The distance between Kai and the charging orc war band closed in a matter of heartbeats. The collective impact of fifteen Ashen Orcs sprinting in unison caused the black glass floor of the canyon to vibrate violently, sending spiderweb cracks rippling through the polished volcanic stone. Their guttural roars bounced off the high ravine walls, creating a deafening wall of sound designed to shatter the focus of any novice vanguard.
To a standard four-man academy team, a head-on collision with a charging orc squad was a tactical nightmare. Their raw physical mass, combined with the heavy stone axes, could break an iron defensive phalanx through sheer kinetic montum alone.
But Kai didn’t see a wall of iron and muscle. Guided by his SSS-Rank talent, Eye of the Primordial Sovereign, he saw a chaotic cluster of predictable kinetic vectors. He saw the microscopic delays between each monster's heavy stride and the structural weaknesses where their unrefined iron plates were poorly bolted together.
The vanguard orc reached him first, its massive arms swinging a double-bladed stone axe in a sweeping horizontal cleave ant to bisect Kai at the waist.
[Entity: Ashen Orc Vanguard]
Rank: E-Rank (Level 6)
HP: 410/410
MP: 0/0
Strength: 26
Agility: 14
Endurance: 28
Weakness: Flank armor seams.
Twenty-six Strength was an incredible baseline for a regular monster, but its fourteen Agility made the massive swing look agonizingly sluggish in Kai's perception.
Kai didn't parry. He lowered his center of gravity, sliding beneath the trajectory of the stone blade. His Tempest Stride boots glided effortlessly across the smooth volcanic glass, the azure runes on his shins absorbing the friction. As he slid past the orc’s left flank, the Desolation Blade whispered through the dark.
SLICE.
The obsidian edge found the unarmored seam beneath the orc’s armpit, cutting through the dense muscle and severing the main arterial pathways. The creature's roar turned into a wet, choking gurgle as it tumbled forward from its own montum, crashing hard into the stone highway.
[Target Status]
HP: 190/410 (Critical Bleed)
Kai didn't stop to watch it die. He was already in the center of the horde.
Three more orcs converged on him instantly, their massive axes descending in a coordinated vertical strike to turn him into a paste. Kai didn't retreat. He triggered the active component of his mobility gear.
Aero-Glide.
A concussive burst of pressurized azure wind erupted from his boots, launching him directly upward into the air. He soared ten feet above the descending axes, which smashed violently into the empty stone floor, generating a massive explosion of rock shards and dust.
Suspended mid-air for a fraction of a second, Kai reversed his grip on the Desolation Blade. Falling with gravity-assisted montum, he drove the obsidian tip straight down through the exposed skull plate of the second orc.
THUD.
The blade sank deep into the monster's brain cavity. The passive skill Life Drain flared instantly, sending a violent jolt of stolen vitality up Kai's arm, completely erasing the mild strain in his thighs from the sudden jump.
[System Notice]
Gained 260 EXP.
Kai kicked off the dying orc's shoulders as it collapsed, using the body as a springboard to vault toward the next target. He beca a fluid, silent specter of death within the ash storm. Every strike was precise, short, and executed with his effective Strength of thirty-three. He didn't engage in prolonged struggles; if a stone axe crossed his path, a subtle tilt of his blade redirected the kinetic force away, leaving the attacker off-balance and entirely open to a lethal throat puncture.
The Ashen Orcs, despite their primitive intelligence, began to realize they weren't hunting a helpless human child. Their roars lost their confident edge, replaced by a frantic, panicked confusion as their numbers rapidly dwindled.
Within five minutes of systematic, cold-blooded execution, the canyon floor fell dead silent once more, save for the crackling of the nearby lava fissure. Fourteen massive gray corpses lay scattered across the polished glass highway, their thick black blood hissing as it dripped into the magma vents.
Only the elite leader remained.
[Entity: Ashen Orc Chieftain Subordinate]
Rank: E-Rank Elite (Level 7)
HP: 580/580
MP: 30/30
Strength: 30
Agility: 16
Endurance: 32
Weakness: Throat.
The elite orc stood near the lava fissure, its chest heaving as its milky-white eyes took in the slaughter of its entire war band. It raised its massive, runic stone axe, the primitive engravings on the blade glowing with a dull, orange thermal energy. It didn't charge blindly like its subordinates; instead, it slamd the hilt of its weapon into the ground, channeling its mana into the volcanic floor.
RUMBLE!
A series of jagged rock spikes erupted from the glass highway, racing toward Kai like a row of giant teeth.
Kai didn't dodge the spikes. He sprinted straight toward them, his Tempest Stride boots providing an incredible effective Agility of twenty-seven. Just as the first rock spike tore through the ground to impale him, Kai executed a high-speed micro-glide, his body blurring as he zipped diagonally between the narrow gaps of the erging stone formation.
He bypassed the earth spell entirely, materializing right in front of the elite orc’s torso.
The leader shrieked in surprise, forcing its thirty points of Strength into a desperate vertical downward slam with its heated axe. The wind pressure from the descending weapon was hot enough to singe the edges of Kai's hair.
Kai didn't use his sword to block. He trusted his SSS-Rank perception. He stepped forward, inside the optimal reach of the weapon's head, entering the orc's imdiate personal space. The heavy stone axe head slamd into the ground behind Kai, missing his back by inches, while Kai's right hand drove the Desolation Blade upward with an explosive thrust, straight beneath the elite's iron jawline.
CHUCK.
The refined obsidian steel pierced through the roof of the mouth and entered the brain stem. The elite orc froze, its massive muscles lock-jawing as the crimson light in its eyes rapidly shattered.
[System Notice]
Gained 450 EXP.
Level Up! You have reached Level 6. All attributes increased by 2. Mana and HP fully restored.
A glorious warmth washed over Kai's body, expanding his mana pathways and reinforcing his muscle density once more. He drew the clean blade out of the carcass, letting the massive body tip over into the lava fissure, where it ignited in a flash of bright orange fire.
Kai stood amidst the quiet carnage of the ravine, his breathing entirely steady as he extended both hands outward over the fallen war band.
"System," he commanded coldly. "Extract everything."
A magnificent swarm of dense gray orbs, laced with rich, earthy brown mana currents, tore themselves free from the fourteen corpses simultaneously. They swirled through the ash-choked air of the canyon like a miniature constellation before streaming directly into Kai’s chest.
[System Notice]
Extraction successful.
Acquired 92 Evolution Points (EP).
Acquired Material: 5x Fragnted Earth Cores (E-Rank), 1x Pure Earth Core (E-Rank).
Total EP: 177
Kai opened his status screen, his lips curling into a cold, triumphant expression as he looked at the explosive growth of his trics.
INFINITE EVOLUTION SYSTEM
Host: Kai Raven
Level: 6 (140/1500 EXP)
Talent: Eye of the Primordial Sovereign (SSS-Rank)
HP: 200/200
MP: 20/20
Strength: 20 ( 15 from Desolation Blade)
Agility: 17 ( 12 from Tempest Stride - Zephyr, 5 from Desolation Blade)
Endurance: 19 ( 3 from Tempest Stride - Zephyr)
Evolution Points (EP): 177
His total effective Strength now sat at thirty-five, and his Agility was an incredible thirty-four. He had more than enough Evolution Points to upgrade his gear once again, but his eyes were fixed on the materials he had just harvested.
[System Notice]
Upgrade Available: Tempest Stride - Zephyr (D-Rank) can be evolved to C-Rank.
Requirent: 150 EP, 1x Hurricane Core (C-Rank).
Current status: Elental core missing.
"I can't upgrade the boots yet without a C-rank wind core," Kai analyzed, closing his status screen. "But the Desolation Blade requires a separate tier of resources."
He looked deeper down the canyon corridor, where the volcanic heat intensified, casting a dark red glow against the distant walls. His SSS-Rank talent humd at the back of his mind, indicating a massive, dense congregation of high-tier mana signatures deeper within the restricted zone.
Marcus Vance thought he had signed a death warrant when he isolated Kai in this solo trial. He didn't realize he had simply unlocked the constraints of a monster. With four levels remaining until his Level 10 Class Awakening, Kai gripped his black blade and pushed forward into the red depths of the crags, ready to bleed the dungeon dry.
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