Victor saw movement a few metres ahead of him and he identified it as a Bogback Beetle and it was perfect for the experiment he wanted to do.
He wanted to see whether he would get EP from party kills and it was the right moment to test it since Sakura could try out her skill too.
"Sakura, why don't you test your new skill out, there's a perfect target right in front of you..." Victor said as he nodded toward the beetle picking through the roots a few metres ahead.
Sakura immediately perked up as visible excitement spread across her face.
"As you command my lord~" Sakura said in a subservient tone while clasping her hands together in a pose of exaggerated deference, then using the motion to press her arms inward in a way that was absolutely deliberate.
Victor sighed audibly while Sakura giggled mischievously.
Yuki didn't even look up from cleaning her blade as she ignored the two... She was like water now...
...
Sakura's eyes found the beetle immediately and she instantly used appraisal on it.
'Appraisal'
[ Bogback Beetle ]
[ Grade: Common ]
[ Level: 1 ]
[ HP: 250 ]
[ Attack: 17 ]
[ Defense: 8 ]
[ Skill: None ]
Sakura closed the stat window and took a deep breath to contain her excitement as she raised her palm and pointed it towards the beetle.
Sakura had stoic expression on her face as she gazed at the beetle and a few moments passed making Victor glance at her weirdly but Sakura ignored him as she let the moment marinate.
Sakura suddenly lowered her hand and she grabbed her right wrist with her left hand, her fingers digging into the skin as if she were physically restraining a violently struggling beast.Then she lowered her head, letting her bangs cast a dark shadow over her eyes.
When she spoke, her voice wasn't just theatrical, it was a trembling rasp, vibrating with a dark unhinged intensity that made Victor actually take a half-step back.
"Darkness blacker than black... and darker than dark..." She sounded breathless, like she was standing at the precipice of the abyss and screaming into the void.
"I beseech thee, combine with my deep crimson! The time of awakening arrives!"
She threw her arm forward, her fingers splayed like a claw. Victor didn't know if it was coincidence but a heavy wind suddenly brushed past them at the exact moment rustling the leaves on the ground.
"Justice, fallen upon the infallible boundary, appear now as an intangible distortion!" Sakura yelled, her voice cracking with raw, unbridled emotion. She was putting her entire soul into the chant, her breathing ragged, her body trembling with the sheer effort of the 'forbidden power' coursing through her veins.
Victor stared at her, then looked at the Level 1 Bogback Beetle. The bug had stopped walking and was just staring blankly at a rock.
He opened his mouth to say something but in the end decided not to because it wasn't worth the effort.
Sakura wasn't paying attention to victor at all as her eyes were wide open and filled with a intense and blazing maniacal light.
"DANCE! DANCE! DANCE!" she screamed, her voice straining with emotion. "I desire for my torrent of power a destructive force! A destructive force without equal! Return all creation to cinders, and come from the abyss!"
By now Yuki was also glancing at her sister with a mildly interested gaze.
Sakura leaned entirely into the cast, pointing her palm at the oblivious beetle like she was judging a god. She sucked in a massive breath, her lungs expanding, and unleashed a scream that echoed through the clearing.
"EXPLOSION!!!"
A magic circle erupted across her palm the moment the word left her throat, its geometric lines blazing bright for a single instant before the fireball tore through it like thunderclap.
*Boom!*
The launch force distorted the fireball as it resembled a javelin than a sphere as it shot towards the target with blinding speed.
The fireball reached the beetle in less than a heartbeat but it didn't cause an explosion upon impact at first. The detonation didn't spread instead It collapsed inward , with every bit of force concentrating into a single point before it released and as a result the beetle simply ceased to exist.
There was just a slight scorch mark on the tree other than that there was no damage.
The shockwave hit them later as their hairs moved back by the sudden wind.
The smoke was still rising when the notifications hit.
Sakura's eyes flickered as hers came in first.
[ XP Gained: +18 ]
Victor's followed a beat after.
[ XP Gained: +5 ]
[ EP Gained: +1 ]
He glanced at Yuki and From the slight shift in her eyes she'd gotten hers too. Victor was pleased that he could earn EP from party member kills too as that meant he could farm EP more efficiently not that he wasn't efficient before.
[ EP - 20 ]
Now that he has enough EP for the next enhancement Victor looked forward to what the next upgrade will be...
...
The sword needed 20 EP meaning the next upgrade would wipe him clean but since he had the exact amount for an enhancement it would only be logical to use it, since 40 EP wasn't a huge number and he could farm it.
'Enhance the Rusted Iron Sword.'
[ System: Infinite Enhancement Activated. ]
[ Cost: 20 EP ]
[ Calculating... ]
The rust patterns on the blade darkened again, spreading across the metal in slow crawling tendrils before going still. The sword had changed a bit but not too much but the rust was more aesthetically pleasing to look at now.
Victor opened the stat window.
[ Rusted Iron Sword +3 ]
[ Grade: Bronze (Upgraded from Ordinary) ]
[ Attack: +100 ]
[ Special Trait I — Tetanus: Guaranteed proc on hit. Target loses 200 HP per second for 10 seconds. Ignores Defense. ]
[ Special Trait II — Necrosis: Target loses 2% of their maximum HP per second for the duration of Tetanus. ]
[ Special Trait III — Rot: Each consecutive hit reduces target's Defense by 10%. Stacks up to 5 times. ]
[ Description: It looks like a piece of junk but it is not a piece of junk. Please do not be deceived by appearances. ]
[ Current EP: 0 ]
Victor felt very satisfied by the upgrade , the blade in his hands had turned into even more of deadly threat and he couldn't wait to earn more EP to upgrade his gear.
It was time to grind...
...
The structure of their party built itself with little discussion. Sakura called targets before they arrived, Victor made sure nothing reached the two of them and what Yuki could handle safely, she handled.
"Bogback Beetle, eight metres, due north, stationary." Sakura's voice echoed and Yuki moved immediately.
She came at it from the side and put her blade through the gap between its shell and underbelly. The beetle lurched and snapped at her but she'd already stepped back and hit the same gap again.
After a couple of strikes the beetle was dead and Sakura led them to the best prey , during all this Victor wasn't idle as he would take care of anything that was too strong for Yuki...
...
"Three Rotfang Boars, north-northwest, twenty metres. The left one is fastest."
Yuki adjusted her footing and waited and the boars broke through the fog exactly where Sakura said.
The left one was already ahead, accelerating into a charge, and Yuki sidestepped it and opened its flank as it thundered past. She put a tree between herself and the remaining two before they could turn.
Victor stepped in front of them and when they hit him he dragged his blade across both and stepped back.
[ Tetanus Effect Triggered! ]
[ Tetanus Effect Triggered! ]
Both dropped in seconds and behind him Yuki landed her fifth strike on the first boar and it went still...
...
The levels came steadily.
[ Level Up! Himuro Yuki — Level 3 ]
Yuki's hand went to her chest briefly when the notification hit, feeling the stat change, her gaze briefly went to Victor's back as her eyes were filled with a firm emotion...
...
Sakura's Appraisal net swept continuously across the surrounding fifty metres. By the second hour she'd stopped announcing small targets. The communication between her Yuki and Victor had become even more smoother.
...
"Murk Eel. Left pool, twelve metres."
Yuki crouched at the edge of the water, blade angled, and waited.
The moment the eel erupted from the surface Yuki stepped back and as a result it passed through empty air. She put her blade across its body as it landed and hit it a few more times before it stopped moving.
Victor looked at her. "You moved before it launched."
"The water compresses before it surges." She shook the water off her boot. "You can feel it through the ground." Yuki tried to play it cool but one could see that she was very pleased by Victor's attention...
...
By the time the fog began to thin he checked the stat window.
[ Victor Thorne — Level 5 ]
[ HP: 500/500 ]
[ Attack: 160 ]
[ Defense: 160 ]
[ Agility: 20 ]
[ MP: 250 ]
[ EP: 22 ]
[ Himuro Yuki — Level 4 ]
[ Himuro Sakura — Level 3 ]
They had taken a moment to relax for a few minutes, and that was when Victor heard Sakura's words.
"Firewolf pack. Six of them, northeast, thirty metres."
...