CHAPTER 63: TRUE REWARDS FROM ADVANCEMENT

With a hammer on his shoulder, Leon ran around in the Meadows of Salar in search of the Crimson Rabbits. The meadows were quite big, and the rabbits didn’t stay in one place like in the game, so it was a little hard to find them.

Especially if they were avoiding him.

But he didn’t give up hope and roamed around the meadows until he finally sensed the faint trembling of the ground. He didn’t think twice before dashing in that direction.

He didn’t even need to use Sprint Boost to cover great distances now since his body had gained a boost after advancing to Tier 2. The first two Tiers were mainly focused on the physical body, after all.

He climbed upon a boulder and looked into the distance, where he found a Crimson Rabbit skipping towards another Crimson Rabbit.

’It seems like they’re about to fight.’

As he focused on them, a hologram appeared before him, surprising him. For a moment, he went on full alert, thinking some boss had attacked him, but then he relaxed after seeing it was just the system.

[Crimson Rabbit, Level 07 (Tier 1)]

[Crimson Rabbit, Level 06 (Tier 1)]

"Huh? When did I get this?" Leon was confused, but then he smiled. "Doesn’t matter. It just means I can hunt better now."

He wondered if this would work in the real world too, or if it was something exclusive to the Dungeon.

Throwing the thought to the back of his mind, Leon dashed towards the Crimson Rabbits. He wanted to hunt them, so how could he let them fight each other?

But the Crimson Rabbits were too focused on each other to even notice his arrival. Leon closed the gap between them in no time and jumped on the skipping Crimson Rabbit.

Before the monster could even react, his hammer landed right on top of its head, smashing it out of existence. Literally.

It took only one attack for Leon to kill the Crimson Rabbit as he landed back on the soft grass. Light particles from the dead monster surrounded him, creating a dazzling view.

But that view was too terrifying for the incoming Crimson Rabbit, who saw its brethren being killed in a single shot. It sensed pure danger from Leon, so it didn’t hesitate to use long jumps to run away.

"Where are you going, buddy?" Leon smiled before taking a step forward and launching himself towards the Crimson Rabbit. "You made me run so much the first time I came here, so what happened now? Why are you running?"

The Crimson Rabbit had no reply as it just screeched and ran. It wasn’t like those Abyssal Creatures who had their minds Corrupted and would rather fight to consume everything than run.

The monster was sane enough to know the danger and run from it.

However, Leon wasn’t letting it go so easily. With his boosted speed, he swiftly caught up with the Crimson Rabbit, and just like before, he ended its life in one shot.

He watched the light particles disperse into the atmosphere before the Energy Orb formed on the ground below.

After throwing the orb into his inventory, he went back to pick up the other Energy Orb. Even though they wouldn’t provide him much Essence because of his Level, even a drop could be useful to fill a tank.

And he needed to fill that tank quickly.

"I killed them too quickly, so there was no blood. That bastard probably won’t come after this," Leon murmured and decided to wait for a while.

As he had expected, the Mosspounder was nowhere to be seen, even after he waited for almost half an hour. In the meantime, he pondered over the reason why he suddenly gained the function of seeing a monster’s level.

The only change he could think of was his advancement to Tier 2. That was the only logical reason for this change.

It was then he remembered it had been a long time since he actually checked his status. It was mostly useless, so he never bothered to check it.

Resisting the urge to facepalm, Leon muttered, "Status."

...

[SYSTEM INTERFACE]

Host: Leon Walker

Age: 19

Level: 12 (Tier 2)

Rank: Beginner

Race: Mutant

Bloodline: —

Talent: Grade 4

Affinity: —

Status: Stable

Skills:

Passive: —

Active: Sprint Boost, Iron Skin

Inventory:

Energy Orb (Level 07) ×1, Energy Orb (Level 06) ×1, Galactic Baseball Bat.

Dungeon Access

Status: Awakened (Bound)

Core Name: ******

Current Zone: Floor 1 – Meadows of Salar (Unlocked whole Floor 1)

Time Flow: 3:1 (3 days inside = 1 day outside)

Sync Rate: 5%

Previous Evolution Rewards: Skill Stones

Next Evolution: Unlocks Affinity Orbs

...

"The hell?" Leon almost jumped in surprise, seeing the changes in the status panel. There weren’t many changes, but they were still enough to surprise him.

"Wait! Does this mean every advancement to a new Tier will help me sync with the Dungeon even more? Is this the requirement?"

He had been wondering what could help him increase that sync rate. He even thought that perhaps he needed to explore more of the Dungeon and understand it better to raise the sync rate. But it seemed the solution was much simpler than he expected.

He just needed to get stronger, and the sync would happen naturally. It was very simple and easy since he was planning to get stronger anyway. He didn’t need to do anything else.

"Seems like the disguise Amber put can only fool others and not the Dungeon. My talent is still the same." Leon studied the panel and said to himself, "And wow! The bat’s name is so cool. Galactic Baseball Bat!!"

He noticed other attributes that hadn’t changed much and looked down at the dungeon section.

"So, previously only Meadows were unlocked?" Leon muttered. "So even if I want to move on to the next floor, I can’t unless I’m at Tier 3, probably. Well, not a big problem because I also have no interest in paying visits to those overgrown monsters."

His eyes began to shine as he stared at the time dilation, as this was easily the biggest reward he got after his advancement.

Skills also had rankings, and higher-ranked skills had Stages of their own, which were based on mastery of that skill. The higher the Stage, the better the skill would be.

But for that, one needed to train a lot and comprehend their usage. It helped them integrate the skills into their souls, which meant better use.

It was basically like the First Stage of a skill allowed one to use 10% of the skill’s potential and power. Higher-ranked skills also had a few sub-skills derived from the main skill that were unlocked at later Stages.

Leon had two skills, and both of them were F-Rank skills with no additional stage or any potential at all. But that was fine since the first two Tiers couldn’t use E-Rank skills properly.

Only prodigies in the later Levels of Tier 2 could have the First Stage of E-Rank skills, because advancing stages took time and effort.

There were no shortcuts for that... for others.

Leon’s grin widened as he stared at his last rewards.

[Skill Stones!]

They were like Energy Orbs, loot he could get from the Dungeon. While Energy helped him level up, Skill Stones would help him in advancing stages of his skills.

"We are finally getting into the OP genre!"