Cipher looked around him. He had recovered his full mana now.
He remembered that when he leveled up, the cards in the shop reset. He decided to check the Cheat Shop to gain some info on the available cards, even though he couldn't afford any yet.
The packs were the usual - a Mod Pack and a Code Pack. He guessed there were no Cheat and Skill Packs. Or maybe the chances of spawning were just too low.
As for the cards this time, he got a Blank Card and a Fork Card.
Blank Card (Mod Card): Applies "Negative" edition - doesn't count toward your skill limit (enables 6/5 builds)
Fork Card (Code Card): Creates an exact duplicate copy of a target skill
The Blank Card was definitely useful. When one awakened, they usually received five skill slots, and every major level up, they received an additional skill slot. His skill slots were almost full and he'd gain only one additional at Level 10, but with a Blank Card, he could do any build he wanted without restrictions.
As for the Fork Card, he didn't see the use to be honest. Why would you clone a skill you already have?
But he realized something. What if the forked skill was an independent skill? In that case, they would have separate cooldowns and he could switch between them. And if it had an edition, would it fork that too?
Although it wasn't as useless as he'd initially thought, he still didn't think he needed it for his current build. Even with more Assassinates, his mana was still the hard limit.
He waved his hand to close the shop.
He realized that he'd been gone for quite a while now. He decided to not fight anymore and focus on finding his way back to base.
…
Half an hour later, Cipher was standing atop a tree, looking in every direction.
He still couldn't find a way back to base. He wondered if he'd fallen into some sort of illusion.
At that moment, he heard a growling sound. He looked below and saw a huge boar-like dark monster.
He began panicking, but when he activated his Mana Sense, he felt that it had D-rank mana. He was a little relieved by this - it meant it was a mage type.
Before he could even decide his move, the monster rushed toward the tree he was on and smashed its head into it, breaking the tree.
Cipher jumped onto another tree.
"On second thought, maybe it's not a mage type," he thought.
The monster turned to the tree he was on and charged at it again. Cipher just jumped to another tree. He did this a few times.
"This isn't working," he thought.
He had done this to create a commotion so the others would detect his location, but it didn't seem to be working. He decided to finish off the monster before even higher-level monsters came.
As the monster rushed to knock over the tree he was on, he timed it and jumped off. The moment it made contact with the tree, he was already above it.
He activated Aura and condensed mana coated his dagger. He then activated Assassinate and aimed at the monster's neck.
But before he could make contact, the monster turned and seemed to use some sort of defensive skill that knocked Cipher back, causing him to crash onto a tree.
The monster then rushed at him. Cipher quickly got up, jumping and grabbing a tree branch and swinging on it to leap onto another tree as the monster broke down the tree he had crashed on.
"I've been careless. I should've known," he thought as he caught his breath.
No wonder every E-rank monster he'd found had E-rank mana. He had found that quite weird but hadn't bothered to think about it. It seemed monsters were different from people.
Now that he thought about it, it was quite obvious. Monsters didn't have the ability to specialize in a single path like humans did through stat distribution. This meant that monsters at D-rank would almost always be D-rank all the way around - Agility, Strength, Stamina, mana, everything.
No wonder you needed a group of the same rank to take down a monster.
The monster rushed toward the tree he was on and he jumped once again. He kept doing this until his Assassinate cooldown ended, then he jumped toward the monster.
As he descended toward the monster, he noticed it turn toward him. It was just like before - it was about to use that defensive ability once again.
Using Mana Sense, he was able to see it clearly. It was some sort of mana forcefield ability.
He flipped in the air, moving past the area of the forcefield which was in front of the monster's head. As he flipped, he ran his dagger through the monster's back where the mana forcefield wasn't protecting.
The monster let out a loud scream.
He landed on the ground and took advantage of the monster being stunned to land a few more strikes to its back with his dagger before Aura's duration ended. Although he didn't do as much damage as before due to not having Assassinate on, he was still able to do quite a bit of damage before the monster came to and kicked him back.
He landed and instantly got to running, jumping onto another tree. He breathed heavily.
He now had just sixty mana left. He could use another two Assassinates, or another one Aura.
The monster charged at the tree and knocked it over. He jumped to another one.
Thankfully, the monster didn't seem all that intelligent. With the injuries he had dealt to it, he just needed it to get tired and he could take advantage of the situation to strike.
He kept jumping over trees as the monster kept following him, its movements getting more and more sloppy as time went on.
When Cipher noticed that it had gotten considerably tired, he finally decided to make his move.
He activated Aura and charged at the monster.
The boar swung its massive head toward him.
Cipher ducked under the strike, slashing at its front leg with his aura-coated dagger.
The monster roared and swiped with its hoof. Cipher raised his dagger defensively. The impact sent shockwaves up his arm, but the mana layer absorbed most of the damage. He was pushed back several meters, his feet skidding across the dirt.
The boar didn't give him time to recover. It charged again, slower now but still dangerous.
He sidestepped, bringing his dagger down across its flank. Another shriek. Another wound.
The monster was breathing hard now, black miasma leaking from multiple wounds. It charged one more time.
Cipher waited until the last moment, then dropped low and drove his aura-coated dagger up through its throat. He quickly rolled away as the monster collapsed to the ground before dissolving into dark mist.
[You have slain D-rank Demon (Level 30)]
[+16,000 EXP]
[+40 Cheat Points]
[You have leveled up!]
[You have leveled up!]
He lay on his back. Finally, he thought, breathing heavily.
But suddenly, he felt his entire body freeze up.
Above him, he saw a humanoid monster that stared right into his soul. He tried to force himself to move, but he couldn't do anything.
Through his Mana Sense skill, he saw that the monster before him had almost ten times more mana than the one he had just fought.