Noa called for the system messages, anticipating them with interest.
[ You killed a Primitive Green Goblin Lv. 1 (x5) ]
[ You've gained 100 Experience Points ]
[ Level Up! ]
[ You killed a Primitive Green Goblin Lv. 1 (x8) ]
[ You've gained 160 Experience Points]
[ You've gained 0.3 stat points in Strength and Agility. You've gained 0.6 stat points in Vitality and Intelligence ]
[You've gained 1 Attribute Point ]
This hunt was a tremendous success and netted him a level, along with some attributes.
His level and experience would be lost.
Yet Noa felt his attributes would remain.
He wanted to see the numbers, his gamer brain activating, and he said eagerly,
"Status Window!"
The transparent screen appeared before his eyes, hovering in this infinite space.
[ Noa Osborn ]
[ Species: Human ]
[ Grade: Evolved ]
[ Class: Wizard ]
[ Level: 1 → 2 ]
[ EXP: 2/100 → 163/250 ]
[ Strength: 0.9 → 1.2 ]
[ Agility: 0.8 → 1.1 ]
[ Vitality: 1.3 → 1.9 ]
[ Intelligence: 0.5 → 1.1 ]
[ Attribute Points: -1 → 0 ]
[ Talent: Death's Companion ]
[ Talent Rank: SSS ]
[ Skills: Echo of Doom ]
[ Class Skill: Corpse Puppet (Proficiency: 0.4%) ]
"Sweet!"
Exclaiming upon seeing the progress, Noa had no sadness that he would lose a level.
Why would he when he would have an easier time leveling up?
The higher his level was, the more experience the system demanded, but if he reset the counter, the quicker he would gain more attributes.
Also, if Ember was higher level than the opponent, experience gain was halved every five levels.
Even his class skill saw some improvement.
It was too soon for Noa to feel the changes, but the numbers never lied.
He didn't know why, but the original Noa had a low intelligence stat, and he was also in debt to the system.
Noa had never heard of something like this before, yet he had minus one free attribute point.
Now he was out of debt, but there was nothing more for him to allocate.
The numbers weren't the only things that improved.
He might have had some experience before, but killing was out of his background, and it was his first time actually slaying monsters.
However, Noa seemed naturally talented, and he swiftly got used to it.
'Is it because of my SSS-ranked talent?'
Pondering about his psychological changes that were out of his control and harder to observe, Noa was assaulted by a familiar, piercing headache.
'It's time to go back. I wonder if they missed me.'
The darkness didn't insist that he wait, and it arrived with suffering.
[ Echo: 997/1,000 ]
Three out of a thousand Echoes were exhausted because of the meager goblins.
Noa didn't care about his death and the resources he was wasting.
He understood Velrox fairly well.
If he had a talent and skill that allowed almost infinite lives, he had to abuse it as much as he could.
Others had skills that didn't bring their lives into the same danger, and they trained with less pain.
Especially when no one fought alone, ensuring their survival.
Noa was a loner.
His classmates isolated and bullied him, practically sentencing him to death.
"I don't forget! I don't forgive!" he said, vowing to get revenge.
There were billions of known abilities, but none of them were connected to death.
It was an untouchable topic, which made Noa even more unique.
But he had a price to pay.
Dying wasn't easy.
Not only was it painful, but it was also terrifying, as if he were losing a part of himself in the process.
Noa recognized it was his mind playing tricks, but he got used to it pretty quickly.
The most dreadful thing about his talent was the rebirth.
His every sensation was augmented.
He could feel his nerves clutching together, creating a human from practically nothing.
It sounded impossible, as not even his mana was used, but to make it possible, he had to suffer.
'Yeah. It feels good.'
His torment ended, and he was reconstructed.
Being alive brought a smile to his face, and he was ready for the next round.
The goblins were still there.
Only a second had passed since they killed him, and like a true immortal, Noa came back for retaliation.
As much as he wanted to trigger Corpse Puppet right away, there were no freshly killed monsters around.
Fortunately, he managed to grab the dagger.
Swinging it around, Noa felt the absence of the Dagger Mastery skill as the familiar sensation was gone from his fingers.
Yet some kind of attachment still lingered.
As if a weak connection to past knowledge still existed somewhere and could be used, even if it was far from the original.
"Triple S talent didn't disappoint."
He said and threw the dagger, aiming at the goblin's forehead.
Surprisingly, he was good at throwing it, and his attempt was successful, drilling the head in one hit.
Noa's stats had increased, and he could feel it with every move.
Specifically, his speed, as the acceleration from standing to a full-on sprint, was faster than ever.
Crossing the average human's speed, Noa took another blade from the ground before the goblin touched the floor.
Because of the fast pace of the battles, he never detected the foul smell of the blood.
Even the dampness between the walls had a specific odor.
It was a sign of the skirmishes Noa wasn't used to.
'Let's go for the double kill.'
Then he changed his concentration back to the goblins, and instead of switching his body, he wanted to fight with his own for a while.
With a dagger in his hand and a forward offense, he cleaved it lethally.
He was stronger than before, meaning he had more strength to spare, and moving the blade felt lighter and more natural.
Sometimes he changed his grip to better aim at blind spots.
In a few quick seconds, three goblins lay beneath him, light leaving their eyes.
"Triple kill it is."
Soon he was surrounded, but instead of panicking, Noa murmured with a grin on his face.
"Corpse Puppet!"
An instant pull came, forcing his existence to shift from one place to another.