NABC Chapter 201 — Beyond the Threshold
Chapter 201 — Beyond the Threshold
The Zeroth Expanse had not known peace these past few days.What should have been a celebration after the fall of the Lord had instead become one of the most chaotic periods in recent memory.
The good news had arrived first.
The tragedy followed immediately after.
By the time adventurers reached the battlefield, the Lord's castle had already been reduced to a burning ruin. The remains of the Twilight Team were discovered among the devastation, and before anyone could properly investigate what had happened, suspicion had fallen upon a single person.
Kael.
In the span of a day, the hero who had helped save the Expanse became the man everyone wanted dead.
The entire Expanse had turned against him.
Forced into hiding, hunted from all directions, Kael had eventually fallen into Evan's carefully prepared trap.
The confrontation that followed had allowed Evan to obtain the final fragment of Velma.
Vela.
The last missing piece.
Yet despite having every opportunity to end Kael's life, he had chosen not to.
By that point, Kael had already lost almost everything. His reputation had been destroyed. His future had collapsed. The fate that once favoured him had unravelled before his eyes.
There was little value in killing him.
More importantly, Evan understood something else.
If he crossed that line, the loyalty he had gained from Vela would vanish instantly.
So instead of taking Kael's life, he decided to take something far more useful.
The blame.
A plan was formed.
A villain was born.
Under the identity of Tenebris Revenant, Evan stepped onto the stage and publicly became the enemy everyone was searching for.
The battle that followed shook the entire city.
The Guildmaster Myralt.
The newly evolved Kael.
Both fought together.
Both lost.
Using Sylen's broken blade as undeniable proof, Evan openly claimed responsibility for the destruction of the Twilight Team.
The evidence was enough to shatter the accusations surrounding Kael and redirect the hatred of the entire Expanse toward a new target.
Tenebris Revenant.
An unknown monster who had appeared from nowhere and crushed everything in his path.
Naturally, nobody connected that terrifying figure to Evan.
To the public, he was merely a somewhat talented adventurer with decent achievements. Nothing more.
The gap between those two identities was simply too large.
Even now, three days later, the effects of that battle still lingered throughout the Expanse.
The name Tenebris Revenant spread through taverns, guild halls, markets, and private homes alike.
Stories grew more exaggerated with every retelling.
Some claimed he could freeze entire armies with a gesture.
Others swore he was an ancient warrior who had awakened from beneath the Lord's castle.
A few even believed he wasn't human at all.
Fear had a way of creating its own truths.
The most important fact, however, remained unchanged.
Nobody had been able to stop him.
Not Kael.
Not Myralt.
Not anyone.
As a result, the Lord's territory remained untouched to this day. Vast resources waited there unclaimed, yet not a single adventurer dared to approach it.
Nobody wanted to become the next victim of Tenebris Revenant.
And the fear only continued to spread.
Sooner or later, the news would travel beyond the Zeroth Expanse.
Evan was certain of that.
The Candidates stationed in the higher Expanses would eventually hear about it.
After all, who wouldn't pay attention when a single individual claimed dominance over an entire Expanse through force alone?
Meanwhile, the person responsible for all of it was currently lying on a bed inside a modest inn.
Completely relaxed.
His eyes remained fixed on the translucent status screen hovering before him.
◇ Level: 99 [102,457 / 162,000]
The number hadn't changed for three days.
Three entire days.
For someone who had spent most of his time growing stronger, that was practically torture.
The city's lockdown was still in effect.
Guild patrols operated day and night.
Anyone wishing to leave needed special permission, and even then only established teams were approved.
Solo adventurers were rejected immediately.
Evan stared at the experience requirement for a few more seconds before letting out a sigh.
"At this rate, I'll die from boredom before reaching the next stage."
Closing the window, he rose from the bed and stretched.
Enough waiting.
If experience wasn't going to walk into the city, then he would go find it himself.
A few minutes later, he left the inn and headed toward the main gate.
The security was noticeably tighter than before.
Additional guards stood watch across the walls.
Patrol routes overlapped one another.
Several detection formations shimmered faintly around the entrances, designed specifically to expose hidden presences attempting to sneak through.
Evan observed everything quietly.
Then he smiled.
"They really think this is enough?"
To an ordinary adventurer, the defences were impressive.
To him, they were merely inconvenient.
Instead of approaching the gate directly, he moved toward a quieter section of the wall and climbed upward with practised ease.
From above, the city's security became even clearer.
Guards.
Patrol rotations.
Detection arrays.
Observation points.
A well-organised system.
Unfortunately for them, systems only worked when they could actually detect their target.
Finding a brief gap between two patrol groups, Evan activated both Stealth and Camouflage simultaneously.
His presence faded.
His mana signature vanished.
By the time the nearest guard looked in his direction, nothing was there.
A moment later, Evan crossed the wall and landed silently beyond the city's borders.
The instant his feet touched the ground, he accelerated.
Wind rushed past him.
Trees blurred.
Within minutes, the city had disappeared behind him.
"Now then..." Evan muttered while moving through the wilderness. "Where am I supposed to find something worth killing?"
Most of the high-level beasts in the surrounding regions had already been exterminated by Sylen and the Twilight Team.
Finding suitable prey wasn't as easy as before.
After thinking for a moment, he summoned his Great Eagle and leapt onto its back.
The massive beast spread its wings and climbed into the sky.
Hours passed.
Five, to be precise.
Then finally, Evan found something interesting.
Far below, a large herd of beasts grazed peacefully across an open grassland.
His eyes swept across them once.
Levels sixty to seventy.
The leader approached level eighty.
Nothing impressive.
Nothing worth his attention.
What caught his interest was something else entirely.
Hidden among the sea of grass.
Waiting.
Watching.
A predator.
Evan narrowed his eyes.
There.
A sleek beast roughly one and a half meters long remained perfectly concealed beneath the tall grass. Its body was built for speed and ambushes, every muscle coiled like a compressed spring.
Level 93.
Now that was worth looking at.
The creature's gaze never left the herd.
Patient.
Calculating.
Waiting for a weakness.
A classic hunter.
Evan watched for a few moments before shaking his head.
"A hunter stalking prey."
"A tale as old as the world."
Then a grin appeared beneath his mask.
"But I don't have time to sit around and watch."
The Great Eagle immediately understood his intention and descended toward the grassland.
At the same time, Evan lifted a finger.
Several faint presences appeared along the forest's perimeter.
Silent.
Motionless.
Waiting.
The first beasts in the herd noticed something was wrong.
Then more followed.
Anxiety spread through the group.
The hidden predator sensed it as well.
Its instincts suddenly screamed warnings.
Every survival instinct in its body erupted at once.
Danger.
Extreme danger.
The feeling was so intense that it seemed as though death itself was staring directly at its back.
Evan looked down at the unfolding scene.
"The net is set."
A small sphere of flame formed above his palm.
Then he flicked it downward.
"Let's begin."
The fireball struck one of the adult beasts.
Flames erupted instantly.
Panic exploded across the grassland.
The peaceful herd descended into chaos.
Screams echoed in every direction as dozens of beasts scattered blindly in search of escape.
The herd leader roared and raised its massive horned head, desperately searching for the attacker.
It found nothing.
And by then...
It was already too late.
The herd had broken apart.
Fear had taken control.
One after another, the fleeing beasts rushed toward the forest's edge.
Then they stopped.
Every single one froze.
Because waiting for them within the shadows of the trees were countless pairs of green flames.
Watching.
Motionless.
Hungry.
Ghastly screams echoed from the darkness beyond.
An aura of death spread across the grassland like a rising tide.
Even the hidden predator was affected.
The creature exploded from its hiding place without hesitation.
Only now did Evan get a proper look at it.
A puma-like beast.
Dark green markings covered its brown fur, allowing it to blend perfectly into forests and grasslands alike.
Fast.
Cautious.
Intelligent.
The beast immediately abandoned its hunt and sprinted toward the forest in a desperate attempt to escape.
Unfortunately for it...
Something much worse was waiting there.
Just before it reached the treeline—
BOOM!
The earth erupted beneath its feet.
Stone and dirt exploded skyward.
The predator was thrown backwards violently.
The herd leader instinctively turned toward the explosion.
And the moment it saw what had emerged from the crater...
The strength left its legs.
Despair swallowed every remaining trace of resistance.
Because the creature standing there was not something ordinary beasts were meant to face.
Before the herd leader could even process what had happened, a massive serpent emerged from the cloud of dust and shattered stone.
Its body stretched dozens of meters across the ground, formed entirely from pale bones that gleamed beneath the fading sunlight. Green flames burned silently within its eye sockets, casting an eerie glow across the grassland.
Between its jaws hung the corpse of the hidden predator.
The Level 93 beast didn't even have the chance to struggle.
The force behind the serpent's bite had crushed its neck instantly.
A moment later, the skeletal serpent tossed the lifeless body aside and slowly lowered its head toward the trembling herd.
The beasts froze.
Every instinct inside them screamed the same warning.
Predator.
Death.
Run.
Yet none dared to move.
Not because they lacked the strength.
Because something worse was waiting.
High above the battlefield, Evan stood on the Great Eagle's back and looked down with cold indifference.
The serpent was merely the opening act.
The real hunt had yet to begin.
Around the grassland's perimeter, shadows stirred.
The hidden figures that had remained motionless until now finally stepped forward.
One after another.
Then dozens.
Then hundreds.
The herd's remaining courage shattered.
A skeletal army emerged from the forest.
Green flames flickered within empty eye sockets. Bone weapons scraped against the ground. Their movements were silent, orderly, and utterly devoid of emotion.
It wasn't an army.
It was an execution ground.
Evan watched the scene unfold without the slightest change in expression.
Everything was already prepared.
Everything was already calculated.
Only one command remained.
"Kill."
The moment the word left his mouth, the encirclement collapsed inward.
The massacre began.
The skeletal warriors surged forward from every direction like a tide of death. Terrified beasts attempted to break through the encirclement, only to be dragged down beneath blades, claws, and bone spears.
Roars became screams.
Screams became silence.
Blood stained the grassland red.
Each skeleton had long grown alongside Evan.
Most of them had already reached Level 98.
Though far from his strongest trump cards, they were more than enough to overwhelm a herd of ordinary beasts.
Evan simply observed.
No excitement.
No hesitation.
Only efficiency.
His gaze shifted toward a distant corner of the grassland.
Several adult beasts had gathered together, shielding a small group of younglings behind their bodies.
The skeletons nearest to them immediately moved to attack.
"Stop."
The command echoed through their souls.
Every skeleton halted instantly.
The frightened adults stared at the undead warriors surrounding them, unable to understand why they were still alive.
Evan looked away.
He needed experience.
Not pointless slaughter.
The adults would have died regardless if they stood in his path.
The younglings were different.
He had no interest in killing creatures that couldn't even fight back.
The rest of the herd, however...
Their fate had already been decided.
To become stronger, sacrifices were inevitable.
The strong devoured the weak.
The weak became stepping stones.
Such was the simplest law of survival.
Minutes later, the battlefield fell silent.
No more roars.
No more resistance.
Only corpses remained scattered across the ruined grassland.
Evan opened his status window.
His eyes moved directly toward the experience bar.
The numbers climbed rapidly.
Then stopped.
His expression remained unchanged.
Still short.
More than twenty thousand experience points remained before reaching the next threshold.
Looking below, he found there was nothing left to kill.
The hunt was over.
With a flick of his finger, pale-green flames spread across the battlefield.
Corpse Flames.
The bodies ignited instantly.
The eerie fire consumed flesh, blood, and remains without producing ordinary smoke. Within minutes, hundreds of corpses had been reduced to nothing but piles of clean white bones.
The flames extinguished themselves once their work was complete.
No evidence remained.
No scent.
No blood.
Only silence.
Evan recalled every skeleton back into his shadow before lightly patting the Great Eagle.
"Let's continue."
The giant bird spread its wings and soared back into the sky.
Thus began another search.
Days passed.
Forests.
Mountains.
Caves.
Valleys.
Any beast above Level 80 became his target.
The hunt continued relentlessly.
One day.
Then two.
The experience bar continued to rise little by little.
Until finally, during the night of the third day, Evan stood atop a barren mountain ridge beneath a sky filled with stars.
His gaze settled on the massive beast before him.
A Twin-Horned Rock Beast.
Nearly five times larger than a human, its body resembled a moving fortress of stone and muscle. Deep wounds covered its frame, while cracks spread across its rocky hide.
Its breathing was ragged.
Its movements sluggish.
The battle had already been decided.
Evan rested Crimson Edge against his shoulder while calmly observing his prey.
Level 97.
One of the strongest beasts he had encountered during the last three days.
Perhaps Sylen's team had simply overlooked it.
Or perhaps it had been lucky enough to escape.
Either way, its luck had ended tonight.
More importantly...
Evan only needed a little over six thousand experience points.
One final kill.
That was all.
"Let's finish this."
His voice echoed across the mountain.
"I'm getting tired of chasing you."
The Rock Beast's eyes burned with fear.
When the battle had begun two hours ago, it had believed victory was inevitable.
The human before it looked insignificant.
Fragile.
Weak.
Easy prey.
Then reality had taught it otherwise.
For two straight hours, it had been beaten, frozen, burned, trapped, ambushed, and dragged across half the mountain range.
Every time it thought it understood its opponent, another ability appeared.
Another trick.
Another impossible move.
The strongest beast of these mountains had been reduced to this miserable state.
Evan, meanwhile, wasn't even paying attention to its suffering anymore.
His focus remained fixed on the experience bar.
The beast seemed to realise that as well.
Its survival instincts screamed one final command.
Fight.
With a deafening roar, it rose onto its hind legs and charged.
The mountain trembled beneath its weight.
Evan remained still.
His eyes followed every movement.
Every shift in muscle.
Every angle.
Every opening.
The moment the beast entered range—
He moved.
One simple sidestep.
The charging mountain missed.
Crimson Edge flashed.
A streak of crimson cut through the darkness.
The blade pierced directly through the creature's eye.
Then flames erupted.
A horrifying screech echoed across the mountains.
The Rock Beast stumbled forward several more steps before crashing onto the rocky ground.
The fire spread deeper into its skull.
Its struggles weakened.
Then stopped.
Silence returned.
Evan calmly watched the enormous body collapse against the cliffside.
A moment later, the familiar notifications appeared before his eyes.
─────────────────
[You have gained sufficient Experience Points.]
[Level Up ×1]
◇ Level: 100 [165,000 / 165,000]
[Level threshold reached.]
[Advancement required before further levelling.]
[Warning: Host has reached current bodily limit.]
[Recommendation: Advance Tier to maintain optimal body purity.]
[Allocated stats have been distributed.]
─────────────────
The moment the notifications appeared, Evan felt it.
A barrier.
An invisible shackle connecting body and soul.
A limit.
The first true bottleneck on his path.
Slowly, he exhaled.
Then a smile appeared beneath his mask.
After everything...
He had finally arrived.
Level 100.
The threshold of a new stage.
Turning around, Evan looked toward the distant direction of Zeroth Expanse.
The city lights were nowhere to be seen from this distance.
Only darkness remained between him and the future.
"Hah..."
A quiet laugh escaped him.
"Finally."
His eyes reflected the countless stars above.
"The next Expanse..."
"I'm coming."
The night wind swept across the mountain as Evan stood at the edge of a new beginning.