HBWnovel Chapter 27: Illegal deal
Chapter 27: Illegal deal
Chapter 27: Illegal deal
In his cramped room, Hans now faced yet another dilemma.
After emerging from the gate, his level and wisdom had both skyrocketed to impressive heights and now he stood at level 85 with an astonishing wisdom stat of 984.
Taking a couple of days of rest, he then delved into training with his newly acquired spell tome.
Two days later, he achieved Expert level in {Gravity Control} (1st Rank).
Unlike a spell tome, this was a path tome and hence didn't disappear once he had mastered it, allowing him to access it anytime. After arriving at the first rank, he gained access to spells, {Load} and {Lighten}.
{Load (Tier-1)
Description: A spell obtained by reaching beginner proficiency in the 0th layer of the path {Gravity Control}.
Effect: Increases the weight of a chosen object by 1.5 times}
{Lighten (Tier-1)
Description: A spell obtained by reaching beginner proficiency in the 1st layer of the path {Gravity Control}.
Effect: Decreases the weight of a chosen object by 1.5 times}
After attaining this level of mastery, Hans received a message from the system.
[You have comprehended 20% of the tome path {Gravity Control}]
[Due to the effect of the skill {Knowledge Hunger}, your wisdom has increased by 20.]
[Warning!!]
[Failed to increase wisdom!]
[The UNKNOWN class {Knowledge Seeker} has blocked the wisdom's increase!]
[The UNKNOWN class {Knowledge Seeker} is making a request!]
{Class quest: Prove that you are worthy of advancing to a middle-class mage by subduing a powerful threat.
Quest requirements: Defeat a B-Rank monster alone.
Until the quest is completed, your wisdom will be capped at 999, and you won't be able to form your 4th circle.
Quest rewards:
-Unsealing of the wisdom limit.
-Increase of all the wisdom points accumulated in the meantime.
-???}
'Now I can't even grow in peace anymore?!' Hans thought to himself.
'I need a B-rank. B-rank.. B-rank. Do I... really need to solo a C-rank gate?'
'No... I only have to kill the boss alone, as for the rest of the monsters, I can let others take care of them for me.'
'First of all, I should get some people to accompany me,' after coming to a decision, he slept overnight before paying a visit to Emily the next morning.
Entering her office a sarcastic phrase came from the woman's lips as she remarked, "What an honor to have you here Mr. Benefactor."
A couple of seconds of silence followed before she burst into a loud laughter and clutched her stomach.
It took her a while to compose herself, but even after that, she seemed to be struggling as her mind was telling her to laugh while she couldn't help but imagine what might be the reaction of the citizens and the reporters if they realized that the person they crowned as their savior was just a barely grown kid.
Hans on the other side, didn't find it amusing and just averted his gaze, trying not to cross eyes with her.
Amidst all the destruction, a hole remained in the middle of the razed, brown earth, and lying down in the deepest part of this hole was the unconscious Hans.
His broken ice armor was slowly chipping off, revealing his bruised face.
Time passed, but the golem remained in its place, as if ready to launch another attack if needed.
Even after waking up, Hans' eyes remained fixed on the golem's terrifying red ones and he didn't dare to move even an inch, afraid of facing the same end as his fellow hunters.
The only reason he had managed to survive was due to his calm mind, which helped him think of using the skill {Load} on himself before taking the blow and ending up underground instead of becoming a splattered meat to fertilize the now empty pit.
Grabbing onto the thought that his family needed him to stay alive, Hans managed to retain his reasoning and reminisced about what to do for hours and hours.
His enemy stats remained unknown, all that the {Piercing Gaze} showed him was this:
[Boss Monster
Race: Titanium Golem
Name: None
Level: ???
Strength: ????
Dexterity: ????
Endurance: ????
Skills:
Evaluation: An extremely powerful golem, probably surpassing A-Rank.
Creator: ??? ]
It took a while, but Hans finally came up with a plan.
A golem would only remain a golem and probably react to any movements in its field of vision.
Thinking it through, Hans created an ice spear before lightening it and throwing it high up in the sky, a couple of seconds later, the spear touched the ground, and as if feeling the movement, the golem immediately raised its leg.
Taking the opportunity while it was distracted, Hans lightened himself with the last bits of mana he was left with and threw his injured body in the direction of the gate.
Clearly detecting its enemy's movement, the golem turned its head, but akin to a computer, the golem reacted to the first movement it had detected and finished stomping the ground where the spear landed, creating yet another hole which gave Hans some time to push himself towards the portal.
On the other side, Hans's bruised and weary body burst out, flying through the gate, landing in the desolate space around it and found absolutely no one around.
He wanted to make an urgent call, but since any kind of technology was ineffective in the gates, it was typical for hunters to not bring a phone with them to work, and the same was true for him.
Ignoring his injuries, Hans sprinted as fast as he could with his remaining energy, and in ten minutes he reached the association's branch.
Not even noticing Aiden, who was carrying some packages around, Hans rushed up the stairs and reached Emily's office.
Opening the door, Emily stared at him with her eyes wide open because it hadn't been more than a few hours since she saw him at the gate, but now his clothes were all ripped and his body was bleeding from all regions except a few.
"Hans what happened!??" Emily hurried to catch the almost falling Hans and asked in worry, before he tried to say something as his eyes closed, "Hans!!"
"Hans, can you hear me!?" Emily tried once again only to hear a few indiscernible words.
"The, ga te.. A ran-"
After that he fell completely, weighing on Emily's shoulder and making her fall too, causing the office to echo with a loud THUD.
She sweated and stared at the ceiling, afraid of what would happen to them now.
Though Hans wasn't able to say much before falling unconscious, the mention of "A Ran" buzzed in her mind, and seeing his condition, she prayed that what she was thinking would not turn out to be true.