"For unknown reasons, there are only four levels of difficulty. The five-star one has disappeared," Drever said.

His face twisted into a deep frown as his eyes scanned the list of difficulties displayed in front of him.

It was universally known that there were five levels of breakthrough trials. Yet, only four were listed, with the most difficult one completely missing.

"Huh?"

The hunters around him were visibly confused. If they had not known Drever's serious personality so well, they would have assumed he was joking.

"What do you mean?" one of them asked.

Drever repeated exactly what he had said before. A faint tone of frustration seeped into his voice as he regretted not being able to show them what he was seeing at that very moment.

"That has never happened before."

"It could be a glitch."

"Glitch?" another hunter immediately responded, turning toward the last speaker. "The system has existed for over fifty years now, and no one has ever reported any form of glitch."

"Then what is your explanation for it?" the other fired back without holding anything back.

It was clear the two hunters already had some bad blood between them even before this conversation, as they continued glaring at one another for quite some time.

Drever ignored them and returned his full attention to the text in front of him.

He tried to come up with a reasonable explanation, but none came to mind. In the end, he simply disregarded the thought altogether.

It was not like he was planning to take the five-star difficulty in the first place. No one in their right state of mind would dare attempt it, especially after all the past events surrounding it.

At least, that was what he thought.

Having gone on raid after raid with little connection to the outside world, Drever had missed many recent happenings, particularly those involving his father and Marlon.

Without any hesitation, he clicked on his choice.

His body was immediately enveloped in a silver glow, and in the next instant, he vanished into the world of his breakthrough trial.

Only after the silver flash faded did the quarreling hunters finally settle down and resume the tasks assigned to them.

The two sitting on the tree branches returned to stall the area, while the remaining two went off in search of the boss lair.

Since it was only a three-star breakthrough trial, none of them panicked, especially with full confidence in Drever's abilities.

====

Meanwhile, inside the portal, Marlon and the remaining members of the raiding party carefully prepared themselves for the boss's arrival.

Since Marlon had already decided to handle the boss alone, both to prevent casualties and to take all the experience points for himself, he summoned twenty clones in one go, completely exhausting his entire aether reserve.

Right after that, he gulped down an aether potion, and his aether swiftly refilled to the brim.

"Are you sure you do not want our help?" Davison asked, worry clearly visible on his face.

He trusted Marlon's strength, but at the same time, as an older hunter, he did not feel right staying behind while Marlon alone faced such danger.

Marlon turned toward him and gave him a thumbs-up without bothering to speak, then turned back and focused on what he had been doing earlier.

━━〔 BASIC INFORMATION 〕━━━

Name: Marlon Ashleigh

Talents: Absolute Attack (EX), Venom Vanguard (B)

Power Level: 86 (2%)

Power Rank: D

Health Points: 400/400

Health Regen: 20 HP/min

Aether Points: 20,000/20,000

Aether Regen: 100 AP/min

━━━〔 STATS 〕━━━

Strength: 670 | Agility: 730

Vitality: 40 | Intelligence: 425

Free points: 585

━━━〔 ATTRIBUTES 〕━━━

Physical Attack: 1675 | Magical Attack: 1063

Physical Defense: 50% | Magical Defense: 50%

━━━〔 SKILLS 〕━━━

PASSIVE: Drain (A), Eclipse Vision (A), Adamant Body (A), Strength Enhancement (A), Toxic Resistance (A), Venom Adaptation (A), Silent Movement (A), Quick Reflex (A), Danger Sense (A)

ACTIVE: Titan Punch (A), Divine Punch (A), Inspect (A), Venom Rage (A), Mirror Clone (A), Punch of Death (A)

━━━〔 BLESSINGS 〕━━━

Lifeflow (Sacred-rank)

Limitless (Divine-rank)

Double (Divine-rank)

[ INVENTORY (5/10) ]

x21 Skill Books

x10 High-grade power boosting potion

x4 High-grade healing potion

x2 High-grade aether potion

x1 Chaos Gauntlet

With just a single glance, Marlon could tell that his power had increased far beyond what he originally imagined.

His ordinary physical attack alone had already surpassed one thousand five hundred, more than enough to deal with low-level monsters without even using skills.

With Strength Enhancement, a passive skill that now doubled his strength, his damage climbed close to three thousand. Combined with his basic skill, Titan Punch, that number soared to over sixty thousand points of damage.

Even so, what baffled him the most was his extremely high agility stat, along with the massive amount of free stat points remaining.

He made a mental note to distribute them later, but for now, he had something more important to handle.

Shifting his attention to his inventory section, whose capacity had increased from seven to ten after his recent breakthrough, he equipped five power boosting potions. He then called over five of his clones and handed each of them a vial.

Understanding what to do, the five clones consumed the potions at once.

The effects took place immediately. A small gust of wind spread outward before vanishing, replaced by a much stronger presence that everyone nearby could clearly sense.

Marlon smirked.

With the power boosting potion, those five clones were now on the same power level as himself, if not slightly stronger.

That was exactly what he wanted.

He could not accurately judge how terrifying the boss would be, so he chose to prepare thoroughly and use all his trump cards.

Fortunately, Punch of Death's cooldown had already ended. Still, just like with the mini-boss, he had to be extremely careful not to miss.

"That should do it," he murmured.

Sending the clones away, Marlon turned his attention back to himself. It was time to distribute his free stat points.

━━━〔 STATS 〕━━━

Strength: 670 (+) | Agility: 730 (+)

Vitality: 40 (+) | Intelligence: 425 (+)

Free points: 585

Staring at the stat window, Marlon placed a hand on his jaw, his expression turning contemplative as he weighed which stat mattered most in his current situation.

"My health is still far too low compared to everything else," he muttered before making his decision.

━━━〔 STATS 〕━━━

Strength: 670 (+) | Agility: 730 (+)

Vitality: 200 (+320) | Intelligence: 425 (+)

Free points: 265

(A/N: Remember, vitality requires two points for one unit increase.)

[ Health Points: 400 ----> 2,000 ]

[ Health Regen: 20 HP/min ----> 40 HP/min ]

Nodding in satisfaction, Marlon quickly distributed the remaining points into the two other most important stats.

━━━〔 STATS 〕━━━

Strength: 850 (+180) | Agility: 815 (+85)

Vitality: 200 (+) | Intelligence: 425 (+)

Free points: 0

Attack Power: 1675 ----> 2,125

"That is more like it."

The grin on his face widened.

Davison and the others watched from behind, their expressions shifting through shock, disbelief, and confusion.

The first shock came when they saw the clones consume potions.

In Arden, there were hunters capable of summoning doppelgangers, but none had ever been able to let their clones consume potions. Some could not even equip certain levels of gear.

Not only that, Marlon's clones were far stronger than normal and lasted much longer than usual.

It made them wonder just what kind of talent he truly possessed.

Still, with the tense atmosphere surrounding them, none dared to ask their questions out loud.

They waited in silence for the boss to arrive.

Time passed quickly, and in what felt like a blink, the countdown to the boss's arrival reached zero.

Light footsteps echoed throughout the hall.

Marlon's expression instantly turned serious, and a slight frown appeared on his face.

From the sound alone, he could already tell that it was a bipedal creature and, more importantly, something relatively small.

As if confirming his thoughts, the boss finally revealed itself.

Everyone turned toward it as an overwhelming presence flooded the entire hall. Chills ran down their spines, and goosebumps covered their bodies.

Those who met its gaze felt an even deeper sense of dread. One by one, they collapsed to the ground, panic spreading across their faces as their bodies began to tremble uncontrollably.

Clarissa was even worse. Her face turned pale, and without realizing it, she wet herself.

The others were not in any better condition.

Only Marlon managed to maintain his composure, though it required immense willpower.

"I knew it," he muttered through clenched teeth, his gaze lingering on the boss, which seemed to be staring back at him with clear interest.

The boss was exactly what he had expected.

Unnaturally pale white skin. Two black-gold horns. It looked just like the mini-boss.

Only taller, more mature, and radiating a far stronger presence. Even its expression showed clear signs of maturity.

If the mini-boss was comparable to an eight-year-old child, then this one was closer to twelve or fourteen.

But its power.

That was something else entirely.

It was unimaginable.

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