Night Ranger

”Woosh!” The dart nailed into the wall of a wooden house.

A silhouette awkwardly rolled away.

Marvin frowned. It was this guy!

Little Tucker!

”Mister Marvin, it’s me…”

The small halfling forced a smile while looking at Marvin. He was almost hit by the dart. If he hadn’t dodged in time, he would have suffered friendly fire.

Marvin was also surprised.

The two halflings should have arrived to Trojan Town way earlier than them.

But even so, the Twin Snakes Cult’s ceremony had happened a while ago. When the two halflings arrived, they should have already found something wrong.

”Why are you here? What about your father?” Marvin asked.

Little Tucker sincerely answered, ”Father went to track the scum.”

”Those who killed this town’s innocents. Father said he would find their base and then inform Jewel Bay’s garrison.”

”He made me stay here, to check if there were any other signs.”

Old Tucker is tracking them?

Marvin started thinking fast.

This massacre was apparently different from the past.

Normally, Twin Snakes Cult’s massacres involved slaying and burning, and not leaving anything behind. But this time, Marvin didn’t see any fire.

He only looked at Trojan Town’s granary which had been emptied.

‘Could they also be after the food?’

Light suddenly flashed in Marvin’s mind!

He remembered!

Near Tornado Harbor, there really was an underground base of the Twin Snakes Cult. This base was one of their branches in East Coast. It was mainly filled with a large amount of food.

That was the [Twin Snakes Cult Granary] instance. Marvin had farmed that instance many times!

‘These bastards took advantage of Trojan Town being undefended to loot it, and followed with their massacre…’

‘They carried the food away, which would definitely leave some traces. No wonder Old Tucker decided to track them.’

‘Since it’s like this…’

Marvin silently thought for a moment before making a decision.

He dragged Lola aside and seriously said, ”I need you to go to Black Dock Harbor, Little Tucker will protect you. Go and see if you are able to buy food there.”

Lola hesitated. ”What about you?”

Marvin took a glance at Little Tucker, ”I’ll go find his father.”

The small Halfling didn’t have any particular opinion, and hearing Marvin’s powerful tone, he blankly agreed. And since he had already abandoned Lola once, this time he secretly swore to properly protect her. The two immediately left Trojan town under Marvin’s urging.

Before they left, Marvin gave Lola 20 Wizard golds!

This was no less than 20 thousand silvers. Lola had never seen that much money in all her life, and thus was left staring at it foolishly. Surprisingly, Little Tucker to the side was quite indifferent. He had been living with the old Halfling, so he didn’t have the concept of money.

”White River Valley’s food issue mostly depends on you,” Marvin said seriously.

Lola suddenly felt her nerves straining under the pressure.

After the two left, Marvin also began to move.

He rode on his horse, and without paying much attention to the marks, directly rushed southwest.

Because he already knew the location of the granary.

It was close to the Shrieking Mountain Range but was actually far from the Spider Crypt. After all, one was in the west and the other was in the east.

Marvin and Lola each had an objective. If he could get enough food from the Twin Snakes Cult’s granary, it would be a huge boon. If he couldn’t, then they had to go through the proper channels. Apart from Tornado Harbor, Black Dock Harbor was the closest of the Six Pearl Harbors.

Marvin also thought of using this as a last test for Lola.

He hadn’t been able to completely see through that girl from the start. Sometimes she appeared very simple and innocent, but sometimes she seemed filled with craftiness.

The 20 thousand silvers were the final test. If she could withstand that kind of temptation, Marvin would truly trust her.

...

As the healthy horse rushed along, Marvin reminisced about back when he had farmed that hidden granary.

The granary was a special place because this was the gathering place of the Twin Snakes Followers. Not only were there 500 ordinary followers inside, but there were also 6 2nd rank Clerics and one Cleric wearing a purple gown.

In the Twin Snakes Cult, the strongest were the two Great Patriarchs: the Scarlet Patriarch and the Azure Patriarch. These two were both mighty Legend level powerhouses, and though they were rarely seen, they were immensely powerful. A Night Walker had been killed by the Scarlet Patriarch while tracking him.

Under the two Patriarchs were twelve purple gowned Officers. These twelves Officers each had a poisonous snake name as a codename, such as King Cobra, Black Mamba, and so on. Those twelve Officers were all 3rd rank Clerics.

The World Ending Twin Snakes also really existed. They were godly existences from an old era, but were very brutal, advocating killing and destruction. They were banished to the empty Ethereal Plane by the Wizard God. But they could still partly answer their followers’ prayers.

As long as you massacred, as long as you destroyed, as long as you displayed the World Ending Banner, you would receive the care of the World Ending Twin Snakes.

The Twin Snakes Cult’s Clerics were very troublesome. Their Divine Spells were sinister and ruthless, and they were very pernicious and persistent in nature. It was fine to die in the game, as it was just another death. Injuries were also just injuries. Everything would refresh in a day. But in the real world, Marvin had to be cautious.

He couldn’t let the Clerics’ Divine Spells land on his body!

But this was very difficult.

Even though the Officer guarding the Hidden Granary was regularly replaced, Marvin wasn’t sure how to deal with the Hidden Granary. A 3rd rank Cleric wasn’t to be trifled with.

After all, those guys’ spells and Divine Spells were both fast, and they only had lethal moves.

In addition to the Officer guarding the Hidden Granary, there were at least six 2nd rank Clerics.

Of course, the most troublesome ones in the end were still those followers.

Marvin didn’t know how many followers were currently gathered in the granary, but the more there were, the more troublesome it would be.

Because these followers weren’t true believers of the Twin Snakes Cult. They were actually controlled by the Twin Snakes Clerics.

The Twin Snakes Church would regularly offer sacrifices. And these people under their control would eventually end up as sacrifices.

The most terrible part was that these people would do their best to hinder his progress. They were innocents, and killing his way through would not only alarm the higher ups, but would also be willfully slaughtering innocents.

‘It’s about time to level up.’

Marvin sat on his horse, guiding it while checking his stats panel.

...

The previous series of battles, including the Battle of the Holy Grail, Toshiroya’s group, and the journey through the Shrieking Mountain Range, gave Marvin a great amount of experience.

His current battle exp was at 18770!

He carefully considered before finally choosing to put 12000 exp to level up the Night Walker class.

Thus he was now a level 2 Night Walker and a level 6 Ranger, making a total of 8 levels in his main class line.

He received 36 Night Walker skill points and gained 42 HP. He didn’t get any attribute points because he would get one only when he leveled up a class twice. And there was no particular reward for becoming a level 2 Night Walker.

But Marvin didn’t stop there. He spent 3000 battle exp on Shapeshift Sorcerer!

Thus, his first subclass [Shapeshift Sorcerer] finally leveled up from level 1 to level 2, giving him an additional 18 hp. He didn’t get any new spells or specialties.

But on the other hand, Marvin had reached a total level of 9!

Subclasses were indeed counted in the total, but their levels had to be halved.

(Ranger 6 + Night Walker 2 + Shapeshift Sorcerer 2/2= Total Level 9)

Thus he got another attribute point.

And as usual, this attribute point was put into his dexterity. His dexterity thus reached 23. 25 was not much further.

After two level ups in a row, Marvin’s original health increased from 208 to 268, a great vitality increase.

And his 36 skill points were also properly distributed. 6 points were assigned to [Summon Night Crow], increasing its duration. Marvin felt this scouting skill was very useful. Marvin used his 30 remaining points on a completely new skill, [Night Jump]!

[Night Jump]: For the next three minutes, your jumping ability will substantially increase. Restriction: Only usable during the night.

The increase in the jumping ability and the duration depend on the skill points.

Marvin believed that [Burst + Night Jump] could create an opportunity for him in a fight. He could also use this skill during the day when used with Eternal Night.

Night Walkers didn’t have a lot of skills, but all of them were very useful. Once he got the hidden [Night Killing], Marvin would almost be able to be called a Ruler of a Night!

The last step was to deal with the Ranger points.

Before his level ups just now, Marvin hadn’t used all of his Ranger skill points.

Thus, he still had 45 remaining. And after the series of battles, Marvin’s own skills had some slight increases, such as Stealth reaching 56 points.

After careful consideration of the Hidden Granary’s nature, Marvin put all of it into Stealth.

Although Hide was his own Ranger class’ skill, it was too passive. Marvin currently needed his Stealth to be outstanding!

Thus his Stealth skill instantly broke 100 and reached 101.

After finishing all of this, Marvin felt full of strength!

There wasn’t much battle exp left, only 3770. But with Marvin’s killing speed, quickly reaching the 3rd rank wasn’t an extravagant hope.

...

The horse continued onwards, and soon, the outline of the Shrieking Mountain Range could clearly be seen.

Marvin pulled on the reins because he saw an old friend under a tree.

Old Tucker.

The old Halfling watched Marvin’s arrival, very surprised. He apparently was looking for more traces of the cultists.

Marvin calmly asked, ”Found the Twin Snakes Cult’s base?”

Old Tucker looked at Marvin, amazed. ”You know about Trojan Town?”

”Not only do I know. I also come from there.” Marvin got down his horse and solemnly declared:

”I’ll cut these bastards down!”