Elliot listened to them intently, his gaze fixed on the group as they spoke.
'These bastards have good information. It seems that among the great powers of the city, the Clarks' audacity and notorious reputation is well known.'
Naturally, Elliot was annoyed to hear the latter, but it wasn't surprising. However, this information was invaluable and would help him to act cautiously while also strengthening his resolve that he had to kill those damned bastards as soon as possible.
'I will keep growing stronger… until the day I can cut off your head, you damned bastard,' John and his father flashed through his mind, fueling the simmering rage within him.
Although he would usually act calmly and control himself most of the time—something he had learned from his father, who was once the most powerful man in Loen—the fire in his heart recalling how badly John had treated his family continued to grow, and he had not stopped doing so in the last two years.
His fists clenched. Then, without another thought, he turned and disappeared into the depths of the forest, searching for more beasts.
Just as he left, several hooded figures leaped through the trees, landing near the group he had been observing. They looked at them for a moment and then silently continued deeper into the forest.
Those bunch weren't the ones they were looking for.
_____
And so, the hours passed.
Venturing into an open dungeon like this alone was reckless for someone as weak as Elliot. But he wasn't afraid to do so—not because he was confident in his abilities but because he knew that if he were to hesitate, it would mean his death.
He fought relentlessly against every beast he encountered, just like the first ones. With each strike, his movements grew stronger and more precise. In no time, the beasts he faced began to fall after only a few moves.
He hadn't raised his statistics yet. Not because he couldn't, but because he wanted the challenge. He felt that if he struggled a little, they would serve to give him combat experience. However, after what he had overheard hours ago about being pursued, he remained alert—ready to raise his stats at any moment if necessary.
'Fuf.'
He exhaled, catching his breath after killing several more of the beasts. The first light of the dawn began to filter through the dense canopy above, casting a soft glow over him.
Looking up, he realized that the night had come to an end.
"In one night of hunting, I managed to collect 12 points. Not bad."
Although he had a few complaints, such as not receiving more points now despite having killed all the beasts he had encountered, a night of hunting had given him a lot of invaluable combat experience.
Fighting the puppets had been useful; it had given him a solid foundation in attacking and defense, but that was all they could help with. The puppets' blows were easily predictable, and once he learned their pattern, avoiding their strikes had become effortless.
Rats, on the other hand, were different. They could think. Although they were not very intelligent, they could throw more varied blows, making them unpredictable compared to the puppets. The best thing about these fights was that these were real battles, where he was forced to react and adapt in real time.
Here, his life was truly at risk, and he had to keep his body on high alert at all times.
Indirectly, these battles had helped him improve his senses, which was strange, but it gave him great joy.
Looking at his system, Elliot noticed that he now had 14 points in total, which he divided as follows.
-6 points in Strength.
-4 in Agility.
-2 in Sense.
-2 in Resistance.
'Undoubtedly, a beautiful night of hunting.'
Although he wanted to keep going, he knew it was time to go back… Well, rather, it was time to try something greater.
'It's time to test my Class.' His nervous smile crept across his face, revealing his eagerness and curiosity.
But first, he needed to find a cave.
After storing all the carcasses of the beasts, he dashed towards the dungeon's border areas.
It didn't take long before he found a small hill with a cave nestled into its side.
'This will do.'
Upon entering the cave, he quickly covered its entrance with dry leaves and nearby moss to conceal his presence from any wandering wild animals and then went inside.
For a moment, he reached out for the flashlight he always carried. But suddenly, he realized it wasn't necessary.
'That's right, now that I think about it. I was out all night hunting in a dark forest, and the darkness never bothered me.'
He felt a bit silly upon realizing that he could see in the dark without any problem. It was as if the absence of light simply didn't have any effect on him.
'Why? Are all the awakened ones like that?'
Obviously, there was no answer to his question, but after thinking about it a bit, he didn't care. It didn't matter if this ability was unique to him or not—the point was that he could see in the dark, and that was enough.
The cave itself was nothing remarkable. It was a naturally formed shelter, a bit rough but functional. Even though he stood 1.83 meters tall, Elliot could move inside without any problem.
After confirming that there were no immediate dangers in the cave, Elliot settled down on a rock and pulled out one of the rat corpses. According to what he understood of his ability, he needed a complete corpse to perform a summon.
Yes, it was time to test out his Manifestation: Lord of the Energy.
And for that, according to what he had read about the skill, he had to choose the form and the energy his summon will have.
But there's a problem—he couldn't draw.
And the thing is that even if he chooses the summon's shape, how was he to do it if he couldn't draw? Well, that was why he chose to copy an existing beast instead.
The first thing he did was to verify that he had read his ability correctly and hadn't missed or overlooked any other detail. Then he looked at his hands and began drawing Attribute Energy from his body to surround them, trying to do what his mind was telling him.
'It says that 1 point of stat used is equivalent to 5 stat points in the summon. I'll try to use the equivalent of 2 points then…'
His hands were soon engulfed in a swirling mix of red and green energy.
Since he had an abundance of these attributes to create it, he planned to use 2 points from each of those stats. Although it pained him to spend his points on it, he needed to confirm if his ability was indeed what he had thought it to be.
Gritting his teeth, he endured the loss of attributes and began to move his hands.
But a sudden notification forced him to stop.
[Warning: When using your Manifestation: Lord of Energy on a corpse, the body will be completely consumed upon creation and will be lost forever, along with any attribute energy it contained. However, there is a chance for you to obtain a special summon in return.]
[Do you wish to proceed?]
Elliot blinked in disbelief. He didn't recall having ever read anything about this before.
'Sigh, I won't even be able to get the attribute energy from this guy. And to think I even picked the strongest one for that…'
Although he regretted it, he responded affirmatively to the system and cheered himself up, convinced that if there was a chance to get a special summon, it was worth the risk.
With that settled, he got to work.
He immediately realized just how incredibly difficult it was. He needed to maintain the energy flow in his hands by covering them the whole time while also carefully following the outline of the beast's body to formulate his summon.
He had to be very careful not to screw up, but being so careful made it even much harder for him because all the effort was going towards keeping that energy over his hands.
He was sweating even more than he was when doing the intensive training sessions of the last few days, but he persevered until the end.
Time became a blur—an hour, maybe two? Eventually, he stopped and threw himself backward against the cave wall, panting heavily.
"Haah… Haahh…"
But even in exhaustion, his eyes never left the figure before him.
His first summon was finally complete.