Chapter 48 One Long Night#12
I haven't talked about levelling up, have I? Well... to be honest, there are three ways to level up for a person possessing the system.
One way is to have experience. It sounds easy right? Well, it's not. To get experience means to have a valid experience that improves your life expectancy or perhaps your survival instinct by a notch. It could be a life and death situation or perhaps an event that changed your life completely or even a sudden enlightenment that could help you break your limits, maybe.
The other way is to absorb the monster cores. While relatively easier, it works more for low grade systems than higher grade systems. One reason could be the amount of energy it requires to get to the next level, for a high level system user it is much more than a low level system user. It is basically cultivation for those who don't get the chance to face life or death, or any similar situations.
The last way is by getting special quests that upgrade your levels rather than giving you stat points directly.
All in all, other than a measurement of one's ability, levelling up gives you only two special effects... and those are stat points and special skills. Each level up gives you a stat point for leveling up any stat you have. While getting to a certain level will unlock your special skill for you.
While levels determine your power level up to a certain limit, it is not really a definite factor to say that you are weaker than those with level higher than you or vice versa.
.......
"Rheo Delacruz, just what are you trying to do? Can't you see what this kid just did? He is more important than the entire planet's resources right now," Viscardi spoke with a hint of glare in his eyes. He couldn't understand the reason behind Rheo's actions, however the next words that Rheo spoke made it more or less clear for him.
"Father-in-law wants me to save him."
Hearing his words, Viscardi stopped and took a few steps back with clear fear in his eyes. Not only him, but the agents and the others who were preparing to move against Zero also stopped in their tracks. They looked at Rheo with a dumbfounded expression before they looked at Zero again.
Viscardi after contemplating for some time spoke,"Capturing him is worth taking the wrath of Mark Leeway. I would rather die than leave from here without even trying to get him."
At his words, people's feelings changed, and they began thinking of capturing Zero as well. However,
"Who said you were going to leave, anyway?" Zero spoke with slight confusion on his face. Tilting his head, he spoke with slight ridicule,"Just what gave you the idea that you are going to leave alive from here?"
Viscardi looked at Zero with a bit of a complex expression. It looked like he was trying to figure out exactly what was the situation right now.
"You are so cocky for someone who has such low mana," one of the men under the agent spoke with a little bit of a smirk over his scared face. Looks like he was trying to muster courage as much as he could.
Zero turned to him and spoke nonchalantly while beginning to stretch out,"are you...mmmm.. A retard?"
That man looks at Zero with a questioning gaze and, ignoring him, Zero then begins walking towards Viscardi one step at a time.
"I mean... When I came here, I came alone. Did you really think that I didn't have any plans to fight against all of you?" Zero stretched his fingers before taking out his scythe and placing it on his fingers.
Astraea looked at Zero and her eyes widened again as she realised what Zero was planning.
"I mean, there could be confusion before, but after I changed the fate of that girl over there with the spirit right beside me? No way in hell you guys would be foolish enough to attack me without being cautious that I might have more cards up my sleeve, would you? Oh, wait, you actually did!! Well, you guys are that much of an idiot, all right. All I could say is....Pathetic! Retard! It always amazes me to see people like you exist. Maybe living in such a carefree environment has given you guys the luxury to think like that," Zero said, angry at their behaviour.
'If people of middle echelon are this stupid, that means the higher echelon should have some similar people.
If that is the case, then it would be very very annoying to get them to work according to me. Maybe I need to kill some weeds from the best farm too,' he thought as he pondered over his future plans.
"Blood Sacrifice: Zeroth moon" Zero spoke and his eyes turn reddish green before finally turning purple as both the colours mixed. His blood flow partially reversed and as of this moment he was using both the power of blood and Astraea's and Hygeia's magic together.
"I know you might be hating it b-" He spoke to Astraea but before he could complete her next words shocked him...
"It's okay. You can use my magic as you like."
Zero's eyes widened at her words cause normally it is very painful for spirits to give power to a body who uses blood magic.
"It's not painful. Your spirit nature and the way you use spirit magic are different from other beings. You don't use the same vessel for blood magic and spirit magic, but have them separated from each other. The only part they get mixed at, are your eyes, but that much just tickles," she spoke as if she read Zero's mind.
'So this means, I can fight on an equal ground with an A-grade freely, huh? Nice! Nice!' He thought with a jolly expression but...
"Though our time limit decreases by 90 percent when you use that magic together with ours," spreading water all over his happy thoughts, Astraea spoke without mercy. Looks like she didn't completely like him using blood magic along with her spirit magic.
'Well, that much is understandable. Hmm... since I can use spirit magic for about 30 minutes with Astraea, then that means I have about one and a half minutes left. All right, that much is enough for me. Blood Sacrifice should go on for another 2 minutes, but let's end it with spirit magic as well,'Zero think and then dashes without wasting anymore time, as he speaks,"Shadow Style: Death Reaper's Curse"
-Swish f𝚛e𝗲𝔀e𝚋𝑛o𝘃𝒆𝗹.c𝗼𝒎
Watching Zero dash, Viscardi looked at him as if a monster had jumped at him. He immediately activated his Vampire Hunter's insignia, which boosted his power against blood magic by a margin, and prepared to block Zero's attack with his long sword.
However...
"What the..." Rheo spoke with a shocked expression as he looked at Zero's scythe wielding. It wasn't just him, but everyone else who was watching his scythe play made a shocked expression. Williamson and Mark Leeway jumped up from their seats subconsciously.
And all that was because,
-Slash
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Zero moved his scythe in about 3 different directions within a single moment. By the time Viscardi tried to block his attack from one side, another attack came from two other sides. His eyes were looking for an opening, but by the time he took his stance, another dozen slashes had already taken place.
It wasn't just that Zero was fast, but that those attacks were so fluid and swift that it didn't give any chances to the opponent to take a break. However, only Zero knew that they weren't powerful enough to kill him so...
'Now to move on to the next step,' Zero thinks as he increases the power of attacks.
-Slash
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This time the attacks were less fluid, but since he was already out of momentum, all of Zero's attacks kept Viscardi busy. He tried to make a break but couldn't, and out of fear perhaps he shouted,"[Silver Hunter]" as his eyes changed into silver with his nerves beginning to bulge on his face and hands.
His sword began shining brightly, and he dashed towards Zero at an insane speed. Zero, however, smiled at this and spoke,"Shadow Style: Zero Momentum" and then took a step back and parried the first attack of Viscardi with so much force that he ended up losing all his momentum.
Not giving Viscardi a chance, Zero then immediately cut his legs into pieces with another single powerful strike.
-Slash
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The others looked at Zero with a horrified expression as they saw him slashing Viscardi's legs. They couldn't understand why he would be so ruthless towards Viscardi, who was here just to save Elle. Even Elle herself was confused why Zero was doing this... though, he doesn't have the luxury to tell her anything right now.
He moved towards Viscardi one step at a time, and then all of a sudden someone moved towards him. Turning around, Zero saw Elle moving towards him with a furious expression.
? 'Man, this is going to be a pain to deal with,' he thought, annoyed at the sudden development but...
-Thud
Someone knocked her unconscious all of a sudden from behind and which made Zero quite shocked as he saw the person who did it. It was Annabeth.
'Why?' he questioned as he looked at her for answers, however she didn't speak anything before picking up Elizabeth in her arms and then nodding at him as she spoke,"Thank you."
After that, she started running away from there in front of everyone at a rapid speed before she vanished from everyone's eyesight.
'Did I miss something... well let's first kill these bastards and then deal with other things,'Zero pondered as he turned back to Viscardi who was even more dumbfounded at her sudden decision. 'Now, isn't that an amazing expression to make?' Zero smiled at Viscardi's dumbstruck face?
"Hmmm... Rheo. Kill that agent and the others,"Zero speaks and Rheo smiles a bit before moving towards them at a rapid speed.
' I would have killed them personally, if I had more time, but alas it's a pity,' Zero thought as he moved closer to Viscardi who was crawling away from there without making any noise. 'Looks like he is suppressing his sound to make an escape... how futile,' Zero thought before he realised something...
'Ah! That's it!' Zero realised as he looked at him, crawling away slowly and swiftly.
"Pfft... Hahahahahahaha...." Zero laughed before thinking, 'It's fascinating. How fascinating... to think that a skill that allows you to turn invisible could be so useless. Perhaps it makes you invisible against normal vision but against spirit vision... looks like it doesn't work.'
Hearing Zero laugh, he stopped and turned back and looked at him for a few moments before finally realising that Zero could see him. At this, his eyes turned even more horrified, and Zero couldn't help but smirk at his face.
'For people who kill someone, who can save the entire world, just because they felt like... I have no mercy in my heart,' Zero thought before jumping towards him and began attacking him by slashing his throat first, just enough to disable him from making any sound. From there he kills him as painfully as possible, slowly and slowly for the next minute and finally his powers run out and so does Viscardi's pathetic life.
Astraea vanished in front of him with a complex expression on her face. Zero's eyes turn to Rheo, who has already killed the other agents and is waiting for him to give any more commands.
"Can you erase the evidence?" Zero asks him with slight curiosity and he shakes his head, denying it. Zero then ponders over something before sighing and speaking,"Ask Mark Leeway to erase every footage from here and you too leave from here. My work is done here."
Then Rheo looks at Zero for a few moments before nodding and then vanishing from there, while Zero moves away from their hiding his presence.
His next destination was... Bryxton's Night Auction.
"It's time to meet Lucia."