Born in apocalypse

’Here it is...’ A smirk appeared on Dhruv’s face as he finally found the monster that looked promising. Sensing the core of the monster, he was sure that it was the second boss of this dungeon.

Sighing, he propelled himself toward the monster while following the trail it left with the help of mana sense.

This deep in the ocean, no sunlight, or any light for that matter was coming through, so he didn’t have any other choice but to do everything with the help of his mana senses.

’Man this is no easy task...’ Dhruv thought trying to get what he wanted from all the information he was getting with the help of his mana sense.

As everything here was so enriched in mana, it took him quite some time to adapt to hunting here. With the help of all his mutations and skills, the situation was getting became better with each passing hour.

Smiling, Dhruv began manipulating mana. Controlling the water around the monster, he tried to bind it in place but was unable to do so.

’It seems the external mana manipulation isn’t good yet...’ Nodding his head, he followed the monster as it tried to escape from him.

"Not today, buddy..."

Smirking, Dhruv summoned a molten spear and threw it toward the monster. Slicing through the water like a knife through butter, the weapon reached the monster... but wasn’t able to hit the mark.

With the help of its long tail, the monster grabbed the incoming attack and tried to escape once again. It had sensed Dhruv and knew there was no chance of winning here.

Activating one of its organs, the monster created a sort of mucus that covered its whole body, blending it into the perfect darkness. It provided a little bit of mana masking as well.

The monster was about to slip into the darkness when something grabbed its head. It was about to bite it off, but another one appeared and punched through its ribs.

Shreeaakkk!

Grabbing its core, Dhruv pulled it out without any mercy. Looking at the core in his hand, he threw it together with the monster back into his inventory and looked at the notification.

[You have killed a Tier III unique monster: Abyssal Nightstalker Boss.]

’Huh! Nightstalker, quite a cool name... If I say so myself...’ Dhruv thought, remembering how killing the monster in this darkness was getting harder and harder.

Not only were the monsters capable of perfectly adapting to the darkness, but most of them also had some sort of mana masking ability as well.

It was true that his mana sensing was getting sharper and sharper because of it... but it wasn’t going to be easy. And Dhruv understood that for sure.

Sighing, he moved in the water and resumed his hunt. Knowing the tier of the monsters was only going to increase, Dhruv stopped going deeper for the time being and began hunting at that sea-level.

***

While Dhruv was hunting inside the dungeon, Alaric was doing the same thing outside. For the past few hours, he was picking monsters and killing them one by one as well.

Entering the slumber of shadow, he opened his status and looked at the level he had reached.

[Level: 35/40 [67%] [Tier III]]

’Just a few more levels...’

Having killed everything near the portal, Alaric didn’t have any choice but to move far from the island... in a deeper part of the ocean.

As he was hunting in his monster form, he wasn’t worried about either breathing or the pressure. Moving a few kilometer away from the portal he began looking for prey.

It didn’t take him long to find a monster resting on the bed of the ocean.

Founding it a bit odd... Alaric didn’t immediately attack the monster and instead began looking at its body. Within seconds, he noticed the monster in front of him was mutated in a very different way compared to others.

While the other monster had mutated some of their organs to hunt outside the ocean, there was no such thing present in the monster in front of him. It only focused on hunting in the sea.

And perhaps because of this, the monster was stronger as well.

’It’s at Tier IV...’ Judging the tier of the monster, Alaric began pondering whether to fight the monster or not.

From all the monsters there were in the ocean, he knew there was no point in him fighting monsters of higher tiers. He could easily hunt the monster at the lower tier and evolve to Tier IV without taking any risk.

Alaric tried to follow a logical approach to the problem, but something didn’t fit right with it.

’If I’m having second thoughts about fighting a Tier IV monster... how will I be Master’s guardian... how can I be his shadow?’ Shaking his head, he threw away his logical thought aside and moved toward the monster.

Sensing something approaching it, the monster opened its eyes and noticed a foreign presence immediately.

Protecting its domain the serpent made the first move, summoning a towering wave and launching it toward Alaric with terrifying force.

Although Alaric could turn into a shadow, he didn’t want to show it yet. Manipulating his mana, he summoned a mana shield. It absorbed most of the impact but left him skidding backward nonetheless.

The serpent didn’t pause there. With a flick of its tail, it summoned a barrage of aqua blades, and razor-sharp jets of water capable of slicing through rocks.

Noticing the number of blades and their direction, Alaric understood it wasn’t easy to defend against them just with shields. Cloaking himself in a layer of shadow, he dived into the nearby shadows and moved toward the monster with great speed.

Getting near the monster, Alaric emerged from the shadow and attacked it with a strike of his shadow tentacles.

The serpent moved as it summoned a hydro shield to block Alaric’s retaliatory strikes. Finding a gap between his attacks, the monster counterattacked with a hydro breath, firing a concentrated blast of water aimed directly at him.

Being this close to the monster, he barely had any time to create any defense as the force of the water blast nearly knocked him off his feet.

’I can’t win against it in a physical confrontation...’