CHAPTER 45: THE LUNARIS [7] SPY

━━〔 BASIC INFORMATION 〕━━━

Name: Marlon Ashleigh

Talent: Absolute Attack (EX)

Power Level: 19 (4%)

Power Rank: F

Health Points: 220/220

Health Regen: 20 HP/min

Aether Points: 200/200

Aether Regen: 1 AP/min

━━━〔 STATS 〕━━━

Strength: 111 | Agility: 110

Vitality: 22 | Intelligence: 105

Free Points: 115

━━━〔 ATTRIBUTES 〕━━━

Physical Attack: 278 | Magical Attack: 275

Physical Defense: 12% | Magical Defense: 5%

━━━〔 SKILLS 〕━━━

Passive: Drain (C), Night Instinct (F), Stone Body (E)

Active: Steel Punch (C), Punch of Judgment (B)

━━━〔 BLESSINGS〕━━━

Lifeflow (Sacred-rank)

[ INVENTORY (3/7) ]

×34 FF-grade monster core

×8 F-grade monster core

×2 Low-grade Aether Crystal

Marlon studied his character status calmly, noting all the improvements with a gentle smile on his face.

After his recent breakthrough, aside from the skill growth and hundred-plus free stat points, a new tab [Blessing] had been added, and two new spots had appeared in his inventory.

He scanned through the system one more time before clicking on the free stat points, ready to distribute them.

━━━〔 STATS 〕━━━

Strength: 111 (+) | Agility: 110 (+)

Vitality: 22 (+) | Intelligence: 105 (+)

Free Points: 115

Since he awakened, most of his free stat points had been allocated to his vitality stat. He had mostly neglected the intelligence stat because he currently possessed no magic-type skills and had only invested a few times into strength and agility.

With his two active skills that multiplied his attack power, which was directly linked to the strength stat, he had never had a dire need to invest much in it.

Nonetheless, at this moment, he decided to share the free stat points evenly amongst his three important stats — Vitality, Strength, and Agility.

He calculated in his head before proceeding.

━━━〔 STATS 〕━━━

Strength: 150 (+49) | Agility: 140 (+30)

Vitality: 40 (+36) | Intelligence: 105 (+)

Free Points: 0

[ Attack Power: 278 ----- 375 ]

[ Health Points: 220 ------ 400 ]

Marlon felt the familiar sensation he usually felt whenever he increased his stats, but this time it was much stronger and lasted much longer.

After it subsided, he felt completely different — his veins bulged with more power than ever before, his body felt lighter, and his overall mood seemed to have improved due to his newly increased vitality points.

A smile tugged at his face.

With 375 points in attack power, the damage dealt with his basic skill, Steel Punch, would be around three thousand. F-rank mini-bosses and even bosses would not last long against him.

With this much damage, he was ready to conquer tomorrow’s competition.

But he also had one little problem at the moment — he needed to increase his max Aether Points, and fortunately, he had two Low-grade Aether Crystals.

He brought them out and began meditating.

After about two hours, he was done with one of the Aether Crystals, and after another two hours, he fully absorbed the second one.

[ Aether Points: 200 ------- 400 ]

He opened his character status to observe the new numbers, and he was more than impressed. He shut the window and lay on the bed, the comfort of the room quickly sending him to sleep.

Meanwhile, inside a meeting hall, the discussion between Norian and the high-ranking hunters had just concluded.

Silence shrouded the room as each of them gazed at him with subtle panic in their eyes.

After hearing everything he had to say, they now understood his decision and the gravity of the competition.

"If we reject their proposal, it’s war. And if we lose the competition, we’ll be forced under their rule for ten years." Regina Whitlock voice trembled slightly. "They’re not giving us any choice at all."

The other hunters simply nodded, and only a few commented. Their attention were on norian who sat at the head of the table, facing them with his usual stoic expression.

"This competition might actually work in our favor, even if we lose." he spoke.

"What do you mean by that?" Oswald frowned, studying Norian’s face.

The other hunters looked at him and awaited his response. How could accepting the rules of the Lunaris be to their advantage? They wondered inwardly.

The Lunaris disregarded Arde so much and saw them as an inferior race compared to themselves. If they got the go-ahead to rule over them, they would turn their people into slaves and their lands into a waste-dumping site for their planet.

So why could he possibly think it would be to their advantage?

Some even thought he might have made another agreement to be sure of that.

Norian cleared his throat and gave them his reasoning, and once he was done speaking, the eyes of the others widened — how could they not have thought of that? They wondered.

After he was done clearing their doubts about his decision, they decided who was going to represent them — they decided that only the top two from the just-concluded entrance exam would represent Heartland Nation.

Norian had already sent messages to the other great nations to bring their best two new gens, and they would arrive at Eldertree City in a few hours.

He had also stationed some high-ranking hunters on standby around the hotels where the winners of the Survival Matrix were residing.

While he had agreed to the proposal of the Lunaris, he did not trust them.

He suspected they might have witnessed the entire Survival Matrix and noted the immense talent of Marlon. And seeing as he could become a threat to them, they might infiltrate the hotel and try to assassinate him.

He had already stationed hunters across Eldertree City and neighboring cities for the protection of civilians.

He ensured to take the utmost precautions against them.

The meeting soon ended; the others left the meeting hall, leaving only Norian and Crimson.

Silence hung between the two for a few seconds. Norian had his jaw resting on his clasped hands placed on the table, seemingly in thought, while Crimson’s eyes were fixed on him, silently observing before breaking the silence.

"You’ve noticed him... haven’t you?" she asked softly.

Norian nodded his head calmly without looking in her direction. He thought for a few seconds before breaking his contemplative pose and turning to her, asking, "Is he the one you saw in your visions?"

Crimson nodded her head softly.

"You really think he’s the originless one?"Norian asked, his voice dripping with uncertainty.

"I can’t really tell..." Crimson shook her head.

Marlon was not the only awakener she had seen in her visions before their awakenings. Since she got her powers, she had foreseen the awakening of many talented young hunters, with time gaps between her vision and their actual awakening ranging from days to at most two weeks.

Most of them had awakened S or SS-rank talents; six had awakened SSS-rank. Aside from Marlon, another had awakened an EX-rank talent, but she was killed at her awakening party by dark hunters from a mysterious cult.

Now only Marlon remained.

What was so special about him? Many might wonder.

Well, it wasn’t that difficult to understand. The range between her vision and the actual awakening was always between a day and two weeks, but for Marlon... it was different. His was the first vision she ever had when she newly awakened her talent.

At that time, she was only six years old, and the vision was blurred.

Nonetheless, each year on the same date, the same vision about him returned, becoming a bit clearer each time, yet still too unclear for her to decipher who was being revealed to her.

A few months ago, however, she had the same vision on the same date, but this time it was clearer — and it displayed the face of Marlon.

Now understanding the vision, she searched for him as usual and awaited his awakening, but three months after watching him, nothing happened. He still hadn’t awakened, which made her doubt her powers — until that day in the desert when she saw him inside the crimson expanse, fighting with his newly awakened powers.

So far, he was the strongest one she had ever foreseen.

But just like her brother, even with all the evidence, they could not be sure he was the originless one.

Norian nodded his head. Whenever she had those visions, she always informed him, so he was aware of the unclear one that had troubled her for years.

He could also understand why she was not sure.

"Keep watching over him... even if he is not the originless one, his talent is unlike any I’ve ever seen. He has a great future ahead," he said calmly.

Crimson nodded.

The two of them talked a bit more about personal matters and the coming event before finally leaving the meeting hall.

The hall soon lay in silence and darkness.

Then, from the shadows, a figure began to materialize — a cloud of grey smoke twisting into the form of a Lunaris.

This one looked young, his ears decorated with earrings, his stylish red robe marking him as a noble. A mischievous grin stretched across his youthful face.

"Interesting..." he muttered, a grin twisting his lips. "The council’s prediction was right after all. How... amusing."

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Happy new month guys... oh..yeah happy NNN or good luck with NNN... Thanks for supporting my novel