36 Book 3 Chapter 32

Next to the cave, Kresh was on the verge of falling asleep while Jason and the others fought. He was bored out of his mind and had nothing to do. Only his gratitude to Roy made him stay.

His mind wandered as he watched the humans fight. He wondered if they tasted good but quickly discarded the thought. They were skinny. Not appetizing at all. Their bones would make a decent toothpick, but that was all.

As time passed, Kresh was awed whenever Roy healed his fellow humans, the wounds disappearing as if they were never there. To Kresh, it was a miracle. This floor, his entire world, was unforgiving. A rune with healing properties was extremely rare. The shaman of his tribe had one such rune, but even it could not cure everything.

When the last demon died, Kresh stood up and walked over. He heard Amara ask, "We have enough essence to create a skill now, yeah? We should test it out."

Olivia held an essence in her hand and poked it. She felt resistance the deeper her finger went. Hearing Amara, she agreed. "Who first?"

"Dice time," Roy answered as he pulled out a small dice, followed by everyone else.

A short moment later, Amara pulled at her hair. "Ugh! I rolled a 99 and still lost?"

Shenlong held a faint smile as he gathered all the essences together. At this time, Kresh arrived, his shadow covering the whole group. "Rune. Keep simple. Simple better."

Shenlong nodded as he fell into thought and evaluated his strengths and weaknesses. He had many skills, so he had no significant shortcomings. Still, he had a few skills he wished to have. Sending his intent into the essence, a notification only he could see popped up.

Would you like to spend 20,000 essence to create this rune?

Flash Step - Tier 1 Rune

In a single step, traverse up to thirty feet.

30 second cooldown.

Passively adds +1% agility.

100,000 essence required to upgrade to tier 2.

Shenlong was satisfied. Flash step was short-range teleportation. Like all runes, it had no resource cost. Runes couldn't be trained, but they could be upgraded by consuming more essence.

After confirming, both tier 4 essences flew at Shenlong. Lines grew across his skin, forming a rune in the shape of a boot. It felt strangely familiar. Like a muscle he had forgotten about but suddenly regained control of.

Shenlong took a step forward, and in a flash, he was thirty feet away from his initial position. He turned and walked back to his companions, then shared the information of the rune.

"Nod bad," Dubaku mumbled to himself.

"Hmph," Kresh snorted from above. "Now small. Later big."

Jason had more knowledge regarding runes than his companions, but only by a little. Essence was limited back then, and tier 4 was the highest-level rune he had. Based on Kresh's comment, he appeared to know a lot about runes, so Jason asked a question he'd long since been curious about. "Kresh, how many tiers are there?"

Kresh blinked. He raised his hands and counted on his fingers. After a long moment, he said uncertainly, "Fifty?"

Jason sighed. How much was fifty in Kresh's mind? It seemed like any number he said was random. Roy held back a laugh as he said, "Kresh, thanks for your help."

Kresh snorted as a tinge of red covered his cheeks. "Simple matter. Is nothing."

Carly giggled from the weirdly cute and fearsome image. She wondered aloud, "Do you live somewhere?"

"Hmph." Kresh nodded as he pointed in a direction. "Tribe. Top mountain. Rock lots."

Roy opened his mouth and was about to say the location of their base, but Olivia kicked his leg with a look of disapproval.

Kresh smacked his lips as he glanced down at Roy. "Human Roy. You heal good. Can remove curse?"

"A curse?" Roy was uncertain. What was a curse? He looked to his companions for help, but they all shrugged. In the end, he could only use one of his monthly quotas to ask his patron god. "Piety, do you know what a curse is? Can I heal it?"

A soothing feminine voice responded in his mind. "A curse prevents a wound from healing. Your purify skill can remove them depending on the grade of the curse."

Roy grinned and said gratefully. "Sweet, thanks!"

"Mmm." The connection between them was cut.

Roy gave a thumbs up to Kresh. "I can, but it depends on the strength of the curse."

Kresh's body shook. He didn't have any hopes when he asked. In his opinion, Roy was so frail and weak, how could he remove the curse which his tribe's shaman could not? Kresh's eyes turned bloodshot as he let out a tremendous roar. Lowering his head to the ground, he begged. "Human Roy. Tribe Elder cursed. Please help!"

Roy looked to Shenlong, who gave a nod. Roy grew solemn as he clasped Kresh's shoulder. "Of course, I'll help. If I can't remove the curse now, I'll just grow stronger and remove it then!"

Kresh stood up, his face covered in tears and snot. "Follow. Tribe close!"

Jason and the others tried their best to keep up with the minotaur's speed. As they ran, they passed by countless monsters, all of whom were wounded by Kresh in a single ax swing. He left them alive out of consideration for the pitiful humans.

As a result of a series of coincidences, it was the first time in history a monster was power leveling ascenders.