Chapter 187: Dagger Arts Two full days had passed since the Black Raven’s death and the destruction of the Heretic warriors. During that recovery period, Moon had spent the majority of his time focusing on two primary activities. First, diligently practicing his dagger combat skills through repetitive training and real combat. Second, exploring the vast island of Lunaris alongside Mirage and Selene, mapping terrain and hunting valuable beasts they came across. So far, despite thorough exploration, no clear indication or clue had been presented by the system regarding the hidden realm’s specific completion conditions or exit mechanisms. Moon didn’t particularly mind the uncertainty surrounding it so far. He was enjoying his time exploring this unique environment and more importantly, he was gathering an absolutely enormous quantity of valuable beast corpses and elemental cores that he would sell for immense profit once he finally returned to Earth. He’d essentially struck it rich in this isolated realm that was densely populated with all varieties of high-level beasts possessing diverse elemental affinities. The hunting opportunities were extraordinary compared to the increasingly depleted First Sanctuary territories where most awakeners competed for limited resources. Moon conservatively estimated he’d already gathered cores and corpses worth more than fifteen million dollars during this extended trip and significantly more wealth was bound to accumulate until the day he eventually discovered the exit. Of course, this wasn’t counting the precious treasure that the Golden Fish’s blood was. Fortunately, Yara and the other surviving Savi clan members had managed to locate additional survivors on the second day of their desperate search efforts. After failing to find anyone on the first agonizing day, when they’d nearly given up hope and prepared to execute the Heretic captives in revenge, they finally discovered six more living Savi people. The survivor group consisted of one adult woman, one adult man, and their four young children. They’d miraculously escaped the massacre purely through fortunate timing. The family had been away on a outing when the horrible massacre occurred. When they’d returned toward their village and witnessed the destruction unfolding from a distance, they’d immediately fled in the opposite direction and hidden in remote wilderness. With this surviving family discovered, Yara and the other warriors became hopeful about potentially finding additional scattered survivors across the island. The Heretic captives remained under constant armed watch, but were still being provided basic food and survival necessities rather than being executed outright. Mercy remained conditional on not discovering further atrocities, but at least temporary clemency had been granted. — [Dagger Arts] [Rank: Common] [Level 1] [Evolve] [Details: You have a basic understanding of daggers as weapons. You are able to use a dagger to attack, defend and execute with foundational competence.] — Looking at the flashing system notification appearing before his eyes, Moon’s smile reached his eyes with pure satisfaction. His dedicated hard work over the past several days had finally paid its due dividends, and his training approach had proven remarkably successful. Moon had managed to completely learn and comprehend a skill entirely without having it initially copied from another person and auto-comprehended within the usual twenty-four hour Class Slot timeframe. Of course, having previously possessed the Dagger Arts skill temporarily through copying an assassin’s class, Moon had managed to build approximately fifteen percent proficiency before that borrowed skill expired due to the time limitations. But that prior brief exposure didn’t negate or diminish the hard work he’d invested to comprehend and reconstruct the skill completely through independent practice. Without wasting a single second on hesitation or celebration, Moon immediately went on an aggressive spending spree, using his enormous life reserves to rapidly evolve the skill he’d painstakingly trained over the past few days. [Level 1 → 2] [2 Lives consumed] [Level 2 → 3] [4 Lives consumed] [Level 3 → 4] [8 Lives consumed] With every progression notification, Moon’s heart skipped a beat in excitement. It wasn’t that Dagger Arts represented an immensely powerful or life-changing ability. Objectively speaking, it was at best a decent close-range combat skill within the grand scheme of things. What made this particular moment profoundly special and meaningful was the undeniable fact that Moon had managed to learn this skill completely independently through his own effort and determination. [Level 8 → 9] [256 Lives consumed] [Level 9 → 10] [512 Lives consumed] [Total Consumption: 1,022 Lives] [Dagger Arts has evolved to Uncommon rank.] [Dagger Arts] [Rank: Uncommon] [Level MAX] [Details: Your mastery over the dagger favors critical and back-stabbing strikes. You are swift and effective in close combat like an experienced assassin. +200% Damage] — [ Name: Moon ] ; [ Race: Human ] [ Class: Classless, Elemental Mage] [ Level: 25 ][Awaiting Evolution] [ Lives: 24,819 ] [ Strength: 38 ] [ Agility: 38 ] [ Constitution: 43 ] [ Mana: 58 ] (+5 to all stats) [ Attribute Points: 5 ] [ Skills: Elemental Attack, Advanced Elemental Body, Tenacity, Silver Skin, Ignite, Dagger Arts] [ Talent: Grim Reaper ] [ Class Skill: Class Slot {1/1} ] — Moon withdrew his combat dagger and swung it experimentally through several practice forms, feeling the weapon’s weight in his grip. He could instantly tell the difference that skill evolution had produced, his strikes now carried a more profound purpose behind them rather than just raw physical force. A deer-like creature with three spiral horns suddenly emerged from dense foliage before them, sprinting desperately away from what appeared to be its predator, a rabbit-like beast approximately the size of a large dog, but possessing ferocious fangs, razor-sharp claws, and pure crimson eyes that glowed with hunger. Moon’s hand moved instantly, throwing his dagger in a perfect spinning arc at the leaping white predator mid-attack. THWACK! The blade struck its target, landing directly between the mutant rabbit’s eyes, a perfect bullseye. The beast fell heavily to the forest floor, twitching violently for several seconds as its nervous system shut down before its muscular body went completely limp. The deer-like creature continued its escape, not bothering to look back. [You have killed level 23 Ferocious Rabacoon.] [You have gained 5 Lives.] Moon smiled with satisfaction at the clean result of his improved throwing technique. The dagger had moved like a natural extension of his arm rather than a separate tool, and the damage had increased dramatically, allowing him to kill level twenty-three beasts with a single throw rather than requiring any follow-up attacks. "Nice throw, your dagger work has improved significantly since we first met." She lifted a thumbs up, a smile on her face. Moon nodded acknowledgment while retrieving his blade from the corpse. "Yeah, like they say, practice makes perfect. It’s nothing impressive, you can do it too." Selene nodded her head, although her thoughts represented something else. Moon cleaned the blood from his dagger before storing the corpse of the little rabbit, and continuing their travel. The rabbit was a good value beast, small space to store and sells for a good price as a B-rank beast. Along their way, Moon no longer played around with his dagger. They also ignored all beasts that were below b-rank, they were too weak, providing no experience and very little lives. Their prices were also very minimal, being nothing but a waste of space in their storage rings.