Hero of Darkness
chapter-27

Morning arose and Kahn woke up from his fulfilling slumber. Unlike his previous life, he didn't get any dreams about how his life would be different & what kind of love life he wanted. Rather, he would dream about how he rose in strength and sit atop this entire world; beneath no one, not even the Gods.

[System, tell me my current Stats.]

Kahn commanded the system since he ate around 50 monster cores before falling asleep. Thanks to his Ability Absorption divine ability he chose before, all the cores he ate would be directly absorbed in his body without any wastage or adversely affecting his physique.

As per the knowledge he gained from reading books in the city library, people in this world couldn't directly just swallow Mana Ores or Monster Cores to increase their physical or magical strength & capacity. Even the most sensitive beings to magic such as Elves and Angels had to dilute the cores and magical elements in them first and then absorb them over a long time. Even absorbing a high-grade core would take them 2 to 3 weeks; that too if they barely took any breaks.

And that is why, very few people had incredibly stronger physiques or magical abilities as gaining strength in this world needed a lot of resources as well as time. Elves lived around 500 years if they didn't get killed or died because of some disease and Angels lived up to 2 thousand years. Even the most Ancient Dragons couldn't live past 4 to 5 thousand years.

The longer you lived and the more resources you had, the stronger you'll become. That's how the natural law of gaining strength worked here. Even amongst the chosen Heroes, if nobody else picked the Ability Absorption divine ability as Kahn did, then his ability to absorb these monster cores would be the highest among all the living creatures in this world. Naturally, many beings currently surpassed Kahn by a huge margin, but Kahn had far more potential than all of them.

[ Host Attributes and Skills are as follows :

Name : Kahn (Host)

Species : Human

Level : 42

Strength : 164

Agility : 126

Dexterity : 122

Defense : 94

Mana : 252

Divine Abilities : Ability Absorption, Dimensional Law, Synthesis

Blessings :

War Dominance (Stage 1)

Weapon Mastery (Master Rank)

Combat Techniques Mastery (Master Rank)

Survival Intent (Stage 1)

Berserk God Mode ( 5 times the physical strength)

War Deity Body (Stage 2)

Gifts : All Languages Knowledge known to the War Deity.

Physical Abilities :

Ripper Claws (Combination of Alpha Wolf's claws and Blue Lion's claws)

Alpha Wolf's Howl

Side Hopper (Combination of Sprinter and Long stride)

Hunter's Intent

Venom Acid

Poison Immunity (Grandmaster Rank)

Somir Scale body

Executioner's Gaze

Magical Skills :

Fireball

Stealth

Note : Some low-grade abilities and skills have been merged under high-grade ones the Host currently possesses & some have been discarded as they no longer have any use to the Host.]

7 Levels! Kahn remembered being level 35 just yesterday. Eating 50 high-grade B Rank Cores raised his level by 7 levels. Even his strength had become nearly twice than before.

Kahn realized that as your Levels rose, the attributes would raise by a big margin, more with each level. Like if his stats had 20 points, after his level rose; the increase would be by 30-40 points instead of 20. As his level increases, so will the extra points he'd get.

"Good. This will make the training & my survival a bit easier." said Kahn and went to take a bath.

Kahn left in a hurry in the early morning. Instead of going to adventurer association, Kahn went towards the North gate of the city. This part of the city was mainly known for its Entertainment area like how Earth had Red-light areas in the city known for Pubs, Bars & Strip Clubs.

Kahn went to one of the most crowded restaurants in this area called the Golden Crow. He waited on a table that was unoccupied as he drank some herbal tea. Unlike Earth, there was no such thing as coffee in Rakos Empire as per his current knowledge. But the majority of the population preferred Herbal tea instead. Kahn could feel the Asian aesthetics in the building architecture & cuisine.

[I wonder if any one of chosen heroes was an Asian from Earth who introduced his or her culture and now residents of this world created a different one based on it? No complaints though.. This is perfect for the morning.] Kahn said as he sipped the aromatic tea bit by bit in a black clay cup.

Just then, a slim figure under black cloak came towards Kahn's table and sat next to him.

"You're earlier than expected." said Kahn as he glanced at the hooded figure.

"I'm a professional. We don't delay our tasks. If you're done, let's leave quickly. I have a perfect place to train you." said the cloaked figure and finally took out his hood.

Kahn was a little bit surprised to see the person but didn't show it on his face.

The person next to him was a Snakekin. His body was completely similar to a snake and his hands and legs were covered in reptile-like skin. The greenish hue in the skin color gave this person an appearance similar to a forest snake. The person even had a tongue of a snake which came out of his mouth every 5th second.

"Fine. Let's go. I'm in a hurry as well. We'll only get today to learn as much as I can." said Kahn and followed after the Snakekin.

After half an hour, they reached a desolate area where the houses were basically empty & near to falling in the ground.

"This is one of the oldest parts of the entire city. It used to be one of the most important areas of the city a few decades ago before the war between different powers & gangs destroyed it as collateral damage. And nobody tried to rebuild it as well. So it became the best area for people in our line of work to practice our skills." explained the Snakekin as he introduced Kahn to their training grounds.

"I want you to train me in 2 ways. One where you attack me with your assassin's skills and techniques as I try to defend against them and other where I make attempts on you using the skills you'll teach me. I want to understand both sides of the battle." said Kahn.

"Already spoken like a true Assassin. Our job needs the understanding of the surrounding, our target and their weaknesses. We don't do much damage even with high-grade weapons, but rather our hiding skills and the that one final hit when we show ourselves takes all the work." said the snakekin.

The snakekin was a professional Assassin and somehow Solomon had managed to have him train Kahn after their yesterday's planning & agreement. Throughout their entire time during the training, the snakekin taught Kahn how to adjust himself in the surrounding so well that not just the target but also anyone present around them wouldn't notice Kahn or his presence at all.

Since Kahn had already acquired the Stealth ability after killing one of the people that came with Illya to kill him, he was already a step ahead compared to an amateur.

By the end of the day, Kahn who already had the weapon mastery & combat techniques mastery blessings, had already raised his efficiency and also learned the ability called Concealment.

The Snakekin was left awestruck after he saw Kahn executing this ability to a level that exceeded normal level Assassins who were in the profession for some time. Compared to them, Kahn not only learned it in just 4 to 5 hours but also improved in it at a drastic pace.

Unlike Stealth ability which lets the Assassins become invisible for a short time, concealment ability helped one to merge in the surrounding area as if you were always a part of it.

The snakekin's expression was no different than Arkham's when he fought Kahn during the assessment test and found his talent in swordsmanship.

[A prodigy! I found a prodigy! Why is this guy wasting his talent on swords? He can easily become one of the best Assassins in the entire city with enough training and experience!]

Thought the snakekin as he regretted watching Kahn go after their training.

Kahn was satisfied to see his weapon mastery for Daggers reaching 45% at Master Rank and his Stealth & Concealment skills reaching 70% and 53% of Master Rank respectively.

This was just one-day training but he already reaped the benefits of an entire month's training because he learned from one of the top experts.

Just like the fight with Arkham, Kahn kept learning and perfecting his assassination skills by making critical attacks whenever he found the perfect chance and his patience to wait for a perfect opportunity was very commendable as well.

Now all he needed was to kill some assassins in real battle and absorb their abilities to create his new skills and raise the proficiency in the ones he already had.

The upcoming week would be nothing but a golden fruit of knowledge he'd get to eat and raise his skills and knowledge in all the fighting-related jobs and professions.

Kahn knew if not for the excuse he made for learning his targets & their weaknesses, Kahn would never get to learn from true professionals like the Snakekin he met today. It was Solomon & Arkham pulling their connections and a huge amount of money to get these people to train him. All for the sake of keeping their current power & authority to themselves.

Kahn was sure that the snakekin would straight away go to report about today's training to Solomon & Arkham as a way to keep an eye on him and his part in their deal. And so will the other trainers he'll meet in the upcoming days.

But at the end of the day, it was Kahn who was getting a big haul and benefited the most.

"Let's see who's using who." spoke Kahn to himself and smirked as he looked forward towards the upcoming days.