With Dilan by their side, it was fine to fight a little bit more aggressively than they would usually do.
Ailee and Oliver definitely felt Dilan’s influence right off the bat, even more so when their courage increased thanks to the passive effect the title [Beyond the Stars] had.
Feeling more courageous, Ailee was able to use her abilities much smoother than usual, while the same could be said about her movements.
As for Oliver, he became more eager to use tactics in order to defeat his opponents instead of relying on his abilities and a high mana consumption.
For weaker opponents, it was not necessary to waste his precious mana. They fought Silver Tier-1 monsters with average stats of around 40 Units in a team of two, while Dilan observed them.
He finished off the monsters lurking around them, so as to prevent them from interfering in their battle, and observed everything else.
‘Is it just me or are they improving much faster now?’ Dilan didn’t expect that his lecture would start showing results right away. However, he could clearly tell that the two improved much faster after he pointed out their flaws.
Right now, they were facing a heavy armored Wolf. Its fur shone in a silverish-gray tone, almost as if it was coated in metal.
It was faster than Oliver and had a higher Strength stat as well.
The Metal Wolf’s stats were definitely higher than Ailee and Oliver’s, but Dilan didn’t think about intervening.
He wanted to see how much the two could improve under tremendous pressure.
‘They can do it.’ Dilan thought, his eyes intently focusing on the fight ahead.
Ailee didn’t hesitate to use two of her active abilities in unison. [Armor Breaker(Wind)] and [Wind Arrow] were utilized at the same time.
While [Armor Breaker] was a wind-based armor piercing ability that could only be utilized on projectiles to increase their destructive force, [Wind Arrow] manifested an arrow out of compressed wind.
Both abilities Ailee had just activated belonged to her occupation [Windwalker]. It was an [Rare+] occupation that enhanced Ailee’s Stamina and Agility a little bit.
Taking aim, she released the armor-piercing wind arrow which flew straight into the eye of the Metal Wolf.
However, the monster was not totally stupid either. It twisted its body to evade the armor-piercing wind arrow, while simultaneously avoiding Oliver’s attack.
Ailee’s attack merely impacted on the wolf’s side, injuring it mildly.
Nonetheless, the attack was not a total miss and the arrow had lodged itself into the monster’s side. It was only necessary to push the arrow deeper into the wolf’s body to turn the mild injury to a severe one.
But that was not the Metal Wolf’s biggest issue. After all, Oliver disappeared from the Metal Wolf’s side the moment he finished his first slash.
He had activated [Shadow Walk] which was one of the occupational abilities that allowed him to disappear into his own shadow.
Furthermore, he could reappear in any shadow within a radius of 15 meters using the ability. Thus, Oliver reappeared on the other side of the Metal Wolf’s body before slashing out once again.
Oliver had only a Bronze Tier-1 Dagger. Thus, he didn’t dare to believe that his attack would be powerful enough to injure the Metal Wolf.
Fortunately, Oliver’s plan was different, from the get-go. Using [Violent Strike], the first ability he bound to himself after the Primordial Ascension had occurred, Oliver’s Strength increased by 20 Units.
[Violent Strike] had been upgraded to Tier-1 ★★ and its strength had increased by leaps and bounds.
While it could be considered a useless ability, this had changed completely by now. The increase of 20 Units in Strength was not something one could take lightly.
It might only be for a single strike, but that was perfectly fine because a true Assassin didn’t require more than one strike to end the life of his opponents, either way!
Even if the Metal Wolf wanted to escape Oliver’s attack at the last moment when it noticed that something was wrong, it was impossible.
With tremendous force, the Bronze Tier-1 dagger pierced into the Metal Wolf’s neck.
As the attack impacted on the wolf, a loud cracking noise could be heard from the wolf’s direction as it smashed onto the ground.
Dilan lifted his right eyebrow while observing their fight, realizing something he hadn’t noticed earlier.
‘I know that the status points from a level up are not enough to influence one’s strength by a lot, but it looks like Oliver’s focus is still Strength and Agility. Somehow, his strength seems to be even a little bit higher than his Agility.’
This realization was a little bit funny because Oliver’s occupation was that of an Assassin.
It increased his Agility by 6 Units, his mana by 3 Units, and his Stamina by 1.
Thus, one could label Oliver not only as an ordinary assassin but a Magical Assassin.
However, that was not the name of his occupation. Rather, the name was something one might not even link to the occupation of an Assassin.
<Walker of the Shadows>, an [Rare+] occupation, the exact same rank as Ailee’s occupation.
Oliver didn’t acknowledge it, but everyone knew that he chose to advance to Tier-1 with the occupation [Walker of the Shadows] because it had the coolest name of all the occupations he could pick from.
That it was an Assassin occupation could be deciphered after some time, but it was more of a stroke of luck than a thoughtful decision. After all, he had chosen the occupation based on the name alone, not after carefully considering which occupation to choose for hours, let alone days.
After he killed the Metal Wolf, Oliver’s expression lit up. It had been quite a while since he had killed a powerful monster that easily.
Ailee distracted the Metal Wolf by inflicting an injury, and after Oliver’s first attack ‘failed’, he launched a second attack, from a completely different position and angle.
This was quite a decent feat, though it used a little bit more mana than the two had wished to actually use.
At that moment, a bunch of Bronze Tier-1 monsters emerged from the thicket of the forest. There were four large Goats, and all of them had bloodshot eyes.
They were certainly not here to graze some fresh afternoon grass in the forest. It was more likely that they were craving the blood of the human Ascenders.
Dilan was just about to move when he noticed that Ailee was reaching out for her quiver.
He halted in his tracks and looked at Ailee whose hands suddenly moved much faster than before.
[Rapid Shooting] Ailee’s active ability was activated.
It didn’t drain any of her mana. Instead, it used up Ailee’s Stamina as her hands moved much faster when she shot a total of four arrows within a single second.
Each arrow hit one of the bloodshot Goats in the chest. Their hearts were pierced and the goats fell over just a moment later, never to get up again.
In an instant, Ailee killed four Bronze Tier-1 monsters as if it had been child’s play.
It had been as easy as her killing the four Ascenders, who would have attacked Felia and the other Soldiers if it hadn’t been for her intervention.
Dilan had noticed something about Ailee, something that was oddly familiar. However, it was only now that he believed he had figured out what exactly he had seen in Ailee.
‘She is a natural killer.’