Ding!
[You've encountered an Insecti. They're a species that reside around these parts. Although this one is way too far from home.]
"And you didn't detect it when it bit me?"
Ding!
[It has a good stealth skill.]
"Useless." Kiro mumbled. "No matter how I look at it, that's just a humanoid mosquito."
Kiro was a bit tired from fighting it out with Hubris, he gave him dirty looks. Hubris simply looked away.
Ding!
[You've encountered the King of the Squito.
Level 55
HP: 30 000
You have sh*t luck guardian.]
'Are you even allowed to talk to me like that? sigh.'
"Who are you calling an insect, kid?" It said ominously.
Kiro darted his eyes, to find this mosquito but it wasn't where it originally was. A surge of panic washed over him.
He remembered that it had a stealth skill that even eluded the system. He then felt a change in the wind, by instinct or skill, he narrowly escaped it's kick from above.
"I-it can fly!" Kiro remarked a little taken aback, "it can talk!"
"Not bad, kid." It said, landing where he had stood with it's spindly legs. "But I'm afraid it's gonna take more than that."
It hadn't landed for a second before it was already on the move. Towards Kiro, it threw in a punch, he blocked it with both his arms. He was pushed backwards.
"For a gangly insect, you sure have a lot of strength." He remarked with a smug smile.
Hubris breathed fire on the direction the voice came from, his senses were keener. But it didn't seem he hit anything.
Kiro used the little time to try and tap into vibrational sense. Just like in the cave, he could 'see' it, everything invisible to the naked eye.
He noticed a gangly silhouette just a distance from him, it would take him one blink step to reach it. He had his eyes closed, in case he got distracted.
He blinked in front of the squito king, and activated whirlwind. It was peculiar, the skill didn't expand, but it remained just on his palms, pushing his palm forward, the king took a full blast of whirlwind right on his chest.
It created a huge hole, the squito king stood there disbelieving.
"but how—" he fell with finality.
His corpse didn't pixelate, the shock of his final moments were still etched on his face. Kiro stood there cautiously, thinking it would get up at any minute, monster's pixelated in this game if they died, and they get revived for the next player, but this was strange.
He stood there with his eyes closed, after a minute of waiting, the corpse shrivelled up and whithered away.
Ding!
[Congratulations, you have defeated a Harbinger. Your rewards are still being calculated, wait a moment.]
"A Harbinger, just what do you mean?" Kiro said, confused by the choice of words the system used.
But the system didn't answer, Kiro just sat crossed-legged and entered both the meditative state and vibrational sense.
He wanted more than anything for it to be his sixth sense, so he didn't have to stop mid battle to enter the state.
This used a lot of his mana, but fortunately for him, he had mana veins and chi. So he replenished it, albeit slow but it was better than nothing.
Hubris stood guard, his pride was greatly bruised by the earlier fight as he couldn't do much to help, ontop of that, he felt a little guilt. They almost died because he attacked Kiro.
Kiro remained in the same position for several days, just as he was about to enter a space beyond the door he saw the first time, a space riddled with stars and planets, he was forcibly pushed out of the meditative state.
As though he was hit by a divine power, his chest almost caved in, he coughed up blood. His HP went from the thousands to just ten. He quickly downed potions, and laid on the ground breathing heavily.
"I almost died, I shouldn't have tried to use force to enter that door. Haha." He said in-between breaths.
He heard a crackling sound, like bones breaking. When he looked back, Hubris was engorged or in the process of it.
"Hubris, why are you getting fat?"