Read Part of Mine :: Chapter 12 – Second Time

David and Luci were standing before the crack. Unlike the previous crack, there was no one around.

“Document says: every house, school, workplace, etc. within a 1000-meter radius of the crack gets evacuated immediately after the crack is identified.” David was reading the document Carter sent the previous day.

“That explains the silence.” Luci was staring at the crack.

“Cracks are identified by special equipment, identification results show the crack’s rank. D-class cracks like this one needed to be cleared within 15 days. S-class cracks have only 3 days of clear time before break.”

“So the time period depends on the crack’s class.” Luci got startled by the footsteps coming behind him while talking.

There was a group of hunters.

<C-rank> <C-rank> <C-rank> <B-rank> <B-rank> <A-rank>

A-rank hunter was a middle aged woman. She was wearing a black suit and she was holding papers in her hands. “I guess everyone is here. Today is gonna be Mr. Blake and Luci’s first crack. For the others, this is your last crack before being official hunters. Behave well inside. Do not leave the marked arena and do not engage fight with a boss. Even though this crack is a D-classified one, the boss itself is a C-class. You will be clearing low-level monsters inside.”

She walked to David and Luci and handed a watch to both of them. “You already know the rules, but I’m gonna repeat them for our new members. Rule 1: Do not get killed. Rule 2: Do not attempt to kill your allies. Rule 3: Obey the first two rules. I will be waiting outside watching your vitals from those watches. You can enter the crack.”

The hunter group entered the crack first. Luci followed them, but David was standing still.

Luci let out a sigh and returned to him. “Aren’t we over this?”

“How can you be this cold-blooded? I can’t just walk into it!”

“I mean, you just walk into it? Come on, it's just a D-class crack. You can probably kill those monsters just with your sneeze.” Luci was visibly annoyed.

“Fine. Let’s go.” David walked through the crack. The crack opened into an empty area. The arena was surrounded by large mountains. There was a cave near the crack, but the entrance was blocked by signs.

“Others walked directly to the valley down there.” Luci stated.

“Let’s not follow them. It looks like there is a pathway between those rocks; let’s follow it instead.”

“Yeah, it’s better to fight just us. They would hold us back.”

David was checking the environment around him while walking. He was anxious. Luci wanted to calm him down, but deep down, he knew that any of the things he said would be effective. So he kept his silence.

When they reached the top, they saw the monsters walking around. The monsters looked like goat. Except they had bigger horns, they were almost double the size of a normal goat. Their colors were also abnormal. They had shiny, highly saturated neon colors. Luci stopped and stood still.

“Aren’t you attacking? I mean, go and kill them.” David was breathing fast. His overall composition is not looking good.

“No. I am not. You need to do your own fight.”

“Me? You are my summon. Go and kill the monsters! I… I… It’s an order!”

Luci sat on the ground instead. “I don’t feel like following your ‘order’. Go attack them on your own.”

“Luci! Luci!” David held Luci’s shoulders and shook him. But Luci didn’t budge.

David let out a deep sigh. Took out his sword and held it directly to the monsters.

I can’t take a step back now. Those monsters are way weaker than Luci. I know, but still, my body refuses to move. If that’s the case…

<13 D-class entities in sight>

David’s sight changed. There was a dotted line, appeared between the monsters, showing him the way to move. David held his sword and took the first step. He stabbed the first monster on his path, his sword entered from monster's throat and came out of its nape. The monster screamed in pain while the blood splattered everywhere. Its scream triggered other monsters. But David was faster. He took out the sword and swung it to the nearby monster, cutting its head off. Moved to another. Slashed his front leg and threw a strong kick that broke the monster’s neck on contact. Other monsters were afraid, and they started to run.

As soon as skill calculated the new path, David jumped into the air. Cutting the next monster's head off while falling. He kept slashing heads off until there was no monster left alive. Dead monster bodies on the ground shattered one by one and turned into crystals.

<Summon Lucid levelled up 0 -> 3, stat points +3>

“Looks like I can level up even without fighting.” Luci walked closer to David.

David’s hands were covered in blood. There was a little bloodstain on his face. He cleaned it with his hand and turned into Luci. “Did you have fun? While watching me struggling, on my own?” His voice cracked while speaking. Looks like even the close contact with the monsters didn’t help him defeat his anxiety.

“Yeah, I did. You were flawless. If someone else were here, they would think that you are a pro or something.”

“Don’t play with the words. You know, it’s all thanks to skill. Still… It felt good. I mean, killing them was fun.” A sinister smile appeared on David’s face, but he snapped out of it. “I guess I’m losing it.”

“You might wanna lose more.” Luci showed the large flock of goats nearby. “Wanna do a race?”

“Race of killing monsters, huh? This is wrong… I mean, I am a higher level than you. It wouldn’t be fair.” David smiled.

Luci was expecting that David would reject the idea. He was surprised by the answer. “So let’s do it like this: For every monster I kill, you need to kill 3.”

“Deal.”

Luci took out his blades and held one of them in the direction of the flock. “Start at 3. 1, 2, 3!”

Both Luci and David jumped into the flock. A sword and 2 daggers, cutting through necks and bones.

David and Luci were startled by the same notification. After looking at each other, they both said: “Combine!”

After combining the skills, David was able to see Luci’s planned movement plus his planned movement. “Ha, this is so cool!” He followed the skill’s instructions.

This time, two of them were fighting as a real team.

David cut the ankle of the monster. Luci followed him with a spinning attack and cut through the monster’s neck. Luci blocked the next monster’s horn attack; David slashed it from the back. David slashed his sword upward, cutting the next monster. His back was an open target; another monster started dashing toward him. Luci threw one of his daggers; the blade hit the monster on the head. David and Luci’s eyes met when another monster made a move on Luci. Luci jumped into the air, and David swung his sword to the place Luci was standing and cut through multiple monsters at once. Some of the monsters tried to run, but Luci acted faster.

Multiple chains came through the ground and rose up to the sky. While doing so, they pierced the monsters on their way. Luci created more chains around David, stealing his kills. He was smirking when David turned his back.

“This is cheating.”

“Oh, you didn’t see a thing.”

Luci held his hand to the sky. A magical circle appeared before his hand. He tapped the circle with the back of his hand. A fire wave came through the circle and burned everything on its way. The wave didn’t stop after killing monsters on its way, and kept moving until it hit the mountains afar. Caused a big explosion.

“Someone needs to learn how to hold back.” David said while blocking a monster’s attack

“I was holding back for a while, let me enjoy this.” Luci ran into his next target. After slashing it once, he took the blade he had thrown before and slashed it again with 2 blades.

“I will try it too. Mark my targets.”

David stabbed his sword into the ground and gathered energy in his right hand. Energy turned into a fireball. He threw it to the sky, the fireball exploded and rained over the marked enemies.

“See this. I created it in my mind.”

Luci was impressed. “I didn’t know that I could use my fire attribute like that. I will give you the credit.”

Two kept their work. Screams and blood. It was a one-sided fight.

<Hunter level 21 -> 23, Stat points +2>

<Summon Lucid level 3-> 16, Stat points +13>

<Gained new skill: Sword’s Play

<Summon Lucid Gained new skill: Double Wield

“I levelled up 16 times, and I also gained a new skill. Show me my stats.”

<Summon: Lucid

<Summoner: David Blake

<Species: Dem?n^%&/?*

<Level: 16

<Unused Stat points: 16

<Vital Stats: Current Health Points: 260/260

Mana: 14000/16000

<Attack Power: 184, Defense: 112, Special: 73, Speed: 192

<Passive Skills: Born From Fire, Naming Clause Curse, No Place in My Mind, Dem?n^%&/?*’s Wrath, Double Wield

<Active Skills: The Reader, Tell Me You Underdog, Dem?n^%&/?*’s Destiny

<Compatible Skills:

<Passive Skills: The Awakener’s Sense (Only in Human Form), The Awakener’s Strength (Only in Human Form)

<Active Skills: The Engineer’s Sight

“Double Wield is new. Show me its description.”

<Double Wield - S rank: Activates while using daggers. Improves user’s wielding.

“That’s a good skill. Since it’s a passive one, I don’t need to use mana to activate it.”

“I wonder what those skill points do?” David was staring at Luci’s stat screen.

“Hmm… I made a little calc about stat increases. For each level, we gain +10 Health points, +500 mana, +2 attack, defense, and speed. Special gets increased by 1 in every 3 levels.”

“If that’s the case, I will use it all on my attack.”

< Attack Power 184 -> 216>

Luci seems to be satisfied with the result.

“I will keep my points for another time. I might need to boost my certain stat in a crucial moment. Show my stats.”

<Hunter: David Blake

<Level: 23

<Unused Stat points: 23

<Vital Stats: Current Health Points: 330/330

Mana: 19400/21500

<Attack Power: 196, Defense: 168, Special: 95, Speed: 186

<Passive Skills: The Awakener’s Sense, The Awakener’s Strength, The One Chooses to Hunt Solo, ^%&/?*’s Blessing, Sword’s Play

<Active Skills: The Engineer’s Sight, The Summoner’s Mark

<Number of summons: 1

<Usable Summon Skills:

<Passive Skills: Born From Fire, Naming Clause, No Place in My Mind, Dem?n^%&/?*’s Wrath, Double Wield

<Active Skills: The Reader, Tell Me You Underdog, Dem?n^%&/?*’s Destiny

“I can use your Double Wield skill too. It’s kinda cool that your new skill is getting added to my roster as soon as you gained it. Show me my new skill.”

<Sword’s Play - S rank: Activates while using a sword. Improves user’s wielding.>

“It’s similar to mine. The only difference is that your skill is for swords.”

“Yeah. Also, I lost count of the monsters I killed. Since we killed them together, what about calling it even?”

“That wouldn’t do. Someone must be the winner.”

They heard footsteps behind them while chatting. The hunters entered the crack before they stood behind them.

“Oh, hi people! Is your hunt going well?”

Each one of them was looking at the blood and the crystals on the ground. One of the group members started talking. “We took out a few, and we were searching for the rest of the monsters. Looks like you two already cleared them up.”

“We also saw an explosion on the mountains. The boss might be awakened, you guys need to be careful.”

David and Luci stared at each other awkwardly.

“Oh yeah. My summon and I kinda took that far. Sorry.” David scratched his head with an awkward smile.

“Your summon?”

“I have never seen such a summon, I thought that summons are just mindless creatures that obey their summoner.”

Group members chatted with each other for a while.

“Sir... What class are you?” One of them asked.

David stayed silent for a second. I guess one day everyone's gonna learn. “I am an S-class awakener.”

When the group heard his class, all of their faces filled with fear. They escaped from David’s eyes, trying not the make eye contact. When silence started being loud, the highest rank member stepped up and “Oh well… That’s good. I wish you a good day… We will be discovering other places of this crack. See you.”

The group walked away with fast steps after that.

“Pfttt… Hahaha” Luci let out a loud laugh. He was laughing at David. He kept laughing.

“Laugh all you want… You know this is mean. You shouldn’t be laughing at people like that. Who am I speaking with?”

“Ha… I just, it’s just so funny. The faces they made I can’t…” He was still laughing.

“I… I will be collecting those crystals. According to the law, each crystal dropped by the monsters belongs to the hunter who killed them. Even though they are low-level crystals, each one of them is worth 75 bucks.”

“I will help you, Mr. S-class. Please don’t eat me!!”

David threw one of the crystals to Luci. “Stop it!!”

***

When they got out of the crack, the sun was still at the top.

“Time flows differently in cracks.” It was the A-class hunter from before. “Time flow could be different from crack to crack. 5 hours in this crack equals 1 hour on Earth. So report to me the things you accomplished inside the crack.”

David showed the backpack full of crystals. “We killed 118 of them.”

The hunter was shocked. “You haven’t been in a crack before, haven’t you? Even for an S-class, this is so much.”

“I have the best summon by my side.” David showed Luci.

“I see.” A summon having its own hunter license unique enough, but being this strong already… That’s the way it works for S-classes, I guess. She thought. “I will sign your hunter license…”

She signed David’s license. “Here. Also, there is one more thing.” She extended her card to David. “Please keep doing business with us. We always have jobs for talented hunters.”

David took the card and smiled. “Sure. We will”

...