The Pursuit Of Power - Volume 1 Chapter 15 Perfection

Walking forward, the source of the blue lights which flashed before was right before them. Navy-blue crystals were embedded deep into the walls of the dungeon, the four leaders looked at each other in the eyes again whilst one even licked their lips.

Darkness was covering the ceiling so it was safe to assume that there were no other crystals other than the ones they could see. Hiding their greed, the four leaders got to a crystal and one squeaked out. “PERFECT LEVEL MANA CRYSTALS!?”

Mana-Crystals were resources found in Gates similar to the Magic-Cores which were found in Magic Beasts. In Yuuki’s Red Gate experience, the Beasts all had Magic-Cores embedded within their bodies which was the cause for their desire to ‘Protect this place’ rather than ‘kill the humans’. Mana-Crystals had two grades: Perfect and Imperfect. Perfect-grades are multiple times rarer than a Hearthstone which could be received from the death of a Magic Beast.

Imperfect-grade is the crystals found the majority of the time within the Gates. They are not rare but are not common either whilst they are usually found within large deposits. Mining any Mana-Crystals provides money for Hunter Guilds. Hunter Guilds were places that recruited Hunters to fight the Gates and to mine Mana-Crystals.

At this moment, one of the four leaked out a sliver of killing intent which aroused the System into action.

< Quest Page >

[Instant Quest]

– Killing Intent was directed towards Host

Goals:

– Kill the ones who harbor Killing Intent

Completion rate – 0%

| Upon failure, Host will be punished |

[ 0H: 8M: 52S ]

“W-wait what? Hina I’m not seeing things am I?”

{…No, you eventually will kill Humans, so just do it. It’s necessary to do this, otherwise, your goal of obtaining Power will not be achieved.}

“So, to gain the Power I desire I need to be able to kill?” Clenching his fists tightly, Yuuki pulled out the Leviathan Dagger and activated [ Stealth ] and [ Speed Burst ].

Crimson-blood spilled from the back of the neck of one of the leaders. Tapping at his wet back, the leader’s hand began to shake as the blood dropped off of his neck and his knees collapsed before he started shaking and blood poured out of his mouth.

+25%

“Akoya! Which bastard did this!?” Roaring in anger, the bald man looked at the group behind them and saw one guy missing.

“Shimizu! It’s the-” The bald man was cut off, literally. A blade of ice poked through his throat before leaving quickly which caused blood to soil the floor. Feeling scared, the other two leaders stood back to back as the one named Shimizu held his axe tightly with beads of sweat pouring down his chubby face.

+25%

“Where are you! You can’t kill us when we stand like this!” To Shimizu’s left, a sound was heard but on the right, a dagger appeared and stabbed through his heart inaccurately. The last guy collapsed to his knees as he begged for forgiveness. Yuuki looked at the System and knew he had to kill him even if he wanted to spare him. Coldly staring at the man after coming out of stealth, Yuuki pierced his heart and twisted the dagger to vent his displeasure of having to kill.

+50%

[ Quest Complete ]

| Rewards |

– Host’s life

Looking at the interface, the System seemed to state that he would’ve died had he not killed those people.

{Yuuki, you did well managing to kill these people. Remember that in the future. if you ever have a chance to kill your enemy, take it. I feel regret thinking about wasted chances but can’t remember why. I want you to feel no regrets… Ugh! This is so frustrating! I can’t even remember anything but I randomly feel emotions and don’t understand why!} Hina sounded like she was going to start crying if she could. Did she even have a body?

“Hina… I will follow your advice from now on. For you, I will make sure I feel no regrets in the future.” Feeling a little sick from the scent of blood permeating in the cave, Yuuki almost threw up but held it back at the last second.

‘IT’S FINE… IF I DID NOT KILL THEM I WOULD’VE DIED… IT’S FINE…’ repeating these words as though they were a supreme mantra, Yuuki attempted to keep himself calm. Looking away from the corpses, Yuuki looked at the ceiling instead. Seeing movement, Yuuki could not tell whether he was right or wrong.

Suddenly a sound echoed throughout the large cave as the only entrance began to get covered by a stone wall which rose more and more. Turning around to see the cause, he noticed the people before were stuffing chunks of the Perfect Mana-Crystals into bags they had with them.

‘It’s a trap!’

Not bothering to tell them to stop, Yuuki grabbed Kanzaki by the shoulder and shakily pulled him over his shoulder before running towards the entrance which was about to close. Leaping up, Yuuki was about to reach the exit when a scorpion fell from the ceiling.

Following the fall of the first, venomous looking creatures of all types fell onto the cave floor. Yuuki’s jaw dropped as he saw the sheer number of insects and creatures. Centipedes, Scorpions, Snakes, Spiders.

With the scene before him looking like one from a nightmare, Yuuki pinched his skin to wake himself up and prove he was not crazy. Not waking up, Yuuki then saw the new quest which appeared.

< Quest Page >

[ Instant Quest ]

– Survive

Goals:

– Survive

| Rewards ??? |

{Yuuki, you need to activate your stealth right now!}

Not hesitating, Yuuki entered [ Stealth ] and noticed that Kanzaki was still visible. Because everything happened so fast, Kanzaki only just realized what had happened.

“AHHHHHGGG THERE’S SCORPIONS!!!!” Instead of looking scared, Kanzaki ran towards them excitedly as he became a pincushion. Many doses of Venom were pumped into him and he collapsed instantly.

‘Kanzaki you masochist bitch why did you do that after I tried to save you?!’ Not knowing whether to laugh or cry, a creature bigger than all of the others appeared.

[ Twin-Tailed-Chimera ] (A-Rank)

‘F.u.c.k!’