Frustrated that he needed system points to unlock the mastery feature, Adam was once again shown how valuable system points were and that he needed to save them even more.

“System show me how many system points and how much gold I have” he ordered.

​​

{Ding, the host currently has 484 system points and 9310 gold} the system informed him.

It hurt Adam’s heart to spend 250 system points before he had healed his Aunt, but he saw it as an investment in his strength to get more system points faster in the future and heal her.

[System unlock the mastery feature] he stated, following through in his decision.

{Ding, The host has spent 250 points to unlock the mastery feature}

{Ding, The mastery feature has been unlocked}

As he heard the announcement, despite losing 250 points, he was excited to see how the feature worked and what he would be able to master.

He pressed the mastery tab and the only thing that he saw that he could gain mastery on is daggers and dual wielding.

There was a bar of mastery under each one and he could see that he hadn’t mastered either of them in the slightest as the bar was empty and it stated that he had reached 0% mastery.

[System what else can I master and how come my mastery for daggers and dual-wielding is 0%] he asked.

{The mastery feature only shows things the host has the intention to master or is in the process of mastering which is why those two are the only things in the mastery feature currently. For the host’s mastery of daggers and dual-wielding being 0%, it is literally because the host hasn’t mastered them enough to equate to a percentage of the complete mastery} the system explained.

Hearing this he was shocked and curious about what exactly complete mastery would be of daggers and dual wielding.

He saw that to increase his mastery by 1% for dual wielding it was one point and for daggers, it was 10 points, which wasn’t a lot and surprised Adam who thought that everything within the system was expensive.

But after upgrading the dual-wielding and dagger mastery to 1% he saw that the price to increase it to the next position was higher.

“Of course it wasn’t that easy” he mutters as he slapped himself in the forehead.

Adam increased the mastery of his daggers to 4% and the mastery of dual-wielding to 10% and ended up spending 216 points.

Each time he increased the mastery by 1% the cost to increase it again would be much higher each time.

It was a tremendous amount of points for Adam in his current stage, but he was addicted to the exhilarating feeling that he felt each time of gaining knowledge and experience.

He was only stopped by a notification he received from the system that jolted him out of his spending spree.

{Ding, the host has gained the Dual Slash skill} the system announced.

As he heard the notification he was happy, curious and also upset after realising how many points he had spent.

[What is the Dual Slash Skill and how did I get it] he asked, looking on the bright side of things and was happy after feeling the knowledge of the skill in his mind, but still wanted an explanation from the system.

{The host will gain some sort of skill or enhancement at each 10% of mastery and the dual slash is a basic skill where the host uses both blades that you are dual wielding to slash out two slashes formed of energy} the system explained.

Going onto his skill tab he saw the Dual Slash Skill, he also had the Unique Skill, the Collector Skill, and had the Bloodlust characteristic.

Dual Slash

The outwards slash of two energy slashes using two blades.

Activation Cost: 2 MP

2 MP wasn’t a lot but considering he could summon two beasts and keep them formed for less than a minute, the power must be strong.

Jumping down from the tree excited to test out his new power, one thing Adam wanted to check before he went out to battle was how much system points he had left.

[How many system points do I have left]

{Ding, the host currently has 18 system points after spending 250 points on the mastery feature and 216 on unlocking mastery} the system notified him.

Hearing the notification he realised how much he had spent and was set back a lot, but instead of being disheartened it gave him more drive.

“I will complete this dungeon tonight” he declared as he felt the new knowledge and skill that he had acquired.

Tightly clenching his two daggers as he shook off the cold with his increased resistance and fortified mind, he was able to overcome the environment effect as he headed into the Canidae Stage.

“Come at me you fuckers” he shouted at the top of his lungs.

Adam wasn’t stupid and with the Hunter’s mind could never make mistakes that would be detrimental to him, and knowing that he would waste time looking for beasts, he called out to them to come to him.

Unknowingly that decision was influenced by his enhanced Bloodlust as he could feel his heart beating rapidly in excitement as he heard howls and saw all kinds of beasts coming towards his position.

With their strong senses and Adam calling them out, they could smell the blood on Adam that they recognised as their own and they saw him as a target for food and they would be able to get revenge for their fallen brethren.

They were like all other beasts that Adam had encountered, programmed to be hostile to Adam so Adam had no reason to show them mercy.

As the dozens of beasts charged at Adam he had a smile as he crossed his two blades diagonally across his chest.

Dual Slash

Adam could feel some sort of energy that was within his body stream into his arms and into his blades as he slashed outwards in the same way the system instructed.

Two blades formed of energy flew out of his blades at the beasts that were running towards him and slashed straight through the Canidae beasts that it hit.

Adam felt as though he had complete mastery over the skill and as though it was instinct when he used it, but he felt more drained than he was meant to after losing only 2 MP after using it.

The Activation Cost was 2 MP, but that didn’t mean that the skill’s capacity was the limited to 2 MP and Adam had mistakenly used 4 MP in the attack that decimated 7 beasts.

As he saw his experience rise with the system and the blood that he drew from the beasts and the rest of the beasts that were charging at him, Adam’s eyes flashed red as his Bloodlust took over.

“Die” he roared.