The glow from Cynrik’s eyes dissipated as he deactivated [Mana Sight] and collected himself. Then, knowing he was pressed for time and the others were patiently waiting by the Boss room for his arrival, Cynrik ran one last simulation in his head to figure out the best possible outcome for the battle.
‘Right, time to go.’ Slowly getting to his feet but staying crouched low to the ground, Cynrik flicked his wrists and unsheathed both hidden blades with a muted sound before dashing off towards the smallest group of Packhounds.
Thanks to his 174 AGI, it took him less than a breath of time to cross the open space and arrive at the four sleeping creatures, his eyes locking on the back of the necks of two in particular. Then, bringing up both his arms as if hugging the air, Cynrik lunged forward and stabbed both unsuspecting Packhounds, severing their spinal columns and instantly killing both, before dropping his [Shadow Veil] in the process.
Skittering to a stop and feeling the eyes of the startled hounds around him, Cynrik flicked both his wrists in a clockwise motion causing a clicking sound from the gauntlets as they swapped blades. In an instant, the Cold-Steel blades slammed back into the gauntlet and changed to the Dark Infused hidden blades.
Wasting no time and bringing both arms up like he was swinging a baseball bat, Cynrik swung both his arms across his body and, for the first time, triggered the Assassins Tools Special skill [Blade Shot].
TSS TSS
Pumping a small amount of MP into both wrists expelled the two blades leaving behind a sound reminiscent of an airsoft rifle, turning the sharp Dark Mana clad blades into projectiles that hit their mark seconds later, penetrating deep into two more Packhounds, this time through their eye and into their brains.
Cynrik didn’t bother double-checking to be sure he had hit his mark since Tobs had already made a ding sound in his head to indicate incoming notifications. Having cut down four of the ten hounds in less than three seconds, he tossed a glance at the six remaining Packhounds. Then, realizing it wasn’t time to slow down, he unsheathed both his new swords, the Tri-Elemental Twin Kodachi’s, and threw himself towards the closest hound, which was already on its feet and growling furiously at him.
“Hmph, [Haste], [Blind], [Fear].” In rapid succession, Cynrik started activating skills one after another, starting with [Haste], increasing his already high AGI one step further. The combination of the +10 points from his two swords and the +17 points from [Haste] caused his body to temporarily breakthrough the next checkpoint of 200.
Speed aside, Cynrik had also activated two of his recently acquired Dark Affinity skills.
-Tier-1 Dark Affinity Skill: Blind-
– By manipulating ambient Dark Mana particles, the User can choose one creature they can see within five meters and instantly coat that targets eyes with the collected particles inflicting the Status Effect: Blind-
-The success rate for inflicting Blind is determined by the target and the skill User’s MIND and VIT stats. If both Stats are higher than the target skill success rate is 100%, if one skill is higher, 50%, if the targets skills are both higher than the User 25% success rate.-
-Status Effect: Blind- For 60 seconds, the being inflicted with this Status will only see a world of pitch black.-
-Cost: 50 MP-
-Tier-1 Dark Affinity Skill: Fear-
– Most creatures are born with an innate fear of the darkness. As a being who utilizes Dark Mana, you are able to create a small, intangible bubble of Dark Mana Particles spanning five meters around your body. Any creature not labeled as “Ally” will have a chance of being inflicted with the Status Effect: Frightened if they enter this bubble of pure Dark Mana.-
-Status Effect: Frightened, So long as this Status is in effect, the afflicted will experience hallucinations of their absolute worst fears. Beings with this Status Effect will have a higher chance of exiting battle and trying to run from the being who assaulted them with this Status. The further the afflicted being gets from the one who triggered the Status, the faster its effects will dwindle. This Status effect will be reduced if the inflicted has a high MIND Stat.-
-The Status will stay active until its point of origin cancels the skill causing it, or the afflicted vacates the area.-
-Cost: 50 MP-
Chaos instantly broke out amongst the pack. As the Alpha was targeted with [Blind], it howled in rage and started digging at its eyes with its paws, thinking something was covering its face. In contrast, the remaining five hounds started whimpering and cowering due to being afflicted with the Frightened Status reducing the overall danger level of this encounter significantly.
Flitting around like a ghost, Cynrik weaved his way through the pack of canines, slashing out at the panicked creatures as he passed. Unfortunately, as he hadn’t adapted to his newfound speed, Cynrik missed several kill shots, leaving behind wounded creatures in his wake. The scene of something flashing by and causing blood to erupt from their bodies only caused the already Frightened creatures to absolutely lose their minds.
As Cynrik made his way towards the angered Pack Alpha, the canines he passed started evacuating their bowels and bladders before collapsing on the ground in convulsions.
Arriving at the Pack Alpha, who was thrashing its head around and growling menacingly, Cynrik spun his body and executed a double slash, cleaving off the creature’s head and instantly reaping it of its life. Then, with the Alpha’s body slumping to the ground with a loud thud, Cynrik’s eyes shot wide, and he jumped back, narrowly avoiding the shower of gore coming from the Alphas neck. Exhaling sharply, Cynrik couldn’t help but glance at his body to check for any blood or filth that may have covered him in the process.
‘Fuck, I need to be more careful in the future. Sure I can always burn off the filth, but when the others are with me, I have to be sure not to end up causing a scene where I look like a blood-thirsty demon again, especially if Gabby is around.’
Only once the Alpha went down did Cynrik turn and face the remaining five Packhounds, who at this moment were a sight so pitiful that even Cynrik almost felt sorry for them. Cynrik watched on, ashamed of himself for being the cause as they were thrashing about on their backs, covered in their own excrement and whining loudly with foam coming from their mouths.
With his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water, Cynrik was stunned for a moment before he dashed forward, putting them out of their misery. ‘Ok, as I’m not exactly one for the torture, I guess I’ll have to use [Fear] sparingly in the future; ugh, this fucking mental checklist is gunna end up longer than I thought, I can already sense it.’
-Quest Updated-
-Kill 25 Tier-1 Packhounds- (10/25)
-You have killed 9 Black Packhounds.-
-You have killed 1 Black Alpha Packhound.-
-You have received 81,000 XP.-
-You have received 5 AGI and 5 VIT.-
– 9 Affinitiless Codexes have been located.-
– 1 Wind Affinity Codex has been located.-
-Due to the restrictions in place by the Alpha Egress Core, you will have to remove the Codexes manually.-
– Sliver of Skill (3) have been located.-
-Due to the restrictions in place by the Alpha Egress Core, you will have to remove the Codexes manually.-
“Ah, so I get more XP from wolves than rats, pretty RPG standard, but that’s fine. I think the rats were giving me between 6-7k per kill, and these guys were spitting out around 8k.” Cynrik’s eyes lit up as he read the notifications from Tobs.
[Hey, I just finished up the first batch of Packhounds; Ima go hit up the treasure rooms after I deal with the last two, then make my way over to you guys. How are things on your end?] While bouncing around and collecting the sellable resources from each Packhound, Cynrik sent a message to his brother.
[Just getting done going over pre-Evo stuff with Gabby and Benny. Their Stats are still a bit off from the Cap, but they are at 14th Prestige. It won’t be long until they can’t increase their Stats any higher, so I figured it was the right time to give them the briefing we discussed a while back.]
[Fairplay, to be honest, I didn’t really expect them to grow so much in the first Egress. Initially, I wanted to dive into at least three to four, at which point they would reach their limits and get Perfect Foundations. But if things are as you say, I have to develop a new plan.]
Wrapping up his extractions, Cynrik went about skinning each of the Packhounds, well, the ones that weren’t mangled to bits by his extraction. From his earlier market research, Black Packhound pelts went for a few thousand credits, so he wanted to try and keep as many in one piece as possible. Aside from the Mana expenditure of going in “guns ablaze,” this was the main reason he didn’t treat the creatures in the same way he had the Fanged Rats. However, he was slightly caught off guard by the potency of [Fear] and felt a need to reevaluate his approach moving forward. He couldn’t turn in pelts that were caked in bodily fluids and shit.
Shaking his head to clear the random thoughts, Cynrik went back to counting his potential credit gains. “Ok, Pelts go for 2k to 6k depending on size and condition. Unfortunately, I fucked up four of the ten, and based on the….” Cynrik paused his external monologue and began petting the Alpha’s pelt, “softness, I should get around 3-4k, so let us just call it an even 3.5k bringing the total to around 21k. The incisors and dew claw are used in weapon crafting and alchemy, so they run for a little bit too.”
Packing everything neatly into a makeshift satchel made from the Alpha’s pelt, Cynrik tossed everything into his inventory and headed towards the second Packhound den.
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