The ability to summon shadow blades sounded super badass and cool, but it would be maybe slightly redundant if he ever was able to trigger Sakura’s slice ability again. Plus, it was just a purely offensive move which were frequent amongst climbers; whereas shadow blink had a lot more situational value. The ability to hop around a battle location would offer incredible strategic and tactical advantages, regardless of what other ability he was currently wielding. In fact, the ability to teleport would only ever enhance another ability he had, unlike shadow blades which would just be another offensive option.

The decision was easy.

He was going to keep shadow blink and hold onto shadow blade until something better came along or he was forced to change it due to whatever circumstances came up.

He got to his feet. He couldn’t wait to tell Sakura he had reached E-rank and not only that, he had done it without breaking any rules or laws of the tower-zone.

He walked towards the entrance of the cave, full of satisfaction.

He then stopped halfway towards the exit.

There was a group of men waiting outside.

It was far too great a coincidence that a group of men came to the exact same unexplored spot of the endless forest on the same day he had. No—they must have followed him here.

But why?

They must’ve followed him here.

Max could only think of one reason. They’d been hired by whoever had assigned that guy to attack him on the night of the October monster wave.

This was an ambush and these guys were here to kill him.

54

Eli waited cautiously near the entrance to the cave.

His brothers were getting bored and irritated. They wanted to rush into the dark cavern.

“When is this kid coming out?” moaned Kendrick.

“I think he’s dead,” said Patrick. “We should go in and confirm so we can stop waiting and go home.”

Eli considered all the noises they’d heard coming from inside that cave. There had been a powerful monster in there and, regardless of what the outcome was, the kid had clearly put up a good fight. It might be worth going in there to finish off what the kid started and collect the unique monster core. It might not do him much good as a C-ranked climber but it would net a good amount of coins with a merchant.

“It’s been over ten minutes since we last heard anything,” said Kendrick. “Is it possible there’s another exit out of this cave?”

“Nope,” said Eli. “There he is.”

The figure of the boy emerged at the entrance of the cave.

“C’mon out, kid,” said Kendrick. “There’s no point in hiding. We’ll come in there and kill you if we have to. Just like we killed the defense climbers at the front of the teleporter.”

The boy didn’t move.