Twenty-four hours.

Almost twenty-four hours had passed since Isaac arrived on Reprizem. While the beginning had been quite rough, by now, he had settled into a decent rhythm on this new and strange planet.

Fly around high enough to be almost unnoticeable. Scout for Zerian groups he could take down quickly. Kill them and escape before the next location reveal. And then?

Rinse and repeat.

For the most part, this pattern worked well. His Legacy form was so fast now that Zerians didn't expect him to be anywhere near their group within ten minutes of the last reveal. Those were the easiest fights, sometimes finished without even landing.

That said, not everything was always so simple, so easy.

More than once already, the aliens saw him coming before he could even fire a single Crimson Death. How exactly they managed that, he wasn't so sure. It could be anything, really. From an Origin ability to direct help from a Patron. Not that the latter should work with what Rakin had told him.

Still, when that happened, he had to make a decision. Attack to protect his identity, or pull back and find another target?

Unfortunately, there was no easy choice here.

The three groups of barely five Zerians who had spotted him? Dead in under a minute. His power and speed were just too much for so few enemies to handle. Not even the Ultimates they managed to activate could save them.

But the two squads of well over thirty strong?

As much as it pained him to do so, Isaac left them alone. If they hadn't seen him coming, he could have tried—killed most of them in a surprise attack. But with all of them staring straight at him as he approached? It was too risky, too idiotic to even consider a frontal assault.

That both groups had at least a few flyers in their ranks only made the decision to turn around and find another target so much easier.

And this was pretty much how he had spent the last day. Almost twenty-four hours that ended up with him standing in the middle of yet another battlefield, surrounded by nine more Zerian corpses.

The thirteenth group he had massacred. Exactly one hundred and forty-six aliens killed. More than enough to extract and complete Rakin's mission.

Yet, Isaac wasn't planning on leaving any time soon. Why would he? This war had already turned him into a mass murderer. Why stop now?

"Do what you must. Never look back," the old man had told him more than once.

Until now, Isaac had thought that his old caretaker just used this saying to justify all the dumb decisions he sometimes made. Now, he knew better. Then again, the man probably never expected his words to be used to excuse slaughtering dozens of aliens.

A sigh slipped past Isaac's lips as he finished gathering all the useful loot from the camp.

Time to go. Ten minutes until the next ping.

Without even looking back at the corpses, he transformed and shot into the sky. The territory, full of small forests, grassy hillocks, and colorful fields of alien flowers, blurred beneath him. It looked quite similar to Peaceful Plains, but it was definitely something different.

He just didn't know what. The Interface refused to give him the names of territories here. Yet another disadvantage of being an invader, apparently. A bit irritating but not game-changing.

Levels of the monsters here were all that mattered anyway. And thanks to killing a few of the strange, six-legged deer-like creatures that made up most of this biome's population, Isaac learned that he couldn't be that far from a major Safe Zone.

Not that he planned to go there yet. Not with the morning sun illuminating this side of the planet.

And yes, it was morning sun.

Even though it should have been obvious from the get-go, the cycle of night and day on Reprizem didn't match that of Earth. Not even close. He had just spent over twenty hours under a sky full of stars and two shiny moons after all.

Now, Isaac could have continued hunting during the day. But with the Zerians growing more aware of his presence, he preferred to use the advantage the night gave him for what he planned next. In the meantime, he would venture deeper into the wilds, kill a few monsters, maybe even get some rest. And then, once the sun vanished behind the horizon…

Well, it didn't take a genius to guess what he had in mind.

Might be a death wish, he thought with a chuckle. Not that me being here isn't one already. Alone in a world full of creatures wanting to kill me.

Best of all, Isaac didn't mind that at all, and the Symphony, always playing a silent song in his veins, obviously agreed. Call him mad, but there was a certain special something about being both the hunter and the hunted.

Here it comes.

Warning! Your current location has been revealed to all hostile Hosts within a 500-mile radius.

Extraction is now ready. Do you wish to leave, or stay and advance your Infamy rank?

Like the Interface even needed to ask.

Stay.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Acknowledged. Current Infamy rank: D (Multiplier: 2.3x)

Isaac hummed. That was double the boost he had gotten for advancing to E-rank. If it continued like that… well, he just might triple his current points upon extraction. He just had to survive that long.

No pressure.

Extraction in: <24h:00m:00s> | Location reveal in: <1h:30m:00s>

Isaac held back a wince. E-rank hadn't changed much, but this? The extraction timer had doubled, while the location reveal was cut in half. Still manageable, if a bit worrying for what would come after.

Good thing, I have a plan.

He sped up.

By having a plan, Isaac meant that he knew where to fly, so he could relax a bit. He had found this place about twelve hours into his stay on Reprizem—a territory that, for some reason, Zerians refused to enter. He had tailed three different groups to confirm it, and even after watching them far longer than necessary, none ever crossed the border.

And what exactly was it?

As with every biome on this planet, Isaac didn't know the name, but it definitely had something to do with ash. The stuff was everywhere after all.

The ground? Covered in a thick layer of volcanic ash. Trees? Painted in ash from top to bottom. The rivers? Also full of moving ash. How that even worked, he had no clue. It just did.

At least the monsters seemed somewhat normal. Their levels were high enough to give him points, too. All in all, a perfect place to wait out the daytime while also getting some work done. Maybe he could even find a cave to hole up in to take a quick nap. His energy wasn't infinite, even with his high regeneration.

All right, let's get me some more fire artifacts.

And so, Isaac dived.

His target? A pack of wolf-like creatures with no fur and skin that looked more like charred wood than flesh.

They never knew what hit them.

The human-sized moth shrieked and beat its thin crimson wings in a single, powerful motion.

Knowing what was coming, Isaac pulled on his Viron and summoned a small wall of solidified blood right before him. The ash the monster blew in his direction never reached him, nor did the blast of flames that followed its ignition. Cracks spread all over his barrier, though, which wasn't that great of a sign.

The ash explosions weren't even half as powerful as they looked after all.

Gonna need some more work. Isaac clicked his tongue as the shield reshaped into dozens of tiny blood spikes. He sent them all at the wailing moth.

Most missed, but some still struck the already injured monster. A chunk of its left wing even came off, destabilizing its flight even further.

Isaac pounced on the advantage.

With only a small Crimson Death in his grasp, he stepped out of the way of another gust of ash and let the spear fly. It hit the moth dead-center in the head. A second later, it fell to the ground.

[Ember Moth (LVL. 21) slain.]

[2 Invader Points awarded.]

You have leveled up! You are now level 27. Distribution of Ascension Power has failed to advance any of your attributes. No further changes detected.

Progress really is starting to slow down, hmm? Still no new skill either, Isaac thought as he looked around to make sure this was the final monster nearby. At least it's my third level in twenty-four hours. Can't really complain about that.

Besides, even if his attributes hadn't advanced, his skills definitely had.

The following skills have advanced tiers: Cursed Draw (VI->VII) Crimson Death (VII->VIII) Blood Manipulation (III->IV) Basic Filtering (VIII->IX)

It wasn't much, but better than nothing. Unfortunately, as Isaac had learned, killing Zerians in seconds did little for his skills. He would even go as far as to say that all this progress was the result of the last hour. Only Obliteration and Cursed Draw had gained a tier before this.

He was about to summon his full status to make sure he hadn't missed something in the heat of the hunt when the ground a foot away from him moved, the ash shifting to the sides. He jumped back, the Root landing in his hand.

This again…

In that moment, a serpentine creature at least twice as long as he burst out of the ground. Its gray scales glinted in the sunlight as it lunged right for his head, almost as if gravity didn't exist. Because it didn't, not for the beast at least.

Inferior Ash Wyrm was its name. The third one to attack him now.

It would also be the third one to fall to his blade.

Before the creature could reach him, Isaac transformed and flew up, forcing it to follow. The Wyrm did, but not without dragging tons of ash with it.

Predictable.

Once there was enough distance between him and the serpent, Isaac turned, facing the incoming wave of destruction. Mana stirred inside his body, and he pulled on it, alongside a third of Viron. A drop of blood finished the job.

Sacrificial Cursed Draw.

Unlike many times before, there was no crimson aura igniting all across his body. Instead, a much different version of his skill took form as the combined energy gathered at the edges of his larger wings.

He held it there.

Three…

Two…

One!

The next beat of his wings was faster, stronger. When their tips almost touched below him, he let the Cursed Draw fly.

Game over.

Twin, crisscrossing arcs of blood in the shape of an X erupted from his wings and slammed into the massive cloud of ash just a few feet away from him. The volcanic dust did its best to stop the skill, but Isaac simply put way too much power into it.

A pained shriek soon echoed from the cloud.

That was his signal.

With two Crimson Deaths manifesting in front of him, he dived straight at the now collapsing cloud of ash. A flash of gray scale caught his eye, and he fired. Another wail was the result, as was what happened next.

The remaining ash ignited, painting the sky with fire.

Isaac didn't care. He flew straight into it and snatched the half-dead Wyrm in his talons. It could do nothing as they left the flames, and he hurled it back toward the ground.

This time, its ability to ignore gravity didn't activate. It died the moment its draconic head met the earth.

[Inferior Ash Wyrm (LVL. 23) slain.]

[2 Invader Points awarded.]

Isaac shook his head. Dumbest creatures I have ever fought by far.

A moment later, he was back on the ground, standing right before the Wyrm's corpse. About half of it was missing, but that was to be expected after getting hit by all of his skills.

Maybe it will give a Superior—

A loud clapping pulled his thoughts to a halt. Isaac whirled around, the Root raised, ready to attack the creature who managed to sneak up on him. But the figure before him wasn't an alien beast.

No, it was a human. A man with a head full of ginger hair and a light smile on his face. He was just sitting there on a random rock, one leg crossed over the other.

"A beautiful showing, my fellow warrior," the man said, his voice light and friendly. "I can see why she told me to find you."

Isaac narrowed his eyes, the air behind him turning crimson.

"Who are you?"

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