Victor activated the elite rank spell, Shadow Veil, and his entire body was instantly swallowed by darkness.

The surrounding shadows twisted around him like living creatures before completely concealing his presence. Even his mana fluctuations became faint under the effect of the spell. Unless a monster possessed extremely sharp perception abilities, detecting him would be nearly impossible.

Victor slowly exhaled while observing the ruined wilderness around him.

If he played his card carefully, this could become an enormous opportunity.

And unlike ordinary hunters, he possessed one overwhelming advantage.

The most advanced military grade scanner of the Federation.

Victor immediately activated it.

A faint blue screen expanded before his eyes as countless signals appeared across the ruined city.

Within a radius of five kilometers, there were over fifty monsters roaming through the abandoned region. Their strengths ranged from F rank all the way to D rank.

Victor silently reviewed the point distribution once again.

An "F" rank monster granted ten points.

An "E" rank monster granted fifty points.

A "D" rank monster granted five hundred points.

A "C" rank monster granted seven thousand five hundred points.

A "B" rank monster granted one hundred fifty thousand points.

And finally, an "A" rank monster granted three point seven five million points.

Victor narrowed his eyes slightly afterward.

The chimera from before possessed power comparable to an A rank creature, yet the system had not classified it as a true A rank monster. That was the reason his rewards during the beast tide had been far lower than expected.

Still, Victor did not become disappointed.

There would be many opportunities ahead.

His body vanished instantly through teleportation.

This entire journey had only one purpose.

He wanted to sharpen his combat abilities to an entirely new level.

Raw power alone was not enough. He needed proper combat instincts and precise control over his spells. More importantly, he wanted to combine teleportation with offensive magic.

If he could achieve that, enemies would never know where the attack originated from until the spell had already struck them.

Victor appeared silently beside an abandoned building.

The massive structure was partially collapsed and covered in vines and cracks. Years ago, it had once belonged to humanity’s territory, but continuous beast tides had eventually forced mankind to abandon these outer regions of the city.

And inside this ruined building rested his first target.

Victor entered through the broken gate without making a sound.

He slowly climbed toward the fifth floor while maintaining Shadow Veil.

Soon, he found the monster.

An Earth Bear.

The creature was over five meters tall even while sleeping. Its enormous body radiated oppressive strength despite remaining motionless. Thick brown fur covered its body like natural armor.

It was a D rank monster.

Victor quietly raised his hand.

A deep crimson fireball slowly formed above his palm.

The surrounding temperature instantly began rising.

The sleeping bear suddenly opened its eyes.

It immediately sensed danger.

The monster looked toward the floating fireball with aggressive killing intent burning inside its pupils. However, because of Shadow Veil, it could not detect Victor himself.

It could only sense the spell.

Then suddenly, the fireball disappeared.

The bear became slightly confused.

Its body relaxed for the briefest moment.

But instantly afterward, its primal instincts exploded with terror.

The monster sensed fatal danger approaching directly toward it, yet it could not locate the source.

Boom!

The fireball suddenly reappeared directly in front of the bear’s chest before detonating violently.

The explosion blasted through its massive body instantly.

The Earth Bear died before it could even release a scream.

Victor silently stepped out from the darkness.

"Tsk. Not good enough," he muttered while narrowing his eyes.

The attack had succeeded, but there was still a flaw.

The fireball itself generated heat before impact, allowing the enemy to notice danger beforehand. That completely defeated the purpose of a hidden assassination technique.

Victor crouched beside the corpse and extracted the monster core.

Then he fell into thought once again.

"I need to conjure the spell during teleportation itself," he murmured quietly.

"If the spell only appears at the exact moment of impact, the enemy will never sense it beforehand."

However, even Victor understood how absurdly difficult that idea was.

Teleportation itself already required enormous concentration.

Combining spell formation with spatial movement at the same time would be vastly more complicated.

Still, Victor had no intention of giving up.

His body vanished once more.

This time, his next target was approximately seven hundred meters away.

Moments later, he arrived near another ruined street.

A Wind Cat was crouching near a collapsed vehicle while devouring prey.

The creature was nearly the size of a tiger. Sharp green fur covered its body while streams of wind occasionally swirled around its claws.

An ordinary E rank monster.

Beside it lay the corpse of an F rank giant rat.

Victor calmly formed several ice knives behind him and used teleportation on them instantly as well.

The sharp blades vanished instantly.

The Wind Cat suddenly sensed danger and tried to react, but it was already too late.

The ice knives reappeared directly beside its neck and pierced through its skull.

The monster collapsed immediately.

Victor observed the corpse silently.

"Better," he admitted.

"But still not enough."

And like that, Victor became a ghost wandering through darkness.

He continuously teleported across the ruined wilderness while hunting monsters one after another. Some died from hidden fireballs. Others fell to invisible ice blades or sudden lightning strikes.

Many creatures never even saw their killer.

Hours slowly passed.

The night became quieter while corpses accumulated throughout the outer wilderness.

By the time dawn finally arrived, Victor had already killed over five hundred monsters.

However, almost all of them were D rank or lower.

Victor stood atop a ruined building while observing the distant wilderness.

The reason he remained near the outer perimeter was simple.

He was perfecting his new combat method.

And after using it hundreds of times throughout the night, he could finally perform it with near perfect precision.

Victor slowly smiled afterward.

"Time to move deeper."

"Without fighting stronger enemies, I will never become stronger myself."

The next moment, he vanished again.

This time, his target was far more dangerous.

A C rank elite monster.

Flame Wolf.

Victor soon arrived inside a ruined industrial zone.

The enormous wolf stood nearly three meters tall with crimson flames continuously burning across its black fur. Every breath released scorching heat into the surroundings.

Victor immediately decided to test something new.

The adept rank spell.

Sword Rain.

However, instead of casting it normally, he used the spell differently.

Victor slowly drew his sword.

Then countless light elemental particles gathered around the blade before condensing into a radiant golden weapon coating.

The sword instantly transformed.

Now it possessed the destructive capacity of an adept rank spell itself.

Victor lowered his stance slightly.

"Come."

The Flame Wolf immediately locked onto him.

Then it exploded forward with terrifying speed.

Victor’s eyes widened.

"So fast!"

He barely managed to activate teleportation in time.

The wolf crashed through the exact spot where he had been standing moments earlier.

But the moment Victor reappeared, the monster lunged again.

Its battle instincts were horrifying.

At that moment, Victor finally realized something important.

All this time, he had relied on overwhelming magical firepower to destroy enemies stronger than himself.

But now that he was fighting directly against an elite rank monster, the difference in physical combat ability became painfully obvious.

He could barely keep up.

Victor continuously teleported to evade attacks, yet he struggled to counterattack properly.

The Flame Wolf gave him almost no openings.

Then suddenly, Victor snapped his fingers.

A massive ice platform instantly spread across the battlefield within a hundred meter radius.