[STT] Chapter 73: Hound (Patreon)

Lying on his back in the dirt, Ben stared at the notifications lingering in his vision.

And he could admit, it made sense that he got a lot of level ups in his skills. He had just spent the last minute running for his life while spamming every single ability he had at maximum overdrive. What he couldn't understand was how he got credit for killing it.

That Guardian was just something else entirely. It was basically a walking natural disaster made of condensed mana, and it had nearly killed him a dozen times in sixty seconds.

Thinking back on it, he still couldn't really believe he had actually survived dodging that monster that moved faster than he could even think.

Insane.

He had somehow still gotten essence credit for the kill, though. Even if the system's protocol had finished the job, his contribution was apparently enough to count.

So he opened his status to see what exactly he had earned from surviving the impossible.

Name: Benjamin

Title: [Hunter]

Tier: 1

Skills (8/11):

Focus (Parallel Focus) (Rare) - Lvl 15

Mana Sonar (Uncommon) - Lvl 16

Ignition Step (Rare) - Lvl 6

Warforged (Rare) - Lvl 13

Mana Cannon (Uncommon) - Lvl 12

Regeneration (Uncommon) - Lvl 17

Mana Manipulation (Uncommon) - Lvl 15

Mana Construct (Common) - Lvl 9

Constructs (2/10):

Learning Model

Healing Mark

Titles (3/3):

- [Hunter] - Equipped

- [Lurker] (35/100)

- [Hound] (1/100)

Shards:

- None

The system was finally giving him a hard limit on his titles, it seemed, putting a neat little three-of-three counter right there for him to see.

And right below his titles sat the new addition.

[Hound].

Much like when he'd gotten his other two titles, [Hound] came with an instinctual understanding into his head. It was a simple concept that aggressively rooted itself in his mind.

Never lose a trail.

Shaking his head, Ben dismissed the creepy feeling of suddenly having new information in his head, but ever since coming to this world, he was slowly getting used to it. Regardless, he checked the rest of his notifications again. The rift reward was still stuck calculating, refusing to drop whatever he had actually earned for conquering it.

So he just pushed the annoyance aside and mulled over his overall progress. He had grabbed a ton of skill levels, a brand new title, and a massive chunk of essence from a Tier 3 monster. Even though his contribution had been little in the actual kill, what essence he got for it was…

Honestly, it felt like more than enough essence to finally push him into Tier 2.

But doing that right now in the middle of a forest was just asking to get eaten by whatever else was lurking out here. He needed to find a safe place and get some actual time to himself before he tried to advance.

And who knows what advancing means for me…

Not going to lie, he couldn't hold in his excitement. He didn't know would happen once he advanced. He was trying to keep his expectations in check, but it was hard.

Would he finally have access to his soul space?

Still, his eyes drifted back to the pending reward and the new title limit. The system obviously wasn't going to explain the arbitrary cap, nor was it going to give him a helpful text box for his new title.

As usual.

Nevertheless, he knew the general vibe of the Title now, but that didn't really explain how it functioned in practice.

Now what exactly can you do?

Dragging himself to a tree he could hide behind, Ben slumped against the bark and dumped his mana into [Regeneration], messing around with his new Title while he waited to heal.

Never lose a trail.

That was the only distinct concept his brain supplied him when he focused on [Hound]. It was a nice sentiment, but it didn't give him a single clue about how it actually functioned in practice.

Not like it matters… If this follows the same trend of passives much like my other Titles, it will just work in the background.

Sighing, he leaned his head back against the wood. He couldn't exactly test it out right now, seeing as he was in absolutely no state to go running down any tracks.

His neck had literally been snapped, both of his healing marks were completely spent, and his staff was sitting in his bag broken in two. Plus, he had absolutely no idea where anyone was.

Oh, and he still had actual shards of glass lodged inside his stomach.

So that was going to be fun.

He couldn't just sit here feeling sorry for himself. He had to find Marcus. And the rest of his friends. So he pushed himself off the tree, keeping his healing skill running on whatever fumes of mana he could scrape together as he started walking.

Sweeping [Mana Sonar] over the surrounding area, he headed generally back toward the forest they had first entered from, sticking to the shadows. He let [Lurker] do the heavy lifting, easily hiding his presence from anyone who might be wandering around.

The exit portal had apparently scattered everyone across the forest, exactly like the entry portal had done at the start of the rift.

Ping after ping registered in his head, little blips of mana indicating people scattered all over the woods. And not everyone running around this field was a friend, making this significantly more annoying.

Seriously.

He kept avoiding the pings.

Why didn't we just come out the exact same portal we entered through?

Finding Ethan and Alice hadn't taken long at all. Skirting around a few confused stragglers, Ben had stumbled into the two of them bickering.

So he had dragged his body out of the bushes and dropped the bomb on them.

And now, they were just staring at him like he had grown a second head.

"You possess the absolute audacity to claim you single-handedly vanquished the guardian? I find that highly improbable, Benjamin."

Ah, there it is, the snobbery.

He'd wondered where all her talking habits had gone.

"I didn't exactly kill it with my bare hands. The system essentially nuked it for breaking the rules. But I survived long enough to get the credit and the essence."

Shaking his head, Ethan looked back and forth between them. Ben sighed.

"So, did either of you get anything weird after the collapse? Like a Title?"

"A Title?"

Blinking in confusion, Ethan opened his own status screen and swiped his fingers through the invisible menus.

"Nah, nothing on my end. Just a bunch of free skill levels and some standard essence."

Mirroring Ethan, Alice frowned slightly at her own notifications.

"I, too, didn't get anything. The system merely awarded me standard compensation for my actions."

"Interesting. Did you not kill the guardian?"

"If you didn't know, Ben, guardians scale with the person."

"So…"

"We were surviving the guardian much like anyone else."

"Right, never mind then."

"Wait what!" Alice said. "You don't get to say something interesting then dip on me!"

"I can. And I did. Anyway, what about the main reward? The notification said it was calculating our reward for actually conquering the rift."

"Indeed," Ethan said. "Conquering a rift means good rewards."

After catching up, Ethan suggested they just head back to the main camp. And both Ben and Alice immediately agreed, putting an end to their pointless conversation over the rift rewards, as whatever they were it was going to take time to show up.

The trio covered the distance in a few short minutes, completely ignoring everyone else in the forest, but they didn't actually make it all the way to the camp. Thomas blocked their path, having found them somehow, following right behind him stood Clarissa.

"Now that the trial is concluded, I demand the count."

"What count?"

"Do not play coy with me. The rift is conquered, and I must know your meager points," she sneered. "Thomas and I have accumulated a truly vast sum of points from the lesser beasts. I expect you to hand over my bag of holding and my staff."

Ben didn't know what to say. He thought maybe she'd drop the subject, but apparently not. He just wanted to be done with this, so he was ready to just tell them his points and be done with it. But that was when the system decided it was done calculating rewards.

Participant performance accounted for. Participant contribution accounted for. Sub-objective accounted for. Rift Objective accounted for. Generating rewards...

Reward options are now available.

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