Chapter 84 - A wolf in sheep's clothing

The hunger that was rising deep within me was quickly pushed down as I sat near my little sister.

My dear little Adelaide. How much longer do you think you will scurry around from my grasp? My face couldn't help but change when I recalled the cute fight you put up for the control of Frozen Paradise

You thought you had control over our little brother and could rope him to stand with you against me? Haha, naive, naive, naive!

The exhilaration I felt while looking at that face that was normally frozen be filled with anger that day kept me up at night!

Yes. That face. I want to see that same f.u.c.k.i.n.g face again.

Furious emotions erupted out and occupied my mind. My fondness of this bitch was quickly replaced with hatred. She was the only one standing against me. Did she not know the things I was doing to keep the people of this kingdom safe?

What gave her the courage to put up defenses against me? Even someone as powerful as an EPIC ranked adventure heeled under me. I looked to the dark haired woman that was releasing a powerful aura as the anger receded within me.

The matches happening below us were inconsequential to me as my eyes kept trying to pierce the veiled figure of my pitiful little sister. No matter how many guards you add. No matter how smart you think you are. Under absolute power, what can you do but falter?

Just like this EPIC ranked adventurer behind me. Just like the many that have kneeled before me. So will you. When that time comes...I will see just how much longer that frozen expression can remain on your face.

I retained my calm as I thought about the brand new strength I would be gaining with the possible deals being made in closed doors. People feared the advent of demons in this world, but I see it as an opportunity.

There were too many fools with rigid thinking running around, and this would cause the death of all of us. Things that were never possible could now be seen before me. Grand aspirations of domination would not just be fleeting dreams. As for those that stood in the way of my dreams? Hmph.

I sensed the uncomfortable figure besides me as a smile returned on my face. Keep on squirming, little lamb. For I will have you in my grasp soon enough.

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The fights were spectacular to look at, but it wasn't the thing that grabbed most of my attention. It was the demeanor of the prince that stood near the princess. The facial movements were imperceptible, but I continued to see him shift from glee, to happiness, to anger all in a span of a few minutes

My guard was fully up against this new figure as I continued to observe the matches. The strength of the combatants going head to head was great to look at, and it made me admire the way adventurers and mercenaries rose their strength in this world

The adventurers of this world began at rank F like many of the hunters in my world, and gradually increased their strength overtime. You had adventurers who were blessed with powerful and unique skills early on, with some that would most likely rise to become exceptional adventurers that could even earn the title of Hero.

The strength of the beings in this world rose at a much slower rate than the awakened in my world, but they honed their strength through constant acc.u.mulation and experience. A low ranking hunter would start their adventuring in small dungeons and spend months in there obtaining cores and increasing their strength

The skills they had would grow with them as they spent years using and learning them. The damage of an adventurer's C ranked skill could be trained to be powerful enough to the level above if they continued to get stronger.

This wasn't even mentioning the beasts that were the majority of beings in this world. There were many different bloodlines of beasts, and depending on your birth, you could quickly become strong or remain weak.

An example was the race of Mythical Dragons that had control of and used to reside in the center of the continent. A newly born dragon had much more mana than many other beings, and as they aged they received innate skills of their species while also learning how to utilize essence to form other destructive skills.

They were geniuses when it came to mana, and exceeded many other species in strength. This was also why their downfall shocked so many lesser races and made them treat the threat of demons as a possible world ending calamity. But the dragons weren't the only mythical races in this world.

Another source of their strength was the dungeons that lay all over the world. They were established for a long time with some new ones rarely appearing over time. One of the amazing things I found out about the dungeons in this world is that they granted a random skill to those that cleared it for the first time. So adventurers spent their lives travelling all over the world to amass more strength by clearing different types of dungeons to gain more skills on top of the ones they innately have and train themselves

Higher ranked dungeons rarely granted skills of the same rank though, where a very low percentage existed of a party clearing an EPIC ranked dungeon to actually get an EPIC ranked skill. The established norm after hundreds of years was that the more people you delved into a dungeon with, it caused the reward to be split across everyone. So powerful Heroes who could take on dungeons alone would be the ones to find themselves getting powerful skills of the same rank of dungeons they were clearing

But how could someone of rank S clear an equivalent dungeon alone? Even the most powerful EPIC ranked figures could rarely pull off taking down an EPIC ranked dungeon by themselves, and those that tried spent days to barely make it out with their lives. Thus, figures that could do this were very rare in history.

A few matches went by as the people around the elevated platforms ate and drank, with the platform where the two siblings were sitting continuing to be an uncomfortable area of palpable tension and silence

I watched as Captain Ryner advanced forward valiantly, defeating two opponents without breaking a sweat. He wasn't joking when he said he was a peak rank S power house. I was probably looking at the future guard that would be following the princess around in the future

I continued to combine skills while the matches were going, gaining new additions of rank A skills, and could even foresee the appearence of the first rank S+ skill. After spamming [Saint's Phantom] consecutively every single second for the entire past night, the skill neared 100 proficiency, and I wanted to combine it with [All Element Resistance] that had also been repetitively spammed and nearly reached 100 proficiency, both turning out to be compatible. These skills were relatively easy to raise as they didn't come with world shattering effects when casted.

Aside from this possible rank S+ skill, covert skills of lower rank like [Dark Assassin] were combined together to produce 3 new covert rank A skills, [Shadow Escape], [Illusory], and [Chameleon's Skin]. These skills were also quickly activated, giving me increased confidence of even those at the EPIC rank not noticing me.

The process of combination was only becoming faster and faster as I chose more skills that I could passively activate which were compatible with one another. My dream of overlapping myself with multiple powerful defensive skills was slowly coming to fruition as multiple rank B+ skills were combined. This provided me with new rank A defensive and support skills that were [Steeled Muscles],[Hardened Bones],[Wind Armor], [Metal Scales], [Tanzanite Skin], [Yeti's Fur], and finally [Frigid Armament]

Almost all of the rank B skills I collected the week that I spent in the Empire before coming here and ones gained from the Skypeak Nest were spent to produce this many compatible defense and support skills. There were so many that even I had trouble keeping track of all of them, and just continued to keep them active so that I could continue creating combinations of the next rank.

Obtaining an EPIC ranked skill through [Skill Combination] might happen faster than I thought with how efficient I was when I put my nearly endless mana to full use with constant activation of skills.

The only other skills that didn't really fit into a category but I had plans for nonetheless were [Regal Archer's Eyes] which rose from [Eagle Eyes] and a previously learnt rank B skill called [Enhanced Acuity].

I was enhancing my skills in such a systematic way that it almost seemed foreign to me, with this type of progress even giving me an excited scare. I wanted to grind my active offensive skills similar to the defense, covert, and support skills that I will just refer to as passive skills from now on since they act that way with my nearly endless mana.

The memory of me grinding [Fireball] in a dungeon as I watched the proficiency numbers go up passed through my mind, and I shifted the plans to visit the dungeons of this world as my next plan of action. I could see an EPIC ranked skill being born in this pathway in at most two weeks, and it would be much less dangerous than battling an EPIC ranked beast while not fully prepared.