System vs Rebirth

‘Three missions?’ Noel raised his eyebrows in surprise. He thought he would receive a mission, but he didn’t expect Ardagan would give him three missions at once. ．

‘Ardagan. Are you sure about giving me three missions?’

[It’s rare for you to worry about it.]

‘I mean, it’s going to put a burden on my Spiritual Energy Reserve, right?’

[That is true. However, you have to thank your new ability. Due to you being able to use your power more efficiently, you can utilize the Spiritual Energy that you couldn’t previously use.]

‘I see. In that case, I won’t hesitate to complete all these three missions.’ Noel was ready to make one or two missions fail if it only caused problems for him. He was greedy, but it didn’t mean he was careful. That was why he wouldn’t make a rush decision or get dictated by his own system.

He checked his missions. Normally, he would check the system later when he had some time, but since he was with Anna, he didn’t really mind showing weird behavior.

After all, Anna was going to learn about it sooner or later. And he would realize all of Anna’s secrets.

‘Eliminate all demons in the lair, kill the Superior Demon, and clear the whole nest within 24 hours. The first and third missions are similar, but I can’t take my time with the third one, making it a bit more dangerous. But I’m quite curious about the second mission.’

Noel had received a mission to get Force Control by helping Anna in the previous mission. But because he failed in doing so, he didn’t receive the Force Control.

It seemed that the Force Control was so important that Ardagan wanted him to learn it.

‘Although I don’t know much about the rewards, I’m quite curious about them. I mean, Force Control has appeared twice. Empowerment Rune is an extremely advanced rune from what I know… It can increase one’s physical strength and Spiritual Energy for a set period of time. However, the rune is so complex that if I have to use my time to learn this rune, I might need a whole month just to learn one rune, let alone there are more than one thousand runes in total.

‘While I have the knowledge, I can’t use or even draw them without any practice, so I’m glad that Ardagan can transfer all the knowledge. Anna also seems to rarely use her runes. It seems she can only draw basic and intermediate level runes like Duplication or Strength Blessing Rune.

‘Last but not least, the Challenger Medal and the secret to career advancement. The medal name surely has some impact. When this happens, it’s usually an extremely good medal. In fact, this medal might reflect the new ability like increasing my Spiritual Energy Sensitivity.

‘Then, there is this secret to career advancement. When I became a Swordsman, I received a few abilities. Then, I received the same amount of rewards when I became a Rune Swordsman. I wonder what kind of ability I would receive this time…’

Noel couldn’t help but smile, thinking this was his chance to shine.

Anna was curious about what Noel was thinking. He was looking down as if he was reading something, but his pose looked like he was in deep thought.

Luckily, she didn’t sense any incoming danger, so she only waited for Noel to finish his business.

After three minutes, Noel finished sorting his thoughts regarding the new missions. He glanced at Anna, who looked bored.

“Sorry. That took longer than I originally thought.”

“So, what were you doing?”

“I don’t think I’ll answer that question, but I’ve prepared a plan.” Noel raised one finger. “Currently, we have to locate the Superior Demon. After knowing about him, then we can eliminate all the demons first before challenging him.”

“That’s a normal plan, I guess.” Anna nodded in agreement. “Should we split up?”

“No.” Noel shook his head while pointing at the tunnel. “If we take a look at the tunnel, I can imagine the kind of nest inside this place. There should be a tunnel connecting all the bigger areas inside. In addition, there is also a chance that we’ll meet a dead-end. If we separate in this place, it’s unlikely that we can regroup together. And when we meet the Superior Demon like that, do you think we stand a chance?”

“Now that I think about it, Old Ru also gives us only one talisman…” Anna agreed, realizing that he wanted them to stick together.

“Yeah. So, we’ll explore the tunnels and kill all the demons as quickly as possible. You should be able to hear the echo from here. Thankfully, the cave is quite large, so the echo is not that apparent, but if the monsters let out a loud sound, it will surely alarm the other demons.”

“I don’t think earthworms can do it, but the mice might be…” Anna thought for a moment.

“Indeed. So, who will handle the mapping? If we are not careful, we might be trapped here, you know.” Noel sighed.

“Do you think it’s possible to map the entire nest? The tunnel shouldn’t be on the same level and they might be overlapped with each other.” Anna frowned.

“I know that, but we have no choice.” Noel sighed. “Well, I will take care of it then since I can’t see you successfully doing it.”

“…” Anna wanted to retort but couldn’t. “In any case, my backpack has a sleeping bag and all the equipment for food.”

“I have the rest necessary items.” Noel nodded while taking out a notebook and a pencil. After that, he used the Moon Blessing to see the dark tunnel. “Let’s go.”

“One last thing!” Anna raised a finger, stopping him. “How should we use the crystals? You should know that it’s hard to recover all one thousand of them.”

“It’s simple. I still have some rooms to carry it. Whenever we reach a bigger room, we will clear up the area and all the tunnels leading to it before absorbing it. As for the split, 50-50 to make it simpler. What do you think?”

“That’s good enough. Though, it will be hard to track time here, considering we can’t see the sun.”

“Don’t worry. I can take care of that.” Noel smiled while looking at the Time Attack Mission. He saw the timer so he could keep track of the time.

“Alright then. Let’s head inside!” Anna nodded. She didn’t show it, but she was quite impressed that Noel could take care of all those important stuff by himself.

The two started running inside. Thankfully, they had their Moon Blessings, allowing them to tackle this challenge.

In fact, Old Ru might have already known about this before suggesting this place to be their hunting ground.

With their speed, it didn’t take too long before they encountered another wave of demons. Looking back at the demons at the entrance, it seemed that the demons inside this place formed a small group to live together.

On the one hand, it would be easier and much faster if they could eliminate one at a time, but since they had to gather the Demon Crystals as well, it was better if they were in a group.

So, Noel and Anna liked the arrangement.

After moving for a few hundred meters inside the tunnel, they finally saw the path split into two.

Noel instantly chose the right one and would continue doing so until they reached the end so that it was easier to remember and note. Still, it also made him unable to fight most of the time.

Luckily, he could still maintain some sort of support fire with his Undying Fire Feathers and Ice Abilities. As for Anna, she had been wielding her sword at the very front, preventing any demons from slipping past her even in this spacious tunnel.

After an hour, they finally found their first destination.

Noel and Anna stopped inside the tunnel a few meters from the exit, discussing.

“From the way I perceive the danger, the space inside is about one hundred meters wide. There are monsters in the ceiling, around fifteen meters above us. It’s quite large that I’m surprised.” Anna explained.

“Hmm…” Noel looked down, contemplating. With that range, his Demon Hunter Medal couldn’t calculate the number of demons and even their strength. “How many demons?”

“I can faintly sense 80 demons… at least 3 Peak Level Demons and 15 Advanced Level Demons. But the number should be higher.”

“In that case, you will handle the Peak Level Demons. I haven’t done a lot today, so I will decimate all those lower level demons with my elements.”

“Sounds good.” Anna nodded in agreement. She put her bag on the ground and pulled out her sword. The yellow lightning began to spark around her body, ready to charge at the Peak Level Demons.

Noel also put down his luggage. His right hand was filled with his fire element, while the left hand contained his ice element. This was the first time he fully utilized both of them together ever since the training began.

“Let’s hunt.”