The conversation continued. Lily's mother also made no further attempt to talk to Serin.
It was only after five minutes that the two parted ways.
Although the conversation was neither too long nor short, Arek managed to gather enough information.
It appeared that in these ten days, he couldn't rest at all. At first, after awakening, he simply wanted to rest while waiting for ten days to pass.
But if Lily's mother's words are to be believed, then he had to get to work.
...
The night had descended, the crescent moon was high up in the sky, bathing the city in its silvery glow. Except for the patrolling guards, no one could be seen on the streets of the city.
"Serin should be asleep by now..." Arek muttered while looking at the clock hanging above his head.
It was already past midnight.
Serin and Arek lived alone once their family was massacred in the demon invasion. Living together, they relied on each other to survive in this world. After taking over the body, Arek had also adopted the same attitude.
Even though he felt this way, Arek couldn't tell her about his powers. After all, he had no choice, and to be honest, he preferred it this way.
Arek wasted no time and got ready to move.
"Level ten should be something similar to the peak iron rank of awakeners."
Unlike Arek, others couldn't level up. While he could simply grow stronger by killing, the other awakeners had to either absorb mana from the atmosphere or from other naturally occurring stores of mana.
"According to what Lily's mother said, most new recruits to the academy are at the iron rank, but just to be sure I should strive to reach the peak silver rank."
Arek made a plan in his head. Not just that, he also had to gather enough identity points to buy the Mask of Divine Shadow. Once the page refreshes in three days, the mask would be gone forever. If that happened, Arek would definitely cry tears of blood.
Arek stood at the window's edge and muttered, "Equip."
Immediately a mask darker than the night sky appeared on his face, with countless runes similar to snake tails twisting and curling together to form new patterns. The mask was a completely solid piece except for two holes for visibility.
As soon as the mask covered Arek's face, everything related to Arek had vanished—his scent, his presence. Although not completely, it would be difficult to notice his figure if you were not directly looking at him.
Moving like a ghost, Arek avoided the guards patrolling the outskirts.
One of the guards seemed to have felt something in the air and hurriedly looked behind, only to find nothing.
His colleague saw this behavior and chuckled, "Old man, you need to get your eyes checked."
Hearing this joking tone, the first didn't take it to heart, but instantly said, "Who are you calling old man?"
The two soldiers started joking among themselves when someone suddenly said, "Have you heard of the rumors? A masked man had been recently seen hunting deep in the forest. You two seniors must be careful—it could be a wanted criminal trying to stir up trouble."
Immediately after hearing the young one's words, the veterans laughed out loud. "Haha! You must be new here, to talk about Black-Faced Ghost in such a manner. Don't worry about him—he's a friendly guy. As long as you don't annoy him, he won't bother you."
"Moreover, he is doing God's work by culling the number of those demonic beasts."
An embarrassing expression appeared on the young man's face. He just wanted to share the information, but it turns out everyone except him already knew about such a mysterious figure.
...
Meanwhile, Arek suddenly stopped for a moment as he received a notification:
[Your identity as Black-Faced Ghost has started to spread]
Seeing the notification, a forced smile appeared on his face. "This name... these people weren't creative at all."
Still, he continued to move once again until he saw a large leatherback tree. Only then did he stop. In practiced motion, he climbed on top of it. Hidden beneath one of the branches was a simple-looking iron bow and a few arrows.
This was the weapon Arek used for hunting.
Finding demonic monsters outside the city was not a difficult task. Not just this city, but anywhere—most of the world's landmass had fallen to demon rule and humans had been reduced to the status of cattle. Only in areas under awakeners' protection could anyone hope to live peacefully.
In such a world, the importance of strength was very evident.
The area he was in now was filled with Firebull demons—a demon with strength generally at bronze level. However, compared to other demons, they were rather difficult to hunt as Firebull demons moved in hordes. It was difficult to find a lone demon in the wild.
In these ten days, Arek's plan was to push his strength to the limit, preferably reaching the peak of silver rank.
Five minutes later, using the cover of the night, Arek heard a loud rumble, probably created by multiple figures moving in sync—probably a Firebull herd.
"It's a rather small herd with only five Firebulls." Arek quickly managed to locate the Firebull herd. In the distance, five Firebulls built like tanks with hides as thick as iron were grazing on the ground below. Occasionally, jets of wild flame would shoot out of their giant nostrils, darkening the ground.
The skin of the Firebulls was tough as iron. Normal weapons had no hope of even piercing their skin.
A few seconds later, the herd was moving closer to his location, but not close enough—there was still more than fifty meters distance between Arek and the herd. They were simply grazing, unaware of Arek hidden in the distance.
"I need to kill all of them instantly. If they saw me attacking, it would be a real pain in the ass," Arek thought. He jumped from where he was toward the herd with bow in his hand.