CHAPTER 35: PRACTICE RUN

"Cipher," Selene called out to him.

"Is something wrong?" he asked.

"Somewhat," she said. "I might’ve miscalculated a little." She paused. "I don’t think we can make it to the sixth checkpoint. Why don’t we end it at the next checkpoint?"

"Next checkpoint? Why?" Cipher asked in confusion. It had been going well up until now. "Did something happen?" he asked.

Selene glanced at the rest of the party. "Well... I failed to account for the rest of our party when doing my earlier estimation," she said.

Cipher glanced at the others.

"No need to worry about us, Captain. We’re still strong as ever," Dante said, flexing his muscles.

"I can still move on," Maya said.

"Thanks to that strange recovery magic by the hero, we recover quickly," Ryker said.

Cipher wondered what she was so worried about with such a perfect exp farm scenario.

"But stamina recovery doesn’t do much for awakeners like us," she said. "What matters most is mana, and they don’t have dedicated mana recovery skills so it’ll be hard for them to continue for extended periods."

Cipher nodded. Indeed, he had failed to account for this since he had the Mana Recovery skill. "I see. We should indeed wrap it up at the next checkpoint," he said. "Why don’t we go all out and do the best we can before returning?" Cipher suggested.

The party agreed, but Cipher noticed that Dante and Maya seemed a little down. It seemed they felt guilty for letting down the team. Ryker had advanced to C-rank in the Murim World, and although Dante had advanced to D-rank and Maya had advanced to E-rank, the difference wasn’t all that huge.

"No need to be so down. This was a practice run anyway. We would’ve stopped early either way since we don’t have enough preparation. Next time, we’ll bring more equipment and other resources to try the full playthrough," Cipher said with a smile.

When Maya and Dante heard this, their expressions brightened significantly.

"Alright, let’s keep moving. This will be the last checkpoint, so let’s make it count," he said.

"Yes, boss!" the two saluted, causing Cipher to facepalm.

"Thanks," Selene said to Cipher as they continued walking.

"For what? I just said what I thought," he said. "I was so eager to level up for my own selfish reasons that I forgot about the others. We didn’t even make proper preparations, which could’ve been dangerous. I’ll try to do it right next time."

Selene observed him. Cipher was really different.

As she thought this, a huge explosion suddenly erupted at the front of the group. Dark miasma began rising all around them, then condensing together to form undead monsters.

"This is the third checkpoint. The monsters are mostly E-rank and D-rank," Selene explained.

...

Cipher observed the monsters around them, his sword ready.

Since this was the last checkpoint, he needed to go all out. This meant he would stop targeting E-ranks and go right for the D-rank monsters for fast leveling. This also meant he would have to stop checking the shop every level up and actually lock in.

He spotted a D-rank undead knight coming straight for him, its rusted armor clanking with each step. With ESP, Cipher was always aware of all surrounding monsters. And with appraisal, he could easily find out their stats and quickly formulate a way to counter the specific monster.

He dashed forward, closing the distance in an instant.

The undead knight swung its massive sword down. Cipher sidestepped, dragging his blade through its exposed ribs. The undead knight staggered but didn’t fall. These things were tougher than the spiders.

He activated Aura.

Although he could handle it with just mana manipulation, he needed to go all out and slay as many monsters as possible.

His next strike tore through the undead’s spine and it collapsed into dark miasma.

[You have slain D-rank Undead (Level 34)]

[+41,000 EXP]

[+40 Cheat Points]

[You have leveled up!]

No time to check the system. Another undead was already charging him - a skeletal warrior wielding dual axes. Cipher ducked under the first swing, pivoted, and drove his sword up through its jaw.

The skull shattered.

[You have slain D-rank Undead (Level 35)]

[+42,000 EXP]

[+40 Cheat Points]

[You have leveled up!]

He kept moving.

A third undead - this one a massive brute with a spiked club - roared and swung at him. Cipher barely managed to raise his sword in time to block. The impact sent him sliding back several feet, vibrations spreading through his arms.

This seemed to be among the high end of D-rank.

Although he didn’t mind fighting it, he didn’t have the time for that. He summoned a dagger from his inventory and activated assassinate, throwing the dagger.

Currently, his assassinate was quite nerfed due to the stat limit. Since Assassinate was E-rank, the strength stat limit was 19. This meant that it calculated its effect through the 190 base damage instead of his current 280.

Even so, the damage was nothing to scoff at. Thanks to his active aura, the base damage was 760 (190×4). Calculating the assassinate effect from this, he could deal an instant 2,280 (760×3) damage.

That, combined with aimbot, allowed him to instantly land a critical hit at the weakest point of the monster’s neck, blowing the monster’s head clean off.

[You have slain D-rank Undead (Level 39)]

[+43,000 EXP]

[+40 Cheat Points]

[You have leveled up!]

[Congratulations! You have awakened a skill]

[Skill: Dagger Throw (D-Rank)]

[Type: Active]

[Cost: 50 Mana]

[Description: Throw a dagger with enhanced force and precision, dealing 300% weapon damage to the target. Has a 5% chance to critically strike, dealing an additional 300% weapon damage.]

Cipher didn’t pay much attention to the skill after seeing the mana cost. With his current mana, he could only use such a skill just six times, and that’s without accounting for other skills. It simply wasn’t worth it. Not when he had something like aura that was cheaper and had a higher base damage thanks to the rigged edition.

He closed the distance. Picking up his knife and instantly jumping away to avoid another monster’s attack.

A few minutes later.

Cipher blocked a heavy hit but was still thrown back.

[HP: 2,700/3,500]

Cipher gritted his teeth and rolled to his feet.

Assassinate had just come off cooldown. He activated it and used mana manipulation to reinforce his movements, instantly closing the distance between him and the monster. His blade found the gap in the brute’s armor and pierced straight through its core.

[You have slain D-rank Demon (Level 37)]

[+51,000 EXP]

[+40 Cheat Points]

[You have leveled up!]

Cipher breathed heavily, even after increasing his stamina a few times, he was beginning to run out of steam. The monsters just kept spawning. He wondered what the hero was doing.

As he thought this, a dozen or so undead spawned and surrounded him, closing in from all sides.

A while later.

Cipher was charging towards an undead knight when suddenly, a bright golden light spread all around, washing over the battlefield. The undead shrieked as the light touched them, their bodies disintegrating into nothing.

Finally, Cipher thought.