CHAPTER 163: FLAIN VS STAGE 4

At the same time Aran and Ivy grew stronger, so it counted as good training.

But the growth slowed as hunters either ran out or, to be safe, stopped hunting.

Most hunters immediately handed over all their cores and crystals because in the stress they didn’t realize Flain needed them alive to get the items. But a few individuals understood and resisted; they did not expect a good fate. They were tortured until they gave them up.

Flain had long since lost his humanity, and torture did not seem disadvantageous to him. It took a bit more time, but he got what he wanted. Mostly there were no major drawbacks and only a big plus in the form of the wealth he desired.

Flain of course knew it was immoral and that it caused them great pain. But there was no reason for him to care. He was not one of those hunters; would not torturing them bring him benefits?

Flain would sacrifice everything to achieve his goal, and humanity was just a small sacrifice he had long given up before he became a skeleton. That was the path he had chosen.

For something that had been a single quest, the wealth he gained was a decent sum. But it wasn’t enough. He wanted more EXP. He wanted to create a reserve for further plans. He wanted to give Aran and Ivy more souls. He wanted more money.

He spotted another group of hunters arriving. They were stronger—six of them. One of them was Stage 4, looking like he came from a higher tier.

Next to him stood a hunter carrying a large frame with a net. Flain reconsidered. These would be harder to defeat. But they were only at the bottom of the hill and still in an area with few hunters, so the chance that other strong hunters could come to their aid was very small.

He decided to set a trap. He struck the first tiger near them, scattering the others toward the hunters. Flain lured the groups of stronger tigers down the hill for just such a case. The tigers could work for him, and later he would harvest their cores without killing them himself. He wouldn’t get EXP from that, but that was secondary.

When the hunters reacted, all 25 tigers began to attack them at once. Flain only watched from a small ridge how they fought. Each of those tigers had at least Stage 3. The hunters were strong, but there were only five of them versus a group of 25 Stage-3 tigers.

The fight continued; the supporter couldn’t keep up with healing and, worst of all, his mana was rapidly depleted, so he had to cancel the reinforcement buff that covered the hunters’ bodies, which made things worse for them.

But it was still preferable to losing all his mana, because the injuries the group was taking would accumulate and they would fall very quickly.

After two hours all the tigers were defeated, but the group did not look good. The supporter was out of mana, everyone was badly wounded and without Existential Tension; their archer even died. The death of a hunter or adventurer was common—thousands die daily in the Empire of Light—but the death of someone Stage 3 or higher was rare when there was no war. Since a Stage-3 body-oriented fighter can endure quite a lot.

They had expected this hunt to be profitable, that they would bring back many cores. But instead, one of their members had died, and they gained only twenty-five cores — which for them was merely average. For the loss of a member, it was not worth it at all.

Or rather, they hadn’t gained them yet.

Flain stepped behind the supporter and stabbed her in the abdomen, eliminating the healer. Though he wouldn’t get the items from her spatial ring—

Since the entire group was exhausted from a long and difficult battle, they weren’t paying attention. And most importantly, no magical energy radiated from Aran, which made him invisible to them.

Ivy followed after him and bound everyone with ivy.

Flain appeared before the leader with a wide grin. The leader’s eyes locked on Flain’s, and he immediately understood something.

"You’re the reason hunters are disappearing? I don’t know how you managed, with your Stage, to lure such a large group of stronger electric tigers. But it still won’t work," he said in frustration, and the ivy around his body began to tremble.

"Give me all your mana crystals, and I’ll let you live," Flain said calmly.

The leader’s face turned even redder — how could someone from the Cursed Path put him in such a situation? "How can you be so arrogant? You think you can defeat us? Those two monsters of yours don’t even have any proper magic energy, and you— even though you have strange magic energy, you’re only Mid Stage 3, against us."

"I can defeat you without even moving, please," Flain said arrogantly.

The leader snapped and shattered the ivy around him, but it was already too late.

"Wrapping of Death."

From Flain’s back emerged his tail, wrapping itself around the leader’s body. Sharp spikes pierced into his flesh from the tail. The leader immediately fell to the ground.

His body began to crush, his bones cracking as he neared the edge of death.

Wrapping of Death was only a Stage-3 technique at level 1, but even so, it could drive a Stage 4 opponent to the brink of death. The reason was simple — the leader had already been heavily wounded from the fight with the tigers, and Wrapping of Death did exactly what Flain expected. The technique cost Flain half of his EN, and among Spine Stalkers and their higher evolutions it was known for its lethality.

Flain wasn’t stupid — he had already trained this technique. He didn’t need to train skills obtained through the system, since he automatically knew how to use them, but it was still good to practice them because he had to learn how to fight with them. Knowing how to activate them wasn’t enough. Flain usually trained them once a day, either alone or with his slaves.

For example, the technique Blood Vortex, which he obtained through Steel Strength, he had not yet used in real combat. The reason was simple — although he could use it thanks to automatic learning through the system, it was fundamentally quite difficult. It was hard to coordinate and aim with it. So Flain decided to give himself some time to fully master it...