chapter 4: Search Party
Atlas continued to sit on the rock for a few hours, during this time he managed to get some more information about the notifications of the system.
The only notification that appears without opening the system interface is when one of his Summons dies. After enough time passed, both of his Summons ended up dying.
He didn't know how they died at first, but when his Summons die their memories 1 minute before death are transfered to him so he knows exactly what killed them.
"Damnit, why is a search party out here?" Atlas thought, sure he and his sister went missing but both of them were regulars. Not worth the effort of a search party.
Continuing to shift through the memories, one thing the group of paragons said turned out to be valuble information.
"Why are there so many strong deviants out here?" A D-rank Paragon asked though not directed towards anyone he still got an answer.
"Something around this area has been attracting nearby deviants, it seems to be gathering for a raid against the city."
By this point in the conversation, one of his deviants were dead and the other was wounded on the ground.
"Something like that is at least C-rank though likely higher." The D-rank stated before walking over to the Fleshripper and stabbing its stomach, his arms turning into lethal blades.
"Just die already, damn deviant!" And with that the memories ended, all of this was information Atlas processed in seconds.
He hadn't encountered anything that could control other deviants like that, and he didn't want to stick around after hearing about it. Opening his system window the notifications started pouring in.
[131 F-rank Deviants Killed, +2620 exp]
[12 E-rank Deviants Killed, +600 exp]
[3 D-rank Deviants Killed, +300 exp]
[Level Increased 4>7]
[Exp 1020/1700]
[Health And Mana Recharged]
[15 Stat Points Gained]
Atlas looked at his current stats on another system window to the left of the notifications window.
[Current Stats]
Agility:20
Magic:8
Health:10
Strength:10
Spirit:15
Defense:10
Necromancy:10
Atlas looked at the window for a few moments before saying mentally "add 7 into Magic, 5 into Health, and 3 into defense."
After the allocation his new stats were displayed on a screen
[Current Stats]
Agility:20
Magic:15
Health:15
Strength:10
Spirit:15
Defense:13
Necromancy:10
Now Atlas had a Mana pool of 150 and with the increase he put in defense he had a 6.5% physical damage reduction, combine that with his total health of 150 and he can survive not just 1 blow but 2 from a D-rank. However with the stats still being quite low he wouldn't survive a third hit.
Every point in Defense gave a 0.5% damage reduction. But this is only for physical attacks, magical or Elemental attacks bypassed this.
Though there wasn't Magic on Earth, there was Elemental type abilities out there. Combine that with the monsters that could use Magic from Strike of the Abyss and he had quite the problem.
Magic was extremely common in the game and Elemental chaos powers though not as common as Magic were still quite common throughout the world.
A recent study showed that 1/5 of awakeners awakened an elementalist ability, he knew this when he was studying Liams groups abilities to try and find countermeasures.
Although, he wouldn't do much against them since they could've easily killed him even if he used said countermeasures.
Atlas was lost in deep thought when his presence detection suddenly went off, this was a unique ability to Undead where they always knew where everything was in a 150 meter radius.
Other Races could get this ability through a skill but it is extremely rare, only Undead are born with this ability.
Atlas quickly flattened himself against the rock he was sitting on, a bolt of ice moved straight above him and struck the cave, cracking it.
He quickly got up and jumped off the rock, you could say it was more of a Boulder since it was large enough to completely cover Atlas from their view and forced them to move around the Boulder to get to him.
With his thoughts going wild in his head, Atlas thought through many plans they could make and all of their options. The most likely one was to split the group into two and move both parties around the Boulder in a pincer move.
And just as he thought of this the group of 4 split into 2 and 2, moving slowly around each side of the Boulder.
Atlas clenched his teeth, he couldn't do anything in this situation. If he attacked one side, he'd be attacked from behind by the other side.
If he tried to run then the elementalist would attack him and if it pierced him it would deal massive damage. Even though he could live for as long as he wants in terms of age, he could die to someone else ending his life early.
His only option was to try and run and hope that the paragons aim was too bad to hit a moving target, though that seemed unlikely if he was in the field.
Just as they were about to pass around the corner Atlas made a break for it, running towards the trees. Ice bolts fired closely behind him but he managed to Dodge them before continuing running.
He made it to the treeline before an ice bolt finally struck him, it didn't get lodged inside his body but it pierced through his hand leaving a giant hole in his palm.
Another ice bolt had been fired with it although it went through the giant hole already placed in his chest.
[Health 150>120]
It seemed this was an F-rank elementalist so he could survive enough attacks to get away, but it wasn't just him chasing after Atlas but 3 others as well.
Atlas realized who this group was from before he became an Undead, they were famous in his city for finding a B-rank villain using his powers to rob a bank before fleeing into the forest.
They had not only apprehended him but also managed to imprint severe damage to the villain. Paragons were split into two main groups, those being heroes and villains.
Atlas kept running, if they could deal with a B-rank villain easily like that then he would have a problem even getting away from them let alone fighting them.
But something didn't add up, the elementalist was an F-rank which shouldn't even be in this part of the forest let alone with a group as well known as the group currently chasing him.
Looking around for anything he could use, he suddenly got an idea when looking towards a nearby tree.
He ran towards the tree and with the enemies right behind him he ran straight up the tree, when he started losing his footing he jumped off the tree.
An ice bolt had been planted where he was just moments earlier and while in the air Atlas chanted "Umbra bolt!" He fired 2 bolts of pure darkness from both of his hands, twice in succession.
[Mana 150>90]
There were 4 bolts and 4 heroes, all of them hit their mark except for one. He was the damage dealer of the group easily outputting enough to damage an A-rank.
If he got hit by something like that even once, there's no doubt he'd die regardless of any variables.
Landing on the ground he chanted "umbra bolt" once more and fired two more of them towards the elementalist trying to get him out of the way first.
[Mana 90>60]
He rolled away from one of them but straight into the other, now that he had the darkness effect from both bolts his body would start to give out and corrode.
The darkness effect could stack, the higher the stack the less time it took to fully corrode the body. With two Stacks he'd die in about 2 minutes so he focused on the B-rank damage dealer next.
When Atlas's gaze shifted towards him, the so-called hero felt a sense of dread he hadn't felt since looking at an S-rank hero.
Atlas took advantage of his moment of shock and chanted "Umbra Bolt" firing all of his mana straight towards the enemy. He came back to his senses though it was too late.
All four Umbra bolts hit him causing a darkness stack of 4, an instant kill would happen at 5 but a system notification warned him saying
[Mana Depleted, 60>0]
Atlas didn't have time to look towards the system notifications, he shot forward using his incredible Agility to arrive in front of the man in just a few seconds from 30 meters away.
Atlas, looking towards the man, punched him straight in the stomach. It wasn't enough to punch a hole through him but enough to put him on his knees.
Atlas didn't understand, that was enough for a D-rank sure but he was supposed to be B-rank, it shouldn't have hurt him let alone make him fall to the ground.
Atlas thought back to when they first attacked him, their coordination wasn't that good as if they never fought together. Something was off, he just didn't know what. No matter, he'd get it from them before he killed them.
With 4 Stacks of darkness it was 30 seconds until death, by then the elementalist was screaming in pain on the ground from the darkness corroding his body. He only had a minute of agony left.
Atlas quickly ran over to the remaining two heroes and grabbed them by their necks before lifting them up above the ground and choking them.
After a few seconds of holding them there Atlas received a system notification, the window stated
[F-rank Villain Killed, +20 exp]
[E-rank Villain Killed, +50 exp]
[Exp 1090/1700]
Atlas smiled in realization, these weren't heroes but villains pretending to be heroes. His guess was to sneak in the city and destroy it from the inside out.
He would know why they were here soon enough, along with other valuble information.
The two villains looked towards Atlas as he smiled, Atlas knew these two were C-rank based on his presence detection.
However he wondered why he could sense the presence of the weaker members but he couldn't tell their rank. He knew someone was there but not their level. The system didn't register it.
There was one thing he knew the system did, it calculated power based on levels and levels were based on the amount of power the opponent had. But if the level was 0 then it wouldn't register it.
He heard of paragons hiding their abilities through a device that if their power was low enough could make their abilities impossible to detect though they'd still be there. Because of this device the system registered their levels as 0 and couldn't get a rank.
Even though the system couldn't process the rank he could still detect their precense as that ability wasn't based off powers but life force instead, if they were breathing he could detect them.
He wondered how much two C-ranks would give him in terms of exp as he threw them down onto the ground hard enough to break their backs.
The two villains were now paralyzed, they screamed in fear as Atlas took a knife from one of the villains and used it to stab both of them and thereby killing both.
[Congratulations, C-rank killed, Void unlocked]
[2 C-rank Villains Killed, +1000 exp]
[Level Increased 7>8]
[Exp 390/2000]
[Mana And Health Recharged]
[5 Stat Points Gained]
Atlas smiled as he looked at the exp rolling in, this meant a single C-rank was 500 exp. Though he was more interested in the Void.
In-game the Void was unlocked through Level 10 or by killing an enemy level 10 or above, it was a safe zone in a pocket dimension where he could go to for a multitude of reasons with the biggest being achievements and trials.
Achievements granted rewards such as exp or equipment once completed so Atlas wasted no time in moving to the Void, ready to upgrade his power even more.