Night Ranger

Deep in the Thousand Leaves Forest, on a hill with a small valley at the top covered in oak and locust trees.

The bottom of the hill was completely filled with weeds. A group of three stood in front of the hill, looking at the small stele visible amongst the weeds.

There were no words on that stele, and no one knew that it was the grave of the Night Monarch who had blessed people for so many years since the ancient era.

”There is a crypt under this.”

”That place is the headquarters for the Night Walkers. Only at the most critical time can we start using this crypt.”

”We have a pretty good relationship with the Thousand Leaves Forest’s elves, and especially with the Great Elven King Nicholas. He is one of the Night Monarch’s worshippers and has continuously taken care of our Night Walker organization.”

Sean stood next to Marvin and gave him two wooden tiles.

This was a pass for the Thousand Leaves Forest. Only the wood elves’ allies could get one. Having a pass when walking in the Thousand Leaves Forest would not only make the Elven Iron Guard not trouble you, they would even offer their help extremely enthusiastically.

The Night Walker organization had been friends with the wood elves all this time. This was something Marvin hadn’t expected.

He had already felt that something was wrong earlier, but hadn’t expected that it was Sean testing him.

He coldly snorted, took the tiles and handed one to Kate.

This was part of the compensation Sean promised her.

The girl silently looked at the grave in front and suddenly asked, ”Is the Night Monarch a god?”

Sean shook his head with a serious expression. ”Not at all.”

”The Night Monarch is a greater existence than gods. He doesn’t need our belief. He had been blessing living beings bound by fear and death ever since the Eternal Night.”

”He has no wish nor demand.”

Kate nodded, no longer saying anything. Respect could be seen in her eyes when looking at the tombstone.

Before the Great Calamity, sorcerers’ lives were the harshest. Kate had felt this ever since she was a child.

They were exiled by wizards. From a fertile land, they were hurried to a savage border. Wizard fanatics would be even more ruthless and exterminate them. They believed that sorcerers’ powers came from devils. This was actually a very ignorant way of looking at it.

And gods would also not bless sorcerers. This was an abandoned group of people.

Naturally, sorcerers also didn’t have a very good opinion of the gods.

But the Night Monarch was clearly different from those arrogant gods. He would bless all living beings. This naturally included the sorcerers who didn’t have any support.

Thus she respected that powerhouse who had passed away.

...

”Let’s start,” Sean urged.

”We have to finish the baptism before dawn.”

Marvin nodded, somewhat excited.

Under Sean’s instructions, he quickly moved in front of the Night Monarch’s stele and knelt down.

With a solemn expression, he gently swiped the dust on the stele with his right hand.

Sean arrived behind him and also knelt and began whispering something.

He was using the Anzed language.

One of the most ancient languages in this world!

Marvin could only roughly understand what he was saying. He was calling the soul of the Night Monarch.

Anzed people believed that after great people died, their soul would neither enter the underworld nor the heavens, but instead wander around the human world.

Under the call of their kin or someone inheriting their will, those Sages’ souls could reappear.

Sean’s whispering became more unintelligible, but there seemed to be a force ripping through time and space!

He just heard him saying:

”Monarch of the Eternal Night in the endless space and time, please once again honor your promise.”

”You gave me the night crown, and those who lead the Night Walkers no longer hesitate.”

”You gave me the night eyes, to see though Fate’s mystery.”

”You gave me the blessing of strength, to keep passing on the dark bird totem.”

”I am already old and weak now, the torch has to be passed on.”

He stopped there and gave Marvin a meaningful glance, hinting him to take it from there.

”Monarch of the Eternal Night in the endless space and time, please once again honor your promise.”

”Grant this young self the night crown, night vision, and blessing of strength.”

”When the eternal night arrives, there will always be a burning flame in Feinan.”

This part of the Anzed ancient language was very hard to pronounce, but with Sean’s help, Marvin managed to smoothly read it aloud!

There seemed to be a pair of eyes opening in the dark.

Marvin felt a strange gaze watching him.

On the originally blank stele, a green fire began to burn. From a distance, it would look like a will-o’-the-wisp.

The green flame spread from Marvin’s right hand to his whole body.

Sean’s eyes displayed a hint of happiness!

The Night Monarch’s will descended!

Marvin had been acknowledged by the Night Monarch and the official baptism began.

This green fire was the remaining will of the Night Monarch in this world, after his death.

Marvin would undergo a transformation!

...

At that moment, Marvin only felt warm all over.

The green fire didn’t injure him, instead making him more comfortable.

A log window immediately appeared:

[Spend 10000 experience (battle/general) to advance to a 2nd rank class – Night Walker]

Marvin immediately chose to do so!

Why had he worked so hard? Wasn’t it to turn into a powerful Night Walker?

But he hadn’t expected that he would need so much experience!

The cost of leveling his ranger class to level 6 was 4800 exp!

Yet turning into a level 1 Night Walker was no less than 10000 exp!

It was fortunate that he had saved enough experience for this!

Marvin currently had 7000 general exp and 5553 battle exp, enough to cover this huge experience requirement.

Battle exp and general exp are the same, both the highest grade of exp, so neither had priority over the other. Thus Marvin chose to spend the 7000 general exp first and then spend 3000 battle exp.

The next second, the green fire began entering Marvin’s body.

Marvin only felt an explosive strength flowing into him.

Log messages kept popping one after the other!

[You received the baptism of the Night Monarch (Soul Remains of a Sage)]

[Baptism completed, you received a new class – Night Walker]

[Night Walker level is currently 1]

[You received a class specialty – Nocturnal]

[Your body has been transformed by the advancement, Dexterity +1, Perception +1, HP +50]

[You received 60 Class Skill Points for (Night Walker)]

[Your class skill list has been updated…]

[You received the blessings of the Night Monarch (bonus)...]

...

A large amount of messages kept popping up and Marvin couldn’t see for a while.

The green fire gradually disappeared. Marvin took a deep breath after feeling the presence of that pair of eyes disappearing.

‘Finally advanced!’

[Nocturnal Kill], the hidden specialty, indeed didn’t appear. Marvin knew it would appear once he had killed enough people in the night.

And the class specialty [Nocturnal] was the Night Walker’s trademark.

[Nocturnal]: All attributes +10% at night, no change during the day.

‘Eh?’

‘No change during the day? Wasn’t there a 20% penalty during the day in the game?’

Marvin discovered that the Night Walker’s specialty seemed a bit different from what he remembered.

At least the real world’s Night Walkers were stronger than those in the game.

No penalty in daytime, bonus in nighttime, this was simply too amazing!

All attributes +10% was already a very abnormal bonus by itself. It as equivalent to a pretty good bottle of medicine. And there was still [Nocturnal Kill], an even stronger specialty.

Marvin’s fighting strength at night would be off the charts!

And his skill list got updated when he advanced.

Besides ranger skills, he also had many Night Walker skills.

He was just level 1 right now, giving him only 5 or 6 skills, each of them extremely powerful.

Marvin hesitated for a moment and spent 50 of his 60 SP on one skill!

[Eternal Night (50)]: You can create a fake night for a short time during daytime.

This was a very powerful PK skill!

More outstanding that fighter’s [Cloak of Darkness].

Cloak of Darkness created a black mist for a short duration, hindering the opponent’s line of sight. Eternal Night truly created the darkness of the night.

The amount of skill points would determine the range and duration.

50 SP was enough to create night that would cover roughly 10 meters for 10 seconds.

This was enough for Marvin to quickly use a powerful combo.

The remaining 10 points were spent on another practical skill, [Summon Night Crow].

This skill could summon a Night Crow at night to be used for reconnaissance. The skill’s base duration was 3 minutes and every additional skill point would increase the duration by 1 minute.

In other words, Marvin’s summoned Night Crow could last about 13 minutes.

As Marvin was happily enjoying his advancement, the girl on the side suddenly let out a surprised yelp.

A small bit of ghostly fire was wrapping around her.