Free Web NovelChapter 25: The Final KP Grind
The system screen was still open when he got downstairs.
[Kill Points: 350]
[Next Multiplier Upgrade: 1,000 KP Required]
He needed six hundred and fifty more KP before the mission. Before he walked into a Rank 2 ruin full of fog-enhanced monsters with a team that didn’t know he had a separate mission hiding inside the same trip.
He closed the system screen.
Going in at seven-star was already a massive jump from where he had been yesterday. His body could handle a lot more now. But a better multiplier meant he could absorb more, learn faster, react faster, and hit harder inside those ruins when it counted.
He refused to leave the upgrade on the table.
Then he opened the door and stepped into the night.
The Verdant Expanse was behind the academy’s eastern boundary wall.
It was on the official maps as a restricted zone. With its thick trees and rough ground, it was already hard to move through. To make things worse, the monster population had grown out of control because no students were allowed inside without a supervised team to protect them.
Holden found the gap in the boundary wall.
It wasn’t even hidden. It was just a spot where the stones had moved and the gap between them was wide enough for a person to slip through sideways.
He slipped through gap.
The trees swallowed him immediately.
Crunch.
He stepped on dry leaves. The tree branches above were so thick that the moonlight couldn’t get through, leaving the ground very dark.
He activated Gale-Step.
Whoosh.
He disappeared into the dark.
He ran into his first pack of monsters. Actually, he spotted them before they saw him.
There were five Rank 1 Fang-Wolves moving through the bushes about forty meters to his left. He spotted the glow of their eyes before he heard them.
Holden watched them from the trees. He had climbed up without even thinking about it. While he was watching the wolves, his body just knew what to do. Seven-Star had apparently included better instincts.
He counted. There were five of them.
He dropped from the trees.
Thud.
He landed in the middle of the pack before they could scatter. He pulled out his Star-Forged sword in one smooth move. He took out all five wolves in just four seconds. He didn’t waste any movement, and he only had to hit each one once to finish them.
Slash. Slash. Thump. Slash. Thud.
The system pinged five times.
[+10 KP]
[+10 KP]
[+10 KP]
[+10 KP]
[+10 KP]
[Kill Points: 400]
The next two hours showed him exactly how much stronger he had become. If he was still 4-Star, the forest would have been scary. He would have worried about the shadows and worked hard to defeat the monsters. Now that he was a 7-Star, the forest felt like a training ground.
Holden went through the woods without making any noise. Instead of breaking branches, he flowed around them. His footsteps were quiet. His Gale-Step technique had become so natural that it was like a habit. it felt like he just chose where to be and he was there.
He found a pair of Iron-Shell Crabs near a dry creek bed. fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm
Clang. Crack.
Two quick strikes were all it took.
[+20 KP]
[+20 KP]
He saw a group of three boars near a fallen tree.
Whoosh.
They were dead before they even had a chance to look back.
[+10 KP]
[+10 KP]
[+10 KP]
He found a Shadow-Crawler, which was a Rank 1 (4-Star) predator and would have been a serious problem a week ago.
It lunged at him out of the dark with a hiss.
CRACK.
One strike. He didn’t even draw the sword for that one.
[+50 KP]
He paused after that, looking at his fist. freēwēbηovel.c૦m
"Okay," he said. "That’s new."
An hour before dawn, he stopped to check his screen.
[Kill Points: 950]
He was standing in a small clearing near the end of the forest and looking like a mess. He was covered in so much blood. His jacket and hands were stained.
He probably should have thought more carefully about that before leaving the house in his good jacket.
He rolled up the sleeves and looked around the clearing.
The forest had gone very quiet.
That wasn’t unusual. He’d killed enough things in the last two hours that the local wildlife had probably decided to relocate until whatever was causing the problem left.
But this quiet felt different.
Not the quiet of animals clearing out.
The quiet of something bigger moving in.
He stood still.
He needed fifty more KP.
He turned slowly, scanning the treeline.
The shadows between the trees didn’t move.
But something in them did.
