Chapter 277: Horned Men And Graduation

"Intruder!" One of the horned men shouted before slamming a punch her way. The burst element condensed into his fist before shooting out like a projection, slamming into her, possessing frightening might.

"Ugh!" Shika grunted, fusing her crossbow and the shook arrow, slamming it in another direction before using it to pull her away from the area of impact, barely dodging the attack.

After travelling for some distance, just when the fist projection seemed like it would slam into the wall, the horned man snorted, flicking his hand as it made an abrupt turn, redirecting itself to chase after her.

"That was possible?" She blurted out in surprise, shooting an arrow at the attacker, watching him dodge the attack. Without any hesitation, she aimed at a nearby companion, intending to target him first as he seemed to be condensing an attack.

Clang!

The arrow slammed into a shield that appeared abruptly. And, at the moment of contact, the burst element formed a minor layer over the shield, repelling the arrow away.

'This won't do.' She frowned, swallowing another orb, condensing a second crossbow. Applying her enlightenment on it, she fused all three mutated beast abilities, creating a whole new crossbow that had a stronger firing rate, impact speed, and power.

The moment she began to shoot, even the shield began to suffer from dents as the horned men shouted, jumping behind him to avoid fire.

Using this chance, she turned around and shot at the incoming fist projection, destroying it after a couple of hits. But, she didn't have the chance to take a breather, noticing a bunch of horned men enter.

And among them, there was one that had grown three horns. Compass Carburettor recognised him to be one of those that he had seen before.

But, the man of the present shared no resemblance to his initial self, sporting a layer of toughened scales over his body, sharing resemblance to the goldfish.

The moment he arrived, Shika's heart rate increased all of a sudden, causing her back to be drenched with cold sweat, 'What the heck? He's as strong as Dwun!'

The three-horned man took in a deep breath before exhaling. Suddenly, Shika shouted in alarm, noticing patches of her skin beginning to peel off.

"Ouch!"

'System, what's happening?'

[Burst element, dust level. The enemy has spread out miniature bombs in the air using the burst element. And, they only burst when his target comes in contact with them. Moving will become dangerous now]

'I don't have many abilities in this regard.' She frowned, unwilling to waste her Vital Energy. By expending it, she was able to heal her injuries, though it took some time. Similarly, she had the means to combust her attributes to defend herself against any attack.

Though, doing this also meant she would have to sacrifice her hard-earned stats. Unlike the previous time, she didn't have a Quest to recover her stats. Losing them would mean she would have to start from scratch using her pre-apocalypse weak body.

As a Night Ranger, agility was her strength. But now, she was getting countered. Purely power-wise, Dwun was stronger. But he was a power type, unable to match her in terms of speed.

So, most of the time, she was on the offensive while Dwun used his abilities to be on the defensive. She naturally countered him.

But now, even though her opponent wasn't as powerful as Dwun, since she was being countered by him, he was as tough an opponent to her as Dwun.

Shika shot multiple arrows at the horned men, noticing most of them disintegrating along the way as they rushed into the countless particles of the burst element released by the three-horned man.

"What's your purpose of infiltrating here?" He asked, his voice booming.

'System, how am I supposed to leave this place?' She was flustered for a moment, asking her System in habit. But, there was no reply, causing her to grunt in response.

The Night Ranger System was just enjoying the chaos, unconcerned about her life and death. Well, to be frank, it wasn't possible for her to die at this stage, considering the amount of Mental Energy it had amassed.

It was not to mention the stream of Mental Energy that was gushing into her body due to the people that were alerted by her presence.

'The Host's mental state is perfect! The amount of Mental Energy I'm getting is a lot higher than usual. The quality is significantly better. She's slowly becoming more and more perfect as a Host.' Of course, the Night Ranger System was almost intoxicated to even care about her.

It was slowly approaching the Mental Energy necessary to upgrade itself to Level 11.

Moreover, it hadn't bought any Skills from the Astral Network like the other Systems, breaking down its Core Skill into multiple abilities. They were then converted into Skills that it awarded Shika. This way, it was able to derive new abilities eventually that weren't just fragmentation of its Core Ability, but an actual Skill, a derivate from its Core Skill.

This was something only a rare few Systems were capable of achieving, especially those from the monetary genre.

So, everything Shika possessed was only part of one bundle—the Night Ranger Core Skill. The Core Skill displayed in her status window was just a fragment of the actual Night Ranger Core Skill.

The reason it had done this was simple. Absorbing power from a System that didn't belong to its genre would only harm it, stunting its growth.

This was true even for the Skills bought in the Astral Network. That was why, when it didn't feel absolutely necessary, most Systems would rather choose to buy one-use Skills. This wouldn't harm their growth.

Though, most Hatchling Systems would choose to buy as many Skills as they could afford. It was because, without those, the survival of their Hosts wasn't guaranteed, especially once the scale of their involvement became big enough in the world.

With some extra Skills, they could contently give the Host more rewards and always place him in difficult spots. He would emerge victorious one way or another.

Their growth this way would be the fastest. And once they reach level 10, they could begin reselling the Skills that they had bought to erase all their injuries.

That was why those that weren't Hatchling Systems didn't possess anything beyond their Core Skills. Or at most, they would have some really interesting or useful Skills.

As it had been at Level 10 for a long time already, it had already begun preparations to graduate from being a Hatchling System, planning to take a step beyond and reach Level 11.