The feeling that Reyansh felt after wearing the mask was a mix of hunger and rejuvenation. He had yet to fully savour this feeling, suddenly the red murky blood from the corpse of boss monster on the ground, formed a string and it was absorbed by the mask.
Slightly startled by this phenomenon, he took out the mask to check. Now along with thin blood veins there was a small faded out star of blood.
Reyansh brushed his finger at the star, it felt alive, hungry and incomplete. To check out the hypothesis, he took out two corpses of goblin and wore the mask again.
Yet, contrary to his expectations, nothing happened.
"Thought so, that would have been too easy," he remarked as he put the corpses back. "Maybe, it only feeds on elite or higher rank monster."
There were few more notification left to check, he glanced at them, wearing the mask. The string of panels appeared with last of notifications.
[You have pushed your body beyond current limits.]
[Your body has adapted to stress of going beyond your limits due to your talent, Adaptive Apex.]
[Your Strength, Endurance, Agility, Mana and Perception have increased.]
[You have acquired a Trait Spark: Pain Resistance]
[You have acquired a Trait Spark: Minor Regeneration]
"Wait...wait...I have read about them. Trait Spark aren't that easy to obtain." His brows raised for a second as things finally clicked.
"Haha...so that's the real benefit of my talent. Now, I can't wait to evolve my talent."
Both of the Trait Spark were self explanatory so he didn't check for details, though he made a note in his mind to check for it later.
As he was about to open his Hunter's Profile, a panel popped in front of him.
[You have cleared the dungeon, exit the dungeon within 5 minutes.]
"Yeah, it almost slipped my mind amidst the excitement, I have been chatting and talking for a while now. I should leave first."
As soon as he came out of the goblin den, he noticed a swirling white portal ahead. Before stepping into the portal, he activated the Null Manifestation ability of the mask.
[Null Manifestation: The mask becomes completely invisible to the observer, they only feel "missing detail" gazing upon wearer's face.]
"That's a handy ability, it will look weird if someone exits a White rank gate wearing such eye catching mask." He stated as he stepped into the portal.
Feeling the sensation of being compressed and stretched in a second, his next step landed next to the gate he had entered.
The crowd had only increased as hunters formed party and send out invites to enter the gate together.
He swept the crowd to notice a few groups huddling together, likely from a guild. With his slightly torn clothes muddy with blood, Reyansh walked away from the crowd.
He had only taken a few steps when a shout from left side reached his ears, "Hey, you with the dirty clothes, we need a bait for our run, join us." A boy with a fancy sword shouted.
He kept walking, ignoring the call, he opened his Hunter's Profile mentally to confirm the earlier notification.
– - –
[COSMIC BROADCAST NETWORK]
[Hunter's Profile]
Name: Reyansh Kaul (StarWalker)
Age: 15 years
Gender: Male
Species: Homosapien
Dimension: Low rank Dimension, L0514 (Earth)
Title(s): Blessed by AAKASHA
Talent: Adaptive Apex (Elite)
Mana Core: E Rank
Basic Stats:
– Physical Stats: Strength = D (lvl 2 –> 4); Agility = E (lvl 5 –> 7); Endurance = D (lvl 3 –> 5)
– Arcane Stats: Mana = E (lvl 1 –> 4); Intelligence = C (lvl 6); Perception = D (lvl 1 –> 2)
Skills: None
Inventory: Goblin corpse ×40; Goblin rags ×78; Crude weapons ×25; E-Rank mana stones ×41
– - –
A satisfying smile appeared as he looked at his increased stats without using any stat crystal or potion, that too from a single gate clear.
However, before he could look up to his streaming profile, a sword from the side blocked his way forward.
"Are you deaf or dumb?" the boy holding sword asked, arrogantly.
"Neither, remove your sword," Reyansh replied casually.
"Ohh...ho, so why didn't you answer, when we called you?" the boy demanded.
"I didn't hear my name, when did you call me?" Reyansh shot back.
"How would I call you by your name when I don't even know your worthless existence?" the boy spoke, a bit confused.
"Exactly, so don't block my path and for someone to be rushing towards a worthless existence. Think about what that makes you," Reyansh answered as he pushed the sword aside with his fingers, moving forward.
The boy stood there a bit dazed for a second, then he finally understood. His face flushed red with anger, "You worthless piece of..." before he could shout properly, a hand on his shoulder brought his voice to halt.
"Chill, Ajay, you are star of the Drummer's guild and posses Rare rank talent. You shouldn't engage yourself with every riff-raff," The young man from behind addressed.
"But supervisor, he insulted me and guild. I just wanted to discipline him a bit." The boy holding the sword, lied.
"So, you should remember his face for when you meet him next time. Now, we didn't find a willing bait, so we have to work within ourselves." the guild supervisor responded with a smile.
"Yeah, you are supervisor. Let's clear this dungeon," the boy replied, moving towards the guild's team.
However, internally, his thoughts churned, 'Why can't I remember his face at all?'
A bit annoyed by unnecessary break, Reyansh increased his speed. He took out the phone to check for time, it read:
10:27 AM
"I may reach on time to pick up Vanu from school," he thought as he set Vanya's school as destination.
After few minutes, when he reached a bit less crowded area, he opened his Streaming profile for first time.
– - –
[Streaming Profile]
Channel Name: StarWalker
Channel Rank: Ember
Dimension: Low rank Dimension L0514 (Earth)
Streaming Reach: All Dimension (Perk 6)
Subscribers: 2
Stream Code: RK017SW01 L0514_091
– - –
This was the most normal profile, with only streaming reach being different from others. However, he also knew that it was one of the most important thing of all.
'Come to think of it, all perks of the Cosmic Patron System are important and have their own use. I should use them to full of my abilities.' He thought as his feet moved forward.
Amidst lost in thought about this mysterious system, he kept his pace up as he reached his destination few minutes later.
He looked up at the board that read:
Sunbeam Private School
Aff. With National Hunters Council (NHC)
(We not only teach but train best hunters)
This was one of the best school he could find for his sister. After the Merge, the conventional study took a back seat as curriculums on Hunters emerged. It became a compulsory part of children below 12 years of age.
His sister was also nearing the age of natural awakening, however, now that he had awakened, he was a little less worried.
He walked up towards the guard stationed on the gate, just looking at him, Reyansh felt that he was a hunter. He couldn't gaze his strength properly but he didn't feel threatening.
'That's probably due to perception, it's useful this way too,' he thought.
"Hello, my sister, Vanya Kaul, is a student here. I am here to meet her in interval time." He addressed the guard and showed his ID card.
After checking it out, the guard let him enter, "Wait in the meeting room, she will be there shortly."
"Thank you," He smiled and entered.
As he walked through the corridor, some students did gave side-eyes, probably due to his bloodied clothes. But, Reyansh was in happy mood to surprise his sister, ignoring the looks.
However, just as he was about to enter the meeting room, his eyes caught an incident happening in the ground nearby, through the window.
All his happiness just evaporated replaced with blood boiling anger, as he ran straight towards the ground, breaking through the window.
Just as a boy was about to hit the girl backed against the wall, Reyansh caught the boy's hand firmly.
The boy turned back to look at the one responsible for stopping him. However what greeted him was a cold and furious eyes.
"Do you have a death wish?" Reyansh said in a threatening voice.
"Brother!" the girl standing with her back against wall, Vanya Kaul, spoke.
[AN: This book has now entered the process of contract review. Thanks to all the current and future readers. I will try my best to make updates regular, at least one chapter per day.]