A Huge Leap Forward
A Huge Leap Forward
Although Evelyn didn't look over in his direction, Craig could still tell that she paused for a second after hearing his words.
A spark of hope lit up in his despairing heart, and the brown-haired prince couldn't help but grin. As expected of a little girl who just left her home, she was still quite attached to her family. "That's right! Not only that, I will also ensure that your family stays safe during the war!"
Of course, although he promised it so readily, Craig had no way to actually make any of his promises come true. After all, Crown Prince or not, there was a limit to what he could do.
Evelyn pursed her lips as she ignored the boy's rambling promises, and continued to pelt the roaring red haired professor with soul searing stones.
— [Soul Value: 1,035 → 1,034 / 1,666]
— [Soul Value: 1,034 → 1,033 / 1,666]
— [Soul Value: 1,033 → 1,032 / 1,666]
The pink-haired girl couldn't help but curse. "How in the hell is this guy so tough?! He should be dead already!"
Not to mention Amara's shorter duration buff, Arcane Mastery — which had already expired — even the longer duration buff 'Arcane Restoration' only had fifteen minutes left.
Just as she was contemplating whether she should just burn through her remaining arrows first before going back to stones to prevent any mishaps, professor Dane finally… exploded.
The explosion was as fiery as it was fierce, and the brunt of it was taken by the Tree Demon as it roared in rage and pain.
Evelyn couldn't help but gulp.
If she hadn't stayed so far away to avoid the Tree Demon, perhaps even she would have become toast, along with her two little pets.
The pink-haired girl sighed. "It must have been some special skill or something… If only I wasn't so low level, I could have used my probe to check beforehand, and then be more on guard. If not for the threat of the tree demon, killing someone like Dane would still have been a suicide. My luck was quite good this time."
Craig's anguished screaming echoed through the area alongside the Tree Demon as he too was set on fire, though he was lucky to not have been instantly turned to ashes thanks to the Tree Demon's branches absorbing most of the flames.
Evelyn imagined it must not feel very good to be cooked alive like that, but before she ended his misery, she decided to collect her rewards first.
After all, with the Tree Demon rampaging like that, she feared with every passing moment that a higher level threat might show up. Now that she had so much level-up 'material' at hand, it was worth the risk to take a few moments to level up.
[ Killed high-level Hybrid Human (Dane Redal): Experience +120,000 ]
Unfortunately, Ruru had still been busy fetching stones for her when Dane exploded unexpectedly, making her miss the juicy killing experience.
—Current experience exceeds requirements. Level up!
-Level 46 [126,280 / 13,000] → Level 47 [113,280 / 14,000]
—All Attributes +5!
-Level 47 [113,280 / 14,000] → Level 48 [99,280 / 14,500]
—All Attributes +5!
-Level 48 [99,280 / 14,500] → Level 49 [84,780 / 15,000]
—All Attributes +5!
-Level 49 [84,780 / 15,000] → Level 50 [69,780 / 15,500]
— [ Milestone level 50 reached!] All Attributes +50!
-Max attribute bonus per level increased from 5 to 6.
—All Attributes +6!
-Level 50 [69,780 / 15,500] → Level 51 [54,280 / 16,000]
—All Attributes +6!
-Level 51 [54,280 / 16,000] → Level 52 [38,280 / 16,500]
—All Attributes +6!
-Level 52 [38,280 / 16,500] → Level 53 [21,780 / 17,000]
—All Attributes +6!
-Level 53 [21,780 / 17,000] → Level 54 [4,780 / 17,500]
—All Attributes +6!
Of course, although Ruru had missed on professor Dane's killing experience, and the little fox didn't seem to care about the missed opportunity, Evelyn still rubbed Ruru's head in consolation as she claimed the red mission for killing an extremely high-level threat.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Red Mission: Kill Professor Dane!]
-Source: Worldly Threat
-Clear Condition: Kill Dane Redal [Fulfilled!]
— Experience: 250,000 points.
— Strength +10 points permanently.
— Vitality +10 points permanently.
— Spirit Power +10 points permanently.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
-Current experience exceeds the requirement, level up!
-Level 54 [254,780 / 17,500] → Level 55 [237,280 / 18,000]
—All Attributes +6!
-Level 55 [237,280 / 18,000] → Level 56 [219,280 / 18,500]
—All Attributes +6!
-Level 56 [219,280 / 18,500] → Level 57 [200,780 / 19,000]
—All Attributes +6!
-Level 57 [200,780 / 19,000] → Level 58 [181,780 / 19,500]
—All Attributes +6!
-Level 58 [181,780 / 19,500] → Level 59 [162,280 / 20,000]
—All Attributes +6!
-Level 59 [162,280 / 20,000] → Level 60 [142,280 / 20,500]
— [ Milestone level 60 reached!] All Attributes +60!
-Max attribute bonus per level increased from 6 to 7.
—All Attributes +7!
-Level 60 [142,280 / 20,500] → Level 61 [121,780 / 21,000]
—All Attributes +7!
-Level 61 [121,780 / 21,000] → Level 62 [100,780 / 21,500]
—All Attributes +7!
-Level 62 [100,780 / 21,500] → Level 63 [79,280 / 22,000]
—All Attributes +7!
-Level 63 [79,280 / 22,000] → Level 64 [57,280 / 22,500]
—All Attributes +7!
-Level 64 [57,280 / 22,500] → Level 65 [34,780 / 23,000]
—All Attributes +7!
-Level 65 [34,780 / 23,000] → Level 66 [11,780 / 23,500]
—All Attributes +7!
-Level 66 [11,780 / 23,500]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Evelyn's body was no longer the same after her previous leap through the levels, when she had almost ended up perishing. This time, although there was some pain, she was still able to cross over twenty levels, all the way to 66, without any negative effects.
The pink-haired girl couldn't help but feel emotional. "To think that Dane alone was worth over twenty levels… Ah, that's right!"
Recalling that both Craig and Dane had their own yellow missions along with claimable abilities, though Craig's was yet to be fulfilled since he was still alive, Evelyn hesitated a little before shaking her head. "No, I have to take care of that prince first. With his luck, he was even able to escape from Aurora. Even if it takes only a minute to claim the rewards, it's better to be safe than sorry."
Of course, she had made sure to keep the rampaging Tree Demon in her sight even while she was absorbing the experience.
With the Tree Demon's speed, no matter how enraged it was or what kind of tantrum it threw for being set on draconic flames by its own food, it couldn't get far.
Although the big lump of burnt humanoid meat in its branches didn't resemble anything living at all, and most would presume that he was already dead, Evelyn knew for a fact that Craig was still alive.
He may have stopped screaming, and even breathing, but one use of Eternal Ripple still showed his spirit signature in light blue.
Evelyn smirked. "Pretending to be dead, huh…"
Nocking an arrow in her bow, Evelyn took aim and prepared to shoot the meat lump, but before she could, the Tree Demon swiveled around and threw the meat lump in the opposite direction.
"What the heck…" The pink-haired girl's lips twitched in exasperation, but she didn't dare delay at all and chased after the princely meat lump at full speed, Ruru and Bree following her closely.
She didn't know if Prince Craig's luck was just that good for the Tree Demon to fling him away, or if the beast itself had finally had an epiphany from being burnt alive, successfully realizing that she was focusing more on the 'food' hanging on its branches.
Maybe it thought it could get away alive if it gave her what she wanted and ran away.
Of course, it was true that Evelyn considered killing Craig a much higher priority than hunting the Tree Demon.
While the Tree Demon itself was slow and couldn't get away too far in the time it took her to kill the Terran Prince, even if it managed to escape as a result, Evelyn would still be willing to pay that price.
After all, letting the dumb Tree Demon go only meant one more high-level beast in the core region, but letting Prince Craig live now would mean leaving an extremely toxic thorn embedded in her side.
Sooner or later, it would fester, and there was no telling if she would be able to recover from, or even detect the damage before it was too late!
Although Evelyn was a little annoyed with how far the Tree Demon had managed to throw the princely lump of meat, it wasn't difficult for her to find him lying motionlessly on the ground near a tree.
It really looked like he was dead.
Of course, Evelyn still nocked her arrow all the way back, and charged up with searing soul before taking aim at the 'dead' lump of meat, which immediately resurrected with a roar.
"Ruthless bitch!"
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━