Chapter 10: New 1-Star Skills

Among the new skills Levi unlocked and found usable, they were

[Dark Perception] - Allows him to feel Dark or Shadow elements more clearly.

[Dark Veil] - The body releases energy to form a smokescreen at one's command, to hide from enemies.

[Dark Dagger] - Condensing the dark power in his surroundings into the solid form of a dagger.

[Dark One-Eyed Serpent's Poison] - One can coat their body or weapon with poison released from their body. Anyone affected has their eyes clouded by darkness for a period of time.

Among all, he liked 4 of them the most,

[Dark Mirage Clone] - Creating Mirage Clones when the dark elemental power in the atmosphere prevails, basically forming illusionistic clones to fool his enemies.

[Dark Vampiric Healing] - The blood of any monster allows one to Heal faster, the quality of blood is proportional to the quality of healing.

[Shadow Stealth] - allows one to travel through shadows while hiding from one's enemies.

[Dark Domain] - Allows the user to create a domain filled with dark elements, which gives them a buff while executing any Dark Elemental skill.

'Dark Perception and One-Eyed Serpent's Poison came from the one-eyed serpent, Dark Veil and Shadow Stealth are probably from the shadow leopard, and the remaining skills come from other monsters I killed but what about Dark Mirage Clone and Dark Domain I don't think that matches with any monsters I have met so far.'

Dark Mirage Clone and Dark Domain were by far the most powerful of skills he had received so far, he knew that he had not faced such a monster, he had not even fought Tier 1 Intermediate Grade at the moment.

'It might be evolved skills or a skill unlocked when some monster that I killed reached Tier 2, while I drank buckets of Essence liquid and had forcefully unlocked this skill only this makes sense. Along with the fact that my strength alone is capable of matching Tier 2, this can also be one of the reason for unlocking these skills.'

The strength Levi possessed along with the affinity he gained from these monsters might have unlocked this skill unknowingly. One noteworthy thing was that all the skills were 1 star.

Tier 1 to 3 were all about strength there was nothing special except that if one had a very strong body or a unique manual to accumulate energy that exponentially increases one's strength like Levi they could fight across Tiers. Although it was uncommon, it was not unheard of.

Most of the time, when people fight across Tiers they rely on some element-related skills they learned from their ancestors or derived from some monsters they had fought with their understanding and affinity of that desired element. But Levi was relying on his pure strength to fight across Tiers.

If Levi wanted to fight with his family he could just increase his strength but he knew that the old ancestors might have learned some skills through their own sources, which is why skills are very important even a 1-star skill would help one tremendously if used properly.

Monsters learn skills through their inheritance while humans understand those skills through hard work, there is a big difference when both races use the same skill. Usually, monsters from Tier 1-3 don't have that much intelligence to understand the skills in depth but humans use this to their advantage and can dish out more firepower than the monsters can.

Some great human race geniuses use skills as a basis to unlock even more terrifying skills of higher stars, but this kind of geniuses have a gigantic amount of affinity of some specific element that arise from their awakened talent.

'Dark Perception, Veil, Dagger, Poison, Clones, Stealth, and Dark Domain skill to buff all those skills temporarily. Along with the fact that I have the energy of 10 Advance Grade Tier 1, Hmm... just hunting the Advance Grade Tier 1 monsters would not be enough to satisfy me. I must get acquainted with these skills more before I can kill Tier 2 monsters. It's time to deep dive into the Shadow Woods.'

'I even have a healing skill, I could just drink blood and heal myself but the fact that I can't regenerate is concerning. Well, regeneration is a very powerful skill it might even be 2 or 3 stars.'

The skills are basically divided into categories from 1 to 6 stars. 6-star skills are very mythical and touch the laws of the world. After 6 stars is directly the domain of law and is not something that Levi could ponder on with his level of strength for now.

Levi was tired and could not think anymore so he decided to call it a day and visit the Shadow Woods tomorrow. Levi closed the only remaining light, which somehow handled the energy tornado he created, and slept like a rock on the bed.

---

"So you are telling me he is still alive?" In a secret hideout, a person wearing a black cloak spoke with a female tone, which revealed her gender. The voice seemed to be young enough for her to be 18-years-old.

"Young lady, this servant saw people in his neighborhood talk about the broken windows of his apartment, this sounds far-fetched but he might have broken through to the Tier 1 Intermediate Grade with the commotion he stirred." another person in the black cloak was bowing near the women's feet like she was her lord.

"How can one person cause this much commotion just to break through to the Intermediate Grade, don't waste my time and do something. He must be killed otherwise we would have to hear from other families about how an abandoned cockroach of the Anderson family got on its feet and will soon challenge our authority. The Shadow Woods is his favorite place to gain reputation right? We cannot let him continue with his hunting session. If he knows he is being hunted we can't kill him easily, he will be on his guard.

"If we can't kill him, we could at least stall him, this should be enough and even the City Lord would not interfere with our family matters for such a minor thing, after all, we are not committing a murder. Once Brother James returns after a year everything would change for the Anderson family." Said the poisonous woman with stars in her eyes at the mention of her brother James.

She was Enya Anderson the twin sister of James Anderson. She always finds reasons to trouble Levi at every stage of his life, but the elders and family head would not listen to her ramblings they knew when to stop or aggravate their conflict with Levi, especially when the Stone Family was behind Levi.

Levi at first liked Enya because he thought she had been brainwashed and made arrogant due to the family elders and was innocent at her core. But after today's incident, he discarded all such feelings.

"Young lady, wouldn't doing such things in the daylight be bad, It would be like a public announcement. If the elders and the Family head knew about this then..."

"My father is the Family head. Now shut up and do your job properly and if he comes tomorrow I want him to be battered like shit. Am I clear?"

"Yes Young Lady" The man flinched a little but obeyed his young lady's orders. He knew that he would be in trouble later for this but he could do nothing about it.

---

Shadow Woods Forest Gate.

The Next Day.

The gate of the shadow wood forest was under the protection of the Dust Ridge City's guards. However, the Shadow Woods weren't part of it and, that was the reason why people committed murder in the forest rather than places under City Lord's juridiction.

The gates were guarded by Tier 1 Advance Grade soldiers, with a Tier 2 Captain who used to seclude himself. Tier 2 existences only reveal themselves when there would be a monster horde or Tier 2 monster making an appearance, otherwise, Tier 1 soldiers were more than enough to deal with the daily problems of the forests.

"Man, what's with this long line of people? There was no need for this before, why do we need to get our identities checked before entering a forest that is a public area?"

"Don't know maybe they are finding an escaped convict? I have never heard news of a convicted person escaping the City Lord's grasp. It's a good thing our City Lord isn't a corrupted person but a righteous one."

"True, but nothing major has happened inside the city. This might just be a regular check and not concerning a powerful figure like the City Lord."

"How is that possible? When have they ever conducted such checks for the shadow wood forests"

...

There was a large crowd today at the shadow woods forest forming a multiple lines to enter the forest.

To enter the shadow woods forest one did not need any authentication, the guard's behavior today made the people a bit restless and excited at the show that was going to happen.

Levi was listening to ramblings of the old veteran hunters while he was in the line, pondering about yesterday's ambush and the situation he was looking at today.

'Oh Little Enya, I knew it wouldn't be easy, but to think you would block my route to gain strength like this. Hmm, unfortunately for you sister, these kids are not capable of facing the new 'me' now.' Levi smirked disdainfully at his cousin's ploy before activating a certain skill of his.