Chapter 45: Chapter 45- Spear Level-Up! And Kindness
"The strongest?" Talon asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah, this class is most likely extremely strong and those requirements are proof of that. If you fulfill them, I'm almost sure you will be getting something worth all the effort you put into it." Acrypha replied.
"If you say so… Sigh, I guess I have no other choice. So what if it's ridiculously hard, everything is hard nowadays! If anything, this is good since I can grow stronger way faster."
Talon's main goal was to get way stronger and faster than anyone else so that he could go back to his parents.
'The challenge was already meant to be difficult. I need to up the efforts.' Looking at his hands, Talon clenched them tightly as he steeled his will.
"Ok… Ok." Exhaling a breath, he felt like he was mentally ready.
"Good. Now, there is one thing left." Acrypha said as her eyes shifted to the other side of the room where a small bag was placed. In the darkness, it was the only source of light inside the place.
Talon confusedly shifted his gaze to the bag too before he realized what Acrypha meant.
"Oh, right! The spear!" Talon remembered that he needed to level up his Blue Lapis Spear. Even though the spear can kill level 10 monsters with ease, he needed it to get stronger so that he could face stronger enemies.
So, standing up, he approached the bag before he opened it and counted all the cores inside.
"Hmm, exactly 30. Perfect, 15 for me and 15 for Hyun-Jae." Talon murmured as he pulled his portion and left the rest inside.
"Didn't you kill more monsters than she did?" Acrypha asked as she watched him sit down again.
"Hm? I did? Meh, Hyun-Jae is extremely talented. I need her to get stronger too. Can't be too greedy and selfish." Talon replied.
"Being greedy is like a second nature to most strong beings."
"Well, my father always said 'Greed, in the end, fails even the greedy'. No matter how clever you can be, if you're greedy then you're bound to fall." Talon replied.
"... Your father has an interesting thought process," Acrypha replied with a thoughtful look. For some reason, she liked that quote a lot. Greed was indeed horrible but because everyone around her was greedy, she had to be the same if she didn't want to be left behind.
"Hahaha, he's very wise when it comes to such things. I'm sure you will like him when you meet hi-" Talon spoke happily before he suddenly realized what he was about to say and immediately went silent.
"Sorry, I forgot that you don't want anyone to see you." He apologized.
He knew that Acrypha hid herself from everyone for a reason and so meeting his parents was simply impossible. Why would someone of her standing want to meet weak humans? That was way too beneath her after all.
However, much to his surprise, Acrypha shook her head.
"When the time is right, I would love to meet them. They seem like good people." She replied.
"..." Talon blinked silently.
"What?"
"No… It's just… I never thought you would want to meet them." He replied with a dazed look.
"Why wouldn't I want to meet them? I'm arrogant, but I'm not condescending to whom I deem decent. If your parents are good, then I will meet them and treat them as good as they treat me." She said.
"... Wow…" Talon could only murmur in surprise. Acrypha had completely blown his expectations away.
She was a being of another world that had an incomprehensible amount of strength, probably enough to make this world vanish out of existence. Yet, she didn't let that get into her head and bring her to look down upon anyone and everyone.
'That kind of self-control and wisdom is amazing.' It would be a lie if Talon said that his respect toward this otherworldly beauty hadn't increased by leaps and bounds.
"Thank you." In the end, he smiled and looked down at the spear. "As I thought, you're definitely a kind person, Acrypha."
"Again with that. I'm not good." She retorted.
"Ok, ok, you aren't good, got it." He chuckled as he finally picked up one of the energy cores.
"So, how do I make the spear absorb energy inside this core?"
"Just crush the core on top of it and the energy will enter the spear," Acrypha replied.
"Ok."
Following her instructions, Talon squeezed the core right on top of his weapon. With his high strength, a simple squeeze was more than enough to make the core explode into pieces.
The shards fell on top of the spear as something magical occurred. All the purple energy inside the shards slowly left them and floated toward the spear before entering it from all places.
[Ding!]
[Your weapon has absorbed energy.]
[Weapon strength increased.]
[Weapon leveled up to level 2.]
"Oh! Nice!" Talon exclaimed with a smile. "It leveled up."
"Check the weapon's stats."
[Blue Lapis Spear: A spear born from the essence of the sea. At base level, it can easily kill any enemy Level 12 and down. It can level up and max out at level 10. At that level, it can kill any enemy level 30 and down.
Level: 2/10
Bonus Points: +6 Strength, +6 Agility, More effective against sea creatures.]
"Now I can kill monsters level 12 and below and my bonus stats increased!" Smiling widely, Talon gripped the spear tightly.
"Good. Now add more."
"Ok!"
So, Talon crushed another core on top of the spear and made it absorb the energy.
[Ding!]
[Your weapon has absorbed energy.]
[Weapon strength increased.]
"Hmm, no level up."
Then he crushed the second one. This time, he got another level up.
[Weapon leveled up to level 3.]
"Hmm, so the number required to level it up multiplied."
"Yeah, add them all, and let's see what level it reaches," Acrypha suggested.
Talon didn't waste any time and started crushing all the 15 energy cores one after the other on top of the spear. A long series of notifications appeared and disappeared from his retina.
By the time he crushed the 15th core, the spear's stats had completely changed.
[Blue Lapis Spear: A spear born from the essence of the sea. At base level, it can easily kill any enemy Level 20 and down. It can level up and max out at level 10. At that level, it can kill any enemy level 30 and down.
Level: 5/10
Bonus Points: +10 Strength, +10 Agility, More effective against sea creatures.]
"Oh boy! This spear is now ridiculously strong! Level 20 and below, hahaha!" Talon was on the verge of jumping from happiness. Not only was he now able to fight stronger monsters without worrying about his spear breaking, but he also received +20 bonus stats, 10 in strength and 10 in agility.
That was akin to killing a good number of monsters of his level. It was ridiculous!
"It's a really good spear for your level, no doubt," Acrypha murmured as she read the description with an impressed look.
"That was my first item ever, mind you. Yours truly has the best luck in all dimensions." Talon puffed his chest proudly as he joked.
"Maybe you're using all of your luck early on and will end up with no luck in the future." Acrypha shrugged with a smile.
"Hey! Don't jinx me!"
"You jinxed yourself, kiddo."
The two joked around for a while, talking about pointless stuff.
Eventually, Talon succumbed to his exhaustion and slept. After that long day and the numerous injuries that riddled his body, he was eager to sleep.
It didn't even take him a few seconds after closing his eyes for him to finally drift into a long and deep slumber.
The night passed quietly with nothing alerting happening. As the sun rose slowly over the horizon, Talon's eyes finally started fluttering open.
Looking around him in a daze, he yawned and rubbed his eyes as he stretched.
"Good morning." A beautiful voice spoke near him. Looking to the side, Acrypha was sitting where he left her yesterday, staring at him.
"*Yawn* didn't you sleep?"
"As I said, I don't require sleep."
"Then what did you do the entire time?"
"Stare at the sky," Acrypha replied casually.
In reality, she was staring mostly at Talon and thinking about the future and what could happen from now on. However, she couldn't obviously tell him that or she will have to kill him so that she doesn't see his smug face.
"Isn't that… boring?" The young man asked with a weird expression. He couldn't comprehend the concept of not needing to sleep or eat. They were an integral part of every human being's life.
"Boring? Hmm, I guess it could be boring sometimes. But, I do appreciate the atmosphere of the night since it helps me think about all kinds of things."
"Getting all sentimental?"
"I would've described it as 'Calculative planning for the future' but 'Sentimental' works fine too."
"Hahaha, that's true." Standing up slowly, Talon cracked his limbs before he looked at his back.
"The pain in my back decreased a lot after a good night's sleep. It should heal quickly in a few days." He murmured as he picked up his spear and finally walked to the door.
Today was going to be another long and hard day. Not only was Talon going to lead the students outside for the first time but he was also intending to do something that he didn't dare to do in the past few days.
Go on a solo training trip.
(A//N: Thanks to everyone who supports the book with power stones and golden tickets, you guys are the best:) )
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