Chapter 9: Vanishing Steps

Whoosh!

Lucas swung the sword in his hand, separating the head of a green goblin from its neck in a single clean strike.

[You have leveled up]

[You have acquired 5 Stat Points]

[You have Plundered the ability 'Minor Strength Boost' from your victim]

[Your ability 'Minor Strength Boost' has gained some experience]

[Your ability 'Minor Strength Boost' has leveled up]

{Minor Strength Boost(Lv. Max): Permanently increases Strength by 15}

After killing his first three green goblins, Lucas continued to wander the dungeon for more green goblins to hunt.

"That should be the 8th green goblin that I have killed today..." Lucas mumbled to himself as he went to pick up the Mana Crystal it'd dropped.

He then looked at his Minor Strength Boost ability.

'Maxed... Does this mean it won't increase any further? 15 Strength is pretty good. That's like 3 whole levels.'

Lucas now wondered what other abilities he would obtain if he killed monsters that were not green goblins.

However, he has only encountered green goblins in this dungeon, so he can only continue to use his imaginations.

'Maybe if I go deeper into the dungeon I will encounter something different, but if I do that, I will also encounter stronger monsters...'

While he was pretty confident in his ability to slaughter green goblins after killing many of them, he wasn't confident that he'll be able to take on stronger monsters.

After pondering for a moment, Lucas decided to traverse a little deeper into the dungeon. If he deems it to be too dangerous, he can simply run away to safety.

'Cowards will never move forward. If I want to become stronger, I must overcome my fears!' Lucas told himself.

About an hour later, Lucas came to a sudden halt and even lowered his body.

In the distance, there was a large four-legged creature that resembled a dog walking slowly, but it looked much fiercer and had long white fur, and it would be around the size of an adult human if it stood up.

'That looks like a wolf... And it looks incredibly dangerous...' Lucas thought to himself, wondering if he should take on this monster.

Unfortunately, he didn't have anything on him that could check a monster's level, or he would've made a decision already.

The monsters in this dungeon were between the levels of 5 and 15 according to Guild, and judging by its fearsome appearance, there was a good chance that this monster was above level 10, meaning that he wouldn't be able to use his Devastate in case he cannot take care of it with his sword.

'Wait a second... Something doesn't look right...'

Lucas suddenly noticed something about the monster— it appeared to be bleeding. Furthermore, upon closer inspection, this monster also appeared to be limping slightly as it walked.

This made Lucas wonder if this monster had been in a fight recently and was still trying to recover from its injuries.

'This is great!' Lucas laughed inwardly.

Knowing that the wolf was injured, he was no longer as reluctant to confront it.

After taking a deep breath, Lucas tightened his grip on the sword before slowly approaching the wolf from behind.

He also made sure that he didn't step on any branches by accident after learning from his previous mistakes.

However, even without stepping on any branches, the wolf still noticed Lucas due to its sharp senses, something he didn't expect.

When the wolf noticed Lucas, it immediately began growling at him, but it didn't attack him like he'd expected.

Lucas stood there in silence, acting like a statue, fearing that the wolf might attack him the moment he made even the slightest movement.

'Is it not attacking me because it's not in the condition to fight, forcing it to try and scare me away?'

Lucas suddenly had this thought.

After a moment of silence, Lucas decided to test the water by moving a single step towards it.

The wolf immediately roared at him, yet it didn't pounce on him.

Lucas smiled inwardly when he saw this, and he decided to take another step forward... and another.

Despite taking a dozen steps, the wolf refused to attack him.

Lucas was confident that the wolf was too injured to fight properly by now.

A grin appeared on Lucas' face, and he began running at the wolf.

Seeing Lucas running at it, the wolf had no choice but to fight despite its injuries.

A moment later, just as Lucas raised his sword and prepared to strike, the wolf took a step forward and turned into a blur, taking Lucas by surprise.

'It disappeared!'

Lucas was shocked when the wolf suddenly disappeared in front of him.

'No... behind!'

Realizing this, Lucas swiftly turned around while swinging the sword.

However, the wolf disappeared again right before his sword could reach it.

'What kind of ability is it using?! It's moving so fast that I cannot see it!'

The wolf would continue to appear for a brief moment before it disappeared again, keeping Lucas on the edge.

Fortunately for Lucas, his Perception was boosted, allowing him to instinctually sense and react to the wolf whenever it got close to him, and after a few minutes, he eventually got used to the wolf's ability and insane speed, not to mention the wolf also became slower as time went on.

As for the wolf, it could only continue to use its abilities to try and catch Lucas off guard, as Lucas would barely protect himself before it could touch him, and it wasn't in any condition to take even a single hit, so it didn't dare risk it.

After a few more moments, the wolf suddenly stopped moving when one of its fatal wounds opened up, causing its body to freeze for a brief moment.

However, this brief moment was all Lucas needed to react.

"Hah!"

Lucas swung the sword before letting it go mid-motion, throwing the sword directly at the wolf!

The wolf released a painful howl when the sword stabbed into its body.

Lucas didn't stop moving when he threw the sword, and he immediately began running at the wolf with a kitchen knife in his hand.

Once he was close enough, Lucas stabbed the kitchen knife directly between its eyes.

The knife pierced its skull after some resistance before reaching its brain.

Lucas quickly pulled the knife out afterward before stabbing it again for a second time, and he would repeatedly stab the wolf until it could no longer move.

The wolf's corpse disintegrated into the air a few moments later, leaving behind a Mana Crystal that was much larger than the ones dropped by green goblins.

Lucas panted heavily afterward, his heart beating with excitement.

Notifications appeared a moment later.

[You have leveled up]

[You have acquired 5 Stat Points]

[You have Plundered the ability 'Vanishing Steps' from your victim]

{Vanishing Steps(Lv. 1): Vanish into thin air with every step you take. Consumes 5 mana for every five steps you take.}

'I managed to plunder that wolf's weird ability? This is great, but its mana consumption appears quite high...' Lucas thought to himself as he inspected the new skill that he'd acquired.

He planned on trying it out, but before he could do anything, he heard multiple footsteps resounding not far from his location, and they sounded like they were running.

Lucas picked up the sword on the ground and prepared for another battle.

A moment later, three figures appeared before him— three men that had many visible wounds on their bodies, almost like they were in a fierce battle recently.

Lucas relaxed a little when he realized that they weren't monsters.

These three people didn't say anything to Lucas and took a moment to look at the surroundings, looking like they were searching for something.

"You there, have you seen a white wolf pass by this area? We heard its cry coming from this direction not long ago." One of them asked him.

Another one then spoke, "We were fighting it until it ran away."

Lucas didn't immediately answer them as he wasn't sure what he should say.

He wanted to say that he didn't see the wolf, but the evidence in the form of blood around him said otherwise.

Thus, he could only tell the truth.

"I killed it," he said in a calm voice.

"You what?! That was our prey! How dare you steal our kill!"

"That's right! We'd exhausted all of our resources trying to defeat it! One of our partners even died fighting it!"

"We demand compensation!"

As he'd expected, the three men were immediately infuriated.

One would normally feel bad for these three, but Lucas wasn't normal, as he could only feel glee from their misfortune.

A grin appeared on Lucas' face, and he said to them in a nonchalant voice, "You snooze, you lose."

"You little fucker!"

Hearing his words, the three of them drew their weapons and pointed them at him.