Dark Predator (3)

"Nyaang!"

Leo lunged in again, this time swinging a forepaw straight at the troll's leg. His cat punches landed in a rapid flurry, and once again the force behind them was pathetic. All they left was a faint scratch from his claws.

"Krrgk!"

And yet, astonishingly, the Ice Troll staggered the instant those punches connected.

"Huff— huff— huff!"

For all its formidable stamina, a handful of blows from a kitten-sized Leo left the Ice Troll's legs shuddering as it heaved out ragged breaths.

Did he devour its stats?

Stat Predation. Like Skill Predation, it was one of the Dark Predator's core skills.

What in the world just happened?

Stat Predation opened only once the class reached level 100. To swallow a huge share of one of an opponent's stats in a single stroke like that, the skill itself had to be at an overwhelming level.

I pushed Dark Predator to class level 100 and still had to claw my way up, preying on a single point of stats at a time.

Leo had just casually, effortlessly devoured most of the variant Ice Troll's stamina.

I don't understand.

That he could use Skill Predation and Stat Predation at all was explainable enough. He had devoured the Dark Predator job advancement book and grown from it. But how did he shatter the class's level structure? That, Jin-soo could not begin to grasp.

"Nyaang!"

Leo thumped his own chest, proud, showing off what he had done.

"Th-that's incredible."

The moment Jin-soo stammered it out, Leo's face twisted.

"Nya! Nyaang! Nya! Nya!"

Whatever had displeased him, he flung a fierce protest at Jin-soo, then charged the Ice Troll again and swung his forepaws. He gleefully pounded the creature with those tiny paws.

"Gwaaak! Guek!"

Every time Leo's paw touched it, the Ice Troll shrieked as though it were ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠dying. Then it foamed at the mouth and collapsed. Aside from the arm Jin-soo had already severed, the only marks on its body were a shallow bite and the scratches of claws.

Skills and stats, both stolen? Then why is Leo's attack power still like this?

His attacks did nothing more than nick the Ice Troll. Jin-soo couldn't make sense of it.

If he'd absorbed all of its stats, his own should have climbed by a fair amount.

Where Skill Predation devoured an enemy's skills and raised one's skill levels, Stat Predation devoured an enemy's stats and raised one's own. Both, though, carried a steep rate of loss. The higher one's existing skill levels and stats already were, the less either form of predation actually granted.

Even so, they ought to have risen at least somewhat.

And yet Leo's attack power was no better now than it had been at the start.

I have no idea what's going on.

In the first place, devouring every skill of a high-level enemy in a few attacks was impossible. The same held for stats.

Did the skill's power grow absurdly strong, while the stats it brings back dropped to zero?

One incomprehensible thing after another. Jin-soo's head was starting to ache.

"Nyaang!"

Leo came toward him with a triumphant stride. Reducing the Ice Troll to a dying wreck had clearly left him proud.

"Yeah. Good work."

Jin-soo stroked his head.

"Even so, you don't go eating job advancement books or skill books without permission."

Leo's eyes flew wide.

"Nya! Nyaaang! Nya-nya-nya!"

A cry thick with protest rang in Jin-soo's ears, and through the link in his mind Leo's sense of injustice came through just as hard.

"So you didn't eat it on purpose."

"Nya!"

That could be. From Leo's side of it, he might only have been carrying the thing in his mouth to bring it back, only for it to be absorbed on its own.

Nothing like this happened before the regression. I can't get a feel for it.

For now, Jin-soo decided to believe him. Leo had never done anything to harm him, and he had never shown the slightest greed for job advancement books or skill books.

Is the Dark Predator tied to shadow beasts somehow?

If merely biting the book had automatically turned it into fuel for growth, that seemed likely.

To think the Dark Predator job advancement book would vanish like this.

The loss stung. But without Leo he might never have found it at all, and it was a job advancement book Jin-soo himself had no way to use for the time being.

Look on the bright side. Leo was one of his strengths. A combat power that had not existed at all had just come into being. There was nothing bad about that. And he moved quick, too. The attack power was miserable, but the movement had been remarkably sharp.

"Nyaaaaaang!"

Leo unleashed a great roar and drew the monsters in. Ice Orcs came pounding through the snowfield in a rush. He shot toward them without hesitation, and in a flash he was weaving across the snow, biting and lashing out with his forepaws.

"Gwaaak!"

"Kiiik!"

The monsters that took his attacks staggered, then dropped where they stood in the snow.

Doesn't look like he has the power to kill them. He seemed only to strip their skills and stats and leave them drained. Then I'll finish the job.

Jin-soo swung the Blood-Sucking Sword and cut the life out of the Ice Troll and the Ice Orcs.

"Nya!"

Leo came walking over the snow with that same proud step.

"Yeah. Well done."

Jin-soo smiled and stroked his head. The goal's done, at least. That's a weight off. He had accomplished what he came for — finding the Dark Predator job advancement book. It had taken a slightly strange shape, what with Leo eating the thing, but still.

He spent what time remained hunting alongside Leo, then returned to Shin Sua, and together they cleared the one-week survival mission.

The last of the minor rewards settled in, and the instant ninety-nine seconds elapsed, a brilliant flare of light wrapped around Jin-soo and Shin Sua.

The system messages that rose as the light faded were there to greet Jin-soo and Shin Sua.

Tower Floor 150. We climbed fast. They had been collecting shortest-time achievements ever since Floor 50, so fast it certainly was.

Jin-soo let an unhurried gaze drift over their surroundings.

"A newbie's here."

"Not many of them. Doesn't look like they're with a guild."

"Yeah. Broke through as a party?"

They had come out into an empty lot, and armed players were waiting all around it.

"You affiliated with a guild?"

A player who looked East Asian asked it in Japanese.

"No."

Jin-soo kept the answer short.

"Koreans."

"A summoner and a healer?"

"No guild, and a party of only two."

"Another waste of a day."

Interest died the moment they heard him. They had judged Jin-soo and Shin Sua to be chaff, not worth the trouble of scouting.

Anyone with real ability joined a guild on Floor 100, and leaving that floor did not mean leaving the guild. The guild system of Floor 100 remained intact on Tower Floor 150. Quite a few of the players already established here had dealt directly, back on Floor 100, with the ones only just arriving. Stays on Floor 100 and Tower Floor 150 ran long, while the climb from Floor 101 to Tower Floor 149 was comparatively short.

The ones waiting in the lot had reached Tower Floor 150 relatively recently, and even so they were seeing these two faces for the first time. To them, that meant Jin-soo and Shin Sua had been players of merely ordinary skill — not worth remembering.

Give it time, and they'll come bowing on their own.

No need to be the one who offers a scout first.

If they die before that, nothing to be done.

Had the pair still been fielding a full-sized party, someone might have tried to recruit them. But there were only two. Luck, a comrade's sacrifice, a party that had fallen apart — whatever the reason, the fact that even these two had reached Tower Floor 150 meant they had the skill for it, and that they were combat power ready to use at once. Even so, the one in need was the one who bowed and came in first. There was no reason to step forward with an offer.

"Still nobody?"

"We need to fill out our numbers."

"I just hope some solid ones come up."

They ignored Jin-soo and Shin Sua. From a guild's standpoint, unless a hole had suddenly opened in an affiliated party and bodies were needed at once, there was no cause to scout the two of them first.

"Let's go."

"Yeah."

Jin-soo and Shin Sua left the lot.

No attention on us. Easier this way. He had known from the start that this was how he would be treated, and that only made it more comfortable. If they latched on trying to scout me, it'd just be a hassle. What was there on Tower Floor 150 that was actually worth anything?

Rummaging through his memories from before the regression, he headed for the district where the lodgings were packed together. From Floor 101 to Tower Floor 149, he and Shin Sua had done nothing but sleep in the open. For now he meant to take a room, wash in hot water, and get some real rest.

Hm?

Someone was following them.

A scouting offer?

Tower Floor 150 was not populated only by guild players. There were players who operated as parties, and the easiest way for them to take on a new member was to target newcomers.

Then they should have come up to us at the start. A guild set on scouting him might have been another matter, but not one of them had so much as shown the signs.

Could it be—?

Jin-soo looked around. The lot sat on the city's outskirts, and the road leading in toward the center was nearly deserted.

A sharp dagger came knifing through the air at Shin Sua. Jin-soo swung his sword and knocked it aside with a clang.

"What?"

Shin Sua flinched. Then arrows poured down on the two of them like rain.

"Steadfast Protection!"

Shin Sua threw the protection skill up at once. The arrows failed to pierce it and bounced ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠away.

"You worthless fucks! You can't even drop one healer?!"

With the curse, a man wielding a massive two-handed axe charged the two of them.

Eliminate the ones who attacked us.

Jin-soo released the Shadow Summons. They slid out along the shadows, and the moment he confirmed it he charged to meet the axe coming for him.

"Cocky bastard! I'll split you in half in one stroke!"

The man's muscles swelled, and a rough blue ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠aura bloomed over the two-handed axe. Jin-soo swung Baekcheonsingeom. The instant the blade met it, the blue aura bound to the axe vanished like melting snow.

"Huh?"

Startled, the man tried to twist aside. Baekcheonsingeom was faster. It sheared through the two-handed axe and both of his arms, and the severed limbs, still gripping the weapon, tumbled across the ground.

"Aaaagh!"

A scream thick with pain burst from the man who had held the axe. Explosions and cries erupted all around them.

"Guhk!"

"Aagh!"

"What are these monsters?!"

The uproar ended quickly. The fight had closed in an overwhelming victory for the Shadow Summons.

"You a player killer?"

Jin-soo looked at the man whose arms had been cut away.

"N-no! I'm not!"

The man whipped his head from side to side, scrambling for an excuse.

Player-killing, and then claiming you didn't. If Jin-soo hadn't stopped it, Shin Sua would have died on the spot to that flying dagger.