Killing the Unkillable
"...How tedious," she muttered.
Her voice was laced with cold fury.
Nairin looked down at her body, drenched in Orc blood, and let out a heavy sigh.
Filthy.
She felt so irritated she wanted to resurrect the dead Orc just to kill it again.
Whoosh!
Nairin summoned a water spirit.
The water spirit expanded into a disc shape and swept over her in a single pass.
Instantly, her body was clean.
Well, not entirely clean.
Scars and fresh wounds still marred her skin.
Pop!
This time, the water spirit began to mend her wounds.
Droplets of water coalesced over the cuts like forming ice crystals.
A moment later, the droplets vanished, leaving healed skin behind.
Nairin surveyed her surroundings.
Before her lay a lush green forest that reminded her of her homeland.
Yet just beyond it, the jarring, metallic structures of the spaceship loomed.
She had no idea how they had managed to cultivate such a massive green space inside a starship.
Still, the sight of the greenery brought her a modicum of peace.
However...
"Tsk."
The sight of the corpses strewn about instantly ruined her mood again.
From Orcs and Werewolves to Cyborgs and Crickers.
Grisly corpses littered the emerald grass.
The moment the Orc had ambushed Nairin, other races seeking an opportunity to claim first place had joined the fray.
Of course, dealing with them hadn't been difficult.
They were all weaklings.
It was just incredibly annoying.
Maybe I should have kept one alive for torture, she thought.
She detested getting dirty, but if it meant venting her frustration, it would have been a worthwhile trade.
—ROOOAAAR!!!
While Nairin was contemplating this, a horrific roar echoed from the distance.
The Seeker.
It was an entity whose power far surpassed any of the races participating in this game.
A monster you couldn't fight; you could only run and hide to survive.
Even for an elite elf like Nairin, hiding was the only option when the Seeker appeared.
It wounded her pride, but it was the absolute rule of this game.
Whoosh!
Nairin leaped up a tree as lightly as a drop of dew rolling off a leaf.
Then, she activated Assimilation.
It was a basic stealth technique that almost any elf could use.
In an instant, Nairin's body melted into the shadows of the branches, vanishing from sight.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
Heavy, rhythmic footsteps shook the ground.
As the Seeker approached, the overhead lights began to flicker one by one.
The sheer force of its movement was enough to disrupt the starship's power grid.
First the ambush, and now the Seeker.
The ambush had been a mere annoyance, but the Seeker was a different story.
If the Seeker discovered her location...
It means death.
Nairin would undoubtedly die.
And not just her.
Even if the strongest elven warrior were here, the outcome would be the same.
Because the Seeker...
Could never...
Be killed.
“...”
So, Nairin held her breath.
She prayed silently that the Seeker would simply pass her by.
But...
BOOM!!!
The Seeker stopped right in front of the park.
Could it be...?
Is it going to eat the corpses?
If so, should she make a run for it while it was distracted?
Nairin peered down cautiously to look at the Seeker.
A thick, black liquid dripped from the Seeker's mouth.
Was it drooling?
Chills ran down her spine.
She had to get out of here immediately!
Just as Nairin was about to leap to an adjacent tree—
"Ah, damn it..."
A voice drifted through the air.
"I'm sure it went this way."
She turned her head and saw a human.
A member of that incredibly weak race.
Not only weak, but foolish beyond belief.
Only an idiot would wander around like that, completely oblivious to the Seeker's presence.
Of course, this was a stroke of good fortune for Nairin.
The Seeker would undoubtedly notice the human.
And it would undoubtedly tear him to shreds!
She would use that distraction to make her escape.
And then...
—SCREEECH!!!
Just as Nairin predicted, the Seeker spotted the human.
It let out a terrifying shriek.
Any second now, the Seeker would rip that fragile human apart.
Nairin sighed, pitying the foolish human who was walking straight toward his demise.
But then...
"There you are!!!"
Instead of running away, the foolish human shouted in a delighted voice.
And the Seeker, upon seeing the human, flinched in sheer terror.
Looking closer, Nairin realized the Seeker's sleek, black body was covered in wounds.
"Stop running away!"
What on earth was happening?
Before Nairin could even process the situation—
Thwack!!!
An Orcish scimitar flew through the air and embedded itself in the Seeker's leg.
Why did a human have an Orc's weapon?
But asking such questions was pointless now.
—SCREEECH!!!
The blade struck a spot that was already heavily damaged.
Thanks to the precise strike, the Seeker's jointed leg was severed halfway through, dangling uselessly.
"Yes!!!"
The human began to jump up and down in excitement.
The Seeker limped frantically in the opposite direction, desperate to escape the human.
"You can't run anymore, can you?"
The human approached the Seeker with genuine, childlike joy.
Step.
Step.
Step.
With every step he took, the Seeker's struggles grew more frantic.
But it was all in vain.
"Gotcha."
Yanking the Orcish scimitar free, the human began to...
Literally butcher the Seeker.
Slash!
Hack!
Slash!
Thwack!
—SCREEECH! SCREEECH!!!
It was a bizarre sight.
No, it was terrifying.
A scene so incomprehensible that it bred pure horror.
A human was slaughtering the Seeker, and the dying Seeker was thrashing wildly, trying to escape his grasp.
With every plunge of the blade, black blood erupted from the Seeker like a geyser.
How is this possible...?!
Nairin had never known that the Seeker's blood was black.
Until now, no one had ever managed to scratch it, let alone make it bleed.
What am I even looking at?
Is something like that...
Even possible?
—SCREEECH!!!
With a final, blood-curdling shriek, the Seeker collapsed.
Yes, it had 'collapsed'.
Nairin assumed it had only fallen unconscious.
After all, the Seeker was unkillable!
But then...
You have survived the Black Terror.
Rewards are being distributed.
"What...?"
The game was over?
Which meant...
The Seeker is actually dead?
Nairin stared blankly at the Seeker's corpse and the human drenched in its black blood.
"This can't be..."
Before she could even finish her murmur, Nairin was ejected from the tower.
As a survivor of a survival-type dungeon in record time.
"Whew!"
That was actually way more fun than I expected!
It felt like I was back in my childhood, playing hide-and-seek.
I was a bit tense before I ran into the Seeker, but I got lucky.
It was all thanks to the defense-ignoring passive skill, Heavenly Strike, which I had luckily acquired just in time.
"So refreshing..."
Honestly, I wanted to do it again!
Ta-da!
Hmm?
A sound like a trumpet fanfare suddenly echoed.
It was completely different from the usual chime that played when I leveled up or received a notification.
The One Who Killed the Unkillable?
Ah, probably because the Seeker was supposed to be immune to all attacks.
A 100% increase in attack power was obviously amazing.
And restoring 15% stamina upon killing a living being...
Come to think of it, I remembered hearing about this during training.
"Vitality and stamina are completely different!"
They had warned us to distinguish carefully between skills and items that affected them.
Vitality was literally your health pool.
Stamina was the energy required to move your body.
Since this restored stamina rather than vitality, did it mean I could keep killing without ever getting tired?
"Not bad."
Until now, I had felt like my physical stamina couldn't keep up with my Talent for Killing.
With this reward, that wouldn't be an issue anymore.
I was feeling a bit fatigued after hunting the Seeker.
Was there anything nearby I could kill?
If an Orc popped out right now, I could test it...
As I looked around—
Chime!
Another one?
"What?"
Level 10 already?
I had just hit Level 5 after entering this place.
And now I was Level 10?
"Whoa..."
Was it because I killed the boss?
Well, I did solo an attack-immune boss in a survival-type map, not just some ordinary boss...
Still, I hadn't expected to jump five levels at once.
Leveling up was supposed to be incredibly difficult.
Usually, you had to clear the tower four or five times just to gain a single level.
It was something you literally risked your life to increase.
Yet here I was, leveling up in the blink of an eye.
Wait.
Does this mean I get to choose another skill?
◈ Absolute Sovereign: Permanent resistance to all status ailments.
◈ Wind Walk: Permanent 50% increase to base speed.
◈ Killing Time: Speed increases by 1,000% for 3 seconds upon killing a living being.
Oh, last time it was randomly assigned, but this time I get to choose.
Wow.
All three of them are amazing.
Absolute Sovereign was a solid defensive option.
I heard that mental attacks became terrifyingly common the higher you climbed the tower.
Having it would definitely be useful.
Wind Walk would be a massive help when dealing with other races.
As I went higher, I wouldn't just be fighting slow monsters like Ratmen or Orcs.
Considering the other races I'd face, this was also an incredible skill.
And then, Killing Time...
The name itself sounded brutal, but at first glance, it seemed a bit lacking compared to the others.
While Absolute Sovereign and Wind Walk provided permanent passive buffs, Killing Time only lasted for three seconds.
Granted, a 1,000% speed increase was insane, but the question was whether I could finish a fight in just three seconds.
It was undoubtedly a monstrous skill, but would I be able to utilize it properly?
"Hmm..."
I fell into deep thought.
Should I play it safe?
Or should I gamble?
I analyzed the situation calmly.
I had been lucky enough to hit Level 5 and Level 10 in rapid succession this time, but there was no guarantee it would happen again.
This choice would inevitably shape my entire future.
My mind raced.
Absolute Sovereign.
It was a great skill.
But...
What if I could just move before they could even target me?
Wind Walk.
This was also a great skill.
A 50% increase would probably make me as fast as an elf.
And with that kind of speed, I could easily dominate most opponents.
But...
Wouldn't that just put me on equal footing with the elves?
What was the point if I was only catching up to their starting line?
“...”
In the end, there was only one answer.
Killing Time.
If the other options were 'good' skills, this one was 'god-tier'.
Once I killed a single target, I would essentially become a god for three seconds.
Everyone else would look like slugs in slow motion.
Even if it was only for three seconds.
In a fight between a god and a slug...
The outcome was obvious.
"I choose Killing Time."
Killing Time
Perfect.
A 100% attack power boost from the achievement.
Restoring 15% stamina upon a kill.
And on top of that, a 1,000% speed boost for three seconds after a kill thanks to Killing Time.
This should be more than enough!
Just as I was thinking that—
Chime!
Rewards are being distributed.
Huh? Again?