Chapter 96: Unexpected Radiance

The speed and power behind the incoming arrows were much greater than the ones faced before. The air surrounding the arrows seemed to ripple as if it was almost puncturing through the surface of water. Kieran reacted before he could think. As the first arrow grew close, he angled his blade and slashed horizontally.

The strike hit the arrowhead just right, causing the arrow to veer off its path at an angle great enough to avoid the party. Sadly, accomplishing this once didn't mean anything with a volley of arrows being fired in quick bursts.

"In a situation like this, I very much prefer it to be raining cats and dogs instead of arrows," Bastion groaned softly. Still, despite his comment, Bastion remained focused as a burst of pressure surged from his body with a faint cerulean hue. The pressure only lasted for two seconds, but he deflected several arrows during that time.

This burst of energy was one of the Guardian Knight's skills meant to deal with projectile attacks. As a class famed for its impregnable defensive qualities, his skill applications came in many different forms.

Afterward, almost as if they shared a bonded brain cell, Nemean and Bastion simultaneously slammed their shields into the ground. The only difference between their actions was that while Bastion only impacted the ground with a single shield, Nemean used both.

Although there was a difference in the number, the overall intensity of their strikes was more or less similar. The Shield Tremor traveled for tens of meters, rumbling the ground severely enough to impede the accuracy of the next volley of arrows.

Since these two worked quickly to make an opportunity for the team, Kieran acted rapidly. "Altair, Luna—go! Alice, prepare one of your large spells but be mindful of Luna and Altair's positioning."

"What about you?" Alice questioned back. Every time Kieran delivered orders, it felt like he omitted himself from them. Thus, Alice wasn't sure if he was confident in his ability or if he wasn't used to voicing what his role would be.

Nevertheless, Kieran shook his head. "It'll be fine. There is no reason to worry about me. If I ever need assistance, you'll hear me ask for it."

Alice quietly nodded before focusing on the long staff in her hand. A light breeze formed a faint spiral around her as she mouthed what seemed to be an incantation. Shockingly, there was no sound as she spoke, almost as if the wind robbed her ability to enunciate.

With Alice making the proper preparations and Altair and Luna locked in combat against the bow-wielding large goblins not too far away, Kieran rushed into battle alongside them.

Bang!

Kieran engaged with an explosive leap. As he crossed more than 20 meters, the faint metallic smell of blood wafted through the air while Kieran's weapon seethed with an unsettling presence. Several small bloody arcs fired from Kieran's weapon the moment he brandished his weapon.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

The bloody blades whizzed past Nemean and Bastion, causing them the freeze in fright. Those attacks had come dangerously close, but when they looked back, they were only met with a gust of wind slamming against their cheeks. Naturally, this was the aftereffects of Kieran speeding past them.

At the same time, Kieran's attack landed upon five of the large goblins far away. Although he was in possession of the Goblin Slayer title and his Health was now nearing 50%, the damage was far from what Kieran was expecting since this was a skill received after his transformation.

-4,075

-3,810

-3,935

Numbers ranging from the high 3,000s to the low 4,000s appeared. Still, after witnessing the damage of Fury Rush, Wild Crash, and Crimson Current, Kieran felt this skill called Crimson Barrage was truly underwhelming despite its fearsome appearance. Thus, Kieran pulled up the skill information to analyze the issue.

「 Crimson Barrage (Lv.1)

Skill Rank: C

Skill Type: Active

Mastery (02.50%)

Description: By harnessing the power of Blood Mania, the True Berserker can launch up to six blades of blood. Each blade carries power equal to 415% of the user's Attack Power. However, the attack loses 10% of its integrity for every 5 meters traveled, up to a maximum of 50% loss. (As your power to wield blood attacks fueled by madness increases, this penalty will decrease.)

Consumption: 1% Health and 40 Mana

Prerequisites: «Blood Mania» (Active)

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Cooldown: 36 seconds 」

Overall, the skill wasn't bad at all. It dealt a decent amount of damage with a relatively low cooldown. Kieran's only gripe with the skill was the penalty assigned to it. While he understood the logic behind why it would lose power over time since his control of the Blood Mania power wasn't that strong, 10% was a drastic decrease.

'No wonder it was so weak; more than twenty meters separates me from those monsters. Although this attack has the ability to be a long-range attack, it is probably only viable once mastered. At first, I thought Blood Mania at its current level would be sufficient, but it seems I was wrong. Many of my skills base their current power on Blood Mania's level. The only issue is… it's an S Rank skill. They're costly to increase in terms of Skill Points,' Kieran thought.

He had once thought to dump his skill points into Blood Mania the moment he learned of its effects. After all, such a significant increase in Attack Power was too tempting to ignore. However, as an S-Rank Skill, Blood Mania required 50 SP per level to level it up. If he were to use his current supply of Skill Points, he would only be to raise its level by two. Given that skill would only receive their first considerable boost at Lv.5, Kieran felt it wasn't worth it, especially on a passive that held a percent modifier.

Chances were that the modifier would barely increase for the large amounts of Skill Points sacrificed. Thus, Kieran set aside the matter for the time being. As far as rapidly improving his power went, his best bet was to level up once more and fulfill the criteria to equip the Crimson Ashrune. Its latent effects were tailored to his class and would undoubtedly propel his power forward by a decent amount.

Angered shrieks echoed throughout the cave as Kieran followed up his attack with a Crimson Current. Even the goblins being handled by Luna and Altair were affected by this attack and lost roughly 6% of their Health.

"This guy's Attack Power is insane. You promote your class once and turn into a monster lawnmower, Jesus Christ," Altair commented. He was taken aback by Kieran's ability to deal as much damage in one hit as Altair dealt in five to seven. Granted, the time Altair took to execute all those attacks was nearly identical to Kieran. The advantage of possessing two weapons and high attack speed was not to be overlooked.

Thus, on the damage analysis chart that could be viewed in the party menu, Kieran's contribution only beat Altair and Luna by 5-6%. Of course, these numbers weren't a clear depiction of what they could perform because Kieran was somewhat unlucky. Both Luna and Altair leveled up quicker than him.

So, while Kieran was still at Lv.24, a golden radiance coated Altair and Luna's bodies, revealing that they had reached Lv.25. Shortly after, both of them demonstrated new skills that drastically increased their damage. Within two minutes, a stream of notifications appeared before the entire party.

〈System: You have gained 6,499 Experience.〉

This message appeared before everyone with each of the large goblin archers that fell. Before they knew it, the entire cave passageway was filled with mutilated goblin bodies and broken arrows, followed by the string of golden lights flashing in the ever-present darkness.

Everyone except for Kieran had experienced at least one level up.

'I know that rewards are worth it, but partying with others makes the drawback of a tripled experience requirement kind of disconcerting,' Kieran thought while lightly scratching his head with a bitter smile. His experience was barely 70% full at this time.

Conversely, aside from Luna, the others chatted about the new skills they gained accessibility to at Lv.25. Because monsters would only become more challenging to fight, the higher level skills scaled accordingly. Even if they were of the same rank as their precedent skills, the base damage or effects were greater in comparison.

Luna slowly approached Kieran after noticing his unusual behavior. "Something wrong? Is there something we missed here?"

"No, not really. But, the floor isn't complete; otherwise, we would have received a notification," Kieran answered.

Although he answered her, Luna felt he was avoiding something. Call it a womanly instinct, but some of his body language remained the same despite Kieran changing his expression. For example, the faint frown and lip quiver that happened every time his eyes wandered to his experience bar.

After looking at the party menu, Luna noticed that while Altair had reached Lv.26 and most of the party was Lv.25, only Nemean and Kieran failed to reach that level.

"It has something to do with your level, doesn't it?" Luna asked.

At first, Kieran looked at her with faint surprise but eventually nodded. "Yeah, this is what happens when you choose to steer away from normalcy and chase perfection. In the beginning, all that awaits you is disappointment. But, if you have the discipline to push past the disappointment, it'll be worth it in the end."

"I've… heard that before," Luna muttered while staring directly into Kieran's eyes.

"From?"

"My mother," Luna answered.

"A wise woman," Kieran nodded back.

Surprisingly, a radiant smile graced Luna's otherwise indifferent expression when Kieran gave this compliment. It was clear that the love she carried for her mother was genuine if a simple compliment gained this type of reaction. Unfortunately, Kieran didn't know now that this breathtaking smile masked unspoken pain.

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