana: 500


    Spells: Summon Undead (20/20) (Rank 3); Death Lash (Rank 2); Sprint (Rank 2);


    Free Status Points: 1


    Skill Points: 51


    --


    The experience gained is low compared to previous days, but there was loot, which he can sell. Unlike previous days, there is no level-up. So he lacked any Free Status points to allocate to any attributes.


    Death Leash and Sprint each increased by a rank, though. This is the main gain that he got today in the dungeon.


    He went to the hunter''s guild to sell the loot. He didn''t want to bring the items home and let them get wasted.


    Unlike rich people who have space storage devices that protect the items from expiring quickly, his leather bag doesn''t have the same facility. Though most items like claws won''t deteriorate quickly, items like skin, eyes would start to smell after some time. sea??h th§× NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    So it''s best to sell as soon as possible.


    The trip to the guild went without a hitch, and he was richer than he was this morning, though that is only by a few coins. After completing his business at the guild, he returned home.

 Chapter 10 - 10

    Chapter 10: Chapter 10Hunting and selling the loot became a daily routine of Aaron. Though the items obtained are exchanged for a very little amount of credits, they are still adding extra to the pocket. Being a hunter is costly and every credit earned or that can be saved is required in this life.


    After hunting through the dungeon for a total of twenty days, he had only crossed level-4 and was on his way to level-5. The amount he gained totaled forty thousand credits. This isn''t much but sufficient for a normal household to survive for a month, without any extravagances.


    --


    Name: Aaron Skyhart


    Age: 18


    Class/Profession: Death Mage, S-Rank


    Rank: 0


    Level: 4 (9250/25,000)


    Talent: Super Growth (SS-Rank) (Unique)


    Vitality: 40


    Strength: 25


    Stamina: 25


    Agility: 25


    Intelligence: 50


    Wisdom: 50


    Health: 400


    Mana: 500


    Skills/Spells: Summon Undead (20/20) (Rank 3); Death Lash (Rank 3); Sprint (Rank 3);


    Attribute Points: 51


    Skill Points: 71


    --


    Aaron decided to keep the attribute points and not distribute them for now. The dungeons aren''t much of a challenge for him with his stats. Moreover, he felt problematic with the sudden rise of attributes.


    At first, he cursed the school teachers for not teaching the side effects but later realized that everyone would raise an attribute by one point or at a maximum of five points for every rise in their level.


    This wouldn''t change much and they could familiarize themselves easily. He on the other hand had increased attributes by fifty per level in total. Though he may have not distributed them at the same time, but the improvements are very high. This caused his body a bit out of control.


    So for now he decided to let things be until he has better control over his mind and body.


    Adding the first two days and the twenty days, he has left with only eight days before the test happens. He wanted to take a rest on the day before the test, which leaves only seven days to hunt.


    He decided to go to experience dungeons for these seven days. From what he learned, for one to get a seat in top academies, they should have reached level-12 or above before the test.


    This won''t guarantee a seat but academies do love talent but also hard work. Talent without hard work is considered the worst.


    To reach level-12 in thirty days is no ordinary feat. It requires a lot of work and also a good talent.


    Of course, the test would be the major factor in the decision-making of selecting the students but it isn''t the only factor.


    Aaron had already decided that he would better his circumstances but wouldn''t be involved in anything problematic. He already wasted a lot of time, which others usually spent on increasing their levels. sea??h th§× n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    For a spot in a good academy, he needed to at least cross level-10 or everything goes down the drain. The next seven days would solely be spent in the experience dungeons and increase his level.


    After leaving the dungeon, Aaron went home as usual, had dinner with his family, and took a rest for the night. There was no need to stress out about his low levels, unlike others. He was using these days to earn loot rather than EXP.


    The remaining days are more than enough for him to achieve the level requirements.


    ---


    The morning he woke and prepared for a day in the dungeon.


    He did what he did on the first two days after awakening. Instead of those dungeons that gave loot, he chose the Experience dungeons which gave a lot of EXP but no loot.


    For now, he has a minimum balance in his account and his parents thought not considered wealthy or high-earners, they are better off than many. So there was no need to think about money issues at this point.


    Moreover, with the exam dates nearing, he needed to reach level 10 or else he might lose his opportunity to a good academy. So he went to those EXP dungeons and started hunting during the daytime and returned home at night.


    This routine continued for the next six days and before he knew it, he reached level-10, the requirement to be considered above average.


    Reaching level-10 gave him an extra 300 FSPs and 120 SPs. He made use of 39 FSPs making all attributes reach 50, but left the SPs alone. He has plans for them and it is not the time to make use of them as of now.


    --


    Vitality: 50


    Strength: 50


    Stamina: 50


    Agility: 50


    Intelligence: 50


    Wisdom: 50


    Health: 500


    Mana: 500


    FSP: 312


    SP: 191


    --


    When he did that he felt some kind of change in him but the status window didn''t show any anomaly.


    Since the required level 10 was reached Aaron decided to take the last day off. This was a decision that he made days ago but he was not quite sure at that time whether he can reach level 10 or not.


    Now, he can do what he actually decided to do.


    There is an important exam that would decide the trajectory of his life. So he wanted his mind and body to be in the best condition before that.


    He can still hunt and can level up if possible, which would increase his chances in the exam but he didn''t want any possible injuries to happen just before the exams. He can''t take that risk.


    ---


    Mary finally did it. Even with the help given by the leaders of the alliance, it took a long time. She finally reached level-20 after hunting continuously for twenty-five days.


    After she returned from the dungeon run, she met with the principal of her school and the mayor of the city.


    "Mary, tomorrow night you''ll be on your way to the capital. Make sure you have a good rest", the principal spoke.


    "What about my parents?" Mary asked.


    "They''ll be going with you. They''ll be set up with a small business in the city per their request. Though it would take some time before the documents come through", answered the principal.


    "Don''t worry about the permit documents Mary. The higher-ups know how valuable you are. This would be a small thing for them. You should rest though. Don''t do anything tomorrow, only rest", the mayor said.


    "Yes, rest well Mary. Once you reached the capital, it would be hectic for you."


    Mary understood what they meant. First, she needs to pass the trial for Rank-1. After that, they would send her through the dungeons as much as they could.


    Commoners and low-level Awakened have no idea what is happening across the world.


    A new god for humanity is needed to curb the rising chaos or else...

 Chapter 11 - 11

    Chapter 11: Chapter 11This world needs a new god to curb the rising problems. If not, the damage that the world has to face would be a lot.


    There are many things that are happening in the world that commoners and low-level awakeners were unaware of.


    This world is not at peace as everyone thought so. There are many battles ongoing but they are happening far away from common people and the higher-ups were able to keep the news a secret to avoid panic among the masses.


    Mass Panic is the greatest danger to a society than any actual disaster.


    At least after a disaster, people would come together to help each other out but if the news of a disaster comes prematurely before the officials are sufficiently prepared for then, the dangers are more than should be.


    If a mass panic happens before the disaster, whether the disaster is real or not, the damage to society would be very visible.


    People would become bandits looting everything that they can. Many psychos would come out and destroy whatever they can just for the fun of it.


    It''s not robberies and vandalism, but assaults and murders too. Panic can make a human turn into a monster or bring out the monster inside of them as during times like that there would be not much protection compared to normal times.


    So the higher-ups covered up many things from common people.


    Only after being awakened, one would start to come into contact with these dangers. There are many awakened who die every year because of these disasters.


    Most are covered up but not all can and in recent years, the higher-ups are losing ways to cover up and it is slowly becoming known to even low-level awakeners about the dangers.


    The battles that were once only fought in far-away lands, have now been spreading to the interior lands of the federation.


    It has been a hundred years since many of the cities have seen any serious dangers. Sure, there are monster tides every once in a while, which almost everyone knows about.


    The change was what happened a hundred years ago. Back then, the people were not in danger because of monsters but also from the attacks of alien races and traitorous cults that devoted themselves to monsters or alien races.


    After the rise of the fifth god of humanity, they slowly disappeared from the minds of humans. Now humans face only monsters and that''s what they believe as their sole enemies.


    Though the Alliance didn''t scrub history, it didn''t divulge the ongoing battles with Alien races and numerous cults.


    There are still some cults that are spread across the world known to humans but they are very few in number and they won''t act out easily. So their danger level is very low for many humans.


    The appearance of Mary Hinter''s SS-Rank profession would have brought those cult members out for a hunt and it did but the school and the officials are well prepared. They destroyed them before those cult members could inflict damage on Mary or her family but her details were already forwarded to their higher-ups.


    Even those cultists died, they were sure that the girl might not survive what was to come.


    It is the reason why the higher officials are making her progress faster. As long as she reaches a higher rank, these fools wouldn''t be a problem for her. She can eliminate them on her own.


    The problem with those cults was the numerous low-ranking members. If a high-ranking member tries to make a move then it would be like a broadcast to the alliance higher-ups. They would easily blockade them but the unknown low-ranking ones are always the issue.


    The alliance can''t track them. So they can only guard Mary for now and deal with those traitors as they appear. As long as Mary remains a low-ranked individual, she will remain as bait.


    Once she reaches mid-rank, then the alliance wouldn''t need to be afraid for her safety. While the high-ranking alliance members can block the higher-ranking cultists, she can easily take care of the low-ranking ones.


    This is why her protection would end after she reaches Rank-4, though minimum protection would still be around for her parents. Moreover, at Rank-4, she can actually afford the cost. It was a good plan for protection as long as there were no anomalies.


    So far there were none but now that Mary is going to the capital, things may change. Whether the outcome would be better or worse, no one can say about that.


    ---


    When Mary''s name came up, so did Aaron.


    Mary awakened the SS-Rank profession, while Aaron awakened the S-Rank profession. Normally, they both should have been on the hit list. It was not that common for humans to awaken an S-Rank profession.


    Due to the presence of SS-Rank, one may forget how rare is S-rank profession. Most of the high-ranked awakened are ones with A-Rank professions. There are very few S-Rank professions as many died due to assassinations or premature death because they underestimated the enemy. Sear?h the n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    So, the cultists should have marked Aaron too but those idiots excluded Aaron because of his profession as Death Mage, which was a blessing in disguise for Aaron.


    If those cultists ever finds out the talent that Aaron had awakened, they might slap themselves to death for ignoring a potential god, but there was nothing that could be done. They were already dead but the higher-ups may resurrect them and slap them to death if Aaron''s talent was ever known.


    These low-level cultists ignored him and only marked Mary and sent her details to the higher-ups before their ultimate demise. Rock City is just a Tier-1 city. It may be bigger and better than towns and villages but it is still on the lower spectrum.


    So the number of cultists in the city was less than twenty, who were wiped out when they tried to attack Mary. Now, because of their stupidity, their cults are going to pay the ultimate price, Death.

 Chapter 12 - 12

    Chapter 12: Chapter 12The students were excited and nervous at the same time. Today they had to go through the test which would decide how far they could go in their future. Today is the day they had to give not their best but everything they got.


    "Everyone, the test is about to start. Proceed towards the desks in front of the portal. Provide your school identity card to the person at the desk and they''ll start your registration procedure.


    They will scan your card and then check your level. After checking they would provide you with a watch to wear, which when turned on will note the number of monsters you killed. Receiving this you can go straight through the portal. Once everyone enters the dungeon, the examination would commence and everyone would have precisely three hours."


    Every student present started to move towards the desks. The data entry is done just by scanning the barcode on the card. After the level of the person is checked using a device. The device checking has to be voluntary or the check will fail. It means that if the students don''t accept the scan, then others can''t see their levels.


    The process is simple. So it didn''t take more than an hour and everyone entered the dungeon.


    Aaron summoned his skeletons as soon as he entered the dungeon. He checked the watch that the school provided them. There is some kind of countdown on the watch. In addition to that, there is a zero number below that countdown.


    A few minutes later he heard a voice from the watch the students were wearing, "If you look at your watches, you can see a countdown timer. Your examination starts exactly when the timer turns zero. There is a dome of protection surrounding the area where you stand. This area is called the Rest Area, where no monsters can enter. The dome will disappear when the timer turns to zero".


    "After the exam starts, a new countdown timer appears with an eight-hour limit, which is the exam time. You can hunt as many monsters as you can within this time. There should be a Zero below that countdown. It represents the number of points you earned for hunting the monsters".


    "If you ever were in danger, there is an emergency button on the watch provided to you. It''ll teleport you out of the dungeon but also end your exam. No matter when you exit the dungeon, the count is finalized."


    "Now good luck."


    After the voice died down, there was nothing but silence.


    Since dungeons are copies, no student overlaps with others. Everyone has entered their own instance of the dungeon copy. Also, this is an experience dungeon, rather than a loot dungeon.


    The schools would after all want their students to reach a higher level before joining the academies. They never consider the financial abilities of the students. This was because, once the students enter academies, most, if not all supplies required are provided by the academy.


    There is no need to fret about those things by the students. At higher levels, they can easily do more than they could by hunting in these low-level dungeons. So for the schools, students reaching higher levels is more important than them gaining loot.


    ---


    Aaron sat silently for a while. He thought that the exam would start the minute they entered the dungeon but it looks like it was not.


    There was a safety net, that prevented the monsters from approaching the students but it also prevented students from going out and hunting the monsters. Everyone can only start at the same time as others and stop at the same time.


    No one would get a second more or a second less than others. S§×ar?h the ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Aaron summoned all twenty skeletons that he had in the undead space. He didn''t leave anything for surprises.


    From what the school informed the students, this is a low-rank dungeon. The highest monster is at level-15. Aaron is already at level-10, and that means the skeletons are also at level-10.


    Moreover, the monsters that are present here are Goblins and Wolves, enemies that he had faced before. At these levels, they won''t have any magic to use against him. So, it all comes down to the efficiency of cutting them down for him.


    Though he didn''t want to be in the spotlight, that doesn''t mean that he didn''t want to be at the top. Only by being at the top can he get the resources to quickly improve himself.


    Though he has a talent that can increase his level faster, he is in dire need of skills, which are very rare for his Class. A top-rated academy is the only choice that he has to get access to skills barely related to his Class.


    Well, as top-rated academies, they should have skills related to necromancers, curse mages and other related classes. Even if the skills related to his profession were not available, he could substitute using the skills of related professions.


    If he can''t find any skills at those top-rated academies, the chances of him finding his related skills by himself would be close to nill.


    So no matter what, he has to be at the top.


    Though he knew that the academies may not favour his profession because they thought that these professions were weak due to the limited number of skills available, if he was at the top, they couldn''t outright ignore him. They would have to give something to him or else they would lose face in public.


    Moreover, this a dungeon where he can freely level up without paying anything. Why would he waste such a chance?


    The month-free chance of levelling up in dungeons controlled by the Hunter''s Guild is over. So, this exam may be the last chance that he has to level up.


    Even in academies, he heard that dungeon entries are not free but have to pay some kind of fee, which he has no idea.


    So unless he finds a wild dungeon that no one knows, this would be his last chance to level up for free and he wouldn''t miss such a chance.

 Chapter 13 - 13

    Chapter 13: Chapter 13Aaron and the other students had to wait for a few minutes before the timer reached zero.


    Ring!


    The game has started. It''s time to hunt.


    Once the timer has reached zero, the protection that stopped the monsters from entering or students from leaving has disappeared. They can now hunt the monsters but that also means that the monsters can hunt them.


    Even though that was the case, no one was afraid. Almost all of them have reached level-8 at the least. There are a few who reached level-12, which was the previous record but no one else crossed it, except for Mary, who has already left for the capital to attend the academy.


    Since she was not present here, the record appeared that level-12 is still the highest, for now, which would change in the future. The higher-ups kept that a secret as they didn''t want to alarm the enemies this early.


    If they knew how fast she was growing, they may increase their efforts to eliminate her. It may be good in a certain point of view, as the enemies that come to kill her can become her stepping stones to godhood quickly but there is a large drawback.


    She could die beforehand because they overestimated her or underestimated the enemies. Moreover, the collateral could be very high. There is always collateral, which is something that they can''t stop but they didn''t want to increase the collateral caused. If there is a way to avoid it, that would be for the best.


    So, Mary''s progress was kept secret. Only the guardians that are protecting her and the ones at the top of the alliance know about her true progress.


    ---


    Once the protection dome disappeared, Aaron sent all his skeletons to hunt the monsters around. He kept five around him, while the fifteen spread to hunt the monsters.


    Individually they are on the weaker side, even with the increase in attributes with his growth but as a group of fifteen, they started harvesting the monsters as if it were as simple as harvesting grains from a field.


    Aaron moved slowly as he followed the skeleton''s path, making sure that he never strayed far away from them and also never in the line of sight of the monsters that those skeletons engaged in.


    Though they are monsters and aren''t intelligent enough to think, they have their own instincts that help them survive. So once they see him, they will attack him, even if they have no idea that he is the summoner of these skeletons.


    Once the summoner dies, so does the summons. This was something only the intelligent ones could think of but the instincts of monsters help them survive in the harsest places.


    So, it is why it was advised to never look down on even the lowest monsters. They have their own ways that can cause serious damage to humans.


    ---


    "Should I increase the rank of the skill?" Aaron wondered while observing the ongoing battle a little distance away. Even with fifteen skeletons, he felt that it was taking too long.


    He originally had five skeletons at Rank-0, and there was an extra +5 per increase in rank. Though it wasn''t much, they were more than enough.


    If he increases the rank to 4 or 5, then the number would reach 25 or 30. Since he was at level-10, the experience gain is very low. It was only because of his talent that he saw the experience gained was good enough to improve his level.


    To actually reach level-11 or 12, he would need a lot of experience. There are level-15 monsters here and with his 10xExp bonus, he can reach that level, if he clears the entire dungeon but at the rate this was going, there is no way that he can be able to achieve that.


    It is possible to reach 11 or 12 and if he increased the number of skeletons, he could reach level-13. The only way to increase the number of skeletons was to increase the rank of the skill.


    The only reason he didn''t increase the rank was that it requires 10 and 20 SP, a total of 30 Sp to increase the rank to 5.


    "Hmm, I have 191 SP, and since this damned skill won''t increase with usage as it was less likely to use, I should increase to Rank-5. Even after consuming 30 SP, I would have 161 SP. What are they for, if not to increase the difficult skills quickly? Even though it may appear as a waste, I can earn a lot in the future", Aaron decided that he would increase the rank of the skill.


    -- sea??h th§× Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    [You consumed 10 SP on Undead Summon (Skeleton) Skill.]


    [Your Undead Summon(Skeleton) Skill has reached Rank-4.]


    [You gained +10 Skeletons.]


    [You consumed 20 SP on Undead Summon (Skeleton) Skill.]


    [Your Undead Summon(Skeleton) Skill has reached Rank-5.]


    [You gained +10 Skeletons.]


    --


    "Huh, what is this?"


    When Aaron saw those notifications, he was flabbergasted.


    "I got +10 per increase in rank but I only got +5 back then. Wait if for three ranks, there is only +5 per rank increase and now it is +10, then that means from Rank-7 it would either be +15, which is an increment of +5 to the previous or +20 which is double to the previous".


    "Which of these would be the increments in the future, I have no idea but whatever that would be, knowing that this matter made me happy. If it was only +5 till Rank-9, then I may not have increased the skill rank".


    "Hahaha, with the increase in skeletons, I can easily mop every mob there is in this dungeon quicker than others. First, let''s stop here for now and summon the remaining skeletons. Once that''s done, I can easily breeze this dungeon and increase my levels faster'', Aaron thought and decided.


    He summoned back his skeletons that were hunting and postioned them all to guard him, while he summons the twenty skeletons. It would take a long time and he would be quite vulnerable in area such as the dungeon.


    So the skeleton perimeter.

 Chapter 14 - 14

    Chapter 14: Chapter 14Eight Hours Later...


    Aaron was standing over a beast that his skeletons had just defeated. It is a level-15 Bear, but that''s not what''s exciting about this beast. It is a mutated beast.


    What Aaron and his batchmates are in is an experience dungeon, where there would be no loot but only experience. One can easily level up using these dungeons but no one can live off these.


    Without loot, no one can afford armour or weapons or food on their table. So dungeons that give loot are the main ones of importance, unlike these but experience dungeons play an important role during events like the exams.


    So, while taking the exam, no matter the level of the beast that the students kill, what they would get would be only the EXP to level up and nothing else but there is an exception and that exception is lying dead in front of Aaron.


    Mutated Beasts.


    No matter where mutated beasts would give something else in addition to the experience. They don''t follow the norms of the dungeons as they themselves are mutants and that means they themselves are not according to the norms of nature.


    The EXP that Aaron earned from this kill is also more than what he would have earned from a normal level-15 beast.


    The reason why Aaron is waiting by the dead beast is to see what reward would he get from this. It was not the same every time. It changes from beast to beast, kill to kill but what he knew was that he would get a skill, a weapon, a piece of armor or a blueprint.


    The drop would be from these four categories and the drop would be something that would be useful directly or indirectly to the hunter. Also, it would be closely related to the mutant beast or the hunter. S§×arch* The N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Except for the blueprint, he would be content with whatever the category might be. Though it is broadly said to be a blueprint, the drop can also be a recipe for an alchemical product or even a food or something along the category.


    He can''t use them directly, except to sell them, which means he would be benefited indirectly. He doesn''t care about the monetary value. He was more interested in increasing his strength above everything else.


    If he has strength, he can easily earn whatever he wants.


    After a few seconds, the body disappeared and an item appeared and that was a skill book.


    "Fuck yeah", he shouted out loudly.


    It was a skill that Aaron wanted most of all things.


    Aaron is not a fool. He knew everything he did and does would be under the eyes of others. So if he buys something from shops, it wouldn''t take a genius to know about that.


    So if he buys a skill, others would know that he has that skill in his arsenal.


    Weapons and armour can''t be concealed as one has to be worn on the body and the other wielded by hand. One can easily see them and they can never be used as trump cards but skills are not easy to be seen by others.


    They are the true trump cards of any awakened.


    Now with a skill book in his hands, which no one would know about, he has a trump card. How long that will last, he has no idea but he would make the best use of it.


    Since time was running out, he used the skill book.


    [You have learned the skill, Death''s Disguise.]


    Aaron, immediately checked his status to check about the skill. The description would not be out in the open, except for the name when they touch the skill book.\


    If it was a common skill, then the description would be on the internet or in books but a rare skill descriptions, no one would be dumb enough to upload them for everyone to see.


    "Status"


    --


    Name: Aaron Skyhart


    Age: 18


    Class/Profession: Death Mage, S-Rank


    Rank: 0


    Level: 10 >> 15


    Talent: Super Growth (SS-Rank) (Unique)


    Vitality: 50 >> 60


    Strength: 50 >> 60


    Stamina: 50 >> 60


    Agility: 50 >> 60


    Intelligence: 50 >> 65


    Wisdom: 50 >> 65


    Health: 500 >> 600


    Mana: 500 >> 650


    Skills/Spells: Summon Undead (40/40) (Rank 5); Death Lash (Rank 3); Sprint (Rank 3); Death''s Disguise (Rank 0);


    Free Status Points: 312 >> 562 >> 492


    Skill Points: 161 >> 261


    [Death''s Disguise (Rank 0): Become synonymous with death. No life detection skills would be able to track you while the skill is active.


    Mana Cost: 50 mana/minute]


    --


    "Wow, just wow", Aaron muttered as he looked at the description of his skill.


    Though it was not an attacking nor a defence skill, it is very useful to disappear from anyone''s radar.


    The skill would essentially make you disappear from almost all tracking skills. Most tracking skills are based on life, one way or another. So, if you are tracking someone and don''t want them to know or escape from someone''s detection who was tracking you, this skill is very useful.


    Though the mana cost is very high, it is worth the cost. Also, the cost can be reduced as long as the rank of the skill increases. Aaron does have a lot of Skill Points. He can easily improve the rank of the skill if he wants to.


    Even though that is the case, Aaron wants to make sure he makes the best use of those skill points instead of using them willy-nilly.


    There might be some more useful skills that he would get his hands on in the future. So, he would check before making a decision whether to improve skill rank or not.


    ---


    Ding!


    The timer has struck zero again and it is time to return from the dungeon.


    As soon as the time turned zero, a portal appeared in front of Aaron and other students as well. No one can stay any longer in the dungeon.


    The test is over.


    Aaron retracted all his skeletons before stepping into the portal. he didn''t want to alarm others with his skeletons. There are a lot of skeletons in his arsenal, more than what others at his level would usually possess.

 Chapter 15 - 15

    Chapter 15: Chapter 15"Did you see who''s the first?" a student from the crowd asked


    "No, the ranks are being updated as the students are coming out. We will know within a few minutes", another student replied.


    The ground was crowded as it always would be whenever the exams for the academy happened. Everyone wants to know who scored the highest points and who got the first rank.


    Depending on the points that one was able to gain in the exam, the academies would select them and depending on the rank of the person, the contract varies.


    The top rankers would obviously get a contract with preferential treatment from the academies. After all, the academies are established to nurture the best seedlings to the highest position as soon as possible.


    ---


    After an hour of waiting, the results were displayed.


    The most attractive one was the big announcement that was displayed.


    "Congratulations, Aaron Skyhart, for being the top ranker of the Alliance".


    This was something that only the top rankers of a city, province or the entire alliance would get and from the announcement, one can see that the Aarons scored the highest in the entire alliance.


    So, the announcement which was to show the top in the school or city is now showing the top of the alliance. Afterall, as the top ranker of the alliance, he is by default top of his school, city and province.


    ---


    "Who the hell is Aaron Skyhart?" one of the students asked.


    This was something that was on the minds of everyone in the crowd.


    "Wait, I know him. He is the one who awakened the S-Rank profession, Death Mage", one of them remembered the event day of the awakening.


    Aaron was once famous but they quickly forgot about him after the awakening. Though he was the only one that awakened S-Rank which was rank below the SS-Rank.


    Mary and Aaron are said to have awakened the highest-ranked professions. Mary was taken away by the higher-ups and as Death Mage is considered to be of lower potential, they forgot about his existence.


    Now he showed that he is not someone who has lower potential, rather he is quite the opposite. He showed everyone that he was of the highest potential.


    ---


    "What do you think of the recent results?" a middle-aged man in a suit asked his fellow colleagues.


    "Surprised, I should say. Who would have thought that a person who awakened one of those professions to reach the highest rank?" one of the people spoke.


    "Yeah, that is definitely a surprise. If that SS-Rank girl were to be present, she would have been first but without her, this S-Rank boy has gained first rank".


    "It says that he is a good seedling. Normally, S-Rank is the highest profession that anyone can get in this world when they awaken. Sad thing is that he is a Death Mage and may not reach higher stages".


    "Yeah, while it is true that he may be restricted in his growth and can''t reach higher ranks easily, he could be a good one in the middle layers. Well, a King needs Generals and a General does need Captains and I believe that he might become a good captain".


    "Hmm, let''s keep an eye on him and since he is the first ranker in the entire Alliance, he should get the best benefits, no matter what his profession might be or else no one would work for better. They would resign that their professions were appreciated and depreciate in time. We can''t let that happen".


    "Yeah, though I see that this boy would stop improving later on, at the moment this is what he earned. If we reduce his benefits just because we feel that his profession is not valuable, then it could backlash on us".


    "So, we all agree that the boy would get the benefits that were gained by him. There would be no change in that".


    The higher-ups decided that Aaron would get all the benefits that the Alliance would give the top rankers but there is an issue. Whether the academies would give him the best contract that was supposed to be his as the top ranker or not is still unknown. S§×arch* The novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Moreover, the reason why the higher-ups decided not to shortchange Aaron is not because they are kind. No, a situation is this occured once.


    A Necromancer reached the top ranks years ago but the Alliance ignored him and the benefits he was supposed to get were diverted to other professionals that the Alliance thought were good.


    What happened was a massacre.


    Years later, that same necromancer not only killed the higher-ups who shortchanged him but also the ones who benefitted from that decision. In this process, there was a lot of collateral. A lot of people died.


    After that massacre, cultists got involved and a lot of towns and smaller cities were wiped out.


    If only the higher-ups hadn''t hindered that necromancer, he would have become a great asset to the alliance. No one knows what happened to that necromancer.


    What most believe was that one of the five SS-Rank gods got involved to clear up the mess. After that incident, the alliance''s officials became alert to not look down on any profession.


    Sure not everyone with minimum talents can reach a higher rank later but when they do it could become a disaster. No matter the profession, the officials made sure that they paid the student what they should.


    Even if that person falls behind later, that would not be their problem. They can''t blame the alliance for that as the alliance did everything that they promised.

 Chapter 16 - 16

    Chapter 16: Chapter 16The life of Aaron''s family changed that day, especially the lifes of Thomas and Maya Skyhart, his parents. Until today they were just some who awakened Life Class professions and are not noteworthy but that changed on this day.


    The reason behind that was Aaron.


    Normally it should have been on Aaron''s awakening that their lives should have changed but they didn''t as Aaron awakened Death Mage, which many consider weak and not a viable profession.


    It is not a weak profession but there are not many avenues that are open to Death Mage or any death related professions. So, even though it is classified as S-Rank profession, it is not seen better than a A-Rank profession.


    The problem lies not with people''s vision but with the world they are in.


    No matter what level Aaron can reach, without sufficient skills he would remain at lower levels when considering the prowess of a person.


    Yeah, level is not everything because if you have only one or two skills then the enemies would easily understand your skill weakness and would always be prepared for your attacks.


    With multiple skills, even if they know the weaknesses unless they are clairvoyant, they wouldn''t know what skill you would use at that instant and can''t be truly prepared to counter that.


    So, no one gave a shit when Aaron awakened the S-Rank profession. Moreover, with an SS-Rank awakener''s presence, the importance of his S-Rank profession fell even below what it should be. sea??h th§× N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Today that all changed as Aaron became the top scorer in the entire alliance. Of course, Mary, the one who awakened SS-Rank didn''t participate in this exam as she already reached level 20 days before the exam and had no reason to participate in this as that would be a waste of precious time which could be used to complete the Rank-1 promotion.


    So, technically Aaron should only be considered as 2nd among the newbie awakeners. Even if that is so, reaching that rank is already a big achievement.


    ---


    Thomas and Maya worked as chefs for the Aurora Restaurant. It is one of the top restaurants in the entirety of the alliance but that doesn''t mean that they were top chefs.


    There were others who were the main characters, while these two were mere assistants. Even so, the amount that they were paid is very high when compared to being the main chefs in some restaurants.


    This is why, even though they knew that they would never get any recognition for their skills, they worked here. Everyone needs money and they are saving for Aaron''s awakening.


    Luck was not on their side as Aaron awakened a profession that is considered a support class profession. Even if that is so, he would need a lot of money for armor and such. So, it was not a waste of their life here.


    They felt fulfilled with their lives, but that changed on this day for much better than it was.


    ---


    "Thomas, Maya, the manager is calling for you. He wants you in his office, ASAP", Sara, the manager''s assistant came to the kitchen to call the couple.


    Thomas and Maya are surprised by the sudden call. The manager is not someone who meddles in the kitchen needlessly. He had a good image among the staff.


    The only reason he would call is either a good thing or a bad thing or else it would broadcast for everyone.


    "Do you know why he is calling us all of a sudden?" Maya asked Sara.


    "Sorry, I don''t know. All I know is that he was checking the news on his tablet when he suddenly gasped in surprise and a few minutes later he told me to fetch you both", replied Sara.


    The answer made the couple worry a little. If even the manager''s assistant doesn''t know, they have no idea what to make of it.


    A few minutes later they walked into the manager''s voice.


    "Ah, come in", the manager spoke with a smile on his face.


    The couple breathed in relief. There is a smile on his face and that means they did nothing wrong.


    "Don''t worry. I didn''t call you because you did something wrong", the manager said, "Did you check the news?"


    The couple didn''t understand what was happening, "No, sir", they both said.


    "Ah, now I understand why you are not over the clouds", he said, "You should really check the news", he said cryptically.


    Thomas and Maya didn''t understand why the manager was speaking like that but still, they checked the news and gasped in surprise seeing the top story of the day.


    The news was broadcasting to everyone the news about the academy exam. They already knew that part as their son was one of the candidates this year.


    What surprised them was the name of the top scorer of the alliance.


    It was their son.


    When they saw the name first, they thought that there was another Aaron Skyhart but when the picture appeared and the news showed their names as well, they understood that it was their son who became the top ranker in the entire alliance.


    It was a big surprise for them.


    They never thought that their son was so good.


    "Haha, it looks like he is truly your son. I was not sure at first but I knew that I had seen him in the restaurant a few times and when it was reported that he was from Rock City, I was sure that he was the same one that I remembered", the manager spoke.


    The couple seeing the news forgot where they were but his words brought them back.


    "We never thought that he was so good", the couple said surprisingly.


    Aaron though worked hard, he always returned home at night and that means he missed on a loty of oppurtunities and time by moving from home to dungeon everyday.


    Even if that was the case, he still ranked first and the reason behind their surprise but they didn''t say the words as they know what kind of a world this is.


    Though they are just chefs in a restaurant, they know that the world accepts geniuses and monsters as long as they have sufficient background. Talents who have no such background are bound to die sooner than later.


    So, it is always best to keep low-key and show strength when necessary.

 Chapter 17 - 17

    Chapter 17: Chapter 17Aaron returned home as quickly as possible, without alerting the students around him. When he saw that he was the first in the entire alliance, he was surprised.


    He knew that he hunted a lot of monsters inside that dungeon and expected to be at the top of his school and the city at max. The result of the exam was supposed to be a surprise for his parents.


    Every day that he went to the dungeon to level up, they were in fear if he would return unharmed or not.


    Aaron understood their fears. They are awakened but their profession is chef and they work in a restaurant. As a chef, they can level up by cooking food. So they never went out to kill the monsters to level up but they hear the news of combat awakeners who die on a regular basis.


    This was why they were afraid for Aaron''s Life. He is not a pure combat awakener. If he was, then they could trust in his combat power, but as a summoner-kind class, he is vulnerable without his summons to protect him.


    So, Aaron wanted to show his parents that there was no need to be afraid and that he could take care of himself.


    What''s the best way to do so?


    To reach the top of the school and city.


    This would be useful in two ways.


    One, it could help in alleviating his parent''s worries.


    Second, it would attract the best of the academies in the alliance to offer him the best contract. As a Death Mage, it would be very difficult to find resources that suit him. He would rather concentrate on levelling up as soon as possible, than wasting time on searching for those resources.


    With the 10xEXP bonus, he can level up faster but he is not an idiot to not see the signs of trouble out there. Though the alliance try to keep the news of the dangers that the world is facing, a secret, there are many slip-ups.


    Aaron may not understand what exactly is going on but he knew that he knew that the world is far more dangerous than what the alliance shows the public.


    His parents are not combat-awakened and they can''t protect themselves.


    The protection of his family falls on him. In order to do so, he has to reach higher ranks as soon as possible. With his talent, he was sure that he could reach a higher rank but not sure if that would happen before any disaster happened.


    If he fails to achieve that, his parents might pay the price for that. It would not be something that he can accept.


    Academies have access to many resources and one of them is the dungeons that the students can freely access. sea??h th§× nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Academies have a number of dungeons in their possession, and a top academy would have many more than an average academy. These dungeons are for the exclusive use of the students and staff of the academy.


    Yeah, dungeons either are under the control of the academies or the hunter''s guild. Of course, there are a few wild dungeons out there in the wild that no one controls but they are very dangerous.


    Many times there are robberies and murders to get the resources that the dungeon divers had got from the dungeon exploration. It is not something that people do when there is authority that prohibits such things but out in the wild, there are no laws.


    There is only one law, Might is Right. The strength of a person determines whether they can live or not, nothing else.


    There is nothing the alliance or the guild could do about this as the cost of maintenance would outweigh the profits a lot. So, they are not controlled by them, making them the best places for bandits and alike.


    ---


    Anyway, Aaron seeing his true rank was surprised and he knew that he might not return home if he didn''t skip as soon as possible.


    Many would want interviews or tips about how to reach the top. He is not going to waste his time doing those unnecessary things. He is tired for the day and wants to rest for the night.


    Since the results came today, the academies will come tomorrow morning. I mean, they would send some agent to recruit him to their academy, with some benefits attached to joining them.


    He has to deal with them tomorrow and that is not something that he can decide on tired mind. He needs to be at 100% capacity tomorrow.


    The decisions that he had to make tomorrow would decide his future. That is no small matter. Depending on how tomorrow goes, his life will be decided. More than that, his parents'' lives would be decided.


    In such an unsafe world, he needs to be strong enough and wealthy enough to protect his parents properly. Even if he was strong enough, he couldn''t protect them 24X7.


    The best way was to hire bodyguards but people can''t be brought. So the best way is to buy some defence artefacts that can protect them from any damage. Also, some healing items that can help them survive if by chance they are injured in any way.


    When he is around, he can protect them but he has his own life and would not be with them all the time. So, these precautions had to be taken for their protection.


    Since he decided to avoid the crowds, he took the long way to return home. He wore a cap to cover his face a bit so that people might not recognize him quickly.


    It took a lot longer than he anticipated before he returned home.


    ---


    When he returned home, the first thing that he felt was the smell coming from the kitchen.


    "Why am I smelling Carrik Fry?" he muttered to himself.


    He was able to distinguish the smell because it was his favourite food. It is a fry made from Carrik Fish, that is local to Rock City.


    It was then he saw his father coming out of the kitchen, wearing his usual attire as a chef, "Go wash up. Your mother and I are making your favourite".


    It doesn''t take a genius to know what was happening. They should have heard about the exam results and the reason why they had returned before they usually did and were preparing his favourite food.

 Chapter 18 - 18

    Chapter 18: Chapter 18Aaron enjoyed the night along with his parents, eating his favourite food and reminiscing about some good memories that they created.


    In a world like this, it is not easy to appreciate life and make good memories. Luckily for Aaron, his parents do know how to appreciate life.


    As awakeners, they know that people tend to die a lot in this world. This is why people tend to have multiple children but they were not so lucky. Maya lost her ability to give birth after Aaron. So, he is their only child for this life. sea??h th§× nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Even if it was so, they didn''t feel bad. They made sure to put all their efforts into Aaron and they were happy that all their efforts were going to bear fruit soon enough.


    As Aaron was able to reach the top rank in the entire alliance, they were promoted.


    Yeah, till now, they were just assistants to other chefs but now they would have their own assistants. This was done by the manager when he called them over after he saw that Aaron was the top ranker.


    He promoted them there and then. The manager was trying to tie Aaron with the restaurant. By tying Aaron who would achieve a lot in the future, he can ride his coattails and rise above what he is now.


    With this promotion, there is a substantial rise in Thomas and Maya''s income. Not just that, this would increase their fame and levels as well.


    Unlike Chef assistants, Chefs are trained separately and more focus is concentrated on them.


    Like combat professionals had to kill to level up, Chefs can level up by cooking. As Thomas and Maya are not chefs, their levelling process was too slow. The reason behind that was that there were too many chefs in the world.


    Yeah, unlike combat professionals who go out of the protection boundaries of cities or towns, chefs don''t do that. It is not safe out there. It might be a monster or another human who got greedy, which may end up with them losing their lives.


    It is true for other life professionals as well.


    Unless there was a massacre caused by an attack on the city or town, life professionals rarely die.


    Of course, there is one thing that differentiates a combat and life professional and that is the lifespan.


    If you rank up, then you can live longer than normal but life professionals rank up too slowly. So, even though they don''t die quickly, they don''t live for too long if they can''t rank up at least a few times.


    The issue was, that though combat professionals rank up a lot, many end up dead in the hands of enemies. So, the actual lifespan does not matter much in many cases. Very few combat professionals would even reach their limit and die of natural causes.


    Life professionals have limited lifespans as they don''t progress faster but they live fully, while combat professionals have longer lifespans but most die before the limit.


    It''s Ironic, to say the least.


    ---


    After having a sumptuous dinner, he spent some time with his parents. Though the three tried to spend as much time as possible with each other, the chances of doing so were very limited.


    They had jobs that usually kept them late into the night. if not for their fear of what could happen to Aaton in the dungeons that he kept visiting every day after awakening, they would usually return late.


    Now that the exam is over, he would soon head to an academy that gives him the best chance at improving himself. Once he leaves, it may be after a year or maybe more than that before they would be able to meet again.


    So, Aaron decided to make use of the little time that he had before the start of the academy and that made him go to bed later than usual.


    ---


    Aaron slept like a baby. No, that would be inaccurate as babies tend to wake up in the middle of the night. No, he slept for more than usual. He woke up late.


    He felt that he deserved it. He was working his ass off all these years and also he slept late last night and that''s why he woke up late.


    When he checked his mobile for time, he saw that he got various messages from people that he knew and also from ones that he didn''t.


    He is part of the school chat, which he ignored most of the time but it was where notifications were posted by the teacher. So, though he rarely interacted with the group, he would read the messages posted there.


    There are a lot of students in the group, but he didn''t interact with many of them and they didn''t interact with him either.


    Even if that was the case before, it is not so now. With his qualification as the top-ranker in the alliance, he now stands far above them. So even making a tiny bond with him might help them in the future and the reason why the students flooded the group with messages.


    As Aaron was enjoying last night with his parents, he turned off notifications and forgot to check the messages, which he is doing so now.


    It was not as if he was interested in these congratulatory messages but he wanted to know about the academies that would come today.


    After checking for a while in reverse, he finally found a message from the school management. The agents from the academies would arrive at 9 A.M. and it was advised to be at school by that time.


    It was not just for him but for all students.


    There was a separate message intended for him and that was to directly meet the principal by 8 A.M.


    "Oh shit, it''s already 7 A.M", Aaron shouted as he threw away the mobile and hurried to get ready before that.


    He usually wakes by 5 A.M. every day but he felt that he deserved a lazy day after working hard all these days.


    Who knew it was the only day that he actually needed to wake up early?

 Chapter 19 - 19

    Chapter 19: Chapter 19Aaron got ready quickly and had a light breakfast before he bolted out of the house. He informed his parents about the meeting with the agents from the academies. So they too helped him by preparing breakfast first for him.


    The school is not that far away from his house. The only reason why he took so long to reach the house the previous day was because he wanted to avoid the attention of the locals.


    Even though he is the top ranker of the entire alliance, it''s not like they can wait for him for an entire evening. So he kind of toured the city a bit before he returned home.


    By spending time out more, there is a chance that he would be recognized by more who saw the news but he put a cap on his head, making it not easy to identify as people wouldn''t normally stare at strangers for no reason.


    Even with a cap covering his face partially, the ones that are familiar with him would easily identify him. So, he returned just before dark, hoping that whoever was at his house would leave and if there were any near the building, his face would be obscured and they wouldn''t identify him easily.


    All he needed was a few minutes and he could enter his house before anyone could identify him. The plan worked but since he didn''t appear last evening, if they saw him in the morning there was a high chance that they would crowd him.


    Luckily, it''s still early in the morning and everyone in the community is either in bed or preparing for their day. There were not many on the street and he freely left the community towards his school without worrying about others stopping him, making him late for the appointment.


    To come late to the appointment with the agents from the academies, would leave a bad taste in their mouths and in-turn could turn out problematic in his future.


    ---


    Aaron directly went to the principal''s office as it was detailed in that message to arrive there by 8 A.M. and it is exactly that time.


    Knock! Knock!


    He can''t barge into the principal''s office. He is after all the head of a school and should be given respect, even though Aaron has technically graduated from the school and has no more ties with it.


    Moreover, from what Aaron knew, the principal is a Rank-4 Fire Mage, approaching Rank-5. Maybe he is even Rank-5 but that was never made public. S~ea??h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Come in", a calm voice came from the inside.


    Aaron entered the room and immediately felt a lot of gazes on him. He looked around and saw five people seated with the principal. They are all in their middle ages or at least appear so.


    This is one of the perks of ranking up. The life span increases and if you rank up early, you can preserve the looks of your youth for a long time.


    Aaron immediately understood that they were the agents who came here to recruit him and his fellow batchmates.


    "Ah, Aaron right on time", the principal spoke, "These fellows are from the top five academies here to recruit you. Speak with them and decide what academy would you be willing to attend".


    Aaron nodded.


    "Okay, ladies and gentlemen, speak one by one and give your terms to the boy. Whatever he decides would be final. No tricks", the principal warned the agents.


    They gulped at the warning.


    Aaron was surprised at the principal warning them. Normally, a principal of a school from a small city like Rock City would be lesser in stature when compared to people from the academies but that wasn''t the case here.


    Aaron wasn''t sure about the reason but he had his doubts.


    The most probable ones are that the principal is of higher rank than them and can easily squat them or since Aaron is the top student, no one wants to be overbearing and influence his decision.


    If such a thing happens, the four other academies that lost their chance to get him would unite and push the academy that influenced Aaron to join him.


    With the four academies backing him, the principal would be in a higher position than these agents. Now, every agent has the fear that if they push too much, the other four will back up the principal and may push them down.


    No one wants to risk that as that scenario would not only make them lose a valuable student but also bring a bad name to the academy.


    What would the academ\y do in such a scenario?


    Push all the blame onto the agent that went to recruit the student and punish him properly to maintain their name. It would be a lose-now and lose-again situation. No one wants that to happen.


    If the boy was just top of the school or city, then even if they used certain underhanded schemes to make the students join them, as long as they didn''t cross a line, there would be no backlash.


    The problem was that the student was at the top of the alliance this year.


    Everything that would happen with this recruitment would definitely make it into the news channel or newspaper, which would be viewed globally. It would be pretty problematic.


    So, no one would dare to cross the line. No, they would not even be near the line at all.


    ---


    "Okay, I''ll start then", a stern-looking man spoke first.


    The first impression may be the best impression but the other four didn''t care. They each wanted to give the best conditions to Aaron but also save some resources as that would increase their bonus.


    So the best way to do that would be to speak last as they would know the benefits that others proposed and can offer better benefits.


    The principal looked at the other four and smiled, "Okay, since Lt. Aldren spoke that he would go first, let''s leave them alone for five minutes", he said to others before turning to Lt. Aldren, "Good luck".


    he stood up and started to walk out of the room.


    The smile on the other four froze but they had no choice but to follow the principal out and that''s what they did.

 Chapter 20 - 20

    Chapter 20: Chapter 20"Hello, I am First Lieutenant James Aldren", the stern-looking man introduced himself to Aaron.


    "Nice to meet you sir", Aaron greeted the man.


    Lt. Aldren smiled, "I won''t beat around the bush. As you can guess, I am from the Military Academy, and you should know that everything has to be earned in the military."


    "As you are the top ranker, you would be given an S Rank contract regarding resources and the rank of Private First Class. No one else would be given such rank this year. Others would only be Private Second Class and below".


    "Of course, with your rank, you don''t need to do certain tasks, but you have to do tasks that a PFC should. Also, after a month, other first-year students can challenge you for your rank and resources. Only during the first month can you have ownership over them. After that, if you can''t win the duels, then those would be transferred to the winner".


    "Of course, you can win them back but have to wait for a month, unless someone else beats the winner before you. Then that would mean, you have to wait for another month".


    "Say what? They can challenge and take my resources, which I earned with my strength. What kind of teaching is this? Moreover, they are only giving me S Rank contract. I understand that I am a Death Mage and the resources are rare. So, I can understand that part but I have to fight to protect my meagre resources within a month, poppycock", Aaron thought in his mind.


    Those are his thoughts but he can''t say that. Saying those words might anger the man, which might not be a good thing.


    "Let''s see what others offer. Even though I have not heard their offers, I am sure that they would give me better terms than this. Who would want to fight endlessly? I am not some battle junkie. Sure, I would fight to protect myself. I would never back down in such a scenario nor where I can gain something but these battles would be to protect what I already have".


    "It is highly unlikely that I would join the Military Academy. It is not only problematic, but once we graduate, we have to join the military. If I do that, then there would be no freedom for me. That won''t do".


    "Thank you for your offer, sir. I need to know what others are offering before I accept your offer", Aaron said with a smile, hiding his disdain for the military''s lack of support for him.


    The military after all controls a lot of dungeons and they should have pretty good resource points. They only offered S Rank contract worth of resources and that too he had to defend them anytime, anywhere.


    If he only concentrates on that, then he won''t be able to concentrate on improving himself.


    Even though he has a powerful talent, he needs to still hunt monsters to level up. Sure those duels would help him grow his skills but compared with his talent, that is almost negligible.


    There is no need for him to train with others, which is very important to others to save Skill Points. Unlike them, he can waste a lot of points on skills, even when the skills are still at Rank-0.


    "Good", Lt. Aldren smiled and stood up to leave the room.


    ---


    One by one the recruiters came and offered their terms. Since they have no idea what the previous one offered, they can only offer using their imagination.


    When the recruiters were sent here, the academies would give them a range within which they could offer to the students. They can''t cross the boundaries or they might end up in trouble.


    The other recruiters offered him a bit better than the lower-end to mid-level within that boundary.


    The offers he got from the five are two S-, two S and one S+ Rank contract.


    Within these five, the best would be S+ but that was only on the surface. Out of these five, four offered just resources but one of them gave specific resources but they only offered him an S Rank contract. S§×ar?h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The academy that offered him these specific resources was the Dusk Academy.


    This academy specializes in dark professions and also death-related ones, unlike other academies. Yeah, there are various necromancers present in the academy, which would help Aaron.


    This was something he researched about before and he knew that he would attend this academy 90% before the terms were given. Unless the offer they gave was bad, he thought to go to this academy.


    Though the Dusk Academy agent didn''t offer the best contract offer, she didn''t give him the worst either.


    He is the top ranker of the alliance for good sake and two academies offered him an S- contract. They are not serious at all about him. They only offered him to look good on the outside.


    The only one that offered him an S+ contract is Luminar Academy.


    Why they offered such a contract he has no idea, as Luminar Academy is good at Light professions, which is kind of opposite to Death and they would limit each other.


    Whatever their purpose was, Aaron didn''t care though he had a weird feeling about their offer. It has nothing to do with him as he would be going to the Dusk Academy. Yeah, he decided to go there.


    After all, the Dusk Academy would be the best place to improve himself faster.


    ---


    The principal and the recruiters sat beside Aaron waiting for his reply.


    "Thank you, everyone, for your offers", Aaron spoke, "Don''t take it the wrong way when I say the name of the academy that I selected as I felt it would be the best place that I can thrive and improve faster".


    Everyone nodded. Though four of these people would lose their bonus for not getting the top ranker, there is nothing to do. They can''t carve him into five pieces and take one for each.


    "I have decided to attend the Dusk Academy", Aaron said.


    When he spoke those words, Aaron only heard two people clapping and they were his principal and the recruiter from the Dusk Academy. The others congratulated the female agent who won this with a sad look.


    "Good luck to you boy", the four recruiters said and left after that.


    Though they lost this boy, there were other prospective seeds to recruit that were next to him in ranks, who they were sure would one day surpass this boy. So they weren''t that saddened.

 Chapter 21 - 21

    Chapter 21: Chapter 21Alicia, the recruiter who came to get the top student of the alliance is very happy with the outcome. She believed that he should be given an S+ rank contract but the academy could only give in at most an S rank contract.


    It was not like the academy officials were trying to be a miser. It was quite the opposite.


    Death-related resources are very rare and offering Aaron an S Rank contract can be considered generous.


    Aaron doesn''t know that but he knew that Death realated resources are not easy to get. He thought that academies shouldn''t have such a problem as there are many powerhouses residing in the top academies.


    If it was an lower rated academy then they couldn''t get their hands on rare items but the top five shouldn''t have that problem. So, Aaron was not actually satisfied with the contract but there was nothing he could do about that.


    The Luminar Academy offered him an S+ Rank contract, but he had a weird feeling about that. Moreover, Dusk Academy should have professors who are themselves related to Death professions.


    So, even though the resources offered are a bit low, Aaron accepted the Dusk Academy.


    ---


    "Here is the contract", Alicia gave Aaron a form to sign.


    After the other four left, Alicia took out a pre-prepared contract form. There are a few details that needed to be filled in, which she did and passed onto Aaron to sign.


    Aaron read each and everything that was printed in the contract twice to be sure. After all, once he signs the contract, there is no way to change it. The parties that signed the contract have to follow as per the contract.


    After seeing that there was nothing wrong, only then did he sign the contract.


    "Congrats, from now on you are a student of the Dusk Academy" Alicia spoke as she took out a token from her storage bag and pressed it onto the contract before muttering some words. Sear?h the N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The token glowed for a second before dimming.


    "This token is proof that you were accepted into the Dusk Academy. The year starts in two weeks. Be there before that and when you arrive at the academy, this token will be the proof that you were accepted into the academy", she handed him the token.


    "You would be given a proper ID after you arrive at the academy. Make sure to bring this token or else you won''t be admitted into the academy", Alicia spoke as stood up.


    "Now you excuse me, I have other places to go and recruit others. Otherwise, they would be taken away by those old fogies. See you later at the academy and thank you principal for letting us use your name".


    "No need to thank me. It is what I should do", the principal shook her hand before showing out.


    Aaron started to follow her out too as he had nothing else to do but the principal stopped him to wait for a minute in the room and he stayed back.


    The principal returned a minute later, "Sit boy. Originally I wanted to speak with you yesterday but you were nowhere to be found".


    Aaron was confused about the reason why the principal wanted to meet him but it only took a second to understand the reason. He is the top student of the alliance this year and that is a great achievement.


    It is not something that can be achieved by anybody. So, the principal wanted to meet him shouldn''t be a surprise.


    "You brought great fame to the school. We are one of many schools from a Tier-1 city. No higher-ups would even know our city, much less a small school like us but now all top officials heard about the school".


    "You put us on the map and me being the principal while it happened, my name would be forever engraved into the history of this school and even into the city''s most important history facts".


    "If you were from a fancy school in Tier-4 or Tier-5 cities, then you would have been showered with riches that you couldn''t imagine but to attend such schools, you had to be rich and the rewards wouldn''t be of much surprise to you".


    "Anyway, the school has decided to award you. This is from school", the principal said a he took out a magic necklace before me.


    Aaron was surprised to see a magic necklace. Accessories like these are very and they don''t usually drop from any common monsters in the dungeons. Even if you identify the monster, the drop rate is very low.


    So, only a professional can usually make them but when compared to dungeon drop with the one made by a professional, the dungeon drop would have better perks.


    Even though that is the case, most accessories are made by professionals as the drops are very rare and with better perks, they cost a lot more.


    "This was a drop from a dungeon, not a professionally made", the principal dropped a bomb on Aaron.


    Aaron immediately checked the perks.


    --


    Name: Magic Necklace


    Perk: 5% Mana Regeneration/minute


    Restriction: Level 10


    --


    Aaron was very happy with the perks.


    There is a restriction. It indicates what the user level should be at minimum to use the item. Since it was mentioned to be level 10, and Aaron has already reached level 15, he can freely use it.


    The reason that made Aaron happy was the 5% Mana Regeneration per minute.


    Percentage recovery items are very valuable and costly. Though it was very low now, when he increased the mana levels to a higher level, the number would be huge even though it was only 5%.


    For now, his mana is 600 and that means he could regenerate 30 mana per minute but when that level reaches 1000, it would be 50 per minute and at higher stages it would be even more.


    "Thank you sir'', Aaron bowed to the principal.


    "Haha, it is what we should do after what you achieved. Anyway, good luck with your future", the princiapal blessed him.


    Now that everything is done, Aaron left the school.


    Aaron returned home happy and he couldn''t wait to share the good news with his family as soon as possible.

 Chapter 22 - 22

    Chapter 22: Chapter 22After signing the contract, Aaron returned home to share the good news but he forgot that there would be no one at this time.


    His parents have work to do. As chefs, their work should start much later but they were only recently promoted, just yesterday. So, they are needed in the restaurant before the usual time.


    Though the manager of the restaurant promoted them to gain some points with Aaron, he is not someone who would want the standards of the restaurant to fall.


    For now, they are in training period as chefs. There is not much difference between chefs and their assistants but this is not some local cheap restaurant. This establishment is famous for its quality of food.


    No matter what, the manager can''t let damage that.


    So, even though they are chefs on paper, they won''t be actual chefs until they prove themselves.


    Though they are yet to be chefs, because of Aaron, the path to being chefs has opened to them. As long as they prove that they are good, they can actually become chefs and that means, their levelling speed will increase.


    ---


    Seeing that no one was around, Aaron decided to make the best use of the day.


    He went to the school by 8 in the morning. The discussions and signing of the contract were completed by 9:30 and now it''s almost 10.


    His parents won''t be home before at least 10 in the night. Sometimes they would arrive even later than that.


    Until then, there was nothing else to do for him.


    "Might as well go to the dungeon to level up. I am still very far away from ranking up. It would be best if I could rank up before I reach the academy", Aaron thought.


    After a moment, it was decided that he would use the remaining time here in Rock City to level up as fast as possible. Before the two-week deadline, he has to leave the city for the academy.


    Dusk Academy was located near Dusk City, which is a Tier-5 city. sea??h th§× nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Though Tier-5 cities have a lot of dungeons and their rankings were even higher than the ones here in Rock City, the number of hunters is also higher.


    If you see clearly, there would be a lot of hunters visiting the lower-ranking dungeons. This was because many hunters couldn''t reach higher ranks and had to settle for lesser dungeons for their livelihood.


    Visiting the lower-rank dungeons for loot and selling would be their daily activity. It was common in Rock City.


    It is something that should also happen in Dusk City and that means lower-ranking dungeons have longer queues. It is quite a waste of time for someone who would not stay in the dungeon for days.


    If Aaron was someone who stayed the nights in there, then facing such time eating queues would not be of much problem but to alleviate his parents'' worries, he returned home at night.


    Even after he leaves for the academy, he is sure that they will be worried about him and he will have to speak to them every night to alleviate their fears.


    Communicators don''t work in dungeons. One has to be outside for them to work. So he has to leave the dungeon every day. It is the only way.


    With so many skeletons, if he places them as his guards, there would be nothing that can harm him now, but would his parents worry less even with such assurances? No, he actually tried that before and there was no change.


    Though they might not speak about that, he could clearly see the tension in their faces when he left to hunt in the morning and the relief when they saw him return without any accidents.


    So, even after he left for the academy, he would have no other choice but to enter and leave dungeons on a daily basis.


    "Wait, speaking of Mom and Dad, if they come back before I return, they would be worried. They usually won''t be before 10 in the night and most of the time much later than that. So as long as he was home by 8, everything would be good".


    "Hmm, By chance if they are back before I arrive...It''s better if I leave a note", Aaron thought out loud.


    Since he was in his own home, no one is there to judge him as some nutcase.


    Deciding that it''s best to leave a note, Aaron wrote a stick page and attached that to the fridge, so that it can be easily spotted.


    After that, Aaron went out to hunt once again. To make sure he wouldn''t waste much time in the future, he had to level up and maybe even rank up before he started at the academy.


    One might be wondering why Aaron is worrying about the city dungeons, while the academy itself has dungeons of their own. They would have fewer queues than the ones in the city.


    The people in the city are old and settled. They are not someone who would take risks but the students are young and they are someone that would take risks a lot.


    He shouldn''t waste much time there as the queues wouldn''t be long but there is something that made Aaron seek out the dungeons in the city.


    It was his Super Growth talent.


    With its help, his experience gains are 10 times faster. So, he would level up faster than anyone else.


    On one hand that appears to be fantastic but that is not the entire case. Until now, as he was still on the lower end of the spectrum, no one cared much about him.


    Now, he is the star of the alliance.


    He is the top-ranked in the academy exams, even with his Death Mage profession. If one says that no one is watching him, then they would be wrong.


    While in the academy, he was sure that the academy higher-ups would keep an eye on him and thereby his growth.


    Outside though, that would be tough and he can mix up the reasons for his growth, making his talent less visible to others. There is a chance that someone might see that there is something wrong but he has a certain shield that covers him.


    Death Mage.


    In the eyes of society, death professionals are not good. There are no high-ranking ones to date. So, even if he was attractive at this stage, they wouldn''t pay too much attention to him as they would think that his growth would stop quickly.


    Aaron was banking on that to not let anyone think that he was someone special. It is kind of a gamble but that is something he is forced to play.

 Chapter 23 - 23

    Chapter 23: Chapter 23Mist City...


    Deep in the southern parts lies a city covered with mist throughout the year. The name the locals gave was Mist City. Whether that was the original name or not, it was what the world came to know as the name of the city after magic appeared in this world and that is now its name.


    Back then, the city was said to be just a town but later it became important because of its strategic position.


    This world is full of monsters but most would only see land monsters and flying monsters when go deep into the wilds but there are other monsters that are more numerous and powerful than these two categories.


    They are the sea monsters.


    Unlike land or flying monsters which share territories with humans, sea monsters don''t. Moreover, the resources available are more abundant than that on the surface.


    Unlike the land and flying monsters which are in danger from humans every day, that was not the case with sea monsters.


    Humans can''t go into the depths of the sea and kill young monsters or tame them if they like them. So, every sea monster that humans face would have some strength.


    This makes sea monsters pretty powerful overall.


    ---


    If they are safe in the deep sea and have abundant resources, why would they invade the surface lands?


    Of course, even if there are abundant resources in the sea, that doesn''t mean infinite. The number of monsters that it can provide resources to is limited, more than land but limited to a number.


    So, once every few years, there would be sea monster tides.


    Unlike land monster tides, these couldn''t be easily seen. So sea and coastal areas are considered as areas of danger but one can''t let them go.


    The monster tide from the sea would only happen after ten years or so.


    During this time, what the travellers would face would be low-ranking sea monsters. They may not easily fall as they are in their domain, the sea but they would to powerful humans. These monsters can be eaten and that means a source of income for many people.


    This is why, even though seas are dangerous, many would go out into the sea to find those monsters to hunt.


    If a monster tide happens while they are at sea, then they will die miserably. This is why travelling into the sea is dangerous but the income also is very high. For the sake of settling down comfortably, many do venture out there.


    ---


    Mist City is covered with mist throughout the year. This mist not only covers the city and its surroundings on land but also extends into the sea.


    Yeah, it covers the city''s port too.


    For some unknown reason, the monsters hate this mist and they would never enter the mist. Even during monster tides, those mindless sea monsters wouldn''t enter the mist.


    The mist that makes life difficult for the people is also a safety net for them from monsters. So, it became a strategic place for the alliance.


    Moreover, over 10% of the sea products come from this place, making it one of the richest places in the human territories.


    The monsters won''t enter the mist and there are a lot of sea products that originate from here. So, the city is one of the safest areas and that makes it the costliest place to live.


    Not anyone can buy land here. Most of the land was under the control of locals and to settle there, one had to pay a lot to them.


    When it was discovered that the mist that used to give them headaches, would bar the entry of the monsters, the locals understood the true value of the mist.


    When the sea monsters come, their port can give shelter to the ships from getting damaged. The lands that they lived in also became valuable. No one here is an idiot.


    Instead of selling the land, they built houses and shops. They rented them to others, and by that earn a lot every month. It is a good source of stable income.


    Many would come here either to settle for a peaceful life or in search of the sea products, while keeping the casualties to a minimum, unlike other sea cities. So, the city would always be full of people.


    ---


    In the grand hall of the mayor''s office, a young boy can be seen seated along with six men and women.


    This young boy''s name is Aiden Cross, son of the mayor of Mist City, Jacob Cross. They both are here along with five recruiters who came from the top five academies to recruit Aiden.


    Aiden ranked second in the academy exam, in the entire alliance. He stands next to Aaron. If one takes Mary into account, his position would be third right after Mary and Aaron in this batch.


    "So, what are your offers for my boy", Jacob spoke in an arrogant manner.


    Though that was the case, none spoke against him. As the mayor of one of the richest cities, he has the strength to be arrogant.


    Before Jacob, his father was the mayor and after Jacob, Aiden would be the mayor. Even though the alliance doesn''t hand out mayorship to descendants of the previous mayors in other cities, that is not the case with Mist City.


    When they joined the alliance, it was stipulated that only descendants of the then-mayor could become the mayor of the city. As long as his line is alive, no one could be the mayor.


    The then-mayor understood the power of being mayor of Mist City very much and he secured it for his descendants, making sure that his family would prosper.


    There was nothing the higher-ups could do. The Mist City was very safe for people to settle and also the sea resources that they could supply were very high. So, at that time, they accepted and to this day, it continues.


    Being from a family that held the power in Mist City, the Cross family is very powerful.


    So, the recruiters can''t say anything but one by one, they gave him the best offers that their academies could offer to the father and son duo. S§×ar?h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

 Chapter 24 - 24

    Chapter 24: Chapter 24Jacob and Aiden listened to the offers from the mouths of the five recruiters, who are representing the top five academies.


    They all offered him an S Rank Contract, except the Dusk Academy. They only offered him an S- Rank Contract.


    Aiden''s Profession was after all Heavy Paladin, an S-Rank Class, but it is related to Light, which is quite the opposite of the Dusk Academy.


    Though they love to have an S-Rank professional in their academy, they know that they can''t offer him the best because of the class affinity. So, they only offered an S- Rank contract to give the power family of Mist City some face and nothing more.


    After the offers were given, the five eagerly waited for a response. Well, four of them waited but the other waited too but not as eager as the others and that one is from Dusk Academy.


    There is no way that the boy would choose his academy and that is something he knew. The boy has to be dumb to choose Dusk Academy, which is famous for Dark and Death professionals.


    ---


    "I have two questions before I choose the academy?" Aiden spoke after a while.


    "What do you want to know?" the recruiters spoke in unison.


    "First, which academy did that girl, the one who awakened the SS-Rank Class join?" Aiden asked them.


    When they heard the question, these recruiters were terrified. They weren''t terrified of Aiden or his father. No, they were afraid of the human gods.


    One of the human gods, Lady Serena, has visited the girl and accepted the girl as her disciple. She warned everyone from the five academies, not to ever speak any detail about her, ever.


    The recruiters who came here are professors themselves in the academies. Professors go out personally only for the top ten because these top ten have the best chances of reaching the top of the human world.


    The professors that came here are at the top of the academies, it made it easy for them to know details that others wouldn''t easily come across like Lady Serna taking the girl Mary as her disciple but per Lady Serena''s orders, no know can spread the news.


    If they did, she never specified the punishment but they can easily understand what the consequences for that would be.


    "Sorry boy, we can''t answer that question. Since she is someone who can become a god, there are a lot of restrictions regarding her and that''s all that we can share", the recruiters spoke.


    Aiden frowned at the answer. He wanted to know where the SS-Rank awakener was and wanted to attend that academy.


    Since she was bound to rise, he wanted to make a relationship with her. As an S-Rank awakener and second rank in the academy exams, there is no one worthy other than himself to become the girl''s partner.


    The first ranker in the exam, Aiden didn''t think much about him. He already enquired and knew that the boy who was above him was a Death Mage.


    Sure he has some potential, if compared to other Death Professionals but that was it. He may be at the top now and may continue for some time, but sooner or later, Aiden believed that position would be his.


    So, in his mind, he is the best partner for Mary.


    The problem was they didn''t know each other at all. The best case to know each other was to join the same academy but he couldn''t get the answer.


    Well, he knew that the girl should have joined one of the three. For the other two, the chances are low.


    The class she awakened is Angel of Justice, it is a Light Affinity class.


    So, she could have joined Luminar Academy but as she is an SS-Rank awakener, she could have joined Military Academy or the Capital Academy, which are directly under the Alliance officials.


    Though he didn''t get the answer, he knew that he couldn''t be as arrogant with these recruiters as he used to be with others. These ones are professors at the top level in their academies. If he makes a bad impression, then unless he shows that he is the best of all, these professors will definitely make life miserable after he enters the academy.


    So, he had to accept the answer for now. He can worry about the possible relationship with a future god, later on.


    "Okay, what about the top ranker in the exam? What was his name, which academy did he join?" Aiden asked them.


    The recruiters frowned at the question, except for one.


    The question before terrified them but they gave enough face to the mayor and his son but now he is asking personal details of others.


    It is a taboo to spread details of others without their consent. There are many enemies out there, who want to take out human talents before they can truly rise.


    So, they can''t spread news about the possible future human pillars. Sear?h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "He joined the Dusk Academy", one of the recruiters spoke, breaking the silence.


    The other four were shocked when they heard those words. Three of them thought that the Dusk Academy professor spoke those words to attract Aiden but a second later, they knew that the voice was not the one from Dusk Academy.


    The one who spoke was from Luminar Academy.


    Aiden was Light light-based professional. So why would he spill something like that, something that can send Aiden to another academy?


    They couldn''t understand the reason.


    The one from Luminar continued to speak again, "Boy, if you are thinking that joining the same academy as that Death Mage would give you chances to show that the first rank should have been yours, then you are dead wrong".


    "Dusk Academy has no resources for you. If you go there, you will only delay your growth. No matter how weak Death Mage would be, as you wouldn''t grow to wither, you would be always ranked after him, after all that academy is for professionals like him".


    "What''s worse is that you would not be second rank, it would be even worse than before. Don''t be stupid. Join Luminar Academy, where you can get the best Light-based resources and added to that, every four years, there is an event where students from all top five academies fight each other".


    "It will be in two years from now. There you can show that you are the best of this generation".


    Three of the recruiters cursed him for using such a tactic but what he said was true.


    The one from the Dusk Academy doesn''t know what to say. Aaron joining the Dusk Academy was supposed to be not leaked. In fact, no one can leak student data whatever that was but the one from Luminar broke that but he can''t do anything about that.


    He could only wait till he returned to the academy and report this to the Headmaster.

 Chapter 25 - 25

    Chapter 25: Chapter 25Aiden went silent for a moment.


    What the recruiter from the Luminar Academy said was true. As someone who''s class is related to Light Affinity, the choices would be between the three, Luminar, Capital and Military academies.


    The other two, he shouldn''t even consider them as joining them would only pull him back. He was angry for losing somone who only awakened a Death Profession but if he makes the wrong choice of academy here, he would drop from second to lower ranks, instead of reaching the top.


    So, only by choosing the best academy for his growth, can he show the world that he is the genius of the academy one should remember, not the other one.


    Moreover, as he propelled higher faster, he would come in contact with Mary one day or another.


    Though the five gods are not ones known to socialize with others, they do need someone to act as a connection and that person would be as famous and powerful as the human gods themselves.


    By growing up to that point, he would certainly would get the attention of the gods and Mary would most likely choose him as a connection point with the alliance one day.


    A King needs Generals.


    A general need commanders and so on.


    Though he may not become a king, he would be a general of the soon-to-be Queen.


    After thinking for a while, Aiden spoke again, "I choose to join Luminar Academy".


    As soon as Aiden spoke those words, a smile crept on to the recruiter from Luminar Academy, while three of them were cursing him in their hearts. The one from the Dusk Academy didn''t feel much about that, for he knew what the response would be from the start, the boy would not join their academy unless he had a screw loose.


    Aiden didn''t make the decision to join the Luminar Academy, just because the recruiter gave him the answer and guidance on how to choose the academy to join.


    He chose it because Aiden already knew that Luminar was the best place for Light-based professions. They have the best resources even more than what the other four combined would have when only the Light-based resources are compared.


    Only with the academy''s support would he have better chances of growing up faster and becoming one of the strongest.


    "Then we take our leave", the recruiters from the other four got up. sea??h th§× nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    They said their goodbyes to the mayor and left the city. There is nothing else to do here but to waste their time.


    Once the other four left, the recruiter from Luminar started the registration process as fast as he could.


    Recruiting a top student would give him a bonus and the only reason why the professors would even go out to recruit students.


    Normally that would be done by agents, who are not professors but do work for the academy in different fields when the recruitment process is over. They too get bonuses for recruiting more students to the academy.


    The more and the better they are, the more bonuses that the agents would get.


    The only reason why professors get involved with top-rankers is to access them and see if they are fit to be selected as their disciples later on. The bonuses are good but their ultimate goal is to see if they can get personal disciples.


    Of course, not everyone would be interested in selecting students as their disciples. So, not every time these top rankers get visited by professors but agents who usually recruit normal geniuses.


    ---


    Aaron after leaving his house soon entered a dungeon to level up again. He last levelled up yesterday while taking the exam and was able to reach level 15.


    The academy starts in two weeks and if he can reach level 20 and rank up before that, he would have much head start over others and that would be a bonus for him as this head start would be useful to leave others behind, far behind, as quickly as possible.


    For Aaron, there is only one goal and that is to take care of his parents and protect them from the dangers out there. He can only do that if he is strong himself or else they would be all dead meat when monster tides occur.


    Though the higher-ups kept many details from the public, they knew that the world was not safe but the small degree of safety they were experiencing was also not true.


    Though Aaron may not know that, he knew that to survive in this world, strength is all that matters, nothing else. So he needed to level up as fast as possible.


    The only issue was that now the newbie time was over and to enter the dungeons, he had to pay, which he did as he saved a lot from the loot he sold.


    "Now, let''s have a look at my status before I start the massacre", Aaron mused to himself.


    "Status"


    --


    Name: Aaron Skyhart


    Age: 18


    Class/Profession: Death Mage, S-Rank


    Rank: 0


    Level: 15


    Talent: Super Growth (SS-Rank) (Unique)


    Vitality: 60


    Strength: 60


    Stamina: 60


    Agility: 60


    Intelligence: 65


    Wisdom: 65


    Health: 600


    Mana: 650


    Skills/Spells: Summon Undead (40/40) (Rank 5); Death Lash (Rank 3); Sprint (Rank 3); Death''s Disguise (Rank 0);


    Free Status Points: 492


    Skill Points: 261


    --


    "They look good for a low-ranking dungeon but having better status would make it easier to clear the dungeon faster and that would mean I can clear the dungeon again and again, which would help me level up faster", Aaron thought to himself for a while.


    Immediately he took action. It has been almost a day since he improved his attributes and now he was in control of his body well enough. So, he can now improve them and also his skills too.


    --


    Vitality: 60 >> 70


    Strength: 60 >> 70


    Stamina: 60 >> 70


    Agility: 60 >> 70


    Intelligence: 65 >> 80


    Wisdom: 65 >> 80


    Health: 600 >> 700


    Mana: 650 >> 800


    Skills/Spells: Summon Undead (40/40) (Rank 5) >> Summon Undead (40/70) (Rank 7); Death Lash (Rank 3); Sprint (Rank 3); Death''s Disguise (Rank 0)>> (Rank 6) ;


    Free Status Points: 492 >> 422


    Skill Points: 261 >> 121 >> 42


    --

 Chapter 26 - 26

    Chapter 26: Chapter 26Aaron could have improved much but there is a limit that the body can bear. Improving stats by 10-15 is already his limit for now. He may be awakened but he is still a mortal at level 15.


    Even though he would gain 10x attributes for every level up due to his talent, he can''t use them immediately. If he does that, he will lose control over his body. So, he made sure to improve to the limit that didn''t cause him discomfort.


    Among his skills, he improved Summon Undead skill to Rank 7 and Death''s Disguise to Rank 6.


    The reason for upgrading Summon Undead is pretty straightforward. The more skeletons he had, the better protection he would have from enemies. Moreover, they are the main attacking force.


    He has no direct attacking power, which is a hidden danger for him.


    If by chance an enemy bypasses his skeleton shield, then he would die as he doesn''t have any truly attacking skills nor proper defending skills.


    Aaron is not stupid to not know this but to get a skill is not an easy thing. The school gave a skill as a gift for awakening. Otherwise, there was no way he could have been able to afford to have [Sprint] in his status.


    He knows that he needs to find a proper defending skill and also an attacking skill, but the present him can''t afford such a cost. So, he has to make do with the skeleton shield.


    He has improved the rank of that skill from Rank-5 to Rank-7.


    The same thing that happened when the skill rank reached 4, happened when it reached 7.


    Till Rank-3, the increase in number of skeletons was only 5, but from Rank-4, the increase was 10 for every Rank up in skill.


    When Aaron upgraded it to Rank-7, the increase was 20 skeletons.


    Now at Rank-7, Aaron could summon 20 skeletons at a time. It increased the number of skeletons he can have to 70. They are a lot of skeletons and he can use them to easily wear down the enemies.


    By estimation, when he ranks up this skill to Rank-9, he would get 110 skeletons. More than a hundred skeletons, that''s a small army. With this, it won''t be easy to defeat him.


    ---


    The other skill he improved was Death''s Disguise.


    This is the new description of the skill after the improvement.


    [Death''s Disguise (Rank 6): Become synonymous with death. No life detection skills would be able to track you while the skill is active. You can now use the skill on a group of up to four people, including yourself.


    Mana Cost: N*25 mana/minute (N-number of people)]


    At Rank-0, it would cost 50 mana per minute. When Aaron increased it to Rank-1, the mana cost decreased to 45 mana per minute. It means he could save 5 mana per minute when compared to before.


    It continued till Rank, where the cost was reduced to 35 mana per minute.


    When Aaron increased the skill rank to Rank-4, the mana cost kind of remained the same but a development happened.


    Before he could only use it on himself but now, he can cast that on others but he can only cast the on up to two people, including himself. It means he can only cast on a single outsider.


    When he ranked the skill to Rank-5, there was a reduction of 5 mana in cost and also an increase in the maximum number that he could cast the skill on. It increased to three, including him. He can now use the group if there are only two more teammates.


    Finally, at Rank-6, there was again a reduction of 5 mana in cost and also another number on whom he can cast the skill now, making it a total of four, which means three outsiders.


    Of course, this plus has also its minus.


    If he uses only on himself, the cost would be 25 mana per minute but if he adds one more, it would be 50 mana per minute and it rises to 75 mana per minute if another was added.


    For every person added, there would be an increase of 25 mana per minute cost, which is not a good thing to use for a long time but skills like these would be useful in some dangerous situations.


    If he ever worked in a team, and if they were in danger, he could use this skill to help them from the enemy trackers but that was not something he didn''t see happening anytime soon. sea??h th§× Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Death professionals usually go out solo. They have skeletons, so they won''t usually team up with others.


    Also, many look down on death professionals. So, they don''t like to team up with such pricks as that would mean they were only demeaning themselves.


    Anyway, Aaron wanted to continue ranking up but that wasn''t possible as ranking up a skill to Rank-7 would cost 100 SP, which he lacks now. So, he stopped there.


    There are more than enough to rank up [Death Lash] and [Sprint] but Aaron didn''t want to waste those SPs.


    These skills, he used a lot but just by using them ranking up to Rank-4 is not so simple. If not for the improvement he would get due to talent, he would have used SP to improve them but he could feel that they were on the verge of reach Rank-4.


    He assumed as long as he used them for a few days while levelling up, they both could reach Rank-4 before he had to leave for the academy.


    Death Lash is not a problem but Sprint is.


    When he started out, every monster that was present in the dungeons was like a death sentence to him but now, they are very weak and can''t harm him.


    Back then, he used Sprint every once in a while to survive but with the reduction in danger, he doesn''t need to use as much as did in the coming days.


    It would be useful again when he enters higher-ranking dungeons in the academy but now, the chances of increasing the rank of [Sprint] are very low but he wanted to give it a try.


    SP, even though he gets a lot of them is still precious.

 Chapter 27 - 27

    Chapter 27: Chapter 27Aaron was satisfied with what he got by improving the ranks of those two skills. He is a Death Mage and wouldn''t be scouting or anything like that. So, the Death''s Disguise wouldn''t be used that much.


    Even so, it can help him evade others who use some scanning skills to find him. It would be very useful in preserving his life.


    All skills like that should be at a high rank and as this skill wouldn''t develop faster, he used SPs to improve it. Though the loss of SPs was a lot, he is happy with the improved rank as that could save his life one day when needed.


    ---


    Aaron now has 40 skeletons but can increase that number to seventy after the rank of the skill, Summon Undead has increased to Rank-7.


    So, before he started to level, he first started to summon the skeletons. When he summoned new skeletons for his undead army, there was a surprise for him.


    Among the first ones, there were Skeleton Archers. Yes, that means that Aaron finally has long-range attack capability now.


    Even though, having archers is good, that was not the surprise. The surprise came when he summoned the last twenty skeletons.


    There were 10 Skeleton Mages among them.


    Yeah, mages and that means he now has magic means to attack as well.


    First, he summoned close-quarter combat skeletons who used swords, then mid-range combat skeletons who used spears. He was more than happy with that, but now he has added Archers and Mages to his army as well.


    This army can be said to be almost complete.


    Since the army is made of undead, there is no need for any logistics. Healers are also not needed but Aaron is still a live person. So, a healer is definitely needed for him.


    If not for that, then it could be said that the army is completely set.


    Even though he wanted that, the chances of having a skeleton healer were pretty low and he never heard about such a thing before.


    He heard about Skelton Mages but he never knew that increasing his skill to Rank-7 would give them. Only now he came to know.


    "Maybe when I improve to Rank-9, I might get", Aaron hoped for that, though the chances are close to none.


    ---


    Aaron once again checked his status before starting the level-up scheme.


    "Status"


    --


    Name: Aaron Skyhart


    Age: 18


    Class/Profession: Death Mage, S-Rank


    Rank: 0


    Level: 15


    Talent: Super Growth (SS-Rank) (Unique) S§×ar?h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Vitality: 70


    Strength: 70


    Stamina: 70


    Agility: 70


    Intelligence: 80


    Wisdom: 80


    Health: 700


    Mana: 800


    Skills/Spells: Summon Undead (70/70) (Rank 7); Death Lash (Rank 3); Sprint (Rank 3); Death''s Disguise (Rank 6) ;


    Free Status Points: 422


    Skill Points: 42


    --


    Aaron was very satisfied with the status. He still has 422 Status points that he could allocate but a sudden increase in attributes makes him lose control over the body. So, for now, they would stay there.


    Also, if there is an emergency where he needs a particular attribute more than others, he can allocate these points to that. So, he would never make the points reach zero easily. Some would be left for emergencies.


    "Now, let''s clean this dungeon in record time. Wait, is there even a recoding function here?" Aaron wondered for a second.


    "It doesn''t matter anyway. All of this would recorded in my brain, and that would be enough", he muttered as he ordered his skeletons to go on a rampage.


    With archers and mages in the army, there was no need to hold back. The monsters here are just goblins, the weakest monsters in this dungeon. There was no reason to hold back.


    So he unleashed all the skeletons that he had on the goblins on this floor.


    As soon as those goblins were cleared, he could enter the next floor. Clearing these goblins wouldn''t give him much EXP but the wolves on the next floor would.


    For others at level 15, they wouldn''t give anything but he has a talent which is very helpful in situations like these. For better results, he should go to the third floor or the final floor but Aaron being cautious didn''t want to challenge the monsters on the third floor or the final floor.


    The third floor is filled with a mix of goblins and wolves but their levels are higher compared to the goblins and wolves on the first and second floors.


    The final floor only has a single opponent, the Boss Monster.


    The boss monster could be either a Goblin King or a Wolf King.


    No one knows which one would spawn. Of course, if one fails to kill that monster and dies there, then that boss would remain there too until whoever comes to clear the dungeon.


    Sometimes, even after clearing it, the next one would be the same boss. There were only two bosses. So the chances of the same boss spawning consecutively are very high.


    The boss is of level 20 but as Kings, they have special skills and would be much stronger than normal level 20 goblins or wolves.


    So, clearing them would be a challenge.


    Normally, no one challenges that one alone. Everyone would form a team, even if they are level 20. Only a few stronger professionals with better skills can fight those boss monsters alone.


    Though Aaron has 70 skeletons, the boss would be quite intelligent and would definitely target him in the battle, even ignoring the attacks from his skeletons. He has no defensive items or skills to protect himself.


    Once he was targeted, that would be it for him.


    So, unless he was level 20, he was not going to challenge that boss. Even on the third floor, the monsters would be quite clever than the ones that he would be facing on floors one and two.


    He would be going there only after he reached level 17 or 18.


    Skeletons grow up with him and they can easily handle the monsters on the third floor at that time. He wouldn''t need to be in fear of death all the time.

 Chapter 28 - 28

    Chapter 28: Chapter 28Aaron hunted goblins for the entire day.


    The beauty of dungeons is that, as long as you don''t leave, you can hunt as many monsters as you can.


    Dungeons recreate monsters that you have killed after a certain time. This is why many would take a lot of time to clear dungeons if they go solo.


    Going as a team helps to clear the dungeon monsters before the respawn time starts.


    Aaron didn''t face that issue as he is solo and a team at the same time. The issue that he faced when he was clearing the goblins was that there were not enough to go on.


    There were time gaps after clearing the dungeon before the dungeon could respawn them. Seventy skeletons hunting down those weak wolves would do that.


    Even though he could earn higher EXP and wouldn''t face such time gaps where he and his skeletons have to do nothing for a time as there are no monsters, he still decided to stay on the second floor.


    The third floor and the fourth floor are for later days as they are pretty dangerous. With his x EXP gain due to his talent, there was no need to take unnecessary risks.


    He left the dungeon in the evening as he knew that his parents would return soon and they would be worried if they failed to see his note on the fridge.


    Moreover, he has some good news to share with his parents about the academy.


    Getting into the top five academies is not the news that should be shared over a phone. It was something that needs to be delivered in person. Also, Aaron knew that they were going through training for their new chef roles at the restaurant.


    By the time he left the dungeon, he had reached level 16, even though he hunted only low-level monsters. This was the advantage of having a good talent.


    "Status"


    --


    Name: Aaron Skyhart


    Age: 18


    Class/Profession: Death Mage, S-Rank


    Rank: 0


    Level: 15 >> 16


    Talent: Super Growth (SS-Rank) (Unique)


    Vitality: 70


    Strength: 70


    Stamina: 70


    Agility: 70


    Intelligence: 80


    Wisdom: 80


    Health: 700


    Mana: 800


    Skills/Spells: Summon Undead (70/70) (Rank 7); Death Lash (Rank 3); Sprint (Rank 3); Death''s Disguise (Rank 6) ;


    Free Status Points: 422 >> 472


    Skill Points: 42 >> 62


    --


    As usual, with increase in level, he got 50FSPs and 20SPs, making the total to 472 and 62 respectively.


    "With this talent, I can become the top powerhouse in the world. I can become a god...wait, I am becoming arrogant just because of this", Aaron slapped himself to pull himself to reality.


    In fact, he was not the only one with talent. Though talents are not common to everyone, there should be a lot of people with talents awakened in this world.


    Sure, he may have one of the best talents but who knows whethere there are others with SS talents out there. This talent might be unique and only he pocessess it but there are many such talents, and there should be a lot with talents.


    The reason no news came out of that because, everyone loves to have a secret or two. Having an SS-Rank talent, that would help them to reach a very high stage but that would also put them in crosshairs with the enemies of the humans.


    There are many traitors among humans who shifted their allegiances due to greed or envy of what others were able to achieve.


    Announcing their talents would put targets on their back. So, no one ever speaks about their talents, no matter what.


    Aaron shook his head. Just because he was first in the academy exam in the entire alliance, he was feeling a bit arrogant about what he could achieve in the future but that was for the future to decide.


    The good thing was that the arogance didn''t cloud his brain. If it did, he would hav edirectly went and challenged the Boss of the dungeon.


    Though he has a great number of skeletons, they lack skills but a Boss Monster does. It can easily wipe him out without caring about the skeletons. It would be Game Over for him. There are no do-overs.


    Aaron felt happy that his brain was still working without turning himself into an arrogant prick. Feeling relieved about that, he walked back to home.


    When Aaron returned, his parents weren''t at home. They have yet to return home from the restaurant. It was not even eight in the evening. Since they were being trained to become chefs, he understood that they might be even arrive later than usual.


    Sniff! Sniff!


    "Staying long in the dungeons is a stinky thing. I am smelling bad. So I need a good and refreshing bath. Let''s wipe this out before mom and dad returns", Aaron thought to himself as he prepared a bath for himself.


    ---


    A few hours ago...in the morning... S~ea??h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Thomas and Maya went to the restaurant after sending off Aaron to school. Today was going to be an important day in his life.


    He now has to select an academy that suits him. This selection is what going to alter his life. If he choses a wrong academy, then he may plunge down in life but if he chooses the right one, then he can soar into the sky.


    Today they were receieving on how to be chefs at the restaurant. They might be actually chefs but they were never a chef at this restaurant. The policy remained same no matter what.


    Every new chef at the restaurant has to go through some training and these two are not exceptions. So, they went through the training process but half the time their minds were on something else.


    They kept wondering "What Academy did Aaron choose?"


    There was no news regarding that from Aaron but they couldn''t take out their phones and dial Aaron in the middle of work, not at this moment. So, they suppressed their anxiety for the day and continued to work.


    When it was time to leave, they rushed back home to learn about the news regarding his selection of the academy.

 Chapter 29 - 29

    Chapter 29: Chapter 29Thomas and Maya returned home late more than their usual time. Until yesterday, they were chef assistants. So their work was not so important as chefs have many assistants but the couple would-be chefs in the near future.


    For now, the restaurant is training them and they are sparing no expense.


    When they returned home, Aaron prepared food for the night. Cooking was something he learned from his parents as they would come home late and he couldn''t always wait for them to return so that he could eat something.


    He would cook sometimes, as he knew that his parents would return tired after the day they would have at the restaurant.


    Today, he was free and since they had much to talk about when his parents returned, he prepared meals for the night.


    "Aaron, we are home", Maya announced as the couple entered their home.


    Aaron came out of his room as he heard his mother''s voice, "Mom. Dad, you are home. Go freshen up yourselves. I have already prepared meals and by the time you come, it will be on the table".


    The couple smiled at Aaron as they understood that they might have exhausted their entire luck to have such a sensible child.


    Unlike combat professionals who earn a lot, and could provide their children excellent food for growth, tutors for their education, etc..., Thomas and Maya couldn''t provide such things to Aaron. Even though that was the case, Aaron never complained about that.


    He even learned to cook, once he was old enough as he understood that they both would be tired by working at the restaurant and cooking again at home would be very cumbersome.


    Of course, working at the restaurant has its own perks. They can bring home leftover food but Aaron couldn''t always wait till the time they could return home. So, as soon as he was capable he started to cook.


    The couple nodded and went to freshen up.


    ---


    When they returned, Aaron had already placed food on their plates, ready to consume. There were three plates and by that, they understood that Aaron had waited for them. So, they quickly too their seats and so did Aaron.


    "So, how did it go with the academy?" Thomas asked nervously.


    Aaron smiled, "I got a contract with the Dusk Academy and the academy starts in two weeks", he said.


    When Thomas and Maya heard this, they sighed in relief.


    Though they might not know all the academies, Dusk Academy being one of the top five, almost everyone knew the name. There would be very few who wouldn''t know the top five and they are most likely children.


    "Good, good, good", the couple muttered three times exhaling in relief.


    For the entire day, they were worried about what academy would take him in. They knew that Aaron was the top student this year in the entire alliance but they also knew that his profession was not that popular.


    It is actually a combat profession but was classified as a support profession due to some issues of Death-related professions.


    Even though he was at the top, they were worried none at the top would take an interest in him but their worries were for nought. The Dusk Academy gave him a chance to enter their halls, and that was enough to support his growth.


    This made them very happy and relieved.


    "Wait, you said that the academy would start in two weeks?" Thomas asked Aaron, remembering the second sentence that Aaron said to them.


    Thinking that Aaron was accepted into the Dusk Academy made them lose focus and they almost missed out on that information.


    "Yes", Aaron replied.


    "Dusk Academy is not near. Even if you take the train, it would take three days to reach it", Thomas muttered.


    "When starting out the academy, it is said that to arrive a day or two before the academy starts and that means you have to leave in ten days or so", Maya muttered, remembering the fact that they now have to send their son away.


    Though they never went through the combat academies, they still went to the Chef Academy, and they knew that once a student entered the academy, they wouldn''t leave the academy till graduation day.


    It''s not like the academy restricts their movement or something like that. It would be the student''s own decision.


    Why would they need to leave when there are a lot of dungeons in the academy, which would help them level up faster?


    Everyone wants to level up as fast as possible. No one wants to be left behind. So, normally students wouldn''t leave the academies as they would be busy either learning new knowledge or they would be dungeon diving to level up.


    Thomas and Maya knew that was what was required to survive in this harsh world and there was nothing they could do about that.


    They can''t just tell Aaron to come and visit them every now. It would cost him a week to come and leave. If he uses that time, he could level up a few times, if he was in the early stages.


    They can''t do that, as that could hinder his growth and survival as a result. Sear?h the ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    What parents would want their children to not grow stronger and survive longer?


    So, they kept their mouths shut after they knew that he would be leaving soon and there was nothing that they could do or should do as this travel would help him a lot.


    Aaron understood their issue but he too couldn''t do anything here, at least not with his power.


    He knew that this world was fucked up and to survive in this world, a lot of strength is needed. For now, he appears to be strong but when compared to the alliance, he is just a bigger ant, nothing more.


    Anyone at the higher levels of the alliance could crush him as if he were an ant. There was no need for the gods to even think about him. The ones below him are more than enough for that.


    The only way to change that was to level up.


    Though he spoke nothing, he silently vowed that their troubles would only for a short time. He would reach the pinnacle and his parents would have nothing to fear.

 Chapter 30 - 30

    Chapter 30: Chapter 30Similar to how it was after awakening, Aaron woke up, got ready had breakfast and took the packed lunch for later before he set off for the dungeon diving. This was his schedule right after awakening, which was paused for a few days but now resumed.


    In a world like this only strength is respected.


    His awakened profession is Death Mage, which no one sees as a perspective profession for themselves. They all see that the Death-related professions have no future at all.


    All of this was due to the lack of death-related skills.


    People have been awakening for a long time and that means there should have been a lot of Death related professionals.


    Yes, there were but many died because of the "Death Curse".


    When a professional reaches the threshold of a certain rank, a Rank-Up Quest will be issued. Only by completing the quest can someone reach the next rank.


    The first rank up is at level 20. After ranking up, one would be Rank-1 and only then can one would be able to reach level 21. If they can''t upgrade their rank, no matter what, they can''t reach the next level.


    These rank-up quests would be easy and common at lower ranks but as they rank up, the quests would become related to their professions and sometimes unique just to the professional.


    This is why higher ranks are tough to achieve, especially Rank 7 and above.


    From Rank 4, the quests would be related to their professions. It means that Death related professions have to complete death-related quests from Rank-4.


    A lot of people died doing those quests.


    For Rank-4, not many died as there were deaths among other professionals as well. It was while trying to complete the Rank-7 upgrade quest that most death-related professionals died.


    So, many were stuck at Rank-6 or below in these professions. This is the main reason why these professionals are not so popular, not because they lack skills.


    Yes, they lack skills that High Ranking powerhouses could create but still, that doesn''t make them weak as not many professions have those skills as well.


    It was because there are no Rank-7 and higher death-related professionals alive in the world. This is why they are not so popular, but commoners think what they do.


    ---


    Anyway, that was all for the future Aaron to worry about. The only worry that Aaron got was to reach level 20, where he could get the first rank up.


    At Rank-0, for every level up, he could only get +5 FSP and +2 SP, but once he can reach Rank-1, that would increase to +10 FSP and +4 SP.


    Those increase for every rank up. Levelling up would enable a professional to increase their attributes and also skills. Skill Points are in very high demand for professionals, as a skill ranks up, improving them would be a nightmare for the professionals.


    Those Skill Points would reduce those nightmares. So, Skill Points are very much needed by all professionals. It means a rank-up is a must for everyone.


    Even though Aaron has 10xSP and 10xFSP, it doesn''t mean that he would say no to more.


    One should know that, though levelling up is the common way to earn those, this is not the only way to earn those.


    There are treasures that can improve attributes. Though they are fixed to a certain attribute and can''t be used as FSP, nonetheless, those FSPs are used to improve attributes in the end. These treasures can directly improve an attribute.


    This is also a drawback if the professional wanted INT or WIS to be improved but the treasures he found were STR or some other attribute.


    Yeah, spellcaster professionals would be interested in improving INT or WIS more than other attributes. It was their entire profession depends on those attributes mainly.


    So, FSPs are way better than those treasures as FSPs can be used however they want. Treasures have fixed attributes.


    Similarly, Skill Points can be gained by level-ups but there are Skill Upgrade Stones which are useful to upgrade skills. There was an issue though. Skill Upgrade Stones are classified into three levels.


    Low-level, Mid-level, and High-level Skill Upgrade Stones. sea??h th§× Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Low-level stones can improve the skill to a max of Rank-3, while Mid-level stones are required for the skill to reach Rank-4 to Rank-6. For Rank-7 to Rank-9, High-level stones are required.


    Low-level stones are okay as they were available a lot. Though they are considered rare by the common people, among the rich and powerful, there are a lot of them circulating.


    Mid-level stones though, there are not even a hundred found to this date and one can easily guess about High-level stones, the total number only touched double digits.


    So, finding those stones to upgrade skills would be a nightmare for even the rich and powerful ones. They can use those stones to quickly upgrade their skills to Rank-3 but that''s where the development would stop.


    After that, everyone has to depend on SPs. Even the rich and powerful can''t spend money on what they can''t find. This makes those SPs very useful for everyone.


    Aaron as he has no need to find those stones. He can get as many as many SPs as he wants, as long as he levels up and ranks up.


    He doesn''t need to worry about anything else in that area.


    Though he may lack skills that seniors from death-related professions created, there are still skill scrolls, which would drop from monsters out there.


    These skill scrolls, unless specified, would most likely be random skills. Random is not random actually. The skill scroll would give a skill that the professional can use, maybe a common one or actually related to that profession.


    So, people thinking that death-related professions are weak as they lack skills was wrong.


    The problem was there was no Rank-7 or above among them and as they couldn''t grow after Rank-6, the SPs and FSPs that they got would stop.


    It means they can''t improve their attributes or their skills.

 Chapter 31 - 31

    Chapter 31: Chapter 31Ten Days later...


    Aaron went to the dungeon, gained EXP and returned home before night. This was his usual daily routine as it was after the awakening.


    He didn''t want to worry his parents about his absence for a long time. So, he always returned home at night. With his 10x EXP, there was no problem in doing so for him.


    There was still some time before he would have to leave for the academy. Before that, he was sure that he could reach level 20 and even maybe complete the Rank-1 quest depending on what the quest would be.


    Just as he assumed, Aaron was able to reach level 20 within the ten-day limit he set for himself. The travel takes three days and it is best to reach the academy a day before the start. So, the last four days of the two weeks time couldn''t be used for levelling up.


    "Status"


    --


    Name: Aaron Skyhart


    Age: 18


    Class/Profession: Death Mage, S-Rank


    Rank: 0


    Level: 16 >> 20


    Talent: Super Growth (SS-Rank) (Unique)


    Vitality: 70 >> 100


    Strength: 70 >> 100


    Stamina: 70 >> 100 S§×arch* The N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Agility: 70 >> 100


    Intelligence: 80 >> 130


    Wisdom: 80 >> 130


    Health: 700 >> 1,000


    Mana: 800 >> 1,300


    Skills/Spells: Summon Undead (70/70) (Rank 7); Death Lash (Rank 3) >> (Rank 4); Sprint (Rank 3) >> (Rank 4); Death''s Disguise (Rank 6) ;


    Free Status Points: 472 >> 672 >> 452


    Skill Points: 62 >> 142


    --


    Of Course, with a total increase of four levels, he gained +200 FSPs and +80 SPs.


    Skill points, he didn''t use them. There are only two skills that he wants to use Skill Points on, to improve them. The other two would improve better than these two as long as he uses them. So, there was no rush there.


    Only one can be improved with the amount he has and that was Death''sDisguise. There is no immediate need to increase that but what he wants is to improve Summon Undead.


    This is his main skill. The faster, he can improve that to Rank-9 the better would be for him but to increase it to Rank-8, 200 SPs are needed. He still lacks 58 to achieve that. So, they are stored for now.


    Coming to FSPs, he already had 472, but he was slowly distributing them among his attributes. He can''t dump them at once as that would cause him to stumble.


    So, he increased them one by one and now all the physical attributes reached 100 while INT and WIS reached 130. With the increase in WIS, his mana pool also increased.


    As a spellcaster, those two should be higher than other attributes.


    ---


    Above all that, the most important thing was the Rank-1 Quest that popped up after he reached Level 20.


    --


    Rank-1 Quest: Clear a Dungeon or single level in one hour.


    Dungeon Requirements: All of the monsters should be higher than level 10.


    --


    There was still time left before he needed to return home. So, he decided to complete it today as tomorrow he has to leave for Dusk City.


    He has already booked a ticket to travel and the train leaves at noon. he would be packing things in the morning and would not have time to come here and complete the quest.


    He can rank up after going to the academy but reaching Rank-1 before reaching the academy would be beneficial in his view.


    Deciding that Aaron left the dungeon to enter it again as the quest said to clear the dungeon or the level completely in an hour and all the monsters have to be above level 10.


    The third floor perfectly aligns with that but he had just cleared them out to reach level 20. So, staying here means, that no matter how many he kills, the count wouldn''t matter.


    So, he has to leave the dungeon and enter it again by paying the entrance fee but that doesn''t matter much to him. Reaching Rank-1 is all that matters to him.


    ---


    Once Aaron returned to the dungeon, he had to clear the first two floors again to reach the third floor. In order to not waste any time, he unleashed all seventy skeletons and ordered them to clear the floor as fast as possible.


    He didn''t remain idle. He too used his skill Death Lash to kill the weak goblins and then the weak wolves on the next floor.


    The two floors were cleared within half an hour.


    Aaron took ten minutes to rest after clearing the two floors. This was because though there was no timer, he knew that only after he entered a suitable dungeon or level when the quest was up would the imaginary timer start.


    This was something that everyone learned in school as everyone needed to know about this or they would falter here and waste a lot of time unnecessarily.


    ---


    Once he felt that the rest was enough he entered the third floor. The second he entered, he sent his skeletons to massacre the dungeon monsters here.


    He is now at level 20 and his Sprint skill is already at Rank-4, which means the monsters here are no danger to him anymore. So, he sent all seventy to kill them and once in a while he too helped.


    "Man, it''s quite embarrassing. I need an actual attack skill".


    Though he is now at level 20, he still has to depend totally on his skeletons. Though he has an attack skill, it can''t be said to be an attack skill. The damage is very low for that when compared to other attack skills.


    Even though that was the case, Aaron was able to clear out the monsters easily within the hour, with more than fifteen minutes to spare.


    [Congratulations, you have cleared Rank-1 Quest.]


    [Your rank is upgraded to rank-1]


    [As Rank-1 awakener, the gains would be+10 FSP and 4 SP/level]


    Aaron gave a quick look at his status.


    "Status"


    --


    Name: Aaron Skyhart


    Age: 18


    Class/Profession: Death Mage, S-Rank


    Rank: 0 >> 1


    Level: 20


    Talent: Super Growth (SS-Rank) (Unique)


    Vitality: 100


    Strength: 100


    Stamina: 100


    Agility: 100


    Intelligence: 130


    Wisdom: 130


    Health: 1,000


    Mana: 1,300


    Skills/Spells: Summon Undead (70/70) (Rank 7); Death Lash (Rank 4); Sprint (Rank 4); Death''s Disguise (Rank 6) ;


    Free Status Points: 452


    Skill Points: 142


    --


    There wasn''t much change on the panel except for the fact that the rank increased.

 Chapter 32 - 32

    Chapter 32: Chapter 32The Goal, reaching level 20...Done.


    The Goal, reaching Rank-1...Done.


    Now, all that remains is to report to the academy as planned, but before that, there are two things that Aaron wants to do and needs to do.


    The one that he wanted to do was something that he had wanted to do for some time.


    To defeat the last floor boss.


    ---


    Even after reaching level 20 or having seventy skeletons, it didn''t make Aaron an idiot to challenge the boss of the dungeon.


    Usually, that was done by a team of four to five near level 20 or ones that have already reached level 20. There is a reason for that.


    Unlike the monsters that are seen on other floors, the dungeon boss is different.


    First their health would not be what someone of level 20 would have. It''s more than triple when compared to other level 20 monsters.


    Second, it has skills that are problematic. It was not that it has those skills cause problems but how the boss uses those skills.


    Though none can see what rank the skill is at, one can easily speculate that it is at least at Rank-4 or 5 in human terms.


    For humans to reach that rank by level 20 is almost impossible.


    Reaching Rank-4 can be done but Rank-5, that''s definitely impossible. The problematic point was that no hunter would have just one skill. They would have at least two to three from the start.


    When they reach level 20, that number may even rise.


    So, having a Rank-4 or Rank-5 skill by level 20, seems very unlikely, unless someone wants to specialize in a single skill or two.


    There are people that go through that route and wouldn''t have too many skills. They would only learn other skills when they have enough SPs or have obtained other means to improve their skills.


    Otherwise, they would live with a few skills throughout their life.


    It was not just the skills and health but the other attributes of the boss are simply ridiculous. They would have reached the values of at least a level 25 monster. So, getting hit by the boss monster would drain at least half of the hunter''s life, if not their full life.


    Not getting hit and at the same time draining a lot of health was not something a single hunter could do. This is why everyone goes in a team, not solo as that could end up in their deaths.


    ---


    After completing the Rank up, Aaron descended to the last floor, the floor of the boss.


    There are no monsters here. There is nothing here, except for a big closed room. That was the boss''s room. The boss can''t leave that room. So, if hunters want to leave they can leave now but once they enter the room, then it''s either kill or be killed.


    There is no other way.


    What Aaron wanted to achieve was already achieved but there was a reason why Aaron was willing to enter the boss''s room.


    Anytime the boss was defeated, the EXP gained would be very high. Added to that the first-time kill would give the hunter better loot.


    Yeah, if the hunter was able to kill a boss the first time they entered the boss room, and this is for any boss room, the loot that they drop would be very high.


    So, by killing every boss monster out there, one can earn a lot but one should know that defeating a boss is no small matter. It takes a team and as the rank of the boss increases, the need for an increase in the number of hunters on the team would rise.


    It can be said that it won''t be as easy as defeating the small-time bosses.


    ---


    Aaron entered the boss room and as soon as he entered the room, the doors shut, making it impossible to leave.


    He released his skeletons as soon as he stepped into the boss room. The boss room is after all a dangerous place and many have died here.


    If he lets his guard down, even a little bit, then that would be it for him.


    Killing a newly ascended Rank-1 hunter wouldn''t be much of a problem for the boss.


    Grrrr!


    The boss smelled Aaron as soon as he stepped into the room. Instead of pouncing on him, the boss waited, but Aaron could hear its growls and judging by that it, he could estimate the general direction.


    Keeping ten skeletons as guards, Aaron sent the other skeletons in the direction from which he heard the sounds.


    The boss may have all the time in the world, not him.


    Even though the room may have appeared small from the outside, there is a forest inside of it. He has to search for the boss in that forest, as there is nothing else here where the boss could be hiding.


    He made sure that the Archers and Mages stayed behind in the assault team.


    No matter whether it was a goblin or a wolf monster, killing it from a distance would be a good thing and also make it easier to kill it. If he loses those skeletons, he has to summon them again.


    He can do that, as long as the ones that are still intact are able to keep the boss away from Aaron.


    Grrr!


    The growl appeared to be closer.


    "Everyone get ready. The boss is near", Aaron commanded his skeletons, which caused them to be super alert for any movement in the forest that could pinpoint where it was.


    "There it is", Aaron was happy that he found it before it made a move.


    The boss monster was a Wolf which was known for its Agility, while the Goblin boss was for either their strength or Intelligence depending on which goblin appeared.


    "Archers and Mages, aim for its legs and attack them with everything that you have. Others, get ready to face the attack as it comes closer to you", Aaron commanded his skeletons. S~ea??h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    The first strike would be his and he would make the best of it. As long as its Agility was crippled, bringing it down would be that much easier.

 Chapter 33 - 33

    Chapter 33: Chapter 33The boss was not easy to defeat. Even with 70 skeletons and at level 20, it took fifteen minutes to defeat it.


    The reason is that the Wolf Boss has two skills.


    [Frenzy Speed] and [Howling Madness].


    With Frenzy Speed, it can increase its speed and disappear from the sight before the information gets registered by the brain. It gives it excellent oopurtunity to escape any predicaments.


    Also, using that speed, it can easily mow through an army formation.


    Howling Madness, makes it enemies lose brain function for a minute. When the boss uses this skill, it can disrupt the enemy''s thinking capacity and puts them in a daze.


    A momentary daze in battle is enough to be the cause of anyone''s death.


    Luckily, Aaron''s army is skeletons. Though many had fallen, Aaron with his vast Mana Pool was able to bring in new skeletons. This kept the wolf quite busy for a while and slowly chipped away its health.


    From the beginning, it kept hunting the skeletons. Only near the end did the boss see Aaron as the main target.


    In its last moments, it ignored all attacks and targeted Aaron but he has a Sprint Skill and 100 in Agility, with which he easily escaped from its attacks.


    If only it has discovered him as the main threat, it could have ended him and saved its own life but luck was not its side. Its Howling Madness was on cooldown and if only it had another minute, Aaron would have been lying there on the ground, not him.


    [You have slain Wolf Boss.]


    [Detected that it is your first time against this Boss.]


    [Detected Solo Hunting.]


    [Rewards being Calculated...]


    "That was close, I should really get some good defense skills. If it had a few more minutes, I would be the lying down there", Aaron muttered to himself.


    "Now let''s wait for the reward. From what I heard, the first time drop would be very good", Aaron thought to himself.


    This is why the system intervenes with those notifications. Outside of dungeon bosses, these notifications don''t appear. Whatever drop that the monster would give, would drop without any notification about it.


    This was only for Dungeon Boss.


    Why?


    No one knows and most don''t care. What they cared about was the rewards that they could get for conquering the Boss Floor.


    A few seconds later, the wolf''s corpse disappeared and an item appeared on the ground. Aaron quickly picked it up.


    [Rewards are distributed.]


    It was a necklace.


    --


    Item: Wolf Fang Pendant


    Description: Whether you can survive or not on a battlefield can be determined in a second or two. Even a moment of daze can end the battle in the opponent''s favour. Wolf Fang pendant can protect the mind of the person wearing it against opponents with Mind Skills up to Rank-3.


    Additional Benefit: +10 INT


    --


    "Huh, this is very good indeed", Aaron smiled and immediately put the pendant around his neck.


    One of the Wolf Boss skills, Howling Madness is a Mind Skill that can disrupt the enemy''s thinking for a while.


    Though Mind Skills are rare, there are a few who have them. Anyone confronting them should have protection for their minds, or else they would be dead before they knew it. S~ea??h the ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Similar to how mind skills are rare, items that protect from mind skills are rarer than those skills. So, it is an excellent item for Aaron.


    Though it can only protect attacks from Rank-3 and below skill rank, it is precious. Upgrading a skill is not easy for everyone. Having a Mind Skill above Rank-3 means, they are powerful enough to casually swipe away others.


    So, unless Aaron reaches that stage, whether he has a higher protection item or not, doesn''t matter.


    In addition to protection of mind, wearing gives an extra benefit of +10 INT.


    With the high stats that Aaron has, it is small but since he has only crossed 100 at this point, it is still useful, for now.


    ---


    Now that the Boss was defeated, there was one last thing that Aaron needed to do.


    Roll the Dice.


    Yeah, every time one ranks up, the hunter can get a skill.


    The reason why it is called Roll the Dice is that the skill they get depends on luck. Sometimes they might even end up without any skill.


    Though there is a chance that he might not get a skill, it''s better to get on with it and be done about it. In this way, he can think what to do about later, based on whether he gets a new skill or not.


    "Skill Dice, Roll it", Aaron announced.


    [Skill Dice, rolling...]


    [Rolling...]


    [Rolling Stopped.]


    [You have received a skill, Undead Summon.]


    [Detected similar skill...Adjustment made.]


    [Original skill is now Summon Skelton.]


    [New Skill summon can be chosen from Ghosts, Zombies,...]


    "Hmm, that''s understandable", Aaron muttered as he read the notifications.


    Unlike other skills, the Undead Summon skill can be used for different things. When he first awakened the class and got the skill, he chose to summon Skeletons. So, for that, it was locked.


    Since he got the same skill again, now the option of choosing skeletons was gone and the old skill became Summon Skeleton skill.


    "When I choose what summons I would get, probably the new Undead Summon skill might change or it would wait till I get this skill again", Aaron muttered.


    "It doesn''t matter. What matters is whether it was a useful skill or not and whether it is working or not".


    "I choose Ghosts as my summons".


    [Confirming Ghosts as summons for Undead Summon.]


    [Adjustments are made.]


    [Undead Summon is now Summon Ghost.]


    After getting the confirmation, Aaron quickly checked his status to see the changes that happened by this.


    "Status"


    --


    Name: Aaron Skyhart


    Age: 18


    Class/Profession: Death Mage, S-Rank


    Rank: 1


    Level: 20 > 21


    Talent: Super Growth (SS-Rank) (Unique)


    Vitality: 100


    Strength: 100


    Stamina: 100


    Agility: 100


    Intelligence: 130 (+10)


    Wisdom: 130


    Health: 1,000


    Mana: 1,300


    Skills/Spells: Summon Skeleton (70/70) (Rank 7); Death Lash (Rank 4); Sprint (Rank 4); Death''s Disguise (Rank 6) ; Summon Ghost(0/5) (Rank 0);


    Free Status Points: 452 >> 552


    Skill Points: 142 >> 182


    Items: Wolf Fang Pendant (+10 INT);


    --


    As expected, his skill names were changed.


    Instead of Original Undead Summon, Summon Skeleton appeared and a new skill Summon Ghost is also present.


    In addition to this, Aaron reached level 21.