Last Ruler Of The Empty Throne

The system flooded Jon's mind with messages after his victory over the red zombie and distracting him from his shock:

[YOU HAVE OBTAINED THE REQUIREMENTS TO EVOLVE THE SKILL 'SOLDIER PHYSIQUE.']

[YOU HAVE ACQUIRED THE SKILL 'AURA'.]

[MARTIAL EXPERT (FIRST REALM): YOU HAVE OBTAINED THE MINIMUM KNOWLEDGE REQUIRED TO PRATICE MARTIAL ARTS. AN EXPERT IS SUPERIOR TO A LAYMAN, AS YOU TRAIN AND LEARN, FORGE YOUR OWN MARTIAL PATH. ALL STATS: +50.]

[YOUR *** LEVEL HAS INCREASED.]

[YOU HAVE REACHED 'LEVEL 25' UNRANKED REALM. YOU NEED CERTAIN REQUIREMENTS TO ADVANCE TO THE NEXT REALM.]

[TO CONTINUE YOUR PATH, THESE ARE THE POSSIBLE CLASSES AVAILABLE TO AID IN YOUR JOURNEY:

1.SPEARMASTER

2.MARTIAL ARTIST

3.BLACKSMITH

4.MOOM DREAMER]

Excitement surged through Jon, he had been waiting for this moment for a while now, but he quickly calmed down to evaluate the options before him.

"Spear master is an obvious option given my weapon. Martial Artist could work, so I'll set that aside. Blacksmith is probably due to my 'Mind world' and Moon Dreamer."

The Moon Dreamer caught his attention. There had to be a reason the system aligned him with the Moon, Sun, and Star skills.

He had recalled the description of Moon energy saying Mystery, Dream, and the Unconscious. It was more than just an ability; it was a path he felt destined to follow.

Sighing, he muttered, "It's like the choice was never really mine in the first place. It's obvious which class I should pick." He had considered a situation where the paths would be so closely related that it was hard to select one, but he even realized that those other paths, he could still learn them alongside his main.

He didn't even consider the temptation for quick power-ups that some might chase in haste, even without knowing that it could hinder them later.

Jon had always been the cautious type, and besides his 'Composure' wasn't just going to allow him rush his decision just to gain momentary strength.

"I choose Moon Dreamer."

[YOU HAVE CHOSEN 'MOON DREAMER'. THE MOON IS CLOSELY TIED TO MYSTERY, DREAM AND THE UNCONSCIOUS. MYSTERY, DREAM AND UNCONSCIOUS ALL REPRESENTS WHAT MANY SEEK YET FAIL TO COMPREHEND; THE ESSENSE OF LIFE. YOU MUST FULFILL CERTAIN REQUIREMENTS TO UNLOCK THIS CLASS.]

[TO OBTAIN THE MOON DREAMER CLASS, YOU MUST:

OBTAIN TWO FIRST REALM CORES: 0/2

FIGHT, KILL, AND ABSORB THE REMAINS OF 10 FIRST REALM CREATURES: 0/10

FIGHT, KILL, AND ABSORB THE REMAINS OF 30 UNRANKED REALM CREATURES USING 'MOON': 0/30

EVOLVE YOUR MAIN SKILL TO THE SECOND REALM: INCOMPLETE]

[ANY REMAINS ABTAINED NOW WILL BE ABSORBED ONCE REQUIREMENTS ARE FULFILLED]

"What?!" Jon's voice rang out in shock. The requirements for his evolution was quite much if he had to say. If one remembered, it hadn't been long when he was barely surviving battles even teamed with Jenny and Cynthia and those were unranked. Now, he was meant to kill first realm monsters and the way he was seeing the messages, it meant he should do it alone.

"What if I hadn't unlocked Aura?" 

The thought of it was blaring at him, what if he hadn't done it, would it have been the same requirements. He glanced at the zombie's body and noted that despite all his efforts, the creature had no core or orbs.

So his current emotions was mixed if he had to describe it. Still, he needed to move forward.

'No use crying over it.' With a final glance the zombie, Jon resumed his journey toward the boys' dormitories.

And this time, along the way, he experimented with mana. He had just unlocked a skill that was a concentration of mana, so he wanted to know if he could do more.

Since discovering mana, he had always thought it was an interesting concept, but then he didn't have enough time and mana to test them out. However now, he was realizing them.

The first was, just by swinging his spear with just mana with his current stats, it was enough to take out the lesser zombies that crossed his path. Second, he also made several discoveries like; spreading mana allowed him to sense his surroundings up to 300 meters and when combined with his Moon energy, that range doubled to 600 meters, giving him almost complete awareness of the battlefield.

Another one was, he found that using mana to run made him faster. Even cleaning himself with mana worked, which surprised him.

'This mana is really versatile.' He muttered at the way, he could use it for almost anything he wanted to do and even enhance them. "And just by mastering them, I will be about 1.5 times stronger than before," Jon calculated it and nodded in understanding.

At this point, he had reached the dormitory area and he was met with a situation.

Unlike the female dormitories that were scattered around, the male dormitories were all together.

And there were 11 dorms in total. But now, he found only five buildings standing, while six had been reduced to rubble.

And even the intact dorms were heavily damaged and hanging one due to unexplainable reasons except for one. And surprisingly, it was the very dormitory Jon had once stayed in.

It looked nearly untouched.

And for some reasons the same dormitory he stayed was crawling with zombies. And a lot of them at that.

He didn't know why there were a lot of zombies, but he first spread his newly learnt perception around the area.

He wanted to scan their average level and number, but as he was spreading it, a number of powerful zombies snapped their heads towards him immediately.

'It seems they can also sense it.' he nodded his head and noted it down while getting into a stance.

Without wasting time, the more powerful zombies commanded the other zombies to attack.

'This isn't going to be easy.' Jon narrowed his eyes as he watched the zombies approach him. It was because, he had to fight while also being cautious of the building that were barely standing and damaging his dormitory which was still in good shape for unknown reasons.

First by spreading his bluish fog and it latched onto some of the zombies. 'I can spread more?' this was the first change he was feeling with his moon energy. He could spread more of it and he even felt like he could do more with the fog.

Since the zombies were already frozen in place, he closed his eyes without worry for a moment and flashed it open with a blue glow covering his eyes. Slashing his empty hand diagonally across the air, something happened.

Ten zombies suddenly fell. If one looked at the bodies of the zombies, nothing had happened to them, no injuries or even internal wounds.

What Jon had done was cut off their consciousness. Consciousness sounded a bit extreme for someone to be able to cut off at this stage, however one had to know that the consciousness of these zombies were already exposed. And the reason was a story for later.

The main thing was, it forced them to collapse to the ground. However, it wasn't without a sort of consequence. His mana pool dropped by one-fifth however he shrugged it off off, he even felt it was meant to take more.

Though he didn't really understand, he knew what he had just done wasn't meant to be normal.

Pushing those thoughts behind him, he took steps forward and in one fluid motion, swung his spear, decapitating the advancing zombies. His movements were precise, his strength were just accurate, and with the gaining of his 'Martial artist' skill, he now knew how to conserve and properly distribute mana around him.

Suddenly his earring blared at him and he raised his spear to block an attack of one of the five powerful zombies that lunged at him.

CLANG

"You're not even at my level again," he taunted as blocked with ease and even the zombie was pushed back. Then he pushed forward and attacked,

SLASH

THUD...THUD

This time the arms of the creature fell to the ground.

KRHGKKK...

Wanting to try something, he released his aura through his body, and the zombie froze.

"Wait for your turn." He faced the decapacitated zombie and said. And as if he was speaking to the other zombies, they froze too, seemingly paralyzed by the release of his aura.

'So that works too.' He wanted to freeze their movement with his skill, but his aura alone could do it just fine. He was still trying to explore the various uses of mana and within minutes of exploring, all the zombies were dead.

"Whew..." he exhaled and looked at his aura burning over his spear.

He was totally meant to be struggling with first realm monsters at this stage, but the aura he had just gotten seemed to be that much of a cheat.

Not thinking too much about it, he spent the next minutes shifting through the corpses for their cores. He gathered about 20 cores, with two of cores from the zombies that were on the threshold.

"Now everything is over." He looked at his former dorm. It was time to find out the reason it was still standing.

So he began approaching. However before he could get anywhere, a thunderous RUMBLE echoed across the area.

BOOM...BOOM...BOOM

His head immediately snapped towards the direction of the loud noise with his eyes widening in disbelief. Charging toward him was a lion, except it was a six-meter-tall lion with a mane that was on fire and its legs igniting the ground as it moved causing the explosion that was resounding.

Though, he had now found out that size didn't matter, it didn't matter with this lion. If all the zombies and monsters he fought until now were all in the border or below it, this one had crossed it.

The concentrated mana around the lion's body, the decisive movements that wasn't random like the unranked and the devastation its mere presence caused.

'First realm' Jon muttered in shock as he saw the lion approaching with confident and booming steps. This was the first 'first realm' creature he had seen.

And, he couldn't really get closer to look at it, he couldn't allow that lion to get closer, if not it would not only destroy the remaining dormitories but also the survivors remaining in them.

Jon clenched his jaw and spoke in a resolute voice, "One chance." 

He couldn't let the beast reach the dormitory and he couldn't even risk fighting it one on one. So, he had only one chance to kill it. This time, he wasn't reducing any strength, no, he was going to use everything he had.

Taking in a deep breath, Jon assumed a stance and unleashed every ounce of his Aura, channeling his Moon energy into his spear.

The sky was already dark around him, so it was the glow of his power and the lion's roaring flames that was lightening up the area.

It was at this point, the beast just noticed him and sensed the danger in the creature. It raised its paw filled with fire, ready to pounce, however that didn't matter for Jon.

He activated the special effect of his shadow steps, vanishing and reappearing up in the air, right in front of the creature.

And with all his strength, focused on the tip of the spear, drove all of its power forward.

BOOOOOOM

And the result was shocking.

A massive hole was torn through the lion's skull. The hole was so large one could literally see the other side through its head, without difficulty, but that didn't spare the spear.

It's durability turned to zero as it was only meant for monster's below or at level 20 and it was used for a monster that had already crossed the unranked realm. That wasn't all, the sheer force of the attack, Jon's strength including aura was too much for the spear to handle.

Basically, It had already been used for something way beyond its capacity, but it still fulfilled its last role; Pierce.

The blood and gore of the lion showered Jon, drenching him in the remnants of his victory, and the system also acknowledged it.

[YOU HAVE OBTAINED LEVEL 27 'MOUNTAIN FIRE LION' REMAINS.]

And Jon stood still, his breath heavy, drenched in the blood of the fallen beast.

He smiled weakly still displaying his shock on his face while muttering,

"Now that...was an attack."